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O.C. Tango Red: Welcome aboard the Autumn, Chaos.
Posted By: Shinai Purugganan<hybrid_phoenix2k2@hotmail.com>
Date: 2 August 2003, 4:25 PM
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Operations Crew Tango Red: Chapter Two
"Set up anything that will stall those bastards from reaching the bridge!" Tech officer Simon Keating ordered. He pressed his appointed crew to use any means necessary to obstruct the Covenant from attaining the command structure.
"Spread out around the Marine armory! I don't care if you have to know down walls, just block those corridors people!" The stress nearly overwhelmed him, but he remembered that if any of the crew permitted themselves to give in, everyone would pay the price. The communicator on his utility belt flooded him with uninvited static, until the voice he anxiously awaited bellowed from its speaker.
"Simon…" the incessant static interfered with the man speaking, "…enabled controls…blast doors…transferred control to Lieutenant Hikowa…you're authorized to seal…under your own discretion-" The message shorted out as the hull buckled.
"Chief, you're breaking up! Come in, Chief!" Simon shouted.
Static answered momentarily, then the Chief's voice returned along with a malicious roar. He felt the need to do something to aid his friend sections away.
"Wort, wort, wort!" growled an invading alien in the background.
Plasma discharge followed the terrible cry.
"Chief, they're getting through!" a crewman yelled firing his pistol, "Fall-arrgh!"
"Herbert! Sanders get that man out of there! Simon close-"
Another explosion cut off the Chief and left Simon with static.
"Paul! Paul!" Officer Keating nervously cried into the communicator. He dashed down to the next hallway and turned just in time to watch an eruption of flame fumble a cylindrical supply crate, blocking a blast door from shutting completely. The lights in adjacent section flickered away and walls ignited in plumes of fire. The ship shuddered against another blow, and a crewman flew past Keating.
"Everybody down there, get the hell out of there!" he marshaled.
Unfortunately the boarders opened fired upon the defending crewmen before they had the chance. One crewman received a shot in the abdomen while covering a retreating technician. A fellow crewman rushed over to drag his wounded comrade to refuge. A blue, glowing object sailed past the protective shield and landed nearby the two crewmen. The man kept pulling as fast as he could to no avail. Simon could only watch in horror as the object exploded, sending both of their bodies across the hallway. Their death was not in vain; the technician they covered had reached safety with Officer Keating.
"Seal those blast doors! Move! Move!" he commanded discovering himself back in the midst of stressful ordering. One of his engineers inputted the lock-down code and stood back as the blast door slowly converged, absorbing incoming Covenant plasma rounds.
"Wait for me!" Another technician yelped as the hustled toward them.
"Oh, God. Open the-" Simon gasped while a blue flame latched itself onto the fleeing technician and detonated. The man vaporized, and the blast doors slammed shut. An emerald-clad soldier approached him. Simon paused in awe, and then gathered himself to speak.
"Master Chief, Sir! The situation is secure here. You're probably needed somewhere else!" he reported.
The esteemed warrior nodded in acknowledgement and continued his journey.
"He's onboard. Maybe, just maybe, there's hope on this forsaken ship," he thought as the marvel departed. His respect for the fearless Spartan fueled him with a renewed vigor. All right you two, let's round up the others!" he ordered as he gestured the remaining crew to follow him.
* * *
Paul dove backwards as the communications console exploded. He rolled over and strode over to Sanders, who carried Hebert supported on his shoulders. Yamira, along with Feng and Reyes, approached them with grim looks on their faces.
"Chief, the Covenant have our position surrounded. We can't get back to the bridge area or to the cryogenics bays," Yamira reported.
"Oh, no. We're trapped! What are we going to do now?" Feng panicked. Reyes turned his head toward Feng.
"Come on man. The Chief always has a plan. Right Chief?" Reyes assured. He pulled another pistol clip from his utility belt and snapped it into the chamber.
The Crew Chief crouched in thought. Precious time passed by and his team viewed him with desperation. He finally looked aloft. "Don't worry, I have a plan. We've got to reach the maintenance ducts a couple sections down. I know the way through the access-ways; we just have to get there before Lieutenant Hikowa drains the atmosphere in that section." Meiser stated.
"Sir, there are two Elite-types back that way!" Sanders exclaimed while he filled bio-foam into the unconscious Hebert's wound. "How are we going to get there in time?"
"Crap, well it's the only way. What do we have people?" Paul inquired on the inventory of his crew.
"Forty-eight rounds accounted for here," Reyes reported.
"I'm down to my last clip Sir," Fend said. He shook his head at the chamber of his pistol.
"Well, you know me, I'm a little trigger-happy," Yamira smirked while she twirled the gun in her fingers. She clicked the trigger followed by an echo of the click. The team sighed.
Sanders grinned. "Heh, Hebert and I shot down a couple of the little guys. We salvaged their plasma pistols and three of their explosives," he said, but later frowned, "That's how he took the shot."
"Let me see one of those things," Yamira demanded. Sander tossed over the alien weapon to her. "Hmm, let's see here…" she muttered raising the weapon and holding down the trigger. The weapon simply generated a green aura. "That's odd, she said.
"Don't they fire direct energy bolts?" Reyes implied, puzzled.
"Maybe it's jam-" a deafening discharge interrupted her. She had released the trigger. The console beside the Chief burnt to a crisp. "Any ideas" she asked, grinning at everyone.
"Plasma discharge of a expediential amount of energy compared to regular shots. You guys think it's used to melt objects?" Feng suggested.
"Shields. It's spreading energy. It must drain shields." Reyes stated.
Paul stood and turned toward his planned destination. "Yamira, was there a barricade nearby?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," she replied. She wondered about the relevance.
"Good. Yamira and Sanders, carry Hebert and aquire theose plasma pistols. Feng and Reyes, you two stick with me. You all got me?" The Chief instructed and inquired.
"We sure do Chief," Sanders acknowledged on behalf of the entire team.
The whole crew crept through the emergency-lit corridor alienated from the rest of the Pillar of Autumn. They reached a section where a hose spewed wildly…and a pair of giants guarded the hallway. Paul raised a finger, and then gave the signal. Yamira and Sanders had laid Hebert by the wall and charged the plasma pistols. Feng, Reyes, and the Chief sprinted straight toward the protective barricade. Twin pulses of energy impacted the immediate threats. The invaders groaned and clutched their stomach, temporarily stunned.
"Now!" Paul shouted. He and his assistants drove the barriace into their stunned foes and smashed them into the corner. The aliens howled while their bodies joined the hull plating. Two crewmen dashed back. The Chief clenched the devastating sphere of contained plasma and dropped it into the firing slit. As the object latched itself onto both boarders' heads, conjoining them at their helmets, he dove for cover behind a computing console. A couple cries echoed through the corridor and were abruptly cut short by an explosion.
"Nice job Sir! Great plan!" his team yelled in high spirits.
Crew Chief Paul Meiser arose from his cover smiling "Thanks. Come on people, we've got a maze ahead of us. He and his crew proceeded to the maintenance access-ways joyously.
To be continued…
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