Halo: Predator Lost ch 18. Look, mom, no pod
UNSC Ghost hanger.
Inside the hanger stood first platoon along with Alpha team. With Pelicans, desks, parts, and other pieces of equipment being used by the technicians nearby going about their duties.
Lieutenant Owen, was nervous but as this was his plan it was up to him to brief these men on the mission at hand. To better show, the whole group a screen was projected on the wall. " Okay everyone, what we are about to embark on is considered trivial when it comes to Spartan operations but none of them have ever done it on a scale like this. Now what we thought was just animal harvesting is actually something more.
Turns out the Covenant is also taking land, dirt, trees, and rocks and storing them inside these large domes on these so-called food ships. Thankfully their large size and current orbit put them into a position that makes it easy to destroy them. If we had a fleet but we do not. Instead, using teams of two, you'll be given a single havoc nuke to plant on these ships away from any eyes and other support ships. As you can see none of them enter from the port side and so you'll place the nukes directly on their port side somewhere doesn't matter where so long as it's on the port side.
The reason why is simple as soon as Alpha team destroys the bigger ship, the others will raise their shields. At which point the nuke upon detonation will be contained creating an implosion effect.
In order to reduce the risk of being spotted, you'll be jettisoned and move when facing the star. This way, the heat from you and your jump packs will be hidden. Thus if the Covenant sensors pick you up, they will be hard-pressed. Oh, and because your power armor is hardened, you'll be going through the planets van Allen belt just to be on the safe side. As such the Covenant is unlikely to think a bunch of slow-moving rocks is any threat.
As for extraction, that will be much harder. I've contemplated that you should just rocket yourselves into space and await pickup. Or the Ghost comes to pick you up after the fireworks. Given the low orbit, I wouldn't recommend either of those options, which is why Alpha 300 over there pointed to hitchhiking on top of dropships.
In any case, that would be the best option." Bringing up the planet's surface. " Now we have three rendevous points on the surface, If you see any covies, kill them. Mission time will be thirty minutes. Timers on the nukes will be set, just prior to you leaving the airlock. So take it, plant it, then get out of there. If their shields get raised before you can leave, then do whatever it takes to leave.
This has been designated Operation Suicide by the Commander. Because odds are high that some of you won't be coming back. Remember, aside from your battle buddy, there will be no communications. If everything goes according to plan, then the Covenant leadership will be scratching their brains trying to figure out what happened. Any question?"
A private speaks up."yea, have these systems we are using been tested before?"
The look on Mike's face didn't inspire confidence." heh heh, the predator along with doctor Emily built them, and aside from zero-g and altitude drops to test if all the upgrades and improvements worked, no, not like this. The armor though is tough and second only to the Miljonir armor but to be fair not even the spartans have ridden Covenant ships like surfboards. At least as far as we know. Sorry about that" Mike shrugged his shoulders, further reducing everyone's confidence.
" Alright, people you all know what you signed up for, if this works, then the Covenant's long-term fleet actions will be slowed down considerably. If not, then we'll just piggyback on the next ship we find" Added Thompson.
"Sir why don't we just do that?"
That was a good question and to be frank there was only one logical explanation. "We are kinda hoping someone sends out a distress call. We intend on turning Victoria into a place where the covenant wastes resources. if it works then they will lose a lot of material and manpower, that is the theory anyway. Now move out! The mission starts in fifteen minutes, God speed." Mike finished turning around and headed to the bridge to oversee the operation.
Moving through space the Ghost positions itself.
Inside the barracks, opposite of the soldier's bunks stood armor stations. Unlike those needed for Mjilnor armor, these were far simpler and only made getting the armor on easier. In theory, they could be equipped without the special stations, in theory.
Pulling the handle attaching the leg armor followed by the body armor clicking into place, with the helmets being attached last.
Next inside the armory in which everything had been drastically changed, the soldiers of first platoon grabbed and attached various weapons and RCS into their armor. Suffice to say, from all indications this was the least UNSC outfit ever created. Once done they all headed to bay one where deployment would begin.
"We are in position, doubt even prowlers get this close." From the external cameras, all one could see was purple with some green from the planet below.
To say everyone was nervous was an understatement, after all a Paris despite its size is still a bug when compared to other ships and in this case, everyone felt like an ant.
"Aright depressurize bay one, disengage artificial gravity." Young then presses the com system on his armrest. "Attention first platoon, the light is green, once everything is done up here we'll head planetside to pick you up, good luck and godspeed."
Inhale, exhale, the massive heavy doors slid open into the recess of the floor and ceiling. The only sound heard was the reverberations through the floor. checking his seals and life support systems, all were green. As two by two, with nukes strapped to their thighs. they entered the void. Doing a full one-eighty it was now clear why they jumped away from the fleet. Aside from the hanger the rest of the ship remained invisible to the naked eye.
"Newbie, you alright."
Turning his head, Corporal kale Tucker looked at his partner for this operation, Staff Sergeant Korso, a veteran ODST and thus trained for open space environments. By contrast, Kale was UNSC Army, the reason for the mix mash of ODST and troopers was quite simple. They were all trained on the new armor, well that and Captain Lipton assigned them all himself.
"Yes, Sargent I'm fine. just never thought I'd be doing this." A smile was beginning to keep on his face, not like Korso could see it.
"None of us did. now keep your eye on your marker, our target is the last one so we don't have a lot of time" Korso then puts his thruster to full burn with Kale following suit.
Throughout the void, over forty men travel to their designated ships, designated from one to twenty-one.
Minutes went by but to all but a few, it felt like an eternity.
Cutting power and reorienting to go feet first onto the hull Korso and Kale couldn't help but still be amazed at the scale of such a ship. The massive holes on the sides looked big enough to fly a cruiser through and the huge gap between the forward and aft domes was something of a mystery.
Still hitting the hull which was coming up a little too fast was worrisome. Adjusting power on his pack, he slowed and figured it would be just like dropping from the sky. However, that was when gravity was in control. " Oh, shit" Kale hit the hull rather loudly, and in his attempt to roll his body to absorb the impact he merely bounced back into the void. Adjusting his RCS he finally managed to get his feet clamped on the hull.
Finally catching his breath he looked for Korso only to see him just thirteen feet away on his right.
"You know kid, every ODST has a nickname and I think I just found yours" One can only guess if he was smirking under that helmet.
Kale could only guess what it would be
"I'm thinking Void, no, blonde, no wait I got it, Dent, that's it your official nickname will be dent"
"Dent?" Kale raises an eyebrow at this until Korso points out the Dent he made in the hull, not very big mind you but still. "Oh"
"Let's hope it didn't set off any alarms or we are screwed." Korso then prepares the nuke, waving Kale over he grabbed the mount off his back.
Connecting the nuke to the cylinder, three legs deployed with large bolts. Upon making contact the bolts drilled into the thin hull.
"Okay system reads green, time till detonation is sixteen minutes. Now comes the hard part, we have to hitch a ride on one of those small ships heading down to the surface.
"Wouldn't it be better if we stole one and flew it ourselves?" Kale asked.
"Do you know how to fly one?" No answer came from Kale. "Thought so. With our power armor, we should be able to anchor ourselves to the ship then we can jump after reentry, now let's move."
Disengaging their clamps, they carefully floated along the hull looking for any ships deploying from it. Thankfully there are little to no fighters in the area.
Looking at the clock they had less than ten minutes before the nukes went off and there was no telling how fast the Spartans worked.
"Korso, I got something, pinging it now."
What Korso saw on his hud was something very similar to a covenant dropship, only twice as long. Where the gravity fields were which created its distinct tuning fork shape was completely filled in. In the rear was a pair of engines on either side of the compartment used to pilot the ship. " Great, we are going to hitch a ride on a giant flask with engines?" The sarcasm was not lost on Kale.
Extending the rockets, they jumped clear of the large vessel and speedily headed toward the smaller cargo ship.
This time Kale knew better and successfully latched onto the dorsal surface of the craft, Korso right next to him.
Heart racing Korso looked at the clock, the time was now less than five minutes and the cargo ship had just oriented for reentry. They hadn't been detected yet thank goodness for that. However, the fuel levels on their rockets are what concerned him. Still, they should be fine if they drop at the right moment. Taking a risk, he looked at the truly massive ship. The clock now read three minutes.
Just like that, space lit up like the northern lights. Right on the dot, the behemoth of a ship was vaporized sending out a large shockwave of heat and debris. this image was glorious if it weren't quickly covered up by the heat of re-entry.
"You know this is a surprisingly smooth ride, even with the heat there is very little turbulence. Huh Just shows how much further ahead they are."
Kelso looked at Kale with a raised eyebrow. "We are surfing on a slab of heat-resistant metal and now that their mother ship is gone, the only thing you can think about is a smooth ride?"
"Wait their mother ship is gone, odd, I didn't hear anything, how did you know it was blown up?"
Korso looked at the trooper like he had two heads. "We are or were in space you blond hair chimp, sound doesn't travel through a vacuum, you ill-educated meat bag!" Laughing was heard on the radio and only then did Korso realize he got trolled. "If we survive this, I'm killing you"
Before Kale could reply the ship suddenly turned upside down and both were now in free fall.
"Guess they figured out were hitchhiking"
"Just be grateful that ship didn't have guns, however, we are still above the stratosphere. Frack, Okay look for any bodies of water or anything that looks soft to land on." Looking in every direction the only thing Korso could see was trees, some small ravines likely with rocks, hills, and oh yea more trees.
" I have an idea how to land safely but I don't think you'll like it"
"We have three minutes before going splat, please take your time." Korso was starting to hate the new helmets as they didn't have a depolarized function.
Kale glides his way to Korso, then locks his arms under his shoulders. "Okay, in two minutes I'm going to activate my rocket at full burn. Then once I'm out of fuel, you'll activate yours. The jets are designed with three times the thrust ratio of normal jet packs as such in case of an emergency, a person can slow down and or even lift someone else into the air. The cost though is more fuel is used up so expect a bumpy but survivable landing."
Korso didn't say anything and simply nodded his head, two minutes later, his stomach went to his throat. The feeling was quite euphoric. Sure enough, they were decelerating rapidly. Speed indicator was now showing ninety knots before Kales engine cut off. Not wasting time Korso activated his.
Both of them were sweating buckets unable to see what was below them. only that the speed finally came down to ten knots before Korso's engine also cut out. Before any final words could be said, they slammed down through a number of branches, snapping them liked twigs before splashing into a six-foot ravine.
Finally, on the ground, the two men untangled themselves and got out. checking their surroundings, there was nothing but broken limbs from their fall. "Well I can say this much, this armor beats the crap out of the ODST stuff I used to wear. From a fall like that, we would at least have some injuries, as well as the wind, knocked out of us." Bringing up his left arm, Korso checked the map and where they need to be.
Kale by contrast had jettisoned his hardened gun case and began assembly the M-10A1, built with a Titanium graphene barrel and chamber. The M-10 was in many ways identical to the AR-10 of old. Despite being larger than the MA37 it was still shorter than the DMR. Colonel Stein's idea was simple, since they were already adopting drastic changes, might as well switch over to an older design.
The critical difference was the ammo. Despite being 7.62*51 standard, the reinforced chamber, springs, and barrel allowed the rounds to be upgraded with more potent powder. The end result was a massive velocity increase from 2800 to 3800 feet per second. The energy in turn nearly doubled, sadly this came with greater recoil so a muzzle brake was added as standard.
Inserting the magazine Kale was ready for action. "So where to Sarge?"
Korso readied his rifle, "To war".
I hope the action was up to your standards. As for why the Predators didn't play a large role here it's simple. Thanks to stubbornness and time, they don't have jump packs for their armor, plus Scythes armor is still being worked on.
Also if you recognize the names, the answer is simple, I'm too fraken lazy to go through the name generator, so instead, I'll just take names and possibly characters from other genres and times. After all, I've met many people with the same name as me and as many sci fy shows, especially stargate have pointed out. The number of alternate realities is limitless mwahahahahaha.
Speaking of which, since I have a poor imagination, don't be surprised if I draw inspiration from well anything.
Now then just a reminder that your own Spartan three-character bio is still open for anyone willing to submit their character through either PM or review.
Just a Crazy man. Thanks for the review.
Guest. Yea that is is good series, which they would animate more of it.
Okay, Favs is at 39 with follows at 44. cool.
Thank you and enjoy.