Armored Core

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        “Soldier, keep those guns on those slippery bastards and make sure they don't get up again!” Echoed the voice of a Marine through the speaker in Cyrus’s helmet, accompanied by gunfire, as he jogged down a shattered asphalt road in his armor past an eerie row of holed out apartments and stores, some of which were still on fire, remnants of a city that fell under a vicious two-day siege from a broken Covenant. The scenery wasn't in his mind, as he had freshly emerged and was fighting a lance of alien infantry right up ahead.

        As his armor hugged the metal carcass of a burning tipped Warthog, the skies were filled with the rotors and rockets of two attack UH-144s, or as the soldiers called them Falcons, hovering into the combat zone, their 40mm M636 autocannons prepared to bore into more alien armor as the UNSC’s land brigades closed in on the hostiles in pincer moves. “Osprey Two-One and Three-One, CAS is underway on grid 5345.”

Just then, a black armored soldier appeared from the car behind him wielding an assault rifle, having duty to watch Cyrus's back in this unforgiving situation, “Roger that, Osprey,” the ODST that took cover next to Cyrus said as he left cover to fire some shots at a heavily suppressed Elite and his lance, having been broken now, “God be damned, one hell of a week to start excavating tech ground up.”

        “Makes me seriously wonder how we didn’t even find the stuff under the colony during construction,” the Spartan IV noted, as he popped out to take some shots at a trio of Grunts, splitting their reptillian head into two and rupturing their methane pyramids. “But now’s now, no time to extend regrets.”

        “More time to kill, I guess,” Corporal Crowley, the ODST, responded as his assault rifle flared, turning some more Grunt flesh into bloody ribbons and depleting a Sangheili’s shield before the gun clicked empty. It’s has been an grueling five hours since the final push had started, and they were glad that they were close to reaching the excavation site, of which was conveniently located in the middle of the city. Almost like Mombasa, it seemed to Cyrus, a former Helljumper who thought himself ‘graduated’, shortly before beheading the hapless Elite with a straight shot through his eye.

        After five minutes of cover firing, all of the various alien defenders were nothing more than still, lifeless bodies riddled with holes of various sizes with some a little more worst to wear, but with corpses of fellow humans laying beside them. With a quick radius check, Cyrus and Crowley moved on from their cover and continued pushing deeper into the city as the Falcons ascended above the skyline in seconds, engines roaring, to cover anymore squads dug in that were further away. The Spartan, reviewing combat data shown on his Heads Up Display inside his intimidating helmet, took note of a good sized cluster of red dots that eventually vanished just due north-east, where the rest of Fireteam Hawken were. He had volunteered to lead a frontal armored assault into the dig site, while his squad would disappear behind enemy lines to gather intel and sabotage any Mantis AAs or Wraiths that posed a threat to the Pelicans on their way.

        Speaking of which, Cyrus cocked his head left and made note of a cascade bright plasma explosions on top of a fiery civilian building and reported to their reinforcements, “This is Hawken Two, hostile anti-air weapons in District Forty Two are neutralized. I repeat, hostile AAs are down in District Forty Two. Pelicans, you’re cleared for deployment at designated DZ.”

Now this was where the fun part began. As the Spartan and the ODST took cover from another lance of Covenant forces, a squadron of Pelicans, Hammerdown, were on their way from Firebase Lima to the designated drop zone, carrying a heavy payload of armored vehicles while the other squadrons deployed carried extra Warthog Fast Attack Vehicles and more Scorpion tanks towards the flanking sides of the city.

        In one of those transports, there inside its cargo bay sat a medium sized, dark-grey and heavily armed exosuit that resembled the MJOLNIR Powered Armor that the Spartan IVs wore into battle. Armed to the teeth, it bore the sign of veterancy through its relatively untouched battle scars from long before. But if one was to look inside, it appeared that clearly no man was inside it as remained inactive for the time being.

        “Alright, lads! We’re going in hot, make sure you bury these bastards two feet under!”

“Mongol Actual here, let’s show these pally coal miners who’s the real demolition experts.”

As they soared over the cratered and burnt terrain, once a sprawling mix of tropical rainforests and plains used for powering Lumpur’s orbital elevators turned ashes and scrap metal, something stirred within the suit, the name ‘Gungnir’ shining under a fixed red light.

        Inside the body, it suddenly lit up with a dazzling blue glow, its heavy internal modifications visible as wires snaking up and through the claustrophobic space. After half a minute, the entire cockpit had completed its boot-up cycle and a shimmering avatar of a young woman with a face some men would find pretty in her estimated twenties faded into view, taking up the entire space of the suit as if she would operate it through her wavy cobalt arms with nobody seeing her lividity.

        Her name was Kigaru, a fourth-generation smart A.I. Her original duty was to support maintain both the UNSC Paris-class frigate Sunset Over Tokyo and its crew, which was in orbit with its battle group of five frigates and one heavy destroyer that are currently engaging a number of Covenant CCS-battlecruisers, and make sure that her current host Spartan, Cyrus himself, was safe, a later duty instilled to her as part of a request.

        But she was a little atypical. Unlike all the other A.Is on the regular space-faring vessels bar an legendary A.I she only heard about twice, she had an almost unquenchable  interest in wanting to take part in fierce land conflicts rather than providing support to naval battles thanks to Warrant Officer Kigayama Lin, the original host and whose service record is undeniably impressive, having an I.Q that matched those of regular UNSC scientists while also curiously a relative of the late Docter Ellen Anders. No doubt the explanation behind her spiritual successor's immense persistence on being on the frontlines, as Lin was doing very much the same when she was kicking in the Navy, ONI noted.

        Because of this, the crew of the Tokyo began bringing up lists about the benefits of letting an A.I like her operate on the battlefield and managed to convince some Spartans, the aforementioned squad, to offer them the A.I . When she first met Hawken Squad, at the time a collective of soldiers who operated on strict ruling, Kigaru immediately set out to find a balance between rules and fun, and made good friends with the man who was now advancing in the ruins of the city, becoming sort of his guardian angel. Even then, one more person was thinking to spoil his ship’s A.I a little more, Captain Sergei Lelyushenko.

        With enough persuasion and support from those who have fought beside Cyrus and Kigaru, the Russian captain finally got the A.I something that could completely turn the tide of a battle; the HRUNTING/SLEIPNIR Mark II Powered Armor Defense System, a set of armor based on scavenged data from the planet Algolis, where its predecessor and its pilot had died holding off an entire Covenant force on his own. Ghost would be proud of it if he somehow survived, as the suit was now more than capable of dealing more damage than even a team of Spartans and biting off more than its pilot can chew. Kigaru certainly fit the criteria to pilot it, and then life found its way.

        To bring up an example, in mid-November 2557, Kigaru proved her analytical and combat skills in the defense of Installation 5’s research facility after a Storm raiding force took the liberty of securing the ring’s inactive firing controls, a reason yet to be understood as the Halos were no longer capable of firing anymore. Astonishing most of the military personnel, and Cyrus himself, onboard, Kigaru’s reputation as a daring combat A.I grew to such high levels within FLEETCOM in a short amount of time. At this point, ONI, the group that Sergei had asked to create the suit, became interested in her transformation from a regular smart A.I to that of a well trained Spartan, seeking ways to create non-smart combat A.Is along with more PADS to supplement a fast deployment force in the Inner Colonies.

        So today in her mind would be like the battle of facility all over again; except that this time the plot of battle had expanded and threats more heavier than the conventional Storm Wraiths were stomping around the city. With reports of a trio of Type-47 Scarabs flooding in, Gungnir was equipped with one of Kigaru’s four standard loadouts; the sharpshooter. Armed with a triple barreled missile launcher akin to those mounted on contemporary Warthogs, a M41 LAAG mounted on a mechanical hand and a deadly railgun as her primary weapon of choice, aided by her dependable Peregrine UAV to provide target acquisition. There was going to be a long list of Covenant casualties after she’s done, Kigaru mused, smiling all the way

        As time passed by, Cyrus and Crowley had already met up with a splintered squad of Marines and moved towards an open intersection in Ismail District, awaiting the heavy armor that would be dropped off at a recently marked waypoint, visible to the Pelicans’ pilots’ helmets. From Kigaru’s switched ship-mounted camera view, she could see the deadly green strings of plasma lining the crater where Storm forces believe a Forerunner complex lays just beneath the surface as well as the outlines of burning glyphs created by the Covenant excavation walkers. Fires bellowed everywhere in the shredded buildings in proximity of the dig site, already beginning to show promise to its miners. Guesses on what exactly were the aliens looking for ranged from 'information on more Forerunner caches' to 'planetary annihilation devices, arranged two by two'.

        Whatever was down there, Battlegroup Kiryu, one of Fleet Command's many active fleets who had been assigned to take back Lumpur, were prepared to pull a fast end if the ancient technology posed a colossal danger. Although the Tokyo’s crew could bombard the place with MAC rounds for their fellow soldiers, they weren’t in position to do so as they were still engaged the Storm cruisers above. Even though the Paris-class frigate was without its A.I onboard, Kigaru was still able to monitor the ship’s hull capacity and alert Sergei to anything that seemed to cause snags in the high-stakes battle in space using a simplified, but still efficient, duplicate of herself that was connected to her.

        Finally, the Pelicans soared through the city’s skylines and made it to their DZ, witnessing the mass of soldiers down there gather around as they welcomed their reinforcements. In all this, Cyrus was just all too happy to see his personal A.I come walking down the road with the Gungnir. She was too, and ran a final check on the weapons as the Gungnir’s HUD lit up.

        “Alright ladies! Time to shine!”

“Hell yeah! Cavalry’s here!”

 Kigaru’sPelican hovered above the road and opened its bay door, letting the imposing Gungnir drop down with a thud for a relatively soft landing followed by the Scorpions, one of them a recommissioned Sun Devil from the old days to handle enemy air that would be coming around any minute in this winding city.

        With that, the Pelicans flew off back to the firebase with wishes of luck, and the sortie moved out to lay siege against the bunkered Covenant. As the Marines on the ground took a second of their time to gaze in awe at the hulking war machine, most of them only hearing of such stories of the 'Spear of Odin', Kigaru cranked up the leg joints of the suit and inputted commands to make them move, working just as they should. With wide berths, the towering Spartan-like Gungnir made a path through the force and scanned the environment for enemies with all kinds of visual sensors, making sure no Covenant was preparing an ambush.

        Making fast tracks, Cyrus kept in tow of his friend and started conversation with her, as both strode into the fight.

        “So, Sergei doing well in orbit?”

        “So far. The Tokyo is operating in ideal conditions thanks to the prototype energy shielding the Admiral managed to acquire for all of us,” Kigaru replied in a somewhat toughened, but still feminine voice, referring to Admiral Artemis who was in charge of the battle group, also fending off the ships in her heavy destroyer Everest Peak, providing most of the firepower with triple MAC cannons and pulse defense lasers. “The odds are in our favor, more or less.”

        “Good, hopefully this lasts forever,” Cyrus remarked, remembering how the UNSC’s finest ships were wrecked by the Covenant with their armada of ships. “But I can’t blame the aliens for not bringing in the real stuff, can’t expect a wounded enemy to get up in one piece in an instant.”

        “Take that back, and I’ll think we might not run into a snag today,” Kigaru replied, her suit’s radar flaring up with five red signatures and two lances of troops on their flanks, pulling out her railgun arm and letting it preliminarily charge, waiting for the moment to use its sabot slug.“This is exosuit Gungnir to all, we’ve got multiple enemy contacts incoming on main street.”

        “Roger that, Gungnir. Mongol Actual is going for a rolling thunder.” That made her smile as she launched the UAV from a special tube on the suit’s back and watched it zoom away into the skyline, active and ready to spot.

        The Scorpions had almost left the men and herself in the dust, and so she followed suit, reminding her Spartan to organize the Marines to face the vulnerable threats while they battled against the Covenant armor. Soon, the three signatures became visible to her, two of them Wraiths surrounding a lone Locust that was outlined with red by the UAV but visible to the eye as a four-legged bulbous walker.

        In a heartbeat and without analyzing the situation, the pilot of the Locust started the A.I’s first firefight of the day by letting loose a beam of hot purple plasma against Mongol Actual that instantly struck the tank, burning its frontal reinforced titanium armor and forcing it into reverse. “Mongol Actual taking plasma fire, return the favor boys!”

Kigaru activated the suit’s targeting module and double-checked the energy shielding, as she strafed with surprising agility behind some cover while being careful enough not to accidentally stomp on her fellow Marines; her LAAG ripping into the shielding of the mining walker along with the mixed barrage of 90mm and 40mm shells from the tanks. Soon, the shields of the Locust flared and collapsed under fire, before succumbing to the shell storm. The two Wraiths had began moving erratically, practically asking for the Scorpions to split up and engage. The chaingun roared again, but Kigaru’s sensors picked up another cluster closer to them and spun.

        A pack of Ghosts soon appeared down the blasted left street, showering the suit with plasma fire that the shielding absorbed. Kigaru maneuvered her shoulder chaingun and fired it in bursts, managing to rip one and its Sangheilli pilot into unrecognizable debris emblazoned with purple blood but barely scathing the rest who returned fire. Two of the Ghosts had flanked her, not aware of what she was going to do.

        Skidding to a halt, the A.I formed a fist and grabbed a broken steel strut from the shattered pavement with the intention of using it as a crude hammer. Bringing it down on an approaching Ghost with deftness and speed, the Sangheili piloting it showed a squid-like look of horror before being crunched into his body along with his vehicle by Kigaru, his comrade preparing to ram the suit in a last ditch effort. Turning once more, the A.I engaged the last with a swift flick of the strut, effortlessly tearing through the Covenant vehicle like paper and ending the pack.

        Returning to the Marines and Cyrus with haste, she stabilized herself, grabbed the grip of her railgun and immediately let loose a speeding and precise shot against a troubled Wraith, utterly demolishing it while making Mongol Three’s crew disappointed with their kill assist. Tracking the lock-ons of new signatures from the circling UAV, the targeting systems of the 105mm railgun automatically highlighted the bandits, dropships and Banshees, in red diamonds through the buildings and Kigaru began the recharge cycle again, keeping that arm ready for a snapshot just in case after being rudely interrupted.

        “Keep an eye out for that birdie, grind the dropship the first chance you get”

“Roger that, Actual!” the Sun Devil’s operator responded with glee, the barrels of their autocannons adjusting above the fiery buildings in front of them before unleashing a devastating storm of shells into an incoming Spirit dropship that had just appeared, causing it to fiercely explode in a bright shower of plasma and scorched metal, utterly incinerating its cargo, causing body parts to rain all over that section of the road and on top of a building.

        On the ground, the Marines were handling themselves well, keeping up with the brigade along with Crowley, who had just finished grappling with an Elite with the help of Cyrus’s well thrown knife to the chest, using it to impale him in the head before retrieving it as Kigaru sprinted past him. “Thanks, Spartan!”

        “No problem, Helljumper,” Cyrus responded with a varied smile hidden behind his helmet while taking his bloodied knife without any show of struggle, a hint to his past as the words ‘Reach’ etched onto it glowed for a split second. “Your name’s Crowley, right?”

        “Yep,” the ODST replied. “Cyrus's yours? It has a nice ring to it."

        “Thanks," the Spartan IV said, moving out to cover the Marines from Jackals that had set up camp in one of the buildings, his DMR pulled out as he found one Jackal and instantly delivered a coup de grace through an FMJ round. "Wanna know something? I used to be a fella like you, an ODST sergeant. You ever fought on Reach? I've been there on 'vacation'.”

        “Really?” Crowley responded to the signature echoing boom of the A.I's railgun, it's slug having pierced through another Phantom with ease and the building behind it, destroying the unfortunate transport's engines and sending it plummeting to its demise. “I only saw major action on Earth, but I've only heard about Reach and how screwed you guys were.”

        “Yeah, it was a fucked up war,” Cyrus grimly replied behind his helmet, as he popped the head of an unlucky sniper, who just recently wounded a Marine with its beam rifle. “Those odds were in the Covvies’ favor, no way we could win against an space armada like that.”

        “Saw holo-vids of my buddies and my uncle, served and died in his special Falcon, couldn't stand watching more than two minutes of it,” Crowley responded, neutralizing a trio of Grunts that pulled out their plasma grenades in an attempted kamikaze rush, their bodies disappearing into the later fireworks. “Decided to enroll the UNSC ‘cause of uncle Daryl's death, managed to end up a Helljumper two weeks later after manhandling an almost-dead brute.”

        “Heh,” Cyrus smugly responded. “I like that story, you're quite the tough bastard.”

        “Thanks, buddy,” he thanked. “Couldn’t do it without my squad, poor fellas.”

        The Spartan suddenly felt heavy for him. “Your squad?”

        “Yeah, Hunters burned them to crisp before you came to save my sorry ass,” Crowley responded, trying to repulse the fresh memory of their screams. “They've been with me since I joined the elites, and we were knitted so tightly nobody could see in to our chats, and we kicked serious ass fighting them Covvies.”

        “I’ll say, and sorry about your friends,” Cyrus solemnly replied, now thinking about the safety of the rest of Hawken, whom had already hijacked a squad of Banshees and were currently fighting their way to him. “Not the first time I’ve seen a sole survivor, probably ain't my last.”

        “Wouldn't be your last yet, Cyrus,” Kigaru responded shortly, as she multi-tasked within the exosuit’s cockpit, dealing with the Tokyo, the cooling of the Gungnir’s 105mm and the chatter down on the streets. “I'm so sorry, that sounded a little hard on the corporal, condolences by the way.”

“It's okay, I'm sure he doesn't mind all too much sweetie,” Cyrus responded, a little awkward saying the last word in front of the Helljumper who just went along with it with an acknowledgement shrug.

        “Good to know I'm clear,” the A.I responded with appreciation, letting the LAAG cool as it had just ripped through a makeshift Covenant sniping post, her UAV bleeping a ticker-tape warning on her display as a shadowy video feed revealed a behemoth approaching them, under fire from what seemed to be... Banshees? It's anti-aircraft was jagged in places but was still firing. “Just a heads up to all local forces, I’m tracking a Type-47 that is currently moving to our position. Ground personnel are advised to find cover while our armor will try to bring it down.”

“I would give anything for a chance to take down one of those big daddies,” Crowley commented, having seen what it was capable of doing even to the heaviest of current UNSC armor. In the passenger seat of a Warthog, of course. "They fucked up my shit before, and I'm going to fuck up theirs as payback."

        “Don’t even start with that,” Cyrus shot back, “One is bad enough, sevenis an apocalypse all on their own. The first already took half of our heavy weapons anyway, we had to evac on the third or we would've been toast.”

        “Damn,” the ODST replied, still keeping in mind that the Spartan had indeed fought on Reach. “That’s tough going.”

        “Cut the chatter boys, tracking the first Scarab.”

“Make sure its crispy once you’re done with it,” Cyrus playfully responded.

        “Hah! Better take that piece of advice from your Spartan boyfriend, lass,” the commander of Mongol Four joked, Crowley cocking his head for a moment before dismissing it as a playful comment on the Spartan’s ‘relationship’ with the Japanese A.I, although not minding an opportunity to get together with her past other. He guessed it was due to his probable service time, judging from his mentions of participating in the battle of Reach, but didn’t count out any other factors.

        The shrieking of multiple Banshees, only made visible to Kigaru’s HUD just now, brought the ODST back into action as the tread armor of one Scorpion flew high up into the air, the operators of the vehicle frantically making re-adjustments to face the strafing threats. “Holy fuck, critical damage to left treads, first set! how did our radar miss these buggers out?”

“Screw that, engage all hostile remainders! We don’t want them to join in with the big guy.”

With that, Cyrus quickly rolled into a broken cafe floored with dust, his stock of DMR magazines clean. He still had a scavenged SPNKr from one of the dead ODSTs earlier, but he was conflicted on whether he should use it against the Banshees or just let his friend and the rest take care of them. As he watched the Marines retreating into nearby cover and some getting chopped up by the Banshee’s opening storm of plasma, the Spartan finally heard the voices of the rest of Fireteam Hawken. “--we’ve got enemy screamers in sight, cut ‘em down boys!”

In an instant, Kigaru’s sensors first picked up bursts of blue plasma, then three successive plasma explosions as the burnt hull of Cyrus’s teams’ Banshees came into view, easily distinguishable through everyone’s HUD as their identification tags hovered just above their vehicles. “Sorry we’re late for the party, boss. Had to handle the big fish on the way here.”

“You’re never too late if I don't say so, Gilda,” Cyrus responded to his female partner. “Did you manage to at least damage it before you got here?”

        “Affirmitive, we did inflict heavy structural damage to its anti-air gun as well as to its legs. Should be easy prey for the armored brigade and your buddy, but the bad news is that we lost Iglesias during our bombarding runs.”

That piece of news took a while for Cyrus's mind to register. “...What?”

        “You heard me,” Gilda replied, “He got shot down by fuel rod fire over town, took a few buggers out before a squidhead axed him, ain’t fate a bitch?”

It wasn’t often that a Spartan was lost, but it wasn’t news to anyone who had served before Lumpur. Still, the feeling of loss was there as a Spartan was an expensive asset. To Cyrus, it was the unpleasing calmness of Gilda’s tone that freaked him out a lot. She’d said that when dealing with regular militia and Marines, but one of their own? Very much off, he thought,  “ETA one minute before the Scarab gets here, so everyone is advised to postpone the funeral and set up firing positions into cover right now!”

Precisely at that moment, a horrible metallic roar resonated again, and Gilda managed to catch a faint glow of green on her right. She boosted to avoid the sickly stream of the Scarab as it cut through the superstructure of the office building in front of her like paper, nearly collapsing it and dropping lethal debris and glass on top of the scrambling soldiers below with some of them being fatally lacerated in a death undeserved. The Scorpions began covering the ground in between the buildings , while the A.I's assault suit stood, it's mechanical hand holding onto the railgun’s front folding grip, its targeting module outlining the massive heavy walker and having finished its charge process with a ‘Ready To Go” spoken in a high-pitched, out of place voice that Kigaru had ‘accidentally’ added., “Bunker down, soldiers! Focus fire on the weakened armor for maximum effect!”

Another metallic roar sounded, and the Scarab finally came into sight of Kigaru’s visual range. Like a huge unfettered behemoth bent on killing, it showed a pained demonstration of its remaining power while Kigaru slipped the signal to open fire to everybody. Locking on to the anti-air turret that swerved to eliminate Hawken’s Banshees, the missile launcher’s Rapiers shrieked and created a large cloud of fire and smoke behind the suit as they left the barrels, the resolved Marines below following up with a storm of bullets and rockets, shouting warnings of all sorts for backblast and hot bullet casings.

        “Confirmed hits in three, two, one--”

        The Rapiers worked perfectly; each of them guided to their vectors with surgical precision, a defining feature of Kigaru’s A.I kin as part of their original functions to coordinate pinpoint Slipspace jumps and to manage local naval armaments with the same kind of accuracy as though they were training for years on end, if they were human. Here, the mathematics were the same, and it hit the burning walker hard.

        The Scarab roared as furious plasma flames engorged the turret of the beast, the SPNKr rockets hitting their marks on the legs and hull of it, causing lights of crimson to flare everywhere on its joints. In total fury and defiance, the Lekgolo-controlled colossus unleashed another livid beam of destruction that tore everywhere and at Kigaru, who narrowly strafed out of the way, witnessing a horrible trail of building destruction and Marines vaporizing, before locking on for a shot with the railgun, “Gungnir is hot, firing!”

        The railgun thumped as a single round echoed out into the city, the Scarab unable to respond in time. Like a faster than light fistful of pure energy, the 105mm bolt drove through the heart of the mighty Covenant war machine, completely annihilating the controlling Lekgolo and shattering its main weapon. Without its masters, the mechanical beast succumbed to the firepower of the Gungnir and crashed onto the ground, creating a gigantic dust cloud, shortly raining debris after its violent aftermath. Kigaru remained unfazed, and even seemed rather bewildered if anyone could see her face now past an orange visor that fit her grey and crimson-striped paint job courtesy of the Sunset Over Tokyo’s maintenance crew.

        “Ho-lee shit! That goes down in my record books!”

        “Top notch work, Kigaru! These bastards are going to be prayin’ to their gods real hard now when we crunch them up!”

        Kigaru immediately felt giddy, and more than satisfied with her intended results. It was her first Type-47 kill ever, and this event was memorable enough that she promptly created a dated record to track this event. She quickly performed another check just as a familiar gruff sounding voice crackled.

        “Good job there, couldn’t notice that our, ahem, badass logistic intelligence just put down one of the biggest war machines in history.”

It was Sergei, smiling away behind the screen whose satellite camera’s kept overwatch over Lumpur. The Tokyo had already destroyed one CCS-battlecruiser with the help of the Everest’s crew, and was routing the other ships while tracking all its transports, gutting them with point-defense cannons and Archers. Crew members were everywhere, and everyone seemed to be taking the situation as though it were no big deal.

        “Thank you for the compliment, Captain. How’s the status of the battlegroup?”

“We’re still maintaining maximum battle readiness, although the Caspian has her MAC disabled and some heavy damage to her hull and interior, fires are all over in their cafeteria and hallways but other than that they’ve reported no further structural damage or internal, so they can breath a little more longer.”

        “Don’t count on your luck, captain. I’m not there to calculate the odds, you know.”

“We’ll be waiting for you then,” Sergei smugly replied, cracking his fists and straightening his uniform as the Sunset tracked its own missiles that streaked towards a wounded battlecruiser, scoring hits that made its own crew dip the ship below the MAC guns and shortly retaliating, earning an annoyed look from the Russian who promptly responded, “You only have a little more ground to cover, two more Scarabs and a sortie of fallen Covenant. Finish them off, then radio for pick up, the cleanup team from the forward operating base will take over from there.”

“Aye, captain,” Kigaru said, finished running the diagnostics of the current status of the hull, only recording shield capacity reduction barely ten minutes ago and no hull damage. She momentarily wondered where Mongol Actual’s tanks were, having rolled off somewhere on the orders of another captain under fire or not. Kigaru then spotted their yellowed FoE tags on her radar and the UAV’s camera, and they were in big trouble.

“... Retreat, boys! Gungnir, Hawken and Wolf, we need immediate support ASAP! Two pairs of Hunters and a whole lot of Covvie firepower-- Hot damn! Freeman, punch them canister shells!”

“Solid copy, Actual,” Kigaru quickly responded, moving out while signalling to her Spartan with hand gestures. “Cyrus, bring the fireteam with you and follow me, friendly armor needs combat support before they get taken down.”

“Surprise, surprise. They got themselves into a bad play,” remarked Albert, as he followed Gilda’s Banshee, flying further into the city and closer to the dig site where more alien chatter was present, accompanied by translated Sangheili commands and the constant but faint sounds of Scarabs. "Didn't think they would end up there, but cockiness sure leads you someplace bad.”

“Keep the chit-chat low, Spartans. Double-team to the marked waypoint, we’ll meet you there.”

“Roger, Cyrus,” Gilda responded as the hijacked Banshees soared off behind the crumbling skyscrapers, afire and on the verge of being cleaved from excess duress. With that, the Icelandic rooted Spartan took stride and quickly followed his exosuit, the falling sunlight illuminating the Gungnir’s visor and its attachments while shadowing him.

“In all my years, you know, I’ve lived to see these sons of bitches ravage our worlds and I couldn’t do a single damn, major thing as an ODST except fight for what I could fight for.”

“Who may you be talking about now, the Covenant?”

“That, and the Scarabs. Imposing four-legged bugs piloted by worms… Bloody disgusting, but who the fuck cares when they get the job done, well done too?”

“I am assuming this is about just now?”

“Yeah, it isn’t everyday I see someone’s personal blue chick take down a Scarab, let alone you, sweetie. No other ones can do that in fact, that’s why I care a lot more for you than some people.”

“Thank you for the compliment, and I know being the odd one out has its own advantages. Still, that’s all I can really do, besides helping out the Sunset’s crew. Shoot, shoot and just shoot some more, I wish the RND boys could make something for me, but again..”

“I wish too,” Cyrus sadly replied, his feelings for his A.I, the ‘woman’ who had helped him get out of many sticky situations and get him into ones that were guaranteed full success while helping him out with some inner issues, slipping, “But not all good things are human, sweets, and that is a very unlucky thing.”

“Can’t argue with that, you’ve got logical points, and I’m really fine with being inhuman.”

“Then thanks,” Kigaru looked to find that he had stopped and looked her in her face, knowing she was making some sort of knowing expression, “For understanding.”

After that they continued down the city streets, the Scorpions were becoming ever closer, and so did the ominous sound of plasma vaporising dirt. Cyrus was now monitoring Actual and his crew, now ready to bail out of their sticky situation after taking down one Hunter with the help of Hawken.

Meanwhile, Sergei was still keeping an eye out on the Covenant remnant’s excavation zone for anything anomalous that relates to typical Forerunner artifact activity; massive energy readings, unstable Slipspace radiation and sudden bursts… all of which he was familiar with. He had opted to maintain watch over the ground forces while the rest of the battle group dealt with the dwindling number of cruisers.

Sure enough, the sensory arrays on the ship began picking up sudden energy radiation from the dig site and the crew quickly moved to investigate what it was. He remained at his post, calm and collected as he watched the brownish surface of Lumpur reflect this system’s red giant’s sunlight. “Captain! High energy output detected inside, and the readings aren’t coming from the Scarabs!”

“Zoom in on them and get me eyes, patch Artemis through our comm-feed immediately and make sure she knows about this now.”

“Roger that!” As he observed the live feed from the bottom cameras of the Tokyo, he saw what appeared to be dark grey prongs emerged on the surface of Lumpur’s earth, the Scarabs now beginning to back away from the now-visible and pulsing orange lights, which began to trace everywhere.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Something’s going hot down there--

Suddenly, a frightening and ear-splitting screech emitted from the structure sounded through every crewmember’s headsets, causing them to jerk their headsets off to avoid internal damage. This sudden signal was also experienced by human and alien alike, causing their respective operators intense agony. On the ground, it was even worse.

Kigaru, even though that the shielding she installed was proven to be powerful, suffered, knelt and clutched her helmet with her panged hand, screaming in pain to herself as her avatar began to heavily glitch in shades of entropic purple and blood red.

She hadn’t reach her expiry date yet, and she damn well didn’t want to expire just yet. Her matrix ran amok, receiving and blocking information send by the wave, causing her ‘mind’ to resemble scrambled eggs. Cyrus and the close-by Marines, along with Crowley, began to pull off their helmets just as pulsing orange waves weaved across the sky.

The Covenant excavators suffered just as well, the Sangheili and their followres suffering like their brethrens above, along with the Scarabs that halted momentarily in their steps and their aerial escorts dropping out of the sky with its pilots frightening the hell out of. Then after the sound resided, a blast of electromagnetic pulse burst forth from the same orange waves and promptly shut down every single electronical device on the planet for the duration, the exosuit’s shielding saving Kigaru from being wiped out by it by taking the brunt of it.

With only blackness through his eyes besides occasional flashes, Cyrus detached his helmet and was greeted with a mere moment of silence before the bystanding Marines’ voices started ringing in his head. Luckily, this EMP only lasted for a fair bit of time and everything returned to normal after half a minute that wasn’t hardened enough. Cries for evac from several crashed Falcons and civilian transports rang throughout the comms, and the soldiers were dead silent from all the chatter.

That meant that the fighting was back on. Mongol, having taken advantage of the situation, took out the opposing defenders with ease and regained ground. “...Was it me or did the Covvies pull their party trick already?”

“I don’t know!” Cyrus shouted as he put his helmet back on, his HUD rebooting and recovering. This time, something forced its way into the MJOLNIR’s systems, a symbol of sorts colored in blood red which frightened the Spartan just as much as his other squad members. It only lasted a second, and he didn’t recover even after three minutes. Whatever it was, he just became damn well determined to just shut it down or even better; blow it up.

Meanwhile in orbit, Sergei was just as confused as his crew when the distorted symbol appeared on their screens for a split second before vanishing. His composure had slipped for a second, then was brought back up as he fought himself to control the crew members, “Can someone tell me what the hell just happen?”

“I don’t know sir, info have the structure below running repeated and unbreakable scan of our systems… we can’t seem to do anything to them, and cameras are picking up movements directly from the structure below.

        At that moment, a chill ran down his spine as the Scarabs on the ground began moving out again, this time towards the armored brigade that was also pushing through the ranks of Covenant infantry. Another voice sounded, and the face of Admiral Artemis appeared on the screen.

        “Captain? Can you read me, over?”

“Loud and clear, Admiral,” Sergei replied, shaking his head from momentary disorientation.

        “Good, it seems like the Covenant activated some sort of Forerunner device down there… and it doesn’t look good. Radiation’s spiking up down there and my crew’s comparing the readings and some images with that Forerunner defense we had to take down in sub sector 35. You still have your MAC payload ready?”

“That’s an affirmative,” Sergei said, suddenly happy about the probable usage of the Tokyo’s MACs, deadly weapons that could turn the tide of ground battles or space battles. In fact, it was almost standard issue for every UNSC battleship and came in pairs, triples or even quadruples, each adding to their own firepower. Despite their firepower, MACs can only provide a moment of respite if they missed before the inevitable retaliation storm struck the ship.

        That was back then. This time, there were no ships to impede Sergei or any chance of missing even without Kigaru. There was just their orders, and the planet of Lumpur. A straight shot.

        “Have it ready before we finish the fight in orbit, and make sure they don’t miss their marks. Screw all protocols about protecting ancient bullshit for some ONI spooks, if whatever the Covenant wanted down there is dangerous, then we make sure we break their toys. Don't fret about the repercussions if FLEETCOM asks, I'll handle it.”

"Aye, Madam,” Sergei replied, putting his arms on the railings of the bridge, “Attention, crew, orders from Admiral Artemis just came in, position the Tokyo towards these coordinates and warm up the MACs for orbital bombardment.”

        “Aye, aye, sir!” Rang everybody from their seats as the twin mass accelerator's onscreen power levels began increasing among other things. He smiled and folded his arms, the thoughts of having to deal with back-line men in black from the shifty ranks of the Office of Naval Intelligence even after Artemis’s reassurance coursing through his head.

        On the ground, Kigaru had recovered from the data tsunami and managed to store the unstable information inside a databank temporarily. She needed to get into orbit to decipher the signal but right now, it was all about the battle, “This is Firebase Lima, we’re sending in additional air reinforcements and ground forces for CAS and reinforcements over at the dig site, ETA in three minutes.”

“Bloody hell, they aren’t going to make it in time,” Cyrus mumbled as he sprinted into cover, arriving at the war-zone not too soon or late. Mongol managed to obliterate the resistance, but was faced with a gradually rising number of Phantoms that didn’t cease to annoy them with their plasma.

        Kigaru then let loose the chain-gun on a Phantom, utterly ripping its cargo into shreds and penetrating its hull. The Sun Devil Scorpion came about and relieved the Covenant dropship of its pain through its shellstorm. “Local ground forces and Lima, can you read me?”

She wondered what the captain was up to this time, having monitored the radio chatter even in orbit. “We read you, over.”

        “Copy, the Tokyo’s just received authorization for MAC usage on hostile ground forces and position as we speak right now.”

A MAC strike, wonderful. At least Surface Tension would be over faster, and Lumpur spared of more fighting, though property damage would still remain, if not increase, in cost. A Scarab roared in the distance as the brigade pushed through, followed by its brother. A Sangheili Zealot was just freshly ordering his troops into more Spirit and Phantom dropships, preparing to bring the oppressors down with him if they lost all ground with his energy sword, his hands gripping its mantle firmly.

        “Firebase Lima, we’ve gotten intel of an orbital bombardment; calling off CAS and drop-off, we’re sure that it would settle things a lot faster and with less casualties.”

        “Copy that,” Cyrus responded as he reloaded his rifle, having scavenged an extra mag from a deceased Marine, “Take a seat, sit back and enjoy the fireworks.” The radio chatter became even more filled, the individual armored forces in the city far away from the Gungnir beginning to retreat from the MAC’s range. One particular Scorpion tank, Abrams Actual, and his convoy of Warthogs were approaching Mongol’s vector rapidly, being chased by a swarm of Ghosts while pummeled by plasma mortars.

        “--Abrams Actual, Abrams Actual taking heavy fire from hostile armor, does anyone read me over?!”

So late? The commander of Mongol Actual thought and replied, “Mongol Actual to Abrams, we’re in proximity of your strike force and in good position for assistance, marking waypoint for ambush.”

Kigaru watched as a waypoint freshly appeared on the radar, encouraging the suit to start moving for the next objective as she did a run-through of her ammunition. Cyrus checked the ammo for his SPNKr and his DMR before signalling to his teammates, having abandoned the heavily damaged Banshees in favor for a more tactical ambush, to follow the contingent of Marines also following the brigade.

        In the debris-filled orbit above, the Tokyo’s black side hulls reflected the sun, as the triangulations of the MACs and their charging complete, ready to fire on Sergei’s command. Folding his hands, he opened the ground channel to alert the general compositions about the incoming bombardment, “UNSC Sunset to all ground personnel, orbital bombardment commencing in thirty seconds.”

        Kigaru managed to receive the order and relayed it to the rest. While the ambush would still proceed as planned, they had to move fast once they’ve rescued Abrams and his men. The Scarabs were another story altogether; depending on whether they were delayed enough to still be in the range of the frigate’s strike.

        Five seconds later, a foray of UNSC vehicles zoomed past the ambush party and the Covenant vehicles falling right for it. Kigaru’s chaingun roared, and soon within five seconds, all that was left were smoking metal and mixtures of blood, the last Elite having crawled out of a Ghost’s wreck only to be mercy-killed by a Marine who shouted racism against the dead warrior. Scarabs roared again, and Kigaru’s timer beeped.

        “MAC rounds, mark!”

From orbit, the Tokyo delivered two devastating accelerated slugs. Travelling at supersonic speeds, they slammed into the transforming Forerunner structure, clearly showing an immense barrel aimed above orbit that had glowered with power, and lit up the place as if three HAVOC nukes had been simultaneously detonated. The ground forces were in luck; the Scarabs weren’t fast enough and instantly suffered catastrophic damage to all their sections from the bombardment, roaring with defiance before falling. All Covenant ground and air forces within the zone had simply disappeared into the light, ending the excavation for good. Everybody, even Kigaru with the dimming of her visual sensors, had repulsed and covered their eyes, taking cover from the shockwave that resulted much after.

In orbit, the Everest had put down the remaining battlecruiser after one of them managed to escape the UNSC’s wrath, splitting its stern with another salvo of slugs while everyone on the ground cheered for both the skies and land. Kigaru just looked on with a grin, both of relieve and somehow sadness on her avatar, inside her armor.

Operation Surface Tension has concluded with a well earned victory.

But nobody could bring back the good men and women lost.

:// STATISTICS OF OPERATION: SURFACE TENSION:

:// TOTAL CIVILIAN CASUALTIES: THIRTY FIVE HUNDRED,

:// TOTAL MILITARY LOSSES: ONE THOUSAND FIFTY TWO.

:// SPARTAN IV FIRETEAM HAWKEN: ONE K.I.A.

:// ESTIMATED DATE OF PLANETARY RECOVERY: 31ST SEPTEMBER 2561

:// TOTAL COST: 9121, 1782, 9400, 0020 CR...

“... Two weeks and one day since this all happened, felt like it was only yesterday,” Kigaru mumbled, as she constantly monitored the radio waves bouncing off inside their Slipstream tunnel. Another victory, another day.

    “Time goes fast, don’t you think?” Sergei responded, stroking his greyed beard. “Get into something you’re interested in, and you lose yourself for quite a bit before you even know what you’re doing.”

    “I’m an A.I, captain,” Kigaru replied. “It’s my programming, losing myself to jobs normal people just can’t handle without issues. I’m just glad I was on the ground to see the complex go up, but I hate it because we couldn’t save most of the city’s people from them, or protect their property.”

    “Agreed,” the Russian said as he rubbed his eyes. “The planet didn’t have time to evacuate even with all 1the high-tech sensory array they had in the system. Invade, glass, excavate, Covenant nowadays in a nutshell. Hopefully the Arbiter finishes his rebel fiasco and deals with the source of those Scarabs; they’re not on sale on the market.”

    “Indeed,” the A.I responded. “At least they weren’t what they used to be, not that I like them beforehand. The reports of the presence of Type-47s have already been relayed to FLEETCOM, hopefully someone can patch it through to him. Have an operation ready, whatnot, and the like.”

    As Sergei watched the skeleton crew of the Tokyo move about at their businesses, he tried to remember that strange symbol that had the UNSC send him and three other ships of the battlegroup on a two weeks journey to the coordinates emitted by the now-destroyed Forerunner complex.

    But in unfortunate coincidence, the Tokyo was now holding the UNSC Palhaza, an ONI Prowler. As much as he hated the lead officer, Harrison Francisco Lee, Sergei was in no position to oppose him as he was 'just doing his job', that involved taking a piss out of every captain's starship, the nitpickers.

There was also the ‘ONI-made-our-AI-a-combat-suit-using-classified-data’ thing, and they could easily revoke her ownership of Gungnir with a single e-mail to the Navy. Or even her, but then they’ll risk an entire ship going rogue, not that it’ll matter in the long run except for trust by other branches.

    “So, I need a mental refresher, where did you say those coordinates you got from the structure go to?”

    “They led to the Novenia System,” came the immediate response as Kigaru virtually disassembled a digitized copy of a Forerunner suit that came along with the message on a large table that Sergei spun his chair to, unusually built to fit the usual dimensions of a regular Earth equine subspecies; ponies and others that seemed too inhuman to identify. “Dwelling in, this system has two Type-II stars, five planets and the purported Forerunner Installation, holding some kind of technology as what the deciphered meaning says. Nobody has been to it since the war after a disturbing spree of reports of missing corporate supply ships, so we're unfortunately forced to use an old star map for navigation in this mission. No free ones inside the info transmitted to us, unfortunately so we just have to stick to visual range when we get there.”

    “Something for us to be preoccupied with, how long before we reach our intended destination?”

    “Currently, we have a calculated thirty minutes before arrival.”

    Sergei sighed, his darkened eye-bags showing, “Then we better give the rest the wake-up call. Make sure the ONI spook gets the loudest one.”

And so Kigaru chuckled.

Inside the Renounced Faith,

        Jul M’dama wasn’t so much as pleased, even with the presence of his crew and the might of his carrier. “You have failed in your task of recovering the holy ones’ technology, what more do you have to speak about the magnitude of your defeat?”

    “Only for what I have learned from the structure itself, fleetmaster,” the resentful Shipmaster of the battlecruiser Sublime Creed, Kar ‘Muso, responded as he began to report the findings that were made during that time, bringing up his holographic projector to show ‘Mdama the Forerunner complex. “It appears that it sent out a message and a set of coordinates. We have deciphered the holy glyphs and tracked the numbers, what we transcribed is considered something worth of high interest.”

    “Hmm…” the Sangheili Fleetmaster, considering on letting ‘Muso go for this once as in his time within the ranks of the Covenant, the Shipmaster had never failed in his tasks due to his rapid learning ability that made him a formidable foe to the humans. At least he managed to scrounge something out of their failure over the human colony too, honor was best put aside in favor of possibly tacit information, “You may go on, my interest has been piqued.”

    “In regards to the message,” ‘Muso went on, the Forerunner symbols rolling on translated to their own language, “As we have uncovered, speaks about some kind of foreign Oracle, as interpreted by the author of this message, buried in the long-unexplored N'tho-Karkas star system, the coordinates are provided as such.”

    “An Oracle?” ‘Mdama repulsed, surprised that such an object was referenced. It had been a long time since he had been serving for the Old Covenant, for the traitorous San ‘Shyuum and their brutish Jiralhanae soldiers. While he was glad they paid for their treachery at the Ark, he wasn't content with the ever growing presence and pestering of the humans.

I shouldn’t even be thinking about those cheating scum, thought ‘Mdama as he shook his reptilian head, his armor making the situation feel a little tiring after a long day of dealing with quick strikes against the Arbiter on Sanghelios and against the UNSC.

    “Indeed, Fleetmaster,” ‘Muso replied, “This Oracle, however, is supposedly dangerous as the message states, but the world its creators built it in possibly contains technology that we could use the turn the war to our favor.”

    “It is not unusual to hear that, son of ‘Muso,” ‘Mdama responded, hunching himself lower as his ship floated in space surrounded by his fleet and armor, “Yet time and tide has proven itself, that those who say such things eventually gets themselves killed, blasphemed or severely outcasted due to their hunches.”

    “Has those two things ever spoke about a ‘Shield World’?”

    Now there was something to be interested in, “Pardon?”

    “This Oracle resides in one, and whatever is kept inside cannot be compared to singular complexes that we have excavated beforehand. The message also mentions that it, as in the Oracle itself, has built an army to cleanse the befallen parasite. One we could possibly exploit with enough military persuasion.”

    The Sangheili Fleetmaster wondered on 'Muso's statement. The Holy Ones, long gone after the firing of their Halo Array, had held many wondrous worlds scattered throughout the galaxy, each one having at least a single reminder of their legendary reign. But as he remembered, each also held a secret potentially dangerous like the parasite 'Muso had said. The risk was high, but the legality of the message was there. Calling one of his crew members, one who manned the communications system, he briefly relayed orders to him before sending him back and returning to 'Muso.

    In his mind right now, they needed an ace up their sleeves, if that's how the humans would use such an idiom, and the information that had been spoken might be just the key to their own. They've taken a number of risks, hell they've taken a lifetime of risks since they had started a revolt against the Arbiter, and 'Mdama wasn't afraid to pull another.

    “Your word is good, 'Muso,” ‘Mdama thanked, before straightening up with authority. “But since you have failed only once in your service there is a way to spare yourself a lifetime of dishonor.”

    “How?”

    “It's very elementary, 'Muso. Lead a search fleet to the system. Once you are done, return to the home fleet for further orders and do no more unless there is an emergency. If you are to engage in combat with the humans; I will give you the benefit of choosing your fate, as I do not want to lose a valuable ally such as yourself.”

    “I know my ways against the human, 'Mdama," ‘Muso responded as he put his arm across his breastplate in a sign of knowing, the hilt of his ancestral sword buckling on his armor's pelt. “And I am willing to regain my honor.”

    “Then you are dismissed,” ‘Mdama announced. “Go forth and replenish what is lost from yourself, I will make immediate arrangements for a detachment of corvettes to be at your steed. Make your forefathers proud.” Those last words, as he finished, remained in Kar’s head, and he sought to make the Muso province’s reputation high. Ambitious as he was, the trip to the Shield World would be long, so it would not be soon before he was allowed to do what had to be done. The choice for retreat or victory in battle above the world was an unusual but tactical decision, and the shipmaster felt all the more assured of it being a simple task.

    Walking away from Jul’s chamber inside the carrier’s bridge and traveling down the darkish purple interiors of the ship with two of his personal guards, ‘Muso had another mindful thought creep into his head, one that he continued to entertain and ponder about even as he entered the hangar of the carrier to be transported back to the Creed by Spirit.

What would they find out there besides their objective?