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  • Subject: [FF] Project: GUNGNIR
Subject: [FF] Project: GUNGNIR

What a waste....

*does CPR to story*

IT LIVES! IT LIIVVVEEESSS!!!

Prologue
Leonis Minoris
Flagship Everest
2537

"Alright men! We have a job to do!" Captain Andrew Harbin paced the ODST HEV bay. 120 men of Gamma Company stood in a straight line, all the way down the bay. Small, gray boxes lay open beside them. Red strobe lights flashed and created a ghostly effect. A rumble shook the ship, and the Captain turned to face his crew. "And how do you suppose we do it?"

"Sir, feet first, sir!" The synchronous reply from the men and women under his command hit the Captain harder than a MAC round.



Okay, people! Let's all go in, come out, and come back to Ma." The ODSTs just stood there for a moment. "Well?" The Captain loaded his M6. "Let's get to it, Marines!"



The ODSTs did an about face and sat inside the HEVs. Walking down the catwalk, he found his own pod, and closed the hatch behind him. His BR-55 was already loaded into a side cabinet, and an M45 shotgun was in one on the other side, so the Captain clicked his pistol onto his side and hit a switch in his pod.

"Captain, heavy AA fire over our landing location. Would you like to switch to the alternate?" His personal AI, Sidious, was wired into a black box in the pod's side. When he landed, he could extract it and attach it to his armor. Sidious would provide the Captain with valuable information on the situation. "How heavy?" He used controls in the pod to turn it around. A roaring space battle raged outside his windows.

"Very." Sidious hissed.

"And the alternate?" The Captain replied.

"Low, but we will face heavy resistance on the way in to the city."

"Keep us on course, then." Harbin opened a company-wide COM. "Alright, gentlemen. Today, we save lives. There will be heavy AA fire on the way in. Our primary objective is to protect the evacuation ships. No matter what, those ships need to make it!"

Harbin didn't want to have heavy casualties--his troops were like his family. But the mission came first. Always.

A lurch cut off the Captain and the radio cut to static. Great. Interference. The space battle zoomed past while Harbin burned in to the atmosphere. Suddenly, the radio kicked back in and chatter blurred with static. "There we go..." He mumbled.
A green blur flashed by as the pod cut through the clouds and a city extended past the edge of his vision. AA fire. That one had been too close.

Fires burned and Harbin saw the other HEV pods landing. 5000 feet above sea level and dropping. The Captain hit a red button and a parachute tore out the back of the pod. His descent slowed, and he brushed past the tips of the burning skyscrapers. A jolt shook his pod, and his vision blurred for a moment. When it cleared, he saw polycrete and carpet. That didn't make sense.
Then, he opened the hatch.



********************************

Earth
September 2520
Harbin family home

"Dad, I'm joining the army, whether you like it or not!" Andrew slammed his fist on the kitchen table. The small farm home in former Iowa state was a modest 2 story overlooking a field. 30 miles away was the city. Their small town, Millshore, was built on the east side of a small lake. Most of the townspeople were simple farmers and fishers, not much different from their 700 year old pioneer ancestors. Population a little over 40,000. But Andrew's attitude was not as small as his town.

"No, you're not!" Frank Harbin stared down his young son.

"I'm 18, Dad. I can do what I want." Andrew fired back. The argument continued at the speed of light. Harsh insults and yelling ended with a slammed door and the screeching of car tires. 45 minutes later and Andrew was at the recruitment center. Posters were taped on every spare space on the gray polycrete walls.

"Hello." A grizzled man in a duty cap sat behind a wooden desk, looking down at some papers. He didn't bother to look up at Andrew.

"Um... I'd like to join the Marines." Andrew said in a low tone.

"Speak up son. Can't hear you." The man finally turned his head to face the young man.

"I'd like to join the Marines, sir!" Andrew did his best to imitate the gruff voices of the recruiters on the holovids.

"Air Force? Infantry? Shock troopers?" The recruiter made a gesture with his pen.

"What are the shock troopers?" Andrew's eyes lit up. Shock troopers. That sounded good.

"Hell in a can." The man shook his head. He scribbled down something on a notepad, then turned back to Andrew.

"That sounds good." Andrew nodded and smiled.

"Alright then. You eighteen or over?"
"Yes, sir."

"Sign here."

********************************************

"Get down!" The Captain pulled Private Mike behind the pillar. A blue blob smashed into the ground beside him. The heat dissipated over the Captain's armor. The gunner of the enemy tank sprayed plasma at their hiding spot. They needed heavy weapons on that Wraith... but A/1's specialist was just a pile of ash now.

The skyscraper Harbin had landed his pod in had given him a vantage point to cover the evacuation ships, but then the Covenant had activated the Wraith. Alpha 1's pods had come in right behind him. Alpha 2 got pasted on the way in. "Corporal, what's our situation with armaments?" The Captain shouted as he fired his BR-55 out the twentieth story window. "Sir, we have a few packs of C-12 and 3 grenades! Tyler, how many mags you got left?" Corporal Mendoza shouted at the sniper. "4, sir!" the Private said.

The Captains radio buzzed. He tapped a control and the voice of Sergeant Stacker came through. "Sir, this is Stacker. Need some help?"

"Yeah, you got some heavy weapons down there? We have a bit of a problem." The Captain gunned down a Covenant Elite who was unwise enough to poke his head out from cover. The gold-armored alien lifted a hand to the side of its head, feeling at the stubs of his mandibles. Another round put the beast down.

A rocket flew across the ground, impacting the side of the Wraith. The lumbering vehicle turned, and lobbed a mortar at Beta 1's cover, forcing the men back behind the restaurant they were hiding behind.

Suddenly, the Captain had an idea. "Everyone," he said to A/1, "coat your bullets in C-12. Just the very tips." The Captain grabbed a bag of explosives, and ripped out his magazine. He quickly dabbed the bullets in the clay-like explosive, and loaded them back into the magazine. "Open fire on that Wraith!" The Captain unloaded, full-auto, on the back of the tank. His magazine clicked empty, and he tossed it out the window. The rest of the squad soon understood, and held down their triggers.

The Captain threw the bags of C-12 out the window, scooped up the shells, and threw them out as well. He snatched the detonator, and pressed the button. A shower of sparks, shrapnel and fire engulfed the Covenant forces. The smoke cleared, and the Wraith was gone.
"Hell yeah!" Private Tyler pumped his fist and shook it in the air. "We sure show-" a purple beam sliced through the air and hit the Private in the leg. He screamed in agony, and dropped to the floor.

"-blam!-! Sniper!" Harbin pinned himself against the wall and reloaded his rifle. He was on his last mag. Another beam sizzled past the Captain and left a scorch mark across the hall. A burst of automatic fire came from down in the courtyard where the Wraith had been, and an alien screech pierced Harbin's ears.

"All clear down here sir. You okay?" Stacker said over the radio.

"Yeah... almost. You have a medic down there?"


End Prologue

  • 03.26.2011 2:04 PM PDT

What a waste....

Chapter 1
Leonis Minoris III
September 2537

"We're gonna get you out of here, okay son?" Harbin gripped Tyler's shoulder. They were in the only surviving evac transport, with the remains of the company. Dozens of other wounded lay across the floor of the hangar. They had completed their objective, but Leonis Minoris II and III were a lost cause. Soon, the evac ships would RZ with the fleet, and they would get the hell out of here. He watched as Leonis Minoris III was burned to cinders by Covenant cruisers in high orbit. It was oddly beautiful to watch, like sharks descending on prey with that angular beauty. Lances of red and orange fireworks danced from the tips of the bulbous carriers, and blobs of purple flew like sparks from a campfire as smaller corvettes set fire to the forests and wildlife. He had seen it a dozen times. Billions dead. Nearly uninhabitable planets.

Harbin tried to get his mind off of the thousands left to die. He took off his helmet and looked at his reflection in the faceplate. Scars and burns crisscrossed his gray, pale face. Sidious decided at that moment to chime up from his black box on Harbin's back. "It isn't your fault sir. There's... there's nothing we can do." The AI tried to console him, but the machine's kind words didn't relieve the Captain of his guilt.

He picked up the shotgun and dismembered it, cleaned it, and then reassembled the weapon. It reminded of him of the one he had used to kill the cattle on his family's farm, back on Earth. He hadn't seen them in years. Captain Harbin closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He lay down and fell asleep.

*****************************

Lieutenant Andrew Harbin ran. The Brute roared, and raised the giant hammer in its hands. The cudgel hit the ground, releasing a shock wave that sent Andrew and Captain Riley to the ground. Riley turned and emptied an entire magazine into the beast, but it still kept coming.

"Run!" Harbin fired his own weapon at the alien, and reinforced armor absorbed the 7.62mm AP rounds. How in the hell was it sill standing?

A second shock wave sent him flying another twenty meters away, and he landed in the dirt, hard. Harbin screamed, but he got up and kept running. Riley's tactical waypoint slowly began to stop on the Lieutenant's HUD. Then, it completely disappeared.

There was no time for mourning, however, and Harbin leaped over the barricade into the Marine bunker. Weapons roared, and pelted the Brute Chieftain with lead. Energy shields repelled the bullets, and then, the alien smashed the barricade aside and uttered a battle cry. Harbin drew a pistol and fired, round after round. It kept coming.

Suddenly, a huge figure jumped out from cover. The seven foot tall thing jammed a knife into the side of the Brute's head, and ripped off the alien's arm. A second figure tore out of the bunker at lighting speeds, and caved the Brute's face in with a shard of rebar. As the two killing machines came to a stop, Harbin saw them for what they really were: Huge, 7 foot tall men wearing dented brown and green armor. "Whoa..." His jaw was on the floor. "What the..." One of the golden visored helmets turned towards him.

"It's alright soldier. We're gonna get you out of here."

*****************************

Harbin woke up, and looked around. The vivid memory had shaken him up a bit, and he unconsciously shivered. No longer was he on the floor of the evac ship. He was in the seat of a Pelican dropship. Some ODSTs from his platoon were sitting in the seats, some asleep, others cleaning weapons, still others just sitting.

The dropship rumbled, shook, and Harbin felt the docking clamps attach to the plane. The Captain felt a sickening lurch as the craft rotated and backed into the Everest. The blood tray opened, and the gunmetal gray of deck plate reflected the overhead work lights. A maintenance crew ran up to the battered Pelican and examined the various dents and scratches in the gray hull.

"Looks brand new, Cooks." One of the techs smiled at the pilot through the cockpit.

"And I just had her washed..." The pilot chuckled. The troopers in the bay laughed with him. The Captain was not so cheery. The battle had taken its toll. Twenty troopers dead defending dead evac transports with dead people on board. Dead. Dead. Dead. Millions lost. Only one thousand saved. One thousand of five million. And they had taken how many with them? Ten thousand? It hardly balanced the scales. It never would.

Harbin stepped off the blood tray. He, A/1, and B/1, stepped onto the service elevator, and Stacker hit the control for the bridge. The doors shut, and locked together. The gray metal box dropped like a rock, and the Captain instinctively reached for acceleration controls. Then he realized that the elevator was not a HEV.

******************************

"Damn."

Admiral Cole leaned on the rail of the bridge.

"Well... what should we do, Admiral?" The Admiral stared at the Captain's black, faceless visor.

"You know, there was a reason why it was called the Revolutionary War."

"Excuse me, sir?" Harbin raised an eyebrow behind his helmet.

"The American Revolution of the late 1700's." Sergeant Stacker nodded at him. "You should study Earth History, sir."

"On to the point. General George Washington was one of the first men in the war to ever use guerilla warfare. He sent snipers into the wilderness to take out British army officers as they moved north. Three hundred against ten thousand. And they did it. The British leadership was decimated. The army was disorganized and led by lower ranking officers. In the end, the Americans won."

"How does this relate to the situation, sir?" The Captain inquired.

"We use hit and run tactics to take out the Covenant leaders," The Admiral's face became stone cold. "Then, when they're disorganized, we move in for the kill."

"Sir, we have thirty ships against their sixty. Respectfully... I don't see how we can win." Private Tyler coughed and clutched his hip.

The bridge crew remained at their stations, cycling through sensor stations. The last evac transport entered slipspace, bound for Reach. The bridge deck was silent or a moment, until Cole spoke.

"I think it is quite obvious. We use you."

*********************************

  • 03.26.2011 2:05 PM PDT

What a waste....

The Savannah fired the MAC at the cruiser. The shields of the Covenant ship flickered. The Io fired, and took the shields down. Four remote-piloted Longswords strafed the ship, dropping what looked to be large bombs. However, inside these bombs, were the craziest, the most insane men in the galaxy. The 'bombs' crashed into the ship, near the center. Squads were sent to investigate why the 'bombs' had not gone off.

Several Jackals aimed pistols and rifles at several of these egg-shaped objects. Smoke trailed from the corners of the 'bombs', and square chunks blasted from the front of the supposed explosives. None of the investigators survived.
Captain Harbin, along with A/1, B/1, A/3 and A/4, exited the HEVs that had landed all around the very center of the ship. He drew his M90, and heard the rest of A/1 draw their weapons. They rounded a corner, and saw E3 round the corner on the other side. A door was in the center of the wall on Harbin's left. He waved them forward, and signaled a breach maneuver. The door opened into a wide corridor, big enough for the two squads to pass four at a time. At the end of the hall, there was another door.

"Move up. Flank the door, and wait for my signal." The Captain whispered. The two squads lined up on either side of the door, and the Captain in between, farther back several meters. He raised the M90 at the center of the door, and crouched on the purple grating. Harbin raised his hand, and pushed it forward.

One of the techs from E/3 placed a datapad on the door and tapped in the override code the Everest's AI had come up with. Harbin made sure his helmet cameras were recording all of this, and he nodded at the tech.

The door slid open.

****************************
The sixteen men fanned out in the wide corridor. Thick columns lined the passage, a perfect place for an ambush. Black visors and armor slithered in and out of the shadows. Suddenly, the tech that had opened the door screamed and flew backwards, impaled into the wall by what looked like nothing but air. It was actually a thrown energy knife. The invisible Elite who had killed the Marine yanked the blade out with a wet squelching noise. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the ODST dropped.
"Switch to thermals," Harbin said to his men. "we've got invisible Elites."
Black and purple turned to red, orange and blue as the Captain swapped visor modes. He noticed a darting shape, large and a bright red on his display. Someone else must have seen it too, because a burst of fire cut the alien short. The body faded to a cool blue.
He should have seen it. He should have anticipated resistance... He was always known as the cautious one. Harbin couldn't ponder this, however. He had a job to do.
"Alright, people, let's get going."

****************************
"Ah, logoba!" The Ship Master of the head cruiser yelled when he saw the humans cross the threshold of his bridge. He drew his energy sword, and roared. The humans opened fire, and killed his bridge crew before they could get out of their seats.
They opened fire on him, and his shields failed. Rounds tore into him, and he fell to one knee. The humans approached the dying Elite, and one aimed a shotgun at his head. However, the Ship Master had one final gift to the world. It was his funeral, and he wanted a pyre.

***************************

"Grenade!" Harbin tackled the ODSTs behind him, and they all tumbled to the deck below the command platform. The gold armored bastard had a plasma grenade! It detonated, and the command platform exploded in a hail of fire and shrapnel.

"One down, 59 to go." He grumbled and stood up. "Everyone okay?"

A chorus of weary "Aye, aye."s answered him. "Sidious, any idea if the bridge is salvageable?" Harbin said to the AI. After a few seconds, he hissed,

"No, I am afraid not. Although, this most recent outing has confirmed that the bridge of Covenant ships is in the center, as otherwise predicted, but unknown."

The Captain sighed, licked his parched lips, and paced around the purple floor of the cruiser. For a moment, it reminded him of his family back on Earth, and how those who built this ship had estranged him from them. "Sergeant Vilok, any luck on evac?" He said into the radio.

"Sir, we've found a Spirit in one of the hangars. But you might want to--" A burst of plasma fire was answered by the rattle of an MA5B. "You might want to get here quick. Things are gettin' a bit hairy!"

"Roger. We are on our way."

***************
Leonis Minoris
Spirit Dropship

Sergeant Vilok reloaded his MA5B and put a round in the head of one very unlucky Jackal, sidestepped, and ordered his squad to open fire on an Elite. The monster's shields popped, and it took a good clip to the head.

"Private? How's it going?" The Sergeant leaned his head into the cockpit and looked at Private Harrison as he got the Spirit up and running.

"Give me five minutes. The translator isn't picking up some of these--wait, got it. Okay, everyone hold on!" The hatch on the dropship's side closed, and it shhok for a moment as it wrenched itself from the docking clamps.

Plasma fire raked the Spirit, but the heavy Covenant alloy held. Translator in hand, the Private continued working.

"Harrison, hurry it up! This bucket won't hold forever!" Corporal Iring shoved the muzzle of his rifle between a slit in the hatch, and fired a burst at a group of Grunts, who scattered and dove as the 7.62mm rounds penetrated their thin armor. One round hit the methane tank of a red-armored Grunt, and blue blood splattered the door of the ship when he exploded.

"Take this, you bastards!" Harrison had powered up the cannon, and fired on the Covenant. The heated lasers melted flesh and decimated the aliens. Screams resonated around the bay.

"Vilok? We're in the hangar. Where are--oh." Corporal Valdez looked up at the lumbering Spirit, with cannon still blazing away, and the veteran pointed it out to the Captain.

"Let's get to it then, Marines." Harbin charged up a ramp, gave an Elite a face full of buckshot, and sprinted for the Spirit. The door opened, and the rest of his crew stormed up behind him.


[Edited on 03.26.2011 2:07 PM PDT]

  • 03.26.2011 2:06 PM PDT

What a waste....

Chapter 2
Leonis Minoris
Bridge of the Everest

"Alright, boys, lets give these bastards hell." Cole bit his lower lip, a bad habit he was developing.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw his fleet advance and methodically pick targets. Two ships for the smaller Covenant frigates, three for the larger cruisers. With the lead ship down, the aliens didn't even have a chance. Two volleys fired at the disorganized fleet, eliminating them in a matter of minutes.

For Gamma Company, the next three weeks were filled with sleep, bad rations, and push-ups in place of hard combat.

Or, maybe just sleep.

Then, on a routine patrol of the Eridanus system, an ONI prowler arrived in system. It docked with the Everest, dwarfed by the super-cruiser. No one but the bridge crew and the hangar engineers knew, and they were under orders to keep the docking top-secret.

In the ODST quarters, Stacker and Vilok were arm wrestling. Other troopers were playing cards or cleaning weapons, but most were gathered around the improvised table, a matte-black ammunition crate with oil kegs on either side. The sergeant's respective squads were cheering wildly as the soldier's arms tilted to either side. The Captain was screwing the barrel onto his BR55 SR, and moved a lubricated cloth around the circular tube. He put the cloth back into the rifle's case, and set the weapon down into it as well.

Stacker was sweating profusely, slowly forcing Vilok's determined hand to meet the table. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Vilok wrenched his and his cohort's limbs all the way to the over, making Stacker squeal in surprise. The ODSTs clapped and hooted.

"Now, now, don't play too hard kiddies..." Harbin smiled. These men were like his family-he would never, ever let them go, like he had his father. He never wanted to feel that kind of resentment from his own kin ever again. The very thought of it made him quiver, although he of course hid this from the rank and file.

"Yes, mom..." Iring mocked, bringing a round of laughter from the others.

"Look, no hands!" Harrison threw his arms up. A rare smile was evicted from Vilok. The atmosphere was surprisingly relaxing after experiencing so much death, so recently. Vilok was still in his all-business, by the book manner, like always. Stacker wrote a letter to a sweetheart or whoever, like many others. Iring simply reclined (as far as he could on the bad military bunks) back on the bed. Harrison was still going over the data gathered on the Covenant ship with Sidious and a subsystem of the Everest's AI.

Harbin heard the door open with a distinct snick. The Captain snapped up his M6D sidearm. He turned around and saw a man wearing a uniform embroidered with a Commander's bars. On the side of the uniform was the ONI symbol. Harbin hated snoops... but he hated them more when they outranked him. The unruliness in the barracks quieted down, and all eyes (that were awake, of course) focused on the newcomer. The ONI man snatched a cigarette from one man, a pack of cards from another, and shifted ammunition into a neat stack, all while focusing on Harbin.

"I was not informed you were aboard, sir." The Captain said it more question than statement. Several of his troops set their hands down to their sidearms. Harbin's men would shoot first, ask questions later. If their Ma was in trouble, they would be too.

"Indeed, you were not informed. I am here to recruit you for a certain project, Captain. I would rather not discuss the details... here." The short, black haired Asian man gestured with his hand at the quarters.

Harbin smoothed his brown hair, set his eyes on the man, and frowned.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" Harbin sighed and lowered the pistol.

"No, I'm afraid you don't. Come. We have much to discuss."

When they were out in the corridor, the Captain dared to ask a few questions. Not that anyone in his situation wouldn't ask questions--it was just, Harbin wasn't good with words, so this was daring for him. Then again, he thought, an ONI officer would probably be under code-word secrecy. Oh well. He would try his hand anyways.
"So," Harbin began, "Who are you, exactly?" He slid sideways and let an ensign past.

"A prowler commander in the Office of Naval Intelligence." The man smirked.
A door clicked open in front of him, and it opened onto hangar A-6L. A large, black ship, the size of about three Pelican dropships, was docked in the bay. There were no lights, no windows, and the angular surface could only be that of a prowler.
**********************

They were in a room onboard the Commander's prowler, a room which contained naught but a single, black table in a bathroom-sized space. Rear Admiral Michael Stanforth was here, the back stage hero of the Harvest Campaign, Operation: TREBUCHET, and dozens of others of top-secret, black ink operations.

"Project GUNGNIR?" Harbin raised an eyebrow and smiled. "What kind of name is that?" Harbin quickly added, "Sir."

"Well, Captain," Rear Admiral Michael Stanforth lowered his head like a charging bull. "Gungnir was Odin's spear in Norse mythology. Its accuracy was infallible, like the weapon we are designing and the armor system equipped to handle it. In three days, we will refuel, depart, and journey to Miridem. There, the initial phase of testing..."

The Admiral continued to explain the various stages of testing the armor and weapons systems under Project GUNGNIR. It was to be deployed into widespread use by 2540.

There were also several new weapons that the Captain would test. These included the W/AV M6 G/GNR, a handheld version of the M99 Special Applications Rifle, and a back-engineered Covenant Jackal Gauntlet.

"Just one question, sir." The Captain crossed his arms. "Why me? Why not one of your snoops?"

"Because this armor requires an incredibly fit person to handle it. It improves reaction times and speed, not to to the level of MJOLNIR armor, but enough that it would be dangerous for a weak person to handle it.

"Also, you have one of the best ground career records in the UNSC. The obliteration of thousands of Covenant with a perfectly placed HORNET mine on Harvest... the incineration of the rebellion on Jericho VII... skills in CQC unmatched. Your service in the UNSC speaks for itself." The admiral said. He reached over and grasped a data chip.

"Here is all you will need for the testing period. Review it on the way. Be ready at 0600 Sunday morning."

The Captain accepted it, and the admiral said, "Dismissed."

UNSC Normandy
October 17, 2537
Officers Quarters

Harbin found an empty bunk in the darkened officer's quarters, popped the chip into his data pad, and began to read.

Official Statement of the Office of Naval Intelligence
Top-Secret, Eyes Only
Encryption Code: |||||||
Civilian Access: N/A

Project: GUNGNIR is the code-name for the powered armor and weapons systems to be produced under the supervision of Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth.

The user must undergo several augmentations in physiology to use the armor. The drugs and their side effects are as follows:

Muscular Enhancement Injection #41235

Enhances strength if the user, also may cause some mental side effects.

Cardiovascular Endurance Enhancement #41566



Heart and lung pumping capacity greatly increased. Endurance of user significantly increased. Chance of heart and lung disease long term increase exponentially.

Rod and Cone Enhancement #42478

Vision of user increased at night and in darkness.

Weaponry testing:

W/AV M6 G/GNR-The M6 is an anti-vehicular and anti-personnel weapon. It uses multiple hydrogen fluoride lasers to strike and burn enemy armor. The multiple lasers allow the user to destroy multiple targets at once. A large battery, powered by solar arrays mounted on the top of the weapon, provide the lasers with an indefinite charge as long as they are kept clean.

**
Harbin scrolled on.
**
Projected cost: Roughly 900,000 cR for research, 600,000 per fully equipped unit.
**
A list of other random details (that Harbin had no interest in) followed. With that, he came to the end of the chip, and turning of his datapad, he went to a sleep full of odd dreams and new surprises.

  • 03.26.2011 2:08 PM PDT

What a waste....

Chapter 3
UNSC Normandy
October 24, 2537
Bridge

"Transitioning in 5...4...3...2..." The NAV officer counted down.

Stars winked onto the display, and Miridem shone red and yellow and blazing. Captain Harbin covered his eyes. In the bottom left view screen, a blue and brown sphere reflected the starlight. Miridem III, the prowler's destination.

"Initiate contact with Camp Artemis," The nameless commander ordered his COM officer. "And Lieutenant Willis, get us down there."

"Yes sir!" The COM officer and her cohort Willis rushed to type commands.

Several junior officers waltzed around the titanium-A deck. The click-clack of boots rang from the feet of an Army patrol marching in the adjacent corridor between cryo and the bridge.

A rumble sounded as the engines came to life. On the central viewer, a flight path traced from the Normandy's current location to the surface of Miridem III. The blue arrow representing the Normandy slowly slid down the hyphenated trail through the display. The Captain inhaled deeply, and felt his stomach flip when the Normandy hit an air pocket, and the sickening sense of gravity returning. Even though he wore boots with magnetic clips, the UNSC, unlike the Covenant, had no artificial gravity without spinning sections. A prowler, designed for stealth, could not possibly have one of said sections. It would create motion, and a careful sensor operator would notice it.

Evergreen forests and bright blue and indigo oceans rolled under the angular thrusters of the prowler. They parted and revealed black asphalt and concrete, spaced by bunkers and quarters. Three Scorpion tanks and several Warthogs sped around the perimeter, keeping watch for any that would trespass on the base.

"Bring us down, Lieutenant."

"Sir, yes sir!"

The craft spun, and landed on an octagonal platform, one of seven equally spaced. On the others, Pelican 77-TC dropships lay, landing gears splayed outward like a giraffe drinking from a waterhole.

"Final landing sequence initiating... and... done. We're good." Lieutenant Willis eased back against his chair.

Proceeding to the back of the bridge, the commander gestured for the Captain to follow.

"Sergeant," the man nodded at the Army squad. "Open the hatch."

"Got it, sir." The sergeant jogged over to a control panel and tapped in a series of commands. the hatch to the landing deck opened, and to the right, a section of the floor lowered and exposed the ground of Miridem III.

In a single file line from highest to lowest rank, the 90 crew of the Normandy lined up and shuffled off the prowler. Shore leave... or the equivalent for an officer in the UNSC. No one ever got leave any more. Always on the defensive... There were a few attempts at offense against the Covenant, but they almost always failed. Blood was spilling, and not a soul came by to clean it up.

In any case, the prowler crew would stay here for three days while the cargo being carried by the ship was unloaded, processed, and made ready for testing. The reason for the long delay was because in one day, the new COM satellites would be going online. The UNSC forces on Miridem III wanted a ship with offensive and defensive capabilities ready to go on a moment's notice. Not that a prowler had much except a few point defense cannons and several SHIVAs, but it would do against any determined Insurrectionists wanting to snatch the plans for the armor.

In the meantime, back at Gamma Company, Harbin had delegated command to Beta Platoon leader, Lieutenant Javerson. He would be doing double shifts as company leader with Sidious and as Beta Platoon's leader.

The sun warmed Harbin's cold hands, and rolling up the cuff of his fatigues, he rubbed his hands together in an effort to quickly heat them back up from the 15C temperatures of standard UNSC vessels. The gravel crunched under his tightly laced boots, and a Warthog drove up to meet the step of his feet.

"You Captain Harbin?" The driver, a lieutenant, nodded at Harbin.

"Yes, I am." Harbin nodded back.

"Well, hop on in. We have work to do."

**************

Captain Harbin leapt out of the LRV, and walked over to a permacrete bunker. A man with a grizzled face and stubble on his chin walked over to meet him.

The Captain saw three stars on the collar of the man's uniform, and snapped to attention.

"Sir, Vice Admiral, sir!" He yelled.

"At ease," The Vice Admiral nodded. "I am Vice Admiral Vetriki Metrenko." Vetriki spoke with a heavy Russian accent. The man extended his hand to the Captain.

"Glad to meet you sir." Harbin reached out and clasped the other man's hand. It felt like sandpaper. The Captain saw patches and ribbons on the Admiral's uniform that showed participation in Operation: TREBUCHET, the Harvest Campaign, the Battle of the Atlas Moons, and dozens of other engagements.

"Come inside, Captain Harbin. There are some... things I would like to discuss with you about Project: GUNGNIR." He waved Harbin into the bunker.

Inside, lights flickered on and illuminated a single table with fold-out chairs placed all around. A bulletin board covered the far wall.

"Sit down." Metrenko gestured at Harbin, and then grabbed a stack of papers from off the table top and began flipping through them. He apparently found the page he wanted, and looked back up at the Captain.

"I wanted to inform you of the risks of the GUNGNIR program." Metrenko breathed deeply.

Sweat beaded on Harbin's forehead.

"You will go through several... augmentations before putting on the armor." Metrenko looked down. Augmentations? Harbin thought, What kind of augmentations? Obviously, his thoughts showed on his face, for Metrenko immediately tried to console him.

"No, don't worry, there's a 90% survival rate. I mean, uh..." He stammered and tried to cover his mistake.

"Wait, you've done this before?" Harbin gaped. "...sir." he added, uncertainly.

Metrenko sighed. He rubbed his stubble, and swatted at a fly buzzing around a light. He looked like he said this every day. Which he probably did, Harbin thought. For a moment, they were both quiet. Harbin tried to open his mouth and break the ice, but nothing happened.

"Yes... we have," the Vice Admiral's face suddenly hardened, and his voice grew stronger. "and you will not mention that to anyone, at any time, under any circumstances, ever. That's an order."

"Sir!" Harbin nodded briskly.

"But really, there's nothing to worry about. The real reason we chose you was because your genes matched the code of the augmentations. Though, it wasn't a lie about your cracking career. Still, if you want to back out, now is the time." Metrenko stared into Harbin with his deep, all-knowing, gray eyes. It was a rhetorical question, and both of them knew it.

"I'm going to stay, sir. I didn't lose my CO and half a platoon on Harvest to let humanity down." Harbin meant what he said. For a brief moment, he wondered about the green armored men who had saved him from that Brute. The moment came back, vivid as day.

Epsilon Indi beat down upon his uncovered head. The body of Captain Riley was carried on the stretcher into the Pelican, along with a number of other wounded and dead. The giant men in armor looked upon the deceased with no emotion, no faces--just a cold, shining stare out of polarized golden visors. Then, they got on board, two of them carrying a red lump between them. Harbin realized it was a body, and saw it was holding a pistol in one hand, and a key chain in the other.

He moved his eyes back to Gamma Company. All of them were under his command now--three hundred men, ready to fight and die at his order. He wasn't sure he could do it. The weight fell on his shoulders like an over-laden pack back in boot. Then Harbin knew that there was no one else. He breathed deeply, and exhaled.


  • 03.26.2011 2:10 PM PDT

What a waste....

The Admiral dismissed the Captain, and the ODST smartly saluted. Outside, the sun beat down on him. The same Lieutenant he had seen on the way in beckoned Harbin back into the jeep.

"I'm designated to take you to your quarters, sir." The Lieutenant said.

"Thank you. By the way, what's your name?" The Captain looked over.

"Lucas, sir. Devin Lucas."

The Warthog weaved through warehouses, restrooms, and armories, until it got to a box shaped building with a sign that said 'Officers Quarters'.

"Last stop, the big O." The Lieutenant hit the brake, and with a screech, the LRV came to a halt.

"The big O?" Harbin raised an eyebrow.

Lucas explained that the OQs were arranged in a large O out of coincidence. In the center, there was the CO's quarters.

"Yours is the one on the left, numero dos." Lucas handed a silver key to the Captain, and drove off after Andrew had retrieved his bags. On the side of the key, there was a lanyard, and an ID card, with the words 'Harbin, Andrew Captain' along with a bar code and a picture of the Captain. Approaching the door, the Captain entered the key in a slot, and stepped over the threshold.

Inside, he could smell an air freshener, and after taking a quick look around, he saw a bedroom, a lavatory, and a central lobby-type area he was in now. The floor was perma crete with a carpet draped over it, and there was a desk in the far corner. Otherwise, the room was empty. Harbin trudged into the bunk room, and set his bags down.

He heard a beep from the other room, and noticed a computer terminal mounted on the desk. It beeped again, and the Captain stepped over and silenced it. A pop-up lay over the screen. It read:

Captain, at 0700 next Tuesday, report to Medical. Wear fatigues. Be prepared.


Metrenko

Harbin read the terse message, sent a confirmation reply, and closed the file. Walking back over to the bunk, he noted fresh sheets, and set up his chronometer to alarm at 0500.

After finishing unpacking, he decided on going around the base and getting to know the people he was working with for the next several months.

Harbin found a map, and started trotting around the compound. He plotted a course for his run every morning, and met a few patrols walking about the perimeter. Some were stone-faced and stepped around and past him, without even a salute. Harbin wasn't one for formality, and he said nothing, but just blindly ignoring someone wasn't the way to stay off their bad side. However, fortunately, the other squads on watch were more friendly. One group of troopers even invited him to play cards.

After that, he found himself standing on a catwalk overlooking one of five motor pools. There were ten Warthog M12 LRVs, and a Warthog M831 APC. He wondered why they need all of these, if the only thing he was doing here was armor testing. The Captain wondered about a lot of things, and he knew he couldn't have all the answers.

  • 03.26.2011 2:11 PM PDT

What a waste....

Chapter 4
October 25
Camp Artemis, Miridem III
2537

"Tell ya', they have the place bugged."

"Pops, if they had cameras in the barracks, they'd have caught you smoking these," the young Private tapped the sergeant's cigar, "long ago."

Harbin sat in a dimly lit room, with several bunks along the walls. He had joined some Marines after they had invited him to cards. Ammo crates were stacked on top of each other to craft makeshift chairs. In a central aisle, four soldiers and the Captain dealt out cards. In a corner, a man of about forty played an old acoustic guitar and smoked a Sweet William. Harbin learned this man was 'Pops', the Private in front of him was 'Nickel', and the two Corporals to his left and right were 'Dime' and 'Quarter'. Next to Dime was 'Dollar'.

"Oh, well," Quarter's soft but deep voice rang. He threw a chip into the center of a group of barrels and crates. "Ante up."

Dollar brushed a strand of black hair out of her rough face.

"Yeah, yeah. We're not rookies." She mused.

"I am," Harbin announced. "I've never played this..." He searched for the right words.

"Poker." Dime had light blue eyes and golden hair, with a fair face and a long scar from his ear to the tip of his chin. "By the way, my name's actually Daemon." Dime stretched out his hand, and Harbin took it.

Nickel proceeded to explain the rules to him. "You can fold whenever you like. If you get a bad hand, go ahead. Just remember, you don't get a refund. Ha."

Harbin hoped to get some information out of the troopers. He was still pondering why there was such a big military operation going on here. It looked more than it seemed. More than simple R&D.

Quarter put four cards on the table, and gave one to each person. He did this twice more, and on the third card, he flipped it over. Harbin was given a two headed thing with a Q in the top right and bottom left corner. He turned over his other cards, and saw a mostly blank card with two A's, again both in the corners.

"You've got an ace, a ten and a Queen. You should definitely bet. That's a straight flush coming along." Dollar leaned over and whispered into his ear.

In an obvious effort to start conversation, Nickel threw his chip in and started talking to the Captain.

"So, Captain... We've heard that you, uh, took a whole fleet on your own. It sounds like BS, respectfully, but hey, you're the one who lived it. What happened?"

"Well, I didn't actually take out the whole fleet. Just the head honcho Cole couldn't handle. We kept 'em off the third colony in the system long enough to allow the civvies to evacuate." Harbin replied, and picked up a red, flat circle, and threw it in the pile.

"Pretty insane if you ask me. Glad I'm not an ODST." Nickel took the card Quarter offered him.

"Sometimes I wish I wasn't one," Harbin sighed. "The pressure can be too much every once in a while, y'know?"
Nickel shrugged and breathed deeply. He reminded the Captain he was just a regular ol' Marine, nothing special. Pops looked up when his cohort said this, and squinted at the Private. Nickel leaned his head closer to his cards.

"What is it?" Harbin asked. The ODST had a bad feeling about this.

"Nothing, just..." Nickel squirmed.

"Just what, trooper?" Harbin raised an eyebrow.

"Not at liberty to say, sir." Nickel bit his lower lip, and a trickle of blood ran down his chin and neck. The tension in the room was palpable.

"This base..." Harbin let that hang in the air.

"Isn't what it seems." Pops finished. The smell of sweat and grime grew more stifling every second, A duo of flies rammed repeatedly into a light swinging from the ceiling like a pendulum. A Marine leaned on a crate, rocking back and forth, back and forth. The Captain felt all eyes on him. Which, they probably were.

Harbin whispered so slowly and softly everyone strained to hear him. "ONI."

"Hit the nail on the head." Pops sighed and blew smoke rings from his Sweet William. "We don't know all the details, but..." He licked his dry lips. "Those poor, dirty bastards found something, and they're scrambling like monkeys for bananas to get it. And slitting a few throats while they're at it, so I hear."

That explains that, Harbin thought. Though exactly what 'that' was still eluded him.

"Hence the armor, the vehicles, heavy weapons, you name it." Dime added.

They remained sitting in a silence for a while.

"Office of Naval Intelligence," Dollar cut the silence. "More like Office of Narcissist Idiots, if you ask me." Her pale green eyes blinked.

That brought the mood back up. They started playing again. Harbin learned three new things that night. First, and most important, he now knew the true purpose of this base. Second, he the backstories of these caring compadres were revealed. Thirdly, he would need to trust them to find out the nuggets of detail that 'true purpose' entailed.

Dime was born on Biko. He escaped when he and his family were saved by Marines who found them. It inspired him, his brothers, and his father to join the military. They were insurance brokers. Dime had learned the family trade, and Harbin thought he might be useful in the days ahead.

Nickel was the youngest of the squad, joining the military (with his parent's signature) at the age of 16, leaving his home on Mars to fight the alien onslaught. His black hair was short and shaved, and he had a beard going. It, however, would soon need to be cut, thanks to 'unfortunate' regulations. His real name was Nicholas.

Dollar's entire family had been wiped out in the glassing of Green Hills. She signed up in 2531, after being fed up with horribly tragic reports of death tolls in the millions. With hope and pointless propaganda in her heart, she cleared through boot camp.

Quarter was huge. At least two and a fifth meters tall and at 250 pounds of rippling muscle, he was easily the largest on the team. With a record of 150 confirmed career kills(not to mention 68 more unconfirmed), he was the best sniper the Captain had ever heard of... and also almost fatally wounded by a plasma mortar on Falaknuma. His left leg was metal and circuits. The behemoth made no attempt to cover it with false flesh.

Pops was drafted in the Insurrection, and later bumped up to the Marines when the Covenant attacked. Harbin could get no more out of him. These men and women had seen action, and now they were getting repaid with what seemed to be simple shore leave on temperate Miridem...

Chapter 6 - Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

October 30
Pelican dropship inbound to surface of Falatea VIII
2000 hours

Sergeant Vilok pulled the bolt back on his MA5B. The magazine on the back was filled with high velocity shredder rounds. He checked that his suit was airtight, sealing his and Harrison's oxygen tanks. The surface of Falatea was toxiccarbon dioxide was sprayed into the air from refineries to heat the surface in preparation for terraforming. Six other Pelicans and several HEV pods dropping from above completed Gamma Company. The ODSTs were assigned to guarding the one thing that was important on the ball of rock and metal and timefuel.

In the late 22nd century, man had stopped burning polluting and inefficient fossil fuels and started using pressurized hydrogen to power their vehicles and homes. Falatea was rich in hydrogen, with a huge sun glaring red hot in the system center. Pumps extracted hydrogen in its liquid form deep beneath the surface. Factories processed this and prepared it for off world shipping. Hundreds upon hundreds of fragile pipelines carried the liquid up to the top. They all had to quickly reach the surface, or the pressure on the gas would not release, keeping it from expanding and liquifying.

"Dropping the hatch in 5!" The pilot announced, swinging the chin gun around and searching for targets. With a muffled pop, the back door unsealed. A dome filled with oxygen lay beneath the drop ship. This was the center where the hydrodgen was shipped and processed, and where the workers lived. Vilok's squad was to detonate the facilities if the inbound Covenant broke the line at the pumps. It was likely the aliens would attempt to bomb and break the dome, so everyone wore oxygen tanks and sealed pressure suits.

An airlock cycled the three Pelicans defending the factories down into the solar-plated dome. At the other planets in the hydrogen-rich system, Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, and Delta companies were doing similar jobs. In the skies above, Cole's fleet circled, waiting to return.

The Covenant had entered the system, dropped troops, and fought a skirmish with the UNSC for a brief few minutes. After that, they bugged out, presumably to return with reinforcements to combat the overwhelming humans.

"Iring, you got point. Harrison, cover the six. Everyone else, Diamondback formation."

Vilok gave orders as the Pelican lifted off to cover the ODSTs at the pumps. A diamond shape of soldiers formed between Harrison and Iring.

The squad covered the ground to the first factory in minutes. Inside, hundreds of pipes crossed and laced themselves on the floor, ceiling and walls. Valves and switches decorated the steel. Bringing up a schematic on his HUD, Vilok located the major systems and locations they needed to wire and blow. Closest to him was a set of hydraulic pistons in a side room. Threading their way through the jungle of shining metal, the squad located the door and pushed it open. Harrison laid down the C-12 on a likely-looking seal and wired it to a movement trip detonator, back several hundred meters from the hydrogen pumps and made to detonate if any non-IFF equipped mass came over the line.

Many similar targets were set to go off inside the factory, including a barrel-like container that cooled the gas as it came up from under the ground. The Covenant would be in for a nasty surprise.

***************************

  • 03.26.2011 2:12 PM PDT

What a waste....

reserved

  • 03.26.2011 2:33 PM PDT

What a waste....

No one?

  • 03.27.2011 10:04 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!

Don't die on me! You gotta hold on!

  • 03.28.2011 1:19 AM PDT

What a waste....

For some reason, the site keeps telling me that the end of Chapter 4 contains 'extended characters that are not allowed'. Halp?

  • 03.28.2011 5:05 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!

Copy/paste into this site. Should remove the extended characters.

  • 03.28.2011 10:33 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
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It's more than four returns, I had to deal with it when I was writing, only the Gallery does it though

  • 03.30.2011 3:03 PM PDT

What a waste....


Posted by: OfTheBloodguard
Copy/paste into this site. Should remove the extended characters.
I did. And at the guy immediately above me, how did you get around it?

  • 03.30.2011 7:12 PM PDT