Fireteam Mystic

by Vandal1037

Dr. Catherine Halsey recives horrific visions of a future where humanity is crushed and destroyed beneath an iron boot. Her spartans were not enough to weather the coming storm. However her visions lead her into somethig more, a long lost power and a chance to help humanity rise to the top of the food chain.

6. Chapter 6

Fireteam Mystic

Chapter 6

A/N - Another chapter out and this one is a time skip, 2 years into the program!

Jolly Giant 100 - I like to keep everything as compartmentalized as possible. For me it's easier to keep plots together instead of trying to interweave multiple POVs or situations together. This chapter is a bit longer than my norm!

Survival

Reach - Spartan II Training Facility, Year 2519

2 whole years have passed since Harry and his team started their training and military education. 2 whole years since they each had already made the decision to fully commit themselves to whatever grueling test or lesson Chief Mendez threw at them. Just recently they started to have a magical breakthrough in their training with Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore, it had seemed the physical training they were going through jump-started their magical core and the team showed power ranging from mid level 1st years to entry level 2nd years. Dumbledore and Dr. Halsey had theorized that the magical cores could have always matured earlier if physical activity was at the level that the kids were experiencing. Dr. Halsey would go on to further theorize that it was a holdover evolutionary trait, something akin to a survival instinct within that core that had triggered when the kids experienced near total physical stress. It had seemed that as the magical community never held much stock in physical activity, always using magic as the simple way out of doing anything that required a mild amount of labor they had forgotten about this "early" maturation point. McGonagall had also made it a point that their usage and control of magic was truly a combined body and soul moment, as they were 2 halves of a whole, both physical and spiritual. And so the kids were given their practical magical lessons now, learning the curriculum of 1st and 2nd years. For now the main focus was on Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Charms. Potions and Herbology were on a secondary lesson path for whenever Professor Snape was available for lessons. In the next year, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy would be added on as mandatory lessons. Should the team wish it, they will also take minor lessons in Care of Magical Creatures with the less volatile creatures that Newt Scamander had provided Dumbledore with. This development in the kids' magical abilities had also pushed most of the adults and Ron's siblings to increase their physical training to catch up for lost time. When Lily had heard of this development she had shared her belief with everyone else they too might reach a hidden magical maturation point if physical exercise was included in their daily routines. While the kids had seen their family, instead of leisure time they had asked their respective families that were around for more training or lessons in both their modern study fields and their magical specializations. While Hermione's parents were now active duty members of the UNSC, she would be taken in by Dr. Halsey.

Reach - Spartan II Training Facility, July 12th, 2519

Today was a big day for the Spartan II trainees. Chief Mendez had gathered the recruits for a survival mission. They had nothing on them besides the pieces of paper which held fragmented remains of a map and the promise of an extraction vehicle some miles away. Before were disembarked Chief Mendez made it perfectly clear that the last one to make it would be left behind and would walk and Harry had assumed that the group would have been dropped off together, well that was a mistake, each dropoff point they had randomly selected anywhere from a singular trainee to a small squad to disembark from the ship they were on. Draco and Kelly were the first to get off, followed by Ron who was dropped off by himself, then went with a large group of Luna, Ginny, Fred, Solomon and Linda. Neville and Hermione were sent out soon afterwards. Harry and John were the last to be dropped off.

Flashback - Chief Mendez's Office

Harry and his friends were pulled into Chief Mendez's Office a few days ago to meet with Chief Mendez. "Good you're here", he said as they entered his office. Mendez got up to look out the window, his face neutral and hard to read. They had assumed it was another reprimand or extra lesson he would give randomly to recruits if they irked him that day. "I have received clearance from Admiral Hood and ONI, if an opportunity arises you all have the green light to reveal your extra abilities to the other recruits. However, it must be stressed that this is kept within these facility walls. Is that understood?" he asked.

Harry raises his hand "Sir, permission to speak?"

"Granted."

"A few years ago we had been told not to reveal our abilities, what has changed?"

"Well a few things actually. Your recent developments of your magical control for one and it was reasoned by Admiral Hood actually that a leader should always know his available resources and how best to use them, if a hidden resource was available but unknown at the time, precious lives could have been saved or a mission accomplished had they fully utilized that was available to them. You may have started to notice who amongst you have begun to emerge as a leader of sorts. Let's just say in the future it would be best if we were upfront with everything rather than just hiding our resources."

Everyone in the room knew who the emerging leaders were. In time they had started to listen to John more, after that obstacle course a few years ago, John was the epitome of what it truly meant to be a leader. Whilst John was the leader at large to the Spartan Recruits, others such as Harry were leaders of their own emerging teams. While Chief Mendez had ensured that the recruits could work with anyone it was apparent that the best teams worked within groups that held each other's complete trust. Harry and friends had proven to be one of most cohesive units right after John, Kelly, Linda, Fred and Sam. While they haven't earned their team designations yet, it was only a matter of time.

"Understood Chief. Is there further instructions for when you want us to reveal our abilities?" asked Harry.

Chief Mendez gave it some thought "No, I believe you will know when the time comes." he replied while simultaneously dismissing them.

Presently with John and Harry

"John, any idea where we are?" asked Harry, eyes scanning the area around them.

"Not exactly but I was able to memorize the direction the dropship came from the last drop off point, we should group up with Neville and Hermione before we find the others." John replied.

"Don't freak out at what I am about to do next, John. I promise I will explain everything to you shortly." said Harry as he picked up a stick and sharpened one end to a point. He started to infuse the stick with some magic in the air. "Point Me - Neville."

John watched in fascination as the stick started to spin wildly in all directions on the palm of Harry's hand before the sharpened end of the stick pointed to a southeast direction, making small adjustments as they walked. Weirdly enough it also matched the same direction he had memorized from the dropship. "Is this some new technology I am unaware of?" asked John.

"No, not really new in a sense. I suppose you could say it's a newer development." explained Harry.

John was confused but Harry as they walked Harry started to give him an abridged explanation of what was going on and how he had come to the future. He went over Dr. Halsey's visions, the bits of time travel he understood, the end of wizarding kind, he had left out parts of where his family was around as the abductions were still a little fresh in most of the trainee's minds. Next he explained his abilities and his other lessons that John and the rest of the non-magical recruits were not a part of.

"Wait a minute… you mean to tell me you are a wizard and so is your team? And you were rescued by Dr. Halsey from the year 1981?" replied a shocked John, his face had utter disbelief on it.

"Hard to believe, I know. But Chief Mendez had made it clear to us at the start that we were not to reveal everything but Admiral Hood rescinded that order as our magic matured earlier than we thought. It seems he wanted everything at our disposal to be used in the future and I am guessing our magic is one of those things to bring to light."

While John had taken the indoctrination of the UNSC in fairly well, he was still a bit of a kid at heart deep down and knowing that one of his teammates had magic was wild and out of the ordinary. Harry did explain that it wasn't entirely and truly magic, Dr. Halsey had done multiple tests with the adults and had found no difference biologically and only during neurological testing did it show differences in those who could perform magic and to those who couldn't. The simple spell of Lumos and a scan from Lily had shown that Homo Merlinus's brains would be a bevy of neuro-electrical signals compared to her own scans. Somehow the brain functions of Homo Merlinus had evolved thousands of years ago to be able to control the very fabric of reality on the Quantum level. This would be a study of multiple lifetimes Dr. Halsey said at one point realizing that everything she was expecting from her adventure through time was expanding beyond any realm of normal reasoning. John understood what she meant as the boys discussed uses of the practical magic that Harry and team could perform at this was fascinated by some of the more offensive spells that Harry had recently learned. Should the local and imported creatures threaten them, John felt a little better that it could be handled. Eventually they caught up to Hermione who had the same idea as Harry with the Point Me spell and were able to quickly group up. Considering John's not so surprised reaction Neville spoke up "So I take it that you were informed John?"

"I think I'm about as informed as it goes. I'm sure I'll be surprised as things go on." John replied to Neville with a look that would suggest bemusement.

Draco and Kelly - Some 4 miles north of Harry and John's original location

Like Harry, Draco immediately decided to rip that particular band-aid off and explained everything he could to Kelly. They both came to the conclusion that it was probably for the best to rescind that order, knowing they had a few more metaphorical magazines to use was a better option. Kelly had observed that the Albatross Dropship was making its way south for the most part and assumed that was where the other trainees would be as well. Draco had considered the Point Me spell but had decided against it in his situations; if they had used a point me spell, they would have made a beeline straight to whoever it pointed to, potentially missing anyone else along the way. Kelly knew as well the many creatures in the area that could pose a threat to humans, mainly the Guta. While normally a passive creature, it was mating season and the Male Guta were particularly aggressive during this time of year. It was about 45 minutes of walking before they caught signs of footprints. A Revelio charm from Draco showed singular tracking also heading south at a leisurely pace, Draco smirked, knowing that they had possibly stumbled upon 1 of 2 people that could enjoy walking at a leisurely pace in the woods during a survival mission. First was Trainee Wendall, a formerly chubby boy when they had started out, Wendall enjoyed being outside whenever he could, or it could be Ron as only Ron would take a serious situation and turn it into a stroll through the park. They did eventually catch up to Ron and Wendall as both Draco and Kelly decided to have some fun at their expense. They had maneuvered to jump scare the 2 of them as they were walking south, following the landing patterns of the dropship. Needless to say both Draco and Kelly got the jump on them and received a pair of stinging hexes from Ron. Wendall, normally more of a gentle soul, went into what the other kids called Beast Mode as he quickly put Kelly in an arm bar.

"Wendall it's me! Kelly!"

"Mate it's alright, just Draco and Kelly being their normal prat selves." said Ron, hoping he wouldn't have to reset a potentially dislocated shoulder.

"Christ all mighty Kelly, don't do that again! Could have easily pulled your shoulder out of your socket and we would have been down a person!" exclaimed Wendall.

"Sorry, but you 2 boys were taking it a little too easy, wanted to keep you on your toes." she said as she grimaced from the strain that was on her shoulder.

"Fuck right off, the both of you. No sense in hustling when we don't even know where the extraction point is." said Ron as he pulled out his portion of the map. The 4 of them went over their maps and Draco noticed that whilst his and Ron were aligned Kelly had essentially an empty corner of the map and Wendall had what looked like to be a lake on theirs. Based on the topography of the area they were in, the lake was close by and a decent chance others could be found here, assuming the lake was a more centralized other 3 agreed with his judgment call and started to make way to the lake, hoping to find others along the way.

Ginny, Luna, Fred, Solomon, and Linda - Lakeside - 1 Mile East of Harry and John's Original Location

Ginny, Luna, Fred, Kelly, and Linda were dropped off by the lake in the area. Again the 2 witches decided to reveal the information they were permitted to explain. Reactions had varied from surprise to mild inconvenience. The map parts they had put together between the 5 of them were not much but they had decided to scout around the area about 15 minutes from their dropzone to find anyone else and regroup back by the lake. Ginny and Fred went north, Linda went east, Luna went south and Solomon would go west in hopes of finding the rest of the recruits and map pieces. Eventually Luna would find Draco's group of 4 and Linda would retrieve John's group while other recruits were picked up along the way. By the time they had all found each other only a few trainees were missing. By the time the now mass group was assembled, John had suggested to Harry that he be one to reveal everything they had previously discussed. Harry would agree but he also made it a point to find the missing 4 recruits as soon as possible as guta mating season was in full swing and the group was in the territory of a group of extremely hostile male herd. Quickly John divided everyone into their respective teams, some were tasked with creating fire and a temporary base camp. Food foraged, water gathered and fire created was their main objective. The eventual Blue team was gathered up along with the eventual Fireteam Mystic would head out to search for the missing recruits. The use of the point me spell was rather convenient as they trudged up a small hillside about an hour away from base camp, tracks from a Revelio though had given them cause for concern as it seemed that the 4 missing recruits had stumbled upon the herd of gutas. "John, over here!" yelled out Ginny.

John quickly made it over to where Ginny was. It was not a pretty scene, it was Trainee Paul he had been completely mauled by a guta, impaled by its long claws, his body was still slightly warm when the combined team had reached it. "Linda and Ron, stay back with the body, clean him up as best as you can, take him back to base camp. We leave no one behind." he ordered.

They nodded at him briefly, though death was a real possibility for them once they had become soldiers, it didn't prepare them for someone to die in what was supposed to be a training mission. Ron was a little green but pulled through out of respect for the deceased as he quickly conjured a small blanket to cover up Paul. Linda had started to make a makeshift stretcher to bring Paul back to camp.

Harry at this point starts to channel his magic into the ground, looking for inconsistencies in tremors of the ground. He located a rebound just about a mile away, 3 kids climbing a large tree running from what was 4 angry gutas. The gutas were starting to use their claws to hack down the tree. Thankfully its claws were not meant to cut down any sort of large trees and it was a slow process but the trainees had maybe 15 minutes before it would crash down. "John! I found them, 1 mile east of our location! 4 hostiles. We have about 15 minutes tops before they take down the tree our teammates are on." yelled out Harry.

"Alright we double time it from here on out!" ordered John.

As they began to run John started giving out orders for everyone to arm themselves with sticks or rocks once they arrived on scene. Harry exclaimed that his friends will function as bait while John, Kelly, Fred and Sam extract the other 3. John nodded, not fully knowing their capabilities, he trusted Harry knew though and left it to Harry to decide how to execute their plan. Once they were about a hundred meters out the group split up, John and company would hide in the dense vegetation and wait for Harry and his group to begin their assault. About 60 meters away Harry started charging an overpowered Flipendo in his hands, pouring intent and purpose into the spell, he sent the trailing Guta tumbling towards the next one. It sailed through the air briefly before slamming into another one. The 4 Guta's quickly turned around at the sudden attack and let out an earth-shattering roar at the 7. However both Draco and Hermione were ready for the charge as they had prepared a combined tripping jinx off to the sides and the 3 of the 4 came crashing down. Luna, Neville and Ginny wandlessly sent out severing hexes as several gashes cut into the thick hide of the gutas. The hides were thicker than what they had thought as only moderate gashes appeared. They quickly recovered and rejoined the object of their ire, Harry. The lead guta swung at Harry, hoping to quickly kill the annoying pest that was in his way but Harry had insane reaction timing and narrowly avoided the first swing. Harry responded by unleashing an Incendio at it, using the flames to push it back towards the others. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw John and his team move to collect the remaining 3 recruits. It was a brief moment but he caught sight of John giving him the non-verbal all clear signal they had learned a few months prior. Quickly he yelled out to Hermione and Draco "Aguamenti on my count!" NOW!"

Suddenly 2 geysers of water started to pour out the hands of the 2, completely soaking the gutas. Harry, as soon as he saw them completely drenched in water, started channeling Glacius into both his hands and let out a ripping torrest of ice, freezing the gutas in place. John had just grouped up with them when he caught sight of the 7 wizards and witches unleashing a fury of spells at the trapped and contained gutas. 2 beheadings and 2 bleed outs later the gutas lay in the pile of dismembered limbs, blood and entrails. All 7 of them looked a bit green, Hermione and Harry had thrown up from the sight of it all. John was a bit sick too but held it back, knowing it was either the gutas or the humans at this went to hold up Hermione and got a weak thank you in return.

"We need to head back, it's getting dark and would assume this wasn't the entire stag herd." John said to everyone present.

They could only nod back weakly as the brief fight had left the wizards all sorts of tired. Eventually making their way to base camp, the sun was going down and the teams that remained had collected enough firewood, water and some foraged mushrooms and berries for the night. The food wasn't going to feed them for long but upon review of the collected map pieces the extraction site was about 20 miles south of their location, it would take a full day of moderate pace to get to the LZ, considering their traversal into dense parts of the forest and multitude of high elevation climbing they will be forced to accomplish. Someone brought up that Paul's body would only slow them down; however it took a hard glare from John before they were silenced. "No one…and I mean no one is getting left behind," he said coldly.

The night soon arrived and security shifts for the night were assigned. Harry and John were paired up for the last shift before dawn as John wanted to talk to Harry about the events that just transpired. "You okay Harry?" said John.

"No not really, at least not yet anyways." Harry replied, his eyes a bit distant.

"It was them or us. We had no choice."

"I get that. However I could have left them trapped in the ice, the magical ice would have stayed there for quite some time and it would have been hard for them to break out of it. We could have just left."

"Hmmm…suppose you did just leave them? What were the odds they would come back looking for us. As I recall in our lessons, gutas have a long memory. They could have followed us after somehow breaking out of the ice. You may be confident in your abilities but sometimes, a bit of mercy will only cause further problems down the road. We cannot assume any of our enemies in the future would provide us the same mercies either."

"Understood, just feel like taking a life shouldn't be that easy. But for my friends, I would go to the ends of the galaxy just to make sure they would be able to live another day."

John nodded his agreement as the two settled into a comfortable silence, slowly watching the sun rise as a new day began.

As the sun broke the horizon, they quickly packed up camp and made their way to the LZ. The next 20 miles of travel were grueling, making Chief Mendez's exercises look bearable in a way. Though they all agreed that it would be best to never say anything to him about that. Occasionally John would have Harry or one of the other "enhanced" recruits channel their magic into their surroundings to look out for hostiles. About 1 mile away, near the edge of the effective range, Ron picked up about 10 or so human life forms around their LZ. John called out to the group "Alright, we don't know if these are our boys or hostiles, approach under heavy cover and wait for the spotters to get a good glimpse of any potential tangos. Understood?"

Nods and words of agreement echoed throughout the group. The spotters were the first to leave, a small team of 3 recruits made their way towards the LZ. They came back in about 30 minutes to report in. "10 tangos surrounding an Albatross dropship John," said Linda.

"Hostile?" he asked.

"Likely. Civilian clothing, faces obscured, and an assortment of rifles with what I saw. No signs of less than lethal ammunition. Orange tapes on the magazines are missing. However a point of note will be that the men and women are moving around more casually, patrols were infrequent and seemed quite lax." explained Linda.

"Assume hostile, but less than lethal measures will be taken. Make any weapon you can, sling shots, spears, stone hammers and such. What about the environment?"

"Dropship is in a rather large clearing but the vegetation is dense, patrols aren't going more than a few hundred meters from the center of the clearing. Small collection of large boulders near the dropship's side, coverage is okay but easily spotted if you look hard enough."

"Ambush and incapacitate them. Harry and team, set up traps with your abilities about 300 meters west of the clearing. The rest of us will be split north and west, taking out any left behind. Final reminder, do not kill, only incapacitate, we don't know if this is another one of Chief's tests just yet. Lets only embarrass our instructors not maim them alright? "

John's instructions were clear and the groups quickly disbursed. "Harry, I've got an idea I've been working on," said Hermione. "Well as you know I'm working slightly ahead in our classes and Ancient Runes is one of them. Well last night as a precaution I worked on an Immobulus and Disarming Array, we can set up a large capture field to apprehend our pursuers. It should hold them for about an hour if I power it correctly. Plenty of time to give the other groups a chance to clean up stragglers."

"Let's do it, set it up with Draco and Luna. The rest of us will send a volley of our less than lethal spells to get their attention. Knockback, Disarming, and joke jinxes are allowed for this operation. Hold back a little on the power, no need to show our hand to potential hostiles just yet."

After 15 minutes signals were given out as each group had confirmed with the runners they were ready. Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Ron ran into the clearing. "HEY SHITHEADS! OVER HERE!" Ron said as the 4 of them launched a volley of knock back jinxes and disarming charms. Some of the hostiles received new hair colors as well. Whatever potential training these individuals had were quickly thrown away at the embarrassment given out to them as they about 7 or so of the tangoes gave chase. Harry and Ginny quickly booked to the capture point while Neville and Ron threw out the occasional hair color changing spell to incite the wrath of the hostiles even more. Once the 4 of them made their way through the capture point Harry yelled out "NOW!" Hermione quickly channeled magic in the the ward stones and rifles were knocked out of the hands of the pursuers, the confusion amongst the pursuers was quite evident as they stopped and looked for their missing weapons, only to find their guns were suspended 15 feet in the air above them. They were further surprised as all of a sudden they stopped being able to move. They tried to shout but even the muscles in their throat refused to provide sound.

"I think I may have overpowered that a bit much" said Hermione. "Oh well, a work in progress. I would say Capture Field Mark I was quite a success though."

"Let's head to the clearing, the others should have taken out any stragglers by now," said Harry. He was right too, John and his groups had finished taking out the 3 others guarding the ship. However it was not without a casualty. One of the stronger trainees had thrown a rock and when it had found its mark it hit the hostile right above the ear, rupturing an artery. The hostile quickly succumbed to a brain bleed when the brief skirmish was over.

John quickly gathered everyone up and performed a headcount. There were no casualties from his group. They made it a point to gather the body of the hostile and Paul to bring aboard the ship. John had also convinced Deja to remotely pilot the ship back to the academy. He made sure everyone else got onto the ship before he stepped onto it. Harry made it a point to walk back and wait for John to step in. The two had quickly formed a fast friendship over the last 48 hours as they shared a brief nod as they sat down in their seats. The ride back was quiet, an accidental casualty had occurred. Some would go on to say that it was just collateral damage that was necessary for a successful mission. For the ones who recovered Paul's body and the Guta incident it was just another reminder of the dangers they would be facing in the near future.

When they arrived, it was an absolute shitstorm. After a debrief Chief Mendez was infuriated that his orders to leave one of recruits behind was disobeyed. Thought secretly he was beyond proud at the actions of John and Harry. John had proven to be the leader the Spartans the UNSC was looking for and was given a leadership role for his actions, while Harry and his team proved how deadly and useful magic could be in a potential fight. Mendez was infuriated to learn that the marines he had sent out were equipped with live fire rounds though and would spend some time trying to find out who had tried to sabotage the mission. The marines had been tasked in the training missing to cause difficulties for the candidates, not to outright kill them. They were assigned to use soft rubber rounds but the blacked out order superseded his instructions. When he went to Dr. Halsey with this information, it was only assumed by Dr. Halsey a dark look quickly came and went, she had an idea of who would try to sabotage her life's work like this but she didn't want to broadcast it just yet. The UNSC were quick to ask for Hermione's work regarding the capture and disarmament array, quickly reworking it to a capture cube, able to create a "stasis" field of varying in sizes depending on setting from a 5x5 ft individual containment field or an olympic sized pool, capable of trapping entire platoons. This would be one of the many gadgets that the Mystic 7 would create in their time as an UNSC Spartan.

Individual achievements and potential sabotage aside, Dr. Halsey, Chief Mendez and Admiral Hood saw the exercise as a major success. The decision to allow for the reveal of magic only bolstered the morale of the recruits. In time it would be a key moment in the Spartan II program as complete and total trust were given to each other.

A/N - I am going to leave it here for now! It's a slightly longer chapter than my norm. I have a google doc of potential gadgets I may create. The Stasis Cube is going to be one of them! Just for a tease into a future gadget - Gemino (duplication charm) + fragmentation grenades = Anti-Personnel Cluster Bombs. It's another busy week for me, my sister is moving back to my area and is staying with me until her house is closed and the movers arrive with her family's things so I may or may not have another chapter out this week. The plans for the next few chapters would be another time skip to about 1 month prior to the augmentations. Like I said before, the bulk of the story will be fighting against the covenant and massive canon divergent battles will happen. Though I am tempted to write a chapter or 2 of the Spartans being sent after the Insurrectionist factions.I mean who doesn't like a good old stomp once in a while? Because of the aid of the magical folk, they will be receiving their first Mjolnir suits before their first deployed mission. At first all spartans will get the same suit but eventually Mystic team will get a new variant supersuit dubbed "Phoenix Class Powered Assault Armor". Only available to them, but because the Chief will continue to grow his friendship with Harry. Harry and his family sort of adopt Blue Team into their circle, I have decided that they will get a "Thunderbird Variant Mjolnir Class Powered Armor" which will have similar but different toys as Mystic Teams'. As always, please provide a meaningful review and I will gladly respond as best as I can.