Rachel-035

CHAPTER ONE=======================================




1430 Hours (Earth Time), October 6, 2552 (Military Calendar) Aboard UNSC Vessel Judicator, Sol System, Orbit Above Earth.

The bridge was chaos, three more Covenant Supercarriers had just entered the system, adding to the already massive fleet already engaged. Spartan Rachel-035 stood, in her massive MJOLNIR armor, at the front of the bridge next to Capitan Tobias.
“Sir you requested my presence?”
“Yes, we have received word from UNSC Command that there is something on earth that the Covenant want, they want it bad. I’m sending you to stop them.”
“Sir, I don’t know if I will make much difference against a whole covenant armada.”
“I have faith in you soldier.”
“Sir! I won‘t fail you.”
“Don’t do it for me, do it for humanity.”
“Yes sir.” Rachel thought she saw the air flicker for a second, but when she looked again it was gone.

Rachel left the bridge and promptly headed to the weapon locker. She decided that she should go in heavy, she didn’t know if she would have a chance to restock. She grabbed her trusty MA5B rifle, a handful of clips for it. She hefted an M 19 SSM Rocket Launcher, snickering at the thought of blowing the limbs off a few Covenant. She got her hands on a MD6 pistol, its 12.7mm semi-armor piercing high explosive rounds were effective at all ranges, which made it an excellent choice for this mission. Ammunition for the pistol, a full 6 grenade ring clip, a few cans of C-7 explosive, and a couple of LOTUS anti-tank mines finished her armament.
As Rachel was leaving the armory, a shudder ran through the ship. “All forces prepare for Covenant boarding. Sections 4, 5, and 6 have been overrun.” Rachel pulled a copy of the ships schematics up on her HUD. She was currently in section 14, the launch bay was in section 2, and she needed to get there as soon as possible. She sprinted down several corridors, until she came upon a pitched battle in a mess hall. Three Elites and a handful of grunts were slowly advancing towards a group of marines who were desperately trying to hold them off.
Rachel tossed a grenade into the middle of their formation. The elites were fast enough to avoid the blast, but the grunts were caught right in the middle of it. They were torn to shreds as the grenade detonated. Blue alien blood spattered all over the room. The marines cheered shortly, until they realized that there were still three Elites in the room. The elites growled in anger as they were cut down by the combined fire from Rachel’s rifle and the marine’s barrage of bullets. Rachel left the marines to their duties, and continued to the launch bay.
She made it to the launch bay without any serious conflict. There was a Pelican dropship waiting for her there. “The Capitan wants you off the ship ASAP ma’am. The ship is fueled and ready to go.”
“Let’s not waste any time then.” The pilot dropped the ship into the planet’s atmosphere and they were on their way to the surface.

“She’s gone, are you happy you bastard?” Tobias spat into the air.
Mogomo Furooti deactivated his cloaking device. “You gave her the correct location human?”
“Yes damnit I did.”
“Good, you of course know that you are useless to us now.”
“But you said….” Tobias’s speech was cut off along with his head. Mogomo closed down the energy sword and activated his cloaking device again. He chuckled to himself as he left the bridge. Soon the human disease would be exterminated from the galaxy, and he would claim all the glory for himself.

The dropship touched down on the outskirts of a seemingly abandoned town. Rachel thought this odd, seeing as Earth was the most densely populated planet in UNSC space. The dropship lifted off and moved hastily back to the ship. She saw a small shape run between two buildings. She swung her rifle into position, but there was no more movement. She warily moved towards the building that the shape went into. The inside of the building was almost hollow, as Rachel moved inside her enhanced hearing picked up sounds from everywhere. Suddenly the door behind her slammed shut and lights turned on inside the building. She instantly knew that it was a trap. She was surrounded on all sides by Grunts, Jackals, and a handful of Elites. An Elite in black armor strode forward. It spoke in its own language, but the translation software in Rachel’s armor allowed her to hear him.
“Drop your weapon and surrender to us, and we might spare your life.”
“I’m sorry that I can’t comply with your request.” She said brightly.
“I thought that you might say that.” He replied with a grim smirk.
He brought his weapon up, as did every other alien in the room. “I suggest you surrender while you still can.”
The lone Spartan looked around desperately trying to decide how to deal with the aliens around her.

CHAPTER TWO=======================================




0630 Hours, July 22, 2523 (Military Calendar) Epsilon Eridani system, planet Reach, Spartan training Exercise. Twenty-nine years ago.

Rachel and the other Spartans stood at attention as CPO Mendez strolled in front of them. “Your mission today recruits, is to retrieve the flag at the other end of the obstacle course. You will take turns attempting to recover it. The recruit with the slowest time or any recruit KIA will have to run back to base. Rachel wasn’t especially nervous or bored, she was content. She knew that the obstacle course wasn’t any normal one. It was a two mile long battlefield. Mendez usually had many surprises hidden along the way. “117 you are up first. Good luck.” John stepped forward accepted his rifle, and sprinted off into the course. Seven minutes later he was back with flag in hand. “Piece of cake.”
“035, you’re next.”
Rachel accepted her rifle, she checked the ammo indicator, sixty tranc darts. No extra clips, so she would have to conserve ammo. She turned and sprinted into the course. A short run to the first obstacle, a thirty foot wall. Normally challenges weren’t this easy so she was cautious as she jogged up to it. There didn’t seem to be any obvious dangers around, so she backed up about a hundred feet and sprinted straight towards the wall. When she got close to it, she jumped onto the wall, allowing her momentum to hold her to the wall as she ran up it. As she got to the top she stopped. Down below her were three marines with assault rifles aimed right at her. She jumped backwards and grabbed onto the edge of the wall with her free hand as bullets bit into the wood around her. The marines ran around the wall to get a better shot at her, and were greeted by a hail of tranc darts from above. Content that there were no other threats in the vicinity, Rachel moved on. As she moved further through the course she heard a voice yell “Hold your position and drop your weapon!”
Rachel looked around and saw that a group of at least fifteen marines from Tango Company were moving into a circle around her. Tango Company has faced the Spartans on several occasions, and were pretty tired of loosing. That meant that they weren’t going to play fair. She dropped her weapon and stepped away from it. “Damn Section Three kids, you never learn do you?” One of the marines moved over with a zip-tie to restrain Rachel. “Touch me, with that” she gestured to the zip-tie “and I will attach your tongue to your ankles with it.”
The marine laughed and grabbed Rachel’s arm. She pulled her arm back swiftly and whipped the marine’s arm around into the hammerlock position. She herd a wet pop as the marine’s shoulder dislocated. She then threw the injured marine at his comrades in front of her, then spun around with a roundhouse that connected solidly with two more marine’s faces. They dropped like rocks.

The other Spartans and CPO Mendez waited for Rachel at the finish line. CPO Mendez looked at his watch, it read 8:54. “Where in the hell is that girl?”
As if on queue Rachel sprinted around the last corner and dove across the finish line. “Finished sir!”
“What took you so long soldier?”
“Sir I was ambushed by a group of Tango Company’s men sir!”
“How many?”
“Sir there were at least fifteen sir!”
“Fifteen! How the hell did you…” His voice trailed off as a medical jeep pulled up to the group. A medic jumped out of the driver’s seat. “Explain yourself!” Mendez said to the medic.
“Sir I found a group of wounded men out on the course. Some of them are pretty bad, and one has his tongue attached to his ankles with a zip-tie sir.” Rachel and the other kids giggled.
“Well, don’t waste any time, get them to the hospital.”
“Sir!”
The medic snapped off a quick salute before jumping back into the jeep and speeding off down the dirt road. Mendez looked at Rachel, then back at the jeep fading into the distance then shook his head. That day she found her calling. She didn’t have superior aim like Linda, nor blinding speed like Kelly, not even extremely good luck like John, but as she found out no one could match her in unarmed combat, no one.

Chapter Three

1445 Hours (Earth Time), October 6, 2552 (Military Calendar) , Sol System, Planet Earth.
Deployment +00:15:00 (Spartan-035 Mission Clock)

Rachel stood there, surrounded an all sides be covenant warriors. The black clad elite strolled up to her, kicking away her weapons and taking her equipment. She glared at him through her visor. “You will follow us!” The elite spat.
Rachel knew what was coming next, she could feel her adrenaline spike. Time perceivably slowed, they called it “Spartan Time”, the impulses in her nerves moved so quickly that time seemed to slow down. She leapt into the air, arching her back so at the apex of the jump her foot flung upwards into the chin of the elite. Her already enhanced strength, multiplied by her MJOLNIR armor, was sufficient to totally shatter his skull. The ex-Elite flew back to smash into a handful of his comrades. The remaining aliens opened fire, but Rachel was already diving sideways into a roll that brought her to the feet of a pair of Jackals hiding behind their energy shields. As she rose she delivered a savage uppercut to one of them, and followed through with a bone-crushing side kick to the other. Both aliens dropped and lay still. “COVER!” a human voice yelled from somewhere behind her. Rachel dove under a sturdy looking stair case, just as a trio of rockets flew into the group of covenant that were prepared to ice her. Purple alien blood and body parts flew everywhere. There were still a few lucky grunts left, which quickly became unlucky as a group of marines tore them to shreds with their battle rifles. “Sir are you alright?” came a gruff voice from the group.
“That’s Ma’am marine, and I’m fine.”
“Sorry, Ma’am, Gunnery Sergeant Johns reporting for duty!” Sergeant Johns and his men all snapped off crisp salutes.
Rachel returned the salute and said, “Report sergeant”
“Ma’am most of the city has been overrun by the covenant, there are a few pockets of resistance still fighting, but without reinforcements this city is toast.”
“I am your reinforcement’s sergeant.”
“Ma’am?”
“You heard me Marine, gather your equipment, we’re moving out.”
“You heard the lady marines, LETS MOVE!”
The marines gathered up spare weapons from the slain covenant and moved out of the building. Stepping outside, Rachel surveyed the destruction. It seemed like half the city was in ruins, fires burned in every sector of the city. But that wasn’t what worried Rachel, hovering above the city was a massive Covenant cruiser. A purple hued grav-beam connected the cruiser to the surface. Johns walked up beside Rachel and let out a long, sighing expletive. “It’s a mess down there ma’am, if you don’t mind me asking, where are we going?”
“First Sergeant, we are going to board that cruiser, second, we are going to stop the covenant from destroying our home, third, we are going to follow them back home and destroy every last one of them.”
“Sounds like a plan Ma’am”
Rachel and the marines moved down towards the city proper, looking to kill.

Mogomo Furooti stood uneasily in front of the display, watching the massacre of his ambush party. He turned to one of his officer and said in an enraged tone, “Why was this human allowed to escape? You had plenty of supplies and personnel!”
“There were more than one human! You said there would only be the one!”
“Well I was wrong I…” Mogomo halted in mid sentence as a message alert beeped on his console. He touched the holographic display, and the head of the Prophet Truth sprang from the display. Mogomo and his inferior both dropped to their knees in front of the hologram. Mogomo spoke in a reverent tone “ Lord, I thought that you were surveying one of the sacred rings, I had no idea that you would be returning this quickly. Had I known, the proper arrangements would have been made.” Mogomo pulled up a display of the Prophet’s ship.
“Fear not your unprepared ness, I need no accommodations now. I have come to blow forth the divine wind that will carry us on the Great Journey. I am sending an envoy to your ship to assume command.”
“But lord, I don’t think that.”
“It matters not what you think! The Elites have proven a hindrance to the Great Journey, your kind cannot be allowed to have such a high level of command if you cannot carry out your duties. This whole planet would have been conquered by now, if not for your incompetence.”
The specs for the Prophet’s ship came up on the display. It was like no other ship Mogomo had ever seen, it was slender and sleek. It was not of Covenant origin, it reminded Mogomo of the holos he had seen of the buildings on Halo.
“Very well, we will await your envoy.”
“How very good of you, he will be with you shortly.”
The hologram shut down as the link closed. Mogomo’s inferior officer turned to him. “Will you allow this to happen to us?”
“Of course not, out ‘Lord’ is sending one of his Brutes to take over for us. We will allow him to think that he is in command while it is convenient for us, then we will take back what is rightfully ours.
“Yes, we will, we will”