Chapter Two
April 27th, 2550, UNSC You Only Live Once, Unknown Slip-space Coordinate.
Helena stood in front of them; the squad she had picked for this specific mission. She was nervous, it was her first team under her responsibility. In simulations and when she was still studying under the higher ups, it all seemed so easy. But now, it was nerve wracking: fear of failing kept on grazing her thoughts.
For the past half an hour she briefed them on the objectives on the mission. All the details, necessary data and charts were put on the table, to show Roman that she was playing cards open; there was no need to attract any sort of animosity or suspicions that would ruin the whole plan. She also explained that it was going to be a deep surveillance-extraction mission, where failure was not an option nor a possibility that the higher ups would accept.
As Du Point went on explaining the situation, she could get a brief grasp on at least three members attitudes towards the mission; they kept on concentrated faces, not letting a single trace of worry or preoccupation hinder their thoughts. The last one, a baby-faced soldier, had something unsettling about him: he seemed excited, no, awaiting for the future violence and adventure that the mission would bring them. He was the youngest, no doubt, big brown eyes filled with sparks and messy blonde hair framing his round face. He was on the small size compared to the other males she had seen so far, probably not being taller than 165 centimeters tall. She wondered vaguely if that wasn't against the height protocol to be accepted as soldier. His skin was pale, almost too pale, sign that he spent too much time in cyro-sleep lately. He had a long and narrow chin she noticed, giving him an air of Mister-knows-it-all.
From what she had read, he was the team's sniper, having earned him the nickname of the "Eagle's Eye". Fairly impressive if you counted his age and time in the Marine Corps , which were respectively 22 and 5 years.
"Any questions about the operation then?" She finally asked, hoping she could finally conclude the topic.
"Yeah I got one." said the baby-faced one of the team. He had a mischievous smile on his lips. "In our flight, do we get one meal or two?"
She just gave him bland look as an answer, irritation clearly noticeable on her face. She was nor interested, nor willing and nor did she any time to deal with pranks and jokes. At least she knew Sergeant Roman and Corporal Bakker would put him back in his respectful place.
"Private Thomas Grimm."
"Yes, Ma'am? ~"
"You'll be free to read the details of the mission once this meeting is over."
As response, Thomas pouted, crossing his arms, giving him the look of a child. If Du Point hadn't been trained, she would have giggled at him.
On the squad there was only a woman, a long brown haired young woman that went with the name of Corporal Madeleine Bakker. Physically she seemed the weakest of the squad and also the loudest one with her continuous reminders to Grimm and Roman about their manners and rude language. But something told her that she could clearly kick the asses of all three males; heck the fact that she was known as "Bossa Nova", name given by all newbs she had trained and met. Her gray eyes showed nothing more than confidence many women in the armed services seemed to lack. She possessed some sort of angular beauty that in some ways reminded to her mother. Her hands betrayed how hard she worked; stitches covered her fingers and the back of her hand and a large burn wound covered the palm of her right hand. She was a medical expert, her dossier informed, along with a great negotiator. No wonder that she was the one who kept on arguing with Roman about what would be best or not for the team.
"Thomas, do us a favor and shut up." snapped the Corporal at the youngster, giving him a glare.
"Yeah, yeah, sure mom~" replied Grimm with a chuckle.
The woman seemed satisfied with that reply and did not give him a second glance.
Finally she gazed the last member of the team, Lance Corporal Djimon Sokora, the giant of the team with his two meters height. His physique was augmented by the bulkier ODST armor; he reminded her of a picture of a samurai dating of the sixteenth century, covered with the thick armor it wore. His brown eyes transmitted some serenity she'd never seen. It was rare for a soldier to accept it's fate and the blood it had on it's hands. He had a strong jaw and serene eyes. Not even the running scar over his right eye seemed to bother him. His dark skin seemed to reflect from his other squad mates for some reason; he was the only one to have non European origins it seemed.
"Ma'am will we have any extraction?" asked Sokora with a deep rumbling voice.
"Actually we will, UNSC Prowler The Comedian, will act as our rescue ship once the mission objectives are achieved." she answered while focusing on the documents that she went through on her notepad. "Well if there aren't any other questions, get your gear prepared, we drop off in two hours precise."
And the Captain Du Point saluted the four soldiers, turned around and left the room, the doors sliding open and closed without a sound. Once she was far enough in the hallway, she leaned against the wall, sighed loudly and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She was slowly calming down, her erratic heartbeat slowing down. This was going to be her first combat sortie ever.
She felt like she had just passed the portals of hell.
-oOo-
Thirty minutes before drop, all of the squad were gathered in one of the armories near the ODST pod bays. Prepared and fully clothed in their ODST armors, they made certainly a good impression of fully-fledged soldiers, ready for battle. Their armors seemed to be scratched, with the titanium-ceramic composite plates that made up the armor scorched by plasma hits, the only parts of the armor that didn't seem to be "used" were the helmets and the black polymer under suit of the armor; those had to be replaced after each battle. All of them carried an armored rucksack and ammo pouches. Du Point was sure she could see food peeking out of that of Private Grimm. She decided not to say a word about it. Action that proved to be the right one later on, when Caporal Bakker hit the baby-face on the head for taking useless material on their journey.
She also used an ODST armor, but her variation seemed different from the standard the squad used, the under suit being the only resemblance. The chest plate was replaced with a specialized one, to provide stealth capabilities with little or no loss of endurance. The torso part of the armor also varied from the standard version, having a green, translucent orb in the center. There were no shoulder plates with this variant, which allows more freedom of the arm movement but also giving her a certain handicap of being hit more easily.
"Ma'am…I'm sorry to ask you this, but, are you ok?" asked someone behind her.
She turned around to see who it was only to find sergeant Roman alone standing in front of her. She didn't notice his presence until now, the angular traits and strong jaw he had seemingly sharper with the bad light. His black hair was on regulation, to the contrary of that of Thomas and his brown eyes were full of a strong sense of commitment to his squad. The bulky armor did nothing more to make him more physically imposing that he was already in his fatigues; The only default she could find on his fair skin was a light scar on his cheek.
She suddenly realized that she had been shivering and wringing her hands in worry and angst. Quickly, she stopped the motion and placed her hands behind her back, biting her lip to distract her from trembling like a leaf.
"What did you say sergeant? I must be thinking something else..." she asked with an awkward smile.
"If you're ok Ma'am, I'll speak freely…" he started and continued after having gotten the approving nod from Helena. "Look the thing is I gotta protect you, so we watch each others back and do this with all we got. We have no time for tourists nor incapables."
He handed her a gun, the captain immediately recognizing the model M6C/SOCOM, whisper silent but with armor piercing rounds. She liked his choice.
"I got it sergeant, no need to tell me that." she mumbled while grabbing four clips of the M6. God, how she felt like a total noob right now.
She was the rest of the squad arming themselves up, Madeleine and Mark both taking a M6 but also an M7S Sub-Machine Gun. Short but reliable weapons. Both of them had apparently a similar battle pattern and style. Thomas was expecting a rifle with a long barrel, the 99M-SD-AM Sniper rifle and Djimon inserted the drum on a M247H Medium Machine Gun. All of them seemed concentrated in a well rehearsed symphony of preparatory clicks special units always made before a mission. And with surprise and satisfaction, they seemed to know each other's needs and habits, helping each other from time to time.
They left the ammunition storage room and with a decided pace she leads them to one of the drop pod bays. Inside of it there were SOEIVs (Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicles), informally known as HEV (Human Entry Vehicle), these angular pods were approximately nine feet in length, a span of eight feet and a height of eighteen feet. Inside there was only a single seat, communication gear, numerous equipment racks and rudimentary controls. But unlike other SOEIVs this one only had a single window.
"This is a long range version of the pods, it has a special coating that makes it invisible to radar, and it can be launch from slip-space." she said. The others looked at her with some amazement but with a great deal of fear, as no one could predict slip-space. She could understand them in that point, not fully grasping the whole processes either.
"Sarge, she's gotta be joking us, is a suicide mission from the beginning." Thomas said with a faint fear in on his voice. "There's no way we're going to survive this-"
"Thomas shut up, you've got your orders, get your gear set and your ass on that pod… Now." Mark said while raising his voice. Thomas grunted something about "Insufferable kamikaze" and started to put in place his equipment. The rest followed and in matter of seconds she was also sitting in her own pod with her helmet on. She was taken by surprise when the hatch suddenly closed and the air equalized, gripping tightly the controls of her pod. Her fate was now decided, there was no way back possible anymore.
"Everybody is ready, Ma'am." said Mark through the COM (Communication Network).
"Good, everybody just hang on." She changed the frequency and contacted the captain of the You Only Live Once. "Captain we're ready for drop-off, fire on the ready, Sir."
A warm voice responded. "Roger that, Good Luck out there"
She heard several clanks and then the entire pod vibrated as they left the ship. Then blackness, utter blackness, for at least four hours, having no one's company except her own. She closed her eyes and once again gripped the controls.
The only thought that crossed her mind was a wish for her survival.
