Disclaimer: I don't own halo or any other TV show or book mentioned in this story
Chapter 11: endgame part 1
Fred was with John, Kelly, Linda and Cortana on their way to the shuttle bay. John said he'd been working on a plan on how they were going to get to ONI HQ.
"So what have you been cooking up?" said Fred.
"You'll see" replied John.
They arrived outside the door to the shuttlebay "you're going to love this" said john as the doors opened they walked into one of the three alcoves in the back of the bay. Fred was surprised to find a pelican dropship, but there was something different about it. The pelican's usual armor had been replaced with a silver colored metal.
"Well, what do you think?" said John.
"First where did you get it? And second, what's that stuff on the hull?" said Linda.
"We salvaged it off the forward unto dawn. Along with some other equipment before we came back to our universe" said Cortana.
"I asked the Chief engineer to refit the pelican with some armor alloys from his universe" said John "and prepare a few other things." He led them over to a table and on it were 5 MA5C assault rifles, 5 B55s and 3 M7s and Linda's sniper rifle.
"I don't get it" said Fred.
"Maybe I can explain" said Chief Collins who came over from the pelican. "We installed a micro replicator in the bottom of the magazine. It will replicate a new round every time you fire off one".
"Essentially, its infinite ammo" said john.
"Now that, I like" said Linda picking up her rifle. "Hey there's some new vision modes" she said looking down her oracle scope. Fred and Kelly each hefted one of the MA5Cs, when the ammo counter was activated, it displayed the symbol for infinity.
"Nice touch" Kelly said.
"You should check out the pelican" said John as he led the Spartans over to the dropship. "The engines have been replaced by Starfleet ones. And they put in an inertia damping system, so we'll be able to handle high velocities".
"We're going to need all that speed to break through the defense perimeter" said Cortana.
They looked inside and were surprised to find all the Spartan IIIs working inside it.
"Hey el-tee" said Ash as he ran out to join the Spartans. "the Master Chief asked for our help on his plan. He told us not to tell you, wanted it to be a surprise".
"Well you did good, petty officer" Fred replied.
"Thank you, sir"
Just then the captain's voice came in over the intercom "red alert, all hands to battle stations. We'll be arriving at earth in one hour".
"Blue team, prepare to move out" ordered Fred.
Keyes was on the bridge of the odyssey looking out over Earth. The odyssey had flown ahead of the Gettysburg and was observing the UNSC forces under cloak. Colonel Mitchell got up from his seat and walked over to the commander.
"Nervous?" he asked.
"You could say that. It just, this is the first ship I've commanded since I came back".
"Relax, you'll do fine said Mitchell "this ship has been in worse situations. It'll get the job done".
"Thanks" she replied
"Cam, the Gettysburg will be arriving in a few minutes. we need to get down to the hanger" Carter said from behind him.
"Well commander, you're in command" said Mitchell as he left the bridge. Miranda walked over to the command chair and sat down. She had to admit this was cool, she was commanding the most advanced ship she ever saw, besides the Gettysburg.
"Ma'am" said major Marks "the phantoms are standing by in the hangar"
"Good, we'll launch them as soon as the Gettysburg arrives"
She looked out of the view port at the fleet of UNSC ships. There were 55 destroyers, frigates and cruisers. More than enough firepower to decimate both ships, but with a little luck they might survive this whole mess.
"Ma'am" said the female lieutenant on her right "the Gettysburg is dropping out of warp".
"This is it" she said to herself "major, sound battle stations and prepare to decloak the ship".
--
Anderson was on the bridge of the Gettysburg, they were all anxious about the maneuver they just pulled off. Dropping out of warp close to a planet was dangerous, but it was the only way to avoid the fleet and to catch them off guard.
"Report?" asked Anderson.
"Sir, it looks like we pulled it off, but the fleet is coming about".
Alright, fire the low yield torpedoes. Set for proximity detonation. Lets see if we can shake them up a bit.
"Aye, sir" said Baker who was once again running tactical.
Commander Adams watched from his frigate as the torpedoes left the Gettysburg and detonated in-between several ships, his included.
"Report?" he asked as his ship shook violently.
"Sir, no significant damage reported and the same goes for the fleet".
Adams was wondering why they didn't destroy them, they had the firepower.
"Sir, new contact, unknown classification"
"What!"
He watched as the new ship shimmered in and began firing blue beams of energy at the fleet. But their strikes didn't destroy the ships
"what's it doing?"
"Sir, the targeted ships appeared to have lost main systems. The same thing appears to be happening to the ships the Gettysburg fires on".
"We still have to stop them. Arm missile pods A5 through B3 and get a solution for the MAC gun".
The odyssey and Gettysburg had disabled 11 ships and the opening salvo of torpedoes had damaged 2 others. But now the Gettysburg was avoiding missiles and getting skimmed by MAC slugs.
"Shields at 92 percent" reported ops.
The captain taped a button on his arm panel. "Chief, you have a go".
--
"Aye, sir" said the Chief, standing in the pelican's cockpit. Cortana was at the helm. "Take us out".
"You got it" Cortana said as she fired the pelican's new impulse engines. It darted out of the bay, passed through the shields and headed for Earth.
"Its amazing we're not pulling any gees" said Kelly in the troop compartment.
"Well don't get used to nice feelings. We're going right into the thick of it, get ready" Fred ordered. And with that, blue team got up and checked their weapons.
"We're one minute away" said Cortana from the cockpit.
"Well that was fast" said Ash as he donned his parasail. Their plan was two split up blue team into two squads. The Spartan IIIs would use parasols to insert on the roof and the Spartan IIs would go in the front door.
"This is it" said Fred as he hit the control panel and popped the hatch "go!".
Ash and his squad jumped from the pelican and began their free fall.
"Alright, on three, open your chutes then head for the roof on the north wing" Tom ordered.
Ash winked his acknowledgment light green.
"Ok, one… two… three"
Ash tugged his cord and his chute opened. He looked around and saw four other chutes
"ok, let's head for the roof".
--
"Hang on!" said Cortana as she pulled some evasive maneuvers in order to avoid some SAMs fired from ONI HQ. John was in the seat behind her and he activated the pelican's two missile pods, targeted the SAM sites and the main power lines. "Here goes". He pressed the trigger. All of the pelican's Anvil-II missiles streaked away and struck their targets.
"direct hit" he said "ok Cortana, take us down".
"aye, aye" she said as she brought the pelican down and landed in an outer parking lot "
"Ok let go" said John as he and Cortana got out of their seats and grabed their weapons and joined Kelly, Linda and Fred who were waiting outside.
"lets end this once and for all" said John as they began walking toward the concrete gate.
--
Dr. Hyer was in the science labs at ONI analyzing the specimine that the frigate midway brought back. It looked like some kind of spider, comprised of blocks made from an unknown alloy. They had isolated it in a transparent box and it was energized with an eletrical field. He had been told that it actually tried to escape, and the field had stoped it.
"Well you're an interesting one" he said looking at it and just then main power cut out.
"Oh hell" said Hyer as he fumbled around in the darkness. Then emergency power kicked in and then lights came back on. But when he looked back at the spider it was gone and there was a hole in the box. It looked like the glass had been melted. "where is it?" he said to himself. And then he got his answer as it droped from the celing, onto his face and sprayed him with the same caustic substance.
"AHHHHH!" he screamed as he fell backward, but his hand hit the alarm button on the console.
--
Timothy and his team were on their way upstairs to the roof. They had detected 5 signals heading for the roof and his squad was sent to intercept them. Just then he got the report of the alarm in the lab complexes.
"Continue to the roof" he ordered as went down two floors and emerged into a coridor. But the walls looked like they had been chewed away by something. Then sudenenly, he herd this weird metal clanking sound comeing from all around
"Be advised" he transmeited on the ONI frequency "lab coplex has been comprimised by unknown force". He looked up to see several replicators on the celing. He fired his assault rifle at them and managed to destroy a few, but they just kept coming. Two of them jumped on to his back and they swarmed over him.
--
Ash was still in his decent when he saw movement on the roof.
"Phasers" he called out to his teamates, they pulled out their hand phasers and turned on the widebeam mode. They fired, covering the entire roof with a stun field. Then landed only seconds later They shed their chutes and policed the other spartan's weapons. Ash reconized them as Tim's squad, but where was Tim?
"Ash, lets go" said Tom he ran over to the door and they went down the stairwell but Ash stoped when he reached the door to the lab level.
"Hang on Tom. I'm going to check something out"
He got a green acknowledgment light, he walked into the coridor and immedately noticed the walls. But when he looked down he saw an assault rifle lying on the ground surrounded by spent shell casings. He herd a sound coming from down the hall so he went to investigate. Ash walked into a large lab and that's when he saw a replicator on one of the tables. He took it out with no difficulty but when he turned to leave he saw Tim standing in the doorway, but there was somethind wrong with him. His helmet was missing and his face seemed swolen on one side. His SPI armor was also torn up. Ash soon discovered the cause, two replicators were imbedded in his back, their legs implanted in Tim's skull.
"What the hell" he said.
--
"DOWN" Fred screamed as a grenade detonated over their heads. The spartans dived behind a concrete barrrier. They were almost to the doors when ODSTs began pouring out guns blazing.
"There's too many of them" screamed linda. Then they saw a line of scorpion battletanks rolling down the road they just came from.
"What now?" said Kelly.
Then they herd it, that strange sound. And they looked up to see some kind of ship materalizing in mid air. The spartans didn't know what to make of it. It looked like some kind of carrier but it had engines on either side that pointed down.
"Its some kind of atmospheric carrier" said Cortana. Then a loud voice came from the carrier, the speaker had a british accent.
"Attention all ONI forces. This is the UNIT carrier valiant, throw down your weapons now!"
The solders continued firing but the scorpions turned their turrets upward.
"Well have it your way" came a familiar voice. Then a bright green beam left the valient, hit the scorpions and obliterated them.
"Nice save" cried Fred.
"You ready?" asked John.
They all flashed their acknowledgment lights.
"Ok, let's go" said john as he and the other Spartans hopped over the barrier and charged at the ODSTs.