The Shadow

"Command, this is Agent Texas. I'm on location and en route to the objective."

"Copy that, Texas," said the COM operator in Tex's helmet. "Confirm package is ready and fully functioning?"

If not, I'm not the one who'll be taking the fall for it, she thought as she dashed noiselessly down a low catwalk, watching for signs of hostiles. But this step of the plan was crucial and double-checking was a standard procedure, so she ran a scan on the "package" strapped to her back and replied, "Affirmative, we're in business. Package will be set within one-hundred twenty seconds."

"Agent Texas, active the package and set the timer for five minutes." This was a different voice, one much more cold and authoritative than the operator she had been communicating with on this mission. She recognized the voice right away, and she said, "Yes, Director."

Tex hopped easily onto the catwalk's railing, and without slowing down, leaped high and climbed onto a higher adjacent catwalk. After confirming that there was only one guard heading away from her with no sign of alarm, she continued towards the objective, setting the timer to three hundred seconds on the C-12 charge she was carrying. After completing her task, she checked her FOF tags and confirmed that the two other Freelancers sent on the mission were making their way The message was clear: this oil platform was going to blow, whether or not they made it away in time.

Three months ago, the resistance had apparently found some type of important technology in the Arctic Ocean and built the base here, using oil excavation as a front for their dig projects. Tex didn't know why the UNSC hadn't found the operation and shut it down yet, but the Director was interested in the data that was stored here, which was why he had sent her in two weeks ago to case the joint. And even though he was always good at wearing a mask of indifference, she could tell that the discovery had excited him. And as if to prove her point, he had sent in two of the highest-ranking Freelancers, Agents North and South Dakota, to retrieve the intel.

They didn't know Tex was here, of course. Most of the other Freelancers didn't even know she existed. But although it was no surprise that the Director prioritized the success of the mission over their lives, she wondered why he was so quick to order that the platform was destroyed with or without the data. Was this data so radical that the Director would rather it was destroyed than taken back by the resistance? Or was he just being his usual precautious self?

Tex put the questions out of her mind as she approached the oil platform's reactor room. She had a mission to complete and a limited window to complete it. She checked her armour's active camouflage, a highly effective invisibility technology rumoured to be adapted from the alien faction known as "The Covenant". The camouflage could only use her armour's power for about one minute before it needed to recharge, so the Freelancer knew she had to make good use of the limited time she had. Slipping inside the reactor room, she moved past the guards standing by the door without a sound, counting the number of hostiles present. ''Eight. No point taking them out, they'll all be dead within four minutes—''

The dull hum of the reactor was drowned out by the sudden blaring of an alarm that rang out through the entire platform. A red light on a wall corner flashed erratically.

How did I see this coming? Tex thought exasperatedly as every guard in the room turned to look out the doorway. She took advantage of their momentary distraction to surreptitiously plant the C-12 charge directly under the reactor's covered core. It was probably South that did it, headstrong and reckless, never taking missions seriously. Tex had observed her on missions before, and she had seen enough to know that South was capable and tenacious enough to make it to the number four spot on the leaderboard. But she was a danger to teammates and herself, and Tex knew from the beginning that it was a bad idea to assign her to take a mission as crucial as this one.

There was too much attention on the door for Tex to leave that way, so instead she moved up to the second level ramp and vaulted over a high wall. It wasn't exactly a silent exit, but with all the klaxons going off and guards running all over the place, she doubted anyone would have noticed her anyway. She landed on the narrow ledge on the other side not ten seconds before her camouflage ran out of power, pulling out an SMG as she did so.

Tex had a pretty good view of the east side of the platform from the ledge, and she could see the twins making their way to the extraction point by shooting their way through what looked like the entire unit of troopers assigned to the platform. For every enemy they cut down, there were three more to take their place. But she had to give them credit; they were putting up a good fight. North and South seemed to move as one, one covering the other in an almost flawless pattern. Despite the close quarters and the fact that they were outnumbered, they managed to avoid taking even a single hit, and they were making good use of their own weapons as well as that of their enemies'.

Still, Tex knew that their luck would run out before long, since there was no way the extraction point would be clear by now. "Command, Agents North and South Dakota are getting cornered. Moving into assist now."

"Negative, Texas," said the operator. "Agent Carolina is moving in now. Clear the base, over."

She headed towards the edge of the platform, although she kept monitoring the twins. "Command, it doesn't look like they have much time. If they're captured before I destroy the platform..."

"If they are captured, I will order you to manually detonate the package immediately," said the Director coolly. "Proceed to your extraction point, agent."

"...yes, sir."

Tex made her way to the south end of the platform, looking over the edge to make sure everything was clear. She could go save the twins now and take them away in her transport, which would make things a lot less complicated. But then they would ask questions, and the Director would be displeased with her, not only for disobeying orders, but for going against his decision to keep her a secret for the time being. ''Carolina is ranked number one on the leaderboard. It shouldn't be too hard for her to get them out of there...''

Tex's grip tightened over her SMG, and she pulled back the slide on the weapon. There were still three minutes left, and her ride wasn't going anywhere. But she could see that the twins were in trouble. They had made it to the extraction point, but were now surrounded completely by enemies. And there were more moving in to block off the way they had come from.

She could hear the leader of the troopers saying something over the open COM. "Attention assholes, stand down! You're surrounded, give us the data file now!"

Real professional, Tex thought, moving in on the landing pad. Their circle is pretty tightly knit, but it shouldn't be too hard to break if they don't see me coming.

The leader was still speaking. "You will be taken into custody! We can do this the easy way or the hard way! There is no escape, so give us the damn data fi—!"

The rest of his words was cut off as a grey-armoured figure leaped out from the shadows behind the line of soldiers with the leader, incapacitating one after another within seconds in a swift flurry of punches and kicks.

And there she is, Tex thought, picking up her pace. She watched as Carolina punched the enemy leader off the turret and seized it, using the powerful gunfire to shoot apart the support beams on the surrounding catwalks. ''Quick thinker. That should confuse them long enough to get through their choke-hold.'' She was nearing the troopers behind the twins, and they were snapping out of their surprise to retaliate.

Tex put four rounds into the first enemy's back, seized his pistol, and used it to smash a second trooper in the throat, breaking his neck and dropping him on the spot. She pointed her SMG at another trooper and fired two bullets into his forehead, kicking him into a fourth to stun him before shooting him three times in the heart with the pistol. She emptied the rest of the handgun's magazine into three other hostiles, killing two and injuring the third. She tossed away the empty gun and slammed her fist into the wounded trooper's face, breaking his nose and jaw and sending him flying over the edge of the catwalk.

Then something caught her eye. One of the troopers was carrying a rocket launcher, and had three cases of rockets on his back. Looking over the rest of the squad, she noticed two more launchers on the others, as well as a sniper rifle, grenade launchers, laser rifles, and around two dozen grenades between the entire squad.

''That's a lot of firepower. Looks like they guessed that we'd be coming.'' But clearly whoever was in charge here didn't know that heavy weapons were ill-suited to taking down Freelancers, even the slowest ones. Nonetheless, at least the others didn't have to worry about dodging explosions or getting a surprise sniper bullet in the head.

She checked the timer. There was one minute left on the timer. There were The rest of the soldiers hadn't even noticed her assault, since havoc had broken out on the landing pad. Many of the enemy troopers were dead, and Carolina and the twins had gained the upper hand. Still, none of them had seemed to notice that the leader was recovering and was standing up behind the turret, and he was aiming it right at South.

Tex looked back to the sniper rifle under one of the dead troopers, and she quickly shoved the body aside to snatch up the gun. She paused slightly as she saw that the troopers were also carrying EMP charges that could shut down a Freelancer suit if they were caught in the flare. Now that would have been problematic.

She shook her head. No time to waste thinking about the what-if's. South was already dead, that much was obvious. But she could still take out the leader before he aimed that turret at Carolina or North.

But to her surprise, North had spotted the danger at the last second and pushed his sister out of the way, taking a spray of deadly gunfire himself. A split second later, Carolina had fired a grappling hook at the turret and forced it downward, the continued gunfire punching holes in the catwalk holding it up and tearing it in half.

Forty-five seconds.

Amazingly, North was still standing, although his armour was bloody and damaged. South was helping him to the edge of the platform, and Carolina was taking down the last of the enemies that were still holding a weapon and making her way to them. Tex lowered the sniper rifle, activating her camouflage as she headed back to her extraction point. Carolina would get the others out alive, there was nothing more she could really do for them. No point showing myself to them if I don't have to.

Fifteen seconds.

Tex heard the rumble of a Pelican's engines on the far side of the landing pad as she climbed over the railing. She turned to confirm that the others were on board Four-Seven-Niner's bird before leaping off the edge of the platform. She heard the roar of the Pelican flying away with five seconds left on the timer.

Three...two...one... Tex heard the explosion set off the reactor's core a second before she hit the water, and she managed to escape the heat wave that washed over the cold of the arctic. She felt the muffled rumble of two more explosions as the reactor overloaded, and quickly swam away from the quickly collapsing platform as debris crashed down into the ocean around her. She checked her tactical map and confirmed that her escape pod was still waiting for her at a small iceberg a quarter of a klick away.

That went well, all things considered. They had the data, there were no fatalities on their end, and by tomorrow the UNSC was going to be all over what was left of the oil platform. That should shut this place down permanently, and once the survivors are interrogated, the Director will be the least of their concerns.

South would probably take the heat for being careless and indirectly almost getting her own brother killed. The Director would do as he saw fit with her. Still, Tex thought she needed to be taken down a few notches. Maybe it'll knock some sense into her before she gets sent into the field again.

Her job was done. And as far as anyone else was concerned, she had never been here at all.