//------------------------------// // Siege of Vadam // Story: A Rarity of a soldier // by Lon35hadow //------------------------------// “What’s the status of Vadam?” Jacob asked, the group in a Phantom on its way to the city, as he held a Storm rifle “Holding,” Ruso replied, Plasma rifle in hand. “The Servants have artillery on a hill overlooking the city, and a handful of ships outside the combat zone; I assume holding for the order to provide support. There’s fighting in the city itself, and Arbiter’s forces are outnumbered.” “What are we targeting, then?” Bishop asked, Carbine held in her right hand. “Regardless of their class, the ships are too much to fully destroy with just our group,” Sawn said. “But if they’re anything up to the equivalent of a human cruiser, I can think of a few creative ways to cripple them.” “Like what?” Tony asked. “A grenade positioned just right in the engine room,” the Jackal replied. “Is it just Sangheili, or do they have Unggoy?” “A few spotted Unggoy, but mainly Sangheili,” Ruso replied. “Ignoring that, those ships are their highest weaponry. They won’t let just anyone on.” “What if we caused a distraction?” Josh asked over the radio as he rode on top of the Phantom. “Hit their camp Guerrilla style?” “We could use it to locate the leader of the Servants,” Hades remarked. “Kill him, even, if he’s there.” “He’ll most likely be protected by the best fighters of the Servants, not to mention his own combat skills,” Sawn replied. “What if we use second distraction?” Pawas asked. “Make defenders believe we attack from false direction?” “Might work,” Patrick said. “Unless he’s an idiot, that is.” “I volunteer for the distraction,” Josh said. “But I’ll need a team.” “Can’t be me and Pawas,” Sawn said. “We’ll have to take out the ships, and we won’t be able to bring anyone with us.” “You’ll likely need a pilot for a dropship,” Ruso said. “I’ll go with Josh, then,” Hades said, a Brute shot strapped to his back, a Mauler on his right thigh and Spiker in his hand. “He may need the firepower.” “Guess we’ll guard our dropship, then,” Jacob said. “I’ll go with Sawn and Pawas,” Nightmare said. “Mental manipulation may be needed for up to date access codes.” Jacob nodded. “Understood. You know your assignment, people.” “Sir, permission to hot drop?” Josh asked. Jacob facepalmed. “No, Josh. We need subtlety.” “Subtlety hit the vacuum the second you let me wear this into the field.” With a sigh, Jacob said, “Fine. Just don’t get to crazy.” “Right,” Josh replied before the Phantom lurched suddenly to one side, indicating something had pushed off the upper hull. “Pilot, bring us close to the Servant’s camp, and keep the engines ready!” Ruso shouted into the cockpit. “Understood, Zealot,” the pilot replied, and the Phantom descended. A few minutes later, the Phantom’s troop doors opened up, and the squad filed out. “Ships are in this direction,” Ruso said. “If Josh is doing his job, they will be on alert for more forces at their base than the ships.” With that, the squad split up for their assigned tasks. Hades and Twilight made their way towards numerous explosions, an obvious indicator of Josh’s status. “You go from the front, I go behind?” Hades asked. “Affirmative,” Twilight replied before grabbing her twin Needlers and activating her suit’s shields. As they got closer, Hades split and went to the left to circle around. There were no actual guards to stop Twilight, only empty turret stands. It wasn’t like that for long, as she came across a small group of Sangheili that rushed past her towards the south of the camp. They promptly had their spines and spinal cords blown up by Needler shards, and fell to the ground, one having his torso completely blown in half. As she got closer to the southern edge of the camp, she began hearing the sound of a minigun firing, and even saw a Sangheili flying above her, torn in two. She came across Josh in the middle of a group of Servant forces outside what she assumed to be an armory. He had the minigun arm raised and pointed skyward, and his right fist up and close to his armored body. There were three Sangheili in front of him, energy swords drawn. Twilight took a step forward, preparing to run to help Josh, when one of the Elites charged. He tried to stab Josh, who sidestepped the strike, and punched the Sangheili into the ground with enough force to break the spine and have its back fold in on itself. The second one charged as his comrade's corpse settled, attempting an overhead slice, only for his arm to get caught in Josh's armored hand, which closed on the forearm, resulting in the arm shattering. The Sangheili had but a moment to consider this, however, as Josh then punched him into the last Sangheili, who just barely avoided the body, but still lost his sword when the corpse his his right side. The blade deactivated, the hilt flew to where it landed in front of Josh, who just looked down at it. His attention was then grabbed by the last Sangheili, who staggered up, and the two looked at each other. Having been around Sangheili long enough to read even their seemingly stoic expressions, Twilight saw fear in the eyes, and fully expected Josh to shoot him. For as much as she learned about humans, she had known many would take every advantage in combat, even if they had won. She was surprised, then, when Josh picked the Energy sword hilt up, and tossed it to its owner. As it landed in front of the Sangheili, he looked down at it at surprise, then at Josh, confusion in his eyes, only to see Josh step aside, allowing a path out of here. As the two stared at each other, Josh spoke to Twilight on their comms. "Get a translation spell going." Twilight was surprised to the point she didn't question this, and did so. "Get out of here," Josh told the Sangheili. "We both know who would win between us right now." he used his minigun hand to usher away from the camp. "Leave, and I'll forget you were here. You can tell your family and superiors you fought to the last, but were knocked out, and thus spared by the gods." The Sangheili nodded, picked up his energy sword, and went to leave. Just before he left, though, he said, "Chak ne, rfu besin, shudinsa. Chae no vosan." With that, he left. Twilight walked up to Josh. "What did he say?" Josh asked. "What?" Twilight asked, surprised. "I cast the translation spell!" "Maybe your mind was broken to the point it didn't work?" Josh suggested. "Seriously, though, what did he say?" "Literal or approximate?" "Don't care." "Approximately, he said 'Next we meet, the gods will demand I aid you, warrior. After that, fate will decide'," Twilight translated. "Huh," Josh said. "Well, we got someone to kill. Come on." With that, Josh marched in deeper into the camp, opposite the direction the Sangheili left. "Josh, Twilight, Hades, come in, this is Jacob," Jacob said a few gore filled minutes later, the corpses of Sangheili behind the armored human and pony. "This is Josh. I'm with Twilight." "And this is Hades. What is it, Jacob?" the Jiralhanae asked, an explosion being heard a split second later. "Just got word from our pilot, who got word from the Arbiter on full broadcast for his forces and allies. Heavy shit just arrived in orbit." "How heavy?" Josh asked. "Six kilometers and five hundred centimeters of Titanium plating, heavy, if my guess is right." "That gives me an idea. Any chance we can use the Phantom to get a message groundside up there?" Josh asked. "Yeah. Why? And why do I feel I should be somewhat scared." "Just get it ready." A few more minutes passed, Josh and Twilight killing any enemies they came across that tried to stop them. "Done," Jacob said. "Better get it done quick, Josh." "Acknowledged," Josh said. "Twi, cover me." Twilight nodded. "Right." Josh then activated the suit radio. "Attention friendly ship in orbit. This is Lieutenant Miller of Diamondback squad. Do you read?" "This is Infinity," a female voice replied. "We read you, Lieutenant. What are you doing down there?" "Leave gone wrong," Josh replied. "Myself and two teammates have infiltrated the enemy camp outside of Vadam in an attempt to kill the enemy leader, but we believe he will escape before we can reach him. Requesting orbital support to take him out." "Do you have confirmation on the target's location being the camp?" Josh bit down for a second, unsure what to say before he switched comm channels. "Jacob, have any craft been seen leaving the camp since we got here?" "No," Jacob replied. "'Kay, thanks," Josh said. "Infinity, confirm the target is in camp. Requesting orbital support on my position, circle a kilometer. Three minutes needed to get out." "Understood, Lieutenant. Targeting your current location." Josh nodded. "Twilight, we got three minutes to get out of here before this camp turns into hell." The lavender alicorn nodded. "Right," she said before lighting her horn, and teleporting into the air to see the entire base. Upon seeing an area where there was a firefight, she teleported there, and found Hades using a Sangheili as a living shield as he shot the warriors comrades. "Hades, we got three minutes." The green furred Jiralhane nodded before snapping the neck of his captive. A second later, the two reappeared next to Josh. "We could leave now," Twilight said. "Reduce the risk to ourselves. A camp this size would take a while to fully search for three people, regardless of their appearance." "But we'd probably be risking them getting their leader out of here before boom," Josh replied. "Hit and run. Make sure they stay interested in us until thirty seconds left, then we get the fuck out of here." "Obviously, both have their risks," Hades said, "but I agree with Josh. If we leave now, they may suspect something." "And if our actions result in Telcam leaving before the strike hits?" Twilight asked. "Then at least we remove the immediate threat," Hades said coldly. Josh was about to reply before Sawn came on over the team's radio. "Hit the dirt, people. We're about to get an earthquake!" A few seconds later, the ground shook as a large explosion was heard, and a purple cloud rose up a few miles away. "Then again, it seems he's losing various escape methods." Under the helmet, Josh let out a maniacal grin. "Let's have some fun, then."