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The Pelican hatch began to open, the Marines awoke from their dosing stupor that tended to be brought on by ten minutes of listening to the Sergeant's music.
"OK Charlie Team, we're here!" came Foe Hammer through the comm.
The Sergeant switched his audio player off and peered out of the Pelican down to see a few Longsword Fighters surrounding the Command Shuttle.
The Command Shuttle was a broad ship about two Pelicans wide and three long, and the shape sort of reminded the Sergeant of a Manta Ray, if a Manta Ray was a bit longer and swept back with hard angles. There were sensors and radar all over the front section of the ship before the very cramped bridge.
It had four anvil missile pods and four 50mm gun emplacements, two facing forwards, attached to the swept back 'wings,'one below on it's belly and one on it's back.
It was nearly as well armoured as a battleship, 75cm of titanium-A battle plate in most places, a little less in others. It also had the green plasma-distoring sheen that the Warthogs, Pelicans, Scorpions- in fact most new issue UNSC vehicles had, designed to spread out a blast of plasma.
The Command Shuttle's purpose was exactly what it was doing now; should the crew of a UNSC battleship have to abandon ship, the Command Shuttle would be the place where the orders and decisions would be made afterwards.
The Sergeant knew why there were no Pelicans on the ground, but one thing did confuse him,
"HEY FOE HAMMER, WHY HASN'T ANYONE EVEN STARTED TO SET UP CAMP?"
"We're running to a timer Sergeant," came Foe Hammer's voice, sounding grim,
"It's estimated we've got 20 minutes before large amounts of Covenant enforcements get here, they know where we are, we have to get as many survivors out as we can before we have to take off and move on, I just hope the Master Chief is as incredible as I've heard. We can't afford to wait too long for the Covenant who're gonna be headed for the new lifepods to be neutralised so we can land."
"Where are the other Pelicans?" asked the Tech the Sergeant had sat next to in the life pod.
"They're either still incoming after escaping from the Autumn, trying to rescue other lifepods, or destroyed," Foe Hammer replied. "OK gentleman, kindly move your asses, I have other Marines to evac."
The Marines helped out the injured Tech and felt the air around them blow and howl from the Pelican's airbrakes before it went up and engaged it's thrusters, flying back where it came from.
"RIGHT, MENDOSA! JENKINS! GET THIS TECH INTO THE SHUTTLE AND FIND HIM A MEDIC!!" The Sergeant turned to Bisenti and Hackett, who were also injured, "You too, boys, go on, DOUBLE TIME!!"
They nodded and followed Mendosa and Jenkins who were carrying the Tech.
The Sergeant then turned, there was the remaining Tech who he'd sat next to on the life pod and the last Marine they'd met on the Autumn that the Sergeant didn't know. The Sergeant addressed the Marine
"Name and rank?" he said.
"SIR! PRIVATE MITCHELL, FIRE TEAM SIERRA!!"
"Fire Team Charlie now Son!" the Sergeant corrected him, "You stay here and keep guard, I think we're the first Marines to get back."
Then he turned to the Tech who straightened and saluted,
"Weatherly, Sir, Reactor Maintenance Technician, Sir!" he replied.
"You're coming with me, Tech. After I've seen the Captain I'll kit you up, I don't think we're gonna need a 'Reactor Maintenance Technician,' but we are going to need more soldiers." The Sergeant said.
He was pleased to see, however, that the Tech didn't flinch at being told he was going to have to be a soldier and fight.
The Sergeant saluted Mitchell, who returned his salute, and then he marched off to the Command Shuttle with the Tech following his stride.

The Sergeant walked up to the access ramp hatch of the Command Shuttle, it was closed. He unlatched the vaccum cover for the control panel and keyed the 'door open' request button...
The door didn't open.
The Sergeant was about to bang on the hatch when a voice came through a comm. on the panel,
"State your emergency priority access password and ID code, please!"
The Sergeant scowled and shook his head angrily. He pressed the comm.
"Uh yeah," he replied, "here's my access password: OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR BEFORE I SMASH IT THROUGH AND I BREAK YOUR FACE YOU LITTLE PUNK!!!"
There was a pause... then the door pistons whined and the ramp opened.
The Sergeant stormed in, utterly furious, he looked around for the one who'd been on the comm.
It was a Tech, stood at a small security control panel in the wall. The Tech recoiled in terror at the sight of the enraged Sergeant storming towards him.
The Sergeant backhanded him hard across the face.
The Tech clapped his hand against his struck cheekbone in shock.
The Sergeant then took the Tech by the scruff of his uniform, dragged him straight past Weatherly to the access hatch and flung the Tech down the ramp, who tumbled and landed heavily, crumpled on the ground outside.
The Sergeant went to the control panel and keyed the door shut. He then stood at the closing hatch and saw the Tech's horrified face.
"AND THAT'S MY ID CODE!!!" The Sergeant shouted before the hatch slammed shut.
Weatherly seemed both shocked and impressed as he followed the Sergeant out, who was grumbling about cocky punks getting power trips.

The Sergeant and Weatherly got to the 'bridge.' It was a small, cramped, dim, sweaty little room about five feet wide and seven feet long towards the front of the Command Shuttle. It had four seats that faced control panels along the opposite seven foot walls, two seats to a wall. There was a door that lead beyond the cramped bridge to a two-pilot cockpit.
Ops Personnel manned the terminals and there in the centre of the little room was Sergeant Daux.
He was white with a small, non-regulation goatee and a scar across his face. Sergeant Daux was not Sergeant Johnson's favourite character, in fact, the Sergeant thought that he was a hick and a bit of an idiot.
At seeing Sergeant Johnson, Daux grinned,
"I saw what you did to that Tech, Johnson. You know, he was just following orders, the Shuttle was on alpha alert and at full security! That was verbal and physical abuse to a fellow member of the UNSC, do you know the penalty is for that?" Daux asked in imitated authority.
"I don't have time for this crap Daux, where's the Captain?"
"Ah" said Daux, his face fell, "I see you haven't heard. The Captain manually crash-landed the Autumn, he could be dead or captured by Covenant."
"Oh shit," Sergeant Johnson hissed angrily. He turned to the Ops Personnel who was monitoring the sensors, "Locate that ship and scan it for the captain's CNI transponder signal!"
"You know I'm not completely incompetent Johnson!" Said Daux angrily "I've already got them looking"
Johnson turned angrily to Daux, "But you ARE incompetent enough to not even post a guard outside!"
Sergeant Daux threw out his chest,
"Hey! Look my men are tired, they've just seen their comrades dieing and they need to get a break and something to eat while they can!"
"Oh hell with it!" said the Sergeant. "I came here to see the Captain and he's not here" The Sergeant turned his back to Daux and walked past Weatherly to the exit,
"Come on Tech!" the Sergeant called, "let's kit you out!"

Sergeant had Weatherly in armour and was showing him how to reload an assault rifle in the small armoury when a Tech came nervously through the automatic door. It was the Tech he'd thrown out of the hatch, he had a large bruise across his face.
"Sergeant Daux trying to traumatise the Tech a little more I suppose" thought Sergeant Johnson to himself.
The Sergeant stared at the Tech and he jumped,
"uh... Sergeant D-Daux ...aa... he told me to tell you th-that the Master Chief was here w-with the last of the survivors, Sir! He requests you g-go to the bridge..." the Tech stuttered.
He seemed to be expecting the Sergeant to beat him again, and was desperate to get out of the room.
"Thank you Tech, dismissed" the Sergeant said calmly.
The Tech breathed a small sigh of relief and made for the door.
"Oh and Tech" the Sergeant called to the Tech's back, who froze, "Sorry about the face."
The Tech waited a moment, then quickly walked off.
"Right Weatherly" the Sergeant said "I'll leave you to work out how to reload, just don't cause a hull breach."

As the Sergeant walked up the small ramp to the tiny little bridge he felt the Shuttle shudder and take off.
He walked through the small automatic door and entered.
Sergeant Daux turned to face him.
"Sergeant, good news, the Chief did a great job, we got back a good number of survivors with only a few casualties!"
"Excellent" approved Sergeant Johnson.
"Also, Cortana's managed to locate Captain Keyes. He's alive!"
"Where?"
"A grounded Covenant cruiser, 'The Truth and Reconciliation.' Cortana disabled it before we abandoned ship 'pparently. So no risk of it getting away any time soon!"
"Good news, but we still need to get on board a Covenant cruiser and past all of it's crew" said Sergeant Johnson pessimistically.
"...yes, well, I prefer to not think about that" said Sergeant Daux, his enthusiasm punctured, "But anyway, we're headed over an ocean now, staying low of course, we're headed for a small set of islands to hide from the Covenant, when we get down we can decide what we're going to do."
"Sounds good" agreed the Sergeant.

The small fleet of Pelicans, Longswords and Command Shuttle flew perfectly level, 300 feet from the water. The sun began to disappear behind the great gas giant that the ring orbited.
Unlike on Earth, there was no shades of orange as the sun disappeared, due to the fact that the sun was not shining through a large part of atmosphere because of the shape of the ring.
Neither was there twilight, the rings spin just brought them into darkness.
The small fleet flew on.

"COME AND GET IT!!" cried Mendosa, who was stirring a huge vat full of staple UNSC stew, or 'Shit' as the Marines had come to call it.
"I don't care what it is, I could eat a Grunt!" cried one Marine.
Attention turned to the Master Chief as he took an especially large serving and sat down to eat.
Everyone fell quiet as he reached his hands up and undid a catch on his helmet.
He lifted.
In a simple movement the powerful, faceless and quite unnerving robot became a person.
Everyone couldn't help but stare.
The Master Chief had closely cropped, dark oak-brown hair, a strong jaw and cheekbones and a broad face. His eyes were thoughtful and deep.
Those same eyes were looking around at everyone who was staring at him.
Everyone suddenly realised they were staring and awkwardly started to eat again.

Spirits were running high, they were safe, they had hidden the craft, set up camp and had all gotten good meals.
Now was the time for briefing.
Sergeant Johnson called everyone around the fire they'd set up and began.
"OK people, we've discovered that Captain Keyes is alive.
We know he's been taken by the Covenant, and we know where.
Our next objective is simple: Rescue Captain Keyes and any other UNSC personnel aboard the Covenant cruiser."
A murmur went through the group, as they turned and looked at one another.
One Marine raised his hand,
"Yes Marine?" the Sergeant asked
"How?" the Marine said simply.
"Well," the Sergeant began matter-of-factly "We will take a Pelican, get in as close as we can, drop in a small squad with the Master Chief taking the point"
The Master Chief (who stood head and shoulders above everyone else) nodded, his head concealed behind his helmet again.
The Sergeant continued, "Then we'll fight our way on board the ship, get to the Captain and get him out of there. I'm sorry, but what the hell do you want me to say, we're out on a limb here, we've just gotta risk it."
The group was silent, it was the stupidest mission they'd ever heard.
Then one Marine raised his hand.
"Yes Marine?" The Sergeant asked.
"Sir! I would like to volunteer for the mission, Sir!"
The Sergeant's face wrinkled with a smile as more hands started to rise,
"I'm in"
"Count me in too, Sir!"
"Yeah! I'm game!"
"Hell, why not? I'll go!"
"Just try an' stop me!"
The Sergeant raised his arms in the air and everyone fell silent.
"You make me proud Marines, but we can't afford all of you to go at once, we'll need a tight, point squad lead by the Master Chief that can get as close to the ship as possible without being detected. However no doubt we'll need some reinforcements on hand."
Sergeant Daux cut in,
"I'll lead the reinforcements should we need them"
Sergeant Johnson nodded,
"Now, we'll need five Marines to head the mission with the Chief. I'm not going to choose you, 'cause I don't know who most of you are, I'll leave it to you to decide who'll be going."
The group leapt into discussion;
"I've survived against larger numbers of Covenant before!"
"I've had intensive infiltration training!"
"I've done rescue missions before!"
"If you don't let me go I'll stow on board!"
They went on for several minutes before the argument descended into quiet decision, and finally everyone was silent.
"Have you decided?" The Sergeant asked,
The Marines acknowledged, and five of them stepped forward.
The Sergeant only recognised one of them, that was Private Mitchell, the man who he'd left on guard when they'd landed after being evac'ed by Foe Hammer.
"Good, I'm sure you are all content with the choice, but don't worry, we'll still need some of you on standby should the mission hit a hitch."
Some of the Marines faces brightened at hearing this.
"OK, that's all we have. I'm afraid there's no other intel we've got to help the mission.
Marines, all you'll have is your wits, the Master Chief and any intel Cortana can give you during the missions course."
The Marines acknowledged.
"You'll be leaving at 0500 hours, by the time you reach the objective it should be dark on that part of the ring and it'll make the mission that much easier. So get some shut-eye!"
The Marines all dispersed to prepare their sleeping bags.
As they did, only one of them noticed the Seargent walking off...

The Sergeant sat on a rock on the beach, it was silent except for the rhythmical breath and sigh of the waves, which were much smaller on the ringworld due to it's smaller tides than Earth
He looked up, following the incredible structure up into the heavens above...
...heavens...
"Mind if I sit with you?"
The Sergeant jumped to his feet and jerked around,
"Whoa! Sorry Johnson, never seen you startled before!"
It was Daux.
"You should be getting some sleep!" replied Johnson.
Daux came and sat next to him,
"Nah, can't" he replied
"..." The Seargent just stared up at the ringworld.
"What're you thinking about?" Daux asked, studying Johnson.
"My wife and kids"
"You got kids too, huh?" Daux grinned, pleased he had found some similarity between himself and the stoney Johnson,
"I have three, love 'em all. That's why I'm here fighting in God knows where. Mine are on Earth, yours?"
The Sergeant kept looking up at the ring,
"Mine are dead."
Sergeant Daux cursed himself silently for talking about family,
"I'm... really sorry" Daux began,
"So am I" said Johnson, "But now I fight for other people's families and loved ones..." the Sergeant turned to face Daux, "...like yours."
Daux nodded slowly and smiled.
Then he leaned forward and pulled a small liquid container from within the armour of his boot.
He offered the container to Seargent Johnson, who merely looked at it,
before growling,
"I suppose I'm right in assuming that's not water," raising his eyebrows, "You know the penalty for carrying alcohol?"
"You didn't seem to be paying too much attention to penalties yourself when you threw that Tech out of the hatch, huh, Johnson?" Daux shot back with a smirk
The Sergeant sighed.
Daux leaned forward,
"Look, you and I both risk our necks fighting for all humanity, don't you think the UNSC can forgive us for an awful breach of regulations just this once?"
Johnson just looked silently at Daux, to which Daux just shook his head and said,
"Well I know that I may die in a few hours. I know that you can't fight for everyone's lives and not try to live your own. Because if you don't, well, then that's one life you failed to save. So bottoms up!"
He tilted the little container and took a big swig, threw forward and shook his head,
"ARGH, good stuff..."
The Sergeant looked at Daux for a moment, then he reached forward and whipped the little container out of his hands.
He tilted the container and drank down all of the fiery liquid, the WHOLE bloody container.
It scorched his throat like plasma, but it fired his soul.
"You drank it all!!" exclaimed Daux, in between anger, shock and amazement.
"Just to make sure there's no risk of you getting drunk on the mission Daux, now get some sleep!" Seargent Johnson barked.
Sergeant Daux stared at Sergeant Johnson for a moment, considering him.
Then he grinned and saluted,
"Yessir!!"


TO BE CONTINUED

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