New Mombasa, Kenya
Africa, Earth
20 October 2552
1602J

1stSgt Chislon Godwin, Company A, 103rd Shock Troop Battalion, 65th Division

Operation: BUMRUSH

The purple hull of the Covenant assault carrier stretched out below him, standing out like a cancerous sore or a malicious blight. With any luck though, within a few hours, that ship would either be lying on the ground in pieces, or ideally in the UNSC's hands, along with the Prophet of Regret himself, finally giving Humanity an edge in this never ending war. From there, it would just be a matter of leveraging their ill-gotten gains at which point, maybe this war could finally end. All they had to do was get on board that damn ship and kill everyone inside. Fortunately for humanity as a whole, the UNSC'S best warriors were on the case: Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. When all else failed, they wouldn't.

"We're locked on target!" Godwin barked to his troops. "ODSTs! It's time we give these alien scum something to really regret!"

"OORAH!" came the cry from over a hundred elite and battle hardened Marines.

"One minute out," Godwin announced, glancing at his HUD, only to see Alpha-Nine pulling away from the formation. "What the… where the hell are you going, Buck?"

He reached for his radio to ask, but his attention was abruptly drawn by the stream of energy suddenly flickering across the carrier's hull, and his eyes snapped towards his readouts and the warning flashing across the screen. "Oh my god… RADIATION ALERT!"

Without warning, a Slipspace window opened just forward of the carrier's bow, the rupture tearing through the surrounding area and cratering the ground.

"Holy shit! Did the Covies just set off a nuke!?" someone screamed.

"No! That's a Slipspace rupture! That carrier is about to jump from inside the city! Troopers! Pop- "

Before Godwin had a chance to finish his sentence, Regret's carrier launched itself into the rupture, and the Slipspace window abruptly collapsed upon itself…

…before exploding, sending a shockwave rippling through the air.

"EMP!" Godwin frantically screamed, as all the screens in his pod flashed red a moment before they shut down. "Stabilize, stabilize and pop chutes now!"

He had no idea how many of his troopers managed to hear him as he grabbed his emergency release and yanked on it, hard. His chute was ejected from the top of his pod, but without the retrograde rockets working, he was still falling way too fast. Glancing downwards, he could see his trajectory had him heading straight for the Indian Ocean, with the carrier no longer there to catch him.

"Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!"

Godwin braced himself but just before he hit, something popped out of the water, breaking the surface tension. It didn't change the outcome though: his pod still slammed into the sea, he still felt his body lurching towards the roof as the pod came to an abrupt stop but his body didn't, he still felt the sharp blow to his head, and all the lights still disappeared as he sank… sank…

Sank.

XXX

First Sergeant Chislon Godwin woke up to the soft chirping of an alarm. With great reluctance, he forced his eyes open and looked around. He was sitting inside his pod, still held in place in his seat by his crash harness. There was no power; all his screens were black, and the lights were off. Outside of his pod and being held back by the thick armored glass of his hatch was a literal ocean of water, complete with seaweed sticking out from the seabed, colorful fishes and other marine life swimming by, and even a couple of bottom feeders that had latch themselves onto his pod windows. For a moment, Godwin thought he was at the aquarium with his nephews.

"Ah, hell," he hissed as he began to recall the sequence of events that led him to his current situation. Operation: BUMRUSH, the carrier, the Slipspace rupture…

The EMP. Oh god, the EMP. It would have disabled everyone's pod. Orbital drops were dangerous enough as it were, but without power, without their arresting rockets, it was a suicide ride. How many of his Marines had died upon impact with the surface? How many of his Marines had been killed while they had been vulnerable and helpless? How many of his Marines had had their lives ended with having a chance to fight back? Without firing a single shot? Against a foe they couldn't even see?

How many of his men were still alive!?

Godwin inhaled sharply, forcing himself to calm down before he could spiral down all the way into the pit of despair. He had to focus; he had to accept the fact that for now, there wasn't anything he could do for his Marines. For now, he had to focus on his own situation, and figure out a way out of here. He needed more information before he could make a move and the best place to start was probably by figuring out where that alarm was coming from.

Unbuckling his harness, he reached over to his TACPAD to reset his HUD. Fortunately both devices were designed to be resistant to EMPs, so both immediately came to life. He waited as his HUD booted up, only to instantly be confront with the red flashing words, 'Warning: Oxygen Low.' For a few moments, he just stared, almost uncomprehending.

By default, he would have been drawing his air from the pod's oxygen tanks. As part of their survival packages, M8823 Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicles were equipped with roughly two hours' worth of oxygen. Assuming he had been unconscious that entire time, he would have been to extend that to maybe four, four and a half hours. Once that source had been depleted however, his armor's built in oxygen tanks would have kicked in, providing him with half an hour's worth of O2, maybe more if, again, he was unconscious for that entire time. For him to be running low on oxygen, that would have meant… he'd been sitting at the bottom of the Indian Ocean for almost five hours.

How was that even possible!? There were supposed to be protocols in place for situations like this! This was not the first time a pod had missed the drop zone by a significant amount - nor will it be the last - which is why every unit that conducted an orbital drop had a platoon's worth of combat search and rescue on standby, ready to deploy in the event of an emergency. Five hours was a long time, especially on Earth which had so many underwater sensors remaining from when the planet was the only celestial body humanity was occupying… somebody should have found him by now. Maybe they wouldn't have had the chance to extract him, but at least they should have attempted to make contact with him, or left some indication that they had been present, and the only reason why Godwin could think of why this hadn't happened yet was if everybody on the surface was… dead, or otherwise incapacitated.

Oh god! What if he was the only one left on this planet? What if no one else was around to come and rescue him, leaving him confined to this watery grave? What if-

Godwin inhaled sharply and forced himself to calm down. He was an ODST and a company first sergeant, goddammit, not some Boot fresh out of SOI. He needed to get a hold of himself, especially if oxygen was running low. Him hyperventilating would only cause him to run out that much faster. Checking his readouts, he could tell that him being awake was already using up his limited supply faster than his computer had predicted; initially it had indicated he had ten minutes of air left. But now it had just finished recalculating and as he watched in dull terror, the numbers on his clock started ticking down to… just under three minutes…

Numbness spread across his body as he stared at the number. Three minutes. Under three minutes. That was not enough time to do anything. Even if he knew his exact circumstances, it would probably take him exactly three minutes just to get out of his damn pod because of the water pressure. And once he was out, he would have to swim to the surface and who knew how deep under the water he was? Then he would have to figure out how far away from shore he was, determine whether it was under Covenant control or not as that would dictate how much time he would have to spend underwater, all of which would require oxygen. Oxygen he didn't have.

Godwin took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his situation began to sink in. There was no other way to look at it: he was doomed. He had regained conscious long enough to understand he was going to die, and then he was going to choke to death on the carbon monoxide his own body was generating. Honestly, it would have been more merciful if he had just remained knocked out. He could have peacefully drifted away into the endless void of death. Instead, he got to spend the last minutes of his life, sitting in his grave, counting down to the exact moment the devil came to collect his due, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Resigned, he felt himself settling further into his seat, eyes glued on the clock. He supposed in many ways, he shouldn't complain. After all, death had eluded him for so long. He'd been a Marine for ten years now, all of which was spent with the ODSTs, which made him an outlier among the armed forces. He had participated in just about every major UNSC campaign in that time: Miridem, Actium, Skopje, Paris IV, Ariel, Reach, and now Earth. In that time, he had seen countless of Marines – good Marines; young Marines – come and go, all taken long before their time. And many of them had not gone quietly. Or peacefully. At least he knew his death would be painless.

At the same time, it just didn't seem fair. He was a warrior, a Marine, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. He was supposed to die on the battlefield, fighting, surrounded by the corpses of his enemy. Not being put down like an old dog that nobody wanted anymore with all his magazines still fully loaded. Trapped in a watery grave. Alone. All because of a damn glitch.

It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. And the worst thing was, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do except watch the clock run down and stare out his window at the fishes swimming around the big, black metal object that seemed to be headed his way -

His brain immediately came to a screeching halt as he did a quick double take. Was he starting to hallucinate due to a lack of oxygen? What the heck was that?

PING.

A slow smile began to creep across his face as the iconic noise of a sonar array reached his pod.

Maybe he wasn't going to die today after all…

xxx

"You're lucky we happen to be passing by close enough to pick up on your transponder," Godwin's self-appointed guide was saying as she led him through the narrow corridors of the submarine towards the bridge – or as she referred to it: the 'control room.' She had introduced herself as 'Corpsman Maggie,' though whether that was her first or her last name hadn't been made clear. "Normally at these depths, individual IFF tags aren't strong enough to penetrate all this water, so the signal doesn't really go anywhere. However, as it so happened, you landed near an underwater relay – old tech, probably installed back in the twenty-second century by the former US Navy – which was just barely able to relay your signal out far enough for us to pick up on. Otherwise, we would have sailed right past you, and never known you were there."

Godwin absentmindedly nodded as he let her words wash over him. At first he had been verbally responding, but then he quickly realized Maggie was the type of person who just enjoyed talking, even if no one was listening, so he had fallen silent, more worried about trying to keep track of where he was going.

This was the first time in his entire life he had been on a submarine and while, intellectually speaking, he had known even nuclear powered military attack submarines were notorious for being cramp, he hadn't truly comprehended just how bad they actually were until he was in one. He wasn't claustrophobic – a candidate couldn't be an ODST if they were, due to the enclosed helmets they wore as well as their iconic drop pods – but… Godwin was pretty sure he had fought in some underground tunnels that were wider than this.

"Corpsman," Godwin interrupted when he realized that at some point, Maggie had switched subjects and was now harping on about… whales? Whatever it was, it didn't seem important. "Are you sure this ship hasn't picked up on any other IFF transponders? Or any other pods of any kind?"

"Boat."

"Sorry?"

"We're a boat, not a ship. And to answer your question, Sarge," Maggie gave a negligent shrug. "Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. I wouldn't know, I'm just the corpsman. It's not like they tell me much. The Captain thinks I talk too much, can you believe that? He's worried that if he tells me something, I'll immediately start babbling about it to anyone that'll listen, but honestly, it's like, who would I tell? We're about a hundred meters under the water; there's no one here but us and the fishes. Speaking of fishes –"

"What about the surface?" Godwin desperately asked before Maggie could go on another tangent. "Do we know anything about how the attack is going? Have we driven the Covenant off? Any word from the Home Fleet?"

Maggie shook her head. "Again, Captain'll be the one to ask these questions to; he'll know. I'm just the corpsman."

Godwin eyed her carefully as he followed her down the corridor.

"How long have you been down here?" he couldn't help but blurt out, and not just because of how eccentric she seemed. Appearance wise, Maggie appeared to be in her late thirties, early forties, which was astonishingly old for someone who was just an E-3. And she wasn't alone either; in fact, based on the other crewmembers he had seen so far, it was Godwin – at the age of twenty-nine – who was the outlier.

"Oh, long enough," Maggie freely admitted. "We don't get too many new recruits; submarine service ain't as prestigious as it may have been in the past. Young 'uns nowadays rather be on spaceships or firing them laser guns. Plus, if you think about it, not even the Covies have the power to boil an entire ocean away, so when a colony gets glassed, usually submarine crews are the only humans left alive, condemned to die of starvation because ain't nobody coming back for the likes of us. Here's the control room, Sarge."

Feeling like he was suffering from whiplash from the speed at which Maggie changed subjects, Godwin took a moment to center himself before marching inside.

The control room of the submarine didn't match any other bridge Godwin had seen before. Unlike a bridge on a spaceship - which was usually covered in screens and holographic displays - most of the controls in this sub were physical, with gauges, dials, and all sorts of buttons and switches covering the walls, most of which Godwin couldn't even begin to guess as to what they were for. Near the bow of the boat, there were two 'steering wheels' being manned by two enlisted service members, both of which were being monitored by a single senior noncommissioned officer. All in all, it sort of reminded him of pictures he had seen of old world German U-boats from World War One and Two, just far more modernized.

That being said, some similarities remained, mostly notably, the tactical display table that sat in the middle of the room. Two crewmembers leaned over it. One was wearing a work uniform similar to what Godwin had seen UNSC Navy members wear and looked like the chief of the boat. The other man was wearing a non-regulation blue sweater, a baseball cap with a picture of a seahorse, and he had an unlit wooden pipe he was chewing on. If not for the golden oak cluster insignia on the man's lapel, Godwin would have dismissed the man as just another crew member. As it were though, he immediately snapped to attention and fired off a salute. "Sir. First Sergeant Chislon Godwin, Alpha Company, 103rd Shock Troops Battalion, 65th Division, reporting for duty, sir."

The officer slowly raised his head and carefully regarded Godwin, before returning the salute. Godwin immediately assumed an 'at ease' position; despite the casualness of the man's uniform, he could tell this officer was far more somber than Corpsman Maggie had been.

"At ease, First Sergeant," the officer said, his pipe bobbing up and down between his teeth as he spoke, and Godwin took the opportunity to remove his helmet. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Osiris, captain of this boat. Welcome aboard the SS Seahorse."

"Thank you, sir. Sir, I appreciate the pickup, however I've got to ask: did you, by chance, happen to pick up on the signal or position of any other drop pods in the area?"

Osiris raised an eyebrow. "No, I'm afraid not, First Sergeant. Why, were you expecting somebody else?"

"The rest of my company, sir," Godwin stated.

"An entire company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers get dunked into the drink? That must have been one hell of a misdrop."

"Not a misdrop, sir," Godwin admitted. "An EMP went off as we were dropping towards our target. All my pods lost power, and we were unable to recover in time before our target moved."

Osiris exchanged a grimace with his Chief; no doubt both men were thinking of how messy that would have been. "My sympathies, First Sergeant, but I don't think I need to tell you the chances of a drop pod surviving a fall from orbit without any power- "

"Is slim to nothing," Godwin finished. "Yes, sir, I understand that, however, I survived. And if I survived, there's a chance some of my men would have too. Which is why I'm requesting you temporarily divert your course and conduct a general sweep of the area."

Before Godwin had even finished talking, Osiris was already shaking his head. "First Sergeant, while I understand and respect your desire to recover and discover the fate of your men, what you're asking is simply impossible. Our rescuing of you was already a miracle in of itself; even if we could divert, it would be a fool's errand."

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think you understand -"

"No, First Sergeant," Osiris immediately interrupted, "I do believe it's you who doesn't understand: if your drop pod had landed even five more meters further off our course, we would have never found you. That's how slim the chance was. Furthermore, we're not in the area on a pleasure cruise or just because we can, we're here because we're executing our own time sensitive operation. We're already slightly behind schedule because we diverted for you. Any more diversions, and we run the risk of failure."

"And I can appreciate that, sir," Godwin retorted, doing his best to bite down on his irritation. "But all I'm asking for is fifteen minutes. Sir."

Osiris slowly reached up and removed the pipe from his mouth as he studied Godwin.

"What's the last thing you remember, First Sergeant?" he abruptly asked. "Just before you hit the drink?"

Godwin stamped down on his initial response and considered the question, as well as the reasoning behind it. "Operation: BUMRUSH. My company and I were dropping towards the Prophet of Regret's assault carrier, with the intention of making our way inside and capturing the son of a bitch. Before we could land though, the carrier made a Slipspace jump from inside the city, hence the EMP. With respect, sir, how is this relevant?"

"That's what I was thinking when you said EMP," Osiris replied with a nod. "And you've been unconscious this entire time?"

"Yes, sir."

"Which means you've not been kept up to date as to the on-goings of the invasion. Allow me to give you a brief, First Sergeant: that carrier jumped out of the city five hours ago. Specifically, it was exactly four hours and forty-seven minutes ago."

Godwin found himself dumbly nodding at that. Because of his oxygen supply issues, the length of time he had spent unconscious did not come as a complete surprise to him. However, it was one thing to intellectually know something; it was another to have actual confirmation. How much had he missed?

"Something you need to know, First Sergeant: that EMP didn't just knock your pods out of your sky, it knocked a hell of a lot more. Most notably, it damaged the Mombasa space tether, causing it to eventually collapse. Right on top of our defenses."

Godwin let out an involuntary hiss. All that metal falling on a city the UNSC had been pumping reinforcements into all morning? A city that was already choke full of civilians? Casualties would have been… astronomical.

"You can imagine what that did to our defenses," Osiris continued as if he didn't notice Godwin's reaction. "Local forces have been pulled back to reorganize, leaving Mombasa all but in control of the Covenant. Yes, we are still getting reports of scattered fighting taking place in the occupied zone, including some very confusing reports about some sort of infighting taking place between the Brutes and the Elites, but as of right now, the Covenant have effectively won the first stage of the Battle of Mombasa."

"Which leads us to this moment, and why the Seahorse is on her way to the city: Operation: RED SEA." Osiris glanced up at Godwin. "You said your first name is 'Chislon,' yes? That's from the Bible, is it not? Are you a religious man, First Sergeant?"

Godwin shook his head. "With respect to the ones who are, but I've been fighting against the Covenant for more ten years now, Commander. Ten years and across seven different planetary systems. In all that time, I have yet to see a single shred of evidence God exists. Ours, or there's."

"Are you at least familiar with the Bible stories? Specifically that of Moses and the Red Sea?"

Godwin considered the question. "Isn't that the one about the Jews and the Pharaoh?"

Osiris gave a small shrug. "If the stories are to be believed, then supposedly some chap named Moses managed to part the Red Sea, allowing the Israelites to flee from Ancient Egypt in an event known as the 'Exodus.' Now, for all our technological prowess, we can't exactly part the ocean, but…"

"You're on a rescue and extraction mission," Godwin finished as he suddenly realized the point to where Osiris was leading to. Osiris nodded.

"Some high ranking UEG politician was supposedly on their way to Cairo Station in orbit for some sort of award ceremony. But, for one reason or another, they never made it before the Covenant arrived in system and they ended taking shelter here, in Mombasa. Yes," Osiris added before Godwin could interrupt, "I am aware of just how far apart Cairo and Mombasa are. No, I don't understand it either, but that's politicians for you."

Turning to the tactical display, Osiris gestured for Godwin to join him. A map of Mombasa and the surrounding area immediately appeared. "Agreed extraction point is here," Osiris pointed at the map with his pipe, "at Ras Kilindini in the Quays, along the western shoreline of Old Mombasa. In order to get there, we need to make our way from the Indian Ocean, into the Kilindini Harbour and hug the coast until we arrive at the point. We'll then surface, verify the HRP and their security team are at the rendezvous, and send a shore party to extract them. Once HRPs are onboard, we'll retrace our course back to the Indian Ocean where we'll be home free."

"Our biggest concern are the Covenant combat air patrols. They can't touch us when we're underwater but if we're on the surface or close enough to it – which we will be once we're in the Harbour – Covenant don't even have to score a direct hit, they just need to make it so we can't submerge without running the risk of sinking or worse, imploding. At the moment, most of the CAP is over the city proper, but the longer we dally, the further out their patrols go, which is why we can't divert to go looking for your men. Sure, we could do it and maybe rescue some of them, but if those HRPs get captured or killed, then we stand to lose a lot more than a company of ODSTs."

At this, Osiris looked up at the Godwin with an expectant look on his face, and Godwin resisted the urge to snap at him.

"I understand, Commander," Godwin gritted out instead. "I don't like it, but don't forget, sir, I have been in positions like this before, so I understand what's at stake here. My only question, sir, is why you bothered to even tell me all this. Unless I resorted to violence, I would have had no way to force you to do what I wanted."

"Because we could probably use your help," Osiris admitted. "In case you hadn't notice, almost all of my crew have spent their entire military service in the submarine force. None of us have seen combat against the Covenant, and outside of our annual weapon qualifications which most of us had found some way to skip – obviously in hindsight, that was a bad idea – we barely know how to shoot a rifle straight. Now if everything goes to plan, we shouldn't run into any Covenant patrols, ground or air. But if something does go wrong, while we can handle the air patrols… our shore party would be a lot better off if it was being led by a combat experienced ODST."

Sticking his pipe back into his mouth, Osiris stood up straight and looked Godwin directly in the eye.

"Just sayin'," he drily concluded.

xxx

At Godwin's signal, Crewman Corvus cut the motor, allowing their small RHIB to float the rest of the way to the docks. Between the rain, the crashing of waves, and the crackling of fire, there was probably enough ambient noise they didn't have to worry about their motors being overheard. That being said, Godwin preferred not to take the risk. Instead, he calmly waited until their boat gently bumped into the seawall, and Crewman Obunga threw out a line, securing the boat. Their extraction vessel secured, Godwin leapt ashore.

Yanking his M7S submachine gun off his back, he quickly swept the area.

"Clear," he announced over TEAMCOM. "Corvus, stay with the boat. Obunga and Joubert, with me."

There was a whisper of acknowledgments, and a few moments later, Godwin was joined on land by two other crewmembers from the Seahorse. Out of the corner his eye, Godwin studied them. According to Commander Osiris, the three men who made up the rest of the shore party were the most qualified out of everyone on the submarine, which wasn't exactly saying much; Godwin had his doubts these men would even be able to pass Marine Corps boot camp, much less ODST selection. But, they at least knew when to shut up and listen, following Godwin's every order without question or complaints, something even his ODSTs had trouble with sometimes. As an added bonus, they were very quiet.

"Where are they?" Obunga asked, and even with his audio receptors on full, Godwin stained to hear him.

"No idea," Godwin bluntly replied. "Standby." He tapped his radio. "Shore Party to Seahorse, over."

"This is Seahorse, go ahead," Osiris immediately replied.

"Seahorse, we've successfully made it ashore without detection, but there's no sign of the HRP or her team. Are we in the right place, over?"

As he spoke, Godwin glanced over his shoulder out towards the Harbour. Even with his VISR, he could just barely make out the sight of the Seahorse's sail sticking out from the water where she was waiting. If he tried hard enough, he could maybe see Osiris, standing on top of the sail in the bridge cockpit.

"Shore Party, standby one moment, we're double checking… Confirmed, you are in the right position. We're still picking up on the HRP's confirmation signal, over."

"Where's the signal originating from?"

"A spot exactly one hundred meters due east of your current position."

A navpoint abruptly appeared on Godwin's HUD, and he suppressed a sigh of annoyance. "Rog, I got a fix. Seahorse, Shore Party is going to advance and take a look around, see if we can't discover any clues, over."

"Understood. Be careful."

"Will do. Shore Party, out."

Lowering his radio, Godwin motioned to his men to spread out and follow him. Fortunately, every member of the shore party was equipped with shooting glasses that had a night vision setting which, while not as good as his helmet's VISR, allowed them to see his hand gestures.

They quickly dashed across the open terrain towards a series of warehouses. Approaching the one the navpoint was centered over, Godwin gestured for his men to look around the sides while he glanced inside. Inside, the warehouse was empty, both of objects and living creatures. Retreating outside once more, Godwin was greeted by his men, both of whom indicated the area was clear. Suppressing an aggravated sigh, Godwin gestured for his men to gather.

"Where the hell are they?" Obunga irritably demanded to know before Godwin could say a word.

"No idea," Godwin admitted. "I don't even see their beacon anywhere, do you?"

"Maybe they threw it onto the roof," Joubert suggested.

"Why the hell would they do that? And why would they signal they were ready for pickup, and then just not be here?" Obunga hissed.

"Could be a number of reasons," Godwin calmly said even though internally, he was seething as much as Obunga was. "Could have been they signaled for pickup, but then a Covenant patrol wandered into the area, forcing them to leave before they could disable the beacon."

"In that case, maybe they're not too far. Should we- "

Obunga was immediately cut off by the sound of a gunshot splitting the air. A quick glance at his men showed it wasn't either of them and he hurriedly raised his weapon as more gunfire continued to ring out, before there was a pause and he could hear what almost sounded like shouting, though he couldn't make out any words. Then all hell immediately seemed to break loose as plasma fire split the air at the same a slow alarm began to go off.

"Is that them!?" Obunga frantically asked as he nervously drummed his fingers against his rifle.

"Stay alert," was all Godwin could say as he grabbed his radio. "Golden Arch, this is Seahorse, we're at the RV do you copy, over? … Golden Arch, this is Seahorse, do you copy, over? Damn. Seahorse, Shore Party, be advised we're hearing sounds of small arms fire coming from further inside the dockyard; mixture of automatic weapons and plasma fire, over."

"Is it the HRP or someone else?"

"Unable to positively confirm at this time."

"Contact front!"

Godwin snapped up his SMG as three humanoid figures emerged from around the corner and immediately began to run towards them. "Hailstorm!"

"Hurricane!" the lead figure yelled as they slid into the ground beside him. "Special Agent Matthews, UEG Security Service! God, it's good to see you!"

"Likewise, sir!" Godwin yelled back as the gunfire continued to grow in intensity. "What the situation!?"

"We got compromised by a random Covenant foot patrol! We tried to give them the loop around, but needless to say, it didn't work! Two of my agents stayed behind to hold them off while Agent Burr and I got the Principal to safety!"

"Which one is the Principal!?"

"Her!" Matthews yelled, pointing at the only female of the group, and Godwin immediately turned to her.

"Ma'am, I'm First Sergeant Godwin, UNSC Marine Corps! What's your name and rank?" Godwin demanded to know.

"Doctor Ruth Charet! I'm the Interior Minister for the Unified Earth Government!" the woman frantically replied.

"Good! When you were seven years old, you rescued a puppy from the woods! What did you name it!?"

"Sally Ride, because I had just done a presentation on her in class! But it turns out, it wasn't a dog but a bear cub so I wasn't allowed to keep it!" the woman yelled back. "Are you done confirming my identity, Soldier!? Can we get out of here now!?"

"CONTACT REAR!"

Godwin whirled around, his weapon rising as about a dozen's worth of inhuman figures whipped around the same corner Doctor Charet and her team had emerged from moments ago. Godwin didn't hesitate and immediately pulled the trigger, sending a burst of 5mm rounds downrange. The lead Jackal took the burst straight to the head and crashed facedown onto the pavement. Godwin immediately pivoted, blasting a Grunt in the chest before it could draw its weapon.

CRACK!

Godwin reflexively flinched as a Spiker round flew over his shoulder and he instantly rotated and returned fire at the Brute who fired the shot. "Concentrated fire on that Brute!"

The Brute was immediately shredded as four other rifles and SMGs hit it. The death of that Brute immediately caused the other one in the patrol to become enraged, but before the alien could do anything more than scream out its rage, Godwin yanked a grenade off his belted and hurtled it. "FRAG OUT!"

The grenade landed at the Brute's feet and exploded, knocking the creature to the ground.

"We got to get out of here!" Godwin screamed as the sound of more Covenant reinforcements – including armored vehicles – could be heard in the near distance. "Agent Matthews, get your Principal out of here! Go a hundred meters due west, there's a small rubber boat lashed to the seawall. Obunga, go with them!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Joubert, COVERING FIRE!"

A burst of plasma slammed into the ground beside him. Godwin threw himself to the ground and rolled to the side, his SMG blazing away at the same time. Through VISR, he could see the Grunt collapse, gripping its own neck as blood shot out from the bullet hole like a fountain, and he turned to engage another target, only for his HUD to let put a shrill of an alarm. "Reloading!"

He popped his empty magazine out and tossed it the ground before driving another one into place as the Covenant patrol tried to get organized. A Grunt ran up with its arm drawn back, ready to throw a grenade; Godwin hurriedly raised his SMG and fired twice. Both rounds found their way into the Grunt's forehead, and the diminutive alien dropped to the ground, the active plasma grenade landing on its head. A split second later, the grenade exploded, taking much of the corpse with it.

"Joubert! Center peel! Pull!"

Godwin hosed down the area as Joubert scrambled to his feet and ran back towards the sea, pausing only long enough to slap Godwin on the shoulder. Maintaining his fire for a full second, Godwin surged to his feet and followed in Joubert's wake, yelling into the radio as he did.

"Seahorse, this is Shore Party, we have the HRP in hand but we have been compromised! We're falling back under fire to the sub right now; multiple contacts on our heels and audible confirmation of incoming armored vehicles!"

"Understood!" came Osiris' rushed reply. "We're prepping the sub for a crash dive! Abandon all nonessential equipment and get below as quick as you can!"

"Wilco! Out!"

Godwin lowered his radio, only for movement to catch his attention: two Skirmishers had appeared from one of the warehouses on the right, and were running full tilt straight at Joubert, who was too distracted firing at the other Covenant soldiers to notice their approach. "Joubert! Get down!"

Godwin opened fire, firing right over Joubert's head and hitting the lead Skirmisher in the chest. As the alien fell, the second Skirmisher diverted, causing Godwin's second burst to miss, but before he had a chance to readjust, the Skirmisher was hit by more fire from another SMG. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Obunga and Burr were busy helping Charet onto the RHIB while Matthews was trying to help by adding to the covering fire.

"First Sergeant!" he screamed. "I need another SMG mag!"

Ripping one out from his pouch, Godwin hurtled it at Matthews, screaming, "Take it and fall back!"

"Yes, Top!"

Godwin turned back to the Covenant and kept shooting. There was no shortage of targets as Covenant soldiers were pouring into the area; by the looks of it, every single foot patrol within a hundred meter radius of the dockyard was surging here. How or why there were this many troops in the area of operations, Godwin had no idea, but as his SMG coughed out round after round, he couldn't help but curse his bad luck; this entire day had just been one shitshow after another.

"First Sergeant! Fall back!"

"Bounding!"

Lifting his fire, he paused long enough to slap Joubert on the shoulder before dashing back to the boat; Matthews, Barr, and Obunga were all ready and waiting for him while Corvus had the motor primed and ready to go. "Covering fire! Joubert, pull!"

Joubert surged to his feet and turned to run towards the boat, but as he did –

"Hurghh!"

- there was a flash of green as he was struck in the back by a plasma bolt.

"Eddie!" Obunga screamed out and started to climb back onto the docks, but Godwin grabbed him by the back of his vest and threw him back into the boat.

"He's dead!" he screamed, having seen far too many injuries in the past to know. "Corvus, get us back to the sub, now!"

There was no question or argument; Corvus launched the RHIB into the water at top speeds. Streams of plasma bolts chased after them like tracers rounds from a heavy machine gun, and Godwin could hear the sizzling of steam as the bolts struck the water around them, instantly boiling the liquid. With the boat bouncing up and down as it sped across the harbour, Godwin could barely keep himself stable as he raised his SMG and returned fire.

There was a crunch as Corvus drove the RHIB up onto the Seahorse's upper hull and right up to her sail.

"Get inside, now!" Godwin screamed as a series of plasma bolts struck the hull of the sub. He spotted a muzzle flash and fired at it as Matthews and Barr grabbed Charet and hustled her through the open door on the side of the sail, Obunga following closely behind.

Godwin shoved the RHIB away from the sub and turned to follow, but there was a loud noise that sounded like an underwater explosion, and he turned around to see two objects – noticeable by the violent bubble trails they left in their wake – speeding away from Seahorse's bow. Thirty meters away from the boat, they abruptly breached the surface, revealing themselves to be a pair of missiles as their rocket boosters ignited and they took off towards the dockyard. A split second later, the entire shoreline erupted into flames as the missiles plummeted right back down to the ground and exploded among the warehouses, setting them ablaze.

"Torpedo tube launched ASGM-9 anti-air missiles!" Corvus screamed in response to Godwin's unvoiced question. "Well, mostly! Thank god for dual-purpose warheads, huh? Come on, Sergeant, we gotta get below! Holy- INCOMING!"

Godwin glanced over his shoulder to see plasma mortars headed their direction, and he hurriedly threw himself into the submarine as Corvus sealed the door behind them. Dashing down the corridor, he found himself inside the control room once more, but unlike the first time he was in here, the room was now a hotbed of activity as crewmembers yelled out pieces of relevant information as they monitored the situation on shore.

"All watertight hatches and doors secured, Captain!" someone yelled.

"Alright, listen up people, it's roughly three klicks to open water, we're going to be riding on the surface that entire time, and we're surrounded by hostiles! I want everybody's eyes glued on their screens!" Osiris barked in a steady voice. "COB, take us underway, all engines ahead, full!"

"All engines ahead, full, aye sir!"

Godwin stumbled as he felt the Seahorse begin toaccelerate under his feet. At the same time, he could feel the rumbling of explosions bouncing against the hull, and he quickly glanced over the shoulder of a crewmember at their screen to see the Seahorse was rapidly cutting through the Harbour as plasma mortars saturated the water around them.

"Corpsman, why aren't we diving yet!?" Godwin asked, spotting Maggie standing nearby.

"Water is too shallow! We'd have to slow down otherwise we run the risk of scraping our hull against the seabed! Cap rather make a run for the ocean on the surface then risk puncturing a hole in our hull!"

"Captain Osiris does know the Covenant are lobbing mortars at us, right?"

"But they're shooting in the dark; they don't know where we are," Maggie pointed out. "Like playing darts in the dark while being blindfolded."

"But they only need to get lucky once," Osiris abruptly interjected, causing Godwin to twitch; he didn't realize Osiris could hear them with all the yelling going on. "First Sergeant: where's Seaman Joubert?"

Godwin shook his head. "Didn't make it, sir!"

Osiris grunted and immediately turned his attention back to his crew.

"Captain, are we going to be safe?" Charet abruptly interrupted.

"Of course we will, Doctor Charet, so why don't you take a seat someplace and enjoy the ride?" Osiris blandly replied. "Maggie! Get these civilians out of my control room and down below!"

"Righto, Cap! Doctor, if you would please follow me?"

Charet and her surviving security team disappeared from the control room, while Corvus and Obunga had long since returned to their battle stations onboard the submarine, leaving Godwin as the only outsider still on the bridge. He glanced around, but no one was demanding he leave and truth be told, he really wanted to know what was going on as he had spent far too many space battles blind and deaf to the outgoings of the fight, so he stayed where he was.

"Sir, we're taking plasma fire all across our hull!" someone was saying.

"Our hull is rated for a crush depth of over five hundred meters, so we'll be fine against small arms, its crew served weapons I'm concerned about. Give me an update about those mortars!"

"Mortar fire has increased, sir: we're counting fire from at least three different batteries. They're also starting to land closer; Covies have either a spotter drone in the air or a forward observer on the shore, but we can't find either!"

"Weaps, any chance we can return fire?"

"Negative, sir, our sensors aren't calibrated for counter-battery and all surveillance and aerial assets in the area we might normally have been able to tap into have been wrecked; we got no point of origin, we'd be shooting blind!"

Osiris opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was drowned out by the loud scream of an incoming mortar, and then several things happened simultaneously. There was a loud shriek of metal as something detonated just on the other side of the portside hull, causing the hull to visibly buckle and the entire submarine to shake. The shrill of alarms and cries of fear followed as a number of screens went blank before automatically rebooted.

"Helm, left full rudder!" Osiris roared and Godwin grabbed a nearby console for support as the sub made a sharp turn and two more explosions ripped through the water, though each subsequent one just a bit further than the last. "Shift your rudder!"

"Shift my rudder, aye sir!"

"What the hell just happened!?" Godwin couldn't help but exclaim as the sub righted itself.

"Covies almost had our number!" a nearby crewman yelled, sweat pouring down their neck. "Our sail got clipped by a plasma mortar that detonated within three meters of our portside hull! Fortunately they messed up their correction and walked their mortars away from our position, otherwise we'd be chatting with Davy Jones right now!"

"Damage report!" Osiris was saying at the same time.

"Minor damage to the uppermost sail! Restoration drones already on station and I've got sounding and security sweeping the rest of the boat, but so far, it looks like we got lucky and hull integrity was not compromised! But I would not recommend we try that again!"

"Agreed," Osiris grunted. "COB, give me a sounding and distance to open waters."

"Sounding, four two meters, distance, two point three klicks from open waters!"

"Still too shallow. We need to increase speed. All engines ahead, flank!"

"All engines ahead, flank, aye sir!"

"Sitrep on those mortars?"

"Mortars have… they've stopped firing, sir! I don't understand but all guns have ceased! Did they run out of ammo?"

Godwin's head snapped up at that, and he opened his mouth to shout out a warning-

"Air contacts! Sir, I just picked up multiple Bandits on long range radar! We're tracking incoming Bandits coming from the north, the east, northeast, north-north east… we've basically got incoming from all fucking direction, sir!"

"Calm yourself, Sailor, or you're going to be finding yourself manning another position. Give me a distance and bearing of the closest Bandits."

"Nearest Bandit is forty-five klicks away and closing fast! Approaching from the northeast bearing zero three four!"

"Distance to open waters?"

"One point five klicks, sir!"

"We need just a little bit more time," Godwin heard Osiris murmur. "Weaps! Make all torpedo tubes ready with more ASGMs and standby all VLSs. Give me a firing solution on all closest aerial targets, one missile per aircraft; I don't care if they hit or not, but hopefully it'll at least force them to evade and slow them down!"

"Aye, Captain! All tubes and VLSs ready in all respects! Acquiring firing solution… firing solution acquired!"

"Release all batteries! Fire, FIRE!"

"Aye, sir! Engaging kill tracks starting from those closest to the boat. Torpedo tubes one… three… four… and two, all away! Engaging with vertical launch system! Tubes three… six… nine… and twelve, away! Tubes one… four… seven… and ten, away!"

As the weapons officer continued to confirm launches, Godwin glanced at the exterior bow cameras where the Seahorse was spamming ASGMs from all twelve of her vertical launch tubes. As soon as the rounds were cleared of the sub, they rocketed off, each missile heading in a separate direction independently of each other.

"- and eleven, away! Sir, all missiles are away!" the weapons officer cried.

"COB, distance to open waters?"

"Nine hundred meters and dropping, sir!"

Godwin nervously glanced towards the submarine roof where he could hear the water rushing over the hull just above their heads, showing just how fast they were moving through the water. But were they moving fast enough?

"Radar, give me a status update on those birds."

"All missiles are locked on and tracking their targets. Initial missile impact in five sec- it's gone! Lead missile just blew up! Kill Track 1-Alpha just shot it out of the sky! Kill Track 1-Alpha is now thirty klicks away and closing! Bearing- oh, shit, they just fired! Vampire, vampire, vampire! Two plasma torpedoes, bearing zero three four! Locking onto our positions and closing fast!"

"Distance to open waters?"

"Four hundred meters- wait! We just cleared the continental shelf! Sounding, ninety meters and dropping away!"

"Sir, Vampires are thirty second to impact!"

"COB, emergency crash dive! Follow the continental slope all the way down to the ocean floor! Dive, dive, DIVE!"

Klaxon alarms blared over Godwin's head as the submarine very abruptly pitched forward, the bow slipping under the water with the rest of the boat quickly following. Godwin hurriedly wrapped his arms around a nearby support strut as the deck started sloping forward, going from a five degree angle to ten degrees to fifteen degrees to twenty-five degrees. At the same time, the depth readings on a nearby screen continued to tick downwards: five meters. Ten meters. Twenty meters. All the while, all sorts of ominous creaking and groaning filled the corridors as Seahorse struggled to maintain integrity.

"Plasma torpedo impact in five… four…"

"All hands, brace for shock!"

There was a loud rumble overhead and Godwin could feel the moment the shockwave caught up to them as the entire submarine shook, but all in all, it was nowhere near as violent as the earlier near miss with the plasma mortar. Yet, the Seahorse continued to dive at a steady pace.

"Why are we still diving!?" he couldn't help but ask. "Covies don't have any weapons that could hit us directly this far underwater, do they?"

"They don't have to!" Osiris yelled back, his voice strained as he fought to remain upright. "All they have to do is generate a large enough explosion, displace enough water, and the increased overpressure against our hull could rip us apart! We need to go- "

"Sir, we're picking up on a new contact! Massive tonnage!" the sensor technician suddenly yelled.

"What does that me- "

"RADIATION SPIKE! My God, how are we picking this up through all this water!? We're reading nine hundred röntgens from the new contact and climbing fast!"

A cold wave of terror immediately shot down Godwin's spine.

"THAT'S A PLASMA LANCE! COVIES ARE ABOUT TO FIRE A PLASMA LANCE!" he started screaming. "EVADE! EVADE!"

"Thirty-five degrees starboard!" Osiris roared.

Without warning, the entire world seemed to disappear in a flash of white light as all noise was drowned out by a chorus of ringing. Later, Godwin would be forced to admit he had to have been imagining all of this because between the water and the metal hull there was no way he could have seen what he thought he saw, but for a brief moment, he could have sworn he saw the plasma lance slicing through the Indian Ocean as the Covenant made one last attempt to take out the sub and her entire crew…

And then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. But that didn't necessarily mean they were out of danger.

"COB, zero bubble, engines all stop," Osiris barked, looking remarkably unruffled for someone who nearly just got atomized. "Everybody else, shut it down! Go silent!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Godwin could see the crew exchanging dubious looks.

"Sir, that ship is still above us," someone noted. "Are you sure we shouldn't be booking it from the area? Don't the Covies have us dialed in?"

"I have no idea," Osiris freely admitted. "I have no idea if they were firing blindly into the water, or if they have an exact lock onto our position. First Sergeant?"

Godwin shook his head. Ship to ship combat was hardly his area of expertise, much less submarine warfare.

"Therefore, in the absence of solid confirmation, we'll resort to what we do best," Osiris continued. "We disappear. Go silent."

"Aye, sir," the crew replied and pretty soon, all noise from the ship disappeared. And then they waited.

And waited.

The minutes ticked by and Godwin strained his ears, trying to hear something – anything – besides the beating of his heart. Eventually, Osiris spoke up.

"Radar? Sonar? Anything?" he quietly asked.

The crewmen shook their heads.

"Hydrophone?"

Godwin glanced at the technician pressing their headset against their ears.

"Nothing, sir," they finally said after a few moments of listening. "I think we're in the clear."

"Good," Osiris said as he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his brow and as he did, Godwin could see his hands trembling. "COB, set heading to one one zero, engines at half speed."

"Get us the fuck out of here."

General Notes

- Maritime navies, or "Wet Navies" exist in canon, making an appearance in several official Halo media, most notably in Halo 3 where, canonically, two maritime supercarriers participated in the Battle of Mombasa. Both are visible outside the boundaries of the multiplayer map "Longshore," which is set along the shores of Old Mombasa.

- on that note, submarines also exist in canon, with one – the SS Murrill – making an appearance in the Halo 5: Guardian multiplayer map "Fathom," though unlike the attack submarine that appears in this story, that one appears to be a submersible, or mini-sub

- Doctor Ruth Charet is a canon character. In the post-Covenant War era, she gets elected as the President of the Unified Earth Government. I assume this means she was already a high ranking politician before the war ended, but what position she held is unknown; "Interior Minister" is a position I made up for this chapter, and not a canonical political position of the UEG.

- UEG Security Service is not a canon service; they're intended to be the UEG equivalent to the United States Secret Service, who also protect certain members of POTUS's cabinet. "Security Service" seems to be the more common name for international equivalents to the USSS; there's also a US agency that has a similar role to the Secret Service called the "Diplomatic Security Service" or DSS.

- in canon, there exists both an "ASGM-7" and "ASGM-10" missile; both are anti-air/anti-ship missiles and seem to do the same thing, so I'm assuming the number at the end is merely indicative of the launch platform, with the "ASGM-7" designed for surface-to-air batteries while the "ASGM-10" is the air-to-air/space-to-space designation, as it is the main missile used by GA-TL1 Longswords. For the purpose of this story, I've introduced the "ASGM-9," which is the underwater launched version.