Dust and Echoes (RWBY/Halo)
Chapter 5: Darkness Falls
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Continent Alpha Forest, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 22:07 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
John-117 could hardly believe his eyes. Just a few minutes ago, the Everest had reported that human beings were apparently spotted on the planet. Human beings that, by all accounts, appeared to be the native inhabitants. He and the rest of his team didn't believe it, instead feeling that the ODST team in the Continent Beta tundra had simply been seeing things. But then other teams across the world reported the same thing, some even reporting humans that for whatever reason had animal traits grafted onto them in a way that didn't seem like accessories. Others reported ancient stone structures and ruins that were thousands of years old, telling them that these people were here for a very long time. Then, as his team carefully went up the road in pursuit of the survivors they were following, they came across an intact body. It was shredded and heavily battered and broken, but it was still recognizable. Two arms that ended in five-fingered hands, one opposable thumb each, two legs with feet that had five toes. The face had two eyes, a small nose in the center above a pair of lips and closed jaw, complete with an omnivorous set of teeth. Outside of a small amount of body hair that they could see on the being's arms, which appeared to be male, only the head sported any significant hair growth.
There was no mistaking it now. This was a human being, likely thirty years of age, at least.
"So, what? Is this a lost colony? Insurrectionist outpost?" Hernandez asked, keeping an eye on their surroundings in case any other of those highly aggressive fauna appeared.
"It has to be. I mean, what other options are there?" Williams remarked, doing the same thing as his squad mate.
"Then how come we can't understand their language?" Bisset pointed out, taking DNA samples of the body. Part of her felt as though she was desecrating the dead, but if there was anything she had learned during the war, it was that appearances could be deceiving. To many, Grunts were nothing more than untrained cowards that fled from danger whenever it reared its head, yet they could be just as deadly as an Elite in the right circumstances. She'd even seen a Grunt pretend to surrender, only to pull out a pair of plasma grenades and turn itself into an impromptu suicide bomber. As such, while the body more than certainly appeared to be human, until they got DNA confirmation she wasn't going to make any assumptions.
"I don't know. Maybe they made it up?"
"While that is a possibility, I don't think so," Chief replied, kneeling next to the body and keeping his weapon close to his chest. "Human languages all spring from a root language. Greek, Latin, Chinese, Sanskrit, and so on. Even if they created a brand new language wholly unique to this planet, elements of other languages would inevitably appear. That didn't happen, otherwise Hannibal would've caught it by now. Which tells me that whatever languages these people speak, they didn't evolve from languages on Earth."
"Wait, are you saying that these people might've actually developed here? As in, actual human aliens?" Schmidt asked, not quite believing the SPARTAN-II. In response, the Master Chief shrugged.
"It is a distinct possibility, although I personally doubt it."
"Then what do you think caused humans to show up here?"
"I can think of two options. One, this was a lost colony during the early days of human space exploration and colonization. Slipspace travel was notoriously unreliable in those early years, and we lost several colony ships because of it. It's possible one or more might've ended up here, and over the centuries they developed their own distinct culture and technology base due to being cut off from Earth's supplies."
"That doesn't explain why we can't understand them," Li pointed out, referring to John's own statement on the subject. John nodded, then continued.
"The other, more disturbing option, is that at some point in humanity's history, individuals were taken from Earth and transferred onto this planet. Do it early enough, they could go on a completely different trajectory than our own, thus making them alien in all but name."
The ODSTs were silent as they thought over Master Chief's suggestions. Finally, Hernandez said, "So, these people are either lost colonists from the extremely early days of space exploration, or were brought here because of ancient alien bullshit?"
"Yes," Chief succinctly replied. A heavy silence fell over the group, each asking a million questions in their heads but none willing to voice them, then the Master Chief stood up and pointed his submachinegun down the dirt road.
"Let's move out," he ordered, taking back control of the situation and briskly jogging away. The ODSTs were snapped out of their stupor and jogged after him, Schmidt noticeably lagging behind due to his injuries. They all made sure to stay near him, however, and at the same time kept a close eye on their motion trackers. Six yellow dots representing their squadmates were occasionally joined by smaller white dots, denoting various wildlife that scurried around them.
Normally, they would leave it at that, however their motion tracker wasn't attuned to specify individual species. It only marked when something moved, not whether it was a soldier, a wolf, a bird, or one of those werewolves, with only the relative sizes of the dots to distinguish them. The only reason why the ODSTs were showing up as yellow dots was because of their neural interfaces syncing with the motion trackers, which itself was a very recent on-the-field adjustment. As with the Covenant, the UNSC would have to come into further contact with those beasts, that way they could tune their motion trackers to differentiate them from other wildlife and have them show up as red dots. The Master Chief just hoped they would be able to do that without significant casualties, but until then, every white dot brought weapons to bear.
The soldiers carefully continued their trek down the road, coming across more and more evidence of survivors. Frantic, clustered footsteps. Discarded weapons and spent bullet casings. Even the occasional body, along with ample evidence of the planet's extremely hostile fauna being responsible for the devastation. To Chief's disgust, several of the victims sported signs of bite wounds that indicated nothing less than them being eaten alive. He forced himself to move past that, however.
"Hold up, I see something," Bisset called out, coming to a halt on top of a tree-covered hill. The team stopped immediately and went prone, crawling over to her position to have a look. There, on the road was a group of survivors numbering no more than thirty. Men, women and children, all of different ages and apparent ethnicities, and they were being funneled into a walled village by a pair of lightly-armed guards.
"Does that lady have bunny ears?" Hernandez asked, his voice filled with confusion. True to the ODST's word, one of the women in the group sported a pair of brown rabbit-like ears on top of her head. Another, possibly her husband judging by how close they were keeping to each other, had deer-like antlers on top of his head. A few of the humans were shooting the animal-people cross, almost hateful looks. It reminded John of some of the looks Inner Colony residents gave to Outer Colony refugees.
"Discrimination?" Schmidt asked.
"Possibly. We don't know for certain," Chief said. "Keep an eye out for those werewolves. There might be more."
"Yes sir," the ODSTs replied in unison. Silently, they watched the village, recording everything their helmet cams could pick up. Thanks to their built-in magnification, they were able to better see what the apparent humans looked like, and with each passing second Chief and the ODSTs were more and more convinced that they were, indeed, human. Their faces, posture, the way they verbally spoke to one another if the flapping of their lips were anything to go by. More importantly, they could see that these people were afraid. A handful of lightly-armed guardsmen were standing on top of the wall, searching for any sign of hostilities. Given what they had seen of the monsters that plagued this planet, they had every right to be cautious.
"Contact! Fifty meters!" Li called out, pointing with his M7-S towards the tree line on the opposite side of the road. True to his word, they saw shadowy figures vaguely shaped like animals rushing towards the village walls, only this time the creatures weren't just the werewolves. This time, they were joined by a variety of other monsters in varying shapes and sizes. Some looked like large bears covered in bony spikes, others like boars with curved tusks that dug into the ground. There were also strange, bipedal dinosaur-like creatures that none of them could quite pin down. All of them were unnerving though, especially with how they zeroed in on the village with wide, open maws and their blazing red eyes boring into anyone they saw.
Immediately, the village guards rang an alarm and began firing their weapons at the creatures. As they expected, the weapons used were far from military grade. Single shot rifles and shotguns rang out into the night, trying to cut down as many of the monsters as they could. They were joined by more rudimentary bows and crossbows, and some even grabbed large polearms to stab into the creatures as they tried to climb their defenses.
Master Chief and the ODSTs, however, focused their attention on what the creatures were doing. Their numbers were staggering, numbering at least thirty, yet what was most unnerving was how unnatural they were acting. Animals coming into conflict with humans was nothing new, both on Earth and their many colonies, but those were disputes born from humans infringing on their territory or young. Other times it happened due to a lack of food, and while there were cases of wild animals attacking humans for seemingly no reason, those were rare.
But those attacks weren't done mindlessly. Predators, as all these creatures seemed to be, operated on similar instincts no matter which planet they came from. They didn't besiege a position, nor did they continue an attack long after it became apparent that they stood more to lose by attacking than retreating. If you're attacked by a pack of wolves and you put down a few in self-defense, the rest will usually get the message and back off.
These creatures weren't doing that. Despite the number of them that were being put down, albeit with great difficulty by the defenders, they kept coming. They were throwing themselves head on into the fortifications, not caring about any of the wounds or injuries they were receiving. It was as though they didn't care and all they wanted was for the people hiding behind those walls to die. In some ways, it reminded John of the Covenant. No matter how many of their soldiers or ships they destroyed, they kept attacking humanity, seeking nothing more than their utter destruction.
"Jesus Christ…" Li muttered under his breath, watching as the village defenses started to visibly show their wear and tear. Cracks and dents were beginning to form on the wall, which seemed to embolden the creatures as they redoubled their efforts.
"They're going to die," Bisset whispered in horror as the villagers' screams grew even louder.
"We're not just going to watch this shit, are we?!" Williams angrily shouted, his body shaking.
"Our orders are to observe, not interfere," Schmidt replied, although his tone of voice betrayed that he, too, was unsure of what to do.
"Bullshit! Those people are human!"
"We don't know that for certain."
"Well, I'm certain! Just as certain that I became an ODST to protect people, not to sit back and watch them get eaten by monsters!"
Schmidt said nothing, but John could tell through his subtle body language that, deep down, the ODST agreed with his comrade-in-arms. So did the others, and although John didn't show it, he agreed. His hands clutched his weapon tightly, and his eyes narrowed into a cool rage. Then, as the wall threatened to break, a particularly large bear that the ODSTs had dubbed a 'werebear' slammed into a section of the wall that a guardsman was standing on top of. He lost his balance, and with a short yelp he fell off the wall and onto the ground. Immediately he was swarmed by the creatures, and his screams were cut short as they tore him apart. Claws and razor sharp teeth shredded the man, and the ODSTs could only watch in utter horror.
At the same time, Chief's mind stilled and his thoughts drifted back to his many engagements on human colony worlds. Worlds that had been assaulted by the Covenant. Most of the time, the aliens slaughtered whoever they found through a plasma gun or sword, including orbital bombardment. But sometimes, a particularly cruel fate awaited people who were captured by the Covenant. He had seen the remains of victims who were thrown to half-starved Grunts and Jackals, as well as what the Brutes liked to do to their captives. Even the rest of the Covenant seemed disturbed by what the Brutes did, and right now as he watched the creatures eat the man alive along with a few other unfortunate souls, he was reminded of that chilling fact.
He looked at Sergeant Li, who was already staring at him through his polarized visor. A silent conversation ensued between them, one that only leaders could share. Then, after a moment, both men nodded and turned back to the slaughter. Li holstered his submachine gun to his hip in favor of the sniper rifle strapped to his back, and flicked the safety off.
"Prepare to engage." There was no hesitation from the soldiers at the Chief's solemn command, all of them immediately acquiring targets. As far as the Master Chief was concerned, they had their orders from Admiral Cole to not be seen. But, as a soldier under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Space Command, there was another standing order that they had to abide by. One that they could follow in concert with Cole's command.
"Open fire," Master Chief ordered right before the Sergeant aimed his sniper rifle at a werewolf that had just scaled the wall. It was about to swing its mighty claws into a woman when a single shot rang out and pierced its eye. It staggered for a moment, then fell off the wall and turned into a cloud of dust. As the village defenders looked around to find where the shot came from, the monsters did the same, but before any of them could press the attack, the Master Chief and the rest of the ODSTs opened fire with their submachineguns in short, controlled bursts.
Continent Charlie Lake, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 22:10 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
"This is Sierra-058! Lieutenant Gamal is down and we are under attack by hostile fauna! In need of immediate extraction!" Linda yelled into her comms as she aimed her sniper rifle at yet another of the massive wasps that had been assaulting them. She fired two shots into its thorax, the 14.5x114mm rounds tearing it apart into a spatter of black ichor and white bone-like chitin. The wasp disintegrated into dust immediately after, but Linda was already moving to her next target and firing again.
The entire mission had officially gone FUBAR. Just a few minutes ago, Linda and Lieutenant Gamal were discussing where to go next when the buzzing from the floating islands reappeared. This time, not only did the rest of the ODSTs hear it too, it was joined by a chorus of reverberating wingbeats. Their motion trackers lit up with numerous white dots, each the size of a human, and it was then that they saw it. The source of the buzzing came from a wasp that was several times larger than the largest Drone Linda had ever seen. Its body black with white bone-like chitin covering it like armor plates, and a pair of red compound eyes stared at them with what could only be described as pure hate. Three sets of legs extended downward from the sides, and two pairs of red wings flittered from its back. To complete the intimidating display, the wasp clacked its massive mandibles threateningly, and immediately the soldiers realized they were not welcome.
Then more of the wasps showed themselves, and just as Gamal gave the order to fall back, one of them fired its stinger from its abdomen into Gamal's gut. It pierced the ceramic-titanium composite plates like it was nothing more than paper, then pulled it and the unfortunate ODST back towards it with an organic tether attached to the stinger. Linda immediately fired her SRS99 at the wasp as the ODSTs got over their shock, but Gamal was already gone by the time his lifeless body hit the ground as the creature dissolved. After that, the rest of the wasps swarmed them, meeting the gunfire head on.
"Jesus Christ!" Private Beck cursed as he slapped a fresh magazine into his submachinegun, firing at an oncoming wasp as it dived towards him, fully intending to grab hold of him with its legs. The M443 FJL rounds instead popped its head like a balloon, allowing Beck to continue his retreat along with the rest of their men. Her men, Linda mused as she was officially the most senior of them at the moment.
Another wasp reared up, obviously intending to fire its harpoon stinger at them, but Linda wasn't about to give it the chance as she fired a shot into its head. The body fell to the ground and disintegrated into dust, and she continued to fire the rest of her magazine at any targets she could acquire. She fired four shots before reloading, and four of the wasps simply ceased to exist.
It wasn't enough, however, and Linda knew it as yet more of the wasps emerged to give chase. Swapping her empty magazine for a fresh one, she barked at Jameson who was taking cover from behind a thick tree.
"Jameson, fire a grenade into that cluster!" she ordered, taking down four more of the wasps as they tried to swoop down on her.
"Yes, sir!" Jameson replied, pulling out a M319 Grenade Launcher and firing a parabolic 40mm grenade. The wasps flew around it, but Jameson merely released his hold on the trigger to allow the primed explosive to detonate. A ball of fire and shrapnel pierced the insects, shredding their wings and causing them to fall to the ground with heavy thuds. This made them easy targets for Privates Beck, Anderson, and Foley to finish them off, while Linda focused on the still flying yet clearly disoriented wasps above them. She fired a full magazine into them to finish them off, then pulled out a M9 fragmentation grenade to hurl into a wasp. The grenade emitted a smoke trail as it soared towards the wasp, striking its head with enough force to send it rearing back. At the same time, the grenade was lodged in its mandibles, and it promptly exploded with enough force to kill both it and a few other wasps that were in its immediate area.
"Fall back!" Linda ordered, covering her men as they retreated further from the swarm. They would run a few yards then turn around to fire their submachineguns at the seemingly innumerable creatures, which Linda noticed with alarm kept coming after them no matter how many they felled.
"What the hell are these things?!" Foley yelled, sidestepping a swooping wasp as it came for him.
"Demon Drones from Hell!" Anderson guessed, diving behind a rock to avoid a harpoon stinger. As it was pulled back, Anderson broke cover to fire his entire magazine into it, shredding the chitin and killing the creature.
"Goddammit! Two mags left!" Anderson shouted as he retreated to the LZ. As Linda put down a few more, she noticed that the rest of the team was also running low on ammo. Only her sniper rifle was strong enough to kill them with only one shot, but even then she had to aim for the head or upper thorax. Otherwise, even with half of its body missing, it wouldn't care and kept trying to kill them, faster if anything else without the extra weight.
"We should've swapped the M7s for MA5s," she said just as she fired the last round in her magazine. As she reached to reload, from the corner of her eye she saw a wasp fire a harpoon stinger straight at her. The world seemed to slow down as her body reacted. Years of training and experience, compounded by her extensive augmentations caused her to undergo what she and the other SPARTANs affectionately referred to as 'Spartan Time.' She sidestepped the harpoon-stinger completely, causing it to embed itself into the dirt harmlessly, but instead of backing off she grabbed the organic tether with both of her hands. She yanked the creature towards her, which wasn't expecting such a quick response and so barely put up a fight. Linda then clotheslined the wasp, causing it to flip in the air and land on its back, where she finished it off with a stomp to the head.
"Juliet 115, we are in desperate need of extraction," Linda called out as she picked her sniper rifle back up, reloaded it, and fired at another wasp as it flew down towards her. It crashed to the ground with half of its head missing, and Linda was already aiming at her next target when a bright spotlight illuminated the swarm. The D77 Pelican opened fire with its M370 autocannon, shredding the wasps as the 70mm depleted uranium rounds tore through their defenses as though they weren't even there. They were followed by a salvo of missiles, causing what remained of the swarm to evaporate into a cloud of dust.
"Come on, we gotta get outta here!" the copilot yelled out as the Pelican turned around and opened its aft bay doors. She was manning a mounted M247 machine gun, aimed outward as they saw more of the wasps emerge.
"Dear God, how many of these things are there?!" Beck yelled as he climbed aboard. Linda didn't answer, instead firing her sniper rifle until she only had one magazine left and the rest of the team was aboard. Then she turned around and climbed into the troop bay, the copilot covering her with a hail of gunfire from the mounted turret.
"Go, now!" Linda ordered, choosing to remain standing to instead face the creatures while clutching a handle and aiming her sniper rifle from the hip. Not having the time to reply nor close the aft doors, the pilot throttled the engine as hard as he could, causing the Pelican to lift off.
"Shit!" the pilot cursed as their flight was cut off by another swarm. The dropship veered sharply to the left, momentarily throwing the soldiers off balance. The copilot was nearly thrown from the tactical aerospace lifter, but Linda was able grab hold of her and keep her in place.
Flying as fast as it could, and with both the nose-mounted autocannon and the mounted turret on the back firing non-stop, the Pelican flew across the treetops. The swarm, which seemed to grow ever larger by the second, was surrounding them now, throwing themselves against the Pelican and even firing their harpoon stingers into its hull. The Pelican's thick armor plating was strong enough to prevent actual hull punctures, luckily, but each impact was creating noticeable dents and rattling a craft designed to deal with anti-aircraft fire and atmospheric reentry.
Linda, having resupplied herself with the Pelican's spare ammo stores, fired over the copilot's head. She was joined by Jameson firing his M319 out the back, firing grenade after grenade at the wasps. At the same time, Linda's mind raced to try and find a way out of this life-threatening situation. Then, she spotted the floating islands covered in the highly volatile crystals they had stored in the Pelican, and an idea sprang to mind.
"Troopers, grab the crystals and start tossing them out! Pilot, take us back to the islands!" she ordered.
"What?! But that's-!" he protested, but Linda interrupted him.
"I know, but if we get enough of them close to those crystals, we can take them all out at once!"
"Yes, sir," the pilot replied, clearly not happy with the order but complying regardless. The ODSTs, however, caught on to Linda's plan much more quickly, and they were already hauling the crates of crystals to her.
"Throw when I say!" Linda shouted, firing her weapon and downing several of the wasps. Jameson nodded, holding the first gingerly as though it were a newborn. When Linda reloaded, she shouted, "Toss!"
Without missing a beat, Jameson threw the crate as hard as he could. The wasps paid it no heed, but Linda was already aiming and fired a single shot into it. As she expected, it exploded with gravitational force, both pushing the Pelican forward as well as scattering the wasps while killing many.
"Toss!" Linda ordered. Jameson tossed another. This time, the wasps tried to avoid it, but Linda fired again. To her surprise, the crate exploded into a cloud of blue gas that her helmet picked up to be at a temperature of negative 210 degrees Celsius. Any wasps caught in the blast radius was frozen solid, causing them to fall to the ground and shatter into countless pieces.
"Oh my God, we had that on board," an ODST muttered as he handed over the third and final crate. The Pelican, meanwhile, neared the floating islands, and judging by the increasingly evasive maneuvers the pilot was doing, there were many wasps trying to down them. Linda figured that they must've landed near their nest, but their aggressive behavior went far beyond mere protection of territory. It was something else entirely, and it got a soldier killed.
"Toss!" she once again ordered. Jameson tossed the last crate out, with the wasps again moving to evade. Anticipating this, Linda fired much more quickly, causing the crate to explode into a ball of fire. Her helmet picked it up at 2,800 degrees Celsius, and the flaming bodies of the wasps fell into the water below.
She was down to one round now, and they were deep in the heart of the wasps' domain. Nearly every square meter was occupied by a wasp, however she was focusing not on them, but on the crystals protruding from the floating islands that surrounded them. Most were the purple giants visible from shore, and she thought about shooting one of them, but then she estimated the sheer size of the blast that could result from the massive formation, let alone the devastation if a chain-reaction were triggered, and wisely stayed her hand. Instead, she peeled her eyes for smaller crystals separated from their enormous neighbors by a hefty buffer of stone.
Finally, nestled in between a scattering of deep blue crystals, Linda saw a lone spot of red. It couldn't have been larger than her closed fist, and trying to hit it while flying at top speed and avoiding all of the wasps would be difficult. But she didn't despair. Instead, she calmly leveled her rifle, took a deep breath, and after a moment there was a gap that existed for only a split second. It was all she needed, and she fired.
The round flew through the air, slipping between the wasps by a hair's breadth to strike directly against the red crystal. It briefly shone brilliantly, then exploded into a ball of fire. The force resonated with the surrounding crystals, and after a brief glimmer of light they followed suit. Linda tensed as the Pelican, and more importantly the wasps, were thrown astray as ripples shook the air, but thankfully the reaction did not continue to consume everything. Rocks and fire and water ejected from the collapsing cliff face, but while the Pelican was able to recover and stay ahead of the deluge, the wasps were left tumbling in their wake. They were burnt, crushed, and finally swept out of the sky entirely by the impromptu rockslide and waterfall. The combination of elements that Linda unleashed simply erased the entire horde like God's own fly swatter, and they'd be next if they didn't get out of the aerial ravine.
"Go, go!" she yelled, seeing an opening. The pilot, not needing to be told twice, flew through the gap and left the floating islands behind. A few of the wasps that survived at the back of the pack tried to give chase, but the Pelican was too far gone and rapidly climbing in elevation. There was no hope of them catching up, and so they stopped and angrily fluttered in place.
It was then that, from the dust cloud that formed from the explosion, Linda saw something else emerge. To the ODSTs' audible horror, it was yet another of the wasps, only this one was the size of their Pelican. Perhaps larger. It glared at them, then audibly sent a spine-tingling screech in their general direction just as the aft bay door finally closed.
"That must've been the queen," Linda noted, flicking the safety back on and holstering her sniper rifle onto her back.
"No kidding," Beck muttered. "Thank God we didn't fight that…"
Linda nodded, then turned around to face the ODSTs. Their helmets were now depolarized, their expressions frozen and wracked with exhaustion. Soon however, as the adrenaline died down, they couldn't help but notice that they were short one man, and their faces fell. Linda felt tempted to remain silent, feeling that this wasn't her squad, but as the ODSTs one by one looked at her, she felt compelled to speak.
"I only knew Lieutenant Gamal for a short time," she said in a quiet, respectful tone, "but he was a good soldier, and I was honored to fight alongside him."
The other ODSTs nodded in agreement, but didn't say a word otherwise. The copilot, feeling the remorseful atmosphere, silently went back to the cockpit, leaving Linda alone with the sorrowful soldiers to grieve.
Continent Alpha Desert, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 22:30 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
"Ramirez! If we make it through this, I'm going to kick your ass for jinxing us!" Sergeant Gonzalez yelled at the top of his lungs as he and the rest of the soldiers sprinted across the sand.
"Why is this my fault?!" Private Ramirez replied, firing from behind his back while continuing to run.
"You talked about giant worms! Well, we got a giant freaking worm on our asses!" Gonzalez yelled. From behind them, the aforementioned giant worm was slinking through the sand, its massive maw swallowing everything in its path.
"Where does the mouth end and the face begin?!" Hicks shouted, tossing a few grenades behind him that exploded inside the worm's gullet. If it did anything, the creature didn't show it, continuing its advance towards the soldiers.
"I think it's all mouth, corporal," Fred pointed out, swapping to his rocket launcher and priming its tubes.
They had been running from the worm for the past ten minutes, roughly. Fred and the rest of his soldiers were observing a village centered around an oasis. The villagers, much to their surprise, were human. Some had animal parts, and as reports came in from around the planet, it was pretty much confirmed that these people were, in fact, human. After that discovery, which Fred knew the scientists at ONI would pore over as soon as they got word of it, they remained hidden among some rocks and kept observing. At first, everything was calm, although the villagers were understandably nervous.
That nervousness turned into outright terror when the sand erupted. At first, Fred thought a sinkhole had suddenly opened up. According to their scans, much of the sand laid over layers of limestone and other porous rocks. Get enough rain, and a sinkhole could easily open up and swallow everything around it with absolutely no warning. Instead of a sinkhole, however, a large black mass rose out of the sand. Fred's MJOLNIR measured it at nearly thirty meters in height, its worm-like body covered in white, bony plates of armor that had red streaks running down its side. Its head opened to reveal a massive gaping maw lined with razor sharp teeth, the inside of which was pitch black. A single red eye filled with what could only be described as hatred stared at the village as the monstrous worm roared. The sound was bone-chilling, and a fearful wail erupted from the village as it prepared to attack.
Almost immediately, Fred came to several conclusions. One, those villagers were human. Two, as a soldier of the UNSC, he was sworn to protect humans. Three, that worm was a threat to those humans, and if no one intervened they would all die. Four, he was in a position to intervene. As such, it wasn't hard for him to make the decision to come to the village's aid, and he had his team open fire from their position.
The tactic had worked, drawing the worm away from the village as the UNSC soldiers hastily retreated. Unfortunately, the size of the creature disguised how fast it was, and the marines were doing everything they could to simply keep ahead of it.
"Claudius 221, we need immediate air support! Danger close!" Fred yelled into TEAMCOMM as he and the ODSTs leaped off of a rock outcropping. They landed with a roll, dropping a grenade each and continuing their retreat. A moment later, the worm burst through the rock, swallowing the grenades which exploded inside of its mouth. Once again, it did nothing, only now the soldiers were running out of grenades. The SPNKR might be able to put a dent in it, but Fred wasn't confident enough in his ability to fire it while retreating.
Then, much to his surprise, the worm stopped momentarily to spit a glob of a sticky, green substance towards them. Fred was able to pull himself and another ODST out of harm's way as the glob harmlessly struck the hot desert sand, then it began to fizzle and smoke.
"That thing spits acid?!" Satou yelled.
"Apparently!" Fred replied, picking the sergeant up and running ahead at full speed. The other ODSTs continued to do the same, and they were doing all they could to keep moving.
Unfortunately, he might not have a choice soon. The ODSTs were running out of steam, and soon they'd start to slow. If they did that, the worm would surely kill them all, and so Fred stopped, turn on a dime, and aimed his rocket launcher at the center of the worm's mouth. He pulled the trigger once, shooting a single M19 102mm surface-to-surface missile that collided with the roof of the worm's mouth. Unlike the grenades, this explosive got it to react and it reared upward with a roar a pain.
"Go, go!" Fred yelled, turning back around to sprint ahead. He quickly closed the distance and passed the ODSTs, once again entering the front of the pack and nearing the butte that their Pelican had landed on. It was already hovering in place, and as soon as the creature entered range, the dropship fired its nose-mounted autocannon and unleashed a salvo of missiles at the same time. The ordinance struck, covering the worm in a thick cloud of dust that obscured it from view.
"Let 'em have it!" Fred ordered, firing his second rocket. The ODSTs fired their weapons into the dark cloud as Fred stowed away the spent weapon, pulling out his M7-S and adding his bullets to theirs. A cacophony of gunfire filled the air, and only when everyone's weapons clicked empty did it cease. They stepped backward a few paces, reloading their weapons and keeping them trained on the slowly dissipating cloud.
"Oh, thank God," Ramirez said as the cloud gave way to reveal that the upper body of the worm was completely gone, having exploded from all the force sent upon it. The soldiers let out a cheer, and even Fred couldn't help but smile.
Then the back half of the worm rose out of the sand, turning around to stare at them with pure anger and revealing yet another mouth.
"Oh that's bullshit, man!" Corporal Abbad shouted as the soldiers resumed firing. This time, the worm burrowed under the ground, the bullets harmlessly striking the sand as it disappeared from sight. For a moment, Fred thought about continuing the attack, but he quickly thought better of it and hastily motioned for the Pelican to hover overhead.
"Claudius, drop a line! Marines, latch on! We are leaving!" Fred yelled, waving his arm wildly while sweeping his head for any signs of movement.
"Acknowledged, Sierra-104," the pilot replied, opening the back doors and dropping a thick, self-guided cord out towards the ODSTs. The soldiers quickly latched on, and the Pelican flew away as fast as it could. Its momentum carried them forward, the copilot reeling them in as Fred continued to search for any sign of it.
"Where is it?!" Gonzales shouted, dangling in mid-air with the cord continuing to draw them in.
"I don't see it!" Satou replied just as the first of the ODSTs entered the troop bay.
"Negative on my end, too!" Ramirez added. One by one, the other ODSTs responded the same way just as they were finally pulled in. Fred was the last, and only when the doors closed did he allow himself to react.
"Hold up, I see something. Hundred meters, westbound,' Claudius 221 called out. Fred shot his gaze towards the cockpit and walked over, where he saw a massive dust cloud form around the second head of the worm. It roared angrily in their direction, but they were too far away for it to do anything to them.
"What are we going to do, sir?" Sergeant Gonzalez asked, looking up at Fred's expressionless golden visor. Fred, meanwhile, continued to think, then gestured for the Pelican to move forward.
"Leave it. Would rather we save the ammo," Fred said. No sooner had the words left his mouth when the worm roared one last time, then it sunk back beneath the sand.
"Tracking… It's gone, sir. Can't see it on my sensors," the pilot revealed. Fred, his brow furrowed, nodded, then returned back to the troop bay. The copilot moved to the side, allowing the bulky SPARTAN the space he needed to maneuver, then the copilot entered the cockpit and closed the door behind him. Fred stat down on one of the available benches and coughed, then turned to look at the ODSTs.
"Well, that's not something you see every day," he said, earning a slight chuckle from the soldiers. As the Pelican rapidly accelerated and ascended through the atmosphere, Fred couldn't help but think about how lucky they were. They managed to complete their mission without any casualties, despite being attacked by an enemy they knew nothing about. And if what he suspected was true, he doubted the other teams were so lucky.
'Wonder if John's luck rubbed off on me today,' he thought, then he turned his head back towards his men. They looked back through their depolarized visors, and he nodded approvingly.
"Well, I'd have to say that was a pretty successful mission. When we get back, drinks are on me," he offered, and at once the ODSTs cheered in approval. Of course, the only drinks they'd be able to get was filtered water, but after running for their lives through a god forsaken desert, that sounded like a sweeter prize than any liquor to them.
Continent Epsilon Southern Coastline, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 22:40 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
Kelly was hurled into the wooden shack, shattering it into thousands of splinters and sending the sheet metal roof falling to the ground. Her shotgun, firing a shot wildly into the air, flew out of her hands and bounded along the floor, stopping its momentum near the front door. The inhabitants screamed in fright, huddling close to each other as the father, Kelly assumed, placed himself in front of his family in order to protect them. She otherwise paid them no heed, however, as she instead focused on the massive black crocodile that had attacked her.
Calling it a crocodile was more than a stretch, Kelly admitted, although it was the closest thing she could think of. It had the general shape of a crocodilian, but instead of a body covered in brown or green scales, it was pitch black. Only white osteoderms broke up the monotony, lining up and down the back and shoulders like pieces of armor. She knew that was the case, as quite a few had noticeable bullet holes bored into them. Its tail was covered in four blade-like thagomizers, and red lines trailed down the face, tail, and shoulders that only served to highlight the yellow eyes. Eyes that distinctly lacked any pupils at all, which was admittedly unnerving to look at.
The crocodile hissed and tried to snap Kelly up in its jaws, but she leaped away, making sure to place herself between it and the terrified family of humans. When it tried to attack again, Kelly cupped her fists together and slammed them atop its head, dazing it. She then leaped on top of its head, using all of her immense strength to keep the mouth closed by wrapping her entire left arm around its snout. With her free hand, she pulled out her M6S and emptied the entire magazine straight between its eyes. Rather than kill it, the crocodile hissed and thrashed before it suddenly rolled violently to the side. It clearly hoped to knock Kelly free, but she kept her grip, continuing to fire every bullet she had until the gun clicked empty. Undeterred, she threw the weapon to the side and unsheathed her knife, then began repeatedly stabbing it into the open wound on the animal's forehead. Black ichor spewed in every direction, and she only stopped when it finally stopped rolling. Its back was facing the ground, pinning her underneath it before it evaporated into black smoke.
Without missing a beat, Kelly kipped-up onto her feet, her knife's blade pointed out as she swiveled around for any signs of movement. Around her, the yellow dots of her squadmates went in and out as they finished off the other two creatures that had attacked them. Seeing that the coast was relatively clear, Kelly allowed herself to let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. It was then that a spark of pain traveled up her chest, and she hissed before feeling around.
'Yep. Definitely a broken rib. Probably more,' she thought, trying not to agitate it. Her legs throbbed, and another wince escaped her before she heard the racking of a shotgun. Slowly, Kelly turned around to look at the terrified family, the father having picked up the weapon as she was fighting the crocodile. His eyes were wide, and the mother and child were cowering behind him as he shakily aimed the shotgun towards her.
Not willing to take the chance, Kelly rushed towards the man. Time seemed to slow as his eyes went wide. Her hand grabbed the side of the barrel and pushed it up and to the side right as he accidentally pulled the trigger. The 8-gauge pellets ricocheted off her shoulder pauldrons harmlessly, then she ripped the gun from his hands and sent him recoiling back. He grabbed his wrist and winced, but otherwise has unharmed.
Kelly wondered what to do in her current situation. First there had been the sudden attack by the crocodiles, one that had killed three of the ODSTs before they even realized what had happened. Two more sustained moderate to severe injuries, which left them all in a very precarious situation that they had to get out of immediately. But, with how the fighting spilled into the village, they were in no position to extract to an emptier landing site. The Pelican had to land here, right where everyone could see them. It wasn't an ideal situation. Neither was the fact that she was standing in a shattered home in front of a terrified civilian family.
It was obvious to her that these natives were civilian, but after taking a closer look, she couldn't necessarily call them human. All of them sported animal traits that appeared grafted onto their bodies, each one different than the last. The father had a pair of bull horns poking out of the top of his head, while the wife had her ears look like that of a sheep. The child, whom Kelly assumed to be female, had her nose look like a pig's snout, creating an odd look to say the least. More pressingly, however, Kelly noticed a spot of red dripping down the child's arm, and she realized that a small shard of wood was poking out of her flesh.
Kelly quickly came to a decision. She slowly sheathed her knife back into its scabbard, clicked the safety of her M45 shotgun on and holstered it on her back, and finally walked over to grab her hastily discarded M6S and holstered it. She then slowly lowered herself to her knee, reaching behind to a hardcase on her thigh and pulling out a small canister of biofoam.
"It's okay," she soothed, holding it up for the family to see. She pointed to the wound on the child's arm and said, "I'm going to help her. Don't be alarmed."
The family clearly didn't understand her, and when Kelly gently reached for the child they recoiled back. The father shot his arm in front of his child protectively, and the child herself shivered in fear. Kelly stopped immediately, silently wondering what to do, then came up with an idea. She placed the canister on the ground, then slowly reached up to her helmet and slid it off. A hiss of air ensued, and the natives' eyes visibly widened when they saw Kelly's bruised pale face and short brown hair tied up in a bun.
"Please," she repeated, gesturing towards the daughter and picking back up the biofoam canister while leaving her helmet on the ground. "She's injured, and this can help her."
The natives looked upon her in astonishment then, slowly and with a hefty amount of suspicion, the child gently forced herself past her father's arm and walked towards the SPARTAN-II. The father reached out to stop her, but she ignored him and kept going to Kelly, eventually stopping a few paces in front of her. Tears were running down her face, both from the pain as well as the fear, then she slowly lifted her hand from her wound. Kelly was able to get a clearer look at it now, and after a few moments of study she gently grabbed the arm and held it steady. She then grabbed the debris sticking out of the girl's body and gave her a gentle look, one that the girl could easily read. She nodded, and Kelly nodded back before quickly pulling the shard out of her arm.
The girl grit her teeth and grunted, and the father prepared to come forward before Kelly grabbed the biofoam can and placed the nozzle against the wound. She squeezed the handle, and a steady stream of white, bubbly foam shot out and filled every square centimeter of the cavity. The girl hissed from the pain, but soon stopped as did the bleeding. With wide eyes, the girl looked back up at Kelly as she gave her a soft smile, gently patting her shoulder before placing her biofoam canister back into its pouch. She then grabbed her MJOLNIR helmet and slipped it back on, air hissing as the suit repressured and the HUD came back online.
With the family still staring at her in shock and awe, Kelly calmly walked out of the shattered abode, rejoining the other ODSTs who were nursing their wounds as well as gathering the bodies of the fallen. Lieutenant Sato was looking at her, nursing his arm as Corporal Sho kept the now curious townsfolk from getting nearer. The bodies of Vogel, Anderson, and Lewis laid across the sand, their bodies mangled almost beyond recognition. Several chunks were roughly bitten off, and Kelly forced herself not to stare at them as she instead scanned the horizon for their Pelican. Finally, she saw a pair of lights ascend above the canopy, accompanied by the roar of fusion engines as the dropship flew towards them.
The villagers covered their heads as sand whipped up from the engines as the Pelican slowly descended, rotating in mid-air to have its bay doors face inland while the nose faced the sea. Kelly stared at the Pelican then turned around to look at the villagers, including the family whose home she had accidentally destroyed. She focused on them in particular as Sato and Sho began carrying Anderson's body to the troop bay, but to her surprise she saw the father she had saved shoot a look towards the other bodies. He then tapped the shoulder of another, and together they walked towards Vogel's corpse and gently lifted it up as well. They carried him towards the Pelican, the surviving ODSTs shocked beyond words but immediately grateful. They helped bring Vogel aboard, and another pair of villagers helped bring Lewis' body to the others. As with Vogel and Anderson they carried her body aboard, and only then did the villagers back off. Kelly, Sato, and Sho looked at them, the ODSTs' polarized visors doing little to hide their gratitude before they finally sat down, exhaustion finally getting to them. A moment later, Kelly got in as well, and the last thing she saw before the doors closed and the Pelican flew off was the girl she helped looking up at her with a soft, grateful smile.
Continent Beta Tundra, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 22:50 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
Sergeant Graves felt blood trickle down his brow as his shattered helmet did nothing to protect him from the biting cold. Gunfire raged all around him as he and what was left of his squad fired upon the creatures that besieged them.
Coming to the aid of the human-occupied village may have been a mistake, he admitted as he swapped mags and continued firing, his suppressor burning brightly from the constant non-stop firing. He and his men had been observing the village, preparing to leave when several species of black and white creatures suddenly attacked it. Creatures that reminded him of saber-tooth tigers and another that seemed like an unholy cross between a velociraptor and pterodactyl attacked from both the land and air, respectively. They threatened to overwhelm the village's meager defenses, and once the creatures began literally eating the defenders and a few unlucky civilians caught in their midst, Graves decided enough was enough and ordered his men to open fire. He had hoped they would be able to pick them off from range before extracting, allowing him to keep his men safe and undetected.
That was nothing more than a pipe dream, now. Most of his squad laid wounded or dying, himself included, and it wouldn't be long before the hordes overwhelmed them. Overhead, the Pelican was firing everything it had at the monsters, trying to clear enough space for the soldiers to retreat, but the creatures were just so damn fast, and Graves grimly felt such an opportunity had long since passed them.
"Hamlet 559…get the hell out of here…" he ordered, coughing up blood into the remains of his visor while continuing to fire.
"No! We can still get you out!" the pilot shouted back, continuing to fire his autocannon while dodging the aerial creatures as best he could. Unfortunately, with how many of them were latched on and gnawing away at the engines, his best wasn't proving enough.
"Like hell you can!" Graves replied, emptying the last of his current magazine and reloading while tossing a grenade. A few of the monsters were blasted apart, their corpses turning into black smoke while doing nothing to discourage the rest.
"Dammit!" Hamlet 559 cursed, continuing to fire despite how hopeless the situation had obviously become. He fired the last of his missiles into the horde, blasting many of them apart before a sudden explosion rocked one of his engines. He dangerously lurched to the side, causing many of the flying creatures to lose their grip and fall off, some of them getting caught in the exhaust and subsequently getting burnt to a crisp. In a testament to the pilot's skill, the autocannon aimed and fired at them while regaining control, finally creating a momentary space for it to attempt a landing.
"Sergeant, come on! We gotta get the hell outta here!" the pilot yelled into the comms at the top of his lungs, opening the bay doors where the copilot was waiting, manning the mounted turret and firing away. For a moment, Graves thought he saw a flicker of hope appear. Hope that they could somehow make it out of this. That hope was dashed when a loud shriek sounded over the desolate tundra, and he turned his head to look upon the form of the largest bird he had ever seen. Much like the rest, it was pitch black with white splotches along the body and wings, the body covered in layers of thick plumage. A bony plate sat atop its head and upper beak, forming a skull like visage that looked like the face of death itself.
"Oh, shit," the pilot said, his voice barely a whisper as the bird flapped its wings towards them, sending a hail of spear-tipped feathers the size of trees that tore into the Pelican. The last thing Graves saw was an explosion ripping through the dropship, and as the ensuing concussive force knocked him away and into a deep pile of snow, everything went black.
Continent Alpha Forest, Unknown Terrestrial Planet, Unknown System
November 28th, 2540 23:10 Hours (UNSC Military Calendar)
John-117 ran backwards with his M7S on full auto. Beside him, his fellow soldiers retreated further into the forest, occasionally stopping to provide cover fire for their teammates. A horde of black, monstrous creatures were flailing after them, their bodies tearing into the earth with reckless, animalistic fury. He could see in their eyes that they wanted nothing more than to kill him and his men, but John didn't care about what they felt. To him, they were the enemy, and so he continued to pump rounds into their skulls before moving on to the next target.
At the same time, he was studying them like any good soldier. If the UNSC was going to be on this planet for a while, which he suspected would be the case, knowing more about these monsters was of paramount importance. His weapon was mostly ineffective against the larger and more heavily armored creatures, but most of the horde was small with only light armor. The lightly armored creatures were also far more reckless and violent, blindly going after the ODSTs with no regard to their personal safety, allowing the highly trained soldiers to put them down with little difficulty. In contrast, the larger, more heavily armored creatures stayed back while in pursuit, no doubt studying John and his men. That immediately marked an age difference to the SPARTAN-II. The younger one of these monsters was, the more reckless and weaker and thus more susceptible to firearms. As it grew older, it got smarter, stronger, and overall more dangerous. Apex predators if there ever were one.
Yet why they only went after humans remained a mystery to him. Humans, especially when compared to other animals like deer or livestock, made poor sources of nutrition. Too much bone and not enough fat or meat, not to mention how dangerous a human with a tool could be to a wild animal. It simply wasn't worth the effort for a predator to expend energy on a prey that more likely than not would result in a net calorie loss. During their retreat, they even passed a herd of deer, and the Master Chief at first thought many of them would break off for easier prey, but they didn't. The creatures kept coming after them, almost as though they exclusively preyed on humans and humans alone. With each passing moment, he became more and more convinced that these creatures were unnatural abominations, deserving only annihilation.
"Chief, charges set!" Hernandez yelled into the comms, waving towards his comrades from further up the line.
"Acknowledged. Continue retreat, fall back to next position," Chief replied, swapping out his mag and pulling out his M6S to dual-wield it alongside his submachinegun. He fired both weapons simultaneously at different targets, aiming for their eyes or soft flesh underneath the bone armor plating. At the same time, as the village they found disappeared from view, they saw the defenders rally and begin fending off what was left of the monsters that attacked them, and John felt a sense of satisfaction course through his veins.
He had no illusions that they would be able to destroy the entire horde, not with the weapons they had on hand. But, by providing just a little distraction and breaking off some of the aggressive creatures to instead go after them, it provided enough room for the village to fend off the rest. There would be casualties, but that was an infinitely better outcome than possibly hundreds of civilians being literally fed to the wolves. They only fired for a few minutes from their concealed location before the monsters found where they were shooting from, but by then John had already sent Hernandez and Bisset back to set up the next phase of his plan.
A phase that he and the other ODSTs quickly passed. They sprinted up and over a small wooded hill, sliding down while keeping their weapons raised towards the top. When the first of the creatures emerged, they aimed and opened fire, cutting a few down thanks to concentrated bursts to their skulls.
"Do it," the Master Chief ordered once they hit the hill's bottom. A moment later, a plume of fire and smoke exploded out of the hill from a line of half-buried C12 shaped charges. The explosion ripped the creatures apart, sending a shockwave that rippled the grass and sent some of the men stumbling off-balance. They were able to remain standing, however, and took off once again towards their extraction point.
"LZ's a click away!" Sergeant Li pointed out just as the roars picked back up. Chief looked at his motion tracker, and he saw a swarm of white dots converge towards them from multiple directions. He frowned, but kept his composure and began throwing out grenades behind him. The ODSTs, having noticed the same thing, joined the Chief by throwing grenades of their own, coupled with sporadic gunfire to thin the horde. It wasn't doing much, but it was enough to give them some relief.
"Go, I'll cover you!" Williams shouted, swapping out his SMG in favor of a grenade launcher and taking cover behind a fallen tree truck. Parabolic grenades flung out towards the monsters, exploding in their ranks as the soldiers ran past. Williams continued to fire grenade after grenade, and only when Schmidt and the Master Chief passed did he relent and get back up.
Suddenly, a large shape burst out from the underbrush to his side, pushing aside giant tress as if they were nothing more than toothpicks. The ODST turned towards it and fired one grenade, only for the projectile to bounce off its white shell and explode above it a half-second too late, leaving nothing more than a scorch mark. Chief could only watch as a large scorpion-like monstrosity ran up to Williams, who hastily attempted to roll to the side for safety. He managed to get under its snapping white pincers, but when he got back up and prepared to retreat, the scorpion thrust its tail and yellow stinger into his back. The appendage effortlessly pierced the titanium-ceramic armor, and Williams could only gurgle and futilely reach for the stinger protruding from his chest before falling limp. His vitals flatlined, and the scorpion tossed his body aside and clicked its mandibles menacingly as it advanced towards the remaining ODSTs and SPARTAN-II.
"WILLIAMS!" Li shouted, firing his SMG into its body, but the bullets harmlessly ricocheted off. In response, it snapped both of its pincers and rushed towards them with surprising speed, given its size, joined by an ever-growing sea of black that ran over Williams' body as though it wasn't even there.
John was incensed, clenching his fist tight enough to make his submachinegun's grip groan from the strain. He scowled, then pulled out his SPANKR and aimed it towards the scorpion's carapace. A single rocket shot out from the tube, which automatically rotated to prime the other before it immediately followed its twin. Both rockets slammed into the scorpion, the first cracking the shell and the second penetrating its flesh before exploding. Chunks of black meat with red insides spewed everywhere, accompanied by a rain of black ichor as the head disintegrated. The scorpion's remains stayed standing for a moment, then it slumped over and evaporated into dust.
A hail of gunfire came from the hill above the Master Chief, joined by enraged howls from the surviving ODSTs. Chief did not blame them, and after sprinting up the hill he turned around and joined them.
"Romeo 234, requesting immediate air support on my position. Danger close," Master Chief ordered, swapping out a magazine as he and the marines fell back behind the second line of explosives. Once again, when the charges went off, a large swath of the monsters disappeared into the fire and smoke. It was less than they wanted, however, and now only the older and more dangerous creatures remained. At the same time, Chief and his soldiers were running out of ammunition, which the creatures seemed to pick up on with murderous glee.
Without missing a beat, Chief fired his suppressed SMG into the nearest monster, using up half a clip to pop its ursine head and move on to the lupine next to it, which suffered the same fate. He reloaded, noting he only had two mags left, and tentatively backed up as the creatures drew closer.
"Romeo, where's that fire support?" Chief calmly asked, not allowing himself to show an inkling of fear. The surviving ODSTs under his command were showing a remarkable degree of self-control, but as the creatures drew closer and closer, their aim was becoming wilder and more driven by panic. They wouldn't last long in this state, and as Chief reloaded to his last magazine, he was greeted by the musical sound of air-to-surface missiles firing on the horde. Animalistic roars of pain echoed across the forest, drowned out by the explosions and raucous cheers from the ODSTs. Even the Master Chief allowed himself to smile slightly as the Pelican opened fire with its auto-cannon, gunning most of the horde down and sending the rest into a hasty retreat.
"Someone call for a pickup?" Romeo 234 joked as he turned the craft around and softly landed it, opening the troop bay and allowing Chief and the other four ODSTs to quickly hop aboard. Bisset had to practically carry a now wheezing Schmidt to his seat, the stress of combat straining his injuries, but with a quick nod and a thumbs up he showed he was okay. John was the last aboard, eyeing the forest as the retreating creatures peeked out from the trees and bushes. He could only see the red lights of their eyes, but other than threatening and angry growls, they did nothing.
John wanted nothing more than to gun them down then and there, but he had neither time nor the weaponry to do so. Instead, his eyes never leaving the monsters that surrounded them, he stepped onto the Pelican and sat down on the seat closest to him. He only clicked the safety on and lowered his weapon when the doors closed and the dropship lifted off, accelerating past terminal velocity and exiting the atmosphere. The crew was silent as they recovered from their ordeal, eyes drifting towards the now empty seat Williams previously sat in. John looked at it solemnly, forcing himself to look at it as he began to address the others.
"Sergeant Li, I take full responsibility for Williams' death," John declared. "It was my order to intervene, and I'll inform Admiral Cole as such."
"With all due respect, Master Chief," Sergeant Li countered, depolarizing his visor, "we all agreed to it."
The ODST sergeant left it at that, allowing the troop bay to descend into silence once again. Chief couldn't help but acknowledge Li's words, even if he didn't agree with them. He was the fireteam's leader, and the safety of his men fell upon his shoulders. The entire engagement flew across his mind as he analyzed it from every angle, trying to see if there was a way that wouldn't have resulted in a good soldier losing his life. In the end, he found that the only way that wouldn't have happened is if they left the village to fend for itself. One soldier under his command, or hundreds of apparently human civilians on an uncharted planet. It was an impossible decision, and he could only hope he made the right one.
One thing was for certain, though. No matter what happened next, the Master Chief vowed that Williams' sacrifice, along with that of all the other soldiers who died on this planet, would not be in vain.
Admiral Cole sighed, rubbing the bridge of his brow in resignation as reports flooded in from the planet. Initially, the data painted the picture that this planet, which many of his crew were now referring to as Terra, was remarkably earthlike. Core samples, atmospheric pressure and makeup. Where normally minute differences from planet to planet existed that differentiated it from their species' homeworld, there was none here. Combined with the presence of animals native to Earth, and most importantly a native population of humans that had apparently lived on the planet for thousands of years judging by the age of the ruins a few of the teams found, painted a picture that completely mystified him.
But he wasn't focused on that. Instead, he focused on the primary difference between this world and Earth. The hostile fauna that had engaged his men on the ground, inflicting heavy, sometimes catastrophic casualties. He lost both teams in Continent Delta within an hour of touchdown, their screams of panic drowned out by animalistic roars and screeches of the damned. The second team in Continent Beta was also marked KIA after they lost all contact with them. His other teams didn't fare much better, all but Sierra-104's and Lieutenant Kalib's teams reporting casualties, including a fair number of confirmed KIAs. Those creatures didn't have thermal signatures, no detectible heartbeats, and when they died, if he could even call them alive, they turned into dust. It baffled the mind, but he knew this: if this were a colonial expedition and no humans were previously on the planet, any good officer would've marked this planet as inhospitable, and no colony would have been founded until those creatures were rendered extinct. No doubt the Insurrectionists would've felt the same.
"Admiral, Lieutenant Kalib's team was able to recover a few bodies," Hannibal reported, popping up in the holotank next to him. "I've instructed her to take them to the medical bay for analysis."
"Good, good." Cole nodded. "I want the wounded taken care of first. Any study of native bodies is secondary."
"Of course, sir. I'll relay the orders at once," Hannibal said, turning his holographic avatar towards the planet and folding his arms behind his back. A moment of silence passed, then Hannibal said, "Admiral, if I may, I believe we need to discuss some of the conduct of the teams groundside."
"You're referring to their decisions to intervene?" Cole replied, to which Hannibal nodded.
"I understand their motivations. Seeing humans, much less civilians, being eaten alive is something no one should see. They've seen it enough from the Covenant as it is. But the fact of the matter is that by intervening, they disobeyed orders and put the mission, and their lives, at risk. Some of whom unfortunately paid for it dearly."
Cole nodded, then asked, "Hannibal, how many of the teams observed a village or settlement?"
"Of the ten teams sent to the planet's surface, six of them," Hannibal immediately answered. "One team on Continent Epsilon was attacked by the hostile fauna and unfortunately had their fight spill into the village, which I cannot fault them for. Of the other five, only Lieutenant Kalib's team did not intervene."
"How many of those intervening teams suffered casualties?"
"All but Sierra-104's."
"Were any of them detected?"
"I've been monitoring the planet's communications, and as of now I do not believe so. Excluding Lieutenant Sato's team, of course."
Cole nodded, rubbing his chin in thought. After a moment, he came to a decision. "I believe, Hannibal, in this instance that no disciplinary action is needed at this time. God knows they went through Hell down there, and there's no need to pile on. After they're debriefed, they'll receive a citation and nothing more."
"Of course, sir." Hannibal nodded, then disappeared in a brief flash of light. Cole continued to study the planet, folding his arms behind him. He couldn't help but feel that it was deceptively beautiful, like a rose whose petals masked its thorns. At the same time, he kept asking himself question after question. How did these people get here? How long have they been on the planet? Were those creatures always there, or only recently emerged from whatever depths of Hell they came from?
More importantly, he asked himself where he went wrong. Unlike the others, he was able to quickly find an answer, and he cursed himself for it. Cole and the rest of the UNSC had been fighting the Covenant for over fifteen years, sixteen in just a few more months. Billions had already died at their hands, and when they finally meet what appeared to be another alien race, he painted them with the same brush. It was a mistake. He should have responded to their hails, even without a finished translation, and displayed a more friendly disposition, but instead he parked his warship over their planet and waited. Cole wondered if that got his men killed, and he partly felt it did. The rest of him felt uncertain.
One thing was clear to him, though. As bad as their first impressions might have been, they had the chance to make it up. A chance that he would seize by the throat.
"Helm, find the source of that initial transmission," he ordered, typing a few icons on his holopad and uploading the first contact package he finalized. "Send this down to them. Its time we properly introduced ourselves."
"Yes, Admiral," the bridge crew replied in unison as they carried out his commands. As the transmission was sent, Cole furrowed his gaze, then turned around to walk out of the bridge so that he could personally greet his returning soldiers.
Solitas Tundra, Kingdom of Atlas, Solitas
November 28th, 69 A.G.W. 23:30 Hours (Remnant Calendar)
Qrow Branwen said nothing as the bullhead ferrying him and nearly a dozen Atlesian soldiers and a handful of scientists flew across the tundra. Instead, he gazed out the window, where the only source of light was the innumerable stars above and a faint, orange glow on the horizon. A glow that was rapidly growing in size as they neared it.
"Approaching the crash site. ETA, five minutes," the bullhead pilot announced. Qrow nodded, watching as another bullhead pulled up beside them. There were three in total, carrying a dozen personnel each, not including the pilots. He was the only Huntsman among them, but only because Ozpin barely managed to convince Ironwood otherwise. The General wanted to send his Ace Operatives to secure the crash site, but Ozpin successfully argued that sending Atlas' best Huntsmen and Huntresses to recover a crash was a misallocation of their capabilities, that they were instead more useful helping to contain the Grimm that continued to harass them. It wasn't an easy sell, but Ozpin was able to make it work.
Of course, Qrow knew the real reason why Ozpin wanted him to come along. He was just as curious about the aliens too, and if Ironwood had this way, they'd would've gone in guns blazing and shooting anything on site. Ozpin hoped there might've been survivors, and if there were, Qrow would be there to ensure they'd be treated appropriately. At the same time, Qrow did understand why Ironwood was so anxious. They detected ten small vessels, likely dropships or shuttles, depart the spaceship and scatter along the entire planet. The shuttles were too fast and advanced for their scanners and radar to pick them up properly, but before they lost contact, they counted two per continent.
Ironwood thought they were a preliminary invasion force, meant to weaken Remnant's defenses before prepping for an all out planetary invasion. Ozpin instead suggested that they were merely scouts investigating the planet. Despite the disagreement on the aliens' intentions, they did agree on one thing. The Grimm, emboldened by the blanket of fear Remnant found itself under, would likely come into contact with these newcomers, who likely didn't know of their existence. Assuming that Grimm weren't found on other planets, of course. If they weren't, Qrow envied them. Regardless, either these aliens were powerful enough to hold them off completely, which was naturally a cause for concern, or they were about to be slaughtered. Judging by the crash they detected near an Atlesian fishing village, Qrow felt he had his answer.
"Grimm. Engaging," the bullheads announced, firing their chin-mounted guns and tearing the monsters apart. There weren't all that many, mostly Teyrxes and Saybers, but a rare Solitas Nevermore shrugged off the heavy-caliber rounds and screeched out a challenge. It flew above them and shot a rain of razor-sharp feathers at the bullheads, who scattered to the side to avoid the projectiles. Despite the sudden change in momentum, Qrow kept his balance and slammed the bottom of his closed fist against the door release hatch. It shot open, allowing the freezing Solitas wind to rush inside and ruffle against the occupants. Loose clothing ruffled, and the researchers flinched at the surprise cold, but before any of them could shout a protest towards Qrow, the veteran Huntsman leaped out as the bullhead was forced to make another sharp turn.
Using the craft's momentum like a catapult, Qrow launched himself towards the Solitas Nevermore, unfurling Harbinger into its scythe configuration. He stabbed the weapon into the Grimm's neck, and it screeched in pain as he continued his momentum all the way around, carving through the unnaturally solid feathers and flesh like a can opener with a sickening squelch. With one final shot of his weapon's built in shotgun, he decapitated the Nevermore and launched back to the aircraft he jumped out of. Without missing a beat, he landed back where he originally stood, and he closed the hatch once again as the Nevermore turned into dust.
The passengers stared at him in shock and awe, one of them muttering a soft, "Damn…" under his breath. Qrow allowed himself to feel a little bit of vain pride as they continued towards the crash site. These types of situations were why having an expert Huntsman around was a good thing. That pride died as soon as they reached the crash site, and as the three bullheads shined their spotlights onto it, Qrow winced.
"Gods have mercy…" one of the soldiers breathed out as they took it in. Qrow said nothing, but he did purse his lips as he saw an all too familiar scene. The alien dropship, leaning on its side and with debris scattered everywhere around a snow-covered rock, was massive. It was easily a hundred feet long, with one wing jetting upward into the air like a shark fin. The other was shredded off, having been hurled dozens of feet away from the explosion. Black scorch marks covered its hull, but he was able to make out an olive green paintjob. What looked like four VTOL engines lined the ship and its wings, all of which sported heavy damage. More importantly, he was able to see what brought it down. Bitemarks from Teyrxes lined the hull, and tree-sized Nevermore feathers speared it like a pincushion. Red bloodstains painted the snow all around the site, and Qrow could only sigh before focusing himself.
"Let's bring us down," he said. The pilot nodded, and a few seconds later the bullheads descended. It's engines whined as they died down, and at the same time the side doors opened up and allowed all the soldiers and Qrow to hop out with their weapons or tools at the ready.
"North side clear," a soldier called out.
"South clear."
"Negative contacts on west."
"Same with east. I think we're good."
Qrow nodded, but he kept Harbinger out just in case. Feeling relatively secure, the researchers whom Qrow didn't bother learning the names of excitably hopped out, barely even acknowledging the cold as they inspected the dropship's remains.
"Look at this! It's magnificent!" one of them remarked as they began scanning it, trying to determine its composition. Qrow, meanwhile, focused on the red stains where the aliens died. He wasn't the most knowledgeable about biology, but he knew that if their blood was red, that meant they had iron in it and likely breathed oxygen. Probably didn't mean anything, but he liked to think that it might make things easier.
He walked around to the back end of the crash site, where he saw that the vessel had a large open compartment lined with seats on both sides. Two small white boxes with red crosses in the middle were thrown from their mounts on the far end, and he picked one of them up and prepared to open it.
"No, no, no! Don't touch it!" one of the scientists yelled out as he noticed Qrow. The veteran Huntsmen stopped, his hand already on the latch as the researcher ran up and carefully snatched it from his hands.
"What's the big deal?" Qrow asked as the researcher inserted the box into a sealed evidence bag.
"We have no idea what could be in those things. It's best to keep them sealed until we get back to Atlas," the researcher insisted, and Qrow crossed his arms.
"Let me guess: worried about alien germs?"
"I was actually worried about weapons or hazardous materials, but there is also that. In fact," the researched paused, then pulled out a can of disinfectant and sprayed Qrow down before he could protest. Qrow sputtered, and the researcher sprayed himself down as well and ignored the Huntsman's glare.
"You could've warned me," he pointed out, but the researcher ignored him as he carried the box back to the slowly growing pile next to one of the bullheads. Qrow rolled his eyes and continued moving around the crash site. He was drawn closer to the rock, and he noticed several indentations in the snow coming away from it. He kneeled next to one and rummaged through the snow, eventually finding a small object that was unmistakably a bullet. He flagged a soldier over and showed it to him, who immediately nodded and gathered a few of his comrades to find more.
"At least they still use bullets and not laser guns," Qrow muttered to himself, ignoring the fact that Remnant had laser guns. Experimental and only ship mounted, but still. Despite the apparent abundance of bullet holes in the snow, there weren't any casings. He chalked that up to the rounds being caseless, but soon that thought was discarded as he spotted an object half poking out of the snow. Qrow walked over and stood over it, tilting his head to get a better look before deciding to discard the researcher's 'advice' and picked it up.
The object was clearly a gun, and despite being pretty banged up, appeared to be in remarkably good shape. It more resembled a tube than anything, with a small handle at the front and a larger pistol grip in the back. What appeared to be a silencer was attached to the barrel, along with a red dot sight on the top. Along the side was a rectangular magazine, and a safety switch was next to the trigger. The only thing that moved on it was a collapsible stock, and he had no reason to believe that it had any mechashift capability whatsoever. It was remarkably lightweight and screamed military to him, but before he could even think about trying it out, he thought better of it and flagged a soldier down.
"Here, take this," Qrow said before moving on. There were a few other weapons and magazines scattered around the site, and despite them being alien in origin, he was able to recognize what they were surprisingly easily. Some looked like pistols with integrated silenced barrels, with a few scattered bullet casings around them. One oversized rifle looked like a marksman's weapon, and he even saw an Atlesian soldier heft a double-barreled rocket launcher over her shoulder, much to the protest of a researcher. Another was holding a smaller tube weapon that reminded Qrow of a grenade launcher, but he figured any confirmation and study would be done later.
It was then that he noticed a small cadre of soldiers and researchers huddling around something, murmuring to themselves. Qrow quickly walked over, pushing himself to the front where he gazed upon the half-eaten body of one of the aliens. One of its arms and legs was gnawed away, exposing the flesh and bone underneath its armored suit, but otherwise it was relatively intact. Its round head was shrouded by a helmet that had a dark, polarized visor on its front, and the rest of the suit was colored a deep black.
"I don't know about you, but this guy looks military to me," one of the soldiers remarked.
"We need to bring it back to Atlas. Run a DNA analysis," a researcher insisted.
"Do we even know if it uses DNA? I mean, it's an alien. Anything goes, right?" another soldier asked.
"As far as we know, but this is the first alien body we've ever found. Who knows how they might've evolved?"
"I still want to know what it at least looks like," yet another soldier muttered, causing the researcher to roll his eyes.
"We can do that in the safety of a lab."
"Well, I don't see what the problem is with a quick peek," Qrow said, and before the egghead could protest, Qrow reached down and grabbed the helmet with both hands. He pulled it off with surprising ease, and any protest the researcher had on his lips died as they quickly noticed the alien's head and face.
"Okay, what the hell is this?" a soldier asked, looking at the others in bewilderment. Qrow didn't blame him. With the dark hair, two open brown eyes, a single two-nostril nose over a mouth, and a pair of round ears on the side of the head, this 'alien' looked unmistakably human. A male human, to be precise, judging by the small mustache he sported atop his bloodied lip. Part of Qrow wanted to ask if this was a sick prank, but as he gazed around the crash site of the definitely alien dropship, he quickly discarded it. This apparent human came from that alien vessel, which meant he was an alien too, or something a lot more complicated was going on.
"So, I guess those bad sci-fi movies and comic books were right?" a soldier asked with a clearly disbelieving tone.
"Let's…not make any assumptions," the researcher squeaked out. "Load him onto the stretcher. Carefully."
The soldiers did as instructed, and Qrow took that as his cue to leave. He walked away towards the rock, where he saw obvious claw marks as Saybers and other Grimm attempted to kill the alien defenders. Humanoid footprints were meshed haphazardly together with those from the Grimm, and he was beginning to see what had happened in his mind's eye. The human aliens landed on the planet, likely on a scouting mission, and after a while they were attacked by the Grimm. They tried to leave, but the Grimm shot down their dropship, and they subsequently died.
"Went out fighting, though," he whispered, then noticed a large depression in the snow as though something large was thrown into it. Feeling curious, Qrow walked over to it, then used his hands as shovels to push away the snow. After nearly a minute of digging, he noticed the dark, silvery sheen of a cracked visor. Realizing there was a body here, Qrow doubled his efforts, and soon was able to expose the upper half of the body. Unlike the first, this one was remarkably intact. Blood was leaking out in places, and he could see the white skin through torn patches of the undersuit, but there wasn't anything that suggested he was eaten alive. Through the cracked visor that stretched diagonally from the top right to the middle, Qrow was able to see part of the man's face. His eye was closed, and clutched tightly in his right hand was a pistol.
Qrow shook his head in disappointment and prepared to turn around and call for the others, then he felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. His Aura tingled, and his hand slowly reached for Harbinger's handle as he turned his body to the side. There, buried in the snow, he was able to spot the body of a Sayber laying in wait, its red eyes barely visible through the veil of white. Seeing that it was noticed, the Sayber growled and erupted out of the snow, obscuring Qrow's vision just as the Huntsman whipped out his weapon. The Grimm lunged through the air, its mouth opened wide and fully prepared to bite down onto his neck.
But it never got the chance. Neither did Qrow get the chance to cut it in half as, just before he could swing, twelve suppressed gunshots chuffed out right next to him. About half of the bullets slammed into the Sayber's head near the eye, cracking the bone armor and finally piercing the eye and brain. It slumped to the ground, and Qrow quickly followed with a downward chop to cut off the head. As the Grimm's body evaporated into smoke and the Atlesian soldiers responded to the gunshots, Qrow whipped his head to the side. His eyes widened as he looked through the alien's cracked visor to see his now opened eye. Qrow's pale red eyes met the alien's vibrant blue, and in his hand was a raised and slightly smoking pistol. He muttered something unintelligible, then the blue eye rolled to the back of his head and he fell back into the snow.
Qrow acted immediately, leaving his weapon impaled in the snow and pulling out a first aid kit he had brought with him as he yelled, "We have a survivor over here!"
[~][~]
Hello, everyone! Happy Memorial Day, and welcome to the latest chapter of Dust and Echoes. Special thanks to Jesse K and NaanContributor for all their help bringing this chapter to life. The UNSC has had their official first contact with the Grimm, and it wasn't pretty. Yet, despite how everything started, there's still hope for things to turn out alright. What will happen next? You guys will have to wait and see.
Now, for the Q&A:
Shadowstorm-Vash: Yep, I don't intend on selling the Grimm short here. They're dangerous, and pretty resistant to small caliber rounds. At the same time, I wanted to show that humanity's 26th century weapons were still useful against them. So they managed to kill quite a few, but not until suffering some pretty serious casualties. With the exception of that one team led by Lieutenant Kalib, the other ODST-only groups did not have a good time.
Guest (1): I actually intend to tell my own story with this, not rechart the RWBY canon plotline just with Halo characters. What that entails, you'll have to wait and see.
Guest (2): There will of course be references, but don't expect to see any actual characters from Red vs Blue.
kpmh2001: Happy to have you with us! To answer your question, it's a bit of both. I like to think I'm a good writer as it is, having done so for the last three years through multiple stories, but I do have two other people helping me with brainstorming / editing / writing. It's a group effort, and without their help, this story wouldn't be near as good. And yes, I have done my research. Halo is one of my favorite sci-fi universes, and I wanted to do it justice.
Steelrain66: Yes, Remnant and Earth had different languages develop, as Chief explained. At one point, I considered having them speak the same language and explain it via Forerunner Bullshit, but I thought better of it and went the route I took in Hunters of Justice where Remnant's languages, while sounding like Earth languages to us are actually completely different.
T3mp3rusMaximus: Well, I'm happy that I'm able to help you out during this trying time. Stay safe, of course.
EWR115: There will be references to Aliens and other classic sci-fi movies/video games. After all, Halo was very much based off of Aliens, and I'd be remiss to not take advantage of that.
BanzEye: The Everest is not actually atmospheric capable. It's both far too big and heavily damaged. Trying to enter Remnant's atmosphere would not do it any favors.
That's it for this time. Le us know what you think, and we hope you enjoy!
