Up in the Spirit of Fire's bridge, Captain Cutter and Serina were watching Professor Anders' transponder move away from Sgt Forge and the Spartans. "Spirit of Fire, this is Forge. I lost Anders." Forge said as Cutter frowned. "What happened?" "Some massive Elite came out of nowhere." Serina chimed in at that moment, "Captain, I'm tracking her transponder. It's heading away from the planet." Captain Cutter swore and ordered Forge to hurry back to the ship.
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Forge burst into the bridge in a hurry as Jerome and Shawn walked calmly behind him, though still moving fast. "We're all accounted for, why haven't we left yet?!" Forge asked as Cutter and Serina watched Professor Anders transponder get further and further away.
"The professor's signal has gone to lightspeed, headed for the border." Serina said as Jerome spoke up "That puts it outside weapon range." That upset Sgt. Forge as he raised his voice "What? We have to go after her!"
Captain Cutter was silent as he went over all the things he could do in this situation, but he was running out of time. "Sir, I can only track that transponder a few more seconds." Serina said as Forge paced back and forth. "Sir, Anders represents a significant security breach." Jerome said as Shawn had his own ship trace the Covenant ships jump vector in case things didn't shake out the way they did in cannon.
Finally, Captain Cutter decided "Serina, get us underway immediately. Follow that signal." "Aye aye, Sir." As the crew scramble to enter slipspace, Shawn, Jerome and Forge leave the bridge as Shawn sends a signal to his ship to follow the Spirit.
"Don't miss the lady too much now, she'll be just fine." Shawn teased Forge as he broke off from the to go to his own ship, knowing it was time to ready his HAZMAT gear, shit was about to get real.
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UNKNOWN LOCATION
FEBRUARY 32RD 2531
As the hatches covering the Spirit of Fires bridge open up, Captain Cutter is taken aback by the red planet before him. "Serina, where the hell are we?" Serina appeared on the holo-table next to him "We're in orbit around a planet in the middle of . . . I'm still working on it actually."
That was slightly concerning but Cutter had bigger fish to fry for now. "What about Anders signal?" "The Covenant vessel we chased seems to be somewhere on the planet below. I have rough coordinates." He nodded, now they had a place to start looking.
"Any other signs of Covenant activity?" He asked and she shook her head. "Not that I can detect, but the planet is giving off very strange readings." Captain Cutter sighs and stares at the planet for a bit longer before turning to go sit down, "Get Forge down there." "He was already onboard a Pelican, waiting for orders."
As Forge lead the recon teams down below, Shawn was busy filling in Red Team on what they were about to go into. "These filters should keep the spore out of your internal systems, but if they get breached you should be ok." Shawn finished attaching the module to Red Teams helmets as Alice raised an eyebrow, "Should?"
Shawn froze, then shrugged. "Your suits built-in filters should work just fine, this is just extra protection." He said as Douglas tapped a small canister on his armors forearm. "What's this thing?" Shawn glanced at it then explained. "That contains enough fuel for a 15 second burst of napalm, use it only if you get swarmed, that stuff will stick to and burn everything it touches if your not careful."
"Why are you doing all of this, what's down there?" Jerome finally asked as he tore his eyes away from the small arsenal Shawn had given them. As soon as they'd woken up from cryo-sleep, Shawn had taken them to his ship and started modifying their armor, weapons, even giving tactical advice for fighting on the planet below.
"AUTO, bring up the footage we have so far." [Displaying] Shawn set his tools down as a screen on the wall lit up, showing what appeared to be live footage from the planet below. "Tell me what's wrong with this, I'll give you three guesses." He said as Red Team analyzed the footage, looking for anything that stuck out, finally Alice saw it.
"It looks like it's moving?" She said unsure for once as Shawn nodded gravely. "The surface of this planet seems to be alive, writhing masses. I dispatched probes and found this." Pictures appeared showing large tumorous growths, with sickly looking flesh that seemed to writhe, and pulse, as if it were alive.
"What the hell is that?" Douglas said as Red Team stared in horror at what was on the planet below. Shawn went back to messing with things as a few more pictures arrived from the planet side probe.
"You three are going to find out. Make any and everything that looks interesting, any particularly large growth, mark them so I can destroy them later. Whatever this stuff is, I want it gone." He said as he finished altering their armor and Red Team stepped forward to suit up again.
Shawn did the same and once they were suited up they went the Spirit of Fire's bridge, where Captain Cutter was waiting for them.
Entering the bridge Captain Cutter didn't waste time and sent Red Team to help out Forge, who had run into some complications planet side. "What do you think about all this?" Cutter asked Shawn as Red team left the bridge.
"This planet needs to be destroyed, as soon as we get Professor Anders. Take a look at the files I sent you, you'll see why." Serina quietly read them and came to the same conclusion as Cutter and Shawn talked some more about the strange readings coming from the planet below.
A/N-Heyya, extra chapter this week bc I'm on a roll. I'll probably finish the Halo Wars 1 arc before going back to My Hero, just a heads up. GIVE POWERSTONES AND LEAVE AREVIEW PLEASE :)