Chapter Nine
1515 Hours, July 23, 2555 (Military Calendar)
Outskirts of unknown town
Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System
The town Cobb followed the three wagons to was more developed than the last, a majority of its structures being permanent, and more heavily defended, too. A ten foot tall wall of earth and wood surrounded most of it with gaps at the four cardinal directions to allow access inside. Soldiers with spears and bows manned the wall and guard posts, diligently looking outwards for threats, whilst others worked to reinforce or repair their defences.
Cobb guessed this place held a thousand people, the same as the previous town, but very few were civilians. This was an active duty base rather than a logistical stopping point and he spent the next hour covering the town from all angles, peering in through the open gates to glean what he could and lamenting the fact that Primo Victoria just hadn't been properly equipped for this mission.
If she had, the corvette would have carried a complement of small observation drones the size of Cobb's fist that could give him a bird's eye view of what lay hidden behind the massive earthworks, plus satellites that could be released to cover the areas she couldn't, to say nothing of troops trained and experienced at conducting long duration missions with minimal oversight from command.
The Marines under Chavez were motivated, to give them credit, but motivation could only get a person so far in dangerous situations they were trained for. Even the NCOs with their years of service were mainline infantry, and legs to boot. They simply didn't measure up to the mission requirements and why they only ever went out under Cobb's direct command.
Part of him idly wondered how they were occupying themselves whilst being confined to Camp Rory, a small part, as the rest of his mind focused on the town. It sat in an artificial clearing in the forest and was around a kilometre at its widest, including the buildings that sat outside the wall. Most of them looked to be civilian dwellings or ancillary structures, things that wouldn't be missed if an enemy attacked and the garrison had to retreat behind their wall.
One building in particular caught Cobb's eye as he made his circuit, a two storey place bearing a hanging wooden sign that had a woman, naked but for a smile, sitting with her back to the audience and looking over one shoulder as her hair tumbled down. Below it was the local script, unreadable to Cobb, and he guessed it was a pub or tavern.
He marked the position and made a mental note to come back later once it grew dark, knowing it would provide him with some intelligence on the troops here. People drank for various reasons and examining how they drank was often an indicator of why, like if they downed their ale in a subdued manner or lashed out at the smallest provocation meant things probably weren't going their way.
It might not point him in the direction of a vital weapons cache or a high ranking officer, but it was more than he had known before and would, likely, help factor into any future plans he might concoct.
2345 Hours, July 23, 2555 (Military Calendar)
Outskirts of unknown town
Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System
Cobb conducted two more circuits of the town and ranged a further twenty kilometres north up the road, hoping to find either another town or encampment, maybe even the site of a recent battle, before returning to the town and the observation point he had picked out to keep an eye on the tavern.
Once it grew dark enough the workers came out and lit several torches and lanterns to beat back the darkness, and soon after the soldiers appeared in small clusters of two or three at a time, dressed in their casual clothes and talking amongst themselves. From afar, it looked like they were relaxed and at ease and Cobb heard what he could only assume was drunken singing drifting over from the tavern.
It sat right on the outskirts of the town with only a line of tents separating it from the surrounding forests, the sheer number of lights adorning it making the place immediately obvious to anyone approaching. Strategically it made for a poor choice as it would be the first thing an enemy with access to artillery might choose to target, but from a marketing standpoint it was good. It drew the eye in, and thus the money.
Of course, being the only tavern in town certainly helped drive profit margins up. Cobb hadn't seen any similar buildings during his observations of the outside and judging by the volume of soldiers coming and going, there likely wasn't one nestled inside the walls.
By the time midnight was drawing close, and Cobb had been in position for five hours, he guessed he had seen almost the entire town's complement of enlisted soldiers walk through the tavern's doors at one point or another. None of them were ejected by the owner and neither did massive brawls spill out into the street. Rather, what few patrons that had drunk too much were helped back home by their friends, arms slung around one another's shoulders as they bawled out something approximating a song.
So, obviously, these troops were feeling pretty good and secure about their position here.
As Cobb dwelled on this and turned his thoughts to ways of undermining this, a small side door on the tavern flew open and a lone figure came running out. Cobb swung his attention their way and saw it was a woman, maybe thirty years or age, clutching a bundle of clothes to her chest as she ran between the tents towards the forest. It was then that Cobb noted she was naked, like the lady on the tavern's sign, and she was glancing back at the door she had run out of.
There was another figure, this one a man, who was struggling to pull his trousers up whilst giving chase to the woman. A couple of soldiers in the street noticed the spectacle and offered jeers, as far as Cobb could tell, then went back to drunkenly staggering home to their barracks.
Cobb turned back to the woman, out of curiosity than anything else, and watched as she emerged from the tents and aimed for the forests at a flat sprint. She was at just enough of angle from him that Cobb couldn't see her face, though her hair was flowing out behind her enough to reveal what looked to be a black collar around her neck, which wasn't something he had seen before in any other town.
The soldier had finally gotten his trousers secured and raced after the woman, and given enough time he would catch up to her somewhere inside the tree line. Cobb estimated where that would likely be and banished them from his awareness, returning his attention to the tavern. He figured the tavern was also a brothel and the two people were a prostitute and her john, carrying out whatever scenario he had paid for.
A few seconds later he heard a crashing of branches and some screaming as the two met, the soldier tackling the prostitute to the ground, and her shouts as he started in on whatever his fantasy held. Again, Cobb pushed the noises from his awareness because it wasn't critical to his mission. Even if it wasn't a rape fantasy being carried out a few hundred metres to his right but the real thing, his role here was purely observational. That meant doing nothing to reveal his presence outside of dire circumstances.
But a moment later his eyes widened and he bolted to his feet, moving off in the direction of the pair.
His brain had lagged behind his ears for a moment or two, focused more on the town and dismissing the people as locals, enough that it didn't immediately register that the woman was shouting for help in English rather than Lekian, which was an impossibility unless she was one of the civilians from Tranquillity.
Cobb darted between the trees with barely a noise as he zeroed in on the screaming, finally spotting the soldier as he straddled the woman with one hand around her throat and the other raised in a fist that he used to smash into her cheek. Operating without much conscious thought, Cobb drew his combat knife and plunged it into the soft flesh behind the jaw in one swift movement, his free hand clamping down on the soldier's mouth to stifle any screams he might have had.
In the blink of an eye, Cobb wrenched the knife across and tore the soldier's throat out in a visceral spray of blood, tossing him to one side where he tried in vain to slow the flow of blood and draw in a breath. A few seconds later he fell still with a final wet gurgle, staring up with glassy eyes at the forest canopy above.
As he died, Cobb moved his hand to clamp down on the woman's mouth to stifle her screams, a profile popping up on his HUD as the MJOLNIR armour's onboard systems matched her face against its records.
'Sophie, it's okay,' he said quietly, reading her name. 'I'm Spartan Cobb. I'm here to rescue you.'
It was dark in the trees with only a small amount of the moon and starlight reaching the forest floor, too little to make out much more than major features of an object that nevertheless had their features softened. There was no telling how much of Cobb Sophie was able to make out but after a few seconds she relaxed.
'I'm going to take my hand away,' Cobb said. 'You need to stay quiet, okay?'
She nodded several times in quick succession and Cobb uncovered her mouth, tensing in case she screamed anyway but Sophie didn't, instead lunging forward to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug that was equal parts relief and making sure he wasn't a figment of her imagination.
When she let go Sophie scrabbled around in the dark for her clothes and struggled into them, Cobb turning his back to give her some privacy. He fixed his gaze on the distant tavern and asked, 'Were there any others in the town with you?'
'Yes,' Sophie said. 'Oh, crap, George and Molly! They're in the tavern. We have to get them.'
She stood, still half dressed, and made for the distant flickering of light but Cobb reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her.
'I can get them,' he said. 'Just tell me where they are.'
0058 Hours, July 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)
Outskirts of unknown town
Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System
When it came to assaulting a structure, Cobb preferred to employ the violence of action to accomplish his goals. The quicker and harder he struck an opponent, the less likely they were to mount any kind of meaningful defence against his intrusion. The trade off for that was that any hostiles in the immediate vicinity would have time to rally their forces, meaning exiting was that bit more difficult to accomplish.
But then, Spartans never got easy missions.
Cobb approached the tavern's main door at a steady jog, DMR held at the ready, noting that half a dozen patrons were standing outside and making for their beds after a night of heavy drinking. They all stopped and turned when they saw him, the drink impairing their thought processes enough that they failed to recognise a threat when they saw it.
He ignored them and broke into a flat sprint, shoulder lowered, and he slammed into the stout wooden door which swung open from the impact in a shower of dust and splinters. Immediately a wave of sound hit Cobb, the drunken singing of the tavern's patrons, which quickly died down when they registered the sudden entrance of a Spartan.
To his left was the main area for the patrons, where numerous tables, stools and chairs were spread across a worn stone floor, a crackling fire in one corner, and decorated shields lined the walls. Cobb's eyes zeroed in on what looked to be the skulls of both a Brute and an Elite mounted above the fireplace, but he quickly shifted off them and turned to his right.
Here was the main bar for the tavern, from which customers could place their orders for food and drink, and behind it was a compact but crowded kitchen working hard to keep everyone fed. Steam rose from several copper pots and chunks of meat sizzled on their grills though any smells they gave off were blocked behind the filters of Cobb's helmet.
All of the staff had turned to look his way, dumbstruck by his appearance, and Cobb moved for the nearby stairs before they could recover and think about coming after him. He dropped a flashbang as he went and had the people here been armed, it would have been a fragmentation grenade.
It detonated with a bright flash and sharp bang, blinding and deafening everyone within range, and disorientating those lucky enough to be behind cover or far away.
Cobb took the stairs four at a time and emerged onto the second floor, a long corridor with rooms on either side that the soldiers could rent, each with their own attendant that was more than willing to cater to their physical needs. All but three, that is, and one of them was hiding in the forests with an emergency beacon in case someone stumbled across her.
The other two were in any of the eight rooms stretching out from Cobb, and as he went for the first one he saw some of the doors were opening as the inhabitants came out to check on what the noise had been.
When they saw a seven foot tall giant, covered head to toe in drab green metal, they ducked back inside again and slammed their doors shut in the vain hope of keeping him at bay. Cobb kicked the first door open to find the room empty save for some clothes on the floor, probably what the soldier he had killed had been wearing.
In the second and third rooms he found only locals who quickly stopped what they were doing to shout out in alarm, one of the prostitutes brandishing a stiletto knife at him which Cobb ignored and moved onto the fourth room where he found George, naked and tied up facing the wall.
His back was covered in welts from what looked to be a whip, the very implement being held by the woman standing to Cobb's left. She shouted something at him and lashed out with the whip, the tip glancing harmlessly off his shields, and Cobb responded by shooting her once in the chest. She stumbled backwards and crumpled to the ground, whip slipping from her grasp.
Cobb stepped forward and brandished his knife, using it to cut the rough ropes wrapped around George's wrists and ankles, freeing him, then left the room to find Molly. She was in the seventh room he checked with a knife to her throat, the soldier holding it stood behind her and blabbering at Cobb in Lekian.
He stopped when Cobb shot him in the head and fell to the floor in an unceremonious heap, releasing Molly who jumped away from the body, looking between it and Cobb who stepped back into the corridor. Shouts were coming from below and outside, the alarm being raised, and he called out, 'Don't bother getting dressed. Just grab your clothes and follow me to the forest.'
George and Molly appeared a few seconds later, arms full of tattered rags, and followed Cobb as he headed for the second set of stairs that led to the back of the tavern and connected to the kitchen area. Sophie had used them to escape, and now so did George and Molly who didn't need to be told twice though Cobb couldn't help but note the pronounced limp George had.
He grimaced and wove between the tents, turning back to check on what their opponents were up to. A large number of them had gathered around the tavern's entrance with weapons drawn and torches lit, and one of them gave a shout when he saw the trio emerge from the tavern. He pointed as the others looked, then gave chase. Cobb raised his DMR and fired to down the lead elements of the group but more took their places. He counted twenty or more in the crowd, and more still in the formations closing in from further into town.
There had to be a hundred of them, more, and Cobb guessed the whole town was being mobilised to track them down. That meant close to a thousand troops chasing him and three civilians, one of which had a bad limp that was going to slow them down. Their only hope was to use the dark to lose them in the forest and make it to a safe location where they could call in the Pelican.
The problem with that was Cobb had no idea where a safe location was, or at least somewhere defensible he could use to hold the enemy at bay. Primo Victoria hadn't scanned this place so maps were in short supply, and the only suitable place Cobb could think of was close to thirty kilometres away through wild forests. He could have easily made it by himself, but not with three civilians to escort and protect.
He turned again and ran after George and Molly, overtaking them as they reached the trees. They fell in step behind him and followed the Spartan to Sophie, where all three had a short but tearful reunion which Cobb cut short.
'How well do you three know the area?' he asked. 'Any rocky outcroppings, clearings, hills that we can make it to?'
'We don't know the area at all,' Sophie said. 'It's not like they let us out.'
'Don't you remember anything from the journey in?' Cobb said.
All three shook their heads and Cobb fought to suppress an exasperated sigh, thinking. They needed to call in the Pelican but it would take time for the dropship to reach them, during which they would be under constant pursuit by a force a thousand strong. There was also the issue of making sure none of the locals saw where it was returning to, and with dawn just four hours away they would pushing the limit for that.
The alternative would be to hole up until it grew dark again and call for the Pelican then, but Cobb couldn't expect the three civilians to keep going for so long after all they had endured. None of them were even remotely dressed for an extended stay in the forests. Even now they were starting to shiver in the cool night air.
It was times like this that Cobb wondered why the minds behind the Spartan-IV program had decided four months of training was enough to turn him into a master of the battlefield. They were an intensive four months, no doubt, and most of his free time since then was spent in the War Game simulations to further hone his skills, but it paled in comparison to the years of training undertaken by the Twos and Threes.
They would have come up with an elegant plan in a fraction of the time, and been able to execute it perfectly. As much as Section Two liked to say otherwise, Cobb knew he and his fellow Fours were just pale imitations of those original supersoldiers. Still, he had to try and get these people to safety.
'We'll risk the exposure,' Cobb said, to himself more than the others.
Aloud, he said, 'If we can reach an elevated location I can call in a Pelican to extract us. We just need to find it first, and then hold it.'