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Halo 2- The saga continues by Andy
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Halo 2- The saga continues, Chptr 1
Date: 12 April 2003, 6:25 PM
Major George Rembrel stood before 200 armed troops, inspecting them with the utmost dignity, pointing out flaws in each man's uniform, weapon, or supplies. The elite 105th airborne divisions' Delta company Shock jumpers were standing at attention on the cold and dusty tarmac at 3:00 in the morning, local time. The local time was not eastern standard time, or Mountain time, though. It was lunar time, and they were about to make an orbital jump onto a planet held by hostile forces. That planet was Earth.
"Private!" roared Rembrel.
"Sir, yes Sir!"
"Your vest son! It's unzipped!"
"Right...Sorry sir!"
The shaken Private zipped his titanium-Kevlar flak vest to his neck, where he double-snapped it into his HUD helmet, and flipped down his visor.
"OK, Mr. Secretary, we are ready for our sortie. If you would step back into the tower with me, we can monitor the situation on our command screens..."
"No, I'd rather stay and watch the dropships off, if you please, Major."
"Of course...Corporal, assemble your troops, and prepare for departure.
"Yes sir." the young Corporal said, "Troops assemble!" His voice echoed over the immense, dimly lit base, and the 200 men Automatically turned and marched toward the 4 towering air lifters.
The UNSC Secretary of Defense Marshall Jordan stood by, watching wearily as the troops were swallowed by the gaping ramps on the back of the J-120 jump jet lifters. His designated security, which consisted of 14 MP's, shifted anxiously at his side, watching the raging battle take place through the dim haze of the artificial atmosphere. A few miles above, a Covenant frigate was peppered relentlessly by a tremendous barrage of small caliber MAC rounds, fired from the base's defensive guns.
As the last troops filed onto the jump jet lifters, Major Rembrel flipped on his COM headset, and said "Zulu base tower, do you read me?" his headset crackled in response...
"We read you, Major, go ahead."
"Alert the escort Long swords that the package is on the doorstep, I repeat the package is on the doorstep."
"Negative, negative, Major! Fleet Com just scrambled the last Long swords against an approaching covenant battle group. There are no escorts available. I say again, the entire fleet is engaged!"
"Roger that, Zulu tower. We will have to proceed without escort."
"10-4, sir, we will give them the go codes momentarily" A brief lapse followed this transmission, and then the controller came back online.
"Major Rembrel, sir, we have 4 inbound Covenant dropships! Major, clear off the tarmac, and get the Secretary out of there! The dropships have already penetrated the minimum traverse rate of our cannons, and are flying low toward your position! I say again, get out of the area!"
"Copy that Zulu tower. Over and out." Major Rembrel turned, thoroughly shaken, towards the secretary, and managed a smile."
"Mr. Secretary, I'm afraid we will have to cut this short. The tower informs me that the escorts have been scrambled already, and your security here has been compromised."
As he spoke, the jumpjet lifters in the back-round rose slowly of the ground, and fired on their engines at full blast. They rocketed away from Zulu base, and left the moon's "atmosphere", finally disappearing from view, en route to earth, where the battle raged on.
"Ok, major, I understand...Men!" he addressed the MP's "Move out!"
"Sir, yes sir!" they replied in unison, and they ran across the tarmac, where the Secretary's personal sedan was parked next to 4 especially battered looking warthogs.
Two more MP's ran to the Secretary's side, and covered him with their pistols while he and Major Rembrel ran back to the convoy.
The Secretary and Major jumped lightly into the Audi sedan, which promptly accelerated and lifted a few centimeters off the ground due to the electromagnetic fields generated by the car. The Warthogs all followed, although fell behind the sleek Audi.
"So, Major, I suppose you are going to tell me why we just let 200 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers fly off into a slew of covenant fighters and capital ships, without so much as a toothpick for air cover?"
"Marshall, don't worry, they will make it. Those pilots are the best this base has, and they should be able to launch the troopers right into Siberia, where I am confident they will retake their objective. They are the only hope we've got. We couldn't not send them. They may be able to turn the tide on the ground." The Secretary sighed.
"I suppose your right, as always, Major. They must need reinforcements down there. We haven't had communication for over an hour." Secretary Jordan paused as two banshees whistled overhead, being pursued by cannon fire from the ground.
"I just hope those damn flyboys don't let up." The Audi, pursued by the warthogs (now almost a kilometer behind) finally approached the main base, where a tight ring of security had been formed using four scorpion tanks, eleven warthogs, and nearly one hundred marines that had been stationed at fire-base Zulu.
The Sedan was let through the ring, and past the main gate without question, and two of the warthogs followed, the other two being stationed on the perimeter to bolster the base's defense. Finally, after driving through a maze of underground tunnels, the 3 vehicles arrived at a door marked with a large arrow, indicating the lift to the command center.
The Major, secretary, and 8 remaining MP's walked briskly up to the door that slid noiselessly open to allow the men through to the lift. They were thrust quickly up to the command tower, where they found a disgruntled group of men, manning their stations without much emotion. They seemed to be in shock at what they were seeing.
"Sir!" said one of the controllers. "Two of the Covenant dropships were shot down en route to the base, but two are reported to have put down just outside the perimeter. We should be able to repel this assault, but we don't have enough firepower to hold them off for much longer."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Turner" Rembral said. "I will need a personal evac for the secretary, and if we could, get a goddamn escort from the fleet."
"Sir, The Secretary's evac group has been engaged by the enemy. It landed a short time ago, heavily damaged. That ship won't make it to the bunkers on the other side of the moon. Your safest option is to take a Pelican dropship up to one of the ships in orbit. The destroyer Embassy is unengaged as of now, and holding position approximately 900 kilometers from here above the terrenes crater region. They won't be able to stay much longer."
"Very well, then, Major, if you insist that I run away, than I suppose I must, although I believe you should come with me." He gestured towards a radar screen, showing several red dots approaching Zulu base." The Radar operator, realizing he had noticed, spoke up,
"Sir, 6 more Covenant dropships, inbound with reinforcements, as well as a frigate coming in at bearing nine, zero-six-two. We are running low on ammunition out there!"
"Very well, prepare to evacuate this base, and make sure that we get the vehicles off too. They will be valuable elsewhere."
"With respect, Major, if we move aboard the embassy, what exactly are we going to do if that ship is compromised?" The Secretary glanced out at the now visible shapes of the dropships, and the frigate, activating a grav-lift down to the surface under heavy fire.
"We will have to die, like the rest of them." Said Rembral, "and take it like men, not children crouching in a hide-and-seek game."
Suddenly, a blaring sound issued from the base's loudspeakers, followed by the shaky voice of the radio operator, sitting a few feet from Major Rembral,
"Attention all personnel, attention all personnel, be advised, we are under attack, and we need to evacuate the base, now, I repeat, this base is under code EXIT evacuation as of now. Move to a dropship and prepare for dust-off immediately."
The loudspeaker went silent, and a sudden rush of motion appeared on one of the motion sensors. The marines scrambled off to waiting pelicans, and boarded quickly, while the dropships loaded the vehicles onto their cargo holds.
"Come, Major, we will need to hitch a ride on one of the Pelicans. My corvette is too heavily damaged. It will be left behind."
"Yes, Mr. Secretary" Major Rembral was staring out the windows of the control tower with a glazed sort of look in his eyes. "I'm coming".
"The two men and the MP's joined the rush out of the control tower as two more banshees passed overhead, this time, unchallenged by ground fire, and free to open fire on the base.
"We've got to get out of here!" shouted the Secretary over the noise of the explosions, caused by the suppressive fire from the enemy dropships.
The Major and Secretary finally reached the lower story of the base, where Pelicans were lifting off every few meters, with marines literally hanging out of the back. They clamored into the last one, which lifted off, and swerved evasively, causing a white-hot jet of plasma to miss its mark. The dropships accelerated, some, slower than others (due to the 3 ton trucks latched into their cargo areas) and thundered away from the base, still avoiding ground fire.
"Well" The Major sighed "I guess we need to report to Fleet Com that Zulu base has been evacuated, with minimal casualties. Pilot?" He said
"Yes sir?"
"Set course for the Destroyer Embassy. The others from Zulu will move on to the bunkers."
"Yes, sir! ETA for arrival at Embassy is 24 minutes. As soon as we are on board, they have orders from FLEETCOM to move into geo-synchronistic orbit around earth to defend the orbital MAC's. We should be safer there than anywhere else on the fleet."
"Thank you, Lieutenant, that will be all." The pilot saluted from his seat, and then turned to continue flying the Pelican. "I just hope we're not too late."
* * * * * * * *
Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan John 117 looked out the window panel beside the pilot's seat of His Interceptor. A massive explosion, triggered by the Wildcat destabilization of his ship, The Pillar of Autumn's, Fusion reactors sent a shockwave around Halo, and shredded it into pieces. He watched as one particularly large section of the ring smashed into another, shattering both pieces into oblivion. The Water from Halo's oceans stood in suspended animation out in space, hanging there like a cup of water that froze as it was being spilled.
"Did anyone make it?" John asked Cortana shakily.
"Scanning..." said the voice that spoke in his head, "Just...dust and echos." Cortana replied with a tone of unmistakable sadness in her usually calm, collected voice.
"We...did what we had to do." Her voice was now positively guilty, like that of one who isn't sure they made the right decision, and others suffered from it. "For earth! An entire covenant armada destroyed, and the flood!" She stopped, having talked herself into silence. Then she began again.
"Halo...It's finished."
"No," John replied hoarsely, "I think we're just getting started." He snapped off his helmet for the first time since he had been back on Reach. Reach. This reminded him off the hopelessness of his case. He was alone, in who knew what sector of the galaxy. Likely uncharted, in an Interceptor without a cryro-chamber. He was in for a long ride home, and even then, he could never really get home. Reach had been his home. His brothers and sisters had lived there with him. Now Reach was probably a giant sphere of glass, floating lifelessly away from it's system. His Comrades were probably melted into that glass, or else millions of light-years away, unable to help him now. Whatever way he looked at it, he was in a pretty bad fix.
"Cortana?" he asked after a minute.
"Yes Chief?"
"I want you to prepare to jump to slipspace in 5 minutes. makes sure we are not being traced or followed, because I want you to plot a course for earth. There has never been another time when earth needed Spartans as much as they do now. With Reach gone, It is likely the Covenant have found earth's location, and it is only a matter of time before they have enough firepower to finish her too. This is our only hope. we need to get back there."
"Ok, Chief" Cortana said softly. "scanning for tracing beacons now....she paused, and then "nothing. Just upload me into the Long swords data port and I can get us of here."
The Chief snapped Cortana's construct chip out of his helmet's neural uplink, and placed It lightly into the data port beside him.
"That's better." She said, "No offense, but your suit isn't that roomy for little old me to be cramped up in for days on end."
"Well, I'm glad to see your sense of humor survived. Now get us going."
"I've already begun." She said, as the Long sword's engines kicked back on.
John suddenly felt the ship jolt, and recognized the feeling in his stomach of moving millions of kilometers per hour blindfolded. Actually he was moving closer to a billion kilometers per hour, and Cortana had just started the slipspace sequence.
"Engines at 89% burn rate, chief, locking onto the Alpha Sol's maneuvering beacon...." Cortana lapsed into a momentary pause, "...Oh Hell...Chief, the vectoring beacon closest to earth...It's not responding. It doesn't exist anymore!" Cortana hopped up and down on the holographic panel in anger. "This must have been their plan all along!" She was no furious, and her slim body glowed white hot, with numbers and calculations streaming down her. John only looked on with the same white hot fury coursing over his body, but it wasn't visible
"I can't believe I didn't see it before. They must have known earth's location before the assault on Reach. Reach was just one giant diversion! That's all they've been doing since Sigma Octanus!"
"Now Cortana, are you sure they are in Earth's sector?"
"YES!" she shouted, we need to get back there now!"
"How exactly can we do that without the slipspace maneuvering beacon?"
"I can make a very well calculated jump without it, and come out of slipspace 3 times further way from earth."
"What's the ETA?"
"Calculating" Cortana's body overflowed with mathematical equations as she put her hand on her head "3 days, 4 hours and 21 minutes if we go now.
The chief nodded, accepting the fact that in three days, four hours, and 21 minutes, there may be no more earth to go back to. He had to hold out hope though.
"Well, what are you waiting for, lets get home!" Cortana gave him a patronizing look.
"I was waiting for you, Chief." She shook her head, and said something about brawn and brains, but she also gave a small grin, knowing that they were going to soon be back in a fight, where she and John were meant to be.
Secretary Jordan and Major Rembrel looked up at the unbelievable battle that raged above them as they soared over the moon. What Major Rembrel recognized as Admiral Stanforth's flagship, The Battle Cruiser Anteitem, as it fired 3 MAC rounds simultaneously into space, where seconds later, a flash appeared on the horizon. Where a covenant Carrier had been moments earlier, Only shards of the blue hued material remained.
On the other side of the battle, a massive covenant cruiser had just released it's final weapon, which was a supercharged plasma torpedo, that traveled slowly across space, until it met it's target. The plasma struck a destroyer in the mid section, over penetrated it, and then finally made it's way through to the frigate it had aimed for originally.
The Pelicans that had evacuated Zulu base continued their flight-path past where the Embassy was stationed. It was waiting to depart the moon and join the fray in the atmosphere. The destroyer loomed up before them, over 2 kilometers long.
"Clearance for immediate landing in docking bay 4 granted, Sir!" The pilot called back to Major Rembrel.
"Excellent, get us aboard, will you, son?
"Right away, sir!" The pelican veered sharply upwards, and flew lightly into the open docking bay, which quickly pulled the pelican inside the cavernous ship.
The Major and Secretary stepped off the drop ship and walked across the access corridor with the marines that had been aboard their drop ship.
"Major Rembrel! Mr. Secretary!" A disembodied voice echoed across the vast corridor, and the group that had just exited the pelican looked up.
"My name is Lawrence. I am this ships main AI construct. The captain wishes to see you on the bridge. He expresses his relief at seeing you both alive and off the moon."
"Thank you, Lawrence." The Secretary said. We will oblige the captain as soon as we make sure the rest of Zulu made it safely to the bunkers.
"I can confirm that 96% of the division that evacuated from fire-base Zulu made it unharmed to the lunar emergency bunkers, Mr. Secretary."
"Fine. We will be there in a moment, Lawrence." And with that, the party moved through the hanger and onto the lift, which brought them to the central corridor.
Here, the Secretary and Major parted company with the MP's who had been with them for the entire trip. They were called off to secure all the lifeboat bays incase they needed to abandon ship.
Finally, the two men entered the bridge, that had a distinctively tense atmosphere, like a group of runners seconds before the start of a race.
"Major... Mr. Secretary, glad to see you alive." Captain Freeman, a UNSC leading officer, stepped up from his post, and shook the secretary's hand, then returned Major Rembrel's firm salute.
"We are departing the moons atmosphere now, and are about to enter orbit around earth. We have orders to protect the orbital cannons. The covenant lead forces have been targeting them for over an hour, and if those ODST's we sent take back Epsilon base do their job, those damn aliens won't be near the main fusion generators for the cannons."
"I'm glad to here it captain. This might just be a battle we can win." The secretary sighed, and looked onto the view screen, which showed earth like a giant marble, clouded over with black dust, and slowly turning on it's axis. Most marbles, though, weren't dotted with nuclear explosions, as this one was. It was an awful sight to watch.
Halo 2- The saga continues, Chptr. 2
Date: 12 April 2003, 6:35 PM
"Chief……Chief?" Cortana's holographic body flickered into focus, and John lifted his head from the control panel. Cortana shook her head. "You never change, do you?" He smiled at her and looked out into the inky blackness of Slipstream space.
"How much longer until we can enter Alpha Sol system?" "ETA is 7 minutes, Chief. You've been sleeping for a while." "Good." He growled, "I just hope we're not too late."
The Long sword fighter shot across open space, slowly approaching the drifting black globe that was magnified millions of times on John's view screen. It was earth, but not earth as he remembered it from 20 years ago, when it was still blue, and the air was still clean. This black sphere was dotted with yellow circles……small nuclear blasts triggered to stop the onslaught of covenant forces invading humanity's last stronghold. Above the fray on the ground, he could see flashes of blue and red……the plasma and MAC rounds flying across space. He could even make out the menacing shape of a covenant Battle Ship, the flagship of the covenant fleet.
Cortana saw all this as well, but she was never content with just seeing. She tapped the local channels, which had been shut down by the EMP's from the nukes that had been detonated in the sector. That wasn't good, but she was still in range of most of the ship's com channels, which didn't rely on the space based network of signal relay stations. She quickly found a trace of a signal from the closest destroyer and traveled with it on an IFF line to another destroyer. She clased the circut, terminated the backward line, and was in. Now, all she had to do was listen. She fed her tap into the Longsword's speakers so John could hear too. The speakers crackled for a moment, and then……
"I repeat, under attack!" This is the Destroyer Embassy, 20 to 30 covenant fighters have engaged us, and we are nearly out of ammo for point defense. We are risking the capture of our AI and the Secretary of State! We need reinforcements now!"
"Captain, you need to hold your ground!" replied a voice. "Two frigates have been dispatched to your location, and a flight of Longswords are on their way. Hold your ground, Captain."
"They've breached our hull, I repeat, we have been breached!" He faded off, and then, said, in a now positively frightened voice "Wait! Oh God, no! Admiral, four covenant cruisers have materialized above us. They are only a few hundred kilometers away from the orbital MAC 's. Request repositioning of orbital MAC's to fire on these ships."
"Go ahead Captain! I have uploaded MAC control to your station!"
"Sir, my firing controls are off line, I can't get those cannons to fire! " The voice faded in a crackle of static, came back on again for a split second, saying "finished" and then went out for good.
"Chief, we need to help them!" Cortana cried "We need to get on one of those orbital guns now to activate the manual firing mechanism!" John nodded in acknowledgment, but looked too shocked to do anything more.
The interceptor, now dormant, floated serenely over the massive battle. It was a wonder that none of the thousands of fighters below noticed the lone ship above them, but it would have been folly to attack that long sword anyway. Cortana was not an everyday shipboard AI construct. She already had a missile lock on the closest 100 covenant targets.
"Ok, Cortana" The Chief replied. "Let's get on board that thing" Cortana smiled, and let loose a barrage of missiles from one of the underwing pods. The Archer II seekers rocketed away from the ship, and John saw dozens of little yellow dots appear below, where Covenant Shiko fighters were blasted unexpectedly into pieces.
"Where are your manners, chief? I think we forgot to welcome our old friends to our home."
* * * * *
John was back in his essence. He now donned his helmet again, and had his pistol held firmly in his gloved hand. As he strolled down the access corridor of the MAC orbital platform, he noticed the red lights above his head begin to flash, and a shudder resonated throughout the 3-mile long space station. Almost instantaneously, he felt the pull of gravity leave his body, and then slowly return as he entered an undamaged section of the station. A shot had been fired from the main MAC capacitor, and it must have impacted one of the cruisers. He could not hope that it had been a kill, however. The MAC round would have been lucky to take down the shields of a ship that size. It would have been a miracle to even scratch the surface.
He quickly walked towards the lift that would bring him to the lower hanger bay that was used to ferry the crew in and out of the station. Just before he reached the lift, Cortana whispered to him "I think you might find one of these helpful" a panel swung out of the wall, revealing 6 Battle rifles, modified versions of the standard MA5B. They were more versatile, more accurate, and had a scope, but they were also slower and had a smaller clip.
John grabbed one, and slipped his pistol into its armored holster. He got onto the lift, and it began it's rapid decent to the bottom of the station. As he plummeted downward, he locked his rifle and shoved a clip into, then closed the chamber. Suddenly, the local com channel Cortana had been listening to began to fade. The battle outside was going down quickly. "Captain! She said suddenly, "tell your men to hold their positions. Reinforcements are on the spoke!" The Chief crossed the distance into hanger and looked out the large glass panels in the blast doors.
"With respect, Cortana," Captain Longley, who had been furiously explaining to one of the generals who was groundside that they couldn't spare any fighters, replied, after identifying her signal. "What the hell kind of reinforcements have you got?"
John walked quickly back to a large steel girder that was in the hanger. With his back to the wall, he reached up and took a firm hold on the door's release mechanism.
"What if you miss?" Cortana asked inquisitively.
"I won't" The Chief replied, as he yanked down the release.
Immediately, an alarm sounded, as the massive hanger doors slid open. John felt the atmosphere rush out around him, but he was held into place by the pillar.
He edged his way toward the end of it, and then, with all the strength he had, he leaped off the platform and flew noiselessly into space.
"Oh God" he whispered. John spiraled down, slowly, but with a perfectly calculated arc, into the earth's atmosphere. He watched as his shields slowly depleted on the descent, burning hot from the beginnings of air resistance. Suddenly, after about 10 horrifying moments suspended in the atmosphere, he landed with a dull clunk on the ship the MAC heavy round had just disabled.
He reached cautiously across the purple metal of the ship and slipped his hand into one of the thousands of small curves that were on the cruiser. He pulled himself towards a shiny reflective window, and paused. He couldn't think of how he could get in. No, there was no other way. It was risky, but worth a try.
John carefully placed the anti-matter charge onto the window. He climbed away from it, clutching the ship with a death grip. With only 5 seconds on the clock, he got clear of the explosive, and heard it go off.
Crawling carefully back, he saw that the window was gone, and six grunts were floating off, lifeless in the vacuum of space. John crawled into the room, where he drew his rifle from it's pack. He took the safety off, and moved toward a sliding paneled door that was at the corner of the room. After opening it, and depressurizing the room he was going into, he timidly forced open a door that lead into the cruiser's main access hallway.
The first thing he saw was the reptilian back of an elite. With a solid blow from his rifle, the elite fell dead on the floor with a broken neck. John stepped on it's face and rubbed the bones down to mush, making sure it was not living. He picked up his gun, and continued down the corridor, which seemed to be a half a kilometer long and devoid of anything except the eerie purple light.
"OK, Chief..." Cortana said. "I tapped the covenant battle net, and I have an over view of this ship's schematics."
"Put them on screen, Cortana" The chief said. instantly, the floor plans from the ship flickered onto his HUD, and he began searching through the decoded script until he found what he was looking for.
"The control room to this beast is about five-hundred meters up, chief. I think I can access covenant controls from there.
"Ok, Cortana, let me know if there's anything going on in here, and make sure the MAC's and UNSC ships don't target us, please."
"I'm on it"
With that, the chief began to move quickly down the corridor, to where he spotted a glowing set of symbols that was translated as "Control" by Cortana.
Halfway there, one of the doors on his right slid open, revealing a very stunned elite. John, who was equally as stunned, swung his rifle around and without hesitation, unloaded the clip into the elite's chest. The alien dropped to the ground, dead before he could retrieve his plasma rifle. John smartly kicked the alien body back into the chamber it had emerged from, in case a sentinel patrolling the corridor should find the body and raise an alarm.
2 minutes later, John found himself outside the control center, breathing heavily, with the blood of a half-dozen more aliens splattered on his gun. He took a deep breath, steadying his pulse.
"Ready, Chief?" Cortana asked
"Let's go." He said.
The magnetically locked doors broke open with a flash of John's green armor. Inside, a few Elites and a dozen grunts stood looking terrified at the door. When they saw it was only one human though, just one bold human with a shiny space suit, their fears subsided. Those aliens didn't know it was a Spartan. The elites made the first move, 3 of them approaching John with a hail of fire from the grunts behind them. John ducked behind a purple crate and lobbed a grenade over his head. The effortless throw propelled it faster than a major league fastball, and it detonated on impact at the back of the alien bridge, punching a hole in their navigation equipment and killing a half dozen grunts.
The first elite jumped up onto the crate, only to receive a fixed bayonet in the midriff. It penetrated his shielded suit, but not his thick alien hide. The elite laughed, and leveled his rifle with Johns head.
The second elite caught a splatter of his comrades blood in the face when he approached. John yanked the barrel of his now smoking rifle out of the Elite's body and pushed a button to retract the bayonet. He ducked, rolled, and came out in front of the remaining two elites. With a burst of automatic fire, he caught one of them off guard, hitting him in the bony arm. The elite was out of the fight for a moment while he shook off the pain and readjusted his rifle for the other arm. In the mean time, John engaged the other. He raised his battle rifle and shot the elite 5 times in the face. The Alien shields caught most of the impact, but the it was still shaken.
John took this advantage to snap a kick into his plasma rifle, shattering it like it was a tortilla chip. The elite turned with surprising speed and caught a joint in it's muscular arm in John's Midriff. Reeling back, and leveling his rifle with one hand, He let off another burst of fire, and caught some fire too. A few grunts had regrouped behind the now recovered elite, and they sent a volley in john's direction.
John was now desperate and looking for options. He had one disarmed elite, one with 5 grunts behind him, and one more he would have to deal with later that was presumably still piloting the ship.
"Chief, to your left!" Cortana shouted at him, just as the disarmed elite found one of his comrade's pistols.
John tucked, rolled, and popped up holding a fizzing plasma grenade with speed unrivaled by any of the covenant that had been trailing him with bolts of plasma. He lobbed it into the center of the grunts, where the elite stood. It stuck right onto the largest alien, who roared in fury and leveled his rifle with john.
The fuse went off before he pulled the firing mechanism. The covenant troops were torn to shreds and tossed around the bridge like grotesque pieces of molten candy. The only remaining elite looked vaguely puzzled, and John could not feel any pity as he unloaded the last of his clip into the alien's side, leaving it too, crumpled in a heap on the floor.
Now, with blinding speed, he approached the last elite, who was immersed inside a holographic piloting display that looked like it was a chair that had a helmet over it to cover the pilot's head. Judging on how it didn't react in the slightest way to the battle, it was totally unaware that the bridge had just been taken by a lone human boarder. John replaced the clip on his rifle, and poked it's barrel into the elite's neck before squeezing off a dozen rounds into the unsuspecting pilot.
John turned, and looked triumphantly at the path of absolute carnage spread so efficiently across the bridge of a "superior" enemy.
"Nice work, there cowboy." Cortana interjected playfully. Now I think we could do a lot for the navy if you were to plant the uplink so I can directly access their systems.
John nodded, and placed a small transceiver dish on top of one of the many control panels filling the room. Out the front, a large, dark green-hued glass like surface showed a brief view of the space beyond. He flipped up a small screen, with an attached data port and holo-projector, and locked the device into place.
After removing Cortana's matrix processing cube from his own neural uplink, he placed it securely into the transceiver, and powered it up.
Cortana's slim image flickered on above the dish, and she stretched.
"Wow, this is one place I never thought I would see." she folded her minuscule arms and tilted her head, deep in thought. "Well" she said "I guess we had better make sure we aren't surprised while we're in here." She smiled deviously at John, who felt no remorse as he realized what she was about to do.
A few panels flashed on the Hologram in front of John, and then...
The entire ship vented it's atmosphere. Every surface on the entire cruiser opened to space, and all separating doors were opened. In 10 seconds, the only living creature on board was John, safely behind large blast doors that had been put down over the bridge. They were emblazoned with the large covenant crest, but they were also smeared with blood.
"That's better" Cortana smiled. "The interface that they use is made to be easily accessible. Probably for their own AI constructs."
"And you...." John asked "Can you access everything?"
"Anything you want, Master Chief."
"Good. Let's give the home team some help."
"I'm on it, Chief" Cortana lapsed into silence, and then flickered out of the Holo projector. In her place, a view of the outside of the ship appeared, and what John immediately recognized as plasma torpedo charges were gathering on the recesses on the side of the hull.
"Their weapons are enormously efficient," Cortana remarked. They can be fired in what seems to be in a nearly constant pattern if I divert all power to them.
A number of sudden tremors ran throughout the giant ship, and with amazing speed, John watched the plasma bolts streak away from the ship and towards the other 3 cruisers that were part of the battle group. Cortana flickered back onscreen, and gave a grin as she said "You know, the system they use to guide the plasma really isn't all that different from that which guides the needles on a needler, or the supercharged plasma from one of their pistols. I think we can start looking into better anti-covenant technology with this ship in our hands.
The plasma raced across space, turning a deadly bluish white color as they streaked towards their targets. The ship shuddered again. Another salvo of plasma torpedo fired away from their ship, followed by a series of pulse lasers, which were effective against the nearest ship. Cortana was having a blast...literally.
The first salvo of plasma impacted the 3 nearest covenant cruisers, the ones that had slowly been advancing in towards the MAC platforms. The effect was interesting, to say the least. The plasma struck the shields of the ship, causing them to move in ripples, then in waves, and finally, into tsunami sized blasts. The effects of this on the shields was interesting as well. They dipped further up and down, penetrating the superstructure of the enemy ships, further and further until there was less ship than violent plasma. In a brilliant flash of white, the ship detonated, scattering bits of plasma with it. The other two cruisers quickly followed suit, and so did three inbound covenant frigates. Another ship, a much smaller covenant gunship or cutter, simply detonated on impact, like a supernova. These weapons were affecting the covenant ships worse than they affected human ships. The pulse lasers, too, were taking down their shields at an alarming rate, and then over penetrated their armor. It was unbelievable.
Soon, there were no Covenant ships left near that cruiser. Cortana informed the entire fleet that the Covenant Cruiser Strife Enducer was under their control, and that it was not hostile.
"Cortana!" Screamed Admiral Stanforth over the com link "You get that goddamn ship on the ground now! If you get it blown up in this mess, there's no telling what information we may miss."
Just then, 2 covenant destroyers that had made a pinpoint slipspace jump next to the Battle Cruiser Anteitem, where the captain was located, were blown to oblivion by twin bolts of supercharged green plasma. There was no argument when Cortana told him to respectively shut the hell up.
******
"Lieutenant!" shouted Captain Freeman "Get this thing in orbit!" We need to take down that frigate, and we need to take it down now.
"Sir, we have just entered orbit, and are on a direct angle of attack with our designated MAC orbital cannon."
"Good work. Now, lieutenant Daniels, get me a firing solution on the ship that just jumped next to the cannon. Fire archer missile pods A1-C1, and give me a solution for the second MAC to hit 3 seconds before the missiles. And Lawrence!" shouted the captain
"Awaiting your orders sir."
"Get Epsilon and Falcon wings out on patrol. they have permission to launch their thermo nuclear munitions, but they must be 50km clear of this ship unless capture or destruction is unavoidable."
"Right away captain"
"And get the evac-groups together. Call all marines up to combat status Alpha and have Charlie through Gamma battle groups ready to repel boarders."
"Making it happen sir..."
"And Lawrence!"
"Yes sir?"
"For Christ sake, if that MAC stops firing, we die, so divert all power but 5% of the engine to the MAC capacitors."
"Of course, sir." The bridge stirred, and people jumped to work. Alarms went off, and Lawrence began giving emergency instructions.
"Captain, MAC's are hot, firing solution online, archer missile safeties are off. Awaiting your word, sir" One of the bridge lieutenants shouted nervously.
"Send them to hell, lieutenant!" The Captains face was grim as he watched hundreds of missiles streak away from his ship, followed by two resounding thuds. The frigate they had been pursuing was now very close to the MAC orbital stations. The ship had been making a suicide blitz towards it, and almost succeeded, until the MAC's struck...
The first round blew out the glossy, shimmering shields. The second round tore a hole through the center of the ship, disabling it entirely. seconds after, the missiles took the rest of it, striking the engines with a tremendous explosion.
"Nice shot, Lieutenant!" called Major Rembrel, who had been standing with the bridge crew. The Secretary had since taken a seat near the captain, facing the view screen and a number of tactical computers. He smiled appreciatively at the flawless work of the bridge crew, and nodded in polite acknowledgement at Lawrence's figure that was being projected in front of him.
"Couldn't have done it better myself."
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