Chapter 11: Training
Heavy rain fell on the Spartans as they crouched next to a pile of
rubble. Across the street Will could see shapes moving in the haze
but held his fire to conceal his position."Looks like four of them, not sure where
the others are." Linda had found a perfect spot to hide up in
the miniature town that had been created for training exercises like
this. Composed mostly of insta-crete and wooden buildings, the rubber
rounds they were using had pockmarked the structures from past
engagements. A single shot rang beat out the thunderous downpour and
Will waited for Linda's confirmation.
"Positive kill, I'm moving, you're on
your own for a minute or so." He looked back at the other
Spartans who's suits had blended in almost perfectly with the blown
out building. Their heads moved about, always alert for a single sign
of movement.
"Chris, report in."
"I'm here, my fireteam is moving down the
west side of the town to head of their squad."
"Wait at the nearest building, we're going
to be moving in a second and will need you to stay stationary in case
we get into some trouble."
"Affirmative." Will closed the comm
channel and motioned for his squad to move up onto him. He looked
down the street for the nearest portion of cover. Spotting a small
alley that was only open to the street, he pointed to it with his
hand and sprinted towards it. Geysers of water sprayed into the air
as his powerful legs, coupled with the Mark VII, pounded into the
street and the deep puddles that had formed. Reaching into his wet
backpack, he pulled out the fiber optic cable he had tossed in there
and hooked up one end of it to his helmet and stored the other part
of it into his load bearing vest and checked down the street as the
last of his fireteam arrived behind him. Crouching down, he started
to move down the street slowly, his rifle pressed into his shoulder
and his eyes flicking back and forth. Drops of water poured down his
visor and he wiped his muddy gauntlet over it unconsciously, smearing
dirt across it.
"Dammit, keep moving ahead until you reach the
fork, I'll catch up."
"Aye sir," Spartan-490 responded and they
moved ahead without him. Will found another safe place to stop and
popped his helmet off. Splashing water onto the visor, he quickly
cleaned it off and was about to pop it back on when he heard a noise
on the other side of the wall he was leaning against. Crouching
frozen, he set his helmet down and picked up his rifle up and slowly
stood up. Just as his wet hair poked over the wall, a hail of gunfire
erupted. Rubber rounds zipped past his head leaving trails in the
rain momentarily. Instantly reacting, he lifted up his rifle and
opened fire on the muzzle flashes he spotted through the rain and
fog. In his right ear voices called out to him from his teammates but
he didn't respond; his mind was focused on eliminating the threats.
Ignoring his helmet on the ground, he ran into the nearest building
and went upstairs. Looking down on them, he saw the leg of an
attacker disappear behind on the buildings directly across from where
he had stopped.
"Will! Will! Are you alright?" He
suddenly took notice to the frantic calls from Linda in his ear
piece.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I think three or four of
them are heading east from my position. Chris, be on the look out,
Tangos are heading towards you.
"Roger that, we should be okay if we can
hold our position, but maybe you shou-."
"We're on it," Will was about to end the
conversation when he heard someone moving behind him. Spinning on his
knee he raised his rifle and aimed at the step behind him.
"Echo…" Waiting for a response, his heart
began beating faster.
"Echo echo, friendlies coming up." He
loosened his grip on his rifle but just a little. Four drenched
Spartans came up, -490 holding his once again dirty helmet.
"Thanks JJ," he replied as he tucked it
under his arm.
"No problem, I was going to go and peddle it
for some cash but they," he motioned to the others, "convinced me
you might need it." It was one of the rare times when a Spartan
smiled, let alone his fellow comrades seeing it. The five of them
walked down the stairs and Will bent down to wash his helmet once
again, this time with his fireteam watching his back. Popping the
seal on the helmet he took the lead again, heading towards the east.
Incredibly, the rain began to fall even harder as they tried to avoid
splashing through the deep puddles that were quickly forming in the
streets.
"I'm hearing some noises out there, could
be the rain or it could be them." Chris's voiced was calm as
usual and Will knew he wasn't sending the message in terms of
getting help but so when they go there they were aware of what was
going on. Picking up their pace a little bit, Fireteam Alpha arrived
at another large street and checked it quickly. Nothing moved and
Will sprinted across just as another burst of gunfire erupted. He
shouldered his rifle but instantly realized it wasn't pointed at
them. More shots rang out and Will hurriedly brought up a topo-map of
the city and found Chris's position. Located in one of the taller
buildings that had been constructed, they were in a relatively good
position in terms of defense but it would be a nightmare to try and
get to due to the large expanse of open space that surrounded it.
"Alright, we need to split up, JJ, Karl, you
two move in from the south while Kayla, Matt, and I come in from the
north. Linda, try and come in as fast as possible."
"Acknowledgement lights winked on and the
group split into two. They ran forward three more blocks before
heading north for two. The gunfire was a lot louder than Will had
expected and he feared they had underestimated the amount of people
they were going up against. Catching a glimpse of the concrete
building, Will sent a "wink" to Chris who responded almost
instantly. To Will's left, towards a semi-blown out building, it
seemed a portion of the gunfire was originating from there. He
crouched down a little as he came up to the door and peeked inside
with his fiber optic cable. A few shell casings fell to the ground in
the fish eye view he had and he backed off. Motioning to his other
teammates that there were enemies inside, they readied their rifles
and slowly made their way inside. More casings rolled to the ground
and Will looked up to see a portion of the ceiling above them blown
out. Muzzle flashes lit up the rooms above and he slowed down even
more as they moved up the stairs. Their first mistake was obvious;
they hadn't bothered to have anyone watch their rear. The second
was slightly more difficult to spot due to the layout of the building
which forced them into one room. Priming one of the fake grenades
they had been given, Will rolled it towards them and rolled back
around the corner and waited three seconds. A loud bang echoed
through the building and Fireteam Alpha rushed into the room. Two of
the three Spartans, thanks to a special program installed in their
suits, were "killed" due to the grenades "damage" values that
the rubber rounds had been programmed with. The third was stunned
from the grenade and was quickly taken down before he could even get
another shot off. Walking out of the building, red lights illuminated
around their armor instead of the cool blue LEDs that normally were
on, they moved at a rather leisurely pace away from the building.
Listening carefully, the volume of gunfire hadn't really decreased
all that much which worried Will.
"JJ, we just cleared the house to the north
east of Fireteam Bravo."
"Affirmative, we've just disengaged from
a group of four and are pulling back a little bit. We could use a
little bit of help." That last bit caught Will's attention,
it was hesitant, like JJ was ashamed to admit they needed the
assistance.
"Don't worry, we'll be there, hang tight.
Chris, we're just to the north of you, two story building, roof is
blown out."
"I see the building, but not you guys."
"I know, JJ, should be to the west of your
building, he's with Karl but they're taking heavy fire. We're
heading over there right now but I don't know if we'll be able to
get there in time."
"Got it. Where's Linda?"
"Good question…" As if on cue, two shots
rang out through the city.
"Two confirmed kills." Linda's cool
voice cut into Will's ear and he took comfort at the guardian angel
that was always looking through a scope. A few loud blasts of a horn
echoed up and down the streets alerting the Spartans to the fact that
the training was finished. Will walked out of the building and headed
towards Chris. They both popped their helmets off and grasped their
hands together.
"Hell of a job out there, I owe you."
"Don't worry about it," Will responded
humbly, rain streaming down his face, deviating from it's path
every so often. The other Spartans in Echo squadron grouped together,
Linda arriving last. Looking up the road, Bravo squad walked slowly.
"That's the third time this week, maybe they
just don't have very good squad unity," JJ remarked after a few
seconds of silence.
"That's not the problem, we've got an
unfair advantage." They all looked over at Will who, despite
enjoying the company of other Spartans, had mostly stayed to himself.
"We've got two veterans of the Covenant War and then two more who
have gotten some real combat experience. I'm pretty sure the
closest you've gotten to true live fire was just practice against
each other with blank rounds."
Water droplets slid down the window as rain splattered against it.
Will sat down in a relatively comfortable chair and waited as the
shape in the bed stirred.
"Hey…" Kat's voice was weak and sounded
strained. Two small tubes traveled away from her nose and looped back
behind her bed into what a small box that controlled all of the
different things that they doctors were doing. Even after a week and
a half of recovery, she still seemed weak and her face had yet to
gain back it's full color. "I assume they've told you what
happened?"
"No…not really," he said, smiling a
little. The right corner of her mouth curved upward a little and she
started to speak.
"It was apparently a side effect of long term
cryogenics. The heart just doesn't want to restart, simple as that.
In my case though, my heart started, but it gave out almost
immediately afterwards. Slightly more dangerous, but I'm still
alive, that's gotta count for something."
"Yeah. They split us up into squads, right now
you haven't been assigned to one, but once you're back in
fighting condition, you'll be put into ours."
"Who else is in it?" She seemed to perk up
slightly at the mention of the other Spartans.
"Uh, well, Linda Chris and I, JJ, Karl, Kayla,
and Matt," near the end, his eyes traveled to the ceiling and his
face contorted as he tried to remember the last names.
"I know Kayla pretty well, she was in my
barracks, the others…not so well."
"Oh, well, they told me to send you their
regards." Will looked over at a small digital clock on the wall to
his right. Seeing what time it was, he stood up and walked over to
the side of Kat's bed. He bent his head over towards hers and then
stopped. Pulling back up, he took her hand and rubbed it for a few
seconds. "Get well." Walking out of the room, he winced slightly
at what he had or hadn't done.
