Halo Spec-ops: Unknown Heroes

Chapter 2

We all sat in our seats inside the pelican as the door started to close. We were all silent all you could hear was the sound of creaking metaland engines. When the door shut the red light turned green signifying that the pelican was taking off. The 'Silent Joe' would wait for us in high orbit for 36 hours.  After that it will assume we failed our mission and drop all 15 of its HAVOK 2550 nukes, an older less destructive variant of the one I am carrying, from low orbit onto the target to hopefully destroy the covenant refuelling base and their ships there.

The Pelican shook furiously as we entered the atmosphere of the planet. High winds shook and hit the walls but we were quickly descending onto the drop off location. The captain stood up and barked at themen, "Alright men. Helmets on! The atmosphere outside has 18% oxygen, 15% carbon dioxide and 32% of the atmosphere is methane gas meaning we can't breathe it, that is why your helmets were equipped with a special rebreather that filters out carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane, also the grunts will likely have their masks off and they bite so don't let them get too close." The men put their helmets on and readied their weapons. The pilot radioed my com and said "We will be deploying in ten seconds." The men stood and faced the door ready to hop out the pelican onto the ground.

The door dropped onto the ground and the ODSTs deployed. The mission had begun. "We are to head North east from here until we get to the edge of a cliff. We are then to set up two snipers 25 feet away from each other to get a good overall view of the base.  As soon as me or Esmeralda spot the Prophet we are to notify the other and one willshoot the battery powering the chair and the other is to kill the target.  After we will proceed towards the base and plant the bomb directly in the middle to cause the most destruction. Got it?" I shouted.

"Yes sir" they all simultaneously replied. We began to head north east to our objective in a fast march. We would arrive there within 30 minutes at this pace which was good as the covenant fleet had arrived. You could see 15 CPV-class heavy destroyers descend towards the ground followed by 5 CCS-class battle cruisers and finally the flag ship, a CAS-class assault carrier. You could tell from the scorch marks that they had been fighting UNSC ships. This fleet had probably lost 5 CPV-class heavy destroyers and 3 CCS-class battlecruisers but at what cost to the UNSC is unknown to us. Either way the sight of even a few of these ships is enough to strike fear into the heart of any man. It was reassuring knowing that we had at least damaged these monsters in their relentless onslaught and they had to retreat back from wherever they engaged us.

The yellow and blue plants that had covered the red grass ground had gone away. Disappeared and replaced with a hard black rock formation which we had to make our way through and on the other side would be our sniper spot. The tunnel was pitch black and without a light source you couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of you. Luckily for me my augmentations made it so I could see 30 feet in front of us so I took the lead as the ODSTs followed behind. The tunnel was only half a mile long yet it felt rather ominous as if someone or something was watching us as we crept through the ever dark tunnel.

Sam noted that "I swear to god we are not alone in here, there's something watching us."

Bud jokingly replied, "Aww is the little man afraid of the dark?"

"Shut the hell up asshole. Listen did anyone else hear that?" Sam replied with a serious tone, there was a slight sound of foot steps it could have been some sort of rat or small dog type creature but I could see nothing in front of us. I gripped my assault rifle just in case we were about to be ambushed yet nothing came out of the darkness.

We finally reached the exit and were greeted by daylight and the sight of a small covenant fleet hovering menacingly above the planet's surface. We weren't far away now I signalled for Esmeralda to bring the Snipers up to the front and to set up on the ledge. I also noticed a green ooze on Private Sam's shoulder. He mustn't have noticed it due to wearing his armour but I had no time to think of it Esmeralda and I lay on the ground roughly 25 feet apart and looked down our scopes scouting the base out and searching for our target amongst the sea of grunts, brutes and elites. We waited patiently fortwo long hours until our target finally came out of hiding.

We could both see him now we just needed to get a clear shot on him and his power chair which protected him. We waited and waited but the clear shot wasn't coming. He was now approaching the gravity lift into the flag ship it was now or never. We could not allow him to escape we needed to demoralize and disrupt the covenant forces so we could plant the nuke and escape. But then suddenly, without warning,with no time to think about or react to what just happened, one of the elite honour guards was stripped of his uniform by a brute and kicked to the ground. What the hell was happening. But then he looked directly at us. Did he know we were here this whole time? He then activated his energy sword and stabbed the back of the prophet's chair which deactivated it and he fell to the floor with a thud. This was it. I squeezed the handle and trigger after focusing on the prophet's rugby ball shaped head and my bullet guided itself to his head and he was no more.

We watched as the Brute swung down on this elite whom he had just shamed and the elite's head exploded. I guess the brutes feel shame too as they failed to protect the prophet just seconds after becoming his guards. The elite got one over on him and as a sign of respect I aimed at the brute but before I could take a shot another elite had rallied his brothers and they struck down the brute with their energy swords; two impaling his chest and the third sliced off his head. No doubt the elites and brutes were about to start fighting each other, I could use this situation to our advantage.

Esmeralda and I looked to the others and I explained what had happened. "This is so unusual but an excellent situation for us this infighting will definitely give us the advantage when sneaking into the base."Captain Joshua said to me with slight enthusiasm in his voice. I looked at him and said, "You're missing the bigger picture here."Bud stood up to me and shouted, "What the hell do you mean!"

"Calm down Bud. The Spartan didn't mean anything by it, but please do enlighten us on what you're thinking exactly." Joshua had managed to reign in the 6foot 3inches man.

"Well,if the elites and the brutes are infighting here maybe they are throughout the covenant from what ONI has gathered they have never really got along with each other and maybe now the fractures are starting to show and break apart. This could give humanity a chance to push the covenant back from earth if we allied with the Sangheili and their forces against the rest of the covenant." They all looked back in awe I could see a slight glimmer of hope in their eyes through their visors. "But let's not get distracted now. We have a mission to complete here. And only thirty-three and a half hours to complete it. Now move out!" with that we grabbed the gear we'd need and headed towards the base we could hear plasma fire and shouting and explosions. But I still had this weird feeling that we were being watched by something far more menacing and malicious than the covenant. Something we could not foresee was waiting for the right moment and I was sure that whatever it was had already begun to attack we just couldn't see it.

As we approached the base a thin layer of fog covered the ground like a blanket of murky grey which was slowly looking more green. Could it be that? But if it is we are in for more than we bargained for. We must destroy these ships before it has the chance to escape the planet. Our secondary mission just took priority even over our own lives. We could not allow this to reach Earth or we would surely become extinct.

We arrived at the base doors; they had been breached open. But why? A misplaced grenade or accident? Or that other thing, which from the files I read from the ONI database, I hope to god is not the case. Either way there was no going back now we had to destroy this place.Today.