Chapter XXXV: Human Targets

August 31, 2540 (UNSC Calendar)/

UNSC Inconvenience, Beta 415 system

We had taken our obligatory jumps after that battle back in Alderaan, since we had only been traveling for about three weeks, with two more days worth of traveling ahead, there had been no need for cryo, instead, the captain had decided that it was probably best for all the new soldiers to get to know the ship and each other. His decision was stupid. Echo and B companies had already served together before being transferred here, and it wasn't likely that UNSC Marines and UNSC Army would start to get along any time soon.

"Wanna go outside?" Pavel asked.

"No, its crowded as fuck," I replied. It actually was, there were 300 soldiers and marines on board, as well as about a hundred sailors.

"You can't stay locked up in here forever, besides, I want to check out the new meat."

"Male or female?" I asked.

"What do you think?"
I groaned.

"You owe me Frank," he insisted.

"Fine, fine, I'll go, but just because you saved my ass back in Gracia," I said.

"And New Constantinople."

"Want me to start reminding you all the times here I have saved your ass?"

"Good point."

We left the small room that was supposed to fit six soldiers and walked into the corridor. The last time the ship had been this full, there had been a couple of rollerblading championships going on. The wildest thing that you had right now was some marines playing poker.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked my friend.

"We'll go to the gym, that's where you usually find all the fit girls," he said.

He made a pretty decent point, except that every single woman that was in the corps or in the army had to be fit, all the men too, it was obligatory to pass recruitment.

The gym was a rather large room for such a small ship, with various different exercise machinery and the like. It even had a professional-sized boxing ring, which right now was being used for a sparring match between a couple of marines. There was a small crowd watching in addition to other people just doing their own exercise routines.

"See something you like?" I asked Pavel.

"That one over there, in the third treadmill."

"Nah, she looks like she could beat me up," I said.

"You're right, how about that one jumping the rope?"

"Better," I admitted. "Could do with some improvements though."
"God I hate sports bras," Pavel said.

UNSC-issued sports bras were specifically designed to look unattractive as possible and to avoid any movement of women's breasts. That way when women were exercising in the mixed-gender environment that the military was, it wouldn't cause any desires or 'perverse feelings.' It would've probably worked had the item of clothing in question been longer, or if the soldier using it was wearing something on top of it. Her extremely tight shorts didn't help to ward off any 'perverse feelings.'

"What do you think of that little piece of work over there?" Pavel asked while he pointed to a lieutenant doing something involving a large bouncing ball.

"That's lieutenant Delacroix," I explained. "B Company's XO."
"I'm going to talk to her," Pavel said. I shrugged and let the man do what he wanted, instead directing my attention to the fight going on in the boxing ring.

There were two marines fighting with MMA gloves. They weren't wearing any helmets, but were using mouth guards. They were doing full-body fighting, with kicks, elbows, and knees allowed. The marine on the left was doing a better job than his fellow opponent. About ten seconds after I decided to start watching he delivered a kick to his opponent's head. It was a decent kick, not really spectacular, but the other fighter was groggy enough that he couldn't block it. The kick connected straight with his jaw and knocked him out.

There was some cheering and people handing UNSC coupons to each other grudgingly. Pavel was still talking to Delacroix, so I was forced to watch the fighting without actually taking part in any of the betting. After three fights I decided that I'd better leave and do some exercise myself, because none of the confrontations here were really worth it. I decided to head to the area that had all the weights when someone called me.

"Hey Helljumper!"

I saw Pavel turn around in the corner of my eye, but as soon as he realized he wasn't the Helljumper in question he returned to chatting up a very sweaty Chloe Delacroix, lieutenant.

"What?" I asked with an annoyed tone.

"Let's see if you are really as good as everyone makes you out to be," he said. He in question was an Army trooper leaning on the ropes of the ring. He was about an inch shorter than me but was much more solidly built, with his arms looking like they could make a nice job in an arm-wrestling match against Sergeant Gabuka. I hopped on the ring, not because I really wanted to, but because the guy had taken a direct shot at the ODST unit.

"Rules?" I asked as I put on some rather sweaty gloves.

"Standard MMA, no groin punches or eye gouges," the soldier said as he hopped on the balls of his feet.

"No bone breaks or dislocations either I take it," I added. The soldier gulped visibly, having just realized what he had gotten himself into. I took off my shirt, which got a few whistles and catcalls. Then I unstrapped my boots and removed my socks, my feet were slightly sweaty, which would give me a good grip on the floor, not that I planned on needing it, I intended to end the fight quickly.

As the bell rang and my opponent threw the first punch, I had to remember myself that I had super-human strength and reflexes, and that I'd have to really check myself if I was going to do this. I also realized that everyone was cheering for the army trooper, even my fellow marines. Helljumpers were definitely not liked over the military.

I ducked the first punch easily and landed a counter in the man's belly, forcing him to double over. Then I kicked him right above the knee, forcing him to the ground. I could've ended it right there, but I took a couple of steps back and let the soldier stand up, more to embarrass him than anything else. I blocked his next attack, which consisted of a kick to my ribs, with my right hand, using my left to land a weak jab in his chin. Then he swung a hook to my jaw. I let it hit. It was at that moment that I realized how much faster the enhancements had made me.

I rolled with the punch, as if it had knocked me to the ground, but right when I was in the appropriate position, I let out a kick, hitting my opponent in the face with my heel, he staggered a little. That was all I needed, I was instantly behind the man holding him in a choke. He struggled for a bit until I tightened my forearm against his throat, then he tapped out. We bumped fists and I left the ring.

I could've won the battle even without enhancements, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to show off, it's merely the truth. The soldier looked embarrassed and confused as I left, and the crowd was muttering to themselves. A few marines patted me in the back and congratulated me, but the rest of the people here simply let me through.

I looked in Pavel's direction to see him giving me a double thumbs-up with a smile on his face. I nodded at him and he resumed his conversation with Lieutenant Delacroix. It seemed to be going well, otherwise he would've returned here with a palm-shaped bruise on the left side of his face. Or the right side, depends on the girl he had insulted.

Good for him, I thought.

"Good for who?"

Lieutenant Nezarian was standing next to me, I hadn't seen him coming or even heard him. Granted, I wasn't looking for him or in 'alert mode', but it was still eerie how quietly he managed to sneak up on me.

"Pavel there, he seems to be hitting it off with that Lieutenant," I pointed.

"Ah, Miss Delacroix."

"Yes."
"She's probably too polite to crush his hopes," the man said. I laughed at it.

"Probably true," I agreed after a few moments of laughing. "What can I help you with lieutenant?" I asked.

"I watched your fight," he said. "Rather impressive."

"Thank you," I said as I nodded.

"Where did you get that training?" he asked.

"ODST training camp," I said. It was pretty obvious.

"Well yes, but you moved a lot faster and more fluidly than any ODST I had ever fought against, I would say a little too fast, but I know better."

I glanced at the lieutenant; he had a weird look in his eyes that tipped me on his suspicions. The man had read my file, so he knew a lot of stuff that I had been involved in, but I was pretty damn sure that ONI wouldn't allow just anyone to access the section that said that I had received enhancements additional to the original ones that every man or woman that joined the military received.

I laughed in reply to his comment.

"Well, I'll see you around," he said as he turned and left me wondering whether I should tell Albaf about the encounter.

I decided that it was best to forget about it and started exercising my attractive muscles, wincing as my still-burned side chafed against my arm. It was funny how I hadn't felt any pain during the fight. I hadn't been touched there, but at least some of the movements should've put some strain at the burnt skin. I shrugged to myself before I kept on lifting weights for a while until a familiar voice interrupted me.

"I thought I told you to take it easy."
"Hey doc, how's it going?" I asked.

Doctor Yuri Zhivago, was bench pressing far more weight than I would've expected him to be able to.

"I am bored as hell, I hate this no-cryo trips."

"Tell me about it," I said. Usually I would've spent the duration of the trip messing around with Lieutenant Layla Wickett, unfortunately, said woman had traveled halfway across human-held space to get away from me, unfortunate, I know.

"Need me to spot for you?" I asked the doctor.

"Sure, I have been wanting to try something heavier," he said. I left my own weights and headed back to the doctor, he had added two twenty-pound discs to the metal bar, that made for approximately 20 extra kilograms, that was a lot of weight, about the same as your six-year-old cousin that suddenly got bigger.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I'm right here doc," I reminded him.

"Ok," he huffed as he lifted the weights. To his credit, he managed to do seven before I had to pull the weights from his hands and into the rack.

"Ah," he groaned, "must be getting weaker."

"You seem alright to me doc," I said.

"Yeah, whatever."

We were supposed to be arriving at this colony called Dawson's World, weird name, I know. It was the sixth planet from Beta 415's star. It was the only habitable planet in the entire system, and the only places where there were humans living, save for a couple of mining stations on the other planets. It was comparatively large compared to most colonies, large in size I mean, with three times the size of Reach. The planet had a very varied climate and was known for the vast glaciers that covered large stretched on land in the Polar Regions. Those made up for the small oceans that the planet had. It was supposed to be lovely for skiing, but soon it would be getting pretty damn hot. You know, with the glassing and all that stuff.

We had been sent here for two reasons, to assist in the evacuation of civilians, which included kicking some serious Covenant ass while we were at it. The second reason was only known to five people on board, six if you count Eliza as a person, which right now, I wouldn't have had much trouble doing, I wanted to rip her circuits apart.

"Staff Sergeant, I've repeatedly told you that it is unnecessary for you to push your shoulders back that much, we are all aware that you are a male and a very capable soldier, you don't need to prove that to us," she was saying.

"For the last time Eliza, this is the way I fucking stand, if you don't like it feel free to blow your head off!" I yelled angrily.

The AI's holographic projection produced a gun from out of nowhere and blew her brains out, complete with holographic blood and skull fragments. It did not make me feel any better at all.

"I am really worried about your sadistic tendencies Staff Sergeant, I think I will recommend a psych evaluation for the next time we reach port."
I didn't bother to reply, instead I simply shut down the long cylindrical tube that happened to be the holopad from which Eliza was projecting her chosen appearance.

"You do realize I can still see you and talk," her voice replied.

"Yes, but your voice is more soothing than your appearance," I said. Our AI was a smart AI, but she was by no means human. She could study behavioral patterns, psychology, read our files, watch movies, and a whole lot of other things to know how to push our buttons, but she wasn't naturally witty by any means, even she had to admit that I had bested her right now. Or she could just change her voice to make it sound like a dying grunt.

I'd have said that I was proud of winning a verbal argument against an AI, had the score not been 458-13 in her favor. She spent so much time messing with soldiers on board that many people could boast to having made her shut up, if only temporarily. What annoyed me the most was that she could mess with different people at the same time, she could just use different subroutines for that.

"Staff Sergeant, Sergeant, glad to see you're already here," Captain Brooks said as Albaf and Wilkins entered the room behind him.

"Sirs and ma'am," Pavel and I said as we saluted. Normally we wouldn't have done that, but all the new marine officers on board the ship got really pissy if we didn't give them an exceptional salute every time they walked by us in the corridor, although Pavel had gotten through the message that we would absolutely refuse to salute any officer that addressed us improperly. It had cost him a week of cleanup duty and a broken nose to a certain Lieutenant Krikor Darbinian.

"Ok, this is the mission at hand," the captain started. "That's a nice phrase, I should write it down… mission at hand," he said to himself. "Anyways, there was a large Insurrectionist cell operating in Dawson's, that's no surprise, every single planet has an innie cell on it. This planet, however, was the location to a rather powerful cell, the one that masterminded the Paradise bombings and that nasty incident in Cordoba. They are led by one Joanne Michaela Paradiso."

Pavel and me both raised our eyebrows, Joanne Paradiso was one of the top Insurrectionist leaders in the Inner Colonies, she had been number seven in the Most Wanted list ever since I had been sixteen.

"She is currently located in this warehouse right here," he said as a screen showed a place in the Creek City, the place where the majority of the Covenant had landed. The Army had done a good job holding off the onslaught, and there were Marines racing planetside to reinforce them. It looked like the warehouse was in the secure area of the town.

"We have knowledge that Paradiso owns a small freighter with slipspace capabilities, technically speaking she shouldn't use it, it's not a military craft, but then again, she's an innie."

We nodded simultaneously, to show that we had been listening.

"You two are the ones in this ship that posses the adequate training to enter the building and take her down."

"Sir," I interrupted, "are we supposed to capture her or to neutralize her?" I asked.

"It would be better if you could catch her alive, but this mission has wide parameters, if you know what I mean, you can kill her and there's no harm done."

"Sir," Pavel acknowledged.

"The warehouse is lightly guarded, only about a dozen of enemy combatants," Albaf chimed in. "We can tell from thermal imaging that they will move soon, perhaps using an evacuation craft as a shield. It doesn't seem like they know we are aware of their presence, so it should be relatively easy for you to catch them off guard."

"I assume that all of the guards are going to be neutralized permanently," Pavel half-stated half-asked.

"That is correct, only Paradiso is to be taken alive, and only then if it is possible."

"Understood Commander," I said.

"Very well, head towards Hangar Bay 3, you'll be dropped off half a block away from the target's location, then you'll make your way there. You may enter the building from any location you choose to."

"I assume we will have no support ma'am," Pavel said before I could stop him. I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath.

Albaf eyed us quizzically before answering. "Since when has an ODST Helljumper been worried about support, specially when it comes to a dozen innies?" having said that, she left.

"Great going idiot," I said as I slapped Pavel in the back of the head.

"I already feel stupid, no need to make me feel worse," he said. An understanding friend might've agreed and apologized, followed by a pat on the back and saying something about how every soldier would've asked that. I was not an understanding friend.

"Damn right you should feel like an idiot!" I said as I punched him in the arm, "she'll look at us like we're regulars for the rest of her stay on this ship!"

"I said I was sorry," Pavel called out. He wasn't usually this 'sensitive', but he realized that Albaf's opinion of him might've decreased considerably. I knew that that wasn't the case; Pavel was lucky that Albaf wasn't an ODST officer, otherwise his head would've been chewed upon rather thoroughly.

Pavel simply walked out of the room after I had yelled at him, he wasn't offended or anything, but he was probably annoyed. As we always did before a mission, we headed towards the armory, since Army and Marines had the tradition of taking large amounts of ammunition and weaponry to the hangar so they could load up there, we were left with a mostly empty armory. Fortunately, it had all we needed. I grabbed ammunition for my BR55 (which was conveniently slung over my back already) and for my pistol. I also grabbed a suppressor for my rifle from the special ops section. Pavel wasn't about to take his M247L to this type of mission, but he wouldn't part with the shotgun I'd got him.

"Hey Pavel, why didn't you use that shotgun when we were almost crushed by the hunter?" I asked. "You know, back in Alderaan."
"Well you see, during the heat of the moment I actually forgot that I had it," he said sheepishly.

"Asshole, you could've saved me this," I said as I pointed to my side, you know, the one that had been burnt.

"Not like you reminded me either," he said as he grabbed an MA5.

Makes somewhat of a point.

"It is your gun."
"You gave it to me."
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Titan squadron, please report to Hangar Bay 3," Eliza's voice called through the PA system.

"We'll have a serious talk about situational awareness once we return my friend," I said as I tossed him a suppressor for his assault rifle and another one for his pistol. His shotgun couldn't be suppressed, but it wasn't likely that we'd need it.

The hangar bay was empty, save for a certain pelican with red streaks and the inscription 'Mary's Little Lamb' on both its sides. It always surprised me that every time we managed to get on board this pelican in particular not a single round of enemy fire made contact with the craft. Marina must've been a hell of a pilot. Scratch that, she was a hell of a pilot.

"You're late," she said.

"Yes, yes Warrant Officer, we know," Pavel said as he hopped on the pelican. I jumped behind him and could make out as this section of the hangar was locked off from the rest of the ship, we would be dropped from low orbit, so we didn't want all of the people on the hangar to be sucked off the ship.

"Ready to go Warrant Officer," an unknown voice said.

"Who's the new guy?" I asked.

"My copilot," Marina answered by rolling her eyes.

"You've never had a copilot before," Pavel noted.

"Well, someone wanted me to have one, don't really know why."
"How is he?" I asked.

"I dunno. I have only spent about five minutes with him, he's only nineteen."
"People, I am right here!" he complained.

"Nobody cares!" Pavel and me replied.

"What's his name?" Pavel asked.

"Petty Officer First Class Vince Sheppard," he said from the cockpit.

"Ok, whatever, let's get going," I said as I sat down.

The pelican's hatch doors closed and the hangar bay was left exposed to space. The vacuum sucked out the craft and we were left floating inside of the pelican. Pavel and I hadn't strapped down as we were supposed to, but it was fun to float around in zero gee, even if just for a few moments. The best part about that is watching your squadmate do a back flip and then fall down noisily on the floor as gravity took hold again. I fell down more graciously, but only barely.

"Take command of the ship Sheppard," Marina said.

"Isn't that against regulations?" asked the worried Petty Officer.

"It isn't if nobody finds out," she stated as she left the cockpit and sat in front of me.

"Why'd you get a squabbie for a partner?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, we're both airmen though, so it shouldn't be a problem, besides, this ship only transports you two, who are ONI, which stands for Naval Intelligence."

"That doesn't have anything to do with what I just asked."
Marina sighed. "Frank, why are you sending me mixed signals?" she asked suddenly.

Uh oh, trouble.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, fiddling with my rifle.

"I mean, sometimes you are like the best around me and the next moment you have no problem chatting up Army soldiers," she said.

"What?" I didn't really know what to say to that, so I had to deflect.

"Do you still love Layla?" she asked.

"No," I answered. It was the truth, although I did miss her sometimes.

"Do you like me?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. I was thankful for my full-face helmet, otherwise everyone would've been able to see me blushing with awkwardness.

"Then why do you keep sending me mixed signals?" she asked, raising her voice.

"I do not send mixed signals, do I? Pavel, do I send mixed signals?"
"Does pain hurt? Is a planet's orbit an ellipse?"

Yay for friendship, I thought hypocritically, I had just insulted my friend and now he was back with a vengeance.

"You do realize I'm right here?" Sheppard asked.

"Nobody cares!" we all said simultaneously.

As soon as we said that the craft shook violently and we all fell of our sits and to the ground, then we slammed back to the wall rather violently.

"What the fuck?" complained Pavel.

"Oops," came Sheppard's dull-voiced response.

"That bastard did that on purpose!" Pavel cried in outrage.

"Very observant genius," came the answer.

I helped Marina up and she looked me straight in the eyes. Well, straight in the visor, she was actually looking a little bit below my eyes, right around my cheekbones, but she didn't know that.

"Stop being so inconsistent," she said before she left back for the cockpit.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked Pavel after opening a private comm line.

"Hell if I know, women are difficult," he said.

"You're right about that," I said. "Talking about women, whatever happened to you and Delacroix?"
"Nothing, I'm still working on that."
"Still working on that after two days? Man you must really like her if you are willing to waste so much time with her."

"Waste time? You're the one that spent almost five years with Wickett."
"Yes, but you don't seem to be able to have anything longer than a one night stand, and I'm pretty sure those don't last long either."

"Hey, I have fun, besides, an ODST tattoo really gets the ladies going," Pavel said. My rather magnificent stealth insult went completely unnoticed.

"Hey…"

Or not.

"ETA thirty seconds!" Marina called.

The hatch of the pelican opened and we stood up. The city was in relatively good condition for having just fallen under a Covenant assault, with only a quarter of the town up in flames, UNSC ground forces were defending the rest.

"10 seconds!"

This would have to be a quick drop, otherwise the innies would notice a pelican dangerously close to their position and panic.

"Now!" she said.

Pavel and I hopped off the pelican and into the roof of a small building next to the warehouse where our target was located. The pelican barely even stopped to let us down and promptly flew away, holding its trajectory. I looked around. The roof was what you'd expect of a roof, it was flat and with some ventilation shafts distributed evenly across its surface. We moved to the edge of the building facing the warehouse before stopping. I unslung my rifle and aimed it at the warehouse, switching the sight's setting from normal to thermal. There were exactly fifteen human silhouettes inside the warehouse. In a few minutes every single last one of them would be dead.

"Fifteen innies," I said. "Distributed evenly over the warehouse, no idea of the location of the target," I said rather professionally.

"So we have to kill fourteen of them?" Pavel asked.

"Or all of them," I remembered him.

"Should be easy, like shooting unsuspecting grunts, grunts without any type of body armor at that."
"You don't know that that."

"Still, it'll be like shooting grunts," he said. "Easy in, easy out."
It really freaked me out that I considered the comparison rather accurate.

Easy in, easy out…. Why did you have to jinx us Pavel?