Chapter two! I still don't own Halo or the characters.
Chapter 2
2345-09/August/2545/ Halo Universe
Somewhere on Onyx
"Contact, two hundred meters out from my twenty." Jonah's COM-Link crackled with Roland's voice. Through the sophisticated gear inside of their helmets, they could communicate with no fear of being heard. As well as see in the near pitch blackness of the night, "Looks like seven foot mobiles, one of the corporals is in the lead. Their moving off your 9'oclock. Should be crossing the foot bridge in ninety seconds."
Jonah was lying in a shallow firing hole he had dug out for himself. He had eyes on the bridge, and would have the OPFOR closing from almost behind him. Roland was on the other side of the bridge ready to spring the trap. "Ya got anythin on the motion trackers?"
"No, but that doesn't mean a QRF isn't around the corner." Jonah heard the tone change in Roland's voice indicating a smile. "Let's not play around this time. Stringing one of the Staff Sergeants up and covering him in paint rounds couldn't have been good for our scores."
"Eh, you worry too much Rolle…. It adds to our mysterious charm." Jonah slid his custom fixed blade back into the sheath on his shoulder. "Besides, I heard Blue team got caught already."
"Nah, I think they were just saying that to psyche us out. Blue is good, so is Black."
"Why'd we hafta get Purple?" Jonah asked. "I mean not that even matters, but Black would have been nice." Jonah prepared his Suppressed M7S SMG. "Heck even Green wouldn't have been bad."
"Closing, ten meters from your position. Wait for the signal."
"Roger"
The team of instructors walked out in a staggered formation on their resupply run. The "war games" had been going for three days now, and they had only tagged two Spartans, both times, the injured man was pulled to cover by his partner and the two made it away. The instructors food had run out and they we're running a little low on the lockup ammo, purple colored shot that when it hit, locked down that part of your armor, not to mention it hurt like hell. The hope was that using the night they could slip by the Headhunters in order to retrieve supplies. The seven men halted by the foot bridge. The lance corporal who was on point began to move across it with the six others covering him. When he was secure on the far side, the next man followed. Roland waited until the third man had nearly made it across when he blew the charges, dropping the bridge with the instructor barely making it off.
"Hit em' hard" Jonah said calmly as he cut into the four remaining instructors on his side. They had spread out, but Jonah still made short work of them from his position. Roland did the same for his three. After all seven men were pretty well locked up, Roland broke cover.
"I got one moving over here." Roland said as he drew his Suppressed M6C pistol and fired two shots into the man's chest.
"Hey, bring their weapons over with you," Jonah requested. "I have an idea." Roland didn't even ask, but attached the three MA5B's to magnetic points on his armor and fired a grapple cable to Jonah's side of the ravine.
As Roland clambered up over the top, he saw Jonah had laid the instructors rifles and side arms out in a big "F"
"Jay, what are you doing?" Roland asked as he handed him the three other assault rifles.
"Just reminden them who's who." Jonah replied as he arranged the other rifles into a large "U" next to the "F" "I think they'll get the message."
Roland couldn't help but grin. "Here, two grenades off the guys over there. These don't need to be on your billboard, we might actually need them."
Jonah picked up the last rifle that was on the ground, a sniper rifle, and handed it to Roland. "It only has eleven rounds, but we could use it."
Roland nodded and attached it to the back of his armor. "Let's RV with Black and Orange back at the site." Roland looked around at their handy work "Plus you can ask what happen with Blue."
"Aight, lead the way." Jonah said as he followed Roland into the blackness.
It was a short four mile hike to the area where the Headhunters were gathering. Roland and Jonah choose to take the long way, just in case by some off chance they we're being followed. They slowed to a near crawl as the approached. Unsure if possibly the position had been compromised. It was nearing dawn when an infrared laser cast itself off Jonah's chest piece then clicked off almost instantly. It was just whoever was on sentry duty letting them know that while they we're almost invisible to a normal human, a Spartan could see them, just fine. The two of them closed in toward the meeting place.
The two members of Black team were waiting. "Jonah, Roland." One of the Spartans greeted them as they walked up. "Everything go as planned?"
"Yeah Fred, they did." Jonah replied to Frederick. He had all the makings of a great leader, even had the same name as a Spartan II, except for the "k" of course. However Headhunters didn't really need leaders, just team mates and a mission.
"We brought one of these back" Roland said removing the Sniper Rifle from his armor. "thought it could be of some use to us."
"Good, we'll put it to use." Frederick placed his hand on the side of his helmet to switch comm frequencies. One of Blue team moved up to retrieve the rifle. All of the Spartans wore SPI armor painted in a dull green, but Roland and Jonah were still able to tell the other Spartans apart.
"We need to ENDEX this." Frederick had drawn a map in the dirt. "I want you two to be the tip of the spear. We are going to strike the instructor camp tonight. Red and Green will follow you in. Blue will be overwatch and everyone else will be on security."
"I like this rise here for Blue's position." Roland said pointing to a likely place. "When we recce'd the place it looked like there were a few ledges down that they could set up on."
Frederick nodded. "I'll place Red and Green here and here. When you kick off the party, they'll move in as an anvil for you to hammer against. Get there, pick your spots, and wait for nightfall." Frederick looked at each of them. "When night falls, this is your OP. When you think it is time to go, you do it. Hit hard and fast. Everything else will be in position. Any questions?"
"What took ya so long to decide?" Jonah asked, a grin on his lips as he grabbed a grenade off Frederick's belt. "I hope ya don't mind, 'cos I'll probably be a needen this more than you."
Frederick nodded and shook each Headhunters hand. "Good luck."
Roland nodded farewell and they moved off toward the fight.
Fifteen hours later
Onyx had longer day cycles than Earth, but only by about two hours. Purple team had set up in a position overlooking the instructor base camp.
"Blue is in position." Roland whispered to Jonah. Even with the advanced helmets, it was easy to forget you couldn't be heard and whisper anyway.
"I know…. I can see their Nav marker just as well as you can."
"Once more over the plan then." Roland said, trying to keep Jonah's mind off the fight ahead. Most people got scared before a fight, but not Jonah. Jonah was the most alive when he was closest to death, and waiting overwatching their prey wasn't the best thing for him. It was a kin to placing a starving soldier in front of a buffet and ordering him not to eat until told to do so. A good soldier will follow orders, but it doesn't make it any less painful.
" It'll be completely dark in a few minutes, when one of us sees a good opening, we move forward, closing to one hundred meters. We flash go lights to Green, Yellow, and Blue so they know we are about to kick it off." Jonah paused and cracked his neck. "Then, we deploy flash bangs and dummy frags to disorientate and lock up as many as possible."
Roland cut in. "We go tent by tent, dropping everything we see moving, then once the area is secure, we flash Black to let them know we are secure and begin moving all the down hostiles to the center of the camp."
"I haven't decided what to do to them yet." Jonah mockingly whined.
"Nothin. Don't do anything to them. Just police the weapons and gear and stack the bodies. Then we set up in case any of the patrols start coming in." Roland looked over to Jonah's position.
"Got it mom, and I won't stay out past eleven."
"Hmpf, just watch for a good time to hit." Roland replied, activating his helmets internal binoculars and zooming in on the compound. Jonah's view icon on his HUD showed that he had done the same.
After nearly an hour, nothing had changed to make their approach any easier. The compound was not walled, but had sentries walking posts. The tents were set up in a circular arrangement, with the entrances all facing inward. There were probably anywhere from ten to forty hostiles in the camp. As Jonah watched for a break between the guards, a twig snapped off to his 4 o'clock. He slowly turned his head to see two instructors moving quietly through the brush. Just as he noticed them, they appeared on his motion tracker.
"Rol, on my 4. Two guys…. I had this stupid motion tracker set to only ten meters. I'm bumping it back out to fifty."
"They're on a direct impact course with you. I have a shot from here on one of them." Roland clicked on his 3X sight. "If they get on top of you, I'll drop one, and you handle the other."
"Roger." Jonah slid his suppressed M6C off his leg.
"No, I'm Roland." He said as he clicked the safety off his M7S.
"No, I'm Roland" Jonah mocked, trying to copy Roland's voice. "Let me know when yur taking the shot."
"They haven't seen you yet." Roland inhaled deeply and prepared to fire.
"Tracker says three meters." Jonah gripped his M6C tighter, preparing to shoot them man.
"Taking the shot…" Roland squeezed nice and lightly on his trigger. The reticule was directly over the man's chest as Roland let a three round burst go. The recoil carried the hits up. The first shot hit the chest, next in the neck, and the last shot struck the man in the head.
As Jonah heard the M7S cough, he rolled onto his back, uncovering him from his camouflage position. He saw the rounds strike the first instructor and saw the second bringing his MA5B to bear on where Roland likely was. Jonah only had his pistol halfway up but started firing anyway cranking off six shots, which struck the man from his knee to his shoulder. "Jay, I'm moving on the tents!" Roland shouted over the radio.
"Roger, I'm right behind you." Jonah jumped up as he reloaded and stowed his M6C. Bringing his own M7S to bear, he followed Roland into the tent area. The closest guard looked up because of the ruckus and was greeted by a double tap from Roland. "Lights out buddy." Roland mumbled as he ran past.
"Goin right, I just flashed the other squads. They should be movin in as well so check yur fire."
"Understood. You have two coming out of the next tent."
Jonah's M7S coughed twice. "Not anymore. I'm fragging the tent." Jonah slid the pin out of the grenade and bowled it in."
"Come on…." Jonah heard some guy mumble before it went off with a deep boom.
"Roland, far side of the compound. They're setting up an emplacement." Six of the instructors had set up a belt fed machine gun and we're waiting for Roland to round the corner when one was hit.
"That you?"
"Negative." Two more of the instructors dropped. "Must be overwatch." And with that, down went the other three.
Roland heard more coughing from suppressed SMGs which had to be the other teams. "The other teams can handle those tents. Let's take the last one."
"Where's it at?" Jonah asked as he moved toward Roland.
"Meet me at my NAV point." Roland flashed a NAV point at the largest tent.
"On my way." Jonah jogged up outside the tent.
"Alright, we'll both double flash it, then go in."
"And I'm the one with the overkill issue?"
"I just want to be sure." Roland took out two flash bangs and pulled each pin.
"I have point." Jonah said. "On my mark…. Three, two, one, MARK!" Four flash bangs entered the tent. Jonah's helmet system muffled the four 250 decibel explosions. As the fourth went off, Jonah rolled around the corner of the tent entrance and everything went into slow motion. He saw eight men spread out through the tent. All had weapons pointed toward the entrance, but the flash bangs had confused them. They seemed lazy and slow as they tried to bring their weapons back up.
Patpatpatpatpatpatpat. Jonah swept along the first five and just as M7S clicked empty, Roland moved into the room. He dropped two more as Jonah drew his M6C and drew a bead on the last man who was bringing his arm up. "Grenade! Out out out!" Jonah shouted as he saw the grenade in the man's hand. He fired a few rounds as he turned to run, several of which hit the man, dropping him, which intern dropped the grenade.
Roland was already halfway out the door as Jonah followed. The both sprinted as far from the tent as they could before, Whump! "That sounds like ENDEX to me." Jonah said with a huge grin plastered on his face.
"That was easy." Roland replied.
"Nah, it wasn't too easy, but I bet the instructors are either down for the count or about to retaliate." Jonah looked around the area, not seeing any type of movement. The two headhunters from Yellow team walked up.
"We're all locked down." A female Spartan said. Jonah didn't recognize her voice and he really didn't know any of the other headhunters all that well, save a few he could recognize.
"Alright, let's get ready for a counter attack of some type." Roland motioned for them to move to the left side of the camp.
"Let's check this body real quick." Jonah said, looking at one of the guys the snipers had dropped.
Roland nodded and grabbed the back of the man's shirt, preparing to role him over. Jonah stood opposite the man with his weapon raised. "Three, two, one, NOW." Roland jerked the man over and Jonah saw a lock up mortar round.
"Bomb!" He shouted as he dove forward. Jonah knew that the explosive was strong enough to lock all of them up if unshielded in some way. He felt the hardness of the round as he curled himself over it. His HUD view of Roland was of the dirt that he had dove into for cover. The last thing Jonah saw was a flash of purple and he felt pain all over his body as the shock wave lifted him up and dumped him a few meters away. Jonah felt the air escape his lungs as he landed on his back and was un able to move at all as the blackness settled in.
This is one of the longer chapters. As it covered a long day in the training. I realize I could have gone into several different thing for training, but I figured a war game seemed legitimate. Reviews are appreciated.