(Chapter 3)
A UNSC Pelican busted through a group of clouds. This was all too familiar for the black armored Spartan riding in the back of the transport. Luckily for him, he wasn't taking fire this time. But just the memory of what happened the previous night had him a little worried.
"What's the matter?" Revy asked. "It seems like you're not all there."
"That's because I had a bad experience the last time I made an insertion." Jimmy replied.
"Yea, I read the report on what happened." Revy said. "What, were you scared?"
"No! It just hurt like hell!" Jimmy answered. "Jumping out of an aircraft moving at high speeds is something I don't need to do again."
"Other Spartans have made reentries in their suits and lived. You only fell 50 feet."
"Yea, but when they hit the ground, they came to a sudden stop. When I hit the ground, I fucking bounced and I didn't stop bouncing for what seemed like hours. And besides, if you asked those Spartans if they wanted to do a solo reentry again, I bet they would tell you to go screw yourself."
"I see your point. Turning into a human ragdoll probably sucked." Revy said
"Dam strait it did."
"We're almost at the insertion point." The pilot cut in over the comms. "We'll be touching down in five mikes."
"Thanks pilot." Jimmy replied.
Besides the hum from the Pelicans engines, the next five minutes went by in complete silence. Reaching its destination, the transport stopped its forward momentum and began to descend. In moments the aircraft came to a rest on the ground. The pilot opened the rear hatch and the black armored Spartan walked down the ramp and stepped down onto the ground. After the Spartan was off the ramp, the pilot closed the hatch and the Pelican began to ascend until it disappeared into the clouds above.
Now alone with nothing but the voice in his head, he began his five click march to the enemy base. The Spartan made sure to stick to cover whenever possible, with the hopes not to be spotted and have a repeat from last night.
Four out of five clicks went by without a hitch. But with one click left between him and his objective, the mission hit a major snag. The last click was completely flat terrain, with not even a scrap of cover. This meant he would be exposed to fire. To make matters worse, the area was covered with spot lights from Covenant Phantom troop transports patrolling overhead. There were three in total.
Due to the flat terrain, Jimmy could clearly see the base. The entrance was at the base of a mountain. It was heavily fortified with both shade and fuel rod turrets. It also has Jackals with beam rifles up in grav towers, not to mention dozens of elites and grunts patrolled near the entrance.
"FUCKING SHIT!" Jimmy shouted. "How in the hell are we going to get in there in one piece. I might as fucking well stroll out there with a sign that says "Hello. My name is Jimmy. I am a Spartan. Please fucking kill me." At least that would be easier. The only way I'm going to be able to get up in that bitch, is if I was Casper the friendly fucking ghost."
"That can be arranged." Revy said.
"Revy, you're not turning me into a ghost." Jimmy replied. "Despite what I said, I kinda like breathing, and I want it to stay that way."
"That's not what I meant dumbass." Revy snapped. "I meant that I can turn you invisible like a ghost. Besides if I killed you, I would be killing myself and suicide is not in my programing."
"Wait a minute, you can cloak us?"
"Yes I can."
"Then why didn't you say that before."
"I would have, but who could get a word in with you bitching." Revy said. "But there is only one down side."
"What is it?" Jimmy asked.
"The cloak will replace your shields. So you're not going to want to take a hit while cloaked." Revy answered.
"That's fine; I don't plan on getting hit. Activate the cloak on my signal." Jimmy said.
"Got it." Revy replied.
Jimmy swapped his assault rifle for his suppressed sniper rifle and got into a prone position. Now prone, he found himself in an optimal firing position. He looked through the scope of his weapon and began to search for his first target. The Spartan locked onto a Jackal in one of the grav towers. He placed his crosshairs directly in between the creature's eyes.
"Let me show you a magic trick." Jimmy said. "Now he has a head."
He took a deep breath and slowly began to exhale. He then squeezed the trigger. There was a silent "crack" as the round was sent down range. Seconds later, the bullet struck home, leaving a bloody mist where the Jackals head use to be.
"And now he don't." Jimmy finished.
"Impressive." Revy said.
Satisfied with the fact that he annihilated the aliens head, he moved on to his next target, then the next. The Spartan was like a god with his sniper rifle. Each quiet crack bringing silent death to another enemy. Each bloody mist signifying another successful brain surgery. The Spartan dropped all his targets in seconds. Finishing off all the snipers and the turret gunners at the same time as all his ammo for his rifle.
Since he used up all the ammo for his sniper rifle, he opted to lighten his load and leave it behind. The Spartan placed the rifle on the ground and got a good look at his weapon. The heat generated from shooting so many rounds in rapid succession began to melt the barrel of the weapon.
"That's hot!" Jimmy said as he looked at sniper and watched the smoke that was coming off it. Satisfied that he soften up the base defenses he thought it was time to attack. He was ready to cross "No man's land".
"Okay. Dot it." Jimmy said
"Cloak Engaged." Revy replied.
The black armored Spartan vanished into thin air. Now invisible, he sprinted towards the base. Running full tilt the entire time he crossed the flat terrain. It took the enhanced super-soldier less than two minutes to cover the click.
He slid to a stop behind a rock and took a second to catch his breath. After he caught his breath, he drew his swords and moved around the rock. As he rounded the rock, he spotted an elite on the other side of the rock with his back towards the rock. The cloaked Spartan snuck up behind the alien.
"Let me axe you something space Nig." The elite spun around to investigate the voice. "What's going through your head?" The alien looked around for the source of the voice, but it seemed to have no origin.
With the sword in his left hand, he cut the blue armored alien's head clear off in one swift horizontal right to left motion. He followed up his first attack with another. With the sword in his right hand, he used a single vertical downwards cut to cut the head in half while it was still floating in midair.
"That's right. MY SWORD!" Jimmy answered his own question as the elite's body and what was left of his head fell to the ground.
"Was that really necessary?" Revy asked.
"Which part?" Jimmy asked.
"All of it." Revy said.
"Yea it is." Jimmy replied.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Nope. Not at all."
The rest of the Covenant patrol watched as one of their own were cut down from an invisible attacker. Then another one was cut down and then another. The patrol was slowly dropping in numbers, leaving those were still alive in complete chaos. The remaining survivors were spraying plasma everywhere, hoping that some of them will hit their target. None of the shots hit the unknown enemy. The onslaught was over in seconds. The lifeless bodies of the patrol lay on the ground, each with diagonal, horizontal, and/or vertical cuts in them.
"Now it's time to take care of those phantoms." Jimmy said.
He put away his swords and sprinted towards the turrets. Jimmy hopped into a fuel rod turret and took aim on the three Phantoms. They were lined up side by side by side. He took aim at the one on the right and fired. A giant green blob of plasma went flying towards the Phantom. The aircraft took a direct hit on the left engine. Losing the left engine caused it to fly into others. The three Phantoms then crashed into the ground.
"HOLY SHIT!" Jimmy shouted. "Another crazy ass triple kill. How do I keep getting these?"
"I don't know." Revy said. "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself."
Somehow there were survivors from the crash. A hand full of elites pulled themselves out of what was left of the Phantoms. Seeing that he still had targets, the Spartans drew his swords again and charged at the new contacts. He quickly mopped them up, leaving no Covenant to defend the entrance.
With all the defenders dead and the phantoms destroyed, the entrance was secure. This meant Jimmy can radio in his team for reinforcements for the base infiltration. He then opened a link on the team comm.
"All right guys." Jimmy said over the radio." The red carpet is out. So Eric and Greg, come on down."
"Roger. We're enroute. ETA ten mikes." Greg replied.
After a quick ten minutes, the Pelican showed up. It touched down and opened up the rear hatch. The two Spartans that were inside walked out of the ship. Greg was equipped with an assault rifle and a DMR. Eric was equipped with an assault rifle and a shotgun. After the two stepped off the ramp, the hatch closed and the Pelican took off and left the area.
The two Spartans surveyed the area. They saw dozens of bodies lying on the ground and three destroyed Phantoms. Apon further investigation of the bodies, the Spartans noticed that most of them dissected with deep cuts from a long blade. One elite in particular had his head cut off and then in half.
"Did Ninja do all of this?" Greg asked as he and Eric looked around.
"Yea I did." Jimmy said from out of sight. "Dam strait."
"Where in the hell are you?" Eric asked.
"Behind you." Jimmy answered. Eric and Greg turned around and watched Jimmy materialized in front of them. He was standing with swords in hands. He had the sword in his right hand resting on his right shoulder and the sword in his left hand resting at his side. "And I got to use my swords." He then flicked the blood off the swords and put them away.
"What the fuck!" The other Spartans said in unison as Jimmy popped out of midair.
"How'd you do that?" Greg asked.
"That's what I would like to know." Eric added
"That was me." Revy said.
"Yep. She turned my shield into a cloak." Jimmy added. "It's fucking sweet."
"Yea it is." Eric said.
"Cool kids." Greg added.
"Alright, enough with the chit chat." Jimmy said. "It's time to get serious." The three chuckled because they know that they're anything but serious.
The Spartans started to work their way towards the entrance of the Covenant base. The three had to walk over the group of bodies, while making sure not to step on any. After walking through the garden of bodies, the three made it to the entrance. The door to the entrance was huge. It was 20 feet tall by 50 feet wide. It had a vertical crack going down the center. It also had a control panel on the wall, just to the right of the door.
"So who wants to ring the doorbell?" Jimmy asked as they looked at each other.
"Jimmy, go touch the panel." Revy said. "I'll open it."
Jimmy stepped up to the panel and placed his hand on it. There was a spark from his hand and the door began to open and released a bright white light. The Spartans visors pomularised, due to the intensity of the light. It took a full minute for the door to open up all the way. "Well lets go in." Jimmy said and the three stepped into the bright light.