Phase 2: Rebel Strike
Within the Eternity, Cortez and Yuri are in the hangar to see the Longswords and Pelicans being worked on by the deck crew maintaining them in good condition as the two men are talking about something very random.
"Hey," Cortez said.
"Yeah?" Yuri asked.
"You ever wonder why we're here?" Cortez asked.
"It's one of life's great mysteries. Why are we here? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there a God watching everything? You know, with a plan for us. I do not know, man, but it keeps me up at night," Yuri said as both stared at each other in silence for Cortez looked at him as if he grew two heads.
"Wow, that is a lot. I mean I was wondering why bring the Eternity to fight some random rebel call here on Veil," Cortez asked in sheer disbelief.
"Oh, yeah," Yuri said.
"What was all that stuff about God and stuff?" Cortez asked.
"Oh nothing," Yuri said.
"You want to talk about it?" Cortez asked.
"No," Yuri said plainly.
"You sure?" Cortez asked.
"Yeah," Yuri said.
"So how is it going with that cute elite girl you like? Sela," Cortez teases him as Yuri is hiding his desire for the lovely yet deadly warrior.
"I mean, can you blame me? The way she moves and fights is like a work of art. Those hips, those thick hips of her when she sways and moves. Very captivating," Yuri said as he drones on into the depths of space.
"Gee, you are quite smitten huh?" Cortez asked.
"Yeah. When we got shore leave I was thinking about asking her on a date," Yuri said.
"Do Elites even do the dating at all," Cortez wondered.
"It's worth a try right," Yuri said.
"Well, good luck my friend. Hope you get your lucky,"
"I hope you get yours as well," Yuri said as Cortez got off the crate.
"Well I am going to hang out with Alisa," he said.
"See you later," Yuri said as Cortez walked through the vast halls of the Eternity to head for the Spartan section of the ship to go towards Alisa's room.
Alisa is on a tablet to connect with her female elite friend Sela via video call. She secures the channel to see a 7'11 tall slender, blue-skinned Elite woman sporting a purple robe and white headdress. "Oh good morning Alisa," Sela said.
"Morning Sela, how have you been doing?" Alisa asked.
"Not bad, trying to cull these Banished encampments on a star system but those hairy savages are on the move," Sela said.
"I know, I have to deal with some rebels on Veil. Getting weapons from the Banished," Alisa said as Sela's mandibles formed a grimace expression.
"Indeed, the Banished and Human rebels are trading with each other. I do not like this. This galaxy is getting more chaotic by the minute," Sela said.
"Yeah, in the simpler times. We would be killing each other," Alisa said.
"Sadly that wouldn't happen since letting women in the military was put it recently due to the Arbiter," Sela said as she foes value first human friend through the shared love of combat, training, and weapon knowledge among other things the two ladies have in common.
"Thankfully that happened and we could meet each other. How is Vel doing lately?" Alisa asked.
"Placing a brute skull on her wall. It was a major commander in the Banished she killed by slicing his head off from his shoulders. It was quite humorous when it fell to the ground like a ball," Sela said sounding amused by the memory.
"I bet, those Brutes are vicious. No mercy with those guys," Alisa said.
"I can second that. You should go on vacation and spend time with me in Sanghelios. The weather is fine and waters are cool to the scales," Sela said.
"Oh right, grab a bathing suit and go dripping with a walking lizard. I am in when I have the time," Alisa joked as Sela laughed at her humor.
"Speaking of which, how is your teammate Yuri doing?" Sela is curious.
"Thinking about him since the last time you saw him?" Alisa teased her as Sela failed to hide the blush on her face.
"What do you think of me, I am not a xenophile," Sela is poorly hiding her attachment with her team's scout. "Oh tell him I said hello, will you?" she asked.
"Of course, he will be happy to hear from you. He said your armor looked nice on you in certain areas," she said as Yuri stared at Sela's wide hips looking fetching in her combat harness.
"That's nice. I need to go, I hope to see you soon," Alisa said.
"Ditto," she said turning off the tablet to see Cortez coming into her room to see she was in casual clothing.
"Talking with Sela?" he asked as Alisa let him sit down on the bed.
"Well yes, she is busy killing Banished and Storm. She wanted me to hang out with her in the home world. Going to explore the beaches of the landmass," Alisa said.
"You in a bikini, that would be a sweet sight to see," Cortez said thinking about her curvaceous body especially her ample chest and big rear in a cute two-piece looking happy playing in the water.
"My scars would be out in the open. Not a friendly sight on a beach," Alisa said as Cortez grabbed her hand to hold it gently.
"Hey there here, is nothing to be shameful about your scars. These are signs of your services to Humanity and you put your body on the line to protect them. These shows you are a protector of the galaxy," Cortez said as without Six taking Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn, the war would turn out in a darker direction.
Alisa looked on with a big blush on her face as this touched her cold heart. "Damn it, he makes me melt those sweet words coming out of his lips. His sweet lips," Alisa said as she held her head. "You always have a way with words," she said.
"Besides scars build character and you have a lot of character," Cortez said as Alisa caressed the big scar on her face.
"If it's you seeing them, I don't mind," she said in a whisper.
"Oh you said something?" he asked as Alisa shook her head.
"Oh nothing," she said sheepishly as Cortez found this amusing despite being a badass assassin and a one-woman army having moments of being just a normal woman is very charming to him.
"Okay Six, of course you did," he said using his nickname based on her original callsign Noble Six.
"Goodness, anywho. Sela wants to pass on she said hey to Yuri," Alisa said.
"Oh yeah, Yuri can't stop talking about his lady friend. Those hips drive him crazy," Cortez said.
"I know someone else who likes hips too much as well," Alisa looks over to Cortez looking into his red cyber eyes.
"Well you were in the way and it's hard to resist looking," Cortez said as Alisa laughed.
"I trust you not to do anything weird. Come on, let us do some target practice on the range.
"Whoever gets the most score is forced to get that vanilla ice cream," he said as cringed at this.
"Less Vanilla and more getting cardboard," Alisa said as headed head over to the targeting range to play their playful game.
"Oh how cute," Rosenda said walking by with a playful smile causing Alisa to pout at her.
"Stop it," she said.
"So adorable, okay you can go on your gun range date now," Rose said to walk away.
"Gee," Alisa said as Cortez laughed at her cute pout.
"So adorable indeed," Cortez turned to tease her.
"Not you two. Since I like you, I will allow it," she said as she secretly liked him giving her sweet comments making her feel special.
"I am feeling lucky today. Time to test these guns," he said as they went inside to see Marines, ODSTs, and Spartan 4s using the latest military gear on the firing range.
"Too bad we don't have many Spartans on this ship. Most of them are on the Infinity," Alisa said as Fireteam Omega was doing a lot of the heavy lifting lately.
"All of these Spartan Fours are greenhorn. They are going through the Spartan Ops training mode to sharpen their skills and teamwork," Cortez said.
"You need more than VR training to be a good soldier," Alisa said.
"Looks who's talking. You were an ONI assassin," Cortez said.
"My point still stands," she going to go up to range to see various moving targets to grab onto some weapons. They got two DMRs to adjust the scopes to prepare to see who would win the contest.
"Okay. 3,2,1. Go," he said as the two began to swiftly strike the moving targets to see their scores up above their heads.
Olympia looks on with her training with her MA5D assault rifle to pepper the targets with a set of burst fire to hit them all. "Well they seem competitive," she said to walk over to the duo to see they are getting score rapidly.
Within a short while, they both managed to close but Alisa managed to win by a good margin. "Wow, good work. Well, time to go eat some bland ice cream," Cortez sighed with Alisa putting up a cute fist thrust into the air.
"You bet over Ice Cream. What are you children," Olympia said lightly.
"We were having a little fun here. Thunder Thighs," Cortez joked.
"Right, I need to work on my aim," Olympia said as she turned into a Spartan 4 several months ago with the others who were way more experienced than she was.
"You are the greenest spartan of the group," Alisa said as Olympia is the youngest of their group at age 21 years old while being a spartan for only a year to joining Fireteam and Omega recently became Omega 5.
"I will do my best not to lag behind on the honor of the Vale family name," Olympia said.
"You and Yuri have got something in common, a deep interest in Elties," Cortez said.
"Hey, my interest is research. I just find them so interesting," Vale said sounding very excitable about all this.
"Too interested," Alisa teased her.
"Don't be like that. I took a lot of time to learn the languages of Forerunner and Sangheili at an early age. I even outpace the AI in decoding alien languages," she said feeling proud of her language skills.
"You are quite the miss encyclopedia. When we see some alien stuff, we can count on you," Cortez said.
"You can count on me for that. Gladly," Vale said as she went back to using her Battle Rifle to put targets down.
"I bet she has fantasies of dino cock," Alisa whispered.
"Oh I bet, those science types are always freaks behind the scenes," Cortez said as Olympia looked over at them able to hear all of this.
"I am not a pervert," Olympia said trying to deny she has Elite sexual fantasies.
"Sure, you want to share some fluid via tongue action," Cortez teased as she blushed to hide her face.
"Quit it," she protested as they shared a laugh becoming close as teammates and friends.
Elsewhere in space, a small fleet of Forerunner ships arrives at the rebel planet of Venezia with a Composer above the planet to begin the process of making more Knights.
Didact and Warden look over at the planet in the main capital ship called the Librarian which is a massive Forerunner ship about 25,000 meters in length. "A human world which rebels against the UNSC. Pure chaos here," Warden is standing beside the Didact who sat on his chair in the middle of the bridge seeping back into his commander role.
"Humanity's greatest enemy is always themselves," Didact snaps his fingers to let the Composer begin to purge all ten million rebel humans into the machines soon to transform them into Knights to add to his massive army.
"Not a good move being in that large city fortress," Warden said.
"What is the report about finding the Guardians?" he asked.
"Right, we are piecing together location data. We need more nav data to locate them, they are well hidden," the Warden said.
"Good. We have a new source of recruits. Time to keep searching for data," Didact said as the forerunner fleet entered into slip space to disappear back into uncharted space.
Back with Fireteam Omega getting ready to push into more rebel bases on Planet Veil. Omega 1/Rosenda, Omega 2/Alisa, Omega 3/ Cortez, Omega 4/Yuri, and Omega 5/Olympia are in the hanger to get into a pelican to head for their mission to take out rebel strongholds on Veil.
"There is Banished activity here. Be wary," the ship captain said on their comms in their helmets.
"Yes madam," Rose said as she checked her SAW to pat the big machine gun tenderly with a M319 grenade launcher on her back.
"Banished and the rebels. Not a good combo," Yuri said to check his DMR with a sidekick on his leg armor.
"I heard a Spartan went rouge to join the Banished. Her name is IIsa Zane, she is the leader of another rebel group who joined up with the Banished," Cortez said as he was correcting the sights of his Assault rifle and a Sticky Denotator on his leg.
"Oh yeah, crazy nutcase got her augmentations messing her mind and drove her insane. She is a big target, the central command is trying to find and kill her," Alisa said as she was ready to take out this powerful target to hold the grip of her Assault Rifle while having the Bulldog on her armored back.
"Well, those experiment implants made this Spartan 4 as strong as a Spartan 2 in armor. On top of it, she is wearing a GEN2 armor she stole from a Spartan 4 she killed," Olympia said.
"All the more reason to take her out and add her to my body count," Alisa said as Olympia sighed at this.
"The fuck are you, a battle freak," Olympia said as they go to a section of the planet in a deep forest to drop off there.
"Good luck out there Spartans," the pilot said on the radio to give them support if needed.
"Well time to give the rebels a punch to the throat," Rose said as she led her team into the forest to see an outpost to see rebels talking with Banished arm dealers to give them weapons for their fight against the UNSC.
"Well I see some Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals guarding the dealer with the Innies," Yuri said as he looked through Zoom to see several snipers human and Jackal alike. "Lining them up," he puts rounds into the heads of the snipers to take out them.
"Those freaks show up, wipe them out," the human rebel said as a Grunt was wielding a Fuel Rod Gun to lob a green ball of energy trying to take them out.
"Scatter," Rosa ordered as they rolled out of the way to avoid the energy blast shaking the ground. Rosenda is unleashing a volley of machine gun fire to take down the Grunt.
Yuri gets hit by a sniper shot to see one-third of his powerful Overshield is gone. "Dirty rebels," he fires his shots to clip the woman in the head to see half of it is missing.
Cortez tosses a frag grenade to take out groups of humans and Grunts tossing their broken bodies across the grass and walls. The Brute pulls out his Brute Shot to let out explosive automatic fire pushing them back.
Alisa goes in to slide further with the grenades hitting her shields while grabbing a plasma grenade to toss it onto Brute. The grenade emits a powerful blue burst of plasma to destroy the shields of the powered suit while Cortez latches a sticky grenade from his handy Denotator unleashing a powerful direct blast taking down the Brute. A Burte comes in with a rocket launcher to fire at Alisa. The rocket misses but the blast sends her flying across the field.
"Hey Omega 2, you okay?" Rosenda asked on the radio as she switched to her grenade launcher to lob a frag grenade to take out a group of rebels.
"Yes Omega 1, I am fine. Just shaken a bit," Alisa said as Vale used a booster jump to get on top of a sniper tower to use her knife to take out the human shield. She uses a charged shot from her Plasma Pistol to nuke the shields of the Brute.
Rose unloads a lot of bullets from her machine gun to slice into the head and chest of the Brute dropping him onto the grass. Omega 5 rains down green plasma bolts to take down incoming enemies.
"Area cleared out, keep going," Rose said as Cortez and Alisa went forward with their MA5D rifles to pepper heavy rounds into the incoming grunts and rebels tearing into their bodies. A Brute comes in to punch Cortez to knock him into a building while Alisa avoids getting hit.
The Brute wields his Brute Plasma Rifle aka the Blood Hand to let out a rapid barrage of red plasma striking her shields which can hold off.
She uses her suit thrusters to back away to unload bullets into the Brute's shields weakening it over time. Cortez lobs a sticky grenade to strip the Brute's shields with Alisa using her Bulldog to unload direct shots into the skull and chest.
She slides while firing to slip between the Brute's legs to be behind him as the big alien drops onto the ground. Yuri is popping heads while Rose is giving suppressive fire. Omega 2,3 and 5 are pushing forward with Rebels, Grunts, Jackals, and Brutes trying to fight back but are getting pushed hard.
Rose lobs grenades to blow away enemies while Olympia fires charged shots to disable the Brutes' shields while Alisa uses her Bulldog to rip them up. Cortez sticks a Brute with a sticky bomb to blow off his head.
"Area is secured," Rose said to report to the captain.
"Gee, The Banished and the rebels. I do not like this," Yuri said as they saw the Banished gave them a ton of Covenant and Banished weaponry for them to sue against the UNSC including anti-matter bombs which are powerful enough to wipe out entire cities turning them into huge craters.
"Crazy stuff. Time to secure this stuff and get out of here," Vale said.
"Well, we will be getting some needed break time. I will be going to hang out with Sela at her home estate on Sanghelios," Alisa said.
"Have fun with that, tell Sela I said hey," Cortez said as they began to secure the area to prepare to take all the weapons from the rebels to bring them on board the Eternity with their mission complete on the planet for now.