State of Chulack, Ascella IV
March 18, 2553
Discovered in the early half of the twenty-fifth century, the Ascella System was remarkable with a rare feature of two rocky planets suitable for terraforming.
At first, it was going well; the process was close with the twin planets of roughly equal size both scheduled to be completed within a couple years, ready for colonization. They were an estimated six hundred thousand miles away from one another and for about three months each year, people could look up into the sky and see their sister planet above.
Then something went wrong on the outer planet. Terraforming process took a turn for the worse and rather than turn it into an ideal planet for humans to live; it did the opposite. The temperature constantly ran below zero and it remained lifeless tundra.
Such was the fate of Asella V, in which UNSC continued its efforts, hoping not all of it was in vain. Their work continued even with the raging war against the Covenant and finally abandoned when the hegemony invaded the Ascella system. The weight of the failure was met with a very harsh response from both people and media, leading up to multiple reviews by ONI for future habitable worlds and the equipment used to process them. Mysteriously, both personnel and machines had folded into the dark and never had surfaced.
Ascella IV remained the sole habitable world in the system…for now.
In contrast to its subzero temperatures, its residents were treated to a more arid climate. Much of its surface, save for the regions closer to the poles had less than average rainfall, instead relying on wide rivers cutting through to irrigate an oasis and large aquifers running deep underground.
The main industry on the planet had been agriculture. While the water crisis's came and went, the planet continued to thrive with residents adapting adequately to its climate. Conflicts were easily suppressed and any disputes were negotiated. Ascella IV had also become an ideal place to retire. Recently, communities dedicated to the retirees had sprung up around its major cities.
It was a different world since the Covenant had attacked six years ago. Gone were the flourishing farms and close-knit towns. There was evidence of dust and sandstorms adding a sort of forlorn appearance to a wild western vibe that was seen in the holo-movies.
The dryness would suck every single ounce of moisture out of the air and thus, leave rusting of metal objects to be prolonged. Signs of conflict between UNSC and Covenant forces were still present. While flesh decayed with the aid of scavengers and maggots, the empty husks of vehicles used by both sides remained in the same condition they were left in when they were destroyed. Had it not been for the extinguished fires, the scorch marks gave away memories of the bloody conflict that was clashed on the surface.
Something shimmered atop one of the hills overlooking a deep canyon, which moved quickly, interrupting the mirage producing heat waves running across the cracked ground.
Hunched over, the camouflaged sangheili zealot had drawn his energy sword as he scanned the narrow pass inside. Nothing was remotely moving.
This part of the canyon was small enough where the two sides were close enough to be walked upon before widening out into a larger foundation. The water flow went downwards, quickly developing into a rapid at the bottom, leaving a pebbled beach made of smoothened stones.
He looked back at his tracker; still nothing.
Taking a risk, he deactivated his active camo.
Ten meters behind him, a similarly camouflaged Ross Pine and Blake Bailey were just behind the zealot.
At first, they nearly ran right into him while investigating a canyon with suspected Covenant activity and a secret base for Jul 'Mdama. Splitting up into separate groups, Pine and Bailey offered to investigate the beginning of the canyon and discovered the cave system around its walls.
"Eon Lead, this is Eon Three. We've been tailing a zealot for a half hour and he's been spooked by something."
"Roger that Eon Three," Lusana's calm voice flowed through their comms like the smaller stream before them, "Has he spotted you?"
"Almost. If I had to guess, he's doing a sweep of a perimeter."
"Stay on him. It confirms the UAV's collected data that the Covenant may have established their base of operations in a cave system underground."
"We can move in, stay undetected and see what they're up to." Bailey suggested.
"Negative. We don't even know if it's 'Mdama's group that's out here. It might be the original Covenant military."
"I guess negotiations are off the table."
"If you're willing to risk getting your ass burned by plasma, sure go for it," Fowler sarcastically chimed in.
"You're a real ray of sunshine today," Austal added.
"At least I'm not missing anyone."
"Gentlemen," Lusana sharply cut in, expecting a snarky reply from Austal, "Is there a reason your bickering only occurs when we're on the clock?"
"No sir,"
"Negative."
"Good," The matter had been settled, "Find their base of operations and pull whatever you can find on their network. We may just have to map about."
"I'm at the other tunnel," Austal clarified, "Nobody's been coming in or out this side."
"Pine, Bailey move in."
"Copy," They stepped through the mouth of the cave behind the Zealot as he made his way further into the tunnels. Ross slipped the sniper rifle on his back for a pistol.
"Watch your six," He warned her, tapping the smaller Spartan on the shoulder, "It can be easy to get lost down here."
The Zealot had since deactivated both camouflage and sword and now the glowing yellow lights of his armor were all that provided any sort of light source whatsoever. Their VISRs adjusted the brightness view, essentially giving them virtual night vision.
Moving further inside, the tunnels finally began to show some sort of artificial machinery. The glowing blue and green along the walls suggested that it was Covenant in origin.
As they emerged from the first entrance, a cavernous entrance opened up before them, revealing a spacious place. Large purple machines were up against the walls and a half dozen zealots were inside, manning a few of the stations. At the center was a large oval shaped green display.
"These guys aren't original Covenant," Pine whispered as they took position behind one of the rocks before the center, "They're with 'Mdama."
"Are they collaborating with the others?"
"No clue. This seems to be a hideout of sorts. Place to lay low."
"Then let's light it up. Give the new recruits something to buzz about."
"Boss, I'll swing around with Austal, we'll cut off the escapees at the other tunnel."
"Hold that order, bringing the moth about. Those guys might just have an escape route,"
"We're ready on your mark," Bailey reported. In her hand was a flashbang grenade and next to her, Pine held two napalm charges, when detonated they released sticky hot gel that would burn for prolonged periods.
"This is gonna fuck up our vision for a moment."
"Execute! Execute!"
Bailey flicked the primer off her grenade and tossed it straight in the center. It exploded in a white flash and the sangheili did not expect it, blinding and overwhelming their senses.
Activating his grenades, Pine lobbed his in two different directions, where the two largest groups were located. They detonated, spraying the gel in a fine mist, touching nearly everything as the Spartans hid behind a rock to protect themselves.
The gel quickly adhered to any surface and caught fire, causing the elites to quickly realize that they were burning while being stunned.
Only one of them had quickly rolled out of the way…somehow he wasn't affected by the others and raised his weapon to fire.
Now the Spartans knew that using guns in a napalm misted area was not advisable until it dissipated enough in the air, however in such a confined space, even the slightest spark could be dangerous.
The storm rifle didn't even fire one shot. The superheated plasma instantly caught the fumes and vapors in the cavern, causing the entire place to light up in an inferno.
Bailey saw immediately what the sangheili was going to do and grabbed Pine, shoving both of them out of the tunnel as the fiery explosion blasted right over their heads. They huddled together as close to the ground as possible until the blaze quickly ran out. Heat washed over them until it felt as if they were put into an oven.
Pine groaned, rolling over and examining his armor. The visor was covered in dark soot and for a second, he wondered if it was offline.
"You okay?" Bailey rolled onto her feet and surveyed the area. The lights were murky and the air was thick with dust.
"Fine," He accepted her hand and was promptly pulled up. "Thanks for that."
She gestured to the cavern's entrance, "Our friends didn't know any better than firing into a napalm aerosol place like that."
"We had our guns out. One shot from us would've done the job,"
"And grilled us from the inside out," She chuckled. Ross couldn't suppress a smile, "Just another day being Eon right?"
"That's right," The two of them bumped fists before readying their pistols and heading right back where the blaze started.
In deep contrast to when they first came inside, the machinery was hardly recognizable with a dark gray layer of ash covering its smooth surfaces. What wasn't smooth and intact was melted and disfigured. Heat waves shimmered in the darkness and the Spartans snapped lights on their weapons, casting harsh white beams wherever they aimed.
"Pine, Bailey, status?" Lusana asked.
"Still here. Cooked like bacon though,"
"The hell happened?"
"One of them decided to play hero and try to shoot us with a plasma rifle," Bailey explained.
"Oh so that explains that damn fire and why the hell we had to jump out of the cave!"
"Pull the data?" He asked, ignoring the new bickering Fowler and Austal had renewed.
"Affirmative," Pine looked around, "What's left of it anyway."
"Flared for evac up top. I think we've done enough showing off for the trainees to talk about."
"We're on our way up."
"Boss, I've got three airborne contacts headed our way. I'd call off the bird right now."
"Alright."
"They've found us!" Austal shouted, "Dropping at least a dozen contacts bearing west of our position and advancing quickly! Two ghosts were dropped off by the Phantoms and pinning us down!"
Coming up right behind the two Spartans, Lusana cursed their lack of explosive weaponry save for grenades, which the maneuverable vehicles could easily evade.
"Vociferous, this is Eon Lead! We're under heavy attack west of our position. Requesting CAS!"
"Eon Lead," Captain Barrett's smooth voice came over their comms, "I can launch Archers at your marked location in five mikes."
"I don't know if we have that much time. Keep it hot and ready if things go hairy."
"It's your call."
"Eon Two and Eon Five approaching from the south. We'll set up longshot support and try to thin the herd out."
The force was about two dozen Covenant troops, mostly grunts and elites with three of the four ghosts piloted by the unggoy. All three Spartans had taken cover at the mouth of the cave behind a few rocks in front as the enemy slowly made their way up the desert area.
From their position, Bailey and Pine laid down at the edge, tucked close to the remains of dead trees to help conceal their location. It was about thirty meters behind so in essence, they could run right up to join them, but he realized it may be more sound to stay back and pick off the more dangerous ones as they tried to advance. Luckily the Phantoms decided not to stick around so Lusana had Vociferous surveil the area to see where they were headed back to.
His sniper echoed across the desert valley with a booming thunderclap and his face made no movement, yet he felt satisfied as the elite in his crosshairs had his head blown off by the high caliber antimaterial round.
Beside him, Bailey thumbed her selective fire on her rifle to single shot and popped off slow deliberate bullets. Rather than try to weaken the shields of an elite, she focused on the grunts and jackals.
Every time Lusana, Fowler and Austal tried to pop off a shot, the four ghosts were laying back, weavng about and firing suppressive fire to give their comrades a chances to flank and flush them out for easy targets. Now thanks to the sniper aiding them, they had been more prudent in their rush to take the cave's entrance.
Ross fired another shot, taking out one of the jackals that had just moved his arm shield slightly to expose an unprotected arm when he saw one of the ghosts, the one piloted by the elite break off and make its way around one of the hills that eventually led to their location.
"Eon Three, one of the ghosts just pulled out of the action and it looks like it's curving around to give you guys a welcome."
"I see it." Both Spartans stood up, weapons ready as the vehicle rapidly approached. It opened up with a fusillade of plasma fire in which they strafed to avoid.
Pine blindly fired his sniper; something he didn't do often out of desperation and Bailey switched her battle rifle back to burst fire. Her rounds pinged off the armored hood but his more powerful bullet pierced it, showering sparks everywhere as the driver suddenly boosted forward.
Figuring out what he was intending to do; they dove to the side, missing its pass by just a couple feet. On a swivel, it turned around and moved forward, its driver kept the boost off until it was too late for either to dodge.
Pine was his target when the Spartans split up and it immediately engaged its drive again. Behind him, Bailey now had a clear shot at its operator and continued to squeeze off bursts. Its shields flared from the bullets but it still didn't deter it from closing in on the sniper.
Too late Ross realized that it was going to overrun the cliff and tumble straight down to the others.
The plan came right in his mind.
Moving quickly to the edge, he saw the ghost following behind, turning around to take a potshot at Bailey to keep her at bay. It then turned back to him and engaged its boosters. Although he couldn't see it, the elite was snickering behind the controls.
"Not this time," He waited until it was certain that it was not intent on stopping, "Brett, get your shotgun and point it up!"
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
He threw himself aside again as the ghost fruitlessly tried to run him down again. Instead, the boost had propelled it over the mouth of the cave, right towards the group of Covenant.
Fowler had done as Pine had asked, slipped the empty SAW on his back for his CQC M45 shotgun and was looking up. For a moment, he thought the Spartan had decided to throw grunts like clay pigeons .
Then he saw it; the ghost that left just a minute ago was flying through the air rapidly, with its boosters still engaged.
He snapped his smart-scope up and pumped two shots in less than a second. The buckshot pellets stormed the side of the ghost, tearing both the driver and the vehicle into fragments. The powerplant combusted and it exploded in a purple fireball.
Cries of panic came from the numerous grunts as the debris fell down at a speed equivalent to his shotgun. The lucky ones were killed on impact while the others made a pointless attempt to escape the makeshift barrage.
The elite commanding the assault growled and barked out orders to the lesser troops. The remaining three ghosts tightened formation and began to fire up at Pine and Bailey's position.
"They've no longer deemed us the immediate threat," Fowler was still grinning under his ATLAS helmet and even more pleased that the whole action was caught on recording.
"What are we going to do about those ghosts?"
"Leave that to me," Austal assured, "Just have enough firepower to kill at least one of them."
"One?"
"Give me some cover," He ignored the puzzled looks on the other two and moved out of cover. He tapped a pair of jackals that were just about to flank him before he had finally caught the attention of one of the ghosts.
The grunt drivers definitely weren't as smart as their elite counterparts and they immediately moved closer for a kill.
The closest one was just ten feet away and focused on blasting him with plasma, not moving his vehicle at all. Austal crossed that distance with a sprint, jumping acrobatically into the air and landing perfectly right on the front.
Instead of grabbing the driver and yanking them out in an action popularly dubbed by Spartans as "hijacking" he pivoted himself, keeping his hands and legs on the vehicle.
The grunt driving was freaking out, firing the guns and cranking it in various vectors to try and shake him off.
Seeing the ghosts and the remainder of the troops distracted, Lusana and Fowler broke cover. Hails of SMG and shogtun fire tore down the rest of the lesser races as Brett broke into a dead sprint, firing his thrusters at maximum power and lowering his shoulder in a bash. The elite took the brunt of the charge, bones shattering and the impact was enough to fling him several meters away.
Back at the ghost skirmish, Ross was putting his crosshair on one of the ghosts, pulling the trigger and finally locating his mark. The grunt's armor was no match for the sniper round and it settled to the dusty floor, its engines whining down as the operator was not detected.
On top, Austal clamped his hands over the main driver controls. The grunt manning it was now in full fledged panic mode and was trying everything from squirming to shaking in its seat to try and get him off.
He engaged the booster drive and steered it towards the other ghost. It was thinking about firing on him, but it seemed hesitant since he was on a friendly vehicle.
Austal was vaguely aware that both of the grunts had begun screaming in terror as they figured out his plan, but by then it was too late to stop it.
The ghosts ran directly at one another in full power and he gave the horrified driver a two fingered salute before jumping off and landing in a perfect shoulder roll.
At maximum speed, the two vehicles collided in a loud explosion and screech of metal, sending flaming shrapnel everywhere.
For the longest time, it seemed like it was just serenely quiet. The only sound coming from anything was the flames licking at anything nearby.
"Show off," Fowler muttered, "You just had to show off."
Austal chuckled, rolling onto his feet, "I hope someone recorded that one too."
Austal you showing off SOB. Never change.
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