Chapter 2 - Dis
March 6th, 2544 (21:37 Hours – Military Calendar)
Epsilon Eridani System, Epsilon Eridani IV
Near the Meleonich Mining Facility
:********:
"Where's Officer Lansky? I need to speak with her."
Garrison scratched his head as he stared at the active comm station. "Like I told you sir, Lansky's out for the day. I'm her replacement."
On the other end of the link, the captain of The Omen went silent, seemingly considering something. He spoke again. "Is the shipment ready? It already cost me an arm and a leg to get this far in without getting tracked by the UNSC."
Garrison gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry Cap, the shipment's been delayed."
"You're kidding." The captain huffed in frustration "You guys can't be serious!"
"We're sorry but-"
"Sorry? Sorry!? You want me to pop a squat this close to Reach for an hour and that's all you got!? Listen new guy, you better get Lansky from whatever hole she crawled down into and get her on the line now, or I promise that I'm gonna make life hell for you! You get me!?"
Garrison was unimpressed. He'd heard better threats against his life before. He glanced over at the dead body of the female officer that had tried to pull out her pistol. She was still staring up at the ceiling, splotches of her own blood covering the 'y' in Lansky on her nametag.
"I'll get her as soon as I can sir." Garrison said. "Just please wa-"
The Omen's Captain shut off the comm-link, leaving the Lieutenant Colonel to stare with feint annoyance at the console. He turned to Duncan who was still sitting at a nearby station watching the whole exchange.
"And you're sure the main facility didn't here that?"
Duncan nodded. "It seems the Jammer Stations also second as communication mediums for the main facility. I made sure no one over there heard anything over here, so we're still golden, sir."
"Right." Garrison sighed and slid his helmet back on. "That's one problem we won't have to deal with for a minute. Time for the other one."
Minutes earlier Garrison had decided to take the call from the Omen. While it was a risk, they needed to know what the ship's purpose was relative to the mining facility. Now at least, they had a better clue and, in summation, a better picture of the entire operation on Epsilon Eridani IV. It was easy enough to put the dots together that the 'shipment' the Omen's captain sought was likely gold. From what he had said about being so close to Reach, it suggested that the Meleonich may be exporting gold beyond the supposed account linked to the Molnar. What was left was to secure the facility itself and find how expansive this whole thing was. Then again, there were those four pods from earlier that were possibly about to throw a wrench into everything.
Zack arrived in the control center with his back-mounted radio. He saluted. "You asked for me, sir?"
"Yes." Garrison said. "Ep-7 get me a line to the Batavia. They should still be out of local space."
Zack nodded and reached behind his back. He pulled the radio's tractable antennae up from its socket and twirled a dial on the side of the device. After a few minutes of work with his Smartlink to the radio, he gave the thumbs up. The Long-Range Communication's device would be able to connect them to their allies off-world thanks to a few upgrades provided by the ONI Tech Specialists.
"The call's gone out sir. I've patched you in."
Garrison waited until the link was answered. "This is Neptune-Actual, do you read me, over?"
After three seconds of silence, the Colonel answered. "I hear you. What's the situation on the ground Neptune-Actual?
"Three things sir. First, we've managed to neutralize all four Jammers and they're down. Second-"
"I'm aware of the four additional pods." Ackerson cut in, his voice an icy chill though Garrison couldn't tell if it was directed at him or not.
"I'm also aware of the Merchant-Class Freighter in orbit. We overheard your conversation with the Captain. Nice work buying time."
Garrison was caught off guard by the fact he knew so much already. What was even the point of a situation report. He had to remind himself that Ackerson was ONI. "Well sir, that's about it. Will the Task Force proceed as planned in accounting for the Omen or we are changing tactics?"
"We're changing tact, Neptune-Actual. I'm about to have the Task Force enter local space. We'll handle the Omen. I need your Bravo Company to capture the four bridges linking the terrain to the main compound. Since STARS has a better view of the facility, I've decided against landing straight in. It's too risky. Instead, the 202nd Marines will deploy with the 75th Armored on the outskirts then crossover using the bridges. Do you read me, Neptune-Actual?"
Garrison considered it for a heartbeat, trying to reorganize the plan around the new objectives. "Understood Colonel, we'll get the job done."
"Move swiftly Neptune-Actual, you've got 25 minutes. Ackerson out."
:********:
"And here I thought our job here was done." Duncan heard Deaks say over team comms as Squad Epsilon jogged along the road.
"An ODST's job is never done, Ep-3." The Staff replied. "We just work a different shift after the last one."
"What does that mean?" Duncan asked.
Zack, who was further up in the column, turned to answer him while jogging backwards. "It's a nice way of saying we're overworked and underpaid."
Nova grabbed the radioman by the shoulder and forced him to turn around.
"Gotta agree with Little Z," Rico chimed in. "The bridges weren't part of the plan. Now the Colonel's just figuring things out as he goes. So, did we really have a plan to begin with?"
"We've got a plan." The Staff corrected. "Ackerson just adjusted it with new information."
"I hope it's the right call." Deaks added.
"Better be." The Staff said. "Cause we're already here."
Everyone looked up and spotted the structure through the tops of the trees. The objective was about 200 meters ahead of them. Once they got closer the full visage of the bridge came into view. It was a draw bridge that spanned over a 50-meter deep chasm that had to have been artificially made since it encircled the entirety of the facility, cutting it off from the rest of the region. On the other side, the majority of the Meleonich itself remained shrouded in darkness thanks to the overhanging typhoon. While it cut off visibility, the weather was also a double-edged sword. It gave them the cover they needed to get within 50 meters of the bridge without being detected.
Epsilon had another 7 minutes before their time was up and the Task Force pulled into the atmosphere. 1st Platoon was somewhere behind them on standby in case they needed the extra help. The other bridges were probably about to be under assault any minute now as well.
The ODSTs stopped within the tree line to observe. There was a stretch of open ground that they would have to cross before reaching the bridge. There were no immediate obstacles for them to deal with save for the four Insurrectionists manning the two Warthogs right at the threshold. From their position the two turrets could quickly cutdown any attack before they could even get close since the open ground gave them a 180-degree field of fire. The fact that there were two guns to deal with meant that those fields of fire overlapped. Their wielders actively swiveled them from left to right, undeterred by the rain and wind.
To add to their number were four guards manning the four bridge towers, two on either side and one guard in each.
"We'll have to take them out first." The Staff said. "Those Towers look like they can control it. If we don't secure them, we risk losing the bridge. Ep-3?"
Deaks had already braced his rifle against a tree and was adjusting his oracle scope. "I can hit all four from here, boss."
"Good." The Staff turned to the others. "Ep-3, you'll go first. Ep-2, you and me are taking out the drivers. Ep-4 and 5, left gunner. Ep-6, 7 and 8, you take the right. Then we move on the bridge."
The squad's acknowledgement lights winked on.
A second passed, then Deaks fired off a shot, hitting the first guard in one of the closest of the two towers. The bullet pierced through the window and exited out the other side in a bloody spray, quiet as a whisper. Deaks slipped the next round through the second guard's brain then another through the throat of the third. He fired the last shot just as the fourth guard was turning in his seat. Instead of plunging through his eye it hit him in the shoulder. He winced and fell out of his chair, out of sight.
"Crap!" Deaks hissed. He quickly turned to the Staff and did a cutting gesture across his neck.
"Great." The Staff grumbled. He turned to the others and pumped his fist twice, then pointed to the Hogs.
Gauntleted fingers pulled their triggers as the four-man team near the gate's entrance fell under a new storm, one of bullets in the place of rain and multiple muzzle flashes in the tree-line rather than lightening flashes from the clouds. The two drivers slid out of their seats into the muddy earth as they became human bullet-sponges. One of the gunners also fell from his turret as the rounds tore through him. The fourth, however, had the fortune to survive the initial barrage with only a shot to the thigh and quickly maneuvered the LAAG towards the trees.
"Cover!" The Staff said. The ODSTs backed up behind the thick bark of the trees a second before streams of high-caliber fire peppered their positions, pruning the branches around them of their vegetation and biting off chunks of wood from their cover.
"We can't get pinned here! Ep-3, get a shot on that gunner!"
"On it!"
The Shock Troopers peeked out when they could to trade fire while Deaks crawled through the undergrowth at their feet, trying to reach a better vantage point. Then the loud groan of interlocking metal gears caught everyone's attention.
Behind the Gunner, the draw bridge was active. Both sides of it were slowly rising up, leaving a growing gap between them.
"Ep-3!" The Staff, alarmed at the bridge, rounded on the distant sniper just as he fired off a final shot. The last turret fell silent.
"Greenlight on the bridge." Deaks said.
The Staff slid around his tree cover. Seeing the bridge still rising he placed a Nav-Marker at the threshold. The rest of the squad winked their acknowledgement lights and emerged in unison from the tree-line. They strode towards the objective while keeping their eyes out in case any more threats materialized. So far, the singular threat they faced was the fact that by the time they got onto their side of the bridge, it would be too far removed from the opposite side for them to jump.
Nova rushed into one of the towers and raced up to the top. She appeared in the window seconds later and shook her head. "It's no good, the guy on the other side must have overridden it."
The Staff didn't waste a moment on the news and placed a Nav-Marker on one of the Hogs. "Ep-8 get on the Gun! Ep-4 get the wheel!" He shouted, racing for the vehicle. "We're jumping this thing!"
Duncan and Hector followed close behind and hopped into their stations while the Staff took shotgun. Hector turned them around to face the bridge. By then they were looking at a steepening incline.
Hector slammed his boot down on the accelerator, sending them rocketing up the acute bridgeway. The tough tires clutching the surface groaned in protest at the stress. Duncan grabbed the turret's handles to keep from falling back, his legs practically dangling over the edge. The bridge had almost risen to a ninety-degree angle as they reached the top.
Hector pushed the gas to the breaking point. "Here we go!"
The Hog arced through the air and over the gap. Their momentum carried them to the other side. The wheel's screeched across the surface as Hector eased off the accelerator and started to break. But the acceleration was too much. The Hog tipped forward and tumbled end over end down the remaining length of the bridge. Duncan had to crouch down and hug the stalk of the LAAG to keep from being thrown free or crushed. The world briefly spiraled around him then came to a jarring stop as they crash-landed at the bottom of the bridge. He gave thanks that the vehicle proved to be more cat-like than Hog-like since they landed wheels-first. The fact it was still operational after that was a miracle.
Duncan risked getting back onto the Gun, peaked through his weapon's sites and grimaced.
A few meters away were a dozen armed guards who had stopped just short of the bridge. They had probably come to investigate the shooting on the other side. The last thing they'd expected was to see one of their own Hogs jumping the near-vertical incline and surviving the landing, or to see three Orbital Drop Shock Troopers staring right back at them from the seats.
The troopers were the first to shake of the shock at the situation. Duncan and the Staff opened fire, the former using long bursts while the Staff picked out the more heavily armed in the group. Four out of the response team had been dropped before the others finally responded, scattering for cover and returning fire.
Hector steered over to the closest bridge tower and whipped out his own assault rifle to get in on the action.
"Ep-8, get the bridge controls and bring it down, now!" The Staff said, leaping out.
Duncan flashed his acknowledgement light and jumped off the turret, leaving the man to free to hop on and shower the enemy in suppressing fire. He headed for the nearby tower. He kicked in the door and cleared the inside. There was a staircase leading to the top. He dashed up the stairs while remaining vigilant of the upper levels.
He found the door on the top floor locked, shot off the hinges and slammed his armored body through the frame. The room inside was clear save for the man lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor. His hand rested on a red lever. He had likely pulled it to raise the bridge right before he bled out.
Duncan grabbed the lever and pulled it to the opposite end. The bridge's interlocking gear mechanisms came to life once more. He came to a window and saw the two separate parts of the bridge starting to descend.
"Ep-8 to Ep-1, the bridge is coming back down, sir." Duncan came over to where he could see the Staff and saw him and Hector holding out against a growing number of Insurrectionists. The Staff refocused on one building where a line of windows was being used as a vantage point and fired into them in a long strafe. Broken glass and blood flew out.
"Good. Epsilon, rendezvous at our position the moment you're able to cross. We need to hold this side of the bridge until reinforcements arrive."
"Reinforcements are already here." Harper said over comms. "Figured you guys could use a hand once you went loud."
Duncan ran back to the window to see ODSTs leaping from one side of the bridge to the next even before it had fully descended. There was more than Squad Epsilon's far share of manpower coming over, meaning Squads Eagle and Echo had committed to the fight. The troopers slid down the other side and ran over to form a semicircular perimeter around the Hog. They greeted the guards shooting at them with the same courtesy, although with far more precise lethality.
Duncan joined in and fired on the growing number of enemy's that had started to gather in the surrounding structures of the Meleonich.
"1-Actual to 1st platoon." Harper said. "We hold this position until our backup arrives. Until then, we secure this as our foothold. Let's go!"
:********:
Colonel Ackerson stood on the bridge of the UNSC Batavia as it emerged from the darkness of slipspace and into Epsilon Eridani IV's local space. The planet loomed in front of them, and so did the merchant ship called The Omen. The freighter was already in their sights, easy pickings for a single MAC strike or Archer Missile barrage. He could have even had one of the ship's two SHIVA-class nuclear missiles launched at it to obliterate it and its crew on a whim. The very notion that he had so much power ready to rain down over such an unsuspecting foe gave him a tinge of amusement that had festered in the back of his mind since the Lieutenant debriefing. But as much as he enjoyed the thought, that wasn't what was required for this situation. The situation required diplomacy, and if all else failed, brute force.
He had led the entirety of Task Force Kilo on a short slipspace jump towards the planet, covering several million kilometers in a span of about five seconds. He had barely noticed the transition at all. Now, the battlegroup of three Paris-Class Heavy Cruisers were bound for the upper atmosphere.
As he had ordered its captain to do beforehand, the Orion didn't waste anytime once it returned to real space and bared down on the Omen.
Ackerson turned to the Communication's Officer on the Batavia. "Is the channel open?"
The woman nodded back from her console. "We should be able to hear them, sir."
"Good." Ackerson said and listened in.
The Captain of the Orion hailed the Omen. "This is UNSC Navy ship Orion to Merchant-Class Freighter 'Omen', we're coming aboard your ship. Disengage your slipspace drive and all onboard weapons immediately or we will fire on you."
The threat was met with radio-silence. The Captain tried again. "This is UNSC- "
This time the answer came as the Batavia's Weapon's Officer flinched. "Multiple heat-signatures detected along the Omen's Hull. Sir, they've got Archer Missiles and preparing to fire."
Captain Leodis, an older Naval officer currently under Ackerson's command, stood ram-rad straight in his command chair. "Prepare a MAC Round. Doyle, get me firing coordinates on that ship."
"That won't be necessary." Ackerson said with amazing calm, so much so that it inadvertently unnerved the bridge crew. Everyone inclusive of Leodis stared at him in confusion while the Colonel himself observed the lessening gap between the Omen and the Orion.
"But sir." The Captain protested. "We-"
"We've already won this fight, Leodis." He turned back, catching the man off guard with his amused smirk. "The other side just doesn't know it yet."
He turned back to the view. "Orion do not open fire on the Omen. We need to investigate their cargo. Continue on as planned."
A moment later the Orion's Captain responded, his voice increasingly uncertain. "Understood sir, remaining on intercept course."
Leodis tried to grasp what was happening in front of him. Ackerson could tell by the confusion in his reflection that he wasn't connecting the dots. Poor soul.
"Sir, it's a suicide charge, we need to-"
Ackerson raised a hand to quiet the man. "No need." He snapped his fingers.
The moment he did a spark of light appeared on the Omen. What was momentarily a spark suddenly broke out into a lightning storm of electrical energy that surged through the hull. Then just as quickly as it came, the surge was gone.
Weapon's Officer Doyle turned to his console with a look of disbelief. "Sirs, the Omen's power signatures are down across the board." He slowly turned in his chair to look at the Captain. "They're dead in the water."
On-screen the merchant ship was slowly listing to port, helpless to stop itself as not even the Maneuvering Thrusters showed any signs of life. The bridge crew's attention turned to the Colonel with an equal measure of respect and fear. Ackerson could sense it and couldn't help straightening up with pride. Fear and respect from one's subordinates, in his eyes, were what made someone an effective leader. You admired the hammer of power they wielded and followed them out of inspiration, but simultaneously feared falling under said hammer yourself and obeyed their orders.
"This is Ackerson to the Orion, hurry up and secure that ship before it gets caught up in Eridani IV's gravity well. Have your boarding team comb the ship for priority list items then scuttle it."
"…Yes sir." The Orion's Captain replied with a detectable hesitation.
Ackerson switched comm channels with his earpiece and received a quick situational update from the Lieutenant Colonel. "I hear you, Neptune-Actual. Standby, we're on our way.
He switched channels again. "The ODSTs just secured the four bridges to the Meleonich. Juno follow us down to the surface. We'll send in the Marines once we're clear of reentry. Mind the Typhoon."
"Understood, sir, following your lead." The Juno's Captain answered.
Ackerson turned to Leodis. "Take us down, Captain."
He nodded and quickly began issuing out coordinates to the NAV Officer.
As the Batavia and Juno descended into the atmosphere, Ackerson found himself gritting his teeth, both at the possibility of victory and the impossibility of defeat presented before him. His only concern now was any unnecessary complications, but if there was one thing he had taught the crews of Task Force Kilo today, it was that while a complication may arise that they didn't expect, it was never unforeseen. Not for him, not for the Office of Naval Intelligence.
:********:
Duncan heard the high-velocity whine of the Pelicans long before he ever saw them. That said, even hearing them coming was a welcome reprieve. They had already held back three individual counterattacks from local forces. It was a one-sided affair as evidenced by the 31 dead Insurrectionists lying all around the immediate area with several burning Warthogs thrown into the mix that the troopers had started using for cover. The enemy had tried using the vehicles to outmaneuver and overwhelm them, not knowing until it was too late that the ODSTs had brought overwhelming firepower of their own.
Another Warthog turned a corner further down the road ahead and came guns blazing, the last of the third wave.
"Hog, 30 meters out and closing." Harper said.
"Echo-1, I'm on it." Sergeant Joels said, breaking from cover. He sprinted onto the road carrying a fully loaded SPANKR over his shoulder and making it look easy in the process. With the Hog quickly closing the distance, he slid to a knee, aimed and fired.
Two rockets thumped out of the casing and flew over the street at head-height, leaving spiraling trails of vaporous exhaust in their wake. Thanks to the narrow roadways and closeness of the buildings the vehicle had nowhere to turn. Both rockets impacted, swallowing up the Hog in the resulting explosion then spitting out its burning remains along with the body parts of the former occupants.
"They're down!" Joels said.
No sooner had he said it that the first Pelicans burst through the clouds of the typhoon. There were at least four squadrons of four each that pushed through the storm on sharp descent vectors like a hail of loosed arrows. A moment later the clouds parted slightly, allowing in rays of evening sunlight that illuminated the area below. From the clouds the UNSC Juno and Batavia descended like angels from on high. They took up positions in the lower atmosphere, only a kilometer away from the facility itself.
The Pelicans landed in their squadrons on the opposite sides of the bridges, each dropping a Scorpion Tank with an active crew. The ramps lowered and scores of fully armed Marines stormed out of the blood trays. They quickly formed up around the tanks and pushed across the bridges while the Dropships returned to their cruisers.
Duncan and the others watched as the first armored column pulled in over the bridge, followed by an outpouring of Marines.
"That's what I call back-up!" Zack cheered.
Harper came in over comms. "1st Platoon, assist!"
She led the way and her ODSTs quickly followed, acting as the spearhead of UNSC forces pushing into the Meleonich.
Dis - Push