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Man, this writing sucks. If I had the option, I'd go back and rewrite this, but in the end, Deception is a very important story in the grand scheme of the overarching plot.
Chapter 13: A Shout in the Jungle
May 13th, 3239, 0300 hours
Kingdom of Blaine, Dorsum Province
Talahan V
It was dumbfounding the way that Blaine was suddenly acting, and it caught everyone off-guard.
"Could you say that again?" Roan asked.
"I said you have important things to do! God's sake, don't tell me you're gloating!" the King said.
"What about?" Chris asked.
"Look, I know you ONI agents have a cushy little desk job somewhere, but I've been stuck in this place for six years! You don't know what that's like, not having contact with the rest of the organization."
"You're ONI?" the Captain asked, playing it up. He knew a weak link in the chain when he saw one.
"Yes, long-term insertion team. And who are you?"
"Section 3." Chris quickly reported. "We're here to monitor your progress."
"You're very subtle in your approach, Mister…"
"Captain Frank Underhill." Chris improvised. "My name's Underhill."
King Blaine nodded. "Underhill."
"This is Agent Kathrin Chicolini" he said nodding to Hera, "Agent KITFOX." Nodding to Samantha, "And this is my very good friend and Agent, Mister Kayzer Söze." He said placing a hand on Roan's shoulder.
Hera crossed her arms. "Now we've told you who we are, who are you?"
Blaine paced. "I am Agent BRUTUS. I'm with Section 2, Propaganda and Espionage."
Brutus
Roan said, "Can you clarify your mission to us? In the little haste of our predicament, we forgot the details."
BRUTUS smiled. "Aren't you going to ask me?"
"Ask you what?" Vennettilli asked.
"Ask me how I knew you were with ONI, Mister Underhill."
"Alright, indulge me."
BRUTUS paced again. "Well, you're definitely not with the UNSC. You're too smart for them. No self-respecting military force would throw four people into a mission and come out alive, and you're not Special Forces because you're hardly armed to the teeth. You orchestrated your little jailbreak to get to me. Ingenious."
It was actually Jackson who thought, I think King Blaine's been breathing in that fresh jungle air for too long.
Even though his judgement and deduction skills were way off the mark, Chris smiled, playing to BRUTUS as if he was correct. It worked the entire better to sell their deception. "You're amazing."
"I try." The king said, "Now, Agent Underhill, you wished to hear the information that I was able to dig up?"
"That would be nice."
"I was stationed here six years ago before the end of the Talahan War. I'm sure you remember it?"
"Yes." Chris said with hidden ire.
"Well, ONI stationed me here for some project. Wasn't until a dead drop with another agent that I was able to put the pieces together. I was instructed to monitor the people on Talahan should we win the war. As you know, Fukoma went under and we won the war. Then my real mission began: I was to unite the Talahan people as a leader and gather who the rebel leaders were."
"Then what?" Jackson asked.
"Well, my mission was to make sure everything was in order and wait for ONI Agents to authorize the next part of my assignment. Well, I've been waiting for six years, living like a god, and now, the next part of my mission can begin. I'm going to start a war with the UNSC."
Now they finally understood the name. BRUTUS, the man who stabbed Ceaser, his own friend, in the back. This agent was doing his job and leading these citizens into a war that he knew they could not win. Maybe that was the point.
"Who authorized this mission?"
"Is this important?"
"Agent BRUTUS." Chris began, "in order for me to correctly file my report, I will need to know who authorized your original mission. Can you help me out so I don't have as much paperwork to worry about when I go back to Seattle?"
BRUTUS sat down in his chair. "I was originally given the assignment by General Assembly Minister Troy Marshall.
That was a major kick to the gut. To find out that Marshall was behind a plot to start a war was just shocking. These were innocent people and he wanted to finish the job or something like that!
"He's president now."
"Really! Did he defeat Cleary?"
"Cleary's dead."
"Vice President Tarasovich?
"Dead too." Hera said sombrely
"Oh God. I voted for him."
"Yeah, just a lot of bad news today, huh?"
The Stalkers were getting excited. They had picked up a scent and had started to bark like dogs. Their augmented eyes scanned the jungle, looking for anything that resembled their target. They no longer functioned like Human beings and more like feral animals. They gave mechanical hoots and growls. Their handlers – big-muscled men who wore bulky armour and glowing visors – were hot behind them, not slowing, not even stumbling. Their mission was one of capture, and elimination should their target prove 'uncooperative'.
The Stalkers tore through the night, on the border of the city walls. A guard saw them jump from the shadows, but one of the biomechanical monsters ran into him, pinning the guard against the wall, and then the creatures snapped his neck. The guard dropped without a sound and the stalkers entered the city, Special Forces soldiers right behind them.
"Cartride casings." One of them reported.
"Medium. Suggests assault weapons." The commander analyzed.
"Agreed." The second in command reported
"Prognosis?"
"Identify and Neutralize." the leader said.
A Stalker with red chevrons painted on his chest armour hopped and pounded the ground. "Move! Kill! Suck the life from their bones!" he said with a screeching upward inflection. "We go!"
"Stalkers proving impatient." The leader said.
"Affirmative; recommend proceeding with assault."
"Logical. Dispersing now."
The soldiers broke into two teams sprinting through the night towards King Blaine's castle. People were too scared to come out and check. The few guards who were unfortunate enough to come poking around had the pleasure of being pounced on by the ecstatic Stalkers and having their faces punched until they stopped moving. Their bloodlust was getting stronger. They had been promised that they could rip their targets apart and beat them with their severed limbs. The soldiers promised it, and the Stalkers liked having their promises kept.
"So, what's your plan, BRUTUS? How can you start a war on a whim?"
The ONI agent thought about it. "Well, I will need to contact a few people. There are some who are edging for another war. This is to extract the rebel leaders among the population with soured thoughts of the United Earth Government. Once we draw them out, we can start a 'war' that will destroy them. Actually I wouldn't even call it a 'war'; I would call it a 'contained conflict'. The rebels don't have starships, they don't have any form of FTL flight. They're just a bunch of hicks that have been in the jungle too long. I estimate that this 'war' will barely last longer than a month, a month and a half at the most."
Hera had a shocked look on her face, "There are innocent people here. You might want to find the rebel leaders, but you'll also kill hundreds if they rally?"
"You have to make sacrifices to find a cause. You ever hear of a man named Martin Lowman?"
"No." the Captain said.
"He lived in the late 23rd Century; Lowman once said that a civilization could only survive if they were to root out the one thing that could destroy it. The Romans fell because of internal issues. We are threatened by the same thing. If we can destroy this, we have a chance of surviving."
"A vaunted philosophy." Jackson scoffed.
Suddenly, BRUTUS had a strange look in his eye and put his hand behind his back. "I'm starting to think…" he stepped closer to the group, who took a step back. "…that you don't look like the people that I was expecting."
"You're mistaken, we're agents…!"
"Mister 'Underhill', I think that you and your little group of friends seem to be lying to me. You aren't agents. You don't understand the view we're coming from; you're spies."
He pulled from behind his back a small-caliber pistol and pointed it at the group. "You will put your hands on your head; I will call the guards, and you will return to your cells.
There were battle tactics going through everyone's minds. How could they proceed? It was probable if they tried to move at all, Blaine could get a shot or two off and hit the Captain, who was front and center.
Hera couldn't have that. Her plan was to go with Blaine's orders just to avoid one of them ending up in a morgue somewhere. Jackson and Roan were thinking the exact same thing: they could try to run at the agent and attempt to tackle him, but would someone get shot before that? In the end, it was Vennettilli that said, "Stand down."
That was a kick in the head.
"What?" Jackson exclaimed. "You want to go back to prison?"
"You want to go in a cell where we have a chance, or would you like to end up in a shallow grave in the jungle somewhere?"
Jackson hung her head and her ears fell. "Fuck!" She said.
"I'm sorry." The human said.
Roan nodded, submitting. "We got out once; we can do it again."
BRUTUS smiled in an evil way. "I'll see to it that you won't."
Chris stepped forward. "You know, the brass at ONI named you well. You really are stabbing people in the back, aren't you?"
"I do what I must to get paid. You know what that's like, right?"
The door behind them exploded in a shower of wood and metal. Black-armored soldiers filed in with assault rifles raised, barking orders to each other. Flanking them were the scariest humans that they had ever seen. Twisted, confined to armor, and downright crazy.
"Freeze!" One of the soldiers called.
"Weapon!" Another one said, noticing the gun in BRUTUS' hand. "Fire!"
The guns flared, and before the ONI agent could even explain what was going on, three dozen bullets entered his body and made him recoil like a dancer. The rounds stopped, he placed a hand to one of the many in his chest, looked at the blood on it, and fell flat on his face.
At once, the gang was up, Hera and Jackson led them as they ran for the windows. They were structurally the weakest point on the building and the most logical escape point. They didn't know how high they were off the ground, but anything was better than here.
"Halt!"
"Screw you!" Hera screamed, wanting to get as far away from the deformed killers as she possibly could.
The glass gave way and they free-fell. They then saw that they were about twenty feet above the ground. It wasn't very high, but they did feel the impact, but it was Jackson that landed off balance. Her foot snapped to one side and an audible crack was heard. She gasped and rolled, grabbing her left foot.
"Help!" She screamed. "It's broken!"
One of the feral Humans jumped from the window and landed behind Jackson. It grabbed her foot and jerked it around, as if to break it off entirely. Roan wasn't about to let this happen. He ran back, tackled the creature, wrapped arms around its neck and snapped it quickly. Before Jackson could say anything, Allen lifted her onto his shoulder and started running.
"We need weapons!" Chris said.
"Yeah, but they're gone!" Allen answered.
"Gentlemen, there is a corpse of a guard up ahead. I see there is an LG-494 Assault Carbine. You are free to pick it up, but I detect only twenty rounds in its magazine."
Chris grabbed the gun and sighted it, taking into account the strange diamond-shaped ironsight. They were charging at him. He needed to slip into deep concentration here, he needed to slip into Conditioned Awareness, but they were running too fast. He fired a three round burst that slammed into a charging runner's head, causing it to drop midstride. He altered his aim and hit a second in an arm, which made it trip and fall. The third got five rounds in its face, spattering blood on Vennettilli's face.
"That was easy." He lied. He was terrified for a second. That last one was too close to him, but now the Special Forces soldiers ran after him. They weren't Marines. They had huge muscles that barely fit in their armour and a patch with a black horse within a lightning bolt revealed a lot: These were men from the 142nd Army Regiment out of Bianca Del Toro, but they had so many chemicals put into them they were practically Spartans. Chris actually suspected Rumbledrugs were involved, which increased physical activity to dangerous levels, but they had found a way to keep them standing long enough to gun down their enemies.
"Surrender!"
"I'm tired of this!" He aimed his gun and fired one shot right at the leader's visor. The bullet ricocheted off three centimeters before it touched the man.
"They have shields!" He screamed. He dropped the gun and ran full-tilt into the jungle.
He caught up to the guys outside the border of the city.
"You don't think they're angry that you killed their pet, Captain?" Hera asked.
"Oh no, they're angry alright." Chris said honestly.
"Where did we park the ship?" Jackson asked, but it was tough to take her question seriously since when they turned to talk all they could see was her ass.
"You didn't get the light-blinker keys?" Chris asked with a small smile.
"No actually, I passed them up for the fuzzy dice." Allen fired back.
"There's the jeep!" Hera said pointing with joy. The jungle transport was still there, covered in a natural tarp of leaves and twigs. She wiped those off and started the engine. The lights turned on and the others got in. Roan put Samantha in the passenger seat while he and Chris got in the back.
"Go now!" The Captain ordered.
Abigail hit the gas and the transport leapt forward. The tires spun, catching the dirt and throwing it up. Soon, they were up to speed.
"NICOLE I need you to give me a route to the ship." The Mobian major said.
"I've found it. I can display the route on my console via holographic GPS."
"Do it."
Chris opened NICOLE's shell and activated the hologram. NICOLE's lynx avatar was replaced with a topographical map that showed their position and the best route they should take to get there.
"ETA to the Emerald Fox is fifteen minutes at current speed, assuming of course, the major doesn't develop an affinity for hitting trees."
"I'm no tree-hugger, NICOLE." Hera said, swerving to avoid a group of palms.
Chris found an SMG recovered from the Keating base and slapped a magazine into it. He racked the slide and hefted it in their reverse direction. Sure enough, he saw pinpoints of light as the soldiers came to get them. Chris knew that firing at them was nearly useless as they possessed Forerunner-strength shields, but the hoverbikes they were on were not bulletproof.
These bikes were based on Ghosts from the Covenant Remnant, except with human flair like rearview mirrors, handlebars, and even a faux engine sound for those who wanted it. Now, these strange soldiers had weapons too and they were firing in a pretty tight spread considering they were moving, firing on a moving target whilst accounting for bounces in the ground.
Chris aimed his SMG at the headlights and blew them out. Soon, the hoverbike swerved and hit a tree. Another came to take its place, but it too eventually shut down from all the bullet-holes. The driver was ejected and he flew thirty feet before rolling to a stop.
"Click it or Ticket, my friend!" Chris joked.
It seemed that these guys have had enough and called their ship from orbit. It blended into the night, but strong spotlights searched the jungle floor. A second later, it caught them. The light was looking at the jungle jeep and refused to disappear.
They were approaching the Keating base. Suddenly, NICOLE spoke up.
"I'm within Keating's wi-fi circle! I'm going to override and take control of its defenses!"
"This is gonna be good!" Chris laughed.
The Anti-Air turrets that guarded the entrance of the Keating base whirred to life after three years of inactivity and targeted the black stealth ship. Deep thumping sounded throughout the valley that scared birds as the guns fired. 120mm artillery-grade shells shot at the stealth ship, causing shimmering shields to erupt. After thirty seconds of sustained fire, the shield shattered in a flash of light and ionized air. Now the hull was taking damage. Explosions dotted the body of the ship, and soon, it was forced to pull back, but not before one of its external engines burst into flames. The ship arced across the sky and fell into the distance. The ground rumbled and a cloud of smoke rose into the sky.
"Superior firepower! It's a beautiful thing!" Roan said.
Vennettilli didn't feel guilty about destroying this ship. They had fired on the group with the intent of killing them. According to his military training, anybody who was shooting at him were his targets, and since he was officially no longer part of the UNSC, he was free to engage to his heart's content.
"Hey, you think they'll tell on us?" Chris asked.
NICOLE laughed. "Unless they happen to find an FTL COM station nearby, I think these bad guys are going to be here a long time."
"It's never too late to go native." Jackson joked, despite her twisted foot.
Hera didn't take her foot off the gas until their ship was in sight. They ditched the car and ran on board, and soon, she was in low orbit.
"Thrusters holding us at gyosynch. Ready to plot a course." Hera reported. "Do we leave the system?"
Allen shook his head. "No, I think we owed the Captain something."
Samantha shook her head and swallowed a painkiller. "Yeah, our little way of saying that we care.
COMMAND MASTER CORPORAL CHARLES DEAN MADISON, 182nd MARINE INFANTRY DIVISION.
05/22/3214 - 05/16/3233 KIA~1540hours
That's what the gravestone said. It was a pitiful piece of mass-produced stone with traced and carved letters on it. It didn't do the men and women who lay in these graves justice. Some of the markers were there in place of a body in case none had been recovered. All around his old headquarters where the 182nd Marine Infantry Division was kept, hundreds of gravestones had been erected. Bowman was right.
His thoughts went to Colonel Bowman for a second, and Chris wondered if the man had chosen to escape with his friend or chose to remain in his cell. He pondered this and wondered if he really made the difference offering the man choice. It didn't matter. All that did matter was that he did, regardless of outcome. His mind then got back on track. He stared at the ground in front of the gravestone and realized that there was no earth mound.
Someone had disturbed this grave. He sighed heavily and came to the conclusion that Chuck's body was no longer here, and he knew for a fact that he hadn't been sent home to be given the funeral he deserved. Someone had taken the body.
Chris took off his hat, looked into space and blinked his eyes quickly as tears started to form. Figures. Here he was, dozens of light-years from home, coming to pay his respects to his oldest friend, only to find out that someone had stolen his body from rest. It was very sad for the young man to endure. He couldn't even say goodbye to him.
Chris did see the graves of other people he knew, the body of Lieutenant Kapplin, with a few beautiful flowers growing out of his grave, and Sid Romano, who had taken a sniper's bullet to the head. He did stay one minute over their graves before moving on, giving one final salute to the men he once called brothers. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked to see two of Talahan's moons over the Command center. It was very picturesque. He had heard of something called the 'sublime' that could only be found in nature' an endless supply of beauty that would cause a reaction of awe in whoever saw it.
This was sublime. This was beauty.
NICOLE buzzed in his ear. "Captain, am I disturbing you?"
"No, not at all, NICOLE."
"… Did you find your friend's body?"
"No. It's not here."
She was silent for a second. "I'm sorry. I know he meant a lot to you."
"NICOLE, I'm fine." The young man said. "Did you need me for something?"
"We just received an FTL message. Well, I did anyway. I think it's Sally!"
His heart lifted. "I'll be right there!
They listened to the message intently. The beginning was simple. Sally and Rouge were in Ops in Castle Acorn where they told him about the hunter-killer teams. The Hunters were the big beefcake soldiers, and the Stalkers were the mental cyborgs. Everything she was telling was worthless though because they had already encountered them. Then, they got to something else that changed everything.
"I've done a bit of looking around." Sally's hologram said. "I've figured out that this information that you have in your head is locked, and it needs to be unlocked by something called the cypher."
"Problem is," Rouge's holo added, "we still have no idea what it is. Marshall's men have been going through potential leads like Sonic through a chilli dog convention. Things aren't looking good, but he's sure not to make the same mistakes as you. You're worth a hundred of these men to him. Find out what that cypher is. I can upload all of the data gathered from the Blackgate Research Facility in orbit around Jupiter. That way, you can stand a fair chance, or at least have something to go off of."
"You're getting close." Sally said. "Attention here has been coming off of you, but you're still pretty high on the priority list. The news reports still have you at large and have pinned the destruction of the Elijah Jones on you. I know you didn't do it, but you have a bounty now. Whatever you do, stay away from Earth and Mobius until you have this entire thing figured out!"
Chris nodded as if she could see him.
"Now, If I know the Captain, he will have some troops with him. Can you please leave? Pause the message until they disperse." Sally said with a warm smile.
Vennettilli did so. "You heard her, guys. Get ready to fire the engines."
They left, leaving the Captain alone in the COM room.
"NICOLE, go do a diagnostic and disregard this message. I'd like a little privacy."
"Understood. I'm gone."
He made sure by sealing off the room he was in and making sure the ship's firewalls were in place. Satisfied, he tapped the 'PLAY' button to continue the message. Sally was now all alone as well.
"I'm glad you're alone. I have so many things I want to tell you, so many things I want to say to your face, but you're not here. You can't, and that worries me. I can't bear to ask you for a response because it could risk your safety, and I couldn't put you through that sort of thing. Everyone misses you, even Sonic. He's been very concerned, which is a bit uncharacteristic considering how he feels about you. He means well though." She sniffed, and the fur around her eyes got damp. "I just want you to hold me again! I want you to hug me and tell me it's alright! I'm scared! I'm scared and I don't know what to do!"
"I'm scared too, babe." Chris whispered, hoping by some miracle the message would respond to him.
"Your birthday's coming up soon. You're going to be 26, and I'll be 25 in July! I hope you're back before then! That way we can have a party for you. Then, we can talk about everything you're missing!"
She sniffed again and wiped her nose with her sleeve.
"Don't leave me waiting. It's not like last time where I thought I lost you. I know you're out there now. Just please, please don't respond. I couldn't give you away. Just come back. Come back and solve this whole thing like I know you can. I love you."
"I love you so much." He said with a somber voice. He could only sit there and watch as she cried and there wasn't a thing in the world he could be able to do about it.
He couldn't stand seeing her upset, so he shut down the message.
"Captain?"
His hands balled into fists. "How long were you here for NICOLE?"
"The whole message. I'm sorry, I had to know."
"Why?"
Her hologram appeared in full color. She walked around the room and looked at Chris. "You're really lucky to know her." NICOLE said.
"I know. I miss her so much."
"I know. I do too. I love her."
Vennettilli could have sworn he saw a holographic tear roll down her face.
"You know, if I could have given you a hug… you look like you need one."
"Yes."
He tried, and was surprised to feel resistance as his hands went around her 'body'. "I can feel the warmth."
"What was that?"
"Technology I've been tinkering with, forming force fields to give me the illusion of being solid. It's nice to know you care."
"Of course I do. I do…"
He ran back to the console and started typing a message. It was short, but it was all he needed to say. He selected an address from previous arrivals and sent it on his way.
"You care." NICOLE said smiling.
They exited the COM room, NICOLE's hologram at his side. As long as he wore her computer on his belt, NICOLE would be able to take form within 50 feet.
"So now we need to get this cypher." She said.
"Yeah, but I have no idea where to look." Vennettilli admitted. "I don't even know where to begin."
Suddenly, NICOLE stopped. "Wait, you remember the theory on how the Chaos Emeralds were said to have been used by the Forerunners?"
"Yes."
"If they stored the data in the Chaos Emeralds which jumped to your head, wouldn't it be logical that the Forerunners would know how to get into it?"
It dawned on him. Yes, yes they would! Forerunners were said to be the kings of implanting information within people's heads, even genetically over generations! This had to be the cypher. But where would they need to go?"
"We need to go someplace where we can find something to do with the Forerunners."
NICOLE stood still as data streamed all over her body. Her ears twitched and her eyes were closed. "Accessing star charts…" Her eyes opened and she grinned. "You're in luck, Captain. To the bridge!"
The others regarded NICOLE with surprise for a second as her full-size hologram walked onto the bridge as if she were organic. "Take us up." She ordered.
The engines whined to life as the Emerald Fox rose over the jungle canopy towards space.
"Did you have your alone time?" Hera asked, buckling in.
"Yes." Chris said. "We'll leave it at that."
The ship then broke through the atmosphere. "Do we have a course?" the major asked.
"Indeed." NICOLE said with hands behind her back. "Inputting the co-ordinates for Installation 05."
"Where are we headed?" Allen asked, making sure that he heard what was being said.
"You needed Forerunner technology Chris; we'll go to the technology." The AI said with a smug grin.
The Emerald Fox sliced open space-time, revealing the black of Slipspace. They coasted inside and were flung across the stars.
Sally was brushing her hair in the morning light. She had slept well knowing that her message was away. The one thing that she couldn't get off her mind was that she deliberately told him not to send a response back. She knew that it wasn't the right thing to say, but she needed to protect him. She sighed. It was a big sacrifice, but she was willing to make it.
Her computer pinged, signalling a new message. She almost called for NICOLE to open it, but she remembered she wasn't there. She grabbed her datapad and signed in to see the new message. A smile broke out across her face and a single tear fell on the datapad.
Don't stop believing in me.
I Love You
-C.
Chapter 13: A Shout in the Jungle
May 13th, 3239, 0300 hours
Kingdom of Blaine, Dorsum Province
Talahan V
It was dumbfounding the way that Blaine was suddenly acting, and it caught everyone off-guard.
"Could you say that again?" Roan asked.
"I said you have important things to do! God's sake, don't tell me you're gloating!" the King said.
"What about?" Chris asked.
"Look, I know you ONI agents have a cushy little desk job somewhere, but I've been stuck in this place for six years! You don't know what that's like, not having contact with the rest of the organization."
"You're ONI?" the Captain asked, playing it up. He knew a weak link in the chain when he saw one.
"Yes, long-term insertion team. And who are you?"
"Section 3." Chris quickly reported. "We're here to monitor your progress."
"You're very subtle in your approach, Mister…"
"Captain Frank Underhill." Chris improvised. "My name's Underhill."
King Blaine nodded. "Underhill."
"This is Agent Kathrin Chicolini" he said nodding to Hera, "Agent KITFOX." Nodding to Samantha, "And this is my very good friend and Agent, Mister Kayzer Söze." He said placing a hand on Roan's shoulder.
Hera crossed her arms. "Now we've told you who we are, who are you?"
Blaine paced. "I am Agent BRUTUS. I'm with Section 2, Propaganda and Espionage."
Brutus
Roan said, "Can you clarify your mission to us? In the little haste of our predicament, we forgot the details."
BRUTUS smiled. "Aren't you going to ask me?"
"Ask you what?" Vennettilli asked.
"Ask me how I knew you were with ONI, Mister Underhill."
"Alright, indulge me."
BRUTUS paced again. "Well, you're definitely not with the UNSC. You're too smart for them. No self-respecting military force would throw four people into a mission and come out alive, and you're not Special Forces because you're hardly armed to the teeth. You orchestrated your little jailbreak to get to me. Ingenious."
It was actually Jackson who thought, I think King Blaine's been breathing in that fresh jungle air for too long.
Even though his judgement and deduction skills were way off the mark, Chris smiled, playing to BRUTUS as if he was correct. It worked the entire better to sell their deception. "You're amazing."
"I try." The king said, "Now, Agent Underhill, you wished to hear the information that I was able to dig up?"
"That would be nice."
"I was stationed here six years ago before the end of the Talahan War. I'm sure you remember it?"
"Yes." Chris said with hidden ire.
"Well, ONI stationed me here for some project. Wasn't until a dead drop with another agent that I was able to put the pieces together. I was instructed to monitor the people on Talahan should we win the war. As you know, Fukoma went under and we won the war. Then my real mission began: I was to unite the Talahan people as a leader and gather who the rebel leaders were."
"Then what?" Jackson asked.
"Well, my mission was to make sure everything was in order and wait for ONI Agents to authorize the next part of my assignment. Well, I've been waiting for six years, living like a god, and now, the next part of my mission can begin. I'm going to start a war with the UNSC."
Now they finally understood the name. BRUTUS, the man who stabbed Ceaser, his own friend, in the back. This agent was doing his job and leading these citizens into a war that he knew they could not win. Maybe that was the point.
"Who authorized this mission?"
"Is this important?"
"Agent BRUTUS." Chris began, "in order for me to correctly file my report, I will need to know who authorized your original mission. Can you help me out so I don't have as much paperwork to worry about when I go back to Seattle?"
BRUTUS sat down in his chair. "I was originally given the assignment by General Assembly Minister Troy Marshall.
That was a major kick to the gut. To find out that Marshall was behind a plot to start a war was just shocking. These were innocent people and he wanted to finish the job or something like that!
"He's president now."
"Really! Did he defeat Cleary?"
"Cleary's dead."
"Vice President Tarasovich?
"Dead too." Hera said sombrely
"Oh God. I voted for him."
"Yeah, just a lot of bad news today, huh?"
The Stalkers were getting excited. They had picked up a scent and had started to bark like dogs. Their augmented eyes scanned the jungle, looking for anything that resembled their target. They no longer functioned like Human beings and more like feral animals. They gave mechanical hoots and growls. Their handlers – big-muscled men who wore bulky armour and glowing visors – were hot behind them, not slowing, not even stumbling. Their mission was one of capture, and elimination should their target prove 'uncooperative'.
The Stalkers tore through the night, on the border of the city walls. A guard saw them jump from the shadows, but one of the biomechanical monsters ran into him, pinning the guard against the wall, and then the creatures snapped his neck. The guard dropped without a sound and the stalkers entered the city, Special Forces soldiers right behind them.
"Cartride casings." One of them reported.
"Medium. Suggests assault weapons." The commander analyzed.
"Agreed." The second in command reported
"Prognosis?"
"Identify and Neutralize." the leader said.
A Stalker with red chevrons painted on his chest armour hopped and pounded the ground. "Move! Kill! Suck the life from their bones!" he said with a screeching upward inflection. "We go!"
"Stalkers proving impatient." The leader said.
"Affirmative; recommend proceeding with assault."
"Logical. Dispersing now."
The soldiers broke into two teams sprinting through the night towards King Blaine's castle. People were too scared to come out and check. The few guards who were unfortunate enough to come poking around had the pleasure of being pounced on by the ecstatic Stalkers and having their faces punched until they stopped moving. Their bloodlust was getting stronger. They had been promised that they could rip their targets apart and beat them with their severed limbs. The soldiers promised it, and the Stalkers liked having their promises kept.
"So, what's your plan, BRUTUS? How can you start a war on a whim?"
The ONI agent thought about it. "Well, I will need to contact a few people. There are some who are edging for another war. This is to extract the rebel leaders among the population with soured thoughts of the United Earth Government. Once we draw them out, we can start a 'war' that will destroy them. Actually I wouldn't even call it a 'war'; I would call it a 'contained conflict'. The rebels don't have starships, they don't have any form of FTL flight. They're just a bunch of hicks that have been in the jungle too long. I estimate that this 'war' will barely last longer than a month, a month and a half at the most."
Hera had a shocked look on her face, "There are innocent people here. You might want to find the rebel leaders, but you'll also kill hundreds if they rally?"
"You have to make sacrifices to find a cause. You ever hear of a man named Martin Lowman?"
"No." the Captain said.
"He lived in the late 23rd Century; Lowman once said that a civilization could only survive if they were to root out the one thing that could destroy it. The Romans fell because of internal issues. We are threatened by the same thing. If we can destroy this, we have a chance of surviving."
"A vaunted philosophy." Jackson scoffed.
Suddenly, BRUTUS had a strange look in his eye and put his hand behind his back. "I'm starting to think…" he stepped closer to the group, who took a step back. "…that you don't look like the people that I was expecting."
"You're mistaken, we're agents…!"
"Mister 'Underhill', I think that you and your little group of friends seem to be lying to me. You aren't agents. You don't understand the view we're coming from; you're spies."
He pulled from behind his back a small-caliber pistol and pointed it at the group. "You will put your hands on your head; I will call the guards, and you will return to your cells.
There were battle tactics going through everyone's minds. How could they proceed? It was probable if they tried to move at all, Blaine could get a shot or two off and hit the Captain, who was front and center.
Hera couldn't have that. Her plan was to go with Blaine's orders just to avoid one of them ending up in a morgue somewhere. Jackson and Roan were thinking the exact same thing: they could try to run at the agent and attempt to tackle him, but would someone get shot before that? In the end, it was Vennettilli that said, "Stand down."
That was a kick in the head.
"What?" Jackson exclaimed. "You want to go back to prison?"
"You want to go in a cell where we have a chance, or would you like to end up in a shallow grave in the jungle somewhere?"
Jackson hung her head and her ears fell. "Fuck!" She said.
"I'm sorry." The human said.
Roan nodded, submitting. "We got out once; we can do it again."
BRUTUS smiled in an evil way. "I'll see to it that you won't."
Chris stepped forward. "You know, the brass at ONI named you well. You really are stabbing people in the back, aren't you?"
"I do what I must to get paid. You know what that's like, right?"
The door behind them exploded in a shower of wood and metal. Black-armored soldiers filed in with assault rifles raised, barking orders to each other. Flanking them were the scariest humans that they had ever seen. Twisted, confined to armor, and downright crazy.
"Freeze!" One of the soldiers called.
"Weapon!" Another one said, noticing the gun in BRUTUS' hand. "Fire!"
The guns flared, and before the ONI agent could even explain what was going on, three dozen bullets entered his body and made him recoil like a dancer. The rounds stopped, he placed a hand to one of the many in his chest, looked at the blood on it, and fell flat on his face.
At once, the gang was up, Hera and Jackson led them as they ran for the windows. They were structurally the weakest point on the building and the most logical escape point. They didn't know how high they were off the ground, but anything was better than here.
"Halt!"
"Screw you!" Hera screamed, wanting to get as far away from the deformed killers as she possibly could.
The glass gave way and they free-fell. They then saw that they were about twenty feet above the ground. It wasn't very high, but they did feel the impact, but it was Jackson that landed off balance. Her foot snapped to one side and an audible crack was heard. She gasped and rolled, grabbing her left foot.
"Help!" She screamed. "It's broken!"
One of the feral Humans jumped from the window and landed behind Jackson. It grabbed her foot and jerked it around, as if to break it off entirely. Roan wasn't about to let this happen. He ran back, tackled the creature, wrapped arms around its neck and snapped it quickly. Before Jackson could say anything, Allen lifted her onto his shoulder and started running.
"We need weapons!" Chris said.
"Yeah, but they're gone!" Allen answered.
"Gentlemen, there is a corpse of a guard up ahead. I see there is an LG-494 Assault Carbine. You are free to pick it up, but I detect only twenty rounds in its magazine."
Chris grabbed the gun and sighted it, taking into account the strange diamond-shaped ironsight. They were charging at him. He needed to slip into deep concentration here, he needed to slip into Conditioned Awareness, but they were running too fast. He fired a three round burst that slammed into a charging runner's head, causing it to drop midstride. He altered his aim and hit a second in an arm, which made it trip and fall. The third got five rounds in its face, spattering blood on Vennettilli's face.
"That was easy." He lied. He was terrified for a second. That last one was too close to him, but now the Special Forces soldiers ran after him. They weren't Marines. They had huge muscles that barely fit in their armour and a patch with a black horse within a lightning bolt revealed a lot: These were men from the 142nd Army Regiment out of Bianca Del Toro, but they had so many chemicals put into them they were practically Spartans. Chris actually suspected Rumbledrugs were involved, which increased physical activity to dangerous levels, but they had found a way to keep them standing long enough to gun down their enemies.
"Surrender!"
"I'm tired of this!" He aimed his gun and fired one shot right at the leader's visor. The bullet ricocheted off three centimeters before it touched the man.
"They have shields!" He screamed. He dropped the gun and ran full-tilt into the jungle.
He caught up to the guys outside the border of the city.
"You don't think they're angry that you killed their pet, Captain?" Hera asked.
"Oh no, they're angry alright." Chris said honestly.
"Where did we park the ship?" Jackson asked, but it was tough to take her question seriously since when they turned to talk all they could see was her ass.
"You didn't get the light-blinker keys?" Chris asked with a small smile.
"No actually, I passed them up for the fuzzy dice." Allen fired back.
"There's the jeep!" Hera said pointing with joy. The jungle transport was still there, covered in a natural tarp of leaves and twigs. She wiped those off and started the engine. The lights turned on and the others got in. Roan put Samantha in the passenger seat while he and Chris got in the back.
"Go now!" The Captain ordered.
Abigail hit the gas and the transport leapt forward. The tires spun, catching the dirt and throwing it up. Soon, they were up to speed.
"NICOLE I need you to give me a route to the ship." The Mobian major said.
"I've found it. I can display the route on my console via holographic GPS."
"Do it."
Chris opened NICOLE's shell and activated the hologram. NICOLE's lynx avatar was replaced with a topographical map that showed their position and the best route they should take to get there.
"ETA to the Emerald Fox is fifteen minutes at current speed, assuming of course, the major doesn't develop an affinity for hitting trees."
"I'm no tree-hugger, NICOLE." Hera said, swerving to avoid a group of palms.
Chris found an SMG recovered from the Keating base and slapped a magazine into it. He racked the slide and hefted it in their reverse direction. Sure enough, he saw pinpoints of light as the soldiers came to get them. Chris knew that firing at them was nearly useless as they possessed Forerunner-strength shields, but the hoverbikes they were on were not bulletproof.
These bikes were based on Ghosts from the Covenant Remnant, except with human flair like rearview mirrors, handlebars, and even a faux engine sound for those who wanted it. Now, these strange soldiers had weapons too and they were firing in a pretty tight spread considering they were moving, firing on a moving target whilst accounting for bounces in the ground.
Chris aimed his SMG at the headlights and blew them out. Soon, the hoverbike swerved and hit a tree. Another came to take its place, but it too eventually shut down from all the bullet-holes. The driver was ejected and he flew thirty feet before rolling to a stop.
"Click it or Ticket, my friend!" Chris joked.
It seemed that these guys have had enough and called their ship from orbit. It blended into the night, but strong spotlights searched the jungle floor. A second later, it caught them. The light was looking at the jungle jeep and refused to disappear.
They were approaching the Keating base. Suddenly, NICOLE spoke up.
"I'm within Keating's wi-fi circle! I'm going to override and take control of its defenses!"
"This is gonna be good!" Chris laughed.
The Anti-Air turrets that guarded the entrance of the Keating base whirred to life after three years of inactivity and targeted the black stealth ship. Deep thumping sounded throughout the valley that scared birds as the guns fired. 120mm artillery-grade shells shot at the stealth ship, causing shimmering shields to erupt. After thirty seconds of sustained fire, the shield shattered in a flash of light and ionized air. Now the hull was taking damage. Explosions dotted the body of the ship, and soon, it was forced to pull back, but not before one of its external engines burst into flames. The ship arced across the sky and fell into the distance. The ground rumbled and a cloud of smoke rose into the sky.
"Superior firepower! It's a beautiful thing!" Roan said.
Vennettilli didn't feel guilty about destroying this ship. They had fired on the group with the intent of killing them. According to his military training, anybody who was shooting at him were his targets, and since he was officially no longer part of the UNSC, he was free to engage to his heart's content.
"Hey, you think they'll tell on us?" Chris asked.
NICOLE laughed. "Unless they happen to find an FTL COM station nearby, I think these bad guys are going to be here a long time."
"It's never too late to go native." Jackson joked, despite her twisted foot.
Hera didn't take her foot off the gas until their ship was in sight. They ditched the car and ran on board, and soon, she was in low orbit.
"Thrusters holding us at gyosynch. Ready to plot a course." Hera reported. "Do we leave the system?"
Allen shook his head. "No, I think we owed the Captain something."
Samantha shook her head and swallowed a painkiller. "Yeah, our little way of saying that we care.
COMMAND MASTER CORPORAL CHARLES DEAN MADISON, 182nd MARINE INFANTRY DIVISION.
05/22/3214 - 05/16/3233 KIA~1540hours
That's what the gravestone said. It was a pitiful piece of mass-produced stone with traced and carved letters on it. It didn't do the men and women who lay in these graves justice. Some of the markers were there in place of a body in case none had been recovered. All around his old headquarters where the 182nd Marine Infantry Division was kept, hundreds of gravestones had been erected. Bowman was right.
His thoughts went to Colonel Bowman for a second, and Chris wondered if the man had chosen to escape with his friend or chose to remain in his cell. He pondered this and wondered if he really made the difference offering the man choice. It didn't matter. All that did matter was that he did, regardless of outcome. His mind then got back on track. He stared at the ground in front of the gravestone and realized that there was no earth mound.
Someone had disturbed this grave. He sighed heavily and came to the conclusion that Chuck's body was no longer here, and he knew for a fact that he hadn't been sent home to be given the funeral he deserved. Someone had taken the body.
Chris took off his hat, looked into space and blinked his eyes quickly as tears started to form. Figures. Here he was, dozens of light-years from home, coming to pay his respects to his oldest friend, only to find out that someone had stolen his body from rest. It was very sad for the young man to endure. He couldn't even say goodbye to him.
Chris did see the graves of other people he knew, the body of Lieutenant Kapplin, with a few beautiful flowers growing out of his grave, and Sid Romano, who had taken a sniper's bullet to the head. He did stay one minute over their graves before moving on, giving one final salute to the men he once called brothers. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked to see two of Talahan's moons over the Command center. It was very picturesque. He had heard of something called the 'sublime' that could only be found in nature' an endless supply of beauty that would cause a reaction of awe in whoever saw it.
This was sublime. This was beauty.
NICOLE buzzed in his ear. "Captain, am I disturbing you?"
"No, not at all, NICOLE."
"… Did you find your friend's body?"
"No. It's not here."
She was silent for a second. "I'm sorry. I know he meant a lot to you."
"NICOLE, I'm fine." The young man said. "Did you need me for something?"
"We just received an FTL message. Well, I did anyway. I think it's Sally!"
His heart lifted. "I'll be right there!
They listened to the message intently. The beginning was simple. Sally and Rouge were in Ops in Castle Acorn where they told him about the hunter-killer teams. The Hunters were the big beefcake soldiers, and the Stalkers were the mental cyborgs. Everything she was telling was worthless though because they had already encountered them. Then, they got to something else that changed everything.
"I've done a bit of looking around." Sally's hologram said. "I've figured out that this information that you have in your head is locked, and it needs to be unlocked by something called the cypher."
"Problem is," Rouge's holo added, "we still have no idea what it is. Marshall's men have been going through potential leads like Sonic through a chilli dog convention. Things aren't looking good, but he's sure not to make the same mistakes as you. You're worth a hundred of these men to him. Find out what that cypher is. I can upload all of the data gathered from the Blackgate Research Facility in orbit around Jupiter. That way, you can stand a fair chance, or at least have something to go off of."
"You're getting close." Sally said. "Attention here has been coming off of you, but you're still pretty high on the priority list. The news reports still have you at large and have pinned the destruction of the Elijah Jones on you. I know you didn't do it, but you have a bounty now. Whatever you do, stay away from Earth and Mobius until you have this entire thing figured out!"
Chris nodded as if she could see him.
"Now, If I know the Captain, he will have some troops with him. Can you please leave? Pause the message until they disperse." Sally said with a warm smile.
Vennettilli did so. "You heard her, guys. Get ready to fire the engines."
They left, leaving the Captain alone in the COM room.
"NICOLE, go do a diagnostic and disregard this message. I'd like a little privacy."
"Understood. I'm gone."
He made sure by sealing off the room he was in and making sure the ship's firewalls were in place. Satisfied, he tapped the 'PLAY' button to continue the message. Sally was now all alone as well.
"I'm glad you're alone. I have so many things I want to tell you, so many things I want to say to your face, but you're not here. You can't, and that worries me. I can't bear to ask you for a response because it could risk your safety, and I couldn't put you through that sort of thing. Everyone misses you, even Sonic. He's been very concerned, which is a bit uncharacteristic considering how he feels about you. He means well though." She sniffed, and the fur around her eyes got damp. "I just want you to hold me again! I want you to hug me and tell me it's alright! I'm scared! I'm scared and I don't know what to do!"
"I'm scared too, babe." Chris whispered, hoping by some miracle the message would respond to him.
"Your birthday's coming up soon. You're going to be 26, and I'll be 25 in July! I hope you're back before then! That way we can have a party for you. Then, we can talk about everything you're missing!"
She sniffed again and wiped her nose with her sleeve.
"Don't leave me waiting. It's not like last time where I thought I lost you. I know you're out there now. Just please, please don't respond. I couldn't give you away. Just come back. Come back and solve this whole thing like I know you can. I love you."
"I love you so much." He said with a somber voice. He could only sit there and watch as she cried and there wasn't a thing in the world he could be able to do about it.
He couldn't stand seeing her upset, so he shut down the message.
"Captain?"
His hands balled into fists. "How long were you here for NICOLE?"
"The whole message. I'm sorry, I had to know."
"Why?"
Her hologram appeared in full color. She walked around the room and looked at Chris. "You're really lucky to know her." NICOLE said.
"I know. I miss her so much."
"I know. I do too. I love her."
Vennettilli could have sworn he saw a holographic tear roll down her face.
"You know, if I could have given you a hug… you look like you need one."
"Yes."
He tried, and was surprised to feel resistance as his hands went around her 'body'. "I can feel the warmth."
"What was that?"
"Technology I've been tinkering with, forming force fields to give me the illusion of being solid. It's nice to know you care."
"Of course I do. I do…"
He ran back to the console and started typing a message. It was short, but it was all he needed to say. He selected an address from previous arrivals and sent it on his way.
"You care." NICOLE said smiling.
They exited the COM room, NICOLE's hologram at his side. As long as he wore her computer on his belt, NICOLE would be able to take form within 50 feet.
"So now we need to get this cypher." She said.
"Yeah, but I have no idea where to look." Vennettilli admitted. "I don't even know where to begin."
Suddenly, NICOLE stopped. "Wait, you remember the theory on how the Chaos Emeralds were said to have been used by the Forerunners?"
"Yes."
"If they stored the data in the Chaos Emeralds which jumped to your head, wouldn't it be logical that the Forerunners would know how to get into it?"
It dawned on him. Yes, yes they would! Forerunners were said to be the kings of implanting information within people's heads, even genetically over generations! This had to be the cypher. But where would they need to go?"
"We need to go someplace where we can find something to do with the Forerunners."
NICOLE stood still as data streamed all over her body. Her ears twitched and her eyes were closed. "Accessing star charts…" Her eyes opened and she grinned. "You're in luck, Captain. To the bridge!"
The others regarded NICOLE with surprise for a second as her full-size hologram walked onto the bridge as if she were organic. "Take us up." She ordered.
The engines whined to life as the Emerald Fox rose over the jungle canopy towards space.
"Did you have your alone time?" Hera asked, buckling in.
"Yes." Chris said. "We'll leave it at that."
The ship then broke through the atmosphere. "Do we have a course?" the major asked.
"Indeed." NICOLE said with hands behind her back. "Inputting the co-ordinates for Installation 05."
"Where are we headed?" Allen asked, making sure that he heard what was being said.
"You needed Forerunner technology Chris; we'll go to the technology." The AI said with a smug grin.
The Emerald Fox sliced open space-time, revealing the black of Slipspace. They coasted inside and were flung across the stars.
Sally was brushing her hair in the morning light. She had slept well knowing that her message was away. The one thing that she couldn't get off her mind was that she deliberately told him not to send a response back. She knew that it wasn't the right thing to say, but she needed to protect him. She sighed. It was a big sacrifice, but she was willing to make it.
Her computer pinged, signalling a new message. She almost called for NICOLE to open it, but she remembered she wasn't there. She grabbed her datapad and signed in to see the new message. A smile broke out across her face and a single tear fell on the datapad.
Don't stop believing in me.
I Love You
-C.
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