Chapter Ten:
September 2533. Covenant Cruiser 'Fleet of Dawn'
The Ship Master of Fleet of Dawn, Elme 'Rugutee, saw the human ship plummet to the moon's surface below and had a slight grin on his face. Now his ship has perfectly placed above the human's ship and he could have glassed these barbarians from the orbit. Unfortunately he is not here to kill them, at least not yet. Few months back when he learned that the hierachs have made a mistake, rather a fatal, foolish mistake (according to Elme 'Rugutee) he started this quest to hunt this particular Human ship.
In a vain attempt to destroy these humans the Prophet of Regret himself had ordered a stealth mission in which he had planted a parasite in hands of one of his Sangheili. "Fools, damn fools," Elme screamed when he came to knew about this wretched news. Letting a parasite lose not only put the humans in danger (which he least cared about) but also put every single organic living being in the universe in danger and most of all it threatened the 'Great Journey.' This very Flood killed their Gods, how could the hierarch be so naïve?
Ever since then he and his hand-picked crew has been in search of this sole human ship. It has been eight months since he has started the search, which almost looked futile and heresy in the eyes of many, but he is glad that he has made it. And the fight back from the humans was a positive sign for the Ship Master, that all was not lost. But even he was taken aback by the fall of the human ship to one single Plasma hit from his Cruiser.
He wanted to capture the leader of that vessel and had to make an inquiry to make sure this sole ship had ever made any stops in any planets or anyone has gotten off board in this last thirty months of its disappearance. Because when he started this search he was certain this was a futile attempt, because the ship would have reached any one of their human colonies, but finding it still adrift in the space made Elme more concerned than ever. Once he made sure about this so called 'Spirit of Fire' ship's status and then he would serve justice to these barbarians.
Just as he was watching the human ship crash to the moon's dark side the bridge's doors drew apart and his second in command Sangheili, Elch 'Jarusee, entered and bowed before his Ship Master.
"What is it Elch?" Elme asked as he turned toward an Ultra Sangheili.
"We have intruders, Ship Master," Elch 'Jarusee said still with his head bowed down to the Zealot Sangheili.
"Those sneaky bastards!" Elme exclaimed as he slammed his iron fist on his throne making the nearby Unggoys to quiver in fear as they slowly retreated into the darker part of the bridge. "Rise and send in the Mgalekgolos to silence the threat."
"Yes Master," the Ultra replied as he turned around to carry out his order, but he was stopped by Zealot.
"Our price is down there," Elme said as he pointed to the Human's ship on the moon surface. "Send in our warrior Sangheilis to the human ship to capture its leader. I don't want them to bring any one here to my ship. They could be infected with the Parasite. Let the interrogation happen in their ship itself before I bring down my wrath upon them."
"I understand Ship Master," the Ultra replied as he walked out the bridge but he had other plans.
The hunters open fired at the Spartans with their massive green plasma cannons. The Spartans ducked out of the way barely, but the impact of the cannon shots made them to be thrown aside unceremoniously, taking away half of their shields. This little commotion gave away their position to the Seraph fighters nearby as they instantaneously open fired at the Spartans. Alice and Douglas sprinted to a nearby cover as Jerome sprinted the other way. At first they had to divide this mighty Hunters and divide the attention of the Seraph fighters. Anything together was dangerous, separate them and then you will get your opening you were looking for, and that was the current strategy of the Red team.
Jerome pumped a shot at a nearby Hunter's exposed region, its midsection, causing to ooze out dirty orange substances which started to wriggle around like massive earth worms on the floor. Which was soon crushed to pieces as the Hunter advanced toward Jerome as it raised its Cannon arm one more time. But the Spartan didn't give any time for the Hunter to react as he dashed forward toward the monster's left side, but with one swift movement, the Hunter swung its left massive shield arm at the oncoming Spartan, which once again flung the Spartan to the nearby wall with a great thud and it also took away another chunk of his Shield.
Alice and Douglas were chased by the other Hunter who kept firing its Cannon at the sprinting Spartans, but it missed all its shot because the Spartans were dodging and running reflexively, which made them a very hard target to hit. The seraph fighters had hard time to get a clear shot at the three armored humans, since their shots were always blocked by the Hunters or Spartans made sure of that. Either way the Elites growled in rage and waited impatiently to finish of these human rats if the Mgalekgolos failed.
As the Spartans were busy with the hunters they failed to notice as the door opened up and four Elites in camouflaged armors walked out. The elites took one glance at the Humans and kept walking to a dropship nearby as if they were least bothered about this petty fight. The drop ship took off and exited as the two Seraph fighters were ordered to follow the drop ship. Jerome just had a glance as these three ships exit the hangar bay and he immediately knew they were heading to the Spirit of Fire. And he knew he had very little time now; he had to act fast. Since the Seraph fighters were out of the picture (which was a very big blessing to the Spartans), the Red team had only these two Hunters to deal with. But just like that another pair of Hunters came out and joined the fight. And Jerome knew that his team's luck was running out very soon.
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