Master Sergeant Reese made a hasty grab at the handrail as another tremor rocked the building. Her escort waited for the tremor to cease before quietly continuing on his way. Reese followed the corporal, distinctly aware that remote sensors and independently targeting plasma repeaters were closely monitoring her progress. At one hint of betrayal the corridor would become a stinking inferno of plasma death.
The old man's really settled into the paranoid General's role, she thought in bemusement as they reached the bottom of the stairwell.
Reese's escort slapped his hand on an inconspicuous part of blank wall and instead of the heavy looking door to their left opening, a piece of the wall slid quietly to the side. The slender back of her guide quickly entered with Reese right behind him. A millisecond after Reese entered the door zipped back into place and nearly took a chunk of buttock with it.
"Sorry," her escort apologized sheepishly," We have to get those sensors recalibrated."
Reese nodded and followed him out of the closet-sized space into a very hard-point. At least a dozen TechCom soldiers in heavy powered armor, armed with plasma cannons, stood at guarded attention behind a barricade. Spaced in their own closed off concrete circles were no less than three plasma turrets.
"Sergeant," her escort nodded to one of the TechCom "Heavies", as most light infantry referred to their heavier brethren, and got a nod in return.
"The General's expecting you," a smile, almost totally hidden by the shadows of the Sergeant's helmet, briefly bloomed," Those reinforcements have arrived."
Reinforcements? Reese thought in confusion, as she was lead through the door behind the guards.
Resistance Intelligence said that TechCom's raw materials, human and otherwise, could allow the outfitting of more than a thousand soldiers a day for a very long time. With the attrition rate factored in, that gave Capital City TechCom an additional five hundred or so soldiers everyday. Unless the UNSC had managed to land thousands of Marines, their reinforcements couldn't be that overwhelming.
The room she entered was typical TechCom Command Center right down to the computers grouped in one corner of the room. Reese's eyes were immediately drawn to where her fa-, General Perry, was talking to a small group of men. One of them towered substantially over them all, even General Perry, and Reese couldn't take her eyes off him. Then she found herself staring at a faintly luminescent green chest and her gaze was drawn up to a reflective visor that revealed nothing of the person inside the armor.
It was a Spartan.
Captain Black grinned and clapped Reese on the back," Glad to have you with me on this, Master Sergeant. Captain Inman was a little pissed when I pulled rank and got you assigned to this detail. The man seems to think he's found himself some kind of goddamned talisman in you Juggernauts and Red's Ravagers."
Master Sergeant Red shrugged and shook his head but, as usual, kept his peace.
"Let me make introductions," General Perry spoke up," You know Captain Black and Master Sergeant Red. This," he pointed to a red-haired woman with a nasty scar running across her face," is Lieutenant Firn, Black's Second on this operation. Lieutenant Mack," a tall, fine-boned blonde with penetrating blue eyes," from the Office of Naval Intelligence. And last, but not least, is Master Chief Spartan-117."
Each of them in turn nodded at her and Reese even managed to return the intimidating 'stare' of the Spartan's visor.
"Now we can begin the briefing. Conner, if you will."
"Certainly, General."
A holographic projection of a series of tunnels that converged on a huge sphere that Reese could tell was truly subterranean. To even attempt to get down that far a, company would have to brave rarely maintained service tunnels, sewage treatment plants, and a number of run-down residential, commercial, and industrial districts.
"This is the site of a Covenant excavation. Sci/Tech Intelligence estimates they've been digging for nearly a week and have almost breeched the chamber. We don't have very many squads near the surface and they have been largely ineffectual in stalling the excavation. ONI wants whatever the Covenant are after and they sent Lieutenant Mack, the Master Chief and a squad of HellJumpers equipped with state-of-the-art gear. Captain Black and his men will lead the primary assault along this route," a route illuminated itself in bright white light," Master Sergeants Reese and Red will lead their platoons in secondary assaults at these two locations. We have positively identified them as temporary barracks for the Covenant forces guarding the site." Two additional routes, one green, one red, terminated at smaller nodes a level above the expansive opening. "This is a vital mission. With this artifact in TechCom's possession the Covenant will be forced to stop their pinpoint orbital bombardment and we'll be free to roam the upper levels once again. Keep that fact in mind while we hammer out the specific details. If anyone here disagrees with a plan of action don't hesitate to speak up. Now, Captain Black had an interesting proposal-"
"You wanted to see me, sir," Reese asked as she entered General Perry's temporary offices, which meant he had a makeshift desk with a portable computer terminal, and little else in what would have been a broom closet in peacetime.
" At ease, Master Sergeant," the General commanded as he leaned back slightly in his chair.
Reese, totally unaware that she had been at attention, relaxed her posture.
"I've heard great things about you, Master Sergeant," his eyes seemed to bore deep into her as his voice made her bones resonate," I just wanted to make sure you were clear about this mission. "
"Sir?"
General Perry slammed his fist down on his desk, producing an ominous cracking sound," This mission is too damned vital for me to let some fool of a soldier with delusions of heroism lead a vital element in it. "
Reese had to resist the urge to smile. She knew why he had lost his temper and he caused a burst of emotion she couldn't quite identify. Her father was obviously worried about her. The slight widening of his eyes, the subtle frown on his lips, and the slight shaking of his left hand were all signs she had long grown accustomed to. It brought back memories of the time he had thought she was having intercourse with an older man in the nearest town.
"I thought you had selected my squad because of our… unconventional tactics."
The General snorted," More like suicidal. Listen, Reese, we really need whatever that artifact is. Without some kind of leverage we'll never get them to stop bombarding the upper levels. We've already lost far too many soldiers in every open level engagement. I need you to promise me you won't do anything crazy and get yourself killed."
Reese did grin then," I thought you wanted me to complete the mission."
Perry stood and growled like an angry bear," You know-"
He never got to finish his sentence because Reese had erupted into furious motion the moment he stood. Within seconds she had leapt across the desk and into his arms. The force of her leap propelled them both against the wall where they embraced fiercely.
"I missed you, Dad," she whispered, hugging him tightly.
"Missed you too, Sarah," he whispered, hugging her just as tightly.
"It's about time Reese," Sci/Tech Lieutenant Sanchez grinned as Reese jogged down the stairwell that opened up into the designated Weapons Testing Area for this base.
Master Sergeant Red, the Spartan Master Chief, Captain Black, Lieutenant Firn and Lieutenant Mack were all standing with the Sci/Tech Lieutenant in front of a series of meter thick slabs of varying composition set into floor inserts.
"Now I can demonstrate my newest goodie," Sanchez said, turning and started equipping what looked like a massive battery pack onto her back.
Once she was sure it was firmly secured she plugged it into a weapon that looked vaguely similar to a plasma rifle but the stock was nearly doubled in size. Sanchez slid her targeting lens into place and powered the device up. The woman, dwarfed by the massive amounts of equipment she now carried, knelt behind the table. She extended sniping mounts from the barrel and assumed an odd firing position with one hand on the trigger grip and the other on top of what looked like a clip insert.
"Firing," Sanchez called calmly, even though there was not a soul on the targeting range in front of her.
Sanchez depressed the trigger and a quickly fading line of reddish gas appeared in front of the rifle. Reese almost scoffed at the misfire until her eyes followed the dissipating trail of smoke and saw where it went. The gas passed through a hole the size of Reese's head in the first of the half dozen meter-thick walls.
"Go ahead. Take a look," Sanchez said.
Reese followed the others, keeping a curious eye on the Spartan's mechanically precise movement, and nodded her head in professional astonishment. The holes continued all the way to the last slab where a bulky array of equipment was emitting what looked like a force field of some kind. On the floor of the force field were the remains of what outwardly resembled a shotgun shell. But no shotgun shell glowed slightly with rapidly discharging electrical energy or had what looked like delicate electronics inside its casing.
"This," Sanchez said as they made they way back," -is an MRG-1, which stands for Mini-RailGun. This weapon accelerates a specially designed and reinforced shell at speeds relatively close to the speed of light. Penetration power at short range is, well, you saw. Once the shell's shielding system runs out of power, projections say it would after the shell travels approximately ten kilometers, it would rapidly disintegrate on impact with any surface. It can be stopped by a complex gravimetric-polarized force field but the Covie's will probably take awhile to figure that out. Any questions?"
Reese raised her hand immediately and spoke after Sanchez's quick nod," How many can I get?"