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The Chronicles of Corporal Wilkens Part 8: News, A Mission, and...Another Halo?
Posted By: Major Silva<majorsilva@aol.com>
Date: 15 January 2006, 9:12 pm
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Deployment + *Unknown* (Unaccounted Time Loss) ( Corporal Wilkens Mission Clock )/
UNSC In Amber Clad, moving on outbound vector from Earth
Author's Note: I'm very sorry it took so long for me to do this again, so this one is a little longer than usual, as payment.
Wilkens checked their insignia. A private, and private first class. He turned to the one on his left, "Hey, do you know what's going on here? Why are we leaving Earth orbit?"
The man was a Marine. Not just any Marine though, part of the 103rd. He was a Helljumper. The insignia was sewn onto each of their sleeves. Wilkens hadn't noticed it just seconds before. "Sir, we ourselves do not know, and that's why we're taking you to the Bridge", the man said, sounding somewhat obnoxious in his wake.
Wilkens stopped, and the men in front of him did too. "Do I detect a hint of disrespect to a higher ranking officer here, Private?"
"No, sir!" he answered, and they started walking again, unlocking a metal door ahead that read "Bridge" with a keycard. "Not at all"
'Damn', Wilkens thought, 'ODST's are hard even on commanding officers not in their group'. He made a mental note to report the man later, reading his name stenciled on his cap.
The two stopped at the door, and turned to guard the hallway. Wilkens stepped onto the Bridge.
It was much smaller than what he had been on nearly 25 years ago - a ship called the Madison. This ship was only about eight meters across, and around nine or so back. Quite small. The Captain of the ship was not at their station, and only a few officers were at their's. He looked ahead. Tactical viewscreens, engine readings, and more were arrayed in front of him.
The main 'window' in front of him was dark, as he knew their was nothing to be seen in Slipspace. Strange though...he hadn't felt the jump into the interdimensional space. Just then, the door behind him opened to let a large white man in. Wilkens expected it was the Captain, and was surprised that he was only a Lieutenant.
The man saw Wilkens up front, with his combat gear on, and stepped closer to speak. "Corporal, I suppose you have not been briefed on what is happening yet?"
"No, sir", he replied, saluting.
"Good, then come with me."
Wilkens stepped up the few steps to the upper portion of the ship, and walked out the open door with the Lieutenant. Then, in the light, Wilkens recognized the man. It was Lieutenant Roeder, from the squad with the Master Chief, that Wilkens had been with on Earth. So, the squad had survived.
The Corporal's eyes widened a little, and he stopped. Roeder stopped too. "Corporal?"
"I'm sorry, sir, I was just surprised to see you again, I thought you had all died."
"It'd take more than that to take the Chief down, I'll tell you", he answered in his low, gravely voice. He turned and started walking again, and so did Wilkens. It seemed the Lieutenant was only such a hard- when in a combat situation. Nevertheless, with that beside him, Wilkens still didn't know what was going on, but decided against asking Roeder directly, as he was most likely taking him to the Captain anyway.
The ship stopped, and Wilkens felt the slight deceleration. They had dropped out of Slipstream. He decided that either they had already been traveling for quite some time, or this was part of the Cole Protocal. But Wilkens didn't see the usefullness in the latter anymore, seeing as how Earth had already been found by the Covenant.
Roeder led Wilkens through a blast door, and through a short hallway, until they came to a stop. It was marked 'Armory'. 'What the hell is going on?', he thought.
"Sir?", he said aloud. "Aren't we going to see the Captain?"
"First off Corporal, the commander of this ship is just that, a Commander, second, it's a woman, and third, to answer your question, no, we're not going to see her."
"Why?", he asked, forgetting to tack on the 'sir' part.
"She specifically asked me to find you, and debrief you before we deploy."
"Deploy, sir?"
"Yes, deploy. We followed the Covenant ship that was in orbit above Mombasa through Slipstream, tagging on the tail end of their slipspace rupture, while you were in surgery. The Commander thinks the Prophet aboard the ship may be going somewhere special, perhaps to get more ships, troops, whatever. And where ever that place is, she wants us to capture the Prophet for interrogation, and possibly in exchange for a truce between the Covenant and us."
"These Prophets, you see, are the highest ranking members of the Covenant, and all the various ranks and species of the Covenant worship them. I don't know the details, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that this Prophet may help us end the war.", he smiled slightly, "Not willingly, of course."
"Thank you,sir. But I still do not know how I got here. I mean, on this ship. I thought I had died."
"That'll all be explained in detail at another time, Corporal. But I guess I can give you the rough idea of what happened. We came back for you after the Phantom had left, and called for immediate evac. And after a few minutes, you were extracted, along with Trocardo, who took care of you. The rest of us went on with the mission. The original plan was to bring you to the closest HQ, but during the flyover, it was determined that the Covenant ground forces had attacked it. So, you were brought to the closest human-controlled
base of operations that we could find. Here.", he tapped his foot on the bulkhead, "Answer your questions?"
"Yes sir, thank you."
"Good, you're already late for suit up.", Roeder said as he unlocked the armory door with a keycard.
There were a few other Marines in the room. It wasn't one of those "closet armories" - the ones with just weapons on shelfs and what not. This one doubled as ready room, complete with lockers.
The Marines were all staring out windows, into space. Wilkens heard one say, " I can see bodies...floating with the rubble."
Both Roeder and Wilkens went to the nearest porthole without a Marine at it, and stared out. They were right, there were bodies among the various city sections. Both of their mouths dropped open slightly, as they saw something..else..in the distance, in front of the debris. 'The ring was huge, Wilkens thought, easily as big as if you took a ring-shaped portion out of the Earth, and turned it around.
"Is that..." Wilkens started, but the Lieutenant cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Guess that's our target".
Wilkens had suited up quickly, grabbing a rifle and an SMG, and around six clips of ammo for each weapon, respectively, along with a helmet - he had lost his own. Roeder had told him to not go light on the ammo. He was now in the Pelican bay, a few decks down from the armory. Sergeant Johnson had radioed in saying that Commander Keyes was planning on capturing the Covenant ship. It had landed in the middle of a lake, among quite a few strange buildings.
That was their first target, and if that failed, their secondary target was to retrieve a device called the 'Index' before the Prophet did.
The Master Chief, and a few Helljumpers were going to make a drop in pods, were going to take the first target. While Johnson and Roeder's squad, which included Wilkens now, would take the second target. To Wilkens, it sounded like the easier of the two. Atleast, it did now.
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