Chapter 6: the third beta effect.
Authors note: second chapter in a day I don't own anything recognizable except for my Spartan self.
Key: 'thoughts'
"Speech"
Date: 2538 location: Xholo- Midrim
'Okay now I'm pissed.' I think as covenant troops pin us down with ten hunters. It was supposed to be easy missions get the civilians out of here. I let out a growl yet another hunter pair is dropped. "Where the hell is air support?" I hear a marine yell.
"Come in command, this is sera 189 requesting air strike my coordinates."
"Copy that sera 189. Short swords inbound."
Four short sword bombers fly over and unleash their high explosive cargo on the now 14 hunters firing on us. All but one hunter is killed and I rise from cover and dispatch the walking tank with a rocket launcher. "There must be a forerunner artifact near bye. They don't usually send that many hunters at once without reason." I say. "Marines, grab your gear and let's get these civilians off planet." I turn and lead a group of 400 civilians to extraction. I begin to notice brutes are becoming a more common sight. I proceed to cut down any inhuman SONOFABITCH who is dumb enough to get in my way. "Last group sir." I hear a Marine say, as my group was the last to be evacuated. As the last civilian male boards the transport, 4 Longswords arrive to escort the transports to safety. 'Great now I just have to clean up this mess and hope to god that reinforcements get here soon.' I am snapped out of my thoughts as I receive a transition from John. "Hey Gramps, I know that your busy with civilian evac but could you give us a hand?"
"What's the prob?"
"Found Elite honor guards and Hunters outside the museum of geology. Need heavy weapons to take out hunters between us and the entrance."
"Copy that and you know I hate when you call me Gramps."
"I know."
"Eta 5 minutes." I gather about 10 SPKr launchers and 40 extra rockets and a gauss hog, and drive to blue teams location.
Upon seeing them I pull the hand brake and jerk the wheel as far as it can go and then slam on the brakes to cause the hog to park in front of blue team. "Someone order a warthog with tricked out turret, and 10 rocket launchers and 40 extra?"
"Hey I didn't know that Christmas came early this year." Fred chuckles
"Enjoy an early gift." I retort. "Now I got to take care of a brute problem in the suburbs."
"See you back on the autumn."
I run into the suburbs and kill off a pack of 40 brutes by tossing a trip mine into their ranks but 2 are still alive so I dispatch them with a head shot each. 'God damn I love the M6D' Looking around the corpse I see that there is no chiefton present. 'Strange, normally there would be a chiefton leading the pack.' I then hear a woman and child scream. I then see a chiefton standing over a fresh kill about 20 meters away. I see a little girl about five breaks down into hysterics. Without thinking, I grab a plasma grenade and stick the brutes chest. It explodes but the brute missing his helmet only. 'Fucking shields.' I then sprint towards the brute, jumping and slamming my shoulder into his chest knocking him to the ground, I then extend my hidden blade and slam it into the brutes face breaking the skull and getting brute blood and fragments of both brain tissue and skull. "I am Steel and your fat don't you dare eat the kid." I say as I turn to the girl retracting the blade.
"Are you here to help me?" she says in a weak voice.
"Yes. I am. Let's get you out of here."
The comm sparks to life "this is captain Sturn of the pillar of autumn to all UNSC forces report to you respective ships immediately. Those bastards have already started Glassing the planet."
"Captain, this is SPARTAN-189, I found a civilian who missed the transports, so I am bringing her abroad."
"Sure thing SPARTAN. We never leave fellow man behind."
I pick up the girl and takeoff at a sprint and reach the PZ in 2 minutes. I see Kelly and wave to her, John, Linda, Fred and Will. The pelican lands and the marines file on as do the Spartans. I am the last to get on. "Pilot get us the fuck out of here." I yell. The drop ship starts to rise off the ground and then accelerates towards the autumn in mid orbit. The ride was uneventful as we cycle through the ships airlocks we wait the door drops and both SPARTANs and marines are greeted by cor. Ackerson. "Ackerson what the hell are you doing here." I ask. "Why I am just here to do some testing of this girl." he replies. "Ask her the basics commander."
"Yes Sir." I turn towards the girl "What's your name? Do you have any family left?"
"My name is Angel, and I have no one left. My father died on Harvest, My mother by that Ape."
"Sorry to hear about your father. What was his name?" I ask. She is visibly trying to fight back tears.
"My father was Dustin Hellix*"
"I fought along side him and his death was unfair; taken out by a spec-ops Elite." I then utter "Toexa*"
Then Angel surprises me by saying "Exañt**"
"If you are quite done with Ms. Hellix, I need to run my tests." Ackerson barks.
"One more thing," Angel asks, " what is your name?"
"My name is Dan-189, SPARTAN-II."
"It's funny, I have dreams sometimes about dating a boy named Dan, whose lucky number is 189."
"Well take care, and remember your only beaten if your dead*." I say, as Angel is lead away from the hanger bay.
"I wonder..." I start to ponder why that name and voice seems so familiar.
The ships speakers come to life snapping me out of my thoughts. "All Spartan's are to be repositioned to the PRO-49776, for an ONI mission.
"Oh joy." John says
"Hey I hear that Solomon and Arthur are onboard." Kelly says
"Linda stay abroad the autumn will ya."
"Sure anything but an ONI mission." she replies
Blue team minus Linda depart via pelican to PRO-49776
'Wait, Solomon and Arthur? I know what's going to happen, we are going to the events of Halo legends the package.' The pelican docks with the prowler and we set into Slipspace. We see Solomon, Arthur, and an ONI agent walking towards us. "John, Fred, Kelly, Dan, it's good to see you again." Solomon greets. "Spartans." the ONI " I am Captain Lucius R. Jiron. We are jumping to Midrim. Our ETA is nine hours, I want you to the bridge for briefing in 8.45 hours."
"Well I need some sleep, John wake me in 8 hours." I say.
"Sure Gramps." John says smugly. I slam my fist into his face knocking him out cold. "Never mind, Kelly, wake both of us in 8.45 hours.
"Sure Dan."
"SPARTAN-189. Why did you attack master chief?"
Captain Jiron asks me.
"Well he knows what happens when he called me Gramps. I knock him out cold for 8.45 hours." I respond coldly.
"So you and the chief are related."
"Yes. If you dig deeper, I will kill you. My past is restricted level seven. As an ONI agent you of all people should know what the consequences are."
"Very well Spartan."
I go into my quarters and fall asleep. I dream about my girl Angel, we are back at school walking hand in hand. She tells me that she loves me and that she will see me again. She fades into nothing and is replaced by a female Spartan-III standing in a doorway. I am standing next to Jorge who says the lines I've herd in Noble Actual "So that's our new number six." I see Emile sharpening his knife, "Kat, you read her file?" "Only the parts that weren't covered in black ink." I hear Carter finish his conversation with Holland, "Lieutenant." "Commander, sir." "I'm Carter Noble teams leader, that's Kat, Noble two. Emile and Jorge four and five. That's Dan Noble seven. Your riding with me Noble six." the dream fades and I am awakened by Kelly. "I take it we are at Midrim."
"We are, Johns just awakened and you need to get your armor on."
"I know." I get my armor on along with the rest of the Spartans. We then head to the bridge.
"The Covenant has captured a high priority package, your mission is to infiltrate enemy space and retrieve it. You will be flying in with EVA booster frames. Mission window ten minutes. A local stellar magnetic field is preventing the Covenant from making a Slipspace jump. The target is equipped with a location beacon but you'll have to be close to read it, it's a weak signal with a short radius. The Covenant doesn't realize the vale of the package that's the way we want to keep it. Alright Spartans you have your orders good luck."
"Yes sir." we respond in unison then put on our helmets in sync.
"Captain?" John asks
"What is it Master chief?"
"What happens if we run out of time?"
"Then our only option will be to destroy the entire Covenant fleet, the package and your entire team. Is that clear enough?"
"Sir I understand."
We all are on our Booster frames and we are lowered out of the ship the radio crackles to life "Spartan team, once we break stealth commence operation. In 5…4…3…2…1 disable cloak…Booster frames launch." the frames drop and we accelerate away from the prowler. "Here we go." John says.
The Covenant fleet greets us with the usual Plasma rounds. "Plasma rounds optimize mobility." I command. "Seraph formation 2 o'clock." Kelly says, "Ignore them."
"Scanning devices activated."
"I got a reading." Solomon says
"Positive read from the first scan something's up." John tells me over a private channel.
I see Fred and Arthur form up and engaged a formation of seraphs. "I'm getting multiple readings"
"There decoys."
"But then how do we find the real one?"
"They've already told us what we want is at the heart of this fleet. The flagship."
"More seraphs." I say
"Ignore them set gauss cannon to maximum charge."
"I'm hit." Kelly says
"I'll hold them back." Arthur says
"You got to eject I've got your six." Fred says
"Let's get on with it."
"Gauss cannon charge."
"91%" Fred and I respond.
"Shields at maximum charge."
"Fire all missiles Gauss cannon Fire." three gauss rounds slam into the shields as well as 60 missiles.
"This things toast."
"Then let them have it."
We enter the flagship and take cover in a bubble shield. "This is the right ship." I say as the smoke reviles brutes, jackals and grunts.
"We've got three minutes." Kelly says
"Let's sprint this don't fall behind." John orders
"Copy that." Fred Kelly and I say in unison.
The bubble shield deactivates and we take off at a full sprint. I override my MJOLINIR speed inhibitors and I accelerate past Kelly. "Fred." I say as we approach a door.
"I'm on it" Fred says as he blasts the door open with his SPARTAN LASER. We continue through the ship when we are abashed by three elites. "Go I got this." Fred says as he deals with the energy sword wielding Elites. "Fred!" Kelly says
"Concentrate on the mission." John says
The ship starts to detach bulkheads and exposes us to space. I make it into the final section along with John. We make our way to the location beacon. We enter a room and see a cryo tube. John wipes the frost off the nameplate 'Catherine E. Halsey' is now reviled and he starts the defrost cycle. The tube opens and Halsey awakens "John, Dan is that you?"
"Yes Doctor." I respond
"Sleep well Doctor?"
"No thanks to their driving yes." she responds
"You seem to be in one piece. But I'll always be there for to…"
"Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it. But still you have my thanks."
"Doctor we hav…" this time she cuts me off.
"It's not a propped rescue until we are out of here."
"Agreed." Both John and I say in unison.
We make our way into an open area where the red elite from earlier is waiting for us. Both John and I open fire then he tosses John a deactivated energy sword hilt ant the two engage in a duel. John is disarmed and Halsey is at his side in an instant." John, wait." I sneak around the Elite and kill him with my hidden blade.
"We're out of time."
We take off running to the escape pod tubes and we eject out of the doomed carrier.
"Doctor We've got company." I yell
"Can't you two do anything?"
Both John and I shrug.
"What's going on?"
When we see a Seraph fire on other seraphs.
"Cutting it a little close aren't we." Fred's voice crackles over the radio
"Fred."
"Doctor are you alright." Kelly asks.
"Yes I'm fine." Halsey responds
"These Covenant Rigs fly like rocks took us a bit to get going."
More Fighters appear and are blasted to pieces by the uncloaking Prowler. "Welcome back Spartans." caption Jiron says to us. We dock and make our way to the observation deck. "You really are lucky you know that." Halsey says to John.
"Not lucky enough we lost two Spartans today. Solomon and Arthur."
"We all have to be stronger John." I say as we enter Slipspace.
"Their is some good news, we've unlocked shielding and Mk. V, or as the forerunners would classify it as a class 20 combat skin, it will be ready when we arrive at Reach." Halsey says.
"That's good news." Kelly responds
"What about me?" I ask, "I already have shields."
"For you Dan, from what I read in your books, the while system will be equal to the Forerunner class 20 shield strength and armor integrity"
"So major upgrade."
"Yes."
'This changes everything. It will be easer to take hits with what 40 times the strength.'
Authors note: to answer your question Yes that is Angel from chapter one. As always Read and Review.
Toexa* the made up language for the Hassi*** (Ha-ss-i) meaning may his body decay in peace.
Exañt** the made up language for the Hassi meaning may his soul find peace and harmony
Hassi*** is the made up species for a game I would like to make.