UNSC Picacho del Diablo in orbit over Providence

November 24, 2557

"Diablo control, Booster Frame serial unit Oscar-Three-Three has been decoupled and Eon Two and Four are requesting clearance for takeoff."

Lieutenant Paul lowered the headset speaker to his lips, "Spartans? Booster frame Oscar-three-three has been given the green for clearance. Good hunting."

The experimental starfighter had no pressurized area for a cockpit, so therefore the operator/s must be wearing a sealed harness.

Powered by two nuclear engines, it could accelerate to the equivalent flight speed of a Longsword interceptor within eight seconds and the multiple winglets and dragfins acted to stabilize it in mid-flight, making it one of the most maneuverable spacecraft in the UNSC arsenal. A skilled booster frame pilot could easily fool pursing Covenant Seraph fighters into traps.

Her armament was equally impressive to her cousins; twin eighty millimeter ball rotary cannons fired high explosive rounds, a gauss rifle, twelve MITV pods for anti-fighter combat and an extendable turret for a second operator.

Austal gave a low whistle when the two of them walked out to the hangar bay. The Booster Frame was in the midst of being armed with her missiles by a pair of crewman. To the left of the hangar, even more personnel were running about. A loud roar echoed through the area as the Broadsword air superiority fighters docked nearby accelerated out.

"What's going on?" Fowler asked as they moved beside.

"Movin up sir!" A crewman had to shout over the engine roar. It was a good thing they wore ear protectors. "Admiral's launching a fighter offensive against the advancing Covenant cruiser!"

"Buying us time?"

"I don't know!"

"Eon Lead to Fowler and Austal."

The two Spartans shot one another a curious glance before jamming their helmets atop their heads. "This is Fowler, go ahead Eon Lead."

"Ross, Hades and I are heading to the tube for a hot drop straight into New Addie to assist Marine forces and the largest group of civilians. You two continue your mission in retaking the Kuching. The Covenant are very interested in the ship and I want to know why. Lieutenant Paul will be your coordinator until we regroup."

"Understood." Austal hefted himself onto the pilot's seat. The positioning made him as if he were lying down on a motorcycle.

"Woah brother," Fowler placed a hand on the controls, "Who says you were going to drive?"

"Like you're any better."

"Whatever," He grumbled and climbed into the passenger seat, "Just don't get me killed."

With a wave of his hand, Austal signaled the crewman and was given a thumbs up. In training, he always ran a quick check over the instruments as a smart pilot.

Up ahead, another crewman made a chopping motion towards the blackness of space. Normally, the frame would be put outside the ship for launch, but this time, it was on a catapult mechanic similarly seen on the UNSC aircraft carriers for not VTOL jets.

"Harness secure." Austal pounded his chest for indication.

"Harness secure." Fowler halfheartedly did the same motion, "Is that how you do it?"

"No I just wanted to see you look like a fool."

"Go fuck yourself man."

"I love you too."

The Booster Frame lurched forward and suddenly accelerated out of the hangar. They passed through the edge and rocketed out into space. The Spartans felt the different feeling when the weightlessness took over when they had passed away from the artificial gravity field.

"Holy shit!" Fowler was panting by the time the frame peeled out of the cruiser and ran along its dorsal side.

"Too bad you weren't screaming like a little girl." Austal chuckled softly, "If you were, I would've caught that on recording."

"Okay for one, I hate flying, especially when you have only a suit of armor protecting you from merciless doom just inches away from your skin."

Hades cut in on the line, "Good to see you still remember some tricks from basics Austal. However, time for games is over and we need to get down to business. Kuching's taking heavy fighting in the starboard hangar bays, which is where the enemy boarding dropships are using as a basefront."

Austal leveled out the craft, looking over to his left to see the adrift frigate. Even further out, the remnants of the Divergent combusted again into an aftershock explosion as it shook itself to pieces.

"You're going to have to enter one of those, most likely hangar Bravo. Marine units are holding back the Brutes, but they need help."

"We're on it."

"Eon Four this is Admiral Brady."

"Go ahead Admiral."

His voice tightened, "Hades, Eon Lead and Three are away with an ODST platoon headed for New Addie. The Covenant cruiser has noticed your presence and are dispatching Seraph and Banshee class starfighters as escorts to their ship."

"Understood. Any dogfighting support?"

"Roger, I've got the Onside Kick to dispatch Broadsword squads to engage both the cruiser and the fighter squadrons."

"Affirmative. Eon Four out."

Thrity seconds later, Fowler noticed motion out of the corner of his eye. He pivoted the turret around to see a dozen Broadsword fighters flying just behind them. The lead pilot gave him a thumbs up.

"Eon Two and Four, this is Diamondback Five One. Enemy presence inbound at a one zero and three three zero vectors. Peeling off to engage."

"Diamondback Five One, Eon Four." Austal breathed, "I'm headed for the Kuching. You boys good to keep these guys busy."

"We'll take em out to dinner,"

No sooner, a flurry of plasma blasts erupted from the other wall of fighters. In compensation, Austal weaved through them, the shots that couldn't be evaded, sparked off their shields.

Behind them, Diamondback squadron opened up with a volley of their own. The heavy autocannons impacted five enemy Banshees in the initial assault, causing a muted explosion.

Austal banked downwards, where the Kuching lay in wait. In the targeted hangar, there were three Banshees escorting another Phantom dropship into the bay.

Fowler fired his anti-aircraft chaingun, the muzzle flash reflecting off his visor. One of the Banshees' wings sparked and the craft spiraled down and out of sight.

A button press caused one of the mounted missile pods to slide open. The ten rockets inside ignited and flew out in rapid succession, the three targets already locked.

While the twin Banshee escorts was unable to evade and met their demise in a fiery explosion, the Phantom's nose turret glowed bright blue and it discharged a volume of plasma outwards. The bolts traveled through space, causing the missiles to waver and then home in on the new chaff targets.

"Damn it." Fowler cursed, firing the turret again at a target behind. "So much for an easy interception."

"Not so fast." Austal slowed his approach and then threw the craft into a barrel roll. "I'm going to make another shot at him. Keep those fighters off me."

"Why what are you going to do?"

"Put him to the test."

Fowler listened to Diamondback squadron's chatter. From the looks of things, they were faring well against the Covenant cruiser, proving to be quite a nuisance and taking their attention for the time being off the Kuching. "Diamondback, what's your status?"

"Doing fine." The squad leader replied, "These hostiles aren't aces."

"Going for the missile."

"Shit! I broke lock!"

"Stay on him!"

Austal toggled his controls and he brought the craft upwards in an arc before leveling it out in an Immelman. They were now headed straight for the Kuching's hangar bay."

The Phantom hovered outside, as if it was waiting for something.

Another stream of fire told Austal that Fowler was busy dealing with pursuing aircraft. His attention however was solely on the Phantom.

His hand tipped the throttles and he eased them up to seventy percent. Another flick of a switch optimized mobility and extended winglets at the frame's edges.

The Phantom didn't budge.

"Going for missile lock."

"Kid you're crazy." Fowler grumbled, "Already tried that."

"Then he won't be expecting this."

On the frame's display, he hit a lock-on and immediately banked to his right to break it. True to his expectations, the Phantom released another wave of chaffing flares. The nose turret warmed again and began peppering their area with plasma fire.

Fowler was quick on that. He drew a bead with the turret and shelled out bullets at nearly nine hundred RPM. Combined with his excellent aim, the turret sparked and severed itself from the main aircraft in a miniature detonation.

The flares vanished just as Austal took aim once more. The lock on was attained and he engaged the missile pod not a second later.

Ten plumes erupted out, homing straight towards the dropship in a half-second. The high explosives easily cut straight through the armor. The Phantom was destroyed in a brilliant white explosion.

"WHOO!" Both Spartans raised their hands excitedly, "Hell yeah!"

"Bro, that was awesome!"

"Yeah!"

"You never told me you were a pilot."

Austal looked back, turning the craft to head into the battle heated hangar bay, "Me? A pilot?"

"Whatever," He gave an annoyed snort. "Can I get off this thing?"

From their viewpoint, they saw that the Covenant had set up good cover behind multiple destroyed Pelican dropships in the hangar bay. While it protected them from the Marines opposite them, they were completely exposed on the backside and anything taking a potshot from the outside of space could plaster everything in sight.

"Kuching, this is Eon Four requesting entrance to hangar Bravo. We're on your nine zero vector and closing."

"Eon Four, this is Kuching. I have heavy fighting in Bravo, but you're clear to arrive."

"Roger that. I suggest you tell everyone inside to get their heads down. CAS has arrived."

"What are you planning?"

"We're gonna make our entrance and then you get command."

"Bull," Fowler snapped, "I was in command the whole time."

"Not while you're on my aircraft."

The Booster Frame slowly decelerated, although the two of them were still going at quite a considerable speed. Austal looked over at his partner, "Ready?"

"You take the guys on the bottom and I'll sweep the top."

Although their visors were polarized, hiding their faces, it was completely obvious both men were grinning.

In front, it looked like a bunch of grunts and jackals were the bulk of the enemy force. They could make out some of the larger frames as brutes, but both Spartans were curious to why there weren't more? Were other brute forces spread throughout the ship?

With a loud engine roar announcing their presence, Marcus brought the Booster Frame to a hover as they entered the hangar and armed the ball rotary cannons. Fowler had already begun spraying up top, where a group of jackal sharpshooters had nested themselves. The birdlike creatures only had time to squawk in surprise before his hail of bullets ground them into purple paste on the floor.

Expertly maneuvering the craft, Austal brought it behind the downed Pelicans and squeezed both triggers on the primary handlebars. Shooting too high of a number for an RPM, the 80mm high-explosive ammo tore right through the infantry ranks. The grunts easily succumbed to the fire as well as the jackals. The brutes however, had just a hair longer to return fire before the guns overloaded their shields and made short work of both armor and flesh alike.

Just as quickly as it began, the action finally subsided with the smoke curling up to the hangar's top and then vented out.

Austal guided the Booster Frame and set it down gently, hitting the digitally displayed button to eject. While not the forceful kind, this merely disengaged their tethered harnesses.

A couple of Marines poked their heads out of cover and jogged over to meet them.

"Corporal Brown," The Marine stuck out his hand, which has hastily shaken by Fowler. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem Marine." Austal accepted the other Spartan's handing of his MA5D assault rifle, "What's the situation?"

"Boarding parties have launched a ship-wide assault all over. The Commander's locked herself and her crew inside the bridge although I don't think that's what the Brutes are after."

"Then what the hell are they here for?" Fowler demanded.

"That's what we're here to find out about." Austal slapped a magazine inside his weapon, "C'mon. Corporal, see it that the hangar gets cleared up. Don't make any movements to engage hostiles. Just defend your position."

The Corporal gave a salute, "Yes sir."

"Oh and I'm going to need my Booster Frame prepped for launch again."

Fowler lunged out, concealed by his camouflage module. The bored jackal was yanked back and had the serrated blade of his combat knife jabbed into the windpipe.

Across from him, Austal did the same, except he was using one of his jet-black Sting Knives. In a swift motion, he looked over at his partner and pulled the knife out, flinging it in Fowler's direction.

He heard the wet sound of the blade striking flesh and peered around the corner.

There was a third jackal, lying on the ground with his head in a pool of purple blood. Austal's Sting knife had pierced its helmet and went straight into his eye.

"That was close." He whispered as he jerked it out and wiped it clean.

"Sheesh, I think your girlfriend's going to go paranoid especially if you keep your knives in your nightstand."

The two Spartans crouched at the room's center, just a couple of corridors away from the bridge.

"Strikes me odd at how few brutes we've seen so far."

"We only snuck past a couple leading squads of grunts. So where's the rest?"

"Well for one, let's go to the bridge and get some answers."

"Not a good plan bro."

"Oh." Austal waved his hands, "Elaborate for me."

"We'd be shot on sight."

"Why would they shoot a Spartan?"

The two of them crept up to the bridge door. The blast shields were down and there were several long spike rounds embedded into the metal. Brute spike weaponry, no doubt.

"I'm going to knock." Austal started forward, suddenly retracting when Fowler grabbed his arm. "What?"

"You think they're going to let us waltz right in?"

"If you've got a better idea wise guy, then I'm all ears." He rapped his knuckle on the blast shield.

A second later, they heard a hissing sound as the thick metal door slid apart, the spikes splintering as it retracted into the wall. The main door blinked green and slid open.

With a nod, both Spartans deactivated their camouflage, sweeping out from cover and aiming automatically as they started a clearing procedure of the room.

They were met by two bridge officers each putting a shotgun to their helmets.

Curious why the Covenant won't go for the bridge. Fowler was right though, they were almost shot on sight!

Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.