{A/N: I forgot to add these images of the Commonwealth and the Unrelenting. I am also going to add some pics to this chapter in the paragraphs.}
(David Pov)
"So what's the plan?" Sheila asked, sitting restlessly with her rifle.
Samuel, standing beside her, agreed, "Yeah, what's the plan, John, Dave?"
The two of us had just been talking, finalizing what we thought would give us the best chance of both survival and success. Daisy had sat beside me, and Kelly beside John, both listening and giving input on the plan.
I glanced at John, seeing if he wanted to explain. He gave me a shrug, and so I decided to explain, pointing to a box in the cargo hold above our heads, "The plan is simple. We are going to take those Anvil missiles, rig them with some C10 at the reactor of the ship, and then get out of dodge." There was quite literally nothing we could do to destroy the ship from the outside; our only chance was to climb aboard and destroy it from the inside. Sadly, we had no portable nukes; otherwise, all we had to do was get inside the ship and arm the nuke, then jump back out the way we came.
"And how do you expect us to get inside? I doubt they'll just roll out the red carpet for us," Samuel said, shifting.
"Well…" I said, trailing my voice a bit. This part wasn't going to be something anyone wanted to do, but neither John nor I had a better idea. "The suit has impulse thrusters and 90 minutes of air. They won't let a pelican get close to them, but I am willing to bet they won't care about a couple of 7-foot-long pieces of debris," I watched the gears turn for both Sheila and Samuel, and in a moment, they caught on to what our entrance strategy would be.
"We are going to jump into space and glide until we hit the ship. Are you serious?" Sheila asked with a bit of surprise.
I gestured with my hand as I spoke, "You got a better idea?" I got a prompt shake of a head in return.
She sighed, "I swear every plan you come up with involves us jumping off of or out of something."
"You have been quiet, Fred, got something on your mind?" John asked, and I turned to the seats close to the cockpit on John's side.
Fred shook his head, "No, I was listening. You guys seem to have it all covered, so I didn't see a reason to interject," he answered punctually
"What about you two up front? You got the gist of the plan?" I called through the doorway.
"Affirmative," I heard Cal respond
"Yes," that was Linda.
"We are almost at our drop-off point. I suggest everyone put on their helmets," Cal said, her voice now coming through the microphone in her helmet.
I nodded and motioned to Daisy and Sheila, "You heard the lady, sun bonnets on." I reached over, grabbed my helmet, and took a final look at the face plate on it. I saw myself, and my eyes confirmed the determination I felt. Spinning it around, I brought it up, placing it on my head.
The Heads Up Display (HUD) lit up before I had even finished picking it up to put on sensing my intention. In the bottom left corner, in small transparent script, the team members of both teams read out:
Alpha team:
David S-003 (Leader)
Cal S-141
Daisy S-023
Sheila S-065
Blue team:
John S-117 (Leader)
Samuel S-034
Kelly S-087
Fred S-104
Linda S-058
I tried not to pay attention to the fact that there were only four names under Alpha team rather than five.
In the top right was an ammo counter redundancy for the weapons that did not have their own ammo counter, and also in the case that they became damaged. Above the ammo was a grenade counter as well, telling me I had 6 frags currently. A simple compass hung at the top, though currently it was blank, seeing as there was no magnetic field of a planet for it to gauge.
I reached both my hands down to my thigh mag strips. 'They're still there, it seems these mag locks aren't completely useless like others,' I had an M7 submachine gun on each. These past few months with the augmentations, I had found that my trained ambidexterity had gotten exponentially better.
Hearing about the Covenant's infantry even having energy shielding, I reasoned that being able to spit out as many bullets as possible while remaining agile was the best plan.
'If that's not enough, then I've got something for them.' On my back magnetic holster was a M90 CAWS 8 gauge shotgun, The Deck Clearer, as marines referred to it. I loaded up on 8-gauge tungsten slugs, and basic physics is all anyone needed to know that 12000 joules of energy could do some damage.
Daisy was close to me and was equipped with an MA5B loaded with shredder rounds, as well as copying me and opting for an M90 as her backup. Sheila had an MA2B, the same model from our first mission; she had apparently grown attached to it and had made it her primary for nearly every mission. As a secondary, she used a M319 grenade launcher, a corridor cleaner, and was usable for 40 mm EMP grenades.
Cal and Linda appeared as we finished grouping up at the bay door, "Auto-pilot's been engaged." Both Cal and Linda were equipped with Snipers, and I had made Cal go with a DMR as a secondary, who knows whether she'd have enough space with the sniper inside the ship.
The rest of us had already grouped up at the rear of the dropship. I looked over, giving Fred a nod to which he promptly smacked a button with his gauntlet, opening the bay doors.
"Remember. If you miss, don't panic. Gold team or the Commonwealth one will be around to pick you up," my voice poured through the comms connected between both teams.
Daisy snorted, "That's if the Commonwealth is still around by the time we are done," Though to others her words might have sounded like an insult, I knew she didn't mean it. She was just 'eager' to get into a fight.
That's just how Daisy was.
"See you on the other side," I felt John pat me on the shoulder.
"Right back atcha," I said, and finally we reached our deployment point.
'Let's do this,'
{Start: A Spartan Rises - Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrack}
The nine of us rocketed out in sequence as the Pelican swung around, making a wide U-turn. Giving enough time between each jump so that no one would accidentally collide with another.
I didn't bother to glance at the Pelican as it flew through space in the other direction. What was ahead of me took more than enough focus. A marker appeared on the compass of my HUD, the armor seemingly already knowing what I needed, as it displayed the distance to the ship.
My impulse jets flared, various thrust vectors and trajectories passed as I bobbed and weaved around and through various debris fields. I had never gotten used to the silence in space; even during zero-G space training, it remained unsettling. But through it all, both teams managed to remain in the flying formation that we began with. Though minor differences in distance to the target, we were in sync.
Ahead, I couldn't make out a strange shape in the dark of space as it floated in my path, but as I approached, I quickly realized what it was. The corpse of one of the naval crewmen who'd been sucked into space when the enemy ship had breached the hull of his station. My eyes narrowed slightly as I found the perfect reminder of why I was doing what I was doing.
I didn't decrease my velocity, but as I passed, I could not help but reach over with a small direct yank. The chain of tags around his/her neck came off. I put it into a miscellaneous pocket or pouch and continued, my resolve topped off.
"Incoming!" my helmet blared as I heard Fred speak up over the comms. I had just enough time to barrel roll to the right as an 8-foot-long plasma round passed straight through where I was flying previously.
'I guess I owe Sheila an apology, it seems they do pay attention to super soldier-sized debris,' she hadn't said anything, but I knew she wanted to say: I told you so.
Thankfully, at just the right time, a light reflected off my visor. Glancing up, I saw a full salvo of Archer missiles from the Commonwealth heading for the ship in front of us. Five in total were launched, four smashing into the shield before one managed to make it through.
I saw an explosion light up on the upper portion of the Covenant ship's hull. The turrets seemed to pause, re-adjusting their targeting on the Commonwealth behind us. Still firing with their shield, seemingly recovered, but no longer directed at us.
Still, even without white hot plasma flying around, there was still a problem: "The shields are up! How do you plan on getting through?" Sheila asked as the golden glow of an energy shield got closer by the moment.
"The shields open when those turrets fire. If we time it right, we can pass through unharmed," Cal answered before me.
"We'll need to time it right. Since we are so spread out, I'll direct Blue team's boost and you do Alpha's," I heard John suggest.
"Roger, Alpha form up toward the turret on the right," I ordered as I adjusted my heading.
We formed up and adjusted our speed, flying in a pack, arms by each of our sides. The golden shield in front of us opened for an instant before closing as if it were breathing. We stayed safe from the plasma being fired due to the angle we were approaching.
But we were rapidly approaching the energy shields. If even a MAC round broke apart on impact with it, I doubt any of us would fare better.
"We're getting close…" Daisy's voice trailed off as we grew closer to the danger encroaching.
'Not yet,' we were still too far; if we fired our thrusters now, we'd smash right into the shield.
A moment later, and I could almost reach out and touch it. Yet, just before we would collide, the golden wall dropped, "NOW!" All four of us boosted through the gap.
In the lead was Daisy and I, but before all four of us could get through a light flashed and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.
My eyes went wide, "EVADE," I shouted through the com, using my thrusters to send me spiralling upward and away. A plasma blast was fired, nearly disintegrating all four of us in an instant. Inwardly, I thanked God that physics still existed and there was no conduction or convection.
My head swivelled to look behind as a light beside Cal's name and number at the bottom of my interface flashed, "Me and Sheila are fine, but we have been knocked too far off course and are stuck on the other side of the energy shield. I am sorry, David but you'll have to do this alone," she said genuine disappointment in her voice. I breathed an internal sigh of relief hearing her speak.
Before I could respond, Daisy's light came online, "I made it through and am on course, no thanks to that canon," I heard the distaste for the enemy evident in her voice, "I see three from Blue team heading toward the breach made by the MAC round. But I don't see you. Where are you, David?"
"I'm off course too, but made it through the shield and am heading over the top instead of the bottom," I paused as I continued rising. I looked down, scanning the hull of the ship before I finally found what I was looking for, "One of the Commonwealth's missiles made another breach into the hull. It would take too long for me to loop back around, so I'll make my way through this one. You link up with Blue team and move with them. I'll follow the Cherenkov radiation readings and rendezvous with you there," I gave her a quick rundown of the adapted plan.
"Roger, see you there," she spoke an affirmation, and my helmet detected it, a miniature green check mark appearing beside her name.
Before I went radio silent, I stopped adding, "Be sure to listen to John. He's a good leader, you can trust him."
Throughout all of the years in training, the Spartan teams had been trained so that they had a fluidity to them. The goal was to be able to mix and match teams in order to get the best skill set for certain types of missions. And all teams succeeded, all except my team.
"Not as good as you," she responded, but I knew it was her way of accepting my order.
I adjusted my direction and headed for an approximately 2x2 meter hole in the purple metal plating ahead of me. I began to descend and reached over my shoulder, bringing out my M90.
My boots settled down as they engaged their magnetic locks, and thankfully, they attached themselves to the ship. I shimied around the hole, gun at the ready, clearing the immediate vicinity. I paused for a final moment.
Anything could be ahead of me on this ship. No one had been inside an alien ship, nor had anyone been inside a genocidal alien ship for that matter. So for me, there was no telling what I was going to run into.
'But unfortunately for them, they've never run into me either,' I stepped off into the space above the hole, my impulse jets giving me a slow descent. In a matter of seconds, my boots hit the inside walkways of the ship. I had officially boarded the enemy.
Mission start.
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Chapter 1 of 2