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Spartan III's Part IV
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 30 September 2003, 3:20 AM


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THIS IS IN CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS STORY UNLESS YOU READ THE REST OF THE SERIES. I ACCIDENTLY NAMED TWO STORIES SPARTAN III'S PART III, BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT STORIES. IN THE FIRST STORIE OF MY SERIES I MENTIONED Ex STEALTH CAPABILITIES. ENJOY!!!

The Marines had gained a solid footing in the docking bay. Small strike teams were being sent throughout the ship to clear away nearby forces. However it seemed like the Covenant were retreating for now. The Master Chief and his Spartan III's were on the ground floor. They met up with the leader of the division, Lieutenant Gregory Burns.
"Sir!", he smartly saluted.
"At ease. What is our status?", replied the Master Chief.
"Sir, our strike teams have encountered no resistance save a few security teams composed of Grunts and Jackals. We have this entire sector secured", he said.
At this time Cortana spoke up, "Lieutenant Burns, you will split your men into two platoons. One will stay here to make sure our ride off this bucket isn't cancelled, the second will move towards the control room from several points of attack, here, here, and here", she said. Both the marines and the Chiefs HUD now displayed a model of the Covenant ship. The docking bay was marked with a green dot, the control room was marked with an X, and three separate paths were highlighted.
"Each path leads to the control room, we will be using all three paths so that we can effectively surround the control room and prevent reinforcements from arriving. However each path will be heavily guarded and pass through several critical parts of the ship. The first path is the one me and the Spartans will go on. It passes strait through the main armory and a large vehicle bay. The second path passes through the weapons control station. Destroy this area if possible but it is not priority, since it should be in pieces anyway if everything goes right. And the last path passes through engineering, again, destroy if possible but it is not a priority, this ship won't be going any where", said Cortana.
The marine nodded, unquestioning, and turned back to his troops. While he was yelling at them to form ranks, The Chief spoke to his Spartans.
"Okay, this is it. We're going to take this highlighted path", the same model Cortana showed was on all of there HUDS now. "Well be going with a small platoon of marines. The path were going on passes strait through the main armory, so expect heavy resistance", he turned to Fox.
"I suggest you dump those sniper rifles and trade it in for a close up weapon, it going to be pretty much close quarters action".
She nodded and bent down. She picked up a Plasma Rifle from a dead Elite she had been standing next to and dropped the CP, but she kept the MX.
"Hunter, those C-12 blocks you have are probably going to come in handy, we may have to force our way through a couple of areas".
He nodded as well.
"Questions?", he asked.
Inferno spoke up, "Sir, the Covenant could simply seal off the section were in and depressurize it, what will prevent them from doing that?"
It was a good question, there was a high probability that that could happen. While depressurizing there area would not affect the Spartans, it would instantly kill there accompanying marines, and fighting there way through platoons of Covenant without backup was not a very nice thought.
"I've already taken care of it Chief. I've hacked through the Covenant computer network and I now contain some minor functions of the ship. That includes life support", Cortana said.
They nodded, she had said it over the external speakers so everybody could hear. "Alright get ready, were moving out as soon as Burns finishes organizing his troops, which should be any minute".
2 minutes later they were ready. Most of the Marines in the Spartans platoon had had Shotguns or Battle Rifles, but nearly a third carried a assortment of Covenant weapons. They moved out........................

"FIRE!!!", yelled Admiral Bankman. The ships MAC heavy round streaked towards a destroyer. The shield was down instantly, but the ship returned fire with pulse lasers.
"Sections 3-15 on decks A8 and E12 are breached, there's significant stress on the engine, if this abuse keeps up it will explode!", yelled his weapons officer, Lieutenant Cario.
He nodded, "Fire C1 through D5 missiles, aim for the midline. Divert as much power to the MAC as you can and pump all reserve coolant into the engines".
"Missiles away!"
Dozens of missiles flew towards the ship. It hit in her midline, where a steady plasma charge had been building up. Now the sickly reddish glow that had been there dimmed out, a few internal explosions rang out but nothing that would cause the ship serious damage. Sure enough, five seconds after the glow had dimmed it was building back up again. But it had bought them precious seconds.
"MAC gun at 98% sir", yelled Cario.
"Then fire dammit".
Another white streak shot towards the destroyer. It hit around her front and she spun out of control. It was still working however, but it had been knocked into Earths gravity well and it didn't have enough power left to pull itself out. The ship's propulsion system glowed such a fiery purple-white that it hurt to look at. However even with the ship running at full steam it couldn't pull out now and it was pulled down. It would most likely land somewhere in the Pacific, hopefully not anywhere on land.
"Sir, the coolant valves are leaking from all the pressure. Engine red line in thirty seconds", yelled one of the tech officers.
"Power down all parts of the ship save life support, NOW!!".
Under normal circumstances the tech would have been shocked, they were in the middle a battle zone, but the imminent fear of death blocked out clear thinking. He hit a couple of controls and everything shut down. It was pitch black, not even the glow of the monitors. It was noticeably cooler, but not so much as they would freeze to death. The Admiral felt himself floating, the gravity had been turned off as well.
What he had just ordered his tech to do was controversial to say the least. They were in the middle of a battle zone, and were now officially sitting ducks. If he had suggested doing anything like that at the Academy they would have booted his ass out the door. He was hoping to play dead, hopefully the Covenant would think he had lost all power after the attack and were done for.
After almost a half hour of shivering and floating, he broke the silence. "Bring the gravity back on line, slowly. Then try weapons systems and view screens".
His crew complied. Once his monitors were back on, he saw the end result of the battle. The Orbital guns had taken care of the heavy lifting, but there were still now a total of only 19 Ships including there's, all Halcyon X's. Starship debris littered the area, Covenant and Human. 5 badly damaged carriers were crawling away, they managed to make Slipstream jump out of system. The Admiral felt relief wash over him, it was over.
A message broadcasted over the coms, "hssss.. this is UNSC HQ, ...hsss... Over 12, 000 troop trans...hsss... inbound over....hsss...razil".
The Admirals blood ran cold. He realized that the battle for Earth was only beginning.....

Two Blue armored Elites stood guard at a security checkpoint. They had set up a barricade of gear crates, behind the two Elites was a Grunt in a Shade that barely fit in the hall. The two Elites were talking to each other in there deep voice, probably gloating about how many humans they were going to kill if they came there way. A slight shimmer appeared behind one of the Elites and he fell to the ground, his spine broken. The second one looked around, alarmed, but eX also ended him by bashing his gun into his spine. The Grunt was in a panic and firing wildly, as if he hoped to flush out the invisible enemy. A single pistol shot rang out and hit the Grunt between the eyes. He fell off his Shade, and eX de-cloaked. He looked around then motioned all clear. That checkpoint was the first of five that they had come across. According to Cortana, they were getting close to the main armory. The increase in resistance had testified to that. They silently climbed over the gear crates and squeezed by the Shade.
They went down more maze like corridors until Cortana finally said, "The main armory is just around the bend"
He quietly moved up towards the bend Cortana was suggesting and sneaked a fiber-optic probe around the corner. At the end of the hall there was a huge doorway, 12 feet at least. Two Spec Ops Elites stood at the door next to something that looked like a Reaper but had no gunner and enclosed. An automatic emplacement. They each carried a weapon he had never seen before (it's the weapon in the new Halo 2 screen over at Bungie.com), along with a plasma rifle and grenades. Five Jackals and Four Brutes were out in front of them. Two of the Jackals began to squabble over a piece of brownish meat. Soon they were going into a full blown fist fight, they tumbled on the ground. One of the Brutes came over and shot each Jackal with his sniper rifle. He picked up the brownish meat they had fought over, sniffed it, then stuffed it in his mouth and walked away.
In his head Cortana said, "ONI is going to love that one. Evidence of caste structure".
"Personally, I'm just glad they lowered our opposition number", he replied.
He turned around to his team, who was anxiously looking at him to know what it was.
"Okay people, the entrance to the armory is right around that corner. We have to go strait through there to get to the control room. eX, you're going first. There's an automatic emplacement. Take that out first, if we step out there it will shoot us on sight, if you can try to get behind some of those Covenant and bash'em for us".
He nodded, then he turned a dial on his neck and he slowly disappeared. EX moved past the Covenant towards the weapons emplacements. One of the Brutes he was near stopped, sniffed the air, then roared. He looked all around him, trying to find the intruder. Soon the other Brutes smelt it and they roared as well. The lead Brute had an exchange with one of the Elites on guard, and he started to fire his plasma rifle around wildly. 'So much for the element of surprise', thought eX.
He threw a frag grenade and it landed right under the automated Reaper. A second later it exploded and the gun flipped over. Now everybody was firing wildly. The door behind the Brutes opened and five more Spec Ops Elites ran out with the odd looking guns. Hearing the commotion, MC ordered his Marines to 'GO,GO,GO'.
The marines and Covenant exchanged fire. Five got up close with there shotguns and took down Brutes and Elites shields. One of the Brutes threw a chemical grenade far back into the group. It exploded and sent reddish orange gas in the air. Three unlucky marines were enveloped in the gas and there skin was starting to get eaten. One of them breathed it in and gulped like fish out of water. The gas had ate holes in his lungs and he was suffocating.
MC chucked his own grenade behind a group of Jackals in a rough delta formation. It exploded behind them and they flew forward.
An Elite dropped dead from a three round first that cut through his skull, the bullets appeared to come from thin air. No doubt X's doing.
Hunter had pulled out his SAW and a bloody hill of bodies was beginning to form at the door. The SAW ran out of ammo and he pulled out the launcher and sent five more Elites and a couple nearby Grunts to Covie heaven.
Inferno held off a few Jackals with his Flamethrower and set one of the Brutes on fire. His hairy skin made him very flammable. He ran around in circles and Inferno put him out of his misery with a shotgun blast.
Another marine charged forward with a Jackal shield in one hand and a plasma pistol in the other. He got close to one of the Spec ops Elites. What happened was horrifying. The Elite dropped his overheated Plasma Rifle and drawed the odd gun. He leveled it at the marine and fired. The effect looked somewhat like what happens to a fly near the bug-zapper, but with plasma instead of electricity. The first bolt struck the marines shields and he fell backwards, it went out. The second bolt hit him in the chest, he was utterly ripped apart, no longer recognizable as a human being put a mound of body parts. Fox aimed her sniper rifle at the offending Elite and fired, nailing him through the head. He exploded and took down a score of troops around him. Finally they pushed there way into the armory. There were seventy three Covenant soldiers here, Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Brutes, and two pairs of Hunters.
The armory was huge. There was a central wall were plasma weapons gun by the dozens. Elite, Grunt, Jackal, Hunter, and Brute armor hung in suspended cases like the Spartans. There were two other central smaller platforms that also held grenades and more guns. 5 Shades were placed in the room and each opened fire the moment they stepped in. MC watched as three marines in front of him were ripped apart. There was also a central Reaper which a Brute manned and he opened fire. The green-white glow of plasma filled the Chiefs visor as it slammed right into him. He was knocked five feet back, his shields down and his suit sparking.
Hunter let another rocket fly and nailed the gun in the center, blowing it into metal bits. They got to the center of the room and destroyed all the other guns with grenades. One of the Hunters in the room had on his body armor on but not his shields or fuel rod gun. He charged anyway. He trampled two marines under his massive weight and grabbed another by the neck and swung him around till his neck snapped. Glock pulled out his AR ( his battle rifle was out of ammo ) and sent a three round burst through its back.
One of the other Hunters roared in rage, obviously the other Hunters bond brother. He charged strait towards Glock with his fuel rod glowing. He trampled a pair of grunts on his way but didn't seem to notice. The hunter fired and Glock ducked out of the way, the bolt barely missing him over his shoulder. A marine near him threw a grenade at the charging monster. It did no damage but apparently some shrapnel made it into the Hunters eyes and he was blinded long enough so Glock could get around him and shoot him in the back.
MC, who had gotten back into the fight, nailed an Elite with one of the 'Zap' guns. It shields flickered and he grabbed it and turned it around to use as a shield against the barrage of exploding Needle's and superheated plasma that was thrown his way. The Elite was blown to hell, he threw it out of the way and sprayed the Covenant with his dual SMG's. The two remaining Hunters noticed him and opened fire. Two fuel rods criss-crossed over his head, but they missed. Hunter saved him with a Rocket. It landed in the space right behind the two Hunters, one died immediately and the other got his left arm blown off. He groaned weakly as a fountain of blood poured from the stump and he fell over, dead. By now most of the Covenant were retreating, one Elite ( a red one ) grabbed another gun he didn't know off of a shelf and opened fire with purple white lances of plasma.
'Shit', thought the Chief. 'it's a god dam mini-gun !'. It sprayed the marines with suppressive fire. Fox targeted it with her MX and fired. The bullet exploded and so did the Elite. Finally after five minutes they managed to chase all the Covenant out of the armory, at the expense of two-thirds of there fighting force.....

This kind of left off at a bad angle, but I was anxious to get it out.





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