Through deep space and countless stars, lies Earth. Earth is home to more than 4 billion people at this time. It used to be 7 billion, but the Covenant, changed everything. For countless years the UNSC has been fighting these aliens, through blood and honor they share, they fall divided. The Spartans, they call them the fathers of the UNSC, and the guardians of Marines and ODST's. There was a point where the Spartans almost died out, but now they rise again, demanding justice against the Covenant. Deep in the galaxy, lies the UNSC Justicar. Home to more than 3,000 soldiers. It sits, waiting for small Covenant scouting ships to come by. When they do, they take care of them. When given orders the Justicar moves, sometimes to a new location, or to search for new planets. But through the Justicars thick, heavy black metal, lies the cryo chambers. The Spartans upon the Justicar have never been opened, they never needed them. But they would, for they are not prepared for what lies ahead.
Inside the cockpit of the UNSC Justicar, a middle aged man with brown hair which was slowly turning white, sat in the Commanders chair. With one leg on top of the other, arms on his arm rests, he sat with a tiny glass of vodka in one hand, swirling the ice cubes around in it. He stared at the endless space, and took a sip. His pilots all at different stations fiddling with their controls sat focused. It was peaceful until the Commander heard the cockpit doors open.
"Commander Brawn, sir! Incoming transmission from command!" The boy standing in attention behind the Commander was young, and nervous. His basic uniform on, and his eyes burning from sweat. The Commander stood up and waved a hand, never turning around to look at him. He heard a faint sigh of relief and the doors closed. Brawn stepped over to a terminal and touched the button labeled "Recieve". He hunched over with both hands on the terminal and saw a much older man, in his 60's, appear on the screen. They stared at each other for a while then the man smirked.
"Commander Brawn, nice to see you", Brawn chuckled at the comment, nodding. "Well Brawn, here is the situation. HQ got intel a Covenant ship was coming by your way to drop off a mining load from Kilo 4. You mind infiltrating it for us, Brawn?" The man said with a eyebrow raised.
"Of course not. I owe you one anyways.", Brawn ended the transmission and turned the ships intercoms on. "Attention all members of the UNSC Justicar, this is your Commander speaking. I need all members of the Hydra fire squad to meet me on the flight deck, as soon as possible." He lifted his finger off the button, walked out of the cockpit. As he made his way through salutes and chatter of something big happening, he came to the flight deck door. It opened and beside a Pelican was a group of ODST's, who when they saw who had came through the door they stood in attention. The Commander walked by them back and forth, inspecting them.
"Well, all of you fully geared perfectly..", Brawn said, and after a while snapped his head towards one of them. "Except you, Martin. What the hell is this?" Brawn screamed grabbing a loose strap from the ODST's vest. "If this falls off, you're damned kid." Brawn strapped it in, patting it after he was secure. "Alright men...Pelicans going to take you to a Covie ship, pretty small, so won't be hard to clear out. Make some noise, I don't care. Just get their mining cargo, then plant your explosives, get off, and bam. Easy huh?" Brawn said smirking. The men snapped a salute and Brawn dismissed them. They loaded on the green Pelican one by one and strapped in. The men sat there until one of them lifted his head up.
"So guys, what do you think is in that cargo we're looting?"
"Don't worry about it, just gotta get it, and we sleep good tonight." Another one said. They heard rumbling and shaking as the Pelican lifted off, and went deep into space. Everything was quiet until the Pelican shook and growled, losing control. Explosions of plasma filled the air and the Pilot screamed out to the back.
"Fuck...FUCK! The controls are dead! I'm pushing the Pelican straight through this fuckers hull, brace yourselves!"
The ODST's were shocked and grabbed onto anything they could find, and after hearing the Pelican whistling down, they felt a horrible smash, and everything went black for a while. One of the ODST's woke up and looked around slowly at first, then tried to stand up, but fell.
"Easy Carth, easy. I gotcha." Said one of them, picking him up. The leader stood up and leaned against the side of the Pelican grabbing his SMG.
"Everyone uh...everyone counted for?" He said grabbing his head.
"Me, you, Carth are here, Jordan is out cold still and...wait...where is Martin?" The man said, looking around. They screamed his name and after minutes of searching, Jordan rose up, coughing. The leader ran over and grabbed him, pulling him up, only to notice a bullet wound.
"The...the fuck? Jordan? Jordan, who shot you!?" The leader screamed.
"It was...Martin..and..the pilot...they fucking betrayed us! Kill em, Vlad...fucking kill em..." Jordan finally stopped moving, and went cold. Vlad had him in his arms, and laid him down.
"Fucking shit man...why didn't Martin shoot us? Huh? Why not?" Carth said almost crying.
"I don't know...but fuck em. Lets rip their heads off." Vlad nodded his head towards a Covenant door, Carth and Jale took point on each side, and Carth pressed the switch. The door opened and Vlad tossed a flashbang in, he heard Elites scream with pain, and they all swept in and sprayed them down with their SMG's. They moved room to room, looking for Martin and the cargo. They saw the cargo bay door and took point and nodded. When he opened it, Martin and the pilot stood there.
"Martin! You god damn son of a bitch!" Vlad said running towards him, and Carth and Jale followed. But Martin stepped aside and a Elite shot them when a Storm rifle, stunning them and tearing their armor up. Vlad and Carth got up, but Jale didn't. A plasma shot struck his helmet, and finished him off. Vlad clenched his fists, and Carth stood up, screaming and tackling the Elite while his Storm rifle reloaded. They fell to the bottom deck of the cargo bay, throwing fists. Vlad stood up and charged at Martin. Martin looked around frightened, only to get pummeled by Vlad. Vlad ripped Martins helmet off and delivered his iron gloves into Martins face. And out of nowhere there was a gun shot, and Vlad looked down. Martin had a magnum aimed at Vlads chest, and Vlad fell over, blood gushing. Martin stood up, wiping his lips.
"Sorry Vlad, it has to happen now." Martin pointed the magnum at Vlad. Vlad laid there, and spoke roughly.
"Why...why did you do it? We took you in, Martin...why..." He said sadly.
"It's the dawn of a new age, Vlad. A new galaxy, a new future! We will be remade and born whole! All will win!" He said laughing. But a voice interrupted the laughter and spoke harshly. "Not you, bitch". Martin eyes widened and he was tackled, Martin screamed as Carth was on him, stabbing his back. The magnum slid over to Vlad when he fell, and Vlad picked it up. Carth got off and stood up, looking at Vlad.
"God..Vlad...just hold on, i'll get the cargo and fly us back...don't worry." Carth said running over, searching the bay. He moved boxes onto the Pelican, along with Vlad. He also brought Jales, Martins, and Jordans bodies. He placed Vlad in the co pilot seat, wrapping him up with bandages. He leaned back, and squeezed the Pelican out. He set course for the Justicar and had one more question as he blew the ship with the detonator...where was the pilot? Hopefully he was on that ship just now, he thought.
The Pelican which Brawn had been waiting for finally landed, and Brawn walked towards the Pelican hatch. It lowered and Brawns face went from angy, to emotionless as he saw the dead bodies.
"What..happened?" Brawn said sadly.
"Their dead. Martin betrayed us, killed Jordan. Elite got Jale. Don't know where the pilot is but I need a medic, Vlad is bleeding out sir." Carth said emerging from the hatch.
"Of course...of course..." Brawn waved a medic over, and the medic put Vlad on a stretcher, carrying him off.
"Carth i'm sorry. But we gotta find what we need. Help me search." Brawn said dragging boxes off. Brawn and Carth were alone and Carth looked at him, then slammed him against the Pelican door.
"Fuck you Brawn. You really think 2 of my friends lives were acceptable for whatever the fuck this is? FUCK YOU!" Carth shouted slamming him a second time. Brawn broke free and grabbed Carths throat.
"Listen, i'm sorry. But I need this package so shut the hell up and do your job. Or get the fuck out of the UNSC." Brawn said glaring at him. Carth threw Brawns hand off him throat, and kicked a box open. Brawn nodded and searched with him. They found only Covenant supplies. Carth lifted a Carbine up, and mistakenly pressed the reload button. But a carbine clip didn't fall out, instead it was a canister. Brawn looked as Carth picked it up.
"Open it." Brawn said pointing at it. Carth followed orders and unsealed, letting a small Rosario fall into his hand.
"What the..." Carth said, rubbing the ruby in the middle. Brawn rushed over and grabbed it, then put it in a case.
"I'll have the scientists look at it. Go rest Carth, you deserve it." Brawn said turning around.
"What about Vlad?" He said standing there, a slightly despaired face.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Go sleep." Brawn spoke as he walked out.
Carth made his way to his room, head hung. When he got there he sat down, and rubbed his head. He stripped off his armor and laid down. He closed his eyes, falling asleep.