0002 Hours, October 21, 2552 (UNSC Military Calendar)
Sol System, Earth, Kenya, Business Park Sector, Sub-Sector 5
Nomad stayed put, nothing changed for them. The Covenant search party stayed close with the Luminary, but tensions were growing on their own. The Ultra seemed to be making more enemies by the minute and the Chieftain was winning more of his people. The Ultra wasn't going to leave New Mombasa.
Math noticed the Ultra had gilding in its armor, making it a subtle message of a blademaster present on the field. She then understood why the Brutes were calculating their moves. The blademaster had to understand what was bound to happen to him.
"I think the Ultra is not going to last longer."
Speedy was monitoring a bee's feed as he watched the Ultra move with the Luminary, it seemed to point the Covenant right to where they needed to be. Sam was preparing an exfil route with the information from Ava. Playboy wasn't far in terms of distance, but it was going to take time to reach him.
"I want to watch this fight honestly. It's going to be a gladiator style, but it's going to be nasty."
Speedy nodded in agreement with Math's comment.
"Oh shit, it's happening!"
Sam turned to watch the three Brutes approaching the Ultra while Math handed him his sniper rifle to watch it.
"Those three won't live."
He watched as the three Brutes said something to the Elite and aggressively came at him. It didn't take long for the Ultra to show its displeasure in the situation. The brute on the furthest left drew a knife and Sam only saw the blue outline of an energy blade sticking out the back of the Brute's head.
"Fucking rad."
Drawing the energy sword, the Ultra cut down another with ease. The last was beheaded and the Ultra threw the head towards the Chieftain.
"Get ready to move once that Ultra goes down."
Sam knew things were going to go south once the Ultra went down. But they decided to enjoy the fight for the time. More Brutes charged towards the Ultra and were swiftly cut down. The Elite knew what he was doing.
"This fucker is legit. This is a beautiful sight, Covenant vs Covenant."
O was ecstatic to see the Covenant killing each other. The Chieftain came into view with its Gravity Hammer. Nothing was more terrifying than a Gravity Hammer, Sam had only seen one in action. Other Brutes tried their hands in taking down the Ultra but failed with the cost of their life.
The swift swing of a Gravity Hammer was dodged by the Ultra. It was then slammed into the ground, leaving significant damage to the floor. Sam looked around to see the Covenant forces moving towards their position.
"We need to move."
Sam pointed towards the incoming Stalkers and the rest of the team agreed. They didn't want to stick around. Nomad quickly packed their kits up and Sam led the way out of the office space.
He signaled O, to head down the hallway while Speedy moved with her to provide cover. Math stayed close to Sam. O maneuvered one of her traps to hit the Stalkers while Sam recovered his. They wanted to slow down the search pattern.
Regrouping on Sam, they made their way up the stairs and towards a lift to get out of the area quickly.
"Jumpers moving as well."
Sam looked across to see a dead Elite splattered on the ground. It didn't look like an Elite; the only recognizable thing of the Elite was a hand. Nomad followed close behind as Sam made his way down a hallway towards the lift.
Once at the lift, Sam thumbed the button to see it not respond.
"Fuck."
He pressed it again and the doors opened. Sam breathed a sigh of relief and motioned the team aboard. They shot up to the surface level as the remaining Brutes scattered below. The drone hives were growing along the walls, a few patrols were flying about and searching for targets. The sub-cities were being locked down like the surface had been.
"Ultra 02, Ultra 01."
"Send it."
"I got bad news. There's a priority one mission you need to complete. ASTRONAV was not scrubbed in the BP Sector on your way to Sector B. It's on your way, you need to bleach the site and deny the Covenant ASTRONAV info."
"Roger that. We can do that."
Sam waited for her confirmation on the subject.
"Ultra 01?"
"Also, Darrick didn't make it."
The door opened and Sam stayed in the elevator, Math nudged him, but he didn't move.
"Sam, let's go."
He looked up at Math then back at his visor. It was not the time for him to get sidetracked. He needed to focus on the situation at hand. ASTRONAV was the priority, he'd deal with Darrick later.
"Send me the coordinates to the location we need to bleach."
"Ava's sending it. Ultra 01, out."
Sam flipped to TEAMCOM and left it. He didn't want to talk, not after having a bomb dropped on him about Darrick. ASTRONAV needed to be dealt with or the Covenant was going to have their hands on a goldmine of UNSC information.
"Sam, what the fuck?"
Math stared at him as he made his way off the lift and onto the street level.
"We gotta hit ASTRONAV to bleach a scene. It's on our way, Ava has pinged the location and uploaded it to our HUDs."
She stared at him hard and watched as he made a subtle gesture to switch to their private channel.
"Darrick didn't make it."
"You're a fucking dick."
Sam watched as she took a deep breath, she didn't like hearing about the loss of him. It made her feel like a failure.
"C'mon. We got to hit ASTRONAV. Keeping this in the dark till we get out?"
"Yeah, I don't want O distracted."
Math fell in behind Sam as she clenched her fist. He led the team towards the location while informing them about the updated mission. Darrick's status was never brought up, Sam made sure to keep his focus on the mission.
Nomad knew how to handle WINTER CONTINGENCY protocol around ASTRONAV. Reconnaissance ODSTs took courses on the NAVCOM protocol and learned the supplement orders. The language used around ASTRONAV was simple, recover or erase the information. If there was no chance to make it to safety, erase it all.
"Speedy, you know WINTER protocol?"
"Yeah, recover or erase."
"Good."
It didn't take long for them to reach the ASTRONAV location Ava sent them. It was nice for Nomad to be out under the night sky of Earth. New Mombasa's power was off in the majority of areas, forcing the team to use night vision for their walk.
They didn't spend much time in the open due to Covenant air superiority. There weren't many troops on patrol where Nomad was heading, but they took the safe route. The last thing they needed was a QRF swarming their position. Nomad was in no way prepared for a street fight.
Arriving at the New Mombasa Astronavigation Office, it was tucked away on the 22nd floor of a building in the Business Park Sector. Sam noticed the office was a good distance away from Alpha Site, making him think about how they were connected. The 22nd floor wasn't listed on standard lifts; Math quickly found a service lift to help with getting the team to the 22nd floor.
Once on the floor, Sam stared at a blank office space with nothing around. It seemed like ASTRONAV was really trying to be covert in their work. Speedy moved to one area and found what the rest of the team was searching for.
"What happened to them?"
Sam looked at O then at the few people who were lying dead on the floor.
"Neural mini-bombs. They didn't want to be captured by the Covenant, so they dealt with the issues themselves."
"Did Black do this?"
"Most likely. It's part of the WINTER CONTINGENCY protocol. If you have the security clearance to know about it."
"How did you know about it?"
"Happened a lot in Manassas when we were doing this. Asked the right people and got an answer we shouldn't know really."
"That's fucked."
"Welcome to the war."
Sam made his way into the data center where Mathilda was busy wiping what was left. Not much was left for her to bleach. He found Speedy collecting any piece of ASTRONAV sensitive equipment and brought it to her. O spent her time searching for anybody who hadn't been taken care of by the UNSC.
"You just going to stand there, or you going to help?"
He looked at Math to see her wiping another datapad. It felt odd and wrong for Sam to be standing where he was. Nothing felt right, even after all he'd seen. The display of dead ASTRONAV personnel who weren't evacuated was executed.
"Right."
Sam moved to the database to double-check it being wiped. It didn't take him long to see it was wiped. He knew it was wiped since the database was the first thing wiped by the AI. Moving to the AI center, Sam checked to see if the AI was wiped but found it active and in stasis mode.
"Math, I got a stasis AI. Can we secure it?"
"Is it dumb?"
"Yeah. I'm going to bleach it."
"Got it."
Protocol dictated saving a smart if they could. The type mattered, according to the people who wrote the damn thing. Sam didn't care less; he bleached the dumb AI with no problem. It was a coded personality; they can be replicated and mass-produced.
"Nothing personal, protecting you from the Covenant."
Seeing it wiped, Sam looked outside to see Phantoms and Spirits moving around. It didn't take long for him to notice them searching for something. Whatever the enemy they were tracking below, was also being searched above.
He turned towards the office space where the commanding officer worked and opened the door to see her dead. It was weird to see the officer sitting in her chair as if she was sleeping. He made his way to her desk to grab a piece of her identification and stashed it in a pouch.
"So someone knows your status at least."
Turning to the desk, he located the safe to see the self-destruction was executed. Everything inside was destroyed and illegible. Sam then looked around her desk to collect any valuable information left out. Seeing none, he did a final scan of the room for anything sticking out. After seeing nothing, he made his way back to Math.
"How are we doing?"
"Waiting for Speedy to see if he can scrounge up anything But, everything else is wiped clean. You find anything?"
Sam showed Math the ID tags of the commanding officer.
"She was sleeping in her chair. For who knows how long, they couldn't get her out."
"That's unfortunate. At least we can pass on the information, so people know of her status."
Speedy made his way to Math with the last pieces of intel for Math to wipe as O learned there was no one else left. They did one final sweep of the area before Math gave Sam the heads up of the area being bleached.
"O, did you gather any ID tags?"
"Yeah, grabbed all of the ones I found."
"Thanks."
Sam collected them from O and stashed them into his pouch, he wanted to give a gift to ONI for their hard work.
"Alright, we're good here. Nothing else can be bleached."
Math finished stashing away her equipment while Nomad spent the last few minutes getting ready to move out.
"Right, I'll let V know and we'll move out shortly after."
It didn't take long for Sam to inform Vilda of their successful work.
"Ultra 01, we're done. Heading to link up with Oracle and Playboy."
"Roger."
Nomad didn't take long to leave the area, they made their way back down to street level and headed towards Playboy. Nobody wanted to be in the area after what happened in the ASTRONAV office.
Into an alleyway, Sam made sure to note any odd movement while adjusting his night vision. The last thing he wanted was a surprise drone swarm descending on his position. Math continued to use routes the Covenant couldn't fit their vehicles through. If they could avoid the vehicles, life was going to become easier.
"What are you going to do with the tags?"
Sam looked back to see Speedy staring at him.
"Give them as a gift to the ONI officer who ordered the job. Tell him about his dutiful efforts to protect the UNSC."
"Sounds like a plan. Black has gone off the shits in recent years."
"Yeah. Black has become a problem. Could say the same thing for the AMIC as well."
"I'm glad I didn't join ASTRONAV. The last thing I need to worry about is getting iced by some Black fucker on a Tuesday with the Sergeant Major's daughter. True story."
"That's oddly specific, is that true?"
"Command Sergeant Major's daughter."
Nomad stopped and turned to look at Speedy. Hearing he had dated the Command Sergeant Major's daughter was almost as rare as seeing a Chief Warrant Officer 5.
"Wait, you went on a date with the Command Sergeant Major's daughter?"
Math continued to move the team.
"Yeah. Well, she's my fiancée. Not to jinx me."
"Time the fuck out. Hold on. You're marrying the CSM's daughter?"
"Yeah, like he can do anything about it. It was supposed to be on Reach, but it got canceled. Can't have anything nice these days."
"Damn Speedy, never thought you wanted to fight two wars. One at family events and another against the Covenant."
"He's pretty cool honestly. We get along and he's happy that she's marrying me at least."
Nomad continued to close in on Playboy and Oracle, things seemed to be shaking out for the better. Almost too good, something wasn't right. Sam continued to grow nervous, it was too quiet up top.
"Patrol."
Sam and Speedy made their way into a nearby building as Math and O moved across the street. It didn't take long for them to get the high ground. Looking across, Sam saw Math signal him a pack of Brutes were going to pass by with support units like Grunts and Jackals.
Their decision on waiting for them to pass came easily, no one wanted to engage a pack.
It didn't take long for Sam to notice the enemies, he heard them before seeing them. It reminded him of cartoons in other languages, the Covenant looked like a cartoon show if he thought long enough.
Once the patrol passed, O brought up a question to pass the time. They'd make it to Playboy, but they knew the situation was going to remain serious.
"What's rarer, a Chief Warrant Officer 5 or a SPARTAN?"
"Chief Warrant Officer 5. SPARTANs are getting public images. Warrants aren't, they're still the most classified people in the UNSC. But you know, fuck the SPARTANs."
Sam agreed with Speedy's response. The 105th had a long-standing feud with the SPARTANs after what happened on the UNSC Atlas. There was no court-martial, it was a fight between one SPARTAN and a few ODSTs. Two were killed and the others were wounded, Sam made sure the SPARTANs knew what they did. The 105th never forgets.
"Fucking machines. Wouldn't be surprised if they went rogue, I would enjoy hunting them down when this is all over. But they're what we have right now, and we got to work with them."
Sam knew he was standing in hot water with his opinions about the SPARTANs. Many viewed them to be a viable asset to the defense of Humanity. He still found the SPARTANs to be a short-term solution to a very troubling concept in the years to come.
"Where are we meeting Playboy?"
Sam heard Math over TEAMCOM as they continued heading towards their pickup.
"Palace Hotel. Playboy sent me the information where they're located and how we ought to notify we're nearby. Will have you and Speedy switch so he can do it."
"Works for me. We should be there soon."
It wasn't long till Math and Speedy switched. They were able to see the Palace Hotel nearby. Nomad was in Playboy's kill zone, the last thing they needed was a blue-on-blue incident.
The path through Sector Two was something interesting. There were still dead Covenant and UNSC troops about, some fires remained burning in certain areas. Casings and the smell of combat filled the scene Sam was accustomed to experiencing. The forces pushed in first, then were driven out.
Sam didn't need a long time to piece together what happened during the battle. He remembered what happened in the earlier hours and how he was essentially left on his own. It remained a time where nothing was going to be certain.
Speedy took a knee and signaled for Nomad to do the same, he knew what had to be done.
"Simple Hint."
Sam listened to Speedy give the code words to his Ranger team and received the confirmation of the correct code. Nomad followed Speedy to the hotel and looked at the former combat center used by the UNSC in the battle. It wasn't long ago, the UNSC fought in the very area.
Nomad avoided a series of traps and sensors while making their way to the position.
"Hey Panther, did those Brutes follow you here?"
"Nah Playboy. If they did, I wouldn't be here."
"Fair enough, I'm on the sixth floor. You'll know which room."
"See you in a few."
It didn't take long for Sam and Nomad to reach the reception area, he studied the UNSC tech left behind which was destroyed. The Covenant wasn't going to salvage it for anything, even if they thought lowly of human technology.
On the sixth floor, Sam picked room 69 and found Playboy sitting with a sniper.
"Really, 69?"
"Yep. Did you bring Speedy back?"
"Yeah."
Sam pointed at Speedy and watched as the Ranger was welcomed back into his unit.
"Those ODSTs didn't make you retarded, did they? You didn't have to snort biofoam and a stim pack?"
"I'm fine. I should get a med eval for the long run."
"Good, we need you Army strong."
Speedy made sure to thank Sam for keeping him alive and went to an assigned sector to continue surveillance.
"Did you hear anything about Darrick?"
Sam sat next to Playboy after setting his sniper rifle down on the nightstand.
"Yeah, KIA. Didn't make it. Pararescue did all they could."
"Sorry, mate."
"What's the status topside?"
"Intense. Covenant is doing a lot of searching. Whatever they're looking for, it's big. Those seismic readings we picked up; indicate the structure they're looking for. It's buried beneath New Mombasa, I think. You what that means."
"Plasma Bombardment."
"Hence why there are a lot of starships atmo. I think they're going to mine it out."
"That seems normal. Covenant owns the EAP airspace for the time being. Not like the UNSC can challenge them straight up."
"SECNET is discussing a nuclear deployment. To deny them what the Covenant wants."
"Where would they deploy it?"
"Alpha. The place where the Covenant owns even though the building is gone. UNICOM passed it off, it's too dangerous to execute. NAVCOM may think differently."
Sam took in the information he gathered from the short talk with Playboy. There was a gut feeling Nomad was going to be called upon for the mission He didn't want to risk his team for a suicide mission back to Alpha. Not after what he'd learn from Playboy.
"Ultra 02, you cop?"
"Yeah."
"There's a mission update."
Sam looked at Playboy and took a breath, he didn't want the nuclear mission.
"Send it."
"We're going to need Nomad to gather intel at Palace before heading out. I need one last assessment from you."
"We can do that."
It was nice to hear the assessment mission and not the nuclear mission, he didn't want to deal with the issue of arguing with an ONI officer about the usage of his team. Sam relayed the information to Math and O while he continued to catch up with Playboy.
"Anything else about topside?"
"Persistent patrols in the City Center, heavy usage of Engineers, it's a lot of high-ranking personnel on the ground. Reminds me a lot of SWORD when we had to deal with that."
"Manassas was bigger, but it seemed to have the same amount of leadership. But this is a small island with double the leadership."
"Yeah. Also what happened with your Black handler?"
"She wants us to do one last assessment."
"Ah, thought you got the nuclear mission."
"Doubt we would've. We're not a full combat team and we've sustained casualties. We're low on ammo and we need to resupply."
"We both know that doesn't matter to the twat who runs the operation."
"True. Thanks for staying back to pull my ass out Playboy, I owe you one."
"No problem. I'll let you know when we're pulling out so you can wrap up the assessment."
Sam only nodded as he made his way out of the room and down to Nomad. He knew there was not a lot of time left to give a full assessment. They'd have to take from the Rangers and weave it together to create their own.