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Empty :: Chapter 1
Date: 29 June 2004, 11:07 PM
ONI DEBRIEF
STATEMENT OF: LT. JONAS KIN
DATE: 06/01/2549
When my Pelican went down it happened so quickly I hadn't had time to really be scared. Now the reality of the situation was starting to get to me. I tried, for what seemed like the hundredth time, to peer through the scope of the sniper rifle. The marine it previously belonged to probably wouldn't mine, especially considering that he and the rest of the passengers had died when the plasma bolts had entered through the open rear hatch. Unfortunately the scope's images wouldn't resolve due to the shaking I'd been fighting since the incident.
I took some deep breaths trying desperately to steady myself enough for a glance. My body complied for a moment and I took the opportunity to look towards the area my copilot had gone to recon. The screams had stopped moments before but the whispering in my headset was threatening destroy what fragile sanity I had left. The sight, however, didn't help.
How Charlie was even still alive was beyond me. His side was definitely gone, the blood seeping past cauterized flesh made that evident enough. His limbs were twisted in odd directions, a picture that momentarily reminded me of a marionette dropped hastily. The creature above him seemed to enjoy every moment of the slow death it was dealing its victim. It let out a menacing laugh of sorts when Charlie attempted to shield himself from a blow with his mangled arm. That was enough for me.
I sighted on the ... thing's ... head. It had always looked so easy in all the movies I'd seen, the sniper in perfect cover taking his time as he took enemies out with single shots. Turns out it's a hell of a lot harder than it looks. More than once the thought ran through my head "What if I miss?", "What if I just wing it?" I couldn't be sure so I changed my aim and put Charlie out of his misery with a bullet to the top of his motionless head.
I waited there on my stomach for a day at least. The Covenant warrior had searched only a brief time for me before being met by his comrades and moving on. The bastard actually seemed disappointed when I cut short his fun. Finally I got picked up and here I am, talkin to you, waiting to be executed I guess. Well go ahead, that planet took whatever humanity I had left, you'll just be finishing the job.
END STATEMENT
DATE: 07/04/2551
LOCATION: Classified
Major Erica Santoz read the report for what had to have been the sixth time in as many days. She still couldn't fathom coping with something like that. But Jonas didn't cope with it as it were did he. From the rest of his file she pieced the story of events after that debriefing together.
In a way he became sort of a machine. He had some kind of special training, blacked out in ONI reports, for a period of about 6 months give or take. After that he volunteered for everything. If you had a suicide mission where 100% losses were actually deemed acceptable to achieve the objective, Jonas was your man. You need a heavily populated Covenant outpost scouted and their transport abilities demolished, sure he could do that. In fact no matter what the mission profile, in this quadrant he was always on the list. And more amazing ... he always came back.
Today she would meet him and she was not really looking forward to the prospect. People around the UNSC speculated on what type of man he was. Rumors of "trophies" he took from the field were widespread. His self imposed isolation between missions was well documented fact. One of the psychologists had whispered to her once "It's amazing what you can accomplish with a death wish".
Well death wish or not she had him now. Her mission, one of those with a less than five percent possibility of success, had drawn him to her like the proverbial moth to a flame. She had proposed it as a theoretical situation. One in which a Spartan would have had a decent chance at accomplishing the goal and walking out alive. Spartans weren't readily available though and Jonas was ... always. She hadn't counted on the internal struggle she would face sending a man to what would most likely be his death. Knowing that Jonas would welcome the opportunity didn't ease that conflict.
She walked from her quarters to the elevator still unsure of this idea. Could she call it all off, find some problems in her planning that would put a halt to this? No, she had already tried everything that wouldn't get her demoted. The brass was set on this and so she would have to go look this man in the eyes and send him to die.
The elevator arriving at her destination brought her out of her introspection and she continued on towards the secure room where the briefing would be held. He was sitting there quietly, staring down at the table in front of him as if he hadn't even acknowledged her entrance. She sat down quietly unsure if she should disturb him, a thought she quickly dismissed. She was in charge here. But this man's presence alone was severe and more than a little unnerving. When he finally looked up she flinched despite herself. His eyes were completely black, the windows to an empty soul she thought.
"Are you gonna succeed?" he asked softly.
She stammered, "The mission's probability of success isn't exactly ..."
He stood so abruptly she almost fell backwards herself, "YOU, are YOU gonna succeed? Are YOU finally gonna end all this?" he shouted.
When she couldn't answer he sat back down mumbling "another waste of time".
She took a moment to compose herself as best she could then laid the charts and maps out on the table between them. He never looked up as she went through the briefing, never even grunted in acknowledgement. When she finished she waited for something, anything, to let her know he even heard her. What she got was a muttered "fine" as he walked from the room and disappeared down the corridor. She was about to leave when she caught a glimmer out of the corner of her eye. There were deep scratches in the table where Jonas had sat. The glimmer itself was blood, his blood from his bare finger as they dug into the table. "My god," she thought, "what the hell have I gotten myself into?"
When he reached his room he went immediately to his foot locker and palmed the lock open. The box he retrieved was a matte black metal without a speck of dust on it. Of course that was to be expected since it was never very long between uses. He opened the box and began to clean the disassembled S2 AM Sniper rifle housed within. Highly customized it was essentially the other part of himself. Something to fill the hole that damned planet left in him. He was filling that hole though. Every mission. Every kill. Some amount of blood spilled would make him a man again wouldn't it? The rifle now spotless he assembled it in record time and sighted the mirror. The picture staring back at him was no one he recognized. He pulled the trigger once before breaking the weapon down again and returning it to the case.
'Same story' he thought as he lay in his bunk. Walk into some godforsaken installation, kill everything and leave. The retrieval portion didn't even register with him though it sure as hell was important to that lady. Fine, walk in, kill everything, grab something and hope. Hope for once there would be something out there that could put him out of his misery. Just like he did for Charlie.
to be continued...
Empty :: Chapter 2
Date: 30 June 2004, 9:02 PM
DATE: 07/05/2551
LOCATION: Classified
The hulking creatures were visibly nervous when they opened the door to the holding cell Clarissa would be spending her time in. She expected to hit a cold metal floor painfully and prepared herself to roll as best she could to minimize the pain. Oddly enough her first contact with the 'ground' was soft and forgiving. The sigh starting to escape from her lips was quickly stifled though as the softness below her moved slightly. She groped in the semi darkness for something solid to defend herself and was relieved to find a free heavy stone near her. The undulating purple light outside allowed her to catch a glimpse of the rat-like creature approaching its newest feast. She struck hard and fast and ended the disgusting vermin's life before it had a chance to get to her now bare feet. Relief flooded her, ironic considering her situation but welcome none the less. This day had started out strange enough, now she could only hope that she was alive long enough to see how tomorrow played out.
earlier that day
The knock on her door that morning had startled her out of a strange dream somehow involving floating pygmies and glowing ornaments of some kind. She stumbled around in the dark for a moment before finally reaching the door and activating the one way transparency allowing her to see her visitor. The door opened quickly and a light was in her eyes before she had a chance to react or even see her assailant. She was hurried back into the room and seated at a chair before the room lights we brought up. The two men staring at her were well dressed with only slight bulges giving away the fact they were armed.
"Clarissa Antonia Merced," the first man stated, "we must request that you come with us immediately."
"And you are?" she asked, surprising herself by her calm and somewhat superior delivery.
"None of that is material at this moment ma'am, you only need to know we're affiliated with your government" said the same man, no irritation evident in his voice or manner.
"What if I don't feel like it?" she asked, determined to get some kind of reaction. "What the hell is this all about anyway?"
The first man that had spoken turned to his counterpart, a larger man with a dark ebony skin who simply smiled as he walked forward. "This is all about saving your life, and hopefully the rest of mankind in the process Clarissa. Now let's go."
She was too dumbfounded to actually respond, so she just nodded her agreement and let them walk her out of the room. 'Why does this weird crap always happen to me' she thought as they seated her into a heavily armored and tinted 6 wheeled vehicle.
From that point on everything had gone to hell quickly. They had driven for about 8 minutes when the first explosion rocked the vehicle from the side. The driver evidently knew what he was doing as he retained control and sped on with even more urgency. The spaceport was the obvious destination but someone or something was damned determined not to allow their passage. Gunfire opened up on them from what seemed like every direction as they reached the space port. She was told to stay down and put on the coverall located in the compartment next to her. Any shame she may have felt normally was replaced by fear and adrenaline as she quickly changed into the generic coverall.
When the door finally opened she saw armed people running everywhere. One group firing wildly as they sought cover while her traveling companions found immediate cover and returned fire in a much more controlled fashion. Still, the numbers appeared to be on her attackers' side as she spotted more and more of them every second. A "GO!" was shouted by someone near her and she was suddenly being led by the arm across the tarmac towards a waiting ship.
The hail of bullets and god knows what else around her was amazing but she just ran on, eyes focused on her goal. Just then a man stepped out from cover directly in front of them, shotgun leveled directly at them. She didn't have time to blink as the assailant fired, knocking her protector 3 feet behind her with a still smoking crater where his left shoulder once was. She stared at the shotgun wielding bastard, grimly awaiting her own demise. He smiled as he pulled the trigger and she closed her eyes. The pain and shock of the wound never accompanied the loud blast of the weapon though. She opened her eyes in amazement which was only doubled in the expression of her would be killer. He was taking aim again when a bullet flew mere centimeters past her head and into the enemy facing her, a large portion of his neck being removed by the uranium depleted round. She looked back to see her former protector mouthing the word "go" with his last breath as the still smoking pistol slipped from his hands. She ran unchallenged to the waiting ship and was immediately thrown into an acceleration couch as the ship took off, escaping the melee below.
When they were safely off the planet she began to calm somewhat. Too many strange events in such a short time threatened to overwhelm her. She began to sob for so many reasons that she dared not even examine them. She should have been dead yet here she was, being whisked away after an unbelievable firefight and being told she could somehow assist in the salvation of mankind. It was all too much and she closed her eyes to try to escape reality for at least a moment.
She was awoken by the sound of the cockpit door opening. The pilot was just standing there staring at her. He was attractive, though she was always attracted to men in uniform. He was tall too, must have been about 6'4" easily. It took her a moment to notice the problem. The pilot wasn't 6'4", he was probably closer to 6'2", the confusing part being that he was about 2 inches off the ground at the moment. As he fell to the floor she finally got to see the thing behind him. It seemed invisible except for the blood dripping of what she assumed was its hands and chest. She wanted to scream, was about to scream, but then it was on her and the blow it delivered to her head had her unconscious until only minutes ago.
So here she sat, more confused by the moment. An average woman for all intents and purposes. Now the prisoner of those Covenant monsters she had heard so much about. 'Well" she thought, "at least it can't get any worse." Even as the thought entered her mind she knew she was wrong. It would get worse, a lot worse.
to be continued ...
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