User:SilvaRex/Halo: Victor

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Preface

 * 0236 Hours, February 26, 2532 / Current Location UNKNOWN

Ben’s breaths were heavy and muffled as he slowly began to gain consciousness. His eyelids felt heavy. After desperately trying to open them to no avail, he left them closed. Flexing his limbs, Ben realised that his arms were bound behind his back and his legs were free flowing, like he was flying, but he never landed or felt his boots touch the floor.

Ben felt some warm water dripping from the roof of his mouth. It was then that he realised it was bubbling and trickling down his windpipe and oozed into his lungs. Ben frantically coughed as hard as his weakened lungs could to push the water up his oesophagus and out his mouth. Seeping from his lips, the fluid hit the floor beneath Ben with a splat. After finally building up the strength to open his eyelids, Ben lowered his head to discover the warm liquid from his mouth was in fact his own crimson blood, splattered heavily across the floor.

Looking directly below him, Ben saw the tips of his boots. He was wearing his light grey tank top which sagged past the beltline of his black pants. His hunch was right. Below him was a small terminal that presumably held him above the ground and practically levitated Ben. The terminal was sleek and blue and its design was unmistakeably Covenant in origin.

Great. Ben thought to himself. A trillion to one chance of being taken prisoner by the Covies and looks like I’m that unlucky bastard. Observing the room he was in, Ben concluded he was in some sort of brig of some Covenant ship. The glossy purple walls that surrounded his flanks possessed that eerie alien feel that only Covenant designed architecture could deliver. His cell was roughly six-by-six metres and five metres tall and was dimly lit by small pink lights. In front of him was a single purple door.

“How’d ya get the drop on us?” Ben demanded. Only cold silence answered Ben, but he knew they must be watching him. The metallic purple doors in front of Ben’s cell slid apart to reveal a tall, silhouetted figure that could only be a Covenant Elite. Its armour was tinted a dull violet and had electric blue lights running the length of its rounded contours. It was the signature armour of the Elite Zealot.

“Silence!” The Zealot’s deep voice boomed as it approached Ben and slightly squatted to make his stare level with Ben’s eyes. Its four mandibles wriggled as it formed words, “Our Aruli captured you and brought you here.”

“The ghosts?” Ben asked warily and furrowed his eyebrows. “What the hell are they? Are they Covenant?”

“Not precisely.” The Zealot corrected. “They are assassins, mercenaries. They work for us in secret, eliminating your leaders, hacking your systems all behind your frontlines. They never engage in direct combat, the cowards.” The Zealot straightened his posture and looked below at his prisoner. Even though Ben was levitated above the ground, the Zealot’s enormous stature still towered over the vulnerable human. “Enough of your questions, now you must answer mine.”

Ben snorted. “I’m a trained, professional soldier.” Ben shook his head and smirked. “You’ll never get anything outta me.”

The Zealot reached for an unseen object nestled just below its lower back. Withdrawing its hand, Ben noticed it held a metallic curved knife in its long fingers. “We’ll see about that.” The Zealot declared as it advanced toward Ben, its curveblade glistening in the dim violet glow of the rooms’ artificial lights.

Give it your all!” Ben bellowed as he clenched his teeth and stiffened his abs in anticipation for the knife to pierce his flesh. The Zealot’s knife hand withdrew and then sped forward, propelling the knife in Ben’s direction. Time seemed to slow for Ben as the curveblade sliced through the air in front of him. Ben clenched his teeth even harder and scrunched his fists and finally closed his eyes in preparation for the impact. A sharp, stinging pain pierced Ben’s left shoulder, just mere centimetres from his heart and only just missing his major arteries. Ben grunted as air exhaled from his lungs as the razor was thrust deeper and deeper through his chest until the tip of the blade broke through the his shoulder blade and penetrated the skin on the opposite side of his body. Ben felt tears forming in his eyes, but never once screamed.

Collecting the saliva from the back of his mouth, Ben spat at the Zealot, impacting in its eyes. The Zealot blinked the liquid from its lids and sharply pulled the blade from the wounded soldier. Ben’s crimson blood oozed out of the entry wound and stained his tank top with a browny blemish.

Ben desperately tried to inhale as much air as he could, but every time he breathed in, an intense spike of pain washed over him. Ben ignored the pain and shut it out. Looking up to the Zealot, Ben taunted “That all ya got, big fella?”

The Zealot crouched to Ben’s eye level. “We have barely begun.” It grumbled as it stood up and pointed the curveblade directly at Ben’s chest.

“Well, let’s get it over with, baby.” Ben mocked and bared his teeth into as good a smile as he could muster. “We've got time to kill.”

Ben’s vision blacked out for a moment and an sudden pain overwhelmed his senses as the Zealot’s hand impacted bluntly across Ben’s cheek. A headache began to throb so intensely that Ben could barely think. If only he could remember how this had came to be...

Chapter One

 * 1005 Hours, February 22, 2532 / UNSC Point Of No Return, Current Location UNKNOWN

“So, why, may I ask, has ONI decided to field one of their best STAR operatives to spy on the Covenant?” Captain Benjamin Janson inquired with his heavy Irish accent.

The room Ben was in had sleek white walls with only a single door opposite him and behind the ONI interviewer. The room was sound-proof and blocked all electronic radio signals and was probably the most secure place in human territory. Ben’s interviewer was female and had her blonde hair tied in a neat “pony tail” behind her head. The ONI agent sighed and fixed her eyes on Ben. Her cold blue stare made Ben feel like she had frozen herself.

“Quit starin’ at me, lady and answer my question.” Ben demanded as he crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair and returned the stare.

There had always been some sort of tension and rivalry between the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) agents and the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Service (STARS) operatives. The STAR service had always worked for ONI in black ops, surveillance and reconnaissance based missions and many people incorrectly considered the service to be part of a section from ONI. The STARS is merely an independent Special Forces branch from the UNSC Army employed by ONI. The rivalry came from the service operatives believing that ONI agents were merely “nerds with guns”, while the operatives themselves were “real soldiers”. It was true to a certain extent, and ONI knew it, which is why they turn a blind eye towards this rivalry while the STARS treated them like they really were inferior. In contrast however, officers and commanders of both parties however had a mutual and respectful relationship for publicity reasons.

After a few seconds of pure silence, Ben's Interviewer averted her eyes, cleared her throat and began to speak. “We have been losing agents. Co-ordinated assassinations have been taking place in areas that we would have thought to be safe and secure.” She weaved her fingers together as Ben uncrossed his arms and leaned forward to listen intently.

“You have my attention.” Ben said as the woman slid over a clipboard with photos and documents attached under the metal clamp. Ben spun the clipboard around to face him and quickly flicked and skimmed through the pages. It briefly mentioned about how high ranking military leaders had been assassinated, ONI agents mysteriously disappearing and even on occasion stated how STAR operative patrols had been eliminated all within places that were deemed “safe”. Some images were taken of the scenes, but nothing to suggest it was Covenant activity.

“What precisely makes you think that it’s Covenant coordinating these attacks?” Ben pressed on. “It could be rebels, we know that they have been experimenting with their own sort of-“ Ben held up each hand and made a “bunny ears” sign with his fingers. “SPARTAN Program.” Ben rested his arms back on the metal table and shrugged. “Maybe they succeeded."

“Rebels don’t leave plasma burns.” The agent passed a plastic pocket with several photos within it over the table. “They don’t utilize active camo either.”

Ben raised an eyebrow as he reached for the photos and brought them up closer to see. Ben scanned through the images of the found bodies. Almost all of the bodies had the scorch marks of some sort of plasma or super-heated close-quarter weapon on them. Burnt skin, flesh and armor surrounded the wounds and even cooked the insides of the targets so that there was a clean hole right through their corpses.

The last photo that Ben stumbled across was one taken from a security camera and at first, there looked to be nothing there, just a vacant hallway that was overcrowded with office desks and utility closets. But upon closer inspection, Ben discovered that near the end of the corridor, just past an elevator entrance stood a roughly humanoid figure that was cloaked in a shimmering effect that ran throughout its figure. Active camouflage. That meant Covenant.

“This is getting interesting.” Ben smirked and declared “Elites, I’d say.”

The agent shook her head. “We thought that at first too. But the creature shown in that shot indicates that it is smaller.”

“Jackals, then?”

“No, further investigation indicates that it is a completely different species.” The woman folded her fingers together and sighed. “One that we haven’t encountered before.”

“So, you guys want me to find out what the hell it is?” Ben asked. “Why can’t you spooks do it yourself, I thought surveillance was your thing?” he mused. “Don’t we have Spartans, why don’t you use them? They are the best we got.”

“Because, smart-ass,” The agent snapped. “These new aliens have easily dispatched all our agents that have gotten in their way, Spartans are way too expensive and we need them on the front lines and because the STAR service operators are the next best thing.”

Ben grinned and chuckled. “Hearing that from a spook is the second most satisfying experience of my life.” Ben wiped the smile from his face and gathered the photos and files and handed them back over to the spook, crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair.

"That's not all." The interviewer declared. "I'm sure you've been informed about the loss of Eden IV?"

Ben nodded.

"Well," The woman began. "We had a Section I base hidden on the planet. Even after Eden fell to the Covenant, the base continued to operate, feeding us information and data about the Covenant's activities on the surface. Three days ago, the base went dark." She stopped and averted her eyes. "We don't know precisely what happened."

Ben cleared his throat. "And you think these things are behind it?"

"Well, Captain," The spooks eyes locked onto Ben's. There was no sign of fear in them, but concern. "We don't know what to think of it all right now. But these things, whatever they are could be anywhere. I don't think it's just a coincidence that the base mysteriously went dark after knowing what we know now."

“Alright, then, where do we begin?” He finally said in a much more serious tone.

Chapter Two

 * 2132 Hours, February 24, 2532 / UNSC Point Of No Return in synchronous orbit of the UNSC colony of Eden IV

Ben felt the wind softly filtered through his closely cropped white hair. Staring into the horizon, Ben watched the sun slowly set, wondering whether this might be the last time he'd have the chance to do so. This had become a simple reaction that he received before every mission that he had partaken in. He was used to it. He shrugged of the notion, drawing his back to the aft of the Eagle stealth ship.

Ben and the members of his squad all utilized the ballistic black armor of the ODSTs. Though it wouldn’t hold out for long after being scorched by plasma, it was lightweight and rugged and was the main battle armor the STAR service employed for use by their operators. All firearms the squad had had enormous silencers attached to the barrels to muffle the normally loud sounds made when fired.

“This is going to be a long and hard day, kids.” Ben began. He had never requested any back-up on this mission; especially a group of ex-ODSTs who had just finished training for STARS. In his opinion, this mission didn’t offer any second chances. One trainee acting on his own account would almost certainly have grave results and compromise the mission. ONI had screwed him up with this.

Ben took a deep breath. “If all of you follow my direct orders and only my orders, your names may be revered in the history books after this war ends.” One helljumper in the back of the dropship chuckled. Ben’s face remained solemn. “Don’t get cocky. If you’re the one to screw up, and we both manage to survive, I’ll be sure to make your career a living hell.” The Eagle shuddered. Ben hesitantly averted his gaze to the cockpit, “You okay?”

“Minor turbulence,” The pilot said, having turned back to him and nodded. “The winds had been whipping at the hull for a while now, sir. And the ground... we’ll be lucky to land on this godforsaken rock without becoming known to its invaders.” the pilot continued. Ben lowered his head, only to find scorched, unrecognizable soil, and molten rock. Eden IV had fallen days ago, yet the enemy excavations had just begun as evidenced by the numerous Scarabs Matt could see in the mountains. “Well I’m sure that if anyone can land us, Jimmy, that it’s you.”

Ben was very familiar with his pilot, Captain James R. Seeley Jr. Captain Seeley had led the majority of his successful missions, and ONI’s investigative officials didn’t feel like starting a fuss and separating the two. Ben grinned, as the vessel neared an abandoned VTOL landing platform.

Even without propellers, the Eagle stealth ship emitted a very faint hum of any dropship as it neared the surface. Ben doubted that this telltale sign would count as a beacon to his distant enemies. The Eagle was painted matte black and easily blended in with the dark, scorched landscape. It was a relatively small aircraft and was specifically designed for stealthy, tactical insertions. It was a lightweight, near silent aerial vehicle that was almost invisible to radar. It was the perfect insertion vehicle for the upcoming mission Ben had planned.

Jimmy brought the Eagle in steadily and made a swift 180 degree rotation and hovered the craft over the platform. Matt turned from the cockpit and casually walked to the edge of the hanger at the rear of the Eagle. As Ben prepared to leap from the vessel, two ODSTs carelessly shoved him aside and took the jump. Ben rolled his eyes inside his helmet and knelt down, springing himself from the vessel. The drop was a mere three feet from the surface.

"Arm your weapons, soldiers." Ben ordered, and all of the ODSTs who hadn't already done so complied, loading and mounting them upon both hands. Ben smirked. "Now we start moving. Due to the isolation of our drop, we've got about a seven mile trek into enemy territory. You've all done worse, so let's get a move on it."

Ben kept a brisk pace, and he expected his contemporaries to follow in his steps. Ben gasped as a nearby Spirit came into view in the vivid orange sky. Ben quickly sprinted over to a nearby steel-grated platform, ducked and rolled underneath. "Guys!" Ben exclaimed, beaming at them. The last ODST noted that the underside was cramped, and dashed to the nearest rock. The Spirit paused in mid-air, proving the pilot's awareness.

Ben quickly opened a COM channel and bellowed through his helmet’s internal microphone. "Look what you have done, Corporal! They’ve noticed you!" After a brief pause, the ODST's voice was emanating from the speakers. "I’m sorry, sir. They saw me!" Ben shook his head. "A moving figure caught them off guard, that’s all. If you can find a light object that is anywhere near your size, please roll it in the opposite direction! There is hope that they’ll find it to be tumbleweed or something!"

The static crackled. "Tumbleweed, tumbleweed." The ODST ripped a dying shrub from the rotting soil, and held it steadily in his hand. The ODST desperately scavenged another from the dirt and mashed them together. He was out of time. The ODST quickly rolled it out from behind the boulder.

"Half-ass, but it'll do." Ben transmitted, as the Spirit miraculously continued onward. We camp for a minute to catch our breath, and let the adrenaline rate slow-down. Recklessly bolting into Covenant territory isn't a smart idea."

Chapter Three

 * 2347 Hours, February 24, 2532 / On surface of Eden IV

It had been two hours minutes since the squad's encounter with the Covenant Spirit ship and they had already cautiously covered approximately ten kliks across the dead, burning landscape using wreckage of ships, vehicles and buildings as cover to conceal their approach. The area in which they were traveling across had unmistakably been burnt and partially glassed by a Covenant ship. But as the team hiked across the hostile and rugged terrain, the blackened earth and grit slowly became replaced by more smooth and flattened dark soil. The occasional tree would be seen, showing that at least some element of the planet was still alive and breathing.

Every now and then, a Covenant Banshee or Spirit flew overhead and the squad would desperately cling to what little cover they had available to remain undetected. As they squad trekked further into the territory, Covenant aircraft became more and more common, while also in greater numbers. Eventually, what began as clusters of trees throughout the valley slowly transformed into a thinly spread bush and it became much easier to not be seen. The huge, looming mountains in the distance were only partially seen through the numerous tree branches that masked them.

The location of the subterranean Section I base was another five kliks and the "Eagle" Covert Insertion Vehicle dropped the squad off as close to the fortress as possible without risking being detected by the Covenant mining in the mountains. The mission of Ben's squad was strictly a reconnaissance operation to determine what had happened to the personnel on base. Engaging hostiles on this recon mission was a secondary objective and was only to be used if no other option was presented.

Ben had always been somewhat of an adventurer, a thrill-seeker. He enjoyed the adrenaline that pumped through his veins in every firefight of every mission that he had ever participated in. There was something awfully primitive about his desire to get into the fight, but Ben had also demonstrated a great deal of restraint and discipline, being quite capable to take orders without question. This combined with his extraordinary fighting ability, solid memory and unquestionable leadership made him the prime candidate for the service. Unlike most operatives who had applied for STAR service after a great deal of combat experience, Ben was physically approached and encouraged by ONI to transfer from the Marine Corps and apply. After passing with flying colors, was immediately reassigned and fielded as an assassin and “agent in the field.” After nearly two decades of combat experience, Ben had become known for shattering entire organizations, making untouchable targets disappear, and double-crossing those who had acted against humanity's best interest. He had truly become the very best that the Service had available.

The recruits that he was traveling with, at the moment were ex-ODSTs that had only just passed selection and training for the Service. They may be good, but when it came to a mission like the one they were on, it required the most patient and disciplined of soldiers.

If there was one thing that Ben knew about these recruits, it was that they were arrogant, bold and edgy. If Ben had things his way, he would’ve gone in solo or with a very small, specialized team. This operation was too delicate for one screw-up. Even so, he was forced to scold each of his inexperienced ODSTs multiple times. They just didn't seem to get the idea that they weren't the expendables that they once were. Not any more, at least.

Ben kept a steady pace, listening to the soft sound of a nearby spring. Ben paused. He had already went a good ten minutes without sight of any Covenant. Ben pondered the possibility that he had been spotted, and was being tracked.

By dusk, the team had reached a cliff. Not really a cliff as much as an open peak. Ben could almost appreciate the pale sunset and the dry winds being swept up the rockface beneath him. In the distance, Ben could easily make out other plateau in the distance. Ben had always imagined Eden IV as full of chasms and protrusions, yet never differentiating in terrain from the basic prairie. Now, he was certain that his childhood concept was correct. Ben then peered down the mountain side. He wasn't surprised to see seven Sangheili patrolling a cement courtyard surrounded by cabins and small garages crammed with storage and supplies, presumably the property of the local farmers.

Ben's first instinct was to eliminate the sentries. His orders overrode his impulse and he signaled to his eight-man squad to stop and hold position just over the edge. Ben motioned with his free hand for his team to spread out and scout the area for more hostiles. The near-silent shuffling of armoured boots on soil was the only sound that could be heard. Ben motioned for the last ODST behind to take position next to him.

The grizzled ex-marine quietly sighed as if it was an inconvenience and hugged the dirt beside her CO.