Me: GAH! LET ME GO DAMMIT!
Jake: Koro, Turi, please let him go.
Me: OW! WATCH THE CLAWS!
Koro & Turi: (Grunt)
Me: Yeah, I understand why you guys did this.
Jake: So you've decided to agree?
Me: (Cha-Chik) Yeah, sure not like I have a choice. (sweatdrop)
Jake: Perfect, Let's see what you got for this chapter.
Everyone: …
Me: Maybe someone should do the disclaimer?
Jake: Right, Zero612 does not own Halo; he only owns Myself, Dante, Koro, Turi, and the modified UNSC destroyer the Greek Gungnir.
Me: Excellent, now can someone get Dante to POINT HIS FUCKING SHOTGUN AWAY FROM MY HEAD!
Dante: Fine, but get started already will ya?
Me: yeah, yeah, welcome to Operation Comenza Nuovo!
A/N: BTW, I know that Dante from saber team dies in Ghosts of Onyx but here I'm just gonna use my almighty author powers to have him be in a coma instead. Also, the Spartan III's have been given an armor permutation that keeps a certain chemical in their bloodstream to counteract the cognitive degenerating side-effects of one of their illegal augmentations.
How the War Begins
Klaxon alarms resounded all throughout the ship as it shook and shuddered. Marines, Spartans and Elites alike burst through hallways, doorways, and out of cryo-pods, responding to the adrenalin packed, and danger-promising sounds of war. The Greek Gungnir was under attack, and weathering a hail of liquid fire as it raced against escorts and enemies to the ground targets to safely deliver its cargo. Of course for this cargo, safely meant with at least a slight chance of survival, so the ship hurtling diagonally through a planets atmosphere for a high-speed deployment of Drop pods and pelicans was well within the usual safety regulations.
In the Ships hangar bay, beside two pelicans stood a group of 16 soldiers, 7 of them stood at a height of over 7 and-a-half feet, while the other 7 stood at just around 6 ft. They all stood in silence watching the plasma fire erupt outside the barrier of the hangar, as their ship just entered the planets atmosphere and they got a beautiful view of the planets horizon and the explosions of Neo-Covie ships exploding from plasma and MAC rounds.
"It'd be faster to jump" a deep, gruff voice remarked, breaking the silence.
4 heads just shook slowly as their owners rumbled with laughter.
The other 9 Spartans and 2 Elites just stared at the 8-foot man who made the suggestion, and remained unfazed by their disbelieving gazes.
"John, I think the Halos have gotten you too used to high velocity impacts" a melodious voice came out of Chief's helmet in response to his comment.
"I see now why the Arbiter holds you in such high regard," Koro said, with a hint of wonder.
"ALL VEHICLES DEPLOY! ALL VEHICLES DEPLOY!" said a voice through the alarms.
"Lets move everyone!" commanded Chief. The whole group split into two as Delta Squad and Saber team went into one pelican, and Blue team took tom and Lucy into the other Pelican. Both Pelicans quickly activated and took off, shooting out of the hangar and racing towards the rendezvous point in the nearby forest, 2 kliks from the nearest covie base. The two pelicans landed close to each other in a small clearing of the forest, hidden by the trees. The soldiers all left and headed towards the base to fulfill their objective while the covies were distracted by the Marines attacking nearby defense points and outposts.
"Tom, Lucy, you two stick with Saber team. We're doing a trident strike with Saber in the middle. Me and Blue team are on the right, and Delta Squad is on the left," ordered Chief.
"Yes, Sir" was the unanimous reply.
The 3 teams advanced through the forest as quickly and quietly as they could. They slowly diverged to prepare their 3-pronged attack as they got closer and closer to the Covenant base. The base was built around an orbital strike shield generator Spire. The spire was the size of a small skyscraper. The top was the usual shield flooring with the twin grav lift columns and power core inside the half-sphere structure topping the spire. The base of the spire showed two entrances and a vehicle passageway through the middle. The base was twice as wide as usual, with Shade turrets placed at four equal-interval points of the circular structure, grunt and Brute squads patrolled the outside with Brute majors standing guard at the entrance. As they neared the forests edge each team had their snipers set up, with the enemy squads being within good range from their current position. Jake, Mark, and Linda were all set up 15 yards away from each other, snipers loaded and resting on their shoulders. Within a few seconds each Spartan had their intended targets tagged, identifying their kills and eliminating crossfire. Fred and Olivia were chosen to stay behind in case of reinforcements. Chief waited a few seconds before flashing his red, amber, then finally, green status light to signal the remaining squad members to charge and open fire on the enemy. As always the charging Spartans and Elites easily dispatched the Grunts, mowed down by bullets and plasma rounds. The brutes were eliminated by .50 caliber high velocity rounds, leaving the doorway empty and open for infiltration. John led the teams inside the base, heading towards where he knew the grav lift was and their way up to the power core. Dante, Koro, and Turi stuck close together, punching, bashing or stomping any Grunt or jackal in their way. Brutes were treated slightly differently with one of the Elites usually depleting their shields through plasma fire and Dante's shotgun destroying their heads and spraying brain matter over the aliens further ahead, enraging pack brothers and terrifying Grunts into a frenzy of panicking cowardice. Of course, with 9 other Spartans the remaining ones didn't last longer than 3 seconds at the most. Finally arriving at the grav lift in the center of the base the group of killing machines leaped up and into the flow of the zero-g column. They fed their weapons new magazines, to be prepared to deliver the impending doom of the Spire's top occupants.
Mark watched from his position beside Olivia as the Covenant soldiers from the other side of the base came from both sides of the base to converge at the doorway. He glanced to Olivia who noticed the same thing and silently sneaked closer to get better range with her Battle rifle. As the snipers tagged their targets once again, Fred and Olivia aimed at the smaller infantry before opening fire. The first line of Grunts and Jackals fell quickly to the BR's bursts, while their Brute leaders were taken down one by one by consistent headshots, fizzing out shields and cracking helmets and skulls with each shot. The aliens soon realized the attack direction and charged, with the grunts serving as the usual cannon fodder and the Jackals trying to hit the covered soldiers with their carbines and needler rifles. The Brutes shot their concussion rounds into the foliage, with a few spikers following every shot.
"Hope John gets out soon," grunted Fred, as he noticed a misplaced plasma shot take out a couple of the jackals shields and quickly shot down their retreating forms.
"Same here, though it does seem a bit calm for the usual swarm of Covies-?" Mark replied before realizing that he was missing a few of his tagged Brutes. The tags still registered in his hud so he hadn't shot them but they were gone. Just where did they g-!
Mark's mental questioning was interrupted by Olivia who tackled him from nowhere as a plasma mortar exploded in the space they just vacated. The two landed a foot away, feet prickling form the plasmas heat with Olivia lying on top of Mark, slightly straddling him. After a second the two jumped away from each other and Olivia disappeared from sight as Mark checked the sky for more plasma mortars. He sweatdropped inside his helmet at the sight of no more than 5 wraiths plowing through the forest straight to him. Mark darted off to the side, avoiding two more blasts as he tried to reach the weak side of the wraiths armor. The wraiths adjusted themselves to all have clear aim at Mark, blasting away at his heels. As Mark sprinted away from them he noticed a slight rustling in the trees. Olivia dropped out the tree soon after and latched herself to the back of the furthest wraith which was positioned right beside the penultimate Wraiths engine port, in the back of the vehicle at the armors weakest point. Olivia quickly planted her cooking grenade into her host wraiths engine before jumping off and rolling away as quickly as she could. Seeing her jump to safety Mark suddenly changed course, darting between the plasma shells to get close to the wraiths. As he ran the grenaded wraith blew up, its explosion and purple fire igniting the wraith beside it, destroying it as well. The other three stopped in surprise, giving Mark his needed reprieve to complete his approach. Once he got close he jumped up onto the nearest wraith and shoved a grenade into the mortars base plasma generator, pulling the pin as he withdrew his hand. He jumped off the wraith and onto another one, bashing in the entrance hatch and punching the Brute driving until its head caved in. Olivia dashed in as the last wraiths driver saw his pack brothers death and prepared to destroy the Spartan and the wraith he stood on. Mark jumped clear but it proved to be unnecessary as Olivia jumped on and brutally beat through the hatch, then transferring her metal bending, bone shattering fists to rain on the brute driving. It died within milliseconds of Olivia's barrage. The two soldiers quickly met up and ran back to Fred, Jake, and Linda, noting the bloody, perforated corpses that surrounded the group. They all nodded in greeting to each other before turning their heads skywards as an explosion blew across the top of the Spire and traveled down its supports into the base.
"Well, looks like our jobs done," commented Mark, breaking the silence.
"I think it looks like an exploding heretic ship, the hues of black and purple are well placed."
"I think it's more of a purple and blue grassland in a dimpled countryside."
"It's the remains of a Jirahanae splattered on a wall with a few of your shotgun blasts pockmarking the metal Dante," stated Koro with an admonishing tone.
"Nah, I think I'll stick with my countryside theory," remarked Dante.
"No, it's half the body fluids and biomass of a Jiralhanae you just shot literally 2 minutes ago!" replied Koro staring unbelievably at his human teammate.
"Fine then, I'll call it 'Blasted Brute'" Dante responded with a sigh and snapping a picture with his helmets camera.
"Alright, we're ready to go," announced Chief as he stood up from the device he had rigged with the Spire's power core. Chief turned to see the rest of Blue and saber team put on their mode of escape. Turi and Koro were the only two that did not have a problem with strapping on the Covenant jetpack systems, having the design differences between the Brutes and Elites systems not being very different. Dante had Turi help him with his as Koro casually fixed the one on Will's back. Once satisfied all were ready Chief started the timer on the bomb, giving them a minute before the core overloaded and went out onto the plasma shielded outside floor. He quickly ran and jumped off, firing his jetpack occasionally for more distance and to slow his fall. The others quickly followed with little problem until Holly jumped. When she took off she gunned her jetpack and lurched towards Ash who was slightly ahead of her. When the two started to fall, they triggered their packs again and were just getting to the edge of the danger zone when the Spire's top blew up. Holly looked back and caught sight of one large piece of debris rocketing towards her and impacting on her jetpack. She screamed as she was suddenly thrown, spiraling, by the damaged propulsion device nearly headfirst into the forest.
The Spartans all landed and regrouped on the way to the crash site, with Ash slightly overtaking the Spartan II's in his slight panic, arriving second at Holly's side, unsurprisingly behind Kelly who made it first. Holly's left arm was bent at an odd angle and she was obviously interrupted in the middle of her landing by the extremely thick-trunked tree she was lying against. Hearing a crack, all except Ash turned from her slightly mangled body to glance at a thick tree topple backwards and a large arm-shaped dent, speckled in olive green Mjolnir paint, was easily seen on its front. They turned back to Holly whose vitals were showing extensive internal damaging and several skin breaches. Her suit seemed to have been breached by some of the thick bark on the tree. As the Spartans all got up and ensured their Elite allies had caught up, they began running back to their pelicans, to get some medical help for Holly. Koro lagged behind a bit, looking at the tree Holly impacted curiously, before snapping off a piece of bark and looking at the sap. Turi called for him and he immediately dropped the piece and sprinted to catch up with his fellow fighters, a grim look on his face as he gazed at Holly's unconscious body.
The piece of bark laid there on the forest floor, peaceful and undisturbed with the drop of sap lying on the edge, slowly loosening a drip over the side. As the drip fell a small beetle had just crawled under the barks edge and was hit by the sap. The beetle's legs instantly collapsed, and it remained still and unmoving before it got up shakily and stumbled back and forth swinging its head back and forth before charging another beetle that walked over and grabbing it in its pincers, shaking, crushing and smashing its smaller kin on anything nearby until the small beetles carapace broke and its fluids and organs were slowly squeezed out of its shell while the attacking beetle suddenly shrieked and released its hold as both beetles laid down, never to move again.
Me: Ok, I got out another chapter, happy?
Everyone: Yes.
Me: Ok, sweet, hopefully my fans will be pleased. Now i gotta go train because sadly College and Crew don't leave me much time for writing.
Dante: and your lazy.
Me: Shut it asswipe.
Dante: What you say? (Points shotgun at me)
Me: Gotta go, PEACE!