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Prodigal Son Part 13 B
Posted By: Scott D
Date: 18 January 2005, 5:48 AM
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Scott 079 saw them coming at him, Gold and Silver Elites, they were the best on the ground. Low on ammo and without shielding, cover, or time, he was in the worst scenario he could be in. The plasma streaked past him as they tried to compensate for his running speed, he had no grenades, but there was a chance. "079 this is A36, suggest you fucking hit the dirt right now!" the voice cracked in his ears, echoing in his brain as his body reacted diving forward, they were barely fifty meters behind him when the powerful electric whine of the shuttle's anti-missile system came online.
The massive six barreled gun mounted above the cockpit tracked as low as it could go and sprayed a twenty second burst of its payload. The entire hanger floor lit up with impossibly hot titanium rounds drilling holes into the tarmac. The Elites found themselves in the end of its thirty degree sweep, their bodies perforated by the storm of fire within seconds. They dropped in pieces, with a mist of their own blood settling around them amongst the dust.
"A36, I'm coming aboard, and we're leaving now!" Scott replied pushing himself up off the ground, despite the bulk of his damaged armor, he ran faster than he ever had. Scaling the boarding ramp into the massive white ship he immediately punched the closing switch and headed through the gantry in the fuselage past the wounded and terrified, to the cockpit. Seeing Kyoko there he said to her "sit down and buckle up..." looking at the Corporal "I can fly this, get everyone strapped in, and when we're clear get those cold rooms ready, we need to save oxygen."
Scott popped the seals on his helmet and tossed in the co pilot's seat, strapping into the pilot's seat. He flipped the switches to direct the automatic pilot to his command. Pushing the thrusters gently up the shuttle began to taxi out of the hanger, "you can fly too?" a voice said behind him. Turning to Kyoko his pale blue eyes locked her frightened visage in his "hold on."
The shuttle was on the runway doing a slow taxi, the covenant troops pouring from the streets of the base were being pushed back by the shuttle's turret, plasma fire bounced off the heat shielding of the white craft. Straightening out the craft and readying the flaps Scott pushed the throttle forward, the last training he had received from ONI, how to escape the Covenant.
The shuttle lurched forward in an instant, he knew in the back not everyone was strapped in, some would be hurt by this, some wouldn't be ready for such an abrupt surge of G-forces, but Kyoko was in the cockpit, she was strapped in, she would live. His mission was a success. The racing metal craft shot upwards in an instant from the runway, leaving behind dead covenant and being chased by lethal fuel rod cannon fire. "They won't hit us," Scott said with a grim determination, watching the sky thinning before him, as the blue turned to night. Screaming was coming from behind him, from the hold, from the seats, from the one hundred and fifty civilians behind him.
"Holy shit!" Jorge the engineer's eyes went wide as the burning atmosphere disappeared and the night sky became a nightmarish grave yard for ships and debris. The human fleet was being decimated; the docking ring was alight with plasma fire and venting atmosphere. Reach was falling, utterly and completely.
"Tell me we're ready to jump." Scott said grimly.
"We're ready and charged, but... it's blind... we don't have anything in here, we could come out in a star." Jorge said panicking.
A white plasma missile was locked on them already; Scott pressed the ignition switch, "We'll make it, trust me." Within five seconds the missile would hit them, but in three seconds, the jump was made, and Shuttle A36 was in slip space, hurtling towards the unknown.
Jorge looked at the Spartan with shock and amazement, the disorientating effects of the jump were slowly disappearing, but the massive armored frame still blurred before his eyes. In a second it was gone, and the Spartan was standing, walking back out of the cockpit. "Dr. Yu, we need to get you into stasis now."
The pretty young girl followed him with reluctance in her eyes, Jorge didn't understand what had happened today, but he was alive. He didn't know what this all meant, the single Spartan coming for the girl and then leaving with all of them, taking them all off of Reach. Did the Navy really think this girl was worth so much? She was a botanist, nothing special, but her father had been in ONI division three, it sickened him now to think about it. The only reason he was alive was because of the corruption of the Navy they depended on to protect them.
Jorge looked the Spartan in disgust as it walked away, tears welling up in his eyes, remembering all of his friends on Reach, all of his colleagues, and his wife. His beloved wife, burned down by Covenant plasma because she was in the wrong place. She wasn't near an ONI three's daughter, so she had to die. Jorge held his head in silence. The only sound he heard, were the moans and weeping from behind him, and the metal clank of the Spartan's boots.
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