Spartan One 006

Briefed by Harper on the way to the Troy system, Orion had been patted on the back, handed a nuke, and told to ‘go get them tiger.’ The confidence that this future ‘Illusive Man’ had in him was unnerving. 

That said, the ‘tech CEO bro’ had come through with his promise, and anything Orion wanted that was in the fleet, he was free to requisition for his own purposes. 

An extra suit of vacuum sealed armor? Check. 

Incendiary grenades? Flamethrowers? Hell yeah. 

A fuck-ton, all you can kill buffet of bullets? You're goddamn right. 

Lastly, the piece de resistance, an Umbrella Pharmaceuticals ‘Executive Health Spray.’ At 10 million spacecreds a pop, this bad boy could practically regenerate a limb. It was Harper's own private item, acquired under his authority as an ONI Captain. Those unethical POS’ at Umbrella might trigger a zombie apocalypse one of these days-if they haven't already, and quietly covered it up-but at the very least, their products were legit. There was a reason why they were the third richest company in the galaxy! 

Armed to the teeth, and inventory chock full of so many weapons, ammo, and gear it'd make Gilgamesh jealous, he had set out on the suicide mission to penetrate the Space Bug, and rig the giant insect with a nuke. Needless to say, grabbing Hood as his pilot for this OP was perhaps one of the best decisions of the hour. The pampered noble proved he wasn't a soft persimmon cultured in a glass house, blasting everything in sight. Of course, it helped that Hood was technically under his command, benefiting from the squad version of [Shredder Ammo]. The organic nature of those bugs made them easy targets. 

Now, however, the ‘easy' part was over, and they had entered a ‘hangar’ of sorts. All across the Space Bug, were a few dozen sphincters. A dirty minded individual might associate this with a Human's rearside, but anyone who'd taken an anatomy course would understand that a sphincter was merely an organic portal that allowed/prevented material from passing through. In fact, the intestines have several sphincters that prevent stomach acid from going out the mouth, and helping food reach its destination. 

From these fleshy portals, the Space Bug launched those Space-Lady Bugs, as well as drill/acorn shaped spores that were launched at the planet. According to ONI, these were the Arachnids version of a drop pod. Containing about 100 Warrior variants, and many smaller Workers, the spores burrowed into the ground, and began to act as spawning grounds. One section of Troy had been impacted by only five spores, and now, five days later after the initial invasion, over 5,000 juvenile Warriors-each one the size of a motorcycle-had emerged! 

The Space Bug, meanwhile, would occasionally break orbit, land, absorb nutrients from the workers, and then grow new spores to be launched elsewhere on the planet! Its artillery feature had likewise been put to great effect in dismantling any big guns or weapons platforms. For these five days, Troy had been like a planet experiencing a horror movie. 

Therefore, these Space Bugs had to go, ASAP! 

Emerging from the rear of the Pelican, Orion took in the strange, alien environment. It was a low-light area, where a soft, bioluminescent glow emerged from the ‘walls.’ It was hot like a sauna, and a cloudy vapor was constantly being filtered through his helmet. The ‘ground’ if you could call the innards of a living organism that, was surprisingly hard, yet with a little give. Kind of like the ground at a kids playground, it was almost a little rubbery. 

Feeling mischievous, he sprayed [Warp] on a section of the beast, knowing that he'd be dealing DOT damage (damage over time) to the beast as a whole. The Space Bug shuddered in pain, and a cavernous wail echoed through the dark chamber that they found themselves in. 

“Damned bug didn't like that!” Johnson exclaimed. The dark skinned man looked slightly comical as he carried a M41 LAAG Chaingun-the Warthog attachment-with both his hands. 

“Sergeant, release the probes.” Orion said, ignoring Johnson's exclamation. 

“Roger.” The Sergeant pressed a few buttons on his wrist, and then five watermelon-sized drones zipped out of the Pelican, and began to fly deep into the beast. 

Many of the Mobile Infantrymen had disembarked by this point, and were basically all looking at him as if to say ‘well, I'm not going first, you go first.’ 

“Johnson, you lead the way, Sergeant, inform us of any nasty surprises.” Orion succinctly ordered, then pointed forward. 

“Ooorah!” Johnson acknowledged, and then advanced with his heavy weapon. 

Walking down a 12ft tall, somewhat slimy circular corridor for five minutes, he felt like something wasn't right. His sixth sense was telling him there was danger, but not from where, or what the intensity was. This only served to heighten his tension. 

Not a man said a word as they moved deeper. Every couple seconds, Orion's eyes would drift to the motion tracked at the bottom of his HUD, yet it only marked friendlies. 

“Sergeant, what do you see?” He asked. 

“Vapor's too strong, Lieutenant, I can barely make out what's 5ft in front of these things.” The Sergeant said, clearly frustrated. 

Orion was also annoyed, as the vapor had grown thicker, and just as he was about to say something, he heard a pained scream from behind their line. 

Whirling around, raising his gun high, he scanned for the enemy, but instead was met with confusion. “What's the situation?” He asked, approaching a crowd of Mobile Infantrymen who were huddled near a downed trooper. 

“The vapor is toxic!” A man wearing a breathing mask said in alarm. 

“Johnny said his model was cracked and old…” A nearby soldier muttered. 

Some of the Mobile Infantrymen were wearing goggles with their rebreathers, but many only had the oxygen masks. Dozens of guys began to complain about a lack of sight, and mass hysteria accompanied by panic started to grip their hearts and minds. 

“I can't see, I can't see!” 

“We're all going to di-” One man screamed, only to catch a bolter through the head. 

The Sergeant approached with a still smoking magnum, then holstered his pistol. This act of violence seemed to instill momentary forced calm. 

Orion winced at the loss of life, and sighed in his heart. However, glancing at the nuke being carried by a four man team, he knew what had to be done to complete this task. 

“You all knew this was a suicide mission. That if these Space Bugs aren't destroyed, Troy will become another Klendauthu. Many of you fought with me upon that ridgeline, refusing to retreat until our ammo ran low. You are not cowards, you are citizens of the Terran Federation. You get me?!” Orion roared. 

“We get you, sir!” The reply was somewhat weak, but enough men & women replied that any naysayers or cowards were drowned out. 

“Movement!” A sudden shout drew everyone's attention. 

“Sir, they're everywhere!” A Spartan said over the squad comms. 

“They’re in the walls, they're in the walls!” A man wailed. He tried to run back to the ‘hangar’ only for a section of the corridor to open up like the jaws of some monster, and a Warrior Bug jumped out, pouncing on him. 

“Say hello to my little friend!” Johnson roared, and then was the first one to open up on them. His Chaingun tore into the fleshy walls without a care in the world. Yet the Spartan wasn't stupid, using the motion tracker in his HUD, he shot at the sections that a Warrior was about to emerge from. 

Taking inspiration from him, Orion equipped a flamethrower, and began to spray an area full of Warriors that were about to emerge. 

“Follow Johnson's lead, use your motion trackers!” Orion said to his squad. 

“Lieutenant! The drones have picked up movement…they outnumber us 10 to 1.” The Sergeant informed him. 

Orion grit his teeth. Fending off the enemy in this hallway, flanked on all sides in a poor vision environment…that was suicide! Right now, he was like a character in a videogame forced to fight off an endless wave of infinitely respawning enemies. This situation was untenable. 

“Advance! The mission is to bring the nuclear warhead into the depths of the beast's lair. Never give up, never surrender!” Orion declared, and sprayed the entire hallway awash with flame, hoping to buy them a little more time. 

“Just what I wanted to hear. Ha! Ya hear that, ya damned bug?! We've got a suppository for yah, extra thick, and no gloves. How's that for a delivery!” Johnson exclaimed, having the time of his life as he mowed down a wave of 12 Warriors. 

Squad [Shredder Ammo] was putting in work on the Chaingun! Orion wished he could fit a monster like that into his inventory, but unless it was a traditional weapon/ammo/armor/medicine/food/tech item-not a goddamn light artillery piece-he couldn't store it. 

“LT, need a reload here!” Johnson called out. 

Orion tossed an ammo box to another Spartan, then stepped forward to act as the speartip of their offensive. 

Within the chitinous hallway, he felt that something was coming from above, below, and on both sides. Drawing an incendiary grenade with both hands, he tossed one to his left, and one to his right. A bright, yellow-white phosphorus flame ignited, transforming the inner carapace wall ashy black. The pained screams of dying Warriors were music to his ears. 

Not stopping his stride for a second, he lifted his left hand, and closed his eyes to focus. [Warp] suddenly engulfed the entire ceiling in an area about as wide as a sedan. The flesh peeled away as it began to rupture under the effect of the Mass Effect field. A gaggle of nearly dead Warriors fell in front of him their sharpened forelimbs clattering to stab him through. However, he had timed his walk just so. 

Those flailing limbs not only missed his face plate by about a foot, but they also just happened to collide with another horde that burst through the ground right then. Tangling their limbs together, the 30 or so Warrior Bugs who had attempted this ambush were now lacking in mobility, and in a ‘hole’ beneath them. 

Quick swapping to the Rocket Launcher, Orion calmly aimed at the center mass, and unleashed hell. Upon impact, a bright explosion flared on his lens, insectoid limbs went flying, and the ‘floor’ collapsed in on itself. 

“Always stealing my kills.” Johnson said, smacking his lips in annoyance as he pressed the barrel of his reloaded gun forward. 

“I'm still waiting for that round of drinks, Private.” Orion bantered back, trying to keep squad morale high. 

Yet even as he spoke, he felt like that sixth sense not only didn't go away, but the warning was growing stronger. 

“Lieutenant, you aren't going to like this.” The Sergeant said a beat later. Speaking on a private channel between just the two of them, his tone was grim. 

“What's the sitrep?” Orion questioned, treating the warning seriously. 

“According to the scientific data ONI provided, we should be nearing the center of the Space Bug. But I've finally gotten a clear image with a drone…you'd best see for yourself.” 

Orion gunned down another ceiling attacker, then pressed a button, connecting to the drone cam. 

What he saw was indeed a central chamber. It looked something like a honeycomb where those large spores were spawning, and inside, there was a Brain Bug. Several dozen captives were held down, and the breadloaf shaped van-sized insect was sucking up their brains with a straw-like appendage. 

“Transmitt the footage back to Harper. We need to rescue those civilians yesterday, Sergeant.” Orion said, iron entering his voice. 

“Sir!” The Sergeant saluted. 

“Listen up, Spartans, a Brain Bug is in the chamber up ahead sucking brains like zombies in a horror movie. Several dozen civilians are trapped inside, and my blood is at a boil. What do we do to brainsucking scum?!” 

“Stomp'em!” Johnson enthusiastically roared. 

“I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!” 

“STOMP THE BUGS!!!” 

Thoroughly enraged, Orion shotgun blasted the last Warrior between him & the central chamber. At the back of his mind, he was fearful as all hell. What he and the Sergeant didn't say was that there were probably a thousand Warriors in that chamber, and maybe only 100 Mobile Infantrymen had made it this far. They could, in all honesty, drop the nuke here, and consider the mission concluded. A few steps wouldn't make much of a difference when they were this deep into the Space Bug. 

He wouldn't throw his life away needlessly, and would run if he had too. If there really was zero chance, he would drop the nuke right here, then retreat. Survival was most important. However…momma didn't raise no coward!