Just about done with halo (the installation) for now. Don't be surprised if we end up back there, though.
Of course, clearing the Covenant off Installation 04 for the moment doesn't end the war by any means. And the UNSC is smart enough to realize that if they can't beat the Covenant in a straight fight, their best hope is for it to fall apart from inside. (Not that having a couple dozen post-Covenant splinter factions running around would be great, but better than having them all united trying to kill humanity.)
Standard copyright disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any associated media, characters, or settings which are properties of 343 or Bungie. This is a work of fanfiction written purely for entertainment and not for monetary gain.
1400, 29 August 2550
Near Covenant Firebase, Installation 04, Iota Horologii System
Everyone was in agreement that the Flood was the biggest threat on the Installation, one that would have galactic consequences if it escaped containment. But there were still other things the UNSC needed to take care of. Namely, the still-active Covenant present on the ring. Even with the destruction of their orbital forces and the defection of many sangheili, they still had a major foothold on the ring.
Most of the UNSC's human contingent would have been happy to let the jiralhanae and sangheili kill each other at their leisure. But, there was no telling how long that would take, or who would come out on top. There would be UNSC reinforcements coming to this installation; the data on the prowlers Admiral Titus sent back to the inner colonies after the Targhee and Pillar of Autumn made sure of that. But it would be weeks at best until then, and there was every possibility Covenant reinforcements would arrive quicker. Denying the Covenant a beachhead on the ring, and sparing the next wave of UNSC from having to do a landing under fire would make things much easier for the next wave of ONI scientists and their minders assigned to this ring.
That wasn't to say that they were going to carpet bomb the ring to kill every last unggoy and kig-yar. Rather, Colonel Gagne and Admiral Titus decided (with some consultation from Chac Lon and Thel 'Vadam) on a two pronged approach of destroying the Covenant's heavy weapons and taking out the ranking jiralhanae officers. The three Spartans were deployed to find and kill a high value target, a high-ranking Chieftain, that had been identified by 'Vadam and the other sangheili. That left the ODSTs and kig-yar to deal with other jiralhanae officers. Like the captain ultra that Team Golf was creeping up on right now.
"Almost makes you feel sorry for them, doesn't it?" Golf-One mumbled, as he looked through his scope at the spectacle below. The jiralhanae captain was gleefully torturing a sangheili, bending its limbs in unnatural ways. A pile of sangheili and unggoy bodies lay nearby, some in pieces.
"Nope." Two responded, as he gazed through his own optics. "Range 850. Three, four, you in position yet?"
"Sights on secondary, and that complication is dealt with. Pay me later." Three responded. Golf Three and Four were a pair of kig-yar snipers assigned to go after the jiralhanae's second-in-command. Even if the ODSTs would never completely trust them, the kig-yar had proved themselves the last several days on the ring. Plus, of course, it would be foolish not to put their sniping skills to use.
"Copy." One turned to Two, who nodded. "We're green, on my mark. Three, two, one, MARK." The first ODST's shot wasn't perfectly accurate, as he didn't bother to become perfectly still and wait for the right moment in his heartbeat. It didn't need to be. The jiralhanae's torso was a massive target, and his round's main job was to break its shield. The other ODST's round that followed a fraction of a second later hit the brute in the head. The jiralhanae captain's armor absorbed much of the energy, but not enough to keep the round from fracturing his skull into multiple pieces around the impact site.
The jiralhanae was unconscious when it hit the ground, and would never wake up. A hundred meters away, two pink beams tore through its underling's head. The kig-yar had done their job.
Aside from a few minors, the two jiralhanae Golf team just killed were the only commanders of any kind at the Covenant outpost. With them gone, it was open season for the UNSC. By the time Golf One and Two's magazines were empty, three more jiralhanae, half a dozen kig-yar, and seven unggoy were dead, while Three and Four added a few more kills of their own. The four members of Golf Team made it back to the waiting Pelican without even a single shot of return fire being directed at them.
The Spartans' mission had not gone so well. The intent was to insert via a single Pelican at low altitude, at night, kill the Chieftain and anyone that got in their way, and get out. But it turned out the enemy Chieftain had gotten things locked down quite quickly after the jiralhanae-sangheili split, and was also smart enough to set up antiaircraft pickets at a distance from his main base after most of ONI's Prowlers left the system.
The Pelican went down in flames, with the loss of all its non-augmented crew. The Spartans themselves barely managed to get away from the wreckage before it was strafed to oblivion by half a dozen Banshees. What followed was two hours of escape and evasion as multiple dropships full of Covenant tried to kill them. All three of them survived, but with more than a few scuffs to their armor, bruises, and strains.
A day and a half later, the Spartans were recovered from their minor injuries, and the UNSC had a new, more thorough. In short, if three Spartans weren't enough to do the job, three Spartans plus aerial support and a platoon's worth of backup on the ground should be enough. The Spartans were again going to be the first ones in. But this time, their target was the Tyrant-pattern AA gun the Covenant had set up on a ridgeline overlooking the approach to their base. It was the heaviest artillery they had, and a big threat to the second part of the UNSC's plan; once the Tyrant was gone, a flight of three Longsword fighters would clear out the lighter AA guns and hit the center of the Covenant base.
Using a nuclear device was obviously a nonstarter with Guilty Spark and his sentinels around, but the powerful (conventional) air-to-surface missiles the Longswords had more than enough punch to take out the Wraiths and turrets that blocked the way for the rest of the UNSC strike force. If not, it would be a very bad day for the humans, sangheili, and kig-yar in the other three Pelicans. Spartans in Mjolnir armor stood a good chance of surviving a crash landing, they did not.
0500, 31 August 2550
Still, Chac Lon wasn't worried as his Pelican screamed low over the ring. The dropship crested a ridgeline, and dropped into a flooded valley. The ring's weather systems decided it was calm today, so Chac Lon got a perfect view of the nearly still surface of the lake out of the back of the Pelican; only the wake from the dropship disturbed it. Not only did he see the reflection of the green peaks around the lake, but the sky was clear enough for the purple and orange clouds of the gas giant the ring orbited to reflect off the lake. It reminded him of Eayn, where the gas giant Chu'ot loomed large in the sky just as this one did. Was it a deliberate choice by the Forerunners to place the ring here? Of course it was, but why? And what would become of his home world once this conflict was over? Chac Lon could change the answer to that last question. But in a few minutes, he would have more immediate concerns.
"Just got word the Spartans blew the gun, we're going in!" The Pelican's pilot shouted back over the intercom. Chac Lon looked over his battle rifle one more time, checking it over. He was getting used to the human weapon, but he'd still rather have his needle rifle.
"Longswords going in! Bet you wish you could see this, the view up here is gonna be great!" The pilot spoke over the intercom again. As he did, Chac Lon briefly caught sight of something wedge-shaped passing kilometers above the Pelican at incredible speed. Every one of the dozen laser-guided missiles fired by the UNSC craft hit their targets, vaporizing anti-air Wraiths and turrets and wrecking the main command post of the Covenant base. Chac Lon could hear the Pelican's crew cheering even through the closed door to the cockpit.
The Spartans, and sangheili on one of the other Pelicans, would be the main strike force that would punch into the Covenant base. Their job was to kill the jiralhanae leader, or flush them out. The ODSTs and kig-yar would deploy around the edge of the base, and kill anyone that got out into the open or tried to run. Naturally, half of the squad of kig-yar on the Pelican were snipers, still using their beam rifles instead of the humans' sniper rifle.
The Pelicans came in low over the valley, passing near the Covenant base. Unlike the UNSC, the Covenant had placed their firebase squarely in the middle of a wide valley, straddling a meandering river. In theory, it would have been defensible, were it not for the stands of trees and hummocks that dotted the valley and provided cover for anyone to get close. As his Pelican passed by the base, Chac Lon saw the aftereffects of the Longsword strike. Thick black smoke rose from the base and wrecked vehicles, mixed with bluish-purple plasma. A few Covenant soldiers below were ineffectively shooting at the Pelican, with multicolored bolts of plasma falling well short of the dropship.
They set down behind a small, tree covered rise barely big enough to hide the Pelican.
"Alright, get out, do your thing." The pilot called over the intercom; Chac Lon and the rest of the kig-yar were already unstrapping. "Call me when you need evac."
"Got it."
"Good luck, jackals. Shoot one of those brutes in the head for me."
And with that, they were out and on the ground. Chac Lon quickly broke his unit into two parts; two groups of three snipers, and two groups of three "shooters". The latter included him and the other kig-yar with battle rifles; they weren't really going to be getting up close and personal with the Covenant, but they'd be at closer range than the ones with the beam rifles. He let the snipers decide where to put themselves; he knew his kig-yar well enough to know they were competent to find a spot.
As long as they stayed within their sector. During the briefing for this mission the UNSC had made it very clear that the kig-yar were to stay out of the base itself and within a certain arc around it. It was for their own good; if things got hectic dealing with a bunch of high-ranking jiralhanae Chac Lon's squad getting misidentified as Covenant kig-yar would just make things worse.
Chac Lon's group was made up of himself, Zhal Ven, and Yag, all experienced kig-yar who'd been with him for years. The three of them ran forward, headed for a pile of lichen covered rocks that overlooked one of the entrances to the Covenant base. As they did, they heard gunfire inside the base. The Spartans were already engaging. Chac Lon sprinted forward and slid behind a convenient outcropping, and aimed his battle rifle at the base.
At a distance of a bit over three hundred meters, it was far enough away he had to give it a bit of thought, but not what any self-respecting T'vaoan would call difficult. His first target was an unggoy on the parapet of the base; distance dialed in, sight on center mass, fire burst. It went down, followed by another and another. The kig-yar in charge of the unggoy looked around frantically, trying to find the source of the gunfire. Chac Lon waited until its shield was turned away, and put three rounds into its back.
The next one to fall under his sights was a gold-armored Skirmisher, clearly one of the leaders of the kig-yar at the Covenant base. Chac Lon hesitated for a moment. For a brief moment, he saw himself, or his sister in the armor. Could he take the shot? Once this war was over and the kig-yar were no longer part of the Covenant, would it hurt if that T'vaoan lived through today?
After a second he shook, and cursed himself, as he squeezed the trigger. That Skirmisher would have had no hesitation shooting a heretic like him in the back. Just as he fired, the Skirmisher dropped off the parapet behind a well. He didn't see whether he hit the target. Chac Lon exhaled, hissed in frustration, and started looking for another target.
Out of the corner of his eye his saw a pink beam briefly flash by well above him. An enemy kig-yar toppled from his perch, clutching a beam rifle. Chac Lon grimly realized he hadn't seen the enemy sniper before it died; good thing his own kig-yar were on point. He dropped back behind cover, and took a moment to check on Zhal Ven and Yag. Both were happily shooting at anything that made itself an easy target. Zhal Ven did notice that there were hardly any jiralhanae shooting back at them. She guessed the Spartans were keeping them busy. Another shot from his snipers, and another enemy kig-yar fell dead.
Chac Lon climbed toward the top of the hummock, where a few gnarled trees grew together into a thick hedge. Resting his battle rifle on a branch sturdy enough to hold it steady, he scanned the Covenant base. From this height he could see over the parapet, and a bit into the base itself. His sights settled on an unggoy lugging a fuel rod gun somewhere, and he fired. The burst went into the dirt a dozen meters short of the unggoy. Chac Lon swore, and turned the range dial on his scope a few clicks up. The oblivious unggoy didn't even notice he'd been shot at. Chac Lon's next burst hit it in the back, killing it and setting off its methane tank.
The T'vaoan glanced toward where the unggoy was running toward. A row of Covenant vehicles, Ghosts and other strange ones Chac Lon didn't recognize, sat unoccupied. Just beyond them, he saw a commotion; several jiralhanae, kig-yar, and unggoy were firing on a structure, indiscriminately spraying any doorway with plasma and spikes. As Chac Lon aimed at the back of one of the jiralhanae, he saw a brief shimmer at the edge of his scope. Active camouflage. Just as Chac Lon was about to fire, an energy sword appeared from nothing and speared the jiralhanae through the neck. The sangheili had arrived.
Quickly adjusting his aim, Chac Lon sighted in on a blue-armored jiralhanae, putting a burst into it as it tried to find the source of the blade that killed its packmate. It barely noticed, its shields absorbing the entire impact of the two rounds that hit. The next burst barely managed to take out the shields, the last round weakly hitting the armor and bouncing off. But by the third burst, the jiralhanae definitely noticed it was being shot at, as bullets tore into arm and side. The jiralhanae stumbled and for a fraction of a second tried to figure out whether the invisible sangheili or the unseen shooter was the bigger threat. As it hesitated, the sangheili saw its chance and slashed its sword into the top of the jiralhanae's head.
As it dropped dead, the sangheili's active camouflage ran out. It glanced in Chac Lon's direction for a moment, before turning and beheading a fleeing kig-yar.
A sudden explosion shook the Covenant base, big enough that Chac Lon could feel it from as far away as he was. He couldn't see the source, but a large fireball rose into the sky from the far side of the base. Whatever it was must have flushed out a bunch of Covenant, because there was a flurry of shots from the snipers behind him. As he looked through the scope of his battle rifle, the part of the base that Chac Lon could see looked utterly confused. Several unggoy and kig-yar ran away from the explosion, a few even dropping their weapons to the ground. A few jiralhanae, and a small number of braver kig-yar, headed toward it. Chac Lon saw a gold-armored jiralhanae captain clubbing a kig-yar who was trying to flee. He fired a few bursts at the jiralhanae. They didn't get through its armor, but they did distract the jiralhanae long enough for the unlucky kig-yar to scramble away.
The jiralhanae captain, looked to and fro, enraged and doubtlessly cursing in its own language. Suddenly, there was a long burst of gunfire, and it fell onto its back, bleeding from half a dozen holes in its chest. For a fraction of a second Chac Lon saw a green humanoid figure firing darting behind cover. The T'vaoan blinked. Even now, the Demons' speed was still hard for him to comprehend.
A quarter of an hour later, the fighting was over. Most of the Covenant forces in the base lay dead; a small number of unggoy and kig-yar fled into wilds of the ring. Chac Lon and his squad of kig-yar walked through the deserted Covenant base, looking around at the multicolored blood spattered across the walls and corpses lying scattered about. A few of his compatriots were taking the opportunity to loot weapons or other trinkets from the dead Covenant, but Chac Lon's mind was elsewhere.
After a short walk, he arrived at a small courtyard, where the sangheili and the three Spartans were assembled. Among the bodies was a jiralhanae wearing chieftain's armor. Its right forearm was almost severed, and its hide was marred by plasma burns and bullet holes. The jiralhanae's helmet covered most of its face, but what little of its jaw was visible was covered in maroon blood. Even so, Chac Lon had seen the covered bodies of two sangheili by the far wall of the courtyard, and Zhal Ven whispered in a hushed tone that Spartan 005 was favoring his left leg a bit. This jiralhanae had not gone down without a fight.
Spartan-117 walked up to the corpse of the jiralhanae and nudged the helmet off its head, revealing its face. The Spartan turned to the gold-armored sangheili, 'Vadam.
"Is this the brute chieftain you were talking about?"
The sangheili bent down, looking closely at the dead chieftain's face. He squinted for a few seconds, then looked back up.
"No, it is not." 'Vadam sighed. "This jiralhanae's face is familiar, but I do not recall its name. Likely the coward Tartarus left one of his lieutenants here while he fled back to the arms of his prophet." The sangheili practically spat the last words.
Everyone was silent for a few seconds. Chac Lon was the first to speak up.
"So, how do we find him?"
"It is almost certain he has gone back to High Charity." 'Vadam replied. "But it would be foolish to try to chase him there. I know nothing of whether the Covenant still holds in High Charity, or if the split between sangheili and jiralhanae has spread there as well. Before leaving there I gave one of my subordinates, one I would trust with my life, a meeting place in case he was forced to flee High Charity. If I could be so bold, I would suggest that we head there."
"Why should we trust them to work with us? You kind has been doing its best to kill of humanity for years, and you expect them to change their minds now?" One of the Spartans, Chac Lon couldn't tell which, asked.
"If they have been betrayed as I have, and I tell them the truth of this ring as I have seen, they will believe." 'Vadam said, confidently.
"I'll bring it up with the admiral. It's his decision, not yours." Spartan-117 replied, ending the conversation.
1400, 6 September 2550
Uninhabited System P-86307-C2
The UNSC Pillar of Autumn made good time in slipspace, and they had arrived at their destination system more than six hours early. Captain Mikulin dropped the cruiser in behind a gas giant at the outer part of the system, and deployed a few sensor probes to keep an eye out fro any other incoming vessels. Now, they waited. 'Vadam had no idea what kind of ship his friends would be arriving in, or even when they would show up. For all they knew, they might already be here! All they knew was that this system was a pretty significant distance away from High Charity or any significant Covenant worlds, so the risk of running into a serious Covenant presence should be low.
Of course, the sangheili were aware that in the event that this did turn out to be a trap, the three Spartans aboard had orders to execute every last one of them. 'Vadam and his group weren't thrilled to be disarmed and be put in that situation, but they'd complained less than the humans would have expected.
The bridge of the Pillar of Autumn was a crowded place. Aside from the human bridge crew, all three Spartans were present, keeping an eye on 'Vadam and his number two who were present. Chac Lon, Shim Vol, and Shaon Tol were also present. If any non-human ships did appear, Captain Mikulin wanted it identified as quickly as possible. If it was a Covenant naval vessel, they'd bolt. The ship's AI Yuri already had a nearby brown dwarf preloaded into the navigation system and the slipspace drive was fully cooled and charged. But if it was 'Vadam's friends or a random kig-yar vessel unaffiliated with the Covenant, then the non-humans on the bridge would make themselves useful.
They didn't have to wait long. Less than three hours after deploying, one of the Pillar of Autumn's drifting probes picked up a contact hiding behind a rocky planet in the inner system. Gradually, the sensors resolved a half-kilometer long craft, its curves and greenish-purple color definitely showing it wasn't a UNSC ship.
Before any of the kig-yar or sangheili could speak, Yuri and his immense processing power identified the vessel.
"Captain, looks like a civilian gas hauler. Probable self-defense armaments, but nothing the Autumn couldn't handle."
"Why is it there? That kind of ship usually doesn't harvest gas from a carbon dioxide atmosphere planet like that, and even this gas giant would be marginal for it." Chac Lon replied. Back before the whole business with the Forerunner relic started he'd owned partial shares in a few similar gas haulers, so he had a passing familiarity with their operations.
Mikulin turned to the sangheili. "Is this the ship that your friend said he would be in?"
'Vadam shook his head. "He did not specify what kind of vessel he would use to travel here. But if he was forced to use a civilian ship to escape High Charity, the situation must be perilous indeed."
"Well, then they better pray to whatever gods they believe in that code you gave me works. Because if not I will put a MAC round straight through their hull. Very well, Yuri, send the code."