Vado 'Mavamee was counting down the seconds. It was going to be a close call, but the corvette was just starting to dock with the battlecruiser. There would be little room for error to scuttle the ship, and leave the ship aboard the corvette.
The Major, Thado 'Susamee, spoke up. "Successful self-destruct can be initiated in just under fifteen minutes, Shipmaster. The plasma conduits to the front of the ship are damaged and will need replacing to achieve full destruction."
Vado nodded curtly. "Excellent. We can't leave anything for the humans to take." He would have lied if the thought of the humans capturing the ship didn't scare him in some way. The shame alone would… it would ruin him.
The ship suddenly shook violently. Holographic screens flickered, and there were sounds of internal explosions.
"Status repor-" He was about to yell, when the ship shook again, the unmistakable sound of a heavy kinetic impact. Then another, and another.
"Shipmaster. We've been hit with a nuclear warhead. Our shields are down. Shield generators on starboard side are down! The humans hit them with mass drivers. Three drivers. Precision impacts on the generators. They hid the mass drivers in underground bunkers. Marking them for the Seraphs. The Major seemed unphased and worked quickly."
Vado' Mavamee looked at the holographic display built into the forearm of his armor. The damage was carefully inflicted, most of it focused on the shield generators. "Scramble our remaining fighters and send them after the mass drivers. "
"Shipmaster. Enemy shuttles just flew into our hangars and latched onto the hull. They flew through the fireball of the detonation while our sensors were overloaded!"
His blood ran cold, and he feared for his bloodline. "Contain their boarding attempts. Recall ground forces via the gravity lift!" The shipmaster commanded.
Another report flashed across the Major's screen. "The enemy's ground offensive has intensified. Massed armored assaults upon all anti-air emplacements in the direction of their attack. They are requesting reinforcements."
He thought over his options quickly. "Keep all vehicles and Unggoy and Kig-Yar in the field. Recall all Sangheili not managing Unggoy. "
This just got a lot more complicated.
Yopyup took a good swig from his food nipple. Guard duty was boring!
He was just sitting in the hangar bay, waiting for something to happen, ready to take out the big fun hoses and use it on a crashed ship. The hoses were always fun.
Then the ship had shook, and the sky outside had gone all bright and yellow! One of those big nasty human bombs had gone off! That meant more radiation cleanup duties. He hated radiation cleanup duty! He always had to wear those really nasty suits.
Then a shuttle suddenly flew out of the fireball and landed in the hangar. One of those from the nasty new guys with the flashy guns. He liked the flashy guns. The colors could change.
Sangheili Minors stormed through the doors surrounding the hangar deck, weapons drawn, leading files of Unggoy and Kig-Yar.
Then, before a shot could be fired, the doors lowered and figures in black armor with orange highlights charged out, propelled by jetpacks. He saw the lead invader ignite two orange blades and stab a Sangheili in the neck, beheading him. With one fluid motion he turned the blade on his left arm into some kind of cannon, that fired a bolt of orange plasma into the face of Yopflip, burning right through it and igniting the methane pack! Such a waste of good methane.
The creature pulled out a small gun that grew into a big gun. Cool! It had a really fast fire rate, which it just used to pop holes into at least two pairs of fingers worth of Unggoy. Now the gun was a lot less cool.
When Yopyup turned back to look at the shuttle, he could see that the rest of the arrivals had engaged as well, slamming forward at high speed with their jetpacks, either firing large guns which made a lot of noise at close quarters, or using those glowy arm blades.
Yopyup turned to run away when he suddenly froze up. There was a weird feeling on his neck. He reached for it and pulled out a dart. He let our a tirade of grunty curses as he lost consciousness. The last thing he saw being an armored hand reaching for him.
Seltarius switched his Tempest to single fire and began popping the heads of a pack of Grunts in rapid succession, his VI-assisted targeting making the job laughably easy.
An Elite in blue armor swung a sword at him, which he only managed to dodge with a quick burst from his jetpack. He whirled around, activating the omni-tool on his left arm, and firing a bolt of matter cooled to just above absolute zero at his attacker's chest, followed with a burst from the Tempest, aimed at the now-frozen torso.
A pack of Jackals were taking aim at him. He whirled on the spot to charge through them at high speed, knocking them off their feet. Mid-charge he slapped his omni-tool on the wall, rapidly assembling a mini-turret that began firing into the backs of the Jackals, followed by him whirling around and firing his Tempest at them. With a flick of his wrist, the turret detonated with the force of a grenade as its ammunition ran out, and he commanded the power core to detonate.
He steadied himself, vaulting over some kind of Covenant storage device and using it as cover. He armed a pair of homing grenades and threw them at the door, blasting apart a squad of Jackals advancing as a phalanx. He ducked and took aim from his impromptu cover. Tempest in one hand, M-5S Predator in the other. He literally burned down the shields of one Elite with incendiary rounds, then shot it in the head the moment the shields went down.
His squad HUD showed him that most of the hangar had been cleared in half a minute of bloody fighting. The wounded enemies were being chained and dragged to the shuttles, as well as those few the Saboteurs had hit with neuro-shock darts.
He turned to face his squad, who were putting rounds into the mortally wounded enemies. "Alright. With me, you dogs. We're going straight for the bridge of this bucket, and we're taking it for the Hierarchy!" He yelled over the squad comms. Four lights lit up on his HUD. Four of the best and toughest soldiers in the Turian Hierarchy. The Armiger Legion preferred moving in small specially equipped fireteams over larger squads, and this fit him -just- fine.
The platoon radio activated. "Squad leaders. Platoon one, capture Engineering, Platoon two, capture the bridge. Platoon three, split into squads and wreak Havoc. Platoon four is still cutting its way in. Disorient their defense and find alternative routes to Engineering or the Bridge. Capture the Bridge and Engineering at the same time, or this will all be for nothing. Be prepared to bug out at a moment's notice." Green lights indicated confirmation from all squad leaders.
A hundred Armiger Legion were boarding via the hangar, with another fifty landing on cracks in the hull and cutting their own path inside. Not to mention that with the hangars secured, normal Turian soldiers could be airlifted aboard the ship.
He sprinted down the doorway to his right, his squad following closely behind him, their thrusters and Mass Effect lightened armor allowing them to fly through the halls of the ship at great speed.
His squad followed closely behind him in formation. Kelnara, the Ghost-class Armiger trooper. Gervod and Gelnis, the Havoc troopers, and Yeltis, their Saboteur. They moved through the ship as a group, gunning their way through the myriad defenders.
Kelnara opened fire with her M-12 Amari rifle at a Yeltis activated his omni-tool at the same time as Seltarius, both firing an electrostatic discharge at the Elite that caused its shields to crackle, followed by Gervod and Gelnis firing a burst of incendiary and cryo ammo respectively, simultaneously freezing and melting the chest of their target.
Seltarius used his omni-tool to fabricate a drone and sent it out to explore ahead of him. The moment it passed a corner, it was hit by a barrage of green projectiles. His HUD marked them as radiation hazards.
He and his squad took up position around the corner. Kelnara took a flashbang from her belt and offered it to Seltarius, who nodded at the initiative and threw it around the corner.
The moment the grenade went off, Garvod and Gelnis went around the corner and fired their Phaeston rifles until they overheated, creating a withering stream of suppressive fire that killed every unshielded enemy in the hallway. At which point Seltarius and Yeltis moved around the corner, activating their jetboots and speeding to cover the gap.
Yeltis slashed through a pair of disoriented Grunts with his Omni-blades, while Seltarius went for a wounded Elite who was stumbling, his chest riddled with bullet holes, and finished him off with two quick strikes.
The command channel for the Armiger Legion activated.
"Alternative entry points Alpha and Beta secured. Encountering heavy resistance." Reported fourth platoon.
First platoon came next. "We are nearing what we think is the engine room. Resistance is heavy, but we're punching through."
Third platoon's various squad leaders came in next.
"Heavy casualties. Retreating to hangar!" came squad one, the sound of plasma fire all around her.
"We're held up inside a room. We'll make them pay for our lives." The squad leader of team two said somberly. "C'mere you sons of b-" he said, his comms cutting out.
He spoke up next. "We're creating Havoc in the hallways, heading towards where we think Engineering is via an alternate path."
Second platoon's response was slow. "Heavy casualties. Elites with new armor configurations. Requesting Cabal support and reinforcements."
Shipmaster Vado' Mavamee heard the sounds of gunfire approaching, and saw the camera footage of jetpack-equipped troops swarming through the hull of his ship. There were forty of these Elite enemy troops heading for the bridge.
He calmly walked to the control panel on his chair and entered his self-destruct code. Ten minutes. Enough to get to the remaining hangar and prepare to board the corvette.
"Shipmaster. You are leaving?" The Major said, holding a plasma rifle in each hand. "You will not go down with the ship?" He said accusingly, his mandibles and eyebrows formed into a frown.
"I must deliver this information to High Charity in person, if I am to clear my name for this and spare my bloodline. Die with honor, Major." He said somberly.
The Major's expression softened and he nodded. "I'll see you after the Great Journey, Shipmaster." Then turned around to aim his dual plasma rifles at the locked door leading to the compromised hanger. His fellow Sangheilli taking up strategic positions around the room.
He tried to contact the Ranger team stationed on the battlecruiser. "The Bridge is secure for now and the self-destruct has been activated. I am moving to the uncompromised hanger with mission-critical information. Make sure the ship is destroyed."
"Acknowledged, Shipmaster." The reply came. "We'll head to Engineering and hold it until the plasma core detonates."
Vado' Mavemee did some mental calculations. He had nine minutes until pressure in the plasma core reached the point of no return and could detonate, and it would take just two minutes to head to the hanger.
One of the intruders turned the corner and took aim at the Shipmaster.
Vado' Mavamee leapt forward, took his plasma pistol in one hand, and activated his energy sword with the other. He stabbed the leader through the chest in one lightning fast thrust, then moved him as a shield to block the fire of his comrades. In that moment of hesitation he overcharged his plasma pistol and shot another attacker in the head. Then, before they could react, he threw his makeshift shield at another soldier, lunged forward and beheaded a third. Then by the time the invader who'd had his comrade thrown at him could recover, 'Mavamee cut him in half vertically.
He picked up a helmet and a pistol from the fallen soldier he assumed to be the leader. The Prophets would be interested in them, for sure.
He broke into a sprint again, heading for the corvette in the hanger.
After a minute of running, he saw a barricade manned by Sangheili at the door leading to the hangar. He leapt across the barricade and rolled when he hit the ground. Then got on his feet and dusted himself off.
The captain of the corvette nodded at him. "I assume you have the information?" He asked. Noticing the invaders' salvaged equipment, he remarked approvingly, "And even more, I see. Come. The minister wants to see you as soon as possible."
Another Sangheili barged into the hangar, an Ultra this time. His armor had taken hits and he was bleeding from a vicious slash across his chest, but he was alive.
"Shipmaster. I return bringing good news. I managed to recover a communications device belonging to one of their leaders." The Ultra said, bowing to him and the captain of the corvette.
"Well done. We'll take these devices back to High Charity and the Sangheili council. They'll want to know of this."
"Engine room is heavily defended. Taking heavy casualties!" Came the voice of the leader of first platoon.
"Cabal and infantry reinforcements are underway. Hold out as long as you can." Came the reply from Deltonis Kelavis, the company commander and a lifelong veteran of the Armiger Legion.
"Prepare to breach." Seltarius spoke on the squad channel as they flew through the halls of the ship towards the First Platoon's IFF beacons.
They came up from behind on a pair of Elites leading a mixed squad of Grunts and Jackals to head through the door. They looked as if they were preparing to break in, presumably to ambush first platoon.
"Combined cryotech assault, then close range assault." He commanded across the squad channel. Four green lights showed confirmation.
He and Yeltis engaged both their omni-tools at the same time, while the rest each just activated one. Seven bolts of Bose-Einstein condensate flew out into the hallway, detonating and turning everyone inside into frozen statues. Then Ravager squad activated their jump packs and charged through the statues, shattering them all into a thousand pieces.
He tried the door panel, but it didn't open. He quickly activated his omni-tool and fabricated a monomolecular silicon-carbide blade, but not before he aimed his other omni-tool at the the slit in the center of the door and began to project a stream of supercooled matter to freeze the seam between the two sliding segments.
When he was satisfied it was sufficiently cooled, he stuck the monomolecular blade into the tiny gap between the doors and cranked up the heat to as high as it would go. Slowly he cut the blade downward, the extreme heat and cold differential leaving the metal brittle and fragile. After expending three blades, there was a loud crack when the battered door finally gave in.
He and Yeltis each grabbed one section of the door and pulled it open, allowing Gervod and Gelnis to head inside, laying down suppressive fire.
The engine room was massive, a massive fusion reactor of some kind lay at the center of it, surrounded by all kinds of arcane equipment and control panels, with at least three floors of walkways all around the room.
The inside of the room had become a bloody warzone. Havoc soldiers and Elites in jetpacks fought to outmanoeuvre and get the upper hand on their opponent, while the regular soldiers flooded in and died in droves. The regular turian infantry were up against more than just Grunts and Jackals, and died each second to disciplined fire from dozens of Elites who had taken good cover around the room.
A trio of Cabals surrounded by blue biotic energy shot across the room and into a barricade behind which a squad of Elites had set up a fully automatic plasma turret that was suppressing one of the doors the turians were advancing through.
The Cabals fought as a coordinated unit, throwing out reality warping fields that ripped through the armor and flesh of their enemies, or threw them across the room. Their Daedalous shotguns could take out the shields of the blue-armored Elites in a single shot, but had difficulty with the ones in red armor.
One of the Elites in white armor ran through the reality warping fields, and although it hurt him greatly, cut down two of the biotics, even as they fired their Daedalos shotguns into his chest at close range.
Kelnara took aim with her M-13 Amari and fired a burst of three rounds at the head of the Elite, finally putting him down. The last Cabal took this opportunity to biotically charge to a higher walkway on the other side of the room. Slamming into the side of an Elite parrying a Havoc trooper's dual omni-blades with a part of short blades on his own. He had been moments from executing the soldier when the biotic slammed into him, and broke the Elite's back with a mighty Biotic strike.
"Havoc trike, top level left!" Seltarius yelled and shot across the room as his jetpack activated, his squad following him.
As he flew through the room, he could see that dozens of Armigers and Elites lay dead across the room, with the root cause being a squad of Elites in jetpacks of their own, who flew through the room at high speed, throwing grenades and striking with their energy swords at exposed targets.
The combatants made use of all three dimensions as Elites leapt and climbed from walkway to walkway or jetted around, trying to surround the Armigers, who themselves were reinforced by other Armigers trying to outflank the aliens in turn.
Pure weight of numbers was winning the fight for the turians however, as squad after squad of regular turian infantry flooded into the ship via massed shuttle deployments, allowing the remaining Armigers to begin using their speed to the fullest extent.
Ravager squad took up position in an unoccupied part of the room, using this to provide fire-support. Incineration and cryo-blasts rained down on the Covenant positions, while flash-fabricated drones and turrets swarmed through the room.
He felt something take down his barriers, then several shots going right through him, with one lodging inside his body. He turned off the warning that popped up with a thought.
The Covenant jetpack Elites took down dozens of the normal turian infantry, with only the Cabals and Armigers able to contest their superiority. But they slowly started going down one by one to sustained mass-accelerator fire, as well as concentrated tech-attacks.
After a Cabal squad, dozens of Armigers and many -many- more turian infantrymen lay dead across the engineering deck, the last Ranger finally died after he'd slammed into a squad of turians and detonated his grenades. The squad of ten had sold their lives dearly.
Suddenly the reactor began humming and throbbing ominously; upon hearing this, the Elites began withdrawing in good order, dragging the bodies of their fallen comrades with them.
"Sergeant. What's happening to the reactor?" Kelnara asked.
Seltarius turned on his omni-tool and began taking diagnostic readings.
"Pressure inside the reactor is building up rapidly. It must be some kind of self-destruct mechanism." He muttered. He instantly knew what his duty would entail. He turned on the command communications channel. "Code Omega: Covenant forces have rigged their main reactor to detonate. Saboteurs in the engine room, help me to try and stabilize this thing."
He hopped from the walkway and hovered back down to what he assumed to be the reactor control panel. The lack of radiological readings made him assume it was some kind of clean plasma fusion reactor. Something he didn't even know was possible at this size or output.
Other turians joined him, four battered and worn Saboteurs who activated their omni-tools and began taking readings alongside him.
Yeltis spoke up first. "Energy buildup still has to reach its maximum potential. We need to stop the continued buildup. Fast."
Another turian countered the remark. "Even if we did that, the released plasma would still melt everyone in this room, probably half the ship." As he did this, he and another turian hovered around, taking measurements and readings.
"What if we punched a hole to alleviate the pressure?" Another asked.
"Like prematurely detonating it?" Seltarius asked, turning to the turian who asked the question. "That would still wreck the ship, but it would avoid a full detonation."
He turned around, seeing soldiers carrying their wounded comrades out of the room. He made some quick mental calculations. "Cover me while I begin trying to disable the containment fields." He said, pointing at the large devices that were, by the looks of things, pressing the contents of the reactor core together.
"Sir. That's a one way trip. I'm just a private, it should be me." Yeltis said.
"There's covenant radiation rounds lodged near my spine. The only thing keeping me going is every painkiller my armor has being injected. I'll be dead in three minutes." He said, reading his vital signs.
He began using his omni-tool to cut into the devices around the fusion reactor, hoping to destabilize it early.
The door closed as the turians ran out of the room. He tuned out the reports of retreating soldiers and the troops below the battlecruiser falling back.
To his enjoyment, disabling some of the devices had caused the fusion reaction inside the reactor to expand, but without his omni-tool registering an increase in the amount of plasma in the chamber. The compression was failing. His plan might work after all.
He began cutting into the housing of the reactor with his omni-tool, hoping beyond hope he could trigger a small plasma leak. He felt the toxins and radiation in his blood killing him. He began sagging and had to use his jetpack just to keep standing.
He didn't even have time to enjoy his victory, for the moment he breached the containment, the plasma instantly vaporized him.
General Pallonis heard the explosion from his command center. He immediately stepped outside to see what had happened.
The rear of the Covenant battlecruiser had detonated, plasma raining out of the bottom of the ship onto Covenant lines, causing pandemonium as flaming death rained from above on their line, while the front half suffered a few minor secondary explosions without fully detonating. He grit his teeth at the sight. It wasn't a full capture, but it was better than a full destruction.
Without the reactor, the battlecruiser began to drop slowly but precipitously, building up speed as the power for the anti gravity ran out. The battlecruiser crashed down on top of the Covenant bases and forces around the gravity lift.
A powerful cheer went through the humans watching the sight, a few embracing or even kissing each other. One human medic even kissed a turian she'd been working alongside, who flailed his arms and tried to break free at first, only to go along with it. Cameras were taken out by a few turians and images began being taken of the celebration.
As Pallonis looked at the crashing ship, he felt a tap on the shoulder by Major Ross, who offered him a handshake. Pallonis took it and shook it firmly.