Halo: Predator Lost ch 13 Politics and training.
Algolis underground breifing room.
"Alright boys, in light of our humiliation against someone who actually knows what they are doing, we've been given some recommendations and new blood." Stated Captain Lipton current company commander of the ODSTs. Because of the limited number of SOEIVs on the Frigates the entire company was made up of all troopers from the frigates.
Lipton himself was average with a short buzzcut of brown hair blue eyes with an average height. The man was respected as he was once enlisted before moving up. This was mostly in large part to the number of officers getting killed but also in his ability to not treat his men like second-rate garbage. Some called him the second coming of Lipton for easy company. As the man shared an uncanny resemblance to the first Sargent of the WWII unit whether or not he was a descendent was something no one cared about.
"Okay first of all the Frigate undergoing repairs and refit is getting an overhaul so though that it will act in many ways as a new subclass of a frigate. A very expensive subclass and the ventral fin is being rebuilt wider in order to carry more people and equipment. Command has stated that its new mission will in many ways be like that of a Prowler stealth ship only a lot bigger and way better armed.
That said you will be surprised to know that the one named Scythe actually beat you without even using his infrared systems. Sargent Thompson, since you lasted the longest can you explain why?"
"Sigh... We stood out like sore thumbs sir" Speaking of sore my gut still hurts after that punch. Thompson then rubbed his bruised ribcage underneath his shirt.
"Exactly, as such, we will now be transitioning to old school camouflage developed centuries ago. While yes it won't look as cool as the black and grey we are used to but from data we have in the past the pattern works very well in many environments that aren't dead pieces of volcanic rock." Bringing up the new pattern on the display, the soldiers noted the distinct colors of brown, green tan, and a hint of black. "This pattern is called Multicam and aside from your visors, every square inch of you will be covered in this and all your equipment.
Colonel stein has also ordered this same pattern be painted on everything here and even the Army garrison is getting this." With a smile on his face, Lipton couldn't help the near dumb reactions of his men." Now as for the new blood, we've received twenty-four advanced shock troopers from Colonel Ackerson, he was not happy about it so kudos for Stein I'm sure he was smiling for joy, on the inside." The troopers couldn't help but chuckle a bit given Stein's stone-like mannerisms.
"Now then Thompson, thanks to your leadership skills and ability to improvise you are being assigned to command the first platoon. Which you'll have to build up as the platoon you'll be leading will be composed of anyone here who makes it in a new training program. The prize is being stationed aboard the refitted frigate.
The training regime will include pilot training, not just on aircraft but on all ground vehicles including combat Exo armor. As many of you know Algolis is the only colony that can produce these machines, at least ones not for sale to the public yet. The only exception was the UNSC Spirit of Fire with its onboard factories. Sadly the ship was lost a few years ago but the new suits the egg heads here are working on are designed for frontline combat.
This comes to the new mission which will entail causing as much damage as possible. To get that done, nuclear production facilities have been built, and right now the suicidal Alien known as Winter is determined to shrink them down and have everyone pack one either in a rocket or a grenade launcher. Any questions thus far?" Seeing none Captain Lipton continued on with the brief
Algolis orbit inside the bridge of the Paris class frigate undergoing refit.
Learn from the past to better prepare for the future. I don't know who said it but at this point, that is what it was feeling like. On top of the two feet of new Titanium A armor plating, another foot of lightweight but heavily heat resistant composites were being installed. this wasn't a full foot in thickness but instead is dispersed in layers sandwiching the existing armor.
On top of that, the Predators shuttle which has been in the process of being scrapped had its stealth system installed as well. The fact the entire component for cloaking is a little bigger than a softball is really something and can be easily interfaced with anything as it has its own power source. The shields were another matter entirely since the frigate is five times larger than the shuttle and the shields weren't military-grade, to begin with. it was decided to put those into storage for further study.
"Commander?"
Jolted out of the report he was reading Young looked at the private, no civilian, wait who the frak was this?"I'm sorry I don't think we've met"
"Dr. Emily sent me and who I am isn't important, what is important is that you and I are going on a little trip to Reach to pick up some Mjolnir armor along with all the needed components to build more."
"Now why would I want to spend two weeks traveling to Reach when we have all the facilities needed here to build those things?"
"Because, as it turns out while we can build Cyclops and other powered armor. We don't have the specifications for the Mjolnir armor. For that, we have to go to Reach and beg from the mad scientist herself Dr. Catherine Halsey. Because of her paranoia, she won't allow the delivery unless the armor is being escorted by those in the know. On top of that, she doesn't want Ackerson to know about this. Her armor, his soldiers our plan and guess what, Ackerson would rather his boys go to Reach instead.
To put it simply we just got drafted into the politics of ONI between the biggest heads of its secret society. Ackerson hates Halsey, and now he hates us. In turn, Halsey doesn't like him and wants to meet us. Two people trying to refit a busted ship and turn already lethal aliens into super aliens. Granted the latter ONI doesn't know about and if it did, the Lord only knows what will happen to us. Understand." Completing her rant the woman waits for Young's response.
Young contemplated this and didn't like it one bit. Perhaps asking if one of the Aliens would want to go but ONI would likely cause a situation. To be frank it sounded like a major waste of time but since the Aliens knew nothing of the Spartan program and no one knew of Stein's alien augmentation upgrade sans a few like him. Then again it's not like he had anything better to do since the refits were still in progress with everything the Aliens kept adding.
"Fine, we'll go beg to Halsey in person for her armor and the other stuff we need but how are we going to explain that since she is known for getting into everyone's business?"
"I guess we'll figure it out as we go along, keeping secrets from UNSC brass is easy but ONI is well much harder"
"When do we leave then?" Young asked.
"Within the hour"
Back on Algolis Scythe was finally given a challenge with new albeit young shock troopers. In fact, the age was very disconcerting as they appeared to still be in their early to mid-teens. The first test showed them in their primitive power armor with adaptive camouflage ability that while primitive, at least had the ability to mask infrared signatures. This in turn put them into a limited stalemate with Winter during their first exercise with him.
Too bad for them the helmet Winter wears has more modes and sensors than many ships do, even motion sensors were added recently since that appeared to be standard human tracking, granted it had limited range but still. The exercise was to see who could get exposed first and unlike my experience, there was no music or really sound, to begin with, in the rocky deserts just a few klicks from here.
Using recon by fire with a Covenant pistol. Winter took out twelve soldiers with just one paint grenade from his launcher. The remaining twelve were quick to get into cover and blanket Winters area with their own paint rounds. Winter then proceeded to pick them off one by one till three were left. These three promptly eliminated winter with a three-pronged maneuver but were covered in paint by the end. leaving it a draw instead of a win.
The exercise showed these humans weren't normal, their bones were far denser than what they should be and their speed was also greater.
This has now been made clear upon fighting them in close combat training. It was almost like fighting another Yautja but not quite. For one they were used to fighting easy targets and even then the armor they wore limited their combat options. Especially given its limited endurance and armor protection. In short, the armor was only a little better than the ODSTs or worse. To be frank, Scythe didn't know what to make of the darn thing.
"Sir, what are your recommendations?", a private asked.
Winter was having a very bad and boring day. On top of working non-stop for months, now and with the induction of more powerful humans who beat him. Then again the exercise was to see what they could do and they didn't disappoint, but their armor was so pathetic even by this colony's standards it was hard not to run up and take it apart. While it did blend in well with the surrounding terrain, the gold visors did nothing to hide them at all and can be seen from a long distance. The space application makes sense but then why not just go all white anyway.
"Human, send a message to the helmet producer. I want ODST helmets modified for these men and their SPI systems. That way next time they should be able to take full advantage of the suits systems. In the meantime, I'm going to go sleep"
"Yes sir, now where are the LT and Specialist?" The private wondered before carrying out his orders.
somewhere at a local shooting range Mike and Sarah were on a date.
"I can't believe you talked me into this, this is punishment right, because I made you sit through a three-hour lecture on slipsace theory" Sarah was staring at replica large caliber weapons, the fact that anyone in their deranged mind would buy such things was beyond her.
" As a matter of fact yes, after that lecture my brain hurt for a week trying to comprehend all that. Since you don't want to spar with Scythe, I figured this was the best alternative." Mike had signed them up for the gauntlet. The idea was to go from one hard-hitting weapon to the next until the shooter gave up or won the gauntlet. The winner would receive either a gift card to any one of the restaurants, a large kukri style blade, or for the sappy romantics, a large stuffed toy. Though from rumors, most just want a cold press ice pack.
"Shooters your up, if you didn't sign the waiver which you should have before doing this then do so now." Said the instructor.
Sarah and mike pick up a lightweight break action 12ga. Sarah upon squeezing the trigger sent a slug downrange and had to step back a few feet. Mike hardly budged. "Okay, that packed a punch"
"That was just the warmup, hope you drank plenty of fluids because the next one is a 45/70, full load, followed by the .457, 500, 600, 700, and if you make it through all that then we have the boss gun. Shooters ready!"
Shot after shot, round after round, Sarah was at her breaking point and from the looks of it so was mike. They were finally at the 700 and both were wishing for some type of painkiller as their shoulders were hurting now.
" I've seen that look many times but trust me, you'll be fine, we do have medics on standby should anything go wrong but aside from an ice pack really nothing happens. So take it now and see the mystery gun or not?"
"I'm in", Mark takes the weapon and aims, pulling the trigger, he is knocked literally on his butt
Seeing that and know she was hurting worse Sarah opted for a different approach." Yea, I'm out, I want to still keep my shoulder but please oh noble boyfriend get me a stuffed toy." The sarcasm was dripping through her mouth like snake venom.
"huh, your not the only woman to do that, quite effective really. Now for the last one, we have a custom-made weapon chambered in 800Nitro, she is only a little bit bigger than the 700 but it's shooting a twelve hundred grain bullet out to twenty-five hundred feet per second and has been rated at near ten thousand foot-pounds of energy. Felt recoil has been compared to being hit by a warthog at speed." The instructor had a comical grin on his face.
"Mike was near the end of his rope, his should ached but he was curious about something. "who built that shoulder killer"
"All it says on the barrel is, you reap what you sow come, Winter."
Mike now had a good idea as to who built it. The predators, while not killing anyone had to devise ingenious levels of causing max pain for their own amusement. Granted he and Sarah had helped in that regard but still, then again maybe he was just being paranoid after all that one ODST actually did get a full punch.
"Okay, what the hell, I've already made it this far."
Okay, I've had to rewrite this last part twice as it somehow got deleted. I've heard of this happening with other authors but not for me. Now I understand how pissed they were.
Anyway, I need names for the SIIIs since there are twenty-four of them to choose from. Heck, you can even make your own character bio for one-two-three, or frack six.
All these characters are getting harder to juggle around. Thankfully that should hopefully change when things change and the killing starts.
I'm also apologizing for the late update as work and procrastinating have gotten in the way a bit. I'll do better this week I promise that.
Thank you all and please review or PM or both.
Kudos to Robert C. and the Guest who comment, you guys are the fuel to my writing, so thank you for that.
Thank you all and I hope you still keep reading, even though this wasn't my best chapter.