Chapter CCXVII: The Gates of Hell
November 2, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Delta Halo [orbiting Substance], Coelest System
"Do not be afraid. I am peace; I am salvation."
I jumped out of the Pelican, first in my squad to have boots on the ground. Pavel and Longworth came out, rifles held loosely across their chests. The ammunition drone rolled down the ramp with a loud noise and then the rest of my men joined me. The pilot on the Pelican wished us good luck before taking off back towards our temporary base of operations. I could see other dropships far in the distance, setting down other ODST squads to scout the terrain around the Library for our main assault.
"Ok, spread out," I ordered calmly. "We don't have any maps of the region yet, so keep your eyes peeled. Snark, I want you to clear every possible ambush location before we move ahead."
"Yes, sir."
"Grass, do you have anybody you can milk for information?"
"Negative, Frank. Not in this ship."
I sighed. "Oh well. Let's move."
The drone was in the middle of our formation, Caboose standing just a few feet away. Everyone else was at a fair distance from one another in no particular formation. Miranda was up front, at least fifty meters ahead of the group. Snark was closest to her, ready to run forward and shoot at any enemies she spotted with his rifle. The rest of us kept our distance, not wanting to be reduced to ashes by a single blast. For a moment nobody talked, everybody forgot their professionalism in order to glance around and take in this massive structure that we were walking on.
"Would you call this a space station?" Longworth asked, breaking the silence.
"What's the definition of space station, Grass?" Pavel asked.
"Umm, spacecraft that's designed to remain in orbit and support a crew," she replied. "That's not quite dictionary definition, but I think it's close enough."
"So this is a big-ass space station then?" Longworth wondered.
"I wouldn't call it that," Lady said. "When was the last time you heard about a space station that can fit around Mars with room to spare."
"An hour ago, give or take," Snark said.
I chuckled quietly.
"Personally I would call it a megastructure," Miri put forward. "An order above orbital elevators and skyhooks."
"Or a couple of orders maybe," Pavel added. "Will you look at the size of this thing…"
"It's almost as wide as your mom's vagina, eh Longworth?" the normally quiet Dotsenko said.
The team laughed as Longworth insulted Dotsenko, but a burn like that was impossible to get out of. I wished that combat consisted of this. Walking down a beautiful landscape and just having a conversation with your friends. I could've had that for a few years, working at the docks or at the stations in Jericho-VII. I have no doubt I would've made some friends with the men there, sit down for a beer and talk about nonsense after our shift was over…
I never would've met Pave, Layla, Marina, Hanna, or even Katie. I wouldn't have met any of the important people in my life.
"You probably wouldn't have met me either," Schitzo dropped.
"There's a small forest up ahead," Miranda announced. "Not too dense, I can see through it."
"Is it clear?"
"As far as I can tell, yeah."
"Alright," I said. "Eyes open everybody. Snark, keep an eye on the trees."
The forest was very little indeed, maybe as small as a hundred by three hundred meters give or take some. The interesting thing was that the trees were very familiar. They looked like pine trees.
"Huh. If those aren't Japanese red pines I will eat my boots," Grass said.
"What about the shorter trees?" Crow asked her.
"Those I can't tell. They don't look particularly exotic though…"
"Log it in the journal," I said. "We can discuss botany later."
That promptly shut my men up and we walked through the small forest in near absolute silence. The only thing that could be heard was our footsteps and a breeze that rustled the leaves and made a comforting noise. The branches swayed with the breeze and for a moment I thought about taking my helmet off in order to feel it in my face, but decided against it. Instead I focused on making sure that no invisible elite decided to attack us or a jackal fired from the top of one of the pines.
How the hell did that pine get here? I suddenly asked myself. No wonder Grass had been so interested in the tree.
"Looks like we're going downhill," Miranda said once she reached the edge of the forest.
"Hold up," I ordered, motioning for my men to catch up with her.
ODSTs are loud by nature. It's not a cockiness thing or anything like that, although it certainly helps. The thing is, even in stealth operations we can be very loud, our helmets are sealed and block off the sound of our voices. If you were to see a Marine squad moving through a forest you would only hear them stepping on the ground, occasionally whispering something to each other. If you were to see an ODST squad moving through a forest you would only hear them stepping on the ground. The difference here was that we were constantly talking to one another, confident that our helmets would transmit our words to each other without the need for any intermediaries, meaning that the signal was completely safe from prying ears. It was pleasant, it allowed us to bond and talk, keep ourselves busy with something that didn't involve just your imagination.
Our silence when we saw the Library may or may not have been more significant, but the building was still enough to make us shut up.
"The wall wasn't on the picture," I said, finally breaking the silence.
"That's one hell of a wall," Crow noted.
"It's throwing up shields," Grass said.
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"Snark, link up your scope to our helmets," she ordered. "See those pillars?"
A small screen showed what Snark was seeing. The pillars in question were evenly spaced through the wall. They were producing a blue light, not strange in of itself, but the light extended in a 360-degree two-dimensional circle before it faded out.
"Those are not Covenant shields," Lady said.
"Alright," I sighed. "Let's move up."
Before we stepped out of the forest, however, four Phantoms and six Banshees streaked past, nearly directly overhead. I cursed and ducked, having no idea how we didn't hear them come. My men traced the flight of the aircraft with their rifles until they were far enough away that we could breathe calmly again.
"Well, so much for our head start," Snark said.
"Think they've spotted the shields?" Longworth asked with a chuckle.
"Of course they did," Pavel told him.
Ironically enough, the lead Banshee slammed into the shields and exploded, prompting the rest of the aircraft to brake and pull up in an attempt to avoid them. Sadly, they all succeeded.
"I take that back," Pavel said.
"Hold this position," I ordered. "Wait until the Phantoms take off. Grass, call it in."
"Yes, sir," she said. She had a way of making that sound more ironic than even Lady did.
It only took a few minutes. The Phantoms dropped troops and began flying parallel to the wall, presumably looking for a hole to jump through and get to the Library. The massive building stood imposingly behind the walls. The ground around it was not green and beautiful like the fields here, it was gray and rocky, with mountain formations that came seemingly out of nowhere. I had to remind myself that this place was artificial and that was the reason things seemed odd. No geology here, I would assume.
"Banshees are coming back…" Lady said.
"Stay down."
The five surviving attack craft returned following the same general line that they had been on their approach to the library. That brought them directly overhead us. I held my breath as they approached and then cursed as the rearmost Banshee circled around for another pass. Crow slowly switched his rifle for the rocket launcher and kept it ready, refraining from painting the target and alerting it to our presence.
"Looks like it didn't see us," I said. "Crow, keep eyes on it. Everybody ready to move."
"Frank, Command is advising us to move forward and refrain from engaging the enemy, we only need to do some scouting before they send in the heavies," Grass said.
"Roger that."
"Sir, the Banshee's spinning back," Crow said. "Looks like… oh shit. It's strafing!"
We spread out to the side as a rain of plasma punched through the trees that we had been so freaked out by. Wood chips and pine needles were lit up in flames as the tree trunks themselves became shrapnel. I raised my left hand with my rifle and used it to cover my head as neck as I ran. My right hand reached instinctively for my sidearm, but I stopped myself from drawing it. An explosion sent a tree flying, followed by another set of plasma bolts hitting the ground.
"Crow, get it!"
"Give me a moment, sir!" he shouted back.
I turned back to see my men raising their heads to look at the Banshee as it sped away in order to get a good angle for a second strafing run. Crow was nowhere to be seen. I groaned and ran towards his position on my HUD, finding him just as he threw off a large tree limb from his chest and grabbed the M41 rocket launcher. He nodded at me and began jogging towards the tree line.
"Longworth, Miri," I shouted. "Hit it!"
Their DMRs began snapping as they fired shots at the Banshee. The aircraft tilted slightly in order to fire at them and slowed down just enough to begin its strafing run. Crow ran out of cover and took a knee. He aimed and fired. The missile flew true, but the pilot on the Banshee did a fucking backflip. The missile missed by less than a meter. The Banshee regained its balance and began approaching us again.
"Fire!" Longworth urged Crow.
"Wait," he replied.
I followed the path of the missile as it circled around and sped back towards the Banshee. This time the pilot was too late. He began putting his craft into a barrel roll, but the explosion took out the rear end of the Banshee as well as both wings, sending it hurtling into the ground.
"Clear that," I ordered Longworth and Miranda. "Everyone else regroup on me."
Once the team was around me and the Banshee pilot was confirmed KIA I started informing them about the plan.
"Alright, there are about a hundred enemy hostiles down there, nothing we haven't encountered, but I'd prefer if we engaged them with at least some support. Nonetheless, we're moving forward, the basin is rocky and there's enough cover and concealment to hold off for a while. Snark, I want you on the back, do not fire unless you decide to knock off an ultra or higher… Miri, what was the pilot?"
"Minor. Brute."
"Brutes," I cursed. "Oh well. What's life without a challenge?"
We began the descent. It wasn't very steep, but the high amount of loose rocks made for relatively slow progress. I knew that someone was bound to have seen the Banshee making two passes as well as crash into the ground. We had to assume that the Covenant were aware of both our position and numbers. Which begged the question: why the hell would we go down there? Well, because we are the best of the best.
Grass reported our progress to Command, who replied and assured her that the armored forces were already preparing to move and that spare troops were being called in from other parts of the ring. We had been in this place for only three hours and already we were taking the lead. From what Grass could gather the Chief had been successful in his initial mission and was beginning to approach the prophet that we wanted to assassinate so badly. I had no doubt that he would succeed, but I wanted that big guy helping out on our end of the battle too.
"Sir, I'm seeing movement," Snark informed. "On a side note, it's getting darker. Why is it getting darker?"
"I've noticed too," Caboose pointed out. "It shouldn't be this dark."
"Grass?" I asked.
"Geometry of the ring doesn't account for that," she replied after a quick glance up. "My guess is that this area is artificially dimmed."
"Talk about ominous shit," Lady said.
I had to agree with her.
"What movement?" I asked Snark.
"Can't tell. Give me a moment."
That moment extended into two, then five, finally we reached ten minutes of no word from Snark.
"Well?" Pavel asked.
"I'm not seeing anything," he replied.
"Shit," I muttered. "Move forward."
Caboose was almost hit as he climbed over a rock, only for Miri to pull him back behind cover. Grass opened fire with her assault rifle, aiming for some unseen enemies. Longworth and Lady joined, firing down the slope. Snark reported in, saying that he couldn't see anything. Dotsenko began spreading out to the left while Pavel moved to the front to set up his machine gun. I left cover and aimed down my scope, quickly spotting the enemy targets. Three jackals and a grunt were firing on our position, using plasma pistols and needlers. The boulders were covering from the sides, making it impossible for me to hit them from my position.
"Frag out!" I shouted instead.
My grenade traced a smooth arc before landing exactly where I wanted it to. I allowed myself a small prayer that the rocks wouldn't mitigate the shrapnel too much before it detonated.
"Three KIA," Grass reported.
"Four," Longworth added after a single shot.
"Snark, what the hell was that?" I asked.
"I can't see them," he excused. "Sir, they came out of nowhere."
"That's the fucking problem, Sergeant," I told him. "Shit."
"Eyes open for the leader," Pavel said. "Sasha?"
"I'm set up," Dotsenko called back. "No movement."
"Hold your position," I ordered. "Caboose, move up with Lady."
We had to be more careful now. There was bound to be at least some brutes around. We moved past the carcasses of the dead aliens, all of them bleeding heavily from countless shrapnel wounds. One of the jackals had a nice little round hole in its neck in addition to some other wounds on its leg.
"Hear that?" Lady asked suddenly.
A brute jumped from behind a large boulder and slammed her against the ground before swatting Caboose's shotgun aside. I aimed and fired a burst, but the brute positioned itself in between my man and me, negating my ability to provide support. Caboose backpedaled, drawing his sidearm with his right hand and getting his carbine up with his left. The brute covered its face and received several gunshot wounds to the arms before jumping backwards and climbing out of sight. A single shot rang out as Snark fired.
"That's a hit," he said.
"Grass, confirm that," I ordered. "Someone check on Lady."
"I'm fine," she coughed from her position. "He just surprised me, that's all."
"Looks like she's telling the truth," Caboose said, before hopping towards his shotgun.
"So was Snark," Grass called out. "KIA."
"Snark, what's your distance?" I asked.
"Rangefinder has me at one-point-one clicks from you."
"Ok, move up," I ordered. "I don't want you at more than one kilometer from me at any given time, roger that?"
"Roger that, sir."
We soldiered on. Not to say that we found ourselves in a bad condition mind you. Other than some minor pain from Pavel's scars and bruising on Lady's back, we were pretty well off. The brute's ambush had scared us though, and we were moving as carefully as we could without slowing down to a total crawl. I wondered if the armored transports would be moved in by Pelican or if there was a viable descent through the slope. I didn't think a Scorpion would have much trouble climbing down this pile of rocks, but sometimes it's better to take the safe road and not risk blowing your transmission.
"I'm seeing a small enemy patrol," Longworth said. "Two hundred meters, brute, two jackals and three grunts."
" You and Miranda take out the brute," I ordered. "I'll handle one of the jackals. Lady?"
"I can take the other one," she assured me.
"And Dotsenko will handle the grunts," I finished. "See them?"
"Positive on that one."
"Good," I said. "Miranda, we fire on your word."
"Three, two, one, mark."
Longworth and Miranda fired simultaneously, with Lady and I letting out bursts just a second later. The brute's head popped open and the two jackals were dead before anyone knew what was happening. The grunts jumped in fright and began running for cover, but Dotsenko cut them off with a sustained burst. We took the patrol out in less than five seconds. Not bad at all.
I wondered if that would've been possible with a squad of regular Marines. Not that they weren't good fighters, but they weren't nearly as accurate as a Helljumper had to be.
"Move up," I ordered. "Wall is less than two kilometers away."
There were no further engagements until we were within a football field's worth of distance away from the wall. The wall was very tall indeed. I aimed through my scope and scouted out the terrain. The Covenant had set up some minor defenses and didn't seem to be in the best of moods. Several jackals were up in a guard tower arguing amongst themselves while one of them made a show of aiming in our general direction.
"Snark, keep an eye on them," I ordered.
"Yes, sir."
The rest of the covvies were clustered around what could only be described as an entrance. It was several meters tall and wide enough to fit two tanks.
"Grass, contact Command," I ordered. "Tell them that there are around seventy hostiles."
"We can pin them inside the gate with some luck," Pavel said. "Throw some grenades in and we're good."
"Yeah, but we need to block them from running past the gate," I said. "Those pillars give them some limited cover."
"Agreed," he admitted. "So?"
"We're going to have to wait this one out," I said. "Unless we get fired upon, that is."
"Frank," Grass said. "There's an ODST unit about four hundred meters to our left. They are within sight of the gate."
"Excellent," I said. "Establish contact with them."
"Roger that."
It took two tries, but we got through to them. "ODST unit, this AAG-7, do you copy?" Grass asked.
"AAG-7, this is Prophet 1-3," the unit leader replied. "Over."
"Patch me through," I told Grass. "1-3, you're within sight of the gates, are you?"
"Affirmative."
"My men are in position to take out the jackals on the tower and drive them towards your position. Think you can do some ambushing? Push them into the gate and then finish them off."
"Um, roger that. Hold up for three."
I waited the three minutes before contacting them again.
"Prophet 1-3, do you copy?"
"We copy, AAG-7."
The squad leader then went on to give me a modified version of the plan, to which I responded with another few modifications. Once we agreed on the plan he told me to wait for his word as his men moved to better positions and that we could initiate once Prophet 1-3 was ready for action. Six minutes after initial contact between our two units we were ready to initiate the ambush. The odds weren't good on paper, but nobody messes with the Helljumpers.
"We fire on your mark, Snark," I said.
"Mark," he replied.
His shot took out no less than three jackals. I had no doubt he had been hoping that something similar happened, but to have the targets align themselves so perfectly was very fortunate indeed. Miranda finished off the other bird standing in the watchtower as Longworth and I opened fire on a brute captain. The alien received what one could refer to as a fistful of lead. Technically it wasn't lead, more like depleted uranium, but the fistful was probably an accurate measurement of the slugs it took. As the brute fell backwards, half its face missing, Pavel and Dotsenko opened fire. They made sure to target grunts and jackals close to the edge exclusively. That sent the rest of the enemy unit running towards the gate and in the direction of Prophet 1-3.
My whole squad was now firing at the enemy infantry. The few that were lucky enough to make it to cover tried to return fire, but there wasn't nearly enough cover for all covvies to be safe. We must've killed twenty of them in the first minute of the firefight before driving them towards the gates. The ambush went without a hitch, as several dozen of the aliens kept on running past the gates in order to avoid being pinned down. A lot of them took cover behind the two pillars and the occasional boulder, firing on our position. We returned fire diligently, making sure that they exposed their backs to Prophet 1-3.
About fifteen seconds later they struck. The poor aliens were hit from the side by incredibly accurate fire. By that point they had very little good cover and Snark made sure to exploit that. Brutes began dropping like flies as my sniper made sure to spend his ammunition as efficiently as possible. Within seven minutes we had killed all the Covenant soldiers that weren't inside the gates. There were about twenty or so of them still alive inside, but they weren't about to move outside.
"We're relocating for a better angle," Prophet 1-3 informed me.
"Same," I replied.
Once we were both happy with our positions we began firing at the gates. The bullets went in and killed the aliens. It was incredibly simple. There was no cover inside other than the bodies of their comrades, and those were soft enough. Pavel and Dotsenko did most of the heavy lifting on our part, but Miri and Longworth occasionally joined with a shot or two. Prophet 1-3 had a little less firepower than we did, but they had a slightly better angle. After a minute of nearly continuous firing we stopped.
"We're moving to clear," I said. "Cover us."
"Copy that."
Most of my squad moved forward, leaving Snark behind. I sent Caboose and Grass to the other side of the gate and waited for them to circle around behind cover and to get to their position. As soon as they gave me a nod I slapped Lady on the shoulder. She and Crow tossed grenades deep into the hallway and moved in to clear it. Caboose and Grass joined them and finally I followed, leaving Longworth and Miri to guard the entrance. The place was covered with blood, flesh, brains, and bullet holes. The poor aliens had tried to move as far back as possible to no avail. I even had a hard time walking over all the corpses. In the end it seemed like not a single alien had survived their encounter with us.
"Clear," I finally said. "Snark, take that platform. Grass, call it in."
I moved further into the hallway, examining the angular walls with interest. It was a very unusual design, but for some reason it struck me as closer to human's taste than Covenant's. Perhaps it was all the hard angles and flat surfaces. Perhaps it was the carpet of dead Covenant corpses.
"Door," Caboose pointed out. "I suggest waiting."
"I'm not going to open it," I told him.
He shrugged.
We moved towards the door, having to toss back a few grunt corpses in order to be able to stand in front of it. It was wide and tall, easily big enough to let those Scorpion tanks I was talking about past. There was a small circle to the right of the doors with what appeared to be a hologram over it.
I approached it and tapped it.
"Huh," I muttered.
"What?" Caboose asked.
"It's solid."
Suddenly sensors were going all over my body and Caboose raised his shotgun, trying to find their source.
"They're coming out of the walls," he said.
"Stand down," I ordered, stepping back from the door.
"Frank, what's wrong?" Pavel asked.
"Nothing," I assured him. "Stand down."
I felt highly exposed as I was scanned multiple times by the sensors until finally the small circle with the hologram on top lit up and became a straight line. It began emitting a noise, pulsating as it did.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Beats me," Caboose said. "Sounds like a language though," he said.
"Grass?"
She approached slowly and carefully. "It does sound like a language."
"Is it trying to communicate?"
"You probably just activated some sort of subroutine or something similar," Grass said.
"And it's still working after all these years?" I asked. "That's some pretty good proofing."
She shrugged.
"What now?" Caboose asked.
"Greetings, Reclaimer."
What. The. Hell.
"Who is it talking to?" I asked.
"The breach in containment merits an immediate activation of this installation," the hologram went on.
"It doesn't seem like an AI," Grass noted. "More like a computer program."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"The absence of a monitor to guide you through-"
"Stand back Lieutenant!"
I turned around to see Johnson striding towards my position, a squad of Marines flanking him.
"When did you get here?" I asked him.
"Very recently," he said. "Stand away from the door."
I looked at him before complying. Johnson then had everyone evacuate the hallway that led to the door and form a perimeter. Several Pelicans had already landed and a sizeable number of our troops were beginning to get ready to breach the doors. I couldn't help but notice that the Master Chief wasn't here with us.
"Where's the Chief?" I asked.
"He has more important matters to attend to," Johnson told me, waving over a pair of Scorpion tanks. "Care to explain what you were doing?"
"Clearing the entrance so that you jarheads wouldn't chip your nails while doing it," I replied. "Want to tell me what the hell this place is?"
He looked at me and paused. Johnson took a deep breath before shaking his head. "Sorry son, it's classified."
"If whatever's classified kills my men…"
"Captain's orders, she'll make the call."
I shook my head and simply moved towards my squad as the rest of the In Amber Clad's contingent spread out and formed up respectively. Johnson was obviously in command despite his rank. He made sure that four Warthogs formed up in tight formation next to one another and moved them into the hallway. One there he had two Scorpions get in line behind them and began barking orders for the Marines to be ready in his perpetual theatricality.
"What happened in there?" Pavel asked me.
"A hologram popped up," I told him. "Called me reclaimer and asked that I help with something."
"What?"
"Not sure, it said something about a breach in containment."
"What the hell does that mean?" Pavel asked, sighing.
"I don't know. Odds are it's referring to the Covenant or even to us."
"Mh-hm," Pavel muttered, not completely assured.
"Don't over think it," I said. "Let's rest up some; we have a few minutes before we go through."
My men and I sat down near the edge of the rocky slope, watching as the UNSC forces began preparing for an assault through the gate. I don't know why Johnson was being so nitpicky about this, everything seemed to indicate that there was no Covenant presence through the walls, especially if you considered that they hadn't been able to open the doors at all. I observed as the men checked and rechecked their weapons. A few Pelicans flew sorties to recover the various ammunition ground drones that had been abandoned at the top of the slope and deposited them here, where the teams that had participated in combat replenished their ammunition.
I started feeling rather worried about concentrating all of our available ground forces so close to one another. Granted, we were setting up a relatively defensible perimeter and there were a few Pelicans running recon missions around the surroundings, but the bulk of our forces could be taken out with a decent-sized airstrike.
"Why do you think they want that building so bad?" Crow asked.
"Have you seen it?" Longworth replied. "It's a veritable fortress. Once we're in there we're set for life."
"Until we run out of food, honey," Lady said, petting his head.
"If push comes to shove, I'll eat you."
"I'm sure you wouldn't have any idea what to do," she replied, prompting me to raise an eyebrow.
"Ouch," Crow said, slapping Longworth's shoulders hard.
"Replenish your ammo," I ordered, not wanting them to get a little bit too comfortable with their surroundings.
"What do you think is waiting for us in there?" Crow asked Longworth.
"The full might of an ancient empire," the man replied. "Who locked themselves away due to misguided religious extremism and now seek to destroy anybody who is not them."
"So. The Covenant?" Crow replied, shooting a glance sideways.
"I admit my originality is a little bit lacking."
"Is that why Lady says you're bad in bed?" Snark asked him, sliding a large bullet into a magazine for his SRS.
Longworth shook his head. "I gave her the bad treatment, finished and left. She's a little bit hurt by that."
"If I ever decided to let you look at me naked you'd cream your pants before you could finish pulling your pants down," Lady calmly assured him.
"Not with that ass you don't," Grass said, leaning back and slapping Lady's rear. "The size is okay, but the definition is a little bit lacking."
"You would know, wouldn't you?" Pavel laughed, giving Grass a playful squeeze in the butt.
"My, my. What would your wife think?" Grass immediately realized that it had been the wrong thing to say. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"It's alright," Pavel said. "She's alive. So is my daughter for that matter."
We went from joking to silent in a matter of seconds. The only sound you could hear was that of bullets going into magazines as my men replenished the magazines that they hadn't completely finished. The rest of the Marine complement was ready for action and prepared to go through the gates. Johnson was finishing preparations, shouting angrily at some Marines that weren't digging fast enough.
It seemed like we'd leave one of the tanks in here, nicely dug in. A tank and presumably a small squad would be left behind, covering our rear. It was the perfect defensive position, but only as long as they could fall back into the hallway and through the gates. If the Covenant managed to make it through the gates then they'd have a tank there to welcome them. Or it could just be a bloodbath. A squad of Marines was still moving Covenant corpses out of the ways.
"Should we make some warning signs?" Caboose asked me.
"I'll leave that to Johnson's judgment," I replied, although the idea of putting some Covenant corpses on sticks seemed appealing. "Doesn't seem like we'll need them though."
Johnson barked orders. "Set that missile pod over there! I want the missiles inside the hallway, outside of air strike range." He turned and looked at my squad as he walked, letting out a low growl. "Every Warthog that is not assigned to defend the wall will go through the wall with us! Once we have… Alright, listen up! Aerial reconnaissance shows what can only be described as another wall inside this big-ass hula hoop. Why on Earth they'd need two walls is beyond me, but the people that built this place don't strike me as overly grandiose for no reason do they?"
I couldn't tell if he was trying to be ironic or not. Building an artificial construct of this size and in this shape was practically the definition of grandiose. Apparently a few Marines thought the same way I did, because they let out a few chuckles.
"Now in my own limited experience," he went on. "Walls are used for two things: to keep people out, or to keep them in. We're hoping for the best here, but then again, you sissies could use a schooling."
With that he hopped down from the Scorpion he had been standing on and retreated away from the group in order to talk to someone on his comm. He seemed to be very close to Keyes, or at least close enough that he would be allowed to take command of this whole operation. Wait a moment, why the hell was a sergeant major in charge of commanding a battalion? I knew for a fact we had a major here.
"Why is Johnson in charge?" I asked Pavel.
"Beats me. Special forces experience?"
"Not to disparage the man," I started, "but more than us?"
"That does strike me as unlikely," he admitted, "but not impossible."
"When was the last time my experience put me in command?"
"To be fair Frank, platoons defer to your better judgment often."
I rolled my eyes at him. "When was the last time a whole battalion of Marines turned to me for leadership in a situation that didn't involve constant shooting?"
"Never."
"That's right," I said. "Want to come here?"
"What are you gonna do?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"Something wrong?" Grass asked.
I shook my head. "Stay here."
"What are you gonna do?" Pavel repeated.
"Low-level soldiers are put in command of large units when they have vital knowledge. Never because of more experience or superior skills. Johnson knows something."
"I wouldn't want to push it, Frank."
"I'll just ask one question."
"Sure."
Johnson had just finished his conversation with whoever was on the other end of the line. Impeccable timing on my part.
"Sarge," I began. "Care to tell us what's on the other side of that wall?"
"Son, now what the hell kind of-"
I knew that the man wasn't one to back off easily, but upon seeing the look I gave him he slowed down and sighed. "I don't know El-tee. I just don't know."
"But you're worried about something."
"I'm always worried about something. A life of serving in the Corps doesn't leave a man unscathed."
"You know what I mean Sarge. Marine to Marine."
"I don't know what is in there," he reasserted. "And in all likelihood all we'll find is a robot or maybe two."
I frowned slightly. "Is there something you're worried about?"
"Yes. I'm always worried Lieutenant, but I never let that get in the way of doing my job."
"Subtle," I noted. "What do you want me to do?"
"Your unit is the most combat experienced unit in this whole circlet with the exception of the Chief and myself. The ODSTs here are tough as nails and then some, but I'd put you on point any day."
It felt like my dad was telling me he was proud of me.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it," he said. "I want your squad to take recon positions in the front. I'm not willing to risk this one."
"Anything we should know?" I pressed him.
"Terrain is crap. Jagged and the occasional structure. Shield distorts optics and sensors, but that's as far as we've got."
"Movement?"
"Not that we can see."
"Should be a cakewalk, right?"
"Right," he replied.
I jerked my head back towards our squad and Pavel took off.
"Ten minutes," Johnson told me. "Everyone listen up! Ten minutes! Spread the word!"
Ten minutes.
The gates rumbled to life. Or at least that's what I imagined would happen. They slid open with a barely audible hiss. Two of the Warthogs rolled forward and then spread to the sides. The following two kept going straight, only stopping after they went thirty meters. The two Scorpions rolled forward and spread out some, leaving some room for us regular infantry grunts to spread out. A Marine threw up a short range drone and the little robot disappeared, using passive sonar as well as an array of sensors to map the area. My HUD was immediately updated with the geography of this area and we began moving.
"Alright, we're in for a slow crawl," Johnson's voice came through the battalion's comm. channel. "If someone wants to fight without a tank feel free to shoot yourself in the head, everyone else, protect the Scorpions at all costs. Recon teams, fan out."
"That's us," I informed my men. "Let's go!"
Four ODST teams would be taking point with two more on standby. Us and Prophet 1-3 were in the middle, with Prophet 1-1 to our left and Boxer 1-3 to the far right. For backup we had Boxer 1-2 and Prophet 1-2 standing ready with an additional load of M247H machine guns and a Warthog. It was a good configuration, but the more we moved forward the more spread out we would be. I assumed that Boxer 1-2 and Prophet 1-2 would fall in with us and additional units would provide backup as our line extended. It was all pretty standard, but we had enough troops and Warthogs for the distance involved. We would be travelling in the shape of an amorphous blob that was front-heavy. Sure, they liked to draw it like a nice arrow-shaped formation or sometimes an oval in officer school, but you couldn't have people marching in perfect order in a combat zone.
"I don't like the terrain at all," Pavel muttered.
"Neither do I," Snark agreed, glancing around at the labyrinth-like rock formations. "My rifle is useless here."
"Switch it out," I said. "There were a couple of EMRs back in the drones."
Snark seemed to consider it, but in the end he just shouldered his rifle, South African style with the barrel facing up, and drew his M7 SMG, extending the stock. He had gotten hold of a few good attachments, making it as similar to the SOCOM version that most ODST units favored. He had thrown in an extended barrel with picatinny rails and then thrown in a small flashlight and a laser pointer. Instead of a red dot he had slapped a short-range telescopic sight for it. It looked like a bigger, badder version of your usual SMG. Cool shit, if you ask me.
"Ready?" I asked my men. The rest of the scout teams were already moving forward.
I got a series of nods.
"Let's go," I ordered. "Miranda, take point."
She jogged forward and we began moving. The terrain was too complicated to be fully natural. Cliffs, crags, tunnels, arches, and other geological features. Nothing too tall mind you, but a hundred foot fall could kill you just as effectively as a bigger one. Fortunately, the labyrinth in question seemed to consist of a fairly straightforward road. The geology was just an obstacle that made you twist and turn as much as possible.
For a moment I felt like smiling. This was obviously an artificial feature, and if someone had put it here then it was for defensive purposes. If you wanted to keep something in you would make sure that the surface was as flat as humanly possible in order to discourage any rushing. If someone wanted to defend this place, they would've engaged us already.
We stayed in a relatively tight formation, not as close to one another as we would've stayed on a building, but closer than usual. The architecture of this place wasn't exactly something that I enjoyed, there were way too many blind points in front of us and we had to keep our eyes up at all times. Miranda was jerking the tip of her rifle around so much I thought she was going to pull a muscle.
"Down!" she urged.
I raised my fist and took a knee.
"I've got movement, it's not Covenant."
I slowly approached, making myself walk as slow as possible. Miri was standing behind cover, with only half her face peeking out at whatever she had seen. She looked at me and waited for me to get to her position before she started talking.
"It's near our nine," she said.
We switched spots and I prepared to pop out. Once I did I saw that the area ahead was relatively open, with the labyrinth-like formations briefly disappearing in order to make what I could only call a clearing. I immediately spotted the movement. It was a drone, but it wasn't one of ours. It didn't take long to see that it wasn't a Covenant drone either, its design was incredibly similar to the architecture of the Library. Angular and with a glowing eye in the middle. It seemed that the thing wasn't in the best condition, because it was strafing side to side and moving a little bit erratically over the same area, but the fact that it was functioning proved to be a bit discouraging.
I took cover just as it began turning towards me.
"Shit," I said. "This is the last thing we need."
"What is it?" Pavel asked.
"A drone. Robot kind. It's not one of ours."
"What?" Grass asked. My men began murmuring amongst themselves. "Is it weaponized?"
"Not sure, design is a little bit aggressive, so I wouldn't be surprised."
"What do we do now?" Crow asked.
"We move up," I said. "I want Snark to keep his rifle trained on it. If it moves to attack we shoot it."
The murmuring stopped and my men began approaching.
I popped my head from cover to look at it again and all but shat my pants when I saw the drone an inch from my face. I remained motionless, but gripped my rifle tighter.
"What is it?" Miri asked.
"It's right on my face," I replied.
The drone hummed slightly and I made sure to keep my helmet camera trained on it in order to get some good footage of its design. I myself didn't have a lot of time to examine it. I knew that I was being scanned by the machine. After a few seconds it beeped. The eye in the middle displayed some sort of sign, a circle with a handle at the bottom and two arm-like parts that made another, smaller circle, getting thinner as they went higher. The symbol stayed there as the drone emitted a few sounds in an unrecognizable language and hovered off.
"Johnson, come in."
"Lieutenant?" he replied almost immediately.
"We came across alien drone constructs," I said. "Construct. One."
"Hostile?"
"Negative. It scanned me and tried to communicate before leaving."
"Huh… let me know if anything changes. Don't let your guard down, if there are more they might still attack you."
"Let's hope not," I replied.
"Lieutenant, scans indicate open ground two hundred meters from your position. I want you and the lead scout teams to hold position there, let the tanks catch up."
"Copy that." I turned to my men. "Let's move. Snark, keep your gun trained on that thing. I don't want it suddenly deciding it doesn't like us all that much."
We moved through the clearing as a group. The drone hovered and didn't do much. It didn't even bother to turn and look at us, but I did feel safer once we had left it behind. I couldn't help but get a feeling of… creepiness from the drone. There were two, no three, possible explanations for it. One was that the thing was a few hundred thousand years old give or take, another one was that there was an automated facility that produced them, presumably to take care of the whole ring and make it self-sufficient. The last one unnerved me. It had been built by someone and there was a new faction about to enter the fray.
My job wasn't to think. Not this much. I couldn't even afford a small distraction.
As we moved forward we began spotting some other things. Not other drones, but what appeared to be terminals or platforms. At one point we were walking over a metallic grey floor instead of rock. This place was weird, mixing constructed parts with the weird geological formations. The fact that we came across more artificial stuff made me a bit nervous. Never mind the fact that the whole ring was artificial.
"I feel like somebody should be home," Crow said.
"Agreed," Lady muttered. "Why build this thing and then abandon it?"
"Who says they abandoned it," Grass said. "Maybe they were forced out."
"Maybe they never left," Pavel growled.
None of those two options made me happy.
"All we need to know is that if anything shoots at us we'll kill the shit out of it," I said to reassure my men. "We've got a hundred meters to go."
That was easy for me to say, the road there was weaving and twisting throughout the rocks. Sometimes we were underground and sometimes we were above it, but for the most part we had two solid wall of rock on either side of us. I jumped a little bit when I heard a hail of gunfire accompanied by more unfamiliar sounds coming from our left.
"Prophet 1-1," I radioed in. "Do you copy?"
The gunfire went on for a little longer before finally stopping.
"Prophet 1-1 here," I heard, allowing me a sigh of relief. "Sarge, we were attacked by those drones."
"Copy," Johnson said, jumping in the conversation. "Hear that, Lieutenant? They're hostiles."
"Understood. Should we fire on sight?"
Johnson hesitated.
"It burned a hole right through Skinner," the leader of Prophet 1-1 said.
"Attack on sight," Johnson finally said. "If those things are trying to kill us, then we're going to show them how the Corps treat upjumped robots."
"Copy that," I said. "You hear that, men? Those drones are hostiles."
"Should I take that one out?" Snark asked, jerking his head at the direction we had come from.
"Not yet," I said. "I still want you expecting an attack from it."
That being said we began moving forward once again. With a defined target and parameters for unknowns I felt a little bit better. If I shot down a drone and started an intergalactic war with yet another hostile alien race I could just blame it on Johnson for having given me the order to do that. That was the beauty of the chain of command, even if technically speaking I was supposed to hand orders to him.
"What's the plan for taking those out?" Grass asked me.
"We shoot them until they come down. According to Prophet 1-1 they have heat based weapons, plasma or lasers. Standard procedures should apply I think. Just picture the drones as… well, drones."
"I'd rather be facing down the bugs," Longworth said. "At least those are familiar."
"And loud," Lady added. "You can usually tell where they are."
They had a point, but we hadn't yet come across anything else that was of interest. It was beginning to become a bit unnerving, if only because I had worked myself into expecting anything and everything to jump out of the corner. In truth, I was slightly relieved that we wouldn't be forced to engage any enemy forces right away, but my body was pumped full of adrenaline and the situation was a bit confusing physiologically speaking.
"Thirty meters," Miri said. "Looks like pretty much a straight line."
We had been thirty meters away from our target several times, but the weaving and twisting that we had to do made the progress a lot slower.
"Set up shop," I ordered her.
"Yes, sir."
It took us just a little bit longer to catch up with her, but once we were there we saw that the ground became less of an insult. It was still rocky, but it seemed like it sloped downwards for a good portion before it stopped at a second, smaller wall. The wall was pretty far away, highlighting just how large the building itself actually was. At a distance of around five kilometers we could cross it relatively quickly if we had vehicles, but the flatter land didn't mean prime vehicle terrain, there were still some outcrops and what appeared to be abandoned buildings littered over the landscape.
"Hold the position," I ordered. "Wait for reinforcements. Johnson, AAG-7 is in position."
"Roger that, hold."
I confirmed the order and moved a bit back before sitting down in a rock. I placed Snark and Miri at the front in case anything charged us and let Caboose and Lady guard our rear. The rest of us basically milled about and sat down. Grass and Pavel came up to me and remained standing.
"Weird stuff," Pavel noted.
"Amen," Grass said.
"You can't say amen," I told her. "I thought you were an atheist."
"I am."
"You shall burn in hell," I said.
Pavel shook his head, smiling. Grass just chuckled.
"Since when are you religious?" she asked.
I smiled. "Oh, you know me. Hardcore fanatic. Catholic."
The topic of God wasn't one that came up very often. I had been raised to believe in Him and truth be told, I did believe, but at the same time I didn't exactly think God was much of a person. At least not a very nice one. Why concern myself with something I can't control, right?
"Don't go ragging on Catholics," Pavel warned Grass. "Poland is full of those."
"What would they say if they saw this?" she wondered.
"What would anybody say?" I asked her. "Look at this thing."
A fucking ring. Halo.
"Space is weird," Grass finally muttered with a sigh. "And big."
"Just think about all the things that we could be missing," Pavel said.
"Did you know that this whole war has only taken place in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way?" Grass said, giving us some useless trivia.
"A lot of space out there," I said. "We should look for other potential allies or something."
"The last thing we need is more ugly fuckers trying to kill us," Pavel told me. "We're doing bad enough as it is."
We were silent for a few seconds.
"Why do you think they built this?" I asked.
"Habitation," Grass said. "Ring shape is usually the best one for this kind of thing or so I hear."
"Why not just grab a planet?" Pavel asked.
"Too boring, maybe? We'll never know."
Just as I was about to say something I saw the channel that linked Boxer 1-3 and us open up before going silent. Things like that weren't unusual, false alarms or simply not paying attention would have that happen. Like a pocket dial if you will. It happened all the time, nothing to be alarmed by. Standard protocol dictated that you should contact the unit/person, but nobody ever did that. Why? Because you'd just get a mildly annoyed reply telling you that nothing was wrong. If a guy opened a channel and was killed before he could utter a single syllable, then you could start crapping your pants.
I smiled. My own men routinely did that to Covenant units.
"What's in the Library, again?" Pavel asked.
"Beats me," Grass admitted.
"Books?" I suggested.
"Information," Pavel furthered. "Information about his place. Damn, that could be pretty useful in the war effort."
"True," I agreed. "If we have even a little bit of information that could help us get some good tech…"
"Like what?" I asked.
"Laser blasters?" he replied with a shrug.
"Did you know that laser blasts as commonly depicted in media cannot be actual lasers? They are represented as visible light traveling below light speed, which would make them something like ionized plasma."
"Covenant plasma?" I asked.
"No, the real kind."
The physics of plasma were complicated; the physics of the thing Covenant used in their weapons that we happened to call plasma were even more complicated. It had been impossible to replicate or reverse-engineer even their plasma pistols. In thirty years we hadn't been able to do just that. It didn't speak volumes about our scientists, but then again, we had created so many other wonderful things.
"Sir, I'm seeing some sort of movement," Snark said. "Uhhh…"
"What?"
"It looks like the ground is moving in some places. Very hard to catch," Miranda said.
I growled a little bit. That was the last thing we needed.
"Distance?" I asked.
"Around 800 meters last time I checked," Snark said.
"Longworth, help them out," I ordered. "Everybody ready for contact."
I got another pocket dial, this time from Prophet 1-3 to our direct right. That wouldn't have been weird, even with the recent one by Boxer 1-3, but the movement talk unnerved me. I waited a few seconds for the channel to close and then attempted to contact them, getting no reply. My heart started beating just a little bit faster.
"Prophet 1-1," I contacted the unit to our left. "Do you copy?"
"That's correct," the leader replied, slightly irritated. "What is it?"
"Hold on." I switched channels. "Boxer 1-3, Boxer 1-3, this is AAG-7. Do you copy?"
Silence.
"Boxer 1-3, come in."
Silence.
"Prophet 1-1, can you contact them?" I asked.
"Negative," the man replied, sounding concerned. "I didn't hear gunfire."
"Same here."
"Prophet 1-2, move up and make contact with Prophet 1-3 and Boxer 1-3," the leader of Prophet 1-1 said.
Silence.
"Prophet 1-2," I began, contacting the backup squad. I got silence from them. My hairs stood on edge. Their silence meant that the whole sector to our right was dark. That made sense if we were being ambushed or attacked from that direction. "Prophet 1-2?"
"Shit," Prophet 1-1 said. "Boxer 1-2?" he asked, contacting the other backup unit.
"Oi, whatsup?" we got the reply. "Need an assist?"
"Eyes open," I warned them. "Very open."
"I'm seeing some more movement, sir," Snark said. "It looks like life forms, but they're moving from cover to cover."
"They know our position," Miri said ominously. "They're hiding from us."
"Johnson, do you copy?"
"Copy, Lieutenant. Getting impatient?"
"Negative Sarge, we lost contact with Boxer 1-3, Prophet 1-3, and Prophet 1-2."
"All of them?" he asked after a slight pause. The fact that he asked me to repeat myself showed just how shocked he was.
"All of them."
"Shit, I'm sending up Warthogs and getting a Scorpion to move up. Eyes open El-tee."
"Yeah. We're seeing some movement of sorts," I said. "Can't define it yet."
"What about Prophet 1-1?" he asked.
"We don't see anything," they replied. "Quiet."
"Boxer 1-2, move to the right, make contact with them," Johnson ordered. "Double time it, Helljumpers!"
"Oorah, Sarge!"
All this unit designations were throwing me off a little and I would've gotten confused if not for the helpful arrows with unit names next to them. Those little arrows in my HUD map unnerved me too, they showed that none of the three units that we couldn't talk to had moved from their last position.
Until a moment after Johnson gave that last order.
"They're moving," I said. "Prophet 1-3, 1-2, do you copy?" I asked. "Boxer 1-3…"
I realized that their unit arrows were moving in a straight line through the rough terrain. They'd move fast and then stop, fast and then stop.
"Are they fucking flying or something?" Pavel asked. "Fast climbers."
"Must be a glitch," Grass said.
"Movement!" Snark shouted, firing his rifle.
"What the hell is that?" Miri asked loudly, echoing Snark's choice to open up. "There's a ton of them!"
Longworth joined them soon after and seconds later Dotsenko was firing full auto at something that I couldn't see. I kept my eye on the three units that we had lost contact with, they were coming our way and they were moving fast. Something told me to prepare for a fight and I raised my rifle lightly.
"What are we doing?" Pavel asked for orders.
"Lady, Caboose, get over here," I ordered. "Eyes on those friendlies."
"Sir?" Lady asked.
A creepy shriek rang throughout the area. It was disturbing, being both high-pitched and roar-like at the same time. However, what disturbed me the most was that it sounded right on the edge of being human.
The missing units had all converged on the other side of a short cliff to our right. They were about twenty meters away, separated by solid rock. I started sweating and even as the gunfire intensified and my men fought off that unknown enemy I tuned them out. The shriek came again, rattling me to my bones and making Pavel and Lady take a step back. Grass' knees shook a little bit and even Caboose gripped his weapon tightly, making his gloves groan. More sources added to the loud shriek, some higher pitched and some sounding like roars.
Then the three units jumped. I knew that they jumped because as soon as they began approaching I looked up and saw them over the short cliff, coming down at us like demons straight out of heaven.
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
There were only a couple of review questions, questions that I can't answer for plot reasons. Other than that thanks to the ten reviewers for letting me know what they thought to the other guys that didn't review, thanks for reading nonetheless, seeing the hits in my story is also a pretty good feeling.
Well, we've come to the good part of Delta Halo. You may remember that this is the part where you're playing as the Arbiter and if you're anything like me, some of the most challenging levels of the second game. It is the part where the UNSC is the enemy, the rival that you're trying to beat to the big prize. The Activation Index. What does that mean? It means that there is very little established canon for what happens in the Quarantine Zone, it means that I can mold that clay into an awesome piece of holy shit did that just happen or I can mold it into a boring piece of nothing. Which one do you think will happen? The next couple of chapters will be intense, I can promise you that. That little enemy that we all hate so much shows up and will be acquainted to Frank and Co. Who's going to end up regretting that? I think we all know.
Other than that I certainly hope you enjoyed this chapter. Not a lot of combat but a lot of tension instead. I'm hesitant to make Johnson dialogue-heavy because I'm not sure I can appropriately portray him, I think I might've mentioned this in one of his earlier appearances.
Stay strong.
-casquis