[01800 hours, July 21st 2554 (Military Calendar)/ Scutum-Centaurus Arm, Salvation Colony]
The fleet gated out to find a graveyard of torn apart ships, floating bodies and Sangheili hulks listing in the void. Some were still venting atmosphere, sparks popping from wiring, though all were definitely not combat worthy.
"Ma'am" Dare's sensor officer said quietly as she walked over to his station and saw the wide arc of the enemy fleet near the planet. She could see the blips as they moved, turning around to engage the new threat that 5th fleet had now become.
"All crew to battle stations, I repeat, all crew to battle stations, this is not a drill" Cortana's voice sounded off over the intercom. Marines scrambled to their positions for any boarding attempts, with others boarding pelicans for launch towards the planet. The whole fight was going to be both in space, in the air, and on the ground at the same time, there would be no waiting for any space superiority. They couldn't let the enemy gain control of the beacon.
Elena suited up quickly in the changing room with the rest of her squadron as Sarah handed her her helmet. She thanked the blonde Captain and walked briskly to her fighter. Ezekiel had each Black Blade fully equipped for combating Precursor fighters, with everything they knew that could hurt them. As Elena stepped up the side and into the cockpit, Ezekiel came up to it and leaned in.
"We have supply rearmament caches ready to jettison when ready, just give the word lass. Captain Dare has all hangars set as ordinance points, so doesn't matter which one you use if you're close. The rest of the fleet is following suit, and it doesn't matter which ship the pilot is from, they get rearmed" he told her. She nodded and polarized her helmet.
"See you when I get back" she told him quietly as he nodded and stepped down as the cockpit closed and the platform slowly moved, the stairs removed from the side and all fighters were loaded into their mag rails. Elena's heart was almost in her throat. She had never been afraid of any combat situation, however this time they were practically on a suicide mission.
"Shuttle plates locked, blast panel up. Flaps and stabs good. Raven 1-1 clear" Elena said over the coms to the CIC.
"Copy that, engines prime, rail in 3, 2, 1" CIC replied, and she felt the fighter launch her out of the ship along with the rest of the fighters.
"All fighters clean launch, engines green, we're clear" Elena told them as she already had a target list in the distance coming for them.
"Pelicans are ready, just need a hole" Farrah said over coms.
"Echo 2-1-2 out and about" Jack said.
"RVs on point, doing what we can" Seth told them.
Everyone in Raven squadron now knew that they couldn't rely on Seth and the other Remote Viewers to protect them, and needed to rely on their own skills and training to survive. Three Precursor fighter icons suddenly disappeared in the distance. Seth and the others were already hard at work as they set off ordinance, overloaded systems and generally threw monkey wrenches into their equipment. They were invisible gremlins from hell, and she was grateful for them being there.
"Light 1-2 coming in for blitz run" Elena heard over the coms as a GRID corvette moved with the fighters, designed specifically for fast multiple strikes against enemy small craft. A hail of missiles, auto cannon fire, and point defense lasers erupted from the corvette straight at the distant targets, building a wall of ordinance to slow or destroy some advancing fighters. In the far distance, they could see the hulks of the enemy ships. Eight cruisers, seven destroyers, and one other, much larger than the cruisers. They all somehow knew it was a battleship.
[Music: Two Steps From Hell – Freedom Fighters]
The Precursor fighters broke formation and sprayed beam fire towards them, as each UNSC squadron broke their own formation and headed after their targets.
"Engage, engage, engage!" Elena ordered as the fighters traded ordinance and beam fire. Elena shot after two quickly, firing a salvo of micro missiles and two penetrators as she instinctively already aimed at the other with her particle cannons. It felt so much better to be in a fighter than a pelican now for her. Two Sabres exploded nearby, but the UNSC gained revenge quickly with another four being destroyed by Sarah and Aldric working in tandem, with Sarah's fighter firing in almost all directions with her turrets on the rear. Aurora and her squadron were frontloading their damage as fast as they could, using their increased shields and armor to protect the more fragile Sabres now.
The dog fight was one massive fur ball, with targets moving by each other constantly and stray cannon fire striking shields of friendlies in some situations. Both Light 1-2 and another corvette had to retreat after massive damage to their hull, though each took down a good twenty fighters. The rest of the fleet moved forward as the Precursor ships headed towards them.
Four fighters merged together and shot towards Elena, with one opening up immediately. She knew it would hit, and struck her shields before she could even react. The shields flared bright as they lowered by fifty percent, as she rolled to make her a thinner target and flipped behind another fighter. There was no cover in space, and so they had to use what they saw to keep from being taken out, even if it meant trading one hostile firing at her for another that didn't actually have a good lock on her.
Two torpedoes flew by, striking a nearby Sabre and blowing it apart.
"I'm hit! I'm hit!" Jacobs yelled as she saw in the distance two fighters closing on him. His shields were down and there was a small amount of damage to his wing, but he was still fighting and running.
Suddenly, a nearby Sabre flew right in front of Jacob's fighter when another volley of beams struck out from the enemy craft, and tore off part of its left wing, dropping its shield quickly.
"Fucking hell! No!" Jacobs gawked in horror as it was one of the new pilots.
"Losing control! It was fucking worth it!" the pilot yelled out as he blew his cockpit and abandoned the damaged fighter. The Precursors tried to finish him off, but two other Sabres and one of Eagle squadron intercepted.
"Son of a bitch, the nuggets are willing to lose everything to win… gotta show some respect to that…" Merricks said as Falken came over his right shoulder and sprayed her Vulcans at a fighter he had just dropped the shields of.
"We need to make sure that doesn't happen Captain, now move your ass" Falken said sternly but without annoyance, her order acknowledged as they both shot after Precursor fighters trying to flank the new wing.
Out in the distance, a volley of beams shot out from the capital ships the Precursors used, and struck against multiple UNSC forces in space. Six fighters were cleaved in half by the weapons, and multiple UNSC ships warned of damage.
"Shields are a goner, trying to bring them back up!" Dare's officers told her as the ship was rocked by enemy fire.
"Breach on deck fourteen! Sealing the area!" another officer told her.
"Christ, they're cutting us apart…" Dare growled behind gritted teeth.
"Half the wings are already gone ma'am!" Dariah told her from her station.
"But we've done our damage too. The Precursor craft have been dropped to ninety. That's one hundred kills" Aldric said over the coms.
"That means nothing if they finish us off. We can't retreat. We have to move forward" Dare growled. The carriers were not supposed to directly engage the enemy, but at the position they were at in the void, they were easy pickings without trying to keep something between them.
"All pelicans are heading down fast, make a break for it boys!" Jack yelled over the coms as a hail of pelican transports shot towards the planet. Some were blown apart by anti-air from below, others were struck by enemy fighters trying to intercept them. Two of the Precursor cruisers suddenly exploded.
"Oh, so that's what that button does" Aaron suddenly said.
"Yeah, told you" Seth said as he moved to another ship to activate its self-destruct.
"Can I get some help out here? You guys are having fun blowing ships up while I'm out here stopping fighters from being manhandled" Thelma growled.
"Less return fire means we ARE helping" Seth told her.
"The fighters need to be thinned!" Thelma yelled at him.
"I know! Shit! The explosions are taking out some of them along the way! Two birds with one stone! We thought this through ok?" Seth snapped at her. The RVs were getting grouchy with the quick maneuvers they had to pull to save lives.
"Seth, are you going to-" Dr. Montez started to say.
"I dunno yet ok? If I do that, and another fleet pops in that's larger, we're fucked. I can't fragment just yet, gimme a chance to assess" Seth told him over the coms.
"Seth, I'm going to work on damaging their communications with their fighters, hang on" Serina told him as she sent out multiple access pings to the Precursor fighters. Cortana and Tachi were in the background holding the door open while Serina stopped them mid movement or activated thrusters to slam them into each other. She couldn't stop them completely because the control signals were hardwired to repeat faster than she could stop the orders, but she could send spare signals to change direction suddenly, temporarily drop shields, lose lock ons etc.
Precursor craft shot by the Conundrum as Cherry opened up with the auto turrets mounted along the hull of the ship. Laser fire and Archer missiles were striking against both fighters and ships alike, not caring who they hit.
"This is insane! We just lost four frigates!" one officer said to Dare.
"We can't do this without help…" Dare grumbled. Elena's squadron was having a hard time controlling the enemy fighters with over half their own destroyed.
"We can't keep doing this…" Elena heard Sarah whisper quietly, and she knew she was losing her nerve.
"God damn it… alright! Alright I'm fucking popping now!" Seth growled.
"Prep for a pacemaker change" Dr. Montez told Jenny and she nodded as Seth fragmented his mind and condensed the energy around his pod.
"Clear near the enemy fleet all fighters! Damage coming in!" Seth barked with an echoing voice.
"Whoa… that's new…" Elena whispered to herself. Seth had only done it twice in the past, once being the test. She had never heard the change in his voice when he fragmented his mind.
Suddenly, what looked like portals appeared outside of the enemy ships, and what came out was nothing short of incredible. Blasts of energy shot out in a shotgun pattern next to the ships, blasting through their shields and damaging the armor severely. It looked like god himself was firing a hail of energy and wrath towards the enemy.
"Fuck yes!" Jacobs cheered as everyone watched the ensuing ethereal carnage.
"Energy still peaked Seth, you're still good" Dr. Montez told him.
Seth produced a very small nova explosion in the middle of the enemy fleet along with Aaron and Thelma both shielding the UNSC forces.
"All eight cruisers down! Five destroyers gone! Just the battleship and two destroyers! All fighters are bugging out!" the sensors officer said as Dariah swapped through wing channels.
"All fighters returning, I can't believe this is happening…" she reported in surprise. Seth was scrapping the ships quickly, and they had no idea where the attacks were coming from. The battleship retreated through a portal as did the last two destroyers. The enemy had been defeated, but at a heavy cost.
"Damage report" Dare ordered and a list showed up on a glitching screen. Six decks had been breached, with no boarding parties. The drives were damaged, but they had made it out easy compared to the rest of the fleet. Over half the fleet's fighters were gone, along with eight frigates, four cruisers… and Admiral Merin's carrier.
"God damn it…" Dare growled as she slammed her fist into a station wall, as Dariah watched her being angry. They had lost the Admiral. The ship was listing with escape pods already launched before, what few got out. The carrier had been carved into pieces, with the bridge targeted it seemed at the beginning. The enemy had analyzed their ships just as much as the UNSC had done to them. They were learning.
"Maybe she made it off" Dariah told her.
"No… she didn't…" Dare growled and looked at the list of vitals for critical officers throughout the fleet. Admiral Merins had unknown to the rest of the crew been sucked into the vacuum of space as the carrier had been gutted. The list was small, and only privy to the commanding officers of the UNSC ships in the event the chain of command was damaged.
"Then that leaves… General Corrington and General Gripen…" Dariah whispered in shock.
"Get those fighters planet side, those pelicans need air support" Dare told her. She acknowledged as the battle was far from over with the enemy fleet no longer functioning.
"Seth, you still have ample energy, are you going down?" Dr. Montez asked.
"Yes. Going to do what I can to stop any Precursor entrenchment" Seth told him.
"Seth, we gotta head back, Thelma isn't feeling so good so she's low on energy, and I'm kind of dropping too" Aaron told him.
"No worries, get some rest, and thanks" he replied back.
"They've connected multiple times Seth, we don't have much time" Serina told him as she fended off multiple access attempts from Precursor AIs at the signal beacon. They were frustrating her severely as each time she took apart one AI, it would turn out to be a copy, similar to Cortana's cloning program.
"If I fuck up down there, I could bring the whole tunnel system down on the rines Serina. I have to be careful" Seth told her.
"I know that, but if you're going to do something, do it now, preferably working from the back forward" she told him. He sighed and acknowledged, and got to work while the ground forces poured out of their pelicans and worked their way to retake the tunnels.
[Meanwhile]
Firepower was heavy from the tunnels as the marines and ODSTs took cover, rail fire flying with spurts of plasma. Scattered 7th fleet forces came to regroup quickly as did elites lost on the ground, but it was extremely difficult to fight.
John charged and rolled behind a rock as the nearby ground exploded in charred bits of rubble and glass. His shields had taken exactly one hit before failing from their attacks, and he knew immediately that even Spartans would have great difficulty against these monstrous Precursor soldiers. Humans were so small compared to the ancient enemy, but their weapons could hurt them, albeit slowly and once they had whittled down their personal defenses.
"These bastards keep taking out our vehicles, they don't have enough maneuverability or defense to keep away from those hits!" Ash said over the coms as he sprayed his entire clip towards a Precursor soldier. The shields flared repeatedly before it turned and fired at him, and he ducked behind his cover that was being torn apart. He would have to move very soon.
"We can't use rockets or grenades in there because it could collapse the tunnels" Fred told them as a sniper round flew over his shoulder from Linda and struck a Precursor dead on in the forehead. The shields flared and its head snapped back a tiny bit, before it returned fire.
Mickey rushed a warthog straight by with Dutch on the gun firing wildly with the gauss cannon. It was the only thing that was doing enough damage to the enemy defenses and not causing damage to the nearby tunnel, though once they entered it would be moot with the thunderous CRACKs the weapon would produce. The sound the gauss cannon made didn't really shake the tunnel, but the amplified sound would literally make any marines permanently deaf. Even the Precursor soldiers were swapping weapons to more energy based instead of their rail guns.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" Buck yelled as he fired his assault rifle at a Precursor who had charged his hiding spot, and actually got it to back off as he had blinded it with continuous bullet strikes at its eyes. He shot by quick with a pack of C20, slapped it to the side of the Precursor, and ran as fast as he could while hitting the trigger. The shields flared for a second before the ancient alien exploded, and the remainder collapsed.
"Ah yeah! Yes! That's how you- oh shit…" Buck cheered before ducking behind more cover near Kelly. She was firing her shotgun over and over, constantly reloading due to the magazine tube. The entire force was moving excruciatingly slowly, and advancing mere inches through the tunnel every few minutes.
"Cortana, have they accessed the systems yet?" John asked.
"Not yet, Serina is keeping them at bay, but they may figure out how to… oh no! They've sealed out inbound communication for the beacon! She can't hold them off any longer!" Cortana told him with urgency in her voice.
"We can barely make it through the first tunnel! There are how many miles below the surface we need to head through?" Tom commented.
"All Precursors are gone from the installation room" Seth warned them.
"Thank god. What about the beacon?" Buck asked.
"Can't figure it out, need an AI to reconnect. We'll worry about that once we have these guys out of here"Seth told him.
"Any help would be appreciated, or this whole fight is gonna take days" Kelly responded.
"Doing what I can" Seth told them.
Out of nowhere, everyone's HUD lit up with target markers from the tunnels, shield frequencies, weapon listings, all barricades. Seth had marked all of the enemy forces, and began firing smaller bursts of energy nearby along with placing his own shield behind to keep over-penetration from damaging the tunnel.
"You're doing good Seth, things are moving along" Dr. Montez said as the senior remote viewer created his own shields for the marines to hide behind and advance. He soon realized defense was the best offense, as the UNSC forces could barely move forward without his help. Offense on his part seemed pointless, as there was still hostile fire flying towards friendlies. Less lives lost was always a victory, especially considering the enemy no longer controlled the beacon behind them. They could always retreat back to the room and try and fiddle with the beacon, but he wouldn't allow it, and kept a watchful eye on any runners.
"Energy is still peaked, though it is shrinking" Serina told him as the large energy ball around the pod started to diminish.
"More than likely it's bleeding off due to time as well as usage" Dr. Montez explained as he went over data.
"Why would it just bleed off?" Jenny asked.
"Too much being contained I would take a gander could fray his nervous system over long periods of time. I would guess if he held onto it that the dizziness and nausea would increase, as well as muscle spasms, digestive system degeneration, just to name a few problems. I'd need to see the effects to get a more accurate read out on what his condition would be" Dr. Montez explained.
"Let's hope the effects don't come to fruition" Jenny told him with worry.
"I hope so too" Montez replied and looked at Seth's pod.
Seth recharged Fred's shields multiple times as a Precursor caught him trying to make a run to new cover, his old rock now rubble and a smoking crater. Fred had been knocked around by the shots, but his shields kept going back up to full with the invisible friend watching out for him. Linda had gotten a ricochet on the same target four times with Seth bouncing the round and curving it without friction slowing it down, finally killing the alien soldier.
The battle was brutal, with firepower traded every inch, as even with Seth's help and his careful defense, marines were still dying. His work became more frantic and stressful as he kept up large shields for the marines to work behind, drag wounded friendlies, and call for medics. The wounded were far too few compared to the dead due to the hideous damage the alien weapons did. Even the elites would be deformed from a few hits once the shields went down compared to the plasma weaponry the UNSC and Sangheili forces were used to.
"Seth, status?" Dr. Montez asked.
"Currently? Halfway, but I've got a problem" Seth told him as he felt dizzy.
"We're noticing. Your vitals are spiking, you need to dump the excess energy now and come out" Dr. Montez told him.
"The marines need all the help they can get, I can't leave now" he replied.
"Don't make us emergency drop you. Get rid of that energy and get out now" Jenny growled. The energy ball around the pod had shrunk to a fourth of what it had started as, and suddenly disappeared as Seth sighed audibly and agreed.
Before he left, however, he activated the control room's security shielding and damaged the external systems to deactivate it. He'd be the only one who could take the shields down from the inside with no chance of the Precursors attempting to hole up as a last line of defense. It also cornered the Precursors and stopped them from trying to retreat to an area they couldn't get into.
Seth sighed and seemed somewhat satisfied with the shields up that the Precursors were no longer an immediate threat to humanity, he left the troops to fend for themselves and came back to his body.
[Meanwhile]
Elena suddenly heard the panicking voices of the marines as they acknowledged the defenses Seth had been producing for them inside the tunnels disappear. The UNSC forces would have a much slower time, and with much more casualties.
"What's the status down there?" she requested through the coms.
"The shields just disappeared! We're back to scrambling now! Whoever was watching out for us just abandoned the fight!" a marine reported.
"What the hell?" she whispered and shot back towards the Conundrum. She wanted answers. Seth wouldn't just leave them to rot, he needed a good reason to back off from protecting those soldiers. She landed with ease and got out of her cockpit, tossing her helmet to Ezekiel and telling him to rearm her fighter as she headed towards the 2nd R&D lab.
As she got through the DECON, she noticed Seth wasn't in the pod, but lying on a medical bed… shaking.
"Heart rate has spiked, his pupils are dilated, Seth, I need you to keep this in your mouth" Dr. Montez said as the nurses rushed around. Jenny pushed a mouth guard between his lips to keep him from biting his own tongue.
"What's going on?" Elena asked as she ran forward but was blocked by a nurse.
"Ma'am, we need to work, we're doing everything we can, you need to stay calm" he told her as she leaned her head around to see Seth. He was shaking uncontrollably on the bed with an IV in his arm and warm blankets covering him. Diodes were attached to his forehead along with small band aides slapped all over his arms and legs.
"We need to get him to the medical ward, and prepped for surgery once this goes away" Dr. Montez explained as they slowly wheeled him towards the DECON. Elena saw Seth look at her with worry as his eyes kept darting around, trying to keep a lock on her with the impaired vision he was suffering from.
Elena darted around the nurse quickly before he could block her again and grabbed his right hand, holding it carefully. He gripped her tightly, almost crushing her smaller fingers in his own as he couldn't control his muscles.
"Seth, can you feel anything?" Jenny asked as they headed towards the medical ward.
"I-I'm r-really n-numb… I c-can't f-f-feel much…" he mumbled out.
"That's not the pod, his nerves must be screwed up from the overlap" Jenny told Dr. Montez and he nodded.
"Let's hope it's temporary" he replied as Elena looked confused.
"Overlap? What? What's going on?" Elena asked.
"We'll explain once this has been taken care of, right now he needs immediate medical attention" Montez told her as they reached the ward and entered the surgery room. The nurses lifted Seth off the wheeled medical table and onto the surgery platform, replacing the old blankets with newer ones from a heating shelf. Jenny pushed a medical hypo to his arm and then took a syringe filled with a bluish fluid and pushed it into the IV tube.
"Elena, we need you to stay out here" Dr. Montez said as he pushed her out of the surgery room.
"What? I need to be with him!" she growled as if insulted.
"You're no good in there, you need to stay out of the way, we'll take care of him, trust me. See to the battle, he had to leave a lot of men and women down there with no back up wondering what just happened" he told her and shut the doors. Elena was standing there with her mouth open as if to say something, but nothing came out. She looked around, not seeing anyone else nearby in the small hallway inside the medical ward, and took a deep breath.
She walked down the hallway and back towards her hangar, hoping to order Ezekiel to change her load out to any drone packages or maneuverable missiles. She needed to do what she could to pick up where Seth left off, though she was trying to fill shoes that were easily far too large for her without creating shields, recharging Spartan shields, and stopping Precursors from seeing marines moving by blinding them.
As she got to the hangar and gave Ezekiel new instructions, she opened up a small refrigerator and gulped down a bottle of water to stay hydrated as well as chewed on a protein bar.
"Ma'am, is everything alright in there? Things are a little hectic downwind" Aurora said over Elena's earpiece.
"Things are… nevermind. You said hectic, how?" Elena replied.
"Some of the tunnels are unstable now, and ground forces are having difficulty advancing without the terrain working against them as well. We've got the anti-air under control right now, but there are kill teams on the ground trying to attack us from forests. Each time we round-about they move to a new location" Aurora reported. Elena closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. A small headache was building and she did not want it while she was flying.
"Alright. I'm heading back down once rearmament is complete, drone packages, I'll go hunt them down. Assist the tunnel forces wherever possible, and keep the anti-air from picking off pelicans. Gripen out" Elena told her and cut coms. The entire battle had turned from a suicide mission to a battle of shear attrition, with the entire fight looking like it would take more than a day to complete.
"Serina" Elena whispered into her coms.
"I'm here, and no I still don't have a connection. I can tell you that he turned on the shielding defenses to keep anyone out of the station until he came back, that much Tachi explained to him" Serina piped up over her earpiece.
"How is he?" Elena said quietly.
"He's just had the pacemaker removed, they're checking his leads as we speak and attaching a new one. His condition has improved from critical to serious and he is no longer shaking, though still nauseous. He's having time-distortion issues due to his nervous system calming down" Serina explained. Elena let out a stuttered sigh as she closed her eyes, worried sick about Seth.
"He'll be fine Elena, he's been through worse" Serina told her softly.
"It doesn't make me worry any less for him. What did he do to have that happen? And why didn't he start doing what he was doing at the beginning? He could have saved a lot of lives-" Elena asked.
"What he did to stop the loss of more lives and cause that amount of damage was intentionally fragment his own mind to produce more energy than he should have. That was the reason he was able to do what he did, but as you can see, there are side effects. This is the third time he has done this, the previous two times were a test, and providing a medical treatment to your loss of movement" Serina told her. Elena opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, expecting to see Serina in some form.
"What? This is how he repaired my spine?" she asked.
"Yes, and each time he does it, it drains the battery of the pacemaker and causes nausea, dizziness, potential hallucinations… the list might go on, as we still don't know all the side effects that go with the significant power increase he has."
Elena felt so sorry for her soon to be husband. She admitted she was a bit annoyed that he hadn't started using this new ability immediately to save lives, but now that she knew it was an ability that wasn't fully understood and could hurt him, all of the annoyance went away and was replaced with worry.
"Lass, load out is complete. You're good to go" Ezekiel said as he came up behind her. She turned around and took her helmet from him and nodded.
"Time to go hunting. Don't wait up for me" she told him and he nodded. The mission she had just placed on herself would take some time as everyone else was devoted to retaking the tunnels. She had to make sure there were no threats coming from behind to attack the marines.
"Ma'am, new information" an engineer said as he jogged up to them. He pointed to a nearby com terminal and Elena nodded. She walked over to it and turned it on. Dare was on the other end.
"General, I just got updates on the rest of the fleet. General Corrington is in critical condition but alive, and giving active command over the fleet to you" Dare explained. Elena was shocked. Her mission was already scrubbed.
"I'm about to head down to the surface to handle kill teams hiding in the surrounding area damn it… Christ…" Elena growled and took a deep breath.
"I apologize ma'am, but that can't happen. You're needed up here" Dare told her. She was the only flag officer now with Corrington severely injured, and she didn't know how to work the fleet. She could handle fighters easily, but she had no idea how to control frigates or battleships when a fight broke out.
"Alright, alright, damn it…" Elena grumbled and ran her fingers through her bangs. Just then, she heard over coms that Aurora was coming back up for a rearmament.
"Colonel Shrike, report to the Conundrum for rearmament" Elena said over the coms.
"Ma'am, the ordinance for the Falcata is on the Infinity. Is there a problem?" Aurora asked confused.
"That's an order Colonel. I'll explain when you get here" Elena told her. Aurora acknowledged and deviated her trajectory towards the carrier.
"I know what you're going to ask her" Ezekiel said with his arms crossed over his chest.
"And what might that be?" she asked him.
"You're going to let her fly your fighter down there to finish the mission you can't right now lass" Ezekiel responded. Elena nodded slowly and looked up at her craft. She didn't like anyone else playing with it, but it was a vital mission and she needed to assist in getting the fleet under control.
Aurora landed quickly and got out of her fighter, and then headed down to the hangar that Elena was in. As she walked in and took her helmet off, she looked between Ezekiel and Elena and saluted the General.
"Ma'am, Colonel Shrike reporting as ordered" Aurora said and stood at attention.
"At ease. You're going on a vital mission in my stead… and in my fighter" Elena told her. Aurora turned and looked at Elena, confused.
"Ma'am?" she asked wondering what was going on.
"You heard me correctly. She's already geared up for the sortie, you just need to go down and complete it. You're hunting kill teams hiding in the terrain that may attempt to flank our troops retaking the tunnels. You'll be using drones. Stay frosty and keep out of direct combat, as you won't be equipped for long term dog fights or attacking anti-air" Elena explained to her.
"But ma'am-" Aurora started to object.
"Is there a problem with my orders Colonel?" Elena asked sternly. She didn't need to tell the blonde woman that she didn't like the idea either of someone else using her fighter. Pilots got attached to their fighters, they even named them and disliked when someone else would do anything beyond maintenance.
"No ma'am, I'll get right to it ma'am" Aurora said and stood at attention again.
"Good. I need to head to the bridge and figure this mess out. As you probably now know, Admiral Merins is dead, and Corrington is not fit to command in the medical ward on his ship. Good luck" Elena told her and Aurora saluted and walked towards Elena's fighter. She put her helmet on as Elena watched and walked up the stairs to the cockpit, and then hesitantly got inside and looked at the General.
"Take care of her Colonel, I'd like to have her back in the same condition she's going out" Elena told her quietly. Aurora nodded.
"I'll bring it back without a scratch ma'am. Is my Falcata being rearmed?" Aurora asked her.
"It is Colonel, it will be ready when you get back" Elena told her. Aurora nodded again and looked around, and then closed the cockpit as she remembered the button configuration deviated slightly from her own. Both fighters had a similar layout of controls, although the Black Blade was in fact more advanced due to the active camouflage and photo cell panels equipped.
Elena watched as the fighter was loaded onto the mag rail and the blast doors closed.
"Raven 1-1 changing callsign to Eagle 1-1. Ready for burn" Aurora said over the coms.
"What the…" Aldric whispered. Sarah and the others were confused as well.
"Don't ask Commander, I have orders" Aurora told him.
"Copy that. Alright I'm acting command of Raven Squadron" Aldric said over the coms to the rest of the team.
"Eagle 1-1 you are clear for burn" CIC said, and she launched quickly and headed down towards the planet.
"Ma'am?" Aldric asked over the coms.
"You heard her Commander, do not ask. This was my choice" Elena told him.
"Understood ma'am. Raven 4-1 out" Aldric told her and cut coms. Elena growled under her breath and looked at Ezekiel. He wondered if he did anything wrong, but she shook her head and stormed out of the hangar towards the bridge.
[0600 hours, July 22nd 2554 (Military Calendar)/ Scutum-Centaurus Arm, Salvation Colony]
Seth slowly woke up on the medical bed, and looked around. Elena was sitting next to him with a data pad in her lap, her left hand holding his right. She looked up at him and squeezed his hand comfortingly.
"How are you feeling?" she asked quietly.
"I'm alive, that's a good sign" he said groggily and looked at his shoulder. There was a bandage covering an area just under his left collar bone, along with a small IV inserted into his arm.
"Oh shit, sorry, I didn't… I mean, how is everyone do-" he started and she brought her hand to his mouth to calm him down.
"They're still fighting, though they're pretty much in clean up mode right now. You left them in a bit of a bind, but they made do with everything happening. Don't worry" she cooed to him and squeezed his hand gently. He squeezed back as he looked at her. She looked exhausted, with new grey strands streaking through her silky black hair. Being a General was wearing on her.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Oh six" she told him. He brought his other hand up to his forehead and rubbed it a bit.
"Have you gotten any sleep?" he asked her. She shook her head.
"Admiral Merins is dead, and Corrington is in critical condition. I'm the highest rank available to get things under control" she told him. He looked surprised and looked around the room for a second as if someone would give him an answer to a question that wasn't asked of him, before looking back at her.
"How are you holding up?" he asked and rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand.
"Better, now that you're awake and no longer having your nervous system failing. Dr. Montez did some tests. You're heart rate shot to over 600 suddenly during the use of your new… ability" she told him. He winced as he knew she had found out.
"Yeah… I had been meaning to explain what was going on…" he started but trailed off.
"I got the gist of it from the doctor and Serina. I understand that this needs to be a last resort as well. I know… I know that it's not going to stop you from doing it again, but please be careful ok? At first I thought the assistance you were providing was great, and was a bit angry that you hadn't started doing it immediately to save half the wings out there, but now that I know it does this to you…" she trailed off and held his hand clasped between both of hers.
"We knew the death toll would be high hon. I didn't start off with my heavy hitter because we still didn't know all of the side effects… 600 huh? Without the pacemaker working?" he asked. She nodded.
"One of the problems with my heart is if it reaches such a high bpm, unlike most people who would have their heart simply fall apart or explode, the signals get mixed up and suddenly make my heart flat line after overworking itself. The pacemaker stops me from having that happen. Since the battery was drained, well… you know what could have happened" he explained to her.
"It's hard to believe your heart can reach that speed, I thought the maximum was 200" she told him.
"Aaron has actually exceeded me once with the record of 680, but he was hospitalized for a month while they repaired the tissue around his heart" he chuckled and looked up at her. She wasn't amused.
"Sorry, didn't mean to… well… sorry" he told her and she nodded.
Elena sat there for a minute in silence as Seth looked at the ceiling.
"How's the fleet look beyond you being the highest rank?" Seth suddenly asked.
"Half of it is gone, and what's left won't last another engagement. We're also stuck here until a supply fleet can come and bring new drives, and then install them. We're working on repairs, I just hope there aren't any other fleets coming to finish us off. We're limping at best, crawling away from a licking at worst. We've already put out an emergency call for any other fleets, but it'll be two days before they get here" she told him quietly. Seth sighed and closed his eyes thinking.
"No asteroid fields to position mines, no spare moons to sling shot around to surprise, damaged ships, I'm in a medical bed, ground troops are still fighting to retake key location, enemy has significant firepower" Seth whispered as he opened his eyes again and looked at the ceiling.
"That's what I just said" Elena spoke to him confused.
"Just bullet pointing each thing that's happening, I do it all the time to find a solution hon. I'm speaking to myself" he chuckled and smiled, and it lightened the mood.
"I'm not marrying someone that needs a psyche eval am I?" Elena chuckled and returned the smile.
"We all have to be a little crazy to do what we do" he replied. She leaned in and kissed him tenderly.
"I should get back to the pod and keep watch on the surr-" Seth started to tell her and she placed a finger over his mouth.
"Not a chance. You need to rest, you can scout later. Dr. Montez said you weren't up to snuff yet until he gets a physical out of you, and he won't be up until this afternoon, like me. He's been assisting with incoming wounded the entire night, and I've been getting casualty lists from the rest of the fleet" she told him and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. They were burning and her eyelids were falling, and she knew she had to get some sleep.
Seth grabbed Elena and gently pulled her into the small medical bed next to him.
"I still have god knows how many reports to read through and damage details to oversee Seth, I can't-" she started and he put his finger over her lips.
"A good officer knows when they can make a difference with their work and when their efforts will do more harm than good. You're halfway to collapsing in exhaustion, you've got how many kills from those fighters, and everyone is going to need you at your best if the shit hits the fan later to lead them" he told her as he caressed her cheek. She sighed and nodded.
"Asshole" she mumbled.
"I love you too hon" he replied with a giggle. She smirked and gave him a peck on the cheek, and then leaned her head against his right shoulder. She was out like a light in under a minute. Seth, on the other hand, just laid there looking at her sleep, running ways of getting everyone out of the situation they were in through his head. Half of the fleet was wiped out; the other half was damaged; thousands of troops were dead planet side and the rest were still fighting for their lives retaking the beacon. The control room was still sealed off, and he was the only one that could open it since there was no outside access now, so that provided him some measure of relief.
Seth looked off at the ceiling and thought of the troops down below, still fighting. Once the Precursors realized they had lost control of the situation, they would try and find a way to either go through other tunnels to escape and regroup in the forests and mountains, or fight to the death. From what he had seen, they cut and ran often enough when things seemed hopeless. What he also knew, was in any ground engagement with little contact with the ships above that special operations always kept an emergency signal of some sort. He hoped they didn't have one, or another fleet was going to be on its way to finish off the crippled fleet and ground forces they had.
[Meanwhile]
[Music: Epic Score – Hercules' Test]
"Three, Two, One" Buck whispered and the Rookie nodded. Both of them popped from their cover just as Kelly and Ash shot from their hidey hole and threw a satchel of flashbangs rigged to explode one after another near the enemy positions. All of their visors were pre-set to handle the blinding lights, but they doubted the enemy was ready for the attack.
The Precursors threw up their arms to shield their eyes as round after round from assault rifles and SMGs sprayed them, dropping their shields slowly as the enemy fired wildly to repel the enemy they couldn't see, the one that was smaller than them. Some of the Precursors tried to back off and run, but they ended up ramming into each other or into the walls of the tunnel, while the Spartans concentrated their fire on each target as the ODSTs and marines kept the remainder occupied.
"Nine down; that makes what, a gazillion?" Buck asked as the firefight died down and the UNSC forces slowly advanced to the next area of the tunnel system.
"Hell, I lost count how many we've taken out" Ash commented. The Rookie shrugged at his commanding officer and Buck looked at the rest of his team. Mickey had taken some plasma fire to his leg armor but he could still walk, though his skin was more than likely burned to a crisp under. A medic was tending to him while Milo set up sensors along the tunnels to attempt to keep an eye on seismic activity as well as enemy retreat patterns. He couldn't do his main job which was artillery spotter inside the tunnels, so he resorted to providing assistance to the techs with scanners and keeping track of enemy movement when not providing suppression fire.
Fred had been beaten heavily by a Precursor soldier and was being tended to by another medic. Linda had dropped her sniper rifle and resorted to a BR-55 due to low ammo. Pelicans were still being shot at from the surrounding terrain, though Eagle 1-1 and a few other fighters were assisting with hunter killer actions against the stealthed kill teams hiding outside.
"One last area, then we take the flanking tunnels" John told everyone as they reloaded fresh clips into their weapons and nodded.
"God it'll feel good once these bastards are gone…" Dutch grumbled. Everyone agreed. They were all worked to the bone in fending off the enemy and gaining a foothold in the tunnels for the past few hours, taking shifts with other marines to fall back, eat, sleep for an hour or rest, and then get back up and fight again. None of them could stop to actually relax; there was no telling what would happen if they slowed down. All of the food they were eating was dried or MREs, and their water supply was slowly being replenished by arriving pelicans. The ammunition crates were a god send when Linda shot towards the last transport and opened the boxes, only to find no sniper rounds.
"Coming on the next trip; don't worry" Jack told her and she nodded to him behind her golden visor. As they removed all the supply crates, medics pushed wounded soldiers into the pelicans and stacked them along the walls with the seats in an upright position, allowing thirty wounded and four medics to come up each round the pelicans took.
"This is nuts…" Milo whispered and Jack took him aside and patted his son on the shoulders.
"Hey, just do what you can, follow your orders, and you'll be fine ok? They're tough, but they aren't invincible" Jack told him.
"You sound like some sergeant I once knew" Milo chuckled.
"Which sergeant?" Jack asked as his eyebrows furrowed.
"Some Master Sergeant, what's his name… Johnson" Milo told him. Jack chuckled. John looked in their direction, clearly hearing the Corporal name his deceased friend.
"Well I'm a Lieutenant, but what do I know about ground combat right? Just keep your head screwed on tight" he told him. Jack brought his hand up to his son's head and patted him gently on the helmet. Milo nodded and smiled, and then walked off to grab more ammunition for his SMG and M6C.
Once the wounded were finished being loaded, Jack lifted his pelican off and headed back up.
"Alright, one more push, then we can actually rest a bit" Buck told them as the marines gathered their ammo and headed back to their posts. The Precursors were just around the corner and further down. They were evacuating, and didn't want to keep their position now that they knew the control room was lost until a second fleet could come. Everyone hoped that was never going to happen, though hope didn't matter with the bad luck they seemed to be having that day.