Chapter 8: Batten Down the Hatches
Cairo
Karla and Paccone took cover as a Jackhammer rocket blew out an entire room full of Covenant. Bits of debris and cooked flesh flew out of the doorway as a second rocket flew in to finish the job.
"I think I like Sergeant Johnson's taste in weaponry." Paccone grinned.
"Shutup and hand me that radio." Karla growled, firing her battle rifle around the corner.
Paccone grumbled and tossed a headset to Karla before he rushed into the next room, submachine guns blazing. Karla hastily activated the headset and put it on.
"Lieutenant Richards, can you hear me? What is your situation?"
"It's as ugly as a Grunt's butt down here!" Karla could barely hear Tarin's voice over the gunfire in the background, "They just keep pouring in!"
Karla hastily activated a nearby computer console and brought up a map of the station. She did some quick cross-checking and then deactivated the terminal.
"Paccone! Get your ass over here!"
Paccone turned and hustled back to Karla's position, disappointed at having to break off combat.
"What's the problem?"
"Williams and Richards are in a bit of trouble. We have to reinforce them ASAP." Karla glanced at Paccone's head, "And what the hell happened to your hat?"
"Oh, that." Paccone grinned and stroked his hair, "near miss from a plasma bolt burned it clean off. Hey, why do you look disappointed?"
"There are times where I wish that the Covenant had better firearms training." Karla waved to three nearby Marines. "You three, you're coming with us."
"Where we going?" Paccone ran down the hall after Karla.
"Pelican bays. The Covenant are trying to take it. If we take this route, we can bypass the armory and get there faster."
The first few hallways were uneventful, as the Covenant hadn't reached those areas yet. As the group progressed, however, they got into more and more small skirmishes between other Marine defenders and the Covenant. After five short minutes, Karla's motely group of five Marines had grown to nearly twenty as they absorbed more wandering and confused fireteams.
As she sprinted down a hallway, Karla saw that Covenant troops had already bypassed the Pelican bays. A squad of Grunts were holding the other end of the hallway, and one of them was manning a heavy plasma cannon on a portable turret.
"Take cover!" She yelled.
The advancing Marines quickly dove for cover in nearby doorways and alcoves in the sides of the hall. Unfortunately, some of them weren't fast enough. Three Marines were cut down in a hail of plasma fire, and one was incinerated waist up from the heavy plasma cannon. Karla fired her battle rifle blindly down the hall in an attempt to pin the Grunts, but they had good cover and no reason to shy from hostile fire. Karla reached for another clip and cursed when she remembered that she wasn't wearing her usual combat gear. The dress uniform had no pockets to hold extra clips, and all Karla could carry was her trusty M6D in a hip holster. Ironically, Karla's constant paranoia of being caught unprepared was proving itself true now.
"Hey Ron." She turned to Paccone, who had ducked into the same room as her. It was basically a small office for some low grade officer or clerk. There was a desk, some chairs, and a very large viewport that gave a very nice view of the epic space battle outside.
"Yeah?" Paccone started firing his SMG down the hall.
"If we survive through this, remind me to shoot the bastard who convinced me to wear this damn thing."
"Will do." Paccone grumbled. He had no extra ammunition for his SMG, and was reduced to using his M6D as well. "I don't suppose you're carrying any extra ammo anywhere."
Karla sighed and took her cap off. "I don't suppose you're getting any bright ideas now."
"Well, we could try and snipe them with our pistols."
"And get a faceful of plasma. No thanks."
"Wait a minute." Paccone's eyes lit up and he began knocking on one of the walls. "The next room over is right on the other side of this wall, right?"
"Yeah." Karla glanced at the wall as well. "What do you have in mind?"
"Hey! Private!" Paccone yelled at the room directly across the hallway. "Do you or any of your buddies have any C7?"
"Yes sir!" One of the Marines shouted back.
"Toss me a few bricks of the stuff, then!"
Karla's eyes widened with horror. "No, you can't seriously be thinking-"
Paccone caught one of the C7 bricks and began molding it. "You should stop worrying so much about everything. The stress ruins that pretty little face of yours."
"Well, I do have cause to worry, since only three things can result from this, and two of those results are very, very, very bad, especially if you don't know how to shape that C7 properly."
"Yes, yes, I know that we could either be blown to little itty bitty pieces or sucked into the vacuum of space, but I'm willing to risk it because I sure as hell am not going to be upstaged by a bunch of filthy little frogmen."
Paccone slapped the newly shaped C7 charge and shoved a detonator into it. "Even though I'm confident this will work, I still think it would be a good idea to find some cover."
Karla deeply regretted leaving her plasma sword behind in her quarters. She probably could have used it to cut through the wall, but there was no getting around that now. She kicked over the desk and ducked behind it. Paccone set the charge's timer to five seconds and leapt over the desk.
The resulting BANG was deafening, but thanks to the way the charge was shaped, most of the energy was focused into the wall. In fact, the blast was so powerful, it didn't just only blow through one wall, but three. Not missing a beat, Karla and Paccone ran through the breach. The makeshift hallway allowed them to flank the Covenant position, and the Grunts manning the heavy plasma cannon were quickly dispatched by Karla and Paccone's pistols. Karla waved to the rest of the team of come out of cover and advance. She also took a moment to pick up a plasma rifle and needler. Both weapons were light enough to carry with one hand, didn't require much reloading, and their previous owners didn't seem to be giving any complaints. It was the perfect deal.
Meanwhile, Paccone, in his usual fashion for using extremely big and extremely destructive weaponry, picked up the heavy plasma cannon, much to the cheers of his fellow Marines.
"Isn't that thing heavy?" Karla asked.
"Lady, if I can survive a nightin bed with you, I can do anything."
Karla could hear some of the Marines snicker and giggle. An evil glare quickly shut them all up.
"Well, it won't be my fault if you get hernia carrying that monster. Let's go!"
Pelican Z-34
"Hey guys," Barfbag turned his head. "I think it would be a good idea to put on your seatbelts, because we have company."
Two Seraphs had caught sight of the lone Pelican and decided to get an easy kill. Like birds of prey, both fighters swooped in, plasma guns blazing. Barfbag rolled the Pelican and presented its belly to the Seraphs, allowing its 70mm autocannon a clear line of fire. The cannon fired a burst of rounds at the pursing Seraphs, forcing them to break off their attack run. Unfortunately, Seraphs were far faster and more maneuverable than Pelicans, and it wouldn't be long until they looped back for another run.
"I hope you like it fast and furious." Barfbag said to his passengers. "Cause that's what it's going to be for the next few seconds!"
There were dull thuds reverberating throughout the hull as plasma bolts bounced off the Pelican's armor. Parts of the ship began glowing red from the heat, and Kumi shrieked as her glove was burned as the heat began to bleed into the interior of the hull. Barfbag bit his lip as he put his Pelican into a sharp dive, throwing off the Seraphs' aim for a precious few seconds as he tried to decide what to do. He could try and fight the Seraphs head on, which was basically the equivalent of a death sentence. He could try running, but the Seraphs were faster and they would eventually catch up and destroy them. His only real option was to find the nearest UNSC ship or station and hope that their guns would take down the fighters.
The Pelican began to duck and weave as it made a beeline for the nearest ship. The Seraphs looped back in hot pursuit and continued firing, but Barfbag managed to hook his Pelican around a UNSC cruiser so its bulk shielded the Pelican from the Seraphs' whither fire. As the Seraphs attempted to follow, one collided head on with an Archer missile as it launched itself from one of the weapons pods. The fighter nearly sheared the telephone pole-sized missile in half before it exploded in a brilliant orange fireball. The second Seraph managed to hook around the cruiser without a scratch, but was surprised when it didn't see anything.
When Barfbag hooked his Pelican around the cruiser, instead of continuing to fly, he immediately cut power to the engines and reversed to the point where the Pelican's rear was touching the cruiser's hull. Now that the fighter had overshot the Pelican, Barfbag had a clear shot at the Seraph's rear.
"You lose, sucker." Barfbag smiled to himself.
The Seraph's shielding held for exactly 3.2 seconds before it failed under the heavy barrage. Without its protective energy screen, the Seraph was shredded like cardboard.
"Now that is how you fly!" Barfbag yelled.
"That's great." Sam unbuckled herself. "Can I barf now?"
Freedom
Rogers sighed with relief as the Freedom finally pulled out of the station. The Seraphs peppered the ship with ineffectual plasma fire, as the ship's shielding easily shrugged it off. The Seraphs, however, quickly fell prey to Point Hope's autocannons and Longswords.
"Joshua, find the nearest Covenant warship and engage."
"Roger, Captain."
Rogers took the chance to look at the entire battle. The black void of space was lit up not only by stars, but with plasma torpedoes, missiles, explosions, and the chaos of war. UNSC warships engaged directly with Covenant warships, and the Super MAC stations were firing as fast as they could. UNSC ships were speared or cut apart by Covenant plasma, while Covenant ships were knocked around and shattered like glass by MAC rounds. So far, the larger Covenant capital ships like the carriers appeared to be hanging at the edge of the system, just out of range of the Super MACs, while it appeared that the smaller capital ships were attempting to destroy the orbital stations.
"We have a firing solution on the nearest Covenant ship." Joshua announced.
Rogers glanced at the targeting screen and saw a Covenant destroyer engaging two UNSC frigates.
"Fire at will Joshua, and make them all count."
The Freedom's particle beams flashed as they struck the Covenant destroyer's shields, lancing through them like a needle. Two of the beams speared straight through the sides of the destroyer, and were quickly followed up by volleys of missiles from both the Freedom and the frigates. Explosions rippled across the destroyer as armor plating and components were destroyed. The destroyer's lights flashed on and off for several seconds, and then stayed off as its main systems began to fail.
"Target's threat level is now zero." Joshua announced. "Searching for a new target."
"Find us something larger, Joshua." Rogers leaned back in his seat. "I would like to think that we will actually make a difference in this battle."
Cairo Pelican Bay
Williams thought of many better places he'd rather be at right now. At Captain Welling's side, home on Earth, or on some tropical planet where the Covenant was just a nasty rumor.
Unfortunately for him, Williams was stuck in a hellhole fighting for his life against wave after wave of Covenant invaders. He fired his rifle at a pack of grunts, and was satisfied to see them disappear in a cloud of blue blood. He saw Tarin put a three round burst into an Elite's face, and score a perfect headshot on an advancing Jackal that thought its shield offered adequate protection. Well, at least they had the high ground. The Marine defenders were standing on the loading gantries one story above the maintenance floor, firing into the crowded masses of Covenant below and dropping grenades. Unfortunately, they were running short on ammo, and it was only a matter of time before the Covenant managed to charge up the stairs and overwhelm them.
"Now who said you could start the party without us?"
Williams nearly jumped and turned to see Karla with reinforcements.
"Well, we left some alive to occupy your time, Captain." He said.
Karla grinned. "Come on men, let's show these Covvie bastards how Marines fight!"
The Marines yelled, "HOO-RAH!" and charged into the surprised Covenant attackers. There was fierce fighting as the Marines and Covenant squared off in close quarters. Karla let loose with her plasma rifle/needler combo with chilling effect, disabling the Elites' shields and then perforating them with explosive needles. Paccone's efforts of carrying the heavy plasma cannon finally paid off as he used it to incinerate hapless Covenant soldiers. Williams fired his battle rifle into the mass, and Tarin was hacking and slashing a group of jackals who had thought it was a good idea to try and get into close combat with her.
However, all of that paled into comparison to the Master Chief. When he barged into the bay, he didn't even bother taking the stairs down to the maintenance floor. He just jumped straight off the gantry and landed with enough force to shake the decking. He drew twin SMGs, charged straight into the middle of the Covenant formation, and let the lead fly. Those few Covenant that had time to fire didn't make much of a difference, as their shots bounced harmlessly off of the Spartan's personal shielding. They just drew his attention and he killed them without batting an eyelid. Even when he exhausted his clips, the Master Chief still fought on, using them as makeshift melee weapons and striking Covenant troops with enough force to shatter bones and rupture organs. Just seconds after the Master Chief had joined the fight, he had slaughtered every single Covenant soldier down to the last Grunt.
Naturally, the other Marines helped somewhat, but who could forget a sight like that?
"Hey greenhorns, you gonna just stand and stare and let the Covvies blast us to hell?" Sergeant Johnson yelled. "Get moving! The Corps ain't paying us by the hour!"
"Sir! Look!" One of the Marines pointed out of the bay doors.
Outside, the Cairo's sister stations, the Athens and Malta, both exploded in massive fireballs. Several Covenant and Human ships unfortunate enough to be near the two stations were engulfed and destroyed as well. Some of the debris from the blasts even began to ricochet off of the Cairo's hull. None of the stations were even under enemy fire.
Karla looked over at the Master Chief. She had never seen the man, if you could call him that, in battle and was unsure how he would react. The Master Chief merely cocked his head, as if he were receiving a radio transmission. The quickly straightened up and dashed into a door that led into the Cairo's maintenance halls, with several Marines including Johnson following in close pursuit.
Karla was about to follow when her radio crackled to life.
"Stay put, Captain, I've got a different job for you." Karla recognized the voice. It was Cortana, an AI. Before Karla had a chance to ask what was going on, Cortana continued, "The Covenant have planted a bomb on the Cairo. Don't worry, the Chief is dealing with that. However, he can't do this alone."
Karla nodded. "What do you want me to do?"
"I've hacked into the Covenant battle network, and I've found out that the Covenant are very well aware that the Chief is on this station, and they're afraid that he'll stop the bomb. A group of Covenant troops are making their way to the Damage Control facility, and there's no other Marine unit available to defend it. That's where you come in."
"Take and hold?"
"That's right. If the Covenant gain control of that facility, they can seal every door in this station shut, which means that the Chief won't be able to reach the bomb in time, which means that every single one of us is royally screwed."
Karla tossed her spent plasma rifle and needler aside picked up fresh ones from soldiers who no longer needed them. "Just show me the way."