Chapter 4 – Home Field Advantage

1307 hrs

5th December 2552

Bridge Tram Platform, Cairo MAC Station

Earth Defense Plateau

The Bridge door sealed with a pop behind them, as a tram load of marine reinforcements arrived. The Master Chief, skidded down the flight of stairs to obtain weapons from the cache that popped out from the wall.

Sergeant Johnson was waiting with a squad of ten marines under his command. Wondering what took the Chief so long, he yelled for a marine to go fetch the Chief when he appeared, battle rifle in clip and wielding two sub-machine guns (Sags). "Nice ass, baby…" Johnson muttered.

As the squad left their formal defensive point and headed for the mission briefing centre, Lord Hood made a radio call which was somehow routed to the public address system, "How is it going Malta? Relax! Check your targets, watch the crossfire; little red standard formation, little bastards up front, big ones in back, good luck Cairo."

"Watch the fire on that door there…as soon as they blast thru it, let them have it", roared Johnson as he set up a potable turret. No sooner had he set up the turret, a deafening bang came as the door blew into pieces. The marines opened fire at the rushing Covenant troops. The Covenant were rushing, they even trotted on the poor Grunts at the front of the group. Two Elites flew down from the second level to join the frenzy as the Chief gave some Grunts a couple of whacks with his battle rifle.

Suddenly, the Master Chief felt a great pain on his head and saw his shield slid down by a quarter as an Elite whacked him on his head. The payment for that whack was twenty punches from a fully enraged SPARTAN-II in full MJOLNIR armor. The Elite slid onto the floor; armor broken.

The marines quickly gained ground from the Covenant. Faster and faster the marines took over the Cairo. Soon, the Master Chief was left to go on as the marines and Sergeant Johnson had strict orders to remain at the mess hall.

As the Chief entered the hanger, he saw a whole assortment of Covenant plasma grenades and regular High-explosive grenades. Filling up his slots, he grabbed the turret controls from a Corporal and rained down some heavy fire on the Covenant troops exiting their purple boarding crafts. He then went down and finished the last of them. As the last Elite fell, the Corporal called him to the hanger window and a radio message came, "I can't believe it! They're retreating! We won!" As soon as the transmission ceased, the Malta MAC station blew up.

The Chief made his way to the next hanger and did a repeat of battle combat styles. Melees, gunfire, hell came out from him. When the battle was finished, a private starred out into space as the Athens MAC station blew up. The Cairo shook due to the shock waves from the explosion. Lord Hood questioned, "Cortana…what was that?"

"That explosion came from inside the Athens. The Covenant must have brought something with them – a bomb", Cortana said.

"And they sure would have brought one here too. Chief, find it."

1317 hrs

5th December 2552

Hanger B03, Cairo MAC Station

Earth Defense Plateau

A door at the end of the stairway down from the hanger unsealed and another convoy of Covenant troops rushed out of the narrow passageway. The Master Chief charged thru the troops as the marines provided suppressing fire against the Covenant. Pools of green and blue blood appeared as the Covenant fell.

Inside the passageway, supposedly a maintenance hatch, it was dark. Suddenly, the door on the other end of the walkway opened. The Master Chief straightened up for another close quarters battle. However, nothing appeared.

Suddenly, a little light from the MJOLNIR's integrated flashlight revealed a camouflaged Elite. The Master Chief opened fire causing the Elite's cloaking devices to overload and reveal the him, dead on the floor. Satisfied with the outcome of the little battle, he walked through the door and up the stairs as he heard Gus, the technician who was defending the Armory with a shotgun die.

He carried on the battle as he watched his comrade fall. He could barely imagine the battle between Gus and the four Elites. Soon, he reached the MAC gun. He held his ground for quite a while against four flying Elites who were annoying him. The result was four dead Elites floating in space.

He entered the elevator that would bring him to the bomb area when Cortana warned him, "Just to tell you, there are quite a number of Elites guarding the bomb."

The door hissed opened and the Chief was greeted with bolts of plasma as he returned fire. The Grunts and Elites were almost down when a plasma grenade, thrown off course landed on the ground in front of him. A blast threw him back and his MJOLNIR armor registered a half bar of shield lost. Soon, all the guards were eliminated.

Cortana appeared on the pedestal near the bomb, "Me, inside your head now." The Master Chief placed his hand on the pedestal as Cortana was absorbed into his MJOLNIR's crystal layer. When the Chief's hand was in contact with the Covenant bomb, Cortana defused its electronic timer. A green light flashed to signal the deactivation.

"How much time was left?" the Master Chief asked quietly.

"You won't want to know" , Cortana replied.

"Sir, this is the Merryweather. We're up and ready to engage" , the transmission came from the UNSC Merryweather to Cairo.

Suddenly, the Master Chief had a brainwave. "Sir, permission to leave the station", the Chief requested.

"And what for Master Chief?"

"To give the Covenant back their bomb."

"Granted", as the Chief dragged the bomb to the elevator.

1403 hrs

5th December 2552

Airlock, UNSC Cairo MAC Station

Earth Defense Plateau

"I know what you're doing, and it's crazy", advised Cortana.

"So, stay", the Chief replied.

"Unfortuantely, for the both of us. I like crazy."

The elevator opened up and the Chief dragged the bomb to the airlock and punched his pin code into the entry pad. The Airlock opened up and the Chief and bomb were sucked out into empty space.

Controlling his movements closely, the Chief could not make big movements as such would have spun him out of control. Before they reached the surface of a Covenant cruiser, the Chief placed his hand on the bomb as Cortana activated it. With all his might, the Chief kicked off the bomb and it landed on the cruiser. A blue explosion followed by many others filled the surface of the doomed ship. Mission success, he thought as he floated toward the nearby UNSC In Amber Clad.

He landed with a bang on the roof of the bridge.

"For a brick, he landed pretty good", joked Sergeant Johnson.

"Chief, come aboard. Suit up. We're going on this trip to the surface", ordered Commander Miranda Keyes, Commanding Officer of In Amber Clad."