As they approached the relay, Carter spoke up. "Listen up Noble team, we're looking at a downed relay outpost fifty clicks from Visegrad."
Caboose began to click his mouth as a countdown.
Carter did his best to ignore it. "We're going to introduce ourselves to whoever took it out, then Kat's going to get it back online."
Caboose stopped his clicking. "Should I say hello to them?"
"Please do and spare us this torture." Jun sarcastically replied.
Carter felt like interfering, but decided not to.
"Just get me under the hood , commander." Catherine replied over the comms, who wanted to get rid of Caboose as soon as possible.
Jorge had a legitimate question. "Sir, why would rebels want to cut off Reach from the rest of the colonies?"
Carter had no idea. "I'm not sure, what do you think six?"
Caboose was staring into thin air.
"Er, six?" Carter asked.
Caboose looked at him. "I'm sorry what you were saying something?"
Carter sighed. "Never mind." He better be good in combat.
Suddenly, Catherine's datapad bleeped. "Commander, we just lost our signal with HQ."
"What about the backup channels." Carter asked.
Catherine shook her head. "I can't say what's jamming us."
Caboose looked around. "I don't see any jam."
Carter had to bite his tongue to avoid being frustrated, when he saw that they had almost reached the outpost. "You heard her. Dead zone confirmed, command will not be keeping us company this trip."
"I'm lonely already," Emile sarcastically muttered.
Catherine's datapad bleeped again. "I'm receiving a distress beacon."
"That could be the missing troopers." Carter mused before contacting the Falcon pilots. "Put us down on top of the hill."
As the pilots were getting ready to land, Carter ordered Jun to stay in the Falcon and everyone else to come with him, including Caboose. Now it's time to see if his combat skills make up for his childish personality.
The Falcons landed on top of a hill and everyone but Jun jumped out before the Falcons took off.
""Alright, Noble Team, spread out. Watch the approach." Carter advised.
Everyone started to go down the hill in a straight line opposite each other, which meant that everyone was covering the hill. At the bottom of it, was a burning Warthog.
"Is that vehicle where the distress beacon is coming from?" Carter asked.
Catherine nodded. "It is."
"Any ID?" Carter asked.
Catherine scanned it. "Negative, but it's military,"
"So where are the troopers?" Jorge wondered out-loud.
Emile looked down. "There's a lot of blood on the ground, with footprints leading on from it.
"Let's follow them." Carter ordered, he then realised something. "Where's six?"
They looked around, but they could not find Caboose.
"Jun, where's Six?" Carter asked.
He could hear Jun laughing. "He's on top of the hill, staring at a Moa!"
Carter got out his binoculars and saw that Caboose was indeed staring at a Moa. "Six!" Carter shouted.
Caboose looked down at Carter.
"Get down here!"
Caboose waved goodbye to the Moa and jumped from the top of the hill, to landing at the bottom of it. The force of the landing caused a shockwave and everyone almost fell over.
How strong is he!? Carter thought. "What were you doing?"
"I was trying to make a new friend!" Caboose. "But he didn't speak any english.
Carter sighed. "Just follow me."
"Ok!" Caboose replied.
As they followed the bloody footprints, Carter could swear he heard Jun mutter "if six doens't get killed soon, then I'll do it myself."
Eventually, the footprints lead them to the relay outpost, where the footprints just stopped.
"Damn!" Carter uncharacteristically cursed before he remembered the mission "We need to find the control room so Cat can get the relay back online."
They turned left and saw a dead body on the floor, as well as an injured trooper sitting on the floor, not to far away from it.
Carter leaned down to the injured trooper. "Where's the rest of your unit?"
"We got split up," the trooper explained. "I don't think they... It sounded bad on the comms."
"All right, trooper, stay put," Carter told him "We'll get you a combat surgeon."
Caboose looked into a vent and saw a young woman. "Hello!"
Jorge shoved Caboose out of the way and dragged the young woman out of the vent, while she was hitting him and shouting things in Hungarian.
"It's all right, we're not going to hurt you," Jorge tried to ressasure the woman, who was obviously not ressassured.
The woman struggled for a bit more, before she looked up and screamed.
And before anyone could ask why, 3 Covenant soldiers burst from the ceiling. They all wore Maroon armor and the leader had an energy sword.
"It's the aliens!" Caboose called out as the Covenant charged towards Noble team, who fired at the Covenant and killed them all within a hailstorm of bullets.
"Bloody hell, it's the Covenant!" Jorge realised.
"It's worse than we thought." Catherine realised.
Carter nodded, but his mind was preoccupied. Number Six recognized them. But why call them 'The Aliens' and not 'The Covenant'?
While he was thinking about this, went over to the console and ripped off it's cover before inspecting the damage.
"This station be back online in two weeks at earliest." Catherine explained. "All major uplink components are fried."
"Two minutes is too long," Carter sighed.
"Which is why I'm splicing into the main overland bundle to get you a direct line to Colonel Holland..." Catherine replied. Carter stood there for a few minutes until she replied. "Signal. It's patchy, but it's there."
"I'll take it," Carter replied as he removed his helmet.
"Better not touch anything," Kat warned him as Jorge, the woman, and Emile left the room. "You wouldn't want to ground this place."
She sauntered out with Caboose, as Carter he walked over to the screen.
Colonel Holland's voice crackled over the radio. "... I'm barely getting you. What's your situation, over?"
"Colonel, this is Noble One," Carter told him. "There are no rebels. The Covenant are on Reach. Acknowledge?"
"Come again, Noble One? Did you say ?" Holland asked.
"Affirmative. It's the WINTER CONTINGENCY," Carter replied.
Holland didn't even hesitate before replying, "May God help us all."