Chapter 5

1923 Hours, February 12, 2580 (Military Calendar) /
Pelican Charlie 463

Junior Mechanic Lee Anderson looked over the pelican's console circuit boards. Though suffering minor damage, it appeared to be still operational. Closing the covers, Lee prepared to start the engines. Click…click…FWOOSH went the VTOL engines of the pelican.

"Sergeant? The pelican works. If you want to evac now, it's the time to do so."

"Alright, Lee, well done. Get the pelican ready for launch now."

"Yes sir." Lee rushed to the vehicle attachment. It had to be able to hold onto their Warthog for the journey. He was distracted as a loud roar of a Ghost hovercraft came into view. Upon hearing the clicks of weapons being locked in place, the junior mechanic activated his binoculars and identified the pilot.

"Sergeant, that's…an elite! Tell the marines to hold their fire!"

"Mechanic?"

"I'm sure sir, just do it."

"Alright. you heard the man, stow those weapons."

The Ghost sped closer to the downed dropship. As it grew closer, the marines saw that they would've lost a valuable partner in fixing the dropship. Stopping on the other side of the dropship, the elite mechanic got out.

"Aned? Is that you?"

"Lee? I managed to escape from those brutes. Nasty beasts, don't you think?"

"Aned, it is you! Can you help? Our bird suffered some damage en route to reinforce the survivors of Bravo Base."

Just as Lee finished his sentence, Sergeant Ashcroft walked over and asked,

"Lee, how do you know him?"

"Sergeant, he used to work on the advanced experimental shield with me. He volunteered to make sure that our main research was deleted and the Covenant couldn't get to the shield advances."

"I'm pretty sure that having a shield would be a better choice for the Pelican, as we can have some defense before the Pelican's Titanium A hull starts to take hits."

"Ho-rah, Sergeant, and don't worry. We can get started now."

Time flew as the pair fixed the pelican and rigged a shield for the pelican. By the time everything was done, they saw a flare in the distance. Remembering that it could be Spartan-316's mission, he ignored it an prepped the flight controls.

"Sir, it's up and ready. Tell your marines to get inside and saddle up. We're leaving for the A.R.S. as soon as everyone gets in."

"Alright, just wait for Mitchell."

Almost as if to respond to the sergeant's comment, they heard a roar as the Warthog Mitchell took drew near.

"Sergeant, I succeed. They were drawn away. Hope I'm not too late."

"No, Mitchell, you're right on time."

2156 Hours, February 12, 2580 (Military Calendar) /
En Route to Artic Research Station

"Pelican Charlie 463… static …is the A.R.S. Can you… static …in preparing us for the… static …ault? Please, respond!" Came a rough and desperate voice from the COMM. speakers.

"Attention A.R.S., affirmative, we are coming in to help. What's going on?"

"Thank goodness! We're under siege by the alien forces. Survivors from Bravo Base have made it in. We set up steel barricades and mines, but need experts on shield equipment! We can't…" the voice was cut off as a large explosion sounded near by, followed by screams and several subsequent explosions. "…hold on much longer, as you can tell! Please hurry!"

"Affirmative, Pelican Charlie 463 out."

"Sergeant, I'm worried that we may get shot down before entering. Should we be worried?"

"No, Lee. Solid Titanium A is the only thing along this hull, other than the shield. To pierce it, you would need an energy pulse equivalent to that of a Scarab-Mining digger. Head straight in."

Lee throttled the dropship through the cloud of smoke caused by flaming wreckage on the snow below. Eyeing the lights of the station, the sky in front of him was suddenly full of green translucent material and spines. Every time something hit the shield, it flared and quickly cleared again. Throttling and dodging most of the spines, he managed to get close enough to see the landing personnel on the landing pads. Waving them in, Lee guided the pelican straight down. Landing with a bump, Lee looked into the cabin and reported in an amusing manner, "Well, we're landed. Please move out in an orderly fashion and prepare to kick some alien behinds."

"Hoo-rah!"

As Mitchell stepped out, a marine, a sergeant, walked closer and asked, "Could you and the other SPARTAN come and follow me a minute?"

"Yes Sir."

Mitchell motioned for Luke to follow. As they walked into the building, they could feel the tremors of distant explosions. As they continued, they could see wounded marines and dirt covered faces. They entered a room filled with weapons, they could see other SPARTANS repairing their armor. The sergeant led them to a rack with two unidentifiable weapons. The sergeant picked up the weapon closest to them. It was approximately one feet and eight inches, blue lines along it's body, and one-inch long slugs which were about half-inch wide, and looked rather like a battle rifle, though with a longer stock and a wider muzzle opening.

"This is a S-LRG-32, short for Shrapnel-Launching Rail Gun. Upon firing, a electro-magnetic current follows along the sides, firing a shrapnel-filled pellet with a impact-activated explosive charge contained inside almost to the speed of light, kind of like a MAC gun on starships. Upon impact, the explosives inside will explode, launching shrapnel everywhere. Although you'll be able to customize the slug, the gun is powerful no matter what you use."

After this explanation, Luke immediately grabbed it and modified it to his liking. The Sergeant continued. Lifting the second gun, he held it up into the light. It was a foot and a half of pure terror and awe. It was the shape of the original M60 Assault Rifle, a good favorite among veterans, green-highlighted lines all around the weapon. Attached to the muzzle area was a exchangeable flashlight. On top of the area with the battery life, there was a scope, with 5x and 10x zoom capacity.

"This weapon is the AP-PAW 360. Designed after the M60 retired and the Battle Rifle started to grow too old, we designed the weapon to work like the battle rifle and able to zoom in, it also can be switched between being a bullet hose and a single-round shot. We also had in mind the benefits of having plasma-based weaponry. The only drawback of the original Plasma Rifle was that it overheated too often. We erased that problem with the lines you see. They capture the heat and use it to recharge the heat activated charger. Very efficient." The Sergeant handed it to Mitchell.

Mitchell accepted the weapon and turned to Luke.

"You want to kick some alien butt?" jokingly asked Mitchell.

"Yeah, and also to try out our new toys!"

As they started to walk out, they saw that the SPARTANS in the room had got up to follow them. They all already had their weapons.

"Alright, let's move out!"

The team ran out and onto the walls. They had not gotten there a moment to late. The aliens had already gotten to about a meter of the first barricade and were in the process of weakening the solid steel and titanium wall. As Mitchell fired his new weapon, the blue glow of plasma erupted from the tip of the gun. In a second the plasma had reached to an alien and burned into it's body, causing it to scream in pain. Switching it to fully automatic, he sprayed the area with blue fire. After only two minutes, the area of three-square feet emptied of any live aliens, and was covered in red goo. He had no sooner cleared the area, when it filled up again with more aliens. As he fired, he thought, this is going to take a long time.