A gentle hum was the omnipresent sound in Devilfish Troop Carriers. Tau technology had eliminated the unexpected shifts and sudden turbulence that many of their Hegemony allies had to put up with. The time before deployment was supposed to be used going over any of the endless litanies and prayers that adherence to the tau'va demanded while waiting in the darkness of a deactivated visor. Some Tau never learned to enjoy it.
The Tau known as Templar sat in his combat seat with his helmet resting on his knee and watched as Hunter-Cadre Commander Kais talked with Aun Gras'ur over a secure channel. Most of his Hunter-Cadre had already donned their helmets and were like statues in the rows of combat seats lining the walls of the Devilfish's troop compartment. Commander Kais, the Hegemony had forced their military ranks on the tau because they had trouble understanding the subtle nuances of tau ranking, stood from his partially blocked off command alcove. Templar looked up at the face of the younger Tau and saw a troubled being. Though to be fair to Kais it was a time to be troubled. The Tau Empire was now a small footnote in universal history and its absorption into the Covenant Hegemony would probably be an insignificant portion in the vast annals of the Hegemony. An unconscious snarl spread across Templar's face. Oh how he longed to draw his blade and slash the throats of gloating Elite commanders.
"Is something troubling you, Templar?" Kais asked, and Templar was slightly embarrassed that he had not noticed his commander's approach.
"Nothing, Shas-… Commander."
"Why have you removed your helmet?"
Templar looked down at his helmet, "I have never liked wearing a deactivated helmet, commander. Anything could happen to me in that darkness. Telemetry downloading works as long as tactile contact is maintained. "
Usually those who led the Hunter-Cadre he was apart of forcefully told him to put his helmet on and go over meditations to prepare him for the coming battle. Kais simply clapped a hand to his larger shoulder-guard and continued on his way. Templar watched quietly as Kais talked to several others that had not donned their helmets before returning to the front of the compartment.
"We drop in five, troopers," Kais suddenly said into the hum, "Check your weapons and your seals. Remember that the enemy does use several types of nerve gas that are lethal to tau in trace amounts. Battlefield telemetry from our Pathfinders indicates that there is a secondary entrance into SkyNet WF-3. We are currently vectoring in on what looks like a dropzone close to the objective. That objective is to infiltrate the base and disable the primary defenses so that Covenant Corps. Troopers can commence with a full-scale assault. This is the largest automated weapons facility we have located thus far in the city. Intelligence says that once we eliminate this threat then the Hegemony leadership will grant us points towards colonization of our people on a new homeworld," Templar restrained the urge to snort," Remember that this is what we fight for now. The tau'va is more important to our people now than ever before. "
The lights in the compartment changed to a dark red color and the crash restraints retracted into the combat seating. Almost in unison Templar's entire row stood and seconds later the seats also retracted into the wall. Templar quickly donned his helmet, clamping the seals into place, and immediately a tiny point of light expanded into the interior of the troop carrier.
Battle-suit is fully functional, Shas'ui, the feminine voice of his suit's A.I. greeted him.
I am no longer a Shas'ui, he replied a touch bitterly, though he knew the A.I. was just adhering to her programming.
There weren't many Fio's among the Tau forces in this galaxy and reprogramming the A.I.'s in battle-suits was the least of their problems.
Initiate weapons check? It asked as though Templar had never spoken.
Initiating, Templar said, his voice deeper than usual.
The Tau Fire Warrior hefted the burstcannon he had slung around his neck. The weapons body was surprisingly small and light for something that was considered a heavy weapon. The cyclic quad-barrels protruded maybe a half a meter from the body and that was what made the weapon look larger than it actually was. It was light enough to be lifted by one hand if someone were crazy enough to try to fire it that way. Templar removed the semi-circular power pack nestled just in front of the side grip, flicked the weapon to test fire mode, and depressed the firing stud on the top-mounted, forward facing grip located at the base of the weapon. The barrels whirred themselves into a blur after only a few seconds. Templar replaced the power pack and let the weapon rest in his hands.
A small icon of the weapon appeared in the upper right corner of Templar's Heads-Up-Display with the remaining ammo count in the weapon as well as the number of shots left in the suit's spare packs. Templar let the burstcannon hang on its strap and unshipped the Covenant Beam Rifle from his back. He just cradled the large device and waited.
Unknown weapon specifications. Initiating active scan.
Templar gritted his teeth at the indignity of depending on Covenant technology. He was the best shot among his squad and normally he would have been entrusted with the rail-rifle every line squad was given. But the Covenant had outlawed any Tau Fire Warrior from using the powerful infantry weapons. The only way to even recharge the blasted beam rifle was at a Covenant Armory Station. Once Templar used up its charge the machine was done for.
Scan complete.
"Drop in one, troopers. For the Greater Good!" Kais said over the Hunter-Cadre's open channel.
"For the Greater Good!" came back the cry though many among the Cadre remained silent.
A long pipe extruded from the wall and Templar instinctively grabbed the handhold. Several seconds later a jolt passed through the carrier and the lights pulsed to green.
"Green light! Green light!" the voice of the Devilfish's kor pilot barked as the deployment ramp lowered.
"Deploying drones," came Kais remote voice from the helmet's speaker.
Templar ignored the disembodied voice of his commander as he took the four steps to the edge of the ramp and jumped a meter to the ground. Luckily this spot was devoid of the skeletal debris that usually choked the city streets. Within a minute all twenty-eight Fire Warriors were on the ground and had established a rough perimeter around the Devilfish. The deployment ramp closed and the troop carrier rose four meters into the air before racing off to a relatively secure location so Kais could monitor and provide them with real-time intelligence and mission updates. The Devilfish had dropped off a mixed squad of twenty recon and gun drones. The gun drones hovered in place around the Fire Warriors while the recon drones buzzed off in ten different directions.
The area the Hunter-Cadre had been dropped off was an open square lined on three sides by multi-leveled buildings easily a hundred meters in height. The fourth side had once been the entrance to the square but the collapsed remains of a structure that had once stood across the street blocked that. Templar and the rest of the cadre knelt or lay beneath various pieces of rubble and waiting for their first mission waypoint.
Then suddenly a reticle, slightly different from the HUD's targeting one, appeared and pointed to Templar's left.
"Templar, your squad's up first, I want-"
Kais never got a chance to give his orders as a new voice blasted over the Hegemony Battle-Net.
"Hold those orders, Cadre-Commander. I will be taking direct command of these infiltrators," the voice of an Elite commander did little to fill Templar, and he doubted the rest of the cadre felt different, with any shred of confidence.
Templar looked up when a sonic boom crashed over the area and a Covenant Phantom blasted down from thousands of meters up. The Phantom leveled out at a hundred meters or so and settled down for a gentle landing. With ill-concealed malice Templar watched as the ramp lowered and a squad of black-armored Elites sauntered down. Behind them came several Jackals equipped with cloaking units instead of their hand-held energy shields.
"Templar?" one of the younger Fire Warriors in Templar's squad contacted him on a private channel, "Is that wise for the Elites to announce their presence like that."
Templar could not contain the amusement in his voice, "Just watch, Sol."
The Phantom had disgorged its passengers and now made a gingerly ascension so it could take off for the orbiting fleet. It had barely cleared the surrounded building when plasma cannon fire stitched energy blossoms along the shields to port and starboard. Before the ship could escape two immense spears of purple light plunged into and through the shielding. The Phantom capsized like an ocean-going ship and nose-dived out of view towards the setting sun. The earth shook shortly after a thunderous explosion. The Elite commander, in brilliant gold-armor no less, roared his anger at the uncaring structures around them.
"My squad will take point. You Grunts, I mean Tau, advance and deal with our leavings on my signal. Let's move! " The Elite roared without the benefit of using the communications functions of his helmet.
"Remember the tau'va and do not be insubordinate," was Kais' quite reminder to them all.
The Elite commander ordered the cloaked Jackals inside the structure. The wait seemed to take an eternity but finally the Elite led his commandos into the interior of the building. This time the wait was longer but it ended even more spectacularly. The Elite commander came scampering backwards for all he was worth, barking demands for a heavy weapons drop, and only half of his squad came out with him. A swarm of SkyNet's primitive H/K recon drones erupted from the doorway the commando's had gone in. The disc-shaped drones were no more than twenty centimeters across and buzzed through the air with impressive speed. Templar watched curiously as the Elites sprayed the area with plasma rifle and Needler fire as though the drones had enough firepower to penetrate their shields. Then one of the drones spun like a throwing disc and buried itself into the face of a lagging Elite. Before Templar could blink it detonated in an explosion that threw the rest of the Elites off their feet.
"Burstcannons!" Kais exclaimed over the squad's channel.
Templar stood up from cover, already cooking the burstcannon's barrel so he could fire it instantly when he got a target, and almost had his head taken off by one of the drones. A pulse carbine burst eliminated the troublesome bug.
"Thanks, Sol," Templar said, as he gave up trying to find a target and saturated the area with burstcannon fire.
Soon the rest of the cadre followed his example and yard was filled with streaking plasma projectiles. The light would have been dazzling if the filters in Templar's helmet hadn't compensated.
"Cease fire," Templar, as the most senior Fire Warrior of the cadre he was the on-site commander.
At the order the Tau drones, having taken cover to prevent any friendly fire incidents, rose up and began scanning the area. The Elites, also having wisely stayed beneath the withering crossfire, haughtily rose to their feet.
"I-" a bass rumble that shook the entire area cut the commander's words off quite nicely.
"Cover!" Templar roared, instantly recognizing the sound from far too many close calls over the last weeks.
"Look how they cower!" one of the commando's roared with laughter and turned at the sound of fracturing building material.
The commando barely had time enough for one scream as a massive Hunter-Killer Tank broke through the building's wall like it wasn't even there. A wall of the relatively brittle building material crashed down on the commando's head and instantly killed him. Brittle, but heavy the stuff was. The H/K Tank was at least five meters high and four in length. Two massive, triangular treads propelled it forward over the rubble. The most impressive features, at least to Templar, were the massive, multi-directional plasma cannons located on two mechanical arms. The drones swarmed toward the H/K and fired their built-in pulse carbines on full automatic. The distraction tactic had worked more times than Templar wanted to think about when Tau forces had to deal with the lethal machines.
Beams of laser light speared into the airspace around the H/K and neatly destroyed each and every drone. Apparently SkyNet had learned a new trick or two since the last time Templar had come up against an H/K. The H/K opened up with its plasma cannons then and obliterated the Elite who had been too slow in finding cover as well as a Fire Warrior whose cover hadn't been adequate enough.
"Snipers! Concentrate your fire on the plasma cannons," Templar ordered, unshipping his own beam rifle. "Move slowly! Its using motion sensors as well as thermal scanning."
Templar powered up the beam rifle and muttered curses at the Hegemony High Council. He slowly eased himself up over the lip of the barrier he had taken cover behind, lined his shot up nice and calmly, and then squeezed off a round. The energy beam sliced through the air at nearly the speed of light but it seemed to lose much of its force half a meter to the target. Instead of gouging a deep hole into the plasma cannon it merely scored its surface. Templar ducked back down behind cover, tucking into as small a ball as possible, as the H/K unit returned fire. All around him plasma detonations half-slagged the rock, one fell two meters in front of his position and caused static to temporarily wash out his HUD, before the metallic slicing sounds of multiple beam rifles firing came like music to his aural cavities. The plasma blasts stopped but then the beams of laser light started slicing the air again.
"Templar! Incoming!" Sol roared, and promptly leapt up to dive behind another piece of cover.
Templar looked up in time to see a tiny ball of orange light sailing down towards his position. The Fire Warrior jumped from his crouch and a laser beam sliced off half of a shoulderguard. The detonation behind him tossed him even higher into the air and into an uncontrolled spin. Templar landed as best he could but felt his bones grinding in protest to such rough treatment.
Right arm servomotors have sustained moderate damage. Rerouting power and nanomachines. Eighty percent functionality will be achieved in four minutes.
Templar ignored the message, as well as how heavy his right arm felt now that the servos were down, and scrambled over the nearest cover to him. The roar of twin turbine engines made the Fire Warrior curse the makers of the Halos for the fifth time just that day. Templar looked up and his mouth dropped open as four Aerial H/K's hovered over the area flanking a huge flying vehicle the likes of which he had never seemed. It had the same shape of an Aerial H/K but was easily as three times as large and had some strange contraption protruding from its undercarriage. The contraption opened up into two grasping arms and the vehicle gently settled down over the H/K Tank. An Elite commando burst from cover with two plasma grenades in his hands, screaming a Covenant battlecry, and launched both of them at the H/K Tank.
"Get out of there!" Templar roared to the Fire Warriors near the fool's position.
The Aerial H/K didn't even move from its position, it simply launched a plasma rocket from the battery on its starboard wing, and Templar could only turn away as the Elite was sent on his Great Journey.
How many did we lose?Two, Shas'ui.
Templar raised his head in time to see the massive transport rise into the air with the H/K Tank beneath it. Two additional thrusters located on the raised aft portion of the fuselage allowed it to leave the battlefield with impressive speed. Seconds later a pair of Covenant Banshees raced after the fleeing machines and another Phantom dropped into the yard. This time it unloaded a Hunter pair before rocketing off into orbit. It did not meet the same fate as its predecessor but only just. The pilot had been better and avoided one of the spears of purple light that were probably plasma rockets.
"Templar," Sol beckoned him from where the H/K had broken through the building.
Templar stood and cautiously advanced on Sol's position. The promising young Fire Warrior stood in front of what looked like an access ramp into an underground hangar of some kind. The hanger was brilliantly lit and only the bulk of the H/K had prevented the light from escaping earlier.
"Out of my way, Grunts!" the Elite said gruffly and shoved Sol out of his way.
Sol stood, one hand clasping the close-combat blade over his right shoulder, and the other clutching his plasma carbine in a trembling grip. Templar placed one hand on the Fire Warrior's shoulderguard and opened a private channel.
"Let it go, Sol. You are not the one whose ignorance got over half his squad killed."
"Someone should send him on his Great Journey," the young Fire Warrior said with great disdain.
Templar privately agreed but it would do no good for the already low morale of his cadre if he voiced that opinion. The rest of their Hunter-Cadre, all that had survived the compromised covert operation, gathered around the entrance in a loose formation. The Elite commander, the remaining two commandos, and the Hunter pair cautiously advanced down the ramp. The commando must have been new to the fighting on this Terra because he should have been cautious from the beginning.
It had been initially thought that the Hegemony's deployed Sector Army could easily wipe out the resisting forces on this Terra but that had not been the case. The mechanized forces of SkyNet seemed innumerable and they evolved at frightening rates thanks to the technology that was being scattered all over the planet on various battlefields. Templar had heard the stories about the human purges the Elite Sector Commander had authorized in this city. The StarSpawn forces had been charged with that for not even the most disillusioned Fire Warrior could bring themselves to exterminate unarmed humans. There were now rumors that said the humans had utterly decimated every Firebase that had been set up in the newest purge. There was no doubt in Templar's mind that this Earth would fall, his own empire had after all, but it would not fall easily.
"Rearguard advance," the Elite said over the Covenant BattleNet.
Templar contacted them on the Tau open-squad channel, "Two-by-two. Burstcannon up front and to the rear. Dedicated snipers in the middle. "
Templar took his place at the fore and wasn't surprised when Sol took a place beside him. The two advanced down a long, wide ramp close to the left wall. There were a multitude of H/K treads marring the otherwise pristine surface of the ramp. Templar had been inside several SkyNet facilities before and he was always impressed immaculate everything was. It almost reminded him of the Tau warships he had been stationed on for much of his adult life. That line of thought would only lead to bitterness so Templar refocused his concentration on the task at hand.
The Fire Warriors emerged into a long, high ceiling hanger with multiple sets of H/K sized doors lining both walls. There were docking ports for a dozen H/K's. From the intelligence reports that Templar had read each port should have had full repair, maintenance, and upgrading equipment. Instead each stood as empty and silent as the open space down the center of the hanger.
"Move up," the Elite commander barked with a remnant of his previous confidence.
"Spread out," Templar ordered the cadre.
The Fire Warriors fanned out behind the Elites and Hunters as they all approached the three-meter tall doors at the end of the hangar. Once the Elites were within three meters the doors slid into the walls. The Elite commander was about to go in when Templar clamped a hand around his wrist.
"Sir, I do not believe that is a good idea. I have never heard of a base letting anyone in like this. It could be a trap."
The Elite roughly disengaged his hand and bent down to growl in Templar's face, "Then it will be my honor to foil this trap and bring glory to the Elites. Stay here if you are afraid. No, I order you to stay here. We don't need cowards holding us back."
With that said the commander beckoned his men forward and they advanced down a wide hallway that the Hunters had to crouch to fit into.
Templar recited a calming meditation before addressing his troopers, "Sentry positions. Stay alert. Anything can happen."
Templar watched as his troopers spread out to cover the area and guard the backs of the headstrong Elites.
"This is Kais. I have sent down our remaining recon drones."
"Acknowledged," Templar said as the tiny drones zipped past him and into the recesses of the weapons factory.
A short time later the doors slammed and the voice of the Elite came across several different frequencies of the Covenant BattleNet.
"This is Ukit'lnmannee requesting immediate reinforcements," there was a pause for ragged coughing, "There is no enemy presence but they have left substantial- "
The roar of a Hunter cut the Elite off and then his own roars of pain deafened Templar. Then all was silent until Kais contacted Templar.
"Get out of there, Templar. The base has been set to autodestruct! You have five minutes."
"Topside! Move!" Templar barked, just as the doors leading to the interior of the base slammed close.
The lights went out and plunged them all into darkest night. Templar's visor automatically switched to night vision and he was relieved when he saw that the sudden change in lighting hadn't slowed his Fire Warriors in the slightest. Templar was quick to join them in their evacuation. They made it up the ramp but a metal wall had appeared where they had entered. The demolition team was affixing charges to it even as Templar came to a stop.
"Everyone get back!" Templar shouted as the team finished.
The cadre backed up nearly to the bottom of the ramp and turned away.
"Detonation in three, two, one!" the senior demolitions Fire Warrior triggered the multiple det-packs.
A tremendous explosion shook the ground and stray pieces of debris hit the backs of the Fire Warriors. Templar turned back to the surface and was relieved to see the deepening shades of twilight. Then the entire cadre was racing for the wide hole in the roof of the entry ramp. Quickly, far more quickly than most beings would have given the squad of Fire Warriors credit for, the entire cadre was hurtling themselves over the rubble. The Devilfish was waiting there for them with its deployment ramp actually touching the ground. Templar waited for his entire team to board before he himself did. Templar grabbed the handrail as the Devilfish quickly rose into the air and soared away from the building. The ramp retracted and the blast doors closed as Templar worked his way forward to Kais' command alcove. He watched as the buildings imploded spectacularly below them. Templar shook his head at the scene and didn't notice Kais' doing the same.
Both wondered who would explain this debacle to the Sector Commander.
Both prayed it wouldn't be them.