It's back to the fight for the Spartan's. Enjoy.
(CHAPTER 25) THE PITT
A large formation of Pelican drop ships and Longsword Fighters were flying towards the ruins of Eclipse. The deserted city sat lifeless and in shambles as the formation flew overhead towards the Drill Ship. Eric stood in the cockpit of the Pelican he and Devon were riding in. He looked out at the war torn city ahead as they approached. Towering skyscrapers stood half destroyed with jagged steel beams twisting out from their structures. Below was a sea of abandoned vehicles and items left from when the citizens of Aurora evacuated. The sight was eerie to say the least.
"We're about thirty five minutes out." The pilot said. "Feel free to relax for a while if you want." Eric nodded and headed for the cabin area of the Pelican. He saw Devon sitting with his helmet off and making adjustments to his sniper rifle. He adjusted one of the sight knobs on the rifles large scope then lifted the weapon up to firing position to check the settings. Devon lowered the weapon and said, "The Covenant likes to dig big ass holes, I like to shoot big ass guns." Eric sat down on the seat opposite to Devon. He motioned up to the weapon that was attached to a rack above his seat. Devon looked and saw a Shotgun. He grinned and said, "You love those things don't you?" Eric replied, "I prefer the up close and personal approach." Devon fed a fresh clip into his rifle and said, "That's good, seeing as how you can't snipe worth a damn." Eric cracked a smile. "I just don't want to make you look bad when we're out there is all."
A small screen mounted to the front of the Pelican's interior flashed on. General Smith appeared on the monitor. "It's good to see you two suited up and ready for combat." Eric and Devon stood and saluted. "As ready as we'll ever be General." Devon replied. "Good to hear." Smith said. "Stand by for orders."
A computer generated image of the drill site appeared on the monitor. It did a panoramic view while text and measurements of the area flashed across the screen. Smith continued. "As you are well aware, the Covenant is after something deep below the surface. We are currently sending in large waves of strike teams to scatter their air support giving you two room to get down there and get to whatever it is that they want first." The image changed and showed dimensions of the hole the ship drilled into the planet's surface. "As you can see, you have a long way down. This hole is 1.2 miles across by 6.3 miles deep. We still don't have any Intel as to what's at the bottom which is why I need you two to report into me as soon as you reach the bottom. Now that the solar eclipse has passed and the Drill Ship has apparently lost all power to its main weapon, you shouldn't have to worry about it bothering you on your way down." The image again changed to several images of Covenant ships. Smith continued. "However, there is still a large number of Banshee's and Phantoms that will have to be dealt with. Our air support will draw their fire as best it can while you two head for the bottom. Finally we need to make sure that…" Smith was cut off by a separate transmition. "General!" One of the pilots called out over the COM channel. "The Drill Ship is moving position; repeat, the Drill Ship is moving position!"
On the bridge of the Raven, General Smith immediately went to the ships front viewport. "Shana!" He called out. His A.I. appeared with her glowing embers fluttering around her figure. "Sir?" She said. Smith called out. "Track that ships exact movements, tell me exactly where it's heading. If that ship is heading to another of the planet's cities we're all screwed!" Shana's bright fire orange eyes stared towards the surface of Aurora. She focused on the Drill Ship's exact location. She found her target and locked onto it. She studied its movements and predicted its path. She turned towards General Smith and said, "Sir, the ship appears to be leaving the planet." "What?" Smith said as he again looked towards the surface of Aurora.
Smith opened the ship's COM channel. He called out. "Commander Bowley, ready all ships in orbit for a possible engagement with the Drill Ship. I'm still focused on the Prophet's ship and my fleet is not about to turn its back on that bastard." "Understood General." Bowley replied.
Bowley watched as the ship began to rise higher into the sky. Rika looked out of The Twilights main view port and studied the ships movements. "Sir, the ship is passing through the upper atmosphere. In about ninety seconds it will be in orbit." She reported. Bowley looked out towards Aurora. He could see the large ship heading towards the heavens even in space due to its massive size. "Track its path!" Bowley ordered. Rika nodded and focused back on the ship. "Commander Bowley to General Smith, requesting permission to engage the Drill Ship in low orbit." "Negative!" Smith replied, "We don't know if it has any other sort of defense system. " "Dammit!" Bowley cursed as he pounded his fist against the bridges wall.
"Sir, the Drill Ship will be entering orbit roughly fifty to one hundred miles from our position. We have a 76% chance of a collision if they decide to change course towards us." Bowley looked out of the viewport and saw the large saucer shaped ship rising higher and getting uneasily close to their location. "Hard reverse thrusters!" Bowley ordered. "Yes Sir." Rika responded. The large ship shuddered as its thrusters kicked on. Bowley ran to the front viewport and looked out towards the rising ship. It still looked like it was getting uneasily close.
Bowley heard General Smith yell to him over the ships COM channel. "Bowley, get your damn ship out of there now!" "What do you think I'm doing!?" He yelled back in frustration. Several seconds later, the Drill Ship breached the outer atmosphere and entered the planets orbit. Bowley watched as his ships viewport was overtaken by the sheer size of the Drill Ship. It was about fifty miles from his ships location. To uneasily close for his liking.
Rika turned to Commander Bowley and said in a panic, "Sir, I'm picking up a high energy reading, they must be getting ready for a slip space jump." "Keep backing us away!" Bowley ordered. It was as Rika predicted. Ahead of the Drill Ship an area of space began to spark and glow with white energy as the massive ship opened up a slip space rupture. Bowley could feel his ship being pulled towards it. "Increase reverse thruster power!" He shouted. He called out over the UNSC's alert COM channel. "Attention all ships, the Drill ship is entering slip space, repeat, the Drill Ship is entering slip space!"
Bowley could feel the Twilight being pulled towards the Drill Ship's massive slip space rupture. It was sucking his ship towards it like a vacuum. He had never seen a slip space rupture that had such force. Meanwhile, Rika fought to control the Twilight. She processed countless thoughts and calculations to try and pull the ship away from this vacuum effect. Warning lights began to scream throughout the ship. She detected dangerous levels of hull strain and began to pickup signals of damage all over the Twilight. She quickly pulled up a holographic layout of the ship in front of her figure and frantically studied it. "Commander," She called out in a panic. "Hull strain is reaching dangerous levels and I'm picking up countless areas of the ship that are being torn apart!" "Keep pulling us away!" Bowley shouted. Rika replied, "Sir, if we keep in reverse thrust, this force is going to tear the ship apart and we're all going to die." "There's no other option Rika!" He shouted. One of this ship's pilots called out. "Commander, we're picking up breaches in the hull from the strain. We can't keep holding on like this!" "You're gonna have too!" Bowley shouted. Rika tried to keep calm. She replied, "Commander, we have one other option." "What is it!?" Bowley shouted. Rika looked towards the Drill Ship as bright white light began to surround it. She continued. "We go through with it."
"Have you lost it Rika!? We don't even know where their heading!" Warning sirens continued to scream throughout the ship. The tiny A.I. replied, "With all due respect Commander, given our current situation, we don't have that many other options. It's either get torn apart here or go through and have a shot at getting out of this alive." Bowley stood silent for a few tense seconds as he thought of what to do. He glanced at one of the ships status monitors and saw just how much damage the Twilight was taking. He flopped down in his captain's chair and sighed. He motioned to Rika and said quietly, "Do it. Jump through to slip space with that thing." Rika silently nodded as she began to maneuver the large capital ship towards the Drill Ship.
The Twilight accelerated and sped towards the massive Covenant ship. Bowley as well as his crew on the bridge watched as they went sailing towards the bright white orb of light. Before his ship went through, he opened up his ship to ship COM and said, "UNSC Capital Ship, The Twilight, jumping to slip space."
Aboard the bridge of the Raven, General Smith could see the silhouette of the Twilight behind the large orb of light. "Don't you do it Bowley!" He yelled out. Commander Bowley frowned and watched as the Drill Ship was enveloped in white light. He could feel his ship being pulled towards it. He frowned and said, "Make the jump, Rika." "Yes Sir." She replied calmly. The Twilight quickly accelerated and instantly disappeared into the massive orb of light.
"Twilight come in! Twilight, this is General Smith respond!" He yelled. All he got back was a reply of static. "Dammit!" He yelled as he slammed his fist down onto one of the ships many control panels. Shana calmly said, "General, I'm unable to track them. If you like I could give you an estimate of the direction that they were heading." Smith sighed. "Don't bother; we don't even know how long that damn ship will be in slip space for." Smith looked back towards the Surface of Aurora. "And besides," He continued. "we still have a job to do."
"Five minutes out!" The pilot of the Pelican said over the COM. The two Spartan's stood and began grabbing their weapons from the racks on the wall of the drop ship. Devon grabbed a Battle Rifle and attached it to the back of his suit and kept his Sniper Rifle out for primary use. Eric grabbed his trusty Shotgun and slung the weapon for secondary use. "You're using it as a side arm!?" Devon asked surprised. Eric grabbed another one of the Sniper Rifles and stocked up on ammo. He fed a fresh clip in and said, "You said it yourself, we're going down into a big ass hole, I might as well take a big ass gun."
All of the troops COM's came on. General Smith's voice was heard. "Attention, all UNSC troops attacking the drill zone, due to recent events, SPARTAN'S 45 and 69 are now in command for the drill zone attack. That is all." Eric and Devon looked at each other. Eric said, "Alright! Finally we get to call the shots." Yuna came on over Devon and Eric's COM's. "Yeah, I don't see this going bad quickly or anything." "Say what you want." Eric said. "But they know the right man for the job when they see it." Devon added. "They must have finally realized our combat tactical genius." "That's what scares me." Dokuro replied.
The back hatch of the Pelican opened. Outside the two Spartan's could see that they were flying over the heavily damaged area of the city. Destroyed structures and mountains of rubble lay piled below them. The landscape suddenly changed. Below went from urban war zone to a field of ashen colored glass. A result from the first few hours of the war when he first arrived on the planet, as well as the massive amount of heat from the Drill Ship's large plasma beam.
Green balls of plasma fire began to fly past the Pelican. Stray fire from the already ensuing air battle could be seen everywhere. From the back hatch of the pelican, the two Spartan's watched as Hornet's, Vulture's and Longsword Fighters shot down Covenant air defenses. Down below, Covenant ground forces were heading towards the direction the Pelican's were flying. "They really don't want us down there." Yuna said. Eric pulled the bolt back on his Sniper Rifle and said, "Oh well, we're going anyway."
The ground below the Pelican suddenly dropped. Below them the ground seemed to just disappear into a deep dark void. "Damn!" Devon said, "That's a big ass hole!" The Pilot said over the COM. "Whenever you're ready boys. Start heading down and we'll be following." Eric and Devon walked towards the back hatch of the Pelican. Eric said to Devon. "You ready for this?" Devon looked down into the deep abyss and said. "No, not really." Eric flexed his legs and said, "Good, me either." With that he vaulted himself out of the back of the Pelican and Devon did the same. The two Spartan's were in freefall as they fell through the sky. When they reached ground level where the hole started on the surface they prepped themselves for flight. Still in a free fall Eric focused his thoughts and he felt his Angel Pack jump. The massive wings spread and his thrusters kicked on. He looked back and saw Devon do the same. "Well that's good!" Yuna said. "They work at least." Eric replied, "Yeah, considering we didn't bother to test them before we left.
Devon and Eric took flight formation and did two duel helixes around each other as they began to descend down into the massive hole. Yuna came on over both Eric and Devon's COM's. "Brutes and Elites with jump packs on the walls. They look like their waiting for you." Eric and Devon pulled out of their dives and began to hover. Devon quickly took aim with his sniper and shot one of the Brutes in its jump pack causing it to explode sending the alien free falling into the darkness below.
The large platoon of Covenant troops vaulted themselves into the air towards Eric and Devon's location. "Way to stir the hornet's nest!" Dokuro said to Devon. He again quickly started popping off troops and replied, "It's fine, I need some target practice." Eric quickly sighted on two Elites that were flying towards him while shooting at him with Carbines. They were easily taken out with quick pops from his sniper rifle. Devon saw a Brute flying towards him. It was laying belly down in the air to get more speed as it flew. It was a major mistake on its part. Flying in that position left its thruster pack open to gunfire. Without even looking through his scope, Devon popped a round into the brutes jump pack. The Brute's pack exploded and the alien tumbled down into the darkness of the hole.
"Got some more friends down below." Yuna reported. Eric looked down and saw waves of Covenant troops on thruster packs as well as Banshee's flying in formation below them. Eric went on over the COM channel and said, "Alright, all troops form up and head down. Kill anything you see." "Roger that Sir." One of the pilots said back. Eric flew over to Devon and said, "Race you down!" and then he quickly began to dive. "You're on!" Devon shot back as he quickly dove after him.
The two Spartan's dove deeper into the large hole dodging plasma fire and Covenant air craft. Aerial plasma mortars began exploding near them. Several managed to partially drain their shields. Eric looked over and saw that it was coming from a large number of Covenant air defense ships that resembled a large version of a Banshee. One of the mortars exploded several feet away from Devon. He quickly folded the wings of his Angel Pack around his body and let them take the hit. The packs shields dropped dangerously low but his battle suits shields remained fully charged. Devon quickly unfolded his wings and flew towards the ship. "You bastards!" He yelled out, "These wings are new!" He quickly flew towards the ship that was firing at him and unloaded a clip from his sniper rifle into its engines. The craft's motors began to spew black smoke and dropped like a rock into the darkness below.
Eric looked at the formation of Banshee's flying around his area. In between his shots with his Sniper Rifle, he shouted an order over his COM. "Hornet Pilots, open fire on all Banshee's." "Yes Sir!" Several pilots replied back.
Eric did a quick dive towards a group of Brutes he saw using thruster packs. Four of them leapt from a Phantom and flew towards a formation of Hornets. Eric pulled up his Sniper Rifle and quickly took aim. He squeezed the trigger and killed the first Brute. He quickly followed suit and sighted on the other three. With each squeeze of the trigger he called out over his COM to make sure Devon heard. "Double! Triple! Over kill!" He shouted as he brought down all four Brutes with one clip. He looked up at Devon. "Oh! What now Devo!?" Devon hovered in the air holding his Sniper Rifle at his side. Without looking away from Eric he quickly raised the weapon with one hand and shot a round randomly to his right. The round managed to puncture the thin side alloy of a Banshee and kill the pilot. The small craft quickly tumbled into the darkness below as Devon replied back with sarcasm. "OH!! What now bitch!" Eric hovered for a few seconds, not saying anything. Yuna began to laugh hysterically from what she had just witnessed. Eric finally said, "No one cares!" and then flew off. "That's right!" Devon yelled back.
"Phantom inbound on your current position 45." A pilot called out. Eric looked up and saw a Phantom in a nose dive heading for him. "You might wanna move!" Yuna yelled. "Working on it!" Eric said as he flew away from the diving craft. The Phantom slowed and began to hover. Its side hatch doors opened and a large platoon on Grunts and, Elites began to open fire. Devon quickly maneuvered himself and began to pick off as many of the Elites and Grunts as he could with head shots. On the other side of the Phantom, Eric began to take fire from a plasma turret. He quickly shielded himself with the wings of his Angel Pack and tried to take aim. Above him, he saw an Elite on a thruster pack shooting at one of the Hornets. He quickly flew up and latched himself onto the alien. He wrapped his arm around the alien's neck and with his free hand took its plasma grenades. "I need these more then you!" He said as he took the grenades for himself. The then quickly snapped the Elites neck and watched its lifeless body fly off wildly on its out of control thruster pack.
Eric flew back towards the Phantom. "I could use some help here!" Devon called to him. "I'm working on it." Eric said as he primed a Plasma Grenade. He whipped it at the Phantoms open side hatch and watch as the device stuck to one of the Grunts. The small alien thrashed itself around wildly as it tried to get the device off. Some of the troops inside jumped off of the Phantom in a panic while other's tried to get away. The grenade detonated in a brilliant blue flash. Almost instantly after, it set off a chain of explosions from other weaponry stored on the ship. A few seconds later, the Phantom exploded in a bright blue flash and its ruble crashed into the deep pit below. Eric looked at Devon and said, "OH!! Took out a Phantom with one grenade!" Eric preceded to do a little victory dance while hovering. Devon looked at him and said, "Yeah? Well one Phantom only counts as one kill!" Eric fed a fresh clip into his Sniper Rifle and said to himself. "Yeah, he's jealous of my skills."
Dokuro opened her own private COM up to Yuna. "It's happening again Yuna, their getting competitive." Yuna sighed and said, "I know, just let it run its course." While their A.I.'s did enjoy watching their Spartan's get into their missions, when they got competitive with one another it often got them into situations where death became a very likely outcome. "You two always have to show off don't you?" Dokuro said calmly to Devon. While popping off rounds from his Sniper Rifle, Devon replied, "We're not showing off, we're comparing skills. As you can see, mine are infinitely better." "Really?" Dokuro said with sarcasm. "Yes really." Devon replied. "I see." Dokuro said. She hummed to herself for a few seconds and then said, "Well, are your skills good enough to tell you when you're about to be ran over from above by a large object?" Devon replied, not taking his focus away from his sniper scope. "Of course; that's why I'm as awesome as I am." "Then why aren't we moving out of the way!?" Dokuro yelled. A pilot's voice yelled over his COM. "Incoming heavy drop ship!" Devon looked up and saw a massive Covenant drop ship quickly descending down towards his location. He yelled out, "Shit!" as he flew out of the way of the large craft. "You were saying?" Dokuro asked.
"Incoming Ghoul." Yuna reported. Eric looked over and saw the massive Covenant drop ship quickly descending into the depths of the hole. The Ghoul was a large drop ship that could deploy upwards of two thousand Covenant ground troops as well as carry vehicles such as Ghost's and Wraith's. "If their after something down there, I suggest you take that ship out before it makes it to the ground because I'm guessing you want this mission to have as few snags as possible." Yuna told him seriously.
Eric opened his COM. "Attention, all Longsword Fighter's! Focus all fire on the Ghoul, do not let it reach the bottom before we do!" "Understood Sir, beginning attack run now." The large drop ship quickly descended deeper into the pit. "Devo, form up and prepare to dive." Eric ordered. "On my way." He replied. Devon quickly formed up with Eric and the two dove deep into the pit giving chase to the Ghoul. The two Spartans put there Angel Packs to maximum burn and their velocity quickly sped up. A cloud of air popped from their suits as the two broke the sound barrier. They could see the drop ship below them and aimed themselves for its roof.
From above, a pilot called out, "Longswords inbound." Three Longsword fighters flew past the two Spartans and gave chase towards the large drop ship. "Firing HAVOK missiles." The pilot called out. Devon and Eric watched as three of the large missiles sailed towards the drop ship. Several seconds later they exploded in three large mushroom clouds. The Ghoul was enveloped in blue plasma fire and then exploded and crashed to the depths below. "Yeah! Suck on that you bastards!" One of the Longsword pilots called out.
"Yuna, how far are we from the bottom?" Eric asked. "You've got a little over a mile left. And just so you know, a few Covenant troops did make it past us so you're going to have to do a little cleanup when you land." "Nothing, I can't handle." Eric said. He opened up his COM and said, "Flyer's, how's the surface looking?" A few seconds later another pilot replied. "We managed to get a good portion of the area under UNSC control. We have AA Batteries on the way and we'll have full air defense operational within the hour." "Good," Eric replied, "We're about to hit the bottom. We'll keep you updated."
Devon opened him COM. "All ODST platoons, you're with me and SPARTAN-45. Continue descent and prepare for landing." Devon opened his COM to Eric, "What the hell would they be after that's this deep?" "No clue." Eric said, "But I'm making sure that we get to it first."
Down below Eric could finally see the bottom. The surface was covered with rough, jagged rocks that were encased in ashen colored glass. The intense heat from the Drill Ship's pulse beam left most of the area it touched charred and glass covered. In fact, most of the rocks down at the bottom were still smoking and some were even glowing red.
Eric finally set down on the ground. He instantly heard the sound of glass breaking as his heavy armor touched the surface. The wings of his Angel pack folded themselves up and stored back inside the pack on the back of his suit. The light was very low down at the bottom of the 6 mile deep pit. He turned his helmets flash light on and looked around. All he could see was the charred, jagged surface. "All clear." He said. Devon landed shortly after followed by several Pelican's that were transporting troops of Helljumper's.
The back hatch of one of the Pelican's opened and a platoon of ten ODST's jumped out and stepped onto the glassy surface. One of them was Field Commander Calabrese. He walked up to Eric and said, "Well this is interesting; any idea what we're looking for down here?" Eric surveyed the area trying to find any traces of Covenant activity. "No clue. Have your troops scout the area. Radio in if you find anything." "Yes Sir." He said as he headed back for his troops. Eric walked around and met up with Devon. "Find anything aside from rocks and glass?" Devon asked. Eric shook his head. "Nothing." Eric looked around and then said, "Yuna, you said that you picked up a massive energy spike from somewhere underground. Which direction did you pick it up from?" Yuna put a NAV marker on his HUD and said, "It was somewhere in this area, only several more miles down." Eric looked at Devon and said, "Well, if I had to guess, that's the direction that the Covenant is heading." He opened his COM and said, "All troops, form up and head east. Try and spread out and keep an eye out for anything that looks suspicious."
Eric followed the NAV marker. The only thing that he passed that was different from the surrounding landscape was the occasional splattered body of a Covenant troop that had fallen or the remains of a ship. Occasionally the wreckage of a destroyed Banshee or Hornet could be seen falling into the distance and would make a muffled crash sound as it impacted.
"Hey, I found foot prints in the glass." One of the ODST's called out over the COM. Eric and Devon went to his location and looked at what he had found. Several lines of what looked like an Elites hoof prints were in the broken glass. There were a large number of them leading towards the wall of the pit. "Be on high alert." Devon said over the teams COM. "Are you picking up anything Dokuro?" She replied, "Nothing other than our own movement. Whatever made those tracks is long gone."
The team had followed the tracks for a good fifteen minutes until they reached the pits jagged walls. "There," Yuna reported, "Right on the other side of these rocks." Eric and Devon moved ahead. There were several large rocks piles in front of them. The two spread the wings of their Angel Packs and quickly flew to the top of the rubble pile. Devon was stunned. "Holy shit." He said to himself. Eric looked on at the sight before him and said, "Well, we found what they were after."
Ahead of them in the dark was a large doorway that was at least one hundred feet tall. It almost looked like a large cavern. This cavern however wasn't a natural formation. The walls around it and even the area outside in the pit was made of metal with symbols and geometric patterns in it. Eric opened his COM. "Command, we found what they're after."