A Proper Shakedown [Dead Thread]

"Maxen wake up."

"Lieutenant, wake up!"

"Shit Corona, what's up? You don't wake me without good reason, I know."

"Incoming signal to the Blacklight, a Broken Arrow alert from the Marine garrison on Khatai 4."

"Well shit. Looks like the Blacklight is gonna get a better shakedown than Paulson thought, better get to it."

I grabbed my gear and started putting it on as fast as I could. Corona briefed me, at my request, on Khatai 4. He paused for a second as he took up residence in my Command Module, transferring from his data-tank. He then picked up where he left off but now inside my helmet.

I turned the audio emitters on my helmet to maximum and rushed out my hatch into the corridor.

"Out of the racks troopers! Get up, move it dammit, out of the rack!" I ran past every hatch beating on it and screaming at the people inside. I had long ago discovered that if you yell loud enough, someone will show up to investigate the noise. That was in essence what I was doing now. The first heads began to emerge from their quarters, looking out confusedly into the hallway.

"Don't look at me like you don't know who the fuck I am! Gear up, we have a Broken Arrow alert and are dropping in less than 20. Briefing in the drop bay in 10, so get it in gear Helljumpers!"

I arrived at Lance Corporal Virzi's door. She was my newest trooper, by no means green, just new to my platoon. Her file said she was as hard hitting as they came, loyal and as ferocious as any man. All qualities I dearly loved.

"Alright Lance Corporal, get it in gear. You can't fight the enemies of the UNSC with your face in a data pad, R&R is over."

She smirked a bit and hopped out of her rack, tossing the data pad aside. I ran on to the next door and repeated the process until everyone had emerged from their rooms and began filing down the corridor to the pod bays.

6 minutes after the first Helljumpers was rudely interrupted by me, they were all standing on line in the pod bay. These troopers were on sight today. I briefed them.


"Khatai 4 just sent a Broken Arrow. You know what that means, mass casualties, lines overran, everything has gone to shit. It seems the Covenant have launched a first strike, this is a new offensive and they're here for something. Today, their objective doesn't matter. We are going to save as many Marines as we can. So get in your pods and let's get this party started."

Everyone filed into their pods, I walked past and checked every single one, all 25 of them, finally ending with my checking Staff Sergeant Gamble's. He was my platoon sergeant, a no nonsense veteran who was as salty as they came. I trait I admired. He growled a greeting at me and chomped on his non-regulation cigar as I smiled and turned to my own pod."

"Corona. Send Paulson this message "In the chute, hit the button when ready.""

Several seconds passed and the response came.

"Prepare to Drop." That phrase still gave me chills, and I welcomed them.

My pod crashed through a line of trees, beyond the questing tendrils of Covenant AA fire. I felt immensely glad of that. Then as usual, that feeling disappeared as quickly as it came when Corona, ever the bearer of news I don't want to hear, gave me a SitRep.

"Gamble made it down, Maxen. Looks like all his pods are intact. I registered some glancing blows but it looks like Paulson's idea to send the chaff first worked as expected. Our pods however didn't come down so easily. Corporal Schafer had a malfunction, it infuriates me to say that I have no explanation for it. One moment it was fine, the next it was spiraling into the cliff with no power." 
I ground my teeth as my pod landed, it's safety thrusters kicking in and starting a small fire through the patch of trees and underbrush I traveled through. I then spoke through clenched teeth, my voice was harsher than I intended. 

"Anything else?"

"Lance Corporal Virzi's pod went horizontal as it came down through the trees. Her pod's safety thrusters activated as planned and..." His voice trailed off.

"She had a very personal visit with a tree, shit. Is she alive?" 

"She is. But she's unconscious and Covenant forces are moving in on her location, recommend immediate action." I nodded as the hatch blew open and I slapped the quick release harness button on my chest. I grabbed my rifle as I leapt out and polarized my visor. 

"Open a comm channel to Gamble, I need a SitRep." 

"Aye. Link established, chat away old timers." 

"Thank you, tape recorder." 

"Sir?" The low gravelly voice of my Platoon Sergeant filled my ears and I silently cursed Corona. For a Dumb AI, he was just as sneaky as a Smart one, he made me wonder sometimes.

"Nothing, Staff Sergeant. Just arguing with the voices in my head. Give me a SitRep." 

A burst of gunfire, followed by labored breathing and a scuttling noise could be heard as Gamble moved to a new position. "Bout' as good as can be expected, L.T. We've linked up with what's left of the marines, about a platoon of them, and we are trying now to punch out the perimeter away from the bunkers. The infantry is getting too close." 

He paused for a second, yelling orders over his external mic. I winced as his gravelly voice boomed in my ear. 

"This plan has pros and cons, sir. Stay too close to the bunkers, infantry may get through, that's a con. But the pro is that they won't fire the artillery into their own troops." 

I understood what he was getting at, "punch out too far and the infantry will be less likely to get to the civies, but they will then be able to fire their artillery freely at the bunkers and your men." 
Gamble grunted an affirmative and I crouched down in the underbrush near Virzi's pod. The fire from her descent had died down and now all was smoking wreckage. 

"I've got a bit of a situation of my own, Staff Sergeant. Give me 15 minutes and I'll see what we can do about the artillery. Punch out 500meters from the bunkers and get into cover as best you can."

"Aye, sir. See you in 15, Gamble out."

Now that, that situation was for the moment under control, I focused on the one in front of me.

"We won't be recovering that... Corona, any movement in the area?" 

He didn't bother to tell me that heat signatures would be useless in this fiery mess, he knew that I already knew. We had to rely on good-ole motion tracking. 
"Nothing that isn't natural. I'll devote more processing power to checking scanners." 

His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. It's what happens when a Dumb AI is nearing its maximum task load. I didn't mention anything and I moved towards Virizi. 

"What a right mess we have here Lance Corporal... Lets see about getting you out of this pod..." As I reached down to press the quick release button I saw that it was a fused lump of metal, her pod environ must have been breached before she even made it down. Shit. I unlocked the neck ring seal on her helm and checked myself. She may be injured. 

"Corona. Devote power from motion scanning to MediScan. I want to know her condition. I'll keep watch." 

"Aye. Working."

My eyes narrowed and my voice took on a warning tone. He still had that same flat voice, trying to do too much.

"Corona.... MediScan. Let me keep a watch for motion, I need you to focus." 

"Fine, fine, I'll make sure she's still alive. But if you take a plasma bolt to the chest because of your inferior human vision, don't come crying to me!" 

"Better, thank you Corona." 

Nothing was moving in the dense forest in front of me. That was good. I thought about the other Troopers that had landed with me. With luck, they had converged on Sergeant Crazick and were amassing at the base of the cliff, ready to make an ascent. 

"MediScan complete. She's fine, just a bit banged up. Her suit did it's job and kept her alive through the heat." 

I breathed easier and continued with my taking the helmet off. As if on cue, several things happened at once. Corona said "Contact spotted, six o'clock, 8 in total. Moving to engage." In this same instant, plasma stuttered into the pod around us and I covered Viriz's unconscious form with my body, taking several hits before the salvo ended.
I unslung my rifle and turned to engage, Corona lit up the contacts for me in bright amber.

Five Unggoy, 2 Kig-Yar, and a single Jiralhane had formed a rough semi-circle and began moving to press the attack. I threw a grenade at the Brute, causing him to roar and leap backwards. The blast still shorted his shielding. 

My rifle barked in several short bursts as two of the diminutive aliens dropped in pools of their oddly bioluminescent blood. I continued firing. Corona chirped in my ear.
"Kig-Yar attempting to flank left, 10 o'clock. "

I fired at it, scoring a hit before it's shield snapped into place. I couldn't move from the pod, it was the only thing keeping them from getting in behind me and I was the only thing between them and Virzi. 

The brute roared again, sending a wave of bright red spikes towards me, the brutal gun made and even more brutal noise when it fired. If such a thing was possible. I fired back, making it keep it's head down. The alien barked as I scored a hit.

I killed the other grunts and one of the Kig-Yar with my second grenade, they flew apart like some sort of gory confetti. I didn't pause to admire my work. The remaining Kig-Yar fell back, but neglected to cover its feet. I shot it there. It fell to a knee and received the rest of a magazine of ammunition into its torso, ripping the slender alien apart. 

Now my focus was solely on the Brute that was barreling towards me. He looked rather upset. I fired into his advance. He was going to fast to avoid all the rounds I spewed at him. At least a dozen hit home and staggered him. I had no desire to get in close with such a monster if I didn't have to. I reloaded, with practiced ease, and fired another magazine. This time he went down for good. His body shuddering one last time and his roar dying in his throat. 

I slumped down against the pod and looked over at Virzi. She seemed to be waking up. 

"Have a nice nap, Lance Corporal? I swear, you could sleep through a hurricane. Let's get you out of this thing." 

Virzi got out of her pod, taking my proffered hand as she did so. Corona chirped in my ear,
"For a first date, the location isn't bad. But the execution could have gone a little better." 


I smirked behind my visor, wishing desperately to wipe the sweat accumulating on my brow away, and said "hey, I wasn't the one driving." 

The AI huffed and was silent again. I looked around us, the dark forest was full of low hanging and oppressive foliage that looked set to swallow us whole and make us disappear forever. I hated forests for that specific reason, I can't see what's hiding in them. According to my armor, the outside temperature was well above a comfortable warmth and was bordering on the line between "I am melting" and "it's fucking hot." Thank god for environmentally sealed armor.

My thoughts snapped back to the situation at hand. "Set a waypoint for a sergeant Crazick please, Corona." A small blue arrow appeared at the top of my HUD. "Thank you." I still got no response. I wondered what he was up to.

Sergeant Crazick was the trooper I'd placed in charge of this wing of the operation. Gamble, of course had the other. I maintained full overall command but I chose not to exercise that right unless absolutely necessary, men will never grow as leaders if someone second guesses and checks behind everything they do. I lend my gun, and offer support in any number of ways, should it be needed. 
My not being needed right in the midst of everything is what allowed me to focus on going off on my own and doing things like rescuing Virzi, Reconing areas I think we may need to check out, and lastly, observe how my chosen leaders do their jobs. Crazick was a solid man and very versatile in his abilities and how he could use them, he's the kind of man I wanted leading my troops.

I began focusing more on myself and I felt my body coming off what doctors' had dubbed "Combat High." This is the collective term used to describe all the different things a person's body does when they enter and exit a fight. Adrenaline, muscle constriction, dry mouth, random itches, increased heart rate, elevated stress levels, and the occasional bouts of extreme hunger. 

The burning sensation of adrenaline that had filled my bloodstream moments ago, was ebbing. The feeling that took place of my Combat High was an uncomfortable feeling that I was all too familiar with: lactic acid, fatigue, and aching pains. It now coursed through my legs and arms and I felt every bit of it as I walked. With the acid in my muscles came the small bit of bile in the back of my throat all these things indicated one thing: I was scared shitless. 

I had often wished that I could be as calm under fire as someone like Gamble. He is always right at home, no matter the situation. Me? If I had a credit for every time I've almost shit myself, broken out in a sweat, or almost frozen at the wrong moment, I'd be able to retire before I turned 30. 

My main concern is not for me, but for my troops. What if one day I fucked up and get someone killed? I mean, I've always known that the price of command is knowing sometimes I'll have to send people out to die. It's the hardest part for me to come to grips with. Maybe I shouldn't be able to. If I did, would that mean something was wrong with me? 

Now is not the time for this line of thought, I decided. I resigned to focus on keeping my troops alive and hopefully not have to find the answers to any of those questions. I looked up as we made our way through the dense jungle, wet leaves and branches slapping my visor and leaving soupy residue all over it, which I then wiped off with my forearm. It was not a fun trek through these woods. Tendrils of roots everywhere, vines with ill intentions, and the prevalence of shit that wanted to hit me in the face as I passed, all served to annoy me and simultaneously ensure extreme caution as I moved. 
As Virzi and I made our way towards the rally point where Crazick was hopefully waiting, I glanced up at my map marker every once in a while to ensure we were still moving on the right track. It had been a while since Corona spoke to me and I was curious as to what he was up to. So I asked. "Corona, what are you doing?" I am tired of his silence, he's usually chirping away at me. Frequently that annoys me but just as often I find him to be very amusing. 

"I'm doing a puzzle, if you must know."

"What the hell, Corona? A puzzle? We are trying to conduct a military operation and you are doing a puzzle." My tone became mocking and I knew I looked like an idiot to Virizi, waving my arms around and speaking on a closed channel. Oh well, I didn't often get to let my stress out on Corona.

"Oh never mind the meat bags, if they get aerated with spikes or cooked with plasma it's ok because my fucking puzzle will be spic and span. Next I think I'll work on my virtual zen garden and rake nice little concentric circles into it. Wouldn't that be fun, Maxen? Oh wait, you're dead. Too bad, this completed puzzle sure is cool! It's a neat picture of a little billy goat. Real shame you can't see it."

Corona came back, testily stating "I didn't think dead people talked."

I sighed, I decided to cave and ask what the puzzle was. He was probably doing something that would make me look stupid now that I'd had my fun, oh well.

"What type of puzzle is it, what is it's purpose?" 

"Covenant Encryption is like a puzzle in its design. A Smart AI could have this open in less than a second. Me? It's taken my the past minute to get halfway, it's really infuriating. Your constant inane chatter isn't helping any, old man." 

"Alright Tape Recorder, I get it. You need peace and quiet so you can slowly churn through those big and difficult encryptions, it's ok that you need a little more time. You're special." 

"Sometimes you're such an immature prick, Maxen." 

"And sometimes you're a completely intolerable asshole, that's why this is a private channel. Now. What are you opening with your puzzle solving skills?" 

"Methane reserves. If I get through, I can open them all and just release the stuff. Mass murder, ready made." 

"No shit. I don't have to pay you for this do I?" 

"I count being chauffeured around as payment enough, though if you could try to bounce a little less in the future, that'd be great. It really jostles my delicate puzzle pieces and might upset the garden too." 

I smiled and continued following my waypoint, with yet another wet branch leaving its fucking slime over my field of vision. I was pretty sure that Corona won that exchange, but I didn't really care. We both knew it's a coping mechanism for me. Or after several years of being locked in what amounts to a janitor's closet for AI's, maybe he will take all the conversing he can get. Either way, I'm glad he's here.

We approached the location my waypoint dictated, the forest finally thinning out into a shrub and grass filled clearing. The sounds of explosions and gunfire erupted from in front of us when we approached.

Virzi ran past and joined her peers, I stayed back, continuing my job of observing, not wanting to undermine Sergeant Crazick's command by pulling rank and interjecting myself in his business. I crouched down behind Trooper Meza, a fair skinned woman about 8 years younger than me, who was hiding behind a large boulder in what looked like a dried up stream bed. Maybe Corona was right and I am old. 

She looked over her shoulder and threw a sloppy salute. I returned one, just as sloppy. I could tell she was smiling, just from her body language. Which was good. It meant she was comfortable around me. They all were. These were my men, First Jumpers. The best of the elite. I reveled in my men for a moment, watching them fire and move, mowing down what little resistance remained at the cliff face as we got there. I smiled, pleased. But like all smiles, this one vanished too quickly. 

"LT, Gamble here. They've launched another wave of little bastards and fuel rods. Nothing is getting through yet but it is getting intense. We need you to do whatever you're going to do, and quickly."

Alright Staff Sergeant, hang in there, my 15 still isn't up, I've got 8 left if my timer is correct, so you owe me 8 more minutes of pure, unadulterated mayhem among covenant troops. I trust you have ideas on how to make this happen." 

"Aye, I do. But you'd better be here in 8 minutes Maxen, I'm not fucking around, this shit is getting heavy."

His words were punctuated with an explosion and other waves of sound I could not make out. "Understood Staff, hang tight, we are coming." 

I watched as my men finished mopping up the survivors of their encounter and they formed up on Crazick as he began assigning who would climb first. The sheer cliff rose almost 300 feet, according to my range finder, straight up and made a hell of an obstacle to overcome. 

"Corona. Open a channel to Crazick, I need to fill him in on the situation." 

Corona didn't say anything, probably still occupied with his puzzle, I didn't bother him, our time for joking is over. This is serious. Gamble was in the shit and I aimed to get him and all my men out. 

"Crazick here, over."

"Sergeant. We need to be up these cliffs and deal with those artillery emplacements within 8 minutes. Staff Sergeant Gamble and the others are having a rough time, let's get this moving." 

"Aye sir, thank you sir." 

For what, Sergeant?" 

"For letting me lead this wing of the op, sir. It means a lot to have an officer who will let us do what we are trained for." 

"Not a problem, Sergeant. Now you can show me." 

I smiled behind my visor, I' was worried, scared, hungry, and anxious. But I couldn't think of any better people to have around me at a time like this. I opened a channel to all the men here. 

"Alright troopers. Follow Crazick's lead, he's got this situation well in hand. Stick with him and we all go home. Our objective is at the top of this cliff. We secure that objective and we can move on to the final phase of the plan and relieve Staff Sergeant Gamble. Crazick, move these troopers out!"