From War to Peace

Chapter 5: The Only Easy Day…
Firebase Victor Site, Equestria
11:30 A.M.

I stood in the open field that would soon house Firebase Victor, my residence, until further notice. I closed my eyes and let the wind blow over me and ruffle my short hair as I stood in the sunlight and contemplated my own demise… Well, rather, I was contemplating why Del Rio was so glad to cave to my request for a full science suite and team.

I know I bribed the man but come on, Del Rio isn't quite bad enough to submit and give a full Science team just on a hunch… there was definitely an ulterior motive. I just need to figure it out before it probably kills me. I squinted in the sunlight and looked around in a search for anything that Del Rio thought might kill me.

The area was a fairly flat and open field with knee-high grass and shrubbery with a few trees here and there along with some rock outcroppings every once in a while… but nothing particularly dangerous or deadly. I tried to think of any predators that might get me, but Twilight said anything dangerous was pretty much exclusive to the forests, so nothing wildlife like would probably kill me.

I looked down into my helmet as I stared into the visor of my Rogue helmet, almost demanding that it surrender the answers as to why Del Rio was so elated to waste all these resources on an expedition he thought a waste of time.

Sighing in resignation, I placed my helmet back on my head and put the thoughts of my demise on the back burner as I looked into the sky and checked the clock. The clock read 11:45 in the morning, and Del Rio said the pre-fab base would be here at noon, so I continued to scan the noon sky, searching for an incoming Albatross heavy lifter.

I chuckled darkly as I continued to scan the horizon, "I wonder if Del Rio is trying to get me killed via eggheads." I mumbled as I recounted a few of my less than positive experiences with less than cautious eggheads who thought it a good idea to yell, "For Science!" when activating the dormant sentinels and trying to get everybody killed…. good times, good times.

"Captain Hill, this is Charlie five-nine. I'm on approach with your security team and a section of the firebase. Where do ya want this thing?" I heard a gruff southern voice over the comms as the wind swept past me and the familiar roar of a pelican's engines sounded over the wind. I turned around to see the pelican hovering about a hundred feet above the ground, awaiting orders.

I reached down and grabbed a laser designator from my rucksack and pointed out a spot on top of a hill about three hundred feet from me, "Just place down at the waypoint." I said as I designated the waypoint with the designator.

The Pilot grunted and swung his pelican in for the drop and placed the base down and flew back towards my position to drop off my men. I looked at the base and noticed that it looked a lot like the old barracks buildings from those pre-fab bases during the earlier days of the human covenant war.

The only major difference was the now airlock doors and the still building two extra floors in the form of a huge guard tower sticking out of the middle of the small house-sized base, almost like a chimney, an enormous and room-sized chimney but still.

I looked back at the pelican as the five Spartans hopped off the pelican, and the ODST more so stumbled off the pelican. All of them were either looking around at the scenery or were talking and chatting with each other.

Lane and Blake meandered past me up the hill towards the base as Lane set up his experiments, and Blake trekked along to make sure Lane didn't blow himself up or something. Gunny and Wolffe stood and argued with each other over the local wildlife's apparent "Magic" and how it could be explained scientifically.

I looked around at the six men in the field, and a thought dawned on me as the Pelican took off into the blue sky. "Whoa, wait a minute... where's the rest of the people?" I asked, looking at the six soldiers before Matt spoke up. "Well, as for the scientist, they'll be on their way down with the science suite on the Albatross convoy later today. As for your security team…" I felt a heavyweight hit me in the back as I turned around and grabbed my rucksack and looked at Matt, his grey eyes narrowing and his blonde hair trying its damnedest to whip in the wind as he held up a hung-over Brayden.

"Well, as for the security team, you're looking at it." Drawled Matt as he began to drag both his and Brayden's gear towards the base while Brayden limped along, too hungover to care.

As I stood there looking at my team, I finally realized why Del Rio was so elated to get me the science base. It got all of the 'Special Attention' personnel of the Infinity and out of Del Rio's hair.

Feeling just a bit player and frustrated, I readjusted my rucksack and began to walk up towards the base, trailing Matt as we all headed in to check out our new accommodations.

I looked around at the dormitory section. It was a long hallway stretching to the center room. As I walked down the hall, I counted twenty rooms, ten on each side, and looking inside the last room. I noticed Brayden passed out on one bed with the other bed on the other side of the room housing his ruck. Sighing, I walked in and put his Ruck in the locker next to his bed, and walked off, deciding that it would be better to let Brayden sleep off his hangover rather than trying to wake him up and possibly get shot in the face.

I walked into the center room and looked around. The room was moderately sized, with four doorways branching out and a spiral staircase in the center leading up into the room above.

Deciding to explore more, I veered off to the left and walked into a recreational room. There were couches and a few TVs scattered about with a pair of pool tables at the far end of the room alongside a large Wall sized TV attached to some game system that Gunny was tinkering with.

Moving along, I walked into the kitchen on the far end of the room where Wolffe was looking through the pantry taking stock of what we had for food. It wasn't a terribly large kitchen, but it was big enough for the machinery to cook us up some food and serve it to the odd forty of the personnel who would soon inhabit this base.

Walking through the currently uninhabited Mess hall, I noticed a projector mounted to the ceiling above and pointed at the wall so the Mess hall could double as a briefing room if need be.

Continuing onto the next room, I found Blake sweet eyeing a wall of holographic guns that could be used for marksman training should we need to train the scientists on how to use the weapons in the armory without wasting the ammo or meds should they end up shooting someone.

Heading past Blake as he picked up a Rocket launcher, I continued into the room beyond. It was a training gym with a Combative ring to the left and a variety of weight lifting equipment off to the left with a practice dummy against the far wall. As I walked towards the door that leads back into the central room, I passed by Matt as he beat the living snot out of a dummy, executing a variety of taking downs on it.

Entering into the central room again, I ascended the staircase and walked into the tower's second-floor room. It was a large command center on one side, featuring various tools and equipment with Lane monitoring the Comms array, sighing as he rubbed the black stubble on his jaw with a boring look. On the other side of the room was a large wall of weaponry ranging from boxes of handguns and their assorted ammo to lockers of sniper rifles and rocket launchers with ammo.

Whistling in appreciation, Lane spun around in his chair and cocked an eyebrow in appreciation. "Real beauty, isn't it?" Lane stood and walked over to my side, coffee brown eyes glimmering with mischief. "More guns than we could ever use and enough ammo to launch a full-scale war against whatever wants us dead."

Lane walked up to a vault next to the wall and knocked his fist against it with a smug look of satisfaction on his face. "They even were kind enough to give us 500,000 rounds of paint ammo should we feel the need to do some training of the troops." Lane said, his grin growing as he drawled on and walked back over to the Comms array.

I stood there in awe for a few more seconds before shaking myself out of my demeanor. 'This defiantly is a hell of a nice base.' I thought as I tossed my rucksack down next to a seat and pulled up the mission brief on my server account. Hearing a ringing noise, I turned to my left to see the command table light up with the words "Call Incoming."

Looking over to Lane, "Who's calling?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and walking over to the terminal built into the command table.

Lane played with the computer and eventually looked up. "It's the Infinity. It looks like Del Rio wants to make sure we're not destroying our new toys yet." Lane said as he rolled his eyes and got back to messing with the computer systems.

Activating the terminal, a large picture of Del Rio and the rest of the command bridge came upon the Command table's holoprojector. Nodding my head in acknowledgment Del Rio began to talk. "Ah, Captain Hill. Still amongst the living, I see. How is the base treating you?" Del Rio asked, disinterest dripping from his voice.

Figuring I shouldn't pick a fight with the hand that controls our supplies, I answered back. "Wonderfully, sir, the men are settling in nicely, and the weapons systems work, so the scientist should be safe to conduct their research here," I said, and then I began to notice that the bridge crew was moving around and getting ready for what looked like a slip space jump.

Scrunching my face in confusion, I asked, "Sir… Is the Infinity getting ready to jump, sir?" I asked in slight trepidation as I began to worry. We had plenty of supplies, but if the Infinity left us with an extra 34 people to feed, I think we'd last less than a week food-wise.

Smiling smugly, Del Rio straightened and answered, "Why yes, we are. The Infinity has picked up a distress signal in a part of an unknown space. As we are the closest, the Infinity is being mobilized to investigate." I paled slightly as I tried to consider how we were going to get food.

"Ah, but fear not, your science team and four months of food are inbound later this afternoon. I'd say about three-ish. After that, we will jump out for the signal's location." Del Rio said after a few moments of letting me bask in my own fear.

I cursed myself internally for being so easily fooled by Del Rio but then began to wonder what would be so important that the Infinity of all ships would be sent to investigate before it dawned on me like a sack of bricks.

"Wait a moment… They think they've found him, haven't they?" I asked, disbelief heavy in my voice. "They think they've found the Master-Chief? I asked, almost not believing what I was saying.

Almost immediately, Del Rio's smug look melted away to one that spoke of unbridled rage. "This is confidential information, if you or anyone else in that room speak a word of it to anyone else outside that room, I WILL have you court-martialed, is that understood?" seethed Del Rio as he tried to keep this conversation as quiet as possible.

I narrowed my eyes, seeing what he was getting at and feeling a slight bit of indignation at his implications. "Yeah, you don't want the rejects joining the hunt. I gotcha, happy hunting Del Rio. Firebase victor out." I said coldly as I cut the transmission.

Sighing as I sat in my chair, I looked over to Lane and drawled out, "Lane, call a meeting over the intercom. Tell them to meet us up here in the control room." Lane nodded his head and reached over for the microphone to the intercom.

"Attention all personnel, meeting in the command room in five, I repeat meeting in the command room in five. In other words, get yer all asses up here pronto like. Thank you." Said Lane as he sat back down in the chair and stared at me for a few seconds before we both burst out in laughter.

It wasn't terribly funny laughter; rather, it was a relieving fuck all laughter one has when the world has told them to die in a hole, and they say no back to the world and get away with it.

After a few minutes and a loud “GO TA HELL!” from trying to wake Brayden up. The entire Firebase Victor security team was lined up in front of the Command Table as I paced back and forth trying to decide what course of action was best; should I tell them about the Master-Chief, or should I leave them in the dark?

Eventually, I came to a decision and rounded to face my men. “Alright, Gents,” I yelled to get the commotion under control. “I hope you’ve all settled in well cause we’re gonna be here a while. The Infinity is going on a quick errand for a few months, and until they get back, we have domain over the firebase.” I explained as I walked back and forth.

I could see Matt’s face scrunch up in confusion as he, too, wondered what could be so important the Infinity would leave. Silently I pleaded he wouldn’t ask the question so I wouldn’t have to answer, if just for a few more hours. I continued my briefing before Matt could collect his thoughts.

“So, seeing as the good old UNSC has gifted us with some training utensils,” I drawled as I walked over to the weapon’s locker and pulled out a Battle Rifle. “I think it’d be a good idea to test these good old boom-sticks out in a nearby canyon I found,” I explained as I saw the men’s eyes light up like the Fourth of July.

“Lane walked over to a terminal and pulled up a map of the canyon. “Well, I took the measure of scoping it out, and it’s pretty much a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with two little alcoves on each side of the canyon, a metaphorical red and blue base if you would.” Lane said while typing away at the terminal, making the canyon map larger with more details.

“Each side has a variety of small boulders to hide behind, with the center of the canyon boasting a large rock that would make an excellent sniper nest. Any questions, gentlemen?” Explained Lane as he stood next to the terminal with a disinterested look.

Matt chuckled darkly as he picked up the Grenade launcher, grinning devilishly in the half-light of the control room. “Nope, If anything, this seems like a great plan,” Matt said as he held up the grenade launcher in the light to examine it.

The rest of us, excluding Lane, grabbed some gear and got ready for the inevitable firefight that awaited us.

Box canyon “Blood Gulch,” Equestria
2:18 P.M.

Matt shrunk behind the boulder as another sniper round ripped through the air and impacted the earth behind him. “Hey, Mike?” Matt Yelled across the small distance, separating him from Wolffe and me as we all hid behind boulders from Brayden’s sniper fire. “Remember how I said this was a great plan? I lied.” Matt Yelled as he let off a burst of Assault Rifle rounds at Brayden up on the rock. Matt looked back across and yelled, “If anything, this is the worst plan ever… of all time.”
I rolled around the corner, rolling my eyes as I lined up a shot with the Battle Rifle and tried to suppress Brayden before he fired back. Crouching behind the barrier of stone between Brayden and me and I wondered where we went wrong.
The fight started pretty easy. Matt had blown Gunny up with a well-placed Grenade, and Blake had finally fallen under a barrage of Assault Rifle fire and Grenades when he tried to ambush us in our base. But Brayden… Good god, Brayden was just destroying us with that sniper rifle. Of course, it didn’t help that Matt’s left leg was painted from a good shot by Gunny, so the Odds of Matt going anywhere quick were slim to none.
“Guys, try and keep him busy,” Wolffe yelled as he holstered his DMR and grabbed his sniper rifle. “I’ll try and peg him.” Matt and I nodded and rounded our respective rocks to play sniper bait. As Brayden stood to take the shot, Wolffe quickly lined up a shot before Brayden noticed the sunlight on Wolffe’s scope, and in a moment of almost cartoonish comedy, Brayden dropped down like a sack of bricks as the sniper bullet passed inches from his helmet.

Swearing quietly, Wolffe yelled while shaking his fist in frustration at Brayden. “Dammit, Brayden, stay still!!” Brayden quickly popped back up, firing a lightning-quick shot with Wolffe clutching his shoulder as the paint residue hardened his armor.
Popping back into cover and laughing with his crow-like cackling laughter, he yelled, “Go to hell ya jackwagons!!!” as he reloaded his rifle.
I kneeled next to Wolffe and checked his armor. Grimacing, I realized his armor had been hit on his shoulder right where the servos for his right arm are. Grimacing in pain, Wolffe looked to me and chocked out a mangled, “W-well…how ba-bad is it?” I looked at him and shook my head. He wouldn't be firing any kind of weapon for the rest of the match with that kind of would.
Hobbling over while firing at Brayden, Matt rolled into cover next to Wolffe and crouched down. Reloading his rifle and panting slightly, Matt looked over and asked quietly, “So… How bad are we doing?” Matt looked down and surveyed Wolffe’s wound as we ducked from the odd sniper bullet.
“Well, at best, we have a very wounded knife, capable soldier…. and at worst, we have a meat-shield.” I said as I checked my Railgun’s charge, I only had one shot left in it, and my Battle Rifle was out of ammo. Wolffe looked up at us with an anxious feel to his movements. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m good with a knife, right guys?.. Guys?” Wolffe asked as his voice slowly got more and more desperate.
Matt and I looked at each other and silently debated before finally, Matt broke the silence, “Mike, you grab Wolffe and bum rush Brayden’s position, I’ll give you fire support.” Matt said, his grey EOD helmet shining in the sunlight, giving him an intimidating look.

Wolffe looked up and grabbed Matt’s arm in a desperate hold, and yelled, “WHAT?! You’ve got to be kidding me!!”
I looked at Matt and crossed my arms, “I agree with Wolffe.” I said, narrowing my eyes at him behind my helmet, as Wolffe looked to my hope in his eyes. “You should bum rush him with Wolffe. You have the Assault Rifle.” The hope in Wolffe’s eyes died in an instant as I continued on my rant. “I only have a Rail gun. What am I gonna do? Run in and yell, ‘Freeze, let my gun charge so I can kill you.’ I finished with sarcasm dripping from my voice.
Matt waved at his paint-coated leg as he argued back. “So? I have this bum leg. What am I going to do? Hop my way to Brayden’s nest and pray he doesn’t shoot me while Wolffe absorbs more paint than I can carry.” Ranted, Matt As Wolffe covered his aqua-colored Scout helmet’s faceplate. Rolling his eyes, Matt eventually broke the silence.

“Okay, how ‘bout this. We play rock paper scissors. Does the loser have to bum rush Brayden, deal? Matt asked as he made his hands into a proper playing shape. Seeing an opportunity, I nodded to him.
“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot,” Matt said as he made his hand into a fist. He looked at my hand and asked, “Mike, what’s that?”
My index and middle finger were pointed out, and my thumb was up in the air. “That’s gun, gun beats everything, and you lose,” I said smugly. Matt simply sat there, trying to process what happened before finally facepalming.

Finally, Matt sighed and grabbed Wolffe by the neck and leg, and stood up, “Alright, let's get this over with.” Sighed Matt as he began to hobble out into the line of fine.
“YOU GUYS ARE ASSHOLES!!!” Yelled Wolffe as he and Matt rushed into the line of fire, sniper rounds flying downrange and splattering upon Wolffe’s armor and making him yell out in pain.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, Matt and a now paint covered Wolffe made it to the tower. Matt lowered the now paralyzed Wolffe down next to the tower and patted his armor before climbing up into the tower, with his assault rifle in one hand and a knife in the other.
“I HAS YOU NOW, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!!” Matt yelled as he jumped into the nest. I waited in anticipation for Matt to yell clear, but Matt finally broke the silence after a minute of silence. “OH YOU RAT SON OF WHO-“
As Matt tried to jump from the tower, the sniper nest exploded in a shower of paint as Matt was sent flying. After a few seconds of airtime, Matt crashed into the dirt by my position. As I tried to shake the ringing from my ears, I realized what happened.
Brayden took his grenades, fashioned a mortar shell out of them, and set them up as a tripwire trap for when we bum-rushed him. I stood and tried to orient myself. The only question now is, where’d Brayden go?
My question was answered by a yell of, “For Valhalla!” As I narrowly ducked under a swinging Sniper Rifle, Brayden tried to knock me out. I spun around and delivered an uppercut to his gut and pushed him back a few feet. With Brayden winded a few feet away, I jumped for my Rail gun and spun around, hoping to catch Brayden off guard.
Turning around, my hopes were soon crushed as Brayden quickly recovered and kicked the Rail gun's barrel to the side, forcing my shot to hit Matt square in the side, causing him to yell out in pain.
Now ammo less, and in a CQB situation with Brayden, I rolled out of the way as Brayden buried the training knife in the dirt. Swinging around, I delivered a blind haymaker to the side of Brayden’s ODST helmet. Rolling with the punch, Brayden pulled up his T-knife and swung around, glancing it off my shoulder plate.
Rolling forward past Brayden, I jumped into the air and kicked back, planting my boot on Brayden’s back causing him to flail forward and drop his knife.

Sprinting forwards, I rolled over the T-knife and grabbed it, bringing it down like a hammer as I came to my feet only of Brayden to catch my wrist in his hand and deliver a series of brutal punches to my stomach before I finally dropped the T-knife from my hands.

Kicking me forward next to Matt, Brayden reached down and grabbed the knife before sprinting towards my position. Seeing Brayden charge at me, I rolled backward and grabbed Matt by his shoulder and lifted him to block the training knife’s arc.

As the knife clanged against Matt’s helmet, he yelled out in pain, “Ow! What is with you dicks and beating up my dead body?” He asked as I threw him forwards onto Brayden and rolled over, running over to Matt’s body and grabbing the training knife from his chest and bringing it down onto Brayden’s left hand, causing a small electric shock to paralyze his left arm.

Roaring in pain, Brayden brought his right hand up and slapped the side of my helmet, knocking me onto my side before grabbing his T-knife from his left hand and bringing it down in a hammer strike towards my chest.

Catching his wrist in my hand, we wrestled for a minute, each of us adamantly refusing to give in before I finally countered Brayden and threw him over my head and drew his T-knife over his neck, stunning him and ending the match.

As I sat in the dirt and rested, everybody’s armor unlocked, and they all slowly began to get up and stretch. I stood and helped Brayden to his feet as he clasped a hand on my shoulder and nodded.

“That was the single most epic knife fight I’ve had in a while, man,” Brayden said as he laughed in a less crackling tone. “You did well,” he said as he reached up and took off his helmet, tan unruly hair spiking up and emerald eyes glimmering in mischief as he smiled as wide as he could.

“Yeah, well, both of you are dicks.” Said Matt as he hobbled over, clutching his side in pain. “You, Shot me with the Rail gun, and you sliced me in the head.” Matt grimed as he rolled his shoulders and grunted in pain.

“Well, ALL of you are dicks!” Yelled Wolffe as we all wheeled to face him as he slowly hobbled over to us. “YOU two argued over how to use me as a meat shield. And YOU shot me full of paint.” Yelled Wolffe as he smoothed down his Jet-black hair and massaged his sore muscles.

Quietly Brayden laughed and muttered, “It’s true, I wasted almost all my ammo on him for the hell of it.” He snickered as Wolffe stared daggers at us.

“Guys! We have a situation here!” I turned around to see Lane, followed by Gunny and Blake, run up to us. Lane handed me a Tac pad and explained. “We just received a message from the Albatross. They’re in trouble.” Lane said with a grim look on his face. I activated the tac pad and watched the message.

There was an Albatross pilot in the video, and he was struggling to evade bolts of what looked like fire. “This is Papa-539. We are being pursued by a hostile, they’re just firing warning shots right now, but they’re getting progressively closer. We need assistance ASAP!” Repeat this is Papa-539 requesting assistance over.”

I looked up from the video and looked to Lane. “Alright, where are they now.”
Lane pointed up and looked up, “Well, right now, up.” We all looked up to see the Albatross being pursued by what looked to be a rainbow Pegasus firing bolts of fire from its forehead with a flock of pegasi following it all wearing armor.

“Is that a fucking rainbow Pegasus shooting fireballs? Jesus Christ, I need a drink.” Matt said as he faces palmed and limped back towards where the two warthogs were parked.

I placed my hand to my helmet and tried to raise Papa, “Papa-539, this is Captain Hill of Firebase Victor. If you can try and land near our base, we’ll deal with the flock of seagulls following you.”

“Roger that Hill, they’re missing right now, and if I land, I think they’ll follow me down so if you can try and meet us there.” Replied Papa as he tried to dodge another firebolt.

I looked over to Lane as I signaled us to head for the warthogs. “Lane, can you outfit the Hog’s gun with paint rounds before we get back to base,” I asked as I hopped into the shotgun seat of the Warthog Matt was driving.

Lane climbed up into the gunner’s spot and popped the ammo off the gun. “Fifteen minutes to do something techs take an hour to do. Do you even have to ask Mike? I’ll be done in five.” Replied Lane as he crouched down and started to change the ammo.

I nodded to Matt, and we began to drive towards the base with Brayden and his group behind us, loading their rifles with paint rounds. It looks like it’s time to place peacekeeper.