Halo: The Greatest Journey(a key490 and ∞ collab.)

[King Wolfe]

He had already left out of boredom. Walking down large hallways of similar design he placed his hands on the back on his head, interlocking his fingers. Proceeding nonchalantly down to the barracks, passing by marines who gave him a disapproving look after he so-rudely bumped into them; he reached the barracks, finally, and walked down to a room with a booth at the end of it. Leaning over at the booth, he called out "Hey kid, where's my stuff?!" A large noise echoed from the back and several tools fell down, as they fell a groan came from the back as well.

Emerging was a short brunette young man, his hair was ruffled and his glasses were large and round. Massaging the back of his head to ease the pain, his expression changed quickly when he saw the Lt. "Oh, sir! Here you go-" He said excitingly as he pulled a modified battle rifle, and sniper rifle from underneath his make-shift desk and handed it to Kipp. Smirking slightly, he gave an approving nod at the young lad, whom nearly fainted after said nod, and wielded his weapon, examining every aspect. "Good job.." He mumbled out, surprised he didn't find any defects. Then his earpiece was activated and he heard that he was taken out of the assignment he volunteered. Stopping himself from throwing the earpiece, he shot a glare at the now terrified man. It wasn't that he was angry, well other than his anger, it was that he felt his time was wasted at that meeting when he could've been sleeping away the day. "Change in plans.." He mumbled as he placed his weapons in the booth and walked away.

Tugging at his all black jump-suit, well it looked like one anyways, he began to scratch his arms then his back. The suit is meant for another layer of protective if, more like when, his ODST armor fails him. But, the darn thing itched too much! Suddenly he found himself in the barracks gym, on one side of the room weights, and exercise machines were placed there. On the other was a large boxing ring being occupied by two marines wailing away at each other. Placing himself on a bench he began to laugh at how the inexperienced marines were fighting, earning him more glares from all of the occupants.

"What's your deal?" Exclaimed one of the boxers, stifling his laughed with his right hand he proceeded to explain, "N-nothing, it's hilarious seeing you tenderfoots fight.." The word tenderfoot affected the marines greatly, all of them became angered at him. They didn't know that Kipp was the Lt, or even that he is the experienced ODST that he is. His young face made him look like an F.N.G which is half the reason he gets baleful stares on a daily basis. One of the boxer angrily shouted, "Tenderfoot? Why don't you come up here so I can teach you a lesson F.N.G!" Still smiling he got up in the ring neglecting to put on the safety gear the boxer had on. The marines surrounded the ring, arms crossed with a smug look on their faces.

Kipp stood there, arms laid lifelessly by his sides; contrast to the 'experienced' boxer who put his dukes up, and began to dance in place, it seemed. The marine shot his arm towards Kipp's chin, left arm extended, right one back, his left leg extended towards Kipp. Swerving to the right he avoided the punch and quickly punched the young marine in the stomach, swerved once more to the right placing his right foot in front of the marines left foot, pushed him in the back and made the unsuspecting man fell flat on his face. "H-hey! This is boxing! None of that kung-fu crap!" Exclaimed a bystander. Shooting a smirk at the man, he climbed out of the ring and proceeded towards the door. "You wouldn't win using that!" Exclaimed the same man. He ignored his comment and walked out, but was meet by a female marine at the door who saluted him respectfully. "Lieutenant, you were requested to train the up-coming marines, sir." She said quickly, dismissing her salute he proceed towards the auditorium with her, leaving surprised marines behind.

[Piercing Light]

Kaiade' left the briefing room and went straight to her room. She was clearly in a rush as she gathered things for the mission. After packing a bag with tools, she went to the far side of the room. Pressing a switch on a desk a closet opened reveling her Mark X armour. Putting the body on she left the helmet off for now. The helmet wasn't exactly the most comfy thing the world. After grabbing her weapons she left the room and headed for the launching ring. On her way there she looked out of a window and saw the gigastructure. It was so massive and intimidating. Yet at the same time had a certain beauty to it. Kaiade' couldn't wait to get down there. Shortly she reached the launching ring. This was her favorite part of the ship. The brilliant way it was designed, as well as having a sort of artful feel to it. "Hello Elizabeth". Kaiade' said, sitting down on a bench.

[Tenyasyugan]

E.G. knew exactly what he needed for missions, and normally travelled light. Not trusting of the storehouse on ship, despite their high-quality weaponry, he carried his own equipment. Every last scrap of metal and shard of glass that went into his guns he knew by heart. He quickly went through the procedures of inspecting his rifle, and then the same with his sniper's gun. They both checked out and he packed them to his back. His helmet was on his head and his armor was how it should be {albiet rather tight in some areas...}.

Hesitating no longer, he made his way to the departing point. It was called the Launching ring. No wonder. The entire ship would've been considered a piece of art if it weren't for the fact every last structure on it was for the sole purpose of controlling and fighting everything that opposed it. Crusoe snapped back to the task at hand. Wandering minds were dangerous.

Instead of seeing everyone who had volunteered before, he only saw one of the members had already arrived to the meeting point. It was a female sparten, not very common despite the very good equality rights they had nowadays. Which one had she been... Oh yeah, the one studiously taking notes from the Ai's. He made a mental note to see just how comfortable she was on the battlefield. The reports said it would be a swift and easy trip, but Crusoe had learned long ago to disregard such things. Dilegence was necassary for survival.

[∞]

"Oh, hey Kaiade." Elizabeth responded, and a couple of seconds later, asked: "You ever been on an artefact world before? Like, none of that Forerunner tiny stuff, I mean the enormous Precursor variety?" Just as she finished the question, a sliding door opened, and through it came three men, all ODST's, like her. The rest of the Geeks, The last of them, callsign Maverick, held the door open for two other soldiers, normal Marines, Mathers and Nelson. That left just another two others, Crusoe and Deus. "Hey guys," Elizabeth greeted the men, who all called back casually. Just from that seconds-long exchange, an outsider could tell the four of them were good friends, they had been through much, and new how each other worked.

After the marines were through and the door was closed, Maverick moved with large and slow steps over to a stationary Warthog. It bore the same name as the centuries-old vehicle, a faithful and hardy four-wheel drive. This one was slightly modified. It was a bit bigger, slower, had a larger capacity for troops, was tougher, and still managed a turret on the top. Big enough for nine people, the Geeks, the volunteers and Deus when they were on the surface. They wouldn't be landinng at the activation sight itself, but around five kilometres away, to be on the safe side.

====================

Deus made his way quickly to his own quarters, one of the larger rooms on the Stormrunner, but also one of the more full, with weapons, devices and such that Deus wanted to keep to himself and maintain vigorously. "Maybe I need to develop my publich speaking skills a bit more, be a bit more inspirational." Deus said to what seemed to be no-one in particular, until a voice, female and somewhat gruff, sounded in his ear. "If you're just going to go on about the technicalities of the mission, of course." Minerva said. Athena, with a softer and higher voice, then spoke. "And remember Deus, those in the meeting room were soldiers, not xenoarchaeologists. I'm sure if you had spoke with the scientific crew, they'd all come running."

"No doubt, I just wish there were those of us who could multi-task our interests relating specifically to this mission. We've got soldiers. Check. We've got the scientists. Check. Have we got both? Only a very small handful, as far as I know." Deus then moved about his room in silence, collecting items and weaponrt. The first thing he reached for was his battle rifle, slightly bulkier than the UNSC standard, lacking a scope but having increased ammunition capacity, variability and range. After that, he also picked up an SMG, again, modified. It had a larger ammo capacity. but smaller bullets. That didn't really matter, though. The bullets in the SMG were the gas-expansion variety, and would deal as much damage as a bullet four times as large.

From there, he picked up two EMP grenades, tall pill-shaped things, and two 'sticky' plasma grenades. Deus almost hoped some Covenant would strike at them, the weaponry was being brought to be cautious, but Deus also hoped it didn't go to waste in carrying it.

From there, he made his way to the launch ring.

[key490]

Mark saw the troops leaving and decided to return to the bridge. Walking the long halls gave him quite some time to think. He wondered what was down there on the artifact. He wondered if it was really necessary for the UNSC to aquire. Most of all, he wondered if the Covenant were going to show their ugly alien faces. Mark was hoping for some action. He knew that if all the troops were down on the surface, the Covenant would almost certainly attack the ship. Mark arrived at the bridge and began giving out orders to the rest of his crew. " I want someone on that radar at all times. I need all guns operational ASAP. I want to be ready," Mark shouted. Mark went and sat down in his captain's chair and activated the comm. unit in it. " I need the closest crew member to Commander Deus' location. Tell him to keep in contact with me as much as possible. I want to know what's down there," Mark said. With that, Mark sat back in his chair and waited.

[Piercing Light]

Kaiade was messing around with her sniper rifle when Elizabeth asked her whether or not she had been on a structure like this one they were about to land on. "Nope, as a matter of a fact I've never been on any of them, including the smaller ones". Kaiade looked as more ODST's and two marines walked in. Listing to them and Elizabeth talk it was clear they knew each other well. Kaiade had not been on many missions, and the ones she did have were solo OPs. So she didn't have many comrades she felt close to. Perhaps that was a good thing, she didn't want to know the pain of losing a friend. Still, she didn't want to feel lonely. Her eyes moved over to Crusoe. Maybe they would get along, they were both Spartans after all. Kaiade sighed and sat back on the bench. At any rate she wished things would move a bit faster. She was anxious to get down there.

[gene chaos]

"ugh, wish i actually had looked over the schematics of the stormrunner" he thought as he wandered through the corridors. quickly passing a door he took a step back, as he entered the room he gazed out the observation deck towards the glass. "missing a meeting kinda sucks since i did want to go, but this is nice too." he said as he looked at the Precursor mega structure, he had only seen an object like this before on the Fatum ex Ortus. Taking a seat closest to the window he noticed a blue light in the distance, it flicked for a moment then disappeared " what was that? it looked like a slipspace rupture but what do i know. guess i can report it but not now prefer not to get yelled at". looking back at the structure he thought to himself 5 more minutes.

[Ashes Remnant]

"You idiot, that doesn't go there!" Aadyn snatched the scalpel from the nurse's hand. In reality, they weren't trained at all. Almost the entire medical staff suffered from one idiot. A mass overdose. Aadyn knew better than to OD on some simple recreational drugs, in fact, he knew faster, and safer, ways to get his jollies off. He clutched the metal scalpel, and slowly lowered it into a small metal case, that held various vials and needles. He closed the case, which hissed as it locked into place. He took the case by it's handle, and lowered it into a decently sized bag with a variation of the UNSC logo on it. The logo had a large red cross in the background, symbolizing some ancient earth corporation.

Aadyn turned back to the woman, a private first class who he had his eyes on. Her hair blonde, and her eyes blue, she was a sight to behold. He was training her to take his place on dangerous missions. Her name was Rhonda, at least if he wasn't high when she told him. Which was often the case. She stepped closer, something she sure wouldn't have done if there were a commanding officer nearby. She took his free hand into hers. The woman's scent filled Aadyn, intoxicating and more wonderful than any meds. She looked straight into his eyes, the innocence of her soul reflected in her gaze. Her voice almost like an angel, she whispered to him, "Promise me you'll come back."

Aadyn quickly met lips with hers, something they'd grown accustomed to over their time together. "I promise." was his only reply before grabbing the bag, and heading out the door. Too bad. She was beautiful, and terribly innocent. Her personality was like a small child. However, Aadyn's lies masked his true feelings. He could care less about another human, or himself for that matter. Either way, he was a medic. And he was called to the launch ring for some mission. Like they ever would actually need him. What were the chances someone would get hurt on Recon?

[∞]

As Deus was passing through the umbilical cord from the ship to the launching ring, a tone sounded in his ear, and so he cut off his external microphones while he was told to do exactly what he would have done anyway: To keep the captain constantly informed. Deus dismissed the comm. operator quickly, and greeted the others there, including an unexpected head medical officer: Aadyn Ransh. Deus didn't like that the man had overdosing episodes every now and then, but at the same time, he enjoyed the company of any person who was sufficiently talented. Deus felt hugely separated from all the other privates. He was a Spartan, and commander of the ship. His rank and sheer skill usually earned him the jealousy and sometimes hatred of the other crew members.

He greeted Aadyn happily: "We'll be having a stow-away on this mission, will we?" The medic was quick in his response, a light-hearted but also firm jab back at the Spartan: "A stow-away with enough meds to make a mummy twitch, yes." Deus waved away the comment. "At least then we won't have to worry so much. Our surface vehicle, that Heavy Warthog over there, only fits nine, but I'm sure we'll make it fit ten."

After that short exchange, Deus moved over to a backpack-like object suspended on two hooks on a wall. He removed it and then put it on his back, and after a few spoken commands, the photo-wing unit interlocked with the back of his Mark X armour. He then pushed himself away from the wall in the low gravity, and had his team gather near to him. He then directed each member to individual drop pods, five against each wall. He then had Minerva and Athena automatically shut he doors on them and prep the launch ring. Deus himself moved into the driver's seat of the Warthog. Mathers questioned the decision, in something that sounded like accusing Deus of madness. The marine quickly explained.

"Once we're launched and coming in, I'll be the only one able to land it safely, so I'll need to be in it. Besides, I'll only be in it for something like five seconds after launching anyway." Mathers' face turned quizzical. "Five seconds? We're covering two billion kilometres. That's faster than the speed of light!" Deus chuckled to himself, then rebutted the marine once more. "I didn't say anything about exceeding the speed of light, especially in objects as crude as these. Just sit back and you'll see." The tone of his voice then changed, as he then spoke to the systems of the ship, and to Hydrozoa.

"Hyde, commence ring acceleration." The AIC's voice rang out a second later. "Affirmative, Commander. Optimal centrifugal launch velocity will be achieved in one minute and four seconds." Before any detectable increase in the spin of the ring, which would result in a greater sense of gravity, two bulkheads came down in the small section of the launch ring. A hissing noise began as the air was drained out of the environment. Deus spent the minute humming and whistling to himself, always enjoying the landing on an artefact world.

Hyde then called out in the internal speakers of Deus' helmet and the drop-pods. "Optimal velocity reached. Drop pods launching in ten seconds, the warthog in twelve." He then began counting up from one, and when he hit ten, each drop pod dissapeared downwards with a whump. After that, the floor opened up beneath Deus, and he fell straight down. He followed the ship as it grew smaller and smaller, then focussed on his team mates once more. "Are we all feeling well?" A chorus of affirmation told him the answer. "Good. Now, Mathers is right, we're covering a couple billion kilometres, and that'll take a long time. So, to solve that, at least on our end of things, we're all going into stasis. Don't worry, it'll be just like a scene change in a movie, if none of you have done it before. If you've got any objections, you've got five seconds to yell at the top of your lungs before I stop your clock." Deus wouldn't have stopped them no matter what, and so turned off external communications to anyone but Minerva, Athena and Hydrozoa.

From what Deus could see of the pods, the fronts of them were all now perfectly reflective, the indicator of an active stasis field. Deus then resumed a brief communication with Hydrozoa: "You'll keep us on track, of course?" Hydrozoa responded quickly. "I would be erased if I did not, commander. The stasis fields of the ODSTs will be deactivated so they may guide themselves. Those less experienced will be guided by remote. You will be the earliest released, so as to wholly guide the Warthog to the landing. Good luck, Deus, I'll see you in-" Deus cut him off. "Gimme a second. Do you think you can have a light available for us when we land?" Hydrozoa replied confidently, "It'll be at least half an hour to your landing. That should be enough time for me to at least switch a light on. Now, I'll be activating your own stasis field. Hear from you in half an hour, Deus. Five, four, three, two, one, activate."

Discontinuity.

The massive blackness that was previously in front of Deus was now below him. External time had passed by half an hour, but internally, it seemed an instant, hence, a move-scene change. He manoeuvred himself out of the driver's seat, and grabbed onto the central panel of the roof. He turned around to face where the ship would be, and traced the faint lines of light to where it would be.

Hundreds of millions of kilometres away, Deus would be unable to see it by eye, but he switched the magnification up on his helmet to see the ship, since it would remain just above the ring to be in direct line of sight with Deus and his team. He didn't like what he saw.

A grey speck sat above the rim, the Stormrunner, no doubt. Away and above it, smaller but more plentiful, were three purple shapes. A fine beam of light extended between the two, that was clearly coming from the purple ships. Shit! The Covenant had attacked. Deus immediately brought up communications, "Hyde, what's happened there?" The AIC's voice was slightly distorted, but was heard loudly. The Covenant ships disappeared from their previous position and reappeared close to the Stormrunner. There was no initial or final energy signature. I can only assume the Covenant has somehow realised quantum technology, and tapped into the situation where they have the best chance of beating them. They are weaker than the Stormrunner, but there are more of them, and they were the ones to attack first. Their initial attack hit us in our warp engines. We'll be making no quick escapes. We'll be staying and fighting. Casualties so far are zero. Activate the disk as soon as possible and bring its defences online ASAP." Deus was in silence for a few seconds, but replied firmly: "Roger that. No, wait, are the only Covenant ships focussed on the Stormrunner?" Hyde came back quickly, "I regret to inform you a small fleet of Wraiths has just appeared in space above you. They aren't approaching fast, but it'll be a sizeable ground attack once you land. All the more incentive to activate the disk quickly."

"Okay, thank you Hyde, good luck." He dismissed the AI, and then with a mental command, four telescoping poles shot out diagonally from his back unit. Between them, a brilliant sheet of pale blue light appeared. With a large lock mechanism and some cables on the Warthog, he locked it to his chest, and with the press of a button, it would detach. Minerva then spoke into his ear, always eager to do so. "Looks like we will be going in hot." Athena quickly followed. "A little too hot, Minerva. Deus, we're almost in direct line of sight of the landing zone. Give us a few seconds, and we'll be beyond the obscuring mountain range. We're still too high for the wings to take effect, so I'll charge them up while we wait." "Good idea. Athena, make a copy of yourself and project it into the Precursor systems. We'll need to have total control of it as quickly as possible. Relay the information of the Covenant ships so it knows what to fire on when the time comes. Minerva, once we've unmasked the sun, I'll be partioning more resources to you, since from that point on this'll be a combat operation."

At that point, the mountain range, an indifferent blot of blackness, was passed, and a brilliantly-illuminated patch of land was now visible, similar to the cliff-and-grass landscape preceding the Citadel on The Ark. At the extremity of the light, he saw what he was looking for, the activation spire, a tapering geometric tower. About one hundred kilometres past that was empty space, the end of the inner rim, and beyond that was the very dark but perfectly reflective surface of the sun in stasis.

Soon, he felt a tug against his body, and he realised the wings were now taking effect on the prevailing atmosphere.

[key490]

Mark heard the emergency alarm go off and quickly beacme angry. "I told somebody to be checking the radar at all times," he said. I didn't matter at this point. Now, they would have to fight. "All cannons, target the nearest Covenant ship," Mark shouted. All at once, the gun batteries sent salvo toward the closest of the Covenant ships, hitting it with deadly accuaracy. The Covenant ship responded by firing it's own weapons, landing hard onto the Stormrunner's hull. The reamaining two Covenant ships came into range and opened up their guns on the Stormrunner too. Mark grimiced. The battle wasn't looking too good right now. "I want one of those ships taken down right now," Mark shouted to his crew. The Stormrunner's guns fired repaetedly upon one of the Covenant ships, hitting the engines and the bridge. One more blast to the ship caused it to explode. "Now that's more like it," Mark said. He looked out toward the Covenant ships and thought he saw small shapes coming from that direction. The radar op. confirmed what Mark already knew. "Transports heading our way sir," the radio op. said. Mark frowned and said,"Shit."

[gene chaos]

(i would like to guess that ether our ships finally got shields or we have stronger and more resilent metal for the stormrunner)

"what the fuck" Sersta muttered to himself as three covenant ship precision slipspace jumped right next to them. from where he was he could see as they fired their pulse cannons, he braced for impact as the plasma impacted on the hull. "400 years ago and those cannons would have melted right through our hull". the Stormrunner opened fire on the closest ship the first salvo decimated their shields. the Stormrunner launched another salvo the hit the engines and the bridge, a third hitting it in the center caused it to hurling backward. it exploded in a flash of blue light, the other ships continued their attacks. one of the ships launched sereph fighters"damn!!". rushing out of the observation deck he dashed heading for the fighter bay. turning a corner he fell over as the ship was impacted with another wave.reaching the bay he barked to the technicians to prep the longsword intercepts for launch.

He quickly got into his suit pressurized it, it shrank until it fit him perfectly. looking over to techs they signaled him over telling him its ready. He jumped into longsword flipping the switches brought the machine to life, he moved out of the bay and into the vastness of space, staring his thrusters he manuvered to the incoming seraphs. " captain i need backup out here!!" he shouted over his radio as he fired his gauss cannons at several of the incoming seraphs. He shifted to the left as one of the seraphs exploded .Breaking off two continued following him" he really wished he had some backup about now".

[key490]

Mark heard the cries of help from Sersta and immediatly sent some more pilots to the landing bay to join him in space. But he had other worries. The transports kept getting closer and closer. Mark ordered, "Fire at those transports. I don't want their passengers to reach us." One transport went down after a lucky shot to the engines. Another fell after two shots to the front. The rest of the transports managed to reach the ship. Mark grimiced. He stood up from his chair and shouted, "Alright men. Time to go kick some ass." With that, Mark started running down the halls of the Stormrunner, bringing whatever troops that were left onboard with him. He arrived in the armory and grabbed his standard M90 Shotgun, two M6C Automags, and 4 frag grenades. With those items in hand, he led the troops to the landing bay and set them in position, awaiting the Covenant troops.

[King Wolfe]

Walking nonchalantly down the hallway with the marine guiding him, he grimaced at the thought that he was deprived of any 'action'. Kicking the wall beside him as he continued to walk until he noted several marines were running down the hall. "Hey, where's the fire at?" He asked and then he heard the booms of explosions and weapons discharging and he automatically found out his answer. Running off to the opposite direction, leaving the guide to herself, he headed back to the barracks. "John, I need 'em!" He shouted quickly as the surprised brunette ducked quickly and reappeared even faster tossing him his weapons. Running out after giving the kid an approved grin he headed towards his room and scavenged through his closet. He trusted people with his weapons but his ODST armor ha, he wouldn't even allow his mother to touch it. Pulling up the armor and slapping down his helmet slightly hurting his head a bit, he ran towards the landing bay.

Loading his Battle Rifle he kept it at a steady angle, then he threw his sniper rifle to his back and his ODST armor had it magnetized to his back. He jumped into position right next to Mark and had a grin behind his ODST helmet. "Haha! Been a while since I've seen the Covenant, ya think they'll remember me?" He shouted excitingly. Though he had a helmet on his behavior was so unlike the standards of marines, he would automatically be recognized because of the way he talks and what he says.

[∞]

Before Deus came below the mountain range, he radioed the Stormrunner one more time, to the captain directly. As he looked back with the best magnification he could achieve, he could now see the smouldering ruins of one of the Covenant ships, and a volley of small ones heading towards the Stormrunner. "Captain, deploy Longsword fighters to whittle down the Seraph carriers before they arrive-" He was put to silence as the captain quickly replied. Deus then resumed. "Oh, okay. Good thinking of him. Now that that's done, engage evasive manoeuvres before you're boarded." At that moment, on the other side, Deus heard an alarm indicating what he had hoped would be avoided. The boarding alarm. "Shit," He said, "We'll move as quickly as we can on our side, captain. Evade their fire until we can activate the disc's defenses, it'll save you ammo and damage."

((This gets to the captain before he's in the loading bay.))

==============

The troops gathering in the bay was a good move. Or a bad one. They would immediately be able to assault the Covenant attempting a boarding, but there was also the single mounted gun of the Seraphs, which was in itself able to take down a normally-armoured soldier with a single shot. Then again, they had made the assumption the Seraphs would land. They weren't counting on it's alternative variety, the 'Injection' Seraph. Lacking its gun, and with a hardened and tapered front, it meant it was far more dangerous in a boarding situation.

As the Seraphs trickled past the Longsword team of Sertsa's, they didn't slow down. In fact, because they were past him and didn't require the ability to evade fire, the set themselves straight for the loading bay and accelerated to maximum thrust. Too late, all the soldiers on board reacted. The lieutenant and captain avoided any harm, but half a dozen soldiers were turned to pulp. The Seraph entered through the air-tight shield of the bay, and then kept going. The two frontal blades, ignited with plasma, sliced into the back of the area, and then kept going, the terrible sound of rending steel until it was fully embedded in the hull. Only at that point did its sides open, and a crew of a dozen Covenant warriors stepped out, mostly grunts, but with two jackals and two brutes. The twelve split into six as they then moved down both ends of the corridor they had stabbed into.

The captain took all but three seconds to spring back up. He, unlike most of the crew, was aware of the immense danger of Injection Seraphs, not just because of the damage they would deal to the insides of a ship, or the soldiers it would offload. Their greatest danger, on top of all that, was that if all the Covenant they had unloaded died, they would be detonated in a large explosion of plasma. Not helpful, since the Stormrunner was primarily a speedy ship and not one for extreme offence or defence. He immediately began barking orders to the technicians, even as several more Seraphs filtered in.

"This thing's going to to explode if we kill all the Covenant on-board! Techies, take pelicans, cranes, whatever you can find, and get these things out of the wall. I don't care if you damage the hull more than when this thing entered it, it's better than an explosion! All soldiers! You are to leave one unit from each Covenant roaming squad alive, preferably a Grunt, because they're easy to contain. That applies to everyone. We don't need even one person thinking another squad will make sure to do it, I won't risk it. Now get to work! We've got some flying to do."

[key490]

Mark saw Lt. Riley file into position next to him as the rest of the marines found good positions for when the Covenant showed up. Mark hoped that they could repel the enemy long enough to find out what was on the artifact. Mark saw the first two transports approaching the hangar bay. He checked to make sure his weapons were full on ammo even though he knew they were. Mark looked up again to see the transports docking. Mark aimed the sight of his shotgun at the opening of the first transport, waiting for those ugly alien bastards to show thier faces. He thought he could hear their heavy footsteps, their paced breathing. Mark just waited and waited. Then... he heard them. The he saw them. Mark shouted, "Fire." Mark unloaded on the Brutes spewing forth from the transport. Mark fired once, twice, thrice taking down three Grunts. Mark lobbed one of his grenades toward the transport and blew up a group of Grunts. He ducked as a spray of plasma fire came near his location. Mark looked around to see how the rest of his troops were doing. Most of them had avoided being hit. Mark saw a marine get a plasma grenade stuck to his face and blew his head off. Poor guy Mark thought. But he had to think about himself and the rest of his crew right now. He hoped that Deus and his team were doing all right.