Intentions and Agendas
By Chief Ratchet
(A.N: I know that I really should be working on more of the Intergalactic War, but this idea came to my head during an especially intense skirmish on Command and Conquer 3 against the computer, with Mammoth Tanks, Annihilator Tripods, Firehawks, and pretty much throwing every unit we could muster against each other. Then, while I was sitting at my PC sometime after the match, I had an idea: what would happen if a Planetary Assault Carrier found its way into the Halo universe? What would the UNSC do? Not to mention the exceptionally well written Tiberium Wars novelisation over there in the Command and Conquer section, which also inspired me. Those ideas all came to mind, and the end result is this- one of the first, if not the only, Halo and Command and Conquer 3 crossover. The title came from two things; the intentions and the agendas of the…hey, I'll be releasing plot details! Please enjoy!)
Chapter 1: It Has Begun…
"Hawk 4, Banshees to your six!"
"Shit! Taking fire, need assistance!"
"Hold on Hawk 4, help's coming!"
The SkyHawk, designated 'Hawk 4', dove downwards sharply. Wind whipped against the fighter's smooth airframe, leaving trails of white vapour behind, tracing patterns in the blue sky. The fighter screamed as stress pulled against it, gravity doing its utmost to bring the fighter to the ground.
The purple coloured Banshee behind it dove as well, the twin plasma cannons mounted booming. Blue blips of deadly plasma followed the SkyHawk, as the Brute pilot tried to bring the faster fighter down. One, two and then three blobs of superheated gas struck the fighter's rear tail, warping some of the metal out of shape, and burning some of it off. Parts of the tail blackened, but the SkyHawk refused to fall.
The Brute refused to stop firing as well.
A blast of green radioactive energy was fired, as the Brute launched a blast from the Banshee's Fuel Rod Cannon. The slow moving blast fell short of the SkyHawk, touching the ground in a blossom of heat and green mist. A crater was left where the blast had hit the ground.
Throughout the sky of the UNSC colony world designated 'NX-Y346', also known as 'Madalen Firma', Banshees and SkyHawks traced deadly paths in the sky, as cannon and plasma fire were traded for each other. Below, on the ground, UNSC AAA flak guns created artificial clouds of death, throwing shrapnel in every direction imaginable. Banshees who were caught in a cloud, or even clusters of them, were torn apart as the high velocity shards of metal ripped through the purple skin of the ground attack craft.
Madalen Firma was a far off colony in UNSC territory. It was known for a semi-urbanised land, with much of the natural forests, mountains, rivers, lakes and seas undisturbed. But it also held a secret only UNSC personnel knew about- Camp Bradford, located within one of the many mountainous ranges, was the training area for a company of SPARTAN-III's.
Wrecked pieces of Banshees fell out of the sky as more and more of their numbers were ripped apart by the combined effort of the SkyHawk pilots and the AAA gunners. But the numbers of Banshees still flying meant that often, SkyHawk pilots were ganged up upon by multiple Banshees. With no ventral facing guns like their more contemporary space-borne cousins the Longswords, they were vulnerable to sneak attacks from Banshees swooping behind them.
One such SkyHawk, with three Banshees trailing it, spiralled down to the ground, even as more plasma bolts struck home. The fighter-interceptor and its pilot met a flaming end as the SkyHawk crashed into the ground at a considerable velocity, throwing a fireball high into the air.
"Hawk 4!" shouted the flight leader, even as she sent her fighter into a barrel roll.
A bright green bolt flared past the fighter.
"Come on, you hairy apes," Lieutenant Kathryn Park muttered as another series of plasma bolts flew past her SkyHawk.
"Hang in there boss- we're inbound," came the voice of one of the SkyHawk pilots.
"Move your ass then!"
Seconds later, orange-red tracers flew down from the heavens. Several struck one of the Banshees, knocking it out of the sky and into the ground with a blue explosion. A pair of missiles left their hard points, and slammed into the remaining two Banshees as a second SkyHawk screamed over Lt. Park's SkyHawk.
Kathryn breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Hawk 5."
"No problem boss. You can buy me a beer later."
The aerial dogfights continued. One Banshee after another fell from the sky, as did several SkyHawks with a ratio of nearly two Banshees for every SkyHawk lost. Below, within the confining walls of the UNSC base constructed, the flak guns continued to send shell after explosive shell into the sky. The steady boom of the guns going off shook the mounts upon which the guns were placed upon.
Many of the AIE-486H heavy machine gun turrets placed on the walls of the base, operated by Marines clad in their camouflaged armour, were aimed up into the sky. Golden shell casings flew out of the side, as the belts of ammunition were rapidly thrashing around as they were sucked into the triple firing chambers, allowing a steady stream of lead to trace the sky.
Just as the battle seemed to be won, a wing of twenty Seraph starfighters descended from the clouds, their pulse lasers firing. The cursing of several SkyHawk pilots filled the communication channels- the Seraphs were superior to the SkyHawks, and were only matched by the Longswords….barely.
"Flak gunners, change targets to Seraphs," Major Laurs ordered from within the command centre of the base. "Missile pods are to focus on the Banshees. Get me Airbase Alpha- I need a wing of Longswords to take care of these Seraphs!"
Acknowledgements flowed in, and the gunners carried out his orders.
Black clouds of shrapnel and fire filled the flight paths of the Seraphs as they dodged and weaved through the deadly maze. A pair of rounds pounded against one Seraph, breaking through its shields. A SkyHawk saw the opportunity, and fired its quadruple 50mm cannons.
A shower of red hot tracers hit the unshielded fighter, and cratered its armour. 50mm high-explosive rounds punctured armour, punched through and tore apart wiring, plasma conduits and fuel cells. The Seraph detonated in a brilliant explosion of blue light, as bits and pieces fell to the ground. Only for the SkyHawk to be fallen upon by a pair of Seraphs.
The pilot's scream echoed in the communications channel long after his fighter was consumed by pulse lasers, a bright yellow explosion taking the fighter's place in the sky.
"Where are those damned Longswords?" demanded Laurs.
"Major, this is Knife Twelve, ETA thirty seconds. I understand that you needed help?"
"You're damned right we do. My boys are getting ripped to pieces by those Seraphs. SkyHawks aren't meant to take on such fighters!"
"We'll take care of it for you. Alright boys and girls, we've got eighteen Seraphs to take care of. Check all flight instruments, load ASGM's. We'll fire them first, and switch to rotary cannons, and buckle in."
To the far east of the base, the radar picked up the signals of twenty Longswords, refitted for better atmospheric performance, while keeping it suitable for space fighting.
A volley of twenty ASGM-10 missiles were launched. Twenty vapour trails streaked across the sky, and manoeuvred themselves to align with their teardrop shaped targets. Fire exploded in the sky as the missiles struck home. Three of the Seraphs fell out of the sky immediately, while another five had blue plasma trailing from their engines.
The SkyHawks, once thirty strong, now down to fourteen, broke off immediately, heading for the safety of the airfields. A few Seraphs attempted to pursue the fleeing fighters, but were intercepted by a volley of flak shells that exploded in their path. Several of the AIE-486H HMG's opened up as well, but generally missed. But the effect was the same. Several missiles from the mounted Missile Pod turrets streaked into the Seraphs, many of which were unshielded.
More Seraphs fell to the rotary cannons of the Longswords and flak shells. The first Longsword casualty was Knife 15, who was killed when a Seraph collided with his fighter. The resulting explosion destroyed both craft.
Twenty minutes later, all of the Seraphs were wrecks on the ground, or were simply bits and pieces. Four Longswords were also lying in a graveyard of sorts. The remaining Longswords, many of which were bearing plasma burns and blackened in places, flew off to the UNSC airbase located some hundred kilometres away.
Above the atmosphere, the source of the Seraphs, a badly damaged Covenant frigate, exploded when a MAC round, fired from the only surviving UNSC ship, the frigate Adriatic, struck a weakened section of the hull. The round ripped through the ship, and penetrated the reactor. A fireball consumed the Covenant frigate from within, removing virtually all Covenant presence from the UNSC colony Madalen Firma.
Pelicans from the ships that were destroyed, as well as the Adriatic, flew down in significant numbers. Many were loaded with Marines and other non-essential personnel that were evacuated from dying ships. Many of the Pelicans also had Warthogs, Scorpions and a whole range of other vehicles attached. Within, supplies of every and all kind were loaded, ranging from food and water to weapons, ammunition and medical kits.
They landed at the various UNSC bases scattered throughout the planet, landing and disgorging their passengers, cargo and equipment. Groups other Marines and base personnel came out to assist in offloading the equipment that the destroyed carrier had been able to load onto the Pelicans before it met its fate.
"Well, looks like things are looking up after all," remarked Major Laurs to a junior officer within the command building in the UNSC base Fort Talith.
"Maybe they are sir. Adriatic has just sent report back to High Command."
"Good, good, good. Now we won't have to worry about one for at least a couple of months. Attention all UNSC personnel, this is Major Laurs. Great job boys and girls. You've shown the Covies what it means to take on the Marine Corps!"
"…shown the Covies what it means to take on the Marine Corps!"
The strange, distorted alien transmission was cut off with a flick. The screen, showing the voice frequency of the speaker too slowly slid to a dark purple colour, with the sinister, spidery symbol of the Scrin Empire shown in the background. Silence filled the interior, as the fleet of ships sat silently in the depths of space.
"Begin Ichor seeding," rumbled a deep, frightening voice that distorted randomly.
"Ichor seeding preparing. Loading Ichor seed," answered an equally distorted voice of a lighter pitch.
"Ichor seed preparing to launch. Seventy four percent complete. Targeting vector calculated."
Several minutes passed by without a sound.
"Ichor seed is completed. Targeting vector acquired. Awaiting your order, Supervisor."
"Launch Ichor seed."
"Stop!" rumbled a deep voice, full of authority. "Halt all Ichor seed launches!"
"Ichor seed is recycling as ordered, Overlord."
"Why?" questioned the other voice. "It is our objective, is it not? To seed a world, and harvest it?"
"Do not question my orders, Supervisor!" roared the voice to the Supervisor. "It is not enough to simply seed a suitable body, and wait for indigenous or native population to die out! Wipe out the native population first!"
"But we shall require additional forces in order to fully eradicate the indigenous population."
"Additional resources have been allocated to your taskforce, Supervisor. If necessary, construct a base of operations to build up another larger strike force. Do whatever it requires to destroy all native and indigenous populations. Do not fail, Supervisor," the voice warned, before silence enveloped the space again.
"Resources have been increased by two hundred percent, Supervisor," the voice pitched again. "Additional resources transfer is complete. Awaiting your order."
"Do we have substantial levels of combat forces?"
A pause, as records and reports were shuffled through to gain a greater picture.
"Combat force preparation levels are at nineteen percent. Current forces are comprised of Disintegrator units, a small number of Shock Trooper heavy infantry units, Gun Walker scout units, and Seeker light tanks. Air combat units are completely comprised of Stormrider fast-attack craft."
"Move the force to the planetary body. We shall land, and begin construction of a base of operations."
"Orders transmitted. All ships have acknowledged, and have began moving."
"Then it has begun."
In space, seven Scrin vessels accelerated towards the planet. Seven signatures appeared on the long-range sensors of the Adriatic.
"What are those?" wondered the captain.
"Energy signature detected in orbit of planetary body."
In space, Scrin vessels hurtled towards the Adriatic, and the colony of Madalen Firma, initialising the first contact between the UNSC and the Scrin Empire….
A.N: Well, what do you think? Good, bad? Tell me, by reviewing, please. Not asking for a massive critique, just a couple of sentences, hell, a couple of words!
Now, this is one thing added to the massive list of stories I am trying to juggle around. In addition, I have a tonne of work to do at school, leaving this somewhat lower than my other stories on the list of priorities. I know that I will see this through to the end, and I only hope you will too.
I know that there wasn't any combat between the UNSC and the Scrin, but oh just wait, that'll come by the bucket-load in the rest of the story. Besides, I needed to set the scene. What good is a story without me telling you what has happened before? Just a few words? Now you know.
Please review, and until the next chapter of this or the Intergalactic War!