FAILURE
By Kool Killer
The SilverSides, UNSC Destroyer 8/4/2540 7:13am
Gorden was dreaming peacefully until his alarm clock started screaming at him.
"Uhha, shut up." Gorden mumbled as he hit the off button, silencing his alarm clock. He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. Gorden sighed, pulled the covers off his legs and stood up. Gorden started to walk to his bathroom, but he froze when the mirror came into view. Gorden acted like an enemy had spotted him; he quickly threw himself against the bathroom wall. He carefully leaned his head into the bathroom with caution. Gorden could see himself in the mirror; he was being all tactical and ridiculous. Gorden got off the wall and walked into the bathroom. Gorden looked right into the mirror finding that everything was normal. The elite that haunted him was nowhere in sight. Gorden grabbed his toothbrush and began brushing his teeth. When Gorden was finished with cleaning his teeth, he walked over to the toilet. Gorden whipped his wang out and started to relieve himself. Gorden took a whiz that was so sweet, it made his toes curl. Gorden finished his business and flushed the toilet. Then he walked over to the sink and washed his hands. Gorden left the bathroom and walked into his bedroom.
Gorden never took his uniform off last night, so he wouldn't have to change. Gorden sat down on his bed and put his boots on. He tied his boots tightly and stood up. Gorden looked at his clock on the nightstand. The clock read, seven twenty, time for breakfast! Gorden left his room and started to walk to the mess hall. No one was really up yet, and only maintenance workers walked the halls. Gorden opened the doors to the mess hall and walked over to the serving counter. Inside the kitchen were cooks making breakfast magic happen. They were cooking sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. A huge smile spread across Gordens mouth while he got one of the cook's attention.
"God in heaven man, you think you're cooking enough food there?" Gorden eyed the mountain of food on the other side of the case.
"This is nothing, you should see the dinner we are going to make tonight," one of the cooks replied, before walking up to Gorden. The cook gave Gorden a friendly smile, then he asked "What can I get you Lieutenant?"
"Everything," Gorden joked and pointed at all the food. The cook shrugged, grabbed a plate and started piling it high. Gordens eyes widened when the cook passed him his plate.
"Enjoy lieutenant," the cook walked back to his grill and continued making more food. Gorden looked down at his plate; there was a retarded amount of food on the plate. Gorden turned around, skimmed the row of tables and spotted James, talking with the pilot that flew him to the SilverSides. Gorden walked over to James and sat down next to him. Gorden nodded to James then extended his hand to the pilot.
"I don't believe I got your name," Gorden smiled at the pilot.
"Blake Cardney, lieutenant," Blake firmly shook Gorden's hand.
"I'm Gorden Bookduh, nice to meet you Blake," Gorden said, then added "How long have you been flying?"
"Oh, nine years now," Blake replied, tearing into a piece of bacon.
"You're really good at flying Blake," James complemented; "We slept the whole way here," James gestured over to Gorden.
"Yeah, you are like our own personal flying hotel, jokes cost extra," Gorden started to eat his breakfast,"
"Jokes don't cost extra for you Gorden," Blake shook his head and chuckled. Gorden looked over at James and asked.
"So James, when did you get transferred to the SilverSides?"
"I got here right after you left to go see your wife and son," James responded.
"Good deal, I'm glad you're here bro," Gorden joked while he bumped fists with James. James gave Gorden a questioning stare and grinned.
"Hey Gorden? What do you think abo…" James stopped in his sentence as a shock wave passed through the ship. Gorden looked at different crew members around the mess hall; everyone was looking around wondering what had just happened. Gorden's attention was drawn to the intercom inside the mess hall.
"Slip space rupture! The enemies are here boys, everyone to their posts now!" Captain Dogartt had excitement and vigor in his voice. James, Gorden and Blake sprinted out of the mess hall, and made their way to the bridge. Along the way they saw different personnel running with haste to their stations. The three marines reached the bridge and ran up to the captain. Dwain had his hands behind his back; he was staring at the covenant cruiser that would soon be in the range for annihilation.
"Captain! Reporting as ordered," Gorden grabbed Dwain's attention. Dwain turned around and grinned at Gorden.
"Gorden, you've just arrived in time for the fireworks," Dwain clapped his hands together. Dwain looked past Gorden and issued orders to James and Blake. "Cardney, Fletcher, get as many weapons from the armory as you can and get back here on the double,"
"Yes captain," both James and Blake replied before running out of the bridge. Gorden walked next to Dwain and stood by his side.
"What have we got captain?" Gorden asked, looking over at Dwain.
"Do you see that spec, right, there," Gorden looked where Dwain was pointing, leaned in and squinted his eyes.
"It's a covenant cruiser, captain," Gorden could see the ship, and it was certainly bigger than a spec. Gorden always liked Dwain's personality, he always found a way to be funny in tense situations.
"It is a covenant cruiser, we're going to give them an early Christmas present," Dwain smiled and nodded to his crew inside the bridge. The covenant cruiser was closing in and was almost in the kill range. The doors to the bridge opened, James and Blake ran in. They were both carrying multiple shotguns and assault rifles. James and Blake started arming everyone on the bridge.
"Do you really think it's necessary to arm the crew?" Gorden asked Dwain.
"Probably not, I guess you could say it's a false since of security," Dwain shrugged and grabbed a shotgun from James. Blake gave an assault rifle to Gorden. Gorden held the firearm firmly while he eyed the covenant cruiser that was now in the kill zone. "See," Dwain said, looking at Gordens' assault rifle, "don't you feel safer already?" Dwain and Gorden laughed. They both knew that the weapons they held would not be useful in a fight against a covenant ship. One of the crew members inside the bridge hollered over to Dwain.
"Captain, they've opened fire!" Everyone on the bridge watched as green plasma glided through the vacuum of space and struck the bow of the SilverSides. However, the plasma did not kill them, but it disabled their weapon platforms. The lights on the bridge shut off and covered the crew in darkness. Only the light from the stars shined in through the windows.
"Is everyone all right?" Dwain called out.
"Yes captain," many crew men and women responded.
"So, what the hell just happened?" Dwain questioned, looking over at his navigator.
"The covenant cruiser launched some kind of EMP, all are weapon systems are offline," the navigator replied. The covenant cruiser closed in and stopped one hundred feet from the SilverSides. Now that the covenant ship was right next to the SilverSides, Gorden could see just how big the ship really was. "Captain, they're hailing us," the navigator told Dwain.
The monitor on the combat information screen flickered on, revealing a huge black elite with bright green eyes. The elite was wearing golden armor. Gorden froze when he saw the elite; it was the same elite that haunted his dreams. The elite looked at all the men and women on the bridge, looking their bodies over. The huge elite smiled, then spoke.
"Greetings humans, I am shipmaster Sael Yersen'ee of the Unyielding Triumph, you should know that.." Sael was cut off by captain Dogartt.
"BORING, god DAMN!" Dwain shouted at Sael while he held his ears. A mixture of frustration and anger shot across Saels' face as he snarled.
"Why you, you miserable little whelp!" Sael roared, clinching his large fists. Dwain smirked at Sael and flipped him off. Sael closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed. "I should not get angry with you humans, you were born stubborn," Sael looked at Dwain while he was speaking.
"Just like you were born to be a fucked up child killer," Dwain retorted back at Sael. Sael hissed and snapped his mandibles at Dwain, which is a dire sangheilian insult.
"You should know that the prophets.." Dwain interrupted Sael again.
"FUCK the prophets!" Sael looked at Dwain and gave him a sinister smile.
"YOU," Sael said while he pointed at Dwain, "will be the first human to join us in our search for the GREAT JOURNEY," Dwain laughed and called James over.
"Fletcher, show this four jawed freak of nature what you think about the great journey," James smiled and walked into Sael's view. James loosened his collar, pretending that he had a tie on. Then James slapped his right hand underneath his right thigh. He lifted his leg up into the air with his hand and let loose a tremendous fart. Everyone on the bridge broke out into howling laughter, Sael was not impressed.
"You should be glad the prophets have spared your filthy lives, otherwise we would have rained fire upon your tiny pathetic ship," Sael mocked the crew aboard the SilverSides.
"Hey, you shouldn't talk bad about us humans, I am your Father after all," Dwain said, looking at Sael seriously.
"You are not my FATHER!" Sael bellowed, his voice was vicious.
"You know what, your right, I'm not your Father," Dwain paused in his sentence, then continued, "The BRUTE did beat me over the fence," Boy did that piss Sael off. He was trembling with rage as he started to speak.
"We are coming in there to get you HUMANS! Put down your weapons and make this easy on yourselves," Sael leaned back in his chair fuming with anger. Gorden pulled the slide back on his assault rifle and let it snap back into place. Everyone else on the bridge chambered rounds into their weapons. Multiple clicks and cocks were heard across the bridge. Sael shook his head and gave Dwain a Ghastly smile. "Very well, we will see you soon," The transmission cut out and the emergency power kicked on. The floors and halls lit up with yellow hazard lights. Gorden got Dwain's attention.
"Captain, they are going to board the SilverSides," there was worry in Gordens voice. Dwain snorted, and then said sarcastically.
"No, they're going to TRY, to board our ship," Dwain emphasized the word try.
"What are your orders, captain?" Gorden asked while he hugged his assault rifle tightly.
"Get to the AI core and erase anything that could lead those tipsy elites back to Earth," Dwain looked at James and Blake, "Take Cardney, and Fletcher with you," Dwain waved the three marines off.
"Yes captain," Blake, James and Gorden responded. The three marines left the bridge and started to move down the hall to the AI core. There were personnel making barricades out of benches and tables, blocking unassay entrances and setting up cover ten feet from the bridge doors. Gorden greeted them as he ran by. Once Gorden and his two buddies left the vicinity of the bridge, the halls were empty. A lot of the crew probably went to the docking bay to hold off the impending attack. The three marines made it to the AI core; the room was drenched in a red light.
"James, Blake, cover the entrance while I erase the data," Gorden's order echoed throughout the AI core.
"Yes lieutenant," James and Blake replied, they both turned and watched the entrance, keeping their assault rifle trained on the doorway. Gorden used a terminal to access the star charts, then he deleted them and terminated the AI. Once Gorden finished deleting all the data, he stood back and shouldered his rifle. Gorden fired eight rounds into the computer terminal; his spent casings clinked and clattered when they hit the hard floor. The screen on the terminal cracked and shattered, the covenant would not be getting anything useful from this terminal. Gorden walked past James and Blake, signaling for them to follow him.
Gorden, James and Blake proceeded to the docking bay to keep the squids from boarding the ship. When they reached the docking bay they could not enter, the emergency shutters were down.
"These should only be down during a breach of decompression," Blake said, nodding to the blast shutters. Gorden walked up to the shutter and looked into the docking bay through its thick glass. The docking bay was filled with a blue gas. Many marines and technicians laid sprawled out over the floor of the docking bay, they were still breathing but they were unconscious. Gorden watched as stealth elites with full body suits donned, started picking up sleeping men and women. The elites were taking the crew of the SilverSides and putting them on their phantoms. Gorden's eyes scanned the ground; there was no brass on the floor. The soldiers sent to secure the docking bay didn't even fire a round. They were probably incapacitated by the gas before they could use their firearms.
Gorden turned around and faced James and Blake.
"The elites are taking hostages," Gorden told his two buddies.
"Hostages?" James questioned, looking at Gorden in disbelief.
"That's not like the covenant at all, what else are they doing?" Blake asked, gesturing for Gorden to look back through the glass. Gorden slowly turned his head to look back through the window. When Gorden saw a huge elite wearing golden armor on the other side of the shutter, he jumped back in fight and shouted.
"Son of a BITCH!" Gorden looked up into the green eyes of the elite, it was Sael, from the transmission earlier. Sael leaned his head next to the glass and stared at three the marines. Sael gave them a tainted smile and tapped the glass with one of his large claws. The way Sael was eyeing them up made it seem like he was playing a game. Gorden, Blake and James were prizes waiting for him on the other side of the blast shutters. James barred his teeth while he looked at Sael.
"He's screwing with us!" James quickly walked up to the shutter and flipped Sael off, "Fuck you, you hinge head freak!" Sael's smile faded from his mouth and he let loose a snarl. Sael unclipped his plasma sword and activated it by snapping his wrist. Sael drew his hand back and prepared to thrust his plasma sword through the shutter. Gorden grabbed James and threw him back just as the prongs from the plasma sword pierced the shutter where James was standing a second ago. Sael removed his blade from the shutter; the blue gas inside the docking bay seeped through the two incisions and trickled to the floor. The gas started to spread out across the floor and drift towards Gorden and his two subordinates.
"We got to fall back to the bridge," Gorden helped James up.
"It's too bad the armory is on the other side of the docking bay, we could have got gasmasks," Blake said, moving with Gorden and James to the bridge. James, Blake and Gorden ran down the empty halls and neared the bridge. As the three marines rounded the corner to the bridge they were almost shot by the crew members that set up the barricade.
"Fuck, oh, lieutenant," both of the technicians lowered their assault rifles.
"We lost the docking bay, the elites are using some kind of sleeping gas," Gorden walked past the barricade and stopped at the bridge doors. "We can't stay out here, come on," Gorden opened the bridge doors and waved everyone through. Gorden looked down the corridor and saw the blue smoke come shooting around the corner. Gorden went through the bridge doors and sealed them with haste. Gorden backed up slowly, keeping his rifle trained on the bridge doors. Gorden nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand slapped down on his shoulder.
Gorden sighed in relief when he saw who the hand belonged to.
"Did you take care of the data?" Dwain asked, taking his hand off Gorden's shoulder.
"Yes captain, all the data is now history, that won't be found of course," Gorden replied, and then added, "The elites have taken the docking bay, and their headed this way,"
"Well then, let's give them a warm welcome when they get here," Dwain cocked his shotgun and grinned at Gorden. While the crew of the SilverSides prepared for their last stand, stealth elites worked their way through the ventilation system. Gorden looked up at the air ducts when he heard them creek. One of the air vents got kicked out and an elite threw a gas grenade down into the bridge.
"They're in the air ducts!" Gorden shouted, and started firing his assault rifle into the ventilation system. The gas grenade that landed in the bridge exploded, sending the blue gas everywhere. Almost immediately, bridge personnel started succumbing to the gas. Gorden ran to the other side of the bridge with Blake, James and Dwain, they barely got away from the gas. "Come on, let's get the fuck out of here," Gorden opened a maintenance hatch and let his three friends go through. Just as Gorden was about to go through himself, he was picked up into the air and thrown across the bridge. Gorden landed with a thud away from the blue gas, unfortunately, his assault rifle slipped out of his grip and slid underneath a control console.
Gorden looked up at the maintenance hatch, the time delay had expired and the maintenance hatch sealed itself shut. Gorden slowly got up and stared at the ominous blue gas that swayed in front of him. The outline of an elite was seen walking through the gas. The stealth elite stopped five feet from Gorden and deactivated his cloaking armor. Gorden readied his forty five as the stealth elite materialized in front of him. In a lightning fast motion, the stealth elite activated his plasma sword and sliced Gorden's handgun in half. Gorden dropped the other half of his forty five, steeped back, and adopted a fighting stance. "Let's see how good you really are, ELITE," Gorden spat the word elite.
The stealth elite huffed, deactivated his plasma sword and clipped it back onto his thigh. Gorden wasted no time, he quickly ran up to his enemy and kicked him in the stomach; it was like kicking a solid brick wall. The elite looked down at Gorden and laughed, he barely felt the kick. The elite went to grab Gorden but he moved out of the way and kicked one of the elite's legs out. The elite was now kneeling and Gorden saw his chance. With all his strength, Gorden decked the elite right in the mouth, successfully knocking one of the elites' sharp fangs out. The elite hit the ground with a thump, and gawked back at Gorden.
"It seems you do have a warrior's sprit in you," the elite said, standing back up and wiping the purple blood off his mandibles. The elite roared at Gorden and charged him. Gorden could not get out of the way before the elite pounced on him. The elite grabbed Gorden by the throat and lifted him up into the air. The elite laughed and shook Gorden as he began to strangle him. Gorden gaged and struggled in the elites grasp, his chances for escape dwindling with each second that passed by. Gorden grabbed ahold of the elite's hands and gave him a hard kick to the bottom of his gaping mouth. The elite dropped Gorden and fell back words unconscious. Boy I got a lucky hit in, Gorden thought, while he gasped for air. Gorden was unaware that many elites had gathered to watch the fight; they were disappointed that it did not last longer. Gorden was completely oblivious to their presence. Gorden had also attracted the attention of Sael, who watched in amusement.
"YEAH fuck you, if you're the best warrior the covenant has, the prophets are screwed," Gorden mocked the unconscious elite. "Come on now really, the one thing the prophets asked you to do, was to kill humans, and you can't even do that, you're a waste of skin!" Gorden yelled kicking the elite. "You know you are fucking pathetic, and god knows too, you trained your whole life to be a killer, and you SUCK at it!" Gorden Inhaled deeply and prepared to shout more curses at the elite, but he was stopped when someone grabbed him from behind. "WHAT THE FU.." Gorden was cut off as his attacker began to choke him. Gorden struggled against his new attacker, but the assailant was too mighty. Gorden's struggle was soon over as he lost consciousness and his body went limp.
Sael removed his large hands from Gorden's throat and stared at him in awe.
"You will make an excellent host," Sael laughed and threw Gorden over his massive shoulders. Sael turned and looked toward his comrade who was lying on the floor; he started to wake up. Sael leaned over his fallen warrior and spoke. "You had better learn to not underestimate your foe, and fight more accurately for the forerunners sake, for if you are killed by a human, it will be a most pathetic day indeed," With that, Sael turned around and walked away with his prize, Gorden.