Disclaimer: All HALO characters not my own belong to Microsoft and Halo studios
Chapter 7: Balling New Generation
-
January 18, 2537, 1234 hours [MILITARY CALENDER]
Location: Slipstream-space, En-route to Mamore system, UNSC Sahara-class heavy prowler, Last Supper
Third Person POV:
-
Insurrectionist…
Never in his life did Tyler ever consider that he would be so happy to fight other humans again, though as much as it sounded bad, it was truly a relief, considering that this would be after almost twelve years of non stop fighting against their fanatical holy crusading Alien friends.
"We're being called to the briefing room" Cassandra informed.
Tyler raised his head to glance at his teammate, she adorned in her over half ton Olive green armor, all them were. "The others?" Tyler asked.
"Already there" she answered.
Tyler picked up his helmet which he left resting on a crate, placing it on his head as hisses were heard, the helmet being fully locked, "Let's get going"
The two SPARTANs made their way outside of the armory. Tyler had been busy inside since he had been making sure that the right equipment was available for their mission.
2535 had passed by like a breeze, while 2536 did not even feel real, there was a reason for that, and one which held zero value to the mission they were currently embarking on. Last he remembered about 2536 was that the Covenant began pouring into the Inner colonies, meaning the casualty reports would skyrocket to numbers never seen before…atleast for everyone else.
'Already 2537…I still feel like I was on Jericho just yesterday' Tyler thought, the Resolute had dropped him and his team off at the colony world of Concord where they been station for most of 2536, he had parted ways with Blue team once more, though this time it was less emotional since they all had their own battles to fight in, but him and his team would remain stuck on Concord since Leroy had kept them on standby, the inactivity hadn't rusted them at all, but it greatly affected Tyler's mental health, he had used the time on Concord to take self-therapy, which was just him screaming at nothing at the top of his lung.
He was frustrated, not because of the war effort, No, no, Tyler knew that shit would hit the fan even more as the years went by, what he was frustrated about was that he was slowly but steadily losing his knowledge on the Halo lore he had arrived with.
Though if forgetting minor events of every year would have been acceptable to any Halo fan, but not Tyler, and especially not know. He had to be frank, he had no idea what was supposed to go down in 2537, the best he could recall was from Ghost of Onyx and that ALPHA-Company of SPARTAN-IIIs would be undergoing their first combat operations, and that was all.
Three weeks ago they had finally been picked up from Concord by the prowler, Last Supper a very interesting name for a vessel whose crew would at most, never be in direct danger, or need any last meals before going to their imminent doom.
Of course, the Prowler had been sent by his good shadowy friend Leroy, meaning he had another mission for him and his team, as far as his brief transmission had mentioned, this ship was currently travelling to the colony world of Mamore.
Tyler had heard of this colony in one of the books, but as his memory became hazy he couldn't remember which book, all he remembered about Mamore was that an uprising occurred there which their current mission is most likely related to, but he felt as though he is forgetting a key detail about it…
The two SPARTANs stepped into briefing hall, the doors automatically sliding apart as they stepped inside. The briefing hall was almost exact same as all, a long conference table with chairs around, dim light making the interior look very ominous and of course the wall sized screen facing the conference table.
The other SPARTANs stood around the conference table facing the large screen, like Cassandra, they too were adorned in their olive green armor, their time on Concord had given them the respite to actually clean their armor of all the dents and scars, making it seem exactly as it looked like the day they received it.
They only exchanged brief nods with each other; their dialogues could wait for later for right now they were all anxious of what their new mission was all about.
Tyler took the empty spot at the center, or the place directly opposite of the screen. 'Here we go again' he thought.
As if he were monitoring all along, the large screen came to life as the blank screen was now replace with the sight of Leroy, seated behind his desk, all the way back on Earth probably.
All five SPARTANs stood firm and grave a crisp salute. "At ease, SPARTANs" said Leroy.
Tyler lowered his hands, though he clenched it into a fist behind the cover of the table, he was nervous for reasons he did not know. 'Why is my heart rate going so fast right now' he contemplated.
Was it stress? Or was all the built up burden finally catching up to him? He didn't know, and right know he would have to put that aside.
"You've been called for a mission of utmost importance" Leroy stated, Tyler didn't know whether he was merely exaggerating or if he was serious.
The live transmission of his disappeared, giving way for a holographic simulation of a planet to appear on screen, "This is Mamore, population has varied from six million to nine million over the years" Leroy began. "However about a few weeks ago, on late December of the previous year, an insurrections uprising took place creating a struggle between the local Colonial Administration and the rebels"
Multiple images showing terrorist attacks to urban warfare materialized on the screen, Tyler studied each of the images, they merely reminded of the counter insurgency operations back in his own universe, and he had seen far many of these in the academy, ranging from Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both of which his Father had participated in.
"Your mission is to evacuate a high value asset which is in the middle of the ongoing conflict" said Leroy.
Cassandra raised her hand. "Sir, permission to speak"
"Permission granted Spartan"
"Sir, if the conflict has been ongoing since late December. How are we certain that the VIP is still alive?" she asked, it was a good question.
"Because, they radioed in their last transmission mere hours ago" he answered immediately, "Their last transmission had stated of their current location and the situation planet side"
The smaller images exploded off as it gave way to a much large image, one which took the whole screen, it was of a large building complex, shaped in a sort of crooked U shape with a large road pavement which parted off into a circle before rejoining, the central building seemed to have a dome shaped roof, almost reminiscent of the US congress building, though with slight architectural changes to fit the UEG's design, from the angle of the image, it was clear that it was taken from a drone or any aerial vehicle the UNSC has.
"This is the main Colonial Administration building on Mamore, located inside the Colony's capital of Madeira" the image disappeared, returning to the sight of Leroy who now had his hands clasped on his desk, "The complex had fallen in control of the rebels just days prior, the VIP is still holding out inside, you are to clear all rebel insurgents in your path and escort the VIP to a safe location for extract. Any questions?"
Owen raised his hands, "Sir, what are the reports on rebel strengths and armaments they posses?"
"Estimates on their numbers are still coming in, but as of now we have taken an approximate of five thousand" he answered.
'That's not a lot' Tyler thought, comparing to the fact that the population numbered near nine million, it was strange that the overall numbers of the innies only counted into five thousand, though he did say it was only approximate, so the numbers could always increase, after all insurrectionist sometimes would try and blend in with Civilians.
"Their equipments however are much more formidable, Intel suggests that they had acquired heavy equipments from a nearby UNSC depot, and reports have indicated that heavy armor is present among their ranks"
That was not good, innies with tanks, yikes, brought back some nostalgic yet not so fun memories from his mission on Andesia with Kilo-Two which now that he thought about was now eleven years ago! 'Time surely flies by'
"Any more questions?" Leroy further asked.
This time it was Maria that raised her hand, "Sir, will we have any support?"
Tyler had to give it to his team, they really were asking questions which could dictate how they operate on this mission, something which he probably wouldn't have bothered too much of asking, but hey, that was why he had his teammates, they all filled each other's gaps.
"Ah yes, about that" Leroy seemed a bit hesitant to answer, his eyes closing shut for a while as he took a deep breath. "The UNSC had deemed it fitting to properly interfere in this conflict and has engaged in Operations to quell the uprising"
'That's not too bad' Tyler thought, he seemed confused on why Leroy seemed hesitant on that alone, UNSC operations in a planet in open rebellion should be expected and well known so him being nervous was very unlike of him.
"Due to lack of clearance and security reasons, I am forbade to share further details about their Operation, just know that you are not to speak of ANYTHING that you see down there" he ended.
What? Tyler would have said out loud, now it really didn't make any sense, what could be so classified or sensitive that they would have to keep lips sealed about this mission, so much so that it'd be a security breach if anything regarding this got leaked and-. 'Wait a minute' he thought, 'It couldn't be about THAT, right?'
"I believe this the end of your questions, so-" Leroy was about to say but Tyler raised his hand, something which slightly annoyed the ONI officer. "What is it Lieutenant-Commander?"
"What are the chances that the VIP is held hostage by the time we reach them?" Tyler asked, as far as he knew it could be very likely that VIP they were supposed to be escorting is already under Insurrectionist custody, after all his previous Rescue mission back on 2530 had already end in him getting injured.
"None, I have faith that the VIP will be fine" he answered, to which Tyler nodded. "Once you exited Slipspace you will be immediately inserted via SOEIV drop pods, once you land a NAV point directing you towards the VIP would be uploaded, so be geared up. Dismissed"
With that the transmission ended and the screen shut off dark.
The SPARTANs gave each other some looks, before Alexander finally spoke, "What was that about?"
"No idea" Cassandra answered, she seemed to be the least concerned among them.
"ONI's definitely involved if they'd go to this length to keep it a secret" Maria spoke out her opinion.
"What do you think, Tyler?" Owen glanced at him.
"We'll find out once we get down there" he answered, he had some doubts on what it could be, and if it really was that…then things are gonna get a whole lot more interesting.
"Let's go gear up, I'd rather not miss our drop" Tyler said as he made his way towards the exit.
"I've missed the pod, been a long time since I used one" Alexander commented as they exited onto the corridor and began their walk towards the armory.
"I don't any of miss dropping via a pod" Maria stated.
Tyler didn't have any opinion on regarding the SOEIV drop pod, to him it was way more quicker than a pelican, but it was also dangerous considering it could be shot apart by any anti air weaponry, but the chances of that were slim.
-
"Bridge says ten minutes before exit slipspace" Cassandra informed as she analyzed her TACPAD.
"That was quicker than I thought" Alexander said as he strapped a BR55 to his back, it was one of the latest prototype compared to the one he had utilized a few years prior.
"Makes sense, we've been slipspace for almost two weeks now" Said Maria who locked and loaded her SRS99C.
"Here" Owen offered an extra grenade to Tyler, he had found himself lacking one more grenade.
"Thanks" Tyler took the grenade and strapped it to his hips with the others, the ammo and his combat knife kept around his waist similarly with his M6D sidearm.
Owen picked up a SPNKr and strapped it around his back, picking a hold of an MA37; it had a longer range compared to the MA5B which only had a faster rate of fire and mag capacity, and seeing that they'd be dropped in an urban area, it'd be much more logical for a weapon which was much more accurate while retaining similar rate of fire.
Tyler on the other hand strapped his trusty DMR to his back, against insurrectionist you only needed a single bullet to score a kill, unlike the covenant that either had energy shields like the elites, or literal shields in general like the Jackals.
"We'd most likely encounter non-combatants in this mission, so check your fire" Tyler instructed receiving four green winks.
That is what sucked about fighting against insurrectionist, whenever it was an open conflict like this there was a one hundred percent guarantee that civilians would be caught in the cross fire, and especially since they were dropping in a high population density area like the capital there was a high chance they'd stumble upon some civilians huddled around a corner or, locked inside their own houses.
"EXITING SLIPSPACE IN FIVE MINUTES" a voice boomed over the speaker as it announced.
Tyler looked at each member of Bravo team, each of them nodded. "Get to your pods Bravo team" he ordered over TEAMCOM.
They filled out of the armory one by one and jogged down the corridor, the prowler wasn't as big as a frigate so the distance to the launch bay was quite short.
The launch bay itself was much smaller than compared to any other warship, the prowler only had twelve launch pods divided evenly between two different launch bay, the lack of troop deployment facilities was understandable as the Prowler was more for scouting and Special ops like these rather than actual planetary invasion.
Tyler went inside the first drop pod, closing it shut as he strapped in, he polarized his dome shaped faceplate for a moment, he took one deep breath before de-polarizing it. "Status?"
"Bravo-two, strapped in" Cassandra reported over TEAMCOM first.
"Bravo-three strapped" Alexander followed suit, after which Owen checked in.
"Bravo-four strapped"
"Bravo-Five strapped in" Maria reported over TEAMCOM as well.
Tyler's eyes darted towards the bottom left of his HUD; the timer had been set ever since the announcement came over the speakers. 'Thirty seconds' he thought, it kind of reminded him of D-DAY or more specifically the movie. Saving Private Ryan.
"What's the designated area we're being dropped at?" Alexander asked over TEAMCOM.
"Just one kilometers away from the target, less chances to be detected if we land much farther from the city's center" Cassandra explained over TEAMCOM.
She had all additional information regarding the City's topography, layout and size, although Tyler could always requisition a TACPAD of his own, he'd much rather Cassandra deal with the Tech part.
Tyler watched as the timer slowly counted from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four…three…two…one….The Prowler slightly shook, the vibration being felt inside the pods as well.
"Guess we're here" Owen commented over TEAMCOM.
It took exactly twenty seconds before any announcement boomed, this time however it was inside their helmets. "LAUNCHING DROP PODS IN FIVE…FOUR…THREE…TWO…ONE…LAUNCH"
Once more Tyler found himself in the familiar situation of descending to a planet via pod, through the small view port he could see the plant bellow, it wasn't what he'd expect Mamore to look like, it seemed…dark and cloudy.
His viewport was then covered by the connecting frame a space elevator, meaning they were heading exactly where they were meant to.
"The planet looks….depressing" Alexander commented over TEAMCOM, Tyler couldn't help but silently laugh to himself, he did have a point, the planet was nothing more than Depressing.
"Let's hope the people down there aren't too depressed then" Cassandra humored his comment over TEAMCOM.
Their pods were hit by turbulence, but also the fact that the chute deployed, slightly slowing down their descent, Tyler gripped the handles of his seat, this was going to be his first drop in years.
They entered the planet's atmosphere as soon passed through the dark clouds which looked more like a mist of ash, down bellow they could see the city, A warzone at best, but he had seen worst places…and Arcadia and Vodin were far more worst than this, even Harvest to some degree.
*SLAM*
Their pods crashed onto the ground, without waste Tyler kicked the door to his pod open, drawing his DMR out and scanning the area.
"Bravo Team, check in" Tyler instructed over TEAMCOM
"Bravo-two, closing in to your location" Cassandra reported over TEAMCOM.
"Bravo-Three, closing in with Four and Five" Alexander informed over TEAMCOM.
Clearing that out of the way, Tyler better observed his surroundings, in simple terms he had dropped right in a small neighborhood of apartments by the looks of it, sure they were no were as tall as the skyscrapers in some of the inner colonies, but at best they seemed to be five stories at most, tall enough to house snipers.
Tyler hurled over towards a nearby pillar, it was wide enough to hide his figure if he were to stand sideways, occasionally peaking over, he had no idea whether they were behind enemy lines, behind friendly lines or right in the middle.
He had no way of knowing since he could gun fire even from here, he couldn't identify most of them, but one of them fired off in a burst, HMGs.
His attention however shifted towards the sidewalks, from one of the Alley way Alexander, Owen and Maria exited, peaking out before exiting as they made their way towards him.
"We're Cassandra at?" Owen asked.
*THUD*
The four SPARTANs all pointed their weapons towards the direction of the sound, they would not heisted to pull the trigger had it been an insurrectionist, however it was simply the final member of the team who seemed to have jumped down from a roof or something.
"Jeez, no need to point your guns at me" Cassandra said as she made her way towards them.
"We're in unknown, possibly enemy territories, of course we'll aim at anything sudden" Alexander shot back.
"Fair point' she said, turning towards Tyler, "What's the plan?"
Tyler pondered as he scanned his area once more, finally the NAV point also appeared on his HUD and most likely the rest of his team as well, the VIP was atleast 1.2 KM North-west.
"We'll make our way towards the target" Tyler answered. "Though we'll have to be careful, these buildings could provide excellent spots for enemy snipers"
"Meaning walking out in the open is a death sentence" Maria guessed.
"Exactly" Tyler said.
"So how are we supposed to get there? I don't suppose we'll dig a tunnel there" Owen stated.
As much as ridiculous that sounded, it was actually a viable plan, one that would take months maybe years to complete.
Silence swept over the team as they each pondered on how to proceed. "Well I got a plan" Alexander said gaining everyone's attention.
The SPARTAN made his way towards a nearby door made of wooden frame, "We'll just take a slight detour" he slammed his feet onto the wooden frame and kicked the door open with ease.
'Smart' Tyler thought, though there was a slight risk of civilians getting scared but, hey, it was a small price.
"Who's gonna pay for their damages?" Owen asked.
"I don't know. What I do know however is that this is the way" Alexander said as he drew his weapon and cautiously walked in.
Tyler was the next to follow in, "It's the safest path"
The other three SPARTANs simply shrugged and followed them inside, they weapons drawn, while they cautiously scanned the area as they traversed through the house/apartment.
The small house reminded him of Biko, another one of his core memories that he may never forget.
The team traversed through the house in high alert, none of them whether this house of empty or not, whether it had civilians or insurrectionists.
Alexander was the first one to reach the back door, raising his hand waving them to stop, he turned to look at Tyler who nodded at him, and without any hesitation he creaked the door open, peaking through and checking both sides.
As Alexander exited, Tyler too scanned whatever he could from the doorway, it led to another street, meaning they'd have to continuously break doors and pass my civilian houses. Alexander raided over TEAMCOM.
"All clear"
With that the other four SPARTANs filled out, not missing the opportunity to double check their surroundings, they could never be too sure.
Alexander had already moved up ahead to the next door, this one directly led to a large apartment complex, eight stories high. Kicking the door open, Alexander moved in first once more, Tyler followed behind in second, while the other three came behind him.
This complex however was much larger, the hallway was long compared to the previous buildings, and multiple doors on either side, with almost each and every one of them shut.
They slowly creped through the concrete floor, even in their half ton armor they failed to make any noise to alert the residence, the sounds heard were the distract echos and bangs of weapons being fired, small arm, medium arm all of them.
One door after another they passed, neither one of them opened, until Alexander finally halted right before an opened door, taking the initiative he slowly peaked inside, his weapon readied for any hostile response.
But that would not be necessary for the sight that greeted him mortified him, the room was messy, the furniture flipped over, papers from books littering the floor, but most importantly…two rope tied around the ceiling forming a knot, two bodies dangled, a woman and a child.
Alexander shut the door without any hesitation, this was the first time he had been shaken in a long time, their training had prepared them for any situation…this however not a part of it.
Tyler looked at the SPARTAN confused, tilting his head sideways asking without a word on what was inside, the lead SPARTAN simply shook his head.
No words had been exchanged; however Tyler understood that whatever he had seen inside was definitely not something pretty, especially if it got such a reaction out of a SPARTAN. Tyler nodded at Alexander and he continued on.
Tyler slowly followed suite, but stopped for a brief moment to take a sneak into that room, Alexander hadn't properly closed it leaving a small gap to take a peak, and the sight Tyler had been greeted immediately made him understand why he had reacted as such, shutting the door properly this time.
'Jesus' he thought, anyone would be fucked after seeing things like that, he remembered his father talking about things like this, how in places where insurgents were active and why locals refused to openly support them or their families would be the targeted.
'Terrorists never change, whatever timeline or universe it is' he mentally concluded as he continued to follow Alexander's tracks, the other three SPARTANs close behind.
January 18, 2537, 1401 hours [MILITARY CALENDER]
Location: Mamore system, Mamore, Madeira City… [REDACTED]-front of Operations
-
Bullets clattered off smooth metal surface of the warthog, the vehicle itself was destroyed but it served much better use as a cover.
For two weeks they had been operating on this planet, for two weeks they fought the insurrectionist, for two weeks they continued to press harder slowly pushing these rebels back to their last legs, yet here they were, after all the grueling assaults they had suffered from them, these rebels still refused to back down and fought even harder.
Shane-A112 gritted his teeth behind his visor, they had been inching closer and closer ever day to the Administration building, they had taken zero casualties, but they had expended a lot of ammunition and time fighting through ever house, every street and every room just to get inches closer to the main hub of insurrectionist resistance.
"These guys are getting on my nerves right now" Shane glanced over to the individual beside him, Robert-A057 his fellow teammate.
"Temper tantrums aren't going to get us anywhere" Shane said as he slight peaked over the warthog.
The rebel position consisted around a parking lot, they had stationed an HMG aimed just down this road that they were currently in. the problem fighting in such a narrow path way was that there was absolutely no plausible rout to flank them.
The entirety of ALPHA-Company had been deployed here when the rebel outbreak occurred, they had been outnumbered by a ratio of 1:30, and yet even then they had triumphant, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy while taking none themselves, a flawless operation, however the enemy had continued to use much more extreme tactics, though not enough to halt them, it had significantly delayed them.
"I don't sitting around here is any better" Shane turned over to his right, behind a large concrete debris his final teammate Jane-A203 took cover.
"If we try anything we'll probably take atleast three bullets at best before we go down" Shane replied.
They didn't wear any of those bulky; advance armor that the LT and his generation were sent with, no, currently they had to work with some EVA rated ODST gear.
The Major had however told them that they too would receive their own armor soon; something he hoped would allow them to take a little more than this ODST gear.
"I'd take those odds if you ask me" Robert stubbornly said.
"Don't be a fool Robert, we may be SPARTANs, but even we aren't immune to bullets" Shane argued trying to talk some sense into him. "How are the other Team doing?"
"Same situation as us I guess, the innies have a whole defensive perimeter around the Administrative building, we're lucky we aren't facing any enemy armor" said Jane.
The deafening sounds of the HMG finally came to a halt, as the bullets too stopped clattering against concrete and steel. "Now's our chance" Shane said as he and his teammates stood up from their cover.
Weapons aimed, they fired in burst taking down the HMG crew along with the small squad of rebels that were positioned along side with it. "See, wasn't that hard after all" Robert commented.
Robert was about to make his way over the destroyed warthog, but before he could Shane tackled him back down, "Shane! What are you-" he was about to say, but cut short as a hail of bullets rained down on them once more, the clattering began once more as the trio fell back into cover.
"I just saved your life right there!" Shane argued. "They got reinforcements"
"Lots of them as well" Jane added slightly peaking over her cover.
Shane peaked once more. The insurrectionist had brought in a Technical, it wasn't a military grade vehicle instead it was simply a civilian pickup truck modified with an HMG armed at the back along with whatever metal plates they could use as makeshift armor for it.
It wasn't much, and would most certainly not stand against any military grade vehicles. However in an environment like this where they lacked any armored support of their own, a Technical would be troublesome, what it lacked in armor like most UNSC vehicles, it made up in speed and maneuverability, and it could easily outflank them.
"Just when I thought we had them" Robert grumbled as he reloaded his M7S SMG.
"I could try and draw their fire" Jane offered, "Give you guys a straight chance to take it out"
"Don't" Shane argued. "We're still getting use to our augments, and even then I doubt we'll be able to out run bullets."
He didn't know if the LT's generation could, but he was sure that they themselves certainly could not, maybe they could take a few shots or else other than that there was no other choice.
Here we are struggling against innies, if we can't even break these poorly equipped rebels, how are we supposed to go up against the full might of the Covenant. He and his fellow SPARTANs had been only engaged in small skirmishes against Covenant forces up until now which were nowhere near comparable to the big battles like Harvest and Jericho had been.
"So we just wait here, and make them run out of bullets?" Robert asked.
"Seems like the only option" Shane shrugged.
Suddenly they heard the deafening HMG go silent once more, That was way quicker than expected. Shane could have taken the chance to peak out of his cover, maybe take them out using the same tactic as before. But he didn't.
*BANG*
*BANG*
Two gunshots rang out loud, the trio, they searched their surroundings, trying to figure out where those shots came from, Who they came from. Shane's eyes darted around, before finally landing towards their backs, the place from which they had come from.
Five tall armored individuals exited a small apartment story, its door having been broken, most likely kicked. Four of those tall individuals wore an Olive green armor, bulky. A golden visor taking up the front of their helmet…it was the exact same armor the LT had been seen wearing when they had been brought to Camp Currahee.
Another one, the one at the front however wore a much different armor, Azure blue in colour, similarly bulky, yet the main eye catching detail was the large dome shaped visor on the helmet, a place asking to be shot at.
Are those….Shane couldn't believe his eyes, and he was sure the other two could not as well, as far as the Major had told them they would be doing this operation all alone without any additional UNSC support…so it stunned him by a lot to see SPARTANs here…THE SPARTANs.
These five SPARTANs jogged over towards their position, taking cover behind collapsed walls or concrete. Their body language refused to show anything, to Shane, they seemed very intimidating, especially in that armor of theirs.
The Blue armored one halted and took cover besides him; the SPARTANs focus not diverting from where the Technical and the insurgents had been. "What's the SITREP Marine" he asked, his voice sounding stoic.
Moments Earlier
Gun shots were getting ever louder. This was the fifth building they'd had to barge through, "HMGs" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM.
The gun fire sounded a lot like a buzz saw, something only which exited of an HMG.
Alexander stopped right before the door, taking cover behind the wall instead; windows were present on either side of the door which he peaked through. "Technical outside" he informed over TEAMCOM.
"Any friendlies?" Tyler asked as he took cover behind the other wall.
"I count three ODSTs outside behind cover" Alexander answered.
Tyler nodded, "On my mark"
Tyler waited for three seconds, "MARK!"
Tyler kicked the door open and stormed out first, his DMR aimed, he fired the first shot. The bullet was aimed for the gunner which it slammed into, taking the innie down in an instant. Two more insurrectionists were around the Technical. Tyler fired off two more rounds, finishing them off.
His motion tracker did show that the area around was clear, Tyler waved his hand forwards, motioning the rest of his team towards the cover, near the ODSTs.
Tyler however decided to make his way directly over to the three ODSTs, two of whom were behind a destroyed warthog, while the other was behind a concrete block. He noticed the three of them staring at him awe, it was expected from Marines.
Knelling down besides the one who he considered was the leader, Tyler asked. "What's the SITREP Marine?"
A pause followed suite, Tyler turned to look at the ODST. He seemed hesitant, even nervous to some degree by the body language. "Marine?" Tyler further asked.
"Uh, oh yeah, uh" he fumbled his words, Tyler couldn't blame him, anyone would have had their brains malfunction if they ever saw a SPARTAN. "The insurrections have a strong defensive perimeter around the Administrative building"
Tyler nodded, the answer was brief but enough, "How many of you are there?" he asked.
The ODST he had asked seemed to be still in a state of shock, "Three hundred of us, Sir" the one on his right answered, it was a female.
"Three hundred?" Tyler whispered over TEAMCOM.
"That's not a lot" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM.
"Are they sure that's their number?" Alexander asked over TEAMCOM.
Tyler was also taken aback by that answer. Three hundred was definitely not enough to subdue an entire colony in open arms, maybe slight support from the Colonial militia but other than that it didn't add up.
"Sir, if I may, who are you exactly?" the last ODST asked.
"Lieutenant-Commander SPARTAN-Zero-Seven-One" Tyler answered.
The mention of his rank seemed to snap the other guy out of his self-lock, immediately preparing to stand up and salute him.
Tyler placed a hand on his shoulders, preventing him from doing so, "Get your head down, Marine, unless you want a bullet through your head" Tyler scolded.
"Sorry, Sir. It's become a force of habit" he answered, embarrassed.
Something was off about these three ODSTs, any experienced soldier would know to not immediately stand and salute in a warzone of all places, while also being possibly under enemy fire.
To add on his suspicion, these three sounded a little too Young, actually very Young to even be ODSTs, hell even be a part of the military…unless.
"Rank and File soldier" Tyler ordered, his suspicions were becoming more and more real as he contemplated.
The ODST slightly straightened himself while crouched; it was as if it had been drilled into him, almost like a program…like a SPARTAN. "SPARTAN-Shane-A-one-one-two, Sir" he introduced.
All head now turned towards him, Tyler, Cassandra, Alexander, Owen, Maria, all of them had their visors directly facing him. Tyler did not answer.
Shane went ahead and introduced his teammates as well, seeing that he had taken the SPARTANs aback. "These are Jane-A-two-zero-three and Robert-A-Zero-Five-Seven, my teammates……we're SPARTANs as well" he awkwardly said.
'Oh shit I remember these guys' Tyler thought, his eyes narrowing behind his faceplate. He remembered these SPARTAN-IIIs from Ghost of Onyx, especially the one named Shane and Robert, the two kids that got into a brawl and later became best friends…it finally made sense why Leroy had been so adamant on keeping their lips sealed after this mission…the same couldn't be said for his teammates.
"Did I hear that right?" Owen asked over TEAMCOM, he was by far the most flabbergasted of them, which was rare.
"I think we all did" Maria answered over TEAMCOM…each and every one of them was stunned.
"Are they……ripping us off?" Alexander asked over TEAMCOM, his voice sounded like he had head the biggest secret in history…he was flabbergasted in short.
Tyler had to bite his lips to not burst out laughing. It was extremely hilarious to hear that from a SPARTAN-II, even though he was also one but…it didn't count.
"I have so many question, but I think that can wait" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM. "Enemy Transport!"
The five SPARTANs shifted their attention from the three Spartans to the oncoming vehicle. A small truck had rolled up on the parking lot. Atleast two dozen insurrectionist exited from there.
"Controlled burst" Tyler ordered as he and his team stood out from their cover.
He and Maria easily picked off the enemies with their longer ranged weapons, while Cassandra, Alexander and Owen provided suppressing fire.
The trio of SPARTAN-IIIs too joined them, opening fire on the insurrectionists. Tyler did have to say, 'They're not too bad' he thought.
The gunfire died down as the rebels laid dead, not wanting to remain pinned again Tyler waved his had forwards. The five SPARTANs slowly creped over their cover and made their way towards the parking lot. The trio simply looked at each other before following behind.
The NAV marker showed they were only two hundred meters away from the target. Tyler turned over to Shane who was following right behind him. "What's your objective Soldier" he asked.
"Our orders were to flush the insurrectionist out of the Administrative building and retake it" Shane answered.
"Then we have similar objectives" Tyler said as he turned around. "Keep up with us"
With that he jogged off along with the rest of his team, turning left. "Let's go then" Robert said as he too jog, trying to catch up to the SPARTANs in Mjolnir.
Finally Shane and Jane also followed suit.
The streets were overly buried in small concrete debris. Expended bullet casings and dozens of vehicles varying from civilian to insurrectionist modified Technical's.
The amount of Technicals he encountered while traversing the street greatly reminded Tyler of the middle east, at least the areas where extremist groups were active. 'Seems like Syria…but a planet' he thought.
He was about to come across a corner once more but stopped as a bullet whizzed right passed him. Stepping back behind the corner, Tyler peaked out only to have another bullet narrowly missed him, smashing a small piece of concrete off the wall.
"Sniper, forth building left, third floor" Tyler said as he turned towards the others.
"I can draw the fire, sir" Jane stepped forward.
"Don't" Tyler said, "I'll draw the fire, Bravo-five get ready"
Maria nodded while the SPARTAN-IIIs seemed optimistic. "Sir, are you sure?" Shane asked.
"Trust me, he's faster than most of us" Alexander assured. Shane hesitantly nodded.
Tyler held out his finger, Three…Two…One. He sprinted across the cover and into the street. Another shot rang out, the bullet landed behind him; he kept on sprinting, sliding over to the other side.
*BANG*
Maria fired her sniper, a clean shot which took the rebel sniper out.
"Clear" Maria said over TEAMCOM.
Tyler nodded from the other end. The NAV marker pointed right in front, he could see the building complex up ahead the road. "Move out" Tyler shifted over to SQUADCOMs so that the SPARTAN-IIIs may also hear him.
The team of SPARTAN Twos and threes made their way into the street. The Twos made sure to scan every building, every window, and every floor, while the three silently followed behind.
"These three aren't that bad" Alexander commented over TEAMCOM.
"I agree" said Maria over TEAMCOM.
Tyler kind of felt bad for these three especially, if he remembered these three would end up KIA after OPERATION: PROMRTHEUS. "How old are you all?" Owen asked…usually that question would have been answered with the good old C bomb.
"Sixteen, Sir" Shane answered.
"Quite close to our age when we first entered combat" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM.
It was a good thing that none of his Teammates held any disliking towards the three.
Tyler could see a sort of Gate-house/Checkpoint up ahead; an object could be seen in the centre of the checkpoint blocking the path. 'Shit' Tyler internally cursed.
"Scorpion!" Tyler alerted, immediately ducking over to the side behind a flipped over vehicle. The others too respective moved out of open sight, just in time as a loud BOOM was heard, something whizzed over their head. Then it exploded a few meters behind them.
"I got it" Owen said over TEAMCOM as he pulled out his SPNKr. Two rockets exited the launcher swirling through the air. The first rocket impacted near the neck of the turret, the explosion ripping apart its armor plate, then the second one slammed, this one caused a large ignition causing the turret to blow off the Tank's super structure.
The SPARTANs cleared off their cover, approaching the gate house, the tank had become smoldering ruins by this point, its driver having been burned alive.
As they entered the compound of the Colonial Administrative building, they were greeted with the sight of an already going firefight. Tyler could count atleast over a hundred more of these individuals in ODST gear, more SPARTAN-IIIs.
"Are those SPARTANs as well?" Cassandra asked glancing at Shane.
"Yes" Shane answered without hesitation. "If I may, what is your mission?"
Cassandra looked at Tyler who nodded. "Retrieving a VIP" she answered.
"Uh, Ma'am don't get me wrong but, I don't think there's anyone other than innies inside that building, the Administrative building had fallen under their control almost a week ago" Robert chimed in.
"Don't be so sure Soldier" Tyler said as he aimed his DMR. "People can hide anywhere in a building like that"
He fired a single shot, one aimed at the central building's balcony, the bullet slammed into an insurrectionist manning an HMG killing him in an instant.
"Push in" Tyler ordered.
Bodies were all that lay in the central compound right in the middle of the three connected buildings. The fighting had died down as the rebels had retreated inside.
Tyler and his team, along with the three SPARTANs walked by the main pavement of read, he could see from the corner of his eyes all the looks he and his team received, it was of awe and almost…admiration.
"They're giving us the weird looks" Alexander said over TEAMCOM as they continued on.
"Not unusual" Maria replied over TEAMCOM. All of them were long used to such used at this point.
"Shane" Tyler said to which the SPARTAN stiffed. "Shouldn't you and your team join up with your fellow SPARTANs?"
"We'd much prefer we stay with the professionals" Robert answered instead.
'Aww, how nice' Tyler thought.
"You'll become professionals yourselves one day" Alexander said lightening the mood.
Tyler internally winced upon hearing his comment, it was not the comment itself that stung him, No, it was the fact that they'd not make it pass this year…
"Thank for your confidence in us, Sir" said Jane.
The SPARTANs slowly creped inside the central building's main lobby, it was a mess. There weren't only bodies belonging to Insurrectionist, No, some belonged to members of the Colonial Militia, while others belonged to the staff, the main receptionist was dead on her post, while simultaneously being buried under debris.
"NAV beacon's second floor" Tyler said over TEAMCOM.
The SPARTANs readily went up the stairways, this time however Shane over took the SPARTAN-IIs by accident. Stepping into the first floor he was suddenly ambushed by a rebel who tried shooting him directly in the face. "DIE YOU FREAKS" the rebel shouted.
Tyler aimed his DMR, ready to shoot the innie, however Shane reacted fast, grabbing the man by his arm and pushing it upwards making him miss his shot, then he spun the man around and twisted his hand, disarming him while conducting a takedown onto the floor knocking the rebel out cold.
"Good work" Tyler patted his shoulders; he could see even through the SPARTANs visor that he was embarrassed, though he recomposed himself. Tyler continued on to the second floor.
"I recognize that move" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM. "It's the exact some one that the Chief had taught us"
"Yeah…you're actually right" Maria agreed over TEAMCOM, Bravo-Team followed their leader, focusing on the mission.
"Shane, are you an idiot! What were you thinking!?" Jane scolded from the back.
"I'm alive" Shane replied, which the other SPARTAN-III simply face-palmed on her visor.
"You almost died you know" Robert reminded to which he shrugged. "So should we follow them?"
"Let's clear this floor" Shane said as he picked his assault rifle up. "They have their own mission to complete"
Meanwhile, Tyler creped around the corner of the stairs which led into the second floor, he scanned both sides. He had his acknowledgment light flash three times and exited into the hallway.
The NAV marker pointed towards atleast five doors forwards, "Clear the rooms" he instructed over TEAMCOM.
Tyler passed by the first door on either side, he slightly glanced at both rooms…empty. Then to the second, which was locked, then the third which was also locked, and then the forth which already had dead bodies inside…all the way until the fifth….the room on the right had its door slightly creaked open, alerting the SPARTANs.
Tyler and Cassandra took position against the wall while Alexander prepared to kick it open. Tyler showed his fingers…Three…Two…One.
Alexander kicked the door open and immediately took a bullet to his chest piece, the bullets itself had bounced off his bulky MJOLNIR system, barely scratching it. Alexander didn't hesitate one bit as he immediately pulled the trigger of his BR.
Three bullets smashed into the individuals head killing him instantly, the pistol he held being dropped onto the floor.
Tyler looked inside the room, his sight landing on the body, it certainly wasn't UNSC or any Militia outfit he was familiar with. "You alright?" Tyler glanced at Alexander.
"Barely even a scratch" he replied.
Tyler nodded, "Secure the perimeter, I'll get the VIP"
Four green winks flashed on his HUD. Slowly walking towards the door which the NAV pointer led to, Tyler slowly opened the door, his DMR in one hand. "Don't move" a voice, Slavic accent, threatened as he fully opened the door.
He found himself with a gun, specifically the M6S pointed at his dome shaped visor, he studied the individual who aimed the gun at his head. It was a woman more specifically; she wore a blue coat, beneath which was a plain black shirt, A skirt till her thighs and black block heels, her hair was tied in a bun, while she herself looked about thirty years old.
Tyler raised his free hand slowly, "Easy there, we're UNSC" he said.
"I've heard that a lot" she replied, her tone not changing, instead she aimed her pistol closer. "State your rank and file"
"Lieutenant-Commander SPARTAN-Zero-Seven-One" Tyler answered. "You must be the VIP we're meant to bail out"
She held her gun aimed still, until her eyes softened and she lowered her gun, "Get in" she said.
Tyler obeyed as she immediately shut the door shut. "Sorry about that, I've had a lot of innies try and use that same trick here" she apologized. "You must be the SPARTANs the Commander said he'd sent"
Tyler nodded, "That should be obvious Ma'am, you won't see an insurrectionist walking in half ton armor while being seven feet tall"
The VIP chuckled, "Quite the humor you have" she replied. "In reality I've never seen a SPARTAN"
'Why am I even surprised' Tyler thought. Of course a majority of the people didn't know that there were Demigod level super soldiers walking around.
"I'm Natasha Volkov, Office of Naval intelligence" she introduced.
Tyler nodded, "Pleasure to meet you, ma'am" Tyler said. He looked around the room they were in more detail; it seemed like an office of some sort, an office desk with some files and extra ornaments.
"Please don't call me Ma'am, I'm only a Lieutenant in ONI, in other terms you out rank me, sir" she said a slight playful tone with the SIR.
It felt extremely wrong for a VIP they were escorting to call him SIR. "Please don't call me that Ma-Lieutenant, it'll feel weird for a superior to escort a junior officer" Tyler said.
She chuckled, "Now that introductions are out…How many of you are there?" she asked.
"Four more SPARTANs guarding the perimeter" he explained. "And another three hundred…"
He hesitated, he couldn't just blatantly say SPARTANs, that would raise too many questions and would be problematic for well everyone, but she was ONI so…."ODSTs" he decided.
"ODSTs?" she said confused. "I didn't know the UNSC deployed a retaliation force here"
Well that solved that problem. "Should I call for EVAC?" he asked.
"Wait!" she said, "Let me get my things"
Natasha rushed over behind her desk, opening drawer after drawer, placing file after file on the table. "Uh...do need help?" Tyler asked.
"Just guard the door" she shot back pulling a metal briefcase out.
"If I may, what exactly were you doing here on Mamore?" Tyler asked as he stood guard near the door.
"Monitoring every activity that the insurrectionist conducted here and beyond" she answered as she began stuffing specific files into the briefcase. "For five years I've been here detailing every movement that the rebels make, making sure that nothing stays out of ONI's eyes"
"Seems like it paid off well" Tyler said as he observed the mountain of files that now piled up on the table.
"Oh, most of these are useless and outdated" she answered, picking one particular file and tearing the contents to pieces. "Junks"
"I must ask, how did you survive here so long? I don't suppose the complex produces any food while in insurrectionist control" Tyler asked.
"MREs are not so bad" She gave a simple answer, one which shot down his question easily.
Natasha walked over to a nearby shelve, built quite high but she leaped up and grabbed another file. This one however had a black covering, unlike the previous yellow ones.
"What exactly was your cover here?" Tyler questioned, he was really interested in how an ONI field agent operated.
"Why are you asking so many questions? I thought SPARTANs were the quiet type" Natasha shot back.
"Not all of them" Tyler answered. "I'm just curious"
"I worked as an assistant to the Governor of Mamore, a good man, but not what I'd consider a decisive Administrator" She answered. "He got assassinated the moment the insurrectionist began the uprising"
Tyler felt shivers down his spine, she seemed so casual in mentioning that, it was as if he were nothing more than a mere pawn….well that is what he'd expect an ONI agent to be like, he had just gotten too spoiled with Leroy's often Nonchalant behavior.
Natasha stuffed the final files into the briefcase before closing it shut; holding it in one hand, while on the other she held a lighter which she had pulled out from her skirt. Lighting the lighter, she threw it into the pile of files still left on the desk; the fire began to rapidly spread while smoke began to slowly consume the office.
"Now you can call for Evac" she slightly gave a wink.
Tyler nodded and turned on his radio. "This Sierra-Zero-Seven-One to UNSC Supper; VIP secured, requesting EVAC"
Immediately a voice answered from the other side. "Roger Sierra, Talon-four has been deployed, report to Extract-site Epsilon, ETA-Ten minutes, Supper out"
"Bravo-Team, rendezvous at my location, VIP's secured and ready to be escorted" Tyler informed over TEAMCOM.
"Stay behind me" Tyler said as he opened the door. The rest of his team had been waiting for them outside, having formed a sort of square in the hallway.
"Is that the VIP?" Alexander asked while glancing at Natasha.
Tyler nodded. "Any updates on the situations out there?"
"The firefight has restarted, I suspect a counter attack near the main compound" Maria answered.
"That's troublesome" Tyler murmured. "Any reports on their size and numbers"
"Negative" Cassandra answered.
This was somewhat of a complex situation, Tyler was sure he and his team could easily push out of the building without any trouble, but that was the main problem, they weren't the only one's getting out, and if the main compound was the hotspot, then there was no guarantee that the VIP wouldn't be caught by a stray bullet.
"I know of an alternative route" Natasha said, gaining both Tyler's and Cassandra's attention. "Follow me"
She walked passed both Alexander and Owen who stood guard by the right, both them looked at Tyler, questioning merely by their looks.
Tyler shrugged and began following behind her. She was a normal human so catching up to her was no hard task for the SPARTANs. "Ma'am I'd advice we take the lead" Owen suggested, she halted on her tracks and turned to face the SPARTANs.
"Do any of you know the layouts of this complex?"
None of them answered, nor even moved at the slightest. "Exactly, now shut up and get behind me" she said, continuing on her tracks.
"She has an attitude" Cassandra commented over TEAMCOM.
"A very big one" Alexander added over TEAMCOM.
Tyler internally sighed. Women with attitude didn't surprise him at the slightest; he was already used to it back in his old Universe.
They walked for a few minutes, at which they crossed through a decent sized double door, before passing through it Tyler made note of the words up top. Y-Wing Block.
Star wars was the first thing that came to mind when he saw the words.
"Is this a back entrance or…" Tyler asked stopping mid sentence.
"An emergency exit, installed in case of a fire outbreak" she answered.
'Hopefully it's not compromised' Tyler thought.
Nearing a corner she suddenly came to a stop. "Wait" she said, taking cover against the wall.
Tyler would have asked on why she had suddenly stopped. He could hear voices on the other side around the corner.
"Hey, why the hell are we even guarding this door" a gruff voice asked
"So that no high officials make it off this building, we hardly even cleared most of the floors and places like these have tons of hiding spot" another answered.
"Yeah yeah, I know that, but why? These upper classes folks have themselves high up their asses, why even need them?"
"The Colonel wants some leverage to get off world, things are going to go south and I doubt this poor ass takeover would even last much long" the guy answered.
"I'll take shot?"Alexander asked over TEAMCOM, volunteering to slide out of cover.
"Wait" Tyler said, his hand reaching for a frag grenade.
"Hold this" Natasha threw the brief case over to Tyler, forcing him to catch that instead. Tyler glanced at her confused, but she simply tidied her clothes. "I'll take care of them"
"Ma'am you should really not-" Cassandra was about to argue but it didn't matter, Natasha had already walked around the corner. Cassandra turned towards Tyler. "If something happens to her, it's on you"
Tyler wanted to punch scream right now. They're supposed to be ESCORTING her, not the other way around. 'She's way too ballsy' he internally said. It didn't take even ten seconds before the voices now became alerted to her most likely approaching them.
"HEY, YOU!"
"Put your hands on your head, lady!"
"HEY! HE SAID PUT YOUR HA-" the voice was cut off by a grunt. Then another, before a cry of pain was heard. Then shots were heard, silenced ones.
Tyler slightly creped around the corner with his team, his DMR ready to put down any insurrectionist, but that was not necessary. Greeting his sight was two bodies, flat first on the ground with blood pouring onto the floor, and in between them standing was Natasha, her M6S aimed, firing one last shot at one of the bodies before reloading.
"Remind me to never piss her off" Alexander commented over TEAMCOM, it was more of a light joke than an actual serious one.
"Ma'am?" Maria asked, though it couldn't be easily noticeable there was a hint of worry in it.
"All clear" Natasha turned around to face the SPARTANs, her face was slightly sprayed by blood, but not of her own. "Come on, we'd better get out quicker than never"
She walked over to a sort of controller beside a red door, most likely made of Titanium-A.
Tyler and the other four SPARTANs stood guard around her while she did so. The door hissed and it slowly opened. Tyler peaked out, seeing that a small metal stairway unfolded from the edge, giving them a clear way down.
"See, very easy" she said as she prepared to step outside first. Tyler was about to follow suit, but his eyes slightly widened, he could hear something whizzing through the air, something which was aimed towards them…..an RPG!
"Get down!" Tyler tackled her over to side, just in time as the RPG exploded right where she would have stepped.
His team immediately started laying covering fire as Cassandra managed the control, eventually shutting the door once more.
"Well there goes our only exit" Natasha groaned.
"Are you okay?" Tyler asked, helping her up.
"Yes, thanks to you that is" she said, whether it was sarcasm or genuine compliment was a mystery. She went ahead and picked up the brief case. "I'll be take that back, thank you"
"Any other exits you know of Ma'am?" Alexander asked
"The next emergency exit is located in X-Wing block, all the way on the other side" She answered. "And considering the ongoing chaos, I think it's safe to assume that wouldn't be much viable either"
"We're going down" Tyler said. "We'll fight our way out if we have"
"You lead the way then" Natasha said, placing her sidearm back.
They had to walk a few more doors pass before they finally reached the stairs. The gun shots became ever louder as they went down step by step.
Coming clear of the stairs, Tyler checked both sides. There was no one. Slowly creping forwards he only stopped when he heard footsteps making their way towards them. The five SPARTANs aimed their weapons, forming a sort of Phalanx around the VIP.
Around a corner the familiar figures of Shane, Jane and Robert were seen making their way towards them. The SPARTANs lowered their weapons. "Sir, glad to see you're still here" Shane said.
"What's the status?" Tyler asked.
"The innies have taken over the compounds once again" Jane answered. "Most of us have been pushed out of the compounds, the other few are holding out in this building"
"Any additional supports they have?" Tyler further inquired.
"Another Scorpion, Sir, along with half a dozen Technicals" Robert answered.
"How many on foot?" Cassandra asked.
"Two companies worth, Ma'am" Shane replied, his eyes darted towards Natasha who was behind Tyler. "Sir, if I may, who is she?"
"The VIP" Tyler answered. "Is the ground floor still secured?"
"Mostly" Shane answered.
Tyler pondered for a moment. He could continue on to the ground floor and try and break his way out, but again, that would put the VIP at risk, and considering the insurrectionist aren't idiots, it wouldn't take too many brain cells to put together the fact that she's of high value if she has five tall armored giants escorting her.
The building shook, the walls began to vibrate as small amount of debris fell from the ceilings.
"I have only six more rockets for the jackhammer" Owen said over TEAMCOM.
"Four more mags for the sniper" Maia said over TEAMCOM.
"ETA for the pelican is four minutes" Cassandra added.
Tyler could feel the weight of their current situation. He had a very many solutions, but none of them could be a guaranteed success without a cost…in war cost was always expected, but the cost for this circumstance was something Tyler didn't want to take.
"Sir" Shane called, gaining Tyler's attention. "Me and the others could perhaps draw them away, give you guys a clear exit"
It was a bold offer, something which Tyler would have immediately dismissed; he didn't like others putting themselves in danger for him, it made him feel more responsible if things went wrong…but now, he couldn't deny them, they were SPARTANs, new ones yes, but SPARTANs none the less.
Also in accordance that they were meeting SPARTAN-IIs like himself and his team, it was clear since the get go that they were trying their best, wanting to set a good image and possibly even impress them…they wanted to prove themselves that were SPARTANs.
With his other hand he grabbed two of his grenades, offering it towards the younger SPARTANs. "Give them hell soldier" he said.
Shane slowly took the grenades and nodded. Turning towards his teammates the three of them sprinted away from where they had come from.
"You sure this is a good idea" Alexander asked over TEAMCOM.
"I trust them" Tyler replied over TEACMOM.
"I know ODSTs are good, but as they have mentioned. I do not believe a few of them would fair much a chance against Technicals and a Scorpion" Natasha stated.
She was partially right, Yes, a few of them would certainly not be enough to take down the enemy armor both light and heavy, but that is IF they were ODSTs.
"She doesn't know, does she?" Cassandra asked over a Private channel between her and Tyler.
"I didn't bother to tell" Tyler replied over Private COMs.
"We'll only get a brief chance, so let's be quick on the move" Tyler said, he received green flashes from his teammates, but their VIP had something else in mind.
"The Pelican that's going to pick us up." She said. "What model is it?"
"The Standard D77, Ma'am" Owen answered.
Natasha turned over to Tyler. "Radio in to the Pelican, if I'm correct MY priority is listed as Priority-One, you can easily call in for additional support. So, call in for close air support"
"And as far as I've observed, the insurrectionist lack any meaningful counter to any air support, say except for a few SPNKr which lack any locking systems"
'Damn, why did I not think of that' Tyler thought. Was he getting dumb, or maybe it was because the countless obstacles that were being thrown at him and his team, hampering their mission.
"Brave-Three, four and five, stay with the VIP, once the area's clear get her to the extract." Tyler said turning towards Cassandra. "We're gonna get a better view"
Cassandra nodded. "The finance minister's office would be a good view plaza, its four rooms ahead, towards the right" Natasha said.
Tyler nodded, he and Cassandra jogged to the directed place.
The door to the office was already busted open…well the entire office had a huge wall in it so that could be the explanation. "I'll keep the look out" Cassandra said as he sneaked over towards the large gaping hole where the window should have been.
In the meantime Tyler opened his COMs. "Talon-Four, this is Sierra-Zero-Seven-One. Priority-Key: One. Requesting immediate air support around my location; Watch out for friendlies in the vicinity"
Tyler anxiously waited for a response, if the Lieutenant words were in fact true, then this entire planetary outbreak may as well end here with this Air support.
A voice answered over the radio, the line was static, but with Cassandra isolating it, it became far clearer. "Roger Sierra, Talon-four en-route"
Tyler then made his way over towards Cassandra, crouching beside her as he observed the exterior through the hole. The Scorpion was positioned in the centre of the pavement, its cannon currently laying waste to the left section of the building.
"There, those kids are over there" Cassandra pointed over to a fallen over pillar, it proved to be a large enough cover to obscure them from the insurrectionist sight.
He could see atleast fifteen more figures around the rubbles. It seemed Shane took the lead as he threw one of the grenades that Tyler had offered him. The grenade landing in the back of the Technical, right in-between the feet of the rebel manning the HMG, with a sound blast, the insurrectionist along with the technical blew up, the technical being flipped over due to the force of the blast.
The SPARTAN-IIIs sprung into action, laying fire to all insurrectionists who aren't in a tactical position. He could slowly see that the foot soldiers were slowly being pushed out, but…it wasn't enough.
*BOOM*
The Scorpion's cannon fired, the shell exploding a few feet away from a group of SPARTAN-III. Though it didn't seem to inflict any sustainable on the SPARTANs, it sure as hell did force them to be more cautious, forcing them to shift positions.
The Scorpion's Machine gun began suppressing around in a circular rotation, consecutively with its main cannon, not giving the SPARTANs any chance to counter.
"If that air support delays any longer, I'm going in" Cassandra said, gripping tightly on her AR.
Tyler didn't argue, he was gonna do the same. He was not gonna let any of them die, not here, not now, and not because of HIM.
His impatience began to take over as he too tightly gripped, he could almost break it by the sheer force he was applying.
He was about to jump down the hole when suddenly he heard distant sound of engines, it was heard through the air due to his enhanced hearing.
The Scorpion aimed directly at Shane's position, one shot and him and his team would be dead…but right as the trigger to the cannon was to be pulled, a missile swirled through the air and slammed in the back of the scorpion, taking it out in an instant.
From a cloud of smoke, five more missiles swirled through each one locked on their own target. Explosions occurred all around the compound as multiple clouds of smoke began to erupt due to the explosion.
Through the clouds, a Pelican flew through, casting a shadow across the compound as it flew by. Its autocannon opened up strafed through the compounds, ripping apart any unfortunate individual caught in its line for fire.
"Guess we won't have to" Tyler said.
The Pelican circled around the perimeter, its autocannon buzzing out loud through the air. Tyler could see the small silhouettes of the rebels in disarray, some of them began to flee, while others simply laid down their arms.
"Talon-Four to Sierra, all hostiles eliminated. Proceeding with extraction protocols"
Tyler internally sighed. "Bravo-three, proceed to extraction point" Tyler said over TEAMCOM. "We'll join you late on"
"Roger that" Alexander replied over TEAMCOM
The pelican began to land on the far right end of the entire compound. Down below the SPARTANs-III cautiously made their way out of their cover and even over the fences he could see multiple more figures slowly approaching, their guns tainted.
'Finally…this mess is over'
January 18, 2537, 1524 hours [MILITARY CALENDER]
Location: Mamore System, Mamore, Madeira City, Colonial Administration Center
-
The aftermath of the conflict was sparse. The SPARTAN-IIIs took all surrendering rebels into custody. They couldn't execute them, even if they wanted to, that would brand them as war criminals.
Bodies were being dragged by what remained of the Colonial Militia while heavy lift vehicles began to remove the rubble which surrounded the area.
Tyler slowly traversed through the rubble covered land. Standing on top of a small mound of concrete, he folded his arms as he observed the aftermath, the remnants of the compound. The metal fence was complete folded, while the compound was littered with bodies, burned scraps of vehicles and etc.
"It's gonna take a while for this place to rebuilt" Cassandra said, she stood beside him.
"They have plenty of time, so long as the Covenant doesn't find it' Tyler stated.
Cassandra nodded. "We should leave now. There's nothing more for us left"
Both SPARTANs turned around to leave. That was when a voice called out to them, or more specifically HIM.
"Lieutenant-Commander!" Tyler turned his head around, glancing to who had called him. He saw a man approaching him, he wore a grey uniform, it didn't seem marine Corp, more like the ARMY, and his insignia was that of a Major. "One moment if you may"
Tyler turned over to Cassandra and motioned her to continue on. "I'll deal with this"
She nodded, while Tyler also approached the Major. The two of them only halting a few feet away from each other, face to face, though Tyler towered over the man, "Major" Tyler greeted with a nod.
"I must say, we weren't expecting any additional units operating on this planet" the Major began.
"That's bound to occur Major, some operations do not need beforehand briefs to proceed" Tyler replied. He could see that the Major was slightly irritated but kept his cool.
"True…I was here to make a few things clear before you depart" He said and was about to continue before Tyler interrupted him.
"We were never here, we never saw you, we never saw THEM, and we will never utter anything of this. We've already been briefed on that Major so you don't have to worry about this secret getting out" Tyler said.
The Major gritted his teeth. "Then we have no issues then…I hope we never cross paths again, SPARTAN" the Major turned around and began to leave.
'Wanker' Tyler thought. He was certain this Major was one of James Ackerson's lackeys or as he liked to call him, Colonel Asshole.
Tyler turned around and was about to leave, but from the corner of his eyes he caught the sight of the three SPARTAN-IIIs he and his team had first encountered. If he remembered they were called TEAM Wolfpack.
Tyler began to approach the three SPARTANs. Shane was the first to notice the blue armored giant approaching them. "Sir!" he saluted, followed by the other two.
"At ease" Tyler said. "I just wanted to say, you all did well"
"Thank you, Sir" Robert replied. "It's an honor to hear that from one of the Originals SPARTANs"
Tyler mentally scoffed at that. He was anything but an ORIGINAL SPARTAN, he never trained to be one, never was kidnapped to be one…just ended up in the right circumstances to be one.
"I have a few advices for you three" Tyler said, gaining a confused looked from them.
"First of all, always make sure you have a med kit with you, no matter how small, or big make sure you have one, you'll need in complicated situations" Tyler stated, to which they nodded.
"Second…always keep your ears out, the enemy could be anywhere and attack anytime. You're augments should have you enhanced hearing am I right?"
"Yes sir, although how do you know that?' Jane asked.
Tyler chuckled. "How do you think I'm a SPARTAN?"
Jane looked away in embarrassment as she finally realized how silly her question was.
"Finally…if things ever go south, situations where survivability is at the lowest…Play dead" Tyler said.
"What?" Shane asked confused.
"Play dead, I don't know if you're taught this, but sometimes it's better to live to fight another day"
They slowly nodded. "That's all" Tyler ended. "I hope we walks paths again…until then, Good luck SPARTANs"
Tyler turned around and began to walk away, even though he couldn't see, he was sure they were confused by his last advice…playing dead was something they probably weren't taught.
His advices were all small, he didn't know f they'll follow it, if that'll perhaps save them from their soon to be disastrous OPERATION: Prometheus…maybe he was just testing his luck, maybe he had false hope that maybe, just maybe that they might survive and not go down with the rest of their Company.
'God help so' Tyler prayed…
He had no idea what their next mission would be, it depended on whom it was from…FLEETCOM would probably deploy them to some inner colony for its defense. While Leroy would have do another one of his errands…Leroy….
January 24, 2537, 0644 hours [MILITARY CALENDER/EARTH TIME]
Location: Sol system, Earth, Sydney Australia, UNSC HIGHCOM Facility, BRAVO-6
-
*ACHOO!*
Leroy rubbed his nose. Man, I shouldn't have stayed up all night.
He walked down the long corridors of Barvo-6. A cup of coffee in his hand, he always needed one in the morning, especially before he started with his daily routine of paper works and maybe authorizing some orders.
With his free hand he slightly cracked his neck; he had just arrived back at HQ after a four hour long sleep.
He continued to walk down the corridor. After a while he came across a security guard who stood along the walls, stood guard beside a door.
"Morning, Jeffery" Leroy greeted as he passed by.
"Morning to you too, Sir" the guard returned.
Leroy continued on his path, yawning as he did.
After what felt like hours, he finally reached the door to his office. Grabbing the handle he pushed the door open.
The interior was clean, the janitors knew their work. The door was located at the far end of the room, his desk being on the opposite end, behind which the massive logo of ONI stamped; he didn't want that to be there but the architects thought it would fit him.
His room was naturally bright in the day due to the fact that the entire left portion of the wall was a literal window, one way of course. The rays of sunlight lighted his office, Leroy sighed and walked over to his desk, another pile of paper work was already waiting for him there.
"Arc, inform of me how many messages I have received today" Leroy said as he placed the cup on his desk, while he himself went around and drew his char back, sitting on it.
There was a small speaker on his desk from where a voice answered. "Approximately eight hundred and fifty nine messages, Sir"
Arc was his personal AI assistance, she wasn't a SMART AI, but she was more than enough to help him with his daily tasks, and generally made everything a whole lot more bearable.
"Single out the non-important ones, prioritized only those of high Clearance"
"Yes Sir" Arc replied. "A single message of High priority, from Vice Admiral Hieronymus Michael Stanforth-"
"That one" Leroy said as he sipped his coffee. "Transfer that to my data pad"
"Commencing Data transfer"
He reached his hand out to the end of his desk where his data pad laid in rest. Placing in it the center, he turned in it.
Scrolling through all the unnecessary craps that always appeared in his pad, he finally reached the data logs sections, more specifically the Eyes-Only section.
Tapping it, at the top one message appeared and read out.
-
-
-
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE/SECTION 3
MISSION OBSERVATION REPORT – A250065
2133 HOURS, JANUARY 23, 2537
EYES ONLY TOP-SECRET
COMM-SCRIBED/PTS 0712-5
-
-
00435-02267-BL / CMDR LEROY, EDWARD BENEDICT
00834-19223-HS / VADM STANFORTH, HIERONYMUS MICHAEL
-
RE: OPERATION: TARTARUS
-
Benedict,
I have reviewed the initial layouts for your OPERATION against the insurgents. I entrust you to deal with this ploy before it gets out of control and before it is far too unfeasible to contain. I have already discussed with Brass. You will be granted the resources you need for this.
Now, onto the topic of your previous involvement in the Mamore incident, it was an excellent decision of yours to inform me beforehand of your upcoming OPERATIONs conducted on Mamore. Though I would advise you to keep away from Ackerson's operations, already Vice Admiral Parangosky is highly unpleased by this outcome, but I have managed to mitigate it before it gets out of control.
It is already a massive strive keeping this knowledge away from key individuals more importantly Catherine. I hope that no further incidents occurred between the two generations of SPARTANs.
I have already made further plans to briefly publize the SPARTAN-II Program to boost morale. Command is still yet to agree but in a time span of a decade or more, I can guarantee that it too will be declassified, if briefly. We cannot reveal how they were made; else wise the already growing ranks of the insurrections will skyrocket if word reaches out.
Keep me updated of all activities that you have monitored from the insurrections. I will see if I can help in any way.
-HMS
-
-
-
Leroy closed the pad shut and leaned his head against the chair. Mamore was the one of the biggest gamble of his life, surpassed only by his trust in Tyler's work. It was a saving grace that Admiral Stanforth was so willing to help him, though after all during his early days he had been a direct subordinate of the Admiral.
He glanced out the window, the tall towers and skyscrapers of Sydney sore through the clouds itself. Cruise ships flew around, while transport vessels moved in steady pace.
He could only pray that the war never reached Earth, the hundreds of ODPs could keep most Covenant fleets at bay, but there still wasn't a clear estimated size of the Covenant Navy. What was clear was that its numbers far exceeded over eight hundred.
Naval intelligence still wasn't sure how many classes of ships they possessed, the CCS class battle cruiser as it was dubbed was by far the most common, appearing a lot more frequently since 2531 after Admiral Cole struck the defeating blow to the Covenant fleet at Harvest, forcing them to withdraw for a while.
"Incoming transmission, Should I patch it through, Sir?"Arc announced.
Leroy recomposed himself, pushing aside the pile of paper work, while also placing his mug away. He wanted his table clean and himself too.
Running final adjustment to his hair and uniform, he cleared his throat. "Patch it through"
His eyes faced the wall sized screen on the opposite end of the room, where the entrance was towards the side. The camera had been adjusted so that only the desk portion of his office may appear.
The screen lit up, on the other side, inside of a familiar dimly lit conference room stood a woman; she wore a black naval outfit, no medals, only her insignia of a Lieutenant. "Commander Leroy, Sir!" she saluted.
"Ah, Natasha, At ease" Leroy replied, he was pleased to see that she had finally decided to send him a call. "I hope no issues were faced during your departure from Mamore"
"Other than a few delays, none Sir" she answered. "The team of SPARTANs you had sent truly lived up to their name"
"As expected, failure is a word that does not exist in the Lieutenant-Commander's dictionary" Leroy stated.
Leroy had made sure to keep tabs on Tyler's mission records, and he had to say, it was the cleanest record he had ever seen, no mission or operation had ever been stamped with a red mark…everything in his mission record was green.
"I have reviewed the files you had transferred the previous two days, it has already been sent and approve by brass" He added.
"Sir, will I believe a swift action now would be perfect. The insurrectionists have a chain of supplies amongst arms dealers, smugglers, with dozens of markets, depots and storehouse spread across the colonies." Natasha said.
"Indeed" Leroy nodded.
"My analysis have already confirmed of all connections the insurrectionists have within the UNSC. I have sent you the files of all those moles within the UNSC and ONI. Have you seen it?"She asked.
"I have" Leroy sighed. "Internal affairs will be handled by those in Section-Zero. The files you've sent have already been transferred over to my associates in their department"
"Admiral Stanforth has already given authorization to proceed with operations dealing with this chain of dealers, the rest of ONI is too busy dealing with the Covenant, and so it is up to us to deal with the Innies." Leroy said. "You are to report to Reach, I'll meet you there in a few weeks"
"Yes, sir" Natasha said. "One question, am I going to be assigned to this operation?"
Leroy smirked. "More than that Natasha, I'll brief you on Reach"
The Screen closed shut, returning to its black state.
"Arc, when is the next ship leaving for Reach?" Leroy asked.
"Two weeks, Sir"
"Good" Leroy said as he got up from his seat, stretching a bit. "Any reports regarding the progress on Roost?"
"Lieutenant Faro reports that the progress on the construction is nineteen percent. Estimated time until completion is 2544"
"Seven more years huh, guess we can wait" Leroy murmured to himself.
He returned back to his seat and picked up a pen from his desk. Picking the first sheet of paper, he began his daily task of signing paper works.
"Arc, please play Beethoven's Ninth symphony, I'd rather indulge myself in music as I complete this mountain of paper works" Leroy requested.
A/N:
There we go lads, Chapter 7 is done. Goodness this one actually took long, I had plans to finish this like in two days, would have probably uploaded this in Tuesday but…eh my lazy ass.
I'll get my ass started on the next chapter by tomorrow. I'll say one thing…its gonna take a whole lot of my imagination to go through the next three Chapters.
SPOILERS:
It's continuous, meaning it's directly after the previous chapter….man, so until then.
P E A C E