Chapter 19: New Mission
Pulling two thick black straps over his
shoulders, Will strapped himself into the rear facing seat of the
Dagger. Hooking in the crotch strap he gave a thumbs up to the pilot.
Roaring to life, the engines blew clouds of snow into the air as it
lurched into the air, leaving Will's stomach back on the ice.
Ascending into the cloud layer, the pilot didn't speak until they had
risen above them. Blinded by the sun's glare off of the cotton like
surface, he put his arm up to cover his face as his visor began to
adjust to help filter the light.
"Plateea is in a pretty tight spot
right now, Forerunners have control of most of the city but we've
blockaded the river crossings and aren't letting anything get by.
Apparently they're planning to try and break through the lines and
form a pincer move on another bridge so that they can make sure the
space elevator is secure." Legs
dangling into the abyss, Will listened to the pilot speak.
"Are there
regular reinforcements coming in?"
"That's the plan, it's a little
tougher than that with the occasional enemy picket but we've been
managing fairly well." Looking
on his topographical map, Will made sure he had at least a general
idea of what the city's layout was. Focusing almost solely on the
Human controlled region he began to formulate a mental image of the
terrain. The city, split about two-thirds of the war down by a river
was nestled in a small mountain valley with plenty of high plateaus
that allowed for a prime artillery position. Guessing as to where the
Humans were he looked at those areas, he tried to figure out where
the attack would take place and where it would go from there. "Hang
on tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride."
Grabbing onto his straps, Will looked back at the clouds to see a
black haze. Suddenly the Dagger dipped down and went through the
cloud layer. Holding on as the aircraft shook violently, dropping
through the cloud layer, the light began to fail as the clouds turned
gray and mixed with acrid black smoke. Not wanting to be caught off
guard, Will reached up to remove his rifle from the small rack
located over his head. Shouldering it, he waited as the Dagger
continued to rock back in forth in the almost black cloud layer.
"Turn on your
head lamps, we're going to need the visibility." Flicking on all
four lights, the bright beams illuminated the clouds and smoke as
they made a sharp turn. Looking around he could see the clouds begin
to thin out and every so often there was a quick glimpse of the city
before the clouds enveloped them. Off to his left, the Dagger with
the other three Spartans slowed down and got behind them just as the
they pierced through the clouds and were flying over the city.
Suddenly hit by a sickening sense of vertigo, he closed his eyes for
a few seconds as the Dagger descended down. Slowly reopening them,
the feeling dissipated and he began to take in the view of the city.
Bathed in red glow from the many fires that burned in the streets,
columns of thick black smoke poured into the sky blocking out the
sun. The once glorious buildings that served as a beautiful
foreground to the snow covered mountains were now mere shells of
themselves, large portions of them blown away while others had
already collapsed to the streets below leaving large clouds of dust
in their wake. Everything about the scene seemed vaguely familiar to
him as they flew over the river, quickly dropping down and slowing
their speed. Just as the Dagger began to hover on it's way down to
the landing pad Will realized it was the city he had repeatedly seen
in his dreams. Keeping his thoughts to himself he knew that somewhere
within the city, or eventually, he would be face to face with John
and one of his comrades would be dead. Before the Dagger had fully
touched down Will was already unstrapping himself and preparing to
get off. Feeling the wheels touch the makeshift landing pad he jumped
off of his seat and moved away from the clouds of dust and smoke that
was being whipped up by the engines. The other Spartans got off after
him and followed him away from the emptied parking lot. All around
them war had touched the city from the random bullet hole to an
entire building reduced to rumble. Obviously in a poorer, more
residential section of the town, the buildings were of older
architectural design and much smaller than most of the other city.
Moving past derelict cars towards the sounds of the war zone, it was
almost like walking in a time capsule as, intermingled with the
craters and rubble were snowmen built in the yard and snow removal
equipment still in the middle of the process. Looking up, he wondered
what it would be like to see the dropships raining down from the sky,
illuminated by the AA fire from the ground, soon to be followed by
Human forces trying to defend what remained of the city. Slogging
through the slush in the street, Will walked up onto the sidewalk and
moved a little quicker on the bare pavement, his helmet lamps
illuminating the street in an eerie white glow compared to the red of
the sky.
"Ooh..." Kat
said, her voice lined with pain. Stopping and looking back he saw her
stooped over something next to a car, moving her arms gingerly.
Standing back up she was holding a baby in her arms. At first
appearing dead, the small child, still in cotton pajamas, turned it's
head and looked at the Spartans with big almond eyes, completely
aware of the situation. Completely dumbfounded as to how it arrived
there, Will looked for signs of the parents half-heartedly.
"Find the nearest
field hospital and take it there, make sure it's alright, ok?" he
said, making it clear he wanted her to stay with the baby.
"Affirmative."
She stood still for a few seconds until she located the nearest
hospital. Walking a few feet, she stopped again. "Linda? Could you
help me here?" Positioning the child so that it was cradled in her
left arm and shoulder, she held out her right gauntlet and popped the
seal on it. Sliding it off revealing her bare hand, Linda put the
gauntlet into Kat's backpack. "Thanks." Caressing the child's
cheek with her hand she walked away from them in slowly as if
completely unaware of the battle raging just a few blocks away.
"Let's go,"
Will said, pushing the anxiety of splitting Kat up from the group out
of his mind. Walking towards the street in front of them, the sounds
of war intensified as they reached the corner. Peaking around it, he
could see the flashes of muzzles, briefly illuminating the area
before disappearing. Readying his rifle, he came around the corner
low and began to run towards a group of Marines who were standing up
near a blown out building. Coming up to them, only two of them turned
to face him as the others continued to be focused on what they were
dealing with. Dirt and blood were smeared across their faces and the
weariness was visible on their faces as they smiled weakly at the
Spartans standing in front of them.
"Nice to see some
new faces here...or visors, in your case. We haven't had any
substantial reinforcements since the battle started, seems like we
were passed over somewhere up the line." Look at the Marines'
ranks, none of them were officers.
"Don't worry,
we're here to help." Turning towards one of the rundown bridges,
Will was able to see burning wreckage scattered throughout it, thick
black smoke pouring into the air. "We were told that an offensive
was being planned?"
"Planned would be
the operative word there. Comms is a fucking mess and by the time we
can get runners up and down the lines, the point where we're
attacking always seems to have some kind of incident that changes
everything. So yes, there is an assault being planned, but it's not
going to get anywhere." All around, Marines were crouched behind
whatever they could find, popping up every so often to fire off a few
bursts before a hail of anti-matter bolts slammed into the cover.
"Do you have any
idea as to where they could be at?" The Marine turned around and
ducked down a little as he looked out at the other side of the river.
"We really can't
get any substantial reports from over there but from where the fire
seems to be coming from...they've concentrated mostly around the
bridge and any other points of incursion. Not to mention there have
been rumors of armor."
"Those are most
likely true, when we were coming in we encountered some but we really
couldn't get a good look at them or it's capabilities."
"Sir?" one of
the other Marines said, tapping the one Will was speaking to on the
shoulder. "FleetComm wants to know if you have Spartans at your
location."
"Well obviously!"
The radio operator made a face with "my bad" written all over it.
"That is
affirmative FleetComm, we have seven Spartans at our position."
Pressing the headset against his ear to hear better over the fighting
he turned around and spoke to Will. "They want you to tune to the
J-band, channel 18." Doing so, Will switched over to the secure
channel.
"This is Spartan
Oh-Four-Three reporting."
"A new mission has been given to
us by ONI Section Three. An R and D was inbound to the city but they
were shot down over enemy controlled territory. They were carrying a
experimental weapon, the Nova III. About an hour ago we began to
receive a signal from it's transponder device meaning it is still
operational and could be fired at any moment. We need you and your
team to go and secure it before the enemy does."
"Do you have any
idea where it's at?"
"Mission info
is on it's way to you right now, it has everything you'll need to
know. Over and out." The channel then went dead as Will went
back to monitoring the local chatter as well as within his own squad.
"Sergeant, we've
just been assigned to a new mission," removing his helmet, Will
spoke face to face with the Marine. "My team and I will be
inserting into the city to retrieve a classified object. We're going
to need some cover fire so that we can get across and then a
transport to get us out of there."
"I can guarantee
the covering fire but the transport is up to the flyboys, nothing I
can do there. But if they won't help, we'll come and get you out, you
can count on us." A determined look came across the Marine's face.
Extending an arm, Will shook his hand and put his helmet back on.
Turning towards the river a sudden feeling of dread fell over him. As
he explained everything to the Spartans who had taken up positions
around the block he was going over the information they had given
him. As luck would it, the Hawk had been shot down near the city
center and completely in the open.
"Well shit, if
we knew this ahead of time we could've just had the Dagger drop us
off," JJ commented with a tone of annoyance.
"Yeah, well, they
didn't so we're going to have to do this the hard way. We're going to
drop over the walls and go across the river, coming up from
underneath. The Marines are going to provide covering fire for us up
top to hopefully keep their attention diverted long enough for us to
get up and over. After that, well," looking at the satellite photo
it was almost impossible to get a good idea as to where the Hawk was
actually located within the city due to the hot smoke and below
freezing temperatures messing up the thermal image, "Well, we're
just going to take it from there."
"Sounds good,"
Kayla said reassuringly.
"Let's get this
show on the road."
