That's the Captain's helmet...
Icewater flooded J.D's veins, and his pulse sped up. The second he recognized the helmet, all the marks of increased adrenaline came up at once.
He'd seen that helmet once. On that ONI officer's head, aboard Say my Name, Granted, he'd had all of 5 minutes to look, as seeing her helmeted head on the view screen on the interior of his SOIEV had been the only look he'd gotten at her. Still, given that ONI officers crossing paths with Alpha-9 were not a common occurrence ( and that was a true Godsend ), J.D hadn't forgotten hers so easily.
The color, contours, the visor- all of it. Yep, it was hers all right. It'd been on her head when they dropped. And , now it was...stuck in a wall. Right like that, no question about it.
The Captain's helmet...its here
Was the Captain dead ? If her helmet is here, then, it makes-
Hey now. Don't go there.
Slowly reaching out a hand, J.D grasped the edge of the helmet. Instantly, images of all the ODST helmet's he'd ever seen separated from their owners came to mind, flashing into his mind's eye in a half-second.
A lot of them had ended badly for their wearers. Not all, but many. The Covenant was thorough that way.
He inhaled, then breathed out sharply. It didn't do much, but it was better than letting his thoughts run off like a freight train. He couldn't afford to lose focus, despite what was right in front of him. It looked grim, there was no question on that-
The monitor that it was sunk into was still active, albeit badly damaged. The power flow was weak at best, but it was still there. There was at least enough for the monitor to be covered in a badly flickering, pulsing image of none other than the Superintendent him( it ? )self. The jade-green circle, with the pair of white dots in the center, was somehow still doing its job of being a reassuring symbol of the city. Seeing it could've had a considerable morale effect that would've done a lot of good right now ..as if there were any locals around to see it, though.
Stepping closer, J.D kept ahold of his M7S, sliding a finger off the trigger, as he carefully leaned forward to look closer.
The helmet itself was jammed into the surface of the smashed up monitor screen, sticking out like an unmined diamond, half-buried in the rock around it. The space-blue headgear had clearly sustained some serious external damage- a section of its lower right chin area was sheared completely off, along with several deep, angry gouges along its left-hand side. On top of all that, charcoal black scorch marks stretched and scrawled all over it, like it'd been dropped in a fire.
There weren't any bloodstains on it. No, wait- there some was. Or, at least J.D assumed it was blood. The darkened smear spots dotted over the outside of the helmet couldn't have been water, as they were sticky to be touched.
Come on. You're no forensic expert. Still, looks enough like it...
That didn't stop him from doing it anyway, though. And it was obvious enough that the Captain's helmet had survived a heavy blast. J.D had seen enough plasma going off to know what its effects were, and finding the Captain's helmet, covered in all the residue marks of getting hit by Covenant fire, raised a whole slew of questions. None of which put him at ease.
He'd been looking for answers up till now, and he still was, but this discovery hadn't proved decisive at all.
How the heck did this even get here ...?
Well, he could tackle the most obvious questions first, of course. Not that helmets could levitate...
Glancing around the room, J.D refrained from activating VISR mode, but even without it, he easily spotted, by turning right, a gaping hole in the room's window. He didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the helmet had punched clean through it on its way in.
At once, he was irritated that he hadn't seen that earlier. Then again, he'd been looking for the source of the Superintendant's ( more than slightly ) vague signal, which probably wouldn't have turned out to be a hole in a window.
Well, that much was solved, but now the rest of the mystery come rolling in. As in, why/how did an ( ONI ) ODST helmet get launched through a window, even with an explosion propelling it ? Plasma blasts, if they didn't outright slag, incinerate, or disintegrate whatever ( whoever ) they hit. Even an ODST helmet, tough as they were and built to standards that blew rank and file Marine armor out of the water, should've made of more mist than metal after a direct hit by ordinance heavy enough to throw it. Well, it could handle a plasma grenade, but not much more .
The more he stared at both the helmet and the hole it'd entered through, the more confused J.D became. All the questions he had weren't answering themselves- more questions replaced them, and those were ones he didn't have answers to. It wasn't lost on him that not having answers to questions that actually mattered ( especially to him right here and now ) was something that tended to come with he territory whenever ONI was involved.
Even one of their helmets had him asking them now...
How could this helmet have gotten catapulted into the wall like this ? It should've been dust by now...
As if things didn't add up enough on their own. J.D had been soloing enemy territory for nearly half a standard day by now, and he'd found no hint or clue pointing to where the rest of Alpha-9's personnel ( including the Captain, if she could be called one of them ) had ended up- until now. All he had now, was a discarded helmet, and one that was jammed into the wall of a second story building.
..No logical way she could've lived if her helmet got lobbed all the way in here...no way
Logical..but- what else is there ?!
Nothing made sense. What J.D had found here hadn't told him anything that solved the real questions. As if that wasn't enough ( though, it was ), his overall situation hadn't changed, either. In fact, it had arguably gotten worse...if the worst-case scenario this helmet was pointing to was actually the case.
Maybe she's dead. I can't operate under the assumption she isn't... Maybe she's gone...but...
Going full worst-case scenario was not an ODST trait, but staring at the empty helmet, J.D couldn't deny he was definitely wondering how much of a chance the Captain had of not having wound up there. To be honest with himself, it didn't seem high.
His mind raced, as the ODST approached the window, stopping close by where the hole was, and staring out into the street below.
Just past it, the street lights on the other side were still on, but there were the only ones- everything past it was blacked out. There was barely enough illumination to reveal the rain that was still steadily falling. A salvo of artillery-like thunder cracked out from somewhere in the cloud bank overhead.
J.D's M7 was up, though not quite aimed, as he surveyed the scene. Spotting nothing and nobody, he turned back. Honestly, he didn't know for sure why he'd looked outside; it was like he expected the Captain to be standing or walking around down there, searching for it. As if that would've been what he'd have seen.
Needless to say. J.D didn't know who she was. He'd been asleep in his pod when the orders to drop had come in from her, and her name hadn't been mentioned in the 30 seconds or so between then and said pod getting positioned into the deployment bay. The Rookie had been asleep one second, and essentially been put right back to work the next. The epitome of military days, in other words.
It had been that way- right up till he'd woken up, and realized how much up a creek he was: Alone, in a city that was overflowing with Covenant forces, no idea where the rest of his unit was, and no idea what his mission in the aforementioned city even was. Taking the carrier that been over ( keyword, over ) the city had been clear enough; getting diverted at literally the last possible moment had not. And, now it'd led to a tidy laundry list of problems...
All of it stemmed from that Captain. Anger manifested itself within him, and his teeth gritted themselves.
Whoever that ladt was, she'd landed them in a royal mess. And, J.D was looking for her anyway.
She had to be ONI. Got to be. Comes in out of nowhere, and now she's gone like a ghost in this town.
Damn it...damn it...ok. Get rational about this.
His mission hadn't changed: find the rest of Alpha-9. Including the ONI Captain...which would likely cause its own special train of problems to follow and accumulate, but that couldn't be helped. What mattered right now was, he had to stay on the trail of what'd happened to Alpha-9, no matter how flimsy the leads he had got. If a shattered helmet stuck in a wall was the first hint he'd gotten after landing in this red zone of a situation, then he'd go with the only source that'd given it to him: The Super.
Of course, the Super it(him)self wasn't up to full snuff. The issues kept piling up here, and J.D was on his own. Even for an ODST, it was definitely suboptimal, at best. Given an objective to pursue, and a clear mission, a full squad of them were a juggernaut.
J.D didn't have his squad, though. Or a clear mission. This entire op had been ONI from beginning to end.
Exhaling again, he brought up the local neighborhood map in his HUD. Staying put wasn't going to do him any good, and the sooner he got moving again, the sooner he could begin making any kind of progress.
Son of a-
At once, he was greeted with a clump of red markers, moving as a group, down the length of the street that ran past the window off on the left-hand side.
The Covenant was rolling in. More importantly than that, they were close...
Very close. A second or so later, J.D noticed more hostile marks, but these ones were positioned as being in the same building as he was. That was all the sensors could tell him. It was as precise as they could get, but it leveled the playing field.
Some Covies were already closing on his position. The ones in the building weren't moving, but the ones outside were. Still, the former were definitely more in the way.
Finally. Got something. Not on my side, but activity, at least...
Hostile ones, though, and a lot more than some of them.
ID'ing hostiles had an immediate effect. He may not have any answers for what had happened to the Captain or his squad ( yet; God knew he wasn't anywhere near done looking ), but if there were Covies inbound....that he could do something about. It would be his first encounter of this deployment. J.D hadn't brought all this ammo and hardware to just lug it around for the PT of it.
He wouldn't charge them, though. Firstly, there were nearly a dozen of them. Second, there were two markers at the rear of the group that were moving pretty slowy- and those could be Hunters.
No way to be sure, of course. But, the ODST had fought them before, and knew the only things about them that mattered: They weren't the quickest of the Covenant's ground forces, and they were also some of the very deadliest.
At a minimum, that group had to have multiple Jiralhane in it. J.D liked the prospects of steering clear of them better.
Things had changed in a second. Putting his M7 up to his shoulder, J.D headed back the way he'd come, striding quickly back toward the corridor that fed down to where the stairwell was. Clearing his building was now the top priority, at least for the moment.
It was still dark when he reached it, so VISR mode came on again. The ODST didn't slow down as he walked, reaching the end of the corridor, hooking the bend, and descending the stairs. Some of the overhead lights had come back on, but they were so weak and dimmed, it wasn't enough.
Same as 3 out of 5 buildings he'd gone through or into up till now. The city's power grid wasn't fully operational, needless to say, and neither was the Super. Given that the latter handled the former, fluctuating lights left right and center wasn't that shocking. Besides, the shadows they gave off were often proving to be a useful way to stay hidden.
But, as it soon turned out, things weren't shadowy enough to hide the duo of Unggoy lumbering forward, a yard or so away from the bottom stair, as J.D got down there.
" Ree-ee-ah ! "
Between everyone, the aliens were more surprised. Both jumped off the floor at roughly the same time, waving their hands and shrieking in the high-pitched, reedy way that was normal for them.
Comical nature aside, J.D wasn't distracted. Pure reflex activated, and he shot them both before they could get over their initial panic. Like using a spray bottle to apply cleaner to a window, each alien got a quick blast. Glowing cyan blood spattered everywhere, as the Covenant collapsed rock- dead, in a puddle of the stuff.
Clowns. Why do the Covies even bother using 'em ? Meatshields. That's all they're good for.
It really didn't take much to finish off Unggoy. Honestly, J.D had been relieved to find it'd only been only them, and not one of their Jiralhane officers. Mostly because he didn't have an M90 CAWS/ M45D shotgun. Not for the first time, he thought Romeo must've been an intellectual for wanting to bring one of them on this drop.
J.D didn't linger. He stopped only long enough to strip the dead Covies of their carried supply of plasma grenades, supplementing his own stash of 3 fragmentation ones. He briefly considered taking one of their pistols, but long drilled instincts and training told him to keep hold of his M6C/SOCOM. The suppressed handgun had dropped with him on every deployment, along with the M7S, and giving it up didn't sit quite right.
But, even so-
Could pull off an overcharge with these... His hand brushed one of the energy weapons. And then a Jiralhane's an easier target times 3 without that shield...
The more gear you carried, the slower you were, and he didn't have unlimited space on himself to carry a whole arsenal. But, having an energy weapon would let him crack the enemy's body armor shields quicker, and said shields were constantly proving to be a major obstacle in taking out the heavier Covenant infantry, not to mention stopping a Ghost cold before it could run you over and smash you into the pavement like a beach ball under a truck's wheels.
The only other Covie firearm the Rookie had favored that much in the past had been the Carbine, but he hadn't found one of those yet. Plasma handguns weren't that high on his list compared a Carbine, which any UNSC servicemember knew was the last thing you wanted shooting at you from a distance. Aside from a beam rifle, of course.
Mulling the options, J.D decided that if he did find a Carbine, he'd take it, and leave the plasma handgun. For now, though, he'd carry it. The thing could prove useful, in its own way.
So, tucking the alien bombs into his hip storage pouches, the ODST stood, and kept going. He'd been idle long enough upstairs, and now he had to keep moving.
Leaving the dead Covenant behind, the Rookie made his way back down to where he'd entered the building. Except, unlike earlier, he didn't take the same route back out onto the street- the street map he'd pulled up a few minutes ago had shown the enemy advancing along that same road-
Stopping again, J.D pulled up the map. Checking its feed, he found that the hostile markers were still moving along their route, and at roughly the same pace.
J.D checked more closely, zooming in on the moving marks. They weren't running, at least. That much he could tell, and it worked to his advantage.
Must be a Grunt pack. Their commanders always have to walk them slowly; punks can't go that quick...
There was a substantial number of them, coming at around a dozen. It was at least a pair of squads, with no doubt several Jiralhane mixed in with them running the whole show.
Studying their route, J.D saw that they would go past the outside of the building on the right. If they kept going that way, they'd be well out his own route if he went off toward the left. He could circumvent them pretty easily that way, according to what the map told him.
As plans went, it was workable enough. Provided it didn't fall victim to what tended to sabotage most plans in general, such as any variables he couldn't control, then it was a good plan. Well, if it could be called a plan, which J.D didn't actually think it did. Not
Yeah...yeah, let's go and give it.
He closed the map, and turned left.
A doorway directly in front of him had its lock glowing pale green; it was open. Maybe the Super had done it, or maybe it'd been left that way. Either way, it was the way ahead, and as J.D drew near, his M7S was already up, with a finger hovering beside the trigger.
He reached the door, and hit the lock. It responded, and the doors slid smoothly open.
Stepping through, J.D crossed into another corridor. It was similar to what he'd walked through on the upper floor, with more doors lining both walls, and about as dimly lit. Unlike the other one, though, it followed a more crooked path, bending off toward the right.
Going along it, J.D ended up at another doorway. Like the one that let him into this corridor, this one's lock was green-lit.
Opening it, and stepping through, the ODST then entered into a courtyard, or some kind of park, by the looks of it.
J.D had half been thinking he'd get greeted by a barrage of plasma within a second or so of the doors opening, but the area wound up being deserted.
The area was surrounded by soaring, slab-smooth walls that angled outward near their tops. All around the perimeter, the tiled floor that had lined the hallway out here ran all the way around the courtyard, with short flights of stairs set into it that led down an enclosed area of hip-high grass. The wispy flora was growing in clumps all over the oval-shaped patch of ground, separated from each other by swaths of mud that was getting pelted by the rain. There were a few benches set out, placed carefully and neatly in a pattern of general symmetry.
Mud that gave way under J.D's boots, and splashed as he jogged through it. Reeds of grass wisped past his armored legs.
Within seconds, he was most of the way across the yard, and near the arched doorway that was set into its opposite side. The ODST made right for it, spotting the now-familiar green glow of an activated door lock pointing the way.
Is that your doing, Super ? Thanks, buddy.
He stopped only long enough to check the position of the Covenant squad traveling down the street outside-they were still on their earlier course, and at the same pace.
Good news. He could still slip past them. Some of him wanted to engage- even if that resulted in running into some Jiralhanae.
But, Gunny Buck had drilled his squad well; if you're alone, you're a specter, not an army. J.D was sure as heck alone, so unless the Covies jumped him, or otherwise made getting around them impossible, he knew to avoid them was wiser. He could engage them in asymmetric combat, but he would do his best not to wade into a full-strength unit of them, with nobody else to fight with him. Discretion was, here at least, the better element of valor.
I shouldn't be sneaking past you. If I had my squad, I wouldn't be.
J.D crossed the yard, opened the door on the other side, and walked into what turned out to be the virtually unlit storeroom for some shop. Stacked rows of boxes and crates were lined up in relatively neat rows, along with handcarts and dollies. Instead of simply being left scattered all over the place, though, they actually looked to have been organized somewhat, as if the owners of this place had expected they'd be back here before too long- soon as the Covenant invasion was wrapped up, of course, they must've thought.
The ODST didn't bother to read what might be in the boxes that were filling said room though, as he briskly traveled through the store, and back out onto the street.
Back out into the rain, which had actually increased. The millions of droplets were distorting the way the light came off what rare street lamp was still on, and the hissing sound of the hammering water was everywhere. It was a full-fledged storm, and it showed no hint of abating soon.
Not that it was a serious issue, though. Storms could a useful shroud.
Another map check, as the ODST paused behind the corner of a parked ( abandoned ) city bus for cover, his M7S up and ready. The Covenant squad was even more distant now...
You come this way, and you're screwed...or I'll be.
What's your move, guys...
The Covenant moved on, though. After another few seconds, they'd moved clear out of sensor range, and the moving markers vanished. Given the scale of the area, it was enitrely possible that another one would come by for more than long enough for the ODST to get clear.
With some breathing room to work with, he had space to actually consider his options.
Lowering the SMG's muzzle a tad, he eased back around the bus, leaning his shoulders and upper back into it.
He was by himself, once again. Slipped the Covenant's net, but he was still in the mixer up to his chin, and without anybody around on his side. He was still one ODST against what was basically an army.
Well, technically not. The Superintendent was observing him. Or, at least J.D could only assume that he(it) was, given how the AI had steered him to reach the location of the Captain's helmet, using street signs as an improvised PA system. It wasn't a glitch, or some kind of malfunction with its systems- or sure didn't seem like it. On the contrary, the AI was evidently...assisting him, on his(it) own volition.
Was that even actually true, though ? Superindentent AI's didn't do things like this: Reaching out to someone, and giving them hints and clues to where to go in town, for any reason. They weren't Smart AIs of a Navy vessel; they were responsible for running a city. Managing its municipal systems,etc. Routine things like that was normal for them, so either this Superident had some additional programming...or it wasn't exactly a true Superindentant at all.
You're my only lead, Super, if that's even what you are. I need what intel you can give me, or I've got nothing. No comms, no designated RV point- nothing. I'm standing here with Covies crawling all over the neighborhood, and all the ones around it.
That was pretty much it. The AI had to keep helping him. If it(he?) was, J.D really needed some more of it right now.
He also was in need of a drink, if the dryness lingering in his mouth like cotton balls was any indicator. It'd been bothering him for a while, and now that things weren't filled with plasma, he decided that he could take a sip or so.
A quick one. Got to get back on task, but my mouth is like sandpaper right now
Reaching down to his canteen, he plucked it loose, hefted a few times to gauge how full it was ( out of long honed habit ), and found it still had a good amount left. Panning his view around, he didn't see any hint of the Covenant, and examing his HUD map, there were no new markers either.
Alright. I have a few seconds...
Having cleared the area, and with the bus still serving as cover, J.D stowed his M7S on one of his armor's hip hardpoint, and finally removed his helmet. Reaching up, he undid the clasps holding in place with slippery fingers, and pulled it off, letting the rain instantly drench his close-shaven head.
He was now standing under a showerhead, basically, but that didn't matter. J.D welcome breathing in the misty air, soaked or not, as he drank several gulps worth from the container. The water wasn't as cold as it could've been, but that didn't matter either. Water when you really needed it was always pure gold.
One outstanding issue was taken care of. A lot others were left, but now it was one less now.
The last few drops of the chilled liquid were still trickling down the back of his throat, as J.D placed both the canteen and his helmet where they both belonged.
It was time to find another way to get in touch with the Superintendent, and continue on his track. One way or the other, he was sticking with his plan.
He was an ODST, but more than that, he was an Alpha-9.
" Reyakyak ! "
The dead Jackal that was spawled in the middle of the pavement beside the road, the back of its head riddled with holes, was- or , had been- headed toward that sniper tower that was dominating the center of. the traffic intersection at the end that the sentry would ever get there.
Leaning over the dead alien , the ODST studied what ordinance and weapons were available.
Lying a few inches away from its claws' tips, another plasma handgun lay in a divot filled with rainwater. The sentry had obviously left his sniping weapon in the tower, so J.D didn't bother taking a second energy weapon here.
As it turned out, however, the Jackal did have a plasma grenade.
Niiiiice...very nice.
Helping himself another of the energy bombs, J.D tucked it into place. One upside to having so many Covenant all to himself- there wasn't a shortage of those valuable explosives. If only the UNSC could've replicated them...
Blepepepep. Blepepepep. Blepepepepep !
If there was anything that could surprise J.D, it would be the sound of a ringing phone.
Blepepepep ! Bleepepepep ! Blepepepepep !
It was certainly unanticipated. He'd been following the sidewalk he'd emerge onto along the right-hand side, though headed left. Along the way, he'd gone by several automated systems that the Superindentatn would have access to, like more signboards along the street, as well as billboards mounted on the surrounding buildings, but none of them had come to life.
The city itself was mostly silent as he walked through it. Until, it wasn't anymore.
What the-that's a public phone terminal ! Yeah, it sure is.
Where, though?
J'D had already reactivated VISR mode, and now he scanned his surroundings in hunt for the new sounds.
Glancing around, following the beeping, the ODST strode forward. Though he remained alert, the Covies hadn't exactly ever had the habit of handling anything that wasn't designed by the Forerunners in any way that wasn't completely violent. He might've believed it was some kind of hint of some of the city's locals still hunkered down in New Mombossa,but the city was so dead. There wasn't anybody, and he knew that was the truth.
Still, that station was active, and making noise.
It was coming from the right, he realized a few seconds later. Down at the end of the street, he was on, where it bent off toward the right, was a bank of public telephone stations, tucked beneath an overhang, that n the white light of VISR mode, J.D could clearly tell was a bank. The " Central Bank of Kenya ", to be exact. One of its New Mombassa offices, and astonishingly, it showed no outward signs of having been looted or plundered.
Hm. If anywhere in town would've been torn apart by rioting clowns, I'd expect this place to be one of them. Seems not...good
The banks's outside communication's bank hadn't even been taken out, either. One of them was all lit up- a pretty dead giveaway it was where the beeping was coming from. All the lights of the station were on, and the whole unit was essentially running itself, lacking only an actual call getting made at it.
It was still making plenty of racket, though, and none of its neighbors were. It was the only station activated, and apparently on its own. Above, at the edge of the overhang, one of the security cameras fixed to the rim was glowing cherry red at its center, indicating it was at least on.
Superintendant ?
Its not a glitch...neither of them is.
If he'd come across this on its own, J.D might've been a bit more thrown, sure. But, after the Superintendent had pointed him to where the Captain's helmet was, he wasn't so much caught off guard anymore by the city itself talking to him. That was pretty much what was going on here. The AI had reached out to him again, and it was signaling pretty hard. It wasn't wishing in a well; a comms terminal was going off by itself, in a city that was abandoned. And the municipal AI had already contacted him, in a manner of speaking.
J.D headed right for them. He covered the distance momentarily, and soon was in front of the bank of stations.
The activated one was still going off. Still beeping and chiming.
The lights on the touchpad keys, with their numbers, letters, and symbols. Like any interface of this kind in any major city on a UNSC-governed world, the touchpad was able to be configured into a wide variety of languages depending on who was using it. On the left hand side, the receiver unit that you would speak into and listen was sitting in its cradle. On the right, were a row of input ports for you to charge your Chatter/ other personal electronic device, which was standard practice on even relatively distant frontier colony worlds.
All in all, it was something J.D had seen plenty of times before. Except, nobody was anywhere near it, and yet it was still glowing brightly all over, and beeping on and on.
Blepepepep ! Belepepepep !
Pivoting, the ODST performed another examination of the area , and found it clear.
Turning back at the station, he spent another second or so staring at it. He knew- or, at least was reasonably confident- that he knew why it was doing what it was doing.
He'd worked it out, and it made as much sense as it could be expected to. But, he was still trusting a computer system that was hidden from him, aside from what it was controlling. Sure, he had to find his squad and the Captain, and there was no other source of intel on their whereabouts than the Superintendant, but-
Ok, enough. You can't afford to drag your heels on trusting this system. You followed it to what turned out to be the Captain's helmet. You followed it here. No turning away...not now.
His mind was made up. He already knew what commitment was, and right here in front of what was essentially a beacon disguised as a comms banking station, J.D let go of his M7S, and reached one hand toward the receiver.
He grabbed it, and lifted it. Turning it over in one hand, he hit the button on its side for " Speakerphone ". ( Not a feature many customers used during the height of business hours. As if that was now )
" Hello-"
The automatic response to answering a ringing phone. But, before he'd even finished it, the AI spoke .
" WELCOME, SIR/MADAM ".
It was him( it ). The Superintendent, speaking directly to J.D.
And, given that the camera up there must be online, the AI could observe him on top of that...though the ODST had known that, of course.
" TIRED ? STRESSED? PLEASE REMAIN CALM ! CONTROL CIRCUITS NOW OPEN ! "
Well, it was repeating its(him)self from earlier, from the building where he'd found the helmet, but-
Abruptly, there was a burst of static, and then a string of static-charged crackling. J.D was sure for a moment that there was some kind of actual glitch going on, but then-
" I need to brief you on this AO. "
" Roger that, Gunny. "
" Set security. "
" Its your plan. "
" Destination is the NMPD HQ building. "
Another burst of static. Then-
" SHOULD THIS RECORDING BE ERASED ? OR REPEATED ? ", the AI asked.
J.D mouth came open. Ice shot up through his spine, in a rapid, chilly rush.
The first voice in the playback- both of them, obviously- had been immediately recognizable.
God- its them ! That was both of them...!
Gunny-
At once, his mouth felt like a desert inside, but he wasn't going to bother having a drink now. Not yet.
His thoughts beginning to speed up, J.D steadied himself. The adrenaline surge had been heady enough, but even though he had good reason to have it, he had to stay level headed. This was an actual lead- or a real promising thing resembling one . Somehow, the Superintendent had watched and recorded his sergeant-Gunny Buck- and Romeo, alive and talking. They weren't dead.
God, thanks. Things are improving...
They'd survived the drop. They'd made it that long... then..there was a chance that Alpha-9 could be reformed. Not a hint of one, or the hope of one, but a real chance. Sergeant Buck and Corporal Agru were not only alive, but they'd managed to find somewhere secure and well-defended to hole up. The New Mombossa Police HQ building ? If anywhere here was suitable to be a rally point, it was there.
And, the Superindenat had shown him the way.
ONI may have screwed him over ( which was no surprise to him, in retrospect or otherwise ), but the Superintendent wasn't ONI. He ( it ? ) essentially was the city, with actual control over its systems, and if anyone could give J.D a hand in getting through this town, and finding his squad, it was this AI.
Someone in this town had proven they had his back, after all.