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Prodigal Son: Part 10 (beginning)
Posted By: Scott D
Date: 10 May 2004, 4:32 AM
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Part 10: Run Home Little Man
UNSC Battlecruiser Pillar of Autumn
The other SPARTAN IIs were scrutinizing him, he'd been gone from their midst for a month and a week, his absence would most certainly have been noticed. Halsey stared at him from the doorway, watching his black uniform strip from his scar covered body, stepping into the bodysuit layer of his Mark VI armor. Something had changed though, this all seemed different. "Where the hell have you been? Your recall orders were given two days ago." Someone said, a non comm., clearly not a SPARTAN.
Scott knew what they were angry about; he had been pulled by ONI three days ago after Halsey's in depth evaluation of their performances and explanation of Project MJOLNIR, the mission they were born for. He was suiting up and there was a much grimmer threat looming over, he had heard from Yu, and John was about to tell him. Halsey's footsteps clamored away from the ready room; no doubt she would be seeking the safety of the Planet's surface.
"The Covenant is in bound to the system Scott, we have less than four hours before their fleet arrives, fleet command has us locked for an exit vector." John's matter of fact by the books tone reached Scott's ears as the technicians began to fit him into the second skin of his armor's legs. It was more what he didn't say that aroused Scott's attention; this was a crucial moment in their lives. Their home was going to burn, and they were running from the fight.
"When do we leave master chief?" Scott asked, looking John square in those glassy eyes of his. He called his brother by his rank, by his title, not by his name. It was a Freudian slip, a deliberate one that John definitely didn't appreciate. John 117 looked at him then, really looking into his eyes, both seeming to question who the other was after all these years. "We know what's going to happen, John."
"It's not our place to guess Scott, we win or they die." John replied. "Suit up. Fleet command may need ground forces."
"Whenever, wherever... Master Chief." Scott looked around the room; he was being stared at by all the SPARTAN IIs and their technicians. He was the insubordinate fourteen year old boy paraded in front of them again. They all looked the same in that armor, but with their helmets off he saw the myriad of shaved heads, skin colors varying but still pale, hard eyes fixed on him. This was his family, they were born to die. His mother had born them to die in this service. John was angry, confused at what was going to happen. The burden of leadership had never shown itself in him, he had never sacrificed a soldier, and he wasn't ready to give up on Scott then. Although all the signs were there, all the warnings were present.
Three days ago
Scott left the briefing room under armed escort. The men who had chosen him from the SPARTAN IIs in the amphitheater were hardly a match for him, even unarmed. They wore black uniforms with sparse ornamentation, armed with pistols at their sides, and ONI patches on their shoulders. These men would have folded under his grasp if he had made a move on them, snapped in two as their spines broke under his lightning fast take downs. They would never have had even the five seconds necessary for them to draw their pistols, much less the extra two seconds to disengage the safeties. And yet he let them lead him away.
Scott remembered everything now, the meeting with Yu, the long hospital stay, the plugs in his head, and the nightmarish recovery. Now that he had been briefed by Halsey, he was sure Yu would tell him what his options were, all of this was to spite Halsey and her dreams. Scott wondered why he allowed these men to escort him away from them, to the waiting APC that would transport him to ONI section one's central facility. Why he led this dual life now, in spite of the obvious duplicity it prompted between him and the remainder of the SPARTAN IIs.
The ride to ONI section one's HQ was short and bumpy, inside the APC were armed guards, men and women in full combat armor and fatigues with ONI symbols on their chests and shoulders. They all eyed him warily in the APC as if each jolt would make him snap and twist their own rifles to their bellies and pull the trigger. Suspicion was part of ONI section one, Scott thought to himself, as he silenced his brain's cries for justification for this obvious betrayal of his comrades.
As the heavy steel door to the APC slid open on its heavy gauge tracks light shone on Scott again, causing him to notice the dust floating in the air of the filtered troop cabin. He left the vehicle following the path to the central doors to section one HQ, there was someone waiting for him before the shaded entryway. Scott stopped as he saw her there, fifty yards from him Kyoko Yu stood waiting patiently. The girl in white watched the tall pale skinned boy of thirty exit the armored transport, his dark short crop of hair contrasting so much with his white skin, and the hard blue eyes that were trained on her now.
They were in planet fall to Reach, to return to their home and protect the nuclear plants that powered the orbital guns. Scott held onto that thought as his hands seized the titanium bar by the seat he was strapped into. His suit read a full charge, he had a shield that might save him in the event of a crash, but he didn't put his odds of survival on the freefall scenario. How had so much of his life changed, he didn't know. Just hours ago he had been told he could change the course of the war; he could save billions of lives. All he would have to do is kill them all.
Now he and his brothers and sisters were going to protect their home. He would descend to the planet's surface as part of three squads that would dig in hard and repulse any Covenant invasion forces that would come at them. For the first time in his life he felt trepidation rattle through his body, Scott knew was fear was, but he had never listened to it before. Faced with what he would have done, what he had been prepared to do but mere hours ago, he was disgusted with himself. He couldn't tell his mind to sleep now, he was entering a combat zone, and he had to face what he was becoming. The guilt was eroding his senses.
"Look alive Spartans!" the call came through his comm. link, it was Jacob, squad leader for this op. Acknowledgement lights winked on in his HUD, Scott signaled his own to the others.
As he looked around the feelings of remorse seemed to dissipate, his natural instincts were coming around again, pushing away his conscious analysis of his actions. This was a hot drop, there would be more contacts that he had ever seen, but they had the advantage for the moment, Marine armored divisions would certainly be present, and coupled with SPARTAN recon and tactics they would devastate their foes.
As much as he hated himself for what he had done, Scott hated the Covenant more. He would have hated the human rebel forces that he had been trained to combat just as much, but the Covenant had come then, had become his foe. And Scott would relish in their destruction as he had been born to do. The Pelican jolted up and down, plasma flares signaled enemy aircraft were drawing closer. Scott looked around and suddenly knew exactly who he was, and why he was there. 079 cocked his heavy assault rifle and toggled slammed the dual clip into place.
Kyoko watched as the older solder walked next to her, she didn't know why she had been asked to give him the data cube by her father, but she did it anyway. She loved her father, despite his failings, despite the horrible divorce that had split her family up and sent her mother and sisters to Earth on his pension. Vice Admiral Adrian Yu was the man who had taught her to speak, helped her with her homework, and been the watchful glowing eyes that had beamed with pride when she received her diploma. Her father would always be there for her, regardless of what her mother claimed he was obsessed with. She had not faltered even a second when he asked her to deliver a package to a special forces operative, she was all he had, how could she let him down.
The boy she was to meet was hardly a boy at all; clearly older than her and almost two feet taller than her he was a giant. His uniform was simple with very few indicators of rank or combat experience, but she instantly he was more than just a special ops agent. The pale skin and the hard eyes made her uncomfortable, almost as much as noticing the small hints of scars on his hands and neck that his uniform strained to conceal. She gave him the data cube and the manila envelope that bulged at its closed end. Kyoko wondered why her father had not been able to come to this meeting.
The boy was named Scott, she noted his politeness, an almost too rigorous attention to detail and formality as he held the door for her and walked precisely on pace with her. Kyoko watched as he opened the envelope and withdrew the mini-projector, she brought him to her office near the ecology wing of the section one building. The boy sat and watched the projection play a message for him, her father speaking to him, she wondered if she was supposed to know that much about the war he was fighting. The projection played and the boy put his hands on his head in frustration. Kyoko Adrienne Yu learned the truth of the boy, the SPARTAN soldier that sat before her. He held his head as her father told him of his birth family, and the life he had had as a small boy on Earth.
Scott stood with the others as the Pelican took the last plasma blast it could stand, blue fire washing over the bow of the transport and causing the fore-cabin to explode. His squad was Yellow squad, they were to secure and protect the fusion reactor located near ONI HQ's personnel housing. The area they would protect was the size of a small city, marine reinforcements were scattered and in need of leadership, a guerrilla defense of the reactor would be easily achieved with divergent raiding parties engaging the Covenant in the maze of dormitories and barracks. Scott didn't care right then about where he was from, who he had killed, or where he would go. At that point he was ready for death.
"Blow the hatch! Yellow squad signal in and get ready to pop chutes!" Jacob shouted to them. They had equipment crate parachutes attached to their armor, a last minute invention by Errol as they had loaded up into the Pelicans on The Pillar of Autumn. They were too close to the ground as the rear hatch's explosive bolts blew the titanium door off of the craft, but they still jumped and let their chutes unfurl. Scott felt his body lurch upward as his parachute caught his weight and slowed his descent. Below them Covenant plasma bolts were arcing into the air, streams of purple energy racing by them.
A blast signed the air by his face and suddenly he was dropping rapidly again, his chute incinerated in the air. Damage indicators were flaring on his HUD, messages from his squad of Spartans being slaughtered while hanging in the air. He was falling far too fast to tell where he was, the ground was a building beneath him. He felt an impact, as a foyer's skylight splintered around him and he fell five stories to the ground. His visor flared gold as his energy shield raced to compensate for his fall. Scott blacked out on the floor as shards of glass rained down upon him.
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