Chapter Seven
0900 hours, September 18
2547 (Military Calendar) /
Arcadia, Bravo Base 070
The covenant was back. Fourteen years of tense apprehension and the covenant had finally ended the silence and come back for them. And this time, the UNSC could do nothing but watch and wait. When the covenant had entered orbit, only a small group of vessels were there to defend Arcadia, and they were soon dispatched of. With the naked eye, Walkers could see bright flashes of plasma burning through their hulls.
"Contact the ONI base; I want General Barnes on COM." Walkers barked. There was silence, and then he could hear the muffled chatter coming from the warrant officers COM.
"Receiving transmition. Our communication vessel has been completely destroyed, along with the small convoy in orbit. General Barnes was aboard one of those vessels. We have no link to the rest of the UNSC…" She said quietly, her eyes glued to the monitor before her.
Walker sighed, rubbing his temples.
"Who is next in command?" More silence.
"You, sir." the officer replied after a moment. "We need orders sir."
Walkers head spun, another weight hefted on his feeble shoulders. A few hours ago he had been eating lunch blissfully unaware of the panic to ensue, and now he felt like his lunch was about to make a reappearance.
"Make a base-wide announcement to remain neutral. Don't draw attention," The last thing they needed was to piss off the covenant more than they already had.
General Walkers watched wordlessly as the Covenant proceeded to leisurely glass the colony called Aloide, and then the Insurrectionist base. Although the video from the satellite was mute, he could still feel the anguished screams. Walkers had no feelings for the Innies, but the small colony close to them was filled with innocent people. And all he could do was watch.
The only communication they had was with Skerilla, which was scattered in pieces slowly floating above Arcadia. To add to the good news, the regularly scheduled supply load from a small UNSC frigate was not due back for another few weeks, so their only hope was burning up in Arcadias orbit. All they had was a base filled with minimally trained security personnel, and a handful of ODST's. What chance did they have against a massive covenant fleet? None. The answer, was none. Even if they had a UNSC fleet, the covenant ships would still outnumber them. They had only won when the covenant was vastly out-matched, and usually lost half its fleet as well. The covenant was simply too advanced, their stolen technology superior to humans' in every way. The UNSC was fighting a losing battle, and every single soldier enlisted knew it.
Walkers guessed the only reason Earth was still blissfully unaware of how dire their situation was the SPARTAN-II's, specially selected augmented super soldiers who went tromping about in a thousand pounds of armor. The general had only seen one in his life, back on a small expedition to a backwater planet to recover a group of stranded marines. What it was doing there though, he hadn't the slightest idea. He was just glad they were on the same side.
The general winced as he saw another burning building tumble to the ground. The colony Aloide was covered in screaming purple banshees, who picked off any survivors that were lucky enough to avoid the first torrent of plasma. If lucky was what you could call it. A burning fury began to rise within him, watching this peaceful colony burn to ashes. Of course, this is what the covenant did everywhere, preying on the weak and moving to the next guiltless colony, and right now, there was nothing anyone could do to change this.
He barely heard as the door to the control room swung open and Major Meyers stormed in, his blue eyes falling on Walkers. He snapped off a salute, and then strode forward to stand in front of the general. Meyers hid it well, but Walkers could see he was near quivering with rage. He was still fully suited in his ODST armor, and his faceplate slid down. His armor was stained black with scorch marks, most likely from running through the halls that still had flames in them from the data core detonation. Meyers gripped a DMR in one hand, the safety switched to off.
"Sir. Permission to hunt down the-" he stopped short when he saw the video being displayed on the monitor. Another portion of the colony was covered in flames, the rebel base completely reduced to embers. Two pelicans attempted to escape from the rebel's base, but a swath of plasma blew gaping holes in their sides, flaming Innies tumbling to the ground.
Meyers looked back to Walker, the anger draining from his body. Whatever he wanted before was gone from his mind.
"What are your orders sir?" he asked, his voice void of emotion. Now he had yet another painful decision to make, and left the general staring blankly ahead for a moment.
"You said your team was ready to be deployed Major?"
"Yes sir."
The general could see the Covenant forces pulling back, satisfied they had sufficiently engulfed the passive colony in flames. He could barely make out a handful of ground forces still searching the streets for survivors, made up of mostly elites and grunts. If civilians were down there, alive, it was the UNSC's duty to help them.
"I want you in that colony, find any survivors you can." The general turned back to studying the monitor, hoping he had made the correct choice.
"Yessir." Meyers said, determination strong in his voice. Walkers knew the ODST's loved any sort of dangerous objective that involved high stakes, pissing off the covenant, and massive explosions. But Walkers couldn't help wondering about how many good men he might have sent to die. Would there be too many alien forces left for a small team to handle? That's what they signed up for right? To defend humanity from this onslaught?
Walkers began tapping a pen on his cheek, leaving little red marks as his anxiety deepened. Walkers let the air slowly drain from his lungs, and turned to the woman sitting at a desk and reviewing the bases' current status.
"Jenson, report." Walkers ordered, turning to the young warrant officer, Ren Jenson. The private was a quiet, hard-working data analyzer suited with short blonde hair and brown eyes. She looked up at the general, obviously unhappy with the bases' condition.
"Fires in sections 3, 4, and 7, data core completely inert, and four security personnel are injured." She said, a frown on her face. Walkers gritted his teeth, the Innie had caused more damage than he had thought. She was in and out within two hours, escaping custody and getting exactly what she came for. She seemed to know precisely when the ODST's left, and when to make her escape. How she knew this though, was unfathomable to him.
"Put those fires out, and get the AI back online, I want to know exactly what the rebel got." Walkers announced. His loyal crew immediately set to carrying out his orders, seemingly disregarding the covenant armada and impending doom hovering just above their heads. Was he even fit to be leading them?
"The ODST's are departing sir. Should reach Aloide within the hour." Jensen interrupted his reverie. Walkers tensely scrutinized the monitor until he saw Bravo Base's two warthogs barrel into view, screeching to a halt just on the outskirts of the colony. Nine little specks filed out, then disappeared into the smoke laden city. Everyone in the control room quieted.
"They've entered the city, searching for survivors now." The apprehension was palpable.
Jensen's voice cut, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
"Encountered heavy resistance, currently engaging. They think it was an ambush sir." All Walkers could hear from the muffled COM unit was shouting, and gunfire.
"Get me eyes on them!" He snapped, panic rising in the pit of his stomach. Of course it was an ambush. They knew the whole time what we were planning, and I led them right into the maw of the beast.
Jenson furiously smashed in buttons on the keyboard in front of her, cursing and then retyping a command she misspelled.A moment later and the satellite image blurred dark green and brown, as it zoomed in on the helljumpers position. The entire control room hushed as the scene unfolded before them.
Enormous cracks rippled through the pavement below their feet, gaping holes attempting to swallow the city. A red sky loomed above the broken colony, lighting up with bolts of sizzling plasma. Two crumpled buildings had collapsed inwards, blocking off the ODST's exits. They were pinned down behind a pile of rubble, plasma shots beginning to burn through the back. They were rotating taking shots, lobbing grenades, and protecting their little outpost. Walkers was transfixed with their deadly accuracy, never a bullet wasted.
A group of elites, grunts, and jackals maneuvered to either side of the helljumpers, surrounding them from all angles. By the time Walkers realized there was only eight ODST's huddling behind the debris, a rocket from an RPG spun off the top of a nearby building that was only moderately collapsed. The aliens erupted in a mushroom of heat and fire, taking out a chunk of the ground forces. It was a short lived victory, as more and more came forward to take the places of their fallen comrades.
The general's stomach knotted as one of the soldiers' fell, followed by another as the Covenant continued their ruthless assault. Heads began to turn away, not wanting to see anymore, but Walkers didn't. Their deaths were on his head, and he'd be damned if he didn't have the decency to watch them die. It now became apparent he made the wrong decision.
"General Walkers… there's still a soldier on top of the other building, the one that fired the RPG. Shall I request a retreat?" Jenson asked, switching the satellites view to peer down on the lone ODST.
"Make it an order."
She nodded and typed a few commands into her keyboard, and nodded to the general. Walkers could see the little figure freeze mid-reload of his RPG, hesitating. The ODST slowly finished reloading, and slid the RPG over his back, slinking back into the shadows on top of building. The tracking signal disappeared a moment later, causing everyone's heart to skip a beat, only to reappear twenty meters outside of the sweltering colony, weaving back to the drop zone. Walkers let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"On my way to the pickup. For what it's worth, I would have preferred to die with my team." Meyer's emotionless voice broke the silence over Walkers COM.
"You're going to have to make it far enough away for ground pickup; it's too hot for air support," Jensen replied.
"Copy that."
Walkers leaned back, rubbing his temples and squeezing his eyes shut. His mistake had cost eight men their lives. He should have known the aliens would be ready for resistance.
"There's nothing you could have done sir." Jensen reminded him, continuing to stare at the screen, seemingly unable to tear her eyes away.
"Get the AI up and running, officer." Walker replied, through with regretting the matter. What was done was done.
"Yessir, almost done," Jenson said, finally turning her back on the monitor and tapping away at her keyboard. A moment later, the hologram of Mark, Bravo Base's AI, appeared on the console behind him.
An alarm wailed from the speakers, and red lights strobed inside the control room.
"Oops," the AI said, "self-destructing messes with your circuits." The alarm slowly died down, and the blinking lights returned to the normal rhythm.
Mark was a fairly straight-forward kind of AI, not usually the joking type but occasionally cracking a wry remark. He wore a faded tuxedo and dirt brown hair down to his elephant ears, with one long strand in the back. He was a 'dumb' AI, but still suited Bravo Base nicely.
"What did the Innie take?" Walkers asked, desperate for any progress.
"I'm not entirely sure, but whatever she used to collect the data was extremely advanced, it blocked me out completely. I was shut down from the inside." Mark amended, sounding just the slightest bit perplexed.
"Advanced as in… covenant technology?"
"Of sorts."
"Explain."
Mark breathed in a full breath of air, even though it was a human trait and lacking in any benefit to the AI.
"She didn't plug anything in to hack the system, or I would have been able to halt her efforts. All she did was touch the data core and wha-la, she was in."
Walkers brow furrowed in confusion, how was that possible? Accessing secure data without even pressing a button? He stepped slightly closer to Mark, a smug look coming over his face.
"That's impossible. You must have missed something." Walkers stubbornly said, not willing to believe something he didn't see with his own eyes.
"Oh but it is. The idea was supposedly discontinued in 2520, due to the subject losses and malfunctions, but it appears it has now resurfaced.
The rebels began experimenting with new technology, implanting a sort of chip into the deep limbic system of certain subjects that would then transmit data back to a set AI. The AI would then process the data as best they could, but in order to save the data and fully analyze it, it has to be manually uploaded into the system. The bigger the file, the less that can be transferred long distance."
Walker tried to comprehend what he had just heard, but he found himself just staring blankly at Mark in confusion.
"So…what?" Walkers inquired.
"So it seems we have an NACC chip carrier on our hands. A Neural Automated Communication Conduct. It explains how Alpha Base was able to be infiltrated so quickly, as soon as the rebel acquired the files here it was automatically sent to their AI, who dispatched a team to the exact location with all the information needed.
The only problem was the rebels couldn't complete such advanced technology without help, and most likely traded with the covenant in order to acquire the needed tech to create the chip."
Walkers stopped short, he knew the Insurrectionist had traded with the covenant, but never on Arcadia. What had they traded for the technology? All the intel that the NACC chip picked up? Walkers hoped not, the girl had stolen a respectable amount of intelligence. The general was losing patience with the AI, all this talk of "what if's" and "i'm not sure," was not what he wanted to hear. He needed answers.
"And general, one more thing," Mark said, "She found something in the system even I didn't know was there. An encrypted file. If I attempt to decode it, the file will automatically upload a virus into my system, destroying my central core and shutting down every system on this base."
Walkers sighed, here was the catch. Of course there was something wrong. The general knew he would regret this, but asked anyway.
"And?"
"We have no way of knowing what's in that file."
Walker took comfort in the fact there was nothing important on this planet, let alone a single file. This base only had basic inventory, no top secret files that could accelerate the extinction of the human race.
"But the rebels… maybe they haven't sold the data to the covenant yet. And now it looks like they won't get the chance." Jenson spoke up from her desk. She was correct, the rebels may not have had a chance to contact the covenant…and clearly they never should have in the first place. Nothing was left of the rebel's base but ash. There was always a possibility that the girl had been killed when the covenant attacked their base, or her and the file could have escaped and still be roaming the outskirts of Pirth, the former proud capitol of Arcadia.
"What are the chances the file is still active?" Walkers said, turning back to the maps of the planet, studying the places the Insurrectionist base and Aloide used to be.
"Fifty fifty." There was a moment of silence, before the generals COM buzzed in his ear. Walkers jumped at the sudden noise, and he slowly clicked it to an open channel.
"Sir," came Meyer's calm voice. Walker thought he heard a strange quirk in the man's tone, but he was sure it was from the recent death of his team. The deaths that he had caused.
"I'm at the pickup point, send for the hog'."
"Dispatch the warthog." Walkers said to Jenson.
"ETA in 27 minutes." She replied calmly, her eyes glued to the screen.
Walkers turned and paced back and forth, some of the personnel in the control room looking up from their work to watch him. They all knew the covenant was glassing the planet, and yet they all remained silent, busily tapping away at their stations. Walkers couldn't help but admire their calm resolve. Walkers just hoped he'd live long enough to commend them for their efforts.
"General Walkers, take a look at this sir."
He halted in his tracks and paced back to Jenson's desk, his train of thought lost.
"The covenant…they are pulling back."
"Bring it up," He commanded, staring at the monitor. The screen shifted, another blur of black soot and crimson fires.
The fleet of purple-green covenant ships appeared on the screen, nearly blocking out the image. Small hunched figures stepped into a purple gravity lift and zipped up into a drop-ship. Elites. A group of banshees slowly filed into the back of a Phantom, and the ship drew back, following a larger cruiser, most likely carrying the fleetmaster.
One ship in particular caught his attention. This covenant ship was not the biggest ship and certainly not the most dangerous, but it was one that was not used commonly. It was zealot-classed, a specialized group of elites that were dedicated to finding any and all forerunner artifacts. The ship was smaller and more streamline than the regular shark-like cruisers, and always carried double the firepower along with re-enforced security. These artifacts were said to be the holy grail of the covenant armada. It stayed in orbit, though at such at distance it was hard to make out among the smoke. Walkers watched in shock as the fleet slowly drifted up and into Arcadia's atmosphere, before disappearing into tiny black flecks in the sky.
"Retreating to glass the planet from orbit?" Another analyst offered. It was unheard of for the covenant to leave a job half-finished, let alone three quarters of a planet untouched. They were up to something.
"Negative…enemy is powering drives to enter slipspace." Ren said, shaking her head in confusion.
"Orders sir?" She asked, finally looking up at him.
Walkers turned away and paced again, once again the lives of everyone on this base -and the planet- were resting firmly on his shoulders. The pressure was no doubt going to give him a heart attack. Walker sighed, coming to a halt beside Jenson.
"Continue base repaires."
"Sir, if I may ask, what are we going to do about the covenant?"
"All we can do. Pray that they leave this planet be." He turned, and slowly sauntered out of the control room doors, hoping he hadn't just killed every living person on the planet.