"I don't think you heard me clearly the first time, Sergeant. Once you reach the target zone, you will find that there were no survivors. If complications arise, well… I'm sure that you and your men would be knowledgeable enough to handle the situation."

-Colonel CLASSIFIED to Sergeant Rutgers of the 105th Helljumpers

Chapter 3: Job Experience

Mercan, Erikanus System

November 5, 2549

Ryan tried hard, but he just couldn't make himself feel anything for the doomed city of Julio, or Mercan, the planet it was on. Both the city and the planet would inevitably be glassed by the orbiting Covenant fleet, which at this very minute was beating the snot out of the grossly outmatched UNSC defenses. From the panicked radio chatter he was receiving, Ryan could tell that the fleet was about to pull out, and was already beginning to evacuate the Marines on the ground. Judging from the chatter and the usual time it took for a full size Marine quick response force to pull out, Ryan calculated that he and Sharon had less than an hour to touch down, grab the objective, and get out before they were stranded here. One thing was for sure, the ONI prowler was not going to stick around and wait for them with a Covenant armada in spitting distance of them.

He sighed and glanced out of the open bay of the Pelican he was riding in. He could catch glimpses of the Julio, but in all truth, the city wasn't really all that interesting. It was a dull, backwater jungle city whose sole purpose was to facilitate the rich diamond mines in the area. However, Ryan could tell that most of the diamond revenue went into the corporations' pockets rather than the city infrastructure. Julio was touted as one of the biggest and most modern cities on Mercan, but it was a backwater compared to the even the smallest towns on Earth or Reach. Dull, badly maintained slums and apartment blocks littered with jungle trees and overgrowth composed the vast majority of the city, with the richer and more modern parts consisting of a small district in the center, like a castle keep. Ryan could tell it was the rich sector because that was the only area were the streets were freshly paved, the building were alabaster white, and the entire area twinkled like the diamonds it was built on. Elsewhere, the streets were incredibly narrow and the buildings were packed tighter than sardines, which helped fuel the countless fires ravaging the city.

"Well, this is certainly an inviting place." Shannon said as she stared out the back. "Though it looks clear for the moment."

Ryan nodded. From the looks of it, there were no Covenant in the immediate area, which would be incredibly helpful.

"You remember the objective, right?" Ryan asked.

"Of course!" Shannon said confidently.

Ryan was a little more than anxious since this was his first actual field mission. He had petitioned Brown and the Director to let a more experienced team handle a mission like this, but they both laughed and told him that he and Shannon were currently the most experienced operatives in all of Section Four. It certainly wasn't a very encouraging thought. Ryan also remembered his first meeting with the Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was a good humored, but secretive individual. He would not reveal his name or his face to anybody, not even Brown, his trusted lieutenant. The Director also seemed to take a very creepy and paternal interest in him, always interested in what he was doing and thinking.

Yeah, the Director was certainly a very strange man. Ryan sighed and tried to focus on his mission. The Director wasn't big on details, but the gist of the mission was to go in and extract an item of special value. Apparently, a man by the name of Daniel Raines, a supervisor for one of the diamond mines, unwittingly acquired a valuable alien artifact. Besides being a mine supervisor, Raines also happened to be an amateur archeologist, and happened to find an odd crystal. Apparently, he thought it was just another diamond and added it to his personal collection. Ryan and Shannon had orders to retrieve that certain diamond before the Marine pullout. What made it worse was that the Director had given them very strict orders that the diamond not fall into the hands of another faction, whether it be the Covenant or even agents from Section Three. That last bit made Ryan a little nervous, since it implied that he and Shannon would have to compete with rival black ops units.

"We've reached the LZ." The pilot announced. "I'm not keeping this bird sitting on the ground because it'll attract attention. Once you do what you're supposed to do, give me a call and I'll come back and pick you guys up."

The Pelican then slowed down and hovered over Raines' residence. The transport hung there for a few seconds as the pilot scouted out for a suitable landing site. He then moved the Pelican over Raines' lawn and slowly settled down, blowing away loose leaves and grass in its wake.

"Got it." Ryan nodded and leapt off the Pelican, though he botched the landing and stumbled around in his bulky Marine armor. "Ugh, I don't get how those grunts move around in this stuff. I feel like a cheap action figure."

"Get over it, you big baby." Shannon grunted. She readied her rifle and started to climb up the long flight of stairs that led to the patio.

Ryan considered ditching the armor, but knew he couldn't. The Marine armor was part of their disguise, and would serve to support their cover story that they were Marines who had lagged behind during the pullout.

"Let's just get this over with." Ryan followed Shannon up the stairs until they reached the patio. There, they could marvel at what Raines' residence looked like from the ground. Like many of the surrounding buildings, the house was alabaster white with crimson red tiles lining the roof. On the patio, huge panes of glass afforded a sweeping, panoramic view of the surrounding jungles and cityscape.

"Well, this should be simple." Shannon grinned as she raised the butt of her assault rifle to smash one of the massive widows.

"Whoa, hold on there for a sec." Ryan put a hand on Shannon's rifle. "Let me see something first."

Inspecting the glass with a cautious eye, Ryan could tell that this was no ordinary window. Then, something at the bottom of the window caught his eye and he bent down to get a closer look. It was a small strip of sensor wire running along the bottom of the window and connecting to a small microchip. Ryan nodded when he realized what this was flash glass. Flash glass was a special security measure that really only the rich and privileged could afford. Unlike regular glass, flash glass contained countless nanomachines imbedded in the glass. These nanomachines absorbed the natural light that hit the window and stored it. Meanwhile, the sensor strip would detect any sudden impacts on the glass, like an intruder trying to smash his way in. The sensors would then send a signal to the microchip, which would then order the nanites to release all of the stored light energy at once. The result was a blinding flash of light which would instantly blind any unsuspecting thief.

"Can I smash it yet?" Shannon asked.

"Not unless you want to go blind." Ryan shook his head. "Let's just try the front door."

The front door was a rather ornate wooden thing. However, even though it was made out of rather antiquated materials, Ryan could see that it was built with a reinforced steel frame and very solid deadlocks. The only thing that allowed entry was a single keycard slot.

"I know what you're thinking, and we seriously don't need to do that." Ryan said before Shannon could even open her mouth. "There's always an easy way to do things."

With that, Ryan dug into his pack and brought out a strange looking gadget which looked like a keycard connected to a small box by a tangle of assorted wires. He pressed a button on the box, which made three little lights blink on and off. Ryan then inserted the keycard into the slot once, waited for one light to turn green, and pulled it out. He repeated this process twice more and when all three lights on the box glowed green, the door locks automatically disengaged.

"How'd you do that?" Shannon looked at the device curiously.

"It's a simple door opener. Put the keycard in once to erase the current code, twice to program a new code, and three times to input the new code." Ryan stuffed the device back into his pack. "Easier and less messy than several ounces of C7."

"Boring." Shannon sighed.

"Ladies first." Ryan opened the door and held it open for Shannon like a hotel doorman.

Shannon just shook her head and entered the house, rifle raised.

From the looks of the interior, it seemed as if nobody had been in the house for the past several days. That was perfectly understandable. Many of the rich and privileged citizens of Mercan had the means and resources to flee the planet once word of the Covenant armada arrived. Unfortunately, many of the less privileged citizens were stranded on the planet and had nowhere to go. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed during the fighting as they cowered in their ramshackle houses. Though the place was empty, it was evident that Raines had left in a hurry, since there was still a treasure trove of collected diamonds and mementos sitting in his living room.

"Found it." Shannon rushed up to a large trophy case that contained various diamonds. "It's the top one right there."

Ryan ran up and inspected the diamond Shannon was pointing at. Judging from the file photos, it was definitely the diamond they were looking for.

"Okay, let me just check for any possible security-"

However, before Ryan could finish, Shannon smashed the trophy case open with the butt of her assault rifle and then casually reached in and grabbed the diamond.

"What the hell was that for?" Ryan yelled incredulously.

"It was the easy way." Shannon shrugged.

"I swear-"

Unfortunately, Ryan never got the chance to finish his sentence. At that moment, six black figures materialized out of the darkness, assault rifles drawn and aimed directly at Ryan and Shannon. Six more figures appeared outside on the patio, their forms clearly visible through the large glass windows.

"Drop your weapons!" The lead figure yelled.

"Now now, we're all the same side here." Ryan turned and got a good look at the newcomers. They were clad in heavy Marine armor that was painted black instead of green. From the emblems on their armor and the visible tattoos, Ryan concluded that these guys were Helljumpers. "There's no need to-"

Suddenly, one of the Helljumpers moved forward and violently punched Ryan the face. For a second, the entire room spun and Ryan found himself lying on the floor.

"What do we do? There wasn't supposed to be anybody here!" One of the Helljumpers said in a panic.

"Shut up, Private!" The man who was obviously the lead Helljumper yelled. "You know our orders! We did not find anybody here!"

Ryan turned his head and made eye contact with Shannon. Both of them knew that there was no way they were going to negotiate their way out of this. These men were obviously under orders to eliminate anybody that got in their way.

"Yo! Think fast!" Shannon took the diamond in her hand and lobbed it at the nearest Helljumper. The man dropped his rifle to catch the object, doubtless thinking it was a grenade or some other threat. However, this proved to be his biggest and final mistake. Before anybody could react, Shannon had already closed the distance between herself and the helpless Helljumper. In one smooth motion, she snatched a pen from a nearby table, swung around behind the Helljumper, and stabbed him right in the neck with the pen. The writing instrument pierced the man's carotid artery, which was basically a death sentence. Snuggling into a position behind the doomed Helljumper's body, Shannon grabbed his pistol from its holster and fired several shots, knocking down another Helljumper. The rest of the squad hesitated, unwilling to shoot one of their own men, even if he was going to die in the next ten seconds.

Fortunately for Ryan, these recent events made the Helljumpers forget all about him. He kicked the Helljumper above him right in the knee, forcing him to fall over in pain. Ryan then grabbed his dropped assault rifle and sprayed the Helljumpers, killing one of them in the hail of fire. Meanwhile, the rest of the Helljumpers outside witnessed the events unfolding inside the house, and rather than make a run for the door, they had the bright idea of trying to break through the windows. The instant the rifle butt hit the glass, the entire window pane exploded like a supernova. The six Helljumpers stumbled backwards and screamed in surprise as the intense light blinded them. Not hesitating, Shannon picked up a dropped assault rifle and fired through the windows. Though they were strong enough to withstand a flying baseball or small caliber bullet, only the highest quality glass could ever hope to repel full size 7.62mm rounds. Though the glass didn't shatter, the high caliber rounds passed straight through, finding their marks with deadly accuracy. With just one clip, Shannon managed to down all six Helljumpers outside.

However, the ones still alive inside proved to be a much more imminent threat. There were still three very pissed off Helljumpers to deal with. Shannon kicked a small coffee table right at the Helljumpers. The table slid across the room and struck them in their shins, momentarily spoiling their aim. Doing so gave Shannon and Ryan enough time to snatch up the diamond and take cover behind an oak minibar. They both huddled down as 7.62mm rounds shredded everything around them. The oak minibar was thick enough to hold off the bullets for now, but it wouldn't be long until the wood completely gave away.

"Do we have plan?" Shannon asked over the cacophony of gunfire.

"I was sorta hoping that I could just huddle back here and have you do all the hard work." Ryan noticed an assault rifle round burst through the minibar just inches from his shoulder. "How much ammo do you have?"

"Enough." Shannon slammed in a new clip. "So what's the plan?"

"This." Ryan rose up and fired his assault rifle, but the Helljumpers were battle hardened veterans and didn't flinch from the fire of a single assailant. They stood their ground and returned fire. Fortunately, they were concentrated on Ryan and paid no attention to Shannon. It was easy for her to flank the trio of Helljumpers, using the surrounding furniture to conceal her approach. When he saw Shannon in position behind the Helljumpers, Ryan ceased fire to prevent from accidentally shooting her.

Thinking that Ryan was out of ammo, the Helljumpers continued their attack. Shannon hit the rearmost Helljumper first, covering his mouth and shoving her knife into the arteries in his armpit. She then tossed the body aside and moved on to the next Helljumper, slitting his throat. By this time, the sergeant, the last standing Helljumper, realized that something was wrong and turned around to see Shannon standing over the bodies of his men.

"You bitch!" The sergeant growled and raised his rifle.

Unfortunately for him, Shannon was much faster. She was close enough to give a quick smack to the side of the sergeant's rifle, knocking it out of line for a few seconds, which was more than enough time for Shannon to raise her own rifle and pump the entire magazine into his chestplate. The Helljumper convulsed and collapsed like a rag doll.

"I thought these guys were supposed to be good." Shannon winced as she toed the dead sergeant. "Didn't seem like so much of a challenge."

"Never mind that. Give me the diamond." Ryan took the diamond from Shannon and placed it in a special shielded container. He had been told that the diamond transmitted a unique energy signal that could be detected through Slipspace. This signal could potentially be used to track the diamond which was why it had to be placed in a shielded container. Unfortunately, Ryan didn't have the chance to during the firefight with the Helljumpers. He hoped that it wasn't too late.

"Well, somebody in Section Three isn't going to be at all happy that his little plot went down the drain." Shannon fired a few shots into some of the down Helljumpers to make sure that they would stay down.

"With any luck, it wouldn't be traced back to us." Ryan turned on his radio. "Eagle One, this Vulture. Mission accomplished and requesting extraction."

"Roger that, Vulture." The Pelican pilot replied. "Coming down right now."

Ryan and Shannon ran outside to their previous landing zone. Already, they could see the Pelican circling around above their heads. Unfortunately, they also saw something they wished they hadn't. A fuel rod literally came out of the blue and struck the Pelican in one of its engine pods. Ryan could hear the pilot and copilot yelling as they tried to bring the aircraft under control when a second fuel rod speared right through the cockpit and out of the rear exit ramp. The flaming Pelican continued spinning in the air until it smashed into a nearby poolhouse and exploded. It wasn't long until a squadron of Covenant Banshees and dropships headed straight for their position. It was obvious that they had already detected the presence of the diamond, since Ryan heavily doubted that the Covenant would go through all of this trouble to kill just two Marines.

"I think now is a good time to get back inside the house." Ryan gaped at the oncoming Covenant onslaught.

"Good idea."

As they ran back to the relative safety of Raines' house, Ryan keyed his radio from his covert frequency to one of the Marine tactical channels. "Sierra, this is Bosco, requesting immediate extraction. Position is five two six, quadrant delta. Warning, LZ is HOT."

The radio buzzed for a few seconds until somebody replied, "Bosco, Sierra. Air extraction is currently not an option. We're searching for an alternative."

"Sierra, this is Ghostrider. We are not far and can do a ground extraction. We'll be there in two minutes."

"Roger that, Ghostrider. Good luck."

"How long?" Shannon asked.

"Two minutes."

"How long until the Covenant get here?"

"Twenty seconds."

"Wonderful."

Already, the first dropship was touching down on the lawn outside, disgorging a squad of Grunts. Ryan had read up on Grunts. They were basically the cannon fodder of the Covenant armed forces, always sent in first and taken out last, if they were still alive at the end. Since they weren't very tough and not well trained, the biggest threat Grunts posed was depleting ammunition, which was a luxury Ryan and Shannon didn't have.

"Alright." Ryan bent down over the nearest dead Helljumper. "Grab everything useful you can from them. Weapons, ammo, and explosives."

"Got it." Shannon snatched up a handful of grenades and a few satchel charges. "What do we need these for?"

"We can't afford to waste ammo on the Grunts. Our objective is to hold them off, not kill them. If we can rout them and keep them scattered, we can save what we've got for the Elites."

Fortunately, the Grunts held off from attacking until at least three more dropships unloaded their troops. Then, comforted with the thought of greater numbers the Grunts pressed on slowly but surely. However, just they reached the door, Ryan and Shannon pulled the pins on several frag grenades and lobbed them out of the front door. The explosions ripped through the front ranks of Grunts, killing a half dozen and injuring more. Ryan and Shannon then fired several rifle bursts at the mob. The Grunts panicked and retreated to their landing zone, taking cover behind whatever they could find. They stayed down until another dropship filled with Elites touched down. The Elites yelled what Ryan could only assume were alien obscenities at the Grunts and got them organizing and moving again. With the presence of Elites, it was now less likely for the Grunts to break. Shannon grabbed one of the dropped satchel charges and tossed it out of the door. The satchel slid across the concrete pavement and exploded, sending rock chips and alien body parts flying everywhere. The surviving Covenant responded with a hail of plasma fire.

"Bosco, this is Ghostrider. We're incoming on your position."

"Ghostrider!" Ryan ducked back into cover just as a burst of plasma rifle bolts sped past. "Come around to the rear of the building! We'll be waiting for you there!"

"Roger that."

"Lets go!" Ryan patted Shannon the shoulder to get her attention and pointed to the rear of the house. "Extraction is on its way!"

Shannon nodded and picked up the rest of the satchel charges. She set them all on timer mode and began to periodically drop them on the ground as she followed Ryan out of the back door. Fortunately, the Covenant didn't seem to have the strategic depth to consider putting troops in the backyard of the house.

Suddenly, a Warthog punched through the hedge wall on the far side of the yard. It continued to speed down towards the house, tearing up the well groomed lawn and sending dirt flying everywhere. The vehicle then slid to a halt right in front of Ryan and Shannon. Both ONI agents leapt into the Warthog without a second thought. Ryan settled himself in the passenger seat next to the driver while Shannon jumped into the rear of the Warthog next to the LAAG gunner.

"Alright, go go go!" Ryan yelled.

As if to punctuate his words, the satchel charges inside the house finally exploded, ripping a good chunk of Raines' house apart and sending bits of wood, plaster, and tile raining down on the Marines.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Second Lieutenant Karla Wellings grunted as she gunned the engine.