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Starship Daybreak Part 1 (Revised Version): Bye-Bye Pillar, Hello Halo
Posted By: Domitri Giovanni<foehammer_master@yahoo.com>
Date: 7 January 2003, 4:03 am
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The story of the Master Chief, it lead to the end of Halo... supposedly there were no survivors, with the exception of the Master Chief, Cortana, and the unknown of 343 Guilty Spark; but after the fall of the Pillar onto the ring, a small craft was able to escape, on nearly the opposite side of the Halo, it was human, filled with approximately 300 marines and technicians who survived the Pillar's fall. It was small enough to pass through the Covenant scouts and large enough to house the soldiers, but only stable enough to survive in the harsh extremes of space for a few months. The ship was called the Daybreak, it was meant for travel between interstellar installations, as a troop transport. It was called a "Lemming Ship". It was commonly tagging along to larger ships, following them every where and meant to transport a mass of men without having to risk getting the bulky ship to close to an installation so as to crash into it, for the ship may have been smaller than the Pillar, but not small enough to fit 'under its wings.' It was unsung in the tale of the Master Chief, and was never heard from after the fall of the Pillar of Autumn, but the story of this ship, in which it saved these soldiers and brought hope to the earth, from where nobody would expect it will be told... This is the story of the starship Daybreak...
It will start where the Pillar fell, at its escape. It originally landed onto the opposite part of the ring, the reason why is probably to get as far away from the Covenant as possible, the reason for landing on the ring is believed to be system failure in the engine... but it transported nearly three hundred marines, in a thirty compartment ship, with each compartment holding ten bunks, it was fit with a cafeteria to hold 50 or so men, a lounge for lounging, and a galley fit with stocks of food. It also carried eight warthog jeeps and a well-equipped armory. The ship also had cargo two cargo decks, loft, mid, and bottom. It was uncomfortable, but what it was meant for, it took its time across the diameter of the Halo, but made it to the opposite in approximately an hour. The ship had experienced a malfunction in its engines due to plasma blasts from Covenant crafts. Surprisingly they weren't followed across the diameter, probably because they 'wounded the bird and it cannot fly, now they wait for it to die.'
The landing was rough, tough for even the best of soldiers, the engine was acting up and wasn't cooperating with the pilot's commands. Some of the men could feel the ship rattling under the atmospheric entry. The pilot spoke over the intercom when they landed, or more like crashed onto a desert-like area.
"Well, we've landed" The smirk of the announcer could be heard over the intercom, "We'd like you to remain seated until we pull up to the gate and come to a complete stop; have a nice day and thank you for flying Tick Ship Daybreak." *click* The intercom turned off.
The sergeant spoke up, he was Sergeant James Mayn, but most commonly referred to as "Sarge," just like every other sergeant in the Marine Corps. "Boys! We're gonna set up camp here and scout the area, we don't need any Covenant creeping up our ass tonight!" The men got up and started moving around, the twenty men commonly used for the scout and recon filed up in front of the Sergeant.
"Ready for orders, sir!" They said in unison.
"Right, right." He nodded, thinking, "Well, do what we always do, get six warthog teams, in groups of two. Each head out an hour and do a counter-clockwise sweep back to the ship. Kill anything that looks like it can kill us. And you two," he pointed to the two he meant to not be in the teams and gesture with his thumb pointing back into the front cabin in unison with his voice, "Come with me."
They walked slowly into the cabin, the Sergeant looked at the pilot and told the two to go talk to him. He walked back into the lounge area and through into the freight lift down to the engine room. He could hear the cranes dropping the warthogs onto the ground as he was lowered into the bowels of the ship. He checked on how the techs were dealing with the engine problems. He had no idea how the things worked so he just hoped that they would and fix the problem. He walked up to the lead tech and asked him, "How's it coming?" he had to speak loudly over the tools that were sparking and making noise as they repaired the hull and plating.
"A little slow," he was more of a mechanic than a technician, but he knew what he was doing, "Plasma residue needs to be cleaned up, we can't quite get to the engine because of it. But the plating is easier, we can get the inside back together, but we haven't seen what the outer hull is like."
"Well send someone out there to see, we don't know how long it'll be until the Covies start an attack..." He started walking away back to the lift, they engineers agreement was heard behind him as he started up, back to the lounge area.
The warthog teams, six total, each sporting three men, went out in groups of two, in opposite directions to scout the area. The three groups, named Alpha, Beta and Charlie, went about an hour straight out, spiraling in counter-clockwise to sweep the area for Covenant, or any other possible threat. The teams encountered nothing, only finding a few of the Halo's resident species, which were unknown to the men nonetheless, and several of the creatures were shot at and probably killed. It was three hours from their departure when they returned, everyone was intact in camp and in the ship, and the repairs seemed to be on their way; everything was going nicely, despite the wreck.
Dark soon fell, and no sign of danger was on the horizon. Sentries were placed on the edge of camps, sitting in warthogs, manning the back-mounted chain guns. Marines started a fire in the middle of camp; they started closing in around it, trying to get warm in the cold air, trying to keep sane in this time of war. The voice of the men was cheerful despite their mess. Soon a song started spreading, "Koom-by-ya, Milord, Koom-by-ya; oh Koom-by-ya, Milord, Koom-by-ya..." all around it went, even to the technicians, who murmured it as they tried to gain radio contact with the other survivors.
Bottles of whiskey were passed around, from the "special provisions." It was only a matter of time before many were drunk, and started talking about what they'd do when they get home, and the families they left behind.
"Ya know, I think we aren't gonna make it home..." Private Manson was holding a bottle of whiskey as he said that, looking around, looking glum in the crowd.
"Now why would you say a thing like that?" the Sergeant smirked, shaking his head, "We'll be fine, fine. Them d***ed Covies ain't gonna do s*** to us! We'll make sure of it!"
"Amen to that!" a private answered, with the backing of the crowd.
The cheer was going in to the night, soon songs started all over the place, mixing the melodies and making it just a blend of sound, but suddenly a noise broke out from one of the sentry posts... the sound of gun fire.
"Covenant!!!!" the shout came from the up-point post, at that situation, all signs of drunkenness vanished as they reached for their assault rifles, looking for any signs of the Covenant. It started quickly, waves had started coming in, steady at first, then started coming in mixed with grunts and jackals as well as Elites and the feared Hunters.
The first wave was of Elites, coming in in groups of three and four, looming their plasma rifles at the men, shooting what ever got in their way. The sound of grenades was heard, and bodies of Elites were seen flying about, making their death cries as they fell to the ground. The night sky was lit up by the shots fired, and the ground was littered with corpses of men and mostly Covenant. After a few minutes, the forces were sent in, Grunts, followed by Jackals, all shooting at the same things, men. All around the sight and sound and even scent of death could be felt, the men fought valiantly, taking what life was still in them and annihilating those who wished to take it. It was looking foreboding for the marines. The Covenant were closing, the men's hope was fading, until a noise was heard from the ship... The sound of bullets, projectile bullets, whizzing by their heads and into the enemies in front of them was heard. A few men looked up, at the ship were four men, each with sniper rifles, picking off the Covenant as they battered the marines.
It was still perilous, the munitions were low, the figures of the Covenant's came in the shadows looming in one after the other, they were over run, and even three of the four snipers were shot from their nests. Rockets were fired at incoming groups, spreading more bodies, the number of Marines dwindled, only half of the number that came was alive, and the numbers slowly dropped.
"Man," Manson's voice split in between his gunfire. "I knew we wouldn't make it..." He shot off his last rounds then, pulling the trigger to an empty clip... he just dropped his gun and stared up... he didn't feel the plasma bolt rushing through his head...
"Pull out!!!" the Sergeant's voice was heard out of the gunfire, he was rushing back to the Daybreak, shooting off pistol rounds. "To the ship!!"
The men rushed back, the jets to the ship started stirring; the sound of the exhaust could be heard. Men fled up the ramps to the inside, people at the doors kept the enemies away. Rockets cleared the path for soldiers getting the wounded and dead.
The sergeant found the head engineer and asked him hastily, "Are you ready?!?"
His reply matched the urgency, "We got the hull ready and engine roaring, take this thing out of here!!!"
The sergeant signaled to the pilot that they can take off as soon as the final men were on board.
It was hectic, the few men that were left somehow managed to get the bodies of all of their fellow soldiers, and the sergeant muttered as they came in 'Never leave a man behind'
Finally, the last men boarded and the ship took off into the air, firing the large canon shots into the Covenant squads; but in the fray were two large blue figures, aiming two glowy, green things at the ship...
"Oh s***..." the captain stuttered, he opened the intercom and shouted, "Fuel rods! Everyone, hold on!!!" The rods slammed into the hull plating of the Daybreak, shuddering it, but luckily the new armor withstood the a blast. The ship lifted off, taking full speed away from the Halo...
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