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This fanfiction article, The Alpha and the Omega, was written by AshMaelstrom. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
Fitful stars gasped to life in the smoke-ridden skies over New Constantinople, only to vanish just as quickly behind another roiling cloud or simply die out in the wider darkness. Chaiwat-A201 had long grown disinterested in the faint spectacle. As Chief Mendez had demonstrated in all manner of merciless ways, getting distracted was the quickest route to a painful death.
Conversely, another lesson Mendez had drilled into the trainees was to exercise situational awareness, to examine their surroundings down to the last detail. That didn’t mean becoming enamored with the scenery, but it did mean staying alert of even the most subtle changes.
The light show playing out overhead was anything but subtle, the Spartan-III supersoldier reflected as he watched more ephemeral stars blooming far above the rust-colored smoke and skeletal tree branches that obscured his view. The lights had been a constant companion during Alpha Company’s gradual infiltration behind enemy lines-hints of the ongoing struggle between Covenant invaders and the ragtag UNSC forces sent to defend the planet. But never had the rhythm of blue and orange lights flickering above Chaiwat been this intense. Whitcomb was making his move. Or the Covenant fleet was. Given the current communications blackout, there was no way of knowing.
All that mattered right then was that Alpha Company was making their move.
Chaiwat shifted between mangled trees as softly as his Semi-Powered Infiltration armor would allow him, a veritable ghost in what had once been a sprawling forest before the Covenant arrived. Not one alien patrol had come close to his team, something that relieved and annoyed Chaiwat with shared intensity. Relief, because it meant that they were on the verge of reaching their target without a hitch.
Annoyed, because contrary to all the wisdom Mendez and the other instructors had drilled into his head, Chaiwat wanted a fight.
Less than a half-hour more, and it would be his: payback. Payback for everything the aliens had taken from him. That was his only reason for enduring it all, from the psychotic training regimen to the agonizing augmentations that had transformed him into the supersoldiers he was today.
Striding through the husks of the dead forest, he recalled the last day of his old life he remembered clearly, as he often did after a particularly ruthless day in training. He remembered being picked up that morning by his uncle while his parents were away and taken to visit the small cargo hauler the man used to make his living. The next few hours, as always were a blur-warnings of unfamiliar slipspace ruptures opening just beyond the planet’s orbit, a great metallic wail as the hauler was roused to escape, Chaiwat begging someone to call his parents’ place of work…
Then came the moment of haunting clarity, as Chaiwat sat shivering before a viewport and watched the Covenant fleet unleash thousands of transports upon the helpless world of Hat Yai before the hauler finally entered slipspace.
When the strange man had visited him at the orphanage on Paradise Falls and asked if he wanted revenge, Chaiwat hadn’t hesitated before accepting the offer.
The Spartan-III was hardly a novice. He’d spilled blood before-human blood, that is. Chaiwat seethed silently as he recalled the Insurrectionists he’d killed on Mamore and Far-Gone. They were doing nothing but weakening and distracting humanity during an existential war. Alpha Company being sent to deal with them before they were deployed against the Covenant was evidence enough of that. Chaiwat was also keenly aware that both troublesome colonies were located far away from the Covenant threat. Had they taken in even a single refugee so far?
He wasn’t the only vengeful Spartan prowling the forest that night. Directly ahead of him, the IFF tag for Sayed-A065 had halted behind a fallen tree. Sayed hailed from Mesra, and had been sent offworld on one of the few evacuation ships while his parents stayed behind to fight in one of the “ghost” militia battalions. Fitting, Chaiwat noted wryly. He and the rest of Alpha Company were practically ghosts themselves now.
Further ahead and to the right was the IFF tag for Filip-A038. Filip was from Capella, a world that the Covenant had attacked at the very start of the war. Admiral Cole had arrived in time to save the colony-but not in time to save Filip’s parents from being killed when the Marine base they’d served at had been bombarded by the alien fleet.
Now Filip led the trio through the ruined forest and up an increasingly steep incline littered with fallen trees until they crested what had become a large hill. Conveniently, several fallen trees formed a large, uneven wall for the Spartan-IIIs to take cover behind.
Chaiwat tightened his grip on his MA5K as he peeked over one blackened tree to examine the team’s target. At the base of the hill, a once-spacious clearing was now occupied by a sprawling Covenant base. A series of interconnected spires and turtle-like structures all cast in the same indigo alloy the Covenant were so enamored with sat clustered around a central obelisk. Turrets mounted on tripods or upon anti-gravity platforms linked to the compound stood idle all around the base. Pink lights lined each structure, framing the entire scene in an eerie hue beneath the hazy sky.
It was rare indeed for the Covenant to build such elaborate structures on the surface of a human world. When they did, though, the bases were always high-value targets. This one was no exception, being the Command and Control center for all Covenant forces on the continent. A successful strike here combined with a decisive outcome in whatever brawl was developing above them could easily spell the end for the Covenant’s presence on New Constantinople.
The trio of Spartan-III’s could practically sense each other's mutual hope thanks to years spent training together. Sayed propped his BR55 battle rifle on the fallen tree, taking aim at a Grunt sitting in one of the exposed shade turrets below. Filip made no move to stop him, knowing his teammate would maintain discipline until the time was right. He did, however, take a glance at Chaiwat.
“Payback time,” Chaiwat simply said, hefting his MA5K brazenly in one hand. The words came out of his helmet’s mic as a harsh hiss.
Adjusting the foregrip on his own M7, Filip just looked back down at the base. “Wait for the signal,” he ordered. Still, Chaiwat could detect the stress seeping through the filter in his team leader’s mic. Leader or not, he’d been waiting for this moment too. All of them had, ever since the towering green form of Lieutenant Ambrose had told them that the chance to fight the Covenant was theirs…
Chaiwat almost missed the mission clock on his HUD reaching 1305 hours, flashing green as it did so. In the distance on the other side of the clearing, a blue light rose quickly, and a distance thud followed.
“That’s the signal,” Filip whispered. “Rhino team, move out.”
Sayed opened fire, and a crimson-armored Grunt slumped over dead in his shade turret. The scene was repeated all around the base or outdone as missiles slammed into the larger plasma turrets and cracked them open in towers of blue fire. Several Covenant sentries tumbled to the ground in heaps all at once, victims of Alpha Company's snipers.
Chaiwat and Filip vaulted over the tree and slid down the hill, taking aim at an incredulous blue-armored Elite who just so happened to have been glancing in their direction as the assault kicked off. The tall alien stood frozen in place, two orange eyes gawking widely at Chaiwat.
Two red laser sights settled on the Elite's chest. Chaiwat grinned.
Payback.