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Halo 2: Uprising - Chapter 3
Posted By: Mad Max<madmax6251991@hotmail.com>
Date: 31 December 2007, 12:33 am
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Chapter 3
Covenant Boarding Craft #11045-68
En route to Human Defense Platform "Cairo"
Commander Zavi 'Peutomee was on guard. With a plasma rifle in his right, a Needler on his hip, and four grenades attached to his belt, and iron-glad determination; he was feared by the lower races and respected by his superiors. Plus, on occasion, he had performed some zany feats during combat, such as charge at a Human fortification with two grenades lit and took out seventy-five of the vermin at once, and then sprinted back uninjured under heavy fire. He had a wild look in his eyes that gave the other races pause.
Some thought he was crazy. Others admired his bravery and loyalty. Alot more were indifferent.
But on this day, the Prophet of Regret had tasked him with a special mission. He was currently en route to what the Humans called "Cairo", one of their many orbital defense systems.
He smiled slightly, then suddenly grunted. Stupid filthy animals, Zavi thought, with their primitive technology and projectile weapons. Their goofy expressions and ridiculous names.
The pilot, a young Elite named Torlo, shook him from his thoughts: "All troops! ETA in sixty seconds! Prepare to deploy quickly, as is, we have a special device aboard."
'Peutomee manuvered toward the front of the craft. The dull glow from the dimmed cabin lights washed his maroon armor in a ghostly hue as he addressed his battle group.
"Noble Warriors of the Covenant," he began. "You have all been hand-picked by the Prophets for a special mission. The blessings of the Prophet of Regret have been bestowed upon you all!" He paused for Torlo.
"ETA in thirty seconds!" the pilot exclaimed over the COM.
"Today will be a glorious day for the Covenant!" Zavi continued. "For we have found the vermin's most sacred homeworld. Warriors, prepare for combat! The blood of our fallen brothers shall be avenged!" His plasma rifle hummed to life as the Elites and Grunts let out growls of fury.
The boarding craft was almost to the station. The clamps on the sides of the vessel came to life and quickly snapped into position. 'Peutomee checked an overlay of the Cairo's schematics on his HUD. Their destination, according to the blueprints and radio reports, was what the Humans called a "Fire Control Center." Where the ship would attach would be as close as possible to this location, as well as to ensure a uncontested path with little or no resistance.
Through the cramped viewport, Commander 'Peutomee gazed into space, seraching for the Cairo's sister platform Malta. His mandibles curled in slightly, the equivalent to a small smirk.
Any moment now, Zavi thought as the open port of the craft smashed through a small window, the three clamps burrowing into the perimeter of the window to hold the craft in place.
"Torlo, Usa, grab the package and bring it outside," he ordered to the pilot and his second-in-command. "The rest of you scoundrels stay close and provide covering fire if attacked."
The plasma field covering the front end deactivated. No sign of the enemy...yet. "File out so Torlo and Usa can move the bomb. Take up defensive positions around the hole."
The Grunts and the other two Elites filed out the front and took cover behind various boxes, facing away from the craft. Plasma pistols, rifles, and needlers were raised and ready as a few Grunts sniffed for Human scents. None in the immediate area, a Grunt Major named Turap reported.
It took a few minutes for the pilot and Zavi's second-in-command to drag the bomb out of the craft, sparks flying as the spikes grated on the floor. Everytime the device screeched, the commander tensed. Each noise made could alert nearby enemies. But his motion detector was clean except for the occasional signature of one of the the Human's bombers flying by the window.
Usa had spotted a large push-cart a few meters from the craft, and he and Torlo dragged the bomb towards it. Zavi grinned at his underling's creative thinking. "Great idea, Usa. That will put us ahead of schedule, and that means we can leave sooner."
As the bomb was loaded onto the cart, the bad news came.
"Commander 'Peutomee, this is Field Master Yiris 'Lupomee." The calm voice crackled over his COM.
"Sir? What do you require?" Zavi replied, puzzled.
"The Demon is aboard this station. Tell your team to be extra vigilant," Field Master 'Lupomee explained. "Once the other bombs go off, he'll know what's going on."
The commander silently cursed the Prophet for selecting him for this mission. He clicked the COM and asked, "Any change in orders?"
"Yes," Yiris answered. "You have to stay with the bomb once it's in position, and guard it from the Demon. Once he is killed, activate it and try to escape."
Zavi's fist clenched tight. He was mad at the Demon for wrecking his mission, but he was even more upset with the Prophet of Regret.
That ugly bastard will live up to his name and regret his decision, the Elite thought angrily.
"Thank you, Field Master. I will not fail," he finally said.
"I have faith in you," the Field Master replied. "You're a fine soldier, Zavi. Good luck." The COM light on his HUD dimmed, then winked from existence. He turned to his troops. They were all facing him, including Torlo and Usa.
"New orders from the Field Master." The mention of the rank caused the Grunts to straighten up more, and he began to relay the change in orders to his battle group.
Earlier on, Sergeant Johnson and the squad of Marines had been ordered to find Commander Keyes and escort her to her vessel, In Amber Clad. The sergeant had said that he and the Chief would meet up later, and the two warriors parted ways. Now the Master Chief was just leaving Security A-01 through a small pressurized door, and was now entering what was designated as Hanger Bar A-01. He stepped in to the cavernous hanger bay and surveyed his surroundings, Battle Rifle at the ready.
Down on the main floor were big service crates spaced randomly throughout this section of the bay. A collection of Grunts and Elites were exchanging shots with an unseen soldier. Next to him on his right was a catwalk that led to the other side of the bay. The catwalk forked out towards a massive glass window that covered the entire wall that was directly in front of him. Down where the Covenant were, a boarding craft had cleanly punctured its way through the glass window and its troop deployment hole currently had a plasma-field over it On the other side of the bay was a Pelican dropship, currently not in use. On the first fork closest to him was a Navy officer trading shots with the Covenant using a M6C Magnum. Next to the Chief, on the floor, were a bunch of fragmentation grenades.
He bent over to pick up four grenades, slinging the battle rifle onto his back in the process, and attached them around his waist-line. He picked up a spare one, pressed the "pin", and tossed it into the middle of the Covenant soldiers. There was a clink as the grenade bounced off the floor, followed by a loud whump as it exploded. All the Grunts sailed through the air in various directions, some with limbs missing, others screaming as they crashed into bulkheads and containers, skulls crushed.
The blast only managed to damage one of the Elite's shields. The other one, a red-armored major, was hiding behind one of the service crates. The Elite with damaged shields spotted the Chief on the upper walkway, growled a loud cry for vengeance and proceeded towards him. Before it could manage to leap up to the second level, the reports of the M6C were head and the bullets impacted the alien in the neck, left arm, and on the left side of its ribs. It cried in pain as it continued running, before falling forward on its face.
"How's that feel, you ugly-ass freak!" the Navy officer screamed as he slammed a fresh magazine into the grip of the pistol and continued exchanging shots.
"Nice shot, sir!" an unseen Marine exclaimed, somewhere below. The sounds of a M7 burped from underneath the catwalk.
The officer turned toward the Spartan. "Wow, a Spartan!" he exclaimed as the last Elite fell from the M7.
"Good to see you sir," the unnamed Marine replied from below.
"Keep your eyes open!" the Chief yelled, watching the plasma field drop on the boarding craft. "Incoming targets from the dropship! Open fire!"
The Chief brought up his BR55 and fired. Grunts that had been levitating out of the craft were put down with streams of hot lead. The Elites that came with each wave were a bit tougher, but easily put down under the combined fire of the Master Chief, the Navy officer, and the Marine.
Then the waves of Covenant stopped floating from the dropship entirely. John searched the other side of Hanger Bay A-01 before jumping down to the first floor over the railing. He walked over toward the large glass window.
"Hey, check it out!" the Marine exclaimed, pointing to the outside. "The Malta's already driven off its borders!"
The Spartan's eyes darted about the vacuum of space, looking for the Malta amongst the many other Super MAC platforms before realizing it was almost in front of him. A small fire dotted one part of its hull, and the small Covenant boarding craft seemed to be leaving the station. This puzzled John, as he knew that the Covenant were inclined to fight to the last soldier. But then again, as he had learned over the course of two months, everything about the aliens' tactics had changed completey. The one example that stuck out in his mind was when he, Sergeant Johnson, and a few others had travelled back to Reach and discovered a Forerunner artifact that could bend space and time. It was also where he had found some of the last remaining Spartans, still alive and fighting.
"Malta, what's your status, over?" Cortana asked over the FLEETCOM channel, pulling the Master Chief from his thoughts.
"I don't believe it!" the Malta Defense Coordinator replied excitedly. "They're retreating, we won!"
As soon as the defense coordinator's sentence was finished, the Malta detonated in a plume of fire, the barrel of the MAC gun breaking loose and lazily tumbling upward into space. The remaining chunks of the Super MAC platform rocketed away from the center of the explosion, and went flying through space. There was no sound, but the rumble was felt throughout Cairo.
A horror-stricken look was on the Marine's face. "Ths is bad! Real bad!"
The Master Chief agreed. The Malta had just randomly exploded, and all the Covenant boarding craft had evacuated...which was too much of a coincidence. A Covenant bomb perhaps? Catastrophic mechanical failure? Whatever it was, the Chief felt a sense of dread in the bottom of his stomach.
Behind the Pelican, a smaller explosion sounded. He craned his neck and saw more Covenant enter the bay, partially obscured by a large metal crate. Unclipping his BR55, the Chief spun behind the cover of another metal crate nearby. He quickly peeked his head out to survey his foes: three Grunts and two Elites, one of them a major.
John primed a frag grenade and hurled it around the corner of the crate. A second later there was a flash as bits of shrapnel killed two of the three Grunts, tossing their corpses back through the twisted frame of the blastdoor. He heard one of the Elites growl, and he peaked out and saw it charging him. He quickly fired three bursts of battle rifle rounds into the creature's head, lowering its shield. A final burst to the head and a spray of purple blood signaled the kill. The Chief was grateful when the naval officer and Marine joined in with combined firepower, and took down the last remaining Grunt and Elite.
The Spartan stopped walking toward the bulkhead. Three Elites had nearly killed him already. Was he slipping up? Then again, he had been on the go almost constantly from Halo. The battles at Reach and on the Unyielding Hierophant had nearly cost him his life, and he was feeling drained. Sensing this, he walked to the Marine and asked for a wake-up stim pill. The Marine thankfully had one. John lowered his visor, revealing only a handful of freckles on his somewhat youthful face and popped the pill in his mouth. The effects started to take hold immediately as he reloaded his BR55, bid the Marine and officer fairwell, and collected a few plasma grenades off the dead Grunts' bodies. He proceeded into the next launch bay, which was only a short walk through the blastdoor around the corner.
There was a machine gun turrent set up between two metal "shields", with a dead Marine laying behind one of them. An M6C lay on the ground next to the body. The Master Chief leaned over and picked it up, checking to see if it was loaded and it was. Racking the slide back, a fresh round popped into the chamber and he grabbed extra ammo lying nearby and clipped the magazines to his waistline. He proceeded through a blastdoor to his right into the next hanger bay. A Marine was waiting behind a metal crate, two plasma turrents firing in his direction.
"Glad you could make it, sir!" the Marine said with a thick Australian accent. "Could use a little help!"
With that, the Chief began to clear the room of Covenant forces.
Commander Zavi 'Peutomee and his squad had just disengaged from a firefight with the Humans when he felt the deck tremble heavily. He curled his mouth parts inward, smiling. The first of many to come, he thought as the platform the Humans called Malta detonated.
"Rally up!" Commander 'Peutomee called to the troops. "There's a service elevator that leads to the interloper's Fire Control Center, as they call it. Torlo, Usa, get beside the elevator with the bomb. Me and a couple of my troops will go down first to see if it's clear. Stay here and guard it with your lives in the meantime."
"Yes, Commander," the two Elites replied simultaneously. They manuvered the cart with the bomb to the side of the elevator, and stood in front of it. They withdrew their plasma rifles and aimed down the corridor.
Zavi and the rest of his troops crowded into the elevator, which was really small for his tastes. The odor of the Grunts permeated through the small space, which irritated him greatly, but knew there was nothing he could do. The door closed, a hiss of air was heard, and the elevator descended.
Torlo nudged Usa with his elbow. "Way to get stuck with this detail, huh?" he said quietly.
"What detail specifically?" Usa replied, never taking his gaze off the corridor ahead. "Guarding the bomb or having to stay behind while we get obliterated?"
The dropship pilot grunted. "Well, when you put it like that, neither is ideal."
Usa was slightly annoyed that Torlo had spoken at all. They had a job to do and idle chatter could give away their position to anybody listening in nearby. "Let's stop with the chit-chat and wait for the commander to report, okay?"
Nothing more was said after that.
What a hell of a way to get stuck, Private First Class Daniel Munez thought as he stood behind a metal pillar, his M7 gripped tightly in his hands. He had been in the process of changing shifts when the Covenant attacked. The rumble from the boarding craft hitting the sides of Cairo had done a number on the service elevator, disabling one of the gear shafts, and had effectively trapped him down here by himself.
He had slaved at it for a good half hour getting the gears to realign and work properly when, conveniently, the power to the elevator had shut off. PFC Munez had worked at that, but to no avail. So once again, he was still trapped.
At least, he thought so until he heard the elevator chime. Daniel perked up at the sound of the chime, and prayed that it was reinforcements. He peeked around the corner slightly to the other side of the cavernous room, and his heart sank to the bottom of his gut when he saw what stepped through: a Covenant search party. Two Elites and a gaggle of Grunts came through the parted doors.
"Oh fuckin A," he whispered furiously. Of all the things that could go wrong, why this?
PFC Munez took a look around him. To his left was a set of stairs that led down onto the floor, and the far left wall was a massive bullet-proof window showing a view of Earth, other orbital platforms, and UNSC ships exchanging fire with Covenant warships. Directly in front of him was part of the Super MAC gun's structure, and it fed through the ceiling to the vacuum of space. It had a metal contraption that moved back into a room on his right on two rails, where the charge was built up for the cannon. When the charge was built, the contraption shot back to the center of the room where part of the MAC was and it streamed up through the center and into space. Below where the two rails that held the contraption were was a small covered space that would hide him well.
His only problem? The Covenant were rapidly moving out to cover the length of the room.
Without any second thought, he darted off the elevated part of the room and onto the floor and made a run to his right. He almost tripped out of fear because he saw one of the Elites, the senior of the group, tilt its head ever so slightly in his direction. He made it into the room just in time.
Out of the corner of his eye, Commander 'Peutomee swore he had seen movement. He wasn't alone, as the Grunt closest to where the movement had been started sniffing rapidly.
"Human..." the Grunt muttered in its squeaky, almost comical voice.
"Muraw," Zavi said to the sniffing Grunt. "Go check it out!"
"Yes, Commander!" The Grunt started to scamper over to the spot on all fours.
PFC Munez hid behind one of the pillars in the room and waited with baited breath. He heard the sniffing of a Grunt, heard it say "human," then the Elite barked an order in a language that Daniel couldn't understand. He heard the Grunt say "Yes Commander!" and the footfalls of the Grunt clattered close to his position.
He quickly climbed up the ceiling of the small area he was hiding under and worked his way up some pipes suspended off the floor. The pipes were only a little bit wider then his body, so he laid prone with his M7 aimed at the frame where the Grunt would come through.
Muraw sniffed rapidly as he circled about the room, looking for the enemy. He held his plasma pistol lazily between his stubby purple-black fingers, pointed halfway between the ground and the wall in front of him. He saw nothing.
Elite must be jumping at shadows, he thought as he exited the room from the other door.
Daniel silently exhaled as the Grunt waddled from the room and when he felt it was safe to do so, he quietly climbed down from his perch and back to his previous hiding spot on the floor. He didn't dare activate his COM for fear that the enemy might be tapped in to the network. Munez decided he would keep quiet and pray to God that somebody would find him.
Damn it, the private thought, it always has to be me who gets stuck in the shitty situation.
Muraw scurried back to Zavi and reported: "No humans detected, Commander!"
'Peutomee nodded. "Good. Then let's proceed with the plan." He keyed his COM device to speak with Torlo and Usa. "It's safe to come down. Load the bomb up and come on down."
It only took a minute before the elevator chimed and the two Elites emerged, pushing the cart to the far end of the room nearest to the large window.
"Form a perimeter around the package!" Commander 'Peutomee barked. "Make sure you have overlapping fields of fire!" The Grunts and the other Elites snapped to and formed a rough outward cone shape around the bomb, weapons at the ready. Zavi had one more task to complete.
"Field Master, this is Commander Zavi 'Peutomee," he said over the COM. "My team is in the Fire Control Center, guarding the bomb as ordered."
"Good," the Field Master replied. "Hold position unless instructed otherwise. Be on guard for the Demon, and act swift in the slaying of our enemy!"
"As you request. Zavi out." He killed the connection and settled in. He had a feeling he would be here for awhile.
The Master Chief had just put down the last Grunt from the dropship with his M6C and was in the process of reloading it when the Marine broadcasted a warning and motioned for the Chief to come to his side at the window. In the center of his view, the Athens' boarders were departing.
"Uh oh, I think they're leaving the Athens!"
Just like the Malta, the Athens exploded in a massive fireball as pieces of the orbital station broke apart and shattered into tiny fragments. Another rumble moved throughout the station as the vibrations of the detonation carried through space. The Chief zoomed in his magnification to the max and could vaguely pick out small dots floating free from the explosion: bodies. Human and Covenant. Behind his visor, John's features contorted into a scowl. How many more were going to die? And then it hit him when Admiral Hood broadcasted over the station-wide COM channel.
"Cortana, assessment!" Lord Hood growled.
"That explosion came from inside the Athens," Cortana replied on the channel. "Same as the Malta. The Covenant must have brought something with them." She paused for a split-second. "A bomb."
"Then they sure as hell brought one here!" Lord replied with anger. "Chief, find it!"
"Yes, sir," the Spartan replied. He turned to the Marine. "Get to the nearest escape pod, Marine. Failing that, link up with more men and fight your way off. Understood?"
The Marine nodded. "Aye aye sir!"
'Peutomee felt the second rumble through the floor as the Athens went up, and heard the glass creek behind him. For a second he thought it would give way, but it held. Zavi hadn't realized that he was holding his breath. He slowly exhaled as the COM crackled to life.
"Zavi, come in." It was the Field Master.
"Yes, Field Master?" Zavi asked.
"I have intercepted reports that the Demon is on his way to Fire Control. Be advised, he is coming to disarm the bomb."
Zavi didn't reply for a few seconds. "Then let him try. He will be stopped, and he will die!"
"Indeed. When you kill him, if you still have time left, get to the nearest escape craft."
"Will do." Zavi cut the line, and turned to his troops. "Be on guard! The Field Master tells me that the Demon is headed our way. And we all want a crack at him, don't we?!" The Covenant warriors bellowed in response. "That's right. Now be prepared!"
Zavi had a feeling he was in for a long wait. No matter. The Demon would be disposed of and he would get off this station alive.
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