Chapter 10
KACHAM! Chris reloaded his sniper rifle and aimed at the target again. Across the Spartan Training Area the current members of the Noble team were all working on honing their respective skills. Most were in target practice, but a few, including Dark Wolf and Holmes, were working in hand to hand combat.
Dark Wolf jumped off the climbing wall and landed on a dummy dressed in Elite armor. The dummy immediately collapsed under the 1000-plus pounds of Spartan. Dark Wolf reached down and picked up the old, semi-crushed Elite helmet. He raised it to eye level and looked at the empty eyeholes in the grinning blue helmet. Then he pulled his assault rifle off his back and blasted the helmet to smithereens.
After what had happened with Jewel defending the missiles had only served to prove a nagging doubt of his:
The new Noble Team might not make it. If it had the luck of the past Noble Team, then only one member might survive. Maybe not even thatY
Dark Wolf would have to take this up with Colonel Holland.
Dark Wolf marched into Holland's office, ready to deliver his theory.
"Noble Team leader your just the person I wanted to see!"
Dark Wolf stopped dead. What was going on?
But, the Colonel didn't give him a chance to ask what was going on, "Given the success with your previous mission; Command has decided that you and your team are to take a new mission."
"What?" Burst Dark Wolf.
Colonel Holland only paused to eye Dark Wolf angrily, then plowed on, "Also, the Covenant has been unusually quiet for a group of religious fanatics who just claimed one of our major military outposts, and had one of their religious artifacts destroyed. Command wants the mission to begin effectively immediately."
Dark Wolf stared in disbelief. The Colonel was calling the mission a success? They didn't even know why the Installation had exploded like a purple firework, let alone the fact that one of the team members had almost been killed. But they would probably just say almost= to that one.
"Yes sir", sighed Dark Wolf. Then he turned and walked out the door.
ALL MEMBERS OF NOBLE TEAM, REPORT TO BRIEFING ROOM SEVEN, blared one of the annoyingly loud speaker systems. Across the training room, each of the specially trained Spartans dropped what he or she was doing and headed for the door.
"What do you think it is now?" Snarled Mage, grouchy as ever.
"Given the success of our previous mission, I do believe that we are being assigned a new one, probably with some military significance," said Jewel.
Everyone looked at her.
"That was probably the most jargon filled sentence I've ever heard out of someone other than a techies mouth", said Tim, attempting to break the ice.
Mage gave an exasperated sigh and sped up, soon leaving the other team members behind.
They reached the briefing room, and a guard stepped aside of the door to let them in. As they marched inside, Colonel Holland and Dark Wolf both stood to acknowledge their presence.
"Well, Spartans", said Holland, "I won't keep you long, seeing as Command want=s you back in the field ASAP."
"So, what exactly is the new mission, sir?" Asked Tim.
"Simple. You're returning to Reach."
All the Nobles sat stunned for a moment. Then they all began talking at once.
"Sir, we can't return to Reach!" said Dark Wolf.
"We were overpowered by a fleet three times the size of ours, with each ship holding enough power to destroy a military frigate," said Holmes, "Why in the word would we go back?"
Mage merely slouched in his seat and muttered something about the UNSC all being idiots. Chris and Tim began to discuss the likelihood of everyone dying if they went back to Reach with Jewel.
Colonel Holland pounded on the table for attention, "Nobles, Command's word is final. You are going back to Reach, whether you like it or not."
Tim did not like his mission one bit.
Apparently, the UNSC was going to get some attention by blowing the tar out of a couple of Covenant Super Carriers, and reestablishing a base on Reach.
The team's primary target was one of the more recently arrived Super Carrier, which was enormous even by Super Carrier standards. There was some speculation that it was a special flagship, leading to it being chosen as the target.
Of course, since the UNSC needed most of its best men on the ground and some of them sabotaging the Super Carrier, the job of leading the strike team had fallen to Tim. The rest of the Nobles were waiting in a troop of Pelicans waiting for as soon as the Super Carrier dropped out of orbit.
Tim considered his entry of the Super Carrier to be the worst part of all. He and a pair of ODST marines would be blasted at the Super Carrier in Orbital Drop Pods, and once on the hull, they would work their way inside the ship, plant the bomb and jump onto the planet below. They all had jetpacks, which would make the drop considerably easier.
But, Tim had always hated roller coasters.
As he climbed into his drop pod, Tim looked around the launch bay at his team members. It would be a small strike force, with only three members.
Tim considered his teammates.
Ajax O'Connors was powerfully built, but belaying his name, Ajax was one of the shortest ODST in his squad. His armor was the standard camo ODST colors, and he strongly favored his combat knife.
Nathan Bradshaw seemed a good fellow.
'It's an easy mission,' Tim repeated to himself as he buckled his straps in the pod, 'It's an easy mission.'
"I'm ready," he said into the communicator.
"Same here," reported Bradshaw.
"Well, I'm good to go. Are we leaving yet?" growled Ajax, eager to reach the action.
"All agents are ready," said the computer over the com system, "Preparing to exit Slip Space and eject Orbital Drop Pods…"
Moments later, the computer spoke up again, "Successfully exited Slip Space, Covenant forces have noticed us and are engaging. Preparing to launch Drop Pods, Count down initiated."
"Well, let's get ready, boys," said Tim.
"We're right after you," said Ajax, "Just remember to leave us a couple of bad guys, Mr. Supersoldier."
"I'll keep that in mind," replied Tim.
"Five, four, three, two, one, zero- launch!" blared the computer, and the three Drop Pods were blasted out of the hangar at incredibly high speeds.
Ajax roared in elation as the three pods flew through the vast emptiness of space towards their target, but Tim and Bradshaw were quieter.
They knew this mission might as well be their last.
Tim took a deep breath as the computer said, "three hundred miles from target."
"Two hundred and fifty miles.
"Two hundred miles.
"One hundred and fifty miles.
"One hundred miles.
"Fifty miles."
WHOOM
The landing was somewhat uncomfortable, but the pod absorbed most of the momentum, slowing its speed to several miles an hour.
With a loud clunk, the hatch of the pod opened to reveal an angry looking Elite.
"Pardon me," said Tim, and jumped out of the pod, onto the Elite. Tim quickly pulled his battle rifle off his back, aimed for the nearest alien, and fired. The high caliber bullets blasted the alien (a terrified looking Grunt) off its feet and into a Jackal standing behind it.
Cortana's aim of the pods had proven accurate; they were several yards away from one of the maintenance doors atop the Super Carrier. Fortunately, the commander of the ship must have only though the Drop Pods minor and sent only a small force to investigate.
To Tim's right and left, Ajax and Bradshaw did the same, carving a path through the opposing group of Covenant troops. Ajax had a powerful explosive the size of a football tucked under his arm. With their commanding officer gone, the Covenant strike force quickly turned tail and fled.
One of the Grunts ran screaming to the docking bay of the Super Carrier, where its cries would quickly alert more of the aliens inside.
"Quick! Kill that Grunt!" said Tim.
Bradshaw turned in time to see the Grunt ready to leap inside the bay door, and fired his assault rifle. The bullet struck the Grunt in the head, killing it instantly, and it slid to the floor.
"Good work," said Tim.
"Mm-hmm. One of those wailing little banshees would bring the house down on top of us," added Ajax.
Then the Grunts body fell in the bay door.
The three soldiers raced to the edge of the bay door, in time to see the Grunts body, victim of low gravity on the surface of the ship, hit the empty floor below. The alien personnel had left for other battle stations.
"Close one…" whispered Tim.
Then he turned to Ajax, "You've got the bomb?"
"Safe and sound, Mr. Supersoldier."
"Good. Let's find a good spot to put it."
Up in the bridge of the Super Carrier sat Blay'de Haulduur, current leader of the Covenant forces.
But, instead of being elated at his new position, Blay'de was worried. He had recently sent a small troop of soldiers to investigate an anomaly hitting the hull of the ship, and they were not responding. That, coupled with the fact that half of the soldiers on the Carrier had left to combat a human ship, didn't bode well.
This was the perfect situation for sabotage.
"Stre'ma Elne'mee, report," he said into his comlink. There was no reply.
Blay'de turned to one of the lackeys running the ship.
"Show me the security footage from level one."
The low ranking Elite quickly accessed the feed and put it on one of the main screens planted around the bridge. The feed showed a trio of humans in combat armor rushing through the corridors of the Carrier.
Blay'de sighed; his hunch had been right.
He signaled another lackey to open a channel to the rest of the Carrier.
"All hands to abandon ship," he said.
Everyone on the bridge turned and looked at Blay'de.
Blay'de frowned. It would seem that he was expected to explain his decision to the crew.
"See that human there?" he asked, pointing to the tallest of the humans on the screen, "That is what the humans call a Spartan. One of them can cut through our troops like an energy sword through flesh. With half our troops gone to combat the human ship, we stand no chance."
As the crew realized what Blay'de was saying, they turned and rushed for the ship bays.
Soon, the bridge was empty except for one Elite. Blay'de. He looked again at the security feed, then turned and walked out the doors. But Blay'de wasn't leaving for the docking bays to look for escape.
Blay'de had work to do.
Tim's group had found an excellent spot for the bomb. It was one of the enormous docking bays lining the side of the Super Carrier, fortunately with all of the Covenant ships absent. They had left to fight the Pillar of Autumn. Once the bomb was placed, the group would only have to run several yards to get out of the ship.
Of course, it was extremely unusual for the group to have met barely any Covenant troops on their way around the ship. What few they had had put up barely any fight.
But it was their job to blow up the Carrier, not worry about where the troops had gone.
"Let's plant the bomb, boys," said Tim.
"I know what I'm supposed to do, Mr. Supersolider," growled Ajax, but he set down the bomb and began keying in the code to start its timer.
Bradshaw stood aside, gun up, covering the entrances to the room.
Suddenly, he saw something blue flicker at the edge of his vision, and turned to look. Then he wished he hadn't.
An Elite in blue and gold Field Marshal armor rushed towards him. Even by Elite standards, this one would be considered massive, but the worst part was the energy swords; one in each hand.
"Look out!" yelled Bradshaw, and began to fire.
Ajax and Tim looked up just in time to see the Elite slice Bradshaw's assault rifle in half, then pivot and kick him so hard he flew out the vast bay door.
Ajax finished keying in the code to start the two minute timer and grabbed for his DMR, only to have the Elites foot come down on it.
Ajax looked up in time to see the Elite draw back for its right energy sword, preparing for a fatal blow. Then the time bomb hit it in the head. The Elite was bowled over by the heavy explosive, down for the count.
Tim and Ajax ran to the still open bay door, ready to follow Bradshaw. Ajax jumped first, but as Tim was about to follow, a glowing plasma grenade flew past, after Ajax.
Tim's eyes followed the grenade as its static charge attracted it to Ajax. The grenade connected with Ajax's boot, and then exploded, killing him instantly.
Before Tim could do anything, one of the Elites energy swords hit him in the back.
With a small gasp for air, he slid to the floor, looking down as the glowing blue plasma blade was drawn from his body. The Elite walked around and crouched down in front of him.
"Do not expect to be long alone in whatever afterlife you believe in, human. The rest of your race will soon follow!" said Elite the in grating English.
The Elite removed Tim's jetpack, and fitted it on. Then it turned and jumped out the bay door after Ajax and Bradshaw.
Tim curled up on the floor, alone in his own world of pain.
He looked around for the bomb, and his eyes settled on it just in time to see the timer reach zero.
There was a roar, and everything flashed white, then faded.