The troop-hold of a Covenant Phantom was an entirely different environment when occupied by an ISMC Special Forces squad. The squad was organized into four, four-Marine Teams composed of a pair of Tau, a human, and a T-X model Terminator. General Perry had been adamant that his forces integrate at the most basic level because of the wildly varying circumstances one of his squad's could find itself in. None of the humans had liked it but they had been bent, sometimes painfully, under Perry's iron will.
At least they get along with the Tau well enough, Perry thought from his seat beside the squad leader.
"May I speak freely, sir?" Captain McClane asked loudly because everyone had their helmets off and the enclosed space practically vibrated with the multitude of voices. Perry nodded and the Captain took a minute to realize that was the only response he was getting. "Why'd you pick this squad? I can think of several others who've had higher scores in the 'Dome."
Perry nodded in agreement, "Yes, but your squad has jelled the best. This kind of operation needs a squad that's like family. You've come the closest to that so far."
A soulful melody filled the troop-hold as someone piped music through their helmet's speakers. There was a loud conversation and then what sounded crystals raining from the sky began to compete with the original music. The opposing styles of music were not altogether uncomplimentary. There was good-natured jostling among the Tau and humans as to whose music was superior while the beautiful visages of the T-X's merely took it all in.
"Touchdown in sixty, Marines," their Kor pilot contacted Perry and McClane by their personal comm.'s.
Captain McClane looked at Perry before the General shrugged, "It's your squad."
McClane stood and bellowed in the same motion, "Shut it! We touchdown in less than a minute. Seal your suits, though some of you could 'prolly do with a dose of radiation. Might make you right in the head. Don't forget to 'wine-and-dine' 'em. Sucks when they don't put out cause you didn't treat 'em right."
"Sumah us nevah learn! Right, Stillman?" Sergeant Hayes yelled to her team leader.
"Damnit, Hayes! What don't you understand about shut it!"
"Uhm, tha' it part?"
"After this mission we're going to have us a little chat, Hayes," McClane turned to sit before roaring, "Check your seals and pop your anti-rads!"
Perry suppressed the urge to smile at the familiar antics. The loss of the close camaraderie of leading a squad was something he had yet to come to terms with. He had always nominally commanded the Special Forces in North America but the nature of TechCom had kept his duties no larger than the company level for the most part. Now he was personally responsible for close to two hundred squadrons, their deployments, training, supply, as well as overseeing Special Forces R&D. Sometimes it was very overwhelming.
No time for that now. Concentrate on the mission.
Perry took a small cylinder from his waist belt and shook two pills into his mouth. They burned all the way down but it was better than dying of acute radiation sickness if his suit was breached. He put on his helmet and locked the seals down. Once his HUD came up and all systems were in the green he 'wined-and-dined' his weapons. Perry placed a fresh battery pack in his plasma carbine and made sure his KE-10 and R-& PAK had full ammo loads. Then he powered up each of his weapons. Around him the air did seen to whine with a squad's worth of high-tech weaponry being activated. After the captain checked his team leaders' seals; Perry checked his. McClane returned the favor and they both reclaimed their seats.
Less than ten seconds after Captain McClane sat the pilot announced, "Touchdown! Good luck, troopers."
Since it was a non-combat landing Captain McClane and General Perry were the first on the ground. The Phantom had landed at one of the four staging areas that had been erected around the Machine-Humans fortress. The landing field was full of ships ferrying Marines and ordinance to the surface. A Marine Captain and a six-Marine security detail marched up to Perry's troopers as the last emerged from the Phantom.
"Welcome to Area One, General," the Captain spoke via his external speakers. "I am Captain Ui'Slay. Preparations are complete, General, if you would follow me."
"Lead the way."
The Captain and his detail about-faced sharply and marched down a path lined by guide-lights set into the ground. Before long the party was quick-stepping through the large compound of armories, barracks, and garages. For such a large encampment there was surprisingly little activity on the rugged streets. They came to the edge of Area One and saw the reason why. A massive cloud of grit and dust billowed up from the direction of the energy shield protecting the fortress. The Captain led them into a garage on their right. It was empty of vehicles but was filled with grimy drilling equipment. In the center of the room was a perfectly cut hole.
The Captain wasted no words and double-timed it down the steep ramp on alloy sheathed hooves. At the bottom, roughly three meters down, was an ovular chamber with a transport sled in the center. The sled was set on a slightly raised platform and hovered a dozen centimeters above the mag-rail.
"It's more than two klicks to the shield," Ui'Slay explained as he and his security team climbed in the control section of the sled.
There were four sections to the sled and there was ample room for Perry's squad. They were off with barely a jolt and accelerated with dizzying speed. The tunnel walls were smooth and oddly reflective because of the molecular bonding used to make them stable. Suddenly the walls changed to the brightly reflective silver that was a trademark of SkyNet engineering and to which the Tau had quite literally taken a shine to.
"The enemy built their fortress with a trench that circles the entire perimeter. Scans indicate it is more than half a kilometer deep. We believe the Machine-Humans may be using geo-thermal energy to provide additional power to their base."
The sled stopped several meters before the tunnel ended. There was a gap of maybe five meters between them and a large drainage tunnel spilling a thick river of brownish-black sludge into the trench.
"McClane," Perry said over the short-range squad-wide channel, "Take Alpha and Charlie to find out if they have secondary or tertiary power sources. I'll take Bravo and Delta to the power core. If they don't have them then secure the evac route." Perry switched to external speakers, "How long until-"
General Perry's question was answered when twenty meters above their heads the electric buzzing of the energy shield vanished. The bridge, a gargantuan monstrosity despite having been constructed in less than forty-eight hours, unleashed a volley of fire from the various automated weapon systems decorating it. Behind this suppressive fire came the first assault wave of Marines being escorted by Hammerhead tanks.
"Permission to join the assault, General?" Captain Ui'Slay asked with a peculiar excitement in his voice.
"Permission granted. Good luck, Captain."
"Thank you, General," the Tau Captain snapped an impressive human salute, "And to you, sir."
Ui'Slay's security detail came to attention and saluted. General Perry returned the salute and the Marines climbed a ladder leading to the scaffolding proper where they could hustle to the assault force.
"Let's go, Marines."
Two of the T-X's in the squad leaped the gap and dug their fingers into the ceiling in order to not be swept away by the crushing flow of sludge. The drainage tunnel was only two meters high and the sludge filled it almost to the top. The Terminators had tow-lines clipped to their waists that led to similar clips on their counterparts on the bridge. The T-X's latched onto the ceiling and settled there with electromagnetic boots and gloves. Perry clipped his waist harness to the taut line and pulled himself across the gap up to the drainage tunnel's ceiling. Once there he placed a palm and foot against it.
"Mag-lock," he spoke softly so his external speakers wouldn't kick in.
Some of the weight on that side of his body disappeared. Perry slowly put his other hand on the ceiling and nodded slightly when that hand adhered to the metallic surface. The T-X's moved further up the tunnel, spooling more line out, and Perry followed. The remainder of the squad quickly joined Perry and the remaining T-X's leaped across the gap to cling to the ceiling.
It was arduous going for the squad. The Terminators could have made much better but the organic element found crawling like spiders a strange mode of locomotion. So it was with more than a little relief that Perry spotted the first maintenance shaft. It was half as large as the drainage tunnel with actual catwalks lining it. In short order Perry and his two Teams were quick-stepping it down one side with McClane's Teams on the other. Perry was in the middle of the formation with the rearguard of Bravo and the point-Marine of Delta flanking him.
Bravo's point-Marine came to a halt and signed for someone to open the hatch blocking the way. Bravo-lead, First Lieutenant Ui'Fade, took up position and signed for everyone to be ready. Perry dropped to one knee and switched his carbine to rail-rifle mode. The Tau and Terminator flanking him dropped prone and remained equally motionless. Once everyone was in position Ui'Fade undogged the hatch and kicked it open in two smooth motions. The T-X in the lead moved through the doorway aggressively with Sergeant Simmons right behind it. Across the shaft Alpha Team replicated the maneuver. No shots echoed back down the shaft and Ui'Fade signed 'all clear' before entering the next room herself.
Perry and his temporary Team quickly joined Bravo. It was a service station for this section of drainage tunnels. A catwalk filled with spare parts and tools lined a pit in which sat two odd-looking hovercraft. From the claws and scooping mechanism in the front Perry guessed it was used to clear large obstructions. The real prize came in the form of a computer terminal four meters to their left. Perry signed for the T-X to interface and the Machine nearly leaped to obey. There was a similar device on the opposite side of the pit. Soon the T-X had directions to the primary power core and the squad took turns downloading it into their navigational computers in case they were separated. Their route would take them almost exclusively through maintenance areas.
Perry was switching his carbine back to plasma-mode when a faint tremor passed through the chamber. Whatever diversion General Conner had planned was undoubtedly having an effect. Perry's Teams went down a ladder well a meter away from their terminal while McClane's crew went through another hatch. Perry silently wished them luck as he climbed down the ladder.
The trek to the power core was almost completely silent except for the light footsteps the Marines could do nothing about. Sometimes the maintenance corridors were so wide an entire Team could walk side-by-side. Other times they were so narrow that the Marines could barely squeeze through with all their gear. The one constant was the machinery that dotted the walls. Some of it looked as though it had not been repaired since Judgment Day.
Once they made it to their objective, a foreboding hatch, Perry had everyone alternate their weapon modes to which suited them the best. The General left his carbine on plasma-mode but undid the safety latch on his R-7 PAK. Bravo Team's T-X was the first through the hatch after Ui'Slay pulled it open. The T-X was pulled upwards, its legs kicking futilely, and then was gone. Almost instantaneously an alert message popped up onto Perry's HUD. It warned that Special Forces Unit-403 was off-line. Sergeant Simmons was through the hatch before the message had appeared with a Boom-Stick in hand. He lobbed it underhand straight up and dove backwards through the hatch. A mechanical claw, that was the impression that Perry go, sheared right through the shields and armor around Simmons' ankle. The Marine's foot came away like a cork and Ui'Fade closed the hatch.
The tremor that shook the corridor went unnoticed as Simmons was tended to by his Team leader and everyone watched. Perry knew that the suit had been breached but the Sergeant's vitals were strong. The S.F.E. had sealed the breach nearly simultaneously with its occurrence.
"One-Five-Three, you take point. Ui'Fade take its spot," Perry glanced down at Simmons who had his back to the wall, "Simmons, watch our exfil. point. Let's move it! We're not getting paid by the hour."
The T-X flanking Perry took point and Lieutenant Ui'Fade took its position. Unit-153 opened the hatch and stepped confidently through with her particle-equipped cannon at the ready. Once the all-clear was given the rest of the unit came out to see the fate of the previous point-Marine.
Pieces were all that was left and they were scattered everywhere.
"Is the CPU salvageable?" Perry asked, trying to set an example for the team leaders on how to deal with Machines in their squad.
"Possibly," Unit-153 answered, picking up a crystalline chip and stowing it in her harness.
"Let's go."
The unit had emerged on an observational balcony overlooking the control area for the power core. The core itself was enclosed inside a massive pylon in the center of the room. Massive banks of monitoring equipment were set up on blast-shields that dotted the four sides of the room. Relatively narrow gaps were left in the massive shields to allow access to the core. Unfortunately energy shields now protected those entry points as well.
"One-Five-Three, hack the shield on this section. Delta, make sure we don't have anymore guests."
Perry looked at the shattered remains of the H/K Guardian that had been blown across the entire balcony. Spider H/K's had been bad enough but Guardians had always been a nightmare to get past. Delta moved down the right ramp and Perry's team moved down the left. As Unit-153 worked the sounds of an intense firefight washed over them seconds before a tremendous explosion shook the room. The three members of Delta-Team came back, one with her shields still visibly recharging, just after the energy shield went down.
"Everyone take a marker. I want it done in less than thirty."
Perry and his Marines moved quickly around the pylon as they placed fusion charges in critical areas to catalyze an irreversible cascade failure of the core's systems. They regrouped, Delta on point, and double-timed it back to the breach in the energy shields. Sergeant Ui'Faye was on point and so it was he that received a rail-round in the head. A warning message that the Sergeant's EEG had flat-lined appeared even before his lifeless body hit the floor. Sergeant Hayes dragged her teammate back with a wordless cry of rage that she unknowingly broadcast over her external speakers.
"Passionate cries of loss?"
The voice made every molecule of Perry's being bristle with profound hatred. He activated the remote viewer of his KE-10 and placed it on the floor just peeking out from the blast shield.
"Don't forget to change position. Don't know if rail-rounds can penetrate the shield." Delta-Lead reminded them all.
Perry changed position but left his KE-10 where it was.
"I thought Captain Perry wanted his Special Forces to be emotionless like the Machines. Has TechCom fallen so far since it betrayed my family?"
A figure parted the ranks of Machine-Humans and a face Perry had dreamt about for months stepped into view. Red hair, baleful green eyes, and a perpetual air of disgust were things Perry had learned to ignore when Alexander Stone was part of General Conner's Recon/Security detail with Reese and Luna. The cybernetic enhancement that had replaced his left eye and hand were new but that only made what he had done worse in Perry's eyes.
"I suppose it doesn't matter how Machine-like TechCom becomes. You're still only human, and alien, and Machine. I never would have thought- Okay, who's going to die first? Who's going to be a hero? Your mission's failed. You probably set your timers for no more than five minutes. This'll take far less than that, trust me, and then I'll disarm your little explosives."
Perry watched the remaining members of the unit as they checked their weapons and switched their fire-modes for maximum kill-radius. That meant a mixture of grenade launchers, rocket modules, and particle attachments. Perry supercharged his plasma-mode, unconcerned that it halved his battery life, and drew his R-7 PAK. There were at least fifty Machine-Humans spread around the blast-shield armed with everything from plasma repeaters to at least one full-fledged missile launcher.
"Aww, the babies not coming out to play?"
He's gone completely out of his mind, Perry thought just as a Boom-Stick shook the room.
"Let's rooock!" Simmons screamed, his speakers amplifying the volume tenfold.
"Time to terminate," Perry thought he heard Unit-153 whisper as it passed with two modified particle cannons in at the ready.
Hayes and Stillman went to one knee three meters on either side and fired their entire load of grenades in less than two seconds into the two remaining clusters of standing Machine-Humans. Unit-153 fired sustained beams of particle energy in opposite directions and hosed them across the disoriented ranks of the enemy. Perry caught sight of Stone as the traitor put a high-explosive round point-blank into Simmons helmet. The Sergeant's warning icon came up again but this time the EEG was flat-lined.
He's not getting away this time, Perry vowed, scooping up his KE-10 and charging towards the observational balcony.
"Get our people out of here!" he roared to Ui'Fade, the senior Marine team leader, over a private comm.-line, "Double-time it to Evac Alpha." Without thinking Perry crouched and leaped three meters straight up to the guardrail of the balcony. "Don't wait for me! That's an order!"
"But, sir-"
"Do it!"
Perry closed the channel and tried to contact McClane. All he got was comm.-static and the General could only hope McClane's mission had gone more smoothly.
"I.R." Perry commanded and the thermal patterns that Stone had left behind became as clear as day.
The pattern looked like blood-splatter and Perry hoped the bastard was in a lot of pain. Perry raced after the cowardly man through myriad corridors. It seemed as though he would never catch up until he came to a service area hatch. He cautiously stepped through and then sprinted to the edge of the center pit as hard as he could.
Alexander Stone was making his escape via one of the drainage tunnel maintenance craft. Perry jumped four meters into the truck-bed and fired a burst directly at the back of Stone's head. Moving impossibly fast, the traitor ducked to the side and sprang up into the air as the maintenance craft began to move. Perry spun with his carbine at the ready but Stone's right foot connected with the weapon while the other hit Perry directly in the visor. The Marine General was lifted off his feet and hit the forward wall of the truck-bed. A massive tremor shook the structure around them, causing the maintenance craft to veer into a wall, and Stone stumbled. Perry drew his R-7 and fired at Stone's black heart. Somehow the Machine-Human leader dipped a shoulder and the rocket detonated against the ceiling. Stone was on him before Perry could fire again and wrenched the weapon from his startled grasp. Stone grabbed Perry by the throat ribbing and lifted him into the air. Despite the roar of the drainage tunnel they had turned down, Perry could hear every word Stone uttered from his mad lips.
"Well, well, well," Stone gloated, "They thought they could send a fakie after me. I wonder how much pressure your shield system can take before it fizzles and I snap your neck? I've never seen a fakie with a broken neck."
"You always did like the sound of your own voice, Stone."
"Perry?" Stone exclaimed in disbelief and the General chose that moment to fire his KE-10 into the cyborg's gut.
An energy shield flared as Stone was flung against the far side of the truck, dropping Perry in the process, but then fizzled out within two seconds. Stone howled as his flesh was shredded. Without warning Perry's sidearm exploded, driving him back, and a suit-breach warning flared to life on his HUD. Perry held his hand up and noted with a strange detachment that three of his digits were missing and only the locked-down joints of the glove held the other two in place.
Must be in shock.
Tremors started rocking his body without even asking his permission.
"My how the might have fallen. I remember how afraid I used to be of you three, especially that maniac Reese. They used to call you three invincible, unbeatable, the three warrior-prophets of John Conner. Now look at you. Injured, weak… so very human." Stone stepped close then and held the barrel of his custom-made sidearm to Perry's faceplate. "And me? I'm superior to anything that's ever lived and died. I'll-"
Perry stopped listening because his SFE's automated med-comp finally administered a dose of a very powerful stimulant and painkiller combination that sent Perry into overdrive. In the blink of an eye Perry drew his Tau Dueling Blade with his good hand, activated the particle emitter, and sliced Stone's arm off at the elbow. Perry stood with an underhand lunge to the sternum that Stone backpedaled away from. The nimble cyborg rolled around Perry and came up on his injured side. Perry turned with a leaping knee lift that was dodged with a contemptuous lean. A hand filled Perry's vision when he landed. He felt himself be lifted and then driven towards the floor of the truck-bed. The impact was sensed more than felt because of a sickening wrenching sensation in his neck that diverted all his attention. His hand went limp and released its hold on the Dueling Blade. Stone held Perry's sword-hand up with his own blood-covered stump.
"Turn-about is fairplay, after all," and with a smile Stone sliced Perry's hand off at the wrist.
The paint was muted thanks to the painkiller so Perry's only response was a quiet grunt. Stone grabbed his visor again but this time the cyborg squeezed. Fine cracks spider-webbed across his visual field.
"You want to know why Conner always let us take more risks than Reese. Why he kept Reese, one idiot sergeant out of hundreds, up his ass all the time," Stone whispered intimately, his organic and bloodshot eye peeking from between his fingers. "Why he gave you and Luna so much more leeway after Reese went back? Think about it Perry, though I know your inferior intellect will find it difficult. What mission did he need Reese for? Why did he let him volunteer? He could have ordered you or Luna, both better qualified to go, and you would have gone without hesitation. He could have sent all three of you." Stone squeezed harder and Perry's SFE began to warn him of an impending breach in atmospheric integrity.
The fear of death had long since left the General and all that remained was hatred for the man that held his life in a cybernetic hand.
"I figured it out, Perry. Conner sent Reese back alone to impregnate his bitch of a mother so that he could exist. That's why they had that pathetic father-son relationship even if it was ass-backwards. That's why Conner didn't give a damn about me or my brother. He knew you and Luna would be vital to the Resistance so he never hesitated to save your asses."
"Well, tell me genius, why didn't Reese give the message to put a bullet in you and your brother's brains?"
Stone's face went blank before twisting with madness, "Time's up, Captain."
One more squeeze was all it took for the scrubbed air to begin escaping and for the contaminated air to seep in. Perry was lifted into the air and was shocked to discover the craft was precariously balanced at the end of the drainage tunnel.
"One down, two to go."
-that should be textbook-
Perry palmed a fusion charge with his maimed limb and with a twitch activated the spike in his armor's elbow. Stone screamed shrilly when Perry drove his elbow back to pierce the cyborg's organic eye and dropped the General. Perry stood, slapped the charge onto Stone's chest, and a spinning sidekick sent his most hated foe over the edge. Perry watched with a macabre glee as Stone plummeted screaming only to be silenced when the charge obliterated most of his body in a flash of light.
"Activate-" Perry coughed liquidly before continuing, "-transponder. Activate emergency breach proto-"
Perry broke down into hacking coughs that coated the inside of his helmet with blood. A tube extended from near his collar and Perry obligingly opened his mouth. The tube snaked into his mouth and down his trachea where it sent filaments into his lungs to suck out the fluid that was building up. It was not a pleasant feeling but the tube would keep him breathing even if he became unable to do so. Several different drug cocktails were pumped into his bloodstream to keep him alive. He could have survived the radiation in the air and his injuries but breathing caustic industrial run-off was killing him.
The search lights of a ship roused Perry and he wondered when he had passed out into the truck-bed. Then he realized the craft was not ISMC.
General Justin Perry's world became fire and thunder.