Halo does not belong to me, neither does the Spartan plan and the weapons
But I do own, the Reaper Rifle, all of the Characters in this story, Azola,
the ideas, Pelican Squadron 322, the Rantalers, the Eagles, the Wolves and
also the Flat fish
Pelican 332: Into Azola
Chapter1: Pelican Squadron 332
Authors Notes: This is not my first ever fan fiction but it is my first ever fan fiction about combat and science fiction. So please R&R
Deep in space everything lay still and quiet, apart from large chunks of the Covenant ring world Halo slowly drifted around the solar system. They twirled and changed their axis but still always moved in the same direction as they always did. The atmosphere had completely broken down. Bodies of Covenant and marines littered the surrounding space, thousands of the warriors who had died in battle. Fighting for what they believed was right, the soldiers of the Pillar of Autumn were only fighting to protect themselves from the Covenant armada. Covenant cruisers began to gather around the wreckage and scan for any traces of the human force that had retreated from Reach.
After a while they found no signs at all of the force, most of the crews on board the ship seemed disappointed. They were looking forwards to killing one of the soldiers that had cut down their brothers in combat. Three of the Covenant cruisers broke of from the main swarm and headed towards one of the largest chunks. It floated pointlessly through space heading no particular direction; no one would care where it turned up. The main threat had already been destroyed as the atmosphere was crushed. Something was calling those three cruisers to that one chunk; a beacon of some sort played a strange message over and over again inside the bridge. The sound was like a small song whistled into tune, a human noise.
Grim smirks crept onto the faces of all of the crew, prey they had something to kill, something that they could take sweet, joyful revenge on. The front cruiser arrived first and stopped along side of the chunk that was almost a full semi circle. Three large Covenant Drop ships slowly were released from the hanger bays and began to descend towards the ring segment. All of the thirty Covenants inside the ships were Elites; they all wore special breathing apparatus that slowly supplied them with methane gas. As they came closer to the LZ objects on the ground started to take shapes. The beacon came from deep in a cavernous valley, the Drop ships continued on course into the valley. Long lights clicked on in the valley and shone down from the Drop ships, the valley became much brighter then it was. On the valley wall there was a large edge, a small camp was set up and along the ledge along side 18 Pelican Drop ships with attached tanks and Warthogs stood motionless and silent, their back doors closed. The Covenant plasma turrets slowly turned and took aim at the small tents that were standing along the cliff ledge. The plasma blew the tents into pieces and set them on fire, no return fire echoed through the narrow valley. If there were any soldiers left with maybe breathing masks on they had already been incinerated. The Drop Ships lined the ledge and the doors by the edge opened and the first 15 Elites jumped out to secure the area as the Drop ships moved round to out load the rest of the Elites. The Elites spilt into two groups, 15 searched the wrecked tents while the others slowly approached the pelicans. By what they could see there was no movement in the ship and there was no sound from anywhere on the radio frequencies.
The Elites marched right up to the door and looked into the holding bay, it was empty. Two Elites jumped into the back and walked up to the cockpit as the others went to check out the other Pelicans. One Elite kicked open the door as the other jumped in and looked around, there was nothing. Something flashed on a console near the lead Elite, the Elite looked over and tried to read the message. It was written in human tongue and impossible to be read by the Covenant Elite. Suddenly it made sense to the Elite, it was something they had been told to look out for.
"Nav coordinates"
The Elite grinned evilly, this was it, they had been instructed to look out for this. Although the objective had been called off a few weeks ago, this was away to earth and it was all here in this small cockpit, this would be enough for the Elite to be promoted to a higher and more respectful rank. Not only that, but it was real evidence of where earth is.
Only hours later the Pelicans and their attached vehicles were slowly getting taken back to the lead cruiser. The back doors were closed as the heavy Drop Ships dragged them back through the atmosphere. The Pelican's weren't to be damaged until they had the Nav out of them. Suddenly something moved in one of the Pelicans, a large metal title slowly was lifted from the floor. It slid heavily across the floor revealing a large compartment then was 2 foot deep and the width of the pelican across. Suddenly hands appeared at the edges, hands wearing fingerless gloves, human hands. A marines head appeared from the hole, he had a rough cut beard and long flowing brown hair that ran down to his shoulders.
"All clear!" The marine shouted as he swept the area with his dark brown eyes, he pulled himself out of the hidden compartment and unholstered his standard issue assault rifle. Seven more marines climbed out off the compartment along with one officer wearing normal officer clothing and a cap, also along was a pilot. The lead marine looked over the small team that accompanied him in the Pelican.
"So Lone, what's your plan now?" Asked one of the marines his voice irritated. Lone looked at him slowly, the marine was quite old in his mid 50s, and he had short grey hair and was annoyed that he had to listen to a young marine. But still he did listen; Lone had saved them on the planet by locking them all into the Pelican.
"Well Pete, we wait here until the Covenant open the doors up again then we storm the cruiser. The bridge is never far from the landing bay so we should run like hell through the complex get to the bridge and seal the area down. Also, Roxy I want you and Victor to get a Scorpion tank up and running. Clear the area for us before we get out." A female marine immediately nodded in response, she brushed her long red hair off her face with a swipe of her waist.
"I'll do my best, Sergeant!" She saluted then took a seat along the walls, she picked up two pistols and waited by the door on the nearest seat.
"Matthews, keep them under heavy fire at all times. We can't let those ugly little shits breathe!" A marine sitting in the corner looked up, his face covered with cuts and slight burns, all from battles with the flood and Covenant. If he every tired for a job in fighting, his face would probably be his resume. He held a large mini gun in his large muscular arms, he looked at Sergeant and gave a short nod. Matthews hated to take his time, he would always do things extremely fast and extremely accurate at all times. Lone looked over the other marines, O'Hara, Hawkins and Viking who were all Hell Jumpers, they were itching for combat. Black the officer grabbed a M203 grenade launcher and slowly walked up to the door and waited. Dole the pilot went up to the cockpit and deactivated the Nav, she had only left it on so the Covenant would capture the Pelicans and help the plan work. Lone sat down in one of the cars, he watched the door leading out into space. Suddenly noises echoed into the Pelican, they must have left the Vacuum of space. "Lets roll marines, kick ass and never surrender."
"Hooah!" Shouted back the group of mismatched marines. Most of these marines had proven themselves to him already and he knew what their limits were. He had found it out on the assault mission where they met some of the other navy officers. They had gone right into the Covenant stronghold and slaughtered the sleeping occupants. Suddenly the Pelican stopped as it landed on the hard metal ground of the hanger bay. The large doors began to open on the back of the Pelican; Lone marched up to the open door and stood in the way. All the eyes in the Covenant hanger turned from what they were doing to the human.
"Hey guys!" Lone cocked his rifle and jumped down from the Pelican closely followed by his team. Lone suddenly regarded his plan, he stared into the eyes of 40 Elites, 200 grunts and 90 Jackals. The Elites called for the Covenant forces to form into sections, the grunts up front, the Jackals behind and the Elites watching the battle. The other Pelican doors began to open, and troops filed out of them all. Two Scorpion tanks were detached from the Pelican tanks and some of the soldiers broke of towards them including Roxy and Victor.
"Fire team Whisky, hold this hanger bay. Everyone else follow me, we're going for the bridge!" Shouted Lone as he turned towards a large door at the far end of the door and started towards it at a run.
"Lay down cover fire!" Shouted Matthews as he fired into the panicking grunts with his Mini gun. Grunts fell as others opened fire on the firing squad, a few of the super heated green plasma blots struck some of the marines with Lone. The other marines reached the door and escaped into the corridor, the fire team all moved into cover and fired at the Covenant. The marines broke from cover, each carrying a Jack Hammer missile launcher and fired them into the lines of Elites. The roars of dying Elites filled the air as many of the elites were killed instantly while others died much longer and more painful deaths. The force of the Covenant began to flee, all but the 10 remaining Elites who began to rush into battle. Five remained behind and lay down covering fire with their plasma rifles as the other 5 ran at the fire team with short cylinders in their hands, the cylinders suddenly exploded out as an energy sword appeared from it, soon the cylinder became the handle of the mighty weapon. Two loud explosions sounded as the two Scorpion tanks fired into the elites firing at the soldiers. The five Elites were heavily wounded, silvery purple blood exploded from the Elites and showered over the surrounding area. The five bodies landed with heavy thuds on the hard metallic floor, they then lay motionless never to move or kill again. A series of continuous loud clicks echoed off the Mini gun, Matthews immediately threw down the empty Mini gun and pulled his assault rifle out. He fired a full clip into the leading Elite as it leapt at him, it crashed into the ground beside him and rolled a few times before lying silent.
The Elites reached the front few marines and rammed into them at full speed not hitting them with their swords but with their inner arms. The soldiers were knocked onto the ground, as the Elites stood over them raising their swords to bring them down sharply onto the soldiers. The machine guns on the scorpion tanks fired into the four standing Elites cutting them down almost instantly. Suddenly the ship start to shake as plasma torpedoes exploded on the side of the hull, the soldiers stumbled and the tank slid on the slippery metal floor. Matthews hold of a box as the ship shook, he quickly searched the area for any signs of advancing covenant but all the doors were still sealed.
"Those weren't breaching charges; I think they are firing at us!" Shouted Matthews as he reloaded his assault rifle. "Men get around the hanger, check for weapons or anything we can salvage. Also if you find any Engineers don't kill them just put them all into one of the Pelicans. We could use them for this war effort. And these are orders from Lone so ya'll better follow them or you'll have my big toe up your arse for the rest of the mission!" The soldiers immediately ran off and started to collect different equipment, weapons. Suddenly the radio crackled as it came to life.
"Matthews watch out," There was static, "in the roof!"
The large group of 100 marines passed down the main corridor in long rows, they stopped as Lone gave the signal.
"Ok guys listen guys, I know we are all like a team but there is way to many of us, in such a cramped little corridor. 117 men here and about 50 in the Hanger, we need all of you marines to spilt into 5 teams of twenty. I will take the remaining 17 with me to the bridge, the other 5 teams will get missions to do. I am leader of red team, O'Hara you are in charge of Blue, Hawkins you are green, Dole you are Black and Freeman you are violet. Get your teams together then meet me up at this cross junction." Lone broke from the main crowd of marines as they began to form into squads of twenty, they all knew Lone and they spilt into their normal teams where he had put them on the training exercises. Lone had helped them win most of the training exercises after he had become team leader. After joining the Pillar of Autumn and fighting for reach he had become Capt Keyes favourite and most trusted marine due to courage and strength. Lone sat down at the cross junction looking down the corridor towards the bridge, something was wrong they had moved through most of the ship but hadn't seen one sign of the Covenant. This was bad, Lone pulled the large rucksack of his back and opened it, he peered inside it.
The contents were, a few dozen clips for his Assault rifle, a note pad, a pen, a laptop tucked into the main pouch, a pile of floppy disks and a Colt Python with a large box of bullets. Closed the main compartment and opened a slightly smaller compartment at the front, he pulled out a heavy metal gauntlet that had a built in Laptop and motion tracker. Lone slipped it on over his normal gauntlet and began to press buttons; he pulled out a long lid and attached it to a small socket in the wall.
"Blazer I want you to scan this entire ship, get me a full diagnostic and map of this ship. I want to know where all the hunter seeker squads are." He said into his com-link.
"Roger, hacking in progress. Boy these defences are quite poor." Said a rough male voice. "I have picked up a large swarm of Covenant in the bridge and engine rooms. Some brutes in the hanger bays, they're on the roof. Dear god, there are about 70 Brutes surrounding that area, call out Matthews!" Shouted Blazer. Lone stood up and slung the backpack onto his back in an instant.
"Matthews watch out, there are 70 brutes in the roof!" Shouted Lone into his head set. "Black, Violet and Blue pull back to the Hanger and assist the Fire Team!" O'Hara, Dole and Freeman all saluted then led their soldiers at a sprint down the corridor towards the Hanger Bay. Lone looked at the rest of his soldiers, he motioned for Hawkins to come up to him; Hawking immediately walked up to him and looked at him.
"Hawkins, you take your team down to the engine room. Wipe out everything that moves, I will take my team up to the bridge and take this ship." Lone patted Hawkins in the back and started towards his 17 soldiers. "Lock and load fellows, we leave in 1!" All of the soldiers checked their weapons then stood ready, Green team left towards the engine room, using a map that Blazer had found of the ship. Lone led his team down a corridor up towards the third level of the hanger that was close to the Bridge. He stepped out onto the ledge atop of the hanger bay first and was approached by a brute carrying a plasma rifle. Lone fired into it with his assault rifle, then charged and hit it in the chest with the butt of his rifle, the creature stumbled and fell backwards of the ledge, Lone walked up and looked over the edge down at battle below.
Matthew's eyes quickly jumped to the top two ledges of the hanger bay, Brutes lined both of them. The large ape like creatures looked down at the human, furious roars sounded from the creatures' mouths.
"Fire at will!" Shouted Matthews, two explosions erupted from the Scorpion tanks barrels. The rounds exploded on the second floor ledge, large sheets of flame rained out and covered most of the Brutes standing on the second level. All of the other Brutes jumped of the ledges and fell towards the soldiers below. The soldiers began to fire up into the bottom of the Brutes as they leapt down towards them. Ten of the brutes landed on the ground in front of the soldiers, they jumped forwards and swiped at troops. They knocked 10 of the soldiers away; the soldiers hit the ground hard and rebounded of it. The Brutes turned onto the other soldiers and started to attack them in hand to hand combat. Matthews fired into them with his assault rifle taking one of them down, it fell with a heavy thud and splat of dark purple blood. Heavy machine gun bullets struck two of the other brutes from the Scorpion tanks. Large chunks of blood and flesh were blown away from the Brutes' large masculine bodies. The two creatures fell as the barrage of bullets stopped hitting them and the raining of blood and flesh stopped. The other seven brute pulled out long plasma rifles and started to fire into the retreating soldiers. Many marines were cut down by the molten plasma bullets. The extreme heat from the plasma as it struck melted armour and burnt the soldiers. Most of the soldiers were only wounded by the plasma, but it still made them wish that they were dead. As Matthews ran there was a call from far above, he snapped his neck up sharply and saw Lone throwing something down for him. Matthews saw the weapon falling ever closer to him; it soon took shape and appeared as his Colt Python. He caught it and took aim at one of the Brutes heads, he fired a single round into its head, crushing its skull and blowing grey matter out of its head.
He turned and fired into another ones chest, the creature staggered but continued to keep running. It smacked Matthew's outstretched weapon arm, then charged into him knocking him off his feet. The creature stood over him roaring, it lifted its mighty arm over the wounded man. Matthews held his arm in pain, the heavy blow had dislocated his arm. He tried to stand but the creature kicked him down to the ground, with his huge three toed foot. Suddenly a loud echo sounded from the top ledge as a sniper fired through its head, blood splattered over Matthews. The 50 calibre round blew three quarters of the Brutes head over the wounded marine. A large dented hole appeared next to Matthews as the bullet passed straight through the thick skull of the brute. The bullet ricocheted off the floor and hit the wall at the opposite edge of the wall and made a large dent but the remains of the bullet fell and became harmless on the floor. Matthews rolled out of the way as the heavy, smelly beast landed heavily on the ground where he lay seconds ago. The rest of Brutes were quickly killed by the remaining marines, they fell along side their fallen allies and enemies. The bodies of 27 marines lay on the ground; only 10 of these soldiers were actually dead the other 17 were rolling around on the ground holding some part of their body in pain. Matthews picked himself up slowly and looked over his fallen comrades; this was the biggest loss that his team had ever lost in the entire conflict. Even on reach his men had stayed calm collected and had survived most of the conflicts before pulling back to the Pillar of Autumn for evacuation.
"Yo Dante, get my arm back into its socket!" Matthews shouted over to one of the marines in the crowd. The marine walked up to Matthews and grabbed him by the right arm, he began to try and pop his arm back into place. There was a loud crack and great pain shot through his arm, as it popped back into place. Matthews grit his teeth and shook of the pain, he had no time to feel pain at the minute and he had to get at making a list of KIAs for when they return to earth. He looked out at all of the dead marines; this was the hardest part of his job ticking of the dead. He pulled out a small cloth and wiped some of the dark purple blood of his helmet before setting to work with the dead bodies. An explosion sounded on the hull of the ship, one of extreme strength, most of the marines were knocked of their feet.
"What the hell just hit us?" Shouted Lone looking around the hanger bay.
"Yo Lone get to the bridge, we need to get outta here!" Shouted Matthews waving him towards the bridge. Lone nodded, he wanted to stay and help mark of the dead but he knew that Matthews could handle it by himself.
Lone lead his troops through a long corridor towards the bridge, he was following the map exactly. Only 20 metres down the corridor and a right turn then they would be in the bridge and home free.
"Blazer I want you to tell me how many Covenant are in the bridge, can you get a video clip?" He asked the A.I.
Blazer was slowly taking over the Covenant battle net on the cruiser, he was taking basically all of the information that he could find. He was looking for something that he knew where stored in the memory banks, it was deep in the shadows. Something that would help the marines win, not just the weapons systems, the technology but the wisdom. He wanted to find the coordinates of the Covenant Home world, if he found those they could bomb the planet and finish of the Covenant threat. Suddenly he found something, deep in the data base it was a navigation computer, it saw it but only a glimpse as he passed. He stopped and went back, he looked over a file he saw reading home world in the Covenant language.
"Now what do we have here!" He muttered to himself as he opened the file. The A.I fell silent as he saw the contents; this was not what he was looking for. This must have been wrong, he read over the coordinates at least a hundred times before he accepted it, the coordinates were for Earth.
"Lone we have a problem," Said the A.I over the radio.
"Why how many Covenant are in the bridge?" Asked the unsuspecting Lone.
"No its not about the bridge, I found something in the database. It's the coordinates to earth and I have picked up a small battle plan as well it looks like they are building up a fleet to attack Azola and then Earth. They are sending 5 of their super characters towards earth first then the rest of the fleet will start to bombard Azola. We need to reached Azola and pull out those marines; if we lose them the war for earth will be lost." Lone nodded to himself and looked into the worried eyes of all of his marines, he and they knew what would happen if the Covenant force reached earth. It would mean the complete wipe out of the human race, but that wasn't going to happen if Lone could do anything to stop it. Lone continued his advance towards the bridge, all of his soldiers put their faith in their leader, and with him on their side in this ship they stood a chance.
Lone walked up to the door blocking him from the bridge, he pushed a few buttons on the control panel. The door strained and squeaked as the metal rubbed against itself but still it didn't move.
"Little pig, little pig let me in or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll pull your door down and shove it up your arse!" He shouted, holding his hand out towards one of his soldiers. The soldiers pulled of his backpack and gave it to Lone, the contents were quickly spilt out onto the floor. A large pile of explosives lay in front of him along with a detonator, Lone pick them all up and started to set the explosives along the edge of the door. The thick C-20 attached easily to the door, the thick of the explosives were then attached by a long wire and the wire attached to the detonator. Lone moved back along with his marines and stood 30 feet away, not taking any chances with the lives of all of his men.
"Knock, Knock anyone home!" He pushed the button on his detonator and closed his eyes to block it from the blinding light produced by the blast. The door was blown from the wall and into the bridge crushing the entire Covenant force trying to hold the door closed. Dark and light, purple and blue blood sprayed over the wall and the raised platform in the centre.
"Move in!" Shouted Lone as he sprinted down the corridor with his assault rifle raised towards the smoke that blocked his view of the Bridge. He fired the medium calibre rounds through the smoke to make sure there were no hidden enemies in front of him. He slowly crept through the smoke; he heard absolutely no noise from the other side of the smoke. He reached the other side of the smoke and looked over the bridge, there was nothing there. He sighed from relief and slowly walked forwards towards the capsized door. He walked up to it and looked underneath it, there were 6 Elites behind the door all stained with blood. Lone never trusted the dead Covenant so he fired a clip of his Assault rifle into the 6 dead Elites. One of the Elites roared out as the bullets broke through its shield and ripped holes through its back. The Elites all then fell silent and lay motionless by his feet, Lone turned away and walked away.
"Blazer get the engines started up, fire at the nearest cruiser and prepare us for slip space!" Said Lone as he whistled to signal his team to follow him into the bridge, "Yo guys, where the hell is Purple, Black and Blue teams they didn't go to the hanger. Someone get onto the Com and call up Green team check their status and get them to meet us up here!" One man used his head set and called down it for the other teams all to report their status. There was a long pause before the radio buzzed again to admit an answer.
"Sir this is Hawkins, we have cleared all of the Covenant in the engine room, one of my boys got hit through he's in bad shape but he should pull through!" Said Hawkins's voice. Then the radio fell silent again, to let another team have a chance to answer. It was a good long few minutes before the radio buzzed again.
"This is O'Hara its good to here from you guys, see we took a wrong turn while heading for the hanger, but we found some rather interesting rooms. I'll highlight them on the map for you!" Shouted O'Hara down the radio, like he was trying to talk over something. Lone looked at the map in his heads up display, a few of the rooms not far from the hanger began to turn green. There were 3 medium sized rooms and 4 large rooms, all along the one side of the ship.
"Ok O'Hara I'm coming down there, is the path clear between the two of us?" Asked Lone. "Cause I don't want one of those ugly buggers popping out and taking a shot at me!"
"Yeh I think so, you should just follow the blood and bodies, and then you'll find us. We ran into one of their hunter killer parties down here, they tried to make a last stand in one of the rooms!" Lone stepped out the door and began his jog down the corridors to meet up with the rest of the squadron, thinking about what could be in the rooms.
If the hunter killers had decided that it was worth it to stay and fight against the marines to defend those rooms there must be something in there. Something that the Covenant didn't want the humans to find, or didn't want them to use against them. This could be what they need to help stop the Covenant threat for good.
Pelican 332: Into Azola
Chapter1: Pelican Squadron 332
Authors Notes: This is not my first ever fan fiction but it is my first ever fan fiction about combat and science fiction. So please R&R
Deep in space everything lay still and quiet, apart from large chunks of the Covenant ring world Halo slowly drifted around the solar system. They twirled and changed their axis but still always moved in the same direction as they always did. The atmosphere had completely broken down. Bodies of Covenant and marines littered the surrounding space, thousands of the warriors who had died in battle. Fighting for what they believed was right, the soldiers of the Pillar of Autumn were only fighting to protect themselves from the Covenant armada. Covenant cruisers began to gather around the wreckage and scan for any traces of the human force that had retreated from Reach.
After a while they found no signs at all of the force, most of the crews on board the ship seemed disappointed. They were looking forwards to killing one of the soldiers that had cut down their brothers in combat. Three of the Covenant cruisers broke of from the main swarm and headed towards one of the largest chunks. It floated pointlessly through space heading no particular direction; no one would care where it turned up. The main threat had already been destroyed as the atmosphere was crushed. Something was calling those three cruisers to that one chunk; a beacon of some sort played a strange message over and over again inside the bridge. The sound was like a small song whistled into tune, a human noise.
Grim smirks crept onto the faces of all of the crew, prey they had something to kill, something that they could take sweet, joyful revenge on. The front cruiser arrived first and stopped along side of the chunk that was almost a full semi circle. Three large Covenant Drop ships slowly were released from the hanger bays and began to descend towards the ring segment. All of the thirty Covenants inside the ships were Elites; they all wore special breathing apparatus that slowly supplied them with methane gas. As they came closer to the LZ objects on the ground started to take shapes. The beacon came from deep in a cavernous valley, the Drop ships continued on course into the valley. Long lights clicked on in the valley and shone down from the Drop ships, the valley became much brighter then it was. On the valley wall there was a large edge, a small camp was set up and along the ledge along side 18 Pelican Drop ships with attached tanks and Warthogs stood motionless and silent, their back doors closed. The Covenant plasma turrets slowly turned and took aim at the small tents that were standing along the cliff ledge. The plasma blew the tents into pieces and set them on fire, no return fire echoed through the narrow valley. If there were any soldiers left with maybe breathing masks on they had already been incinerated. The Drop Ships lined the ledge and the doors by the edge opened and the first 15 Elites jumped out to secure the area as the Drop ships moved round to out load the rest of the Elites. The Elites spilt into two groups, 15 searched the wrecked tents while the others slowly approached the pelicans. By what they could see there was no movement in the ship and there was no sound from anywhere on the radio frequencies.
The Elites marched right up to the door and looked into the holding bay, it was empty. Two Elites jumped into the back and walked up to the cockpit as the others went to check out the other Pelicans. One Elite kicked open the door as the other jumped in and looked around, there was nothing. Something flashed on a console near the lead Elite, the Elite looked over and tried to read the message. It was written in human tongue and impossible to be read by the Covenant Elite. Suddenly it made sense to the Elite, it was something they had been told to look out for.
"Nav coordinates"
The Elite grinned evilly, this was it, they had been instructed to look out for this. Although the objective had been called off a few weeks ago, this was away to earth and it was all here in this small cockpit, this would be enough for the Elite to be promoted to a higher and more respectful rank. Not only that, but it was real evidence of where earth is.
Only hours later the Pelicans and their attached vehicles were slowly getting taken back to the lead cruiser. The back doors were closed as the heavy Drop Ships dragged them back through the atmosphere. The Pelican's weren't to be damaged until they had the Nav out of them. Suddenly something moved in one of the Pelicans, a large metal title slowly was lifted from the floor. It slid heavily across the floor revealing a large compartment then was 2 foot deep and the width of the pelican across. Suddenly hands appeared at the edges, hands wearing fingerless gloves, human hands. A marines head appeared from the hole, he had a rough cut beard and long flowing brown hair that ran down to his shoulders.
"All clear!" The marine shouted as he swept the area with his dark brown eyes, he pulled himself out of the hidden compartment and unholstered his standard issue assault rifle. Seven more marines climbed out off the compartment along with one officer wearing normal officer clothing and a cap, also along was a pilot. The lead marine looked over the small team that accompanied him in the Pelican.
"So Lone, what's your plan now?" Asked one of the marines his voice irritated. Lone looked at him slowly, the marine was quite old in his mid 50s, and he had short grey hair and was annoyed that he had to listen to a young marine. But still he did listen; Lone had saved them on the planet by locking them all into the Pelican.
"Well Pete, we wait here until the Covenant open the doors up again then we storm the cruiser. The bridge is never far from the landing bay so we should run like hell through the complex get to the bridge and seal the area down. Also, Roxy I want you and Victor to get a Scorpion tank up and running. Clear the area for us before we get out." A female marine immediately nodded in response, she brushed her long red hair off her face with a swipe of her waist.
"I'll do my best, Sergeant!" She saluted then took a seat along the walls, she picked up two pistols and waited by the door on the nearest seat.
"Matthews, keep them under heavy fire at all times. We can't let those ugly little shits breathe!" A marine sitting in the corner looked up, his face covered with cuts and slight burns, all from battles with the flood and Covenant. If he every tired for a job in fighting, his face would probably be his resume. He held a large mini gun in his large muscular arms, he looked at Sergeant and gave a short nod. Matthews hated to take his time, he would always do things extremely fast and extremely accurate at all times. Lone looked over the other marines, O'Hara, Hawkins and Viking who were all Hell Jumpers, they were itching for combat. Black the officer grabbed a M203 grenade launcher and slowly walked up to the door and waited. Dole the pilot went up to the cockpit and deactivated the Nav, she had only left it on so the Covenant would capture the Pelicans and help the plan work. Lone sat down in one of the cars, he watched the door leading out into space. Suddenly noises echoed into the Pelican, they must have left the Vacuum of space. "Lets roll marines, kick ass and never surrender."
"Hooah!" Shouted back the group of mismatched marines. Most of these marines had proven themselves to him already and he knew what their limits were. He had found it out on the assault mission where they met some of the other navy officers. They had gone right into the Covenant stronghold and slaughtered the sleeping occupants. Suddenly the Pelican stopped as it landed on the hard metal ground of the hanger bay. The large doors began to open on the back of the Pelican; Lone marched up to the open door and stood in the way. All the eyes in the Covenant hanger turned from what they were doing to the human.
"Hey guys!" Lone cocked his rifle and jumped down from the Pelican closely followed by his team. Lone suddenly regarded his plan, he stared into the eyes of 40 Elites, 200 grunts and 90 Jackals. The Elites called for the Covenant forces to form into sections, the grunts up front, the Jackals behind and the Elites watching the battle. The other Pelican doors began to open, and troops filed out of them all. Two Scorpion tanks were detached from the Pelican tanks and some of the soldiers broke of towards them including Roxy and Victor.
"Fire team Whisky, hold this hanger bay. Everyone else follow me, we're going for the bridge!" Shouted Lone as he turned towards a large door at the far end of the door and started towards it at a run.
"Lay down cover fire!" Shouted Matthews as he fired into the panicking grunts with his Mini gun. Grunts fell as others opened fire on the firing squad, a few of the super heated green plasma blots struck some of the marines with Lone. The other marines reached the door and escaped into the corridor, the fire team all moved into cover and fired at the Covenant. The marines broke from cover, each carrying a Jack Hammer missile launcher and fired them into the lines of Elites. The roars of dying Elites filled the air as many of the elites were killed instantly while others died much longer and more painful deaths. The force of the Covenant began to flee, all but the 10 remaining Elites who began to rush into battle. Five remained behind and lay down covering fire with their plasma rifles as the other 5 ran at the fire team with short cylinders in their hands, the cylinders suddenly exploded out as an energy sword appeared from it, soon the cylinder became the handle of the mighty weapon. Two loud explosions sounded as the two Scorpion tanks fired into the elites firing at the soldiers. The five Elites were heavily wounded, silvery purple blood exploded from the Elites and showered over the surrounding area. The five bodies landed with heavy thuds on the hard metallic floor, they then lay motionless never to move or kill again. A series of continuous loud clicks echoed off the Mini gun, Matthews immediately threw down the empty Mini gun and pulled his assault rifle out. He fired a full clip into the leading Elite as it leapt at him, it crashed into the ground beside him and rolled a few times before lying silent.
The Elites reached the front few marines and rammed into them at full speed not hitting them with their swords but with their inner arms. The soldiers were knocked onto the ground, as the Elites stood over them raising their swords to bring them down sharply onto the soldiers. The machine guns on the scorpion tanks fired into the four standing Elites cutting them down almost instantly. Suddenly the ship start to shake as plasma torpedoes exploded on the side of the hull, the soldiers stumbled and the tank slid on the slippery metal floor. Matthews hold of a box as the ship shook, he quickly searched the area for any signs of advancing covenant but all the doors were still sealed.
"Those weren't breaching charges; I think they are firing at us!" Shouted Matthews as he reloaded his assault rifle. "Men get around the hanger, check for weapons or anything we can salvage. Also if you find any Engineers don't kill them just put them all into one of the Pelicans. We could use them for this war effort. And these are orders from Lone so ya'll better follow them or you'll have my big toe up your arse for the rest of the mission!" The soldiers immediately ran off and started to collect different equipment, weapons. Suddenly the radio crackled as it came to life.
"Matthews watch out," There was static, "in the roof!"
The large group of 100 marines passed down the main corridor in long rows, they stopped as Lone gave the signal.
"Ok guys listen guys, I know we are all like a team but there is way to many of us, in such a cramped little corridor. 117 men here and about 50 in the Hanger, we need all of you marines to spilt into 5 teams of twenty. I will take the remaining 17 with me to the bridge, the other 5 teams will get missions to do. I am leader of red team, O'Hara you are in charge of Blue, Hawkins you are green, Dole you are Black and Freeman you are violet. Get your teams together then meet me up at this cross junction." Lone broke from the main crowd of marines as they began to form into squads of twenty, they all knew Lone and they spilt into their normal teams where he had put them on the training exercises. Lone had helped them win most of the training exercises after he had become team leader. After joining the Pillar of Autumn and fighting for reach he had become Capt Keyes favourite and most trusted marine due to courage and strength. Lone sat down at the cross junction looking down the corridor towards the bridge, something was wrong they had moved through most of the ship but hadn't seen one sign of the Covenant. This was bad, Lone pulled the large rucksack of his back and opened it, he peered inside it.
The contents were, a few dozen clips for his Assault rifle, a note pad, a pen, a laptop tucked into the main pouch, a pile of floppy disks and a Colt Python with a large box of bullets. Closed the main compartment and opened a slightly smaller compartment at the front, he pulled out a heavy metal gauntlet that had a built in Laptop and motion tracker. Lone slipped it on over his normal gauntlet and began to press buttons; he pulled out a long lid and attached it to a small socket in the wall.
"Blazer I want you to scan this entire ship, get me a full diagnostic and map of this ship. I want to know where all the hunter seeker squads are." He said into his com-link.
"Roger, hacking in progress. Boy these defences are quite poor." Said a rough male voice. "I have picked up a large swarm of Covenant in the bridge and engine rooms. Some brutes in the hanger bays, they're on the roof. Dear god, there are about 70 Brutes surrounding that area, call out Matthews!" Shouted Blazer. Lone stood up and slung the backpack onto his back in an instant.
"Matthews watch out, there are 70 brutes in the roof!" Shouted Lone into his head set. "Black, Violet and Blue pull back to the Hanger and assist the Fire Team!" O'Hara, Dole and Freeman all saluted then led their soldiers at a sprint down the corridor towards the Hanger Bay. Lone looked at the rest of his soldiers, he motioned for Hawkins to come up to him; Hawking immediately walked up to him and looked at him.
"Hawkins, you take your team down to the engine room. Wipe out everything that moves, I will take my team up to the bridge and take this ship." Lone patted Hawkins in the back and started towards his 17 soldiers. "Lock and load fellows, we leave in 1!" All of the soldiers checked their weapons then stood ready, Green team left towards the engine room, using a map that Blazer had found of the ship. Lone led his team down a corridor up towards the third level of the hanger that was close to the Bridge. He stepped out onto the ledge atop of the hanger bay first and was approached by a brute carrying a plasma rifle. Lone fired into it with his assault rifle, then charged and hit it in the chest with the butt of his rifle, the creature stumbled and fell backwards of the ledge, Lone walked up and looked over the edge down at battle below.
Matthew's eyes quickly jumped to the top two ledges of the hanger bay, Brutes lined both of them. The large ape like creatures looked down at the human, furious roars sounded from the creatures' mouths.
"Fire at will!" Shouted Matthews, two explosions erupted from the Scorpion tanks barrels. The rounds exploded on the second floor ledge, large sheets of flame rained out and covered most of the Brutes standing on the second level. All of the other Brutes jumped of the ledges and fell towards the soldiers below. The soldiers began to fire up into the bottom of the Brutes as they leapt down towards them. Ten of the brutes landed on the ground in front of the soldiers, they jumped forwards and swiped at troops. They knocked 10 of the soldiers away; the soldiers hit the ground hard and rebounded of it. The Brutes turned onto the other soldiers and started to attack them in hand to hand combat. Matthews fired into them with his assault rifle taking one of them down, it fell with a heavy thud and splat of dark purple blood. Heavy machine gun bullets struck two of the other brutes from the Scorpion tanks. Large chunks of blood and flesh were blown away from the Brutes' large masculine bodies. The two creatures fell as the barrage of bullets stopped hitting them and the raining of blood and flesh stopped. The other seven brute pulled out long plasma rifles and started to fire into the retreating soldiers. Many marines were cut down by the molten plasma bullets. The extreme heat from the plasma as it struck melted armour and burnt the soldiers. Most of the soldiers were only wounded by the plasma, but it still made them wish that they were dead. As Matthews ran there was a call from far above, he snapped his neck up sharply and saw Lone throwing something down for him. Matthews saw the weapon falling ever closer to him; it soon took shape and appeared as his Colt Python. He caught it and took aim at one of the Brutes heads, he fired a single round into its head, crushing its skull and blowing grey matter out of its head.
He turned and fired into another ones chest, the creature staggered but continued to keep running. It smacked Matthew's outstretched weapon arm, then charged into him knocking him off his feet. The creature stood over him roaring, it lifted its mighty arm over the wounded man. Matthews held his arm in pain, the heavy blow had dislocated his arm. He tried to stand but the creature kicked him down to the ground, with his huge three toed foot. Suddenly a loud echo sounded from the top ledge as a sniper fired through its head, blood splattered over Matthews. The 50 calibre round blew three quarters of the Brutes head over the wounded marine. A large dented hole appeared next to Matthews as the bullet passed straight through the thick skull of the brute. The bullet ricocheted off the floor and hit the wall at the opposite edge of the wall and made a large dent but the remains of the bullet fell and became harmless on the floor. Matthews rolled out of the way as the heavy, smelly beast landed heavily on the ground where he lay seconds ago. The rest of Brutes were quickly killed by the remaining marines, they fell along side their fallen allies and enemies. The bodies of 27 marines lay on the ground; only 10 of these soldiers were actually dead the other 17 were rolling around on the ground holding some part of their body in pain. Matthews picked himself up slowly and looked over his fallen comrades; this was the biggest loss that his team had ever lost in the entire conflict. Even on reach his men had stayed calm collected and had survived most of the conflicts before pulling back to the Pillar of Autumn for evacuation.
"Yo Dante, get my arm back into its socket!" Matthews shouted over to one of the marines in the crowd. The marine walked up to Matthews and grabbed him by the right arm, he began to try and pop his arm back into place. There was a loud crack and great pain shot through his arm, as it popped back into place. Matthews grit his teeth and shook of the pain, he had no time to feel pain at the minute and he had to get at making a list of KIAs for when they return to earth. He looked out at all of the dead marines; this was the hardest part of his job ticking of the dead. He pulled out a small cloth and wiped some of the dark purple blood of his helmet before setting to work with the dead bodies. An explosion sounded on the hull of the ship, one of extreme strength, most of the marines were knocked of their feet.
"What the hell just hit us?" Shouted Lone looking around the hanger bay.
"Yo Lone get to the bridge, we need to get outta here!" Shouted Matthews waving him towards the bridge. Lone nodded, he wanted to stay and help mark of the dead but he knew that Matthews could handle it by himself.
Lone lead his troops through a long corridor towards the bridge, he was following the map exactly. Only 20 metres down the corridor and a right turn then they would be in the bridge and home free.
"Blazer I want you to tell me how many Covenant are in the bridge, can you get a video clip?" He asked the A.I.
Blazer was slowly taking over the Covenant battle net on the cruiser, he was taking basically all of the information that he could find. He was looking for something that he knew where stored in the memory banks, it was deep in the shadows. Something that would help the marines win, not just the weapons systems, the technology but the wisdom. He wanted to find the coordinates of the Covenant Home world, if he found those they could bomb the planet and finish of the Covenant threat. Suddenly he found something, deep in the data base it was a navigation computer, it saw it but only a glimpse as he passed. He stopped and went back, he looked over a file he saw reading home world in the Covenant language.
"Now what do we have here!" He muttered to himself as he opened the file. The A.I fell silent as he saw the contents; this was not what he was looking for. This must have been wrong, he read over the coordinates at least a hundred times before he accepted it, the coordinates were for Earth.
"Lone we have a problem," Said the A.I over the radio.
"Why how many Covenant are in the bridge?" Asked the unsuspecting Lone.
"No its not about the bridge, I found something in the database. It's the coordinates to earth and I have picked up a small battle plan as well it looks like they are building up a fleet to attack Azola and then Earth. They are sending 5 of their super characters towards earth first then the rest of the fleet will start to bombard Azola. We need to reached Azola and pull out those marines; if we lose them the war for earth will be lost." Lone nodded to himself and looked into the worried eyes of all of his marines, he and they knew what would happen if the Covenant force reached earth. It would mean the complete wipe out of the human race, but that wasn't going to happen if Lone could do anything to stop it. Lone continued his advance towards the bridge, all of his soldiers put their faith in their leader, and with him on their side in this ship they stood a chance.
Lone walked up to the door blocking him from the bridge, he pushed a few buttons on the control panel. The door strained and squeaked as the metal rubbed against itself but still it didn't move.
"Little pig, little pig let me in or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll pull your door down and shove it up your arse!" He shouted, holding his hand out towards one of his soldiers. The soldiers pulled of his backpack and gave it to Lone, the contents were quickly spilt out onto the floor. A large pile of explosives lay in front of him along with a detonator, Lone pick them all up and started to set the explosives along the edge of the door. The thick C-20 attached easily to the door, the thick of the explosives were then attached by a long wire and the wire attached to the detonator. Lone moved back along with his marines and stood 30 feet away, not taking any chances with the lives of all of his men.
"Knock, Knock anyone home!" He pushed the button on his detonator and closed his eyes to block it from the blinding light produced by the blast. The door was blown from the wall and into the bridge crushing the entire Covenant force trying to hold the door closed. Dark and light, purple and blue blood sprayed over the wall and the raised platform in the centre.
"Move in!" Shouted Lone as he sprinted down the corridor with his assault rifle raised towards the smoke that blocked his view of the Bridge. He fired the medium calibre rounds through the smoke to make sure there were no hidden enemies in front of him. He slowly crept through the smoke; he heard absolutely no noise from the other side of the smoke. He reached the other side of the smoke and looked over the bridge, there was nothing there. He sighed from relief and slowly walked forwards towards the capsized door. He walked up to it and looked underneath it, there were 6 Elites behind the door all stained with blood. Lone never trusted the dead Covenant so he fired a clip of his Assault rifle into the 6 dead Elites. One of the Elites roared out as the bullets broke through its shield and ripped holes through its back. The Elites all then fell silent and lay motionless by his feet, Lone turned away and walked away.
"Blazer get the engines started up, fire at the nearest cruiser and prepare us for slip space!" Said Lone as he whistled to signal his team to follow him into the bridge, "Yo guys, where the hell is Purple, Black and Blue teams they didn't go to the hanger. Someone get onto the Com and call up Green team check their status and get them to meet us up here!" One man used his head set and called down it for the other teams all to report their status. There was a long pause before the radio buzzed again to admit an answer.
"Sir this is Hawkins, we have cleared all of the Covenant in the engine room, one of my boys got hit through he's in bad shape but he should pull through!" Said Hawkins's voice. Then the radio fell silent again, to let another team have a chance to answer. It was a good long few minutes before the radio buzzed again.
"This is O'Hara its good to here from you guys, see we took a wrong turn while heading for the hanger, but we found some rather interesting rooms. I'll highlight them on the map for you!" Shouted O'Hara down the radio, like he was trying to talk over something. Lone looked at the map in his heads up display, a few of the rooms not far from the hanger began to turn green. There were 3 medium sized rooms and 4 large rooms, all along the one side of the ship.
"Ok O'Hara I'm coming down there, is the path clear between the two of us?" Asked Lone. "Cause I don't want one of those ugly buggers popping out and taking a shot at me!"
"Yeh I think so, you should just follow the blood and bodies, and then you'll find us. We ran into one of their hunter killer parties down here, they tried to make a last stand in one of the rooms!" Lone stepped out the door and began his jog down the corridors to meet up with the rest of the squadron, thinking about what could be in the rooms.
If the hunter killers had decided that it was worth it to stay and fight against the marines to defend those rooms there must be something in there. Something that the Covenant didn't want the humans to find, or didn't want them to use against them. This could be what they need to help stop the Covenant threat for good.