Colonial Natural Resources Department Classified Facility

Northwest of Sierno

November 30, 2557

"Alright gentlemen." Bowman stood up from his position. They were in a small wooden canopy that served as a campground, where Eon had taken refuge from the unrelenting torrential rains outside. "We're oscar mike."

"Tyrant, this is Eon Lead. We're en route to the facility and are encountering multiple brute search teams. No sign of the CNRD team, Target Crow or our Clairvoyant Prophet."

"Tyrant copies. The CNRD Diamond squad has personnel still alive and we're trying on our end to hook up communications."

"Keep us informed of the progress."

"You got it."

"This was Diamond's last known position four hours ago."

The team quickly geared up and moved out. Hades' assessment of the terrain would combine moderate to long range combat so the team had chosen their armament to address the situation. They all carried M6H sidearms, the newest pistol in the traditional Misriah series along with varying primary weapons.

Fowler and Austal had MA5D rifles with Pine using his SRS99-S5 sniper adorned with a Romeo Optics RO-88 Thermal Enhancing Magnifier and Bowman had a BR85HB battle rifle as his primary. Every Spartan carried a single combat knife, except Austal, who had his twin Sting Knives and a third standard one. In addition, he carried a single moth drone along with two fully charged batteries for aerial recon.

"Don't you have enough knives kid?" Bowman had asked when they were all sharpening them.

"Gotta be ready any time for them zombies." The three other Spartans rolled their eyes.

They moved through the dense brush at a steady pace, careful not to step in the more muddy spots. Before their drop, the team had applied a special repellent spray to their armor, emphasizing their leg areas. Treading in wet environments meant that mud would stick to their boots and leggings. Clingy bits of the wet dirt would remain visible to anyone even when the Spartan wasn't. That made for some comical trickery, but to Covenant, it meant an invisible hostile.

The road lay up ahead, telegraphed by a long clearing that stretched both ways before them. Eon immediately saw movement on their motion trackers and crouched into the brush. Their active camo modules kicked in and the figures melted into the background.

Three brutes, one captain and two standard soldiers herded a half dozen of grunts milled around a small blaze that had been doused by the rain.

"I count nine hostiles in total."

"Hey!" Fowler whispered rather loudly, "I see movement! Top of the center treeline."

"Make that ten." Bowman hadn't seen the lone jackal up there. It had a good vantage point over their position and he knew that the T-50 SRS beam rifle in its hands was enough to drill two neat holes in their helmet and kill them instantly. It was a more expensive model produced by the Assembly Forges and served as a successor for the late Covenant's precision sharpshooter rifle. The previous model, the T-27 SASR had phased out by the climax of the war, but it still saw continued use with multiple Covenant terrorist factions.

"Don't see any good way around it."

"Cap, look in the center." Pine said.

"I see nothing."

"Take a look at the brutes."

"Yeah?"

"Now look past them into the treeline."

Bowman used the scope of his rifle to zoom in and now he saw it. "Looks like a hog."

"It is. Must've been what the CNRD team used to get to the facility."

"Then where the hell are they?"

"I don't know." Jake make three fingers with his right hand, "Let's just drop them and when we're clear investigate."

The Spartans screwed suppressors onto their weapon muzzles and each picked a target, all marked by Bowman on their HUD. Since Pine's sniper was the only thing that could take a brute out in a single shot, he had the luxury of putting the brute captain's head in the scope's crosshairs. Fowler and Austal had their rifles trained on the group of grunts and Bowman targeted the jackal sniper.

He flashed a green light and immediately squeezed a three round burst. It came out as a muted cough and jerked the rifle backwards. Bowman adjusted, anticipating the recoil and he smirked when he saw the avian creature disappear in a splash of purple blood.

Austal and Fowler attacked at the same time from different angles. The grunts saw the former first and he had already let out a long stream of brass to kill four of them. Fowler killed the fifth and then bashed the final grunt trying to flee. Then Bowman and Fowler combined their fire on one brute and Pine blew out the second one's eye with a second sniper shot.

"Clear." Fowler said, a bit of bloodlust in his voice.

Earlier in the flight, he had been informed that his prized car had been demolished in a seemingly destruction of personal property. Police had yet to find the suspect, but the news was enough to piss him off.

He didn't throw a tantrum or yell out loud. He gave a nod, but the look on his face had changed. Someone had done something that was very personal to him.

Bowman had to agree on Fowler's logic. He would have anger, but he'd store it, save it for later. He would later announce that when he found those responsible, he'd "castrate them and then shove their balls down their throat and up their ass at the same time."

"Eon Two, are you going to be okay?"

"Huh?" He patted his black Commando Helmet. "Affirmative."

Eon silently moved through the forest, staying off the path of the road, but keeping it within sight to locate patrolling enemies. If you could see the enemy both on the motion trackers and visually, that was a good thing.

The Captain remembered his time as an MTSFO and a tour on Andesia during a tour to suppress a rebellion brewing a decade after the Human-Covenant war had began. Super wet weather, the humidity was awful and there were days where it would rain nonstop.

Kind of like this section of the world, except it wasn't hot enough to melt skin off. Instead, a steady chill crept through the air. It wasn't felt by Spartans thanks to their conditioning unit inside the MJOLNIR armor that provided a stable body temperature. None of the Spartans had yet to shiver or break out in a sweat.

Sensors inside the armor would adjust to the user, activating heating panels, opening external vents or providing conditioned air. Bowman wondered if the other three Spartans took it for granted, since they had spent more considerable time of their careers in the powered suits. They'd been wearing them for years and knew just about everything what to do and what not.

By now the perimeter fence of the facility could be barely seen through the thick sheets of rain. A few buildings lay beyond as the road winded down towards the checkpoint at the bottom of the slope. Their motion trackers picked up a single phantom dropship scanning the area.

The Spartans crouched down, keeping their eyes on the hovering craft as it passed overhead, unaware of the four presences below.

One by one, they climbed down the slope and awaited the next person. Water flow had now streamed off, slowly making a miniature river that would fall towards the bottommost area to begin pooling. Judging by the state of the slopes here, Bowman thought that mudslides could be a common event. The ground they stayed on was stable enough and it would have already given in when a weakened area had more than two tons of Spartan already on top of it.

"Take a knee Spartans."

They did and ran a quick check over their gear.

"Eon, Tyrant here. I've got a signal from Diamond. Patching them through."

"You got it sir." He waved to the other three, "I'll handle this."

A few moments later a woman's voice came over the comlink.

"This is Agent Meredith Adrian, leader of Diamond." Her voice was heavy with breathing, either from an adrenaline moment or the biting cold.

"Agent Adrian this is Spartan Jake Bowman. We're at the checkpoint of the compound."

"You're a Spartan?"

"That's affirmative. Me and my men of Eon are here to get you out."

There was a pause before she had returned to the line, "My late brother had served alongside the Master Chief many years. He always held you in high regard."

"We'll try to keep living up to that reputation." Bowman found his mouth curling into a faint smile at their package's respect. "What is the status of your team?"

"I'm all that's left. Ammo is low and the brutes are close."

"We're en route. ETA five minutes."

"I'll leave the light on for ya."

Any faithful reader knows that this is not the first time I've depicted Agent Adrian.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.