New Addie, Providence
November 29, 2557
Up ahead, a pack of brutes in domed exosuits had jet jumped onto the hull. Their heads locked on the four figures sprinting to them.
Their expressions changed to confusion and then to anger as they deduced the identities of the quartet.
Plasma weapons were raised and they opened fire, sending searing hot bolts down towards them.
Being in the lead, Austal primed his last grenade and arced it to the center of the group. It impacted one of them, the spikes lodging itself into the left shin guard and detonated a split second later. The razor spikes shredded two others and forced the remainder to retreat.
"They must have a hangar!" He said, flinching as a spike hit his chestplate only to get shrugged off by his shielding.
"Hangar means aircraft!" Bowman agreed, "Okay, ready we're going to drop down!"
To their left was the hull's end, a five hundred foot drop onto solid ground. On the underside of the ship, plasma turrets powered up and fired long beams that curved upwards, trailing off to its programmed targets.
They slowly descended down the sloped hull and finally spotted the edge of a hangar inside. All that they couldn't see was the essential aircraft. The thing that could get them off this tub.
As Fowler was descending, he lost his footing. His posterior end hit the hull and he slid down at an astonishing speed. He scrambled to get ahold, but his fingers failed to find purchase. The ship's surface was a hexagonal skin with grooves for an easy latch on. However, he finally managed to grab on, but suddenly his fingers slipped out of the hold.
Austal lunged for him, but Fowler's outstretched arm was just out of his reach. "Shit!"
Faster than anyone imagined, Bowman grabbed Austal's free hand and dived over the side. His free hand curled around Brett's ankle, effectively stopping his fall. All three Spartans felt a muscle being pulled in one part of their bodies or another. It was enough to have grunts and pants of pain emitted.
Fowler was breathing heavily. "Whew, I thought I was a goner."
"Don't say that just yet." Bowman turned to look inside the hangar a short distance away. "Get ready."
He let go of Austal's arm, now grabbing a groove in the hull to hold on. Using momentum from his shoulder muscles, he began to swing the half-ton Spartan like a pendulum. It started slow, but it gained speed and increased width.
"Ready when you are Cap." Fowler knew that the CO's arm was beginning to tire.
"Go!" Bowman reared his arm back and using every ounce of strength he hurled Fowler towards the open mouth of the hangar bay.
Flying through the air, Fowler realized too late that Bowman didn't have enough momentum on his swing and he was going to fall short and then go hundreds to feet to a nasty death.
He did not just survive a descent with Austal with a malfunctioning jetpack to go out like this!
The hull came closer than he expected and four of his outstretched fingers hooked on. He slammed into the side, nearly getting winded in the process. He hauled himself up to the hangar floor with both hands, still grunting from the exhaustion that cramped his upper body. Time for a workout when this was over.
"Eon," Hades began, "All weapons discharged, estimated time to impact with hostiles is all within ninety seconds. First victims in ten."
"Good." Bowman said, "Keep the Admiral updated." He turned over to Fowler. "You good?"
"I'm going to need arm stretching, but yeah."
"Alright. I'm sending Austal your way. Get a couple of banshees and we'll hop on as you exfil."
"I don't think a banshee can hold two." He protested.
"Not if you're flying at maximum speed." Pine countered.
Bowman launched Austal in a similar manner, this time much further since Austal was slightly lighter. Fowler grabbed his hand and pulled him up onto the hangar floor.
They moved over to a pair of banshees and powered them up. Austal familiarized himself with the controls before leading the duo floating out. As they passed over the area where Pine and Bowman were hanging off, the two Spartans dropped down, grabbing ahold of the banshee's wings.
Fowler felt a thump on the aircraft and saw the hatch open to see Bowman, crouched securely by the cockpit. "Set for the skyscraper there and we'll call for evac. It's going to be tight with the anti-air in the area."
"Sure is."
"Tyrant, Admiral, I put a tracker on the frigate. Now that her payload is away, you can take her out."
"Roger." Brady replied.
"So now can we get some R and R?" Hades asked, his tone akin to that of a whiny child.
"Not quite Hades." Tyrant butted in, "Eon, you've got four hours before I have a pelican taking you to the next op. This one's urgent."
"Well that changes our dinner plans." Austal murmured. Bowman knew that something was gnawing away at the younger Spartan at the time, but he put it behind.
"What's the op?"
"I'll brief you on the ride over. It's on the other side of the planet. Get some rest."
Pelican 812
Eastbound towards Aswathu
The evac pelican had just escaped effective range when the Covenant had set up antiaircraft artillery.
Tyrant informed them that he wanted to leave immediately and Eon had reluctantly agreed. Their ride was empty save for them and equipment littering the floor. Fresh weapons, munitions and even replacement parts for their damaged MJOLNIR armor.
For the first hour of their flight, they worked in silence on one another with armor repairs and weapon preparation. Their drop zone was all the way on the coastal area of the continent, a good five hours left to go.
"Alright. Tyrant is going to give us a briefing when we stop in Aswathu for refueling. In the meantime, I say we all get some shuteye."
Pine and Austal flashed green lights and laid back in a relaxed posture to gain some much needed sleep.
"Hey Cap?"
Bowman turned to see Fowler take a seat next to him. His body language radiated exhaustion, no doubt having the least amount of rest along with Austal, who hadn't slept ever since taking a power nap back on the Kuching.
"What's going on Sergeant?"
"Just enjoying the respite."
"Aren't we all?" He grinned, "Sure feels nice to rest after an entire day of action."
"Hell yeah." The two of them lightly fist bumped, "I know I can be a handful Cap."
"You got that right." He chuckled, "I know I ain't your typical CO. Both of us come from different backgrounds and see a leader in varying eyes. I can't promise that you'll love me to death when this is done. What I can promise is that we will all come back alive with our mission complete."
"That's good enough for me." Fowler stood and gave a friendly slap on Bowman's shoulder before leaving. He joined Pine in checking over their weapons.
Bowman silently grinned to himself. Ross was one clever bastard.
Austal remained at the pelican's back bay, looking out at the wide expanse of land that was nine thousand feet below them. The horizon was beginning to brighten with a rising red sun and the blackness was fading.
Earlier, he had attempted to contact Gabrielle since it was a rare opportunity to do so with a brief access to signal. No answer. He had left a message in case.
"Alright boys." Bowman said after they were one hour left into the flight. "Get ready for mission briefing."
Tapping a panel on the pelican's side, a hologram of the armored Tyrant came into view. Unlike the pedestal version that AIs used, this one was full sized, with the Spartan being just as tall as the men he was about to brief.
"The takeover of the Covenant frigate went a long way to assist civilian evacuation in New Addie. Most of the population is in UNSC custody or in sheltered zones. Time to clean up the mess."
Tyrant spread a holomap before them, "We're on the brink here Spartans. This is heavy Covenant occupied territory and an operating zone for one of the Council of Chieftains. This is Zircunum, you know him as target Crow. He specializes in army formations and under his leadership, overran Aswathu within hours. Fortunately, all civilians in the vicinity were evacuated and Zircunum's forces have not moved since. We're dropping you a good five hours driving distance north."
"We're doing recon?" Bowman asked.
"Negative. You're to get inside the town of Sierno and head towards the CNRD classified facility two miles northwest. Scans survey that the agency had left highly valuable intel in the facility when the brutes had attacked. A spec ops team, codenamed Diamond was dispatched to retrieve the intel."
"I had no idea that the CNRD had military ties." Pine mused aloud.
"They do." Tyrant confirmed, "They operate their own integral private militia that answers only to the board's directors and remains in close collaboration with UNSC forces as to not interfere with their interests. Diamond has since been MIA and we agreed to help them recover their team or what's left of them."
"If there's anything left." Fowler said.
"Eon Two has a point." Bowman nodded, "What opposition are we facing?"
"Diamond's last transmission indicated Covenant hostiles and their earlier ones also suggested human ones as well. Assume everyone except for Diamond is declared non-friendly. Hades will upload their tag codes into your armor so that you can identify them as friendly."
"Permission to speak?" Austal asked.
"Go."
"Sir while Fowler and I engaged target Thunder aboard the Kuching, I recall him talking about a Prophet of Clairvoyance. If he's right about a Prophet leading their forces, this may be much more than a simple invasion."
Pine nodded, "Like when the Prophet of Regret attacked Earth. He knew that it was home to some forerunner relics to their religion which is why they spared it from being glassed. Same thing with the New Alexandria and the Highland mountain range of Reach. It may be possible that Providence houses similar things."
"Possible." Tyrant agreed, "However intel states that the Council of Chieftains is more hardline than the brutes under the Prophet of Truth's command. They don't look to be here for a ritualistic sermon, but rather for the bloodlust of human extermination. New Addie was just one of the horrific atrocities these savages had committed and we need to keep that from spreading any further. Now as for the Prophet, I had checked with ONI on the aspect. They turned up with nothing about a Prophet of Clairvoyance ever being in the Covenant for nearly four hundred years."
"Clairvoyance basically means extra-sensory perception." Bowman added, "That being said, we have to assume our enemies may have some telepathic assistance. If we're heading into an area that's dense with enemies, then it means that there's something over there they don't want us to know about."
"I agree Eon Lead. Take extra ammo with you and prepare for the worst."
Tyrant's words rang true; the only catch was that the worst would be yet to come in a way they did not expect.
That's true. This will be one interesting mission.
Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.