UNSC Ship Prime Meridian

Above Earth

Currently fighting Covenant on ship

Engines Disabled, In-Ship Com Disabled, Radio Jammed

Dune fired his battle rifle down the hallway at the unsuspecting elite who didn't know his life was about to be taken. The three bullets ripped through his unshielded skull from behind. The other two elites turned on their shields, seeing their friend's brain splattered across the human bulkhead. Their heads suddenly exploded as twin vapor trails from an S2 sniper rifle filled the air where their heads used to be. The group continued down the corridor.

"Damn, those shots were kind of off. I need to fix my sight." Wolowicz said, fiddling with a dial on his sniper rifle.

"Looked like a good shot to me." Rick commented, slightly out of breath from running with a rocket launcher on his back.

"Sure it did to you, but your idea of aiming is closing your eyes and pulling the trigger." Mike chuckled.

The group came up to a doorway with a red arrow on the floor before it. On the arrow was the word "ENGINEERING" clearly printed in bold white lettering. Dune didn't like how easy it had been to get this far. Granted, they were a bunch of helljumpers, and one swabbie, and they had mopped up a large number of Covenant when they were still at the cryo-bay but it had still been too easy to get to engineering. If it was the only Covenant held stronghold on the ship, and their own ship was disabled, why would they be so lax in protecting it?

"I don't like this…" Ian muttered.

"I know, it was too easy to get here, gotta be a trap." Dune agreed.

"Trap or not, lets go kick some alien ass!" Giles yelled, barging in through the door.

"Dammit Giles!" Dune yelled.

Suddenly a wall of plasma fire poured through the door. It crackled through the air as the small group jumped out of the way. Giles backed out of the door, holding a now blacked part of her shoulder. Dune looked at Hunt.

"Send a 102mm warning shot through there, minus the warning."

Rick nodded, he slung his SMG's around his free shoulder and he whipped the rocket launcher off of his shoulder and sent a 102mm high explosive jackhammer missile through the door. The rocket or the resulting explosion had hit something because a number of throated elite cries of pain echoed through the corridor. The plasma barrage stopped and Dune looked at Giles' shoulder.

"That doesn't look good, but it's only a flesh wound." Dune looked at the others. "Rick, keep watch on that door, if anything inhuman comes into view, I don't want it to live past the doorway. Ian and Mike, keep your asses looking down either side of the hallway."

Ian, Mike, and Rick all took their posts. Dune pulled a med-pack out of his pack and began to treat Allison's wound.

"It's not deep enough to worry about," Dune commented, "but it needs to be cleaned and dressed, and keep heavy weapons out of that hand."

Dune handed her a bandage. "Put it on yourself." Dune turned and looked through the door with Rick.

He could see the shadows and shimmers of a few camouflaged elites and a couple hidden grunts, not much opposition waiting in the room. They obviously knew they wouldn't want another rocket salvo through the door, so they held fire. It appeared to him that they were going to try to catch them in a crossfire situation. Jackals with their shields off hid on the catwalks above, elites hid behind consoles, and some grunts were on either side of the door, barely holding their fire from fear. He only knew the grunts were there because they lacked one of the most crucial abilities of a soldier. They couldn't shut up. The high pitched chattering ran through their helmets and translated in their ears. The grunts mumbled something about the elites forcing them to their doom. He noted the holy reference the grunts used to refer to the elites that was edited out by the translator. He knew that the elites were holy to the lower races, and that grunts were cowardly without them. He looked around once more, trying to count the number of elites. There weren't many left. Most of them had died trying to pick a straight on fight with them. He couldn't get a definite number due to the fact that quite a few of them were only definable by the shimmering of their active camouflage. Suddenly a clink was heard as Giles tried to pick up a plasma rifle with her injured left arm, which was now bandaged.

"I told you, no heavy weapons in that arm," Dune said to her, "you're gonna have to deal with just one."

Giles nodded and cursed a bit under her breath. She picked up the plasma rifle with the biggest charge in her good arm and grabbed a plasma grenade with her left. She put it in a position for an easy prep and throw. Dune looked into the room one more time, going over his roughly formulated plan in his mind.

"Rick, on my signal, I want you to launch your last rocket onto that catwalk," Dune spoke without even looking at his men, one of his more creepy traits, he wouldn't take his eye off of the goal before a mission, and now, engineering was his goal, "then ditch the jackhammer, and make your way to the nearest console over there," Dune pointed to a console, "and take cover behind it. Ian, you're with Hunt. Giles get ready with me, we're gonna chuck some grenades on either side of this door and take out the grunts and then you're gonna follow me to the console adjacent to the one Hunt and Flynn are headed to. Wolowicz, you're on cover fire."

Dune nodded to Allison as he took a grenade from his belt. He got on the right side of the door and Giles took the left. Dune tapped the barrel of his battle rifle on the bulkhead three times. This was a code for him and his men. The first tap was ready the second was set and the third was go. On the second tap both he and Giles prepped their grenades. On the third they chucked them through the door. They both ducked back behind the door frame. After the twin explosions Giles and Dune ran for a console. Plasma fire raced about them.

"Now!" Dune yelled.

Rick rounded the doorframe and launched a rocket up onto the catwalks, ceasing the plasma fire from the jackals above. Then he and Ian ran toward the console next to Dune and Giles' console. Vapor trails arched through the air and took down elites and whatever else had been left alive from the initial barrage. Dune grabbed a grenade from his belt and looked at Giles and Rick. They got the idea. As he prepped and threw his grenade the others did the same. A few elites could be heard yelling behind the consoles. Everything went silent for a moment. Dune motioned a finger back and forth across his eye, a hand signal, towards Mike, asking if he had any contacts. Mike motioned back with a flat hand at belt level that quickly retreated to his gun, all clear.

"Good," Dune said, standing up and looking around. "Rick, escort Ian around to where he needs to be, Allison, you police Covvie weapons. Mike, keep an eye on the door. Everyone be careful, there could be more hiding."

Wolowicz walked into the door and turned a 180 while shouldering his sniper rifle while pulling out his handgun. Rick and Ian went up a catwalk to get to the necessary computers. Allison proceeded to go around like a child in a candy store on allowance day picking up covenant weapons. Dune walked around kicking dead bodies to make sure no one was playing dead. He proceeded to move the bodies, piling them in the middle of engineering. After about 20 minutes of walking around policing dead bodies and looking for living Covenant he shouted to Ian up on the catwalks above.

"How much longer?" Dune asked.

"One more second…" Ian answered absent mindedly, not looking up from the console he was working with, "There we go! Engines fixed and the in ship com should be operational again," Flynn shot up excited at his own success.

"Hey what's this?" Giles asked pointing to a box made of the purple metal the Covenant seemed to enjoy using in everything.

"Don't touch it yet!" Ian yelled down.

Flynn scurried down and looked it over, popping off a panel or two and looking at the circuitry.

"Probably what the Covies were using to jam our radio," Ian surmised.

"Frag it," Dune said.

Ian got out of the way as Giles set a plasma grenade on it and ducked behind a bulkhead. With a blue and white explosion the small box was blown to shards. Dune hit his radio and tuned it to the bridge frequency.

"Captain, engines fixed, and the radio and in-ship com are up and running." Dune reported.

"Good," Captain Laura North's voice replied. "Sergeant, strap yourselves in, the Covenant ship is going to jump, and we're following."

"Understood," Dune replied, "Your heard the lady helljumpers, get ready, because we're moving."