A9 to C9

(Alpha Nine to Copper Nine)

Chapter 11: Cabin Fever Labs (Buck)

UNSC Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck

Cabin Fever Labs, Copper 9

Immediately After Drop

"No. The carrier's going to jump! It's a slipspace rupture! You need to-"

"EMP! Losing power!"

"Stabilize, then pop your chutes! We're going in hard!"

All Buck could see outside of his drop pod's canopy was a blinding flash of light all across the skyline of New Mombasa where the Solemn Penance, his main target, had been just seconds earlier, now having jumped into slipspace. Not only had the Prophet of Regret escaped, but now a massive shockwave of energy was consuming both he and his squad's drop pods. And before he knew it, the skyline was replaced by darkness, and a rapidly approaching rock wall, all Buck really had time to do was just brace himself for impact. His pod slammed into the rock face, knocking off some pieces of debris, though was relatively unharmed thanks to the drop pod's intended purpose. A few more impacts against various stalagmites and rock walls before the drop pod came rolling to a stop, now leaning against a rock and facing upside down. Buck's canopy opened and dumped the ODST unceremoniously onto the rocky ground. Despite his survival, he was still a bit dazed from the impact.

"Agh…Squad, what's your status?"

Silence, nothing but silence and static, Buck tapped the side of his helmet, which yielded just about the same. Nothing.

"Veronica? Talk to me. Are you still on this frequency?"

More silence, Buck gritted his teeth. What the hell was going on? Why weren't they responding? Had the carrier jump completely fried the comm network?

Retrieving his silenced magnum and assault rifle from his pod, the latter of which required just a bit more effort to get it unstuck from its holster, Buck took stock of the LZ, finding that he had landed in a cave system somehow.

"How the hell did I…huh…" Buck muttered to himself, trying to piece together how he managed to get into this mess. His train of thought was interrupted when he spotted a cathedral in the distance. Just barely illuminated by the odd natural lighting in the cave, alongside streaks of lightning above in rather unnatural clouds. Faced with very little options besides staying behind at his pod and waiting for backup (which at this point seemed highly unlikely.) Buck made his way towards the cathedral. Nearing the building, Buck took notice of a Phantom dropship entering from above and dropping off a squadron of troops at the front of the cathedral. What was odd was that the Phantom sported a red and silver color scheme and its design was far more jagged than the standard Covenant Phantom. Must have been a different model? It didn't really matter. What mattered was the fact that Buck had a fight on his hands, though he anticipated that already.

Approaching the cathedral, Buck could already hear gunfire coming from the supposed Covenant forces and what was more than likely UNSC forces. Taking cover behind a set of rocks, Buck surveyed the ongoing battle. To his surprise, the "Covenant" forces seemed to be engaging the cathedral's…automatic defenses? Mounted machine guns and various other weapons scattered both on the building and in various parts of the courtyard entrance.

"Must have been one hell of a church service…"

Onto the attackers themselves, and while yes, they were indeed species that were standard to the Covenant's ranks. They all seemed to be wearing equally matching red armor amongst all of them, save for maybe the occasional Grunt Minor who still bore the usual, canon-fodder orange battle harness Buck knew and…well, despised. Another odd detail was that the armor itself looked far more streamlined than anything Buck had seen before. Less edges, more of a uniform look to them. Experimental units maybe? New Mombasa seemed like one hell of a place for a testing ground. Unknown to him though, was that these troopers belonged to the Banished rather than the Covenant.

"Breach the doors! We will grind their bodies to a pulp!" One of the Brutes, likely the commander due to his ornate looking armor shouted to his comrades as they slowly pushed their way through the heavily guarded front courtyard towards the main stairs of the cathedral under heavy machine gun fire.

Sneaking up behind a Grunt who was mostly just trying to stay out of the line of fire, Buck made his first move, grabbing the Grunt by the throat and driving his combat knife into his skull, no one seemed to take notice.

Grabbing a set of plasma grenades from his body, Buck then proceeded to prime it and hurl it towards one of the Elites moving towards the frontlines, perfectly sticking to his back armor, causing the Elite to yell out in both anger and panic, opting to start moving towards Buck to try and take him out with him. Though Buck had already distanced himself from the doomed Elite. Now it was time to go loud.

Laying down suppressive fire, Buck fell back to one of the many, pillar-like stalagmites growing out of the cave floor. His bullets whizzed past the Banished troopers now attempting to pivot towards a two front defensive posture, now completely ceasing their little siege operation on the cathedral's doors. The Brute Captain himself led a small strike team towards where Buck was firing from. Taking notice of the oncoming squadron, Buck prepared an ambush, using a pair of stalagmites clumped together in such a way that it provided an ample firing position with decent cover. Just before he could pick off one of the advancing Jackals now rounding the corner, a feeling of doom came over Buck, forcing him to glance skyward and just barely miss having a sniper round strike him in the head, instead striking the rocks and leaving a decent pockmark.

"Son of a bitch!" Buck took cover and started to frantically scan the sky to locate where the shot had come from. He spotted the Phantom from earlier, out of one of the open passenger doors, an ODST was standing with a sniper rifle at the ready, right next to a Grunt manning one of the side turrets. Though his armor, much like the rest of the Banished, looked slicker than Buck's, and the ODST sniper's visor was a deep, maroon red, as was the rest of his armor. Buck was beginning to feel completely out of his element now. This wasn't Earth, this clearly isn't the Covenant either. He wondered if he had stumbled upon some odd, Insurrectionist cell using Covenant assets and troops…?

Spotting Buck hiding among the rocks once more, the sniper took another shot, missing once more. The Phantom began to relocate to get a better angle on Buck, allowing him some breathing room, though not for long given the squad now rapidly advancing on his position. Psyching himself up, Buck leaned around his makeshift cover and sprayed down one of the advancing Grunts, before taking cover from his squad's return fire. Priming the second and last plasma grenade he had, he leaned out once again and hucked the glowing blue ball of death right at the Brute Captain, only for him to respond by using his gravity hammer to bat the plasma grenade into a completely different direction, landing and exploding harmlessly nearby. His one opportunity to at least even the playing field now gone, Buck opted to start another hasty retreat, likely back towards his pod. Only for as soon as he set foot back out into the open, another sniper round cracked past him. He was trapped.

"This is Gunnery Sergeant Buck of Alpha-Nine, I'm pinned down by enemy fire. If anyone can hear me, I need backup ASAP! My position is about to be overrun!" Buck called into the radio, his usual, level headed tone now replaced with desperation, and still the radio was silent. Loading a fresh magazine into his assault rifle, Buck prepared a last stand.

"Veronica, If there's any way you can hear this…I…sigh…" Buck was many things, including a ladies man, though Veronica Dare was far more than just a military woman. She was an ONI operative, a spook, the thing that went bump in the night for many an unlucky few, both human and non-human.

Figuring to leave his words at that, Buck readied himself, though the Banished team pursuing him was unable to reach his location due to the Cathedral's defenses creating a sort of kill-zone between him and the approaching strike team. Exemplified by an all too enthusiastic Grunt attempting to cross the opening, only for a heavy machine turret to eviscerate him. Though that still left the problem of the Phantom.

From the roof of the Cathedral, a turret, which mostly included a surface-to-air missile launcher, awoke from its idle mode and began to scan the skies, spotting the Phantom and locking it, before promptly firing a pair of missiles, one of which streaked past the Phantom and exploded nearby, the other managed to strike the back engines of the craft, sending it spinning out of control and crashing down onto the cave floor nearby.

Testing his luck, Buck leaned himself out of the cover, just enough to get within visual range of the turrets laying down machine gun fire from the roof of the Cathedral. None of them seemed particularly interested in him. But were far more interested in killing the Banished squadron now pinned down across from him. Steeling himself, Buck leapt out of cover and ran like hell across the kill zone, almost tripping on the previously mentioned Grunt's fallen corpse. As he approached the main stairs of the Cathedral, however, some of the building's defenses turned their attention towards him and began sending heavy gunfire down at him. Causing the hardened ODST to begin swearing, though keeping his bearing towards the Cathedral's main doors, hoping that perhaps it provided enough of a blind spot for the turrets to be unable to hit him. Reaching the main doors, Buck slammed himself against the wooden doors, hoping that, despite the Banished attempts to breach the doors, they would yield just on fate alone…and they did. Buck, deciding to take his chances with whatever was inside of the Cathedral rather than the oncoming Banished forces, barged his way in, the doors slammed shut behind him.

The interior of the church looked like, well, any other sort of church he had seen on Earth. Lines of pews, all barely lit up by candles dotting the floor, leading up to what was supposed to be the altar, now replaced by some kind of blood red pit in the ground. Buck carefully made his way down the aisle, keeping watch on every angle he could. Nearby, he spotted the glow of a computer against one of the stone walls near a window. Approaching, he found that the walls were decorated with posters of what looked to be...bands? Gothic looking décor, alongside various drawings on colored paper. Glancing down and retrieving one from underneath his foot, he inspected it to find that it was mostly just doodles of anime styled characters.

"Not bad…" Buck muttered to himself, before casting the paper aside and approaching the computer. He could hear a faint noise coming from the main console. It was an MP3 player, a pair of headphones nearby seemed to be blaring some kind of techno sounding music. Someone was living here, and It was likely that they hadn't left either. From behind he could hear the sounds of something skittering around in the dark. Whirling around, Buck raised his rifle and began to scan the darkness.

"Hey…whoever's sneaking around, just letting you know, I'm armed and ready to throw down whenever you are. We can either be civil about this, or I can plant my boot right where the sun doesn't shine. Your call"

Buck overturned various objects, trying to discern just where the hell that sound was coming from, failing to notice a pickaxe now hovering in the air behind him, getting ready to sink its sharp end right into his back. Turning around at the last moment, Buck managed to side step the pick's swing, now thoroughly confused as to why a pickaxe was just floating around and attacking him. It wasn't someone in active camouflage either. No tell-tale shimmering in the air. The pickaxe, surrounded by an odd, holographic projection of three arrows pointing in all directions from a central point, spun itself around and launched itself towards Buck.

Dodging the pick once again, leaving it buried halfway in the stone wall. Buck trained his weapon on the object in an attempt to figure out what the hell was controlling it. Out of the shadows, a three legged, almost crustacean looking creature leapt onto Buck's back and attempted to sink one of its claws into his skin, just barely being blocked by his armor. Buck began to spin around in a panic, reaching back to try and remove the creature. He managed to grab one of its appendages and hurled it down onto the ground, with an oddly human sounding cry of distress, the creature righted itself. Indeed, it was crab-like, though metallic in some areas, and organic in others with blood red, fleshy masses scattered across the creature's exterior, with purple lights protruding from its body. And one single purple eye at the center of its body. It also wore what looked to be a veil over its head and some kind of cap, like someone attending a funeral.

With the creature somewhat stunned, Buck raised his rifle and fired off a few shots, only for the creature to deflect some of the bullets using that very same holographic, telekinesis technique he had seen with the pickaxe, before finally scuttling away at an unnatural speed. Leading Buck on a shooting frenzy all over the room in an attempt to destroy the beast. However, upon crawling onto the computer, Buck took aim, and the creature began to speak

"Wait! Wait! Hold your fire, do NOT shoot my setup!" The creature said in a woman's voice, raising its claws at Buck as If they were hands. Buck was dumbfounded, though kept his aim.

"You attacked me first, and I'm going to assume you're the one who's controlling the emplacements up on the roof." Buck kept his rifle trained on the crab, wondering if it was just trying to fool him into letting his guard down.

"Yea, well you broke into my home and started looking through my belongings. So I'd say we're even…" The crab said, its voice dripping with vitriol.

"It's not about to be your home in a few minutes with all due respect, It's going to be crawling with Covenant. And I'd imagine that Chieftain out there is going to use you as a belt buckle."

The crab scoffed, leaping off of the computer console and beginning to search through a pile of notes.

"Who, the Banished? Ugh, they're pushovers. They've been trying to break in here for the past few months now."

Buck carefully approached the crab, unsure of what to say given the information just dumped in his lap. He began by clearing his throat.

"Alright, let's start over. My name is 'Buck', who are you, what are you, and who are the Banished?" Buck asked, raising his fingers up for each one of his questions, the crab rolled its single eye, though didn't even bother to look at Buck.

"Nori, that's none of your business, and they're a mercenary group working with JCJenson to recover company artifacts across the planet."

"...That doesn't explain anything."

Nori growled, casting aside a pile of papers, before crawling back to the computer, casting her MP3 player aside alongside more doodles, revealing an old looking map laying on the console with various red 'X's marked here and there. Finding a set of papers, she began to look over their contents.

"They're an offshoot of the Covenant. Some religious organization of various alien races. They-"

Buck waved his hands dismissively to interrupt Nori's explanation.

"Wait wait wait, you don't know who the Covenant are? What about the UNSC? I'm sorry, but what planet are we even on right now?"

Nori crushed an empty oil can telekinetically and cast it aside, her anger slowly starting to build up at Buck's ignorance.

"I have no clue who the UNSC is, and I only know about the Covenant from what the Banished has said and whatever bits of data they leave behind. And 'Copper 9'. How do you not know that? Lemme guess, you're a part of this 'UNSC' you keep mentioning?"

Buck gave a shrug, leaning his assault rifle against his shoulder.

"Well, that's none of your business, sweetheart."

"Bite me." Nori leapt off the console and began digging through a random box of junk, only to pull out what looked to be a crucifix, before returning to the console.

"Look, sorry to bother you with your...religious exploits. But I've been separated from my squad. And If this really is a completely different planet, then I need to get back into contact with UNSC HIGHCOMM. So If you have any way you can maybe help with that then I'll be out of your way."

Nori rotated the crucifix in her grasp, seemingly comparing it to some kind of video she was watching on her computer. Her optic furrowed and she cast the crucifix aside.

"Yea…well…" Nori began, before glancing back at the discarded crucifix, an idea beginning to form in her core matrix.

"I'll tell you what, Buck. You help me with a little project of mine and I'll let you use my gear to contact your superiors. Should have a strong enough radio to communicate with anyone in the system." Nori was lying. At best her computer could communicate with anyone on Copper 9 or within its orbit. That and….well, the fact that the UNSC didn't even exist. As far as Nori was aware, there was the 'Unified Earth Protectorate' though held very little sway over human colonies across space. Most colonies are run by nations or companies such as JCJenson being the prime example.

Buck wasn't really in the mood to waste time doing other people's chores, much less an odd, robotic crab that he just met. Combined with his situation, plus the Banished being right outside, along with the fact that Nori could just modify the Cathedral's defenses to target him again once he did leave…he wasn't left with a lot of options.

"...Fine…"

"Great!" Nori ripped the pickaxe out of the wall, before placing a hardhat with a light attachment onto herself and began crawling towards the pit Buck saw earlier. Following her over, Buck peered over the sides to see nothing more than a void extending down into the planet's crust.

"Down there huh…Jesus…bad time to say I have an issue with cramped spaces?" Buck stated, carefully shuffling away from the edge of the pit, which was odd, given the fact that he was an ODST. Nori rolled her eye and pointed down the pit with the pickaxe.

"Just jump you big baby, I'll catch you, It's not even the deepest pit here anyways…"

Buck took a deep breath in, stowing his rifle back onto his back, before leaping over the edge and plunging into the darkness with Nori not far behind him…

To be continued