Chapter 6

Hans-041 sat there, his battle rifle in one hand and an extra combat knife in the other as he slowly ground the blade against the end of the barrel, his increased strength allowing him to cut through the barrel in a few slices, greatly shortening its length, meanwhile his squad sat around him, all preoccupied with various tasks, with the exception of Jessie-072, who was stretched out as far as the straps on his jump seats would allow for him and his Mjolnir armor, arms behind his head and loudly whistling through the Pelican's comms. Suddenly a voice cracked over the comms, a voice Hans recognized as the pilot.

"Either one of you shuts him up, or I'm venting all of you out of my bird." His gruff voice buzzed through their helmet earpieces as Jessie chuckled and waved his arm in surrender.

"I get the picture sailor, no more noise from me."

"Pffffff, I doubt that Jess, your mouth runs faster than an assault rifle." Chuckled Lydia-077, currently attaching a bayonet to the end of her shotgun.

As the two of them continued bickering away as usual, Hans looked to his other two squadmates, Marshall-048 and Victoria-099. Both were quietly loading their shotguns, he was used to Marshall's silence before an operation, it was how the guy psyched himself up, but Victoria was different. She was a transfer, her squad was broke apart after a failed assignment on Harvest, while he was never given much in the way of details about her, he was told that there were no casualties involved in the botched mission.

She was just as quiet when she was introduced to the team, which perplexed Hans. All the exhaustingly long transfer psych profiles given to him all stated that she was extremely sociable, and besides that, they had all known Victoria since they were children. She was always a motor mouth, just like Jessie, he still has quite a few memories of her having the stones to crack jokes right in front of the chief, only to take a stun baton to the ribs from one of the marines, and stand up with a smile on her face. Just thinking about it brought him back to the old days, those old memories taking its time to worm their way into his head.

They had all been members of the same class of Spartan IIs, they were all taken as children, and they were all trained by that old bastard Mendez. Hans never understood how John came to respect the old bulldog, but he had never looked at their situation the same way John did. The Chief beat the hell out of all of them, but he always seemed to take a particular interest in beating the hell out of Hans and Marshall. As he continued his tirade to himself, he suddenly noticed that Victoria was looking at him, he would have slapped himself had he not been wearing a helmet, he had a bad habit of getting lost in thought and spacing out, something he had been trying to get rid of for years to no avail, their Pelican had been on standby, waiting in the vented hangar bay for almost 3 hours, and this was hardly the first time he'd spaced out.

"Hey, Hans you asleep in there? Why did you saw off the end of your battle rifle? You're greatly reducing your accuracy at long ranges." She spoke as she playfully reached over and knocked on his visor like it was a door, her black armor with yellow stripes and decals identical to the rest of them, with the exception of a number five painted onto the right shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh this? It's just for this mission, from what we know from our combat manuals and intelligence, the interior of this ship is going to be cramped bulkheads, vaulted ceilings, and small service tunnels for Engineers, rather sacrifice a bit of accuracy for more movement in tight spaces."

"Fair enough I suppose."

"Speaking of which, you've been unusually quiet too Indigo." Hans spoke with his com off, keeping this observation inside his own helmet.

"I thought I'd give you all some bonding time, plus it's fun to watch, I believe this is what you organics once made soap operas out of." The familiar cold rush, like an icy IV down his spine appeared as Indigo linked herself to the small projection emitter in the center of the pelican's passenger bay. Her generated appearance blipping onto the screen. The AI stood with her hands behind her back, a sly grin on her face. Like her namesake she was a deep purplish blue, wearing a mechanic's jumpsuit with a pair of thick goggles hanging around her neck, her "hair" tied into a bun.

"I thought I'd take the time to go over our 3 dozen field manuals on covenant languages, architecture, ship schematics, and fine cuisine, that last one was actually quite an interesting read. I also took the liberty to re-calibrate your HUD, wouldn't want you miss anyone because you sawed off your muzzle break."

"Heh, did you start the coffee and get the paper?"

"I'm only an AI with the processing power of 12 supercomputers and looks that kill Petty Officer, I'm not perfect," She retorted.

Jess chuckled across the bay, "I didn't know they programed these things for sarcasm."

"High Command has a… peculiar sense of humor to say the least." Marshall finally spoke up, just as they were all interrupted by a frequency coming through their helmet radios.

"This is captain Martinez of the UNSC Anselmo. Operation Hydra is a go, I repeat, Operation Hydra is green lit, patching you through to Lieutenant Perón on the bridge of the Seventh Son."

As the crackling voice of the captain finished, Indigo's projection was removed and replaced by the familiar intelligence officer that had assigned them to this mission, as well as a stranger, another man standing behind her with his arms folded behind his back.

"Thank you Captain Martinez, now then, Spartans, you all know what we have to do, but this mission is too important not to go over the details one last time. Yellow team's mission is the capture of an alien we refer to as a "Prophet," we believe as you already know, that these aliens act as the spiritual leaders of the Covenant, as well as their overlords, and we have one now; defeated, surrounded, and unable to escape to slipspace. There might never be another chance like this gentlemen, and time is fleeting."

"Ma'am, with all due respect," Jess interrupted Perón, "We've never been inside of a covenant ship that hasn't already been destroyed, we have no clue about the layout, what kind of forces are still on board, and how long we have till the rest of the covenant fleet arrives to check up on their recently dead friends." Lydia quickly elbowed him in the knee before he could continue, though the armor made it more of a statement than a physical punishment.

As the conversation continued, the Spartans felt the lurch of the engine activating as the docking clamps unhooked from the Anselmo as the Pelican left the hangar bay, engine's rumbling as it navigated its way through the debris field towards the flaming covenant ship.

"I assure you Spartan-072 that we have been preparing for a situation like this for a very long time, Yellow Team will be infiltrating the Carrier through one of the massive destroyed bulkheads lining the starboard half of vessel, from there you will insert Indigo into the ship's Mainframe, with her extensive hacking abilities plugged directly into the covenant ship's software, she should have no problem taking complete control of the vessel's systems and guiding you to the prophet's panic room. Once you find the Prophet, you will subdue him, and bring him to one of the few remaining functional hangars on the Carrier. Once there a Pelican will arrive with ODSTs from the UNSC Seventh Son to pick you up and escort the alien to one of our Prowlers, if all goes right, we should be able to nab the Prophet and escape to slipspace before any Covenant retaliation arrives."

"And what's our exfil if the covenant does arrive ma'am?" Hans spoke up as he unclipped a magazine for his battle rifle from the strap on his shoulder.

"Your only option will be to EVA to one of the waiting prowlers as the Son escapes, at that point the target is expendable, do as you see fit in order to get your squad home Sergeant. I understand that this is a serious risk, and we're not even sure if we'll find what we're looking for, but I for one believe this is an opportunity we can't afford to waste." Her face didn't much match the confidence in her voice as she spoke before being interrupted by the pelican pilot.

"Ma'am, we're on approach to the Covenant Carrier now, debris is getting pretty thick."

"Very good lieutenant, your green light stands, god speed."

"Yes ma'am, I'll get your Spartans there in one piece." He said as he disconnected the holo-call. "Pfff, god." He muttered under his breath just loud enough to be heard through their earpieces.

The pelican continued through the field as light clanging reverberated through the ship from the thousands of smaller bits of unavoidable debris as it neared the covenant vessel. The pilot eased up on the stick as he slowly turned the ship around to where the troop bay was now facing the ship.

"Opening the bay doors in 3...2...1"

The latch turned with a hiss, and Hans felt the venting of the dropship's atmosphere pulling him against his seat harness.

"Alright Spartans, its' been a pleasure, now get the fuck off my bird."

"You don't have to tell us twice sailor." Jessie chuckled as he unlatched his harness, his magnetized boots keeping him firmly on the troop bay's floor as the rest of the squad follow suit. Hans nodded at Lydia, she shrugged and gave a little smirk under her visor as she turned toward a locker near the sealed door to the cockpit, opening it and pulling out a sniper rifle as the others attached their jump packs. Lydia then manually loaded a single grappling round into the rifle before aiming and firing it out of the bay, the harpoon tip lodging itself into the covenant ship's bulkhead.

"I still don't see why we can't just use these jetpacks now, they're a blast." Jessie muttered as he grabbed hold of the grappling line after Lydia hooked the rifle back into its locker, then slinging a small steel backpack over her shoulder.

"Gotta conserve fuel Jess, we don't know how far we'll have to EVA to get back to the Anselmo if this mission goes south. So we're doing this the old fashioned way, keep one hand on the line at all times." Hans grabbed onto the line as well as they moved to the back of the pelican, using their magnetized boots to stand on the cockpit wall and using it to push off, propelling the two of them towards the ship, their armored hands cuffed loosely around the wire as the others quickly followed suit. They silently floated through the vacuum, their breath visible inside their helmets as their suits internal temperature controllers compensated with a hiss, the squad latched onto the covenant vessel, boots first as they magnetized to the bulkhead. Hans turned once everyone had reached the vessel and drew his combat knife once again, slicing through the steel cord in one quick stroke. Signalling back to the pilot that the team was clear before rejoining the others who had just reached the edge of the impact crater.

He had guessed that it must have been caused by an archer missile, the charred gouge in the ship was nothing like the clean pierce of a MAC round. The crater left behind looked to be about 70 meters deep into the carrier. One by one the team floated through the burnt edges of the crumpled hull, grasping from one jutting piece of twisted metal to another until coming across a broken automatic door. Lydia and Jessie began going to work on it, the damn thing was caved in with a massive dent, the pressure already vacuumed out of the other side of the door and Marshall signaled that he could see a pair of dead jackals floating in the hallway on the other side through a small hole near the bottom of the door. Holstering their weapons and grasping the hole with both hands, Lydia and Jessie managed to tear back the metal wide enough for Victoria and Hans to squeeze through before quickly following them through.

The squad made their way down the hallway weapons drawn, pushing aside the floating alien corpses before stacking up on both sides of the next door. Hans reaching up and flicked on the vision settings of his vision, switching past night vision and image enhancement to thermomagnetic. His vision blinked into a black and white view, allowing him to spot about a dozen forms of various sizes walking around on the other side of the door. Hans stepped into the middle of the door and reached out his hand, rapping his knuckles a few times against the door before stacking back up against the wall just before the door with the rest of his squad. He watched as the forms shifted, moving their heads in what he could only assume was nondescript alien chattering before one of the smaller ones started walking towards the door, causing Hans to smirk as he flipped off his vision modes. A few moments passed as it seemed like it hadn't worked, Hans moved to turn his visions settings back on just as the door slid open.

They watched as the covenant troops on the other side of the door were ripped from their feet and sucked down the hallway by the vacuum. First a bunch of Grunts and Elites that were pinned to the crumpled door at the other end of the hall, almost blocking the hole, but quickly followed by a pair of the massive Hunter creatures, who went spiraling through the air like ballerinas before colliding into the crumpled door, squashing the other covvies like bugs and blasting the door clean off its hinges, jettisoning the lot of them clean out of the ship and into the vacuum of space.

They all stood there in the silent vacuum for a moment, staring back toward the door they had just entered before Victoria burst into laughter over their helmet comms. "Pffffffffhahahahhahahahha, did you fuckin' see the big ones?!"

One by one the squad began joining in, light chuckling expanding into hysterical laughter, even Hans joined in once he realized he couldn't keep the sound contained. The team carried on for what seemed like an eternity before being interrupted by Indigo.

"I will never understand where it is that you humans find this 'humor' of yours."

"Ahem, well, back to the business at hand then, fan out and find me a terminal before they begin to miss that lot."

"Roger."

"I've never been uploaded into a Covenant vessel of this size before." Indigo's voice chirped as if inside his head. "It's so exciting!" She giggled as the squad fanned out through the room, which from Hans' best guess was a small cargo area. Littered with strange containers and what looked like the alien equivalent of a forklift.

"I'm sure you are, now where are we?"

"Well… judging from our insertion point on the starboard side of the carrier and assuming that this ship is designed similarly to the smaller ones we've been able to board before… that would make this one of the cargo storage units, meaning this leads to the ventral gravity lift generator."

"Hans, we've found a terminal."

Hans nodded to Jessie and walked over to the terminal, a strange and bulbous device with a holographic display, tons in incomprehensible characters streaming across the screen. He shouldered his battle rifle and reached his free hand behind his head, his armored fingers grasping around the small port attached to the back of his helmet, removing the device and was greeted with yet another cold flush of nerves, and a much more empty head. He held the device in his palm, Indigo's hologram popping up from it the size of a small doll now.

"Any idea how I plug you into this thing?"

"Just press me against it, should do the trick."

Hans nodded and slid the "flash drive" forward on his hand with his thumb, grasping it with his other fingers and placing it flat across the alien terminal. With a light hum Indigo's hologram suddenly blipped onto the terminal's holographic display, a devious smile across her face.

"This place is much swankier than your head Petty Officer, though I suppose not as comfy."

"Hmpf, funny, now what have you got for me?"

"Give me a moment… The ships name roughly translates to The Divinity of Fire, and it seems I'm not alone in here, there seems to be a covenant A.I. installed on this ship."

"Awww, Indigo has a roommate." Jessie chuckled over the comms as he checked a nearby hallway.

Hans silently rolled his eyes and checked the sights on his weapon, "Is it a threat? Can you fight it?"

"Pffff, can I? This is me we're talking about Warrant Officer. You know how good I am at homewrecking, besides, the covenant A.I. is a bit distracted at the moment, it seems to be focussed on damage control, should give me plenty of time to...lock him...out of the system and into one of his own firewalls." Indigo clapped her hands with a smile "Bingo! It seems he's noticed me a bit too late, and while that firewall isn't a permanent prison, I have full control of the majority of the ship's systems now."

"Excellent work Indigo, now where's our objective?"

"Lets see… it seems the prophet is inside a specially designed safe room near the front of the ship, and well guarded to boot, uploading his coordinates and the ship schematics to your HUD."

Hans tilted his eyes down to the small map that appeared at the bottom right of his visor, replacing his motion sensor. "Alright Yellow Team, form up and let's get moving. Lydia, Marshall, you two are taking point on this one, Jessie has the rear, Vic, make your way to the hangar bay and clear the team an exfiltration route, Indigo will guide you there, if you encounter resistance too thick to handle, retreat and wait for the rest of the team to arrive once we grab the package, everyone stick to your comms, keep me updated at all times."

Victoria nods and shoulders her weapon, making her way over to a door panel only to slam her boot through its console, causing it to slowly slide open, turning back to the squad. "Wish me luck boys." And with that she disappeared from their view down the hall.

As the rest of the squad moved out at a speed walking pace with their rifles shouldered, they had encountered very little resistance in the way of covenant. Most of which being small groups of grunts wandering the ship aimlessly, which were quickly eliminated at the barrel of Lydia's shotgun. What was slowing them down the most were doorways and bulkheads, some of which could be quickly hacked open by Indigo who was traversing through the ship's systems, but some sported advanced firewalls that even she couldn't crack, leaving them to open them the old fashioned way of ripping them down. As Hans stood there, jamming his armored hands into the doorframe, the servos in his armor helping him rip the strange alien metal open as if it were wet tissue-paper. On the other side, dozens of covenant soldier lay dead on the floor, no visible injuries to speak of.

"You're about 2 kilometers from the Prophet's location, full guard included, from what I can tell they have no idea the ship's AI has been subdued, though that may not last forever. I've been leading the crew on wild goose chases throughout the hull, locking bulkheads, depressurizing sections like this one in front of you, shutting down fire fighting systems, and turning the Divinity's automated defense systems on its own crew, it's only a matter of time before they realize that something is amiss."

Jessie whistled with contentment as he lowered his weapon and turned over one of the Elites with his foot, its mandibled mouth covered in its own blood. "You certainly made short work of these ones."

Hans moved his hand to his helmets earpiece. "Mother Bee, repeat, this is Yellow Team, we are prepared to make contact with the package, permission to proceed?"

After a few moments the response came thick with static. "I copy Yellow Team, this is Captain Alec Strieger of the UNSC Seventh Son, Lieutenant Perón is busy coordinating the Prowler detachment's mine deployment and has left me in charge of this operation in her absence, we have received minor reinforcement from UNSC destroyers Dragoon and Artemis, we'll buy you as much time as we can spartans, permission granted on package retrieval, complete the mission, but remember that your lives are more valuable, if no other options are available, waste the bastard. Steiger out."

"Aye Captain, proceeding as planned to the target." Hans removed his hand from the long range comm button, "you heard the captain, Marshall, Jessie, you two are going in through the vents, give us the signal of when you're in position, Lydia, we're knocking on the front door."

Lydia smiled under her helmet, pointing her thumb over her shoulder at the pack strapped to her back, "I think I got the perfect housewarming gift."