The next day
Date April 7th, 2552
Location: half a mile from Keva outpost, twelve miles south of Axiom base, two miles east of New Haven.
It was another beautiful day on Reach. The many colours of dawn were breaking in the sky and the air was warm with the heat. The seasons here on the planet were a little different than those on much of Earth. It would already begin to get warmer, like it was the summer, quite early on in the year rather the in the middle of the year. Though there was a gentle cooling breeze in the air so it was not completely like summer.
In the air above the ever stretching fields below, a large shape flew towards a small group of buildings not far ahead of it. It was a pelican. In the resting area were two taskforce soldiers, Marcus and Stinger, who were lying down on the seats, one either side of the resting area, fast asleep. It was only about 06:30am and most of the taskforce were still asleep in their beds back at the base.
Marcus and Stinger, however, had been woken up by John and told to board a pelican bound for Keva outpost, another UNSC base but was actually a place for the ER (Extra-terrestrial Reconnaissance) Stalker fighters to be base. However, like New Haven outpost yesterday, contact with the outpost had been lost and as the Covenant had been responsible for the attack on New Haven yesterday, it was most likely possible that Keva had suffered the same fate as New Haven so the taskforce had been dispatched to wipe out any Covenant that were likely to be at the base.
The co-pilot in the pelican's cog pit stood up and opened the cog pit door and stepped into the resting area. He walked over to Marcus and shook him slightly. Marcus groaned and groggily opened his eyes to see the co-pilot standing over him.
"C'mon, up you get, soldier," he said. "We're almost there,"
Marcus groaned and nodded and sat up as the co-pilot walked over to Stinger and shook him slightly. Stinger groaned and sat up and rubbed his eyes.
Marcus yawned and stretched his arms. "How long…until we get there?" he asked, yawning a little.
"A few minutes, so get ready," the co-pilot answered and he walked back into the cog pit.
Stinger groaned as he leant forward and reached under his seat and took out his battle rifle and loaded it with a clip of ammunition.
"I don't know why John had to make us leave so early," he complained.
Marcus nodded in agreement but said nothing. He instead looked out through the open resting area entrance at the passing fields. A few farmhouses were visible in the distance and a small road led underneath the pelican in the direction of the outpost it was heading to. For a moment, Marcus was lost in the beauty of this world. He had to admit it was not much, but it just reminded him of life back on Earth and…what life had been like on Takra before it was destroyed.
Marcus shook the scene out of mind and leant forward and reached under his seat and produced a battle rifle and a clip of ammunition. He loaded the ammunition into the weapon. Just as he finished, the co-pilot stuck his head through the cog pit door into the resting area again.
"Alright, guys get ready," he said. "We're approaching Keva outpost,"
Marcus and Stinger nodded and sat down on the end seats, gripping their battle rifles tightly, ready for the coming battle.
The pelican began to descend from the sky towards a small cluster of buildings. There were two half circular shaped buildings that were spaced about twenty feet from each (they were not joining) and courtyard was in the space between them. Thirty feet to the left of the left circular shaped building was a small cube shaped building with half of what had been a radio antennae sticking out of the top of it. A similar building was placed thirty feet to the right of the circular shaped building, only a small AA missile launcher turret was placed on the roof of this one. About sixty feet to the north of the buildings was a large circular metal door, about forty feet long and wide, built into the ground. It led to an underground hanger that could only be accessed through the half circular shaped buildings. As the pelican approached, the doors had scorch marks over them and there were several small chunks missing from the half circular shaped buildings.
"Damn!" the pilot whispered as he looked down at the outpost. "The Covenant must have really screwed up this place when they attacked,"
"I wonder if where they are?" the co-pilot asked. "Do you think they're underground?" he asked his comrade.
"Probably," the pilot replied. "Wonder what they're doing here? I mean, if they were going to attack Reach, they usually just throw in an army and a load of ships, not attack random outposts."
The co-pilot nodded in agreement. He had heard of the attack on the New Haven outpost yesterday and it had been met with confusion and puzzlement by the UNSC, save for the taskforce, who had not been told, obviously apart from those who had been sent to the outpost yesterday to clear out the Covenant there, and the order had given to all UNSC personal not to mention any word of what had happened yesterday to the taskforce. But what were the Covenant doing just randomly attacking outposts? Even though they had rarely done anything g like this before, as they would usually just send in an army as soon as a Human presence was detected on a world, they had attacked the same type of stations, but why had they attacked a radar station yesterday and then suddenly gone for an ER station today? It did not make a lot of sense. Something was definitely up here and they had to find out what. Maybe it would become visible after what happened here today.
As the pelican descended further towards the courtyard, the co-pilot caught site of something moving at the side entrance of the left circular shaped building. He squinted to try and determine what it was but the thing disappeared inside the building. At seeing this, concern began to fill him. If that was a Covenant soldier, then he was certain it had seen them and was now probably going to alert any other soldiers that a pelican was landing here.
"What is it?" the pilot asked upon seeing the concerned look on his co-pilot's face.
"I think I saw a Covenant soldier at the entrance to one of the buildings," he replied. "If it was a Covenant soldier, he just ran inside,"
The pilot swore under his breath. "Alright, we'll have to land now," he said. "Tell the other two,"
The co-pilot nodded and got up and stuck his head out of the cog pit door.
Alright, guys," he said, making Marcus and Stinger jump and look over their shoulders to face him. "We're gonna have to land early. I think the Covenant have seen us coming,"
Marcus and Stinger nodded and the co-pilot disappeared back into the cog pit.
"Well, battle for this outpost begins now," Stinger said, cocking his weapon. Marcus nodded and did the same.
The two looked out through the resting area and watched as the ground came closer as the pelican descended towards it. Finally, when it was about ten feet above the ground, the pelican came to a halt and Marcus and Stinger stood up and jumped down from the craft to the ground.
Suddenly, a light blue blast flew past them, narrowly missing Stinger's head, and hit the ground. Shooting round, Stinger, looking under the wing of the pelican, saw a tall bulky figure with light blue armour standing in the entrance of the left half circular shaped building. A minor Elite. Two smaller figures lumbered either side of him. Grunts. The Elite roared something and pointed at the pelican and fired a few light blue blasts at the craft. The two Grunts followed their leader and fired several light green blasts from their plasma pistols at the pelican.
Marcus skidded to a halt next to Stinger.
"Co-pilot was right," Stinger told him.
"I wonder how many more Covenant are here," Marcus replied.
"Alright, contact us when you're done," came the co-pilot's voice from their ear radios. "We'll fly around nearby and keep an eye out for any Covenant air support,"
The wind was suddenly thrown up at them as the pelican rose into the air. When it had risen ten feet from where it had stopped to drop off the two taskforce soldiers, it flew off ahead and disappeared from sight behind the right half circular shaped building.
"Alright, let's go," Marcus said to Stinger.
The two ran towards the Covenant at the entrance to the left building, firing burst of ammo as they went. The bullets hit the Elites' armour shield and lit it up before finally breaking through it and embedding themselves in the Elite's chest and stomach. The creature roared loudly as it was thrown backwards onto the floor of the building but abruptly went quiet when it hit the floor and moved no more.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" the two Grunts screamed. "Leader dead! Run away!"
The two Grunts turned and ran back into the building, waving their arms about in the air in terror. Marcus and Stinger saw their chance and ran towards the building. When they reached the entrance, they just managed to catch a glimpse of one of the Grunts run through a doorway on the left wall that led to a flight of stairs the led down to…well, whatever was down there.
Marcus reloaded his weapon and looked around the interior of the building. It was covered with blast marks and the floor was covered with crates and ammunition scattered everywhere. A small hole was in the right wall, giving a view of the courtyard and the right half circular shaped building on the other side of the courtyard. A dead marine lay on the floor about ten feet on from the doorway where the Grunts had fled through. The Covenant had obviously wiped out everyone here like they had done yesterday at New Haven but what they were doing here was unknown.
Marcus and Stinger creped forward towards the door, placing themselves up against the wall either side of the door. Marcus poked his head through the door and looked right to see a flight of stairs lead down to a large square shaped landing in a small tunnel that led down right diagonally further underground, most likely to an underground hanger for the ER Stalker fighters. A large square shaped platform, about the same size as the landing, was placed next to the landing. Two small shapes were standing at the end of the platform, looking down over at the edge. A taller figure with a shield was standing a few feet behind them, scratching It's chin and gazing around from side to side. A Jackal.
"Looks like there's a strong Covenant presence here already," Stinger said, looking down at the Covenant.
"I have a feeling there'll be a lot more of 'em down in the hanger," Marcus replied. He reloaded his weapon. "Okay, let's go down the steps quietly and take out the Covenant then we'll head down into the hanger and mop up any more that are left,"
Stinger nodded and, after reloading his weapon, followed Marcus as they crept into the stairwell and down the steps towards the landing at the bottom, their weapons raised and their fingers on their weapons' triggers. As they neared the bottom, they stopped about half-way down the stairwell as the Jackal stopped scratching It's chin and looked in their direction as if alerted to their presence. The two aimed their weapons at it and got ready to fire in case it screeched. The Jackal leaned forward a little and the two saw It's orange eyes squint. They breathed in and half pushed down the triggers of their weapons, ready to fire.
Then, the Jackal began to walk forward towards the stairwell. Marcus went wide-eyed and pushed down further on his trigger, which was just micrometres from firing a burst of ammo at the creature. What was it doing though? Had it actually seen them, because if it had then it would have fired on them. Why had it not fired on them if it had seen them?
Then, the Jackal stopped at the bottom of the stairwell and faced the left wall and half raised It's hand before it paused. Marcus and Stinger watched with curiosity, but kept their guard up, as the creature opened It's fingers a little and slowly began to move It's raised hand towards the wall. Then, quick as a flash, it threw It's hand forward and grabbed something and brought the hand up to It's mouth and dropped something in it and the Jackal began to chew. Marcus breathed a quiet sigh of relief. It had only caught something on the wall, probably a bug. At least it had not seen them, which he was glad had happened.
It appeared he had thought to soon that he and Stinger were here without the enemy knowing. As the Jackal had gone to turn to walk back out across the landing towards the platform, it suddenly paused again and turned It's head, only this time so it was looking behind it, it's large purple eyes set directly on Marcus and Stinger.
"Open fire!" Marcus shouted.
Two bursts of ammo exploded in the air, followed by an ear splitting screech as the Jackal was thrown backwards onto the landing floor. A pool of dark purple/black blood began to form underneath the creature. It was dead. The two Grunts, having jumped at the sound of the gunfire, shot round and saw their two enemies running down the steps onto the landing. They screamed and went to fire but were quickly put to rest by another two bursts of ammo from Marcus and Stinger.
"Alright," Stinger muttered as he walked onto the platform and looked around. "How do we get this thing to move?"
"Here," Marcus replied from behind and Stinger to see him standing over at the wall next to the entrance to the stairwell from the landing where a small control panel was placed.
He pressed a small red button on the control panel. At once, the platform jolted and a loud unlocking sound filled the tunnel and the platform began to descend down into the tunnel. Marcus quickly rushed over and stepped onto it and joined Stinger at the other end of the platform and looked down the tunnel towards the bottom, which was about sixty feet away. They could see another landing, next to a large square shaped hole for the platform to fit into and become part of the floor, which gradually grew bigger as they approached it. It was much too big to be a regular landing so it was probable that this landing was part of the hanger floor.
"What do you s'pose the Covenant are doing underground?" Stinger asked, not taking his eyes of the bottom of the tunnel.
"Probably clearing a way for their ships to land," Marcus answered. "But It's still strange," he added. "I mean, what they've done here is exactly what they did at New Haven yesterday. They attack a base and yet they don't destroy it,"
"I think they're probably looking for McCrea," Stinger said, looking at Marcus. "Because he was at New Haven a few days ago, but what I find so strange about here is that I asked John if captain McCrea had been to any other outposts anywhere near New Haven and he said no."
"Then the Covenant are probably here to scout out the terrain and find any info about our strength on Reach," Marcus replied.
Stinger nodded and resumed looking back down towards the bottom of the tunnel, which was now just twenty feet away. The two could now see more of the floor on from the hole for the platform and saw several large craft with seat-like main sections with a small see through door about half-way up the front of the craft. Two small engines stuck out of the back and coming out of the sides were two thin mechanical legs. The craft were about eight feet wide and about fifteen feet long. These were the ER stalker craft.
A few moments later, the platform finally came to a halt as it stopped in the hole. It jolted slightly and locked itself into place. Marcus and Stinger stepped off it and gazed around the hanger. It was a large square shape, about seventy feet long and just under eighty feet wide with a large circular hole in the ceiling, which the hole mostly took up, leading up into a tunnel that led up the mechanical doors that the two had seen when they had seen when they had landed. There were, or had been, about ten other stalker craft scattered about the hanger, but most were either now a pile of wreckage or were lying on their sides or tops. A few dead workers were scattered about the hanger floor, some with weapons either in their hands or near them. They had obviously tried to put up a fight but the Covenant had just overwhelmed them.
"Set up the beacon!"
Marcus and Stinger stopped dead and half crouched and ran ahead towards one of the stalkers that had been turned on It's side, revealing the bottom of the craft that was covered in scorch marks from where blasts had struck it. When they reached it, Marcus crept towards the end of the craft and poked his head out from behind it and looked across the hanger.
There, about twenty five feet ahead of him, was a major Elite with four minor Grunts. The four grunts were gathered in a circle around a metallic device that had been placed on the hanger floor and Marcus saw their arms moving to and from it as if they were attacking it. What was this metallic device?
He moved his head back behind the stalker and turned to face Stinger. "A major Elite and four minor Grunts and they're all gathered around something on the floor," he told him.
"What is it they're gathered around?" Stinger asked him as he moved up next to him to look at the Covenant squad.
"No idea," Marcus answered, looking back out at the Covenant. "We need to take 'em out and get to it,"
"How? If we just attack 'em then they'll most likely grab it and take it with them behind any cover,"
Stinger was right, they could not just open fire on the Covenant. Even though there was a strong chance they would easily pick them off, it was also probable that the Covenant squad would take whatever that metallic object was with them behind cover and it would be far more difficult to obtain. After all, that thing could be a clue to what they were doing on Reach.
Question was: How were they to defeat this Covenant squad? Marcus looked out at the Covenant squad again. The major Elite was the one worrying them so they had to deal with him first, but the Grunts might also take the object. Both had to be dealt with quickly, but how?
Then, an idea popped into Marcus' head. Surely it would work. Yes, it would work, if it all went as he wanted it to. He turned to face Stinger, who had moved back behind him against the stalker.
"We'll distract the Grunts and then take care of the Elite," he explained. "Afterwards, the Grunts'll be easy to take out,"
"How do you plan to distract the Grunts?" Stinger asked him.
Marcus paused for a second, as if trying to find an answer to Stinger's question, before he knelt down and picked up a piece of the stalker's side armour.
"This is how," he answered.
He turned and looked around the hanger for another stalker that had the front facing him. He found one. It was about fifteen feet away, easily within range, but was turned on It's side, but the front was facing it, and with the front was the glass door. Marcus brought back his hand a little and took aim. He squinted a little and licked his lip as if hoping it would hit It's target, which he was doing anyway, and then threw the piece of metal.
SMASH!
"What the?" the two heard the Elite shout and they moved to the other end of the stalker and poked their heads out from behind it to watch the next actions of the Covenant squad.
"Get over there and find the source of that noise!" the Elite ordered.
"Me scared," one of the Grunts whimpered.
"Just get over there now!" the Elite growled and kicked the Grunt in the back, throwing it forward onto the floor.
Groaning, the Grunt joined It's three comrades and lumbered over to the stalker. The Elite growled and muttered something under his breath, but it and the others were completely unaware of two of their enemies just metres from them.
Marcus nodded at Stinger and they raised their weapons, aiming directly at the major Elite. They rested their fingers on their weapons' triggers and pressed down.
A barrage of gunfire exploded in the air. The Elite, having been taken by surprise, roared loudly as It's armour shield was quickly disabled and the bullets embedded themselves in It's torso. The force of the bullets impacting it threw the creature to the floor and it moved no more.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" the Grunts screamed. "Leader dead! ENEMY! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
The four grunts quickly scattered around the hanger, waving their arms in the air in terror. Marcus and stinger ran out from behind the stalker and fired on them, killing all four of them.
When the last Grunt had been killed, the two lowered their weapons and looked over at the metallic device the Covenant squad had been working on. It was a flat circular shape with a small tower in the middle of it. At the top of the small tower, which was about ten inches tall, was a small orb that was glowing blue. The two gingerly approached it. Marcus stopped next to it and prodded it with his foot, just in case it was not a bomb or booby trapped. Thankfully, it was not.
"What do you think it is?" Stinger asked him as he stopped next to him, looking down at the object with unease.
"No idea," Marcus replied. "I definitely know It's not a bomb, but other than that, I have no idea what this thing is or could be,"
Stinger knelt down on one knee and examined the object with his eyes as if they would figure out what type of device this thing was. It was hard though. Maybe Alice might be able to figure this out when they took this back to base, that was if John would let them.
Marcus placed a finger on the radio in his ear.
"Pelican Bravo 066, this is Marcus," he said.
"Marcus, we copy, over," a voice replied from his ear radio.
"We read you. We're in the underground hanger and ready for extraction with a Covenant device as cargo,"
"A Covenant device? Any idea what kind of device?"
"Unknown. We just found a group of Covenant setting it up. We know it's not a bomb, but we don't have a clue on whatever else it could be,"
"Roger that. We'll hover into the hanger and pick you up,"
"Roger that, over," Marcus lowered his hand from him ear and looked up the tunnel above him at the mechanical doors far above him.
A few moments later, the doors opened and daylight flooded in for a second, before the large shape of the pelican appeared in the hole and descended down towards the hanger floor. When it reached the bottom of the tunnel, the landing gear unfolded themselves and Marcus and Stinger, who picked up the device, which was quite heavy for something being small, moved out of the way as the craft touched down on the floor. The two then ran to the back of the craft and climbed on board and sat down on the resting area seats next to each other, both looking down at the device which Stinger held in his hands.
The co-pilot stepped out of the cog pit into the resting area.
"What the Hell is that thing?" he asked when he saw the device.
"No idea," Marcus replied. "We just found a Covenant squad setting it down on the floor a few minutes ago,"
The co-pilot hmmed and nodded. "Maybe someone back at base'll find out what it is,"
Marcus and Stinger nodded in agreement. Someone had to know something about this device, even if it was not a great deal.
"Alright, we're heading off," the pilot's voice called from the cog pit.
The co-pilot walked back into the cog pit and sat down. A few moments later, the pelican jolted slightly and rose back into the tunnel, partly blocking out all light into the resting area, and the landing gear folded themselves back up. A moment later, daylight flooded into the resting area, revealing it to be a clear blue sky with a bright shining sun to Marcus and Stinger and they withdrew their attention from the device to look out across the landscape below and watched as the pelican flew away from Keva outpost and back in the direction of the base.
Another mystery had befallen the UNSC on Reach and it was going to need to be solved quickly before another befell them.