I. Am. Back with another CHAPTER!
I want to announce that the codex for Ancient Humanity might take longer than I expected. Turns out its harder than I originally hoped it would be. So don't expect it to come later for the moment, but I'm trying!
Now lets get down with reviews:
SPARTAN-626: Thanks again once more spartan. I worked really hard on that chapter to give you guys an aswome plot and scene. And no, it is not the Necrons, they won't make a cameo appearance until later on.
The Joining: You have no idea...
OBSERVER01: they aren't getting extinct. I need them alive.
Now...On to the story!
Breaking Open the Lock
You can cower in any corner, hide in any dark pit, run to the ends of the galaxy
But know this, no matter where you go we will hunt you down
No stone will be unturned, no crevice overlooked, no pit unnoticed
We will find you
And once we do, not even the Gods will save you
Our faces will be the last you see
Our voices the last you hear
Our name the last you ever utter
We are the Spec Ops
And we are the ends of everything
-Spec Ops motto
Star Cluster N/A
Star System N/A
CVO-Assualt Carrier Shadow of Intent
Eon of the Covenant-14th Age of Conflict-Period of Unrest
The looming form of the Shadow of Intent silently hid along with her escorts in the dense ring band of a gas giant. Neither ships moved from their place nor dared activate any of their systems, worry of becoming detected by their mission target.
Two worlds away, their attention was fully fixed on a desolate world orbited the orange star of the system. The world was covered in raging storms and violent volcanic activity from the gravitational pull its parent star placed on the small world. To any observer, the world seemed to be only a death wish for anyone who dared live in it and there forth, should not be noticed. However, for the Covenant, it wasn't the world itself that contained their attention, rather, what is located on the surface of the planet.
Underneath the raging storms and deep in a mountain that dotted the surface along countless others and contained in the heart of a dead volcano, is a large Imperial outpost suspected of owning information the Covenant are searching for.
"Any word from the Arbiter and his team?" Fleetmaster Rtas inquired to the Sangheili bridge officer for what might have been the 26th time.
"Again, no." The officer answered once more. "He hasn't sent one since his team made planet fall two cycles* ago."
Rtas sank into his command chair and let out a sigh. Covenant intelligence had pinpointed an Imperial outpost that was located at the edge of human space while serving as a main linkage to multiple other outposts outside of territory and as a refueling station for exploration fleets heading into the unknown. Their agents had managed to uncover evidence pointing that their targets had passed through the outpost prior to their suppose disappearance. That was why the Arbiter himself was leading an infiltrating team to steal the information right under the human's nose.
Originally, the plan had been for the fleet to make a short-jump above the world and deploy strike-teams quickly on the surprised humans before a distress could be sent out.
Rtas himself had quickly turned down the plan once he heard it. He knew from past experience and the word of others that these specific types of outposts were usually protected with hidden traps and other defenses that only revealed once the station's safety had been compromised. He wasn't willing to risk the Fleet of Uncovering merely because some young, overeager Sangheilis wanted glory. Didn't help much to lower his fears once scanners picked up anomalies and ghost signals in their scanners.
"How much longer can we hide from their scanners in this field?"
The officer frowned at the question. "I would say around seven cycles, nine if they focus somewhere lese more important in their minds."
"Not a lot time." Rtas muttered to himself. "Arbiter, whatever you're doing, do not take too long. It's only a matter of time before we're discovered and the mission becomes complicated."
[[[[[[[[+]]]]]]]]
Unknown world
The surface of the world would be to anyone's eyes, best described as a world trying to kill anything on its surface. The storms swept down powerful winds capable of tearing up the landscape while the volcanoes poured endless amounts of molten magma and destructive force to continuously reshape the land nonstop. Anything caught without a shelter or any sort of extreme protection risks dying a horrible death. This fact was quickly becoming a troubling case for Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee and his team as they carefully climbed down a cliff ledge of a mountain.
Taking slow steps and keeping himself close to the wall for leverage against the winds, he leaned over to see his target. At the other end of the ledge stood the form of an Imperial base sticking out of the mountainside, giving the appearance it had been carved out. Thel, however, knew that what he was seeing was merely the tip of the surface, most of the base would be inside the natural formation with only the entrances being the only ones sticking out.
Pausing for a moment, he turned to face the rest of his group all composed of Spec Ops: 6 Sangheilis, a Hurogok, 4 Jiralhanae, 9 Unggoys, and 7 Kig-Yars. All of them were geared with the latest tech in the field and were trained in everything they would need in missions. If there were a team that could break into a Human base and escape with the objective complete, it would be them.
The group continued inching forward until they reached what Thel suspected would be the outpost's carefully concealed hanger gates. Waiting for everyone to finally stand next to him, he lifted his hand and gave the Sangheili next to him a signal.
Nodding in understanding, he pulled a device out from his pouch and pressed a rune on the top.
Suddenly, in the distance, a large plasma explosion erupted out, causing a chain-reaction to form, resulting with the earth tearing itself apart from the unnatural disturbance. Planesecs* passed by as they waited for the outpost to react until their patience was soon rewarded. Vibrations could be felt in the walls accompanied with rumbling as Thel and the rest watched the doors open to release an aircraft out to investigate the unusual eruption.
Without a single word, the group activated their camouflage cloaks and quickly entered the hanger before the doors could lock them out.
With a resounding 'clang', the doors shut into place behind them and the hanger's light dimmed down into a red glow. Thel waited for several planesecs for any sign that they've been discovered before giving an all-clear signal to the rest of the group.
Relaxing their stance, the team huddled together while Thel gave them instructions. "Alright, do you all remember your positions?" Clear nods were given to him. "Good. To be on the safe side, let me refresh your memories."
Pointing at one of the Sangheili, "Xeth 'Juralenee, you will lead several of our fellows at locating the station's armory to deny the defenders of their weaponry." Xeth drew a line down his chest in acknowledgement. "Barkari," he turned to a large Jiralhanae, "you and your team will hold this hanger in case we need a quick exit to leave this place." Barkari gave a low grow in response to the order. "The rest of you along with Lighter-Than-Some, we head for the command room. Keep your cloaks up and be absolutely careful to prevent the Humans from discovering us. For the Mantle." He finished.
"For the Mantle." They all chorused.
Silently once more, the teams broke up into different directions with their objectives. Thel personally led the team's only Hurogok, three of the Sangheili, and four of the Kig-Yar. Xeth himself led the rest of the Sangheili and Kig-Yar with him along with one-third of the Unggoy in the group. Barkari stayed back in the hanger along with the rest of his pack brothers and the Unggoy, should an exit be needed.
... ... ...
Thel silently led his group through the hallways of the station. Each of their steps was carefully placed to stay silent while their movements were restricted to avoid distorting their cloaks to any hidden cameras to notice their presence.
At the end of the hall, Thel quickly gave signal to his group to stop. Obeying his command, they halted their movements for whatever caused him to cease movement.
The question is soon answered when a trio of Atlas machines marched crossed the hallway intersect in front of them. They held their breaths in as they watched the Human's machines scrutinized everything in sight, especially the moment one of them turned its receptor lenses at their direction but luckily didn't noticed them. Seemingly satisfied, the machines continued with their patrol and away from the group.
Thinking safe, one of the Kig-Yar let out a small exhale of breath he had be been holding back, but unfortunately let it out slightly louder.
The Atlases immediately snapped up their weapons at the direction their sharp hearing caught the sound from. While they weren't certain on what they heard, they knew however that the noise wasn't something you'd hear in these hallways.
The nervousness of the group increased as one of the machines moved closer to their location to investigate. Thel silently moved his free hand to hip and tightly gripped his energy sword while bringing his Helios rifle at its direction.
The Atlas stopped a few paces from him and activated its scanners.
In his head, Thel prayed that the special disrupters Lighter-Than-Some personally created would hide them from the Imperial scanners or the mission will quickly be botched up.
To his relief, the Atlas stopped scanning and walked back to its companions without any hints of aggression. The machine spoke in a garbled tongue that sounded like two metal plates scrapping together with electronic scrambling mixed in. Concluding together, they turned around and continued with their patrol, unaware of how close their companion had been to discovering the presence of an infiltrating party.
Waiting for the patrol to disappear around the bend of another hallway, Thel turned around angrily to face the cringing Kig-Yar who was attempting to make himself smaller.
"Sul 'Anoka. What part of keeping absolute silence did you not get?" he berated at the T'vaoan in a hushed yet sharp tone. "You nearly blew our position!"
Sul lowered his head in shame. "I apologies Arbiter, I had momentarily forgotten how sharp the hearing of the Human's machines are." Several of the group snorted at the explanation.
Thel silenced them with a glare and returned his attention. "That may be, but even you still know the importance of silence when infiltrating an enemy base protected with Precursor knows defenses. Am I clear?"
"You are clear."
Satisfied that he had been cleared, he faced the rest of the group. "The same goes for the rest you. If we don't, the mission will fall in jeopardy without any of the objectives completed."
"Understood Arbiter."
"Good then, we still move foreword with our goal."
Continuing their trek through the outpost, Thel led his group past multiple patrols and other avoidable areas as they headed closer to the command center. Finally, what felt like several cycles, they at last reached a set of double doors clearly barring the entrance to something important.
The group quickly took up places around the door while Thel gave one of the Sangheili in his group a signal with his hand. Nodding in understanding, the Spec Op moved silently to the doors and started carefully placing small Dirus charges on key areas of the doors. Meanwhile, Thel linked to his other teams through a hidden, heavily encrypted channel. "This is Kyte Team, we have reached our objective. Respond." Planemins passed before answers came.
"Xeth speaking, armory is in target. Be warned, we have had to eliminate a patrol recently to avoid immediate detection. Our time is now limited."
"Barkari here, hanger is still under our control, enemy drone craft had return without noticing us."
Listening to the reports, Thel was proud that the mission had so far succeeded without a hitch. He knew however that the next planemins would reveal his presence whether he did it stealthily or not. "Very well, ready yourselves for the incoming response. The breaching will shortly occur."
Exiting off the communicator, he turned to see the Sangheili make the finishing touches to the charges and back off with the charge in his hands. He looked at Thel for permission to commence the breech. A nod was the only thing he needed to commence.
Flicking out another detonator from his pouch, he let a brief moment for his comrades to ready themselves before pressing the activation rune.
Explosions shook the hallway and rattled their hearing as the doors shattered from the overwhelming pressure. Instantly, the group was rushing through the former door and into the command center.
Inside the room, they could several Human technicians of the Mechanicus organization along with several Atlases for security in the mist of fazed from the sudden attack. However, they weren't given a moment of recovery.
Thel with his fellow Sangheili let loose with their weapons at the machines, quickly bringing them down while the T'vaoans rushed forward and eliminated the Humans quickly. In planesecs, the Imperial presence in the room was removed, as the group fanned for any survivors and made sure the fallen ones was truly dead.
"Fan out! Guard the entrance to discourage any reinforcements from retaking this center." Thel ordered at everyone. "Lighter-Than-Some! Get to their data center."
Lighter-Than-Some chirped and whistled in acknowledgment as he moved towards one of the Human's mainframes and began extending its tentacles into the data ports. Thousands of words and symbols raced across the screen, which the Hurogok understood instantly while searching for the information they needed.
"CONTACT!" Shouted one of T'vaoans while firing his weapon down the hallway, sending razor-sharp discs at several Atlases. Most of the machines promptly dodged the incoming fire with the rest reacting too slowly and paying the price with depleted shields.
The others brought their weapons quickly and fired a barrage of lasers. The T'vaoan's shield was quickly brought down and he was instantly shredded apart before he could cry in surprise.
"Take them down now!" Bellowed Thel while aiming his rifle, "we need to give Lighter more time to finish!" He pulled the trigger, sprayed the hallway with fire and forcing the Atlases to avoid it.
The rest of his team took full advantage of the action to start peppering the machines, resulting in some Atlases collapsing on the ground destroyed. Return fire was attempted, but Thel's team was well dug in the command room while the Atlases were out in the open without any cover.
Even with the concentrated fire, two Atlases managed to make it through and threw themselves into the group.
The first Atlas delivered an uppercut punch at one of the Sangheili, Tav 'Dakiree, shattering his shields and violently throwing his head back, almost breaking it. It followed the attack with a roundhouse kick at another T'vaoan, Sukerion. The metal foot struck the chest of the Kig-Yar and with an unmistakable 'crack', sent him flying at one of the panels and smash into it. Sukerion fell on the ground groaning in pain, leaving a deep dent in the machine.
The second Atlas had drawn a power knife from its sheath and was in the mist of dueling with Xat Nash 'Gadevee after having used it in severing the right arm of Sul 'Anoka and knocking out the Kig-Yar out.
Thel left that Atlas to be handled by Xat, instead focusing his attention on the first one. He watched it grab Tav's head and bring its knee up, smashing the appendage in his face and breaking the glass of his helmet. Tav howled in pain as he clutched his face in agony, not noticing the incoming fist. His cries quickly turned to gasps once the fist connected with his stomach, knocking the air out of him and caving in his armor from the force alone. The Atlas cocked its arm back to finish off the Sangheili until another pair of arms grabbed its. Instantly the machines view of the room was quickly replaced with a spinning 180 degree vision of it before coming in contact with the floor violently, causing sensors to blink warnings in its HUD.
Thel raised his fist to the air and brought it down to the head of the Atlas. The machine responded to the action quickly and moved its head aside, leaving him to strike the floor instead. The Atlas thrusted its head forward, forcing Thel to shift back to avoid it, allowing it to roll aside to a safe distance and jump to its feet in a fighting stance. Thel copied its action and set himself in a stance too. Both opponents stared at each other, waiting for the first one to make the move.
Deciding to make the first move, he launched himself at the Atlas thrusted a strike at its face. The Atlas rapidly brought its hand up and blocked the fist in its path. It quickly twisted his arm, causing Thel to shout in pain. He lashed his foot at its left knee, causing it to stagger and lessen its grip in his arm. Taking advantage of the opening, he used his interlocked arm to pull the machine towards him and deliver a right hook at its head. Sparks exploded from one of its receptors, signaling damage and restriction to its vision. The Atlas responded with a direct hit at Thel's abdominal, forcing him back to recover his air. He only had a few planesecs to recover before the Atlas crashed into him and nearly sent him falling down. He momentarily felt dazed from the impact before feeling adrenaline pump into his veins, allowing him to shake it off and bringing both of his arms down together, smashing many of the armor plates composing its back and causing more circuits to malfunction. The action caused Atlas to spasm out from the damage, resulting in its grip loosening on Thel, allowing him to break free. He backhanded harshly at its head, twisting it around and damaging its neck servos badly. Thel began delivering attacks across its body as the Atlas desperately tried to defend itself but its previous injuries impaired its reaction speed to the point it couldn't block everything.
Crushing its knee joint beyond use, Thel roughly grabbed its fully functioning right arm and with a pull, ripped it off its joint completely. The Atlas gave a mechanical scream of pain that stabbed Thel's ears harshly through the helmet. Taking the ripped arm in both hands, he swung it as hard as he could at the screaming Atlas's head, caving the metal shell protecting its data core inwards and silencing it for good.
He discarded the arm to the floor as he felt the adrenaline fade away from his body, leaving him exhausted from the fight and the pain from his injuries surfacing once more. His legs feeling weak to support his body, he would've fallen to the ground if he didn't feel a pair of hands catch him and slowly bring to the floor. He felt a needle penetrate through one of the openings in the neck guard of the armor and suddenly felt his strength return to his body.
"Arbiter!" A distance voice called to him. "Can you hear me?"
Shacking off the blurry vision covering his senses, Thel quickly notice the presence of Xat above his vision. Turning his head around, he could see the corpse of the other Atlas with its head separate from his body, which showed signs of hacking and stabbing all around it.
"Ughhhh." He groaned from the pain as he sat up. His closest teammates backed off to give their commander space to recover.
Waiting for the pain to subside, he took a moment to look around the room to see the bodies of Sukerion and the other Kig-Yar still lying in the same spots from before.
"What are our casualties?" Thel huffed out from his haggard throat.
He could tell that Xat's expression behind his mask was grim. "We lost Rathetus at the beginning of the firefight and Sukerion died from his injuries shortly after. Tav and Sul are injured but they insist they can still fight before getting medical attention."
Whistling could be heard behind Thel as Lighter approached them seemingly with a happy expression.
"You're done?" Xat asked, a chirp was his answer. "Good then, we can leave this place now."
Quickly, the remains of the team left the room before the injured Sangheili Tav tossed his remaining charge in the center and detonated it once they placed themselves a safe distance.
"This is Xeth calling all teams! Armory has been destroyed but we've suffered several casualties and are falling back. Barkari, prepare yourself the Imperials have figured out where our exit point is."
Thel placed a finger on his left side of his helmet. "Barkari, hold the hanger until we arrive and call for the transport along with our reserve team to bring us out."
"With pleasure Arbiter. The hanger will be held."
... ... ...
Guardian Barkari exited the comms while turning to face his team waiting for orders.
"Unggoys, place yourselves in defensible positions towards the doors, the Imperials will try to flush us out." He barked the orders out. "Martenus, contact the transport to evacuate us. The rest, with me!"
Barkari strode to the only doors separating the hanger to the rest of the outpost and stopped. The rest of his pack brothers took places next him while the Unggoys spread themselves behind any craft in the room.
"Make sure the doors never close." He ordered out loud. The Jiralhanae next to him nodded and pressed something on his wrist.
The sound of stomping feet echoed from the hallway to their ears, signaling the arrival of the Imperial security. Barkari growled in preparation of the fight as he reached up behind his back and took out a gravity hammer from its strap. Resting it on both hands, he could feel the hammer power up while the rest of his pack took their respective weapons from their holsters.
At the back of the hallway, he could see well over a dozen Atlases sprinting for the hanger with their weapons drawn. He grinned feral, this would be a great fight for him.
"Open fire on them!" he roared to everyone while pressing a rune on the handle of his hammer to activate the Seeker Node.
A wave of green energy sprouted from the tip of hammer and struck one of the lead machines in the charge. The specific Atlas found itself being suddenly pulled by an unknown force toward Barkari himself. Waiting until the last minute, he turned of the node and swung the hammer in a downward arc, striking the Atlas in the center. The hammer suddenly emitted a devastating gravity wave directly into the body of the machine, crushing it circuits to paste and breaking its form into the floor.
Several Atlases meanwhile were cut down in the barrage but unlike last time, they had improvised since watching what had happened to the ones fighting Thel's group.
One of the Atlases performed a forward roll to doge the fire and brought up an Incinerator Ordinance to eye level and aimed.
Barkari's eyes widened in alarm, "TAKE COV-"
He was unable to finish the sentence, the Atlas immediately fired its weapon. His pack dove to the ground for cover, barely avoiding the blazing ordinance as it exploded into one of the idle craft, destroying it along with most of the Unggoys in his team.
With this distraction, the Atlases rushed into the hanger unhindered and started firing at any surviving targets. Barkari roared in anger as he jumped to his feet and swung his hammer in a wide arc, battering two machines across the room and grabbing the head of another, crushing it with his brute strength. He could feel the urges in his mind to descend into a berserk state and fought back with all his willpower to prevent himself from becoming lost in it.
An explosion erupted next to him and he let loose a gutter roar in pain as he felt searing heat burn his right side. He turned to face the one responsible, he found himself staring at the burned corpse of a pack brother and the sight of the Atlas in question loading a cannon.
Suddenly, blood red began filling his vision and he gave a feral roar that sent shivers across the spines of his pack members. He threw his hammer directly at the Atlas, caving its armor chest inwards from the force of the hit and broke into two. At the edge of his sight, Barkari could see more Atlases entering the hanger, but he didn't care at all. He ripped the holstered spiker from his hip and fired heated spikes widely at the enemy, not caring if most of his shots bounced from their shields or missed altogether.
His spiker continued firing until it clicked, signaling an empty magazine. Snarling in anger, he threw his weapon aside and drew his massive knife from its sheath. With a feral roar, he charged where his hammer lied on the floor and with a single move, picked it off the ground and brought down on an Atlas, crushing it to scrap while lashing out his knife and burying into the chest of another one. His HUD flashed warnings of his shields falling dangerously fast as Atlases focused their fire on him instead of his teammates. He ignored this as he used his body mass to crush an unfortunate Atlas to the wall and swung his knife to cut another one in half.
Suddenly, Barkari felt a bolt of energy strike his left pauldron and throw him off balance. Whipping around to where the shot came from, he felt searing pain in his right leg, causing him to lose support and collapse on the floor. He tried to lift himself up but another bolt struck one of his arms, forcing him to collapse on the floor. Raising his head, he could dimly see an Atlas calmly approach him and point a laser weapon at his face.
Just as the Atlas was about to press the trigger, the large hanger doors explode and a phantom craft entered the room. Immediately, turrets on its hull-opened fire on the Atlases across the room, gunning down multiple of them as the bay doors opened.
Once the doors opened, a large shape jumped from the phantom and crashed on the ground. Rising at full height in the battle stood a 3-meter tall Hive Colossus covered in near-impenetrable chitin armor and wielding two swords grafted in the same material in its arms. The colossus gave a deep-pitch screech and charged into the battle, slashing and hacking apart machines with its blades and immense strength in a frenzy. Dropping behind from the craft came several Hive Guards surrounding a Warper. Not waiting to reach the ground, the Warper proceeded to launch psychic bolts at any exposed Atlases while the Guards tasked to protect it provided support with their bio-weapons for their beleaguered comrades.
... ... ...
Thel and his team ran desperately through the hallways while blindly firing their weapons behind them at the Atlases chasing them. The moment they had left the command center, Imperial forces had been hounding them and no matter how hard they tried to shake them off, the machines persisted in chasing them.
Without warning, a metal bundle flew over their heads unto the wall adjacent to their right. The bundle proceeded to detonate behind them, collapsing the hall and cutting off the Atlases from entry.
Looking at the direction where the bundle came from, he saw Xeth and what remained of his team running from the hallway intersect and join them.
"That will slow them down Arbiter!" Xeth shouted to Thel. "It will buy us more time to get out of here."
"Then lets take full advantage of it. I can hear the fighting in the hanger getting closer!" He announced to everyone.
Finally reaching the doors to the hanger, the teams entered the war-torn hanger now filled with burning hulks of crafts along with corpses of both sides. Thel quickly took notice of the phantom's presence along with the rest of his Ops team providing support and havoc against the enemy.
"EVERYONE RETREAT TO THE CRAFT NOW!" Bellowed Thel.
All the Spec Ops paused to hear their commander's words and began drawing back to the phantom. In the meantime, the phantom hovered close to the floor and activated its gravity lift as one by one, everyone entered the beam until Thel was the last one.
Taking one good look back at the surviving Atlases approaching him, he jumped into the beam and briefly felt weightless as the machine lifted him up into the craft. Immediately his view of the hanger was replaced with the troop compartment now filled with his surviving members of his team.
"All warriors are accounted for, Arbiter!" Xeth informed to Thel.
"Very well. Pilot, get us out of here!"
"Understood Arbiter." Replied the pilot from the cockpit.
The phantom began rising once more into the air and turned to face the opening gap leading outside the hanger. Just before it sped away, a small hatch opens in the bottom and ejects an object on the ground.
With that final act, the phantom speeds with full haste out of the hanger and into the barren outside world once more. Leaving behind a torn hanger and any remaining Imperials defenders angrily firing at the escaping craft.
If any of the Atlases had bothered stopping to inspect the unknown object left behind by the Covenant beforehand, they would've noticed a small panel with a series of symbols rapidly switching at an outstanding rate. If they had continued watching, they would've soon seen the symbols become less numerous until hitting a single one that blinked multiple times before ending with a drawn-out beep sound.
... ... ...
The phantom carrying the surviving members of the Arbiter's group sped away from the outpost and made a sharp pull towards the atmosphere to escape the world.
Immediately behind it, the entire side of the mountain erupted in a massive explosion of plasma as the bomb left behind detonated its payload. To both sides, the explosion effectively destroyed most of the outpost and would be years before the place could ever hope to run once more in the future. However, unknown to both parties, the bomb itself had some unintended consequences in its blast zone. The mountain where the Imperial was located is a dormant volcano that had erupted in millennia since it had used up its magma chambers and could not reach for more below in the core. Thanks to the bomb's force, large cracks had been torn through the crust and opened up new passageways into magma veins dotting the heart of the world. The shockwave of the explosion along with the sudden pressure of the environmental changes produced catastrophic results.
The formally silent volcano along with the surround land close to it exploded outwards in a spectacular show of tremendous force, spewing out countless tons of magma into the surface, effectively destroying any evidence of an outpost existed in this world forever.
[[[[[[[[+]]]]]]]]
Shadow of Intent
"Fleetmaster! We have contact with the team!" The bridge officer shouted.
Rtas snapped his head up from the data pad he had been reading from. "Through communications?"
The officer shook his. "No. We have it through visual."
"Show me."
The officer quickly brought Rtas to one of the bridge's control stations. "Bring visual up." The officer ordered to the Unggoy operator.
Nodding, the Unggoy typed in several key commands on the holo-computer until a large screen materialized in the air showing the desolate world before zooming in at a lone phantom exiting the atmosphere and speeding through the orbital plane.
"Hmm. The mission must have been a success. Tell the fleet to prep-"
"Fleetmaster!" A shout came from a Jiralhanae officer in charge of the ship's scanners. "Scanners are picking up a large rise of energy signatures around Planetoid-03 and 04! Sectors 312B-K, 107, and 26F-U are filled with new signals!" Panic could be heard in his voice. "Ghost signals are becoming solid. Imperial IFFs are being detected everywhere!"
Rtas felt his blood turned cold. Hearing what the report said did not bode well for him, let alone the fact that numerous of those defenses were dangerously close to his fleet. The fact that the amount of traps and so forth located in this system was not right. He knew that these types of outposts normally had a significant number of protections, but this one had three times the number compared to others! He knew he had to get the Arbiter out to safety before the traps caught him.
"Bring the fleet online! Spin up the weapon batteries and raise the shields! We need to fight our way through in order to rescue the Arbiter!"
[[[[[[[[+]]]]]]]]
Phantom Dropship
The phantom sped across the void of space towards the rendezvous location where the fleet would pick them up. At first look, the Covenant craft was the only thing artificial in this section of the system.
However, as the craft sped on it passes through a particular area of space, causing a disturbance of some kind nearly invisible to the naked eye. Suddenly, the space around the same area distorts as what appears to be a large object moving and what suspiciously looks like a series of barrels slowly pointing at the fleeing ship.
The Sangheili piloting the craft occasionally looked at the scanners of the ship for any sign of Imperial pursers. So far, the Imperial response had been surprisingly silent and at this rate, they would reach their destination at the gas giant in less than a cycle. He certainly was quite happy to leave this system, the entire place didn't suite well for him nor feel normal at all.
A blinking red light quickly grabs his attention from the corner of his eye warning him of something in the scanners. He soon notes the presence of a contact behind his ship labeled with the Imperial IFF. Seeing that the Humans have finally gotten their act together, he was just about to contact the Arbiter and give an update until the flashing red light increases in frequency distracts him.
Looking back, his breath halts in his throat as he witnesses the scanners bring up more enemy contacts in the screen, all of them surrounding the ship. Soon, some of the contacts begin slightly glowing from rising energy levels.
Widening his eyes in realization, he violently yanked the controls of the phantom to the side, causing the craft to sharply pull to the left. Immediately the ship is roughly shaken from an outside explosive right where the ship was originally.
"Pilot, what in the gods was that?!" Thel demanded through the comms.
"Imperial IFFs! We're surrounded!" replied the pilot. "Secure yourselves to the seats!"
... ... ...
The phantom banked below to dodge incoming fire from several satellites dotting the space around them. Lasers, missiles, and rail cannons cut through empty space as their target constantly dodged their fire no matter what. The craft returned fire with its own plasma and pulse weapons in an attempt to deter them or hopefully, neutralize them.
In the back of the fight, a small station dropped its cloak and opened up bays making up most of its hull, releasing dozens of drone interceptors in the field.
Organizing themselves, they quickly began giving chase at the phantom, determined to not let it escape from the system alive. All three of the pulse turrets that had been previously focusing on the satellites changed their attention on the chasing interceptors instead.
The pilot quickly found himself desperately dodging heavy fire left and right from the interceptors while using the shields to deflect the lighter ones. Silent explosions rocked the ship as missiles exploded closely but fortunately not too close.
Seeing the approaching mass of the next planet in the system, the pilot pushed the engines to faster speeds as he navigated the phantom towards the world in hopes of losing his pursers there. The interceptors meanwhile saw their enemy's intention and paced up their speeds to catch up.
The chase quickly found itself in the atmosphere of the world burning at dangerous speeds capable of melting their armor if shields were not present.
The pilot switched most of the shield energy of the shields at the front as he stared intently at the approaching surface with a special but hazardous plan. Waiting until the stratosphere burning entry was finished, he steadily kept the speed of the phantom the same while continuously moving it down.
Noting the action of their target, most of the interceptors wisely pulled away from the illogical suicidal run while some of the more daring drones ignored the warnings and continued their chase.
The phantom continued with its path as the pilot carefully watched the readings indicating the distance to the ground left. The readings quickly began blaring warnings once the craft started becoming closer to the surface, which he ignored while focusing on his task.
Watching the ground near at an alarming rate, he waited until there was only a small distance left before pulling hard on the control back. The phantom immediately pulled up at the last moment, its bottom hull scraping a jutting rock formation on the ground and one of its 'tails' snapping off from the impact.
The several interceptors behind him realized too late what he had done and tried to copy his action vainly, but having chased at higher speed coupled with not designed in mind for drastic moves, suffered the price for their mistake. Most rammed right into the ground and exploded fashionably, unable to pull up in time. The rest succeeded in pulling up but could not do so properly, resulting in all of them crashing across natural formations rising from the ground.
The phantom meanwhile continued with its run across the surface, with most of the interceptors who had not been initially destroyed swinging back into the chase after seeing their foolish companions crash. Once again, the phantom found itself once more dodging fire only this time it could protect itself with less opponents.
Skimming across the surface, the phantom sharply dives into a large canyon previously spotted by the pilot. The interceptors quickly split into two groups in response with half flying above the surface in flanking positions while the rest entered the canyon. Seeing that a satisfying number were chasing him, he presses several command keys on the control panel.
A small section of phantom's forward 'head' opens up and launches two objects a good distance ahead in the canyon's walls. Latching themselves to the wall, the objects open their casings to reveal bombs warming up their cores in preparation for the command code.
Soon, the phantom passes the location of the bombs it placed and the pilot waited before pressing a red rune for activation. Receiving their command, the bombs glow in a bluish light and as soon as the interceptors chasing in the canyon neared, the bombs detonate.
Even with the distance, the combined explosive of two high-grade plasma bombs violently shakes the craft and nearly causes the pilot to lose control. However, the explosion also pulverized the interceptors in the canyon and threw off the ones above into confusion and surprise since the shockwave interfered with their circuits.
Using this moment of distraction, the pilot quickly pulls his craft back into the air to escape the world. The phantom manages to make it to the upper atmosphere of the planet until the surviving interceptors realized where their target had run off to and maxed out their afterburners after it.
The phantom screamed through the sky as it blasted free from the gravity well of the planet and entered the empty void of space once more. Not far behind, the interceptors tore through the atmosphere in fury to terminate their target for good and began unloading all their firepower at the craft.
The pilot desperately threw his ship in loops and spins in order to avoid the worst of the attacks. However, he could see in the shield's readings they were falling down at an alarming rate. Before he could ponder a way to save his ship along with the passengers, the craft is shaken once more violently.
Looking at the screens, he could see more satellites than before along with some stations turning their weapons at him while the scanners rang warnings to him of energy built up. Knowing what was going to happen, he sent his craft spinning in a barrel roll, barely avoiding most of the cannon fire directed at him with two shells cutting through his shields easily and damaging the hull of the craft. Next to him, he silently grinned from the amount of cursing emitting from the Spec Ops in the troop compartment through the comms. If it wasn't for the fact that they were in a life or death situation, he would've laughed.
Using the phantom's mobility, he expertly piloted the craft through the brazen defenses of the Imperials and forced his pursuers to break off to avoid friendly fire while making sure the Imperials couldn't fire anything warship-grade weaponry at a such a close range.
Noting something of a battle occurring in the distance, he zoomed the screen in to see the Shadow of Intent leading the Fleet of Uncovering in a maelstrom of fire. Plasma bolts and energy beams could be seen firing everywhere as the fleet fired widely at their foes surrounding them while their shields were lighting up constantly from deflecting countless rounds at once.
His comms began blinking with transmissions, "Phantom 215/R, can yo*ccrr*ead me? Respond!"
He pressed a key on the panel. "This is Phantom 215/R, I'm having trouble hearing you through this interference."
"H*ccrr*ger Bay AR-20 is op*cccrrrr*in quickly!"
"Clear up! I cannot fully understand the orders."
"*ccrrr*n't break interference. Bat*ccrr*ield communications are al*ccrr*bad."
"Understood." He switched off the channels for silence. He pressed several more keys on the dashboard and was rewarded with a higher humming sound of the phantom's engines straining to the breaking point as the output of the energy propellant increased drastically.
He could feel the pressure of the new speed in the engines as the phantom sped faster toward the massive form of the Assault Carrier and aimed for one of the hanger bays still opened to admit the fleeing craft in.
Warnings began flashing red across the screens as the computers informed him of the engines overheating to dangerous levels that could potentially destroy the craft. He swiped the warnings from his presence, knowing that without their current speed, they won't make it to the Intent in time.
With only a short distance between the craft, he was about to inform the Ops in the back to warn them when an explosion racked the ship, nearly throwing him off his seat. Alarms rang through the craft as the screens light up to show the readings of the damage. He could see Engines 2 was lost and 4 leaking. Most of the hull in the back was compromised and destroyed but thankfully, the troop bay was untouched but for how long he didn't know.
He twisted the craft to correctly set it back in course for the hanger, which was now closer than before. "Come on you wrahta! Move your twisted hull!" he cursed as he fought the controls. The phantom groaned slightly from the abuse it was suffering from but nonetheless, obliged the pilot's commands.
Seeing now that the ship was aiming straight for the bay, he flicked on the comms once more. "Hold on to something now and brace yourselves. We're coming in fast and uncontrollable with no clear landing spot!" Looking back at the screen he though, 'This is going to hurt'
"What!?" Exclaimed Barkari's voice through the channel. "What the Burning Plains do you mea-"
He was immediately cut off as the phantom finally entered through the magnetic field and crashed into the wall. Because of the speed it was coming in, it didn't stop there. The phantom violently broke off from the crater it left in the wall and spun through the air while continuing its unstoppable path. It proceeded to crash in to the floor and cave a path of destruction as docked fighters and other craft were either crushed or bowled through by the kill-ram transport. Ear splitting sounds of screeching metal tearing apart dominated the room. The hanger's personal meanwhile desperately threw themselves to safety from becoming a blood colored-paste on the floor or crushed powder on the craft's hull as it tumbled past them. The ship continued plowing through the bay as one of the engines exploded, sending the already-damage ship into the hull of a docked Lich Battle-Transport. The phantom caved into the hull of the craft and forced it off its zone before finally coming to a stop. With a final groan, it disengages from the Lich and crashes on the floor.
Hanger personal cautiously pocked their heads out from cover to see the Phantom Transport, once a proud looking ship, now looked as though it took a jolly trip through the Immaterium, used as a play ball by titans, and bashed around with an over-sized hammer for good measure.
... ... ...
"The phantom is in the bay Fleetmaster!" Shouted the bridge officer.
"Jump to slipspace NOW!" Bellowed Rtas. "Get us out of here!"
The officer barked his orders out to the crew as they jumped to their tasks.
A large slipspace portal opens as the large body of the Assault Carrier steadily enters the rift along with its escorts following behind and crushing to wraith-size compact objects any unlucky Imperials too close without proper shielding. And as quickly as it appeared, the portal closes behind the retreating Covenant from the system.
Slipspace
It felt bored. Really, really bored. Scratch that, it probably felt more boredom compared to everything else at this moment.
That's what the lone Bloodletter felt as it hurled through the swirling currents of the accursed Slipspace dimension. It could do nothing in this place. Unlike its home realm, this blasted place had Cosmic rules that were incredible difficult to manipulate, let alone break. So in sense, it was stuck here.
It released a frustrated growl at a memory. Curse that damned daemon to the Warp Planes of Fire. It should have never trusted that Blue Horror trickster of Tzeentch when it claimed that the portal led to the mortal realm itself. It should have recognized the bluish color of the portal signaling a slipspace link rather than the traditional swirl of chaotic colors.
Sighing in exasperation, it briefly wondered how long it would stay stuck here before it found a chance to escape. It certainly didn't want to miss the action about to occur in the future. Last it heard, the loyal servant race of the Ruinous Powers were preparing for a large campaign against the rising power of the upstart 'order', the Im-*WHAM*
Its thoughts are immediately cut off as a large object collides with it and continues with its path. Nearly knocking it unconscious.
Opening its eyes, it quickly discovered itself laying face first on a glass panel that soon turned out to be the bridge of a massive ship. Deciding to gently press down on the surface to test it, it senses the presence of a certain shield actively pushing back its ethereal form. Looking through the thick glass protecting the vital part of the ship, the bloodletter could see a figure at the controls close to it and looked like a…HUMAN!
Seeing an opportunity to leave this blasted region, it tried gnawing its way through the shields, despite appearing to spectacularly fail at attempt. The Human at the controls raised an eyebrow at the action of the daemon while keeping his face emotionless. Unnoticed by the busy daemon, the Human silently flicked a switch and pressed an orange button next to it.
Suddenly, a panel in the hull above the glass opened, grabbing the Warp creature's attention to see it release mechanical arm with a…window swipe? The daemon was dumbstruck at this revelation. It barely had time to react once the tool touched the glass and began swiping the window clean, with it included.
The daemon growled and dug its talon into the shields, stubbornly refusing to let a simple machine tool knock it off its only chance to escape. Seeing this wasn't working, the human calmly twisted the button around and pressed it harder. The window swipe immediately started smacking the daemon off the window much more aggressively than before. The irritated daemon shoved and kicked it away, wanting to deny the human the pleasure of getting rid of it.
Seeing it didn't work, the human shuffling slightly to the side, flicking another switch and pressed this time a red button bigger than the last one.
Immediately, the window swipe stopped it aggression and backed off as the daemon howled in victory, thinking it had won the fight. Its mood is quickly interrupted when another panel above opens and releases a mechanical arm with a tri-barrel at the end.
Pointing the end at the daemon, the barrels hum with power as energy builds up at the back of the cannon. The warp being has a short moment to think 'I don't get rewarded enough for this' before the cannon blasted it to oblivion.
With the deed done, the cannon retracts back to its place while the window swipe goes back to work at cleaning off the remains of the daemon lingering on the glass. Once completed, the swipe retreats to its place and leaves the window clean with no apparent evidence of a warp creature's presence.
"Hey Hadrian."
Hadrian turned around to see an ensign walk up to him. "Gellar sensors were identifying a warp contact here. You dealt it Hadrian?"
"Yep. No need to worry about anymore, I took care of it."
"Great! I'll go back to my post." Happy with the news, the Ensign walked back to his post while crossing the bridge and a canopy of voices.
"Destination arrival in two hours!" "Engines are in working order!" "Slipspace currents are moving with us! Our arrival time will be cut downed!"
Reaching his station, he sat down to face his cogitator returned to his status as a Gellar operator. "Gellar fields functioning with no hitches!"
"Ensure everything is working smoothly, men!" Magnus's booming voice cut through the air. "We will be arriving directly into a battlefield, so no slackers in this fleet!"
"At once Primarch!" The bridge chorused.
Covenant of the Mantle Codex:
*Time caste: the Covenant of the Mantle utilizes an entirely different system of measurement to record time. The system goes as Cycle (hour), Solar Cycle (day), Astro-Cycle (month), and Gala-Cycle (year). For bigger, it goes as Period (#s of decades), Age (#s of centuries), and Eon (#s of millennium). Going smaller, the system differs to planesecs (seconds), and planemins (minutes).
-Molten bomb: a plasma bomb that functions as the Covenant's equivalent of a nuclear bomb. These bombs would often times be employed to demolish fortress defenses or downing massive targets.
-Dirus charge: functioning as a satchel bomb used for taking down blocked rooms or bringing down troublesome vehicles. It is highly favored by the Spec Op branch in their missions.
-Hive Guard: Yamnee's that stand over twice the height of a drone, they serve as protectors of Hive Royalty or other high-ranking members of their kind with their thick chitin armor and assortment of weapons at their disposal. They can be considered elite soldiers by other races, capable of being on par with other super soldiers.
-Hive Colossal: a shock trooper and the juggernaut of the Hive armies. At a height of 3-meters on average, they are considered nearly on par with the Lekgolo's own shock troopers. They often times favor close combat than ranged, allowing them to use their powerful strength to crush opponents and wield devastating melee weapons.
-Hive Warper: Standing smaller than a Hive Guard, Warpers to not fight at all in hand-to-hand combat and as such have the appearance of a weak form compared to their brethren. They have a poor eyesight but make it up tenfold with five extra antennas on their head along with their psychic touch. Warpers are considered one of the deadliest type of psychic beings the Covenant of the Mantle can field in the battle, each one can link itself with the minds of their respective Hive over vast distances, allowing them to draw vast amount of power if needed. How it is done is unknown.
And there's for this chapter.
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The Covenant seem to be moving one step ahead of the Imperium of solving the mystery. Did Thel and his team survive? What exactly was the Daemon thinking beforehand?
Find out next on Galaxia's Wars!
Numquam est obliviscendum rimam, ut aliquid occultans.