Chapter Ten-The Beginning of the End
Updated: The original version clashed somewhat with Chapter 11, and it would be much easier to fix this chapter than the other. Don't ask why.
Author's Note: This was originally intended to be the final chapter but I cut it off early because
1. It was too long and
2. I couldn't keep you guys waiting that long.
So here it is, Chapter Ten. Read, enjoy, review.
The Master Chief sat groggily up on the cold metal floor. Where was he? What was he doing? Why was he even knocked out? He couldn't remember anything. When he turned his head a jolt of pain went through his neck, knocking him to the ground again. It brought back a rush of memories. The mission at the base, the Priest, and finally with his vision becoming blurrier and blurrier until he finally blacked out… The Grand Priest! It had mentioned something about sacrifices and the Covenant homeworld. For some reason, his memory of that wasn't quite clear, and he was still trying to figure out what had exactly happened to him when a sharp boot dug into his back.
"So, the human awakes," the Chief swiveled to the voice. Behind him was a normal spec-ops elite. In the dark shadows of the room, he saw more gray spec-ops armor suits, which meant more elites. Finally, next to what he thought was a door, a blue plasma sword was hovering in the air. No, it was not just a sword. When he adjusted his suit's visor, he saw a gold commander elite.
Even through all this, your suit still works. Amazing! Cortana's soft voice came through his mind. The Chief realized that when he used the visor, the suit was still working. With his strength, he could get out of this place! He tightened his muscles and to his surprise, his hands could not move. Glancing behind his back, he realized that a pair of plasma handcuffs held his hands together.
"The priest will come now." The Elite held out something that looked like a plasma rifle. An arc of electricity shot out from the device, and the Chief's suit shut down, leaving him powerless.
It looks like the suit's circuits for the muscular enhancements seem to be damaged. It will take some time for me to fix this.
"Take your time Cortana, because it looks like we will be here for a very long time." Chief muttered.
The UNSC cruiser Maw…
The AI Havoc stood on a pedestal, speaking to the disheartened Marines.
"Now we all know, the Master Chief was taken by the Covenant Grand Priest at approximately 1200 hours two days ago. The military has no idea where he is, or whether he is alive, or dead. We will have to consider him dead for the moment. Now, look this way, please," Havoc gestured to a hologram floating in the air. "This is an Apocalypse Class hydrogen bomb. It has the power of 200 megatons of dynamite. Each one has an explosion radius of 250 miles and can spread radioactive waste up to 1000 miles away. Several hundred of these can destroy the Covenant homeworld, or at least make it inhospitable. The Maw carries about 200 of these, the same with the Aurora. I forgot to mention that each missile buries about 6800 feet into the ground, kicking up a large amount of radioactive dust that will wipe out all life on the planet. They will launch automatically from the ships. The goal of the ground mission is the same, to take the Prophets hostage. However, James will carry the detonator, which will activate the nukes, which will already be buried in the ground. You have thirty minutes to board your respective ships now, or you will be left behind on the Maw." The AI shut off the displays in the auditorium.
James stood, heading for the door. On the way out, he met Admiral Stanforth, who was heading toward the bridge.
"Son, I just want to wish you luck. I know that you are on the toughest mission on your life. I don't want your team to get distracted by the loss of the Chief. He was one of our best soldiers, but we can't spend our time grieving over him." The Admiral turned and walked quickly out the door.
James watched him go. After a while he sprinted into the armory, which was where his troops were already picking weapons. He grabbed his special assault rifle and took the remaining grenades from an almost-empty crate lying near him. After putting that aside, he selected a sniper rifle off of a nearby weapons rack and started modifying it. He added another battery pack to increase power and put on an extra powerful 30x scope. James strapped a grenade launcher to the top of the gun, and slung it over his shoulder. He also found the remote detonator for the hydrogen bombs and pocketed it along with the ammo, battery packs and grenades before following his troops to the cryo bay, where they were all sealed into their cryo tubes for the trip to the Covenant homeworld.
Admiral Stanforth watched the two new destroyers, christened Revenge and Vengeance, pull out of the half-incinerated Mars shipyard. The ships had been completed earlier than expected and were fitted with the new plasma-Archer missiles, which were similar to the SkyHawks' new missiles. However, both ships did not have AIs. There was no time to install them because the vessels would be accompanying the Maw and Aurora on the mission to the Covenant homeworld. Like the two cruisers, the Revenge and Vengeance were heavily reinforced by protitanium, extra shield power, and outfitted with new, more efficient maneuvering thrusters to dodge Covenant fire. This was because all four ships would try to hold off the alien fleet long enough for James and his team to slip through in the captured Covenant cruiser. It was a risky and extremely dangerous plan. It would take a lot of skill, bravery, wits, and luck.
"Havoc, load coordinates of the Covenant homeworld into the main computer. While your are at it, Havoc, give me a status report of the ship." The Admiral turned and looked at Havoc's figure, floating in the air.
Sir, the reactor has finished charging. MAC guns are at 100 percent capacity, but the techs are bringing on a secondary magnetic accelerator to increase recharge speed and projectile velocity. The techs almost finished the modification of the auxiliary engines, so we should be able to go into Slipspace immediately.
"Alright then. Open a COM link to all of the ships. Transfer ship control to my station, please." The Admiral settled into his chair while pulling tight his safety straps.
Opening COM system now, sir. We have the Revenge, Aurora, Vengeance, and the Covenant ship on channel. Havoc shut his own holographic image off in preparation for the jump. The Admiral pressed three buttons on his control panel as the lights shut off to conserve power. A low rumbling shuddered through the ship as it accelerated to make the jump to Slipspace.
"On my mark, one, two, three, mark!" Admiral Stanforth yelled into the COM system. Space around the ships twisted and molded into green blobs, quickly swallowing the ships, leaving only blackness behind.
The Chief struggled against his bindings. With superhuman strength, he tried moving his hands. However without the power of his suit, the bindings continued functioning, containing him easily. A shadow moved in the corners and appeared in front of the Master Chief. It was the Grand Priest.
"So, human alive. You think you beat me? I Grand Priest! Now you fight the god's animal. Many great ones fight but end up food for it. If you defeat, you get quick sacrifice. If you must be rescued, you will get long and slow sacrifice. Take away!" The Priest pointed to the nearest Elite. The Elite lifted the Chief off of the ground and placed a device on his shoulder. He quickly realized he could move his suit again, but when he tried breaking the plasma chains, nothing happened.
"Foolish human. You cannot break this amsalp niahc. It is has never failed," a nearby spec-ops elite laughed in his face. The Elite guarding him shoved him though the door, leaving him in a gravity lift.
After descending the lift, the Chief was once again surrounded by Elites. Interesting. Not only that the Priest has horrible English- Annoyed by Cortana's casual behavior, the Chief smashed his helmet hard. Okay, okay. All the guards are Elites. I suppose the Grunts and Jackals are not considered worthy. They are lower on the social ladder here. Cortana observed. The Elites glanced at the Chief momentarily, but continued shoving him toward a large tower-like structure. Upon entering the building, there were several commander elites standing watch with their plasma rifles ready. Behind the Elites were enormous Hunters that waved their shields menacingly at the Master Chief. A short walk brought the Chief to yet another gravity lift.
This gravity lift put in a small room. On the left was a hallway leading out to a stadium with cheering Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Hunters. With his eyesight, he saw several Elites and Hunters sitting in a box high above the crowd. In the center sat the Grand Priest. It seemed to be kneeling to the rest of them. The whole arena reminded him of the ancient Romans and the Coliseum they built for gladiator fights, which he had learned about many years ago on Reach.
"The Grand Priest and the Prophets are not worthy of your sight. Chose a weapon, or die, human," A commander elite stated. The Elite pointed to a rack of weapons, which included the MAC gun from the Warthog with several human and Covenant weapons. He carefully chose the MAC gun, which still had an ammo container attached to it, and what looked like a large Covenant laser.
Make the right choice, Chief. Cortana's worried voice echoed in the Chief's head. He inspected the weapons once and nodded to the commander elite. The elites shoved him into the middle of the stadium, where hisses, alien curses, and several types of hard rocks were hurled into his face. A loud roar diverted his attention from the crowd. To his left, an enormous beast was driven into the stadium. It was at least five times the size of its Hunter handlers and armored scales covered its entire body. One Hunter approached too close to the animal and was sent flying into the sky with one powerful swipe of the beast's paw. The handlers quickly rushed away from the beast as the Grand Priest sat on a bag-like device. A disgusting noise reverberated through the stadium. As the crowd roared, the Chief knew the battle had begun.
The beast slowly approached the Chief. It looked down at him, looking down on him like he was an insect. The animal roared, the noise thundering straight down to the Chief's titanium bones. Then it punched at the Chief. He nimbly avoided the blow, leaving the animal's blow to carry straight into the stands. It hit, crushing though layers of super-hard metal like it was paper.
"Good to bad, bad to worse. What a great day," the Chief muttered.
Admiral Stanforth paced back and forth on the bridge of the Maw. Most of his officers were in cryosleep but a few remained on the bridge with him. He was thinking about the Chief. He wondered if the SPARTAN was already dead or dying or if the Covenant spared him for the moment. Knowing the Covenant aliens' hatred of the humans, he thought that the Chief was probably dead. He turned his attention to the screen on his datapad, where a counter was slowly ticking down. The countdown timer was displaying the time for the ship to arrive at the Covenant homeworld. Havoc constantly recalculated the time to make it as accurate as possible. At the moment it displayed that there were three days, eleven hours, thirty-seven minutes and forty-five seconds to arrival. After viewing over the nav data, he resumed his pacing.
Inside the Covenant cruiser, a few Marines were also awake. They were a couple of new recruits and were bringing food to their captured Elite, or, as most of the Marines called it, their "ticket in." When they opened the brig doors and gave it food, the Elite bit hard on a Marine's hand, ripping it clean off with its sharp, shark-like teeth. As the Marine rolled around on the floor in agony, spreading blood everywhere, the other Marines stopped the Elite in its tracks with their plasma-stunners. They bound the alien's mouth with plasma chains, leaving just enough space so it could eat but not bite anything else. Hurriedly, they closed the cell doors and rushed to the Grunt quarters, which had been turned into an infirmary. Not all of the medics were in cryosleep. There were three still inside, cleaning up. This was lucky for the injured Marine, as he would have bled to death quickly. His companions stayed for a while before notifying the AI piloting the ship, who radioed Admiral Stanforth about it. It had been a little bit of excitement for an otherwise dull ship ride.
The monster creature extracted its fist from the twisted shards of metal and alien body parts that had once been stands, filled with Grunts. It lunged at the Chief, grabbing wildly with its gigantic fists. The Chief leapt back in the nick of time. The monster grabbed up a large chunk out of the ground instead of crushing the Chief. The SPARTAN fired his MAC gun at the beast. This only annoyed the giant creature, but it seemed to stun it momentarily. The Chief kept firing at the monster's head, slowly weakening it. He threw the empty weapon away. It hit the ground with a thump. A couple milliseconds later, the alien's enormous fist smashed into the gun, rendering it as flat as a pancake and useless. Quick as a plasma bolt, the Chief leapt onto the nightmare creature's back, smashing away unmercifully at the leathery skin. The monster straightened up, roaring in pain. The sudden movement almost threw the SPARTAN off, but he hung on grimly, ripping out a small piece of skin. The alien cried out again. The Chief saw a huge fist coming towards him and leapt off. The creature's own fist smacked, hard, into its back. There was a sickeningly loud crack, and the monster stumbled, bent double. The Chief swiftly took advantage of the stunned beast, whacking it as hard as he could in the leg. It went down in a huge cloud of dust. The remaining crowd (out of those who had not fled for their lives) roared out in anger. Some Elites in the pulled out plasma rifles and began firing wildly at the Chief. He took cover under his huge opponent, who was being shot at so many times it didn't notice him. Soon it had stopped roaring and shaking because of the innumerable number of plasma streaks hitting it. The Elites continued firing to keep the Chief's head down. Suddenly he noticed a dirty, bloody claw belonging to the beast lying nearby. It had been severed by a well-thrown plasma sword. He grabbed it, using it to cut off a large chunk of the monster's thick skin. It would help shield him from the all-too-familiar onslaught of plasma. He hefted the smelly covering up and ran out as fast as he could. The skin was almost instantly burned away, but the Chief was already at the exit, which was only guarded by two Elites. They were carrying a weapon that looked like a plasma rifle only that it was connected to another device that looked like an energy storage device. When the Elites activated the rifle, a near continuous stream of superheated plasma spewed from the weapon.
Jumping away from the wave of plasma, the Chief leapt over the Elites and kept on sprinting out of the stadium. He fled for his life as the air behind him was filled with long streams of plasma, aimed right for him. In the corner of his eye, he saw the monster climbing to its feet. To his horror, all its wounds were gone and it looked ready to fight again. In fact, it roared once, and then smelled the air. The stench of the skin the Master Chief used to shield himself was still in the air, and the stench trailed the Chief as he hastily ran out of the stadium. However, the Chief had more immediate matters on his hand as he continued to run from the Elites. After sprinting for several minutes, he was not tired at all, but the Elites looked like they were not even exerting any effort at all to keep up with him.
Come on, you've got to think of an idea before we are killed! Look, there is a vehicle pool over there! Cortana yelled.
Glancing briefly to his left, he sidestepped into the group of vehicles, catching the Elites by surprise. As they continued speeding forward, the Master Chief was well on his way in the opposite direction in a Covenant Ghost. The Chief pushed the vehicle to its maximum speed and made a turn to the left to avoid the enormous monster that chased him out of the stadium. The Elite were heading into the vehicle group when the Chief opened fire with the twin plasma cannons, burning through the shields of Elites and shredding their armor. Caught completely by surprise, the Elites could only stand and stare at their imminent doom.
The smoke and steam cleared the air as Admiral Stanforth clambered out of his special cryo tube. Havoc's voice boomed from the intercom. Admiral, the Covenant cruiser will be exiting Slipspace in approximately 1 and a half hours. We will follow 4 hours later to allow them to infiltrate the Covenant command center. I have the other AI of the Covenant cruiser confirming the coordinates of the Slipstream exit point. Confirming… There was a long pause in Havoc's speech he thought for a moment. Ok, the coordinates are confirmed sir, so you have nothing to worry about this time. The intercom shut off, leaving the noise of the other cryo tubes to take over once again with their incessant and irritating drone.
In the Covenant cruiser, everyone was more nervous than ever as the clock counted down toward the beginning of the mission and when the time for turning back was over. Marines strolled around the ship, some polishing their weapons, some chatting with their friends like nothing was happening, and some sat nervously in the hangar, wondering what would happen to them down on the planet. Out of all these actions, James was doing none of them. He was still finishing up his plans for attack, and without an AI, it was extremely difficult. The original plans called for the two SPARTANs leading two groups of Marines, with the Master Chief coordinating the attack with Cortana. With the Chief and Cortana gone however, he would have to lead a direct assault on the Covenant fortress, which was situated in an area heavily patrolled by Covenant troops. He could no longer use the flanking maneuver used in earlier plans, forcing him to find a viable plan of attack. While he sat in his quarters thinking, an idea hit him. Finding that the Covenant would probably be after him, he decided to break up his group in two, with half following him as a diversion, while the other half with attack the fortress and capture the prophets. There were several problems however, that were associated with his strategy. His troops could make a mistake in the assault on the fortress, but he had confidence them, so he put that in the back of his mind. Also, there was the possibility of the Covenant not falling for his diversion, which meant slaughter of his troops. Although they were all possibilities, he had faced odds far greater than this, so he did not worry too much. After surviving Reach, he knew anything was possible. He also knew that in war good men die, and he could do nothing about it.
One hour and thirty minutes later, Admiral Stanforth was on the bridge of the Maw, rapping out orders, finishing his tactical battle plans, and preparing the bridge officers for the fight of their lives. "Men, we have chased these dirty bastards from our great Earth all the way to their damn homeworld! We will kill, we will be killed, but we will not be defeated! Is that clear?!"
The crew yelled together, "Sir, yes sir!"
James and his crew moved the Elite from the brig and put it in the bridge, preparing to use it as identification. The space near the Covenant homeworld began to twist and deform until a large green hole opened up, revealing the Covenant cruiser. As soon as the cruiser exited Slipspace, a Commander Elite appeared on the main viewscreen. It spoke in an alien language to the other Elite, and they talked for some time until both Elites gave grunts of approval. The Covenant seemed to allow the cruiser to land on the planet, so James, who was in the shadows of the bridge, gave the ship's AI to go ahead with the landing procedure.
While the cruiser approached the planet, James gave orders to the Marines to collect their weapons and prepare for landing. As the cruiser settled gently on the planet, the marines rushed out of the ship and quickly killed the surprised Covenant nearby. They charged a nearby security station, and in five minutes, they had established a beachhead on the Covenant homeworld. James gave to orders to bring out the vehicle from the holds of the Covenant ship. The space on the cruiser was limited, so they only had ten Warthogs and five Scorpion tanks to work with. A custom Warthog also rumbled down the ramp, which was just like the Master Chief's one, but only with a front plasma-machine gun for the front passenger.
"Our first targets are the Covenant communication relays. If we are to make it off this planet alive, those need to come down. It will also make our assault on the fortress easier, because they will have no way to call for reinforcements. They are about 5 kilometers to the west of here, so I will take two Warthogs to check the area out. If you see any Covenant, take them out, because this ship is our only way home," James called to the troops. He picked out two Warthogs to accompany him, and then climbed into the gunner's seat, ready for battle. The Warthogs sped into the distance, unaware about the danger they were about to encounter next.
About 300 meters from the communication relays, James and his group of Warthogs stopped to survey the area. When James increased the zoom on his helmet to focus into the communication relays, he realized that the Covenant presence in the area was much heavier than he had expected. There were several spec-ops Elites patrolling the area, looking alert. Four stationary plasma cannons were placed on all sides. He even saw the eerie green glow of Hunter cannons in the shadows of the structure. Numerous Grunts were walking around or resting near trees. A troop of Jackals were doing a patrol, sweeping in a wide circle around the relay.
Instantly, James knew they were in trouble. The Jackals would pass about 100 meters away from them, but their heightened senses of sight, hearing and smell would cause major trouble for them. A marine coughed softly in the seat of the Warthog, not knowing the danger the Jackals posed. Swiveling their pointed heads, they saw the Marines and gave out a hiss of warning while powering up their shields. The Elites and Grunts rushed to the Jackals searching for the Marines. Taking advantage the grouped Covenant, James ordered the Warthogs to charge, surprising the Covenant. Many of them were taken down in the initial charge, but the Hunters were still on the on the other side of the relays. James ordered his Warthog to continue for the relay building while the other Warthogs went around for another pass at the Covenant. Steadying himself, James took close aim with the MAC at the main tower. The private in the front seat fired the plasma machine gun, sending a stream of plasma-coated bullets into a grunt climbing into a plasma stationary gun, flipping the cannon. James fired the MAC gun and a superheated blue streak tore through the main cannon and cut through a Hunter that was standing on the other side. The impact of the MAC round had seriously damaged the structure, and the hole was not helping, either. He pulled out a grenade and threw it into the hole, bringing down the structure. With the Hunters, their fight was not over yet. They had taken cover in the wreckage of the building, bombarding the group with their superheated plasma cannons. A fuel rod bolt hit the hood of James's Warthog, leaving the engine exposed. He fired the MAC gun again, drilling through the wreckage and through the shield of a Hunter, into its orange flesh. The other Warthogs also opened fire, taking down two of them. The private in the passenger seat fired the machine gun at the last Hunter, tearing it to shreds.
As James gave orders to the Warthogs, he heard the high whine of Ghosts on the horizon. He stared hard at the Ghosts, their noise ever increasing. Two Wraiths accompanied the Ghosts, following close behind. A Banshee howled in the air, flying ahead of the Ghosts. The Covenant had probably spotted the smoke from the tower, which would draw more and more to the area. There was no way his forces could hold off such heavy firepower, so he ordered the Marines at the Covenant ship to put their equipment back into the ship, hoping that they would arrive in time. If not, he was in serious trouble.
The Marines waiting at the ship quickly packed up their vehicles and headed into the Covenant cruiser. When the last Marine jumped in, the ship quickly hovered off the ground and started speeding toward the other Warthogs. In mere seconds, they had covered the five kilometers and they were ready for battle. The Banshee, having spotted their forces, began to rain down plasma on the three scout Warthogs. James fired off the MAC, penetrating its cockpit with a single shot, making it a heap of useless scrap metal. The Ghosts quickly opened fire, filling the air with plasma. The Marines had been taught by Cortana how to use the Covenant cruiser, so they fired the pulse lasers. They sliced through the Ghosts, ripping them apart easily. Seeing that they were vastly overpowered, the Wraiths pulled back, but James did not want to take any chances, so he ordered the tanks to fire again, completely obliterating the Wraiths.
The immediate threat over, James proceeded to brief the Marines. "We are severely outnumbered, but we can outsmart those bastards. The fortress is obviously heavily guarded and the troops guarding it will not leave to pursue any foe, unless there are fast vehicles that can retreat fast, which no doubt there are. To make it easier for us, a few Warthogs will attract the vehicles' attention. They will lead them back to the Scorpions and get the hell out of the way before the place becomes a barbecue. There are bound to be Wraiths and Hunters, too, so here's where the cruiser comes in. It has very heavy shields and armor and awesome firepower, so it'll be very useful. Move out! This is what you've been training your whole life for!"
On the bridge of the UNSC cruiser Maw, Admiral Stanforth watched nervously as the countdown timer reached zero. The green view of Slipspace began to fade into… the blackness of normal space. There were only several destroyers, not the massed fleets the Admiral had expected. The Covenant seemed to be considerably surprised, due to the hurried way they powered up their shields. Most of their fleet was on the other side of the planet, with no way to get there in time.
"So, James had disabled those communication relays as he said! I thought the Covenant would be ready for a fight, especially after the initial attack by James's forces. Havoc, I assume you already had the MAC guns charged, so you can fire at will. While you're at it, scan for a tracking signal I had implanted in the Covenant cruiser. If they are in range of a dropship, I want you to send six or seven down there to help," ordered the surprised Admiral.
Yes sir, ready to fire on your order. The Covenant cruiser is in range sir; I am sending several dropships now. While conducting the scan, I have also detected the Master Chief's FOF tag. I don't what to make of it, though. Havoc turned to the Admiral.
"Strange, why would they bring him to the Covenant homeworld? I don't get it. Anyway, get a lock on his position and notify James. Havoc, target those two lead ships. Give the orders to the other ships to hold the Covenant as long as they can. We will take on the main Covenant group," called the Admiral.
With a thundering roar, the Maw unleashed three huge projectiles covered in plasma at the alien vessels. The first round penetrated completely though one of the frigates, shattering it into millions of gleaming hull fragments. The other two rounds, not even a second apart, struck a cruiser. The first shot slammed through the shields and mutilated the nose of the ship. The second struck the weakened hull, which buckled under the immense amount of damage and was crushed into millions of tiny pieces.
Gazing through the haze of wreckage, the Admiral spotted numerous streaks of charging-up pulse lasers. Behind them, the shadow of only ten Covenant starships began to appear through the wreckage. The final battle in space had begun.
"What the hell? Ten ships? This is all they have to protect their most important planet?" yelled Stanforth. The bridge crew were equally confused.
Sir, I am intercepting a number of distress calls, several mentions of "infidels tainting the holy ground" and "recall from the mission of sacred eradication." Taking evasive action to avoid those lasers. However, there is simply no way that we can evade all of them. We might take some damage, but I think it will be minimal. I have also detected swarms of fighters heading up from the planet. Engaging point-defense cannons now. Havoc directed the cannons toward the fighters, taking out most of the front row, but for every fighter destroyed, 10 more appeared.
"Do those fighters think they can mess with us? Run them down!" roared the Admiral. The ship shot forward, smashing through hundreds of helpless fighters as they fired on the Maw in vain. On the bridge of the massive cruiser, the impact was almost nonexistent while the heavy shields and armor took most of the damage. A fighter exploded right on the bridge shields, sending the crew ducking to avoid the blinding flash.
"I'm never doing that again," muttered the Admiral while rubbing his eyes.
James sat in his Warthog, listening to the latest tactical briefings while constantly on the lookout for Covenant troops. "Sir, I have some bad news on the Covenant fortress. It looks like it is defended by some sort of plasma cannon designed to fire on incoming aircraft. This means that we have to go in on foot without the cruiser, and we can't use any sort of dropships to bring in supplies. Either we take that tower out, or we have to come up with a new plan."
"Okay, we'll take the gun out first. See if we can get any reinforcements from the ships in orbit. We'll need everything they can send." James said over the COM.
The Marines and SPARTAN watched explosions in the distance. Black dots were descending quickly from space. A blue energy beam would lance into the sky. Once they were close enough, the humans saw that they were Pelicans. Four had blackened and cracked armor plating. Ten of them landed near James, five carrying Warthogs, five Scorpions.
"Pile out!" ordered the Sergeant. Marines jumped out of the dropships.
"It seems you ran into some trouble," noticed James.
"Yeah, there was some big cannon. It was gigantic…fifteen dropships came down, but as you can see, only ten made it. Those bastards' beam cut right through the shields of our dropships! We had some close calls, as you can see. All right, you're clear to go!" the Marine shouted to the Pelican pilots after giving James the information.
"No, wait. If they try to get back to their mother ships, they'll be blasted to hell. Have them dock inside the Covenant cruiser," suggested a Marine.
"Good thinking, Marine! At least one person was listening in OCS!" complimented the Sergeant. He redirected the dropships into the Covenant craft hovering nearby. Now there were fifteen Warthogs and ten Scorpions, all filled with passengers. There were a few medics, too. They would stay behind and establish a temporary base/infirmary, along with the troops not in a vehicle, which numbered forty-six. So the total count for the human forces was 160 Marines (ten piloting the Covenant cruiser, three to a Warthog, which had a driver, passenger, and gunner, except for James's, which only had a driver and passenger, and six to a Scorpion, which had two crew and four passengers apiece) and a SPARTAN. It wasn't much, but then again the humans had always been outnumbered.
The Warthogs rolled to a stop about 500 feet away from the guns, hidden from view by a dense forest of trees. The Scorpions had to wait until the battle was over, because the trees prevented them from moving through. They could have easily blasted apart the forest, but that would alert their enemies. The location was clear of pressure sensors or mines-if the heavy weight of the Warthogs didn't set them off, what would? Covering his Warthog with a camouflage blanket, James walked off to meet with his troops.
"Men, that is the target. First, I want Johnson and a small squad to try and take a look around their base. Once the Covenant troop concentration is assessed, we will attack with full force, taking them by surprise," said James. He walked to a crate of grenades, giving 4 out to each Marine. "Remember, use these wisely. We have a limited supply, so don't go throwing these everywhere."
The scouts didn't have to go far. As soon as they stepped quietly out of the trees, the thick ranks of Elites and Grunts told them enough. Slipping back into the forest, they relayed the news to James.
"One thousand at least? Not very good odds, don't you suppose?" Although they were greatly outnumbered, the Marines had fought-and survived under such odds. James picked up his assault rifle and headed for his Warthog, giving orders as he went. The Warthog started up, with the others following in quick succession.
The human troops did not have long to wait for action. The Warthogs roared out of the dense foliage with plasma-machine guns firing. The Covenant forces were not very surprised because they had heard reports of the previous encounters, but the humans still had a slight advantage. Most low-ranking Grunts fled screaming, but the officer and spec-ops Grunts, along with the Elites, open fire with plasma pistols, rifles, and needlers. The Warthogs drove rings around their enemies spinning wildly. This made most plasma shots useless, but the needlers were a little more effective with their homing mechanisms. Sometimes the Covenant soldiers would accidentally hit their own allies. The passengers and gunners fired crazily into the masses of enemy soldiers. Plasma bullets tore through the aliens. Some of the fleeing Grunts had finally calmed down and started to fire shots at the Warthogs. However, they had stupidly massed themselves, thinking it would protect them. However, it made it easy for only one Warthog to run most of them down. Sure enough, one of the vehicles broke off from the main battle and dodged behind the Grunt ranks.
The driver revved the engine up. Some of the aliens turned, but it was too late. Blood and body parts spewed everywhere from the crushed alien soldiers.
"Disgusting," said the Marine that was in the gunner's seat of that Warthog. He was covered in Grunt parts.
The remaining Covenant forces were being battered by the circling vehicles. Victory was in sight for the human forces until a Ghost force arrived. Thirty of the hover vehicles sped towards the battle. The air was thick with deadly plasma bullets from the Warthog gunners and passengers. This forced the aliens to retreat and rally around the Ghosts.
"Get back in to the cover of the trees! Wait for them to come for us and then open fire!" James ordered. Quickly, to avoid being slaughtered by the furious stream of plasma, they drove back into the forest. Many Warthogs were scarred by plasma, but their occupants had not been badly hurt and they were still operational. The Covenant fell for the trap. Ghosts who had gone in too close were shredded by fire from the plasma-machine guns, and it was difficult for the alien pilots to get a good shot in because of the trees and their own movement. If they stopped, however, they would meet certain death. All the Marine gunners had to do, though, was find a clear path through the trees to fire through and blast anything that was hostile in their line of sight.
Seven flaming Ghost hulks, filled with holes from the plasma rounds, were now resting on the ground. James decided the odds were even enough. "Rush the Elites and Grunts! NOW!" he yelled. The Warthogs broke cover and sped out again with guns blazing. They did not stop to engage the Ghosts and instead fired on the move. James had them continue on towards the alien foot troops, crushing them. Now the battle was truly even. Ghosts exploded one after another, plasma bullets tearing through their thin armor like knives through hot butter. Soldiers had ears ringing from the constant sounds of guns. The Covenant did not go down without a fight, however. One of the Warthogs was hit repeatedly in the engine. Flames spewed out and threatened to engulf the whole vehicle. The crew leapt out just in time.
In the tense silence after the confrontation, James radioed the tanks. "You are clear to make a path through the forest to the tower." Loud explosions announced this. Firefighting crews moved quickly behind the huge tanks, putting out fires caused by the shots so the whole forest wouldn't burn down. If it did, then Covenant forces would be alerted of their presence if they didn't know already, and what cover remained would be gone if the Covenant attacked again.
When the tanks arrived, they immediately began shelling the giant guns. Before long the lethal plasma cannons were reduced to another pile of smoking scrap metal.
"Well, that was easy!" remarked a Marine.
James quickly stifled this remark. "Never think of it that way. If you take it casual against that fortress, you will be killed faster than you can think. If there was ever a time when you needed your skills, it is now. Don't cut back. This is it, boys, we're going in."