Author's note: May come back to revise this chapter at some point. In the meantime- enjoy.
CHAPTER 05
0818 HOURS, 17 JANUARY 2546 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)
HIGH ORBIT OVER ASTEROID M6-17, 205 ZETA INDI SYSTEM
COMMAND DECK OF CAPTURED COVENANT DESTROYER RIGHTEOUS INTENT
The crash jolted the command deck, sending anything on the bridge that wasn't secured toppling over. David and the rest of Scavenger, though, quickly balanced themselves, compensating for the sudden shifts in position, and were thus none the less comfortable as the front half of their captured ship was shaken to bits.
"Report!" Sierra demanded.
"Plasma drained to nothing- we're dead in the air, Sierra!" Logan replied, an edge to his voice.
"Confirm that!"
David checked the weapons station- all the hieroglyphs showing on his heads-up display translated to read the exact same thing: 'Plasma depleted'.
"Confirmed- all weapons are dead!" he yelled.
Sierra nodded. "How's our neighbor, Three?" she requested of Jacob, who was frantically shifting between the various sensor arrays on the destroyer, most of which, David noted, were either flooded with static or simply absent altogether. The holographic display panels present at each control station were a scant fraction of what they had been only a few moments previous. Righteous Intent was in a very sorry state indeed.
"They seem to be doing a bit better than us…" Jacob said warningly, bringing up all external cameras that showed the enemy destroyer. The ship seemed to be doing much better on the outside than Scavenger knew Righteous Intent to be doing on the inside. The only serious damage seemed to be to the vessel's nose, which nonetheless bled plasma and atmosphere through the now-gaping maw that composed her front. The rest of the enemy ship was intact, although judging by the damage to the bow; it was far from looking as formidable as it had done before the collision.
"A bit better?" asked Sierra. "Four, how are we doing?"
David got the feeling he wasn't the only one who heard Logan's low rumbling voice. "Frontal armor is completely gone… we-" he paused to pore over the readouts for a moment longer- "we are now sitting in the new nose of our captured ship. Blowout extends to two of our auxiliary reactors, and the energy projector's completely gone. Two of the plasma launchers could be used, but we're completely dead on fodder." A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of his pronouncement.
Celia corroborated his report. "Powerhouse for propulsion is fried- we can't even steer this bucket for another ramming attempt."
Sierra remained completely still- the only indication that she had heard any of what her team had told her was a slight tightening of the fists her hands had balled themselves into. After a two-second interval that seemed to stretch on and on, she turned to Logan. Her words could not have sounded sweeter to David.
"Four- set the reactors to overload and blow the ship. Saddle up, Scavenger- we're going groundside."
Logan nodded, and pushed on a holographic control that caused all remaining lights on the deck to glow red. "We've got two minutes. Permission to get the hell out of here?"
Sierra gave him a thumbs-up. "Can do, Spartan. Granted."
"Finally…" Hayden muttered.
And with that, Scavenger left the room at a full sprint, vaulting over railings, seats and debris with less effort than conscious thought. The next few minutes were a strange experience for David- the entire trip from the command deck to the amidships decks elapsed in what was commonly dubbed 'Spartan time'- the six Spartans tore through passages and corridors like a flaming sickle through barley, causing the interior of the ship to appear blurred, but if David spotted something that drew his attention, even for an instant, time seemed to crawl even as it raced by, allowing him to scrutinize the inner intricacies of the ship in the tiniest instances before the two-point-four ton storm that was Team Scavenger swept through the area and out of sight. When they arrived at a junction half a dozen decks down, Logan and Hayden raced ahead, while Celia, Sierra and Jacob broke right. David stopped where he was.
"We're jumping ship!" Sierra called, and she, Celia and Jacob continued to race along the right-hand corridor.
"WHAT?" Logan asked incredulously.
Hayden shook his head. "She meant literally jumping ship, Lo. Get down to earth sometimes, will ya?" As he, David and Logan sprinted after the others, David was sure he heard Logan growling under his breath.
They arrived at the hangar bay soon thereafter, and by David's mission clock, there were forty-nine seconds left before the ship and everything on it was flash-incinerated. The other three members of Scavenger stood braced at the entrance to the hangar bay. Due to the lack of atmosphere, there was no pressure differential, and thus Scavenger was not at risk of being propelled into space.
They would just jump instead.
M6-17 loomed large in David's view. The two damaged Covenant ships may have been in high orbit over the asteroid, but due to their size, and thus their gravitational pull, 'high' orbit meant something very different around an asteroid than being in high orbit over a planet, say Harvest or Reach. David activated the field-magnification system on his MJOLNIR heads-up display, and could make out the individual shapes of the Covenant mining and refinery complexes.
He turned to Sierra. "So we're supposed to jump?"
"Affirmative, Two." Sierra still stared at the surface of the asteroid below them.
Hayden stepped between them, all business for once. "And we're not taking escape pods down there?"
"The pods require a manual jettison from the crew bay, Six. If we use those, one of us stays behind." She completed the lecture with a slap to the side of Hayden's helmet, which prompted Celia, Logan, Jacob and David all to step back. "Are you volunteering, Six?"
Hayden's acknowledgement light blinked crimson.
There was a shudder, and their view of M6-17 began to shift. "Damn," Logan muttered. "They must have snagged us somewhere. Boss, if we're going to jump, we should do it now!"
David glanced at his mission timer. Twenty-eight seconds. They would need every second of that to clear the blast radius of the reactor overload.
Sierra seemed to be bracing herself, but as what was left of Righteous Intent gave another shuddering lurch, she blinked her acknowledgement light green once- and leapt from the hangar, racing towards the surface of M6-17.
Scavenger followed suit, jumping, spread-eagled, from the doomed ship. David flipped over so his back was facing M6-17, and watched the two entangled Covenant destroyers sluggishly move from their position above the asteroid's surface. When his mission timer read five seconds, he noticed a movement to his side, and glanced over.
All of his team were on their backs, their faces pointed heavenward at the destruction they knew was coming. Of particular note were Logan's fingers, which were all outstretched, but retracted as the seconds ticked off his counter.
Four…three…two…one…
David wasn't quite sure what happened next, but as soon as he wrenched his eyes open and blinked the purple spots from his field of view, both destroyers were simply- gone. Only a few scattered flecks of purple alloy marked where the two ships had once been. He opened up the TEAMCOM channel and spoke into it, unable to stand the silence.
"Hey Logan- nice fireworks."
Scavenger Four's satisfaction was audible in his reply, although the words themselves seemed neutral. "Thank my suppliers, David. The goods are all theirs- I just lit the fuse."
David smiled and flipped over, scanning the view below them. Immediately, something clicked in his brain. Scavenger was close to the surface, but had not encountered any turbulence, which meant one thing: no atmosphere. That meant two other things- they were breathing cycled air form their suits, but more importantly, no air resistance.
In other words, there was no such thing as terminal velocity for them. Scavenger would continually accelerate until they hit the surface. Checking his external pressure sensors only confirmed it- Scavenger was falling through a vacuum. And they were falling much faster than they should have been.
He clicked on TEAMCOM and pinged the rest of his team. "Sierra! We're going in too fast!"
"I know that, Two- they must have installed large-scale grav projectors on the surface. But we can't take countermeasures now- we have to wait until we're further down!" David nodded his assent at Sierra's reasoning.
"Spartans- overpressurize your suits' gel layers on my mark," she ordered calmly.
David had to speak. "If we pass out on the way down-"
"It's either nitrogen embolisms or impact injuries- take your pick, Two."
David gritted his teeth and pulled up the manual controls for his suit's gel layer with a whisper. Much as he hated to admit it, it was their best chance. If they had been falling onto any other asteroid, they would have touched down as gracefully as if they'd been using parachutes. But here, with the artificial gravity projectors, they might as well be jumping from high altitude on Reach. Increasing the pressure in the gel layer of their suits would cushion the impact and- hopefully- save their lives. David slowed his breathing and flexed his extremities gently- jumping the gun wasn't going to do him any favors. Scavenger was now close enough to the ground that David could make out the tiny blue streams of Covenant gravity beams, ferrying minerals between the various buildings that composed the mine site.
As cool as ice, Sierra gave the order. "Mark."
David overrode the automatic pressure control in his MJOLNIR and overpressurized the gel. He felt no change, though, and continued to watch in silence with the rest of his squad as the ground loomed nearer and nearer, taking his suit's word for it that the gel's pressure was maxed out. As they descended the final ten meters, the urge to close his eyes was nearly overwhelming, but forced his lids back. A good soldier was always aware of the situation- even if it hurt.
The air was dashed from his lungs and searing pains shot through his chest, forearms and thighs, which resulted in a pained grunt, despite his best efforts to contain and localize the throbbing sensation that now occupied a full quarter of his sensory surfaces, and was spreading. He pulled up his suit's TEAMBIO function- aside from elevated heart rate, he was fine. The same was true of the rest of his team. David sprang to his feet, sweeping out his MA5B and scanning the barren landscape.
Hayden was the first to speak. "That is the last time I take your advice on an insertion…"
"That was an order, not advice," Sierra replied bluntly.
Hayden, who was inspecting his MA5B, did not reply.
Jacob was peering through the Oracle scope on Shadow of Night, and gave a report as he scanned the area.
"We got lucky… landed less than half a klick away from the mining facility- I could actually pick off the guards at this distance…"
"Negative, Three- save your ammo. We don't want to attract attention until absolutely necessary."
"Sure thing, boss."
"Five, is the package secure?"
"Roger," Celia replied, flashing a quick thumbs-up.
Sierra seemed content. "Okay, Spartans. We're-" she started, but was interrupted as six jet-black dots raced across the airless sky, growing larger as they approached ground level, until they finally landed on the surface, displacing clouds of rock and dust with their impacts.
David's com crackled to life. "Scavenger, this is Reaper-Actual, what's your status?"
Sierra replied first. "This is Scavenger-Actual- Covenant orbital assets have been permanently neutralized, and all Scavenger are accounted for on the surface. Acknowledge, Reaper-Actual."
There was a pause. "Acknowledged, Scavenger. Good hunting. Out."
Sierra then turned to the rest of the team. "All right, let's sprint this one out. Half a klick, full speed the whole way." Five heads nodded in reply, although Hayden accompanied his nod with a muttered comment that Sierra either did not hear or ignored. David had a strong suspicion that the latter was more likely.
David moved across the broken rocky landscape as quickly as his legs would carry him, a not-inconsiderable forty kilometers per hour. The rest of the team matched his speed, and the six Spartans moved in close-knit formation, raising plumes of rock dust as they raced across the intervening space between them and the mining facility. If anyone had looked toward them at that moment, all that would have been visible was a small moving brownish-grey cloud.
Unfortunately, someone was looking. A trio of Grunts operating an obscure piece of equipment on the roof of a large domelike structure glanced out across the landscape, and, in typical fashion, immediately began chattering and barking among themselves. Almost as soon as the squat Covenant workers turned around to converse amongst themselves, Sierra whispered over TEAMCOM, "There were no witnesses." A split second later, three cracks split the air, and the Grunts collapsed, lifeless, one actually exploding as a round penetrated its breathing apparatus and ignited its volatile contents, spewing flames over the bodies of the three squat Covenant workers. Scavenger took no notice- instead, David and the others progressed into the underground mine proper seconds thereafter.
After passing through seven sets of proximity-triggered airlocks, Scavenger passed into a massive cavernous space- even with his visor's magnification set to maximum, David's eyes strained to make out the minuscule Grunt workers working at the other end of the complex and they operated laser drills and gravity beams, moving various masses of an ambiguous dark brown material onto a series of gravity lifts that ferried it to parts unknown.
Sierra glanced down at her ONI-issued datapad while Scavenger took up firing positions around her, although David honestly began to wonder what threat Grunt mining workers would pose- for the past two decades, the UNSC had been unable to make any significant advances into Covenant space- the enemy would be complacent behind their lines. Translation: minimal security, at least compared to a UNSC facility.
Sierra then spoke on an open UNSC channel, contacting Edward and Team Reaper. David and the others kept a watch for any overly-alert Grunt workers, but David wondered about Reaper. Inserted as they were in stealth HEVs, pinpoint delivery was virtually guaranteed. The Covenant communications should have been down by now. What was going on?
"Reaper, this is Scavenger-Actual. Sitrep on Covenant communications, over."
Static.
"Repeat, Reaper- this is Scavenger Actual. Sitrep on Covenant communications, over!"
Still static. Then, over TEAMCOM, David heard the sounds of distant gunfire. The distinct cracks of UNSC assault rifles mingled with the discharges of Covenant plasma weapons. Then Laura-343's voice came, loud and clear, across the channel.
"This is Reaper-Three. We have encountered resistance en route to the communications station- there are Jackal security forces in the refinery complex. Reaper-Actual is-"
A dull boom sounded over TEAMCOM. "Sitrep!" Sierra demanded.
"Scavenger, this is Reaper-Actual. Communications relay down- proceed with planting of nuclear ordnance." The voice wasn't Laura's.
Sierra nodded. "Copy, Reaper Actual. Scavenger out."
Scavenger did not need to be told twice. A soon as Sierra looked up from her datapad, David and the others were already preparing lines to rappel into the deepest shafts in the mining complex, while Jacob scanned the area for any of the Jackals that Laura had mentioned in her brief transmission. David knew that he and the others could breathe easy for the moment; in a long-distance fight, nothing- literally nothing- got the jump on Jacob. He was a rare instance of Scavenger actually having a leg-up on Reaper. Reaper's sniper, Laura, was good, but she was always just a twitch slower than Jacob.
Lines secured, David gave the thumbs-up signal to Sierra, who barked orders. "Two, Four, Six- head down and secure the area for Five. Three, cover us."
David secured himself to a line, and at a nod from Logan and Hayden, slid swiftly down the line past meter after meter of scarred and pocked stone to land with soft thuds at the bottom of the roughly-conical shaped shaft. David's shotgun ascended to eye level, and so did Logan's twin M7 submachine guns and Hayden's MA5B.
David looked back up the way they had come- the mineral the Covenant had been mining had been deposited in bands, and the extraction had created the illusion of terraces cut into the rock as the Covenant descended deeper into the asteroid while searching for resources. This level at the bottom was the very deepest and the smallest in terms of area. It reminded David faintly of-
"Hell…" he murmured.
Logan turned to look at him. "What?"
"Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Lo. In Inferno, Hell was roughly cone-shaped… nine terraces of decreasing size until you got down to the very bottom."
Sierra cut in. "Treachery was frozen, Two- so as far as I'm concerned, we left Hell behind us on Harvest. Enough about the classical literature. Sitrep?" David sighed- as usual, Sierra had a point. Why now, of all times, did he have to start pondering medieval poetry? He blinked his acknowledgement light green.
"Bottom of the shaft is clear. Ready to proceed."
A few short seconds later, Celia landed next to them. She removed a conical object, not much longer than an assault rifle, from her pack, and with it a datapad. After tapping the surface of the datapad several times, she shifted the conical warhead to better position it, and then pushed a final button, upon which David's mission clock flashed on his heads-up display- 15:00.
Hayden snorted. "You should have given it five," he sighed. All the same, though, he prepared to ascend the line.
When they arrived back at the top of the shaft, Sierra looked them up and down. "Status?" she asked.
"Ordnance planted," Celia reported, making a circle with her index finger and thumb while raising the three remaining fingers high.
"All right," Sierra said, "make for the evac point-" But before she could finish, Jacob fired his sniper rifle with a resounding crack, and a Jackal, depleted shield unit and all, fell to the floor with a plop. With a rapid-fire sequence of shots, Jacob downed three more enemies before diving behind an overturned grav lift. Scavenger did not waste the time Jacob gave them- From behind the lip of the shaft they had only recently ascended, Hayden and Celia sent bursts of suppressive fire into the ranks of the Jackals that had begun to emerge on the upper levels, while Sierra provided cover for Jacob.
"It took them this long?" Jacob murmured, every word dripping with disdain. "Sloppy."
David and Logan, side by side, rushed across the bottom floor, trying to find an elevator or passage- some method of portage that would get them to the upper levels. While neither was incompetent at ranged combat, close-quarters was what the two of them had been specifically trained for, and David did not intend to engage Covenant long-range skirmishers on their terms.
The two of them crouched behind another gravity lift as bolts of sickly green plasma flew past them, searing the rock below their feet into a slick glassine surface. At a nod from Logan, David shouldered his M90 and, with a heave, pointed the gravity projector slightly above the Jackals, being careful to reverse the controls on the unit first. He then thumbed the holographic control, and a coruscating blue shroud leapt from the lift's front. Logan leapt directly into it, the reversed gravity flow catapulting his four-hundred kilogram form in an arc onto one of the ledges- and landing him directly on top of a Jackal, with crushing results.
David, satisfied, followed suit, vaulting over the lift's top to soar into the air, carried by the luminescent flow of reversed gravity. His innards scrambled themselves as even the reduced gravity of M6-17 was replaced by a force that didn't feel so much like a pull, but more of a push. He landed with a crash, and even as the Jackal next to him uttered a squawk of protest, David caught it with a swift right hook that spun its head to an angle unnatural for any vertebrate, and the avian alien collapsed without another sound. David snatched away its still-intact energy gauntlet and dashed along the ledge.
The first two Jackals he met both raised their shields towards him- and were instantly cut down by the fire his team laid down. The third one, seeing this, rolled to David's side, positioning itself so that David stood between it and the rest of Scavenger. It then fired its plasma pistol on overload charge at point blank range directly at David, who raised his captured Jackal arm shield to block.
Green met blue in an explosion of arcing energy and sparks; the shield overloaded and sputtered, its usefulness outlived. Heat and radiation washed over the MJOLNIR's surface- inside, David watched the radiation counter on his heads-up display fluctuate wildly. He swung his M90 up and fired it, point blank, into the Jackal's face, effectively decapitating it. The scrawny, now-headless form of the Jackal fell to the floor of the ledge, a lurid blue liquid pooling at the neck.
The next two Jackals were similarly easy to take down. Preoccupied as they were with trying not to get shot, their shields were facing towards the four members of Team Scavenger below them, and thus no protection against David, who didn't even bother wasting ammunition- within seconds, both Jackals collapsed with several fractured spinal bones each.
Seeing that all of the Jackals had now been dealt with, David slowed his breathing and glanced at the countdown on his mission timer.
13:38. Celia really should have given it just 5 minutes, he thought.
DATE/TIME UNKNOWN, ESTIMATED TIMESTAMP: 0836 HOURS, 17 JANUARY 2546 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)
SLIPSPACE, SOMEWHERE IN THE 205 ZETA INDI SYSTEM
Lieutenant Graves examined the bank of displays in front of him- TEAMBIO readouts, TEAMCAM, transcripts of TEAMCOM chatter, and several views from Fleet of Foot's ventral cameras. Alongside them, he had computerized records of a trio of other events, with the exact same data fields. His eyes darted back and forth between the four sets of displays, briefly checking the time stamps of each one before moving on. The one he was looking at now was dated 17/01/2546. The other three: 27/11/2525, 27/7/2537 and 03/07/2545.
205 Zeta Indi. Chi Ceti IV. Asteroid K7-49. Pegasi Delta. Three secret, one heavily publicized. But the PR details didn't matter to Graves. His eyes continued to dart back and forth, noting heart rates, COM usage patterns, and mission timers, not missing anything if he could help it. Every so often, he would pause one of the three displays from Chi Ceti or one of the SPARTAN-III operations, but even if sorely pressed, he would not pause the live feed from Teams Scavenger and Reaper on the ground. His eyes were on their viewscreen most of the time, taking in every detail, and logging the relevant information wirelessly into his datapad.
Just then, a bright blue-purple flash tore through the inky black of Slipspace. At first glance, it looked like a spontaneous tear between the quasi-dimensions, but slight glints and flashes showed the position of the Spartans' subprowler as the few reflective surfaces on the hull caught the light from Fleet of Foot's viewing cameras. A second later, SHIPCOM crackled to life. "Fleet of Foot, this is Reaper-Actual, do you copy?"
Graves' left index finger gently pressed down on the 'Speak' button on his console. "This is Graves. Welcome back, teams. Dock and proceed immediately to the briefing room; we'll be underway in five minutes. What's the casualty report?"
"One WIA, none KIA, sir."
"That's good to hear. You have your orders."
"Understood, sir. Out."
Graves permitted himself a small sigh. Nobody had been Killed In Action. That, quite frankly, he though to himself, was quite possibly the best thing about this mission. For over fifteen years, he'd supervised hundreds of operations, and not a single one had taken place without an operative being killed or otherwise permanently incapacitated. To be fair, this was his first mission with Spartans, but all the same…
Graves wiped the sweat from his brow, and began to compose his post-mission report, pushing to the deepest corner of his mind the thought that his first KIA-free mission would likely be his last.