A/N: Sorry for the long update folks, school has kinda ruined my schedule. And the fact that I was just on vacation doesn't help much either, I s'pose. And before you go on about something you'll end up catching in this chapter, yes, I know I messed up the Prophet's name, so it's gonna be fixed in this chapter. His name is the Prophet of Sin, but I spaced out the other times and wrote Prophet of Truth, unless I'm getting senile already. Meh, just read the chapter and enjoy it. Oh yeah, and thanks for not killing me.
Chapter 12: Thunder Underground
While the three Spartans were gearing up, they were examining the new weapons. From new assault rifles, a snipers rifle, and even new vehicles, they would want to test them out. But that was for another time.
"I'm sure glad that we're finally on the offensive. The only space battles that we've won only stalled the Covenant. But now with this alliance, I'm sure that things will go smoothly" Drake said.
"Yeah. I just wonder how it will be to work with these Elites now?" Charles wondered.
"Well, if Master Chief can get along with them, I don't see why we can't. Plus, like the Admiral said, we can't win without 'em."
Alexandria and her team were getting ready to board a transport ship, one of many, containing supplies for UNSC troops on Lobonikos.
They would be able to test all new weapons, excluding the vehicles, once in slipspace.
Master Chief and his team were in their ready room. Fred was sleeping, Kelly was doing maintenance work on her armor, and Linda was at the ships firing range. John, however, was busy cleaning his weapons.
He always did this after his first mission, and laid them out in neat rows with his remaining ammunition, side by side. During the mission to capture the capital of Lobonikos, he had used 4 clips of ammo for his MA5B, and the barrel was slagged in the process, 5 clips from his MA8B, and 2 clips of his pistol. He also used 6 of his 8 fragmentation grenades.
Just then, the intercom buzzed with Admiral Reiners voice.
"Master Chief and Captain Adoest, please report to the bridge immediately. That is all."
He got up, and walked to the elevator down the hallway.
When he arrived at the Command Deck, he saw that Adoest was only a few rooms in front of him. The captain must of heard him, because he turned around and said hello. John nodded and walked through the door, with the captain behind him.
The Admiral greeted them, "hello, Master Chief, Adoest. We have much to discuss. Come over here."
The Admiral led them to one of the new holopanels installed on the ships. What flashed to life on it though, was something John hoped to never see again.
"It appears, that we have found another Halo. The Arbiter and part of his fleet are coming along with us to help destroy it. Now, this Halo, like the other two you have been on, Master Chief, is loaded with the Flood. However, they haven't been released out of their prisons, but we are sending more forces than we should need."
The Master Chief remembered his first encounter with the Flood. A certain memory, where an infection form actually got through his suit, and tapped his spinal cord, was only killed by Cortana sending a shock wave of energy through the shielding system. He shivered at the thought, and banished it from his mind.
"Now, the Elites have told me that they have to take operations on the ring, so we have to land ground forces there, instead of blowing it to bits. Which is why the admiralty has expressed great distress amongst themselves."
"Sir, yes sir. I will prepare my team with whatever supplies we need."
"No, that is unnecessary for the time being. We are sending three engineering platoons down first with proper supplies to build and fortify more than a few larges base for up to four weeks each. Then they will be recalled, and many troops will be sent down. Heavy armor and light mechanized will arrive for them after a 16 hour wait period for the marines to get settled."
Master Chief nodded, and thought it over.
The Admiral continued on, "You Spartans and team Grau Falk will only be deployed if the Flood get released. Which, should not happen, under any circumstances. But if need be, you will be sent down." The Admiral dismissed them, and went back to directing his fleet.
The Arbiter was busy directing his fleet when news came in about the new discovery. He was shocked, to say the least, when he heard it. His first thought was to blow it up until nothing remained except it would only be a memory. But then came another thought, if we can capture the Monitor for this installation, we may be able to sway those of us who still follow the Prophet of Sin.
"Communications, send word that another of the Halos have been found. We are to move out towards it, with some of our fleet." The Arbiter looked at a holopanel and selected 23 ships from the roster, "tell these ships. We are also to send out construction platoons to build and sustain a few bases. Let us make haste."
As 40 ships moved out into slipspace, the rest of the fleet would stay at Lobonikos to defend their new position.
After the trip through slipspace, the Arbiter, his fleet, and the Human fleet got a good look at the ring world. It looked almost exactly like the first one he saw, with the exception that the outer skin of the ring was tinted blue.
He gave an order for 15 Phantoms and the same amount of Apparitions to go down to the ring. The Phantoms would carry all of the heavy equipment and could hold a large number of troops. The Apparitions would carry in Spectres, Ghosts, and Shades. The Humans were sending down 25 Pelicans, and 15 Albatrosses, if his scanner read correctly.
"A very large amount of troops, yes. But it will be necessary, if the Flood break out", the Arbiter thought.
As the Albatross that Technical Sergeant Jason Denelli was in started to enter the atmosphere of the ring world called Halo, he was wondering of what importance it was to the Admirals to send this many troops down. He dismissed it and decided that it was a prize for one of the Admirals.
He examined the transport, as he was used to riding in Pelicans. There room he was in was the main cargo bay, which was basically a square, and behind him led into the pilot's room, which was where the Albatross was flown, and below decks were the barracks for any squad of soldiers accompanying the cargo itself. Instead of the usual dull gray found on most transports, the primary Albatross paint scheme was a dark green, like that of a Warthog.
"Touchdown in 10... 9... 8... 7..." the pilot announced over the intercom.
When the countdown finished, a whistle sounded, and chains were heard as the drop-door fell to the ground. As the construction mechs were moving towards the designated building zone, Denelli took a look at the scenery.
With rolling hills, a mountain in the background, and even a waterfall, complete with a lake and trees, he thought that the place was beautiful. He was suddenly driven back into reality as his captain slapped him on the back of his helmet and he started to get to work. After all, building three fortified bases for 500 troops each plus vehicles was not going to be easy. Not only that, but there was gonna be two smaller bases built in-between the three other bases for the 104th Medical Battalion. Each of the two small bases would hold 30 troops from that battalion.
After a period of 36 hours, the 65th and 84th Engineering Platoons were able to finish the main bases. Denelli could hear inbound Pelicans, most likely carrying in the Marines to occupy the bases. Now Denelli and his fellow engineers had to build the two MASH bases. He was tired, and only got around 4 hours of sleep, but he was confident that they would be able to do it fast. Luckily for them, everything was pre-fab, which is why they were able to build the bases so fast.
As the Arbiter watched his the Phantoms and Apparitions become tiny specs on his view screen, he had other matters to attend to. He opened up a channel with the Human Admiral. He saw that he was talking to Fleet Admiral Reiner.
"Well, Admiral. My troops are being sent down to construct their bases, then after a days' rest, they will begin their search for the Artifact."
"Very good, Arbiter. Be sure to have your troops build at least withing a mile of our bases, in case anyone needs assistance."
"Yes, Admiral." The Arbiter then told his comm officer to do that. "After my troops finish and start to rest, we shall begin our search, until then, your troops may try if they want to."
"Alright. We'll get to start on that soon" the Admiral finished.
While pacing the Command Deck, Tranalus, the Jiralhanea commanding the ship Blinding Destiny, which command the Fleet of Sacred Might, was growing irritated. The Prophet of Sin, who had sent his battle group here, was not letting him attack. Even though he had his orders, he would at least send out a Seraph patrol, on the other side of the planet that was masking his presence.
Lieutenant Filner was busy getting his 'hogs into gear for the scouting mission. His objective was towards arbitrary south, which was through the small forest. Filner was commanding four 'hogs and three Mongoose ATVs. One of the 'hogs was a troop carrier, and could hold up to one squad of fully armed troops. Two of the 'hogs were using Gauss Turrets, and the lead 'hog used an GP turret. Normally a patrol run wouldn't need this much firepower, but they sent along his unit anyway.
Halfway along the ride of their maximum allowable distance, they encountered a structure that led into the ground. It's entrance was large enough to let two Scorpions pass through side by side. The Lieutenant sent in the three ATVs first, and they would radio back if nothing was wrong. After ten minutes passed, there was still no contact. So the lieutenant decided to bring everyone with him into the tunnel.
After about five minutes, they found themselves inside of a cavernous room. They road that they were on was raised about a meter above ground. Directly ahead of them was what he assumed was a bridge. He pulled to a stop right in front of it, and got out. He then put his foot on it and was surprised he encountered resistance from it. He gave an all clear sign, got back into his Warthog, and drove across it, hoping that they wouldn't fall through the bridge.
After they got through the tunnel on the other side, they went deeper into the structure and encountered a strange, thick green mist, that made it slightly hard to breathe.
A few seconds later, they found empty ATVs. 3 of them. There was green and red gore on the surrounding area.
"Echo Base, this is Lieutenant Filner, do you copy?" He got static for a few seconds, and repeated the message. Then he finally got a response.
"This is Echo Base, we copy"
"We got a problem here, Echo Base. All three of our ATVs were just found inside of this tunnel complex we found about 7 or 8 minutes ago. There is some blood, no bodies, and the ATVs are still running. There's also a bunch of shell casings on the ground, and some of the blood, is green."
"Roger that, Lieutenant. Conduct a short sweep of the area, and report back to base."
"Acknowledged, Echo Base. Over and out."
Alright, everyone, get into the vehicles, we're conducting a short sweep of the area to make sure we don't find any surprises when we come back here." He pointed at one of the Gauss 'hogs, and then at the troop transport. "I want you two to head over there, and do a regulation patrol. Me and the other 'hog will be going and the left side of this tunnel."
As the 'hogs started up and moved into patrol routes, the Lieutenant told three of the marines in the troop transport to go back to base. He then got back into his own Warthog, and told the driver to move out. During the patrol, before they even finished half of the leg, they started hearing gunshots. So they raced back to the two other 'hogs patrol route, and found the two vehicles battling little tiny creatures, and also things that looked a lot like Humans.
So when the gunner in his and his fellow 'hogs' gunner opened fire on the things, he wanted to make them stop. But his instincts told him to fire away with them. After he plugged a few of the little white pods that were trying to attack them, he saw that they popped so easily. He then decided to throw a frag into the chaos, and got the satisfying boom as it went off. The sound was amplified due to the large cavernous tunnel.
A whole bunch of them exploded, then they started to chain react from their own explosions. By now, most, if not all of the little bastards were dead. They now focused their attention on the human-like creatures. Filner put half a clip of his MA8B into one of them, and was shocked that it got back up after it fell, and continued like nothing just happened to it.
Although, they proved to succumb to the massive power of a Gauss round, as they, like any other being in existence, would blow apart after such an explosive impact. However, after the victory of the skirmish, they didn't notice the one bipedal creature getting closer. After a small amount of time, however, one of the Marines saw it and shouted to the others. When they started firing at it, though, they were bewildered when it fired a weapon of its own.
"They can use guns? Fuck!" One marine decided to yell over the noise of their own guns.
A marine fell down from his Warthogs passenger seat, screaming, "I'm hit!"
After seeing one of their own falling, they opened fire once more, trying to down the bastard who just killed one of their friends. Once the Gauss was able to find its mark, however, the thing blew apart, with green gore on the ground, almost invisible from the blast mark the ground had received from the explosion. Although it was raining green blood and various body parts, there was no crater where there should have been.
After Filner calmed down, he contacted Echo Base and told them the bad news. He got an order to fall back to base and take the Private who got hit to one of the MASH bases.
He gave the order, and carried the marine into the troop transport. When the infantry squad looked him over, they saw that it was not plasma scoring, but instead it was a bullet hole. And he was going to bleed out if they didn't stop they bleeding and bandage him up real quick. During the 20 minute ride, they were able to do all of that.
When they got him into the MASH base, he was sent to pre-op, and all they could do was wait. After the Lieutenant got his vehicle squad back into the mechanics bay, his troops went to their barracks, or the Mess Hall. He started on his paperwork.
After his comm officer told him the bad news, Reiner swore out loud.
"Get Team Grau Falk and the Spartans up here, ASAP."
His comm officer used the loudspeaker, and all the Admiral could do was wait.
A/N: Well, what'd ya think? I know it's a bit short, but a lot of stuff has really ruined my schedule. Sorry for the long update, and that it couldn't be longer. But, writer's block strikes almost every time I try to think of something to write, so we're all lucky that I got it out this far.