"Frustration"
Purple lights pulsed slowly and dimly at the base of the alien metal walls which exposed a grating underneath where illuminated wires and cables cut back and forth. There was a soft haze that hung in the air near the ground that reflected the dim light that came from the small lights. Silently, Luke took a step forward and kept his eyes focused on the pathway ahead of him, the two beams of light on either side of his helmet casting immensely bright spots of light onto the surface of the metal that looked both mirror smooth and brushed. He kept listening to his radio for signs from his other squad but all of their frequencies were catching heavy static and whenever they did activate the comm channel they were triangulated and hunted down within seconds. Nothing had gone to plan and he was on his own now deep within a CCS-class Cruiser trying to find the Prophet of Regret, months after the mission had been approved by ONI top brass who had decided that the expenditure was worth it if they could manage to capture the Covenant leader. With Nathan and the Twins working diligently to scrub the Covenant transmissions that were logged during encounters with the aliens they had gleamed more information about the illusive leaders. The Hierarchs, as they had come to be known, was a group of three Prophets who had full political and religious control of the Covenant legions. Unfortunately it seemed that they were reclusive and remained on a planet or a ship named High Charity, and judging by the language the captains were using, it was a veritable fortress with hundreds or even thousands of ships protecting it at all times. Without more concrete info it was hard to tell if the captains were blustering or the language translation wasn't converting the numbers correctly but either way a direct assault on High Charity was almost certainly out of the question for Luke. He knew that they needed to wait for one of the Prophets to leave the safety of the fortress and into the waiting arms of Luke's squad. The first part of the plan had worked beautifully but now things had completely fallen apart and he was pushing forward with the mission without the support of his team.
"Local Covenant chatter is increasing. Be on the lookout, I think a patrol is moving through the area." Nathan's voice showed almost no emotion but Luke was able to pick out a hint of tension.
"Thanks for the heads up," Luke hissed back as he edged up to the corner of the wall and looked down the path that branched off to this left, a large pair of doors ringed in white light waiting for him. He knew that he would need to take this door but he also had a feeling that the Covenant Nathan was detecting were waiting for him on the other side. With no cover anywhere he'd be gunned down in an instant before he could get back behind the corner but that would open him up to a flank on either side. With the other Tempests it'd be no issue, their covering fire easily capable of forcing the Covenant forces back long enough for one of them to get into position and allows the others to move up. Checking his map of the Covenant ship he saw that the hallway on the other side of the door was a long and narrow one, not unlike the other hallways that made up the enormous ship. There was one saving grace in the form of two small nooks about twenty feet past the door and a pillar that was in the middle of what looked like a junction between another hallway just past that. If he moved fast enough he might be able to duck into them and work his way up from there. Doing a check of his ammo to make sure it was all within easy reach and the few grenades he had left were right where they should be. He took a split second to ready himself before he ran towards the door. Because they automatically opened before you got close to them, there was no way for Luke to use his fiber optic wire to check the other side of the door for enemies and if he did sneak up on the door it would most likely leave him flat footed when it sensed him nearby. As much as he hated it, blindly rushing in seemed to be his best bet. When he was about ten feet away the lights pulsed and the two metal panels slid apart with a soft tone and a hum from the mechanisms controlling the doors. To the three Elites waiting on the other side he was just a shimmer in the air and they couldn't react fast enough to track his stealth armor but this didn't stop them from long and the air was suddenly filled with plasma bolts cutting through the air and the sound of whining Plasma Rifles. Safely in one of the nooks, Luke edged up to the corner with his back to the wall and popped out and fired burst after burst at the Elite closest to him, on the right side of the hallway. His shields flared and burst and he howled in pain from the rounds slamming into him and the blue-armored soldier dropped to the ground while his comrades zeroed in on the muzzle flashes and sent plasma spraying back at him. A few of the bolts splashed against his shields and they quickly dropped to half power and an alarm began to sound softly in his ear alerting him to the danger. Brushing off the pain, he turned back out, this time kneeling down, and let loose with another barrage of bullets that took down a second Elite. Checking the hallway as he came back in behind cover to make sure no one was sneaking up on him, he switched out magazines and got ready to come back at him when plasma began to impact his shields and the walls around him. He'd misread what the Elite was doing and now he was boxed into the corner as his shields dropped and the alarms were now screaming in his ear. Each bolt that hit him sent pain all over his body and he twitched and jerked backwards against the wall until he was up against it and still the fire continued until all of the sudden it stopped. Luke looked at the Plasma Rifle and saw it's various vents open and clouds of hot gasses poured out while it tried to cool itself down. Taking this chance, he took step after step while firing his BR55 at the Elite who was now in the position that Luke had just been in. With his back against the wall, the Elite tried in vain to return fire but the bolts splashed off Luke's shields which were recharging and froze at about two-thirds. Finally a bullet found the Elite's head and it fell to the ground in a slump. Standing in the middle of the hallway, Luke was clenching and unclenching his teeth to take his mind of the pain that was wracking his body from each of the bolts of Plasma that had hit him. Looking down to check his gear to make sure it wasn't damaged, he was stunned as an Energy Sword materialized through his gut and was sticking out into the air from his stomach. The pain was almost unbearable and he fell forward and then landed onto his side, looking back up at his killer. A SpecOps Elite was materializing out of thin air and standing over him triumphantly, his mandibles clicking back and forth. Almost triumphantly he lifted his sword up into the air and brought it down into Luke's chest and for a split second he was overcome with a blinding pain before everything went black.
"Simulation has terminated," a computerized female voice said over hidden speakers. The pain that had just consumed Luke's body went away and his visor turned back on again, giving him a view of the Covenant halls as they melted away like smoke falling to the ground and revealing barren metal walls and embedded fluorescent lights on the ceiling. He rolled onto his back and the Elite that had been standing over him just a few moments ago was replaced with a small floating drone that silently flew off down the hallway.
"Same problems as last time?" Nathan asked while Luke sat up but remained sitting on the floor.
"Yeah," he replied back, a little annoyed at the situation. "They don't show up on motion tracker, I can't hear them or sense them. It's like we're fighting ghosts in here." He shifted his armor a little, the special suit he wore underneath his normal layers to deliver the jolts of pain moving uncomfortably against his skin. Hopping back up to his feet, Luke made his way through the hallways that had just belong to a Covenant cruiser but were in fact just modular walls that could be rearranged as needed in only a few minutes. Arriving at the exit, the rest of his squad met him there and just by glancing at their body language he could tell that they were just as annoyed as he was at the whole situation. They had purposefully been separated early on in the mission to operate by themselves at the same time but nothing was similar to what they would experience in the real mission and each one had been killed by something that had snuck up behind them. He knew that they were trained to overcome any obstacle they encountered, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was all a waste of time. Walking through the door and down a long hallway, they were back in the briefing room where a young officer was waiting for them with his arms folded against his chest and he waved them out when he saw them come in, his face scrunching up giving away the questions he asked immediately.
"What happened?" Luke had been frustrated with ONI's iron-fisted oversight and this man was the symbol of it all. Months earlier they had approved his request to lead this mission but instead of allowing Luke to coordinate with The Twins and Captain Ambresio, layer after layer of military politics was tossed on as each group wanted to their name attached to the mission. Instead of roaming the open space and spying on the Covenant until they had enough information to home in on one of the Prophets, the different facets of the operation were all demanding enormous and unreasonable amounts of intel before approving the Kamiak to be deployed to check out an area before immediately running back to Earth. And to pass the time, they'd been forced to continually do these training missions that did nothing for them. The entire mission had gotten so far off track that he had an ever growing feeling that it was all just stalling tactics and that his team was no longer the chosen group for this mission. In the end, he was so beyond caring that he just wanted to shut it all back down and just get back out into the field and actually do something.
"Same as always. Nothing's changed," he replied back tersely, removing his helmet and setting it down on one of the tables in the room.
"Brass is getting a little uneasy with all of this. I've tried to convey your concerns about the exercises but they just keep seeing that you haven't been able to successfully finish one and they're beginning to wonder if it'd be worth the risk."
"Then let me talk to them," Luke shot back.
"Oh, well, this is all through emails and memos. They're too busy right now to hold full meetings," the officer stammered quickly, backpedaling as fast as he could. Luke just shook his head before letting it drop a little, giving a quick laugh out of frustration.
Luke's fist smashed into the metal walls of his room, a loud crack as his skin contacted. He winced in pain from the shock that shot up from his arm and he grunted loudly while he pulled his hand back and examined the small speckles of blood still staining the walls and the small trickle that was make it's way from his knuckles in between his fingers. Allowing himself that one outburst he held his throbbing hand in his palm and paced around the room. He was still seething from the entire debacle but with his momentary outburst it was subsiding and the rational part of his brain was regaining control. Luke decided that he wanted to speak with the Captain and get his thoughts on the matter since they were the ones who first debated the issue months earlier.
"Nathan, can you get me in touch with the Captain?"
"The Captain is out of The Hive at the moment, but he left a message specifically for you. He's at a restaurant if you'd like to meet with him." Luke snorted a little but Ambresio had gotten good at knowing how Luke would react to a situation and this time he had read him perfectly.
"Just tell me where to go," he replied back.
"Karl's Bar and Grill, nothing fancy, but I would suggest you dress warm because it's gotten quite nasty up there." Reaching into his closet, he pulled out a nice pair of jeans and a tight fitting black sweater and put them on then grabbed a three-quarters length pea coat out and an umbrella, neither of which had been used yet. Taking a step and then taking it back, he grabbed a pair of nice leather gloves and left his quarters. Sure enough, the weather had turned nasty and he was glad that he had dressed up. Exiting The Hive through one of the many nondescript buildings on the High Command complex, Luke walked out into a sleet mix and near freezing temperatures that would only get lower as the night turned to morning. Popping the umbrella, he was content to listen to the constant pitter-patter of rain and slush bouncing off the nylon material before it slid off the sides like a wall around him. His exposed cheeks were tender from the biting cold and wind and turned his cheek bones a bright red while the color drained from the rest of his face. Avoiding the puddles on the perfectly built streets and the ice that was forming on parts of the sidewalk he finally arrived at the pub near the waterfront. Stepping inside the dimly lit restaurant he looked up and down the bar to his left where soldiers in and out of uniform were grouped together talking to each other while a band played quietly up on a stage to the back right. The open space in between was obviously used as some sort of dance floor or for extra dining space but right now it was used as just another area for mingling. Glancing upstairs he saw a number of rustic tables arranged in a wrap around floor space that overlooked the open area in the center, and as he was scanning the faces he saw the Captain motion subtly to him.
"Glad you came by, I was getting a little bored," Ambresio said as Luke got settled. A waiter came by to check on him but he waved her off with a smile but not before relenting to a glass of water. Ambresio took a big bite out of an enormous and messy burger. "A few weeks of shore leave always makes the months away worth it."
"Yeah," Luke agreed, suddenly feeling an urge to join him in eating one of those burgers.
"I'll cut to the chase though, we're not here for idle chit-chat." Setting his meal down, he wiped his mouth and took a long drink of a clear soda and leaned back in his seat. "You're right to be frustrated about this entire thing. It should've been a pretty simple operation but military politics have gotten involved and it's not something you're experienced enough to work your way through. I've spoken to a few friends in different places and what I'm hearing is that the Spartans have been handed the mission and they've taken an old cruiser to work their way into Covenant space. They're going with a much more brute force approach, multiple teams with a full Longsword complement, a far cry from ours."
"I wish I could say I was surprised but…" Luke said, trailing off as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Don't expect your team to be assigned the mission, the Spartans and the Pillar of Autumn will travel to Reach to get refueled and geared up before they depart for Covenant space. But…that doesn't mean you and your team can't continue the hunt. I've filed a request to have the Kamiak deployed to some of the fringe colonies to hover until we can get an idea about where we can begin the search." Luke listened quietly and patiently, letting Ambresio do the talking. "It's the best we can do considering the circumstances."
"I understand sir, thank you. I'll get my team-," Luke stopped when Ambresio's PDA caught his attention and he pulled it out of his pocket. His face changed subtly and the lines on his face got thicker as his eyes darted back and forth across the screen which was obviously distressing him. "Sir?"
"Ballast has been attacked by a small Covenant picket. The defense grid repelled them before they were able to do significant damage but it's not the Covenant modus operandi to just leave one of our planets alone. Not to mention this is the third attack on an Inner Colony in a month."
"They're getting closer," he replied, referring to the Covenant's push towards Earth and her home planets. Ambresio grunted in agreement and swiped his military ID on a small sensor next to the table and grabbed his coat. Luke followed this cue and did the same.
"We're going to go and help out there. We need to make a stand somewhere and start putting a halt to their war machine." A smile crept across Luke's face as they hurried down the stairs. He spotted a few other people check their computers or phones and give looks of frustration or sadness and it could be assumed that they were all getting the same notification that their ships were being sent to defend the planet. Luke was just happy that he could take the hurt to the Covenant.
Author's Note: Huge apologies for the delay. This chapter was supposed to be out the middle of last week but a nasty combination of writer's block and a bout of migraines/dizziness prevented me from making much progress till tonight. On top of that I got a little sidetracked getting ideas for a completely different story down on paper to come back to in a few months. I should be back on a more normal update schedule (schedule, me? Hahaha) for the foreseeable future.