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Black Operations: Special Delivery (Part One)
Posted By: Jin1<jermevans1990@gmail.com>
Date: 13 June 2007, 3:48 am
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PART ONE-
[2245 HOURS 23-JUNE-2551 (MILITARY CALENDAR) -//-
UNSC PROWLER "PHILOSOPHY" –ENROUTE TO VIMUR
The all purpose body armor was smooth to the touch, it utilized the best in the UNSC technology area, but of course it wasn't SPARTAN armor, which could shrug of plasma bolts with ease.
No, they utilized stealth to the best of its capabilities, using active camouflage (AC), while providing the maximum protection. It wasn't SPI armor, it was much weaker, if it took a hit, and its plates would burn like tissue paper without a second glance.
Quinn shoved a magazine into the MA5B assault rifle, its extended eighty round magazine clipped into place with a satisfying click. He looked at his team, it consisted of three others, they all sat there checking their weapons and equipment, making sure everything was in order. He gave an invisible smile at them and nodded approvingly before looking down at the floor of the Pelican's bay.
The Pelican was custom made for their operations, recovering covenant weaponry, technology and living specimens. In the middle of it's floor held a holo-tank which their mission operator would tell them what they were doing.
The operator was their eyes and ears for whatever was going on near other parts of the planet to a few meters away. The man gave them codes if they had to crack into rebel facilities, or translations when it concerned the Covenant.
Next best thing to an AI. Crichton told him after the first interview with her.
He tugged at his armor, it resembled ODST combat armor -color and body armor wise- but it didn't have the bulky pockets dotting all over, instead he carried a belt pouch which held ammo, a data pad, grenades and a few other things.
Just the necessities. It also didn't carry the same helmet, it had something resembling the SPI armor's bubble helmet but much smaller, fitting tightly around the skull. Yet unlike the SPI armor, it had limited active camouflage and after four hours the cells would drain and they would be exposed.
"Sir, you okay?" The question surprised Quinn as he looked up at the young man with a mop of black hair, and dark brown eyes. He was only twenty-four and a Private, he was interviewed by Quinn himself -like the most of the team- and found that the young man had no ghosts, no real fears and he was a patriot. That was one of the things ONI needed, patriots. They couldn't get enough. Between rebel sympathizers and those alien worshipers he found Nylund to be an old friend or the younger brother he never had.
Quinn gazed at him, noticing he had the glazed look in his eyes.
He gave a weak smile. "No. I'm fine. Just thinking."
"Well sorry for bothering you, sir." The boy looked back at his S2 AM sniper rifle, and slammed a magazine into the oversized weapon and looked down the Oracle high powered scope.
"Apologies aren't needed, Corporal." He braced himself against the metallic wall as the black filled Pelican. The rear bay was closing.
His eyes scanned to the second member of the team, Alexandria Crichton. The youngest member of the team, twenty-three. Like Nylund she was a patriot -or so it seemed- unlike Nylund however she wasn't interviewed by Quinn, and since this was his first time with the team he didn't know how she would react fighting the Covenant. She was a former ONI spook, so she would either react in an extremely good or extremely bad way.
She brushed her short brown hair out of green eyes.
She was looking at her own MA5B, checking the magazine, before shoving it into the receiver. She then flicked on the safety and reached down for the M90 Shotgun at her feet, her primary weapon, she reached down into her belt's pouch took out a 12 gauge shotgun shell and fed it into the tube.
She didn't even glance in his direction.
The last member of the team was Reilly, he was the oldest member of the team as well, thirty-one and second in command if Quinn was ever to get put out of action. He had seen action, killed his own share of Covenant, rumors had it he had a two grand count under his belt. A third of those elites.
Quinn had a deep respect for the older man, and appreciated when he piped in advice. He was always right. "Yes sir?" Reilly was looking down at the floor, his arms propped up against his legs. He didn't even look up but somehow he knew.
"Nothing." The rear bay door finally shut and darkness descended upon them, the dull lights flashed on from the corners of the bay, bathing them in red light. Shadows still loomed in every corner.
Quinn donned his helmet, it flickered once before it's light amplifying technology made everything almost as clear as day. His eyes turned towards the holo-tank in the middle of the bay, it sputtered and began to spark to life. A small figure appeared, it resembled a man.
The man wore a tuxedo, pitch black with a white undershirt shirt, his black hair was cropped short and his brown eyes were cold and stared at the three soldiers. "Good to see that you actually made it on time, Lieutenant. I thought we had turn the ship back for you."
"Operator…" The man was civilian, he had worked with him before a few years back when his team was late to the landing-zone (LZ) and the man was piloting a civilian class pelican which was half way out of the atmosphere when he told the man to turn the craft around and pick them up.
The planet was glassed two days later, if they hadn't gotten picked up he and his former team would've been nothing but carbonized bone.
"Just give us our mission and we'll be on our way."
The foot tall figure nodded. "I'll try to keep it short, for the sake of time." The small person faded and a new hologram popped up.
The bird like figure, bi-pedal figure, arm shield and those wide demon like eyes. A Jackal. It was then followed by a smaller creature, a large tank mounted on its back, and the breathing apparatus on its face. A Grunt.
They stood side by side, doing recorded loops of them doing combat actions at the team, the Jackal shrieking before raising its weapon, and the grunt raising and lowering it's plasma pistol.
"Two days ago Vimur came under attack by a Covenant cruiser that deployed fifty thousand troops into the city, it was followed by two more craft, a frigate and a destroyer. The frigate landed on the outskirts of the planet's largest city –Élivágar. It deployed troops to make a very large camp that rings around thirty percent of the city. A camp on this scale is too large to just be there, we have recordings of Scarabs in the vicinity, mining the surface."
The pictures of the two aliens faded away and the Operator came back up. "Reports show Civilians have been evacuated and none remain in the city but if you find any human captives; evacuate them out of the camp to safety. Primary objectives are laid out as followed, destroy covenant camp with low yield HAVOK warheads to establish a beachhead on the planet. Secondary objectives are to capture any covenant technology –anything deemed valuable to the UNSC.
"Evacuate all civilians and military personnel –we have some reports that General R.T. Gaines has been captured by the Covenant and being interrogated. If found he is your primary objective. Am I clear?"
"Crystal, Operator."
"Good. I will provide mission updates. Remember, the UNSC Fleet arrives in twelve hours, they need that beachhead."
The image faded into black, the Operator added three more words before the hologram faded into nothing.
"Come back alive."
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