Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: Sorry this one took so long guys, but I was very busy with schoolwork and stuff. Thanks for your patience and enjoy Chapter 14!
Another A/N: Alyssa-449 is also referred to as Alie-449 or Alie...just thought you'd like to know.
Yet Another A/N: The old dropships in Halo: Combat Evolved will be named Apparitions, which continues the tradition Bungie has used to name the Covenant vehicles after spirits (i.e. Phantoms, Ghosts, Spectres, and Wraiths) and inhuman creatures (i.e. Banshees).
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 14
Cleaning Up
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"We've secured the NOVAs." Admiral Whitcomb heard on his radio.
"Are you sure?" Whitcomb asked.
"Well, unless you've got something else hidden in these valleys that looks like a cluster of nukes, yes. I'm sure," replied Xiran.
"All right. I'm coming down there, Whitcomb out." He snapped off the channel. Then he beckoned to the three Spartans guarding him.
"Come on, we're going down there."
Two of the Spartans turned to follow Whitcomb, but the third stayed rooted in his place.
"Are you coming, son?"
"No, sir. I think I should stay here and look out for any Covenant movement," replied Frank. "If we're caught clustered down there, they we're basically screwed...like those Grunts and Jackals Red, Blue, Green, and Gold teams slaughtered. The only difference is that we don't have the advantage in numbers, and we can't afford to throw our lives away without a second thought. We already have three Spartans down, let's not lose any more than we have to."
"Well spoken, son," said the Admiral. "Keep us posted for any sign of the Covenant, and if you think you can take them, send them to hell, but don't risk your neck if you can't take them without getting killed. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" saluted Frank.
Whitcomb saluted back. "Good luck." He turned and started the steep climb down to the cave.
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Xiran, Morgan, and Alex emerged from the cave and saw the Admiral descending upon them. He had May and Stan with him, but Frank was nowhere to be seen. Xiran check his biometer, which showed that Frank was still in perfect health. He accessed his suit's tracking system and found Frank still at the top of the canyon.
Good, he's looking out for us; we'll be forewarned if the Covenant tries to attack us.
Whitcomb reached the bottom of the canyon and made a beeline straight towards Morgan, Alex, and Xiran.
"Sir!" the three Spartans saluted in unison.
"At ease, Spartans," said Whitcomb. The Spartans lowered their arms. "The NOVAs are in there?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then let's go in. Squad Leader, take two other Spartans and follow me. The rest of you, keep guarding this entrance."
Every Spartans saluted. Xiran chose Alex and Morgan again, and they accompanied Whitcomb to the NOVAs. They walked in silence, and when the cave got too dark, Whitcomb asked the three Spartans to turn on their flashlights. They did so. They soon arrived at the back of the cave, where the NOVAs were stashed.
"Alright. Do you know what I'm gonna do with this, son?" Whitcomb asked.
"Yes, sir. You are going to arm them so that the Covenant can't take Reach."
"That's right. The NOVAs will stay here, in a small and derelict part of Reach that the Covenant won't look through." Whitcomb entered the arming code for the nukes. "They are clearly looking for something down here because they haven't glassed us yet. They're sending troops down. I'll try to find a ride out of here after a few days, and I hope to god the Covenant find the nukes and take it back to their homeworld."
"Are you sure you'll be all right?" asked Xiran.
"I'll be fine here. You guys go out there and kill as many of those Covenant bastards as you can, but make sure you guys survive to tell the tale. That's an order, got it?"
"Yes, sir. What will be our extraction point?"
"You won't have one. You'll have to improvise. Sneak into a Covenant ship; find a small UNSC craft with slipspace capabilities; anything, but you must get one this clear. You have to stay alive. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." Xiran was getting a bit tired of the Admiral telling him to stay alive over and over, but he hid his annoyance from his voice.
"Good, now get out of here." Admiral Whitcomb ordered.
"What about you, sir?"
"I'll call Charlie Company to pull me outta here, then we'll get aboard a Prowler and get off of Reach."
"Yes, sir," said Xiran. He looked at Morgan, then at Alex. "Spartans, let's get outta this place."
Two acknowledgement lights winked as Morgan and Alex acknowledged the order. They left Admiral Whitcomb inside the cave alone with two plasma pistols, the assault rifle Charlie Company gave to him, and an extra flashlight Morgan had with her. As they were exiting the cave, Xiran could hear Whitcomb turning on his radio to call Charlie Company. Once outside, he opened up a secure COM channel to all of the Spartans.
"Spartans. Let's go," he said.
"What about Admiral Whitcomb, sir?" asked Joseph-177.
"He's calling Charlie Company to pick him up."
"What about us? Sir? What are our orders?"
"We're gonna get out there and make those Covenant bastards wish that they were never born."
Spartans all around nodded in agreement.
"Frank, you can come down here now. We're gonna take another route out of this ditch," Xiran addressed Frank-442.
"Yes, sir. I'm coming dow-." There was a pause. "Oh shit..."
"What is it?" asked Xiran, even though he already knew the answer.
"It's the Covenant, sir. Hundreds of those Grunts and Jackals are making their way through the grasslands right now. They got a few of them Elite bastards with them too."
"Fuck..." sighed Xiran. Then he opened a channel to Admiral Whitcomb. "Sir, we've got trouble. The Covenant are coming this way."
"Just hold them off for as long as you can. I've called Charlie Company to give me evac," ordered Admiral Whitcomb almost lazily.
"Yes, sir," said Xiran. He snapped off the COM channel to the Admiral and returned to the one to his teammates. "Okay, guys. Today's our lucky day. The Covenant have decided to come to us, so we don't have to walk all the way to them to kill them. We can't, however, fight it out here, when they have the height advantage. Frank, try to draw them off, but don't expose yourself. Once we're in position, I'll send you a NAV point and you are to rendezvous with us."
Frank acknowledged the order and assault rifle fire could be heard, mixed with the Grunts squealing.
"Spartans! Go, go, go!" barked Xiran.
It was a might've been a steep climb for a normal human, but the cliff face was nothing to the Spartans. Even with the extra weight and bulk of their MJOLNIR armour, they still made it up in less than five minutes.
"Come on, we have to get to the tall grass," Xiran whispered. "If we're caught in the open like this, we'll be screwed." The edge of the cliff provided no cover for them at all.
They sprinted towards the grasslands, where Frank was busily sneaking around, making kills at random, mostly Grunts. A few unlucky Jackals got killed too.
"Spartans, same teams as before, except May will join my team, Frank will join Gold Team, and Stanley will join Red Team. Gold Team, try to circle around the Covenant. Go left. Same with Red Team, except you guys go right. You have permission to engage in guerrilla actions and neutralize any threats along the way, as long as you don't get carried away with it," ordered Xiran. The two teams of Spartans acknowledged the order and melted into the grass like ghosts.
"Green Team, stay here. Wait for Red and Gold Teams to get into position, then coordinate your attacks from three sides. Okay?"
"Sir, yes sir!" cried Green Leader, Alie-449. Her, and the rest of her team slipped through the tall grass and disappeared as well, waiting for Red and Gold Teams to get ready.
"Frank, rendezvous with Gold Team," said Xiran as he opened a COM channel to him. He placed a moving NAV marker on Gold Leader, Soroush-382.
"Yes, si-whoa shit!" cried Frank, his heart rate scale on his biometer going way up. A burst of assault rifle fire could be heard over the COM, since Frank didn't have a chance to close it. A few seconds later, there was another burst of assault rifle fire, mingled with plasma fire, a high pitched squeal, a gurgle, and finally a thump.
"Yes, sir. I'll rendezvous with them as soon as I can."
Xiran sent him an acknowledgement signal, to show that he got the message. Then he snapped off the COM channel to Frank, and addressed Blue Team.
"Guys, we're gonna go out there and kill as many of them Covenant assholes as we can. Any questions?"
"Nope," said Morgan, smashing one gauntleted fist into her other. "I'm ready."
Karen and Flavius checked their assault rifles. "Yup, we're good," said Flavius.
Kyle, Kayleigh, May, and Alex merely nodded. Xiran looked at his team, and was pleased with what he saw. They were ready.
"All right. Kyle, you take point. May, you watch our six," Kyle and May nodded. The former sprinted up ahead while the latter slowed down to take the back. "The rest of you, stay sharp and look for any sign of the Covenant." Seven acknowledgement lights winked.
They crept through the grass as if they were ghosts, making no noise. Suddenly, Xiran saw Kyle signal them to stop. He signalled for the rest of the team to stop. They froze and scanned the area for any hidden Covenant troops. Xiran crouch-walked to where Kyle was.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Covenant troops, sir. It looks like just a patrol, only twelve Grunts, but that's no biggie. Their leader is a bit more of a problem though. It's a Blue Elite. A minor, judging from what we've seen in the videos Déjà showed us in class. What do you think we should do?"
Xiran grinned, although no one saw it. "Well, you know me. If we can do it silently, then we kill them. We have these nice and relatively silent plasma weapons, and the silencers on our assault rifles. What do you say?"
"I'd say kill them."
"Exactly. Keep an eye on them while I give the rest of the team their orders." Kyle nodded and Xiran went back to the rest of Blue Team. In less than a minute, a plan was formulated. Xiran, Kayleigh, and Morgan would go at them from the left while Karen, Flavius, and May came from the right. Alex and Kyle would take them head on. It was a three way flanking formation. They slithered through the tall grass, making no noise, and soon, they were ready.
"Everyone ready?" asked Xiran over the COM. It was risky talking on the COM, because the enemy could intercept the signal, but it was necessary.
Blue Team sent their acknowledgement signals. "Good. Alex, May and I will concentrate on the Elite. The rest of you should kill the Grunts. Kyle, tell us when they're in sight."
Kyle grunted over the COM. A few seconds later, he whispered. "They're here."
Xiran, Kayleigh, and Morgan sprung from their concealed positions. Kayleigh and Morgan fired their silenced assault rifles while Xiran charged both of his plasma pistols. Bewildered Grunts gasped and screamed and were cut down seconds later. A few Grunts fired off a few shots but not many hit. Xiran tore his gaze from the Grunts and looked at the Elite. He shot both overcharged plasma bolts at it. The Elite tore its gaze from his underlings and turned towards Xiran. It ducked under the first one but the second found its mark. The bolt impacted upon its energy shield and it collapsed. The Elite roared and let loose a flurry of plasma bolts from its plasma rifle. Xiran jumped aside, but not before he was hit by some of the bolts. He landed on the ground and rolled away, his shields weak.
The Elite gives an almighty roar and shot in the direction in which Xiran disappeared. The plasma would've hit Xiran if the grass weren't in the way. Most of the plasma hit the thick grass and melted it, instead of Xiran. The Elite roared in frustration, but then it grinned. Its shields had started to recharge. Xiran backed up slowly, not wanting to make any noise, while he waited for his shields to recharge. After what seemed to be an eternity, the shield bar on his HUD started filling up again. He sighed with relief.
The Elite made its way to where Xiran stood crouched, plasma rifle ready. Before he's gone three meters, assault rifle rounds impacted upon its shields from two sides, draining it by a bit. The Elite roared angrily and fired at the sources of the rounds, but hit nothing but grass.
The Elite muttered something in its own tongue, shook its head, and continued walking towards Xiran's hiding place, though more cautiously this time. Another few projectiles hit its shields. It roared in frustration, wildly swinging its plasma rifle around, looking for a target. It fired off a few random shots, but didn't hit anything. The Elite let its guard down slightly while trying to find its mysterious attacks, so Xiran took this chance to attack.
He charged his plasma pistols and jumped straight into the air. By the time he was at the highest point, three metres, the plasma pistols were humming loudly, telling him that he must let go of the trigger soon, before all the pent up plasma melted the pistol itself. The Elite turned around in surprise and gasped. Xiran let go of the pistols' triggers and two bright green bolts shot at the Elite, automatically attracted to its shields like a magnet to your fridge. The plasma projectiles hit the Elite one after another. The first on knocked out its shields and the second splashed across its chest, melting its chest armour. It fired its plasma rifle at Xiran, but he was already back in the grass by then. It howled its frustration and fired blue-white plasma at the direction Xiran was in. It succeeded into doing nothing but vaporize a lot of grass. Then a three bullets caught it in the leg. Two bounced off of its armour, but the third penetrated its thigh. It doubled over in pain as another burst caught it in the neck. Blood gushed from the wound and fountains of it landed on the ground. The Elite stared at the blood in disbelief, then a bullet caught it in the eye and went into its brain, killing it instantly.
He opened a COM channel to Alex and May. "Thanks guys." Then he opened the COM to the rest of Blue Team. "Good works guys, let's meet by where most of the Grunts were killed." Blue Team acknowledged the orders.
Xiran crawled out of his hiding place and crouch-walked to where the Elite was slain. He shot it a few more times with his plasma pistols to make sure it was dead. It didn't even twitch, even though it now has a large burn mark on its face. Satisfied, he dropped his spent pistols and picked up the dead Elite's plasma rifle. The charge read seventy-one percent. Xiran tossed the rifle up into the air and caught it, smiled, then left to join the rest of his team, who were all clustered around the Grunts.
"Grab whatever you want from these Grunts. Grenades, guns, whatever. We'll be moving on in twenty seconds," said Xiran.
Everyone took something from the dead aliens. Xiran holstered his plasma rifle onto his suit, and picked up two needlers. He ripped open a Grunt's ammo and grenade compartment on its suit and found two ammo pods for the needlers, each consisting of thirty rounds. Satisfied, he dropped the dead Grunt and put the needler ammo in his own ammo compartment on his MJOLNIR Mark V suit.
"Same formation. Move out," barked Xiran.
Blue Team spread themselves out and crept through the grass once more, towards the direction. Then an alarm sounded in Xiran's helmet, he quickly scanned the Spartans' biometers to make sure everything was alright. It wasn't. Frank's biosigns flashed red on Xiran's heads up display. Xiran sent a message to Frank.
"Frank! Is everything all right?" he said over the COM. There was a burst of static. Then Frank's voice came on, slurred, and static was heard throughout the entire message.
"There's too-" Static. "-wounded, can't-" Static. "-much long-" Static. "-never rende-" Static. "-old team-" Static. " -objec-" Static. "-failed-" Static. "-sorry..." Then Frank's biosigns faded and his profile turned black.
"Frank! Report! This is an order!" cried Xiran, but there was no answer. Static was all that he could hear. "Dammit." He opened his team's roster and marked Frank down as MIA.
"That's four lost Spartans in one day, and that's not good."
"Sir," said Kyle, breaking his train of thought. "We can see the main body of the assault force and it's heading towards the alley the NOVAs are. There are a lot of wounded in the enemy army and are moving pretty slowly, so I'm assuming Charlie Company put up a good fight, but were eventually overcome. Either that or the rest of the Spartans did all the damage and they didn't engage Charlie Company at all."
"Sir, Red Team is ready and in position for assault. What are our orders, sir?" said Red Leader over the COM.
"Gold Team is in position, sir. Awaiting further orders," reported Gold Leader immediately after Red Leader did. A second later, Green Leader reported in.
"Sir," she said. "We are ready and in position for an attack."
"It's okay. As long as we can kill these guys, then we're good. On my mark, we all throw grenades at them, right after they explode, we'll move in during confusion and kill anything that isn't human. We'll hit them from four sides and we'll eliminate them all. Be careful and don't hit each other. Is that clear?"
Red, Green, Gold, and his own team acknowledged the orders. He waited until the Covenant strike force came into view.
"Mark!" he barked over the COM. Twenty-nine grenades sailed through the air and exploded simultaneously. The plasma and shrapenel from the grenades took out about a hundred of the Grunts and Jackals. The Elites were luckier, and none of them died, although there were many crackling energy shields. The Spartans then rushed out of the tall grass and descended upon the unsuspecting and unfortunate Covenant troops. Assault rifle rounds, plasma bolts, and needler shards flew from the Spartans' weapons and felled row after row of Covenant. By the time the Covenant had realized what was happening, almost sixty percent of their strike force was dead or wounded. There were still a substantial number of survivors though, since the original strike team was about three hundred strong.
The Elites were the quickest to recover from the four way ambush, and barked orders to their underlings, the remaining Jackals and Grunts. They fired their various weapons at the Spartans, but the fire lacked coordination, and did little to the Spartan hoard. The Elites were more skilled and remained more calm in a situation like this, so they managed to bring a few of the Spartans' shields down, at which point the Spartan in question would fall back and let one of his or her comrades take his or her place while his or her shields recharged.
A group of blue Elites panicked when they saw most of the strike force being decimated and went on a grenade rampage. Sticky blue explosives flew in every direction, forcing the Spartans to scatter. This also gave the Elites, who were being slowly forced closer and closer together, a chance to gain ground and attack the Spartans while they were still recovering. Soon, the battle consisted of mostly one on one battles. Blue Team never separated, so a group of Elites charged at them, roaring their battle cries.
The good news was that there were eight Spartans in his squad, and only seven Elites. The bad news was that all of the Elites were of high ranking. Six black clad SpecOps Elites and a SpecOps Commander in white. Xiran was confident that they could take then all.
"Spartans. Pick an Elite, and take them out!" ordered Xiran.
The Spartans scattered, causing the Elites to spread out as well. Three of SpecOps Elites decided to gang up on Flavius, so Kayleigh, and Kyle rushed to his side. Then, as if on cue, the Spartans and Elites fired their weapons simultaneously. Plasma and bullets flew in every direction and shields flared. Xiran looked at his own opponent, the SpecOps Commander, took a deep breath, and waited for the Elite to make the first move. The Elite was doing the same. The two of them stood there in combat stances, ready to pounce at any minute, and stared at each other, taking in every movement the other made.
Without warning, the Elite fired his plasma rifle at Xiran. Xiran jumped aside, dodging the plasma fire. He returned the favour with a flurry of needler shards from his two needlers. The Elite ducked and rolled away right before the needler rounds were about to hit. The homing system properties of the shards tried to follow the Elite, but the angle was too great. They hit the ground and detonated in a series of small, harmless explosions. Xiran emptied his needlers and reloaded, but the Elite dodged them as well in the same fashion. One of the needles hit the Elite's shields and it flashed bright silver. Then it smiled, despite the fact that a shard just hit it.
"Oh yeah? I give you something to smile about!"
Xiran jumped up and unloaded upon the Elite with his twin needlers until it clicked dry. The Elite just stood his ground until the last second. Then it sidestepped and a hail of needles sailed pass it and hit the ground. It looked up as the remainder of the needler rounds hit its shields. Seven of the shots hit home, but it was not enough to drain the Elite's shields.
"Dammit!"
The Elite walked at Xiran and its smile grew even wider. Xiran pulled the trigger on his needler again, only to find it depleted in ammunition.
"Uh oh. This can't be good."
He quickly discarded them and took out his plasma rifle. The Elite kept walking towards Xiran calmly, as if on a stroll in the woods, and when it was about two meters away from him, it dropped its plasma rifle and reached for something on its waist. Then with a flash of light and a loud fizzing sound. A blade of pure plasma shot out of the handle. Then it lunged.
Xiran sidestepped to the left as the sword passed through the air where his body was half a second ago, then he brought his elbow down on the Elite's sword arm. The attack was stopped at about half a centimetre away from the Elite's arm, when Xiran encountered its shields.
"Damn!"
The Elite swung his sword again at Xiran. He jumped backwards and did a backflip before landing again.
A bolt of plasma shot passed his ear and he instinctively turned to look. With the Spartan distracted, the Elite decided that it would be the perfect time to strike. It made a quick dash at the Spartan. Xiran saw a blue blur on his peripheral vision and ducked instinctively. A burning hot plasma sword passed through the air where his neck would've been had he not have ducked.
"Focus..."
His attention returned to the SpecOps Commander, who was slightly frustrated since it hadn't made its kill yet. Xiran fired a volley of plasma fire at it, and it didn't do any more damage than the needlers did; the Elite's shields still held firm. The Elite feinted to one side and Xiran counterattacked. The Elite changed direction in midswing and the plasma blade hit Xiran in the arm. His shields vanished instantly when the sword hit, but it didn't stop the swing. Luckily, the shields slowed the attack down by a lot, so the Elite didn't have much momentum to work with when he tried to saw through Xiran's MJOLNIR suit.
The internal temperatures of the suit skyrocketed as the blade melted the top layer of his armour. The alien snarled at Xiran and stabbed at the tough crystalline layers of the MJOLNIR armour in the already weakened spot. Hydrostatic gel and blood oozed out of the cut and the Elite roared in triumph.
Just when the Elite was feeling triumphant and swung again, Xiran rolled away, cradling his wounded arm. He looked at the wound and shrugged it off; he's had worse. The Elite sprinted as fast as he could at the Spartan and lunged. Xiran fell flat on his back to avoid the attack. Then he lashed out with his legs and caught the Elite right in the crotch. The Elite, whose momentum was too great, flipped over Xiran's legs and flew right over him.
Xiran got up and fired at the Elite, but the shields were still up, though it was crackling, showing that it was weak. The Elite snarled it hatred at Xiran, got back up to its feet, and came at him again.
"Christ, how much stamina does this guy have? I can't do this forever and I'm already feeling a bit faint from the blood loss. Dammit! Gotta finish this fast if I wanna live."
Xiran's shields started to recharge, but not fast enough. By the time it was at half charge, the Elite was no more than three meters in front of him.
"Hope this works."
Xiran took out a plasma grenade and held it ready. Then out of nowhere, a large green ball of plasma impacted upon the Elite's shields. The alien commander flinched but didn't falter in its charge. Just as the Elite slashed at him, he primed the grenade, threw it at the Elite, and rolled away. The sticky explosive latched onto the Elite's leg. The Elite gaped at the Spartan in surprise as he rolled away, then a second later, it was consumed by a ball of blue-white plasma.
Xiran's own shields were splashed by the explosion as well, and were desperately trying to recharge. The MJOLNIR suit he was wearing now had plasma burns everywhere, and a neat cut from where the energy sword made contact with his arm.
Morgan walked up to him, an overheated plasma pistol still in her hands. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you." He made the 'smile' gesture. "But my suit's breached now, and I can't do any of them space ops. If we get on a Covenant ship, I'm afraid that I might not be very helpful." She 'smiled' back.
"Non-sense. Here, this will patch you up in a jiffy." She pulled out a tube of biofoam and a syringe. "Hold still please."
Xiran stood absolutely still where Morgan injected the biofoam into his arm. It felt like a thousand ants crawling into his arm and biting him simultaneously, but he didn't complain. It was helluva lot better than bleeding to death.
"Thanks," said Xiran. He flexed his arm. It still hurt, but it's now a dull ache, as opposed to a sharp pain every time he tried to move it. "I need to stop getting myself hurt."
"Yeah. I know."
"How's the rest of the team? What's their status?"
"They did fine. Karen got cut in the leg and Flavius has a few burns on his side, but other than that, they're fine. No KIAs."
"Good," said Xiran. Then he keyed the COM to all of the Spartans. "Green, Gold, and Red leaders. Report."
"Joanna has a few plasma burns along her left leg and arm but she can still fight, and the damage to her suit isn't too great. We're fine," reported Alie-449, Green Leader.
"Thomas's shield generator is blown out, but other than that, we're fine," announced Gold Leader, Soroush-382.
"Stanley's side is charred and his suit is penetrated right under his ribcage. Eric's suit is burnt as well, but there's no penetration there. We're good as well."
"Good. Gold Team, scout around and look for survivors. Kill them on sight."
"Roger that." Soroush turned off the COM and moved his team out. A few minutes later, his voiced returned. "We're done. We found a few Grunts and Jackals and they've been eliminated."
"Good work team. Let's rendezvous here." He uploaded a NAV point onto his Spartans' heads up displays. It was about two kilometres north-west of his currant position, towards the direction of HQ. The Spartans acknowledged the orders and snapped off their COMs.
"Let's go, Spartans! Double time!" he barked to his own team. They ran down to their rendezvous point and found all of the other Spartans there already. He looked around at his Spartans and found them ready. Quite a few of them sported minor burns on their armour, but that's nothing unusual.
"All right guys, here's the plan," said Xiran. He pointed at the Covenant cruiser hovering about thirty meters above the ground. "You see that? We're going to capture a few Covenant vehicles, get in there, and hijack a few of those dropships that are docked inside that big whale. Then we're gonna fly them out of there, and we'll fly them to another cruiser up there, since this cruiser is likely to stay here for a while. Then we'll hitch a ride with them, and we'll wreak havoc aboard that ship. Then once we capture it, we can get reinforcements from Earth to search the ship for tracking devices. Then we'll bring it back to Earth, and the technicians at ONI will integrate this technology into our own ships. That's the grand plan. Sound good?"
Danielle raised her hand. "What if we don't manage to capture it? What if they find Earth, and we haven't captured that cruiser by then? Then they'll jump to Earth and we'll be torn apart by the MAC guns around Earth."
"That's why we aren't going to fail. Besides, the Covenant have developed a drop pod, similar to the ones ODSTs use. If all else fails, we'll take those and drop to Earth. They're designed for Elites and we're roughly the same size as them, so we should fit."
"But we don't know the Covenant written text and neither does our translators. How do we operate it?"
"We'll figure that out when we get there. But for now, we need to hijack a few dropships. Let's go back to HQ and get some equipment. We'll need it." He uploaded a NAV to where HQ was. "All right boys and girls, let's get a move on! Double time!"
They all ran back to Headquarters and found it completely evacuated.
"Let's go to the armory and get some weapons. For those of you that want specialist weapons, you're welcome to take them, but make sure each team has at least one sniper and a rocket guy."
They made their way to the armory, and picked up weapons ammo and grenades. Xiran took a sniper rifle. He also took ten extended, and five normal clips for it. The normal clips contained four bullets each, whereas the extended clips held eight. He slung the sniper rifle across his back, and picked up a standard MA5B assault rifle. He grabbed ten clips of ammo for that too. Four fragmentation grenades went into his grenade compartment and he was ready. He looked around and saw that everyone had an assault rifle. Some of them only had double pistols as sidearms, whereas others slung a larger weapon across their backs and carried an assault rifle. After everyone was done, they assembled at the entrance of the armory.
"All right, let's head in the general direction of the cruiser. If we find an Apparition on the way, then we'll fly it out of here. If we don't find one outside of the cruiser, then we'll get into it, hijack one, and the fly it out. Any questions?"
No one spoke up.
"Good, let's get ready. Split up into four teams, just like before. Our destination is here." He uploaded a map of the surrounding region with a NAV marker on it to the rest of the Spartans. "The destination is due west, but we need to approach it from different directions. Red and Gold teams will attack from the center while Blue Team approaches them from the southeast. Green Team will attack from the northeast. We will try breakthrough into the main ship. Either that or we'll hijack an Apparition that's docked outside of the cruiser. If you can get any sort of cover of stealthy advance, then do so."
"Are we going to make our way there on foot?" asked Karen.
"Yes. Although we have a large amount of Warthogs and even a few Scorpions available to us, we're going to go no foot because the vehicles are too noisy." He paused and glanced at his Spartans. They seemed so much stronger than they were this morning, before they set out to do their work.
"This operation will start as soon as it gets dark, and that should be about two more hours."
Acknowledgements winked on. He looked at his team again, and then for no reason whatsoever he looked at the setting sun. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and he hoped that he would survive to witness this beautiful sight again.
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A/N: 'Helluva' means 'Hell of a'...so 'helluva lot better' means 'hell of a lot better'. Just for those people that didn't know what 'helluva' meant...
Another A/N: Headquarters is NOT Castle Base.