Good Morning/Afternoon everyone!
As promised, I've got another chapter for you all just to prove I'm truly back. Honestly it sucks so much to be the only state in Australia still under heavy quarantine but hopefully things will get better shortly, i hope everyone is staying safe and looking after yourselves!
Disclaimer: I am aware that the names Claire and Clare have been interchanged a little during this story and for the record it is meant to be Claire but i have not been able to go back and change the names to fit just yet.
Also, it would be amazing if i could get some feedback on whether you guys like Mayne's 'before and after' personality for the flashback scenes.
Also Also, feel free to drop any criticism or thoughts on the story, i absolutely adore reading your thoughts.
Guest replies
Book of Eli: Definitely back into the chaos, I'm glad to see you back after these years!
Needless: Hahahaha not dead yet! and hopefully never again until it's finished!
Anyway, that's all from me, enjoy the chapter!
Location: City of Draxus, New Constantinople
Date: 20th February 2551
Time: 2200 hours
The room smelt of death as Mayne and Henry quietly entered. Mayne silently opened the Draxus city schematics again to confirm they were in the right location. Chaos's mission: to retrieve the dumb AI that controlled the city to prevent the discovery of other colony coordinates before the covenant got to it first.
"Where is that smell coming from? I don't see any bodies." The youngest member of Chaos whispered over the comms.
"I have no idea." Mayne replied solemnly. Inside the atrium of the ONI facility there were no bodies, the only indicators of a battle were the black scorch marks of plasma weaponry, wall fragments shot out by the shells of human firearms and pools of dried blood, stuck to the floor, furniture and walls. But no bodies. The city itself had come under attack shortly after the Covenant had been detected in the system, they attacked without warning, swarming the major cities of New Constantinople with the assumed goal of finding something to locate other human planets. Fireteam Chaos had arrived shortly after the city had fallen, dropping into the city for their first mission under darkness in their HEV's with the other two hundred ODSTs of the 15th Shock Troops Battalion.
Fireteam Chaos had silently moved through the empty, bloody, body littered streets, avoiding any detection from the regular Covenant patrols in hopes of reaching the ONI headquarters and the cities AI without raising any alarms. Upon reaching the centralised building Avery had split them up into two groups to infiltrate two different entrances. Avery, Claire and Sarah made up Alpha group, making Mayne and Henry, Bravo group.
"First one to the AI wins." Claire smiled through her clear visor.
"You're on!" Mayne countered.
"We've already won, you just don't know it yet." She smirked as the groups went their own way.
Even with the putrid smell seeping through his sealed helmet, Mayne still smiled at how competitive the girl was.
"Mayne check this out." Henry said cautiously, snapping Mayne from his thoughts, the younger ODST had moved to the other end of the atrium to a set of stairs moving down to the second level. With no power in the building anymore, Mayne and Henry turned on their image enhancing system, highlighting the walls around them and allowing them to see further down into the blackness. What caught Mayne's attention first was the blood, the staircase was absolutely covered in the stuff.
"What the fuck is going on here." Henry sounded worried.
"Let's figure it out shall we." Mayne began walking down the dark stairway, holding his supressed M7S SMG in front of him in case anything decided to try to catch him off guard. Behind him he could hear the faint squelching sounds of Henrys boots sticking to the bloody floor and was faintly aware of the same sound coming from his own boots.
"Bravo Group, status." Avery's voice crackled over the comms.
"Bravo Group, moving down to second level." Mayne whispered back.
"Any reports of Covenant yet?"
"Nothing as of yet- " A sudden bang echoed up the stairwell, coming from the level down. Mayne and henry froze where they stood, SMGs levelled at the bottom of the stairwell, just meters from where the two ODSTs stood. It was followed by the familiar squawk and high pitch snorting that Mayne knew belonged to jackals and grunts. "Scratch that Alpha, Covenant may be on level two." He looked back at Henry and with two fingers up, gestured to continue.
"You're free to engage Bravo, please be quiet." Avery added the last part in humorously. Mayne winked his acknowledgment light as he reached the bottom of the flight of stairs. The blood trail continued down the corridor but turned sharply into a room twenty metres down. wordlessly, the two carefully moved down the hall until they got to the door. Mayne quietly took a handheld camera from his torso armour and connected the feed to his visor, then peeked the camera around the door. What was inside the room was enough to make his stomach churn. Bodies were piled on top of each other in the back of the room- which was supposedly once an office- bloodied and torn to pieces while two jackals consumed the remains and four grunts seemed to be standing guard. He quickly transferred the feed to Henry's visor before putting the camera away.
He turned back to henry and signalled for him to take out the grunts while he would deal with the jackals. He set a count down from five seconds on their visors and on one he launched himself into the room, aimed directly at the closest jackal and released several rounds into it back. The creature dropped like a stone as the other quickly turned to face him, igniting its wrist shield while Henry laid waste to three of the grunts as his SMG coughed at 900 rounds per minute. The last grunt dived behind the remaining jackal, which stood for only seconds more as both Mayne and Henry emptied their magazines into its shield, eventually clipping its claw, causing it to open its body up to the onslaught of whispering bullets. As the last line of defence for the grunt dropped, it reached for a plasma grenade at its side but stopped dead in its tracks as Mayne's knife flew across the room and entered its skull with a Thunk.
Mayne turned to congratulate Henry on their small win but found him taking his helmet off and bending over, throwing up anything he had in the last hour. Mayne knew it was the bodies, the smell and the putrid sight of it even threatened to make Mayne follow suit but he knew someone had to stay strong.
"Hey, it's alright Henry, let's get moving. There's no point sticking around here." He led his friend out the door and towards the next flight of stairs. While he showed no outward emotion toward the terrible sight they witnessed, he knew that the images would play back in his mind for years to come.
The journey to the AI mainframe took the duo another forty minutes, between staying out of sight of larger covenant groups and finding their way down through the labyrinth of corridors, they eventually heard the sound of plasma gunfire and the occasional cry of pain from a covenant soldier. Rounding the corner, the room ahead opened vastly to reveal the huge AI mainframe. Crouched in front on the structure were Alpha group, they were huddled around some low-lying cover as a covenant party rained plasma over their heads.
"Looks like they could use our help." Mayne grinned as he primed a fragmentation grenade and lobbed it overarm into the middle of a group of grunts and their elite leader. Instantly the grunts were pulverised in the spray of shrapnel and the elite's shields flickered and died. The elite shortly followed suit as a three round burst from Claire's battle rifle penetrated its helmet, turning its brain to mush. The remaining covenant: two elites, four grunts and two jackals were quickly dispatched as the ODST's closed in around them.
"Took your goddamn time." Avery clapped Mayne and Henry over the shoulder as they came together.
"There were only two of us, we had to bypass some covenant on the way here." Mayne laughed.
"Well, now we get to go back and kill them." Avery smirked and then opened a comm to command. "Command, this is Fireteam Chaos, AI is secure. Requesting Exfil location."
"Roger Fireteam Chaos, Exfil is the rooftop of the Colonial Plaza. Rendezvous in two hours." The static filled response came.
"Roger, Chaos Out." He quickly inspected his Assault Rifle's ammo counter. "Alright, lets get the fuck out of here. On me." He started off in a jog towards the exit. Henry and Sarah followed closely behind but Mayne waited for Claire as she approached him.
"Looks like I win…again." She smirked as she walked past him, Mayne shook his head and smiled, then fell in step behind her.
"fine, what do you win this time."
"I'll show you when we get back to the Patriot." She said slyly. Mayne could hardly hold in his excitement.
Location: Kapursa, State of Moram, Sanghelios
Date: 23rd February 2558
Time: 0600 hours
"Reveille, reveille, reveille Helljumpers! Up, up, up!" Catharine's calls awoke Mayne from an eventual sleep, following the previous night's sleep deprivation and talks with the Sangheili Spec Ops Commander. The Sergeant was already dressed in full uniform and standing by the doorway to the quarters. "Meet me in the training courtyard in fifteen." She ordered before disappearing from the room. The ODSTs quickly and silently suited up in their battle dress uniform without more then the occasional curse from Gabriel as he nearly tripped over trying to strap on his leg plating.
"Alright, let's go boys, want to lead Mayne?" Ajax called cheerfully when everyone had finished strapping their armour on. Mayne gave a simple nod and donned his helmet, doing a quick check of the heads up display.
Navigation, check.
ammo and nade count, check.
time, perfect.
"Not going to get lost like in your jungle shit show?" Gabriel snickered. Mayne decided to ignore the comment but found it odd that the jab was not filled with the malice that normally came out of his mouth, it almost sounded like banter.
"Let's go." Mayne said simply as he shouldered his brand new battle rifle, supplied by the Quartermaster Sergeant with a humoured word of warning that if he gets it cut in half again, he won't be receiving another one.
The walk from the sleeping quarters to the courtyard took the soldiers through narrow, winding corridors, passing both humans and Sangheili going about their own business, and through long stretches of wide open halls decorated in historic artwork and statues of the Moram heritage. Whilst passing through one of the many halls Mayne observed several chiselled statues spread evenly down the room, oddly similar in shape and size to statues seen on Earth that Mayne had seen in his history classes many years ago. One statue in particular caught his attention, a slight figure standing in a heroic pose, with an arm raised, clenched in a fist and the other welding an energy sword by its side. It didn't look as aged as the others around the room were.
"Reesha…" Mayne thought curiously and made a mental note to ask her about it later. Once thinking of the Spec Ops Commander, Mayne's mind began to wonder, "Why was she so open about her emotions to me? Why think that I don't understand the loss of a close friend?"
She will not understand, it was her kind that did it… The voice was bitter, but another thought came to mind.
She trusted you with her contained feelings… She is different. Mayne quickly dismissed his internal conversation, he could deal with that later, now was not the time.
The training courtyard itself was a spectacular location, almost the same size as a football field, with sandstone gravel underfoot. Marines could be seen doing their morning runs around the outskirts and there were several groups of Sangheili practicing their close quarter combat with wooden staffs and bare claws.
A brief wave from a figure off to one side of the grounds signalled that they group was in the right place. The ODSTs jogged in formation over to their Sergeant who stood tall with hands folded behind her back in the 'at ease' position. Mayne came to a stop before her and mirrored Catherine's position, as did Gabriel and Ajax beside him.
"Good morning Phoenix, I hope everyone got enough rest from yesterday's mission, especially you Mayne, who seemingly died and came back to life." Catherine seemed to smile behind her helmet and the others chuckled along at the slight dig. Mayne too could not stop a thin smile behind his visor. As numb as his mind normally was, it was nice to finally have something to smile about with his new team.
"I tried my best." Mayne confirmed. Catherine also did not seem to hold anything against him from their short confrontation the night before, another positive.
"That's good. Now, what's a morning without a bit of training?" Catherine collected four staffs from a stand close by and threw one to each of the men. "Jax, with me. Mayne and Gabe, you're together." Gabriel and Mayne shot a look at each other and Mayne shrugged.
"Well fuck…" Mayne thought, "If anything in the past was to go by, this isn't not going to end well for either of us."
Gabriel and Mayne walked a short distance away and stood a few feet apart. For a reason unbeknown to Mayne, Gabriel was quieter than usual, not as quick to make remarks or scold Mayne on his history.
"Ready?" Mayne asked as Gabriel rotated his hips and stretched his back.
"This won't be too difficult" He scoffed.
"I believe I spoke too soon about the lack of remarks" Mayne thought as he levelled his staff evenly in front of him. Instantly, Gabriel lunged forward with a jab aimed right at Mayne's face, to which he deflected easily with a side swipe, directing his opponents staff passed his shoulder and opening an opportunity for retaliation. Mayne followed with a thrust aimed at Gabriel's ribs but met only air as Gabriel lunged back out of range of the wooden weapon. The battle ensued with both combatants dodging and deflecting back and forth for several minutes, the cracks of staffs coming together and the occasional verbal insult from Gabriel echoed around the grounds.
"well done you two, I don't believe either of you managed to land a hit on the other." Catherine interrupted with a few approving claps. "Either both of you are excellent staff welders you both can't hit each other for shit." Ajax joined in with the laughter that followed. "Have a break everyone, then we'll grab breakfast."
Mayne placed his staff back on the rack and sat on the ground in a nearby shaded part of the training grounds, even at this time of the day, the sun was already radiating a scorching heat and his suits temperature control was working overtime to keep him at a steady level. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, letting his suit cool him down from the intense training.
"Not too tired are you, big man?" Gabriel's sarcastic voice cut through the calm atmosphere. Mayne looked back up to see his comrade plonk himself down beside him, leaning back on his arms in a laid-back position.
"I can go again." Mayne said defensively as he prepared to stand up, but Gabriel's next words stopped him.
"Wait, I was actually meaning to talk." He sounded almost embarrassed.
"Go on." Mayne sat back down, still a bit sceptical of what his normally abusive ally had to say.
"Look…Maybe you're not such a terrible guy after all…" He started, "You can hold your own in a fight, you seem to get along with the other two… You just don't seem like the liability I thought you would be… you know?" His stumbling sentence could almost make Mayne laugh. Gabriel then abruptly stood up.
"All I'm saying is… maybe you do deserve to be a part of this team." He finished and turned to walk away but Mayne felt he should say something, he may not get this opportunity again.
"I am sorry about who you lost before me, I'm in no way trying to replace them. We have all lost people close to us." Gabriel paused and turned back, then with a simple nod he walked over to Ajax a few meters away and sat down with him.
"What was all that about?" Catherine's voice crackled over the private COMMs.
"Honestly, I have absolutely no clue. I think he's just given me his blessing to be in Phoenix." Mayne did not actually fully understand the change in the man who had previously provoked him at every opportunity.
"He's been off since we arrived yesterday, maybe ask him about it sometime. Either way, this is a great step forward for Phoenix." Catherine celebrated.
"It's not going to stay like this, I'm still leaving after this is all over." Mayne quickly interjected to which he was met with silence. Catherine did not seem to want to talk about that topic again any time soon and Mayne could not agree more.
"Alright everyone, let's grab breakfast!" Catherine announced over the squad COMM
"OORAH!" Ajax celebrated.
Reesha stood outside the woven door to the compact villa and let out a long sigh. The early morning sunlight crept through the trees around the house, creating a stunning scene of beauty that she normally loved about her homestead. Nowadays her visits have become tedious and frustrating, for beyond that woven door lay her father; Rtusan 'Moram. Whilst his place as Kaidon would normally be in the Palace, after the premature death of Reesha's mother; Mele 'Moram, he would spend a great amount of time where he and his mate would reside before his rise to leadership.
"Daughter! What a pleasant visit." Reesha turn about to see her father striding up the beaten path towards her, carrying a large Doarmir over his shoulder. Such an animal was used for it fur to create thick cloaks, and its meat considered a delicacy in the region.
"Greetings father, I see you have been busy. It seems the hunt has rewarded you." Reesha gestured to the 'reward' over Rtusan's shoulder.
"Ah yes, this one certainly put up a worthy fight!" even in his aging days, Rtusan was still a formidable Sangheili with just as much spring in his step as any Sangheili warrior. "Come in, come in." He said avidly and walked past Reesha into the dwelling. As her father went to the back room to prepare the Doarmir for feasting, Reesha sat down in the main gathering room where all family activities would take place and immediately, she began to feel nervousness crawl into her mind. The last times she had come home to spend time with her father, it had always ended with a heated argument about her continued presence in the military, instead of returning home and bearing children for a noble male.
"It is odd how drastically times have changed, how the humans are now our allies. No matter how many of them I see around the temple, I can never truly shake the feeling of hostility towards them. Do you not agree, daughter?" Rtusan appeared in the doorway to the gathering room. Reesha could partially agree, up until recently where spending time around them had helped her show empathy for the horror her species caused them for several cycles.
"And then there was Mayne…" She thought. The human who somehow made her feel like she could open up and who would catch her attention with his deep green eyes, somehow hiding emotion that she knew he had cooped up inside him. Something she was still to find out.
"Mmm, your hesitation tells me you do not share the same feelings towards the humans." Reesha was shaken from her thoughts at her father's statement. It was innocent enough, but she could detect a hint of irritation.
"O-of course father, I share your feelings for the humans." She stumbled in regaining her composure, the last thing she would want is to anger the proficient warrior.
"And yet I sense that you lie." He continued, coming to sit down opposite her. His mandibles twitched gently as he tried to see through her façade. An awkward silence fell like fog between them.
"I empathise with them father." Reesha finally blurted out, "We committed a genocide, wiped out billions of innocent humans." She saw her father's eyes darken.
"Yet you feel nothing for all our brethren that were killed by their species?" Rtusan snarled, leaning forward towards his daughter.
"Of course I feel for all our fallen brethren, but for every hundred we lost, we slaughtered thousands of them." Reesha reasoned to her father before the conversation descended into chaos. "Even you have to admit father. It was simple to slaughter groups of them whilst remaining untouched behind our shields." She hated what she said, for it brought back past deeds she would rather forget she ever committed. Her father sighed deeply.
"This is yet another reason that supports my view. A female should not be a warrior. You are too emotionally invested in who you fight and do not have the strength to deal with your actions." In a rush of anger, Reesha stood up and marched to the door.
"I have proven all Sangheili wrong by reaching the position I am in now! I belong here just as much as you or any other Sangheili does. Having compassion for my enemy does not make me weak!" Giving her father one last snarl, she stormed out of the Villa in search of the Arbiter's Wrath. She needed to be with the ones that treated her equally.
"Do you ever think we'll ever get over the shit taste of MREs?" Ajax spoke through a mouthful of tasteless protein bar. The fireteam had gathered around some spare ammunition crates as they munched down on a tasteless breakfast. Around them vehicles were being maintained, rations handed out and orders being delivered for the day ahead.
"Will we ever get over Gabe's bullshit?" Catherine said straight-faced, to which Gabriel gave the Sergeant a hurt look and Ajax shook his head, grinning.
"Not in a million years!" He said enthusiastically.
"Then there's your answer." The whole group burst into laughter and once again Mayne found himself letting go a faint smile at the friendly humour, though his chest began to feel tight as he thought back to how his friends would share the same mocking jokes. He was brought back to the present though when Gabriel tapped Ajax on the shoulder and pointed behind Mayne.
"Looks like we're gonna have some company." Mayne turned around to see all five members of the Arbiters Wrath walking over to them.
"Would you care for some company, Humans?" Reesha asked light-heartedly. Catherine patted the container beside her several times.
"Of course, join us! As long as you've brought something that tastes better than this." She laughed and twirled her MRE in the air. Zek reached into a compartment in his armour and retrieved what looked to be a small piece of dried meat.
"Try this, I am sure it will taste better than what you humans could make." He laughed deeply and sat beside the Sergeant. Diro and the twins; Ido and Rtada moved to sit with Ajax and Gabriel and Reesha smiled at Mayne and made a gesture to join him, to which Mayne nudged over towards the other side of the ammunitions crate, giving room for Reesha to sit beside him. To anyone around them, the group may have looked odd. A group of ODST's and Sangheili eating a meal together would confuse anyone. Ajax, Gabiel, Ido and Rtada were in deep conversation about which species would win in a hand to hand fight and Catherine and Zek were exchanging bits of their morning breakfast.
"From the looks of things, that really does not taste very good." Reesha gestured to Mayne's half eaten protein bar.
"Yeah… tastes like absolute shit." Mayne shrugged and took another bite, struggling to chew the rubbery protein rich muesli. "here try some." He tore off a bit of the bar at the other end and handed it to Reesha. She raised the bar to her mandibles and her eyes squinted as she took a bite.
"It really does taste as bad as it looks." She exclaimed, making Mayne chuckle and Catherine emitted a laugh from across the group.
"You got that right! Mayne try this." She chucked a piece of the dried meat that Zek had given her right into Mayne's hands. It looked almost like jerky, except much larger in size. Mayne took a large mouthful of the tough meat and nodded appreciatingly at the taste.
"You think you guys can convince the UNSC to give us food like this?" He asked Reesha in between mouthfuls and she tilted her head.
"I do not think I would have any influence over the food that you would receive." She said confusingly.
"I know I was… I was just kidding." Mayne sighed with a smile. It was getting harder to remember that while Sangheili could speak English, they had not quite grasped the concept of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek talk.
Suddenly Catherine picked up he helmet and put it on, she was silent for a short time, most likely listening to a set of orders that had just arrived.
"Yes Sir, right away." She removed her helmet and smiled at everyone around the circle.
"Looks like we're about to get our first proper mission. The Arbiter wants to make a statement to the public tomorrow and Captain Hendricks wants us in the War Room to brief us on our role." Reesha stood up and looked around at everyone.
"Then let us not waste time, I am eager to see the accomplishments this team can achieve together!"