Chapter CXIV: Mother
February 15, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/
UNSC Inconvenience, in orbit above New Lagos, Miridem, Zeta Lupus System
"You're the perfect height...to kiss my ass."- anonymous UNSC serviceman
"So here's the deal," I said, slamming my hands on the holotable for effect and to get the attention of my squad. "Local government prepared for evacuation but didn't get it started until now, dumbest fucking decision they could've made, but at least things are proceeding quicker than usual. Marine complements are protecting the evacuation ports while the Army delays the Covenant forces on the ground. A Helljumper platoon was deployed to protect an ONI base while they retrieve all valuable information, that'll take a while."
"Will we be joining the ODST platoon?" Snark asked, cleaning his rifle.
"Negative," I shook my head. "Our mission is not that simple."
"It never is," the small man sighed.
Pavel chuckled lightly. Like the rest of the squad, he was fully armored up except for the helmet. He was busy checking his ACS, making sure that the magazine port was free of obstructions and that every little piece was exactly where it should be. I noticed that he had made some upgrades for the weapon. He had cut off the stock and made the barrel a whole lot shorter. The gun itself was about as long as an SMG with collapsed stocks. He had replaced the barrel and stock with collapsible pieces that went around the shotgun itself, making it look like a large brick when it was in its collapsed state. He could strap it to his back whenever he used his machine gun and have no restriction to his movement. The gun would change to regular size as he drew it. In that state the ACS looked pretty much like it had when I had given it to him.
The whole shebang must've cost him two month's worth of salary.
"We've been tasked with locating, retrieving, and escorting a VIP. I know, I know, stop your groaning. Civilian consultant 409871, codename Charlie Hotel is of interest to Naval Intelligence, so we're going in after her." As I said that the holotable displayed a hologram of Charlie Hotel. She was, according to the information that we had been given, 5 feet 7 inches tall, roughly as tall as Grass. The VIP weighed 125 pounds, had black hair that was currently dyed blonde, and gray-blue eyes. She was a good-looking woman. The fact that she didn't look her fifty-two years of age was a telltale clue as to her profession. ONI consultants usually moved from one place to another all the time, spending most their lives in slipspace and cryo. Our target didn't look one day over thirty-five.
I continued talking. "Our target's name is Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, we will not refer to her by name more than once, only after she identifies herself, am I clear?"
"Crystal."
"Very good, Charlie Hotel was doing some research of sorts in an ONI installation separate to the main headquarters in Miridem. She was last heard of in New Lagos, her entire protection was killed by a Covenant company. Apparently she locked herself underground when she couldn't make it to the nearest evacuation port. The covvies gave up on breaching her bunker and left to do covvie stuff."
"I assume that enemy presence is still heavy," Bumblebee said, checking both tubes on his Spanker.
"You assume correctly," I told him.
"For once," Snark muttered under his breath.
"Quiet," I went on. "New Lagos is currently being contested by the Army and several regiment's worth of Covenant infantry. Our target is behind enemy lines."
"Ok, so we go in and get her, sounds simple enough," Caboose said. "How do we get out?"
I nodded thoughtfully at his question. "Covenant have air superiority, so an air-evac is out of the question, we won't even have any kind of close air support. A small column of Armadillos and Warthogs is supposed to punch through the enemy lines and head directly to our position, Charlie Hotel will be shoved into one of the AFV and then we'll return to safety."
"So they just punch through one point and bypass everything to the sides, effectively surrounding themselves?" Angel scoffed. "Good luck."
"We do that on a regular basis," Grass reminded him sharply.
"Yeah, difference is, we're good at it," the Italian replied, letting her know exactly what his thoughts on the UNSC Army's capabilities were.
"It doesn't matter," I said, "we'll do our job an they'll do theirs."
"When do we drop?" Pavel asked.
"Now," I replied. "Eliza, please inform Captain Brooks that we're ready."
"Just did Francisco," the AI replied, materializing next to the hologram of our VIP in question. "Good luck down there."
"And you up here," I said. "We wouldn't want to lose our only way off of the planet."
Eliza actually chuckled. "I think you'd just miss me too much."
"Keep wishing," I retorted. "Ok, Reaper, grab your gear, we're going in pretty light, no canteens, water or otherwise, I only want energy bars and combat stimulants. Two cans of biofoam each. Grass, you're acting medic, take some heavy meds in case someone needs patching up."
"Got it."
"Nice," Schitzo said. "You should've thought about having the only member of the squad that actually has some corpsman training pack a med-kit before you actually lost one of the squad. Aces."
I ignored the manifestation of my subconscious and loaded a magazine into my rifle, I pulled back the cocking mechanism, feeding one bullet into the chamber and then ejected the magazine so that I could shove one more bullet inside. That way I had one more bullet than I was supposed to. It only worked on the first magazine, you don't usually have time to do the whole process when you're being shot at by crazy elites. I slung the rifle over my back, making sure the magnetic clamps were working fine, and then drew it again before shoving it in its quick-draw compartment.
"Caboose, Bumblebee, I want you to take M7s, Bee, you can just use your M6J."
"Finally, it's been ages since I used that thing," he replied happily before reaching to his weapon's bench and grabbing his old carbine. "Missed you girl."
"Yeah, don't get used to it, special circumstances."
"How come you let everyone else pick their weapons?" he asked me, obviously not happy that he didn't get to take his favorite gun.
"Because everybody else picks decent weapons," Snark snarked. "Take me for example, M400 Enhanced Marksman Rifle. It packs the same 9.5mm ammunition that the good 'ol BR55 does, only it has greater muzzle velocity. It is accurate, reliable, and most importantly, can actually kill an elite without the need to reload."
"I feel like you're overcompensating about something..."
Ouch.
To his credit, Snark seemed unfazed by the insult to his height. It's not like he was short, in fact, he was slightly above average, but in a squad composed entirely of men that were 6 feet or taller and a chick that was tall on her own right, you could feel like your height was a wee bit under the average.
Ooooh, wait, he was talking about his penis. Now I get it.
"You can pull them out and compare sizes later," Pavel jumped in.
Now that I think back to it, his comment makes a lot more sense in penile context.
"You heard him," I agreed. "We're going in…and how exactly do we go?"
"We go feet first Gunnery Sergeant!"
"Ah, that feels good," I said to myself, smiling weakly. "Helmets on and inside the pods. Eliza, we're good to go."
"Of course Francisco."
I climbed inside the pod, leaning back on the cushions and gripping the handles tightly. I let go and cracked my knuckles to calm myself down. I got the feeling that I got every time I climbed inside my drop pod. It had gotten worse ever since that faulty jump back on Aztlan. At least Schitzo didn't climb in with me.
My stomach lurched as the pod left the ship itself and, by extension, gravity. Space was awfully dark as we tumbled down towards Miridem. The pod glided smoothly through the gravity-less environment for a few seconds before it started shaking as we broke through the troposphere of the planet, the lead foil absorbing all the heat from compressing air in front of us. We hit the mesosphere almost immediately and then the pod lurched again once we hit the troposphere. At an altitude of 3000 feet the panels on top of our HEVs broke off, slowing the speed of our little meteors considerably. The ground was beginning to come at me awfully fast, but there was nothing to indicate that my pod would crash.
"Rockets," I whispered to myself.
Nailed it.
"That's a ten," Schitzo told me complimentarily from outside my pod. He banged a couple of times on the hatch when I didn't answer before shrugging. I let the huge metal hatch fall right on top of him to shut him the hell up.
"You know the drill," I voiced out almost lazily.
My team converged on my position, everybody had their weapons ready and was checking their surroundings as they jogged towards me. We had purposely landed on a collapsed building, it had fallen due to enemy artillery fire and it was still putting out smoke. While I had no doubt that our pods must've been spotted on the way down, it would be pretty hard for any covvie to see us through all the thick smoke. On the downside, we couldn't see them either.
"Everybody ok?"
"Reaper-2 good," Pavel said.
"Rea-"
"Ok, ok, I can see that you're all fine," I interrupted Bumblebee. "Let's get moving, target is two clicks off."
My squad polarized their helmets as one before settling into line. Snark and I were at the back. Theoretically, if we encountered an enemy head on, our long-range weapons would serve to keep them at bay while the rest of the squad moved forward to cover. In practice it was more likely that we would be attacked from anywhere but the front, that was especially true in a situation like this, when we were behind enemy lines.
"Target left," Grass called out from point. "Grunt, taking it out." She fired a short burst, presumably hitting the grunt. "Tango down. Damn it, why did I say that?"
"You've been watching too many of Bee's flicks," Angel told her matter-of-factly. "I think we all have."
"If you like them so much I don't understand why you complain about them," the man in question replied. "I mean, you must've watched Black Hawk Down a hundred times."
"Is it true that those guys are our predecessors?" Pavel asked. "I mean, I have a hard time believing that large numbers of troops could be deployed on rotor craft."
"Helicopters," Grass informed him. "We still have those, you know?"
"Yeah, yeah, but I mean, special forces in the past were kinda lame."
"I'm sorry that the twentieth century scientists couldn't come up with a more romantic way of inserting troops into the battlefield," Angel deadpanned. "I truly am."
"Well, I am," Snark spoke out. "If they had we could be teleporting into the battlefield by now for all I know."
"Kid's got a point," I agreed.
"Sarge, you're barely four years older than I am, I don't understand why you call me kid."
I suppressed a giggle. "I'm supposed to, I'm the tough sergeant that treats all the squad members like kids, constantly patronizing you and saving your lives."
"I couldn't think of a worse person suited for that role Sarge," Grass informed me. "No offense."
"Besides, it's a good thing you're not a Sergeant Rock, those usually end up dead by the end of the movie."
"That is yet to be seen," I let out with a sigh.
The sudden change in the tone of the conversation left us all feeling a little bit uneasy. We all knew that we would die and we all knew that it was highly likely that we would die on a battlefield. It didn't mean that we were comfortable talking about it; our own mortality wasn't exactly a prospect that we liked to face.
"Four lane street up ahead," Caboose warned us. I could see the street on the minimap in my helmet, but actually seeing the thing was better than a couple of lines in a holographic display on my helmet's visor. "Smoke cover becomes thinner," Caboose went on. "I suggest we sprint it."
"Hold up," I ordered. I made my way towards Caboose's position. He was crouching behind a stone bench, peeking over. Grass was hanging back a couple of meters, squatting next to a piece of debris that had somehow made it all the way over here from the building.
"Couple of cars for cover," Caboose told me, "not much else though."
"M-hm," I muttered. "This is a perfect sniper alley," I thought out loud. "Any halfway-decent commander would place a machine gun nest or a couple of snipers over there or over there."
Caboose nodded in agreement. "My bet's on that side, when the covvies first marched in they came from the east, it makes more sense that they'd occupy those buildings first."
"Yeah." I thought to myself for a second. "All right, Grass, Bee, you two go first. Angel, I want you to go two seconds after they do, ok?"
"Molto bene," Angel agreed.
"I fail to see what's good about it, but suit yourself," Grass chastised him.
"Snark, hang out back, can your thermal scope punch through the smoke?" I asked.
"Probably, it's mostly dust in here, hot smoke was back there. No promises though."
"Fair enough," I shrugged. "Pavel, I want you to set up where Grass is located, if you see any plasma flashes I want you to throw everything you've got at them, suppress their fire."
"You're the boss," my friend grunted.
"Go," I ordered once everyone was in position.
Grass sprinted ahead with Bumblebee running right beside her. I counted to two before I gave the sign for Angel to follow. About halfway through a plasma turret started firing on them. The initial barrage was wildly inaccurate and didn't hit anywhere near Grass or Bee, but a second later the gunner got control of the gun and fired a burst that flew awfully close to Angel. The man dropped to the ground and kicked furiously until he was behind a car lying on its side.
"Fuck," he said simply.
"Grass, you see him?" I asked.
"Yeah, building at the end of the street, second floor, can't make out the gun or the gunner."
A red circle appeared on my HUD, pinpointing the rough location of the enemy plasma cannon. I knew that the same circle would appear on all of my squad's HUDs. As soon as anyone spotted another covvie the helmet's software would send the alien's location to the rest of our helmets and a red dot would appear on our minimap. It made fighting in urban environments easier.
"Plasma cannon by the sound of it," Pavel voiced his opinion out.
"Yup," I nodded. "Pound away my friend."
"Oh, I'm gonna pound the hell of that bastard."
My friend squeezed the trigger of his M247L. As opposed to the smaller, weaker M247SAW that Angel preferred, this gun made a lot more noise and wasn't nearly as accurate. I couldn't tell where Pavel's rounds were hitting, but it was enough to draw the gunner's attention, a second later plasma fire started raining down in our direction.
"Caboose, make a run for it," I ordered. "Snark, you got a bead on him?"
"Negative, thermal's scratchy, I can't fire without giving myself away."
"Can't you aim for the muzzle flashes?" Pavel asked. He was probably feeling a wee bit frustrated now that it was him that was pinned behind cover with plasma hitting all around him.
"Angel?"
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "I'm on it." He started firing his own weapon at the muzzle flashes from the covvie weapon. Unlike Pavel he actually stuck to what he was taught to do and fired in short five to ten round bursts. It made his already accurate weapon a lot more precise and conserved ammunition.
"Snark, make your way across, farther down the street. Maybe then you can get your eyes on that bastard."
"Roger, roger," he replied.
"Star Wars," Bee noted, "Nice."
"Yeah, I even made the robot voice."
"Get to it, will ya?" Angel pressed. Now it was him who was pinned behind cover. Again.
"Pavs?"
"You know, you don't have to give us orders for absolutely everything, you know? I mean, we're grownups and have gone through this more than enough times, we can handle ourselves."
"You said you know twice," I deadpanned.
After about half a minute of Pavel and Angel taking turns diving behind cover and taking quick potshots at the enemy nest Snark finally checked in. "Found a spot," he informed us. Three shots rang out in quick succession. The stream of plasma suddenly shot to the side and up before it ceased completely. The red dot on my HUD disappeared immediately. "And that's why they call me the problem solver," Snark boasted.
"Nobody calls you that," Bumblebee reminded him.
"Well, they could."
"Quiet, let's get moving. Someone probably heard all that noise. Expect Phantoms or search parties."
"Frank, I just told you-"
"Pavel, will you kindly shut the fuck up and walk across the street? Thank you."
I crossed the street in a sprint after Pavel did the same thing and joined my team. The smoke and dust form the collapsed building was still thick, but we could now see more than fifty meters ahead. We were next to several identical housing buildings. They were perhaps about five stories tall from the look of it, but the top faded away with all the smoke.
"You thinking about roof-hopping?" Grass questioned.
"Yup," I admitted. "What do you think?"
"M-me?"
I rolled my eyes. "Grass…"
"I'm flattered, you never ask me for my opinion on these things."
"I think never is stretching it a bit," Pavel pointed out.
Grass coughed and then cleared her throat, taking one hand to the back of her neck and pressing hard on the fabric protecting it, as if to scratch an itch away. "We might be spotted if we go roof hopping," she stated, "but it does decrease the likelihood of finding patrols significantly, we'd probably just have to deal with a couple of jackal sharpshooters. Window to window would be safer, but it's hard to do that."
"Tell me about it," I agreed, remembering an incident where I jumped from a roof to a window just to show off and ended up facing a startled jackal sniper.
Pavel chuckled. "That was a good one. I still have the recording, you know?"
"What are you talking about?" Angel requested. "Sounds interesting."
"It's not," I assured him.
"At least not that much," Pavel added snidely.
I groaned. "Ok Grass, rooftops or not?"
"What happens if you all get killed and I don't because of this decision?"
Pavel took a step towards her and slammed his hand on her shoulder, pushing her forward. "You get to live the rest of your life knowing that you made the worst possible decision and that it cost your best friends' lives."
Grass thought about it for exactly two seconds. "Meh, I can live with that."
"Rooftops it is then," I announced. "Pavel, toss me your M247, I want you and Caboose with your shotguns out, clear the rooms." I looked at the rest of the squad. "Angel and Grass, you'll go half a flight of stairs up and down and keep watch on the corners, aight?"
"What about me and Bee?" Snark asked me.
"You stay on the floor's hall on standby, ready to help if anyone asks."
"Sounds easy enough," Pavel admitted. He tossed me his M247L and drew his shotgun, pulling back the stock and barrel before cocking it loudly. Caboose just slung his MA5K over his shoulder and drew his M90, checking the sights before positioning himself next to a side door to the building.
"Go ahead," I said.
Caboose nodded at Pavel before taking half a step back and kicking the door in. I could've pointed that he didn't even bother checking if the lock was off, but I probably would've kicked down the door just in case.
The two men disappeared inside the building and were quickly followed by Grass and Angel, the rest of us walked after them our weapons high and ready for surprises. It took all of thirty seconds for the ground floor of the building to be declared clear.
"On to the next one," I ordered. "Go, go, go."
"Clear," Pavel announced.
"Clear," Caboose echoed.
"Clear, clear, and clear," Pavel informed us in a sing-along voice. "Let's move up and get this over with.
The two men flashed by Snark, Bee, and me before climbing the flight of stairs three at a time. Angel switched from aiming up to aiming down while Grass ran up to the third floor and then some so that she was aiming up at the fifth floor entrance. The rest of us moved up at a calmer pace, actually taking the steps one by one. By the time we got up Pavel and Caboose had already cleared their sides of the house. If there weren't any covvies in here it was unlikely that there would be any in the last floor.
"Clear," Caboose finally declared after doing a thorough check on the last floor.
"Good, we can go up," I stated. "Me and…Snark go first, if we see any marksmen we can take them out quickly."
"I'm ready," Snark told me.
I nodded and climbed the last flight of stairs that lead to the roof. Snark looked at me and took position next to the door. I grabbed the handle and shook it, it was locked. I then tried tapping the panel on the side but the thing was out of commission. I took a half a step back and launched a kick at the door. The door itself was metal, but the frame was old, hell it wasn't even polycrete. The kick tore two of the hinges from the wall and left the door hanging slightly. A second kick remedied the situation and had the door on the floor.
"Clear right," Snark said.
"Clear left," I called out.
I turned around and spotted two stunned skirmishers with needle rifles. I raised my rifle and fired one shot at each of them in turn. I'm not usually one to brag (yes I am), but I fired the two shots in less than half a second. Both were solid headshots and both jackals collapsed in the same manner on the floor before they could even react to our presence in their rooftop.
"Nice," Snark admitted.
"I aim to please," I informed him. "Scan the area for other snipers and take them out," I ordered immediately after. "Everyone else, I want you up here now."
"How far's the other rooftop?" Pavel asked after everyone had climbed up and placed themselves behind cover.
"Three meters," Grass said, "Maybe two and a half, but I'm certain it's not more than three."
"How would you know?" Angel asked her. "You haven't even peeked over."
"These are not pre-built buildings, but most colonies have some sort of housing plans for whenever they develop enough infrastructure. They're all pretty similar because they're based after the same model, buildings are never any further apart than four meters, in urban areas like this that number reduces itself to three."
"Hate to break it to you Anges," Snark said, "but the woman's right. She usually is."
"See?"
"I don't understand why you're proud of that," Angel grunted.
"He-"
"Stop it," I snapped. "Snark?"
"Looks clear from here," he replied.
"Ok, go, hoppity-hop people."
You know, this time things went rather well. We hopped across ten buildings in an orderly fashion, one by one. Snark and I would go first and last to give the rest of the non-long-range squad some degree of protection from a stable position. Twice we had to wait out patrols below. We were in prime ambush positions, but we didn't really want to be spotted.
"Row of buildings ends here," Snark announced.
"I see that," I told him. "Kinda standing next to you."
"Sorry Sarge, Pavel was all up on your ass for pointing out obvious shit, so I thought I might take some of the heat."
"You literally set me up for that after you came up with it, didn't you?"
"Yup," he admitted freely.
"How long did it take you?"
"Not that long actually, as soon as we jumped for the first time I got the idea."
"Ass."
"Next move?" Pavel asked
"Ok, you seriously can't complain because I order you around so much," I groaned. "I mean, what would you do in this situation?"
"Uh, go downstairs, I guess?"
I pointedly stared in his direction until he got the hint and opened the door that lead downstairs. "Well what are you waiting for?" I asked the rest of the team.
"I feel like this is a 'surrounded by idiots' moment," Schitzo suggested.
"One kilometer," I said, "eyes open, I don't want to be caught in some ambush."
The building was clear, we made sure of it and then left it behind. The rest of the way was a little bit tougher. We were immediately outside of the ONI installations; they were walled off and had barbed wire on top of that. More importantly though, there were two Wraiths and a platoon of covvies inside.
"Angel," I looked at him. "I want you to toss a charge into one of the Wraiths, you got it?"
"Sure thing boss."
"Bee, you're taking care of the other one."
"Two rockets should suffice," he assured me.
"Everyone else, we go through the main entrance, blast our way through, create a distraction."
"Now that's my kind of deal," Pavel boasted.
"Yeah, yeah, let's go."
I stuck close to the wall while Angel and Bumblebee cut the barbed wire on top. They'd be hopping over it, finding a decent position near enough one of the Wraiths while we got near the door.
"There, jackal, on the watchtower."
"It doesn't see us," I said.
"Want me to take it out?" Snark asked.
"Not just yet, keep your sights on it."
"Done."
We made our way towards the entrance and stopped a dozen of meters from it. There was a security box directly ahead of us. The windows were broken and there didn't seem to be anything hostile inside, but I couldn't be sure. I raised my fist for my team to stay where they were and very slowly moved towards the edge of the window. I drew my pistol and held my rifle by the rail. I took a deep breath and popped from the side, aiming inside the security box.
"Clear," I called out quietly. "Come on, we can go through here."
I jumped over and made sure that I didn't disturb the corpse of one of the security guards. He had been hit right in the chest by several needle rounds. He was missing a large portion of his torso and the floor around him was littered with blood and bits of gore, he had a stunned expression on his face. The man's partner was lying two feet away from the entrance to the box, her left hand was outstretched as if reaching for the door's handle. She had a hole the size of an apple running through her chest, probably caused by a beam rifle judging from the small amount of blood.
"Damn," Angel whistled. "Really did a number on these two."
"We've seen worse," Caboose reminded him grimly.
I decided to ignore the two of them. "Snark, still have the jackal?" I asked.
"Yup, right in my crosshairs."
"Angel, Bee, you in position?"
"Just about," Angel replied, "I can go whenever you go Sarge."
I nodded to myself and signaled for Pavel and Grass to go to the room's entrance. Caboose was left behind with Snark in case something tried to strike from behind. The three of us opened the door slowly to reveal a scorched courtyard. ONI was always one for fancy buildings, and this time it was no exception. The pretty gardens were all but scorched, but the sculptures were still there and some of the fountains still worked.
"Pavel, there," I ordered. "Grass, over there."
I pressed my back against the wall as my two squad mates dove towards their respective pieces of Cover. Pavel ended up behind a black sphere floating on a base with water.
"A kugel ball, really?"
"It frightens me that you know how this shit's named," Pavel huffed. "Really, it does."
"Can it," I ordered. "Pavs, I want you to spray that group of elites over to the right? Got it?"
"Can do boss," he said in a faux southern accent. Southern United States, that is. Or Central URNA, call it like you want it.
"Grass, concentrated bursts on the grunts and jackals to keep them at bay."
"A-ok."
"We fire on you Pavel, you too Snark."
Pavel took a knee and adjusted his weapon's sights slightly before taking aim at the highest-ranking elite. He took a deep breath before depressing the trigger and nailing the alien bastard with several dozen rounds right in the chest. The elite's shields rapidly drained before it could even react. None of the aliens knew what was happening by the time their leader collapsed to the floor with several new orifices in its body.
Seconds later two explosions resonated as Bumblebee fired two rockets at one of the Wraiths. The tank rocked sideways from the first impact, a big dent appearing on its frontal armor. The second rocket was a lot less friendlier, punching through the damaged armor and hitting enough important stuff that it blew up the thing completely.
I fired three shots at an elite major trying to make sense of things. It recoiled from the impact before it zeroed me in. I squeezed off another two bursts before it sent me back behind cover with a volley of plasma. I popped out again and was surprised to see it dead. I shrugged it off and downed a grunt making a run for a Shade turret. Two other jackals were wounded before I had to jump back behind the wall again.
"Need help Sarge?" Snark asked.
"It would be nice if Angel did his job," I shrugged. "Wraith's tend to be pesky if they're in fine working order."
"Your wish is my desire," Angel said. Immediately after that lame phrase a loud explosion was heard. I could safely assume that the second Wraith was out of commission or at least heavily damaged from a pack of C10 explosives. Scratch that, I can safely say that it was utterly destroyed.
"Push forward," I said to Pavel and Grass. "Caboose, with me. Snark, hang a little bit back, pick off the leaders."
Pavel and Grass switched cover to different sculptures while I ran sideways towards an artillery crater. I jumped inside, suddenly remembering that time I believed I was drowning in a crater full of blood back in Aztlan. I shook the thought away and propped my rifle on the edge of the depression just as Caboose slid in beside me. I caught sight of an elite moving behind some shrubs and fired wildly, intending to hit it through the vegetation.
"Damn it," I cursed.
Caboose squeezed off a couple of bursts, I didn't see if he hit anything, but I assumed that he at least sent some covvies running for cover.
"Shit, they're deploying covers," Angel let us know. "Can't flank 'em."
"Try," I growled. "Snark?"
"Can't aim at them from here," he shrugged me off. "Two elites and a bunch of jackals are packed behind that wall over there, I can see shields, can't punch through."
I growled again, this time without actually saying anything. "Flank them through the right," I told him. "Grass, go with him."
"Cover me," Caboose requested.
I fired a couple of random shots while he scrambled to his feet and ran straight for some sort of ornamental column. He dove to the floor as a continuous stream of plasma hit the air above him. He shuffled sideways as the stream moved down to try and hit him. I fired wildly at the location behind the shrubs where I thought the elite was firing from. It worked, it switched targets and had me slamming my face into the mud to avoid any plasma melting the skin off my face. I dragged my rifle back with me. I didn't want some random bolt to hit it and leave it unserviceable. I mean, the thing had been with me all the way since bootcamp.
"I'm safe," Caboose announced, "suppressing the bastard."
"It's at times like this that I really think someone should've gotten a grenade launcher," I groaned.
"Scarecrow had one…" Snark mused almost meekly.
"Exactly," I grunted. "Caboose, keep that bastard pinned down!"
I climbed out of cover as soon as I heard the continuous stream of gunfire. I sprinted past Caboose's column and slid behind a bench for cover. I'm pretty sure that the elite didn't have fantastic visibility, but since its plasma rifle had set the hedge on fire that situation that was changing by the moment. A couple of bolts flew back towards the column, it hadn't spotted me.
"Frag out motherfucker," I said to myself as I tossed a grenade over the hedge. The detonation that followed was awfully close and I actually felt some of the shrapnel embed itself on the other side of the bench I was using for cover. Still, the explosion was enough to kill the elite. The grenade must've landed pretty damn close to the alien. Serves him about right.
"Push forward!" I cried. "Kill the fuckers."
I usually wasn't so gung-ho when it came to killing covvies, but for some reason I wasn't in a particularly good mood. Perhaps it had to do something with the fact that two colonies in the same system had been attacked in the same month and that millions of people would be left homeless if not dead. I mean, that could be anger-some. Of course, I could also be feeling grumpy because I skipped on breakfast and hadn't really slept much last night. One of those two.
"Slamming those bastards," Angel announced. I heard his machine gun rattle. The cacophony was followed by the beautiful sounds of grunts screaming in pain and fright as they died.
"That was the last of them," Snark announced. "Courtyard is clear."
Sweet," I said without much feeling. "Angel, put remote charges on those two Shades and next to the door, make sure that they aren't visible."
"I'll secure the bodies," Bumblebee announced.
"Everyone else head towards the building proper," I ordered.
The building itself wasn't as grandiose as ONI usually built, it was only ten stories tall, completely unlike their headquarters back in New Alexandria. Still, it was a very stylish building, with curved walls and in an aesthetically pleasing appearance, it reminded me slightly of a scaled down version of a dome, only that it was less roundish on the sides. The entrance itself was not unlike those that regular buildings had, a set of large sliding glass doors that were now completely shattered, leaving only metal frames with pieces of glass hanging.
"Don't see anybody inside," Snark pointed out.
"We should get one of those mini drones that go inside rooms and map everything," Bumblebee said in between putting a gunshot in two aliens' heads. "Those are kick-ass."
For once, I agreed with him.
"It's most likely clear," I said with a shrug. "We go in, but don't let your guard down."
Grass scoffed. "As if you'd let us."
As soon as Angel was done mining the turrets and doors we walked through the doors slowly, our weapons up and ready. I activated my VISR in an attempt to aid my vision in the building's dark lobby. Several human bodies were clearly visible, most of them were plainly civilians, but a few police officers were there too. So far I hadn't spotted a single Covenant body. These guys had been caught by surprise, no doubt overwhelmed by large numbers.
"Can you get the lights?" I asked Grass.
"Not likely," she admitted, "I'll see what I can do."
Grass took off with Caboose on her heels. The rest of us double-checked the lobby before taking position behind the reception desk. It was large enough to allow all of us to take cover behind it with relative comfort. I could see that Angel and Bumblebee made a point not to stare directly at the corpses, instead keeping their eyes down the sights of their weapons. Snark, on the other hand, kept looking from side to side, never lingering on one body for more than a few seconds. He had never really gotten used to this.
"Found something," Grass announced.
All of the lights in the lobby suddenly let out sparks before a couple of bulbs burst.
"Didn't work," I announced.
"I guess we're in the dark then," Grass said.
"Angel, Grass, Bee, and Snark will stay here, Caboose, Pavel, and I will retrieve the target." I looked at my squad to see them going towards me or staying behind the reception desk. "Grass, you're in command."
"Might I point out that I have the rank of sergeant and Grass is just a lance corporal?" Snark said.
"Leave it in the suggestion box."
"We don't have one."
"Right, next order of business as soon as we get back on the Inconvenience is you making one," I suggested.
"Damn it," Snark groaned.
I ignored him. "Grass, I trust you with this." When she nodded at me confidently I signaled for Caboose and Pavel to start moving towards the elevators. They were supposedly in fine working order, if they weren't we were pretty much screwed. I clicked the button on the elevator and held my breath, only releasing it after the button flickered and lit up. All three of us waited a minute for the elevator to reach the ground floor. As soon as the doors opened Caboose walked in and Pavel stood in between the two doors.
"Liz," I said, calling the AI. "We're about to go down, clearance for using the elevator?"
"Hold on," Eliza answered almost immediately. "No need to worry, security systems are offline, that means that I don't know what's down there."
"All right, thanks Liz."
Pavel and I climbed inside the elevator and joined Caboose. I couldn't help but notice that the back wall of the elevator was riddled with bullet holes and alien blood. I didn't know whether that was a good or a bad sign for us. At least it meant that there was one elite less to worry about once we got down.
Oh, and apparently there was still enough power for the speakers to play a muzak arrangement.
Pavel burst out laughing.
"What?" I asked.
"I just pictured a bunch of elites packed in here, listening to elevator music."
The mental picture was too much and I too burst out laughing. Hell, even Caboose let out a few chuckles. I mean, think about it, you have to admit that it's pretty funny picturing huge aliens just standing about with their weapons at the ready. It took five seconds for me to finally stop laughing.
"Ok, ok, enough," I said. "Weapons ready."
The elevator doors opened to reveal a dark hallway. We were deep underground by now. One light flickered halfway down to our target, but everything else was pretty dark. "Flashlights on," I ordered. "There's no cover, so don't hold back."
I stepped over the body of an elite and walked slowly, Pavel and Caboose to either side of me, their shotguns held up and ready to blast through anything that moved. The entire length of the hallway was littered with alien blood and corpses. Bullet holes aplenty pock-marked the walls. No human bodies anywhere to be seen.
"Damn," Pavel muttered. "Helluva last stand."
"Think they have a machine gun down there?" Caboose suggested.
"Probably not, the bullet holes are too small to be from a machine gun."
"You're right," he admitted.
We kept on walking slowly, the beams of light from our flashlights barely doing anything to light up the surroundings. That was kind of the point though, the devices were meant to only light up a small portion of space in front of us and to not give away the user's position.
Two shots rang out and a shape collapsed from the ceiling. I looked at Pavel and saw that his weapon was smoking. He looked at me and nodded. I walked up towards the alien corpse and kicked it a little. The drone twitched, two large holes in its torso. I aimed my rifle at its head and fired a single shot in between its set of eyes. The drone twitched some more before it finally stopped moving. I looked back and waved at the two men to join me.
The rest of the hallway was clear and secure. There was nothing of interest except for the covvie corpses carpeting it.
Then we saw the only human body in the entire hallway. The only way that I could tell it was human was because of the armor. Spartan armor.
"You seeing this?" Pavel asked incredulously.
"I am," I confirmed. "Shit."
Caboose looked stunned, Pavel looked stunned. I was stunned. Spartans are freaks, that is a well-known fact, but they're damn well un-killable. That's an absolute truth, the things just don't die.
I moved towards the corpse in a cautious manner, my rifle up and ready. I could feel myself trembling, if something in here had killed a Spartan then I'd damn better be ready to face it and avenge the supersoldier, freak or otherwise. As soon as I was practically on top of the suit of armor I took a knee. The Spartan itself was taller than I was, it made me feel kind of small. I looked over the armor. There were several scratches and gashes that came from use over the years, but I immediately spotted the killing blow. The piece of ballistic weave that covered the wearer's neck had been pierced. I could see two holes on the front and presumably on the back.
"Needle rifle," I sighed. "Took a helluva lot of covvies to bring this one down."
I was almost surprised to see blood pooled around the body. I was even more surprised to see pink skin near where the neck armor had been pierced. To me Spartan-IIs had always been deluded humans that had everything taken out of them and replaced with mechanic parts. It was a shock to see that they were still flesh and bone just like the rest of us. It was a shock to see that they were just as killable as everyone else.
"Two rounds," Caboose said, looking at the wound from above. "Looks like they cut through its windpipe and severed the spine."
"Death must've been near instantaneous," Pavel added.
The armor itself was identical to the one that the Spartans that I had seen back on Concordia. It was bulky in the chest and shoulders and gave the wearer a strong appearance. It was the same olive drab color that the 117 Spartan sported, only that this one had yellow lines crossing the right arm and leg. The only other difference that I could find was the numbers. This Spartan was designated as 065. Must've been one hell of a soldier to fend off so many aliens with two M7s and an MA5.
"Let's move along," I ordered, standing up. "We still have a mission to finish."
I walked the rest of the hallway with my rifle loosely held across me. There was only one door at the end. It looked like the heavy and secure kind. The terminal on its side was still intact, although scorch marks had hit the wall near it. I tapped the open button.
"Please identify yourself," a pleasant female voice requested.
I cleared my throat. "Francisco Castillo, gunnery sergeant."
"Please hold…"
"I usually have to," I muttered.
"Identity confirmed, welcome Gunnery Sergeant."
The doors opened to reveal a big room with lab equipment and several terminals. It looked pretty much like any civilian laboratory would've looked, although I knew that the computers here housed information much more critical than the average home terminal's browser history. The room was otherwise empty save for one individual, furiously tapping away at a computer terminal. I immediately recognized her as our target, so I ordered Pavel and Caboose to lower their weapons.
"Dr. Catherine Halsey," I called out. "Identify yourself."
The woman stopped typing and looked up at me. For some reason here gaze made me feel uncomfortable, as if her eyes could somehow look through my visor and into my soul.
"Finally, I was beginning to think that they'd leave me here to die."
Oh yes I did.
Thanks to Sniper-Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
Now, I don't think that there's much left to say except that this chapter is completely canon. Or at least it doesn't go against it... There was a battle of Miridem and Halsey was present during that battle. A Spartan-II was also killed during that battle. Sheila-065. Now, I'm basing Halsey's appearance off of Keyes' memories in the Halo: CE Anniversary edition, not on the Legends anime stories. Well, I'm kinda mixing it up a little, but it doesn't really matter, it's not like Halsey will join as a permanent cast member.
Well, that should be it. A couple of you guys mentioned Chapter 117 coming up and asked if I was going to do something special. I actually just finished writing that chapter and can tell you that it is something special. It's not 10,000 words of sheer epicness, but it's still a shitton of words of sheer epicness and fanboy orgasms. At least for me...
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you take some time to review. Stay strong.
-casquis