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.
-Guest: Thank you kind sir.
-Mythic Imagination: Thank you very much.
Now, with that out of the way. Onto the story!
Chapter 4
(Location: Reach)
(Time: July 26, 2552)
About a day had passed ever since the operation to take back Visegrad station, during that time WINTER CONTINGENCY had been declared as CENTCOM began carrying out the usual SOPs for when Covenant forces had been detected on a planet such as mobilizing all available military assets and setting them at REDCON ONE, while moving the planetary alert level to DEFCON TWO. As of now, CENTCOM had made the decision not to inform the civilian population about the approaching Covenant attack, to try to avoid panic for as long as possible.
During all this, Noble Team was placed on standby for the time being while this was going on. In the meantime, Carter was being briefed on the situation while Kat was focusing her efforts on trying to break through the encryption on the data modules they had acquired back at the relay, not having much luck if the frustrated sounds she made in her room was anything to go by. Emile was down at the firing range as Jun and Jorge were working on their armor. Casper was snacking on a tube of pringles that he acquired from the base's PX and was sitting down in his room, taking the opportunity to relax. It didn't taste all that different than the ones in his reality, but he wasn't complaining. He was always a believer in the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Normally if he wanted something from the PX he would have to buy it with his own money, but most people weren't willing to say no to a Spartan. Nevertheless, Casper never tried to abused this over his career and only grabbed one every once in a while. Still, it was nice to get want he wanted and what he needed instead of being told no, being a Spartan certainly did bring a lot of advantages when it came to requisitions.
It wasn't long until Carter came into his room with an urgent pace in his steps. "Sir?" Casper asked the Commander as he stood up.
"We got reports of Covenant forces attacking a nearby ONI installation, so we're being mobilized to help deal with it. So suit up Six, breaks over."
Casper gave Noble One a crisp nod as they both began to make their way to the armory to gear up for the mission ahead.
About an hour and a half later, the Spartan fireteam was en-route to Sword Base that was under siege by an advance force of Covenant. During the flight, they had been listening in on the radio for information regarding the OPFOR, which included a sizable frigate and a strike force which was the equivalent of a few platoons.
"/ Be advised, Raptor-three-three and Raptor-three-four, your current LZ is too hot. Over. / " Sword control informed the two incoming UH-144 Falcons.
"/ Roger that. Out / " Carter replied. "/ Dot, standby to receive and respond./ "
"Yes Commander, coordinates received," Noble team's dumb A.I, Auntie Dot, responded in her synthetic voice which her British accent." "Initiate immediate course correction." Suddenly, the two Falcons changed course from their original destination as Dot marked a new LZ.
"The Office of Naval Intelligence Sword base is currently under siege by a corvette-class Covenant vessel." The A.I briefed the team, "due to the sensitive nature of this facility, the use of orbital rounds has been, for the moment, prohibited. Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces has been unsuccessful so far. However, current defense forces have been insufficient in repelling the assault. ONI has requested Noble team's direct intervention to help secure Sword base." She finished just as they arrived at the base.
"Alright people, it looks like we're stuck with that ship for the time being, Carter said in a calm and collected tone. "Let's focus on the hostile infantry-give the garrison a hand."
"Do we have anymore QRF inbound, boss?" Casper asked over the SQUADCOMM.
"Air Force has scrambled F-99s and B-65s to assist and 7th Air Cav units are inbound to help secure the area, they'll be here within the hour. In the meantime we're on our own people." Carter responded as everyone acknowledged over the radio.
A few minutes later, the two UH-144 Falcons flew over the first LZ, where a handful of military police men were fighting off a few squads of Covenant soldiers in a courtyard.
"Kat, Six-you're out here. Jorge, Emile-you're next. Get prepped." Noble One ordered as the Falcon began to descend.
Casper quickly flicked the safety off his DMR while Kat loaded a magazine in her MA37 and pulled back the charging handle before turning on the rifle's ammo display, lighting up with the number thirty-two. "Let's move, Lieutenant." She ordered before she flipped up the rifle's iron sights.
Once the Falcon was close enough to the ground, the two Spartan-threes jumped out and began moving forward with their weapons raised.
"/ Two, Six, push back the attack on Sword Base, find out what we're dealing with. One out. / " Carter ordered as the Falcons flew away while Casper and Kat began assisting several MPs pinned by Covenant infantry ahead.
Casper began taking out several Grunts with precision headshots while Kat managed to neutralize a group of Jackals with an HE-FRAG round fired from the M310 under barrel grenade launder before engaging the rest with short, controlled bursts.
With the combined firepower of the Spartan-threes and remaining MPs, the courtyard was cleared of all Covenant forces within a few minutes.
"/ Sword Control, this is Noble Two. The courtyard is clear, over. /" Kat informed as she turned on her radio.
"/ Head to the main gate to the east. I'll brief you as you go, out. /" Sword Control ordered.
The two Spartan-threes followed the instructions as they headed to the gate. Along the way, they had come across several weapons crates with ammo for their weapons, which they opened and took a few magazines to resupply themselves. Additionally, they had found a target locator as Casper showed to Kat as he picked it up.
"/ Sword Control, we have recovered a target locator. Any artillery support in the area? Over. /" Noble Two asked.
"/ Limited we only have a few M81 mortars on station, but we'll prioritize whatever you need Spartan. Sierra Charlie Out. /"
"Laser code verified, 1-6-3-4-4. We're good to go." Six said as checked the targeting laser's functionality.
Kat then pressed the button to open the gate, which let out a small mechanical hiss as it slowly opened. As they walked out, they saw a Warthog being pursued by two Wraiths.
"/ This is Echo-Five-Charlie, we're heading back to base but we got enemy victors closing in our six. How copy?! / " A voice over the radio yelled in panic, likely belonging to one of the two occupants in the Warthog.
Unfortunately, they were both killed when the Wraith fired a direct shot at them which destroyed the Warthog. Desiring to not let their lives go to waste, Noble Six marked the area where the Wraiths were with the target locator as he and Kat took cover behind a nearby boulder.
A few moments later, everyone in the area began hearing the signature sound of incoming mortar rounds as the area that Noble Six marked began getting hammered with artillery shells. The two Wraiths were destroyed before the volley was complete, leaving only burning debris and crater holes in its wake.
"Good job." Noble Two said to the Lieutenant. "Pelican incoming with transport."
Casper and Kat moved towards the approaching Pelican dropship, which dropped a standard Warthog with a gatling gun. Before anyone could say anything, Six immediately hopped into the driver's seat before the second in command of Noble team could say anything.
"I'm driving." Casper declared firmly.
Kat looked at the Lieutenant with a quirked brow before realizing what he was talking about. "I've gotten better at driving since you last saw me Casper." She retorted with a scowl under her Air Assault helmet.
"/ Yeah...no. Six, don't let Kat drive under any circumstances. She's awful at it. Out. /" Carter said over the team's commlink, apparently having overhead their conversation.
Kat didn't argue any further as she merely grumbled to herself, jumping on the Warthog's turret. Casper began to run a quick check on the vehicle while Noble Two checked that the gatling was loaded and in working order. Once they confirmed that the vehicle was good to go, Six stepped on the pedal as Sword Control came through over the radio.
"/ The old Farragut Station has it's own comms array. That should bring us back online with Command. Airview Base has an anti-air battery that will help clear the skies. /"
Kat took a quick look to her armor's TACTPAD, along with Six on his, and she saw that the AA gun was to the west and the comms array was to the east. "Which one you want to head to first?" She asked.
"Guns." Casper replied without hesitation. "Secure the area. Then we can restore comms."
Kat nodded in agreement as Six drove the Warthog to the west. Passing by an airfield where they saw multiple destroyed Broadswords, Falcons, and Hornets on the runway, with a few airfield personnel trying desperately to stop the fires from spreading out of control while the others fended on the Banshees with small arms, machine guns, and what few rocket launchers they had.
Noble Two managed to get spare a glance at the sky battle. She saw the few air assets the base had managed to deploy were outnumbered three to one. If they didn't get the anti-aircraft guns back online soon, the Covenant would soon achieve air superiority and taking back this base would get a lot harder.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when Casper called out to her that they had reached the AA controls, which were guarded by a few squads of Covenant Troops. Kat began opening fire with the Warthog's gatling gun as 12.7x99mm rounds began tearing through the enemy forces. After shaking off their shock, the Covenant forces began returning fire with their Plasma pistols and needlers, which Casper had managed to evade, for the most part, by taking evasive action, AKA driving around them.
Once there were only a few Grunts left, Casper ran to the AA gun controls which for some reason was out in the open on the building's roof. While he was fairly certain that was how it was in the games, he had hoped that the UNSC in reality would place the controls for their base's air defenses more competently and in a location that was more secure, such as inside the building and not on top of it. It would appear that he was mistaken as he had come across another shining example of 'military intelligence'. Meanwhile, Kat was finishing off the remaining Grunts with her MA37 AR. However, just as she picked them off, the low hum of a Spirit could be heard as she looked up and saw one heading straight to their position along with two Banshees.
"Six, get that Gun online NOW!" Kat yelled as she raced for cover as a fuel rod rocket fired from a Banshee hit the ground near her, causing her shields to flare up as she jumped behind a concrete barrier.
Soon as she said that, the M3606 anti-aircraft guns turned towards the incoming Covenant aircraft and began to fire bursts of 20mm High Explosive Armor Piercing rounds at the incoming fighters. Quickly destroying the Banshees as well as the Spirit as it tried to turn around but instead began falling down to the earth below while leaving behind a trail of smoke from its blue and purple flames. As they were destroyed and fell to the earth below, M95 Lances turned towards the others in the sky and began firing SAMs at aircrafts that did not register as friendly on it's IFF detector.
"That was close." Kat said as Casper made his way back towards her. As if on cue, the two of them heard the engines of F-99 Wombats and looked up in the sky to see a flight of four of them soaring through the air as they fired Sidewinder air-to-air missiles as they took down several Banshees by surprise before they broke off and began engaging in dogfights with enemy fighters.
"Looks like we'll mop up the fighters soon, then we'll just have to deal with that Corvette. Kat said before she turned her head towards Six. "Did you see any heavy artillery in the area?" She asked.
Casper only shook his head. "No, we don't have any AAA or AATIS guns in the vicinity."
Noble Two let off a small sigh as she slightly shook her head, "Come on, lets head to the Comms array."
Six nodded as they jumped back into their respective seats in the Warthog and began to drive west. It looked like the decision to bring the AA guns back online was the right choice as the skies started to clear of Covenant aircraft, as they helped to support the UNSC air assets in taking down the remaining Covenant spacecraft. Along the way, Six and Two had stumbled across a Gauss Warthog that was miraculously still intact and in better condition than their current Warthog. Not thinking twice in switching the standard Warthog for the one with the Gauss cannon before they continued moving. After engaging a few Covenant Revenants, Ghosts, and squads, they acquired visual on the Comms array which was placed on a ridge which overlooked Sword Base, with only a few Revenants and Ghosts guarding it.
Once they cleared the area of the Covenant vehicles, Six hopped out of the Warthog and headed inside the building as Kat remained on the Gauss cannon to keep an eye out for Covenant reinforcements. It didn't take him long to find the controls as he accessed the console to turn the array back online while turning the comms dish at the right angle.
"/ You did it Six. Comms are coming back online. /" Kat informed.
Suddenly, their team leader's voice came through on their radios. "/ Six, Two. Get back to Sword Base ASAP. Over. /" Carter's voice crackled through their radios before cutting out.
Casper didn't waste any time as he ran back to the Warthog and began driving back to the ONI installation. As they arrived, they spotted a pair of Hunters guarding the entrance and quickly drove behind cover before they were spotted.
"Six, do you still have the target designator?" Kat asked the teams Hyper-Lethal. While a few shots from the Gauss cannon in each of them would probably be enough to put them down, she would rather call in a fire mission just to be safe.
Six gave her a curt nod as he pulled out the target locator and marked the area with the Hunters in it. Sending a volley of High-Explosive rounds into the hunter pair.
Once the artillery barrage finished, the two climbed out of the Warthog and slowly moved towards what remained of the Hunters. Soon as they confirmed that the two Hunters were dead, Kat spoke up. "Nice work, now let's get to the atrium."
Casper responded with a nod as he followed the Lieutenant-Commander inside the ONI base, quickly killing the few Grunts that guarded the elevator inside before stepping in.
While waiting for the elevator to reach their floor, another explosion shook the building before Emile's voice came through on their comms, "/ Corvette's hitting this place hard. /"
"Where's our orbital support?" Noble Two asked to no one in particular. "Got to be four defense platforms that could take it out with a single MAC round right now."
A few seconds later, the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.
"Welcome to the Office of Naval Intelligence. An ONI representative will be with you shortly." An automatic voice greeted as soon as the pair exited the elevator.
Kat let out a scoff, "I doubt that very much."
After taking out several grunts in the building's entrance and headed inside to the main lobby, where they encountered Jorge, Jun, and Carter engaging a few squads of Covenant troops along with a squad of MPs.
Seeing as how the Covenant forces didn't notice them yet, Casper threw out a grenade right in the middle of a group of Jackals. Sending them flying in all directions once it went off before engaging the remaining troops with his DMR, which caught the attention of the human forces.
"Blue! Blue!" Casper yelled out to prevent anyone accidentally firing at him in response as he took cover behind a nearby wall. While Carter's and Jorge's motion trackers should have picked up his and Kat's IFF transponder, he decided it was best to be safe just in case if they were too preoccupied with the firefight.
Noble one turned his head towards the Lieutenant and gave him a nod in acknowledgment once he saw that it was his team that threw the grenade "Six, head upstairs and assist Emile." Carter ordered before turning to Jorge, "Jorge, make sure he gets there."
"Depend on it!" The Spartan-two acknowledged.
The duo made their way to a nearby ramp and began to head up, engaging multiple Elites, Grunts and Jackals along the way.
They had almost reached the third floor when another explosion shook the base, most likely from the Corvette right outside.
"/ That Corvette is going to tear this base apart, /" Sword Control crackled through the radio. "/ What's the situation, Noble? /"
"/ I can't do this on my own. Need another Spartan up here! Over! /" Emile exclaimed through the comms.
"/ Six, hurry up and get to the top floor and assist Emile! /"Carter ordered.
The pair increased their pace as they hurried to the top floor, only stopping to engage a few remaining Elites and Jackals, which were quickly taken down by the two super-soldiers.
"/ Commander, the space won't survive another salvo from that corvette. Kill those Banshees! Over!" Sword Control instructed.
"/ Upstairs, Lieutenant, we need those Longswords in the air now. /" Noble One urged.
Soon as he said that the pair that reached the roof. Which was in absolute ruins with a massive hole in the ceiling where they could see the air battle outside.
"About time!" Noble Four exclaimed as he shot down a Banshee with a M41 SSR.
Casper didn't waste time as he grabbed a M41 from a nearby weapons rack and began shooting down the Covenant Banshees and Phantoms flying overhead. Quickly checking behind him after each shot to make sure nothing was in the way of the launcher's back blast. He had taken down several Banshees before focusing his fire on an incoming Phantom, which managed to destroy but not before it deployed a few Spec Ops Elites.
"Focus on the ships Six, I'll handle them!" Jorge said as he opened fired on the Elites with his HMG, taking down two thanks to its .50 Caliber rounds and high rate of fire.
Six complied as he focused his attention on the remaining Banshees, which went down with a single missile as opposed to the Phantoms or Spirits which took usually several hits to bring down.
"That's the way we get it done, Spartan!" Emile cheered as the last Banshee went down.
"/ Noble one, the last of the enemy fast-movers are down. I say again, enemy fast-movers are down. /" Jorge reported to Carter.
"/ All stations this net, Longswords are inbound and ready to push. Orbital defenses are standing by to take the shot. Out./ " Sword Control informed over the radio as two Longswords flew overhead towards the retreating Covenant Corvette.
A few seconds later, a single MAC round was fired at the Corvette, prompting the Longswords to break off pursuit. The Corvettes engines flickering as explosions began to run down its frame before it crashed into the icy waters of the nearby lake.
"Beautiful, ain't it, " Jorge said as he walked up and stood next to Casper. "Someone should take a picture. Nice work by the way." He complimented as he patted Casper's left shoulder.
"I aim to please." Was all Casper said with a shrug before he turned back to the sinking Corvette before realizing he said the exact same thing as Noble Six said in the game.
Before he could ponder on it more, Carter's voice came through on their radios, "/ Five, Six...get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a debrief and Command is saying we're all hers, over. / "
Noble Five placed his hand on the comm piece on his helmet."/ Say again? It sounded like you just said Halsey. / "
"/ I did. /"
"/ Copy that, on our way. Out. /" He quickly replied as he began to head back inside the base with Six right beside him. "Don't need Command to tell me...been all hers half my life."
Casper only acknowledged with a small tilt of his head as they headed back inside.
It didn't take long for Casper and Jorge to make their way to the debriefing room in the science wing of the ONI facility, where they saw Halsey, who was standing in a secure room with a heavily reinforced, transparent glass, speaking to Carter who had removed his helmet along with Noble Two. Emile and Jun were leaning up against a nearby wall who nodded at the two of them as they walked in.
"I do not require an update on events that occur on my own doorstep, Commander. What I do require is a detailed account on your previous engagement with…" she trailed off as she saw Jorge enter the room. Recognizing him even with his armor and helmet on. "Jorge, it's been too long." The doctor said in a much happier tone.
"Ma'am." Jorge nodded respectfully as he took his helmet off.
"What have you done to my armor?" She asked with a mixture of amusement and annoyance in her tone.
"Just some…additions I made." He said with a cough.
"Indeed." Halsey responded with a small hint of warmth in her voice before returning her gaze back to Carter. The amusement and warmth in her voice now gone. "Visegrad Relay. Its data center was home to one of my xeno-archaeologists, Professor Laszlo Sorvad. Perhaps you could shed some light on his death."
"If he was a civilian male in his mid-sixties, he died via a Covenant energy sword through his abdomen." Carter answered bluntly.
"Elites then?" Halsey questioned as her eyes narrowed.
"They engaged us as well," Jorge chimed in as he took a step forward. "It was…it was just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am. She was hiding in…"
"Irrelevant." Halsey dismissed coldly with a wave of her hand. "The Elites. Tell me more about them."
"Three Zealot class." Jorge replied coolly.
"Zealots…you're certain?" Halsey pressed with a small hint of worry creeping in her voice.
"Their armor configuration matched." Noble Two replied curtly.
"Shield strength too, along with weaponry." Casper pitched in.
"We managed to neutralize the ones that we engaged with before they could exfil from the AO. Additionally, we recovered a drive from what looked to be the leader. As far as we can tell none of them managed to get by us. Though, we can't be certain as our primary objective was bringing the relay station back online." Carter informed.
"Your primary objective Commander…are you a puppet or a Spartan?" Halsey asked dryly.
Her tone caused the team to bristle at the disrespect Halsey was showing to their team leader, especially coming from a civilian.
"Ma'am?" Carter questioned as he took the insult in stride.
The ONI doctor mentally rolled her eyes before she started to explain. "There are those at ONI, myself included, who believe that the Covenant dispatched Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of significant value to their religion," Halsey informed. "Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble, and almost always Zealot class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there. If even one of them had gotten away, that information may have fallen into Covenant hands. So, let's hope that none of them managed to slip by you."
"Data retrieval was not a command directive at the time. Even if it was, we had other more urgent matters to attend to." Noble One retorted firmly as he held his ground.
"Like warning the planet…" Kat mumbled under her breath.
Halsey paced around for a bit before she continued speaking. "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a latchkey discover…latchkey. Not a word that he would use lightly, so let's hope that the data modules that your Lieutenant-Commander stole, contains it." She said as she looked to the Spartan in question.
"Kat?" Carter asked as he turned his head to his second in command.
"Before you ask, I was alerted the moment you attempted to access its contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap." Halsey said as Kat took out the two data modules that they recovered from the relay station. Dropping it into a container that extended out of the shield door as Halsey pulled it in. "That data is classified Tier One…I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work."
"Maybe you'd like to join her." Carter said as he drew Halsey's attention back to him, coming to his teammate's defense.
"I'm sorry?" She asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"We're currently under emergency planetary directive, WINTER CONTINGENCY. I'm sure you are familiar with the punishment is for a civilian that interferes with a Spartan deployment." Carter answered in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
"Are you threatening me Commander?" The doctor asked in both amusement and anger.
"Just making a reading suggestion, ma'am." The leader of Noble team said with a shrug before he put his COMMANDO helmet back on and began to make his way out of the debriefing room with Kat right behind him. "Let's move, Noble team."
"Finally," Emile muttered as he and Jun began to follow him as Casper and Jorge lingered behind.
"Ma'am" Jorge quietly asked as he put his GRENADIER helmet back on.
"That…will be all Jorge." Was all Halsey said as she continued to examine the data modules.
Noble Five let out a small sigh but complied nonetheless as he walked out with Six to the Falcon to head back to base.
And scene! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
Terms:
-REDCON ONE: Readiness Condition One. Basically get ready to roll out and conduct operations.
-SOPs: Standard Operating Procedures.
-PX: Post-exchange. A market on a military base that contains goodies.
-OPFOR: Opposition Force.
-HE-FRAG: High Explosive-Fragmentation. A High Explosive round that creates more shrapnel.
-AO: Area of Operation.
Remember…stay frosty gents.