Reese slid along the oddly curving wall of the cylindrical chamber that was used as a Grunt barrack, plasma carbine pointed at the ground, and a detonation pack ready in her hand. The rest of her team and the platoon of TechCom soldiers that made up the assault force were waiting just outside the room. They had quickly and efficiently neutralized the entire sub-basement before moving onto sub-level one. This was where the Covenant had set up their barracks. There looked to be berths for Grunts, Jackals, Hunters and even the Elites seemed to have shared the large space. Kinh and a scout from the 126th had done a quick patrol of the room and discovered that nearly all of the enclosed barracks were occupied. Not to capacity but enough for a reinforced platoon at the least. Now Reese, Kinh, and the scout who's name Reese didn't know, were setting the last det-packs. Thankfully the brilliant spotlights the Covenant seemed to prefer at most other places were dimmed considerably in their barracks. Reese planted the det-pack and spoke over the freq the assault force was using.
"Packs ready?" she asked as she moved slowly and carefully back toward the rest of the force.
"Yes," Kinh replied.
"Yes, sir."
Reese tried to restrain a smile at the thought that she, a mere Corporal, was responsible for an entire platoon. Then she bumped into something hard and breathing. Training took over in an instant as she twisted into a turn with her carbine leading, ducking at the last instant, and planting the business end of her weapon into the abdomen of a blue-armored Elite. Without hesitation she fired a small burst directly into its sternum. The bolts exited the bastard's back in small sprays of blood and the Elite toppled backward into the side of the barracks it had emerged from.
"Double-time to the platoon." Reese spoke hurriedly into the comm. as she followed her own advice and ran back to the doors that led to the lift to sub-level two.
Reese reached the doors before either Kinh or the scout and crouched by the side of the doors. It sounded like the Elite's body had been discovered judging from the enraged roars bouncing off the walls. A pair of Jackals swiveled into view behind the running TechCom soldiers and began overloading their plasma pistols. Reese squeezed off two rounds that took the Jackals in the right and left knee respectively. The limbs weren't completely severed but they would probably never be useful again if they weren't replaced. Kinh and the scout made it through the door, Reese tapped the detonation command into her wristcom', and dived through behind them. Two men slammed the doors shut moments before detonation.
A tremendous tremor rocked the structure around them and the sounds of a thousand angry, roaring souls echoed around them. The doors, thick and solid, bulged outward suddenly with the force of the pressure wave. A few seconds later Vance and a huge soldier pulled open the doors to let the platoon surge into the room.
"That Corporal really knows how to blow shit up, doesn't she?" an unknown voice said over the comm..
"Stow it, Greffen!" one of the Sergeants snapped.
Reese entered the room at a walk and observed the carnage calmly. There was nothing left of the various barracks except crumpled, blackened structures that seemed to have been tossed against the walls by a giant, careless child.
"Kinh, lead the way!" Reese barked, taking up a position somewhere in the midst of the assault force, before switching to the command-link,"Sub-level one is secure, sir."
"Acknowledged. Defensibility?"
"Good. One lift and one emergency stairwell. Two plasma turrets could hold this place almost indefinitely."
"We're moving then. Keep pushing up, Reese."
The platoon moved through a small anteroom that housed the main lift of the building. The Covenant had destroyed the lift when they had taken up residency and the only way up was the stairwell on the lift doors left.
"Gunners, up front. No rockets, no grenades and definitely no canister bombs. You know who I'm talking to," Reese said as two soldiers spiked the doors open.
"How'd she know?" she heard one of the Privates mutter.
"Shut up, Mac," someone tried to shush their friend.
A pair of soldiers equipped with heavy plasma guns was the first to hit the stairs. They were followed by two more pairs of heavy gunners before the rest of the platoon followed. Each pair of soldiers was at least two meters behind the other just in case-
"Grenade!" someone shouted, just as a glowing plasma grenade attached itself to the helmet of one of the pair in front of Reese.
Three men were outlined in brilliant purple-white light as Covenant plasma fire struck them. They all crumpled without a sound and the loss made almost everyone hesitate. That lead to the loss of two more men, one of them a Sergeant, before the gunners shook themselves out of their shock.
"Shit! Get it- Ah!"
The man's shouts were drowned out by the cacophony of plasma fire that scoured the landing above them clean of opposition. Reese had leaped the two meters before the first volley had been fired and ripped the soldier's helmet off, snapping the breakaway loops easily, and tossing it over the side. She pushed both men back against the wall as the grenade detonated hard enough to shake the stairwell.
"Put your bandana on!" Reese yelled, as she charged past them to the landing where the door to the "ground" floor was, royally pissed off at her force's losses.
Four gunners were laying down suppressive fire into the narrow corridor but each time the fire slackened there was an immediate response from the Covenant.
"What's the sitch, Sarge!?" Reese asked a short, bull-necked Sergeant with a scarred chin.
"Those bastards are dug in! There's an equipment room ten meters down the corridor! There's at least twenty of them in there! It'll be a slaughter if we try to take them head-on!"
Reese had been thinking the same thing and looking around for inspiration when she saw a small grate about four meters off the floor. She quickly called up the schematics for this building and nodded to herself. The Corporal quickly began divesting herself of her body armor.
"What the hell are ya doin'?!" the Sergeant roared, ducking instinctively as another Covenant volley splashed the wall opposite the landing.
"I'm going to give them a little distraction. Once you hear the party start you'd better come join. Here," she grabbed the shaky looking Private that had lost his helmet," Hold this for me."
Reese handed over her plasma carbine, her body armor, and all of her secondary gear except for her wrist-comm., sidearm, plasma baton, and one grenade. That left her lightly armed and dressed in a dirty, skin-tight jumpsuit. It was not the kind of gear one wanted to square off against Covenant soldiers with.
"Vance, give me a boost!"
Vance came over to her and obligingly cupped his hands for her. Reese placed a boot in the big man's gloved hands and was immediately hoisted up. Reese pried the grate off and handed it down to a waiting Rogers.
"See you in a minute, boss," Rogers said, his face serious but a weak-hearted attempt at a grin on his face. Kinh was also at his side and looking up at the Corporal she had shortly served under.
"Of course," Reese replied with a confident grin and promptly slithered into the electrical duct.
The Captain's forces had cut the power to the entire section days ago so there was no danger of Reese being electrocuted. There was however a real concern of getting stuck. It was a tight fit, even for someone as slender as Reese, and it was the reason she had not asked an entire squad to accompany her. She would have to exit the duct fast and anyone behind her would probably be roasted when the Covenant poured fire into the enclosed space. Twenty plasma weapons would probably scour the duct clean of even the wiring.
Twenty, the thought had never really had time to be fully digested before she had come up with the brazen plan but now the odds of her success came back to smack her in the face.
Reese wasn't a Spartan with an augmented body and invincible armor. She wasn't even a particularly great soldier, she was good at what she did, but Reese had no delusions that she was exceptional. Reese was simply a human woman going up against vastly superior forces with grossly inadequate weaponry. She had almost no hope of succeeding.
I guess I really know how Sarah Conner felt now, that one thought was enough to strengthen her resolve but not enough to dispel the knot of fear in her stomach.
There was no one else that she thought had a hope of doing the job so it was up to her. If she died then she would never get to see her father again or complete her mission. Something seemed to click then and the world became much clearer. Her mind seemed to be much more focused than ever before and a feeling of renewal swept through her. It was at that moment that she came to her stop.
The squeal of Grunts and the deep-voiced growls of Elites sounded very close in the tunnel. It was occasionally drowned out by the thunder of TechCom plasma guns but Reese knew without a doubt that this was where she would drop-in. She carefully pried loose the grate and lay it down on the opposite side of the opening. She had a clear view of the top of an Elite's head as he barked orders at his Grunt's. The Elite's armor was carbon-scored and so were many of the Grunt's and Jackal's under his command. They had obviously come in from the recent fighting outside and that gave her some hope. Her platoon had obviously made a dent in the forces arrayed against them.
Reese thumbed the top of her plasma grenade, reached down through the grate opening, and lobbed it against the barricade that was blocking the corridor. She ducked back into the duct just as the grenade ignited spectacularly. Secondary explosions rocked the area as a Grunt's grenade bandoleer ignited as well. Reese let five seconds past before diving through the opening, abrading the skin on her back, stomach, and thighs in the process. Somehow Reese flipped in mid-air to land on her feet, perfectly balanced like a cat, right behind the Elite.
Her plasma baton was already in her hand, fully extended, and crackling with a stunning charge. Reese's movements in those next few instances were executed with a grace, speed, and strength she had never before known. She drew her sidearm in a cross-draw, squeezed the grip of her baton to activate the plasma blade, fired her DAF in single-shot ballistic mode behind the cover of the Elite's broad back, and drove her plasma blade through the Elite's kidney analogue. Reese left her plasma blade in the howling Elite's body cavity and dove to the side just as a convergent blast of plasma pistol bolts hit the dying commander. The preternaturally calm soldier rolled as she hit the ground and came up firing DAF plasma bolts on full auto as she ran to the left. Reese turned her head just as a Jackal emerged from the cover of a slagged piece of machinery and drew a bead on her with a Needler. Reaction was almost beyond Reese's control as she leapt onto the wall beside her and sprang off of it in a maneuver she would have only considered possible in wild battlefield rumors. The tracking projectiles the Needler shot bounced off the wall as she sailed through the air, firing several plasma blots into the Jackal's face. She was reloading almost before she hit the ground. Movement behind her made her spin in that direction with her DAF at the ready.
Someone whistled and whispered," She really knows how to blow shit up!"
No one said anything this time as the surviving members of the platoon shuffled into the room to see the shattered remains of twenty Covenant soldiers.
Reese snapped out of whatever strange mental state she had been in and shook her head slowly as she gazed upon the carnage she had wrought.
Had she really done it?
"Sergeant-"
"Klein, sir," the Sergeant said, with newfound respect in his voice.
"Sergeant, assign two of your men to check these bodies," he immediately barked out two names," Take the rest of the platoon forward. We can't lose momentum. Where's my gear? "
The bandana-wearing Private handed Reese her body armor, weapon, and assorted gear before joining the rest of the platoon.
"Hey, boss!" Rogers waved cheerfully, before being hauled by the collar by Vance.
Vance and Kinh just offered her small nods and smiles. Reese returned the motions and quickly donned her equipment. It wasn't until she placed her helmet on that she realized how horribly vulnerable she had felt without it. It was a sobering experience and one her father had warned her about. Perry had always told her not to rely too much on all the gear because in the end it could become too much of a crutch. Reese had always scoffed to herself about the warning but now she knew how right her father could be.
In short order Reese and the two Privates, after dispatching one or two death-feigning Grunts, marched after the platoon. The sounds of short-lived firefights led them through the confusing interconnected maintenance and equipment rooms. Then quite suddenly they emerged into the main entrance to the building, which had been blasted to nothing during the initial assault. The Covenant had done a hasty but thorough job of clearing the rubble so Reese had a clear view of the area.
"Reinforcements, sir!" one of the Private's shouted as though she were blind.
Reese looked out at the multitude of MPV's, converted civilian fliers, and hundreds of TechCom soldiers moving purposefully through the area and could only bark laughter in response.
"We've still got a job to do," Reese said, contacting the Captain," Reinforcements have arrived, sir. Might I request an additional squad or two to reinforce my platoon."
"You've got it, Master Sergeant."
"Sir?"
"Battlefield promotion, Reese, get used to it."
"Yes, sir."