Bells rung as the ship lurched violently against the volley of missiles. The lights in the hallways flicked rapidly and some just stopped working all together.
Shipmen, Marines and even some Freelancers stumbled around in a daze, not fully understanding what was happening. A number of fires blazed in the ships walkways, fire crews desperately trying to put them out with mediocre fire extinguishers.
Multiple people tried to get out of their rooms, the doors were jammed and there was nothing they could do, except one.
The room marked with '117' held the most annoyed and frustrated Spartan, and when a Spartan is frustrated, things tended to go 'Boom!', a clang resounded in the area. The door crumpled and out came John, in full Mjolnir armour.
Surveying the destruction, John quickly searched the nearby quarters for trapped people, fortunately his extended hearing allowed him to hear above the chaos. There seemed to be someone trapped in the room opposite to his.
"Stand clear!" he yelled. He then shoulder-charged the door and like his room, crumpled the door. Out stumbled a very dazed Maryland, her black hair frazzled by the unexpected wake up. John peeked inside the room to find another agent, Alaska, lying unconscious on the floor, with a head wound slowly dripping.
John picked up Alaska and Maryland (who was surprised by his sudden action) and sprinted away from the crew quarters to the nearest safe zone.
After a couple of twists and turns through the fires and confused people, he made it to the medical bay, which looked relatively untouched by the conflict. He laid both on the hospital beds before leaving to find other trapped occupants.
"F.I.L.S.S, what the hell has happened!" the Director yelled in an alarmed tone. The bridge crew were furious in their efforts, trying guide the 'Mother of Invention' away from the other ship.
"Director I believe the enemy has used 'Javelin Missiles' in order to cause havoc amongst the ship," she explain calmly, "also most of our ships systems are being electronically hacked by the enemies AI, a number of door systems have locked, preventing essential crew from helping out".
The Director buried his head in his hands, wondering how they would survive from this mess.
"Due the efforts of Sierra-117; however, crew members are being freed from their quarters and ushered to the main medical bay." The Director slowly lifted his head in amazement at the news. The soldier was saving his ass in the ship.
"Moreover, some Freelancers who were freed are now assisting him in rescuing trapped crew". The Director's face brightened up.
"F.I.L.S.S, get me a firing solution on that frigate," the Director said, "and add a little oomph, would you kindly."
The AI spoke in a cheery voice, "most certainly, Director". The sound of whirring machinery signified the powering up of the MAC. The Director turned to a loitering ensign.
"Send an announcement for any available Freelancers and Spartan 117 to report immediately to the command centre," he commanded firmly. The ensign nodded his head quickly and hastily created a radio network.
John had just finished opening up the 'Recreation' room when the comms went off.
'All available freelancers and Spartan 117, please report to the command centre immediately, all jobs will be handled remaining marines or engineers'.
Well that is certainly interesting, John thought. He wasted no time getting to the bridge; a couple of recently suited up freelancers followed him. When they had gotten to the bridge, the Director literally tossed them a piece of equipment each.
"The main point of this call up, was for you Freelancers and Spartan to land on the planet, whilst the ship stays in orbit to finish the fight," he spoke, "those pieces of equipment are vision enhancers to help you fight in the blizzard on the planet".
The holo-table quickly lit up, but flickered dodgily. The 3d projection showed the use of insertion pods, with them smashing into the main enemy encampment.
"There is no time for me to explain, you know your objective," as if to emphasis on his point, the ship jostled and groaned.
John and the other five freelancers nodded and sprinted out the command centre. They ran to the Orbital Insertion Bay, just seconds from the launch window. Hopping into a pod each, they didn't have time to buckle before they were shot out of the ship.
"Holy crap!" a freelancer screamed into the comms, it was obvious he had never done a drop before and was freaking out at the sight of the height.
"Relax," Carolina instructed, "take a deep breath and look at the screens, it'll be all over in a few minutes". The countdown for touchdown began.
"Squad, sound off!", Carolina commanded.
"Agent Washington, standing by".
"Wyoming here".
"Michigan, standing by".
"Spartan-117, Standing by".
"Growl". Chief raised an eyebrow at the growl but didn't comment. Orange hot fire glowed on the outside of the insertion vehicles making a beautiful but scary display of nature as they fell deeper into the planets atmosphere. The pods broke through the clouds to reveal the artic battlefield and a downed destroyer off to the side.
"Deploy airbrakes," Carolina commanded. Almost simultaneously, all the pods opened their airbrakes and rapidly decreased their velocity. The ground quickly approached the squad, and fighting could be seen in the distance.
"Hitting ground in 5…4…3…2…1…," John's pod smacked into the ground, the door exploded open, "go, go, go!"
John aimed down the DMR and shot rebel soldiers left and right, occasionally engaging in CQC without much effort, he was a demon on the field and he seemed unstoppable.
The other freelancers picked them off with their long ranged weapons, with the exception of Maine, who decided to follow John's lead and charge into the line of fire. 'Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang'. The sharp sound of weapons firing filled the air until the last rebel dropped to the ground.
"You're a devil mate," Wyoming said, the other Freelancers seemed to agree with nodding heads.
"If it helps you, I was also known as a demon," John replied nonchalantly. Carolina seemed to scoff at that, although she wouldn't admit he scared her.
"Alright let's move on to the real battle," Carolina said. The freelancers replied with a yes ma'am.
John activated the vision enhancement and the others also activated it; instantly the world changed to something similar to an x-ray.
The squad headed towards the downed destroyer's location and found a sprawling firefight between surviving UNSC marines, ill equipped to fight in the snowy conditions and the oppressive insurrectionist's in full snow gear.
John turned to the team, "pick positions on the cliffs and cover yourselves in snow, then start picking off main rebel attackers, I'll be going up close and personal". He then tossed away the DMR, empty of ammunition and pull out his knife.
The squad looked at each and shrugged, they took positions on the cliff and aimed down at the winning rebels. John sneaked behind one and stabbed him in the chest, then turned to the next and soon the rebels were losing the men at a fast rate.
"Where hell is Gatle and Hatle squad?" the rebel commander said. His answer was in the form of the giant Spartan assassinating another fighter.
"Fire!" Carolina said, instantly the Freelancers fired their weapons at the mass of rebels, killing and severely injuring most of them.
What looked like a Rebel victory turned into an insurrectionist massacre; the rebels retreated and the squad picked off stragglers until dozens of bodies littered the ground. A UNSC marine poked his head out of the door.
"Are they gone?" he said, suddenly shocked to find so many dead bodies on the snow.
"Shit, what happened!" another marine exclaimed. The soldiers gasped at the sudden victory.
"We did, marines".
The marines trained their firearms at the squad, who just stepped out of their hidden spots and down the cliffs, John was at the front, crouched and wiping his knife onto the snow.
"Where is your commanding officer," Carolina asked. The marines looked at each other before one spoke up.
"He's at the communications trying to send a beacon for a rescue," he spoke timidly. The Freelancers looked at each other.
"Well, this is what he got, ole chap" Wyoming said.
"Can you take us to him?" Carolina asked. The timid marine nodded and beckoned them to follow him; they complied and soon were inside the ship.
The insides had been twisted, crumpled and ripped to shreds with some parts still 'intact'.
"I'm surprised the majority survived the crash," Michigan commented, "it looks like the ship was tossed into a lumberjack's workshop and came out screwed like this".
Further along the way, marines, shipman and engineers lined the hallways, most on the ground injured or chatting to one another about civilian life.
They finally made it to a bent door frame marked with the words 'Command Centre' in barely legible writing. A short man with a standard Captain's uniform stood over the communications table attempting to start up a radio transmission.
"Damn this stupid hardware, could never last in a small fire, much less a crash landing!" he yelled.
"Sir, we have rescuers," the marine said. The Captain jerked his head in that direction and a bewildered expression came upon him. Then it changed to surprise and happiness.
"How…," the man was speechless, a gaping mouth wide enough for several things to fit into. John took the initiative.
"Spartan-117 from the UNSC Mother of Invention, Director Church came to your aid as quick as possible". The man nodded still dazed; he pulled out a small communications microphone and tapped it.
"This is Captain Jeckle, all crew, return to ship and load onto remaining pelicans, we're leaving this ass freezing place".
A soft beep in John's helmet signalled a communication line being activated. "Have you finished your objective?" the Director asked.
"Yes, Sir. What is your status?" John replied.
"We drove them off but have sustained some hull damage, the Invention will have to go back to Reach for repairs".
"We will load up on a pelican then, see you on board sir," John said. The line cut and everyone headed to the hangars. What joy the Captain had was replaced with a crestfallen expression. The place was a mess of vehicles and parts. Only a few pelicans were in the right position to fly.
"Guess we're going to have to make do with what we got," Jeckle said grimly, "Load up on the remaining pelicans and have them ferry groups of people…"
The sound of metal screeching interrupted him, everyone turned and in amazement watched John flip a pelican the right way round.
"You were saying?" John spoke. The squad and everyone were gobsmacked by this impressive feat. Jeckle then just shook his head, a grin graced his cold lips.
"Belay that order and just get people in," he chuckled.
John with the help of Maine, flipped all the pelicans the right way round and after further inspection, only four pelicans were too severely damaged to fly, the others were ready to fly.
The team boarded one pelican. Chief headed to the piloting chair and started the engines. Soon they were off to the Mother of invention
A man sat in his leather chair sipping a glass of whiskey, he was a wanted man, yet here, he was as free as a bird. The room was recently emptied of all officers of the insurrection. A beep from a comm-pad interrupted his relaxing mood. He tapped the receive function.
"What is it?" he spoke.
"News sir, important news, there is a new enemy from Project Freelancer," the man frowned at the news, "It was 2.13 meters tall and clad in similar armour to the agents, it killed twenty of our soldiers in a single fight,".
The man's eyes widened, very important news indeed.
"See to it you bring me more information on this soldier, we will have a problem if this continues," he replied before cutting the communications.
The man got out of his chair and looked outside his window, a sprawling city inside the asteroid spanned the entire glass and further, hundreds and thousands of people lived here, all for one purpose.
To defy the UNSC. If he couldn't keep up the attacks, the populace would come up against him and insurrectionist's loyal to him.
He tapped a button on the comm-pad. Instantly an aide came inside silently. He looked at the young messenger.
"Find me spy master Hein, I need his informative on the Mother of Invention active".
To my Loyal readers,
I will not be able to post new chapters on the december holidays Due to my laptop being taken for maintenance. I will however try to release one more chapter or the beginning of my new story.