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A Spartan's Path
Chapter 11
0412 hrs, March 9, 2553
Covenant Base
the door of the Covenant armory burst open, plasma bolts sprang into the room. Ryan sat up and was nailed in the right pectoral and twitched and fell to the ground without a sound. SPARTAN-117, John, shook off the shock of the falling Spartan and turned and opened fire into the door entrance nothing appeared to be there until a slug hit home and the once clocked Elite stumbled to the ground, purple blood pooling at his body. Two more of the camouflaged veterans stood in the doorway. Wind brushed across their shield, they shimmered and glistened and then were killed by Fred and Kelly. SPARTAN-043, Will, slung Ryan over his shoulder, and held his Battle rifle in one hand. John signaled his Spartans to go. Fred hefted a fuel rod cannon over his shoulder and followed the others. The valley was filled with two squads of marines, along with plenty of Covenant to kill. Razor 248 led the charge, swords out. The silver blades gleamed in the early morning air. Will shot twice and his shots hit and he ran for the Phantoms. He laid SPARTAN-417 in what would have been the co-pilot seat and acquainted himself with the controls. The five marines still alive leapt into the troop bay, followed by the Spartans. Fred removed the MJOLNIR helmet from his head. John asked: "Did you plant them?" Referring to the kilo of explosives Fred had planted in the armory. Fred gave him a thumb's up as the armory below exploded in a huge blast. AA fire erupted from the ground and harassed the captured dropship. John held the unconscious Myth on the seat. Another blast hit and one of the marine's biometer flat-lined. John patted Will on the shoulder and pointed to a crashed Longsword. Will nodded and eased the alien controls up on the inverted board.
Field Master 'Ganamee turned to confirm the noise behind him. He saw a Phantom and waved it in. The Elite returned, and motioned to his two Jackals to show the LZ for the dropship full of more Covenant. Ganamee pushed through a narrow opening and entered the human fighter. He eased opened a door to see one dead human sprawled on the ground in what the alien recognized to be a human Air force jumpsuit. He continued to the cockpit and found one pilot limp and his head resting on the controls, and the other lay in a puddle of blood, with a broken neck. He heard foot falls behind him. He turned and received a volley of 7.62mm rounds tore through his shields and then into his body. His armor was shredded and his bare skin was breached and his rib cage was broken. The Elite stumbled backwards and slid down the wall, leaving a thick trail of purple-black blood. The Elite relaxed his muscles and died sitting against the wall, his rifle out of reach and then died.
Fred stood and ejected the clip from his assault rifle. He didn't care to put in a fresh mag and slung the rifle after thumbing the safety on. Fred collected three sets of dog tags and sat at the co-pilot chair next to the dead body sitting opposite. Fred reached an armored gauntlet under the dash and hit one button. A slender disk shot out and landed in his hand. "Gotcha." He said aloud. The blue plasma disk was the key to their operation. Earth was being overthrown, every human knew it. But on this disk was the coordinates to Cadia. ONI had confirmed that this had not gotten past two dead cloaked Elites, but Fred wasn't taking any chances. Cortana had briefed them that ONI wanted the disk back in one piece. Fred cursed at this, wishing he could crunch the thing right now. Fred jogged out of the Longsword and was pinned down by a sheet of plasma. Jackals and Elites fired from the jungle. His shields flinched as the super heated blasts smashed against them. The Phantom appeared then, firing its plasma cannon. Fred leapt up and caught Kelly's wrist. She pulled him up and Fred took his seat. Fred retrieved the disk from his data port and tossed it to John who plugged it into his helmet for Cortana.
2436 hours, March 10, 2553 (Military Calendar)
Aboard Pelican Dropship/
En route to ONI facility: "Stronghold"
Will sat comfortably behind the controls of the Pelican they had acquired at an abandoned army outpost. Ryan-417 was still out but Kelly said he had been breathing more normally, and coming around. John looked at the ocean below, something didn't feel right. He pulled back the charging lever on his battle rifle but relaxed his arms. One of the marines stood at the door gun, half asleep, deep dark ovals haunted his eyes. The young soldier was suddenly wide awake when the scream of a Banshee filled the now midnight air. Blackwell and Pearson were ready, as were Thompson and Owens. The door gunner was Private Andrews. John, Fred and Kelly crouched on their seats and fired their weapons. Bullets pinged off harmlessly against the three Banshees that had melted into a rough flying "V". Plasma splashed across the hull. Andrews got a good shot in with the gun and the lead craft crippled and fluttered into the water. John hit something vital in the second and it immediately exploded and smashed into the third. John realized he was holding his breath and exhaled. The Master Chief pulled himself behind Kelly and Fred then grabbed hold of the cross sections and trudged into the cockpit. "Will!" He yelled over the noise of the engines. "What's our status and where the heck are we?" Will replied. "The Banshees got a fuel rod blast in the port engine, I lost it completely, and we're near Stronghold now, we're over the Mediterranean Sea!" He called back. John's shields flickered as a wall mounted panel exploded onto him. Sparks showered his display. John winked away the swarming black dots that clouded his vision.
General Jacob Strauss sat silently as the ONI spooks bickered back and forth about the possibilities of the Covenant getting away with the disk that contained evidence of Cadia and its coordinates. Strauss trusted the Spartans to get their job done, he had seen it done many a time. Colonel Hicks debated against Admiral Lawler. A young MP then burst through the door, holding a bloody shoulder that leaked his midnight red blood onto the floor, half of the man's face was slicked with it also, in his free hand he held a MA2B. "Sirs, C-C-Covenant contacts outside, recommend you- The MP dropped as a blue streak of plasma seared through his back and out his chest. Blood foamed from his open mouth and he stumbled over, dead. Strauss stood, M6D in hand. A snarling red clad veteran Elite stood victoriously in the hallway. "Go!" Strauss ordered as he brought his pistol to bear. The Elite fired twice but missed. The third shot hit Colonel Hicks squarely in the center of his back. The man tried to scream but couldn't and stumbled over a chair. Strauss fired at the Elite's helmet; the HE rounds tore through the shields and struck home, knocking the alien down with a bullet between his eyes. The General lowered his pistol and holstered it, pausing to kneel down and retrieve the MP's dog tags and MA2B. Jacob pressed his back to a wall and peered down a hallway. Two British marines were holding a door closed. Major Anderson appeared from the door the offers had left from with three ODSTs at his back, he held a M90 shotgun at ready. Strauss nodded to the Helljumper officer and proceeded down the hallway. The two marines felt no punch and opened the door. A plasma grenade sailed through the air and fused to one of the marine's chest. The man couldn't do anything about it; the grenade detonated and vaporized the pair of troopers. Strauss cursed and fired a burst down the hallway where the grenade had flown. An Elite materialized out of thin air roaring at him. Two helljumpers crouched and fired their clips dry down the corridor; three Elites were riddled with 7.62mm slugs.
Will called back to his team that this wasn't going to be a smooth landing. A cluster of Jackals in a phalanx guarding a force of rookie Elites appeared on Will's display. He clenched the controls with one hand and with the other he held Ryan in his seat. The pelican flew low and screeched against the ground. The group of covies were nothing but a speed bump for the sliding dropship. Four Shade guns turned their attention to the dropship and fired. Will shook off the jolt and saw the plasma begin to melt into the cockpit. SPARTAN-043 grabbed an edge of SPARTAN-417's armor and tugged him out of the cockpit, plasma melted everything behind them. William slung Ryan over his shoulder and carried him outside with a magnum pistol in his other hand. The magnum buckled and took a Grunt's head off. "Team! Perimeter fire, keep it tight, pattern Delta! We've gotta move inside!" Five acknowledgment lights winked blue, but Ryan's remained dark. A NAV point dropped on the entrance of the base. John shot two Grunts down and ran back towards that position. His Spartans had already formed into a half circle defending the door. John took his position and killed several of the aliens. The mountain that harbored Stronghold had been invaded. ONI and the Brass were both often here, which had made this place a prime target. John hit the button and the door sealed the Chief threw an iron hard punch and disabled the systems. The corridors were darks and smeared with red blood and an occasional splatter of blue, purple or various other alien bloods. A dead officer sat slumped against one of the walls of a conference room. John walked cautiously down the corridor, a thick trail of red blood stained the floor, the lights were out, only the Spartan's helmet lamps cut through the darkness. John saw the trail end at a headless body of who was identified to be Admiral Lawler, the commander of the space operation to save earth, he is extremely valuable to the UNSC, or now was. John directed his vision down the hallway. The ground was littered with two bodies that had belonged to UNSC marines, and another figure stood alone. It appeared like a Brute but different. Its face was similar to human, though broader, its skin was black-red, and a thick scar ran down the center of its face- black blood still appeared. It was armor heavily and held a captured assault rifle and then John realized what it was holding in its left hand: The head of Admiral Lawler.
To be continued...
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