SUM/INTENT: Task Force Conglomerate to insert on Verent and extract with Kig-Yar Matriarch, Nuc.
PRELIM INQ: Reports suggest Remnant faction moving in to secure/assassinate asset with a small fleet. Unknown composition. Nuc is being held currently by large band of other Kig-Yar pirates, expected heavy resistance as they wish to ransom her back to her clan. Matriarch is identified as Tier-1 asset for Task Force Conglomerate.
OBJECTIVE: Task force Conglomerate is to secure Nuc by any means necessary. Team will deal with Kig-Yar pirates through any means so long as it does not jeopardize the matriarch's health. If Remnant forces are encountered, Conglomerate is to fall back to extraction.
COLLATERAL: Likely collateral of the UNSC ‘RED VENGEANCE’. Risk noted and accepted in order to evacuate Nuc.
The Human-Covenant War, a long brutal crusade to exterminate the human race by the will of the Hierarchs of the Covenant, ended in the year 2552 while official hostilities would continue until 2553. The war resulted in an estimated death of 23 billion human lives with many of their planets having been glassed by the Covenant threat. The Sangheili split within the Covenant, the Great Schism, caused the collapse of this threat and allowed for Humanity to come out victorious. Yet, even five years into the future, there has been little forgiveness from the humans and the Sangheili have still believed that the humans are still an enemy.
ONI, the secretive organization that masterminded many events such as the infamous SPARTAN-II Program and many assassination attempts against Thel’Vadam, otherwise known as the Arbiter. The things that ONI has done is long and numerous, many of them to be struck from the record and others to be publicized for the masses. One such is Task Force Conglomerate, an interspecies Task Force to show that Humanity is willing to work with other species, rather than reject and be hostile. However, with funds being allocated to more important tasks and operations, coupled with the fact that not many within ONI were entirely onboard anyways, it seemed that the existence of this Task Force would be short lived.
Then, mysteriously, an unknown person offered money and supplies solely for the Task Force. Miraculously, ONI took the offer, yet, no one would ever know the details of the mysterious entity that is funding the program, other than the ONI higher ups. Not long after these funds had been acquired, ONI commissioned an Impulse-class stealth frigate, the UNSC Fortitude South, to act as the mobile headquarters for the Task Force.
The date is currently February 21st, 2558, with the UNSC Fortitude South travelling though slipspace on its path towards the Verent.
You find yourself busy at work, maintaining your MA5D in preparation for the mission to come. Lost in thought, you could remember being assigned to Task Force Conglomerate, not of your own accord and certainly not with any of your own opinions being asked. As you are cleaning your weapon, you can remember very vividly the conversation that you had about your assignment.
“The funder has specifically requested that you be a part of this force. You will be monitored based on your actions, and should things going well enough that you will be compensated greatly for your efforts within the Office of Naval Intelligence. Of course, once your time there is up, you will be given the option to stay as a part of the Task Force, should you desire.”
At least you knew that if things didn't turn out to your interest, you could leave when you were given the option. However, knowing ONI, they would not tell you when that would or what that compensation would even be. Best to focus on the present.
Running a hand against the back of your head, you felt the burned ends of your feather and a pang of destroyed pride in your heart. It had been many years since the incident, but it still hurt and you could still feel the flames burning away at your feathers. At least you survived, but at what cost?
You felt the need to have some of your infusion, but ONI had explicitly gave you instructions to avoid using the substance when there is a mission that needs to be done. It was a very different feeling than it had been when you were in the Covenant as they would allow the recreational use at virtually any time, one of the only good things they have done for you.
You took your hand away from the back of your head before looking towards you weapons, particularly towards the carbine. If the time was right, it was almost time to deploy soon.
You felt anger, anger towards ONI for not yet giving you the vengeance you desires, and anger towards the humans aboard the ship for taking away your hammer. They had continued to tell you that it was for “Safety and mental well being for the crew” but clearly none of them trusted you. HOwever, you could understand, as you were once an enemy to them, the memories of slaughter and joyful destruction washed away the anger for the moment.
You gazed over at your trophies, those were the truly good times. Now look at yourself, working for the weak human garbage that littered the galaxy. A grunt left your mouth before grabbing for your maulers.
A loud intercom noise went over the ship, catching the attention of the crew members and the few members of the Task Force. “Members of Task Force Conglomerate please report to the bridge, I repeat: members of Task Conglomerate please report to the bridge for briefing.”
The doors to each member’s room opened automatically, each private room neighborred each other. Now it was time for the squad members to properly meet each other.
Marcus slid the last pin into place, securing the remaining parts of his rifle. He gave it a quick, but not completely necessary, look over. With a satisfied nod of his head, he set it down on the table in his room. Over the years he had used every UNSC weapon out there, and none were as symbolic as the MA5. Sure, his was modified, distinguishing it from the standard issue, but nothing made him feel more patriotic than shooting down a Covenant baddie with an MA5 Assault Rifle. What didn't make him feel overly patriotic, however, was working for ONI. Sure he had worked in an ONI reconnaissance team before, but that was completely different from this... task force. He would be working with the Covenant assholes this time. He gave a slow shake of his head.
When ONI contacted him, he originally thought they were telling him his services were no longer needed. The Covenant had fallen, Earth was stabilizing and her colonies were rebuilding. What he wasn't expecting was an invitation - more like an order, given ONI's involvement - to join an ONI publicity stunt. Working without other humans would be quite the experience. An experience he wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of. It was ONI, however, and they said they would compensate him well. The money could be worth it. He'd find himself a beautiful woman. Settle down on some world with endless beaches and live out his days drinking coconut juice. It was a stretch, but maybe, just maybe he would make it work.
With a light sigh, he pushed himself away from his desk, the metal chair making a low screetching sound as it slid over the floor. As he grabbed his canteen his door opened automatically. Oh. The the speaker sitting in his room turned on, giving an order to meet at the bridge. He took a quick gulp of water before exiting his room. It didn't take long for him to notice all the other doors had opened as well. Here we go, then. Time to meet the alien freaks that would become his team members.
Zertus hummed lightly to himself as he examined his Maulers for any defects or damages when ONI had transferred what little he owned to the ship. The humans wouldn't let him keep his gravity hammer, he certainly didn't trust them to know how to handle his weapons properly. Satisfied that they were still functional, he holstered them and moved his massive frame towards the door. Moving in the human ship was uncomfortable at times, as they had designed it for their weak and tiny frames, but he would manage. Throughout all of the indignities this agreement was likely to heap upon him, he would manage. The humans had promised to find the Sangheili who had killed his tribe, and he would hold them to that. All he had to do was hold up his end of the bargain, and kill anything that stood in the way of their goals.
Walking out of the door to his room, he was greeted by what was supposed to be a team of trained and elite killers, brought together to achieve the humans' goals. Instead of that, he saw two others and felt immeasurable disappointment and disdain. This was the best they could scrape together? This was their precious 'Task Force'? A damaged Kig-Yar and a human. Not even one of their demons. Just a normal human, the kind he and his brethren had slaughtered in the hundreds, if not the thousands, over the course of the war. This was it. Zertus felt the anger rising in him again at this pitiful display. He was going to have to be the one to get almost everything done. The Kig-Yar was more likely to be drugged up and cowardly than anything useful, only barely having more courage than the Unggoy. As for the human, if he was talented he would be useful for a distraction or perhaps even a few kills, but as soon as they ran up against a real challenge (Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Mgalekgolo, etc etc) he would die. Zertus sneered. He would be the lone survivor once again, but that wouldn't stop him. He'd see this mission through, and all the others that came after. He would hold up his end of the bargain.
Still, might as well learn the names of these walking corpses, and establish his leadership immediately. On the almost nonexistent chance they were actually useful, he'd need to be able to command them effectively and they would need to obey him without question.
"I am Zertus, War Chieftain of the Jiralhanae. Beyond introductions we will give a description of skills in the bridge, to plan to our strengths." With that, and a satisfied nod, he began to head towards the bridge. His hand was on the broken energy sword hilt, rubbing it.
He would need all the luck and protection it offered to salvage something out of this mess.
Kax eyed his weapons with some distaste. The carbine was more than capable of eliminating most targets in a few shots but it didn't have the kick of the beam rifle he was so used to, whatever though, he'd make do with whatever these humans could give him. Work was work after all. After taking one last glance at his infusion station Kax placed his carbine on his back, his needler at his side and ensured his shield was functioning properly with a quick tap to ensure it activited. After a circle of red plasma lurched from the gauntlet he immediatley closed it and made his way out of his room to meet his new teammates.
As he entered the hallway he saw the human standing there already. He sighed at the rather pitiful thing, it was clearly not one of the so called 'demons' he had the fortune of not seeing during most of his campaign but he still questioned how anything so primitive and clumsy looking could ever have defeated his own race nevermind the entire might of the covenant empire. Before he could speak to the human the large ape-like Jiralhanae entered the hallway. The jackal groaned internally as he was put face-to-face with the only creature more primitive and clumsy than his other teammate,hell at least humans made easy enough raiding targets in peace time.
The Brute muttered something about his name, Zertus or something, and that they should head to the command centre. Kax replied back "Kax, and what's the name of you pink-skin?" adding the question on as he remembered that he wasn't just stuck with Zertus for the duration of this venture. After speaking he immediatley examined the corridor and slowly head in the direction of the control room, giving the human time to respond.
Cassie A-313 February 21st, 2558 UNSC Fortitude South Observation Deck
The observation deck was quiet, all sound but the humming of the Fortitude South's engines reverberating through its titanium platted hull sucked away like atmosphere in a vacuum as the lone figure there bobbed their head gently to the music playing through their headphones. it was an old song, some 21st-century noise that had been obscure even when it had been released. Beside the figure's yellow armored foot lay a similarly colored Gen2 MJOLNIR EOD helmet, it's visored eyes keeping a silent watch of the rest of the room as the musically inclined Spartan stared out at the inky blackness of Slipspace. Unlike normal space, Slipspace had no stars to see, in fact, were it not for the lights from the ship there would be no light whatsoever. While the Spartan preferred to stargaze, there was a sort of peace to the void of Slipspace as well that could not be denied.
A faint vibration at her fingertips bought Cassie out of her thoughts, and with a casual flick of her fingers, she opened the datapad she had balanced on one armored leg to find a shipwide alert.
>>>Task Force Conglomerate to bridge for Mission Brief
A frown found its way to Cassie's face for a moment, but it quickly vanished as she stood up, casually tossing the headphones aside to a nearby couch and with a grace unseen in any Spartan IV, slipped the toe of her boot under her helmet and snapped it up to her hands, where it then was placed over her head and sealed with a slight click and a hiss of air. With strange, almost loping strides, the Spartan made her way out of the Observation deck and began making her way to the bridge as she flicked through what little information she's been provided about this Task Force and its mission.
Rescuing a Jackal Matriarch wasn't exactly her idea of fun, but she did like the thought that she'd probably get to kill a lot of the damned bird-faced pirates along the way. Served 'em right anyway, the disgusting things. Why this Nuc was considered a Tier-1 asset was beyond her, but it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. She'd do her job. With the Mission Document finished, she turned her attention to the dossiers of the rest of the Task Force and snorted. 'Task Force' seemed a little grandiose for what basically amounted to a fireteam at best.
Sergeant Marcus Greene, ONI Recon and former ODST. Fairly standard fare really, a well established soldier and decorated from his time in the Human-Covenant war. Cassie did wonder why he hadn't been outfitted with SPI armor, however. ONI could certainly afford to spare a set for an unaugmented human on a mission like this. with a team this small, they'd need every advantage they could get. She frowned, despite his record, he was only Human and she'd have to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't get himself hurt or killed on the battlefield.
Zertus, Brute, and probably a Chieften, based on his record and ownership of a Gravity Hammer. Suddenly not giving Seargeant Greene SPI armor made a bit more sense. It would hardly be needed with both a Spartan and a Brute able to take most of the fire that would be thrown their way. He seemed quite well groomed, but his dossier spoke to a fairly typical example of the species, if perhaps more on the cunning side. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about him.
Finally.... Zax. A member of those filthy bird aliens. Cassie suppressed a shudder, and ran through the document quickly. A former Sniper from the HUman-Covenant war and apparently had some distaste for his Brute commanders. Cassie expected little from him, and was quite happy to see that he hadn't been given a Beam Rifle, which meant she could rest easy knowing that he wouldn't be able to stab them in the back. Not without dire consequences, anyway.
Overall she had to admit, the composition of the team wasn't bad. Zertrus and herself could draw fire and give it out in equal doses and the other two could provide aditional ranged support. She closed the documents and found herself outside the elevator that led to the upper decks, where the bridge was located. After a brief wait, she was on her way up, to meet her team, and get this mission started...
Marcus sighed inwardly, he should have worn his helmet. He could have polarized it and been done with his teammates. Now we would have to look into the challenging eyes of the Brute and Kig-yar, assuming the Kig-yar felt like challenging Marcus as well. The sergeant did not want to be in charge, did not want to deal with any of the "alpha" shenanigans. Seeing the Spartan was a relief, though. Another human like him; a III in fact, and there were some legendary Spartan IIIs out there. Cassie was the Spartan's name if he remembered correctly. She held rank on him but any sane soldier would follow a Spartan's orders, despite rank.
Sgt. Greene quickly glanced over the team one more time. He took in the breathtaking size of the Brute and the face of the ugly ass Jackel. The Spartan was like any other Spartan he'd seen, although Cassie had that new GEN 2 armor, which was pretty cool. The Brute was rubbing an energy sword, but he had not seen a Brute ever wield one. He would have to ask the Brute about that some time. Finally, Sgt. Greene's brown eyes finished their sweep of the hallway, meaning it was time to follow the rest up to the bridge.
Eventually, everyone reached the bridge of the Fortitude South, there they were met with a busy atmosphere with crew buzzing back and forth between monitors while the captain stood at the helm. Behind him was a map of a planet, the label gave away that it was Verdant, as well as another man standing next to it. He was dressed in black with a patch on his shoulder that read the infamous “ONI”, however, his face was concealed by a helmet. He was busy talking with someone, likely over commas, before he turned to the motley squad that was behind him.
”Greetings, Task Force. It is good to know that our funder has been able to supply such a… unique crew. I am Officer Griffin Kelley of ONI Section Two,” he paused for a moment before approaching the spartan, inspecting her armor before moving onto the ex-ODST, the kig-yar, and finally standing in front of Zertus. ”I am your commanding officer,” he walked backwards to the map before a display showing a T’vaoan, ”This is pirate Queen Nuc, she served as Commando in the Covenant and has done much infiltration since the fall of Reach,” he reported.
His fingers traced the edge of the projector bringing up pictures of an old human outpost, the horizon was glassed.
“Captain, coming out of slipspace now,” a member of the crew reported. A large, mainly blue, planet came into view and even from orbit anyone could tell that the surface had been classed riguously, but not completely. At the time, Verdant was thought to be home to some forerunner artifacts which had proved to be false, but made sure that the covenant didn’t completely destroy the planet.
”Nuc is being held in this facility by a band of pirates waiting for a ransom offer. However, our goal is to get her out before something happens, namely before a Covenant splinter faction potentially shows up,” the officer stated, going over the intel already available to the group. Soon a layout of the base game up, showing different highlighted areas, different entrance routes.
“There are a few different ways we can go about this; through the old sewer system which will lead into the facility, directly through the front gate, or, if you are savvy enough, you could try to convince the pirates to give Nuc up without a fight. I will let you decide which you would like to do, any questions?”
Cassie A-313 February 21st, 2558 UNSC Fortitude South Bridge
Behind the impassive face of her helmet, Cassie frowned. A Covenant Skirmisher turned Pirate. Her experience could make her valuable to certain groups, but more likely she had enemies that just wanted to pay to kill her. The jackals holding her stood to make a lot of money off of their prisoner.
“Captain, coming out of Slipspace now.”
Subconsciously, Cassie braced herself against a bridge terminal as the ship lurched slightly upon re-entering normal space. Her attention turned to the planet, bearing the marks of Covenant plasma bombardment. Some corporations had taken to "mining" away the crystallized surface of glassed planets, but it seemed no such thing had happened on Verdant. Next came the map of the facility Nuc was being held in. A simple enough building, Cassie wondered if Zertrus would fit comfortably inside, however, as his massive frame likely didn't match up with what seemed to be a standard human designed building.
"I will let you decide which you would like to do, any questions?”
Her gaze finally fell on Griffin Kelly, their CO for the duration of this mission, and her HUD pinged him as a Major, which struck Cassie as strange, as Major was not a rank in the Navy, which implied that Kelly had been part of one of the other branches of the UNSC before being transferred to ONI at some point. Moreover, his uniform showed no signs of rank that she could see, and his face was covered by what appeared to be a Gen1 MJOLNIR EVA helmet. An old one, at that.
Back to the matter at hand, though.
"What sort of resistance are we looking at regarding those two paths? Additionally, should we opt to negotiate, what do we have to bargain with?"
Cassie entertained no ideas about negotiating with Jackals, but it was important to know just what they had to work with.
"Finally, if I may, what makes this Matriarch so important, sir?"
Zertus met the sight of a demon mixture of relief and distaste. There was thankfully one other competent warrior on the team now, someone he could at the very least trust to be a capable killer, but it was hard to not face an enemy for decades upon the battlefield and not hate them. Especially if one of their own was the reason the Prophets had died and the Jiralhanae were being hunted down by the Sangheili. Still, he could put aside his feelings. It would get him nowhere to be at odds with the only other useful member on the team.
Zertus instinctively curled his lip at Griffin Kelly's words. Commanders don't lead from the ship. Or hide their faces. He could practically feel the man making eye-contact from behind his helmet and while he had been informed that most humans do not think it means a challenge, he was sure that this man knew what it really meant. Still, he bit back his initial urge to strike out and answer the challenge. This was a test. They were seeing if he could play by their weak and backwards rules. Well, he could. It was just another indignity to suffer through, another foolishness he could wait out as long as they held up their end of the bargain. And they would hold up their end of the bargain, or he'd make everyone on this ship pay with their lives.
He glanced over at the mostly glassed planet and smiled to himself. Through all of the indignities, he had the battle ahead to look forward too. If he was lucky, he could slaughter a large group of pirates before they left the planet.
He examined the outpost map as the demon asked her questions, a plan formulating in his mind. Obviously, negotiating with the Kig-Yar was out of the question. Not only was it cowardly, as they could easily gut their way through the compound to get to the Matriarch, the filthy pirates would no doubt jack up the price of the ransom when they saw exactly who was coming for Nuc. A Brute, a Demon, a human, and a damaged Kig-Yar asking for the Matriarch? Even their greedy little minds would be suspicious.
Zertus waited for Kelly to reply, humming lightly to himself. His plan depended on the structure of the Kig-Yar's forces.
"We expect heavy resistance, these pirates have a lot to gain and a lot to lose with this matriarch. However, should you plan to bargain with them, let's say that we will allow them to stay on the planet, uncontested," Kelly informed the spartan, before turning his back to the group to gaze out into space. He was content with the knowledge that the group had, knowing that they would succeed in regaining the asset that ONI needed. However, another question caught him off guard. The officer turned to look at the Spartan once more, almost knowing that A-313 was going to ask another question.
"Finally, if I may, what makes this Matriarch so important, sir?"
He took a moment, simply staring at the supersoldier before straightening his back and giving a more proper look as he turned back to the stars for a brief moment. "That is classified, spartan. Now, I believe you have a mission to do," Kelly stated before motioning for some marines to walk to the group.
"Right this way," one said as they passed the group to lead them to the hangar.
Out of the corner of your eye, you can notice a group of ensigns watching a screen, quietly talking to one another. You see a red blip come, lighting their faces for a brief moment. They give a frightened look before one of them began to vigourously write something down.
All you can catch from their mouth movements is "Covenant" and "Super" before the marines usher the group off. Something about it did not sit right with you, a pit in your stomach beginning to churn even at the mention of the covenant.
As you all move through the hallways of the ship, with the heavy steps of Zertus being some of the only noises besides the humming of the ship. One of the marines looks back at the group before looking forwards again, "So, uh, what brings an ODST and a spartan to an OP like this?" The other marine elbowed the one trying to make small talk.
"The real question is why ONI decided to put a bunch of aliens in with us," the other grumbled.
As Kax follows the group he dwells on what he had caught from the marines and he can only really think of one potential thing the marines were referring to in their conversation. A covenant supercarrier. The thought of seeing the peak of covenant engineering made the jackal giddy with excitement for a moment before the realization hit him that he would be in direct opposition to it. As he walked down with the rest of the human's suspicion quickly began to settle in. Kaz approached the large brute as quietly as he could and attempted to reach up as close to the brutes ear as possible and whispered "Brute, I just heard those pink skins chattering about a covenant super carrier. Do you think those pirates we're up against have one? These things might have dragged us into a complete suicide mission."
He didn't like brutes, he didn't trust them. But they were ex-covenant like him so he was the only one here he could be certain wasn't involved if this was some kind of set-up. The kig-yar quickly hunched down back to his usual size and began eyeing each of the surrounding humans with suspicion. What if this was some kind of plot by the humans to start killing off the covenant war veterans? He didn't know much about ONI but he knew even the humans knew they were shady. Now on guard, the jackal's eyes twitched to the spartan and ODST in front of him. He couldn't afford to trust them right now, even if they were his 'teammates'
Zertus bared his teeth at the implied insult from the human. He would bite his tongue around the 'commanding officer' but with these weak insects? No, that was asking too much. Before he could reply, Kax moved closer to him, looking nervous. Zertus leaned down towards the Kig-Yar as he leaned up to whisper in the Jiralhanae's ear. As disdainful of the other ex-covenant may be, Kax was still the enemy of his enemies. The brute pondered what the Kig-Yar told him, then shook his head. He didn't bother keeping his rumble of a voice low, it wasn't made for quiet whispers in the dark, but roaring victories in the battlefield. "I don't think so. If the pirates had something as such, they would have made it well known to prevent attempts such as ours. They need the appearance of strength, otherwise their rivals or enemies will pounce on them and tear them apart." He gave a small grin. "Like we're about to do." He looked over at the two others of their 'task force'. "And they might be willing to sacrifice the marine, but not the Spartan. Not for an ex covenant matriarch. Still, we should be on guard. Something about this is strange."
He moved forward, behind the human that had been complaining about the presence of aliens. He wasn't going to hurt the man, yet. Just remind him of his place. "As for your complaint, human, it's simple. I could kill all of you without much effort in these close quarters. The Kig-Yar can outshoot any of you, even if he's forced to use your primitive rifles. We're better than you. Better warriors. Better survivors. If they sent your kind in there, you would all be butchered by the Kig-Yar and the matriarch would either be killed or left to rot for even longer. So they're sending us in to do what you cannot." He stared down at the man, waiting for the response. He wished the human would react violently. Show some spine before it was ripped out of his body.
Cassie-A313 February 21st, 2558 UNSC Fortitude South
"If you were really so superior, your Covenant wouldn't have lost the War." Cassie said with an icy edge to her voice, one compounded by the filtered distortion put upon it by her helmet.
"If I had to guess, this is a venture to make allies of other former Covenant species, similar to the alliance with the Sangheili following the Arbiter."
As they walked, she went through the options she had. With the limited forces they had, things needed to go quickly, they wouldn't have the manpower needed to secure the entire compound. That said, Zertus was unmistakably ill-suited for stealth. Brutes were not by nature unstealthy, as the apex predator species of their planet, they certainly had knowledge of the art of sneaking. During the Human-Covenant War, Brutes were known to use Active Camouflage technology and their own close range weapons to deadly effect. Societally, however, it was seen as cowardly, and it seemed Zertus followed much of his society in this belief.
She couldn't just send him blindly into the front lines, however, it would be suicide for him. Loathe though she was to admit it, she would have to split the forces she had. With her and Zertus assaulting from the front, the secondary entrance through the sewers would be much less defended, allowing Sgt, Greene and the Jackal to infiltrate and secure the Matriarch. Even then, she didn't like their odds.
"I'd like to requisition a Combat Team to assist on this mission. We'll need the extra support to extract the Matriarch..."
The marine who had made the rude mission of aliens being along for the ride instantly shut his mouth when the massive form of Zertus had spoken. The smell of fear came from both him and his comrade as they kept their fingers on the trigger of their assault rifles in case the brute decided to turn on them. However, they calmed themselves when the spartan had reprimanded the brute, though they didn’t know what to do when she had asked for a combat team. They looked at each other for a moment before they stopped and stood on either side of a doorway, a massive bulkhead opening up to allow the task force through.
“The spartan is asking for a combat team,” one of them said, speaking into a comlink. He looked at the other before nodding his head, his gaze then shifting to Cassie, “Sorry ma’am, Command doesn’t think a combat team will suit the mission, they don’t want to risk any more than they have to.”
His partner spoke then, in a more jovial tone. “However, they are willing to spare us as a fire team to assist in any way you need!” He was clearly younger and had not seen the fronts of the war, unknowing of the accuracy of Jackal snipers and the true bloodthirst of their kind. The other only shook his head before he barked some orders into his comlink for other members of the squad to meet in the hanger.
In the hanger one of the four pelicans was getting ready, a fueling line connected to the top of the pelican. Three people stood waiting before a surprising sight came from behind the pelican, the unmistakable triangle pack on the back of a small Unngoy. It said something to the humans before it noticed the four beings. In excitement, it ran up to the four and exclaimed in the annoyingly high-pitched voice of a grunt, “Ah, hello! It is good to finally meet the all of you! I am Slakslak, your personal technician! I won’t lie when the humans came to me and asked ‘Hey, how about you join us and repair things for a bunch of suicidal soldiers,’ I was all in!”
He waddled up to the Spartan armor and inspected it before saying, “Wow, Gen 2 armor!” He would have dotted on it more before he saw Zerus and excitedly ran up to the brute, almost fearless. “Look at that! True Jiralhanae power armor! They sure don’t make these like they used to!” He began to feel the armor, letting out a satisfied sigh.
While that was happening, a squad of four marines came up behind the group. “Ready when you are, Conglomerate,” the squad leader said.
Cassie-A313 February 21st, 2558 UNSC Fortitude SouthHanger
The yellow armored Spartan-III frowned again inside her helmet. A fire-team wasn't much, but it would give them a bit more to work with. She gave a slight nod to the younger Marine. "It'll do."
The...Unngoy was an unexpected arrival, and she wasn't really sure about his overeager nature, much less how she felt about him handling technical support. Cassie put the thoughts aside as she began to arm herself for the upcoming mission. She acknowledged the fire team with a curt nod as her HUD tagged them as Fireteam Foxtrot, four members. Led by a Corporal Darryl Hammond. She noted with a frown that two of them were PFCs. The third was a Lance Corporal.
She secured her M6H2, a cut down variant similar to Gunfighter class sidearms, to her thigh, held there by the powerful electromagnets embedded in her armor, and began checking her rifle, ensuring it was in working order by quickly field-stripping the custom M392 and inspecting it. A venerable rifle used by the UNSC before the introduction of the BR55, parts for it were difficult to acquire now which meant she had to do a little more maintanence. The scope had been removed and she used a larger magazine that had been designed for the M392, but had never seen wide use. Above the magazine well was a series of scratched in tally marks, one for every Jackal the weapon had personally put down. On the opposite side, near the ejection port, was carved a name: Felicia. She finally spoke up as she began to put the weapon back together and secure additional ammunition, as well as grenades.
"Fireteam Foxtrot, split into two groups, one group should be equipped for heavy frontline combat, the second should equip sound suppression on weapons and emphasize quick and quiet takedowns. Sergeant Greene, you should do the same. Kax, if you have any methods of silencing your weapons, I suggest you do so. Under the direction of Sergeant Greene, you will be going to the secondary entrance to the compound to secure the asset. Myself, Zertus, and the other two members of Foxtrot will be assaulting the main entrance to draw the enemy away from the secondary entrance and provide a distraction. We will designate my team as Team Alpha, and Sergeant Greene's team as Team Bravo. Team Bravo, you will be dropped first, to give you time to reach the secondary entrance located in the sewer system. Team Alpha will initiate contact and signal Bravo once defenses have been drawn away. Once that happens, Bravo will need to quickly breach the facility and locate the asset. Once you have the asset in tow, retreat back into the sewers and seal the entrance. We'll rendezvous at Bravo's initial drop point for pickup."
She looked around at the others, "If Bravo Team cannot secure the asset, Alpha will switch from distraction to full assault. Both teams will move through the compound and eliminate all hostiles in a pincer movement."
Cassie finished securing her ordinance and placed the rifle over her shoulder, where it was held by the magnetic strips across the rear of her armor's fusion pack.
Zertus shook his head at the Spartan's comments and following conversation with the Marines, lip curled. It would do no good to remind her that the Sangheili betrayal of the Covenant and subsequent murder of the Prophets was the reason her species was even still alive. Still, it rankled at him to let such an arrogant and foolish comment pass unchallenged. But if he challenged her, the humans might consider that a form of him breaking his part of the deal and back out of their agreement. That was something he could not allow to happen. The two marines going with them were going to be slaughtered if they got involved in a firefight with the pirates. He doubted that the cheerful one had even seen combat before. Biting his tongue, the Jiralhanae walked into the Hangar with the rest of the group and was met with the surprising sight of an Unggoy waddling as quickly as possible over to them and announcing itself as their personal technician. The humans want us to die. He decided. No one would seriously use an Unggoy for anything other than cannon fodder or menial labor.
Zertus' teeth gritted at the voice of the smaller being, the high-pitched tone grating on his already grated nerves. He looked down in blatant disdain as it touched his armor. "And what would an Unggoy know of power armor?" He sneered, moving forward past the smaller ex-covenant, not particularly caring if Slakslak was out of the way or not."
He waited for the Spartan to finish announcing her plan (as if she had any rights to command anyone), keeping silent. The humans were more likely to follow her than they were him, and he couldn't very well lead a separate group with just Kax and himself. He would have to wait until a few missions had passed before they realized that he was naturally more suited to leading in combat than anyone here. That, and how aggressively stupid the Spartan's plan was.
"If the pirates want to ransom the matriarch, it'd be easier for us to pretend to be paying the ransom than it would for four of us to create enough of a problem that most of the compound will be focusing on us. They out number us greatly, if you've forgotten, and Kig-yar are more than comfortable standing out of our range and out shooting us in both terms of accuracy and fire power. They're also greedy, however, and that is easily used to get us close to the Matriarch to secure her and then fight our way out before they can rally and gun us down."
Cassie-A313 February 21st, 2558 UNSC Fortitude South Hanger
Her head turned, the blank eyes of her helmet meeting the Brute's and holding there while he spoke.
And she had to concede that it was a potential solution to the problem.
But it didn't make it the right one, or even a feasible one given the circumstances.
The four of them, a Spartan, Brute, human, and Jackal, offering to buy the matriarch? The pirates would never buy it. It might be done were it just Cassie, Greene and the Marines, but such a strange group as theirs would rouse suspicion in even the most idiotic of pirates.
"It's true that if they were under the impression we were interested buyers, they might bring us to theme Matriarch. It's far more likely they'd bring us to a separate location to make the trade. We'd never see the Matriarch until we'd shown we were serious about buying. And even then, it's just as likely we'd be killed on the spot or simply led right out again with the Matriarch never crossing paths with us. Jackals are greedy, yes, but they aren't stupid. We don't have the luxury of subterfuge here.
If you want to try and swindle a gang of pirates I suggest you do it on your own time, in the meantime, I will do my very best to ensure you get to break a lot of frail hollow bones today and that your armor requires very little polishing when we return."
She held the gaze a few seconds longer, then turned her head back to the rest of the group.
"If there are no other questions, then I suggest you all get ready. We have a very exciting day ahead of us, and I'm eager to get started."
