“Noble Team suit up. We’re gone in 5.” Carter’s voice echoed over the comms channel. Jorge slowly got up from his spot in the makeshift armoury, pulling Jun up with him. Emile sheathed his kukri, slipping the curved blade carefully into its holster. Kat kicked him as she walked by, prompting the Spartan to finally rise from his seat. Tailing the rest of his team, Emile closed the door behind him.
Jorge came to a halt a few metres out from the armoury. Pulling up beside him, Kat noticed why he’d stopped. She spoke into her radio. “Noble 1, new blood’s arrived.”
On the other side of the camp, Carter stepped out from the communications hub. “Registered. Get in a Falcon with Four and Five, I’ll take Three and Six. We’re heading out.”
Kat eyed the new member with slight suspicion. She’d seen his files, or at least, what wasn’t censored. Which didn’t leave a lot. His skills were unarguably needed, but Kat wasn’t sure if Noble was the right team for him. We’ll see in time.
As for Carter, he was more on the fence. It was no secret that Noble team needed not just a sixth Spartan, but this Spartan. At the same time, he almost wanted to leave the role unfilled after what had happened to Thomas. He trusted Six as a soldier, as a Spartan, but not as a Noble member. Not yet.
Jorge planted himself down in the seat of the Falcon, rocking the small helicopter with his weight. Emile stopped by his new squadmate, giving him a quick once over from behind his helmet. With lightning speed, he drew his knife from its holster and pressed it against the Spartans neck. Matching Four’s speed, the recruit had the barrel of his pistol jammed firmly into the bottom of Emile’s helmet within milliseconds of his assault.
Emitting a half-grunt-half-chuckle, he withdrew his knife carefully and stuck it firmly back in its sheath. In response, Six placed his own weapon back in his belt, albeit at a slower speed. Carter yelled at the two from his spot in the second ship. “Emile! You’ll have time to show off later but right now you get your ass in that Falcon you hear me?”
“Aye aye Sir. Just testing our new friend here.”
Giving the spartan an affectionate double-punch to the chest, Emile took his own place in the seat next to Kat. Both falcons were now loaded with three spartans each, and promptly began their flight. Rotors spinning and jets whirring, the tandem-helicopters lifted off from their pads on the ground.
Once in the air, the Spartans’ comms channels were immediately set to private. Jorge was the first to speak. “So, are we allowed to know what exactly’s going on right now? With all due respect sir, you don’t just fly a team of Spartans around for fun.”
“I’m afraid the big man’s right. One thing I hate more than being assigned a stupid mission is not knowing the damn mission.” Emile’s voice was tinged with a slightly larger amount of anger than usual.
“I understand.” Carter kept his voice calm. “The Colonel lost transmissions from the Visegrád Relay, wants us to go check it out. We’re gonna move in, subdue any Insurrectionist activity we find and repair that relay.”
“And why are you telling us this only now? Why not back at camp?” Jun piped in, his mind only half preoccupied with checking his ammo reserves. “It’s just a routine Rebel sweep after all.”
“That might not be the case.” Carter sighs.
“For gods sake man just get to the point.” Jorge cut in. “What did they hear that made them deploy Spartans. What’s got Command so nervous?”
“Rebel activity was reported to be incredibly low in this sector of Reach, if existent at all. The Relay was relatively well guarded and the technology too advanced for a distance-hack.”
“So the Covenant are involved.” Six nonchalantly concluded Carter’s explanation.
“That’s what we’re there to find out. There’ve been numerous reports describing humanoid creatures roaming abandoned structures, usually in teams. They’re organised, and they’re looking for something.”
The Falcons cut through the clouds, wisps of air swirling around the rotors and drifting into the wind. A small bump rocked Six in his seat. Carter noted an incoming message on the comms channel, private from the rest of the squad. From Kat.
“If these search teams manage to send a message back to the Covenant fleet, then they’re bringing everything they’ve got. There’s only one thing they could be looking for, and if I’m right in my suspicions they will find it; Reach isn’t going to last long when they do.”
“Then we stop them now before they can get a foothold on this planet. Pilot, what’s our ETA?”
The marine sitting in the cockpit hesitated. “Uh I- I can’t say sir. We’re picking up some strange signals, they’re interfering with the navigation. I’ve lost the coordinates and fog’s pretty dense. Hard to see through.”
“Can you find us a safe place to land? If you can’t fly through this then we gotta get there on foot.” “I’ll do my best Sir.”
“That’s all I need Soldier. Jun, you gonna be good on foot?”
“Carter, I’m more Spartan than Sniper. I’ll find a perch once we get there.”
Jorge chuckled deeply. “Little birdie’s gotta have his nest.”
The recon specialist propped his sniper against the Falcon’s inner wall. “Well, not everyone’s built like a giant Jorge. I’m surprised your shoulders haven’t fallen off, lugging that damn gun everywhere.”
“What can I say? Those who survived Halsey’s, um, training, managed to do so for a reason. You lot were taught tactical formations, we got physical augmentations. I was bred to be a living tank.”
“Makes it all the easier for an enemy sniper to take you out.”
“If we ever come across one, I’ll bite the bullet for you.”
“From what I’ve seen, pretty sure you’d eat it.”
Emile groaned. “You two gonna get a room or am I gonna have to throw up?”
“Easy Emile. No one wants to have to see your face.” Kat’s grin could almost be heard in her voice. “Unless of course you’re fine with having sick sloshing around in that fishbowl of yours.”
“Give him a break Kat. It’s not easy being that dark and brooding. If he was any more edgy that knife of his would seem blunt in comparison.” Jorge slapped his squadmate on the shoulder, a loud thump going through the team’s radio’s. Laughter echoed throughout the channel, save of course for the skull-faced spartan himself.
“Hit me again and you ain’t gonna be big man for long.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Four, Five, that’s enough. Playtime can wait ’till after the mission, understood?” Carter interrupted the bickering. The spartans barked back simultaneously.
“Yes sir!”
“Good. Pilot, you found us a place to settle down yet?”
“Negative sir. There’s ground underneath us but it’s too uneven. We’re gonna head further up, there’s an LZ we could leav-” The soldier was cut off as the Falcon shook violently, the engines sputtering and the rotor’s shuddering to a halt.
“What just happened?” Kat’s shout could barely be heard over the sound of the copters failing, but the panic was still unmistakeable. The second pilot yelled into his radio.
“EMP blast, epicentre unknown. Ship’s systems shut down, we’re going down fast!”
Carter’s mind whirred, but there was nothing to do at this point. The fog was too thick to base any decisions off of, and the vehicles weren’t well equipped for emergencies save for some heavy duty seatbelts. “Strap in Spartans, we’re gonna hit the deck!”
Emile tore the belt off the seat opposite to him, strapping it around his midriff and tying it to his own one. Jorge gripped the edge of the Falcon’s body, holding his other arm out for Kat. She swatted him away, looping her arm into the handhold and her bionic one on the bottom of the seat.
Jun strapped his sniper to the other chair, pulling the belt around its frame before securing himself in. Six snorted in laughter, gripping the handles by his chair and leaning back into the leather. Carter hopped into the cockpit, taking the seat next to the pilot.
As he buckled himself in, the Captain noticed the soldier shaking wildly by his side. Placing a gentle hand on the soldier’s shoulder, Carter nodded to him. “You do your best to put us down safely and we’ll be fine. Just relax, but stay focused.”
The marine’s shaking stopped, but his muscles were still tensed. As the ship careered downwards, he gritted his teeth and tried to pull the ship towards a field of grass. Carter shouted to the rest of his squad. “Brace for impact!”
The rotors tore the copters apart as they crashed into the ground.
Six was brought back into the world by a ghostly moaning, punctuated by screams that seemed to pierce through his eardrums. As his brain settled, he was able to take in his surroundings briefly. Jorge was the only member of Noble Team who had gotten on his feet, his repurposed heavy machine gun turret resting by his stomach as he watched over his team.
Six watched as, just on the horizon, the silhouette of a dozen or so creatures appeared, slowly moving towards their location. They were quadrupedal, and their form didn’t seem to match any known Covenant troop or Reach fauna. He squinted at the animals, and noticed the sun reflecting off of them. Or rather, their armour.
Wheezing, the spartan found that he couldn’t speak. There was a large shard of metal embedded in his abdomen, and anytime the spartan moved it left him groaning. He reached down and, gripping the splinter firmly, gritted his teeth. And yanked.
Though he tried to scream, all that was emitted was a hiss; regardless, Jorge heard the noise. The titan of a man made his way towards Six, dripping blood from a chest wound with every step. Six moaned again, managing to mumble a few words. “Behind… you, ca-reful.”
Jorge whirled around, bringing his gun up as he turned. A flash of blue knocked him to the ground before he could fire any shots. One of the creatures, seemingly the leader, began shouting orders at the others. Six’s ears were still ringing, and he couldn’t make out exactly what the words were, but they sounded familiar. As the leader stepped over him, Six studied the features of the animal.
It was… a horse?
He blacked out before he could do anything else.