Chapter 2

COALITION STAR DESTROYER: SHOCKWAVE-FRINGES OF WILD SPACE. FEBRUARY 3, 2526 UNSE TIME.

Will stood on the bridge of the star destroyer looking out at the dazling colors of faster than light travel. According to the file he read, the good news was that the base only had a medium size personnel and the planet's climate was not hazardous. The bad news was that the terrain was mountainous and enemy troops were all trained to special op level. Translation: this mission was going to be a bitch.

The mission profile was to fly the same shuttle the lizards used when defecting down to the planet re-entering the atmosphere from the planets rings. The reason was that the metal debris in the rings would interfere with the Covenant sensors. They were to put down on a small plateau about three miles away. The base itself was situated on top of a waterfall and the main entrance was guarded by automated shade turrets. However, at the bottom of the waterfall there was a lightly guarded maintenance entrance that led into the bases waterworks. In other words they would have to start in the sewer and work their way up. Will looked at the Imperial crew member in the control pit. The crew member yelled, "Five minutes till hyperspace drop out." Will was personally glad. The colors of hyperspace were making him nauseous. He was also becoming worried for according to the file, the Covenant's newest allies Ssi-Ruuk were just about as religious and psychotic as the Covenant themselves. Apparently they believed that dying off a planet that hadn't been blessed by their emperor would cause their souls to wander for all eternity. Therefore, they developed a very disturbing technology, where they would drain the life force, or if you prefer the soul of any captive prisoner and use it to power everything from combat drones to standard fire arms and allow the drones to do all the fighting for them. Will could understand why the Covenant would make an alliance with them rather than enslave them as they did their other allies. This kind of technology probably intrigued them.

The crew member shouted again saying "Dropping out in 3--2--1." The colors of hyperspace dissipated revealing the blackness of space with a single star just off in the distance. Will proceeded to the hanger bay. They would have to take the shuttle the rest of the way. According to the file he had four extra team members, each with a certain necessary skill for the success of the mission. He opened the file one last time. First was a photo of a young man with red hair: Ryan DelSoul, home world Bespin--specialty mechanics. Second was Taki Retler, home world Chandrila--specialty sniper/secondary demolitions. Third was a photo of what appeared to be a warewolf, name Regar, home world Uvena Prime--specialty hand to hand combat. The last photo was of what appeared to be a over-grown cat, name Tao, home world Trian--specialty electronics/secondary advanced combat. From what Will learned the wolf species was called Shistavanen and the cat was from the species Trianii.

He had learned about Trianii's earlier, a few weeks ago the Covenant overran the corporate sector authority and began heading for the Trianii home worlds. In what could be called one of the craziest suicidal battles ever, each of the planets private militia held off the Covenant regardless of their own lives trying to save as many civilians as they could. When the dust settled their entire military was wiped out and their worlds glassed. However, by some divine miracle they managed to evacuate almost 65% of their entire population. Some Coalition leaders were still bewildered that they were able to safely evacuate so many in so short a time. Will had arrived at a simple explanation for that: Their species was bad assed and extremely lucky.

Will tossed the folder down a vacuum shoot that led to the ship's recycler. He had memorized the entire contents. He stepped on a lift and began to descend slowly towards the hanger bay. He checked his weapons one last time. When the Coalition said he could have whatever he wanted they weren't kidding. Because he was up against an entire base manned with special ops units, he had quickly picked some of the best weapons he could find: A heavily modified E-11 blaster rifle with extra ammo capacity and a three round burst capability, a heavy blaster pistol capable of punching through a jackel's shield in one shot, and about a dozen cyro grenades. Will especially loved the latter. When they exploded they released a vacumm of super cooled air that could freeze anything solid. Because the Covenant and their allies were mostly cold blooded creatures, not only would the grenades freeze them solid but seconds later they would actually shatter into a million different pieces. Always good for a cheap laugh.

The lift stopped and the door opened. Their was the Covenant transport on the hanger floor. It looked like an over-sized metallic purple teardrop. A Coalition storm trooper walked up and said, "Your crew is on board and ready to go. If you get into any trouble activate this S-thread beacon and in no time an entire wing of Tie bombers will level your problem."

Will simply smiled and boarded the shuttle. The shuttle slowly exited the star destroyer and minutes later jumped into hyperspace towards the hostile world.

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Next Chapter: Landing

Rave Drifter.