Sarah "Reese" Perry grinned toothily as the Pelican dropship plummeted through the atmosphere towards Capital City, Terra Secondus. She was dressed in a drab, gray jumpsuit like the rest of the TechCom veterans she had been packed in with. She was also, unlike them all, unarmed. Each carried their own personal weapons, primarily standard plasma rifles and AP50 sidearms, and most slept through the ride as though it were a pleasant jaunt. Sarah really couldn't blame any of them.
The last two days had seen very little rest for Perry and his company. Perry had cajoled UNSC High Command into giving him nearly everything he demanded after only a single six-hour session. Perry and his men, all newly promoted to fit them into the roles they would assume in UNSC TechCom, had then holed up in the Marine quarters of their ride to Alpha Centauri. Sarah had been forced to bunk with Navy ratings and had been left ignorant of their plans. Still, the prospect of setting foot on an alien world was infinitely more exciting than sitting through a plethora of boring meetings. She'd had enough of that during the Consolidation. The roar of the Pelican's thrusters suddenly became more of a low hum and she felt the ship settle down.
"You are free to disembark," the disembodied voice of their pilot, she still had trouble conceptualizing a human flying an aircraft, came into the troop compartment.
The rear ramp lowered and Captain Lucas Black was the first man on his feet. He shouldered his plasma rifle and paused at the top of the ramp.
" Everyone out! " he bellowed, the sound was surprising coming from a short, skeletally thin man.
Sarah was second on her feet and practically charged down the ramp in her enthusiasm. The action elicited a wide grin from the captain, which he quickly stilled, and the others followed at a more sedate pace. Sarah was unaware of any of it as she stood at the edge of the landing pad looking out at a field of blazing blue-green color. Aircraft of all sorts sailed through the air before her and below her. She looked down and gasped in wonder at the buildings that sat hundreds of feet below her. She turned to wave Captain Black over and was once again paralyzed by the sight that lay before her.
It was a city.
Sarah had heard all of her father's stories, even seen a few pictures, but she never imagined anything as magnificent as what she viewed now. Towering structures stabbed their way into the sky, the highest tapering into a delicate looking spiral Sarah knew was probably as wide as the landing pad she now stood on, and now she actually registered the sounds of thousands of vehicles moving about their business on the streets and avenues running through the city like veins in a body. She stood there for several seconds gaping like a fish before Captain Black slapped her on the back.
"Stop staring, Reese, it makes you look like a greenie!" a sergeant called, causing a collective chuckle to pass through the ranks.
"Cut the shit, we've got an appointment to keep," Captain Black said, gesturing to a three-man Marine escort that waited to take them to join the rest of the company," I don't know why I always get picked to bring in the stragglers."
"I didn't straggle, Uncle," Sarah called almost all of the TechCom soldiers her father had brought with him Uncle. She had spent some time, some more considerable than others, with all of them at some point or another.
Captain Black ruffled her hair as they followed the Marines away from the landing pad. The trip was a confusing mixture of sightseeing and hurrying through the brightly lit interiors of buildings. It amazed her how one moment they were walking briskly through a series of corridors and then suddenly they were walking in bright sunlight streaming through immense open courtyards. Vehicles of all sizes, new and shiny, sped through the streets on whispering wheels. There was a sense of rushed urgency that even a stranger like Sarah could feel. Military vehicles, 'Hogs the Marines called them, patrolled the streets and were placed at many of the intersections. Civilians eyed the soldiers walking in their midst with a mixture of hostility and a sort of hopeless anxiety.
I guess the rumors were true.
Sarah had heard through the Navy ratings that the UNSC had started General Perry's plans for Alpha Centauri. Every child under the age of fifteen, with one adult guardian, was to be evacuated by the end of the month. The remaining citizens were to be transported to Capital City, Bran's Town, or New Cleveland for induction into TechCom. She did not think the civilians would acquiesce quietly. Added to that already fiery mix was the steady influx of refugees the UNSC was funneling to Terra Secondus from the devastated Outer Colonies.
The party entered a large lift on the exterior of an unremarkable building somewhere in the dense center of the city. They exited through the opposite door into the interior. This place was bustling with UNSC military and civilian personnel as well as many of Sarah's "Uncles". She assumed this was to be the temporary de-facto command center for her father in the frantic scramble to prepare the city for war. The Marine corporal that guided the escort led them through a door into a room that had been converted into a temporary barracks.
"These are your quarters. The General wants to see Captain Black and Private Reese now but the rest of you are under orders to get some immediate sac time," the young man, his large brown eyes betrayed his nervousness around the fanatical air of TechCom infantry, told them before stepping to the side.
Reese and Black stowed their gear under their bunks and followed the corporal through the crowded halls, passed rooms caught up in a frenzy of activity, to the Command Center. It was a modest affair with a large bank of powerful computers along one wall, a complex communications center in the direct center of the room, and only half a dozen other high-ranking TechCom and UNSC figures in the room. Four guards flanked the entryway to the room, while a fixed plasma turret was placed directly across from it, to show that General Perry was as paranoid as he had ever been during the Machine War.
"I'm glad you're here, Black," General Perry said, clapping a massive hand on the slimmer man's shoulder," You too, Reese. I need some more friendly faces around here. These UNSC Marines, tough as they are, still want to treat their civilians like sheep. You've always been better at explaining things to non-believers, Captain, and I need you to tell the Major here why we're going to disclose everything to the civilian population right now."
Captain Black fixed Major Burns and his subordinate Captains with a steely gaze," I am going to repeat these events as they were reported to me. When the missiles first fell on Judgment Day, there was worldwide hysteria. No one knew who had committed the first strike and the U.S. was so devastated it was offering no response. Other governments were well aware what had happened and deemed it unwise to create widespread panic by informing their civilian populations. So when bombs fell throughout the remaining free world no one knew the cause, as SkyNet easily eliminated most government leadership. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, died in those countries in the years to come because no one knew whom the enemy was. The military was decimated and there was little to no coordinated leadership among the scant resistance that sprung up when the Machines starting their campaign of genocide. If the governments of those countries affected little by the initial attack had just begun to prepare their civilians for the inevitable, they might have had a chance at holding off the Machines. There may have been riots, there may have been deaths, but it would have paled in comparison to the results of keeping a secret that should not, could not, be kept. So we are going to warn these civilians because if the Covenant come tomorrow and we all die, at least those poor bastards will know they have a chance."
Major Burns and his subordinates had wilted under the burning gaze of Black and the two Perry's. They could only straighten their spines and nod as though the decision had been theirs to make in the first place. Sarah had to hide her smile by turning to view the communications center. It was a much more sophisticated affair than normal TechCom Comm-Centers. General Perry went to stand at a blank wall with a podium in front of it. The podium was covered with an official UNSC covering. A holograph of the 'smart' A.I. Conner, which had been quickly created off of the famed General's brainwave patterns just a day ago, appeared atop the communications gear.
"We are ready to broadcast on your signal, General Perry," the holograph informed him.
General Perry nodded and began to speak.
"Hello, Terra Secondus, I am General Justin Perry, commander of the newly created UNSC TechCom Militia. As you are well aware, we are evacuating children under fifteen along with their adult guardian to Earth. You may not know that the reason we are doing this is because the Covenant is coming. We have confirmed intelligence that they have discovered the location of Terra Secondus and are on their way. Do not panic. They will not glass this planet, or at least the cities we are evacuating everyone to, because they want what we have. There are relics, buried deep beneath the surface, of an ancient race the Covenant desperately want and they will not risk destroying them. The UNSC cannot afford to send a massive military force to protect Terra Secondus because of this system's proximity to Earth. As of twenty-eight hundred hours at the first of the month the entire remaining population of Terra Secondus will be a part of the Resistance. All able-bodied Resistance members will be indoctrinated into TechCom. Make no mistake citizens. There are only two choices remaining to you. Fight or die. Some of you might be pacifists, some may believe the Covenant is merely protecting their territory from human expansion, and some may think you can flee to Earth. The Covenant is committed to nothing more than the extermination of the entire human race. They will never stop unless we stop them. Earth will fall unless we, as a united people, stop them here and now. You may ask yourself how you can stop them when civilians are forbidden military weaponry," General Perry smiled then," But Resistance personnel are allowed military weaponry and more. We are transmitting documents that will help each of you find roles in the Resistance. To teach you how to become effective guerilla warriors. You will be organized into Companies by residential blocks and your designations will also be transmitted to your personal terminals. Veteran TechCom fighters will be visiting each of your residential blocks for a few days to further your training and assess your progression. I will also be making these rounds, as will UNSC Marine officers, to show you that we are all committed to kicking Covie ass back to whatever pit they crawled out of. I vow today to not set foot off of Terra Secondus until the last Covenant on this planet is either dead or running with their tails between their legs. Together we can win, we will win, I know this in my heart. Some of my compatriots would have me believe that the citizens of the UNSC are cowards who would panic in the face of humanities enemies. I laugh at this notion. I have walked among Terra Secondus' people and I know the courage you all possess inside. But to bolster that courage I will give you a demonstration of the Resistance's resources. Rifle!"
Captain Black tossed the General his rifle. Perry pivoted to face the armor-reinforced dummy of a Covenant Elite and fired the rifle on full auto. The searing plasma bolts slashed through the air accompanied by a thrumming sound that was both low and high-pitched. Once the battery-clip was drained the General lowered his rifle and the UNSC officers, who had never seen a plasma rifle in action before, gaped in shock at the dummy. It had been reduced to a pile of molten slag that still glowed a dull reddish color. The General pivoted back to podium, rifle held at left arms, and grinned devilishly.
"I say let them come."
Two weeks later, Sarah was watching two hundred men and women going through the obstacle course they had erected in their apartment complex's gym, following the instructions Conner had transmitted, and was in awe of how well her adopted father could read people. There had been little rioting, only two incidents that she was aware of, and almost everyone had been galvanized in their new purpose. This was the group number twenty for her and her UNSC compatriot, Corporal Trevors. Each time they had been impressed by the self-motivation each "Company" had possessed. Most of them had already begun cutting down armored doorways and the like in order to create homemade body armor along TechCom lines as well as trying to create their own homemade explosives. Some of the results had been more successful than others but it was the effort that impressed both Sarah and Trevors.
"I heard you pair could use some weapons to give to your rookies," came a familiar, at least to Sarah, voice from behind them.
Sarah turned to regard a short, slender woman with hard dark brown eyes and head covered in gel-stiffened black hair. Most people couldn't sneak up on Sarah, but the 'X-Terminator' was the second most legendary Intel operative after Catherine Luna. It was said she could sneak up on you in broad daylight in the middle of a concrete lot. Sarah, having known the diminutive soldier for a long time, knew the claim was not that far from the truth.
"Hey, Sanchez, you still getting your thrills sneaking up on people," Sarah said, trying to impersonate her father's tone.
Sanchez laughed," Fuck you, Reese."
"You said something about weapons?" Trevors asked, an eager light in his eyes.
"You UNSC boys sure would like your own plasma rifles, huh?" Sanchez grinned, stepping up to look through the observation window at the future guerillas intense training.
"You have no idea," Sarah said, rolling her eyes dramatically.
"Follow me then."
A few minutes later Sarah and Trevors, with their training company behind them, stood in front of Sci/Tech Lieutenant Sanchez. The Lieutenant stood in front of several, large supply crates and behind a long table with a number of vaguely familiar weapons placed on it. Two burly men flanked the table. The two had set up a number of targets at the far end of the gym for her crew to demonstrate on.
"This," Sanchez said, hefting a slightly larger version of a standard TechCom plasma rifle," -is a phased plasma rifle in the forty kilowatt," Sarah's eyebrows rose at that,"-range. The scope has a maximum magnification of five times and can be set in automode. Magazine charge is one hundred bolts."
Sanchez tossed the weapon to the man on her left and he snatched it deftly from the air. The man silently stepped to the firing line, knelt, brought the rifle to his shoulder, and snapped off a quick shot. A blinding purple-white bolt erupted from the muzzle of the weapon and vaporized the entire torso of an Elite target.
Sanchze was speaking before he could replace the weapon on the table, this time hefting up a monster of a sidearm," This is a DAF Sidearm. DAF stands for Dual Auto-Fire. The upper barrel fires plasma bolts in the forty-watt range while the lower barrel fires ten millimeter, hi-explosive, heavy armor piercing rounds. Both barrels are capable of fully automatic fire. The charger for the upper barrel allows forty shots and the over-sized clip carries twenty rounds."
Sanchez tossed this weapon to her left and this man went to a cluster of Grunt targets. He assumed a classic pistol firing stance, feet braced to the sides, pistol gripped in both hands, and left loose on full auto-fire to completely render his stance useless. A blur of plasma bolts, not nearly so brilliant as the plasma rifle, peppered the grouping. Once the charge ran dry the weapon switched to ballistic rounds almost instantaneously. It sounded like muted thunder in the confines of the gymnasium and the targets, already rendered fragile by the plasma bolts, practically blew apart under the new assault.
"This," she picked up a weapon that vaguely resembled the plasma rifle but the barrel was practically non-existent and there was some sort of device slung under the shortened barrel. " -is a plasma carbine. It fires bolts identical to the plasma rifle but with the added advantage of having a plasma grenade launcher slung under-barrel. It has a scope that is also identical to the plasma rifle's."
Man On The Right took this one and leveled it at a pair of Jackal targets that even had thin armored shields in front of them to mimic their personal energy shields. This weapon produced a high-pitched shrieking sound as it fired but the results were impressive as it ate through the shields in less than a second. Then he stopped firing, took a bracing stance, and a small metallic sphere was launched from the carbine. Sarah thought she heard it hit the floor a millisecond before a purple-white sphere expanded to life to completely vaporize the targets. There was nothing left but a blackened circle when the sphere faded.
"Grenades also can be thrown." Sanchez added before gesturing for the larger of the two men to pick up the huge gun sitting on the floor beside the table.
This weapon had a barrel that was probably as long as one of Sanchez's legs and its body was as thick as her torso. It amazed Sarah that the man could pick it up so easily.
" This beauty is a light anti-cavalry plasma gun. It only weighs fifty kilos, don't ask how that's possible, and is normally supported by a complex rigging system. This weapon fires plasma bolts in the seventy-five to ninety kilowatt range and has a magazine charge of four hundred shots."
The demonstrator leveled the weapon at the Ghost target and let loose. It was like the plasma rifle firing but with the bass turned way up. Within seconds the target was molten slag rapidly cooling on the floor.
"Finally we have the plasma blade," Sanchez picked up a handle about a foot long and whipped it out before her. It telescoped out to a three-foot long rod that was similar to the plasma baton Sarah had used in sparring back home. Sanchez flicked a switch and the blade was completely enveloped in crackling plasma energy. "The plasma is only a millimeter thick but it burns much hotter than a typical plasma torch. The blade can be set to give off only a stunning charge but when set to full combat mode well- watch."
Sanchez stepped up to a target of an Elite wielding its own plasma blade and whipped her weapon through its torso. The blade passed cleanly through and the Elite's torso slid to the floor with a glowing line of metal along the cut.
"Well, now we teach you pups how to use these wonderful toys."
Sarah, Trevors, and their training company all grinned like kids in a candy store.
Nearly a month passed before the Covenant came and General Perry used it all to his advantage. He organized the Companies in Capital City and helped the commanders in the other cities to do the same. He had emergency fallback points for each individual company when the Covenant showed their faces. Sanchez and her Sci/Tech team, along with hundreds of civilians, were set up deep within Capital City's underground maze manufacturing weapons. Sarah and Trevors, along with scores of other training pairs, made the rounds to forge the civilians into TechCom soldiers. They had made good progress and everyone could feel it. So when the Covenant finally showed their faces no one panicked and that was a wondrous thing.