CHAPTER SEVEN¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

0730 Hours, January 26, 2535 (Military Calendar)/ Lambda Serpentis System, Covenant Ship near Jericho III

'Plague'

Plague watched helplessly as he fell from the drop ship down toward the floor of the launch bay. Wrench's small vessel accelerated out of the now open doors, and left them behind. He landed hard on the ground a moment later. His shields drained to 50, and he realized the seriousness of his immediate situation. He was surrounded by literally hundreds of Covenant, all of which had a clear shot at him. He had no way off the ship, and his shields weren't even fully charged.

As he was falling he had spotted a number of banshees on their level at the other side of the bay. They wouldn't do them any good however, because by the time they could get over there, they would be killed by the crossfire from the Covenant all around them. Standing there thinking didn't do them any good either, so Plague quickly looked around for another option. There was always another option. There was always a way to win.

He glanced behind him as the first of the Covenant opened fire, and he saw it. He saw the door Wrench had just flown out of. It was open, and that was his other option. That was his way to win.

He yelled over the incoming fire to Brute, "This way. Hurry!"

Brute turned and followed him as he ran toward the door, taking heavy fire as he went. His shields had just reached 0 as he came to the door. Without hesitating, he dove over the edge and into space. As he exited the launch bay, the gravity of the ship's hull kicked in, and he fell to the surface just outside the bay, below the door. Brute joined him a second later. For a moment, they both just lay there, against the hull, waiting for their shields to recharge, and catching their breath.

"What now?" Brute asked.

Plague removed a fiber-optic probe from one of the pouches on his belt. He plugged it into a slot in his helmet, and pushed it up and into the launch bay. He fed the video to Brute so that he could see what was going on as well.

Most of the Covenant were desending to the first level, and already, a number of elites were commandeering the banshees he had seen. That was it! The banshees. He pulled back the probe and disconnected, then stuffed it back in its pouch.

"The banshees," said Plague.

Brute's acknowledgement light blinked.

Plague peeked over the edge of the bay. The banshees were flying low and one was a few meters ahead of the others. Perfect, he thought, and prepared to jump. He waited for a second then hopped back up into the launch bay and jumped into the air, arms stretched above him.

His hand hit the wing of the lead banshee and he closed his fist. The flying vehicle yanked him out of the launch bay and into space. It was imperative at this point that he didn't let go. If he did, he would be flung into space by the banshee's velocity, and eventually be sucked into Jericho III's atmosphere.

Plague used the 0 gee environment to his advantage, and swung his feet forward a bit. The momentum easily carried him up, and he slowly rotated to the top of the wing. He looked behind him and saw Brute on top of another banshee. However, all of the vehicles behind them quickly opened fire. They had to get in quickly or they'd be hit.

Plague brought his attention back to his banshee, and after looping his feet securely underneath its wing, used both hands to pull open the hatch. The elite inside look up at him in surprise as Plague grabbed his armor and threw him out of the cockpit, sending him flying out into space.

A second later, Plague was inside with the hatch sealed. The seat was specially designed to fit elite armor when in the lying down position, which made it very uncomfortable for Plague in his MJOLNIR Mark V battle armor. He wasn't worried about comfort at the moment though.

He turned the craft around and saw ten banshees heading straight for him. So he grabbed the weapons controls and opened fire. One banshee came very close to him, its wing smoking from his fire. Just before it passed, he fired the fuel rod cannon, and the giant, green projectile traveled through space for a millisecond before impacting head on with his enemy's vehicle. The smoking wreckage tumbled past him a moment later.

Just ahead of him, Brute was wreaking havoc with his fuel rod cannon, using the rapid fire plasma cannons between shots. Three destroyed banshees floated in the space around him.

One of the enemy craft broke out of the fight and headed toward Plague. It opened fire with the plasma cannons, and before Plague could react, it fired its fuel rod gun and the glowing, green ball of plasma came straight for him.

'Brute'

Brute watched at Plague was whisked off into space by the alien vehicle and paused for a moment before leaping up himself. He reached up and grabbed hold of another banshee as it passed through the air above him. Unlike Plague's banshee however, the pilot noticed what was going on and the hatch opened. The elite crouched in the open cockpit, and raised his plasma rifle. A second later, he opened fire.

The plasma tore through space, missing Brute at first then splashing across his shields. He quickly kicked his leg, sending him into a spin around the wing, which he held with one hand. As he came around the top, he kicked out, pushing against the wing to give himself more force, and caught the elite in the head. It was still gripping the controls of the banshee with one hand, and as it flew back out of the cockpit it jerked the controls and banshee was sent spinning back toward the ship.

Brute was on top of the wing now, and the elite was no longer gripping the controls, but instead pulling himself onto the opposite wing. The banshee was still hurtling toward the Covenant ship. Brute knew that if they hit the shields they would both lose their grip and be sent flying randomly into space.

He didn't have to make the first move however. The elite foolishly launched himself toward Brute, fists first. Brute spun himself back around the bottom of the wing, and the elite simply passed him and, unable to stop himself in the 0 gees, continued on into space in the same direction.

Brute finished his spin and came to the top of the wing again. He was only a few meters from the ship. Without even getting in the cockpit, he grabbed the controls and steered away as fast as he could. The banshee's left wing scraped the energy shield of the ship, and the lower portion of the wing broke off.

Brute entered the cockpit and lay down in the uncomfortable seat. He glanced at the controls. He had flown a banshee before, and knew what most of them were. It didn't take him long to get the feel for it again.

He turned a little so that he was facing the main battle where Plague was, and accelerated toward it. As he arrived he surprised one banshee from behind and destroyed it with his fuel rod cannon. The wreckage of the ship was sent spinning into the blackness of space.

He turned and spotted more targets. He fired his plasma cannons and drew their attention to himself. As they turned he let loose another fuel rod, destroying one of them. Another flew straight towards him and fired its own fuel rod cannon. Brute rolled his banshee to the left and dodged it. He stopped half way through the roll, putting him upside down in relation to the enemy.

Quickly he flew forward and made a half loop, ending the maneuver directly behind his foe. The banshee tried to turn, but it wasn't fast enough. Brute fired his weapon once more and the vehicle was engulfed in a bright green light, emerging a second later only as blackened remains.

Brute finished off the last of the nearby banshees with a final fuel rod blast, sending the enemy ship tumbling backward toward Jericho III. He scanned the area to confirm the absence of any threats then turned his attention to Plague.

Plague's banshee came into view just as a fuel rod charge collided with it. There was a large explosion, and all that was left was the smoking wreckage of the alien fighter. Brute looked on in horror as he tried to comprehend what had happened.

Before he could do anything though, he saw a figure floating near the dead ship. It was Plague. He must had jumped out at the last second and pushed himself off of his craft. He was now floating quickly toward the ship that had destroyed it.

Before Plague reached it though, it turned and accelerated away, stopping a ways away, and turning toward Brute's ship. After a second's hesitation, it sped toward him firing its cannons. Brute could only hope that he would fare better than Plague.

First he dove down and under the ship, coming back up behind it and firing straight onto its exposed back. It turned though, and opened fire on him. It didn't have a chance. Brute had already launched his fuel rod, and as it began to fire, the deadly projectile hit, and sent it spinning into space, destroyed.

Brute scanned the area around him and quickly spotted Plague. He flew toward him and Plague grabbed onto the wing of the banshee. Brute knew that he could never hope to catch up to Wrench, so the logical thing to do was contact him via the com. He tried opening a link, but he only got static. Wrench was already out of range.

Brute couldn't talk to Plague in the vacuum because of the broken com, but hand signals still worked. Brute opened the hatch of the banshee so that Plague could see him, and pointed at his helmet, then in the direction Wrench was in. Then he made a slashing movement with his hand. Plague acknowledged with a shake of his head. Brute pointed toward the ship, then let his arm stretch out, pushing his hand forward. Plague acknowledged again, and Brute closed the hatch.

Brute trusted that Plague had tightened his grip, and accelerated the banshee back toward the Covenant ship. They had hardly gotten half way there, when the entire back portion of the ship exploded.

'Wrench'

Wrench thought for a moment about what to do. He had lost two teammates, but that didn't mean the mission was over. He had to continue. Grief could come later, the mission couldn't. The next objective would be fairly simple. He had to find the wreckage of the ship and make sure there were no survivors.

He sat down in the pilot's seat, then stood up again and pushed it away. It was much more comfortable standing, as the seat was designed for whatever creature usually piloted the vehicles, probably elites.

As he grabbed the controls and prepared to enter Jericho III's atmosphere, a com channel opened for a fraction of a second. Static played across the channel then it closed. Wrench froze. The channels were encrypted. No one could get in with perhaps the exception of an AI. It had to be a Spartan. The static just meant he was a little out of range.

Wrench immediately turned his ship around and headed back toward the damaged Covenant vessel. He tried opening a com channel, but apparently he was still out of range. He waited a minute, still heading toward the ship and tried again. It worked.

"Plague? Brute? Do you read me?"

There was static for a second, then a reply, "Wrench, this is Brute, and I have Plague with me. Pick us up at these coordinates."

A nav point appeared marking a point near the Covenant ship. Wrench accelerated toward it, "I'll be there in about two minutes." Then he cut the channel.

Two minutes later, he stopped the ship next to them and opened the troop bay door. Brute abandoned his banshee and both he and Plague pushed off of it and floated into the drop ship.

Wrench closed the door behind them. He almost opened a com link, but realized that Plague's was still broken, and the lack of atmosphere meant that external speakers wouldn't work either. Instead he resorted once again to hand signals. He pointed back toward the cockpit. His teammates understood and followed him there.

Wrench took his position at the controls and signaled to Plague and Brute that he was going into the atmosphere. Once far enough in, he could pressurized the ship and they would be able to talk once again.

As they neared the planet, Wrench adjusted their entry angle so that it wouldn't be too steep and sealed the ship to prevent damage to any internal parts. A second later they began the entry and the ship began shake. Wrench tapped a few controls and the ship became steady once again.

He opened a view to the left of ship and spotted the wrecked Covenant ship coming in at approximately the same time. That was both good and bad. It would be harder to tell where it would land, but they wouldn't have to wait on the ground and risk being crushed, a small risk, but a risk none-the-less.

However, a few seconds later, Wrench realized that neither of those things were relatively big problems. A small number of surviving plasma turrets on the ship were warming up. He hadn't considered the fact that their weapons system might have survived.

His reflexes kicked in, and he grabbed the controls. Three balls of heated plasma streaked toward their tiny craft and Wrench pushed it down as quickly as he could. Maneuvering was difficult however when in entry, and the ship hardly moved. It dipped a bit, but the plasma compensated and all three shots hit them dead on.

A warning flashed across the screen in the odd alien calligraphy. The main engine had been hit and disabled. Wrench no longer had any control over the ship. The controls locked up and everything died.

Wrench quickly stood up and ran to the troop bay, signaling for the others to follow. He immediately pulled the manual opening lever for the door, and it sprang up then tore off. Air flooded into the ship.

Wrench activated his external speakers and yelled over the air rushing by outside, "Follow me."

"What are we doing?" asked Plague.

"Just trust me. We don't have a lot of time," Wrench replied.

Plague and Brute both nodded. Wrench hoped that his quickly thought up plan would work. It would have to.

He reached his hand out of the ship as though to test the air. The armor around his hand was quickly engulfed in flames from the friction of the air rushing by. The internal temperature of his armor rose a few degrees. If he exposed his whole suit of armor to that he knew he couldn't last long. That's why he'd have to do it as quickly as he could manage.

He reached his entire arm outside and grabbed onto something above the opening. Taking a deep breath, he swung himself outside and pulled himself onto the top of the ship. He looked back to make sure the others were with him. After a second, a hand came up and Plague pulled himself onto the top as well.

Wrench turned back around and began to move toward the back of the ship, carefully grabbing handholds so that he would not be swept up and away from the ship. He turned his head and glanced to the left. The covenant ship, still falling at about their speed, was warming up its turrets for another round of fire. This time, they wouldn't survive.

Wrench looked back again. Now Brute had made his way on top, and both of them were waiting to see what he would do. It was all up to him, and his plan would have to work. He couldn't fail.

He was now directly above the cockpit, and facing the energy field between the two troop bays. The two ghosts they had loaded on where still there. Carefully he crept forward, until he was at the edge of the ship. Slowly, he stood up, and after a second of contemplation, he jumped out toward the ghosts.