Disclaimer: I don't own halo or any other TV show or videogame mentioned in this story
Chapter 10: crossroads
July 8, 2555
Location: Batlestar Pegasus in orbit of forerunner world
The phantom dropship cycled through the hangar bay airlock and was brought down to the bay. When Fred popped the hatch there was an older man dressed in an unfamiliar uniform waiting for them.
"I'm Colonel Jack Fisk XO of the Pegasus, now if you'll follow me admiral Cain is waiting for you in CIC"
Fred and his group followed Fisk until they reached a set of glass doors which swung open. They Spartans were just barely able to fit between them in their MJOLNIR armor, inside the control center moist of the crew stared at them with a look of surprise on their faces until they saw a brown haired woman looking at them with cold eyes.
"Which one of you is Lieutenant Frederick" she said
"That would be me ma'am" said Fred
"Good, I'm admiral Cain now your captain asked me to fill you in on our situation, those covenant out there are being handled by the ark angel, the Gettysburg and the Daedalus but as for us we'll be taking care of some other company we're going to be having, now may I be introduced to the rest of your team"
"Of course admiral these are petty officers Kelly, Linda, Tom and Lucy and captains blaze and nagase of the Osean air force" said Fred
"Air force, you mean you're pilots" said a blond haired woman dressed in some kind of space suit
"That's right" said blaze
"Admiral if I may, we're short on pilots" said the blond haired woman
"If they can fly a viper" Cain replied
"I'm a quick study" said blaze
"Let's hope so young man" said Cain "they're yours if you want them Thrace"
"Thanks admiral, so are you up for it" Thrace asked them
July 8, 2555
Location: order flagship on surface of forerunner world
John continued his acceleration toward the dreadnought on the grav lift with the nuke attached to his thigh. John could also see a white energy beam running from the tower to the dreadnought; he didn't have time to speculate as he arrived onboard the ship. The layout of this ship was practically identical to truth's dreadnought so john had a fair idea about where he was going hopefully he would be able to plant the nuke and get off the ship before it blows; john knew he probably wouldn't make it off. He made his way through the ship trying to find the engine room until he came upon a large chamber and in it he found a sphere suspended in the middle of the room and inside it was the same murky white energy he saw running to the ship.
"Must be important" John said as he removed the nuke and set it down in front of the sphere. He flipped open the front of the small device and pressed then he punched in a five minute countdown
"My god the arrogance of what your about to do" said a voice from behind him
John spun around and standing behind him was an'lok and surrounding him was team katana
"Do you like my bodyguards" he said "they should prove a formidable challenge"
"Why don't you come over here and find out for yourself" john snapped back
"All in good time" said an'lok as team katana rushed john who tried to take them down with his assault rifle only to have the weapons wrenched out of his hands by a member of katana. He couldn't grab his sidearm in time so he quickly went hand to hand with them and he tried not to injure them too severely. One of the Spartans jumped on his back and tried to grab hold of his head so he could try and break his neck but john was quicker, he slammed himself into a wall with all his strength and the Spartan loosened his grip and crumpled to the floor. He turned his attention to the other four who were charging at him and went into action by running at them and hitting one dead center in the chest, he could hear bone breaking as he pulled away the ripped out his sidearm and pointed it at an'lok but before he could pull the trigger he was hit by a powerful force and sent slamming into the wall. He looked up to see a brute leveling a gravity hammer at his head.
"Should I kill this one" said the brute I would very much enjoy the chance to kill a demon
"No I have plans for him, but first" and to john's horror he went over and disabled the nuke with a wave of his hand "take him" an'lok commanded to the three members of team katana still standing. They moved over and picked up the chief then began carrying him away, an'lok turned to the brute.
"Is the last of our troops aboard" he asked him
"Yes all of them including the parasite"
"Good then we may leave, but first" he typed in a few commands into his hand device and the dreadnought's engines fire and the ship began to rocket skyward and just as it cleared the atmosphere an explosion went off that consumed the entire city
July 8, 2555
Location: Batlestar Pegasus in orbit of forerunner world
"Admiral we've got three new contacts on DRADIS they're cylons" said fisk
"Very well alert gun crews and get a targeting solution" said Cain as she picked up the phone "launch all remaining squadrons she commanded". On the hangar deck, blaze and nagase had just been fitted with colonial flight suits and captain Thrace was showing blaze and nagase the cockpit of a viper
"It looks a lot like those hawk training jets that pops had" said nagase
"So you could fly it" said Thrace
"Just watch us" said blaze
"I like your style" said Thrace
Suddenly they herd Cain's orders and Thrace went into action
"Ok let's get these birds in the air" said Thrace as she went to her own viper "and my call sign is starbuck, I'll see you outside blaze"
"Likewise" blaze replied as he donned his helmet and climbed into his viper and shut the hatch. Nagase was already in the tube and blaze watched as his viper was brought over to her hatch and he watched close
"Wish me luck" she said over the radio as blaze her a thundering sound and the door opened and his viper was pushed in. the ground crews evacuated the tube and the inner door shut then the outer door opened and blaze looked down the launch tube then the viper rocketed forward and was propelled out into space
"WOW" said blaze as he got his first taste of piloting a true space fighter
"You done playing around" said edge as she came up beside him
"Just about" he replied as he turned with nagase toward the three ships that had just appeared and were spewing hundreds of fighters
"Let's go" said starbuck who appeared beside the two
Meanwhile on the Gettysburg things were not going as well as they tried to contend with the covenant ships but the order ships kept blocking their weapons fire
"Why don't they return fire" said Cheney who had assumed his station after just getting back
"Our scans indicate their weapons should be functional" said baker
The only one having any success was the ark angel with its MAC slugs but it couldn't hold out forever
"Keyes to Gettysburg we can't take down all those covenant ships and our new shields weren't designed to take this kind of pounding"
"Understood captain" Anderson replied "we're going to plan B, commander send the message"
"On it baker" replied
"Wait what's plan B" said Keyes
"You'll see Anderson" out
Keyes sat in her chair wondering what the hell he was talking about when she got her answer
"Captain I've got two new contacts, they just appeared inside the covenant fleet"
"Get me a visual" she ordered and on the main screen an image of the two ships appeared as they shimmered into existence. One of them was small with a bulky design but its hull was the same color as the Gettysburg and written on one of the bulges was
NCC- 74205
USS Defiant
"Defiant huh" said Keyes as she looked at the other ship; it bore a strong resemblance to a bird and was mostly green in color. Both ships began to attack the covenant fleet, the defiant fired some kind of rapid fire pulse weapon at the covenant ships which tore through their shields and into their hull while the other ship used a green pulse weapon that emitted from its wing tips which was equally effective against the covenant
"Sir Pegasus is signaling, they've engaged cylon baseships" said Falkland
"Ok let's see if we can take down one of those smaller forerunner ships" said Keyes "release safeties on the sparrow missiles and fire then get a solution for the MAC guns"
There was a chorus of yes ma'am form the bridge crew
The ark angel launched two full pods of sparrow missiles against one of the corvettes which all impacted in a little blasts of white light chipping away at the shields until two white hot MAC slugs slammed into the small ship gutting it. Unfortunately that pissed off the other order ships because several moments later three ships opened fire on the Gettysburg, Daedalus and the ark angel with blue energy beams that drained the shields of all three vessels severely.
"Report" said Keyes as sparks shot out from consoles on the bridge
"Ma'am shields are nearly gone and MAC controls are down"
"Then warm up the plasma turrets" she ordered
The ark angel accelerated toward the covenant and unleashed two blasts of blue plasma at a covenant carrier both of them cut through the covenant carrier like a scalpel and gutted the ship in a matter of minutes then suddenly the covenant fleet began accelerating away and into slipspace then another dreadnought came up from the surface joined the remaining ships and left with them as well
"Why the hell would they run" said Keyes
"It's possible they got what they came for" said Falkland "and I have received a message from the Pegasus saying they are taking fire from the cylons and are requesting assistance"
"Ok have any surviving vipers and longswords get over there and see if the Daedalus can give them a hand"
Blaze was continuing his attack against a slippery cylon raider who avoided his missiles until starbuck had told him to use his guns which most of the colonial pilots and even the cylons favored yes he said as the raider was consumed in a fireball from his gun fire but suddenly he found himself in the sights of a heavy raider who peppered him with bullets. Blaze continued frantic evasive maneuvers until a missile streaked past him and struck the heavy raider behind him. Blaze looked to see who had fired and saw a wedge shaped fighter heading for him, it quickly pulled off a tight turn and pulled alongside his fighter. Blaze looked inside the cockpit and saw another person wearing a flight helmet just like the one he wore back in osea
"This is lieutenant colonel john Sheppard to the viper, you all right" he asked
"I'm fine and the names blaze by the way"
"Nice to meet you" Sheppard replied as the pair turned back to the main battle
"Blaze this is edge I've got a problem over here"
"I'm coming, I'll see you around Sheppard" said blaze as he broke off and accelerated to edge position. When he met up with her and starbuck he found them chasing down a very large missile
"Don't waste your ammo" said edge "we already tried"
"Well we need to think of something fast" said starbuck "that thing is carrying nukes, a lot of them"
"Blaze to Sheppard do you think you could give us a hand"
"I can't but the Daedalus can stand by" he replied and suddenly several high speed projectiles whizzed by and one hit the missile tearing a gash in it then the fire stopped
"Sheppard what happened" blaze asked
"Daedalus had to redirect too much of its defensive fire to hit the missile, their shields are taking a pounding from the larger ships"
Blaze looked at the missile which was moving erratically then at the gash in its hull, he was out of missiles and the way it was moving her couldn't get a clean lock with the guns so that left which left him only one option so he accelerated toward the missile. Nagase saw his and guessed what he was going to do
"Blaze don't" she screamed
"Kei I'm sor…" but he never finished as there was a white flash and both he and the missile disappeared in a fireball. Nagase was devastated she didn't want to believe what she just saw, it was like she was running on autopilot when she landed on the Pegasus and was brought down to the hangar. Waiting for her was blue team when she climbed out of the viper but she stumbled on the step ladder and fell the rest of the way and came crashing to the ground. She didn't want to get up but she felt a pair of hands help her up on her knees the she took off her helmet and looked up at who had helped her. It was one of the Spartans kneeling down at her but she couldn't distinguish them in their armor then she herd a male voice and she assumed it was Fred.
"Nagase I'm so sorry about him" he said, Fred saw her reaching for her sidearm and he grabbed her arm and pinned it against the viper "what the hell are you thinking" he said
"Let me go" she replied
"No, don't you know what you're doing" said Fred
"I can't live without him just let me do it" she replied
"Well are you done balling you eyes out over your boyfriend" said Admiral Cain who just arrived "because I don't need a bunch of emotional babies on my ship"
'Admiral!" snapped Kelly
"We loose good people every day now she shouldn't have gotten attached to him because she knew this was coming that it would eventually happen so she had better move on, and I came to tell you the city on the surface has apparently been destroyed" said Cain
Suddenly they all felt a sense of vertigo along with some severe anxiety then it was over
What was that said Kelly as she felt a bit dizzy
That was our FTL jump system, we're going back to our fleet and your ships are going to meet us there in about 5 hours said Cain as she walked away
"Fred just let me do it, I can't go home now I've got no one now", she finally broke down in tears and she leaned against Fred's shoulder
"You still have us" he said trying to offer her some comfort come on he said as he helped her on her feet and brought her over to Kelly "look after her" he said as he handed her over.
"Fred what are you going to do" Kelly asked
"I'm going to have a talk with Cain he said as he left them there, he got directions from a marine guard and arrived outside her quarters. Fred barged right in and found Cain being held at gunpoint by a woman dressed in the same close as some of the enlisted personnel he'd seen. The woman turned her gun on him and fired a round which pinged off his shields the Fred reacted by pulling his sidearm and putting three rounds in her chest before she could turn her gun back on the admiral. Cain retrieved her weapon from the table and walked over to where she lay and put two rounds in her head.
"Who the hell was that" Fred asked
"A bad memory" said Cain in a cold voice
July 8, 2555
Location: order flagship in slipspace
John awoke to find himself still in his MJOLNIR armor but he wasn't able to move, he looked at his arms and they were bound by some energy field
"Good you're awake" said an'lok who appeared in his cell, john however didn't respond.
"I see you're the stubborn type but you will be broken of that soon enough" an'lok replied as he left him