Halo: Ad Infinitum/Falling in Line

Leaves spun randomly in their descent to Requiem’s forest floor, falling through clouds of green haze that hung in the low spaces between trees. Thick roots snaked from the trunks of these venerable giants still some distance above the ground, weaving together in a network of bridges and arches which in turn allowed purchase for vines and hanging ferns to grow. But as tight-knit as they were, the trees’ enormous scale left plenty of room for eight Spartans to pass by on foot.

Their armor softly clanking as they stole through the underbrush, the soldiers moved in loose formation, the soles of their heavy boots sinking into the loam with every step. At a relaxed, but cautious pace, each was able to navigate the maze of foliage on their own, but stay well within one another’s range if trouble were to present itself. Just as the frontrunners reached the precipice of a steep hill, their leader, clad all in grey, signaled a halt, stepping under the shadow of a giant, wide-capped mushroom as the rest of the squad found places of their own to hide.

“Something’s not right.” Sarah Palmer murmured, still heard clearly through the helmets of every Spartan. “The rendezvous point is two hundred meters away, but Castle was supposed to beat us there. Why am I not seeing FOF tags?”

“Could be interference.” one of the scouts suggested. His white and blue helmet turned to glance at his partner. “Who knows how this place could be messing with our gear?”

“Over this short a distance?” the other, Dyne, asked.

“Anything’s possible.” Kodiak asserted, gazing back out over the edge of the slope. “Especially on a Forerunner planet.”

Palmer remained still for another moment, staring into the dark valley beyond before motioning to the leader of Fireteam Compass, the other five Spartans with them. “Harland, open up a short-range channel. Wide-band. See if you can raise them.”

The Spartan nodded, his grey and orange Recruit helmet, identical to those of the other four members of his squad, poking out from behind the huge leaf he’d ducked under, and bowed his head to start typing in commands on a wrist keyboard linked to computers in his Heads-Up Display. The scouts, meanwhile, stayed crouched at the top of the hill, scanning the dense fog that choked the forest below.

“There’s always the obvious reason they haven’t shown up yet.”

“Nah, they’ve got Tashi on Castle. Worst the Covenant can do is slow ‘em down.”

While she appreciated their optimism, Palmer otherwise made a point of ignoring the two members of Fireteam Kodiak. This pair of young SPARTAN-IIIs in particular were notoriously chatty, but fortunately she only had to bear listening to them for a few moments until Harland turned his head back up.

“Got a signal. It’s faint, but it’s definitely them.”

“Clean it up, and tighten the bandwidth. I don’t want any hinge-heads listening in on my Chatter calls.” Palmer said, keeping up a businesslike tone as the familiar feeling of anticipation set in. The team had spent too long on edge trekking through this alien forest, waiting for the moment the Covenant or a group of Prometheans melted out of the trees, and with Castle’s absence it seemed to draw closer.

It was something Palmer hadn’t felt for quite a while. Though she’d overseen dozens of ops in the few days since they’d returned to Requiem alone, this was the first time she was on the ground herself with the intention of taking part in combat. Apart from one time providing a security detail for a superior officer, the last time she’d really needed to put on her good armor was Dratheus V. And playing bodyguard for some REMF, even if it had been Tom, didn’t count.

That time had been in this very jungle, when the Infinity first landed on Requiem. With an attack on the ship by Banshees and dropships thundering right over their heads, they’d deployed to the surface and suddenly found themselves surrounded by Prometheans materializing from every shadow. As her teams were gunned down by blazing orange fire, they’d locked themselves in a tiny bunker of the Forerunners’ own make for what little safety they might’ve thought it would offer.

She forced that memory back down before she could fully remember it. As bad as it was to be distracted by the anticipation of battle, it was worse than useless to add cursing at herself for past mistakes. She had to be the one to stay focused and think things through like a superior officer, like the ones she’d so often derided as a Helljumper, no matter how much she’d rather just get into the fight.

A small square popped up in the left of her HUD once Harland was done with the link, and Palmer’s COM began transmitting. “Deming, what’s your status? I’ve got Compass and Kodiak at the RV, but no sign of you, over.”

The square that normally facilitated a video feed remained blank, and in the lull that followed, the boys continued talking idly with just enough consideration to stay mildly hushed.

“Why is it you get a Fireteam named after you, anyway?”

“Well, I did save the whole of Japan by taking down a supercarrier.”

“You had a HAVOC. And plenty of help.”

The pair fell silent again when the earpieces of the whole squad clicked, meaning someone had just patched into their TEAMCOM. Electric-sounding pulses from close-flying plasma bolts accompanied the Castle team leader’s exhausted voice. “Deming here, we read you. Sorry Commander, we couldn’t shake the Covies and got driven off the rendezvous point.”

“That’s alright, Castle. How many of them are still on you?”

“Two Elite squads, ma’am, and they haven’t tried cutting us off themselves, so Prometheans could show up any time.”

“Keep moving and try not to get cornered. We’ll back you up as soon as we can see where you are.” Palmer said, trying to reassure him with a calm voice. Switching to another COM channel, she queried the mission advisors still sitting aboard Infinity. “Miller, I need you to get a fix on Fireteam Castle’s location and mark any hostiles close by. Make it quick, Spartan.”

To her surprise, unless her usual second in command’s voice had abruptly gone up an octave, it wasn’t Miller that answered her. “Targets have already been located and tagged, Spartan Palmer. Relaying the information to your local suit hard drives now.”

The way Team Kodiak perked up, Palmer didn’t have to guess that it was their handler, Lieutenant Coney. It bugged her at times, having someone who didn’t wear the armor of a Spartan bossing them around, but Erin’s teams rarely had a problem completing the objectives they were given, so there wasn’t much to complain about. But the way Team Kodiak was so quick, so eager to respond to her, while they weren’t the least bit reverent in the presence of any other superior, seemed to rub her just slightly the wrong way.

A transparent map of their local square on the grid Infinity had mapped over Requiem’s inner surface appeared in Palmer’s HUD, overlaying her entire field of vision. Taking the details in in a flash, she saw herself and Fireteams Kodiak and Compass labeled at one point while Castle was marked some distance away, with two clusters of red dots crawling close behind them. It seemed, however, that as fast as she sized up the information, the Spartan-IIIs had already finished and were planning the next move without her say.

“Look, there’s a high point that’ll be within our weapons range of the split-lips in a couple minutes that we could use to get the jump on ‘em.”

“Getting there in time’ll be a challenge, but I bet we can make it sprinting. Not like it’s Gregor Canyon.”

Palmer spotted their point of interest a split second later, and agreed that it might make a good vantage unless the foliage there didn’t give them any convenient cover. Maybe if Compass engaged directly and pinned them down first. . . but just as she was mulling the idea over, something got through her filter of them that made her realize they weren’t addressing her at all.

“Erin, tell Castle we're just over the next ridge and we’ll take some of the heat off them soon.”

“Have to move fast, better prep those grenades while we’re running!”

Before Palmer could even react, the Spartan-IIIs had jumped up and thrown themselves out beyond the crest of the hill, sliding down on the moist earth of the embankment with rifles drawn. Once they hit the bottom, both took off running without so much as a glance backwards.

“Hold your positions, Kodiak!” Palmer shouted into TEAMCOM after them. “Goddamn it, that’s an order! Specialists–”

After a moment it was obvious those kids weren’t going to come back when they were called. As she gritted her teeth, Harland asked her the same question she was asking herself now.

“What do we do, ma’am?”

There was no time to think it through, now. They had to exploit the element of surprise as much as possible before Fireteam Kodiak gave it away, and suddenly Commander Palmer didn’t have to deal with the last tense minutes of tactical planning before combat. Only now did that time feel important to her.

Tightening her grip on the handle of her assault rifle, she motioned forward with her left gauntlet and let her well-honed soldier’s instinct take over. “We’ll move up through the low points and cut off the hinge-heads’ retreat once Kodiak has their attention, then Castle can double back and flank in for the kill. Let’s move, Compass!”