Mantle
Alliman Surface Excavation, Site 2, 234 kilometers from Atlas
October 7th, 0834 Atlas Time, 2552 UNSC Military Calendar
Mantle was cold by its very nature, and deep snow almost always blanketed the ground. It didn't help that most of the days in the Northern regions only got a scant amount of constant light during the winter months, making it seem as if it was always twilight. While a beautiful phenomenon for tourists, those who lived on the continent typically thought otherwise, with them finding the unchanging terrain and scenery to be boring, and even depressing.
On a watchtower outside of the Alliman Surface Mines, a single, very bored security guard of the Schnee Dust Company stood watch. Normally, it was a relatively exciting job, with the occasional Grimm incursion to keep things interesting, but that didn't mean that he was enthusiastic about his duty. He cared more about his next paycheck and chance to nap than whatever the hell meant he was out here, instead of back in Atlas where it was warm.
Tonight was a very quiet night, for whatever reason, the Grimm showed no interest in attacking the mine. While that wasn't too unusual, there was normally at least one or two Grimm off in the distance, but today there were none.
I guess the managers aren't pushing the workers today. He thought, somewhat thankful for the respite. In his opinion, boredom was always preferable to danger.
He was startled by an electronic crackle coming from his radio, followed by a barely audible mumbling.
Ugh, these idiots. He thought, taking the radio off of his shoulder pad and keying the transmitter. "Try the gain, numbnuts."
"Go fuck yourself, Potter." A grumpy response came, starting as a barely audible mumble but eventually becoming understandable. "Better?"
He gave a brief chuckle before responding. "Yeah, I hear ya. What's up?"
"Quill spotted a handful of unknowns a few hundred yards out. Too far for details, but he thinks they might be runners or Grimm. Either way, sweep your sectors and terminate as necessary." The response said.
Again? If he's high on duty again, I'll throw him off of his damn post. He thought bitterly, but kept his tone professional. "Understood, standby."
He placed his radio back into its pocket, before running a quick examination on the searchlight that was mounted to the tower. After a moment of making sure that it was functional, he switched it on, keeping one eye closed so that it would stay accustomed to the darkness. A quick sweep across the tundra confirmed what he had suspected, false alarm.
He drew his radio again, with a bit of grumpiness in his movement. "Potter here, false alarm. Can someone tell Quill's dumb ass to-"
He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes focusing on something he had only just noticed. It was a tiny, barely visible black dot, hovering high in the sky, barely visible. Grimm statically hovering was unusual, as most of them had to keep moving to stay in the air.
"Belay that, possible airborne target in the distance, does Radar show anything, over?" He questioned, a slight hint of worry in his voice.
Please don't be Nevermores... he thought, those things were the absolute worst.
"Wait one." The response came, a tense moment of silence passed before a follow-up reply came. "Negative Potter, no bogies detected."
"Well that doesn't make any-" Potter began, but was interrupted by a trio of loud popping sounds in the distance, followed by several blinding, bright lights appearing in the sky, shining for only a few seconds before vanishing. Their light reflected off of the snow, making the blinding effect even worse. His vision had been completely thrown off, and something about the sudden light made him feel slightly nauseous.
Flares. He realized after a split-second. What's happening?
Before he could even express his shock, a pair of high-velocity sniper rifle rounds slammed into his forehead. His Aura did what it could to stop the devastating projectiles, but it had never been the strongest, nor had he been well trained on how to use it. As he recoiled from the hits, a third round slammed into his head, unable to hold back any more force, his Aura shattered, and the bullet plowed through his skull with little effort.
Meanwhile
That last one got him. Nathan thought as he reloaded, gunsmoke still emerging from the suppressor on the end of his sniper rifle barrel, the snow surrounding it melting from the heat. These guys are freaking tough.
"Target down." He reported. "Be advised, hostiles are heavily armoured."
"Battlemage, this is Onyx. Enemy lookout neutralized, working on the Radar now." Meadows reported from behind him, keeping one hand on the rangefinder mounted to his helmet.
"Copy that, keep us posted." Fairfire's reply came over the radio.
"Battlemage", of course she'd pick something badass like that, then leave us with the generic callsign. Nathan sighed.
"Shit, Nathan, you always get to bring one of these? Maybe I should've been a sniper." Yu idly commented as she reloaded her own rifle.
"Cut the chatter." Meadows ordered as he acquired their next target with his rangefinders. "Adjust your target, Radar position is on the top of the hill, bearing three-two-three, range is eleven-hundred meters, account for incline."
The enemy had some surprisingly sophisticated fortifications, most likely to protect against Grimm. But the biggest concern for their airborne comrades was a pair of old-fashioned rapid-fire flak cannons located deeper in the compound, which intel had deemed to be a possible threat to their birds. Knocking out the guns wasn't possible from extreme range, since it was protected by a series of hills surrounding the mine, but it was reliant on a Radar system in order to acquire its targets. So far, their aircraft's advanced designs had proven sufficient to avoid detection, but they weren't taking any unnecessary chances.
Nathan and Yu adjusted their aim, taking into account the wind, air resistance, planet's spin, and Remnant's slightly lower than average gravity. The ballistics CPU mounted inside of his scope helped dramatically and coordinated with his helmet to show him exactly where he needed to shoot. It was far from perfect, but it helped immensely for such a long shot.
"Shot ready." Nathan called out, followed quickly by Yu, who repeated his exact words.
"Fire." Meadows ordered, prompting both of the snipers to fire until their magazines ran dry.
The SRS99 series of rifles had originally been envisioned as an anti-material weapon, designed to destroy enemy emplacements and equipment, as well as lightly armored vehicles. Their effectiveness against living targets had given them a more lethal reputation, but they performed their job against non-living objects just as well. Eight armor piercing projectiles rendered the Radar's antenna inoperable in mere seconds.
"Onyx to Battlemage, enemy guns are blind, proceed with caution." Meadows reported over his commlink.
"Battlemage copies all. Reposition to Overlook Gamma on the double, and keep your eyes peeled for any other targets." Fairfire responded, her voice filled with an unusual seriousness that she only truly broke out during battle.
"You heard the lady, pack your bags, we're moving out." Meadows said, placing his rangefinders back on top of his helmet and remounting the M862 Arctic Warthog that they had landed with, manning the M41 LAAG on the back.
Officially a snowmobile, the M862 was effectively just a warthog with lightweight treads instead of wheels, designed for extreme traction to maneuver in the extremely snowy environments that even a Warthog couldn't operate in.
Nathan popped open the gullwing door to the navigator's seat and climbed in, he noticed that Yu was having some issues storing her sniper rifle in the cabin, and took the liberty of grabbing onto the barrel and storing it alongside his own for her while she climbed into the driver's seat.
"Thanks, damn thing is taller than I am!" Yu commented.
"Well it's not about the length, it's about how you use it." Nathan slyly replied.
"Shut up!" She said with a chuckle, keying the engine.
"Nathan." Meadows grumbled. "Keep a straight face, and remember why we're here."
"Don't hate a man for trying to lighten the mood, Sergeant." Nathan realized with a flinch, making an effort to straighten up his mind.
"Gamma's down the ridge, try to keep off of the edge, we really don't want to test this thing's roll cage." Nathan said.
Yu responded by gunning the engine, taking them on the way to their next objective.
Meanwhile
Ben stood in the troop bay of the Pelican, holding onto the netting of the overhead cargo holds to give himself a bit of extra stability. Staff Sergeant Fairfire, as well as all of the marines, were sitting in the seats, doing last minute equipment inspections as they prepared for touchdown. Standing made him all the more aware of the turbulent flight of the Pelicans, caused by their rapid descent.
"Marines, I ain't gonna lie to you, you're about to see some fucked-up stuff." Fairfire began, prompting Ben and the rest of the marines to shift their attention. "I'm sure you've all read the briefings, but that doesn't mean you aren't gonna find something you aren't ready for. Just keep your mind on the mission, and the ROE in the back of your head."
Ben could almost feel her facial expression shift into one of dissatisfaction at the lack of a response, even through her visor. "Sound off like you've still got ears, Marines!"
The cabin momentarily filled with a chorus of "Sir, yes Sir", before becoming silent again just as quickly. Ben could sense the tension in the air, and found it hard not to empathize with the Marines.
When I decided to be a Spartan, I wanted to fight monsters. Ben thought doubtfully. I just didn't expect it to be metaphorical monsters.
"You all set Curie?" Ben privately asked her, she'd come along for the mission entirely.
"Ready and eager." Curie said, with a faint hint of anger. "Your suit's updated firmware that I copied from Jorge's armor is fully functional, power surplus is manageable."
Ben nodded. He'd only gotten to speak to Jorge briefly after he'd been brought aboard the Dominion, although he had donated the updated Mjolnir Mark V firmware that hadn't reached them before they had left. "I know he's not happy about being left behind, so let's knock some heads together for him."
"Gladly." Curie heartily agreed.
"Battlemage, this is Fireball, thirty seconds till we hit the deck." the pilot warned. "LZ looks clear from up here."
"Roger that." Fairfire quickly acknowledged, before turning her attention once again towards the Marines. "Lock and load Gentlemen, let's give them an introduction to the Corps!"
"Oorah!" A brief chorus of voices sounded. Ben didn't join in, but he did give a nod of approval that did not go unnoticed by the other marines.
Ben gave his own weapons a quick inspection. He'd elected to bring an M319 grenade launcher with both stun and high-explosive dual-purpose rounds, that way he could retain the ability to neutralize heavy fortifications, whilst also having a weapon that would pose less of a threat to the civilians they intended to rescue. He also brought a BR55 Battle Rifle, a solid all-purpose weapon that was good for almost every situation, even if his lacked the heavy barrel of the newest model, he was confident that he could handle the recoil.
"Ten seconds!" Fireball called out.
Ben adjusted his posture, his position meant that he would be the first one out of the door, and he didn't intend on making everyone behind him wait. The Pelican gave one final lurch as the dropship completed its rapid descent, before coming to a relative halt just above the ground.
"Touchdown, hit it Marines!" Fireball called out, the excitement creeping into her voice.
The hatch popped a moment later, revealing the M808B Scorpion hanging from the magnetic mount on the Pelican's rear. The Scorpion dropped first, and as was standard procedure, the tanker immediately put the vehicle into reverse to make room for the infantry. As soon as the Scorpion was out of the way, Ben made a short jump onto the snowy ground.
He sunk into the deep snow almost immediately, which he had expected, he was an extremely heavy object relative to his surface area with the ground. The resulting snow went up to his shins, and would be a serious obstruction to movement, especially for the Marines.
At least they haven't started shooting at us yet. Ben thought, which prompted a far more cautious line of mental questioning. Why haven't they started shooting at us yet?
Thankfully the Scorpion tank, along with its two siblings, had plenty of surface area to spread it's massive weight across. They quickly moved around the Pelicans, giving them room to unload their marines while also providing cover for the still vulnerable Pelicans. As soon as everyone was unloaded, the Pelicans lifted off, quickly gaining attitude before retreating to a safe distance.
"Everyone, move up! Get to that fence!" Fairfire ordered over the radio. The marine squad leaders echoed her orders, while Ben flicked his status light to green to confirm his own compliance. His own standing orders were to protect the tanks and to help weaken the enemy strongpoints from a distance with his launcher.
The outermost layer of the enemy defenses consisted of a large chain-link fence topped with razor wire. Placed in positions around the fence were several small watchtowers, although the only one that was directly in the way of their advance had already been cleared by the rest of Onyx team. Behind the fence was a hill with a shallow incline, with an array of emplacements defending the ridge, although none of them had opened fire, and Ben couldn't see anyone inside of them.
"The enemy defenses are seemingly stronger than our recon suggested, we should keep our eyes open for any more surprises." Curie warned.
"We'll be ready." Ben assured her, keeping his grenade launcher drawn.
"Scorpions, shake up that fence, make us some entrances!" Fairfire ordered.
The trio of tankers all gave their acknowledgements before a series of cannon shots blasted the fence, knocking decent sized holes through it. A series of follow up shots neutralized some of the remaining support struts, leaving the fence as far less of an obstacle.
As soon as the fence fell, gunfire erupted from the ridgeline, with tracers pouring down in substantial numbers, giving the resemblance of a waterfall of fire. The marines scrambled to grab better positions behind the Scorpions they were following or any other hard cover they could find.
The enemy was entrenched within a series of small emplacements and bunkers, which provided effective protection against gunfire. There couldn't have been more than a dozen, and they were constructed from some kind of darkened concrete, reinforced with an external metal supporting structure.
Fairfire's response was immediate. "Tanks, deploy covering smoke!"
Scorpion tanks had an optional modification that introduced a cluster of smoke grenades launched from on top of the turret, creating a blanket of thermally masked smoke in front of the tank and anything behind it. All three Scorpions fired their launchers, and a series of twelve smoke grenades were flung in front of the advancing UNSC forces, all of which began to rapidly assemble a massive, wispy wall that helped deflect the enemies aim.
The main guns and coaxial turrets of the Scorpions offered suppressing fire while the smoke dispersed, supported by the marines with their small arms. Ben joined in, lining up a shot with his grenade launcher, quickly accounted for the range, and fired.
The explosion wasn't even nearly as powerful as a shell from one of the Scorpions, but the blast severely damaged the sandbag emplacement that protected the occupants. Moments later, a pair of silhouettes climbed out of the position, before taking cover behind the ridge.
Might not have killed them, but at least they got pushed back. Ben thought.
"Ben, take cover!" Curie called out, warning him just in time for him to dodge out of the way of a barrage of gunfire. He stayed low to the ground, waiting for the smokescreen to fully expand before moving out from cover again.
The Scorpions held their ground, allowing the Marines to grab superior positions to return fire against the entrenched mercenaries. Ben saw Fairfire coordinating a pair of marines with a rocket launcher, who succeeded in blowing apart an enemy bunker.
It seemed, however, that the slavers were not without surprises of their own. A bright beam of blue light emitted from one of the bunkers, impacting the turret of the lead Scorpion, and leaving a horrible black burn when it stopped. The Scorpion remained fully operational, and retaliated by throwing a smoke round in front of the enemy position, blinding it.
"They have pulse lasers!" Curie exclaimed, obviously surprised. "I knew that Remnant had produced the technology, but I had assumed it to be relegated to military usage only, let alone miniaturized to such an extreme scale!"
"I'll consider it a priority target." Ben said, lining up his next shot, before sending a grenade towards the bunker. He was trying to angle the shot so that the grenade went through the window of the bunker, but it missed its mark, exploding uselessly off of the front wall. "Curie, does that bunker have any structural weaknesses?"
"One moment..." Curie said as Ben reloaded. "The bunker has no obvious flaws, but if you can land a shell next to it, you may be able to destroy the weapon with an EMP."
Ben did as she suggested, aiming for the ground directly in front of the target. He fired just as another beam of light blasted out of the bunker, aiming directly at him. The beam of energy grazed him in multiple places, doing a number on his shields. A quick examination confirmed they were down to 35% strength.
Not weak by any measure, or perhaps just good at countering shields? Ben thought as his eyes tracked the flying explosive.
The grenade sailed through the air, with Ben holding down the trigger in order to purposefully delay the explosion. He waited until around a second after it landed, giving it time to penetrate the layers of snow with the leftover force from its flight. When he released the trigger, the detonation signal was sent to the grenade, and it erupted with a mix of explosive force, as well as an electromagnetic pulse that would hopefully render the laser weapon worthless.
"Energy signature nullified, well done." Curie said, confirming that it was disabled.
"Ben, work your way over to the right side, they have wounded and could really use a shield!" Fairfire's voice instructed through his commlink.
"On my way!" Ben replied, picking up the pace in spite of the difficulty the snow offered him.
It seemed like the Marines were managing to hold their own pretty well, with some of the marksman even calling out kills. The Scorpion tanks helped immensely, offering suppressive fire with their weapons as well as outright destroying several of the enemy positions.
"It would appear that the enemy weapons aren't built for long-range." Curie observed.
"I imagine that they're made for killing Grimm." Ben replied, keeping his head low to avoid stray rounds. "Still, we need to close the distance, there isn't enough cover out here."
"The Staff Sergeant has a plan, you just worry about getting to the wounded." Curie said, to which Ben flicked a green light of affirmation on his status monitor. "I've managed to boost the shield's duration and healing effects, but it's not going to be very durable."
"It doesn't look like that's going to be an issue." Ben replied, noticing that the medics had very wisely pulled the wounded Marines into cover behind one of the tanks. He quickly joined the medics in the small ditch in the snow that they had started clearing out.
"Spartan? Thank god, can you get us one of those bubble things?" The lead medic asked.
He carefully positioned the drop shield to cover all of the wounded soldiers, which illuminated them all in a light blue glow. There weren't that many Marines injured, but some of them had been injured quite badly.
"You're a lifesaver, Sierra!" one of the medics said.
"The bubble has a slight regenerative effect, it should help a bit." Ben replied.
"Hell of a party trick." one of the wounded marines murmured, just enough to be audible.
"Ben, come in, over?!" Fairfire's voice suddenly erupted in his helmet, a minor panic in her voice.
"Go ahead." Ben replied.
"Get back to the center of the line, we have a hostile in our line!" she ordered.
Outside of the bubble, Ben watched a man in what looked like a lighter variant of the SDC armor perform a several meter high leap on top of one of the Scorpions, before ramming some kind of quarterstaff straight through the top of the turret, piercing multiple layers of titanium armor with one move, an impossible feat. Once the staff was embedded, a bolt of fire traveled down the length of the weapon, entering into the Scorpion's inner mechanisms, resulting in massive amounts of hot air beginning to pop the armor plates apart.
A Huntsman. Ben realized. The briefings on the enemy had stated that some of them might have unusual and even fantastical abilities, and what he had just witnessed certainly filled that description.
"My main gun is offline, someone get this guy off of me!" The tanker called out on an open channel.
Ben took aim with his grenade launcher even before he had fully exited the shield bubble, firing as soon as he was out, and reloading as the projectile moved to hit the man. He purposefully didn't active the EMP on the grenade, and the shrapnel and explosive force would be all but nullified by the tough armor of the Scorpion. As the grenade soared towards the man, he didn't move out of the way, instead watching the explosive with a worrying amount of focus.
Ben watched with absolute astonishment as he pulled his staff out of the now-smoldering Scorpion turret, before using it like a club to smack the grenade out of the air like a baseball. As if the man had launched the weapon himself, the Grenade flew back towards Ben.
"Ben!" Curie called out in warning.
"Boost the shield!" Ben called out, taking cover back inside of the shield as the grenade landed where he was standing a moment earlier.
The blast substantially damaged the drop shield, but it stood strong, helped by Curie tweaking its settings. The bubble turned from a light blue to a warm orange, before collapsing several seconds later. Recognizing that if he stayed where he was that wounded Marines would be endangered, Ben switched to his battle rifle, charging forward as he did so.
The Huntsmen began to twirl his staff around his body at incredible speeds, the pole becoming surrounded by a fiery, cloud-like shroud as it got faster. Ben blasted off a series of three-round bursts at the target, but most of his rounds were deflected either by the Huntsman's staff or his aura.
With one final, deliberate move, he launched a massive ball of fire at Ben, the physics-defying projectile erupting from the end of his staff like a bullet. Despite the unexpected nature of the attack, Ben's enhanced reflexes gave him enough time to roll out of the way, leaving only a crater of melted snow as a result of the impact. Interestingly, the concussive force that Ben had braced for never came, it was as if the projectile lacked any sort of momentum despite the speed it flew at.
"Curie, how do we beat him?" Ben asked as he fired, trying to keep the Huntsman on the defensive, but he was able to deflect almost all of Ben's shots.
"You need to erode his aura, keep firing. I have a plan to get him off of the tank." Curie replied.
Ben managed to keep the Huntsman in a pinned state, as he was forced to deflect the incoming fire of Ben as well as several marines positioned around the Scorpion. It seemed as if some of the gunfire was getting through, as occasionally his aura would appear, as if to absorb the hits. Without any warning, a jet of fire erupted from the hole in the Scorpion's turret, blasting the Huntsman in the face, forcing him back off of the tank. Ben picked up his pace, reloading as he went to try and get around the tank.
"That worked." Curie observed, her voice giving away her surprise. "Although that isn't quite what I expected the fire suppression system to do."
"Either way, it worked." Ben pointed out as he rounded the rear of the tank.
As the enemy Huntsman came into view, Ben noticed that he was now in combat with almost half of the Marines, as well as the third Scorpion. It seemed like most of the fire from the ridgeline had stopped, and the enemy Huntsman was having trouble deflecting all of the fire, although several of the Marines that had been close enough to him had seemingly been either knocked out or burned into submission by the Huntsman.
Ben jumped into the fray, targeting areas that he knew would be difficult for the Huntsman to cover with his staff, he managed to score a few direct hits before the Huntsman launched an incredibly fast bolt of fire directly at Ben. His shields managed to absorb all of the damage, but they had not finished recharging, and they were left with only 5% strength from the blast.
Undeterred, Ben kept firing, before he was struck by an idea. He holstered his battle rifle and drew his grenade launcher, double-checking to affirm that it was loaded with a high-explosive round.
"Ben, he can deflect your grenades." Curie warned.
"I know." Ben replied, before launching the projectile directly at the man. Ben noticed him prepare to swat the grenade away, but could almost sense the fear in him once the Grenade detonated mere moments before hitting his staff. The resulting blast blew apart his aura and sent him flying backwards into a snowbank. "-but not if he never gets a chance to hit it."
"Good thinking." Curie affirmed.
The gunfire had stopped for now, but Ben stayed on alert. While the medics and Marines moved to tend to the wounded and secure the perimeter, Ben walked over and inspected the man he had just defeated. To his surprise, the man was still alive, albeit badly injured. At a closer glance, it seems that his armor only resembled the SDC armor, and was an entirely different set. He noticed Ben looming over him and gave him a glare that could be sensed even through the man's helmet.
"Go ahead, give me your best shot." The wounded Huntsman said with labored breathing.
Ben ignored him, instead opening a TEAMCOM channel to Fairfire. "Sir, the Huntsman class combatant has been immobilized, but is still alive, orders?"
"You don't need to use the radio." Fairfire's voice came from behind him, as she came to a stop next to him, staring at the Huntsman lying in the crimson-stained snow. "So, let's say we don't shoot you and we try to take you captive, how the hell do we even hold a guy like you?"
He pulled off his own helmet with a considerable amount of effort, revealing the blood-covered face of a pale Germanic man. "I... would say... that you have bigger problems... than the likes of me"
Fairfire knelt down on one knee and looked at the man in the eye through her visor. "Is that so? We beat you, what's to say we can't beat your buddies?"
Despite his gruesome injuries, he smirked, and even gave a chuckle. "It's... not them you need to worry about."
"Sir, you've got incoming! Lots of hostile contacts! We're coming to you!" Meadow's panicked voice suddenly emerged on TEAMCOM.
Ben suddenly gained a horrible, ominous gut feeling as he turned around, seeing the sillouette of a single vehicle speeding towards them in the distance. Behind them, it looked like the twilight sky behind them was moving in places.
"Ah hell." Fairfire grumbled, drawing her magnum and whacking the man on the head, sending him into a merciful unconsciousness. "Onyx, pop illumination round!"
The Arctic Warthog threw a single mortar shell into the air, moments later, a floating bulb of bright light revealed the massive swarm of Grimm pursuing them. The largest ones stole the focus, but the tiny silhouettes of smaller Grimm types were also barely visible.
Ben gave a thoughtful grumble. "I thought it would take them longer."
"I guess we'll have to accelerate our plans." Fairfire commented, switching the channel on her commlink, ready to deploy the next part of their strategy.