WARNING!
This story contains content not suited for younger readers, such as Violence, Blood and Gore, Language, and Explicit Sexual Content. This Chapter's Rating will be placed at T-Rated. Future Chapters may, and most likely, will switch back and forth between the T and M ratings.
Regardless, Reader Discretion for this Chapter is advised.
I don't own Halo or Naruto.
Bold-My Own Words
Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar
Normal-Narrative
"Normal"-Person Speaking
'Normal'-Thoughts
"Italic"-Foreign Language
'Italic'-Radio Chatter
/Italic\-AI/Computer typing
Prologue Arc-Episode 18
-The Battle of Visok Pt. 2-
(Part 18)
February 29, 2544
Visok System
In orbit over Ludogorie
URF Thunder Child
Deck 5
The ODST/Insurrectionist duo made their way through the corridors of Deck Five, proceeding towards the primary coil batteries for the ship's MAC. Along the way, they started noticing the telltale signs of battle. A plasma scorch mark here, a few bullet holes there. Then they started coming across bodies. Humans. Mostly ship crews that had been caught unprepared or without a weapon. Soon enough, though, they came across their first alien bodies. The short, stocky bodies of grunts and the thin avian figures of jackals could be seen every now and then, maybe one or two at a time. By the time they'd reached halfway to the batteries, Barnes had only counted some twelve alien bodies and over three times that in humans. Most of the bodies had been unarmed, the crew either having disregarded his insistence they arm themselves before entering the system or having not had time. Either way, the end result was the same. A one-sided slaughter. Barnes could only hope that this had been an isolated event and more of the crew had decided to play it safe across the ship.
Reaching halfway to the armory, the pair finally stumbled upon the first major signs of resistance from the ship's crew and the colonel's ODSTs. A hastily established barricade in front of the bulkhead that led straight to the primary battery bay. The barricade was coated in plasma burn marks and several of the ship's crew. At least two dozen Covenant bodies were strung out amongst the hallway, the bastards having literally charged into a wall of guns in an attempt to overwhelm them. It had worked. Fourteen humans, six of whom were his troopers, lay dead at the barricade. There were signs of brutal hand-to-hand fighting. One brave innie bastard had died bashing a jackal's head in with a hammer, only to be bisected in half. His wounds were charred and cauterized, giving Barnes an eerie confirmation he'd been dreading to confirm.
Elites. And not one of the Covenant bodies lying before him belonged to the murderous bastards.
Barnes knelt down to check something on his fallen soldiers and confirmed that their dog tags were still on them. He quickly gathered up all six dog tags into his chest pocket. "We need to move." Karson called out softly, "This couldn't have been all of them."
"Considering I'm not seeing any of the big bastards, I'm counting on it." Came the ODST's reply as the pair moved on toward the battery. As the pair approached their destination, more signs of battle could be seen across decimated hallways and bulkheads as the ship's crew tried to stall the Covenant's advance on the primary coils. Judging from the ratio of human-to-alien bodies laid about, they weren't doing well, which only urged the pair to pick up the pace. Barnes started sweating a little as some unwelcome thoughts entered his mind. If the Covenant managed to bring a bomb on board or an antimatter charge- He quickly shook such concerns out of his head. The Covenant likely hadn't had time to even bring such an explosive with them, and even if they had someone would have noticed. No need to concern himself with what ifs or hows. Focus on clearing the enemy from the ship before they do something that causes it to blow up. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful until they reached the final bulkhead, where they could see several bodies of humans and aliens strung about on the ground.
"Barnes, wait! Zealot on the other side of the door!"
Barnes stopped mid-step, swearing as he almost entered the door's sensor range. After taking a moment to collect himself, he asked, "How close?"
"Literally on the other side of the door. Take a look." Atlas answered back as she pulled up a feed onto his helmet display from one of the security cameras inside the primary coil battery bay. Sure enough, a golden-clad elite could be seen standing on the other side of the door they were in front of. It stood above the bodies of two of his men, energy sword ignited, as it gestured its free hand and directed what some four other elites, minors and one major, and a couple of dozen grunts and jackals. Thankfully, no brutes or hunters could be seen, but seven elites were bad news enough. Especially when at least one of them was wielding a sword. Looking around through the camera feed, he saw the massive coils that powered the frigate's magnetic accelerator cannon. Running the length of the ship's cannon, a Paris-class would have four pairs of massive capacitors to power the MAC, each giving the 600-ton projectile a much-needed boost in velocity to both reach its target and deliver maximum damage. Unfortunately for them, the Covenant forces seemed to have known this too, hence explaining why the aliens were tossing plasma grenades onto the second pair of capacitors. By itself, it wouldn't do any significant damage to the ship. The capacitors needed immense power drawn from the ship's fusion reactor even to power up, let alone fire. But, if the captain tried to fire her MAC gun...
"Rebbie. We've got a problem. Don't know if you're tracking, but the primary coils bay has been overrun, and the elites are destroying the coils to the MAC."
'I'm aware.' Rebecca chimed back, surprisingly not gripping about the Colonel's nickname for her for a change, 'Is there anything you can do about them?'
"The two of us against five elites and a bunch of their underlings? Including a Zealot? Hell no." Barnes answered back, looking around at the fallen Covenant bodies. "We'll be lucky if we last a minute against that. We need to thin their numbers out and distract them from concentrating on us." He glanced at a dead grunt, its plasma pistol, and a couple of plasma grenades lying beside it on the ground. Then he looked back on the feed of the camera. The Zealot was now looking at the door, sword deactivated but its plasma rifle raised up and ready to fire. It knew they were on the other side of the door, but was being surprisingly patient and letting them come to it. Barnes glanced back at the plasma pistol. An overcharge shot might work on disabling that Zealot's shields, maybe even killing it if he could add the two plasma grenades to the mix. But that assumed the zealot would be stupid and sit still long enough to let him pull that off. The zealot was their biggest threat and needed to be immediately dealt with. But with just two troopers against dozens of Covenant? Those were not great odds. Which was why what Atlas pointed out to him in the room next made things even more hectic and urgent. The Zealot's body had largely obscured it from the camera's view, but now he could clearly see it. "Reb, we've got another problem. The Covenant have an antimatter bomb."
'... I'm sorry, say that again? It almost sounded like you said bomb.' The ship captain asked, to his astonishment, probably hoping to god she heard him wrong. She didn't. He groaned in frustration and an increasing desire to move and do something, "The Covenant have a fuckin' antimatter bomb in the primary coil battery! We gotta clear them out now before they decide to detonate that bomb. Is there anyone available near the coil battery to help clear it out? Gonna be hard for just two goons to clear it." He silently hoped that somebody would answer but was disappointed by the lack of response from anyone. Damn. So, no one was coming to help them, and they had a bomb on board, ready to blow. Not a lot of options for them to work with. This was why he was already dreading the plan he was coming up with on the fly as he grabbed the plasma pistol and collected the two plasma grenades. "What are you thinking?" He heard Karson ask behind him. Barnes turned to face the large Innie, sizing him up while silently asking Atlas for some assistance. After a moment's pause, Barnes responded, "Well, that depends."
Then, he asked a most peculiar question, "How good is your throwing arm?"
The Sangheili Zealot watched as his soldiers continued damaging the components of the human ship's primary attack weapon. Their MAK. Such a primitive and barbaric method of waging war only further showed the unworthiness of these lesser beings. And yet, a similar weapon had destroyed their ship, the Clarity of Fervor, leaving them all stranded without a way back to friendly forces unless they could seize control of the ship. The alien glanced back at the armed Chershi-pattern Void Maker, ready to destroy the ship with but a simple command. The Zealot was waiting to hear from the strike force heading towards the bridge before the bomb was detonated. If they could seize control of the ship, they might just be able to contact friendly forces and maybe even gain some intel on where this new human fleet hailed from. However, if they failed, then they would at least die honorably and take the enemy with them. Such things were now in the hands of the gods, and whatever their verdict, he would accept his fate with humility and grace.
Despite the mishaps and setbacks, the Zealot felt that his warriors had made a good account of themselves, all things considered. Surely, the gods would acknowledge their efforts and reward them for their sacrifices? His train of thought was interrupted by movement detected on his motion tracker. The initial thought was more human foes to battle and vanquish until he noticed that it only showed two hostiles. Odd. Stragglers, perhaps? After a moment's pondering, the Zealot decided he wouldn't need his sword to do the work and raised his plasma rifle in anticipation for the two hapless humans unknowingly walking to their deaths. He noticed they had paused outside the door's motion sensor, implying they knew something was on the other side. It mattered not. They would die like the vermin they were.
This callous mentality would end up costing the Zealot.
As soon as the door was partially open, a brightly green blob of energy shot out through the expanding gap and slammed into the Sangheili's upper chest before it could even process what was coming at it. The overcharged shot's impact threw the Zealot back a couple of steps, earning a grunt of shock and fury at the sudden attack and throwing the disorienting alien off balance for but a moment. The Zealot regained his senses just in time to witness the most absurd thing he'd ever seen in his life as he saw a massive human in heavy armor, easily mistaken for one of the infamous demons for a moment, launching one of the humans' 'Shock Troopers' through the air straight at him.
The Zealot was thrown off his feet as over 200 pounds of Helljumper crashed into him, slamming a blade-tipped fist into the Sangheil's shoulder and throwing the alien onto the floor with the momentum of the impact. He felt his plasma rifle being kicked out of his hand and found himself struggling in a tumble of limbs with his surprise attacker, the human slamming the butt of its weapon into his face, popping the last of the energy shield's strength while the Zealot threw out a wild haymaker that missed. He couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed. Had the larger human just... THROWN his comrade at him?! What madness possessed these infidels to do something so absurd?! He had heard of the mindless Jiralhanae launching their Unggoy underlings at their foes, but he never thought the humans would do something so ridiculous. At least they had some semblance of honor and warrior spirit, or so he thought. Unless... The Zealot realized his mistake too late, roaring in rage and reaching for the sword on his waist in desperation as he looked up to see the muzzle of the human's firearm baring down at him.
"Knock, knock," were the last words the Sangheili heard.
The Zealot's head burst apart as the ten-gauge tore through it, with bits of indigo-colored gore splattering onto Barnes' arms and chest as the Elite corpse toppled over to the side. He could hear Karson quickly charging into the room behind him as he glanced over to where all the other Covenant were. Not one of them had moved during the entire ordeal, all frozen in place and too stupefied by what they had just witnessed. Some elites were even staring at him with their mouths slightly agape. In all frankness, even Barnes was surprised by how well that went. He'd half expected to have left that fight with either a limb or his life lost. But thankfully, the elite had been too dumbfounded by how reckless and absurd his 'improvised' attack was, so he took his victories where he could get them. The most important threat had just been removed from the equation. Now time to deal with the rest of the pests onboard. Straightening himself up, Colonel Barnes slowly raised the shotgun to his chest, glaring at the nearest elite as he prepared for the next battle.
"Well? Who's next?!" The sound of his M90 pumping a fresh round into the chamber seemed to echo across the room.
The sound seemed to have snapped one elite out of his stupor. His expression quickly turned from shock to fury as it roared out a challenge at the two humans, bringing up its plasma rifle and firing. The rest of the Covenant warriors quickly joined into the barrage as dozens of plasma bolts joined in the cannonade of hellfire. Barnes quickly snapped shot a round from the shotgun, knowing it would do next to nothing at such a distance, and then dove for cover as he fished out one of the plasma grenades. Karson, meanwhile, stood his ground and laid down a suppressive volley from his machine gun, killing several of the grunts and forcing the rest of the Covenant strike force into cover when they realized his heavy armor could withstand more than a couple hits of plasma. It had actually surprised Barnes to see how resilient the giant Innie's armor was and confirmed a suspicion of his that they had done some modifications to the armor. 'Probably kevlar placed atop the titanium.'
Swapping out the shotgun for the VT40, Barnes snapped back up and began suppressing a trio of jackals trying to flank Karson, dropping one of them, but the other two quickly snapped their shields in front of the suppressive barrage. He was forced to duck back down as one of them fired an overcharged shot that nearly caught him in the shoulder. He quickly responded by tossing the plasma grenade towards the pair. The explosive didn't kill either of them, but it did force them into cover. But by now, the initial shock of their attack was wearing off, and the Covenant were now out for blood.
"You're insane! You know that?" Karson casually commented as he peeked out and fired a burst from his machine gun.
"We need to try and flank them! Split their fire so they can concentrate!" Barnes called out, ignoring the comment and popping up from cover to drop a pair of grunts that had decided to bravely charge forward, each receiving a well-placed headshot as a reward. "Otherwise, they're just gonna keep us bottled up!"
"Shouldn't we stick close to the bomb?" Karson asked back, laying down a long barrage of machine gun fire that claimed a trio of grunts and one of the jackals while forcing the elite minor leading them back into cover.
"That's exactly what I'm worried about!" Barnes answered back, tossing another plasma grenade amidst the pillars and service stations the Covenant were using for cover. The sound of an elite roaring could be heard, but he couldn't tell if the grenade had got the bastard,"If we hold fast, they may decide to rush us and try activating the bomb! I don't know if we can hold them off if they do, and I don't want to give them the opportunity! So we need to keep them on the defensive!"
"Any ideas?"
"One!" Barnes snapped up and fired off another burst, "Toss a frag, then lay down a wall of fire to keep their heads down, and I'll swing right past the bomb. Then we'll frag the bastards. With any luck, either we mop them up in one strike, or someone comes along to back us up while we fight them." The Colonel pushed the right side of his cover as the Covenant fired off plasma shot after shot at him. "On my mark!" The surviving elites, all four of them, to the ODST's annoyance, began coordinating their charges back into the fight, attempting to counterattack and push forward through the sheer weight of numbers. He started to raise his head to take some more shots at the approaching aliens, but a plasma bolt grazed the top of his helmet, the sudden superheating of the metal causing him to duck down and quickly rip the helmet off less he scalded the top of his head. "Fuck!" Just as he was about to shout at Karson to toss the frag, he heard a high-pitched voice suddenly cry out in alarm, in a translated accented English, "Oh! AH! I-didn't-mean-to-turn-this-ON!" A high-pitched whine could be heard, slowly getting louder. "THROW IT, YOU FOOL!" A deeper voice commanded, just in time for Barnes to see a plasma grenade sailing through the air.
Straight toward the antimatter bomb.
Eyes wide with horror and butthole puckering intensely, Barnes bolted out of cover, firing his assault rifle one-handed as he did so. He had no idea if the plasma grenade had enough explosive firepower to compromise the antimatter's casing, but he didn't dare take the chance. He sprinted several steps in front of the massive bomb, cocked his arm back, and did the only thing he could think to do. With a desperate grunt, Barnes threw his helmet at the grenade, hoping to whatever god was listening that his aim was true. Somebody must have been smiling upon him because not only was it true, the grenade stuck inside his helmet perfectly but was sent sailing back towards its thrower, who wailed in despair at its encroaching doom, "Nooohoho~!" The grenade detonated, throwing four screaming grunts and one elite minor flying through the air in ragged pieces of meat.
"MARK~!" Barnes thundered, not wasting time to savor his miraculous interception as Karson tossed a frag grenade at the now disoriented Covenant mob before adding his machine gun to the mix. The Helljumper was already sprinting as the grenade went off, heading towards a pillar he'd spotted adjacent from the control system for the MAC's first pair of coils. If he could reach it, he might be able to swing wide and hit the Covenant in the rear before they realized where he'd gone. Karson's M247 was heard blasting away shortly after the grenade detonated. As he ran, Barnes fumbled into one of his chest pockets and pulled out his spare set of shooting glasses. It wasn't much, but at least he'd have something of a HUD to help navigate and aim, even if this model didn't have the motion tracker. Several of the Covenant could be barking, shouting, or in the case of the elites, roaring in fury as Karson's M247 forced their heads down, with Barnes occasionally hearing the telltale sound of plasma fire being returned by some brave alien bastard. He slammed into the pillar, somewhat amazed that none of the shots were sent his way. Maybe they really didn't see him move. Quickly reloading his rifle, he swapped out for the shotgun and prepped a frag grenade as he peeked around the pillar. Karson was firing barrage after barrage of machine gun fire at the entrenched alien soldiers, even bagging a couple of jackals that had put a little too much trust in their defense gauntlets. From the looks of it, the Covenant force had been reduced to almost half its strength from the fighting. 'Not bad for a couple yahoos.' The Covenant had all of their attention on Karson at the moment, but that wouldn't last. They knew there was at least one other human lurking about, so Barnes didn't have much time before they started looking to see where he was. Making sure to reload his shotgun, he then quickly moved to the nearest console station, crouching low to stay out of sight momentarily. Placing his shotgun in his left hand and priming the plasma grenade in the other, Barnes quickly stepped out of cover and started to throw the grenade.
And came face-to-face with the elite major with its energy sword ignited, lunging at him with a snarl.
"Shit!" Barnes swore as he fell backward, flinging the plasma grenade at the elite as he did. The elite twisted its body mid-swing to avoid being stuck, the grenade sailing harmlessly past it into the crowd of its comrades while Barnes crashed onto the floor and tried to roll back. But the elite wasn't concerned with its subordinates or Karson or anything else in the room. Its attention was fully on the Helljumper, and it wanted blood.
"Die, Imp!" It roared in an accented English, bringing its sword around again to strike down the fallen human. It was rebuked with a blast of 10-gauge straight into its mid-section, its shield flaring brilliantly as it staggered back. The grenade detonated behind them, with the shrieks of several jackals filling the air as it exploded.
"You first, asshole!" Barnes snarled back, pumping another round into the chamber and firing again as he rose to his feet. The second shot was off slightly as the elite shifted, catching the shot in its side and arm instead of its chest again. The elite closed the distance again before Barnes could get another shot, and knowing what was coming next, the Colonel used his firearm to intercept the strike as he stepped backward. The shotgun was sliced in two by the strike, but Barnes was already pulling out his sidearm and firing away at the elite's skull. He managed to get off three rounds before he was forced to combat roll to the side to avoid being bisected by the follow-up swing, firing off another pair of rounds that still failed to penetrate the shielding before the elite shoulder checked its bulk into him. He felt himself get slammed into the console station he was using for cover, his right arm pinned between his body and the elite's. His shooting glasses got thrown off in the melee. The helljumper quickly shifted his body slightly to try and swing a punch with his left, but the elite beat him to it and tried to slice him in half as it twisted its body around.
His prosthetic arm intercepted the cut, the metal starting to glow bright red and sparking from the impact, but to the elite's surprise, the blade didn't cut through it. It squawked out a roar of surprise when Barnes grabbed one of the twin blades with his prosthetic hand and shifted himself to where he was facing the elite. "Wha-" It started asking in disbelief, having never seen human metallurgy capable of doing this before Barnes quickly shut it up with a left-handed strike square in its jaws. His left non-prosthetic hand flared with pain at the impact, feeling as if he'd just hit a brick wall, but didn't relent as he struck the elite twice more before the enraged alien retaliated. The elite quickly caught the fourth strike with its free hand and attempted to headbutt him, which failed by mere inches as Barnes threw his head back. He almost retaliated with his own headbutt but quickly remembered that he didn't have his helmet on. He snarled out a curse as the two combatants struggled. Grappling with a Sangheili in close-quarters melee was oftentimes a very stupid thing to do unless you were either desperate, suicidal, or a Spartan. And even those super soldiers struggled with these massive alien warriors in hand-to-hand combat. He knew damn well he wasn't physically on par with a Spartan (nor was he planning to die on that matter), so he probably had only seconds before this half-ass maneuver of his backfired on him, and he found himself being impaled on four feet of plasma. He needed to kill this bastard now before it recovered the initiative or before one of its friends decided to investigate.
Shifting his center of gravity, he tried to crouch low and move the plasma sword's aim further from his chest, but it was like wrestling a bear. The elite was far stronger than him, and it knew it. If he was going to win, he needed to throw this thing off somehow. Something unexpected. Fortunately for him, the elite decided to do this for him. "You merely delay the inevitable, Imp." The alien snarled in its alien tongue, leering down at him as it slowly overwhelmed him with its strength, "We will cleanse this ship and this world of your heretical existence. The gods demand your damnation, and we, the faithful, shall obey their will."
'Yeah. Keep running your mouth, asshole.' Barnes thought silently as he positioned himself for what he was about to do. He was going to get one shot at doing this, otherwise, he was dead. 'Don't pay any~ attention to what I'm doing with my hands.' He weakened his resistance on his left hand slightly to let the elite lean in on that side, convincing it that it held the advantage while inadvertently shifting the plasma sword in its left hand away from Barnes' body as he shifted his stance slightly. This was it. One all-or-nothing jab, six inches of hidden blade jabbed straight into the hinge-head's skull. Either this was going to work, or he was going to be dead very quickly. Once again, however, fate seemed to be smiling on him, as several more shouts and gunfire, human gunfire, could be heard joining into the cacophony of guns. What was left of the covenant strike force was now caught in a deadly crossfire; shouts and roars of anguish could be heard mixing in with the sounds of battle, though a couple of human screams could be heard too. The elite major felt a bullet strike the back of its head, flaring its shields and throwing off its attention as it looked back to see what had just joined the fight.
Barnes seized the chance.
Quickly releasing his grip on the plasma sword, Barnes lunged forward inside the elite's guard and triggered the hidden jagdkommando tri-dagger hidden in his prosthetic hand. The six-inch blade jammed through the roof of the elite's mouth and pierced its brain, earning a rage-filled agonized scream as the dying alien thrashed and convulsed. Struggling with the convulsing corpse, he couldn't stop the widely swung plasma sword from grazing his back and side as the alien collapsed to the ground, earning a jump and a painful yelp as the plasma sliced easily through the thin layer of armor on his side. Thankfully for him, the armor caught most of the blade's penetration and only resulted in a shallow cauterized cut on his flank. His thoughts suddenly turned to his AI companion housed in his prosthetic arm. He quickly raised his right hand up to look at the damage. As usual, there was little, if any, sign of damage on the prosthetic save for a few scorch marks, but that didn't mean the internal components weren't damaged. Was she okay? "Atlas, you good?" 'I'm fine, B. Just a little toasty. Try not to make plasma sword grappling a habit?' He heard her voice speak up in his earpiece, her avatar appearing in his right hand's palm, giving him a silent thumbs up, which earned a relieved sigh. He then hissed slightly as he tried to take his mind off the burnt skin, but cuts like those were hard to ignore. The sounds of battle tapered off to a few bursts as he looked around the corner. A squad of five ODSTs with some four Innie crewmen had entered the fight, having attacked the Covenant from behind. There was three more Innie crewmen lying dead on the floor that hadn't been there before. Barnes had returned to the main fight just in time to watch the last of the elites roar in defiance as nearly a dozen firearms gunned it down. "Colonel? You alive?" He heard a familiar voice call out as the relief force came out of cover. The ODSTs had relaxed slightly but were still scanning the room for any signs of hostiles. A couple had started going through the Covenant dead and put a couple of rounds in each one to make sure they weren't playing possum. "Still kickin', Jackson. Had a tussle with their major." Barnes answered quickly as he walked towards the group. "Karson, you good?"
"More or less." The towering Innie replied with a grunt, the warrior stepping out of his position to reveal several burn marks on his armor and a slightly slagged left shoulder pauldron. He didn't look like he was injured, but Karson had clearly taken a beating that most wouldn't have been able to endure were it not for his heavy customized armor. That said, probably shouldn't make a habit out of using him as a shield or distraction. "It's been a minute since I've been under plasma fire. Forgot how much punch those bolts pack."
"What happened to your helmet, sir?" Jackson asked, giving him a look over. When he saw the cut along Barnes' side, Jackson was quick to give him a questioning look. However, Barnes waved him off, "Had to use it as an improvised catcher's mitt for a plasma grenade. What happened to your squad?"
"Got ambushed by a band of jackals towards the back of the ship on our way to you. Lost three." Jackson answered, then gestured to the four crewmen, "Found them pinned by a squad of grunts along the way and dragged them with us. All hands on deck and all that."
The Colonel nodded as he placed his hand on his earpiece (and somewhat amazed that it hadn't fallen out with all the brawling) and called out, "All ODST Units, this is Bulldog. Be advised; Primary Coil Battery secured, but the Covenant left an anti-matter bomb onboard. Bomb is not active, and we're currently removing it. All squad, sitrep. What's your status, over?"
Engine Room
'-All squad, sitrep. What's your status, over?' Rhineford heard his comms chime in as he gunned down a Jackal, the avian alien giving out a death rattle as it was torn to bloody chunks. The rest of the two ODST squads were tearing into the Covenant attack force assaulting their position; the combined fire of two dozen guns, plus two mounted machine guns, reigned hell on the aliens, killing scores of grunts and jackals, while the few elites leading the assault were forced into cover. In all the fights he'd been in with the Covenant over the years, this one, by far, was going the best. The poor bastards were literally being funneled into them and could do nothing but either charge into their guns or retreat. The room they were defending was a two-level bay that served as both a maintenance bay and staging point before entering the engine room proper. The room was vast, spacious, and, most importantly, had little that could be used for cover on the first level. This was why the ODST and their Innie comrades had fortified themselves all on the second level, creating interloping fields of fire that covered the sole blast door leading into the room. There were two doorways beneath them that led to the engine room proper, but the Covenant would have to sprint across nearly 30 meters of open maintenance bay in order to reach them. By some chance, if they did, the rest of the Innie defenders here were dug in past the doors with heavy weaponry to ensure none of the Covenant reached the engine or reactor rooms. The near dozen grunts and lone elite that lay dead at the doors had taught the Covenant this lesson the hard way. Even better, because there wasn't anything in the maintenance room that was 'sensitive' material, grenades could be and were used quite liberally, killing scores of the charging grunts as they attempted to overwhelm the human defenders with the sheer weight of numbers. But now, the Covenant strike force had lost much of its punch and momentum, with the battle now turning into a brutal slugging match that, for once, favored the humans.
When the hordes of grunts didn't work, the Covenant had tried to improvise and use an ad-hoc shield wall made up of jackals with shields and elites holding various bits of heavy crates or gunracks to bring the fight closer to the human defenders. A volley of grenades quickly dealt with that plan, killing the remaining grunts amongst them and leaving the strike force all but decimated. What few Covenant survivors remained after this desperate gambit, mostly elites, threw themselves at the defenders in a last charge that was quickly neutralized, their vainglorious honor not allowing themselves to retreat in the face of the enemy. As the last alien dropped to the floor, the room finally went silent save for the blaring of alarms as scores of alien dead littered the ground beneath them. Not one had managed to penetrate into the engine room proper, and they'd only had five injuries, including two helljumpers. That's one hell of a one-sided victory and one they badly needed. Rhineford couldn't even count how many he killed himself, but he wasn't complaining either. Every Covenant killed was one less for humanity to worry about.
Now if only he could restore his reputation amongst his colleagues, but that's ship had sailed a good while ago. No matter what he did, none of the ODST had forgiven his antics during the fiasco on Shinsei during their first arrival. Even with everything that's happened with the Hidden Marsh, most of them had not considered nearly two dozen dead troopers worth the cost. And they had made their displeasure known on more than one occasion. The only thing that had kept things from escalating was Colonel Barnes reigning anyone who tried something back in line, oftentimes with a fist if necessary.
'Bulldog, 2nd Squad. Covenant Forces at the engine room neutralized. Sweeping area. Over.' He heard 2nd Squad's squad leader, Sergeant Reynolds, call out on comms again. Parker motioned for their fireteam to rally around him as they heard their own squad leader, Sergeant Kassis, call out to their squad, "3rd Squad, drop down and sweep the bodies. Make sure the bastards are dead." Rhineford glanced over to Armstrong, who was finishing up her work on the Innie she was patching up, as a pair of ship medics came over to take over. Receiving a nod from her, the two quickly joined up with their two fireteam members to find Simon Peltier finishing up collecting more ammo for his SAW from 2nd Squad's wounded SAW gunner, whose shooting arm and gut had been struck with plasma, and his SAW slagged. Though they had all burned ammo in the firefight, Peltier had been down to just two magazines by the time the last alien dropped dead, and the small improvised armory they had here didn't have more magazines for the M739. "Let's go," Parker ordered out as the four joined the other fireteam that comprised the whole of their ad-hoc squad. The squad descended to the first level and quickly fan out amongst the alien bodies, putting a round in each one's skull to make sure none of them were playing dead. Not one alien got up. 'Roger, 2nd.' Colonel Barnes responded, '2nd Squad, hold position in the engine room. 3rd Squad is to proceed forward towards medical and assist in sweeping the ship for any stragglers. 7th and 8th Squads will be meeting you at medical as they sweep from the bow. Got a situation near the bridge, so I'll be out of contact momentarily. Bulldog, out.'
"You heard him, 3rd Squad." Sergeant Kassis called out, waving the squad to follow him, "We're cleaning house. Let's go, troopers!" Rhineford and the rest of the fireteam followed after the Sergeant out of the maintenance hall. Rhineford hoped that this attack made up the majority of them and they'd be clear of these genocidal freaks soon enough. And God willing, they hadn't lost too many people in the process.
Back with Barnes and Karson
The situation sounded bad on comms, which only encouraged the group to haul ass back to the bridge. Somehow, the Covenant had managed to slip a strike force up to attack the bridge itself. There were many shouts and screams coming over comms over the sounds of gunfire and explosives being used. No one knew how many Covies were assaulting the bridge, but if it sounded as bad as it did on comms, then it must have been a considerable force. Which made it all the more urgent for them to get back to the bridge and contain the issue before the bastards do something catastrophic, like kill the bridge crew. "Damn, damn, damn, damn!" Karson muttered under his breath repeatedly as the group rounded a corner, "If those alien bastards harm a hair on Rebecca's head-"
"They won't! We'll make sure!" Barnes snapped at him as he sprinted with all his might to try and keep up with the sprinting super-Innie, "Focus on finding and killing the bastards first! Elevator's around here, innit?"
"Should be." Jackson huffed out as he ran beside them, his squad following along as best they could. The Innies had been left behind to deal with jettisoning the bomb out into space. Something they swore up and down they could handle, despite Barnes' lingering concerns. The crisis on the bridge, however, forced his hand. Atlas had a remote connection to the bomb and was going through its software to make sure to permanently shut it off in case the Covenant had a way of remotely activating the bomb. One less thing to worry about. Now if only they could say the same about the bridge... "How the hell did the Covies slip by without anyone noticing?" Jackson called out as the group sprinted around the corner toward the elevator at the end of the hall. "Innie ship or not, this is a military ship, and it's got security cameras everywhere. Surely somebody would have noticed."
"Not if they used the maintenance shaft." Karson answered, reaching the elevator and slamming his fist on the call button, "The maintenance shaft on this level runs the length of the ship and doesn't have cameras installed in it. They could have used it to slip past any roving patrols." 'Well that's a lovely fucking detail I wish I'd known.' Barnes grimaced mentally. So not only did the Covenant find a way to bypass multitudes of security with a simple oversight by the jackasses designing this ship, but now they may possibly cripple the ship if they manage to get onto the bridge. Unlike their larger counterparts in the UNSC Navy, frigates don't have a secondary bridge room. If the primary one is destroyed or crippled, then the ship is effectively dead in the water. (The reasoning behind it is that if the ship's bridge has gotten destroyed, then chances are the rest of the ship is going to follow soon after.) So if the Covenant managed to destroy the bridge, then they were fucked. All the more reason to haul ass and stop that from happening. Worst part about it was that Barnes was entirely unsure if the bridge security could fight off a Covenant assault if the strike force was anything similar in size to the others. Sure, there was only one entrance to the bridge, which made defending it easy, but at the same time, it also meant it was a natural chokepoint with limited room for the defenders to maneuver if they had to. And with nowhere to fall back to if needed.
He remembered what kind of defenses were set up on the bridge entrance. If the Covenant could get just a couple of well-placed grenades thrown in...
"Come on~. Come on~." Barnes silently urged the elevator as the ride up seemed to take forever in his mind.
Satomi
Thunder Child Bridge
Takashima Satomi had always known what monsters looked like. She had been absolutely certain of this, if nothing else, until recently. Ever since she was a child, Satomi had thought she knew what the monsters looked like. What the evil and wicked looked like. She'd had to live through the death of both her mother and older sister at the hands of the Sky Village as a child. The constant threat of attacks and raids by the various pirate and bandit factions plaguing Marsh Country. The multitude of assassination attempts on her father by Sky Village. She had thought she'd understood what evil looked like. What monsters looked like. She was wrong.
She was staring at true monsters right in front of her. And they hated her.
"BLASPHEMOUS WITCH!" The gold-clad Elite thundered at her in a hate-filled accented English as it swung down its glowing light sword, an energy sword, at her to try and bisect her, which she dodged with some effort, followed by some more scornful words in its alien tongue, "BURN, SORCERESS! MAY YOU DARK ARTS BE CLEANSE IN HOLY FLAME! BY THE WILL OF OUR GODS, I WILL PURGE YOUR HERESY!" It swung at her again and again, slashing into consoles and the walls of the bridge as it attempted to strike her down with a fanatical determination. Sure, she'd read up about these aliens. They were vehemently anti-human and were waging a war of extermination against humanity, but this was different. It was almost as if her existence disgusted it to such a degree that it was almost desperate in its fervor to kill her. Was it because she had flaunted her shinobi powers trying to fight this monster? She had no clue. All she knew was that this monster wanted her dead. The bridge was a cacophony of chaos and terror all around her, the monsters having killed several of the personnel either defending or working the bridge.
How had it gone so horribly wrong so fast? And was she going to survive this?
And there we have it for this chapter. It's a bit shorter than normal, and it was initially going to be longer, but it was taking too long to get finished, and I wanted to try to get these chapters out quicker, given everything else I have going on in life. Will try to keep these to no more than 8-9k words in the future so we can try to push the story along. I will attempt to write a few hundred words at least every day if possible.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! See you next time and next year!
-Azores