The Official 405th RP

[Spartan137]

(Double post. Sorry.)

After the Pelican had landed, Zach had driven off towards the mountains while the rest of Gold team moved to the HQ. He spent nearly 2 hours looking for a good sniper's position before he found what he was looking for.

A small crevice, about 5 feet tall, had been eroded into the side of a cliff face that overlooked the sandy dunes. Covering the Mongoose with a camoflauge net, he picked up his equipment and slid into the crack. Once he had situated all of his equipment, he unwrapped his M99 Stanchion and set the weapon on it's bipod. He connected a small fusion generator to the weapon, which would give it an unlimited amount of fire, so long as he didn't run out of slugs. After plugging in the generator, he slid a specially built long-range scope over the end of the barrel. The scope would automatically interface with his helmet and provide him with up to 32X magnification.

Meanwhile, back on the ODST camp, SPARTAN-024 had just recieved his orders.

"Sir, yes sir. Please be advised that SPARTAN-102 is currently located out in the mountains and is prepared to offer support with an M99 Stanchion. (If you require sniper support, just radio for 102 and he'll fire. He doesn't speak much, so you don't need to wait for me.)

Nick motioned for the rest of Gold team to remount the Scorpion. Climbing into the driver's seat, he pulled the engine out of idle and headed off in the direction of the Banewolf.

 

[Assassin716]

The Incarnate was waiting patiently on the farside of Makos for the arrival of the Titan's Pride. Things were beginning to settle down in the bridge, except Vice Admiral Valstaff. He gritted his teeth a bit, thinking, wondering, why would the covenant appear here of all places. There was virtually nothing here in this sector, Makos was but a huge red rock almost an exact replica of what Mars used to be. Makis on the other hand was lush with green, it seemed this sector had almost the same tributes as Sol where Earth and Mars was located. The Admiral sat down in hit chair a bit lazily, he picked up his datapad, searching some files, when he came across it, he sat up in his chair evenly. The document was a high classified report from Dr. Cathrine Hasley, it was reported that the planet Reach which was glassed by covenant forces back in 2552, that there was a recovery mission and a few Spartans along with Admiral Whitcomb were rescued. Dr. Hasley had also added that they retrieved a forerunner object which was the priority objective for the covenant to retrieve.

'Kayln...I need you to run some planetary diagnostics of Makos and Makis. I need the works anything that can be seen as abnormal.' Valstaff ordered, while he stroked his bearded chin.

'Right away Admiral,' She replied.

Valstaff drifted to the memory of the Incarnate being constructed it was at a ONI shipyard. Not many existed, but they were real he was one of the few that knew they existed. The Incarnate took nearly 46 years in research and development to be designed it was another 25 to be built, granted Valstaff was only able to work on the Incarnates development for two to three years. When the time came ONI granted him Kayln, time had passed quite a bit, in the past the AI known as Cortana was the most highly advanced AI, now all new AIs are created similar to her matrices. Kayln was a specialized AI for Navy Military Combat, she had an Soldiers Respect and more, there was only a few times she acted out of persona. Kayln took some time in creating her appearance it wasn't until she ran through the battle of Earth records she came across Commander Keyes' profile, and assimilated her appearance.

=====
Sector:Crystal Colony
Location: Classified
Class: Ship Construction Yard


The AI brought his hand over his brow. Bout time, he thought to himself. Nearly took eleven years to construct these babies, he continued his thought within his matrix processors.

'Yes I do believe it's time these set sail. Ben retrieve the precise coordinates of the Incarnate and relay those to the Commanders please, they will be setting off shortly.' an female officer asked with a polite voice.

'Hmm, you wouldnt happen to be thinking about...' the AI asked feverishly.

'No, no I am not, and that is nothing of your concern Ben.' she interrupted.

'Oh, my apologies i meant no intrusion.' he replied.

'Its alright Ben, its just these new times are getting a little stressful you know. So im guessing you heard about the new species Titan's Pride ran into. Ashame we couldn't get our hands on that technology.'

'Yes quite so' he replied. 'Ma'am the coordinates are looked but reading statistics from near by probes there seems to be an engagement with some covenant loyalists.'

'Well looks like Valstaff will be getting an early birthday present this year from his truly. Alright let the Commanders know they are cleared for Slipspace,' she continued.

'Right away Ma'am. You know you shouldn't be so hard on your self, he'll come back.' the AI said jokingly

'Ben what did I just say?' she replied with a devilish look.
====

The time it took to get to the crash site wasn't excitingly pleasant, mainly it was the lush surrounding, full of red, red, red, oh light red, red, red, wait theres a bit of orange there, and some brown there. Imagine a lush forest green trees, water stream, lake, only imagine that with a soot of sand, the lakes were still untouched but if we needed water we would filter them for sure. The four warthogs started to stop. The crash site was covered in debris and mechanical parts. My squads and I exited the Warthogs and began to investigate i noticed tread marks from the Scorpion Tank, which lead to the opposite side of the Baneswulf remains. I motioned my right hand forward, and my squads began to climb up to the first deck, coming to a locked bulkhead and no power source. We had to do things the hard way, with a good ol' plasma torch. Man the alliance with elites really does payoff, the door was opened in the next minute. Inside was a mess, we had to activate our helmet lights to get a better look, it seemed to be a cryo storage area, and there was still a few cryo tubes that were unopened. Whatever happened to the Baneswulf, it happened quick, so quick they couldn't unfreeze all the crew members.

I motioned a few squad mates to release the hatches on the rest of the tube and get the men and woman who were asleep back on their feet. I went to check out the next area, walked through some hallways and I came about the armory , almost everything was still there, not on the racks but still looked like none of the weapons were taken. It could have been the covenant cruisers that the Incarnate took out, but it was only a guess. Still something crawled at the back of my mind that something was not right, and I had a knack for knowing when somethings about to happen. I heard a gurgling noise and turned to see a limping shadow, I brought my MA5C assault rifle to bear.

 

[helios]

"This is Durfaine."
"Is that all the hello I get? 'This is Dufraine.'. After all we've been through."
"John, good the hear thats its you. I thought maybe it wasn't. After all, all I had to go on was 'an ODST sergeant on the Banewulf named John. I'm not surprised you're in charge of a ship now. You always did have a flair for tactics. It was always more your dream to command."
"Yeah, but then I flunked Maths. And no matter how good a natural flair for tactics you have, you still need Maths. So I did the Next best thing."
"You became a ground-pounder. I know, I know, it was more or less your only option. Enough about the past. How's your ship holding together?"
"The Banewulf's holding together. We've got more or less full mobility, and comms is finally running."
"Good to hear that. I'm surprised you've got the MAC going. After all, you've got what, less than a third of a ship?"
"Yep, just about that. But the Engineers tell me that the main firing mechanism's still intact, along with the ammo store. It's pretty convinent, but hey, I'm alive, who am I to complain about chance?"
"True, true. I'm waiting behing Makos for the Incarnate, and you, if you're coming."
"We're coming alright. We're coming in hot."
"Good to hear, good to hear. Dufraine signing out." The comm clicked off.
Well, well, well. Dufraine and me again. Just like old times.
"Sir, we've picked up multiple Covenant signals. I think they're Loyalists."
"Damn it. Increase speed to seventy-five percent. Get the Longswords prepped. We're gonna need them."
"Sir, should I alter course to face the new conacts?"
"No, We're gonna met up with the Titan's Pride on the other side of Makos, and hopefully slingshot around towards the new arrivals."
"Yes sir. Maintaining course."
The half-ship picked up speed as it moved towards Makos, moving closer and closer to what could be the survivour's doom.

 

[leegrisham]

(Anyone can feel free to take a position as an Elite if they want)
There was silence as the two crews overlooked one another.
Eerie held a hand up to stop the troops from moving, then motioned to a supply box that came from the drop pods of earlier, he opened the top and revealed a hand full of over shields.
"These will snap to your gear they are completely self sustained, but be warned they do not recharge like our or your SPARTANs shields, once exhausted you will be vulnerable again."

The ground began to shake and a defining noise erupted as through the raining fire of ship debris flew a tight group Phantom drop ships and Banshees. Eerie's request had indeed been upgraded. He counted 7 drop ships with 2 Banshee escorts for each. Two of the drops his were carrying Spectres, three were carrying two ghost a piece, and the last two were carrying wraith tanks. Dust kicked into the air as the drop ships lit and hovered above the ground preparing to drop their loads, the banshees circled around the perimeter providing support until the drop ships were away and the armor was manned.

"Humans, this our ride - I don't know what you objective is here but we are attacking the Covenant mining station that way", he pointed, "If you yearn for battle you are welcome to join, otherwise this is where we must part."
Eerie's HUD compressed his current four lights and added in 4 more. He was now in command of a large squadron.
There were loud thuds as the armor hit the ground, and a welcome hum as the grav lifts kicked on and Elites and supplies began pouring out of the Phantoms. Thirteen Elites in all came from the ships; they now had two squads of 9, 8 plus a leader. Eerie wasn't familiar with the commander of the other squad, he had only seen him in passing on the Splendor, but he knew that he was a green warrior - this would be a good trial for him.
The Elites regeared and reloaded their supplies then moved towards the armor.
Eerie called to Ugco, "You're my gunner grab a seat in that wraith!"
Four of Eeries team grabbed a Spectre and the other two saddled up on Ghost, the same for the second team.
The Phantoms accelerated into the heavens accompanied by half the banshees, the other 7 stayed to assist in the ground assault.
"Red Team, ghosts on point spectres behind provide support and protection for the wraiths.... Let's Move!"

Edited for 'sensefulness'

 

[Spartan137]

Back aboard the Titan's Pride, Captain Dufraine was sitting in the hot seat when the fleet arrived. 5 Covenant Loyalist vessels had just dropped out of slipspace and begun bearing down on the Pride and Incarnate.

"Incarnate, this is the Pride. Don't know if you've seen 'em yet, but there are 5 Loyalist vessels currently moving towards out position." Dufraine didn't bother giving his crew orders. They knew well enough.

On one of the readouts, the TACMAP displayed one of the vessels breaking off from the rest of the Loyalist formation and enter the atmosphere, discourgin Seraphs, Phantoms and Spirits as it went.

"Belay that last transmission. There are only 4 ships moving in. One has begun entry into the planet's atmosphere." Dufraine studied the readout for a few moments, then broadcasted a message down to the ground teams. "Soldiers, we've just spotted a number of Covenant vessels enter the system. We are going to take care of the ones up here, but theres a carrier coming down. So far, it's released a number of smaller craft, dropships, and fighters. I would recomend immediate cover. Dufraine, out."

Dufraine turned his attention back the forward displays showing different views of the space around the Titan's Pride. The 4 ships had boosted their thrust to what he believed was maximum and red points of light began appearing on the ships lateral lines.

"Captain Dufraine to all personel aboard the Pride. Prepare for vacuum and loss of gravity. We have a little situation up here."

 

[Seno Ypsamee]

=====================================================
Location: Covenant Cruiser approaching Human vessel codenamed "Titan's Pride"
=====================================================

"That ride through slipspace was hell," Seno said, "Report!"

"Human vessel straight ahead, should we fire, sir?" one of his Unggoy officers said.

"No, not yet, but get ready to," Seno replied, "This is going to be one hell of a battle, I can already tell."

Seno sat in his seat looking through some reports. As he fired up the display monitor, he saw it out of the corner of his eye, his home planet of Sanghelios, "Didn't realize we were close to home," Seno said out loud, "Alright men, ready yourselves, this is going to be a wild night!"

Seno placed his A.I. into the empty slot on the tower in front of him and waited for her to show up.

"Yes?" she asked in a tired voice.

"Get ready for human encounter," Seno said, and almost instantly the A.I. replied with a nod, followed by an announcement over the ship's intercom system.

"This is Sangheili A.I. Construct Alpha Gamma, prepare for human encounter, battle stations!" The intercom said, "This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!"

"Yeah, yeah, we know!" Said 'Namesse, an Unggoy who gave himself the name, "Dammit, it seems like everyday we go through the same thing! It's not like we can do anything, we are weaklings!" he said, mocking his higher officials words.

"We have four other ships to aid us, it should be simple," Seno's A.I. said.

"Yes," Seno replied, "it should be, but you know how humans have a tendency to pull help out of their asses."


(lol, 405th post )

 

[leegrisham]

Alse could tell by the markings on the ship at point, It was Seno's cruiser.
Seno was an oddity of the Sangheili. He was terribly hateful and blinded by rage. He was especially indoctrinated by the prophets. Early in his life they made him a footstool to their desires. Babied him and trained him with lies until he could only believe their word was truth. Above all though Seno was a traitor to the Sangheili, even while the prophets betrayed the covenant and cast the Elites out of their position, Seno clung to them.
The only thing Alse couldn't figure out is how Seno could claim loyalty to the Covenant after its betrayal; how he escaped the Civil War did he not know?! How could he be so unaware?!
Indeed Seno was a disgrace to the Sangheili, he associated with those wretched jiralhanae, lekgolo, kig-yar and unggoy. Under the circumstances of the Covenant Sangheili were forced to serve along side them but the Covenant was broken and Elites, proud Sangheili were free to be pure, and serve along side worthy species of choice.
The Humans of which were one, they had proven their worth in the Great War, the ability to stave off the multitude of attacks that the Covenant had thrown; plus thwarting the threat of the parasitic flood had given Humans the claim to friends of Sangheili.

"Bring us around and in formation with the UNSC fleet, open up a secure channel between us. Let's get tactical maps up and begin planning our attack." Alse barked
"Make sure all cannons are ready for fire and shields are max."
"The channel is ready sir" - Yumo answered.
"Titans Pride and Incarnate this is Alse Cordeer, what is your situation, are you battle ready and have you formulated an attack plan."
"Johnson get firing solutions on that point Cruiser." Alse commanded.
"Yes sir, working... *a few seconds pass* got it sir."
Alse leaned forward and put his hands on the rails of the control deck staring into the screen in front of him. “This will be a glorious battle” he thought.

 

[SGT Razor]

"Humans, this our ride - I don't know what you objective is here but we are attacking the Covenant mining station that way", he pointed, "If you yearn for battle you are welcome to join, otherwise this is where we must part."

They paused and shrugged at each other for a few seconds. Then Bravo Leader spoke up. "Boys, it looks like we've got a priority shift. Omega has taken over our objective anyways."

"Yeah! Screw Search and Rescue! This sounds like more fun."

The entire Squad was thinking it: 'There goes Boomer again with his cocky self.'

"Bravo Team, this Delta 231. I have been granted the rights to drop you guys this warthog, or provide immediate transport, overheard some chatter about losing a Pelican transport. ODST First Lieutenant Akalar has set up temp HQ as for base of operations involving the Banewulf. Heading is just two clicks East of here. Over." Another angel interrupted Boomer over the comm.

Andy, disregaurding the current time and place, immediately picked up on the woman's voice. "You sound hot. Are you single?" Li punched him in the arm between the plating in his armor.

"Much appreciated, Delta 231. It's about time you showed up. I guess all ya'll have got your hands full." Razor said after an inticing glare that could not be seen through his visor.

The Pelican hovered just low enough for the soldiers to climb in. Tempting, but they still had a job to do.

"Its your call boys, a lift or a Hog..." She said, completely ignoring Anderson's stupidity. The voice was barely audible over the roaring of the Pelican's engines.

"We're not done here. Drop us the Hog." Boomer climbed into the cargo bay of the Pelican as the magnetic clamps eased up on the troop transport Warthog. "Soldier, what are you doing?" He was obviously looking for something. He didn't answer. Finally finding what he was looking for, he discarded his depleted Spartan Laser and traded it in for a new one. Then he tossed Andy a few sniper magazines.

"Got it, let's go." He jumped out of the Pelican as it was lifting off. He jumped into the passenger seat with his new laser. Razor drove, and the rest sat in the back.

"Buckle up, boys. It's gonna be a bumpy ride."

Li was the first to fasten his seat belt.

 

[Spartan137]

"Soldiers, we've just spotted a number of Covenant vessels enter the system. We are going to take care of the ones up here, but theres a carrier coming down. So far, it's released a number of smaller craft, dropships, and fighters. I would recomend immediate cover. Dufraine, out."

The Scorpions radio had picked up the transmission and SPARTAN-024 realized that the tank would never make it to the crash site.

"You three catch that?" Three status lights lit up. "Good. Zach, stay were you are. Justin and Erika, get out now and get to the crash site and into cover." Neither light lit up. "GO!"

After a pause, Justin and Erika's lights lit up and he felt the tank give a jolt as they each lept off.

He just hoped he would make it.

Justin and Erika, having gotten off the tank, started sprinting across the desert at nearly 50 KPH. Erika had slown down so that Justin could keep up. When they had split the distance, a pair of Seraph fighter/bombers screemed over head and banked to return. Justin turned his torso and fired a long, controlled burst at one of the fighters. Immediatly, he cursed himself. He had just given away their positions. He slung the .50 Cal and sprinted even faster.

Back in the tank, Nick had just seen the two Seraphs. He unlimbered the 90mm gun and selected the ammunition, a specialized round designed to puncture Covenant sheilds. He turned the turret as quickly as the electric motor would allow and put it in the path ahead of one of the two Seraphs. Knowing that it would be incredibly lucky to hit one, he pulled the trigger.

Justin and Erika were about a third of a kilometer from the crash site when the lead Seraph exploded, raining them with debris. A large piece of metal, about 3 meters in circumfrence, was blown into the path of the trailing fighter, knocking it out of it's flight path. It careened into a sand dune and exploded, leaving a large black mushroom cloud.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the Titan's Pride, Dufraine had just recieved a transmission from the lead Elite ship.

"Titans Pride and Incarnate this is Alse Cordeer, what is your situation, are you battle ready and have you formulated an attack plan."

"Negative Alse Cordeer. We have not yet had the chance to create one." Consulting with the AI, it gave him a battle plan for the Pride and Incarnate. "Cancel that, we just got one."

"Incarnate, we are comming about on heading two-niner-seven and charging our MAC. We recomend you do the same" Without waiting for a response, Dufraine sent a message to Alse. "Cordeer, we are coming about to face those four vessels and are going to back ourselves into the atmosphere. I've heard that helps dissipate plasma torpedoes. We have begun charging our MAC and recomend that you charge your weapons."

He felt the gravity shift as the ship moved onto it's new heading.

"All unnecessary personel, please report to your assigned escape pods."

 

[Assassin716]

'Incoming transmission from the Titan's Pride, Admiral.' Kayln stated.

"Incarnate, we are coming about on heading two-niner-seven and charging our MAC. We recommend you do the same"

'Kayln they're using the planets gravity well to slingshot them, to give them a boost in speed too dodge the Covenants fire. Am I correct?' Valstaff asked.

'Calculating sir...Yes, it seems their on board AI has created a exemplary boost to the Prides engines, if they maintain a correct evasive pattern they should be able to escape their combatants weaponry. Although this is a percentage count of 1 to 365.435672 successful counter-attack, I recommend a different strategy betaken...especially with the Incarnate.' Kayln added.

Four thousand kilometers away, ten slipstream exits opened allowing into the system two UNSC Marathon-Class Destroyers, a UNSC Carrier and six UNSC Frigates and one UNSC Prowler. As each one fully exited slipspace, they locked coordinates to the Incarnate and immediately moved to its position. Kayln noticed UNSC signatures on the Battlemap, Valstaff noticed as well taking note of the groups Title...it fitted with the Incarnate, and the information quickly rumored through the ship, the Incarnate finally has an Escort Battlegroup. On the bridge a communication link was set up with one of the ships, the UNSC Entity Marathon Class Destroyer.

'This is Captain Drafican of the Escort Battlegroup Manifestation we are finally here to make you whole Incarnate.'

'Bout damn time to, its been what a few years now. I never thought a Flagship would fly so long by itself.' Valstaff replied.

Valstaff thought back a bit, looking over the recorded holodata of creating the Incarnate, he only assisted with its final years of preparation. The Incarnate was a new UNSC SuperCarrier Prototype and one of a kind, that is until it proves its worth in the battlefield, then it would be a new official line of UNSC Flagships. He did remember one research group trying to integrate the forerunner/covenant tech with existing UNSC Ship blueprints but proved difficult, but it seems it wasn't impossible.

'Things were getting hasty back at HQ, was a hassle trying to integrate the new tech with UNSC blueprints,' Captain Drafican answered. 'But we are on course to your heading, and looks like just in the nick of time as well, we are picking up a small Covenant Loyalist Battlegroup on the other side of Makos. And whats Titan's Pride doing out there with a Elite Cruiser?' Drafican continued.

'A counter-attack we believe,' Valstaff answered.

'Admiral did you authorize that?' Drafican asked.

'No I did not Captain, and I intend to find out why Dufraine thinks he can!' Valstaff replied with a course voice. 'Kayln open a comm channel to the Pride,'

'Yes sir, evaluating connection....connection established.' She replied.

'Dufraine what the hell is it you are doing, I ordered a regroup, not a counter-attack. If we are to launch a successful offensive strike we need all the ships we have, Now set an evasive course to regroup with the Battlegroup Manifestation. Is that understood?' Valstaff bellowed.


=-=-=-=-=

"Bravo Team, this Delta 231. I have been granted the rights to drop you guys this warthog, or provide immediate transport, overheard some chatter about losing a Pelican transport. ODST First Lieutenant Akalar has set up temp HQ as for base of operations involving the Banewulf. Heading is just two clicks East of here. Over." Another angel interrupted Boomer over the comm.

Andy, disregaurding the current time and place, immediately picked up on the woman's voice. "You sound hot. Are you single?" Li punched him in the arm between the plating in his armor.

"Much appreciated, Delta 231. It's about time you showed up. I guess all ya'll have got your hands full." Razor said after an inticing glare that could not be seen through his visor.

The Pelican hovered just low enough for the soldiers to climb in. Tempting, but they still had a job to do.
"Its your call boys, a lift or a Hog..." Delta 321 said, completely ignoring Anderson's stupidity. The voice was barely audible over the roaring of the Pelican's engines.

"We're not done here. Drop us the Hog." Boomer climbed into the cargo bay of the Pelican as the magnetic clamps eased up on the troop transport Warthog. "Soldier, what are you doing?" Delta 231 asked.He was obviously looking for something. He didn't answer. Finally finding what he was looking for, he discarded his depleted Spartan Laser and traded it in for a new one. Then he tossed Andy a few sniper magazines.

"Got it, let's go." He jumped out of the Pelican as it was lifting off. He jumped into the passenger seat with his new laser. Razor drove, and the rest sat in the back.

Delta 231 began ascending the Pelican back to Temp HQ, she thought about what one of the Marines asked about being single, she hoped soon she wasn't. She thought about Lieutenant Akalar on the way back and decided that she needed to express her love for him the next time she saw him.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I brought my MA5C assault rifle to bear, listening to the heavy footsteps the shadow gave off. I started walking backwards toward the Cryo Lab. It turned the corner revealing its deformed body with appendages sagging to the floor, it stared right back at me and began to run at me. I yelled into the com, 'FLOOD', and began pulling off rapid bursts of fire against it, the snarling atrocity still came running forward until I heard a second round of burst fire from an MA5C, it was Stephanie on my radar. The creature stumbled and flopped over on the floor, I quickly ran into the armory and picked up a M7057 Flamethrower, and began incinerating the body. I began speaking through the com system, 'This is Lieutenant Akalar, be aware that the crash site is contaminated with the Flood Parasite. All UNSC teams are to pack up what they have and any survivors acquired and exit the area immediately,'

'Sir that thing was uglier then what the Battle of Mombasa data had on the Flood,' Stephanie stated, as she turned walking back to the Cryo-Lab with me.

'I know, the Baneswulf has been down for some time, so it might have had time to mutate, I don't know but we have got to get everyone off this planet.' I replied.

Over the com i could here an excavation team yelling in agony, they were searching a higher deck, which meant they would most likely not survive, I paid my respects for those soldiers in silence and began to lseal the bulkhead that lead to the Cryo-bay.

 

[helios]

"Sir, Titan's Pride appears to be doing exactly what we're planing to do."
"Well, How about that. Great minds think alike. Maintain course. And make sure the Incarnate knows what we're doing."
"Done sir. Also, we have several inbound friendlies."
"How many?"
"Appears to be an Escort group. Yes, I have confirmation. It is the Escort Battlegroup Manifestation."
"Maintain course. Technically, I'm not under their command, so unless they pull rank with some ODST commander, which there is only one of, so far as I know,, we can do what we want." John smiled. It was good to know the loopholes.
"Sir, the Incarnate is requesting that we provide fire support to the Pride. Apparently the Incarnate is a little tied up at the moment."
"Excellent."
The Banewulf swung around Makos (or is it Makis?) behind the Titan's pride.
"Navigation?"
"Yes sir?"
"Are we on a direct heading for the covenant flagship?"
"One moment." The ensign did somwe quick calculatings. "Yes. If we both stay on the samne headings, we should hit it. Do you want me to make a course correction?"
"No. Leave it as it is. Fire control, make the MAC hot."
"Done sir. The Longswords are standing by."
"Excellent. Fire the MAC on my mark, and keep pumping them out as fast as you can. Comms, tell all friendlies to be clear from our path."
"Sir, what are we doing?"
"I believe we are providing covering fire."
The remainder of the Banewulf sped onwards, towards the Covenant Loyalists.
"On three, fire MAC. Navigation, cut the speed to half from the first firing and keep it there until I say."
"Confimed sir."
"One, Two." John closed his eyes. God, I hope this works.. Taking a deep breath he spoke.
"Three. Fire MAC."
The ship slowed drastically as the Ferric-Tungsten round burst like fire from the front of the Banewulf. A minuete later, a second round followed.

 

[Spartan137]

"Dufraine what the hell is it you are doing, I ordered a regroup, not a counter-attack. If we are to launch a successful offensive strike we need all the ships we have, Now set an evasive course to regroup with the Battlegroup Manifestation. Is that understood?"

"Negative sir! We are currently on a heading that will take us on an intercept path towards the Carrier. Don't know if you saw that, but it's going to be hell on all those soldiers on the ground. Looking at the reports streaming up, it would appear that Gold team has already incountered a pair of Seraphs. If we don't take care of that whale NOW it's gonna kill them all!"

Dufraine paused after his statement, wondering just who he was talking to. Had he really just back-talked a Vice Admiral? He put it into the back of his mind.

"OPS, tell the Longsword squadrons to get their ships into space. Something tells me that carrier is going to be more challenging then that fleet."

 

[Assassin716]

I was just finishing the last two inches of plasma welding the bulkhead, when i hear yelling and gunfire outside. I dropped the plasma welder and unslung my assault rifle running to get outside, as I ran through the open hole in the wall i could see wretched bodies laying all around the sanded area. I felt something drop from the sky right next to me and turned to bring my weapon to fire but it was to late the combat form had wailed at me, propelling me backwards through the air twenty feet, I didnt have much time but was able to pull off a few rounds while in the air. Hitting the ground, the wind was knocked out of me, it took a few seconds for some air to refill my lungs.

'Omega squad *cough*, get the shotgun from the warthog,' I was having a bit of trouble breathing but i was okay, I stood up kneeling, and began to lay down cover fire for Omega as they ran past me to get to the shotguns to protect the warthogs. I motioned to Alpha squad and they all started backing up slowly to the warthogs. I got on my feet and Zack from Omega helped me up in to the machine gun of one of the Warthogs and i began laying waste to the ugly bastards. All while this was going on i was still in awe and confusion as to how and why the Flood was here.

My teams were able kill enough to get suffiecient distance between us and them. 'Lieutenant, are we heading back to base?' It was the voice of Stephanie, a sweet but a still hardened ODST. 'Thats a negative, if we continue our course to the base, we would be leading them to the others, head on over to the nearby valley'. The convoy of eight Warthogs stopped at the nearby valley, we had taken the time we had to help the newly awakened marines, whom i was now guessing wanted to be back in the cryo tubes. I couldn't blame them, it was said that the remaining flood was destroyed or hibernating never to reawaken in some far away galaxy.

I checked the lifesigns of my squads, I didn't lose one, I was thankful, we had all become brothers and sisters and I was considered the Oldest, the one everyone looked up to, not because of my rank but because of my skill as a leader. 'Alright ODSTs, we've got till sundown to get our temp HQ packed, this rescue operation of course has been scraped.'
I heard something in the distance and was delighted to see Delta 231 once again, my heart began to race, thinking to myself at least shes okay.

'Hello Lieutenant!' I heard over the com, but her voice seemed much more bashful.

'Good to see you again, Delta 231, We've got a situation, I need you transport me and Alpha squad back to base,' I had noticed Ryan nudging Stephanie as if i was going to flirt with Delta 231. 'No problem Lieutenant,' The Pelican slightly turned and descended, and Alpha Team got on board, I walked up to Staff Sergeant Hammond and gave him and the other ODSTs their orders. They were to contact Gold Team as well as Zulu company and Spartan 079, about the immediate threats and to return to temp base for a evac. They all climbed into the warthogs, one or two each now that my squad and I were taking a lift. I hopped up the Pelican ramp and proceeded to the cockpit where the lady of my dreams was piloting, I closed the door behind me knowing my squad would be putting bets on what was going to happen.
Lets just say that even though in a stressful environment you can still find yourself in a new relationship, and thats what i found.

 

[leegrisham]

Yumo turned to Alse.
“Sir we have unconfirmed chatter about…” Yumo took a long pause.
“About what!” Alse barked, he was concentrating on the battle about to happen.
“Sir it seems the humans have sighted the Flood parasite.”

A long silence fell as the horrible news sifted through the command deck…

This was bad, 10 times worse than the Covenant Loyalist. An organism that only lived to destroy and propagate its mindless species had been ‘spotted’ on the ground.
The Elites had directives, the two most important of which was Never again allow the Flood to break out as it before.

“Ready a slip space transmitter, Record this message. – This Headmaster Alse Cordeer to battle group Sanctified Forge. We have unconfirmed sightings of the Flood parasite at attached coordinates, requesting your presence per protocol to execute Directive 1, current Action level 1.”

The Directive 1 was the stopping of the flood; subsequent to that the Elites had formed Actions to take, 1: Glassing the planet, and other Actions subsequent to 1. Say for instance, the flood commandeered a ship as they had done to get to Earth.

A few seconds later a small orb dropped out of the ships drop bay hovered in space for a few seconds then shot away.

Alse only hopped that the battle group could arrive quickly.
“Let our troops on the ground know that the Flood is on planet side, they are to continue their mission until further orders.”
“Yes sir” Yumo answered.

 

[Seno Ypsamee]

SEno followed the Pride a little longer, watching it's every move. He then looked out of the corner of the ship and could make out more UNSC ships coming in. "Dammit!" Seno shouted, "Tell the other ships in our fleet to ready themselves, it looks like our original plan will fail."

Seno then looked at the ground of the planet below and saw something he had hoped to never see again, Flood parasites. "Alert, this is Seno," Seno shouted over the cruiser's intercom system, "we have Flood parasites and the ground below, if we get out of the ship, prepare for a massive battle,"

Seno's ship filled with screams, Flood was bad news, the first outbreak was hard enough to contain, but a new wave? This definitely spelled trouble for the humans and the Covenant.

"SIR!" one of Seno's Grunts shouted, "what the Hell are we gonna do?!"

Seno noticed the fear in the little Unggoy's voice, "We're going to do what any good army would do," Seno looked back at the parasites, "kill every damn one of them along with the humans!" Seno smiled, a new battle, a new cause, and hopefully a new Covenant leader in the makes.

 

[Spartan137]

"Charge the MAC. Prep Archer pods 1-13 and slide a Shiva into it's launcher." Dufraine was giving orders automatically. That was bad. He needed to be flexible with that behometh.

"Sir, MAC capacitors are 70% charged. Full charge achieved in one minute." His WEP. officer reported to him and readied the rest of his orders.

"Launch pods 1-13."

Roughly 260 missiles streaked out into space and towards the Carrier. From experiance, Dufraine knew that the ship would shoot down half and the rest would detonate harmlessly against the sheild.

"Capacitors at 100% in 5...4...3...1... MAC is ready to fire."

"Fire at will." Dufraine felt the ship shudder and watched the lights dim as the Tungsten shell was launched out into space. "Reload the MAC and charge the capacitors again." He monitored the shells progress as it streaked toward its target at 1/4 light speed.

OPS screamed out in alarm as she noticed the Carrier prepare it's retribution. "Sir! The carrier has begun charging a beam weapon!"

"Calm yourself. We'll be fine." Dufraine said it, and knew it wasn't fine.

Back on the screen, the shell had arrived at it's target. Switching over to his forward camera, he watched the shell slam into the shield and punch through, striking the vessel just after mid-ship and create a massive hole in the vessel. Plasma, debris and bodies flew out of corridors and conduits that had just been severed.

"Beam weapon is still charging!" Ops was beginning to loose it.

"Calm down! Fire the MAC when ready and begin evasive actions!"

But it was too late. The carrier released it's lance of destruction. The beam traveled through space at light speed and struck the Pride at a 10 degree angle, cutting a clean swath from midship to the engines. The Pride shuddered and began to fall.

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SPARTAN-024 Nick had just reached the crash site in time to see a number of Flood combat forms begin attacking the Marines assigned to protect the wreckage. Justin-137 and Erika-071 were already under cover and firing back. Bringing the 80mm cannon to bear, he selected an anti-infantry round, a round with large frag radius, and selected a particularly large pack of forms. Hitting the trigger, he felt the tank shudder and turned the cannon on the next group.

"Zach, we could use a little rifle support out here. Erika, I could use a lure." He watched as Erika sprinted out of cover and straight through the combat form lines. A large number broke off from the fighting to follow the long distant SPARTAN-IV. He turned the turret on the trailing forms and let loose with the coaxial machine gun as Justin climbed into the .50 Cal gunner's seat.

Justin turned his attention to the forms in the immediate surroundings, guning down each methodically.

A shadow fell across Justin-137 and his heart stopped. Spinning the turret around, he was just in time to see the rouge Combat form get blown to tiny pieces as a Stanchion round tore through it.

"Nice to see that, Zach. Thanks for saving my ass." Justin returned to firing.

 

[Assassin716]

As the Pelican ascended over some hilltops, Jahrad and Bethany could see the tormenting battle below at the base, the flood had found it. 'Alpha get ready, LZ is hot, keep on your toes it the flood agin.' I yelled over the sound of the Pelicans engines and battle that was going on below. There was a blurred line between the marines and the flood, the marines had set up a small perimeter fence along with a few machine gun turrets, but as far as i could tell, we hadnt let any into the compound. The Pelican pivoted in air and began its decent, I jumped first and fired at a combat form behind the fence, it fell over not getting back up. 'Bethany, refuel and be ready to take to the air again.' It was just about to turn dark, my hud told me the lateral time of 7:21 pm. 'Alpha squad get the rest of the marines onto the pelicans' I ordered over the com. The pelicans were all intact, but the flood was unrelenting continuing its assault on the weak fence, it wouldn't be long until they broke it.

I noticed that just about all the personnel were loaded except the few that manned the machine guns. 'Lets hussle ladies, we are out of here,' I yelled. My team hopped back into Delta's pelican and i waited for the gunners to retreat from the fence, the boarded and I hopped back in. The Pelicans began to ascend one by one and take off to a northern position, there was only two pelicans left when we were on our way. I noticed that a few combat forms had broken through the perimeter and jumped up to a pelican doing what ever they could to the engines, immediately the pelican began to twirl and landed half a mile from the base. The other pelican miraculously made it.

'Turn back we need to see if there were any survivors,' My team turned to look at me, i couldnt see their faces but knew they were a bit shocked. 'Alright, Lieutenant,' Bethany replied.

Bethany turned the pelican around toward the crashed pelican. I could see gun fire exiting the downed pelican, we started to descend a few meters in front of them. I pointed to two of my squad mates and they knew they were to stay and protect the pelican, I motioned for the others to follow me, and we began giving cover fire as we made our way to the back of the pelican. I turned inside, and saw five marines. 'Sir we lost four, and the pilots,' one of the marines yelled while still firing. 'Alright well we have a ticket out of here so lets get moving, I quickly, grabbed collected the recently deceased dog tags, and we began making our way back to the pelican. A new wave of flood began running faster toward us, and knew we wouldn't make it, the pelican was ascending to slowly, compared to the agility of the flood.

Three huge machine like beetles hovered through the air, each one having a plasma shielding in front of it, they began unleashing a volley of missiles towards the flood, almost instantly the flood turned their attention to them. I noticed something detaching from one of the metal beetles and began floating towards the pelican. It was a monitor, in our studies in the UNSC academy we learned everything we could that was gathered at the battle of earth. Sergeant Major Johnson had made it back to earth with Commander Keyes, and the remaining marines, but also a Monitor of Installation 04 that Master Chief destroyed. And here one was standing before me, except this ones color was purple, not like 343.

'Oh my reclaimers here... we must act quickly to quarantine this infection. I am 562 Repentia Acolyte,' it began.

'What do you mean,' I replied, taking notice as the voice was female.

'You mean you don't know...this is an Armoury World of the Forerunners. We must get you to assembly complex in order to best fit you for flood containment protocols,' 562 continued.

'Lieutenant it seems a that the UNSC Prowler Angel's Delight is able to bring us aboard, shall I give the order to the other pilots...' Bethany asked.

'Yes, we need to regroup and get the survivors into medical hands, then we can deal with the flood.' I replied.

562 gave me what appeared to be a nod as his whole body was merely an eye with a metal box. 'Yes that sounds quite antiquate, then we shall prepare you for correct protocol.' 562 said.

 

[SpartanForever]

Name: Logan Parker
Bio: Was taken at a young age by the Spartan Project but was later kicked out do to physical conflicts with other members of the project. After being rejected Logan was good at one thing and one thing only, killing. So he went on to become a Marine, now about to be dropped off by a pelican into a battle of a life time. This was what he was meant for.

"Where's the bathroom on this damn ship?" Logan cried.
"Uh there is none sir..." Bethany the pilot responded in a disgruntled tone.
Looking into her eyes Logan said "NO BATHROOM! What kind of engineers would make a ship with no bathroom, when we land im gonna turn one of those flood bastards into a porto potty."
"Ooh-Rah!" Shouted the marines in their seats.


They tried to keep confident, and tried to be positive. But everyone knew that there was a small chance against this enemy, this monster...

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Tell me if im on track here people? And i tried to add a bit of humor.

 

[Spartan137]

An explosion ripped through the Pride as the beam bissected the helpless Cruiser. Subsequent explosions also peppered fuel tanks and lines as well as the engineering compartments. The Pride was thrown off it's trajectory and towards the planet.

"We're hit!" It was his engineering officer whom had said this, as OPS had fainted.

"I can see that! Steady us out!" Dufraine got up off the floor where he had been thrown.

"Negative, sir! The Pride's engine control has been disabled. We only have use of 15% of our station keeping thrusters and the docking thrusters!" Engineering was performing a ship-wide damage report. "Sir, the Pride is listing heavily to the right! We're being pulled into Makos' gravity well!"

"Acknowleged. Use our docking thrusters to slow our decent." Switching over to the SHIP-COM, he began giving his final orders abord the Pride. "All un-necessary personel, report to escape pods. Marines and ODSTs, report to your Pelicans. Pilots, get your vessels out into vac, we may need them on the ground. Pelican crews, grab as much equipment as you can and carry them to the surface. I'll send coordinates on the planned landing site once we enter the atmosphere."

"Gold team, this is the Pride. We have just been rendered incapable of movement and are going to enter the atmosphere in approximately 3 minutes. Your orders are to locate the ship and set up a base of operations." Over the radio, Nick replied. "Yes sir. We've just had visual confirmation that the carrier has hit the surface. Judging by prelimary reports, it would appear that it has survived but is incapable of flight. The Covenant have also begun setting up camp." Dufraine sighed. "Roger that, Nick. It looks like we aren't going to be alone." He switched his system to the frequency that Weylend was using. "Primal, it looks like we're about to hit dirt. I would suggest you grab anything you need and get up here to the bridge."

"Pride to the Incarnate and the rest of the UNSC fleet. The Titan's Pride is going down. Repeat, we are going down."

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"Gold team, this is the Pride. We have just been rendered incapable of movement and are going to enter the atmosphere in approximately 3 minutes. Your orders are to locate the ship and set up a base of operations."

Nick heard the Captain's voice over the Scorpions radio just as he had cleared out the remaining Flood forms.

"Yes sir. We've just had visual confirmation that the carrier has hit the surface. Judging by prelimary reports, it would appear that it has survived but is incapable of flight. The Covenant have also begun setting up camp." Nick opened the hatch and poked his head out, looking up above the position of the Carrier he had just watched fall. Sure enough, an object resembling a meteor was entering the atmosphere and appeared to be heading to the East.

"SPARTANs, I know you caught that. Erika, contact main base and get a Pelican up here. We need it to get to the Pride's crash site. Justin, grab all the ammo you can and load it up in a few satchels." Climbing out of the Scorpions cockpit, he called SPARTAN-102. "Zach, we need you to keep a lookout for us and pick off any targets of importance. Be sure you arn't located." Zach's light lit up and flashed twice before switching off. Gold team code for acceptance of new orders and request to only take them as a recomendation. "Copy that, Zach. Do what you have to."

He was broken off from his talk by the sight of a Pelican moving towards them from the ODST camp. As it came into land, he signaled for it to pick up the Scorpion. He thought they may still have a use for it.

When the three SPARTAN-IVs were in the blood tray and the M808B hanging from it's position, the dropship lifted off and began it's flight east.

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SPARTAN-102 Zach had asked Nick if he could only take his orders as a recomendation and he had accepted. Zach pulled out a small, flying recon drone from inside of it's specially designed satchel. The drone would give him exceptionally good views of the surrounding area and the range of which he was to by firing.

He released the drone and it went off on it's own. Turning his attention back to the Carrier, he noticed a number of Covenant foot soldiers setting up structures. He turned his rifle to them and watched. He noticed a large, gold plated brute that seemed to be giving the soldiers orders. He put the crosshare over the brute's torso and pulled the trigger, sending the 1 gram piece of Tungsten on it's course.

 

[helios]

"Sir! The Titan's Pride has been hit! They're abandoning ship."
"Damnit. Are we close enough to help?"
"Yes, if we turn around within about five minutes"
"Okay then. Fire Control, fire one more MAC round, Then scramble the Longswords. Navigation, As soon as that last round leaves, I want us turning around."
"Understood sir."
"Tell the Pride we're coming for them."
The final round erupted from the Banewulf, hurtling onwards.
"Sir! Our last two MAC rounds have made contact. They took one of the cruisers!"
"Holy..." John stood, looking outwards into the void, his mind on other things. Two Longswords aren't enough to help the Pride, even if I set down the Banewulf.
"Get me a comm to the Pelican pilots."
"Done sir. You're online."
"This is Staff Sergeant John Edwards, currently commanding the UNSC Banewulf. I am requesting the support of any and all available Pelicans. If you are available, please meet at the RV point Delta Echo 12 as soon as possible. Any help is appreciated."
The Banewulf travelled towards the Titan's Pride. The Longswords launched, and immediatly began ferrying capsules onto the surface of Makos. A small group of Pelicans appeared out of the atmosphere of Makos.
"Sir, the Pelicans want to know what you want them to do."
'Get them ferrying survivours to the surface. And find out what Dufraine intends to do about the Pride. I'll need to know, if I'm to figure anything out."