"Apex 5 is in contact, requesting Skyshield unit Boomer-2 at my pos-" The flat-toned voice of one of the Combine Infantry present in the area of an old, overgrown sawmill cut, replaced by the wail and screech of his systems flatlining as he collapsed, a hole drilled clean through his skull by a 7,62x51mm FMJ-AP round.
Noble Team advanced through the Sawmill's remnants. Rotting wood floors creaked underfoot as they dodged bullets and pulse rounds that ripped through the thin walls. Noble Five, Jorge, hefted his MG and let loose, fifty-caliber rounds tearing through the same wall a trio of Combine soldiers were hiding behind.
Noble One, Carter, the team's commander, utilized Hand Signals to guide his team, well aware that the enemy spoke English and could hear them. He watched the blood of the Combine units stain the wood as one of the soldiers collapsed in front of them. A second and third, though visibly damaged by the attack, popped out and threw grenades.
The scarlet, beeping, tubular fragmentation bombs landed ahead of Noble, forcing Carter back into cover behind one of the rusted pieces of machinery. He balled his fist toward Noble Six and Emile and motioned for them to flank around to the right, only receiving nods from both of them. They stepped out from their cover just after the grenades detonated.
Carter stood up and aimed his rifle. His crosshair settled onto one of the enemies and he squeezed the trigger. The round ripped through one of the opaque, blue eye sockets of his gas mask and tore through, exiting out of the other side and spraying brain matter, blood and even shards of machinery that embedded into the wall.
His buddy scrambled to his feet and opened fire, racking and firing the shotgun he hand on hand to try and keep Carter pinned. The thunderclap of a Magnum pistol filled the air and Kat, Noble Two, stepped forward. She took cover beside him and switched to Single-Beam com, telling him, "Some of them are sending pulse broadcasts of their last locations after death. Whatever the rest of Overwatch is, they're gonna be bearing down on our heads soon…"
"Gotta keep moving then," Carter spoke. He dropped a spent magazine from his rifle, loaded in a fresh one and slapped the bolt release, before standing up and shooting again. Another enemy soldier took a round, this time to the arm. The bullet punctured the body armor and clearly hit something important. Aside from blood staining the uniform of the soldier, the dark-grey and blue-clad enemy trooper couldn't hold his left arm up anymore.
He still shouldered his rifle, seemingly unfazed by the pain as he called over the com, "Razor, go sharp, go sharp-" only to cut off as Jun sniped his head clean off.
And a burst of automatic fire shot through the treeline to the team's right, forcing them all back into cover. An extra squad, maybe twenty Soldiers, appeared out of the woodwork, the muzzle flashes of their weapons lighting the underbrush. Red-clad shotgunners surged forward, firing toward Six and Emile as they tried to flank.
Emile's shotgun barked and the 8 gauge shell ripped the skull of one of the Shotgunners in half, while Six charged into the fire, grabbed the muzzle of one of the weapons and yanked it out of the soldier's hand before delivering a heel kick to the soldier's face. She felt his skull crumble underneath the weight of the kick, whatever machinery implanted in his skull shattering.
She spun the shotgun about, kicked another one back and dumped the entire remaining ammo in the tube into his vest. She saw it rip chunks of kevlar, ceramic and alien material out, drilling larger and larger holes. When it clicked empty, she drew her pistol and put three more shots into his breastplate, watching the SAPHE rounds penetrate and explode, tearing open his chest and revealing some sort of machine regulating his blood flow.
Emile joined in next, Kukri out. He cut the head off one of the Soldiers with one swing, aimed his shotgun and shot a second with it, then racked the pump with one hand and blasted a third as he said, "These bastards are tough…!" while Noble Six withdrew her DMR off her back and switched it to full auto.
She took cover beside an overturned, scavenged truck, watching the pulse rounds from the soldiers' rifles turning the metal brittle at each impact spot. She turned out and fired back, hitting one in the plate and narrowly missing another. She saw a grenade roll to her feet with the pin still in, picked it up and primed it, calling out, "Grenade!"
Emile rolled out of the way and watched the frag go out, pinging and shining scarlet. When it landed among the Combine, one of them called out, "Extractor. Fall back," monotony. He pulled out first, firing bursts from his pulse rifle, which forced the Spartans to take cover while his buddy, a soldier carrying an SMG, pulled back. The soldier then moved back as soon as the grenade exploded.
In reply, three others threw their grenades toward Six and Emile. The two immediately scrambled out of cover, Emile pulling out a grenade launcher and loading one grenade from the dozens on his belt before firing it. The shot staggered several of the Soldiers, but more laid down fire into the Spartans, forcing them into the building too early and draining their shields. Three thumps followed, the grenades detonating where the Spartans had once been.
Jorge soon rolled up beside the pair, hefting Etilka and letting loose into the treeline. Scarlet tracers washed the target area, rounds ripping apart foliage and forcing the Combine troops into cover, with one of them taking several fifty-caliber round hits to the chest before finally collapsing. His buddies returned fire blindly, while Six shifted uneasily and watched her shields slowly recharge.
Emile spoke, "Boss, we gotta get outta here! The bastards have the high ground!" as he looked at Carter and Kat pushing up beside them.
"Agreed," Carter replied as he reloaded his rifle, "Noble, leapfrog left. Keep your eyes on the sky. They might've called air support," before shouldering his rifle and firing again. More and more rounds exchanged between the forces of this 'Combine' and the Spartans ripped through the remnants of the mill, striking ancient machinery left to rot and tearing through already-broken wooden walls.
The wooden walls were more cover than concealment for the Spartans, while the enemy was trying to surround them. Carter pinged them on his HUD's motion tracker, then expanded the sensor range to fifty meters, watching maybe two dozen individuals moving around them in professional combat formations.
He looked left at their escape, a small jumpoff point that lead into a creek bed that looked like it had been drained. If they moved fast, they could slip into the creek and move through the cordon before the enemy would have a chance to encroach. A fighting withdrawal was their best option, but going by how these soldiers were working against them, they were practical and pragmatic.
He ordered, "Kat, Six, you two move first. Jorge, Jun, covering fire," then stood up and snapped off several shots toward a trio of soldiers trying to push up their way, bullets zipping past them and forcing them all into cover. One of them stood up from behind another destroyed machine and fired some sort of high-speed energy projectile from the under-barrel of the rifle.
It forced the Spartan to duck into cover and struck a wall behind him, shattering it and bouncing off at a diagonal angle toward Emile, who barely rolled out of the way. Tracking the projectile, they watched it fly off toward the forest and immediately dissipate. Six and Kat, meanwhile ran forward under the cover of Etilka and Jun's sniper, while Carter only poked out to try for headshots.
Six stopped and knelt, firing her rifle with one hand while waving Kat forward. She swiveled about and delivered the butt of her rifle to the face of one of the Combine soldiers trying to flank them, only to gasp as she saw the weapon slightly dent. The alien soldier, clad in white and bearing one baleful scarlet eye, simply took the hit and hit back.
The punch connected with Six's shoulder just as she tried to bring her gun about and shoot him. It forced her to drop her rifle. She lifted her left hand, stopping a second punch before grabbing his other hand and twisting the arm, which forced him to drop his pistol. She kicked him in the chest and watched him stagger back a single step.
Before she could draw her pistol, Jun's rifle rang loud. The 14,5mm bullet tore the side of the soldier's head open, revealing nothing but machinery left in his head. He collapsed, flatlining loudly, but the stunned Six couldn't help but stare for a second. She scoffed, shook her head to clear her mind, grabbed her rifle and gave a thumbs-up to Jun, who replied with a nod and turned around, snapping off another shot toward an enemy before descending from his elevated position and joining Carter.
With one chop of the hand, Carter ordered him and Jorge to move next, while he and Emile remained to cover them. He heard the clap of boots against dirt and watched the enemy come down upon them, bullets and pulse shots zipping over their heads. Emile aimed and fired his grenade launcher at the roof of the building, collapsing it onto the main entrance and saying, "Go, Boss! I got this!"
Propeller blades echoed as seamonster-like machines flew in, giving the Spartans a momentary flashback to the Covenant's own warships. Though powered by propellers and seeming anti-gravity tech, the fish-like craft flying overhead had two weapons:A maw-mounted pulse cannon that was charging and what looked like a beam weapon on the belly.
Carter spoke, "Leapfrog, Emile!" before standing up and moving first. He jumped into cover just as the first of the two gunships let rip with its autocannon, tearing apart the building they'd been in. The second followed suit, pinning Emile down as the burst swept right in front of him, destroying the remnants of the rusted machine he was using for cover.
Swearing, Emile jumped to his feet and watched Carter stand up to provide him cover fire. The enemy soldiers bore down on them, firing to try and keep them pinned. The enemy squad leader, an Elite, barked out, "Push up! Push up! Overwatch, RAZOR Actual deploying Viscerators for pursuit," and waved to his troops.
Before long, the whir of antigravity engines of some kind filled the Spartans' ears. Small contacts winked on on their HUDs and baleful red eyes locked onto them. Each OTA soldier waved forward these strange tiny drones, floating sawblades that advanced toward the Spartans at high speed. Emile scoffed and barked, "Gotta be kidding me!" as he and Carter moved together now.
The two jumped into the creek bed, breaking into a full-out sprint as they followed their comrades' footsteps and tracked them via the motion tracker. Behind them, the drones, 'Viscerators', continued to pursue them while the Gunships' alien propellers trailed farther behind. Boots hit the mud behind them as the enemy force began pursuit.
"Some of'em are using the high ground," Jorge spoke as the team met up. The rest of Noble had slowed down in order to let Emile and Carter catch up, with Jun only taking a stop to snipe at the Drones charging them, nailing one and watching it shatter into its basic components, a hole drilled clean through the sensor eye by the 14,5mm round.
It had hit the Elite in the rear, staggering him and causing him to stumble slightly, but the man-machine continued, relentless. He lifted his rifle and fired the underbarrel energy launcher down the corridor, which Jorge had seen. Taking a step back and letting Carter and Emile forward, the Spartan took the brunt of the hit with armor lock.
His shields shattered the moment the ball struck and exploded against them, causing a rippling shockwave that staggered the Combine troops pursuing them from above. The Spartan turned around and, as he ran backward, he opened fire down the corridor with the fifty caliber MG again. Bullets struck the dirt, mud and the Combine troops, piercing parts of the Elite's armor as it returned fire.
Pulse shots hit and heated the Spartan's plate to boiling, which meant Six moved back, now acting as a shield while Jorge fired his weapon. Even in these tight quarters, the Spartans tried coordinating to keep each-other safe against their relentless pursuers. Carter told them, "Keep moving! The ones on the high ground can't catch u-"
He got cut off as a Sniper rifle round, clearly from an SRS-99, zipped clean through the air past his ears and the rest of the squad's. The Elite in the lead of the formation had its eye pierced by that round, spraying mechanical augments across the soldiers in the rear while the shot tumbled. A second round rang out, then a third and fourth.
The high-caliber AP rounds tore through several of the pursuing Combine troops, killing or staggering them. Allied pings soon appeared on their Motion Trackers, all on the high ground, followed by the click of grenade pins being pulled out and frags dropping in among the pursuers. The explosions that followed spawned craters in the mud, which directed the shrapnel into the Troopers.
The Viscerators were next, shot out of the sky by accurate DMR fire, shattering and falling into the mud, blades and all. Finally, the thunder of a shotgun firing filled the corridor of wet mud, flechettes spraying across the area ahead. The Combine troops took cover behind whatever rock alcove they could find, firing back as one of the soldiers put a hand up to his ear and spoke, "OVERWATCH, RAZOR-4 taking command. Protection Squad is combat ineffective, SKYWATCH BOOMER-2, take over pursuit."
"Understood:Retreat order acknowledged. Squad cohesion preservation order given," The autonomous AI in charge of these units spoke, its voice as flat as that of the soldiers while the gunships roared overhead, seemingly scanning for the targets, "SKYWATCH units in area, new orders:IDENTIFY, EXCISE ANTICITIZENS."
"Oh, no, you don't," Another AI's voice spoke softly. The gunships overhead seemed to glitch out for a moment, spinning out of control as their surfaces failed. The voice then directly connected to Noble and told them, "Good afternoon, Noble. I'd suggest hauling it before those Gunships recover. I was only able to disable a minor part of their systems without giving myself away," just as another sniper shot rang out, nailing yet another Combine soldier clean through the cranium.
Noble did as asked, turning and focusing on booking it toward the allied positions. The IFF tags of the squad ahead soon appeared on their Heads-Up Displays, hidden among the shrubs with three unknown contacts among them. Said contacts soon revealed themselves to be humans clad in strange attire:Beanies, bulletproof vests, blue and white shirts and jeans.
As Carter halted in front of the leading Spartan of this team, a tall man clad in green armor, Jorge spoke up first, audibly surprised, "John?"
"Jorge," Chief nodded as the other Spartans gathered up. He told the man, "We can talk later, when we're out of those Gunships' sights. Entrance to our hideout's this way," before he waved the team forward. They began a sprint across the area, spreading out far and wide but keeping tabs on each-other to avoid giving the Gunships easy targets.
The audible whirr of rebooting systems from the gunships reached them, followed by the craft seemingly letting out sounds of what could only be described as mild annoyance. Their engine noises drew closer, as did the sound of charging guns. Kelly bounded ahead of everyone else, making the sprint to a crooked tree in three jumps, before wiping a pile of leaves away and lifting up a tubular launcher.
Shouldering it and leaning against a tree, she showed everyone to keep moving, before peering down the sight of the weapon and undoing the various safety mechanisms at the same time. As the first Gunship crested the canopy of the trees above, Kelly barked a 'Clear backblast', before hitting the trigger. A gust of wind, smoke and fire blew out of the back and a rocket launched into the sky, a contrail following behind it.
The HEAT rocket struck the gunship in the maw, causing it to slow as its cannon, now bent out of shape, nearly exploded. Kelly dumped the launcher tube into a hole in the ground and started sprinting again. The second Gunship swept in from the left, firing a burst of heavy cannon fire their way as it flew overhead.
Kelly took a hit, staggering, but continuing to sprint despite her shields flaring. She hit another crooked tree and wiped off the cover, stating, "Any time…!" over single-beam toward the Chief. Cortana replied with a short laugh while Kelly hefted the launcher and aimed for the first Gunship again. She fired and the rocket went wide this time, but caused the enemy craft to turn back.
The second didn't come in for another gun run, which made Kelly call out, "They're out!" as she jumped and started sprinting to rejoin the team, all while Emile, Six and Kat watched her tag along. Linda, Blue Team's Sniper, soon joined them all as well, rifle's barrel still smoking as she slid it onto her back. Finally, Fred jumped in, reloading his rifle.
Carter spoke, "You're gonna have to introduce us, Jorge!" a bit surprised to see just how well coordinated this little escape plan had been.
"Will do!" The Heavy Gunner almost let out a laugh as they moved. Arriving at what looked like some sort of sealed bunker door deep within the forest which had been hidden with leaves and other naturally-occurring camouflage, Noble, Blue Team and the three humans with them formed a perimeter. One of said humans, a woman, ran over, sliding her black Kalashnikov-pattern rifle onto her back and starting to twist the wheel of the door.
The mechanical connections and rusted steel began to move, creaking audibly to the Spartans as they slowly peeled back and away from their locked positions. When it clicked, signalling it was fully unlocked, the girl pulled back the manhole and said, "Alright, new Supersoldiers first," before drawing her rifle, taking a knee and shouldering it.
Carter looked at Chief, who nodded and waved to him to hurry as he joined the perimeter defense.
The Leader of Noble then looked at his XO and told her, "Ladies first, Kat," as he slung his rifle onto his back. She snorted, gave a nod of approval, then climbed inside, sliding down the ladder into the darkness below. Six followed next, giving Chief and Carter a salute, then Emile, then Jun, then Jorge and finally Carter.
Not long after, the others slid down, too, with Chief being the one to shut their access hatch and lock it tightly. Descending from the ladder, the Spartan asked, "Any losses, sir?" as he looked at the stunned Carter. The Spartan shook his head, then simply snapped a wordless salute at Chief. One to which he replied with the same courtesy.
The rest of Blue Team all saluted, too, with Noble replying again. Carter added, "It doesn't feel right to be called 'Sir'... Sir…" slightly surprised. He told the Chief, "You're the Master Chief. Sierra-117."
"I am," The Chief replied as he and the others led the way down the corridor. He seemed calm.
"An honor," Carter told him, "We've heard a lot about your exploits…"
Chief looked at him with a tilt of his head that was so slight, only a Spartan could catch it. He told him, "I'll ask later. Care to introduce us to your squad? Or should Jorge do it?" making the Commander look at the sole Spartan-II of his six-man team. Jorge chuckled, a slightly gravelly, guttural laugh. He gave a gentle tap with his balled fist on John's shoulder that the Spartan understood.
Carter told him, "Sir. I'm Sierra-259. Noble One," then pointed at Kat and said, "My Second in Command, Noble Two, Sierra-320," then he pointed at Jun and Emile, the team's polar opposites, and said, "Sierra-266, Noble Three and Sierra-239, Noble Four. You already know Noble Five and, then, there's Sierra-312."
"Noble Six," Chief spoke calmly, "Callie-312," and that caused Six to pause, doubling over. He said, "... You saved our lives back on Reach, just before the Pillar of Autumn was set to take off. I didn't get to thank any of you for the sacrifices…" before switching to a tightbeam com system and turning off his helmet's external speakers as he told them, "Cortana told me."
"Hello, Noble," Cortana spoke jovially through that same tightbeam com, "A pleasure to see you all again, especially after Aszod… I'm guessing you have a boatload of questions," and it wasn't long after that they realized this was the Artificial Intelligence they'd delivered to the Pillar of Autumn. She spoke, "First things first, we won the war… Or, well, survived it, I guess?"
The entire team seemed to freeze on the spot, with Six finally uttering her first words since their arrival. A hopeful, "We won…?" that was soon answered with a nod from Chief and the rest of Blue Team. Cortana appeared on her Heads-Up Display, smiling, then delivered to the entire team a basic briefing of how Humanity achieved its pyrrhic victory in one conflict.
"As for everything else," Kelly spoke as they walked through the tunnels and into an opening that was deeper underground, within the bunker. She told them, "Well, the human Resistance here should tell you everything you need, taking into account how the Combine works… You guys did alright, fighting off an entire army of the bastards."
"We saw graffiti referring to them as the Combine," Carter spoke as they all finally switched their microphones back on, "Any idea why?"
"Cuz they're like a giant combine harvester, swallowing up every universe and mixing all of their technologies together," The human female that had opened the hatch spoke as she slung her Kalashinkov over her shoulder by the strap. She waved at them and smiled, stating, "Name's Jess. Nice to meet you guys and girls of Noble Team."
They entered the Command Room, where some spotlights had been set up, drawing power from the Generators of the place. The woman in command of the unit was sat at a nearby makeshift desk, going through radio frequencies. When she turned and saw more Spartans, she cracked a grin and said, "Well, well, well. Our little Cell keeps growing, trooper by trooper. Always glad to see more of Chief's friends."
The entire Squad nodded. Ten Spartans. A formidable force to have anywhere during the Human-Covenant War. Chief, however, felt like they'd need a lot more if they wanted a snowball's chance of defeating the Combine outright. Considering what Linda had observed from afar in terms of actual Combine Platoon-level tactics, their troops were highly-capable.
The Transhuman Arm of the Combine Overwatch. Synthetically-modified humans, turned into the Combine's own Supersoldiers. Certainly, they were dangerous, but Blue Team and Noble were at least on par to most of them. Chief more-so worried about the moment they'd deploy an entire platoon of Elites to try and catch them off-guard.
The OTAs were employing similar tactics to the average human infantry unit, if not slightly better. Their Elites felt more like Special Forces, too. Chief thought of all of this as he watched Noble Team get settled in with the rest of this little Resistance Cell, waiting patiently to see what their next assignment was gonna be. Alyx saw him in thought, but decided to leave him alone. A lot more work had to be done.
… And when Doctors Vance and Kleiner began broadcasting to them and calling for Blue Team, well…