The Longsword shuddered violently as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 was unceremoniously awakened and jettisoned from his peaceful slumbering in the cryochamber. He gripped and steadied himself on the nearest bulkhead as second wave of vibration trembled through his surroundings, causing consoles to crack and spark quite spectacularly. He activated the comm. channel with his neural implant and hailed Cortana.
What just hit us?
Plasma charges Chief, two Covenant cruisers have just slipped out of subspace right behind us. Cortana's voice sounded both thoughtful and panicky at the same time. The Chief sat back down into the control seat and activated the manual piloting controls. The manual displays crackled into life and despite the damage to the consoles, it was still both readable and operable by the Chief. His fingers started awkwardly activating all the necessary systems and defences. It didn't make good reading.
Cortana, just what combat systems are still online?
Not many, primary missile and cannon batteries are offline, same with hull integrity and armour plating. Main Hyperspace and primary sublight drive engines are also screwed. We're running on thrusters and fumes Chief, and I don't know if we will survive their next barrage. We…shit; I've just detected three more burst incoming from the nearest cruiser. Taking evasive manoeuvre Tango-One-Charlie.
The Chief gripped the controls tightly as the craft lurched into an upward spin, before dramatically and repeatedly banking right and left with increasing regularity as the crippled fighter desperately tried to evade the much larger and more powerful Covenant vessels. The Longsword, despite its massive wounds managed to outrun two of the bursts, but the last clipped the port wing and the vessel shook with a massive jolt. The Chief flew forward into the flight consoles and feel to the floor badly winded and with a searing pain in his left arm.
Then all the lights and consoles died and plunged the Chief into darkness. He couldn't feel his left arm after the pain died. He clutched the now useless limb and climbed, breathing hoarsely and rapidly, back into the control seat. But now no button responded to his touch.
How bad Cortana?
The last shot just about finished us off. Main and auxiliary power circuits have been completely blown, thrusters and weapons offline. We're dead in the water Chief. The craft shook again and then lurched suddenly, creating an awful grinding sound throughout the fighter's structure. Chief! They have us in a tractor beam!
It was true; the nearest Covenant craft had locked on an energy beam on the rear of the Longsword and was slowly but surely dragging the crippled vessel into its main hanger. The Chief got up from the chair, and grabbed and opened a nearby medical kit. He took a stimulant and injected it into his left arm. Within a few seconds he got some numb feeling back, and he could just about move his fingers and elbow.
He reattached the battle-worn helmet of his MJOLNIR suit and hurried to the armoury locker at the rear of the ship. He grabbed an Assault rifle and slung it over his shoulder, loading clips of the gun's 7.62mm ammunition and shoving it quickly into his belt at the same time. He then picked up the huge Sniper Rifle position in the middle of the locker and loaded a clip into it, four armour-piercing rounds and then a fight to the death with his rifle. The situation looked pretty hopeless. And Cortana.
Cortana?
Yes, I know what you're thinking, Chief… John, please don't!
The Cole protocol Cortana; no ship's AI must be captured by the Covenant. I'm sorry.
John, John…Please…Cortana sounded frightened, and deep down in his heart so was he. Cortana had saved his life so many times in combat, and he owed her so much. Bitter, terrible emotions and thoughts ran through his mind, but now in the face of certain death or capture, then like any AI Cortana had to be disassembled. He sighed deeply, and within his suit, for the first time since he was six, he cried, a single, silent tear ran down his cheek as he struggled with the worst decision in his life. He slowly reached for the chip at the back of his suit.
JOHN!
I'm sorry Cortana…
John, there's another ship, coming out of subspace!
Ours?
I can't tell, I don't have the designs in my databanks. Go to the forward viewscreen and take a look. John rushed to the forward window and looked out in frantic and anxious anticipation. But his face turned from surprise into despair as the arriving ship turned and revealed its Covenant origins. The chief took a step back and sighed again. He bought his rifle up to his chest in a defiant last salute and gazed at this new aggressor.
But the new Covenant ship wasn't aiming for the Longsword. It had swept its bow past the dead human fighter and was now directly facing the pair of cruisers that had disabled it. John felt another lurch and he suddenly became aware that the Longsword was drifting again. The tractor beam had been cut off, and the Chief wondered what the hell was going on. He stared out the viewscreen again as the more familiar pair of Covenant ships appeared through the window, allowing him to view the strange interaction between the three ships.
The newly arrived ship was larger, much, much larger than any John had seen; at least four or five times the size of the cruisers facing it. Its structure was different too, the decoration more simplistic and functional, the hull more curved and yet more imposing than the graceful lines of the smaller ships. But the weirdest thing of all was how the ships had reacted to each other. All three were now ignoring the Longsword and its passenger, and instead were facing each other down. The pair of smaller cruisers manoeuvred into a tactical striking position, and it seemed to John as if the Covenant ships were hostile to one another. Perhaps they were arguing who got the glory of capturing and killing the human's greatest warrior perhaps? Maybe, but there was something not quite right about it. The Covenant was not going to come to blows over him, surely?
Then something very unexpected happened. The two smaller ships fired a burst of plasma shots at the newly arrived ship. The Chief watched in disbelief as the plasma bursts sped towards their target. The larger craft didn't move, and the Chief, unblinking, gazed in astonishment as the plasma simply dispersed in the bright yellow energy streams across the shields of the larger ship. The larger ship was undamaged, but it returned fire. Instead of the plasma bursts, however, an almost blindingly bright green energy beam shot out of the front of the hull, landing a direct hit on the bow of the nearest cruiser. The cruisers shields held for a moment, but soon began to wane. The barrier of energy started to curve inwards, and then with a flash of energy the shield collapsed entirely, and bright red sparks flew across the surface of the hull as the shield generators short-circuited and blew up. Both cruisers fired another volley of plasma at their opponent, and again the shots were dispersed harmlessly across the ships shielding.
The larger (and by now obviously more powerful) Covenant ship fired its beam cannon again. The beam hit the hull right in the centre of the ship. The metal plating bulged for a second, and then a huge green and red explosion tore the middle out of the cruiser. Debris was flung out violently, and the Chief noticed several large, greenish-blue secondary explosions appearing all over the hull. The crippled cruiser went dark, its engines and weapons array powerless, and the ship began to drift. Its companion rapidly turned as it fired off a fleeting volley of plasma and slipped back rapidly into subspace.
The Chief just stared, memorised at the dead Covenant ship. A hole had been blown right through from the top of the ship through to the bottom; the stars were visible on the other side of the cruiser through the bits of debris now floating aimlessly in space. The larger ship simply held its position for a minute as if contemplating what to do with its fallen prey, and then a single plasma coated device was fired from a small port visible for only a second. It sped towards its target, looking like an ominous shooting star from the Master Chiefs viewpoints. The device hit the dead cruiser and the plasma trail disappeared.
Two seconds later, the cruiser disappeared in a blinding flash of white light. The Chief ducked and covered his eyes, gripping a nearby console as the shockwaves vibrated heavily through the Longsword's hull. When the hull stopped shaking and the light dimmed, he looked out again at the dead ship. It was gone.
The Chief stared at the spot in space where the cruiser had been, the hull pinging to the sounds of little bits of debris banging off the hull.
"Dust and Echoes" he muttered to himself. Then he remembered.
Cortana?
Yep, still here. Not dead, and with no intention of being so either, despite your best efforts.
Don't try me…what the hell just happened out there?
I'm not sure…John, I mean, Chief, the new ship, its, its different?
How?
I don't know, but these scans, I've seen a lot of warships in my time but none like this…CHIEF! He saw what she was warning him of. The new ship had turned towards them. Its bore down quickly on the drifting fighter, and then it fired. A green ball of swirling energy headed for them, and there was nothing the Chief could do except wait and pray.
Goodbye John.
Goodbye…The green energy ball struck the Longsword and everything went black.