Many thanks to both Darkfire7881 and TheWildCanuck for taking the time out of their very busy schedules and editing this chapter for me! Without them, I don't think this chapter would be half as good as it is! Thanks guys!
Chapter 33
Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance
Forerunner Designated World: MS 222-53 a
9th Age of Reclamation
9th Cycle of the Planet's Rotation
Zek
"File, CEASE FIRE!"
Zek poked his head out from behind the wall he had taken cover behind. The human armored vehicle that had been firing on them had finally stopped, and was now sitting motionless on the road. A multitude of holes had been blasted into the vehicle's armor, leaving it torn up and smoking, but even then, Zek couldn't be sure if the gunner inside had been killed or not. If it had been just a human inside, then the area was safe. If it had been the Demon however... well, Zek had seen firsthand just how hard Demons were to kill.
"Kig-Yar, inspect that vehicle!" a nearby Sangheili roared.
It took Zek a few moments to realize the Sangheili's orders were directed at him, but once he did, Zek hurriedly sprang into action. Lifting his needle rifle, Zek cautiously approached the human vehicle and took a deep breath, before glancing inside. He half expected to instantly get shot, but fortunately, all he saw was a dead human sitting in one of the seats. Red blood was dripping from several holes in the human's chest, causing a pool to form underneath it. The human must have been one of the prisoners from Firebase Reformation, as the human was lacking armor and weapons aside from a Sangheili issued Type-25 plasma rifle, but whether or not this human had been the one to assassinate the Minister, Zek honestly couldn't tell.
Even though the human was very clearly dead, Zek nevertheless lifted his rifle and shot the human once more in the head, just for good measure. At this point in the day and after everything Zek had been through so far, he was no longer willing to take any more chances if he could avoid it.
The human's head snapped to the side but aside from that, the alien didn't move at all. Satisfied the creature was actually dead, Zek hurriedly left the vehicle.
"Vehicle is safe sire!" Zek reported.
"Is the Demon inside!?" the same Sangheili from before demanded to know.
"No sire!" Zek yelled back.
The Sangheili snarled. "Damnations! The Demon is escaping! File, advance!"
The entire file of Covenant warriors surged forward down the street in the direction the humans and the Demons had gone. Their path was easy enough to follow, as their footprints were still very fresh in the snow, though where they thought they would be going, Zek had no idea. His only thought was that if he valued his head, he would do his best to stop them.
As he hopped out of the human vehicle, Zek reflexively looked around for Rezan, only to remember Rezan was still at the firebase, getting his hand fixed. Zek mentally wished him the best, and prayed he would be able to see Rezan one more time before Rezan was evacuated off this planet; for now, Zek had to focus on the task at hand.
"Forward! Forward!" the Sangheili were roaring as they shoved all the warriors ahead of them. "Advance!"
Zek hastily dashed forward to avoid getting struck by the Sangheili, though he did so with a fair amount of reluctance. He didn't like this idea of charging blindly forward in the wake of the Demon's path without knowing what was ahead of them. After all, the Demons had proved time after time they were unafraid of being pursued, and would often times turn around and set up an ambush for their pursuers.
However, there was no chance of slowing things down. The Shipmaster was furious and demanding retribution for the death of the Minister and as a simple foot soldier, Zek was expected to deliver. So he ran alongside everyone else, praying whenever he rounded a corner that it would not be him that was killed.
CRACK!
The Unggoy directly in front of him suddenly collapsed, screaming in pain as he was struck by gunfire. Zek immediately dove to the side as more bullets tore up the street around him.
Vittu! Zek knew this was going to happen!
"INTERACTION!" Zek heard a Sangheili cry out as he scrambled back to safety around the corner of the wall. "HERETICS! ON THE HIGH!"
Cautiously poking his head around the corner, Zek spotted muzzle flashes coming from the human structure built for their ground-confined vehicles. Leveling his rifle, Zek experimentally fired a few shots in the direction most of the gunfire was coming from, but the angle was all wrong and all his blamite rounds did was shatter against the concrete.
Zek swore. He needed some height.
As he backed up around the corner to reload, a nearby Unggoy shoved past him and swung out around the corner to try and shoot back. Unsurprisingly, the Unggoy immediately collapsed, a smoking wound in his abdomen. However, what did surprise Zek was the fact the Unggoy had been hit by plasma, not the expected gunfire.
Zek felt a thrill of excitement at the sight. Surely it was the Demon that was firing the captured plasma rifle.
Poking his head around the corner once more even as another Unggoy dashed out to try and rescue his screaming friend, Zek desperately tried to spot where the plasma fire was coming from; even as he did his best to avoid getting struck by gunfire. He need not have worried though, as another file of Covenant warriors had appeared from a different direction, and had drawn the gunfire to them. As for the Demon's position, Zek had very little luck until -
FWOOZ!
"AIEEE!"
The Unggoy that had tried to rescue his friend abruptly let out a loud scream as he too was struck by more plasma fire. The two Unggoy laid there in the street, screaming pitifully, but Zek ignored them as he focused on where the plasma bolt had originated from. It appeared to have come from the floor directly below the one with all the gunfire and while it was a little hard to see because of the shadows, Zek could just barely spot the silhouette of a humanoid figure moving about. Whether or not it was the Demon, Zek couldn't tell from where he was, but it was a good starting point.
Ducking back into safety, Zek spotted Evocatus 'Quetshadee charging down the street, leading yet another file of Covenant warriors, and waved him down.
"Sire! I think I spotted the Demon!" Zek yelled.
"Where?" the 'Quetshadee demanded to know.
"I believe the Demon is on the fifth floor sire!" Zek shouted, pointing around the corner. It's firing a captured Type-25 plasma rifle!"
"Show me!"
Zek didn't bother arguing. Rounding the corner, he started firing his rifle in the direction he had seen the muzzle flashes, hoping 'Quetshadee was paying attention.
FWOOZ!
The Demon returned fire, and Zek hastily ducked, but fortunately the plasma hadn't been directed at him. Instead, it had been fired at a nearby Unggoy trying to cross the street. The bolt smashed against the Unggoy's belt where he was storing his Type-1 grenades, setting them off.
"Vittu!" Zek yelled as the Unggoy exploded, showering the street with body parts.
For his part, 'Quetshadee seemed to ignore the fighting and instead, reached a hand up to his helmet.
"Shipmaster: primary target has been located," he declared as Zek leveled his rifle to try and obtain a shot. "Affirmative. It shall be done! Kig-Yar!"
Zek jumped and ducked back into cover. "Sire?"
"Obtain a higher vantage point and eliminate the Demon!"
Zek was hardly going to argue the point, but still, he couldn't help but ask, "But sire, were we not supposed to capture the Demon alive?"
"The Shipmaster has declared otherwise! The High Prophets will need solely be satisfied with the Demon's head! Now follow my commands Kig-Yar!"
"By your will!"
Zek sprang into action. Ignoring all the other warriors dashing in the direction of the fighting, Zek ran towards the nearest building. Smashing in the door with the butt of his rifle, he dashed up the nearest flight of stairs at a full sprint. Bursting through the door at the top, Zek found himself on the roof. He quickly looked around.
Directly in front of him was the building where the Demon was taking shelter. At the moment, the Demon was exchanging fire with a pair of T'vaoan warriors taking shelter on a rooftop across the street from Zek. As Zek watched, the T'vaoans whirled out from behind the small structure they were using for cover and began firing their rifles on the human building. Zek followed the path of their blamite rounds to see what they were shooting at, only to see a single human figure working on attaching a series of... something to the columns. What that something was, Zek had no idea, but he didn't care. As the figure returned fire, Zek leveled his rifle and began to draw a bead on the creature, but then paused as he realized the figure was far too small to be the Demon. Where was the Demon?
Deciding two T'vaoans were more than a match for a mere human, Zek opted not to reveal his presence just yet as he searched for where the Demon could be hiding. Was this all a simple distraction? But for what purpose? Based on all the communications chatter, several files were closing in from all sides on this position, making an escape for the Demon unlikely. Surely the Demon had to have known that, so why did –
Zek abruptly noticed the ship. He initially didn't see it because it was rather dark in the building and he had thought it was part of the wall, but as he looked over the entire structure for the Demon, one of the humans fired again and in the brief glow of the muzzle flash, he spotted the distinct form of a human dropship.
"They have a ship!" Zek exclaimed out loud in surprise. That explained why the humans had retreated here to this structure. They must have known this ship was here! He quickly grabbed his communicator.
"Evocatus 'Quetshadee!" he shouted. "The Demon has a ship inside that structure!"
"What!?"
"There's a ship!" Zek repeated, staring at the vessel in question. Now that he was paying attention, he could actually see the dropship vibrating, indicating its engines were active. But if that was the case, why hadn't they lifted off yet?
POOOOSSHHHH!
At the distinct sound of a human rocket being launched, Zek dove for cover. He looked up to see a number of rockets launching from the floor the ship was on and flying in all directions, one of which headed directly for the structure he had seen the T'vaoans taking cover behind.
"Brother, WATCH OUT!" Zek reflexively screamed even though there was no way for the T'vaoans to hear him from this distance over the sounds of all the fighting.
He watched as the rocket slammed into the cover and penetrated through the other side, forcing the T'vaoans to dive to the side. Strangely enough, the rocket failed to explode but it hardly mattered as the T'vaoans were now in the open, something the humans were quick to exploit. Plasma began raining down all around one of the T'vaoans, and Zek watched as his comrade snapped his rifle up, but just as he was about to pull the trigger a bolt smashed into his rifle, causing it to explode. Zek could see a single blamite round shoot straight up into the T'vaoan's head, killing him instantly.
"Ryökäle!" Zek snarled and started to bring his rifle to bear, but then -
POOOOSSHHHH!
The sound of more rockets firing sent Zek scrambling for the ground. Rockets sped in all directions, a few of which passed right over Zek's roof, and he laid there with his arms covering his head as he waited for the explosion.
THUNK!
Zek jumped as one of the rockets slammed into the ground right next to him. Letting out a cry of alarm, Zek started to scramble away on his hands and knees, but in his heart he knew it was going to be too late. As the rocket motor flared out, Zek slowly closed his eyes and waited for death...
…which never came.
After a few heartbeats, Zek cracked his eyelids open to see he was still alive, and that the rocket was just sitting there, smoking.
At first, Zek just sat there, unsure of what to do. Eventually, his curiosity took over and he scrambled to his feet and slowly approached the projectile.
Poking at it with the barrel of his rifle, he leapt back in alarm as the rocket body toppled over, revealing -
"They've got no explosives," Zek exclaimed as he realized the rocket was missing its head. "They've got no explosives! They're all duds!"
Feeling invigorated, Zek grabbed his rifle and turned around to engage the humans, secure in the fact they couldn't hit him. He searched for the figure that had been standing on the floor below where the ship had been, only the human wasn't there any longer. He started searching, only to see the human running up a nearby flight of stairs.
Taking a deep breath, Zek slowly exhaled as he took aim. Almost... there...
"Kig-Yar!"
Zek nearly jumped out of his skin at the angry shout behind him. He whirled around, only to see both Evocatus 'Quetshadee and Shipmaster 'Oteree emerging from the stairwell behind him.
"Where is the Demon!?" 'Oteree demanded to know as Zek did his best to resist the urge to curse them out.
"I think the Demon is in that ship over there sire!" Zek yelled, jabbing his rifle in the human's direction. "I think they're about to leave!"
"DISABLE THAT SHIP!"
'With what?' Zek wanted to ask, but he dared not. Instead, he leapt to his feet and whirled around in time to see one of the humans running towards the ship at a dead sprint.
Zek's rifle instantly appeared in his hands and he reflexively fired a single round. It was a perfect shot. He didn't see the round hit, but the human instantly dropped like an apple falling off the tree. Moments later, the door to the ship slammed closed.
"DESTROY THAT SHIP, NOW!" 'Oteree roared and Zek started unloading his rifle on the ship. Unfortunately his weapon was hardly designed to engage armor, so all his projectiles did was shatter against the dropship's hull. Nevertheless, Zek continued firing until he was out of ammo.
The cover to his magazine automatically popped open, and Zek started to reload, but before he could complete the motion, the ground suddenly trembled, causing him to stumble.
Alarmed, Zek looked up in time to see the human building beginning to fall apart as a series of explosions destroyed the columns holding the building up. Was that the Shipmaster's doing?
Before Zek could ask, the building abruptly collapsed! Zek could see chunks of concrete landing and shattering against the dropship's hull, and just as Zek was about to celebrate the destruction of the Demon, the ship's engines flared, abruptly launching straight out of the doomed building like a top on a bottle! Zek started shooting again, but before he could fire off more than a couple of shots, the ship did a near ninety degree turn skyward and launched itself vertically, straight into the air towards orbit.
Zek desperately unloaded the rest of his magazine at the dropship, but the human ship was far too fast for him to hit, and all of his rounds fell short.
Lowering his empty rifle, Zek watched as the human ship flew through the air before it finally disappeared into the darkness of the night.
Feeling a sinking sensation deep within his torso, Zek slowly turned around to see how 'Oteree would react to his inability to stop the ship.
'Oteree was standing on the roof, staring at the spot the human ship had disappeared to, with a look of absolute fury on his face. Before Zek could say anything, 'Oteree abruptly pulled out a communicator and brought it up to his mouth.
"Destroy that ship," he snarled and overhead, Zek could hear the howl of Banshee fighters starting to close in from all directions...
XXXXX
UNSC Moonlight Sonata, High Orbit, Actium
Luzader
"Commander, sir?"
Luzader looked up from his display, where he was impatiently waiting for another status report from Captain Rogers. "What is it Lieutenant?"
"Sir, you wanted me to inform you the moment anything... unusual occurred within the city," the Lieutenant reminded him. "Well, sir, we've just picked up the signature of a Pelican launch."
"And? Pelicans are launching and landing all over the place."
"It's launching from behind enemy lines, sir."
That caught Luzader's attention.
"Put it on screen!" he demanded, climbing to his feet as his tired bridge staff began stirring themselves to full alert.
The main screen abruptly winked on, revealing an image of a single UNSC Pelican rapidly rising up from the ground. The Pelican had clearly seen some action at one point: it had plasma scoring all over its hull and it had some deep scratches in its dorsal and lateral armor plating, as if someone had taken a giant cheese grater to it. Also, Luzader could see the two Anvil rocket pods the Pelican had were completely depleted, indicating it had been in a fight at some point.
"Do we have comms?" Luzader asked as a sense of hope began to well up within. Surely this couldn't be a coincidence?
"No, sir, but the Pelican is broadcasting a valid IFF tag. Tag identifies it as... registration four five zero zero x-ray which, according to our records, is an Air Force D77-TC dropship assigned to the 77th Airlift Squadron, which in turn was assigned to the UNSC Gerald Young, a Gökçen-class attack transport that arrived in system nearly fourteen hours ago. However..." Luzader could see his technician frowning. "Sir, that Pelican was reported as having been shot down nearly twelve hours ago."
Luzader could feel a sense of excitement beginning to spread through his entire body. A Pelican that had been shot down behind enemy lines suddenly coming back to life? Covenant Elites never used human equipment, even if the alternative was death, and regular rank and file soldiers wouldn't know how to repair a Pelican and get it flying again. There could only be one possibility of who was inside that ship... a Spartan.
But he had to be sure.
"Reroute our nearest drone," Luzader commanded. "Let's see if we can't get visual of the cockpit- "
"Sir, look!" his Lieutenant exclaimed. "The Pelican run lights!"
Luzader snapped his head up to see the run lights on the Pelican were blinking in a systematic pattern. It wasn't hard to figure out what it was.
"That's Morse code!" Luzader snapped. "Get me a translation!"
"Already on it, sir!" his Lieutenant cried. "Looks like it's a series of numbers, sir, then a single letter, followed by three more numbers: eight niner six three five seven seven zero one seven Sierra zero six two."
The Lieutenant continued to say something else, but Luzader was no longer listening because at that moment, the world seemed to freeze as the significance of those numbers hit him like an ice cold bath.
"That's Maria's service number!" he blurted out. "That's classified information; only one person could have known that number! That's it, those are the Spartans!"
"Sir!" another technician suddenly screamed. "I'm picking up enemy signatures: Banshees, closing in fast!"
"On screen!"
The image on the screen zoomed out to reveal -
"God almighty," someone whispered as they spotted over fifty Banshees closing in fast on the damaged Pelican. There was no way a single Pelican could hope to survive against those odds, even with a Spartan at the helm.
"We need air support and we need it now," Luzader declared. "Lieutenant, what assets do we have in the area!?"
"A reconnaissance drone and that's it, sir!" his Lieutenant snapped. "But there are several Air Force and Marine Corps fighters in -"
"Get me Spaatz!" Luzader snapped.
To his immense irritation, Kanin, not Spaatz, appeared on his screen.
"Lieutenant Commander," Kanin politely began. "To what do we owe -"
"Kanin, connect me to Admiral Spaatz, now!" Luzader roughly interrupted. Kanin stiffened.
"Commander, I apologize," he respectfully began, "however the Admiral has -"
"ONI executive override Echo Tango Sierra one one seven Hotel niner niner three, November Zulu Foxtrot seven!" Luzader spat out.
"…override accepted. Connecting you now, sir."
"Commander Luzader?" Spaatz's surprised voice immediately sounded over the airwaves. "What in the hell…?"
"Admiral, I need your help, and I need it now," Luzader hurriedly said. "Long story short: there's a Pelican rising up from the surface of Actium, and I have reason to believe that it contains at least one member of Spartan Team Argon. I need you to redeploy whatever assets you have right now to protect that dropship!"
To Luzader's immense relief, Spaatz didn't bother wasting time asking stupid questions.
"Kanin, what assets do we have in the vicinity?"
"Broadswords, sir, from the Air Force's No 187 Fighter Squadron, call sign: Omega Flight."
"Send them in."
"Aye, sir, rerouting now!"
"Sir, with the amount of Bandits closing in on my Pelican, I'm going to need more than one squadron," Luzader warned.
In response, his console abruptly chimed.
"Whatever assets I have in the general AO," Spaatz quickly explained. "I'm hereby authorizing you command override to divert whatever and whoever you need to. I authenticate..."
"Ops, start routing those fighters!" Luzader yelled before Spaatz could even finish.
"Yes, sir! Smithy, started connecting to all these units, just go straight down the line! O'Malley, start rerouting and get fighters over there to make me a flight corridor!"
"Aye aye Lieutenant! Actium Defense Command to call sign Easy Red: divert to heading..."
"...authenticate Tango Whiskey..."
"Orders are to engage all hostiles..."
"...priority one: protect that Pelican!"
Luzader stared intently at the main screen as his entire bridge exploded with activity as his crew began diverting one squadron after another towards that single Pelican rocketing its way towards high orbit. Enemy Banshees were still closing in from all directions, but just behind them, friendly contacts was starting to fill the screen as squadron after squadron were yanked off their current missions and diverted.
"Hang in there Spartan," Luzader whispered. "Hang in there. Help is on the way..."
XXXXX
Thracia Province, Actium
Zelda
"Cyclops, this is Omega Flight: inbound, your station, sixty seconds!"
Zelda hastily leveled out his Broadsword as he followed Odessa to the target area.
"6, this is you," Odessa said over the radio. "Move into attack position and standby to engage!"
"Copy, into attack, seven klicks out," Zelda coolly replied as he reached out and armed four of the bombs he was carrying. "Pickle is hot… bomb bay doors are open..."
His Broadsword shook as a fuel rod cannon exploded nearby, but Zelda ignored it as he focused most of his attention on the counter counting down the distance to his target. He didn't really know what he was about to bomb. Apparently it was a large concentration of Covenant soldiers or something, but whatever it was, Zelda knew it was going to get erased when he dropped his four Mark 211, 1000 kilogram bombs in three... two... one...
"Bombs away bombs away bombs away!" Zelda yelled as he started to pick up the slack on his trigger...
"ABORT ABORT ABORT!"
"ABORTING!"
Zelda didn't think, he just reacted. Snatching away his finger like his trigger was on fire, at the same time, he yanked his control yoke to the right and banked hard, breaking off from his approach.
"What the fuck!" Zelda exclaimed as soon as he was clear. He hurriedly disarmed his bombs and closed his bomb bay doors. "What the fucking shit was that? Why the fuck did those goddamn Cunt Munchers clear us hot, then immediately abort!?"
"I don't fucking know man, fucking weekend warriors don't know what the fuck they're doing I guess. See, this is why I'm saying every fucking mud crunching unit has got to have a TACP assigned to them!" Odessa snarled
Zelda viciously nodded as he leveled out.
"Uh… Omega Flight? Cyclops: where the fuck are our bombs!?"
"Where the fuck do you think they went you fucking dumbass!" Zelda raged as he reached for the talk button on his radio, but then paused. "What the… hang on Odessa, that abort order came from FLEETCOM!"
"Impossible," Odessa immediately retorted. "We got returned to ACC the moment we hit atmo!"
"I can only tell you what I read buddy!" Zelda exclaimed. "6 to Leader: are you seeing this? Is this for real?"
"It is," Bellum confirmed. "I don't know what's going on, but we're getting a divert order directly from FLEETCOM HQ."
That made Zelda shut up and sit up straight. FLEETCOM Headquarters? That meant the orders came directly from Admiral Lukas Spaatz, supreme commander of every military unit assigned to the entire system. What the hell was he doing ordering individual fighter squadrons around?
"Orders are still trickling in, but all fighters, divert to heading two nine two degrees and punch it!" Bellum snapped.
"What the hell is going on?" Zelda couldn't help but ask as he came about. "Where does the Supreme Commander get off on ordering us around like that!? Doesn't he have warships to play with!?"
"Might not be from the big man himself," Odessa suggested but Zelda shook his head.
"No man," Zelda argued. "FLEETCOM? That's definitely Spaatz."
"Alright, listen up guys!" Bellum barked. "Apparently there's a high priority Pelican trying to make it to high orbit. Our objective is to ensure that happens, no matter what."
"With what?" Zelda immediately retorted. "We're not currently configured for air to air combat; Command yanked us to do CAS missions!"
"We're just going to have to figure it out!" Bellum insisted. "Orders are: protect the Pelican. All other concerns are secondary."
Zelda let out a string of curses as he glanced at his computer. Aside from all the bombs and ATGMs he was carrying he had six short-range anti-air missiles for self-defense purposes. What was he supposed to do, ram anything that so much as looked at the Pelican funny? Plus…
"Didn't we do something like this once already today?"
"Guess we get to do it again," Odessa replied with a verbal shrug.
"Good news is, we're not the only ones being called in to support," Bellum continued, "but we are the closest. So lock it down and get ready to be thrown back into the shit!"
Zelda gritted his teeth. This was not going to end well.
"Leader, this is 12, be advised: I'm picking up multiple Bandits on my long range sensors!"
"Yeah, I see them too!" Bellum confirmed. "All Broadswords: punch it! We're going straight in!"
As Zelda activated his afterburners, he glanced at his long distance radar to see how many Bandits they were up against, and felt the saliva in his mouth dry up a little.
"That's a lot of fighters," Zelda noted.
"No shit. Must be every damn Banshee on the fucking planet!"
"Anyone got eyes on the package!?" Bellum yelled as they approached the outer edge of the swarm.
Zelda looked around.
"Negative..." he started to say. "Wait! Thirty degrees up, maybe two klicks away!"
"What... okay, I see it!" Bellum yelled.
"Jesus Christ," someone else muttered and Zelda couldn't blame him.
The lead Banshees had already gotten to within engagement distance of the Pelican and had promptly opened fire, throwing all sorts of plasma and fuel rod cannons in the Pelican's direction. The Pelican was evading with a sense of grace Zelda hadn't realized dropships were capable of, dodging all the incoming fire with all sorts of loops and rolls, all the while continuing to angle up towards the upper atmosphere. Unfortunately for the Pelican though, a number of Banshee flights had been cruising towards the area at a much higher altitude, and upon reaching the engagement envelope of their weapons, began diving on the Pelican, forcing the dropship to break off.
"That Pelican isn't going to be able to continue climbing with those Banshees in the way!" Zelda warned.
"I'm not even worried about the Banshees. If this keeps up, that Pelican won't be able to build up enough speed to reach escape velocity!" Bellum pointed out.
"Fuck! Well, what's the plan here then boss!?"
"Go loud! We got to draw the attention of those Banshees off the package and onto us! Omega Flight: you are weapons free!"
Zelda immediately dropped his crosshairs over one of the furthest Banshees and pulled the trigger
"Fox three!" he yelled, sending one of his missiles rocketing downrange.
He watched as his missile streaked towards the target, however the Banshee easily picked up on the missile's approach. The Banshee began launching all sorts of countermeasures, sending the missile verging off course where it self-destructed not too far away.
At that, a handful of Banshees immediately broke off pursuit, banked, and started heading in Zelda's direction.
"Well, that got their attention," Zelda muttered. "Here they come!"
"Omega Flight! Assume an echelon formation and standby to engage!"
Zelda nudged his fighter so that it was positioned to the left and just behind Odessa's. He tightly gripped his control yoke as the entire squadron rocketed towards the incoming Banshees, which were assuming some sort of staggered formation. The sight was honestly a bit intimidating, even for Zelda seeing all those Banshees headed in their direction. Maybe a little over a third had broken off their pursuit of the Pelican meaning Omega Flight was going to be going in outnumbered, outgunned, and possibly outmatched. They were going to need reinforcements and fast, otherwise this was going to be a really short fight.
SWOOSH SWOOSH BOOM!
Two Banshees were sent tumbling out of the sky as two shells and a single Medusa missile came streaking in and exploded amongst the largest group of fighters, sending the entire formation scattering in all directions. Zelda glanced at his sensors as the signatures of four friendly Navy Longswords appeared on his radar.
"Omega Flight," an unknown voice sounded over Zelda's radio. "This is Tanto Squadron, coming up on your pos on your nine o'clock. Divert to heading three zero zero and head straight for the package: we'll clear a path for you, over."
"Copy! Omega Flight, break formation and follow me in!"
Zelda gratefully broke contact as the Longswords came swooping in. Armed with two fifty millimeter coil guns, a single 120mm ventral cannon equipped with proximity fuses, and various air to air missiles, the Longswords would be far better equipped to deal with the swarm of lightly armored Banshees in front of them than the Broadswords would be.
The Longswords came screaming in from above, weapons blazing. They plowed right into the mass of Banshees, sending the Covenant scattering and leaving giant gaps in their formation. Angling for one said hole, Zelda punched in his afterburners, maneuvering his way past various Banshees as he tried to work his way towards the package in the distance.
Most of the Banshees quickly got out of his way, not willing to risk a head on collision even if doing so would stop Zelda right in his tracks. But that didn't mean they weren't willing to pursue.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
Zelda jerked as a burst of bright blue plasma bolts passed right over his cockpit. Frantically looking around, he spotted two Banshees that had broken away from the main group and were currently pursuing the Broadswords.
"Leader, 6: head's up! Bandits, on our six!" Zelda yelled out in warning even as he dodged another burst of plasma fire.
"Copy, I see 'em!" Bellum yelled back. "Okay, 5 and 6, break off and cover our six! The rest of you, on me!"
"Copy."
"Copy!"
"Zelda, follow my lead," Odessa ordered. "On my mark, we'll do a hard bank to the right, see if we can't get these assholes to follow us, copy?"
"Yeah, got it!" Zelda replied.
"Alright, wait for my command... and, EXECUTE!"
Zelda promptly grabbed his stick and yanked it hard to the right. He could feel himself getting shoved hard against his seat as his Broadsword strained to make as tight of a turn as was possible at the speeds Zelda was currently flying at. Slightly in front of him, he could see Odessa doing the same thing.
"Status Zelda?" Odessa demanded to know as soon as they pulled out of their turn. "Did those Banshees follow us?"
Zelda started to turn around but before he could -
FWOOZ!
"Yeah, I'd say so!" Zelda yelped as a plasma bolt spattered against his left wing. Fortunately, it was only a grazing shot; but even then, it was enough to leave a black mark on his fighter's outer hull.
"Good, let's keep it that way!" Odessa commanded. "Fall back towards the direction of the main fighting; Bellum and the rest of the squadron are going to have enough problems trying to keep the rest of the Banshees off that Pelican, let's not add to their woes!"
"Yeah, yeah, got it!" Zelda yelled back as he threw his Broadsword into a spin. "Come on motherfucker!"
The Banshees on his tail failed to respond and instead, continued to throw plasma in his direction. As Zelda worked on avoiding getting hit, a thought suddenly struck him.
"Hey Odessa!" he called out between gritted teeth.
"What."
"You ever notice how the tactics of every single Covie pilot we run across seem to consist of doing one thing? Namely: throw as much plasma into the air and hope they hit something?"
"Accuracy by volume I guess!" Odessa replied. "Must be nice not having to worry about running out of ammo!"
"No - " Zelda hastily threw his fighter into an aileron roll as one of the Banshees threw a fuel rod in his direction. "No shit. Anyways, don't know about you, but I'm about ready to lose these fools!"
"Yeah, sure, why not? We're far enough away from the others. You go left, I'll go right and we'll meet up again at the rally point. Ready? EXECUTE!"
Zelda immediately jerked his stick and began making a hard turn to the left, away from Odessa. One of the Banshees behind him quickly followed suit, but unlike before where he was trying to make sure the Banshee stayed on his tail, this time Zelda was attempting to maneuver in such a way that he'd end up behind the Banshee. So, while Zelda banked, he also started throttling back on his speed while at the same time, throwing his Broadsword into a roll both up and away from the turn. His slight reduction in speed coupled with the assistance of gravity allowed Zelda to achieve a much tighter turn and as he pulled out of his roll and reentered his initial turn, he found himself just behind his pursuer.
The Banshee immediately dove in an attempt to lose Zelda by conducting a quick outside loop, but it was too late as Zelda had already achieved a missile lock.
"Fox one," Zelda commanded in a bored voice and pulled the trigger.
He could hear a thunk as his missile departed the rails and he watched as it began speeding in the direction of the Banshee. The Elite pilot desperately tried to evade, throwing all sorts of countermeasures all over the place, but it was just too late. As Zelda whipped by overhead, he could just barely feel the shockwave from the blast as the Banshee disintegrated into one large ball of fire that lit up the sky.
Zelda smirked to himself. Killing Covenant never really got old.
"One down!" he announced over his radio. "5, what's your position, over?"
"Hang on," came Odessa's strained reply. "Kind of... busy... at the moment..."
Deciding that meant Odessa needed some help, Zelda cast around, looking for him. It wasn't easy, as a couple of other friendly squadrons had entered the AO, filling his radar with friendly contacts. Eventually though, he was able to spot a single blue dot being pursued by a single red dot, flying away from the heaviest of the fighting.
Without another word, Zelda rolled to the right and took off in their direction. As he approached their location, Zelda could see a single Banshee filling the air with plasma as the Elite pilot desperately tried to shoot down the Broadsword flying in front of him.
"5, this is 6," Zelda announced over the radio. "Be advised, I'm coming up behind the Banshee that's on your six."
"What are you doing here Zelda?" Odessa asked, sounding surprised.
Zelda shrugged. "Sounded like you need some help."
"...not really? But I guess if you're here already, might as well. Do me a favor and start painting that Banshee, will you?"
Feeling a bit mystified, Zelda nevertheless obeyed. Dropping his crosshairs over the rear of the Banshee, Zelda started pinging the Banshee, trying to make it seem like he was trying to obtain a lock without actually obtaining one.
The effect was almost instantaneous. The Banshee began deploying countermeasures, trying to juke Zelda's "lock" while at the same time, trying to stay on Odessa's rear. However, with the Elite pilot ever so slightly distracted, that was when Odessa struck. Throwing his Broadsword into a tight diameter loop, Odessa slipped behind the Banshee in question. Before the Covenant pilot could react, Odessa fired.
"Fox one," Odessa announced and peeled away as the Banshee exploded.
Spinning to the right, Zelda pulled up so he was next to Odessa.
"The hell was that all about?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Thought I told you to fall back and assist Bellum with securing the package once you were free and clear?"
Zelda thought about it for a moment. "Uh... no. You didn't."
"Huh," Odessa said thoughtfully. "Must be more tired than I thought. Anyways, follow me: we're heading back to Bellum."
Together they turned around and headed back in the direction where Zelda had last seen the rest of the squadron and the package was. The area was in complete chaos. More and more friendly fighter squadrons had joined the fight but because they were coming piecemeal and from multiple directions, with no AWACS planes in the AO to help coordinate the actions of all the fighters, the entire area had turned into one giant mass melee of individual dogfights.
Zelda jerked to the side as a stray burst of plasma whipped past him. Seconds later, two Banshees roared past him in a dive and Zelda reflexively fired his main cannons, but the Banshees were long gone before his rounds even came close to hitting. A split second later, his master caution started sounding, and Zelda hastily deployed countermeasures as a fuel rod cannon came flying in. Glancing at his radar, he spotted a Banshee on an intercept course, heading straight at him from his nine o'clock, but before the Banshee could even get halfway, the Covenant vehicle was struck by a single 120mm, destroying the fighter instantly.
Glancing skyward, Zelda spotted the Longsword that had fired the shell pulling out from a dive, but before the pilot could level out, the Longsword was struck amidship by two fuel rod cannons, which cut the massive fighter in half.
"Shit!" Zelda swore as the remains of the Longsword went spiraling to the ground, and he looked around, trying to spot the escape capsule which would indicate the crew had managed to eject in time, but he couldn't see it. "Fuck!"
"WARNING, COLLISION ALERT."
Zelda's head snapped forward in time to see an out of control flaming Wombat come flying right towards him on a head-on collision course.
"Oh fuck!" Zelda yelped in alarm and grabbed his stick, but before he could do anything, the Wombat exploded, sending all sorts of shrapnel forward.
"Fuck! I got to get out of this shit!" Zelda yelled to himself as he rode out the ensusing turbulence. It was way too crowded here.
Yanking back on his control yoke, Zelda tried to climb above the area where most of the fighting was taking place, but it was way too hard for Zelda to figure where that was.
"Zelda! You okay?"
"Just got a little singed is all," Zelda reported as he quickly finished a diagnostic check.
"Good."
Odessa started to say something else, but before he could finish, he was abruptly cut off.
"Omegas 5 and 6, this is Leader: come in! What's your status?"
"Leader, this is 5," Odessa replied. "We're both green and heading back to your area."
"Negative! Banshees have cut us off from the package! Get to the package! If that Pelican goes down, then we're all fucked!"
"Copy. We're on our way Leader," Odessa smoothly replied.
"Man, what the fuck is in that Pelican?" Zelda couldn't help but ask.
"Does it matter? FLEETCOM wants it alive, so that's what we've got to do. Hey, I've got eyes on. Seven oh degrees."
Zelda glanced at his sensors and checked the spot Odessa had indicated. Sure enough, he spotted the Pelican, flying blissfully through the air, as if there wasn't a battle raging not too far away.
"Why the hell hasn't that damn Pelican gone for high orbit yet?" Zelda wondered out loud.
"No idea. Head's up! I'm picking up Bandits closing in on the package from below!"
Zelda glanced at his radar and spotted the signatures of at least six Banshees on an intercept course to the Pelican, coming from below.
"I see them!"
"Move to intercept!"
Zelda immediately ignited his afterburners, trying to put his fighter in a position between the Pelican and the incoming Banshees. As he did, he happened to spot the signatures of more Covenant aircraft inbound from above, but fortunately another UNSC fighter squadron was already inbound.
However, the sight did make Zelda realize one thing: with this many enemy fighters in the AO, there was no way that Pelican was making it to high orbit under its own power.
They were going to need some more help.
XXXXX
Heliopolis Station, High Orbit, Actium
Spaatz
They needed more help.
That was the only conclusion Spaatz could come up with as he watched the aerial battle unfold. The Pelican carrying Argon Team desperately worked to find a way up to high orbit and escape, while all sorts of UNSC fighters from a wide range of squadrons worked to keep the Banshees at bay. At the moment, both sides were about equal in size and strength, but whereas the UNSC needed to be conscientious about the need to keep the Pelican alive, all the Covenant needed to do was focus on shooting everything in sight. Eventually, the Banshees would get through, and there would be nothing the fighters could do to stop them. They needed a way to turn the tides in their favor and the only way Spaatz could think to do that was to send one of his warships down.
Unfortunately, the stalemate that had formed hours ago was still ongoing as both fleets sort of wearily eyed each other, waiting for someone to make the first mistake. If Spaatz allowed even a single ship to depart his task force to retrieve that Pelican, it could potentially weaken his fleet's defensive posture and put his forces at the disadvantage.
Yet, at the same time, his standing orders from earlier this morning still remained the same: he simply could not allow a high valued asset like Argon Team to fall into the hands of the Covenant. At this point, it would probably be easier to blow the Pelican out of the sky himself, but Spaatz couldn't do that for two simple reasons: one, it would be terrible for morale for all soldiers involved in this fight right to see something like that happen, especially as they wouldn't have the context to understand why it happened. And then second, given the amount of resources already expended attempting to locate said Spartan team, it would simply be a waste to lose them now, when they were so close to being recovered.
Spaatz sighed. Well, at least he'd have the initiative.
"Kanin."
Kanin instantly appeared by his side. "Sir?"
"Alert Task Force Whiskey: sound general quarters and prepare for combat."
"Aye, sir."
"I also need a ship to go down and pluck that Pelican from orbit. Preferably one that we won't miss in this upcoming battle."
"Searching now, sir. I have one. The UNSC Gabrielle, a Halberd-class destroyer assigned to Destroyer Squadron 29. Her captain reports she is operating at less than fifty percent efficiency due to most of her crew having been on leave when the invasion began. She hasn't been able to contribute much to the space battles, however she would be able to enter the atmosphere, retrieve the Spartans, and withdraw without too much difficulty."
Spaatz frowned. He had been hoping for a frigate as those ships had a much larger hanger bay than destroyers. But then again, Halberd-class destroyers did have facilities to store and operate two separate Pelican dropships at the same time, plus her firepower and armor would allow the ship to survive relatively unscathed against the light Banshees.
"Do it," he commanded. "Divert the Gabrielle and extract that Pelican. And alert Commander Luzader; no doubt he's going to want to get a team over there as soon as they're extracted.
"Yes, sir."
Spaatz immediately turned away an activated his display.
"Captain Yirenkyi."
An image of Yirenkyi appeared.
"Sir?"
"Our timeline has moved up. Execute Operation Beta Six."
"Aye, sir!"
The call immediately terminated and Spaatz glanced at his display as his ships, sitting around inactive for many hours now, suddenly started coming alive again as they moved into position. He wasn't the only one to notice: across the vast expanse of space, the Covenant fleet was also beginning to come alive as they started to react to the movements of the UNSC fleet. Soon, this entire area would be washed with death once more.
In the midst of all the chaos, a single Halberd-class ship was rapidly pulling away from the crowd and heading on a direct course towards the interior of the planet. Already, he could see the Gabrielle's hull beginning to glow as it started to pass through Actium's upper atmosphere.
"Get that dropship," Spaatz muttered under his breath, "then get out quick."
He could only hope they would be able to make it in time.
XXXXX
UNSC Moonlight Sonata, High Orbit, Actium
Luzader
Things were getting intense.
Luzader sat on the edge of his seat as he watched the destroyer Spaatz had rerouted descend through the atmosphere. Back in orbit, both the UNSC and Covenant fleets were exploding with furious activity, disturbed by the displacement of a single warship after so many hours, but what they were doing beyond that, Luzader had no idea as his sole focus was on that single destroyer.
The destroyer's hull was glowing with heat as the ship hurtled through the clouds and descended into the chaos. Upon entering the battlefield, it immediately began drawing fire from all directions as the Covenant quickly highlighted that ship as the single largest threat to their continued existence. The destroyer didn't take it lying down though, and every single one of her anti-aircraft guns were blazing away as the ship plowed its way through the air in the direction of Spartan Team Argon.
As it travelled, Luzader could see the doors to one of the destroyer's hangers sliding open, revealing a single glowing dot of light on the destroyer's otherwise dull gray hull. A beacon of hope, in a sense.
Looking back at the Pelican, Luzader could see Maria diverting course and heading straight for that beacon, while the two Air Force Broadswords that had been escorting her peeled off to try and deter any pursuit. Looking at a nearby monitor which was currently displaying their loadouts, Luzader could tell both Broadswords didn't have much left in terms of AAMs, but hopefully they wouldn't have to hold back the Covenant for long.
Zooming in so that the camera was solely focused on Spartan Team Argon, Luzader tried to get a gauge of just how fast Maria was flying. It was fast; almost too fast and by the looks of it, Maria wasn't planning on slowing down anytime soon. That was going to complicate things.
"Get a direct line to that destroyer's captain," Luzader demanded without looking away. "Inform him the Pelican he's about to recover is containing top secret, eyes only cargo, and that no one, under pain of treason, is to attempt to look inside. Let's try and limit the amount of people who could possibly be exposed to the Spartans, especially when they're in this state."
"Aye, sir."
"And prep an away team," he continued. "Navy commandos only. I want this situation brought under control ASAP!"
His crew barked out an acknowledgment, however Luzader was no longer paying attention. Instead, he watched intently as Argon Team's Pelican flew right through the open hangar bay doors and into the destroyer at top speeds, and Luzader couldn't help but cringe as he imagined what sort of damage that would do to both the ship and her cargo.
Still, as the hangar bay doors slammed shut, Luzader couldn't help but let out a mute sigh of relief. Argon Team was secured.
Unfortunately, that was the easy part.
"Get that destroyer out of there!" Luzader demanded even as the destroyer's engines flared and the destroyer began to ascend, building up speed in order to try and achieve escape velocity. However, the Covenant had no intentions of simply letting that ship out of their grasp.
"Sir!" his technician cried out. "We're picking up a signal: the Banshees! They're conducting kamikaze runs!"
"What!?" Luzader roared, leaping to his feet but in a way, it made total sense: Banshees normally didn't have enough firepower to take down a UNSC destroyer by themselves. But if they could damage the engines and force the destroyer to crash land on the surface of the colony...
"Divert all fighters!" Luzader hollered. "New objective: protect that destroyer at all cost!"
XXXXX
Upper Stratosphere, Byzas
Zelda
"Protect that destroyer at all cost!"
"With fucking what!?" Zelda demanded to no one in particular as he dodged a fuel rod cannon fired in his direction. "6 to Leader, be advised I am black on AAMs!"
"6, get in close and use your guns! We have got to make sure the destroyer is able to get away!"
"What!? That doesn't fucking help at all!" Zelda yelled in frustration. "What the fuck was so goddamn important on that fucking Pelican!?"
"6, stay on my ass!" Odessa yelled over the radio. "We got to get in while the Covies are still trying to reorganize!"
"They're not trying to fucking reorganize at all! They're trying to fly their crazy asses into the ship itself!"
"Then stop them!"
"God dammit people! It's not that fucking easy!" Zelda raged.
However with no other recourse available to him, all Zelda could do was point his fighter up and rocket skyward towards orbit. With his auxiliary engines having been damaged earlier this morning, there was no way Zelda could achieve escape velocity to make it to orbit, but at the very least he could catch up to the destroyer. The massive bulk of the Naval warship loomed out of the darkness in front of him and zooming in, Zelda could see little blue dots of light representing Banshees as they fired their boosters and tried to slam into the destroyer's engines at Mach speeds.
"Banshees are trying to catch up to the destroyer! Omega Flight: stop them!"
Dropping his crosshairs over one of the distant blue dots, Zelda pulled the trigger.
BOOMBOOM
Zelda watched as his rounds streaked towards the Banshee, but the fighter was outside of Zelda's maximum range for his guns, even at this altitude. Zelda swore. He needed to get closer.
But before Zelda could do anything, the Banshee in question fired its boosters and flew right into the destroyer.
KABOOM!
Blue flames shot out in every direction and although the Banshee had just missed the destroyer's main thrusters due to some last minute evasive maneuvers on the destroyer's part, Zelda could still see a large glowing hole in the destroyer's hull from where the Banshee had hit. Navy destroyers may have had more armor and armament when compared to smaller warships like frigates or corvettes, but they still shared the same weakness as everything else: because of the location of their engines, their rear was always the most vulnerable place on a ship.
"Shit," Zelda swore.
"Head's up! Looks like we've got another wave inbound! Omega Flight: move to intercept!"
"Double shit!" Zelda yelled as he glanced at his radar. Another six Banshees were rapidly rising up from a lower altitude.
"6, with me!" Odessa desperately yelled. "We're heading straight down!"
Zelda gritted his teeth and yanked his stick to the side, rolling into a dive and heading straight for the incoming Banshees.
"6, engage!"
Zelda could see Odessa open fire with his cannons, and he moved to follow suit. Dropping his crosshairs over the lead Banshee, Zelda opened up.
BOOMBOOMBOOM!
Zelda's rounds streaked towards the Banshees, missing them by a few meters, and he started to walk them on target when his master caution went off and he noticed one of the Banshees prepping to fire a fuel rod cannon.
"Flares!" Zelda spat as he maintained his course.
beepbeepbeep
An alert sounded in his ears and bright red letters began flashing before his very eyes:
"COUNTERMEASURES DEPLETED."
"Oh shit!" Zelda yelled even as the Banshee fired.
"Zelda, INCOMING!"
The fuel rod cannon began rapidly climbing and Zelda could see Odessa ejecting flares but the fuel rod hadn't been aimed at him, it had been aimed at Zelda. However, without countermeasures, he had no way to break the lock and being in a dive meant trying to maneuver out of the way would be almost impossible as breaking away would take too much time! Zelda had very few options to escape, and even less time to think about it, so he immediately did the first thing that came to mind: he armed two of his Mark 211 bombs and dropped them.
Clung. Clung.
Zelda could hear both bombs successfully detaching from their internal mounts and he could almost hear them whistling as they dropped. Immediately, he felt stupid: what were bombs going to do against the fuel rod cannon? He should have taken the risk of breaking off. Hopefully he still had time...
Grabbing his stick, Zelda yanked back hard, trying to pull out of his dive.
"6, where are you going!?" he heard Odessa cry out, but Zelda couldn't respond even if he wanted to as he was being slammed hard against his seat by the g-force, the result of trying to pull out of such a steep dive at such high speeds.
As he struggled to recover his breath, Zelda glanced at his scopes to see where that fuel rod cannon was and to his immense surprise, he saw the fuel rod was actually turning and heading straight for his bombs. How or why the bombs had attracted the fuel rod Zelda had no idea as fuel rods seemed to be rather inconsistent in how they worked, but even as Zelda leveled out, the fuel rod and the bombs collided.
WABOOMWABOOM!
The fuel rod cannon slammed into the first bomb, setting it off which in turn set off the second one. A massive fireball ripped through the sky as all two thousand kilograms worth of explosive power was set off, causing Zelda's sensors to go haywire and in that moment, Zelda realized he had a small window of opportunity.
"Oh, this is a bad idea!" Zelda groaned even as he slammed his stick forward and dove once more.
Rocketing straight towards the expanding fireball of gas and heat, Zelda gritted his teeth as he flew right through the shockwave which set off all sorts of alarms as his Broadsword violently shook. But as he emerged through on the other side, he could see three Banshees flying towards him less than five hundred meters away from him, looking totally unprepared for Zelda to emerge from the fireball. Zelda didn't hesitate.
"Guns guns guns!" he roared as he locked onto the lead Banshee and opened fire.
The Banshee split apart before exploding and Zelda hurriedly tried to lock on to one of the remaining Covenant fighters, but he was flying too fast and was unable to accomplish much more as he whipped past them both.
As he flew right passed the Banshees, Zelda found himself just outside where most of the fighting was taking place and Zelda let out a sigh of relief. This was getting to be too much, even for him. He had to get out of here, rearm and refuel. Surely someone else could take his place at this point?
"6, this is Odessa, give me a status update!"
Zelda grabbed his mic.
"5, this is 6," he wearily reported. "I'm still flying, but I need to RTB. I'm black on AAMs, black on countermeasures, and running low on ammo for my thirty-five mil. Requesting permission to return to base, over."
"No can do 6!" Bellum abruptly cut in over the radio. "We still got Banshees swarming all over this destroyer! I need you and 5 back here, NOW!"
"WHAT FUCKING FOR!?" Zelda bellowed at the top of his lungs. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE PROTECTING!?"
"6, say again your last!?"
Belatedly, Zelda realized he had accidently hit his talk button while he was raging and this, Bellum must have just caught the very tail end of his rant. He reached out to acknowledge her response when -
"Zelda, TWO ON YOUR SIX!"
Zelda immediately threw himself into a spin and thus, was able to dodge the first burst of plasma directed his way. Glancing at his rear scopes, he spotted the two Banshees he had blown past just a few moments ago pulling out of their dive and locking on to the rear of his fighter. This time, Zelda didn't hesitate.
"Mayday mayday mayday, this is Omega-6: I got two Banshees on my six, I can't shake them!" Zelda urgently yelled into his radio. "I got nothing to deal with them; zero, zip, nada! I need immediate backup!"
"5, are you in any position to backup 6?"
"Negative, I've got two Banshees of my own to deal with!"
"6, be advised, no one is in your immediate vicinity to help out! All available fighters are supporting this destroyer! Try to gain some altitude and get back here so we can support!"
"God dammit Bellum, if I find out you sent these two Banshees after me just to get me back on the mission, I'm going to fucking shoot you!" Zelda yelled. "Gah! Come on you fuckers!"
Yanking back on his stick, Zelda rapidly began to ascend in the direction of where the Navy destroyer was still making its way to orbit. Broadswords, Longswords, Wombats, Banshees, even a couple of Seraphs were intertwined around the destroyer, flying and shooting at each other and at the destroyer. Despite the chaos, the two Banshees remained doggedly on his tail, firing nonstop and Zelda swore as they hit something on his fighter, though he couldn't tell what.
"Leader, this is Omega-6," Zelda declared. "I'm in the vicinity of the destroyer! What's your position, over?"
"Omega-6, this is Leader, do you copy?"
Zelda glanced at his mic to make sure he had actually depressed the button all the way. "Leader, this is 6: I read you loud and clear! Where is my fucking backup!?"
"Leader to any Omega Flight elements: does anyone have eyes on Omega-6!?"
"Dammit, I'm right fucking here!" Zelda snarled as he hastily glanced at his computer and then swore. Apparently that 'something' the Banshees had hit was his radio receiver. The plasma or EMP or whatever had damaged it to the point Zelda could still receive, he just couldn't transmit. He was on his own for the moment. "Fucking shit!"
Glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda desperately tried to figure out a way to lose the Banshees on his tail, but he couldn't think of anything. He had no options, no chance of escape, and the Covenant didn't seem interested in letting him go. While Zelda could continue to dodge their shots for the moment, he couldn't do it indefinitely and eventually, the Covenant would hit him somewhere he couldn't afford to get hit.
"Can anyone hear me!?" Zelda desperately yelled into his radio, just in case, as he dove towards the destroyer in the hopes their AA batteries would lock on to the Banshees behind him and shoot them down for him. However, with both sides intermingled like they were, the destroyer must have turned the guns off to prevent the chance of friendly fire, as they weren't firing. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!"
Time was running out for Zelda. He needed a way out, now.
In desperation, Zelda looped around the destroyer and headed for the rear, towards the destroyer's engines. Technically, he was supposed to be leading the Banshees away from the destroyer's engines, but fuck it. At this point, Zelda could only hope that upon reaching the engines, the Banshees would divert to engage that instead and leave him the fuck alone.
"Wait a minute; Leader, this is 12, I think I got him! Point one seven six, flying right by the Gabrielle's main thrusters!"
"I see it! Zelda, is that you flying by the Gabrielle's main engines!?"
'YES!' Zelda wanted to scream, but not being able to transmit, he didn't bother wasting his breath. Instead, he glanced over his shoulder to see how close the Banshees were getting.
"Zelda, if that is you, get the fuck out of there! That destroyer is about to ignite their main boosters and head to high orbit! Zelda, GET OUT OF THERE!"
...main boosters...
The phrase bounced around in Zelda's head for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, he realized how he was going to lose those Banshees.
"Alright you fuckers," he snarled out loud "you want to play? Huh? Is that it? Then why don't you fucking try this on for size!?"
Gripping his stick, Zelda looped around until he was flying directly under the Gabrielle's main thrusters as the destroyer angled upwards. Her massive engines loomed right over Zelda's head. They didn't seem that big from a distance, especially when compared to the rest of the ship, but up close, it was like looking into the heart of a volcano that was about ready to consume all. Zelda's Broadsword began violent shaking as he passed right through the turbulence caused by the destroyer's engine exhaust but as bad as this was, Zelda knew it was about to get so much worse. Even now, looking up, he could see the engine's exhaust slowly changing colors, going from a bright orange, to a white-blue color as their prepared to ignite their main boosters and finally fly free of Actium's gravity.
"Come on, come on!" Zelda urged as he fought to fly clear. He glanced behind him. The two Banshees were still on his tail, blazing away, somehow ignore of what was about to happen next. "Almost there..."
"Zelda! Boosters igniting in three... two..."
Zelda abruptly found himself out from under the shadow that had been cast by the Gabrielle, and in open air once more. He quickly banked to the left and angled his fighter so he could see what happened next.
"...one."
Blue flames suddenly erupted from the rear of the destroyer as all of her engines simultaneously ignited and she began to rapidly pick up speed. The Banshees were too far away from the engines to actually be consumed by the flames, but the amount of energy and exhaust needed to propel a ship the size and mass of a Halberd-class destroyer to escape velocities was enormous, and there wasn't a single one-manned fighter in existence that could withstand that sort of pressure. The Banshees were ripped to shreds.
"Ha-ha!" Zelda cheered. "Take that you sons of bitches!"
Unaware of what had just transpired, the destroyer continued to rocket skyward. Fighters from both sides quickly scrambled to get out of the way, but one Seraph was just a bit too slow and the Gabrielle's hardened bow slammed into it, causing the Seraph to explode in a furious blue fireball, and the destroyer continued, unimpeded. A few Banshees tried to fire on the destroyer, but for the most part, all parties assembled could tell that unless the Covenant sent down one of their warships the UNSC Gabrielle, and whatever mysterious cargo that Pelican had been carrying, was free and clear.
"Omega Flight! Break contact!" Bellum commanded and Zelda gratefully turned his fighter and headed in the direction the rest of his squadron was escaping in. "All pilots, RTB."
"We're done here."
XXXXX
Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance
Zek
"Sire? The Demons have escaped."
That single call over the communicator was more than enough to send shivers down Zek's spine. Very slowly, as to not draw attention to himself, Zek glanced in 'Oteree's direction to see how he would react. It didn't look promising as 'Oteree didn't so much as look angry, he simply wasn't showing any emotion. At all. Which somehow made it all the more terrifying. Anger, Zek could handle. At least he knew what to expect. But with the way 'Oteree was right now? Zek didn't know whether curling up in a ball or fleeing as fast as he could was the better response.
"Sire?" 'Quetshadee cautiously asked in the background. "What are your orders?"
'Oteree exhaled, and that single motion was almost enough to cause Zek to go screaming for cover as the sigh was single-handedly the most terrifying sound Zek had heard since his arrival on this planet. Zek had no idea such... ire, could be conveyed by such a simple motion. Even 'Quetshadee, Zek couldn't help but note, seemed about ready to flee.
"Destroy the humans," 'Oteree muttered.
'Quetshadee and Zek exchanged a confused look.
"Sire...?" 'Quetshadee delicately asked.
'Oteree suddenly whirled around, making Zek jump in alarm.
"DESTROY THE HUMANS!" 'Oteree roared. No longer a stoic rock of nothingness. Instead, he was now a volcano of white hot fury. "CRUSH THEM, GRIND THEM, EXTERMINATE THEM ALL! EVOCATUS, TAKE YOUR TROOPS, ALL YOUR LEGIONS, AND DESTROY THE HUMANS! BATHE THIS ENTIRE PATHETIC WORLD IN THEIR BLOOD! MAKE THE VERY GROUND TREMBLE WITH OUR FURY!"
"BY YOUR WILL SIRE!" Zek reflexively bellowed alongside 'Quetshadee.
However, in doing so, it seemed to have reminded 'Oteree that Zek was still standing there as he leaned in close to 'Quetshadee and said in a low voice, albeit one that Zek could still hear, "And prepare a transport. I must return to the Fleet."
"The High Prophets must be informed of what has transpired here."
1. Gökçen-class attack transport: the UNSC Air Force attack transport UNSC Gerald Young has shown up before in Missing in Action (chapter 1,) however I never identified the class. The Gökçen-class attack transport is named after Sabiha Gökçen, who was a Turkish fighter pilot, and has been recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records to have been history's first female fighter pilot. To be clear, she isn't the first female combat pilot, but the first fighter pilot.