Parisa, Cortana and the two bodyguards gripped the warthog as it bounced across the rugged land towards their objective. In the distance, they could see a battle rage between Atlas and the Empire. The two forces clashed as the numbers and tech of the empire faced against the might and tech of Atlas. Unlike other factions, Atlas focused on Spartan soldiers rather than regular human infantry. This has resulted in their basic frontline regiments tend to have more Spartans than humans.
The main plan of Atlas was to turn their entire combat force into Spartans. No one was sure how Sarah, and by extension Atlas, managed to find out how to mass-produce Spartans but she was better off for it. But there was a downside to this. While she managed to create mass-produced Spartans, they weren't better than the other factions. The Martian Federation selected and trained their Spartans from the ages of 14 and 16. The Victorian Union picked theirs from special forces like the ODST. GHR did something a little different, while they had academies for orphans training to become Spartans, they also picked out soldiers based on merit.
No one knew how The Empire picked out theirs, but they were comparable to the other factions than Atlas. On the flip side, Atlas Spartans tended to be more specialised. The hunter-like enforces, the ninja-like Shinobi and their infamous Titians were all problematic. Especially in a combined arms engagement. So, in total, the Empire and Atlas were on equal footing when the two faced off. It was for this reason that Cortana suggested using Atlas for the distraction which Parisa had no problem in doing.
Granted the President had lied through her teeth about the true objective, but that was a given. This operation to take out the Empire on Zeta was beneficial for all involved. The Halo Rings were weapons of Galactic destruction and were needed to either be contained or destroyed. The latter was better than the former as no one knew where the flood was on the ring, and destroying it could lead to more problems. So, containment and denial were the best ideas.
Despite the bouncing, Cortana was running through some calculations to see if she missed anything, but there wasn't. The plan was simple, but the problem was how The Empire missed such an obvious problem. Arrogance was always a possibility, but that didn't always ring true. While powerful and self-centred, they were practical and methodical accounting for many things. Missing it also wasn't an option as HIVE or a simple scan would have found it. It was a concern? That would go with arrogance, but also not in that they may have not thought that people would use it.
Two options came to mind, they either collapsed it or trapped it. The former seemed more likely than the latter. If only because the latter required resources that could be used elsewhere. She had let Parisa know her concern before the operation, but the President pointed out how this might be the only chance for them to cripple the Empire allowing the other factions to take out the biggest faction that threatened everyone.
They soon reached the location, a cave that wouldn't be able to fit the hog. As the vehicle parked up, Cortana jumped out and looked at the cave. Something about it was off, so she moved up to look at the oval entrance getting a good look at the rock.
"This cave is not a natural formation," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "There are striation marks indicating that this was cut,"
Parisa, curious, came up and looked at what the former AI was talking about. "By who, the Empire or sentinels?"
Cortana shook her head. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "But either way it's not good,"
"From your memory… the Forerunners didn't place them in places like this… did they?" she asked avoiding the name of the foe that they all, even the Empire, wanted to avoid.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I know that they kept the control rooms cold because they didn't like the cold. But… as for containment… they should be shielded for EMP…"
Parisa got the message and nodded. "My point still remains," she said as the two stood and grabbed the equipment from the Hog before making their way into the cave.
They moved fast as they didn't have the time to wait around. Their target was a few miles away and speed was needed. Other than a few rocks that were in their way that delayed them only by a few seconds, they made good time as they got close. Still no sign of anything, but Cortana began to feel something in the back of her mind. Voices, words, music… she wasn't sure but something was there and familiar, but she couldn't figure out why.
As quickly as it came, it went. Putting it out of her mind, she focused on the way forward. Some time later they came across their first barricade. It looked like a cave-in as large rocks blocked the way. Parisa stepped forward and activated her helmet's scanner seeing the way forward.
"It's not far," she said. "It's about 5 meters long,"
"This tunnel is quite stable," one of the bodyguards said. "The lasers should be able to cut through this without causing another cave-in,"
Parisa nodded as she turned to face them. "Ok, break out the lasers," she ordered.
The bodyguards placed the cases on the ground before unlocking them and pulling out three high-powered mining lasers. Mars, primarily being a mining planet, had tonnes of them so they were easy to obtain. The three attached the laser batteries to their suits before picking up the lasers themselves. After a wine for the startup, the barrels began to glow red for a moment before dying. They then turned to the blockage and fired the lasers atomising the rock before them.
It was going to take a while so Cortana found a rock to sit down on and opened up the case she was in charge of. An EMP bomb. She needed to make a few tweaks to it, and this felt like the best time to do it. While lasers did make short work of rock, it still took some time to fully cut a human-sized hole in the rock. But as she tweaked the voices entered her mind again. Pausing she focused on them, closing her eyes and seeing what they were trying to say.
They weren't coming from the radio. After the first time, she checked her logs, but nothing showed. She was also deep underground, meaning that there shouldn't be any signal. So, it wasn't equipment, it was something else. Years ago, on the battle on the Ark, John talked about how he 'heard' her on Earth. They weren't sure how or why it happened. Residual memory, some form of quantum communication, some kind of telepathy? They weren't sure. This seemed similar so some focus was needed.
Darkness clouded her vision as she tried to lock on to the voices. There was nothing for a few moments, then it came all at once. She yelled out in pain, clutching her head as the voices screamed at her. Multiple voices, multiple people, multiple yells all saying the same thing: Help. She pulled herself away from the voices, coming back to the real world when another voice, a familiar one, called out to her.
"Sister, help me!" the voice said.
Her eyes shot open to see black boots in front of her. Looking up, she saw Parisa look down on her with concern. With a groan, she sat up with the President's help and looked at the rock she was on. She took a sigh and stood brushing herself down. Parisa did ask how she was, but Cortana was still trying to process everything that just happened.
"I'm fine," she partly lied. "We're getting close,"
There was a moment of silence before Parisa nodded and looked at the hole that she and her bodyguards made. "We're ready to move, do you need a moment?"
Cortana shook her head before retrieving the bomb and joining the others as they made their way to the main location. But she couldn't shake her head about that last comment the voices said. There was only one person in the galaxy who would call her sister, and she thought that person was dead. Steeling herself, she focused on the way ahead and hoped that she was both wrong and right.
OOOOO
The 4-man recon squad slowly moved up to a ledge that overlooked the control room entrance. They crawled on their bellies trying to hide their outline before setting up at the edge. Once in position, both spotters and snipers quickly set up. Through the scopes, they counted the Imperial soldiers, about 75 soldiers. Around a platoon and a half of their version of ODSTs and at least 3 Spartans.
There were also a few vehicles, that being 2 pelicans and 4 warthogs. Other than a few scanners, computers and concrete bunkers there was little of note. Sticking to Aniko's orders, they held their fire. They were high up so that they wouldn't be seen and covered themselves with cloaks that covered them from thermals and other scanners. As they watched, they talked in low tones noting the patrol patterns, armament, who looked important and other things of note.
Given that they were an hour ahead of the main strike team, they were expecting them to arrive in an hour. So long as they weren't caught. Around 45 units into the wait, the control room doors opened and a cyborg walked out to talk to a man they had indicated as 'Target Alpha'.
"See that?" the Spartan asked. "See if you get that conversation,"
Saying nothing, they turned to focus on the two, tuning in the long-range speakers.
"What's taking so long?" Target Alpha asked in annoyance.
"It's taking longer than we expected," the female cyborg replied, her mechanical voice grating on the ears of the spotters. "It seems that the 'Reclaimer Protocol' is not in full use on this ring,"
The team looked at each other with a frown before turning back. They were aware of humanity's status as the Reclaimers, the inheritors of Forerunner tech and what they called the 'Mantle of Responsibility'. It was a minor part of the mission, that Aniko felt like they needed to know. But they weren't sure about the details.
"So, you are saying we cannot fire this ring?" Target Alpha asked.
"Not yet," the cyborg said. "But we will, once we find the relevant blessed codes for this holy machine,"
"Hole machine?" Sargent Kia asked. "What is she? Covenant?"
"Technis Machina," Corporal Tut said causing the others to glance at him. "They are a cult who worship technology,"
"And you know this how?" Spartan Liao asked.
"I worked for a farming company for years. One of my colleagues was a member of Technis Machina. He tried to get people to join before he was kicked out," the Corporal answered with annoyance in his voice. "The guy was an arrogant prick,"
With that fell silent as the two targets finished their conversation and the woman walked back into the control room. Once she was inside, Target Alpha muttered under his breath before walking off. It seemed that doomsday for the immediate area was delayed, again. Something that the team wasn't objecting to the delay.
After another half hour, a new guest crawled up to them and patted one on the shoulder before pulling back. The pat was passed down to each one with them slowly pulling back, one after the other and into a cave where they had entered from. They were met by Spartan Aniko and the rest of the strike force, who were ready for action.
"What have you got?" the Spartan asked.
OOOOO A box canyon somewhere.
Dexter Griff sighed as he lay on the chair he had set up on top of the base with a beer in hand. He watched as the water just moved back and forth with the sun glinting off of the water. He took a sip of his beer with a satisfied sigh.
Then a shot from a sniper rifle made him jump out of his chair with a yell. "Fuck," he grunted as he landed on the metal of the roof.
With a quick recovery, he crawled over to the ends and looked down to see a maroon-armoured red soldier holding a sniper rifle.
"GIFF GET DOWN HERE AND HELP ME OUT," Simmons yelled.
"Fuck off Simmons, I'm not helping Sarge clean out the armoury… or help him with target practice!" he yelled back.
"Do you want me to unload another cap in your ass?" Simmons shot back. "Get down here and help! Unless you want to hear Carolina sing!"
Griff paled at that threat and nodded. "Ok, ok I'm coming down," he yelled while muttering curses at the maroon moron as he reaches the ladder and climbed down.
"Finally," Washington said as Griff reached ground level. "Time for morning training,"
"T… training?" Griff asked in shock looking to Simmons who shrugged with a cocky smile.
"Yes, now GET MOVING SOLDIER!" Wash yelled as he shot at Griff's feet forcing him to run.
With a yell, Griff began to run, joining Tucker, Church, Kaikaina, Sarge and Donut in their run, and their cursing of their draconian taskmaster. Washington sighed as he pulled himself off the base as Carolina and Simmons walked up to him.
"Do you really think this will help?" he asked Carolina. "I mean, we are going to need more than this if we are going to take him on,"
"We'll be fine," his fellow Freelancer said. "We just need to discipline them a bit more,"
Simmons just laughed at that before he noticed the look on the two. He gulped before noticing the jerk of the head of the Freelancer and joined the others in their run, dropping the rifle on the way.
"I hate you both," he yelled but the two just ignored him.
"Those cultists will be a problem, but these guys have handled worse," Carol said with a shrug.
"True, but they are sim troopers… if a little dimmer…" Wash said looking at the red and blue teams. "But… they do make good distractions,"
"On that, we agree," Carol nodded before turning to look towards the water. "Hey, Lopez!"
The Reds robot, who was fixing a warthog that was destroyed by a certain red armoured moron, turned to look at the Freelancer.
"Si?" he replied in a deadpan tone.
"Are you detecting something on your radar?" she asked.
The robot paused before he pulled himself from under the car and looked towards the water. "Si," was all he said.
Wash said nothing but soon spotted what his fellow agent saw. A pelican dropship coming into their little island. The two frowned, not noticing that the Red and Blues had stopped their jogging and watched as the ship turned and landed. Being cautious, the freelancers grabbed their weapons and aimed them at the ramp. It opened up and two people walked out. One in the white uniform of a scientist and the other the jumpsuit of a prisoner. As they exited, the prisoner looked at them with a smile.
"Hi guys!" he said. "Remember me?"
His voice then changed. "And me, you fools?"
All eyes in front of the two looked at him. "Doc?"