They approached a dark red door and it immediately opened. They walked into a room similar to Sergeant Silas's but much larger, with more people at computers, and another room to the left of the giant screen. The Sergeant Major was talking to some commanders as they stood gesturing periodically to a large 3D map that appeared to be a model of the base, but he looked up as he heard the door open and the Sergeant and the Soldier I was watching walked in. He said a few things before leaving the table and walked over to them.
"Is this the soldier that identified the threat?" He asked.
"Yes Sir, the cadet eliminated the grunt and this soldier, sorry, officer controlled the situation in an effective manner and quickly sent out the alarm to warn the base of further threats." he stated.
"Step forward Officer." the Sergeant Major ordered. The Officer did as he asked, the view from his helmet rising slightly as he stood a little straighter in front of such a high ranking officer.
"Now you are going to tell me everything that happened, clearly and efficiently, and then you are going to lead the team we have ready to track down the other bombs."
The screen went up and down as he nodded, "Understood sir."
The Sergeant Major gestured for him to start and the Officer explained to them how he came across a cadet who had found the grunt trying to set off the bomb. He told them how I managed to eliminate it and that he found me just as I did so. He knew that grunts never traveled alone, ordered me to keep the other cadets in our quarters, and warned the rest of the base as he took a few other soldiers and the Sergeant.
As he finished, the Sergeant Major stood there thinking. "Well done Officer, what's your status?"
"Green sir." he answered.
"Good. We will reward you later but we need to act fast if we want to stop the Covenant before they do any more damage. There are definitely more grunts with bombs somewhere in the facility and we need to find them. They have most likely brought an Antimatter Charge as well so we need to make that the first priority." he said. "Lead a team of my marines to search this sector. I already have teams scouring the rest of the base and so far they haven't found the Antimatter Charge so it is probably close. Go, on the double, they may have already primed them."
"Understood sir." He said. The Sergeant Major waved a group of 15 soldiers to go with him and they took off running down the hall.
"Where is the nearest access point?" My person asked a young soldier to his right. He had to raise his voice over the deafening sound of boots hitting the metal floor in the hallway.
"Downstairs and to the left." The soldier answered.
"Ok, that's where we are headed. Everyone stay on guard, there could be Covenant around any corner." He warned.
They lifted their rifles from the slings on their backs as they ran and loaded them. The Officer grabbed one from a rack they passed. They ran down two flights of stairs and headed to their left through the gray metal hallway, slowing as they neared the access point. They had an experienced looking soldier, probably another officer, go in front of them to scout around the corner. He slowly looked around the corner and then drew back.
"This is worse than we thought," the soldier whispered. "There are a group of grunts and an elite carrying an Antimatter Charge into the center of the hangar."
Oh no! I thought. Those bombs were the size of a coffin and could destroy entire ships the size of the Pillar of Autumn and bigger. Which was way bigger than our entire facility. And there was an Elite, who were typically one of the Covenant commanders, smart, and taller than even a Spartan.
"They had a group of about 40 Covenant. What's your plan?" the soldier asked the Officer.
"I'm thinking that we spread out across the room, and when I give the signal, take them by surprise, killing all of the grunts first and taking out the Elite's shield. Then we'll take out the elite and disarm the charge." the Officer whispered. "Everyone agree?" He asked. They looked around and all nodded.
"Then move out." He ordered. They slowly filed into the room from the hallways and spread themselves around the edges. There was a big hangar door at one end where it dropped off after the opening.
There was a hallway-like passage with many openings circling the room and a few crates of things along the inside of the room. The soldiers snuck through the hallway-like passage, darting from pillar to pillar. The Elite was currently directing the grunts to place the bomb close to the opening to the hallway. He kept looking around for any human activity but failed to see the soldiers moving into their positions as the clumsy grunts managed to drop one side of the Antimatter Charge on the ground before it was in the place the Elite wanted it. He shouted in an alien language at them and they whimpered before continuing to move it.
I watched from the Helmet view as the soldiers crept around the room into place, someone even climbing slightly down the drop-off, out of view except for the very top of his head which he kept extremely still so he could still see the signal. When they were fully spread out, the soldier who talked to the Officer before signaled for their attention. Everyone got their rifles up, and a sniper across the opening to my person's right laid down and set up his sniper rifle, aiming for the middle grunt.
They were setting the bomb down now, preparing to prime it. The Officer watched as the soldier started a countdown with his fingers.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
3...2...1!
Immediately they sprung into action, firing from their positions at the covenant in the center of the room. My person did the same, the helmet view whipping back and forth as he moved from target to target. Immediately as they move into action, the grunt who was going to prime the bomb fell, dead. The outer grunts also fell. The Elite looked around, surprised, and started backing towards the bomb, ducking and telling the panicking grunts to shoot. The soldiers started moving closer to the bomb as the pillars became too shredded to act as substantial cover anymore, shards whistling around them. They darted behind the crates surrounding the edges of the room, popping out for a few moments at a time to shoot a few bullets and take out a grunt or two. However, the battle wasn't entirely one-sided. The soldier on the drop off fell to a well-placed plasma round to the head from the Elite's gun. Another soldier across the room fell as well, peppered with needles from one of the grunts. Purple and green plasma rounds whizzed past my person's head, dangerously close as he darted from cover to cover, sometimes taking down a grunt. I saw that there were only a few grunts left and despite a few losses, the soldiers now had the upper hand on numbers.
The Elite, seeing that they were losing, started to run for the Antimatter Charge, going for a last suicidal attempt at setting it off. The Officer's view swung towards the Elite as he turned his head and realized what it was going to do. He started running for the Elite but a stray needle must have gotten him in the leg because he cried out while he was running and his gait changed. Despite this, he still ran as fast as he could and jumped onto the Elite's back, shooting it repeatedly with his gun in the head. The Elite tried to shake him off as he drained it's shield and the Elite reached behind itself and grabbed him by the arm off his back, flinging him onto the ground with a Boom as he hit the metal floor. There was a loud, fast exhalation of breath as the Officer hit the ground and his breath was knocked out of him. He wheezed, trying to inhale with little success.
The Elite said something unintelligible and prepared to shoot him in the head. I gasped as I could see right down the barrel of the Alien weapon, the same thing the Officer was seeing.
The Elite pulled the trigger---but got shot in the chest right as he did so, jerking the weapon and shooting the Officer somewhere in his stomach instead. The Elite fell to the ground and a helmet appeared in my guy's view. The soldier who belonged to the helmet ripped off a piece of his shirt and pressed it down somewhere on my person's stomach. Soon more soldiers crowded around and someone shouted for a stretcher. A few soldiers slowly turned him onto it and he was lifted off the ground. Despite the care the soldiers took to keep the Officer still, we could hear him crying out in pain and whimpering as the soldiers moved him.
I looked away for a moment and noticed that my friends had been sitting there with their mouths open the entire time.
The Officer's view transitioned from the tall hangar ceiling to the shorted hallway lights as someone carried him down a hall. They came to a medical room, as we saw by a passing sign over head, and he was set down on what was presumably a table. Two doctors with medical suits on hovered over him and one took off his helmet. The camera turned and moved as the helmet was set on a table. We saw the doctors hovering over the soldier an we saw his wound, a big hole the size of a golf ball in his stomach. There was blood everywhere. His leg was also bloody, a glowing pink needle sticking out of the side. He cried out as the first one removed his shirt and groaned as the other took out the needle. A curtain was drawn across the room, blocking our view.
I said, "Well that's all we will see." and turned off the computer. My friends were silent.
"That's really war?" Selina asked, shocked.
"Yeah, didn't you guys pay attention in class?" I said, surprised.
"No." Scott said solemnly, just as shocked as Selina. Kade was the only one not relatively surprised.
"Well that was just a small fight, war is much worse if you think this was bad." I said.
I didn't like the killing but I wasn't going to regret it if I had to kill or be disgusted by it either. If it had to be done, or I was ordered to, then it had to be done. I would follow orders as I was trained to.
"You better get back to your quarters before they find out you aren't in them." I said.
They snapped out of the daze and Kade said, "Yeah, come one, before we get caught." to the others. They peeked out the door to see if the coast was clear before running off to their quarters. I shook my head, they really gotta get better at paying attention in class I thought. The teacher had touched briefly on the reality of war, but they obviously weren't listening at the time. I was about to look out my door to see if I could tell what was going to happen next but the intercom came on. The automated voice said Please go on with your schedules. Sections Bravo-7 and Delta-3 are currently on lock-down.
I went back to the computer and looked at the time. 1400 hours! I'm going to be late for Aug-prep! Man, we have to worry about this stuff while whole wars are going on and our facility was just attacked? I shook my head.
Then I ran out the door, barely avoiding running into an officer as I did so, and yelling "Sorry!" behind me.
I bolted down a flight of stairs at the end of the barracks hallway and turned right at the bottom. The yellow striped classes hallway was packed with students so I had to slow down. After weaving through a few feet of people, I turned right at the end and walked into my Aug-prep. There were a few adults in there and they stared at me as I came into the small, green room. I ducked my head down so people could see over me and made my way towards the back, sitting in the last row. The teacher looked up and, seeing that everyone was there, got up. He was of Mexican ethnicity and had curly black-ish hair with a few gray strands here and there. His curly hair brought out the best of his dark brown eyes and bright smile.
"Welcome to Augmentation Preparation class. All of you in here I assume know that you will be receiving Augmentations within the next two years. Am I correct?" He asked
There was a chorus of yes's and a nodding of heads.
"This class is to help you know what you are getting yourself into. You will learn the different procedures and what each one does." he said.
I was actually looking forward to this class. This was stuff no one in my age group would know until they were 18 at the least. The teacher started handing out notepads, lingering a bit at my desk, a confused look on his face, but then he seemed to shake it off and move on.
"First we will start with what you know. Who knows which augmentations were the most successful?"
I raised my hand.
"Yes, you there in the back."
Everyone looked at me. "The Spartan ll's, the group the Master Chief is in." I said confidently. "That's correct, and do you know why?" He asked. "Because they were children and children's bodies are more adaptable." I said. "That is once again correct. Unfortunately, they were part of an illegal operation so children are no longer used." he said.
"First we are going to watch a video of the first portion of the first augmentation which is the Carbide Ceramic Ossification procedure." he finished, sitting down and starting the video.