I turned as Diga opened the comms channel and spoke, "this is shipmaster Usze Vontakee of the Cleansing Faith, we have human survivors aboard, cease all hostilities immediately and we will return these men to your ship without harm" I spoke with my back arched straight and proud, if not a little fearful for everyone around me. I looked and Diga gave me a look that shone relief, they had powered down their MAC cannon, or at the very least held their fire. My eyes turned to the screen as I surveyed the human soldiers in front of the screen on the human ship. "Humans, I offer to send these captured soldiers if you do not fire another round at us" I spoke simply to the human's commander who turned towards us. "What assurances do we have these men won't be dead, you just took out an entire squadron of fighters" the human's commander spoke.
"Forgive me if I was not clear enough with my message previously, but I will not hesitate to defend my ship if the need arises" I growled, folding my arms across my chest as anger bubbled in my chest softly. "Fal, transmit images from our ship of the soldiers to them and ready them for transfer" I ordered, Diga across from him giving a silent nod to me letting me know the slip-space drive was ready and I glanced back to see our shields were starting to recover.
Looking back up to the commander of the human ship I spoke up again, "we are sending a phantom over, now… I need your word that my men won't be harmed as well" I slightly gritted my teeth. It was like playing a game of chicken, except in this case these were lives I was dealing with and they where the fox I was not sure what they would do after they got the men. "Fine, we will wait to see these soldiers. Hutson out" with that he cut the connection and I glanced to Anna. This was the first encounter with a live human ship that had not been destroyed or broken in some way and by her expression, i couldn't deny she looked hopeful as well to return to her own kind. "Alert me immediately if they do anything stupid, you two have the bridge" I spoke to Fal and Diga and gestured for Anna to follow me and we made our way down to the hanger bay.
The human soldiers were there as well and looked a bit confused as they all looked around, "marines" I spoke at first gaining their attention and a few of the crew turned towards us as well from prepping the phantom. "By now you might have guessed why you are here" I spoke gesturing to the human ship in the distance through the hangers shields as well as the planet below. "The Unyielding Dragon has allowed us to send you all over via phantom, there I will imagine you will be interviewed and asked to provide a report of what you have seen and done here before most likely being returned to earth or reassigned. Any questions you are free to ask now before you all depart". It seemed there were none and I opened my mouth to speak again when I a voice spoke up, "What if you want to stay here?".
The question completely floored me for a moment, "then we would have to find you something appropriate to do, are there any others who wish to stay?" I spoke up, glancing over the group of them, the marine who had spoken up first seeming to be a bit sheepish as he got looks from the others. "Is that all?" I asked finally, with another two takers who stepped forward. I gestured for the others around to continue on and I watched them move into the phantom and the shields shimmered a little as they dropped to let the phantom pass through. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when alarms sounded out throughout the hanger, my eyes peering past the phantom. A large covenant ship came out of cloaking directly between us and the human ship. "Shipmaster, a covenant ship just came out of cloak-" Fal spoke quickly over the com. "I know! I'm coming up now!" I spoke back quickly. "Incoming!" Shouted a Sangheili and I looked again as plasma rounds twinkled and showed up brightly from the ships hull, by their directory I guessed they were heading straight for the hanger bay, "everyone get out of here! Now! Now! Now! Go!" I shouted out and everyone dropped what they were doing to run for the exits. Or for those of us that were close enough grabbed whatever they could, ran for the phantom to follow me. Two other Sangheili followed me inside, humans following us as they ran too. I looked back momentarily as a few Sangheili made it to the exits, the phantoms doors closing as I rushed for the controls and slammed the close button. "Get out of there, Usze!" shouted Fal. I was too busy as instinct kicked in and the phantom lifted up off the ground, I wasn't even sure if the phantoms hull would hold as the round hit the hanger seconds after the phantom sealed. Throwing us all to the side as an explosion and decompression ripped through the hanger bay.
The phantom was engulfed in flame for a moment as we were thrown back with the first blast wave and the entire phantom shook as we impacted one of the hangers main walls with enough force to almost make it cave in. Warnings and alarms sounded around me and the craft was shaken again as it showed the hull had sustained damage and our ships decompression took over as we were thrust like a spinning top out of the hanger. The engines whirring loudly and groaning from the strain as I tried to correct our spin, debris tinkled against the outer hull and I groaned and roared with the struggling craft narrowly missing a section that would have destroyed us. "I lost his signal! Usze! gods dammit!" Fal's voice spoke out over the comms, other bits and pieces floated around us as I pulled the craft around, hands almost white as shudders worked their way through the ship around us and I glanced over to one of the phantoms status display, it didn't take me a moment to realise our engines had been damaged. thrusters struggling with the abnormal forces at work. "Everyone ok back there!?" I shouted over my shoulder. the explosion had shaken a lot of them all over the place. "Phantom heading for planets surface if you can hear us we are prepping slip-space drives. you have 1 unit to get out of the danger zone. We are coming back later for rescue, stay alive down there" Diga's voice spoke over the phantoms comms.
"Rok' take the second console, I need you to do a pinpoint jump for us, aim for anything you can on the surface" I spoke up over my shoulder. "Are you crazy?! with the phantom in this much of a stake we'll barely make atmosphere!" his voice spoke up and I growled. "I've punched it as far as we can go if you don't make that jump in about 30 seconds we're gonna all be dead a lot faster!" I roared back to him, fighting with the straitened craft as I tried to keep it heading in the same direction. "Everyone brace up back there" I spoke up as I flicked a console to extend the ships troop braces, at the very least it would keep them upright and with my luck, i hoped they would survive. "Ok, I got it! spinning up slip-space drive now" for a moment, fear lanced through my form. Anna was with me too, if anything happened to her… The engines flickered on our underbelly as Rok started counting down and I felt us drift dangerously low in our approach path but I fought it enough to raise up again into the safe zone, The Cleansing Faith's shields flaring as the slip-space portal began to open and she prepared to jump. …5…4…3… 2…1…
The phantom shook violently and for a sheer moment everything was silent as we jumped, it wasn't long enough though as our bodies were thrust forward again, we had broken atmosphere but that wasn't the only thing that had broken. With a final whirl our main grav engine whirred down to a stop and I could feel us falling as real gravity kicked in. Below laid an abundance of a large expanse of forest that stretched as far as the eye could see with beyond a large expanse of sea and I could see sand, screens around me flickered and I felt sparks around me as their main views cut out, the only remaining gravity engine would slow our decent but it was still far above what was ever considered safe. "I'm giving all power to the remaining grav engines and preparing a burst!" Rok spoke up from behind and beside me through the troop bay. I burst to lift us up was all we could do, if timed right it could take out the worst of the free-fall but I had no control of the burst from here, that was all from the second console. my eyes still glued to the only remaining screen guiding me in, "You need to get yourself to a brace too!" I spoke up as I struggled with the craft, using what little power we had left to keep us from tipping and falling faster to our inevitable deaths. "if I don't do this it's gonna be a lot worse for everyone here shipmaster including you, now shut up and let me do my duty!" I wanted to growl to Rok, I wanted to scream at him but I couldn't. the ground came up fast as we cleared the clouds, the beach seemed so far away but it was what I had aimed for. "Rok! I'm going to put us down on that beach ahead, when i say I need you to shift all power to the left grav engine and burst when you can" I could see the ground coming up fast now and I readied myself for the manoeuvre. "ready! everyone brace for impact!" his voice spoke up as we came down. the engines roaring and cutting out in the final moments as I shifted the sticks around and we hit. The last thing I could remember was the sound of my own scream as we clipped the edge of the trees and tumbled down into the sand, my head impacting the phantoms side as all went black.