Chapter Three

0943 Hours, September 17,

2547 (Military Calendar) /

Arcadia, Bravo Base 070,

Outskirts of Abaskun City

Raven watched the door. Every seventeen minutes, someone came in and asked her the same questions. And every seventeen minutes, her answer stayed the same.

She sat in a bland grey room, with two flickering lights staring down at her. Her chair was pulled up to a metal desk welded to the floor, and a manila folder glared at her from across the table. She hadn't touched it. She didn't want to touch it.
There was a single door in the room, protected by two guards standing outside. Raven noticed they were basic base security, not the ODST's that had met her in the data center. Escaping ODST's was one thing, but escaping from marines would be almost comically easy. Well, as easy as getting out of a guarded UNSC security base could be. I may be young, she thought, but I was trained by the best.

There was only one snag in her plan, the energy cuffs still attached to her wrists. They bit into her skin, buzzing with a blue and green energy. She wasn't sure who designed them, but she was sure cursing their existence now. The only way to turn them off was the sixteen-digit code that all the UNSC standard edition data pads were programmed with. And the very same data pad almost every personnel on base carried. The data pads held everything from coordinates and data depots to schematics of Covenant and UNSC ships, and also included their standard base map.

Raven wondered how long it had been since the last interrogation. Her question was quickly answered when the door swung open, and a lean woman entered the room. She wore olive fatigues, with black combat boots that matched Ravens. Raven laid her cold green eyes on her, watching her as she walked closer. The woman said nothing, casually strolling over and pulling out the chair on the opposite side of the table, and plopping down into it. The young girl glared at her. The woman glared back. The officer reached over and slid the manila folder in front of her, then opened it up and read over its contents. Raven wasn't sure how to handle this, as the past seven people who had come in never did this. They simply sat and asked her mindless questions. It left the girl waiting anxiously for an answer.

"December 4th, 2528." She said, still not looking up from the folders. Raven didn't answer.

"That's your date of birth?" her voice was soft, as if trying to coax a scared child from under the bed.

"Yes." Raven finally said, although her voice was plain; bored even.

"Then you're nineteen."

"Most obviously," Raven replied. She settled with a slightly irritated exterior, although in fact her mind was racing. How does she know about me? What else do they know?

"Why so young?" the lady asked.

"I had no choice."

"How so?" she inquired, trying to dig a little deeper. Raven didn't answer, shifting her gaze to stare at the wall. Raven didn't need to speak with this officer. She wouldn't be here for much longer, just until the marine came in for a routine check on her energy cuffs. Every so often, a soldier came in and checked her cuffs, making sure they were still active and tighter than a dog's collar. She had scoped out every inch of his uniform, a small handgun around his belt, a data pad connected to a holster, and a night stick slung around his belt loop. Easy pickings.

"You do understand you have committed a crime and will be punished accordingly?" she asked, her eyes tracing every inch of Raven's face. Raven nodded, although she was not acknowledging the woman speaking in front of her, as her mind was completely focused on working out the intricacies of her plan, though it was not complicated.

"I want to help you. But you have to tell me why you were here, and why you're working for rebels. Raven, they kill people."

Again, Raven did not answer, until something in her head, the very back of her mind, told her to say something. The words were put into her mouth before she even opened it.

"Because," she said quietly, shifting her gaze to lock eyes with the woman, "I don't like losing." The woman sat back, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips in a frown. Raven shifted her gaze back to the wall, and crossed her arms over her chest. Raven could see the woman trying to understand what she had meant, her frown deepening.

The officer slowly stood up, taking the manila folder with her. She steadily walked out the door, and turned to the marine on the outside.

"Make sure her cuffs are extra tight." The woman muttered, before walking the rest of the way out and down the hallway, disappearing from view.

Raven allowed herself a small feeling of satisfaction; she was one step closer to returning to base and one step closer to completing her mission. Now, all she had to rely on was her training, and she'd be home in 04 hours. Raven flexed her wrists, trying to move them around inside the energy cuffs as much as possible, without much success.

She waited for the marine to stroll in and lock the door behind him. He was not particularly tall or muscular, but he still had a gun slung around his belt. She eyed him carefully as he came closer, and took the data pad from its holster, holding it in front of him. He leaned down and placed the data pad next to her hand, and appeared to open up a file, enter a code, and then read the small numbers that appeared. He turned to her cuffs and started tapping in digits on the small keypad in the middle of the cuffs. Raven extended her fingers, just so her fingertips could trace the very back of the device. She felt a cold rush in the back of her skull, and then the data streamed into her head. '237-E9876-1549-jm7n, data- error, data erased' the numbers appeared before her eyes, hard-wired into her brain now. She also accessed the bases schematics, memorizing the layout and saving it to her NACC chip.

She leaned back, just as the cuffs tightened like a vice grip around her wrists. She gritted her teeth, but said nothing. The marine turned, unlocked the door, and resumed his post. Raven smiled on the inside, as she twisted her hand to reach the control pad on the energy cuffs. 237-E9876-1549-jm7n. The buzzing of the energy cuffs faded, until the pressure slackened and the little metal cylinder and keypad clattered to the table. Raven rubbed her wrists, massaging the blood back into her fingers. She pulled up the schematics in her head, finding the room she was in. The base was smaller than she had originally thought, and she was startlingly close to the weapons armory, the data core, and the cargo bay. And most importantly, to all three of her destinations.

A small voice in the back of her head whispered instructions to her; get to the data core, read the data core. Return to base. She complied, and lightly stepped over to the air duct in the corner of the room. There was no air vent, but she could see the decrepit metal panel could be peeled back…with some force.

Raven placed her hands on either side of the metal panel, and yanked backwards. The panel made a loud squeaking sound, as the flimsy metal bent and carved away from the wall. A small hole was revealed, just enough space for her to squeeze through. Raven wiggled inside the dark tunnel, a feeling of claustrophobia settling over her. The duct was too flat for her to sit all the way up on her elbows, so she had to shimmy across the cold floor. The air was damp and stale, making it hard to breathe. The silent rumble of an air conditioning unit reverberated down the tunnel way, and Ravens teeth chattered. Once again she pulled up the map of the base, and found the way to the weapons armory. She wanted her guns back. It wasn't that far away, but shuffling across an air duct made everything take forever.

By the time Raven was hovering above the air vent over the armory room, her elbows were bruised and sore. She peered down into the armory through the slits in the air vent, and sighed at what she saw. At least two dozen marines lounged about, cleaning guns, re-arranging equipment or chatting. They wore grey camouflage fatigues, their names and ranks labeled on the front left shoulder. A new feeling of despair filled her, as she was forced to think of leaving her favorite SMG's behind. Raven wasn't sure how long she sat there staring into the armory, but she guessed it was only about nine minutes later when a piercing alarm rang over the speakers. It screeched against Ravens ears, but she somehow managed to push it to the back of her mind. A red security light flashed, illuminating the room with a fiery glow.

The soldiers appeared startled, then snapped into action. They bustled about the room, collecting their rifles and lacing up boots. Some marines shouted to others across the room, then rushed over and shoved something into their hands before rushing off to do something else. Eventually, they all filed out the door, leaving it empty except for a lone marine who fumbled with his rifle magazine.

Raven slowly lifted the vent out of its socket; sure that she would not get another opportunity like this one. She could now see her two SMG's and the knife on the metal table just below her, where she would aim to land. She stuck her legs out the vent and then dropped onto the table, a solid clang spooking the young marine before her. The recruit spun around, his eyes widening even more with surprise. She sprang at him, using her elbow like a battering ram and slamming it into his lower jaw. They crashed into the lockers behind them, and slid to a concrete bench. He reached for his gun at his belt, but she clasped his hand with two fingers and twisted. Three knuckles bent forward, while the other two crunched at an awkward angle. The soldier grunted as his hand went limp. He pulled his right hand back, but she quickly rolled to the left and evaded his strike.

Raven yanked the gun from his belt, and shot him once in the leg, making sure to avoid the vital arteries and bones. The soldier gasped in pain, clutching his leg, but his suffering was not long. Raven struck him in the head with the butt of his magnum, and he slumped to the floor unconscious. She snorted, wishing it was more of a challenge.

Raven threw the gun to the ground, and ran back over to the metal table, collecting her two SMG's, knife, holsters, and small handgun. She clipped her holsters around her legs and locked the SMG's into place. Stuffing the small gun into its place in her combat boots, she snagged her knife and turned towards the air duct located directly three meters above her on the ceiling. There was no way back up. Raven kicked herself, now she would have to run about the halls searching for the other two rooms. She felt like shooting herself right on the spot, but then the little voice in the back of her head whispered, get to the data core. Retrieve the data. Return to base. Ravens hand itched and cramped, until she made the decision to stay, and fight her way out. Hopefully she wouldn't run into the ODST's, because this time, she was going down shooting.

She pulled the base schematics into her head, and found the quickest route to the data core. Raven saw a long corridor that traveled down the length of the base, leading directly to the intelligence room, which was hopefully empty by now. She figured all the soldiers would be scouring the places around her cell, not the opposite side of the base. Of course, they knew why she had come, and what she would want to get done before she made her get-away.

The young girl ran out the door, and hung a sharp left, running smack into a trio of soldiers. She dropped to the floor and pulled her magnum from her boots, and fired onto the trooper's exposed knee. He screamed in pain and fell to the floor. The other two recovered more quickly.

"Freeze!" one of them yelled, turning to point his BR at her chest. She landed a hard kick to his head, and used her knee to shove him into the soldier behind him. The marine struggled to catch his fallen comrade and maintain his aim on her chest. She took the moment of hesitation and ripped the BR from his grip, then fired three shots into his abdomen. He doubled over, groaning. She threw his BR down the hall and turned to sprint the rest of the way to the data core, adrenaline pumping through her veins.

When the dull metallic door came into view, Raven unlocked her SMG's from their holsters, and held them tilted slightly downward, as she used her shoulder to shove open the still fried circuits of the electronic lock. Surprisingly, the room was clear, and the normal light blue glow of the data core had returned. Her hands cramped, itching to trace her fingers over the metal surface, and feel the cool trickle of intelligence in her NACC data chip. She tightly holstered her weapons. She strode forward and let her hands hover just above the blue glow. Retrieve the info. Return to base.

Raven let her hands fall onto the data core, its cool metal sending shivers up her spine. The ice cold pang of new data rushed into her data chip, making the back of her skull tingle and buzz with new information. Suddenly, the alarms that had already been going off non-stop, tripled and the sound became unbearable. She had just gotten some kind of file that was very big, and very important. It was encrypted, so she couldn't access it. Whatever it was, it was important. More important than Raven had ever dreamed.

"Warning, warning, security breach. Lock down. Data core compromised. Initiating self-annihilation." A male voice played over the speaker. Uh oh. The door she had come into slammed shut with a metal seal that rolled from the top, locking her inside. Without warning, a holographic image of a man dressed in an old tuxedo appeared on the data control panel in front of her.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to give that back." The AI said. Raven snorted, amused.

"I'm not entirely sure you have a say in the matter." she replied. Raven was already in the system, and nothing was going to close her out. The AI could do nothing.

The steady stream of data ran cold, and she knew she had collected the entire needed inventory. Raven removed her hand from the data core, but not before noticing how long she had left before the self-destruct went off. Raven was curious and confused about how the self-destruct had been initiated, as she had not activated it...on purpose. Raven thrust the thought to the back of her mind, as she saw she only had four minutes left, and there was no time for wasteful thinking. Three minutes and fifty-three seconds until it blows, Raven thought. Plenty of time to get to the cargo bay and away from here.

The marines that were trapped in the corridor when the lock down sequence had closed all the exits banged and yelled through the door. Raven paid them no attention; she was safe behind the four inches of re-enforced steel alloy they could not penetrate.

The young girl located the air duct that was luckily low enough for her to reach, rushing to peel back the flimsy metal. She scrambled into the duct and through the narrow tunnel, not caring who heard her now. Speed was critical. She remembered where the cargo bay was, but not exactly how long it would take to get there. Ravens elbows griped in protest, but she did not relent her fast pace. She needed to reach her destination. The cargo bay got closer and closer as she shuffled her way through the vents, following the line to the little locater beacon she had marked on the schematics. Eventually another air vent appeared in front of her, but she had no time to peek through the slits. She kicked it down and dropped through, hoping she found the correct room. Jackpot!

A lone Mongoose and three Warthogs sat in the bay, along with one Pelican. Meager pickings, but it would do. What Raven didn't notice, was the group of a dozen marines that came charging through the open door on her far left. Judging by the scorch marks, they had blown a hole through the door with something that looked like C4.

Raven dove behind the Pelican as shots rang off and bullets pinged the place her head had just been. She took in an eerily calm breath, as her hand began to itch. She would escape. She would complete her mission. And she would win. Raven sprinted from her hiding spot, using the three remaining Warthogs as cover in order to get to the Mongoose that sat at the end of the line of vehicles. A bullet struck too close for comfort next to her, taking out the front light of a Warthog. Another whizzed past her head, and she ducked to keep her profile lower.

The Mongoose came into view just as a shot clipped the edge of a Warthog and planted itself firmly into her left shoulder. She stumbled, but managed to stay running despite the immense pain lacing down her arm.

As her hand touched the Mongoose, it roared to life, the little jeep giving her a spark of hope to cling to. How she powered it up she didn't know, or really care at the moment, whatever got her out of here. Raven suddenly realized another snag in her plan; the bay doors, they were closed. She swung herself onto the Mongoose anyway, she was going to escape, or die trying. With her one good arm, she gunned the engine and spun out of the line of vehicles, straight towards the three foot door of steel.

The engine snarled as she tried to coax more speed out of it, but she was already racing at top speed towards the exit. The doors didn't move for her, and they certainly didn't look like she could go through them, but she kept her speed constant. Eight meters away. Raven ducked her head down and hunched her shoulders.

Bullets still rained down around her, until she heard a metal groan and creaking and someone yelled, "Cease fire!" Why had they stopped firing? Raven wondered, just as the floor dropped out from under her. The Mongoose's windshield was ripped away by the top of the bay doors, barely cracked open enough to let the Mongoose through. If she had taken a Warthog, her fate would have been much different.

She finally looked up from staring at her limp hand, and saw the Pelican flying straight for her. She threw her weight to the right, sending the Mongoose on a curveball, as its wheels glanced across the side of the Pelican's windshield. She locked eyes with a face she recognized, the steely blue eyes, the buzzed black hair of the ODST Major Meyers. Raven didn't know why she did this, perhaps out of her own pride, but she flashed him a grin. A grin that said "not today". They glared at each other for another split second, before her Mongoose spun wildly out of control, but she hung on like a bur.

She thought the worst was over, but when a massive explosion burst her eardrums, she realized she was very wrong. A wave of hot ash rushed around her, and she could already smell the smoke. Fires rained down around her, starting even more flames in the surrounding area. Not to mention she was still falling.

The ground rushed up to meet Raven, the beach sand hard and course. She and the Mongoose crashed into the sand, skidding a few meters before coming to a halt. When Raven pulled herself onto her elbows, she tasted something salty in her mouth. Blood leaked from a gash on her jaw and her shoulder was now completely numb. Somehow, she dragged herself to her feet and trudged to the Mongoose. Luckily it had landed right-side up. Raven fell onto the seat, barely managing to swing her leg over. She looked back at the mess she left behind, the swirling plume of smoke and fire, the wailing sirens, and most importantly, the Pelican that was now smoking from the place her Mongoose had hit, as it glided onto the edge of the landing bay.

Raven slowly restarted the engine as she laid her right hand onto it, and gunned it, the tires spewing sand out behind her before finding traction and peeling off into the forest. She bounced along the beaten path, a path that many Innies used to sneak back and forth between UNSC held bases. She gritted her teeth every time she hit a hard bounce, her mouth filling with more blood. She was sure the UNSC would be looking for her soon, so she remained full throttle the entire way.

Green forests and mossy rocks blurred beside her, melting into one long green playback. She rounded a corner, and then turned right when the road turned left, the pathway to the Rebels base. Evidently, she had made quite the mess, as the Lieutenant Colonel of the Insurrectionists stood outside the base, waiting for her. She pulled up just in front of him, and staggered off the stolen Mongoose.

"Welcome back, Raven." He said slyly, a wicked glint in his black eyes.