General Arterius looked down at the world below him in satisfaction. After three brutal months, he had finally broken these fractious people.
Well, General Oraka will claim it was his efforts that beat the fight out of that Titans Damned General Williams.
He scoffed. As if that primitive and his paltry militia could honestly call himself General. Even so, it had taken the entire three months to break his will. Desolas' little brother and his Hastatim had been relentless in crushing any spark of rebellion in the populace, which was a surprising amount. Not even the most rabid of break-away Turian colonials had ever resisted this long.
In the end, estimates were that ten percent of the world's population had died, either fighting the Turians or as reprisals against those attacks. Once these people are properly integrated as a Turian Client race, they may find some use as shock troops.
He was especially thankful that they were so primitive that he only had the one city and the surrounding countryside to try to occupy: no military garrisons anywhere else on the planet, or defensive satellites in orbit. Not even a properly developed deep space industrial infrastructure, beyond the few asteroid mining and fabrication facilities he's inevitably had to destroy due to resistance.
Almost as if this were a colony, and not their homeworld, the seditious voice whispered in the back of his mind again.
He shook his head to clear it. No matter what a bunch of frill-preening intellectuals thought, bunch of puffed up wannabe-Asari, this was their homeworld. There were no other settled systems within reach by his ships. They were certainly not as advanced as the Hierarchy, and the Citadel Council by extension, so there was no chance that their FTL range exceeded his.
"General," Desolas looked at his XO, "our sensors just picked up a signal near one of the gas giants. It matches the data from the runner, and the data from the Salarians."
The General chuckled and smirked. "Finally come home to accept their fate. Send a Patrol Squadron to intercept it while it's discharging before it jumps again, and make sure they know to capture it. I want our people to have something to study, not just the scraps left from their pitiful fleet."
The XO nodded and headed off to give the General's orders. "Once I know where you've been, I'll know where the last of your people are and I can bring you into the Citadel's fold. My name will be whispered in awe for generations."
X
CSG-87 of the UNSC's Second Fleet floated in the deep black a full light day from Shanxi, poised and waiting for word back from the Prowler they had deployed less than an hour ago.
Captain Hacket, Commanding officer of the Valiant Class Heavy Cruiser Matterhorn, turned to Rear Admiral Kastanie Drescher. "Slip-packet from the Point of no Return ma'am. Enemy fleet numbers and position confirmed. One Squadron of five Corvettes and one Frigate disengaged to investigate the Return's position. The Cruiser, three Frigates and nineteen Corvettes are all still in geosynchronous orbit over the Shanxi colony site. No additional contacts, constructs or transmission detected."
Kastanie nodded, then turned to her Comms officer. "Signal the fleet. On my command, Slip-jump to the far side of Shanxi. Epoch and Punic Carriers will remain on station there, along with two squadrons Paris'. At arrival plus Three, all Capital ships and Frigates will commence a Criton Slingshot into the enemy's bow, while the destroyers will orbit opposite into their stern and all fighter squadrons from north and south polar orbits. Charon Squadrons will perform low altitude deployment of ODST's and Green Team before attacking the fleet from below. Once we have secured orbital dominance, all remaining assault forces will deploy and commence their respective assigned objectives."
Once she had confirmation from all the fleet commanders, she issued the command. "All ships, jump!"
The fleet tore open space-time and slipped through. Most transits took weeks or months to cross interstellar distances, but this would only be a matter of minutes. In that time, they received regular Slip Packets from the Prowler crew as they used a fleet of drones to lead the enemy squadron in a merry chase to the dark side of the gas giant, where a single Shiva warhead waited.
Arriving at their destination in good order, the Punic Class Supercarriers released their payloads of Frigates and destroyers, while Broadsword and Longsword fighters poured out of the fleet's hangars. It took less than three minutes for the entire force to be formed up and in position. The ships' clocks all reached three minutes after arrival, and the entire force moved.
X
The first sign General Arterius had that he was under attack, was when waves of missiles poured over the planet's horizon from every direction. The Squadron Commanders and individual ship captains responded in good order as Frigates moved to the fleet perimeter to screen the three cruisers and his Dreadnaught. Still, precious seconds were wasted as each ship tried to track the several hundred targets. By the time the Frigate captains had focused on individual Beating Zones, the swarm was crossing into effective GUARDIAN range.
Targeting was further hampered by the agility the projectiles displayed. Turian GUARDIAN tracking systems were designed with Disruptor salvo's in mind. Those missiles were ponderous and fairly easy to track. These however were a roiling, swirling mass; as if someone had fed Red-Sand to a bag filled with Pyjacks and then set them loose.
The Frigates managed to whittle the storm down to a quarter of its initial strength, but as with that first engagement each warhead proved to be devastating in its own right. Rather than the more advanced Eezo based Gravity Disruption Warheads, these missiles were tipped with Kiloton Yield Nuclear Shaped Charges. The Frigates were swiftly stripped of their Kinetic barriers, with one unlucky ship taking two additional missiles afterwards. Desolas could see the wreckage falling into the atmosphere.
Desolas scowled at the loss. Apparently these Hoomans had some reserve forces hidden in another system. His perfect combat record was what allowed him to rise to his current rank. Now, he'd lost three ships to some upstart race on the edge of nowhere. His political rivals back on Palaven would publicly pluck his scales for this embarrassment. When I find out who missed them in the search, every member of their Clan will suffer!
He was about to order the Frigates to withdraw inside the Cruiser GUARDIAN screen when one of the sensor technicians yelled out, "New contacts approaching from North and South Polar orbits! Atmospherics are interfering with sensors, but I estimate 200 Strike Craft. Some are breaking formation and heading towards the colony. The rest are firing a second volley!"
This is... problematic. He turned to the Dreadnaught's Captain. "Scramble all air-wings, and notify the Garrisons about the incoming. Once their fighters have dealt with the attack on their end, send their fighters up here to help us mop up. Order our Frigates to pull back inside the Cruiser screen and support the Fighters." He sent a harsh look to the Captain. "And recall the Reconnaissance Squadron; that signal was obviously a faint."
The Captain nodded curtly and began relaying the orders when the Sensor tech called out again. "Twenty-six new contacts 25,000 kilometers and closing on equatorial approach, East and West sirs," Desolas' head snapped around at the fear in the Ensign's voice. He was about to chastise him for poor discipline when he continued, "All new contacts are Cruiser Weight."
The General stormed over to the station and stared in open confusion. As much as he wanted to blame the young officer, the sensors were reading more than two dozen Light-Cruiser weight ships approaching from the bow and stern. The twenty barreling straight towards his guns were similar to the Cruisers he had first encountered, save these were all larger and more robust. A full dozen of the ships were well inside the atmosphere launching something at the colony below. The six approaching from his stern were a completely new design: like heavily reinforced spearheads.
Desolas clicked his mandibles in concern. Why did they keep the bulk of their fleet so far from their homeworld, and why take this long to react?
It still didn't matter; no flotilla of primitives, no matter how large, would ever be a match for the might of the Turian Navy.
He Stood tall and turned to the Ship Captain. "Captain Orinia, deploy two Frigate squadrons to engage the enemy: one fore, one aft. Once our fighters have dealt with the airwing, they will proceed onto torpedo runs against these upstarts." The General didn't like the concerned look on her face as Orinia relayed his orders. He would deal with any insubordination later. For now, he had a battle to win!
He watched as the five-ship Frigate Squadrons broke off. The depleted Kinetic barriers were concerning, but nothing he felt would be more than an inconvenience. The squadrons rushed forward, each focusing on one Cruiser Squadron a piece. They began firing their mass cannons as soon as they were within 3,000 kilometers. He frowned and felt his fringe buzz involuntarily as the approaching Cruisers indifferently shrugged off the hail of fire. When they reached 300 kilometers, they launched a wave of disruptor torpedoes while continuing to advance.
Their counterparts finally responded with point defense fire; but not with GUARDIAN Lasers as he had expected. Wave after wave of kinetic slugs were hurled into space. They created almost beautiful traceries and swirling patterns, before exploding into clouds of hypervelocity shrapnel. Desolas' frown deepened as all but one torpedo was destroyed. That last missile struck the hull of one of the bow-facing cruisers, but it only succeeded in ripping a portion of the dense armor away. That ship withdrew to the safety of the center of its formation before the Tuian Frigates could exploit that single weak point.
It took him a moment to puzzle through the gross disparity between weapons, but then it clicked. The Disruptor Torpedo's dense mass field was one of it's primary defenses: diffusing GUARDIAN Lasers until they were little better than Heat-Rays, but it made the missiles slow and sluggish. These Hoomans were instead firing kinetics, so once they entered the dense mass field of the torpedoes, their relative density increased without affecting their velocity. By virtue of their primitive methods, the Hoomans were perfectly poised to counter conventional Frigate and Fighter pack-tactics.
Then they retaliated. Those same defense guns which moments before had swept the sky clear of torpedoes, now turned their attention on the Frigates themselves. Instead of fragmenting shells, the guns were now firing solid slugs; slugs which tore through the unshielded hulls of the Turian Squadrons. In mere seconds, all but two Frigates were dead in space, with those two desperately limping into orbit in hopes of a soft landing. One of the rear approaching Spear Cruisers casually rammed a stricken Frigate out of it's way on its inexorable march towards Deolas' position.
He wheeled on the Ship Captain. "Where are our Fighters? Where is the Reconnaissance Squadron?! I ordered them to support-"
"They're all gone, sir. The Hooman Fighters outnumbered ours two to one, and we've had no response from the Cruiser Graficus or its escorts." The General didn't even twitch a mandible at the clear insubordination of her tone as he looked at the status board. As she had said, every fighter launched from his space group was gone.
"Com... commence firing," he stuttered in shock as he watched his fleet, his record and reputation be torn to shreds in front of him. "All craft commence firing Titans damn you!"
The eleven ships remaining of Desolas' once thirty strong group poured fire at the advancing group off their bow at their extreme range, though they failed to coordinate their fire. The Ophian's gun remained silent, a testament to the damage it had taken in that first engagement three months earlier. In response, the Hooman Cruisers and fighters launched another wave of missiles.
He watched helplessly as the second missile wave slammed into his force. The remaining Frigates once again acquitted themselves admirably, though now, every missile that made it through the screen struck an unshielded hull. He lost three more Frigates, and one Cruiser had it's shields dropped to half. Then the enemy Cruisers all fired. Corralled by the missile swarm, they couldn't evade the ponderous shells. In the initial battle three months ago, the Manelon had been at full shield when it was struck. That shot nearly cut her in two. Now, these monstrous cannons were aimed at unshielded frigates. Where a Turian Mass Cannon shot would deform on contact to transfer maximum force to the target, these shots massively over-penetrated. In one case, Desolas saw several frigates destroyed by a single shot, only for the drifting wreckage to be struck by another shot that had done the same to another group. In seconds, his Frigate screen was swept away, and both of his remaining cruisers were shattered.
For all the fearsome power that Desolas had just witnessed, it was what he saw cresting the horizon that caused genuine fear: eleven Dreadnaughts. It was preposterous! Only the Council races were permitted to have that many Dreadnaughts! He saw the telltale sign of missile launches again, from fighters and Cruisers, and now from the Dreadnaughts as well. Thousands of missiles swarmed and swirled towards him, and behind them were the waiting cannons of a Fleet of Super-Capital ships!
I'm going to die here, the thought flashed through his mind as an unthinkable nightmare played out in front of him.
NO! He staggered away from the sensor station and towards the shell-shocked navigator's post. I will not die here in some nameless system to a ragged band of Primitives!
He threw the Navigator aside and took manual control of the helm. He heard a commotion from around him, but what could he expect; the crew was clearly panicking and it was up to him to take action! He pointed the Ophion's bow towards the Mass Relay, and jumped.
He stood in relief at the safety of FTL, when a sudden pain erupted from the side of his head. He crashed to the deck and looked up to see the Ship's Captain, his subordinate, standing over him with a drawn pistol.
"General Arterius," contempt dripped from the female's mandibles, "for Dereliction of Duty, and showing Cowardice before the Enemy, I am relieving you of your command! Officer of the Watch!" The Black Watch Lieutenant assigned to bridge security stepped up, also with his side arm drawn. "Remand Private Arterius to the Brig." Desolus was all but dragged uncomprehending from his once place of power.
The navigator looked up to his Captain. "Your orders, ma'am?"
Captain Orinia sighed and leaned against the console. "Maintain course. There's nothing we could do back there but die needlessly." She stood and raised her chin. "The Hierarchy needs to know what happened here," she sent a glare over her shoulder, "and who is to blame."
X
Miranda-A152 hated SOEIV's. Javier-A202 and Suki-A190 lived to ride these things down, but Miranda hated them. No amount of somatic conditioning or counseling or pre-drop pep-talks made her ever feel like she wasn't climbing into a rocket propelled coffin. This opinion was not helped as she watched a strange, insect-like fighter lining up a shot on her. The craft was erased under the twin 110mm revolver cannons of a Longsword interceptor.
"Ten seconds to contact!" David-151, Green Team's field commander squaked over the radio.
Miranda released the manual controls and crossed her arms over her chest. Just like Uncle John said; let the machine do its job so you can do yours. She'd long since given up any love for her father; Doctor Lawson volunteered her for the nascent Spartan program after wresting control of it from Doctor Halsey. But her fellow Spartans, especially the II's, were more than family to her.
She sucked in a breath and blew it out just before touchdown.
Her MA5B was in her hand before the hatch bolts were armed, and she'd already primed a FRAG-8 Dual-Purpose Grenade in the underslung shotgun when the hatch blew away. Two aliens rounded a corner with rifles up, and she fired a burst into the one on the left as she stalked out. Most of the rounds glanced harmlessly off of a blue barrier, though at least one round made it through to clip it's shoulder. The second alien began yelling as it advanced and fired. The enemy's rifle had a strange booming report, though she barely felt the rounds sting her through the dense Titanium plating.
She fired the DPG into the second enemy. The explosion and shrapnel shredded its barrier, while the shaped charge cored it like an apple. The fragments also sliced into the now unshielded first enemy.
David's voice cut in over the radio again. "All units, report in!"
"Tachi, Go! No contacts!" Suki called out, sounding almost giddy.
"Navaja, Go! Possible contact North!" Javier husked out. Miranda expected those two would be... occupied the moment they had any real down time.
Miranda pumped a fresh grenade into the underslung weapon and scanned around her position. "Butcher, Go! Two contacts down!"
"Bowie, Go! Disregard non-hostile contacts and fall in!" Everyone confirmed.
Miranda headed over to the fallen aliens and gave them a quick once over. The second and its gear were a complete loss. The first however, had been turned away from the FRAG-8's blast, so it's rifle was unharmed. There was also a glowing holographic device clinging to it's left arm. When she reached down, she found the hologram was actually solid to the touch. It looked like it was part of the armor's vambrace, so she drew her Kukri combat knife and removed the limb at the elbow. The device remained active, so she extracted the limb and tossed it to the side, then stowed the device in a compartment under her power-pack. Last was the rifle, which conveniently folded up when she gripped it around the barrel. That went to the magnetic mount on her back.
"Butcher, Sound off!"
She sheathed her knife and turned to the waypoint on her hud. "Sorry Bowie, stopped for souvenirs. En route now."
More pods were now raining down around the city as a full company of ODST's were dropped into the capitol. They had a number of mission assignments: target acquisition and identification, infrastructure assessment, even just causing general mayhem to keep the invaders off guard before the Army and Marines rolled in with infantry and armor. Green Team's mission was very specific: locate and secure the kernel of Bai, the colony's administrative Second Gen Smart AI.
Their pods had all landed a block from David's, so she rejoined her team in short order. Suki looked her over. "Is that an arm attached to your back?"
"What?" Miranda shrugged while keeping an eye on the nearby rooftops. "I needed a hand back there, so I took one."
Javier choked out a laugh. "Dios mio, girl; it's a call sign, not a life philosophy!"
"Focus up," David barked out. "I assume there's a reason for the trophy?"
"It has a piece of alien tech with a holographic interface; a tactile holographic interface."
Suki was suddenly in her face. "What, like Hard Light!? But that stuff is purely theoretical!"
"Tachi, on point!" Suki jumped-to at David's command, while Javier took up the rear position. He glanced at Miranda and gave her the faintest of nods before they all set off to the city center.
As they were moving, Javier spoke up. "Butcher, any advice for when we do make contact?"
Miranda never took her eyes off of her assigned quadrant. "Their armor has integrated shielding of some kind. One burst will drop the shield, but that's about it. The armor itself is crap. Shrapnel from a Frag-8 went right through it."
"What did you need the FRAG-8 for, a Jeep?"
"His Battle-buddy." The squad all hesitated as Miranda continued. "The shield took most of the blast, so the shaped charge just punched a neat hole."
"Yabei! I want a shield that can tank a grenade," Suki whispered as she swept her weapon over their path.
"Isn't that what you have Navaja for?" Javier snorted at Miranda's question.
"Ch, not even! Untested alien tech will be way less high-maintenance than his needy ass."
"Just for that, this 'needy ass' is going to need some extra special pampering once we're done here."
"See what I mean?"
"Alright, enough chatter." Everyone quieted down, though they were all thankful David had been willing to let them release some of the tension.
They were silent as they continued their way through the ruined streets. They were halfway to the administrative center when they heard the sounds of a firefight. They advanced cautiously up to a street corner and saw two squads of ODSTs pinned by a pair of alien squads, one of which was advancing under cover of a hovering Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
The team all waited on David. He silently signalled that Suki would provide suppressing fire with her BR-55 Heavy, while David would take overwatch on a wrecked building's rooftop. Meanwhile Miranda and Javier would rush the vehicle, with Miranda dealing with the squad while Javier Sapped the IFV. Once they all acknowledged, David silently bounded up to the third story while Suki dashed across the street to take cover behind a fallen wall.
At a chirp over comms, everyone acted. David shot the alien visibly directing the squad, the single burst from his Designated Marksman Rifle destroyed the shield, and the helmet underneath it. The alien squad responded with remarkable precision for a unit under a marksman's scope. The vehicle also traversed it's gun to deal with the threat, which took pressure off of the ODSTs. Then Suki opened fire into the squad clustered together to avoid David's precision fire. The reinforced barrel on her rifle was more than up to the task of her much longer bursts. Combined with her enhanced reflexes and training, her firing and reloading discipline made it seem like she was using a general purpose machine gun, and not a battle rifle. Two more invaders fell before the IFV turned completely to hide the troops.
This lined them up perfectly for Miranda and Javier.
Miranda led, firing shell after shell into the squad. The explosives detonated as they struck the vehicle's shield causing ripple after ripple in the blue field, like stones tossed into a lake. The squad was not so lucky, as the hail of shrapnel stripped their shields in seconds. Javier followed close on her heels, firing single rounds into the heads and throats of all the aliens.
Miranda didn't bother slowing to a stop as she shoulder checked the IFV. Despite its size, the lack of ground pressure caused it to slew as 300 kilograms of Super-Soldier and advanced armor slammed into it at 35 kilometers per hour. This threw the gun's aim off, allowing David to safely reposition. That was when Javier lept on top of the vehicle. He pulled out a disposable metal vapor torch and sliced the hinges off of the commander's cupola, then ripped the hatch off and tossed it to the side. The crew were frantically trying to put out a fire his torch had started when he dropped a satchel charge in the compartment.
He jumped down and yelled, "Clear!" then activated the charge. The explosion blew the turret and troop hatch off. The machine sputtered for a moment before crashing to the ground.
As Green Team reformed, they saw the ODSTs had dealt with the second alien squad. A burly Sergeant with a field bandage across one eye strode up to them.
"Well, you got us out of a bit of raspberry jam back there." His cragged face split in a rictus grin as he thrust out a hand. "Said al-Massani, Sergeant Major, Third Para, Sixteenth Aero-Space Assault Brigade, ODSTs."
David took the grip. "Green Team, call sign Bowie."
Said nodded and let David's hand go. "Well, I won't ask where you're going, but you did us a good deed. If you like I can radio a bird and have them sweep the street for you."
David hesitated, then brought out a plastic grid map. "Grid 282-A to 285-A."
Said nodded to his radioman.
"Gunsmoke-05, Paki 2-2 Bravo, standby Fire mission, over."
"Paki 2-2 Bravo, Gunsmoke-05 standing by."
"Gunsmoke-05, Paki 2-2 Bravo, Gun-Run Grid 282-A by 285-A. How copy, over?"
"Paki 2-2 Bravo, Gunsmoke-05, good copy. Standby CAS. Gunsmoke out."
The sun was blotted out for a moment as a GA-TL 1 Longsword fighter swooped down. There were puffs of smoke a moment before the air was rent with a sound like the continents being torn in half, along with the deeper repeated boom of a medium caliber cannon. The street David intended to lead his team down was turned upside down and inside out, with buildings toppling and several alien vehicles thrown in the air. The fighter winged over before flying off to another target.
"There we go! Tit-for Tat." Said smiled darkly at the devastation.
"Much obliged." David nodded and turned to leave.
"Oh, before you blokes go," everyone paused as David looked at the Sergeant Major, "if you happen to see a Yank by the name of Williams, tell him to sit tight; we're on our way."
David nodded again, then both teams left for their respective objectives.
X
All Castis could think about at the moment was his young daughter and soon to be born son.
Another explosion racked the building, and he cringed as dust and rubble rained down on him and the rest of his squad; his other subordinates huddled together in the darkness even as they maintained a rather lax border security. Though if Castis was honest, they were all probably ready to surrender the first chance they got; mainly because of Sergeant Arterius.
Anyone has to be better than this Barefaced idiot. He hissed to himself, glancing over at the Sergeant as he paced back and forth by the door muttering to himself.
He looked back over at Jak, the little human that had been stuck with them for the past few months. It was fascinating to him how she essentially looked like an Asari toddler, mixed with a Quarian; as he had seen pictures on the extranet, mainly on… alternative media sites from before he was married. Her hair was thinner than a Quarians, her eyes didn't glow, and her skin had a more pinkish tint to it as opposed to grey-purple, and she also lacked the skin flaps on her head; and in terms of body shape, she was much more like an Asari than Quarian.
Perhaps these are the result of the Protheans breeding them together? He mused, even as another explosion rocked the bunker, and Jak whimpered and curled up into herself; and Castis buzzed sadly.
He glanced back over at Sergeant Arterius, and he had to fight down a growl as he saw the Turian sergeant glaring at the little alien with disdain and hatred. He didn't dare let Jak out of his sight, only during times she needed to relieve herself did Castis take his eyes off her; because he didn't trust the Sergeant to not simply shoot the child while no one was around and claim that she had grabbed his gun.
Still… he has a point that we can't keep her here anymore. He thought sadly, realizing that as much of an ass that his immediate CO was, he was right in this regard.
Standing, he looked at his squad members and said, "I think… It's time we let Jak go back to her people."
They glanced between each other until they heard Saren talking to someone on his Omnitool. The Corporal and Squad Gunner looked at Castis and the Child he was holding. "We don't have much time before we get deployed somewhere. Who are you going to give her to?"
Castis looked around in thought until he noticed one of the hooman females who regularly cleaned the Turian bunker area. "At this point, anyone will do."
He walked quickly to the dark skinned woman. "You; I need you to do something for me."
The female flinched away slightly but remained where she was; the Hastatim Legion had instilled a deep sense of obedience in the local population. "Yes?" Her lack of subvocal harmonics made the Palavese word sound eerie and alien.
He gingerly passed the sleeping child over. "This is Jak. She has no family, and I'm not in a position to care for her any more. She hates spicy food, but loves loud music." He buzzed wistfully as the female took the child he had all but adopted as his own.
The female bobbed her head and began backing away with the child when Castis heard raised voices coming from Saren's Omnitool.
"...and since your brother has chosen to flee the battlefield without so much as firing a shot, it becomes your responsibility to repair the tarnished Arterius honor. Now GET IT DONE!" There was open contempt in the voice of General Oraka, and Castis could see Saren glowing in impotent rage.
Castis rushed back to his squad just before Saren turned around and stormed over to them. "We have new orders," his voice cracked in anger. "The Hoomans have given their intended target away. They mean to take the data center, through the Spirits alone know why."
The Colony's computer center had been a subject of endless frustration, and growing superstition. The computers had proven impossible to decipher, and any teams left alone there whispered about a phantom that flitted through the halls: sometimes a pale hooman female, sometimes a white serpent. The only thing that seemed to work correctly or consistently was a pedestal in the primary data center that either showed a small serpent swirling around, or a pale hooman female dancing and singing.
Saren continued, "as we are the closest team to the data center, the honor falls to us to prevent them from taking the objective: either by destroying them, or the center." He spun on his heel and marched out, his squad following close behind.
The human woman waited timidly for a minute after the team had left before she took the child in her arms over to an alcove where she uncovered a panel.
"ONI authorization Charlie Three Romeo Bravo Three Romeo Five Sierra."
The screen lit up. -ONI authorization granted. Greetings, Doctor Cole. Standing by to record Slip Packet transmission.-
"Field report 97, observed clear indications of clan divisions between invading Turians. Possible social exploit to be reviewed and considered. Additionally, assault by relief force has apparently routed occupation force. Loss of life from initial attack, subsequent occupation, and likely combat actions on planet present unique opportunity for Phase Three." She looked down at the sleeping child in her arms. "I have the first of the new generation of volunteers for Gamma Company in hand. End report."
-Report compiled. Slip Packet away. Time to receipt at Epsilon Eridani, 204 hours.-
Doctor Brynn Cole of ONI shut the terminal off and headed to the civilian bunkers to await her 'rescue'.
X
Green Team moved cautiously down the ruined boulevard. All around the city were increasing sounds of fighting. There was no banter as they navigated the craters and rubble left in the wake of the Close Air Support strike. A minor benefit was that none of the buildings' facades had survived, so there were no walls facing the road that could be used as a potential sniper or machine gun nest. There were also no signs of civilian casualties: only the shattered remains of aliens in pools of was a part of Miranda that felt for the families who had just lost their homes, but those could be rebuilt once the invasion was repulsed.
They arrived at the open and untouched plaza in front of the Colonial Administrative building that housed the municipal offices, and the Municipal Smart AI Bai. They headed down a side alley and pried up a nearby sewer grate, then followed the water main to the utility access to the Administrative building. There were two remote guns on tripod legs near the door they needed.
The three junior SPARTANs hesitated for a moment as they tried to formulate the best plan to get past the guns silently, when David threw out a grenade. Everyone pinned themselves against the wall as the explosive went off, then David leaned out and fired two quick bursts into the sentry guns. There was still a little shield strength left in the tripods, but not enough against the Spartan's DMR.
"No more sneaking around; it's killing time."
The junior SPARTANs all nodded and stalked forward. The hatch control panel had been damaged by the grenade, but the Team was equipped to bypass that and were inside the complex a minute later. As they wove their way towards Bai's core, Javier placed a Demolition Charge on one of the structural braces. As he stepped away, he noticed a faint blinking light on the opposite side of the column. He removed a small camera from his kit and examined the source of the light: a curved metallic block with an orange hologram projecting away from it.
"Navaja, report," David called over.
Javier transmitted his camera image to the rest of the team. "Unknown device. Not one of ours."
"Definitely one of theirs," Miranda called over. "That's the same holographics and glyphics I saw on the arm device."
Javier hissed through his teeth. "Probably an alien sapper charge, based on it's placement and concealment."
"Leave it," David brought his weapon up. "If there are sappers in the building, then we don't have time to try to disarm an alien bomb."
"Roger," everyone sounded off and they pressed on.
They heard voices as they approached the data center. There was a strange reverberating quality to them. The Team had just stacked up when a small disk was tossed out of the room at them.
"Grenade!" Suki swatted the device down the hall where it exploded with a flash of blue light. Every SPARTAN's armor registered several monofilament impacts, though no breaches in their armor past the outer carapace. They broke by pairs to either side of the hall as they began taking fire from the entrance to the AI Core. The enemy wisely didn't do more than lean out the doorway to fire short bursts, and the Team saw several different helmets over the course of a few exchanges.
As they wanted to salvage the Smart AI's Armored Matrix if at all possible, they couldn't casually follow the old Army adage of, 'when in doubt, grenade it out'. This was not a problem for them though. Suki tossed a camera drone into the room. It managed to get three seconds of footage before one of the aliens shot it, but that was all they needed. There were only five aliens in the room, two on either side of the door and one in the back. Miranda slam-fired two DPG's at the wall where one alien was. The first blasted a hole in the wall knocking the alien down, while the second grenage sailed through the hole. The armor-piercing jet sailed harmlessly into a monitor, while the fragmentation body blasted the aliens.
The one closest to the door stumbled out into Suki's line of fire and was nearly cut in half.
David and Javier charged in, with David leaping over the fallen alien and heading for the one in the back of the room. Javier skidded low and fired a burst up into the chest of the black-armored alien. As Miranda had mentioned, the shield took most of the shots, but the one that did penetrate did so in the gut. The Alien collapsed in a heap. The last alien by the door was lining up a shot on Javier when Miranda smashed through the wall she had shot earlier. The alien tracked up, and Javier rushed forward, butt striking the enemy soldier in it's jaw. The being was lifted off the ground by the force of the blow before the SPARTAN stamp-kicked it into a service terminal and fired a burst into its chest.
He was turning to the core when David came flying into him.
Both collapsed in a heap as the last alien stalked towards them. His armor was scored and dented, and there was a tremendous gash across his face; but he didn't show any signs of exhaustion as he flared blue, causing several loose bits of detritus to float for a moment. David and Javier barely rolled away as the alien leapt forward and smashed his fist into the ground where they had been.
Miranda immediately opened fire and was met by a similar blue shield she had come to expect, though this one took significantly more damage than any she had encountered before. It sneered at her before leveling a shotgun at her under his outstretched left arm. She barely managed to dive away from the shot, but was thrown to the ground by the blast behind her. With a twist of his wrist, a strange miasma formed on top of Javier's armor and the molecularly bonded Titanium A carapace began to distort. The alien's head snapped up when Suki let out a feral scream and poured fire into him. He grabbed one of his fallen comrades and used him as a bulwark as he fired another fireball at her.
Suki ducked back and the alien dropped his shield.
He turned just as Miranda began running towards him, kukri drawn. He raised his left arm again and Miranda felt a sudden wave of force, though not nearly enough to do more than stagger her slightly. He had clearly thought he was going to accomplish more with that move than knock her helmet off, as his mandibles were nearly slack when Miranda collided with him just under his outstretched arm. She tackled him into that much abused wall of monitors, causing several to crash to the ground. She raised her head suddenly cracking her skull into his chin, further stunning the winded alien. She took his left arm in her left hand's vice like grip. He was just raising his shotgun as she brought her kukri down onto the middle of his bicep. He let out an animalistic shriek as armor, bone, sinew and flesh parted for the hooked blade. Miranda silenced him with a back-handed blow, his own severed limb still tightly clutched in her fist.
Everyone heaved for breath and looked at the carnage around them. Suki was helping Javier off the ground when he looked at Miranda. "Butcher, was I hallucinating or did you just Pimp-Slap the magic space alien with his own hand?!"
She looked at her left hand, just realising she was still clutching the dismembered limb.
"Green Team," David rasped as he pulled himself out of the dent in the wall, "on mission. Tachi, code phrase. Butcher, helmet."
Suki nodded and headed to the holographic pedestal in the middle of the room where a white serpent continuously swooped a figure eight. She took off her helmet and spoke in chinese, "Xu Xian is waiting by the Broken Bridge."
The snake was instantly replaced by a pale woman in diaphanous robes. "Master authorization confirmed. Who are you?" The tiny digital woman leaned over and gasped at the devastation. "Wha... what is happening?! The last I remember before being put into security standby was General Williams saying there was an attack!"
David stepped up as Suki put her helmet back on. "I'm CPO David-151 with Special Operations Command. We're here to extract you. Please transfer to your Armored Matrix for transport to the UNSC Matterhorn for debrief."
"Oh, of course." Her hologram blinked out and a compartment on the side of the pedestal revealed a one meter glowing metal cylinder. Suki grabbed the canister and mounted it on her back. "I do hope the city wasn't too badly damaged in the attack. Xin-Taiyun is a beautiful city."
X
Castis fought off a cough as the massive green armored humans left the room. His shields and armor had only just prevented the brute kick from caving in his chest, though they couldn't help against the follow-up burst of rifle fire to his left lung. If the creature had aimed any lower, he'd have shredded Castis' heart.
That had happened when he watched Saren callously use Miniun's corpse as a riot-shield. Such disgraceful treatment of the fallen, especially of one's own fellows was a grave insult to the spirit of the Unit. He desperately wished Turian armor was regularly equipped with cameras, but after centuries of such footage being used to chastise the Hierarchy in Council for supposed 'excesses', they were deemed, "an unacceptable security risk in a digital information battlefield". He'd certainly have liked to review the footage to confirm his suspicions; that the armored warriors that had taken his squad down were mere children.
He glared at Saren's limp form. He could see the armor's battle foam had already sealed the wound, and had likely pumped him full of sedatives to keep his blood pressure down. His own armor was flooding his bloodstream with painkillers and antibiotics, as well as foam-sealing his punctured lung. Both of their fights were over, but Castis still had his duty to the last surviving member of the Unit; no matter how much he despised the man.
After collecting the Identi-Chips off of the rest of the squad, he grabbed Saren's armor by the hood and began dragging him from the Titan's accursed room. He didn't bother with any of the remaining sapper charges, as he made his agonized trek up the stairs, into the lobby and out into the courtyard.
Once there, he unceremoniously dropped Saren and slumped onto the steps. He watched as flat boxy transports bearing unfamiliar markings began descending on the city, while more aerodynamic winged craft swooped back and forth in the sky. He could also see fiery trails and the telltale aurora of starship-grade Eezo in the upper atmosphere. He hung his head and gave a weak rattling laugh. The Hierarchy had lost, and lost decisively.
He had no real fear for the Hierarchy as a whole, they had faced defeat in the past and survived; they would survive this. "Maybe we'll learn something from all this. What do you think, Sergeant?" He sneered at Saren and chuckled. If he had any say in the matter, Saren would be held accountable for his disgraceful conduct: from waiting in the back while the enemy butchered his team, to desecrating the corpse of one of his comrades.
He caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and saw several squads of infantry, as well as a truly massive tank. "Humans don't do anything subtly, do they?"
He didn't have the energy to stand so he simply raised his talons in surrender. He hoped he would see his children again, and he hoped Jak would be okay. Only time and the Spirits knew the answer to any of that.