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The Three Rouge Spartans by LittleGruntie



Rouge Spartans~Part 1
Date: 21 August 2006, 2:53 pm

Heita II
Solaris City
2050 Hours, September 5 2552 (Military Calendar)
Just outside Covenant Landing Zone.

The Spartan looked through his S2 and surveyed the Covenant landing site. An entire district was destroyed to make the landing site possible. Rubble littered the area with some original walls were standing but they were only a few feet high. The Covenant Destroyer floated silently 30 meters above the ground which had tiny figures marching around on. There were hundreds of grunts barking in their own strange language. Many were asleep, tucked into little tiny balls of flesh and methane. The five foot high aliens, that weren't asleep, waddled around carrying plasma pistols and needlers. At least fifty Elite patrolled the area, their plasma rifles hanging limp by their sides. There were mainly blue, some red and one golden Elite, who was commanding the operations on the ground, an ignited plasma sword in his hand. Unfortunately, several Hunters had also guarded the entrance of the gravity lift in the center of the landing zone. Their massive metal shields covered their stomachs and on their arm an integrated fuel rod cannon. The Spartan turned on his comm. and radioed in to the human command post as the huge Covenant Destroyer gravlift poured out vehicles to retake the old city. "Major?"
"Yes Spartan?" answered Major Tom McKenzie.
"We have a problem, sir. The covies are unloading vehicles to retake the city. I'm sending a video feed." The Spartan made sure that the Major got a full view of the Covenant LZ, showing the Ghosts, single-seat hoversleds, Wraiths, the covenant tank and Banshees, the atmospheric flyer of the covenant and spectres, a new vehicle that had been used against the spartan many times. "Sir?" asked the spartan, unsure.
There was a pause as the Major watched the video feed. "Right. Pull back. We can't tackle them out in the open. We would get wiped out by that damn ship of theirs," explained the major, "so we're gonna have to take them out in the city."
"Acknowledged, Sir," replied the spartan as he stopped the video feed and switched off the comm.
The spartan slung his personal S2 round his back and picked up his stolen carbine and crawled back so he wouldn't be spotted. The spartan jogged back to a concealed garage and lifted up the flimsy sheet of metal, buckling it as he pushed up. Inside was a Ghost, captured several days before, weapons and ammunition. There was a BR55 Rifle, or more commonly known as a battle rifle, a M90 shotgun, two plasma pistols and rifles, stolen from their previous owners dead claws, a needler, a beam rifle and several crates of plasma and fragmentation grenades. All of the weapons spare ammo that the spartan could not carry on his amour was strapped to back of the Ghost but still there was more ammo. Hearing a roar of an engine, the spartan stuck his head out of the garage to see a Warthog roll down the narrow street towards him. It stopped next to him and he saw two more spartans on board the warthog. The immediately recognised them as they were the only spartans on this planet. "What you got there, Danny?" asked the spartan manning the M68 Gauss Cannon, a hint of challenge in her female voice, nodding towards the open garage. "Looks like another one of his ammo depots. Hope this is the last one, Danny," said the spartan in the driver's seat, again with a hint of challenge in his deep African voice. "C'mon, this is the last one and when hasn't one of this ammo depots save us when we were low on ammo?" asked Danny he looked at the driver then back to the gunner. "Opal, when have these depots not given you some more clips when you were in need of them?" Danny asked the gunner. He turned to the driver, "Rioja, When have you run out of rockets then came to one of my ammo depots and not found some more rockets?"
Both of them didn't answer but they knew the ammo depots hadn't failed them in the past. "Can you help me take these crates back to HQ?" asked the spartan. Rioja nodded and got out to cover the front of the 'hog as Opal covered the back as well as Danny as he lifted the heavy crates with ease and placed them in the passenger seat and strapped them down.

Rioja climbed back into the warthog as Danny climbed back into his Ghost. Rioja pushed the ignition button and the engine once again roared into life and slowly accelerated forward to avoid attention. Danny switch on his Ghost and it floated half a meter off the ground with a hum. The brake lights cast a red glow on the old buildings in the darkness of the night. After a while Rioja sped up and Danny followed suit. They accelerated away from the covenants LZ and kept going for 1500 meters till they came across a broken sewer tunnel and dropped down the ramp and continued their journey underneath the old city. Danny thought about the mission he was on as they raced through the abandoned city's sewage system. They had been sent here two weeks ago to clear up some covenant matters. They got there, landed on the surface and then the covenant had been destroyed but they were kept on the planet helping the rest of the surviving civilians to their evacuations ships. They had done that perfectly but they were a bit annoyed about getting the 'easy' job. They were called back to HQ and received the new MJOLNIR amour as well as the new weapons like the battle rifle and the new sub-machine gun but there were faults in the gun so they reverted back to the older but more reliable Assault Rifle. There were orders to return back to Reach but it would have taken them over 10 days to get back for debriefing on their new mission and then their orders were scrubbed. Reach was under attack! Unbelievable! The Covenant must of bypassed a dozen Inner Colony worlds. He heard that his fellow spartans, his brother and sisters, had been sent to the surface to protect the generators that powered the orbiting Magnetic Accelerator Cannon platforms. The fleet was getting ripped to shreds in space. The massive MAC guns were the only thing keeping the Covenant from overrunning their lines and taking Reach. Also three spartans had gone to a MAC platform to destroy an unsecured NAV database on the UNSC Prowler Circumference. If the Covenant plundered it first they would find every human world, including Earth. Danny didn't really care about the other spartans. He, Rioja and Opal had become friends when they were brought into the Spartan-II training. They didn't trust any of the other spartans. But that was ages ago. When the Covenant-Human War wasn't real, when humanity were a dominate force in the galaxy. Danny snapped out of his thoughts as he neared the main vehicle bay for the Human Command Post. Marine sentries were posted at the entrance, hiding behind portable machine guns and metal barricades. Rioja and Danny slowed down when they came to the checkpoint. A marine MP walked up and asked,"Identification", in a weary voice. Rioja silently handed over a data chip containing details about the three spartans. The marine punched the chip into a small but powerful laptop behind him and scanned the data, quickly realising the three spartans. "Spartan 0-36 Rioja, 0-106 Opal, 0-142 Danny?" asked the MP nervous.
"You are correct," replied Opal from behind the Gauss Cannon. The marine opened the gate letting the spartans enter the marine base. The bay was bustling with activity as marine technicians fixed up some of the warthogs and tried to figure out the alien crafts that had been stolen from the covenant. Rioja parked with all the other warthogs as Danny sent his Ghost into the covenant vehicle zone. He turned off the alien engine, jumped out and unloaded the crates on the back of the Ghost. He walked over to his fellow spartans and helped them unload the rest of the heavy crates. They passed some young technicians and they stared open-mouthed at the green giants that walked past them. Most soldiers never got to see a spartan up close in full combat amour, over seven feet tall carrying captured alien weapons that were probably pried from the alien moments after their death. Danny liked the attention so did Rioja and Opal but none of the other spartans did. If any of them were still alive, that is. A robotic dolly came up to the spartans and they placed all the heavy crates on it. It trundled away, slowed by the weight of the crates. They boarded the elevator and went to the 1st basement the marine's dormitories. All four hundred, normal, marines slept there along with the twelve hundred ODST's. They exited the elevator and walked left a section had been cleared just for the spartans. There was room for the spartans beds, their amour stands and their personal field equipment. The spartans took off their amour and set it up on the stands. Danny watched the other two spartans as he laid out his personal weapons. Rioja hefted his beloved rocket launcher and span the barrels to make sure they worked properly. Then he set it down on the floor and pushed it under his bed with his foot, so it was out the way. He picked up his favoured shotgun and began wiping it clean with an oil-stained rag. Opal had a small data pad in her hand she was checking out the reports from the other patrols. They looked strange without their amour. Opal's skin was pearly white as she concentrated on the small screen on her data pad slowly tapping buttons. Rioja dark skin was a totally different contrast to Opal's. His black hair was again another contrast to Opal's white hair. Danny looked at his own hands. His too were pale. His electric blue eyes stood out against his short dark brown hair. He shrugged and continued with his task. He set down his S2 AM sniper rifle at the top of his bed along with his covenant beam rifle. Underneath that he placed his battle rifle, carbine, plasma pistol and his 4 frag and plasma grenades. He set all his ammo underneath the bed along with all but one of his personal weapons. His combat knife lay underneath his pillow, just in case he needed it during the night. The lights went out ten minutes later just as the spartans fell asleep.



Rouge Spartans~Part 2
Date: 4 September 2006, 12:49 pm

Heita II
Solaris City
0730 Hours, September 6 2552 (Military Calendar)
Marine Base of Operations, Spartan sleeping quarters.

Danny woke to the sound of talk. He sat up in his bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He looked over to Rioja and Opal. Rioja was just waking up but Opal was already awake sitting on her bed. "Your finally up," she said when Danny had looked at her, a smile tugged at her face, "c'mon we're supposed to be ready." The three got up and helped each other put on their amour. The spartans then picked up their weapons. Danny, slung the his S2 over his shoulder, picked up his carbine, placed 10 reloads for the sniper and carbine, placed his plasma pistol in his left pistol holder but gave his battle rifle to Rioja. Rioja accepted the weapon and shifted as he once again hefted his beloved M19 SSM rocket launcher. He picked up 5 missile reloads and secured them to his ammo belt. He then picked up 8 clips for the battle rifle and stuffed them in his ammo pouch. Opal had a battle rifle, a M6C pistol and an MA5B assault rifle. She then found 10 clips for each weapon and pocketed them along with a data pad. They all walked through the dorms towards the stairs that led to the ground floor and also the command level. They walked up the stairs quickly and located the Major. "Spartans reporting for debriefing, sir," snapped Danny, saluting to the Major with Rioja and Opal. "Spartans, come look at this," said CO, returning the salute, pointing to a radar screen in front of him. The spartans crowded round the small screen, on it many small red blobs moved around it. "Those blips, what do u think they are?" asked the Major, sitting down on a chair savaged from a HEV. Opal answered first, before Danny or Rioja could, "Covenant scout parties."
"Yes! But do you know who their looking for?" The Spartans knew that the major had the answers already but still answered. "Us," said Rioja in his deep African voice.
"Yes!" exclaimed the Major again, "so we're gonna show ourselves to them."
"Sir?" asked Danny, unsure if their CO had gone mad or not.
"We need to get off this god-forsaken planet. Before they burn us along with the planet.The only way is to capture that damn ship," he checked a small data pad similar to Opal's" the Sacred Promise. Promise is a destroyer, one of the best in the covenant fleets, if our information is correct."
"Where did you get this information from, sir?" asked Opal. As soon as she had said these words the hologram hummed to life. A foot high creature appeared as the crystals condensed and formed an image. The spartans flinched as an image of an Elite appeared fully armoured and with an ignited energy sword in his right hand. "Meet Teya 'Albotee," said the Major with a hint of glee in his voice," Albotee is a back-engineered covenant AI. He is the AI that will get that crate moving and will get us home. All we need to do is to put him into the Bridge and we will have control. He has come up with the tactics, times and info that we will use to enter the ships gravlift. We attack in an approximately 2 hours from 0800 hours. That would let us prepare and get in to position. Get your stuff together, spartans, your moving out." He saluted them and they saluted back,"I'll send the info to your data pad," the Major said to Opal. They saluted, turned and left.




Heita II
Solaris City
0945 hours, September 6 2552 (Military Calendar)
En route to the Covenant LZ

The Pelican flew low along a deserted motorway. It was followed by twenty-five other Pelicans. They swayed from side to side, so if they were subjected to anti-aircraft fire they would be able to dodge it easier. All the Pelicans had a full load of ODST each armed for close quarter fighting, just shotguns and assault rifles. The first Pelican held the three giant green armoured clad humans. Danny watched as the Company Commander, Lieutenant Tom Condes, checked his battle rifle, his nine-inch blade, his ammo and his grenades and then slipped his helmet over his bald head. Danny checked his own weapons. His S2 sniper rifle, beam rifle, his carbine and the ammo for the weapons.
Rioja nudged him. He looked to his left and grinned from behind his sliver face plate.
Rioja had leaning against him his rocket launcher, and Danny knew he was grinning as well. He glanced at Opal; she was standing up holding onto a hand hold, looking out the back of the roaring Pelican, watching the other Pelicans follow them.
"Thirty seconds out. Stand by," called the pilot from the front. The Pelican swooped down and swung into a gaping hole in the side of an abandoned warehouse. The pilot landed on the far side of the warehouse followed by all 25 pelicans. One by one the pelicans unloaded their human cargo. The spartans jogged off the pelican with the ODST's and searched the spacious warehouse. Confident that there was no Covenant in the area, they relaxed. Danny read through the mission details on his HUD, he was to gain entrance to gravlift underneath the Promise then he and the other spartans were to split with the ODST's and locate the bridge and take control of it. If it worked the rest of the marines would follow up in the Pelicans that had just dropped them off. But they had to haul ass across the deserted city first. Condes walked to the spartans and told them to take point. After ten minutes of winding through the narrow street, they finally found the enemy. The Grunt was a rookie, orange amour and even better it was asleep. Danny signalled to Opal and she ran across and thumped the little Grunt's head in. A another grunt was awake and heard the dull thump and ran to find the dead Grunt with it's blue florescent blood spilled all over the floor. He was making the decision of telling his superiors what he had seen, when a green giant slammed a metallic weapon in the side of his face. The Grunt's neck snapped and his gas mask was ripped off his face. The gas hissed out and the Grunt's life pack deflated. Opal picked up the grunt's plasma pistols and hung the both on her belt. They carried on and reached the point where they were to split up. Ten groups of thirty ODST troops split off and took different routes. The plan was if they ran into serious opposition it would only be a small task force that would be killed, not the entire platoon. The Spartans went with the Lieutenant and took point for the group. They had barely even gone thirty meters when they ran into blue-armoured Elite. Rioja was closest and dive into the alien figure. But the Elite wasn't alone, behind him was at least ten Grunts, waddling after their superior. They all ran in fright, squealing in the strange language, knowing that they were all about to die. The element of surprise was gone and they all knew it. Rioja managed to stand up and placed a foot on the still alive Elite, to hold him down. The Elite was weapon less and his shield system was down. If the alien was more experienced he would have used his hands to throw Rioja off. But the alien just stared at Rioja as he pulled out a magnum from his belt aimed at the Elites head a fired, once. Danny saw the Elite slump to the ground, its head deformed where the metal slug punched through its skull. Its purple blood splattered the floor. As Rioja holstered his weapon, the ODST's rushed past him running down the slope where the Grunts had ran down a few seconds later. They ran into a courtyard. The Grunts were running up some stairs on the far side. An ODST had a S2 in his hands and brought four of the squealing Grunts down before having to reload. The bullet reports echo though the narrow buildings and Elite along with some reinforcements appeared which consisted of several Grunts, a few Jackals and Elite driving a Ghost. Rioja sighted the Ghost with his rocket launcher and gave the trigger a tug and a rocket whooshed though the air. The rocket hit the side of the Ghost as it turned to fire on the squad. The Ghost flipped though the air and landed upside-down, crushing the driver. The Grunts opened fire on the humans. Plasma hissed though the air. The humans opened up as well, machine guns stuttered, grenades exploded and Grunts were flung across the open courtyard. No-one saw the three green humans climb onto a crashed van then onto the rooftops. Then sneak across the bare rooftop and stop just above a cobalt armoured alien. Opal looked at Danny and he nodded. She jumped and as she came down, she brought her assault rifle down on the Elites neck. There was a loud crack and the Elite slumped to the ground his, plasma rifle fell and clattered next to him. The rest of the opposition was gunned down as they ran from the humans. Only one ODST had a minor burn on his leg. A few minutes later when the trooper was bandaged up, they carried on their journey. There journey took them to a hotel right next to the LZ. They raced inside and made their way to the back. The overhead lights flickering as they hadn't enough power to keep them operational. They emerged to from behind a small wall and the titanic Destroyer hovering above them with its grav lift stretching to the ground. They waited for ten minutes, getting into position. There was a bang then a red flare shot towards the sky trailing smoke after it. That was the signal as the Lieutenant shouted from behind his sliver face plate, "GO! GO! GO!" The response was perfect, all 300 ODST's opened up on the Covenant LZ. Hunters were ripped apart as sniper rounds sunk into them or as missiles blew them to what ever hell they belong to. Elites fell to the ground, as their weapons overheated, with multiple holes torn through their strong bodies. Grunts were sent flying or popped like firecrackers. The covenant vehicles were blown up before they had a chance to move. The humans stopped firing and peered down to see if anything moved. 30 seconds later the entire platoon charged down. They slowed to a creep as they manoeuvred through the carnage, picking up dropped covenant weapons. As they neared the grav lift, a whine was heard which turned into a loud hum. Everyone stopped and hid behind wreckage, their weapons pointing in various directions listening to the sound of hum and wondering what was making that sound. An ODST on the far side of the platoon was the first to find out. "BUGGERS!" the ODST shouted before she was engulfed in a tidal wave of plasma. Everyone fired at the flying bugs. The drones, as they were properly called, had to land as their wings weren't strong enough in atmosphere. So when a bugger landed it was taken down as fast as possible. The entire fight lasted fifteen minutes. Seven ODST's were dead, five had minor damage. The dog tags were taken from the unlucky seven. Danny waited till his shields recharged before stepping into the grav lift. The purple light cast off it made the ODST's look alien. Amazingly, all the ODST's mange to fit in the purple light and after a few seconds they were picked up by a invisible hand and shot upwards towards the Promise. Danny looked up as he was picked up off the floor and sucked towards the beast above him.





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