Disclaimer: Characters/factions/items that were not mentioned in any Halo and Assassin's Creed franchise (e.g Arnold-124) belong to me. I do not own any characters/factions/items that do belong to the Halo franchise (e.g Master Chief Spartan-117, Desmond Miles).
A/N: Revised and edited version
Chapter 4: Misgivings: Part I
2300 hours, October 19, 2537
UNSC Charon-class frigate Sky Runner
Epsilon Eridani System
Four Spartans stood at attention, one arm down while the other cradled their respective helmet. They were all in armour, each one in stony silence as they waited for their mission briefing. Captain Maverick James stood before them, assessing each of them with a hard stare. The Spartans gave away nothing on their faces; though if the Captain didn't know any better, he swore he saw a gleam of cold determination in each of their eyes.
"Spartans, a week ago, a ONI xenoarchaeology research team had uncovered an artefact from the ruins of Greece on Earth. It was supposed to be sent to Midgard, where one of ONI's science facilities is located, for further studying. However, the UNSC frigate David's Mercy, charged with transporting the team and artefact was intercepted by the Covenant."
A holographic image of the planet appeared before them.
"72 hours later, we received intel that the Covenant forces involved with the destruction of the David's Mercy had landed on the planet, taking over the town of Paradise Land. White Team was ordered to retrieve the artefact as a primary objective and eliminate the Prophet with them as secondary. However it was stolen beforehand, not by the UNSC. But now, we know more of what had happened."
The planet's image disappeared, replaced by the head of a man wearing a mask on his face and a hood over it. The mask had three slashes across the face, much like claw marks.
"Gathered intelligence has us zeroed in on a man named the Claw. Reports on the Claw mentioned that he left a Rosario as a calling card. He's a mercenary; a gun-for-hire-thief that gained the attention of the CAA. They've been tracking him since 2520; right now he's known to be regular employee for the insurrectionist group, the Blood Palms. They're known for disrupting at least ten of our operations. And despite their actions, they have disrupted Covenant operations as well; at the cost of innocents."
Captain James looked at the Spartans. They were as still as statues.
"Your primary mission is to recover the artefact, return it back to ONI and eliminate the Claw. It is imperative that you do so. ONI has tracked him to New Chester, Zenith; your stop for this mission. We believe that he is somewhere in Southend District City, in this tower."
An image of a building, at least a hundred floors, flashed to life. It looked to be a somewhat of a triangular prism shaped and there was a prominent feature that caught easily everyone's interest: a symbol. It was somewhat the shaped of a triangle, comprised of three slanted rectangles. The Captain saw from the corner of his eyes that one of the Spartans stiffened but that movement seem to disappear back into the still stance he had.
"Blue Team, you will be retrieving the artefact. Find its location, retrieve it and then escape. White Team, you will be dealing with the Claw. Locate him and snuff him out. We will be dropping you off at O-hundred hours. Questions?"
All were still in stony silence.
"Sir."
The Captain turned to the Spartan. He was tall, with a buzz-cut that were betrayed by his blond roots. The soldier was as tall as the other Spartans, sporting high cheekbones, a hooked nose and crystal-like blue eyes.
"I recognise the building as an Abstergo company building. One of the UNSC's funders." He stopped there.
"Perhaps I could answer that unspoken question Spartan." A disembodied voice called out.
A flash of white blinded the Captain momentarily. At the edge of the table the holographic image of November appeared. He was an A.I that took after the image of an Eskimo, the hood of his parka brought down.
"Abstergo has been a generous funder of the UNSC and all her activities. However it has come to our attention that their unwavering support has been merely...a facade. They have been sponsoring other activities outside UNSC law and one of them being sponsors for various Insurrectionist activities. Most of them, coincidently, were by the Blood Palms."
The Captain nodded in confirmation. "This is why you've gotten the green light to engage the Insurrectionists on their home ground; any other questions?" Silence greeted him. "Then good luck Spartans. Dismissed."
The Spartans saluted and left, that cold determination never leaving their eyes.
John was never one to have misgivings about another Spartan. With Kurt, the uneasiness he felt when working with 051 proved to be insignificant. His instincts as they were proved a vital asset in their team cohesion. An aspect they had not expected. Though with Arnold?
The Master Chief found he could not fully trust him. Out of all the Spartans, 124 was a Spartan he would rather not be teamed with. It was a combination of many things that sets the Chief on edge when he was around him. He was pretty sure Arnold felt the same way around him.
But that's the thing: Arnold seemed to always feel before thinking. And not in the way Kurt did.
During their time on Reach, John had learnt many things about the Spartan. He kept to himself mostly, and even if he were to interact with someone it'd be with Chris or Irina. Arnold was someone sleek and mischievous; he would always be the one inflicting the surprise attacks against the other teams. The one thing that stood out the most though was his intuition. It wasn't some instinct that was proven right numerous times. It was this… feeling that he seemed to have. He was always so sure that whatever and whoever the objective was; he was always right about it.
John drew the line at that.
The bitterness between the two stayed as it was, never changing. And now when the two were supposed to work together, John wasn't too keen in having to rely on Arnold the whole way. Especially after Chris vouched for him and told John to at most trust him in completing his mission.
He glanced towards Chris, who was busy going through a datapad. The man ran a hand over his shaved head, frowning slightly. He tapped something on the thing, and then turned to look at him.
"We got something Boss." He said tossing John the datapad.
John caught it with ease, skimming through the contents. With careful taps, he read the blueprints, maps and a detailed roster of guard duty.
"The building's heavily fortified; guards with guns and then some. There are almost 500 personnel in total on that roster. The fun part?" Chris smirked. "200 of those personnel are guarding the 56th level."
John typed in level fifty-six on the roster; several names popped out.
"And this is relevant how?" Kelly said, leaning around John to look at Chris.
"Who in the world would put 200 plus guards on a single level?" Chris retorted. He leaned back on his seat."I bet that's where they're keeping the artefact."
John looked through the blueprints. The whole place was a fortress. Every entrance and exit was guarded. There were no ways in. He looked up at Chris.
"How're we going in?"
Chris grinned. "The hard way."
John saw Kelly grimaced.
"The whole place is surrounded by other tall buildings." John looked at Arnold, who was leaning on the closed Pelican hatch. He was looking through the porthole, his helmet resting on his hip as he held it there. "But not as tall as the one we're hitting." He nodded to John. "If you look through the blueprints, each floor has three balconies on every side."
"Again;" Kelly interrupted. "How is this relevant?"
Chris and Arnold shared a look. Chris shrugged while Arnold blew out a sigh.
"We're going to get to the 56th level," Arnold said slowly, "Without having to go through the other 55."
He realised what Arnold meant. "The space between these buildings is at least 10 metres. Even in our armour, there's no way we could do it."
He didn't like the small smirk that Arnold had on his face. That same small smirk he always wore whenever he was challenged into something he couldn't do. That was a trait that was never beaten out of him after the augmentation. Never beaten out of him after Irina's death. Arnold was still the same cocky Spartan he had met with years ago.
"We're jumping? Onto the balcony?" Kelly asked incredulously. But John noted a hint of excitement in her question.
"Aside from it being dangerous, stupid and fun," Chris said, cracking his knuckles, "It's the only other way we can do this mission quickly and efficiently. And there is one particular building that's much closer to the tower than all the others. If we can get in from there, we're clear to proceed."
"And besides," Arnold shrugged. "That's only Phase One."
John was silent as he contemplated this. On one hand, they could sneak into the building from down up. Take more time, waste more energy and risk the enemy and the artefact escaping. On the other, if they went with jumping in...
"How will we get in undetected?" John asked, tossing the datapad to Arnold.
He caught it, tapped something in then showed the screen to them. "On the 50th level, that's where security is. From this vantage point, one of us can play puppeteer and relay directions." He crossed his arms. "We only have one hour to do this."
"Who's going to take the security command down then?" John asked.
"That's your call Chief."
"You are then." John decided.
Arnold shrugged. Momentarily, John felt annoyed.
"Better not mess it up." He said, his voice cool. "We don't want a repeat of New Mumbai."
He was sure that even lightning-like Kelly had to be impressed with how fast Arnold had John pinned on the wall. Arnold's hands were curled slightly around John's neck, only kept at bay with John's own pair, holding them by the wrists. The two Spartans glared at each other: John's a cool, indifferent gaze whilst Arnold's was scrunched up into a scowl, teeth-baring.
"Irina isn't dead." Arnold hissed. John tightened his hold on Arnold's wrists.
Kelly had a hand around Arnold's neck; she had moved in as soon as Arnold had lunged. Meanwhile, Chris had placed a hand each on Kelly's and Arnold's shoulders. His grip was loose on Kelly's whilst there was more pressure Arnold's.
"Arnold. Stand down." He merely commanded.
Immediately Arnold let go, sparing only another glare at his commander. He shrugged Kelly and Chris off then stalked off to the cockpit of the Pelican.
"Don't think about it Arnold. We have a mission to complete."
Arnold responded with a grunt.
Only Chris could say that without invoking anger from the second member of White Team.
Chris sighed, leaning back on his seat again. He knew that putting these two together would end up like this. The two were like a cat and a dog snarling and hissing at each other. Only, maybe Arnold was more of a leopard and John a wolf. Whatever it was, he was just grateful that this round ended on a better note.
He did not want to spend another day in the med-bay just to placate the two.
Kelly sat next to him, blowing out a small sigh. "And you keep him in check."
Chris looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "He's a Spartan."
"A Spartan who thinks Irina is alive."
"I saw the vid too you know." He ran a hand over his head. "We saw the explosion. Saw it eat her up."
Kelly nodded.
A mournful silence filled the air. Chris saw the Chief hung his head slightly; his way of showing respect to the fallen Spartan.
"On to important matters though." Chris suddenly spoke, a grim smile on his face. "Can you jump from rooftop to rooftop?"