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Spartan III's, Chapter 6, Battles of the Sea
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 11 November 2003, 10:15 PM
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(Note: I've gone back through my stories to see what I have done wrong, and am going to try to improve them. First of all, I will start to use HBO code. Second, even though it is late in the story, I will try to give my characters, well.....more character, and third and most importantly, I will CHECK MY WORK. With these three things combined I am hoping that this will be the best story of this series yet. Enjoy!!)
"What? What do you mean Cortana?", the chief said.
Cortana practically screamed at him, she had never shown such emotion since he had brought Spark to the Control room on Halo, "What do I mean? What do I MEAN?!? I THINK ITS REALLY SELF EXPLANATORY CHIEF....", she was about to continue, when all the sudden a huge explosion rocked the room, out of the corner of his eye the Chief saw a ball of blue-white flames. Instinctively he turned and crouched, facing what had once been a door. Two marines that had been nearby were at now lying broken and burned on the floor, dead.
Out of the hole, Grunts came followed by a half dozen Jackals and a pair of Elites. Everybody in the room let loose a volley of fire and grenades and the group was decimated within seconds, but they had been cannon fodder. The real assault force came right behind them, three pairs of Hunters, a dozen Brutes, and three Gold field commander Elites with a bunch of Grunts of Jackals behind them. This was a sweeper force.
As he kept firing, Cortana yelled "Chief, we cant hold these guys off, we have to retreat, drop the nuke, and lets get the hell outta here", she yelled.
She was right, he grabbed her from the control console, inserted her in his suit, and, with one hand firing his plasma rifle, took out the HAVOK nuke and set the default time. 20 minutes, that's all they had. He threw the nuke down below and jumped down after it. He landed, his shields absorbing the impact, and raced for the door they came in.
The other followed his lead and came to the door. Marines, wounded and non-wounded alike, rushed or stumbled through the door, with the Spartans covering them. Except for Hunter and Glock.
He looked to the north-west corner of the room and saw what he feared most. Glock had stayed behind and was trying to help Hunter get up with one hand, and keeping the Covenant at bay with the other. What was he doing? He knew his training, he knew that in a hot combat situation like this that the wounded had to be sacrificed, yet in spite of that he was still trying to save him. But the chief knew what Glock was thinking. They had already lost one Spartan, two......it would be to much of a loss. But still, goddamit
"GLOCK? What the hell are you doing, come on soldier, you need to....", but he was cut off. A grenade had caught on to him and exploded, taking them both. He stood in utter shock, that was a loss of three Spartans. Three of his squad, but he jolted back to reality when one of the sword carrying bastards rushed him. He let loose a salvo of plasma and backed through the doorway and it shut closed. There was a loud bang as a plasma grenade was set off on the other side, followed by a scream, then silence. Those that had managed to get through in time were there, all having glazed looks about them.
He looked at the timer in the top right corner of his HUD which read 18:32:12 and said, "What the hell are you waiting for, the nuke has been set, LETS MOVE!!!"
This seemed to hit the marines like a drill Sergeants stun batton and they moved, three hefting the Prophet over their shoulders. The Spartans were green blurs as they sprinted as fast as they could, the marines followed, those that could not were left behind. There was no time to play savior. They made excellent time since they were facing no opposition....until they came down the final stretch. Three red armored Major Elites stood, blocking the entrance to the docking bay. The Chief considered shooting them, but then read his timer. 01:02:58. There was no time to engage.
As soon as they got in range the Elites opened fire, but the Chief ignored the blue streaks of plasma and bulldozed his way past. He knocked one to the ground, his shields down and wind knocked out of him, then he was trampled by Inferno. MC vaguely recognized screams and realized that the marines weren't as strong nor as fast as them and couldn't pull the same maneuver, and they were already spent from battle then sprinting. They were going to get slaughtered, and they were going to lose the Prophet POW. But there was nothing he could do.
He went out of the docking bay door and realized he was in the middle of a war-zone. Obviously the Covenant had launched another strike of overwhelming proportions, and the effect was devastating. Human bodies lay everywhere along with Covenant, using the body count the Chief estimated in his head that the kill ratio was 3-1, one covenant kill for every three human kills. And at the far end he noticed the most terrible thing of all: The Pelicans were leaving. The marines were scrambling to get on the nearest Pelican, but the nearest one to the remaining three Spartans was already lifting off. But then its engines sputtered, and it dropped back down. The Chief didn't know what the hell had happened but didn't care, and jumped on, as did the rest of his team. Five injured marines were already there.
The Pelican seemed to regain control, then lifted off, out of the docking bay. They were a good 50 to 100 meters away, when the ship seemed to convulse, then slowly nose dived towards the ground below. The internal explosions finally reached the reactors and they exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb, sending blue flames hundreds of kilometers into the air. The Pelican wobbled a little as it was caught in the shockwave, then regained control and continued on its steady flight path to nowhere.
Finally, the three remaining Spartans, John-117 (MC), Sarah-091 (Fox), and Jake-212 (Inferno) could take off there helmets and breathe a sigh of relief.
After a few minutes of silence, Cortana said "Well, you could at least thank me for reserving our ride........."
IN PELICAN EN ROUTE TO BRASILIA
The Pelican, who they learned was designated Beta 914, had been flying for nearly two hours. Cortana had long since taken control of Beta 914 so that the pilot could have a break. She had gotten orders from FLEETCOM to take the Master Chief to Brasilia'. Apparently while they had been fighting in the Covenant ship, a major assault had been launched against the capital city and now the area belonged to them. A large amount of Covenant activity was in the general area, and particularly around the Brasilia' city plaza. From what they could gather, there was a prophet there, this one was a Major Prophet, much more valuable than the low-ranking one they had found lost on the Covenant ship.
By now they had already gone over it a dozen times and Cortana was spilling him the gruesome details of what she had learned while in the Covenant database, she was using the team freq so nobody else could hear, "Well, the good news, if you could call it that, is that we've learned the location of every Covenant colony in the Milky Way galaxy. I say in the milky way because there is also a number of them located in the Andromenia galaxy, I don't have the location to any of those. But the homeworld is in this one, it is actually the Elites homeworld, but for some reason the Prophets don't have there own, so that is where the High Prophet is located. Roughly estimated, they have at least 1,000 ship guarding it and at least 400 more that can be called upon a minutes notice".
She paused, then continued, "Now for the bad news. Covenant history 101: Apparently the Covenant started with the Elite-Prophet alliance that 'absorbed' other species, Grunts and Jackals, like we had suspected. Here's where the Brutes come in. On a planet they designate as 10881.002, which by coordinates I believe is Jericho VIII, they captured at least a couple dozen humans and took them aboard there ships before they glassed the planet. They then tried to genetically enhance them, what they call 'cleansing'", she said cleansing obvious disdain in her voice.
"They succeeded, creating Brutes. They mass produced them, then put on out on the market just in time for the invasion on Earth. That's also what happened with Hunters, the Hunters and Brutes are considered 'cleansed', which is why they are in the upper classes. They tried to do the same genetic altering with the Grunts and Jackals but there bodies were to fragile to do so successfully, therefore they are 'un-cleansed' and are in the lower classes".
He nodded, as did Sarah and Jake. It was sickening, there was no other word for it. He felt rage boiling up inside him. Dozens of marines had been raped of there humanity, tossed in test tubes and turned into monsters that the Covenant could use for there own twisted purposes. It was better to die than to serve the Covenant. How many Brutes had he killed, not realizing that they were his own brethren? But despite his rage, no emotion showed on his face. He looked to his Spartans, they had the same emotionless expression. They had been trained to hide there emotions.
This was the first in a long time the Chief had seen either of them without there helmets. Jake was handsome in a rugged way, his brown-sandpaper hair was cut exactly at the regulation 2 centimeters. He was deathly pale of course, a pointed chin, and sky-blue eyes in startling contrast to his hair, but with a look of fierce intensity upon them.
Sarah also had a rugged look to her, but with definite feminine qualities. She had blond hair cut at regulation 2 cm, and blue eyes, but more of a deep ocean blue in contrast to Jakes. She had the same look of intensity, but there was also a barely noticeable look of sorrow. Nobody spoke until another half-hour, when the Pelican took a violent jerk, then started to dive down.
"Whoa, holy shit Cortana. Try not to kill us alright", said one of the nearby marines.
"I'm sorry Private, but control of Beta 914 has been given to Lieutenant-Pilot Conroy, and of course humans are bound to be flawed", she said in a mock-patronizing voice.
The Pilot looked over his shoulder and flipped off the general troop bay area, "Eh, fuck off Cortana., there's some major turbulence here, I'd like to see you try and fly this bird in".
"Gladly"
After that, the ride went on without disturbance, like a commercial jet. "Ladies and gentleman, the plane is now coming in to boat dock designate KILLERWHALE for refueling. Please keep your seatbelts fastened and tray tables in there upright and locked position, as I am now giving control back to Conroy, who will inevitably kill us all by his poor flying skills. Thank you", said Cortana. This elected chuckles and laughs from the marines and even a slight chuckle from the Spartans. But not much.
The Pelican shakily descended towards the ocean, sparkly blue in the sunset. In the distance there was a gray oval structure, as they came closer it became recognizable as a ship. Sea ships had long ago been dubbed 'worthless' as battles were no longer fought in the water, until the Covenant had come. In 2102, they had officially moved the navy up into space, and those few personnel that remained in the water were also dubbed worthless. Then when the Human-Covenant war started, they had been given new names: Cowards. But now the rust-buckets were being put to use, but there weaponry was outdated by a couple hundred years, so they weren't really effective. Some had gotten a huge overhaul, and the KILLERWHALE was one of them. It was updated with a MAC gun and AK archer missiles, basically underwater Archer missiles.
It was roughly oval shaped, with an 'open' airbase on the top, and a large jutting gun that was the MAC gun. With his enhanced eyesight he could see around 50 dark spots in the ocean surrounding the KILLERWHALE, escort submarines. They had really beefed up the security in the water.
As they got closer, he could see a lot of activity on the open airbase around one particular pad, which he realized was the pad they were designated to land on. The Pelican hovered for a few feet over the ground, then detached its landing gear and touched down. Four navy personnel were waiting for them, M6D's clipped at there sides, along with medical staff to pick up the wounded soldiers they had had on board. While the medics walked the marines out (for most of them were not seriously wounded) the Spartans decided to go outside and stretch.
The NAVY personnel disbanded as soon as soon as they saw that there were no enemy borders, so the Spartans had the pad to himself. Jake arched his back, Sarah yawned, and John stared out at the sunset. However, these seemingly non-threatening gestures awed the crowd of marines and tech personnel that had gathered around to gawk at them, but they barely noticed.
"Don't get to comfy Chief, as soon as are Pelicans refueled were leaving. It'll only take about fifteen minutes", said Cortana, who he had inserted in his suit before exiting the Pelican.
He nodded, "Understood. But while were here we might as well stock up on ammo, since I don't think there are any ammo caches between here and Brasilia'".
"Alright, I'm going to try and de-encrypt some more of that information I found on the Covenant ship and see if I can squeeze any more useful information out of it", she replied.
"Understood", he could feel Cortana's cold liquid presence withdraw from his mind. He turned to one of the NAVY personnel that had gathered around to stare at them, "Where's your armory soldier?", he asked.
The marine looked at him with a stupid gape, looked left and right, then realized he was talking to him, "Its umm.....on deck 2, corridor 9, sublevel umm....7", he said.
He gave another nod to the marine and turned to his Spartans. Jake was on the other side of the pad, staring out at the sunset, and Sarah was talking to one of the Marines, and he staring dumbfounded at her.
"Spartans, follow me. Were moving to the armory to stock up then coming back to the Pelican", he called to them.
They both flung there hands up and replied "Yes Sir!", then followed him as he took an elevator down to deck 2, sub-level 7. They were dropped off at corridor 1 and continued on down 8 more corridors until they found the armory. There were numerous weapons, mostly Battle Rifles or Sniper rifles, the standard S2 AM's, a few shotguns, and a surprising amount of outdated Assault Rifles, but non of the top-notch weapons they were used to receiving. Just when he was about to make do, he saw a door at the far end of the armory with a sign over it that read 'Spec Ops Equipment'. There rank as Spartans considered them Spec Ops, so the Chief motioned his team to follow him through the door. They entered another armory, similar to the one they had just been in, but with better weapons, and five ODSTS to gawk at them. Battle Rifles, Shotguns, CP sniper rifles, Sub-machine guns, M6D's, and Rocket Launchers lined the walls.
The Spartans ditched the plasma weapons and traded it in for some good old UNSC weapons. The Master Chief grabbed a Battle Rifle and twelve extra clips, two Sub-Machine guns, and six frag grenades. Fox grabbed a CP sniper rifle and found, much to her delight, an MX sniper rifle with ammo tucked away in a corner. She also brought along a M6D and six frag grenades. Finally, Inferno got his hands on a Flamethrower again, along with an M90 Shotgun, and six frags. When they were all geared up, they went back and took the lift topside, the ODSTs staring after them. They exited the titanium doors and into the waning light, and were moving back towards there Pelican, when all the sudden he KILLERWHALE rocked and the Spartans were almost thrown off there feet.
MC looked over towards the ocean and saw why. A large purple teardrop shaped structure, like a giant Seraph, had risen out of the water and fired at them. He stared as an red/orange glow fixated around the front of the ship, and another plasma torpedo was fired. The KILLERWHALE tried to move out of the way, but 300 tons of metal and steel were not fast enough to outrace the speeding plasma. The second bolt hit there flank, along the midline. Meters of titanium A plating caved into revel decks upon decks of the ships interior. Meanwhile, several slots on the sides of the ship opened up and dozens upon dozens of Banshees flew out, followed by numerous Phantom and Bandit drop-ships. The air of calm that had been about when the Spartans first arrived had vaporized into thin air. Dozens of alarms were blaring, drill Sergeants were trying to rally there troops for anti-boarding actions, and Skyhawks were trying to lift off in time to repel the wave of Banshees. Many failed. Nearly 2/3 of the Skyhawk fleet was still grounded when the Banshees got there, they were immediately taken out. Those that were in the air, now found themselves outnumbered. Dozens of Bandits and Phantoms were clearing away landing zones with there Shade guns, dropping an assortment of Covenant troops, then flying back towards the Covenant ship to grab another load.
Finally the MAC gun charged and fired its huge white-hot titanium shell. While the MAC round cut dozens of Banshees and Drop-ships out of air and nailed the Covenant ship in the backside, apparently only minimal damage was done and it returned fire with a few more pulse lasers, which cut through the already weakened titanium plates. One of the Banshee's targeted the MAC propulsion accelerator. It fired in a fury of plasma, then switched to fuel rods to no avail, then finally did a kamikaze dive strait into it. The ensuing explosion had the desired affect and disabled the MAC gun for good. Damaged and unable to fight, there was no doubt that the KILLERWHALE was now a sitting duck.
The Master Chief turned to his two remaining squad members, "Come one Spartans, to the drop-ship NOW!!", his voice clearly cut through the sounds of battle. For the second time the Spartans sprinted to Beta 914, ignoring hasty plasma bolts sent there way by the Covenant they passed. They were within several meters when a Banshee swooped down and fired a green explosive projectile at it. The Pelican exploded in a ball of flame, the entire cockpit consumed, flames licking at the dual engines. The Banshee and a buddy of his turned there attention to the Spartans. They aimed a volley of fire at one, it wobbled and retreated, the other fired two fuel rod shots, flew over them and prepared for another strafing run, when it was ambushed by one of the Skyhawks 50mm Auto Cannons and blew apart. Thankfully those two fuel rod shots missed and the Spartans were unharmed.
"CHIEF, THERE'S TWO SKYHAWKS LEFT ON DOCKING PADS A2 AND A3, HURRY BEFORE SOMEBODY NABS THEM OR THE COVENANT GET THEM", she had to scream over the sound of gunfire, a group of Grunts and Jackals were giving some Navy personnel a rough time.
A nave marker appeared on his hood, "Follow me Spartans, double time it NOW!!", he yelled. The A pads were on the other side of the ship. A drop-ship had had the foresight to drop a Shade gun right in the middle of there way. The Grunt gunner turned and fired, two blue rookie Elites noticed there Grunt companion fire, and added there own plasma bolts to the flurry. Immediately Fox took a knee and fired her MX, the C-4 bullet make scrap metal out of the anti-infantry gun. The two Elites were in the process of falling back without there cover fire when MC and Inferno unleashed there bullets (fire in Inferno's case fire) which took the Elites down. They got back up and continued running. There they were. Two Skyhawks were sitting with each other, side by side.
Skyhawks in general tended to be less well armed than Longswords, but could fly circles around them. MC bolted for the one of the left, Inferno and Fox, the one on the left. MC raced up the entry ramp, and hit the auto-shut switch behind him, as did the other Spartan III Skyhawk. MC inserted Cortana's AI cube in the ships control board. As soon as she was integrated into the controls, she took control and flew off, away from the battle.
"Okay, best available route out of here is....344.1 by 6771.12. Okay, this bird has enough fuel to make it to the Brazil west coast. From there were going to have to find a ride inland....".
But she stopped as all the sudden Inferno's panicked voice sounded over the intercom: "Multiple boogies on us chief we cant....", a loud bang was heard, followed by Fox's voice, "We've been hit, our backtail is completely on fire, trying to rotate the Auto cannons now...." Another bang, "MAY DAY MAY DAY, were going down!!!"
P.S. I hope this proves to be a good story
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