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The Ghost of Harvest by Jester
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The Ghost of Harvest: Ch.1
Date: 29 May 2005, 1:19 AM
UNSC Destroyer Pegasus- Harvest System
The Master Chief's eyes roamed over the eight young Spartans that stood attention on the main flight deck of the Pegasus. Even without the MJOLNIR helmets encompassing their heads their faces betrayed none of the anxiety that they had to be feeling. This was the newest generation of Spartans. John and Kelly had personally overseen their training for the last ten years. He wished Dr. Halsey could have been here to see how her vision had turned out. He dismissed his thoughts and began to speak.
"All eight of you were specifically chosen for this mission. Each of you has skills that will be needed to successfully complete your objectives. This will be your last..."
Eric barely listened to the Chief. He could barely stand still, much less listen to a long boring speech. He knew that he was truly the one being tested. No one had told him this, but it was clearly evident. He had been leading his friends for as long as he could remember. No one else had ever questioned him and all the Spartans followed his orders. If he pulled this mission off, Eric had no doubt that he would become the squad leader. Eric cast discrete glances at his friends. Russ was standing perfectly straight pretending to pay attention. Russ had been Eric's best friend since they had been conscripted into the Spartan program. It had been a weird relationship at first, each trying to outdo each other until one day they realized that they would both be better off if they worked together. Eric had no doubt that this friendship had been created by Master Chief in order to teach both of them a lesson: together they were stronger. Eric looked around the rest of his squad. Jessica was one of the few paying attention. On the other hand Ryland and Scott looked like they were both about to burst out laughing at some private joke. Eric preoccupied himself with going over the mission plan in his mind again.
Point A: Pelican docks with the wreckage of the Majestic, a light corvette that had been destroyed by the Covenant when Harvest was glassed. Secure the primary airlock.
Point B: Download the Majestic's ship records.
Point C: Restore as much power as possible to the ship.
Point D: Clear the ship of any threats.
Point E: Download crew logs from bridge.
Point F: Plant e charges on the engine core and detonate them when safely away.
Point G: Return to the Pegasus.
The outline made the mission sound easier than it would be. Many of the sections they would need to access would be blocked off by emergency doors. When UNSC ships were crippled safety protocols took over. Any sections that contained sensitive information that could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands was sealed off by heavy blast doors and the information inside destroyed by automated processes. High Command on Earth believed that some of these safety protocols may not have been successfully completed on board the Majestic. High Command wanted to make sure that no amount of precious data fell into enemy hands. Eric suddenly realized that the Chief was nearly done and started listening.
"...and I have no doubt that you will perform excellently. The brass wants you to make a mistake so that they can disband the Spartan program. Don't let that happen." The Chief gave a slight nod, pivoted on the balls of his feet, and stepped into the waiting elevator.
"All right guys stow your gear in the Pelican and get ready. We launch in five." Eric ordered. Russ stepped over to join Eric.
"Are you ready Eric?" he asked smoothly.
"Of course, have you ever known me not to be?" Eric answered just as smoothly.
Russ pretended to ponder this for a moment and then finally said "No."
Eric grinned at him and said "Get your gear stowed, and stop making useless conversation." Russ put a fake pained expression on his face and moved off towards the Pelican. Eric took a deep breath. This was it, no turning back now.
John was relieved the instant the doors on the elevator closed. He d giving speeches. He'd rather be in a duel to the than give speeches. What bugged him more than that was the fact that Kelly always seemed to be able to get out of stuff like this. She always seemed to remember "prior arrangements" right before she was needed. He knew that it was more than just the speech that was bothering him. It was the fact that his Spartans were going to be completely alone and on their own. They had been alone on missions before, but nothing like this. This was a mission that he should have been going on. It was more dangerous than the brass would admit. Stress fractures in the hull of the ship could cause the ship to burst apart if any one of a number of things happened. He would never have chosen a mission like this for them. It hadn't been his choice though. It truly was just a test for Eric. Much like Mendez had tested him except John hadn't known it at the time. Eric knew though, that much John could tell. John's trial had been much easier.
With all of humanity united after defeating the Covenant nearly 20 years ago there seemed no need for the Spartans. He knew that one day a situation would come up that only the Spartans could handle. The problem was that at the moment most of the brass was convinced that the Spartan program was using up too much money and offering too little in return. He was frustrated with the system. Politics were not his game, but he was being increasingly pressured into them. He liked the battlefield better; at least there he knew who his enemy's were. John had no more time to entertain his thoughts. The elevator doors whisked open and there was Kelly, just standing there grinning at him.
"Have fun Chief?" she asked trying not laugh.
"Your presence would have made my day." he replied.
"I'm sorry" she said in that maddeningly nice voice of hers "I was tied up."
They started to walk towards the bridge. They could have taken the tram that stretched down the middle of the ship, but it was crowded and they wanted their privacy.
"You think they're ready yet chief?" Kelly asked turning to face him.
"I hope so. I mean Mendez never would have sent us on a mission like this at their age." John replied with a tone of worry.
"The times have changed."
"Maybe."
"What do you mean maybe?" she asked puzzled.
"Not that much has changed. Hardly anyone in High Command has ever appreciated what the Spartan program is. They've always been against the Spartans. They still are."
"That's true but we've come so far since we were first trained. No one dies during body enhancement procedure anymore. This generation has been trained by us. They've got better weapons and armor then we ever had. If anything they should be the most prepared to take on this mission."
"Okay, maybe you're right about that, but this mission is pointless. The Majestic was converted to hospital ship two years before the Covenant hit Harvest. The Majestic had no important information in its database whatsoever. I wish that if the brass is going to send them on such a dangerous mission that they would have at least made it somewhat useful."
"That's bothered me a little bit. I guess they really want the Spartan program to stall and be disbanded." They reached the bridge and slipped in among the crew. Captain Mueller stood in front of his command chair. He glanced in their direction and motioned for them to join him.
"They're leaving now." the Captain said as he motioned to the main view screen. The Pelicans green nose was just beginning to appear from inside the main flight deck. When the whole of the Pelican had cleared the bay there was a sudden flash of blue-silver light as the main engines ignited. John, Kelly, and the Captain watched for the next hour as the Pelican navigated the hazardous debris field that was all the remained of Harvest. Eventually the Pelican slowed down and finally set down on the Majestic's airlock. Now came the hard part. They had to wait.
Eric was the first one out of the Pelican. He dropped gracefully to his feet and scanned the room with every sensor type available to him. Nothing. He motioned for the others to follow him. One by one the Spartans landed in the airlock. They all took up positions along the door. Eric pressed the open button on the door's control panel. The door cycled open to reveal nothing but a dark looking hallway. Eric moved through the door, knowing that his Spartans were mirroring him. They spread out down the length of the hall making sure that it was unoccupied, and then met back up beside the door to the airlock.
"All right" Eric said "Russ and I are going to the bridge to retrieve the crew logs. Jessica and Ryland head up to the main computer core and retrieve the ships records. Scott, you and Seth do a preliminary sweep of the ship. After you're through head to the security center and see if we can get control of any cameras or other defense systems this ship has. Katie and Linda, you two see about getting us some power. Stay alert guys, we have no idea what is on this ship." The Spartans all nodded and moved off to do their jobs. Eric and Russ started up the hallway towards the bridge. Just before they reached the end of the hallway there was a sudden surge of acceleration. Eric was dimly aware of being thrown across the width of the hallway to collide with the very hard metal wall. Before he could recover he was thrown again, though this time it was up to the ceiling. His back slammed into the ceiling at no less than 40 miles an hour. Had he not been wearing MJOLNIR armor his spine would have been crushed to powder. Gravity seemed to defy the laws of physics as he hung suspended in mid-air for a second before he fell hard to the floor. Eric braced himself for more, but none came. His vision was blurred, and he had no idea where Russ was. Blackness started to engulf him now, but he stayed conscious as he tried to figure out what had happened. Had they been hit by a missle he wondered. Attacked by the Covenant? Suddenly he felt old and tired, and he let the blackness take him.
The Ghost of Harvest: Ch.2
Date: 26 June 2005, 3:23 am
UNSC Destroyer Pegasus- Harvest System
John's eyes roamed over the holographic view screen, searching each pixel for some semblance of relief. He found none. Other than the random orbit of debris, nothing had moved on the view screen since the Pelican docked with the Majestic. It had only been five minutes ago, but to John it seemed like a decade. He didn't know what he expected to happen, only that he expected something. He flicked his nervous gaze towards Kelly for an instant.
She stood there, maddeningly calm, eyes closed, and breathing steadily in and out. The captain mirrored her pose, save for his eyes. His watery blue iris's poured over the sensor data that was coming in from the ships probes.
How can they be so calm? John thought to himself. He went back to watching the view screen.
Then what John had been dreading happened. At first it was small, just a tiny blue flare on the aft side of the Majestic. What in the world was that? John scrutinized the display for some clue pertaining to the mysterious flare. What would cause that? Emergency flares are all different colors, but none of them blue. Something's wrong, I can feel it.
Suddenly the flare vanished for a second, and then the [I]Majestic shot forward, her engines ablaze. For the first few seconds, John could only stare open-mouthed at the ghost that was streaking away. The Pelican was ripped off with the ship's sudden acceleration.
"Sir, slip-space rupture off the bow of the Majestic! She's heading straight for it. She'll be through in twenty seconds."
John's protective instinct took over. "Follow them through the hole." John knew that giving orders to the bridge crew was in direct violation of more UNSC rules than he could think of, and he couldn't care less. He would not abandon his Spartans.
"Belay that order crewman. Track the Majestic as best you can. Go to red alert. Power up the MAC's, and load the Archers. I want Longswords standing by in the bay."
Mueller tossed an angry glare at the Chief as he sat down in his command chair. Seething with anger, John barely noticed. He was forced to watch helplessly as the Majestic slid through the rupture in space. The captain stood and directed his crew.
"I want you to continuously scan this system. If anything is out of place, I want to know about it. Keep us at high alert, and give me a random orbit. I don't want to be a sitting duck."
John felt the captain stop beside him for an instant and whisper in his ear.
"Ten minutes, my cabin. We need to talk."
John was left standing there, wondering what he was going to do.
* * *
Captain Mueller stood by his cabin window, wondering what had happened to the Spartans onboard the Majestic He wasn't happy about the situation, but he was doing his best not to lose focus. He still had the lives of his crew to consider, and he wasn't going to put his ship in danger unless there was no other option.
A soft beep from the door alerted him to John's presence. Mueller turned slowly to face the Chief. John just stood there, waiting for the captain to speak. Mueller turned back to the window.
"Chief, what you did up there, I cannot tolerate. You gave my crew a direct order. They need to see that I'm in charge, not you. Confusion among my crew will only result in unneeded loss of life."
Mueller sighed. "Listen Chief, I'm not happy about this situation any more than you are. Here's the difference between us. You do not have this ship and her crew to be concerned about, and your actions on the bridge prove that you aren't thinking logically right now. I have to consider all of these things. I promise you that we will not leave them to die."
"I understand sir."
"Do you?" the captain replied coldly. "You're dismissed."
The Chief nodded, swiveled, and walked out of the room. Kelly was standing there to meet him.
She began slowly. "So, how did it go?"
"Better than I deserve. I should be court-martialed."
"Yeah, well I hear that the brass tries to go softer on the people who saved mankind from annihilation."
This brought a smile to the Chief's face. His mood turned serious quickly again though. "I want to be out there, right now, chasing after them."
"Don't you worry Chief, we'll get em."
* * *
Eric woke to Russ's face less than an inch from his own. Russ's deep green eyes mirrored his own in a second of shock.
"Russ, I never want to see your face this close up again, ever."
Russ grinned and withdrew. "You've been out for a while."
"Really? How long?" Eric asked tiredly.
"About a day."
"What happened?"
"The ship jumped to slip-space. We're not totally sure where to. Me and you were heading up to the bridge when boom, we were suddenly playing human pinball. What really got you was the energy pulse. Whoever put in the slip-space reactor didn't care too much about safety. The reactor let off an energy emission when we jumped. Knocked you flat cold."
"Whoa. Back up, what slip-space reactor?"
"The one in engineering. Totally new. In fact, we keep finding new components on board this ship. The Majestic is starting to look like a modern day cruise ship. We've got a new shielding system, gravity generators, even a reinforced hull. The list goes on. Seems like somebody doesn't want us to die. Yet."
"Trap." Eric said this as a statement, not a question.
"Well, there's nothing we can do at the moment. We've tried to bring her out of slip-space, but so far she's been stubborn."
"Of course there's something we can do. We're going to complete our mission."
* * *
John and Kelly watched as the captain talked with Admiral Nester. A minute later the captain broke the connection, stroked his white mustache and moved to join the two Spartans.
"High Command is sending an investigation team. They'll be here in a week. My orders are to stay here and watch for new developments. I plan to do that. I think though that I can spare our emergency slip-space reactor. I'll have it installed on a Pelican. You two can leave whenever you like."
"Thank you sir. Do we know where the Majestic was heading?"
"Llenski system. It's remote, but no one lives there."
John was relieved. "We've been to the Llenski system before."
"Yeah, last time we were there, we were captured by the Covenant" Kelly said sarcastically.
"That was only a … minor detail." John replied sheepishly.
"We don't have any extra MJOLNIR suits onboard, not any that would fit you anyways. Feel free to raid the armory though. Good luck."
The two Spartans saluted in pristine military fashion, turned on their heels and marched out of the bridge."
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