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All Roads Lead To Sol...But Unfortunately Not Away: Chapter 23
Posted By: S7N<n.j.r.jones@brighton.ac.uk>
Date: 9 July 2004, 8:45 AM
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Chapter 23
0900 Hours, July 19th, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC Carrier Fair Weather, Slipspace
Destination Reach
Harland leaned back in his chair and scrunched his palms into his eyes. The fatigue that ran through him almost outweighed the sorrow he felt for the loss of his men. His men. On returning to the Fair Weather he had been promoted to squad Sergeant, not that there was much of a squad left anymore. At first he thought it was good, but then it struck him that he'd have to live up to Raynes, and that was something he knew he couldn't do.
He sat in the office that had once belonged to his commanding officer and close friend; it was heartbreaking to look at the ornamentation and pictures the Sergeant had in the office. Out of the twelve men in Alpha Squad who entered the jungle, only four had made it back up to the Weather. Walker and Fincher were down in recovery with Cochran, who had come out of surgery an hour before hand. His survival was all that stopped Harland from going crazy.
The screen in front of him displayed a list of casualties from the entire day. Every member from Bravo and Echo squads had been listed as KIA, and everyone who was at Firebase Bravo was either KIA or MIA. The same went for those that had suffered at Fleet HQ where Harland and his men had been picked up. He flicked to the next page, which had the members of his squad on it. He had yet to submit his casualties to Colonel Watts, mainly because he was still hoping for them to show up and say "Hey, I'm alive!" but he knew it was futile.
Harland stared long and hard at the screen. He ticked off himself, Fincher, Walker and Cochran as alive, and then changed the option to KIA against Raynes' name. He then checked Davids and McCoy and a few others as KIA as well. A report had come in twenty minutes ago that their bodies had been found at grid thirteen by twenty-four, along with Echo and Bravo squads.
He sighed and sipped at the now-cold coffee that sat next to his computer. There were now only three names left on his screen that were unchecked; Manors, Harris and McCain. Their bodies hadn't been found, but that wasn't to say they weren't dead. He put MIA next to their names, hoping he would one day see them again.
He was just about to submit the list when his com buzzed.
"Harland" he said.
"Corp..I mean, Sergeant Harland, this is Lieutenant Wayans. We have some news for you." A rough, male voice said. For a minute he thought it sounded like Harris, but dismissed it.
"Go ahead," he replied.
"Private Sarah McCain has just come aboard the Fair Weather after being picked up by a search-and-rescue team." Harland breathed out heavily, feeling slight elation rise in him. "She's heading up to see you now, Sergeant."
"Thank you, sir." He was about to click the com off when the voice spoke again.
"That's not all, Harland." The voice said, a hint of challenge in his voice.
"Sorry sir, carry on." Now what?
"The body of Private Second Class Daniel Harris has been found." Harland's heart sank and the joy he had felt a minute before disappeared quicker than it had come. The walls seemed to close in around him and he became short of breath. "I'm sorry son."
"Thank you, sir. Will there be anything else?" he managed to stammer out.
"No, that will be all. Thank you Sergeant." The com clicked off from the other end and Harland leaned back in his chair. He sat in silence for a while, not knowing whether to feel joy because of Sarah being alive, or be sad for Harris.
He turned back to his screen, checking Sarah's box to being okay, then reluctantly put Harris' to KIA. He paused over the "Submit" button, staring at Manny's name. Wherever he was, Harland was sure he was alive.
"Sit up, Private Manors." A cool and soothing voice said. "Sit up, take a deep breath and cough. In order to swallow the protein complex, you must first regurgitate it." Manny sat up slowly, breathing as shallowly as he could. He rolled himself out of the form-fitting cot and sat up on the side, and vomited over the floor. A long stream of bile flowed from his mouth. When he had finished, he gagged and coughed, bringing up the yellow fluid that would replace all the nutrients he had lost whilst in cryo. But why was he in cryo? Where was he and where had he been? He glanced around the chamber in which his tube was situated and realised it was only on of two, and the other one was unoccupied. The cryo-bay was small too, with two lockers next to the only door, a shower and a small workstation.
He pushed himself up with weak arms and stepped over to the locker. Pulling back the latch he found black coveralls inside, with a pair of black boots and an M6D pistol in its holster strung next to them. He tried to focus on what had happened to him. He remembered being in a boat with Harris, watching him die, and then he had passed out. How had he gotten onto this ship? That was, if he was on a ship.
Before he time to think any more the voice chimed in again. "Please get dressed, Lieutenant Manors." Lieutenant?! He suddenly thought. What the hell was going on here?! He looked around the room for any sign of a camera or a pick-up, but found none.
"Where am I? And why did you just call me Lieutenant?" he demanded, keeping his voice low, but getting the message across.
"All will be explained once you are showered and dress, Lieutenant. Please get dressed and make your way to briefing room five." The voice said with a certain finality to it and Manny didn't like. He showered quickly, and then pulled on the black coveralls, which he noticed fit perfectly. He then strapped the pistol belt round his waist, pulled the weapon from its sheath and checked it. It was empty, and there was no clip in the receiver. Probably so he wouldn't shoot anyone in case he didn't like what was going on. Which at the moment he didn't.
The door slit open silently as he moved towards it, and he exited out into a dimly lit corridor. Dull lights were spaced a two metre intervals along the bottom of the walls on either side, and Manny could see that there were only two doors in this section apart from the one he had just come out of. One was situated at the end of the corridor, the other was just up from it, on the adjacent wall to where he stood.
"Please enter the room at the end of the corridor, Lieutenant." The sullen voice said, echoing around the metallic passageway. He walked slowly down towards the entrance, and saw it slide open as he came within two metres of it. Beyond was an even darker room, how big he couldn't tell. There was a bright light on the ceiling above him as he walked through the door, and he could vaguely make out a desk just beyond its reach.
He walked into the room, coming to a stop just outside the circle of light encompassing the floor. He could make out shadows in the darkness in front of him, sitting behind the desk. Who they were and why they were here, he felt, were questions he knew he wouldn't get answered.
"Lieutenant Manors," a hoarse voice said "please step into the light." It sounded like he was dying. Don't go into the light. He obliged, taking four steps forward and coming to a halt in the middle of the light circle.
"Do you know why you are here?" another voice spoke, this one to the left of the first, and this one was female, maybe in her mid forties.
"No, ma'am. I do not. In fact, I do not even know where here is." Manny was surprised at how calm he felt. Under the circumstances he should be feeling distraught, angry and ready to smash their faces in. But he wasn't. He must have been drugged in some way or another. "Would you care to tell me where we are and what I am doing here?"
There was a pause.
"As well as why I am being referred to as Lieutenant."
Another pause.
"Or is this a huge mistake?"
There was silence for a few moments before the first voice echoed around the room again, this time a little more flat than before.
"Lieutenant Manors, you are aboard the UNSC Frigate Apprentice. Our whereabouts at the moment are strictly classified, but we can tell you why you are here and why we are calling you Lieutenant rather than Private First-Class." He coughed to clear his throat, and Manny heard the shuffling of papers. "As you are fully aware, the Office of Naval Intelligence Section Three is dedicated to special operations within the UNSC, many in an effort to stop the Covenant war against humanity.
"We can see from your record that you have had a run in with a Section Three agent, one Lieutenant Bradley Manors," the name brought back haunting images of that fateful first mission on Derian Prime. "who we can see here is, in fact your brother. We can also see from your record that you are a skilled soldier who takes the initiative and is not afraid to risk his life for others."
Manny suddenly became dizzy from what the man was saying. Is this going where I think it's going? He pushed the thought aside and waited for the man to begin again.
"Because of this, as well as your relation to Lieutenant Bradley Manors, we are enrolling you into Section Three as a field operative, a spook as it were, to operate within and outside of UNSC controlled space. You, technically speaking, do not have a say in the matter. If you were to decline, you would not be allowed to return to the UNSC Marine Corps, and would be discharged and sent back home to Earth. Anything you were to say about this incident would be denied. This is the standard procedure for all Section Three agents, so don't think this is unfair treatment."
Silence filled the room. So I was right, Manny thought. His head spun, not knowing what to think. He would never again be allowed to see Fincher, or Walker or Sarah. That was, of course, if they were still alive.
"I'm guessing from your silence, Lieutenant," the woman's voice came back "that you are at a cross roads as to the situation."
Without thinking, Manny replied. It was a reply he never would have said if he had sat down and thought about the option given to him.
"No ma'am, I am one hundred percent certain that this is what I want to do. I want to be part of the war against the Covenant, and if special operations means getting closer to it, then I want that."
He could feel the air around him warm, as if the smiles of those in front of him were conducting vast amounts of heat.
"You're training will start immediately." The man's voice said. "You will be trained on a one-to-one basis with one of our best agents, and then move on to special ops training when we get to our destination."
Manny felt his heart rate spike, the excitement build up. The images of his long gone friends faded from his view, not because he didn't care about them any more, but because he will now be able to exact revenge for them.
"What about paper work, sir?" Manny asked. "Aren't there disclaimer forms for me to fill out?"
"This is the Office of Naval Intelligence, son." The man replied. "As of this moment you don't exist."
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