The Banshee had only been hanging in space for five minutes when their ride arrived: a Pelican dropship with the UNSC Pollux emblem engraved on its side. Caleb and Iona, who had been crouched on one of the wings patiently, floated off into the opening entrance at the back of the ship. The dropship door shut behind them and the ship's contragravity generator activated, bringing the two Spartans to the ground.
The pilot looked over her shoulder and nodded towards the two, the Spartans nodded back. Echo 218, Lieutenant Summers. She had been a part of Caleb and Iona's operations for years and was one of the most dependable pilots they could have ever wanted. Without a word, Summers returned to the controls and started to guide them away from the planet. That was probably one of the reasons they got along so well, Lieutenant Summers was well known for being mostly mute, only speaking unless she had to. As an appreciation gift, the Spartans had shown her a few of their forms of wordless communication. Summers held up 4 fingers from behind her chair and then slowly made a fist, they'd be back at the ship in four minutes.
The dropship soared back into the hangar of the UNSC Pollux, a large frigate that they called home. The dropship extended its landing gear as technicians ran up to it, scrambling with hoses and tools. The Spartans stood up and nodded to Summers before exiting the dropship to be greeted by another familiar face.
"Captain Agnello, sir," the two said in unison, saluting.
"At ease, it's good to see you two back," the Captain replied, "I'm guessing I don't need to ask how the mission went?"
"Off without a hitch sir," Caleb said, handing him the chip.
The captain smiled, "well done you two, but we're going to skip the debriefing for now. There's someone rather important who would like to talk to you. This way please," he said, walking away. The Spartans followed suit, tailing the Captain through the large cruiser. Caleb looked over as they passed a squad of ODSTs gearing up for a mission. They were talking to each other in low, gruff voices as they strapped on ammunition. From the looks of it the soldiers would be heading out soon, Caleb found himself wondering if they would be too.
They arrived at the bridge, and standing in the middle was a man, his arms folded behind his back as he gazed out intently into space.
"Admiral De Jager, sir, I'd like you to meet Spartans Caleb and Iona of team Sparklight," the Captain said. The Spartans saluted.
The man turned to face them. He was dressed in the standard Admiral's uniform, silver hemmed cloth that showed a brilliant white under the deck's lights. His face was angular and sharp like it had been carved straight out of stone. Iona looked into his eyes through her helmet and a piercing pair of amber orbs stared back, almost seeming to peer through her visor and into her spirit, judging it.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances in person, I have looked over your most recent mission log and I must say, I am very impressed." He spoke in a voice as hard as steel, and just as sharp. "You two no doubt possess excellent skill and ability, but what I have come to value the most from my experience in your operations is how effectively you two work together, which will serve us well in the mission I have for you."
"This mission will require extreme finesse and adaptability, as it is of the utmost importance that you make it to the target undetected. After that though, it will be almost impossible to go quiet, so ensure you have an escape route planned. Your mission will take you to the Covenant planet of Creshen. It is a planet near the Human-Covenant border, and very exposed. We have learned of an extremely important diplomatic figure who plans to visit this planet to meet with a circle of politicians to decide the fate of a minor uprising on the planet, his name is Iridas 'Become. This political figure has been discovered to hold extremely valuable information, and we need him alive. Your task will be to infiltrate the compound they are meeting in and bring him back to us, the finer details will be ironed out with your captain. Do you understand?"
"Yes Sir!" The Spartans answered in unison.
"Good. Dismissed."
"If I may sir," Iona asked, "What should we do with the remaining politicians?"
"If you get the chance, eliminate them, they aren't useful." He replied.
"Yes sir." She said.
--
Iona sat patiently in the seat of her drop pod, eyeing the readouts and turning the mission over in her mind, weighing strategies. She looked over and through the enameled glass she could see Caleb snapping attachments onto his rifle and cleaning it repeatedly. Iona had always thought it was interesting how dedicated he was to that rifle, she wondered if it somehow had any sentimental value to him. As if he knew he was being watched Caleb suddenly looked up at Iona. Iona lifted her hand and banged twice on the glass, Caleb banged once back. Over their radios, Captain Agnello's voice crackled to life.
"Remember, we're deploying teams of ODSTs to divert the Covenant's attention away from your dropzone, but we're not keeping them there forever. Just long enough to for you two to hide, so be quick about it." He reminded them. "Get ready you two, we're dropping in thirty seconds." Iona tightened her harness and did one last check of her equipment. Active camo unit, restrainers, some special grenades, and a few other assorted goodies, all prepped and ready for action. Satisfied, she looked up and braced herself for the free-fall.
"Dropping in five, four, three, two… Good luck out there you two." The pods detached from the ship and were taken by the planet's gravity, hurtling towards the ground below. As they broke the atmosphere, Iona took in the scenery around them. It was a rather stunning view, a beautiful green and tan environment sprawled out beneath them, spotted with brilliant blue lakes and shining buildings. She glanced down at the readouts again and watched the altitude monitor drop rapidly. Finally, they reached a low enough height and the drag-chute deployed, pod jerking violently before slowing down some. Soon after, the braking rockets deployed, and the pod finally slammed into the ground. The mission had begun.
Iona pressed on the releases and the pod hissed for a moment before ejecting the cover. She shouldered her gear and stepped out onto the solid ground, taking in her surroundings. The pod had landed in a plains-like area, short grass mixed with tan earth populating their immediate area. It wasn't ideal being out in the open like this, so they had to move fast. Iona looked around and found Caleb's pod not too far from hers, and she watched as the hatch opened and Caleb exited before he started walking over to her.
"We're exposed, we should get moving," Iona said to him. Caleb nodded and without another word the two set off towards the treeline in the distance, there was quite a bit of ground to cover.
--
An all too familiar silence. When the mission was in progress and the helmets were on, the only words that were spoken were the necessary ones. Still, Caleb found it odd how the two of them seemed to change ever so slightly when they had their helmets off. Or at least, when Iona did, since Caleb never took his off usually. Why? It was like it was a part of him that he couldn't shake. Caleb even hesitated to take it off out of a mission, sometimes he didn't at all. He justified this with the fact that, well, they were Spartans. To everyone around them, the helmets were their faces, they were just suits of armor with guns. So why was Iona so comfortable with taking hers off? For a Spartan, she was much more expressive than the rest of them.
Caleb's mind drifted back to training, on that cold night when he had met her. It had been a training exercise that he had failed miserably, and now he was to pay the price. He had accepted that, but then he met her. And suddenly things changed. Suddenly it was two kids making their way through their brutal training, together. With her, the harshness seemed to dissipate a little, and working together, the two had excelled. Caleb still remembered the day they passed their training. As a joke, the drill instructor had given them two halves of a medal and pinned it on the two of them. He had later offered them their actual medals but they had both declined. Caleb still treasured his half.
From that point on pretty much everything they did, consciously or subconsciously, was to compensate for the other's shortcomings, just like in training. Even their armor was chosen based on each other. Iona had chosen Recon and Caleb had chosen Scout, two set known to work well together. They were undoubtedly a great team, Caleb even thought he could call Iona a friend. And yet, they were still Spartans, tools of the military, bred to fight. So why did he feel so strange around her sometimes? Their relationship was clear, he knew almost all there was to know about her, worked great with her, and trusted her with his life. But was there anything more to it?
His thoughts were interrupted when they reached the treeline. The two began making their way through the small section of forest and soon arrived at the other end, overlooking the covenant city. Caleb shifted his thoughts back to the mission again, his trained mind automatically laser-focused.
--
They were still a good distance from the building they were targeting, and they had almost no cover between where they were and their objective. They had activated their camo units and begun making their way to the city, getting themselves ready as they went. After a short amount of time, the two reached the outskirts of the bustling metropolis. It had no obvious defenses, the covenant did not expect an attack on this seemingly pointless city. The two had decided previously that it would most likely be too time-consuming to make their way through the city streets avoiding every alien there was, so they had come up with a different plan.
Reaching down, both Spartans detached grappling hooks from their sides and loaded rope into them. They aimed towards the top of the nearest building and fired, the steel edge cutting into the Covenant metal and the barbed end holding onto it. Detaching the rope from the grappling gun and tying it around their wastes, the two began to climb steadily up the side. Caleb looked down about halfway up and noticed the considerable distance they would fall if the rope broke. Thankfully, the polypropylene rope was strong enough to hold the thousand-pound death machines attached to it. Not to mention that their armor was capable of surviving extreme falling distances and surviving.
A few minutes later they reached the top of the building, now the plan was simple: go from rooftop to rooftop until they reached their target. The city was bustling below them as they leaped from roof to roof as unnoticeably as they could. Thankfully, it was another uneventful trip. The plan was going pretty smooth so far Caleb thought to himself, but the hard part was still coming up. Soon enough they reached the building where the politicians were meeting. They located a roof access panel and removed it before lowering themselves into the building. Iona dropped in first, finding herself in a small maintenance closer looking room. Tools and random displays were littered around it, and it was empty. Caleb dropped in next to her and the two positioned themselves near the door before activating their camouflage units.
They exited the room and made their way through the dark, purple-lit hallways until they reached a door that matched the schematics they had been shown before the mission. This was where the meeting would be taking place. They glanced up at each other, before pressing themselves against the walls adjacent to the doorway. They couldn't just go in, a door opening and nobody walking through it would be much too suspicious, so they needed to wait for a guard or something to open it for them. Moments later, they got their wish. A Sangheili guard strolled down the hallway with another important-looking Elite following him. They entered the room and the Spartans slipped in behind them soundlessly. This was way too easy, Iona was thinking.
As the two Spartans entered the room an impressive sight met their eyes. A massive dark purple table surrounded by muttering Elites dressed in political clothing permeated the room. Dozens of honor guards lay at the outskirts of the room, wielding menacing energy staves that crackled with electricity. Suddenly one of the guards near the front of the room spoke and the room fell silent. It spoke in its native language, which was automatically translated by the Spartan's helmet software.
"All rise for the High Councilor!" It said, its voice echoing through the room. Everyone in the room rose to their feet as a single Elite entered through the opposite door. He was dressed from head to toe in gold and silver armor and wore an impressive-looking helmet. An energy sword was also clipped to his side, which the Elite rested his hand on as he strode into the room. Iona looked over at Caleb and signed to him, her movements being interpreted through the thermal tracking on their visors.
That's the target?
Yeah, that's him.
I thought De Jager said this guy was a politician?
He is, the Sangheili are a warrior culture, that's as political as it gets.
Caleb nodded, he supposed that made sense, but it was going to make this next part much more difficult. The Elites surrounding the room had sat down again and started talking, led by the High Councilor. Iona started signing again.
We have to take him now, once he leaves the room when the meeting's over he'll be back in his ship and gone too fast for us to grab him.
Security's tight here, you sure?
We'll be fine, just stick to the plan.
Iona gave a reassuring nod and palmed two of the smoke grenades she had brought. It was time to get started. Iona handed one smoke grenade to Caleb and removed the restraints from her belt. The Spartans split up and, careful to avoid the guards, they took up positions on opposite sides of the room. Iona blinked her signal light twice, Caleb did the same, and simultaneously the two tossed their smoke grenades right on top of the High Councilor.
The room exploded in chaos, guards tried to rush forward but were caught up in the smokescreen and blinded. Politicians not caught in the storm scrambled backward trying to figure out what was going on. The Spartans disabled their camouflage and sprinted straight into the pandemonium, activating the infrared setting on their visors again. Within seconds they located the dark red outline of the Councilor and dashed towards him, he had ignited his energy sword and stood still, waiting. He was blind but seemed to sense he was about to be attacked, which Iona realized and held up a hand signaling for them to stop. They approached the Councilor from the front and behind, preparing to knock the sword from his hands and then restrain him, but he reacted too quickly.
Suddenly the Councilor lashed out with his sword, slicing a clean arc towards Caleb. Caleb dodged to the left and kicked at the Councilor's exposed hand. It landed squarely on target and the shock sent the sword flying out of his reach. The Elite roared with rage and charged in Caleb's general direction, but stopped suddenly as a powerful electric current coursed through him. He toppled to the ground, and standing over him was Iona, electric restraints now firmly locked onto his wrists.
"Let's go! Smokescreen's clearing up soon!" Iona shouted over the noise. Iona yanked the Councilor up by the restraints and pushed him towards the exit, Caleb drew his magnum and covered her as they moved out of the room. Suddenly an alarm screeched throughout the building, their time was now very limited. Their goal was to get the Councilor up to the roof for extraction while the UNSC Pollux launched another attack to cover them. They pushed him through the halls towards the roof access as fast as they could, but the Elite made it as difficult for them as possible.
Suddenly out of a nearby doorway three Elite Honor Guards came crashing through and, locking eyes on the Spartans, lowered their staves and charged. Reacting quickly, Caleb grabbed the High Councilor and pressed his magnum firmly against his head. The guards stopped short and angrily allowed them to pass. Subtly, Iona dropped a timed charge on the ground as they passed them, and before the guards could get help or pursue, they were blown to pieces. Caleb and Iona finally reached the roof hatch and shoved the Councilor through it, pulling themselves back onto the roof.
"This is Spartans one-three-five and one-oh-five, we have acquired the target and require immediate extraction," Iona said into her commlink.
"We have you Sierra-135, target confirmed, we are deploying squads to your location now. Echo 218 is en route." A voice crackled over the radio.
"Understood, out," Iona replied.
The Spartans looked up and watched the spectacle unfold overheard. There was a space battle taking place overhead as the Pollux attempted to disable the orbital defenses while simultaneously dropping ODST pods and dropships. Within moments the friendly squads impacted the city, engaging enemy forces. Then suddenly there was Summers' Pelican, coming in to pick them up.
"Nice to see you," came a muted voice over the radio, "Dropping hatch in ten," Summers said. The Spartans prepared to board with their hostage, but before they could somebody yelled over the radio.
"Grounds teams be advised the Covenant have deployed a large unidentified payload to your location, we're tracking it now!" The Spartans looked up and sure enough, a large purple mass came crashing down into the city just behind a building. A feeling of dread began to creep through Iona, she had seen this before. The radio chatter was growing intense now. "Grounds teams report we do not have visual what's going on down there?" Suddenly a brilliant light accompanied by a high-pitched mechanical screeching came from behind the building.
"Scarab! I repeat Scarab inbound! Everyone get to cover-" Somebody yelled over the radio before the sound of an explosion cut them off. The Scarab came crashing through a building and its massive forward gun turned towards Summer's Pelican.
"Echo-218 take evasive action!" Caleb yelled, but it was too late. A bright green stream of plasma shot out from the Scarab and slammed into the Pelican, sending it spiraling out of control.
A calm voice replied over the radio, "This is Echo-218 I've lost control of my Pelican, I advise you to move to the secondary extraction point as I can no longer assist you, good luck you two." was all that she said before her Pelican crashed into the side of a Covenant building, exploding and sending debris falling towards the streets.
"We need to move!" Iona shouted and grabbed their Elite hostage, hoisting it over her head and leaping over the side of the building, the Elite screaming as they fell. Caleb followed suit, knowing their armor would absorb the fall, and all they had to do was keep the Elite from taking the hit. As they fell they watched as the Scarab annihilated everything around it. The ODST and Marine squads did their best to fend it off, but it looked like they were losing.
The Spartans impacted the ground, leaving two massive craters where they landed. Immediately they picked themselves up and, with the Elite in tow, charged towards the outskirts of the city. The secondary extraction point had been designated at a clearing in the forest in case they couldn't get to the Spartans in the city, so that's where they were heading now. The Scarab turned suddenly, locking onto the Spartans.
"We need air support now!" Came a voice from over the radio.
"Roger ground team, we have shortswords en route to your location."
Suddenly two bombers came screaming across the sky, dropping their payload directly onto the Scarab, severely damaging it and causing it to turn its attention away from the duo. The Spartans continued to sprint across the open field towards the forest as explosions lit up the city behind them. Caleb looked up and noticed dozens of purple streaks falling towards them.
"Iona! Covie drop pods!" Caleb shouted. Iona looked up just as the pods impacted the ground. Elites and grunts came charging out towards the Spartans, unleashing a hailstorm of plasma, momentarily disregarding their hostage. The two dived behind a pod that had dropped near them and took cover behind it, shoving their captive to the ground. The Elite that had been inside the pod rounded the corner and raised its rifle, but before it could fire Caleb was on him. The Spartan took his legs out from under him with one sweep and then leaped onto him, cleanly slitting its throat. Iona was busy on the other side of the pod attempting to fend off the rest of them with an assault rifle. Caleb removed his Sniper Rifle and downed alien after alien, but the hoard kept coming.
"Team Sparklight be advised we are sending another pelican to the secondary extraction zone but the LZ is too hot, we can't stay for long so be there when we get there" Came the voice of Captain Agnello from over the radio.
"Yes sir!" Caleb replied. "Iona, we have to make a push!" He said to her. She nodded and grabbed the High Councilor, holding her rifle to his throat. They moved out from the pod and the Elites, noticing the Councilor, held their fire, unsure of what to do. They moved carefully through the drop pods as to not expose their backs to the Elites, Iona keeping the gun pressed to his head.
Then the High Councilor looked up and yelled something in Sangheili. Their suits took a moment to process what he said before suddenly the Elites fired at them again, with them caught out in the middle. He had ordered them to ignore him and open fire. Caleb had been in front of the other two and most of the plasma fire struck him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
Iona prepared to fire back, but before she could the pods in front of them all exploded as a shortsword screamed overhead.
"Get to the LZ!" A voice came from the radio. Iona looked around, the pods and Elites were dead and destroyed, but more pods would be dropping soon. Caleb was on the ground, silent. Iona crouched down and shook him, but he wouldn't respond. Iona checked his vitals readout on her visor and relief washed over her as she saw they were still online. He was unconscious. Iona attempted to pick up the hostage and Caleb, but she was moving too slow, and with a shock, she realized she couldn't carry both of them.
"Iona what are you doing? Get to the LZ you are clear!" Came a different voice this time, she realized it was Admiral De Jager. Iona snapped out of her shock and her training took over. She moved towards the treelike with the hostage, leaving Caleb. To suppress panic, she had been taught to empty her mind and just push forward, as the only other option was death. She reached the treeline with the hostage and set him down, turning back. The next wave of drop pods had impacted, and they were moving to inspect the area.
--
What the hell was I doing? A pain was rising in me that reminded me of the plasma cannon shot I had taken to the chest years ago. When I had taken that shot, Caleb had gotten me to the Pelican, carrying me on his back. And here I was, leaving him to die. The memory was burning in my mind among others, all of them focused on him. I couldn't understand why I was so torn, Caleb was a good soldier and a great friend, but we both knew to put the mission first. It was always the mission.
I couldn't go back for him, I'd be putting the mission in danger and going against all the odds just to get him back. It was selfish, I couldn't jeopardize the things like that. Memories of Caleb singing floated into my mind, his voice always calming and secure, all the way we back to when we were kids in training. An Elite that was looking around the area found Caleb's body, and gestured towards him to its other comrades, laughing. He was laughing at him. Iona's armored hand formed a fist. The alien looked down at Caleb and in front of his Elite buddies, tore off Caleb's helmet and kicked him in the throat.
Oh, motherFUCKER.
"Iona, what the hell are you doing?"
I ignored him. I was already sprinting at top speed towards Caleb, my assault rifle ready. I had left the Elite hostage at the extraction zone, the mission was technically done. I couldn't let Caleb go, I didn't know why. I didn't care.
"Iona get out of there! We can't lose two Spartans today!" The Admiral shouted.
"You won't," I said, turning off my radio. The Elites turned and saw me, immediately firing with their rifles and carbines. I returned fire, rolling behind a drop pod. I had no grenades, no backup, and one rifle with 2 clips left. Not bad odds. An Elite dashed around the corner with an energy sword and lunged towards me. I grabbed his arm and twisted it, before slamming my elbow down onto it. I heard alien bones crack as it roared in pain. I grabbed its energy sword out of its hands and took off its head with it. I clipped it to my side and then grabbed its plasma rifle, wielding it alongside my rifle. Now for the rest of them.
Rounding the corner I opened fire with a combination of kinetic and plasma rounds, tearing holes into the nearest Elite. The next one ran up behind me, only to find an energy sword in its chest. I moved like a demon, fully embracing the cold fury of battle. Before I knew it, the only thing I was surrounded by was corpses.
I dropped my rifles and sprinted over to Caleb. Scorch marks and holes had all but destroyed his chest plate, and his throat looked a lot worse for wear. He was struggling to breath, and I didn't know how to deal with internal damage. I put his helmet back on and lifted him onto my shoulders running as carefully as I could back to the LZ, where the pelican was just starting to arrive. I looked up, the alien sun was setting on the horizon. Purples and red oranges streaked across the sky, reflecting off the blue and red blood on the battlefield. For the first time, I understood what it truly felt like to be vulnerable.