Chapter 7: Pet Projects
Location: Skippy in orbit around Earth
Date/time: 3073/2553 AD, Mar 19th. 20:38 GST
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Specter sat once again at his computer, in his leather wing-backed chair, and holding a steaming mug of instant coffee. According to some of his lance mates it was his favorite past time. He was still researching what he could about the theories and sciences on FTL travel and theories of the universe; as it was he was steadily, at an exponential rate, getting more confused and rattled by the accidental science he had to reinvent.
His moment of insanity was broken when his laptop computer chimed in response to an incoming text message.
He opened the file and was nearly surprised enough by its contents to spill his coffee, luckily he didn't.
"Dear Commander John K. Anderson
It came under my attention when we had our last meeting that you said you would be willing to do any job. And as such I bring you a reply; the attached file has coordinates for an underground R&D station on Triton. There is an important project underway and if you accept I would like you to go and find out why the station has cut off contact. If there are any hostiles; kill them.
-ONI section III"
Specter typed his eager reply, trying to sound as professional and keep his excitement out of his words' tone.
"I can only assume that you are the operative who briefed me recently.
I do not want to bargain or question you, but I would like to know how much the payout of this mission is. Doubtless your project is of utmost importance to the UNSC, but nonetheless I need to be paid.
-Commander Anderson"
It seemed to Specter only the next instant after he sent his text that a window popped up on his desktop and showed the face of the same ONI officer who had interrogated him.
"Commander, I am ONI section III Intelligence officer Ryan Howard." He spoke, a smile lingering on his face, twitching, but only for a moment for it disappeared.
Specter smiled politely back. "I can't tell you how exciting it is to do a job for you." His words were true, but were dripped in sickly sarcasm.
"Indeed; your actions when fighting the Covenant were impressive. As such, we turn to you to check on one of our facilities." Ryan turned to glance over his shoulder. "Truth is, we've lost contact, and that never happens. One of the policies was that when contact was lost, we were to go and retake the facility. So," Ryan breathed slowly, his fingers tapping lightly on a keyboard in front of him. "I want you to first scout the facility, find the source of the disturbance, and eliminate it; be it Covenant, or Human."
Specter leaned back, his chair squeaking as he got more comfortable. "Sounds like a high paying job." Specter intoned a sense of interest.
"It is, and since it is a sensitive job I want you to be extra careful; that is, don't be seen until you have the details." Ryan suggested. "Two million credits."
"I'm in." Specter found himself blurting despite his attempts to remain calm.
"Good, fly to Triton, find out what is going on, and fix the problem with minimal damage to our project and our facilities. Ryan Howard out." Specter's screen went blank, a new file had opened up onto his computer. It was a spreadsheet of information and details on the mission, and of course the coordinates of the facility on Triton.
Specter set his computer onto the table before him and leaped out of his leather chair. His quick and harried steps brought him out of the lounge in seconds and to the bridge in seeming moments. Upon his arrival, he found everyone staring at him as though he had interrupted something, all glanced towards him with raised eyebrows.
"Captain." Specter panted. "We have a job; take us to the moon Triton."
"A job, at last." The Captain brought the ship out of orbit and was soon skipping through the debris field that surrounded Earth.
Mech Bay:
Specter stood before the other seven mech pilots who had come along, Beowulf was still rubbing his sore ribs, and he was pacing along the row so he could examine everyone.
"You all know that this is our first good paying job, this is sensitive; I got the impression that if we screw this up we won't get paid. And you know how much I dislike people defaulting on their payments. Hannibal, you're taking your lance and scouting the northern section just four kilometers and closer to the facility. I will take the rest and scout the southern section. Remember, we are counting on stealth and speed here folks, light mechs and ECM and please, no beagle active probes, they may increase your sensor range but they have a tendency to bring your enemy right on top of you. God only knows, what if we find Stefan Amaris from the grave to fight us; so have your mechs equipped with the Laser Anti-Missile System."
They all watched as Specter excitedly finished his little instructions, all things they would have thought of in the first place, and watched as he leaped onto the ladder on his favorite light mech; the Raven.
The Raven, Specter couldn't quite place why he liked it so much. Was it because of it's birdlike appearance? Or its ability to run a hundred and thirty kilometers per hour? He wasn't sure, so he quit thinking about it and jumped into his seat. He buckled his five-point harness and donned his neuro-helmet. Specter wasn't expecting heavy fire, and as such he didn't wear the usual cooling vest... Triton was cold enough he was going to have to use a heater once outside.
He toggled his headset. "Guys, make sure you're wearing airtight suits... if you breath any of this atmosphere I wouldn't be surprised if you died instantly.
He powered up his Raven, and swiveled his torso so he could get a view of the bay doors. There was a hiss as his cockpit sealed and then a grinding noise as the air in the now empty bay was filtered and stored, and planet atmosphere was switched. The bay doors parted with a groan and ice flew into the bay.
Specter immediately had to turn on his space heater, the cockpit of his mech warmed slightly, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He upped the throttle, bringing his mech to thirty kph to pass through the door. Following close behind came Falcon in a Cougar, the low squat mech with backwards knee joints loaded to the teeth as polished warheads stuck their noses from their slots in the torso's missile racks.
"Specter lance we go south." He ordered, three mechs following him, one Cougar, one Wolfhound, and one Flea. The Wolfhound was a taller, humanoid shaped mech with one large right arm and a smaller left, it was small in build, but strong enough to take more punishment than most other light mechs, coming second in firepower only to the Clan Puma.
The Flea is really small, its battlefield silhouette like a toothpick. It is best known for its scout capabilities as one of the fastest mechs in existence, perfect for not wanting to be seen.
All the mechs were painted white, their forms barely visible in the scape of snow and ice. Specter was pleased with their progress as they pounded through a layer of white beneath them. He checked his nav, still a kilometer away.
"Keep an eye out for anything that shouldn't be in the middle of nowhere." He ordered sarcastically and swivled his mech's torso from side to side to accent his point. Unfortunatly there were no chuckles over the comm, only Falcon could be heard cursing in the background.
"How did he even best me in the first place?" She had mumbled but Specter still heard it.
"Get over it Falcon, let's just say that I'm good enough to allow some jokes." He was slightly annoyed at her and decided to run in peace like everyone else.
"Five hundred meters you guys..." Specter implied. "Stay sharp, who knows what could be there." They were on the other side of a mound, or hill, of ice and snow. The other side could hold any number of traps. They crested the hill soon after, and stopped to get a view of a large structure on the middle of a sheet of ice. The metal walls of the rectangluar building were scarred with black and pockmarked with holes. On the other side were large tracks and two downed Condor hover tanks, the sides had the insignia of of a bloody hand print.
"Word of Blake!" Specter screamed. "Castle get over here and prep our assault mechs!" His orders were rushed.
"Sir, I think you should continue into the facility and find out what is going on inside." Castle replied. "You don't have enough information."
"Hannibal get over here and guard our exit." Specter ran his Raven over to the entrance to the facility. There was a ramp uninhibited by its previously destroyed door that descended into the complex. As soon as he was next to the ramp Specter popped the seal of his mech and climbed out, thankful to be wearing an environmental suit. He turned to watch as his lance followed suit and climbed down to join him.
"I don't know how big the facility is, but now that we know who cut communications we have to take care of them. Follow me." He ran down the ramp without a second thought and stopped when they reached another large door that was undamaged. To the right of the door was a terminal whch hopefully would allow them to hack the door.
"Falcon?" He suggested, nodding his head in the terminal's direction.
"I have enough trouble trying to understand spheroids, it is not worth wasting my time to try to figure it out." She objected, putting her hands on her hips.
"Typical." Specter muttered, and turned to the console. He opened it, and after crossing a few wires the door parted slowly.
"After you." Specter bowed and motioned his hand as if he were a servant opening the door for his masters.
They ignored this and stalked inside an elevator without lights and drew their sidearms, laser pistols.
Specter sauntered in and closed the door behind him. "I guess we press the button that says "WOB" on it." He chuckled but quickly lost his humor for the preferable chill of silence. He raised his custom laser pistol with a small scope that had a built-in laser sight, and an extended charge battery that enlarged the laser's body further.
"Take us down." He nodded at Beowulf who complied by pressing the farthest down button. They descended thirty levels and finally found the elevator slowing. As it slowed, air filtered into the elevator and a computerized voice chimed contentedly. "You can now remove your environmental suits."
As the doors parted, they stuck to the sides and the shadows. Specter felt stupid because he knew an empty elevator would not travel by itself. Their view was limited but they could tell they were in a large atrium, there was a large sign labeled with a map of the complex and a small pointer that said, "You are here."
John took of him environmental helmet and nodded to Beowulf before pointing down the hall to the left of the elevator. As Beowulf dashed off, Specter ordered Falcon and Bullseye down the front hall and the stairs leaded up respectively.
He found himself alone rather quickly, and in an attempt to feel like he was doing something, he darted down a hall to his right. He soon entered a room full of empty cubicals and a large office at the end which seemed to have a balcony overlooking some kind of workspace or lab.
"What would the Word of Blake want here?" Specter asked himself while sneakily looking over the balconey. Below he saw Word of Blake soldiers keeping watch on several techs as they swarmed over a strange looking ship. The ship had the dark body and armor plating that were typical of the UNSC, but the frigate sized ship had a different shape or design than any before it.
Before Specter could wonder any more about it, he heard a shout and looked down to see one of the soldiers pointing at him. He ducked as bullets and lasers zippped through where he had been moments before.
This is an updated version of the chapter, I accidentally lost it when I accidentally put a wrong chapter over it and had to rewrite it. But hopefully it works better.
-Tremble Wolf