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Taking Halo: Chapter 3, Bullets, Missiles and Plasma
Posted By: Steele<hoffmansteele@hotmail.com>
Date: 3 May 2003, 2:57 AM
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Taking Halo: (Chapter 3) Bullets, Missiles, and Plasma
Dramatis Personae:
Colonel William Jenkins—1st *MAS Battalion Commanding officer
Major Jason Reynolds—1st MAS Battalion Executive officer
Captain James Armstrong—Bravo Company Commander
Gunnery Sergeant Patrick Myers—Bravo Company 1st Sergeant
Staff Sergeant Matthew Duncan—Bravo Company Sniper
Specialist Nicholas Moore—Bravo Company Demolitions Expert
Colonel Rick Santinez—2nd Armored Calvary Battalion Commander
2nd Lieutenant Jack Hudson—2nd Armored Calvary Battalion C Company, 3rd Platoon Dismount
Lieutenant Samuel "Saint" Ryder—V141 "Black Aces" Squadron member
Captain Jeffery Wayne—Commander of the UNSC Talbot
Lako 'Ikaptammue—Covenant Ship Master of CCS Purity of Spirit
Karen Hunt—UWN (Universal Wide News) Reporter tasked to the UNSC Roost
*MAS—Mechanized Armored Suit
0400 Hours, November 1, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Local space near 2nd located Halo, unknown system
Universal Wide News Reporter Karen Hunt wasn't sure she was going to survive this assignment. She wasn't even sure why she had volunteered for this assignment in the first place. Ever since the Captain aboard the Roost had ordered all nonessential personal to evacuate the ship and get 'ringside,' the fecal matter had well and truly hit the proverbial air propeller.
Her news crew had boarded the D77-TC Pelican they had been given to use and she had quickly followed. From there they had went through a harrowing journey just to exit the hangar bay. And her she was now, in the middle of a fully-fledged space-dogfight.
Plasma and missiles alike hurled by her rolling, twisting Pelican. They were almost to the ringworld, but a wave of Covenant Seraph Fighters was coming up to greet them. She looked over at her pilot. He looked back at her and shrugged as the Pelican inverted and dove, leaving her stomach in her throat. She wasn't much for flying.
Gripping the seat pads beside her until her knuckles were white, she watched a UNSC Dagger interpose itself between an approaching Covenant Seraph and her Pelican, and blow it to smithereens.
She had never truly appreciated a Fighter Pilot's job until now. The only vids the public saw of Fighter Pilots were them getting blown to pieces in order to save a Capital ship. The UNSC considered its fighters to be very good cannon fodder as opposed to Capital ships.
The Pelican shook as a Plasma shot hit it in the rearmost port engine, shredding through the armor there, but leaving the engine intact. Her pilot grimaced and yanked his control column to the side as Plasma Torpedoes sizzled by the Pelican. She turned to look at her cameraman. He was rigid in his seat with his eyes closed and looking very pale. Her supervisor sat right beside him and he gave her a weak smile.
Her pilot, a young Marine Lieutenant, rolled the bulky Pelican through sheets of Plasma fire, with a gracefulness rarely seen in Dropship pilots. A Seraph maneuvered itself on a head-to-head course with the Pelican and the Marine used the Pelican's 70mm Chin Gun to handle the problem.
After a few more minutes of flirting with Plasma the Pelican hit Halo's atmosphere and shook violently. The Pelican's trailing engines glowed red-hot and the rearmost port engine failed, but the Marine pilot managed to get her down into the atmosphere safely.
Around the Pelican hundreds of other vehicles dropped through, most being D77-VT Pelicans, with a few TCs here and there, packed to capacity. Also there were Lifeboats and UNSC Troopships along with a squadron of Daggers. This was turning out to be almost just like the first Halo.
"Lieutenant, where are we supposed to land?" Karen inquired of her pilot.
He shrugged. "I honestly have no clue, ma'am. I'm just going to follow the Troopships down."
She nodded. She didn't want to be stranded on this Covenant infested ringworld with only a Marine pilot for Military support. She'd prefer something along the lines of an armored column.
The COM channel crackled to life, "All UNSC forces, this is Colonel Santinez now commanding, prepare to land on sector fifteen, grid seven. The Daggers are going to give us air support so don't worry about the Banshees."
As if to add to his sentence, hundreds of Banshees came flying up to meet the landing UNSC force. The Dagger squadron, twelve fighters in all, dove down to meet the coming threat, their afterburners leaving a trail of flame fifty feet behind the sleek fighter.
Karen sighed and prepared for more aerobatic maneuvers that would leaver her stomach heaving. This assignment was just getting better and better.
Cockpit of C742 Dagger Space Superiority Fighter
Lieutenant Samuel "Saint" Ryder was feeling good. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was in his element and, besides, in his first combat action he was already an ace two times over. His Dagger was in the middle of an atmospheric, twisting, turning, rolling furball with nothing between his fighter and the Covenant but clouds.
He stood his fighter on its nose and rocketed downward after a maneuvering Banshee. Against Daggers the Banshees were nothing more than annoying gnats. While they were extremely maneuverable, they were also slow. The UNSC fighters could reach Mach 4 in the atmosphere and still obtain full maneuverability, but the Banshees couldn't even break the sound barrier, plus none of their weapons could catch a Dagger, much less dent the armor.
Saint dropped in behind the Banshee and immediately popped his airbrakes. If he didn't overshoot the Banshee before he even saw it. He lined his sight up with the target and tightened his trigger finger.
20mm Cannon rounds spewed out and disintegrated the Banshee into a flaming piece of debris. Almost before the bullets hit, his Dagger had already whipped by the Banshee. By now, the Covenant realized all they were doing was throwing their Banshees away, so they ordered them to retreat.
"Aces stop being so sloppy and form up. We ain't no Marine squadron, so there goes any excuse for being sloppy," the V141 Black Aces commander ordered over the COM channel. "Colonel Santinez has found a spot he wants us to land on, but it's currently in possession of some Covenant Queers. We're going to strafe the living hell out of 'em. Let's do it."
Acknowledgements were returned back over the COM channel and Saint formed up with his wingman, Ace Eight. A location marker beeped up on his HUD and he followed the rest of the squadron to it.
They shot along at treetop level, the Dagger's powerful Pratt & Whitney engines scorching the snow in their wake. Saint inverted his fighter to get a better view of what they were supposed to strafe. A giant snow covered structure about mile in diameter jumped up to meet him. He could see hundreds of Covenant Armor and infantry running about, preparing for an attack.
Saint rolled his Dagger right side up and armed his Twin 20mm Vulcan Cannons (T20VC). As he shot by the target he opened fire, destroying anything in his path. Covenant Wraith Tanks flipped and blew, Shadows seemed to leap up on tails of flame, Ghosts impacted and transformed into balls of fire. The rest of the Black Aces followed suite.
As he pulled up and away a dozen Covenant Seraphs buzzed up to meet them, like wasps after their nest had been disturbed. He slapped his control stick to the left and kicked his left rudder pedal all the way in.
His Dagger responded by rolling to port and slewing its nose around to face the Seraphs. Saint got an immediate IR lock on the leading Seraph, so he pulled the trigger, saying, "Fox Two." A heat-seeking missile darted off its rails and lanced into the Covenant fighter, exploding in the middle of the fighter and turning it into a sphere of flame, shooting out shrapnel on tails of fire.
Pulse laser fire sizzled by his fighter, leaving trails of carbon scoring across his hull. He pulled the stick back as far as it would go and watched as his Dagger's nose crossed the horizon and dropped back around to face the Seraphs, who were attacking the rest of his squadron.
He got another missile lock and obliged his targeting system by launching another missile at the straggling Seraph. The Covenant fighter blew up spectacularly, bits of purple armor whirling in every direction.
Just as Saint was about to send another Seraph a welcoming present, his Sensor Board shrieked, telling him another Seraph was on his six. Instinctively he rolled his fighter out to the left as Pulse Lasers soared by his fighter.
He cut his throttle and dropped his fighter's nose. He held it there for a split second then, yanked it back up. This maneuver depleted all of his airspeed and caused the Seraph to overshoot him. He sighted on the Covenant Fighter's engines and pulled the trigger.
His T20VC ripped the fighter to pieces and he shot through the explosion. Looking down at his instruments he noticed he was low on ammo and fuel. He wouldn't be flying too much longer if he didn't set down somewhere.
"Alright Aces, the Calvary is about to take this Covenant neighborhood and we're going to make sure no Covies that aren't invited don't crash the party," the Black Aces Commander said.
Deployment + 00hours:11minutes:47seconds (Colonel Santinez Mission Clock)/
Hills between UNSC LZ and the Covenant Base.
The throaty throb of the M808C Scorpion's Textron Lycoming AGT-10000 gas turbine engine almost put Colonel Rick Santinez to sleep. He had been awake almost fifteen hours straight and all of it had been spent busy. The Scorpion's engine was known to be an excellent lullaby to people in need in sleep.
Rousing himself, he turned to his driver. "ETA?"
His driver glanced at him over the railing separating driver from gunner. "Around two minutes, sir. The scouts are just pulling back. The Covenant were pretty wiped out from the air attack. Over that hill," he pointed toward a snowy hill in the distance. "Is the Covenant base. Once we cross it we'll be just out of range from the Covenant."
Rick nodded. He wished they could use the Artillery, but the Crusader Self-propelled howitzers were low on ammo and the Artillery Commander wanted to save his precious ammo. So, he'd been forced to plan this attack without Artillery support. He knew just how rare it was when Artillery was used on the Covenant, but when it was used on them, it ripped them to pieces. His one blessing was that the Covenant didn't have any Artillery, the best they could use being their Wraith Mortar tanks.
The Scorpion crested the hill, its powerful treads tearing up the soil in its wake. They roared down the other side and Rick activated the 90mm cannon and sighted on the nearest Covenant Wraith tank.
"IDENTIFIED TARGET, FIRING SABOT!"
Rick gently pressed the firing switch. The main cannon fired and a sharp craaaack echoed through the valley. The Wraith he'd fired at exploded, plasma ripping out through its hull.
"TARGET DESTROYED."
His driver turned the Scorpion and it fishtailed to the left, as a Plasma blast slammed into the area it had just occupied.
"TARGET ELEVEN O'CLOCK!"
"IDENTIFIED, FIRING SABOT!"
Rick traversed the Scorpions turret to the left and fired. Another Covenant tank went up in a radiant explosion. By now the rest of the 2nd Armored Cavalry had crossed the hill and they came roaring down, weapons firing.
Scorpions brought down targets at long range with their powerful cannons, Razor Armored Personnel Carriers took out infantry, and armor alike with their devastating 30mm Bushmaster Chain Guns, and Warthogs took the lead, dropping Covenant infantry by the dozen with 'Old Faithful.'
The battle didn't last long. The humans had always been better at ground warfare. Burnt-out Wraith chassis littered the battlefield, thick black smoke twirled into the air, bodies lay strewn upon the ground, so much blood intermixed that it looked like mud.
The 2nd Armored Calvary reached the middle of the structure, where a large square building stood. Rick keyed his COM, "Alpha Company, set up a defensive perimeter facing the building, B Company secure the outside of the structure. C Company, send a Platoon down inside the structure; I want to know what is down there. Get to it people."
(2nd Lt. Jack Hudson Mission Clock)/
2nd Lieutenant Jack Hudson ordered the APC down lower into the construct. The Razor spun, its treads rumbling on the metal floor. Its headlights illuminated the dark corridor ahead, where there, supposedly, waited Covenant in ambush.
His platoon had been ordered into the structure's interior to eliminate any remaining Covenant that had decided to take up refugee inside. Squinting his eyes, he could make out a suspicious looking object in the distance, but his thermal and NV scans were negative. He keyed his COM, "All squads dismount, and form up. Turn the Razors to provide maximum suppressive fire.
He dropped out of his Razor's command seat and into the troop compartment. The door dropped open and he ran out, followed by eighteen fully armed Marines. The Razors, shaped like a sloped box, but with a turret, were designed to carry eighteen fully armed Marines and be able to destroy a tank or armored vehicle. They did both exceptionally well.
He took a position parallel with the parked Razor, lifted his MA6C3 'Battle rifle,' and peered through the scope. When the rest of the squads had formed up he ordered them down the dark corridor. The Marines jogged down the hallway, boot heels ringing, equipment jangling, and barrel mounted flashlights glowing eerily in the dark.
Suddenly the corridor opened into a large circular room. The room was dominated in the middle by a large pyramid shaped structure. Around the structure dozens of four-foot tall rectangles dotted the metallic floor, like an above ground graveyard. Atop the pyramid and behind the rectangles waited a Covenant force.
The Covenant had been arrayed in a V-formation, ending at the Pyramid. Around the area sat at least a dozen Shade guns. Hudson took all of this in at a glance and ordered his Marine Dismount force to fall back as the nearest Shade opened up spraying argent energy over the Marines.
One Marine reeled back, his finger holding down the trigger of his Battle rifle, bullets ricocheting off the walls. Hudson dropped to one knee and took aim at the Shade. He sighted on the Elite manning the weapon and fired a three round burst.
The Elite's shields glowed an electric white and his aim shifted, giving the wounded Marine time to retreat. The Marine turned and ran, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, the metal of his shoulder armor adhering to his skin.
Hudson jumped up and spun, heading back to the APCs. "Laager, laager!"
The three Razor APCs responded to the command by spinning each tread in a different direction. The vehicles turned a complete one-eighty without ever having to move forward or back. With a screech the ramps dropped down and thudded into the cold, hard metal floor. The Marines ran up the ramp as the Razor's 30mm Chain Gun opened up, vomiting fire at the Covenant forces.
Hundreds of HE rounds shot down range tearing into the now-exposed Covenant forces with devastating effect. The Shades literally exploded in showers of violet energy and flame. The Covenant infantry not behind cover was torn to bloody bits by the large caliber rounds. After only a minute of full suppressive fire, the Covenant force had been almost wiped out.
What few survivors there were turned and ran in the opposite direction, trying to escape the heavy volume of fire coming from the Razors. None did. After the Razors had did all they could do, Hudson ordered the Marines to dismount again and clear out any surviving Covenant. They did so methodically. The UNSC force had managed to capture a Covenant stronghold with inferior numbers and minor casualties. And they were just getting started.
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