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Assault on Hatan by Samuel Gronseth
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Assault on Hatan Part 1: Entrance
Date: 20 June 2006, 9:48 pm
Explosion.
The pelican rocked with the force of it, and the Spartans inside rocked with it as they held on to the ceiling handles. Spartan 117, Master Chief, glanced at the pilot. It was a marine, hardly qualified to be flying a pelican, but there was no one else to do it… at least no one else that was alive.
But now there was no one at all. The pilot was slumped in his seat, blood flowing from a wound in his head where a large ammunition box had slid off a shelf and hit him. Master Chief did not need to check him to see that he was dead.
He looked at the other Spartans in the ship. He could not see their faces, but he knew concern was one thing that he would not find there. These were fearless warriors, here to do their job, no matter the risk. That fact was understood, and not feared.
However, this human emotion was more prevalent today than on other missions.
The attack on the planet Hatan had been raging for the last day. The Spartans had been fighting for most of it, being sent from Reach the moment news of the attack hit. Normal people would be struggling to stay awake by now, but the Spartans were not normal. Far from it.
That fact was about to be tested.
Master Chief glanced back at the other Spartans, gave a knowing nod and a hand signal. The others nodded as Master Chief reached for the airlock lever. He gave a subtle countdown with his hand.
Three, two…
He pulled the lever.
The door cracked, and the air in the ship disappeared in a puff of white vapor. The Spartans held onto the handles in the ship and managed to keep their feet on the ground while the air in the cabin rushed out of the open door.
Master Chief looked out at the sight that was revealed out of the door. In the distance, a Covenant battle cruiser exchanged fire with an obviously outgunned human vessel. Longsword fighters wove in and out with banshees, exchanging silent plasma fire.
The feeling of being in open space is indescribable. Master Chief, with all the times he had been in space, still was not used to the silence where human instinct said there should be deafening noise.
Master Chief shook off the wonder and concentrated on the mission ahead. Another covenant ship was moving into position to glaze the planet. Something Master Chief and the other Spartans had been ordered not to let happen.
One ship gone, and the Covenant could not fully glaze the planet. Or, at least, there would be problems and a delay when they could not all glaze at the same time. At least, the Spartans could stall them and allow for more evacuation.
Assuming they got to the ship safely.
Master Chief gave the signal, and the Spartans began to jump out of the Pelican toward the Covenant ship. They flew through the nothingness with a grace rarely accomplished by marines in space suits.
Finally, all 10 of the Spartans had left, and Master Chief jumped himself. Right after he pushed off, plasma fire rained down on the pelican, blowing it into small chunks that bounced off Master Chief's armor, offsetting his course a little.
He flew to the side of the other Spartans, flying to the other end of the ship. It was not a problem for getting in, as there were many docking bays he could get in through before he ran out of the small oxygen supply he had in his armor. The problem would be regrouping after he landed. Fighting through a Covenant battle cruiser alone is not the preferred way of assault. But, due to the lack of friction, that was exactly what he was going to have to do.
After about half a minute, Master Chief made contact with the cruiser. He glance at the contact points of the other Spartans, saw them all safely on the hull of the ship. He then grabbed hold of a ridge in the metal and swung himself toward the nearest opening in the ship, where he grasped the end of it and swung himself into the docking bay, barely missing a banshee that was exiting the ship. He turned his head to see if it turned; if it came back at him, he would not be able to maneuver. It did not change course.
He touched the wall. Before he had a chance to drift off again, he pushed off toward the opening into the body of the ship. He grabbed an oddly shaped handhold next to the control panel and jammed his hand into the door panel, revealing a bunch of wires. They had a grainy texture to them, and seemed very strong. He had dealt with these before, though. He gave one strong pull and they all ripped in a series of sparks. The shield on Master Chief's Mjolnir armor sparkled for a second as sparks were absorbed by it. Instantly the doors whooshed open, and Master Chief swung himself inside. An elite flew toward him, and Master Chief dodged out of the way just in time to avoid it as it flew past him and disappeared, flailing, in the darkness of space.
Master Chief pushed off further into the ship, toward another blast door. This time, he did not even need to open the door; it opened for him. Air rushed out, but Master Chief wasted no time in jumping in, pulling out his assault rifle in the process.
He flew into the room, which was mostly empty, serving as an intersection for other corridors, if anything. Five more doors lined the walls, one on each side of the square room. The only thing in the room was a three-foot diameter pipe in the center with some kind of energy coursing through it.
The only other things in the room were two elites and a grunt.
Master Chief fired one burst into the grunt's head. The first two bullets took out the shields and the third pierced into the grunt's head, spewing blue blood and slamming the grunt against the wall to float aimlessly in the room.
Master Chief floated past the pillar in the center of the room, separating himself from the elites before they could fire their plasma rifles. He aimed his assault rifle and let loose on them as soon as they were back in view.
Plasma splashed across Master Chief's shield, lowering the meter he could see in his HUD. He kept his rifle trained on the elite on the left, firing wherever he could get a shot in order to take down the shields.
He reached the far wall, and the door he had entered from closed with no sound. Air did not fill the cabin, so silence continued its reign.
Master Chief pushed off the wall toward the grunt's body as the elite on the right pushed toward him. The floating blood of the grunt splattered on Master Chief's visor as he flew toward it, leaving the elite behind him to land on an empty wall.
Master Chief reached the grunt, and, hitting the wall, pushed himself off toward the elite he had been firing at before. He pulled the grunt past him, throwing it at the elite. It was torn as the elite's plasma fire, intended for Master Chief, ripped through the grunt's unshielded body.
Master Chief fired at the elite's head, bringing down the shields. The elite ran into the grunt and pushed its weightless body out of the way. The impact of the grunt successfully slowed the elite, and, in the zero gravity situation, it could not dodge. It simply fired at Master Chief, roaring silently, its four lips spread in a battle cry.
Master Chief fired at the elite until its shields were completely down, creating sparks of attempted regeneration to ignite around the elite's body armor. He then was close enough to smack it in the head with the butt of the assault rifle. The elite flipped head over heels as he floated backward.
The other elite came out from behind the pillar and fired at Master Chief with his plasma rifle. Master Chief checked his shield level before ignoring the fire and pulling out his pistol as he holstered his assault rifle. The elite he had just hit was still flipping around. As soon as his head came into view from underneath the rest of his body, it was met with a single shot from Master Chief's pistol. It's lips closed, ending the silent roar, and the orange blood Master Chief had become familiar with flowed into blobs in the lack of gravity.
Master Chief reached the wall and pushed off it at the other elite. His shields were almost gone; he could not risk any more time in a firefight.
Master Chief plowed into the elite full force, knocking him into the far wall. The elite roared into Master Chief's faceplate before drawing back a powerful forearm and knocking Master Chief away, into the pillar. The elite jumped at him, pinning him to the pillar. Master Chief felt the warmth of the pipe through his armor; if it was that warm through the armor, contact with bare skin would result in almost instant incineration.
He ignored the growing heat on his back and hit the elite in the head with his pistol. The elite simply shook his head and roared silently once more before bringing his head down on Master Chief's with immense force.
Even through the helmet, Master Chief was stunned. He shook off the shock as best he could and raised his pistol, only to realize it had been knocked out of his hand when he had been slammed against the pipe. He abandoned it for his fist, and he smashed his hand into the shield generator of the covenant armor. The shielding sparked and waves of color swept across it until it died completely. Master Chief pushed off from the pillar and flew into the wall, pressing the elite against it. He then pushed himself off toward the pillar before unholstering his assault rifle. The elite roared and lunged at Master Chief.
Master Chief quickly pulled his assault rifle out and put a short burst into the elite's head. It's mouth closed, ending the silent battle cry, and it flipped weightlessly through the room, blood spreading through the room from the elite's mortal head wound.
Master Chief wasted no time in pushing off toward one of the doors. If he remembered right from the schematics, he was taking the right path to intercept the other Spartans just a few rooms before the control room. That was their final destination. If they could reach the control room, they could abort the glazing process and possibly even permanently disable the ship.
Master Chief shot the control panel next to the door, and the door opened with a brief show of sparks. The gravity returned, and Master Chief fell to the floor, landing in a kneeling position. He rose, picking up a plasma rifle and holstering his pistol. He had a long ride ahead of him.
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