The choppers 'whumped' their way lazily towards the Visegrad Relay, the dampness of the morning began to wane in the light of the determined summer sun. It was a quiet scene, one that seemed to evoke memories of Maggie's old poems in the eye of my mind. A sparrow flew beside the Falcon I was sitting in, its wings beating gracefully as it tried to keep up its doomed pursuit of the vehicle.
"So, Ms. Naval Intelligence, what are you really here for?" Carter asked, as direct as his reputation suggested. "You know something we don't?"
I was pulled from my obsession with the little bird, "No. I worked with Noble Six on his last mission but my business here is… flexible. I'm looking for things that aren't where they should be, Commander." He seemed dissatisfied with my answer but I didn't really care. It wasn't the full truth and we both knew it, I simply couldn't be bothered to spend any time making it seem plausible to a boy who was raised by ONI.
Carter put a finger to his ear, "Listen up, Noble Team. We're looking at a downed relay outpost, fifty klicks from Visegrad. We're going to introduce ourselves to whoever took it out, then Kat's going to get it back online."
"Just get me under the hood, Commander." Cat replied, her arrogance clear over the radio.
"Sir, why would rebels want to cut off Reach from the rest of the colonies?" Jorge asked, his voice had spent too long devoid of emotion to betray worry but the question was telling.
Carter looked at me, his visor polarised and his eyes hidden, "You get a chance, maybe you can ask them, Jorge."
We continued to fly for a bit, rising higher and higher into the sky towards a ridgeline that ran along the face of the cliff. We swung over it, less gracefully than the sparrow we'd left far behind us and up towards the outpost atop a nearby cliff.
"Commander, we just lost our signal to HQ." Cat noted, suddenly.
"Backup channels?"
"Searching...nada. Can't say what's jamming us."
Next to me, Jun shifted and cocked his rifle. I looked down at the pistol strapped to my thigh and un-holstered it, sliding the barrel back and flicking off the safety. Carter had switched on, his body seemingly filling the interior of the Falcon.
"You heard her." he said, "Dead zone confirmed. Command will not be keeping us company this trip."
"I'm lonely already." Emile said, sardonically.
"I'll keep you company if you misbehave" I said, reminding him I was present.
Emile huffed, it was a gruff half-laugh but it was respectful given the SPARTANs reputation. Maddie watched him while the second falcon swooped by on an overlapping manoeuvre, Emile was a menacing presence, he no doubt was staring back at her from beneath the skull he'd scratched into the face plate. I wondered if he'd have been as scary had he not been recruited as an orphaned eight-year old. The SPARTAN IIs were bad enough, but ONIs own spin, the SPARTAN IIIs, were designed to be disposable. Special teams like Noble did exist but the vast majority of the Alpha and Beta companies were massacred in single operations. Maddie shook her head, only ONI could take the heinous ideas of Catherine Halsey and make them worse somehow. The Falcons banked to the left and hovered over the outpost, skirting the perimeter and away from the windows in case they hid any rockets. I glanced about, scanning the structure as our Falcon circled it like a vulture.
"Shoot down attempts are likely, so keep your distance." Carter said to the pilot, who brought the craft lower towards the ground.
"Yes, sir!" he replied, pulling back on the stick away from the outpost and towards the open ground just above it.
"Let's stay focused. Watch your sectors." Carter added, glancing at me pointedly. I felt a little like the sixteen year old again, the tag-along child to be nannied by the big scary SPARTAN. I wanted to make a point of it but the rest of the outpost came into view, the second falcon peeled away, taking a higher route around the complex as we craned our necks for a better look."There's the communications outpost." he said, looking about for movement.
"Reading a distress beacon." Cat said, sending a Ping to everyone's HUD. Maddie could tell that despite not having her armour, Bee's head snapped to a location and Maddie traced his gaze to a small smouldering wreck in the courtyard.
"Could be the missing troopers. Let's check it out." Carter said, looking about for a place to land, "Put us down on the bluff.Jun, I want your eyes in the sky."
"Sir." The Sniper replied, putting the rifle stock to his shoulder.
The Falcons landed side by side, and Carter jumped out. "Let's go, six." he said. I followed Carter, as Emile and Kat sprang from the other chopper, leaving Jun and Jorge in the Falcon to provide air support. "Alright, Noble Team. Spread out. Watch the approach."
"Distress beacon is coming from just south of here, commander, we're close." Cat noted, gesturing to the smoked coming from further down the hill.
"Roger that, eyes peeled."
Six and I followed the rest of Noble team down the hill. Dewy grass stuck to my boots like dust as I struggled to keep pace with the SPARTANs. The threes were an odd bunch, what little I knew of them made for grim reading. Cat was literally the same age as me, pushed into service by some Spook with methods only slightly less evil than Halsey herself.
About halfway down, Jun's voice echoed over the radio.
"Structure point 3-4, looks clear from this angle." he said, scanning the buildings near the source of the smoke.
The rest of us reached the source, it seemed to be the remains of a Chain-hog, burned out to a crisp and left to rot in the mildew. My eyes instantly jumped about to the sorts of locations that might have hidden the perpetrator. The small building looked abandoned, the trees were too sparse… there was always the chance they'd hidden in the cliffs but we would have seen them were that the case.
"Found the beacon." Emile said, tossing a pallet aside as though it was some kind of binder and not a sixty kilo wooden weight. He threw the beacon to Cat who began to scan it.
"Make out any ID?" Carter asked, scanning the building I had taken an interest in.
"Negative, but it's military." she replied, ditching the beacon.
"So where are all the troopers?" Jorge asked, a little agitated.
"Why are we not seeing explosives residue?" Cat asked, circling the wreck.
"Noble Three, can you confirm any 'ex' residue in the area?" Carter said, a hand on his earpiece.
"Hmmm, negative sir."
"Plasma, maybe." Emile noted, looking at me.
I nodded, having seen enough of the stuff to last a lifetime. Reach was far too important, and the militia here too controlled, for them to realistically take a relay offline.
"Can't be. Not on Reach." Jorge shot back.
"There's a lot of blood on the ground." Emile replied, shrugging.
Carter glanced at the floor for a moment, then looked to Emile and myself. "All right, Noble," he said, "looks like there's nothing here. Let's move on."
We headed around the side of the building until we came to a cliffside path. A growing unease was building in my stomach, acutely sticking into my gut like a sword wound. Emile was watching me like a hawk as I pulled my ponytail through my ONI cap, tightening it and shaking the dampness from it.
"Smoke at the next structure, boss." Cat said, pointing to the sky.
"Circle west and check it out. Noble Team: you have permission to engage, but be selective. We don't need to telegraph our presence."
That was telling. Carter would never voice his concerns but it was now the unspoken elephant in the squad. Until we confirmed the militia presence, that feeling would grow. We trudged cautiously around the building, taking only cursory glances at the gorgeous view into the valley beyond. There was a house with an open garage ahead, the lights were off but sparks flickered occasionally from the fittings where a smashed halogen rod used to be. Carter slowed, "Noble Six, move into the house. Go in quiet. I'm right behind."
Six moved in, followed by Carter, Emile, and myself, with Cat in the rear. It was an eerie little hovel but something about it was actually rather nice. It was a simple life, paid for with honest work in a place as beautiful as Eden itself.
"Noble Leader, I'm seeing heat sigs in the structure ahead." Jun noted, his voice urgent on the radio.
We moved up a short flight of stairs, emerging on the opposite side as the sun dipped gently behind the clouds, darkening the cliff face. The second Falcon landed slowly in the courtyard, its engines purring when Jorge jumped from its belly and onto the soft grass below. My attention was pulled away towards the house, however. It appeared in the doorway, a figure, clad in blue and brown. I drew my pistol, flicking off the safety.
"Identify yourself!" I said, sternly, my eyes boring into his.
His… a human, at least.
Other civilians stood behind him, a whole community if my estimate was accurate. Several faces popped out to see the SPARTANs but only one dared leave the building.
"Én nem csináltam semmit!" he said, his voice quick and erratic. I longed for my helmet now, and for a basic grasp of Hungarian as Emile stepped forward, brandishing his shotgun at them.
"On your knees, now!" Emile growled, not backing down.
"Ne lőjön! Ne lőjön!"
"They're not rebels, they're farmers. Look at them." Jorge sighed, stepping in front of
Carter stepped forward, his weapon lowered slightly, "Ask him what they're doing here."
Jorge questioned him in Hungarian; the older farmer, noting the familiarity in his dialect, seemed to relax and began talking as Jorge translated.
"Hiding, sir, Neighbours were attacked last night. He heard screams, gunfire. It stopped around sunrise. He says, something in the fields...killed his son."
"Something?"
I didn't need to ask that question. Suddenly, I didn't feel so awkward about coming along. The final act was truly on us, like Caesar crossing the Rubicon, or seelow heights, the final battles of this war were upon us as I came to grips with the singular and terrifying truth of the matter.
"Commander, be advised. I'm reading heat signatures at the structure directly east from your position. Over." Jun said, distracting me from my misery.
"Copy that. Get them back inside."
Emile and Jorge escorted the civilian away as Kat, Carter, Six and I sprinted east toward the building, down the rugged pathway and along the road as a very tense silence hung in the air. As the SPARTANs slowed, I caught up, coming to a trot beside them, my silenced pistol pointed down, my finger resting safely outside of the guard.
"We're moving in, Commander." Jorge said, from somewhere behind us. We stepped into the darkened halls of the homestead and I felt my guts knot, eliciting a violent wretch from my gut as I reflexively doubled over in pain and revulsion.
"Damn." Carter said, bluntly.
"Fill me in Commander, what have you seen? Over." Jun's voice was a little concerned as he asked, waiting for the all clear.
Carter kneeled down over the pools of blood and examined them, footprints could be seen in the blood, leading away down the hall towards a stairwell. As for the stench… it was the marines, pinned and violated, strung up against the wall like butchered meat. It was an amateurish job, conducted out of anger but with a violent intent that I knew far too well. I looked to Emile, who stood beside me.
"You know what did this, right?" I asked, my voice a whisper.
He simply nodded as he pumped his shotgun.
"We've got military casualties. Two of the missing troopers. Looks like they were interrogated... It's messy." Carter said, crouching over the blood and viscera discarded on the floor. Carter stood back up and began to signal to the team to keep moving but movement, hurried and panicked, could be heard on the roof.
"Movement." Carter said, his voice like liquid nitrogen, "watch your motion trackers."
In my heart and my mind, I knew what it was. Looking around, I could tell the others knew it too.
They'd found it. Our fortress, our vestige among the stars.
The Covenant were on Reach.