Nice big chapter here! More words as the previous two put together! Also, it turns out I messed up my own canon. The COR64 mentioned in the last chapter was named as such as it is a CrossOver Rifle that began service in 2864. However, to the CSA the year isn't 2874, it's 256, as when the CSA was established one of the many things established was CSA standard time. CSAST includes a year system where the founding year of the CSA, 2618 AD, is year 0. Previous years are negative numbers (2013 AD is -605 CSAST, for example). Because of this, the COR64 should be the CO46 instead (I removed the R because I found the name flows better without it). I've updated the previous chapter to reflect this change, but just thought I should bring up that the CO46 in this chapter is the correct name for the COR64 from chapter two. Enjoy the action!
Brutus was a young Jiralhanae, fresh out of boot camp. He was stationed on the Kaiker Outpost, which was a defense space station around the former Jiralhanae world of Kaiker. Kaiker had been glassed by the CSA decades ago. It was part of the "No man's land" that separated CSA and Virapak space, a band of glassed worlds, some Virapak and some CSA. Being stationed on Kaiker Outpost was very frustrating to Brutus; he wanted to be on the front lines, slaying CSA soldiers (and civilians), not guarding some outpost that would never see action! He grunted in frustration over his fate while he stood guard in the Outpost's hangar, not that there was anything to guard it against.
OP-049 "Blade" looked up from her computer as the CSA Stalker in the Night's A.I., Septor, announced that they were 10 minutes to target. The target being an unassuming brute outpost orbiting the glassed world of Kaiker. The Stalker was a CSA Spectre-class ship. The Spectres were based on the Wasp-class Fighter-Frigate, and the descendants of the UNSC prowlers of old. The Fighter-Frigate was one of the most ingenious creations of the CSA: smaller than regular Frigates, but large enough to wield an energy projector on the bow (even regular CSA Frigates usually used projectors over MACs. Cruisers had both), as well as some point-defense laser turrets and a small amount of missiles. Fighter-Frigates are nimble and maneuverable, moving more like fighters than a starship, swarming around larger ships performing deadly hit and run Wasp-class Fighter-Frigate lacks a slipspace drive, as it's meant to be launched from an Ares-class Cruiser or larger. The Spectre-class is essentially a Wasp heavily modified for stealth operations. First off all, the Spectre is equipped with a slipspace drive, allowing it to move across the stars without a massive capital ship to carry it (an Ares-class cruiser is about 3.5km long, which makes hiding its presence from enemies rather difficult). Next, the Spectre is equipped with extensive stealth systems: an active camouflage system prevents visual detection and a system that captures radiation and other energy emitted from the craft and stores it with the ship. As soon as the ship decloaks, the stored energy is jettisoned violently; this has been used multiple times by Shipmasters as a weapon to take down opponent's shields. This energy capture process can be sustained for 10 days before the stored energy must be jettisoned. Finally, the Spectre, unlike the Wasp, has a shipboard AI.
The Stalker had approached the outpost using standard CSA stealth tactics: exit slipspace outside of the range of enemy scanners, approach target with stealth systems engaged in real space. Blade double-timed to the Armory, her footsteps echoing through the halls. When she reached the Armory, she strode past the glowing pad on the ground; she was already clad in the armor of the Black Death. The Black Death are the successors to the Spartans. The very best of the best soldiers of the CSA are biologically augmented, undergo rigorous training, and receive the most advanced armor in the galaxy. The armor had basically the same body as the standard Sangheili EAA, but was jet black, with red highlights. The visor of the armor hid her face; Black Death Operatives never showed their faces. She grabbed a CO46 Crossover Rifle and a Plasma Carbine, snapping the weapons to her magnetic holsters. She walked over to the middle of the Armory, where there was a large circular structure: the ship's gravity lift. Fighter-Frigates were too small to carry any other vessels, so she would have to insert through the lift.
"Over drop zone in 30 seconds" Septor's voice rang out over the intercom.
She removed the Crossover Rifle from it's holster, slamming a clip of 12 bolts into the weapon. "Affirmative and ready to drop"
The Stalker de-cloaked directly above the Jiralhanae outpost. Blade quickly entered the grav lift and descended into the Hangar of the outpost, allowing the Stalker to re-cloak and slip away before the outpost's point defense guns could fire on it. She had to work fast; Jiralhanae ships were no doubt in transit to the Kaiker system already, and they didn't want to be around when they got here. Fortunately, Black Death excelled at working fast. When she hit the ground, she quickly leveled her Crossover Rifle at the nearest mongrel, letting out four shots. The first three shots dropped the beast's shields, and the last shot hit it directly in the neck, decapitating it.
The Crossover Rifle is a single-shot precision weapon that fires bolts. The bolts themselves are small magnetic slugs about the size of a high-caliber bullet. They are fired using magnetic acceleration, making the Crossover Rifle a type of railgun. But the Crossover Rifle has a trick up it's sleeve: at the end of the barrel, plasma emitters put a plasma shell around each slug, held in place by the magnetic field of the slug, forming a bolt. The plasma does critical damage to shields while the slugs rip through armor and flesh like a knife through hot butter. The weapon itself looks like the railgun from halo 4 in the style of the CSA (white with blue highlights, while a simple curved design based on geometric shapes).
The other brutes opened fire on Blade with their Particle Rifles, peppering her position and causing her hard light shields to activate, blocking the rounds. She quickly grabbed a small grenade-like cylinder and threw it at the ground near her feet. The cylinder stabilized itself as soon as it the ground, then emitted a hard light barrier which Blade hid behind, allowing her shields to recharge. Once they did, she popped out of cover and quickly fired off another four shots at an ape that was out of cover, killing it. Now there were only two left. Reaching down to her holster, she retrieved a sticky grenade. Popping out of cover one last time, she hurled the grenade at the mongrels with deadly accuracy. The grenade hit one of the brutes directly in the face, sticking to the poor beast. It screamed in terror and clawed at it's face to no avail.
BEEB
BEEB
BEEB
The grenade exploded, instantly killing both apes. The Hangar clear, Blade ran down one of the hallways leading from the hangar. She encountered a few mongrels in the halls of the station, but she was able to quickly end them with the Plasma Carbine. At last she found what she was looking for: a terminal hooked up to the brute Battle Net.
"Alright Septor, I'm in" she announced.
"OK" Septor responded "plug the chip you brought into the terminal"
"Done" she said as she inserted the chip.
"Alright, I've got it from here, you stand guard and keep them from unplugging me" Septor said as he went to work on the terminal.
As soon as Septor said that, brutes and Kig-Yar started pouring into the room. 'Mercs' Blade thought as she raised her Crossover Rifle, dropping several of the Kig-Yar mercenaries. As the Kig-Yar, seeing her killing their comrades, started backing away, she quickly switched to her Plasma Carbine and gunned down several apes. But even as she slaughtered the mongrels, more streamed in, and the Kig-Yar she had killed earlier had already been replaced with reinforcements. As she gunned down more mercs and barbarians, it was becoming rapidly clear to her that she couldn't keep up with the flow.
"How much longer Septor?" She asked, panic in her voice. If she died and the brutes disconnected Septor before he could get the intel, the whole op would be for nothing.
"I still need a few more minutes" Septor responded "Hold them off Blade!"
Looking at the mob of enemies, Blade dropped her guns. 'Time to show them what I can really do' she thought as she lobbed her remaining grenades into the crowd. While the surviving brutes and mercs were stunned from the blast, she reached down to her hips and drew two type-2 energy swords, igniting the hard light blades. Leaping into the fray, she quickly sliced a brute in half, and then in the same motion used her other sword to kill one of the Kig-Yar. She continued to slice and dice the enemies, dodging, swiping, and stabbing with a fluid grace only attainable with decades of honing skills.
"Alright Blade, let's get out of here!" Septor exclaimed as Blade pulled one of her swords out of the chest of a brute. She quickly backflipped out of the crowd, grabbed the chip from the terminal and dashed out of a hallway, enemies charging after her. When she reached the Hangar, she saw that an entire mongrel fleet had arrived!
Brute ships have the basic body shape of the Covenant ships of old, though they tend to be more hack-job work. Rather than purple, they are bright red. But their most notable aspect is the spikes. The ape's ships are covered with spikes, though the spikes are more shaped like thorns, hooking forward, as opposed to straight spikes. This is because the spikes aren't for show; the barbaric apes ram the spikes into CSA ships, shredding their armor and destroying them in seconds. The color and thorns have given the ships the nickname "Roses", after the Earth flower.
When she arrived at the Hangar, the Stalker reappeared above and sucked her up via the grav lift. As soon as it decloaked, the brute ships quickly opened fire. The Shipmaster was barely able to avoid the shots.
"Septor, plot a slipspace course to Reach!" the Shipmaster said. He knew that the Jiralhanae would not be foolish enough to follow them there; their ships would be obliterated by the ODPs.
"Course plotted" Septor replied.
"Take us there!"
A slipspace portal opened in front of the Stalker in the Night, and the ship slipped through it just before another volley passed through where they would have been if not for the jump. They had made it.
Alright! Next chapter, fireteam Delta explores the mysterious vessel. What will they find? What language was the woman speaking? Why is that Kig-Yar named Bob? All these questions and more answered in the next chapter! And as always don't forget to review!