Chapter 8
Charlie’s theory of a trap was becoming clearer as the Cruiser kept a stable orbit around the planet after recalling its troops. It seemed to be waiting patiently for the Spartans to strike.
With no other choice, and time running short, Jackson met with the others to plan their rescue. The “plan” was as brazen as it got. With Melecia using the Prowler to draw the Cruiser’s attention, the rest of the Spartans would use thruster packs to launch themselves at the Covenant ship and go straight through the docking hangar. Once inside, they would track Spartan-333’s IFF tag and bring him home. The escape plan all hinged on their ability to capture one of their single fighters and rendevouz with the Prowler unharmed.
Chase followed the others to the airlock then placed a hand on Jackson’s shoulder before he entered. “Get your ass back in one piece, or I swear I’ll kill you,” the Spartan said.
Jackson nodded to his teammate, knowing full well his previous anger came from a place of concern. “We’ll be back before you know it,” he said.
The Prowler stayed stealthed as the Spartans gathered in the main airlock, then shot away as the team pushed away from its safety and into the void of space.
The only sound Jackson heard as the sheer hull of the Prowler drifted away was the sound of his own breathing, and the rush of the thrusters. He watched as their ride was spotted, and the alien ship’s lines lit up with plasma fire.
Melecia was careful to stay out of its immediate range and lay down enough fire to draw its attention away from the five suits of armor heading right for it.
One of the lessons that was taught to the Spartans was that the Covenant ship’s shields had to come down to fire. This was their way passed their defences and into the hangar. Their entry was seamless as the team expertly timed their insertion and drifted not even an inch away from the smooth purple hull and across to the open hangar doors.
Jackson made sure to drop in from the ceiling of the hangar and wait until properly inside the artificial gravity to open fire. All five Spartans entered in unison and gunned down the meager crew that was inside.
As soon as their boots hit the ground, Parkson’s IFF tag lit up deeper within the ship. “Signal’s weak, but I’ve got him,” Kia said.
Inside the hangar sat a Phantom dropship, deactivated and ripe for the taking. The squad leader then ordered his team to stay and hold the hangar, then took Kia to find their teammate.
It didn’t take long for an alarm to sound throughout the ship, and an alien language begin to bark orders over the speakers. It seemed that all attention was focused on the hangar for the time being. Though Jackson’s Spartans wouldn’t lost long under that kind of pressure, so the squad leader double timed it down the curving corridors and sloping ramps.
It was a short run to a double set of locked doors where Parkson’s IFF sat behind. Kia wasted no time in prying open a panel and plugging her suit into the ship’s network. It was a tense few seconds before the door popped open, and a dimly lit room was revealed.
The semi-circular room held a single level of smaller chambers, each that was blocked off by a glowing energy barrier. The rooms were as bare as they could get, save for a suit of green Mjolnir that sat in one of its corners.
The Spartan inside snapped his head up and tried to jump to his feet, but fell instead. “It’s a trap! He’s still-“ Parkson began to say, but was cut off as the squad leader jumped forwards to avoid the Energy Sword that slashed through the air.
An Elite in red armor appeared out of thin air. In one hand it held a glowing Plasma Pistol, in the other a blazing Energy Sword.
Jackson was first to open fire, and his bullets reflected off of a shimmering energy shield. Yet he didn’t let up, but rather tracked it as the Elite dodged from side to side and closed the gap between the two.
Green plasma pelted the squad leader’s armor and forced the Spartan to move to avoid it eating through his chestplate. He stopped firing, and the Elite swung at the Spartan, missing his neck by mere inches.
Kia unloaded her Magnum’s magazine into its side, and the Elite’s shields began to flicker. Jackson used the momentary distraction to his advantage by giving himself distance and using the last rounds in his Assault Rifle to fully drop its shields.
With an enraged roar, the Elite charged Jackson who ducked away from the alien’s powerful downward swing, but didn’t fully miss the second sideways slash that traced a glowing line across his chestplate.
At this point, the Elite had pushed Kia and Jackson into intersecting lines of fire, keeping the female Spartan from unloading her weapon in fear of hitting her teammate. This gave the Elite the advantage he needed to corner the squad leader against one of the cell doors.
He hadn’t realized he was so close until the Zealot suddenly lunged forwards and the Spartan’s back hit the energy barrier. He was about to slide away when the shield abruptly disappeared, and the Elite drop-kicked the Spartan into the empty chamber. He realized his mistake too late as the energy shield popped back into place, effectively trapping him inside.
Kia was left to fight the Elite alone as Jackson’s gunfire only filled the room with ricocheting bullets. His teammate kept her distance from both the shield doors and the Elite. For a moment, the two stared each other down, until the tension was broken by a subtle acceleration felt in the deck.
The Elite seemed to let out a laugh, then backed away and disappeared as its active camouflage activated. The prison’s doors opened, then closed again as it left. Kia made sure to lock the exit behind him, then ran to Jackson’s door and once again accessed the ship’s network and deactivated the shielding for all of the cell doors.
As Kia was attending to Parkson, the squad leader answered a call from the team in the hangar. “The ship just entered slipspace, and the Covenant are pulling back,” Perish reported.
Jackson cursed under his breath. The trap had been worse than expected, and there was no doubt that the Covenant Captain was taking them to reinforcements. The entire mission had just changed for the worse.
“Change of plans, we’re taking the ship. We’ll rendevouz in the hangar,” the squad leader said.
Parkson stepped out with the help of Kia, and he looked bad. His suit was stained with his own blood, and his legs had taken a horrible beating. The Spartan’s visor was cracked, and his red hair matted to his head with blood.
The squad leader’s stomach took a dive, and he felt a sudden wave of guilt and rage that threatened to overwhelm him. There were a lot of things he regretted in that moment, but leaving his team when the Cruiser showed up was the biggest.
“Can you walk?” Jackson asked the injured Spartan.
“Sort of,” he responded.
“Bio-foam can only do so much, Jackson. He’ll die without surgery,” Kia said urgently.
“I’ll think of something,” the squad leader reassured.
After unlocking the door and making sure the Elite was gone, the three Spartans moved as fast as they could back to the hangar. The fighting had stopped, yet the signs still remained. The doors leading inside were slick with alien blood, and all kinds of corpses lay scattered around the room.
The other Spartans looked no worse for wear, but were running low on ammo. Charlie and Janet were both using captured Covenant weapons, and Perish was down to his last magazine.
The others seemed to share Jackson’s rage when they saw Parkson’s state, yet no one said a thing about it. They were more or less in combat mode and focused on survival for the time being.
Moments after arriving in the hangar, the ship subtly lurched under their feet, and it dropped back into normal space; surrounded by a fleet of Covenant ships.
It was just about as bad as it could have gotten.
“It’s fight or die now, Spartans,” Jackson said. He grabbed a Covenant Plasma Rifle and shoved it into Perish’s hands. “And I choose fight.”
Fueled by the need for vengeance for their wounded teammate, Jackson led his able members through the blood stained doors and deeper into the ship. Hoping that the decade old reports held up, the bridge was located near the center of the ship rather than its front.
Finally, the last door opened on to a spacious chamber that showed the stars outside, and a large holographic projector sitting on a raised platform in the center of the room. The bridge was not empty, but rather filled with a number of Elites who had been waiting.
A hail of plasma fire answered the Spartans arrival, and the Spartans returned in kind. Charlie activated a Jackal’s shield he had captured that allowed the rest of the team to move away from the doors and file out behind the barriers that adorned the chamber.
Heading the fight was the Captain of the Covenant vessel; the very one that had been chasing them. It took up a point dangerously close to the Spartans and kept them from surrounding the others who fought in the depression around the raised platform.
Pairing off with Perish, Jackson moved clockwise around the room and pushed the remaining Elite forces away from the walls. Paired with their dwindling numbers, this made the Elites grow desperate. Their brazen acts only made them easier targets, and the Spartans began to take the bridge.
This was when the bridge doors opened, and the floor shook as two massive hulking figures stomped inside. The behemoths wore armor that protected orange worm-like masses which made up their frame. On one “hand” was an oversized cannon, and the other held a shield made of thick metal.
Jackson’s heart sunk as he recollected the information he had learned about them. These “Hunters” were made up of a colony of sentient worms that bonded in pairs. The armor around them made them slow, but immeasurably powerful. They could turn Warthogs into scrap with their shields, and incinerate Marines with that cannon.
As the Squad leader pored over his options, both Hunters entered, and turned on Kia and Charlie who had been closest. The two Spartans were forced out of their cover as one of the Hunters ducked behind its shield and charged their position.
The behemoth’s mate swung its cannon on Jackson’s position and forced him back into cover. The booming explosion and the blistering heat pounded into the deck just shy of his position.
Because of their proximity to the other Spartans, using grenades was out of the question. This left few alternatives to fighting the Hunters as well as the Elites. It was as Jackson was running possible options through his brain did both Kia and Charlie suddenly sprint forwards and engage the Hunters.
Charlie vaulted over the first Hunter’s shield, pouncing off of its back and onto the second Hunter’s shoulder. Kia had gotten behind the first Hunter’s guard and was ready to shove a primed grenade into its exposed midsection when first Hunter fired a panicked shot from its cannon that hit the wall overhead and threw Kia to the floor.
There was an explosion and the adjacent wall was painted with a mess of orange as the grenade Charlie planted in the first Hunter’s neck exploded, and the behemoth crashed to the deck. The death of its mate enraged the second Hunter, and it let out a mournful roar, then immediately turned on the vulnerable female Spartan and sent its shield crashing into the deck.
Kia wasn’t fast enough, and the massive weapon caught her in the arm as she was twisting away. The crunch of the bone could be heard from the other side of the bridge.
Charlie sprung on the last surviving Hunter and rode the beast as it thrashed around in a blind rage. The Spartan threw his weight backwards and kept the beast from trampling Kia. The female Spartan was already up on her feet, and tossed one of her grenades to Charlie who caught it and rammed it into the Hunter’s guts.
Both Spartans sprinted for cover as the grenade detonated and took the last Hunter down. At this point, there was only the Captain Elite left. Once he saw the last two Hunters fall, and realized he was the last one standing, the alien stopped firing and began to move towards the door. He roared at the humans, then ran out of the bridge, leaving the Spartans alone.
Janet accessed the ship’s controls from the table at the center and sealed the bridge tight. Jackson let the other Spartans clear the room for enemies while he went to check Kia over.
The female Spartan’s arm hung mangled at her side, It was an ugly mess of blood and tissue. Kia’s lifesigns showed her going into shock, despite her denials of anything being wrong.
Jackson emptied the last of his biofoam into the hole at her side and clenched his jaw. Their mission had just gone from bad to even worse. With Melecia and Chase left behind in the Prowler, and Parkson and now Kia critically wounded, mission efficiency had just taken a nose dive.
Then there was what to do now that they had captured the bridge. The remaining Covenant forces wouldn’t let them have it for long, which raised the question of what was next.
Janet answered that question by way of a sudden shudder in the hull, and alarms sounding across the bridge. Jackson jumped to where the female Spartan was standing to peer over her shoulder at the console.
“I sent us to slip-space on a randomized vector,” Janet explained. “Then decompressed the air on the entire ship, save for the bridge. Only those in sealed suits, like our Sangheili Captain, are left alive.”
“Can you get a complete lifesigns reading on the ship?” Jackson asked.
There was a moments pause as the female Spartan played around with the console. “A dozen lifesigns remain,” she responded.
Jackson patted her on the shoulder. “Good work.”
Perish pulled the squad leader aside, muting his exterior speakers to speak privately with Jackson.
“As soon as we exit slipspace, we will be a target. The fleet has undoubtedly followed us, and we’re down to half efficiency. If we continue the mission, losses will start to mount,” Perish said.
Jackson placed both hands on his hips and looked to the floor. He gritted his teeth as the squad leader weighed the options. He could easily plot a course to UNSC controlled space and put out a distress call as soon as they dropped out. Doing so could risk the Covenant finding nearby human colonies and putting innocent lives at risk.
If they decided to fight the fleet head-on, they would lose. Despite the far greater numbers, the Spartans didn’t know how to fight with a Covenant ship. The second option was staging a boarding operation to carry out the mission to assassinate their target. The final option was to abandon the mission.
This was where Jackson was most conflicted. He had trained his entire life for this one purpose. Everything he knew taught him to never back down, and to carry out his orders no matter the cost. The bond he had with his Spartans conflicted his training, and gave way to a war that raged inside of the squad leader.
Jackson quieted the storm in his mind and looked up from the floor. “We’re continuing what we came here to do,” the Spartan said. “But no one is dying.”
Janet came up to Jackson and gestured back over her shoulder. “Bad news, squad leader. The Elites locked me out of the controls. The slipspace coordinates are still locked in, but I can’t do anything else,” the female Spartan reported.
This was it, then. Whatever came next they’d have to deal with as best they could.
There was a familiar lurch beneath the team’s feet as the ship dropped out of slipspace, and alarms began to blare in the bridge. The bridge doors opened, but didn’t explosively decompress, and no one rushed in to greet them.
It was eerily still as the Spartans prepared for the rush of gunfire…but nothing happened. The team crept down into the hangar and found the second Phantom was gone, and the first had been deployed from its dock and was sitting activated on the deck.
The Covenant fleet could plainly be seen out of the energy barriers separating the inside of the ship from space, yet it seemed they weren’t opening fire or sending a boarding team.
“Another trap?” Charlie asked incredulously. “I’m getting really god damn tired of this.”
Jackson gazed at the phantom, then where the other had been. He suddenly wasn’t as confident as he had been about storming the capitol ship. Yet what else could they do? It was clear the fleet was holding off on shooting because they wanted the Spartans to board the Destroyer. If they tried to run, then they wouldn’t survive.
The Covenant had made their point clear, and it was the only thing they could do to take the provided Phantom and keep on plan.
The dropship had been rigged with a pre-determined flight path that couldn’t be altered. As soon as Janet started the ship, it rose from the deck and glided out of the Cruiser and began its flight to the capitol ship. Janet and Jackson sat in the cockpit anxiously watching as the Destroyer grew larger in the viewscreen, until its menacing form filled their vision.
Then the hangar materialized and the Phantom began its descent. The squad leader returned to the dropship carriage with the other Spartans, and prepared for a messy fight. He had Kia and Parkson sit in the cockpit, and the others took up firing positions on either side of the doors.
Jackson slowed his racing heart, counted the seconds, and shouldered his assault rifle. Time slowed to a crawl as the doors to the Phantom dropped to reveal a room full of corpses.