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Chambers Company: Chapter Nine
Posted By: AngryHorizon<rennerma@alltel.net>
Date: 2 April 2006, 3:41 pm
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Chapter 9
Several problems jumped out at me about this mission. I have always heard that Covenant ships have powerful shields that protect them, furthermore any ship that was almost in UNSC hands self-destructed. On top of that we had no AI to fly the bucket.
1315 hrs. September 21st 2552 (Military Calendar)/
In Space above planet Yerzan
I began to think about the crew that went for the Melissa. Two thirds of my company went that way. My leg was shaking from the tension. It is a habit I have had since I was very little. I looked around at the eight men in 1st Platoon I had left. The weight of those men, my friends, suddenly fell on me, but I had to keep composure if I expected to get back to earth any time soon.
They were all looking around too, except Yauni, who had his head down. Grim was on all of their faces, and looked as though they were all depressed. But this was the requirement of the service.
"This is General Howard, do you read me over," came the General of the COM.
"Roger, this is Captain Madison".
"For starters, we made it off of the rock, we are sending four Longswords to your position to aid you on your assault," he began. It was on an open COM, so I assumed everyone was being briefed at the same time. "We are also loading up all of our pelicans with men, and a second AI to aid Thomas. Our shipboard AI is going to take manual control of your ships, and coordinate the attack herself. As you are well aware of, their ships have shields. We are going to down them with our MAC guns."
"Charge to one hundred percent, sir," I heard in the background.
"Aye, get me a firing solution, and wait for my command," responded the Captain.
The General kept going, "You will then land, and take the ship."
"Arm Archer pods A1 through A7, let's give their pulse lasers something to shoot at."
"ETA at Covenant ship, one minute," said the General over the COM.
I walked to the front of the pelican. The Covenant vessel was in front of us. I saw little specks on the horizon speeding our way. Seraphs. Pelicans settled into formation behind us, according to the aft camera. The Seraphs launched their ordinance at our formation, and I heard screams on the COM, and then static. The static. The pilots switch camera views, and the pelican behind us was the only one left.
The Seraphs spun around for round two. But before they could launch another salvo they erupted into a brilliant flame of bright blue and yellow flames. The four Longswords sped past me.
More chatter from the crew came across. "Fire Archer missiles."
"Aye, aye, missiles away."
"Fire the cannon on my mark."
"Ten seconds," called the pilot.
"Fire!" I heard the Captain yell. I looked forward, and the MAC round smacked the Covenant vessel on its side. It shields shined bright silver, and then collapsed. Detonations from the missiles went off. The massive Covenant vessel grew rapidly in front of me. Lasers hit their marks, but did not hit any of our ships.
A pulse laser struck an Archer missile next us, and our pelican shuddered. I flew to the right, and hit the wall. My vision was disorientated for a few seconds, but it quickly came back. The ship was big, and the pelican flew into one of the many hanger bays.
The craft stopped, and the back opened. The men in 1st Platoon jumped out the back, and I was right there with them, ready. There were blast from the few Grunts that were in the bay, but the pilot unloaded on them with the 70mm auto-cannons. The hanger was ours in a matter of seconds. The other pelican unloaded, and I saw 2nd Platoon racing toward me, Trey at the lead. All were accounted for, except Richard Hargraves.
"Joseph, good to see you man," said Trey. We clasped hands, and I nodded. He continued, "I think we are all that is left, but I have a 'smart AI' that will aid us."
"Give it to me," I said sticking out my hand to retrieve it. He placed it into my hand, and I walked over to the nearest, what looked like a pedestal for human AIs. I slotted it in, and am image of an ancient Spartan warrior rose.
"Wow, we are on a Covenant ship," he began, "I am downloading the schematics of the ship onto your HUD. I will highlight the best route to the bridge, do not leave that passage. I am locking down all other sections of the ship, and venting the atmosphere, so we can even the odds. Move!."
I jumped at the last word. I turned, and everyone was looking at the AI, or me I didn't know. "Andrew, and Lenard, stay here and guard our ships. Everyone else, on me."
We went into a hallway. The ship was a luminescent purple that made me uneasy. The ceiling was high over our heads. That would be a waist of space on UNSC ships. The bridge wasn't to far away, it was just getting there. 1st Platoon stuck to one side of the hallway, while 2nd Platoon was on the other. We covered each other as we rounded corners.
It was our turn to go first. I stepped around the corner, and an elite stood in my face, along with four more, and a group of grunts. He swung his rifle at me, but I stepped back. The men unloaded on it. The other elite's threw their grenades the men of 2nd Platoon. Gerald was stuck, he tried to run, but Harry, and Jonas were still in the blast radius. They went up in a bright blue inferno.
I looked away, and helped finish off the last of the small Covenant group. We continued, and quickly reached the bridge. I used a plasma grenade to deactivate the electronics in the door.
"1st Platoon, on the door. Pull it open," I ordered, pointing to the door. "2nd Platoon in firing position, stat."
The men quickly got in position. 1st Platoon slowly opened the door. There were a lot of elites in the massive bridge. I threw a frag into the group, and we unloaded on them before the doors were fully open. It was a short skirmish, flashes, noises, death. I didn't realize it in the small seven-second exchange of fire, but I lost three friends. And Tommy was severely injured.
"Andrew and Lenard, get to the AI, and get to the bridge ASAP," I ordered over the COM. "Bruce, Ambrose, Yauni, and Trey, round up the dead, and get their dog tags. Seth, Chris, Paul, Greg, and Ron, go get as much supplies off of the pelicans as you can. Everyone, form a defensive perimeter, we are still not secure." When I was done, Andrew and Lenard showed up on the bridge. Andrew handed me the AI. "Good job, all of you." I plugged in the AI, and he popped up.
"There is an enemy AI, but I almost have him down. He seems to be a copy of one of ours, am-," he was saying, but I cut him off.
"Send a message to the Melissa that we have control of the ship, and can you get us home," I asked in earnest.
"Sent, and no," he responded calmly.
"Why, you can't fly this thing," I asked amazed.
"No, I can fly it better then any UNSC ship, but I can't go to Earth, not without authorization," he said. "We have to jump to a random vector, and we have to be inspected by the UNSC for bugs. I am receiving a transmission from the Melissa, do you wish me to send it through?"
"Yes," I said not believing him. I had heard of the Cole Protocols, but not this, why would they have one for Covenant ships. Did they actually think that we would capture one?
The General, and the Captain showed up on one of the screens in the bridge. "Captain," the General started, "Where is the Colonel I sent?"
"I was not aware of any Colonel," I answered truthfully. "He might have been on one of the pelicans that was shot down en route to the ship. Only my pelican and the pelican with 2nd Platoon from Chambers Company was on it."
"Yes, we were watching, we just didn't know who was on what after all of the flames dissipated," responded the General. He was tapping his chin, looking blankly at the screen.
"General, it seems that we can't head to Earth because of a protocol set down by ONI. It seems that Covenant ships have to be checked for bugging devices that might lead them to Earth," I informed the General, even though I assumed he all ready knew.
"I am going to override that protocol, they hit Reach, they undoubtedly know where Earth is since it is practically on Earth's door step," he said looking me square in the eye. "Captain, prepare to jump, set coordinates for Earth," he said looking back at the Navy captain. He then looked to me and gave the same orders.
"Yes sir, Captain Madison out," I said saluting. The link went dead, and I then turned to speak to the AI. "Get us home, now."
"We are on our way, and we will undoubtedly beat them home, and I'm not so certain that the UNSC will welcome a Covenant ship sitting on its door step," warned the AI, receding into the confines of the ship. "We will arrive in seven hours."
"Seven hours men, rest up, but when we are an hour away, we need to ready one of the pelicans for departure." We rested for six, six well earned hours in my book. When she woke me up and said we were an hour away, I couldn't believe it. I thought I had just set my head down.
"We need to prepare a message to be sent out to all the ships not to engage, and it has to be something legit so that they know that we are who we say we are," I ordered the AI.
"Already done," replied the AI, "Everything is set and ready to go."
I turned to my men, "Let's ready the pelican for departure then." The pelican only took a few minutes with the Covenants gravity beams. I choose to send 1st Platoon out of the ship to help show that we were UNSC.
"ETA one minute," announced the AI. I was done saluting my men, so I went to bridge to be there to talk to the UNSC ship that spotted us first.
When I got to the bridge, we exited slipspace. Earth was on the forward view screen, but there so were many UNSC ships that considered us a serious threat. "Message sent."
I waited pertinently for one of the ships to try and link us was us, but none did, instead they turned and sped toward us. "What are they doing?" I could picture my face, blank of expression, scared. They thought us a threat, and they were going to us out.
"They are readying to attack."
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