Vael 'Virisusai, Aviza Morgenstern, Lucas Ryker, Yalu 'Suumko, and Shih [EliteCommander, Andromedai, Zarkun, and Muttonhawk]
Vael looked down at the Spartan, Ben. He did take a moment to consider his offer of assistance, but ultimately, he did not think it wise to group too many of them together for an infiltration. “You should stay here, try to help from a distance if you can. We should not bring too many more for this task. Bringing too many of us will only increase the chances of detection.” He reasoned.
Vael decided to leave behind the sentinel beam he had been carrying, as he would need his hands free and did not have the space on his armor to carry it. He joined Spartans Ryker and Aviza, then started to climb back down the side of the mesa along with him.
“Have your people improved the capabilities of your active camouflage since the war? We will need to remain cloaked for our entire approach to the structure.”Ryker nodded as he took a step down. “It’s based on the Sangheili design, or at least mine is. I’m not sure how standard issue it is, since the last unit I was with was working closely with a Swords Spec Ops team. I’ll have the battery power to get there and then some as needed.” Reaching the bottom of the mesa, Lucas opened a line directly to Major Yalu. “Can ya read me, Major?”
"Receiving you, Ryker," Yalu's quick sangheili voice responded clearly across the comms channel.
"I have waypoints on each of you through my optics. I have my eyes on the lookouts and security devices ahead of you. Advance behind concealment and sound off when you are ready to infiltrate."Yalu's noticeably human language towards Ryker reflected their simulation time. He had not adapted fully to human battle-chatter, but he was further ahead than expected for so little collaborative mission experience.
For the trio, it was not difficult for them to move up to the rim of the crater-like area the structure was situated in. The only patrols moving beyond the rim seemed to be the phantoms, and they were easy enough to avoid for just the two of them, with or without active camouflage. Though, such concealment would be required to reach the structure itself, as their approach was across wide open ground.
As Yalu could see from the Mesa, the Forerunner structure did not look like a military installation. Surrounding the central tower were a few smaller structures. The Forerunner “walls”, if they could be called that, ran between the smaller buildings and appeared to be vertically stacked tubes. They did not form a complete perimeter by themselves, though the rebels had put up their own barricades to fill in the gaps.
Their target, the AA turret, was a Human made autocannon that had been installed on top of one of the smaller Forerunner buildings. They had a few approaches available to them. The Human barricades were shorter and would be easier to get over, though more of the rebels could be seen near them. The Forerunner walls were taller, but if they worked together, they could potentially scale them.
Looking at the barricades in front of the three of them, Ryker took a moment to zoom in on the rebel ones with his DMR, pinging the URF personnel that he could see at the one nearest to them. “How’s activity passed the pings, Major? How are the patrols spaced?” Having gotten closer like he, Vael and Aviza had, Lucas knew he had a much more limited field of view over the complex than he had on the mesa the others were at.
“Oh, and while you’re at it, do you see any extra explosives unattended? Preferably something like Brute shredders.” The auto turret was large caliber from what he could tell and the URF had fortified its construction so it wouldn’t be downed by a single explosion, and the SPARTAN-IV knew the Brutes liked to overclock the explosives in their grenades, making them perfect for extra oomph.
Yalu scanned the outlines his heads-up-display found to track.
"The barricade ahead has five enemies...four small arms...correction, five. AR mounted within their reach. They cannot be trusted not to loiter." Yalu wrinkled his mandibles at the cigarettes they smoked as if he could smell them from here.
"The tall wall nearest to you has one enemy, small arms, patrolling left. You might boost one another over in camouflage -- Commander Vael is tall enough. If you are quiet and to the enemy's back you may avoid his notice, but if you slay him you will have only as long as it takes for his brothers to notice his absence. What is your decision?"“My advice is to avoid killing anyone, doing so will inform all personnel within the complex that there are hostiles within the premises. If that does happen, our priority target may slip away before we even start dismantling their defenses. That would lead to a mission failure, which I will not allow. For the moment, I feel that placing said explosives in critical points then detonating them at the correct time is paramount to our success here.” Said Aviza, staying close to the rest of her team.
”Agreed.” Vael replied. He peered slightly over the rim of the crater, looking down on the wall below.
”I should be able to boost you both up, then you can pull me up. We should be quick, and make sure the guard is looking away. The disruptions to our active camouflage may be noticeable. And if at any point we are discovered, I recommend calling for our reinforcements to jump into battle immediately. If nothing else, they will be able to stop the mongrels from landing any more troops from the cruisers above us.” Vael got ready to stand once more, but first turned his gaze towards the others.
“We have our approach. Are we ready to move? If so, we can engage active camouflage.”I am ready to move out immediately, if we all agree and understand what we are to do? said Aviza, quickly having Shih ping the location of the nearest enemy and their most recent movements to everyone in the squad. She would take no chances, they had one shot at this and she was going to ensure everything went very smoothly.
Lucas shook his head as he drew one of the energy daggers from its specialized sheath and prepared to leap over the edge of the crater. “As someone who’s done this kind of thing regularly, I’m going to say that risking being seen out of the concern the one person MIGHT be noticed missing is really dumb.” Ryker crouches and leaps, activating his active camo as he lands and begins sliding. “Just saying. Major, keep an eye on that lone guard please. If he comes back towards us while we’re scaling, let us know.”
"Understood."Vael acknowledged the others, then engaged his active camouflage. Being that they had their allied IFFs, they would be able to track each other’s location even with active camouflage, which would help them coordinate.
Vael climbed over the rim of the crater, albeit slowly and carefully. While his camouflage could handle him moving as quickly as he pleased, he still did not want to needlessly disturb the ground. They would be heading down a fairly steep incline at first, so knocking down even a few rocks or clumps of dirt at the top could cause some noticeable movement from the perspective of the compound below.
“While I welcome speaking your mind, the comment was out of line and unwelcomed Spartan Ryker, but what is done is done and we shall move on.” said Aviza as she activated her active camouflage and carefully climbed down into the crater following closely behind Vael. It was times like these that she was very grateful for her ARGUS-Class Mjolnir armor,and its advanced information gathering equipment built into it.
“Shih, keep all of us updated on the current ware-abouts of the hostiles around us and if anything changes, please.” Lucas reached the bottom of the crater ahead of the other two, his experience in infiltrating enemy encampments like this over the course of the previous war serving him well. Upon reaching the bottom, he moves quickly and carefully to the bottom of the area they’ve chosen to go up the wall at, ignoring Aviza’s comment. Sometimes even the team lead had to be reminded that there are those with experiences that they don’t have, though that rarely mattered.
Vael had started moving more quickly once he got past the steeper parts of the incline. It was important that they reach the wall as quickly as they could get away with, though that would hardly be the most difficult part of their infiltration. He stopped at the wall, remaining as still as he could until the guard passed over him. Then, he got into position to boost up the first of the Spartans that came to him. Unless he was overestimating the Humans’ attempt at adapting active camouflage, he did not expect to be fully revealed when they touched one another, but it could disrupt the field enough for them to be noticed if someone was looking right at them.
As Aviza was fed real time information about her current surroundings, the Spartan Team Leader hung close behind Vael, but not close enough as to disrupt anyones active camouflage. As soon as he stopped at the wall in front of them, Aviza would do the same, silently nodding at the large Sangheili to let him know that she was ready to proceed with being boosted over the perimeter wall. Carefully but somewhat gracefully, she would use the boost and be first over the wall, awaiting on the other side for her fellow team members to follow, then to help Vael over as well.
Lucas waited until the count of thirty, when Aviza had reached Vael, before moving over to the Sangheili and getting a boost up. Once he reached the top, he turned and held a hand out to him so that he could help boost the large alien up. The lone patroller was still currently walking with their back to the trio, but that could change quickly, so with his other hand, Ryker exchanged his plasma dagger for one of his standard issue knives and poised it to throw if the man turned around. While a gun would be potentially more accurate, even a silenced weapon would make more noise than a knife thrown through the air.
When the pair pulled up Vael over the wall, he followed through with that momentum to roll over the top and drop down to the other side as quickly and quietly as he could. There was a fair amount of ambient noise from the general bustle of activity around the compound, so, they did not need to remain entirely silent, but a wrong move could still reveal them. The guard was soon to turn around, but by that point, Vael was on the ground, and the three of them were no longer in contact with one another.
From the Mesa, not everything in the compound was visible behind the wall, so they could not have planned ahead. They had to see what was ahead of them and figure out their approach quickly. Between them and their target was a sort of courtyard , which was currently filled with crates both Covenant and Human in origin. From what Vael could observe quickly, there were Human workers that were taking the mostly unorganized weapons from the Covenant crates and sorting them by type into crates of their own, then others would carry them into the main structure. On the opposite side of the courtyard, Jiralhanae were carrying closed Human crates up onto a landing pad and loading them into their phantoms. For the three infiltrators, they would need to pick one path through it all and get to the AA turret.
Aviza observed the scene before them,
“Shih, I have an idea.” began the Spartan,
“If I hooked you into the facilities systems, is there any chance you could cause a distraction? Perhaps even permanently shut down the Anti-Aircraft weaponry so we would not need to use explosives?” Doing so would enable them to silently and stealthy remove their objective without the need of any explosives, putting them all in less danger in the long run. Many other scenarios ran through her mind but this one was at the forefront.
“Are you serious right now? All due respect, fire team leader, using explosives is the most efficient use of our time. We don’t have the luxury of finding an access port to plug the AI into.” Ryker glanced over his shoulder. “The SAFEST option might be to have Shih shut it down, but safe isn’t necessarily fast and we need fast.” And he didn’t have to mention, or he hoped he didn’t have to mention it, but if the URF caught on to Shih in their systems, they could capture her.
Shih did not bother joining in on the conversation until she had made the scans she needed to figure out the viability of Aviza’s approach. Granted, with access to the Argus sensor suite, that was only a few seconds.
”Clever…I didn’t give them enough credit.” Shih remarked, though she elaborated right away.
“Whether I can access the turret remotely depends on if it is networked, or operating independently. I can’t tell that from here, but what I can tell from EM signatures is that these rebels have managed to tap into the Forerunner structure’s grid to power the turret. And they probably didn’t stop there. Now, Forerunner safety protocols won’t apply to anything they managed to jury rig into the grid, so if you get me to the right Forerunner console, I might be able to give them enough of a power surge to break more than just the one turret. In fairness, though…I should say that Ryker is not exactly wrong either. Explosives would be the faster and more reliable way to take out the objective.”“If I was not serious, do you think I would have used what little we have of our time asking Shih if it was possible to do so? With all due respect, Spartan Ryker, the final decision lands upon Vael and myself, and when the time comes, we shall act accordingly.” Aviza said as she very carefully made her way through the first set of obstacles and towards their first objective.
“Explosives it is then.” thought Aviza to herself as she headed up the ramp towards their first objective.
”Heading towards first objective, provide me with cover. said Aviza. Once she had reached the top of the ramp, Aviza would move towards the anti-aircraft cannon with great care, making sure to not be seen or cause any unwanted attention. It would only take a few short seconds before she reached the objective, and when she did, the Spartan would remove the outer panel from the weapon, sliding the explosive into its interior.
“First explosive planted, let’s move onto the next.”"I see a human officer in a window overlooking the landing pads to your two o'clock," Yalu interjected.
"Whatever is between yourselves and the turret, take a wider route if possible. The floodlights I can see lighting the area may make your shimmer catch his eye."Vael growled lightly under his breath, but nevertheless, he had focused wholly on the task ahead. He followed Aviza’s lead, and Yalu’s advice. The workers were not being vigilant for intruders, so it was easy enough to weave between the crates and make his way to the base of one of the smaller Forerunner buildings, on which the turret had been assembled. He avoided the line of sight of the window from the main structure and ended up pressing himself up against the building, just under the turret. Aviza had moved up and was working quickly, but the door just beside Vael opened up just before Aviza finished with the first set of explosives.
It was a pair of Humans that walked out of the Forerunner building, one older woman, and a much younger male. They were not in armor, and by the mention of ‘voltage regulators’ that Vael heard as they passed, they were probably technicians. Vael was not spotted when they walked out, so he was keen to just let them pass at first. However, they were moving around towards the ramp, and could not be allowed to reach the turret above. He turned his head briefly towards Ryker and nodded his head. They would need to be dealt with.
Ryker nodded in response to Vael and gave only the slightest warning as an energy dagger left its specialized sheath before the younger man stopped suddenly as the SPARTAN-IV’s hand caught his mouth. The dagger struck twice, once at the base of the neck, severing the spine and preventing any sound from escaping his mouth, and again between his ribs, puncturing his heart and killing him instantly. Lucas left the older woman to Vael, knowing the Sangheili’s effectiveness at removing unaware humans from any given equation almost first hand.
Vael moved alongside Ryker, matching his pace and timing his own attack with the Spartan’s. Ryker had used a blade, though Vael did not want to risk the glow or noise of activating his sword. Instead, he simply grabbed the woman’s head in one hand and, with a quick, simple motion, twisted until her neck snapped. At the same time, he grabbed a hold of her arm with his free hand to make sure the body did not make noise hitting the ground. Naturally, the close contact with the pair of technicians did break both Vael and Ryker’s active camouflage, though they could re-cloak without being seen if they were quick enough.
Once the pair was down, he dragged the young man’s body back to the door the pair had entered and opened it, looking inside warily before moving the body in and to one side. “Tangos down. We’re clear here.”
Unfortunately, just as Ryker finished speaking, another complication emerged from the building, trailing somewhat far behind the other two. It was a young, apprentice technician, no more than a teenager, but his eyes still went to the other two quickly, with their killers still holding the bodies.
“Hey!” He said, briefly pausing out of confusion and fear. He was just a few meters back, but still out of Vael’s reach. He had not yet alerted the guards, but that would only take one shout.
“Well shit, now we have two downed hostiles and this is going to most likely cause us some serious trouble somewhere down the line. Did I not advise against killing anyone at the moment?” said Aviza into her open com after the two targets had been taken out very carefully and quietly. She was swiftly heading back to the group and had almost reached them when the third unknown presented itself. [Identification - human male - Teenage] flashes the Spartans HUD, she did not need anymore information. When the young man called out to them, Aviza was quick to respond to her team first, then to the man present.
If there were not two corpses currently being dragged off, I would be able to handle this situation much easier. Do not kill this target, incapacitate him once I have his attention.” Aviza would then flip to an open channel so the young man in front of her could hear her, but no other hostile in the vicinity would.
Taking a knee, so that she would appear much less imposing, Aviza would speak in a tone of voice the others had never heard before, one calming, almost soothing.
”You are with the URF? A little bit young to be a soldier aren't we? I know you are scared and confused at the moment, I would also be in your position.” Aviza would show her hands to the young man, letting him know that she did not pose a threat, and was not planning to injure him.
”I truly am sorry about your fellow URF soldiers, I would have preferred if the situation had not come to that, but they fought back and tried to kill us. I swear to you, if you come over to me, I will take off my helmet and we can talk face to face about what is happening. As a Spartan, I give you my word that no harm will come to you, and so does the rest of my squad.”Ryker moved first as soon as Aviza got the kids to turn around, one of his SMGs flew through the air and struck him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious and into the Argus armor wearing Spartan’s arms. “If we’re done being humanitarians, we need to move.” Now they had two bodies and an unconscious person to hide, though fortunately it wouldn’t be for very long. Regardless however, it couldn’t wait and the SPARTAN-IV moved to pick up his thrown weapon.
Vael had to contain his frustration at what he considered to be a waste of time and effort, not to mention an unnecessary risk. Ryker, at least, had acted quickly, but they were all fortunate that the young Human froze in shock instead of screaming right away. Had it been a more disciplined rebel that found them, they would have been forced into a fight prematurely.
Vael dragged the body he was carrying into the building beside them, then re-engaged his active camouflage.
”It is time. Your construct can call our reinforcements. We should make our way to the central structure.” As per their plan, Shih sent an encrypted databurst to the battle group in waiting. It would only take moments for the ships to come out of slipspace right above them.
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