2037 Hours, November 27, 2525 (Military Calendar) /
In orbit over Chi Ceti 4
Daniel fidgeted in his seat when the Pelican shook as it passed through the atmosphere. He looked around at the other Spartans, standing or sitting, still waiting for their orders. He too like them was ready, that's when over the com noise rushed in.
"What kind of missiles is this bird carrying?" It was John, he was supposed to be flying this bird.
"Wait one, sir,"Sam replied. His voice returned a moment later."We have two rocket pods with sixteen HE Anvil-IIs each."
"I want you to assemble a team and go EVA. Remove those warheads from the wing pods."
"I'm on it,"Sam said.
"May I ask what you have in mind, Squad Leader?"
This time it was Dr. Halsey, he could hear her through the com channel that John left open. It felt as though he was eavesdropping on an important conversation that he wasn't supposed to hear.
"Requesting permission to attack the Covenant ship, ma'am."
"Most certainly not," she said. "If a warship like the Commonwealth couldn't destroy it, a Pelican is certainly no match for them."`
"Not the Pelican, no," John agreed. "But I believe we Spartans are. If we get inside the enemy ship, we can destroy her."
"How will you get on board?"
"We go EVA and use thruster packs to intercept the Covenant ship as it passes en route to the Commonwealth ."
"One slight error in your trajectory, and you could miss by kilometers," Dr. Halsey remarked.
A pause. It was deafening in a way. The two had been back and forth like son and mother.
"I don't miss, ma'am," John said.
"They have reflective shields."
"True," John replied. "But the ship is damaged. They may have had to lower or reduce shielding in order to conserve power—and if we have to, we can use one of our own warheads to punch a small hole in the
barrier." He paused, then added, "There's also a large hole in their hull. Their shield may not cover that space entirely."
Dr. Halsey whispered, "It's a tremendous risk."
"Agreed." Daniel said to no one in particular as he was handed a warhead.
"With respect, ma'am, it's a bigger risk to sit here and do nothing. After they finish with the Commonwealth . . . they'll come for us and we'll have to fight them anyway. Better to strike first."
Finally she sighed in resignation. "Very well. Go. And blow the hell out of them."
John climbed into the aft compartment.
His Spartans stood at attention. John felt a rush of pride; they were ready to follow him as he leaped literally into the jaws of death.
"I've got the warheads," Sam said. It was hard to mistake Sam even with his reflective blast shield covering his face. He was the largest Spartan—even more imposing encased in the armor.
"Everyone's got one." Sam continued as he handed John a metal shell. "Timers and detonators are already rigged. Stuck on a patch of adhesive polymer; they'll cling to your suit."
"Spartans," John said, "grab thruster packs and make ready to go EVA. Everyone else—" He motioned to the three technicians. "—get into the forward cabin. If we fail, they'll be coming after the Pelican.
Protect Dr. Halsey."
"If the Covenant come then three technicians won't be able to stop them. Permission to stay aboard and protect Dr. Halsey."
John looked at Daniel, was Daniel afraid, John wondered to himself."Permission granted, protect her at all costs."
He moved aft. Kelly handed him a thruster pack and he slipped it on.
"Covenant ship approaching," Halsey called out. "I'm pumping out your atmosphere to avoid explosive decompression when I drop the back hatch."
"We'll only get one shot at this," John said to the other Spartans. "Plot an intercept trajectory and fire your thrusters at max burn. If the target changes course, you'll have to make a best guess correction on
the fly. If you make it, we'll regroup outside the hole in their hull. If you miss—we'll pick you up after we're done."
He hesitated, then added, "And if we don't succeed, then power down your systems and wait for UNSC reinforcements to retrieve you. Live to fight another day. Don't waste your lives."
There was a moment of silence.
"If anyone has a better plan, speak up now."
Sam patted John on the back. "This is a great plan. It'll be easier than Chief Mendez's playground. A bunch of little kids could pull it off."
"Sure," John said. "Everyone ready?"
"Sir," they said. "We're ready, sir!"
John flipped the safety off and then punched in the code to open the Pelican's tail. The mechanism opened soundlessly in the vacuum. Outside was infinite blackness. He had a feeling of falling through
space—but the vertigo quickly passed.
He positioned himself on the edge of the ramp, both hands gripping a safety handle Covenant ship was a tiny dot in the center of his helmet's view screen. He plotted a course and fired
the thruster pack on maximum burn.
Acceleration slammed him into the thruster harness. He knew the others would launch right after him, but he couldn't turn to see them.
It occurred to him then that the Covenant ship might identify the Spartans as incoming missiles—and their point-defense lasers were too damn accurate.
John clicked on the COM channel. "Doctor, we could use a few decoys if Captain Wallace can spare them."
"Understood,"she said.
Daniel sat down in the pilot seat, "Transfer controls to me Dr., I never get to drive while John's around."
Halsey shot him a look but he ignored it, he was now flying a Pelican. Daniel debated doing a loopy dee loop but decided against it, everyone would just get mad at him.
The Covenant ship fired another laser, it was directed at the Commonwealth ... yet it was coming straight for the Pelican. Daniel looked at the controls, punched thrusters and pushed the engine to three hundred and fifty percent. The Pelican stopped, jerked then blasted off.
He held his breath, it felt as though time had stopped or everything was in slow motion. He turned to his right to see the oncoming laser, they had evaded it by a couple kilometers. The entire Pelican however started to heat up. They hadn't even been hit, yet the raw heat was attacking the bird.
Dr. Halsey, who had been holding her breath as well, let out a sigh and then a smile. She never got to be in the front lines, she was "too valuable" but this was just exhilarating... and scary.
The pelican had reached its destination, as it landed on the Commonwealth. The Spartan and technicians piled out and awaited their next orders.
The intercom cracked in, "Dr. Halsey, to the bridge immediately!"
"Yes Captain."
"Permission to go back out there, Ma'am."
Dr. Halsey spun around, "And why would you want to do that."
"Pickup duty. Plus our radar on the Pelican showed that there is covenant forces flying about. I would rather not have us boarded."
Dr. Halsey stood quiet for a moment, "Understood. Give 'em hell."
-
"John, this is Daniel 047, do you read?"
It had been ten minutes of constant com chatter... from Daniel's side anyway. He had already picked up most of the Spartans who had missed the Covenant ship and returned them back to the Commonwealth. He turned to see Ruchi tapping controls and looking out for enemy contact, the last thing they needed was to be blindsided.
The Pelican shook.
"Daniel, we are being blindsided."
Daniel rolled his eyes as he felt the irony. He looked to his right to see the attacker, it was something he hadn't seen. Thin, resembling an H if the bottom half was filled and the prongs were curved inward. In a way it reminded him of the UNSC Longsword.
Three more of these ships passed over head and started firing. Their plasma was going to melt right through the hull in a matter of seconds.
"Hang on!" Daniel put the thrusters in reverse, resulting in a shuddering in the ship and a jerk. Two more ships added to the equation as the did a flip and started to attack them once more, in a V formation.
The pelican swung hard to the left as it fired a salvo of rockets, it connected and a blueish glow fell around the ships. "Energy shields..." Ruchi whispered, things had just taken a turn for the worst. Another round of rockets flew out of the Pelican, resulting in a much needed explosion.
"Two down. Four left." Daniel's smile soon faded as the other ships blasted off with blinding speed. "Spartan 047 to Captain, requesting immediate backup. Preferably Longsword's."
Silence.
"Immediate pick up."
Not who he was hoping to hear but it was nice to know that John had finished his mission.
"Be there in five, Spartan out."
"Understood Spartan. Sending backup."
The com link cut off,plasma boiled into the Pelican's wing. The plasma these Covenant aircraft shot out was a lot bigger then the "Banshee's" plasma. The Pelican's right wing's tip had been melted down, the bird tilted.
"Where is that backup?" Ruchi asked in a more annoyed tone then curious. Although it seems she was heard, as six Longsword fighters came through, tearing two of the Covenant's aircraft. At that point all hell broke loose, the Covenant ship that John had boarded just exploded, the last two aircrafts got gunned down and Daniel's pelican ran out of fuel.
"Well at least the mission was a success." Daniel smiled.
-
0303 Hours, July 23, 2533 (Military Calendar) /
Outer Colonies, Dwarka
"You think we are just going to let you have this planet!"
The marines burst off rounds from their 'assault rifles' killing the group of grunts that had just rounded the corner. Private Hert ran back, trying to connect to anyone again. They had been stranded here for over three hours now without one bit of assistance. They had last com connections an hour ago and now the Covenant were bringing in more forces, just what they needed.
The city was being overrun, to put it simply. The marines had kept falling back and back just to keep up with the little bastards. But when pickup came these two unlucky marines, Private Hert and Corperal Venture were left behind.
But it seems God's grace was upon them today, as a Pelican roared over head. It was almost surreal as the Pelican descended, its sounds were beautiful. As though it were a cruel joke, as soon as it came it had left again. Hert's eyes widened and then shut in anger trying not to think.
"You called for backup?"
"Backup... they sent us backup?! How are you going to help in any way, shape or form?!" at that Hert opened his eyes, albeit a bit blurry thanks to the newly formed tears but he could see perfectly clear at what the backup could do.
"They sent a Spartan!?" His head turned, "They sent two! Alright! We might just get out of this alive!"
Venture at this point had turned around and smiled. It looked as though they had a chance.
-
Daniel looked at the two marines and cocked an eyebrow, although they couldn't see it he was confused at their reaction. Were they really going to get out of this one alive? He had been through quite a few skirmishes already with the covenant. Daniel had started to count them but got bored after the initial hundred.
He looked around, the city was practically in ruins. Well, half the city anyway. He looked down at their ranks, he smiled. "Alright soldiers, you are UNSC's best! Lets give these Covie sons of bitches a run for their money!"
The marines responded with a holler, Daniel usually wouldn't say things like that but after spending time with marine's he learned how they 'ticked'.
Ruchi stepped up next to him, she was a full head shorter then Daniel. She smiled, "Sir, what is the current plan? Intel was wrong."
Daniel started to think, when they had been briefed they were told that they would be extracting the data from the central processing plant. For whatever reason, even after the purge, there were still coordinates for most of UNSC controlled planets. Which was an incredibly high risk just leaving it here. They also had been told that there was little Covenant resistance.
"Simple. We get to the processing plant, get the data core and get out."
Ruchi lit her acknowledgment light, a trick they picked up in their last encounter with John.
"Marines, Spartan officer 035 will scout ahead. She will take out snipers and heavy armed forces only. We will follow behind her and kill any of the stragglers. Understood?"
The marines saluted, "Sir, yes sir."
This was going to be a long day.
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END TRANSMISSION
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