Night fell as Noble Team moved in, blades drawn or scoping in the place from a distance, to keep the others appraised. Jun had gotten them a basic understanding of the target base's patrol patterns, enough so that Six, Carter and Kat had no issue first entering the place from below. VISR systems whirred on in their helmets and Jun directly and wordlessly linked his own feed to them.
He was tracking them from about half a kilometer out, with Emile and Jorge in reserve in case things really went tits-up. Six looked over to her comrades, signaling with two fingers that she was heading for the bungalow holding the pilots. Carter nodded, then tilted his head to the left, denoting his and Kat's target:The landing pad. Ducking behind cover, the Spartan girl watched the enemy's patrols march past her, two Fang troops to be exact.
Slowly, she crept her way forward on the catwalk that linked the four main bungalow-like buildings, her knife in hand and her mind set on the objective and it alone. She was focused, treading carefully and not even making a sound despite the weight of her armor. She'd reached the bungalow where the pilot and their crewmate were. Slowly opening the door, she caught a glimpse of a Fang soldier sat in the kitchen just opposite her, down the hall.
She was with her back turned, so Six slipped past, keeping an eye on her MT and on the live feed from Jun's sniper. Pushing past what seemed to be a pseudo-living room with an active holovision and a single, drunk occupant, the Spartan pulled the wooden door open slowly. Inside, she caught a glimpse of the pilot and co-pilot, both clad in UNSC overalls bearing the markings of the Pillar of Autumn. The Pilot, wearing a scowl, looked up, then gasped as she saw Six.
The Spartan put one finger up to her helmet's outer speaker, then slowly crept up behind the first Guard, while the second was staring out of a window. She grabbed the man, one with donkey ears as features. Snap, his neck twisted, spine broken. He dropped to the floor just as Six bounded across the room and planted the blade of her knife into the chin of the second man.
The two corpses dropped like sacks of potatoes, with wet, muffled thumps. Six went to the pilot and co-pilot to free them and heard the woman speak, "Well, I'll be damned..." In a whisper, "Didn't think they'd be sending Spartans for us... Especially after we both died."
"You're not alone," Replied the Spartan as she cut both the woman and her compatriot free, "Grab your kit off the tables and let's get to the bird. We've got an RV point."
"Y'all got that call too, huh?" The woman, whom her active IFF tag now identified as 'Carol Rawley', asked as she felt her wrists. She and her co-pilot moved to the table, grabbing holsters that contained M6 Magnum PDWs, as well as the ammo for them. Six nodded, then showed them to stay quiet, making her way through again. She paused only as she saw the drunken guard standing up. He turned to face them, eyes wide and a half-finished bottle in one hand.
He stared at them with two wide eyes, his mask sat on the coffee table in front of the holovision. The trio stared eye-to-eye with the man for a good second, the tension in the air so thick one could cut it with Six's knife. Speaking of, the Spartan rushed the man, grabbing him by the mouth and planting her knife into his sternum, before twisting it and pulling it out.
She stood up, cleaned the blade off, sheathed it and drew her rifle, then thumbed her com and said "HVTs secure. Moving to extract," and getting green lights from his teammates. She thumbed her weapon's safety afterward and turned the corner, entering the main hall, looking toward the kitchen, which was now empty. Quickly, she signaled the pilot and co-pilot to haul ass, opening the door right into the nose of a White Fang soldier.
Well, shit, Six thought, there went their cover.
She scoffed, then said "Stay behind me," before putting two bullets into the Soldier's two pals and stomping his face in. The gunfire rang loud enough to wake whoever else was around, including the others on patrol. Six soon saw them converge on them, waving her HVTs toward the landing pad and firing her rifle as the Fang bastards turned the corner to greet her. Some managed to fire bursts, but the rounds pinged off her shield. She ran after a bit more suppressive fire.
"Six, sitrep." Carter demanded as gunfire echoed in the background.
"I imagine the same shit that happened to me happened to you, boss. We ran face-first into a bunch of Fang patrol troopers returning from their night run and are now coming toward you," She replied, garnering a sigh out of the Commander as she, indeed, saw tracers flying between the gunship and a White Fang squad that had managed to spot them hanging by the landing pad.
"Great..." Carter sighed, "Three, four, five, haul ass. We're evaccing the moment Six gets our pilots here!"
The replies came in the form of automatic gunfire, a sniper's shot ringing out and a fragmentation grenade detonating in the middle of one of the bungalows, followed by rapid-fire Shotgun shots. Within moments, the team and their pilots had rallied up next to Pelican Echo Four-Nineteen and started firing at the Fang troops advancing toward them. Carol, meanwhile, said "C'mon, let's start her up!" to her co-pilot.
Bullets rang and pinged off the armored hull of the Pelican, Kat stating, "Well! This went in an interesting direction!"
"Least we know we can still shoot!" Emile quipped, a grin hidden behind his polarized visor.
"Captain Rawley, status!?" Carter demanded, poking out of cover and snapping off two shots into heads. Jun's sniper rang from farther back, a round punching through five lined-up idiots of the Fang before stopping in the sixth, the leader of that patrol. Jorge hefted his MMG and let loose a stream of rounds into the target area dead ahead, sweeping the walls and trees and probably nailing a few of the bastards.
Carol shot back, "She's almost set! Haul ass aboard, now, Spartans!" then she cheered vehemently as her aircraft's engines roared to life, the spew of jet-wash stirring even the water below the landing pad.
"You heard the lady!" Carter barked, "NOBLE, mount up! Last one out hits the lights!'
Six, furthest ahead and closest to Emile, tapped the shotgunner on the shoulder. He nodded and said "Go, Six! I'll be right behind you!"
"I fucking hope so," The girl stood up, drawing her Assault Rifle and raking the line with bullets. Several more rounds pinged off her shields, partially draining them, before an icicle formed on her shoulder. She growled, feeling the weight of the sharp shards of ice poking outward from her right shoulder, before she smashed it open and moved, firing to pin down the enemy's leader.
Jorge mounted up as Carter, Kat, Jun and Six jumped in too. He hanged by the door, firing whatever was left of his rounds and shouting, "Emile! Move it! I'll cover you!"
"Thanks, big man!" nodded the probably-psychopathic shotgunner, holstering his weapon and running toward the aircraft as it started lifting off. He jumped, grabbing onto Jorge's hand and calling out to Carol and her co-pilot, "LAST ONE IN! HIT IT, CAP!" and feeling the contents of his stomach shift as the aircraft powered its engines to full, rounds bouncing off the armor. The aircraft's engines roared, now muffled by the closing rear hatch, before it took off with a start and a boost out.
"That was close," Stated Emile, "Good flying, cap."
"Thanks, Spartan," Carol replied, her helmet now on her head. She was a dark-skinned woman, probably of African-American descent and wearing a smirk, "We heading for the RV? Or are we gonna pick up a few more people on the way?"
"There's more?!" All six Noble Spartans asked, garnering a grin from Carol. The bird swung by, her sensors powering on as the pilot and co-pilot started scanning for other IFFs. Indeed, as Carter came up to the cockpit, he saw several dozen more IFF tags all around. Kat joined up front too, taking her helmet off and grinning while Carol tracked a few targets.
Up north, where the grass and trees turned into an eerie, bright red color, two young Spartan women fought with blades, out of ammo, against hordes of Grimm. Above them, the roar of a Pelican's engines, followed by the thunder of a chaingun. The two looked up, grinning as they saw Spartans rappel out, rifles in hand and opening fire. They tossed the girls some extra ammunition the pilot had in the harnesses above the chairs.
"Well, this is a nice surprise!" The one wearing red noted, dropping the empty mag from her AR and slapping in a fresh one with a satisfying click, "Do we know you, folks?!"
"Not yet!" Carter replied, firing into the horde, "Captain Rawley!"
"Already touching down, commander," The girl replied, "Everyone aboard! We gotta swing further out and nab whoever else I can fit on this old bird!"
"No need to tell us twice, cap!" Daisy replied as the Spartan fireteam, with their two added members, held the line against the hordes of Grimm. The girl swore to herself, then balked "What the hell dragged them to us!?"
"I don't know," Cal replied, dumping mag after mag from her pistol, "Not gonna be our problem anymore, anyway!"
Daisy chuckled as the team slowly boarded the now landed Pelican. Once the last one was in, again, the bird took off at best speed, toward, possibly, the next drop-site. Daisy and Cal both breathed sighs of relief, sitting themselves down at the opposite end of the 'blood tray', as the troop bay of the Pelican had affectionately been nicknamed, then the former looked to Noble and said "You guys saved our asses."
"What one does for a fellow Spartan," Emile quipped, "We're Noble Team, by the way."
"Never heard of you. What's the world like? We win yet?" Daisy inquired, pausing only to watch the reactions of the others. She shifted uneasily in her seat, then stated "Oh... You're like us, then."
"What do you mean?" Kat asked, her expression turning sour, but not because of Daisy... Because of memories.
"Dead and revived, not sure how fucked the world we left is," Daisy retorted, part angry as the memories flooded back to her mind, of Ralph and the others, part sad and even bigger parts glad she was alive, "I know for sure I died. Got three needler rounds right in the breastplate and died from blood loss. Cal?" She looked over to her friend, to see her uneasy already, looking between the Spartans with her helmet still on her head. Daisy sighed. Right, she probably should be more tactful. Looking to Carter, who seemed to understand their situation too, he nodded.
"We figured," Carter nodded, "Didn't know that was the case for you two as well..."
"Maybe it'll be the same for the others," Carol said from the cockpit, "I know I died too, with Jimmy over here, when our bird was shot out of the sky..."
"Transitive property applies... Means most, if not all of the people we're 'boutta find are revived dead folk," Emile chuckled darkly, "What a FUBAR situation..." and the silence was the agreement of everyone else as they processed it. Sighing, Kat sat down and turned to linking her datapad with the Pelican's systems, to get them a better understanding of how many, exactly, they were gonna find, while Daisy moved from her seat next to Cal.
"You alright?" The blonde asked her friend.
"I'll... Be okay..." She nodded as her mind raced, remembering the moments before her death. She shook her head, feeling the top of it as it started to itch again and finding nothing but the cold Titanium alloy plating of her helmet. Sighing, she shook her head and undid the seal of her helmet, figuring she may as well scratch her itch before they got home.
The moment she removed her helmet, however, all eyes fell on her. Feeling something spring up atop her head, she asked a fawning Daisy, who'd thrown her helmet off and was grinning brightly, cheeks scarlet, "What? What's wrong?" and then laying her hand to scratch the itch, only to feel something fleshy up there. Pulling her helmet up to her face and staring into the reflective visor, she saw two somethings... Two ears, both of which twitched.
"... WHAT THE FU-"
At the break of dawn, John strode down the road, Caliburn attached to his back as he and Penny prepared for their deployment. Cortana had announced that the first batch of contacts should've been arriving soon in a section of territory near the rear of Beacon called 'The Emerald Forest'. To that end, Chief had suggested to a giddy Penny the utilization of their day for clearing the local Grimm in the area.
Of course, Penny, Ozpin and Ironwood, the lattermost specifically called by Oz over, agreed. Thus, Chief now found himself aboard the transport Bullhead heading for the main clearing of valley-side forest. Penny giddily bounced on her feet as she readied her weapons, while John-to the others, Dylan, of course-readied his own weapon, switching it between mace form and gun form at will. Ruby had, of course, come to witness the fight and the trial-by-fire of 'her baby'.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" Penny squeaked, "We finally get to work together! And I get to see Wyvern's combat prowess!"
John leaned Caliburn in mace form on his shoulder, stating, "Seems like it'll be a busy day..." as his Motion Tracker detected a multitude of Grimm signatures all around their LZ. Penny nodded, beaming as her weapons, eight swords that seemingly floated on thin air, but at a closer look were tied to her via a bunch of incredibly thin, seemingly very resistant metal strings, appeared from her backpack.
"Oh, yes!" Penny agreed. Her sensor suite had detected at least three dozen Grimm very close by. Indeed, the girl still had a mission from the General. Evaluate how Dylan fought now that he had Aura added to the mix of weaponry he wielded. She also enjoyed the idea of working with one of her new friends, quite a lot in fact! She should make a mental note to ask him about if he meant it, though... That they were friends.
"Alright!" The Pilot called out, "There's a lot of stuff stirring down there and this is as low as I'm allowed to go! You two are gonna have to jump! Good luck!"
The Spartan nodded to the Pilot as the green light flashed in the hold. Penny smiled at John, then jumped out, blades at the ready, floating behind her as she spun through the air to land. John followed, boosting off the ship by utilizing his jump jets, before landing on his feet down below as the first of the Grimm, Creeps, the strange bipedal lizards of the horde, appeared from the Treeline. Cortana chimed in, "I'll keep an eye on your health and stats while you're going at'em. Pays to have the difference between you without Aura and you with Aura."
"Mhm," John nodded as the Creeps closed the distance, faster than he'd had time to aim. He switched Caliburn to mace mode. Penny's blades made first contact with the Grimm, however, cutting a Creep in half from the mouth to the tail. It started to dissipate as Penny guided her blades, now in the shape of a shuriken throwing star, toward the others.
John watched as a Grimm pounced at him and, with double his normal reflex speed, thumped the bastard with the Gravity Mace form, tossing it into its brothers, completely torn apart by the heavy impact of the Grav-Dust reinforced weapon. The Spartan looked at the mace proudly, spinning it in his hand as he could swear he heard cheers echoing from Ruby, before rushing forward.
"Wow! Okay, neurological activity spiked the moment your Aura engaged properly! I figure you still need to learn to use the thing, but... Well..." Cortana smirked, "Enhancements give you about a 100% increase right now."
John nodded. Extra boost it is, then. He shoulder-checked several Grimm, swiping upward with his mace and sending a dozen of the creatures flying, before he slammed it backward into the head of another Creep. Penny, beside him, used three of her weapons as seeming capacitors or direction systems for small, accurate beams of plasma that sliced into the horde of Creeps, while she continued graciously dancing and cutting apart Grimm with the remaining weapons.
Slamming his weapon into the ground as the grav Dust went loud, the Spartan managed to crack the soil and stone below, sending a rippling wave through and getting the Grimm creatures, among which taller, lankier wolf-like creatures known as Beowolves, to lose their balance enough for him to pummel at least half a dozen more Creeps. However, when one Beowolf managed to regain its composure, it rushed Chief, black saliva dripping from between its razor-sharp teeth.
It pounced, slashing twice with his claws at John's chest. The Spartan halted one claw and took the other with a combination of his Aura and his shield, before grabbing the Grimm and slamming it into the floor. He snapped its neck with a kick, before swiveling about and raising his hand in defense. A Creep's teeth met his gauntlet, digging into Aura and energy shield.
The Spartan spun and slammed the creature into another, forcing its jaw open before he slammed Caliburn into it hard enough to shatter the ground below. Penny followed up with a pair of cover blasts that took out two Beowolves charging the Chief from behind, while he swept under Penny and sallied into a line of Grimm, dodging, weaving and bobbing as he was trained to from youth, while laying into them with fist, kick and mace.
Noticing a flying Grimm, a Nevermore, from what he remembered, the Spartan set Caliburn to gun mode and took aim as two Creeps bit onto his legs. Penny, noticing the Spartan balancing to take out the flying threat above as it aligned itself for an attack run, spun about, swept the Creeps from Chief's leg and stabbed into them with two of her swords each, before throwing them into the line. She ducked as the roar of the Mag weapon almost made her stumble and she watched the lance of kinetic energy slam into the monster and pierce right through it, sending it tumbling to the floor.
Penny moved to Chief, taking up his rear as cover, then said "There are more than even I estimated!"
"Something dragged them over," John replied, "Keep firing."
"Understood," Penny noted, then smiled "This is fun!"
Well... John didn't want to admit, but she was right. It was entertaining, at the very least. And Cortana, going by her little chuckle, seemed to agree too. He gave a nod to the girl, switching Caliburn back to melee form before he rammed his fist right through a Creep's mouth and into whatever constituted its heart, surprisingly. The monster vanished around his arm as he pummeled into the Grimm with more speed than even he was used to.
This Aura thing was interesting.
"Well... I'm detecting certain things..." Cortana hummed, "Very interesting things."
"Like?" He asked, moving hard and fast past another Beowolf to dodge its strikes. He ducked, rolled to the left and dodged another claw from the monster, before thrusting the blunt mace right into the creature's chest, sending it flying back and staggering it, but not outright killing it. Cortana pulled up an image of his Thyroid gland implant's activity. It'd gone down quite a lot since the last checkup. He hummed, "Oh..." before sweep-kicking under two Grimm and shooting a third with his handgun.
"It's fine, just... I'm detecting hormonal activity that's not on-par with anything I've seen so far, from you, or any other Spartan," The AI noted, "I'll run more tests while you and Penny duke it out with these things."
"Okay," He nodded, feeling the rush of adrenaline mix in with his Aura as he saw a bigger creature approaching, more outright charging them. He swiveled about, switching Caliburn back to rifle mode and squeezing off another shot. Thunderclap echoed as the round punched through the massive bear's side, an Ursa as per the naming convention. It, however, ran on, the round having either overpenetrated or missed anything 'important' in the being of Shadow.
It turned, facing John, before barreling right into him. It almost knocked him off his feet, it was so strong, but the Spartan was strong enough to hold it back before it could do any damage. Penny noticed this, utilizing her weapon to propel herself forward before digging her swords into the monster. It staggered and roared angrily, knocking John's weapon out of his hand with a swipe of its claws, much to the Spartan's chagrin.
John growled, actually feeling a pang of anger at that. Unable to suppress it quickly enough, the Spartan redirected his deflected hand, balled into a fist, into the monster's belly, causing a rumble as he struck it once, then once again, then multiple times in rapid succession. Like a machine gun letting off a continuous stream of rounds, the Spartan threw fists into the monster's body rapidly and precisely, feeling whatever accounted for its bones breaking under the weight of each strike.
With each rapid-fire punch, he sent the creature stumbling back. He looked to Penny, who had extracted her swords from its side and prepared to engage it again, before barking, "Focus on the rest of the horde! I got a plan for this one!" and watching as Penny realized. She nodded, smiling, before swiveling about and raising her weapons and firing a continuous stream of energy beams.
He still had a couple grenades on his belt and this little bastard had spikes all over its body. One good punch would settle any active grenade into its skin, hopefully deep enough to... He continued punching, delivering a hard, bone-crunching and tooth-breaking uppercut into the monster's jaw to fully stun it, before withdrawing a grenade from his belt, clambering onto it and climbing to its head using the fur. After priming the grenade, he shoved it down the throat of the Grimm monster and jumped off of it, only registering the noise that heralded the detonation and the spread of both normal and bone shrapnel.
When he landed, he saw several Grimm, both Creeps and Beowolves alike, skewered to trees and the ground by the impromptu spike grenade that Chief had made. He ran back, sliding to grab his weapon off the ground and jumping to his feet to body-slam a Beowolf that was about to slash Penny across the back. He switched the weapon back to ranged mode, seeing as how they scattered much of the Grimm around with that blast.
His weapon thundered as he went back-to-back with Penny, emptying a whole magazine into his side of the horde and skewering several with each shot while Penny steadied herself and let loose staccato beams of high-power emerald lasers. She smiled, looking back to the Chief as he let loose with the weapon, firing Ice Dust rounds now and creating ice spikes below the creatures that he hit.
By the time the Spartan and his ally had finished off the horde, the Chief had expended three magazines and nearly burned out the Gravity Dust crystal in Caliburn's stock/mace-head, while Penny seemed to be panting from exertion, the shifting blade-guns smoldering and superheated, scarlet warning lights flashing on the hilts and across the blades themselves.
"Well..." Cortana hummed, "That was certainly informative. You okay, John?"
He nodded, lowering his weapon when he was sure no hostile moved anymore. He looked over to Penny, who breathed a sigh of relief that seemed to, for the faintest second, let out steam as she holstered the weapons into her backpack. She looked to John, beaming brightly, then said "You were amazing! That combat skill! That attention! The ease with which you moved!"
"Thanks," Chief replied, a bit winded himself as he slung his weapon onto his back, "You did very well yourself."
Her beaming smile grew brighter as Cortana voiced, "Your Aura level's been somewhat dented, John," And she lifted up a tertiary bar just between his 'health' and shields that showed the damage his Aura had sustained. It was in the yellow, but Cortana found it pertinent to say, "It's nothing too bad, but still... Some Grimm did catch you. And you slammed yourself into them too..."
So, be more careful next time, he summed it up in his own mind. "Also, John," Cortana started, "Contact."
The Spartan checked his Motion Tracker and swiveled about. Three golden dots greeted him, hidden in the shrubbery. He winked on an amber light twice, a question. The answer came, three green lights. IFF echelons lit up above the new arrivals as they stepped out of cover. Penny gasped, readying her weapons again, but Chief put a hand in front of her, showing her to stay calm.
The first to come out, clad in a aquamarine armor with yellow markings and a thick, reinforced, blocky helmet, stepped into the light, hauling a DMR. Following him, a girl clad in bright-grey armor with an EVA helmet, one with a wide visor, holstered her shotgun. Finally, a girl with a cream-colored armor set, helmet resembling a spider with the number of 'eyes' and optical devices attached to it, stepped out, carrying a Sniper rifle.
Penny looked between them, her face going from fear, to awe, to joy as she saw them staring at each-other. The man with the number 104 plastered on his cyan armor's shoulder stared directly at the Spartan, then looked to the redhead to his immediate left, then back at the Spartan. The man then whistled a seven-note tune through a single-beam com system in his armor, toward John. He then called out "Olly Olly Oxen Free."
John replied, calmly, "Olly Olly Oxen Free... All out in the free... We're all free."
Fred-104 swiped across his face-plate with two fingers, to which John replied with a nod again and the two approached each-other. Fred extended his hand, then said "John..." trying to stifle any sort of emotion, like the joy he felt. He'd almost failed that time and Fred usually never failed at hiding his emotions from anyone.
117 gripped 104's hand and shook it firmly, "Fred. Kelly. Linda."
"Long time no see, Chief," Kelly crossed her arms to her chest, depolarizing her visor just enough for Chief to see her face before she polarized it again.
"It's good to see you," Linda commented, leaning her sniper on her shoulder, "Especially after what the Arbiter told us."
"Feeling's mutual," Chief replied.
Fred looked over to a pit-patting Penny, staring at them with wide eyes and a happy smile, then asked "Who is that?"
"Right..." Chief sighed. Introductions.
Somewhere else, in Patch, to be specific, Sam had turned to face the man that had housed him for the better part of two days now. He thanked Taiyang Xiao-Long for his hospitality and pet Zwei on the head. Climbing onto the vehicle, all armaments on his back and a backpack with supplies of food and water by his side, he figured he was going to find his way over soon. Beacon remained the main target for his search.
It probably wouldn't be that easy though, he thought...