July 17th 2552-
Spartan Cali, F-028; and Spartan Bon, F-043 were a pair of headhunters. They have, for the last few weeks, been operating mainly as a test. To preserve the squad of three, Theta team. Now, it was show time, and they were ready for anything at this point.
It had been only seven days since General Statin's termination, and Theta team was looking worse than they had then. This was a huge drop in their pay, considering they contracted a year with Theta, and a single mission before forced closure caused by critical damage done to either teams, no exceptions. Technically, they still hadn't done a single collaborate mission, and Theta team were already laying on their death beds. Or so, that's what they wanted the public eye to think. Bon and Cali went about their acting, pretending to be worried for the team of three.
"What now?" Cali asked the obvious, but the answer wasn't quite so.
"I...I don't know. We'll see what ONI has to say about the matter," Bon nodded, looking down at Micheal.
"What do you think they'll say?"
Bon made his voice lower pitched as if to mimic ONI officials,"Exterminate them!" He pointed to the team,"And, geese, get this kid a sandwich!" He poked Cali in the stomach, knowing damn well that they were just procrastinating the awful job they had.
She laughed and poked him back,"And feed him a horse, it looks like he could benefit the fat, eh?" It was a running joke between them ever since the day they met at Basic Training. As basic as it was for Spartans, at least. They were fortunate enough to have a D.I. who actually cared for them that day, and that's exactly the first words that came out of his mouth to the children. It was a strange tactic, obviously being used to give them a motivation in a less...loud way than the other D.I.'s used. That's what made them want to be the best, because if they acted the best, they got treated the best. that was their motivation!
Bon was sitting on the ground next to Cali in the best hospital HQ on Reach that the UNSC offered, on the "bedside" of Micheal and the others. If they literally sat on the bed or any chairs, then they would have flattened them out as smoothly as a pancake. Bon thought that they seemed awkward sitting on the floor even if this was a military operated medical base where nothing seemed unnatural. Bon thought that they should have made specific chairs for the Spartans, considering the fact that this is where they got operated on Reach during training. ONI thought that training a batch of Spartan III's where the II's were trained was a good idea, a form of good luck, or something? Bon wasn't exactly sure.
"Alright, time isn't with us right now. You know what to do..."Bon said, getting out of his position on the ground.
"Damn ONI...I hate myself for this. There's no way feeling good after something like this. Okay, i'm ready." She said, getting eye level with Bon, staring at him in his face plate as if she were studying him.
Bon nodded, pulled out his magnum, attached the EMP destabilizers to it it. The EMP destabilizer attachment made no physical impact if fired upon a target, but acted as an EMP, immediately reverse engineering the damage in a matter of a second. But the UNSC alerts in the life-supports were faster, so they had to act and extract as quickly as they could.
Bon pulled the trigger as fast as he could against all the life support units, then quickly but cautiously picked all the blood and IV units attached to Micheal and Tyron. He lifted them; Cali already standing guard at the door with Shultz. The quietness filling the room was eerie to Bon, considering the fact that he knew that in a room somewhere near by, about a thousand alarms were going off, warning that something had happened to the three marines. He guessed that, in about a minute or two, a bunch of armed guards would come and intercept them...that couldn't happen, otherwise, they were screwed.
Cali nodded, and they opened the window leading to a wonderful view of a city of impossibly tall buildings. A catwalk a few stories up led all the way to a construction site for a final few stories, the final month of construction. Freak accidents, actually rigged by ONI, was causing them to be sent to this hospital, so they finally decided to set a cat walk every few stories. Exactly according to plan.
Cali and Bon followed the support ladders up to the balcony that the catwalk was positioned at, checked to see if the any nurses were still tending to any patients in the room, then crosses the catwalk to the next building site. There wasn't anyone working because, caused by the freak accidents, there was an executive decision to stop construction for two weeks until they could get officials to finish up the work; also according to plan.
They were at the top of the unfinished building where there was a smooth flooring, a glass floor with no roof or sides, just the base of the story. They could see nothing but clouds forming beneath them, and every once and a while they could hear the high pitched echoes of civilian transports; fortunately, none actually in sight of them. They were surrounded by rooftops of other buildings, none of which were occupied, per protocol of the UNSC's HQ sites precautions.
A dead pelican was waiting for them, one of which that was sitting there since this morning, and according to UNSC records, one with ONI certification. That's how Bon and Cali knew it was time for operation Papa Tango Papa (PTP; Pull The Plug). ONI was not original with their code names...
Bon knocked on the side of the Pelican, waking the officer inside waiting for them. His voice sounded though a speaker on the exterior of the ship near the extendable entrance ramp at the back. His voice showed his awakening with a groggy "access clearance?"
"Papa Tango Papa."He said through a mic right below the speaker. Yeah, they weren't original with their pass codes either.
"Granted. Opening bay doors now. Stand by for power." The ship hummed to power, and the extendable ramp opened up. They were often called the "Bay doors" even though it was one door, and it wasn't even a door, it was a ramp.
Bon and Cali entered the pelican, strapped in Micheal and the rest, then told the pilot to punch it. They only had about five hours before the eternal damage caused by the explosion came back, even worse than initially received; because of the operations done to heal them includes a catalyst for internal decay if not properly dissolved by artificial nutrients fed to the body slowly over time.
Bon rode in the back of the pelican next to Cali in the confined spacing he absolutely hated. Spartans couldn't do much in closed in spaces, and he wasn't strapped in because he expected trouble. If any came, he couldn't do much back there; but what he could do; he'd want to be responsive as fast as possible.
His suspicions were confirmed; there was trouble...just, not the kind he was expecting.
A groan came from across the five foot walkway separating the two rows of passenger seats facing each other. The rows were aligned and against the bulkheads of the Pelican.
It was Micheal, the first one awake. He was on the very last seat twords the Bay doors. The other two were in the seats next to him.
Bon was in the corresponding seat of Micheal; and Cali, with Shultz, who was right next to Micheal.
Micheals team were all slumped in their seats, an unsafe position for combat but the best they could do for the current situation. Fortunatly, this Pelican has harnesses that were fastened across each chest of the marines.
Michael moaned again, this time, coming to his senses. He sat up with difficulty, wincing the whole time. He rubbed his eyes, squinting past the dark environment at the Spartans.
"Why the hell am I just being extracted!?" He said easily. Apparently, he didn't remember the week in the hospital, good. Also, he didn't have a problem speaking. That was unusual. Either he was hiding his pain well, or he was more tough than ONI had expected.
"Extraction arrived a little late. The explosion wiped us off the radars, caused our comms to shut down too. Took them a bit to realize they weren't reading us then they had to find us." Bon lied.
"I see," Micheal responded still squinting,"where you taking us?"
"Classified. You'll see soon enough." Cali said in her that's quite enough tone. She cast a look at Bon, who could read the expression perfectly even without seeing the face behind the one-way faceplate.
Bon turned back to Micheal, then nodded. Michael rolled his eyes.
"You guys love keeping secrets, don't you. Pft. ONI. Maybe you'd have more friends if you didn't do that. And, you do realize that you're committing treason; capturing UNSC infantry and bringing them to an unknown environment."
"It's treason, but only without permission. plus, ONI was created from a secret. They requested the section as a cover up, and it blew up out of proportion; and here we are now as living proof of that." Cali lied. Actually, Bon wasn't sure if it was true or not. The story sounded legitimate enough for him to believe, anyway.
"Who in gods name allowed you to capture us!?" Micheal exclaimed hastily.
"Classified." Bon and Cali said at the same time.
"I really do hate ONI, you know that? Just a month and a half longer...but no! Damn ONI..."
Bon sat in silence, wondering what he was talking about, then remembered that marines had lives outside of the Corps, unlike Spartans. He almost felt bad for the guy...