Chapter 3

UCDF Say My Name

Drop Team 5 Squad Bay

 

                “Hey Gunny should I take a shotgun or sub machine gun?” said Corporal Henry.

            “I would go with the sub. You can get more rounds down range at a quicker rate compared to the shotgun.” Responded Torres as he finished packing his gear in to his pack and putting on his armor.

            “Officer on deck!” yelled Private Vargas snapping to attention as Lieutenant Jackson walked in. Everyone dropped what they were doing and snapped to attention as well.

            “At ease men, we leave in five. Is everyone good to go?” Jackson said slamming a magazine into his MR6 assault rifle.

            “Locked and loaded.” They all responded.

            “Let’s do this then. Everyone get to the Specter.” He said walking towards the hangar doors.

            The Specter Drop ship was already engines hot and ready to go. Chloe would be the pilot for this one. As they all loaded on and stowed their gear in the racks Jackson looked back and saw Kate watching them. He put on his helmet and activated the visor then gave her a quick salute, which she promptly returned.

            “Good Luck out there. And Jackson I am very sorry for earlier, please forgive me.” Kate said over his personal comms.

            “Thanks.” Jackson returned then stepped into the cargo bay of the drop ship and closed the bay doors as the ship began to take off.

            The Spectre slowly began to gain speed; it would take the team five minutes to get to the hangar of the Promethean ship at top speed. The faster the ship went the louder it got in the cargo bay where the marines of Drop Team 5 waited. They sat in silence checking and re-check their gear; they also checked and rechecked the air tight seals on the suit so they can survive without life support. Each one knew what their job was once the bay doors opened. No one had any idea what to expect, but no matter what lay ahead the men of Drop Team 5 would be ready to take on any threat with ferocity.

            Sergeant Vargas was sharpening her knife in the corner. She was the silent on in the team. She had gotten into a fist fight with one of the larger Prometheans and was hit in the throat and lost her voice permanently. The final member of the team was Corporal Thornton; she is the teams’ resident expert on everything from close quarters to long distance sniping. She always had a set of throwing knives made out of the hardest material she could get her hands on. Jackson knew she would come in handy if a firefight broke out in the ship.

            “Two minutes to insertion.” Chloe said over the comms.

            They all shared eye contact and stood up and checked their equipment one last time before the doors opened. They did a quick comm check and a heads up display check. The first half of the op they would be completely silent. They would communicate through the acknowledgement lights on their heads up display. When they checks were complete they held a thumbs up to let Jackson know they were good to go. Corporal Thornton would be taking point.

            “30 seconds, scans show the hangar is clear of all hostiles. There are a total of four entrances two in front one on each flank.” Chloe said.

            Jackson walked back to the cockpit and pulled Chloe from her slot in the ships computer and inserted her in the back of his head. Jackson checked his motion tracker as the ship entered the hangar bay and landed. As soon as the ship touched down the cargo bay doors opened and the marines stepped out without making a sound a began sweeping the hangar with their rifles as well as their motion tracker. On Jackson’s heads up display six acknowledgement lights wicked on indicated the hangar and been cleared.

            “Hangar bays clear moving to the ships bridge.” Jackson said over the comms to Lieutenant Martinez of Drop Team 3 who just inserted as well on the opposite side of the ship.

            “Roger that.” Returned Martinez.

            “Put me in that terminal on the wall over there, I could probably get the ships floor plans and make it easier for us to navigate the ship.” Chloe said.

            Jackson made his way to the terminal and put Chloe in; as he waited he took in the ships hangar and its features. The hangar was very large and the light was a shade of dark blue and teal with a very metallic and reflective look to it giving the room and eerie feel to it. He continued to look around the room and observing what his team was doing. On the ship they were a laid back funny group but on the field they lost that and became professional killers. Four of the marines put themselves guarding the doors the other two were looking for anything useful in the hangar bay itself. There wasn’t much in the hangar except for a pod of the plasma missiles the Prometheans used in their fighters. Torres and Young had picked up one of the missiles and put it in the drop ship to take back to the Say My Name for study by the eggheads. They would go to town on something like that; no one has ever been able to take one.

            “Ok I got the ships floor plan I am uploading it to all of your heads up displays. Thornton we will be going through your door, it’s the quickest way to the bridge. You can take me out Jackson; I got all the Intel we need to get the bridge and a bit more.” Chloe said over the team comm system.

            “Hangar bay clear.” Lieutenant Martinez said

            “Roger that.” Jackson returned

            The team stacked up on the door where Thornton was waiting to open it. When they were stacked and ready Torres gave the signal to open it, Thornton was on point again. The door opened without making a sound and Thornton entered and began clearing the corridor as the rest of the team fell in behind her in single file and then proceed down to the next to door. Chloe had set up Nav Points to let the team know where to go. The next Nav Point was at an elevator at the end of the corridor. They slowly made their way to the elevator, they had to stop at every intersection and make sure it was clear before proceeding. The door to the elevator was locked from the other side; forcing the team to find an alternate route. Chloe locked on to an air duct that they could use to get on top of the elevator and climb the shaft. Jackson signaled for Torres to use a plasma cutter to cut through the grates covering the air duct. The team was still on operational silence until they got to the bridge. According to their motion tracker it was another 300 meters to the bridge. The air duct was surprisingly large; it was able to fit all of the marines comfortably. As they progressed through the air ducts their motion trackers began to ping signaling that an enemy was nearby. When the ping began to grow louder they all stopped dead in their tracks remaining dead silent keeping an eye on the motion tracker looking for anything that might say they have been compromised.

            “The corridors camera feed isn’t showing anything, I think whatever it was that was there has moved on, I suggest we get going before whoever that was finds the ship in the hangar.” Chloe said over the team comms.

            With that Thornton began leading them through the air ducts working towards the Nav Point that would lead them into the elevator shaft. When they got to the grate covering the exit Thornton simply kicked it out then jumped onto the top of the elevator and did a quick sweep with her MR6. When she was finished she gave the all clear for the rest of the team to join her on the top of the elevator. They quickly hooked themselves into their lines and shot the hook up and began scaling the wall to the next level up. Young was the first to reach the door, when he got there he activated the door and the door slowly opened and stepped into the corridor and cleared the surrounding area so his team could safely enter the corridor.

            “Turn left at this next intersection and then proceed down for about 100 meters and you’re at the door to the bridge.” Chloe said once the entire team was in the corridor.

            Young was going to be taking point.

            “We have encountered lots of resistance at the armory.” Lieutenant Martinez said throughout the teams comms.

            “Roger that.” Jackson said looking for any noticeable change in his marines.

            Young turned the corner and had taken two steps before a cloaked Promethean shoved his plasma sword through Young’s chest picking him a foot off the ground and then rounded the corner and de-cloaked itself and then through Young’s lifeless corpse at Thornton. Vargas was the first to react she immediately pulled out her shotgun and tackled the seven foot tall Promethean, decked out in black armor that covered it’s entire body, to the ground and shot it in the head at pointblank range, blowing the head into a blue mist. Before anyone else could react another Promethean had punched Vargas down the hallway into two Promethean Minors. Vargas made quick work of one of the Minors but was not quick enough with the second. The second Minor had drawn its rifle and sent hot plasma bolts through Vargas’ head and chest, killing her instantly. By that time Thornton and thrown one of her throwing knives at the Promethean who hit Vargas square in the face knocking it to the ground, the she proceeded to shot four rounds of her pistol into its head as well. All hell had broken loose in 20 short seconds Jackson was already down two men and essentially cornered with their backs against an elevator. Before Jackson could give the order Torres was already unleashing a hail of bullets down the corridor where a majority of the Prometheans were at. With Torres providing suppressing fire the rest of the team began to sprint for the bridge, once they were clear of the fire he threw an M62 fragmentation grenade down the corridor and ran to join up with his team. At the door to the Bridge Kerby was planting an explosive charge to enter the bridge. Once the charge was set the stepped back and detonated it and ran into the bridge shooting all the unsuspecting Promethean Minors in the head with short controlled bursts.

            “Bridge clear, five minutes until we extract.” Jackson said over the comms to Martinez.

“Roger that, armory cleared moving to extract.” Martinez responded

“Roger.” Jackson said.

            “Son of a b***h, Young was our Promethean tech guy.” Thornton said reloading her pistol and wiping off her throwing knife she had retrieved from the skull of a Promethean.

            “You are forgetting you have an AI with you Thornton, Jackson plug me into that mainframe over there I’ll gather all the intel we need in a shorter time.” Chloe said.

            “Torres, Henry post up on that door make sure no one comes up behind us.” Jackson said walking over to the mainframe.

            “Roger that sir.” Both responded as they posted by the door rifles ready.

            “This will take about two minutes Jackson.” Chloe said.

            “Can you go any quicker, we are running out of time?” Thornton responded.

            “I’m going as fast as I can Corporal. There is a lot here to absorb.”

            “Kerby grab some of those weapons from the Minors to take back to the Say My Name.” Jackson said firing a round into the skull of one of the Minors who appeared to still have some life in it.

            Torres and Henry were engaging a group of Minors trying to retake the bridge with no luck. The first minute felt like a life time, the bodies of the Minors kept piling up and they were getting closer and closer every time. As Henry's’ magazine hit zero he was shot in the chest by a plasma rifle, knocking him back. Thornton immediately took his place at the door and continued firing while Kerby dragged him back to see if there was anything she could do.

            “D****t. Why the hell do we have medics if there is absolutely nothing you can do?” Kerby yelled grabbing Henry's’ dog tags and assault rifle.

            “Jackson I have the intel we can get going, there is an air vent we can use to get back to the hangar bay and get off this ship. I also disabled the shields, weapons and engines, making this an easy target for the Say My Name.” Chloe said.

            “Roger that, alright guys let’s get the hell out of here.” Jackson yelled kicking in the grate over the air duct and went in.

            Torres was next to get in, followed by Thornton then Kerby. As Kerby was turning to step into the duct a group of Prometheans came through the door and shot her in the back. The round went clean through the right side of her chest.

            “Kerby is hit.” Yelled Thornton as she tried to go back and grab Kerby.

            “Leave me, you guys are going to need some cover if you are going to make it back to the hangar.” Kerby said as she pulled the pins of her grenades, stood up and ran towards the group of Prometheans that just entered the bridge.

            “Come on there is nothing you can do.” Torres yelled grabbing Thornton and bringing her further into the duct as Kerby’s grenades detonated.

            “It’s only 200 meters from here to the hangar.” Chloe said.

            They all started running as fast as they could through the air ducts to get to the Specter sitting in the hangar before more Prometheans showed up.

            “What happened too little to no resistance lieutenant?” Torres said.

            “Stow it Gunny.” Jackson yelled back as he rammed into the grate covering the opening to the hangar.

            “Quick get to the drop ship.” Jackson yelled running to the drop ship to get the engines started.

            The remaining members of Drop Team 5 climbed aboard and shut the bay doors. Only one hour ago Drop Team 5 had seven members and within the time span of ten minutes they lost half their strength. As they left the Promethean ship they looked out the left view ports and saw several hundred Promethean ships jump out of hyperspace. At the moment their radios blew up with chatter saying that the Prometheans found Ares and Zero Hour has begun. As the Promethean ships kept coming out of hyperspace they locked on to the Grafton and fired one shot destroying the frigate and leaving almost nothing.        

            “This is the UCDF Say My Name, we have been engaged by a large Promethean fleet. We are taking heavy damage, we are pulling back to regroup with the rest of the fleet in orbit around Ares.” Kate said over the fleet wide comms.

            “Jackson you better get your a*s back here in les then 30 seconds or we will have to leave you, we can’t sustain any more damage.” Kate said in the teams’ comms.

            “Roger that, we are in.” Jackson said.

            “How many do you have aboard?” Kate asked.

            “Three.” Jackson said with a pause.

            “I’m sorry William.” Kate said.

            “Right now our focus should be getting back to Ares and get on the ground to set up defenses before the Prometheans reach the ground.” Jackson said.

            “On our way now.” Kate responded then turned the comms off.

            “That is the largest fleet I have ever seen.” Thornton said still gazing in awe out the view ports.

            “May God help us all.” Torres said walking over to the other view ports.

Author's Note

Let me know if you think I should finish this and if you think it needs some adjustments before I go any further.