Here's chapter 8, which focuses exclusively on Shadow Team.
Episode 8
In orbit over Unknown World. Several hours earlier.
In orbit above this unnamed world, a rift in space and time opened up and a large grey ship emerged from it. The Eye of Intent settled into a parking orbit over the planet. An Exactor-class corvette, the Eye was a force to be reckoned with.
Although it had the chassis of UNSC Charon-class frigate, the Exactors had been extensively modified and upgraded by the Republic to serve as patrol and exploratory vessels. Ships of this class were often deployed on their own, and were therefore equipped with state of the art weaponry and shielding to ward off attackers of all kinds.
The Eye was carrying a standard battlion of 3000 Republic Marines, their accompanying armor and air support and several squads of special forces soldiers. One of which was being deployed at this moment.
Taking no chances, the Eye had informed the rest of the scout flotilla that they were attached to about where they were going and the dimensional coordinates of the planet. As the single dropship descended, the Eye disappeared into the dimensional vortex once again.
Dropship interior.
"We'll continue our patrol and return within 24 hours." The Captain said via hologram, "Contact us immediately if hostilities develop."
"Acknowledged." Shade acknowledged, "we'll notify you if anything changes."
"Be careful down there." The Bothan Captain sighed, then he ended the transmission. Shade turned to look at Shadow Team, all of whom were preparing their gear for a search and rescue, though they were more than prepared for any other situation.
"You all know what the mission is." Shade addressed the team. "Orbital scans have detected 2 Covenant War era dropships; a D77H-TCI Pelican and a Type-52 Phantom. We're going to split into 2 separate groups to investigate them." Shade gestured to Fade and Thul.
"Shadow 2 and 5 will be investigating the Phantom, which appears to have crashed near some Forerunner ruins. You two will be airdropped as we're flying over the crash site, so grab anything else you may need."
"Got it."
"Understood."
"2 minutes." The pilot reported. The two soldiers grabbed all the gear they needed and soon they were closing on the drop zone. The bay door opened and as the two of them positioned themselves at the entrance, Shade came over to talk to them.
"Remember, stay in constant communication." Shade said, "And be careful." He softly added, looking at Fade and then turning to Thul, "Both of you."
"We will." Fade said, and Thul nodded. And with that, the two of them leapt from the craft. As the door sealed, Shade turned to Nye and Dread.
"Shadow 3 and 4, you two are with me. We're going to investigate the Pelican crash site, see if we can find our ODST."
The two of them gave their acknowledgements, and they spent the rest of the trip in silence.
After being airdropped from their dropship, Fade and Thul made their way past the Forerunner ruins, into the crash site of the Phantom dropship. On the way, they noticed a startling amount of spent shell casings.
"Judging by the tire tracks, it seems like a Warthog was fleeing something." Thul commented at the barely visible imprints outside the Phantom.
"We'll figure it out later." Fade said before pointing to the Phantom, "First things first."
Turning their attention to the objective at hand, the two soldiers began scouring the wreck, searching for anything that they could find. Thul quickly found that some of the onboard systems were still functional.
"Check the computer logs, see if there's any useful information." Fade ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." Thul started searching through the database while Fade set up watch on top of the Phantom. Even though there was no obvious threat, Fade kept sweeping over the same locations with her rifle scope. She could swear there was something that kept appearing on the top of the stone temple, but everytime she checked there was nothing there.
Inside the Phantom, Thul continued to pour through the databanks when he felt an unfamiliar presence behind him. Half-turning with his sidearm in hand, Thul took aim behind him but found only empty air. Turning back to his work, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them.
Fade was still searching when Thul called her down into the Phantom. Leaping into the wreck, the asari landed behind the Sangheili.
"You have something?" She asked.
"There isn't much to go on, but I was able to identify the parent ship registry of this craft and the date of its deployment." Fade gestured for him to continue. "The ship was the CAS-class assault carrier Solemn Penance and the date of deployment is the human date of October 20, 2552."
"The day of the Covenant's first assault on Earth." Fade said. Realizing the implications, she activated her comms.
"Shadow 2 to Shadow Lead. Shade, do you read?"
At the Pelican crash site, Shade, Nye and Dread disembarked from their dropship and took up positions around the wreckage.
"Dread, you're on overwatch." Shade said, pointing to one of the trees. The Yautja wordlessly nodded and started climbing. "Nye, you're with me. I'll check the Pelican's systems, and you'll search the area around it."
"Got it." Nye said, as the squad leader made his way towards the Pelican.
Nye turned and followed Shade, but halted when he felt a presence behind him. Pulling out his SMG, Nye looked around, but found nothing behind him.
"You OK?" Shade asked, coming up behind the Chiss.
"I don't know... I feel like we're being watched." He said solemnly. Shade nodded, he'd been getting the same feeling himself. The sheer emptiness and silence of the planet itself was putting him on edge.
"C'mon, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can leave." Nye nodded and followed Shade, both checking their sensors and motion trackers as they turned towards the Pelican.
Dread was experiencing the same thing: Several times, he could swear that something had been in his field of vision, but when he looked again, nothing was there. The lack of fauna wasn't making him feel any better, if anything he was more disturbed about that than the others.
The Yautja prefered hunting on inhabited planets; it made the game more interesting. This world was clearly capable of supporting life: the habitable atmosphere and thriving plant life was testament to that, but there was no sign of any fauna or even ambient insects.
It was rather eerie.
In the orbiting Republic dropship, the two pilots kept scanning the canyon. Their powerful sensors were picking up unusual readings. Heat signatures that quickly faded from view, blips on the motion sensors that disappeared in less than a second.
"Shadow Lead, we're picking up anomalous readings all over the canyon. Is there anything unusual going on down there?"
"Nothing that we can see." Shade replied as he worked, quickly hacking into what remained of the Pelican's computer systems. As he worked, Shade felt a presence behind him, but when he looked behind him, there was nothing there.
"Shadow Lead, I've found something unusual." Nye's voice crackled over the comm.
"What is it?" Shade said distractedly, still searching through what little data remained on the dropship.
"Someone set up a bunch of floodlights in one of the nearby caves."
"And why exactly is that unusual?" Dread said, deadpan.
"Because, they're not UNSC issued equipment." Nye replied, "In fact, I can't find any identifying markings on these things at all."
"Well, I think things just got a lot more interesting." Shade said, looking at the data. "According to the logs, this Pelican was launched to serve in the Battle of New Mombasa in 2552."
"So, I'm guessing it went MIA." Dread interjected, realizing that his hunch had been correct.
"Yes, but that's not the weird part." Shade continued, "According to the onboard calender, it's only been 3 days since October 20th."
"Well, that is interesting." Nye commented with a hint of surprise in his voice. Shadow Team recalled that the scan of the planet indicated the world was in a state of dimensional flux, but apparently, the planet had suffered some temporal distortion as well.
At that moment, they were interrupted by a call from Fade.
"Shadow 2 to Shadow Lead. Shade, do you read?"
"I read you Shadow 2, what did you find?" Shade said.
"Quite a lot." Fade responded, "We can confirm that the ruins on the planet are Forerunner, but more importantly, we've learned that the Phantom was drawn into the slipspace rupture caused by Regret's Carrier over New Mombasa in 2552."
"Your information coincides with ours." Shade said, "And it seems like this world suffered some very recent temporal displacement, considering that the Pelican's logs report that it's currently October 23, 2552."
"That's surprising." Thul's voice came over the comm, "What about our ersatz ODST, did you find anything on him?"
"No, the computer is too damaged to pull personnel files from it." The squad leader replied.
"Now that's rather curious." Thul said, "It's the same scenario in the Phantom's computer."
"I don't think this is a coincidence." Fade interjected. "When is it ever?" Nye snarked. Shade cut them both off.
"Focus on the task at hand. Fade, have you found any sign of recent activity?"
"Yes, it appears that a Warthog was here, and the main gun was used."
"Alright, search through the ruins, see what you can find." Shade ordered.
"Yes sir, we'll get right on it." Fade's reply came across rather hesitant, with her voice shaking slightly. Frowning, Shade switched the comms to private. "Are you alright?" He asked softly.
"I'm fine, Tom."
"Don't give me that, Aeian. You sound like you've seen a ghost." Shade said.
'Maybe I have,' Fade thought before answering. "I don't know, but I feel like I'm being watched. And I think Thul is getting that sense as well."
"Yeah, me too. Same with Nye and Dread." Shade said. There was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. "Just be careful out there."
"I always am." Fade replied with a hint of playfulness in her voice. Shade briefly chuckled at that remark before focusing on the task at hand.
"We'll meet up with the two of you soon." Shade said, his voice professional once again.
"Understood. Shadow 2 out." Fade disconnected.
Exiting the Pelican, Shade turned to his squadmates as they both appeared in front of him. "We're going to scout out the rest of the area and see if we can't find our ODST. Dread, were you able to establish a trail?"
"Yes sir," the Yautja growled, "He left the canyon through a fissure in one of the rock walls. We can pick it up as we go along."
"Excellent." Shade called their dropship, which picked them up. Leaving the bay doors open, the team instructed the craft to fly at a low altitude and speed, allowing them to follow the trail. Tracking the ODST's footprints for a while, they came across a spot where the bootprints disappeared and became tire tracks.
"He must have found transportation." Nye said, the three of them having briefly disembarked to scout the area, "Judging by the size and the patterns, I would assume he drove away on a Mongoose."
Shade nodded, "Let's keep moving."
Following the ODST's path, the team soon came across a small collection of unmarked bunkers, and all indications pointed to their quarry stopping here. Entering the bunker, Shade, Dread and Nye began searching through the computer systems.
"Well, this place is still running on optimal power," Dread reported, scanning the systems on his wrist gauntlet, "But it doesn't seem like anyone's been here for years."
Shade and Nye were trying to access whatever data was on the hard drives, but found that they had been wiped clean. Packing up, Shade, Nye and Dread continued onwards, and eventually found the Mongoose they had been following.
Leaping from the dropship, the group found that it had been abandoned. "This vehicle has been abandoned for at least a day." Dread reported, using the infrared vision built into his bio-mask, "The trail ends at the water, he walked in and then just vanished."
"What do you mean 'vanished'?" Nye said incredulously, "He couldn't have just disappeared into nothing."
"I didn't say he 'disappeared into nothing'," the Yautja retorted, "In all likelihood, he was teleported."
"Teleported how? And where?" Shade interjected.
"I'm not sure." Dread admitted, "but I don't think this was the incident that brought him to us."
The three of them moved on, coming to the bunker, where their gunship was already providing overwatch. "Shadow Lead, we're not detecting any movement or heat signatures, but I recommend that you use caution."
"Copy that." Shade said, then turned to Nye and Dread. "You know the drill." The Chiss and the Yautja nodded wordlessly, and they split up to search the bunker.
The sense of unease they had all felt when they landed was still prevalent, and every now and then, one of the 3 would turn around with weapons drawn, or double check an area they had already searched. Each time, they found themselves alone, but that didn't change the fact that they all felt eyes on them.
It was Shade who found the body in the basement, lying in a pool of blood. Dread followed shortly after and looked over the corpse.
"This man was killed by a strong blow to the head." Dread said, pointing to the trail of dried blood running down the side of his head. "What about his throat?" Shade asked, looking at the deep cut inflicted across the man's neck.
"That happened after he died, possibly a day afterwards." The Yautja replied, just as confused as Shade was. Why would someone need to inflict that type of wound on a corpse? To confuse matters even more, the helmet camera was destroyed, the visor data was corrupted and the dog tags were missing.
"Maybe he was possessed?" Nye said over the comm, a theory which neither Shade nor Dread could really refute as implausible, considering some of the things that they had encountered.
"Maybe, but we can't be certain yet." Shade uttered, then he activated his long range communication.
"Shadow Lead to Shadow 2. We've found one of the ODSTs. Deceased. Identity unknown."
After leaving the Phantom, Thul and Fade attempted to track where the Warthog had fled. Following a path through the ruins, they were easily able to track the Warthog's route by following the trail of shell casings. Along the way, they took note of the fact that the ruins were indeed Forerunner in design.
They tracked the casings to the edge of the ruins, where the trail went cold and any tire tracks had been swept away by the wind and sand.
"We'll regroup at the temple." Fade suggested, "See if our mystery ODST visited that place." Thul agreed and they retraced their steps to the Phantom, then entered the half-uncovered temple.
"Well this is odd." Thul muttered. Leviathan artifacts were scattered all over the floor in a haphazard fashion. Fade stopped to examine several orbs while Thul kept searching the temple. Fade scanned the artifacts and found that they were inert. 'It looks like we've uncovered an Ancient complex.' Fade thought when Thul's voice pulled her out of her reverie.
"Fade, in here!" Thul shouted, "You're going to want to see this."
The asari went to Thul's position and found a body. Specifically, the body of an ODST. The torso had been split apart between the shoulder and the head, but there was very little blood leaking through.
"Looks like he was killed by an energy sword." Thul said, inspecting the corpse. "I don't think so," Fade said, "It seems like this guy died from blunt force trauma to the head."
At that moment, their comlink activated.
"Shadow Lead to Shadow 2. We've found one of the ODSTs. Deceased. Identity unknown." Shade's voice filtered through the speaker.
"Copy that." Fade said, "We've found another dead ODST. Cause of death on yours?"
"Blunt force trauma to the head." Shade replied, "Though it seems that someone stabbed this guy through the neck after he died."
"It appears both victims died under similar circumstances, yet they bear fresh marks of battle."
"Your ODST had his throat slashed out?" Nye asked.
"No, this guy was cut almost completely in half with an energy sword." Fade said.
"C'jit, Thul, was that really necessary?" Dread joked.
"Cut the chatter, Dread." Shade interrupted, "Fade, do you have any leads on his identity or what happened to him?"
"No, his dog tags are missing, his visor logs are corrupted and his helmet camera was smashed to bits."
"Hm. I'm sensing a pattern here." Shade murmered to himself, before addressing the asari, "We'll rendezvous at your coordinates. ETA 15 minutes. Shadow Lead, out."
The asari and Sangheili then exited the temple and headed for the rendezvous point, still struggling with the feeling that they were being watched, despite the lack of any obvious threat. Fifteen minutes later, the dropship arrived, and Shadow Team was reunited.
"So what do we do now?" Nye asked the assembled squad. At that moment, the instruments in the dropship started blaring.
"Sir, massive energy spike detected!" The pilot shouted over the alarms.
"Location?" Shade asked.
"50 miles northwest from here. It appears to emanating from a city and..." The pilot paused for a moment before resuming, "Sir, if I'm reading this correctly, the energy is similar in composition to that of a Marker."
Everyone froze when they heard that. After a moment, Fade broke the silence.
"Goddess," her voice came out in a whisper.
"Contact the Eye of Intent. Let them know what's happened." Shade snapped, "And take us to the source." The human turned to look at each member of his team. There was no hesitation.
Shadow Team was ready.
I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, Star Wars, Dead Space, Predator or anything else that appears in this story.
As always, reviews are welcome.