Chapter CCXX: Adrift
November 3, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Quarantine Zone, Delta Halo [orbiting Substance], Coelest System
"There really wasn't a good plan."
There was near absolute silence as Grass did her best to fly the Pelican out of the Quarantine Zone. We were fired at by both Flood and Sentinels alike. There might've been some Covenant forces in there too, but it was nearly impossible to tell in the dark. Snow obscured our view, but we knew that the only place we wanted to go was away from here. The Pelican was hit repeatedly, small impacts that amounted to significant damage. No one said anything.
Silence was broken when Miranda leaned back from one of the wounded ODSTs.
"He's gone."
"The other one?"
She shook her head. "Not much longer."
I nodded.
It only took a few minutes for us to make it out of the Quarantine Zone, but as soon as Grass gave the clear signal we all collectively sighed with relief. I lazily got up, feeling my neck throbbing. My men barely raised their heads as I walked past them. They were sleeping, resting their bodies from the injuries and the fatigue. My own body felt like giving up. It was hard to compare it to something, but when you've had too much to drink and you can feel yourself just falling asleep would be a good place to start. Throw in some pain and multiply it times eleven and it would probably be how I was feeling. If it wasn't for the stimulants in my blood I would've surely collapsed in exhaustion by now. It had only been a few hours worth of battle, but it had been completely nonstop.
"Camilla, how are you?"
"Good," she replied. Blood was leaking out of her armor. Not in significant quantities, but enough to warrant a concerned frown. "I got a couple of interesting readings on the sensors."
"What is it."
"Well, I detected several small pings, probably Sentinels. I also got a few Banshees, but their flying patterns are too bad to be Covenant so… Anyways, two Phantoms flew out of the Library moments before we took off. I didn't see the initial trajectory so I'm making a big assumption there, but their flight paths seemed to indicate that they would meet up with the Covenant fleet and the space station."
I looked up through the cockpit, unsurprisingly enough, the size of the station was big enough that I could see it even in whatever passed for nighttime in this ring. It looked like a meteor with a metal spike embedded at the bottom. I couldn't begin to understand how they had gotten a slipspace engine mounted on that thing and made it work.
"What does that tell us?"
"Nothing really," she admitted. "Johnson and Keyes might've been killed by Covenant forces. Seems like we lost whatever we were trying to get."
"Sir," Caboose interrupted, walking into the cockpit. "I managed to get a link to Keyes' transponder. It only worked for a few moments before the computer died on me."
I raised an eyebrow. "A for initiative. What's the situation?"
"Looks like those Phantoms might've taken her after all," Caboose said. "It was high up in the air."
"Cross check it with the Phantom's flight path," I ordered. "Cam, put us down in one of the staging areas where we first landed. See if we can find anything."
"Yes, sir," they both replied.
My body was not getting any better, but my head cleared up some and the dark edges of my vision receded just a little bit. It wasn't much, but it was improvement. I looked at the cargo bay of the Pelican and counted. Grass and Caboose were in the cockpit, Pavel was sitting near the hatch, his M247L propped up against his knee, Lady and Longworth were both quite evidently asleep, and Miri was leaning against her DMR, sitting in the ground next to the two corpses of the unknown ODSTs.
We could escape from this hellhole or we could try and stage a rescue mission for Keyes. Either would likely end up in our deaths, but the question was which one would provide the higher survival chance. With our ammunition reserves as low as they were and our mental state as it was we wouldn't do too well in any engagement.
Escape seemed like the likely option. Hell, maybe we'd all get medals and bonuses if we made it.
Not bloody likely.
"Ok, I've got a site," Grass said. "Ten minutes ETA."
"It's a stop and go," I said. "Once there I want you to put us as far away from the Quarantine Zone as possible. Stay close to the ground and avoid anything that moves."
"Roger that."
"Caboose, you're coming down with me."
He nodded, but it was a weak nod. The man was not bleeding anymore, but he still had a bullet wound in him. Not exactly something that will perk you up.
"You alright?"
"Always, sir."
I shrugged slightly. I had never cared for the man much, so I wasn't about to stop him from doing physical labor with a bullet wound. I'd rather Pavel have a break and the rest of the men were in no shape to even walk. Funny how it was the members of Reaper that could still walk around. I had handpicked them and they were the best, nothing could ever change that. The other three… well, the other three were Reaper material for sure, but they hadn't passed the trial by fire that we had. They just needed practice, and I intended them to have that opportunity.
Our staging point was basically a bunch of tread marks on the muddy grass as well as an abandoned stretcher. There were some items of interest, however. A crate of ammunition had been opened and thoroughly looted, leaving only a small box of 7.62mm ammo inside it. I promptly got that and kept looking around. Caboose was heading towards a trio of small Pelican-dropped pods. He looked in each of them and produced an M90 shotgun with a full bandolier of ammunition as well as a BR55HB with half a load of magazines. He limped back towards my position and handed me the shotgun. We looked around for a little bit longer, coming across useless equipment for a Warthog and two spare magazines for a pistol. It was a very good find overall, but the CO would've been appalled at the sight of all this unused ordinance left behind by a group of well-trained Marines. In fact, the inner sergeant in the back of my head was shaking his head in disapproval.
"Looks like that's all for now," Caboose said. "Maybe we should've stopped at the main entrance."
"Too late for that now," I said. "Risk was too big anyways."
He nodded weakly, hefting the battle rifle and climbing inside the Pelican. I gave the word for Grass to move out as soon as I was standing inside and we took off once again. Our hydrogen fuel cells could take us anywhere in the ring and back a couple of times. We could even make long trips inside the system if we really needed to. Provided we didn't mind spending a few weeks cooped up inside the back of the dropship that is.
The ride was uneventful. We were less than fifty meters above the surface of the ring, going at several times the speed of sound. Nobody was saying much. In fact, it looked like Grass and I were the only ones still awake. My eyes began closing for a moment and I had to shake myself awake again. Grass could move us as far away from the Flood as possible, but that meant that we were going to be getting closer to the Covenant.
"Cam, set it down when you find a spot. We need some breakfast."
"Check the compartment before, will you?"
Only Pavel and her could get away with talking to me like that. It actually made me smile a little bit, despite how fucked up the situation was.
"Fully stocked. At least we're not dying of hunger," I said.
"There's a plateau a few clicks off. We're setting down there."
"How big?" I asked.
"Take a look for yourself."
I moved back into the cockpit and leaned against her seat, feeling my thirty-seven years of age more than I should've. I frowned and squinted a little bit until I saw what she was talking about. It reminded me of one of those imposing-looking mesas near New Phoenix. I had never travelled there, but I had often seen the pictures of the buttes in the Colorado Plateau, tall and imposing, red rock standing starkly against the blue sky in the background. Some of them even had the New Phoenix skyline in the background.
It annoyed me that this butte was more beautiful than anything that could ever be made naturally. It annoyed me to no end.
"Why are we stopping?" Pavel asked as soon as we touched down.
"Breakfast," I said. "We need some nutrients, water, anything."
He nodded softly, still half asleep. Grass immediately got out of the cockpit and grabbed two MREs and the accompanying water rations. I wasn't precisely surprised, but you have to understand that an MRE is a dense thing. A soldier will typically finish his and feel pretty satisfied, but that's because they were designed that way. Having two MREs is not unheard of, but it usually means you just ran a marathon or that you're pretty tired.
I grabbed three.
We sat down and chowed down hard. Even Lady went through her first ration like a monster before going hard onto the second one. We ate in resigned silence, occasionally stopping to take loud gulps from the water bottles. We ended up with more water running down our chins and necks than our throats, but it felt like glory. It was the best meal that I had ever had. I tossed my second MRE into the ground and some of the slop landed on an ODST's boot.
"What about them?" Pavel asked in between bites.
"We take our boys home," Grass said.
"And I'm not leaving them to become monsters either," I added. "Longworth, Lady, get them in body bags and tie them down as soon as you're done. Strip them of their armor as well."
"Yes, sir," they mumbled through their food.
I quickly did a check for wounds. My own neck injury was throbbing and the blood loss had me feeling a little bit weak, but I wasn't in immediate danger. Caboose could get an infection, but the injury had been treated well and cleaned. Pavel had a few scratches and blows from bullets that his armor had deflected, none of them too serious. Lady was in pain from the brute tackling her before we even made into the Zone, but otherwise fine. Longworth couldn't walk without help, at least he couldn't walk too fast. Grass was fine, surprisingly enough. She'd have some bruising on her abdomen from bullet impacts, but that was about it. Miranda hadn't been hit, but she was the best person in the room and looked like the ordeal had scarred her more than us. At least for the time being, she had a way about dealing with things.
"Ok, brainstorm," I said. "What do we need?"
"Ammo," Pavel said. "Guns. A rocket launcher would be fine."
"Disinfectant," Grass threw in. "Biofoam. Any medical supplies."
"Silencers," Longworth added.
Miranda looked up calmly. "A sniper rifle or a good pair of binoculars."
We knew that we didn't need any food. We couldn't go through the rations fast enough. If we died it was going to be from trauma.
"That it?" I asked.
Nods.
"Now, there are two spots where we can get gear from," I said. "The temporary base we set up outside the Quarantine Zone or the In Amber Clad. None of them are exactly feasible at the time, are they?"
Shaking heads.
"What about commandeering weapons from Covenant forces?" Caboose asked.
"We've come that low, eh?" Lady muttered. "I guess that works."
"Not a fan," Pavel admitted. "But it seems like our only good option now. We need an FTL-capable ship now if we're getting away from here."
"Phantom?" Grass asked.
"Not bloody likely we're getting anything bigger, is it?" I asked. "Taking one should be easy enough, but luring a lone dropship out in the open…"
"We can figure that out later," I said. "We have evidence that Johnson at the very least is alive and captured by the Covenant."
"What about him?" Lady asked.
"With all due respect, sir," Miri started, "he may very well go fuck himself."
"That's one way of putting it," Pavel said. "She has a point. We can't just waltz into that big-ass station, can we? It must be hundreds of kilometers long."
"Johnson will have to survive on his own," I said.
"Or die on his own," Schitzo added.
"He'll figure it out," I said with extreme confidence in my voice. "We need to find an isolated Covenant staging area. At this point sneaking in seems like our best option. Miri can provide overwatch of some sort and Longworth can stay with her. Ideally we'd have Snark but…"
"But he's dead," Pavel gruffly said.
"Yes," I agreed. "Catch a Phantom on the ground, pilot it back to you guys and then take off, back to Earth and the good fight."
"Sounds like a plan," Grass said. Very ironically.
"We've done more with less," Pavel told her.
"I can vouch for that," Caboose furthered. "We have a good starting point."
Relatively.
"Finish your meals," I said finally. "I'll move this bird, Cam, take a nap."
"Cam?" Lady asked.
"That's my name," Grass told her, getting up and sitting down near the cockpit. I walked past her and sat down on the pilot's seat. My first thought was of how much I missed Marina. She would've gotten everybody out: For some reason I was certain she could've saved all of us.
Hanna and her had been my angels in the battlefield. I missed them both.
A lot.
"You remember how to fly this bucket?" Pavel called out.
I smiled as Marina's hands guided mine to the appropriate controls. I rapped the joystick slowly and almost went too hard. She didn't have to say it, but I could feel that Marina was telling me to take it easy, maybe throwing a sexual joke in there. As soon as we had takeoff I aimed the nose a little bit upwards and then moved my right hand to the thruster handle. It felt nice to have Marina's hands gripped around mine for that moment. Her reflection smiled at me from the cockpit window and then disappeared.
Sometimes being mad had its perks.
For a fleeting moment I was truly happy.
The reality sunk back in, the colors became duller, sounds became less intense, and grimness took over. Business as usual.
The ring nature of Delta Halo allowed us to use the Pelican's cameras and sensors to get a relatively accurate reading of everything that was going on at the surface. The Covenant had two main staging areas. Initially they had moved above the Temple where the prophet had first landed, but then they had moved further back and regrouped. A smaller force had been sent to another structure a ways from our current position and it looked like they were still there. That's where we were headed then. One hour flight time before we were close enough to slow down and start planning for action.
One hour and then we would gamble it all.
"Almost makes surrendering to the Covenant seem like it's worth it, eh?" Schitzo suggested. "Almost."
"Almost," I whispered.
Flying was an experience that a lot of people found to be soothing, but truth be told, I wasn't a big fan of it. I had gone through the basic flight school as an ODST and could move a Pelican around with jerky motions if need be. Going in a straight line at high speeds was considerably easier for me and a lot of people could do that even with the most basic and rudimentary training. The rumbling of the air screaming outside could be heard through the hull, but otherwise it was calm. My men were sleeping, quiet as can be. I kept shifting my eyes across the various instruments in the dashboard, checking the altimeter and the sensors more often than anything else. The airspace around us was clear, but I was afraid that soon enough we'd have Flood-commandeered vehicles flying all around us.
I slowed down the craft more abruptly than necessary when a thought came to my head.
"Sir?" Miri asked, having been awakened by the change in motion.
"What was the Chief's last known position?" I asked.
"Chief. Master Chief?" she asked. "Did we really not think about him."
"Looks like it," I said. "Temple. He was going to the Temple with an ODST complement of troops."
"The Temple was glassed," Grass said. "Covenant forces saw to it."
"Was the Chief caught in the blast?" I asked.
"No way to know. I don't know how to contact him. If we had a link to the In Amber Clad I might be able to get him on a radio link."
"Is it smart to go to the Temple?" I asked. "It's not quite doubling back to the Quarantine Zone, but it's close."
"How far away is it?" she asked.
"Forty minutes at max speed," I said. "We might come across ODST pods, UNSC materiel…"
"It's worth a shot," Miri said.
"Agreed," Grass said. "We need supplies and that's the place to get it."
Without further discussion I circled the Pelican around in a motion that would've given Marina a stroke and got my bearings. Ideally we wouldn't need much ammunition to sneak past anything, but ideally was just a concept that had long since stopped having any real meaning.
It was strange. It reminded me a little bit of the Buddhist temples in the jungles of Southeast Asia back on Earth. Not in the architecture, but in a vague overall sense. The temples were tall and tower-like, rising out of the untamed jungle around them, like little islands of safety. The buildings here were similar, small or large structures connected by little bridges that were raised above a lake. A lake that was displaying the occasional Covenant corpse with increasing frequency.
"There's movement down there," Pavel confirmed. "We'd better prepare for combat."
"Avoid it if possible," I said. "We came here to get ammunition."
We had found it, but we hadn't quite gotten to it yet. Grass was keeping the Pelican flying close to the ground, but far enough up that a combat form couldn't jump at us. From what we had seen, those things had quite the vertical leap. I could almost see the human muscles crunching at such effort, but the Flood wasn't human.
Our target was a large platform with a cupula of sorts in the middle. A Pelican had dropped several resupply pods, only two of which had been raided. There were infection forms moving around, raising their tendrils tentatively in our direction, almost appearing to screech in anger at their lack of capabilities. My neck tingled as I remembered the creature that Snark had fought off, receiving a painful wound to the back of his neck as a prize for his survival.
Snark could've easily taken them out for us. A lot easier than anybody else.
"Miri, your DMR," I ordered. "Take my rifle."
We switched weapons and I propped my shotgun against a chair.
"Cam, get the Pelican as steady as possible. Pavel, Miranda, and Lady, you three are fastroping down to the ground. Clear the platform and secure the pods. We'll cover you from above, but we can't have a hidden form take out the Pelican."
"Copy," Pavel said. "You girls ready?"
They nodded, not really feeling it.
It took a minute to secure the ropes and make sure everyone was ready. Caboose moved up to the edge along with Longworth. The three of us looked down our scopes, aiming at the infection forms that were beginning to congregate below the Pelican. I fired a shot with my DMR, taking out one directly and two others in the subsequent pop. Caboose sprayed the ground, clearing the landing area and sending several infection forms running away for cover. Longworth kept his sight trained on potential danger spots, breathing deeply.
"Go," Pavel ordered.
He was the first to go, letting his machine gun hang down his back as he slid and then drawing a sidearm. He kept his pistol trained on a pair of infection forms as Lady and Miranda dropped after him, drawing their sidearms as well. I saw the three of them move across the ground, firing their pistols only a couple of times each before reaching the canisters. Cam moved up and shifted to the opposite side of the courtyard and cupula, giving us a full view of the ground.
"Looks like it's clear," Pavel said after a few moments. "As clear as it's going to get."
He was talking about the occasional infection form that made a run for it, trying to jump at any of my men in order to get a host. They would inevitably get destroyed by accurate gunfire.
"Alright," I said. "Tie them up, I don't want to touch down."
"Copy that," Pavel replied, reaching for the rope that was hanging from the Pelican. "Don't take too long."
"That's up to you, buddy," I reminded him.
"Easy for you to say," he grunted. "Lady, Miranda, cover my ass."
The two women switched out from their pistols to their rifles. I noticed how both of them hit the fire selector to single fire. I waited for Pavel to give me the signal to raise the pod, aiming down the scope while I did that. I hoped this raid would be worth it, because we had spent some ammunition, and that's the last thing that we needed right now. My team had the incredibly ability to burn through ammunition like rookie soldiers did. We made it worth it, but still, it was impressive just how fast we did that.
"That's a heavy one," Pavel said. "SMGs and ammo, enough for a squad."
"Roger," I said. "Longworth."
He hit the button and the small engine that the rope was attached to started pulling it up. The Pelican shook a little bit as the engine struggled to get the pod out of the hard ground, but we didn't have to fly up and use the Pelican's thrust to achieve that. Caboose and I positioned the pod inside the blood tray and untied it as fast as possible before tossing the rope back to Pavel, who started getting to work on the second pod. By the time he was done we had more ammunition than we could carry comfortably, but it still felt like it wasn't enough.
"Alright," I said. "We're out."
"I'm touching down," Grass said.
I sighed and gave her the go.
The Pelican touched the old rocks on the courtyard and they cracked in some places. My men moved towards the dropshipjust as the whole structure began shaking. I frowned at the occurrence, but Grass was already taking off. She knew that an artificial construct like this wouldn't have any tectonic activity with which to have earthquakes. The Pelican shot up seconds before the whole thing collapsed. Nobody said anything about it, instead opting to pat themselves on the back for a job well done. I looked at the rock and metal falling to the lake and for a moment there I thought I saw a Flood tentacle gripping the base of the platform as it crumbled, but it was too dark to tell.
One hour until sunrise. Might as well spend it asleep.
"How long was I asleep?" I asked.
"Two hours. And a half," Pavel said. "You looked too tired to wake up."
"You don't get to choose that."
"Nothing we can do about it now, I guess," he said with a shrug. "Grass and Caboose came up with a preliminary plan. We were waiting for you to wake up to run it through."
I groaned. "Any developments?"
"Some strange movements in the enemy fleet. Grass says it looks like they're preparing to attack. A bunch of flotillas have adopted combat formations."
"Anything else we don't know of?"
"Negative, our sensors don't cover the whole system. At least not properly that is, but we could easily miss a UNSC fleet."
Not that any UNSC fleet would have a chance to go against the Covenant station and the ships defending it. They numbered in the thousands.
"Not our concern," I said, not really meaning it. "How far away are we from our target then?"
"Fifteen minutes," he said. "We're flying slow and low. Target is an island with a structure in the middle. Scans don't show anything particularly interesting present there, but there appears to be something worth the Covenant's time, because they placed a corvette directly overhead."
"Why is our target a corvette?" I asked.
"Here's where it gets interesting," Pavel said, leaning closer to me. "Longworth managed to pick up a link with one of our UAVs. The last one up, it seems. A couple of fly-bys show that the structure in the island is flooding with troops. That was hours ago, they went inside a pair of doors and haven't come back."
"The Flood?" I asked.
"We can't tell," he replied, "but the majority of the Corvette's complement is gone. A few Phantoms remain inside the hangar. That much we can tell for certain. Some Spirit dropships are hovering near the ground, troop bays open and empty."
"So the corvette may or may not be a sitting duck?" I asked. "If we had another squad we could take it?"
"Hey, I'm not one to brag, but it is a possibility. Still, best option right now seems to be to stick with the small craft," Pavel told me. "Easier and less risky."
"If we get a Phantom we jump out of the system just like that?" Lady asked.
"Just like that," Pavel told her, "but we need to get it first."
I stood up, my whole body throbbing. "Very well, we'll need to assign ourselves one target and commit to it. There's Phantoms in the hangar and those seem like our best option right now. We could drop through the shield walls and be on our merry way."
"What about the Spirits on the ground?" Miranda asked.
"Too cramped. They're designed strictly to drop troops, not to carry them for extended periods of time. We'd need to pack our rations too…" I scratched the back of my head, getting a piece of dirt from out of my hair. "Phantom is the way to go."
"What about a relay?" Pavel asked. "Sneak in at sea level, board a Spirit, and then climb on board the corvette?"
"More parts," Caboose said. "Increases the odds that something will go wrong."
"Corvettes depend on a Seraph complement for point defense, don't they?" Longworth asked.
"They do," Grass called out from the cockpit, "but they have pretty deadly point defense weaponry. For a Pelican, that is."
"Can you maneuver us through that?"
"Not by myself I can't," she admitted. "If there were other targets to flood their systems maybe, but there aren't. So no."
"Relay operation it is then," I muttered. "Alright, do we know where we can find a grounded Spirit?"
"There are two locations, both on this side of the island. The only difference between them is the geography," Pavel started. "From what we could tell the second spot has a more even slope and less pointed ridges to the side. It is only marginally less of a killzone."
"Ok then," I said. "I'll take your word for it. Enemy presence?"
"Our drone saw no movement, we could try another flyby."
"That's risky," Caboose chimed in. "It's a miracle that they didn't spot it on our first flyby alone."
"I agree," Longworth said. "We know where the target is and that there aren't heavy defenses. I think we can manage any infantry defenders."
"We?" I asked. "You're staying in the Pelican as fire support."
Longworth said nothing and nodded.
"Same goes for you, Grass," I said. "What's the ammo count on the front cannon?"
"Four."
"What?"
"Four rounds."
I raised an eyebrow. "That's fucking useless."
I could picture her shrugging. "It's four kills."
"Ok, this is how it goes, we do a quick circling to spot enemy positions before dropping down right on top of the Spirit. Caboose will be tasked with boarding it and clearing the cockpit. Once there I'm fairly confident he can figure out the controls?"
"I've studied them, yes."
"Very well, I want you to put the ship on a low hover, scare any defenders and gun them down if possible. It has to be quick, we can't let the Covenant forces on the Corvette get too much information on us. Once we've handled them we'll transfer to the Spirit. Grass and Longworth will remain in the Pelican under cover."
"Then we board the hangar and switch to a Phantom?" Pavel asked. "It's awfully easy to remember."
"See?" I said. "Even a certified idiot could manage it."
"Six minutes," Grass said.
"Lock and load," I ordered. "Pavel, you're going to be firing a lot. This time we'll be taking enemy weapons."
My men slowly stood up, nursing their various injuries with care and grabbing their weapons after throwing on their helmets. My whole body was sore and tight, so I began stretching a little bit. I made sure my legs were stretched out and then cracked my neck a couple of times, shaking my head after the vertebrae popped. It was kind of painful considering the wound that hadn't closed yet, but it was also a relief. Lady bounced on her toes to get a bit warm and my men gripped their rifles tightly. It was going to have to be very fast if we wanted this to work out fine. With most of my men wounded and "most of my men" being a ridiculously tiny force we couldn't risk any major engagements.
"Thirty seconds," Grass said. "Ready!"
"Ready!" I called out. I looked at Caboose and gave him a quick nod as we both switched to our shotguns. Grass opened the rear hatch and Pavel hefted his machine gun up, preparing to spray the enemy with sustained automatic fire and send them running for cover.
I was nervous. We were in bad shape and this raid would determine the outcome of our lives. I wanted to return to Earth, live to fight another day. See my girlfriend and fuck her until I couldn't go anymore. I wanted to do a lot of things. No man should die before hitting forty, especially in this day and age. I still had two thirds of my life in me. Well, probably less, but I wanted at least three more years until I hit forty.
"Ten seconds!" Grass shouted.
I saw the ocean give way to sand that promptly transformed into rocky ground that had a few signs of Covenant presence there. Grass circled around hard enough that everyone struggled to stay upright as we were subject to the g-forces. Grass might've been the best pilot in the boat, but she didn't have the finesse and precision that Marina had had. I spotted the Spirit almost immediately, it was hard to miss the purple forked dropship as it stood in stark contrast to the dark rocky floor. I saw two grunts look up in confusion and then fear, but nothing else.
Miranda fired two shots, taking out the first grunt, but the other one ducked back under cover. Grass touched down a second later and we received a little bit of return fire from the single grunt, but a single bullet to the neck was all it took to suppress the alien.
"Secure the area," I ordered. "Those two can't be the only ones."
"Lady, with me," Pavel ordered, taking the left side.
Caboose and Miri moved as one, checking the right side of the Spirit as I fanned out to the right to keep an eye on the ridge for any patrolling aliens. Grass moved her Pelican just enough to give Longworth an angle over the left side of the dropship before touching down. No gunshots were fired and no plasma flew our way. I listened carefully for movement before running up the ridge and aiming past it.
"Shit," I said.
"What?" Pavel asked.
"Corpses, they were piled up."
The pile must've contained at least a dozen assorted Covenant bodies, next to it were a few tools that I recognized as burning implements that the Covenant tended to use on occasion. It didn't take a scientist to connect the two dots. They had been prepared to burn the bodies and the only reason they would do that was if the Flood was a factor in this little island. I was wondering how they could've made their way here so fast when I saw a single infection from running at the pile.
I jumped up and fired at it with the shotgun, making it pop. Three more began approaching and all met the same fate as the first one. I let the shotgun dangle in front of me while I reached for my pistol and grabbed one of the burning tools. It looked enough like a gun that I knew how to handle it. I fired at another duo of infection forms running for the pile of corpses and messed around with the switches on the machine before managing to produce a hot stream of plasma. I aimed at the pile and fired, coating it in blue fire.
"Damn," Pavel muttered.
"There's Flood in the island," I said.
"Sir, there's someone trying to communicate with this dropship!" Caboose shouted.
"Stall them," I replied.
Caboose was inside the cockpit, he hit the button that would let him talk and said nothing, instead firing with his rifle and then shooting a grunt's plasma pistol. He repeated this a couple of times before he stopped firing his rifle altogether, giving the impression that the Covenant had managed to suppress the enemy. I gave him a curt nod as the Covenant on the other end of the channel tried to communicate with us.
"Lance leader, report! Our sensors indicate the sounds of human weapons. Is it the parasite?"
Parasite? Huh. Fitting.
Caboose cursed in Russian and began tapping away at the controls. He managed to get a message in reply.
"How's your Covenant?" I asked him.
"I sent the runes for damage, wounded, and victory," he replied. "We should go up before they come down."
I nodded quickly. With luck they'd think we were bringing wounded on board.
"Let's go," I said. "Grass, hold your position, but be ready to bail. Longworth, silencer?"
"Just for my pistol, sir."
"Looks like you're gun slinging," I said, hopping on one of the troop compartments in the Spirit. "Men, we've got to be fast and brutal. No room for error here."
I was hoping that there wouldn't be many troops on the hangar that we wanted. If there were, Caboose would have to use the cannon on the Spirit and then the whole ship would know we were there. If there were only a few troops we could neutralize them before the alarm got out and ten be on our merry way. That seemed to be the recurring idea. Luck. We needed a lot of luck to pull this one off.
The Spirit hummed as Caboose controlled it. Our ascent was nearly vertical and considerably slow, but I knew he was dropping us off where we needed to be dropped. The opaque metal coverings had a holographic screen of sorts inside that permitted me to see what was going on outside. It made sense, letting the troops see just exactly what they were going to be dropped into before they were riddled with bullet holes.
The Covenant corvette got larger and larger before Caboose found the hangar on top. He slowly fixed the position of the dropship before setting us down. I could see only four targets. Two elite minors and two small grunts without heavy armor. They seemed to be mechanics of some sort, but the elites had rifles at their sides.
"I've got the elite on the right," I said, grabbing my shotgun tightly. "Miri and Lady, you need to take out those grunts."
"Yes, sir."
"Caboose, Pavel."
"We've got it," Pavel replied.
The landing was rough, but I am sure it was intentional. The two elites approached the cockpit while the grunts stayed a safe distance away.
"Brother, are you wounded?" one of the elites asked, banging his fist on the wall. "Brother?"
Caboose opened the hatches and I jumped out. The elite closest to me only had time to turn and look at me before I filled its face with buckshot. Pavel pummeled the other one with automatic fire before it went down. The two grunts were taken out by a short burst and a headshot. All in all, this had taken three seconds. No alarms were raised.
"Perfect," I said, sighing with relief.
Then the alarms sounded.
I began panicking, but only after a few moments did I realize that it wasn't emergency alarms.
"What are they saying?" I asked. "My translator didn't pick that up."
"Something about visitors," Caboose said. "They said brutes."
"I caught Jiralhanae as well," Pavel said.
"Wait, are they coming here?" I asked. "Now?"
Caboose shrugged.
"Hide the bodies," I ordered. "Put crates or something over the blood. Hurry!"
"Frank, what's going on?" Grass asked.
"Stay where you are, Cam," I told her. "Unforeseen complication. We'll handle it."
We had tossed the bodies inside the cockpit and covered the bloodstains with crates and random equipment with a few seconds to spare. I ordered my men inside one of the Phantoms just as another dropship of the same type descended through the shield walls and into the hangar. A dozen brutes clad in heavy armor jumped out. The leader barked orders and they spread out, as if they expected resistance. Things got tense for us, the brutes sniffed the air and seemed to sense something was wrong. Two of them were walking closer and closer to our position. If they looked inside the Phantom we'd have nowhere to hide.
A door slid open and three elites appeared. There was an elite ultra and two majors, all of them with plasma repeaters. Behind them was a long column of grunts and jackals, formed up.
"You have no one to receive us? Split chin?" the brute leader asked.
The elite was evidently confused, but replied with a similar barb. "Only honored guests are received with respect."
There was some growling, but nothing escalated.
This was interesting to witness, to say the least.
"We have orders from the hierarchs to inspect the ship, see it is up to standard," the brute leader said. "Especially with news that this ship has come across the parasite."
"We've contained it within the structure. Nothing comes out."
"But you've lost most of your men while doing it."
The elite seemed to tense but said nothing. "Are you going to banter or are you going to do your job, ape? Do not waste my time any longer."
The brute chuckled in a very human way before nodding to his men to follow and the majority of the aliens disappeared through the door. Only one of the elite majors and two brutes remained behind.
"Shit," Lady whispered quietly.
"Word of the day, it seems," Schitzo told her.
I signaled for my men to wait. I could see all three Covenant targets from this position. They were ready to go at each other's throats. My money was on the brutes. One of them had a brute shot and the other had a pair of maulers strapped to his legs. Those little shotguns would be useful if I could get my hand on them. About ten minutes passed before one of the brutes began pacing. The elite seemed nervous, but otherwise didn't say anything. The other brute was running its hands through the grip of his maulers.
"What is that smell, split chin?"
"Probably you, vermin. I know your kind don't wash themselves."
The brute growled. "Why don't you come a little closer when you say that?"
The elite happily obliged and the two brutes faced the smaller enemy side by side.
"We haven't been given the order yet," one of them said.
"It's coming soon."
"What are-"
The elite was cut off as its shields were drained by a blast from the maulers. He nonetheless recovered quickly as it produced an energy dagger and stabbed the brute in the gut. The brute grabbed the elite's wrist and pulled the blade out before breaking its arm. With a nearly effortless maneuver the brute slung the elite over its head and slammed it against the floor. Once there he pressed the elite against the floor with its foot and pulled its arm, yanking it form the body. The elite cried out in agony, but it was soon silenced as the other brute brought down his bayonet, decapitating it with the massive blade.
"You've always been impatient."
The two brutes paused and looked at the ground.
"See, the order came."
Immediately after he said that I began hearing the sounds of a firefight coming. The two brutes hopped inside the Phantom and manned the guns. A force of elites and jackals appeared from one of the other doors only to be cut down by the two brutes.
"What the hell?" Caboose asked.
He wasn't often confused.
"Miri, get those brutes for me, will you?" I asked. "Lady, Pavel, help her out."
The two brutes weren't expecting the surprise attack. One of them was killed by a burst to the head, but Miri missed the second one as it turned. Pavel hit it with sustained machine gun fire and pinned it behind cover. Caboose and I began flanking as Lady and Miri looked for a kill shot. The brute vaulted over cover, absorbing the gunfire before running straight into two shells of buckshot to the face.
"Get the brute shot," I told Caboose even as I grabbed the two maulers and the plasma repeater. "Back to the Phantom."
Five minutes later four brutes returned, all of them wounded and bleeding. It was all that remained of the expedition. The leader growled when he saw his two dead men but didn't inspect their wounds, instead simply hopping inside the Phantom. An elite appeared, missing most of its left hand and carrying a fuel rod cannon on its other arm. It limped forward and fired at the brute's Phantom. The brutes fired back, but the shells had already zoned in. Two more brutes were killed in the explosion and the Phantom's engines were disabled.
"Lady, hit them," I ordered.
The two survivors suddenly found themselves under attack by a third and unknown faction. They struggled to find cover, but it was too late. Lady used the plasma cannon on the side of the Phantom with extreme skill, burning through their fur and flesh before they could fire back.
"What weapons do we have?" I asked.
"There's a full load of carbines and plasma pistols inside," Lady said. "Four needlers."
"That'll have to do," I said. "Grenades?"
"Not that I can see."
"Caboose, get us out of here," I ordered.
As we left the corvette I saw that a CCS-class battlecruiser was approaching. I cursed as Caboose yanked the craft in a near dive towards Grass' Pelican. We landed pretty hard, damaging the bottom of the Phantom but leaving the heavy cannon intact. Caboose apologized as Longworth was helped on board by Grass. Pavel and I reached inside the Pelican to grab all the MREs while Miri and Lady put all the supplies and ammunition we had inside the Phantom.
"Covenant dropships inbound," Grass warned. "Shit, they're firing torpedoes at the corvette!"
Well, this was bigger than I thought.
"Let's get out of here!" I shouted. "Pavel, let's go!"
Grass accelerated violently, pushing us back and sending Longworth to the floor in a heap. I managed to maintain my footing and looked for a button or something that would close the hatches on either side. I cursed as I went, failing to meet my goal.
"They're hailing us!" Grass shouted.
"Ignore them!" I replied. "Get us as far away from here as possible."
"Yes, sir!"
I hated being in this Halo, but it couldn't be helped. Grass needed a bit of time to figure out the FTL controls on the Phantom before we could risk going out. Something was happening to the Covenant. We could see the explosions in orbit from here. They were fighting each other and the little debacle with the corvette hadn't been an isolated incident. They were in the middle of a civil war and that was the best news I had heard in my entire life. It didn't feel like it though, Grass was trying to figure out how the FTL worked while Caboose made some calculations. They only had their own limited knowledge as well as the translator software to help them, but the audio receiver wasn't precisely stellar when it came to translating visual input.
"Miri?"
"They haven't moved yet," she said. "They definitely know we're here though."
"Do they know we know they know?" Pavel asked.
"Seems like it."
"Stay hidden," I told her. "Lady, I want you on standby."
"Yes, sir."
I sighed. The damaged Phantom had landed a mere kilometer away a second or two after we did. They had tried contacting us twice before stopping halfway through their second transmission. I don't think they were dead, but my guess is that they suspected we were members of the opposing faction currently fighting them.
"No sign of the Flood yet," Pavel told me, approaching slowly. "What do you think?"
"Not sure," I said. "The In Amber Clad is obviously under their control. I'm actually hoping the Covenant shot it down, I don't know if they were able to purge the databases."
"Bridge crews are good at that, it only takes a few seconds," Pavel said. "I'm sure they did."
I nodded. He was right. All ships could have their databases purged of sensitive information with approval from the ranking officer or acting captain. There were some safety measures to ensure a whacko didn't do that for no good reason, but the process was designed to be fast and efficient. The last thing we wanted was the Covenant to bypass all of our planets and get to Earth. Not that it mattered anymore, seeing as they had already found us and were currently fighting the UNSC in our home planet.
The thought made me angry.
"Movement," Miri reported calmly. "It's elites. Five of them and three grunts."
"Odd number," Lady noted.
"They're headed our way. They seem alert."
"Don't open fire," I ordered. "Let them pass. We'll ambush them with the plasma cannons. You can shoot the survivors as they run back down the hill."
"Yes, sir."
"Pavel, take the cannon," I said.
"With pleasure."
"Uh-oh," Miri said. "Brutes."
I looked up the hill and signaled for my men to stay even as I jogged up, going prone before I hit the ridge. I was able to see just as a squad of four brutes, one of them a chieftain, ambushed the elite unit. The elites returned fire even before the first brute shot detonated, but the barrage killed the three grunts and one of the squid heads. I watched with more than a little satisfaction as two brutes fell from sustained plasma fire, their fur igniting in flames that quickly died out. The chieftain roared and charged, waving its hammer and strafing from side to side to avoid being hit. The other brute managed to kill one other elite before being taken down, leaving a three against one for the finale.
Intriguing indeed. My money was on the brute.
The first swing was a miss, but a minor got too eager with that and was completely crushed by the backswing even as the two other elites hit the chieftain with sustained fire. The brute swung at the foot of one of the elites with the back of his hammer, taking him down before stomping on his ankle. The elite only survived because his comrade hopped on the back of the brute and started violently stabbing with his energy dagger. The chieftain threw him from over his head and to the ground. Once there he started stomping viciously. The poor elite was reduced to mush as the chieftain stomped and stomped again.
The one that had remained on the floor fired his plasma rifle. The burst hit the head of the hammer and somehow managed to melt through the metal that secured it to the staff. The brute growled angrily and began approaching the elite, baring its fangs.
"Take it out, Miri," I ordered, standing up.
Two bullets hit the chieftain's temple. It was all that was needed to break through its thick skull on both ends of the head. The elite looked in our direction.
"Hit its rifle."
Miri complied and I began walking down. The elite tried to get up, but its leg was crushed beyond use and could barely hop for a few steps before coming down. It was a two-minute walk until I finally made it to the battlefield. The elite had almost managed to reach a weapon twice, only for Miri to shoot it useless. The third time I kicked it out of reach and stood in front of it.
It growled.
I should've killed it, but I was curious.
"What happened?" I asked.
"A fight."
"I see," I replied. "Why?"
"The brutes. They betrayed us."
I shrugged. "I hear you guys are bastards. I don't blame them."
The elite growled angrily, but it looked up at the space station. "They killed my friends, my comrades. Even my grunts weren't spared. We only made it out because one of them sacrificed himself. Brave little creature. His sacrifice saved us from certain dead."
I looked around at the battlefield.
"You should've told him not to bother."
"Silence! He died a hero, that's a better death than anyone could hope for."
"Certainly more heroic than your friend over there," I said, pointing at the splattered elite. "Or those two that got torn apart by the explosions."
The elite growled once again, but his face was contorted by a grimace of pain. "Spare me, human, and I can intercede on your behalf with the fleetmasters."
"Oh can you, now? What makes you think I want anything to do with your split chin kind?"
"Are you blind?" it asked. "Your kind has been losing this war from the start. You've managed to drag it on long enough to hurt our sacred Covenant, but not enough to save you. This schism in the pact is your only chance to be saved from extinction."
I paced around and looked up at the space station, its vague outline seemed to fuse with the sky at the edges.
"Help me to my ship and you'll have a chance for survival."
"What if I want to stay here?" I asked.
"At the mercy of the Parasite? This sacred ring will be cleansed."
"You'll burn it? Not very sacred is it?"
"Better for its beauty to be tarnished than for it to remain at the hands of the Parasite."
"You're a bit smart than the last elite I encountered," I told it. "Perceptive. Tell me more about this schism and I might consider helping you." The elite looked at me and gave me a short nod. "And then you'll help me?"
"Maybe," I said. "I have my own ship, I might just jump out of this system and leave you to rot."
"You'll be shot down by either faction," it assured me.
"Well, looks like I have to help you then. So do tell."
It took a deep breath. "The brutes have been the lapdogs of the High Hierarchs even as they called us the same, but it is they who follow their orders blindly without question or debate."
"Don't you do the same?" I asked. "Our intel is very clear. They're the brains and you're the brawn."
"Not like the brutes," it defended.
"If you say so."
"I do say so and it is so… The brutes were always jealous of our standing, trying to take privileges that didn't belong to them."
"Seems like a pretty basic struggle for rights," I interjected. "I'm surprised the grunts haven't tried that before."
"They have, several times."
I raised an eyebrow. "Looks like it didn't work, eh?"
"No."
"The brutes are having better luck, it seems."
"The Hierarchs put them in a position of power. They replaced us as holy guards and less than a day later they made their move. The council was arrested and probably executed, several of our highest ranking officers were assassinated and our fleets were left in disarray."
I smiled. It was all very good news.
"Looks like your prophets betrayed you for the dumb apes. It must not be a very good feeling."
"The prophets haven't betrayed us! They were tricked."
For all I knew it could be true, but if they had replaced the elites and hours later the brutes had started killing them all it did seem a little fishy to me. This guy was a treasure trove of intel. I was enjoying this chat with him.
"So I help you up and what? What then?"
"An alliance," it said. "Many of my brethren believe that your kind has earned the right to be inducted into the Covenant."
"I'm not sure I'd like that," I told it. "Or that any other human would."
"It's that or your extinction."
"We'll see."
There was a short silence.
"Will you help me?"
"I don't see why not," I told it.
I offered it my hand and the elite took it. I pulled it up and pressed my pistol against the roof of its mouth before pulling the trigger, spraying its brains all over the grass.
"Miri, Lady, get down here. Let's see if we can salvage anything useful from that other Phantom."
"Yes, sir!"
I went through the Covenant corpses as they searched the Phantom further away. There wasn't much useful equipment. The grunts had a surprisingly high amount of containers that looked like food and the elites were carrying an obnoxious amount of grenades and other weaponry. I cut the bandoliers free of their armor and sling the grenades over my shoulder. On their way back Lady and Miri grabbed a brute shot each and dragged it through the ground, leaving a furrow as the bayonet cut the dirt.
"Maybe next time, pal," Schitzo told the elite as we made our way back to the Phantom.
"Have you figured it out?" I asked Grass.
"Yeah," she said. "There's a slight problem."
"We don't have time for those," I told her. "Not at all."
"It's minor," she assured me. "We've figured out the controllers, but the coordinate input is nothing like that of UNSC slipspace engines. A minor miscalculation could send us on a very different location."
"And you're saying we can't shut it off?"
"We can," she said. "But we might be in the core of a planet or inside a star."
I rolled my eyes. "Space is large, Cam. Odds are we're not going to be inside a solar system at all. It's a risk that I'm willing to take."
"I wouldn't mind looking into it a bit more," she said.
"Ditto," Pavel agreed.
I sighed. "Alright. If we see enemy aircraft we're moving out. Where the hell's Longworth?"
"I'm taking a crap, sir," he said through the radio.
"You can do that in your armor. You know that, right?"
"Sir, nobody likes doing that."
It was true. I hadn't taken a shit in over a day to avoid the feeling of wet poop on my ass until the suit absorbed it and processed it out. Rumor had it that the liquid in it was purified to make the water we drank much like our own urine was. I didn't mind drinking water that had once been my urine, but drinking water that had once been my poop wasn't exactly something I could easily stomach.
"Make it quick," I said. "I want you in my sight."
"Yes, sir," he said.
"And don't wipe with the plants, last thing you need is an allergic reaction to some weird shit."
"Uh… Yes, sir."
Pavel looked at me and shook his head with a smile.
Grass and Caboose worked on figuring out the FTL for a little bit longer as Lady and Miri kept watch. Pavel stretched his back multiple times, eager to be out of here. I think all of us were blocking out the horror that the Quarantine Zone had been for as long as possible before our brains crashed. We had napped for a few hours, but nothing major. Before we knew it we'd have to have a real night's sleep and that's when the nightmares would come. I knew that with too much certainty.
"Holy…"
I looked up to see what Pavel was seeing just in time to see what appeared to be a Seraph slam into the ground a few hundred meters from our position. There was no explosion in the traditional sense, but little brown shapes flew up. It didn't take long to figure out it was some kind of Flood form or mass.
"Regroup on the Phantom!" I ordered. "Longworth, get over here!"
"Already on my way, sir!"
"Why the hell didn't anybody go with him?" I asked.
Longworth emerged from the small forest with a Covenant carbine acting as a crutch. He was making good time considering his knee was all but gone.
"There's a squad on our left flank!" Grass warned.
"Pavel, get them!"
He switched sides and grabbed the other cannon, burning through the Flood creatures even as they began firing back with Covenant weaponry.
"Some of them have shields!"
Fun.
"Hurry the fuck up, Adrian!" I ordered. "Grass, are we ready to go?"
"Yes, sir!"
Longworth tripped.
"Longworth you've got to be fucking kidding me!" I shouted, running towards him.
"I'm sorry, sir!" he apologized, getting back to his feet. He went two steps before a fucking Flood hunter landed behind him and impaled him through the chest with a spike the size of a tree trunk. I backpedaled furiously as I saw the blood splatter. Longworth's vitals immediately flatlined and this new Flood creature roared and rumbled. It began to contort and twist before emerging as a different creature. By that point I was already back inside the Phantom and Caboose was burning through the creature. At least it wasn't a hunter.
"Hit Longworth," I ordered him. "Destroy his body."
Caboose seemed to hesitate, but he redirected his fire to destroy Longworth's corpse in a blaze of plasma and guts. It was an ugly sight, but it was better than the alternative. As soon as Longworth was reduced to a gory mess Caboose began hitting emerging waves of Flood creatures. I couldn't help but wonder how they had all fit inside the Seraph, but I fired at them nonetheless. Grass took off as we were peppered with plasma fire and needles. A few dark spikes joined the barrage, making the back of my head curious but otherwise just adding to the danger. Grass fired the main cannon a few times before we sped away. Caboose stepped back from the door cannon angrily and sat down on the floor. He wasn't happy about defiling Longworth's body, but he was too much of a soldier to voice that. Pavel remained on his station as Lady and Miri secured the baggage with some weird cables. I stood up and walked inside, closing the hatch on this side.
"Cam, where are you taking us?"
"I don't know, Frank. I'm… I'm… I just want this to be over."
"It's almost done," I told her, squeezing her shoulder lightly. There's only six of us left now…
"Attention all surviving UNSC forces. This is Sergeant Major Avery Johnson. If anyone copies, head to the following coordinates. More instructions to follow."
"I guess this isn't over just yet," Grass said. This time there was a definite tone of relief in her voice. "Johnson made it."
"That means that there's some other UNSC troops there as well," I added. "Everyone hear that?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Alright. Take us there, Cam. Let's go back to our friends."
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
Now, I'm deeply sorry for the delay. It's been almost a full month since the last update and that doesn't usually happen. However, I went back to the homeland for summer and there was an issue with the internet at my grandfolks' and it wasn't fixed until a day ago. The proofreading was done in a rushed way and I uploaded this as quickly as I got the files back from my betas. Good news is that I'm almost halfway done with the next chapter, should get it out in less than a week if all goes according to plan. If Brazil beats Mexico I might go into a funk and die so... yeah...
Anyways, I'd love to go back over all your reviews and reply, but I just want this up as fast as possible. Again, sorry for the delay and I hope that you've enjoyed reading this chapter.
Stay strong.
-casquis