Bleeding out
Disclaimer: I do not in any shape or form own Halo. It belongs to Bungie, 343 Industries, and Microsoft, nor am I associated with them in any way. This is a non-profit fan work written solely for the purpose of entertainment. This is in no way canon.
Responses to questions or statements:
-noble6117: Indeed we shall.
-Mythic Imagination: Thanks, I'm glad that you think I improved in my writing. So, in future chapters I could go back and forth in calling them 'Charlie' or Covvies. Not just calling them by one callsign.
-gundamtor: Thank you. So if you haven't read "Unbreakable," the final battle is going to go different than in canon. I won't say how to avoid spoilers if you haven't read it yet.
Nothin new to say here. Hope you enjoy the chapter and that you have a good day.
Onto the story!
Chapter 3:
"Noble two, move up to the west, we're about to get flanked!" Carter quickly ordered.
"Goddammit," Noble four swears out as his switched off the safety for his M45 shotgun, the rest of the team following.
"Covenant!" Jorge growled out as anger began creeping into his voice.
Ignoring his teammates, Casper fired a fourty-milimeter High-explosive grenade round into a group of unsuspecting Grunts from his M310 underbarrel grenade launcher, wiping out most of them. He directed his aim towards one of the Skirmishers and let loose a burst of 7.62x51mm rounds from his MA37 AR, which killed it in seconds before the rest of the Covenant forces went into cover and he reloaded his rifle's launcher.
"Contact! Contact! Spartans, assist!" Carter yelled out.
Instantly, the UH-144 flew overhead, assisting the Spartans by laying down heavy fire on Covenant grounds forces with its Heavy Machine Gun. The rest of the Spartans began engaging the squads of Grunts and Jackals, which returned fire with a combination a green energy bolts from their Type-25 Directed Energy Pistols or more commonly known as a Plasma pistol, or with the purple needles from the Type-33 Guided Munitions Launchers, or otherwise known as a Needler.
"Looks like they're heading down to the basement," Carter informs the team, "Four, Six. Move down to the lower level."
Emile and Casper pulled away from the window and made their way to the entrance to the basement as Carter, Kat, and Jorge continued to engage the ones still outside through the window. Stopping at the platform, the two of them could see a group of Skirmishers already inside, which soon spotted them.
The Skirmishers immediately began shooting at the two super-soldiers, forcing them behind cover behind a concrete wall. Once they were behind cover, Emile pulled out a frag grenade and pulled the pin before waiting a few seconds and throwing it into the group below, who didn't even have time to react as they were blown up in different directions. Their blue blood and remaining body parts splattered all over the room.
" Be advised Ghost-one, you've got incoming Banshees, out."
Six leaped down the stairs and rushed to the open exit, Emile right behind him. A group of Grunts spotted them as soon as they went out, but were soon taken down with their combined firepower.
Carter, Jorge and Kat soon joined them and they continued pushing back against the Covenant forces as they made their way down a grassy slope.
" / Noble one, enemy dropships are inbound! / " Jun warned as he continued picking off Covenant forces with his SRS99 Anti-Material Sniper Rifle.
Soon as he said that, a Spirit moved in fast and low towards them. Landing down across the bridge and dropping off its troops, mostly the orange and yellow armored grunts along with a few Skirmishers before departing.
"How the hell did they get these things here without us knowing?" Carter asked as he killed several Grunts and Skirmishers with precision headshots with his DMR.
Nobody answered him as they continued fighting down the hill, the Falcon providing close air support with its mounted machine guns. The enemies soon fell under the barrage of heavy fire until they were all lying dead on the ground. Their blood blood scattered all over the earth as their corpses were littered all over the courtyard.
"Stand down Noble, stand down. Contacts neutralized." Carter spoke up as he reloaded his Designated Marksman Rifle.
"Contacts?! It's the damn Covenant." Jorge replied with anger in his voice.
"Cheer up big man, this whole valley just turned into a free-fire zone." Emile responded as he reloaded his shotgun with armor piercing shells. "Hmm, never seen Jackals like these before..." he said as he knelt down by a dead Jackal.
"Skirmishers," Everyone turned to Casper, who was the source of the voice. "Encountered them a few times before, Charlie uses them as close-range combatants. They attack in packs and utilize flanking tactics, they're also stronger, faster, more agile, and can jump higher than regular Jackals," he informed them.
"Understood," Carter stated with a nod in acknowledgement along with everyone else before turning to his second in command, "Kat, we need to warn Holland. I need you at that relay outpost now."
" / Boss, I'm picking up more activity to the east, over. / " Jun alerted.
" / Copy that Jun, we're Oscar Mike. / " Noble one replied before he gestured for the team to move out. "Six, you're on point."
Casper nodded his head as he raised his rifle and moved ahead of the group as they made their way through the river and towards a storage shed and rolls of hay on a field. Where a group of Elite Ultras along with a group of Grunts opened fired on them, forcing the Spartan fireteam to duck and head for cover before their shields were depleted.
"Contact front, engage!" Carter shouted as he returned fire with the rest of Noble Team once they were behind appropriate cover.
"Frag out!" Kat called out as she tossed a frag grenade, resulting in the deaths of most of the Grunts while the Elites shields held up as they headed into cover.
Seeing that they were distracted, Casper began using the hay bales to flank on the Elites while they were preoccupied with the rest of Noble Team. When he had a clear line of sight, he began opening up on one of the Elites with his Assault Rifle as his shields rapidly drained.
As the Elite was distracted by the sudden gunfire to his back, this made him an easy target as he was shot through the head by Carter with his M239 once his shields were depleted. The other two were also caught by surprise as immediately began opening fire on Six as he hid behind cover. Quickly, he fired a HE round from his M310, which drained their shields and destroyed their cover. They didn't last long after that as they pumped full of lead from Emile, Jorge, and Kat.
"Hostiles neutralized." Carter said as they quickly performed a dead-check on the Elites and Grunts to make sure that they were dead and didn't try to shoot them in the back once they moved forward.
" / Commander, I'm seeing more hostile activity to the Northeast, over. / " Noble three informed.
"Emile, you're with Kat. Five, Six and I will continue running interference on the ground. We'll link up at the outpost. "Carter swiftly ordered.
Everyone flashed their lights in acknowledgement before Noble two radioed for pickup. " / Noble three, requesting air lift over. / "
" / Inbound, out. / " A Falcon responded as it broke off from formation and came in for a landing.
"Get to work Noble." Carter stated as the Spartans moved into action.
Carter, Jorge, and Casper began moving down the hill, were they soon spotted a civilian flat bedded truck and decided to commandeer it. Jorge climbed on top to use his M247H Heavy Machine Gun as a makeshift turret while Casper climbed into the driver's seat and Carter sat in the passengers.
The truck slightly dipped due to the heavy weight of the three Spartans, but was still able to run as Casper hotwired it, the engine letting out a low rumble as it did.
"Let's stay sharp, stay mobile." Without replying to his team leader, Six stepped on the gas and sped down the dirt road.
They soon encountered a pair of Skirmishers that they were quickly run over as they were standing in the path of the vehicle.
"Damn Six." Jorge muttered just before Jun's voice came back over the radio.
" / Noble Leader, I'm picking up a distress signal. Transmitting it to you now, over. / " Jun alerted.
A couple of seconds later, a young male voice came over the radio with gunfire and plasma fire in the background, along with several explosions. His voice contained clear tiredness, but also panic as he shouted into the comms. " / Mayday! Mayday! This is Echo-4-Tango, does anyone read. We're under attack by Covenant forces. The Covenant is on Reach. I say again: the Covenant is on Reach. / "
"The missing Troopers?" Jorge questioned with surprise. "They're still alive?"
"Six, double-time it, we need to find those Troopers!" Carter ordered.
"On it sir." Casper replied as attempted to get more speed out of the truck, being mindful as to not accidentally create a hole in it with his heavily-armor clad foot.
Fortunately, it didn't take too long to find the troopers as they just had to follow the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The vehicle didn't even completely stop before Six and the others had already jumped out.
The Covenant squads were quickly gunned down by the combined firepower and sudden appearance of the three super-soldiers. Their arrival quickly turning the tide of the battle and saving the Army Troopers from certain death.
Once all hostiles had been eliminated, Carter called for transport. " / Noble three, we're located the missing troopers. Requesting immediate evac at my coordinates. Will mark with red smoke. Over. / "
" / Solid copy, Commander. Recalling Falcon Ghost-two for exfil. Hold that evac position. / "
Soon as Jun hung up, Six took out a red smoke grenade and popped it out over an empty field, marking the LZ.
" / Noble Leader, be advised: I have a visual on Covenant dropships inbound to your position, out. / "
Immediately, Jorge set up a firing position on a nearby hill as Casper and Carter took up position behind three demolished Warthogs along with the remaining Troopers. Preparing an ambush for the incoming Covenant forces.
Soon as the Phantoms arrived and deployed their troops, which consisted of Grunts and Jackals, they were ambushed by heavy weapons fire from Jorge from on top of the hill, and hit with a few HE grenade rounds from Casper and a few Troopers. They were easy pickings for the Spartans as they were caught by surprise.
As soon as they were certain that the area was clear, a Trooper began limping over to them with clear exhaustion in his steps. "Spartans? Corporal Travis, 7th Cavalry, Second Battalion sir. It's the Covenant..." the man said with blood, sweat and dirt all over his face. Despite this, there was no doubting the pure relief in voice as he and rest of his unit had just been saved from near certain death.
"We know, Corporal. Let's get you out of here." Noble leader said with a reassuring nod as he spotted the Falcon Jun was riding on coming in.
" / Ghost-two, LZ is clear. Move in for exfil, over. / " Carter said with a tired sigh before he reloaded his M392 with a fresh mag and placed the empty one in a pouch.
" / Copy that. Transport inbound. Out. / "
" / Noble two, this is Noble one. Requesting sit-rep. Over. / " Carter asked over the radio as the Falcon landed and the remaining Troopers piled into it.
"Welcome aboard." Jun greeted as he gave them a nod, sitting on one of the Falcon's .50 Caliber Heavy Machine Guns as the view allowed him to see the area better. "Got some ammo for you if you need it." He said as he gestured to a small crate on board.
"Thanks." Six said as he opened the lid took out a few more HE grenade rounds and several more mags of 7.62x51mm for his MA37 while also handing Carter a few mags for his DMR, who muttered a thanks as he placed them in the mag pouches of his armor.
Soon as they all boarded, Kat finally responded over the comms. " / Commander, we're at the relay outpost. Door's locked. Mechanism's been flash-fused. Over. / "
" / Copy, can you beat it? / " He questioned.
" / I dialed up my torch, cut a way through. Going to take some time. / "
" / Understood. We're en-route to your position. Out. / " Carter responded as the Falcon rose back into the air and made its way to the Communication relay at full speed.
A few minutes later, they had arrived as they spotted the massive communications dish, a firefight occurring below them as a Phantom had deployed more troops and took off.
"Drop us in the courtyard." Carter ordered the Falcon pilot as he saw that Emile was close to being overrun.
"LZ's looking a little hot, sir..." he protested.
"Put her down, pilot. Six, break's over." Noble one state, his tone leaving no room for argument, as as he checked the ammo on his Marksman rifle.
Casper gave him a nod as the Falcon landed. The three of them rushing out and surprising the Covenant forces by unleashing a hail of bullets behind them, taking out many of them in the process.
Once the area was clear, they made their way to Emile and Kat at the entrance. "How are we doing, Kat?" Carter questioned as the rest of them stood guard.
"Taking a little longer than I hoped Commander. I've already cut about halfway through the door." Kat said in a strained and frustrated tone.
"If need be sir, I got a few C-10 breaching charges if you want to blow our way in?" Casper suggested.
"Negative Six. Orders are to leave the station as intact as possible. Don't want to risk any unwanted damage." Noble one replied firmly.
"Contacts!" Emile warned as a few Covenant Phantoms appeared into view.
"Hold them off until Kat can hack the controls," Carter ordered as he took up position near the entrance to assist the others.
The Phantoms flew down and dropped out a mix of Grunts and Elites. Letting loose a hail of Plasma fire as soon as they jumped out. The Spartans responded by letting out their own weapons fire, bringing down multiples Covenant soldiers as they continued moving forward, determined to kill the fireteam.
"Kat?" Carter yelled out over the explosions and gunfire. "How are we doing on that door?"
"Almost have it," she replied calmly.
A few more spirits appeared, which deployed more Covenant reinforcements in the form of a mixture of Elites, Grunts, Jackals and even a pair of hunters.
"Kat, we need that damn door open now!" Carter yelled as they were dangerously close to being overrun by the incoming Covenant forces.
"Done!" Kat exclaimed as Carter let out a sigh in relief, "Noble team, inside, now!" He ordered.
Casper gave Emile a hard slap on his right shoulder to signal to him to move inside, which he complied as he and Jorge broke off contact and rushed inside the structure as Six provided them with covering fire for their retreat. He fired one more HE round from his underbarrel grenade launcher, which took out an Ultra Elite and two Grunts before retreating and entered the structure.
"Last man!" Casper called out as kat shut the main entrance. Plasma fire could be heard hitting the outside as soon as it did.
Everyone took a few seconds to catch their breath and to allow their shields to regenerate as their suit's alarms were blaring. A few moments later they head the signature sound of it recharging as the shield meters on their HUDs filled up.
After a moment of checking their remaining ammo, Carter addressed the whole team. "We need to find the control room, from there Kat can get the relay back online and reestablish a link with Command. Emile close here, if we flush out any hostiles they're all yours."
"You got it, boss." He nodded as he took up position.
"Alright then, let's go. Six, you take point."
Casper nodded as they cautiously moved through the large open door. Where they were met with flashing red lights caused by the alarms and darkness.
Their augmented eyes easily adjusted to the darkness as they moved, which were highly advantageous as they didn't have to activate their flashlights to see in the dark and give away their position. They soon spotted a door leading further into the facility and began to stack up on it before quietly breaching it.
Once they were through, they spotted a light coming from the left corridor along with a trail of blood.
"Sir, looks like there may still may be more hostiles inside the facility," Six warned as Carter acknowledged with a nod. They rounded a corner where they spotted a civilian lying in a pool of his own blood that looked to be coming out of lower abdomen, most likely from a stab wound from an energy blade or something similar.
A slight groan from their left caught Carter's and Kat's attention, which they were greeted by the sight of a wounded Army Trooper Corporal. Carter rushed to him to check on his status as Noble two turned her gaze back to the corpse, about to instruct Six to search his body, only to find that she did not have to. He had already checked it as he was now examining what looked to be a data module. As soon as he noticed her staring, he held it out to her and nodded his head towards it.
"Here," he gestured towards the module. "You have more experience with tech than me anyway."
"I appreciate it, Six." She replied as she accepted the chip and dropped it in a small storage unit on her hip. She headed to the console in front of her and inspected it as Casper and Jorge moved to the stairs on her left.
"Where's the rest of your unit?" Carter asked the wounded Trooper.
"We got split up," he explained with heavy breathing, "I don't think they..."he trailed off as he took in a pained breath, "It sounded bad on the comms."
Carter nodded, " Alright Corporal, stay put. We'll get you a combat surgeon." He reassured as he gave the wounded Trooper a shot of morphine.
"Damn! Plasma damage!" Kat cursed as she threw her hands up in frustration. Just before she could open a panel and inspect the damage, Noble Five's voice filled the air.
"We have a live one here!" Jorge shouted as Carter and Kat looked in his and Six's direction, where they saw a civilian women being pulled out from under the stairs by Jorge. She was easily restrained by him as he flipped her over and attempted to get her to calm down.
"Keep still, and I'll release you."
She stopped struggling as she said something in Hungarian. Something that made both Six and Five tense up.
Jorge grabbed the girl and pulled her to the ground, using his body as a shield as Casper drew his Assault Rifle and flipped the safety off.
What looked to be the leader, a Zealot judging by his armor, swung his sword over Six's head as he melted the Elite's shields with what remained remained of his MA37's magazine before the ammo count went down to zero. The Zealot took another swing at him as Six barely managed to dodge it, unsheathing his combat knife and tackling the Elite to the ground as two more dropped from the ceiling.
"What's your status over!" Noble Four yelled out over the radio.
"We've been engaged!" Carter managed to scream out as the two Elites came charging at them. Their shields lighting up as they were pelted with 7.62x5.51mm rounds.
Their shields were just brought down as the two Elites barreled through the two members of Noble Team, throwing them into the walls as one of them rushed forward and grabbed the Corporal up from his spot and used him as a shield for himself and his partner as they began to move further back into the complex. Jorge and Six joining Kat and Carter as they pointed their rifles at the two Zealots. Kat took a quick glance over her shoulder and saw that the third Zealot was dead, bleeding out blue blood on the floor due to a knife wound to the neck.
"Four, be ready if any of them gets pass us and tries to escape." Carter ordered Emile over the radio before he turned his head to look at Kat before he gestured to the screaming female behind them, "Two handle her," he said before he pointed at where the Elites disappeared into, "Five and Six, clear the hole!"
Jorge moved in first with Casper following behind him, quickly loading his MA37 with a fresh magazine as they entered the darkroom. Pausing briefly to allow Jorge to shut the heavy doors with a mechanical bang.
The room was now in pitch black which forced them to turn on the flashlights on their helmets, creating a beam of light across the room. After a second to memorize the layout of the room, they turned their flashlights off and proceeded to move forward. Activating their flashlights only momentarily at a time to quickly scan for enemies. Never leaving it on for too long which would compromise their position
Soon they entered what looked to be a platform that was filled with several servers, a perfect place for an ambush as motion trackers picked up movement.
The two of them hunkered down and began searching for signs of Covenant activity, which didn't take long as two concussion rounds were fired at them. Forcing them to taking cover.
"Flush them out, I've got your back." Jorge said as he mounted his HMG on the railing and aimed at where the remaining Covenant were.
Casper winked his light in acknowledgement as he moved down the ramp, keeping his eye on his tracker for any signs of movement. As he made his way down the ramp, he lit up two flares and tossed them around the platform to further improve his visibility as the red light filled up the room. Soon as he tossed the second one, he scanned to see if he could find their silhouettes when he spotted a primed plasma grenade flying at his head. Quickly dodging it as it landed a few feet away from him and exploded as blue plasma energy flew up in the air.
Six immediately opened fired on the direction from where the grenade came from. Getting lucky as a few rounds landed as one a Zealot's shields flared up. Seeing the flash, Jorge wasted up time and opened fire on the Zealot, causing it to go down from the sheer amount of lead being thrown at it.
Moving up to find the other one, Six took a few steps forward when suddenly he saw a brief shimmer to his left. Quickly ducking as an energy sword was activated and slashed a nearby server Casper was using for cover.
The former Headhunter gave the Zealot a quick kick, sending the armored alien warrior back before he dove away further. Putting some distance between the two of them before he unloaded the magazine in his MA37. Which caused the Elite to roar in anger before pushing through the bullets to slash again at Casper, it's shields being depleted just as the magazine ran dry. Casper simply countered this dodged the slash by the Zealot and unholstering his M6G PDWS and opened fired at his head. The rounds piercing through the armor as the Elite roared out in pain before collapsing onto the floor with a thud. Shooting one more round into him to make sure he was dead, Casper swept through the area to see if there were any remaining Covenant troops inside. After a few minutes of searching, he found no more hostiles as he called out to Jorge.
"All Clear," Casper reported as Jorge made his way over.
" / Noble Five reporting in, all contacts neutralized, / " he informed the rest of Noble.
" / Copy that, two needs you to reset a junction, / " Carter explained. " / Do it and get back here on the double. / " He ordered the duo.
Casper made his way over to a nearby panel. Pressing a few buttons on the keypad before pressing the green button,
"Did that work?" The Spartan-III asked as he turned his head to Jorge. Soon as he said that the lights to the facility came back online.
"I think it did Six." Jorge answered with a clear grin before the two of them turned back where they came.
Soon as Casper and Jorge got back, they saw Kat removing a panel from the main console with Carter standing right behind her. Emile was leaning against the wall and keeping an eye on the girl they found here earlier.
"How long?" Carter asked in regards to bringing the station back online.
"Question of my life," she said with a scoff as she rolled her eyes under her Air Assault helmet. "If the question is when will this station be back online, two weeks, earliest. This is plasma damage. All major uplink components are fried."
"Two minutes is too long." Carter said with growing impatience as he leaned down to get a better look.
"Which is why I'm splicing into the main overline bundle to get you a direct line to Colonel Holland..." she said in almost a patronizing manner. "You're in my light, Commander."
Carter stepped back as he turned to the rest of the team. "Find out what she knows," Carter gestured to Noble Five as he pointed towards the huddled woman who was curled up against the wall. Meanwhile, Casper began searching the Field Marshall to see if he had anything on him.
Jorge kneeled down to her and attempted to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, only for her to brush him off.
The girl's response made Emile let out a sardonic chuckle. Which Jorge overheard as he glanced over his shoulder and glared at the Spartan III.
"What's your name?" He asked gently in English. "Do you live around here?"
He let out a sigh when she didn't respond and took off his helmet, now speaking in Hungarian, "A nevem Jorge," he said as he pointed to himself.
The teenager glanced up and quietly said her name, "Sara."
"Father," she gestured to her dad's dead body.
"I'm sorry," Jorge said sadly as he lowered his head somberly.
"Why would you be?" The girl looked up as she gave him a small glare before quickly looking back down.
Emile let out a small scoff as he gave Casper a shrug, who paused in his searching to look up at the close-quarters battle specialist. "Big man forgets what he is sometimes."
"She just lost her father," Jorge snapped quietly as he stood up and glared while towering over the younger Spartan before turning back to their team leader. "She needs a full psychiatric workup."
Emile mumbled as he let out another scoff, ignoring Jorge's warning. "She's not the only one."
Jorge took a step forward but before he could say anything, Carter put an end to the argument.
"Lock it down, both of you." He snapped before letting out a heavy vent before he spoke again, his voice more calm and collected now, Get her on her feet, the body stays here."
"Thank you, sir." Jorge said with a nod before he turned and walked back towards the girl, giving Emile another glare as he walked pass him. Soon as he reached the girl, Six stood up from the Zealot corpse with something in his hand.
"Sir," Casper said as he walked towards the Commander, catching his attention.
"Found this on the Zealot back there. Think this may have been what they were here for." Six said as he showed what looked to be another data module. Similar to the one that they had recovered from the teenage girl's father.
Carter tilted his head as he gave it a curious look. "Were the Covvies here to retrieve data? What's on it? " He questioned as he took the chip and began to examine it.
Six only let out a shrug in response. "Don't know sir. But I can tell you he was trying to exfil with it."
Before they could say anything else, Kat spoke up with a victorious exclamation, "Signal!"
She stood up as she turned towards Carter, "It's patchy but it's there."
"I'll take it," He stated as he took his helmet and gave the data module back to Casper. "Hold onto it for now."
"Best not to touch anything," Noble Two warned, "You wouldn't want to ground this place."
She along with the rest of the team exited the room to allow Carter to give their CO an update on the situation. On their way out, Kat had managed to snatch the chip from Casper.
"I'll take that Six, I'll have better luck than you." Kat said as they continued walking.
Six only shook his head as they filtered out of the room, leaving Carter alone as the terminal began to power up.
" / I'm barely receiving you. What's your situation, over? / " Colonel Holland ordered, his voice distorted from the weak signal.
" / Noble Actual, this is Noble One. There are no rebels. The Covenant is on Reach. Acknowledge?" Carter replied.
" / Say again, Commander? Did you say Covenant? / " Holland asked in a mix of shock and fear.
" / Affirmative. / " The leader of Noble Team said somberly. " / It's the Winter Contingency. / "
" / May God help us all. / "
And cut! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and that it lived up to your expectations.
Terms:
-Charlie: Covenant
-Oscar Mike: On the move.
-LZ: Landing Zone.
-CO: Commanding Officer.
Remember...stay frosty gents.