Alpha-9 was not slacking off either. Despite Rookie being reassigned at Buck's approval to command and assist Laplace's Team(the girl was surprisingly persuasive for a hyperactive golden retriever) the team moved forward into the darker parts of the Ark. There were still small slums and back alleys where dark deals were being made, not to mention the maze-like underground sewer systems.
The squad passed through into one of said dark alleys, a dingy place filled with overflowing trash. Bullet holes marked the walls, still fresh from the Ark Crisis, as it'd come to be known by the local civvies. Buck looked at the holes, then sighed and shook his head, thankful he wasn't seeing blood. He knelt in front of a grate, then radioed, "DARE, we're at the entry point. Be advised, Radios may go dark the moment we drop into the sewers."
"Copy last, Alpha-9-Actual. Your IFFs should be strong enough to let us track you, though, so..." Dare replied, a little concerned. She told him, "Keep your eyes open down there. Exotic's still around and latest reports marked them as Rogues. Their NIMPH system isn't operating as it used to, either. Doc Halsey mentioned Syuen might've triggered a failsafe before she was grabbed by Matis."
Buck quipped, "Hey, relax. You know we got out of worse. A few skimpy ex-terrorists shouldn't be too tough to handle. Alpha-9, going dark," then he drew his shotgun and opened the grate to the sewers. The group descended one-by-one, with Mickey bringing up the ear with a shotgun in hand and Dutch close behind Buck, carrying a short-barrelled Squad Automatic Weapon, a belt-fed MG loaded with 7,62x51mm FMJ rounds.
Romeo joked, "Hell of a first day on the job, eh, Gunny?" all while prepping his carbine. The man had decided to come in with a carbine set on semi-automatic for headshots only, considering he had two-times scope on it that linked directly to his Helmet via the standard SmartScope system. Buck snorted, then nodded as he led the way forward, his VISR system online.
The sewers were large. Massive tunnels, in fact, through which all the waste and refuse from the Ark ran, being dumped probably somewhere far away or purified at the various stations that operated under the idea of nothing being wasted and everything being recycled. Part of Gunny was glad that the stuff they'd recently started eating was slowly starting to completely replace Splendamin, because God only knew if that stuff wasn't just recycled shit.
Dutch spoke, "Thank God for mask filters. Don't even wanna imagine how bad we'll stink when we get outta this pit," as cast a sideways glance at the brown 'river' flowing to their right. The squad of four pushed forward into the sewers, taking left and right turns as they came at the intersections, guided by the maps they had from their 'Handler', Dare. Buck was glad she'd dropped in with them.
Helped to have smart people around.
The sewers looked weirdly ancient for what was supposed to be a highly-advanced city. Metallic pipes travelled overhead of the water, glimmering LEDs glowing, shining light on the arched stone walls and reinforced concrete. The place felt patchwork, like it was made out of whatever material they had at hand, yet still looked like it was centuries old just by the 'style' and design.
Well, not really a point in thinking about how the stuff they were wading past was built, because all it did was direct the flow of human excrement away from the Ark itself, providing part of the sanitation of the city. The ODSTs-turned-Spartan IVs moved on past another intersection, Romeo bringing up the rear with his rifle raised to make sure nobody was flanking them.
Buck raised a balled fist, showing the team to halt as voices echoed in the distance. Two men. The Spartans positioned themselves to meet the oncoming threat, with Buck listening in by turning up the sensitivity of his helmet's audio sensors. He heard the first man, one with both arms transformed into bionic replacements and a pair of goggles covering his eyes. A mask covered his face, too, but Buck could, at a glance, make out his dark skin underneath the ragged clothes.
He cradled an odd-looking ArmaLite series assault rifle in his hands. Going by the magazine size, it must've been an AR-10 equivalent, loaded with almost the same rounds as their weapons. It had a bunch of attachments, including a thermal smartscope and PEQ-copy laser sight. Beside him, his buddy carried a light AK-pattern rifle with a lot of extra bells and whistles. He had an Exoskeleton on.
The dark-skinned man spoke with a rough voice, almost like sandpaper, "Look, man, I'm telling you, Crow's got us in deep shit this time about. You saw what the hell the UNSC waded in with. Tanks, infantry and battalions of Nikkes that didn't seem too keen on chatting. Syuen really fucked the pooch on this one and, now, Heavenly Ascension has to go to ground just not to get publicly hanged."
"I wasn't defending our bosses' ex boss, or even our boss herself," The smaller guy replied, his voice sharp, ear-scratching, "I know we're screwed. Point is, she wants us to wage a goddamn underground war against these guys, blow people up, basically just go full send into being complete terrorists. Ever since her and EH had a falling out, we've been in deep..."
"The hell did they even argue about...?" His buddy asked.
He shrugged, "Fuck if I know, man. Ask Kira if you have time. She was there..."
"Will do. Let's keep mov-" The man's words were cut short, replaced by a gargle as blood foamed at his mouth and dripped down from his slit throat. A blur appeared in a moment in front of his friend and scarlet soon painted the floor below. The other guard gasped, staggered back and lifted his rifle, only for his spine to audibly snap and pop. Both corpses fell to the floor moments later, dead on the spot, while Buck cleaned his knife on the jacket of the man he'd killed. Mickey did a little tippy-tap dance and smirked behind his helmet.
"Dissension in Heavenly Ascension," Buck joked as he sheathed the blade, garnering a groan out of the team. He ordered, "Shut it," before continuing, "At least it should make our job a hell of a lot easier if we find this 'EH'," before shifting back to his shotgun. He told them, "Let's get moving. Maybe we'll get to wipe Crow and her team out here, save ourselves a headache..." only to lead the way through a small door. The corridor ahead was narrow and dark, but it was obviously where the two cronies had come from.
Multiple doors lay on each side. Each Spartan-IV covered their sectors, trying the doors as they went only to find them locked. Their Motion Trackers picked up nothing in the immediate vicinity, but there was movement about a hundred meters ahead. The hallway suddenly widened into a lobby of some kind, old and decrepit and marked by the presence of cobwebs, overturned chairs and the likes.
Well, it wasn't a lobby per se, as much as it was a very large storage or maintenance room of some kind. Dried blood painted the walls and the rotting, peeling carpet below, while a wide double-door lay ahead. Splitting, each Spartan pair took a side. Buck and Mickey took left, while Dutch and Romeo took right. Dutch and Buck primed grenades and nodded to one-another, while Romeo and Mickey still covered the rear.
A short countdown flashed. Two yellow readiness lights at an interval of a second apart each, followed by a third, longer-flashing green acknowledgement. The two Spartans closest to the doors kicked them open, denting them as the two grenades flew in. A scream echoed the other side, then two muffled thumps. The Spartan-IVs pushed in, bursts of automatic fire greeting them and causing their shields to flare.
"Looks like they found us!" The voice of an angered woman echoed across what seemed to be a massive underground hall filled with concrete support pillars that stretched high, holding up the ceiling and what one was to assume was a building. Red lights flickered ahead on the pillars. Lights that Mickey was first to notice were explosives, while the others engaged in a firefight with Heavenly Ascension.
"Gunny! Explosive charges on the support pylons!" Mickey called out, "Looks like they're about to try and bring the building up above a floor down!" and he reloaded his rifle. He stood up and fired a burst, keeping what looked to be a woman pinned down with his burst.
"Hit the jammer, Mickey!" Buck replied, poking out and firing a blast from his shotgun at a charging HA Soldier, ventilating his chest cavity with eight-gauge buckshot. The explosives expert of the team gave a thumbs up and pulled something from his backpack while Dutch was providing covering fire with his own rifle. He tapped Mickey on the shoulder, then listened to the coughs of Romeo's scoped carbine.
Romeo himself called out, "Hurry your ass up, Mickey! I don't wanna get buried down here!" as he nailed a DA soldier in the head, dropping him to the floor.
"Remember, Dutch! Don't rush perfection!" Mickey gave the callback, switching on the device. Three antennae flipped up and their visors momentarily flickered with static before they adapted to the algorithms. Three women let out pained groans in the distance, however, and the lights on the charges flicked to a continuous, glaring red. Buck cocked his fist back and then punched forward twice.
Alpha-9 then pushed the advantage. Bullets sparked off the Spartans' shields and armor while they nailed the advancing HA troopers with headshots or chest shots in the case of the shotgun. One of the women called out, "They aren't playing fair!" as an auto-shotgun's bolt got racked. A strange figure, buxom and clad in white gear, popped out with a grin on her face, her scarlet eyes glimmering, hair flowing due to the speed. She shot two shotgun blasts into Mickey's side, causing him to stagger.
Dutch swiveled about and pulled Mickey out of the line of fire, then shot a burst right at the woman. She managed to duck, but the Spartan was quicker, delivering a haymaker that sent her skidding back. She coughed, then said, "Wasn't very nice of you!" in a teasing voice. She aimed and blasted again, shotgun ringing out in the darkness. Bursts of SMG fire raked the lights above, shattering the bulbs and darkening the room.
The Spartans triggered their helmets' VISR modes, tracking a trio of surviving Heavenly Ascension members around them. Crow and Team Exotic. Buck called out to them, "Surrender peacefully and you won't get yourselves killed, girls! UNSC has one hell of an integration program for rehabilitated criminals!" as he loaded slugs into his shotgun. He heard footsteps.
"Don't even try it, Soldier-Boy!" Crow, obviously, barked. Buck tracked her movements, then swiveled about, raising his shotgun. Bursts of automatic fire raked his armor and a low kick sent him stumbling back as a figure landed ahead of him. The other ODSTs quickly swiveled about and opened fire, their muzzle flashes lighting the room. Crow, a black-haired beauty clad in what one would assume standard gangsters of the modern day and emo children would wear, fired her makeshift pair of SMGs in reply, running and dodging fire with terrific agility.
Crow took cover behind a pillar, bullets scraping through the concrete. She saw the disabled bomb and growled, then said to them, "We don't have a stake in your war! Syuen made us into Nikkes against our will, so you'll pardon me if I'm not exactly keen on helping humanity at this very moment! Especially not a military junta that's just gonna throw us all out as cannon fodder!"
"She's a Nikke herself now! Some nice poetic justice, if you ask me!" Buck replied, taking cover as the woman poked out and fired. He chopped left with his right hand while looking at Mickey. The man nodded and ran to try and flank Crow, if only to get body-slammed by a tinier Nikke with a meaner build and a very 'Harley Quinn' look about her. With a grin and titanium teeth, the girl bit down on Mickey's arm, feeling the electrical current flowing from the shield.
The Spartan quickly kicked her off, slamming her into a wall. He took cover as Crow fired at him next, trying to get him off her girl. She then said to them, "I know! And don't worry, I'm killing her the moment I find her. Right now, though...? The Ark's been taken over by you bastards!" as she jumped into cover, narrowly dodging shots from the sniper. Viper, the shotgunner, popped out of cover again and shot at Alpha-9's backs, but the return fire was quick, the girl yelping as a burst caught her in the hip. Crow, however, told them, "Hope you guys get that not everyone's gonna roll over on their backs and accept your rule! We hated the Ark before and you've only exacerbated it!"
"Well, tough shit, lady! UNSC and the UEG are running the show now!" Romeo snapped back. He turned about and fired at Jackal, the small, bitey one of Exotic, catching her with a round in the side. The girl, however, ran toward him now and dodged his shots, grinning as she drop-kicked him in the chest, staggering him. She then jumped to her feet and used the staggered sniper as a step-stool to jump up and over a storage shelf while firing her assault rifle.
"Gotta be kidding me," Mickey murmured, before he perked up as he heard Viper come about again. He spun about and delivered a rifle butt that normally would've broken a human's teeth to her face, causing her to double over. She grit her teeth at that, eyes going blank, before she replied in kind, roundhousing his rifle out of his hand and the kicking him hard in the helmet.
Dutch replied next, grabbing the barrel of her shotgun, yanking it back and twisting her arm, then slamming his helmet against her head again. He felt the hard part of her forehead basically blunt the hit, but he staggered her enough. He drew his pistol, aimed and planned to fire, only to get it shot out of his hand by Jackal, who called out, "Don't you touch Viper, you son of a bitch!" in a sharp, annoying voice.
With a more sultry voice, Viper herself quipped, "It's been a fun little game of cat and mouse, sweetie," then kicked him in the stomach hard, sending him reeling just enough for her to deliver a punch to the face. Romeo, now recovered, put two more slugs into her back, causing her to scream in pain, with Jackal coming to her rescue while Crow surged forward, firing her SMG.
The three girls soon reunited and fired at the Spartans, all of whom had to find cover in this deadly dance. Crow nodded to the two of them, stowed her SMG and pulled out three grenades. She told Alpha-9, "Afraid we're gonna have to cut this meeting short, boys," then she pulled the pins, throwing them and calling out, "See ya again soon, though!"
Said three grenades soon detonated, covering Exotic's retreat. Even as the four fired at the girls, they were missing, with Buck sighing deeply and barking, "Cease fire! Mickey, get on disarming those charges... Romeo, Dutch, on me. We're sweeping the place for survivors," before immediately hearing what could only be described as noises from the mouth of a woman that was shot.
The group turned about, aimed their weapons and saw an HA soldier with three bullets in her vest and one penetrating round that was causing her to bleed from her gut. She was a young woman, beautiful, but marked by the tattoos of the organization. The four ODSTs-turned-SIVs exchanged looks and played rock-paper-scissors. The woman called out, "Are you guys fucking serious...?" in a hoarse voice.
Romeo sighed, slung his rifle onto his back and walked to her, before pulling out a biofoam canister and inserting it into the wound. He told her, "This is gonna sting like a bitch for a couple seconds," as a warning, then squeezed the canister's trigger. She twitched, grabbing onto his arm and letting out a whine, before breathign a sigh as the cool, antiseptic and antibiotic-filled foam expanded, stopping her bleeding.
She sighed deeply, then said, "Thanks... Thought you'd put a slug in my brain..." while still applying pressure to the wound.
"Who are you?" Buck asked as he stowed his shotgun onto his back. He looked at Mickey and tilted his head, to which the explosive expert raised his hands defensively and nodded, walking off to go deal with the bombs. The man took his helmet off, revealing his aged face, then looked into the girl's green eyes. She could easily have been his daughter age-wise.
She swallowed, then breathed a sigh and said, "Kira. Kira Westmoore... And no, it wasn't your rounds that punctured my plate," only to look down upon her injury and add, "Crow didn't like me talking back to her about our old boss... Shit, I can guess why, but..." and she coughed, "Fuck... Can you guys get me to a medic before this stuff just melts away...?"
"Sure... Expect a lot of questions, though," Buck nodded, then showed Dutch to help her. He and Romeo secured the rest of the place, clearing out weapons and evidence and helping Mickey pack the bombs. Ancient C4 packs with various other volatile charges mixed in. They were really planning to cause the collapse of a building, which Alpha-9 later found out was Missilis district headquarters that developed, ironically enough, various new propellants and explosives.
With the Counters and Luckies
To note, the Luckies and Counters did not have any better luck. A battalion of Rapture heavies bore down on their position, denoting that they were getting close to the Heretic they were hunting. Quadrupedal units fired their autocannons and particle beams at the squads of Nikkes as they set up on the high ground, rifles ringing loudly in return fire. Pinne barked, "This is nuts! Just how many Raptures did this single Heretic manage to get in her ranks?!"
"Kelly told us she might be dangerous. Keep your eyes peeled for Nikke puppets!" The Chief replied, keeping himself mobile. Alyosha was right beside him, firing his assault rifle into the crowd of smaller Raptures, feeling the rifle's recoil was minimal compared to when he was wielding it as an unaugmented human. He had to appreciate what doctor Halsey had managed to do with both the MJOLNIR system and the augs.
Taking a knee, he dropped a spent magazine and slammed a fresh one home, with Rapi beside him commenting, "Thank the maker UNSC weapons are still effective," before looking at Alyosha and asking him, "How are you feeling, Commander?" just as a round snapped overhead. Anis stood up and fired a full volley of missiles behind her, while Neon was providing the teams extra ammunition on the go and... Well, Kilo and TALOS were laying down hell on the enemy with that minigun on TALOS's arm.
"Good," He replied jovially, despite the strain in his voice. He told her, "I'm glad I can finally keep up with you, girls," only to gasp and pull her closer as a particle beam cut into Rapi's cover, boiling it away. He stood up and threw two grenades, then dipped back into cover. Rapi went next, firing a missile volley from her own underbarrel launcher, then reloading as she took cover.
She was worried about him, though she'd never say it to his face. She trusted that he could fight, like everyone else in the party did, but this was still insane for her. He was their Commander. Until not too long ago, Commanders were rearline, ordering the troops about and holding close only a pistol for potential self-defense(or self-termination) and termination of corrupted Nikkes.
And here Alyosha Harris was, a Spartan-IV, armed and armored and fighting beside them. She was taken out of her momentary fugue by Delta pushing up to her. She tapped Rapi on the shoulder and the XO of the Counters gave a thumbs up, before lifting her rifle and firing. Signal ran up to them next, carrying a smaller UNSC Radio backpack and wearing their armor. She knelt beside Delta and listened as the girl spoke, "Tyrant unit is at Grid One-Oh-Niner Four-Four-Five Five-Five-One. Requesting cluster bomb on location. Be advised:Strike will be DANGER CLOSE, friendly position at one-hundred-ninety meters just south..." which the young radio operator parroted.
Rapi yelled to the rest of the teams, "Keep your heads down! Friendly ordnance is coming in, DANGER CLOSE!" which caused Kilo to yelp. The others took cover behind every piece of hard rock and steel they could find while the Spartans overcharged their shields. Alyosha wrapped his arms around Rapi, Neon and Anis, covering them as the drone of a Longsword's engines filled their ears, followed by the whisper-quiet decoupling and the bomb coming down at an arc toward the target.
The bomb opened mid-flight, dropping hundreds of smaller 'smart' bomblets into the target area, each being about a hockey-puck sized explosive with an internal computer marking a target. Each was a shaped charge that had a sensor for optimal detonation range. And when they hit the range, the very ground cracked around them, each blast shattering the ground below as they punched clean through the armor of the Raptures and cored them
Moments later, silence fell upon the battlefield, Chief looking over as all but a couple of contacts disappeared off their Motion Trackers. Alyosha murmured, "Thank the maker for the Air Force," while watching the Longsword turn hard right and go back to base for rearm and resupply. A beam of energy shot out from farther ahead, forcing the pilot to pull a few maneuvers to dodge.
That was the team's cue, though. The enemy was right there and they needed to advance on it, close distance and find out just what the hell this Heretic was doing so close to the front line. Both teams mobilized with the supporting allied units in the rear slowly creeping up and securing this sector of the city inch-by-inch. They had to ensure no Rapture surprises waited for them in the ruins.
Everyone could appreciate a proper mobile war. It seemed even the Raptures did, with another unit of them quickly moving to counter the allied thrust, this time supported by their hovering models, many of which were armed with air-to-ground missiles. It was gonna be a god-damned slog to get through and they'd expend a lot of ammo, but at least they were making progress. Alyosha couldn't help but wonder how this 'Cinder' was. Kelly's stories were descriptive in nature, but worrying, too.
They'd see soon...