Chapter 10: It's a Small World After All

Cairo

Karla grimaced as she fired a burst of needler rounds down the hall. The explosive needles ricocheted harmlessly off of a wall of energy shielding that a pair of Jackals had set up with their arm shields, and were slowly advancing down the hall. Not only that, but Karla could see a squad of Covenant troops following close behind using the Jackals as cover. The bastards were getting smart.

"Get some frags in there!" She yelled.

Several Marines lobbed more grenades down the hall while a few others rolled them across the floor like oversized marbles. The Jackals, unsure of which way to orient their shields to block the grenades, tried to back up and get out of range, but the press of fellow Covenant soldiers behind them prevented them from taking a step backwards.

Karla winced for a moment as the front of the Covenant column disappeared in several bright flashes of light. When her vision came back, she noticed that the surviving Covenant were beginning to fall back… for now.

"Okay people, yell them out!" Karla said as she checked the status of her small force.

So far, ammo was still plentiful, but two Marines had been killed in the firefight. It was now only her, Paccone, and six Marines left to defend the DCC.

"Did we win the war already?" Paccone wisecracked as he set down his smoking plasma cannon.

"Not in this lifetime." Karla frowned. "You know, I feel really uncomfortable with you always standing behind me like that, especially when you're carrying that monster you call a gun."

"Don't worry, it doesn't bite." Paccone smiled and patted the stolen cannon. "And you know, is it just me, or is there something wrong with these Covvie we've been fighting?"

"Huh?" Karla turned to look at some of the intact corpses lying throughout the hall, and noticed that all of them, including the Elites, seemed be wearing what looked like secondhand armor. Most of it didn't even fit them that well. "Wonderful, we're being pitted against amateurs. Can it be any more degrading than that?"

"Could have been worse. They could have sent in a horde of Hunters."

"Don't remind me of that." Karla listened in on her radio. It looked as if Richards and Williams were doing a good job of holding the line at the other two entrances.

"Here they come!" Private Pench yelled.

Karla and Paccone ducked as a storm of plasma fire from the next wave of Covenant swept down the hall.

'Do they ever give up!" Paccone heaved his plasma cannon and fired.

"Which war were you fighting in?"

Mako scowled as his unit was still being repulsed by the stubborn Human defenders. He directed the last of his troops for one final push. Unfortunately, none of his troops seemed to be in the mood to try for another attempt.

"No way we go in there!" One of the Grunts squealed. "We go in, we die!"

The other Grunts, and to Mako's disgust, some Elites nodded their heads in agreement. Mako shook his head, charged his pistol, and shot the Grunt through the face.

"I will in no way support such acts of cowardice, for I consider it just as blasphemous as heresy!" Mako glared at his fellow soldiers and raised his pistol and plasma sword. "These weapons, they kill heretics, they kill traitors, and they're not fussy about it! And do you know what you are in the eyes of the Prophets?" Mako paused to look at his soldiers. "You are scum! You are Grunt-dung! Your only purpose left in life is to fight and kill the enemy! Even if that means choking them with your dead and dying bodies, as it is the only form of redemption you will find!"

Mako deeply regretted having to shoot the Grunt to make a point, but it was necessary. He didn't even believe half the words in his long rant, but he needed to get the job done.

Without hesitation, the remains of his unit charged down the hall.

Freedom Computer Network

Joshua frowned at the tactics of his electronic adversary. For an AI, it wasn't too terribly intelligent. Rather than randomizing or changing its tactics, the Covenant AI merely repeated the same tactic over and over again. It was attempting to force its way into the system by sending waves and waves of system requests.

He grinned. The enemy AI was grossly underestimating Joshua's computing abilities. Caspar, Melchoir, and Balthasar may not have been able to handle such huge data loads, but a Class-A AI like Joshua ate these kinds of attacks for breakfast. In the time it took for the massed viral data to reach him, Joshua had already erected three interlocked firewalls and numerous system protection programs along Melchoir's "perimeter". These were all represented by medieval-style castle walls and little blue soldiers. The Covenant AI's hordes of red barbarians finally reached the firewall and slammed into the first wall. However, unknown to the Covenant AI, Joshua had a tiny program in the background tracing the source of the attacks. After all, this overblown virus had to be coming from somewhere, and he was determined to find it before it was too late.

Freedom

"Any sign of the prowler?" Rogers asked.

"Not yet." Joshua's avatar flickered for a brief second. "I'll need a few more minutes."

"We don't have a few more minutes!" Rogers slammed his fist down on his chair. "Those Covenant cruisers are right on top of us!"

"Then I'll just have to work faster." Joshua's avatar flickered out to end the conversation.

Rogers shook his head. "I hate AIs." He muttered. "Arm all weapons! Target the first cruiser!"

The Covenant must have wanted to take his ship out very badly. The cruisers were plowing through the thick of the battle, well in range of the Super MACs. Even a grazing shot from one of the massive cannons was enough to tear an entire cruiser apart. Two of the cruisers took direct hits before reaching weapons range and literally shattered like glass, reducing the oncoming force by a third. Rogers sighed in relief. The odds were tipping into his favor now.

"Fire our MACs and follow up with a missile barrage. Tell the other ships to fire at will." He said to his weapons officer.

"Yes sir!"

Rogers watched as two MAC rounds shot out from the Freedom's sides and sped toward the Covenant cruiser. Seeing what was coming, the cruiser nosed down in an attempt to dodge the shells. The first shell struck its shield at an angle and skipped off like a stone, shearing through a Covenant frigate that had drifted too close to the skirmish. The second shell punched through the cruiser's weakened shield and blew a gaping hole through the engine compartment. The missiles hit just seconds later and armor plating, machinery, and bodies flying in all directions.

"Focus fire on the second cruiser!" Rogers yelled. The first cruiser was out of the fight.

Meanwhile, the other two cruisers flew straight into a screen set up by three UNSC destroyers and a frigate. Both sides traded fire, but several plasma torpedoes reduced the Flying Tiger and Shining Star to melted slag. The cruisers punched through the hole they created in the screen, shrugging off the volleys of missiles the remaining UNSC ships were throwing. By the time the defenders could turn around and pursue the Covenant, the Shammrock was suffering from engine trouble, and parts of the Troubador looked like used coal. As of now, the Freedom was on its own.

"Incoming plasma torpedoes!" One of the bridge crew yelled.

"Evasive action!"

Rogers could feel the Freedom shifting its position as it attempted to dodge the plasma torpedoes, but sensors indicated at least five coming in from various directions. There was no possible way to dodge them all.

"Plasma torpedo incoming! Distance, five hundred meters and closing!"

"Everybody, brace yourselves!" Rogers held onto his chair.

It felt as if the entire ship was hit by a giant sledgehammer. Loose objects tumbled off of tabletops, lights flickered, and unrestrained crewmen were sent ducking for cover. Rogers pulled himself back up to his seat and yelled "Status!"

"Shields at thirty six percent!"

"Hull integrity holding."

"Weapons still functional."

"Covenant cruisers are closing in!"

"I want targeting solutions on all three! Fire both of our MACs at cruisers three and four respectively! Use our particle cannons on cruiser two! I also want a full missile spread. Use every goddamn missile battery we have!"

"Sir!" One of the bridge crew, Ensign Leeman, her head bleeding from the previous hit, called out. "Our shields are recharging six percent a minute, but I don't think we'll have enough power to weather another torpedo!"

"Transfer power from the engines and use it to boost our shields."

"But sir-" Leeman's mouth dropped. "That'll make us a sitting duck."

Rogers smiled grimly. "We are surrounded by three heavily armed, heavily shielded, and possibly more advanced enemy capital ships, with a space battle of biblical proportions taking place all around us. Do you see any need for maneuverability?"

Leeman hesitated for a moment. "N-no sir."

"Good, now do what I just said."

Pelican Z-34

"I think that's all of them." Leo scanned the surface of the Cairo. "Don't see anymore Elites coming his way."

"Where'd he go, anyway?" Sam asked, "I kinda lost track of him, with the shooting and all."

"Erm, he just went back inside the station."

"What? And no bit of thank you or recognition?" Leo couldn't see Sam's face through the polarized visor of her vac-suit, but he was sure from her sarcastic tone that Sam wasn't actually hurt.

"It could have been worse." Leo shrugged, though the suit somewhat limited his movements. "He could have jumped a bit too high and get caught in Earth's gravity well…"

"Uh yeah, about that…" Sam pointed at a faint, twinkling light just below the station.

"What the-" Leo zoomed his sights in on the light, and saw the Master Chief flying out of an airlock holding onto a gigantic, pimple shaped object.

Sam cocked her head curiously. "What can he possibly be-"

Suddenly, the Chief and the object hit a passing Covenant cruiser. Both Marines could see the Chief then leap off, leaving the bomb on the ship. Leo was awed by the sheer guts it took to leap out into the vacuum like that. He caught Sam ducking down and covering her visor. In the split second he took to try and ask her what she was doing, his visor automatically turned black to shield his eyes from a massive flash of light.

"Son of a bitch!" Leo cursed, jerking his head away by reflex. "What the hell was that!"

Sam, with her seemingly extraordinary powers of premonition, looked back through her scope. Because her head was turned away, her visor and vision were still intact. "Well, the Chief apparently just killed an entire Covenant cruiser… by himself. Sure puts those poor Navy boys to shame."

"Hey! I heard that!" Barfbag whined.

"Just be quiet. You might as well dock us already." Sam peered out to the vast battle happening all around. "There's nothing more we can do here."

Freedom

Rogers blinked in surprise as he saw cruiser three explode in a ball of blue plasma.

"What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know sir, but it appears to have been an internal explosion."

"Well, I'm not complaining." Rogers glanced at the data screen. "Give me an update on the other cruisers."

"Cruiser two is on fire and listing. The particle beams have cut deep into its armor, and its power output is decreasing. Combat effectiveness down to an estimated 2."

"And the other cruiser?"

"It's shrugged off the MAC rounds and the missiles, and its trying to get a firing solution on us."

"Our shields?"

"Sixty five percent and rising."

Rogers grimaced. If the cruiser's shields could hold off that much damage and stay intact, it was obviously outfitted with better equipment. And if it had better shields, chances were that it had better weapons as well.

Both the Freedom and the Covenant cruiser were on a head-on collision course. The Freedom, using all of its power to recharge shielding, had barely any power left to move at all. The cruiser, on the other hand, was intent on destroying the ship, even if was reduced to ramming it, since the UNSC obviously had much more to lose in this fight. Sensing a kill, the cruiser sped up and closed in, firing its plasma torpedoes as fast as the turrets could cycle.

Rogers gripped his seat as both ships ruthlessly traded fire. Shields sparked and flashed as they tried to repel energy and high explosive. Armor plating and hull was punctured, shredded, and melted. After the first volley of fire, both ships had no shields left and heavy damage.

"Status!" Rogers yelled. He tried to look on the tac screen to get a view of the battle, but noticed that the screen had shattered in the fury of the assault.

"Shields down! Hull breaches on decks three, seven, and fifteen! Injury reports are flooding in!"

"Starboard MAC is offline!"

"Reports of fires in several sections of the ship-"

"Put the reactor in overcharge! Get those shields back up as fast as we can!"

"Sir, the maximum safe levels for the reactor are only 115-"

"Then make it 120! We can't afford to weather this next volley with just our hull!"

The fact that a stray torpedo slammed into the Freedom's flank seemed to reinforce his point.

"I'm overcharging the reactor now, sir." The bridge officer started typing in commands. With the AI systems being corrupted by the virus or tied up trying to fight it off, most of the duties involved with power management had to be done manually now. "Chief Girrad says he can do it, but we'll only have a three minute window before the reactors melt down."

"More than enough." Rogers looked at the enemy cruiser straight ahead, plunging in for the kill like a vicious lion.

"Shields at thirty percent!"

"Fire everything we have!" Rogers ordered.

The Covenant cruiser fired its plasma torpedoes at the same time the Freedom fired its particle beams. The volleys of energy lanced through space and seemingly passed straight through each other as they headed for their targets. Traveling at basically near the speed of light, the particle beams hit the cruiser first. Five beams struck the cruiser simultaneously. Three managed to penetrate the shields, though two of the beams depleted most of their energy punching through the shields, and only managed to scorch the cruiser's hull plating. The third beam, however, struck gold completely gutted the cruiser's drive systems. Rogers could see the cruiser begin to drift. Without its engines, the ship would get caught in Earth's gravity well and burn up in the atmosphere.

Destroyed by Earth's own natural forces. How fitting. Rogers grinned at the irony, but hoped that the same wouldn't happen to him.

The cruiser had fired all seven of its plasma torpedoes. With the shields only partially charged, there was no way they could repel the massive energy attack. The shields managed to deflect the first two torpedoes, and weakened the next two. Unfortunately, that left three more torpedoes to strike the Freedom unopposed. One torpedo gouged through the ship's starboard flank, incinerating the hull and several decks. The other two torpedoes struck at the same point on the ship, and completely destroyed the Longsword hangars. Secondary explosions rippled across the hull as stored munitions and fuel ignited.

"Damage!" Rogers yelled over the warning klaxons.

"Shields down! Multiple hull breaches on all decks! Fires raging in various points!'

"Reactor temperature levels are rising past safety thresholds!"

"We've lost twenty percent of our weapons strength!"

"Shut down the reactors!" Rogers ordered. "And use our remaining power to stabilize our orbit. And get our repair crews to fix what they can. We have to keep this shi p in fighting condition."

Freedom Computer Systems

Joshua grimaced as the last firewall protecting Melchoir finally buckled under the merciless digital assaults the Covenant AI was throwing at him. Knowing that there wasn't much time left, Joshua retreated to Caspar and began erecting its antiviral defenses. Meanwhile, his tracker programs were still trying to locate the source of the signal. He had managed to narrow the search area, but still did not have a good fix on the specific location.

The game was still ongoing, and it was a race to see who would win first.

Cairo

"Oh my god." Karla muttered as she peered around the corner.

"What is it?" Paccone asked as he lobbed a grenade down the hall.

'It's that goddamn Elite." Karla checked her plasma rifle to make sure it was charged. "The one that freaking punched me."

"Well go get him, girl. I'll cover things from this end." Paccone grinned and fired his heavy plasma cannon, torching a group of Grunts.

Karla focused her sights on the red-armored Elite charging down the hall. He seemed to be the obvious leader, and from the troops around him were on the verge of breaking, Karla was sure that killing him would shatter their morale. She raised her rifle and pumped a trio of shots straight into its chest. The Elite's shields sparked and failed, causing the Elite to hesitate. Karla took the chance and followed up with her needler. Unfortunately, the Elite's armor managed to deflect most of the explosive shrapnel, sending the needles flying all over the hull.

Mako, with his shields down and his armor being assaulted by explosive needles, stumbled backward. Seeing that their leader was in danger, Mako's fellow troops charged with renewed fervor. The human attacking him seemed to notice this and hesitate. Mako acted quickly, launching himself at the human and tackling her to the ground.

Karla was caught by surprise as the Elite landed on top of her. Thinking fast, she let go of the plasma rifle and smashed her palms straight into the Elite's chin, snapping its head back and stunning it. She then clubbed it in the side of the head with her needler, drawing blood from the razor sharp edge of the weapon.

Meanwhile, Paccone tried to move forward to support her, but the plasma cannon chose that exact moment in time to overheat and melt. Cursing, Paccone tossed the weapon aside and drew his pistol, but couldn't get a clear shot.

Karla, meanwhile, was in the worst position any Marine could imagine, being caught in a hand to hand situation with the Covenant. Fortunately, she managed to knock the Elite over with a solid kick in its chestplate. Aiming her needler directly at the Elite's head, she muttered, "Eat this."

Mako, who had no idea what the human over him was doing, made a risky call. He grabbed the human's foot planted on his chest and twisted, bringing the human right down on top of him.