Redoubt Recon

[Marauder-1259]

John cruised along the midnight road, the trees waving softly in the wind as the warthog bounced along the dirt path. He had brought Lucy along with him on the routine recon mission. They had left just a few minutes ago, and John had left his sister in charge of monitoring the long range scanners. She would contact them if any slipspace ruptures were detected, though John doubted it. There was no reason as far as he could see that the covenant would hit this remote colony, unless they wanted to take out the UNSC's eyes.

He pulled his helmet off and stuck it in-between the seats, preferring to feel the wind in his hair as they cruised along the path he had learned by heart. He looked over to Lucy, and decided now was as good a time as any to try and get to know her. "So, Lucy... I have to ask... Who did you piss off to get shipped off to this rock?"

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy wasn't too pleased with being a passenger, driving the Hog and other vehicles was her specialty. Johnathan wasn't exactly showing his years of training in his driving, the Hog didn't have to bounce over every bump and hole if driven properly. The reason for being a passenger was that she wasn't used to the landscape of Redoubt, but it was like most of the UNSC outposts, rocky. The one difference was the horizon, locked permanently with the sun hanging just over the edge. And if it wasn't hanging there, you'd find yourself freezing or burning up if you didn't have the correct equipment.

She glanced to the side at Johnathan as he removed his helmet, she had noticed his attachment to his A.I when she arrived, it was proof that the man was quite mentally troubled. "So, Lucy... I have to ask... Who did you piss off to get shipped off to this rock?" he asked, was the man so bored that he had to make small talk?

She followed his lead and took off her helmet, it wasn't like she was expecting to get attacked on this rock "I didn't piss off anyone, I drew the short straw. Redoubt needed reinforcements and I came. One problem is that we were called because of Covenant forces, and I haven't seen one Covenant anywhere. The most Covenant thing here is my Type-51... I'm beginning to think someone falsified reports... So what are we actually looking for out here? Don't you have any Wombats to do this job out here in the backwater?" she finished with a sigh, Recon wasn't her thing. Patrolling wasn't her thing. She wanted to be back in the action, driving Grizzlys and Falcons, even if it was mostly simulated action.

[Marauder-1259]

John actually felt a little bad for sending in the false report. Sure he was bored out of his mind, but it wasn't fair of him to have others submitted to the same torment he was going through. Maybe when they got back to base he'd send in a false alarm report. But for now he'd savor the company while it lasted.

"No. . . no wombats. Its exactly what you said it is - backwater. Most of the main military armament is located in the city. This is just an observation post. As for what we're looking for, just anything out of the ordinary. Its a worthless recon run that command lists as standard protocol. If we don't do it, they'll know. I've already been chewed out twice for skimping on it."

He turned a corner, drifting around the dirt road and straightening the hog back as if it were second nature. "My worry is that someone knows something we don't. Both the city and the other recon post received reinforcements as well, according to this stations sensors. We haven't had any activity here, but I'll have Minerva patch into the other station when we get back and see if they've had any blips."

He slowed down, worried that something was wrong, and looked around, wondering what had just gave him the feeling he was being watched. He hated that feeling, and he rested his other hand on his rifle, scanning the treeline as they crept along.

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy tutted as he said there were no Wombats, the UNSC were skimping on their arming of outposts again, it was her opinion that each outpost should have at least one Wombat, the ability to provide unmanned aerial surveillance was something that was sorely needed on the border of Loyalist space. Also a Scorpion or two wouldn't hurt...

"What? You think theres some information we aren't getting? Maybe the brass thinks the Covenant are gearing for war again. Although I wasn't told about their worries during briefing." Lucy carried on as she had along the way, lounging in the warthog seat with one arm holding onto the roll cage. She did however bring the arm down when he began to slow down, SPARTANs tended to know when they were being watched... But Lucy wasn't feeling any presence other than John, she scanned the tree line, but she couldn't see anything.

She brought her tacpad to her face and looked at its screen, she tried to open the channel to the Observation center and John's A.I but it left her frowning when it merely scrambled. Something was jamming the communication equipment. She jammed her helmet back on, the command module freshly linked to her armour didn't help boost the signal at all. "You should put your helmet back on... Something jamming us..." she said as quietly as she could, although she knew that in all probabilities whatever was following them could hear her. She stood up on her seat and climbed out onto the back of the Warthog and began to man the M41 LAAG. "Get us back as quick as you can.". She began to scan the tree lines on both sides with the LAAG, not only the bottoms, but the tops, expecting Jackals.

[Marauder-1259]

John quickly grabbed his helmet and shoved it back on his head, flooring the gas pedal and gripping the steering wheel quietly. He kept the hog steady as Lucy climbed onto the gun. He tried to contact the observation station as well, but it was futile. Something had indeed jammed their comms. He drove the hog down a large hill, and gulped as the engine cut out and the HUD on his helmet fizzled. The warthog came to a stop in a stream, and John tried starting the warthog back up, but to no avail.

"Son of a. . . What the hell hit us?" he said, turning on is motion tracker and grabbing his rifle. He couldn't see anything on his scanners, heat sigs, and the motion tracker was blank, other then Lucy. He looked out into the night, deciding to try starting up the warthog again. Still, the starter wasn't even turning over, and they were pretty much just sitting ducks. "See anything?"

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy jolted forwards as the Warthog came to a rather abrupt stop in a stream, she slammed into the gun, it took her a second to shake off the crash. Her HUD was struggling to work and Sonya was working hard to control it. Sonya's charming clear voice sounded out. "There is no reason why everything should cut out like this. Whatever it is it seems to be keeping everything knocked out. You're lucky the MJOLNIR have a fail safe for this. Scrambled HUDs should be the only major side affect."

"Only side effect, apart from jammed comms and a busted Hog." Lucy added, the entire time she had been scanning the area, nothing she had could pick up anything. "Nothing physical hit the Hog... Nothing at all out there... But we won't be alone for long I bet..." she jumped down off the gun, followed by a splash as she landed in the stream. "I'm not going to sit here for whatever is out there to pounce on us. Which way is base from here? We'll get abit more knowledge when we get back, have some real tech behind us." she gripped her DMR in her hands, if she was going to get attacked she'd be prepared with a bullet for every attacker.

[Marauder-1259]

"The road circles back around either way, or we could cut straight north through the forest. Doesn't matter which way we go, we could be walking straight into whatever fried the hogs systems. Directed EMP blast maybe?" he guessed absently as he hoped out of the hog, splashing into the running water. He pulled his rifle out of the hog and flipped off the safety, using the scope to try and see if their was anything out there.

"Hey Sonya, can you do anything about my radar? It's showing Lucy as a hostile and has random blips popping up constantly." He swung the tip of his rifle through the air just a foot in front of him where the HUD showed a hostile to be, and his suspicions were confirmed when the barrel hit nothing that the system was haywire.

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

"The malfunctioning of your radar isn't an internal problem Johnathan, it is external." said Sonya, as Lucy too looked in the directions of the blips. The radar was filling with blips, John too was giving off as a hostile. Sonya suddenly perked up again as Lucy began to look into the air, incase there was a crowd of Drones descending on them, unlikely as it was, "No directed electromagnetic pulse was picked up on any systems. It seems as if you passed through the electromagnetic pulse. The covenant sometimes employ electromagnetic shielding, but it is usually visible to various natural and artificial sensors."

Lucy looked down into the stream, there were no fish visible, or rocks protruding from the water, but several times she heard a slight splash... "Radar jammers..." Lucy mumbled to herself... "Active camoflage." Sonya replied. To which Lucy, while telling John that "We've attracted attention." raised her DMR to the next splash and quickly shot four bullets in the direction.

The shots hit a target, the form of a Brute Stalker becoming more visible as each shot hit the target, its energy shield deflected the majority of the bullets, but on the fourth impact the shield gave way. The Brute roared in anger, Lucy silencing it with another shot to the head. Several shots could be heard as the Brute hit the stream. The distinctive sound of a chorus of Spiker Rifles.

[Marauder-1259]

John dived to the side as the sound of Spiker Rifles sounded, narrowly avoiding a group that embed themselves into the chassis of the hog. As he rolled to his knees, he brought his MA5K to his shoulder and let off a few bursts of rounds, most of which found their marks in the torso of another brute stalker. He looked around for another target, and found a small shimmer of red light. He shot at the light as it began to move in an upward arc, and John grinned as a bullet connected with the firebomb grenade, detonating it in the stalkers hand.

He tried flipping on his IFF outline system, but still had no luck. The EMP, however it had been used, was still messing up his system. He tried flipping on his own camouflage, but it had been knocked out as well. He noticed a splash in front of him, and ducked to the side, just s a brutes armor shimmered and he could make out the blade end of the Spiker winging where he had been seconds ago.

He spun out of the way of another swipe from the brute, and swung his rifle around, turning it so its butt slammed into the brutes face. He rammed it into the brutes face twice more, then flipped his rifle back around and put the rest of his clip into the brute.

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy dropped behind the Hog as the spikers fired, however she was caught out for the majority of it, several spikes bouncing off or shattering on her shields. She crouched against the momentary cover as her shield warning bleeped in her helmet. She got up a couple of seconds after, her shields slightly recovered from the opening shots. Almost immediately as she got up a Brute began shooting at her, its active camo giving way as it fired the Spiker Rifle frantically. She rolled to the side, firing her DMR as she came out, the bullets hitting the Brute and putting it down quickly.

The next thing she knew, she was hitting the ground as the Hog flew over her head, landing a short distance away on its side, slightly damaged. She rolled onto her back and jumped up to face what happened, it was a Brute Captain, armed with a Brute shot. It had got a lucky shot on the Hog, sending it soaring. To which it laughed at. She raised her DMR to the Brute, taking a couple of shots at it, which only seemed to annoy the Brute, he responded with his own shots.

Lucy ran to the side as the brute shots impacted with the stream, the small explosions following her as she moved, until they stopped. Probably to reload, but she didn't have time to focus on the Captain, as she literally ran into a Stalker. The stalker swung the spiker down onto her, but she gripped the Stalker's arm with hers. The Brute used its free arm to punch at her head, the impact being felt through the shields. It hit again, this time her shields gave way. As it pulled back for another hit she dropped her left hand to her combat knife, pulling it out and slamming it just under the Brute's helmet and into its throat, it quickly dropped it gun and grabbed at the cut with its hands, roaring in pain. She grabbed the knife in both her hands and with a victorious shout slammed it into the top of the Stalker's helmet, wrenching it free and picking her DMR back up as the Stalker fell.

[Marauder-1259]

John had to dive to the side to avoid the warthog as it lifted off, and saw the brute captain out of the corner of his eye. As the hog flipped, his sniper rifle had flown into the air and landed not far from him. He fitted his assault rifle onto his back quickly and grabbed the sniper, shaking it quickly to remove the water.

He crouched to a knee as he fitted the butt against his shoulder, took aim, and fired. Just as the captain finished reloading his weapon, the bullet collided with it's skull and it fell to the ground. John turned to see Lucy let out a shout as she stabbed a brute to death.

He was about to congratulate her when he heard a splash behind him. Seeing a spiked from the brute he had meleed, he grabbed it and spun around, the blades forward as the two collided with the neck of a half charred Brute. Obviously the incendiary grenade hadn't finished it off, no doubt it put out the fire by rolling into the water. But it was finished now, barely standing as the spiked was stuck in it neck. John put his hand on it's chest and pushed, the brute falling backwards into the river with a splash.

He looked around for more targets, but didn't see any at the moment. Either way, he didn't intend to stick around much longer, and he made his way over to the hog. With one arm he grabbed it's side and flipped it back upright, sticking his other in and trying the ignition. The effects of the EMP had worn off, and the hog started up. He quickly hopped over into the passenger seat, only half sitting down, and pulled out his sniper. "Let's go. Drive quickly, follow the road."

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

Lucy looked around at the carnage, Brute stalkers. This'd be a hell of a report to make... But the Brutes wouldn't be alone on the planet, they'd have to get a full situational report from Bravo, and warn the colony. All in a days work on a backwater, border-breaching, understaffed planet like Redoubt.

This place did suck.

She ran for the Hog as John flipped it, jumping into the drivers seat as John told her to follow the roads. She gripped the e-brake in one hand and the wheel in the other, spinning the hog around with ease and crashing it out of the stream and back onto the road. She ensured not to repeat the bumpiness of John's driving, and kept the Hog smooth as it went along the road, well it was more of a dirt path than a road but the colony didn't really extend this far. She raced along the path, her senses all on full alert, Loyalists were on Redoubt and they probably knew where they were. "Sonya, are the communications working yet?"

"None, although the Hog is working and all your systems seem to be working or recovering, communications are still being jammed."

[Marauder-1259]

"Communications jammed. . ." John echoed, fiddling with his tacpad and trying to get a link to the outpost. They were still out of range of the short wave comms, and long range comms were indeed jammed.

"Minerva mentioned that we hadn't got our usual data from the other outpost last night, but it was just a day ago." He scanned the treeline with his sniper a bit unnerved at how smooth the hog was riding. It was not something he was used to, and really not something he enjoyed. He liked to know the ground was beneath his feet rather then how they now seemed to float along.

"Not to mention we never got a transmission saying we were receiving reinforcements. Either way, if we're encountering brutes before jackals, then they've already done their reconnaissance. Which means they've already landed a force on Redoubt."

If there were Covenant on Redoubt, then there were a lot of things the needed to do and fast. None of which could be done in a warthog with their comms jammed. They still had a few miles to go before their short range comms would be in range, and John felt like he was going to explode at the pressure.

"We need to be back at the outpost. Now."

[2-042 Monitor Iridescent Logic]

"Already landed a covenant force on-" she was cut off as the Hog went over a very large hole in the road, jarring her slightly. The realisation of a probable invasion force had distracted her from the driving, she got the Hog back under control before starting again.

"Already on Redoubt, right. Its a WINTER CONTINGENCY. We're going to need to... Get in Contact with the colony... Contact Bravo... Contact the damn Navy. I hope to high heaven that the stations communcations are up. I'm not fighting off a Covenant force without proper weaponry. Do we have a Grizzly?"

The Warthog turned into view of Outpost Alpha and it wasn't long untill it roared into the garage, skidding to an abrupt halt inside the complex, narrowly missing a Grackle. She hopped out of the Warthog and paced around the garage. There wasn't a Heavy Vehicle in sight. "John, do we have contact with Bravo? Or the Colony?"

[Marauder-1259]

John grabbed a hold of the side of the warthog as they bounded over a hole, seeing the Outpost in view.

"Already on Redoubt, right. Its a WINTER CONTINGENCY. We're going to need to... Get in Contact with the colony... Contact Bravo... Contact the damn Navy. I hope to high heaven that the stations communications are up. I'm not fighting off a Covenant force without proper weaponry. Do we have a Grizzly?"

John fiddled with his TACPAD, linking up to the Outpost now that they were in range. There were protocols for this, though he'd yet to been able to go over them with the reinforcements. As soon as he had a link to the outposts PA system he'd make sure everyone was getting ready.

"Nope, no Grizzly. We don't have anything but two pelicans, this and another hog, and my grackle."

John finally patched into the PA as they slid into the outposts garage, narrowly avoiding his grackle. "Attention Outpost Alpha. This is Lieutenant Marauder. Everyone gear up, get to the hanger, and meet up at the colony. This is a WINTER CONTINGENCY. I repeat a WINTER CONTINGENCY. There's a bunker in the colony which we will be heading to and evacuating citizens to, that's where we will meet. This is not a drill."

John jumped out of the warthog as he talked, picking up the Grackle with one arm and carrying it over to the pelican, he tossed it into the open troop bay, then went over to a console where Minerva's form was shimmering. Laying his hand on the console, Minerva seemed to jump towards him, and he could feel her presence enter his mind so to speak. Quickly hopping into the pelican, he fired it up, signaling to Lucy to hop on board.

Waiting 'til they were ready, John maneuvered the Pelican over the warthog and clamped onto it, lifting up and taking off as fast as he could toward the city.

"John, should we not wait for the others?" Minerva asked him.

"We'll meet them at the colony. We have a pit stop to make."

"Pit stop?"

"Outpost Bravo."