Maddie stood in the drop bay, practicing her breathing exercises. They were a great help to her when she'd begun to feel the effects of Skopje all those years ago, but now they served to keep her calm. Her short relationship with Jade had taught Maddie that there was more to life than running around after ancient treasures, and it struck the young woman just how large a role her sense of duty was playing in her actions.
Someone has to find it. In this case, I have to find it. When this is over though, what then?
She didn't mind devoting her life to the cause, she didn't mind waiting for her ideal life to come to her. For Maddie, in that moment, as she stood in the drop bay of the UNSC Ides of March, she realised with a brand-new clarity, that she needed to push forward and let her experiences help her discover what it was that she truly wanted. So, with that seemingly settled, she brought her attention back to the now and focused on the mission.
Answers. Finally.
Grayson and Duggan, her new fireteam, Viper 2 and 3 respectively, looked resplendent in their black ONI ODST armour. Baker and Braeburn, Wolf 2 and 3 stood with us as well, chatting nonchalantly with my fireteam as Katya and Drake completed the final checks on the pods and equipment we would need. Surprisingly, there wasn't much to bring, they would be travelling lightly, landing as close to the ICARUS bunker as it was possible. Maddie eyed the holotable, which showed a detail-stripped version of Operation: Siren in real time. It was majestic, like the cavalry charges of old Earth, the UNSC steamed over the open Steppe and seemed to take the Covenant by total surprise. Parts of their line seemed to charge out to meet them, whole sections of their lines abandoned their posts and rallied in a glorious massacre at the hands of the overwhelming UNSC air support.
"Hard to imagine such an advanced society could be so…" Braeburn searched for the words.
"Stupid?" Duggan offered, "There must be some sort of strategy to it."
Maddie shook her head, "the only reasons those idiots are wiping the floor with us is their naval technology. A.I wargaming UNSC manned covenant ships versus their own fleets has us coming out on top at a staggering rate." Maddie remembered the disunity of the covenant on Skopje, the internal politics, the barbarity of their society. It was insulting that they could believe they were better than humans.
The others remained quiet as zero hour neared. It was a tough mission, and they were doubtful in their success, the familiar pre-battle quiet hung in the air and Maddie was experienced enough to know that this wasn't a drop in morale but time for her men to think of their families. She smiled, as Braeburn eyed Katya before noticing that she was looking at him.
"Hey, can I say something?" he asked, reddening just slightly.
"Always, Sergeant."
"I mean as a friend"
"Oh, sure, what's up?"
"I wanted to thank you. You know, for trying to smooth things over with Katya, since you both spoke, she's been different." he noticed Maddie arch a brow, "In a good way, don't worry. She's more relaxed, like a weight's been lifted from her shoulders. I don't know what was said… I don't think she's ready to share that with me just yet but… she needed it, whatever it was."
"We both needed it. I've had a lot of time to think and there's so much that I've gotten wrong." Maddie swallowed, "Am I really cut out for this?"
"You don't lack for skill, Kid" Jack replied, gripping her shoulder with a sigh. "As for the rest of it, that's on you. For what it's worth, I think you've been pushed into something that you were never meant to be a part of."
"War tends to do that to you." Maddie replied, a glib and errant sigh escaping her lips with a sharp bout of force. Braeburn went to speak before straightening, his eyes widening before snapping quickly into a salute. Maddie turned and reflexively did the same. "Oh, Commander, Sir. Shouldn't you be on the bridge?"
"I should," he said, smiling, "at ease." Maddie relaxed and Braeburn took Sterling's fixed gaze on Maddie as a sign to leave and grab her gear for her. As they were left alone, a sheepish look spread across the man's face, his eyes glittering in the dark light of the drop bay. "Yet here I am, fraternising."
Maddie blinked, "Sir-"
He held up a hand, "Look, Maddie, I just wanted to say that losing Petr was hard on me, I've spent the last few weeks thinking a lot about what I have and what I don't. I think, what I'm trying to say is," he fumbled the words but he stood so close that Maddie could smell the clean hint of aftershave on his neck, which despite even her elevated height, seemed to leer over her. "The truth is that if we both survive the next few days; I'd like a shot at us. If that's something you would be interested in."
Maddie opened her mouth but no words came out, only a tingling heat in her cheeks seemed to convey anything from her as she looked up at him. Sterling smiled, noting the dumbfounded look on her face, "Looks like I've finally found a way to shut you up" he chuckled with a little wince that betrayed his nervousness. A red light bathed the bays in a warm and bloody glow, snapping Maddie from her trance as George stepped away. "Don't give me an answer just yet, it might not matter." he said, saluting, and turning quickly in place. Maddie blinked again and shook her head.
Not matter? How could a feeling like this not matter? Maddie wondered as her heart slammed itself in a painful yearning for closeness that she hadn't felt in a long time. Jack handed her a shotgun and she slung it over her back, before holstering an ODST pistol and cocking a silenced SMG. All the while, she thought about George and the risk he'd taken making his interest known. Truthfully, Maddie hadn't considered him in that way. She'd recognised him as a tall, handsome and dashing commander, but her occupation seemed to tell her that it was not something she was going to be able to have with him. As Drake ran down the mission quickly, and Maddie did her last checks, she felt an old determination return to her. Once, she had felt it following Drake around on Skopje. Now, she felt it when she thought of a future after the war. George might not be that future, but even if he wasn't, Maddie was determined to live and find out.
She sat in her pod, calmness and focus washing over her as Drake ran down the line, making sure everything was prepped. He stopped and glanced at her and Maddie gave him a thumbs up. He seemed to linger for a moment, staring at her for a second before continuing on to his pod and letting the lid slide shut.
"Okay, team, listen up, we'll hit the bunker and rally at the entrance, our landing zone is hot, expect combat from the moment we make Terra Firma." Drake said, as the bay doors ground open.
"Split-jaws won't see us coming!" Duggan chimed.
"They might hear you, though" Grayson groaned.
"Viper 2, Viper 3, kill the chatter."
"Aye, Sir" they replied in unison.
"I will hold the entrance with Wolf while Viper infiltrates the bunker, the force shouldn't be too difficult to overwhelm but they will send reinforcements, so let's be quick. Got that?"
"Hoo-ah!" came the replies.
The pods turned as the Ides moved into position, listing slightly to get the best possible angle for the pods to enter the atmosphere from. "Pods will clear in five… four… three… two… one…"
Maddie held her breath.
The light turned green.
She plunged into space.
Deploying via SOEIV remained as exhilarating as ever, and Maddie found herself gawking at the scene around her. For a short while, she could see the massive space engagement going on in the background as her Grandfather pinned the covenant back, giving the seventh fleet the room, it needed to deploy Drake's team and maintain total air superiority over the battle zone. Soon however, it was out of sight and the beauty of the half-glassed planet of Meridian, shadowed by Hestia V, became the focal point of her awe. She tried desperately to think of a poem or something beautiful to say about the place, but all that did was remind her of Maggie.
Maddie shook that thought from her head and focused on the sensation around her. The atmosphere burned like magnesium on the edge of the glass, erupting brightly around her as she plunged into the dulling skies of Meridian; the sun dipped for the evening. She could see the first hints of battle, the fires, little motes of light, which littered the open steppe and the approach to the plateau.
"Course correction… now." Drake said, as Viper split from Drake and Wolf with the SOEIV, "Good split, see you all groundside."
The pod began to rumble and jolt as the sheer scale of Mt. Sundial came into view. It loomed over the plains like a King observing his armies and pretty soon that might be more literal than Maddie would have liked. The UNSC charge looked costly, but it had worked. The covenant was fully on the retreat, only the line in front of her objective seemed to hold as the rest of the Covenant were skewered by hogs, mongooses, and scorpions or decimated in the open by air support after charging out to meet the human horde.
"Thirty seconds to landfall." she relayed to her team over the comm. She wished she had Walsingham to talk to but she was gone. It was just her now. She was ready, and prepared for a clean landing as the ground shot into view. Only now did the covenant think to look up, however, and AA fire streaked across the sky. It was too late, while they might have hit Denning and the rest of the ODST not on this mission, she and Drake's gamble had paid off.
Home 'safe'.
The ground rushed towards her and she slammed into the soft mud of the plateau. A grunt yelped from the other side of the glass as Maddie hit the release and ejected the door into it, splitting its head open with a great force as she burst out of the pod and watched Duggan and Grayson slam into the ground nearby, throwing themselves eagerly from the pod and forming up with her as she moved to a rock. An Elite in front of them tried to fire back but Maddie popped up from cover and gunned him with a steady spray of bullets, which at such short range meant an accurate and quick barrage of lead death. A grunt made a run for it but Grayson clipped it in the ankles before putting a quick burst into its skull before it could even yelp.
"Okay, looks like we're right where we're supposed to be. Everyone ready?" she asked over teamcom. Two lights winked, 'affirmative' on her HUD and she nodded, giving them the signal to move out. The bunker was situated in the centre of the plateau, in a nature reserve. There were only AA turrets here and patrols to keep them firing, which made manoeuvring much easier. They passed through a visitor's centre and headed east towards the looming Mount Sundial, Maddie led them from the front, checking the sightlines and listening for sounds as they neared the objective.
"It's up there" Maddie motioned to a small rise, where an AA battery pumped green blasts of plasma into the sky.
"Up there? What do I do with this?" Duggan asked, shaking the sniper rifle he carried.
Maddie looked back at the visitors centre and then at a large sturdy tree growing beside it.
"No. Come on, no." he whined.
"We need overwatch" Grayson said, "and there's plenty of branches to get a view from"
Grayson took a knee and covered Maddie as she and Duggan moved to the back of the building, where she boosted him up and waited.
"Good view?" Maddie asked, re-joining Grayson at the bottom of the rise.
"Oh, yeah, Mate, swell. It's almost as if there's no cover to keep me hidden, either." he whined.
"Excellent, now paint targets to our HUD and stop whining, or I'll point you out to them myself."
Duggan winked affirmative and Maddie set off up the slope, crawling on her belly up to the top of the hill. Duggan relayed the specifics. There was an emplacement just ahead of them but it was only manned by two grunts, who lazed about, bickering about whether it was good to be left out of the fighting. There were two AA wraiths, and a more heavily armoured position on the far side, engaging the enemy assaulting their position.
Maddie crouched by the barricades, with Grayson on the far side, Duggan highlighted their position and they slowly rose, like two coiled snakes, before sliding into the position and aiming for their heads as they stood watching their brothers fight. Maddie felt the weight of the pistol in her hand as she and Grayson pulled the triggers and felled the two grunts with silent precision.
"Good job, Ma'am" Duggan whispered.
"I'll take the plasma turret and cover you," Maddie whispered to Grayson, who holstered his weapon and drew explosives from his pack.
"What's the play, Ma'am."
"C4 the first one, sneak back, use your designator on the second." Grayson nodded and slipped out into the open, running at a crouch towards the nearest AA turret as Maddie relayed the fire mission to their air support. Grayson had a brief moment of terror as the wraith turned abruptly, but followed its movement as it repositioned, before attaching the explosives to the back of the wraith. Then, he took out his designator and painted the other wraith.
It shifted. The Grunt in the turret squawked. "Grayson, you're made, get back here!" Maddie hissed.
"Almost…"
"Ma'am I have a shot on the Grunt"
"Take it!"
A ping rang out and the grunt garbled, blue blood and methane flying everywhere. Both vehicles turned and Grayson began to sprint for Maddie. She yanked the turret towards the nearest wraith as it began to turn; she let loose a volley, peppering its gunner with the hot plasma.
"Grayson, blow it, now!"
She watched him click his detonator and the closest AA gun got one shot off, making Maddie duck as it streaked passed her. The rest of the shots never materialised, the wraith exploded into a green fireball, forcing the other to pull back, repositioning itself to where it had a clean shot on Maddie, who was already scrambling away as two broadswords swooped in and dropped two massive bombs on top of it.
That was close!
Maddie sat up, expecting the other encampment to fire on her, but as she poked her head above the barricade, she saw that they were still engaging the enemy advancing up the hill. They were also in a greatly reduced number.
"Viper, weapons free." she said, grimly.
The encampment fell silent within moments, Duggan popped the cap of an Elite, whilst I suppressed the remaining Jackals, allowing the familiar figures to pop up from behind and finish them off. As Maddie signalled for Duggan to come down and join them, Katya and Drake jogged over.
"Bad news" Katya said, depolarising her helmet, "Covenant forces are moving to this location to mount a delaying action and give the rest of their army time to rally at Sundial."
"Jesus, how many?"
"More than Wolf can handle alone" Drake said, "It's just you and me heading inside, Viper 2 and 3 will stay here, we're pulling every bit of support we can muster." he knelt down and deployed a small device, setting it up with a small screen on its side.
"Holding this location will almost definitely guarantee victory if we can hold it and the ground forces can capitalise." Katya said, "just don't take too long in there. We're going to need every gun we can get."
Maddie nodded and the grass opened up not far from them, Drake looked up at Maddie and nodded. "Ready?" he asked.
Maddie left Duggan her SMG and cocked the shotgun in affirmation, before following Drake down into the bunker. The halls were familiar, and reminded Maddie of the halls of Chalybs' other secret project on Meridian: Elysium. The walls were white, bright, and untouched. A hint of alcoholic hand sanitiser wafted about Maddie's nose as she and Drake walked along the long corridor, passing the ominous looking large black turrets in the corners of the ceiling between each intersection. At the first, Maddie and Drake glanced at each other, and watched as an arrow blinked on. Drake nodded and Maddie took point, their steps echoing off the walls as they headed towards their goal.
"It's quiet." Maddie whispered, muting her helmet and using TeamSpeak just in case.
"I'm not gonna say it, lass" he whispered back, wryly.
Maddie smiled to herself as they followed the path, checking their corners, finding no one.
"Ah, the agents who stole from my vault on Skopje. It's fitting that you're here, at the end."
The voice was familiar to Maddie, who had spoken with Dima Nazari on Skopje as they had tried to fulfil Drake's mission. Skopje had almost ruined the company, with Nazari's very public failings pointed out to the wider human public. Stocks fell, jobs were lost, and the UNSC had no choice to bail them out. Losing your main tank supplier in the middle of a war was unacceptable. Such was the way of things at the height of a genocide. Still, Maddie felt glad that she would finally put this all to rest.
"Hurry now, we have no quarrel. In fact, time is of the essence, and you are our only hope."
Drake broke into a jog and Maddie followed. Very soon, they came to a large metal door that was already half swinging open. Drake checked his lines and nodded, Maddie entered first with her shotgun, with Drake close behind as the door swung open at a snail's pace behind them. Maddie's eyes went wide.
This isn't right. This can't be it? Where is everything?
It was a control room, security camera feeds, tended to by Dima's wife showed the rest of their team battling a horde of covenant. Maddie looked down at the woman, who wheezed in her chair.
Blood.
Maddie looked around, spotting the dead staff on the floor and the gun in Dima's hand.
"No, no, don't shoot, it was necessary, the secret! It's the secret you see!" his weapon clattered to the ground, "We learned many things, ancient secrets, terrible secrets! There was an enemy feared by the forerunners, and a sample was buried here, on this planet!"
"Secret? You mean Bornstellar's gift?" Maddie asked, tilting her head.
"Gift? No. No, not a gift, a curse. Whatever is buried in the mountain, Agent Harper, the Forerunners hated it."
Maddie looked around, taking a data chip from her helmet and plugging it into the port on the central computer with the help of Mr. Nazari. "Your wife is dying, Nazari." She said, cautiously.
"Too late for her, but we knew the risks. We had the resources, the time… to save us, to warn us!"
Maddie looked quizzically at the man's erratic behaviour and then at the security feed, watching as a horde of grunts swarmed up the slope towards Baker, who battled valiantly, staying put as the UNSC air force rained fire down on top of him.
"Sir, they're not going to hold the position, we might already be overrun." She said dryly, realising that she had been very wrong about how close this was to being over.
"What is this, 'sample' did you say? Is it a weapon?" Drake asked, nodding to Maddie
"We still aren't sure, Agent Drake, you need to get to Mount Sundial, site Beta-5."
Beta-5? That's ONI nomenclature.
Maddie looked at Drake, who shot an equally concerned look back in her direction. "Christ." Maddie gasped as she saw Baker shot clean through the head with a fuel rod cannon. "Oh, Christ!" she exclaimed, as another monitor showed Erun and Ketarus stalking down the halls. "Sir, it's them. We need to move, now."
Drake looked about, "Close the door!"
Nazari shook his head, "I can't, no time, we will distract them, you can get out-" his words were cut short from a bolt of blue plasma that erupted from the hallway and the man screamed out in pain. His wife whimpered, clinging to life with only the barest of threads, seeming shot by her own staff as she and her husband had cleaned house. Maddie tried to think, but her mind wouldn't let her.
Think later. Survive now!
She burst into action, flipping a table for Drake, who suppressed the corridor. Growls could be heard outside as Maddie darted for the chip.
DATA TRANSFER AT 87%
"We have to fight them!"
"How many?" Drake growled.
"Two, a brute and an elite."
"I'll take the Brute."
"We can stall them, cover me"
"Harper! What are you doing?" Drake hissed as she stepped into the open.
"Erun!" Maddie yelled, into the corridor, holstering her shotgun, "Erun, come out, I know it's you!"
The Elite stepped into a room with a thud and drew his blade.
"You… live."
"It's time to settle this," Maddie growled, her sharp canines bared, ready to strike, "You cheated last time. There are no orbital bombardments that can save you this time."
"You speak the words of a warrior, yet carry yourself with the honour of Grunt-chum" he spat, igniting his blade.
Maddie circled, watching Drake square off against the Brute. Erun lunged and Maddie spun inwards, igniting her wrist blade and slashing at Erun's stomach. He growled out in pain yelping as he staggered backwards, steam seemed to erupt from his nose and he resumed his attack. Maddie parried and dodged, ducked, and wove through the onslaught of attacks, keeping close, neutering his reach advantage and drawing blood each time she spun away and into a retreat. Erun seethed.
"You are strong, human. It is… impressive" he admitted, with a nod of his head, "It has been a worthy fight."
"Is that respect, I hear?" Maddie asked, waiting for the chip to click out of the computer.
Erun didn't answer, instead, he thrust forward again, Maddie saw the opportunity and swung her axe upwards. Erun twisted, his body like water, flowed around her strike, pushing at her opposite lung instead. The girl fell backwards into a roll but the slit along her arm scream with an icy burn.
Maddie got to her feet and watch Drake in the background. Ketarus brought his gravity hammer down and clanged it into the floor, Drake sliced at his wrists and pushed him back, trying to grab the hammer and hit him with it. It was too heavy. With a roar, Ketarus grabbed him and roared.
"I tire of these games!" he threw Drake into me, and sent me clattering into the floor. The chip clicked and the brute grinned, striding over to it with hungry eyes. Erun watched him, before another click was heard and the turrets began to shoot everyone in sight. Drake pulled Maddie under a table and Erun drew a plasma rifle, spattering the turrets with fire and blowing them up sequentially with pin point accuracy. "Come, Erun, there is no need to stay, their army will be upon us at any moment."
Maddie glanced at Mrs Nazari who finally slumped over dead in her chair and sat up, "Drake, the data…"
"Let's go, they can't be far."
They followed, running so quickly that Maddie's limbs burned hotter than the slice along her forearm. They vaulted debris and charged towards the sound of battle. The emergency generators had kicked in, bathing the now dark corridors with a red hue. Only the path to the exit was now lit, which meant that any hope Maddie had of reaching the exit first was now lost.
Someone be there. Please someone be alive when we reach them!
She hoped Kat was still there, Jack too, not just for her own sake but also Katya's, if she lived. She mentally added Baker to the list of names she had to remember. A man she'd met only briefly, but who had worked with her despite all that she had represented. Duggan, too, he was such a cheerful man, so full of life. Moonlight leaked into the end of the corridor as the bunker ended and the chaos of battle seeped into her ears.
"Oh-" An explosion rocked the bunker from outside. "CAS is close!"
Drake didn't reply, as they ran through the doors, they could see why. Drake ducked, Firing a volley at the covenant. Maddie heard warthogs roaring around the open hatch but they never registered. She knelt beside the two bodies in the hatch.
Grayson too…
Maddie swallowed and turned. "Jack! Are you alright?"
"Hey, Kid" he smiled, blood pooling at his lip, "I'm stable, I think, it's not a bad wound."
Maddie didn't have to be a doctor to know that it wasn't.
Shit!
"Katya?!" she yelled into her mic, "Wolf, do you read? Viper three, you out there?"
"We're here! The cavalry arrived just in time!" he paused, "they got away though, unless you have what we need. You do have it, right Ma'am?"
Maddie replied: "Negative" in one of the most defeated voices she'd ever caught herself saying. She stood, rising out of the hatch, and watching as the UNSC swept over the position like a wave. She walked to the far side of the hill, noting the revenant and ghost pair escaping across the plains.
Behind her, she heard Drake calling Sterling for a Pelican flight. "What, why?" Katya asked, "I thought we lost the chip."
"I don't know what he's up to. Probably pulling us out." Maddie replied, pulling off her helmet. The breeze smelled of char and blood. Fire raged on the left flank where the grass must have been driest, consuming all who couldn't escape it. The air was warm, like the heat of plasma as is streaked by your face. Maddie slumped down onto her bum and looked out., watching as the fires of war consumed the beautiful Steppe.
I made this happen. None of these men had to be here. This whole operation rested on the data in that chip and now…
We have nothing.
Tears welled in her eyes and Al-Shiran's voice confirmed Drake's orders to move. Watching hell take living form around her, Maddie drew her legs up to her chest, chewing on her lip as the wind picked up, warped and frenzied by the fires that readily approached. In the distance, vehicles of all stripes refuelled for the assault on Sundial but Maddie didn't care. She wanted to go home. She wanted Eliza safe and her brothers back. This all reminded her too much of that little tree she'd spent her youth sitting under. She remembered how it looked when her little valley was consumed by war. Behind her was Solar Fields, did a child sit in this spot, too? Was there a little girl, now a refugee, who's best dreams were the memories of this place? Was she never to be inspired by the sight of the mountain ever again?
Maddie gulped.
Was she even alive?
Maddie couldn't help it then; the feelings were too much. She lowered her head onto her knees and, knowing that Katya still stood barely three feet from her, she let herself bawl.
Hello, again!
It's been a while since I've given an update, but we are now in the home stretch for this story!
Don't worry, however, Maddie's journey has one final story in it before we hit the end of the war and it shall certainly be the logical and emotional climax of the character. She's become quite a lot of fun for me to write, and I want to say that much of the reason that this has even continued is thanks to all the kind words of support I have garnered from you all. Your passion for Halo mirrors my own and it makes me happy to know that the community is every bit the wonderful place it was ten years ago when I was playing it non-stop after school.
Once again, I am excited for what comes next and can't wait to read your thought's in my DM's.
Now, enough from me, you have a mystery to finally unravel.
Stay safe!