Cruiser

Accord had been left in the dining room when the attack had started. He heard it all, the shooting, the shouts and the explosions, and they came very near to where he was, which was seated in a fairly open room with large windows at one side that looked out upon the large mansion grounds. As such, he was on his feet quickly, downing what water had been left, before trying the doors at either end of the room in an effort to free himself. Naturally, they were locked tight, and he thumped against one of them with his shoulder, hearing the hinges creak under the force of his impact. If there had been guards on the other side, they had rushed off to meet the alien attack, leaving Accord alone.

Thumping against the door again and again, the flimsy wooden thing finally gave way, the hinges tearing away from the wall and taking several larges splinters of wood with them. Stumbling out into the hallway, Accord felt the entire building shake as something exploded into it. The windows of the dining room shattered as a hail of blue-white plasma bolts shot inside, tearing up the dining room itself, blasting holes through the table and burning the carpet. Accord turned and started down the corridor, unsure of exactly where he should be going. Outside seemed like a bad idea, given the fighting that had broken out, yet staying inside was unlikely to work out for him either. He needed a weapon, and he needed to get as far away from here as he could. Finding Leah was first on his mind, and he had seen where Carson's people had taken her and the others.

Accord came to another window at the end of the corridor. Here, he looked out upon the rapidly developing battlefield outside, where Carson's soldiers had engaged not only Covenant scout-craft, but also a number of ground troops who had been deposited on the edges of the compound. The Covenant cruiser had situated itself over the hills beyond the northern wall, a hulking sleekly-curved purple monstrosity that blotted out the sun over much of the compound. Accord ducked as a stray plasma beam shot into the window, passing him by mere inches as a shower of glass rained upon him.

He heard engines then, plasma-based ones at that judging from the sound. They were coming from somewhere above, and it occurred to him that the Covenant was landing more of its soldiers on the roof of the mansion. This seemed like a sign for him to get out of the building, no matter what else might be waiting for him outside. It did not take long for something to explode somewhere on the upper floor, presumably the way inside as the soldiers on the roof started to work their way into the building.

Accord started back down the corridor, heading for a set of stairs. As he neared them, a pair of Carson's soldiers appeared, rushing around a corner. Both carried rifles, and both stopped in surprise at the sight of the Forerunner. Neither seemed sure of how to react at first, until one of them raised his gun and pointed the barrel in Accord's face. The Forerunner reacted instinctively, batting the rifle away before he reached out and grabbed the soldier by the neck. With his superior strength, Accord was able to throw this soldier into the nearby wall. The impact was hard enough to knock the man out cold, and his unconscious body landed upon a small wooden table that collapsed under his weight as he went down.

The other soldier fired a shot, but not before Accord had grabbed his rifle-wielding arm, throwing the man's aim wide and sending the bullet into a framed painting of a seaside town. Accord punched the human soldier in the gut, winding him, before he yanked the rifle out of his grip. The soldier stumbled backwards a few steps before Accord sent the butt-end of the rifle into his head, hard enough to send him falling to the floor, mostly unconscious.

With those two soldiers down, Accord turned the rifle around and continued towards the stairwell. Above, he heard a crash as someone forced open a door. A Covenant Sangheili in blue armour appeared at the top of the stairs, and almost immediately it sighted Accord. It barked something in its native, guttural tongue and Accord, upon seeing this alien, started rushing down the stairs. Behind him, he heard multiple sets of footsteps charging after him, though none fired their weapons. They must have wanted him alive, something he should have expected. It seemed likely that the Covenant had come here expressly to apprehend him. Somehow, they had worked out that he was here. It would not have been difficult to adjust the sensors on a sophisticated enough ship to pick out individual life-signs, and in turn, pick out any that were different. As the only Forerunner on Thrace (and in the galaxy, for that matter), Accord would have been relatively easy to detect. Still, they had to catch him, and Accord had no desire to let himself fall into the hands of a bunch of religiously zealous aliens. What he had been told about the Covenant suggested that staying out of their hands was the preferable choice.

Accord came down to the ground floor, entering the front lobby. Here, there were about half a dozen of Carson's soldiers. They had set up barricades and the like at the door leading into the mansion grounds. A few of them turned to watch Accord as he entered, and right away they had their weapons trained on him as he entered the room. Behind the Forerunner came the Covenant squad, and as they came rushing down the stairs, Accord realised that he was caught between both sides.

Throwing himself to the floor, the first of Carson's soldiers opened fire at the Sangheili who came down the stairs first, cutting him down in a hail of bullets. As the hail continued, zipping over Accord, he began to roll to one side, working his way to an adjoining room. More of the Covenant soldiers poured into the room, and Carson's troops turned to face them. The whole lobby became a warzone, filled with the deafening cacophony of combined weapons fire. Walls and carpet were ripped to shreds by stray bullets, and the handful of Grunts who poured down the stairs were cut down in a swathe of automatic rifle fire. Fluorescent blue blood splattered across the floor and walls, and the Grunts themselves were quickly followed by a pair of red-armoured Sangheili who made it through under the hail as their personal shields absorbed the brunt of the attack.

Accord rose to his feet as soon as he had crawled into the adjoining room. While the fighting continued in the lobby, Accord took the opportunity to collect himself as he gazed about the room he was in. It was some kind of display area, filled with glass cases containing antique firearms. Some looked decidedly old, their mechanisms crude and rudimentary, likely to explode in the user's hands rather than fire their rounds. Some others, however, looked little different to what the human soldiers were using today. Accord got the impression that Carson was a collector, which did not surprise him. A man so intent on gathering arms to defend his planet was likely to have an affinity for weapons in general, and as a soldier Accord could appreciate some of the craftsmanship that had gone into some of the older weapons on display. For a moment, he stopped by one of the display cases, looking at the wooden-stocked rifle within. Bolt-action, with a mostly black metal mechanism.

Accord turned his attention back to the battle raging outside. He had to get out of here, yet doing so was going to put him directly in the thick of it. He needed to find Leah, and she was most likely outside somewhere, doing her part to defend the compound. She would not leave him behind if she had a choice, just as much as Accord would never consider abandoning her.

Accord raised his rifle towards one of the windows and fired, the few bullets enough to shatter the entire thing. With this done, he climbed over the bottom of the window-frame and dropped to the lawn outside. The heat out here hit him immediately, and he could already feel the sweat begin to build on his skin. Had he been in his armour, it would have provided proper temperature control to ensure that he was comfortable regardless of the environment. Without such a luxury, Accord had quickly come to despise this planet's climate, with its near constant heat. Such temperatures were made all the worse by the fact that he was in the middle of a warzone, with bullets and plasma bolts zipping across the mansion grounds.

His eyes went to the concrete bunker at the far corner of the compound, the place where Leah and the others had been taken. He would start his search there, and with that in mind, he began walking into the fighting, keeping low and moving between what little cover there was. Most of the soldiers out here paid him little attention, more focused on their Covenant enemies as they poured into the compound.

A volley of plasma bolts struck a potted plant on his right as he moved, shattering part of it and spilling dirt. Accord's eyes went to the Sangheili up ahead who had fired the shots, a red-armoured one who was leading a squad of the much smaller Grunts. They were moving towards him, having eliminated a guard-post where about four human defenders had taken positions before being reduced to smouldering, blast-marked corpses. Accord worked the trigger on the semiautomatic rifle rapidly, feeling it shake lightly in his powerful grip as he hammered the Sangheili with bullets. The alien flinched and its shield failed, allowing three of the bullets to punch through its chest. This was enough to send it falling, and it landed in a heap on the ground with dark purple blood pooling around it. As for the Grunts, they scattered, some shouting in fear upon seeing their much larger leader go down. Accord moved forwards, shooting each of the diminutive aliens in turn, his actions automatic as he mowed down the lot of them. The rifle's magazine clicked on empty after shooting the last one, and without any spares he dropped the weapon and moved over to the fallen plasma rifle that the dead Sangheili had dropped.

There was some commotion at the far wall, where part of it had been taken down. He glimpsed a Skirmisher, Jak'Talva to be exact, and from this distance he could make out the burly form of Davam as the pair opened fire from behind a short brick wall. That was when Accord saw Leah, some kind of heavy metal pack on her back, as she rushed for the perimeter wall with speed that no ordinary human would have been capable of. Accord made his way ahead quickly, stray plasma fire working its way by him, causing him to duck. Elsewhere, the human defenders had begun to fall back, scattered as they were, and another of the automated missile turrets exploded as a Covenant Banshee landed a direct hit upon it. Accord could see right away that Leah was heading straight for the enemy, and he began to pick up his pace upon seeing this. She moved with purpose, and he could only assume it had to do with whatever she was carrying at her back.

Leah ran with purpose indeed. Behind her, Jak'Talva and Davam fired on the enemy continuously, a shower of rifle rounds and shotgun pellets hammering the Covenant positions. Leah vaulted over another wall, landing only metres from where a Sangheili had taken cover. She raised her rifle and let fly with a rapid volley that overloaded the alien's shields, before he turned around to face her only to receive a further bullet in the face. Half of his quadruple-hinged jaw disappeared in a sizeable eruption of dark purple blood, and the alien fell to the ground gargling as it struggled to breathe around the bullet that had become lodged in its neck.

Leah kept moving. Beyond the wall now, her booted feet crunched along the rough gravel and sand. The hills ahead were not steep and easily traversable by foot, not that it would matter much in a minute. Like most Spartans, she had been trained in the use of jet-packs, although the one she wore was an older and less reliable model that had likely not seen any use in years. She was taking a gamble, but short of somehow hijacking a Banshee she had little other way into the cruiser.

A plasma repeater up ahead fired her way, and she dived forwards, landing behind a sizeable boulder at the foot of one of the hills. A Sangheili in white armour was further up, laying down the fire. Leah did not like halting, not right now, as all it did was give the other Covenant soldiers in the area an opportunity to get around her. Still, she was not quite within the optimum range for her jet-pack, yet she was pinned down by an enemy at a much higher vantage point. It was the kind of situation one usually sought to avoid, as fighting uphill was one way to take casualties. Leah weighed her options, looking about her at the scattered Covenant forces, their attention diverted for now as the human defenders past the ruined wall, along with Jak'Talva and Davam, kept them preoccupied.

"It's now or never," she muttered. Rising to her feet, and keeping herself behind the boulder, she activated the jet-pack with one hand on its controls, which were extended around her left arm. The engines kicked into life straight away, sputtering at first, sending out a roar that echoed across the open desert. It was one sure-fire way to get unwanted attention, but Leah had committed and she could not back out. Not when she felt her feet leave the ground, and the full force of the jet-pack's engines became apparent.

Soaring upwards, Leah turned her attention to the Sangheili on the hill. His weapons fire followed her, albeit trailing behind her somewhat as he attempted to adjust his aim. Leah shouldered her rifle with one hand, keeping the other on the controls for the jetpack, before opening fire on the Sangheili in white armour. It took several rounds, but it was easy enough to land them all from high above him. The alien rolled to one side, and a quick adjustment to Leah's aim was enough to force the alien's shields to fail under the onslaught. With that done, the next bullet pierced the armour at his chest, knocking him backwards.

Leah's rifle was empty after that. She kept her other hand on the controls as she soared towards the hulking purple form of the cruiser above, guiding herself to one side of the ship as she directed the jetpack towards one of the hangars. Travelling like she was, the cruiser's shields did not stop her. As she neared the hangar's opening, she could hear the engines on her jetpack struggling, sputtering again as the older model began to finally give out. Rising just high enough to see inside the hangar, she dropped her rifle and freed her hands, killing the engines on the jetpack as she launched herself forwards.

Grasping the edge of the hangar entrance, her hands going through the atmospheric shield, she hoisted herself up with ease, despite the weight on her back. Such were the benefits of being augmented for strength and speed. Throwing herself into the hangar, she straightened up and pulled her pistol from the holster at her waist. It was another older and rugged type of gun, a precursor to the M6D she had often used in service of the UNSC. Ahead, she saw a group of Sangheili in purple armour, Special Operations sorts, and they were all entering Banshees. Some took off as she watched, screaming out of the hangar to join the battle below. One was of a deep red colour, as if the pilot had opted for a customised paintjob. As they took off and left, Leah raced ahead, going deeper into the hangar.

She could just as easily drop the nuke here, but she had to be sure none of the Covenant soldiers would get hold of it. They could throw it off the ship, getting it beyond the shields and vaporising the city outside. She had to be sure they had no chance to do anything of the kind.

She ducked behind a bunch of purple metal crates and took the warhead from where it was attached to the jump-jets at her back. Turning it around to find the control panel, she tapped in the code Carson had provided that activated the bomb. With red lights now flashing on the display, she could be sure that the weapon was armed and ready to go off. All she needed now was to work out how long it should be before it did just that, and after a moment's thought on the matter she tapped in the command for one minute. Pausing for a moment, her finger floating over the 'Affirmative' button, she considered making it longer but in the end decided not to. No, she had to make this quick and clean, and she had to make sure no Covenant soldiers had the time to find it.

Popping open the nearest crate, she found it full of spare drop-ship parts. The crate itself was light enough to be pushed, so with an idea forming in her head she pulled out what she could before stuffing the warhead inside. With that done, she finally pressed the blinking green button on the warhead's display, and the timer began to count down. 01:00, 00:59, 00:58…

She began to count it down in her head, as she put a hand to the crate and began to push it along. Ahead, the remaining trio of Spec Ops Sangheili turned their heads upon hearing the screeching, grinding noise of the metal crate sliding across the metal floor. With her pistol in her other hand, Leah opened fire over the top of the crate. The three Sangheili scattered into cover amongst the parked Banshees and crates. Pushing it further and further along, Leah fired off her pistol's magazine before she slammed the crate up against one of the Banshees.

The Sangheili Spec Ops returned fire, plasma bolts striking against the crate in front of her. The metal it was made out of seemed to hold up well, so she did not need to worry about any somehow burning through to the warhead inside.

00:41, 00:40, 00:39…

Leah turned and began to run. She weaved around the scattered crates and parked Banshees, plasma bolts zipping by her. She zig-zagged to throw off the aim of her enemies, made somewhat simpler by the slower moving plasma. Bullets, on the other hand, would have been significantly harder to avoid.

00:30, 00:29, 00:28…

She came to the atmospheric force field over the hangar opening, which was designed to keep the breathable air inside when the ship was in the vacuum of space. Looking down, she was surprised at how high she was, the hills below seemingly much lower than she had expected them to be. Glancing at the display on the jetpack's controls at her left, she saw that something red was flashing. One of the engines was malfunctioning, leaving her with only one. That was hardly going to cut it flying out of here, but she had no time to contemplate other options.

00:19, 00:18, 00:17…

As the Spec Ops Sangheili began to advance, Leah took a breath and threw herself forwards. She passed through the force field with a tingle crossing her body, before she was free-falling out of the ship. If anything went wrong now, she would die, smashed up on the rocky hills below. A hardly fitting end for a Spartan. Perhaps she should have hijacked a Banshee? There was no point thinking about it now. Once again, she had committed.

00:09, 00:08, 00:07…

Halfway down, she activated the jetpack's one good engine. Her fall slowed right away, yet even the one good engine was beginning to sputter like a dying man. She tapped the engine controls instead, giving herself only brief bursts of momentum as she fell, slowing her fall enough to ensure she would not die on the landing. The ground below rushed up to her at a startling rate, and as her mental countdown concluded, she braced herself for the imminent detonation.

00:02, 00:01…

There was a rumble from above her, as her feet hit the rocky ground. She stumbled upon her landing, her speed still a little fast for a gentle touchdown. Landing on her side, she looked up at the cruiser, watching as white-hot blue lines appeared throughout its hull, spreading across the centre of the vessel, having started with the hangar. A brilliant white flash erupted from the side of the cruiser, and Leah covered her eyes as the nuclear flare filled the sky above. The entire middle-section of the cruiser vanished, the ship's shield containing the immediate detonation before it failed. Even so, the explosion that was felt across the desert was unlike anything Leah herself had personally experienced, and she felt the concussive wave wash over her with enough force to propel her along the ground several metres, smashing her into a boulder. That impact was enough to knock the wind out of her and break panels off of her jetpack, with sand all around being kicked up and raised as the wave covered the desert and swept into town within seconds. Windows shattered all across the city for the second time in as many days.

The cruiser above had been torn into two halves, both of which began to fall from their perch in the sky. Leah, catching her breath, watched as the first struck the desert well beyond the hills, kicking up a massive cloud of sand as it touched down, tearing a trench through the desert plains in its wake. The second half, the forward section of the ship, drifted some distance before it landed on the edge of the town, wiping out several small buildings before it came to rest, dust flowing out from the impact and sweeping through the streets. Leah watched this all, unsure of whether she should be satisfied or not. She had just destroyed a Covenant cruiser after all, something that not too many people got to do.

Working off the jetpack, she remained on the ground for a minute longer, gathering her bearings. Her body ached from the tumble on landing, and her bare hands had been grazed on top of that. Blood trickled from a slight cut on her forehead, but otherwise she was mostly unharmed. What did surprise her was the burly figure who appeared over her, back against the sun, casting light around him.

"Leah?" She recognized the voice. Looking up, squinting against the sunlight, she saw Accord's face. He looked unharmed, and there was visible worry in his eyes.

"Huh. You're here." Leah could hardly think of anything else to say. Accord reached out one hand and she took it, allowing him to help her up. Nearby, Davam and Jak'Talva approached, both somewhat dirty from the fighting but otherwise unscathed. Leah's eyes met with Accord's, and she let out a sigh of relief. He was alive, she was alive. She could not have hoped for a better outcome.

"That was truly something," Jak'Talva said, visibly impressed. "Single-handedly destroying a cruiser. Is that something you Spartans do all the time?"

Leah ignored him. Instead, her attention was focused on Accord. With him here now, they could get back to finding a way off of this planet.

"We need a vehicle," she said.

"You have a plan?" Accord asked.

"No, not really."

The scream of a Banshee's engine became audible then, and it grew in volume as the Covenant scout-craft neared. Leah looked up, seeing it flying from the west. It was the crimson painted one from earlier, and it was heading straight towards them with obvious intent to open fire. A look of recognition crossed Davam's face then, and he raised his rifle.

"That's him!" The Sangheili yelled, anger lacing his deep voice. "That's 'Sraom!"