Night fell upon Vale City and Beacon Academy. As the Sun's last beams of light faded past a scarlet horizon, the Spartans of BLUE Team readied their armament for the operation at hand. Resupplied with enough rounds to last them the night, the Spartans had also received intel of an objective change. Atlas scout troops had already verified the compound outside the city and confirmed the presence of an armed contingent of the White Fang there, including an armored vehicle of some sort. Linda had taken the precaution of bringing the better Armor-Piercing variation of her standard ammunition.
Their new objective? Scour the base clean.
The five Spartans strode to the landed gunship wordlessly, weapons in hand. Carol greeted them with a smile, waiting for them aboard next to her co-pilot. The woman nodded upon seeing the Chief had boarded with everyone. She closed the back hatch, turned on the engines and departed. At Mach speed, they'd be cruising all the way over to the drop-off point in around five to six minutes.
The five-man strike team coordinated their equipment exchanges wordlessly. Thankful they'd found Carol and her Supply-laden Pelican, the Spartans loaded extra magazines with more AP rounds, just in case. Chief pulled a case from the top netting, setting it down gently and popping it open. From it, he removed five pairs of grenades, one for each member, followed by six Asteroidea-class Anti-Personnel mines. The spider-like mines had eight arms and a singular pressure plate in the middle and were pretty much as powerful as standard UNSC Frag Grenades.
He handed the mines to Linda, who would be perching herself up on the nearest ridgeline with LOS on the target camp. She also wrapped a pair of military webbing pieces around her shoulders, with pouches for extra sniper magazines, just in case they'd need them. The Asteroidea mines hanged off the webbing too, inactive for now. She nodded, racking the bolt, while the Chief racked his own AR.
Carol poked her head past the door and gave a nod to the Spartans, all of whom stood to their feet. Chief stowed the empty explosive box back into the webbing above and all five soldiers felt as the gunship decelerated. Outside, they could see the silhouette of a forest's canopy just before they dipped below it, the back hatch opened and the five-man team jumped out, waving Carol off. Chief flicked his com to single-beam, linked it to his squad's suit systems and made several hand gestures, rallying them up.
They bounded across the trees toward their intended target, with Sam close on the Chief's right. Linda broke off on Chief's signal as they approached the target, moving to a rocky outcropping that shot out of the forest and climbing it at high speed. Her acknowledgement light winked green, allowing the Chief and the four others to continue their bounding advance toward the target.
"Three guards at the gate, about a dozen more inside according to thermals." Linda reported, her voice steady, monotone.
Chief winked his acknowledgement light green at the Sniper, before signaling a halt right at the tree-line. The four Spartans actively scanned the area ahead, their armor Heads-Up Displays linked to Chief's own via the Battle Net. Linda broadcasted her thermals with the help of Cortana to the other Spartans. The compound was a fenced-off, previously abandoned civilian building that resembled an early power station of some sorts. Wires strung high above a series of old transformers and coils, running through open ports into the side of what was pretty much a large concrete block with boarded up windows.
The fences were old, easily breached. Chief hummed, looking toward the first Fang Guard sat in the middle of the road, before he motioned to the three others with him to follow. Also sat near the gate was the vehicle. A buggy, modified with a single, old heavy machine-gun of some kind on top. Chief knew it was old because he could see the rust on its sides and even on the barrel. Above it and the other guards was a single lamppost that provided light to the gate and the gatehouse's outside.
He looked to the rest of his team, then gave the signal.
Like shadows, the Spartans moved forward. One more hand signal and the light above sparked and exploded. A vapor trail hung in the air, coming directly from Linda's position. The White Fang troopers didn't even get to hear the reverb of the gunshot before Kelly and Sam were onto them with knives. Chief kicked down the third one and planted his boot into the man's throat, before throwing his own knife into the machine-gunner of the vehicle.
Cortana spoke, "There should be a Fuse Box in the guardhouse. It's gonna let us kill the lights outside and inside."
The radio of one of the guards crackled to life. A voice over the com inquired of their location just as Chief gave Kelly the order to kill the lights. Him, Fred and Sam moved forward to prepare to breach the building, which had two stories and a series of hallways and Rooms where the enemy was situated, if he was reading Linda's thermal scans right. The moment Kelly had pulled the lever, the three men kicked the door in, with Chief tossing in the first fragmentation grenade.
Right into the hands of one of the guards. The man didn't even have time to scream as the grenade went off, splattering him across the walls. The Spartans, now rejoined by Kelly, moved in, weapons raised. Another Guard came around the corner, firing his rifle wildly toward them. He was filled full of lead moments later. The four Spartans moved together toward the first door inside. They could hear Linda snapping off shots from her rifle, though it was muffled by the concrete walls.
Kelly opened the door just enough to slip a grenade in, before shutting it. With a couple screams and an explosive THUMP, Kelly pushed through the door and put two buckshot shells clean through the gut of a discombobulated survivor, before feeling bullets spark off her armor. Following her in, John and Sam both fired their Assault Rifles, killing another couple of White Fang, a woman and a man, both with lizard-like features prominent, who were sat at a pair of communication consoles.
The Supersoldiers then fanned out of the room, back into the hallways, and split into teams of two. Sam and John moved together to the next room on the floor, waiting for their Motion Trackers to confirm enemy movement inside. Finding nothing, they kicked the door down, scanned it thoroughly, performing a three-point sweep, then left again, moving to the next room.
Gunfire filled the hallway and the rooms as the Spartans cleared more and more of the rooms, killing almost half of the present White Fang forces, while Linda kept the upper floors pinned with accurate Sniper fire. The confused screams of the men and women inside were tuned out by the Spartans as they moved forth, doing their jobs. Sam only broke the silence to remark, "It's good to be back in the saddle..." as they cleared the last room on the bottom floor. Carefully, the Spartans took to entering the main stairwell.
Kelly, who was on point with her shotgun, signaled a halt. She took a knee in front of the door, feeling up the sides. She found the door loose and, upon listening closely with her enhanced Faunus ears(both of which still hurt while under the helmet), with the added boost of her Armor's own audio-visual enhancement suite, she lightly tapped on the door. She heard the faint twinge of a wire, then looked to the Chief and gave one hand signal.
Grenade Bouquet.
Chief nodded, then gave a signal to Sam. The explosives expert of the team changed positions with Kelly, sliding his rifle on his back as he worked to defuse the threat from this side of the door. They could hear the screams of the men from up above. Linda cued her microphone and tapped it rhythmically. Morse Code, Chief soon realized as he listened in. 'Reinforcements. Single aircraft. Dozen shooters. Landing on roof'.
They listened in, hearing the whirr of a Bullhead craft's engines as it moved in to land. Some of the folks must've been able to rally up and call for backup from another camp via Radio. That just doubled their threat factor. Good, the enemy was gonna need the backup. That meant they were scared. Chief caught Sam's acknowledgement light winking green. A light, high-pitched snap later and the Spartan pushed the door open, letting Kelly take point again.
The four Supersoldiers streamed up the stairs, rifles aimed up and around, ensuring that no enemy caught them by surprise in the narrow stairwell. Their Motion Trackers found a line of soldiers heading right for the door ahead as they made it to the second floor. Taking up positions to surprise the enemy, the Spartans levelled their rifles on the doorway, each ready to meet the foe.
When the door opened and the first WF trooper stepped through, he stopped, his eyes growing wide as his mask fell off his face. The Spartans didn't hesitate.
The deafening cannonade of four heavy weapons spitting out lead startled the others atop the more open top floor, causing one to run in fear to the outside as the Spartans fanned out into the room. The Fangers who wanted to survive hid behind the consoles or transformers, or perhaps behind steel tables. The Spartans pressed their advantage as the enemy fired blindly toward them, with Sam and Fred fanning out to the left, to greet the enemy coming from the rooftop landing via the outer stairwell. Sniper shots cracked the air, breaking windows and killing any targets Linda could spot.
Kelly and Chief peeled right, with the shotgunner firing from behind her CO at the enemy, while the Chief changed out his empty mag for a fresh one. The Spartans accurately placed bullets to heads as they cleared the last of the troops on the top floor, before moving up the outer stairs to the landing pad with the gratuitous use of grenades and expending ammunition. They spread out across the landing pad, watching as the enemy aircraft tried to take off, before Cortana noted, "Chief. I saw some computers downstairs... Maybe we can get some info on what they were doing here."
The Chief nodded, before tapping Fred on the shoulder as a signal that he's leaving him in command for now. The trio of Spartans peppered the gunship ahead with gunfire, blasting at its engines as it tried to lift off, calling in the raiding team. A snap-pop and the shattering armored glass of the cockpit, however, put an end to the man's cry for help, his head a fine red mist.
"Another gunship, coming in," Linda reported as jet engines roared behind them.
The aircraft buzzed the building, flying past them and moving to land in a clearing. Linda murmured something to herself over the Com, then flicked it off as Chief clambered back to the top and waved to them. They followed wordlessly down the stairs and out of the building, moving to reinforce Linda as they heard the snap-pop of her Magnum pistol. A roaring explosion came to them and they soon realized that must've been one of the Asteroidea mines.
Kelly was the first to cross the distance between them and Linda, reaching the girl's position and watching her fight. Linda was utilizing the mines as explosive frisbees, basically. She threw them in the middle of a group of three or more enemies and snapped off a shot with her pistol, detonating the explosive payload somehow. Rushing in, her Spartan comrades aided her in clearing out the enemy's forces.
Left of this raid were a dozen alien corpses and a lot of spent ammo casings...
More aircraft came to check in on their downtrodden camp, finding naught but the corpses of their dead and a crashed airship nearby, while the Spartans had made their escape aboard their Pelican. The team watched from aboard as more enemy Bullheads flew in, bearing the markings of the White Fang. The Pelican then traversed over a ridge and disappeared off of the enemy's Radar array.
The UNSC Aircraft came in for a touchdown at the landing pad of Beacon after the short flight home at Mach speed. Even Chief had to admit he was surprised the brick that was the Pelican Dropship could hit Mach, but then again, he probably shouldn't have been. He gave approving nods to his team as they descended out of the vehicle, with Carol and her co-pilot close behind them. Sam and Kelly high-fived, while Fred patted the blonde boy on the back and Linda gave her own approval in the form of a raised right thumb.
The five-Supersoldier team approached their cottage barracks, being met by the bustle of NOBLE Team, Cal and Daisy working to fix the place up something proper, including setting up the bunks and stuff that the Headmaster had promised them. Daisy spoke, "Welcome back, you five... How'd it go?" and watched as John and the others entered, taking off their helmets.
"Went off without a hitch," Kelly replied, grinning, her floppy right ear twitching.
Daisy suppressed the desire to squeal in joy, as a good Spartan does, before simply smiling and stating, "Good to know. Hey, Chief, you alright?"
"Yeah," He replied, "I have to get a report of Cortana's findings compiled onto my Scroll... Send it to the Headmaster, alongside a SITREP."
"You worried about that?" Cal asked from below a reinforced table she was assembling. "The Headmaster seemed nice enough, to be honest, though if you got anything that worries you, it's better if you tell all of us."
"It's fine, Cal," He nodded, setting his helmet onto one of the assembled tables and sitting down on the reinforced chair. The wolf-eared sharpshooter shrugged and nodded, choosing not to press the matter further. The group then watched John climb the stairwell up to his room, with Kelly and Sam both looking at the man with a bit of worry. Something had the Chief spooked and that was enough to make them uneasy.
Sam sighed, then said "I'll go talk to him."
The others nodded and turned back to their work, while the man climbed up the stairs. He stopped in front of John's door and knocked once. "Come in," John voiced and the man stepped inside, watching as the Chief hid something behind him. He audibly sighed as he saw Sam enter and close the door, before revealing Cortana's chip and Cortana herself from behind him. He spoke, "Sorry, Sam. Thought you were Penny."
"That's fine," The blonde boy nodded, "How're you two holding up?"
"... Sam, I feel like we're the ones who should be asking you that," Cortana remarked, a smile on her face.
"Oh, I'm doing fine," He shot back, smiling too, "I came to check in on you two. You seemed a bit under the weather there, John. Anything we should know about the files?"
"Cortana was just decrypting them," The Chief answered, "The little we have so far tells us that there's definitely more than one base and that the operation in Vale is a massive one. Lots of armed personnel alone in those bases, lots of resources too. They had access to multiple Bullheads and clearly enough Dust ammo, so now it's just a matter of figuring out what their end-goal may be."
"Aha," Sam nodded, slowly catching on, "Didja send the SITREP to the Headmaster?"
"I did," John nodded. Cortana rolled her holographic eyes, crossing her arms.
"Aaand...?" He raised a brow.
"He doesn't want us on the case right now," Cortana answered in John's stead, "And big man over here feels like the work we just did wasn't mission accomplished. Now, let me make it clear, I agree with him. The little we've read of the White Fang online tells me they are an organization meant to be forging forward to bring a peace between mankind and the Faunus, by any means necessary. To them, that means terror attacks and the likes, too, but... Nobody seems to know how well-equipped they are... Maybe general Ironwood does, maybe Oz does, but..."
"And that's bothering the both of you," Sam remarked, crossing his arms to his chest. Both of them nodded. He spoke, "Well, same here," smirking, "But we can't exactly conduct our own investigation right now, can we?"
"I'm going to guess this is about our own classes starting tomorrow, right?"
"Yup," Sam nodded, "I'm gonna give you my two cents, I think it'll be fun." And he saw the skepticism in John's eyes. The youngest of the Spartans chuckled, then said "C'mon, John. How bad can it be, honestly?"
"I don't know, Sam..." The man remarked, sighing deeply, "Security breaches-"
"Can be patched up if we're fast enough. Plus, we're Spartans, John. If there's one skill we need to learn, it's blending in with the average person," Sam said with a shrug, "Frankly, I figure a school's a good enough environment."
"You do realize we're in a school meant for people who fight monsters, right?" Cortana inquired. Sam nodded, smiling still, to which Cortana slowly began, "... Which would make us blend in easier, even with Spartan armors, because we're going to be training alongside them... How did we not figure that one out?" She looked to John, who actually gave a half-smile to his friend.
"Heh," Sam nodded, "We've all got to get some rest. Tomorrow's the big day... Man, I hope Beacon classes can fit us."
"We still have to run recovery operations, Sam," Chief noted, "There's a lot of IFFs left over."
"We'll deal with that in the afternoon!" The boy replied as he walked out of the room, "Good night!" and he shut the door. Chief and Cortana looked to one-another, then back to the door. It was strange to see Sam so excited for something as strange as classes, though, to be fair, John understood. Most of their own classes were related to their work, so any sort of curriculum that differentiated from those was... Interesting.
Not to mention they hadn't been in those classes for... What... Almost 40 years at this point?
Maybe he was right...?
They'd see.