Chapter 2 – 'Rebel Point' Part I
1200 Hours, February 1, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Cruiser: Socrates/ Debriefing Room
"Smashing attacks from both Covenant and Rebel forces has the UNSC reeling back." The captain of the Socrates said, "By now, we are dangerously low on supplies and money. ONI has located a large scale Rebel supply base somewhere in the Sol II system and is asking you Spartans to infiltrate the base, get a hold of all the minerals, ore, credits, and anything we can use to keep building battleships."
"How can we transport all the 'booty' back to UNSC controlled space? These debriefing files say there's over 1.5 million tons of ore and minerals just waiting to be made into ships." Evan asked.
"Well Mr. Pink, if you'd read the files, you'd actually see that all the items are stored in various captured ships: Civilian yachts, frigates, shuttles, UNSC cruisers, corvettes, destroyers, carriers… even a few Covenant ships. All stuffed to the brim with canisters filled with the things we need." The captain replied.
Andrew snickered slightly as Evan bowed his head down in shame, then he turned his eyes down to the data files. Apparently, he was to take in a squad to the base designated 'Rebel Point' via modified Longsword interceptors with stealth coating after being transported as close as possible by the Socrates. Then, the Spartans would land in their base and try to take over all their supply ships. After doing so, the Socrates would then launch its Pelican Gunships and Transports to attack the Rebel base. With any luck, the base would be captured by the UNSC and would possibly be able to help the UNSC with the war.
"Spartan-249, we need you to designate your team on this mission please." The captain asked.
Andrew looked around, ninety-nine other Spartans to choose from…
"Spartans- 217,223,248,250,254,266,277 and 283 are the ones I'll go with." Andrew replied after a moment's consideration. "Sorry to the rest of you guys."
"You got a few of their Pincer-class fighters on your tail." Katy reported over the COM. "Spin a three sixty, I'll cover you." Andrew did as he was told and spun his midnight black Longsword interceptor in a single loop as Katy's fighter launched a flurry of WASP fighter bullets at the rectangular Rebel Pincer fighter. The Rebel pilot tried to evade by cutting the engines short, but the female Spartan was a step ahead of him, the Pincer exploded into a fiery ball.
"Thanks for the assist." Andrew said. He turned his fighter into the plotted course through a small asteroid belt. Nine pitch black fighters melted into the midst of the rocks and soon reached 'Rebel Point'. It was large all right. Hangers, assorted capital ships, cranes… they were all attached to a large asteroid as though it has been painted on it.
"From here its jet packs only." Andrew whispered as he opened the Longsword's hatch and activated his MJOLNIR's jet pack. Together, the Spartans flew through the black of space leaving behind only tiny exhaust trails.
"There's the maintenance door." Someone muttered over the COM. Andrew looked through his visor and sighted a small indent on the huge Rebel base that could've let an average sized human in.
As one, the Spartans circled around the door and Katy floated towards the control panel.
"Just give me a few minutes to hotwire this thing." Katy said as she took out her datapad.
"A few minutes might be too long." Cameron warned. "Incoming Rebel spacers, I count twenty-four. They must've detected our exhaust trails when we flew in their radius. I'll jam their COM."
"They see us; four are making their way back to the base. Smith, Monica, try to snipe them. Cody, see if you can flank them. Cameron, Kyle, Evan, Philip… form up behind me. We're gonna take these bastards head on." Andrew ordered. Andrew pushed off the surface of the Rebel base and jetted towards the incoming Rebel troops as a total of four bullets shot past and turned the fleeing four Rebels into motionless corpses… floating dead in space. Andrew took out his Sub Machine Rifle and swung it ninety degrees to his left and fired at the nearest spacer. The Rebel shook violently for a few seconds and came to a standstill. Two other spacers saw their squad mate die, and shifted their old MA4As, the initial weapon of the MA series, and fired. Hundreds of bullets pounded Andrew's shields and his suit flared up like a small sun.
"Turn off your shields!" Kyle shouted over the COM. "The Rebels might pick you up! I'll cover you!" Andrew did as he was told and gave his jetpack a burst of energy. The Spartan fell well away from the line of fire and he returned some to his hunters. It was unlikely that he scored a hit, but it was just a distraction. Kyle had snuck up behind them and twisted both of the enemy spacer's necks.
WHOOSH! Two rockets ejected from Philip's rocket launcher and impacted into a small asteroid, a muffled burst of flames was quickly put out by the cold of space. Meanwhile, three Rebel spacers floated… lifeless. Monica slid past Philip's six and jumped off the asteroid they had taken position on. Bullets hit the Spartan head on but Monica was unfazed. Four shots exploded from Monica's sniper rifle and four more spacers fell, then she swung up and landed back on the asteroid as Philip fired another two rockets. This time, a scout droid exploded and the call was immediately intercepted by the Spartan.
"217 to 249, they're getting a bit nosy. I recommend we get the hell out of here as soon as possible." Philip reported.
Cameron threw his BR55 rifle like a javelin at a solitary spacer and was rewarded with the sight of a jetpack exploding. The Spartan retrieved the weapon and fired it at a small grouping of five Rebel spacers. Two of the spacers jerked back from multiple head shots while the rest quickly opened fire with their weapons. Cameron braced himself as a shower of bullets rained upon him. His shields were close to overloading when he activated his overshields. Soon, the Rebels ceased fire and stopped to reload… when another Spartan appeared behind them. Cody lashed out and jammed a multiple knives into two of the spacers. The last panicked and tried to fly away when Cameron flew up and punched the spacer in the head. The dead Rebel's head hung limp. Four more to go…
"Spare me!" Evan pleaded as he cowered literally under a small space rock, "I have a family! Well, it mainly consists of me, myself, and I, but it's the thought that counts eh?" When the remaining four Rebel spacers had ganged up on the cowardly Spartan, Evan had tried to run. Instead, he tripped on a small ledge and was beaten up by the four spacers. One spacer activated a trio of plasma grenades and a single frag grenade. He stuck them onto of Evan's rock and the four spacers flew away. Evan exploded into a shower of freeze dried guts and organs.
"Wow, how cruel." A spacer chuckled… then his head exploded… followed by his companions. Smith held his sniper rifle out with the barrel still smoking.
Katy bit her lower lip as she entered a decrypt code into her datapad. She was unaware of a recon droid that was behind her. Its communications was jammed, and the Spartan was the source of it. A thin, flat blade protruded from the left side of the machine, mostly used to slice into areas that they couldn't get into. But it would be handy to kill the meddlesome UNSC soldier. The machine activated the slicer and held it at the Spartans neck, ready to stab…
Andrew jumped behind Katy with his overshields flaring and blocked the slicer. His overshields rapidly shrank down to a mere trickle of regular shields when Katy pumped multiple shots from her shotgun into the droid's slicer arm. It fell off and the droid tackled both Spartans and sent Andrew and Katy slamming into the rocky surface of the Rebel base. They tried to get up when the droid came up again until two rockets flew through space and hit the droid dead on. There was a muffled explosion and the force of the blast sent the two Spartans flying through the air.
"Katy?! Katy?! C'mon, get up." Andrew shouted hoarsely. Kyle, Cameron, Monika, Smith, Philip and Cody circled around Andrew and the motionless figure of Katy. There was a small hiss as the suit's wake up stimulants was injected into Katy. Behind the Spartan's visor, Katy's eyes fluttered open. She coughed slightly and sat up.
"I'm okay Andrew, wha-, what happened?" Katy asked.
"Philip fired a pair of rockets into the droid; it exploded, and knocked you out. All that matters is that you're okay." Andrew replied; relief was thick in his voice. Katy and Andrew stared lovingly into each other's eyes past their visors.
"Oh yeah? What about Evan? He exploded!" Smith intrudingly pointed out.
"Meh, he always manages to resurrect after he's killed. Watch, he's gonna appear sooner or later." Cameron said a matter of factly. Sure enough, a pink helmet appeared from under a nearby pile of rock.
"Hey guys! We sure showed them eh?" Evan cheered. He pulled his body out of the rock and was about to take a step towards the rest of the Spartans when a comet slammed into the human and flattened him like a pancake.
"Okay… uh, Katy, do you think you can finish working on the door? My oxygen regenerator is starting to dilute, we need to get into a life supported area fast." Monica said.
"Sure," Katy curtly replied. She walked over to the control panel and added a few last digits into it. After pulling out a single bronze wire, the door hissed open. "After you." Inside, Evan was sitting on the floor directly in front of the doorway.
"That was the easy part," Andrew reported when all nine Spartans had made their way into the Rebel base. "The hard part is about to come…"