Hello guys, I have decided to change my pen name, into something more memorable. A couple of my friends forget 5thHierarch, so it has been changed to Overwatch, (and huzzah at that too, took me awhile to find a suitable pen name).
XXxxXX
John sat on one of the sofas on Ghost Raven; the Spartan was a bit tired and decided to take a nap, it would be sometime before he and Li would reach their destination.
Thanks to some recent Intel gathering by Cortana, that is, hacking. The Spartans discovered that the Joes' base of operations was on a US Aircraft Carrier, the USS Flagg. The plan was to throw Strauss into a pod, which is on a Pelican dropship. The Pelican would do a quick flyby over the deck of the Flagg, drop off its prisoner, and then bang out before any fighters could intercept it.
It was a "daring" plan, considering that they could lose a pelican… out of the tens the currently have. Oh and lose the present.
As John eased back into the sofa, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. His dreams were peaceful and pleasant, free of the haunted memories like every Spartan. Any Spartan-IIs had nightmares, no matter how much conditioning a soldiers receives, nightmares always lurk. John was no exception; most of his nightmares revolve around the loss or injury of a squad mate, the ones that haunted him the most were the injuries of Linda and Kelly, and the death of Sam.
John managed to get a few hours of sleep until Li knocked on his visor gently.
"John?" Li asked.
"Yeah?"
"We're here; I already got the present gift wrapped and ready to go."
John instantly got off the couch and stood up.
"Let's do this."
The two Spartans walked to the bridge of Ghost Raven, Strauss had already been placed into a pod that was attached to a pelican dropship.
The Prowler was flying low over the ocean, before coming to a halt. It was now the Pelican's turn to finish off the last leg. Cortana would be remote piloting the Pelican, which was obviously a modified version for stealth. The Pelican would fly until it is right above the USS Flagg and drop off its cargo.
XXxxXX
USS Flagg…
Cover Girl awoke from her sleep; the Joe got changed into her regular fatigues and then headed to the canteen to grab a hot chocolate. It was still night and cold; her watch said it was two thirty in the morning.
Courtney held the mug and sipped on the hot beverage as she stood on the balcony. A couple of fighter jets were landing and taking off every now and then. The deck crew repaired some of the aircrafts while others ate something while on break.
It was basically the same as every other night.
But then her eyes spotted something on the flight deck. The air, it was shimmering, similar to how the air would be when there was a heat source. Something was venting heat.
Cover Girl rubbed her eyes to make sure that she wasn't daisied. Then something materialised out of the air, it was a military green coloured VTOL, but a Jet VTOL like the Harrier or the F-35, but it was not a fighter, it looked more like a transport craft. On the side, it had the emblem of an Eagle on top of a globe with its wings outstretched, beneath were the letters UNSC scrolled out.
The VTOL touched down.
Courtney stood from the balcony and watched everything unfold.
Some of the crewman on the deck instantly jumped behind cover and drew their sidearm. Other Joes were moving up from the lower levels with their rifles aimed and ready at the VTOL.
The VTOL slowly touched down, it looked like it was dropping something off.
"Attention unidentified aircraft, you are on a US Aircraft Carrier, come out with your hands up," said a voice over the speakers, "you have five seconds to comply before we neutralise you."
Some of the AA guns had swung towards the deck and locked on to the VTOL. They were Vulcan miniguns, which were absolutely devastating on vehicles; these weapons were mounted on tank busters, and could easily blast an aircraft out of the sky.
"Five."
It looked like the VTOL had released something.
It was a crate… gift wrapped to be exact, with a giant blue ribbon that was tied into a giant bow.
Courtney pressed the earpiece so she could hear the encrypted channels of the Joes.
"It's dropped something off, shit. It could be a bomb."
"Alert, we need bomb squads on deck right now."
"Open fire!"
Some of the rapid response teams who had stingers, let fly with their missile launchers. The projectiles streaked from their launchers, leaving a trail of thick smoke behind them. But then the missiles exploded in mid-flight.
That VTOL has anti-missile defence systems, thought Courtney.
The missiles detonate harmlessly, showering the deck in small debris.
"Do not fire on that package, if it's a bomb, it's going to explode if we hit it." said Hawk, Courtney heard him through the comms.
"Copy that sir, all units, take down that VTOL. DO NOT fire on that crate, I repeat, DO NOT fire on that crate." said the operator.
The Vulcan miniguns spooled into action and unleashed a hellish volume of fire. But by then, the VTOL had already taken off, the Vulcans still continued to hammer the VTOL until it was out of range. It looked like a lot of rounds managed to score hits on the aircraft. But how it was still flying, was a bit of a surprise to Courtney.
What took her back a bit further was how fast the VTOL executed its objective, it was in and out in less than thirty seconds.
It meant that the VTOL was heavily armoured, and had a lot of power to move under all that weight.
Cover Girl, descended down to the flight deck with her mug still in hand.
The VTOL was gone, everything went quiet again.
As she reached the crate, a perimeter was formed by the Joes.
"Cover Girl," yelled Scarlett, she was wearing the usual combat armour, "over here."
Courtney walked over to her fellow Joe, who was leaning against a Black Hawk helicopter.
"Stay here, let the bomb squad take a look at it, then we go in."
Cover Girl nodded.
"Where's Duke, or Ripcord?"
"They're coming up," replied Scarlett.
Five minutes passed, and the two were joined by Ripcord, Duke and Heavy Duty.
They waited for another fifteen minutes before a bomb squad member walked over to General Hawk.
"The crate is clean sir, scans show no bombs inside, but there is a person."
"Alright, good job soldier," Hawk then signalled over his Joes, "crate's clean, let's take a look."
They walked closer to the package and examined it closely.
"Hmm, gift wrapped," said Cover Girl, "aww they shouldn't have."
Ripcord then reached for a card that dangled on the side and read it aloud.
"To: G.I. Joes, please handle him with care, he's Major Johannes Strauss, the CO of that Cobra base you raided. Sorry we beat you guys to the punch. From: UNSC ONI Section III, Spartan-IIs."
He then gave a low whistle.
The Joes opened the crate carefully, just to make sure there aren't any nasty surprises waiting for them. Once it was pried open, the found a man bound and gagged.
XXxxXX
Interrogation room…
"Mind running over that again for us?" asked Scarlett as she paced around the room.
Strauss complied.
"These men who attacked the base," said Strauss with a slight accent, "they're bigger and better than you."
"Anything else about them?" asked Duke.
"They wear very advance sets of armour, far superior to anything I've ever seen. They took me onto an aircraft, some kind of heavy transport. Didn't see any of the crew, online those two men."
…
Outside the interrogation room, the Joes talked.
"Well this confirms it," said Duke, "two heavily armed combatants, take out an entire base in a few minutes. Leaving behind a trail of destruction and mutilated bodies."
"What do we do?" asked Ripcord.
"What can we do?" replied Hawk, "we don't even know these people. All we can do is keep our eyes peeled."
"I really want to meet these people," stated Cover Girl.
…
Courtney and Shana sat at the cafeteria, in their normal booth, eating waffles.
"What do you think Scarl?" asked Cover Girl.
"About what?"
"The attack?"
"I'm not too sure, I really doubt that it's Fourth Echelon."
"Why?"
"Last time I checked, Fourth Echelon prefers to stay away from other organisations unless its joint ops. Every time when they plan a mission, they consult with other allied branches to make sure each they're not going to be disturbed or that they're not interfering with anyone else."
"So, basically, make sure everyone stays out of each other's way," said Cover Girl.
Scarlett nodded.
"Though the way how the attack was carried out, suggests Fourth Echelon did do it."
"So Shock and Awe?"
"Not quite, they use stealth and precision, followed by shock and awe. So sneak in, prepare the trap our ambush, and then spring it. So with this attack, these guys infiltrated the base, planted explosives. Detonate them, and then mop up."
XXxxXX
Manor…
John and Li were watching CNN on TV in the theatre room.
"So, how do you think those snakes are doing?" asked Li.
"Probably recovering in shock," replied John as he leaned back into the chair.
"I can't believe we managed to pull that stunt off on the Flagg."
"I can't believe that the Pelican managed to survive."
"The bird was shredded. But still operational."
The holotank started to ping. John tapped in a few commands into his tacpad to let the message through.
"Hey Chief," said Cortana as her avatar appeared.
"Cortana," replied John, "what do you have for us?"
"I've been analysing some data from that Cobra base, nothing much, just a couple of profiles, and also we need to find a source of income, instead of just wiring money."
"How about electronics?" suggested Li, "manufacturing electronic goods."
"Sounds like a good idea," said John, "but where do we start?"
"We could do things like creating video editing programs and computer manufacturing," said Li.
"So you guys want to do an electronics company right?" said Cortana.
Both Spartans nodded.
"You two, want to jump into a market that is dominated by other companies?"
The Spartans nodded again.
"We'll just improve the technology they have," said John.
"That might work," pondered Cortana.
"Okay then," said John, "Cortana, prep a few engineers to come down here, Li and I are going to go shopping."
"What do you plan on doing?" asked the AI.
"We can't use UNSC tech for financial needs," answered the Master Chief, "it's illegal, so our best option is to upgrade already available tech."
"Very well then, I'll get the forms ready, Chief."
…
The two Spartans dressed in smart casual clothing with thick coats, before the stepped out into the winter night. This time, they decided to leave the Audi behind and selected a black BMW X5.
The engine roared to life and the Spartans departed from the estate and drove back into New York City.
Once again, the two found themselves in the bustling nightlife as they moved from store to store, examining and purchasing a couple of electronic goods. This was a tedious task, as Li and John had to buy one or two goods from a store, head back to the X5 to deposit all, then go search for another store to buy from, as so to not arouse suspicion.
"You know John," said Li, "I think it would have been easier if we had ordered online."
"Point, but online would take a while," replied John, "Remember, we're buying small products, not Computers. Computers we buy online."
"If you say so, oh yeah, what are we going to do for dinner?"
"Order pizza."
"Sounds goods."
Once the Spartans had finished their shopping, John drove the X5 to a pizzeria. As the two stepped out of the vehicle, they received numerous glances, just like before.
Except this time, John's skin had a more natural skin tone.
"So, what should we get?" asked Li as he pushed his glasses up.
"Four meatlovers?"
"Deal."
The two cued up, though Li noticed that a large number of patrons were glancing at them, the women in particular.
"Is it just me, or are we attracting a lot of attention?" queried Li.
"We're seven feet tall, and solid muscle," smirked John, "what do you expect?"
"Thought so," said Li dryly, "well as long as we stay away from bars and clubs, we won't be bothered, I hope."
"Li, we'll be fine."
Soon it was the Spartans' turn to order.
"Hello, how can I help you?" asked the young woman behind the counter.
"Hi," responded John, "can I get four large meatlovers pizza please."
"Four large meatlovers, sure thing," said the cashier as she entered the order, "can I get a name please?"
"John."
"Okay then, that'll be forty dollars."
John handed the money.
"Thank you, you're pizza will be ready in twenty minutes."
The Chief gave a curt smile before finding a seat. The wall mounted LCD TV caught the attention of the two Spartans. The news caster was talking about the current crisis in the middle east, specifically Libya.
"After heavy fighting this week, Rebels with the aid of NATO air support have managed to press their advantage into the few remaining strongholds of loyalist forces. Fires and anti-craft light the night sky while sporadic gunfire dominates the streets. There have been reports of Cobra presence in the area, but so far are unconfirmed."
The news report soon ended and switched to something else.
"On a related incident, Cobra forces have conducted another raid on outlying settlements in Africa and Asia. It is believed that they are kidnapping people for indoctrination or slavery. The Chinese government have begun deploying troops to protect their provinces. However, some African nations have ill-equipped armies and are asking aid from Private Military Corporations and Developed Nations."
"Looks like Cobra's got a grip on the poor areas," commented Li.
"We'll deal with them soon."
…
"Order for John."
The Spartan then went up to pick the pizza boxes.
"Need help their?" asked Li.
John handed Li two boxes.
"Let's go."
The Spartans headed back to the X5 and drove back to the manor.
"So, we're actually going to establish an electronics company," stated Li.
"That's the plan."
As John and Li settled down in the dining room to have dinner, Cortana appeared on the holotank.
"Well guys, I managed to find a suitable plot land for manufacturing. It's an abandoned factory, it's layouts match perfectly for electronics manufacturing, all we need to do, is renovate the place."
"Sounds good," said John, "make sure you fabricate a company that's doing the renovations, well move in and set up, but we'll have the HQ here, so that we can reduce the chance of the engineers being exposed."
"Alright then, in the meantime, I'll find more Cobra bases for you guys to hit."
XXxxXX
It was spring now, the weather was still cold, but the snow was gone, and colour started to return back to the trees, which was further accentuated by the sunlight.
The renovations were completed within a month of continuous work from the sentinels. As John and Li looked around, the huge complex, which sat on a twenty hectare block, was now ultra-modern. It was a great improvement from what it used to be, and that was a car factory.
"Part one, done," said Li, "time for part two, innovation."
"That part is done," said Cortana over the comlink, "remember that tablet you guys bought?"
"Which one?" asked John.
"The 4PCpad."
"Yeah."
"The Engineers came up with a more efficient design, which is more powerful yet saves space which allowed more room for the batteries."
"Is the look different?"
"Yes default colour scheme is a deep matte grey."
"Did they develop an OS or do we have to do partnering?"
Cortana gave a light chuckle.
"I know you guys aren't too keen on conferences, so I designed the OS. And if I may say so myself, it's a whole lot prettier and glitch free, I've also created numerous themes for the OS to give the user options."
"Sounds good," said Li, "so have you sent these to beta-testers and critics?"
"Yes, they said they'll get back to me next week, I'm sure that they will be thoroughly happy."
"Okay, talk to you later," said John. The link was then cut.
The front of the complex had a fountain with a sign that said ForerunTech and neatly trimmed trees and hedges. The building was seven storeys tall, with the bottom two serving as the manufacturing section, while the four upper levels served as areas for designing, development, admin, accounting and marketing departments.
Its design was tall white pillars, glass panels and a curving shape accompanied by a green landscape.
Of course, no one worked at ForerunTech yet, but that was soon to change as Li and John would be interview hundreds of applicants soon. Apparently these people were all recent Uni graduates, with fresh ideas, of course some were older, and they would serve as project lead and admins because of their experience.
The idea was that John and Li would pitch some ideas, in which Research and Development would design and develop. The prototype would then be tested, and sent to the Engineers back at the manor for refining. The design will then go back to RnD so that they could take another look at it and see if they wanted to add anything, if so, the later design would be sent back to the Engineers. If not, it would then be sent to beta-testers, if the beta-testers are happy with the product. It is then sent to outside critics and Marketing. Then the green light would be given to the manufacturers to produce the product.
XXxxXX
New York City, Manhattan…
Breaker, Mainframe, Cover Girl and Scarlett were currently off duty, and decided to have a break. First it was a movie at five in the afternoon, followed by a trip to an electronics store.
Breaker and Mainframe were drooling by the time the four reached a tech store.
"Didn't you guys enjoy the movie?" asked Courtney with a small grin, "I mean, it had everything, a thought provoking plot, sci-fi, explosions, and so on."
"Yeah, that's nothing compared to this," said Breaker.
"Damn straight, Abel," said Mainframe, "that's why we're pre-ordering."
"Huh, I thought you guys would've ordered online," said Scarlett.
"Well how are we going to get that delivered?"
"Good point, but what's with all the hype?"
"It's the FT1-Netbook, made by ForerunTech," answered Breaker, "it's the most powerful Netbook currently on the market, dual ten-inch touch screens, and its battery life lasts for twenty four hours when running all out. It also has a unique operating system, which critics say is easy to use and brilliant."
"Twenty four hours running all out?" Scarlett then gave a low whistle, "that's impressive."
"Downside is that they made the baby a solid skin, so you'd probably end up destroying the thing when taking it apart," said Mainframe.
"They don't want anyone to know their trade secret," added Breaker.
"When is it being released?" asked Cover Girl.
"At first it was going to be a month," said Breaker, "but since so many people pre-ordered it, the dates been pushed back to two months, so that they can make enough."
"How big is ForerunTech anyway?" asked Cover Girl.
"Not that big," Breaker answered, "they only have a factory and a HQ on the same estate near here."
Interesting, small time Company, makes a product and will soon swim with the big fish, thought Scarlett.
"When were they founded?"
"A month ago," replied Mainframe, "wired isn't it? A Company just pops up a month ago with no partnerships, and starts making top of the line products."
Strange indeed, pondered the redhead.
"You think it could be a Cobra front?" asked Cover Girl.
Scarlett shook her head.
"The counter beans behind the desks a thorough, they check everything. This is legit, if it is a Cobra front, the counter beans would've found out. ForerunTech could've been hiding in the shadows, waiting for a good time to come onto the market. Companies do that all the time."
"So, ForerunTech is legit right?" asked Mainframe, "because I really, really want to buy the Netbook."
Scarlett nodded.
XXxxXX
USS Flagg…
It had been a weird past few weeks, Scarlett thought, sitting in her quarters. First it was the two men at the restaurant, followed by the Precision Shock and Awe attack on a Cobra base, accomplished by two men (well, that was what the report says), followed by a gift from the UNSC ONI Section III Spartan-IIs, and finally the appearance of ForerunTech and its soon to be, business boom.
Scarlett didn't believe in coincidences, she always felt the need to trace and verify everything. It was what made her an excellent asset to the CIA, and right now, she wanted to do some snooping around.
She turned on her laptop and waited for the system to come back online. Scarlett then went on the internet and looked into ForerunTech, apparently they already had a website up and running.
Neat page, Scarlett thought, admiring the beautifully designed site. She dug through the site's archives and looked up the heads. Their spokesperson and manager is a woman named Cortana Halsey, who, form the photo, looked quite young and striking.
As Scarlett scrolled down the page her eyes widened, it was the two men she saw from the restaurant, Johannes (John) Sev Clover and Li Yuan.
No they can't be businessmen, they're more like soldiers.
She then decided to run a check on the men's background; it said that they completed Master's Degree in Business and Mathematics.
"But why an electronics company?" muttered Shana.
As she dug deeper, the files revealed that the two men went to the most prestigious academics schools, and shared an interest in technology.
"Okay, but that doesn't explain why they're like Spec Ops."
She remembered how the behaved back at the restaurant, disciplined, fully aware, precise movements.
The Joe pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath and then went back to snooping.
Shana then decided to look up the men's address; the search came up with a high-end estate. Not to mention a big one. As she filtered her way through the files, it was soon revealed to her that the house was hidden behind evergreens, and that there had been massive orders for electronic equipment.
Also, the men's profile description was very similar to the accounts of Cobra survivors on the attack at their base in Germany.
Scarlett's intuition was literally screaming at her by now. Something was up, any normal person would shrug this aside, but Shana knew better, hell, she had uncovered a terrorist attack with less evidence than this.
However, she'd need clearance to look deeper and to continue her investigation. She had a gut feeling that John and Li were involved with the attacks.
Scarlett had to share this with someone, and the first logical choice, was Cover Girl.
XXxxXX
Cortana watched as her friends adapted to civilian life. She was happy for the two Spartans. Her recent scans had picked up massive energy outputs in North Africa. Her recent recons have uncovered numerous forward operating bases near Libyia.
The AI could only guess it was Cobra, with all the turmoil the country and the surrounding regions are in. Cobra could just walk right in and takeover or shape the country in any way it wanted. It could offer deals, with a string attached of course. Or it could come in full force; however that wouldn't be too smart considering that NATO had air superiority in the area. And an act like that could cause a full military confrontation. Obviously a lot of under handing and black ops would have to be used in this situation.
XXxxXX
Well thank you for the support and wonderful reviews so far guys.
To DarrenrEal
I will include the Spartans on Onyx at some point.
(Funny, I read one of Freedom Guard's stories, it was a Vandread crossover, and it also had the Spartans on Onyx as well. Now this is totally coincidental).
The reason why I won't include the Spartans on Onyx yet is because I've already got a concept plot laid out so far and it just wouldn't work having the Spartans on Onyx in it now. So I will include them once I've finished my current plot. Another reason is that there will be a lot of character juggling, which would definitely overwhelm the readers. This also means that I'm keeping the number of characters to a minimum.
If anyone is wondering why I didn't have Jorge, well who's to say I won't have him later? (hint, hint – well that's if you want to.)
Now, when I do include the Spartans on Onyx, I will have a John/Kelly pairing, that's a promise (there just isn't enough of those pairings in the Halo story, and the thing is, this pairing is canon, you'd think there'd be more writers writing about the two, rather than John/Cortana).
…
To Planetarycupcake
The M6C/SOCOM is a stealth weapon, and serves as an excellent sidearm. The M6D isn't suitable for stealth.
Now the MA5B is very inaccurate, that is why I decided to throw in the HARM-001, something that could take down a Brute with just a quick burst.
…
Next instalment will be more action pact. I've worn myself out on my Crysis and Mass Effect Crossover.
Until next time, Kudos.