"Cortana, all I want to know is, did we lose them?"
"I think we both know the answer to that..."
As soon as the Pillar of Autumn had exited Slipspace, two things had become apparent. One:The Covenant fleet had chased them all the way over here and they arrived first, with an entire force of Covenant Cruisers and one capital ship on their tail. Two:Whatever lay in front of them was possibly the most incredible thing that anyone had laid eyes upon. Floating neatly in geosynch orbit above a massive gas giant was a ring-shaped artificial construct.
Elster had seen it when they came in and the first signs of a pit in her stomach formed. Now, on the lower floor of the Autumn's main hangar, the Replika had finally managed to fully fix and modify her armor. Alarms began to blare over their heads as she started donning it, sliding her helmet on her head. The deck, already a hive of activity, seemed to engage double time as Marines, maintenance crews and military personnel moved up to their rallying points.
She didn't know, nor care if they were going in. Lilith spoke to her in a suddenly uncharacteristic calm, "Keep your eyes open, Tin Can... I have a nagging feeling we're about to see the worst few days of our lives down on that thing," to which the Replika simply hummed. She checked the systems of her HUD, watching them all boot up one by one, including her stealth coating panels activating and reflecting light. She looked at herself as she vanished in the dim, flashing lights of the deck, then gave an approving nod. She took her helmet off.
Sliding her MA5B onto her back and an M6 pistol on her hip, she ran over toward the Marine gathering point as Cortana reported, "... All combat crews, report to action stations. Internal and External contacts are expected," in an eerily calm voice. She looked over to see Sergeant Johnson coralling his Platoon and decided she'd tag in with them for the fight. Joining the lineup of Marines on the deck, she stopped beside Bisenti, who looked up at her. With one quick glance, she gave the man a reassuring nod.
He nodded back, then straightened up as Johnson began to speak. The Sergeant-Major's voice was proud, fierce and belligerent as he called, "Men, we led these dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to stop'em from getting their filthy claws on Earth, but we stumbled onto something they're so hot for, they're scrambling over each-other to get it!" whilst marching in front of the crew. He grinned and continued, "Now, I don't care if it's God's own anti-sonofabitch machine, or a giant Hula-hoop, we're not gonna let'em have it! What we will let'em have is a belly full'a'lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in!"
Stopping at the head of the two columns of Marines, he turned about with his MA5 leaned against his chest and that smug, know-it-all grin one would expect out of someone with Johnson's experience. He demanded, "Am I right, Marines!?" in a booming, proud voice once more. Elster couldn't help but grin at that. Despite their predicament and all else...
So, she chorused with the Marines, "Sir, yessir!"
"Mhm, damn right I am!" Johnson declared proudly, "Now, move it out! Double time!"
The Marines displaced from the formations and marched with the other platoons to the deck. Johnson bumped Elster's shoulder with his fist and gave her a nod, then yelled at some of the younger Marines, "All you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up-close, this is your lucky day! Sergeant, you're supporting me and my boys. Extra gun is appreciated in the grand scheme of this cluster..."
"Aye, Sarge," She nodded, then slid her helmet on her head. The pair of Sergeants marched through the hangar and into the hallways, taking one of the routes closest toward their target bulkhead. Elster drew her rifle, thumbed the safety off and racked the bolt, watching as the bullet locked into the chamber. Marching down the wide halls, Elster saw the Sergeant looking at her. She inquired, "Something the matter, sir?"
"Just wonderin' when in God's name I wound up working with both Spartans and an Android or whatever..." The Sergeant replied, giving the woman in SPI armor a once-over with nothing but a hint of concern behind his gaze. He added a quick, "No offense," probably to try and dissuade Elster from doing anything dumb. She wasn't planning to, anyhow, but it was nice.
"None taken, Sarge," She replied softly, then added, "It wasn't exactly in the cards for me to be here anyhow..." while checking her gear again. She hummed, then told him, "Since I am, though?" lifting her MA5B as if to make a point, "I'm not letting the Covvies take an inch without a gallon of their blood to paint it." which made several of the Marines around whoop and cheer.
"Heh," Johnson flashed a bright, pearly-white grin at Elster, then told her, "Oorah, kid. Oo-goddamn-rah," before sliding a cigar between his lips and using a trench lighter to light it. He told her, "Saw what you did aboard the Station. Saved our asses and a couple Spartans, too," as they marched past several Marine platoons heading to their respective bulkheads.
"Rather have everyone around me live, Sarge..." She whispered, pulling out something she'd kept with her since the beginning:Their photo. "Reach took too much."
"... Oh, right. Captain did tell us you had a loved one dirtside," Johnson looked upon her with both pity and an apologetic gaze. He took a moment to consider his words, then remembered that Keyes had told them Elster needed reinforcement and that Ariane was with someone he trusted. So, he told her, "Eh, take it from me, she'll be fine. Hell, if she's with someone Keyes trusts, I've got zero doubt in my mind she'll be right as rain, even underground."
"I know... Thanks, though. I trust doctor Halsey and NOBLE Team," She nodded.
"Worked with Spartans before BLUE?" Johnson quirked a brow.
"Aye. On Reach, during its defense. Five-and-a-half weeks together. I knew them all by name."
"Well, damn," He snorted, "If we do swing back around, maybe we'll get'em all off."
"Aye. When we swing back..." And she paused as the ship hook. The ship had been shaking for a while from Covenant blasts.
"Mm. That's the spirit," He gave hera pat on the shoulder as they reached their designated Bulkhead, then turned to the group, "Now, eyes and ears open. We're about to get some unwanted company. Marines! Asses in gear! Bisenti, O'Brien, I want combat pattern bravo! Jenkins, you Mendoza and Fitzgerald keep your eyes open for anything coming from the front and rear in case Alpha and Bravo squads get shot to hell and we have to pull back! You got a name?"
"Elster, sarge."
"Elster, you tag in with me. We'll keep tabs on the main bulkhead."
The Replika nodded and shifted herself behind cover. One of the reinforcements poked through the midst of the hallway here, giving just enough cover for the girl. The Marines also set up, some going prone, others pressing their rifles and peering between the other braces in the hallway. Some took cover a door down from the bulkhead itself. Before long, hard metallic clangs echoed, with Johnson stating, "Easy, Marines. Wait for the doors to pop..." before doing a quick press-check on his rifle.
The hiss of plasma cutting through metal filtered in. Up ahead, the bulkhead began to melt. In the distance, the ringing of gunfire echoed, met with the snap-pops of plasma and needle rounds. Elster watched as the bulkhead ahead was cut in several more places, before the quiet swish of a plasma grenade activating came next. Then another. Then a dozen more. Her eyes shot wide open as she called out, "TAKE COVER!"
The blast that followed washed the hallway ahead with plasma. Elster could just barely make out the silhouettes off the Covenant's troops behind the flash-boiling blast as her eyes adjusted and visor polarized. She was the first to open fire, standing up and firing a burst from her AR into the closest grunt. A plasma bolt snapped out and hit right beside her, heating the Titanium reinforcement she was taking cover behind.
The hallway was then lit up by tracers. As the Marines regained their footing from the blast's shockwave and their ears were ceasing their tinnitus-infused ringing, they opened fire. Bullets sparked off the walls and struck Covenant units, with one of the leading Elites being caught by so many rounds, his shields overloaded within the span of a second and he collapsed, sprawled out across the floor in a pool of his own purple blood.
Johnson snorted at that as he dipped back into cover. Two needle bolts struck where he had been as he checked his ammo count, noting he was at half-a-mag. He poked out and fired again, nailing the Grunt that'd shot at him in the head, before standing up and calling out, "Marines, suppressing fire! Elster, on me!" before the replies of their troop came in the form of Oorahs and gunfire. Johnson tossed a fragmentation grenade to Elster and nodded to her, before both primed and rolled them forward. Two thumps shook the ground.
The Marines then formed up and pushed out toward the Covvies, one of the supporting elements catching a plasma bolt to the chest and dying on the spot. Elster pushed past the corpse, having seen him flatline on the TEAMBIO. She ran forward toward the leading Elite, cocked her fist back and slammed the gauntlet right into the side of the hinge-jaw's neck, deep enough into the muscled bodypart to hear his vertebrae snap.
Lilith called out, "Left."
Elster dodged as a burst of plasma fire struck the spot she was in. She drew her pistol and snapped off three shots, each nailing the Elite in the head and with the last completely sending its helmet flying. Two bolts struck her armor's shields, almost overloading them as Lilith called out rapidly, "Check rear!" causing Elster to elbow the Elite charging her straight in the gut. She heard it groan, before doing a 180 and planting the barrel of her rifle into its belly, then squeezing off what was left of her mag.
Cortana's voice spoke over the PA, "All hands, abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship. We will evacuate ASAP and regroup on the Ring ahead."
She dropped the spent mag of her AR as she watched Johnson and his Marines suppress the remaining enemies, before Johnson called out, "You heard the Lady! Move it out, Marines! We're heading to reinforce Alpha and then going for the nearest Lifeboats! Sarge, take point!" and turned to Elster. The girl nodded, peering past the man for a moment and into the Covenant boarding ship, to see their usual purple motif, holograms and the likes. She sighed and showed them to follow.
Advancing to the next Bulkhead over as the ship shook from the impact of plasma charges, Elster watched another Marine ahead suddenly lose his head, corpse falling in a sprawl. His buddies and the Navy personnel they were escorting, most of which armed with only pistols, gasped as they saw Charlie pushing up, with Jenkins calling out, "Check your six, Friendlies coming in!"
Elster fired a burst at a Grunt, then at another, plasma striking around and onto her, while Johnson and the others spread out around the bulkheads. Johnson asked a crewman clad in an orange jumpsuit, "Where are the nearest lifeboats?! We'll get your asses there in one piece and get off the old girl with you!"
"Next intersection and up the stairs! Bulkhead 13!" The crewman, one 'Freeman', as per his name tag, replied as he drew his pistol. A crowbar was clipped to his belt, meaning he was probably maintenance. Elster felt an eerie kinship with the man, but said nothing as she watched Johnson lift his hand up, showing the Marines and her to follow. Plasma bolts and gunfire were being exchanged up ahead.
Tracers sparked off the walls as Johnson barked over the com, "Alpha, check your fire, allies coming into the intersection!"
He pushed through the door frame, firing at and suppressing a squad of Grunts that let out yelps as they moved up. Up above, thundering footsteps echoed through the floor. Elster commented, "Sounds like Chief and Blue Team are on the move..." as she pushed forward with the men. She primed two grenades and threw them, then watched as a plasma bolt trailed forward and struck a Marine defending the intersection up ahead in the chest. Two more shots followed and the man's torso was gone.
The intersection was a two-level area with a stairwell attached to the honeycomb structural reinforcements. It led up a floor, rather unsurprisingly, and the upper terrace gave the Marines a good line of sight on the Bulkhead as they engaged. The man in charge of Alpha moved up to Johnson with a trio of other Marines and provided covering fire, though the Elites in charge of the attack spearheaded the assault now. Bullets sparked off shields and azure bolts retaliated, two Marines and a group of unarmored crewmen dying in the volley.
Elster took cover and, the moment the first Elite stepped into her LOS, she lit him up like he was a Christmas tree. All sixty 7,62x51 rounds spat out of the barrel of the AR at close range, causing the creature's shields to flash, fail and die in a bright blue display. She unclipped the pistol from the magnetic lock, aimed it and executed the Elite, only to feel the heat of a plasma volley hit her. She ducked back into cover as her shields flared, then yelped as a bolt hit her shoulder. It didn't melt, but it did heat up the plate.
She shifted, kneeling as she pressed herself against the wall and dropped the spent magazine from her rifle, only to slap in a fresh one and rack the bolt. She looked to Johnson as he took cover beside the other edge of the entry, only for both to gasp as two grenades launched forward. Chief and James jumped in from the top, the former taking a knee and firing bursts from his AR.
Bisenti cheered, "Woohoo! We're fucking saved!"
Elster watched James floor an Elite with his fist, before pinning said Elite down and pumping it full of lead in front of its Grunt subordinates. He looked at the terrified diminutive aliens, rifle barrel still smoking, pointed at the head of the Elite. The glare he had could be felt from behind his visor as he snapped his rifle up at them and all three screamed bloody murder.
A sniper shot rang out and blue blood painted the wall. Linda called out, "Took you a moment, James..." over the radio, her voice cold. Chief pulled the bloodied blade of his knife from the other Elite's neck, then, with a chop of his hand, ordered the fireteams to move out. He looked to Elster, who nodded, before all of them stood to their feet and fast-marched up the stairs. The ship shook and Elster nearly fell, but James caught her. The two exchanged a quick nod as they continued the climb.
A row of pods sat ahead in an open hallway, guarded by a fireteam of Marines. It would've been a platoon, but going by the corpses littering the area, both of Marines and of Jackals, Grunts and Elites, the fight here was tough. The lead Marine gave a quick salute to the Chief before hitting the button to open all four pods. Chief spoke, "Each Spartan takes a pod. Elster, you take the fourth with the Sergeant-Major. See you planetside."
She nodded, "Take care, Chief. Blues," then climbed aboard with the Sergeant-Major. She sat down at the end of the left row of seats as they entered, with the others following inside. The pilot climbed aboard last and took the cockpit seat of the Bumblebee lifepod. Johnson took the seat opposite Elster, with the girl saying, "Never been in a lifeboat before..."
"Well, brace yourself. Damn things kick like a mu-!" Johnson got cut off mid-warning and had almost bit his tongue as the decoupling charges kicked the ovoid lifepod out from its hatch. Through the rear, Elster could see the Autumn getting pounded by plasma from the Covenant's distant naval assets. Sparse was the return fire of the 5cm CIWS batteries, nor was there any answer from the missiles. The bow of the ship had armor plate that'd been boiled away, revealing the twisted internals of the MAC, its rails destroyed and many other marks and fires permeated the heavy cruiser as it barreled toward the planet.
Elster radioed, "Cortana! What the hell is going on!?"
"The Captain's going in for manual landing!" The AI replied, part annoyed, part wary. She then told "I've sent reentry vectors to your pilot, Elster. You, Johnson and your Marines wait for pickup! We'll find the rest of the Blues, then we'll come pick you up. Did you copy my last?!" as slight static began to play over the com. The Autumn flew overhead, angling for a hard entry into the atmosphere of the ringworld ahead.
"Rog!" Elster shot back, then gasped as she watched the teardrop-shaped Seraph fighters sweep in. Two trailed a pair of more distant pods, their plasma cannons flashing. The pods exploded in twin, sunlike blazes, but the Seraphs were immediately chased off by two surviving Longswords that banked in. Elster could also see other pods, Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Entry Vehicles. ODST Pods. She asked, "We had ODSTs aboard?!"
"A Battalion!" Johnson replied, cocked his jaw and said, "Damn, that blast caught me off-guard!"
"Sorry, Sarge, but you knew the ride was gonna be bumpy!" The pilot reported, then warned, "We're vectoring in for Atmospheric Insertion! Brace!" which caused several Marines to tighten their straps. Mendoza put his hands together in some form of archaic motion and began whispering what seemed to be a prayer to himself in Latin, which Johnson mouthed in synch, his Cigar in one hand and rifle clipped into a hold by his seat.
Elster wondered what the hell Religion had to do with making it. Lilith, meanwhile, spoke to her and her alone, "Give'em a break. There's never atheists in a foxhole... Or the lifepod of a Starship in this case..." with a slight tone. The woman's apparition was leaned against the back door of the pod, arms crossed. She wore her standard black armor, her face surprisingly impassive except for furrowed brows, "You strapped in tight?"
Elster gave ever the slightest nod to Lilith, only noticeable to her, who was in Elster's mind. She said, "Good... Gonna be a rough landing. Brace when I tell you to," and Elster immediately registered why she had changed in personality. Her soldierly instincts had kicked in, much like during those flashbacks. Lilith noted this little addition in Elster's mind and actually cracked a genuine smile, "I'm not an ass 90% of the time. Figured I should give you a couple of stern talking-tos so we make sure we both make it through this... If there's even an inkling of Ariane being alive in that brain of yours, I want you to focus on it so we can stay alive. We're two peas in one pod."
Elster thought of a reply to test it out. "... I won't die... Not as long as I know she's still on Reach..." Which contrasted fairly strongly to what Elster had been like only a day or so ago. Lilith nodded approvingly, before patting her own chest with her fist and disappearing the next moment. Still, Elster could feel her presence in her mind, like a second, splintered part of her.
She felt a momentary heat increase, then a light twitch as the Pilot adjusted the pod for re-entry, belly down. The surface of the ring below grew in the rear hatch's window and Elster could make out greens, continents, oceans, an entire ecosystem. Was this the Forerunners' doing? What had they even built this strange ring installation for? A feeling in the back of her mind was that not all answers to that would be pretty.
"Now. Brace," Lilith's calm voice rang in Elster's head.
She leaned forward, pressing against the straps. The Marines, seeing this, did the same, bowing their heads and covering them with their hands. Johnson gave a thumbs-up to Elster as the girl put her hands behind her head, with the Pilot calling out, "We're going in hot!" as the pod began to shake. Wisps of fire grew around them, turning into a full-fledged dancing flame as the atmosphere caught them.
She made out the peaks of mountains. An emerald valley sat below, covered in forests and various alien structures of a silver alloy that popped out amidst the green and rocky greys. She grit her teeth as the Pod adjusted again, entering its set course as the fires of re-entry dulled and died. Sudden deceleration caused her to slam back into her seat, denting it slightly and nearly ripping the straps as she got sent forward again. The landing flaps of the pod had deployed, with the roar of the burning deceleration engines following.
Parachutes deployed as the Pod slowed even further... Then, came the flop. The pod landed on its belly, dead into wet grass and probable mud, skidding across it and burying its maw and belly further into the muck. A deck crewman that was with them had his straps break. He went flying across the pod's entire length, slamming into the back doors with enough force to break them and his spine.
The corpse dropped onto the floor as the vehicle finally slowed. Elster undid her straps first, then moved up to the door and pried it open with both hands, pushing it aside and turning to call out, "Move it out, Marines! Sarge, structure on our twelve!" while pointing. A two-prong alien structure that resembled a claw spat out a ball of blue energy into the sky, a contrast to the dozens of lifeboats falling all around them. The structure sat at the middle of the valley, amidst trees and a few steps from a creek with water as clear as crystal.
Johnson coughed, hit himself in his chest armor once and said, "All Marines, sound off and follow the lady!" then waited as every single man aboard, sans the dead one, cried out their reply. The pilot swiveled in her chair and climbed out of it, a bit wobbly, then grabbed an MA5 out of a hidden compartment and tossed her helmet aside. The Sergeant-Major undid his own strap, grabbed his gun and put his cap on, telling Elster, "We're going for the structure! It's the only visible piece of shelter we got in this open killbox! Move!"
"Oorah!" Heartily replied the Marines as they grabbed their gear from underneath or beside their seats.
Elster jumped out of the pod and scanned the area with her rifle...