Warior: Thanks for the review. Yep, I just loved Nathan so much . . .


Section I

Cairo Station

Part I: Assault


The award ceremony was cut short.

I stood outside the chamber where Lord Hood had been addressing UNSC personnel. The Covenant fleet had already engaged Fleet Admiral Harper around the Athens, Malta, and Cairo. Boarding ships were on the way, which was just dandy.

Vic was down the stairs, with Sergeant Johnson and a girl. Weapons had been spread out over a series of cargo boxes. I trotted down the stairs, taking an SMG, when the Master Chief walked in. I stared upwards as the towering green monolith stepped down the stairs, took a Battle Rifle and two SMGS. Without a word, he marched down the second flight of stairs. Johnson, Vic, the girl, and another sergeant in a uniform started off into the next room. I followed them.

As I entered, someone from the Malta spoke over the comm: "Stand by . . . Relax. Check your targets; watch the crossfire. Their standard formation: little bastards up front, big ones in back. Good luck, Cairo." After the message, I looked out the huge glass panels on one side of the room. Plasma volleys and huge, blue lasers cut through space. Boarding craft popped like balloons. Occasionally, a human frigate or cruiser would explode in a dazzling orange splash.

A moment later, a boarding craft docked with the Cairo just beyond the bulkhead. I could see it clearly through the glass. Sergeant Johnson began unfolding a mobile 30-caliber gun turret, shouting, "Feel the fire on that bulkhead! Soon as it opens up, let 'em have it."

The Master Chief dropped behind one of the titanium barriers set up below the platform Sergeant Johnson stood on. I dropped down there, standing beside the silent Vic Doyle. Indeed, a moment after Johnson's announcement, the bulkhead began to heat up. The sealed orange door was beginning to glow in the center. The door was on the other side of the room; several computer stations separated us from it. To the right, on another raised area, were a few more computers and large screens that displayed the Cairo.

The glow grew. I could here the sounds of plasma fire and yelling of Marines on the other side. The glow spread across the bulkhead, and, in a burst of steel and smoke, it folded in and shattered. Without waiting for visual confirmation, the Master Chief unloaded the SMG magazines. A few Grunts managed to survive the initial barrage and escape the smoke, only to fall from the bullets. An Elite rushed forward, and the Marines attacked; I joined in, with my SMG. Its shields evaporated and the purple blood splashed across the floor as it went down.

The Chief ducked behind a larger barrier and reloaded. A second wave marched in, three Grunts and another Elite – I fired, and they fired back. The girl took a plasma shot and stumbled, whimpering from the burn. I ducked down behind the barrier and reloaded quickly. The MC finished reloading, and jumped back out, slicing through the remaining Grunts. An Elite evaded by ducking behind the computers; the Master Chief rushed forward, emptying shells into the alien's shields as he went. Once in hand-to-hand-combat range, the Spartan slammed one SMG into the Elite's face, and the shields broke. In the other hand, he stuffed the other sub-machine gun into its stomach, and unloaded the magazine. The alien went limp as the bullets pierced its stomach.

I watched with amazement. The Master Chief dropped one SMG and rolled back as two Elites rushed into the room, which happened to be Recreation R-01. He dropped behind one of the computers and switched to the Battle Rifle. I raised my SMG over the barrier and fired on the Elites as they dropped down onto the floor from a raised hallway. Vic, who covered the narrow path between the computers and the raised area, fired at them with a Battle Rifle. The uniformed sergeant, who used a Magnum, also had a clear view. The girl was kneeling behind the larger barricade as her wound steamed. Poor private, I thought.

The Elites stayed behind the computers, using them as cover as their shields recharged. They both dual-wielded plasma pistols.

The MC strafed across our side of the room, firing when he got a clear look at his enemies. One was shot in the head, caught with its shields down. The other tried to escape, jumping foolishly straight into Johnson's line of fire. He filled it full of 30-calibur lead, just as yet another wave marched into Recreation R-01. Chief took point, slaughtering the first few Grunts. His shields took a few hits from the Elite before he killed it.

Drunk with excitement, I called, "Attack!" The Marines, Johnson, and the Spartan jogged into the next room, through the broken bulkhead. It was dark and smoke filled the air. I knelt beside a dead Marine, face scarred from plasma fire. Sadly, I removed the dog tag and looked to the left; there were more barriers, and more Covenant beyond them. The Master Chief charged in, and I recognized the sound of turret somewhere in his vicinity.

The MC eliminated the Elites with a combo of SMG fire and melee attacks. Vic told him that the Marines would remain here; silently, he disappeared out of my sight. Sergeant Johnson turned toward the destruction of the bulkhead. The Marines assembled.

As we grouped together down the hall, by a surviving bulkhead, I stared blankly at the girl. She was gritting her teeth and whimpering from a plasma hit? It was just one. I had taken dozens, maybe even hundreds, in the time I had been in the UNSC.

I glanced at Vic. He raised one eyebrow at the girl. She whimpered. Sergeant Johnson and the unnamed uniformed sergeant strode up to us. Before Johnson could say a word, I thrust out the dead Marine's dog tag. He took it from me and glanced at the name.

"Good job, Marines," the other sergeant began. "They're not all gonna be like this . . ."

Yeah, yeah, I thought. Were we going to follow the MC?

After the first sergeant had finished, Johnson ordered, "Head through that door. Our orders are to cut the Covenant off at their source, and we're gonna do it."

That door led to the boarding ship the first Covenant had come out of, and then into a narrow hall. Johnson told the injured Marine to guard the boarding vessel as we entered the narrow hallway, and immediately into the line of fire of two Covenant Plasma Turrets. Seeing no cover, I launched myself back into the first room, but Vic got hit in the leg. He fell into a prone position and shot the two Grunts using the turrets.

"Heh? Nice, that, huh?" He told me, clenching his leg. The good thing about plasma was the cleanliness. It caused nothing more than a burn. The white-uniformed sergeant bandaged his wound, and we continued down the hall. It was obvious the Covenant had been through here; a dead crew member here, a heap of debris there . . .

The next area was Hangar A-01. We went through two doors and emerged onto a catwalk above the hangar; a Pelican was docked on the other side of the hangar. There were quite a few cargo boxes below, and I immediately noticed several Elites stalking between them. The white-uniformed sergeant and Vic remained on the catwalks as I leapt down. Sergeant Johnson followed me, now gripping a BR55 Battle Rifle.

I landed on one of the cargo boxes, which I slid down from. The Elites noticed the Marines on the catwalk, and began firing their plasma rifles. Luckily, they did not notice Johnson or me drop down.

The sergeant stepped up to me and whispered in my ear: "Corporal, stay here and provide cover fire. I'll push these bastards back." As the sergeant disappeared into the maze of boxes, gunfire erupted from the catwalks. I stepped out from cover and fired at the Elites, emptying half the magazine. The enemy – six Elites, no Grunts – ducked in and out of cover, behind boxes and the catwalk supports. As the aliens turned their attention to me, Johnson began lobbing grenades into their midst. I cracked a grin as the blue-armored Elites screeched and sprinted away, mandibles flapping.

Sergeant Johnson appeared from cover, blasting away with the Battle Rifle. I joined in the suppression fire as the Elites stumbled behind the Pelican and through a doorway on the other side of the hangar. As the surviving four disappeared, Sergeant Johnson told Vic to come with him, and for me and the other sergeant to remain here. The two Marines followed the Elites into the next chamber.

Already feeling tired; I trotted up to the windows and looked out. The glass panels offered an excellent view of the Malta, Athens, and numerous other Super MAC-gun platforms. Earth and her moon offered a despairing backdrop to the space combat.

A few Marines walked into the hangar, interrupting my observations. One set up a turret next to the still-unnamed sergeant; the other joined me. He also held an SMG, and he was very beat up. Half of his face was bleeding; red blood also seeped from various places in his fatigues. I blinked, and turned back to the glass panel.

Suddenly, two shapes appeared through the haze of battle. They were growing; as soon as they came close enough, I recognized the ships as boarding craft. One slammed into the glass panel I was looking at with a crack. The other connected with the next hangar over.

Our boarding vessel began eating through the glass. I yelped and leapt behind cover, readying my SMG. I was down to 54 rounds of ammunition, plus the clip already shoved into the weapon. The glass pane popped out, revealing a purple shield-type thing that stayed only for a moment before the boarding ship began to expel Covenant troops. The injured Marine moved behind the catwalk supports.

A few Grunts and an Elite were spewed out of the craft. The turret above immediately fired; something green in my peripheral vision caught my eye. The Master Chief! He moved over the catwalks, and took over the turret. The Elite launched itself behind a box near the opening into the boarding craft, safely out of the way of the turret. I pulled a fragmentation grenade from by belt, pulled the pin, and hurriedly cast it behind the box. A satisfying pop and resulting explosion sent the Elite's lifeless body careening through the air. Immediately afterwards, even as a few surviving Grunts screamed and waddled in circles, a second wave of Covenant was thrust out of the boarding vessel.

I slowly sidestepped to get a clear view of the enemy. The Master Chief nailed most of the Grunts with the turret as they came out of the craft; the Elite immediately took cover, and the Marines aimed for the surviving Grunts. A few of my bullets pierced a Grunt, just as the Elite leapt over the cover and growled at me. I screamed. It held up its plasma rifle, and I held down the SMG trigger until the rounds stopped coming. The riddled corpse fell backwards.

Giggling insanely, I dropped back behind the catwalk supports as a third wave of Covenant entered the hangar. The Master Chief, finishing with the turret, openly dropped down and swung a plasma rifle like a club. Two Grunts went down; an Elite tried to bludgeon the Chief with its own rifle, but the Spartan's fist grabbed the weapon and pulled it out of the alien's grasp. Now dual-wielding two Plasma Rifles, the MC loaded the Elite with plasma.

No more Covenant were forthcoming. Sighing, and pulling myself together, I walked to the glass panels. Small flashes of cyan drifted away from one of the Orbital Platforms. Noticing this, I announced, "Hey! The Malta's already driven off its boarders."

Over the helmet comm, I heard Cortana ask for Malta's status. There was cheering from the other platform, and suddenly . . . a blinding light. I dropped to the ground, covering my eyes, when a shudder rocked the Cairo. Opening my eyes again, I saw pieces of debris spread across the space Malta had been in. What the hell?

All was silent in the hangar, until the door Sergeant Johnson had run through earlier exploded outwardly. I looked backwards, just as more Covenant burst into the room. I spun around and fired on them, as the Master Chief through plasma grenades at them. One caught an Elite squarely in its large chest. A moment later, it exploded, killing the remaining aliens.

I sighed, knowing that this battle wasn't finished yet. I gathered myself together, lifted a few SMG clips off a dead Marine, and followed the MC into the next area.