Taking Chances
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.
Cpl. James Silverman, an ODST, pulled the bolt back on his Battle rifle and crouched at the door to the hangar.
"Go!"
He let the bolt go with a clack as the voice cut through the silence, and the door slid open. Silverman ran through, followed by Pvt. George Axton, Pvt. Nick Quanse and Cpl. Li Cho. They quickly opened fire on the four Grunts assigned to guard the closest Pelican. The Grunt's dropped, and they ran towards the Pelican, followed by a pilot and co-pilot. The two pilots jumped in the Pelican, and began loading up marines that had followed them in to clear out the room. A Warthog was attached to the back, and the Pelican lifted off, flying into the pressurising chamber, and then out into space, accompanied by two Longsword fighters.
"Alpha 133 away," Silverman spoke into the mike.
"Roger, proceed with the others; we're almost done here." Replied the platoon Sergeant, Michael Grale.
Silverman waved Axton forward, and pointed to the Pelican Alpha 365. Axton nodded, and brought with him 12 Marine's and the two pilots for the Pelican. Silverman ran off to another Pelican in the hangar, accompanied by the same amount of people. They all went aboard, and went through the pressurising chamber, followed by space.
"Let's load up these weapon canisters!" shouted Axton.
They began loading canisters with various weapons into the Pelican, and they managed to get a tank on the back.
The station shuddered as the MAC gun was fired, followed by gunshots from another part of the hangar.
"Get these Pelican's into the air!" he said into the comm.
Another Pelican lifted off, and Silverman thought about what their mission was:
Get as many Pelican's into the air as possible, and then get to the HEV drop pods, because this station was being overrun. If the Covenant managed to gain control of the whole station, then they would remote detonate the station from the ground, blowing up all those son's of bitches that dared come on board the Astor.
Boom!
There was a plume of blue as a plasma grenade blew up one of the door's, flinging the guards across the hangar.
"Take 'em down!" Quanse shouted into the comm.
An Elite, obviously Spec. ops, ran into the room, followed by three Grunts. Silverman fired his Assault rifle at the Elite, and the shields turned blue, bullets pinging off it. The Elite roared and drew its secondary weapon: a sword.
Silverman stared at the glowing blade.
"Shit."
The Elite ran the rest of the distance between them and swiped at Silverman's head. Silverman ducked, and he felt the heat of the plasma blade. He dove to the right, landing next to a ready Pelican, with a Warthog attached to the back. Silverman slung his Assault rifle, drawing his pistol, fired at the Elite, and ducked as the Elite swung the blade in an arc. Silverman fired a shot at the Elite, then changed tactics and began shooting the magnet that held the Warthog to the Pelican. The Elite walked right up to him and swung the blade. The blade sliced through the armour like a knife against melting butter.
But that was as far as it got.
The Warthog was separated from the magnet, and it crushed the Elite. The tire that trapped the Elite under it wouldn't move, and the Elite was still alive, but only just. Silverman gasped for air, surprised that a shot had actually made it, then regained himself and shot the Elite in the head several times. He had just had a literal brush with death.
The final Pelican in the bay lifted off, and they ran out of the door.
"Squad 3: this is Grale, you get them out?"
"Yes, sir." Said Silverman, following Axton, Quanse and Cho.
"Proceeding to the HEV pods."
"Roger that."
Silverman put a burst into a Grunt that jumped out behind them, and they came to the door that the HEV's were in. The door slid open, and they ran in to be met with dozens of guns aimed at their faces.
"Oh, it's you." Said someone.
Silverman had been an ODST since the halfway point at the Human-Covenant war, and had always been recognised by his fellow soldiers, and superiors, by the red and blue square that was on either shoulder, with a yellow lightning bolt that ran through it.
Silverman ran over to his HEV, as did the all the other 16 ODST's in this HEV room. He stood inside the pod, prepared to lock the door, checked the hull, then activated the screen in front of him, making it display the battle that was currently going on, and he saw a cruiser fly past the Cairo, and head for Earth, straight to where the Sarge would program their pods to land.
He knew that there were hundreds of things that could go wrong during the drop, but at that moment, he grinned. If he survived the drop, then he would get to enjoy the one thing that every ODST loved:
Dirt beneath his feet.
Xan shouted at the navigations officer to get the ship into hyperspace as soon as the LAAT's came back into the hangar and landed. An MPL streaked towards Scorp's ship, followed by Xan's ship shuddering as it was struck by their MPL's.
"Shield percent at 47!" shouted one of the clones.
"Fire those Beta missiles!" shouted Xan.
"Beta missiles away!" shouted the fire control officer.
The Beta missiles flew towards Scorp's ship, and they struck, the shields flaring. The ship responded by firing Beta missiles of its own.
"Hard to port!" Xan yelled.
The Beta missiles tracked the ship, but some of them smashed into each other, blowing up on the impact.
"Echo LAAT is in!" shouted the clone on the radar.
One LAAT had entered the hangar, and the others were speeding after it. Blay clung to the magnetic clamps, knowing that he would regret his decision to jump into the Hellmor's hangar. He tried again to get the airlock open, and was again disappointed. He looked back at the hangar of the Hellmor, and he jumped.
Bravo 1 stared out of the cockpit window, and saw the hangar fast approaching hangar of the Hellmor.
"Get us there at top speed." He said to the pilot. The pilot pushed the throttle's forward, and Bravo 1 saw two LAAT's get inside the hangar. The artefacts that had come from the now deceased Alpha LAAT floated towards the hangar, beating their LAAT. If two LAAT's had just gone into the hangar, then their LAAT was the only one left.
Blay floated in the silent vacuum, heading towards the hangar of the Hellmor. He gained ground with each passing second, and saw the last LAAT get closer to the hangar. He got closer too, and soon saw that he was going to miss.
"No!" he shouted to himself.
"I have not come this far just to die now!"
He knew it wouldn't help, but he outstretched his arms, and shut his eyes. He felt something slap into his right hand, and he opened his eyes. It was a purple crystal, and it seemed to distort the space around it, including his hand. He began to pass the hangar, and was about to cry out, when the last LAAT passed in front of him. He was surprised, and then the LAAT was out of his view, then he felt a tug.
His foot was caught on the back of the LAAT.
He wanted to shout in triumph – he was going to make it – but he quickly thought of something else: the shields.
Xan had shut down the protective shields, but left the air shields up. As soon as the back of the LAAT came through, he would turn on the protective shields and jump into hyperspace at the same time. Blay pulled himself closer to his leg, making his ribs hurt like hell. The LAAT came extremely close to the hangar's shields, and the crystal fell out of Blay's hand! He cried out inside his helmet, desperate to hold onto his strange find. He grabbed onto the crystal, the LAAT passed through the air shields, and Blay pulled his arm back. The protective shields turned on, slicing the crystal cleanly in half. The crystal had been cut in half right next to Blay's hand!
"LAAT is in!" shouted the officer.
"Get us into hyperspace, now!" shouted Xan.
"What about the Namcalm?"
"They'll follow us in: just get us out of here!"
Bravo 1 opened the LAAT's doors and jumped out, only to be propelled at a speed so fast, he almost ceased to exist. He smashed into the wall, exploding instantly, sending blood flying out in all different directions.
Blay's foot came free, and he began to fall below the LAAT, which was about to land, when the Venator ship jumped into hyperspace. The LAAT moved so fast, it was less than a blur. The LAAT reappeared against the wall, no more than a pile of rubble. Blay met the same fate, falling and flying towards the wall, bouncing on the floor once, and then feeling a jolt, sending his vision black.
Clones that were inside the hangar at the time described it as a miracle.
It took 0.000000000000000003 of a second for the LAAT to hit the wall: they saw the LAAT come into the hangar, someone begin to jump out of the LAAT, and someone falling from behind the LAAT Then, they saw the LAAT up against the wall, crumbled and twisted, the clone jumping out was a splatter of blood on the wall, and the clone that was falling from the back was suddenly close to the wall, holding onto a pole, screaming in pain. Medics also agree with the speculation of clones from the hangar: if Blay didn't somehow manage to grab onto the pole, he would be dead. But the extent of his injuries, from that incident alone, are so severe, the medics are stunned that he's still alive:
His arm, at the elbow joint, had completely disintegrated, leaving only a small amount of cartilage to save his life. His shoulder has been dislocated, and the whole length of his arm had been broken. Several of his rib bones had punctured one of his lungs, but stayed in there, leaving his oxygen, and his neck had been dislocated.
But, he was going to survive.
"What's happening?" asked Xan, alarmed at the fact that they weren't passing through a normal hyperspace portal.
"Don't know, sir." Replied the navigations officer.
"Sir!" shouted another.
"There's been a crash inside the hangar: only one survivor!"
"Show me!"
A hologram appeared, recorded from one of the hangar's cameras. There was a LAAT, the last one, coming through the air shields, the protective shields shut, a clone began to jump out of the LAAT, and a figure fell from the back of the LAAT. Suddenly, they disappeared, reappearing against the wall, where the LAAT was a wrecked pile of rubble, the clone around the back of the LAAT was hanging onto a pole, and the other clone was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the other clone?" asked Xan.
There was silence, and then someone spoke up.
"He's the blood on the wall, sir."
Xan shivered and looked back at the display.
"How the hell did this happen?" he whispered.
Blay struggled to stay awake, and he felt something in the palm of his hand.
It was the crystal.
He stared at it, seeing it changing colour, and felt himself being pulled towards it. He looked around, and remembered where he was: the Hellmor.
He was in a med bay, lying on a white bed, with another clone lying on the bed next to him. The other clone had taken a blaster shot to the chest, and was in bad shape. Blay tried to move, but couldn't, and that was then he stared at his arm. His arm was simply gone at the elbow, save the cartilage, which was stretched thinly. The other clone sat up, and Blay opened a private comm channel.
"Who is this?" he managed to cough.
"Hawkins" came the reply.
Xan looked forward out the main view port, and he yelled out to the bridge crew:
"Bring us out of hyperspace!"
The ship slowed, and he fell forward when they re-entered normal space. He saw a planet with a white moon beside it, and a space battle going on, with more of the silver ship's, exactly like the one that they had encountered earlier. There were stations all around the planet, and he saw one of the silver ships travel down to the surface of the planet, followed by a huge explosion of blue plasma as another silver ship straight behind it exploded.
"What planet am I looking at?" he asked curiously.
"Scanning now…" said the radar officer.
"Got it: the planet is called: Earth."
Cpl. Silverman fended off the last of the Grunt's, taking them down with his Battle rifle, and reloaded. They were just about launch their HEV's, when a group of Elite's and Grunt's had stormed the area. He and the rest of the squad had taken them out, only to be met with more. Now, they had 4 men down, and they were jumping into their HEV's once again. Silverman activated the screen again and saw space, and a few Covenant ships. He felt a jolt as the HEV's separated from the station and flew through space. He looked at his screen, and saw a blue ripple in space, then felt his chest tighten.
More Covenant ships: we're screwed!
A long grey ship appeared, with a red line running up the middle of it. The ship was also accompanied by two smaller grey ships, these two without the red stripe.
"Son of a bitch." He said. Then he spoke into the comm.
"Sarge, you'd better see this."
A/N: Sorry for the wait, but I think this chapter turned out well, and I am open to suggestions, and constructive criticism, or just normal criticism!