TIME FRAME: This happen on the level of Halo 2: Outskirts
Chapter 7 Critical Hit
Z'jo, Nira Zide, Stahn and Zen went down the halls of In Amber Clad when they saw the Master Chief, alive and well.
"Chief!" exclaimed them all.
"Nice to see you too." said the Spartan.
"You gave the Covenant back their bomb, eh?" asked Stahn.
The Chief just gave "Uh huh." and the 6 of them headed down to the bridge, meeting Johnson along the way.
The 6 of them saluted as Miranda Keyes turned to the.
"At ease." she said. The 7 relaxed Miranda began.
"We have a Special Operation, Marines." she said to all of them. "The Prophet's ship has made it to the surface, having evaded all the MAC Stations and the Heretic ships; they apparently were desperate to get on Earth. And Shipmaser Novi tells us that they came ill prepared. They didn't know Earth was our home planet." Just then several Spec ops Sangheili entered the Bridge. They saluted Keyes.
"At ease." she told them. The Sangheili lowered their salutes but stood rigid still, exactly like statues.
"Spec Ops soldier, Zuka Zamamee, ready to assist you." said Zuka.
"I'm glad to have you." she replied. "I have two Pelicans and one Phantom all ready for your operation. Gear up and move out, we'll be entering Earth's atmosphere soon." she told them. The soldiers made farewell salutes then filed out of the bridge to the armory.
* * * * * * *
Zen looked out the window of the Phantom to see the burning New Mombasa. There were 2 pelicans and a phantom making their way around the city; the Prophets ship was floating in the sky, gravity lift on, no doubt deploying more troops. Cortana spoke up.
"The message just repeats, Regret, Regret, Regret."
"Catchy. Any idea what it means?" asked Miranda. In the Phantom, Zuka was about to explain but Johnson cut in,
"Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards, no offense heretics," The Sangheili in the Phantom chuckled darkly. "We regret coming to Earth, and we most certainly regret that the Corps just blew our raggedy-ass fleet to hell!"
"Hoo-rah!" whooped two pilots that were with Johnson. Zuka chuckled then said,
"If only, Sergeant Major, but Regret is one of the High Prophets, the Prophet of Regret. He was once our religious leader in the Covenant, still a leader to many other fools." The Pelicans entered the city finally, going between monolith skyscrapers, over apartment buildings, malls, and factories.
"Master Chief, get aboard that Carrier and secure Regret. This is the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land, and that Prophet is going to tell us why." said Lord Hood with great intention.
Aboard Echo-531 were Stahn and Zide. Echo-976 held Z'jo, Johnson, and the Master Chief. And on the Phantom were of course Zuka, Nira and Zen.
"Thirty seconds out!" called the pilot of Echo-531. "Get ready to...whoa... ...uh...saaaarge." said the pilot in fright. Stahn and Zide stood up and looked out the windshield.
"Oh heck…" murmured Stahn when he saw the monster machine. Around the corner came a four legged walking tank like mecha. The four legs supported a "body" which was large and no doubt hollow. Meaning the inside was the control deck or bridge or whatever the Covenant liked to call it. The head was like a four peddled flower with a glowing cyan eye in the center, like that of a cyclops. One leg stomped on an abandoned eighteen-wheeler, causing it to explode. Then the eye's glow grew in intensity.
Zuka watched in fear as the Scarab's beam cannon began to warm up, and it was aiming right at Stahn and Zide's Pelican.
"Echo-531! Evasive maneuvers!" cried Zuka. The Pilot, who was gazing at the machine in wonder snapped back to reality and pulled back the throttles. Stahn quickly got back in their seats and gripped the supports for dear life, as did other terrified marines. There was a bright flash of cyan, an electrical sound, and an intense and hot beam, which raised the marines' body temperature significantly, shot right behind the Pelican. They had barely made it.
"Alright, let's split!" called Echo-531. "Echo-976, Phantom-135, land together wherever you can, we'll catch up."
"Are you sure, Echo-531?" asked Johnson.
"I ain't going anywhere near that thing again." replied Echo-531.
"Understandable. We'll see you soon." Zuka said.
"Just be careful, Echo-531." warned Miranda.
Phantom-135 and Echo-976 landed in a courtyard of a mall whilst Echo 531 was on the other side of town. The gravity lifts open and Zen, Zuka and Nira hovered down. Master Chief, Z'jo and Johnson jumped out of the pelican. The Unggoy, Kig-yar, Sangheili and the Marines went into 2 groups. Zuka and his group were in charge in dealing with the vehicles they encounter while heading for the NAV point; which Cortana entered heading for the Prophets ship. Master Chief and his group were in charge of the infantry.
"Let's move out!" yelled Johnson. The 2 teams made there way across the courtyard of the mall. They passed by shops which were open but no people due to the fact they already evacuated. The halls were littered with products of different stores.
The 2 teams slowed down as they reached the exit. There was a Wraith, 2 ghosts, 2 shades and a couple of Sangheili, Kig-yar and Unggoy making patrols.
"Snipers get on the roof and wait for my mark." ordered Zuka then the Jackal snipers moved out.
"Chief can you get me a layout." said Johnson to Chief. He nodded and slunk around the corner. He moved silently but quickly to a pillar right next to the entrance. He peaked out and saw the aliens no more than a few feet from him. They were stationed in a leisurely manner. The Sangheili retained the most awareness as they stood in a lethargic fashion, looking around the area lazily, their shoulders slumped and a glazed look in their eye. The Unggoy were sleeping (what a surprise), the Kig-Yar were gathered around with each other and feasting on Covenant rations (not with much enthusiasm), and a pair of Hunters were off in the distance all alone. He surveyed the vehicles; the sangheili pilots of the shades were nearly half-asleep. The Unggoy ghost drivers were in the same manner whilst the Wraith was apparently turned off.
The Chief sneaked back and gave the layout to Johnson who was smoking a cigar.
:"This would be interesting." he said and the voice of a Kig-yar popped into the comlink.
"Were in position, Excellencies; these lazy bastards don't stand a chance." said one in dark amusements.
"Everyone get ready, on my mark." ordered Zuka. The marines checked their weapons and got in vantage points around the Covenant.
"3…2…1…MARK!" bellowed Zuka. The snipers immediately started firing on the Covenant; they took out the most potent threats. The pilots of the shades got hit, a few Unggoy who were sleeping; A few Sangheili dropped dead as they were headshot. The survivors shouted in rage as the two teams started attacking.
Zen charged ahead, shooting any Covenant that gets in his way with his dual wielded SMGS. He jumped up the Wraith and opened the hatch. He chucked a plasma grenade in and slammed it shut. The Sangheili inside screamed in dismay and he jumped off. The Wraith was engulfed in plumes of blue flame as it exploded.
Nira hopped on one of the shades and started blasting the grunts that were running around. Z'jo and Zuka tag teamed the Hunters while Johnson boarded a ghost and started firing at those who were trying to run away. The Hunters slowed and fired their fuel rod beams. Zuka and dive rolled out of the way as it exploded the area it landed on. Zuka activated his energy sword and lunged at the hunter. He sliced through the armor and hit the spine of the Hunter. It gave its death call as it dropped dead on the ground. Z'jo managed to find a pistol and started circling the hunter to find its unarmored bare back. Finding no way around this, he started running toward the Hunter. The hunter gave him his shield but missed him in inches as Z'jo jumped right on timing. He landed on the Hunters shoulder and jumped; he did a back flip, and aimed his pistol at the bare back of the Hunter. He fired and the hunter dropped dead.
"Nice acrobatics." said Zuka.
"Thanks." replied Z'jo.
* * * * * *
The teams of Echo-976 and Phantom-135 took their cover, as they were at the heart of the Covenant Carrier's LZ...and gravity lift. The Sangheili had their active camouflage on and the Marines and Chief were hiding behind cover. There were ten Wraiths, twenty Spectres, and fifty manned Ghosts all over the area along with large groups of all races ; Hunters, Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar.
"What do you think Chief?" asked Johnson.
"I'm not sure." replied the Spartan. With that everyone's morale went completely out of the window because the Spartan always knew what to do. Then all of a sudden Echo-531, followed by three Phantoms, and ten Banshees, flew into the space over the gravity lift. The Banshees skillfully let loose their fuel rod rounds then proceeded to splash the infantry and vehicles with plasma. The Phantoms opened up as well as they lowered to dispense soldiers. One of them landed and revealed it was carrying eight Hunters, and all pissed off. The other two were nothing but Spec Ops Sangheili, and Zide and Stahn jumped out of the pelican both carrying rocket launchers.
"Now it's a party!" whooped Johnson opening fire with his BR55. The Covenant troops were surprised by the full frontal assault, obviously not anticipating this kind of response. The Banshees' pilots were obviously very skilled as none of them were destroyed yet, and they were making a huge impact against the ground forces. The eight Hunters were doing their bloody thing and the Elites were leading a massacre.
The fighting was literally intense; Plasma grenades were raining as well as human grenades. Sparks flew and plasma goo was splattered everywhere. Dead bodies were littered on the LZ of the craft. The Heretics and Humans took a few causalities but the Covenant took its hardest. Soon the battle was well over as it begun; every enemy was dead on the ground… Or so they thought.
Zen stood at the side leaning on a crate, his body was exhausted from the fighting and he was taking a breather. As he took a little rest he heard footsteps. He quickly spun but saw nothing, just dead Covenant. He looked around slowly but then stopped. He started walking back to the group to talk to Stahn on how he did with the fighting when he heard a distinct sound: Phish. Before he could turn around he felt something prod his back. His body went completely rigid then felt numb. His hand started shaking; making him dropped his SMG's. He felt something hot trickle down his chest and he looked down. What he saw took his breath away. On his chest sticking out were the 2 ends of an energy sword. He was stabbed from the back, through and through, someone had driven an energy sword into him.
The sword was removed and he felt someone push him slowly. His body being rigid followed the momentum and he fell down the ground. His body was losing blood so much that he was lying on his own pool of blood in seconds. The loss of blood made his eyes slowly fade to black. Fade to nothing. Fade to oblivion. Fade to death.
Author's Note: LZ means Landing Zone
Note: I do not know the correct names of the guns so please bare with me.
If you like what your read and want more, please favorite the story and the author,
subscribe for story to story alert and please leave some reviews.