Richter System, Aboard UNSC Frigate Petersburg
In orbit around Richter VIISimmons entered his pod and shut the hatch. He waited for the all clear signal and then punched the drop button. Fifty pods roared to life as they were launched down towards the surface of Richter VII. "Status report," Simmons said. Five acknowledgement lights turned blue. So far so good, Simmons thought. The HEV pod was incredibly uncomfortable. Simmons waited for the drop to end, to get his feet on solid ground. One of the lights on Simmons' HUD started blinking red, it was O'Donnell's. " O'Donnell what's wrong?" Simmons asked.
" I'm fine," O'Donnell said and Simmons let out a sigh of relief. " But Private Lope's pod is malfunctioning, Sir," O'Donnell said. Simmons swore loudly. " He's going to land a mile from the drop site, in the middle of enemy territory, Sir," O'Donnell told him. Simmons called up a map of the drop site and the projected drop points of the pods, Simmons selected the five men nearest Lope and opened a COM channel to them. You five are to abort our mission and find Lope," they said they understood. Simmons opened a channel to Lope. " Hang tight soldier, help is on the way," Simmons told him.
" Yes, Sir," Lope said, his voice was stone cold, he was not afraid. Simmons heard him thumb the safety off his MA5B. Simmons hoped the men would get there fast enough to save him. This snag would hurt their mission, they would be six men short, but Simmons had to make the decision he did. He wasn't going to let a man die alone on the battlefield, not when something could be done about it. Simmons called up the map again. Their defenses would be weak to the north; Simmons reassigned a fire team from the east to pick up the gap. Now they would also be weak in two places, but much less so. Simmons trusted his men; he knew they could get the job done. Simmons looked at the timer, they would hit in five seconds. The pod's descent slowed as they deployed their resistance fins. Simmons watched the timer, it reached zero as the pod smacked onto the earth. Simmons popped the hatch. He looked around; he was in the middle of a deserted street. Dominique appeared out of the pod to his left, and O'Donnell popped out of the pod in front of him. " Move out," he said. Dominique pumped his shotgun and walked to a fire escape and started to climb it. O'Donnell holed him self up in a doorway. " We'll need a fallback spot," he told Simmons, then patted his jackhammer, "I'll hold it," Simmons nodded and prepared his MA5B; he slapped in a fresh clip and turned the safety off. He walked to the end of the road to an intersection. He pulled the map off the area on his HUD. He needed to turn left. He did, and standing there was a rebel, obviously alerted by the pods falling into the midst of his home, the man was loading shells into an older model shotgun. He saw Simmons and started to pump it. A shot rang out and the man fell to the ground. A vapor trail was rising into the air above him; the calling card of an S2 AM. " Thanks, Omni," Simmons said into his COM.
" No problem sir," Allison replied. Simmons followed the street to a dead end. He climbed onto of a dumpster and hopped over the wall at the end. He was in a narrow alley. At the end of the alley Simmons saw a rebel firing his rifle. Simmons fired a short burst and the man was knocked out of the alley by three bullets impacting with his side. Simmons walked to the end of the alley. Private Hanks was emerging from the cover he had taken as the rebel shot at him. Simmons nodded, and then Hanks returned the gesture. "Is everyone in position?" he asked his squad leaders. All the lights blinked blue. "Lope, what is your status?" Simmons asked the stranded soldier.
" I'm holed down in an alley. There's three men converging on my position," Lope said, still his voice showed no sign of fear. Simmons heard shots over the COM.
" Make that two, Lope, the cavalry has arrived," said a man over the COM, Simmons could not recognize his voice.
Simmons Opened a COM to his fire team leaders. "Does anyone need more time?" he asked.
"No, Sir," he heard over the COM. Good.
"All right, let's move," Simmons said. Hanks crouched down and ran down the road. Simmons followed him. They stopped at the end of the street. The rebel's "base" was a building three stories tall, and it took up a whole block. Out side the entrance was LAAG gun, stripped off a stolen Warthog. That would be a problem, Simmons thought.
Simmons heard a thunderous noise and saw a large trail of smoke as a rocket impacted with the LAAG. The gunner was swallowed in the explosion, and the gun was turned to a pile of scrap metal. Simmons waved Hanks forward, and the man ran across the street. He stopped at the building and put his back to the wall. He glanced around and then waved Simmons over. He ran across the street at a full sprint, and barely had time to slow down before he got to the wall. "Cover me, I need to load my M90," Simmons said to Hanks.
"Yes, Sir," he said, and he stepped in front of Simmons. Simmons grabbed his shotgun and a box of shells. He loaded twelve buckshot shells into the magazine, and pumped it once. He placed his MA5B in his bag and turned into the building.
There were two men standing behind a desk on the far side of the room. They were out of range; Hanks would have to get them. Simmons turned to his left. There was a woman sitting in a chair, when she saw Simmons she started to grab her pistol from its holster. Simmons fired the M90. The shot blew the woman back four feet. Hanks had just entered the room. He leveled his MA5B and fired two bursts, they both caught their targets in the chest, and they fell behind the desk. Simmons checked the room; it was clear. He clicked his COM and waited for the answer.
Explosions rocked the building, and Simmons heard rappelling lines drop from the roof. He heard feet impact with the third floor. "We're in," Dominique said. Simmons waited for the rest of Hanks' squad to fill in. O'Donnell was last. They started up the stairs to the second floor. Simmons heard shots overhead.
The squad filed out of the stairwell and onto the second floor. They separated, and Simmons followed Hanks. There were two guards at the end of the hall. They attempted to level their rifles, but Simmons had hit them both with shots. Simmons opened a door. He saw three men preparing their weapons. Simmons primed a grenade and rolled it into the room.
He ducked out of the room and waited for the detonation. Once he heard it he entered the room. It was clear, Simmons Moved into the next room, which was empty. "Second floor secure," he said into the COM.
"Affirmative," Dominique said over the channel, "Third is clear."
"Alright let's go," Simmons said to his squad leaders. The acknowledgement lights winked and Simmons headed for the stairwell.
He heard gunfire from the street, and then a grenade exploded at the bottom of the stairs. Simmons grabbed his MA5B, as a man appeared through the smoke. Simmons fired a short burst and he fell to the ground. "Sir," O'Donnell said from upstairs, "We got six contacts coming down the street,"
"Is it Lope?" Simmons asked.
"No, Sir," O'Donnell replied.
"Then take them down, Corporal," Simmons barked into the COM.
He ran down the rest of the stairs and looked out the window, several men were coming down the street. Simmons smacked the butt of his rifle into the window and it shattered. He aimed at the first man and opened fire. As he did this, a grenade was hurled from the roof, and two of the men were down. Simmons motion tracker now showed thirteen enemy contacts coming down the street. And an additional five were sneaking down an alley.
Simmons heard a rocket fire overhead and three of the blips from the alley were gone, but then four more appeared. The platoon was pinned down.
"Dominique, Keep your squads on the roof and lay down suppressing fire from there. O'Donnell, get your squad down here, now!" Simmons shouted. Two lights flickered and faded. The door above him opened, and Private Hanks appeared, followed closely by the rest of his squad. Simmons checked his motion tracker; there were twice as many enemy contacts as before. He looked out the window again and spotted two targets running towards the building, Simmons fired a spray of bullets in their direction and they were cut down. He ducked under the window as the rebels replied to him with suppressing fire. Private Hanks jumped up and fired a three round burst of the window and turned to the left. More shots came through the window. "Allison where are you?" Simmons said after opening a channel to the sniper team.
" We are trying to get to your position, but we're meeting heavy resistance," Allison said, and Simmons could hear him picking off targets as they spoke.
O'Donnell's squad continued to keep the rebels from advancing, but more and more contacts showed up. Simmons checked his motion tracker again, there were now too many contacts to count, his tracker was all red. Simmons looked up, and saw a Private shoot out the window, but he was too slow getting down, and a round caught him in the chest, it tore through his armor and he let out a scream of pain. Simmons turned to the rest of the squad, "Suppressive fire!" he shouted to them, and them turned to the private. He dragged him to the back off the stairwell and laid him down. Simmons had trained extensively with field medicine, and was the closest thing to a corpsman the platoon had. He called over Corporal Redding, who carried the medical supplies. He grabbed a canister of biofoam and shoved it into the Private's bullet hole. The man screamed as Simmons poured it in. He yanked out the canister and grabbed a roll of gauss. He tore off a section of the Private's armor and wrapped him up. He looked at Redding and pointed to the private, Redding came to attend to him, and Simmons ran to O'Donnell, who was crouched next to the window. "Sir, we are running low on ammunition, we need to get out of here." He said.
" I know, I'm gonna try to get Ulysses on the COM," he replied and tried to open a channel to the base, all he got was static. He swore and turned to O'Donnell, "No response," he told him. Simmons fired out of the window until his clip was empty, and he ejected it and slapped another.
Simmons checked his motion tracker again, there were six yellow blips coming towards them. "Lope," he said to himself, and opened a channel to him. "Lope, where are you?" he asked.
"We are advancing on your position now," Lope told him.
"Dominique, concentrate your fire to clear that road, it's our way out," Simmons said through his COM. Ten MA5Bs fired simultaneously from the roof, and Simmons opened a new Channel, to Allison. "Get to the extraction point," he told the sniper team, "we'll meet you there," Simmons told them.
"Yes, Sir," Allison said.
Once the road was clear, Simmons waved O'Donnell's squad out of the building. They filed out and ran to Lope's position. "Dominique, get your men down here!" He shouted. Dominique's light turned blue, and he heard footsteps above him. The rest of the platoon exited the building, and Simmons waited for Dominique. When he arrived they both ran across the street and met up with the squad leaders.
"Time to head for the extraction point," he said, and pulled up his map of the area. He laid out routes for the squads, and then sent them to the four NCOs. Their lights blinked blue, and the squads separated.
Simmons turned to Dominique. "We are going to meet up with Allison and Sanchez," he told him, and Dominique nodded. He dropped his empty jackhammer launcher and pulled out his two M6Cs. Simmons checked his ammo counter, it read 56. He turned down the street, and Dominique followed. Simmons kept his eye on the rooftops. He wasn't going to be ambushed. Simmons followed the street to a four-way intersection. He pointed Dominique up a ladder, indicating that Allison was up there. Dominique started to climb up the ladder. Simmons prepared to follow him when he heard an engine roar. An old truck came into his view, in the back was a small turret, and a man was on it. Simmons leveled his MA5B, but he knew it would be too late. The man on the turret prepared to fire, but suddenly fell out of the back, as a large vapor trail rose from the spot. Simmons realized that Allison still had his back. The driver of the vehicle must have noticed that he had no gunner, because he started driving straight at Simmons. "Allison," Simmons said as he fired at the vehicle, but he could not land a shot on the driver.
"I'm out, Sir," Allison replied. The driver was twenty meters away when Simmons heard shots above him. The driver was hit several times and fell on the wheel, the truck swerved to the left when it was two meters from Simmons. He looked up; Dominique had secured his footing on the ladder, and swung upside down and opened fire on the vehicle. He nimbly pulled himself up and continued to climb. Simmons followed.
As Simmons pulled himself up the last rungs of the ladder he could see Allison and Sanchez inspecting their weapons. Sanchez had just slapped a clip into his MA5B, and Allison was checking the sight on his M6C. Dominique scouted the rooftops, "If we cut across those two buildings," he said, indicating to the roofs adjacent to the one they were currently on, "And them jump onto that one," he added, indicating to a building two stories shorter, "We have a clear path to the extraction point on the rooftops the whole time," he said. Simmons looked at Dominique's plan, it seemed like it would work, and Simmons trusted the Sergeant's scouting abilities.
"All right," Simmons said, "Let's move out, Dominique take point. Sanchez, watch our six,"
They moved across the roof swiftly, and made the short jump to the next roof. Once they crossed the next rooftop they arrived at a large gap between the two buildings.
"Can we make that?" Sanchez asked.
"Of course we can, Marine," Dominique said. Sanchez did not seem convinced.
"Sergeant, Secure the rooftop," Simmons said. Dominique took a step back, jumped and cleared the gap. Simmons indicated to Allison, who also made it. Simmons took three steps back. He grabbed Sanchez' arm and pulled him back as well. He started to run forward, and jumped at the last possible second. They flew forward, and down onto the building. Simmons braced for impact and checked his trajectory, they were coming in fast, and Simmons wasn't sure the roof would withstand their weight.
He came crashing down and the shingles on the roof buckled and cracked under the impact. Sanchez flew onto his stomach and tore more shingles off. Dominique pulled the Private up and handed him his discarded MA5B. Sanchez stood up, and Dominique continued across the rooftops. Simmons kept an eye out for any activity on the rooftops, but there was nothing; the entire area was deserted. Dominique held up a hand to indicate they stop. He crouched down and scouted the area. Simmons could see the extraction point in the distance. " O'Donnell, are you in position?" Simmons asked over the COM.
"We are all ready for dust off, waiting for your arrival," O'Donnell said. Simmons closed the channel and turned to Dominique.
"Are we ready to go?" he asked.
"No, Sir, there is a patrol below us, or more what's left of one." Dominique said to him.
Simmons looked down, there were five men sitting at the front of the building. One of them was wounded, and was being treated by another. They were apparently regrouping after the attack. They had no idea Simmons was above them, and apparently were oblivious to the fact that five UNSC pelican drop ships were five hundred meters from them. They had picked a bad place to regroup. Simmons pulled the last fragmentation grenade from his belt. He turned to Dominique, who apparently had the same idea and was clutching his own fragmentation grenade. Simmons held up three fingers, he put one down, then another. As he put down the last finger he yelled, "Frag out!" and they both unpinned their grenades and dropped them onto their unsuspecting victims. They exploded on impact and sent shrapnel flying into the air. Simmons aimed his MA5B and looked for survivors. All five men were lying on the ground motionless. Simmons motioned Sanchez down the fire escape, and Dominique followed.
Simmons waited for them to reach the ground. Dominique waved to them that it was all clear. Simmons and Allison went down the fire escape and followed Sanchez to the extraction point. The Pelicans were all ready, and O'Donnell waved them into the second Pelican. Simmons strapped in and the Pelican rose off the ground.
Simmons looked around the Pelican, Dominique was inspecting his helmet, and O'Donnell was looking out the back of the drop ship. Simmons looked towards the cockpit; through the window he could see the pilot. There was a lightning bolt on his shoulder, and Simmons wondered if Charles was again flying him. He thought it was odd, but he shrugged it off.
They started their descent over Ulysses' airfield, and Simmons noticed there was an unusually large number of personal waiting.
As they got out of the back, Simmons noticed Colonel Hastert standing in the distance. He was discussing something with the Squadron CO, Major Chambers. At the sight of Simmons' arrival Hastert ended the discussion and walked toward him. Simmons also noticed the two ONI officials from the interrogation room standing on the far edge of the airfield, they were looking straight at him, and it made him uncomfortable. Simmons saluted Hastert, who barely thought to return it. "Lieutenant," he said as he shook Simmons hand. Simmons knew something was about to happen. "Congratulations," he said.
"Thank you," Simmons replied, while keeping a watchful eye on the ONI officers. Hastert started walking towards them, and beckoned Simmons should follow. He reluctantly did, and noticed that he was subconsciously thumbing the safety off his MA5B. He immediately flipped it back on, and tried to suppress his feelings, he knew that ONI spooks could smell fear.
"Hello, Lieutenant," the Captain said. Simmons saluted him, but he did not return it. Simmons had no idea what was wrong, but something must be. "We would like you to join us for lunch, at 1200 hours, tomorrow, in the officer's club?" the captain told him more than asked him. Simmons nodded that he understood, but he truly did not. Why would two senior officers want to have lunch with a Lieutenant?
"That will be all, Simmons get some rest," the Colonel said, and the two ONI officials strode off at once. The Colonel walked towards his Warthog, which was flanked by two others. O'Donnell walked up to Simmons, "What was that about, Sir?" he asked.
"I don't know," he said to him, "But I'm going to find out,"