Chapter 15
The central command console of the UNSC Infinity chirped, notifying Captain Lasky of an Alpha priority message. Lasky opened the file in question and found the message that he had been anticipating and dreading in equal measure:
The frigate in orbit over Meridian had detected Forerunner activity beneath the surface. The Guardian was about to activate.
Lasky immediately sprung into action. "Lt. Sanders, get us to Meridian at top speed," he ordered his astronavigator. "Lt. Krishnan, open a comm channel to everyone in the fleet," he ordered his communications officer. The comm officer nodded, and Lasky was immediately granted his audience of every service member on the Infinity and its accompanying fleet of frigates. He would be responsible for the lives of every one of these thousands of men and women in the battle to come. A battle against an enemy they had never faced before, with capabilities no one was familiar with, and using tech that was experimental at best and supplied by the Office of Naval Intelligence.
So, no pressure. Lasky suppressed a grimace.
"Attention all hands," he began. "This is Captain Lasky. I have just received confirmation that the enemy we have been preparing to face, an alien construct designated 'Guardian-01', is about to make an appearance over the UEG colony world Meridian. We will travel to the colony at flank speed and arrive within 12 hours, at which point we will engage the enemy before it has a chance to escape. We are unclear as to the exact capabilities of this construct, so we must be prepared for anything. Be ready to adapt and change approach at a moments notice. This thing is a threat to the UEG, the UNSC, and everyone living in it." Lasky paused for effect. "So let's go kick its ass. Captain Lasky, out."
Lasky cut the connection and nodded to his pilot, confirming his order to jump to slipspace. The exterior camera feeds went blank, the system being unable to process the bizarre appearance of the ethereal alternate dimension. There were no windows on the bridge. It was located toward the center of the ship, making it impervious to anything other than a lethal blow. It was a design decision taken from Covenant vessels after hard, bloody lessons taught the UNSC the folly of locating their command centers more toward one end of the ship or the other. Necessary defense aside, part of Lasky wished he could see directly into space. Wished that he could see the enemy with his own eyes.
The holographic projector in the arm of his command chair activated, displaying a humanoid figure. It was a uniform yellow in color and resembled an early 20th century airman, complete with fur-lined suit and cap, as well as aviator goggles pushed up onto his forehead. It was the Infinity's artificial intelligence. Roland.
"Is the EW package ready, Roland?" Captain Lasky asked. The AI was not directly in charge of the Electronic Warfare suite. He was hooked into the ship's vital systems, necessitating separation from any external sources other than the ship's own sensors. The EW system that would be their primary means of attack against the Guardian was being handled by ONI, specifically the AI they had brought with them. Despite his lack of control, Lasky knew that Roland would be well aware of their status. Ship AIs tended to consider their vessels to be their vessels, which made sense considering the ships were effectively their bodies. As such, they were typically resentful of anything going on within them that they didn't have a say over. Lasky knew that asking Roland would at least ease the unhappiness the AI felt at ONI's interference.
That, and it meant that Lasky didn't have to directly interact with Maj. Ackerson again.
"Our 'secret weapon' should be ready to fire on command," Roland replied. "We will also, of course, be fully prepared for any unforeseen occurrences," he added. Lasky smiled. He knew that Roland was as skeptical of ONI's supposed ability to hack the Forerunner weapon as he himself was. He nodded at the AI, who promptly vanished.
Captain Lasky glanced at the small series of digits on the top left of his command console that indicated the amount of time until they arrived at Meridian. Just under 12 hours.
I hope we're not too late, Lasky thought.
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The figures that had appeared before Blue Team were among the most bizarre the Master Chief had ever encountered.
They were clearly based on human soldiers, at least visually. They were humanoid, with two arms and two legs, and were a bit under 2 meters in height. Their bodies were covered in bulky armor plates protecting their chests, heads, and limbs. Their helmets covered their scalps and included a face guard and transparent, presumably bullet resistant, material covering the area over their eyes. They carried weapons that roughly resembled assault rifles, complete with stocks and pistol grips, which fired some kind of projectile.
As similar as they were, there were a number of substantial differences.
For one thing, their armor was a uniform chrome color as opposed to the varied camouflage schemes the Marine Corps. utilized. The material beneath the armor was likewise different. Rather than the durable ballistic cloth laced with carbon nanotubes that marines wore, these figures seemed to be covered in some kind of black composite material. It was difficult to tell, as the material seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. Their weapons seemed to fire some kind of energy round that resembled tracer fire.
Most disturbing of all, however, were their eyes. Twin orbs of burning orange light shone from within their helmets, as if their eyes had been replaced with burning coals. The same orange light was visible at various other parts of their form, particularly the joints and seams of their armor.
They called out no orders or warnings to each other. There were no transmissions between them that the humans could detect. The closest the enemies came were some sort of strange rumbling and clicking sounds which could have been a type of language, but the translation software within the MJOLNIR armor couldn't make any sense of it.
Their movements were also odd. Their posture and the way they moved conveyed clear aggression and hostile intent, but there was something...off about them. Their movements were not as fluid as he would expect of a professional soldier, or even a properly functioning human body. Their steps were clumsy, and their adjustments to their aim were done with jerking motions that often brought them even further off target. It seemed like their bodies were being controlled by people that had observed humans fight, but hadn't really mastered control over their bodies. Everything about them was just slightly alien...uncanny.
All in all, they resembled a child's nightmare version of a UNSC Marine.
They were also attempting to kill Blue Team.
The Master Chief scowled as enemy fire blew away more of his cover. Their rounds were powerful, stronger than any human or Covenant primary infantry weapon he had ever seen, and none of the silicate rubble that had been created by the quake was capable of standing up to more than a few seconds of sustained fire. He was forced to keep moving just to avoid being blown apart.
Once he had sprinted to the nearest available cover, he risked a glance over at Dr. Halsey's prone form. He had told her to stay down and not move, hoping that the attackers would ignore her in favor of targeting the Spartans. He simply couldn't stay with her behind crumbling cover and there was no way to escort her out of the ruined mining pit without being gunned down in the process. They needed to eliminate these hostiles—fast.
The Master Chief crouched and moved out from the side of his cover. He fired upon one of the enemy combatants with short, controlled bursts. He noticed that whenever his rounds hit the enemy's armor, a spiderweb of cracks appeared. Upon closer observation he realized those cracks were composed entirely of straight lines and right angles, as if the armor was breaking into a grid. He also noticed, with considerable frustration, that the cracks disappeared after several seconds. The armor was composed of hard-light!
One of the enemies managed to hit him. The Chief's energy shield failed after only 2 strikes. He pivoted back into cover as fast as his augmented reflexes would allow him. Even so, another shot grazed his shoulder, searing a centimeter-deep gouge in the titanium-ceramic armor plate. If he weren't augmented, that round might have punched clean into his torso.
The Chief pulled the pin on 1 of his 2 remaining grenades and tossed it around his rapidly diminishing cover. Upon hearing the blast, he climbed up on the silicate to fire from above. He saw that the blast had forced part of 1 enemy's armor open at the shoulder seam. The Master Chief feathered the trigger of his assault rifle, placing several 2-shot bursts into the glowing seam.
The enemy the Chief had targeted jerked to a halt, seeming to suffer several full body spasms before the black material beneath his armor exploded in a fiery blast. The armor pieces only survived a moment before blinking out of existence. The parts of the enemy that were composed of solid matter burned in place, bright bits floating off before fizzling out like sparks from a fire.
Unfortunately, the Master Chief didn't have time to analyze his kill before the weakened block he was clinging to collapsed under him. He rolled upon hitting the ground in front of his former cover and rushed to the nearest mound of silicates. One of the enemies turned to target him. He knew he would never make it in time.
Just before the enemy could fire on the Chief, it's visor exploded. Bright sparks and orange, crystalline shards flew out in place of blood and gray matter. The enemy combusted and vanished as the Chief's kill had. He completed his sprint to his newest shelter. His energy shield fizzled back to life.
"I've got you covered, Blue Lead," Linda told him over the comms. Not for the first time, the Chief was grateful for Linda's exceptional aim.
"Blue Three, requesting assistance!" Kelly shouted over the comms. The Chief used his visor's Heads Up Display to locate his squadmate. She was currently crouched behind a small mound of silicates, being fired upon by a crowd of their new, bizarre enemies. There were no other bits of cover within easy reach. Fast as she was, she would be cut down if she tried to run.
"Blue Team, provide Blue Three with covering fire," the Master Chief ordered.
They all fired on Kelly's attackers. The Chief's and Fred's shots did little damage, but Linda's aim was as good as ever and she managed to kill 2 more of the enemies.
Kelly rushed out, sprinting to the nearest cover. Unfortunately, the enemy's aim seemed to be improving. Just before she could reach the relative safety of a small outcropping of silicates, enemy fire downed her shield. A shot grazed her hip. The Chief could see steam coming off the molted trench made in the armor plating.
Another shot hit right where she was about to step, causing her to stumble to the ground. Her half-ton weight combined with her running speed of 75+kph made any stumble potentially devastating. She bounced and rolled at least a dozen meters, pulverizing several small silicate mounds, before coming to a stop. She desperately crawled behind cover, her shotgun abandoned in the killzone.
This wasn't good. They were running out of cover. They were also rapidly burning though the ammo they had scavenged from the ONI research station. They needed to eliminate the remaining enemy soldiers, fast.
The Master Chief took stock of the situation. Blue Team was spread out among what, moments ago, had been a maze of 2 meter high silicate formations. Now it was a mostly empty clearing. The enemy was split into roughly 2 groups, 1 being 12 strong and the other 3 strong. Strangely there seemed to be little coordination between the enemy units. Perhaps they were poorly disciplined. This could work to his advantage.
He looked around his environment, trying to find anything that could give them an edge. He glanced up, noticing the damaged breaker the inert crane was in the middle of lifting out of the mining pit. Suddenly, he had an idea.
"Blue Team," he commed, "I'm going to try to lure them beneath that crane's load. Blue Two, shoot out the cable as soon as they're in position. Copy?" 3 acknowledgment lights winked on his HUD. Good.
The Master Chief threw his only remaining grenade at the smaller of the 2 groups. This had the double benefit of forcing them closer together...
And drawing their attention.
He dashed from cover to cover, sometimes sprinting, sometimes leaping and rolling to relative safety. He focused completely on running in the direction he needed to head in. He didn't think about his plan. Didn't think about stopping once he had passed the position. Didn't think about the Guardian. Certainly didn't think about glancing behind him to check they were still following.
The enemy fire shooting past all around him was proof enough that they were still on his heels.
In fact, he didn't think at all. He allowed his instincts to kick in and carry him toward his destination.
A lucky shot managed to down his shield once more. He poured even more energy into his sprint, forcing his screaming muscles to go even faster. Any moment now they would get another lucky shot and end his life...
A thunderous crash sounded behind him. All enemy fire stopped. Once behind the next piece of cover, the Master Chief slid to a halt, kicking up a cloud of silicates and digging a trench a quarter-meter deep with his booted feet.
The damaged breaker had indeed fallen into the crater. Its impact kicked up a powerful wind full of razor sharp silicates that swept over the former mining pit. Any unshielded human would have been shredded. Nervously, he checked the biomoniter feed from Dr. Halsey's hard-suit. Aside from the expected accelerated heart and breath rate, there were no detected abnormalities or suit breaches. Good.
There was a deafening silence once the silicate cloud settled. The Spartans kept their weapons trained on the last known location of the enemy. They each kept watch on the motion trackers displayed on their visors. A half-minute passed with no movement. A full minute passed. Then 5.
The Master Chief ordered Blue One to investigate. He would have sent Blue Three, as she was faster, but he didn't want to risk her until they had assessed any damage from her tumble.
Several minutes passed as Fred scoured the debris for any sign that their enemy had survived. The Master Chief could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Normally, this combat wouldn't bother him. The previous day's events, combined with Dr. Halsey's presence, must have put him more on guard.
"Blue One, no sign of enemy contact, over," Fred commed.
"Blue Team, sound off," the Master Chief ordered.
"Blue One, all clear."
"Blue Two, all clear."
"Blue Three, all clear."
"All clear confirmed," the Chief stated. "Blue One and Blue Three, converge on the VIP's position. Blue Two, remain on overwatch."
John, Fred, and Kelly converged on Dr. Halsey's location. The Chief helped the civilian up, the good doctor attempting to downplay how shaken she was. Upon seeing Kelly's armor, she immediately rushed over to give her daughter a thorough examination. Fortunately, there turned out to be no permanent or debilitating damage. The Chief was relieved.
Things had certainly gotten more complicated.
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Found you, Locke thought triumphantly.
He was currently looking at a remote feed from the frigate in orbit, the UNSC Emergence from Dusk. The feed was of one of the many mining sites that the now-deceased Governor Sloan was responsible for operating. More importantly, it showed a small group of figures within the site dressed in MJOLNIR power armor.
"Head to the Pelican, Osiris!" he ordered his subordinates. "We've got a location on our targets!"
On the way to the dropship, Locke received an alert from the Emergence from Dusk. Pulling it up on the interior of his visor, Locke saw something that almost made him stumble in shock.
A swarm of what were unmistakably attack ships was rising from the surface of Meridian and moving to engage the frigate.
The attackers were unlike anything he had ever seen. They were roughly 10 meters long by 8 meters wide. They were composed of what appeared to be a pointed central fuselage with a disc-shaped device attached to either side. The discs glowed an unearthly blue color and left a trail in the vehicles' wake, suggesting that they were some kind of propulsion mechanism. Rather than the shades of purple that characterized Covenant craft, or the burgundy that the Arbiter's forces now favored, these vehicles were colored a uniform chrome. Their design aesthetic matched neither the organic, bulbous shapes of alien craft nor the utilitarian edges and hard angles of human ships. Rather, they seemed to be a mix of the 2, with the rectangular fuselage being composed of hard edges and the 2 discs being housed in a bulbous apparatus. More distressingly, there were several devices that resembled canons attached to the underside of the fuselage. They resembled an alien knockoff of the UNSC's Hornet VTOL gunship, only with the turbofans replaced by glowing discs.
There were hundreds of them. Already he could see the frigate's point defenses struggling to hold them off. Dozens of the alien craft were vaporized by the defensive lasers, but for every 1 that fell, 2 seemed to surge forward to take its place. Locke saw 10 small craft launch from the frigate's hangar. The captain had apparently ordered the wing of Broadsword fighter/bombers to engage the enemy. He saw one of their Friend or Foe tags ping KIA before shutting down the feed.
Locke swore to himself. Hostiles had engages UNSC forces. His only space-born backup was being attacked by an enemy with vastly superior numbers. Human soldiers were already dying. Shit was going down out here.
But he had a mission to complete.
ONI Command had made it clear that the apprehension of Blue Team was to take priority over all other concerns. This included the defense of UNSC forces or even civilians. Additionally, he had been ordered to do nothing to interfere with the activation of the Guardian buried beneath Meridian's surface. ONI wanted their exhibition match.
As the Pelican took off, the pilot plotting a course to the mining site, Locke nearly growled in frustration. Human forces were under attack. If the frigate was forced to retreat, it would only be a matter of time before the unknown hostiles turned their attention to the colony itself. Locke had little affection for the Meridians, but they were still human. They were still the people he was supposed to keep safe. This was supposed to be his job.
Unfortunately, orders were orders. Blue Team needed to be apprehended for the greater good. If some people died in the meantime, well...that was the little picture. As the Pelican roared away from Meridian Station, Locke tried not to think of the people he had met there. Of that kid...Aiko.
Locke was an agent of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He would not let sentimentality get in the way of doing his job. He would do what was necessary, like he always did.
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"Blue Two to Blue Lead, we have additional hostiles, over."
The Master Chief bit back a groan. He had not truly expected that the small group they had destroyed composed the entirety of the enemy forces, but he had hoped that they had a bit more time before more showed up. He moved out of the bunker entrance that he and Dr. Halsey had stepped inside. The doctor was hard at work attempting to interface with the door to gain access to the complex itself.
"Copy, Blue Two. What are we looking at, over?" he commed.
"Blue Two, there's a large force of infantry, same type as before, accompanied by several land vehicles and what appears to be a gunship. I count at least 100 hostiles plus 20 vehicles, over," Linda responded.
Vehicles...
Linda continued after a moment. What she said confirmed his worst fears.
"Blue Two to Blue Lead, they appear to be prepping to move out. Orientation of vehicles suggests their destination is Meridian Station. Please advise, over."
There was no way Meridian Station would be able to fight off these enemies. Security had proven itself to be capable and disciplined during the riots, but these enemies were beyond them. Skilled as they were, few of the Security Officers had experience in actual warfare. Fred had reported that there was a surprising amount of military-grade weaponry in the station, but they were locked up under high security that would delay any response. Not to mention the fact that the enemy weaponry was so devastating and their armor so strong that the Spartans themselves had barely survived a single encounter. The station had numerous automated defenses, including anti-air and anti-infantry auto-turrets, but they were all under the control of Governor Sloan. If the inactive mining site was any indication, the Governor might not be available to authorize their activation. The colonists were outclassed and outgunned.
"Blue Team, ammo check," he ordered over the comms.
"Blue One, I'm down to 2 magazines for my DMR and 3 for my pistol," Fred reported.
"Blue Two, I've got 5 rounds left for my sniper and 3 mags for my pistol," Linda reported.
"Blue Three, I'm down to 3 rounds for my shotgun and 3 magazines for my pistol," Kelly reported.
The Master Chief himself was down to a half of a magazine for his assault rifle and 2 mags for his pistol. This wasn't good.
Looking over the battlefield, the Chief noticed one of the enemy assault rifle-analogues lying on the ground where its master had died. Moving over, he realized that not only did it have a stock and pistol grip, it had a human-like trigger as well.
It couldn't be, he thought.
The Chief moved toward one of the weapons. He placed a particularly heavy silicate boulder on the stock of the weapon. He looped a bit of micro-cable from his utility belt around the weapon's trigger and pulled experimentally. He didn't want to risk a booby trap taking off his arm. The weapon fired. Cautiously, he picked the weapon up and raised it to his shoulder. He pulled the trigger. The weapon fired, punching a neat hole in a thin outcropping of silicates.
The Master Chief was dumbfounded. Why would any force arm what were clearly combat drones with weaponry that an enemy could pick up and use against them? Why not just wire them directly into the drone's chassis? In fact, why make humanoid combat drones at all? Wouldn't flying drones be more practical? If they were worried about flying drones being too flimsy, armor typically having to be thinner to accommodate flight weight, why not place them on treads? Considering their armor was composed of weightless hard-light, even that explanation didn't hold up.
The utility of using the alien weapon was somewhat diminished by the uncertainty of how many shots remained in it. Upon thinking of ammunition, the Chief suddenly had the distinct impression that if he applied pressure to a small circle located on the side of the weapon, an ammunition port would open. He pushed the button. True to his instinct, a small piece of the weapon popped up, enabling something to be inserted. The Chief was suddenly reminded of the rack of small cylinders he had seen located just inside the bunker entrance. It seemed these weapons, like many pieces of Covenant equipment, was mildly psychic to cut down on training time. Again, he was baffled. Why would drones need training?
"Blue Team, police enemy weapons," he ordered. Unfortunately, they were only able to locate one more of what they dubbed 'light rifles'. The rest had either been buried by the impact cloud or incinerated with their masters. He assigned 1 to Kelly and 1 to himself, they being the worst off in regard to ammunition. As much as this helped, 2 guns wouldn't turn the tide against an enemy force the size they were facing.
Strategically, the smart move would be to conceal themselves and hope the enemy left without noticing them. However, the Chief couldn't bring himself to leave the people of Meridian to their fate. They were human beings, citizens of the UEG, and it was his duty to protect them. Besides, he had grown rather fond of the people there...
So, they didn't have a chance in a stand-up fight. He doubted they would be able to pull a stunt similar to his trick with the crane, either. Perhaps they didn't need to be the ones to engage them. There were UNSC forces present on the world now, after all. The Chief sent a message to their stealth satellite in orbit. The satellite would relay the message concerning the new enemy to the frigate, which should then respond to the threat. The message would allow the UNSC to find the satellite, but that was a necessary sacrifice.
Responding to the message would take time, however, and the Chief didn't want to risk the enemies reaching Meridian Station before the UNSC could respond. Perhaps if they could just delay them...
"Blue Lead to VIP, over," he commed.
"Yes, John, I read you," Dr. Halsey responded. The Chief winced behind his visor. The doctor must truly be shaken to forget using codenames. He decided it wouldn't accomplish anything to berate her over it.
"I'm considering drawing the enemy's attention to buy time for Meridian Station. Is this an acceptable course of action, ma'am?" he asked. If Dr. Halsey was going to be his guiding light, he needed to seek her approval in this.
There was a delay in the doctor's response. "I believe that would be the moral thing to do, if that's what you're asking," she replied hesitantly. The Chief took that as approval, attributing her odd tone to nerves.
"Do you think you could lock the door again after you open it?" he asked. If they drew the enemy's attention and then retreated into the complex, the enemy would spend precious time attempting to follow them.
"Possibly," the doctor responded. "But I warn you that my ability to control these systems is limited. Additionally, it is entirely possible that those...entities are products of this very facility. Their control over the system could well be superior to my own."
"I understand, doctor. Please do what you can. Blue Lead, out," he said.
Once again, the Master Chief scanned his environment to find any possible advantage. He paused upon noticing one particular piece of equipment.
I have an idea.
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The Master Chief and Fred aimed their weapons at the enemy. They were covering Kelly, who was creeping closer to the enemy force. The Chief had hesitated to use her, considering what had happened in the last fight, but she had assured him that she was fully combat ready.
"Besides," she had told him, "I owe these guys some payback."
The Chief kept an eye on the enemy vehicles, keeping particular note of the gunship hovering over the area. If it was as deadly as the AV-14 Hornet it resembled, they would have to act fast to avoid being slaughtered.
Kelly reached her position. The enemy force was in the former pit, separated from the bunker entrance by a massive wall of silicates formed by the quake. Kelly had reached them through a narrow chasm through said wall.
"Blue Team, confirm readiness, over," the Chief commed. 3 acknowledgment lights winked on his HUD.
"Execute," he ordered.
Kelly jumped out of cover and threw a rocky silicate at the enemy, beaning one of them on the head. They turned to her. Kelly flipped them off, turned around, and sprinted toward the bunker entrance.
Wonder where she picked that up, he thought, firing through the chasm at the enemy. Predictably, the enemy returned fire and kept coming.
The enemy's aim was as erratic as ever. Some shots came perilously close to inflicting lethal blows, while others were wildly off target. The Spartans, by contrast, fired with precision and discipline. The light rifle rounds proved far more effective than his assault rifle. The Chief managed to down 3 enemies by the time he noticed the gunship orienting on Kelly's position.
His blood ran cold. A gunship was likely to have targeting algorithms and guided weaponry. Kelly didn't stand a chance.
C'mon, c'mon...
There was a bright flash from the rim of the pit. The gunship was struck by an invisible blow. It was sliced in two as if an enormous scalpel had been applied to it. Parts of it exploded in fire or blinked out of existence.
For the second time that day, the Master Chief thanked whatever gods there were for Linda's almost supernatural aim. Only she could have shot a moving aircraft out of the sky with a mining laser.
The enemy infantry poured through the chasm. Only 20 or so managed to get through before the opening was clogged with enemy vehicles rushing to engage. The Chief marveled at their lack of discipline.
"Blue Two, target the chasm," he ordered. An acknowledgment light winked on his HUD.
Suddenly, the top of the chasm broke off, sliced apart by the invisible laser. The vehicles and what few infantry were stuck with them were crushed by the falling debris.
"Blue Two, falling back to entrance, over," Linda commed. She would rappel down the side of the cliff, her purpose above fulfilled.
The enemy infantry already on Blue Team's side of the wall continued to push forward. Either they hadn't noticed their comrades' fate or, more likely, they were incapable of caring. The Spartans fell back into the facility. Once under the cover of the entrance, the Chief used his neural implant to send a signal without taking his hands off of his weapon.
A blast sounded above them. An avalanche of debris crashed down upon the entrance, the demolition charges they had set in the side of the pit burying the entrance and crushing several of their enemies. Dr. Halsey closed and locked the door, hoping that it would provide an additional delay.
"Alright, Blue Team, move out," the Master Chief ordered. "We've got no time to waste."
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"Okay, just what in the hell were those things?" Spartan Buck asked.
He was referring to the bizarre infantry and land vehicles Osiris had just eliminated from the ruined mining pit. The enemy had fired some sort of energy weapon at their Pelican, but fortunately the dropship's rockets and chin gun had made short work of them. Fireteam Osiris was currently picking their way through the rubble at the bottom of the pit, making their way toward the entrance that the enemy had apparently been excavating.
"Unknown, Osiris 3," Locke said, calling Buck by his call sign. "Focus on the mission. Let the boys in orbit worry about these new hostiles." The Spartan IVs moved into the entrance, finding it securely locked. Locke applied the hacking programs in his suit, specifically the ones designed to interface with Forerunner systems. ONI Command had known he was likely to encounter such an obstacle.
Judging by the readings of explosive residue his armor had picked up, Locke surmised that the entrance was buried after the quake had devastated the area. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was responsible. Locke estimated that Blue Team had maybe a 10 minute lead on them.
The door obediently opened. Locke ordered his subordinates to move into the complex. He glanced back out, looking up at the bright flashes of the battle taking place in orbit. Suddenly, his visor became completely opaque, the system automatically cutting off his vision to prevent him from being blinded by a flash. Locke immediately tried to comm the Emergence from Dusk...and received only a dead line.
The battle in orbit had been lost.
The memories of the Human-Covenant War came rushing back to him. This was just like so many of the battles that had taken place in that devastating conflict. Humanity had acquitted itself well on the ground, but in space they were simply unable to compete. And whoever owned space, owned the planet.
Locke banished those thoughts. Those days were over. The Infinity was on its way. These enemies, whoever or whatever they were, would not last much longer. As he saw re-entry trails heading toward Meridian Station, he realized that that would be little comfort to the colonists.
Locke was tempted...sorely tempted...to recall the Pelican and rush towards the colony. He couldn't win this battle, but he could try to save who he could.
Locke banished those thoughts as well. He had his orders. And no one defied ONI...no one who wanted to go on living, that is. He moved into the complex after his team, grateful that none of them had seen what he had just witnessed. They were right on the cusp of completing their objective.
Almost showtime, Locke thought to himself, grimacing behind his polarized visor.
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"It should only take a few minutes to interface with the Forerunner systems," Dr. Halsey said.
They were all in a large room deep within the complex. They were currently standing on a raised platform on the opposite side of the door they had entered the room through. Sticking out of the wall was what was unmistakably a computer console beneath what he presumed was a large viewscreen. The entrance was also raised above the floor, and there were several other such platforms spread around the room.
The floor in question was filled with what looked for all the world like works of modern art. Bizarre, abstract shapes were combined in alien arrangements. Some were so thin the Chief struggled to focus on them. Some were so long they formed impromptu walls, each side of which were adorned with Forerunner hieroglyphs. The 3D images were so complex they threatened to give him a headache.
Some works appeared to be a form of statue; they were humanoid, although much taller than any human being. The Chief estimated they were roughly 2.5 meters in height. Were these depictions of the Forerunners? The Chief had always wondered if the only Forerunners he had seen, the Didact and the deceased Librarian, were representative of the rest of their kind. If the statues were of other Forerunners, they were not very illuminating, as the figures appeared to be covered in full body suits. From what he could tell, everything in the room, the floor, walls, and ceiling included, was composed of hard-light.
Basically, the place was a tactical nightmare. A dozen enemies could hide in the maze beneath them, popping up to take potshots at them before ducking back into cover. At least they had the high ground...
The only door into the room opened unexpectedly. Blue Team spread out along the control platform, taking cover behind the solid waist-high safety wall. At least this cover would likely last longer than the silicates.
A moment passed, with nothing entering the room. At least, nothing visible. The Chief saw a whisper blip on his motion tracker before vanishing. He had seen such readings during the War...
"Cloaked target, switch to thermal vision," the Chief ordered. Back during the War, one of the weaknesses of Covenant stealth technology was that it tended to generate a lot of heat. Human stealth tech had reduced this weakness, but they hadn't been able to eliminate it completely. With their advanced scanners and augmented vision, the Spartan IIs should have no trouble spotting their assailant.
A trio of Spartan IVs walked into the room. They had their hands raised, weaponless.
"Keep an eye out for their cloaker," the Chief ordered over their private comm channel. He received 3 acknowledgment lights.
"So...you're Blue Team, I presume?" the one in front, presumably the leader, said awkwardly. "Name's Locke. I'm the leader of Fireteam Osiris. We've been looking for you guys..."
"Order your stealth unit to reveal themself," the Chief demanded, keeping his light rifle aimed at the leader. "Then we can talk."
The so-called Locke shook his head. "Afraid I can't do that, Master Chief. You all need to stand down. Contrary to what the good doctor may have told you, she is not, I repeat not, on a sanctioned mission. She's lead you down a path for her own purposes. The UNSC has a plan to deal with the Guardians. Her work will only interfere with that. Please...lower your weapons."
The Master Chief examined Locke more closely. Apparently the fireteam leader was under the impression that Halsey had tricked them into going AWOL. As he examined the Spartan IV, he noticed a particular emblem emblazoned on the man's chest: a black circle within a pyramid, set against a plain background. The all-seeing eye of ONI.
John suppressed a growl. This man was the enemy.
"I hate to break this to you, Agent Locke," he said, deliberately replacing 'Spartan' with the title of an ONI operative, "but we already knew that."
The body language of the Fireteam members indicated utter shock.
"Then why are you following her?" one of the other Spartans, the one in red, organic-looking armor, asked.
The Chief suppressed the anger that threatened to seep into his voice. Seeing the physical representation of the organization that had recently turned his world upside down was really making it difficult to stay in control.
"We're following her," he answered, "because we trust her more than the people who give you orders. Now tell your cloaker to step into the light!"
There was a pause. Neither side spoke. Neither side moved. The silence seemed to stretch into eternity...
A green blast flew out from below Blue Team and struck Linda. Her shield was instantly downed and her armor partially locked up. She cried out in pain. The moment's distraction was all Osiris needed. The Spartan IVs drew their weapons and took cover.
The battle was joined.
And more dominoes fall...
Note: As I'm sure you noticed, the Forerunner Soldiers are very different, in appearance and behavior, than they are in the game. This is partially due to my opinion that having Forerunner enemies is silly, as I expressed in the last chapter's notes. Some reviewers have made admittedly good points about why they make sense. Eh...I'm still not convinced. No offense intended. That's just how I see it. Besides, I think having the enemies attacking Meridian resemble a nightmare version of their Inner Colony oppressors is great from a thematic standpoint.
Note: The light rifle only now being usable is a retcon of Halo 4, wherein all of the Forerunner weapons are usable. This bothered me for the reasons the Chief describes above. I understand gameplay and story segregation is not always a bad thing, but I figured since a text story doesn't have that problem I might as well have some fun with it here.
Note: So, more action. I tried to make the Spartans badass but vulnerable. One of the most common problems I see in Halo fanfic is that the author makes the Spartans invincible. It's hard to get invested in a battle if the enemies can't even touch the heroes. Feedback?
Note: I swear I can feel some of you shouting in outrage at this cliffhanger ending. It makes me smile...No, I'm not not a sadist. Honest :P Seriously, though, I'll try to get the next chapter out soon and make it satisfying.
Thanks for reading. Love you guys.
Slipspace Anomaly