Chapter 4 – Setting up HQ
0220 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4
Cameron hadn't noticed, but as he sat down catching his breath, he saw that a plasma beam had penetrated his armor and created a fist sized cavity on the right side of his chest. There was a lot of internal bleeding, but no vital organs had been damaged. The Spartan took a look around the armory and saw the other seven remaining Spartans slumped around four bodies.
Spartan-248, Katy, was unconscious. The impact of a beam rifle projectile gave her a minor concussion, but nothing serious.
Spartan-254, Evan, didn't really count as a casualty since he always managed to resurrect himself each time he was killed.
Spartan-233, Smith, was dead. Shot in the heart by a plasma beam, he had been the Spartan sniper CO and had been a good friend. Though he was usually quiet, the Spartan always cracked a joke to raise the moral of his teammates. Cameron was thankful that Smith had died immediately after being shot.
Spartan-249, Andrew, had been the Commanding Officer of the entire generation of Spartan-II Bs. He was killed by an overcharged plasma bolt fired from a plasma pistol, and the bolt had melted straight through his armor and shattered most of the bones in his solar plexus. He had been a good leader, and he always made sure that his team got through every mission alive, with the exception of Evan.
Cameron limped past a table that was stacked high with Covenant weapons and found a trio of medical lockers. Two lockers had med kits, the other had biofoam canisters. Cameron grabbed a biofoam canister and filled himself up with the stuff. Then, he took a med kit and closed off the cavity with some battle dressings and a liquid sealer. Then, after replacing his armor, Cameron passed some med packs to the others.
Cody had been shot by a .30-caliber machine gun, and three bullets had lodged themselves in his thigh. The Spartan removed them with a pair of tweezers and sealed the holes up with biofoam.
Philip had dislocated one arm, so Kyle helped straighten it out.
Out of the nine Spartans, only Monica and Kyle made it out of the battle with the Spartan-Hunters unfazed. Monica helped Katy up and injected her with a stimulant.
"Hey, this escape pod has six cryo pods. We should put Smith and Andrew in there for now. We might have a chance of reviving them when we get back to UNSC grounds." Monica whispered to Cameron after making sure Katy was okay.
"Right; Kyle, Philip, help us." Cameron ordered. Kyle was a higher ranking lieutenant than Cameron, but he nodded solemnly and helped carry the two dead Spartans into separate cryo pods. The bodies froze, nobody said a word.
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0230 Hours, February 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Harold's Valley [Asteroid Belt/ Unclassified space zone/ Rebel Base/ Armory W-4
Katy laid out every single weapon type she could find on the floor. There were three types of pistols: the M6, the M6C, and the M6C. There were also sub-machine guns, MA5Bs, MA5Ks, M90 shotguns, sniper rifles, M19 SSM rocket launchers, four boxes of .30-caliber machine guns, and a dozen crates of fragmentation grenades. There were even twenty standard deployable turrets, and two M68 gauss cannons which had been wrenched off a Warthog.
For the Covenant weapons, and there was no shortage of them, there were standard plasma pistols and rifles, needlers, Covenant carbines, beam rifles, one fuel rod cannon, and three crates of plasma grenades. After searching around the room, Katy found a box that carried a dozen Covenant energy swords, eighteen portable plasma turrets, and a trio of turrets that had been taken off Covenant Spectres.
Each Spartan chose his or her own assortment of weapons, and all sidearmed energy swords.
Katy grabbed an MA5K, a beam rifle and a dozen fragmentation grenades. Then, she took a plasma pistol. The S-Hs seemed to be vulnerable to plasma weaponry, so no doubt the weapon would be effective.
Kyle chose an M90 shotgun, an MA5B assault rifle, one M6D pistol, four fragmentation grenades and four plasma grenades.
Monica had her own modified sniper rifle, so she just took one MA5K and a trio of plasma grenades.
Cameron had a particle beam rifle, a shotgun, four fragmentation grenades, and; another energy sword. The Spartan had never used the weapon before, so he also sidearmed it.
Cody still had his trusty Saber-class knife and a shotgun, so he just took a plasma rifle and an assortment of grenades.
Philip took the single fuel rod cannon, one rocket launcher, two M6C pistols and a dozen of each grenade. The Spartan also searched for more fuel rod ammo and found thirty more rods.
Once Evan respawned, he chose to take two plasma pistols, one SMG, and six fragmentation grenades.
Kyle was in charge of fortifying the armory, and it was about the size of Covenant ship's control room. There were three ways in or out, one door led to the corridors, one to a large hangar, and one to an escape pod. Kyle moved all the weapon tables to make simple barricades, and all the weapons were taped to the back of each. There were a total of forty-three turrets, but Kyle only used ten: four Human turrets, four plasma turrets, and the two gauss cannons.
Two of each type of turret had been placed one each side of the two doors. And a gauss cannon had been placed in front of each door so the formation of all the turrets combined looked like a big L.
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The Spartans still needed to get rid of all the S-Hs outside the armory so they could set up a primary defense, so Katy was going to lead a four man hit-and-run force.
Katy herself was going to go along with Monica, Cody, and Cameron. So while Kyle manned the gauss cannon and Cody, Evan, and Philip manned all the other turrets, Katy hit the 'open' button for the door and two S-Hs ran in.
They weren't able to fire a single shot because the second the door opened, Kyle fired the gauss cannon. Gauss cannons penetrated heavy armor real easily. A sustained assault on a Covenant Wraith tank by a gauss cannon would be able to rip through the thick armor like a katana on tissue paper. It worked the same on the S-Hs, and two mutilated bodies flew back like rag dolls.
Then, almost instantly, twelve more S-Hs boiled in… and all fired their machine guns and beam rifles at Kyle. The Spartan instinctively tucked his head behind the gauss cannon turret's shield plating, and plasma and lead impacted harmlessly. Kyle's return fire, however, was the exact opposite. The 25mm projectile fired by the cannon exploded into one S-H and sent him flying. Three more cannon blasts effectively ripped through four more.
Meanwhile, Evan and Philip fired the three of the four smaller turrets. While the plasma fired from Evan's and Philip's turrets melted through the S-Hs' solid titanium alloy armor, Cody made the kill shots with his turret. Ultra-hardened bullets stabbed through thinned armor, and the squad of S-Hs was immediately reduced to a pile of armored corpses.
Evan went through the door and laughed, "Take this you ass-bleeps-!"He started to shoot the dead bodies with his plasma pistols. He didn't notice, however, the three Grunts that popped through a maintenance latch. The first Grunt, named Chuck Chuckk, roundhouse kicked Evan so hard that the Spartan went back in time, slammed through his past self, and went back again. The second Grunt, named Nor Norr, was so powerful that he had another fist under his beard instead of a chin. He ran up and repeatedly punched Evan in the stomach with three fists so powerfully that Evan wilted into a pile of smashed body parts. The last Grunt, called Ris Riss, took a watermelon, ate it, and spat out the watermelon seeds so fast that he put machine guns to shame. Evan, also, was ripped apart by the lethal rain of watermelon seeds.
"Uh… where'd you Grunts come from?" Katy asked.
"We don't know," Chuck Chuckk replied, "author decided to take us from the prologue and kill Evan whenever he decides to."
Nor Norr walked up, "Chuck Norris Grunt Squad… AWAY!!!" The three Grunts flew through space and were joined by their leader, Chuck Norris. (I added the extra letters on the names because my computer put green lines under them, and I hate those green lines!)
"Jeez, that was stupid." Cody muttered.
Author's note: The entire part from where the '' symbol started and ended is not actually a real part of the fanfiction! It was just for fun. (And spread Chuck Norris jokes. My favorite is the watermelon seed joke.)
Katy kneeled by the entrance of the door and saw seven S-Hs standing guard, "My guess is that the other remaining seven are still out there, no doubt as an ambush team."
"Remember, we don't know how many of them there are. All we've seen are thirty-six of them." Monica replied.
Katy winced, and she looked back to the escape pod, "Thirty-six, and we've taken care of twenty-two. They don't stand much against heavy weaponry, don't they?"
"Still, a head on approach would be futile. We should take care of the ambush team first." Cameron stated.
"Right, I bet that they are just adjacent to these guys, so let's sneak behind them." Katy replied. Soon, the Spartans had taken a route that lead them right behind the other S-Hs. Two were guarding the ambush team's six; they knew who they were dealing with. Luckily, they still hadn't noticed the trio of Spartans.
Katy readied her beam rifle and looked through the scope, "The neck would be the best area to attack, but the plasma might burn out through the bastard and alert the others. I'll aim for this guy's chest. You might want to set the velocity on that thing a bit lower." Monica was a better marksman than Katy, but her human sniper rifle was weaker against the solid titanium alloy armor the Spartan-Hunters wore. Monica fired a muffled burst… and one S-H kneeled back. Katy fired, and the first shot melted straight through her victim's chest plating. She fired again, and this time the S-H dropped. The other five turned… and Monica and Katy fired like mad... it was time for revenge; bloody revenge. Three dropped under the sustained barrage, the other two S-Hs fired back. Then, the seven S-Hs who had been laid out as bait came. The amount of plasma and lead sent to the Spartans increased, then suddenly stopped altogether.
Cameron and Cody stood in the middle of the nine S-Hs, their energy swords dancing in the midst. Cameron waved both of his energy swords forward and cut through one Spartan-Hunter who screamed and fired his SMG uselessly in the air. Then the Spartan turned as three more S-Hs tried to pummel the Spartan at once. Cameron evaded the lethal blows and cut off each S-Hs' arms; the energy swords melted through the titanium alloy armor as though it was butter. Katy finished them off with her beam rifle.
Meanwhile, Cody had dual wielded his Saber-class knife and his energy sword and moved swiftly from one S-H to another. Monica covered him by landing bullets on some of them which made the S-Hs stumble whenever the hardened bullets hit. Cody took his knife and cleanly cut off half of one S-H's MA5B. Then, the Spartan sliced the Rebel's neck and turned to face the three others. Two ran forward while the third stood back. Cody had backed up to regain his composure when Monica fired three times. All the S-Hs were shot in the leg and all three stumbled… just the thing Cody needed. The Spartan cut through each of them and soon… all thirty-six Spartan-Hunters laid dead. None of the Spartans knew how many S-Hs there were, but they hoped that most of them had died.
If there are more, Katy thought, I'm gonna' kill every single one of them. She pushed some tears back, Andrew was dead… and he wouldn't come back.
The Spartans returned to HQ, and Kyle was waiting for them, "Hey guys, I've just called for reinforcements. We're going to bring this place down around our heads."