The flank around the city was now proceeding. Marines and Clones advanced through the forest around Nathema's capital, blasters and bullets zipping to and fro between the Republic-aligned troops and the Confederacy's droid army, with battalions of droids unseen in the jungle. The Republic and UNSC troops were firing at the muzzle flashes themselves.
Meetra led the formation, performing a dance that could be equated to almost ritualistic behavior. With her blade, she deflected bolt after bolt back at the battalions of Droids hiding in the thicket, while the Scorpions and AT-TEs behind her advanced, firing their cannons at any enemy that dared poke their head out, or anything on thermals that seemed like a problem.
Beside her, Noble Six, Commander Ordo and Sergeant Johnson headed the formation, with the 'Misfits' and several other Marine and Clone platoons not far behind, taking cover behind trees and returning fire to the best of their abilities. Meetra slammed herself against a tree, too, deflected a shot off to the right and ordered, "Prime droid poppers!" before she threw her lightsaber forward.
Like a boomerang, it returned after the audible cries of several Droids being beheaded. She looked at Six, handed him one of the Droid Poppers and watched the Clones push on through. She grabbed the Commander with the Force and pulled him back into a proper covered position, then pushed up with Six next to the man, before telling him, "Keep your head down for a bit!"
"Sorry, ma'am! We've been 'programmed' with default aggressiveness in mind!" The man replied. He shouldered his blaster and fired as the rest of the team they'd picked out for the advance joined them, Victor's SAW chattering, belts clinking together as the man and his Assistant Gunner backed him up. Beside them, the other Misfits surged forward, lobbing Droid Poppers in-synch with the Lieutenant.
Johnson himself shifted his aim and fired a slug right at a Commando droid that was trying to punch through the line. The shot clipped the automaton's right shoulder joint, causing its arm to drop, limp. It glared at Johnson, drew its vibroblade, then charged forward. Johnson, however, showed his years of experience, expertly dodging through the blade swings before kicking the droid back.
He kicked it again, pinned it against a tree with the barrel of his shotgun, then pumped two shots into its torso, ripping through the thicker armor plating and spilling oil across the trunk. The bot collapsed the moment Johnson let it go, allowing the Sergeant-Major to quip, "You tin cans oughta learn we Marines ain't easily spooked!"
Two of his Marine buddies pushed up, Battle Rifle and MA40 thundering while the Misfits moved up to flank. Meetra smiled, then looked to Six, who shouldered his DMR and sniped two Super-Battle Droids that were about to push through shrubbery in order to try and kill them. Meetra followed up the shots by utilizing Force Speed and cutting them in half with her Lightsaber.
She was a bit surprised to see the Spartan had kept up with her, while Ordo was running up to join them. All three paused as two Clones were gunned down on the spot by a trio of normal Battle Droids, which the Jedi quickly dispatched by using the Force to squash them into heaps of scrap. She ran forward and her hand shot out again, a burst of electrifying lightning arcing from her hand and wrapping around a platoon of around thirty Droids.
The devastating burst of energy overloaded the Machines' processors, bursting their chests and internal wiring as short-circuits cascaded. She pushed past the droids and cut down three more with rapid swings of her lightsaber before the first of those she'd destroyed with that shot of lightning fell to the floor.
She shifted her lightsaber in a flash, deflecting another pair of bolts toward a Droideka. Six was quick on the uptake, charging the machine and sliding right into its shield. The barrel of his rifle wound up pointed at its chin. The gun barked a second later and the shot burst circuitry and oil, the shield soon folding in on itself and vanishing.
Richard followed up by appearing behind the Destroyer's bondmate as it was rolling in, grabbing it mid-roll and doing a quick pirouette before throwing it back at another group of Droids, which broke them and sent it flying into a tree. Two Clone troopers finished the Droid off with bursts from their blasters as the troops continued the advance, with Meetra gazing up at the sky from amidst the canopy.
A white flash, followed by a rippling explosion filled the sky. A second later, Roland reported over the com, " Reinforcement deployment may resume at your order, General Surik. We're all ready up here… " while the cheers of the Infinity's crews echoed over the communication system. She smiled at that, happy to finally be able to call down extra backup.
She looked at the city to their far left and ordered, "Negative on the Reinforcements yet, Roland. We have another enemy Anti-Air Battery situated farther behind the city that we're working to take out. Keep them on the hot-seat though. Once it's clear, we'll send the request. Do feel free to send anything SEAD you might have so we can focus on just surrounding the city, though."
" Heh. Roger that, ma'am. Air Support's en-route. "
"That solves one problem!" Richard quipped, ducking into cover and reloading his rifle. He shifted his aim and fired at a Sniper droid in a tree as the wail of fusion and ion engines filled their ears. Overhead, a pair of Longswords flew in low as the thunder of the planet's anti-air flak gun echoed, explosions shaking the fighter-bomber of the UNSC Navy.
Its bomb bay opened, revealing what looked to be a cruise missile. It lowered and released, guided on its path by the signatures of the Droids and their anti-air battery as the fighter veered off. A distant thump filled the ears of the soldiers, muffled by the gunfire around them, followed by a pillar of smoke rising high into the sky.
Two Y-Wing bombers dived in next, dropping their own payloads at the target and turning that specific chunk of mountain into glass before banking up and powering their engines to the maximum. Meetra had watched the procession of aircraft sweeping over the area, their supporting starfighters doing a final sweep for enemy fighters…
Then, she felt the air knocked out of her lungs as one of her Clone Troopers pounced her. She felt the sizzling heat of a plasma bolt skim over her head and saw the interrupted scarlet beam strike and set a minor fire in a tree. She looked at the Clone as he stood to his feet and fired his blaster with one hand, then said, "Guess you missed that one, ma'am!"
"Was a bit busy watching the airshow!" And it wouldn't have hurt me either , she first spoke, then thought to herself. She also thought, At least it saved me the necessity of fully explaining how I live yet , before her thoughts shifted to proper words, "Thanks, Trooper. You have a name or number I can call you by?"
"Sir, the boys call me Flattop! Mostly due to my haircut," He quipped, before ducking into cover as a B1 shot at him. Meetra deflected one of the bolts right back at the droid, striking its head, then nodded to the clone, smiling. He saluted and said, "Just doin' my job, ma'am!" before he poked out and fired again.
Six and Richard approached the woman while Johnson beat down another pair of Super-Battle Droids with his boys, with Six commenting, "Gotta keep your four-thousand-year-old head down, else we might be the reason the Jedi get pissed," as a joke. In honesty, the Spartan's heart had skipped a beat when the bolt had skimmed her hair and nearly killed her.
"Don't worry, Six," She grinned confidently, "I've faced worse."
Richard added, "I don't think we wanna know what you mean, ma'am…" then he looked to Ordo, who simply gave a nod of approval at that. None looked to know what a being four thousand years older than any of them would've seen to warrant such nonchalance when faced with the prospect of dying. She was truly a special case.
Meetra's shoulders sagged, however. She told them, "Yeah, nevermind…" before radioing, "Thanks for the backup, Roland. Tell the troops they're clear to proceed with deployment. We will mark spots on the BattleNet Tacmap as we see them. Be advised:Multiple hostile units are still fighting within the forest and many more may be active within the city."
As the troops continued their advance to completely surround the capital, they were meeting stiffer and stiffer resistance, to the point Meetra wondered if they were nearing anything important. Gunships swept in low, firing missile pods and cannons through the trees, ahead of the troops as the sweep continued. CAS was back to standard duty.
"... Did we ever figure out where that Artifact might be, ma'am?" Ordo asked as they scanned the area ahead.
"Either within the capital itself, or in one of the nearby abandoned temples to the Sith…" Meetra spoke, though she wondered if it was a certain, familiar Super Weapon that they had hunted for back during the late days of the Old Republic. She shifted uneasily at the thought of encountering it again, but wondered. There was certainly a feeling of emptiness hidden behind the planet's newly-flourishing life.
Ah, what being four millennia old did for one's senses, Meetra thought as she walked forward through the trees. The group walked over the shattered forms of the Confederacy's wardroids as Gunships overhead started disgorging troops at the spots they specifically selected. She could feel the weight of the world as she watched the troops land.
Vitiate's touch still permeated this planet, as did the touch of the massive superweapons employed by the Zakuul. She'd never considered just how many Empires rose and fell over the years, but, alas, it was rather impossible to catalog them all from the beginning of the Galaxy. The Force alone knew just how many of them had existed and how tiny a speck Meetra and her friends were in the timeline.
And the Force was a fickle enough God not to tell anyone about it until after they passed into its embrace. She sighed deeply as they exited into a clearing, finding artillery positions being prepared by the Troops for a prolonged siege. Clones and Marines seemed to be getting along well enough, thankfully, with the newly-minted troops of her 337th already being inducted into the UNSC's ranks with little ruckus.
She looked back and watched Victor and Ordo exchanging words. Vesna and the other Misfits walked at the back, talking with other Clones as well while preparing for what one would assume was going to be a protracted siege. Meetra, however, would be surprised by what came next. She watched a trio of men from the city emerge from the gates, hands raised. They were clad in formal wear, fairly fancy stuff, too, with gold and all.
She blinked, looked at Six and Ordo and asked, "Do people usually surrender…?"
"... Ma'am, I'm literally new to this…" Ordo spoke, then looked to Noble Six for answers. The Spartan, just as confused as them, shrugged while Richard seemed to be bringing the Civvies and/or officers over now, decloaked beside them and reinforced by a platoon of Marines. Well, this just turned into quite an interesting outing.
The Jedi Exile walked over to them, lightsaber shut off, hilt clipped to her belt and coat over her armor as she approached, a sweat drop on her cheek as she raised a hand in greeting, "Hello, ladies and gentlemen… Don't worry, we're only here looking for an artifact of sort, but we will accept your surrender…" before mumbling, "Should help shake the CIS up a little…"
The Prosecutor
The two teams, finally united under one banner for the next parts of this operation, pushed forward through the dark and damp corridors of the ship, with the others already seeing the effects of the Flood's takeover of the vessel ahead of them. Flesh pulsed from the walls like the stuff of nightmares, stretching out onto the floor with pustules throbbing and 'flora', if whatever the fungal growths were could be called that, seeping pus from between its folds.
Sev spoke, "You weren't kidding, Scorch. This place looks like hell's just gone through and redecorated it…" As they walked over the terrifically meaty floor, made of uneven bumps and even worse-looking gashes and wounds. It was then that most of them realized that this stuff was growing all over the ship's innards.
"This isn't good," Kelly mumbled as she scanned the walls, noting holes big enough for infector forms to squeeze through. The air ahead grew a little more heavy, strange, alien-looking protrusions emanating dark-green gas into the hallway. The deeper they walked, the more prevalent the fog grew, to the point where they couldn't see two feet in front of them.
Chief and Boss both ordered, "Tighten formation…" and the six other members of the combined strike team formed up closely, with the Spartans keeping tabs on their Motion Trackers. Chief asked, "Do you know the way to the engine room, or to the Bridge?" while looking straight at Boss in the fog. Cortana, meanwhile, seemed focused on trying to at least access the ship's BattleNet, going by how 'hot' he felt her processes run.
"Like the backs of our hands," Boss replied, then said, "Engine room is closer," before taking lead of the formation through the smog. They pushed forward, feet plopping onto the weird flesh-like substance below as they advanced, but there were weirdly no new contacts within the most occupied parts of the ship.
Fixer gagged as they advanced deeper, feeling his feet sinking into the muck, then mumbled, "Kriff, this is awful… Reminds me of the ship cook's slop…" as they walked forward, trying to keep the lunch he'd had when they were aboard the transport ship down. He felt a hand pat him on the back, then turned to see Scorch on his HUD.
The man joked, "Keep it in, Fixer. I don't think these helmets have evac ports…"
"You'd've thunk they'd include'em," Kelly quipped, though her voice was monotone due to her razor focus on the matters at hand. She pied every corner while Fred took the other, with Linda at the back, weapons at the ready. Scorch did let out an awkward laugh, but also decided it'd be a good idea to keep his weapon ready.
They passed through a side corridor and managed to finally get out of the smog. Air filtration systems whirred around them as they entered said corridor and found it to be closer to the side of the hull, with a thick transparasteel window showing the outside world and the flickering stars speckling the area around the ship like a Dyson swarm.
Boss stopped the group in the room, sealed the door behind them with a blaster shot and looked at his feet, noting the muck that was covering the floor had embedded itself within the soles. He asked, "How does this damned stuff spread? The ship has been missing for a while, yes, but that doesn't mean it should…"
"Flood might already be in the process of forming a Gravemind," Cortana stated rather bluntly, "Meaning the main thing stopping them from going Galactic is us. They'll take over the ship, take its components and use the Captain to re-engage the Hyperdrive. Then, God knows where they'll jump… Maybe aim for a populated planet. Maybe even Coruscant."
"That'd be a problem," Sev quipped, his voice rough, as he leaned against the wall, "Galaxy-ending according to you guys."
"Yeah, pretty much," Chief nodded, then looked toward a broken Terminal and asked Cortana, "Did you manage to decrypt anything from the Data you accessed beforehand?" while approaching it. He ran his hands over the glass of the interface, cracked and drilled by two blaster rounds, circuitry below probably melted and fused together.
"I did," Cortana replied, then switched to a Blue Team-Only channel, "And I don't think any of you are gonna like this… Based on what little I can collate from the corrupted database of the ship's com system, they called up Republic High Command when they found whatever debris they found with the Flood on them… Palpatine answered."
"The Chancellor?" Linda asked after having shut off her helmet's external mics, "What does that mean for us?"
"Transcripts, or what little of them is left? They say he authorized the recovery of the Gunship, ordered it brought to a special area of Coruscant for 'testing'..." Cortana offered, before bringing up the data on everyone's screens. Scribbles of numbers and symbols replaced what would normally have been words, but what little of it was identifiable relayed exactly what the AI had told them.
"... He wanted to bring the Flood to Coruscant," Fred mumbled, shifting his gaze to the Commandos, "Should we let them know?"
Chief sighed deeply, then told them, "Maybe when we're off this boat," before turning on his mic again and stating, "We should move. We have to destroy this ship before the Flood gains full control of it. Scorch, do you have enough det-packs to daisy-chain into a big enough blast? Destroying the hyperdrive should give us a pretty good window to leave. Even if it doesn't destroy the ship, it will be dead in the water."
Scorch sounded uncomfortably giddy at the prospect of getting to blast a hole in the Hyperdrive, answering with, "You bet your behind, Chief. I've got enough packs with me to blast a hole through the armor of the ship, so the Hyperdrive should be no biggie!" before pulling out one of said det-packs, probably wearing a dumb grin behind his helmet.
"Great, you got him worked up," Sev joked, "Won't hear the end of it when we manage to burn this place."
"Shame…" Boss said, "If it wasn't for these things, we could've preserved the ship and got it back to working order," then he showed the team to follow. Opening and closing the next door, they shuttered it behind them with a blaster bolt. They pushed out into the corridor, finding more biomass growing, though in spots instead of across the whole corridor.
The team pushed forward, eyes on their Motion Trackers as they did so, weapons scanning each hole in the wall or loose panel in case the enemy made itself known, to try and grab them from behind or something. They kept on going until they reached yet another area of the ship where there were chunks of the Biomass. The four Commandos tensed, which caused the Spartans to grow a little more wary as well.
Fixer mumbled audibly, "This isn't good. We're nearing the engine room…" as they pushed past what looked like human corpses embedded into the walls in grotesque mosaics of suffering. Added upon them were Trandos, soon enough visible as their distorted and twisted bodies greeted the group in the hallways, their bellies glowing as infectors gestated within.
Chief paused as a flicker of a UNSC IFF tag appeared on his HUD. Cortana let out an, "Uh-oh…" her voice low, but sharp. The Spartans all exchanged looks, then looked to the Commandos with concern. The Commandos nodded and already prepped their blasters, just in case whatever it was decided to swing high and hard.
When they got to the engine room, the group paused, however…
The sight of a thousand of those aliens, all clad in either Republic naval uniforms or otherwise, or turned Trandoshans stumbling in the darkness, various forms of grotesque transformation amidst them. They crowded around a central piece of technology, a large block of something dead ahead of them in the cavernous engine bay.
It and the engine ignition chambers were wrapped by the fleshy form of the Flood, tentacles dancing with purulent flowers at their tips, while the beasts below seemed to almost chitter in unison toward a central being coalescing into one monster. Chief blinked, noting the corpse of the ship's captain, his dark grey uniform stained by his own blood and the virulent touch of the flood, his body entombed in the central mass, being absorbed…
"God…" Cortana murmured, her voice cracking, while the Clones themselves seemed to be trying to hold down their lunches. Kelly, Fred and Linda looked at their CO, then looked at the enemy and then at Scorch, who was quickly chaining together the explosives for one cohesive blast. Kelly herself handed him a pack of C12 for the extra could tell both Chief and Cortana were shaken by what they were seeing ahead.
A dark reminder of what they'd faced on Alpha Halo so many years ago…