StarGr4zer

Guilt by Association, p4

Fuck. I can’t believe I slipped up. It was only for one second…Goddamn it. While I was busy watching Farrah amidst the heated arguing, I didn’t see the new enemies move into the area. Damn, they were quick. By the time the shooting started, the Innie leader was dead; took a shot straight through the skull. I saw the other two Innies scatter and bolt for cover but when I traced the shots back to the source, I saw something I didn’t expect; Covenant. Skirmishers atop the structure had got the drop on everyone. I announced the enemy over the comms but it was already too late. The rest of the squad tried for cover but there wasn’t much around.Fortunately for me, Raschek had his eyes on the whole situation in time. Not even five seconds later I heard that explosive crack of his SRS99, a well placed shot headed right for a Covvie skull. That damn thing was loud; I’m glad I had my helmet on. Much to our surprise, Mikaelis came on the radio and ordered us not to kill all the Skirmishers. Jesus, if this wasn’t a fucked op. My guess is that he wanted one alive now that the Innie commander was dead. Why he didn’t order us to capture one of the other Innies was beyond me but I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway. By the time Raschek and I had scanned the rest of the compound, the Insurrectionist forces were scattering. Scattering. Not mobilizing, not retaliating. Something else was going on there, I knew it. Whether Mikaelis did or not was beyond me but I guess that doesn’t matter either. ONI’s business is ONi’s business. A well placed shot from Raschek’s sniper rifle wounded the left leg of one of the Skirmishers, sending him toppling over the edge of the structure. Farrah and ___ provided cover for Mikaelis while he apprehended the Covvie bastard. Since the Innies weren’t concerned with fighting back, at least at the current moment, the squad had a clear shot out of there. Raschek and I stayed atop that cliff to provide cover while they made an exfil from the compound. Lucky for us, we got the chance to give a few stray Innies a proper farewell, complete with a few 14.5x114mm rounds. Once we were all clear of the compound, our Pelican was waiting for us for a quick exfil. As we were loading up to get off that rock I saw several more Pelicans soaring in to drop off Marines. Clean up crew. I guess ONI really didn’t want any loose ends.

Guilty By Association, p3

I don’t think I was prepared for this turn of events. Every soldier realizes they will eventually have to do things they don’t agree with or don’t like; you just never expect it when it happens. You never see it coming until it’s too late. Mikaelis ordered us to round up the civilians and discreetly disarm any nearby Innies. After that, he split up the team. Myself and our sniper, Raschek, took up an overlook position on one of the mountain cliffs. My job was to play spotter while we covered the rest of the squad marching the captives into the middle of the camp. Mikaelis’ goal was to force the Innies’ hand and make them surrender; I didn’t understand one bit.This play was ridiculously confusing to me, unlike any operation I’ve ever been on. Then again, almost every op had been “hold off the Covenant, don’t die in the process”. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling this was one of those old western outlaw movies or some shit; it just didn’t sit right with me. I was helpless to stop Mikaelis from murdering one of the civilians when the Innies didn’t want to cooperate. Surprisingly it seemed that the Innies had somewhat of a conscience because the leader finally came out of his hiding spot, though his greeting was less than friendly. Things got tense and there was a lot of shouting from both sides as the Innies tried to scare off the squad. Mikaelis didn’t seem too worried about it; I could see his creepy, calm demeanor from all the way up on that cliff. He simply stood there with another civilian held at gunpoint while he waited for the Innies to surrender.Mikaelis and the leader exchanged some words but I couldn’t hear them from that distance. Even so, I was too busy worrying about Farrah. Guess that’s why military romances are a bad idea. I wanted to know what she felt about all this as if somehow it would comfort me and reassure me this was totally okay. But I knew the answer. Her family had been killed by an Insurrectionist attack and she hated them ever since. Mine died thanks to the Covenant but I knew better than to ever bring that up when she got upset. It must have been hard for her not to want to pull the trigger right then and there because I know I would have. I was almost ready to do it for her. Or maybe it was just because things were heated and I wanted to avoid anyone on our side getting killed. Either way, I didn’t see what happened next coming at all. I slipped up.

Guilt by Association, P2

     I was surprised by how drastically the terrain changed in only a few miles. It went from bright, sandy beaches to bleak, arid mountain ranges; now I knew why we didn’t deploy straight into their compound. Even as low as they were, the hills and jutting mountains provided plenty of cover and ambush opportunities for the Innies. Approaching stealthily on foot gave us more time to analyze the perfect approach and avoid premature engagement. Despite this, I still had my reservations about working directly with ONI. I’m sure Farrah shared some of my concerns, though she tended to have a different perspective now that she was squad leader. I do have to say it’s rather disjointing between Sandover’s style of leadership and now The ONI operative’s. While I fully understand a soldier has a duty to obey without question, one can’t help but wonder why they must do the things they do. It wasn’t until after this mission that I started to question ONI’s motives and goals, though none of it mattered in the end. If I dared voice my opinions they might deem me a liability. I began to wonder if I’d ever be absolved of the things they’d make me do.

     Anyway, it didn’t take us too long to find a way into the compound; the Innies were stretched too thin for a base of this size. Once we got inside, things became a little more complicated than we expected. Who knows if Mikaelis, the ONI spook, knew what was really going on. Odds are he knew pretty much everything about the situation and just neglected to tell us. Upon further inspection I found it peculiar that the compound seemed more like a village than anything else. There were makeshift houses and gardens; people were actually living here. Ordinary people. The only difference being that they supported terrorists and murderers; or so we were told. Still, only the militia had weapons and something felt off about raiding a village of people who might have been innocent in all this. I never did get the chance to find out if they were.

Guilt By Association, P1 Our squad, Kilo-Three, had been scooped up by some ONI spook. I didn’t like this at all, but we knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Whether it was due to our service records or simply just because of all the shit we’d seen, no one knew. Except for ONI, that is. So now we had no choice but to do what we were told and suck it up. Isn’t that a soldier’s job anyway? Such a question. Everyone has heard some of the crazy shit ONI’s done over the years, though no one will admit it outright. Smart, because ONI doesn’t play around and everyone knows that too.  This mission was by far a change of pace; ONI was having us go after an Insurrectionist cell on some backwater rock. I don’t know about the others but some part of me felt abstract guilt for not fighting a battle against the Covenant. There was a larger war we needed to be fighting but ONI said “jump”, so we had no choice but to say “how high”.

We weren’t given any details about this op other than that we were doing a typical smash-and-grab. Go in, confuse the enemy, grab a target, and get out. Trouble was, Mr. Spook decided to have us deploy several miles away from their compound instead of the obviously better solution; drop right into the middle of their compound. But hey, I don’t get paid to make those decisions, right? Maybe it was a test, maybe there was something he wasn’t telling us, or maybe he was just being an asshole like the rest of ONI personnel. At least the scenery was nice. 

-Personal Log, Cpl Judas T. Morrison