 
Story Tagline[]Rio de Janerio, the continental crown of South America has become overwhelmed by alien and human refugees at the end of the Human-Covenant War. Favelas rise and crime rates soar. After an uptick in activity by local and colonial crime empires, Naval Intelligence has deployed Ferret Team Boson to investigate a particular Sangheili crime lord, a mission they're ill-prepared for. Story Summary[]In the years that followed the Human-Covenant War, Earth has become an asylum state - attracting both human and alien refugees seeking a new chance at life. One of the largest refugee camps has spilled into the streets of Rio de Janerio. The Office of Naval Intelligence is especially worried; reports of interspecies crime syndicates establishing their own meta-laws, a rampant drug trade, and now, Rio's Superintendent AI has stopped responding to status requests. It's a sensitive issue requiring a scalpel solution instead of the work of a sustained military occupation. Decidedly, the scalpel for this mission is Ferret Team Boson - an elite squad of SPARTAN-III operators from infamous Delta Company. Merlin-D032, the unit's intelligence specialist, is still reeling from casualties of Operation: DARK DESCENT like the rest of the unit. Everyone lost a friend on that mission, however, so much has changed over the course of two months and now the team is deploying under the command of a former Army Major they barely know and alongside a new rival intelligence agency as part of a larger anti-cartel task force. There are some old and some new faces but even among friends and allies, it's hard to know who to trust. ONI wants a clean conclusion to this crisis but the problems are far more prolific and complicated than commanders realize. Everywhere Boson looks, they see themselves among the monsters and low-lives that call the favela neighborhoods home. The worst of it comes with the mission itself, no one knows where to start. They've been given a name and a specific target but no trail to chase. And even as they slowly close on the prize, even greater threats make preparations to exploit and intervene. Among this undesirable darkness, a cold war is being waged. Dramatis Personae[]PO3 Roxanne-D107 Chapter One: Begin Escalation[]
It was thundering in Rio tonight. A massive storm front advanced toward the coast from the Atlantic Ocean. Flashes of lightning danced in the high heavens and columns of black rain descended over darker waters. The night lights of Rio danced at the storm's approach, like an army of flickering candles. The skyline of Rio de Janerio was physically unique among metropolitan cities, jagged mountains erupted alongside steel pillars that formed modern skyscrapers. Pillbox-looking homes dotted the sides of cliffs and ran at odd angles with sharp inclining roads and maze-like intersections. Rio was described as the "continental crown" of South America and one of the best tourist sites to visit on Earth, at least, before the Human-Covenant War. The city escaped the onslaught of the invading alien-theocratic empire known as the Covenant when they raided Earth in 2552. However, it seemed this city had a curse of drawing the presence of the youthful and adventurous as much as it drew in the desperate and lawless. It was brilliant, this two-face curse; doomed to serve as a war zone between the forces of law and lawless. Before arriving in town for the first time, Jefferson Korn had performed extensive background research on the city - everything from the city's colonial origins to the consistent pattern of crime levels that swept this metropolis for the better part of a millennium. Jeffery looked down at the television screen below his feet that displayed footage of the world outside the tram car. From the camera footage, he saw the movements of the pedestrians running for shelter as the tropical rains grew ever closer. From his seat in the transmission car four stories above the tallest condo in the neighborhood, everyone looked like bugs to step on. Out of innocent curiosity, Korn planted one of his boots on a younger couple as they jostled in the streets towards home. He had no interest in crushing them, however, when looking down, he felt that same impulse someone felt when they crushed a bug underfoot. It was self-conscious, out of habit. Korn watched as the couple descended down a steep path and into a dimly-lit alleyway. They disappeared moments later behind a rundown apartment complex. "You take enjoyment out of crushing your own kind, human?" A gruff, scaly voice spoke from the opposing side of the tram car. {WIP} Chapter Two: Quiet Over Phoenix[]
Harsh rose-colored sand shifted slowly, revealing a rusty copper-colored iron beam once meant for a railroad section. A pair of gruff hands lifted the bar from one end facing toward a setting sun heading out West. Merlin Boyd propped the bar against his right shoulder, dusting up his navy-blue windbreaker as the rocky sand bits stuck to the jacket's synthetic cotton. Merlin brought a hand to wipe away a bead of sweat from his forehead as he glared out at the wane but equally glaring sun. By looking closely he could make out the thin and pointy towers that identified the New Phoenix skyline near the horizon line. It was hard to believe that those towers, reaching skyward, were completely vacant and that anything within 50 miles of the downtown district was vacant of anything biologically alive. "We're losing daylight." Merlin's female companion called to Merlin from his backside. Glancing back, Merlin identified the teenage girl crouched on top of her sniper's perch - a sagging passenger train carriage. Multiple wheels were missing from its frame and looked like it had been in disrepair for a year or two now. Maybe longer now that there wasn't anyone left to work to work in the hyper railyard any longer. "I know Andra! How's that camera installation coming?" Merlin called back to the girl. She was dressed in a form-fitting raincoat with the hood drawn over her head hiding her head in a forest-green tarp. Brown hair-curls escaped at the edges of the jacket but the girl's face was obscured. Andra glanced up from a hunting camera perched on top of a makeshift lightning rod tower. Her blue eyes stared down at Merlin before glancing back her work. "Well. For starters, Daniele was right about the setup. It's just a pain that we never learned how to install these things in training, without that instruction manual he found online, I would be completely lost." "Why's that? I thought those things came with step-by-step instructions." Merlin called back as he dragged the iron railroad beam toward the service garage ten meters away. The process made the boy sweat as he'd been doing this for the last three hours now, however, lifting the 450-pound sections unassisted put a serious strain on his back and shoulders. "Team Leader thought it was best to buy these from that doomsday prepper at the edge of town." "That old guy who works the mechanic shop on Tuesdays through Fridays?" Merlin asked as he put his back into lifting the railway section and threw it as hard as he could like a javelin. It clanged loudly against the industrial wall of brick and aluminum only to settle atop a pile of twenty-something other iron beams. "Yeah, I think. Daniele said he got them for cheap, the cameras are several decades old though. Pre-Covenant War." "He should have just bought them straight from Misriah since we all have the overdue military pension," Merlin said as he searched for more iron beams to move. "He said Smart AI and ONI can tap into them because of the War-era security protocols," Andra responded with a shrug, recounting her own uncertainty she had for using outdated cameras. Merlin mutually shrugged in response and picked up two large iron beams and pushed against the earth and pebbles under his feet. The combined weight was difficult without significant assistance, however, Merlin did manage to get the bars to shoulder height with his substantial strength for having bony-muscle arms. His eyes squinted and his arms quivered. His breath was unsteady as he attempted to set the bars on his shoulders. Something pale-blue danced in Merlin's peripheral causing him to halt in his lift session; through squinted eyes, the blue object danced in the air, sparkled. Merlin was surprised by the object and dropped the iron beams in confusion - nearly crushing his toes which he quickly but clumsily dodged and fell on his butt at the same time as the railroad sections creating a mighty metallic clang that echoed through the railyard. "Ouch!" Merlin screeched when he hit the rocky ground. A hand quickly reached down to him and he grabbed it. In lighting speed, Andra, with her hood back up, had dropped from her post to assist the boy. She always behaved like this, like some kind of guardian angel. "You okay there?" Andra asked as she pulled her friend up from the ground. Her blue eyes and round face were accented with a concerned frown. Merlin's eyes met her's for a second before glancing past her shoulder where he had spotted the shiny-blue anomaly. "Did you see that?" Merlin asked, pointing in the direction where he last saw the object which had now disappeared. "What are you talking about?" Andra asked as she glanced back at the direction Merlin was pointing to. "Blueish orbit or something. Kind of like Mongoose quad headlights in the dead of night." Merlin replied, his fingers still outstretched half-heartedly. He blinked twice to make sure he wasn't seeing things. His stare dragged across the railyard looking for the anomaly again. It stuck out like a sore thumb, slowly bleeding behind a defunct bullet train. Merlin's index finger snapped up once again, identifying the glowing object. Merlin heard Andra's hair scrap against her hoodie as she snapped to look at the object. A bobbing from the jacket told Merlin that she could see the anomaly too. Without squinting, Merlin could tell it would moving slowly away from them - slowly disappearing behind the train. Upon clearer inspection, it wasn't an orb but took the form of a floating haze in the shape of a rough box. It glowed blue as it moved, outlined easily by the rusty reds and browns of the environment around them. "Let's go after it." Andra's voice broke Merlin from his stupor. He glanced at her, she already had an M6P military pistol at the ready. "You know what it is?" Merlin asked, quizzically. "Nope. But its certainly seen us and you know we're not supposed to be here." "Right." Merlin drew his own M6P sidearm from a side pocket of his jacket and pointed it at the anomaly on the run. Merlin started to move up first, taking wide steps as the speed of the anomaly was not particularly fast. Merlin could hear Andra's footsteps following his own as they made their way toward and around the defunct bullet train. As soon as they snapped around the corner, the blue anomaly was already gone - not quite running, but it was definitely floating away now at a sprint speed. Merlin glanced at Andra and she just nodded her head to go forward. Merlin nodded in affirmation and then just blitzed it, giving chase toward the pale blue dot now heading for a series of train car storage pens. Merlin and Andras' boots crackled heavily as they sprint after the blue light. It waned and waxed as it moved, however, the light clearly grew in intensity as it went down a dark alleyway between two pens. The teenagers gave chase at superhuman speeds. As soon as they turned the corner, they were met with a scene they had been least expecting and Merlin swore he felt his heart skip a beat. The light had stopped moving and had completely frozen in the air. The haze had grown stronger intensity, its form now more concrete. A peep from Andra had Merlin turn to her for a quick second. Her eyes were wide with horror as she covered her mouth to prevent a scream. Her pistol was shakingly trained on the blue light. Merlin's eyes snapped back to the light, his arms up in a shooter stance and his body still, ready to fire. His shooting finger was nowhere near the trigger, however, it stood limply with the rest of his grip on the pistol grip. In front of the two teenagers was a blue skeletal apparition. It had a human skeletal structure. Skull. Ribcage. Spine. Its legs were missing, simply floating in the air at pelvis height. Where eyes were supposed to be, hollow sockets stared coldly back at Merlin and Andra. Its jaws were wide open, like a person caught in an eternal scream. It watched the two teenagers who simply stared back, their weapons drawn at the ghostly figure. After what felt like two eternities, its head slowly shifted downward, as if to look at itself. It then glanced up and then, as fast as a lightning strike, it scrunched itself up into a thick blue haze and zoomed at the ground like a bullet. Disappearing with sparks and light coming from its former body. Where it had dematerialized into the ground, a sparkling-blue pile of gray ash lay. It had been here for months, the smell of burnt flesh seemed strong here, like a permanent memory of the terrible, world-shattering event that had befallen it and this entire city only two months prior. Andra and Merlin had stumbled upon an unmarked gravesite. Another one. The anomaly was new, unexplainable even. However, Merlin could feel his gut twist and twitch, feeling slightly weak upon reflex. They just found the remains of another one of seven million people that once called New Phoenix home. {WIP} Chapter Three: Early-Late Christmas[]
Thumping rain pounded the walls and the glass while whispers of sunlight transformed a seemingly dark night into a rattled snowglobe. For close to eight hours, this thunderstorm crashed overhead. Andra Bradford lay sprawled out on her queen-sized mattress with her feet coming halfway off the bed, dangling under tossed-about bedsheets. Her pupils twirled behind closed eyelids, squinting in a weak attempt to cancel out the dim lighting entering her room from the skylight meters above her. Andra groaned as she turned over and planted her face deep into her silky pillow. Why did it have to be near-morning already? The teenage girl badly wanted to sleep in, however, it seemed life had other ideas. A soft knock at her bedroom door announced an uninvited guest. She groaned again, this time more agitated and audibly louder. Andra must have been loud enough to get the message across, or rather not, as the bedroom door whistled partially open. It was a long swish; one oozing caution. Light footsteps followed the opened door; they belonged to someone wearing cotton socks and trained in silent footwork. Few people ever entered Andra's room like that and Andra had good reason to believe it was one particular somebody. "Pssst—? Andra! You awake?" A soft, masculine voice called to the girl from halfway into the bedroom. Suspicions confirmed. Merlin Boyd had entered her domain. Andra mumbled incoherently into her pillow, she meant to say "What is it?" but it came out as a short burst of "Mmm" and "Hmm". "What was that?" Merlin whispered back, still overly-cautious around his friend. For as long as Andra could remember, he behaved like this. Sure, he could play rough, get emotional, and take charge from time to time; extreme caution wasn't his only emotional frequency. However, when around Andra in private, he could be nervous to a fault. Like now, she could detect a subtle quiver in his whisper. The personality trait had its moments, sometimes it was endearing, other times it was annoying. Andra was leaning toward annoying this morning. Andra lifted her head to restate her question; opening her eyes, she frowned at a small spot of dribble on the pillow. Without turning, she asked. "What do you want Merlin?" Merlin completed his stride across the bedroom before whispering again. "It's six in the morning. Daniele woke me up and said he was going for a run. I'm not joining him and Roxanne already said she's sleeping in since the Major isn't coming back for another two hours." "Tell Daniele I'm not going," Andra replied, agitated, before slamming her face back into her pillow. "He actually took off already," Merlin explained, his voice rose to meet Andra’s tone minus her edge. Andra knew with Merlin’s yammering she wasn't getting back to sleep, not that obstacles would vanish without his presence. She really hoped he was finished. A thunder strike echoed outside Andra's bedroom. The ground vibrated for a moment, exemplifying the storm's close proximity. Andra groaned, "He's running in this weather? He's insane." "That's what I said," Merlin replied, shrugging sheepishly. "He reminded me we used to run in storms like these back at Camp Ambrose." "He still stupid," Andra mumbled. Rolling off her chest, her eyes searched the darkness for Merlin's brown eyes but only found his silhouette. "So, why are you here?" "Kind of wanted an excuse to enter — having a hard time getting back to bed," Merlin explained at a whisper, shrugging again. Andra watched him silently, maybe awkwardly from his perspective. In the darkness, she could see his sleep attire — shorts and a tee shirt, she could also make out the nervous vibrations in his shoulders. His black hair was overgrown like a bird's nest; circumstances of relaxed military regulations. Andra didn't respond verbally but simply lifted her warm comforter with her left arm, inviting Merlin in. In response, he froze in place and inhaled air sharply. He was getting more nervous by the second; if Andra hadn't been so tired and annoyed, she might have laughed at his childish response. Her left hand curled into a fist at his inaction; she was losing heat by the second. They used to do this all the time during training, in ditches and doggie piles. Merlin was being ridiculously cautious. "I don't think that's a good idea..." Merlin mumbled distantly. Andra imagined his eyes averting skyward in the dark. "Oh, stop being such a big baby!" Andra hissed at Merlin. She was about finished with this, she just wanted to sleep. "Can’t we just sleep back-to-back instead?" Merlin suggested; his question came off as half-hearted causing Andra to pause. "This about the—?" Andra asked but Merlin answered for her, finishing her thought. "Major." "Right...," Andra agreed quietly. Maybe Merlin had a point. Their ‘friendship’ had always been a matter of concern, with Spartans, with trainers, with officers. Andra didn’t want another incident. "Back-to-back then." Andra exposed her boney, left arm for Merlin to grasp. Grabbing the limb gently, he dragged the girl off the bed and lowered her lightly to the floor. Grasping the comforter, Andra held fast allowing it to follow her down. She clambered to her knees, sighed to herself and inched toward a kneeling, shivering Merlin. Reaching with her right arm, Andra planted an open palm in his nest of hair and ruffled it reassuringly. At her touch, Merlin’s shivers subsided. Nodding at the floor, Andra watched Merlin blow some air in affirmation and turned to the opposite direction. Once his maneuver was complete, she too turned her back. A second later, Merlin's weight pressed into Andra’s back and a familiar warmth enveloped both Spartans. Andra quickly wrapped the comforter around the two to capture the escaping heat. In moments, Merlin’s soft, steady breathing could be heard. Back to sleep. Feeling her eyes flutter too, Andra reminisced this moment. She liked this side of Merlin; he was soft and warm. It was a side Spartans rarely saw for more than a few minutes at a time. His presence was a current reminder of what she missing as the last embers of agitation ebbed into warmth. She began to drift off but Andra remembered why she loved their friendship. Because he’s always been there. For her, and likewise for him. They had each other’s back. At that last thought, Andra finally lets sleep take her. She snuggled into Merlin’s shoulder and their breathing synchronized as rain continued to pour outside. {WIP}
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