"Protocol Fallen Angel."
Minerva Team sprung into action, with Deadeye adjusting his SRS99-S9 AM Sniper Rifle to hit one of the approaching Senate Guards. The JTAC operator of the team, Apache, requisitioned an additional Ptero to CASEVAC Spartan Romeo. This was all being done from a total of 2 kilometres away, ensuring that Minerva team was not in danger in any way, shape or form. Deadeye had no need to hold his breath, as on his exhale his body was already still enough to accurately fire the sniper that he wielded.
bam!
The shot was audible, but almost subtle; there was little to no noise coming out of the SRS99-S9, and Jack the Senate Guard never knew what was coming for him. The weapon utilized a miniaturized Gauss cannon - essentially the same principles as mass drivers or the famous Magnetic Accelerator Cannons - to fire a 5.4mm round (similar to that of the M99 Stanchion) at hypersonic speeds. This hypersonic round was then able to penetrate anything less resistant than 30cm of titanium with ease, and was expected to have a maximum penetration of 55cm of titanium. Organic matter was literally obliterated from the sonic boom produced by the diminutive bullet, and mechanical objects were usually out of action by the time the bullet had moved through the entire thing. Those rifles were known to have penetrated multiple people and then gone through a few concrete pylons too; they were a force to be reckoned with.
Jack was just about to reach out to grab Romeo's arms when a round flew through his head and went through the floor for god-knows-how-long. The human himself was flung back, blood splattering both on the floor and on the ceremonial dress of the other guards. They efficiently spread out, taking cover behind the bases of the statues of the Core Founders.
It wasn't enough.
Deadeye knew the rough position of the Senate Guards, and that was enough, for even a near-miss was enough to critically injure a foe. He expertly adjusted to where he expected one of the guards to be, and fired. A body flung out into view, blue armour screeching across the floor as the guard came to a stop a few metres away from where he was hiding. Romeo had his chance.
If you're out there, God, thanks for making this day more interesting.
Romeo grabbed the Mk II Paladin that Jack had dropped, swivelling to face two of the Senate Guards that had hidden behind the nearest statue - a rookie mistake. With a few well-placed shots, they were both dead. This was punished by a barrage of blaster fire on the back of Romeo's energy shield, but the Spartan's response was to run to the other side of the statue where he had just killed two of the Senate Guards. He slid to a halt as blaster fire was flung right next to where he was hiding, and he jumped on the comms.
"Alpha Charlie, Alpha Charlie, Romeo to Minerva; get me a path outta here."
"Apache to Romeo, the original extract point is a klick out; the rest of Mars team is already in the tower and enroute to the top. You'll have to be quick."
"Mark the way."
"Copy."
Apache marked three checkpoints for Romeo to follow, as he instructed the incoming Ptero to wait until the last Spartan was back on board. In the meantime, the duo would have to link up with Romeo if they wanted to get aboard that extract. So, they rapidly packed up their equipment before-
Ksshh!
The sound of a door sliding open resulted in Apache drawing his MA7S and spinning, raising his rifle to meet several officers of the Coruscant Police. Their glowing eyes and hidden appearance made for an ugly look, but not that it mattered; the trio were mowed down in seconds. Deadeye was already up and ready, his gear packed and M8J/C Carbine drawn.
The M8J/C was a variant of the M8 series pistol, descendant of the M6 series - more commonly known as the Magnum series. It used the same .50 calibre round found on the M8, but made use of a barrel extension, a stock and a small red-dot sight to transform it into a compact yet capable sidearm. The duo then began to sprint - about 40km/h - towards the Transgalactic Transport Corporation, where they arrived in about two and a quarter minutes. Inside the building, they ran to the elevator in the empty lobby and slammed the button for the highest level it would go to. As the door closed, Minerva team lowered their guard, listening to the faint Cantina music playing as the elevator rose at incredible speeds. It slowed down before coming to a complete halt at the end of the elevator shaft, with the two Spartans dashing out and heading to the staff-restricted section. The sterile, white walls had coloured lines which you could follow to find your destination, and the grey line was marked as "ROOF STAIRWAY". Thus, upon their exit, they found themselves in front of the Ptero that was assigned to the ONIP Invisible Vanguard.
This particular Ptero was painted matte black, with no designation; but it otherwise looked the same as any other UH-151. The superstructure was sleek, made of nanocomposites as most vehicles were made of at this point, and similar in design to the Falcon's hull. Rotor engines used by the Falcon were replaced with turbojet engines that could switch directions, similar to the F-35 of the 21st Century. The interior was outfitted with three seats towards the rear and two seats at the front. There were now two weapons seats on either side of the passenger section, resulting in a total of four M51 "Daemons" that were mounted for the passengers to use. Additionally, there were two canopies at the front of the entire craft for two pilots - one for actually piloting the craft, and one for operating the missiles and autocannon.
Admiral Johnson, along with one of the TRSS agents and Mars Team - Romeo was just boarding the craft as they jogged up - and mounted the M51s closest to them. Jason reached up, banging the hull close to where the pilots sat, and rested as they took off to head towards the Prowler that was now low enough in-atmosphere for the Ptero to safely approach. But a few seconds after the Invisible Vanguard decloaked and was ready to receive the incoming dropship, the Ptero's alarms started going off.
"Missile incoming, I hope you're strapped in!"
"Ares, get on a sea-"
The Ptero swerved, narrowly avoiding a rocket launched from the same RPS-6 that was used to blow Romeo off of the Senate Building. As a result of this, both Minerva operators were able to open fire on the group of Senate Guards who had just reached the landing pad.
The M51 was given the name "Daemon" for a reason; at an RPM of 3240, or 54 rounds per second, the M51 fired .50 BMG rounds at supersonic speeds; these High Velocity, Explosive rounds could obliterate one's limbs, with just one shot. As such, the Daemon was installed on practically every form of military transport. The Senate Guards who had just fired upon the Ptero had awoken two Daemons, and all hell was about to break loose.
The Senate Guards literally exploded in a burst of blood, durasteel and flesh. The red stains on the landing pad could have even been considered modern art, if someone was bothered enough to take a picture.
But the rocket alarm went off again, and this time it was from a completely different tower.
The Ptero hadn't fully stabilized from the first dodge, and so wouldn't be able to swerve to avoid the second rocket.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
"ARES, SIDDOWN!"
"FLARES AWAY!" The rocket wasn't tracking in any form, instead being manually aimed. It was unaffected by the release of a dozen flares from the Ptero's flare stores, as it slammed into one of the turbojet engines. The transport spun out, rapidly losing altitude without full thrust. Luckily, the direction of spin was clockwise, and so the pilot slammed the throttle to 100% on the right engine. In doing so, fuel was redirected to the right engine, and the Ptero stopped leaking fuel. The pilot used the fire prevention system to extinguish the fire on the left engine, and the transport stabilized. It was still a klick out from the ONI Prowler, which had finally manuevered so that it could fire on the position where the rockets were being launched.
BA-CHUM!
The M1006 "Ranger" Naval MAC was a mini-MAC single barrel battery capable of firing standard tungsten shells at a speed of 3km/s. Using a model 92O5D1 Light MAC, the Ranger could be used in-atmosphere due to its lower power output. A side effect of this was that it could reload at incredible speeds for a MAC. So, a mere 8 seconds after the first round was fired at the Senate Guards' position, another round was fired.
BA-CHUM!
The Ptero safely - although roughly - flew into the open hangar bay of the Poltergeist-class Prowler, landing with a dull thud as the group offloaded the transport.
The hanger bay blast door slowly slid shut, as the Prowler switched on it's Orbital Boosters, accelerating the ship to escape velocity.
"You happy with your day, Romeo?" Yankee asked.
"Well, Little Miss 'Merica, I think that was still boring. Those Senate Guards were better off being parade workers than people who were meant to protect the Senators. Why'dya think they shot at us, though?"
Romeo watched as Ares ducked his way into a conference room.
"God knows. Whatever it was, we'll probably be at war because of this. Even if it was one big mess up because someone couldn't communicate properly, they won't be having the fact we took out probably 30 of their guards at least."
"Gah. At least we know they're no match for us.."
"Don't be so sure. We haven't seen the Republic's real army, just system defence forces and their public displays."
"Those plastoid alloy armour plates don't do anything against kinetic weaponry. Hell, from what I've seen they're not even that good at blaster rounds."
"Either way, if ONI would share their intelligence for once, we'd know whether they have a Grand Army of the Republic or whatever fancy name they'll make up."
"Well, we're Spartans, which makes us First Lieutenants. Those boys are company XOs, not even battalion level. If ONI starts sharing intel on a company-to-company basis either the UNSC was sent to the ninth ring of hell or reality itself changed."
"Heh, we're just dreaming. Only those Spartan III Headhunters would get anything from ONI, and they're all dead."
Little did the two Spartans know, one of their own was being briefed by the very same intelligence organization they were discussing not even 10 metres away from them.
In a soundproofed conference room aboard the ONIP Invisible Vanguard, Spartan Ares stood in front of the 150 inch screen which was set up at the far end of the room from the entrance. His helmet had remained on and sealed, and the screen was filled with the camera feed of 5 other ONI members; although Ares was somewhere in limbo between the Spartan Corps and ONI's Specialized Direct Action Division, or SpecDirAct in ONI's internal servers..
"CINCONI King, heading this meeting regarding possible deployment of the Specialized Direct Action Division and other ONI assets to cripple cloning facilities on the extragalactic planet of Kamino. All attendees, please state your name and rank or classification." Spoke an African man seeming to be in his forties in the top-left corner of the screen.
"Janet Davis, Chief of State." A blonde to the right of the CINCONI.
"Norman Brown, UNSC liaison with ONI." A Caucasian man, again to the right of the Chief of State.
"Rear Admiral Panchal, temporarily overseeing the Specialized Direct Action Division." A man with his roots on the Indian Sub-continent, though clearly not from Earth, on the feed right below the CINCONI.
"CINCSPAR H-044 Holland, my rank says it all." Another Spartan V, wearing HERMES-series armour and with his helmet off-screen. The Commander in Chief of the Spartans was from Minister, an inner colony world, with the looks and the voice of a Latin American. He seemed to be in his 30s, though the augmentations likely hid his true age.
Finally, it was Ares' turn.
"Lieutenant Commander A-202 Ares, Unconventional Asset reporting to the Office of the CINCONI."
King took the lead. "All expected attendees are present and accounted for. As usual, this meeting is classified Primordial, and no contents may be shared with anyone even with the correct classification. Now, onto business. Our sleeper agents in the Republic's financial sector have detected large transactions going to an unidentified account set up on an outer rim planet. Civilian... assets have identified this account to belong to a group known as the Kaminoans, located on the planet of Kamino, located in a mini-galaxy out in Wild Space. The account where the money originated has also been identified as belonging to Valorum's protégé, Senator Palpatine of Naboo. Investigations on Kamino have resulted in discovery of several million clones of a bounty hunter named Jango Fett, which we suspect to be the Republic's new army. You're all here because if we are to deploy SpecDirAct or maybe even the Prowler Corps, your roles will be necessary. I'll be checking in later to see how the discussions are going. Ares, when you get to Hellas, go to the Halsey Building. CINCONI departing meeting." King's feed was cut off, resulting in static to be shown, and the group dove into analysing the scenarios they could come up with.
The ONIP Invisible Vanguard exited slipspace in geostationary orbit above Hellas, cloak already deactivated and heading towards nothing. Then, the prowler became nothing.
At least, that was what seemed to have happen to anyone outside Citadel Station's cloaking area, for inside the 120km wide sphere was the hivemind of ONI. The station was teeming with activity, as prowlers, frigates, cruisers and even a battleship were undergoing repairs, refits, or were just docked on the 90km wide bar of a shipyard which stretched perpendicular to Reach itself, and an ugly utilitarian mess of protruding laboratories, hangars, recreational areas, dormitories, offices and more covered the middle 30 kilometres. The Invisible Vanguard docked on one of the vacuum-docks closer to the central structure, and both Spartan teams offloaded the prowler. While most of the Spartans headed straight for the next shuttle to the surface, Ares headed up towards the peak of Citadel Station. He towered over basically everyone he walked by, and the battle-worn armour made him look like he adorned modified T60 Power Armour from the ancient game series Fallout. As the Spartan moved towards one of the sleek, whitewashed doors at the end of the corridor, he glanced up at the nameplate.
HALSEY BUILDING
Named after Dr. Catherine Halsey, the building was used by ONI's Section Three as the main R&D area of Citadel Station. Nowadays, Section Three was almost entirely focused on producing a mass producible powered exoskeleton for use by the fodder of the UNSC - so as Ares walked down the main hallway of the Halsey Building, the windows into the research rooms alongside the corridor revealed multiple different projects: limb-based exoskeletons, similar to the dreams that people of the 21st Century had, like in one of their games called "COD: Advanced Warfare" (not that their standards were advanced by any means); full suit exoskeletons, which were in essence scaled down and weaker MJOLNIR suits; and one room had a remote control suit - which was going to be on hold anyway, due to its classification as an Unmanned Combat Vehicle - that looked nothing like a human, and more like an automaton. These rooms were not where Ares was heading; instead, he was going to the room at the very end of the corridor.
Office of the CINCONI
Ares had to duck very slightly to enter the room, with the two guards stationed outside (equipped with AEGIS armour) opening the door via their integrated HUDs. The CINCONI looked up as the door slid to a close, and the Spartan in the room refused to perform any formalities - something King would've disapproved of, had it been anyone but Ares.
"My dear god of war," started King. "I have another mission for you. You'll be detached from Mars Team, because you have another team to carry."
"Noble?"
"Imperator."
"Imperator's MIA."
"That's what the Spartan Corps thinks. Imperator's officially ONI's, but really they're mine, just like you. My own Imperial Guard... you met two of them outside this office."
Ares recalled the two stationed outside the door in AEGIS series armour.
"So Imperator's larger than four? I know you won't let there be more than two shifts outside your door."
"Ten, to be precise. All on this station right now." King brought out ten files, placing them on his desk and spreading them out. "You'll select three of them and deploy with 0 support; all you'll get is your gear, a ride there and one back. Kamino is to be eliminated without the Republic knowing about it; we'll do our best to help you out on the Republic knowing about it part, but you know our jamming won't be able to hold all of their comms back. Another reason I want this quiet is that I never got permission for this, so we'll all be left to dry if you mess up and you'll have given old Valorum another excuse to declare war. Got all of that?"
"Yes."
"Good. You need to leave within the next twenty-four hours, or the Chanc-"
Alarms blared, and King looked like he wasn't expecting this to come so soon - for Ares' part, he didn't even flinch. The two members of Imperator Team rushed in through the door, and one of them spoke while the other moved to lock the office down.
"Sir, ODPs have engaged a Republic fleet."
A/N: Hey guys, thanks for reading this. I know this probably feels a bit rushed, and I apologize; but then again, I wanted this to be more of a test rather than an actual story. Please, please, please leave reviews with feedback and whether you feel like this is worthy of a full story. I'm sure I mentioned it in the last A/N (I wont be checking) but this is inspired by UH-60 Nightstalker's HALO: The Terran Republic Affair and related works, they're great stories if a bit iffy on grammar but still check them out. Nothing else to say really, so in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!