answers to reviewers questions or statements:
chimera629: Being frozen in cryopods for days or even weeks on end will affect his aging more than his healing factor will.
Stormhound12: It's following canon for the most part, I'm just adding things in to flush it out more. There's a lot of things that Peter can't do in his current armor, mainly because as useful as it is in combat, it's also restrictive. So his agility, flexibility and wall crawling is next to impossible because of it's designs and bulk.
gontheone: Somewhat, though since Peter's education was more towards military tactics and the like since he was a child, and could only pursue fields outside that on his own time, he's not as... academically astute, as his canonical counterpart, if that makes sense. He's really smart, but ONI wanted a killing machine, not a educated one. Natasha got Peter away from ONI, that's the Hell she 'rescued' him from.
Guest: Natasha's views on ONI are very complicated, on the one hand she understands why they did some of the things they've done, but on the other she realizes that they could've gone about in a less morally questionable way. But with the very real threat of extinction on the horizon, she can't exactly pick and choose who she can work for at the moment. They have her cooperation, but her loyalty has long since dried up for them.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or Halo characters seen, mentioned or used.
Reach, August 11 2552, 26:30 Hours...
In the two weeks since the Covenants assault on Sword Base, security on Reach had skyrocketed to levels that Peter never thought possible for the already heavily fortified world. All off world shipping had been shut down, all transports that weren't military had been diverted, the common excuse being that UNSC was about to undergo a massive exercise and couldn't afford civilian ships getting in the way.
Peter questioned why the UNSC didn't alert the populace that their 'Fortress Among the Stars' had been discovered and is facing immanent invasion but all he received from Carter was that High Command, and rumor has it, the President of the Unified Earth Government himself, didn't want to start a panic.
'Even though a panic is exactly what we're gonna get when the Covenant show up in their warships and begin to bombard Reach's civilian filled cities into oblivion' Peter thought sourly as he watched an approaching Phantom from his hiding spot use a search light to scan the ridge top for signs of human activity. Peter watched the alien dropship for a moment before he connected his suit's commlink with Jun's "Think they know we're coming?"
Jun was silent for a moment before he responded "Doubt it. Probably just making sure there's no more humans in the area, but let's assume that we're not as good at infiltrating undetected as we thought, jus to be safe"
"Hmmm, think they got them all?" Peter asked as he watched the Phantom hover for a moment before it began to slowly depart to another sector.
"Maybe" Jun said with a sigh "Guess we'll find out as we head on in"
"What do we do if we do find any survivors?" Peter asked with a frown "I'm not exactly comfortable leaving them up here to die because helping them would be an inconvenience"
"If we find survivors, low of a possibility as that may be, we clear the immediate area around them, point them towards the direction we came from and let Kat know to send a squad to pick them up" Jun said in a quiet voice "I don't want to leave any people up here if Brutes are out"
Peter nodded as he checked over his Sniper Rifle System 99 Anti-Matériel, one last time before emerging from the shadows and slowly make his way into the pale moon light. The rifle was heavily modified compared to the usual off the rack rifles he's operated with in the past. Flash and sound suppressors, a scope with twice the magnification with thermal on top of night vision and a built in enhanced recoil compensator. Perfect for the stealth operation he was taken part in, though Peter felt using a 99 Anti-Matériel was a bit of overkill, a simple M392 DMR with the same mods would've been just as useful.
"Recon Team Bravo reporting: Three and Six in position. It's starting to get crowded up here, Kat" Jun said as he emerged from his own hiding spot and watched the Phantom fly out of sight.
He turned back towards Peter and gestured for him to move up while he kept an eye out for any hostiles. Peter nodded and silently, and carefully, made his way across the narrow ledge he was on, hoping the stone wouldn't give under his weight. Times like this that Peter almost preferred the old SPI armor, it may be only just slightly better than the kind of armor the majority of the UNSC military used, but at least he didn't have to worry about causing a landslide when scaling across a mountainside.
Kat was quiet for a moment before she responded from the forward command center the two Spartans were deployed from several hours earlier "Then we're closing in. Report any Covenant structures or devices. Direct action may be necessary"
"Copy that" Jun said with a chuckle before he glanced at Peter with a bemused expression under his armor's face plate "When Kat runs an op, direct action is always necessary"
Peter couldn't help but sigh at this "Well, she never did score very high on operations control back on Onyx. Makes me wonder why in the hell you guys put her in charge of these kinds of ops"
Jun snorted at this as he reached into one of the ammo pouches for his armor and pulled out a magazine of 14.5×114mm and tossed them to Peter "She's gotten better, mostly. Here, you may need these. High-velocity, armor-piercing. They'll take the hat off an Elite at two thousand yards... and they ain't cheap"
"You know Jun, you could've just bought me the lobster like I wanted" Peter said dryly as he slid the magazine into one of his armor's ammo pouches and watched Jun make his way further along the ledge before he slung his rifle on to his back to begin climbing.
"Mm. I'll be in touch" Jun said with a brief glance over his shoulder before he nodded towards ground below "Careful down there. There's gonna be a lot of Covies out tonight"
Peter nodded as he reached the edge of the ledge before he slid over the edge and let gravity slowly carry him down the rocky slope. Luckily he went undetected in his descent and quickly moved along the ridge he landed on.
"Recon Bravo, the sector ahead is dark to electronic surveillance" Kat informed.
"Covenant can block our instruments?" Jun said with obvious surprise before he snorted "That's new"
"So it would seem, and Command wants to know what they're hiding" Kat said.
"Think it'll be obvious or are we gonna pass right by it?" Peter asked as he noticed a few more Phantoms in the air, heading in the same general direction he was.
"Probably both, and it'll end up shooting us in the back" Jun responded with amusement "Hmm, I'm seeing a lot of movement ahead of you"
"Anything big?" Peter asked as he approached a small incline and carefully made his way to the top, his eyes darting to every shadow, every possible crevice or boulder that could hide a Elite or Grunt.
True he had his Motion tracker, but lately he's been finding the damned things to be a waste of effort to pay attention to, at least in his current armor. The Covenant, rumor had it, somehow learned of the motion trackers in Spartan and ODST helmets and had begun to install something into their armor, more for the Elites than anything else, to send out counter signals that'd either mask their 'movement' on the tracker or alter the signal in a way to make it seem like it was Grunts being picked up rather than a near eight foot tall walking nightmare. Though there was no evidence to back this up, just simple hearsay from the few ODST's that have survived these encounters.
'With how close some of these Elites have been getting lately, like with those Zealots, I'm starting to believe it' Peter thought as he reached the summit of the ridge he was on and found a lone Elite minor only a few meters ahead.
"Elite. He's yours, do it quiet" Jun's voice filtered through Peter's helmet.
"How considerate of you. Remind me to let you get the next one as thanks" Peter said dryly as he slung his sniper rifle on to his armor's magnetic holster on his back and slowly creeped forward as quietly as half tone armor would allow.
Once Peter was close enough to reach out and touch the Elite, he quickly drew his knife while he kicked at the large alien's leg, causing it to let out a surprised grunt as it bean to stagger back before Peter grabbed it by the collar of it's armor and yanked it back further. He raised his arm high, the blade pointed down, before driving it through into the Elite's head with every bit of strength he had. A brief flicker of the shields went up as Peter's knife made contact but the sheer force of the attack quickly broke through and the knife found it's way into the Elite's eye.
The Elite's body went rigid than slack as Peter yanked his knife out and gently lowered the Elite's body to the ground.
"Not bad" Jun commented, having watched the whole scene via his sniper rifle's scope.
"What, were you expecting something out of a slasher film?" Peter asked as he re-sheathed his knife and grabbed his rifle off his back and used it's scope to scan ahead.
"Not really..." Jun said with a snort.
Peter hummed at Jun's response as he looked around to see a few Grunts were sleeping nearby, blissfully unaware of their superior's death only meters away at his hand. A part of of the Spartan, far larger than he'll ever openly admit to another human being, felt bad for the squat looking aliens. They didn't seem naturally malevolent or eager to wipe mankind out through plasma bombardment on a apocalyptic scale, they seemed content to just sleeping, eating and minding their own business.
"You gonna take care of them Six, or do I have to?" Jun asked with a trace of amusement in his tone as he monitored Peter's position from his own.
"I'll do it, just... it's just kinda douche-y to kill someone when their taking a nap is all. I mean, would you like it if someone came into your room one night and just popped one in your dome?" Peter sighed as he quietly approached the sleeping Grunts, drawing his side-arm, a M6G with a sound suppressor, and took aim at the first Grunt's head and pulled the trigger.
"Eh I suppose, but to be fair, they are sleeping on the job" Jun said as he watched Peter take care of the sleeping Grunts "Plus, better you find them than the Elites. I heard they aren't very forgiving for lapse in duty like that"
Peter made no response as he put a single round in the last Grunt's head, at the very least he could make their ends quick and painless, where's the likes of Emile and a few other S-III's that Peter knew would draw it out for as long as they reasonably could. As Peter continued along the ridge, passing more sleeping Grunts that he silently eliminated, he was beginning to see more signs of some sort of enemy encampment. Small islands of single or double weapons and ammo crates for the Covenant's various plasma weaponry, a couple of those short range communication towers and a few of those stationary shield generators here and there.
"Hey Jun, keep on the lookout for anything big up ahead, I'm seeing a lot of defense positions down here" Peter said as he carefully scanned his surroundings for any hostiles.
"There's a complex of some sort up ahead, Covies could be using it" Jun said.
"What do you think the rent is out here?" Peter asked as he came to a crouch behind a stationary shield generator and peered around it's edge to see a trio of sleeping grunts ahead "Keep finding the Covenant setting up shop in a lot of human structures"
"Haven't you heard? Reach's housing market is through the roof" Jun snorted as the sound of him climbing along a rocky surface could be heard in the background "Great views though, nice and remote, away from people. It's a buyers market out here"
"Even the aliens bent on our extinction make more than us" Peter shook his head in amusement as he eyed up his targets and fired off three shots, each one burying itself into a Grunt's head, before moving up to a small rocky hill.
It didn't take the Spartan long to find the complex that Jun first mentioned, to Peter it looked an awful like some sort of farmstead. It was also crawling with Grunts and a few Jackals while what appeared to be a pair of Elites, Minors, watched over from one of the complex's higher levels. The courtyard, or front yard, was filled with weapons caches and a few stationary shield generators with likely more inside the complex's structures. Peter didn't see any turrets set up or terminals which hinted at either the Covenant's intent to stay for the long term or that they've been there a while.
"Lot a baddies down there" Peter observed through the scope of his sniper rifle "I count twelve Grunts... four Jackals... only two Elites"
"I'm picking up heat signatures inside the complex, can't tell what they are though. Could be more Covenant, could be human survivors" Jun said from his perch overlooking the complex.
"We go in blasting they might kill them if they are human" Peter frowned.
While Peter doubted the heat signatures were in fact human, it wasn't something he wanted to really chance on the off chance that the Covies did decide to take prisoners for a change.
"Might as well give Kat an update... *Ahem* Recon Bravo to Noble Two, stand by for contact report" Jun stated as he scanned the Covenant's position carefully.
"Standing by to copy, over"
"We have eyes on multiple hostiles patrolling a settlement. This what we're looking for, Kat?" Noble Team's resident marksman asked.
"Negative. Too small, you're not in the dark zone yet" Kat said with both annoyance at not finding the Covenant stronghold and concern over the fact that they were already establishing forward outposts. The Covenant have been operating in this area far longer than what was assumed for them to already be setting up such a fortified defense line this far outside the dark zone "Engage at your own discretion, but keep moving"
"You heard her, Six. We're gonna drop those tangoes. I'll try to get inside and deal with those heat signatures, you deal with the ones outside"
"Of course I get the hard job, typical. It's because I'm still new, isn't it?" Peter muttered as he checked his weapon to make sure it was fully loaded, and that the safety was off, before taking several deep breaths and aiming down his sights.
Once the first Grunt stepped into his scope's crosshairs, Peter squeezed the trigger.
...
Miles away from the two Spartans, Jiralhanae Chieftain Lydus stood patiently on the bridge of the covenant Super Carrier, Long Night of Solace, cloaked above the main staging area of the Covenant's vanguard. He requested a status update of his forces progress in clearing out what few humans remained in the area and whether or not their ship has been discovered by the humans yet. Powerful as the Super Carrier is, even it wouldn't last long against the full power of the human fleet currently in orbit, not while it's in atmosphere where it's already limited mobility was even further diminished by gravity.
"Are there any signs of the humans being aware of us?" Lydus asked after he received word that the last human settlements located in the immediate area of their landing zone have been purged and several of his Jiralhanae had taken to chasing the survivors into the surrounding mountains for sport.
Normally he'd call them off from their 'fun', but he supposed that his packmates had earned a bit of reprieve, if only for a few hours.
"We remain undetected commander" a Sangehili Major replied from his console, his eyes darting over the information displayed on his screen.
Lydus grunted in approval at this and the fact the Sangehili had spoken to him without the typical disgust and loathing most of his kind held for Lydus's own. It seemed that Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee had the foresight to install 'tolerant' Sangehili on the Long Night of Solace for Lydus to command. Or at the very least, gave them explicit orders to not aggravate their temporary Jiralhanae commander until the rest of the invasion force arrived.
"Continue off loading the troops, I want our ground forces ready by dawn to contend with the base the humans are setting up across the territory. And begin arming and fueling the Corvettes for deployment" the chieftain ordered with a grunt "I want them to aid our Banshee wings in maintaining air dominance"
"Yes commander" the Sangehili said as he began to type a series of commands into his console while Lydus turned towards the bridge's main view screen.
It displayed the dark landscape of the human world 'Reach' as more and more drop ships from the cloaked Super Carrier touched down with either more troops to secure the area or materials to begin building their forward operating base. Most Jiralhanae would've taken this assignment, to over see Thel's advance fleet and army, as either a waste of time or an insult. Lydus, however didn't, in fact he saw this as a glorious opportunity to not only get his chance to engage the humans first, but also a chance to show the Covenant that a Jiralhanae can be relied on to actually lead a military operation, even if he was under the orders and guidance of a Sangehili.
Besides, killing humans was almost as entertaining as killing Atriox's heretical faction of betrayers and cut throats.
'Almost' Lydus thought with a chuckle as his hand rested on the handle of his hunting knife, strapped to his armor's belt.
"Commander!" one of the Sangehili specialists called up from his station.
"What is it?" the Jiralhanae asked with a grunt.
"We've lost contact with one of our outposts" the Sangheili said as he turned in his seat towards Lydus and waited to see what the Jiralhanae would do "Their still transmitting an all clear, but they've left out attempts to hail them unanswered. It doesn't appear to be a equipment malfunction"
Lydus frowned at this before he grunted towards the multi jawed alien.
"Contact any of my Jiralhanae hunters in the area, tell them to investigate. If it's humans, deal with them and send an alert to the other outposts to be on the lookout" Lydus ordered, causing the Sangehili to stare at him in slight surprise before giving a slight bow in response.
"Yes, commander"
Lydus had to hold back a smirk at this, clearly the Sangehili expected a less restrained response from the Jiralhanae and under most circumstances he'd respond with such a thing. But he had his orders and he wasn't going to ruin the Jiralhanae's chances at improving their image just because he wanted to rip apart either a bunch of carless Unggoy or meddling humans.
Politics, very tiresome in Lydus's opinion.
...
Close to ten miles away from Noble Three and Six's last reported positions, The UNSC had set up a Forward Operating Base to be used as a launching point for their main offensive tomorrow morning. For well over a day, Pelicans, UH-144 Falcons and D20 Heron's were dropping off Marine and Army personnel, warthogs, tanks and enough ammunition for a long sustained engagement with Covenant Forces.
A long, bloodied one that is.
Near the center of the FOB was a small temporary two story command center where Kat stood before a floor to ceiling screen that allowed her to observe Recon Team Bravo's progress. It was a bit of a tight fit for her given that the walls were lined with various portable terminals, each being used by a tech to oversee and monitor the various deployment and assignment of troops and equipment outside.
'I should've asked for our own space' Kat thought as she stepped out of the way of two Army Supply Officers as they rushed pass Kat, muttering about ammo accountability.
"Kat, how's things going?" the voice of Carter filtered through Kat's helmet as he entered the cramped space and made his way over to Kat and glanced at the screen.
"So far so good Commander" Kat replied as she monitored Peter and Jun's progress, or as much as she could now their signals were starting get a little fuzzy as they began their slow approach to the Dark Zone "Recon Team Bravo has engaged several outlying Covenant Patrols, nothing too serious"
"They find the source of the Dark Zone?" Carter asked as he watched the two blue dots that were Peter and Jun engage the red dots that represented the Covenant.
To get a better view of the battle, Carter reached up and switched the screen to a thermal viewing from a satellite overhead. Kat shot Carter and annoyed look as she switched the screen back to the topographic display she had before answering.
"No, there still a ways away, but I'm confident they'll find the source soon enough" Noble Team's Intelligence Specialist said.
Carter nodded before he glanced back outside the command center as several Warthogs drove by, kicking up a small cloud of dust as they did. Kat briefly glanced in the same direction before she refocused her attention on the screen before her. Personally Kat was against the counter attack that Command wanted to launch tomorrow, it was too hasty. They still had no idea what exactly it was the Covenant were doing in the dark zone, aside from setting up a base obviously, and throwing troops at it was only going to end with another several thousand body bags.
'And the fighting is likely to damage or destroy whatever it is the Covenant are here for. It's not just to wipe us out, their looking for something down there' Kat thought with a frown.
"Uh Kat? I think we have a problem down here..." Peter's voice suddenly dragged Kat from her thoughts.
"Report Six" Kat stated as she brought up a live feed from Peter's helmet for her and Carter to view.
The two were greeted to the sight of two gigantic semi-bipedal creature with a pair of large tusks on their faces, large clawed three fingered hands. They were currently attacking a Covenant patrol consisting of a two Elites, both minors, and three times as many Grunts. The covenant were responding with a sustained barrage of plasma fire while the Elites lobbed plasma grenades at the large creatures.
"What are those?" Carter asked with a raised brow as he studied the large aliens through Peter's cam as they all but destroyed the Covenant patrol before turning their sights on the pair of Spartans.
"Give me a second..." Kat said as she screenshotted the unknown organisms and ran their profile through a search of the UNSC's database.
They weren't Covenant, they would've long been seen by now, so that left them as either some rare Reach denizen or some fauna from another remote habitable world. She didn't have to wait long for a match to be received and Kat quickly opened the file sent to her and read what it contained.
"Gúta..." Kat murmured "Their an indigenous lifeform on Reach, largely harmless unless it's mating season or one intrudes into their territory"
"Must be from one of the more remote part of the planet, I've never seen those before" Carter said as he watched Jun and Peter take the large beasts down with sustained gunfire tot heir already plasma scorched ridden bodies "Are they endangered by any chance?"
He could practically hear conservation groups crying out when they get word of this somehow, and the Chain of Command grilling him over it.
"No" Kat shook her head as she closed the file and dismissed it from the screen "Though I believe the Covenant will fix that soon enough when the rest of their fleet gets here and burns this world"
"No faith we can hold the line at Reach?" Carter asked with a grim chuckle.
"Nope" Kat said with a straight face.
She's run the numbers, Reach didn't have enough warships or Orbital Defense platforms to protect itself against a Covenant Fleet numbering thirty plus ships. And knowing the Covenant, they were going to be bringing a lot more than that for the inevitable invasion. The best they could do was maybe slow them down long enough to evacuate most of the planet's populace and take a few dozen ships out of their armada before Reach's defenses were wiped away.
"You never know" Carter said as he and Kat monitored Jun and Peter's progression through enemy held territory "Jorge thinks we might score a win here"
"Jorge is sentimental" Kat said with an unseen eye roll "The only difference between this world and the hundreds before it is that Reach will put up more of a fight than usual and might last a few days. But after that? Same as the last several dozen we've been deployed to"
"You really need to work on your bedside manner" Carter said dryly "At this rate, you'll make Jun look like an optimist"
"I'm just stating the reality of our situation Carter" Kat said as she glanced at the man out of the corner of her eye, which on the outside was a slight tip of her helmet in his direction "We've lost too much up until now to mount any real defense and most of the fleet is being pulled back to the Sol system to re-enforce Earth. any ships we do get to boost Reach's defenses are ships already on pre-existing deployments, half of which are days if not weeks away"
"Than let's hope the special mission the Two's are being given will change that" Carter said.
"You find out what Command has in mind for them?" Kat asked with curiosity.
For days now she's been hearing whispers from her contacts in UNSC's Intelligence and ONI, the ones she trust at any rate, that the Spartan-II's were about to be deployed on some high risk mission that could very well end the war, one way or another. However, the details were classified to levels that none of Kat's contacts had access to and Jorge was unable to gleam much info from any of his fellow Spartans when she had him broach the subject as discreetly as possible.
"Only that their being deployed deep into Covenant held space and that they'll be escorted their by a refitted Pillar of Autumn" Carter revealed with a shrug "That's as much as I was able to get out of Holland at least. Apparently High Command wants all Spartans to be a part of this op. Their trying to pull all currently active Threes from their current assignments to re-enforce the Two's on this"
"I bet the two's will get a kick out of that, several hundred Spartans they never knew about being dropped into their lap" Kat said with a chuckle.
"Jorge thinks most of them will just go with it" Carter chuckled before he noticed someone new enter the command center and make a beeline straight towards the two Spartans.
Kat noticed them as well and saw it was a red headed woman, dressed in a black dress uniform generally favored by ONI spooks. She had no rank insignia on her uniform, but both Kat and Carter could tell even if she wasn't highly ranked, she likely had quite a bit of influence to her name.
"Commander Carter" the red head said with a faint Russian accent as she held her hand out for the larger man to take "Captain Romanoff, Office of Naval Intelligence"
"Ma'am!" Carter saluted the woman, as did Kat, before he lowered his hand and took the red head's and gave it a single firm shake.
"At ease Commander..." Romanoff said with a dry grin before she turned her attention to the screen the two were looking at "How's the op? Peter force you to shut your comms off to keep yourselves sane yet?"
Kat quirked a brow at the casual use of Noble Six's name "No ma'am, and the operation is currently running smoothly. Noble's Three and Six are progressing towards the dark zone had a steady pace, little resistance on the ground so far"
"Excellent" Romanoff said with a pleased expression on her face as she all but invited herself into the Spartan's space and took up position in front of the screen as if SHE was the one in charge the whole time and not Kat.
It was than Jun's voice came through as Jun and Peter's video feeds showed the two Spartans come across some sort of station "Noble Two, we have eyes on armed civilians engaging Covenant forces, all Grunts with a few Jackals thrown in, at some sort of pump station"
"Talk about a crappy situation" Peter snickered.
Kat stepped forward, about to respond to Jun's assessment when Romanoff beat her to the punch.
"Copy Recon Team Bravo, engage at your discretion but don't let your guard down. Those humans could be local insurrectionist and they'll turn on you the moment your common enemy is dealt with" the red head said in a cool tone.
Jun, to his credit, didn't even so much as bat an eye in his response to the newcomer "Understood, but I' thinking their more local militia than Insurrectionist, but we'll keep our guard up"
"Or their just a bunch of hicks that one these alien's off their property" Peter suggested.
"Can't blame them, they do tend to lower the retail value of any area their in" Jun said before the muffled 'thud' of a modified snipe rifle went off in the background.
"Yeah, they tend to either cut the prices in half or reduce it to cinders" Peter joked as his feed showing him firing on a band of Grunts with his sniper rifle while several of the human 'civilians' rushed for better cover.
"Noble Three, Noble Six, maintain radio discipline" Romanoff said with a straight face though the ice in her voice could freeze a star solid.
"Copy that ma'am" Peter responded, holding a thumb up for his helmet's cameras to see.
"I liked our old handler, she was pushy, but at least she let us talk" Jun bemoaned.
"Damn ONI ruining things for us again" Peter sighed before the two Spartans fell into silence as they moved further into the pump station to flush out any remaining Covenant forces.
"Wow, that has to be the fastest I've ever heard Jun shut up when ordered to" Kat muttered to Carter who smirked in response.
"It's all about presence LC. Need to show whose in command and why" Carter joked, causing Kat to glare at him with a scowl.
"Oh, your saying that I don't have a commanding presence?" she asked with a growl.
"Well..." Carter trailed off before his head suddenly tilted slightly, a nonverbal que that he was receiving a call from someone over a private channel. He than nodded towards the screen "Keep me updated, I need to take this"
"Aye-aye commander" Kat nodded as she watched Carter quickly leave the command center to better respond to whoever was calling without being distracted.
"Noble Three, Noble Six, have you eliminated the hostiles?" Captain Romanoff asked as her eyes watched as red dot after red dot was eliminated by the two blue dots that represented the Spartans.
"Just a few more ma'am" Peter answered before several shots from his M6G could be heard followed by the last three red dots on the screen vanishing "Targets neutralized"
...
"Man, you Spartans sure are handy in a fight" one of the civilians said after the last Covenant Grunt was killed.
"You can see why they pay us the big bucks" Peter boasted before he glanced at Jun as the marksman entered the pump station's courtyard "Am I right?"
"We get paid?" Jun asked, quirking his head slightly in confusion before he turned his attention to the three moderately armed men in front of Peter "What are you doing here? This whole area was supposed to have been evacuated"
"Huh, don't remember the great UNSC sending out a 'get the fuck out of there' alert before these alien assholes showed up and started killing us in our homes" one of the militia said with a scowl aimed at the two heavily armed and armored humans.
"Dave, knock it off before the heavily armed slave shoots us" the apparent leader of the trio said with a dry look aimed at the man before he turned and pointed to a few large wooden crates, with the UNSC logo stamped on the sides "After we got our people out of here, and off this worthless dung heap of a planet, we came back for that. Bunch of ammo caches scattered all over the territory"
"Military munitions" Jun said as he approached the crate and ripped the top off to see it was filled with rifles. He glanced back at the 'civilians' with a blank look under his faceplate "You know this stuff is stolen, right?"
"What, you gonna arrest me?" the militia leader scoffed.
"No, we're just gonna steal it back" Peter snorted as he approached the carte and lanced inside "Oooh, fresh off the line BR55 Heavy Barrel Service Rifles... they even still have that new factory smell"
"You would like a burst firing weapon" Jun shook his head at this before he reached into the carte and removed one of the rifles to better examine it.
"You know... for 'militia', those guys were oddly heavily armed" Peter said over a private channel to Jun as he watched the two of the three militia men retreat out of the room and link up with the rest of the militia along the pump station's perimeter "Like make life hard for us armed"
"I'm aware, but it's not like we can do anything about it" Jun said with a snort as he eyed some of the other weapons crates the militia had stashed nearby "Least their using it on the Covenant and not us for a change"
"To them, what's the difference?" Peter asked with a raised brow.
"Depends on the group I guess" Jun said before his head suddenly snapped towards the ridge overlooking the compound as gunfire erupted from it.
"What the hell-" the lone militia man said before his head was suddenly sporting three of those pink needle like projectiles fired from a 'Needle Rifle' before it exploded in a shower of pink-ish energy and gore.
"Damn it!" Peter yelped as several needle rounds bounced off his armor's shields as he and Jun raced for cover,
All around them gunfire and plasma fire echoed across the area, followed quickly by the agonized screams of numerous humans. Peter had no idea who or what it was that was killing them, it could've been Elites, but the weapons fire was all wrong, from what he was hearing, and seeing from brief flashes from the darkness beyond the complex's lights, it was only Needler rounds being fired. While he has in the past seen some Elites sport a Needler or Needle rifle, they were few and far in between, Elites seemed to prefer more 'traditional' plasma weaponry like rifles or repeaters.
'Could be Jackals, they like to use these things' Peter thought as another Needle round struck the wall, not to far from Peter's head, and exploded, causing the Spartan's shields to flicker again.
"Six, any idea where some of this fire is coming from?" Jun asked as he tried to peek around cover and fire off a shot at one of the aliens shooting at them only to quickly fall back into cover when his form was pelted with a few needle rounds.
"Uh let me take a peek and risk getting turned into a pick explosive porcupine" Peter said with a eye roll "No I don't have any idea, but I'm gonna say everywhere"
"Motion tracker isn't working, must be jamming the signal" Jun said as he eyed his HUD's motion tracker icon and saw it wasn't picking up any hostiles, even when he increased the range to a hundred meters.
"Hey uh Jun?" Peter said as he began to notice something odd about the enemy's firing on them, or rather lack there of.
"What is it?" Jun asked as he quickly checked his equipment to make sure nothing was too damaged for continued operational use.
"Is it me, or are they shooting the lights out?" Peter said as he risked a glance from behind his cover to see that the Covenant was now firing on the lights, plunging the station into darkness.
Jun followed Peter's gaze and frowned as he noticed the lights were being specifically targeted before realization suddenly hit him as the dots began to hit.
"Oh shit"
"What is it?" Peter asked as he and Jun scanned the area for any contacts "Cloaked Elites? Cloaked Jackals?"
"Worse" Jun said with dread in his voice as he clicked off the safety for his rifle and slowly scanned their surroundings with narrowed eyes, his heartbeat beginning to steadily rise as the last of the lights went off.
"What's worse than cloaked Elites or Jackals?" Peter asked as he felt the flare at the base of his skull begin to increase in intensity before he heard a distant howl that sent a feeling of dread through his very being as Jun spoke in a whisper.
"Cloaked Brutes"
...
And done.
Next chapter, Hunters in the dark...