Skirmish of the Insurrectionist Listening Post (Uncanon)

[Huka]

February 27, 2537 (Fifty-Seventh Cycle of the Milestone of Prologue)
Insurrectionist Listening Post, Gas Giant Orion II

-Prior Supercarrier Mission

Roy-001 and Dani-047 slowly drifted through the gravity-free halls of the station, weapons at ready while keeping track of their motion trackers. Thirty-five minutes in this eerie place but they find nothing. Well...nothing spirit-lifting. At touchdown, they found no trace of the crew or a supposed A.I. As the distress call suggested. But, all of that changed when they got closer to the command center sitting in the heart of the station; bodies drifted in splayed positions, faces twisted with pain of the visible knife wounds dashing across their necks and vital areas that their zero-g jumpsuits couldn't protect...and others bloated from the last of oxygen, suggesting someone tried to kill their murderers at the cost of closed-in personnel.

The thought of Jackals, Covenant or rogues [based on previous experience and very few and vague ONI reports], came to mind. The infiltrators were certainly skilled and wielded good tech to leave without a trace, perhaps Skirmisher commandos. At the forty minute mark, the pair came to a closed door and the strength of the distress beacon blaring madly on the other side.

Dani soundlessly pushed herself forward with the aid of her integrated jets before starting to tap her nimble fingers along the door's neighboring console. Roy turned slowly and aimed his shotgun down the hall to watch his team-partner's back, both silent. There was nothing much to talk about amongst the dead.

047 blinked the 'go' through their HUDs and the damaged door started to jerk itself off to reveal a terrible sight; the circular room lined with consoles still spatting out electricity and cables hanging low from the ceiling, its officers floating in mid-air like everyone else. While the personnel aside were killed by surgical wounds and suffocation, these men and women were killed by people, or someone, who had no use of stealth at this point and was very good with a blade and zero-g combat. Spent bullets and their respective weapons floating just as dead.

Roy grunted in distaste as he searched and policed bodies to find the device. All bearing absolute horror and pain in their eyes, the Spartan tried hard to avoid looking into the bulging optics until he finally found the source of their appearance here, a large Caucasian male without nothing but pants and boots. His eyes closed tight and face frozen in a painful scowl but that wasn't the weird part: his exposed body was scorched and cut by a hot blade or...energy sword with a few of his fingers cut off, making a noticeable pictogram on his blackened chest but left the poor sod's face and neck untouched.

While they were Insurrectionists, Roy couldn't help but feel some pity for this. Checking on the signal, the Spartan suddenly caught green blinks in the bulging throat. Tilting his head morbidly, he clicked in 'found objective' between HUDs and almost feeling Dani passing him. Turning to address her, her partner wasn't there but at the other side of the room.

His eyes fell on his tracker. Nothing but he noticed one of the cables moving. Roy quickly blinked 6 to Dani, but when she turned a invisible force violently stomped her head against the room's thick shield-window with a soft crack. Lifting his shotgun up with a growl, the Spartan tried to see the invisible foe but there was hardly a shimmer and the bodies were making it difficult to see until a couple flung towards him with a noticeable trail of blue light.

Lifting his gun to protect himself, Roy gasped when twin blades of yellow plasma slice through the bodies and his weapon. Finally getting the initiative to use his thrusters to fly back before the prongs flicked up, sundering the barrel and shielding bodies in two. The Spartan drifted as if in heart-pounding slow motion as the bodies drifted apart to reveal the massive form of a Elite in dark golden Ranger armor...or some variant of it.

This stare-down realistically lasted a heartbeat before the Elite charged forward at his weaponless opponent with Dani floating prone behind them. Roy barely ducked under the decapitating swing before diving a strong jab that brought the alien's energy shields up, but they rebuked his hand back. When he went for the second, the Ranger was fast to bring his knee up, clipping Roy and kicked him hard in the center to a tumbling towards the console with a pillowed crash. A inaudible alarm came on and the gravity came back on.

Sending bodies and Dani crashing on the floor with the Ranger landing easily onto his clawed boots, Roy grunted and rolled to a quick tumble from the console as he pulled his M6C out, immediately firing the powerful high-caliber bolts.

The audible Elite growled with a noticeable hiss to the first couple hits to the cheek and chest beckoning the deflective flares of a azure energy shield before his sword flicked and reacted to each shot with mastered precision while dangerously approaching his prey. You got to be kidding me!

At the last second, the alien lunged with a snarl and nearly impaled Roy to the console if he didn't roll at the last second, still firing the last of his clip into the elite's shields before he unholstered one of the plasma rifles hanging from a sash-like belt, firing azure bolts. With the distraction, a nearly awakened Dani started to fire her BR55 battle rifle in rapid bursts. Buckling to the fire, the Covie snarled at the bothersome demon before suddenly vanishing in his camouflage.

Both commandos immediately tried to track the alien but it was slow enough-or fast enough- to keep its wavering minimum and wild fire isn't much of a option when the blastshields were already weakened. However...the Elite didn't think the same, the suicidal fanatics.

A bolt suddenly appeared from the midst of bodies and burned a meter-sized hole into the cracked window. The two Spartans managed to look at each other for a brief second before the greedy pull of Outer Space ripped Dani and all of the bodies from their resting place. To 041's credit, she didn't even give the alien a scream of horror as the thick glass tore apart from her slamming and pulled towards the stars. "Dani!" Roy screamed before the invisible hinge-head tackled into him with the aid of his anti-grav thrusts. Slamming into the corridor as the door sealed any chance of chasing after his fellow Gold team-member, Roy growled furiously at the loss of his sister-in-arms and elbowed the side of the Elite's helmed cranium, provoking a snarl of anger before he returned a vicious headbutt that certainly made the Spartan's head spin abit as they crashed and slammed about in the hallway until finally they crashed through a bulkhead and into a elevator-shaft with its elevator somewhere else.

While the Elite had the quick reaction to grab onto the frame of the shaft and watch his foe fall several meters into the abyss, Roy crashed and banged side to side painfully before managing to grab onto the other side. "Dani...Dani...come in." He groaned out as he reached to grab for his pistol. There was white static in replacement and he tried to clear the line but a large figure immediately grab his attention.

Practically rolling on the level-edge, Roy found himself nearly impaled by the Elite and his energy sword again. Leaping back with a grab on the elevator cable to see the alien turning around to engage. The Spartan had the advantage now as he swung hard and stomped the swordsman's back against the outstretched ledge hard, weakening the alien's shields but the main idea came to fruition as a spark flew from its own grav packs. Growling out, the Elite planted his clawed boots back and sprang like a wildcat with a savage snarl accompanying. Keeping a hold to the cables, Roy nearly lost his pistol when he slammed against the other side and quickly replaced it with his combat knife. With a inaudible growl, he stabbed his blade as hard as he could into the Elite's durable armor and jet pack.


The alien let out a grunt of surprise as his equipment started to whine and malfunction before receiving a jaw-clipping punch and follow-up elbow to the armored neck and 'chin'.  The grip weakening, Roy slammed his helmed head hard enough to make the Elite's head snap back hard and fall straight to the next level door, only to bounce off to the next diagonally hard. Spartan-001 had the distinct pleasure of watching the hingehead try to activate its jets but it sputtered and failed each time while armored claws tried to grab...ultimately screaming a trilling roar as it vanished into the shadows of a hundred floors below. 

Hanging there for a moment, victory sinked in but nothing came. Just...emptiness. Dani. Dropping his head in mourning as he kept trying to contact her but still nothing but white noise. When he tried to contact the prowler, still the same. The communications must be jammed, bringing some hope to the lone Spartan as he slowly drifted down towards the comms array at the engineering floor. 

(Do you wish to continue...? y/n)

[Huka]

Roy slid down the elevator cable, keeping his eyes to the doors and counting with the station schematics as a reference. 66...67...68....69. There we go. Swinging lightly and planting his feet on either side of the level ledge, about less than a foot of metal but enough to both save his life either and plant his toes at. His mechanical arm whined softly in movement, drawing back and thrusted its fingers hard through the center of the door with a ringing thunk.Twisting his hand and starting to push to the side with a imaginative effort due to his phantom limb, the Spartan watched the door whine in protest to the intrusion and immediately lunged his other hand against the other side to rip a good gap with real effort this time. All the while, reliving the moment of losing his arm in the first place; to save a civilian. A woman. This inevitably brought on the attention to Dani for a brief moment in his task while the doors started to push his hands back to the center. That's two women he've lost in space.

Morbidly funny in a way, he knew some of his fellow Spartans-living and dead-would have enjoyed the humor. With the strength of perfect genes, the finest augmentations and fury of loss, Roy slammed the doors wide open with no extort of vocals. Blinking and looking around, he found himself in a security check hub. Its light flickered on and off but noticeably there was no blood or air of death in here. Surely there had to be personnel here during the Elite's rampage.

Stepping forward, and thankfully away from the shaft's seemingly endless drop, the Spartan unholstered his magnum and pulled his clever from its home as a safety precaution before slowly making his way towards the main door under the checkpoint. Glancing to his side, Roy saw another door but knew it was the interrogation room for would-be infiltrators, so didn't find a need to check there. Glancing his sight to the motion tracker while keeping his own feet at the standard pace to avoid his own signal from being picked up on someone else's, there was nothing for his tracker to catch.

When he was close to the door, Roy glanced around and took a moment to recognize that it was a simple security system but a several inches thick blast-door with the markings ENGINEERING along its brow. No doubt made to contain any failures on the other side or keeping saboteurs a little busy. Gagging out in annoyance, the Spartan moved towards the checkpoint and hoped that the energy was working on it. It was and after working on its systems, the Insurrectionists at least were confident enough to think no one would find their little operation. Security systems wasn't too difficult, working around its coding and firewalls but there was no active A.I. To stop his progress certainly was helpful. With quick work of his fingers, he finally saw the wall of letters and numbers flash to <<DOOR ACCESS GRANTED>>.

The door pulled itself to the side with the noticeably sound of slight grinding of metal on metal, realizing a hiss of contained air that surprised Roy abit. However, when he stepped towards the opening door, targets suddenly appeared on the other side and peppered his bullets, reports of standard-issue M5ABs taking the once eerie-silence. The MJOLNIR effortless pinged the projectiles off with sparks as the Spartan rolled and went into cover by the first heartbeat.

"Kill the Spartan." A gravelly, almost bestial, voice ordered. Roy saw two targets drifting on his position fast but not before something rolled by his feet. Looking down, he saw the familiar form of a frag grenade. With superhuman reaction time, 001 leapt away while still trying to keep in the cover of the walls' angling to keep from being shot up again, and the explosion of the frag sent his tumbling body further up towards where he just came from.

Landing on his shoulder and following the momentum in a roll, Roy grunted out when his back slammed into the wall with nothing but a shaky legs from the explosion. Through the smokescreen, more bullets sliced the air and tried to hit the gaps in the Spartan's armor. Springing towards the side and keeping his position low, Roy lifted his magnum as soon as the smoke was clear enough to expose humanoid silhouette and scored gruesome headshots in a heatbeat, hearing the rare sound of human metal and skulls being punctured and ended by human firearms. The pair crumbled back from the force of the powerful magnum as brain matter and blood splattered behind them.

"Eliminate him!" The voice ordered with more rage stabbing the air and suddenly, practically belts of frags was flying through the door. Crazies! Are they trying to blow them all up!?

Roy sprinted and crossed the threshold in record time without glance to the fallen bodies before they were engulfed into the mad flames. His eyes made a 180 flash over the room to see two of the Insurrectionists standing out of cover with their rifles thrown aside in the middle of the explosion to have M90s instead. They stood without fear, dressed in red underclothes, noticeably ODST body armor and gray hoods drapped over their EVO helmets, two eye-visors glaring out red light to complete the surprising classification of the White Avengers, a Insurrectionist group that was usually found in the systems between Harvest and Arcadia. UNSC intel thought they were disbanded during the early 2530s from the Covenant's xenophobic crusade. Seems not.

In the slow time-of Roy's view-he turned to the side intime to evade a shanking from a hiding rebel soldier with a combat knife. Real time and flow grabbed the Spartan from his adrenaline-induced reflexes before he managed to block the incoming stabs and slashes of the Insurrectionist with his vambraces and cleaver's blunt side with little effort on his part, the man attacking like a crazed serial killer. "Get out of the way!" One of the shotgunners demanded and the knifeman ducked under Roy's own slash, only to be shot in the neck and shoulder by his magnum, followed with a body-lifting kick in the stomach. Before the Spartan could confirm his kill, his side were peppered by the two's blasts but it did nothing but vividly irritate him thanks to distance and titanium of his armor and bodysuit. More closer, then it might have been a problem.

Growling, Roy lifted his magnum and golden visor aimed at the two, who were in the midst of pumping before being given a pair of 12.7x40mm M225 SAPHE rounds for their trouble. A wild cry returned full attention on the psycho, making the Spartan jumped a meter back and the knife fighter instantly followed with a flip-kick to the chest. Unexpected strength pushed Roy back in a slight stumble but he just as quickly recovered, getting into a fighting stance with his cleaver at the ready.

The Insurrectionist was just ready with his knife in reverse-grip, his free arm hanging uselessly by some muscles, and feet hoping in ready on the move. Roy could almost hear the disturbing mumbling and salivating under the man's helmet. Then he stomped forward as if to lunge forward, making the man leap back and lunge in a full unthought sequence as he envisioned it all in his head. Swinging his knife at empty air, the Insurrectionist impaled himself on the Spartan's blade with a painful groan. The confused, and slightly unnerved, Spartan almost thought he was going to pull away but instead the man pulled deeper-almost over his clenching fingers- as he rammed his head against Roy's helmet face hard.

Regaining his military hardness in that instinct, Roy swung the impaled man against the wall and shot his other shoulder, this time blowing that arm clear off with spurts of dark blood following it. The Insurrectionist howled and screamed into the air, as he bloodily slid to the floor in defeat, "Damn you! Damn you! Damn you Spartan dogs and your UNSC masters!"

Furrowing his brows, Roy checked his HUD on his ammunition and aimed his reticule at the other's head. The blood loss come and hyperventilating, the Insurrectionist ranted and babbled about the UNSC and its failings, crimes, and other things. Roy almost thought he heard 'Covenant' amongst them but the man was making no sense. He was clearly insane, it was hard to tell from being locked up in here or something else. Finally after some kicking at the air, the man's breathes were becoming more shallow and sparse, "You will die here, Spartan. You and all of your precious Space...command..." With that, his last breath hissed against the helmet's filters and head dropped.

Slowly stepping back away from the pooling scarlet trying to touch his boots, Roy looked down and turned away from the body. Five men. There was no doubt more down that hall. Inhaling and huffing out, his muscles tightening and flexing in preparation, the Spartan went to police a M90 and ammunition from the other bodies. Loading the new shotgun with a reminiscent smile before sliding onto his left shoulder blade's magnetic plate, he grabbed one of assault rifle to do similar and crept towards the light-whirling pathway.

Further ahead, he could hear voices speaking and sprinting ahead in a low crouch into a massive room of high catwalks, ladders and pillars, all to work over datafiles and in the center was a powerful energy reaction to power the station and ironically their stealth systems. Across the main catwalk towards said reaction was about six armed men and women, with one of the women standing rigid over a console with a nervous shift to her legs.

"Y-yes, sir. We can take care of it, just give us a little more ti-" She answered to a unheard question. "No, your time is up. Prepare to leave...now." A firm, almost pained, voice responded, it was hard to tell if it was vocally-modified or natural from Roy's position but it did have an arabic accent to it. The woman was silent for a moment, "Yes, sir. Where is your position, I'll have the pods ready for you." "Don't waste time, I have my own way. Do not fail me." The commander answered, his voice deepened with a mechanic growl that made the woman clench her fingers tightly as if to rub the fear-induced sweat under her gloves. Nodding at once, she ended transmission with a mumble and looked at a large armored man that was nearly twice her size, "Alright people, time to move before..."

Then she looked back and suddenly leapt to the side in a roll that nearly scared a couple of her comrades when a bullet zipped between them and would have nailed her head, only to ping off the reaction's shell. Everyone turned fast and aimed their weapons at the only entrance to this level. "Keep our guest entertained!" The woman ordered to make a break for it, provoking Roy to appear and fire bursts from his rifle.

One of the Innies was dropped before he could blink and the others were just starting to move, excluding a huge guy that looked he could be a Spartan, who was already down in cover and returning fire with a BR55.

Jumping back and starting to backpedal to better cover, Roy caught one of the women poking her head to fire but a lightning-fast reflex ended that action with a bullet to the visor. Screams of curses could be heard from her, armor saving her life but brought the world of agonizing pain with glass in the eyes and bullet wound. Checking on the retreating Innie leader, he saw her starting to climb up some ladders. He had to learn the reason for all of this!

(Adding Fight Scene later!)

[Huka]

PART II (Unbelievable)

It took a moment’s pause of shifting under the weight of fire, getting himself into a more advantageous position towards the catwalk. Rather hard with his bulk-both size wise and armor-before producing a flashbang from his pouch with his thumb on the detonator. Two seconds in before sending the grenade hurtling through the air. Roy barely heard the surprised cry, “Grenade!” before the loud explosion of concussion and visual overload caught his opponents. With a quick turn on the balls of his feet, 001 sent himself into a full-on sprint down the catwalk with impressions of his boots from the sheer force of his momentum.

Aiming his rifle, the Spartan fired off armor-piercing bursts around the corners. Capping off three of the Insurrectionists in three distinct heartbeats before turning around in time to catch the woman he wounded in midair with a knife poised to slit his throat for the blinding. However, she found herself clipped harshly by the butte of the UNSC commando’s rifle and her momentum redirected over the ledge for the crackling floor of electricity below with a shrill scream to follow after. The attack’s distraction was enough for the big guy to recover and bluntly uppercut Roy’s rifle out of the way before jabbing fiercely at the Spartan’s unarmored sides. Gauntlet-hardened fists that would have pulverized a regular man’s body bad met with iron-hard muscles and the MJOLNIR’s bodysuit. Neither men were amused.

To be blunt, the augmented Spartan chuckled to instill the near-demonic infamy that he knew that his fellows had with the Innies before returning the attacks with the butte of his rifle slamming into the smaller man’s jaw once and came back to jam into his midsection hard enough to launch him onto his rear. Looking down at the dazed Innie, Roy almost felt that is what the Elites felt when handling humans. Superior in every way in physical combat and needless to say, the Spartan understood their arrogance despite his mutual disgust. Normal men and women never were subjected to martial training since childhood, they weren’t forced to run miles-long treks and almost outright fatal combat exercises until every technique and maneuver was as natural as breathing.

Most were fighting for their lives, Spartans are doing they were made for. What will they do after this war? Probably put under ice until they’re needed for the next big thing. On that, Roy chuckled again in that milisecond-long muse and put a burst into the man’s head as his eye caught the last of the leader’s entourage making a run for it.

Quickly changing ammunition in the middle of his jogging rush for the ladder in hindsight before bending his legs ever so diligently before bounding through the air with all of his superhuman-augmented strength in a pounce. Firing a burst one-handed in mid-air, Roy easily replaced the downed coward on the ladder as the body fell back down to the catwalk below. Putting his rifle on one of his magnetic holster and climbed up the ladder with the sounds of his prey’s escape dulling down a unseen hall.

Climbing over the end’s ledge in a few seconds flat, he saw the Innie officer turn her head back to see the green-armored stalker behind her several meters off. Roy gave chase with his rifle back in his hand and fired off bursts at her legs. More to disrupt her running, rather than really wound her and after a few times of it, she tripped over her own feet at a near loss of her left ankle.

Zooming in on her face; a brunette with a slight tan to her light skin, flushed from the fear of being captured by the second-worst kind of enemy, and a grazed cheek from some old scar, Roy made that a personal note if she managed to escape and kept his barrel aimed for any sudden movements.

“Behave and I won’t shoot your knees.” Roy warned through his helmet’s speaker, provoking a disgusted sneer on her face by the slight show of her pearly white teeth and flare of a nostril.

However, the Spartan’s common sense and veteran intuition suddenly flared off. This is too easy. On that realization, a pair of bulkheads shut behind him sharply, and the woman’s eyes widened at the sound of heavy deliberate footsteps.

Roy was really torn between turning his head to the sounds and keeping his attention on the officer but curiosity made his peripheral vision focus. There seemed to be nothing at first, but that illusion collapsed with a stuttering spark, outlining and finally revealing a Golden Elite. No, the Golden Elite. His armor was dented and scratched from his would-be fatal fall, the sputtering sound of forced breaths wheezed. Maybe some broken ribs. That’ll make this easy.

Swerving his rifle for a kill, finger pulling for the trigger but the loud shriek of painful surprise pulled the 001’s attention to see his primary objective yanked by a invisible force around the corner with her legs kicked madly.

Cursing under his breath, Roy quickly returned attention on his nemesis before reflexes perfected of a practical lifetime of military training and augmentation reacted before his conscious could fully process threw his body into a defensive tumble as azure bolts of plasma hissed right over his head and shoulders, burning straight through the bulkhead to the station’s innards. Instead of a expected growl of annoyance, there was just the Elite keeping his casual stride and the hot huff of a fired plasma rifle. Roy prioritized and chose to chase after the Innie before dealing with the split-faced bastard. She can talk, He probably couldn’t. Maybe...until Roy got a hold on him for his partner.

Sprinting around the corner and to the only open path through the slight maze of human infrastructure with the help of signs, particularly leading to the hanger, Roy found his mark again roughly pulled by a pair of green-armored Skirmishers, hissing angrily at her lack of cooperation in their talons. A third with an odd looking ruff of black feather erected before turning around to see Roy. No time for a staredown with the Enemy, the Spartan lifted his rifle and opened fire in concentrated bursts but to his surprise, the shuddering appearances of two more Skirmishers in bronze harness practically danced out of opposite neighboring doorways with their small energy bucklers flaring on deflecting the bullets like their smaller cousins’ annoying barrage deflectors.

The large Skirmisher  gave a bold cackle as it stepped back into the door and watched it close while its comrades got into intimidating stance with their shields glowing in the dim light. Really brave birds...

As if sensing that thought, the two elite runners suddenly flared a pair of cutlass-shaped blades of burning crystals from their hidden positions before charging with a murderous hiss that went beyond simple bloodlust or care for Covenant superstition.

Shooting again with a full barrage, hoping to kill these annoying runners before they got close but it became quite clear in their deliberate dance-like maneuvers and admittedly accurate deflections until they crossed one another, landing with four Skirmishers in a full-lined charge that these weren’t just run-of-the-mill specialists.