Chapter 1 - Missio
March 6th, 2544 (21:10 Hours – Military Calendar)
Epsilon Eridani System, near Epsilon Eridani IV
In Slipspace aboard the UNSC Juno
:********:
Battlegroup Kilo had moved just to the edge of Epsilon Eridani IV's local space, off only by a few million kilometers, leaving the planet within range for Operation BAGMAN.
The lesser continent of Arany was currently enduring the grueling conditions of a seasonal typhoon. It was a dangerous insertion, but it would act as the perfect cover for the ODSTs.
Three days earlier, Colonel Ackerson, who they figured had been playing his cards close to his chest, had finally debriefed them on the full mission details. The drop would take place on Epsilon Eridani IV, one of the less populated planets in-system. Bravo Company would drop from the Juno and take out the 4 suspected Photo-Reflective Jammer Stations present on Arany. Doing so would expose the Meleonich Mining Facility to the STARS Satellites in orbit. From there, the rest of Task Force Kilo would be able to react accordingly and deploy ground forces to secure the facility.
Get in, hit the Jammers, get out. Duncan thought that was simple enough as his pod turned around in the drop bay alongside the rest of Bravo. Beneath him, the void of slipspace yawned wide.
The Lieutenant Colonel came in over Company comms. "Dropping in three…two…Go! Go! Go!"
The Stealth Pods launched from the Juno's drop bay like a fine spray. After several seconds everyone was clear of the ship and hurdling through the infinite darkness.
"Thirty seconds to transition." Garrison said.
Duncan braced. Immediately the vibrations began. His pod and everyone else's were subject to the violent tremors that always came at this point in the drop. Since they were radio-silent, he had to get used to the absence of griping over the comms. He punched the sequence into a display, rested his thumb on the green transition button and filled the silence by counting off the seconds in his head. Twenty-five…fifteen…five…
"Transition!"
Duncan pressed his thumb down on the transition button. He polarized his visor beforehand as the flash tossed him into real space.
Epsilon Eridani IV appeared below. Its surface was 65% water save for its two large continents connected by an isthmus. The smallest, Arany, was their target. Duncan increased the magnification on one of his displays which captured the large hurricane-like weather formation currently cycling through southeast Arany. Their drop zone was somewhere just beneath that.
A string of coordinates came onto another display showing him where he needed to be in the wedge formation. Duncan piloted his pod in that direction and came in alongside Deaks and Yuri. That was worrying. He hoped Yuri wouldn't try any stunts this time around. From what Ackerson had told them about who and what was waiting for them down there, there was no place for it.
Bravo Company carried on for another thirty seconds in the general direction of the typhoon before breaking up into their platoon clusters a minute earlier than usual. That was to compensate for the large weather disturbance that could potentially disrupt their drop early on. 1st and 2nd Platoons were close together since they were hitting the same target, the Southeast Jammer Station.
The regular reentry flames began at 2 minutes. At 1 minute they deployed their drag chutes. Duncan and probably the rest of Epsilon breathed a sigh of relief once they saw Yuri pop his chute as well. That meant he was at least taking this seriously. Thinking on it again, maybe their being relieved that he actually slowed down on time said something about him as an ODST. It was something Duncan found almost admirable, because while everyone else was busy jumping feet first into hell, Yuri preferred going headfirst.
At 30 seconds the troopers plunged through the murky clouds of the typhoon. Thunder roared like artillery batteries all around them. The inside of Duncan's pod darkened save for the lights from the buttons and interfaces lining its interior. Heavy rainfall pelted his viewport. A bolt of lighten flashed so close that his helmet was forced to polarize to maximum tint to protect him from being blinded outright. The resulting thunder rattled the pod.
At 10 seconds he emerged beneath the storm. The surface was left in a state of artificial nighttime due to the overhanging cloud cover, leaving him to make out the vague shapes of a dense forest. The occasional flash of distant lightening would illuminate the region, allowing him to make out the tropical foliage waiting below. It also let him see the other pods descending. But something was off. He looked closer and wondered why they were so distant. Then it clicked. They weren't distant, he was.
Duncan had no time to react before his braking thrusters activated. He crashed through the trunk of a thick tree like a missile. He took on a slight spin before hitting the ground. His momentum caused his pod to bounce. The braking thrusters, still active, made him skid several meters across the ground before crashing into the mouth of a small cave.
Duncan's vision swam with stars from the impact. He forced himself into alertness. He was on the ground, in enemy territory now. He looked to his viewport and was worried at seeing loose debris falling all over it. Then he saw them: glowing green eyes that winked open from the other side and stared into his pod.
He couldn't tell what it was because of the dark so he turned on his VISR mode. He never thought he could regret doing something so much in so short a time as he did in that moment.
The creature, whatever it was, looked like a profane hybrid between a Walrus and a Dog. Its brown fur bristled and its maw opened to bare two enormous tusks, ready to impale him.
Duncan quickly reached for the pod's weapon socket, pulled out his M7, flicked the safety and aimed at the creature. It bit down on the pod. Its powerful bite easily punched a hole through the glass big enough for the arm-sized tusks to get within a few centimeters of his chest plate.
With his pod compromised he chose to at least get out into the open where he would have a better chance of survival. He punched the explosive bolts and the hatch blew off. The animal, with its tusk still embedded in it, was carried along, its blubbery mass tumbling over the muddy ground.
Duncan leaped out and crouched behind the pod. He peeked out to observe the animal. It got back onto its hind legs and shook its head wildly. After a few tries it managed to free its tusks and toss the hatch aside. The lone ODST saw its predatory eyes lock onto him again. He checked his HUD to make sure his M7 had full ammo. Yet merely looking at the size of the creature told him it was useless.
Unfortunately, while they had briefed him on mission details, they had failed to inform him about the planet's wildlife. He briefly remembered what he did on that training run at the RTETC and considered whether the same result would apply here. The thunder would drown out any large explosion. He simply needed to time the lightening right.
Duncan was just about to reach for a Frag when he heard whimpering. He peered back at the creature and saw it galloping towards the cave. It disappeared deep inside.
Flashlights were coming through the forests. None of the other pods should have been close enough for anyone from his team to already be here. Unless... He fell back and went prone behind a line of bushes.
Two men walked out of the forest with flashlights in one hand and MA5B Assault Rifles in the other. They centered their lights on the cave and then on the pod embedded in the entrance. They brought their rifles to bare and slowly approached it. Unbeknownst to them, a suppressor poked through the grass several meters away, tracking them.
The VISR mode painted the two contacts in a shade of red, confirming they weren't friendly. Duncan already suspected as much by what they wore. They sported a kind of cut-down ballistic armor with regular fatigues. He realized that it was actually a bastardized version of the BDU that Marine's wore. More importantly, if the VISR was recognizing them as hostiles then that was confirmation that they lacked the standard UNSC neural interface that would have ID'd them as friendlies. But how had they gotten their hands on the armor?
One of them put a finger to his helmet. Duncan caught on and listened in via the same bandwidth used by wearers of the Marine BDU.
"It's pretty big. I saw some tracks from that creepy Dog-thing outside. This piece of junk probably woke it up. How'd this even get out here?"
"I think the better question is what we're even looking at."
A revelation crossed Duncan's mind that if they were able to use their comms to speak with each other, they could also speak with a localized authority or HQ. He needed to act fast before they reported back and compromised the entire operation. Ackerson had explained to them what the rules of engagement were: anyone they found armed was free game because no one was supposed to be down here to begin with.
He remembered what the Staff had told him about not hesitating when he saw the enemy in his sites. He took a breath to steady himself then squeezed the trigger, firing two 3-round-bursts into the back of the closest one. The man stiffened then fell forward in a lifeless heap. A heartbeat later, Duncan squeezed off another burst that caught the second in the face as he was turning to see where the shots were coming from. He too collapsed.
Duncan watched the area around him for a full minute to make sure there were no reinforcements. When he felt comfortable enough to step out, he went over to the bodies and crouched down beside them. A quick read on their individual pulses told him they were both neutralized. He took one of their helmets and removed the communication chip from the back. A preliminary investigation of the fingernail sized wafer of silicon confirmed it was intact. He took a risk and carefully inserted it into the back of his helmet.
A screen appeared on his HUD presenting data on the various communications recorded by the chip during its use. This was UNSC hardware as well. He was curious as to how they had gotten their hands on the tech. He saw the most recent conversation had happened five minutes ago and let it play while he carried on through the bushes, heading in the direction where the two he presumed were Insurrectionists had come from.
He multitasked, navigating through bushy undergrowth and under the thick foliage of towering Kapok trees and smaller Rubber trees. At the same time, he listened to a conversation between unknown men. From what he could make out, the two he dispatched earlier were a part of a team of four sent to investigate an outlying communication tower. It was at least a kilometer further east of the 'Station'. A power outage at the tower made them believe it had been taken out by the adverse weather so the first two were sent ahead on foot to reach it. That must have been when they spotted the damage left in the wake of his pod and came over to check it out.
Duncan came to a bend in a wide dirt road. The way it cut through the forest allowed him to witness the fierce downpour coming from the typhoon. A strong easterly gale was also pushing against him, forcing him to hold onto a low branch to stay balanced.
He scanned both directions to make sure it was clear. There were at least two others wondering around out here so he had to be on his guard. More importantly, he needed to rendezvous with the rest of Epsilon near the target building. From where he'd landed, he could tell that he was the closest to the actual Jammer Station, meaning it may be a while before he spotted anyone else. He decided getting as close to it as possible would give him the best chance of seeing them coming.
As he dashed to the other side, he barely noticed the flatbed truck that came careening down the road. He was already in the middle by the time its headlights hit his visor and its speed fully registered. It was a green-tinted Spade Truck and it was baring down on him, too fast to evade. They had him dead to rights.
A 14.5 by 114 millimeter round punched through the windshield, nailing the driver and causing the vehicle to swerve to the left. Duncan threw himself to the side as it drove past and slammed headlong into a thick tree trunk.
Sparks flew from the vehicle's busted engine and a vaporous smoke flowed out from beneath the hood. Duncan saw someone fall from the passenger seat. The man was bloodied but very aware. The two spotted each other and reached for their weapons. Neither got off the first shot as another high caliber round flashed through the man's skull in a spray of blood. His eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to his knees.
Duncan looked around to see where the shot had come from. The two Insurrectionists in the truck were both suppressed which meant it was likely a friendly. The fact he wasn't on the ground with a third eye of his own yet was good evidence to suggest as much.
Someone opened up a direct comm-link to him, squelching the radio two times to create duel bursts of static. That was the signal not to open fire. Whoever it was had to be aware of the mission's demand for radio-silence. That meant they were definitely friendly.
He looked around a bit more and spotted a figure rappelling down the vines from a tall tree with an SRS on their back. They descended ten meters to the road.
By the time they jogged up to him, Duncan could tell it was Deaks. The sheathed meat cleaver on his back was a dead giveaway.
The Corporal, dressed in his own BDU, gave him a two-fingered salute, one he returned with thanks.
Rustling in the nearby tree line got his attention and Duncan brought up his M7. Deaks rest his hand on the barrel and gently pushed it down, sending him another 'don't shoot' signal.
Silhouettes emerged from the forest. Duncan recognized them quickly as three ODSTs, likely the rest of Epsilon. On the other side, three more troopers stepped out of the bushes. The largest of them stopped to inspect the crashed Spade and shook his head at the damage.
They kept an eye out for any more vehicles as they gathered up on the roadside. The Staff easily stood out thanks to the red accents on his armor. He cocked his head at Duncan and jabbed a finger at him, probably a quiet way of scolding him for landing so far from everyone else. Duncan gave an apologetic nod.
As per the mission's requirements, no one was allowed to use their comms until they were in position at the Jammer Stations. The Staff uploaded the Nav Marker to their TAC Maps which let them know where they were relative to the objective. They had a 300 meter walk left ahead of them. The troopers winked their acknowledgement lights and filed in behind the Staff in a long-range reconnaissance patrol or LRRP formation.
They headed along the road, jogging at certain points when they were sure the way was clear. The Staff and Deaks took point while Hector and Rico watched the rear of the formation.
At 150 meters the road ceased to wind around and led straight down, stripping away any cover they could get from the forest. The Staff had them foot their way through the wilderness rather than risk the alternative. The muddy earth and resistant undergrowth created natural barriers that were difficult to pass. It thankfully wasn't enough to stop them. The ground inclined more and more until they reached their position atop a small ridgeline overlooking a low-lying area.
Squads Eagle and Echo were already setting up overwatch positions near the edge. Some of the ODSTs nodded to at them as they arrived.
Beyond the ridge was the target building. The Photo-Reflective Jammer Station was a square building three stories tall. The roof was a series of reflective metallic panels with a silvery sheen. On top was a large satellite dish whose interior was lined with the same reflective panels pointed up towards space. The rain pooled inside the dish and washed back out in a continuous stream.
The building was surrounded by a wide perimeter fence with razor wire. A number of armed guards patrolled the roadways inside. They occasionally came within sight via the red floodlights mounted to the walls of the Jammer Station before disappearing again behind the shadows of smaller support buildings, equipment barracks and transport vehicles.
The Staff used his comms. "This is Ep-1 to 1-Actual, Epsilon is in position, over."
"Copy, Ep-1." Harper said, waving at him from where she sat near the ridge. "We see you. We're just waiting for Hotep and Hotel to get in position. Tell Ep-3 to start picking his targets."
"Understood."
The Staff turned to Deaks who nodded back and started setting up his sniper.
Squads Hotep and Hotel were part of 2nd platoon who were supposed to help 1st platoon in assaulting the Southeastern Jammer Station. The other platoons from Bravo were also operating in a similar binary-unit style to hit the other three Jammers.
So far, only Squad Horus was in place on the opposing ridgeline. The waiting wouldn't stop once they got in place, however, because they needed the rest of Bravo to also be ready. It would be a single, synchronized attack on all fronts.
Duncan noticed the Lieutenant Colonel lying prone amongst the rest of the 1st thanks to his larger, left shoulder pauldron accented by a white Death's Head. He noticed that without it, Garrison would probably have blended right in. The others were simply keeping an eye on out on the station, not even phased by the fact that their overall commanding officer was right beside them.
"Heads up 1st platoon, Hotep and Horus just arrived." Garrison said over Company Comms. "Alright, all platoons are in place. Bravo, move into position. Once your unit sharpshooters neutralize most of the security, advance on the Jammers."
Like everyone else, Duncan checked his weapon, ejecting the half-spent clip and slapping in a new one before joining his squad assembling near the slope of the ridge.
"Three…two…one…greenlight, greenlight."
The ODSTs moved out, leaving Deaks and another sniper behind. The groups remained hidden as they advanced down the foliage-covered slope. Once they reached the base of the incline, they spread out into a line with two meters space between each trooper. Then they slowly advanced through the trees towards the distant perimeter gates.
As they went, Duncan could overhear Deaks on the comms.
"Ep-3 to Echo-5, Hotel-7 and Hotep-3, I've got eyes on at least 16 guards here. Confirm, over."
"This is Hotep-3, add about 4 more to the count. We've got a crew stationed near the motor pool playing cards."
"Ep-3, I see'em. Got my sites on the one sitting on the hood of the flatbed."
"Echo-5, I've got my eyes on the ole smokey lighting up next to him."
"Hotel-7, I'm calling Curly Hair crouching near the first two. …Man…this guy's got a pretty good hand. Sure we can't let him play it first?"
"No." Came the simple reply from Hotep-3. "And I've got his friend with the sword tats. Seeing what this guy's packing, he's gonna wipe the floor with Curls anyway. Might as well spare him the embarrassment."
"How good?"
"Royal Flush."
"Dang, poor guy won't know what hit him after that."
"On three." Deaks said. "One…two…"
Duncan heard a suppressed shot fly overhead, barely perceptible over the rumbling thunder.
"Their down…wait, someone finish off Curls."
"Hotel-7, I've got it…okay who's next?"
"Echo-5 to Ep-3, I'm looking at a two-man patrol passing near the southern gate. I'm tracking the left one now, over?"
"…I see them. Okay, I've got the one on the right. Wait until they walk out of that floodlight and behind the containers."
Three seconds passed then Duncan heard another subtle shot wisp overhead.
"Patrol neutralized. Move on to the next one."
It carried on like that for a full minute as the rest of the ODSTs advanced on the fence. By the time they had reached the forest' edge, the snipers were still going at it.
"Hotel-7 to Ep-3, see those 2 hanging around the Orange car? I've got the right one."
"Ep-3, I see them. I've got the guy on the left."
"That orange car looks pretty nice, right?"
Another shot.
"It's a red car now."
Hotel 7 whistled in astonishment over comms. "Wooo! Two for one, not bad, Ep-3. That's less work for me."
"This is Hotep-3, my corner's clear."
"Echo-5, same on my end."
"Ep-3 to Neptune-Actual, greenlight on the Jammer Station, over."
"Understood." The Lieutenant Colonel responded then switched to Company comms. "1st Platoon, 2nd Platoon, have your breaching teams move in on the doors. Everyone else hold your positions on the perimeter. Let's move."
The troopers emerged from the forest. Several of them pulled out wire-cutters, quickly forming holes in the wire that the ODSTs stormed through.
Duncan joined the rest of Epsilon on the other side as they headed for the Jammer Station while Squads Eagle and Echo stayed behind to form defensive positions. On the way, they passed over the bodies of those the snipers had taken out. Duncan spotted two guards slumped over opposite sides of the hood of an orange car, their blood painting the vehicle a dark crimson.
The squad came up the steps onto the porch surrounding the first level. The Staff pointed to Rico and Nova then to the door. The two nodded and manned either side while the rest of the squad stacked up against the wall behind them.
Rico was about to tie a breaching charge to the doorknob when Nova held up a finger. He stared at her incredulously as she reached for the handle and twisted it, earning a light click.
Nova turned back to Rico. He shook his head, sighing over comms. "Buzzkill."
"Hotep-5" Nova comm'd. "Try the nob first."
A few seconds later Hotep-5 comm'd in. "Door's open." He said, half-laughing. "Guess we're going in quiet."
Nova looked to the Staff who nodded. She quietly opened the door and stepped inside, her M7 leading. Rico followed her in. Then, two at a time, the rest of the squad filtered inside until Hector brought up the rear.
The hallway they entered reminded Duncan of the WMD Retrieval Exercise back at Ravenport. Thankfully, this time the lights were on. They checked one room at a time, clearing the empty ones. The first level seemed to be primarily comprised of empty barracks. The occasional straggler they came across found themselves on the receiving end of suppressed led if they saw the ODSTs and raised a rifle or pistol. Those that didn't see them coming were caught in unbreakable chokeholds by gauntleted arms until they passed out. Zack secured them with plastic handcuffs on their arms and legs so they wouldn't be any trouble.
They cleared their half of the first floor easily enough and met up with Squad Hotep at the stairs, then proceeded to the second floor. They gunned down those they needed to and restrained the unwary and those that surrendered without protest. None were ever able to scream.
They went up on the third floor and repeated the process with everyone they came across.
It wasn't long before both squads had stacked up on either side of a reinforced metal door that had to lead to the control center. Rico and the Hotep's demolition specialist scrutinized it. Nova reached over and finagled with the knob just to make sure, although she caught a wag of the finger from Rico.
"Not this time, Dama Roja." He said. "This one requires a more…delicate touch."
He reached into his rucksack and pulled out a square breaching charge the size of his helmet. He worked with Hotep's specialist to prepare it. Once it was ready, they lightly pushed it against the door which caused its sticky-underside to adhere. While he let his coworker retreat, Rico nodded to the Staff to get ready. He pressed the large red button on the center and rushed to the side.
A second later the door exploded inward, the large slab of metal flying through the air and hitting something inside.
"Go! Go! Go!" The Staff said.
The ODSTs stormed into what was a U-shaped room. The door had actually landed on one of the persons working inside, rendering him unconscious. With weapons raised, they turned on their external comms and shouted at the people within to get down. There were at least a dozen tech personnel sitting at their console stations. They turned to the incoming troopers with a look of shock and horror. One of them closer to the far end got up and pulled out her pistol. A second later her bullet-riddled body fell to the floor.
The other 11 were a bit smarter and held their hands up. The ODSTs patted them down and snapped plastic handcuffs onto them before leading them out of the room.
"Ep-8, get on it." The Staff said.
Duncan gave him the thumbs up. Now came his part in the mission. He searched around the consoles and spotted the one he was looking for. The display showed the Jammer's various output readings. He walked over and from one of his pockets he took out the chip known as the Loki Suite. The suite was a special infiltration software made courtesy of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He found a port and inserted it.
As the software booted up, the Staff comm'd the Lieutenant Colonel. "Ep-1 to Neptune-Actual, the Southeast Jammer Station is secured, sir."
"Good." Garrison said. "On my way up."
He stepped into the control center a minute later. His attention quickly went to the window view that spanned the semicircular section of the U-shaped room.
"Have you put in the Loki-Suite yet?"
"Yessir" The Staff said. "Ep-8's already on it."
By then Duncan's fingers were already hammering away at the keyboard, interfacing with the Jammer Station's systems through the Loki Suite. It acted as a kind of trojan horse against the restriction software patrolling the system.
He had gotten to read up a bit on the specs of how these stations worked, studying a file made available to him every morning, noon and night for the last three days.
There were also Cryptoanalysts in the other platoons who were working right about now to infiltrate the system. Their jobs were to shut down the camouflaging equipment while keeping the station online. That way the people at the Meleonich didn't catch on to the fact they were being infiltrated.
Garrison came up beside him. "How are we doing, son?"
Duncan bit his lower lip as he worked through a tedious firewall. "I'm almost into this station's main access terminal using a few proxy accounts generated by the Loki Suite. This software's a work of genius, sir, honestly."
The Lieutenant Colonel stared in amazement at the data-streams that passed over the display. "The fact you understand what any of that means makes you just as much of a genius, kid." He slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Thank you, sir."
Garrison turned to the Staff. "The other Jammer Teams are already waiting."
"Got it!" Duncan said, entering in a final stream of numerical code into a dialogue box linked to the central server. He hovered his finger over the 'Enter' button and turned expectantly to the Lieutenant Colonel.
Behind his visor, the older ODST grinned with satisfaction then spoke over Company Comms. "All Jammer Teams enter the kill code on my mark. Three…two…mark."
Duncan pressed the Enter button. Immediately the screen lit up as it showed the output meters of the Jammer Stations' camouflaging equipment slowly going down. Duncan opened a screen on another console and had it show the progress of the other Jammer Stations. The readouts from their camouflaging equipment was also on the decline.
Duncan huffed in amazement. "And…they're…down!"
The last output readings ended in '0%' across the board.
Garrison breathed a sigh of relief. So did Duncan. Their job here was done. Now for the main show.
"This is Ep-3 to Neptune-Actual." Deaks came in over Company Comms. "Ugh…did we order another 4 Pods, sir?"
"What are you looking at, Ep-3?" Garrison asked.
"Four stealth pods inbound." A trace of concern entered his voice. "They're…headed straight for the Meleonich."
Garrison saw a door and strode outside onto a balcony surrounding the control center. Duncan shifted over to the windows of the room and looked up. Sure enough, he saw 4 Stealth Pods, they're pods, zooming through the clouds, headed straight for the Meleonich.
"Ep-8, heil those pods now!" Garrison growled.
Duncan tried but got no response. "Nothing sir. They've got friendly IFFs…but they're not ODST."
Garrison growled in irritation and tried using Company Comms. "Stealth Pods in route to the Meleonich, identify yourself immediately!"
What happened next no one quite understood. The Stealth Pods answered, but not verbally. Rather, an automated code appeared on their HUDs.
'Code-3-9-2'.
Duncan recognized it. It was a simple UNSC code that told the receiver that the sender was on a high priority mission and unable to communicate. It was used often by Prowlers to ignore hails from other ships when they were on missions. "Sir?"
He was caught off guard by the way the Lieutenant Colonel just stared up at the pods. At length he answered, his voice cold and somewhat confused. "Who…are they?" That was all he managed to say before one of the monitors near Duncan sounded an alarm. He dashed over to investigate. When he realized what he was looking at his eyes went wide.
"Sir, a ship just arrived into local space."
That caught Garrison's attention. He strode back inside and joined the Staff as they gathered around Duncan.
"Is it ours?" He asked.
Duncan could only shake his head. "Someone else. The systems' ship registries identified it as a merchant-class vessel called 'The Omen'".
A moment later a communication display winked on.
Duncan felt his mouth go dry. He slowly turned to the Staff and the Lieutenant Colonel. "They're…hailing us."
Garrison took off his helmet and ran a hand over his white hair as looked out to the cloudy skies overhead. He sighed under his breath. "What is going on here?"
Missio - Mission