Chapter (15) Operation Talon

[Author's note: Kept you waiting huh?]

S̶e̶p̶t̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶1̶2̶,̶ ̶2̶5̶2̶5̶

U̶N̶S̶C̶ ̶P̶i̶o̶n̶e̶e̶r̶

Halberd-Class Light Destroyer

E̶r̶i̶d̶a̶n̶u̶s̶ ̶S̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶

(Alpha Pov)

'Somethings got her spooked,' I told myself as I stood up and leaned against my locker, arms crossed over my black light armored chest with a white numbered 017 on my left chest.

The timing of this mission is too quick. Halsey tends to be cautious when it comes to us, even going so far as to put some of our classmates on ice so that they may be thawed and fixed later. Yet here she is approving a mission as a test only a couple of months after augmentation without the second half of the project?

'Yeah, I don't buy this timing,' I concluded in my mind.

"What are you thinking about Alpha?" Fred asked as he laced up his boots.

"Does this mission not seem too soon to you?" I ask Fred airing my thoughts out.

He placed his hand on his chin to think for a moment, "It does seem pretty suspicious now that you mention it," he said agreeing with my thoughts before shrugging, "Not like we can do anything about it though,"

I sighed, "You're right," I reached over to my weapon of choice for this expedition leaning against the bottom locker. I grabbed the grip of my MA2B

Raising up the bull-pupped carbine that was cut to a short barrel length of 14 inches. That made the weapon perfect for the enclosed corridor clearing that would be required once we broke into the tower. Both Fred and I would be using these longer weapons while Linda would be equipped with a SRS99C-C2, and John paired with Kelly would be armed with twin M7S caseless silenced submachine guns.

I gripped the silencer of my weapon as I twisted lightly, extremely lightly, to double check it was fastened on tightly. Once I was done fiddling with my tool, I reached down to my belt taking out my M1 combat knife that everyone carried. In my boredom, I ran my gloved finger along the edge feeling the freshly sharpened masterpiece of metalworking.

I stopped, hearing a locker close. Looking over I saw Fred picking up his carbine in one hand and helmet in the other. I gave him a look and he nodded in return signifying that we were ready to head down to begin infiltration. I slung the strap of my over my shoulder letting the weapon hang loose over my chest before throwing my medical pack on my back.

"I still can't believe you are taking all that with you," Fred said with a disapproving look.

"What? Winners are those who look to the future and plan ahead. Besides, all this stuff is in case we need it," I defended myself.

"You have armor sealant in case our vacuum seal is punctured," Fred said, crossing his arms with a confused look.

"Hey, if we need to go out into space and your seal is cracked you will be thankful for my forward-thinking," I said, warning him.

"Alpha, if we go into space we have a lot worse problems than just having a possible ruptured pressure seal. For this entire mission we are going to be in a pressurized environment," Fred said, continuing to bust my balls.

"Look you might be busting my balls now, but one day I am going to hear everyone's thank you for saving our asses with my extra biofoam and sealant," I said making my decree final.

Fred gaped at my stubborn refusal closing and opening it before eventually putting his head in his hand, "...W-Whatever *sigh* let's just get this over with," he said reluctantly.

'Another win for me, that makes it 231 for Me and 0 for Fred,' I thought, following behind him with an amused smile.

======================================================================

"Took you two long enough," Kelly said as we ran to join our teammates among the crates.

"The old man over here slowed me down with his questioning and his inability to tie his shoes," I said, opening up our mission-critical crate.

The mission was fairly straightforward; we would use the Epsilon Eridani spaceport to hitch a ride onto the Parabola-class Freighter 'Laden'. Thanks to a rebel turncoat we were tipped off that this vessel just so happens to carry enough food, water, and other supplies to support a full city and it makes an unregistered stop each trip. Because of that we will be sneaking aboard and riding it to this unregistered destination and proceed to make our way to Colonel Robert Watts, a UNSC traitor currently in command of the United Rebel Front.

Honestly, these dumbasses surprise me with their stupidity. This guy was a part of UNSC High Comm, and though he was a part of the lower echelon there is no way he wouldn't think that O.N.I. would hunt his ass down eventually. Yet here he is, staying in an unknown asteroid belt planning to blow up medical stations. Which is another thing that enrages me about the insurrectionist cunts.

But I digress, the crate I am currently placing my helmet and extra equipment in is a 'present' usually requested by someone with… fancy tastes. It would appear from a first glance inside filled with the common steak, wine, and other luxuries, but that's just a facade. The crate actually is meant for caging Watts while we exfil and conceal our helmets and firearms for the very beginning of our entrance. To top it all, this bad boy will also be our ticket inside, so here is to hoping Murphy's law doesn't bite us in the ass.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" I asked, sitting down, placing my back against a container, and locking my hands together behind my head.

"At least two more hours. One of the crane operators dropped a container and it needed to be cleaned up," John said in his black uniform watching the docks through his binoculars.

"Understood, I'll swap out with someone in an hour," I said before crossing my feet and slipping into a cat nap.

===========================================

(Dr. Catherine Halsey Pov)

"Deja, is there an update on the status of Harvest?" I asked in concern as I pondered the hologram of an unidentified spacecraft.

The blurry light construct indicated that the object was purple strangely. It had next to no jagged edges and instead bolstered a sleek and curved approach. Knowing this the possibility of it being anything naturally created was out of the question. This led to the conclusion that we weren't alone in this galaxy and that the others were hostile and possessed a probable lead in technology.

"Since the loss of contact with the CMA Argo on April 23rd no other attempts to investigate have been made," Deja informed in her usual calm tone, "According to sources surrounding Vice Admiral Hieronymus Michael Stanforth, battle group 4 consisting of the destroyer CMA Heracles, and frigates CMA Arabia and Vostok led by Captain Maribeau Veredi will be sent to investigate in close to a month's time," Deja concluded 

I looked at the hologram artificial intelligence, "I want to be the first one informed when those ships are done investigating. Even with the acceleration of the first test, I would rather keep the Spartans in limited combat for another year," I sternly commanded my assistant. She nodded in return and disappeared into motes of light.

Seeing her disappear I slumped back into my chair while rubbing my forehead, "Of course, a new problem pops up the moment just before completion," I talked to myself frustrated by the continual setbacks.

"Still," I said looking back at the purple blob hologram, "This doesn't bode well…."

======================================================================

(Alpha Pov)

"There it is," whispered Kelly from my left as the team watched the conveyor belt looking for the 'gift' we planned to personally deliver to Colonel Watts.

Our voyage went off without a hitch. We blended in perfectly with the blue uniforms, of course, as close to and over 7 feet tall humans we made sure to never approach any of the crew closely. We stayed at a distance till we made it to the water reservoir where we set up camp and spent the next ten hours taking shifts. After that, it was smooth sailing, and minutes ago we disembarked, now comes the hard part.

"I'll grab the crate, you guys act naturally," John said before beginning to approach the conveyor belt.

I began to look around checking to make sure no one was watching us. I didn't see anyone on my right and didn't want to look suspicious by continually looking around as if I was nervous. Thankfully John had grabbed the crate and pressed the button that allowed for the wheels on the bottom to be deployed, he then turned and began heading our way until-

"Hey, what are you four doing here?" Snapping my head to my left I found the owner of the voice. 

'You have got to be shitting me,' I thought with a wry smile lamenting my luck. To my left I had a visitor, he appeared to be a young 18-year-old boy. He had an accusing glare that was almost as terrifying as the bite from a puppy. Besides that he stood a great deal shorter than me, placing him at close to 5 foot 9 or 10, and wore a similar blue uniform.

Before anyone could try and explain away a believable lie I took the reins, "What does it look like we are doing?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest and giving him a scowl.

Judging by the momentary widening of his eyes he did not expect such an answer, "W-I mean I don't know any of you five! You are in a restricted area, I need to see some I.D."

I sighed before looking at the team, "Does anyone have some I.D.?" I asked with a moc tired look. One by one everyone shook their heads as they played along, "Oh for fucks sake," I whispered loud enough for the boy to hear.

I turned and made hand gestures as I spoke, "Look Watts himself ordered us to go down here and grab his special stuff. We are supposed to be on break and so it seems all of us left our damn I.D.s in our locker. Can you just let us slide this one time?" I spoke trying to appeal to his empathy as a fellow boot.

"No! It is against regulation that you should have your I.D. with you at all times. I am going to report you to the manager!" he refused my pleas.

'Bingo now it's my turn,' I thought as my tired expression morphed into an aggressive hate-filled visage, "No I don't think you will," I said as I visibly became more agitated.

I walked up getting closer to the genius and slowly his smug face dropped as he got a closer look at a 7 foot 2 inch tall super soldier. I looked down at him and got my face closer to his, "I didn't ride on a damn tram for three fucking hours with no a/c to have some kiss-ass brat rat out me and my guys because we forgot our fucking identification. So I am going to give you two options about how this can go," I spoke with anger radiating from my voice as I jabbed my long finger into his chest like a dagger to accentuate every point.

"Option A: If you let us pass and everyone goes their separate ways and forgets this ever happened," I said with a lighter tone before a vicious glint reflected into my eye, "Option B: Is that you rat us out to whoever is your commanding officer. I get punished in some type of form, but in the end, I get a simple slap on the wrist," I then leaned closer and grabbed the man by his collar pulling him close as sweat dropped from his brow above his deer-in-headlights look, "..but when I get done, I am coming for you. And when I find you I am going to beat your fucking eyeballs into the back of your mother fucking head," I gripped his shirt tighter than ever before as my hand became red from the sheer amount of stress

"In that pea-brain-sized head of yours, you might think that these are some cheesy lines of intimidation from an old mafia movie, but guess what? I am the type of person they make movies like that about. When I get done bashing your skull in I am going to chop you into little pieces and jettison them into space and will never get caught. Now tell me, is my little piece of plastic worth me wasting two afternoons of time?" I asked as the now shivering and pants-drenched man I had suspended in the air with one arm.

"I think option A is the best for everyone involved don't you?" I suggested to my patsy to which he eagerly and excitedly nodded his head

I set him back down and let go of his uniform, "Now, get the fuck out of my face and if I ever see you again I may just walk up and knock your head off simply because I don't like the way you look," I said cracking my knuckles in my right hand. The dock worker rushed away and before I knew it he was out of sight.

"Nice job covering Blue 3," John said patting me on my shoulder

I shrugged while nodding, "I am pretty great," I stated simply acknowledging the statement.

"Alright team all we need to do now is get into the freight elevator and then we can shoot our way out," John said to which we nodded upon hearing his statement. He then turned to Fred who had just walked up, "Fred did you arm those explosives?" he asked, receiving a nod in return.

"Yes Blue leader," he responded before looking at Kelly, "I put them in the place you suggested Blue 4," Kelly nodded upon hearing her words.

No one asked for clarification of where Fred put them. We all trusted both his and Kelly's judgment, besides there wasn't any time to change the plan at this point.

"Let's move," Linda said as we slowly began walking uniformly towards the designated building of Watt's office. Linda had made her way into the local uplink and was able to determine Watt's location based on where the different crates of supplies were headed.

…

..

.

It took us close to an hour to make our way to the freight elevator of the tower. Between having to be extremely cautious while in the open, and to also look and act natural we moved fairly slowly. Luckily, some jackass officer wanted to take the credit for ordering luxuries for his boss a.k.a. Colonel Watts and gave us an escort through the lobby of the building personally.

The freight elevator was actually in the basement because it didn't go to the lobby ( go figure). Meaning we had to carry it downstairs, which wasn't difficult whatsoever. In fact, the hard part was acting like we were straining to carry the crate when just one of us could easily have thrown it onto our shoulder and descended the flight.

The six of us piled into the elevator with Fred and Kelly being at the front closest to the door the idiot stood in the middle while I stood in the back middle with Linda to my left and John on my right. I felt a sudden lurch and audibly heard the pulleys begin dragging us up toward the top of the building. From time to time we ricketed forward, but nonetheless we weren't particularly bothered by it, instead the one in front of me was getting on everyone's nerves enough.

"Now, when we get to the top. You five idiots be quiet otherwise you will screw up the gift I am giving to Watts. If all goes well I might get a commendation and you five will have a pizza party or whatever you filthy dock workers get," the prick dressed in a fancy ceremony uniform had brought up for the fifth time since we met him about how we need to stay silent for this meeting.

The tension in the elevator had risen tremendously as we rose through the first third of the floors, sadly the man was oblivious to that fact. Looking over Linda's eye was twitching with anger, while Fred was gritting his teeth, and Kelly was casting a side-eyed glare at the dumb ass.

I shot John a glance rolling my head over and giving him a "Can we please kill this douche" expression. He wasn't amused either and nodded towards Kelly giving her the signal. Upon seeing John Kelly smirked and leaned forward pressing the button marked "stop elevator".

"Hey, you motherfucker what are you-" the officer's words were cut off sharply as I grabbed his chin and the back of his head twisting it like the valve on a pump. With a simple, swift motion of my arms, his neck coiled itself like a spring before I let go once I heard the grotesque crack of his spine breaking and most likely severing his spinal cord. As my arms came back to my side his body fell limply to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Thank god, I don't think I could have heard him say any more shit without killing him myself," Kelly said as Fred threw the body into the corner.

We then began to tear off the uniforms exposing the light body armor suit in all black to the air. Once our disguise was gone we opened up the crate and began pulling our weapons out of it. I grabbed a pair of flashbangs and frag from the box, then snapped them onto my utility belt, then yanked my helmet while throwing it onto my head.

The H.U.D. lit up like a Christmas tree and before I knew it the helmet had fully booted up. In my lower left corner, I had a 10-foot motion detector that really only worked for what I had sight on. Beside it was a list of my teammate's callsigns appearing in a vertical list going from top to bottom: Blue Leader, Blue Two, Blue Four, and Blue Five. I had an ammo counter that integrally linked to the weapon in my hands and on my person, as well as a grenade counter signifying two flashes and one frag. The final information displayed was an image of my own body, it indicated the status of my pressure seal, and armor systems, as well as my personal status showing if I am injured to both me and transmitting the same information to my team.

After taking a glance at my Heads-up display and confirming that it was working correctly I shouldered my carbine. A cascade of clicks sounded in the freight elevator as we all began taking our arms off of safety and slamming our bolts forward to engage the chamber. Then the elevator was initiated to continue our trip to the top. It slowly climbed its way upwards as John began to speak.

"Blue 4 and I will be up front, followed by Blue 2 and Blue 3. Lastly, Blue 5 will be in the back. We'll be entering through a maintenance hallway, keep your eyes on the cover and your motion trackers," John said to which everyone acknowledged evidenced by the green check marks appearing on my H.U.D.

Finally, the elevator reached our destination and the door opened. The first sight we were greeted with was a couple of men wearing technical trade uniforms, 'Seems there was some maintenance being done today, how unlucky…for them,' I thought pulling the trigger back.

The group turned and looked surprised by the fact someone was coming up via the freight elevator. Their expressions then morphed into horror as they saw a group of entirely 7-foot-tall giants in black body armor carrying guns. 

Before a single yell or scream could be heard, all of us fired. John and Kelly crouched down helping the three of us in the back, though we didn't really need it. My shot crashed through a yellow hard hat of what seemed to be an electrician before shredding the man's brain. He tumbled backward as his state changed sharply from living to non-living.

Similarly, two quick bursts of suppressed SMG fire were heard riddling the remaining two men with bullet holes. The wounds dyed the clothing around their entrance crimson nearly immediately, staining the bodies fresh for the grave. One corpse tumbled over a makeshift workstation, while the other collapsed against the wall beside an open circuit.

"Clear," Linda said as we moved into the room scanning the corners for anyone not immediately spotted. Another bout of green check marks agreed with her statement.

"That looks like the main breaker panel for this floor, Blue Three put it out of commission," the radio buzzed and I placed my carbine against the wall before opening the panel door. 

A series of small breakers was brought before my very eyes. I pulled out a pair of pliers from my supply pack before I quickly began snipping the "hot wires", being sure to make clean cuts so that the copper wire remained protected in their jacket. I also made sure to twist the ends away from any other piece of metal, and especially another wire.

The entire process took maybe thirty seconds, but by the time I was done, we went from having light to being forced to switch on night vision. I nodded towards Fred who was waiting for my signal, causing him to kick open a door leading to the lobby, and Kelly who in turn lobbed a flash bang through the door.

*BANG*

A loud bang echoed through the doorway before John and Kelly entered. The bang was immediately followed by a series of suppressed shots as Fred, Linda, and finally, me pulling up the rear entered the room. Barely a minute had passed but from the four or so neutralized targets blood had already begun to flow into small puddles.

The all-clear was given before I could even walk in, so I was only left to take in the aftermath. It seemed the pair taking the lead had lost some accuracy because there were a couple of bullet holes impacted into the wall and furniture. Everywhere I walked left red boot prints as a sign of my involvement. I kept eying the bodies located by firearms just in case one of them was playing possum.

The room itself seemed to be a standard lobby you would find in any office. The entrance was an elevator and to the right in the corner was a brown wooden arc desk placed with a small gap to walk through. Besides that, there was a screen displaying God knows what located in the adjacent corner along with some potted plants and a couple of chairs scattered throughout. From the location of the bodies, it seemed that there were two security guards posted on the door leading to the other offices.

I double-checked every area already looked after and made my way to the last spot, the receptionist's desk in the corner. Once I turned to look under the desk, a hand flew out and latched onto my ankle. 

Alerted I swung the barrel of my weapon and the flashlight attached in the direction of the owner of said arm. My MA2B was leveled at a disheveled woman, she had dark hair and wore what seemed to be a quasi-business suit. She seemed to be grazed by either John or Kelly's bullets from the traces of blood on her.

"...P-Please m-mercy," she whispered out in both fear and pain as she looked into the bright light I stood behind. Her eyes seemed to be watering, probably due to the harsh brightness she looked into.

*SNAP*

Smoke plummed out of the barrel of my suppressor as I lowered my weapon. Blood splattered onto my lower body and my gun caused. I turned around only to see the rest of the team staring at me and my still smoking gun.

I cocked my head to the side in a questioning manner, "What?" I asked. They had quite literally just killed multiple other insurgents, my action shouldn't be any different.

"Why did you do that for?" Fred asked capturing everyone's thoughts at the moment.

"Because our brilliant Blue Leader here just missed one," I said to which everyone nodded in understanding, "Blue leader please be more thorough when you do room clearing," I said walking towards the next set of doors that everyone was starting to get posted on. John stood in front of me on the other side of the doorway, "It ain't a race," I spoke to him emphasizing my point.

He brushed off my regards, "Isn't that why I have you? Besides if anyone tries anything I am willing to bet our reflexes could outshoot them," he said to which I shook my head at him.

'What I said just went through one ear and right back out the other,' I thought and reminded myself to stay on guard.

"Blue Two, Blue Five go back to the freight elevator and watch the maintenance corridor to make sure the Colonel doesn't decide to abandon ship," He spoke and two checkmarks lit up and Fred and Linda peeled off to go back through the doorway we had entered through.

"Blue four mount the charge on the door, I'll take point," Kelly let her SMG dangle by the strap as she strapped an M100 breaching charge above the buttons to the automatic door.

*Cli-BOOM*

The soft click of the detonator was drowned out by the explosion in front of me. Smoke and pieces of small shrapnel were funneled into the room we breached. John, not paying attention, immediately tried to funnel into the door.

I say tried because the second he got a footstep in I snatched him back behind me. Not a second too late too, because a flurry of bullets poured through the opening. 

The shots were sporadic and wild, the enemy's plan was obviously to not be accurate but instead hit anyone that walked through the doorway. It was a basic room-clearing strategy to NOT walk through a doorway while knowing that there were armed hostiles in the next room.

As the shots were coming through the smoke I turned around to John and keyed up my microphone, "Are you fucking stupid? Do I need to check and make sure you aren't having a stroke?" I asked rhetorically in anger. I turned back to the door keeping my on it as I finished speaking over my shoulder, "Otherwise we will be heading back with a body bag, and it ain't going to be yours,"

John was silent as I berated him, I don't know if it was overconfidence or arrogance that was causing him to slip up on basic shit. But he needs to get his head put on straight or we are going to be in a mountain of trouble otherwise.

The storm of bullets began to die down as I stood close to the door. Reaching with my left hand I yanked a flash-bang off my belt and pulled the pin before bouncing it off the side of the doorway to the other side of the wall I was posted on. A loud BANG sounded and I pushed in finally breaching the room. I raised my carbine and began clearing the right side of the room.

Numerous desks were turned over in the room to provide concealment for the enemies. In the right corner close to me was my first target. It seemed he got caught completely off guard by the flashbang if his groaning and scratching at his eyes were to be trusted as evidence. I pulled the trigger one time causing his head to snap back before tumbling backwards pressing his spine against the wall.

I swiveled to face the opposite wall as I continued walking in the first corpse's direction. There was still a thin layer of smoke and soot making visibility in the room low, I had the flashlight attachment turned on to try and negate some of the stirred debris, but it didn't help much. Across the room, I heard a couple of suppressed shots meaning Kelly had some bad guys on her side as well, and I heard John's footsteps behind me as we went through the right.

I suddenly snapped towards the center of the room hearing movement like someone was crawling. I yanked the trigger back at least five times in that direction rapidly firing at the cause of the sound. After the fifth shell casing ejected and clattered to the floor I stood still listening intently as white smoke leaked from the end of my gun. I got a bit antsy standing up still just waiting for confirmation of the lack of movement, and after not hearing anything for a couple of seconds moved on finally reaching the far wall before doing one last quick scan with Kelly and John before lowering my firearm.

"Clear," Kelly said lowering her SMG.

"Clear," John said before they both looked at me.

"Cle-" I began to nod in agreement before I saw a reflection of metal a couple of feet away from me.

*BANG*

Time slowed down as I watched the reflection fire a bullet aiming for John's heart. John was still turned towards me along with Kelly, completely unaware of the danger that was approaching. My enhanced eyesight could see the bending air forming a cone around the bullet as it tore through gases heading for its destination.

Immediately I did the only thing I could to increase the survival chances of both John and me. My arm shot out giving John a hard shove into Kelly as I tried to twist my body away. John was immediately knocked off his feet from the force of my arm, and I felt a sharp pain pass through my forearm.

"Motherfuck-" I winced reflexively snatching my arm as I hunched over and looked over the area of flesh above my wrist. I stood back up with my gun propped on my forearm before flipping to auto and blasting the wounded but still very much alive assailant.

A chorus of suppressed snaps echoed in the room as I emptied my magazine into the no-longer-living enemy. Eventually, the bolt snapped open not closing again revealing an emptied chamber and more smoke to spew into the room.

My adrenaline was still surging as I lowered the firearm and then turned to face my teammates, "Blue Three status!" John said frantically as he rushed back to his feet with Kelly on his heels.

"A flesh wound," I said though my indicator flashed to a yellow injured from its previous green 'stable', "Shit, that's on me I should have double-tapped to be sure," I said looking down at my arm illuminated by John and Kelly's flashlight.

I pried back the black sleeve to take a look at the injury and sighed in relief as it was better than I thought. The bullet was of a smaller caliber, and it thankfully passed through the soft muscular tissue below my elbow before exiting out the other side. The wound itself looked like a small hole and I couldn't even see the pale white bone that it passed between. Though my forearm hurt quite a bit and I had lost a good deal of strength in my hand, it wasn't life-threatening. 

"Alright let's get this guy," I said pushing forward after releasing the magazine shoving another in its place, and engaging the bolt. Neither of them questioned my status even though I knew they both wanted to. Instead, they mounted another charge on the door and posted up for another breach.

"Blue Two and Blue Five prepare to breach the main office," John's voice came over the radio and two lights flicked on in acknowledgment in my H.U.D.

"On three," I steadied my left hand gripped around my carbine keeping it propped up on my forearm keeping my right hand as closed as it could be.

"One," I did one last check behind us making sure we were the only living people in the vicinity.

"Two," I made sure my safety was off and that my select fire switch was set to "Auto" before looking up towards the door.

"Three-" the word was announced over the radio and then a sudden blast blew open the door and a second explosion echoed from inside the room. John tossed a concussion grenade into the room immediately.

John and. Kelly dove to the opposite sides of the room and posted behind cover, and I peeked in spraying a burst toward an enemy in the far corner of the room. The spray hit him center mass and he fell over dead.

I heard a loud boom and saw Linda hollow out someone's skull with her sniper. Meanwhile, John and Kelly were closing in on the main desk at the back of the room mowing down the other hostiles. Fred had also entered into the room making it only a matter of time before we had our hands on Watts who I could see hiding behind the desk.

Suddenly he stood up and placed the barrel of a pistol to his temple, "Won't take me alive," he let out in his low raspy voice.

*Snap* 

I launched one bullet destroying the guts of the pistol and flinging it out of his hand behind him, "You were saying?" I responded as I strode into the room weapon trained on him.

By this time all armed enemies had been eliminated and we were now all looking toward the older-looking man in army camos and a black beret. His hair was greying and he had a stubble-like beard. He was the spitting image of the image we were given to identify him, and if that was not enough the emblem on his shoulder reading "WATTS" tipped me off we had our guy.

"Bag 'em," John said signaling to Fred and me to grab the package. Fred walked back through the second breaching hole to grab the crate while I discretely pressed a button on the underside of my pack releasing a hidden syringe into my hand that I kept concealed as I made my way, walking slowly and taking a long path towards the Colonel.

"I gotta say, Colonel, an asteroid? Really? You betrayed the UNSC and got stuck on a barren rock for all your trouble?" I said shaking my head in disappointment, "Personally, I would have not settled for less than my own destroyer," I raised my right hand gesturing that I made a good point, and discretely swapped the syringe into my right hand as I lowered it.

"I don't know who you freaks are," he said eying our unique statures, "But this situation only ends one way. With all five of you dead," he said with anger leaking from his eyes before turning his hate-filled glare to me, "And for your information I don't care what backwater, isolated, or forgotten place they put me, anything is better than working as a dog for a governing body who sees its own population as cash cows,"

I stood not far from him still slowly approaching making sure to not make any sudden movements. I needed to keep him talking and not focused on finding some way to off himself before I secured him, "And instead you work bombing said innocent cash cows. Honestly, I am impressed by the moral gymnastics you do to justify that," I shrugged nonchalantly 

"No, what's impressive is how brainwashed you are to believe that the UNSC wouldn't do the sam-" My right arm shot out jabbing him into a jugular vein. His eyes reflected shock and fear as he stared into the soulless glass visor of my helmet.

"Night night Colonel. Don't worry we'll try to keep the ride as smooth as it can be," due to the increased blood pressure caused by the situation he was in, as well as the potent chemical compound made for sedating capture targets. The good Colonel was out like a light in approximately thirty seconds.

"Finally, you shut him up," Kellly said with a groan before reaching down grabbing the Colonel, and throwing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Fred had just walked back in through the new doorway with the crate and Kelly 'delicately' dropped the Colonel in his new crate.

"Blue Four do me a favor and tourniquet my arm. I should have one in the second pocket of my pack," I said setting down my gun with my left hand before turning my back to Kelly and jabbing a thumb pointing at my back. She in turn unzipped a pouch and applied the tourniquet above my wound right at the base of my elbow. Once finished I pulled my sleeve back down and handed her my carbine. We traded weapons and I shoved the SMG Magazines into my vest pockets.

John the entire time stood silent until he finally opened his mouth, "I am sorry Blue three. I should have been paying more attention, but it was stupid of you to take that bullet for me. I would have probably been fine, and now you are down an arm," John said gravely looking at me as I wrapped a couple of layers of bandages on the wound.

I sighed and looked at the ceiling annoyed with John's selflessness, "First off it was my fault for being a dumbass and not making sure all targets were neutralized," I said weakly numbering with my right thumb before extending my index finger, "Secondly, tactically it makes more sense to protect the leader, remember the lost of a king leads to a total defeat, " I then extended my middle finger along with the already stretched out index finger and thumb before pointing at John to emphasize my point, "And Thirdly I think I got a bargain, an arm is definitely worth the life of any of my teammates and especially one of my best friends. Now, what you instead should have said was thank you, so let's hear it," I said crossing my arms arrogantly for dramatic appeal waiting for the words to be said, only to see John holding the forehead plate of his helmet while shaking his head and walking away.

I turned to Linda who just shrugged, "I guess that's about as good as you are going to get," she then turned and followed through the doorway Kelly was right behind her leaving as well.

Fred patted me on my shoulder attracting my attention, "Cheer up, I'll at least say thank you," he said jokingly as he walked past carrying the package.

"Whatever," I mumbled shaking my head as I gingerly grabbed ahold of the foregrip of the SMG with my right hand and holding it with my left hand, making sure to keep my finger extended on the side of the trigger.

======================================================================

"Innies are going to be crawling all over downstairs, there's no way they didn't hear our breaching charges. Anyone got a plan to get us around that?" John said as we climbed into the freight elevator. Kelly gripped the top bar cage and then pulled it down to cover the front and obscure vision into the elevator.

"Actually I figured something like this would happen, so I had Blue 2 rig an extra set of explosives," Kelly said as she walked back to her position beside Fred on the moving platform, "Blue 2 detonate the first sequence of explosives," Kelly said looking to Fred

Fred reached into a pouch attached to his belt beside his left hip with his left hand. He pulled out a simple black radio detonator and twisted a piece on the plastic body before pulling out a small antenna. He then gave the three-inch-long trigger a squeeze sending the signal at least a couple thousand meters away.

A muffled boom was heard inside the elevator, and the shaft shook a little. The signal was directed towards the dry docks, specifically to a cluster of C10 cubes placed in a hidden location next to the fuel stock. There was no doubt it probably took a sizable chunk of real estate with it, and an area double that size is most likely on fire.

I'd I had to guess the poor saps over there are losing their fucken minds. It will take 20 no 30 minutes of an inferno before they get their act together and begin to take out the fire. By that time the first QRFs will have gathered and by then it will only be a matter of time before everyone's attention at the dry docks wanes. That will be where the second sequence comes in…

"So that's where all that C10 went," Linda said with what I assumed to be a wry look underneath her helmet as she looked at Kelly.

Kelly shrugged, "Hey, we now have a sufficient distraction," 

"Shit," Fred said as he looked down at a datapad grabbing our attention, "That tram we planned to ride is having emergency maintenance done," he said before looking up.

"Meaning we either fix it ourselves, wait for them to fix it, or risk using it while it's broken, that is if it's still operable," I said summing up our new predicament

"None of those options are actually viable," Fred spoke up, "From what I am seeing the issue is no small fix, and they are bound to turn up on these bodies up here eventually,"

"In other words, we are essentially screwed," Linda said getting a prompt nod from Fred

Kelly then turned to John, "I say we ride this thing to the basement and hit the sewers. But we don't have much in the way of schematics so we'll be walking blind," Kelly said giving a general outline to a plan.

"Still beats shooting our way out through the lobby and trying to remain undiscovered afterward," Fred said in agreement.

"Shooting our way out tends to be our specialty sadly, and who knows if they decide to send a search team," Linda butted in.

John stayed silent thinking about the possibilities before turning to me and taking a look at my arm. I rolled my eyes under my helmet and cleared my throat which brought his attention back to my visor.

"Your call Boss. I am game either way," I said clearly

John sighed before pressing the button to the basement floor, "We'll go with Blue 4's plan," he then turned to Linda, "Before we go down try and get any and all information that we could use to piece together directions to the docks,"

He then leaned against the wall of the elevator before attaching his SMG to the magnetic mount on his thigh armor and crossing his arms, "We'll follow what we gather to hopefully the dry docks. From there we will steal a ride and take it back to base," He sighed again before continuing, "If we get into a gunfight while in the sewers then it's up to our luck whether or not we make it out or not," he finished leaving a somber mood, one far to dull for our first mission in my book.

I snorted, "And here I was thinking that we made our own luck,"

======================================================================

The sewers were….about what you would expect. We walked quite literally by a river a shit. The brown plasma-like liquid flowed like a stream beside us all the while every one of us stood silent. We did our best to just get through the area and I personally believe we all promised that we would be taking extra long washes after this mission.

I also made a mental note to inform Halsey to get to work on a better filtration system for smell. Because it was obvious no ODST had been forced to travel through an active sewer, and the smell was tear-jerking due to the sheer horrid fumes that seemed to be released constantly as we walked.

The good news is we made it to the area underneath the dry docks without any more snags. Of course, hopefully, I don't contract some type of infection in my wound, and Fred might have roughed up the crate a bit while climbing the ladder out of the sewer. But other than that everything has been pretty great.

"Damn that's a lot of fucking innies," I said as we all laid down flat looking at the swarm of rebels finishing up the cleanup of our first set of explosives. There was no dimension we would be able to steal the bigger corvettes and frigates. Thankfully there are only 5 and a half of us so a pelican would be fine.

The insurgents were gathered around the main fuel tanks still using extinguishers and water to beat back the last little bit of fire. They stood on blackened asphalt-like concrete that seemed to give a little bit with each step and that give slowly dipped into about a 5-8 meter crater. 

All the glass in about a 30-meter radius whether it was on buildings, ships, or even helmets was shattered due to the shockwave. One of the hangers was missing half of its structure only two walls and a whole bunch of ruins. There were two others besides the destroyed one that was close enough to us that we wouldn't draw too much attention.

One of the hangers was partially damaged. From our vantage point, I could see that at least one corner of the roof was caved in. While the other hanger was pristine and besides missing windows it appeared to suffer minimal damage.

"So which one Blue leader?" Kelly said looking over from her prone position

"The hanger in better shape is probably heavily guarded but is more likely to have a pelican. While the damaged one doesn't appear to have much of anyone poking around, there is still the possibility they moved out the pelican already," John said weighing each option

 "We can always flip a coin if you want," Fred said trying to break the tension.

"Let's go with the broken one, if it's bust we switch to the other one," John decided to stand on top of the shipping crate we 

Again another cascade of green checkmarks appeared and we were moving. Kelly and John were the first two down followed by Fred. Linda went ahead and put down the bipod for her rifle and got cozy to watch us. I grabbed the crate with my good arm and carried it over before dropping it down to Fred. I then sat on the edge and before leaping down I gave one last look to Linda, "Hey make sure not to spend your entire time checking John out only for me to get shot again," I spoke in a teasing voice. Linda's only response was a one-finger salute above her rifle without even turning to look at me. I only laughed at her response before jumping down.

I got serious once I hit the ground and my smirk was wiped away and turned into a stern scowl. My ammo indicator had successfully switched over displaying the 48-round capacity in a large block of single-bullet images in the upper right corner.

From there we all gathered at the end of the bottom layer of the containers watching for guards in our black suits. I was elected to keep the container as we moved so I pushed it along as it glided on its wheels trying my best to go slow enough so that no sound was produced. Thankfully the crate was bulletproof heavily for small arms, so if shit hit the fan I had a rolling cover.

"I'll go first, follow my lead," John said through the radio as he waited for a moment then sprinted down the line of containers before tackling a guard and plunging a knife into his throat.

John threw the body into the middle of the container and then took cover watching to see if there were any others before he waved for us. Kelly patted Fred on the back once she confirmed our side was clear. I did the same as I watched all four cardinal directions, and then I went almost immediately after crouching behind the crate making it appear the box was rolling on itself.

We continued this sequence as we traveled counterclockwise along the outside until finally we were stacked up on the hanger door. John was still in front and began by trying the doorknob first. The knob tried to turn but no luck, it was locked. John then grabbed his SMG with both hands before he shoulder-checked the door breaking the door frame but giving us an entry point.

We waited for a few minutes as John did a quick glance through the room, "Clear," was the simple go-ahead to come inside. I looked in the direction of Linda and gave a quick wave for her to make her way to us until-

*BIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG*

"INTRUDER ALERT! ALL FORCES BE ADVISED DRY DOCKS WILL GO ON LOCKDOWN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. THREAT LEVEL: TWO," a loud robotic voice came over speakers placed around the port.

'Shit we're burnt,' I thought before waving Linda off, "We'll come to you stay put," I quickly said over the radio before heading inside.

Once inside the rest of the team was already getting prepped to breach into the main area of the hanger, "We have been caught," Fred said pointing out the obvious.

"No shit what gave you that idea?" I asked rhetorically.

"Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor," Kelly remarked sarcastically.

"We'll be fine as long as we can get to that pelican and it can fly," I said falling in behind her.

"Right," John agreed before kicking the door in and breaching the hanger.

The moment that door opened it was a fight. Bullets rang out missing John as he quickly went inside. Luckily, the shooter tried to follow him instead of staying focused on the door letting Kelly and Fred sneak in behind him without any flak.

I stayed and instead returned fire on the catwalk where the initial shots came from. I kept short controlled bursts of small-caliber fire aiming for the guy's head. At the range I was shooting at I doubted my rounds would be able to penetrate the body armor, but I could take him out if I could pierce that soft noggin of his. 

It took about four bursts and the man had almost locked onto me as his next target, but fortunately, I dropped him. Though I was ambidextrous for most tasks I still had a preference for my right arm, but still, my left got the job done even if it took more bullets than I would have preferred.

"Blue 4 get inside and see what the status of our ride is!" John announced over the radio as he dropped an innie that had just entered from the other end of the hanger. Kelly immediately sprinted up the cargo ramp and into the dark body of the pelican. It was like watching a fox prance through the snow with the speed of a rabbit. The insurgents seemed surprised by the sudden burst of speed if their momentary hesitation of firing in her direction was to be taken as evidence.

*SNAP*

*SNAP*

*SNAP*

Eventually, I made a run for it with the crate and made it to the defensive perimeter around the back we had set up with other heavy crates we had thrown haphazardly to make cover. I immediately dove behind one crate next to Fred and kicked the crate forcing it to roll up the ramp and into the pelican. I heard a bang signifying it wasn't coming back, and breathed a sigh of relief because I was no longer responsible for a literal box.

"Glad you could drop in," Fred said as he finished reloading his MA2B and began laying down fire directed at the catwalk again.

I crouched down and snapped the SMG to the side slinging out the emptied magazine before grabbing another fresh one with my right hand and simply slapping it in rather than doing anything fancy, "I am not," I responded to Fred as slung myself back on top of the munition box and shred another mother fucker who decided to come through the door.

The three of us were defending quite well once we were all in a defendable position. We cleared out the stationed guards and began to just mow down anyone dumb enough to come through an entrance. The only problem was that there were too many doors for just the three of us to cover efficiently so eventually we had a situation like this one:

*SNAP*

"John you got a runner at your 4 o'clock," I said clearing a jam in my SMG's bolt, 'Damn thing, this is why I hate caseless ammunition,' I thought as the green checkmark lit up

Looking over I saw four bullets tear through the air and rip through the insurgent's goggles before imbedding into his skull. The glassware shattered and sent pulverized dust forward as the bullets passed through. The man took two through the forehead, one through his left eye, and another through his cheek before he fell over dead.

"Blue Four we are running low on ammo back here! What's the status of this bird?" John asked over the com.

A loud rumble echoed through the hanger as John finished his words. Looking up I could see the rear thrusters of the pelican burning a bright orange, "You were saying?" Kelly quipped

"Everyone on board, Blue three is the pilot, and I hope that solution to our exit that you had is still available," John said as we began to retreat up the cargo bay.

"It should be," I said to him as I walked to the cockpit and switched my comm to the general channel, "Linda you are going to want to hang on to something," I said cryptically as I sat down and flipped the switches for RAM jet and released the landing gear making us hover.

"Fred remember those extra explosives I had you plant?" I said getting the acknowledgement indicator on my H.U.D., "Well now's the time we get to use it, and Kelly go ahead and make our way to Linda's marker. It's about to get real….sucky," I said unable to come up with a joke for the situation to follow.

I felt as the ship picked itself up and began ascending. Of course that was followed by a prompt creaking and horrible crashing sound as we flew through what was left of the roof. Which was then followed by a quick boom and fireball, but was devoured by the sound of a vacuum and a tidal wave of unsecured materials flying towards the airlock.

Or rather what was supposed to be the airlock as those explosives just shattered the pressure seal. Meaning-

"Sucky? Really that's the best you could do to jettisoning the entirety of the dry docks?" Kelly said from the co-pilot seat unamused.

"Shut it, I am trying to focus," I said as I began to wade through the flowing river of containers being launched into space. Thanks to my enhanced reflexes finding the line to Linda was much easier than it would be for any regular person. By the time I got within her perimeter, the container seemed to be starting to drag towards the vacuum and I could see blast doors beginning to descend to repressurize the asteroid city.

I began backing the cargo bay door towards Linda with the cockpit facing the blackness of space ready to boost through the closing window as soon as possible. I had to continue to sway back and forth while hovering as I dodged incoming debris. The blast doors were about halfway down when I got the 'everyone aboard' message from John.

"You're clear," Kelly said as she closed the cargo bay door. I nodded and throttled up speeding towards our now sixty percent closed exit.

I weaved through the chunks of the building and numerous vehicles being dragged against their will into the black night. I even saw a couple of flailing dock workers and innies flying through the air as I dove under another large wave of concrete. Particles of dust seemed to begin to spring up as I saw both the concrete dock and asphalt pavements begin to get torn up from the rush of gasses heading to the low-pressure environment of space.

Just as we began the final stretch to the exit now 75% closed I saw bright tracers begin firing from a tower of metal just beside the door. I immediately took evasive action jerking the stick to the left and avoiding the incoming rounds, "Shit they got their AA guns online. This thing got any guns, Kelly?" I asked making a loop to try the approach again.

"Negative, it's up to you to get us out," Kelly said after doing a quick glance at our options.

"Roger," I said tightening my grip on the stick. We began our approach again but this time I climbed up higher and put as much distance between us and the tower as possible. I cranked up the throttle as we began to fly faster to the exit. The stream of bullets began to pour in again as pebbles and rocks clanged off the ship's armor.

I rolled over into a dive spotting the door barely cracked open. I swung from side to side using the debris as a shield and keeping range from the weapon. I believe that a few shots made contact but were either unable to penetrate or hit non-vital areas.

"We aren't gonna make it!" Kelly said gripping her seat tightly as we approached the narrow opening.

"PULL UP! DANGER DANGER" the flight console warned as I neared the bottom of the door.

"I am serious Alpha! We'll find another way!" Kelly pleaded behind.

"Calm down calm down," I said as I turned on the afterburners, "We'll make it,"

The engines jolted forward with the sudden increase of fuel. We rocketed forward slicing through the remaining small debris in front of us and I made a parabola shape arc as I threw us under the door. I braced a moment knowing that we were cutting it close when it came to space, but no impact came. We had made it!

And with that, I shot through the gap into space doing the last couple of maneuvers required to get out of the newly created debris field, "See what did I tell you," I said relaxing and slumping back into my seat, "How are we doing back there?" I took off my helmet setting it down in front and looked over my shoulder.

"Ugh…Linda threw up in her helmet," Fred said as he stumbled into the cockpit. I heard the sound of liquid hitting the floor in the back. Fred turned to look back, "...And that was John,"

I set our course for Reach as I held my nose to not smell the throw-up. I was seriously contemplating putting my helmet back on because the smell was mixing with the stench of the sewer still imprinted on our suits.

"That has to be some of the best flying that I am glad I never saw Alpha," John said as he walked into the cockpit.

I nodded, "We'll be home in about 7 hours," I informed the team as Linda had just walked in as well, "So I think it's safe to say.." I trailed off nodding for John to finish as the other three waited in anticipation.

John paused for a moment and the tension built before he smiled, "Mission accomplished, let's go home Blue team,"

==================================================================

Real quick, I gotta leave so I will keep this note short.

First hope you enjoyed, it was long over due had a bunch of stuff happen (got sick, had a final, work picked up, etc). So going forward we will cut chapters down to 2k, to hasten uploads.

Second Star Wars fic still in the works will prolly be out in December, nothing else there

And that's about it drop any questions you may have, but other than that I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and a wonderful week, and I will See You Star Side!