Halo: First Contact, Chapter 8: Training Days, Part Three
Halo: First Contact
Chapter 8: Training Days, Part Three
The spartan stood tall and unflinching. "Commander." He greeted, his helmet focused on the two men in front of him. The spartan's voice was deep and had a tone akin to crushed glass. Whoever he was, he had a dominating presence. Liam doubted that he could be younger than thirty. (I am aware that he is actually younger, way younger.)
"Meet the Master Chief...a spartan." Wallace gestured towards the now identified soldier.
Liam took a long time to formulate a response. "A spartan! Where did a spartan come from?" He demanded, looking to the commander for an explanation. Spartans were few, and so actually seeing one deployed was beyond rare.
"He was deployed just shortly before we lost contact with the upstairs; he is the one who kept this division intact. Without him, we would not be as well of as we are now."
That was news indeed! "You want me and him to head back and retrieve the others?" Liam asked, with the spartan's help, accomplishing this task would be a walk in the park. He had heard of their legendary skill and power.
"Correct soldier, with the Master Chief here, you should have no problem getting back and retrieving the rest of our forces." Wallace affirmed with a confident grin.
"No doubt about it, sir." Liam agreed positively before turning to the spartan. "Are you ready to move out?"
"Always." The spartan replied simply, picking up his rile of the table and slinging it to the back of his armor. Then the armored behemoth marched to stand by the ODST, ready and raring for battle.
"That's good to hear." Liam said with a grin underneath his helmet. With the Chief here, they just might be able to make it off this world in one piece.
Liam was dismissed by the commander and headed to the same entrance he used to get in, with the spartan following behind him, his boots making a deep thud that he could feel. As the duo walked, Liam could not help but glance back at the legendary soldier following him. He was a spartan, the best humanity had to offer and a god of war. He had never heard of a spartan falling in battle, they were an invincible force that none could best.
Liam exited the sports stadium and turned to the Master Chief, who was scanning his surroundings as he pulled his rifle out, looking for threats. "Hey Chief, why don't you take point, I'm sure a spartan such as yourself has better senses than I do. I'll tell you when to turn."
The spartan's helm shifted briefly in a nod. "Affirmative, I'll lead." Without ceremony, he headed over to the highway leaving the ODST to catch up. It was hard even for the conditioned veteran soldier; spartan's had almost endless reserves of stamina.
While the super soldier walked, Liam jogged just to stay close to the spartan. It was like this for many miles and he only got a break when the spartan raised a fist and crouched down beside a burnt out car. "There's movement on the tracker." He uttered deeply from the inner suit radio link.
"What is it?" Liam inquired panting and almost out of breath as he moved to crouch next to the spartan. He could not see any on his own tracker so he could only assume that the spartan's was much more powerful.
"Eight contacts, left side, in the clothing store there." The spartan explained, the building to the far left was lit up red on the ODST's HUD. "I will move to infiltrate, you provide support." The spartan ordered, standing up devoid of any noise and heading to the right, planning to swing around the building and breach from the rear.
"Uh...okay then." Liam agreed halfheartedly as he watched the spartan walk off suddenly, disappearing into the dimming light of the evening sun. "Sure, I'll be right here." He sighed.
The helljumper propped his rifle on the wrecked car and waited for the spartan's signal to attack. A few minutes went by with nothing happening and he began to wonder when the spartan would make his move.
"Threats eliminated." He heard the spartan intone over the radio suddenly.
Bewildered, Liam got up from his place and walked over to the store. He entered from the shattered front window and shook his head in disbelief. Eight grubby men lay sprawled out on the floor, they looked like they had all been participants of a horrible car crash. The Master Chief had used his fists, to terrifying effect, and he had not even heard the scuffle and the men did not even have the chance to let off a single shot. It chilled the ODST's blood to think of the training this soldier had to be able to pull of a strike like this. Spartans and their reputation were completely founded it seemed.
"Damn..." Liam muttered as he looked to the spartan that was standing in the middle of the carnage and wiping his bloody gauntlets on a random article of clothing that looters seemed to have left behind, it looked like a kid's t-shirt.
"We should keep moving." The Master Chief suggested unceremoniously, dropping the shirt and moving to head out the broken window Liam had entered with, his boots grinding the shattered glass in to a fine powder under his weighty heel.
The ODST took one last glance at the poor men who had faced the monstrous spartan and followed after him, muttering. "Holy...shit."
Another ten minutes were spent as the duo traveled through the ruined city, winding through alleys and crossing devastated roads. Finally, they made it back to the fortified bank that he had left hours ago. One of the scorpions was destroyed; the top poking out of a building a few meters away. Its brother's treads were fucked beyond repair and the turret was bent. The front half of the warthog was gone, sheared completely in half, and there was still a soldier manning the gun, although he noticed that it was a different man. Bodies were scattered all the way up to the doors, not all of them were garbed in rags. Too many had the silver and grey armor of UNSC marines and a few were in helljumper battle plate.
"Shit, they got hit hard." Liam muttered sadly, jogging up the stairs to hurriedly get inside. The spartan walked beside him, only giving the devastation an occasional glance with his reflective visor. Once inside, they were forced to pass the moaning bodies of wounded men, covered in bandages and even torn clothes, all of it stained a bright crimson. Many of the wounded and the few remaining uninjured stared in awe of the spartan walking alongside of the returning ODST, a warrior of myth and legend standing before them.
Liam glanced back at the Chief before opening the door to the makeshift command center. The spartan's face was concealed by his orange visor and the ODST could not get a read on him. With a shrug he pressed on, entering the piece meal command center.
They both walked inside to see Lieutenant Colonel Frazier and one other man inside. Frazier had a sling carrying his left arm, of which the hand was a mangled mess. It would seem that even the leadership had not been spared from the assault. When he heard the door open, Frazier turned to see Liam standing in the doorway. "Thank god son, you made it back alive. I was worried that you would not come back. Did you find the tank battalion?"
The ODST nodded. "That I did sir, and they are in much better shape than we are. But, their commander, Wallace, said that they cannot move. They are in a strategically viable and defensible position, the sports stadium a few kicks south. Wallace asked that we come to him, sir."
Frazier frowned tiredly. "I do not think we can make it there soldier, the stadium is too far. We would never get the civilians and the wounded there in one piece. We would be torn apart by any insurrectionist with a grudge to bear."
"I know we can, sir, I brought support back with me." Liam replied happily.
"How many men did you bring back with you soldier?"
"Just one sir." Liam replied stepping out of the doorway to introduce the one that had come back with him. "A spartan."
The Master Chief entered the small room, ducking as his bulk was too large to pass through the door unopposed. "Lieutenant Colonel." He greeted staunchly in his deep voice, saluting stiffly.
"My god...it's a spartan." Frazier almost whispered with disbelief, even as he stared at the large warrior in front of him.
"Correct sir, with him I am certain that we could make it back with little to no casualties. I have seen him in action sir." Liam boasted.
The Lieutenant Colonel smiled, having found someone who could turn the tide and see his men safely delivered back home. "Spartan, have the men get ready to leave, I'm sure seeing you will bolster morale."
"On your orders, sir." The spartan said with a final salute, ducking out of the room.
As Liam turned to follow he was stopped. "Sergeant, a word please." Frazier ordered softly, grabbing his attention.
The ODST nodded uneasily and shifted back to look at the commander. "What do you need sir?" He asked with reluctance. He had heard this tone before and it was never good.
"I have some...grave news I'm afraid."
"W-what, sir?' He inquired hesitantly.
"In the last attack a few hours ago," the commander began solemnly. "We received heavy losses; the helljumpers were the most affected. Lieutenant Goddard and three quarters of the remaining ODST unit were caught outside the perimeter and were slaughtered...including Private Mark Callahan."
It took a very long time for that to sink in. When it finally did, it hit him like a run-away freight train. "Inclu....Mark." Liam whispered hoarsely, unable to finish his words. 'I...uh...what...sir?"
"Lieutenant Goddard was slain by a grenade, when Mark went to pull his body back; he was hit by a sniper. The round blasted right past his armor and into his chest, military grade munitions. Your brother was killed instantly. It pains me to say it, but the sniper was never found. His body is outside, with the rest of the fallen. I'm sorry son." The commander had a serious expression.
This was no joke.
"You are now the last high ranking ODST in this battalion. Because of this you are receiving a field promotion to Lieutenant....congratulations soldier." The commander said hollowly and dismissed him quickly, leaving the soldier standing outside the command center with a lost expression underneath his helm.
He stood there for a full minute before slowly walking outside. Silently, he walked along the battlefield until he stopped beside a scorpion. He saw the blue shoulder stripe of his brother's armor sticking out from the pile of mud near the wrecked treads. With quivering steps he moved to stand beside the body, falling to his knees and grabbing it in trembling hands. Liam pulled the body out from the mud and laid it in his lap. He spotted the gaping crater in the breastplate, ringed with coagulated blood. "M-m-mark." Liam stuttered, as if the corpse would answer him.
The dog-tags on his neck read Private Mark Callahan, ODST battalion 15th blood dragons, blood type b-negative
Mark...his younger brother, his responsibility, his best friend. He was supposed to survive this war. He was going to get married, start a family with his childhood sweetheart. He was going to become a father, come back a hero. He was going to survive, even if Liam had to give his life to ensure that it happened.
But the truth of the matter hit home with a vicious and cruel ferocity. He was in fact not doing any of those things and he never would.
"Mark....MARK!" He wept miserably shaking the corpse of his younger brother as the full reality dawned on him in all of its twisted and perverted glory. "MARK...FUCK.....FUCK!"
He sobbed silently droplets falling to land on his HUD and obscuring his fallen brother's body. "I failed....I failed him....I failed our mother...I failed our sisters." He whispered repeatedly, trapped in a maze of mental torment and agony.
******
Krystal's eyes glistened as tears tracked down her muzzle. The cerulean vixen had never seen such blatant suffering, not since her home planet had been destroyed. She looked to Liam, trying to see how he was fairing.
The ODST was standing in the exact same position as he had been before, emotions and expression concealed behind hid opaque visor, a mask to hide the pain. It may have fooled all the others, but he could not hide his emotions from her. It was an almost physical ache he was suffering, blinding and seething flashes of sorrow and despair, she wondered how he could be so unmoving, like stone, in the face of such pain.
In a similar position she would have curled up into a ball and cried for hours. But here he was, watching it with all the mobility and expressionism of an unfeeling rock.
She looked to her friends, and saw them all looking at the lone soldier with pity. In fact, every eye in the room was shifted from him to the sorrow on the video.
As she felt the emotions build up into a crescendo, they all stopped suddenly, until she felt nothing from him, like a desolate void empty of all things. That concerned her more than anything else did. She desperately wanted to get in his head, but did not want to force it on him.
As she watched him, she heard a commotion on the video and turned to it, giving the unflinching human one last look.
******
"Lieutenant Liam, the order to move out has been given, sir." He heard the impassive tone of the spartan inform from behind him. He shifted his helmed to gaze at the seven foot armored super soldier. The Master Chief was standing stock still a dozen feet away, unreadable underneath his thick armor.
Liam tore his helmet off his head and let it fall to the ground besides him. "Lieutenant huh...I guess that means I outrank you." He mumbled softly, turning his attention back to his brother's body.
"Indeed." The spartan replied simply, his tone undecipherable. He had thought that the spartan had walked away, but his deep voice returned to buzz in Liam's ear. "Your brother was a good soldier; he died doing his duty, if we all were so lucky." The helljumper could detect the barest hint of compassion in the spartan's unfeeling tone.
"Lucky?" Liam grunted and let loose a hateful scoff. "This was not luck." The ODST wiped his bloodshot eyes with his gloved hands and picked up his helmet, roughly slamming it on. Afterwards he gently wrapped his fingers around his brother's dog-tags, tearing them off. He placed them in a pouch on his chest and stood up. Liam turned to look at the spartan, staring up into his impenetrable visor. "Luck would have been the both of us coming home alive." Liam gave the body one last look, burying his sadness and shouldering his rifle with a bitter resolve. "At the moment....I'll settle for vengeance." He snarled.
The ODST brushed past the spartan, storming off to rally the remainders of the helljumpers still breathing. He had much to do, lives to plunder and he would not be satisfied until this world burned to ash and drowned his grief in blood.
The Master Chief watched the enraged ODST thunder away, shaking his helmet almost modestly in a sad way before following after him.
Liam could think of nothing but the bittersweet feeling of revenge, he wanted...no needed, the insurrectionists to try and attack the convoy. He desired to feel his gun shudder in his hands as he dealt death to those who would tear his family apart. His hands were trembling with adrenaline and the base craving for absolute destruction.
So, when the first round of the ambush slammed into the soldier at the front of the vanguard, Liam smiled insidiously underneath his charcoal black visor. In a blind rage, he shouldered his shotgun and rushed past the commander, unheeding Frazier's demands to rally. Liam weaved through cars and past crumbling barricades, uncaring of the whistling of rounds passing just inches above his helmet. He could see gunfire coming from a building at the far end of the intersection they had been passing through. There were rebels in there, and it was going to be a very bad, and very short, day for them.
Liam slammed into the left wall of the building, pressing his right shoulderplate into the dirty concrete. Hugging the wall, he shimmied to the small service door that led into the back of the structure, armor grating along the partition. His HUD warned that there were four contacts inside. His progress was masked by the roaring sounds of battle so he knew that he would be able to enter undetected.
Once he reached the side door, he lowered the barrel of his shotgun to about chest height and used his left hand to slowly open the door. Once it was open, he could hear the sound of gunfire coming from inside, he risked a quick peek in and saw three men and a teen crouching in the window that was used to showcase the store's products during better days. Now it was used to show the occupant's their victims.
Taking a deep breath, Liam readied his gun and slunk inside. Almost on his knees, he crouched closer to his prey. As he got closer he could see his fellow soldiers fighting in the streets from whatever cover they could find.
Liam had to admit, the ambush was well planned. A semicircle of buildings had been occupied by the rebels and they were using them to great effect. The soldiers were pinned down and only the Master Chief was faring well. The spartan was by far, the closest to the enemy besides Liam. The Chief was using a large truck as a shield and pushing it with his immense strength towards the building left of Liam.
Even as the super soldier pushed, he was firing accurate bursts from his assault rifle one-handed, each either forcing someone into cover or killing them outright.
Liam buried his awe at the spartan's martial prowess and returned his attention to the men and the teen currently in his building.
The ODST drew his knife in his left hand and held the shotgun in his right; he had a reckless, some would dare say, idiotic, plan forming in his head. As it was still forming, he put it into effect. Silently, he snuck over to the man on the far left and when he was close enough. The soldier shot forward, burying the hilt of his combat blade into the unfortunate man's throat.
The rebel let out a wet gurgle and his brown eyes widened in astonishment as he dropped his gun to clutch at his ruined throat, blood spurting through his fingers. The weapon fell to the floor with a clatter, alerting the three remaining targets.
Just as the first one was turning to investigate the noise, Liam brought the muzzle of his shotgun to bear pointed right at the man's chest. With a contraction of his muscles, the shattergun let out a belching roar and its buckshot payload delivered itself into the rebel's chest. He had no armor to even dull the attack so his torso was shredded by the close-range assault. With a silent cry, he was flung backwards to smash into his compatriot.
But by this time the kid was fully aware of the situation and aimed his weapon at Liam.
The ODST felt the breath fly out of his lungs as four rounds hammered into his breastplate, Liam lurched backwards as the force of the bullets pushed him. Luckily enough, his armor took the brunt of the salvo and did not break.
Scrambling backwards, the helljumper made it behind a thick table that had been lying on its side nearby, a staccato of rounds chasing after him. Knowing that he was in a dire situation, he grabbed a grenade from his bandolier and pulled the pin. After counting to three he tossed the deadly explosive over the table and at the last seen location of his adversaries. There was a loud bang and the entire room shook tremendously, it was not often wise to throw an explosive in such close quarters but he deemed it a risk worth taking.
Even as his hearing was returned to him, the soldier charged out of hiding and scoured the room for his enemy. He heard groaning coming from the opposite side of the room. Stepping past the ruined remains of three of his targets he scrambled through debris as he headed towards the source of the pain filled moans. The sounds of combat outside had dwindled and allowed him to easily zero in on the sound he was searching for.
It was the teen; he was leaned up against the far wall, gun out of reach. The kid was not really that badly hurt, just a few pieces of shrapnel embedded in his legs. He would make a full recovery...would, being the key word.
The helljumper racked the slide underneath the shattergun's muzzle and expelling the expended shell.
With a cold dispassionate glare, he levered the barrel of his shotgun at the kid. His eyes widened in fear and he tried to plead in a young weak voice. "Wait mister...please."
Liam stared at the blonde kid who could be no more than fourteen, not even in his prime, blue eyes wide with fear...and he pulled the trigger.
There was a deafening bang as the shotgun vomited the contents of its barrel towards its appointed target at close-range, the muzzle flash lighting up Liam's solid and impassive visor. As soon as the vulgar sound was conceived it was gone, replaced by a looming silence. The ODST did not move for several minutes, and only turned away when his HUD lit up with the sound of a very angry Lieutenant Colonel. He turned and slowly walked away, armor drenched in the child's gore. The ground crackled under his boots as he stepped through shell casings, pools of hot blood, and shattered glass. As he reached the window, he gave the room one last glance. "Sorry kid...no second chances...not anymore." With that he jumped down to the ground and headed over to the convoy. As he walked away he noticed that the spartan's visor tracked him with mechanical precision. Almost as if he was judging him.
Liam shrugged it off roughly; he was far from done here. He wanted this world and all of its inhabitants to burn , and he would do his best to see it happen.
******
The video cut out suddenly, surprising the viewers. They turned to the machine and saw that Liam had walked over and pulled the data chip from its home inside the machine with an almost angry passion, tucking it deep into his armor and out of sight.
"That's it." Was his only response, he said and added nothing more. The ODST moved from the front of the room and walked past the students and up to the place where the minister and the admiral were sitting.
Fara sensed that he was done and so hastened to reorganize the class. It was hard to do, especially considering that they were all reeling from the merciless execution they had just witnessed.
Krystal watched Liam as he spoke with the two leaders. She honestly, was not sure how to take what she had seen. It was hard for her to attribute the man in the video with the man she had fallen in love with. They were like opposite sides of the same coin. The vixen could see why he did what he did, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. It was even harder to witness from his perspective, knowing that was what he was seeing when he did it.
She looked to Fox, the orange furred vulpine had a thoughtful frown. He too was trying to connect the video to the man. In fact they all were; he was just not the same. It helped a little that they also were thinking about that super soldier...a spartan was it?
They could not tell if it was a highly advanced machine, or in fact a human being. She could not imagine what was needed to create or train something or someone like that. These humans were a strange bunch indeed. The cornerian army had never put any resources into a super soldier program. It was just not needed. They did not really focus on military ground assets.
Krystal gave another look at her human, wondering what exactly was running through his mind.
******
Liam stood before Admiral Mathias and the cornerian prime minister. The ODST took his helmet off to stare at them with unfiltered eyes. He had done as they had asked, showed the minister what an ODST was capable of. "Are you satisfied, sir?" He asked the leonine minister, taking great pains to make sure his tone was not rude. The helljumper had rightly assumed that he was under observation for something, perhaps the minister wanted to see if he was capable of fulfilling the mission he was assigned.
"I have seen what I needed to see, the mission has been approved." The minister replied, proving the human's correctly assumed hypothesis.
Liam nodded his head and spoke with the minister for a few minutes and learned his name. Once Sanders was satisfied and had exhausted his well of questions, Liam was dismissed and with one last look at his friends and Mathias, he went back down the steps.
Once down there, he walked back over to Fara and took back control of the class room. He then spent the rest of the afternoon one various lessons he had planned to teach. It all passed in a blur for him, half focused on teaching, and half focused on his rekindled past. At one point he was outside in the training field demonstrating the weapons he brought along.
Reactions to the powder weapons were mixed. Most of the looks from the cadets were intrigued, but a few were disdainful, thinking them inferior. Liam was quick to dissuade them on that notion. He had pulled out the SRS-99 and used it to pick off a target erected a mile from the field they all were at. The gun had completely demolished the construction, exploding in a violent mess.
Needless to say, it left quite an impression.
As the day wended down, he ended it in the same room that he had used in the beginning. He spent a half hour wrapping up with some more words on teamwork and called it a day. Once the cadets filled out, he watched them all go, thoughtful expressions on their muzzles. It would seem that his attempt to teach had been successful.
Liam had done his best to distance himself from his friends, not wanting to see their eyes. He had no idea what they thought about what he had done. Personally, he wished he could wind back the clock and take what he had done back. It haunted him to this day and he knew that it would until he gave his final breath. He knew better, but his judgment had been polluted by the death of his brother, and so he had taken someone else's family from the. It was inexcusable.
With a tired sigh he gathered his equipment, ready to leave. As he was doing so he heard Fara speak. "You did well today; you would make a good teacher."
The brunette vixen had mostly been quiet up to this point, only asking a few questions when otherwise watching him teach with a curious eye.
He turned to face the vixen. "Perhaps, but I rather be fighting, any day of the week."
She nodded considerately. "I thought as much. You have that same fire in your eyes that I saw in Fox, the same determination." She looked down after she said that, reason unknown.
Liam shrugged. "It's just who I am, I can't imagine it any other way, may we meet again someday Fara." Liam bid her goodbye, walking out of the classroom.
She watched him go with a small frown, ears folded back.
Liam exited the training building and walked over to the team waiting outside. They smiled as he approached, and he smiled back weakly. He was thankful that they were silent for the rest of the trip back, he wanted to think. No doubt they would soon wish to talk about it, but for now he was spared that discomfort.
Krystal sat alongside him on the trip back, leaning her head on his shoulder. He smiled down at her and she smiled back brightly. Liam wrapped an arm around her waist and brought her close. The vixen's proximity and warmth did wonders in making him feel better.
When the ship finally touched down at his temporary home, Liam was the last one to step off. With a bit of reluctance he walked down the ramp and into the waiting gazes of his friends. Sighing, he walked past them and headed towards the mess hall. In there, he began to explain himself.