Halo: Contagio Purgatiio/Chapter 1

April 12th, 2552 System Antioch 6 Onboard UNSC Prowler Private Property

Abdul Malik turned in his command chair. He surveyed the room; his command officers where about their stations, frantically making sure their Slipspace emissions wouldn’t be detected by the Covenant Station they were approaching. He didn’t like this, not one bit. He didn’t like the fact his ship had been commandeered for this obscure mission, this was on the very edge of space the UNSC could patrol.

In fact, the discovery of this obscure station had been nothing but sheer luck. A random energy burst had been picked up by a listening post, and after a quick recon mission as to what it was; UNSC Highcom had made it a Top Priority to send a small strike team to this facility, and gain what information possible, and of course - Technology.

“Sir,” the Navigation officer said in her French accent, “The facility is coming into view now.”

“On screen,” he replied hoarsely.

A sleek, curved building moved into view, its outer rings oscillating; they must be what was keeping the emissions inside.

“Move us around the dark side of the moon, Leliana,” Abdul ordered.

“Aye, aye, sir.”

The Prowler moved into action, its engines giving off a low hiss in the command cabin. Abdul hoped this mission would have no Covenant ships during it, he’d seen what even the smallest of Covenant ships had done to a UNSC Destroyer, he knew he’d have no chance of survival if anything was to come his way.

Sweat dripped down his dark ebony forehead. This was crucial, they’d have to fire the thrusters perfectly, so as to not give off too many signs of their being here.

After 5 perilous minutes, the prowler was close to the facility, perfectly hidden in the darkness of the moon.

“You can brief the men now, Dietrich.”

“Thank you, sir,” Dietrich said as she glided out of the room; her helmet in one hand.

SPARTAN-G024 sat at the back of the small “briefing room”, if such a name could be applied to it, with his Team of SPARTAN-IIIs, fresh from boot camp. They had been specifically picked for this as they had been one of the best at close-quarters combat. He was proud of this fact, and was prouder it had been his leadership that had gotten them there. Though, he of course hadn’t openly let his team know he was proud. They’d deciphered it with his use of the casual nod, and seldom thumbs up. For 12 years old, Josh was far older than most. He looked up from another re-reading of the Book of Joshua, he was at his favourite part: Joshua 1:9. He was about to quote and explain it to Amy, of which he often did; and to her credit, always listened intently, before he was interrupted by a much taller SPARTAN shouting: “Officer on deck!”

Josh sprang to his feet quickly, as did the rest of his Team. The ODST Company in the corner lazily got to their feet, Josh felt such blatant disrespect of an officer abhorrent. The officer simply shot the ODSTs a glance, which caused them to chuckle contently.

“At ease,” the female officer said lackadaisically, “Well, welcome boys and girls. I’m Major Marlene Dietrich, and for those who don’t me,” she paused and shot the ODSTs another glance with a glint in her eye, which raised another chuckle, “I’m a mean ass bitch, and you’re now under my command, Spartans.” The tone of her voice changed, as she had clearly enjoyed the last part of her introduction.

The taller Spartans, of which Joshua had deduced where SPARTAN-IIs, shifted awkwardly, and his Team inadvertently mimicked them.

“But, down to basics. Our mission is to board this station here,” she pointed to the hologram that had appeared, “and gain whatever intelligence and technology we can. This station is clearly a research station, as it is often re-supplied every few weeks. Now, we are going to be split up. Silver Team,” she nodded to the SPARTANs standing at the wall, “will take 2nd platoon and enter here, at the bottom of the Station, we believe this to be were they control to rotating arms.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Silver Team’s commanding officer replied.

“3rd platoon, will be under the command of, it’s Xiphos isn’t it?”

“It is, ma’am.” Josh replied.

“Thanks,” she said, before quickly regaining her composure, “Xiphos will take 3rd platoon, and enter here, which is the hanger. You’ll make sure we have a secured hanger, before moving in and linking up with Laszlo, who will be leading 4th Platoon, as they sabotage their communications.”

With that, Laszlo emerged from a dark corner, and nodded. Josh hadn’t even noticed him; this SPARTAN was different, he moved with experience, he was definitely older then the other IIs, though before he could ponder it more, Dietrich began to speak again.

“And finally, I’ll be leading the 1st Platoon, as we make a move on what we believe to be the command centre.” She smirked, and 1st Platoon gave a joyous uproar.

“But in all seriousness, this is a top priority mission, we have no idea of what we’ll be dealing with here. It could be poorly defended, it could have the best trained son s’a bitches in the Covenant Army. Caution is advised. Alright? You have ten minutes to suit up, I’ll see you in the hanger! Good luck, boys.”

As everyone began to leave, Dietrich quickly added: "oh! This will be very close-quarters combat, and our Assualt Rifle rounds will simply ricochet of the walls, so, Sub-Machine Guns, Carbines or Shotguns only as your main weapon. Sorry about that, now, go."