A/N; okay here ya go, a little something for you. hopefully it's good enough to meet your expectations.
UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, September 28, 2586
"Twenty seconds to RV point," Sargent Coulson's voice rung out on his radio, soon followed by Shepard's, Felix's and Train's. Adrien did the same, reporting how long it would take him to sprint to the RV point, as did the rest of his team. After stumbling out of the pod on shaky legs Adrien ran to cover as fire from Batarian weapons peppered his position, he fire back blindly and moved towards the RV point.
The RV point was a small single tiered building with a thatched roof located near the main road in the village. As he neared it his helmet showed friendly IFF tags inside where Shepard, Coulson and Vakarian were waiting. Moving up he entered the building and came face to face with three rifle barrels, he tensed until they lowered as his comrades recognised him, Coulson gave a disapproving grunt and took cover by a window, Vakarian gave a small nod and did the same at a different window while Victus spoke to the Lieutenant,
"Where's everyone else?" Adrien asked,
"Still on the way. We wait here for them to arrive and then move, the four eyed bastards are going to be looking for us so keep an eye out," Shepard replied as he took cover by the broken door, the place had been abandoned decades ago and the wear and tear was obvious in the small building. Adrien took a quick look round and noted that it used be a small shop of some sort.
After another twenty seconds Felix arrived followed by Train and Glory who was then followed by the rest of Adrien's squad, Shepard was about to order them to move out when Coulson interrupted him with a loud whisper,
"Enemy movement, twenty plus foot mobiles, no vehicles." Shepard motioned for them all to get to cover, Shepard waited for the Batarians to get closer before opening fire, the Batarian regulars were issued with less than effective armour and no shields and they went down quickly, torn apart by the armour piercing ammo used as standard issue in UNSC weapons.
David reloaded his DMR and motioned for his men to stand at ease, the Turians were good; he would give them that, the adapted quickly enough to become honorary ODSTs but they also seemed to stick to their ingrained training, like they didn't want to adapt.
"Victus, take your team to the other side of the road, we'll move up in two teams." Shepard ordered, he saw Victus move to the other side of the road, keeping in cover the entire time, "Train you're on point," he said and the large man moved forward. Echo team was tasked with removing any hostiles in the village, a simple enough task as the village was small and hostile presence was minimal according to the drones. It would be a cake walk.
"Hey El-Tee, how come the village is still smashed up? I mean why they didn't bother fixing it, it looks like a war zone." Becky whispered as they moved down the road, going building to building. "Guess they didn't feel like it was important enough to bother fixing it," he replied, "And it is a war zone Becks," he added.
They swept through the village building by building until they came to the Church, the grave yard out side had been desecrated a the building itself looked like it had seen better days, weeds and moss grew up the walls and roof tiles had fallen down, leaving holes in the slanted roof.
Victus moved up next to him by the large wooden doors, "Victus stay here while we circle round back and enter through the side door, hit them from both sides," Glory and Shepard led the way to the back once in position Glory would knock the door down and David would throw the concussion grenades. "On my mark," David said into the Com, "Three…Two…One…MARK!" Glory kicked the door down and David threw the grenades, seconds later loud bangs exploded through the door and blasted out a small window in the room.
David rushed into the room with his weapon up and he shot a Batarian that was trying to regain his wits, he was closely followed by Becky, Train, Glory and Felix bringing up the rear. There were two other Batarians in the small room, both of which were mowed down in seconds, David and Echo quickly swept the rest of the church of hostiles while Victus and his men cleared the main hall.
The total time it took them to sweep the village was around two hours, not bad for being outnumbered in enemy territory. The rest of the invasion was going well, they could see the city in the distance as AA fire rose up at UNSC drones and fighters that were harassing the alien defenders, one of the UNSC Super-Carriers, the SkyFall, lowered itself into the atmosphere, dark clouds formed under it as the air pressure changed. Most of the AA fire turned to concentrate on the four kilometre ship, only to splash harmlessly against its golden shield.
"Impressive," Victus said as he stood next to David outside the church, watching the battle from afar, "Yep," was David's simple reply. The rest of the team seemed to relax as well, Becky lit up a cigar and lent against the church wall, Train and Felix compared kills with the two other members of Victus' group while Vakarian fiddled with his sniper rifle.
"Lieutenant, what your status?" David's radio suddenly came to life, "Village is secure Captain, just waiting for the regulars to show up so we can move into the city, sir." He replied, "Uhh… Negative Lieutenant, Drones have spotted an emergency back-up generator near your location, I need you to take that facility Lieutenant."
"I thought the Recon teams took out the Generators, Sir," David replied with a frown, "They did but we missed the secondary generators on the first sweep. Looks like the four eyed fucks built backups just in case we did come knocking. Take that facility out Lieutenant before they charge up any defence cannons."
"Understood, sir. Send us the coordinates and we'll get it done," David said, his TACPAD flashed as the Captain sent the location of the base, the base was less than four hours away by foot, which they were forced to do.
They had spent a few more minutes to themselves before heading towards the Batarian built base, the journey was uneventful, just marching across the land and they could hear the battle for the capital city from where they were.
The base itself was mostly underground, a single building was the only indication that it was there, and the large power readings coming from beneath the surface. The structure was dull grey and yellow, an odd combination. It was only two maybe three stories high and had a single entrance, two squads of Batarian regulars patrolled the perimeter and a single sniper was stationed on the roof.
Felix and Vakarian set up nearby to cover the team as they entered the facility. Victus took his team to intercept one of the patrols while David and Echo set an ambush for the other, "Felix, on my mark take out the sniper," David said into the TeamCom, "Roger," the sniper whispered. As the enemy patrol entered the ambush site David began an internal countdown, three… two… one… "Mark!"
The loud 'Crack' of the S3 sniper rifle was the signal for both teams to wipe out the Batarian patrols, a quick and easy move for the Special Forces veterans. They rendezvoused at the entrance to the building.
Planting the C-12 on the door Becky stood back, she had placed enough explosives to burn a hole into the hull of the Infinity, a little over kill but she had no way of knowing how thick the door was. They all took cover behind the tree line as the C-12 detonated, the ground shook and shrapnel was thrown in nearly every direction.
David took point as they moved through the facility, running into squads of two or three regulars. He was beginning to wish for some Special Forces troops to show up and provide a challenge. "Victus take your men and clear the upper floors," David ordered as they reached a stairwell.
The control centre was situated on the ground floor but to shut down the generators for good they would need to blow the place into oblivion, David wanted to shut down the generators and then move through the lower levels of the facility in the dark, giving him and his team another advantage over the defenders.
David crouched by a corner in the hallway, Becky moved to take point, as she turned the corner three loud bangs from a shotgun caused Becky to jerk back; two rounds stuck her chest while the third stuck a glancing blow on her helmet, shattering the lower part of her visor. David grabbed her and pulled her to cover while Train pulled out an M9 grenade and threw it round the corner and Glory rushed round and opened fire on the injured Regulars.
David took off Becky's helmet and saw that parts of her visor had cut up her face, he slapped her across the face a couple of times, "Come on Becks, come on," he urged her to wake.
Her eyes snapped open and David sighed in relief, "Hey Dave? Piece of advice; don't get shot in the face with a shotgun," she joked as he helped her up, "That's usually a good idea Becks," he said back to her. She picked up her helmet and flicked the damaged visor, "Damn, this stuff really works," she whispered to herself, the helmet was too damaged to be of much use, she threw it off to one side and pulled out a hat with the UNSC logo on it, David threw her a questioning glance through his helmet's de-polarized visor, "What? You never know when you might need a hat," she said while pulling out one of her cigars and lighting it, "Plus I can totally pull of the 'badass Sargent with cigar and hat' look," she added.
"Come on," he said and his visor once again became opaque and he shouldered his weapon, he turned the corner to see Train holding up an injured Batarian against the wall while Glory kept watch for enemy reinforcements. "Seriously man? You could have hurt someone with that thing you stupid fuck, what type of idiot goes round using a shotgun if they don't know how to use it?" Train asked the Batarian, who had a look of defiance on his face, or what looked like defiance,
"Your people are nothing but slaves, how dare you attack us!" it hissed and David had to resist the urge to face-palm,
"Hey look here dipshit, in case you haven't noticed we're taking back our planet and rescuing our citizens, we've decimated your crappy little defence fleet and we're gonna decimate your crappy little army too, so…" David yanked the Batarian out of Train's grasp and threw him to the floor where it tried to scramble for one of its friends weapons only to be shot in the back by David, "…we don't really have time for prisoners." David finished, looking at Train.
The rest of the topside facility was secured quickly and Victus met back up with them at the control centre, as Adrien walked in he noticed Becky had lost her helmet and had gained a new scar running from her cheek to beneath her lip. When she noticed him looking at her she offered a grin and said, "Shotgun to the face," as her way of explaining. He was actually relieved as for a moment he thought she would have said her usual line of 'Like what ya see?' when she caught him staring.
"Alright, I'm disabling power now so if you're afraid of the dark say so, if not activate your VISR." A chorus of 'okay's and yesses' answered him, except Becky who had lost hers with her helmet. "Okay Victus take one of your men and Becky to see if you can find us transport. The rest of you are with me clearing the lower levels." David ordered, Becky tried to protest but David wasn't having any of it.
The lower levels of the Facility were tight, the hallways were extremely narrow and combined with the dark it meant the under trained Regulars of the Batarian Army were dispatched of without too much trouble, some got off lucky shots and grazed David's armour, leaving scratches and dents in the armour plating ad pretty nasty bruises on his arms and chest.
Upon entering the main reactor David immediately set to work on planting charges on anything that looked important, coolant pipes, flashing consoles, glowing things that did stuff David couldn't even begin to understand.
"Okay boys and girls let's get out of here before the charges go off," David said as they began to leave the reactor core, "Sir you have got a whole bunch of bad guy's heading your way, thirty maybe forty plus foot mobiles with light armour attached, they're heading straight for the facility, ETA two minutes." Felix reported from his position,
"Ah shit, Victus, Becky what's your status?" David asked, he had picked up his pace, he along with Glory, Train and the Turian ran through the pitch black halls, "We found a vehicle depot, got a couple of 'Hogs in here," Becky reported, "We're sending the waypoint now," she added and a little blue arrow appeared on his HUD, the vehicle depot was on the other side of the Facility, they would have Batarians on their six but they would just about make it.
"El-Tee, Vakarian says he's spotted Batarian SpecOps in the mix, apparently these guys would quite happily rape your daughter while they gut your wife and torture you, all in the same room." Felix reported and David regretted wishing for a better challenge.
As they neared the depot David could hear the sounds of enemy troops approaching, it was confirmed when a round flew past his helmet, missing by millimetres. "Go, go, go! Come on," he urged the men, they entered the depot and saw Victus, Becky and the other Turian by two old Warthogs, Becky was on the M41 LAAG while Victus and the other Turian stood near a flatbed version. As soon as they were clear of the doorway Batarian troops attempted to give chase, only to be cut down by 12.7x99mm AP rounds from the M41.
"Train get in the flatbed, you drive, Glory you take Train's cannon and get on the flatbed, Victus you're with me and Becky, the rest of you on the flat bed." David said as he jumped in the driver's seat while Victus clambered in next to him, "This is really uncomfortable, you know," Victus moaned as the seat was designed for humans, not Turians.
"Train you lead the way, we'll cover your six with the M41," David ordered, Train took the lead out of the depot and into a short tunnel which lead to a road. It wasn't long before the Batarians gave chase, either in old Warthogs or in their own light vehicles.
"Glory, see what you can do about those guys!" David shouted over the roar of gunfire and the Warthogs engine. Glory gave a short nod and crouched in the back of the flatbed, Incineration Cannon in hand. The four orange explosive particle streams detonated against one of the leading vehicles causing it to explode, the four explosive streams went off in four separate directions and caused two more vehicles to explode. The enemy vehicles slowed down enough for Echo to make their escape and pick up Felix and Vakarian, the latter of which also complained about the lack of comfort.
UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, September 28, 2586
Philip's frown deepened after he was blown off by Admiral Lasky for his 'bad feeling', Philip wasn't sure why but he knew something was wrong. "Lorelie, did the Batarians manage to send out any communication signal, distress beacons, anything?" he asked the A.I from his command seat.
"Yes, one emergency signal was sent out by the leading Batarian Crui-'Dreadnought'" she corrected herself, using the Council definitions of a ship, "It's destination however I cannot fathom a guess," she said, Philip sighed and rested his head low on one hand. He suddenly got an idea, "Lorelie we abandoned this are of space right? Are there any old Navy stations near here, dry docks, ship breaking yards, anything?" he asked,
"Checking… oh my, yes, the colony of Roost had a dry dock for ships in this sector; it was abandoned in 2534. Commander you don't think…" she trailed off, "I do, were there any ships left there?" he asked,
"According to the logs I have access to; yes. Four Gorgon-class Destroyers and a single Halcyon-class light Cruiser, they were stripped of their Slip-space drives and ammo, other than that they were just left there to rot," she replied, her avatar looked at him from her pedestal,
"Where exactly is Roost?" he asked, although truth be told he really didn't want to know the answer, the look Lorelie's avatar gave him was the only answer he needed.
"Lieutenant Vickers contact Admiral Lasky and tell him we may have Batarian reinforcements inbound, Lorelie send over all available information," he ordered and watched as his bridge crew prepare for a battle he was sure was coming.
A/N; hope you enjoyed. now Review!