Chapter II: Chill Exposure
Plasma splattered against the Titanium-A equipment crate as Sergeant Tim Niles dove behind it. The snarling roar of an Elite could be heard below as it saw its human victim escape its wrath, and then the alien then spun on one of the other half-dozen human Marines scattered across the Pelican bay. Niles waited a half second, and then leaned around from behind cover, leveling his M6C sidearm at the first enemy he saw, a Grunt waddling out from behind a crate below. His pistol kicked twice, and he watched the small alien's head shatter as the heavy 12.7mm round punched through its skull. Another Grunt nearby squealed in surprise, and the top of its methane tank became visible as it edged back behind the crate. Two more shots punctured the tank, and methane jets burst out of the environment suit, sending the alien flipping and spinning across the deck.
Return fire slashed past Niles as he took cover once again, and cursed the fact that he didn't have anything heavier than his personal sidearm on hand. He hadn't had time to grab even an M7 caseless, the attack had come so fast. Hell, he was still in his dress whites, having run here full out from the bridge. And here he was, pinned down on the second level of Pelican Bay One as a dozen Covenant bastards were pouring through the outer bay door via an external boarding craft.
"Here comes more!" came a slightly panicked shout from below, over the roar of battle rifles and sub-machineguns and the whine of blazing plasma. More Covenant poured out of the umbilical connection stabbing through the outer bay door, mostly Grunts. Niles rose up and quickly sighted the Covenant troops, and his sidearm kicked three times in rapid succession. Two Grunts fell, and two more dove for cover, while the Elite accompanying the group fired up at Niles, blue-white plasma cutting dangerously close. The Marine ducked behind cover again, and checked his magazine, to find two rounds remaining.
Stupid, stupid, coming here with a single magazine for your damn sidearm . . . .
Niles looked around for any other weapons, and spotted a Marine laying on the catwalk about twenty feet down, his M7 lying next to him, his torso smoking from a dozen plasma bolts that had burned through his armor. Niles crouched low to the ground as he heard another Marine scream and die under the incoming plasma fire, and made a quick dash for the sub-machinegun. Plasma flashed by overhead as opportunistic Covenant shot at the white-clad human, and one blast singed off some of his closely shaved hair as he dove for the weapon. Niles felt his fingers wrap around the sub-machinegun, and he scrambled back for cover, pausing only to grab an extra magazine off the unfortunate Marine's corpse.
White-hot pain shot through Niles' left arm as a plasma pistol bolt hit home, and green sparks of light surged from his bicep as the Marine fell to the deck. The burning pain froze up every nerve and muscle in his body, and Niles realized at that instant that the Covenant could hit him through the grating of the catwalk. Below, a Grunt raised its plasma pistol sighting him -
- and was perforated by three 9.5mm rounds that stabbed through its forehead. Other Covenant shouted and screamed as a wall of gunfire arced across the Pelican bay, coming from above the embattled Marines, through one of the doors on the upper catwalk. Niles rolled over in time to see a half-dozen Marines storm through that doorway, carrying M7s, battle rifles, and one even wielding an M247 machinegun that he balanced on the catwalk's railing.
However, Niles' eyes were caught on a green blur of ceramic armor that jumped off the catwalk and landed on the lower floor, and dashed behind a crate with inhuman speed. The figure's rifle kicked and blazed as he moved, an Elite's shields were overloaded by a dozen precise shots, and bullets tore through the huge alien's face and helmet, sending it crashing to the floor.
The Grunts screamed something, and while Niles didn't have his helmet and its built-in Covenant language-translation software, he recognized the word they were shouting readily enough. It was a word that gave him a newfound sense of hope as he crawled back to cover, watching the green-armored figure annihilate the Covenant below.
"Demon!"
John stepped around the crate, moving as he fired another burst, his bullets slashing though a Grunt's methane tank. The alien went flying wildly across the deck as he circled around the hangar, taking up a flanking position. His HUD showed the relative positions of all the Marines in the hangar bay, including Johnson and the two fireteams of Marines that the Spartan had encountered as they had swept Commons A of Covenant boarders. The new Marine reinforcements, from their elevated positions, were laying down a withering barrage of fire that was forcing the Covenant back behind cover. Even the powerful Elites, with their energy shields, had to hide; any of the aliens in the open were cut down nearly instantly by the new arrivals.
But as the Covenant took cover from the sudden turn in the battle, that left them vulnerable, and the Master Chief was already in position to exploit that vulnerability. He moved around a crate that was positioned perpendicular to the boxes near the hangar doors where the aliens were entering the room from, and encountered a pair of Grunts that were cowering behind safety. The Spartan's battle rifle smashed down into one of the aliens' heads, reducing it to pulp, and he snapped out his sidearm and fired a quick shot into the second Grunt's head before it could do more than yelp in surprise. In the chaos of the hangar battle, none of the other Covenant heard the shot, and when the Master Chief rolled around the crates and flung a grenade into the aliens' midst, they were caught completely by surprise. One Elite dove away from the grenade, while another was perforated by the blast of shrapnel. Three Grunts were wiped out by the blast, and a third Elite stumbled backward, purple blood flowing from its face and its shields destroyed. John put that one down with a quick burst, and the Elite that had leapt to safety was cut down before it could finish standing up.
As that alien hit the deck, the hangar went silent; no more Covenant emerged from the boarding craft. Judging from the mounds of Covenant already laying on the deck, the boarding craft had spent its entire compliment trying to take this one hangar.
"Is everyone alright?" called Sergeant Johnson as he climbed down the ladder connecting the upper level to the lower one.
"Not sure, Sergeant," came a reply from one of the Marines, who was still breathing heavily from the intense battle. He still clenched his M7 tightly in his hands, and Jon noted his finger was a little too close to the trigger for proper trigger discipline. "We-we've got wounded and taken casualties."
"Cortana, we need medics to Pelican Bay One," the Chief said over his radio, and Cortana flashed him an acknowledgement. The Spartan glanced to the rattled Marine. "Medics are on their way, Corporal."
"Thanks, Chief," the man said, exhaling and trying to calm his nerves.
"Hey, check this out!" came a shout from another Marine as he looked out the transparent bay doors, toward the nearby Malta. "The Malta! They've already driven off their boarders!"
"Covenant bastards are retreating?" Johnson muttered, and the Chief agreed with the skeptical tone in his voice as they moved toward the bay windows. Certainly enough, there were numerous white streaks shooting off from the station as the Covenant boarding craft broke off and fled the MAC station.
"Malta, what is your status? Over." Cortana's voice was clinical, though curious, as it came over FLEETCOM.
"I don't believe it!" came a response back from the Malta's defense coordinator. "All Covenant boarders are retreating! We've won!"
The words had barely registered in John's ears when a white plume of flame shot out of the center of the MAC station. Surrounding the blast of light, the station began to deform, and more pulses of plasma erupted from the heart of station, reaching out and consuming the width and breadth of the Malta. Flames and blazing, white-hot metal spread outward as a tremendous explosion shot through the remainder of the MAC gun, ripping it apart and scattering hundreds of thousands of pieces of white-hot debris across the blackness of space.
The Malta was gone.
"God in Heaven," whispered Johnson.
"This is bad, real bad," muttered another Marine. John's mind began to race, trying to figure out what had just happened, when the floor shook and the roar of an explosion vibrated his MJOLNIR. The Spartan spun around as fresh hostile contacts appeared on his HUD, and a swarm of new Covenant troops stormed into the hangar bay from an adjacent corridor. Analysis of the Covenant threat was put on hold as John sighted and gunned down another Elite, and the Marines rushed to eliminate the new threat.
"Covenant boarders, coming inside!" came a shout from Navy Lieutenant Ready as the Marines and crewmen manning the Cairo's Fire Control Center scrambled for weapons. A dozen and more soldiers and sailors rushed to the port side of the room as an elevator loaded with Covenant troops hissed to a stop outside. Men and women took cover behind whatever they could as the door began to glow a bright white, sparks flying from the connection between the locked blast doors. Several Marines reached for grenades when the door blew open, launching debris and material everywhere; one sailor caught a piece of shrapnel to the side of his unarmored head and hit the deck, dead instantly.
Fragmentation grenades flew out toward the door even as blue-white blazes of light - Covenant plasma grenades - flew back toward them. A grenade slapped against one Marine's sidearm and adhered to it. He screamed and threw it aside, but before the pistol could fly far enough, it detonated, and the unfortunate soldier was incinerated by the resulting rush of blue-white light, his corpse launched through the air.
As grenades exploded, plasma burst from the open doorway. Grunts hurled themselves through the entrance, their pistols sparking and firing, and were gunned down. Elites rushed out the entrance right behind them, their plasma rifles blazing as the Grunts bought them the precious seconds they needed to punch through the human resistance.
But though these Marines and Navy crewmen were frightened and many of them were only technicians, they fought back with ferocity to match the Covenant's own fanatical warriors. Sub-machineguns and pistols blazed, and grenades landed among the standing Elites, battering down their shields. One of the huge aliens doubled over as a line of 5.7mm caseless bullets dug through its gut, and another seemed to fly apart as a grenade and three separate soldiers struck it at once. The Covenant began to scatter and were virtually routed, and many Grunts panicked and began to break off.
Then a white-armored Elite leapt through the breach, a plasma rifle in its left hand and a glowing white wedge of energy in the other. With no fear or hesitation in its eyes, the Elite Ultra roared a challenge as it rushed into the room, its plasma rifle blazing away, cutting down one Marine in a remorseless barrage of fury. Several soldiers turned their weapons on the Ultra as it charged straight toward them, its enhanced shields lighting up into a blinding display of flashing light as bullets smashed against it.
But neither the Ultra nor his exceptionally powerful shields broke, and he bore in, his rifle burning down another soldier as Marines and sailors stood up and began to back away, emptying their magazines into the alien's seemingly impossible-to-break shields. Then, he was upon them, and his sword struck.
In a single sweeping motion, the Elite's blade gutted one Marine and sliced a crewman in half, and it whirled on another soldier, his blade cutting down and severing the man's gun arm. As he screamed and fell down, the alien whirled, slashing out behind itself, and took down a fourth human with casual ease. Turning back to the fallen Marine, the Elite fired a single blast from its rifle into the human's face with a contemptuous snort, and then spun on the rest of the battle.
The Covenant, heartened by the arrival of the Ultra onto the field of battle, renewed their attack, and the humans, with more than half their number slaughtered in a few seconds, could not hold back the alien tide. A river of plasma erupted and pinned them down as Grunts rushed forward and Elites flanked them, picking them off one by one in a shower of merciless white plasma. The Ultra's blade sizzled as he tore through more victims, and within moments only corpses and blackened, severed body parts remained of the human defenders.
The Fire Control Center went silent, and Ultra Commander Rena 'Tantafee, the leader of the Covenant forces that were assaulting the station, turned toward his troops.
"Bring the purifying light inside," 'Tantafee ordered with a snarl. "Let its flame burn this human infestation from the skies!"
Pelican Bay Two was nearly overrun. Corpses of Marine defenders littered the deck as Elites and Grunts moved out from where their boarding craft had breached, and the few surviving humans were pushed back into the corners of the hangar. The aliens were surrounding them, and even at that very moment several Grunts prepared to launch a combined plasma grenade barrage to force the humans out of cover.
Their priorities changed when a green-armored, half-ton mass of pure havoc rushed into the hangar bay, with nearly a dozen Marines at his back.
Pelican bay Two was transformed into complete chaos. Elites keeled over and fell to the deck as they took fire from a half dozen human weapons at once. A Marine's face was burned to charred ash as a Grunt got a lucky shot off, an instant before Johnson gunned the small alien down. The embattled Marines emerged from cover and drove the surprised Covenant force back. The Elites started to retreat and regroup as the humans cut down frightened and panicking Grunts in a wave of gunfire and bursting phosphorescent blood. As the larger aliens retreated to available cover, however, they found themselves taking fire from a new direction as the Master Chief circled around and hit them from the rear. One of the aliens was killed even as the remainder returned fire, only to catch a volley of fragmentation grenades from both Marines and Spartan. The small explosives blew up all amidst the Elites, and purple blood filled the air while body parts were scattered across the hangar. Two of the aliens stumbled out of the attack, only to be quickly cut down with two rapid bursts from the Master Chief's rifle.
"Sweep and clear!" Johnson ordered as the Marines fanned out across the room. "Make sure all these sons of bitches are dead!" The Marines did as ordered, fanning out and checking the Covenant. Those that still moved, and a few that didn't, were promptly given a burst to the head for their troubles.
"Uh-oh," called one of the Marines as he moved near the bay walls and looked out into space. "They're leaving the Athens too!" The Marines abandoned their sweeps and rushed to the bay walls, in time to catch a front-row seat of the Athens bursting into white-hot flames and shattering across its center, a rapidly expanding plume of white fire consuming and scattering the station, just as with the Malta.
"Cortana, report," came Lord Hood's voice over FLEETCOM.
"Admiral, my scans indicate that explosion came from inside the Athens. Same with the Malta." The AI paused, and then relayed the grim news. "The Covenant must have brought something with them: a bomb."
"Then they sure as hell brought one here," Hood responded. To his credit, the Admiral seemed to take news as calmly as if he'd stepped on an insect. "Marines, Master Chief, canvass the station, locate that bomb ASAP!"
"Yes sir," responded John over the radio, and he glanced to Johnson, who nodded grimly.
"Them Covenant bastards are smarter than we thought," the Marine remarked. "That bomb could be anywhere by now." The Master Chief didn't reply, instead calling up a schematic of the station and accessing the internal biometric scanners. Several portions of the Cairo were marked by areas that the Covenant had overrun: Commons B, Fire Control, and the Loading Docks. The closest location was Commons B, and the quickest way to get there was . . . .
"Cortana, I need access to Ammunition Bay Three," John said over his radio as he moved across the hangar. That bay was just beneath Pelican Bay Two and ran straight to the armory, where the Marines would be able to restock their gear, and move directly into Commons B.
"Why do I always have to hold the doors open for you?" she remarked, and a floor panel slid open, revealing a ramp leading down to Ammunition Bay Three. "Be careful Chief, I have multiple Covenant-"
The blaze of John's battle rifle drowned out her words as he cut down a trio of Grunts that had been idling near the door when it opened.
"There's still one more-"
A grenade detonation cut her off, followed by two more bursts and the roar of a dying Elite.
"Nevermind, Chief." She went silent as the Master Chief walked down the ramp and into the cleared ammunition bay, a dozen Marines behind him.
"Fuck you, you squid-faced ugly sack of wet ass!" Gunnery Sergeant Mikes Hanes shouted as he hurled a fragmentation grenade across his armory, at the red-armored Elite that had just smashed through the entrance from Commons B. The alien let out a deep-throated yelp of shock as the grenade bounced off its armor and detonated, blasting away its shield, and the Elite ducked back out of the armory. A blue-armored Elite Minor stepped in its leader's stead, rushing into the armory and firing its plasma rifle on full-auto. White fire shot past Hanes as he dove to the deck, his M90 eight-gauge shotgun in hand. He rolled around the table he was ducking behind, even as the Elite closed in, and jabbed the long-barreled shotgun into the alien's gut.
The weapon fired, and even the Covenant energy shield couldn't stop the eight-gauge buckshot from smashing through and into the alien's gut. The Elite doubled over, still alive, as most of the shotgun's energy had been lost punching through the shield, but Hanes pumped the weapon's action and fired again, the roar of the shotgun drowning out the alien's death cry as its stomach flew out its back.
The red-armored Elite Major, with another of his blue-clad comrades, moved into the armory as Hanes shot to his feet, blasting in their general direction with his M90. The Elites' shields sparked as the shells hit home, but the aliens were undeterred, and their return fire cut across the room. White-hot pain shot through Gains' chest as the plasma fire stabbed into his torso, and he stumbled backward, numbness rapidly spreading through his chest as what was left of his nerves were burned away by the plasma bolts. The blue-armored Elite took a step forward, and Hanes snapped up his weapon, leveling it directly into the alien's face.
"Get the hell out of my armory!" the Gunnery Sergeant roared, and his shotgun barked. The Elite's face was reduced to violet-tinted hamburger as the buckshot slammed through its weakened shield. The Elite Major fired a quick burst with its plasma rifle, taking Hanes in the chest once again, and the Marine dropped to the deck as his legs gave out.
Mike Hanes stared up at the Elite as it stepped over him, peering down at the human, and then slowly nodded.
"A pity," the creature stated, its throat straining to produce the unusual words of the human language, and then the alien raised its rifle and pointed it as Hanes' face. "For a human, you fought well."
"Fuck yourself," snarled Hanes, and the Elite chuckled, a deep, resonating sound that rattled the Marine's bones. The whine of plasma fire filled the air, and then only darkness remained for Hanes.
The Major turned around and started to leave the human armory, when it found a portion of the floor of the room had slid away, revealing a room below that signs labeled as "Ammunition Bay Three." Emerging from that floor were a half-dozen rifles, all aimed by humans who had none-too-gentle expressions on their faces.
Violet blood splattered over Gunnery Sergeant Mike Hanes's corpse, and the Major dropped to the deck, an alien expression of shock across what remained of its face. Sergeant Johnson climbed up into the armory and fired two more bursts into the Elite's head, just to make sure it was dead, while the rest of the Marines and the Master Chief moved up into the room.
"Reload and re-arm, Marines," Johnson ordered, and the soldiers scattered across the armory, picking up fresh magazines from ammunition boxes and grabbing additional weapons, including battle rifles and grenades. As they did so, Johnson stepped over to what remained of Hanes, and shook his head. He glanced up to the Master Chief, who said nothing. They were both all too familiar with this occurrence: they had been speaking with this man no more than half an hour ago, and now he was dead.
"We'll pay 'em back, Master Guns," growled Johnson as he closed the dead Marine's eyes, and then stood. Without another word, the Master Chief bent down and lifted Hanes' shotgun, and silently loaded it with shells taken off the table, his battle rifle slid over his shoulder and attached to magnetic clamps on his back. John paused to check the station schematics, and noted that large numbers of the enemy were scattered in Commons B, some just outside the door. A dozen Grunts and half that many Elites were on the lower floor, and an equal number had dug in at the security station overlooking the room, and it looked like they were readying mounted rapid-fire plasma turrets for combat. That would be bad for his troops. While the Spartan could survive dancing with those turrets, the Marines had neither MJOLNIR nor energy shields nor the inhuman speed of a Spartan.
"Marines," the Chief said, addressing the remaining soldiers in the room. The mixed collection of leathernecks turned toward him, and those who had helmets had their own HUDs flash as he sent them the available data.
"The enemy is dug in in the next room," he explained. "I want you to remain at the rear and cover me as I advance."
"And let you have all the fun, Chief?" asked one Marine, his expression hardening.
"I'm not losing anyone to those gun emplacements," John answered, a highlighted their locations. "The Covenant have set up one in the security station at the far side of the room with a clear line of fire across most of the Commons." He took out a plasma grenade he had taken from a dead Grunt. "Cover me until I can get close enough to tag it."
"Understood, Chief," Johnson replied. "And if you jarheads don't like it, then tough! Suck it up, plenty of split-chins and chimps to kill after the Chief has his fun." The Marines reluctantly nodded, but John could see the anger and the bloodlust in their eyes. They had all lost comrades and family to the Covenant, and they were all eager to get revenge. Though he could sympathize, however slightly, with them, he would not allow the Marines to kill themselves blindly seeking vengeance.
The Spartan moved to the door leading out of the armory, and paused. The Covenant in the room outside knew that there were humans hiding in the armory, though how many and their composition they probably were uncertain of.
The Elites and Grunts covering the exit were caught off-guard when the armory door opened and they found themselves staring into the impassive reflective faceplate of a MJOLNIR-clad Spartan, an instant before his shotgun blasted one of the aliens to the floor. John barreled over one Elite in blue armor, smashing his shotgun into the alien's gut and letting the Marines behind him finish it off as he bolted across the Common. Plasma fire from a dozen sources cut down toward the Spartan, splattering against his shields, but they held as he rushed across the room.
Commons B consisted of a wide atrium that featured two elevated platforms and numerous planted trees rising toward an open transparisteel canopy that looked out into the vista of space. Under ordinary circumstances, it was a place for the crew to gather and relax, but today it was scattered with the corpses of Covenant invaders and UNSC defenders, and painted the myriad shades of alien and human blood.
John ducked into a side corridor running alongside the Commons, and found himself face to face with a quartet of Grunts with an Elite behind them. Without hesitating, the Spartan leapt over the Grunts and dove straight for the larger alien behind them. His shotgun fired a quick blast into the alien's chest in mid-leap, and the buckshot punched through. Purple blood splattered over the Elite's armor as it was staggered backward by the force of the blow, and the Spartan landed right in front of it. His shotgun's butt flew across into the Elite's unprotected face, and the mandibles on the left side of the alien's face were crushed. John snapped the barrel of the shotgun back across, against the other side of the Elite's face, and its skull cracked under the impact. It fell to the floor, unconscious or dead.
Behind the Spartan, the Grunts panicked as their commander fell, squealing and screaming in terror. The Spartan whirled around and helped motivate them to flee by blasting one of the small aliens into a glittering blue mess at point-blank range. The remaining Grunts, some with their comrade's own blood splattered across their faces, turned and fled down the corridor away from the Spartan, and right into the line of fire of a dozen vengeful Marines. Their death cries were drowned out by the torrent of gunfire as John moved up the corridor, and paused at a doorway leading into Commons B.
Two Grunts were hiding behind a makeshift barriers that the Marine defenders had managed to erect before being overrun. Two quick buckshot blasts sent them to the deck, and the Spartan leaned out, getting an angle of the gun turret located on the other side of the room. He spotted a single Grunt in the green armor and environment suit of a heavy weapons specialist, and primed a plasma grenade. The Spartan's arm pumped, and the grenade shot toward the alien, nearly forty feet away, and hit it dead center between the eyes. The glowing blue ball adhered to the alien's skin, and the light blinded the Grunt as it screamed in panic. An azure explosion consumed both gunner and gun turret an instant later, and John signaled to the Marines that they were clear to advance. The Spartan shot across the Commons once more, drawing fire from a couple of Covenant in the security station upstairs, which allowed the Marines to spot their locations and gun them down.
An Elite roar and a flash of a new contact on his local radar greeted as the Spartan ducked into the hallway on the opposite side of Commons B. The huge alien took a swing at John with its plasma rifle, and the Chief's left hand shot up, catching the alien's descending arm by the wrist, while his right angled the shotgun into its stomach and fired. At that range, the Elite's shields did nothing to save it, and most of its stomach was reduced to a splattered mass of purple gore that slashed across the bulkhead beyond. Stepping over the corpse, the Spartan could hear more gunfire as the Marines suppressed enemy Covenant and advanced. The Chief paused at another door down the corridor that opened on the far side of the Commons, directly beneath the windows of the security station, and peered across the room.
A wide hallway leading to a docking bay was visible on the other side of the Commons, and a dozen Covenant were taking cover in there, regrouping. Their number was cut in half when John sidearmed a fragmentation grenade into their midst, the explosive sphere bouncing off a Grunt's forehead and detonating. The smaller aliens scattered while the Elite shook their heads, and John could catch one cursing as it spotted him, even as the Spartan dashed across Commons B. His shotgun blasted, pumped, and then blasted again, and two of the stunned Elites fell before the Spartan rolled around the side of the doorway. Plasma flew past as the remaining Elites and Grunts snapped of hasty return fire.
He heard one Elite issuing orders to its Grunt cohorts, and then the Spartan flicked a plasma grenade around the corner to keep them from recovering. He didn't expect it to hit anyone, but the glowing ball of flame would certainly startle the Covenant. As he rolled around the doorway an instant later, John found several aliens diving away from the grenade, and one Elite glancing sideways at the explosive. That one took a shotgun blast to the head, and the Spartan pivoted, blasting the remaining Grunts and last Elite with individual shots.
The Covenant had barely hit the floor when Johnson and his Marine group had caught up. Several continued firing up into the security room, keeping the aliens up there pinned down; John's HUD read three Grunts and a pair of Elites still alive.
"Marines," the Chief ordered to the firing soldiers. They glanced his way, but kept firing bursts at the pinned aliens. "On my mark, frag that room!" They nodded, and the Spartan, Johnson, and the remaining Marines rushed into the hallway and the stairwell just beyond, which connected to the security room. The troops assembled outside the door leading into the room, rifles raised.
"Marines, mark!" the Chief ordered, and the gunfire slackened as three Marines flung fragmentation grenades up into the room. John counted down from three seconds, and as he heard the grenades detonate, he opened the door and rushed inside. Johnson's shout of "Go-go-go!" was echoing in his ears as he spotted one wounded Elite reaching with its left hand for its rifle, still clutched in its right hand several feet away. Gunfire filled the room as Spartan and Marines cut down the few surviving aliens in a torrent of violence.
"Commons B secured!" Johnson shouted triumphantly. John did not reply to the Marine's shout, instead checking the area for any further signs of Covenant presence.
"Marines," he ordered. "Sweep this area, look for any kind of unusual Covenant ordnance. Make sure that bomb isn't hidden here." The Marines acknowledged his order and split up into fireteams, scattering across the security station and hurrying down to the Commons to check for explosives. Meanwhile the Master Chief expanded his sweep of the area, and detected additional Covenant contacts, and plasma weapon discharges, just outside at the docking bay umbilicals. UNSC IFF transponders showed several Navy crewmen outside, including . . . Commander Keyes.
"Johnson, on me!" the Chief ordered instantly, and rushed out the far end of the security station, with the dark-skinned Sergeant Major right behind him. They turned a corner, and plasma splashed against John's shields as he spotted a pair of Elites and a clutch of Grunt down the corridor, hiding behind a series of ammunition crates. To his right was Miranda and two of her crew, armed with M7s, crouched in an alcove along the bulkhead. John dropped his shotgun and pulled his battle rifle off his back, preferring the longer range and higher accuracy of the rifle or this situation. He advanced, firing as he moved, and crouched behind another ammunition box as one of the Elites' shields failed and it hit the floor.
"Chief, thanks for the rescue," Miranda called as Johnson cut down a Grunt. The Naval officers leaned out from behind cover and opened fire, and John covered them as they advanced to a better firing position. The Covenant troops, now outnumbered, were pushed back, and the Spartan lobbed a frag grenade into the air, bouncing it off the ceiling and dropping it straight into their midst. It exploded an instant later, killing the remaining aliens in a single flash of shrapnel and noise.
"Thanks Chief," Miranda said, as she stood up. "I owe you one for that."
"Are you okay?" John asked her, and the Commander nodded.
"I was almost on board then they showed up," she explained.
"You'd better link up with the fleet," the Chief began to say, when he was suddenly cut off.
"Sorry to interrupt the reunion," Cortana's voice cut in. "But I've found the Covenant's surprise. Boarders have breached the Fire Control Center. They have a bomb set up and armed. The Admiral is ordering an evacuation."
"Without this station the Covenant fleet will rip apart Harper's battle group," John stated, shaking his head. "We have to stop that bomb."
"Fire control is accessible through the external loading docks," Cortana explained. "Only way to get there is to take a spacewalk in hard vacuum, and you're the only one who can make the trip, Chief."
"Understood," John replied. "I'll take care of it."
"You sure, Chief?" Miranda asked, and John nodded. Schematics flashed on his HUD, showing the quickest route to where he needed to go, which was right outside the next umbilical docking station.
"Get going, Chief," Johnson added. "I'll chaperone the Commander." The Spartan nodded and started down the hallway, hopping over the ammunition crate the Covenant had been using for cover. One of the Grunts was still alive, crawling toward a plasma pistol. A green, ceramic-armored boot solved that, and John moved on.
Around the corner ahead was a wide corridor of airlock chamber, that ended with a blast door which would normally connect a docked UNSC ship to the station. John moved into the passage, and started to access the local airlock controls via his suit's comms, when the rear door slid shut without warning.
"Cortana," John called over the radio. "Did you just do that?"
"Negative, Chief," she replied. "I'm picking up someone accessing the airlock controls from outside the station."
"Understood," the Chief replied, and moved to the end of the corridor as the air pumps finished. The outer door began to slide open, and two Elites rushed through the entrance, clad in zero-gravity vacuum suits with thrusters mounted on their backs. The aliens came to a sudden stop when confronted by the unexpected Spartan, who fired his shotgun into one Elite's face at point-blank range. The Elite was blasted backward, its faceplate shattered by the buckshot shell, and launched out into the vacuum beyond.
The second alien swung its plasma rifle at the Spartan, who ducked instantly beneath the blow. The rifle brushed the top of John's shields, and he sprang forward, smashing the butt of his rifle into the armored alien's faceplate. It was lifted up and launched backward, and the Spartan's arm pumped. The Elite's thrusters pulsed as it recovered and reoriented itself toward the human, only to then realize that a shining blue light was burning on its flank.
The plasma grenade's explosion propelled the Elite's incinerated corpse out into the empty void as John stepped out of the airlock. His MJOLNIR's magnetic boots activated as the vertigo of zero-gravity struck him, and he began to carefully clamber out into the emptiness of space, intent on reaching the bomb at the heart of the Cairo.
Somewhere beyond the station, however, a decision was made, and the Covenant fleet's engines pulsed as someone made the decision that they could not and would not wait any longer.
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This chapter was originally supposed to include the majority of the Cairo Station battle sequence, but I realized about halfway through that my plans for this chapter were too big for it to be contained within just one part. Thus, I'm cutting it roughly in half, with the Loading Dock and Fire Control Center battles and the Master Chief Is A Crazy Badass Motherfucker cutscene coming next chapter, along with a little bit more fun as well.
As you should have already noticed, I'm working on making this as much a story about the individual Marines and Covenant as well as a story about Halo 2's main protagonists. However, unlike William C. Dietz's novelization of Halo, I'm going to try to avoid skimming over the various encounters and really get into the nitty-gritty of warfare in the Halo universe.
Until next chapter . . . .