THE PACKAGE:
Reach
Sword Base, Babd Catha Ice Shelf (now melted/vaporized), Eposz
August 29th, 2552
The sky was red, and was filled with the sounds of distant combat. The angular form of Sword Base stood, a shadow of its former glory, large pieces missing and smoke billowing from the holes. The ground, once green with life, was a dull reddish-brown, blasted and cracked, and dust was stirred about by the hot winds. The past week had been Hell. The UNSC had put up more of a fight than ever before. Even Reach itself seemed to come to their aid; a hurricane had battered Covenant ships, as tornadoes tore through alien armored columns. A Covenant corvette stupid enough to park directly over a volcano had gotten blasted by a geological cannon of superheated rock and ash, taking it down. Everyone and everything pitched in, but it wasn’t enough.
Humanity was losing. And Reach was dying.
“Noble-1, this is Noble-Actual” Col. Holland’s voice came over the radio. “Noble-1?”
“Go ahead” Carter replied.
“We need that base taken out, son. What’s your status?”
“Still outside. Thermal on the interior shows standing-room only. We’ve gotta clear them out or we’ll be way too popular.”
“Copy that, Noble-1. Holland out.”
Jess and Teana leapt over a rock, meeting a trio of ODSTs. “Six, Seven,” Carter contacted them, “are you two in position?”
“Affirmative” Jess replied.
“Good. Execute.”
Torch and Burn
The team of five approached the rock edge, looking across the shallow water at the battered building of Farragut Station. A Shade sat atop its roof, another was a few hundred feet to the right, and behind the building was a deployable Covenant lookout tower.
“The Covenant own this sector now,” Carter radioed, “but they’re defending for a major strike, not a small-group infiltration. Eliminate all hostile anti-air defenses so the rest of Noble can land at Sword Base for the torch-and-burn. Keep a low profile; if we take ‘em by surprise, this will be a hell of a lot easier.”
Jess shouldered his DMR, and picked his target. It was outside the targeting reticle’s red-zone, but he knew it would still hit. The Jackal sniper on the lookout tower collapsed, a hole blown through its neck. Three-fourths of a second later, the Grunt manning the rooftop Shade keeled over in its seat, a bullet having blown through its brain. Teana calculated trajectory, aimed, and fired a 40mm grenade at the other turret. The high-speed cylinder beaned the gunner in the head and detonated a split-second later; blue blood splattered across the gun’s controls. The two Spartans leapt into the water and sprinted across, the ODSTs following close behind. They quickly reached the building, setting up in it just in time for a pack of Grunts to come over the hill, the leader carrying a fuel rod gun. A trooper used his BR55 rifle to shoot a spare fuel rod pack hanging from the Grunt’s waist, and a green explosion consumed the alien and its weapon. The other Grunts panicked at this, and were quickly cut down. An explosion hammered into the side of the building, as another FRG-carrying Grunt near the far turret opened up. Jess ran out and shot it in the neck with his DMR, killing it. The coast was clear, and Jess rode the grav-lift into the tower, grabbing the focus rifle he found before hopping back down to join the others.
“Kat was right” Emile said over the TEAMCOM. “This does seem like overkill, sending us out here for a simple demo op.”
“ONI thinks it’s worth it” Jun replied. “That should tell you somethin’.”
“It tells me things ain’t so simple.”
The squad moved through a pathway, and soon spotted something that lifted their spirits a little: hidden behind a boulder was an M808B ‘Scorpion’ Main Battle Tank, undamaged and ready for action. Jess hopped in the driver’s seat, pulling the hatch down. Teana climbed aboard and got in the machinegun turret cupola, and the ODSTs perched themselves on the treads. The tank came to life, its engine growling and rumbling, and the 66-ton war machine rolled out from its hiding spot. Immediately, plasma bolts impacted it, the heavy ceramic-titanium armor shrugging off the blows. The turret swiveled right, and fired. A deafening bang sounded (the five occupants’ hearing protected by their helmets’ systems), and a Covenant lookout tower fell to the ground in pieces. The tank rounded a boulder, blasting a Shade turret and another lookout tower. A Ghost up ahead opened fire, but the Grunt pilot missed his shots; Jess’ return shot, however, did not, slagging the vehicle and sending shrapnel flying in all directions, one piece killing another Grunt behind a nearby rock. The Scorpion moved up a little, and Teana fired the machinegun turret at an Elite, cutting it down, as the ODSTs opened fire on the Grunts. From the next slops came a Ghost, which was blown to scrap by the Scorpion’s gun. Then another Ghost, and another, both meeting the same fate. The Scorpion rolled up the rocky slope, a part of a Ghost crunching beneath its treads.
Around the next corner, the first of two Covenant ‘Tyrant’ AA guns stood, occasionally firing a three-round burst off into the distance. At this range and this angle, it was no problem. Jess opened fire with the Scorpion’s cannon, aiming for the glowing rear of the AA gun. After seven shots, the AA gun’s alarm began to sound, and several seconds later it exploded. The tank moved up and hung a right around the boulder, the second AA gun now in range. A 90mm explosive shell obliterated a quartet of Jackals, and Teana poured MG fire into an approaching Ghost, hitting something vital. The hover-sled dropped to the ground, a low whine accompanying the failing engine, and a short burst killed the Grunt who’d been driving it. A squadron of six Banshees flew past, and two of them broke off to engage the tank. A well-aimed cannon-shot blew one out of the sky, and the second one’s pilot panicked and fired a fuel rod bolt. The shot missed by a large degree, and Teana returned fire with the MG, hitting a fuel cell. The craft went up in a ball of blue flame. The tank then turned its attention to the other gun and fired several times, and the gun responded by going up in gouts of flame. It was at this point that Jess & Teana recognized the current area as the site of the UNSC anti-air gun they’d activated way back during the first battle around Sword Base.
“Nice job, you two” Carter radioed. “Falcons, commence descent. We’ll meet you inside the base.” A pair of Falcons flew overhead, one of them – containing the rest of Noble Team – firing grenades at the few Covenant who’d survived the guns’ explosions. The other, carrying machinegun turrets, opened up on a quartet of Banshees, and Jess lent the Scorpion’s fire to the cause, bringing the flyers down. He moved on, steering around boulders and Banshee bits, reaching a slightly curved path and firing at a Covenant lookout tower, bringing it down in two hits.
“This is Noble Team” Carter radioed. “Falcons have landed; hostiles engaged. Jun’s working on getting the gate open.”
“Really missing Kat right about now…” Jun said.
A trio of Ghosts came one-by-one over a small hill, each being slagged by the Scorpion’s gun before their hapless Grunt pilots could finish processing just what they were up against (they had been expecting foot soldiers, maybe a Warthog, not a huge tank). The tank rolled on through, soon encountering the area just outside Sword Base. A flock of Falcons and Hornets were engaged with a trio of Revenants, a few Banshees, and four Shade turrets – two plasma and two fuel-rod. A Scorpion shell destroyed the nearest FRG Shade, and another scrapped the closest Revenant. Jess rolled the vehicle forward a bit, looking left and up to blast the other FRG Shade, as Teana fired to the right at a nearby plasma Shade, killing its operator and ruining its gun barrels. Another tank shot destroyed a Revenant up ahead, while a Hornet scored a few missile strikes on the last plasma shade, taking it out of commission. The Scorpion began to roll up the final slope, and the third Revenant slid into view. Jess reacted faster than the Covenant mini-tank’s pilot did, and the bulbous red craft erupted into flames, allowing the Scorpion to roll uncontested up to the gate. After several seconds of Banshee-blasting, the gate opened with a series of clanks. Jess and Teana hopped out of the tank, and one of the ODSTs took Jess’ place in the driver’s seat, another hopping into the turret. The tank reversed, spun around, and drove back down, seeking to do some good elsewhere. The two red-armored Spartans ran through the gate and headed up the paved slope.
Latchkey
“Tangos!” Emile’s voice shouted. “Comin’ over the pad!”
“Head for the garage!” Jun said
“Double-time it, you two!” Carter ordered to Jess & Teana. “Come on!”
The two reached the top, Jess readying the focus rifle. Teana raced ahead of him, tackling a blue-armored Elite from behind and knocking it to the floor. She picked up a jagged shard of metal from the ground nearby and drove it into and through the alien’s neck. The red-armored Elite a little ways away spotted this and roared, only to be interrupted by the beam of the focus rifle burning through its shields and then its chest. Jess readied his DMR and starting shooting the Grunts, now panicking without their leaders, as Teana switched Mirage to rifle mode full-auto, killing the two Grunts manning plasma turrets at the entrance to the garage nearby. Several meters away, Emile fired a shotgun point-blank into an Elite’s chest, overloading its shields and shredding its hearts and lungs. Carter tossed a grenade amongst a small pack of Jackals, and the four avian aliens were ripped apart. Jun put down a Grunt with a rifle butt to the skull. They then spotted Jess & Teana and ran over to join them. Noble Team then descended the ramps, Jess stopping to rip a plasma turret from its hinges and take it with him. Carter fiddled with the elevator, to no avail.
“We’ll have to go through maintenance” he said. “Elevator’s out.”
“The way this place been done,” Emile replied, “we’re lucky anything still works.”
They entered a side door, Jess leading with his plasma turret, and walked up a ramp. To the right was a multi-level room with a catwalk that rounded its way up to the top. The path was crawling with Jackals. Jess opened fire on the nearest two, cutting them down with the plasma turret; even though the turret could easily wear through their shields, he knew he only had 200 shots in the gun, so he used his hand-then-head method to great effect, using only 11 shots. Carter and Teana each shot one of the two Jackal marksmen further up, and the team moved on. The next four or so minutes were spent working their way past Jackals, and by the time they reached the top Jess’ plasma turret was down to 68 rounds. They entered the hallway that led to the office buildings, now lit red by emergency lights. They rounded the corner and neared the next door.
“Where’re we going now, boss?” Jun asked.
“Dot?”
“Please proceed to the prearranged coordinates” was the AI’s reply.
“Cryptic…” Emile scoffed.
“You know as much as I do, Noble-4” she said, as the door opened.
At the far end hovered an Engineer, which Jess shot down on instinct. On cue, a quartet of ripples in the air moved… and opened fire. Jess’ plasma turret took down three of the cloaked Elites, exhausting its power in the process. He dropped the useless gun as Teana opened up at a shimmer in the air. She was rewarded by the last Elite growling and flaring into visibility, and massed fire from the five Spartans quickly brought it down. At the top of a ramp on the other end of the room, an Elite General stepped into view, holding a concussion rifle. Jess zoomed in and blasted it with the focus rifle, stunning it. The shields gave just as the focus rifle stopped to vent excess heat, and a rifle shot from Carter killed the ornate-armored alien. The five Spartans made their way up the ramp, Emile taking point, and followed their coordinates to a door. Jess hit the switch, and the door opened to reveal a squad of dead army troopers, lying amongst hundreds of spent shell casings. Dead Covenant were piled up near another door.
“Looks like they got themselves cornered” Jun remarked.
“Or were committed to the position” Carter added.
Emile walked forward, stepping into a dead-end hall. “I’m goin’ with cornered” he said. “There’s nothing here.”
“No load-bearing columns, either” Jun continued. “Sir, if we’re supposed to blow this place, this ain’t the spot to do it from.”
“Dot, check your vector” Carter ordered as he accessed his TACPAD.
“Vector confirmed, Commander” Dot replied. “We are precisely where ONI has directed-” she stopped, and then spoke again. “Apologies. Coordinates revised. Please confirm?”
“Revised?”
“By an AI of unknown origin, whose clearance is well above my own.”
“Well,” Jun said, “it’s pointing us a klick and a half east and 2,000 feet underground.”
“I didn’t bring my shovel, Commander” Emile snarked.
“Sir,” Jun continued, now sounding annoyed, “I say we go AI-free on this one. Obviously, these coordinates are junk, and the longer we go chasing them-”
He was cut off by a sudden grinding noise. Everyone raised their weapons, pointing toward a wall that was now sliding sideways, revealing a hidden passageway.
“What is this, Dot?”
“Our revised route, Commander.”
Teana stared for a few seconds, and then shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, why the hell not…”
“Alright” Carter sighed. “We came this far…”
The group passed through, staying alert as the sliding wall/door sealed behind them. They came upon a tram, cautiously stepping in.
“Your new AI friend tell you anything else, Dot?” Carter asked. “…Dot?”
“…She’s been expecting you” was Dot’s reply, as the doors slid shut and the tram began to move.
“That’s perfect…” Emile sighed.
Suddenly, a holo-screen snapped into vision on the forward window. In it was a familiar face, and the Spartans felt surprise at seeing this person alive.
“Apologies for the unusual security measures, Commander,” Dr. Halsey said, “but the stakes demand it.”
“Dr. Halsey?” Carter was a little shocked. “Casualty reports have you listed as-”
“Yes, well,” she interrupted, “news of my death has been exaggerated. I only wish the same could be said for Jorge and Katherine.”
“We all do, ma’am.”
“It may please you to know that the data module Noble-2 procured from Visegrád Relay contained precisely what Dr. Sorvad promised: a latchkey discovery. It has unlocked, at last, the secrets of this excavation.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Your orders were a pretext to bring you to me, and have been overridden. You are here, Team Noble, to ensure the delivery of this vital data to a secure location.”
“Doctor, our orders were to destroy any sensitive-”
“Others were handle the demolition.”
“I’ll need to confirm this new directive with Command.”
“Colonel Holland will be briefed soon. You belong to ONI now.”
The tram finally descended, and the Spartans stared in wonder. It was a massive cave, snow and ice mingled with UNSC structures, and a truly gigantic structure sat in the distance.
“Before you,” Dr. Halsey explained, “is an alien artifact neither human nor Covenant in origin, advanced beyond our comprehension… until now. Thanks to Noble-2, the decryption of its data is nearly complete.”
Attention was drawn to a few huge chunks of ice and rock tumbling from the ceiling in the distance, and a Covenant dropship could just barely be seen descending through the hole.
“Whatever we’re doin’ down here,” Emile said, “we better do it quick.”
“Have your data ready, ma’am” Carter radioed. “We’re coming to you.”
“The decryption process is still underway.”
“I don’t think you understand. The Covenant are here; we’re out of time. If it isn’t portable by the time we reach you, it’s gonna get buried.”
“Bury any of it, and you bury mankind’s best chance of survival! …Commander, you’ve been wondering what your Spartans died for? It was for this. Please… I beg you: buy me all the time that you can.”
The tram came to a stop, and the Spartans filed out, looking around.
This Cave Is Not A Natural Formation
The group moved down a slope, following a waypoint.
“Commander,” Jun said, “I’m seeing turrets already in defensive positions.”
“ONI was expecting company?” Emile asked.
“They sure as hell got it” Carter replied, noticing the Phantoms getting closer. “Doctor, we have hostiles inbound.”
As they passed a turret, a man’s voice came over the radio. They recognized Sword Control. “Noble Team, there are four defense turrets to assist you in defending the lab. Get them online, and quick! When the turrets take too much damage, they’ll shut down to recharge and auto-repair. You’ll need to reactivate them when they come back online.”
Jess activated the nearby turret. As they rushed to the entrance of the lab, Jess headed for a Mongoose, hopping in and driving off to the next turret. Teana, though, had a better idea. Rushing over to the grenade launcher sitting on a rack, she aimed up at the incoming Banshee and fired an EMP round. The Banshee plummeted down, landing less than 10 feet from her. She pried the cockpit open, kicked out the Elite pilot, and took off. She headed over to the outside turrets, strafing the Grunts passing them, and quickly got both of them online, heading up as they opened fire on the Covenant nearby. Jess drove back to the door, stocking up on DMR ammo and grabbing a shotgun. The Covenant forces – Jackals and Grunts – were whittled down by the turrets and by Teana’s Banshee, so very few reached the ramp leading to the lab, and were quickly cut down by the four Spartans standing guard at it. Two packs of Brutes started working their way up the snowy slopes. Teana took out one with a fuel rod shot, and the other was distracted by a turret long enough for Emile to ride up in a Mongoose, leap out, slaughter the lot of them with his shotgun, and quickly drive back to the lab entrance. Teana used her Banshee’s plasma guns to take out some more Grunts, and then engaged in a brief dogfight with a hostile Banshee, blowing the craft’s right wing off and leaving it unable to make any horizontal movements other than a constant right turn. She blasted it with a fuel-rod shot, and it came apart and fell to the ground.
A second wave of Phantoms came in, one of them depositing a Wraith across the bridge, on the other side of the area. Teana immediately set to fuel-rod-bombing it, and after four direct hits from the green projectiles it exploded. She turned her attention to the gate, where the team was fighting off a large pack of angry Brutes and Skirmishers. She boosted in and blew half the enemy forces to hell with two fuel-rod shots, and then u-turned and shot the turret off of a Model-B Phantom. The now-harmless dropship beat a hasty retreat. Jun sniped a Brute Captain through the eye, and then shot a gold-armored Skirmisher straight through the center of the neck; the force of the supersonic bullet hitting such a thin target tore the bird-like alien’s head off. Emile used his shotgun as a club to cave a Jackal’s skull in, and then drop-kicked a Skirmisher, which was finished off by a rifle shot from Carter. Jess threw a plasma grenade, and it stuck to a running Skirmisher. The alien’s momentum carried it into three of its fellows just as the explosive went off, killing all four of them.
After half a minute of peace, in which the Spartans rearmed and reloaded while Teana flew her Banshee in lazy circles above the complex, a third wave of Phantoms flew in, dropping off a team of Elite Rangers and three squads of Elite-led Grunts, along with a pair of Ghosts. Jess used a Spartan Laser found near the door to blow one of the Ghosts to kingdom come, and Teana managed to hit the driver of the second dead-on while dive-bombing it. Another Grunt tried to hop in the damaged Ghost’s pilot seat, but by this time Teana had circled around and fired a few plasma shots at the circular tank on the craft’s right side, and the Ghost exploded violently. A squad of Grunts was cut down by one of the turrets, but the red-armored Elite made it through and charged the Spartans. Jess jumped out from behind a rock and blindsided the Elite with his shotgun, blowing the alien’s arm off. Another shot splattered its head. Teana fired a fuel-rod shot at a briefly-grounded pair of Elite Rangers, killing them both, and then got to work on shooting the other Rangers out of the sky. Once she was done with that, she turned her attention to another hostile Banshee flying higher up, and hit it in the underside with a fuel-rod shot, destroying it. Quickly, the rest of the alien forces were dead.
“I’m almost done, Spartans” Halsey radioed. “Just a little more.”
A final three Phantoms flew in. One, a Type-C, fired its plasma turrets at Teana’s Banshee, heavily damaging both wings. She flew her crippled craft to the team’s location and bailed out, setting up defensive position with them in preparation for the coming assault. The first Phantom deployed a Wraith at the other side of the area, the second came in behind and deployed another one and some Jackals, and the third came in right at the base of the ramp, dropping a team of Elites. Jun used the Spartan Rifle to gut the distant Wraith, and the team opened fire on the squad of Elites. Teana fired a grenade at the Jackals rounding the nearby corner, killing them all, and Carter & Emile picked off Elites one by one. An Elite Field-Master charged up the ramp, brandishing a plasma sword, its shields shrugging off bullets. Jun shot it with the Spartan Laser, burning a dinner-plate-sized hole through the alien’s chest.
“Well done, Spartans” Dr. Halsey’s voice finally came over the radio. “I’m opening the laboratory door.”
After killing the stragglers and humorously luring the remaining Wraith into boosting right over a ledge, the team walked up to the gate, and Jess hit the button. The door slid open, and Noble walked in, the door sealing shut behind them as they progressed. After passing through a tunnel carved from ice, they reached a wide-open room. In the center was a huge glowing sphere; symbols and waves of light raced across its surface, and beams of… something… ran between it and the walls.
“What is all this?” Jun asked.
“Knowledge” Dr. Halsey replied, moving back and forth between consoles. “A birthright from an ancient civilization. This AI is its custodian, and she has chosen you as her couriers.”
“Chosen?” Emile asked, a little skeptical. “By an AI?”
“By this AI, yes. Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own. Perhaps more.”
On a holo-console, surrounded by a transparent sphere of data, stood a female-form violet-colored AI. “Cortana?” Teana asked.
“A fragment of her” Halsey replied. “You all are to take her to the UNSC ship-breaking yards in Aszod. There, you will find a Halcyon-class cruiser holding the original Cortana, waiting for this vital data to be brought to her and to get her off-planet.”
“I understand” Carter said.
“Do you?” she looked to him. “Humankind is outmatched. When Reach falls – and it will fall – our annihilation is all but certain. Unless, we can gleam from this artifact a defense against the Covenant; a game-changer, on the level of the conical bullet in the 19th century, or faster-than-light travel in the 23rd.”
“And what if we can’t?”
“An apt question, if there were somewhere else to place our hope. There is not.”
She pressed a button, and the Cortana fragment’s avatar disappeared. Halsey reached down and pulled free a cylindrical container, carrying a glowing blue chip. She walks over to the team, heading toward Jess…
…and walks past him.
“Take her, Lanstar. She has made her choice.”
-SCENE SHIFT-
The group exited a tunnel, to find two Pelicans waiting on a landing pad.
“Dr. Halsey,” Carter said, “Noble-3 will escort you to Castle Base.”
“I require no escort, Commander” she replied.
“Jun,” he turned to his sniper, “make sure nothing falls into enemy hands.”
“I’ll do whatever’s necessary, Commander. …Good luck.”
“You too, rifleman.”
Carter walked over and climbed aboard the right Pelican, walking in and sitting in the pilot’s seat. He started up the engines as Teana & Jess got onboard behind him, taking seats in the troop bay. Emile sat on the edge of the loading ramp.
“I need a heading, Dot” he requested.
“At three kilometers north, turn right; heading 050.”
“Which leads to?”
“The ship-breaking yard in Aszod, the only off-planet extraction point left on this continent. Small-scale air attacks have decimated many convoys en route. An armada of Covenant ships is hastening to the site as well. UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn is awaiting your arrival.”
“Wouldn’t be a Noble mission if it were easy.”
As the two dropships flew off in different directions, the ground bulged upward. The explosion did its intended job, scouring Sword Base’s underground clean of anything the Covenant came to find. The ground caved in, and the surrounding water rushed in to flood the caverns.