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Dangerous Voyages [Part 1]
Date: 11 April 2006, 5:29 pm

      Captain Darius "Dart" Striker drummed his fingers on the table near him. He was dressed in the usual ODST uniform, with an indicator of his rank in the army. He had raven black hair, was just over six feet, and his left ear had a bad plasma scar. He had more scars that were not visible under his uniform.
      "Fernir." He said, looking at the hologram display near him. Fernir, a dumb AI appeared on the display. His avatar was the knight in shiny armor, clearly showing his sole purpose.
      "We are near our destination, we will drop in ten minutes." Fernir simply said with that stunning cold voice that seemed to be with every dumb AI there was.
       "We need you on the planet, prepare transfer to the crystal chip." Darius said, choosing few of the selections on his console, preparing Fernir on his side.
      Cirena. Planet that was rich with plants similar to the ones found in the rainforest of earth. And the Covenant didn't glass it for some reason. His team of ODST was to drop down in the city Nykeir and help the remaining forces to defend the city. But the last reports had said that things were going downhill for the humans defending Nykeir.
      Striker smirked as he extracted the data crystal with Fernir and put it in protective sheath in his pocket. It was time to go.
      "This is Captain Striker, we are to drop in eight minutes, and I wanted you ready ten minutes ago!" Striker said over to the com as he went to the chamber with the drop-pods.
      His team was already waiting eagerly, holding their weapons and waiting for the order to get in the pods and expect hell on the surface. Just the thought of that made them chuckle in anticipation. Some had Battle Rifles, some had the Sub Machine Guns, or SMG for short, three of them carried the S2 sniper rifle, two of them actually trained to use them. Everyone had the old fashioned pistol as their sidearm. Few more held shotguns. Dart never liked the new model, and his soldiers had voiced the same complaints also. So he managed to get the old model back and give it to his soldiers.
      "Everyone, get inside the pods!" Striker bellowed over the roar of the engines, making sure that his voice was heard. As he saw that everyone in his team got the clue, he himself got inside his pod, and it locked automatically after he went in.
      Always the chance the insertion angle was off, burning them up before they reached the surface. Always the chance they were put in wrong vector, off their target. Always the chance of hitting something that the pod would never withstand against. Always the chance of dying.
      The ODST never let the odds scare them.
      The low sound, like a pen was clicking.
      The bounce.
      The feeling of weightlessness.
      The feeling of falling.
      The heat.
      "It's too hot!" Someone shouted through the com.
      Darius looked to his right in reflex, though he had no knowing where the soldier was. It was a simple reflex. He knew that if someone was complaining about the heat, they were deadly serious, deadly. Dart checked who had made the transmission through his implant, and he identified the soldier as private McHale. He heard him screaming through the com, and did everyone else a favor by turning off the com for McHale, leaving him the only one who heard him. The screaming ceased, and Darius marked him as KIA. A second later he felt a hard bump as his pod landed down. The small charges in the doors detonated, blasting the sealed doors out and away from Darius. He stepped out, dual-wielding his SMG at the reading and looked around.
       "Bad news Captain." Central, one of his more trusted privates in his team stepped forth towards him, holding her shotgun. "We were dropped off course by a click." She said, then broke eye contact and looked for any targets. She might not be carrying any good weapon for mid-range combat as her Captain expected to be in, but she was an excellent spotter.
      Darius nodded, and then went on his com. "This is Captain Striker of the ODST group sent to your position. We have fallen off course, and may request a retrieval from anyone that is available from your team."
       "Darn, you were brought off course? I am triangulating your position, but I bet those bastards are doing exactly the same thing. I got two locals with me who might be able to lead a small team to your position quickly as possible, but I recommend that you meet half-way. I am sure the duo can find you. We are north-north-west of you. Over and out."
      Darius stood silent for a second, wondering why the commander had broken contact so quickly. Then he realized if the base knew their location, the Covenants were also moving towards them. The commander had simply done him a simple favor. "We are moving people. North-north-west of here. That is our target." Striker called and used a hand gesture which clearly meant 'move it!' Everyone gave a slight nod, around third of the team mumbled 'yes sir' and they advantaged to the narrow streets of Mossfell.

       "Disgusting humans." Olma Sernkalee, high ranked elite said as checking the reports he had gotten. A human ship had managed to slip past their undermanned orbital post, and apparently made a drop with humans. More humans to kill.
       "Hold your jaws tight in my presence." Another elite spoke up. Olma looked around, seeing Dashan Unamee, the voice of Prophet of Guile.
       "I didn't know a voice was here. I will be more careful in the future." Olma was quick to apologize.
       "That doesn't matter. One of the humans who managed to get to the ground, is the sole responsible of death of more than five hundred of us. Not those who he commands, but himself. Prophet of Guile wants him dead. There have been rumors of two lesser humans, who use our weapons like if it were theirs. Prophet of Guile wants you on the case of the human. He is known as Captain Striker. And if you spot those two other humans, make them pay for this indignity to us."
       "I understand." Olma nodded, and bowed. He already had a plan in his head, and it only needed to be accepted and executed. It was going to be easy.

      The silent bike zoomed through the empty streets. Its motor was electric, and the bike was built to be sleek, fast, and silent. It was designed to transport individual troops between places without disturbing the enemy.
      The driver was female, bit skinnier than a healthy individual. She had short red hair, and a S2 on her back. She wasn't dressed in the normal army fatigue, but had no armor on, and her uniform had urban city camouflage pattern. She quickly looked up to check her bearings, and found out she was just about to arrive to the place. The empty streets were almost depressing, as most of the civilians had been transported away to orbit some time ago. There were still some inside the houses, hopelessly clinging onto their last possessions.
       "I'm at the place, sir." She said silently to her com, and pushed the bike inside abandoned building. On the bike itself was a Covenant sniper and a carbine. She took both of the weapons and walked up the stairs of it. She needed to reach the roof.
       "Good." Lieutenant York answered. "Do not open fire on the enemy until the backup team is at the location. They got to pass through here, and the covies know it."
       "What about backup?"
       "When the checkpoint is won, a warthog with supplies will come over, hopefully enough to last you to the base."
      "Acknowledged, over and out."
      She got to the roof, opened the door silently, and listened. There was no sound. The roof was flat, and the railing on it had been taken off. As it was, any sniper on it was vulnerable from above.
      But not with the changes made. Near the edge of the roof, there was a small cover. A metal frame had been put there, and covered with painted material that seemed to blend in perfectly with the roof, making it seem like a part of the roof than anything else. The space in the frame was enough for a person to crawl in lying and have a great view over the alley and the connecting streets to it. She went down and crawled backwards in the cover. As she adjusted herself in it, she put the Covenant sniper next to her, the carbine also went there, and her ammo pack was put on the right side, so she could get ammo and reload as quickly she could. She took out four reloads of S2 ammo and put next to her head. The S2 went in front of her, and the tripod on it was extended. She rested the S2 down and checked how much area she could cover. She deemed it enough so she wouldn't have to adjust herself later or now.
      All she could do now was to wait.

      One ghost came, and a next one came few seconds later. Anne checked her rifle silently, and looked through the scope. It was just scouts, but if she was unlucky, a whole team would follow, determined to defend the checkpoint.
      Luck was not with her. The one leading the team was an elite donned in red armor. He looked around quickly, and Anne could swear she heard him laugh. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts and stay calm. There was too much at stake. She hoped she would hear the ODST come before the Covenant. Without it, the city would be lost, and the planet. There was something about it that made the Covenant wary, and unable to glass it to kingdom come.
      She trained her sniper on the red elite, tracking its every movement. But she saw jackals holding those beam rifles. There was always one on lookout, while two others were walking around, seemingly following no path at all. She moved her aim to the jackal on the ready, as it was checking the street the ODST was to come through. Anne paused as she thought she had heard something. But the frame was obstructing her view behind her. She wouldn't shoot until she knew the ODST were there.
      A fragmentation grenade flew in the air and landed near a trio of grunts and exploded. That was her signal. She shot the sniper. Another grenade flew in the air and landed near a blue armored elite, but it was not enough to kill it, but just to stun its shields. The Covenants were shooting back.
      Anne shot the other two snipers, and a grunt manning a turret. She quickly reloaded, and put two shots straight at the red elite's head. The first shot killed the elite's shields, and the second one went clean through the skull. There was a returning fire from the ODST, but just battle rifles.

       "Battle Rifles, go!" Captain Striker shouted. The Covenants had been lousy at concealing their presence at the crossroads, so he had gotten enough time to get a strategy together and find a way to eliminate the enemy that stood between him and the base.
      The sniper had been just an added bonus to the mix, but unpredictable.
      He quickly saw the gas trail from the sniper, and the source of it. He noticed that the sniper was aiming at the elites rather than any other enemy.
       "Jackals and grunts, our help is on the elites." He ordered, but then an elite on a boosted ghost zoomed past his dying comrades, and went directly over to the marines.

       'I had forgotten about those!' Anne thought, distracted for a second. But her attention was then diverted to a familiar humming sound, a phantom was approaching. She stopped firing, as the phantom was not going overhead, but had stopped somewhere behind her. She felt that the time to leave her cover was soon, if not already. She took the risk, and stayed put.

      Dart jumped out of the way of the ghost, but Central on the other hand jumped on it. The elite roared in anger, and boosted in hope of letting her drop off. She barely hung on the ghost with one hand as her other one reached for her belt. She took a grenade, took the pin out, and threw it in the compartment, hoping it would stay there. The elite didn't seem to notice that move, but Central let go of her grip and rolled off the ghost as it slowed down for a second to make a turn. The grenade detonated, and took the elite and the engines with it. Central sat up hunched, looking back at the ruined ghost. She took up her pistol and went back to where she had been. She was not about to leave her trusted shotgun.
      The second ghost had met a similar fate in the meantime, but had never been able to reach the ODST team. With the joined fire from the ODST troops and the sniper, the enemy had been quickly eliminated.
       "We did it." Someone said.
      Dart on the other hand looked at the building the sniper was on top of. "The sniper knows he should come with us. He isn't coming down." He said low. "There is something wrong." And as the sentence dropped from his lips, a phantom zoomed over them quickly, but hadn't made any stop or fired at the marines.
       "What the?"
       "Why didn't it shoot?"
      Dart put two to guard the back, while the others were focused forward. There was low sound of buzzing.

      Anne was frozen in her position. She heard the buzzing loud and clear, and knew who was just a meter beside her. They hadn't discovered her, yet. 'Darn drones, ruining my fun.' She thought to herself, trying to ignore her fear and keep herself as still as possible.
      She didn't know what happened, but moment later, one of the insects looked inside her cover. She raised her rifle straight at it in trained reflex and discharged her weapon. The blood, and grayish matter splattered on the roof and her rifle.
       "Well, shit." She said as the buzzing became louder. She collapsed the tripod and raised her carbine, ready for anyone else peeking in.

       "Open fire!" Dart ordered. The sniper was in danger, and since there was no Covenant visible at the streets, keeping the sniper safe was the priority of the minute. Those with battle rifles fired at the drones, and the others joined in with their handguns. He heard unusual sound of firing from the roof.
       "Was that a carbine?" He asked to no one in particular. "Darryl, Mike! Go up there!" He ordered, pointing at two of his ODST. They nodded, and went inside the building. As they reached the top, there were just two drones left, and both around the covered frame. Their full attention was on the one inside the frame, giving the two ODST clear shot at them. Just two burst from the battle rifles, and they were down. Anne saw that she had received aid from the ODST and crawled from her shelter, looking at the two ODST who stood just scant meter away.
       "That was a lovely bike downstairs, yours?" Mike asked Anne.
       "The marines', but it is drained at the moment. The battery has gone flat." Anne answered as she went down the stairs. "I'm going to leave it there for some time, not like the Covenants have a use for it."
       "It's policy to trash our tech so that the Covenant won't get it." Darryl said in a serious tone and conjured up a fragmentation grenade.
      Anne gave a huff in dissatisfaction. "I understand that." She said in a menacing tone. "Allow me." She said as she brought up a plasma grenade.
       "Wait, how did you get that?" Mike asked, but then finally noticed that Anne was carrying Covenant weapons, a beam rifle and a carbine.
       "Just some things I nab." She said, went to a save distance from the bike and threw the plasma grenade. It flew straight and true, tagging on the engine compartment. She took cover with the others just before the grenade detonated.
       "I loved that bike." She said and shrugged. "Rules are rules, and I better not get on the captain's bad side." She chuckled and walked out of the building.
      Striker turned around as he had heard the detonation, but as he saw his soldiers, and the female sniper accompany them, he knew there was nothing wrong at all. Anne gave him a salute, meeting a captain of an ODST team for the first time.
       "At ease." Striker said and looked at the beam rifle strapped to her back. "Nice weapon."
       "There are three among the bodies if you are interested in one." Anne answered. "I better call in the ammo hog." She took up a com and gave a signal through it even before Striker had a time to react.
       "Ammo hog?" Someone asked.
       "Are you saying you don't need some more guns and ammo?"
       "That would be appreciated." Striker said. "We got to establish a ground here first. This is too perfect place for the Covenant to sneak up back at us. It is better to have a warthog with us protecting our six than not to have one."
       "Alright." Anne said as going over to the dead Covenant troopers.
       "Aren't you bit too much in the open, sniper?" Central asked, looking over Anne as she checked the Covenant weaponry, setting aside couple of fully charged plasma rifles, beam rifles, but carbine ammo found its way to her backpack.
       "Maybe, maybe not." Anne answered cold. "It's Private Verant."
       "Corporal Central." Central answered. "What are you doing?" She asked, picking up a plasma pistol and examining it. She had seen several marines drop down from being hit by overcharged shot from that weapon, as it could melt the armor on them and smother it into their skin. It was never a quick or pretty death. Not one of the deaths you told others you witnessed.
       "My bro studies them, he takes the rifles and pistols while I get the snipers and carbines." She said as yanking the plasma pistol from Central and putting it with the two plasma rifles. "Did you know for example that a charged shot from one of these kills any shielding system?"
       "Even the elites'?" Central asked surprised, and took off her helmet.
       "Even the high ranked ones'." Anne answered calmly.
       "What kind of elites have you encountered? You and your brother." Central asked, trying to get some short of confirmation.
       "I barely managed to kill a black clad elite once, but my bro managed to kill a golden one easily using the plasma pistol and a battle rifle. I have heard of white elites, but we have never encountered them, so I think that is just a rumor."
       "The white ones do exist. You just haven't been taking missions of high level." Central answered with a smirk.
      Anne looked up at her, surprised. "You know, if you hadn't taken off the helmet, I wouldn't know if you were kidding or not."
       "Which one do you prefer? What you know now or the benefit of the doubt?"
      Anne was silent for a second. "The option with the helmet on." She answered.
      Striker looked at them two working together checking the Covenant weapons over, probably for the same reason she carried that Covenant rifle. Suddenly, he felt something. He couldn't pin it down, but he knew it was bad. Seconds later, he heard the sound loud and clear.
       "Phantom on the way!" Striker yelled out.
       "Shit!" Anne yelled, dropping the extraneous weapons she had and went to the nearest cover she found, a large concrete block. Central followed her closely, diving behind it as the phantom came into view. Not a moment later, the turrets on the lower half begun firing.
       "We are pinned down." Anne said low, assessing the situation.
       "No duh!" Central said. "The beam rifle is quite powerful, can't you shoot at the turrets?"
       "No. It takes a whole battery to take disable one turret. And if you didn't notice, this is not the perfect sniping perch here."
       "Then what can take a turret down?"
       "I don't know, a rocket, plasma grenade…"
       "We don't have the rockets, they were supposed to come in the next drop of ammo. What about the plasma grenades?"
       "If you want to get out in the open to get them. I had one, but had to use it to torch my bike. Regulations, you know."
       "This is an interesting situation to be in." Central said as a carbine shot hit one ODST square in the face as he had been shooting at the turret. "They are here, and we are not ten meters away from them."
      Anne took up a frag-grenade, and had her finger ready to pull out the pin. "On three." She mouthed.
      Central nodded and took up her remaining fragmentation grenade. Anne did the countdown, and then they turned around, stood up so they could see past the concrete block. They saw the enemy firing at the ODST further down the street, and just one grunt noticed them. Simultaneously, they pulled the pins out and threw the grenades. Both of them landed just scant centimeters away from the red elite. They ducked down, took up their weapons, and just moment after the detonation of the grenades, they stood up and fired at the remaining Covenant.
      The phantom turned its attention to the enemy that was too close for comfort, and it begun to fire at the concrete block. The duo ducked down in time.
       "Now what?" Anne said.
       "Wait for backup." Central said positively. She had barely heard something through the wild firing. Second later, Anne heard machine gun nearby, going at it against the turrets. She peeked out behind her cover, seeing the warthog coming, diverting the phantom's attention towards it. She leapt forward, to one of the elites that had fallen. Quickly, she found the plasma grenades, took it up, detonated, and threw it at the turret. The warthog had already taken care of one of them, and the plasma grenade landed and stuck directly at the other turret. As it detonated, the phantom retreated, as if the pilot knew that he couldn't do anything more against that determined collection of humans.
       "Baldvin!" Anne called as she realized who had come. The phantom was gone, no more living enemies around, and the zone appeared clear.
       "Sis. How was duck-hunting?" Baldvin answered, jumping out of the driver's seat. He was also young looking, and had black crew-cut hair. He was of excellent physique for a general soldier.
       "Boring as usual. I see you took James with you." Anne gave a slight nod to the marine manning the turret.
       "He wanted to come, you know how hard it is to say no to him." He said. "Bring the weapons we want to the truck."
       "Okay." Anne said, and picked up the Covenant weapons she had collected earlier.
      Baldvin was armed with a battle rifle, but had a plasma rifle clipped on his belt. He jumped out of the car to find the captain. He recognized Striker right away from his posture and the insignia on his upper arm. "Captain Striker?"
      Striker looked at Baldvin. "Yes?"
       "I got a message for you. There is a problem we are facing at the moment, big trouble, and we need your help with it. That is why your drop had been hastened so quickly."
       "What is it?" Striker went straight to the point.
       "Captain Lewis wouldn't tell me, he wants you to meet with him as soon as you come over." Baldvin turned around and went back to the warthog, but after few steps, he looked back to Striker. "I'm glad you are here." He said.
       "Private." Striker said in commanding tone.
       "Yes sir?" Baldvin quickly realized his rank and how Striker was above him.
       "You go back to the six with the hog." He said calm.
       "Yes sir!" Baldvin saluted and went to the warthog.

Dangerous Voyages [Part 2]
Date: 15 April 2006, 12:33 am

      The ride to base was as uneventful as a picnic in the middle of nowhere. It was like the ants knew better than to disturb that little band of marines and ODST that were going through the city.
      Striker skimmed the space for a short time before heading in. There were marines guarding the base, and few guarding the perimeter and not visible unless you knew where they were. Shortly after entering, Darius was met with the captain of the base, Jack O'Neal.
       "Captain Striker I presume?" He said, skipping the salutation as there was no need for it, captain to a captain.
       "You know my name, can I know yours?" Striker said formally. He heard his own team members come inside, with the three marines who had joined the group.
       "I am Captain O'Neal. I got the message you have a combat strategy AI with you?" He enquired, hoping that it was true, and the crys hadn't been damaged in the drop and the battles.
       "That is true, we call him Fernir." Darius said, and took up the crys out of his pocket. "I was told from the marine over there you got important message for me." He said, pointing backwards at Baldvin. Baldvin looked up, seeing the gesture towards him, but knew that if his presence was needed, they would call. After few seconds, he went back into analyzing the weapons Anne had collected.
      O'Neal nodded. "Come with me captain Striker." He turned around and walked away. Darius was quick to catch on and followed him.
      After short walk in the corridors, they arrived in a small briefing room, clearly intended just for higher ranked officers. O'Neal called up a holograph, displaying a Covenant vessel, one of the smaller kinds.
"This is a supply vessel, intended to bring more weapons and ammo to the enemy. It has met with an engine failure midway, and we have successfully kept the enemy here distracted that they haven't sent anyone to fetch the ammo. Then again, we estimate the weapon and ammo quantity to be more than enough to beat us. We cannot allow that to happen."
       "I see that my timing is good." Darius answered, putting his hands behind his back out of habit.
       "Try perfect. I have heard you have done a successful insertion into enemy ship." O'Neal sighed. "You, and your team, might be all that we need to keep ground and find out what the heck is keeping them from glassing this planet to kingdom come."
      Darius nodded and relaxed. "We got into one, and blew it up. High command wasn't that happy about it. Something about missing an opportunity to use their technology."
       "I don't care, we already know how to kill them, and anyway, this ship isn't equipped with their kill-beam, so there isn't much we would miss anyway." O'Neal laid it thick on that he also had distaste for ONI's requests.
       "Then we can agree on one thing." Darius said. "For this insertion mission, I need all my ODST helljumpers, and around twenty-thirty of your troops."
       "Twenty, no more, no less." O'Neal said sharply, as he was not ready to give up many of his men to the seemingly suicide mission.
       "They will all be volunteers. I do not force anyone doing such dangerous missions." Darius said. "But before we go about collecting them, time to check how to do the approach." Darius took out the crys containing Fernir and put it in the interface.

      Olma Sernkalee walked slowly after the corridor of the vessel. He was used to the much finer ships that were designed to hold the important prophets and their accompanied armies of soldiers that did not want to do anything more than die for them.
      As he arrived in the engine room, he noticed how Teya'kreleyee was ordering some of his elites to put up turrets by the structure beams. Teya'kreleyee was a golden armored elite, and deserved his rank after all the years in service. If anything, he was the one for the mission because of his undying will for the Prophets and Forerunners. He was though still at a rank where he would be on the field because that was where his talents were put to the best use.
       "I see that your talents are not wasted. You know how serious this mission is." Olma said. "I heard you have also rerouted a complete access point to the engine control room."
       "I have." Teya said flatly. "I have also hired Tanka Kerntee for hunter training, he is preparing two pairs for their special purpose."
      Olma paused for a second, gathering together what he was hearing. "Tanka is known for quite, unorthodox options of what the hunters should be used for."
       "Which is exactly why I requested his talents. The human you described is not to be toyed with. What I heard, he led a team and destroyed one carrier, causing death of three prophets." Teya said, surveying the room, checking for whatever augmentations he could add on it.
       "It was just one prophet." Olma said. He even though the prophet of Guile wanted the human dead, Olma didn't see what was so much trouble about him. He had killed many covenants, but the humans were a dying race, and the covenant outnumbered them by far. Such human was of course a pest, but did it deserve so much preparation?
       "It was one too many! The normal humans are just nuisance, but this one, goes as far as killing a prophet! We cannot afford to be sloppy when taking him down. Don't worry, I have just what we need to kill him. The hunters are just a small part of the plan." Teya proclaimed. "I will not even try to get him on my own. Why do you not join this feast about to ensue? I have gotten confirmation that the humans have taken the bait."
       "I got further issues to deal with. I am to lead an expedition against the humans and find the location of the artifact." Olma answered. "I want a report from you when you have finished the preparations, and when that infidel is dead."
       "It will be done." Teya answered and walked out of the control room. Olma gave a satisfied huff, and went out of the room through a different door.

       "Welcome, I am glad to see so many, though only twenty of you will join us. I fully expect that few of you will actually volunteer once they hear the nature of this mission." Captain striker said over the group. There were over seventy marines in the briefing room, all awaiting hearing what was going to happen.
       "In two hours, we are to be deployed near a Covenant supply vessel, called the Obedient Servant. Our objective is to get in it, and destroy it. ONI actually wants it in one piece, but I am not the person to try to keep something like that without blowing it up if it means death of my marines and helljumpers.
       "We will basically get in, kill everyone who stands in our way, win over the control room and defend it at all cost until our objective, to destroy it, is put to plan. I have led a mission like this before, but it was different. This will be more difficult, and it is actually hard to see if we will get out of it alive. The vessel is located six hundred clicks from here, suffering from an engine failure. This is our chance.
       "This is basically a suicide mission, and I am looking for volunteers. Remember, this vessel is here to give the covies here more weapons and ammo, which could turn the tide in their favor. I need well rested individuals who are willing to do this." Darius felt he had conveyed enough for them to know about, and his pause indicated he was ready for questions.
      No one asked a thing, feeling that they had enough information. Many hands went up in the air, and Striker checked over each volunteer, checking if they had what it took. Three of those he accepted were the three young marines he met while going over to the base. He knew the sniper and her brother had valuable and useful knowledge about the Covenant weaponry, and James was brave enough for a mission like that.
      They all had a moment rest, an hour nap for those who could get it. Darius didn't know how long the mission could last, or even if they could get some breather in it. He wanted well rested soldiers who were ready to be awake for forty-eight hours or more.

Dangerous Voyages [Part 3]
Date: 25 April 2006, 12:23 am

      Three pelicans awaited them by the hangar bay. The ODST occupied the first pelican and filled most of the second, while the marines took the third, and few of them went in the same pelican the rest of the ODST were. The siblings were one of them.
      Baldvin made a quick glance around the pelican, checking out those who would be with him in the mission. He stopped by one of the ODST, who held a battle rifle, but had a needler clipped on his belt.
       "Do you have a death wish or something?" Baldvin said, drawing Anne's attention at the same moment. She though sat back and watched her brother. Insulting someone outright may not be the best thing to do.
      The ODST raised his head, obviously having tried to catch some sleep on the way over to the DZ. "Eh?" He muttered, then saw where Baldvin was looking. "Ah, you mean this?" He said and picked up his needler. "Has been with me for some time now."
      Baldvin shrugged. "I may have some liking to Covenant weapons, but when I tried out the needler ended up with me almost dying."
       "You have been using it wrong, with enough practice and knowledge, one is able to master it like a sniper would master an S2 and make it obey every command." The ODST said, putting the needler back. "Private Rint Dergate. Helljumper."
       "Baldvin Verant, Just a normal marine." Baldvin answered, and pointed to his plasma rifle. "I am not the only one figuring out that Covenant weapons are useful against them." He pointed to his sister, who showed her carbine.
       "Good luck on the mission." Rint said, then leaned back and closed his eyes.

       "Alright, we cannot settle by the gravlift, but there was a squad of marines sent here to clear the area for us, since we lack any real vehicles. When we settle down, scant eight hundred meters away from the gravlift, you may be hearing how the scorpions and warhogs are taking care of the opposing forces that drop down the gravlift. We may run into some opposition that got through on the way, but I doubt they will be able to beat us. We are dropping down in eight minutes." Darius Striker turned off the com unit, and put it in its place. He gave a low sight, but knew that if things were seriously wrong, he would know it in time. For him, the mission was to destroy the ship with multiply satchel charges located in strategic positions. ONI wanted though that the ship would be brought down without any damage to it. Darius was not the person to obey ONI's orders so lightly. He simply didn't care about them, only about facing Covenants and surviving, and with a hope that who he stroke down would set back the Covenant enough for humankind to deliver a final blow and win the war.
      Everyone who was asleep was woken up by the sudden yank to the pelican as it surged downwards quickly. The whole area was canyons and miniature valleys. It was remains of a river that had dried away long time ago. There were some occasional shrubs and trees, but nothing good enough to provide cover other that few tall rocks which had chipped from the edge of the canyon walls long time ago.
      Anne swung her S2 rifle forward, looked through the scope and activated the night vision setting on it. She made a quick look through the area forward of her. After few seconds of checking it out, she lowered the rifle, and brought forth her carbine. She looked at her brother, and shook her head. She hadn't seen anything in the faint twilight.
      Darius looked over the group that had come from the three pelicans, and as he assured himself those he had were enough to finish the mission, he brought up his SMGs. "Alright people, radio silence from now on. No unnecessary chatter." Though technically not behind enemy lines, he knew that if the group would be attacked and outnumbered, there would be no backup for them, only a hope that the pelicans wouldn't be attacked as trying to extract them.
      The group was spread to group of seven that had some distance between each other. All in order to keep from them all getting boxed in an ambush by the Covenant and to keep their six clear and pick up any stragglers who thought it would be a good idea to sneak behind the humans and deliver a fatal blow. A Covenant doing so would be quickly spotted.
      Darius halted his team as he came to a small canyon. There was a nice short winding pass down to it, but below was a small group of Covenants. There were two elites, one in red armor and another one in blue armor. They were ordering a group of grunts around, one of which manning a turret which was aimed directly towards Darius' position. He was simply lucky he hadn't been spotted. The group seemed to be relaxed, and didn't expect any trouble. They had simply figured the humans were now at the gravlift, hopelessly trying to clear that space of Covenant troops, which would in the end overwhelm them.
      Darius silently backed away to his group. "I need the marine sniper." He said quietly, as any loud noise would certainly attract the attention of the Covenant group below.
      Shortly after Anne came through and looked up at Darius, who was head taller than her. "I saw that you carry a covie sniper." He whispered to her.
      Anne didn't reply in words, but brought forth the beam rifle she had on her back.
       "Good. There are two elites there, take them out with that weapon. It should leave the enemy confused enough to halt firing and trying to figure out what friend had shot at them. I didn't spot any jackal snipers."
      Anne nodded, and crept towards the edge. She was joined with two marines holding battle rifles, ideal for sniping down the grunts from a longer distance. She looked through the scope, checking out the two elites. She quickly switched between them, training herself to their moving pattern and found out how to take them out as quickly as possible.
      She was ready, exhaled and pulled the trigger as she aimed to the red elite's head. The elite roared in angered surprise as hit by a Covenant beam rifle. He looked to the edge where the shot had originated, but saw no jackal. Instead he saw the second purple beam of light go towards him. That was the last thing he saw.
      The blue elite saw what had happened, then roared and shot his plasma rifle at where he figured the shot had come from. The shots hit only scant centimeters away from Anne, who squeezed the trigger for the last time, delivering a killing headshot to the blue elite. She heard a loud clank sound from the rifle has it had overheated and now opened up the energy chamber to cool itself off. The ODST with her dealt with the grunts quickly. Within seconds, the small party of elites and grunts were all dead, leaving Darius and the rest of his team to go down to the canyon without any trouble.
      Without any more opposition, they came to the valley where the gravlift was located. Darius motioned Central to look around, his best spotter, but she didn't see or hear anything. On the edges of the valley were three scorpions and a dozen of warthogs of both types.
       "What is the status?" Darius broke the radio silence by contacting the Lieutenant in charge.
       "Been quiet for some time, but we had encountered few heavy infantry, but we dealt with them swiftly." The answer came to Darius' personal com channel.
       "Anything I should be worried about?" Darius asked, hoping to get no surprises on the way to the gravlift.
       "We don't expect any enemy to come down now. But once you are near the gravlift, there is nothing we can do with the scorpions, or you would be caught in the splash damage. The hogs will be though on the ready."
      Darius was silent for a moment, then figured there was nothing more to ask about. "Thank you, over and out." He closed the link to the lieutenant, then opened another one to his group. "Regroup at my position, we are going in." He ordered.
      It took just few minutes for the lingering teams of seven to catch up, and once they all were there, they headed to the gravlift base. As they arrived, they waited for half a minute, waiting for any enemy to come down they would have to deal with. But it appeared that the Covenant didn't care.
      Darius stood in front of them, and took a deep breath. He had also the com open for those who might not hear him in the back.
       "This is it. I have gone before inside something like that, and I know what we will see. Fernir was also generous enough to get into their network and find the blueprints for the cruiser. It is a standard cruiser.
       "When we get inside, you will be in a square room. On each side are four doors, four of them large ones to open the way for heavy vehicles. As soon as we get inside, I want two guards at each of the small ones, and five guards for the bigger one. It is going to be 'first come, first get' kind of way. Then, we can continue planning and split us into three groups, each with its own objectives."
      He looked over the group, and saw that everyone, even the marines, were ready. There was no question of it. He had spotted fire in some of the marines' eyes.
       "Go inside! Now!" He waved his hand in a signal, and jumped on the platform. Next to him was a severed arm of a hunter, with shield. Before him was charred remain of a wraith. He wondered for a second if that would hinder them access up to the ship, but as he felt his body surge upwards, he didn't wonder anymore, and looked forward, waiting for his transportation into the ship.
      Darius felt the cooper taste in his mouth. He had gotten the same taste when he went up a gravlift for the first time. He quickly looked around, trying to spot any enemy, but there was no Covenant around. He saw some of the marines trotting along, checking the area out, and some that hurried to a door that was in need of a guard.
       "The big ones open in the middle!" Darius called. Central walked to him, acting more like a body guard than an underling to Darius.
       "Central?" Darius asked.
       "Nothing in here." She said glancing over the room for the final time. "We are clear for now, and with guards posted, we are ready to split into groups."
      Darius nodded. "Alright. Lieutenant York, come here for a second." He motioned a marine leader. "Central, York, you saw the plans with me, and I hope you had them memorized." He said, and looked at them both. They both nodded in a response.
       "Central, your objective is the engine room, but you will go past the control room. ONI contacted me at the last second, so I cannot take that one down before you reach there. They want me to get few things they think are located in one room in the ship. It is too far from the control room for me to secure it properly. York, you will go to the weapon storage, and check the inventory. You need to find out if they have shipped weapons to the Covenant fighting at Nykeir. Secure it. Though you would want the siblings with you, those who use the covenant weapons, they are going with Central to the control room.
       "Central, when you have secured the control room, notify me so we can make it a RZ, for a regroup and improve the plans in case something went in the way. As of the teams, I have selected a group of ODST to go with me, York, you have most of your marines, hopefully selected beforehand."
       "I have." York answered quickly.
       "And the rest will go with Central." Darius gave a reassuring nod. Central was about to say something, but figured that it was Darius who was in more need of ODST troops for whatever ONI mission he had been commissioned to do. It was not in Central's place to doubt her superior's orders.

Dangerous Voyages [Part 4]
Date: 4 May 2006, 8:51 pm

      Teya'kreleyee stood by the control room, looking over the group of eight able elites, large group of grunts and the hunters he had done a special order for from Tanka Kerntee. A Hunter and his bond brother with no fuel rod gun or shield attachment, instead they each had two slender metallic gloves with three razor sharp claws attached to it, and in the center a wicked looking energy blades extended in a graceful manner and sloped into a hock, it was a deep white-blue color and was just as powerful as the normal energy sword making the two Lekgolo a ferocious pair.
      The six of the elites were each armed differently, to provide enough diversity to scare the humans into fleeing, and give the elites enough time to kill them. Two of the elites had jetpacks, and were to man the turrets fastened on the horizontal ceiling beams. Two of the grunts were fast asleep, much to Teya's dislike. He barked quickly at them, ordering them to put up the turrets. The humans were inside, and they had to be ready.
      Teya activated his plasma sword, gave a loud dominating growl, and went back to the console, tracking down the human's movements. Much to his dismay, the humans had split in three, and he didn't know which one of the humans was the commander he had been ordered to kill. But that wouldn't be much of a problem. The humans were just humans. How hard could it get to kill that one? Or all of them?
       "Are you sure about this strategy?" One of the elites, wielding two battle rifles, asked Teya.
       "Yes, there is no question of it. The humans will be confused, and with that lower their guards. We are trailing them, and when I give the order, we will strike true and hard. Even though they would disable the groups trailing them, there are still more ahead, ready to slaughter humans for the Forerunners!" Teya said loud, allowing all to hear and boost their morals. Any other day, a simple human was nothing, but since Olma seemed worried, he knew that he had to do something. That the human had destroyed a cruiser of same class, and at the same moment killed a Prophet, was too much for Teya to tolerate. That human had to die.

      Darius didn't hear anything but his and the others' footsteps as they walked after the narrow corridors. He wondered for a second how the hunters would actually maneuver in the corridors. But what worried him the most was that there had been no enemy contact at his team or the other two teams. It was like the ship had been abandoned, it was derelict.
      Darius remembered few of the stories about how people had found ships in slipspace, which was to be impossible. The ships had been devoid of any lifeforms, even basic bacteria. And those who came into it were to have gone mad and killed everyone around them. Those stories were though just for kids, and there was no recorded event of anything like that.
      After a minute walk more, he was face to face with quite normal door, but it wouldn't open. To reach the destination ONI had detailed, he had to get through those doors, there was no detour around them.
       "Milstone!" He called to one of the hackers in the team. "These doors, I want them open."
       "Yes sir!" A Shock Trooper with heavy Texan accent answered, and produced one of his premade hack tools from his backpack. He quickly opened the circuit panel in the doors, and put the hack tool over it. The interface conjured up, and after few commands, the doors opened. Milstone's was though frozen in the moment. His face reflected shock and fright, though not noticeable as he had the standard ODST helmet on.
      Darius noticed Milstone's pause. "What is the matter, you got those doors open."
       "I didn't!" He called loud, as Darius' words was what had gotten him out of the shock.
       "Everyone! Train your weapons!" He called. A moment later a plasma sword seemed to appear out of the thin air, and sliced at Milstone, cutting him clean to two parts.
      Milstone was still alive, the plasma sword had burned the injury before too much blood left the body. He yelled in shock and hysteria, as seeing his torso just out of his reach. The elite who had sliced him had perhaps found the yelling annoying, and under fire from the rest of the team, the next slice went directly in Milstone's head. A moment later the shields died on the elite. The elite then charged the group of marines, ready to slash the sword into the nearest one, but before he could have the opportunity, a burst from a battle rifle had homed in directly in his right eye. Without the protection from the shielding system, it penetrated his eye and pierced the brain, killing him before he fell on the floor backwards.
      Darius quickly looked around, but saw no enemy or shimmer in the air. "This is Captain Striker, we have had positive contact, one down. Report!"
       "This is York, we had a group of jackals attacking us, two down, one injured."
       "Central here, nothing happened, but we are now on high alert. Thanks for the warning. Whoops, spoke too soon."
      Darius closed the contacts, and figured that the casualty in York's team had been because of they hadn't been on alert. 'This is new for me. And I am sure there is nothing like this in the reports.' He thought to himself, then trained his weapon forward. The doors were open, and he had to continue. He stopped though first by Milstone's body, and collected his dog-tags. Now he was ready to continue.

      Central quickly looked back as the lights went out. If anything, she was not ready for an assault on their six. After a second look, she turned forward and saw that most of the ODST on the perimeter were turning on their flashlights, and Anne, the sibling who trained herself with Covenant weapons, had her S2 shouldered and skimmed the area in front of them, checking for any enemy. She was on her knee, in a position where the recoil from the sniper would be minimal.
      Anne saw nothing through the night vision of the scope. She just saw bright light beams originating from her behind, which she deemed to be of flashlights from the friends behind her. After few seconds of silence, and nothing moving in front of her, she was about to drop her S2 and stand up, but a bright beam of light directly in front of her shone directly into the scope.
      Anne recoiled in shock and pain, dropping her S2 and covered her eyes. It felt they were burning, and even though they were closed, she saw spots. The invisible elite had though revealed its location for a split second, and that was all the ODST troops needed to fire. There was short returning fire from the elite, but only managed to graze one marine on the shoulder. It was dead within seconds.
      Anne was slowly recovering, but saw her brother near her, checking if she had sustained any greater injury than the temporarily blindness. Without a word, he handed her one of his plasma pistols, which she accepted. She gave a slight frown, but clipped it onto her belt. Though she was not a big fan of the plasma pistol, she knew that in such narrow space, she might need one. And that her bro would defiantly no approve her rejecting such a gift easily.
       "They're behind us!" Someone called. Before the enemy was even identified, a fragmentation grenade flew to where it was last seen. A shrill, yet rough shriek was heard as the grenade detonated. It had been a jackal. A second one appeared, the shield raised up to protect it, and it proceeded to fire on the marines.
      Before Central could pull the pin on her frag grenade, a charged plasma shot homed in to the jackal's shield. It promptly died from the charged shot, leaving the jackal shocked, but vulnerable to any attack. Central hurried towards it and let a shotgun blast on it, killing it in one blow even before it could react to her.
      There was a silence for few seconds, then Central deemed it clear. She opened up a com to Striker. "No casualties, but they are much more organized than ever. There is something fishy about this."
      Darius heard the message, and answered: "You are not the only one to think that. Proceed to the objective, over and out." He closed the link between them.

      York's team had been so far lucky. It was like the other teams were the ones who were the most threatening. He had though encountered two pairs of jackals and half dozen grunts, accompanied by a cobalt colored elite.
      James looked around quickly, holding his battle rifle up to his chest. He had volunteered for the mission, but now, he was getting scared. He was still relatively young for a soldier, but he had some experience on the battle field, including getting pierced by a plasma sword. He had to get his lung flash-cloned in order to save his life.
      Unlike Central's team, they still had the lights on and working. York led on the group, and James was at the six, occasionally looking back to check if the covies were trying to sneak up to them. York halted for a moment, in the believe he had heard something. As he was ready to brush it off as a field stress, a sizzling blue orb landed just in front of him.
       "Nade!" He yelled in warning and jumped out of the way. He was not caught in the splash damage, but one of his troops were. He quickly stood up and held up his battle rifle, checking out the corridor in front of him, which ten meters ahead had a sharp turn to the right.
       "Frag out!" One in his team yelled as he let a grenade fly straight and true to the edge of the corridor. But as it detonated, only one yell from a grunt was heard. That was not as satisfying as it could, since they knew that grunt never traveled alone, and was most of the time, if not always, commanded by a nearby elite. He motioned two of his troops to head forwards silently to check who was around that bend.
      As they approached the bend, one of them made a quick lean but then withdrew quickly as if he had recoiled in pain. "Black squid!" He yelled as taking out a frag grenade. But the elite had other ideas. It ran forward to the bend, holding up a carbine. York knew that the weapon, with precise aim, would instantly kill a marine. The two marines had quickly gone back to the team as they had heard the elite run to them. One of them, the one who had yelled, was hit in the back.
      York didn't have time to check on him, but released his grenade and let it fly to the black elite. The elite ran forward to avoid the damage from the grenade, and fired his weapon at the same time. One of the shot hit a soldier behind York to the right, but York rose up his shotgun, barely managed to dodge a shot, and pressed the trigger.
      The damage from the shotgun at that close range was enough to kill the shields, and with assisted firing from the rest of the team, the elite died quickly. York checked both of those who had been shot but they were both dead. The one shot in the back had gotten it directly in his spine, killing the nerves connecting to the heart and lungs. The other one had been shot in the head, the carbine ammo had penetrated the helmet.
      York collected their dog-tags, and motioned the rest of the marines to continue. They were not far from their objective. The storage bay which held all the weapons and ammo the covenants fighting may be getting.

Dangerous Voyages [Part 5]
Date: 11 May 2006, 9:35 pm

       "Wow." Escaped Darius' lips. He had been told by ONI that he would know what he was to collect when he saw it, but he never expected to be like that. "What do you think it is?" He asked Lex, one of his experts in Covenant behavior. The question was for Darius to figure out what was in front of him, and what ONI could want with it.
      Lex gave a hum to indicate she was asking for Darius to repeat his question. "I think it is a library." She said, checking over the small racks which contained several data crystals. She ran her fingers over two of the shelves. The alien language on it seemed at first glance to be pictorial, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there was a pattern to it, and an academic professor in languages would notice that there were just forty characters, while hieroglyphs could be up to five thousand images.
       "There must be some important information on each of those crystals. I mean, why keep it in physical storage instead on the network?" Lex continued, having done a quick glance at every shelf.
       "But what should we take?" Darius looked over the alien language, as if he was expecting the characters to suddenly change to English and explain to him what he was exactly looking at.
      Lex examined the racks more closely, went to each one of them and checked the alien language over. They still had no translation of it, but she felt she could still be able to read it and pronounce it. "I think we should take one of each. What did ONI specify?"
       "We will take ten. ONI didn't tell me it would be this." Darius said. The room was large, twenty by thirty meters, and most likely thirty racks in all with five shelves each. He saw that each shelf had around fifteen crystals. "Take ten crystals and put them in a secure place. Make the selection random and not obvious." He ordered to Lex, who obeyed quickly and went around the shelves, reading the alien words though he didn't even know how to pronounce them. She was looking for enough diversity in the words to find diverse data. She selected each crystal carefully and put it aside.
       "Sir. This place is clear, and we should be able to hold it." An ODST who had approached Darius said.
      Darius nodded. "Alright. I want everyone on alert nevertheless. We will move once the control room is secured."

       "I don't get it." James said as he surveyed the empty room.
       "I know." York grimaced. The storage bay was quite devoid of any ammo and weapon boxes. "But this is the place." He added, and then motioned the marines to secure the room. "We will hold our ground here." He said and opened a com link to Darius.
       "Captain Striker?" He said through the com, bit hesitant to contact him like that.
       "Speak." Darius answered.
       "I am at the location, and there is nothing here. Maybe few rations, but not what was supposed to be in here. No weapons, no ammo." York said and looked quickly to his right. He thought he had heard something. But he didn't see anything.
       "Are you sure?" Darius asked surprised. Things were not going according to plans, and when it did, things went wrong, things went wrong on a large scale. "Could it be you are at the wrong location?" He asked even though he already knew that the chance of it being so was small to none.
       "I am sure." York said and sighed. "Let me know when the control room is secured. I will move my team to it. Being here has no advantage."
       "I will, over and out."
      York sighed as the link was closed. They had to hold their ground in the storage bay for the time being.
       "Sir!" James yelled loud.
      Lieutenant York turned around to face James, and saw him aim his weapon towards him. "What do – " Then he realized that James was not aiming at him, but behind him. He dived away, finding something grazing his leg.
      James saw that since York had gone for cover, he had a clear shot at the target.
      The elite had the cloaking device on, but something had revealed him. Maybe he had made some sound while walking, but when the human had the weapon raised and ready to fire, there was nothing to do about it. The elite raised his plasma rifle, barely missing his target, the commander, then he raised his weapon at the immediate threat, the human who had spotted him.
      James shot his battle rifle, and as the shields rippled from the firing, the others joined in.
      James felt something go against his head, but he didn't mind. He might have been new in the army, still a rookie for several people, but he could fire his weapon and knew how to detect invisible enemy.
      The elite let out a death gurgle, dropped its plasma rifle and fell down on the floor. James saw that the threat had passed, so he let his left hand off the battle rifle, and took off his helmet to examine it.
      It was amazing, like a divine intervention. The bullet had penetrated the helmet to some extend, but it hadn't struck him, but gone to his side. He checked the side of his head where the bullet would have gone through him, and felt how some of his hair was burned. He gave a low sigh of relief, and put the helmet back on. Though it was not as good cover as before, it was the best he could be with at the moment.

      Central stood dumbstruck in the hallway for a second. The doors to the control room were opened, but the way to it was obstructed. There was a hunter pair guarding the control room, and they were armed to be in melee, not to shoot radioactive bombs.
      The hunters were still, as if they were waiting for something.
       "Grenades at my mark." Central said low to the team, hoping that her order would not be heard or understood by the enemy.
      A red elite stepped forward from the control room, but was behind the hunters. Central felt it was bad news. Before the elite could order the hunters to charge, she gave the signal, and over half-dozen of frag grenades flew over to the hunter pair. The hunters charged forward by an order from the elite, but the elite and one of the hunters died in the explosion.
      The second hunter was injured, but in a blinding rage from the loss of his trainer and bond brother, he charged forward to the group which scattered. Though hunters were not so new enemies, this one was. The behemoths were usually in distance, shooting from their fuel rods, and snipers could pick out the pink flesh on them and kill them in few shots. A behemoth that was not in the distance, but charging forward and threatening to take out all of them on his own, was too much for some of them.
      The hunter swung his arm with the spikes, and the marine in front of him didn't duck in time. He was hit by the spikes, and was stuck to the arm for a second before another swung of it shook him off and threw him dead on the wall.
      Baldvin realized that if nothing was done in few seconds, it would all be over. He took up one of the plasma grenades he had confiscated some time ago, and ran towards the hunter as it had its back turned to him. He activated the grenade, and pushed it on the hunter's back. Central saw what was happening, and fired off her shotgun to draw the hunter's attention from Baldvin, so he could get away in time. The shotgun blast didn't manage to do any serious injury to the hunter, but it certainly got his attention. He charged forward and Baldvin got to a save distance, a second later, the sizzling blue orb exploded, splattering fluorescent orange blood on the deck.

      Teya'kreleyee saw how quickly the hunters Tanka had trained fell. He cursed Tanka's afterlife, ensuring that his incompetence would not go unnoticed. Teya had never seen humans bring down hunters so quickly without heavy vehicles, and the demoralizing effect he had been aiming for was all for naught. It seemed to even rally the humans further towards the control room. He gave a low growl.
       "Go! Kill the infidels in the name of the Forerunners!" He called and raised his plasma sword. The ones manning the turrets in the ceiling paused their firing as they didn't want to hit their fellow elites that charged forward.
      Teya looked around the control room, and saw that everyone was on high alert, there were just four elites left besides him in the control room, two with jetpacks manning the turrets, one with a beam rifle and another with a fuel rod cannon slung over his shoulder. There were still dozen of grunts left to divert the humans' attention.
      There was a sudden silence, no guns firing, no cheering from either side. Teya stood still, looking through the open doors. The elites he had sent to kill the humans were all dead, but the humans were nowhere to be seen. He saw then a movement from the corner of his eyes. He turned around to the wall behind the control panel, and saw through a grid how the humans were moving to the doors on that wall.
       "They are flanking us, be prepared." He said low. Now it was not the time to boast and claim a human kill easily. These humans were different, or led by exceptional human. He smiled, confident that the humans were led by that exceptional human that worried even the Prophets.
       "Show yourself so I may kill you." Teya said low, grinning.
      All of the three doors opened at the same time. It was a distraction tactic, to get the Covenants confused enough to land lucky kills on them. Teya saw how two grenades took out the elite with fuel rod even before he could kill the humans he was aiming for. The grunts fell down too quickly for Teya's like. He growled, deactivated his plasma sword and begun firing his plasma rifle to whatever target that was the closest. The elites manning the turrets fell down from human sniping rifle. The gas trail revealed where the sniper was, and Teya threw a plasma grenade to where it was.

      Anne looked in shock as the sniper by the other doors besides her got tagged by a plasma grenade. She had been just lucky enough to be unnoticed. She had thrown grenades instead of firing any weapons. The number of elites and grunts was too much for her to risk firing her sniper rifle.
      She came then to the realization, there was just this much she could do by throwing grenades. She had to provide cover, distraction, even though it meant being in the danger of being tagged by those sticking blue plasma grenades. She held up the Covenant beam rifle and made a quick lean-in to see what would be her target. What she saw was an elite commander, and an elite holding a beam rifle like hers. Both were busy at the main doors, where most of the humans were firing from. She had the doors she was at all for herself. She noticed how an ODST approached her as to guard her from any approaching enemy.
      She gave a reassuring shrug, put the beam rifle on her shoulder, went to the doorway and fired two shots in quick succession to the elite with the beam rifle. She figured it might provide confusion needed to distract the enemy for a moment longer to take over the control room.

      Teya heard the beam rifle shot, but saw that it was not one of his who fired. He knew that there were just two with beam rifles in his squad guarding the control room, and the first elite had been killed some time ago. He turned around to face the other elite, and managed to see in time him fall from the second shot. He roared in anger as he realized what had happened. It had been one of the filthy infidels, who had used their own weapons against them. Though his shields were rippling from humans shooting at him from the main doors, he charged for the doors to the far end, where the beam rifle shot had originated. Whoever that human was, it had to die for that insult to the Covenants. But a death by a plasma sword was not what an infidel deserved, he had something else in mind.

      Anne yelled in a reflex as she saw how the golden armored elite commander charged towards her. Though he seemed to be unarmed, it was still dangerous. She shot two shots in reflex, one that hit the elite but didn't kill the shields, and the second shot just missed him by scant centimeters. She heard the loud clank sound from her rifle, realizing it had overheated. She threw it away and turned around to flee.
      The elite was faster, before she could even reach the ODST, the commander grabbed her and heaved her up against the wall. He adjusted his arm so it rested against her throat.
      The ODST soldier saw that the sniper who had provided cover fire was in serious trouble, so that he charged forward with his shotgun. But as he came closer, he saw that if he shot where he was, the spread round would surly hit Anne.
      The elite commander used that moment of hesitation. He grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and pushed it hard back. It hit the ODST square in the helmet, shattering the visor. A second thrust of the shotgun hit him in the face through the broken visor. The force of the blow knocked the helljumper to his back, where he laid confused for a second from the hit, unable to help Anne.
      Anne saw what the elite had done and struggled against him without any success. The elite pushed harder on her throat, and Anne felt how she couldn't breathe. She struggled for a second, then realized that she could survive it, if she acted quickly. Though lifted from the floor, she managed to shift her body to reach the plasma pistol her brother had given her. She got it in her hand, and charged it.
      The commander heard the familiar hum, and pressed even further on her. He was no going to let her to live.
      The pistol was charged, and because of the close range, she let the shot go, and killed the elite's shields. The elite gave a low roar, but Anne reached for her plasma grenade and tagged him on the side.
      The commander roared his final roar and let go of Anne to get rid of the part of the armor the grenade was stuck to. Anne crawled quickly to the ODST, who was coming to his senses. The elite was not quick enough to get the armor plating off, and the grenade detonated. The elite fell dead with his organs out.
       "Are you okay?" She asked the ODST, who took off his helmet as he realized it was useless.
       "I'm okay." He said, then felt how his nose was bent out of shape. "Darn squid broke my nose." He muttered.
      The rest of the grunts were taken out quickly, and the control room was deemed clear.
      Central walked in the room, headed up the platform and smiled as she surveyed the room and the dead Covenants they had killed to get the room. It had been worth it, even for the fall of over six soldiers. She still had eight able warriors in her team. She opened a com to Darius and Lieutenant York.
       "Captain Striker, the control room is ours!" She said, hoping that it would boost everyone's morale around her.
       "Congratulations Central, we are on our way now. Over and out." Darius answered and gave York the signal to proceed to the control room. When everyone was there, it was time for phase two.

Dangerous Voyages[Part 6]
Date: 18 May 2006, 8:59 pm

      The first thing Darius noticed as getting to the control room were the bodies of the fallen soldiers, he checked few of them to find out that the dog-tags were already taken. He then noticed the two hunters. The sheer magnitude of resistance Central's team had to face made Darius even further suspicious that there was something wrong with the whole thing.
      The doors were opened for him, and a small team of humans had the weapons trained on him until they realized that he was a human, not Covenant.
       "Welcome, to our little fortress." Central said as he entered inside. The bodies of the Covenants were lying where they had died, with exception of the turrets on the ground, there was always a marine not far from it.
       "Thank you Central." He said, noticing that Central's team had suffered a great loss.
      York took longer time to arrive, having run into two patrols on the way. But his team hadn't faced any serious loss, only two marines died and three injured, none of them seriously.
       "Central, York, come with me." Darius motioned. They went to the corner of the control room, where he deemed it would be from most of the danger. The ODST had already familiarized themselves with the control room to be on guard against any attack.
      They three stood there for a moment in silence, for whatever reason. Darius was still unsure about bringing the subject up to them, and wondering what could really be going on, and if ONI was part of it in any way, since they had asked him to perform that little job.
       "Alright." Darius begun. "I have noticed something odd regarding this mission, tell me if you have had the same feeling."
      Central and York didn't said anything, but they both nodded.
       "Then I know I have not gone completely paranoid." Darius said in a mock reassuring tone. "Central, you had to face against enemy even I think is too much, we all were attacked by special ops on our way to our objectives, and there are no weapons on board in the only location they can be. I have already my suspicions of what this is, but I want to hear you out."
      Central and York glanced at each other for a second, but it was Central that took the initiative.
       "A trap." She said. York nodded with her on that.
       "Good, but why? Why did they set up such elaborate trap?" Darius asked again, but didn't expect Central or York to answer it, but he had put it differently than intended.
       "Meant to lure us away, away from the real fight." York answered, thinking about how weak Nykeir's defenses were at the moment.
       "Yes, but that doesn't explain why we at first meet so low resistant, only for Central to meet up with the real team. There is something about this, this place, our situation, and maybe even the ONI mission." Darius made small hand gestures.
       "They meant to kill us, all of us." Central said, her face did not reflect any kind of fear nevertheless. She believed that the Covenant didn't plan it right, and she had gotten rid of the real force behind it during the takeover of the Control room.
       "Straight to the point, explains a lot, but there are several ODST around, why us? Why this particular team?" Darius asked.
      York thought about it, but couldn't come up with any reasonable answer. Central was silent. She had few ideas, but most if not all were not in par with what she regarded as normal Covenant behavior pattern.
      Darius saw that the other team leaders had gone short on explanation, and sighed. He himself couldn't figure out why. Then it dawdled on him, after few more seconds of thinking.
       "This thing, is just a big execution." He said.
       "For whom?" Central asked.
       "Me. The ship I managed to destroy from the inside. You weren't under my command at that time, but I lead the team, I planted the charges, and I pushed the button. A report of a single human leader capable of such feat would certainly be demoralizing for the enemy, so they have to strike back, hard and true.
       "Hell, what we got for ONI may be just some trash, probably in case we didn't buy the story about a supply ship with engine failure."
       "Oh no." Central muttered.
       "What is it?" Darius asked.
       "Sir, the engine failure, if that is fake, they are able to fly us off the planet. They are able to fly this thing." Central said.
       "That is…" Darius paused. "Quite right. Even though we have the control room, they most likely have an override station in the engine room or near it. That is our next objective anyway. Get to the control room, prevent them taking over the ship and fly it out. We will plant the charges and get a ride out of here via the hangar bays. We will steal a phantom if we have to." Darius said to the team leaders.
       "I will stay here, in case of if the Covenant plan to retake the control room. Central, York, you will team up and proceed to the engine room. Central, you get the demo expert, Private Smith. He has the satchels. I will hold onto the detonator. Get the teams together, tell them of the plan, and we will move out on my mark, in about fifteen minutes."

      Olma smiled as he checked the feed from the surveillance cameras located in the control room. Teya's death had been unfortunate, but nevertheless, the human he was to kill was identified.
       "Captain Darius Striker." He said, even for his extreme distaste for humans and whatever that was related to them. "Your time has come."
      Teya had been reckless when guarding the control room, and let it easily fall into the hands of the humans. The humans however, with their numbers, would easily hold the control room. Olma saw that if he was to kill the human, he had to wait for him to move out of the control room. Even if it meant risking the ship itself. The Prophet of Guile would certainly accept it as collateral damage, as long as the human's blood was spilled onto the floor.
       "The humans are trying to get to the engine room, do not allow them that. I want all able hands to defend it, with exception of those I have chosen beforehand." Olma Sernkalee ordered as he watched the number of humans approaching the engine room. The command post he was situated at was not far from the engine room, but he knew of a passage where he could slip by the human team without being noticed.

       "Wow." Central muttered as she looked through a glass to the engine room. It was huge, and she had a good vantage point. It was three levels high, compared to the levels that surveyed over the control room. She hadn't seen the blueprints for the engine room, but she recognized the layout of it as of the hangar bays. Running the length of the room was a cylinder that appeared to have red liquid sloshing in it. Near her down on the floor, she saw a white elite working on some kind of interface. An overwrite station.
       "They know we are near." York said, pointing towards the Covenants working around. There were more Covenants armed to their teeth than Covenants doing general work in the engine room.
       "That is to be expected. I think there is a command post here nearby." She looked again over the room, trying to find a commander over the whole army in the engine room. "Haldir." She said, motioning to Haldir Smith, the demolition expert Darius had sent with her.
      Haldir came over to the window and checked the room out. "At least three satchels by the cylinder, and we need to hide them. I would say we put one or two by whatever command console the white one is working on, and few others by the support engines. Even if they find all of the satchels by the crystal, we can cripple them by taking out the support engines."
       "Good work. Stay in the middle, we don't want to lose you. Remember to set the timer to one hour, they might be able to jam the detonator." Central said and motioned the team to continue onwards through the doors to the engine room.
      As they entered through the doors, all hell broke lose.

       "I'm running dry!" Anne yelled as slamming in her third last clip for her S2. The second sniper, situated on the floor above her, concurred with her.
       "Get them beam rifles! If we lose the snipers, we will lose our cover fire!" York yelled, motioning James and Rint with few other ODST, a second later he fired to a group of grunts that had come through a door near him. They weren't being lead by an elite though, which made it the only good thing about it.
      An ODST had managed to get a fuel rod gun one special ops grunt had dropped when it died. At the same moment, a fuel rod beam just managed to miss him. He turned around and fired two shots in quick succession to the source of the beam, a hunter that had come through the doors on the opposite side of the room. Another fuel rod shot and supporting fire from the rest of the ODST took care of the other hunter.
       "Haldir! What is the status?!" Central yelled through the com.
       "Just two more near the supporting engines, then I am done!" Haldir called back.
      The Covenants fought even harder than they had in the control room. Central felt that she had entered a new kind of hell, where she thought it wouldn't have gotten any tougher than the control room. Around half of the team was down, and they were being pressed into retreat. That was not acceptable at the moment, with the job unfinished.
       "Darius!" Central opened a comlink to Darius. "We are almost done here, and got it on a timer, we got an hour once all the satchels are here."
       "Roger that." Darius said. "Forget about locating the second command post, you are in too much trouble already. Once you get back here, we will go on the double to the hangar bay, there are pelicans waiting to get us out."
       "Roger that, over and out." Central closed the link, raised her shotgun and took care of a rookie elite that thought she would be easy to take while distracted. She had spotted him in time.
       "Central!" Someone yelled in a warning.
       "Central stood still for a moment, trying to figure out what she was being warned about, but as she saw a plasma sword appear out of nowhere, she jumped back, but wasn't quick enough. She yelled as she felt the tip of the sword barely mange to penetrate the skin and form a long cut from her right shoulder to her left leg. One of the snipers took it down in one shot using a Covenant beam rifle.
       "Are you okay?" Baldvin, the same who had tried to warn her, asked.
       "Yes, didn't hit anything serious. These things are that hot they burn the wounds in the same instance they make them." She said, taking off her helmet as the sword had hit a part of it.
       "I'm done!" Haldir said.
       "Alright people, retreat! Back to the control room!" Central gave the order as she stood up on her own. She took up her shotgun but saw as the barrel of it had been cut. She groaned. "I need a weapon." She said to Baldvin.
      Baldvin silently handed her his battle rifle, and took up a plasma rifle he had taken in the battle.
      Central nodded and headed to the doors which would lead her to the upper floors, back to the control room and back to Darius.

Dangerous Voyages [End]
Date: 26 May 2006, 4:12 am

      Darius was already in trouble. The moment he had gotten the message from Central about them coming back, a whole team of spec-op elites had come through the doors. The turrets were quickly destroyed, and soon as the firing stopped, only Darius and five of his ODST troops were left alive.
       "Central, you better hurry, they are out for blood now." He said to the com to Central.
       "No need to tell me." Central grimaced as she put on a coating of bio-foam as running towards the control room.
      Darius took up his battle rifle and checked it over. There was no telling when the next wave of Covenants would come. He reloaded it, reassured himself that the safety was off and then went off the platform. It was simply too much in the open and would give the enemy clear shot at him.
      The moment Central entered the doors to the control room, the doors next to her opened, revealing two hunters similarly armed as the hunters previously guarding the control room were.
       "Retreat!" Central yelled in reflex, knowing that they wouldn't stand a chance so close to them.
       "Assist them!" Darius called to the remainder of his team, then held up his battle rifle, shooting short bursts to whatever exposed orange flesh he saw. He had his back turned to the other doors, which would lead them to the hangar bay.
      As the first hunter fell, the other one disappeared by a bend in the hallway, and the doors closed.
      At the same moment, Darius realized he was completely alone in the control room. He looked around quickly, to see if there was anyone in the room with him, a friend or foe. He was about to open the com to the rest of the team, when he heard the doors open. He turned around, seeing a sole, white-armored elite holding a plasma rifle aimed at him.
       "Just one?" He asked, grinning through his fear.
       "Captain… Striker." The elite said in heavy unknown accent. But there was no question about it, it had pronounced the words in English, there was no translation going on. For a second, Darius' eyes widened but he pulled himself together. "So it is capable of speaking." He could have sworn that the elite was smiling, or grinning at him.
      Darius ran. He knew that a single battle rifle wouldn't be enough to kill it, he had to find something good. He knew that one of those that fell earlier defending the control room had a shotgun, the weapon he needed to bring that white elite down.
      The elite followed, chasing Darius. Darius dropped a grenade down close to him, and ran away, hoping that the elite wouldn't pay attention. But the elite stopped, and the grenade detonated without injuring anyone. But it was enough time. Darius had spotted the shotgun. He took it up and noticed at first glance there was enough ammo for it. He turned around with his weapon ready, only to see no one.
      Darius' heart started beating faster, he looked around quickly, hoping to see the shimmer before the elite could deliver a deathblow to him. He swung his weapon around, completely alone, and fought against the fright as it built in him.
      He saw it moment too late. The elite had jumped right in front of him and pinned him down on the ground. The shotgun dropped just besides Darius.
       "Now you die for your uncountable infidelity." The elite said in its language, but the translator picked it up and gave Darius its intended message.
      Darius smiled, but the elite didn't pick it up that something was wrong. It was considered useless to learn how humans conveyed emotions.
       "No, I wont, I got too much to do before I die." Darius said, picked up his shotgun, and let one shot fly straight against the shields. Some of the spread rounds ricocheted, one of them hitting Darius' arm. He grimaced, but shot again.
      The elite staggered as the shields had died, and some of the rounds had hit him, but it was far away from instant lethal shot. But Darius had received the time he needed. He formed his left hand in a fist, as the right one was hurting as hell, and punched through the elite's open mouth.
      Darius had known for a long time that such punch under the jaw was hurting, as the elites didn't have any real jaw to begin with, just a hole under there, and four things that could be called a jaw to the sides.
      Darius felt the teeth penetrating his glove and into his skin as the elite tried to shake him off, but confused from the force of the blow.
       "You are no match for humans, not you, not any of your race. All you are squid with your fancy shielding system." Darius kicked the elite off himself, released his left hand from the mouth and then swung it again to the elite's eyes. He picked up his shotgun, and hit the elite numerous times until it finally gave its final gurgle of death.
       "Where are you?!" Darius said through the com.
       "We are on our way, we ran into few other Covenants." York said through the com.
       "Go, double time. I will join you when you get through the control room."
       "Acknowledged." Central said, noticing that Darius sounded off. "Are you okay?" She asked.
       "I am fine." Darius answered.
       "Good enough." She said as she came through the doors to the control room.
       "I want the pelicans, now!" Darius said to the com to the teams outside of the Covenant ship.
       "I am on the way, the bay is open." A male voice said, and in the background one could hear pelican engines firing up.
       "Be quick." Darius left it at that.
      At the hangar bay, there was just one team of Covenants to deal with, none of them colored in black or white armor. They were dealt with quickly, as everyone were confident enough to take care of a single team of rookies after facing off the number of special ops Covenants when they were teamed up.
      As they entered the pelicans, Central noticed Darius' odd injuries. "Where did you get that?" She asked him, pointing at his left hand.
       "Where did you get that gash on your chest?" Darius answered her with a question, indicating that he was not ready to talk about it. "I will tell you in debriefing." He added smiling.
       "Captain Striker, we are in a safe distance from the ship now." The pelican's pilot called.
      Striker nodded slowly and took out the detonator. "Tell everyone to brace themselves for the shockwave." He waited few seconds, hearing the pilot's warning echo through the pelican, then he pressed the button.
      It was almost impossible for normal things to explode in any kind of fashion, but the amount of explosives used in the engine room managed to spread the flammable fuel around and let it catch on fire. The explosion itself was contained in the engine room and everything in twenty meter radius from it. It rendered the ship completely immobilized, and environmental systems failed. Darius reminded himself that he had to confirm the order to blast the immobilized ship to kingdom high when he arrived back at the base.
      Darius looked at his mission clock, which showed that the mission had been going on for three hours. He felt it had been three days. He gave a silent sigh, and closed his eyes as the pelican delivered him and the rest of the ODST and marines who survived back to the base.

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