1656 HOURS, APRIL 16, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD PHANTOM EN ROUTE TO DESTINATION 2 \ UNMARKED PLANET
"Be advised, there are Covenant on this planet, repeat, Covenant are here on the planet." Sean's voice said over the radio.
"Roger that." Fred replied from his phantom. "Well, that was quick."
"Something tells me they figured out how to get here faster." Kelly said. "I've been seeing different schematics for their slipspace drives."
"Like it matters now? We're ending this here and now." Linda said as she checked her clip and slid it back into the sniper rifle. They then heard a large explosion and then static as the radio cut out. "That doesn't sound good."
"Hey, quick question, did they remember to take the warthog out from under their phantom?" Kelly asked as she came up with why the explosion came over the radio.
"Probably not, Sean hasn't always been the brightest when it comes to pre-mission checks. Well, they're Spartans; they can make it through this, let's just forget about them for now and find our destination."
"Gotcha." Kelly said a little uneasily as she keyed her COM. "Team 1, be advised, Kate and Sean went down." There was a pause as plasma fire could be heard firing in the background as the Arbiter broke the silence. "We copy team 2, may luck shine upon them. We have a few technicalities of our own over hear….make that one less." The COM then snapped off.
"Sounds like everyone is in trouble but us." Linda said as she listened in.
"Make that everyone." Fred said as he pointed to the salvo of wraith fire heading straight for them. He then forced the phantom into a steep dive to dodge the wave of plasma as he pulled up and was skating mere meters above the ground. "Opening up the hatches now, take out as many as you can." Fred said as the hatches opened up and plasma turrets dropped into place. Linda and Kelly took a turret each as they opened fire on the ground units below. Brutes, jackals, banshees, just about everything was taken down by the streams of plasma. The main turret on the phantom was busy tracking and shooting the wraiths, destroying a few here and there. "We're approaching our destination, two kilometers to go." 'Just how did they know where we were headed?' He thought to himself as he saw a wraith explode on the turret's view screen.
1656 HOURS, APRIL 16, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD PHANTOM EN ROUTE TO DESTINATION 2 \ UNMARKED PLANET
"Be advised, there are Covenant on this planet, repeat, Covenant are here on the planet." Sean's voice said over the radio. James turned off the COM as he piloted the phantom over a few mountaintops.
"Geez, looks like things are going to hell real fast." Will said as he checked on their weapons.
"I sense that something is wrong here, how could they have set up their forces in such a way as this?" The Arbiter commented as suspicion filled his voice.
"You're right, they must've hacked our speakers during the planning of this thing." James said as he flew up high to avoid a rather tall mountain and noticed blue dots on the mountain ahead. "Oh crud, we have company. Looks like wraiths."
"Open fire then James!" Will shouted as he handed the Arbiter his personal weapons and slung his own. The sides then opened up to reveal the beautiful view of the mountains….well; it would be more beautiful if it weren't for all the plasma heading towards them. They hopped on the turrets and began to tear apart the mortar tanks. "Aim for above the tanks, cause an avalanche to cover it." Will suggested as he shot a perfect line above a wraith and was rewarded with rocks and boulders tumbling down as one completely smashed the main gun and then crushed the startled gunner into a pulp.
The Arbiter did the best that he could as he heard a voice come over his headset. "Team 1, be advised, Kate and Sean went down." He heard Kelly say. A few plasma shots went over his head and scorched the panels above him as he returned fire. "We copy team 2, may luck shine upon them. We have a few technicalities of our own over here." He said as he shot through the open hatch of a wraith and saw it explode into a fire ball. "Make that one less." He said turning off the COM.
James was too busy trying to pilot, shoot, and look at the same time as he spotted a plateau far off in the distance and what appeared to be an unnatural column rising up from it in a small crater. "Arbiter, Will, I think I've found the Dawn!" He shouted back at them. "Taking the phantom down on that plateau, looks like Rick knows his stuff." He remarked as the combined fire from the three phantom turrets had reduced the ambush to half of its original strength.
Motivated by the news, the Arbiter gave a battle cry as he and Will rained down plasma judgment on the wraiths and destroyed five more in the process. James hastily set them down on the plateau and parked just outside the mangled hangar entrance and sent out a UNSC-coded transmission. "Cortana, this is Spartan James, if you can hear me, thaw out the Chief, we need him."
"James?" Cortana's voice answered back. "I'll get right on it. Get in here ASAP; I got a feeling it's going to get bad out there fast."
"Roger that, James out." He said snapping off the COM. He then got off the phantom as Will followed and the Arbiter rushed inside to see his friend once more. All three of them made it into the aft section as they saw Cortana standing on a pedestal before them as she seemed happy to see them. "Nice to see you three again, the Chief is right in there." She said gesturing to the Cryo pod behind her as a loud hissing noise was heard and the door creaked open. There he was, decked in the same MJOLNIR armor he'd been wearing since Reach, all the scrapes in the armor as he stood up from the pod. James and Will snapped a crisp salute as the Arbiter stood in awe. "Ow my head…..James?....Will?....Arbiter?" John asked as he held his head in pain from a post-Cryo sleep headache.
"The demon lives!" The Arbiter shouted. "It brings me great joy to see you again."
"Good to see you again friend." John remarked as he returned his Spartan's salute. "At ease you two. Thanks for coming back for me. Is anyone else with you?"
"Yea, we've got Fred, Kate, Sean, Kelly-"
"Wait, Kelly's here?" John asked cutting Will off.
"Yea," James confirmed. "Linda's with us too." The Chief visibly twitched at hearing her name. Sure he liked all his Spartans, but Linda was special to him. When he thought she had died on that Orbital station around Reach, he felt like he had lost something, and only when she was alive again did he feel it return to him. He quickly snapped out of his thought and grabbed the MA5B assault rifle from the side of the pod and slung it over his back. "Let's go." He said pulling Cortana's chip out of the pedestal and slid it back into his helmet.
1658 HOURS, APRIL 16, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ABOARD CAPTURED COVENANT VESSEL CORRUPT HEART \ IN STATIONARY ORBIT AROUND UNKNOWN PLANET
All the while, Rick was listening intently on everything that was said between all three teams and monitoring the Covenant activity and a few communication signals….all of it didn't add up. "Just how did this happen?" He asked Dr. Halsey as she sat at the communications station in front of him.
"They somehow must've listened in on our plan, it's the only way they managed to set up this effective of a counter measure."
"Improbable doctor." The AI said back as the symbols on him went back and forth. "I've scanned this ship hundreds of times, there is now way anyone could be-"
"Have you considered that they could have used an outside device?" She said interrupting as the symbols stopped and he turned from red to purple in embarrassment.
"Yes….well, I'm no Cortana." He said in defense.
"No you're not, you're more orientated for tactical advice and space engagements, now do a scan on any devices that could be around or attached to the ship." The AI returned to his normal color and did as instructed as he felt so stupid. "Well, it would appear there is a small probe attached to our communications array systems. I'll attempt to disable it and-" He tried to say as his hologram shook violently as if it were shocked with a massive amount of electricity and he collapsed. "I should have seen that coming." He said weakly.
"Just what happened?" Dr. Halsey asked him.
"Like I said before, I'm no Cortana, I accidentally triggered that, one moment." He said as he got up and tried to compose himself. The AI then tried a different approach, and finally disabled it. "It's been dealt with…..but regrettably not soon enough."
"What does that mean?" She asked leaning down towards him.
"Listen to what I received seconds before."
"Arbiter, Will, I think I found the Dawn!" James' voice said as the doctor slumped back in her chair. "I hope they can get out soon, or else this won't be much of a rescue."
1700 HOURS, APRIL 16, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ 2 CLICKS FROM DESTINATION 3 \ UNKNOWN PLANET
The charges were set and both of the Spartans were ready for whatever was waiting for them on the outside. They looked at each other, nodded, and set off the charges as they rushed out of the newly made hole in the side of the phantom. The immediately opened fire, took out a few Covenant, and ducked behind a boulder as the smoke settled and they began what was arguably the hardest fight they would ever go through. It began chaotically, Covenant fired everywhere into the smoke to try and kill them, quite a few friendly fire kills resulted from this.
Now with the smoke completely gone, several jackals looked around to find the two humans as a brute chieftain ordered them all to halt, brought out its hammer, and advanced on the carnage. It proceeded cautiously as it crept down the crater caused by the phantom. It passed right by the boulder and then vanished from sight as Kate dragged it behind the boulder and slit its throat with her combat knife, tossing the corpse aside. Now fully aware of where they were, every one of them fired at the boulder. The two Spartans waited for the right moment, and then jumped up onto the phantom, tossed a plasma grenade each, and jumped down to the other side. The grenades hit their marks, sticking a hunter pair right on their faces and taking them out of the fight instantly. "Well, I figured out how they found out about us." Kate said as she leaned back against the phantom.
"Yea, what is it?" Sean asked intrigued.
Kate then punched him right on his shoulder. "You forgot to get rid of the warthog you moron!" She shouted at him as he cringed at her rage and his own stupidity. "It's overturned on our eight o'clock right now."
"Ok then, suppressive fire please." He said as he ran towards the location that she named. He shot anything that dared to be in his general path as bursts of plasma went right after him. A few well-aimed bursts from a battle rifle aided him in his mad dash, and he somehow made it to the warthog. He immediately put his armor's strength enhancement to good use and flipped the warthog back onto all fours, hopped into the driver seat, and took off for the phantom. He managed to flatten a small group of jackals and knocked a hunter off its feet as he used the hand brake and stopped the vehicle right in front of Kate. "Need a lift?" He asked her.
"Yes thank you, but I prefer to ride in the back." She joked as she got behind the LAAG turret that was mounted on the back of the 'hog. Sean slammed his foot down and gunned the throttle, causing the tires to kick up a lot of dirt before taking off. As soon as they were in the sights of the turret, Kate opened fire as the explosive rounds tore through the Covenant forces. Their main targets were the hunters, and they had managed to kill a dozen of them, leaving only a pair or two left. They then focused on the brutes that wore gold armor and chieftains, attempting to eliminate the chain of command and their main strength. Only one of the hammer wielding chieftains fell while at least five other brutes fell before a plume of green plasma exploded at the left rear wheel. He fought with the wheel to keep it together, but another green plasma ball struck the driver's side and sent it flying several meters, ejected both of its occupants onto the ground.
Sean shook his head to clear it as Kate was busy getting the warthog off of her legs. He rushed to assist her and carried her to safety behind a rock as he pulled up a medical report on her current condition. It was just what he was afraid of, her entire left leg was broken from top to bottom, this was going to put them in grave danger if she didn't get to a secure place fast. He cursed under his breath as he peaked over the rock and saw the now smaller Covenant force fanning out and scanning the area for them. He got out a grenade and got his plan: he'd throw it as a distraction, pick Kate up, and then run like hell to the fallback point, where they'd hopefully run into blue or red team. His finger reached into the loop as he heard a loud noise behind him and turned to inspect it as a ghost flew right over his head and scraped the boulder….and a jackal's head. Dozens more followed and began shooting and ramming the Covenant that were in the area as chaos once more took over. Brutes fell, ghosts exploded, and everyone tried to figure out just what the hell happened when a grunt ran up to the Spartans. "You're timing couldn't have been better Shola." Sean said relieved.
"What? You know this gru- Argh!" She tried to say as she clutched her leg in agony.
"Yes, I am a friend of your brother. But that can be explained later. We must get you both out of here fast, before anything else bad happens." Too late. A phantom closed in on the three as they could see the plasma turret warm up on the bottom and begin to fire. They braced themselves, but felt nothing as the plasma turned a hunter into a corpse. A lone figure then appeared at the side hatch and was busy firing an assault rifle around the group. "Good thing we got here in time." Kelly said as she jumped down and knelt beside Kate. "How bad is she?"
"Bad. Her left leg is shattered completely; please tell me you're our pick-up." Sean said as he shot a jackal in the head as it tried to sneak up on them.
"Yes, now grab her, and get all of you on board." She said as she picked the grunt up and slung him over her back as he desperately clung to her shoulders. She then jumped up as high as she could and landed inside the phantom as Sean picked up Kate and cradled her in his arms. "Don't worry; I'm getting you out of here." He told her as he jumped up and landed next to Kelly.
"Alright Fred, get us the heck out of here." Linda shouted at him as she stopped firing the turret and closed the side hatches. The phantom then lurched upward as they gained height and left the rest of the small force to the ghosts. "Any reason you brought a grunt on board?" Linda asked as she looked Shola over.
"Long story, I'll explain later." Sean said as he sat Kate upright in a chair and propped up her leg. She let out a scream of pain as he grabbed her hand and held it tight. "I'm not going to leave you, I promise." He said as Kelly grabbed a medical kit and began to work on the badly damaged leg.
