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Honor Fleet Part 2: Drone Outbreak
Posted By: Logan Nickel<Theloganman@WMconnect.com>
Date: 31 March 2005, 10:57 PM
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Kuza 'Kamanok sat in the dark, violet-lit meeting room of the Slayer of Incompetence. He had been sitting on the cold seat for almost a full unit. Trying to figure out why the Drones had gone insane. It had happened only a few weeks after his first victory on the Odu planet. And only the Drones that had been on the planet were having trouble. They were sent up to the Silence and Remorse, a Covenant Destroyer, and only units later all contact with the ship had ceased.
The meeting was basically to see what his crew wanted to do. Then he would take their requests into consideration and final: choose the best course of action. It was not common among Fleet Masters to ask the opinion of anyone but a Prophet. But Kuza knew that was part of being a good leader. Even though other Elites did not think so.
After an extremely long period of time Kuza's mind was made. He decided to send a large task force over to the ship and see if they couldn't take it over. He wanted to go personally but the Odu were acting up and his attention needed to be focused on the planet.
The humid morning air of the planet filled Kuza's body. He looked at the texture of the Odu city walls. He knew if the Prophets found out that he was using an unholy city as a base he would be decommissioned. But he did a lot of things that were sacrilegious and slightly demonic. So far his crew hadn't argued. But they did seem a little on edge.
"Fleetmaster, Kuza," The top military advisor, Hazu said as he walked up to Kuza when his Phantom dropped him off. "Excellency, the Valley Odu have gathered together. Their numbers look strong enough to take out this base. I do not see why we don't glass this unholy planet once and for all."
"Are you questioning the reasoning of the Prophets!?" Kuza said using the Prophets as an excuse to get angry at the fool.
"No, Excellency. Of course not," Hazu said quickly.
"Good, I would not like to remove you from my fleet, or worse," Kuza said trying to sound menacing.
Hazu cleared his throat, "Yes, well, according to our spies the bugs are going to attack in three units. Their lines have began to form."
"How many Brutes are down here?" Kuza asked, knowing (and hating) the potential of the beasts.
"I believe we have around thirty," Hazu said.
"That should be enough if we have suppressive fire. I also want a few squads of Ghosts so we can exploit their devoid of vehicles," Kuza said as he walked to the command room of the base.
"Perfect planning, Excellency," Hazu said highly over exaggerated.
Kuza grumbled something about Hazu's attitude and walked into the command room. Everyone bowed, low and then went back to work. Kuza walked up to the holovid of Mercy and switched it to show the base and surrounding areas. He tirelessly studied the map, looking for weaknesses in the defenses.
After standing in front of the map for a long time he headed for his Phantom. On the way a Grunt ran past him screaming something in his hard to understand language. Kuza looked in the direction the Grunt had come from. He saw whale-like Covenant Destroyer gallantly slid through the thick cloud. It was the Silence and Remorse. It halted abruptly in midair and activated its purple, beam-like Gravity Lift. Kuza ran back to the control room, his hooves pounded upon the ground as he ran, his head slightly bobbed, and his arms waved back and forth.
"Hazu! Get ground forces to the Grav Lift!" He yelled upon entering the control room.
"Grav lift, Excellency?" Hazu asked indicating in his voice that he thought Kuza was crazy.
"Yes, grav lift, fool! The Silence and Remorse has just entered the atmosphere and has turned on its grav lift due east!" Kuza yelled extremely annoyed.
"Right away, Excellency!"
Aboard the Silence Kuza's Special Ops team ran through the glowing blue blood stained halls. To an observer they were just a blur, a smudge in the air. With their active camouflage they could sneak almost anywhere. The leader of the team (Faza 'Faymunee) took his team closer and closer to the bridge.
They had seen a few Drones so far. And they all appeared normal. They seemed to operate the ship fine and they were not killing each other. But since they were working with the ship they would be able to trace all transmissions to the starting point so Faza couldn't send any Intel back to the Slayer.
The squad wisped through many hallways, rooms, and hangers. They passed rooms filled with the bodies of their fallen brothers. Faza cursed the Drones and vowed to avenge the deaths of his comrades. He felt a deep sadness as he saw the bodies upon bodies laid in perfect piles at the corners of each room.
Though Kuza was his commanding officer Faza felt great hatred toward him. He did not obey the Prophets and it was said that he collected unholy relics, and worshiped demons. Faza knew this was somehow his fault, and he would seek vengeance. But for now he had to get to the bridge.
They finally reached the entrance to the bridge. Drones were everywhere. The hall was so filled with them that Faza and his squad could not walk through. He decided they could no longer keep the element of surprise. He tossed a plasma grenade into the swarm.
Body parts and dull yellow blood splattered all over the squad. Faza awaited a second swarm to fly into the hall and attack him. But it did not come. He cloaked again and walked into the bridge. The drones had built hundreds of hives on the walls of the bridge. Drones flew everywhere. A few stood at the controls of the bridge.
"We must plant the bomb here," Faza whispered.
"But that will render the ship useless and it will fall to the ground," An Elite said.
"Repairs can be made, Brother," Faza said preparing to arm the bomb.
Before they could make another move the swarm began to fly around the room as fast as they could as if they were irritated. Faza assumed it was because they discovered him. But soon the great majority of them left the room and went buzzing down the halls.
"Has Kuza sent another strike team up?" A third Elite asked.
"Possibly," Faza said. "Whatever it was it serious enough so that the Drones had to send most of their swarm. Now only a few are left. Let us seal off the bridge."
The seven Elites shot their Plasma Rifles at the remaining ten Drones. They took them out in seconds. Faza ran up to the control panel and sealed all of the doors with Plasma Screens. Then he felt safe enough to send out a message.
"Excellency, we have a message from the team," Raku said.
"Good, put it through," Kuza said, pleased.
"Excellency, we have infiltrated the Silence. The Drones have created a hive in the bridge. It seems they have returned to the primitive state they were before we trained them. But they still have kept their knowledge of operating the ship," Faza said.
"Faza, they have activated the Gravity Lift and are attacking our base. We need you to close the doors and seal off the ship. I want you to slay every last one of them on that destroyer," Kuza ordered.
"Yes, Excellency," Faza said.
Hazu walked to the outer walls of the base. Recon was his only excuse to get away from the unholy city, Kuza was mad for making it a base. As soon as his report reached the hierarchs ears Kuza would be killed. Plus, he liked to recon things himself. He didn't trust the Jackal scouts that worked for Kuza. In fact, he hadn't seen them since they went on their third recon mission. They were probably busy harassing the Grunts.
The Elite casually walked around until he stumbled upon something. Purple Jackal blood and three bodies littered a small outcropping. Hazu looked around for the killer. He suspected the Odu or maybe another Jackal so he was very surprised to see five dead Drones.
The Drones were preparing to invade the base! Hazu grabbed his COM. He began to speak when he felt an intense burning feeling on his hand. He cried out and dropping his COM. The angered Elite looked up to see the sky filled with Drones. Every Drone in the fleet was there. A small group of them were flying to him and shooting their Plasma Pistols.
Hazu drew his Plasma Rifle and fired at top speed. He took out a few of the Drones but they kept coming. Hazu's Plasma Rifle overheated and he didn't have time to vent. So he caste it down and reached for his Carbine that was hanging around his back. He pulled it out and threw in the ammunition clip. But it was to late.
Drones came at him from every direction. They bit and clawed at him like wild animals. He grabbed one and threw it into two others with all his might. Then he punched ones head through and swatted another out of the air. He grabbed a bug's arm and kicked its body off. With the arm he smacked two more and then threw it in the air. After a series of melee attacks he had killed nearly twenty. But more just came. Until finally he was over taken.
Kuza 'Kamanok tapped his foot at the Phantom lifted into the air. He had lost all communication with the Special Operations Team a unit ago. He was personally going up there. Raku could control the base. The Phantom was cloaked so that the Drones would not attack it.
It seemed that every time Kuza was in a Phantom he began to think deeply. And it seemed that every time he thought deeply he began to question the way the Covenant worked. He no longer believed the words of the Prophets. For some reason, even he didn't know, their inspiration was gone. He no longer believed that the Humans were as unholy as the Prophets made them seem. But it was hard to let go. He wanted to cry out a prayer of forgiveness to the Gods whenever he walked into his room and saw the Human weapons. But he knew it was all a lie.
The Phantom shook, interrupting the Elite's thoughts.
"Excellency, the Drones are running right into us! There are to many our camouflage will no last!" The pilot yelled.
"Drop us off now!" Kuza yelled.
"The Silence is firing upon us!"
"Bring us into the hanger, now!"
"By the Prophets this is to much!"
"Evacuate, now! NOW!"
The Phantom's armor blew off. Blue smoke spurted out of the engines as the dropship fell to the ground. As it fell it was ripped apart by tree branches and cliff rocks. When it reached the ground it was in two pieces.
Kuza slowly reoriented. Then he realized that the dropship's stabilization coupling was most likely destroyed, "Run!"
The Phantom blew up in a fantastic blue explosion. Kuza felt the plasma heat upon his back. He dropped down and let the explosion blow over him, for the most part. But he was still thrown into the air like a rag doll and slammed into the ground by the force of the blast.
After laying on the ground for a good time Kuza sat up. He weakly stood up and began looking for survivors. After he found that there were none he checked himself. His headpiece was cracked and no longer of any use to him. So he threw it down along with his left shoulder pad, and his right knee pad.
Kuza 'Kamanok walked, to the best of his ability, to the grav lift. But he realized he was of no use and began to make his way back to the base. Along the way he grew weaker and weaker. Soon his legs gave out and he tumbled to the ground. The Elite turned his head and saw the foot of a Drone, no not a Drone, it was an Odu. And it had friends.
to be continued
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