Chapter 2
Part 4- Slog, Slog, and slog some more
The other teams of three began to make their way into the briefing room fairly steadily after the initial four hours Jack, Gribal, and Mika had waited in various states of boredom. Salarian snoring was something Jack had never experienced until this point, but Gribal, even with his absolute, hyper-active mind, had given a perfect exhibition for Mika and himself. Will was amongst the middle teams to make their way on board the station and both he and Jack had made eye contact when he entered. Will had even cracked a smirk almost too small to see. Jack was relieved they had both made it to this step at least. The dream was still very much alive.
"N7 Hopefuls, if I may have your attention, it would appear these are all the teams who will be making it to this meeting," Admiral Hackett's voice boomed within the center of all the tables of recruits. The Admiral let that fact sink in… all that were left were six teams of three… eighteen men and women of various races. Jack did not know how many others there were initially, but he had a gut feeling eighteen was not a large percentage of outlier of the group had to be the single Batarian soldier sitting about four tables away from Jack. He was happy to see the N7 program's diversity because if any race needed hope after the Reaper war it was the Batarians. That race had been almost completely annihilated with the first, major, never-ending onslaught of a Reaper campaign in their system. His face told the only story Jack cared about… he was mad, and he was ready to do something about it. The Batarian looked his way, caught Jack studying him, and frowned. Jack nodded at him, the man nodded back, and they both looked to Hackett once more.
"The soldiers seated next to you will be your team for the remainder of N7 training. They will be the men and women by your side, and as many of you may have found out from the initiation, your lives may very well depend on these soldiers."
The room was quiet in-between the Admiral's words. Everyone was serious to the 'enth degree within the room. Everyone had been through immense effort to get to this point, and no one wanted to go home without the N7 printed on their armor.
"Luckily for some of you as well, the next mission will be taking you to a world where there are only very few species of life with which to grapple with. The mission is quite simple. Your team will be competing with the others to arrive back here first. The last two teams to get to their LZs will be given coordinates and a shuttle straight to a new assignment elsewhere in the galaxy and will not have achieved the rank of N7. This is your only shot, so be your best."
"Live ammunition…" Jack tensed at those two words, "will not be provided…" Jack sighed with relief, "however, there will be weapons provided which have the capability of stunning your armor for up to twenty minutes, depending on where you are shot. Torso will be equal to fifteen minutes, head will be equal to twenty, and the limbs will be equal to the number of shots which hit the target up to five."
"Are there any questions with regards to the mission parameters or what is expected?"
No one said anything or raised their hands.
"Good, there will be three organisms within the environment which you will be encountering. One such species are small serpents which exist in various locations and will try to eat you. Fortunately, they lack force to penetrate your armor, but they will try and if enough obtain a hold on you they might be able to compound their strength and do actual damage. So don't tempt them with an opportunity to coil around you and possibly crack your helmet or armor because five of them got ahold of you at once."
"Secondly there are some avian species which you need not worry about. You are too large to be their prey. Each team will get a small incubator/ subject-for-study container. Alliance scientists do not know much about the creatures down there and would be grateful if you would retrieve a sample of any of the previously mentioned species."
"Thirdly, there is a far more nefarious species of creature which live in colonies on the surface. Rarely will you come across this species, but if you do be mindful because they are species which appear to be only simplistic blobs. However, step into one, or try to touch one and they stick around whatever they get ahold of and digest that object with acid. Do… not… touch these. Samples will be accepted, however, I would advise attempting to acquire the samples considering the colony is not very forgiving of mistakes. That is all the information you will be provided on this mission, good luck."
Admiral Hackett looked around at everyone, studied their faces and stepped away from the podium. The main doors slid open and soldiers began to motion for the teams to make their way out of the room. Every team was led to a locker complete with all of the items Hackett had mentioned. Once fitted and set into their armor, each team was taken to their own individual shuttle and the small transport ships departed quickly thereafter.
Mika, Gribal, and Jack sat next to each other on the shuttle ride… no one seemed ready to break the silence. Jack could hear their breathing over the whine of the shuttle engines. Everything was tense.
"What should our plan of attack be… should we be aggressive, or more stealthy?" he asked both of his teammates… trying to gauge what they perceived as their own strengths and tactics.
"I think we should go in quietly for sure, I guarantee that the other teams are going to be head hunting for the twenty minutes of extra head start as soon as we land. We need as much cover as possible and be quick and quiet to avoid the fire of any ambushes we come across," said Mika.
"Yes, I agree we must be wary of the fact that others may be lying in wait as you mentioned… and if we blatantly run into an ambush I guarantee we will be one of the teams who move on to other assignments in the end," Gribal said, rubbing his chin.
Jack crossed his arms and kicked his legs out in front of him trying to think what other teams might come up with, what Will, especially, would come up with.
"I think we should make a mad dash…" he said, quite loudly even to him.
Mika smiled. Gribal frowned.
"You both are fast… aren't you?" Jack continued, suddenly questioning his plan based on their silence.
"Fastest in my graduating class in military academy," Mika said, puffing out her chest a little in pride. Mika pointed to Gribal with her thumb .
"Gribal has to be fast or he wouldn't be a Salarian," Mika continued, Gribal coughed a little.
"We are known to be more proficient in such areas than other races…" he admitted.
"Are you fast, Jack, or are we going to be leaving you here with the organisms which will digest you with acid?" asked Gribal sarcastically.
"I can move… I can definitely move…." Jack replied as he leaned back into his seat and crossed his arms smugly.
"I didn't need confirmation you can move… I meant…"
"He's fast, Gribal, don't worry…" Mika interjected, patting him on the shoulder.
Gribal nodded in understanding. Jack decided to continue divulging his approach to the mission.
"You two take the lead once we arrive and I'll hang back and try to spot any teams lying in wait. I'm pretty quick, but I have even better vision," Jack said confidently. Gribal shuffled in his seat.
"Really? I have heard that the blue eyes of your species actually give you noticeably worse perception," said Gribal curiously, his pupils grew and shrunk as if he was measuring Jack's vision with his own.
"We have equal if not better vision, Gribal…" Jack responded, having heard that rumor many times before.
Gribal shrugged at Jack and smiled. Jack laughed and the shuttle proceeded to the intended drop zone.
His team was locked in and ready for the plan. This was going to go very well… or very poorly. Jack didn't voice that last part to his team.
"Let's do this," he shouted as the shuttle broke through the atmosphere and loud banging echoed from the turbulence outside. The shuttle slammed onto the DZ and the three soldiers had to steady themselves with safety harnesses on the ceiling of the shuttle to recover. The shuttle doors automatically slid open and they each burst from the ship which flew away to their east as soon as they left.
On his HUD, Jack's map had an objective blinking from approximately four miles to the South West. They were in a boggy environment complete with the ambient soundtrack of low croaking and strange slushing noises amongst the mud and plant life. Mika attempted to lift her boots out of the sludge, but her boots moved extremely slow as they tried to escape the grip of the mud.
"I think we might not be able to move as swiftly as we expected, Jack," said Gribal… panning his gun around and listening for any signs of aggression around them.
"Agreed, if we get out of the muck we'll go back to our original plan, but for now we need to start moving," said Mika as she began to move towards the beacon. Her steps were labored and all three were groaning with the amount of effort each step took. This would be a test of their endurance; there was no doubt in Jack's mind. Several low hanging trees with grey branches filled the bog, creating an eerie atmosphere. Drops of moisture occasionally fell from above the trees and mist hovered above the water. The mist would make spotting an ambush even more difficult.
Jack remained further in the back, keeping a sharp eye out for irregularities in the terrain. Occasionally, as they progressed on their mission gunfire from various distances could be heard, but never close to their location. The bird-like creatures could be heard overhead, but not seen, and no other organisms Hackett had mentioned made their presence known.
As Mika was wading through the bog, a serpent's form began to drop from through the mists and from the tips of the tree branches. Mika didn't see it falling right on top of her, as it made a bee-line straight for the top of her helmet. Jack had one chance to stop it from reaching its goal.
He took the shot as soon as the stock of his rifle brushed the inside of his right shoulder. The recoil wasn't horrible in the modern guns, but he felt the weapon kick into him a bit because of the lack of time he had to steady the weapon properly. The snake exploded and blood splattered Mika's fresh suit of armor.
Mika looked back at Jack, her helmet covered her eyes, but he knew how wide they must have been. He grinned sheepishly through his own helmet.
"It was a snake…," was all he could say shrugging.
"Little close, but… thanks…," Mika replied, adrenaline clearly pumping after the bullet had whizzed so close to her head.
The boggy, water-filled terrain began to progressively grow shallower as the distance to the beacon was reduced to about 3.5 miles. Now that the ground wasn't akin to glue they could really cover some ground.
The three began to trot, and steadily picked up speed, until they exploded into a full blown sprint across the backwater planet. Jack's plan was looking solid now. They maintained a rapid pace of about 18 miles-per-hour. Smaller plants were crushed under their thunderous steps as they cleared their path to the beacon. At one point a bullet actually whizzed past Gribal, but they were moving so quickly the ambush couldn't do anything, but be frustrated. They were probably the most obvious team around, but at the same time they were the most difficult to hit. Loud cussing in various languages followed their footpath.
Another bullet whizzed past Jack's left shoulder this time and Jack peered behind him to see who the culprit was. The Batarian from earlier was in pursuit of his team and making a lot of ground on he, Gribal, and Mika. Making a quick roll to avoid further fire from the alien, he hid behind a tree for a moment before hitting the deck. He counted to three, inhaled, and rolled out from cover while simultaneously peering down his rifle's scope.
The three round burst from his Vindicator slammed into the Batarian's right leg, immediately freezing his armor and sending the alien soldier to a face down position in the mud. He came to a sliding halt about thirteen feet from Jack. Jack quickly got up and made the three minute head start count by catching up to his team, hoping secretly that the three minutes wouldn't end his fellow hopeful's journey through the N7 ranks. He also hoped it wouldn't hurt him in the end as well, by coming back to bite himself or his teammates.