Assault rifle fire raked a defensive wall in a familiar repeat of infantry assaults backed up by armor and air support. Jake watched as Heikkala shouldered her rifle, popping off a shot. The enemy's mortar pits, or what was left of them, were now occupied by the UNSC Marines and their supporting elements, providing decent cover from the high-flying enemy machine gun and rifle fire.
Jake hefted the rifle, aiming through the HUD's grenade launcher display. He squeezed the trigger of the launcher, a thump echoed and a 40mm fragmentation grenade arched over the wall and struck. A few muffled cries for help echoed alongside the thump, but the enemy's wall-side defenses continued firing, even as concrete was broken into shards by fifty-caliber MGs from their tanks.
An M808 with a 120mm Cannon let loose a canister shot at the wall. The ball bearings of doom struck central on the gatehouse, punching through thin ramshackle metal walls, assembled makeshift to provide at least some placebo sense of protection to the men inside. Said men were now pasted across the insides of the gatehouse, their bodies torn to shreds by what was tantamount to an oversized punt gun firing buckshot at them.
Junttila crossed the trenches as bullets raked the floor around her, kicking up tiny springs of mud, then joined Jake, hefting a bandolier of grenades and handing it to the man, before murmuring, "Man, you'd'a thunk the Innies were bad..." before grabbing her Jackhammer off her back and aiming it. Twin missiles coughed exhaust out of the back, lancing forth with contrails behind them, before slamming into the walls with the force of small suns.
"We're apparently fighting some crack unit of theirs here! Pskovian Airdrop Battalion! First Orbital Division of the MI!" Parisa called out as she hefted her Battle Rifle, scoping in one of the men and snapping off a headshot, rifle in semi-auto. She crouch-ran toward them, holding the weapon by its carry handle, before patting Jake on the back and pointing with her full, open palm toward two towers, "I want Forties on those towers, Jakey! I know you're our best freehand!"
"On it!" He replied, before loading another frag into the tube of his UBGL.
The Lieutenant moved up to Junttila and ordered, "Save your rockets! Word of mouth from ONI Staff is they're actually trying to reconstitute an Armored Division somewhere! I don't fucking know why, or with what type of museum shit, but I want our AT Gunner ready to counter them from the get-go!" to which Junttila nodded. She checked her two remaining packs of missiles, loaded one of the double disposable tubes and let it rotate and lock into place, before slinging her launcher onto her back and hefting her assault rifle.
Parisa gave a smile, patted her on the back, then pushed toward Heikkala. She elbowed the Sniper, noting she was zen, no-thought, like some Spartans she had met. She pointed at the priority targets she wanted out and Aada seemed to take them to heart. Six targets, six shots, starting with an enemy coordinating long-range mortar fire from within the base to keep the UNSC's breaching units at bay.
Aada gave a nod and aimed at the officer with binoculars. She squeezed and the man's head stopped existing. Parisa gave her an approving nod she wasn't sure the girl caught, before pushing forward. She stopped next to Niko and told him, "Suppressing fire over these pieces of shit! Let's show'em why they don't fuck with Cossacks, ey?!" while aiming her rifle and popping off a couple shots herself.
"Ura!" The man replied as bursts left the already-red barrel of his LMG.
She smiled, then hummed. She ran up to Jane next, who was tending to a pair of wounded Marines while under the cover of a Saddleback, a Warthog and even a tank. The tank cannon thundered, a HEAT round ramming into the wall and spewing forth a geyser of molten concrete shards. The woman put biofoam wherever she could, considering a pair of the men seemed heavily wounded.
Parisa stopped next to Jane, taking cover by the lip of the trench, then asked her, "All good, doc!?"
"Still got plenty of biofoam, thank fucking Christ! And no more shells landing on top of our heads!" Jane replied, looking back at the boss. The Corpsman flashed a grin, ducked as a bullet whizzed over her head, then murmured, "Swear to Christ, the Red Cross on my helmet must be a magnet for their fucking snipers. Geneva Convention-denying pieces of fucking trash..."
"Hah! Ironic, considering their capital's apparently Geneva!" She laughed, "Once we take the wall, they'll be in open terrain and easy pickings for Pelican gunships, so we'll only be tasked with providing escort to a couple eggheads who wanna see whatever tech these assholes dug up!"
"If we could hurry it along," Jane shot back. She ducked as another sniper shot rang out, only to look and see a Marine close to them fall, a bullet clean through their visor. Two of his mates dragged him back into cover, while a third fired bursts of automatic fire from her assault rifle. Two Pelicans flew overhead, airdropping ammunition behind the Front Line. One of them had its engine hit by bursts of 12,7x108mm from the enemy Dushka turrets. With a smoking engine, it slightly dipped in altitude, but regained control and flew off at maximum speed, almost redlining the engine.
A Scorpion roared again, the HEAT warhead not fusing as it struck a human being and turned them into mush. In response, a rocket lanced upward into the sky from the walls and came back down, striking the rear of the allied lines and blossoming into a terrifying explosion that sent a small mushroom cloud up into the sky. Parisa blinked, dumbfound as her radiation counter clicked rapidly, before murmuring, "Oh, fuck's sake..." and radioing, "Command, be advised, enemy has brought in shoulder-launched Tactical Nukes, I repeat, all units, disperse or suppress, enemy has tac-nuke launchers present..."
"Fuck me dead..." Jane murmured as she ran toward the Marine who took a bullet to the head. She sighed deeply and closed his eye, before nodding to her pals. Two Longswords screamed above, dropping twin payloads of glide bombs onto a target area. A line of fire flashed behind the wall and the enemy's Dushka turrets went quiet. Both aircraft banked and attacked from mirrored angles, heavy autocannons sweeping the targets and even gutting the wall's defenders.
A tank fired its main gun at the metal door, HEAT shells punching clean the door and causing the thick metal to bend outward, before shattering as another shot, this one just HE, slammed into it. Platoons of fresh Marines emerged with Warthogs and Saddlebacks, dismounting and hefting weapons to push into the target area. Beyond the clearing smoke, the Platoons could make out the wide concrete constructions and the towering mountain into which the Mines had been dug.
The first to roll in was a Saddleback, its turret chunking away as 40mm grenades shot out from the automatic launcher. Bullets sparked off the gun shield as some of the Pskovians hefted rifles and weapons from craters and engaged, rounds hitting even the glass windshield of the transport. Marines advanced behind, the Platoon in the lead. Parisa tapped her radio and called out over all frequencies, "To the Federation troops within the confines of Mining Camp Gallows, surrender! You will be treated fairly under Geneva and your wounded will be tended to by our medical corps!" before trying to peer around the vehicle's corner. A bullet struck the armor with a spark, peeling paint as copper jacket fragments scratched Parisa's cheek.
She swore to herself, poked out again and put a round through the man that had shot her. Pskovian survivors on top of the wall emerged over the edge and opened fire. Holes were drilled into concrete and a Marine that pushed in with the Platoon got a bullet through the helmet, crumpling like paper, rifle clattering to the floor. Jake had seen this and immediately swiveled about, firing a 40mm grenade at a high arc, before switching to a Three-Strikes.
He fired the Three-Strikes. Three separate thumps, three Forties lanced up and landed in a perfect formation with the fourth, turning several of the Feddies upstairs into a bloody mist. Parisa called out, "All platoons, form Fire Teams of four and push the Walls! Heikkala, be ready to move in and support as Sniper from up top! Jake, First Team is yours! GO!"
Jake rallied Jane, Niko and Junttila and pushed forward, running up through the gatehouse's stairs while doing his best to clear the place. Niura, meanwhile, took the second team through the other side, the muffled rumble of her shotgun filtering through the walls. Jake motioned for Junttila to push up and showed her to hand him a frag. She did. He primed it and long-armed it over to the top of the stairwell. Several screams came, followed by the thump of the frag cutting them off.
The four-man fireteam pushed up the stairs and exited out onto the ramparts. Confused and concussed Feddie troops staggered, with one of the men managing to lift his rifle enough to fire a burst into Junttila. The AP rounds thankfully got blunted by the armor, but the girl still staggered back as one pierced just deeply enough to draw blood from her stomach.
Jane tended to her, while Niko and Jake lit the entire rampart up, assault weapons chattering. Jake called out, "Reloading!" as he dumped the empty magazine of his AR onto the floor and slapped in a fresh one, before hitting the charging handle with a chop of his hand and shouldering it again. Pskovian soldiers continued to fight in the camp, even as UNSC Reinforcements and air support poured in. Jake could see muzzle flashes from the insta-build habitation buildings of corrugated steel and the dome and igloo-shaped tents of the place.
As both sides of the rampart were cleared, Jake turned to Junttila, his feet pushing through the clinking remains of this fight-spent casings from both sides. He took a knee beside the Finn and asked, "You good?"
"Nothing too bad," She chuckled, then looked at the wound as a simple, half-second spurt of Biofoam was all that was needed to contain it. She watched Heikkala climb the ramparts as well, before rushing to her friend's side. Anni waved it off and told her, "I'll be alright, Aada. Get shooting..." to which the Finn sniper gave a nod, going prone and setting up with the rifle.
Jane helped the girl to her feet, then patted her down and said, "No solid foods for a couple days. Don't know if it got deep enough to scratch your innards."
"Rog," She nodded, "Let's go help clear this place out."
Jake didn't wanna deny the girl the kill. Descending and leaving Aada with only an impromptu spotter as guard, the group met with the rest of the UNSC force as it poured into the place. Parisa approached them and said, "Niura and her unit cleared the place out. All we have left is the goddamn mines... Turns out the Feds decided it'd be a good idea to hole up there once they realized what we want."
"Tunnel Rats, huh?" Jake quipped.
She snorted, "Yeah. Tunnel Rats... Reminds me of New Mombasa."
"Still smell the Sewers from that one time, boss?" He asked, shifting his rifle into his left hand and grabbing a cig out of his pocket. He extended it to the woman, who waved it off. He snorted and asked, "Not a smoker anymore?" as he slid it between his lips. Parisa seemed about to answer, before a burst of automatic fire struck between them, one round destroying the cigarette.
Jake dived into cover, dragging both Parisa and Niura to it. A sniper shot rang out and a wet thump followed, causing all three officers of the unit to look at the corpse. A civvie shooter, from the looks. She lay dead, lifeblood staining the orange miner's uniform she wore. The platoon mates let out deep sighs as they approached the corpse, turning her over so she'd look up at the sky.
Niura knelt and closed her eyes, murmuring, "Guess some people believe in the Feddies' bullshit..." as she examined the young woman's corpse...
"There's bound to be many who do," Parisa murmured, "The whole Service Guarantees Citizenship crap is there for a reason, after all..."
"The hell kinda service was she bringing by committing suicide, though?" Junttila inquired. She gave a little nudge to Niko, who glared at the mining tunnels farthest to the back of the base. The group packed their kits and proceeded to advance toward them. The rest of the Company secured the outer areas of the base as about six platoons of men, a total 120, moved in with the Tunnel Rats in the lead.
Tunnel Rats were selected from amongst the shortest of the Marines present, handed weapons meant for CQC like M7 SMGs, cut-down shotguns and even Carbines. Parisa's platoon was second in with the team, into the main tunnels. Most were wide enough that a Scorpion could easily fit through, but there were side tunnels. Lots of'em. The platoons belonging to the Rats scrambled into said side tunnels, which were small enough to fit only one person.
"ETA to the doc's arrival is ten mikes. Tech piece is a sublevel below us," Parisa stated as they slowly pushed forward, their way lit by the headlights of one of the Saddlebacks as the crew aboard swept the area with its automated turret and FLIR. The thermal imager system picked up the allied forces, obviously, painting them blue against the black-white background, while unknowns and hostiles were painted red.
"Hope they were nice enough to leave ramps down," Quipped Jake as he scanned the place, utilizing his helmet's VISR system. A few awkward laughs escaped the others' mouths, echo reverberating across the chiseled stone walls around them. The group continued their advance, a wedge sweeping in front of the MRAP, VISR systems barely piercing the darkness.
Further advance downstairs continued as they had indeed found the ramps leading down several levels. Alongside reinforcements added to the ceiling, the floors now had actual capable steel structural integrity assistance built into them to keep them from collapsing when an excavator or other heavy-duty mining equipment went over them. Speaking of said equipment, there were several large excavators at the bottom, alongside a couple of superheavy drills and even jackhammer-equipped vehicles.
In the center of the strange atrium-like area of stone ramps and tunnels, there was a glowing azure light, emanating from a silver-colored device's body. A beam of light shined upward onto the ceiling, holographic symbols dancing, switching and returning across its beam. Jake recognized it as some of the Forerunner Lexicon from places as far back as the Ark.
Half an hour later, the platoons converged in the area. A pair of Marines from the Tunnel Rats sighed and slung their weapons onto their hips. They'd expended some ammo, though no gunshots had been heard by the other platoons as they went in. One Marine walked up to a massive, yellow-and-black industrial generator and slammed his fist against the 'on' button. The generator whirred to life and all the floodlights and the lights hanging off the walls activated, washing the place in golden light and nearly blinding anyone dumb enough to have kept their VISR on. Air filtration systems and life support also whirred, more lively than when they were running on whatever emergency power there was.
Jake was sat down next to one of the machines that had unearthed the alien device. The Forerunner item was a tall spire, approximately five meters tall, or about a third of the height of the gallery they were in, with a spiral motif and several seeming access consoles as its interface. The thunder of boots distracted Jake from it, however, causing him to look up. A platoon of Marines descended down the path, led by a familiar face. He blinked, then smiled and waved at the Colonel leading the Marines. She turned to see him and smirked, messy brown hair visible under her peaked cap. He stood up and gave her a quick salute.
Colonel Andrea Adams, UNSC Marine Corps, approached a pal of hers whom she hadn't seen in a while. She offered him a salute back and said, "At ease, dumbass... Not in the mood to get sniped, even in Koslovic tunnels like these..."
"I'd say they're more Frieden, boss," He chuckled, which got a short chortle out of the Colonel. He asked her, "How're you doing, ma'am?"
"Decent enough..." She shrugged. Quickly had the woman noticed that the Marine was examining the unit that had escorted her down here. She crossed her arms to her chest and decided to tell him, "I know who you're looking for, Jake. Snapshot ain't here..." which caused him to turn his gaze to her, a hint of concern shown in the twitch reaction. She shrugged and spoke, "She's gone missing. Last I knew was she was at some sorta Sapien Sunrise meet... Haven't been able to get a location for her ever since then."
Jake felt a pang of worry, "Hope she's fine..."
"She'll be alright... You know how she is..." Adams replied, then sighed, "She's still grateful for you saving her ass back there, by the way..."
"Yeah..." he sighed, then looked to see Parisa approaching. Adams gave him a quick nod to dismiss him, then walked to ask Niura and Parisa for a SITREP, obviously... Meanwhile, he stood there, dumbfound, as he stared at a Platoon of Spartans descending next, escorting a woman in a white labcoat and an ONI patch on her shoulder. Grey hair fluttered in the meager breeze and a pair of sharp, ice-cold azure eyes scanned the place.
"Holy shit..." Jane murmured as she was walking up to Jake, "That's Halsey..."
"What the fuck is the director of ONI doing here...?" Jake replied quietly, stunned.
Doctor Halsey calmly descended the path, thankful to see the Marines mostly kept away from the device in the center of the place. The UNSC's Finest tended to have their heads on straight for most of their operational history, though there had always been the usual insane asylum patient that tended to slip through, thanks to it being such a broad and massive military with so many places to recruit from.
She eyed Colonel Adams as she descended with Fireteam Majestic as her escort. Not the first people she would pick, but Blue was away on operations aboard one of their Prowlers, deep behind enemy lines and probably awaiting the order to strike. So, upon reaching the floor, she showed the team to stand by, before approaching the device itself. She hummed and saluted the Colonel as the woman approached, then said, "Good evening, Colonel Adams..."
"Doc," The woman saluted, "Welcome to New Hawaii, as the locals call it..."
"Many thanks," She shot back as they walked toward the device. "I trust it was left undisturbed?"
"As you asked."
"Good..." Halsey hummed, then pulled up her tablet and called, "Cortana..." which caused the tiny avatar of a young woman to flicker on via the holographic emitter. The AI greeted the Doctor with a nod, staring up at her with a bit of displeasure. She had taken her from Blue Team's care, more-so John's, so it was sort of obvious Cortana wasn't exactly going to be happy. She just needed to do her job, so Halsey thought as she told her, "Pull up your translation systems and route them to my tablet's screen now... I will need them to understand what it is."
"Gotcha. Pulling them up now, doc," She stated, then did just as asked, the screen flashing with the translation algorithms necessary to understand the Forerunner structure. The Marines and Spartans watched calmly as Doctor Halsey approached the spire, humming as she caressed the hard-light holograms that acted as user interfaces. She began pressing a series of buttons, causing the military personnel around to tense.
The consoles warmed to a dark blue, then to a pale white, before flickering off. Halsey hummed as she saw several console symbols flash ahead, before tapping one of them with her index. The room exploded in a flurry of light, resembling the Galaxy itself. Various systems appeared, disappeared, were filtered through, were seemingly scanned and marked, then the starmap settled. Halsey murmured, "Enticing..." as she pulled up the coordinates for Earth.
Various strings of coordinates in Forerunner numerals played, Cortana quickly translating each name and setting, before stating, "Looks like a map charting every single piece of Forerunner technology on every planet... Sort of like the Janus Key you found back on Requiem, doc..." as she pulled on one of the holograms to bring it closer to herself. "Still..."
"Why would Forerunners be in this Galaxy?" Halsey asked almost rhetorically, "We do know they have immeasurable capabilities, capabilities high enough to advance beyond our universe, as it seems." And she plucked a Star System forward. Weirdly enough, it seemed to be the starmaps for the Klendathu system, also known as the Arachnid Quarantine Zone in their communiques. Several planets, including Klendathu, flashed scarlet, marking technological discoveries to be made there. One such planet was of a particular interest to Halsey... A seemingly smaller Klendathu. Odd.
"Huh... Cortana, cross-reference data with the starmaps we found aboard damaged UCF Vessels left over from the campaigns and tell me exactly what planet we're looking at..."
"On it..." Cortana took a minute, then smirked, "Planet P. That's what it's called in Senior-Level Communiques of the UCF BattleNet as well. Seems like they've got a major op going on over there... Word is even a General of theirs is gonna be present," and she turned to the doctor. Halsey hummed, scratching her chin, then pulled up a communications system and started typing out the preliminary report on the findings.
She told Adams, "Prepare your unit for redeployment... While we will not be getting to Planet P in time, I'd like for us to at least make some progress, should we need to evacuate our operatives..." Then activated her com system, "This is KINGPIN to CENTCOM... Identified target. Transmit following coordinates to BLUE on board the UNSC Red Horse and tell them to prepare for a Smash and Grab... HVT details will be sent soon."
"Doc...?" Adams raised a brow, "What are you doing, exactly?"
"Gathering intelligence. This is a war of information as much as it is a shooting war, Colonel..." She told her rather cryptically, "And I think we may have a third player set to enter this party at the same time as our Sangheili allies... So I feel like we should strike first, in a way," before motioning to several planets in their wake that they were supposed to strike at in order to further close distance between themselves and Earth 2, as the uninventive members of the UNSC Committee called the capital of the UCF.
The Marine officers stared at the star maps, noting Planet P and wondering several things, chief among them being just...
What the hell would Blue Team be doing there...?