Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: Please don't flame, especially if you have no clue what the hell you're talking about. For an example of this, please see Blackdiablo19's review (Chapter 9, Anonymous FFN's chapter nine, my chapter 8). It is obvious he hasn't played Halo 2. Anyway, for the rest of you, thanks for reading my story!
Another A/N: Please don't flame the guy stated above because he has already apologized to me. Thanks!
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 16
The Trojan Horses
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Zek Lemanee led his squad back towards their base, which was directly underneath the cruiser. When he arrived, he found the base in complete ruins.
"By the Gods, what has happened here?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Everyone's here is dead, but how? There were more than a hundred soldiers here, what kind of a force can defeat so many?" asked one of his fellow SpecOps warriors.
The reply was a short one. "Demons."
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Light blue blood sprayed against an immobile Wraith as the creature housing the liquid fell to the ground with half a dozen bullet holes in its environment suit. It's teammate shrieked and managed to fire off a single plasma bolt before it was cut down as well. A third alien overcharged the plasma pistol in its claws and aimed it at one of the Spartans, but a bullet caught it in the side just as it was about to fire. It groaned in pain and the plasma bolt discharged from the pistol. The shot went wide and seared into the purple ceiling above its intended target.
"Thanks," muttered Thomas, whose shield generator was destroyed in a previous encounter. A plasma blast that size would've punched a hole right through his MJOLNIR armour.
"No prob," replied the Spartan who saved him, Danielle. She tapped the trigger of her assault rifle and a single round spat out. The round hit home as it whizzed through the air and lodged itself into a Jackal's foot. The Jackal flinched and exposed itself for a second. Two more rounds caught it in its midsection and it doubled over. Blood oozed from its wound as it slowly collapsed and died.
Meanwhile, all around the room, other Spartans engaged what seemed to be an endless wave of Covenant soldiers. There were bodies everywhere and most of them were piled at the doors from which they came out of.
"Fire in the hole!" cried Soroush as he primed a captured plasma grenade and tossed it at one of the doors. The grenade landed close to the pile of dead Covenant soldiers and vaporized them instantly. The EMP released from the grenade also scrambled the circuits operating the door, thus preventing the doors from being opened, unless it was wrenched apart by force.
Xiran saw how the plasma 'nades disrupted the electronics within the door mechanism and an idea came to him.
"Plasma grenades on my mark. Get it close enough to the doors so that the EMP could scramble the door controls, but not enough to punch a hole through it. Get all doors except this one." He uploaded a NAV point to the door closest to him. Then he waited for three seconds and cried. "Mark!"
Over twenty plasma grenades sailed towards the doors and exploded almost simultaneously, creating large craters of glass in front of the doors. The plan worked, and all of the doors stopped working. One of the doors was disabled when it was open, so two Spartans immediately moved to it and closed it manually. Then they turned their attention to the only door that was still operational. It opened, and all twenty-nine Spartans levelled their assault rifles at the door, but there was nothing...or so it seemed.
Karen noticed a shimmer in the air as the door opened. At first, she thought that she was merely tired, or that she imagined it, but then she recalled that the Covenant possessed light bending active camouflage technology.
"Camouflaged Elites!" she cried. As she cried out, blades of pure plasma shot out from nowhere. One of the glowing swords slashed at Xiran and he ducked just in time. The Spartans saw the sword and now had a point around which they could fire, and so they did. The Elite took no less than sixty rounds to its body in a second and was immediately killed. The other two camouflaged Elites tried to achieve a kill but failed as a barrage of metallic projectiles disabled their active camouflage generators and punched through their armour. Soon, five Elites in blue-grey armour lay dead at the feet of the Spartans.
They scanned the room for any other hidden assailants and found none. Satisfied, Xiran opened his mouth to give another order, but before he could do that, Aphrodite intervened.
"Allow me," she said.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked Xiran.
"Yes. Trust me."
"All right. Go ahead," replied Xiran. The AI's voice boomed out of the helmet's external speakers and briefed the team.
"The Covenant know that there's something wrong with this ship now. Tlaloc and I tried to block the distress signal, but they sent too many." She paused and waited for a question to be asked. When none was asked, she continued. "Now about this mission. I'll have to let you know that there are only five operational Apparitions left on this ship. If all of us were to escape from this cruiser alive, we need to capture at least four of the five dropships. Unfortunately, there are six loading bays, and the Apparitions are located in five of the six bays. I advise the teams to split up into four teams and each team will take a dropship."
Then the normally silent Tlaloc spoke up. "Aphrodite and I will try to jam their communication devices. We'll also fiddle around with the controls and notify you of Covenant troop movements and placements."
"Yes. Your next targets will be here, here, here, here, or here." Five different NAV points appeared on the Spartans' heads up displays.
"Okay team, we'll split up like before. Green Team, you are to go down the grav lift and prevent any Covenant troops from entering the grav lift. Gold Team, you are to remain here to guard the grav lift from the inside. When I give the signal, go down the lift and wait for pickup. Any question?"
When no one spoke up, he continued. "Red Team will split themselves into two teams. Team Alpha and Beta. My team will also split into two. Team Gamma and Delta."
Xiran opened up his roster and quickly selected his teammates. Kyle, Kayleigh, Morgan were with him in Team Gamma, while Karen, Flavius, Alex, and May were put on Team Delta. Red Team also separated themselves to become Team Alpha and Team Beta. Then he tasked each team with a separate hanger to capture.
"Where do we meet once we've hijacked the ships?" asked Maria.
"We'll decide that once we get out. Any other questions?" No one spoke up. "Let's go."
The grav lift opened and Green Team went down to the surface. Gold Team stayed where they were, and Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta teams went through the only door still operational in the room. After a few meters, the path split into two separate corridors. Another fork in the road and Gamma was on its own.
"Kyle, you take point. Kayleigh, you take the rear," ordered Xiran and they moved accordingly.
The first attack came in a dimly lit corridor. The Spartans turned a corner and the corridor that was in front of them was pitch black. The lights that were usually in hallways such as these were turned off. Kyle turned on his flashlight, and the rest of Gamma Team followed suit. They proceeded through the corridor, when suddenly, Kyle's shields flared and he staggered back.
"Invisible Elites! Heads up!" cried Kyle as he opened fire with his twin SMGs. The torrent of bullets disabled the camouflaged generators and three armoured Elites stood before him.
Now that the Elites could be seen, Morgan and Xiran fired three AR rounds each. The Elite that took the shots crashed against a wall with blood coming out of its mouth. Another six rounds each finished the other two Elites.
A hatch opened from the ceiling and three Grunts jumped out. Normally, Grunts were nothing to worry about, but this time, one of the three had a lit plasma grenade in its paws.
With a grunt, the alien threw the plasma grenade directly at Kyle. Kyle ducked just in time and the explosive flew over his head and landed on the ground. Boom! The Spartans' auto-dampening systems made the sudden flash of light more bearable. The plasma splashed across the wall, burning the violet material. A crater now exists in the hallway as well. The Grunts' nerve then broke, and they tried to run.
"No you don't!" muttered Kyle and he opened fire with both of his SMGs. Blood and gore flew through the air as the bullets struck the Grunts, causing them to shriek in pain. Five seconds later, everything was quiet.
Kyle walked over to one of the fallen Elites and policed their plasma grenades.
"Let's go."
And so they went. The next hall they went into consisted of ten sleeping Grunts. The punishment for being asleep on duty involved a smack to the head, and a bullet to the face, for each of them.
Finally, after going through many corridors in the mazelike interior of the ship, they reached the hanger where their objective was. There was a big problem. No less than half a dozen Hunters guarded the craft, not the mention the two dozen or so Elites. The Grunts were too many to count.
"Analyzing," Aphrodite said to herself. Then she spoke to Gamma Team using their internal speakers. That holo-panel there will deactivate the plasma force fields blocking the exits. However, as soon as we disable the shields, every Covenant member will fire at our position, which could be a problem."
Xiran looked at the controls, then at the dropship they were trying to commandeer. The cockpit hatch appeared to be open, as were the passenger tubes. All right, here's the plan. We have to neutralize the Hunters first, but we can't damage the ship in the process. We throw plasma grenades on my mark. And try to get two on each Hunter. That should neutralize the biggest threat. Then, May will stay here to deactivate the shields while the rest of us jump down and kill the rest of them. Finally, May will jump down and strap herself in – quickly – and I'll fly us out of here." Seven acknowledgement lights winked on. "What do you think?" he asked the AI in his helmet.
"Simple, yet effective...if you can pull it off."
"We will."
"In that case. Go for it."
Xiran smiled. "Grenades on my mark." He waited two heartbeats. "Mark!"
A volley of four glowing orbs flew through the air and adhered to their unsuspecting victims, followed by two more volleys. The grunts of surprise issued by the Hunters were immediately drowned out by the crackling detonations of the plasma explosives.
"Spartans! Go, go, go!" cried Xiran as he leaped down from the upper hallways, emptying an entire clip of AR rounds before hitting the ground. He ducked behind a pillar, reloaded, and popped back into action.
As Karen dropped down, she unbuckled her only Lotus anti-tank mine and, with a flick of her wrist, flung it was a group of unsuspecting Grunts and an unfortunate Elite Major. A bright orange ball of fire consumed the Covenant soldiers and secondary explosions took place as the flames found the Grunts' methane supplies. Tertiary explosions bloomed as the plasma grenades attached to the soldiers detonated as well.
Fourteen Covenant lives were lost to the mine, a worthy trade.
Seventy-seconds after they had dropped down, all of the Elites were neutralized, so the rest of the aliens' nerves broke, and they fled.
"Get in!" cried Xiran even as he climbed into the cockpit and closed the door. The interior of the cockpit was dimly lit and cramped, but perfectly all right under the circumstances.
May unlocked the energy barrier and jumped down from above. She climbed in, strapped herself down, and sent Xiran a message saying that she was in. Xiran acknowledged, then he looked at the alien, yet strangely familiar symbols on the ship's controls. He clicked one of them and the hatches of the passenger tubes hissed shut. He brushed his hands over another and blew a hole in the wall with the ship's plasma cannon.
"That could come in handy," he muttered to himself and stored the information for later use.
He grazed another set of controls with his fingers and the Covenant craft rose a few meters into the air. He then grasped the 'steering wheel' and keyed the accelerator. The ship shot out of the hovering Covenant cruiser and into the blackness of space.
As his ship cleared the cruiser, he saw two other Apparitions speeding in the same general direction as his, and another two were clearing the cruiser from the other side...but wait a second. There were only three other dropships other than his, that were supposed to be captured, unless someone disobeyed orders, which was highly unlikely. He planted a NAV point on each of the Spartans' helmets and labelled it "Rally Point Omega". In theory, his plan would explain which craft didn't belong to the Spartans.
Whichever ship that doesn't go directly to the rally point clearly belongs to the Covenant. However, if the extra ship decides to tag along, he'll have to think of something else. Fortunately, four ships made beelines towards the rally point while the other sped off in the other direction.
"Green Team and Gold Team. Come in," said Xiran over a secure COM channel.
"Yes, sir," said Soroush and Alyssa.
"We have captured the Apparitions, four of them, and you are to wait here." Xiran uploaded another NAV point about a mile northeast of the ship. "We'll pick you up ASAP."
"Roger that."
"Good. Spartan-381 out." Then he keyed the COM to Alpha, Beta, and Delta teams. "Let's pick them up."
Four Apparitions sped down towards their destination and in less than two minutes, arrived at the pickup site. Green and Gold teams eagerly jumped in and strapped themselves down. The hatches closed and they were in the air once again.
"Incoming," warned Aphrodite.
Xiran looked down at the dropship's detection gear, and saw a dot approaching them quickly. Visual confirmation reported that the extra Apparition that had cleared the ship sped directly towards them.
"All ships. Head up towards the orbiting cruiser. Do not engage the hostile Apparition unless it fires at us."
Suddenly, blossoms of fire erupted along the ship's side. Lances of fire and plasma ravaged the cruiser and quite suddenly, blew it apart. The shields held the explosion within until finally, it gave, and fire and debris flew out in all directions. The hostile Apparition, which was much closer to it than the Spartans were, was blown off course and it plummeted down to the surface of Reach like a wounded duck.
The commandeered dropships vibrated violently as the shockwave coursed through its foundations. Luckily, none of the ships broke apart from the strain. Together, the four dropships sped towards the heavens, where their LZ awaited.
"Everybody okay?" Xiran asked after the shockwave had subsided. Twenty-seven Spartans acknowledged. Thomas hadn't responded, so Xiran checked the roster. He was marked as MIA – missing in action – which probably meant that he was dead.
"What happened?" Xiran asked Soroush, who was Thomas's squad leader, over the COM.
"Hunter." His voice was filled with sadness and regret.
"Don't dawdle over it. We'll have time to cry over it later, but for now, we have a job to do."
"Yes, sir." His voice sounded tougher now.
"Good. Over and out." Then Aphrodite spoke through his internal speakers. "They're hailing you and they want visual confirmation." She paused. "Sending reply now. I'm going to hack into the system and plant an image of an Elite in your place. Whatever you do, don't move, or you'll destroy the image."
"I'll try not to," Xiran replied. He stood as still as a statue and let Aphrodite do all the work.
After a moment, Aphrodite's voice returned. "They've accepted us, but they want to see us immediately after we land, which could be a problem."
"Problem? I see no problem. We get off the ship, kill all of the Covenant onboard the ship, except for the engineers of course, and go to Earth. You and Tlaloc can disable any self-destruct sequences."
"That's all well and good, but according to the Cole Protocol, Subsection Seven, we're not allowed to take Covenant ships to human controlled space without it first being searched from top to bottom for tracking equipment." She paused. "But I think we can get around that. The Covenant have already found Earth, according to these coordinates, so going to Earth wouldn't be a violation of the protocol because they already know the location of Earth."
His first thought after she told him that the Covenant had found Earth was "WHAT!" After that his mind started working very quickly. Then what? If the enemy had already found Earth, then the best course of action was to take over this ship and jump to Earth, hailing FLEETCOM and HIGHCOM the whole time, unless he wanted to die a fiery death when MAC rounds from Earth's orbital stations struck the cruiser. The AIs can take care of that.
"We gotta take over this ship as soon as we dock. You and Tlaloc will have to try to jam all communications and self-destruct sequences. Then I'll take a squad of four Spartans and take the bridge while the rest of them secure various other regions of the ship."
"Sounds a bit risky, but I like it," replied Aphrodite after a moment of thought.
"I'll brief the others on the plan."
"It might be best to brief them after we land, because messages can be intercepted." There was a purple light flashing on and off on the controls. "We're being received and will touch down in about forty five seconds."
"Roger that."
"They're welcoming you in," noted Aphrodite as the plasma screens to their hangers opened.
"I can see that," replied Xiran as he manuvered the dropship through the gate. The other three dropships also went into landing bays. Two of them were three decks below them, Aphrodite informed him, and the remaining dropship was a deck above.
"Perfect," murmured Xiran.
The face of a gold armoured Elite appeared on the ship's main viewscreen, and it ordered him to report to the control room of the ship. Aphrodite sent the reply immediately, and the viewscreen faded.
"Get ready to get out and ambush these guys," ordered Xiran over the COM. The Spartans in his Apparition sent their acknowledgement signals immediately. He shut off the COM and looked for the button he pressed earlier on one of the ship's control panels.
"Found it," muttered Xiran as he activated the main Shade cannon located directly below the cockpit. The cannon started glowing and his cameras showed Grunts jumping up and down wildly while Elites roared at them, but none of that mattered when he released the pent up energy. Blades of plasma cut down a dozen Grunts before they could respond. The rest of the Covenant soldiers unsheathed their plasma rifles, plasma pistols, and needlers and started to fire at the dropship, but to no avail.
Two Hunters emerged from one of the doors leading into the landing bays and fired twin bolts of radioactive energy from their fuel rod cannons. The blasts struck the dropship right in the passenger tube, but the armour absorbed the damage. Xiran quickly spun the Shade cannon around to meet this new threat, and the mighty Hunters were turned into two piles of smoking blood and gore in a matter of seconds. When he thought that he had thinned the Covenant forces sufficiently to capture it, he lowered the dropship and opened the two passenger hatches.
Kyle, Kayleigh, Morgan, and three other Spartans leaped out of the dropship with guns blazing. Xiran clicked the cockpit door release and kicked it open. He jumped out and fired at the hostiles all around him. Grunts and Jackals shrieked as they fell. The Elites didn't do much better.
"Watch out! Reinforcements coming through the main foyer!" warned Aphrodite. The large doors opened and squads of Grunts and Jackals came through, followed by their Elite commanders. Upon spotting the Spartans, they barked and a deluge of plasma and crystalline needles were fired at the Spartans.
"Spread out!" cried Xiran and the Human soldiers fanned out, firing while getting into position. The bullets cut through the Grunts like a hot knife through butter. The Jackals did a bit better than their Grunt counterparts, but their handheld energy shields couldn't protect their users when the attacks were coming from everywhere. As a result, the Jackals were eliminated almost as fast as the Grunts.
It was at this point that the Elites found themselves in a very bad situation. When they first came in, they had an entire army to back them up – and to sacrifice. Now, there was nothing in between them and the Spartans except for a very large pile of dead bodies. Then the pride of the Sangheili race overruled their good sense, and they engaged the Spartans.
"Foolish bastards," muttered someone over the COM, but Xiran didn't really care who had said it. Two of the Elites fired their twin plasma rifles at him and he was to force to sidestep it. The air crackled there he was a second before. One of the Elites was shot from the side and fell down into a pool of its own blood. The remaining Elite roared a challenge and charged at Xiran. It was hit from behind by a burst of AR fire and its shields flared, but it paid no heed to the damage. It closed to gap surprisingly quickly and shot Xiran at point blank range. Xiran also raised his assault rifle at the same time. The alien had weaker shields from being shot in the back earlier and the plasma ate away the Spartan's shields faster. The result was that both of the full body shields collapsed at the same time.
Click! Xiran glanced down at his rifle. The bolt locked open and the ammo counter read 00.
Hiss! The Elite and the Spartan stared at the alien's plasma rifle. It had overheated and excess plasma was spilling out the side. The Elite quickly dropped it and shook its four fingered hand, as if the plasma had burnt him – which probably had since its shields were down.
Wasting no time, Xiran dropped his assault rifle and rammed the Elite with his shoulder, knocking the Elite off balance. The Elite tried to counter the attack and half succeeded. Both warriors sprawled to the ground. Xiran got up and launched at roundhouse kick at the Elite's temple. The alien ducked, grabbed Xiran's foot, and using the Spartan's own momentum to hurl him at the wall. The Spartan was ready for this countermove, since he and his teammates had used it themselves hundreds of times, and turned himself around in midair. He kicked off the wall and flew at the Elite. The Elite gaped open mouthed as the half ton warrior struck it in its midsection. Sparks flew as the barely existent shields collided and were erased. The armour the Elite wore collapsed and cut into its torso. Blood sprayed from the wound and painted the Elite's once crimson armour a dark purple.
Weakened but not defeated, the Elite struggled to rise from its position on the ground. He raised his head and ducked immediately as an armoured green boot impacted upon the side of its helmet. The blow glanced off its helmet and tore it off, leaving a gash on the Elite's hairless scalp.
"No honourable warrior strikes his opponent while he's down," growled the Elite weakly.
Xiran ignored that and crushed the alien's skull. He then went back and retrieved his abandoned assault rifle, ejecting the spent clip and slapping in a new one as he picked it up. There were several scars on the plastisteel of the rifle, but it was still functional.
Had it been a friendly fight between friends, he would've allowed his opponent to get back up before beating him back down again, but this wasn't a friendly fight. He looked at the Elite one last time before speaking into the COM.
"Spartan, report," ordered Xiran. The other three team leaders reported their status. No KIAs, and no major injuries.
Good.
"Alright Spartans, this is what we're going to do. There will be new teams. My dropship will be Blue Team. Soroush's dropship will be gold, Alyssa's green, and Joseph's red. Same team leaders, just different members." The Spartans accepted that. Then Xiran continued. "Green Team will locate and destroy all but four dropships aboard this ship. Then they are to secure them and mark it with a orange NAV point."
Green Leader sent her acknowledgement signal.
"Red Team will patrol throughout the ship, looking for any supplies we can use. Grenades, weapons, whatever. Use purple NAV points. Gold Team will be in charge of securing the drop pods. Yellow NAV point. Finally, Blue Team, my own, will be after the bridge of this cruiser, which will be marked with a blue NAV point once we find it."
"Aphrodite and I will keep the ship from self-destructing and we'll feed you other info from time to time," added Tlaloc over the COM.
"You have your orders. Carry them out. Failure is not an option, not ever, not now."
The Spartans noted that.
"Blue Team, let's destroy this dropship and get out of here," said Xiran.
The Spartans quickly went to work and in slightly over a minute, the dropship was in quite a few pieces.
"Let's go find the bridge of the cruiser," said Xiran quietly.
The Spartans nodded and proceeded stealthily through the blood splattered foyer, hoping that Aphrodite and Tlaloc would be able to block any self-destruct sequences.
"I hate space ops," he muttered to no one in particular. Then he pushed his uneasiness to one side and focused on his mission.
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A/N: The Covenant cruiser exploded because it was the same one Fred and Kelly planted the Fury Tactical Nukes in (First Strike). The Elder and Younger Spartans weren't revealed to each other and as a consequence, neither knew the others' plans. It was by sheer luck (and the fact that I really need the Younger Spartans in the later chapters) that they survived. Anyway, that's just the explanation for those of you who didn't make the connection.
Another A/N: Wow! That took so long to update! You wouldn't believe the amount of homework my teachers gave me during the last days of school. They even gave me homework over the holidays! Oh my god! I hate school! Ah well. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. For those of you that are tired of Xiran et al. and want the Master Chief back, I'm sorry but you'll have to wait till the chapter after the next (two chapters from this one). I swear I'll make it super sweet! Thanks for your patience and support!