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Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Eight
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 7 July 2004, 10:53 PM
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________________________________________________________________
Chapter Eight: Revival
1521, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
Kren was strapped in by two Marines as the ship accelerated skyward. He held his leg as the platoon corpsman stumbled over to him, grabbing anything that would help him stand up amongst the abrupt maneuvers of the drop-ship.
Sergeant Pullman pulled out a small device and activated it, trying to stay steady above his CO's leg. The device powered up and sent out a concentrated X-ray emission into Kren's leg. It took a few seconds before it appeared on the small four-inch screen. Pullman analyzed it quickly.
"Fractured leg in three places, sir." The sergeant said.
Kren grunted, not surprised.
"You'll be off of it until we can get you to the ships medical-bay." Pullman said, putting the device away.
The Blackspear shook violently, sending the corpsman rolling to the legs of the Marines strapped in. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed and handle above him. The normal operating white lights dimmed down to red-lights, this usually being reserved for night operations. The Marines onboard looked about, worry etched on their faces but none of them would ever say a word; pride was the lone factor to thank.
McCollum and Meyers cautiously walked over to Kren as Pullman left, defying two UNSC's regulations in doing so. The ship turned sharply as the two Marines settled down next to their CO.
"What is the ball I keep hearing about?" Meyers asked.
Kren winced in pain as vibrations in the ship rattled his leg. "It's what that ghost-like Elite was using when we saw him."
"And how'd you get it?" the lieutenant asked.
"That's not important," Kren replied, keeping his voice calm despite the urge to yell out in pain as the ship made erratic turns. "What I saw when I had it is the important thing. The ball gives you some sort of ability to, well, see things you shouldn't be able to see."
McCollum and Meyers looked at each other quizzically then back at their CO.
Kren continued. "It's like you can be anywhere and everywhere at once, almost like you're omni-present. For some reason, you can figure out just about anything you looked at."
"That's how you knew where that pyramid thing was." McCollum said.
Kren nodded. "The key."
McCollum cocked his head to the side, thinking. "You mentioned that, sir, what is it?"
"It's a key to that can open up and allow us to see through it, like a window." Kren said.
Meyers grunted. "Don't be too vague about it."
Kren didn't appreciate the sarcasm as he tried to keep his leg from moving around in the craft. "I don't know where, how, or what, but that's what I read on it."
McCollum held on as the craft lurched forward. He couldn't see what was going on outside, but he hoped that those pilots knew what they were doing. "So you could read the symbols?"
Kren nodded.
"What about the symbols in the entrance tunnel to the large room?" McCollum asked.
Kren's mind flashed as his memory recalled the information. He was surprised out how vivid his memories were of it. Anything he did when he had the ball were now indispensable memories; it was like he was standing there right then and there.
"Sir?" McCollum asked again.
Kren shook his head and focused on what the Marine in front of him was saying. "'For the present will find and see the secrets of the solidarity of all, and they shall recover the unseen key to see the universe. It shall bring about the change of the possession to the Sacred Door.'"
Meyers rubbed his eyes, trying to absorb the conveyed information. "Okay, so we have the key with us right? Do you know where this key goes?"
Kren thought. His memories flashed before him as he remembered exactly everything that happened while he had the ball. "There's three keys."
Meyers shook his head. "Wait, what?
"There's three keys." Kren repeated.
"Where are the other two?" McCollum asked, trying to get the right information out of the wealth his CO had.
"I don't know, but the three of them form some sort of...trinity." Kren said, not exactly sure how he knew it but just contently stated it. "This key is one among those three."
Meyers let his head drop. "Where does this door go?"
"I don't know, but it's not a door necessarily." Kren replied.
"What is it then?" McCollum asked, feeling as if these were all riddles.
"It's more like a door you can see through, something you can open up but not go through." Kren said.
Meyers leaned back. "And you need all three of them to make this 'door' work?"
Kren nodded. "This is more then a simple door. This may be the way to win the war."
___________________________________________________________
Weisfield switched on the channel selector as the Blackspear broke through the clouds, heading straight for space. The Seraphs were not close behind, still circling in the clouds below.
"Victor Kilo, withhold fire unless you get targets of opportunity, we may have lost them." Weisfield called out over the comm. link.
"Copy, Delta 4-1."
Abrams checked the passive radar receiver for any sign of them. The Seraphs quickly faded back until the left the sensors range. "We may have lost them."
Weisfield nodded. "50 kilometers and gaining."
Abrams watched as the atmosphere began fading away and the view started going black. Stars began to appear as the Blackspear left the atmosphere and made the transition to space. They might have made it out alive.
He glanced back down at the passive radar receiver and set its range to maximum. There was no sign of the Seraphs, now beyond 100 kilometers, but one large contact was creeping at the edge of the receiver's maximum range. He quickly ran a computer diagnostic of the contact.
It was a medium tonnage Covenant frigate: 500 kilometers out.
Abrams activated the infrared system and looked at the bearing of the contact. He magnified to its maximum scale and the outline of the awkward shaped vessel came into view. Without the aid of sensors, the frigate would have appeared like a fairly distant star.
"Contact, bearing 276 by 90." Abrams said softly, almost as if the ship could hear them if they were too loud.
Weisfield looked at the far off contact. "Freaking Covie frigate, thank god this ship is stealthy."
Abrams nodded slightly as he stared at the contact just over three hundred miles out. Part of him was anxious about flying so close to a sizable Covenant ship; he knew if this was a Pelican, what he used to fly before joining ONI's Special Air Wing, they would be vaporized. But they had finally done something right; they had finally made a craft that could avoid, for the most part, detection.
He adjusted the receivers range and tried to find the Valiant Knight, but the screen remained dark. Then he remembered the Valiant Knight was a stealth ship as well. It also emitted minimal IR feedback, which would make detection impossible unless they closed to within at least three hundred kilometers.
"Victor Kilo, coordinate vector please." Weisfield transmitted, coming across the same problem.
"200 by 12, 450 clicks out." Came a clear reply.
Abrams adjusted their trajectory and headed for the ship. They would make it out this time, now all he had to worry about was next time.
___________________________________________________________
1540, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight,
in orbit around Planet Codename Milestone
Captain Rayford nodded in approval as he heard the incoming transmission. The Marines had escaped off the planet without the Covenant following them back to his ship, and hopefully they had found something useful enough to merit this mission.
He smirked slightly as he thought of it. If they did not bring back anything, that ONI major would be the one taking the 'credit'.
Rayford has not anti-ONI in anyway, he actually worked for them. But he didn't completely relate to the tactics and measures used by these spooks to get what they needed. ONI was famous for what it did behind the curtains, and even though they were fighting for the same cause as everyone else, they had earned the bad-guy cop reputation by exploiting anything, even UNSC resources, to get their own agenda accomplished.
But there were always two-sides to the story. What had ONI accomplished? The feats of gathered intelligence and technology from ONI have proved invaluable on the battlefield. At the rate ONI was moving, despite its certain lack of respect for the other branches, this department alone could change the tide of war.
"Delta 4-1 is entering the docking bay, sir." His XO called out.
"Any wounded?" Rayford asked.
"Two, sir."
Rayford whistled. Damn lucky ODSTs.
He reached for another sip of his coffee when the air-tight doors that led to the bridge parted. The ship had only a limited amount of Marine security guards, so the lone guard at the door halted the trio of officers. Rayford looked behind himself and spotted the three men.
It was the ONI major.
The captain stood up and walked over to the door as the Marine kept them from entering. He had told the Marine that without his explicit permission, no one aside from the bridge staff would be allowed to enter.
"Good afternoon, captain." The major said, obviously annoyed that a lance-corporal was keeping him from entering the bridge.
Rayford nodded. This guy was not used to restrictions.
"I've heard the word that our Marines are back, and we should have a debriefing about how it went on the surface." The major said.
Was this major completely out of the loop? "That may have to wait, the platoon's CO was injured on the surface." Rayford said.
The major nodded. "I know, lets meet him in the infirmary."
Rayford sighed. He was about to turn and motion for his XO to come along when his Operations Officer shouted out.
"Sir, eight Covenant ships have just entered the system."
He turned and moved back to his chair, then looked at the small screen. There were six medium tonnage vessels and two cruisers; they had jumped almost directly into the planets atmosphere.
"Sir, they're launching drop-ships and fighters. All inbound for the planets surface." The Ops. Officer announced.
"Looks like they're looking for their missing Covenant base," the major said.
Rayford shot a glance back a the major. How did he know that?
"Sir! Three more frigate-size vessels have entered the system; they're close."
Rayford looked back down at the small screen. 520 kilometers out.
"We got to get out of here," Rayford said. "Helm, take us out of system, maximum power but keep our IR output down."
"Yes, sir." Came two simultaneous replies from the front of the ship. The ship vibrated as it began accelerating.
He noticed a small group of fighters looming closer and closer to them. The were not on a direct intercept course, but they would pass within two-hundred kilometers of them, definitely close enough for them to detect the stealth ship.
"Sir, I suggest we leave the system." His XO cautioned.
The Ops. Officer spoke up again. "Sir, six more ships have entered the system, one of them is a carrier."
The Covenant were suspicious, and they weren't taking any chances, especially with a whole army of them missing on the planets surface. "Slip-space generators?"
"Fully powered, captain."
"Take us out of here," Rayford ordered.
The XO interfaced with the ships AI and found a suitable vector that complied with the Cole Protocol.
He turned to face the major. "Time to tell me what this is all about."
___________________________________________________________
Rayford and the ONI major stepped into the captain's office. The Valiant Knight was now safely in slip-space leaving the system, so Rayford could slow down and take in all the information; but he was, nonetheless, anxious to find out what this ONI major was up to and why this excursion into deep space was necessary. Rayford stepped behind his large desk and had a seat in his large chair. He motioned for the major to sit as well.
"Let's start at the top," Rayford said. "Tell me how this operation originated."
The major sat down slowly. "You know I can't tell you that--"
"Oh but you can," Rayford said, his voice portraying the impatient he had. "And you will."
"Tell me, captain, how will knowing this help you in any way?"
"Listen, I was just ordered with twenty-four hours notice to take my ship, you and this platoon of Marines into the middle of nowhere to send them to the surface of some desolate planet, only to find out that there's a freaking Covenant army missing and there's some sort of artifact. You tell me, major, do you think that sounds a little strange? Out of the ordinary? Before this I was running recon ops, now I'm evading a Covenant armada."
"The origination of this operation goes way back before you were even a commissioned officer." The major shot back. "This thing does not revolve around you, me, those Marines, or even the planet. It's on a much higher scale."
Rayford shook his head. "It's not about whether or not I want to know, I could care less about who or what this revolves around. But what I need to know is what this whole thing is about."
"You were at the briefing, you heard it all--"
"Don't try that, major." Rayford interrupted.
The major stared at the captain intently as he contemplated what to say. Rayford could see in his eyes that there was no one on this ship to back the major up; the major was in a corner.
"Operation Gallant Strife," the major began slowly. "Is the underlying operation the Office of Naval Intelligence has been doing for the last nine decades."
Rayford didn't flinch, but the statement caught him off guard.
"Ninety years, captain. But the origination of the concept started back centuries ago. You remember going through the academy, you remember that class where it's sole purpose was to show the effects of decisive battles and their outcomes. What are the first that come to your mind? Bunker Hill? The Alamo? Pearl Harbor?"
"...D-Day, Stalingrad; yes I know my history, major." Rayford finished.
"Well what about the Third World War? What did that class tell you about that war?"
Rayford leaned back as he thought. "That war had its decisive battle, of course: when Lieutenant Colonel Davis Piconski led his nine squadrons of fighters into the largest air battle ever on Earth, eliminating one-third of the Chinese air force with the use of a nuke in the end."
The major nodded. "And the list goes on, all the way up to the Harvest system battle not that long ago."
Rayford sat still, not seeing where this was going.
"My point, captain, is to show you that wars are always summed up to the decisive battles that led to their victory or defeat. Is that not true? But let's look at the other side of things; what if we could eliminate or at least foresee these battles in order to give us the edge. What if there was a way out there to stop us from getting slaughtered because we didn't know. Think about it, if we had that kind of capability we wouldn't even be at war right now."
Rayford nodded at the logic.
"2049, World War Three, chaos everywhere," the majors aid. "It was the allies verse the axis, it was total war; do you think the allies won just through those decisive battles? Do you think it was their superior technology or strength in arms, or luck?"
Rayford knew the answer, but beckoned for the major to continue.
"Not at all, captain, there was something that the allies had that gave them the edge. Anything you learned about how the allies won during that war was completely false. Why, you may ask? The simple reasons are to give you the idea that you are inherently better then your enemy and to cover up the secrets that are really used."
Rayford shook his head. "So you're saying that we had, or maybe have, something that gives us the edge? That there is some sort of supernatural force out there that gives us, what?"
"Not quite, captain." The major said, leaning back. "Do you think that we have held off the Covenant advances simply because we are better? Smarter despite their apparent superior technology? We have something on our side, and we've had it for many years.
"2050, the middle of World War Three, special operations were carried out within south-east Asia under the cover of Gallant Strife. Initially these were just search and destroy missions by special forces, but they recovered some unknown artifact that allowed them to see things."
"On Earth?" Rayford asked, puzzled.
The major nodded. "As you may recall the allies were losing the war up until that point." The major leaned back and chuckled. "We've all seen those fighting movies, stories about our hero's and how they're beaten down, but then at the last minute get up and finish the fight off to win, eh? Fiction, that's all it is. Same thing you've heard about the war. We do not miraculously just get back up and start fighting harder then ever after we just got our asses handed to us."
Rayford disagreed, but remained silent as the major went on.
"We have something that gives us the edge, and in 2051, when the Third World War ended, the allies used that something to win. That something was a way to open a 'door', if you will, that allowed them to see certain things."
"And what?" Rayford said. "We found another way to open the 'door'."
"No we found another way to make it bigger, more effective." The major replied. "In 2049, the 347th Marine Force Recon platoon while on an infiltrating mission in south-east Asia found an artifact. That artifact allowed them to see events in the future, giving them a much vaunted edge for success. It was later given to their leaders, and it was used against the axis powers, leading to their victory."
The major leaned forward and talked in a lower tone. "This artifact let us win the few wars that came up in the centuries following WWIII, and it has helped, with limited effect, hold off against the Covenant onslaught. But now we know something; we know that there's not only one."
"There's more, and one was on this planet?" Rayford asked.
"Prescisely. But it gets better," the major said, his eyes lighting up. "These three artifacts were originally designed to be used together, and with all three of them the effects are extraordinary."
"'Designed' to be used together? By who?"
"We don't know, speculations are that it was a race or group of aliens long ago, but who knows? The theories range from us doing this in the future and coming back in time to a phantom super-race of aliens to god." The Major said.
"Then how did you find this planet, and how did you know that it had one of these artifacts on it?" Rayford asked.
"Like I said earlier, ninety-years ago the vision of another object appeared through the one we had on Earth. We didn't know where it was, and Operation Gallant Strife was started to find it by ONI. After an exhaustive search spanning that entire time period, we finally made progress when the artifact in the city of Cote d' Azur was recovered. Off of the artifact we were able to find inscriptions that gave us the starting place to look. Alas, we ended up putting this mission on immediate priority."
Rayford let out a long sigh. ONI had been using this artifact the whole time without anyone else even knowing it. How much had it effected the war so far? Was what the major saying true and without the artifact humans would have been destroyed already? He's instincts told him no, that humanity was indeed holding off the Covenant through decisive battles and tactics, but now there was room for doubt.
"How many of these artifacts are there?" Rayford asked after the short pause.
"Three, we think." The major said.
"So that's only two, where's the third?"
The major rubbed his face as he replied. "It will be found."
Rayford didn't doubt that statement, anything ONI set its mind to it did.
"Where is the first artifact now?"
The major gave him a hard gaze. "That's not for you to know. What you need to do, captain, is get me, the artifact, and your ship back to Reach."
Rayford nodded slightly, thinking about what he had just heard. Even if he disagreed with the major's theory that this artifact was the only thing keeping them alive, it was without question an important asset to the UNSC. He stood, and the major followed suit.
"You will get back to Reach, major."
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