Chapter 1
A shot rang out into the night. The muzzle flash from an old 2534 era sniper rifle lit up the dark surface and kicked up sand around the barrel. The brass casing struck one of the iron rich rocks of planet 4512C with a metallic clang. Then, all went silent. Eric Grayson looked through the night vision scope of his rifle, resighting to his kill. The body of the arachnoid-like creature lay in two pieces, the bullet previously fired having managed to shear the little monster in half. A slightly darker stain of blood pooled around the creature, barely intelligible from the rest of the background through the scope.
"Kill confirmed, how's that for uneventful?" Eric ran his hands through his closely cut hair as he turned to the smaller figure on his right, her form curled among the rocks.
Kel Vhen raised one of her taloned hands, signaling his silence as she looked through the scope of her needle rifle. The T'vaoan Kig-Yar stayed perfectly still as she aimed down the purple, glowing weapon, the frill of blue and red feathers around her head being the only sign of movement from her. After several seconds, another shot was fired, this one wreathed in a pink-purple glow as the blamite crystal from the weapon flew off into the darkness, eliciting an unearthly shriek from the other side. Eric quickly adjusted his aim as he looked for the target his companion had shot.
Another bug.
The creature's brain had been pierced by the crystal that had then proceeded to burst out the other side, leaving a fine hole and trailing brain matter out with it.
Or at least that's what he wanted to believe. Too bad I can't see a single thing in detail through this scope.
On his right, Kel let out a light shrill of satisfaction.
"Happy now?" Eric asked.
Kel cocked her left eye to look at the human, her mouth hardly moving as she spoke with a notable accent. "Very uneventful indeed." The accent was T'vaoan, though oddly enough, to Eric, it reminded him vaguely of a French and Spanish one mixed together.
"You still haven't answered my question."
The avian turned her head towards Eric fully now. "Yes, happy now," she said before turning back.
Eric glanced around the dark land, slowly lightening with the dawn. How have I gone from being a kickass helljumper to playing guard duty to illegal artifact hunters? With one of those birds too?
It certainly was a strange time. The former ODST stole a glance back at his companion, after all it wasn't like there was anything else interesting to look at. The only thing of note in the entire area was the fact that there was a forerunner structure sitting right in the middle of the rocky desert, buried deep underground. It was the whole reason they'd been here for the past six months, the whole point being to get anything of value before someone else showed up. Most of it was buried underground, and he continued to wonder how anyone had found it in the first place.
He focused back on Kel. Aside from having two arms, two legs, and a head connected by a neck to the torso, she was about as inhuman as one could get. Where a human face might be, hers looked like the skull of a feathered raptor, her ashen skin pulling taught over her face. Where two breasts might be for a woman, Kel had only a flat, fused ribcage, and where slender limbs might support a similarly built human, strong hips were supported by the iron hard tendons and sinews that made up her legs. She looked like a hybrid mix between a bird of prey and the dinosaurs of old.
"Lassitude?"
Eric was ripped back to the present "I'm sorry what?"
The Kig-Yar snorted impatiently "Lassitude."
The ODST thought for a moment before answering. "low energy, boredom, and mental weariness, why'd you ask?"
Kel paused, as if considering if she should tell him or not before answering, "Perfect description right now. Lassitude."
Eric let out a short laugh. "Yeah I guess it is. Mental weariness, Damn I need some more coffee."
His companion let out a sharp trill "Coffee? You humans seem to always need it, is it essential?"
The marksman let out another chuckle. "No, but it sure would make me feel better. Feel like I want to take a nap right here and now."
Kel unexpectedly fired another shot, eliciting yet another screech in the distance and making him jump.
"Holy crap, that's five of those guys in under an hour, what's going on, they're never this active?"
Eric's fellow sharpshooter thought for a second before saying. "Must have the thermo generators on high tonight."
Suddenly the ODST felt a whole lot dumber. "Probably right, those bugs seem like they'll do anything to get at those generators, love the heat they're producing or something."
"Feed off it," Kel corrected "They feed off it."
The man didn't break step as he said, "Right, so our entire base just looks like one huge Golden Corral to them."
Kel let out a small warble from her throat. "What is… what did you call it?"
"Golden Corral?" he asked.
"Yes."
Eric had forgotten that despite that the two of them got along, even well given their two species history, Kel was still alien. "It's like a buffet. Go into a Golden Corral, pay and eat all the crappy food you want."
She was quick to point out a flaw in his argument though "This is actually very high quality food to them. Clean, easy energy already brought up from the volcanic vents for them to feed on."
Eric sighed, the point was completely lost on Kel. "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that there is a lot of cheap, easy food on the other side of us."
His companion shook her head, "I see."
He sighted down another of the creatures, taking aim "So if these things like eating heat energy, power, electricity or whatnot, then why did they end up gnawing on what's his face like a chew toy?"
The feathered saurian turned back to him, "meat is sufficient sustenance too."
"Riiight, got it," he said as he let loose another round, killing another monster. "What was that guy's name anyways?"
"Luum,"' Kel said.
Suddenly, Eric heard a shout from behind "You two stand relieved."
Eric turned his head back behind him, spying the one behind the thick Russian accent. Behind them were two men, and if Eric remembered correctly it was Khovostov and Drake. The latter seemed barely interested in anything other than setting up his post.
"How has it been going?" Khovostov asked.
"Aw you know, we tied again."
Kel held up her hand once again, still having not moved from her position. She lit off another shot, then two more. All three stared out into the darkness before witnessing an explosion as the three different shots stuck themselves into their target. The three supercombined, causing a massive flare of pink fire from Kel's victim.
"No, we did not."
Eric sighed. "Always one upen me ehh?"
His companion simply stood up and began walking away, "come, enough for one night."
The ODST stepped away from the ledge, turning to leave before deciding to give a final warning to their relief shift. "Careful out there, the bugs are wicked tonight."
"Will do, thanks for the heads up" Khovostov said.
Drake only let out a short grunt of acknowledgement.
At least he made a noise this time, Eric thought.
Drake grunted in dislike as the two left. He settled down prone, letting the bipod of his sniper rifle rest in the sand, anchoring it in place.
Khovostov slid over beside him, letting his own DMR rest on a nearby rock. "Eric was in a good mood, no?"
Drake didn't say a thing for a time before finally starting, "Spends too much time with that bird."
His friend didn't move, instead only letting out a short grunt. "Mmm. Good with that gun of her's, though." he said, surveying the carnage from earlier on in the night.
"Agreed, think she might be ex covie."
Khovostov turned his head, "Name one of the space turkeys on this rock who isn't." His ally had a point, if working with former Covenant soldiers had bothered him that much, Drake would never have signed on to this job.
"Let's get this over with, I don't care for all our military training being wasted on pest control."
Khovostov let out a sharp bark "That's the truth, after fighting on Reach, I honestly didn't think that I would wind up being a glorified exterminator."
"Report in please."
"Eric and Kel, back from night patrol" Eric said.
"Your full name." Eric sighed, Maxwell Jackson was the informal head of security. While not his official title, no one else was capable of the logistics needed to coordinate some fifteen to twenty military contractors, all from different groups.
"Eric Grayson and Kel Vhen back from night patrol." After a pause he saluted and added "Sir."
Jackson just growled "good," evidently ignoring the slight jab. "Glad to see nobody's died yet, breakfast starts in ten minutes.
"Thanks," Eric said, moving past the old Master Sergeant. Jackson, Khovostov, and Drake had all come as a group, along with a couple others. The overseer and progenitor of the whole operation, Vickenson, hired them as security along with another fifteen or so freelancers. In total there were around fifty people on planet 4512C. Speaking of planets.
"Hey Kel."
"Yes?" she responded, cocking her eye into focus.
"Ever wonder about how low we've sunk."
She shook her head, "Your meaning?"
Eric looked around, gesturing to the entire catacomb of tunnels they were walking through, the tunnels that made up base camp. "I mean how is it that I've gone from being a guy who literally jumps out of a metal coffin from orbit for a living, to working an extermination service on a planet that no galactic government has even bothered to give a good proper name?"
"I…"
"And not even that, but C? That means that somewhere, somehow in this wretched system there is a planet called A and B, those come first, why am I not there?"
Kel cocked her head at him sharply, the T'voan had a look in her eye. "Because 4512A and 4512B are both gas giants close to their star with raging 600 mile per-hour winds."
Eric once again sighed, she couldn't ever understand rhetorical questions. "Never mind, trying to make a joke," he said.
"What was the joke?" Eric grimaced. "Never mind, you killed it right there on the spot, just now, dead forever," he said, feigning a tear with his hand.
Kel suddenly looked concerned. "Have I offended?"
He was startled from his slight quibbing. "No, no you didn't, just making stupid comments."
She bobbed her head "I see."
The two reached what could be considered the mess hall, and by that it just meant that food was made there, and there was decent enough lighting to find a seat.
Luckily the lighting is still dim enough that you don't know what you're eating.
"I bet Alfred's cooked up god knows what in that witch's cauldron of his."
Kel giggled at that "It's dreadful."
Eric shook his head "It's downright diabolical, I think Alfred might secretly be an evil genius."
She looked to Eric "I hear whatever that ramen thing is is okay."
"Yeah but it's pretty darn hard to screw up ramen."
Kel looked curiously at him curiously. "what exactly is it?"
The man looked at her. "You mean what is ramen?"
Kel nodded. "Tell me about it."
"Well what do you think it is?"
Kel thought for a minute. "Looks like worms."
Eric looked at Kel. "So you've never tried it before?"
Kel shook her head. "Looks disgusting. Like worms."
This elicited a smirk from him "Just would have thought that considering the fact that well, you know… looks like worms."
The T'vaoan cocked her head to the side. "Just because I have similarities to 'your' birds does not mean that I too, enjoy eating worms."
Eric grinned "I would never assume your dietary habits. That would be very, incredibly dangerous."
"You are terrible," Kel stated, as deadpan and monotone as her heavily accented English could get. "Come, let's eat… what was it again?"
Eric walked past her as she paused. "God knows what?"
"Yes, that," Kel confirmed as she picked up pace right behind him.
"Come on Verner, oatmeal again, we had oatmeal last time." Eric knew the man talking as Oliver. Oliver Perry was always complaining about something, but honestly, he was cool enough to where nobody really cared.
Well except for the great, diabolical, Alfred Verner.
The cook made it evidently clear too, "well I'm sorry princess that my food makes your little tummy hurt. Tell you what, I'll just go out to the market on this here deserted planet and get something really nice for lunch for you." Oliver tried to respond, but Alfred didn't give him the chance. "No, you know what, scratch that. For dinner it's filet mignon and caviar, just let me get the doilies for you too."
The poor, berated contractor just took his defeat and grabbed the bowl of sludge off of the makeshift counter.
Eric heard another trill behind him. "Doily?"
He just shrugged, Kel had a ways to go in perfecting the English language, but still, given the circumstances, her grasp was beyond impressive.
How did she even learn it?
"It's like a fancy tablecloth for your plate."
"Why?"
Eric considered his answer, trying to find a way to word it. "It's like so you know that it's a nice meal."
Kel just let out a short "mmpphh" and went silent.
The two got their food without complaint, unlike the still wounded Oliver. This was usually when the two would go their separate ways.
Eric would go sit around with some of the human contractors he was fond of, and Kel would go off and… well she doesn't actually talk to anyone besides me and maybe that other Toe Vowen or whatever they're called. But since he knew that that particular Jackal was out on patrol, he decided to take a risk.
"Hey Kel, where you going?"
She looked back at him. "Usual place."
Eric shook his head fervently. "And by usual place you mean a dark corner with no one else?"
"Correct."
He patted her on the back, though when she flinched he simply started guiding her towards his own destination.
"Not on my watch, if we're going to be eating sludge from the sewer, we're doing it in company."
Kel made no further protest as the two moved to sit down on the dirt alongside two others, making a small circle.
"Hey Eric, you've got company it looks like."
Kel looked to the other two humans that Eric was talking to. They looked apprehensive, but not downright hostile.
Good, I have enough of that as it is.
It seemed that Eric's word went a long way with these people in particular.
"This is Alex,'' Eric said, pointing his thumb to the woman on his right. "And I believe we're already well acquainted with Oliver."
The man in question just brushed the back of his head. "Yeah well I'm just tired of this slop. It tastes like sewage water and looks like, well…"
"Watered down shit." Kel suggested.
Oliver laughed. "See, even your bird hates it Eric, and I thought they'd eat anything."
She flinched just a little, and Kel doubted the others noticed it, but she could tell Eric did, and that caused him to as well.
"Speaking of bird, that's Kel. We're a bit of patrol partners if you will,'' he said, and she could tell that he was trying to appease both sides.
The other humans barely seemed to notice his little attempt though.
I doubt they were even trying to offend.
Not that Kel was offended. If the small jab of name calling could really get under her skin, she would have been dead years ago.
"Yeah well, get ready for tomorrow," Alex said to Oliver. "Because I heard that tomorrow, Alfred's making his famous rocks."
The cry of anguish that came from the man after that was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire room. Everyone knew about the rocks that Verner cooked up and called biscuits. They looked like sandstone,and were rough enough to be granite.
"That stuff isn't even food!" Oliver said. "I'd rather eat one of those bugs raw than eat Verner's glorious sand stone." The group sighed in resignation as they let the man get it all out of his system. "You know what, I'll just starve. That's it, tomorrow, I'll starve and wait out the apocalypse."
"You done?" Eric asked.
"From my understanding, apocalypse is a strong word for a food situation." Kel added.
How did this whiney race beat the covenant? She wondered.
Kel's people weren't exactly the stellar example of intraspecies unity, but they also weren't fighting an interstellar war against a highly advanced alien empire. Turning back to the conversation, she noticed that Oliver had moved on from his previous ranting to talking about something to do with the power converters now.
"I'm just saying, if I find that another one of those bugs has fried themselves on the heating coils, I just might have a fit."
Kel perked up at the mention of the insects. Those things were the highlight of her times here. It was about the only thing that kept her occupied nowadays. It was also the only satisfying pass-time on this whole heavens-forsaken rock; the thrill of the shot, the adrenaline pumping through her body as death stared her down. Combat was a drug and despite her efforts and what it was doing to her, Kel couldn't get enough of it.
"I thought the whole point of security was to keep those things away from the generators, but everywhere I look, you guys miss some." he continued.
"We're already stretched thin as it is. I swear, Vickenson is one of the cheapest bastards I've ever met," Eric said, though Kel couldn't really tell if he was agreeing with Oliver, or defending himself.
She finished the slop that they all called breakfast, listening in to the human's conversation, though rarely speaking. Eric seemed to enjoy the conversation just fine, but Kel found that it drug at her eyelids more and more. She knew plenty of Kig-Yar that talked this much too, and she didn't care for them either.
Eric by himself, good, with friends, not so much, Kel concluded.
She rose from her spot on the floor and started to depart. To her relief, Eric didn't make a big deal of it, she could tell that he had noticed her boredom. Was he slightly disappointed, sure. She knew that he had wanted to get her to know the rest of his friends better. Did she care…
Do I care?
She felt a slight heat along the back of her neck and in her cheeks as she walked away. It certainly wasn't stopping her, but it caught Kel off guard, she hadn't had that feeling in years. It wasn't exactly a guilt trip, not yet anyway. But it certainly seemed like it could head that way.
And it's not going further than that, she thought fervently.
She remembered the last time that she had cared about someone. As it turned out, being a cold, heartless mercenary sharpshooter wasn't exactly compatible with having friends.
Kel brushed the memory off, all that was in the past, and though she still couldn't always get the thoughts away, she was usually able to bury that chapter of her life deep enough that it usually only bothered her in her dreams.
She moved through the tunnels, heading up to the lookout post. The tunnels themselves were dimly lit, a single lone, fluorescent lightbulb illuminating the hallway every few meters. The crags in the rock were mostly random, as very few of these tunnels were actually man-made, the caverns instead having been carved by natural means, presumably water, before the planet became the barren rock that it was now. Still, Kel knew one particular tunnel better than any other. The narrow burrow led upwards, out of the vast maze where the thermo-generators were buried below. Instead, this particular tunnel went towards a small spiral up to the top of the mountain.
There were no alien caches here, no forerunner relics to pillage. No, this was the tallest point in a 50 kilometer radius, giving whoever held what had been nicknamed the spire an unobstructed view across the entire precipitous landscape.
Kel unstrapped the needle rifle from her back as she came to the top of the spire, leaving the tunnel, and instead moving into the raging winds of planet 4512C's atmosphere. She set the weapon down behind an embankment where camp was set up as a lookout post. Of course no one came up here much anymore, the patrols being far more effective at eliminating any real threats. Nowadays, the T'vaon was about the only one to ever come up here. She expected that if it weren't for her, this camp wouldn't be left standing; the wind would have seen to that.
She took a seat near her weapon, leaning back into a rocky crevice, and staring out into the pale blue sky. She had missed a good portion of the sunrise already, and she wasn't going to lose another second of it. This was her final passtime. It was the reason she never ate with the others.
Planet 4512C had a fast planetary rotation, and therefore, the sunrise, and sunset happened about once every eight hours. Kel had counted how many times she watched it at first, but now… Well she doubted she could count that high.
Still almost as good as the first time I saw it. Whatever she thought about the planet itself, she couldn't deny the fact that whatever was in the atmosphere made these events beautiful. The sun was like a golden corona in the sky, an aura of red surrounding it. Kel could vaguely make out the distant gas giant of 4512B in the sky, it's own glow reflecting the light of it's sun, becoming a second, dim star in the sky. She hadn't missed the best part at least.
"So this is where you run off to every morning."
Kel twisted back to see Eric. He was standing at the entrance to the tunnel, arm resting on the rocky surface.
Why does he have to find this place too? Kel thought.
It wasn't that she didn't like Eric, but there was a lot of Eric to take in. And she supposed that the saying opposites attract was true, because while she was quiet, and reserved, Eric, for lack of a better term, wouldn't shut up.
"Yes," she said.
"I can see why. It's quite a sight."
Eric moved up and past her, taking a seat at the edge of the spire.
"Yes, it is," she said." An awkward silence followed, and for some reason, Kel found herself filling the gap. "I like the sunsets better."
"It means night's right around the corner."
The Kig-Yar was caught off guard by how accurate Eric's statement was. That was exactly the reason she liked sunsets more.
"More cover at night," she said. "Makes it harder for the enemy to spot you."
Eric let out a short, "hmmm," before continuing, "I like day more, much easier to pick out higher ranked targets when the sun's glinting off their armor."
Kel supposed the preference was situational. Covenant tactics didn't discriminate much for rank, the goal was to kill as many humans as efficiently and brutally as possible. Rank was taken out first when the opportunity arose, but humanity's flexible and adaptive chain of command had kept targeted assassination from being a completely effective tactic. It was still used, but assassination was limited in how useful it actually was.
Humanity on the other hand, used these tactics frequently, and with brutal effectiveness. Sangheili pranced around in their brightly colored, and heavily decorated armor; and many times, they paid the price with their lives. The UNSC's use of snipers was beyond a simple targeted kill. Their snipers had been known to take out entire chains of command with a single barrage of fire. They targeted high ranking officers first, then snipers and marksmen. Once their targets were killed, they eliminated anything that could effectively counter them. Kel had come very close to losing her life in a grisly display herself because she had the misfortune of being identified with a marksman rifle.
She thought back to that moment. The only reason she was still alive was because the attack had, ironically, happened in the day. She had managed to spot the glint of a sniper scope just in time. Her reflexes had saved her that day, though she couldn't say the same for any of the other marksmen in her unit.
"Kel?"
She jumped from her thoughts.
"Yes?"
"Are you… good?" Eric looked to have been waving his hand in front of her face.
She nodded. "Yes, I was just… thinking."
"About?"
As much as she trusted Eric for a human, Kel wasn't quite ready to divulge all her secrets yet, so instead, she changed the subject. "I know you were an… what is it? ODST? But after that, I know nothing since before we met."
She still remembered that meeting. Eric had been after the same man as she had. Instead of killing each other, they had decided to work together. They brought in the man alive, something neither of them had thought would be possible on their own. Soon after that, they had ended up on this job.
"I was a sniper, but you could have guessed that. I fought all throughout the outer colonies all the way to Reach. I was one of the lucky few who actually managed to evacuate before the whole place went to hell." Eric leaned forward, looking off into the sun, which had since risen past it's most glorious point. Night had evaporated, and dawn was now upon them in full.
Kel remembered Reach. To her, it was so much more than simply humanity's biggest defeat, but that was a good place to start. "I heard it was a bloodbath."
"It was more than that," Eric said, "that whole defense went fubar the moment the Covenant reached the ground."
"You're still alive. That is a victory."
There was a pause as Eric stayed silent. Finally, his serious attitude dropped. "Yeah I guess so. I always was a lucky helljumper."
"Helljumper?" She had heard him use the term before, though she was confused if it was another way to say ODST or if it was simply a term of endearment.
"Just a nickname for us. It's a lot quicker than saying Orbital Drop Shock Trooper."
Kel took in the definition for a moment, as she often did whenever she learned a new english word. "I see. My people also had a name for you."
"Oooh what is it? No never mind, let me guess. Uuhh, visor heads?"
Kel shook her head.
"What about little demons?"
Again she shook her head. "No, I suppose the best translation I would be able to come up with is burning men. Whenever your drop pods appeared in the sky, it looked like a meteor shower."
"Nice." Eric commented, clearly pleased with the nickname. "Sorry to say we didn't have very endearing nicknames for you guys."
Kel was about to respond when she spotted something on the outside of the base. She stood up, grabbing her rifle in the process.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look down by the comms array," she replied scoping down her rifle to get a
better look. There was a human down on the platform though she couldn't tell who, and by the looks of it, he seemed to be messing on the tightbeam transmitter, something strictly off limits in this very illegal operation. The last thing anyone needed was an unsecured transmission being intercepted by the UNSC or worse.
Kel passed her rifle off to Eric, letting him take a look through the scope.
"That's strange," he said, "Vickenson's going to give everyone hell for that."
"Indeed," Kel said.
Some of the contractors missed their families a good bit, and a few, for some unfathomable reason, couldn't seem to keep from talking to them, even when it could get everyone here arrested or killed.
Eric gave the rifle back, allowing her to sight down it again; she was curious as to who might be risking her life for a simple call. It was then that she noticed another thing. Something off to her left was moving. She zoomed away from the person at the terminal and aimed further down the communications pad.
To Kel's horror, one of the disgusting arachnoid creatures had somehow made it through the patrols, and it was heading right for the unaware human.
Be grateful pinky, she thought, taking aim. The shot was far, even for her. Had she had a sniper rifle, it would have been easy, but with the equivalent of a marksman's weapon in her hands, it would be difficult. It certainly wasn't impossible though.
She kneeled down, bracing the weapon on a rock.
"What are you-"
"Quiet." Kel silenced her friend with a gesture and a snap as she sighted down the creature. It was closing on the human, who was still blissfully unaware.
She took in a breath, telling herself the same thing she always did when she shot.
I am a stone. I am a leaf. A stone cannot be killed, a leaf can't be found. As long as I am quiet, they'll never find me. Don't breathe, don't think, a stone doesn't think. It only acts when a force compels it to. While I am these things, I too, can't be killed.
She finished the sniper's mantra just as the insect leapt at the human, chitinous claws bared. The pink crystal flew at the same time, the shard flying through the air at near supersonic speeds, the very atmosphere vibrating around her as the weapon fired. She saw the blamite shard impact, the crystal piercing the animal straight through what had to pass for it's head. The now lifeless corpse landed next to the human, the shard having knocked it off course, no doubt scaring it's previous victim shitless.
"Bug," Kel said, calmly lowering her needle rifle.
"Why are they this close! How did they get through the patrols?"
"I don't know," Kel said, "but I intend to find out."
