Chapter 5 – MJOLNIR Mix
1414 hours, October 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC orbital defense platform Cairo Station, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit
As John stepped through the blast door separating Cairo Station's bridge from the tram station with Sergeant Major Johnson at his side, he noticed that the platform which had previously been crowded by cheering Marines was now absent of almost all personnel; the majority having dispersed into their squads following the arrival of the Covenant fleet.
The Spartan saw that the tram that had transported them to the awards ceremony was now occupied by Commander Keyes and her bridge personnel, and as he glanced in their direction, the tram departed from the platform, disappearing behind a metal gate that partitioned the bridge from the nearby Commons. A group of Marines still on the platform made their way down a nearby flight of stairs.
As John made to follow them, the Cairo Station's defense coordinator, a Naval Captain by the name of Briggs, spoke up on the station's internal COM.
"All, hands report to battle stations. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill! Seal pressure doors. Open weapons lockers."
As John made his way down the stairs, he paused on the landing. A pair of weapons lockers were mounted on the wall, one containing several BR55 battle rifles and the other holding three M7 submachine guns. The weapons were held in place by a locking bar that was illuminated by a red lighting strip but as the Spartan approached, the device scanned his neural lace's IFF tag. Identifying him as a friendly, the bar turned green and slid upwards.
John quickly grabbed a battle rifle, and as he did so, his armor's integrated targeting suite quickly linked with the weapon in his hand. A circular targeting reticule appeared in the center of his heads-up display, indicating where his bullets would go when fired. The Spartan quickly inspected the weapon before grabbing a submachine gun from the adjacent locker.
Attaching the M7 to the magnetic mount on his upper thigh, John arrived at the bottom of the room, where several Marines were waiting in an impromptu armory. An assortment of UNSC weaponry and ammunition was spread out atop several storage containers, and the Marines quickly armed themselves with rifles, sidearms and grenades.
John grabbed half a dozen magazines for both his battle rifle and submachine gun, stowing them inside the ammunition pouches on his chestplate. He also took an M6C magnum sidearm resting on a nearby container along with several magazines for the weapon. While considered to be one of the M6 series' weaker handguns, the "C" variant still possessed a high rate of fire and was useful in a defensive role. John retrieved a standard-issue UNSC combat knife and sheathed it in a small scabbard on his shoulder pauldron. Finally, the Spartan opened a small container, an "egg carrier," and withdrew a quartet of M9 fragmentation grenades.
Johnson also took a battle rifle, slinging it on his back with an older-style sling in lieu of the metallic hardpoints typically affixed to UNSC combat armor. The Sergeant Major paused by an elongated crate, set his cap down nearby and extracted an M247 general purpose machine gun from the box. Hoisting the weapon over his shoulder, the Sergeant Major grabbed a nearby earpiece and slipped it on, granting him the ability to communicate over COM without his helmet.
As the assembled group of UNSC personnel made their way through a corridor leading to the nearby Recreation Red-One. Johnson tapped his headset, opening communications with the nearby orbital platforms.
"How's it going, Malta?"
"Stand by…" the response came from the defense coordinator of the nearby Malta Station, "They're latched!"
John's enhanced hearing detected the loud clang in the background behind the officer's voice as Covenant boarding crafts made contact with the Malta. The man's voice returned, "Check your targets and watch the crossfire." A pause, then, "They're in standard formation: little bastards up front, big ones in back. Good luck, Cairo."
John mentally acknowledged the officer's threat assessment. It was standard Covenant battle strategy for Grunts to lead the charge, soaking up bullets and triggering traps and ambushes while stronger Covenant units such as Jackals and Elites followed. John had fought the Covenant in combat countless times over the last three decades of war and knew how to compensate for their tactics.
A small pressure door hissed open, and the unit entered the Recreation Red-One. On the ceiling above, a warning light flashed, bathing the surrounding walls in a red glow while an emergency klaxon blared. A fireteam of Marines already present in the room had erected several combat barriers and had taken cover behind them.
Large overhead glass screens dictated information regarding the Cairo Station's status. The words "TAC CON Alpha 1," which the Master Chief knew to mean that enemy boarders were imminent. This was corroborated by the nearby schematics of the station, with rapidly approaching arrows representing the incoming threat.
As the group took cover behind combat barriers and support pillars, John detected movement in his peripheral vision. Outside the portside window of Recreation Red-One, he spotted the distinctive shape of a Covenant boarding craft cutting rapidly through space towards the station. He could hear the thrum of the vessel's engine as it came to a stop next to the hull of the platform.
The boarding craft's three arms extended and clamped onto the station, causing a loud bang, and shaking the entire room, before extending a probiscis that would burn through the hull of the Cairo, allowing Covenant troops to enter while preventing the compromised room from decompressing.
Due to their method of troop insertion, and their appearance, UNSC personnel called these boarding craft "Ticks."
John digitally brought up a schematic of the station on his HUD, and a quick check confirmed that the enemy boarding craft had docked with a corridor adjacent to Recreation Red-One. A wider scan confirmed that many more boarding craft had made it past the Cairo's point defense systems and latched onto the station at various points.
He turned his attention to the lower level of the room. Beyond a series of consoles that the crew would use to communicate with other vessels or Earth during peacetime was a sealed blast door representing the only entrance to the room aside from the corridor to the bridge. Above the door, a red light blazed unrelentingly.
Beyond the door, the sound of Covenant plasma weaponry met the Spartan's ears. This was soon met with the booming of UNSC small arms fire as the opposing forces clashed in the adjoining corridor. Above the din, John could hear the panicked shrieks of Covenant Grunts and the yells of human Marines.
"Field of fire on that bulkhead!" Johnson shouted, waving a hand towards the blast door at the end of the chamber. As the human forces levelled their weapons at the door, sparks began to pour from the center of the bulkhead as Covenant forces on the other side burned their way through.
"As soon as that door opens, let 'em have it!" The Sergeant Major ordered, setting his M247 up on the platform at the rear of the room, giving him a commanding view of the entire chamber and the bulkhead beyond. For his part, John had taken cover behind a pillar on the right side of Recreation Red-One, on a slightly elevated platform that gave him an excellent position to catch the invading enemy in a crossfire.
After only a few moments, the door erupted in a massive explosion that threw chunks of titanium and superheated matter across the room. Green and blue-white bolts of plasma flashed through the smoke as Covenant Grunts charged into Recreation Red-One, followed by their Elite superiors. Immediately, the Marines opened fire in retaliation, and Grunts began to fall, perforated by overlapping fields of fire.
Fragmentation grenades rolled into the doorway, detonating in loud explosions of fire and shrapnel, and throwing alien body parts through the air. The Marines, with superior cover were able to inflict heavy casualties on their attackers, who were forced to funnel in from a single point of entry.
From his vantage point, John aimed his battle rifle down at the emerging Covenant forces. His scope's feed was transmitted to his HUD via smart-linking technology, and he quickly took aim and fired. A three-round burst sliced through the skull of a Grunt, and the small alien tumbled backwards. An Elite in blue armor charged into the room, plasma rifle blazing wildly. Blue-white bolts of plasma cut across the room and impacted a Marine who had wheeled out of cover to fire at the onrushing Covenant. The plasma burned through the man's chest-plate, fatigues, and the skin beneath. Howling in pain, the man slumped behind the combat barrier.
John turned his attention to the Elite, hoping to drop the alien before it could close in with the Marines, but Johnson had the same idea. The Sergeant Major's M247 thundered, and 7.62x51mm rounds smashed into the Elite's shields. The Elite rolled to the side, taking cover behind one of the communications consoles.
While this maneuver saved it from Johnson's machine gun fire, the Elite failed to realize the Spartan's presence on its left flank, and several bursts of battle rifle fire broke through the alien's weakened shields and tore through its helmeted head, spraying purple blood onto the console.
More Covenant emerged from the entrance to Recreation Red-One, many falling before they could even make it two steps into the room. John's rifle kicked, and a burst of fire ripped through a Grunt's back-mounted methane tank, causing gas to spew out of the environmental suit and sending the small alien spinning across the room. Another Elite took fire from four separate automatic weapons and hit the deck, its personal energy shielding and armor overwhelmed in moments.
Johnson, along with the other Marines in the room, continued to lay down a hellish torrent of fire on the Covenant forces, who were forced to scramble for what little cover they could find, lest they be cut down immediately. This in turn opened the enemy up to attacks from the rear, which John was quick to exploit. The deck was soon littered with the corpses of Covenant troops, blue and purple blood smearing the deck.
John's motion tracker flashed a warning, directly behind him. He heard the buzzing of an overcharging plasma pistol and darted to the side with superhuman speed. A moment later, a large globule of green-white plasma arced through the air where he had stood a second before. He dove behind a nearby console, just in time for a second bolt to splash across the machinery, melting the screen and causing sparks to cascade onto the deck.
He heard a roar and saw an Elite leap down from a walkway above the breached blast door, a plasma pistol in each hand. As the alien landed on the deck, John sprung forward, smashing the butt of his battle rifle into the Elite's midsection with all his might. The Elite howled in pain and staggered backwards, dropping both plasma pistols, and coughing up purple blood as its shield flickered and died.
Without hesitation, the Spartan snapped his rifle back up and fired a three-round burst. The 9.5x40mm projectiles caught the Elite in the center of its elongated forehead and the large alien dropped like a marionette with its strings cut.
John briefly marveled at the raw power of his new Mjolnir Mark VI, before dismissing these thoughts from his mind and turning his attention to the remaining Covenant in the room. During his brief scuffle with the plasma pistol-wielding Elite, Johnson and the other Marines had defeated most of the attacking hostiles, and all that remained were several Grunts that were panicking under the heavy barrage of fire and the deaths of their leaders.
Even as the Grunts turned and attempted to flee, human projectiles cut into alien flesh, splashing blue blood onto the deck, and ignited methane reserve tanks. Within seconds, the final Covenant soldier fell, and Recreation Red-One was secure.
"Clear!" Johnson shouted, standing up from behind his machine gun and unslinging his battle rifle. "There's more outside, press forward!" The surviving Marines rose from their defensive positions and moved towards the breached blast door, picking their way past the tattered corpses of the fallen Covenant troops.
John dropped down from his vantage point and moved ahead, signaling the Marines to stay behind him; if any Covenant were waiting on the other side, his energy shielding would be able to take an opening salvo, allowing him to return fire without any of the unprotected and vulnerable Marines falling victim to enemy weapons fire.
As he moved through the shattered doorway, he heard a firefight in progress nearby and his motion tracker flashed a series of red dots indicating hostiles in the vicinity to his right. Beyond a combat barrier and through another destroyed blast door, the Spartan noticed a small group of Grunts and their Elite superiors crouched down between a fallen piece of machinery and another UNSC combat barrier, pinned down by heavy machine gun fire from an adjacent corridor. Several more alien corpses lay scattered nearby.
John quickly primed and threw one of his fragmentation grenades, bouncing it off the ceiling and allowing it to land within the clustered enemy troops. One Grunt yelped in surprise as the small explosive came to rest at its feet but a moment later it detonated in a loud flash of thunder and shrapnel, eviscerating the unprotected Grunts, and whittling down the energy shields of the two Elites. The stunned aliens had no time to realize where the attack was coming from as John charged into their midst, firing his battle rifle in controlled bursts that shredded the first Elite's neck and face. The second Elite turned just in time for John to lash out with the stock of his rifle, crushing its face and snapping its head back violently. The alien flew backwards, colliding with the bulkhead and crumpling to the deck.
"Area's clear!" John called out. The Marines behind him fanned out, checking the enemy corpses to ensure they were dead and policing their weaponry. John moved into the corridor from which the Covenant troops had been taking fire and saw that further down, at the base of a flight of stairs another machine gun had been mounted on top of a protective barrier. The Marine behind the weapon whooped as the Spartan came into view.
"Master Chief, sir! It's good to see you," the man said. "Had 'em pinned but no way to flush 'em out til you showed up."
John nodded to the Marine, before consulting the Cairo's internal sensors. John noticed that enemy contacts were popping up across the station, confirming both his, and the Admiral's suspicion that the enemy intended to overwhelm their battle cluster, opening a gap in the defensive grid so that their battleships could slip through and assault Earth's surface.
Worse, one of those enemy contacts was present near the station's portside umbilicals, where the UNSC In Amber Clad - Commander Miranda Keyes' ship, was docked.
The Spartan quickly considered his options, and made a decision, turning to the Marines gathered in the corridor.
"Sergeant Vickers," John said, and the leader of the Marine squad looked up, "I need you and your squad to hold position in Recreation Red-One and cover the bridge."
If the Sergeant was at all dismayed by John's order, he didn't show it; the safety of Admiral Hood and his command crew were of paramount importance for the continuation of the entire war effort and John knew that Vickers understood that.
"Yes, Master Chief!" Vickers replied before turning to his squad. "Alright everybody, get back there and cover the Admiral's ass! Move it!"
As Johnson opened his mouth to speak, John cut him off, "Sergeant Major, I need you to make sure Commander Keyes makes it to her ship. She and her bridge crew are in danger."
Johnson nodded, "Roger that, Chief. I'm on it. Don't have too much fun without me!" Johnson flashed the Spartan a white-toothed grin before turning around and jogging back towards the tram station.
Satisfied with his decisions, and determined not to waste any time, John readied his battle rifle and made his way up the stairs. Passing a fallen Marine on the landing, John moved through a pair of pressure doors and found himself in a small security station overlooking one of the Cairo's Commons modules.
With the sounds of battle ringing in the Spartan's ears, he quickly made his way across the station. A mounted machine gun had been placed in a position with a commanding view over the Commons below, but the Marine gunner had been killed; his corpse slumped over the weapon and still smoldering from the plasma bolts that had killed him. John gently moved the man's body aside and took position behind the weapon.
Commons Red, similarly to similar modules on board platforms like Cairo Station, consisted of a large rectangular room with a high ceiling with a transparent canopy that offered an unobstructed view of the vista of space. Situated at intervals along either side of the room were several raised islands that were connected to the rest of the Commons by a network of smaller side corridors. Also interspersed throughout the room were numerous planted trees that served to bring a natural touch to the otherwise militarized space station.
Under normal circumstances, the Commons were a place for the crew to gather and relax. Today, it was a warzone.
John took in the tactical situation at a glance. Covenant forces had entrenched themselves across the room, and plasma fire from several sources were concentrated on a combat barrier directly below the Chief's vantage point, behind which a pair of Marines were taking cover. John swept the machine gun across the room, unleashing a hailstorm of projectiles that cut down a group of Grunts that were attempting to rush the Marine's position. Blue-white fire spattered against John's energy shield, and he quickly rotated the gun towards the source: an Elite taking cover within the side passage linking the rightmost island to the Commons, but the wily alien soon took cover when John's return fire began to hammer down on its position.
What felt like repeated body blows struck the Spartan from behind, and his shield flashed, dropping precipitously as enemy plasma struck. Without missing a beat, John rolled to the side and twisted around in time to see a blue-armored Elite charge into the room, plasma rifle blazing away in its hand. The alien was eager to press its advantage, having caught its hated enemy unaware.
But the Elite hadn't expected John to react so suddenly to its sudden assault, and it desperately fired its plasma rifle on full auto, trying to melt the Spartan down even as the Chief sprung out from his roll, submachine gun raised and already firing. The Elite's plasma rifle overheated, and excess plasma poured from the sides of the weapon as its cooling vents opened. John, very familiar with the Covenant's color-coded ranking scheme, knew that such blue-armored "Minors" were the most inexperienced and lowest ranking Elites in the Covenant and often displayed reckless behavior on the battlefield.
Even as caseless rounds from John's SMG lit up the Elite's energy shielding, John's own shield recharged back up to full strength – a rate far exceeding that of his previous Mark V's shielding system. The alien charged forward, raising its plasma rifle in preparation for an overhead strike. Despite the Elite's low rank, they could still pose a threat in close quarters, so John was quick to lunge beneath the large alien's descending arm. He bulled into the Elite, knocking the alien back while continuing to fire his SMG one handed. The Elite Minor's shield broke under the barrage and rounds quickly punched holes in the Elite's chest plate before tearing into it's rubberized undersuit and the skin beneath.
As John's weapon ran dry, the Elite gurgled horribly and fell to its knees, blood flowing from its tattered chest before it hit the deck face-first. The Spartan quickly reloaded his SMG and nudged the Elite's corpse, making sure it was dead. In the Commons below, the two surviving Marines were using the Master Chief's intervention to their advantage; their combined assault rifle fire serving to suppress the remaining enemy presence in the room.
Eager to flush the enemy out from cover, John bounded down a set of stairs that brought him to a lower level which linked to Commons Red. At the bottom, a pair of Grunts crouched behind a UNSC combat barrier yelped in surprise, but they were unable to fire more than a few shots before John's SMG fire tore through both aliens, dropping them to the ground and spraying phosphorescent blue blood across the nearby bulkhead. He made his way quickly through the corridor, pausing only to strip a couple of plasma grenades off the Grunt corpses. Rather than charge directly into the Commons, he ducked into the darkened side passage running along the right side of the room. The Elite lurking within clearly didn't expect to be confronted with half a ton of Spartan bearing down on it and was caught by surprise when John barreled towards it, submachine gun firing. The alien tried to return fire, but its energy shield was soon overloaded by the sheer volume of projectiles impacting it and within seconds it was dead on the ground. Purple blood seeped out of the corpse and onto the deck.
"Brace for impact!" shouted the Cairo's defense coordinator over the station's loudspeakers; a moment later, the entire station shook, and a loud clang reverberated through the room as yet another enemy boarding craft made contact with the platform.
John quickly made his way to the opposite side of the corridor and glanced out. A number of Grunts had waddled out onto the raised island across the room and were busy trading fire with the Marines. John holstered his SMG and drew out his battle rifle, quickly putting precise bursts of gunfire through the skulls of the enemy soldiers, starting with the alien at the rear of the group, ensuring he could still take shots on the others even if they turned to flee. Surely enough, several of the Grunts wailed in panic as their fellows fell, but John was methodical, downing each enemy even as they tried to flee down a nearby corridor.
"Nice one, Chief," one of the Marines said, grimacing as he held an arm to his side where a bolt from a plasma pistol had scorched his armor. "Rest of them are taking cover in that room," he pointed towards an open blast door on the far side of the room with a red emergency light flashing above it.
"Roger that," the Spartan acknowledged. "You two, stay here and hold position. When the area is clear, call for reinforcements and medical assistance," he finished, glancing at the charred hole in the man's armor.
"Aye, Chief. Good luck." The Marine replied.
John carefully made his way towards the blast door. His caution was justified as several plasma weapons opened fire as he made his way to cover on one side of the door. A quick peek revealed that at least four Grunts and an Elite were taking cover behind a series of UNSC supply crates. He wheeled around the corner, firing several bursts from his battle rifle in the room, more to suppress the enemy than actually kill them before priming and hurling a plasma grenade into their midst. The alien explosive latched onto the top of one of the Grunt's pointed methane tank, quickly fusing to it with a brilliant blue glow. The doomed alien had time to scream in panic before the grenade detonated in a massive blue explosion that incinerated the Grunt along with it's three companions. The Elite was flung violently into the nearest bulkhead, energy shield completely drained by the grenade's explosion. Without missing a beat, John fired a pair of bursts from his battle rifle, silencing the alien for good.
Sweeping his rifle around the room, John moved onwards. There was still plenty of Covenant left to kill on the station, and John knew that the battle for Earth was only just beginning.
"Ready up, boys! More incoming!" Private First Class Chips Dubbo shouted, his distinctive Australian accent carrying over the roar of human ballistic weaponry and the whine of blazing Covenant plasma. As he spoke, a unit of Grunts and their Elite commander poured out of the tube connecting their boarding craft to the bay window of Hangar Bay A-01, one of Cairo Station's two port side Pelican bays, weapons firing as they joined their fellows in their attempt to overwhelm the room's Marine defenders.
The Marines, unwilling to surrender the room to their enemy, were dug in and had managed to inflict disproportionate losses on the boarders. But as more Covenant troops continually flooded out of the boarding craft, it seemed to be only a matter of time before the squad were overwhelmed.
The tide of battle was suddenly changed when one of the doors running along the bay's upper catwalk suddenly opened, and a blur of green titanium alloy and black armor plating rushed through, leaping straight off the catwalk, landing heavily on the bottom floor of the hangar bay. The rifle cradled in its hands blazed as it darted behind a stack of large cargo crates; Grunts were perforated by precise bursts that shattered their craniums and respirators and even the larger Elites seemed to be no match for their armored foe, who moved with speed that not even they could match.
"Oo-rah!" Dubbo whooped, rising from cover, his assault rifle up and firing. "Let's give the Spartan a hand, Marines!"
Heartened by the sudden arrival of the Master Chief on the field of battle, the remaining Marines in the Pelican Bay unloaded their weaponry on the Covenant position, keeping the aliens pinned down. Taking advantage of their newfound vulnerability, the Spartan bolted around a large crate that was positioned near to the breached bay door where the Covenant were entering from. He lobbed a fragmentation grenade towards the pinned-down Covenant troops. The small, vaguely spherical explosive arced over a line of dead Grunts, coming to rest behind them, where their still living comrades were taking cover.
Due to the chaos of the battle raging across the room, none of the surviving Covenant noticed the grenade. The resulting explosion decimated the surviving troops. Grunts and Elites with weakened shields were torn to shreds instantly and even those that survived were thrown aside like ragdolls. One Elite, its face shredded by shrapnel from the grenade, staggered backwards. Raising its hands to its mangled face, it opened its one remaining eye in time to see the armored human demon sighting it with his battle rifle.
The rifle boomed, the Elite toppled backwards, and John swept his rifle across the carnage. Judging by the mounds of Covenant dead scattered across the bay, coupled with the fact that no more emerged from the docking tube, John surmised that the boarding craft had expended its entire complement trying to take the hangar bay. The surviving Marines emerged from cover and moved towards the fallen Covenant, checking for survivors. Any that still moved, and even several that didn't, were given a burst of fire for their troubles.
Before John could ask the Marines for a situational report, Chips Dubbo, who was standing on the other side of the single Pelican dropship, which was still docked in the bay, suddenly pointed out of the large window.
"Hey, check it out! The Malta's already driven off its boarders!" The surprise was evident in Dubbo's voice. John agreed with the man's tone: the Covenant had consistently demonstrated throughout the war that retreat was not an option for them. They always committed fully to every engagement and fought until they prevailed or were annihilated. They didn't turn tail and run.
Aside from those occasions where an apparent retreat was merely a ruse or opening move to a plan their enemy did not yet know.
Regardless, John moved across to the window. Surely enough, he could make out white streaks against the black of space – Covenant boarding craft speeding away from the nearby Malta Station.
"Malta, what is your status? Over." Cortana's voice containing a hint of curiosity as she hailed the Cairo's sister station over FLEETCOM.
"I don't believe it!" Malta Station's defense coordinator sounded jubilant as he replied, "They're retreating, we've won!"
The words were no sooner out of the man's mouth before John's attention was brought back to the Malta. Without warning, an enormous explosion of white plasma tinged with purple enveloped the entire platform. As the flash subsided, a massive orange fireball expanded across space as the Malta's on-board fusion reactor detonated, hurling thousands of fragments of the once-mighty MAC platform into space. Several larger chunks of the shattered station, including pieces of the station's barrel, drifted away from the epicenter of the explosion.
While the tremendous explosion went unheard in the vacuum of space, its impact was nonetheless felt, and the deck of the Cairo bucked as the shockwave rocked the station.
"This is bad! Real bad!" Dubbo said, a quaver in his voice as his eyes remained locked on the slowly dissipating ball of flame – all that remained of Malta Station.
Even as John's mind began to race, another explosion shook the deck of the Cairo, but this one was smaller in scale and nearby. John turned towards the source: a nearby door had blown apart and Covenant troops flowed into the hangar bay from an adjacent corridor. John was forced to pause his assessment of their sister station's destruction, and he raised his battle rifle towards the incoming enemy.
Sangheili Evocati Toro 'Nuvamee gripped his plasma rifle tightly in one of his four-fingered hands. His other hand grasped a handhold on the starboard side of the boarding craft's interior hull, one of many such protrusions spaced along the otherwise smooth plating. While personnel were held in place by stasis harnesses during the duration of the flight, most of the vessel's occupants still enjoyed the additional reassurance a physical handhold provided.
Around him, his fellow Sangheili likewise held onto the handholds as their boarding craft weaved its way through crisscrossing projectiles and plasma bursts. Covenant Seraph fighters - angular spacecraft that looked more like some form of deep-sea creature than vessels of war - strafed this way and that, doing battle with their human counterparts while also drawing fire from the point defense weaponry mounted on board the human orbital platform on which they intended to board.
It was 'Nuvamee and his forces sole objective to tear the formidable enemy weapon from the skies. In conjunction with other boarding vessels targeting the station on which 'Nuvamee was now bound for, as well as the other two platforms comprising the cluster of human super-weapons in this sector, the goal was to open a hole in the human's network of defenses, thus allowing the Covenant's capital ships to punch through and attack the surface of the planet.
While the overwhelming number of human warships was cause for concern, 'Nuvamee knew that it was these enormous weapons platforms; essentially enormous and exponentially more powerful versions of their primitive ship-borne cannons, that posed the greatest threat to the Covenant fleet. Indeed, he had heard of the damage such weapons had wrought on the combined fleet that had laid waste to the human fortress world they had called "Reach".
From what he had seen so far, the array of defenses protecting this human world dwarfed even those he had seen at Reach. Was it possible that the Covenant had at long last discovered the human home world?
Perhaps we can finally wipe out this wretched species once and for all, 'Nuvamee mused.
But this world was perhaps more than just the human home planet. Indeed, the cluster of orbital platforms his forces were now targeting had not been chosen at random. This grouping was situated over the planetary landmass on which the High Prophet of Regret's Luminary had highlighted as the location in which the portal that would lead to the fabled Ark installation. The Sangheili officer felt a shudder of religious fervor as his mind struggled to come to terms with the fact that the Covenant were now so close to following in the Forerunner's footsteps.
With the activation of the Ark triggering the simultaneous firing of each of the Sacred Rings scattered throughout the galaxy, the Covenant would finally culminate the goal of which it had pursued since its creation: their ascension to godhood.
Despite the loss of the first Sacred Ring, 'Nuvamee now felt newfound hope, the likes of which he had never experienced before.
'Nuvamee was shaken from his thoughts by a loud clang, as the boarding craft made contact with the human station. The vessel's three radially mounted arms had latched onto the hull of the platform, and a moment later the craft's boarding tube extended, it's superheated rim carefully burning a hole through the human battleplate allowing the occupants of the boarding craft to safely enter the station without fear of explosive decompression.
'Nuvamee mentally reviewed the schematics of the human orbital weapon and compared it to his location on a hologram of the same schematics projected in his helmet's heads-up-display, noting with satisfaction that his boarding craft had docked at the correct target, a corridor that led to an elevator that would take them to the station's firing control center. Here, 'Nuvamee would deliver their means to destroy the station: an antimatter charge which would totally obliterate the installation.
The officer glanced over his shoulder. Towards the rear of the boarding craft, a large elongated spheroid bristling with sharpened spikes sat in the center of the deck, with a team of Unggoy surrounding it, holding onto the spines for support. One of the Covenant's infamous antimatter charges, the Chershi-pattern void maker was an immensely powerful device that would be capable of reducing the enemy orbital to fragments. Once the route to the fire control center was secure, the charge would be brought into the room and set to detonate while the Covenant withdrew from the station. Similar bombs would be delivered to the other two platforms, and with their destruction, the path to the surface would be open.
"Go!" 'Nuvamee roared, raising his plasma rifle. The first wave of boarders made their way forward into the circular passage and were carried forward through the boarding tube its gravity directors. Once they were through, 'Nuvamee moved forward, flanked by several of his Sangheili brothers and stepped into the passage. He felt the directors propel him forward towards the energy field at the end of the tube and as he passed through, he heard the blaze of plasma fire. His feet hit the deck and he rolled into a crouch, plasma rifle already up and firing at the hunched figures beyond.
Even as an Unggoy next to him screamed and died as human projectiles punched through its chest, 'Nuvamee was charging forward, trusting in the strength of his armor's in-built energy shield to withstand any damage that the humans could inflict. His rifle blazed, spewing blue-white bolts of superheated plasma down the wide corridor. Several bolts struck a human clad in what he assumed was an engineer's overalls. The creature's flimsy clothing did nothing to protect it, and it wailed in pain and fell over backwards, several charred holes burned through its abdomen.
He whipped his rifle around, and another burst of plasma obliterated the head of yet another human. By then, he had closed on the human position, and he swung his plasma rifle in an overhead strike towards the nearest human. He heard its skull shatter under the powerful blow and the diminutive alien crumpled to the ground.
Within moments, the rest of his boarding party had caught up, and the final few humans in the corridor were eliminated in short order. 'Nuvamee looked around the corridor and saw that four Unggoy were down. A half dozen human corpses lay scattered on the deck, their red blood smearing the ground beneath them.
Four Covenant for six humans, not a bad trade, 'Nuvamee thought. He noted that only two of the fallen humans were adorned with their species' primitive armor, the others seemed to have been non-combat personnel. With weak weaponry and even weaker protection, these few humans had been no match for the Evocati and his troops.
But then, the humans rarely ever put up much of a fight.
'Nuvamee checked to ensure that the Unggoy responsible for transporting the bomb were still alive, and surely enough, they were. Huffing and puffing behind their methane rebreathers, the Unggoy dragged the massive bomb awkwardly along the deck, its spikes scraping across the ground.
"Commander! I have found an elevator," called one of 'Nuvamee's Sangheili. The warrior stood next to an open door, within which was a small platform that, due to its lack of any linking doorways or corridors, could only be the platform that would take them to the orbital platform's firing control center. A quick check of his helmet's HUD confirmed it.
"The platform is too small for us all to travel at the same time," he spoke to his assembled troops. "And we would serve as a tempting target for enemy grenades and focused fire. 'Vonamee, 'Tengamee," he said, addressing two of his Sangheili warriors, "You and your lances will descend first. The rest of us will follow shortly. Clear the path and we will deliver the bomb."
"Yes, Commander!" Both Sangheili clenched their fists to their chests and bowed their heads in respect briefly, before boarding the elevator with their Unggoy subordinates. While Evocati such as 'Nuvamee typically did not lead other Covenant troops in battle, instead serving as highly proficient infantry assets, 'Nuvamee was a specifically nominated Delegatus. A strictly temporary role, he had been elevated to a position of command over all Covenant forces responsible for neutralizing the human orbital. Having been recognized for his extensive expertise in the art of war, and ability to inspire his fellow troops, 'Nuvamee was happy to undertake the role for this particular mission.
And then, he would join his brothers on the surface of the human world. And he would be right there, leading from the frontlines as only a true Evocati could.
As his forces took up defensive positions in the corridor, 'Nuvamee interfaced with his helmet's ocular projectors. His fellow boarders had secured several sections of the station and were in the process of wresting away control of many others from their human occupants. Regrettably, the strike force intended to neutralize the human's command center had failed in their task.
While it would have made the Covenant's job easier had they been able to neutralize the source of the human's defense coordination, it wasn't an essential target, for 'Nuvamee and his forces would soon secure the firing control center and burn the orbital weapon out of the sky. And he had received confirmation that the boarding parties responsible for destroying one of the nearby platforms had succeeded in their task.
One step closer, 'Nuvamee thought.
No human counterattack happened, and soon the elevator platform returned. The Evocati eyed a smear of luminescent blue blood as he stepped onto the platform with two other Sangheili and a troop of Unggoy. The final Sangheili Minor, 'Tecamee, would arrive at the control center last, accompanied by the bomb and it's Unggoy attendants. By then, the Covenant would have the room secured, and the final phase of this mission could be concluded.
As the Covenant warriors clustered on the elevator and it began to descend, 'Nuvamee closed his eyes for a moment, mentally singing a prayer to the Forerunners as he often did before battle. A moment later, the elevator ground to a halt, and the doors opened.
'Nuvamee's energy shields immediately flared as human gunfire smashed into them and he reflexively ducked and rolled into cover behind a series of small crates underneath a raised catwalk running along the left side of the room. Yes, this was indeed the fire control center; he could see an enormous shell loader mounted over a conveyor belt running along the center of the room. While it was not yet operational as the Covenant fleet was out of range, it was imperative that it be removed as an obstacle so they could press their attack on the planet.
It soon became clear to 'Nuvamee that their attack was not going as well as he had anticipated. Many of the boarding party's Unggoy were down, and even as he spun out of cover to fire his rifle, a burst of human gunfire tore through one Unggoy's pointed methane tank. The alien was hurled across the deck, spinning and flipping before the tank detonated in a ball of fire, propelling shards of metal that lacerated two more Unggoy as well as a human soldier. 'Tengamee lay dead on the ground, purple blood seeping from his corpse and 'Vonamee was at present pinned down by at least three of the human's primitive assault weapons.
A small spherical object rolled to a stop near 'Nuvamee's feet and his eyes widened in surprise. The explosive detonated in a blinding flash of light and fire that momentarily obscured the Evocati's vision. While his energy shield absorbed the explosion and the resulting burst of shrapnel, the blast nonetheless rattled 'Nuvamee to the core, and he knew his weakened shielding would not withstand another grenade detonation at that range.
Deciding he needed to press his assault before the humans could finish their boarding party off, 'Nuvamee rose to his full height and bellowed a war cry before charging, plasma rifle blazing wildly in his hand. His fellow Covenant were quick to renew their attack, and a torrent of plasma fire ripped into the humans at the far end of the room. Even as he continued to fire, 'Nuvamee's left hand grasped a small handle attached to his breastplate and he pulled it free.
With a flash of light and a hiss, 'Nuvamee ignited his energy sword. The twin blades of superheated plasma came to life, and the Sangheili swung it in a horizontal motion as he neared the human position. One human gurgled horribly and collapsed as 'Nuvamee's strike slashed across its stomach, causing its entrails to spill out. His next blow took a human's arm off at the elbow. The man barely had time to scream before a plasma pistol blast melted its skull.
Even as several of the remaining humans turned their weapons on him, 'Nuvamee continued his relentless assault. He lunged forward, and in a single sweeping attack, he severed both the head and right arm of an armored human, one of their "Marines." The beheaded human took a single step backwards and fell over, its bright red blood fountaining through the air. The veteran Sangheili warrior whirled around, his blade slashing in a horizonal movement and cutting another human in half.
Meanwhile, a series of blue-white flares streaked into the remaining human positions as Unggoy launched a combined plasma grenade attack. Several fused to targets, giving the doomed humans a few moments of sheer terror before they detonated, incinerating both them and anyone nearby. More plasma streamed into the breached positions, and humans screamed and died as plasma burned through their bodies. 'Nuvamee's sword hissed as it burned through more victims and within moments the firing control center fell silent, it's defenders reduced to burning corpses and blackened, charred body parts.
The mighty Evocati Sangheili turned to his remaining troops.
"Bring the purifying light inside," he ordered with a snarl. "Let us burn this human infestation from the skies."
Hangar Bay A-02 was nearly overrun. Corpses of Marine defenders littered the deck as Covenant forces moved out from where their boarding craft had breached. The aliens had erected several stationary shield generators – large, rounded energy shields that deflected UNSC small-arms fire, and they had also successfully taken the room's upper catwalk. A pair of Grunts, clad in the green armor and environmental suits of heavy weapons specialists, had mounted plasma cannons on the catwalk, and were using the weapons to successfully suppress the few remaining humans in the room.
Just as the Covenant troops on the lower level prepared to charge the pinned down Marines, the Master Chief stormed through the destroyed blast door at the far side of the room near the Marines. His battle rifle fired once, then twice and both Grunt gunners on the upper catwalk slumped to the ground, felled by the Spartan's pinpoint accuracy.
The Spartan bolted into the room before the other Covenant soldiers realized what was happening, and he wasted no time in clearing the enemy out. Behind him, a half-dozen Marines emerged, having followed John from Hangar Bay A-01 and they quickly joined forces with the second bay's surviving defenders before joining the Spartan in battle.
By then, John had closed in with the Covenant forces, and he fired his battle rifle on full-auto mode, quickly tearing through an Elite's personal energy shield and dropping it to the deck in a bloody heap. Without pausing to reload, he swung the rifle at a nearby Grunt, pulverizing its skull before switching to his SMG and unloading it into the alien's companions. As the Marines pushed up along with the Spartan, one of them fell, his face melted to char by a Grunt's plasma pistol. Dubbo roared in fury and turned his assault rifle on the alien, gunning it down in a hail of 7.62mm rounds.
An Elite in red armor whipped around from behind one of the stationary energy shields near the Covenant boarding craft's point of entry and fired an extended burst from its plasma rifle, cutting down another Marine before splashing against John's chest. The Spartan's energy shield flared, golden bands of electricity flickering across his body as they absorbed the plasma bolts. John flicked a plasma grenade towards the enemy, more to drive the Elite out of cover than to kill it.
It worked. Covenant plasma grenades were far more conspicuous than their human counterparts, and the Elite Major quickly dove aside as the glowing blue-white flash of light shot towards it. But this opened it up to the Master Chief's weapons fire, and it soon found itself taking heavy fire from John's SMG. Chips Dubbo and another Marine soon combined their fire on the alien, and the Elite's energy shield broke under the assault moments before its life was claimed by the unrelenting fire from its human opponents.
"Area clear!" One of the Marines called, but only moments later, PFC Dubbo noticed a scene outside the bay windows that he had spotted only minutes ago in the first Pelican bay.
"Uh oh! Hey, their leaving the Athens!"
The Master Chief and the other Marines quickly joined Dubbo by the window. In a scene identical to what they had witnessed before in Hangar Bay A-01, they watched as Covenant boarding craft detached from Athens Station and shot away, moments before a massive purple-white explosion consumed the MAC platform and another ball of flame shattered what of humanity's greatest weapons into thousands of space-borne debris.
While the explosion was still inaudible in the vacuum of space, Athens' closer proximity to Cairo Station meant that the entire station violently shook as the shockwave from the explosion rolled over it.
"Cortana, assessment!" Admiral Hood barked over FLEETCOM.
"That explosion came from inside the Athens," Cortana reported. "Same as the Malta." The AI paused for a moment, before relaying the grim news. "The Covenant must have brought something with them. A bomb."
"Then they sure as hell brought one here." To his credit, Admiral Hood's voice never wavered from its usual indelibly confident tone. "Chief, find it."
Author's note: Woohoo, I'm not dead! I will admit, I kind of fell of fell off the wagon when it came to updating this. Life got quite busy after summer. I picked up more hours at my job. Couple that relationship issues (not gonna go there) as well as just a lack of desire to write, this fic kinda got put on the backburner. It's only recently with all the Halo Infinite hype that my desire to update this came back and so I slowly started to plug away at it. And here we are, almost into 2022 and another chapter is finally out.
Trust me, I want to be able to upload frequently but truth be told, life has a habit of throwing curveballs my way so I'll be up front and say uploads may be sporadic for the foreseeable future. But if and when I can write, I will. So fear not, lol.
And yeah this turned out to be quite the long chapter. Not sure if the future ones will be as long but I managed to cram a lot of (hopefully) good stuff in here, so hope you all enjoy :-)
