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Chapter 5

1130-11/February/2546/ Halo Universe

Deep Cover/ Behind UNSC-Covenant Lines/Search and Destroy

Planet: Unknown

"You up?" Roland asked as he pulled himself from his SOEIV.

"Yea, I'm good." Jonah radioed back. "No sign of the rally point on my HUD. Let me pull up the tacmap and see what's goin on."

"I have the RV about two hundred meters out at about seventy five degrees from my insert point." Roland stood and checked his sectors.

"Gotcha, I'm about a click from the RV, but I'm also a click from the alternate."

Roland pulled up his tacmap. "Alright, head for the alternate. See you in ten."

Recovering his rucksack and M7S from the pod, Roland started off. They had insereted on this planet to destroy a methane mining factory. The Covenant cannonfodder troops, Grunts, needed it to breath. It didn't seem like a terribly hard operation Roland thought as he tracked towards the alternate RV point.

"Hey, what do you think of this?"

"Of what? Trekking through the woods and a desolate planet in the middle of nowhere, or the mission period."

"The mission." Roland rolled his eyes inside of his helmet.

"Welp, we've got two government funded killers going to blow up a methane factory… In all honesty, wouldn't a two year old with a match have been cheaper?" Jonah signed loudly, causing Roland to grimace.

"My point exactly, except for the two year old. A squad of ODST's could have handled this no problem." Roland scanned the tree line for any view of hostile aircraft or snipers.

"So why'd ya figure they sent us?"

"Hold up." Roland raised his M7S to his shoulder and zoomed in on a trio of grunts that were moving towards him. "I got three grunts moving toward me."

Jonah made a humpfhing sound in the mic. "Why'd you get first contact?"

"Just be thankful it was me. If it was you, you'd already have thrown a grenade at them."

"Nah, if I did that, there is still a chance one could survive."

Roland grinned at Jonah's statement. "Alright, I'm thinkin I aught to just pass these guys."

"Nah, go ahead and drop em. I'm two minutes out from the alternate, and we don't want them catching on before we light the fuse."

Roland drew a bead on the left grunt. They were walking in a loose "V" formation, and it would be simply to spray caseless ammo across their beady little faces. "Alright, I'm taking them." Roland slowly squeezed the trigger and as soon as he felt the first shot firing just below subsonic speed, he tugged the weapon to the right. Bullets smashed through the grunts masks and faces, sending neon blue blood flying as all three dropped like the corpses they now were.

"My god," Jonah exclaimed quietly "I think I heard a squirrel fart."

"There are no squirrels here, Jay."

"Hmm… must have been you then. I've got you on my HUD, must be close by."

Roland scanned the area motionless. He could see nothing that led him to believe his brother in arms was out there. Roland slowly lifted his hand to activate his VISR. As it clicked on, it cast the world before him in a color coded scheme. Inanimate objects, including bodies were a dull yellow. Objects of interest a neon yellow, hostiles were red, and friends were green.

"Wondered when you'd turn it on." Jonah mumbled walking out from Roland's left.

"Nice spot, good concealment."

"Gotta hide myself from the ladies, they scuff up the armor.

"We both know you'll never have any luck with them."

Jonah walked over and picked up the grunts plasma grenades and pistols. "Like you will?"

"I plan on living to tell of my exploits one day… when there no longer classified that is." Roland took a pistol and plasma grenade from Jonah and attached then to the magnetic points on his armor.

"Eh, you'll probably bite it as soon as I stop holding your hand."

"We'll see. Anyway, you ready to head out?" Roland looked around once more.

"Yeah, I got a birthday party to go light."

"The site is only five clicks out. Should have enough time to get there, light the candles, maybe even stay for presents, and still get to the EP while it's dark."

Jonah silently nodded and took point. The hike was rather uneventful, until they neared the facility. The leaves under Jonah's feet made an ever so slight rustling as the three hundred pounds of muscle, metallic bone, and armor delicately stepped on them. Ahead was a huge factory looking complex. It was the Covenant's favorite color, a dark purple, and had to cover nearly an acre of land, with several hundred feet of the trees had been cleared out around it and a few covenant barrier walls were set up. The entire thing seemed almost to be coming out of a mountain from across the valley where Jonah and Roland now stood.

"Man… that's a big place." Roland turned on his VISR and zoomed in with his M7S scope. Off the East side, several large pylons moved up and down, making an odd sucking sound as each came up.

"Them pylons… I bet ya twenty credits they'll take down the entire facility."

"I'm not much of a betting man Jay. But if I was, I'd lay them down." Roland shook his head and lowered his weapon.

"Got any hostiles?" Jonah scanned around there position, just to be safe.

"Just a few grunts and jackels." Roland took a few steps forward. "Security seems to be pretty light, which is expected. We are in the middle of nowhere."

Jonah checked his detonator the explosives. "So we drop a few on the way in, set some C12 on the pylons from the roof, and get the heck out before we light it like a cheap cigar."

"Works for me…" Roland took point as the neared the facility. "I'd love some of that covie active camo right about now." They were slowly crawling across the open ground near the factory.

"Eh, just give me something that cuts like butter or goes bang." Jonah sighted in on a grunt perched atop the low wall. "I'm easy to please."

"You got em?"

Pfft. The subsonic .45 caliber pistol round entered the grunts body just below the methane mask it wore. It entered at a slight angle and exited near the top of its head, taking with it the grunts ability to do anything. Brains are kinda needed for those smaller functions, like breathing, telling your heart to beat, that sorta stuff. "Yea." Jonah check the left and right. "We're clear."

The two headhunters silently scaled the low wall and moved to the edge of the factory. As with any covenant structure, the sides of the building we not simply vertical, but seemed to arch up, almost as if it was a hill. Roland silently removed a small grappling cable and launched it to the top of the building.

"You go first." Roiland said to Jonah. "I don't trust you to not go give a grunt a wedgie." Jonah smiled under his helmet and quickly scaled the building.

"I'm up, but you better get up here and see this." Roland grabbed the line and began to ascend. He reached the top and looked out toward the West.

"Crap…" There was a landing pad with a dozen elites standing on it awaiting a shuttle.

"Think there leaving or waiting for buddies?" Jonah sited in on the nearest one, but even he wasn't brash enough to engage twelve elites.

"I say we don't stick around to find out." Roland said as he started to move towards the pylons.

"You got the demo, I'll stay and watch these guys."

"Please don't do anything stupid." Roland placed five pounds of C12 onto the first pylon. "As long as you're over there, set the incendiaries, add five seconds or so to the detonation time."

"Got it." Jonah removed the thermite explosives, guaranteed to burn at several thousand degrees for at least thirty seconds. He went ahead and placed them along a conduit and set the times to delay for five seconds.

"Shuttle coming in. Rol, you about finished?" Jonah sited in on the approaching Phantom that was coming in the same way they came in.

"Last one. Give me thirty seconds to get back to you."

Jonah looked down and saw two jackels moving towards the dead grunt. "I don't think we have thirty seconds." He pulled his pistol out and prepared to descend on top of the jackels.

"I gotta take these two or they'll blow out cover."

Roland looked down where Jonah had flashed a point on his HUD. "Got em. I got you covered from here.

Jonah took a quick deep breath and jumped. He ran down the angled side of the factory directly towards the two jackels. They were too busy wondering why the grunt wouldn't respond to notice the Spartan plowing towards them. Jonah smacked into the first and simply grabbed its bird like head and rotated it two hundred degrees to the rear. A resounding snap gave him confidence that he only had to deal with one more. He could see the second jackel moving almost in slow motion as he raised his M6C and fired three rounds into its chest. Purple blood splattered the wall behind it, joining the neon blue blood of the fallen grunt.

"How's it looking up there?"

"We're clear. I'll be down in ten." Roland attached a second cable and descended at a hurried pace, but not at Jonah's speed.

"To the woods."

"Right behind you." Roland clasped the detonator in his left hand. They simply sprinted across the open ground that they had painstakingly crawled over.

"DEMONS!" An Elite bellowed, seeing the two humans running across the open. He and his brothers opened fire with their plasma weapons as one reached for a beam rifle.

"Nearing the three hundred meter blast radius." Jonah huffed.

"Go three fifty just to be safe" Roland retorted as the first beam of plasma whipped past his head. "On second thought, this is good." Roland slid behind a fallen long into a slight depression and tucked his head into his chest instinctively.

"Fire in the hole." He clicked the detonator as Jonah watched on. The first explosion was smaller, the twenty or so pounds of C12 blew out the pylons and created a cloud of methane that spewed out of the ground where they had been extracting it. What seemed like a lifetime later, the thermite went off, igniting the methane and creating a massive fireball that began to set off a chain reaction inside of the facility. With a final explosion, the entire place was set ablaze, lighting up the woods all around the two Spartans. They stood slowly and viewed their handiwork.

"Ya know, we look pretty beast in this light." Jonah said admiring himself.

Roland turned and looked back at his teammate. "Let's go home." He muttered.