Chapter 6: Endgame
0640 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega
Grunts poured in over the top of the trench. The numerous camouflaged machinegun emplacements shot many of the alien creatures, but not nearly enough. One of the alien soldiers who had taken a pistol round to the chest realized he was about to die, armed a plasma grenade and bounded over to a shotgun-wielding Marine, engulfing them both in the inferno. Another marine began firing his Assault Rifle on full-auto into the tide of aliens until his clip ran out, at which point he threw it at a nearby grunt, proceeded to pull out his M6D pistol, and began firing at anything that moved.
The carnage was terrible. Private Campbell was smattered in multi-colored alien fluids and he was injured in several places. His leg had been peppered with shrapnel from a grenade that had exploded too close and his arm was badly burned where an Elite Commander's Plasma Rifle had hit him; the round melting the ceramic-alloy plating of the armor in seconds, the resulting superheated liquid melting completely through the light fabric and burning flesh. Campbell raised his Assault Rifle up and fired a short burst into a nearby Grunt who had been about to throw a Plasma Grenade. Campbell had quickly learned that the grenades seemed to be the Grunt's weapon of choice and to always keep a watch for deadly blue spheres.
The Marines were killing dozens of the alien infantry as they came over the trench but it seemed as if for every alien they killed, two more took it's place. The situation was fast becoming hopeless. In a matter of minutes the few remaining Marines were retreating down the length of the trench towards one of the Armory's entrances with the Covenant in hot pursuit.
Campbell saw Pvt. Wilson fire a shotgun round into an Elite's chest plate point blank, killing the alien instantly. Seconds later, Wilson was hit from four different directions as he was cut off from the rest of the group. The next Marine to die was an Assault Rifle wielding Marine who took a plasma round to the face. Suddenly Campbell was inside a room and a heavy blast door began descending down behind him, cutting off the advancing aliens and trapping the few remaining Marines who had been to slow, or too injured to make it to safety. The screaming was almost unbearable. Campbell half collapsed, half slid down a wall from exhaustion and buried his face in his hands.
The room was a ten meter-by-ten meter square. Several empty desks were strewn about and papers littered the floor. Shadows filled the room due to the power outage and many of the ceiling tiles were either cracked or gone, probably from the beating that the base endured during the battle, revealing strands of multi-colored wiring that hung like jungle vines.
Only about sixty or so marines had made it to that trench section's base entrance. Out of three separate Divisions, nearly sixty thousand soldiers, Campbell could only see eight men wearing his Division's red firebird emblem. Private Mellani was not among them. A Corporal stepped up to the door, reached to touch it, and quickly withdrew it instantly after having come in contact with the metal. "Shit!"
Most of the weary-eyed marines completely ignored the man, but a few of them connected the dots instantly. The Corporal; shaking his burnt hand wildly in an almost comical manner, addressed the battered survivors; "They're burning through the doors! Those bastards are still coming!" Several marines jumped at this discovery and began moving back towards the other end of the room, searching for an exit.
Shocked at what they were doing, Campbell pulled himself to his feet and yelled after them; "What the hell are you doing? Get back here!" The search was fruitless; the entire base had gone into lockdown. The soldiers were trapped.
The Marines solemnly distributed their supplies and took up defensive positions throughout the room, finding what cover they could. The Marines stared fixatedly at the door for what seemed like an eternity until one either brave or extremely foolish soldier cautiously ventured up to the blast door. At that very moment the entire door blew inward, crushing the marine under its immense mass; killing him instantly. The remaining marines opened fire on this new threat simultaneously as the first of the Covenant entered Armory Omega.
Marshall winced asanother UNSC identifier vanished from the Tact. Display. Suddenly, three red symbols appeared in front of the fleeing Argive, prompting the Tactical Officer to call out a warning to Marshall; "Slipspace ruptures! Sir, three enemy Cruisers have jumped approximately twenty-six thousand kilometers off our bow!"
Marshall turned, his face expressionless; "I see them, get a targeting solution on the nearest Cruiser. I want our portside archer pods prepped for launch. Target their engines if possible, otherwise go for the plasma batteries."
"Aye Captain"
"Load up the MAC as well."
"Yessir"
The three Cruisers were temporarily disabled; their shields were down and their weapons were inactive but Marshall knew that they wouldn't stay that way for long. The Covenant fleet; not content with the now conquered Reach, began harrying the surviving UNSC vessels as they limping out of the system without mercy. It seemed that the Covenant did not want any survivors, and they used their advanced Slipspace technology to great effect; small groups of Covenant vessels would make minor jumps to catch up to the fleeing humans with almost complete disregard for the losses they suffered. Three ships had already been lost as a result of the Covenant's tactic and Marshall would be damned if he let the same happen to his ship.
As the Argive came into range, it fired off a full broadside salvo of Archer missiles into the nearest Cruiser before turning its bow towards the second closest Cruiser and firing a MAC round from a distance of only twelve thousand kilometers. The missiles peppered the Cruiser's unshielded hull, blowing through compartments and eventually hitting a main generator. The resulting explosion completely atomized the Cruiser and threw debris into the two remaining Covenant vessels. The MAC round impacted the second Cruiser just as it's shields began coming back online. The Cruiser's shields flared slightly as they resisted the huge ferric-tungsten projectile for a millisecond before inevitably failing. The MAC round tore through the aft engine arrays and continued onwards, albeit with considerably less mass, into the heart of the third Cruiser, bisecting the Cruiser entirely.
Cheers filled the bridge until the Tactical Officer cried out in disbelief; "Captain! Two of the second Cruiser's plasma batteries are still powering up! They're preparing to fire!
"Get us moving now!" Marshall snapped.
The Argive's engines blasted out at full speed, carrying the ship away from the threat at its maximum velocity. The wounded Cruiser wasn't about to let its prey escape so easily, it wanted revenge; two plasma torpedoes erupted from the vessel and began closing in on the Argive with frightening speed.
Someone on the bridge shouted out the time until impact; "Plasma torpedoes closing on our location. Impact in thirty seconds.
Marshall shouted to be heard over the sudden shrill screams of warning sirens; "Engineering, get me full power to engines immediately!"
Someone shouted back over the din. "Engines are at two-hundred-and-eighty percent captain! Any farther and we risk an overload!"
"If we don't get out of here then we won't have any engines! Get us out of here now!"
"Yes, sir."
Marshall felt the whole bridge begin to tremble as the engines were pushed past their operational limits. In the background the officer who was tracking the plasma torpedoes reported twenty seconds until impact.
The Tactical Officer suddenly called out in surprise; "Sir, one of the torpedoes is dissipating!
Marshall cast him a dubious glance; "What do you mean it's dissipating?
"The first torpedo is expending its energy at an accelerated rate. It's breaking down.
Marshall was shocked by their luck; "Covenant tech rarely ever just… fails. Could the damage to the ship have affected the Cruiser's weapons systems?
"That's the best bet sir. I can't think of what else could have happened."
Somewhere in the background someone shouted; "Impact in ten seconds!"
Marshall spun back to the Tactical Display. "What's the status with the other torpedo?"
"No, it's still coming on strong. We aren't going to be able to outrun it."
"What is the projected area of damage? Will we still be able to engage our translight engines?"
"Unknown sir."
"Five seconds to impact! Four, three, two, one!"
A colossal jolt surged through the ship, sending more than one crewman crashing to the floor. Even Captain Marshall, who had braced himself against a nearby computer console in preparation for the impact, was brought to one knee by the impact's effects on the ship. The torpedo had immolated a good portion of the Argive's lower decks but had benevolently spared the vessel's reactor of any significant damage.
Marshall got to his feet almost instantly. "Damage Report! What's our status?"
All around the bridge the Argive's officers read out their system's condition readouts.
"Communications at full efficiency."
"Navigational systems at optimum efficiency."
"Engines at eighty percent."
"Navigational systems operating at optimum efficiency."
"Life support is at sixty-seven percent efficiency."
The status reports were interrupted as Shiva, the Argive's AI, materialized in the ship's onboard holotank. "Captain Marshall. I've compiled the ship's data on our current status. Transferring now."
A plethora of data began scrolling up a portion of the screen; displaying an internal and external map of the Argive and a color-coded layout of several of the ships critical systems.
Marshall grimly noted the lack of oxygen in several of the vessel's numerous compartments; "Damage Control, seal off the compartments throughout all sections in decks C, D, E, and F.
The crewman jumped to the task. A loud proximity alert began buzzing seconds later. Two enemy identifiers broke off from the Covenant's main formation and began accelerating towards the Argive.
Marshall called out in alarm; "Navigation, prepare Slipspace generators for immediate departure. Navigation, initiate Cole Protocol. I want a randomized exit vector as quickly as possible."
The bridge crew rushed to their tasks and within thirty seconds the Argive had jumped out of the system. Minutes later the Covenant Cruisers had determined the Argive's destination coordinates and exited the system in hot pursuit.
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega
A series of explosions ripped through the room; the sudden pressure change causing Campbell's ears to pop. The two Hunters who the grenades had been meant for merely shrugged off the shrapnel and explosions and continued forward into the room. Campbell fired his battle rifle at the nearest behemoth making a point of aiming for the exposed orange flesh. After soaking up bullets for several seconds, the Hunter pair succumbed; their bodies sprawled over Covenant corpses, office detritus, and the bulkhead with a series of dull clunks and sickening crunches. Two-dozen Grunts poured in through the gap as soon as the Hunters had died, filling the room with greenish plasma.
Campbell slammed another clip into his Assault Rifle without taking his eye off the five-foot aliens. In less than a second he'd brought his rifle to bear on a trio of Grunts who were closest and depressed the trigger; sending a wave of death into the aliens' flesh. Campbell saw the glowing orb milliseconds before someone yelled a warning, if Campbell hadn't reacted the plasma grenade would have hit him, but thanks to thousands of years of human instinct the grenade missed it's target, landing several meters away on an overturned desk, reducing it to splinters a second later. Campbell hosed the Grunts with fire and killed three more of the aliens before the Jackals came.
Most of the Marines began firing at the glowing energy shields with little effect. A pistol round actually ricochet off an energy shield and hit a Marine in the shoulder, finding its way between the armor plates taking the Marine out of the fight. The Marine's fire became increasingly frantic as the Jackals, numbering near two dozen, began advancing into the room with a host of Covenant following in their protected wake.
Campbell realized that firing at the shields wasn't going to work and armed a Frag Grenade. Several Marines nearby noticed and followed suit. Campbell rolled the Frag underneath the lead Jackal who stared down at the grenade with a expression of surprise which quickly transformed into fear just as it detonated, sending hundreds of pieces of shrapnel flying into the Covenant's ranks, channeled backwards with the aid of the now-deceased Jackal's energy shield.
The grenades, leaving a hole in their defensive wall long enough for the Marines to begin slaughtering the survivors, killed more than half of the Jackals and almost a dozen Grunts. As the Covenant forces turned tail the Marines let out a feeble cheer. There was now only twenty or so Marines left alive in the room; many were on the verge of breaking, nerves pushed far beyond their limits.
A nearby Marine bolted upright and shouted in alarm; "Did anyone else just see that? I saw something moving! Something was moving around the doorway!"
Someone nearby Campbell muttered something about how the guy was crazy but Campbell wasn't so sure, he thought he'd seen something too.
The Marine next to Campbell began to yell at the jabbering Marine; telling him to shut up and that he'd just imagined the thing when he was impaled through the chest by a searing blue and white blade of coruscating energy.
Campbell scrambled out of the way as two more blades flashed into existence nearby. One of the weapons bisected a wounded Marine while the other began approaching him. The strange thing was, the blades seemed to be floating in mid-air, and Campbell couldn't see the weapon's wielder until he caught a glance of the faint distortions of the Elite's outline.
One of the outlines let out a booming war cry. That was when the Covenant renewed their attack.
Chaos reigned; panicked soldiers began firing wildly in all directions hitting friend and foe alike, their minds clouded by pent-up fear. The form began approaching Campbell at a run, swinging the energy sword in a wide arc that cut through his chest plating like paper and opened him up. Campbell screamed out in pain but remarkably found the strength to escape the next hit unscathed by sacrificing his Assault Rifle; bringing it up to avert the blow. In the effort of evading the blade Campbell lost his balance, and his weapon, falling to the ground. He desperately reached for his M6 pistol bringing it to bear on the general outline of the Elite before pulled the trigger, emptying the entire clip into the distortion, covering Campbell with a splash of sticky blue ichor. To Campbell's surprise an eight-foot tall Elite materialized in front of him and fell to the floor in a heap. For several seconds Campbell lay where he was, perfectly still, his eyes hazy, hearing his friends and allies scream and die all around him as he slipped into unconciousness.
Hannah Davis ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She'd stayed on station for as long as possible and had already racked up dozens of kills, but now that the Covenant had cracked open Armory Omega there wasn't anything else she could do to help, especially since she'd long ago ran out of ammunition, a patrol of Covenant were hunting her, and enemy aircraft were everywhere. Hannah was about fifty feet from the edge of the forest when she heard the all too familiar wailing sound that she'd long ago associated with Covenant ground assault craft, or Banshees.
Two of the fliers swooped down on Hannah and opened fire on the sniper, missing her by mere inches. As they approached, Hannah felt the effects of the anti-gravity pods that kept the Covenant vehicles aloft and dived to the ground, the two Banshees passing just overhead, missing her by mere inches. Hannah jumped to her feet and resumed running as fast as her legs would carry her, expecting to be cut down by plasma at any second. To her surprise, the plasma never came; the Banshees had gone and there were no sounds of the Covenant patrol anywhere. Hannah reached the tree line without further incident and collapsed to the floor in a heap.
Campbell sensed movement and awoke with a start. The dead Elite was still sprawled in front of him, a pool of bluish liquid had pooled around the corpse. Campbell gazed upward, and saw a blurry white figure standing over him. His vision swimming, Campbell shook his head in an effort to clear his battered consciousness. As his eyes came into focus, he realized with despair that it was an armor-clad Elite; it's white armor gleaming even in the twilight of the darkened room.
The Elite exclaimed its surprise as the seemingly lifeless corpse impossibly reanimated itself. The alien reflexively drew its sidearm and aimed it at Campbell's head, calling out to someone Campbell couldn't see.
Campbell looked around the room, the sight caused him to break down and cry. Lifeless corpses filled the room. Covenant milled around the wreckage prodding human bodies and engaging in seemingly random acts of destruction. Campbell looked up at the Elite pleadingly as it brought its Plasma Rifle up to his head and fired.
0647 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega
Hannah heard a distant rumbling noise that was even louder than the Covenant mortar tanks that had been bombarding Armory Omega for the last hour. Somewhere deep inside her subconscious a voice screamed at her to stay hidden, in the relative safety of the forest, where it was safe. As the rumbling increased, her curiosity got the best of her. Hannah moved to the edge of the tree line, cautiously at first, but after several seconds of not being shot at she stepped out into the open and looked around.
There was a booming sound of thunder that shook the ground, causing Hannah to quite literally jump into the air. Confused, Hannah looked upwards.
The clouds began boiling as the beginning of the Covenant's orbital bombardment penetrated the planet's Statosphere. The plasma impacted Reach's crust a moment later, completely liquefying all organic matterinstantly. Pvt. Hannah Davis hadseconds to contemplate her fate before she was vaporized.