Legend:
Bold- Scene Transition
Italics- Sounds
'Thoughts'- '...'
Chapter 6
September 15, 2554
00:00 Hours, Earth time
Havoc Prison Space Station
ODST Spec Ops Unit, November Six, aka Nova Team
Status: Currently Imprisoned in hostel terrain
Location: Havoc Prison Space Station, just outside of Pluto Orbit
Nightmare
[Play Halo Reach- Ashes on You Tube]
"Nightmare?"Gideon looked to Staff Sergeant Chambers, although her face was still hidden behind the blackness of her visor, she shrugged her shoulders suggesting she was just as in the dark as he was.
For a time there was complete silence, for a time it seem as if the entire Galaxy outside those four walls that surrounded those troopers cease to exist. Having a feeling that the Rookie would never speak plainly when talking to the Commanding officer Chambers decided to take the lead, "Care to clue us in Forge?"
The Lieutenant was quite for some time he was completely motionless as if time had stop for him and him alone.
"Forge... You feeling okay?" Chambers was especially concerned in all the years that she had known him never has she seen him flustered. Even when he was uncertain of what was to come, he would always maintain a strong outward appearance to keep those under his charge calm and collected. However, before her stood a man she did not recognize. A man who had let doubt claim his heart.
Suddenly words just started fumbling out of the lieutenants mouth, first they were quiet almost as if a whisper then slowly his words began to quicken becoming more unstable and erratic as they exited his mouth,"How did they know where we... We shouldn't have been there... we should have known... Something... Anything!"
"Forge snap out of it", Chambers begged, but it was no use, the lieutenant was too far gone into the darkness of his own mind. Without a doubt Chamber knew such a burden would crush him under the weight of his own self-doubt and pity. It was something that all marines would have to come to terms with to some degree, for some it was worst than other. But, for a select few it was a nightmare that seemed eternally unending.
"I could have saved them if I had done something... anything other than what I..." Lt. Miles madden ramblings continued, his body began to mimic his words the quickening of his voice with shakes and shuttering throughout.
Suddenly Chamber grabbed the base of the lieutenant's helmet and with full force and not the slightest hint of hesitation proceed to ram her helmet against his. She was so flustered that she unintentionally used the visor portion of her helmet for the collision causing the black veil that hid her soft features of her face to malfunction and crack. She raged,"Get your head out of your ass and pull yourself together marine!" It was clear that her voice had reach him however, a look of confusion still remained which only made her more angry. Forcing her to headbutt the dazed lieutenant yet again this time with so much force that a portion of her visor actually broke off revealing her hazel right eye to the world, in a strain yet caring voice she continued, "You're the only reason any of us agreed to take on this mission... We need you here!"
He looked her eye that had been exposed only to see the righteous anger within them but also a hint of concern, the fact that one of his men was so concerned about him made him smile and just then all of the shaking seemed to stopped .She pulled back for another assault only to have her lieutenant place his hand on the forefront of her helm stopping her just before she let loose."Thanks Chambers I needed that." Lt. Miles smiled beneath his visor, "But, if you ever do anything like that again I swear to god I'll court martial your ass."
"Dick." Chambers smiled as she helped him to his feet."Forge, back then... What happened?"
[Play Halo 2 Never Forget on YouTube]
Lt. Miles exhaled deeply then began to explained, "Project Challenger was a mistake." a serious tone returning to his voice,"It was suppose to be the UNSC answer to the spartan program, a way of proving that breeding people just for the purposes of combat was not only immoral, but also unnecessary. That we could have got along just fine without it."
"You tried to oppose the spartan program?" Chambers asked.
Lt. Miles Nodded,"There were only about 300 of us, each trained by the best of the UNSC, each equipped state of the art convenient inspired weaponry, That's where I got that energy saber you may seen me use from time to time. The Sniper Rifle System 99-Series 5 Anti-Materiel may be ideal for long range kills, but something that isn't an option and you'll need to get up close and personal and the M6C/SOCOM just can't rip through shields as well as a good blade."
"Why is it that I've never heard anything about you guys?"Chambers asked,"I mean a trooper rushing into battle with an energy sword; that would be sure to turn a few heads on the front lines right?"
"We never fought on the battlefield", The lieutenant corrected her, "In fact if the situation ever escalated into an all out firefight it meant we'd probably failed in our mission."
"You mean you were...?" Chambers started but was quickly interrupted by her the lieutenant.
"Assassins, saboteurs, Spec Ops. We called ourselves many things." Lt. Miles continued,"Our job was to eliminate high priority targets and make the war as unprofitable as possible for the convenient and their allies. Basically we made war as expensive as possible for the convenient, forcing them to consider and rethink every possible offensive against the UNSC. We were very good at it. So much so that as a result many of our colonies with smaller populations were completely ignored and many more battles were avoided altogether."
"Woah, heavy stuff." Lucy's voice echoed over the team's comm, but she was soon hushed by Moreno. Lt. Miles knew they had been listening in, however he felt as part of the team they all had a right to know.
"As you could probably guess we had some success, but with success come notoriety. Eventually the convenient were able to confirm we existed and so naturally we become a target," The lieutenant paused,"It started with small stuff like leaking fake information to lore the occasional two to four man fire teams to their deaths, but then we started loosing entire squads at a time until it began clear that the convenient were hellbent on our total annihilation. That's when it happened, that's when the convenient killed everyone."
"Everyone?" Lucy voice appeared with her intention, however there was no witty comment this time. She understood the depth of the situation and to make light of it would only mean disrespect.
The lieutenant nodded, "Somehow the convenient were able to discover the location of our base of operation. To this day no one has been able to deduce exactly how they managed this."
"Isn't it obvious they must have manage to overran one of you FOBs and extracted the location from their." Lucy explained plainly.
"Great theory except it's not possible." Lt. Miles explained,"Our uniforms where equipped with a wireless signal capable of setting off a program similar to the Cole Protocol. Basically we press a button and all records of locations, who we were and where we're from get deleted automatically. And of those who were killed by the convenient out in the field, 100 percent of them were able to set off this purge."
"That changes things" Lucy admitted with surprise in her voice.
"When they arrived they had only one thing on their minds. Genocide." ,Lt. Miles continued, "I saw my fellow troopers, my brothers at arm die while I was somehow managing to survive. That day changed someth..."
Suddenly the monitor lite up just as it did before with all to undesirable face of Saren Dexen upon it,"Tell me Nightmare did you give any thought to my generous purposeful." Dexen explained, "Will you come peacefully?"
"As I was saying..."Lt. Miles said ignoring Dexen remark, "That day changed something inside me." suddenly he removed Chambers' damaged helmet from her head and replaced it with his own,"I'll never forgive myself for surviving that day, I'll never forget that I heard their cries and was unable to help them." Slowly he places the damaged helmet he just received from Chambers on his head, his right eye glowing a pale blue light through the opening in the cracked helm as he continues,"That day... I killed them all... When the UNSC arrived I was the only one still drawing breath. You're gonna learn why they call me Nightmare."
Dexen started,"Very poetic Nightmare, but I'm afraid words do little more than..." Suddenly a guard dressed in their common brown armor, came to his side,"What?! What do you mean they're in the power supply room?", Dexen roared,"Just one?.. Then kill him!.. An entire Platoon; down! To one man, that's impossible!" Quickly Dexen turned his attention back to the lieutenant,"Listen up nightmare I'm not sure exactly what type of game your playing, but if you think..."
Suddenly the monitor was black, soon after the white light that filled the room was gone replaced by a red light that was barely better then the darkness that would be present in its absent. "Lucy what the hell is going on?" The lieutenant spoke quickly.
"The Back up generators came online Commander." Lucy responded,"No clue what could have caused it."
"I'll take credit for that." a voice rang over the comm to Lucy's surprise." Allowing yourself to be captured Nightmare, you've gotten rusty."
"Anybody ever tell you you talk too much?" Lt. Miles mocked.
"Not recently."The voice replied.
"I don't mean to interrupt." Lucy interjected irritated by the unknown individual on her channel, "But, who the heck are you? This is a secure channel, who gave you access?"
"Lucy relax." the lieutenant attempted to calm her,"Its Warrant Officer Radd. I had a feeling he'd do something like this. He's always preferred working alone when possible."
"I got good news and bad news, which would you like to hear first?" Radd voice echoed over the communication system.
"Surprise me." The Lieutenant smiles ejecting and examining the magazine in his battle rifle before reinserting it.
"As you wish." Radd started,"The Good news is I've cut the power to the security system, which means all the locks should be disabled."
"Yeah... and the bad news?" Lt. Miles exclaimed, drawing the M6C/SOCOM silenced pistol at his side, looking at it as if he were seeing it for the first time.
"The bad is the the guards are fully aware of the fault in their system and are on there way to both your and my location as we speak."The Warrant Officer continued.
"Wait wait wait!"Lucy interjected, "You disabled the all locks right? So doesn't that mean?"
KABOOM!
[Play Zack Hemsey Redemption on You Tube]
Suddenly an explosion shakes the space station violently. The three trooper struggle to stay of their feet, the explosion was so intense and unexpected Gideon was forced to his knees.
"The hell?" Chambers shouted in confusion.
"An explosion!" the rookie added making his way to his feet.
"Yeah, no Shit!"Chamber remarked with a hint of anxiety in her voice, she stumbles finally making her way to a nearby window to gain some level of understanding to what was going on. Just as her eyes reach the blackness of space she saw them, dozens of prisoners and guards alike being sucked into the vacuum of space. Their skin turned blue in mere seconds after being exposed to the coldness of space, their bodies fumbling around violently, as if they were on fire, a great many of them were holding their throats trying to conserve what ever air they could, before they simply ceased to be. Soon there was nothing, the violent movements and fumblings of desperation were at there end as their bodies were taken by the great blackness of space.
Lucy voiced erupted over the comm,"Commander I'm picking up a sudden increase in the terminal energy of the space station and multiple anomaly drafting from your direction! What's going on down there?"
Lt. Miles acknowledged Lucy concerns, however like her's his knowledge was limited at the time he spoke,"Radd what the hell? was that you?"
"Unfortunately, I can't take credit for that one" Radd's voice echoed over the communication system. "However, there is one that I believe you are over-looking."
Knowing to whom he was referring the lieutenant smiled,"It'd only make sense, he's the reason why we're in this mess in the first place." He had every reason to expect trouble so quickly he used a hand and arm signal to position both Gideon and Chamber to branch the door that once held the troopers captive.
"Indeed." Radd agreed,"and even if he isn't well armed he can at least help us take down some of the prisoners who escaped from their cells."
"Prisoners?" Chamber shouted,"I thought you said we'd only be dealing with guards?"
"I cut the power remember?" Radd explained, "Were you expecting them to seat in their cells quietly?"
"No, but a heads up would have nice!" Chambers raged.
"The have no armor, no training and only improvised weapons they're threat level is minimal at best" Radd explained as the sound of gunfire erupted on his end,"We'll have to take later."
"Sometimes I really hate that guy." Chambers cringed looking down at her leg injury.
"I thought as much." Lucy chuckled,"Nova Team sure has a way of keeping thing interesting. I think I'm beginning to like you guys."
"Outstanding!"The lieutenant shouted as he slammed the magazine back into his battle rifle after examining it for the 3rd time in the last few minutes. Swiftly he moved to started telling his fellow troopers to initiate a frag and clear. Chambers primed a frag grenade in her left hand as she leaned it up against the door, Gideon placed his assault rifle at the ready, in preparation for whatever it was that lied beyond that door. The Lieutenant's hand flew forward signaling his troopers to begin the assault. The door flew open as Chamber simultaneously released the grenade from her grasp. Gideon begin to upload through the opening allowing his squadmates time to exploit the breach.
A/N: Can't wait to get to the Action next Chapter