3.
2.
1.
"DROP!"
And for a brief moment, silence. All seemed still, like a painting. Slowly, the world began to move again; the painting becoming more like a dream, one that Antoine had had a million times before. Antoine turned his head slightly; looking out onto the vastness of space which never ceased to amaze him. He knew that in just a few hours this perfect stillness in the skies above Eden Minor would become a horrific blaze of death and sorrow. Men would die, families would hear about how their loved ones had sacrificed themselves for the greater good and feel no better for hearing it. Antoine wondered about his family who he had barely known. Taken from the dying colony of Sigma Eltos by ONI after his family had been murdered and nearly the entire colony glassed, Antoine could barely remember his mother's face. He did,however, remember in horrible clarity, her dying face; the mask of horror stretched across her face as the plasma pistol charge seared through her chest cavity. Antoine had snapped. He picked up a kitchen knife and viciously stabbed the grunt that had shot his mother until he was sure it was dead. He then spent the next several hours hunting down any Covenant he could find. He had been lucky that he had only run into one elite. He had taken its shields down with the same charged shot that the grunt had used to kill his mother and thrown his kitchen knife in its eye before running as fast as he could until he collapsed from exhaustion. That was when ONI picked him up; but that was another story for another day.
"Enough nostalgia," he grunted to himself, focusing on the mission. He could feel the heat of the atmosphere, even through all the pod's protective measures. The small screens on either side of his pod showing the other 5 squad members were beginning to crackle and buzz with static. From what Antoine observed, Gabriel was humming. Antoine managed the closest thing one could get to a shrug in that tight space and even managed a small laugh. On the upper right screen Sam moved his head to where Antoine presumed the screen displaying him was located.
Antoine swore he could see Sam raising his eyebrows even through the polarized lenses of his Mark V helmet. Just then the shaking began. The pod had just hit the lower atmosphere. This was the most dangerous part; the part where they hoped their presence would go unnoticed by sheer virtue of luck. Just then Antoine saw James' pod hit the tree line and managed a chuckle to himself. "Right, that and the whole risk of death on impact. Forgot about that." He braced himself for the shock and just in time; mere moments after the pod hit the ground hard. Even through the pod's cushioning and his armor he felt it, he breathed and slowly pressed the button to release his pod's door release. As he pushed down on the button the bolts blew and sent the door flying off, making a loud clang as it collided against some boulders. "And they say these things are meant for stealth insertions. If the Covenant used their eyes instead of their sensors we'd have been shot out of the damn sky as soon as we hit orbit."
"Hey Sada, you comin?" said Sam, breaking Antoine's brief peace and reminding him that they were on a mission. "Yeah, yeah Sam I'm coming."
"Antares," Said Sam flatly.
"What?" replied Antoine. though he already knew what Sam was talking about, it was always funny hearing his explanation.
"On missions you call me Antares."
"Why?"
"Because it's protocol."
"You know protocol's gonna get you killed one of these days, Sam," interjected Gabriel, in an obvious attempt at a joke.
"And your inability to take anything seriously is gonna get us ALL killed, Spica. Now let's rendezvous at that hill about 2 miles north of here. KAs, I recommend we maintain radio silence until we get there."
"Fine, if you think it's necessary." James had a habit of not arguing with Sam when he gave the squad commands, it wasn't worth the battle.
Gabriel stood up from under the tree and started walking towards the hill. He had switched his radio off and was singing to himself, though it was more like rhyming without a beat. Most of it was unintelligible nonsense. Gabriel wondered why Sam took life so seriously, yeah they were fighting a war, but on the other hand, they had a great life because of it. Gabriel started talking to himself, though it seemed like he was addressing someone else. "I mean, think about it: If not for this war we would've been forced to grow up on a boring colony with nothing to do but work and struggle to survive. Because of the war, we're super soldiers; fucking SUPER SOLDIERS! We can do shit no ordinary man could do, we can take on hordes of Covenant and survive, hell, not just survive: we can WIN!" Gabriel shook his head, "Oh well, to each his own," before continuing on.
As they arrived at the hill, Sam began speaking again. "Okay, Denal, what's our time until the Compton and the Harkonnen arrive to provide the distraction?"
"We've got roughly two hours."
"Good, okay spread out in teams of two and use your geoscanner units to get as much data as you can. We'll meet back here to set up the dummy beacon and move to the next objective. KAs you're with Spica, cover the low terrain. Denal, you and Alde get us some data on that ridge for a possible extraction point, sniper cover, anything. Sada, you're with me. We'll get as close to the structure as we can and try to place this geoscanner unit near it; see if we can't get any more info on this relic we're supposed to discover." With that the squad split into three groups, each with their purpose as clear as day.
Zach and Chris reached the ridge after a silent run from the hill.
Zach coughed a little before attempting to strike up a conversation
"So, Chris? You still a terrible shot as you usually are?"
"Shut up Zach."
"Aw come on, I'm just trying to make conversation."
"Nooo, you're just trying to piss me off."
"Same thing."
"Fuck you."
Zach smiled, then began climbing. Chris followed him muttering death threats the entire way. The climb up was slow and they were constantly looking for something resembling a footpath, but to no avail. Eventually they reached the top. Zach pulled out his sniper rifle.
"Cover me."
"I won't let you out of my sights"
"Don't you mean 'out of your sight'?"
Chris didn't answer.
Zach shrugged and began surveying the area through his scope.
"Not much to see except some rocks, a few trees, that big structure and... wait, hold on."
"What is it?" asked Chris.
"Don't know, it's barely reading on my scope, it's like a blur in the air."
"Where's it coming from?"
Zach looked up, "I can't quite tell, let me take another look"
Zach stared back into his scope before standing up. "God dammit, I lost sight of it."
"No use crying over spilled milk," sighed Chris before taking off his helmet and pulling out another of his Radex cigarettes.
"Now YOU cover ME, while I have a smoke."
"I won't let you out of MY sights."
"Very funny," Said Chris, glaring at Zach.
"Isn't it though," chuckled Zach.