Reclaiming Our Rights
Answers to some reviews:
Guest: Well, Master Chief might not appear because he's dealing with…the losses of someone he cared.
UNSC Know Your Place: Oh, come on. The Grunts might have advanced weaponry, but having a member of 501st getting defeated by one is going to be impossible. There's none of them that…wait a minute…
As for HIGHCOM reaction, let's just say someone is going to be interested with the witches.
Maroon567: Well, I don't know whether or not I will make UNSC Spirit of Fire appears. I'll think about it.
UNSC Infinity
Ever since the Infinity received the Forerunner signal, Roland had been busy trying to find any clue about the location of Forerunner relics. He admitted that it's not as easy as it looks like. Forerunner signal is different from human and even the Covenant's.
"How's the progress, Roland?" Asked Lasky.
"Still on going, sir. I am currently asking the help from other AIs. However, the signal came from an area with a lot of place to cover; it's the Alps." Replied Roland.
"The Alps? Damn, that mountain range stretch from France to Slovenia. If we do this manually, we're going to need thousands of men and more than a month."
"It's obvious that we don't have both. Well, we actually have but we have other stuffs to do rather than spending thousands of men and a month searching the Alps for Forerunner relic. The Covenant Remnant are still at large after all."
"Whatever. Keep searching, Lasky." Lasky turns around and starts to walk out of the bridge. "God, I am started to get bored."
Settlement, Gallia
A Kübelwagen stops in front of the settlement. From the vehicle, three witches disembark; Rosalie, Heinrike, and Geena of the 506th JFW. The three of them are walking through the street as dead bodies covered with white clothes are lying at both sides.
The three of them stop in front of the building with a red cross on it. After given a permission by the guards, they enter the building and meet with a forensic doctor.
"Ah, Squadron Leader de Grunne. Is there something I could help you with?" Asked the aged doctor.
"Yes, doc. Can you tell us the cause of death of the Karlsland soldiers?" Asked Rosalie.
"Of course. I must say, this is the first time I have a true use since the war started. Mind you, that doesn't mean…"
"Doctor, we don't want to hear your story." Stated Heinrike.
"Right. Back to the topic, most of the death are stab wounds at neck, chest, abdomen, and back area. The wounds were created either by a knife or some sort of fang. However, none of them matched the record."
"So we can ruled out the Neuroi as the cause of death?" Said Geena unsure.
"Not so fast. That's most of the death, not all of them. The rest of them died by unique ways. For example, some poor soldiers were killed by bullets."
"That's not exactly unique, doc." Said Rosalie.
"Oh, but it is. I checked the weapons available here. The MP40, the MG42, the Karabiner, none of them matched with the bullets I found."
"Wait, wait, are you saying that someone – a human – decided to came here with an unknown firearm and started killing the soldiers?" Asked Geena disbelieved.
"That's the only conclusion I can draw. Anyway, the other deaths were caused by laser."
"So there's a Neuroi after…wait, how did you know about that?" Asked Rosalie.
"The dead bodies. Some of them have a combination of gun and burn wounds. They look like a gun wound but have a trace of burning surrounding the wound. I once see a Neuroi laser destroy a house so I know the possibility of a wound caused by small laser."
"Neuroi with small laser? That's like a Liberion without their 'liberty' tendency. No offense, Geena." Said Rosalie.
"None taken." Replied Geena.
"Well, I am not an expert on Neuroi, so don't ask me about that. But the last cause makes me confused. It…doesn't match any know wound." Said the doc worried.
"How the wound looks like, doc?" Asked Rosalie.
"Well, it's a stab wound. Should be simple, but it's surrounded by burned skin. I thought I mistook it for a laser wound, but there's no doubt that it's a stab wound."
"So…some of them were killed by getting stabbed with laser?" Asked Heinrike dumbfounded.
"I know. I even smacked myself when I found out about it. But the shape, how it made, only stab wound matched the wound I found!"
"OK, let me summarize it; most of the Karlsland soldiers were killed by a knife or unknown animal's bites, getting gunned by someone with unrecorded weapon, a small laser that will make Neuroi proud with their own, and finally got stabbed with a bladed weapon made from laser." Said Rosalie with a face that indicates she doesn't believe her own words.
"Yes, I am pretty sure it summarized all of it, young lady." Stated the doctor.
Rosalie pinches her nose at the result. One thing she can be sure of is that the paperwork is going to be a nightmare. She then looks at the doctor with a tired look.
"Doc, can you kindly create the file about the causes of death?" Pleaded Rosalie.
"I already did it. If you follow me to my office…"
"Of course."
The three witches follow the doctor as they go to the office. While there are many questions in their heads, the number one is this; who or what caused the death of the Karlsland soldiers?
UNSC Network
UNSC network is obviously not something you can call a place. However, this only work if you look at it from the human perspective. For the artificial intelligence, the network is something they can call a place.
In the network, the AIs of the UNSC ships of the combined fleet are having a meeting. They held the meeting to share their result about the Forerunner signal.
"So, any of you find anything interesting?" Asked Roland.
"Unfortunately, I found nothing." Said a green AI. It's a male with a traditional Chinese clothes and Chinese ponytail with the front head bald. He's Gan Jiang, the AI of UNSC New Hope.
"Well, my calculation indicates the location is somewhere at the French side of the Alps." Said a blue AI. It's a female AI wearing a medieval armor. She's Joan, the AI of UNSC Toulon.
"While I don't have the coordinates, perhaps my calculation can be used to find it." Said a white AI. It's a grandfather wearing a Pope outfit. He's Francis, the AI of UNSC Rome.
"I am sure this information is enough." Said a purple AI. It's a male wearing a Roman soldier outfit. He's Augustus, the AI of UNSC State Your Status.
"Only way one to find out." Stated a red AI. It's a female wearing a World War I pilot outfit. She's Amelia, the AI of UNSC Song of the West.
The six AIs then work together using all information they have to find out the exact location of the signal source. After spending a large amount of bytes thinking and calculating, it appears that they finally find the location.
"So, this is the location?" Said Roland unsure.
"Like what I said earlier, only one way to find out." Replied Amelia.
Unknown Location
Berlin and Suez are having a meeting about their next move. With the humanity gaining the upper hand and "their" appearance, something need to be done.
"I…I… How to you get all of these?" Said Berlin dumbfounded as he looks at a recording.
"After spending several centuries of existing, you will learn a trick or two." Replied Suez. "But this won't be enough to defeat them. Even if we outnumber them three to one."
"It won't. But I am sure this is enough to keep us alive, one way or another."
"Anyway, we need to make a significant strike. If we let things go as they are, we will be annihilated by the humans instead of them."
"My advice is with the witches that annihilated Gallia and Venezia. Even if we fail, we will still gain result."
"I am not designed to be the one who do research, so I'll leave most of it to you. But the best we can do is sending thousands of drones with most of them won't make it back."
"You think I will let the witches have the fun destroying them? Karlsland is not exactly a good place to send them, which is why I am using the long way to send them to you so that you can send them to Romagna."
"What are these 'them'?"
In response, Berlin gives a few recording to Suez. When Suez sees it, his eyes show interest. The muffled sounds do little to hide the desperate screams of some humans.
"I almost pity the poor humans who must fight them." Commented Suez.
Night time…
Tobruk, Libya
At the port city of Tobruk, some garrisons of Britannian soldiers are placed on the city. While guarding a city with infantries is something that's considered to be crazy by Montgomery, it's not like he has any choice. Britannian forces lost most of its armored divisions and the remaining must be placed to cover the holes in the Allied frontline. Both Patton and Rommel refused to place any of their armors and instead put them on the frontline, same thing with the land witches.
Because the other option is to completely left Tobruk unguarded, Montgomery sent few infantry divisions to guard Tobruk with substantial amount of self-propelled artilleries and anti-tank weapons.
Few meters away from Tobruk, a jeep with three Britannian soldiers are on their way to the city. Feeling bored with nothing to see but sand, they decide to have a conversation.
"Hey, how long do you think until the war is over?" Asked one of them.
"I don't know. While we're chasing the Neuroi now, those b*st*rds are still capable of dealing massive casualties." Replied the one on the wheel.
"That's right. There are still Neuroi in western and Eastern Europe. It will take a long time until…"
Before the soldier at the back can finish his sentence, the driver suddenly slams the brake, causing the three of them to jerk forward.
"The hell?!"
"There's someone on the ground!" Stated the driver as he grabs a Sten and approaches said someone.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Said the soldier beside him who then follow the other soldier.
When both of them reach the location of said someone, it turns out that there's nothing there.
"Really? Someone?"
"I swear! I saw him with my own eyes!"
"Well then, you better get yourself some glasses.
Both Britannian head back to their jeep, with the driver insisting that he saw someone. When they return however, they realize that something is strange with their friend on the back of the jeep. His head looks downwards but not in an uncomfortable position. The driver approaches him while the other looks around. When he checks the pulse, the driver finds none.
"Damn it, Limbert's dead. Do you…"
When the driver looks at the other soldier, the former sees that the latter is lying on the ground. When he approaches the soldier, the driver sees blood flowing from the latter's neck. Before he can do anything, the driver falls to the ground with a wound at his back.
The Alps
The Dropship 79 Heavy-Troop Carriers and the Type-52 Troop Carriers managed to arrive on the location without being spotted. Granted, that has something to do with the fact that both transports fly from their ships and went directly to the Alps from the orbit.
When the troops disembarked from their transports, the UNSC is consisted of Fireteam Vanguard along with three squads of marines and the Swords of Sanghelios is consisted of 'Jarhed team with five squads of Grunts, two squads of Elites, and a squad of Jackals.
After checking their equipment, both UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios approach a cave. They walk through the dark and cold place for few minutes before encountering a wall. Adams approaches the wall, feels it, knocks it, and finally punches through it. He keeps destroying the wall until it's revealed that the other side of the wall is an advanced looking door.
The SPARTANs are the first to approach the door. After a while, the door automatically opens by descending to the ground. They then get inside the facility. When they're inside, they're surrounded by advanced looking structure with most of it decorated with Forerunner symbols.
"[COMMS] Infinity, this is Vanguard. We found the Forerunner." Said Abbas.
There's nothing that replied Abbas except the sound of static.
"[COMMS] I repeat, this is Vanguard. We found the Forerunner." Still static. "[COMMS] Infinity, come in!"
"Something wrong, SPARTAN?" Asked an Elite Zealot.
"I can't contact Infinity. Chances are high that the same thing will happen if I try to contact other ship." Replied Abbas.
"Perhaps it's like Requiem. I heard that something on the planet prevented communication between Master Chief and Infinity." Said a marine.
"Perhaps."
Abbas then remember something important. At Requiem, Master Chief encountered not only the signal jammer, but also Didact and Promethean forces. If that's the case, then…
Before Abbas can finish his though, some things suddenly appear from nowhere. Though closer look reveals that they come from a slipspace. Those things are now revealed to be Promethean Knights. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, Promethean Crawlers emerge and are now on the wall, ready to attack them at any moment.
All SPARTANs and marines are aiming their weapons at the Prometheans. The Elites are doing the same thing with Gal and the Elite Zealots activating their energy swords. The Jackals are activating their gauntlet shields while the Grunts…well, some of them now want to get back to their ships.
Then, something appears from the Promethean side. It's floating, being made out of metal, round-edged cube shape, and has a single eye. Its appearance resembles 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of Installation 04. One of its difference is that this Monitor has a purple illumination.
The Monitor looks around for a while. It then focused its attention to the UNSC and the Swords of Sangehelios. After looking at both group for a while, it looks at the UNSC and speaks to them in a high, dignified woman voice.
"Greeting, Reclaimers. I am 074 Sadness Gateway. I am the Monitor of the Library Facility."
And this chapter is done.
Just a question, but how do you think the Strike Witches' humans will reach when they (somehow) find out that the most powerful and influential human in the UNSC is Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky? I come up with the question when I found out that a female is the most powerful human in UNSC and the Strike Witches' military relatively negative view on having woman in armed service.
If you have question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.
Review please.