Second to last chapter. Read and Review…. I don't own Halo.
Chapter 7
1130-23/September/2546/ Halo Universe
Outside USNC Airspace, nearing possible incursionest stronghold.
Planet: Unknown, Moon: Unknown.
The two headhunters stood at attention inside of the ONI prowler. The held their helmets in their left arm but otherwise were a perfect picture of the position of attention. Across a low table from them, a trio of ODST's also stood, mirroring their position, but almost seeming to glare at the Spartans.
The ODST's were a Captain, Second Lieutenant, and Gunnery Sergeant, all seeming to be grizzled veterans of the Human-Covenant war.
An officer in a jet black Navy uniform strolled into the room. Generally, a room would be called to attention, except for when the men were already standing in the desired position.
"At ease gentleman." The Officer said, taking a seat at the head of the table. "Please, take a seat."
The Spartans felt the seats bend under the weight of their full armored bodies. "Spartans
A-211 Jonah and A-258 Roland, meet Captain Norman, Second Lieutenant Fila, and Gunnery Sergeant Oliver of the Second Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Regiment. You will be supporting them on this mission."
The two Spartans looked at each other and longed for the privacy of their helmets. "Yes sir." Roland spoke for the two of them.
The ONI man seemed to be fine with this and directed his attention to the Captain. "Captain Norman, you will be leading your men and a smash and grab inside of a known incursionest base."
The Captain coughed to clear his throat. "What are we grabbing?"
"Anything and everything that seems to be of value. That is what the Spartans are with you for. They are quick and lethal, able to break off at a moment's notice as an individual team."
The Captain glared at the two Spartans. "That is what I'm afraid of sir, the 'individual team' could get us killed."
Jonah squeezed his right hand into a hard fist under the table, but his face never betrayed him. He and Roland had never really been given a rank. He guessed maybe they were somewhere in the Petty Officer ranks, far below an officer and so, no rebuttal would come.
"I understand your feelings Captain, but I trust that they will not get in the way of the mission?"
"No sir, they will not." The Captain looked at his two men for questions.
"How exactly will we be inserting, sir?" The Lieutenant asked.
The ONI man leaned back in seat, seemingly pleased with himself. "We need you to be shock troopers, but not dropped from orbit. We are flying you and ninety of you closest friends directly into the enemy hanger. We have several transponder codes that will show you as friendly craft to them. There are estimated to be at least four hundred people inside." The ONI man leaned forward now. "All are hostile. Kill everything and everyone."
"Yes sir." The Lieutenant seemed satisfied, but shot a wary glance at the Spartans.
"Sir, what will the air situation be like?" The Gunny asked.
"Once the hanger doors shut, the entire place will be pressurized to one earth atm. However, do not compromise your suits, because blowing the doors is your best bet for an alternate exfil."
The ONI man looked back and forth at the three ODST's when Jonah spoke up. "Mr. ONI man… what are we getting for this hit?" The Lieutenant seemed shocked, while the Gunny and the Captain seemed to look mildly amused at the Spartans.
The ONI man didn't even try to rebuke Jonah. These men were essentially fire and forget missiles. "You will be issued several new pieces of tech, Spartan. Please bring it back in one piece."
"One working piece." Roland emphasized to Jonah. "Not like two mission ago. A pile of smoldering metal and plastic maybe one piece, but it is unsat."
"Got it dad, and I won't stay out past eleven."
The ONI man decided to break it up. "You will need to be suited up and in the Pelicans in two hours. Good luck." He rose to leave.
"Attention!" The Gunny bellowed as all five men snapped to.
"Dismissed."
Two hours and five minutes later.
"WHAT ARE WE!" Captain Norman shouted over the comm frequency.
"OHH DEE ESS TEE!" Ninety voices rang out from across three Pelican Drop Ships. Jonah tapped the side of his helmet, motioning for Roland to switch to the closed channel.
Roland nodded and swapped channels. "Sorry, all this Gung Ho is getting to me."
Roland smiled "But doesn't it just make you want to drop it all and fall from the sky?"
Jonah sounded disgusted. "No, it don't." The Captain rapped on Jonah's helmet with his knuckle.
"Did you hear me Spartan? Get ready to roll!"
Jonah nodded as he and Roland stood, dwarfing many of the ODST's around them. Augmentations, no matter how few, made the human body so much more than average. These ODST's worshiped physical training, but even the fittest of them wouldn't have been a match for either Spartan.
Roland watched the cockpit cameras on his helmet feed and saw the hanger doors opening to the enemy base. He double checked the cloaking device he had been issued, the power was fully charged, but he doubted it would be needed. Jonah flexed his shoulders from across the room, his armor had been upgraded with a lockdown mode, making him as tough as covenant ship shields, but immobile. Roland also had a few throw down shields if needed.
"TEN SECONDS!"
Jonah looked at Roland as he slid his helmet over his face, covering the fecal eating grin he always wore just before a fight. The Pelican shuttered as it set down. The rear door cracked slightly and then began to lower.
"Firing!" an ODST shouted. A small charge blew the rear door off the Pelican and the ODST's and Spartans stormed out. Gun fire rang out from all sides as the surprised hostiles were cut down from fire coming from over ninety different UNSC personnel.
"Spartans! Take the hanger controls!" The Captain shouted, pointing to a small room up on the scaffolding on the other side of the hanger. Roland nodded and took off with Jonah right behind him. Jonah dropped a few targets as the sprinted the hundred meters or so to the far side.
"Give me a boost?" Jonah asked as he stood under the room. It was about thirty feet off the ground.
"Gotcha." Roland crouched slightly and interlocked his fingers to give Jonah something to push off of. "Three, two, ONE!" Roland lifted with all his strength as Jonah kicked off, rocketing him upwards. He landed on top of the building and simply grabbed the sheet metal roof and peeled it back.
"Looks like it's quit'in time…" Jonah said to the two men inside shortly before a .45 suppressed slug entered each man's head. "Clear."
"Captain, we have secured the controls." Roland called in. "Recommend you send a few men to hold it as we move on. Over."
"I have three men coming up behind you. They will hold until it is time to exfil. Over."
"Roger that sir, we are continuing on search and destroy. Roland out."
A small firefight had erupted down one of the access tunnels that the ODST's had started to clear. Roland moved towards it and simply walked up to a incursionast and broke him like a twig. "You four," Roland pointed out the four forward most ODST's "with us. Everyone else, go kill stuff."
Roland took point down the access tunnel that led deeper into the instillation. Jonah fell in behind him with the four ODST's bringing up the rear. Jonah turned and looked at the ODST's and tapped his helmet. This meant he was sending a frequency to their helmets so they would have comms with the Spartans. "You four good?" Jonah asked quietly.
"Yes sir. We're right behind you. Let us know what is going on ahead." The smallest of the ODST's spoke for the group, he had corporal stripes on his chest plate. Jonah found the irony funny.
"Contact on the motion tracker, forty seven meters out." Roland spoke.
"Got em. You four copy?" Jonah looked back as four heads bobbed with a yes.
"I wish we had some schematics of this place. It would make our lives a heck of a lot easier." Jonah didn't reply. It wasn't really like Roland to complain on an open net.
They continued on through the tunnel, never coming across a thing. Eventually the tunnel started to widen and gunfire could be heard outside. "It seems to be opening up." Roland double checked his fire selector on his M7S.
The six figures moved into the semi darkness pocketed with flashes of gunfire. It seemed that dozens of incursionists had held themselves up inside of this loading room. They had the blast doors locked down with machine gun fire, preventing the ODST's from breaching.
Roland clicked on his VISR and took in the room. Shipping crates were everywhere, providing adequate cover but the catwalks above would be better for suppressing. He noted the positions of the two machine gun turrets and turned to the ODST's with him. "You four, get up on those catwalks and put some fire on them when you see those turrets blow. Make sure you fire and maneuver, there isn't a lot of cover up there."
The corporal nodded and the four of them jogged to the ladder and started to climb.
"Those turrets are gonna cut down anyone who gets in here…" Jonah muttered.
"I know it. I'll go ghost and set charges to get the blast doors open nice and wide. You try to find something to take out the turrets quickly."
Jonah nodded and slapped Roland's shoulder. "Watch yer self."
"You too." Roland replied as he faded into invisibility.
Jonah followed Roland for a few steps the turned to the left and started to move down the shipping crates. This was one time he was thankful for his suppressed SMG. An assault rifle would have blown their cover instantly. A lone incursionist was leaning out of cover firing towards the blast doors then ducking back and waiting. Jonah slid up behind him and deposited a case less round from his M7S into the man's skull. He slowly moved on, but shot a look toward the doors. Roland's nav marker was moving ever closer to the doors.
Roland was simply strolling past the incursionist firing on his fellow soldiers. He had taken the time to break two necks so far, men simply to alone to be noticed for a few moments. As he reached the controls, two men, one older with graying hair and the other a younger man who was fit, but could barely be older enough to be fighting as well as a very attractive young woman. All were inside of the small room firing from the window ports. Roland glanced at his timer and noticed he only had twenty seconds to go on the active camo, so he decided to place the charges first.
At this point, Jonah had found a trio of men preparing a SPNKr rocket launcher for when the ODST's broke through. He slid his knife from its sheath and prepared his M6C. Two slugs and a clean cut later, Jonah was hefting the SPNKr tube onto his shoulder and postioning himself for a clean shot at each machine gun nest. "Roland, be advised, I am ready to take the Machine guns on your go."
"Roger that, give me a few seconds." Roland primed the last explosive as his active camo faded away. He turned and saw that the three incursionists were still paying no attention to his position so he drew his M6C. A double tap entered the older man's skull, followed a fraction of a second later by two rounds entering the younger man. However, as the old man fell, he knocked the young woman out of the path of Roland's next two .45 suppressed slugs. She fell to the side, her weapon being knocked aside and looked up at Roland. She had slightly darker than average skin with blue eyes and dark brown hair.
"Waiting on you Rolle." Jonah called in.
Roland's finger hovered over the trigger. This woman had been firing on his fellow marines, but he couldn't bring himself to kill a completely helpless human being. However the woman didn't seem to realize who she was up against. Her right hand jerked for her sidearm, pulled it from the holster and lines up a shot as Roland's bullet killed her. However, the last command her brain fired to her muscles was to pull the trigger, which her body obliged with even in death. The round missed Roland by several inches, however it struck one of the explosive charges on the wall behind him, rocketing him forward as a chain reaction of the other two charges went off.
"Take, take, take!" Jonah shouted to the ODST's in the catwalk. Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Two rockets sped towards their perspective targets. Each one hit, blasting the machine gun operators into nothingness and rendering the guns inoperable. Jonah dropped the empty tube and pulled out his M7S and started dropping incursionist from behind. "Roland, sitrep?" Jonah asked.
Roland's nav marker was flashing orange, the sign of a Spartan in distress. "Roland!" Jonah took off through the ebbing firefight. As soon as the blast doors had been opened, a platoon of ODST's and rushed in and started a close quarters battle with the incursionists. Needless to say, the shock troopers were winning.
Jonah neared the rubble of what had been the door controls. "Rolle? You alright man?"
"Ugh…. Get….. back!" Roland moaned.
"I got ya mate. The ODST's can handle it from here." Jonah knelt down and started to clear the rubble off of Roland.
"Sss….Ssss." Roland hissed.
"What?"
"SNIPER!" Jonah heard the crack of a long rifle as the metal next to him received a neat little hole. Jonah spun and opened fire in the direction from which the round had come. He heard a dull thump come from the same direction and a projectile flew through the air.
"Oh..Sh" Jonah activated his armor lock as the EMP grenade detonated next to him. As he recovered, he saw the ODST's back tracking the incoming and moving towards the place where the sniper was.
"Hang on bud." Jonah pulled his medical kit out and started to treat Roland for the small fragmentation wounds he had received.
"I… fine…" Roland muttered as his head went limp.
"I know buddy. I know." Jonah picked Roland up as gently as he could. Even with his armor and augmentations, Roland was still a load to carry back to the waiting pelicans.
"What happen?" The Captain asked as Jonah approached the "beachhead."
"Premature detonation of the charges to open the blast doors I think."
"Alright, believe it or not, that was the last holdout on this base." We can get back to the prowler and get him the medical attention he needs."
"Roger that sir." Jonah set Roland down in the rear of a pelican, and within fifteen minutes, they were on the way back to the prowler with the station detonating in the background.