Disclaimer: I do not raise claim to the Halo universe, Halo equipment, or any references to the games or franchise. I do own the characters in the following story.
The white glare of slip-space vanished from view as the fast freighter Redeemer shut down it's drive. Hall blinked a few times in an attempt to readjust his vision to the newer, darker surroundings of space. The neutron star off the port side glowed with a dull white that seemed unnatural. Almost alien.
The trio of others from the briefing room hung around Hall's pilot seat like children watching a frog behind their house. None had yet cared to share their names. Hall didn't blame them. It's best not to get attached to someone who may be dead later that day.
"No sign of them?" The woman asked, her loud voice ringing in Hall's ears. He clutched the side of his head and glared at her, warning her not to speak so loudly right next to his head. There was no longer a need to yell over the slip-space drive of the small ship. Light freighters didn't have the oh-so-wonderful sound suppressors around the thing.
"No, nothing." But Hall didn't dare engage the active radar. Doing so would 'ping' the local area and alert any Covenant ships. Considering their hulking transport was all but unarmed, this was not a grand idea.
The marine crossed his arms, "How do we know it's them when we see them?"
"Oh, I don't know," Hall said, his sarcastic voice leaning in, "maybe the brightly colored flag painted on the hull?"
"Did I ask for your opinion, jackass?"
"You certainly needed a verbal kick in the teeth. All I did was give to charity."
The lab tech's nervous voice pitched irritatingly over the two quarrelling soldiers, "What's that?" His hand was pointed at the middle of the freighter's view-monitor.
Hall turned to see what the kid was pointing at, and almost shrugged it off as a rock. But he knew better; there are generally no planetoids around neutron stars. They don't have the mass to keep them in orbit. So whatever it was either was passing through, or under its own power.
"It's not hailing. Covenant?" The woman's voice was still in an obnoxiously loud tone.
Hall ignored her volume, "No, a Covenant cap ship's hull is reflective and would bounce any light. Real shiny. And it's too big to be a smaller ship."
"The Exeter?" The Marine seemed ready to be civil with Hall.
"It's not hailing us."
"No," Hall chimed in, "It's the Exeter."
The Marine roughly grabbed Hall's shoulder, "How can you be sure?"
The pilot simply lifted one hand and gestured towards the aft section of the incoming object, "It's engines are leaking fuel. Ignited fuel."
The engineer in the team automatically knew what that meant, "Oh, my god."
"Yup," Hall confirmed her fears, "it's not Covenant. But Covenant are nearby. If not right on their tails."
Static suddenly filled the crowded crew cabin as the radio chirped to life. A short range transmitter from the inbound ship was trying to establish contact. A series of beeps and clicks followed. Hall went furiously to work trying to match the frequency and send his own message.
"Is that Morse code?" The tech asked, "'Cause I thought that went dead centuries ago."
Hall nodded, "It did. That's an IFF communiqué. It's asking if we're a friend or foe."
The cynical bite of the Marine's voice visited Hall's tired ears again, "Just out of curiosity, what happens if we don't answer?"
"They blow us away."
"Oh."
"Okay," Hall went for the controls and powered up the engines on the small ship, "We're cleared for a landing in the aft bays. We're also warned; it's a mess inside."
The woman raised her eyebrows, confused, "What?"
"You'll see."
The Redeemer glided underneath the on-coming vessel, and the extent of the damage to the cruiser was suddenly evident. Two the frontal cannons had been taken completely off-line, having lost much of the forward defense array to the fusing heat of plasma burns. Large gaping holes opened the ship's interior to deep-space, and though many of the sections appeared sealed off, the occasional burst of air leaving a chamber was impossible to miss. The cruiser turned listlessly on its side, and rolled endlessly in space, it's lateral thrusters spastically firing, with all control of the engine system lost.
The Exeter appeared to be nothing more than a husk of what could have been its former beauty. Midway class ships were lighter and smaller than the hulking Halcyon class. The Midway class cruiser was intended to be an escort ship for the larger types, or act on it's own in small missions behind enemy lines. Normally, the Covenant paid little to no attention to Midway classes, as they could cause little to no harm to even a small Assault Carrier. But the Exeter appeared to be much different. The show of damage claimed that the Covenant did indeed appreciate the damage a lone cruiser could cause if it decided to throw a monkey wrench into the gears. Ironically, that is exactly what it was there to do.
"I'm taking her in. Brace yourselves."
"Jesus…"
It was worse than Hall could've imagined. Flames licked at the side of their craft from the ruptured bay walls, and small battalions of men ran across the flight deck with extinguishers attempting to halt the spread of the flames. The dead and the dying littered the floor. Plasma burns were the only decals on the inside of the fighter storage bays. The screams of the dying and the stench of burnt flesh was the greeting for the newcomers. The corpses had already begun to bloat. They'd been dead a while. Corpsmen were carrying the bodies over to launch tubes for the missile systems and jettisoning the bodies that way. Meatball surgery was the paradox of a saving grace and a horrid treatment a few feet away from them, as there was no anesthetic available to be applied to put down the screaming soldier as a knife sliced open a leg to retrieve a piece of torn rebar. The blood flowed freely across the deck in pools, and even bits of gore were trampled by running men. Some of the organs on the floor even seemed intact.
The woman engineer curled over her gut, as if ready to lose what little she'd had for a meal on the way here. The lab tech was quivering in his boots. The marine, remarkably, was unfazed. He turned to a passing battalion of fire fighters, "Need a hand?" And without another word, he jogged off with them.
"GET A TEAM OVER HERE! THE TANKS! THE TANKS!" The deep voice of an aged soldier called Hall's attention. A small inferno was inching towards a pair of cylindrical tubes, each six feet tall, with a fire hazard symbol on the side.
Before Hall could so much as blink, they went up in a blazing fireball. An invisible wave of warmth washed over Hall, blowing his hair back. Almost immediately afterwards, a second wave seemed to lift him from his feet and carry him backwards on what felt like angel's wings. That is, until he hit the bulkhead of the Redeemer. Something buckled and the pressure was relieved.
Hall blinked, and lolled his head to one side, his vision blurring. The flames continued their dance around him and seemed to circle and blend together, as if they had a conscious mind and wished to descend upon him and consume him. His head felt warm and the flames seemed ready to descend on him and warm the rest of his form.
"Get a medic over here!" The same voice from before called out. A dark shape moved through the creature dividing it's singular purpose and reached down towards Hall. Confused, Hall wasn't sure what the newcomer wanted. Before he recognized the intentions of the form, it made them clear. Hall felt the sensation of weightlessness again, as the form appeared to contain him for a moment, protecting him from the flames. Soon, the heat of the fires were long behind him and the weightlessness was replaced by the soft cushioning of a stretcher.
"Pupils dilated. Pulse erratic. Feel his skin… He's going into shock!" The voices seemed so far away. Hall felt a slight tingling on the back of his head, but never considered what it could be. He just wanted to sleep…
"Get a pack on his head before he bleeds out. And get me some blankets dammit! We don't want to lose him just after he arrived!" He just wanted to sleep…
"Please, don't close your eyes! Please!" The voice of the woman engineer made it's way through Hall's murky mind. He tried to look for her, but his head was restrained to it's position and his eyes were all but useless anyway. "Don't sleep. Not yet."
