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Description
CH21
Opposing Force- The Burning Dawn…
UCAF Date: 2525/1/5
11:30
Location: Prodigal/ Haven System/ Academy Grounds
Camaro and Chester were unsure of what to make of their situation, the ONI operative technically outranked both of them and with emergency command being enforced for all high priority objectives the UCAF had initiated emergency commands for all ONI operatives. The emergency command meant that the marines had no choice but to take commands from Aaron regardless of the situation due to the crisis at hand, and the sensitive knowledge that the ONI agent possessed.
Aaron may not have seemed like a stereotype like those that the UCAF media portrayed as secret mongering psychos, but Aaron had a very different air about him, like he had secrets to hold that were shrouded by this familiar persona. He addressed the squad soon enough.
"Well lieutenant, what it is?"
Chester asked.
"What exactly is the objective that you're trying to attain?"
Aaron replied with a reclusive smirk.
"Well that is beyond your pay grade Lieutenant, the item that you will be required to find is a cylinder like object 40 centimetres in length with a diameter of 10 and is coated in iridium casings which are nigh unbreakable."
Chester could put 2 and 2 together.
"So it is an ONI black box?"
"Possibly, you only need to know that it is located at the ONI base 3 clicks from here, it is located in the main server of ONI operations, however the facility is under heavy fire and communications was lost some time ago, so be expected to run into hostiles." Aaron advised.
Chester felt like smacking the smile off of the ONI agent's face, but he restrained himself and got the message to follow orders no matter how bad they may seem. It was technically an emergency and that meant that this operation had priority. He got back to the squad; Camaro was concerned about their priorities.
"Sir we aren't actually going to allow for this are we? We're supposed to be protecting the colony, not hunting some fucking archive that these guys can't even purge." Camaro asked.
"Great so, we're actually going with this jackass?" Kyle commented lazily.
Jamie shrugged and checked his rifle barrel as the marines waited for the lieutenant prepared to make his decision.
"Corporal, if it wasn't for the fact that we're now at war, I'd have agreed with you, but the responsibility falls to us, we need to make sure that these things don't get their hands on the records."
The marines nodded and agreed, they had the responsibility, and the ONI records had to be recovered. The marines got their gear together again; they were going to move out. Aaron smiled as Chester went back to him.
"So you've agreed?"
"Yes sir, I do want to know though, how is this black box going to be extracted?" Chester asked.
"Simple, pelican gunships will come down to help move the archives; I shall be on the one to recover the core, to ensure that it is authentic and undamaged." Aaron replied.
Chester nodded and got back to the squad.
"Move out, Camaro take point."
The squad went out from the cover of the UCAF academy rushing down from the flights of stairs to the street below. The covenant hadn't returned, the squad continued on from their direction to the ONI complex, it was as the agent had said 3 clicks from the base; it hadn't been hard to see considering that the ONI complex was the only pyramid shaped building around with a separate spire constructed nearby.
The marines negated the surrounding combat zone to reach the ONI complex, however the marines had a feeling that they weren't alone. Shepard kept his ears open to listen for movement, but when they heard it they couldn't find out if the sound was coming from around the corner, the combat zone was wrecking hell on their hearing not to mention that their motion sensors hadn't been the most reliable ever made.
The team passed through another intersection about a hundred or so meters to the bridge of the complex, the ONI made sure to build a sort of moat around each complex, to ensure that they had a source of direct water not to mention that anyone who had to swim wouldn't make it very far. The security and marine forces at the base would be able to fend off any attacks that might be thrown at the facility; however it seems that ONI failed to test this on aliens.
The marines reached the main doors through a drive way to the bridge, they entered into the tunnel, and then Jamie halted them, he motioned with his hands that there were enemies ahead. The rest of the squad got into the sides of the wall and took cover behind some cars, Jamie jumped off into the darkness of a tunnel maintenance hatch and into the depths of the tunnel.
Shepard was keep his eyes trained on the tunnel, it was then that he and the others could hear talking; it was a garble of babble that the marines couldn't understand. They waited for the sounds to get closer, but then the sounds stopped abruptly and then screaming. It took moments before shots and a thud of bodies.
Shepard kept his eyes out as someone came over the other end, Jamie held the corpse of an agile looking alien, and he dropped the body and headed on and motioned for the squad to hurry up. The squad caught up with the specialist. Shepard couldn't help but feel suddenly nervous around the marine; the sight he left behind was a gruesome one.
The bodies of a dozen stubby aliens and their counter parts were lying in pools of blood, a few of which had missing heads and arms. Jamie quietly walked on searching for more targets, the marines kept themselves close behind making sure to keep their eyes out for anything. But with Jamie at the front they doubted that they'd have to look for much.
The troops kept on with moving through the tunnel until they reached the end, Jamie opened the door and followed them through to the road where the ONI Bridge connected. The sight was intimidating, the large cube obelisk stood out on its small island, it was obsidian black. The structure ran up roughly a few hundred meters, the marines were going to have to search for the damn core inside that thing.
They hurried over to the toll booth where the automated system ID them for access, it was on lockdown which the tech marine of the squad a young fellow named Andre got to work, he hacked the doors open for the squad. They proceeded over the bridge and towards the ONI complex, but as they approached, Camaro halted them as they reached the main entrance.
"Jamie, can you scout the area?" He asked.
The young marine nodded and vanished over a wall, in moments they got back his live feed.
"There are 5 dropships, 2 armoured vehicles, and I count at least a dozen squad clusters." Jamie whispered.
Sargent Camaro swore loudly and asked.
"Do you see any other approach to the facility?"
"None sir, I can't see anything besides the front entrance, I'd advise a frontal assault once I plant explosives onto the enemy armour. Afterwards a straight forward attack should be sufficient as long as the dropships don't remain." Jamie replied.
Camaro looked to Chester. The LT thought it through, he knew that they had come this far, and they had to go on further, that or they planned an alternate means of getting through, but with the aliens being here now, they had no choice the core was either going in their hands or remain in the UCAF control.
The LT addressed Jamie.
"Jamie go through with the explosives, place them on 1 minute charges, I need you to get ahead of the covenant. We're going to take the covenant while you get inside and extract that core."
"Understood sir, going in." The specialist replied.
The LT brought up his rifle and ordered the squad.
"Camaro take point, Shepard flank with Kyle once we get in, you two will be moving ahead to get to Jamie. We'll come around with the rest of the squad once we've dealt with the hostiles."
Kyle nodded and Shepard acknowledged. But an uneasy feeling remained in Shepard's mind; he felt that he knew what was coming, as the squad pushed down the stairs; they waited for the explosions from the placed charges. The unknown vehicles which were tagged were blown in a fireball of HE, the marines rushed into the courtyard of the ONI complex.
They found they were at the rear lines of the aliens advance to the ONI complex and they were caught off guard, up until the marines began to mow them down with their combined fire. Kyle and Shepard began their advance to the left of the battle; their target was the left side of the many marble flights of steps. They hit the stairs and headed on up, Kyle lagged behind by a few steps but the marines seemed more active now that they were rushing.
Shepard checked his sights as they headed up, the aliens were heading down and weren't bothered to keep their eyes on everything. He and Kyle slipped by the aliens to the ONI front doors, the entrance had been under lockdown, but the aliens had blown them open earlier, they jumped down into the now open doors.
They entered into the lobby, where they found the first aliens, their bodies had been stacked on top of each other as they had made a suicidal attack upon a UCAF marine team which had positioned a 50cal Vulcan in waiting, the team had been overwhelmed eventually by sheer number and detonated a high explosive device.
Ignoring the corpses of the fallen marines Shepard and Kyle found the lift to the lower levels, they entered into the lift and Shepard hit the button downwards, exactly to the level that agent Aaron had pointed out to them. The lift descended quickly, however as they descended they found that there was not lighting.
The ONI ops never liked much lighting, Shepard wasn't too worried, but the lights usually helped when they needed to find their targets, also their eye pieces were easily visible to anyone so it would come as a danger when trying to engage in dark enclosed spaces. They arrived at the level, it was dimly lit, and it wasn't because of the emergency lighting.
The area was covered in a low blue lighting, you could just make out the corners, but it was still hard to see, they proceeded to go deeper into the facility, the core was located in a room about 30 meters to their right. As they got closer they could hear movement, they paused as they suddenly heard the voice of an alien, it was high pitched and rather annoyed or frightened, it was hard to tell considering that the voices were so high.
The voices got closer and Shepard and Kyle switched their eye pieces off, they watched as a patrol of aliens passed, half a dozen stubby aliens walked on passing the marines without noticing. Shepard checked his TAC pad and found the way; the objective was in the opposite direction of where the aliens had come from.
He moved ahead with Kyle trailing close behind, they reached the end of the corridor where they found the next obstacle, it was a set of doors, Kyle got to the door and pulled the control box next to it open, he began to rig it to his own TAC pad and soon the doors opened. They got inside; Kyle locked the door behind them.
The room was equally dark like that of the outside, but at least it had a central light in the middle. The core was supposed to be down 3 flights of stairs to the last level of this spiral room. Shepard peered over from his position to look down and found what they were after, it was a circular object down at the bottom of the floor, and it had a few aliens nearby it.
He looked for others, 6 squads of alien patrols were going around, and he knew that this was going to be a fight to get the core with the aliens knowing that they were here. He pulled his silenced M5 custom out, Kyle removed a shotgun attachment and added it to his AR and loaded the external weapon attachment.
The marines both carefully tread as they went down the stairs, the dim lighting was playing hell on their depth of perception, but it wasn't playing hell on their hearing. The aliens weren't that far away from the stairs as they went down carefully, Shepard could hear the sounds of chatter. There were a number of them chattering without thinking.
Shepard prepared, he rounded the side of the stairs and saw 7 aliens, 3 were skinny, 4 stubby, and he deduced their names essentially to their bodies. He fired in quick succession with his silenced pistol and dropped them where they stood. Kyle didn't even have a chance to fire his shotgun attachment when Shepard splayed them over the ground.
Mute surprise from the corporal was all that Shepard received as they continued on; Shepard kept his eyes out for more movement and his ears open for the sounds of the chatter, as they reached the next stairwell, Shepard noticed something and got into cover. Kyle followed him into the shadows next to the stairwell and waited.
Rather loud footsteps came over as a skinny avian popped in looking around the room. Shepard pulled a bullet from a mag and tossed it over the room, the sound of the soft ping made the alien turn away from the two marines; Shepard brought himself around and shoved a knife into the throat of the alien. The avian like creature garbled softly as it choked on its own blood and died.
Shepard removed the knife and dragged the corpse of the alien into the shadows. He got his pistol back out and followed down the stairs keeping his eyes out for the movement of any more aliens. The two reached the bottom of the stairs and found that there were no other hostiles in visible sight, they continued on the level, until he found their hostiles.
4 hostiles, 2 with shields and another 2 with what looked like night-vision goggles; Shepard kept his head below a table that was facing the aliens, he made sure to get Kyle in position, they couldn't avoid a loud contact. Shepard motioned with his hand 4 seconds and then all hell broke loose.
The marines jumped from their position, Shepard dispatched the 2 visor using aliens and Kyle sprayed the other shield wielding aliens with a burst of fire from his shotgun attachment on his AR. The aliens fell under the fire, and the noise was enough to startle practically every alien on the last floor down.
Shepard primed a frag and tossed it down the edge of the wall to the last floor. There was an audible thud as the explosion blew apart those on the last floor, Shepard moved in with Kyle as they raced down the flights of stairs to meet the hostiles. They made it down the stairs and faced… absolutely nothing.
The aliens on the last floor were dead; the grenade couldn't possibly have killed them all could it? Shepard then noticed the long shadow from the centre of the room; he could see the figure of Jamie pulling the core out of the centre. Shepard and Kyle approached the specialist and asked.
"Where the hell did you come from?"
Jamie pointed up and Shepard noticed that there was a level above the main floor, it lead even higher, it looked like a maintenance port for the lights. Jamie hitched the cables from above to the core and motioned for Shepard and Kyle to do likewise. As sounds of angered aliens came knocking on the doors nearby from their position, Shepard clicked the cable on easy with Kyle.
Jamie hit something on his belt and suddenly all of them were heading up to the maintenance level, downstairs the aliens finally entered and began to fire at the marines as they escaped. Shepard pulled himself into the hatch with Kyle as they narrowly avoided the energy fire from the aliens; they found themselves now in a rather interesting predicament.
Time was running out, and now that the aliens knew that they were present in the building. Things were going to get hot. The marines hurried with Kyle hefting the core on his back, they exited the room into the corridor. Jamie took point guiding them through the levels to the lifts, he got them to them and in, and then they were on their way to the roof, exactly where the extraction was to take place.
As the lift ascended, Shepard noticed that Jamie was tensing. Jamie's face was screwed up in concentration as he listened for something. Shepard honestly thought it was probably nothing, but if Jamie was looking down and listening out, it was smart to make sure of the same thing, Shepard stuck his head out and listened in as well, all he could hear was the hum of the mag-lift nothing else.
But then again, what was strange was that the mag-lift shouldn't even be humming… Shepard stuck his head over the side of the lift to see where the humming noise was coming from; he spotted movement, a lot of movement. He pulled out his Mattock and got to work picking off whatever was chasing the lift upwards.
He fired in short bursts as the things began to catch up; he noticed the visible lines and shapes on their bodies glowing, he thought it was rather stupid to have glowing targets on their bodies. 'Why didn't they just post, 'please shoot me' on their backs instead?' He thought to himself.
He fired another burst and dropped another 2 more fliers; Jamie used his pistol while Kyle used his rifle to blast a few of them to hell, the marines kept the bugs down until they reached the top level. Shepard exited first with Kyle and then Jamie, the bird was set to arrive in a few minutes, as they reached the pad outside. They heard something that didn't sound like a pelican gunship.
The turned to look upwards, 2 alien gunships were on approach; they fired at the marines and dropped a dozen aliens down, each sporting a sort of jetpack. The jumpers landed on the pad and began to fire at the marines; Shepard ducked under the closest bit of cover he could see. Jamie vanished in a blast and Kyle ducked under a vent near his own position.
The large burly aliens weren't like that of the other aliens; these seemed brutish in a sense, large and brutish. Shepard popped from cover and let off a burst from his AR and damaged the armour on one, but the others quickly scattered and began to pin him and Kyle. It was then that one brute suddenly went flying through the air.
Jamie had rammed a blade into the pack and sent the brute through a wall, he moved faster than Shepard had ever seen a human move. Jamie seemed to play tag with the aliens, they fired at him and he fired knives back. A brute chased the marine until he ran up a wall and summersaulted onto its back, he rammed 2 serrated blades through its neck and dropped it right there. Jamie dropped the corpse and vanished under a vent when the brutes concentrated their fire at him.
Shepard took the distraction and fired into the pack of another brute and sent the alien's jetpack haywire as it exploded. Kyle blew another brute apart in close combat as the brute attempted to rush him. Sadly for the streak of kills the marines were still outnumbered and outgunned. The brutes turned back to their primary targets and began to fire on Shepard and Kyle in concentrated bursts; they weren't going to waste any more time.
It was then that Shepard heard something.
"Yippy Kay-yay mother fuckers!"
Mira's Falcon gunship appeared and unleashed 2 mounted heavy machine gun barrels on the brutes and the marines aboard fired with their rifles and grenades. The brutes were caught in the heavy burst of fire and were mowed down in a firestorm of attacks. Shepard and Kyle moved away as fast as they could once the brutes went down.
Jamie appeared out of nowhere and followed up behind Shepard. Mira put the falcon as close as she could to the landing platform and the marines yelled for Shepard and Kyle to hurry up. The marines jumped in and Mira took off, the falcon ascended from the ONI building with speed as a sudden explosion erupted from the base and collapsed the structure.
Shepard and Kyle looked at Jamie with confusion. But their thoughts were interrupted as LT Chester addressed them.
"Good damn work marines, we might have just saved a few hundred colonies. We'll be leaving the combat zone soon enough, is the package secure?" Chester asked.
"Yes sir, but I thought that ONI prick said he'd be coming to evac the core?" Shepard asked.
"Let's just say that he had some delays, he'll be coming to retrieve it from the ship once we've landed, either than that. We're bugging out." Chester replied.
Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Sir we're abandoning the colony?"
"Yes." He replied rather downtrodden.
Shepard then saw the heavy flashes of light come streaking down from the skies; it was a beautiful display of firepower and raw force coming down in droves. He couldn't help feeling cheated though, those people who they could have helped. But the many outweigh the few right?
XXXXX
UCAF Date: 2525/2/21
6 weeks later…
The UCAF had been rolling back, ever since the battle on Prodigal and Haven, it's been a nightmare, the covenant push was astounding, their forces called into something that they call a crusade, pushed into the depths of the UCAF space by roughly 250 light years in less than 2 months, the UCAF forces had been on full defence afterwards and had just held the covenant back at bay. Colonies across UCAF space had to be abandoned with many being left behind and others left to fight, it was a gruelling war.
Shepard had been on the front line with the recon task force for the whole engagement and had seen enough in his short time to know that this was getting nowhere. The marines were being called in however for a special mission, one that wasn't going to require them to deal with more covenant than the rest of the UCAF forces.
A UCAF outpost in the Nu Arizona Strata went quiet about 1 day before and it was now up to them to go and recover the information that the scientists had been working on, and also to search for the info on the covenant that the science team might have found. But Shepard knew that the eggheads there weren't just for research, they were development for new weapons and tech.
The marines were going in first to search the Black Mesa Research Complex, the largest of the other 4 operating stations in the system. Black Mesa was supposedly going into quantum transmission theories and development of quantum FTL communications; it wasn't hard to figure out that they were critical.
Kyle and Jamie were on a pelican this time, the marines weren't going to be able to deploy in the atmosphere. Mira had transferred to pelican duties much to her dismay, but she found that it wouldn't be fair to leave her favourite team hanging with some dumbass who didn't know how to dodge like she could.
But then again, Shepard remembered when she dodged one time that he flew through the front window of a shop and had to cut the line inside of a building. He still couldn't imagine how she managed to screw up a simple drop in the middle of a street. Once he buckled up and sat down next to new found friends, Camaro and Chester arrived with the rest of the squad and sat down in their own seats.
Shepard felt right at home in here, Mira called over the line humming something.
"We're green for go, hang on boys; we're in for a bumpy ride!"
The gunships jerked downwards and then moved to the planet at best speeds; Mira headed the pack formation as they hit the atmosphere and descended to the planet below. Shepard held his mattock next to his leg as he flipped through the contents of his journal and made his last entry and sealed it at the ship, he'd call it something nice one day, if anyone would read of the soldiers of the 81st recon.
The gunships hit the atmosphere at velocity and slowed as they reached the airspace above the Black Mesa complex. Mira was scanning for any activity, she found nothing, but there was no response from the UCAF research outpost, they knew that this was probably the only response, which either meant that everyone was asleep or they were dead.
The pelican hit rough winds as they entered into a stormy region, the airspace above the site was rough tonight, and the monsoon like rainfall would be hitting the region in droves thanks to the tropical climate of the entire world. The gunship hit the waypoint marker as it reached visual range of the base.
Shepard peeled out from his seat and went to check at the back of the gunship, he could see the facility somewhat, it was glowing dimly in the heavy rain, but you could still make out the ground below. Mira alerted the marines.
"Hang on boys we've got some chops, we'll be hitting the ground in 30 seconds."
Chester gave them their orders again.
"Remember marines, we're now in a hostile zone. HIGH COM ordered it free fire, as the base had gone quiet, but do not assume anything, anything that isn't human kill it, any personnel alive must be detained for extraction. More importantly John Rosenberg, Daniel Tenos, Gordon Freeman, and Alec Marikov are our main objectives; they function as the heads of this research facility and must be located."
They nodded, Mira hit the hatch release and the marines jumped into the rain. The landing pad was here, but hard to see, they kept their eyes out for targets around them, there were no contacts and Shepard moved along with the other members of the squad down the level. They kept their eyes peeled for any movement from the area.
As they reached another platform just before the entrance, Shepard noticed something, the cameras on the walls of the facility were gone, and the lights were destroyed or damaged. Jamie then halted them. The marines were just outside the doors to the main complex, Jamie sniffed the air.
"What is it?" Camaro asked.
"Gas, methane, ethane, combinations of fumes, plasma…" He replied.
The marines knew what that meant, and of course the covenant also knew what it meant. The marines ducked under shipping crates and scattered cargo containers as fire suddenly burst from above and in front of them. Shepard could tell that this was something the covenant had been planning for some time.
The gunfire was continuous, Shepard brought his mattock around and fired a dozen bursts and blew apart the gunners on the top of the roof. He then sprinted across the field with Kyle and Jamie; they rushed the guns at the front with ease and mowed the covenant down. Chester and the others caught up and waited as Kyle breached the doors.
Once they slid open, Chester paused as he heard something over the coms. He then halted Shepard and the others.
"There's been new orders issued to you Shepard, team 8 just commented that they found a scientist who found records that our target Freeman is in the area, he's on lambda complex, 2 levels down, we're the closest to his position, but we can't all go after him."
"Sir you want us to extract him by ourselves?" Shepard asked.
"That's all that's going to be required Shepard, it shouldn't be a hard task, he's one scientist. The man can be found travelling to the centre facility at lambda; you can reach him by taking some of the lifts down and making the rest of the way on foot." Chester answered.
Shepard felt that something wasn't right here, but he acknowledged and followed the new objective, he and Jamie and Kyle took their leave and followed their target through the map given. They entered the second lobby to the main complex, it was much more cramped, but it was easy to see things in front of them.
They travelled onwards to their target; they went around a lot of shortcuts and almost no bodies. The facility of lambda was almost completely empty. They reached another section where they found the bodies of a few dozen covenant troops mangled by whatever had come through. This was a strange sight, there wasn't that many things that could do to a whole force of covenant troops.
They continued on and found a bridge where it connected to the rest of the facility, they were just near the core, and Jamie got to work and ripped open the door to an airlock and opened it up. They passed into another room where they found plenty of munitions and what looked like prototype guns, Shepard would have loved to stay and look at them, but the target was moving erratically on his scanner.
It was then that the lights began to shudder and dim, and then the lights turned back on as the whole station began to shake. Shepard wondered.
'What the hell are these people doing?'
They entered into a final airlock this time with reinforced doors; Shepard hit the switch with his UCAF override code and opened the doors wide enough for them to watch as their target a 23 year old Gordon Freeman ran into a swirling portal of blue in an orange UCAF hazard MKIII suit. The marines watched as the portal collapsed as it closed, they rushed in completely surprised at what just happened.
"Where, what?" Kyle exclaimed.
It was then that they looked over at a command console and found their other target, a brown haired Rosenberg put his hands up and said.
"Don't shoot I'm part of the science team."
Shepard and the marines secured their target, but what was bugging him was that there was a giant 3 pronged spire in the facility which seemed to work as a FTL teleporter. What the hell was going on? The marine let the others take Rosenberg back through to the lobby while Shepard remained there to secure the room.
Shepard couldn't tell, but it seemed as if the machine that he was looking at was alive or not, it seemed emanate a glow that he couldn't quite shake. He moved carefully and looked down at a console where a cluster of glowing lights blinked and changed; he pressed his finger on one and suddenly felt something.
"YoU MusT Not LET ThEm TaKE IT!" A voice screamed in his head.
He staggered about suddenly with his vision blurry; he then felt a shudder and jolt as something passed through him. He looked down and found that there was a smouldering hole in his torso, he turned about with whatever energy he had left and saw him. Aaron pointed his modified M6 and said.
"Sorry corporal, nothing personal."
There were 2 more shots and Shepard fell to the ground, his eyepiece screamed out emergency. But he would die, knowing the truth.
XXXXX
Sadly I had to cut this short due to the amount of spoilers that would be involved for the Freeman arc if it was to come into play, as G Freeman and the others of Black Mesa were to tell their stories, don't worry Freeman will be coming in the aftermath of another arc. For now just know that there are many secrets within the UCAF and this was one of them.
Aaron is evil who'd have thought it?

Description
CH21
Opposing Force- The Burning Dawn…
UCAF Date: 2525/1/5
11:30
Location: Prodigal/ Haven System/ Academy Grounds
Camaro and Chester were unsure of what to make of their situation, the ONI operative technically outranked both of them and with emergency command being enforced for all high priority objectives the UCAF had initiated emergency commands for all ONI operatives. The emergency command meant that the marines had no choice but to take commands from Aaron regardless of the situation due to the crisis at hand, and the sensitive knowledge that the ONI agent possessed.
Aaron may not have seemed like a stereotype like those that the UCAF media portrayed as secret mongering psychos, but Aaron had a very different air about him, like he had secrets to hold that were shrouded by this familiar persona. He addressed the squad soon enough.
"Well lieutenant, what it is?"
Chester asked.
"What exactly is the objective that you're trying to attain?"
Aaron replied with a reclusive smirk.
"Well that is beyond your pay grade Lieutenant, the item that you will be required to find is a cylinder like object 40 centimetres in length with a diameter of 10 and is coated in iridium casings which are nigh unbreakable."
Chester could put 2 and 2 together.
"So it is an ONI black box?"
"Possibly, you only need to know that it is located at the ONI base 3 clicks from here, it is located in the main server of ONI operations, however the facility is under heavy fire and communications was lost some time ago, so be expected to run into hostiles." Aaron advised.
Chester felt like smacking the smile off of the ONI agent's face, but he restrained himself and got the message to follow orders no matter how bad they may seem. It was technically an emergency and that meant that this operation had priority. He got back to the squad; Camaro was concerned about their priorities.
"Sir we aren't actually going to allow for this are we? We're supposed to be protecting the colony, not hunting some fucking archive that these guys can't even purge." Camaro asked.
"Great so, we're actually going with this jackass?" Kyle commented lazily.
Jamie shrugged and checked his rifle barrel as the marines waited for the lieutenant prepared to make his decision.
"Corporal, if it wasn't for the fact that we're now at war, I'd have agreed with you, but the responsibility falls to us, we need to make sure that these things don't get their hands on the records."
The marines nodded and agreed, they had the responsibility, and the ONI records had to be recovered. The marines got their gear together again; they were going to move out. Aaron smiled as Chester went back to him.
"So you've agreed?"
"Yes sir, I do want to know though, how is this black box going to be extracted?" Chester asked.
"Simple, pelican gunships will come down to help move the archives; I shall be on the one to recover the core, to ensure that it is authentic and undamaged." Aaron replied.
Chester nodded and got back to the squad.
"Move out, Camaro take point."
The squad went out from the cover of the UCAF academy rushing down from the flights of stairs to the street below. The covenant hadn't returned, the squad continued on from their direction to the ONI complex, it was as the agent had said 3 clicks from the base; it hadn't been hard to see considering that the ONI complex was the only pyramid shaped building around with a separate spire constructed nearby.
The marines negated the surrounding combat zone to reach the ONI complex, however the marines had a feeling that they weren't alone. Shepard kept his ears open to listen for movement, but when they heard it they couldn't find out if the sound was coming from around the corner, the combat zone was wrecking hell on their hearing not to mention that their motion sensors hadn't been the most reliable ever made.
The team passed through another intersection about a hundred or so meters to the bridge of the complex, the ONI made sure to build a sort of moat around each complex, to ensure that they had a source of direct water not to mention that anyone who had to swim wouldn't make it very far. The security and marine forces at the base would be able to fend off any attacks that might be thrown at the facility; however it seems that ONI failed to test this on aliens.
The marines reached the main doors through a drive way to the bridge, they entered into the tunnel, and then Jamie halted them, he motioned with his hands that there were enemies ahead. The rest of the squad got into the sides of the wall and took cover behind some cars, Jamie jumped off into the darkness of a tunnel maintenance hatch and into the depths of the tunnel.
Shepard was keep his eyes trained on the tunnel, it was then that he and the others could hear talking; it was a garble of babble that the marines couldn't understand. They waited for the sounds to get closer, but then the sounds stopped abruptly and then screaming. It took moments before shots and a thud of bodies.
Shepard kept his eyes out as someone came over the other end, Jamie held the corpse of an agile looking alien, and he dropped the body and headed on and motioned for the squad to hurry up. The squad caught up with the specialist. Shepard couldn't help but feel suddenly nervous around the marine; the sight he left behind was a gruesome one.
The bodies of a dozen stubby aliens and their counter parts were lying in pools of blood, a few of which had missing heads and arms. Jamie quietly walked on searching for more targets, the marines kept themselves close behind making sure to keep their eyes out for anything. But with Jamie at the front they doubted that they'd have to look for much.
The troops kept on with moving through the tunnel until they reached the end, Jamie opened the door and followed them through to the road where the ONI Bridge connected. The sight was intimidating, the large cube obelisk stood out on its small island, it was obsidian black. The structure ran up roughly a few hundred meters, the marines were going to have to search for the damn core inside that thing.
They hurried over to the toll booth where the automated system ID them for access, it was on lockdown which the tech marine of the squad a young fellow named Andre got to work, he hacked the doors open for the squad. They proceeded over the bridge and towards the ONI complex, but as they approached, Camaro halted them as they reached the main entrance.
"Jamie, can you scout the area?" He asked.
The young marine nodded and vanished over a wall, in moments they got back his live feed.
"There are 5 dropships, 2 armoured vehicles, and I count at least a dozen squad clusters." Jamie whispered.
Sargent Camaro swore loudly and asked.
"Do you see any other approach to the facility?"
"None sir, I can't see anything besides the front entrance, I'd advise a frontal assault once I plant explosives onto the enemy armour. Afterwards a straight forward attack should be sufficient as long as the dropships don't remain." Jamie replied.
Camaro looked to Chester. The LT thought it through, he knew that they had come this far, and they had to go on further, that or they planned an alternate means of getting through, but with the aliens being here now, they had no choice the core was either going in their hands or remain in the UCAF control.
The LT addressed Jamie.
"Jamie go through with the explosives, place them on 1 minute charges, I need you to get ahead of the covenant. We're going to take the covenant while you get inside and extract that core."
"Understood sir, going in." The specialist replied.
The LT brought up his rifle and ordered the squad.
"Camaro take point, Shepard flank with Kyle once we get in, you two will be moving ahead to get to Jamie. We'll come around with the rest of the squad once we've dealt with the hostiles."
Kyle nodded and Shepard acknowledged. But an uneasy feeling remained in Shepard's mind; he felt that he knew what was coming, as the squad pushed down the stairs; they waited for the explosions from the placed charges. The unknown vehicles which were tagged were blown in a fireball of HE, the marines rushed into the courtyard of the ONI complex.
They found they were at the rear lines of the aliens advance to the ONI complex and they were caught off guard, up until the marines began to mow them down with their combined fire. Kyle and Shepard began their advance to the left of the battle; their target was the left side of the many marble flights of steps. They hit the stairs and headed on up, Kyle lagged behind by a few steps but the marines seemed more active now that they were rushing.
Shepard checked his sights as they headed up, the aliens were heading down and weren't bothered to keep their eyes on everything. He and Kyle slipped by the aliens to the ONI front doors, the entrance had been under lockdown, but the aliens had blown them open earlier, they jumped down into the now open doors.
They entered into the lobby, where they found the first aliens, their bodies had been stacked on top of each other as they had made a suicidal attack upon a UCAF marine team which had positioned a 50cal Vulcan in waiting, the team had been overwhelmed eventually by sheer number and detonated a high explosive device.
Ignoring the corpses of the fallen marines Shepard and Kyle found the lift to the lower levels, they entered into the lift and Shepard hit the button downwards, exactly to the level that agent Aaron had pointed out to them. The lift descended quickly, however as they descended they found that there was not lighting.
The ONI ops never liked much lighting, Shepard wasn't too worried, but the lights usually helped when they needed to find their targets, also their eye pieces were easily visible to anyone so it would come as a danger when trying to engage in dark enclosed spaces. They arrived at the level, it was dimly lit, and it wasn't because of the emergency lighting.
The area was covered in a low blue lighting, you could just make out the corners, but it was still hard to see, they proceeded to go deeper into the facility, the core was located in a room about 30 meters to their right. As they got closer they could hear movement, they paused as they suddenly heard the voice of an alien, it was high pitched and rather annoyed or frightened, it was hard to tell considering that the voices were so high.
The voices got closer and Shepard and Kyle switched their eye pieces off, they watched as a patrol of aliens passed, half a dozen stubby aliens walked on passing the marines without noticing. Shepard checked his TAC pad and found the way; the objective was in the opposite direction of where the aliens had come from.
He moved ahead with Kyle trailing close behind, they reached the end of the corridor where they found the next obstacle, it was a set of doors, Kyle got to the door and pulled the control box next to it open, he began to rig it to his own TAC pad and soon the doors opened. They got inside; Kyle locked the door behind them.
The room was equally dark like that of the outside, but at least it had a central light in the middle. The core was supposed to be down 3 flights of stairs to the last level of this spiral room. Shepard peered over from his position to look down and found what they were after, it was a circular object down at the bottom of the floor, and it had a few aliens nearby it.
He looked for others, 6 squads of alien patrols were going around, and he knew that this was going to be a fight to get the core with the aliens knowing that they were here. He pulled his silenced M5 custom out, Kyle removed a shotgun attachment and added it to his AR and loaded the external weapon attachment.
The marines both carefully tread as they went down the stairs, the dim lighting was playing hell on their depth of perception, but it wasn't playing hell on their hearing. The aliens weren't that far away from the stairs as they went down carefully, Shepard could hear the sounds of chatter. There were a number of them chattering without thinking.
Shepard prepared, he rounded the side of the stairs and saw 7 aliens, 3 were skinny, 4 stubby, and he deduced their names essentially to their bodies. He fired in quick succession with his silenced pistol and dropped them where they stood. Kyle didn't even have a chance to fire his shotgun attachment when Shepard splayed them over the ground.
Mute surprise from the corporal was all that Shepard received as they continued on; Shepard kept his eyes out for more movement and his ears open for the sounds of the chatter, as they reached the next stairwell, Shepard noticed something and got into cover. Kyle followed him into the shadows next to the stairwell and waited.
Rather loud footsteps came over as a skinny avian popped in looking around the room. Shepard pulled a bullet from a mag and tossed it over the room, the sound of the soft ping made the alien turn away from the two marines; Shepard brought himself around and shoved a knife into the throat of the alien. The avian like creature garbled softly as it choked on its own blood and died.
Shepard removed the knife and dragged the corpse of the alien into the shadows. He got his pistol back out and followed down the stairs keeping his eyes out for the movement of any more aliens. The two reached the bottom of the stairs and found that there were no other hostiles in visible sight, they continued on the level, until he found their hostiles.
4 hostiles, 2 with shields and another 2 with what looked like night-vision goggles; Shepard kept his head below a table that was facing the aliens, he made sure to get Kyle in position, they couldn't avoid a loud contact. Shepard motioned with his hand 4 seconds and then all hell broke loose.
The marines jumped from their position, Shepard dispatched the 2 visor using aliens and Kyle sprayed the other shield wielding aliens with a burst of fire from his shotgun attachment on his AR. The aliens fell under the fire, and the noise was enough to startle practically every alien on the last floor down.
Shepard primed a frag and tossed it down the edge of the wall to the last floor. There was an audible thud as the explosion blew apart those on the last floor, Shepard moved in with Kyle as they raced down the flights of stairs to meet the hostiles. They made it down the stairs and faced… absolutely nothing.
The aliens on the last floor were dead; the grenade couldn't possibly have killed them all could it? Shepard then noticed the long shadow from the centre of the room; he could see the figure of Jamie pulling the core out of the centre. Shepard and Kyle approached the specialist and asked.
"Where the hell did you come from?"
Jamie pointed up and Shepard noticed that there was a level above the main floor, it lead even higher, it looked like a maintenance port for the lights. Jamie hitched the cables from above to the core and motioned for Shepard and Kyle to do likewise. As sounds of angered aliens came knocking on the doors nearby from their position, Shepard clicked the cable on easy with Kyle.
Jamie hit something on his belt and suddenly all of them were heading up to the maintenance level, downstairs the aliens finally entered and began to fire at the marines as they escaped. Shepard pulled himself into the hatch with Kyle as they narrowly avoided the energy fire from the aliens; they found themselves now in a rather interesting predicament.
Time was running out, and now that the aliens knew that they were present in the building. Things were going to get hot. The marines hurried with Kyle hefting the core on his back, they exited the room into the corridor. Jamie took point guiding them through the levels to the lifts, he got them to them and in, and then they were on their way to the roof, exactly where the extraction was to take place.
As the lift ascended, Shepard noticed that Jamie was tensing. Jamie's face was screwed up in concentration as he listened for something. Shepard honestly thought it was probably nothing, but if Jamie was looking down and listening out, it was smart to make sure of the same thing, Shepard stuck his head out and listened in as well, all he could hear was the hum of the mag-lift nothing else.
But then again, what was strange was that the mag-lift shouldn't even be humming… Shepard stuck his head over the side of the lift to see where the humming noise was coming from; he spotted movement, a lot of movement. He pulled out his Mattock and got to work picking off whatever was chasing the lift upwards.
He fired in short bursts as the things began to catch up; he noticed the visible lines and shapes on their bodies glowing, he thought it was rather stupid to have glowing targets on their bodies. 'Why didn't they just post, 'please shoot me' on their backs instead?' He thought to himself.
He fired another burst and dropped another 2 more fliers; Jamie used his pistol while Kyle used his rifle to blast a few of them to hell, the marines kept the bugs down until they reached the top level. Shepard exited first with Kyle and then Jamie, the bird was set to arrive in a few minutes, as they reached the pad outside. They heard something that didn't sound like a pelican gunship.
The turned to look upwards, 2 alien gunships were on approach; they fired at the marines and dropped a dozen aliens down, each sporting a sort of jetpack. The jumpers landed on the pad and began to fire at the marines; Shepard ducked under the closest bit of cover he could see. Jamie vanished in a blast and Kyle ducked under a vent near his own position.
The large burly aliens weren't like that of the other aliens; these seemed brutish in a sense, large and brutish. Shepard popped from cover and let off a burst from his AR and damaged the armour on one, but the others quickly scattered and began to pin him and Kyle. It was then that one brute suddenly went flying through the air.
Jamie had rammed a blade into the pack and sent the brute through a wall, he moved faster than Shepard had ever seen a human move. Jamie seemed to play tag with the aliens, they fired at him and he fired knives back. A brute chased the marine until he ran up a wall and summersaulted onto its back, he rammed 2 serrated blades through its neck and dropped it right there. Jamie dropped the corpse and vanished under a vent when the brutes concentrated their fire at him.
Shepard took the distraction and fired into the pack of another brute and sent the alien's jetpack haywire as it exploded. Kyle blew another brute apart in close combat as the brute attempted to rush him. Sadly for the streak of kills the marines were still outnumbered and outgunned. The brutes turned back to their primary targets and began to fire on Shepard and Kyle in concentrated bursts; they weren't going to waste any more time.
It was then that Shepard heard something.
"Yippy Kay-yay mother fuckers!"
Mira's Falcon gunship appeared and unleashed 2 mounted heavy machine gun barrels on the brutes and the marines aboard fired with their rifles and grenades. The brutes were caught in the heavy burst of fire and were mowed down in a firestorm of attacks. Shepard and Kyle moved away as fast as they could once the brutes went down.
Jamie appeared out of nowhere and followed up behind Shepard. Mira put the falcon as close as she could to the landing platform and the marines yelled for Shepard and Kyle to hurry up. The marines jumped in and Mira took off, the falcon ascended from the ONI building with speed as a sudden explosion erupted from the base and collapsed the structure.
Shepard and Kyle looked at Jamie with confusion. But their thoughts were interrupted as LT Chester addressed them.
"Good damn work marines, we might have just saved a few hundred colonies. We'll be leaving the combat zone soon enough, is the package secure?" Chester asked.
"Yes sir, but I thought that ONI prick said he'd be coming to evac the core?" Shepard asked.
"Let's just say that he had some delays, he'll be coming to retrieve it from the ship once we've landed, either than that. We're bugging out." Chester replied.
Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Sir we're abandoning the colony?"
"Yes." He replied rather downtrodden.
Shepard then saw the heavy flashes of light come streaking down from the skies; it was a beautiful display of firepower and raw force coming down in droves. He couldn't help feeling cheated though, those people who they could have helped. But the many outweigh the few right?
XXXXX
UCAF Date: 2525/2/21
6 weeks later…
The UCAF had been rolling back, ever since the battle on Prodigal and Haven, it's been a nightmare, the covenant push was astounding, their forces called into something that they call a crusade, pushed into the depths of the UCAF space by roughly 250 light years in less than 2 months, the UCAF forces had been on full defence afterwards and had just held the covenant back at bay. Colonies across UCAF space had to be abandoned with many being left behind and others left to fight, it was a gruelling war.
Shepard had been on the front line with the recon task force for the whole engagement and had seen enough in his short time to know that this was getting nowhere. The marines were being called in however for a special mission, one that wasn't going to require them to deal with more covenant than the rest of the UCAF forces.
A UCAF outpost in the Nu Arizona Strata went quiet about 1 day before and it was now up to them to go and recover the information that the scientists had been working on, and also to search for the info on the covenant that the science team might have found. But Shepard knew that the eggheads there weren't just for research, they were development for new weapons and tech.
The marines were going in first to search the Black Mesa Research Complex, the largest of the other 4 operating stations in the system. Black Mesa was supposedly going into quantum transmission theories and development of quantum FTL communications; it wasn't hard to figure out that they were critical.
Kyle and Jamie were on a pelican this time, the marines weren't going to be able to deploy in the atmosphere. Mira had transferred to pelican duties much to her dismay, but she found that it wouldn't be fair to leave her favourite team hanging with some dumbass who didn't know how to dodge like she could.
But then again, Shepard remembered when she dodged one time that he flew through the front window of a shop and had to cut the line inside of a building. He still couldn't imagine how she managed to screw up a simple drop in the middle of a street. Once he buckled up and sat down next to new found friends, Camaro and Chester arrived with the rest of the squad and sat down in their own seats.
Shepard felt right at home in here, Mira called over the line humming something.
"We're green for go, hang on boys; we're in for a bumpy ride!"
The gunships jerked downwards and then moved to the planet at best speeds; Mira headed the pack formation as they hit the atmosphere and descended to the planet below. Shepard held his mattock next to his leg as he flipped through the contents of his journal and made his last entry and sealed it at the ship, he'd call it something nice one day, if anyone would read of the soldiers of the 81st recon.
The gunships hit the atmosphere at velocity and slowed as they reached the airspace above the Black Mesa complex. Mira was scanning for any activity, she found nothing, but there was no response from the UCAF research outpost, they knew that this was probably the only response, which either meant that everyone was asleep or they were dead.
The pelican hit rough winds as they entered into a stormy region, the airspace above the site was rough tonight, and the monsoon like rainfall would be hitting the region in droves thanks to the tropical climate of the entire world. The gunship hit the waypoint marker as it reached visual range of the base.
Shepard peeled out from his seat and went to check at the back of the gunship, he could see the facility somewhat, it was glowing dimly in the heavy rain, but you could still make out the ground below. Mira alerted the marines.
"Hang on boys we've got some chops, we'll be hitting the ground in 30 seconds."
Chester gave them their orders again.
"Remember marines, we're now in a hostile zone. HIGH COM ordered it free fire, as the base had gone quiet, but do not assume anything, anything that isn't human kill it, any personnel alive must be detained for extraction. More importantly John Rosenberg, Daniel Tenos, Gordon Freeman, and Alec Marikov are our main objectives; they function as the heads of this research facility and must be located."
They nodded, Mira hit the hatch release and the marines jumped into the rain. The landing pad was here, but hard to see, they kept their eyes out for targets around them, there were no contacts and Shepard moved along with the other members of the squad down the level. They kept their eyes peeled for any movement from the area.
As they reached another platform just before the entrance, Shepard noticed something, the cameras on the walls of the facility were gone, and the lights were destroyed or damaged. Jamie then halted them. The marines were just outside the doors to the main complex, Jamie sniffed the air.
"What is it?" Camaro asked.
"Gas, methane, ethane, combinations of fumes, plasma…" He replied.
The marines knew what that meant, and of course the covenant also knew what it meant. The marines ducked under shipping crates and scattered cargo containers as fire suddenly burst from above and in front of them. Shepard could tell that this was something the covenant had been planning for some time.
The gunfire was continuous, Shepard brought his mattock around and fired a dozen bursts and blew apart the gunners on the top of the roof. He then sprinted across the field with Kyle and Jamie; they rushed the guns at the front with ease and mowed the covenant down. Chester and the others caught up and waited as Kyle breached the doors.
Once they slid open, Chester paused as he heard something over the coms. He then halted Shepard and the others.
"There's been new orders issued to you Shepard, team 8 just commented that they found a scientist who found records that our target Freeman is in the area, he's on lambda complex, 2 levels down, we're the closest to his position, but we can't all go after him."
"Sir you want us to extract him by ourselves?" Shepard asked.
"That's all that's going to be required Shepard, it shouldn't be a hard task, he's one scientist. The man can be found travelling to the centre facility at lambda; you can reach him by taking some of the lifts down and making the rest of the way on foot." Chester answered.
Shepard felt that something wasn't right here, but he acknowledged and followed the new objective, he and Jamie and Kyle took their leave and followed their target through the map given. They entered the second lobby to the main complex, it was much more cramped, but it was easy to see things in front of them.
They travelled onwards to their target; they went around a lot of shortcuts and almost no bodies. The facility of lambda was almost completely empty. They reached another section where they found the bodies of a few dozen covenant troops mangled by whatever had come through. This was a strange sight, there wasn't that many things that could do to a whole force of covenant troops.
They continued on and found a bridge where it connected to the rest of the facility, they were just near the core, and Jamie got to work and ripped open the door to an airlock and opened it up. They passed into another room where they found plenty of munitions and what looked like prototype guns, Shepard would have loved to stay and look at them, but the target was moving erratically on his scanner.
It was then that the lights began to shudder and dim, and then the lights turned back on as the whole station began to shake. Shepard wondered.
'What the hell are these people doing?'
They entered into a final airlock this time with reinforced doors; Shepard hit the switch with his UCAF override code and opened the doors wide enough for them to watch as their target a 23 year old Gordon Freeman ran into a swirling portal of blue in an orange UCAF hazard MKIII suit. The marines watched as the portal collapsed as it closed, they rushed in completely surprised at what just happened.
"Where, what?" Kyle exclaimed.
It was then that they looked over at a command console and found their other target, a brown haired Rosenberg put his hands up and said.
"Don't shoot I'm part of the science team."
Shepard and the marines secured their target, but what was bugging him was that there was a giant 3 pronged spire in the facility which seemed to work as a FTL teleporter. What the hell was going on? The marine let the others take Rosenberg back through to the lobby while Shepard remained there to secure the room.
Shepard couldn't tell, but it seemed as if the machine that he was looking at was alive or not, it seemed emanate a glow that he couldn't quite shake. He moved carefully and looked down at a console where a cluster of glowing lights blinked and changed; he pressed his finger on one and suddenly felt something.
"YoU MusT Not LET ThEm TaKE IT!" A voice screamed in his head.
He staggered about suddenly with his vision blurry; he then felt a shudder and jolt as something passed through him. He looked down and found that there was a smouldering hole in his torso, he turned about with whatever energy he had left and saw him. Aaron pointed his modified M6 and said.
"Sorry corporal, nothing personal."
There were 2 more shots and Shepard fell to the ground, his eyepiece screamed out emergency. But he would die, knowing the truth.
XXXXX
Sadly I had to cut this short due to the amount of spoilers that would be involved for the Freeman arc if it was to come into play, as G Freeman and the others of Black Mesa were to tell their stories, don't worry Freeman will be coming in the aftermath of another arc. For now just know that there are many secrets within the UCAF and this was one of them.
Aaron is evil who'd have thought it?