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Spartan III's, Part 5: The discovery
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 19 October 2003, 10:59 PM
Read/Post Comments
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Well, here it is. WARNING: POST COMMENTS AFTER READING, VIOLATERS WILL BE PROSOCUTED UNDER PENALTY OF LAW.
"Shit Shit Shit!" yelled Private Third class Charles Winston. Winston was desperately running down the streets of Brazilia with a Ghost in pursuit. Brazilia had been generally untouched by the intense fighting taking place around the world, then out of the blue, thousands of Covenant transports had dropped out of the sky. It was pure madness. He had been part of the 350th infantry division, until a division of armor and infantry support had wiped them out. Now he was all that was left, desperately running for his life.
In some corner of his mind he realized that the Ghost could have easily caught up with him anytime he wanted, or simply shot him down from where he was, but its driver probably liked to see him flee in a desperate attempt to save his life, probably found it amusing. However, he didn't care, and adrenaline pumping through his veins, he kept on running. He considered shooting himself so the Covenant wouldn't have the pleasure of killing him, when a large explosion sounded behind him. He looked over his shoulder and stopped. An Argent-V Warthog had ambushed the Ghost and destroyed it with a missile.
The LAAV drove up to his position, "Want a lift?", said the Private driving.
Winston was hot, sweaty, tired, out of breath, plasma scorched, battle weary, and most importantly, didn't want to walk another damn inch. "Hell yes".
"No time for talk pussies. We got some Covie asses to mutilate, either get in or stay here, double time!" yelled the Sergeant-Gunner. He hopped into the passenger seat, SMG's in hand, and the LAAV took off.
They drove around the Brazilian streets for nearly an hour, occasionally encountering small skirmishes but no heavy fighting. Which was surprising considering the amount of soldiers stationed in Brasilia and the number of Covenant dropped off. The Private driving, who he learned was named Private Houghs, was getting reckless, driving around blind corners without checking his motion tracker for enemy movement, barreling down open roads without checking for ambushes. But the Sergeant, Sergeant Bays, wasn't bugging him about it. He to was seemingly convinced there sector was getting no action. Which was there downfall.
Houghs was turned around another blind corner, and the Brasilia town hall came into view. Along with the 20 Hunters, so odd hundreds of Brutes, Elites, Grunts, and Jackals, the seventy pieces of light armor (Shadows, Ghosts), ten Wraith tanks, the fifteen Reaper and Shade guns, and the two Phantom dropships hovering over what had become a pad. Winston had just enough time to wonder what such a large concentration of Covenant were doing here, when they noticed them and hundreds of plasma bolts rained down on them.
More reinforcements had made there way through the bay, another full division. Another platoon of marines had come to reinforce the Spartans position at the armory and evac wounded, there was plenty of them. Much of the original platoon, who weren't wounded, were carrying covenant weapons. The reinforcing platoon had brought with them a crate of weapons and ammo, but it wasn't enough for all of them. But they brought Fox her MX ammo, and she seemed to be happy with it, meanwhile she ditched the CP for a Covenant sniper rifle.
EX had expended his Battle Rifle, and traded it in for a Needler. Inferno had faced the same problem with his Flamethrower, but he replaced it with a Zap gun, which almost seemed to be the Covenant version of a Flamethrower. They brought SAW magazines and rockets for Hunter. Glock had ditched his Assualt Rifle for the Covenant mini-gun. And MC had expended both his weapons, he carried a Zap gun and a Plasma Rifle. Then with a rag-tag group of marines in tow, they marched on towards the control room.
They fought there way through a lot more hard resistance, until they finally came to a locked door at the end of a long hall. Three Elites with Needlers and a Brute carrying a Plasma Rifle opened fire on them. Explosive Needles by the dozens and lots of plasma bolts raced at them and took human lives, but the return fire was to overwhelming and both the Elites and Brutes shields were taken down and there bodies riddled with bullet marks and plasma scorches. They reached the door (a couple of marines felt the need to scavenge the weapons the dead Covenant had left for them) and stopped.
"Cortana, two questions. Can you unlock this door, and is there resistance beyond?", the Chief asked.
Cortana spoke up, "Of course I can unlock it, and yes there is resistance, the control room is on the other side of this door".
A chill ran down his spine, "What kind of resistance?"
"Heavy. That's all I can say for certain", she said flatly.
"What are the other teams status?"
"Team one is still a good deal away, and team two was neutralized, its just us Chief"
He turned to the marines, "Alright the Control Room is behind this door. Everybody hide behind these cargo crates. I want EX to go in there and do a recon scout for us, estimate the resistance numbers, and possibly disable any high-ranking Captains so we can take them back and question them later" EX nodded.
"Lets Move!!" he yelled. They ducked behind the cargo crates that were stacked along the walls, some apparently scattered about at random places.
"I have the door code Chief, ready when you are"
By that time EX was already in front of the door with his camo on. He gave Cortana the order and the door slid open. A few nearby Covenant turned there attention to the door, but apparently seeing nothing, they turned back to what they were doing. He slipped in quietly and the door closed behind him. The Control room was large, dome shaped, a more blue-ish color than the rest of the ship, the roof was at least 30 feet above his head. A platform was in the middle, held up by an anti-gravity field and a walkway leading to the top. Below the platform, at least a dozen consoles scattered about. Not mention the variety of Covenant scattered about. There were at least 30 Grunts and Jackals scattered about, 9 Elites, 6 Brutes, 2 Hunters, and at a dozen of there 'Engineers', and a single Prophet. They were all Spec Ops, save the Ship master, the Engineers, and the Prophet. That was who he wanted, the Prophet. Capturing the Ship Master would be a bonus, but he would be to hard to be able to drag back to the docking bay. On the other hand, EX was quite sure he wouldn't put up much of a fight. It was obvious that he was quite weak, despite the beautiful clothing and headdress he wore. His frame looked fragile, he had a very long neck which he hung low, and the yellow skin looked as if it were stretched tight across his body, the result being he could see a lot of the bones that supported the neck and face. His movements were very slow, he looked as if he was at least a hundred years old, but for all he knew he was a newborn. He stealthily moved towards the walkway leading to the platform. With the memory of the Brute still in his mind, he tried to avoid one that walked past him. It stopped and sniffed the air, instinctively EX backed away. After a few seconds it gave what he assumed was a shrug, and walked off.
He breathed a sigh of relief and continued on.
As he approached the Elite and the Prophet standing on the platform he noticed that they were talking in fast complicated tones. His translators didn't pick it up, so obviously it was an unknown Covenant language, perhaps the Prophets home language or a code. He didn't ponder on it for long. Suddenly, the Prophet fell from his chair, knocked out cold. The Ship Master was shocked, but then called out in Elite which his speakers translated, "Humans!!".
As he opened his mouth the say it, EX shoved a lit plasma grenade down his throat. He was choking on it when he pushed him off the platform, and fell to the ground below. Some of the crew, who didn't know what had happened, rushed over to help him up, when the grenade detonated. Now the Covenant were really confused, and EX took advantage of this with two more Plasma Grenades and a volley of Needler rounds. Then, at the worst possible second, his camo failed. Plasma bolts flew at him from every direction, to many for his shields to handle. They ripped through the thick armor of the MJLINOR suits and punctured his skin. His vision became blurry, but before he died, he got the satisfaction of seeing the other Spartans and marines rush in and kill a hapless Elite. He died grinning.....
He heard grenades go off, followed by firing. This was enough for him to order his men to "Move your asses!!".
Inside his marines found three craters where grenades had gone off, charred bodies, and EX lying on the central platform. He wanted to make sure he was okay, but he needed to secure the are first. The marines spread out and engaged the Covenant. One of the Brutes lashed out at him with a machete. He dodged the blow, and grabbed its arm, twisting it till the bones snapped. It howled in pain and he grabbed its machete and gutted it. The same fate befell two Grunts that had rushed by him, in a state of panic.
From the other side of the room, two brutes fired a pair of there sniper plasma. It hit a marine each and vaporized them. Fox answered with an MX round, it punctured one, and the explosion killed the other.
Glock and a group of marines were busy engaging a pair of Elites and Jackals, when a spade shaped flare of green energy exploded in there midst. Glock survived, but not a lot of his marines. Those that did turned to face the Hunter were hit in the back with the Elite's and Jackals plasma. Glock was keeping it busy while Inferno rushed behind him. He fired at its weak spot with his 'Zap' gun, the lighting bolt tearing apart the Hunters back and spine. Its bond brother roared and ran over to EX. A well meaning Corporal was in position to hit it's back and fired with a three round burst at its back. But at the last moment a marine was knocked into his line of fire and he caught in in the stomach. In horror, he backed up where he bumped into an Elite who shot him in the face with plasma.
Inferno waited for the Hunter to swing his shield then side stepped, and he let a bolt out to its unprotected back. It howled in pain and landed on top of its bond brother. Meanwhile the Spartan Hunter, was injured. A plasma grenade had latched on to him and exploded. His suit was dented, charred, scratched, and his the left leg covering was completely vaporized and the twisted meat and bone of what used to be a leg showing. He pulled himself into a corner and passed out.
Despite heavy casualties, they were winning, until even more Covenant filed out of a door, 4 Brutes followed by 7 Red Elites and a group of ten Grunts and jackals. There plasma took the life of a group of marines preoccupied with some Grunts. MC rushed in and threw and grenade. One Elite and Four Grunts were consumed in the explosion. The last remaining Grunt primed a plasma grenade and lifted his arm to throw, but there was a miss-communication and a Jackal behind the Grunt fired. It vaporized his arm and the lit plasma grenade fell on his head. He whimpered then exploded, taking the rest of his group with him. Now there were exactly 11 marines and the Spartans left, fighting a remaining 4 jackals, 2 Elites, and 3 Brutes. With the leverage of the Spartans, it was a given that they were going to win, until yet another group of reinforcements arrived. 15 Grunts with portable fuel rod guns, 12 Brutes, 12 Elites, and 4 Hunters came in. A horrible thought cam into his mind: They were going to fail. They couldn't take this abuse, they had one Spartan possibly KIA and another wounded.
As if God himself had sent it, four rockets lashed out at the Covenant. Multiple explosion consumed them and they died. In fact, it tore through the plating and they could see the deck below. At the far end of the room, no less than 30 ODST's filed in, carrying there own heavy duty weapons, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, SAW guns, the works. What Covenant survived the initial onslaught were mopped up shortly after.
He walked up the ranking officer of the new group that had saved there asses, it was none other than Burns himself. Before he could even ask his question Burns spoke up, "Chief, Cortana warned me of your situation and I decided to take a platoon of heavy weapons with me to help you out", he smiled and winked.
He nodded, "Thank you".
Cortana spoke up, "Alright boys, chit chats over. Get me into the main console up on the platform, and have somebody hog-tie that Prophet. From the intercepted transmissions I have he's only a minor, but still very important to us".
Burns saluted and ordered five of his men to detain the Prophet. They dragged him off the platform and tied him up. He got to the main console, and noticed he was standing next to EX's body.
He stared at him for a long time, and Cortana finally said, "No life readings. Come on Chief, there's nothing we can do for him", she said in the same somber voice she had used while announcing Keyes had become a Flood. He looked over at Hunter, he was knocked out cold but still breathing, Glock was working away at his leg.
He nodded and turned to the console. Cortana highlighted a slot on his HUD and he stuck her there. A few moment's later she appeared on the view screen 'super sized'. "Alright, step one, lock the doors", she said and the doors access doors all around the room sealed shut and glowed red.
"Step two, clear a path out for us", on his HUD the same path he had used to get there was highlighted, but with red dots along the sides. "The red spots are the doors I've sealed, nobody will be able to get into those corridors except the Covenant already there. Okay, now time for the real work".
He knew she meant getting the nav information. She disappeared from the holo-screen. Fifteen minutes had gone by, and the Chief was getting anxious.
Finally he said, "Cortana, how much longer is this going to take?", asked the Chief.
Her voice came over the ships speakers, it was slightly distorted, but he could still understand her, "I'm trying, the Covenant keep the nav information in the ships main memory banks, so I have to hack into those. I've done that and am in the process of decrypting it", a pause, then, "Got it".
"Covenant fools. Not only did they keep the nav information after they boarded, but they kept history files, ship logs, weapons data, everything!! Oh, wait....", her voice wasn't on the ship speakers anymore, but in his suit speakers, and it sounded...sorrow
"Chief....the Brutes...there human".................
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