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The Reti Theta Conspiracy by Jones Marshall
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The Reti Theta VII Conspiracy Part One
Date: 26 November 2006, 12:10 am
Mack puffed once more on the cigar that was sticking out of his mouth, dark grey smoke wafting through the undergrowth that he lay prone amongst. He zoomed in with his Walther PS1000 Sniper Rifle, which had 5x zoom, 10x zoom and 20x zoom and held six bullets in a magazine.
The indicator in the scope bounced up and down slowly as he breathed in and out. The stubby end of the sniper rifle just poked out of the underbrush.
In his sights was a Major Elite, and he had zoomed right in on the bastard's head. He could see very well its quadruple jaws which moved every time it breathed. He had seen plenty of these aliens over his twenty-seven years of service in the UNSC military and this would be just another kill on his tally.
He took a deep breath and held it, steadying his sights and started to slowly trace the movement of the Elite through the scope, keeping it centered on the head of the Elite. He fingered the trigger and at the moment he felt was the right time to fire, he began to squeeze it.
'Hello? Mack, are you there?'
The muffled sound of a voice over a radio broke his concentration and made him spit out his cigar as he sighed exasperatedly. He took out his radio and put the sniper rifle off to his side.
'What is it, Jerry?'
'There's been a transmission for you, Mack. Over an enclosed channel. The guy sending it said it's urgent.'
'I'll be there in a second,' Mack said, 'make sure you get a coffee ready in my favorite mug before I get back to camp.'
'Alright. See you soon.'
'You too.'
Mack switched off his radio and put it back on his belt. He brought the sniper rifle back into position and aimed through the sights once more, tracking the head of the Elite as it patrolled up and down the perimeter of the Covenant encampment. A Covenant cruiser lay hovering over the city center ahead and Mack was lying in the undergrowth of one of New Mombasa's many parks.
Apparently this was the only place the Covenant had decided to land on when they arrived at the planet. This was surprising, considering they wanted to wipe out the human race.
Mack took another deep breath and fired, the bullet traveling as fast as the speed of sound and hitting its intended target, splattering the Elite's brains all over the purple crate behind it. He took out his radio and held down the 'transmit' button.
'Tell the boys I took care of the Major in Sector Twelve,' Mack said.
'Yeah, whatever,' Jerry said from the other end, sounding bored.
Mack hitched up his sniper rifle and started back to the Warthog that had brought him here. He climbed into the driver's seat and floored it back through the gates of the reserve, traveling through the deserted streets of the 'Old' half of New Mombasa on the outskirts.
He was driving for about another ten minutes, taking in the sights that the 'Old' sector had to offer, such as run-down buildings, old cars and civilians that hadn't evacuated yet, mostly African.
He stopped outside the Hotel Zanzibar, one of New Mombasa's least favorite hotels and stepped out of the Wart-hog.
Pieces of rubbish rolled past, making papery noises on the road and breaking the somewhat weird silence. The entire city, save for the marines and a few civilians, was deserted. Such was the efficiency of the East Africa Protectorate's Evacuation Measures.
Mack was African-American, had five-day old stubble and had been killing aliens ever since he joined the military. He was now in his fifties but refused to retire, since the war with the Covenant wasn't over yet.
He stepped into the main office where a desk. At that desk was a young marine who looked up at him as he walked inside.
'Jerry wants to see you,' the marine said, taking a sip out of a water canteen, 'he says it's something important.'
'I know that,' Mack said, going past a rack of keys, presumably ones for the rooms and going through the door that led to the stairwell.
He started up the stairs to the next floor, coming out into a dirty corridor with chunks of wall-paper missing. He followed it to the last room which was filled with computers and boxes of machinery.
At one of the computers sat a chubby young man in glasses wearing a blue checkered shirt. Next to him lay a mug on the desk filled with steaming hot coffee. Mack went up behind him and grabbed it.
The man, who was Jerry, turned around.
'Ah, Jerry, you're here. There's someone waiting on the closed-circuit TV to talk to you,' Jerry said, swiveling around on his chair.
He flicked a switch on a panel underneath a large LCD screen which came on. On it was the face of a stern looking man who appeared to be in his late fifties, going onto his early sixties. He was in a white medal-decorated uniform.
'Major Mack Johnson,' the man said, 'I am Admiral Greg Forsythe.'
The Admiral had a British accent and a moustache which wasn't as grey as his hair. Behind him, from what Mack could tell, the Admiral was on a MAC platform and the place was currently under attack. Fire erupted out of a control panel behind him and two technicians hurried over to it with fire extinguishers.
'What do you want, Admiral?' Mack asked, sitting down in a spare chair.
'We've received a mysterious distress call from Reli Theta VII, just on the outer colonies. It wasn't much of a distress call, but it was enough to get our attention.'
'What was it about?'
'Well, err…' The Admiral coughed and smiled nervously. 'The distress call was sent by the Covenant. It turns out they were assaulting our colony and now need help.'
'Help from what?'
'That's what we're trying to find out. We're not getting any response from our guys on the planet, or any response from the Covenant forces there. That's why I'm sending you there to check it out.'
'Me? Why me? I'm kind of busy down here in New Mombasa.'
'The situation in New Mombasa is under control. I'm dragging you out of there. Don't worry, you'll get a team. You can't do it by yourself.'
'A team? Who will be in it?'
'I you come up to Cyprus Station, I'll tell you more. I've sent a Pelican down to your position to pick you up. It should be there in another five minutes.'
The screen went blank and Mack looked at Jerry, who had been listening in on the conversation.
'Sounds like something big is happening,' Jerry said, looking up from his computer at Mack.
'I wouldn't call it big,' Mack said, 'nor would I call it small.'
'You may need some of my technical expertise,' Jerry said, grinning.
'Are you telling me you want to come with me?'
'Hell yeah.'
The cell-block was at best, dismal. The screams of tortured prisoners echoed throughout the block every few minutes and several other prisoners had gone crazy at being here for so long. They stared out of the force fields keeping them in their cells and often shouted meaningless words, and the ones that did make sense had actually nothing to do with what was happening.
As Special Operations Commander Adros Demargee walked inside, he felt several heads turn towards him. Most were human heads from within the cells. After this brief silence, the screaming erupted again.
He had been told to come into the cell block to meet the Commander Elite of the ship for a reason which he wasn't told. This usually never happened, but since he was the only Special Operations Commander left on the ship he supposed he was going to be given another mission.
He tried to ignore the screaming and the shouting and felt several pairs of eyes follow him down the corridor to the end of the room where the golden-armored Commander Elite stood, waiting.
As he approached, the Commander turned to look at him.
'You're here, Adros,' the Commander Elite said.
'What did you bring me here for?'
The Commander Elite nodded over his shoulder in the direction of one of the cells. Inside was a human who was quite calm and seemingly oblivious to all the screaming and was reading something long and wide with words on it in his hands.
'This Human,' the Commander said, 'we found in the dig site. He's refused to tell us anything about why he was there.'
The Human, who had darker skin and what appeared to be a short beard, looked up. He put the thing in his hands down and grinned.
'Hey, it's another one of you ugly fuckers,' he said happily.
'He's resisted all our interrogation methods, which I find surprising. Usually they work very well on humans.'
Adros eyed the human carefully. The human eyed him back and suddenly put up one hand and stuck out his longest finger, which was in the middle of his hand.
'Screw you,' the human said.
Adros turned back to the Commander.
'Why have you brought me here?' He asked the Commander.
'The disappearance of most of our troops around the dig site area has now made you the second-highest ranked troop on this ship and I think you should help me interrogate this human,' the Commander said.
'Do you know why all these troops had disappeared?'
'No, but judging by the suddenness of it, I think's it's wise we wait till reinforcements arrive.'
'I suggest we start interrogating now so we have some idea on what to do next,' the Commander said, reaching over to a panel on the wall and pressing a button. The force-field over the cell disappeared and the human just looked up barely taking any notice of it and didn't even bother to escape like most other prisoners did. Instead, the human looked up at the Elites and said, 'I'm ready for anything you throw at me.'
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