Halo: First Contact, Chapter 10: Sacrifice, Part 1
Halo: First Contact
Chapter 10: Sacrifice, Part 1
The most important thing is this: to sacrifice what you are now for what you can become tomorrow.
-Shannon L. Alder
Infirmary.....
"You should be fine in a few weeks, the wound itself is free of infection and the stiches should hold. What exactly happened to you?" The inquisitive doctor asked the uniformed man sitting on his examination table. The dark haired fellow had been rushed in by two other crewmembers and he had to have extensive treatment for the entire left side of his face.
It had looked like he had been clawed by a wild animal.
The soldier was silent, and had not said a single word or made a noise throughout the entire procedure, and it was not exactly painless. When he had still not said anything, the doctor probed him again. "Sir...what happened?" He was a little more forceful this time, laying a hand on the man's shoulder.
The warrior flinched and looked up into the doctor's eyes. His blue ones were empty, devoid of any life or light, it chilled Harding's blood. "It was an industrial accident." The man responded quietly. "Are we done here?"
The doctor nodded slowly and uncertainly, and was startled when the man swiftly deposited himself to the steel decking of the ship on his boot clad feet and marched out of the small infirmary. "Strange..." Harding mumbled to himself before he dismissed the odd encounter. He had many duties aboard the Shadow Hand and did not have time to worry about one man.
Liam walked down the corridors of the prowler, lightly running his hand over the gouges that would forever linger upon his face, besmirching it. The pain had been tremendous, but the mental pain had been far worse. Never in his entire life, had he felt such deadening misery infused into his very being. Not even his brother's death had affected him so; because, at some point, you had to realize that things like that happened when you fought for a living.
But what Krystal had done to him....
Liam had the overwhelming urge to slam his fist into the bulkhead...or anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.
But he restrained himself with an incredible force of will. He had no desire to be locked up. His surprise had outweighed his anger when she had slashed him. Liam had not considered that she had that kind of thing in her.
What had hurt him more than the wound had been who had inflicted it. He thought that she had loved him. But he did not thing that if you truly loved someone that you could think to even lay a hand, or in her case, paw, on them. Even as he was struck, he did not even think of striking her back, and don't get him wrong, he would hit a women if he had to. He was a soldier and knew that enemies came in both genders.
With a distressing groan, Liam shook himself out of his pained thoughts and looked to see where his unguided feet had led him.
His blue eyes absorbed the sight of the prowler's small, singular, HEV bay. It would seem that he was subconsciously still thinking about his imminent mission. The prowler had taken off almost as soon as his boots touched the entrance ramp. The captain was eager to get it over and done with it would seem.
There was a solitary HEV inside its cradle, and adjacent to it was a rectangular cargo trunk with his gear stashed inside, along with a few new goodies. All Liam had to do in this instance was sit around and wait for the prowler to reach its destination, a small asteroid herd that would be passing the venomian homeworld.
The cornerian starcharts had shown that the flock of asteroids would be nearing its location very soon. They had a dismally short window to make this insane plan work. If they were late or something went wrong with the launch, they would not get another chance for several years. Everything hinged on it working the first time, there would be no return pass.
They only had a few hours before the asteroids reached their zenith over the venomian capital. By that time, the prowler was supposed to be hidden inside the garden of moving spacial debris. From there, Liam would deploy within the shower of smaller rocks pulled in by the massive planet's gravity well. With luck, he should hit somewhere near his target, and use the guidance information downloaded into his suit to make it the rest of the way. After that he should be able to infiltrate the compound using a sewage system that deposited its filthy contents into the lethally polluted ocean nearby. From there, he should have the chance to infiltrate the facility and work his way up, stealing information and killing any HVTs. Then he should be able to link up with his contact, who's only hint as to who they might be was, and he quoted the datapad, 'they would be hard to miss' and to get both of them onto the shuttle in the upper courtyard's landing pad. With that done, they should have the chance to make it out of the planet's considerable defenses and head back into friendly space.
There was a fuckton of shoulds in that plan.
It was such a perilous and appalling scheme that he did not place his chances of getting out alive very high. In fact, he would be amazed if he made it out of the asteroid pack in one piece. But to be honest with himself, Liam didn't care what happened to him. The only reason he was going to try his hardest to get out alive was that he still had his family to worry about. He wanted to at least see his sisters and his mother again. There was obviously nothing left for him in this system. Krystal hated him, and he had to accept that.
With that thought, the ODST approached the cargo container and opened the latches swiftly, lifting the lid to access its contents. He reached inside and was surprised to feel the grip of an unfamiliar weapon.
Curious, he pulled the gun out and examined it.
It looked much like the SRS-99 sniper rifle, but its barrel had been shortened and the clip enlarged. The usually huge scope had been swapped with an ACOG variant and there was a tiny laser sight attached under the short barrel. He flipped it around and noticed that the main chassis of the weapon was thicker than its predecessor and it was almost heavier. The strange weapon was also made of black steel and composite materials.
"I see you have taken a notice of one of ONI's more recent...creations." Someone spoke amusedly behind him.
Liam turned his gaze away from the weapon and saw the captain of the prowler standing before him. "I have never seen it before." The helljumper responded slowly, shifting the weapon in his grip. He never liked nor trusted anyone affiliated with the Office of Naval Intelligence. They were too mired in conspiracies and subplots for that.
The captain, a skinny tan man with short hair and green eyes, looked amused with the soldier's reaction, smiling softly. "Indeed, you wouldn't have, the XMRS-01 is a new, and therefore top secret, weapon. It was designed to be useful in many situations. It is far more suited for close range battles than its bigger louder brother, has an ingrained silencer, larger ammo capacity, and specialized rounds, a wicked mix of white phosphorus and Greek fire." The captain chuckled morbidly. "It has a nasty tendency to scorch the objectives innards. You'll need it to make sure that when you take out a target, that they don't come back later to haunt you."
Liam gave the weapon a more respectful gaze before placing it back in the container. Once it was properly stowed he turned back to the captain. "Why are you here Captain Voorhees?" He demanded as politely as he could. He didn't like the man's jade green eyes.
The captain shrugged. "I wanted to see my asset and get a good read on him. After all, this is a very important mission. Humanity's success in this system depends on it going smoothly."
Liam scoffed and looked away from the pompous man. "This mission is a farce and almost impossible."
"Almost, is the key word here, soldier. What you must understand is that ONI has had its eyes on you for quite some time Lieutenant Callahan, ever since your stint on Caldernum. We know all the dirty details. Why do you think you were selected for this mission? I suggested this whole _farce_of a plan." Voorhees chuckled darkly. "We have use for a soldier of your...talents. Consider this an...employee evaluation. Do well, and we may contemplate taking you on."
Liam snarled and clenched his fists, growling. "I will not work for ONI, after this I'm going back to my friends, my unit. I have no desire to work with the likes of you."
"Ah, ah, ah..." The captain wagged his finger mockingly. "You should realize that it is not that easy, even if you go back, we always get what we want...no matter the cost."
That set Liam's eyes ablaze. "Fuck you!" He growled, turning his back on the captain. He despised ONI even more now, they were the reason that he was here, that everything collapsed around him. Liam rummaged through the crate, looking for his armor. Instead, his hands wrapped around a small photo he had put inside his duffle bag, and it had probably been dumped out along with the rest of his gear, into the trunk. It was of Krystal, himself, and Fox.
All three of them were smiling.
It was after the very first flight lesson he received from the friendly orange furred vulpine. She had been waiting for him to come back and wrapped him up in one of her customary hugs, shortly after, she corralled him and Fox into a picture. He grimaced and was going to crush the photograph in his hand, but he couldn't bear to bring himself to do it. His hands could not close around the picture of one of the happier moments in his life.
Instead, he sighed miserably and stuffed it into a pocket. He continued to rummage around the trunk, seriously, where was his armor?
"If you're looking for your armor, it's not there." He heard the captain say with a smirk inhabiting his tone. It would seem that he had not left as Liam had hoped.
"Where is it then?" Liam muttered, turning back to face the man he had begun to loathe.
"Over there." The captain gestured to another container, this one smaller, sitting near the door he had entered. "In preparation for this mission, I had some of my associates place a few...improvements in it."
"Like what?" Liam demanded.
"Since these enemies you will face have energy weapons, I had your armor treated with a reflective coating. It was a quick fix, so it's not as effective as what I wanted, but time was not on our side. Now, if you manage to be discovered, the armor should absorb a few good hits before it is shredded, like the men who attacked Eladard." Voorhees explained as he turned to leave the room. Just as he stepped in the doorway he turned back. "Try not to die...ONI has plans for you."
And then the captain was gone.
Liam stared at the door for a minute before grunting and heading to the container that held his armor. As he took it out and swapped out of his uniform, he spied no visible changes, besides the fact it was shinier than when he last laid eyes on it. Once he had his armor on, he settled his helmet on his head and sealed the suit. Then he booted up the electronics and made sure the systems were clean. He did not trust anyone on this ship.
When he was as sure as he could be that it was untampered, he walked over to the singular chair in the room, sat down and waited. Almost as soon as he was no longer occupied, his mind was plagued with what had happened to him only hours before, consumed by overwhelming rage and grief. He did not find peace in his solitude.
*****
The word had been given, and the pod was launched. Liam was bolted into his pod and it was exhumed from the small stealth frigate, their existence masked by the titanic rock storm slowly making its way across the world he planned on landing on.
No one had bothered him until he needed to enter the pod; a crewmember had come in and told him before quickly walking out. After that the ODST had grabbed his gear and locked himself in. A few minutes later and the plan was swiftly enacted.
As the HEV rocked violently in the storm, the clang of small rocks occasionally deafening the small enclosure, the lone occupant remained unmoving. Focused on using the thrusters to avoid the rocks that would flatten the steel coffin he was in, to dust. Thankfully, he managed to get his pod out of there without becoming a permeant fixture in the herd of massive space boulders.
The helljumper used the blanket of falling meteors to guise his pod as he entered the thick smoky black cloud layer encircling the planetoid. The ride down got significantly more difficult as the smog blocked his small window of vision and turbulence made it next to impossible for him to keep his HEV centered on its targeted destination.
But it seemed he was in the clear. No AA fair blew his pod out of the sky and no fighters where there to pick him off. Not only that, but the clouds abated somewhat and he got a decent look at his terminus.
It was not a pretty sight.
There were many factories spewing the black smoke that dominated the skies and all the buildings were squat and unpleasant. The large ocean at the coast was a dark nauseating brown and puce color, a far cry from the glimmering blue beauties covering earth. He doubted that it would be a good idea for him to breathe in the air, so he checked his suit seals and air gauge and was satisfied that he had enough time to get into the compound.
All in all, the plan was progressing smoothly.
But as in all instances, when one thought that, inevitably, fate decides to shake things up a little bit.
BANG
Something particularly large smashed into the side of his pod as it was rocketing to the surface, the most likely culprit was the asteroid storm he used as cover. But the cause didn't matter, what did was the effect. The first thing to fail was his guidance system.
The small screen pinpointing his location and telling him where to angle his pod stuttered before turning an ominous black. Soon afterwards, his left thruster went out, angling the pod sharply in the wrong direction...towards the toxic ocean. Yet, the thrill ride wasn't over; the thrusters began to putter in and out chaotically, sending the HEV spiraling haphazardly in a nonlinear direction. As he was sent hurtling into the ocean, a mile out from the sewage treatment plant he was supposed to infiltrate from, Liam muttered angrily. This was the second time in a row his pod had failed him.
"Fuck this shit." He groaned as his pod impacted the water, sending it deep into the unseen depths. His helmet rammed into the side of the HEV and he was knocked unconscious.
The Great Fox....
Krystal sat inside her bedroom, absently running a paw through her dark blue hair. It had been a few hours since Liam had left to carry out that mission. All she could think about was his betrayed expression as he turned his back on her and stepped aboard the dropship. "It's my fault." She muttered bitterly in the dark room.
Perhaps if she had handled the situation better, it would have ended much differently. She was sure that she could have convinced him to let them help. Maybe then he would have a better chance of coming out of it alive, and he would still love her.
The vixen was afraid that what she had done had permanently ruined their relationship. Even though she had washed her hands a hundred times since that fateful strike, she could still feel the scalding blood dirtying her paw. How she could have hit him, she could not fathom. She had just been so angry that he would not tell her something so important. Didn't loved ones share everything with each other? Shouldn't he have told her immediately? She had thought so with absolute certainty only a few hours ago.
But now....
Krystal sighed and fell back onto her bed, using her tail as a pillow as she rested her muzzle upon it. Soon, silent tears formed and began their merciless trek down her snout, wetting her tail. Less than a day ago, she had exactly what she desired from life, someone to love. Now, she had lost it, and she was so afraid that she would never get it, or him, back.
She could imagine what Liam was feeling at the moment, resentment, distress, and most of all sorrow. Krystal had hurt him, in many ways. Did he even love her anymore? They had been happy in the weeks before this, and every day had been the best day. Her life had reached a high point, and as all things that soar up, it went crashing down...and the landing had been monstrous.
The worst thing was that there was a very high likelihood that she would never get to reconcile with him. It was a very real possibility that this mission he was going on could very well be the death of him. She still could not believe what Miyu had told her. How could anyone expect one man to accomplish that task? Even that spartan thing she had seen in his would probably fail. So how could Liam succeed?
Suddenly, there was a soft knock on her door and a voice following after. "Hey...Krystal, can I have a word with you." The soft and kind voice could only belong to one guy.
Krystal sighed and sat up, using the tip of her tail to dry her muzzle. The vixen stood up slowly and made her way over to her door. She pressed the button and it opened to reveal Fox, standing just outside of the doorway, muzzle curved into a worried frown. "Hey Krys." He greeted weakly.
"Hi Fox." She replied, equally pathetic, shifting her furred form to allow him entrance.
The vulpine squeezed past her, turning to look at Krystal as she closed the door and looked back at him. They stood awkwardly in the silence, unsure how to begin. "It's uh....pretty dark in here." Fox mumbled.
"Yeah...." Krystal responded simply, smoothing her fur in the silence of the room.
Pressing on, Fox cleared his throat and addressed her. "Uh...I know that you are...upset right now." He said, massively understating it. "But I just wanted to come by to let you know, that we all are here for you, heck, even Falco." The orange tinted vulpine chuckled softly.
Krystal smiled softly, before it was quickly replaced by the more frequent frown. "I messed up." She mewled suddenly, emerald eye reddened by all the hot salty tears she had shed.
"I suppose you did." Fox said, walking over to wrap her up in a friendly hug. "But, as with all mistakes, you can correct it."
"I don't know about this time Fox." She stuttered in between tears, finally letting it out in front of her friend when he had hugged her.
"Shhsss." He soothed softly, softly rubbing her back and stopping her shuddering body. "Don't say that, I am certain that everything will be fine. You just have to have faith, you will see him again, and you will fix it. But until then, you have to hang on."
"I made him bleed, I cut him. How can I make that right?" She demanded hotly.
"Liam is a good man, just talk to him, tell him everything and he will understand." Fox told her, gently releasing the gloomy vixen but leaving a reassuring paw on her shoulder. "But until you can do that, come with me. I'm sure the others would be delighted to see you. And talking with them would do you good."
Fox used his paw to guide her out of her room and into the rec room. Inside, all her friends were waiting with supportive smiles and soothing voices. Even Falco managed to tone down his...Falconess. But even as they talked to her, Krystal worried about Liam and how she was going to make it up to him.
She just hoped that he was okay.
Somewhere on Venom....
"Ugghhhh." Liam groaned, shaking his helmeted head as he regained his senses. He tried to move his legs and arms, but his left arm refused to budge and he felt the distinct presence of water around his thighs. That was more effective in restoring his faculties than any amount of caffeine ever could.
His eyes shot wide open and he rapidly surveyed his environment, it was pitch black. That meant that the power was out, Liam flicked his eyes to the left and the HUD activated the VISR system, bathing the pod in a soft visible light. It appeared that he was still in the HEV, it was buckled in some places and his left arm was stuck underneath such a protrudence. Yet even with the immobilized limb, the most distressing thing was the faint trickling of water. Liam looked down and spotted brackish liquid up to his thigh plates.
That answered two bad questions for the soldier. One, he knew where he was, and two; he knew why he was stuck. His pod had slammed into the water, and the lord only knew how far he was under the waves. He had no idea how long he was out, and the pod had lost all power.
Things were not off to a great start here.
With an even louder groan, Liam tried to remove his left arm from its improvised ensnarement. But as he tried for a fourth time, he sighed and stopped, it looked like he was stuck. That's when he noticed that the foul looking water was up to his crotch.
And he was now running out of time.
Judging by the amount of time he was conscious, and the level of water buildup, he only had a few minutes to get out of this situation. But how was he going to do that? Liam tried to find anything he could use to escape, but didn't see anything useful. All he saw were the emergency bolts and....
The emergency bolts.
It was stupid, but it would work. When they fired, the front of the pod would jettison and he would be able to escape, he would also fill the rest of the compartment with water. And he was unsure whether he was too far under water to escape, or if he was even still sinking, but the sooner he acted, the better. The water already inside the pod was now approaching his abs and he was running out of time.
So with a terrible plan in place, he checked his suit seals and was gladdened to see that it had not been breached. Then he slammed five of the six mechanisms, hesitating on the final one. His life was now in the hands of the fates. With a short prayer to all the gods he could think of, his fist slammed the final device.
There was a deep boom and the pod shook, seconds later the soldier was forced into his rigging by the water rushing into fill the void and expelling the rest of the air in his HEV. With that, Liam struggled to swim out of the pod, hindered by the weight of his armor. The helljumper could barely see in the thick grimy water, and he began to sink.
With panicked breath, he fumbled around the suit for the tiny handle that he thought he would never ever have to use. When he grabbed the handle he pulled it violently.
With a rush of air, the small orange bags hidden in the armor popped out filled with air, adding buoyancy and causing him to rise. With a sigh, he leaned his head back, and waited to hit the surface. He must have been incredibly far under water, because after five minutes he still had not breached the air.
As he waited, his tracker pinged. There was a huge contact on the far reaches, a few meters to his left.
He would never admit it, but fear flooded his system, he had not considered that there might be creature inhabiting the polluted waters. Liam fumbled in his right holster and drew his magnum, rated for underwater combat. His aim was sluggish in the thicker than normal fluid, but it beat using a knife. Liam tracked the contact with the muzzle of his weapon, hoping that he would surface soon.
Once it reached the five meter mark adrenaline joined the fear in his blood. He could begin to make out a shape in the darkness...and it had way too many fins. His grip on the pistol tightened and he prepared to empty the clip. He had only one clip on standby, and would probably not get a chance to reload.
The next minute was tense as the dot on the tracker circled in an obvious predatory way, slowly inching closer with every pas. Soon he began to see detail, scales, fangs, and unforgiving black eyes. It must have been a few meters long possibly twenty five to thirty feet in length, a nasty son of a bitch.
Liam chanced a glance up and saw that he was close to the surface, seconds away from being able to see where he was. His eyes dropped down to check his target.
....And all he saw was fangs.
He felt the force of a warthog smash into his chest and he began to feel incisors scrabbling for purchase on his breastplate. The creature had closed its mouth on his chest and was shaking him like a wild dog. Its large imposing black orbs glared at him with a dark and terrible malice.
Roaring into his helmet, he slammed the muzzle of his pistol into its eye and unloaded the entire clip. With an audible growl, the creature released him and swam away leaking a dark purple substance. As he lost sight of it, he hit the surface.
He had no idea why, but he was gasping for breath when his helmet rose above the water. He quickly scanned the immediate area and was blessed to see a cliff face less than a klick away. Half ecstatic and half hysteric, he desperately paddled over to the monument of rock. As he paddled, his tracker pinged again, this time, the creature was not playing. It was zooming in, and would reach him way before he reached the cliff.
Feeling the beginnings of a heart attack, Liam took his second magnum and aimed it in the direction of the beast, unloading half the clip. The shots must have connected because the dot moved away. Sighing in relief, he turned back to paddling and made it to the cliff.
Thankfully, there were hand holes and he was able to crawl up the steep face of stone. Once he reached the top he rolled onto his back and stared up into the black polluted sky.
God how he loved it so.
"Fuck alien oceans...and fuck alien sharks." He groaned and chuckled to himself, a small hint of hysteria in his laugh.
With a groan he sat up and checked himself. His breastplate was scratched five ways to Sunday, but it would hold. He dreaded to think what would have happened if the thing had gone for his legs...he probably would not have made it out.
With his body okay, he checked his weapons. The XMRS-01 was still on his back, and his pistols were alright, but his rifle and grenades had been stripped either in the attack or crash.
All in all, he was better off than he thought.
The ODST stood up, water seeping off his form, and looked around. As he did so he booted the guidance system in his HUD up with a few blinks and a glance left. He cross checked his current position and that of the facility and was glad to see that he was not far away. He had only to walk a few klicks northwest, and he would be there.
Liam reloaded his pistols, holstered them, and drew the rifle. Mumbling a marching song in his head, be jogged through the dusky air, boots crunching as they landed on scrap and bones.
******
"Ah...here we are." Liam muttered to himself, scanning the open air compound. The sewage treatment plant was just down the rise, protected by a laser fence and what looked like a few mall cop type security guards.
Nothing an ODST couldn't handle.
The only real difficulty would be bypassing the intimidating laser fence. But there was a small post at the rear where it looked like trucks could come and go as they pleased, all that was there were two guards and one of those cross beams.
Liam closed down the bino mode for the VISR and moved to head over to the rear entrance. He was going to shoot the guards, but that might ruin the mission if they were discovered before he was done. So he was forced to take the silent approach. Basically he had to take about a half hour to crawl across the ground until he reached the gate.
The two guards, a reptile of some sort and a spider monkey, were talking near the left side. Waiting until they were both distracted, he crawled under the gate and rolled under a tank, most likely used to store....something. Whatever, he wasn't a sanitary worker.
He used the system of tanks to cross the middle of the plant, and stopped near the main building. Liam consulted the plans again and managed to make it to the back of the building. From there he spotted a grate bolted shut, he crouch walked over to it and used the butt of his rifle to break the rusted lock.
The ODST weaseled in and closed it behind him. Once he was sure that no one would stumble upon his entrance, Liam shouldered his rifle and walked down the filthy tube. "If I see one fucking mutant crocodile..." He muttered, heading into the sewage system.
It took him an hour to traverse the maze of tunnels, giving him plenty of time to think about Krystal. He wondered what she was doing at the moment. Was she happy that he was gone? Was she sad? Did she just not care either way? He didn't know. But he did miss her, he missed her smile, her wonderful laugh, the adorable ways she slept, her stunning eyes and soft fur. He missed everything about her, but she was no longer his.
She had hurt him and she had shunned him. He supposed that it was over and it was probably for the best. After all, they were different. It had been doomed from the start.
With a sigh, Liam stopped at a service ladder, which was the way into the bowels of the facility. From there, the mission would begin. Everything up to this point had been just to reach this ladder. He would probably die, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He felt that no matter what happened; some part of him would die before this was over, whether it was physical or mental, remained to be seen.
Liam slung the rifle onto his back and grabbed the ladder with his gloves, climbing up the orange rust spotted thing. Once he reached the top he grabbed the large and heavy hatch, swinging it open.
Here it all really began.