Chapter 3: Evisceration!

Covenant Cruiser Holy Vigilance

Fleet Master Tazin Mazanee muttered a silent curse to himself. If there was a Hell, then it was too good that hot headed fool Paken. Tazin responded to the urgent distress call sent by his scout ship, though it was obvious that Paken had led Tazin's entire force into a trap. Tazin had originally posted the young upstart on the scout ship in hopes that the duty would teach him a lesson about being overly aggressive, but in retrospect, doing wasn't such a great idea.

Tazin held onto his console as another direct hit shook the entire cruiser. If there was one bright gem in this quickly growing pile of grunt feces, it was the discovery of that curious heretic ship in orbit around the nearest planet. Before losing contact, Paken's ship described the heretic vessel as having energy shielding, which was supposedly technology beyond anything these filthy little vermin were capable of. Tazin also knew that his battle group, surprised and outnumbered, was done for. But maybe if he could break through to that new ship, he could destroy it, and maybe put a dent in their resolve.

Freedom

Rogers looked on in barely concealed amazement as the unexpected UNSC reinforcements unleashed their fury upon the surprised Covenant battle group. The screens immediately counted two destroyers, three frigates, and six gunships as well as swarms of Longsword fighter craft. The three Covenant frigates didn't even stand a chance. They were shredded apart by MAC rounds as they tried to readjust their positions.

However, that still left those two Covenant cruisers bearing down of them from the other direction.

"Joshua." Rogers turned to the AI, "I don't care what you do, or how you do it. Get our weapons and shields working properly again or we're going to be fried to a crisp.

"The visual description wasn't necessary."

"Weapons," Rogers continued, "order all batteries with firing solutions to launch missiles. Lets check their advance! Deploy our Longswords and get them into attack positions. They might send Seraphs in, and if they do, I want them to be denied!"

The bridge crew yelled out acknowledgments and began to get to work. Missiles poured out of the Freedom's batteries, pummeling the advancing cruisers. One of the cruisers backed off under the withering fire, but the second one plowed through the missile screen. Suddenly, the comm buzzed to life.

"This is Captain Mahoney of the Solar Flare. I assume you're in need of assistance?"

"It's a gross understatement to say that I'm glad to see you." Rogers laughed. "You have my full permission to send these bastards back to Hell."

"Our pleasure, Captain Rogers. Just hold out for a few more seconds and we'll be able to support you."

Sirens began to wail as plasma beams impacted the Freedom's shields. The golden energy screen flickered for a few seconds, and then faded away.

"Sir! Shields are down! Zero percent!" One of the crewmen yelled, voice shaking with fear.

"Joshua," Rogers gritted his teeth, "How strong is the armor on this ship?"

"The prototype armor alloy on the Freedom is rated to withstand approximately seventeen seconds of sustained plasma fire, give or take."

"I'm not liking what I'm hearing, Joshua." Rogers groaned as the Freedom fired a return volley at the cruiser.

"If it's any consolation, the armor of a standard UNSC warship is only rated to survive two seconds of sustained plasma fire."

"I can already feel the relief wash over me." Rogers snorted sarcastically. He braced himself as a plasma torpedo impacted the starboard side of the Freedom. The armor plating began to glow white hot, but otherwise maintained structural integrity. "Now have you gotten anything to actually work on this flying junk heap?"

Joshua's avatar flickered as a queen was knocked off the board. "You'll be glad to hear that the particle beam system is now functional."

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Rogers felt as if something were finally right with the universe. He looked down to his Weapons ensign and said, "Congratulations Ensign, you have the honor of firing the first shot."

The young ensign smiled like a kid getting his very first bicycle. "Yes sir!"

Holy Vigilance

Tazin gazed in unmitigated surprise as a beam of blue-white energy lanced out from the heretic ship and popped his forward shield like a bubble. Tazin braced himself for the impact, and realized that the prow of his ship, as well as two of his plasma turrets, was nothing but a charred pile of slag. How could the humans possess such a weapon?

Tazin suddenly had the ugly feeling that there was something more to this ship than he originally thought. Unfortunately, the Holy Vigilance was in no condition to continue fighting due to his horrendous miscalculation, and as he looked at his command screen saw the Eternal Flame breaking up under enemy fire, though not before taking down a human destroyer and two gunships. Tazin realized that he had only one option: board the human ship and attempt to take it or destroy it, to prevent it from being used against any more Covenant vessels.

"All crew!" Tazin yelled through the ship's intercom, "Power up gravity beams and our dropships! All available troops report to the docking stations! Pilot, get us as close to that carrier as possible! We will be boarding it! Glory and death!"

Already, Tazin could hear the dull cheers and whoops of battle hungry Covenant troops, ready and willing to slaughter anything that got in their way.

Freedom

Rogers narrowed his eyes when he saw multiple blips appear on the sensor screen. "Ensign, what are those?"

"Unknown, but the computer suggests that they might be dropships."

"Shit." Rogers saw the Covenant cruiser closing in, and he immediately knew what was going to happen. "They're going to board us. Get every Longsword and weapons battery you can and tell them to shoot down as many dropships as they can. We have nowhere near enough active Marines onboard to repel a full scale boarding action."

The Freedom's hull shuddered as over a hundred autocannons and gauss turrets opened up on the incoming shoals of dropships. Dozens were cut down in the hail of fire, and still more were destroyed by opportunistic Longswords, but several dropships were able to slip through the wall of fire, and managed to get close enough to the Freedom so the ship's weapons batteries couldn't get a firing solution. Like ticks, the dropships began latching onto several points throughout the ship using miniature gravity beams, and the troops within were began the arduous task of breaking through the ship's first line of defense, it's hull.

Rogers glanced at the blueprint of the Freedom and saw red markers indicating Covenant breach points. Already, what few active Marines Rogers had were being deployed to firing positions. Rogers smiled as he saw how Joshua masterfully directed them. The AI knew that it would've been impossible for the Marines to guard against every breach point on the ship, and instead pulled them back to vital chokepoints and positions that the Covenant would have no choice but to move through, as well as sealing all alternate routes. This tactic helped concentrate Marine firepower, which could give them some edge over the invaders. Unfortunately, the one weak spot in the ship's defense was the freight airlock on Deck D. The outer airlock chamber was large enough for the Covenant to mass a sizeable invasion force which could push into the ship all at once, rather than being unloaded piecemeal in various locations by individual dropships. Rogers looked at the blueprint again and grimaced at the fact that there were only five Marines on that entire deck. They were already deployed in a position in front of the airlock entrance, and Rogers hoped that they could hold that airlock until reinforcements could arrive.

Rogers looked back at the command screen and saw the Covenant cruiser pulling up to their starboard side. It's hull was pockmarked with missile craters from the approaching UNSC reinforcements. Rogers knew that one good MAC round would break that cruiser into pieces, but being this close, none of the UNSC warships wanted to risk missing and hitting the Freedom.

"Joshua, blow that bastard out of the sky."

Three particle beams lanced out and sheared through the Covenant cruiser, slicing the ship into three neat pieces, marking the end of the Holy Vigilance's long and proud career.

As soon as the particle beams cut off, the lights in the bridge began to flicker, and sections of the ship started to black out.

"Joshua, what's going on?" Rogers asked, glancing nervously at the blank command screens.

"It's my fault, sir." Joshua's electronic voice floated through the bridge. "With so many power intensive systems operating at the same time, managing the ship's energy levels without overloading the reactors is proving a chore. The previous program in place has proven inadequate the handle stress, so I'm doing everything manually."

AI computer programs having to perform tasks "manually". Rogers grinned at the irony.

"Oh moment, Captain," Joshua buzzed for a moment, "Captain Mahoney sends his congratulations on destroying the cruiser, and is wondering if you need assistance."

"Yes, tell him to send any Marines he can spare to help us repel these Covenant boarders."

"Acknowledged, sending the requests now." Joshua was silent for a moment. "Would you like to play a game?"

D Deck Freight Airlock

Tazin Mazanee muttered a funeral prayer under his breath as he saw his beloved ship destroyed by the guns of the heretic ships. These humans will pay, and Tazin made a promise to himself that he would personally oversee the cleansing of this ship. With him, he head nearly fifty Elites, several squads of Grunts and Jackals, and even a Hunter pair ready for battle, and even more were waiting outside for their chance to enter. The final obstacle now was the inner airlock hatch, which despite his efforts, would not open. Tazin growled and called for an Engineer.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the airlock, five Marines were what stood between the airlock and the rest of the Freedom. Their tags identified them as Lt. Karla Wellings, Sgt. Ronald Paccone, and Privates Samantha Wellings, Leonardo Carter, and William Scohar.

Karla grimaced as she took another look at the rather ragtag defense set up in this sector. There were piles of cargo containers and spare titanium-A armor plates acting as a makeshift barricade, and only five Marines to defend it. Paccone was armed with a M260 Light Machine Gun, a heavier version of a standard battle rifle, except if fired .30 caliber rounds belt fed from a 150 round box clip. Karla wondered where in the world he managed to get one, and quickly decided it was best not to know. The rest of the Marines, including her, were armed with the standard battle rifle with grenades. However, Karla also had Holy's plasma sword with her, and Sam had her sniper rifle.

"They're sure taking their sweet time." Paccone grumbled, shifting his machine gun around. "Maybe they decided to quit and go home."

"Sure." Karla snorted, "and then Santa Claus will come and give everybody presents for scaring the big bad Covenant."

At the far end of the hall, a small dot on the airlock hatch began to glow orange and melt. Steam shot out from the heated steel, and the dot slowly started to expand. It looked as if the Covenant were trying to get through with some sort of plasma cutting beam. It looked like it would only be a few more seconds until the hatch would be weak enough to break through.

Karla suddenly jumped when she heard an ear-piercing CRACK! Something suddenly burst through the hatch, leaving a tiny hole in the melting steel. Everybody turned and stared at Sam, holding her smoking sniper rifle.

"What?" She shrugged. "Something had to break the tension."

Paccone grinned, Karla shook her head, Leo sighed, and Scohar shrugged.

Tazin shoved the dead Engineer aside. A bullet had gone through the hatch it was cutting through and blew out what Tazin believed to be its brains. He called over the two Hunters and gave them quick instructions. One of them nodded, raised its shield, and began using it as an improvised battering ram, slamming into the weakened hatch again and again. Tazin looked around and saw that his troops were anxious for battle. A Grunt to his left vomited in fear, the disgusting remains of its last meal spattering over the deck. He could hear a fellow Elite chanting a litany of battle, praying that the Prophets would look over him. The litany was infectious, and soon, every Elite in the airlock was singing in one beautiful, glorious choir.

Sam cocked her head curiously and asked, "Hey guys, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Leo kept his eyes on the hatch, which was slowly buckling under whatever force was trying to ram it down.

"I don' t know," Sam said, straining to hear the mysterious sound, "It sounds like... singing."

"I'll give them something to sing about." Paccone said, patting his M260.

Finally, the hatch just couldn't take any more punishment. The metal squealed and popped open, revealing a full-sized Hunter charging down the hallway.

"Fire!" Paccone yelled.

The Hunter barely flinched as bullets bounced and ricocheted off of its armor. The tough material was strong enough to withstand shrapnel, bullets, plasma weaponry, and even explosives. However, its armor may have well been made out of paper as far as a Covenant plasma sword was concerned.

Hiding behind a bulkhead, Karla leapt out in front of the Hunter and drove the powered blade straight into the Hunter's gut and slashed outwards, eviscerating the alien. Tough as it was, not even the Hunter's physiology could handle the massive trauma the plasma sword dealt. Karla, confident that the Hunter was as good as dead, pulled the sword out of its gut and shot down several Grunts with her pistol. The Hunter groaned and fell flat onto the deck plating, still trying to hold its seared guts in.

Meanwhile, the main Covenant attack faltered at the opening of the hatch. The front ranks of the force, which were mostly made up of Grunts and Jackals, were shredded to pieces by the storm of bullets. Karla knew that they had to keep the Covenant force bottled up at the hatch, where they couldn't use their advantage of superior numbers. If they managed to get past, the Marines would be in a whole world of trouble.

Tazin roared in anger, directing more of his troops to push into the gap. Unfortunately, his forces were getting bottled up at the hatch. The opening was choked with the dead bodies of Grunts and Jackals, and the Grunts still in the front of the formation refused to move any farther. The second Hunter, itching to fight and to be reunited with its bond brother, plowed straight through the cowardly Grunts, crushing them or knocking them aside. Tazin and the other Elites began piling up behind the Hunter, using it as a mobile shield to protect them from the enemy fire.

Karla saw what the Covenant were trying to do, and turned to Paccone.

"Scohar! Carter! Grenades! Behind that Hunter!"

Both Marines nodded, pulled out frag grenades, primed them, and threw them down the hall. The grenades clattered along the decking and rolled under and behind the Hunter's feet before exploding. Five Elites were instantly disintegrated in the blast, and the shockwave knocked the Hunter down. That was enough for Paccone to get a clear line of fire down the hall. Normally, it would take half or even a full battle rifle clip to take down an Elite's shields, but the M260 LMG's heavy .30 caliber rounds punched through the energy shielding easily. Elites screamed in rage and pain as they were cut down in the narrow corridors with nowhere to go.

Karla, with her pistol in one hand and Holy's plasma sword in the other, charged the Covenant that had managed to survive Paccone's withering fire. She shot a Jackal three times through the head, sliced through the chest of an Elite, and pulled off an elegant S-swing that left two Elites falling to the floor in pieces. Karla looked up when she heard a terrifying roar echo throughout the hall. The second Hunter, having regained its senses, had found the eviscerated corpse of its bond brother and was in a bloodrage. The bounded straight down the hall heading for the nearest target, Karla. Paccone yelled and unloaded machine gun rounds into the Hunter in a vain attempt to draw its attention, but there was no stopping it from trying to trample Karla. Karla however, had different ideas. She ducked as the Hunter swung its fuel rod cannon like a club and rolled under the Hunter, ending straight behind it. Then, with Holy's plasma sword singing in her hand, Karla drove the blade straight into the Hunter's back. The creature screamed and tried to turn and face her, but Karla was faster. She yanked the sword out of the Hunter back and sliced through its legs. The Hunter still trying turn around, fell awkwardly onto his back, which gave Karla the chance to administer the final killing blow straight through its chest piece and into its heart. The Hunter shuddered and lay still.

Meanwhile, Sam was busy picking off Elites as they tried to barge their way into the ship. With such a long and narrow hallway, there really wasn't much need to aim well, and Sam kept a mental count to herself of how many Elites she downed. So far, she was up to fourteen. She took aim at the next Elite, but her aim was spoiled by a flash of blue. Sam blinked and looked again, and was astonished to see the Elite fall over with a smoking gash across its chest.

"Hey! That was my kill!" Sam yelled in annoyance as Karla cut her way through a pack of Grunts.

"Just keep shooting!" Karla grunted as she pulled the sword from a dead Grunt. Suddenly, she saw a blue glow at the edge of her vision, spun, and parried a plasma sword strike just in time. She looked up and stared into the face of an Elite, obviously the leader of the attack force.

"Such a sacred weapon does not deserve to be desecrated by your filthy hands." The Elite growled, and lunged, aiming its plasma sword straight for Karla's heart.