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"Covenant boarding party on deck 6, breach in supply silo 2, combat team Charlie prepare to engage enemy," came Cortana on the com.
Fire Team Charlie piled into the hangar shaft lift. The lift chimed and they were speeding down to deck 6.
"MARINES! THREE TO A SIDE OF THE BLAST DOORS!! BISENTI AND I TAKE THE POINT AS SOON AS WE REACH DECK 6!!" The Sergeant barked. Bisenti was the fastest of the team and had the best reflexes, if there was Covenant behind the level 6 blast door, his reactions might save his life- for a few moments.
They had only seconds before the lift was level with the deck 6 blast door. Bisenti, Barclay and Jenkins took the right of the broad, gauss-floored lift, O'Brian and Mendosa took the left with the Sergeant. They were now level with the blast door, which was already hissing open. The Sergeant signalled to Bisenti and counted down on his fingers-
three,
two,
one-
The Sergeant and Bisenti swung around the sides of the blast door and trained their guns at the corridor ahead. They waited. Nothing yet. Nothing.
The Sergeant took in a small breath and beckoned the marines forward. They expanded in an arrowhead formation into the chamber at the start of the corridor.
"Bisenti" grunted the Sergeant " get in front of me and take the point," he addressed the whole team "the corridor ahead takes a right, stick hard to the right side of the corridor with your heads down." They followed along the wall in single file with their right shoulders to the wall. Bisenti looked around the corner and signalled it was clear. They all came forward. The corridor continued and at it's end it split off in two directions. The Sergeant raised his hand open in the air and waved it forward. The Marines obeyed the hand signal and went three to a wall, and with there assault rifles ready they advanced. The Sergeant once again counted off on his fingers, this time he and Bisenti would look around the corner and check the two different corridors that branched left and right. The Sergeant would check the left, Bisenti the right.
Three,
two,
one-
The Sergeant leaned around the corner and there, about four metres from him was a Covenant Elite in Blue armour. It spotted him and let out a gargling, guttural roar, levelled it's plasma rifle and fired a volley of sizzling plasma at the Segeant's face that was peering out from around the corner. Instead of pulling back around the corner for cover the Sergeant rolled forward into the Elite's corridor, feeling the crackling hot air of the shots that he'd just rolled under. He let out his own angry roar and fired his assault rifle at the creature's head and chest. Bisenti had also swung round and was opening fire. The other marines crawled into the corridor with their heads down and let rip with their guns too. The Elite tried to back peddle down the corridor as a hail of bullets whammed into it's shields and were deflected at odd angles. It fired off it's gun trying to fight back, but it's aim was too put off by the slamming bullets. It had backed more than halfway down the corridor when it's shields gave out and the hail of bullets began to slam into his head and chest. The Elite's body spasmed with the impacts of the bullets for a few moments before it hit the floor with a choked gargle. It's purple blood was spattered on the walls and oozing from the dead body.
"One down, fifty billion to go" remarked Jenkins.
Then there came the sound of hooves from the end of the corridor where the Elite's corpse lay.
"Get ready boys!" said O'Brian.
From around the corner came a pair of Jackals with their energy shields up and plasma pistols levelled, nearly fully charged. The marines opened fire again, but their assault rifles were running out of ammo, and the bullets just deflected of the Jackals' energy shields harmlessly. They fired off their two shots, one caught O'Brian squarely in the chest and the other just missed Bisentis' head. The marines scrambled around the corner of the corridor they'd just come out of and reloaded.
They could hear the Jackals hooves steadily advancing towards them. O'Brian's chest plate had nearly been completely melted away, but he had only minor burns.
"We can't get passed their shields sir! Let's use grenades!" shouted Bisenti
"We can't use grenades this close!!" cried Jenkins.
The Sergeant remembered on the orbital space dock around Reach, the Master chief had told them to concentrate on one Jackal at a time.
"Marines!! Concentrate all fire on the Jackal to the left, then the right!" The Sergeant barked,
"Okay- ready- NOW!!"
The whole team lunged forward from around the corner and let rip on the left Jackal's shield. The two Jackals guns were nearly fully charged again, but the left Jackal couldn't hold it's shield steady as it shook with the constant hammering of bullets. One shot caught the Jackal right in the head and it was thrown backwards. As it fell it discharged it's gun and the shot hit it's companion right in the back, sending fried, thick, dark blue blood into a coating on the inner side of it's translucent energy shield.
"Oh yeah, we're bad ass!" growled Barclay
"Bueno, amigo, beuno!" agreed Mendosa.
"Okay marines, we're gonna deal death to all the Covenant bastards we meet in the same way we did just there! AM I RIGHT MARINES!?" The Sergeant shouted.
"SIR, YES SIR!!" they cried in chorus.

The marines continued to equipment silo 2, sure enough, the hull had been blasted through.
The Sergeant had a look inside the landing pod that had sealed itself airtight to the breach in the hull. It was chromed and smooth, with iridescent purples and blues and symbols like Chinese calligraphy in places. It had quite an organic feel to it, none of the hard angles like the Pillar of Autumn had, smoothed curves everywhere. "So this is what the inside of the Covenant ships look like?" he thought. The Sergeant felt a slight guilt when he realised that he was appreciating it as beautiful. "Snap out of it!" He thought to himself "These bastards are cold-blooded mass murderers without a beautiful thought in them!"
"Sir?"
Sergeant Johnson snapped awake again. It was Mendosa.
"What is it Mendosa?" he asked,
"Sir we've checked the area, the Covenant must have moved onwards to the lower decks" Mendosa reported.
"If they are headed down, they must be trying to block the escape pods. Where's the nearest Fire Team to stop them?" The Sergeant asked.
Mendosa called to Jenkins, who was wearing a helmet with an HUD reticule.
"Where's the nearest Fire Team on the lower decks?" Mendosa asked.
Jenkins fingered three buttons on the front rim of his helmet for a moment, then his eyes rapidly darted back and fourth, scanning his reticule.
"Fire Team Sierra is posted on deck 2, Sir" he said, still scanning the reticule. "-anddd- there's Fire Team Sierra and Echo that have been posted on deck 4, you might also want to know that there have been six Covenant boarding parties that have connected already, and four of them are heading down toward the escape pods."
" The escape pods are on deck 2 aren't they?" the Sergeant asked.
"Yes sir." Mendosa replied
"Mendosa, Jenkins get everyone back here, I think we can make it a lot harder for the Covenant to take the escape pods."
"SIR, YES SIR!" They cried.

"Right grunts," the Sergeant addressed the marines, "We know that the Covenant are headed for the escape pods on deck 2 to try and prevent us from getting off the ship." There are four boarding parties heading down from this deck and deck 5. There are three Fire Teams already posted who stand in their way at the moment. The Covenant will be fighting their way down to the escape pods and trying to stop anyone getting down to them. We are going to take the shaft lift to deck 1 and surprise attack them from behind while they're trying hold off those coming from above. DO YOU UNDERSTAND MARINES!?"
"SIR, YES SIR!!"
"THEN LET'S GO SMASH SOME COVENANT SKULLS!!"

The lift chimed as they reached deck 1 and the blast doors opened.
The marines proceeded, Bisenti taking the point and Jenkins directing them with the HUD reticule on his helmet.
"There's a heavy supply and equipment staircase very close to escape pod stations 1 and 3 that we can use to sneak up behind the Covenant." Jenkins whispered.
"We have a problem, 1 and 3 are on opposite sides of the ship" moaned O'Brian "There aren't enough of us to secure both 1 and 3, and if we assault one first, we'll have lost the element of surprise."
"One secured pod station is better than none, it'll mean the Fire Teams trying to fight their way down from above have an easier time." Said the Sergeant, "Marines, we're going to assault station 1"
"Shhhhut up!" hissed Bisenti as they approached the equipment staircase and got ever closer to the escape pod stations.
The heavy supply and equipment staircase was broad and open in the middle of a large, cross-braced, octagonal room. Heavy crates were all over the bottom floor and there was a landing going all the way around the square set of stairs on the second floor.
"Bisenti" The Sergeant muttered "get up there and check it out"
Bisenti nodded silently and crept, keeping his head low, up the broad, metal stairs. The team watched him as he scanned carefully the whole landing above him as he crept. When he reached the top he signalled for them to follow. The Sergeant lead them up the staircase. He was halfway up when Bisenti cried out and leapt down the stairs to where the Sergeant was, just in time to dodge a volley of plasma fire. Bisenti then ran straight into the Sergeant, knocking him out of the way of a hail of needle crystals and plasma and off the staircase onto the floor below. They rolled and ended up sprawled on top of one another against a wall.
"Sarge," Bisenti said as he helped him up "please stop sending me as the point"
The Seargent shoved Bisenti,
"SHUT UP AND HELP YOUR TEAM MATES MARINE!!!"
"YES SIR!"
"SIR!" cried Barclay" "THEY'RE ON THE LANDING ABOVE US, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!"
"FOR FUCKS SAKE MARINE" the Sergeant cried while popping up over the stair case and firing a burst of bullets at a Grunt "DON'T YOU THINK I'VE NOTICED!?!"
A Grunt threw a plasma grenade down at the Sergeant. The Sergeant rolled backwards as the grenade bounced where he would have been, settled and detonated. A blast of intense heat scorched the Sergeant's body and he felt blisters bubble all over the front of his body.
"I'LL TEACH YOU TO THROW THAT CRAP AT ME YOU FURRY LITTLE SHIT!!!" He screamed in utter rage he charged forward and fired his assault rifle at the crouching Grunt that had thrown the grenade, he kept his finger on the trigger and kept the Grunt under a blaze of bullets and didn't stop until he saw the spray of methane erupt from it's mangled life support mask.
That was one down but there were more up there, and grenades continued to compliment the rain of plasma and needles that were coming down on them.
"OH SHIT, THE BURN!!!" came an agonised cry through gritted teeth from one of his men, "SHIT!! SHIT! SHIT!!!"
"They're gonna kill us" thought the Sergeant, "we can try to fight back but they're going to kill us and win just like with everything else!!"
It was getting desperate, the Sergeant and his men continued to fire but things were looking bad.
"This is hopeless" he thought, seeing his men scramble to get out of the blast of another grenade.
The Sergeant aimed his gun at the Grunt that had thrown the grenade and killed it instantly- but wait, his gun was out of ammo- there went another one! And another! Grunts being taken out with single shots. One of his Marines was a much better marksman than he thought. He turned to see where the pistol fire was coming from.
And when he saw who it was his spirits lifted, there at the foot of the stairs was that armour-clad Supersoldier, it was the Master Chief! He was firing the pistol without pausing, aiming perfectly and killing Grunts with single head shots. The Sergeant heard the Grunts cry out in terror and try to flee, to the anger of their Elite. The Master Chief then leapt up the whole staircase in 4 bounds, he was immensely heavy and powerful yet moved with an unnexpected fluid and seamless grace. By the time he was at the top of the staircase his assault rifle was drawn and he was sprinting toward the Elite while hammering it with an unbroken stream of bullets, by the time he reached the Elite it's shields were down and it's chest was already peppered with bloody holes. The Elite stood there for that split second, dazed with pain, then the Master Chief's gun butt smashed into it's jaw. The Sergeant saw the spray of purple blood and heard the sound of the Elite's jaws smash and was sure that whatever the Elite's face in that helmet had looked like before that blow it was nothing but mush now. The Marines let out a triumphant cheer at hearing the Elite's dying cry. They hadn't even gotten to the top of the staircase when they heard the Chief's gun blaze again. When they did reach the top they saw that the Chief had already smashed up another Elite through a broad blast door and was mowing down Grunts.
"Hey! Leave some for me!" one of the Marines laughed.
"This is fantastic, the Chief was headed for escape pod station 1 to get Cortana off the ship, and is saving our butts in the process!" the Sergeant thought.

The Marines just followed the Master Chief, and if they couldn't see him they followed the sound of gunfire and Covenant corpses. They had followed him nearly all the way to the life pod station. Suddenly they heard O'Brian (who'd almost managed to keep up with the Chief) cry out around a corner that the Chief had gone past. When the Sergeant and the others caught up and found O'Brian, he was staring blankly at a closing blast door.
"Oh shit-" said Mendosa.
O'Brian turned to them, "He's on the other side!" he said, pale.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine on his own" reassured the Sergeant.
"I'm not worried about him I'm worried about us!" O'Brian said, "Not only are we on our own again but they're closing the blast doors and the life pods are on the other side!!"
"Actually I think the life pods are already gone guys!" called Jenkins who was looking out of one of the observation windows "the exterior doors are open, they must have closed the blast doors so Covenant boarding parties trying to get through the airlocks would be trapped. If we hurry, maybe there'll be a pod left in station 3 on the other side of the ship, come on!"
The Marines broke into a desperate run back where they came from and headed through the corridors to escape pod station 3.
Things were looking good, they hadn't met a single Covenant so far, but when they were nearly at escape pod station 3 they readied their weapons, hearing the gunfire around the corner that they'd been expecting.
The Sergeant was almost relieved to hear the fighting, they had met no Covenant on their way to station 3, and he had been starting to think it was a trap.
"Mendosa, see what the situation is around the corner" the Sergeant ordered.
Mendosa leaned cautiously around the corner for a few moments and slowly turned back to face them.
"Three Technicians and three Marines, one of the Marines is injured, I think, and there are several corpses. They're taking cover, they're trying to get into the last escape pod, but at the far end of the corridor are Covenant and they can't get past for enemy fire."
"How many Covenant are there" the Sergeant asked,
"It's hard to tell, they're hiding behind those stationary shield projectors." Mendosa replied,
"Give me an idea how many, boy!" The Sergeant hissed,
"Too many!" Mendosa hissed back.
"We've got no choice" the Sergeant said, "let's charge and see if we can't surprise them enough for us to get in the pod."
The Marines approved.
The Sergeant came to the front of the group and signalled with his hand-
three,
two,
one,
"CHEEEEEEAAARGE!!!!"
The Marines sprinted around the corner, roaring.
The Marines and Technicians as well as the Covenant stopped for a split second, then continued firing, more heated than ever, the Covenant now focusing their fire on the advancing humans.
The Sergeant ran and tried to fire his gun at the same time, but the recoil was too powerful for him to aim it properly while moving. The Marines realised they were going to die if they didn't take cover from the Covenant's maelstorm of fire. The Sergeant leapt to hide in the indent of one of the escape pod airlock doors. He hit his head on the door, hard. His ears rang, but at least he was out of the line of fire. He reloaded his rifle and looked at what was going on. There was a new corpse on the floor, it was face down, he recognised the hat it was wearing, Barclay was dead. He could see Bisenti slumped against a crate, clutching his side, his clothes were stained with red. O'Brian was hiding behind an iron fortification shield just in front of the Sergeant, if he kept his head low he could get to him and there'd be virtually no risk of getting hit. He leapt forwards and crouched next to O'Brian, who turned to face him.
"It's not looking good-" said the Sergeant grimly.
"And we're too far to reach them with grenades" added O'Brian
"Son, I think we're just gonna have to run for it and take what we take" said the Seargent.
O'Brian seemed to be deep in thought for a moment then suddenly came back to the real world,
"Sir I think I have an idea," but he didn't look confident, "if you can get the guys to give me some cover."
"And what are you going to do?" the Sergeant asked with a piercing stare.
"Just trust me, Sir, just give me some cover." insisted O'Brian.
The Sergeant looked at the Marine for a few seconds.
"Agh Hell, I hope you know what you're doing, boy!"
"Not in the slightest sir," O'Brian laughed nervously, getting ready to run as soon as he got some cover.
"MARINES!! RELOAD! ON THREE!!
THREE!
TWO!
ONE!!
The Marines and Techs opened fire at the Covenant at the end of the corridor, the Sergeant was pleased to see that the Covenant were suitably frightened enough of their synchronised efforts to get cover. He turned to see where O'Brian was headed. O'Brian was trying to pry open the open the gauss door of a maintenance access way
"Son of a bitch! That's why he wouldn't tell me, he's gonna get around the back of them using the access way and distract them long enough for us to get away, he's gonna get himself killed. A blast of plasma shot past his field of vision, leaving little dots of light on his eyes and letting him know the Covenant were firing again. He fired the rest of his clip at them, and another, and another. He had just reloaded it with his last clip and was aiming it when he saw, there at the end of the corridor, behind the Covenant, was O'Brian. He had a grenade in his hand, he had it above his head, he was throwing it. The Sergeant watched it land out of his sight among the Covenant Grunts, Jackals and Elites. The Covenant fire stopped as they all turned, hearing the clink of a grenade somewhere. Some leapt and scrambled away, while a few just stood, paralysed.
BOOOOOM!
The explosion sent bodies flying and erupted sprays of different kinds of blood.
"GET IN THE POD!" he cried, some of the marines and techs had already done so once the fire had stopped. The Sergeant ran forward and helped Bisenti up. Just as he was getting into the pod he heard what was left of the Covenant at the end of the corridor getting their revenge on O'Brian.
"Now you're a man" the Sergeant muttered quietly.
Bisenti sat down and strapped in and the Sergeant saw who was in the pilot seat of the pod. It was one of the Techs.
"Can you fly this thing?" he asked
"I've done simulations but-" the Technician started
"JUST GET US OUT OF HERE TECH!!"
The Sergeant strapped himself in to a seat next to another of the technicians who was one seat from the rear of the pod.
"So they weren't having me on" the Tech said to him "They really are eight foot tall"
"What?" the Sergeant scowled
"The 'Elites' really are eight foot tall" the Tech said again.
The Sergeant couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"TECH!! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!"
Everyone in the pod was savagely thrown sideways against their straps by the strength of the launch away from the ship.
"Whoa!" came an awe-struck voice from the pilot seat, "there it is- it's beautiful- and it's HUGE!"
The Sergeant couldn't see what the Tech was looking at properly, but he knew it was the ring he'd been briefly notified about in the Hangar.
"OKAY" The Tech shouted "HOLD ON, I'VE NEVER DONE A SIMULATION OF LANDING ON ONE OF THESE THINGS!
The Sergeant looked out the window and saw what "One of these things" was. He was right, it was beautiful, and really HUGE!. He could see a small peninsula sticking out in a great blue ocean that reflected the sun's rays, he could see mountains and clouds. It was all on the inside of the giant artificial ring (the Sergeant assumed it must be artificial,) it was breath-taking.
"What in sweet Jesus is it?" said one of the Marines who wasn't in the Sergeant's Team.
"If we live long enough we might find out, son!" He answered.
The escape pod began to shake violently as it entered the atmosphere, and the Sergeant felt his stomach shoot upwards as he felt the effects of the rings gravity. Bisenti opposite him was still clutching his side.
"Don't worry Bisenti, when we're on the ground I'll spray that full of Bio-foam and patch you up." the Segeant reassured him
Bisentis smiled weakly and nodded.
"OH CRAP! OH CRAP!! OH CRAP!!!" screamed the Tech in the pilot seat.
"WHAT IT IS IT!?!" The Sergeant boomed over the sound of the shaking pod.
"HERE COMES THE GROUND!!" the Tech wailed "Uh- OK- Uh- Oh shit, OH SHIT!! I CAN'T FIND THE AIR BREAK!!!"
The Sergeant was by now so pissed off with the way the incompetant idiot was panicking he just started laughing ."Well then" he laughed "We're all gonna die!"
As if what he said clarified everything for the Tech the Air Brakes opened and the break thrusters fired. The whole pod was now shaking and with such force it felt as if some giant monster had picked it up and was hurling it around above it's head. The Sergeant could see a forest out of the entrance/exit window, it was getting closer, until he could actually see the trees swaying in the slipstream of the pods speeding wake. For a split second he saw the Forest end at a large ridge and a clearing before.

WHUUUUUUMPH!!!!!

...................

"Sir, Sir wake up, we made it. SIR!!"
Everything slowly came into focus as the Sergeant looked around, he could see a blurred face right in front of him- it was Jenkins."
"We made it sir, we're on the ring, wait till you see it!"


TO BE CONTINUED

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