Chapter Seven: " What a Good Day
It is to Kick Ass."
"Longswords, cover our approach. Pelicans stand by for drop." Said Cortana over the com. "Cortana can you get those tactical nukes ready any bit faster?" John asked. They were getting very close to the main Capital. They needed that hole in their hull now. The UNSC Capital weapons hadn't impacted where John was hoping they would impact.
"I'm going as fast as I can." Cortana said becoming ticked. He had already asked that six times.
John walked into the cargo part of the Pelican. The marines were starting to get nervous. He could see it in their eyes. He opened a secure channel to Cortana and asked "Can you hurry up? The Marines are starting to think were not going to make it."
"Well would a got couple of rockets to the GOD DAMN ROCKETS TO THE CRUISER MAKE THEM FEEL ANY BETTER?" She replied becoming pissed.
"Maybe." John replied sarcastically. "Right." She said. The ship had small vibrations throughout it and then it was silent yet again. Except for the outside Capital ships.
John walked back to the cockpit and took a seat in the co-pilots seat. He looked out the window and saw the light/dark purple hull of the Cruiser. Cortana came back and asked him "Should I fire those tactical nukes now?" "Yes." He replied.
Three Longswords pulled up next to them. The bottom of the ships opened, revealing three tactical nukes each. The three ships fired two each and then fell back. As John watched the nukes leave trails of exhaust is space there was an explosion near them. They had lost Pelican 23. Two other Pelicans flew up next to theirs. They were badly shot up. The com-link light started flashing.
John hit the button and opened a channel to the Pelicans next to him. "What the hell is going on back there?" John asked. "Were getting shot up pretty bad. Only two Pelicans downed. Numbers 23 and 12. The rest are forming up for infiltration. The Longswords are doing a nice damn job on drawing their fire." Replied one of the pilots.
"Good." John said. "Infiltration in ten." Cortana said. John walked back to the cargo part of the ship and told the marines to load up. Drop in ten. The marines started checking their rifles, snipers, shotguns, and pistols. They stood up and shot a crisp salute at John. "Sir!" They said in unison.
He walked to one side of the ship and picked a S2 AM sniper and a BR55 Rifle off a rack. The ship came to a halt with a thud. The ships docking doors opened and the marines crouched out through the hole in the ship.
John pulled out his BR55 and used the scope to check the area. There was Covenant bodies all over the place. Just floating lifeless. They started their way down the hall to the first door.
The chief did a thermal scan before entering. There were three veteran Elites, five Grunts and seven Jackals. He threw his hand up making a fist. This was the order to halt. The marines did so. Then they crept to the sides of the room. He opened the door and crawled in and stayed behind a crate. The Elites looked at the door and saw nothing. One went to check it out while the other two started talking again.
John heard the footsteps, laid down his rifle and took out a combat knife. Right when the Elite was next to the crate John threw his hand with the knife in it into the Elite, grabbed its chest and pulled him down. He slammed his head into the ground and sliced his neck leaving a slit in it.
The other two Elites saw what happened and went into a crouching position, plasma rifles raised. They threw a plasma grenade at the crate and it went off lowering Johns shield little. The marines burst through the door and started sending off shredder rounds into them. The Grunts went down first, giving the Jackals time to raise their shields and form a defense line in front of the Elites.
Thew started firing their plasma pistols. Three marines went down and the others dove out of the way. They peeked out to fire rounds at them doing nothing.
John started running towards them with his shield lowering. He rolled a frag grenade into the group of Jackals and blew them out leaving only two Elites. The Elites threw down their plasma rifles and slammed out energy swords lunging at John.
Not having enough time to shoot, he grabbed the first Elites hand and threw him into the wall for the marines. The other slashed John in the back. John punched the Elite in the face and grabbed its sword turning it on him. He slashed him and the Elite fell dead. His black/blue blood spilling out of him. The marines had already shot the other. John walked over to the dead jackals and took off their shield bands and handed them out to the marines.
John went and picked up his rifle and started towards the door. There was a grave lift in the next corridors. It was short, so John went up first.
He was met by two Grunts walking along. He quickly ran up to the first one and twisted its neck. He then shot the other through its head. It did a backflip and died. Then two Brutes and a Hunter walked through. John started shooting at the Hunter, barley doing anything. The marines then popped up. John dove out of the way as a marine fired a rocket at them and said
"Ya! That's right you assholes! Who's the man!" One marine walked past and said "Not you." "Your just jealous cause I killed a Hunter and two Brutes. Jackass" The other replied.
"Ya, sure I am." The other said sarcastically. The doors slid open as John and the marines entered. There was a nice amount of Jackals and Grunts in the room. The marines spread out, while John jumped on top of a crate and onto the next level. The marines picked off the Grunts continuously. John pulled the S2 AM sniper of his shoulder and started sniping the Jackals heads off (literally taking off their heads).
Yet again a marine got hit, but didn't die. One of the other marines pulled to cover, nearly getting shot himself.
John popped a Jackal in the head and it flew into the wall. Two green (plasma turret manning Grunts) came up on the third level and started firing on those below. Johns shield went down quick. He put up the Jackals shield band on his wrist. "Shit!" yelled a marine as his hand and part of his arm got blown off.
John started thinking fast. He pulled out a plasma grenade, hit the button and threw it. It went to the Grunts but didn't kill them, it just short wired the turrets (because the grenade stops electrical stuff).
There was a loud smash behind the door they entered from. John ran to a marine, took his shotgun and said to the marines "Keep going, I'll hold off whatever comes through that door." Sir?" A marine asked. "Do it!" John yelled. The marine nodded his head and kept moving with the others.
John ran to the door and hit the lock button and then the shield. But whatever was behind there was breaking through easily. 'Damn, what the hell could break through that kind of shield with no problem?' thought John. As he heard the shield go down in less then five minutes the door started being pushed in.
John tried to think of what it was but had no memory of any Covenant that could do this.
The door suddenly burst open sending sparks all over the place messing up his helmets screen. Something larger than a Hunter burst through with other little, but fast, flying things. Johns vision cleared and went back to normal right when he was sent across the room. As the Covenant would call it, it would be a SangLekgolo.
The other little things he saw he knew, they were Drones.
They carried plasma pistols and they started shooting John. John picked up his rifle and started shooting them. They died easily because they're very weak. He shot the last one and got up. The SL (SangLekgolo) had started his attack. First the SG swung his arm at john hitting him in the back. Johns shields failed. He dropped his rifle, pain now running through his upper back.
'Shit!' thought John as he tried to stand up. The SL started attacking again. Johns shields were charging and when they were at fifty percent there was an explosion behind the SL.
The SL turned around, catching another rocket to his side. Then another to his right. He was about to move when another three rockets hit him. He fell down dead as three marines came out from behind crates. One was Johnson, the other two were Corporal Perez and Corporal Banks. Johnson walked over to John and said with a big grin on his face
"Well I guess there isn't much more of a reason to stick around here." He peered over his shoulder at the dead Covenant and snickered. John nodded his head and began walking. The marines shot a crisp salute at him and started walking behind. Johnson followed along.
They met up with another two platoons of marines and kept a fast pace. Two got shot in a battle and the others had a hard time keeping up. Except for Johnson that is. He was pretty fast with a rocket launcher. They came to a halt at the door to the main security center. The doors slid open as three marines crouched in. Johnson and John covered their flanks.
Two Elites jumped from the side and cut off the two guys on the side's heads. A Jackal shot the other with a sniper. Red blood started to cover the floor and make its way around the room. A trio of honor guard Elites rushed in. Two started blasting at John and Johnson. The other charged and slashed at John furiously. Johnson jumped out of the way and shot a rocket in between the honor guards. One was thrown into the wall unconscious and the others shield dropped. The elite got pissed and took out a sword where it lunged at Johnson.
(Now back to John.) John dodged every way he thought wouldn't get him killed. Left, right, left, right, back and forth. Not much he could do after his BR55 got cut in half. Three marines charged through door and killed the honor guard in front of John. John got up and nodded as a thank-you. One marine pulled out an extra shotgun for him. John gladly took it. Johnson was about to be killed until about a full clip of ammo was wasted on it.
The other honor guard Elite slowly came awake only to be face to face with the barrel of a shotgun. It dropped its plasma rifle and stood up slowly.
John questioned it by himself for a half-hour and came back with some news. "Well if we go through the next door we'll probably have a 99.9 percent chance of dying." He said. "What the hell kind of challenge do we have next? Can't be that tough." A marine said snickering with one of his buddies.
"Our next challenge is a room full of 23 Hunters." John said ticked. The marines laughing face went from funny to serious. "Ok then." He replied turning his head to look at the door. "Well if the know were freaking here why don't they attack?" asked Johnson. "Because the Prophet of Luck is in there waiting for us. "Ah to hell with the bastard. Lets just put some HAVOK mines in there quick, blow up their asses and bam. We're done." Johnson said. "We cant. Our guy with the mines got screwed." One of the marines cut in.
"Damn why is it always us with these kinda missions. I mean seriously why not just send everything we got at the forward ship. Then we take out the rest of their fleet." A marine said. "Johnson take twelve Pelicans and board another ship, capture it and ram it into this one." John said. "What about you?" A marine asked. "Oh we'll be long gone with the Prophet. Just do it Johnson" John said sternly.
Johnson nodded and walked back to the Pelicans. "Get ready to have a blood bath men. Were're going in." and with that John and the marines walked to the door.