User:RelentlessRecusant/Halo Wars/Archive 3

As the two fleets, covenant and human alike pulled away from each other licking their wounds from battle, a long stream of phantoms pulled away from the Divine Wrath.The collum consisted of almost 100 phantoms some containing covenant troops, others supplies, still others vehicles, weapons and communication equipment. At the head of the collum a tall elite (almost 8 and a half feet) stood at the control center of the leading phantom whose name was Hinte' Warymee. Hinte' watched the progress of the collum and was utterly suprised when none of the ships had been attacked. 'we must have done more damage to the human patrols then they are letting on.' he thought as the viewscreen turned red as they hit the atmosphere of the sacred ring. The ships decended to the ground and began looking for the structure that had been spotted by the ariel views of 'Halo', the views as they were called had been taken by a stealth banshee and had shown what had been identified as a teleportation room. The room allowed instant access to anywhere on the ring as long as the covenant controlled it. As the phantoms crested a hill the structure came into view a tall almost needle like thing covered with Forerunner glyphs so holy that only a prophet could even hope to understand them. The phantoms began dropping their loads of troops and soon the entire base was swarming with grunts, elites, jackels, even two pairs of hunters, along with a huge assortment of vehicles. Hinte' viewed all this from a platform he had found and smiled in a smug way, until he noticed the cloud of dust coming in from the south. The humans had arrived... Sanghelli 16:09, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

As the macabre scene of the battle faded into the wispy trails of accelerating engines, the hull sparked with multiple MAC gun impacts, and the Divine Wrath sluggishly banked, its aft turrets still charged in the event of an Ape sneak attack.

With the non-permanent lull, Queta, his mind wired solely for combat, commanded the most effecient usage of that spare time. "Engineering, see about Turret Three and its focusing lenses. Communications, bring that transmission up again from the Oracle."

In the battle, a glancing hit on the com-gear had disrupted a transmission from the planet, from a Holy One - an Oracle of the Sacred Ring.

A visage of austere gold was projected from the fore holographic matrix. "Greetings, this is 49 Proximal Tangent, Monitor of Installation 03. Thou bringest joyous tidings to thee, Reclaimer."

The rather antidiluvian dialect was difficult to translate, a further reason why the Prophets had decreed that only the dialect of Prime would be spoken throughout the Covenant Empire.

Replying in the ancient tongue to the metallic sphere, glorious gold light brimming from a central eye and faults within its wraparound casing, he inquired, "Who art thou?"

The pious object, sacrosanct as the Sacred Ring, reciprocated, "49 Proximal Tangent. Swift, Reclaimer, do not dawdle. Allow thy light to quicken thee from thou grief."

The translation - a lancing dazzle of the same luminous austere scinnilation projecting from an unseen structure upon the circumference of the Sacred Ring that squarely impacted one of the Ape carriers, bringing it awash in flames.

The UNSC fleet turned to return the favor.

Cheers,

 -49 Proximal Secant  19:12, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

"Roger that." He responded, "Over and out." He was glad to have the extra support, but he wondered what would happen if they needed to make any evasive maneuvers. "Prepare for entry into the atmosphere." He said, tapping off the comm. link with the escort fighters so that he would only be talking to the passengers. "ETA in thr-" He started to say, cut off as a beam of light shot from the ring and flew towards one of the UNSC Carriers, engulfing it in flames for a split-second before the ships features melted into lumps of burning metal. "What the hell was that?" He asked, flipping on the comm. link again and trying to get a comm. link set up with one of the escorts again to see if they could hook up with a ship. The last thing they needed was for the builders on the ring to start attacking them, especially when they hadn't come prepared to engage a structure like this, along with whatever fleet that these things had. If they were anywhere near as powerfull as their weapons, they would be in trouble. For all he knew, this ring could be part of their fleet. Whatever it was, it was dangerous, and that was all he needed to know. Lekrel 21:25, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

“Juliet, I want you to bring Will online so you can support the Spartans when they go groundside.” Vice Admiral Johnson enjoyed Juliet, but he knew she was necessary for the battle on the ground.

“Alright,” she replied.

“Will MIL AI 2340 coming online. How may I be of service?” Will was a fourth generation “smart” AI. His chosen avatar was a human male in a cloak

“Well, any suggestions for our current situation Will?” asked the Vice Admiral.

“Admiral,” Will said “I suggest that you have two ships fire their archer missiles at a single covenant ship, followed closely by our MACs. We can conduct 3 slavos of MAC fire: all the Frigates, half of the destroyers,” he continued.

“Then what do we do while we are recharging the guns?” he countered.

“Then the rest of the destroyers, as well as us, fire MACs to cover our line of retreat while the longswords keep their seraphs off us.” The Vice Admiral turned to his bridge crew.

“Get on it men!” UNSC AI 22:29, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Jared-091, his HEV capsule in freefall, remained calm. This was just like the simulations. And the simulations were always easy. The heat was palpable in the tiny pod, and 091 could hear the whine of his suit's cooling fans, overworked with compensating for the re-entry temperature.
 * "Hold on to your helmet," Juliet said over his neural link; a heavy jerk rocked the Spartan as the pod's drag chute deployed.

"Brace for impact," came her lilting voice again. The pod smashed nose first into the hard-packed brown dirt of the ringworld, the force of its landing forming minute typhoons of dust that swirled around the capsule. A rush of air blasted its hatch away from the entry. Jared stepped out, unslinging his MA5X assault rifle as he did so. Immediately, a stream of blue plasma greeted his arrival. He hit the dirt and lobbed a HE-DP grenade towards the mass of hostiles on his motion tracker. The explosive detonated, showering him with debris. Leaping to his feet, he finished of the dying Elite that lay in an expanding pool of its own blood. Ahead of him was a small cluster of ODSTs, pinned down by a torrent of pink-blue plasma. The leader, a sergeant waved to the Spartan.
 * "Chief! We need your help! Take that turret out for us, would you?" Jared gave an affirmative thumbs up and unlimbered the SRSA2 on his back. Sighting through the scope, he was able to easily pick off the inexperienced Grunt that was operating the plasma cannon. The ODSTs charged up the bluff and stormed the bunker, easily overwhelming the small contingent of Grunts stationed there. As they congratulated each other, a young Private pointed shakily at the advancing dust cloud.

"Sir! Look!"
 * "Aw, hell," the Sergeant swore. "Marines, lock and load!"  SPARTAN-091  [[Image:UNSC.jpg|15 px]]  HelmetComm undefined Juliet

The lance of energy shot from the ringworld 'Halo' through space, incinerating one of the UNSC Carriers, which engulfed it within the 'flames'created in the vacuum of space. Adrian looked on, half in horror and half in shock. But behind the relective visor, he seemed calm and collected. He turned to the senior pilot, 'Rult', with a sense of urgency that couldn't be seen. His BR-55 was still in his hands, as if he was prepared for the fight to come to them. "Punch this thing as fast as you can!" Adrian growled out, before turning to the men in the back. They were all sitting ducks... And there was only one thing that could stop such power. Adrian glanced at his right leg, and the parcel within. He sighed, knowing it was not the time. But, the time would come.

Adrian brought a comm. link up on his HUD. It was that of Spartan-091, Jared. He re-established the link, having lost it for some reason before. Something was happening to their communications, and it was getting to be extremely worrysome. "That was pretty intense. I haven't seen such destructive power from such a range from any weaponry on file..." The slightly shook voice of Helen sounded through his head.

"I know, and thats exactly why we need to recruit these guys..." Adrian muttered, as the link opened. "Jared, do you copy. This is Adrian. We're on an inbound vector to the ring with approximately thirty marines. What is your position?" He said calmly over the link, hoping for a response. The Pelicans, Longswords and Shortswords barreled forwards towards the ringworld with great vigor. User:CaptainAdamGraves

"Gladly, sir." He murmured, accelerating the Pelican as fast as it could go without them blacking out. "Entering atmosphere." He said, flicking a few more switches as the Pelican flew through the atmosphere of the ring. He felt his stomach settle as the gravity of the planet started to take effect. He redirected the comm. channel and linked up with Charlie Company. "Charlie Company, this is Bravo- 617, we're landing at a position just north of yours. "He said, hearing some gunfire over the radio. He quickly searched for a place that would be safe to land, one that might be able to give the troops that were onboard some cover should they come under fire. He spotted a larg steel building with the same patterns covering it as the outside of the ring. "It's a steel building, can't miss it. Over." There was a pause before another response came. "Roger that, Bravo. Over and out." He switched off the comm. link with them and eased up on the throttle, slowly bringing the Pelican to a halt as they neared the metal doors of the building. If he had been aware at the time that it was the same teleportation room that the Spec. Ops. Elites were trying to beat Charlie Company to, then he probably would have dropped them off at the sight and risked possibly getting shot at. But he didn't, so he headed straight for the steel doors and lowered to within a few feet of the ground and lowered the metal "plank" that had covered the back so the passengers could jump out. Then he just waited for Charlie Company to come. They would probably have injured that would need to be evaced out to a med. bay on one of the UNSC ships. Lekrel 04:32, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Screams are primordial-age aural materializations of agony. The extent of the torment is recognizable by the horridness of the scream and the length, but the application of such pain is often unidentificable by just listening to the scream.

Such were the troubling conditions facing Elite Special Operations Ultra Domo 'Kelatame of Commando Team Seraphic Wing as there were the cycling of plasma rifles before him, ghastly cries over SQUADCOM and TEAMCOM, and the detonation of an unknown object as himself, half a dozen of his brethren, and a phalanx of twenty Kig-Yar advanced towards the door. Plasma grenades detonated in a chain reaction in response, along with Unggoy methane tanks. The EMP from the grenades, however, sealed the hexagonal door within the sacrosanct building shut - an impregnible barrier to the other side of the bridge over the yawning subterranean chasm as TEAMBIO showed the indicators of the advance recon force all wink rapidly and then fade.

Nothingness seemed to echo over the metal arch upon which Team Seraphic Wing stood on: a contradiction of the definition, but true nonetheless. 'Kelatame hissed in disgust as he put on a facade of brazeness, and prayed for the Major Domo of the advance force's biosigns to flash on again...perhaps the EMP had disrupted local communications...but all of them stayed a placid gray.

He finally ended his sustained hiss and turned to address his valiant warriors. "Troops! We shall avenge Major 'Agamat and..."

The door hissed open, and a melange of mutated creatures swept forward: a life-form totally unknown to INTELCOM. 'Kelatame belatedly raised an energy sword, calculating the alien-life first contact procedures and raising his hand in peace when the lead commando was flogged in snarling tentacles, and a grenade fused with his jaws and blew him to the divine beyond. They leapt forward, their ranks unregimented and the alien forward line seeming to absorb the plasma rifle bolts with an eager voraciousness. Three further commandoes fell and the forward echelon of Kig-Yar came under the attack. They seemed to melt into the ground in green-gray gore, when...

"Apes!"

From cloistered locations in the subterranean canyon over which Seraphic Wing was suspended over, Ape soldiers assailed the Covenant commandoes from long-range. A plume of fire and smoke knifed towards him, and as he raised his sword in defiance, utterly devoid of the tactical situation's battle plan, he too fell to vaporized flesh.

*  *   *

Queta offhandedly observed Team Seraphic Wing lose contact with its dedicated communicator officer aboard the descending flagship Divine Wrath. As the last of the trailing Ape interceptors vaporized from the angle of attack into the atmosphere and persistent Seraph screening, he turned to observe the Sacred Oracle.

"Why have my warriors fallen?"

"Thouest servants have fallen in vainest agony to the Flood, whoest have awakened from thouest great sleep. Thouest must flee from this Installation, Reclaimer!"

He bared his fangs. "No, Oracle. We shall claim this for our own."

With a mechanical sigh, 49 Proximal Secant vanished.

Gold light enveloped the flagship, and it fell, charred but barely operational, towards the ground at an uncontrollable velocity and trajectory.

Klaxons rang.

"Omega Signal! All hands to evacuation stations!"

-49 Proximal Secant[ oracle ] 17:24, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

As the other ships were retreating captain John Edson orderd the Weapons Officer to fire at the rest of the covenant frigates with the MAC's and then to get out of there as soon as possible and orderd his remaining longswords which was at the count of around 84 to cover there retreat and deal with those seraphs, after the MAC's were fired a Member of the crew from damage control was speaking about the last plasma torpedo hit to the portside of the ship when suddenly another hit came and hit the top of the ship the damage control officer reported it was another plasma torpedo that renderd Archer pods A5-C9 useless as the pod doors were welded together by the heat and inpact, an explosion occured in one of the archer pods detonating the fuel in one of the missiles the explosion sent a rumble throughout the ship luckly the warhead had not been activated so it could not explode daedalus reported the impact and damage and that it had been contained, the captain then told the navigator officer to pull out to a safe distance with the rest of the fleet, after this he shouted to the weapons officer 'fire archer pods D-I at the 2 closest enemy frigates', the captain then told the AI daedalus to dump 1 emergancy thruster fuel pod and target it with a Archer missile but hold fire, daedalus then stated that all communications were lost with the marine squads they had deployed on the ring world as they were retreating the captain opened a comm chanel to the UNSC Whinston Churchill asking the vice admiral for orders concerning the assumed KIA marine forces on the ground. Captain John Edson 19:45, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

while the UNSC Midway was retreating captain Edson orderd daedalus to fire the archer missile targeting the emergancy thruster fuel pod, the missile hit the fuel pod causing an emmence explosion which blocked out all visual sight of the UNSC midway, the AI complimented the captain on his tactic of covering there retreat, the captain spoke 'thank you but its not over yet, not by a longshot, now fire the shiva missile pods along with archer missile pods K-Q target the closest frigate with 1 shiva nad half of those archers and the same with that assualt carrier, navigation take us behind the wreckage of that destroyer for cover' the navigation officer replied 'yes sir on route now, ETA 4 minutes' the captain spoke again 'good get it done'.

The captain suddenly shouted 'comms try to open another channel with the admiral and tell me when you get through and keep on trying to reach those marine squads, flight control get the longswords lowest on ammo and fuel back into the hanger for re-arming i want atleast 20 still out there after there done bring the others in and send another 20 you got me' the flight control officer quickly replied yes sir bringing our longswords home the comm officer spoke to the captain saying 'sir im getting distort signals from the other carrier all i can hear is screaming sir', the sensors officer suddenly spoke out to the captain 'sir the other carrier is heading in the direction of the ring world'.

The AI daedalus spoke to the captain 'sir 1 of the covenant frigates was destroyed by the shiva missile that makes 1 confirmed ship kill so far sir, the other missiles are still on route for the assualt carrier and its shields sppear to be down but i can not be certain at this range, i have isolated approach signatures of 3 seraph starfighters coming from the starboard side there ETA till fireing range is 7 minutes should i order the longswords to engage?' the captain replied 'yes get em on it right away and when there done get them to return to formation around us, ok hows that comms channel coming with the admiral send them text support regarding my question' the communications officer got on with typing ' Winston Churchill this is Captain John Edson requesting orders about the assumed KIA marines on the surface we have lost all communications to the surface of the ring world and are pulling back out of range of there ships reply, over'.

Open another comms channel with the UNSC Hesperus the captain spoke over the comm channel that had been set up 'Captain Adam Graves of the UNSC Hesperus this is Captain John Edson of the UNSC Carrier Midway can you make contact with the other carrier that was hit by the weapon from the ring world aswell as this i can not establish communications with any marine squads on the ring world or the admiral reply, over'. Captain John Edson

As the Pelican entered atmosphere, a certain feeling rushed over Adrian. It was one he had felt before, the reason why he could survive so long. He closed his eyes, and began to ward off the impending force overcoming his mind and body. His natural survival instincts were setting in, the ones that told him to kill or be killed, to fight or die. He opened his eyes ones again, the pain of the resurging in trepidation upon his cognitive thinking putting a strain upon his body. The look of anger and hatred against his own biological makeup could be seen on his face, that of resentment and struggling. But behind his reflective golden visor, he just seemed as calm and collected as if this was a routine mission. But, yet again, there was nothing routine about this mission, about his ongoing mission.

The ground began to become clearer and more visible from the front window, the several rather intricate buildings sprinkled all along the ring’s surface. It was a magnificently intimidating sight, an entire artificially created planet just hanging idly in space. Now though, it was accompanied by the remnants of UNSC and Covenant ships alike, which now gave the battlefield that the two forces had just clashed in an ominous sense of destruction. So far, the discovery of this ring had only led to more bloodshed.

The Pelican barreled towards the ground, as the nose began to arch and pull up, as the Pelican reach terminal velocity entering the atmosphere. It slowly began to list, as Rult and Rodney were steering it in for a soft landing. They were good pilots, so far. And during the fight with the Covenant on the planet they had just vacated so steadfastly, he had shown considerable skills as a pilot. Adrian put one hand on the railing to stabilize him, and turned to the men and women inside the Pelican. They were so brave, to follow him this far. He commended that thoroughly.

Beside the two Pelicans which entered atmosphere were two ships; one Longsword Interceptor and a Shortsword bomber. The Longsword skillfully maintained the same speed as the Pelican, with ease and grace, not wavering as it flew. It truly seemed to cut through the air like a blade. The Shortsword however, veered to the right as its pilot had to lessen the velocity of the descent, and disappeared from sight to maintain an altitude in the upper atmosphere. As the two ships continued towards the ring’s surface, the Pelican lessened it speed and fell behind the Longsword, piloted by Jason Eris. “This is Longsword Pilot, Jason Eris, Alpha-748. My wingman and I are going to maintain altitude of thirty thousand feet above your LZ. Make radio contact on a private channel if you run into any covenant and need aerial support. Over and out,” Jason’s stoic voice sounded over the open comm. Channel, as he veered to the left and barrel rolled into the upper atmosphere.

The Pelican continued to the ground, towards the steel structure, to make contact with Charlie Company. Adrian gripped his battle rifle a little tighter as the ground slowly became more defined as they made their way towards the ground. “You awake Adrian?” The girl’s voice inside his head chuckled a little, sensing the spikes in his mental functions and temperature. She knew he was on the brink of breaking, but didn’t want to bring it up. If they were to survive this fight on the ground, they would need Adrian at his best, though the thought of him reverting fully to that state of animosity scared her. It was only because of Angel that he was able to break free from his own wrath, and now that was she wounded on the ship, she wouldn’t be around to break him from his rage. That would prove a problem.

“Yes, I’m awake…” He muttered, shaking his head a little. The rest of the people onboard couldn’t hear that, since he turned off his outward speaker system. “Helen, please, set the mood…” He muttered again, closing his eyes. His mind began to flood with the music of ‘Extravagant Denial’, a movie made in 2490 with a soundtrack nearly two hours long, all of which was rapid and quick beats and sounds which seemed to set the mood here. Adrian loved music; it helped him to focus his energy on the battle more decisively.

“Alright! Let’s show these covvie bastards what we’re made of!” One of the marines in the back of the Pelican shouted out, followed by a couple of complimentary ‘Hoo-rahs’ and ‘Let’s kick some ass!’ Adrian managed to filter this out, as he eyed the paneling on his leg where the small orb resided. It was as if the small object was beckoning him to take it from its sealed compartment on his leg, to activate it and wield its power once more. Once you open Pandora ’s Box… It’s rather hard to close it again.

The Pelican eased down to the ground and the rear of the ship lowered for the marines within to exit down the ramp. The two Pelicans thrusters began to slow, and cool as jets breezed the ground and sending dust flying. Marines filed out of the two ships with gear in hand, a count of about eight of the nearly forty men wearing ODST armor giving them the distinction of being part of the crew. Adrian slowly walked down the ramp, his BR-55 A in his hands, across his chest. The scene was set, now where were the actors? User:CaptainAdamGraves

      

The mock cheerful voice of the structure sounded through Adrian-014's helmet, almost as if the false facade of joyousness had been drawn towards the orb.

A female's voice, coppery, "Eh? Who's that poking around my rear..."

"Greetings, Reclaimer. I bringeth joyous tidings to you, for thou es 49 Proximal Secant, Monitor of Installation 03. Priteeth sheath thy sword and return thou artifact to thy control."

That confirmed it: the intruding structure had been naturally allured to the transdimensional blazar of energy that was pulsing from the object beyond the 4 dimensions of realspace.

Adrian paused as his own voice whispered smoothly over the helmet speaker, rustling over the running music.

"Hello?"

Helen's response was more antagonized. "You dirty bitch, get the hell out of my subrouuuutttiiii..."

Her voice dopplered, and a warmth was brought again to Adrian's mind.

"Thouest primitive construct has been temporarily disabled, Reclaimer."

Whatever warmth immediately evaporated as he bared his BR-55A like an Elite's jaw-fangs.

"What did you do to Helen?"

His voice was of deadened calm: razor-edged to a point that lasers could be expected to explode outwards from his blazing eyes as he surveilled the ground for a sat-dish to penetrate his MJOLNIR armor's counterinstrusion systems. There were none. The slowing of his feet brought about the halt of the regimented UNSC ranks. They quizzically stared at him, the 

Cheers,

49 Proximal Secant[ oracle ] 22:58, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

As the UNSC Midway was trying to get a comms channel with the other ships, two of there longswords were still providing aerial support for the marines on the ring world and had no communications with the UNSC Midway the leader longsword Gamma-679 was piloted by 1st Lietenant Jason Orion, his co-pilot is Petty Warrant Officer Jack Millingam, his wingman Gamma-680 is 2nd Lietenant Xander Pertellan.

1st Lietenant Jason Orion recieved a radio transmission with Delta company of the UNSC Midway 'this is Delta company of the UNSC Carrier Midway does any one read me over', Jason replies to the message 'roger that its good to hear your voice this is Gamma-679 we are on station and ready to provide air support come in over', 'roger that we need you to lay down air support on the Co-ordinates were sending you now', 'okay roger that were inbound, Gamma-680 stay on station and provide air supperiority watch are backs were going in' Jason Boosted the engines to full thrust and turned the longsword around facing the target, his co-piot Jack reads out 'okay Laser guided bombs armed, scorpion missiles ready we are ETA 1 minute 30 seconds out im picking up 2 wraith MBT's and around 50+ ground troops targetting wraiths... wraiths locked okay the rest is up to you 55 seconds out' Jason replies 'okay firing missiles 3..2..1.. now' jason fired the scorpion missiles at the targeted wraiths and dropped the speed to around 600 knots 'okay i have visual on the target zone Delta company were inbound dropping LGB's in 2...1... now bombs away pulling out' as he pulled away he felt an unusual presence about him he started to drowzy, and ill he slowly drifted away into his conciousness when jack shouts 'JASON,.. JASON,.. JASON pull up pull up' jason suddenly comes back asif from the dead and pulles up on the joystick the massive longsword struggles to pull up jason pushes the throttle full down and shouts 'engage emergancy thrust fuel' the longsword suddenly pushes forward at an emmence velocity and pulls around 9.7G's Jacks voice sounds terrified and reads engines to thier limits, temp critical the speeding longsword pulls up and speeds off in the upper atmosphere Jason regains control Jack askes what happend back Jason replied to him 'i dont know,... i really dont know' after they were back with there wingman Jack confirmed the kills on the ground 'both wraith targets down, main troop targets down 100 over 100 all good ok munitions are 500 rounds on the 110mm guns, 4 ASGM-10 missiles, 2 LGB's, 4 Scorpion Missiles' fuel 75%.

Meanwhile back in deep space the UNSC Midway was still trying to get communications running with the rest of the fleet they had pulled back near a moon orbiting one of the planets in the area to take cover, daedalus spoke to the captain 'i have attempted but can not make communications with the surface of the structure i have also tried to communicate using the slipspace comms but cannot reach the surface the rest of the fleet is around 3654KM from our current location,... i have descoverd that our communication array was damaged engineering reports that it should be back up and running in around 2 hours' the captain speaks with a hint of anger in his voice 'so how many longswords did we have on that ring aswell as pelicans and troops' daedalus answers the captains question '2 longswords Gamma-679 and Gamma-680, 9 Pelicans and Delta, Foxtrot, Zulu and Gamma company's'. The captain shouts 'okay damage control let me know as soon as were battle ready, weapons officer arm the MAC's and charge it hold it though, flight control have 6 Longswords form a defensive perimiter around us and prepare to move, comms as soon as the communication array is repaired radio the fleet for orders, if we dont get through to them send them text support tell them well be going in to help our boys unless directed other wise, deployment control get marines ready for deployment, security control get marines to there defence points, daedalus supervise everyone and send thosecomms via slipspace as soon as possible, oh and just incase be prepared to arm the self destruct and overload the engines if we go in and cant get back out got it okay but lets make sure it doesnt come to that now get to work' an echo of sharp 'yes sirs' could be heard on the bridge the crew knew they would be going in to get there men back and although everyone of them knew they may not make it back alive they were willing to do it and follow there captain in to the unknown.Captain John Edson

"Sir," Will announced "Recieving multiple hails from the Hesperus and Midway, regarding marine casualty figures,”

The Admirals head hung low “I guess they should know, send them the figures,”

“Yes, Admiral” Will replied and his hologram faded. Icons took his place “More than 259 already?” The admiral wondered.

“Detecting increased energy output from the construct,”

“Show me,”

A blue-white beam of energy struck the carrier Fimbulwinter amidships

“H-deck, reactor chamber has been breached,” Will reported. Life pods launched from the wreaked vessel “Reactor is going critical, sir”

Horror etched the admirals face “Order the 2 closest ships to launch search and rescue operations…” The Premier detonated in a nuclear firestorm “Life pods?” He asked, dreading the answer

Wills hologram reappeared “Scanning, no lifepods detected, sir. Im sorry,”

“Don’t, order all ships to fire MACs and missiles. Same tactic as yours before. Make them pay” He growled “Aye,sir,”

The UNSC fleet fired. A 55 gun salute to those that had perished. Mil AI 2340

A plasma grenade flahed ten feet to the right of Hinte' Warymee and made his shields flare as he ducked behind the wreckage of a ghost that had been destroyed after the initial bombardment by the Apes so called "artillery". The apes had been assaulting the transportations structure all day trying to get to the pads within. The initial setup had been peaceful enough but the cloud of dust seen upon landing had only gotten larger until all the apes vehicles and ground troops could be seen. To the rest of the militarys relief three phantoms had landed almost 10 minutes and set down an additional 150 spec op elites, the initial Legion of troops that had set up camp and had been suprised but relived to see the reinforcments. The leader of the Spec ops Irno' Kassamee had met with Hinte' and they had both agreed to stagger the spec ops throughout the already large army. The three phantoms outfitted with cloaking technology had been hovered above the range of the humans rockets and instructed to shoot at any of the apes thy could see. Initially the humans had probed the covenant defenses until a full assault could be arranged, when this had come it was precluded by an artillery bombardment that hadnt seriously hurt anyone (except a few grunts, but who cares about those?) The land invasion had included a few of the 'demons' but to Hinte's knowledge they had not been amoung the dead so he supposed the had pulled back to prepare for the assault that was assumed to be coming in the morning or at the dead of night. This assumtion had been dead wrong while the covenant had picked through the dead on the walls the humans had crept within firing range by using their owndead as cover, now the legion of troops were in a fight for their lives as the humans slowly advanced and Hinte' Warymeeknew it was only a matter of time until they got up to the gate and managed to get inside using explosives. Irno' approached as Hinte' watched the 4 Hunters on the walls overlapping their shields and firing through the slits at the humans that approached. "Field Master, the humans have almost reached the gates and it is amost a matter of time before they break through." he said. "what would you have me do?" Hinte' asked. "We should contact the oracle that we know resides here." he said "I have attempted this but the great one will not answer my messages. I do not know why,but he refuses to answer my hails, but to my knowledge he has begun firing against the humans with some of halo's weapon systems." Hinte' responded. Behind them within the confines of the transportation room a golden glow appeared turning both elites saw a small metal ball glowing gold hovering. Both fell to their knees whispering "Oracle" to it. The object began to speak and said; "Hello Reclaimers, I am 049 Proximal Secant Thou must cometh with me so that we may complete our appointed tasks. Both elites stared dumbstruck at the holy object sitting before them.

Captain John Edson on board the UNSC Midway still had no way of communicating with the rest of the fleet if they were still there, they were still holding postition behind the moon of the near by planet they had no visual confirmation of the fleet or the ring structure, they had been behind the behind the moon for around 3 hours now repairing thier damages.

Jason Orion was still on the ring world providing air support for the ground troops, but what was still on his mind is what happend to him earleir, he had blacked before but this wasnt the same, and the amount of G's of the pull away wouldnt of evan make a rookie blackout he felt fine now but he couldnt figure out what had happend and for that matter niether could Jack.

When suddenly a seraph starfighter came in as a bolt of light blue plasma shot by him and then a sudden explosion from his right side he yelled over the radio 'Xander, Xander come in' jack interrupted him 'negative weve lost him and have 2 seraph starfighters on our six' suddnely Jasons survival insticts kicked in he had been persued by seraphs before but only one and had the help of Xander but not this time, Jason suddenly pushes the throttle to the full and makes a sudden bank left as the blue plasma shoots by him he then makes a barrel roll and goes nose down toward the ring strucutre his velocity increases to almost blackout speeds and beyond, the 2 seraphs follow him down and match his speed he reaches 500 feet and begins to pull up he gets the nose up and engages the last of the emergancy thruster fuel he speeds up to above mack 4 and pulls out into space one of seraphs doesnt pull up in time and hits straight into the ringword the other seraph still on his 6, he halts the longsword by pulling the throttle back and engaging the reverse air speed brakes and the seraph speeds ahead of him he pushes the throttle back up to match the enemys speed and fires away with the 110mm guns which cut right through the seraph destroying it.

He then pulls into the orbit of the planet again and sets down at a base that Zulu company captured the base was well protected there were around 125 ground troops, 8 scorpions and around 14 warthogs, he set down on the landing pad that has been established and exits his longsword meeting the commanding officer. Captain John Edson

1758 Hours (Ship’s Time), April 26, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ UNSC Destroyer Erwin Rommel, location unknown

“What the hell was that!” screamed one of the junior officers.

“Working…it appears to be some sort of direct energy weapon…technology appears to be way beyond the Covenant,” replied Janglur. Rebuga looked over at the TAC map. He wondered if the Vice Admiral would order an attack on the ring, or if he was still trying to hold onto the hope that they could ally the builders as originally planned. Rebuga, personally, having watched the Fimbulwinter, a UNSC carrier, explode in a giant nuclear fireball, wanted revenge.

“Get me a COM with the Winston Churchill! Ask the Vice Admiral for permission to fire on the source of that energy weapon!” yelled Rebuga over the noise of the bridge crew.

“''This is Vice Admiral Johnson. Request denied! We’re here to make peace with the builders of that ring, we don’t need another front for this war.''” Rebuga snapped the COM off. He turned to his XO, Vrana.

“Set course zero seven eight by nine six zero.”

“But sir, that would put us on a heading towards the ring.”

“I know, orders or not, we’re taking out that weapon.” The Erwin Rommel groaned as it turned, then began accelerating towards the ring.

“''Commander Brandon Rebuga, respond! Dammit Brandon! What are you doing?! I gave you a direct…''” The COM shut off.

“Thank you Janglur,” Rebuga said with satisfaction.

“A pleasure sir…I’m picking up an energy spike in the weapon. Looks like they’re prepping for another shot. Suggest emergency evasive maneuvers.”

“Janglur, take control of the emergency thrusters. Send us off course the …” The ships suddenly lurched to starboard. Rebuga managed to brace himself on his command console, but some of the crew was not so lucky and was thrown to the ground. “Hänkel! Warm the MAC gun, arm all non-depleted archer pods, and take the safety off our last Shiva!”

“Yes sir!” Hänkel typed rapidly at his console. “MAC gun reading full charge already sir!” The Erwin Rommel sped towards its target and prepped every weapon on board for fire, waiting for a single word.

“Mark!”

"Admiral, the Erwin Rommel is accelerating, on an attack vector to the source of that energy weapon,"

"I see, well talking him out of it wont work," The last Covenant frigate still engaging the UNSC turned and accelerated towards the ring where the other two frigates were stationed. "Lets hope he takes it out. Will, get me a firing solution, MAC status?"

"Full charge in 10 seconds,sir. Firing solution online,"

"Fire," 3 slugs of super-dense metal raced towards the covenant frigate. The first round was a clean miss, the second hit the ship and brought its shield down. The third round hit it right in the nose, blowing the front off. However, this was nothing close to a lethal blow, and the Vice Admiral knew it.

"Sir, the Erwin Rommel is approximatly one thousand kilometers from the energy weapon," MIL AI 2403

"Ok now our comm. systems are back online. Bring us around to the rest of the fleet…" The Captain said with stoic authority. Turning to see the Erwin Rommel accelerating towards the ring, he uttered with a questioning expression in his voice, "What in gods name…?" "Sir, the Erwin Rommel seems to be heading towards the ring world. The last frigate and Assault carrier are turning to face the Erwin Rommel they will be ready to intercept in ETA 40 seconds, sir picking up 2 more contacts just arrived from slipspace 1 Covenant CPV-class Heavy Destroyer and 1 Covenant frigate…" Daedalus spoke, hoping to inform the Captain of all he needed to know.

"Goddamn it… Open a comm. channel with the Winston Churchill immediately!” The Captain yelled out, as a flash appeared upon his holo-screen, signifying the communiqué channel having been established. “Admiral, requesting orders concerning the new threats. Over." The Captain continued, holding his breath for a moment after, hoping to get an immediate response.

Captain John Edson (Edited by CaptainAdamGraves)

"Captain Edson I have estimated the Covenant Assualt Carrier's trajectory. The Assualt Carrier will hit the ground at grid point '126 by 312 of 214 by 197' in 5 minutes 47 seconds at its current speed, if we fire the MAC's in exactley 71 seconds one after the other they will hit the Assualt Carrier mid ship right over the reactor the explosion should destroy the ship, providing the shields are not up as it will take 1 to penetrate the armour and the second to hit the Pinch Fusion Reactor along with the Fuel cells causing the detonation, the first shot will have to be slightly stronger to garuntee that it will penetrate the armour i will have to overcharge the MAC to 127% this will be dangerous sir but i should be able to contain it without any damage to us, the impact will destroy the ship completely if it hits, do i have your permission to fire sir"

Captain John Edson quickly without hesitating responds "Negative, that ship is going down. Don't waste the ammunition". Daedalus MIL AI 2608

“This is the UNSC Hesperus… UNSC Destroyer Erwin Rommel please copy, over,” O’Shay sounded over the comm. channel. The Erwin Rommel had hailed The Hesperus, yet they still had yet to maintain radio contact. And now with the marines that were onboard, along with Adrian, having left for the Ring-world, Captain Graves felt the need to fight to win. He gritted down on his teeth, shaking his head as O’Shay continued to maintain the channel with the battle group.

A beam of light sprang forth from the ring, decimating one of the ships within the battle group, turning it into a smoldering pile of heated metal floating in space. “What the fuck!” O’Shay screamed out, a scream complete with anger, surprise and a hint of frustration, as he turned towards the window and jumped from his seat. The thought was also shared by Peterson and Graves, the only exclamation that could fit that situation.

“Peterson, bring us on a course; zero-seven-one by six-one-one. Unlock all available Archer missiles and warm them for launch…” Graves muttered, turning to the maps of the area on his holo-display. The engines began to whir, and warm, as the ship was preparing the change its current position.

“But sir… That would bring us about towards the ring… Following… Yes, Sir!” Peterson said with a grin, turning to the control paneling and setting Graves’ orders into motion. The ship came about, pointing towards the ring, as its MAC-Cannon fired two more rounds, finalizing the gutting of the frigate. The MAC-Cannon then returned to position lengthwise underneath the ship, so the behemoth metal freighter had no protrusions.

“To any UNSC ships on the open communications band: This is Captain Adam Graves, Captain of the UNSC Parabola-Class Freighter The Hesperus. We have sent reinforcements from our ship, including Spartan-014, Adrian, planet-side to join the battle. We no longer feel like sitting around, and will join the Erwin Rommel on their route and provide cover support. Over,” Graves sounded over the open band, at the moment when the ship lurched forward through space, on the astral coattails of the Erwin Rommel as it accelerated towards the planet.

“Ma’am, you can’t come in here… The captain is in battle!” A yell could be heard from the hallway leading to the bridge where the pilots were. All three heads of the men in the control room turned towards the open door, to see what the commotion was.

“Get out of my way!” A woman’s voice screamed out, and a thump could be heard in the hallway. Graves, instinctively for one reason or another, reached for his magnum, which was holstered at the moment on his right hip. But, as he expected, a friendly face appeared at the door. But, at the moment, she looked confused and shook, apparently having just woken up. “Where is Adrian, and what is going on?” She asked the three men in the room, who just stared at her with wide eyes, having half expected her not to have regained consciousness. The beating she had taken from the flood, along with her extensive burnt armor, had given the impression to all but Adrian that she was lucky to be alive. ‘Luck has nothing to do with it…’ Adrian had said. She was slumped somewhat, leaning against the door as if she needed some slight balance. There was a moment of silence, and Graves began to motion towards her. They were all dumbstruck, especially the marine she had leveled in the hallway with her bare hands. “I asked, where is Adrian!” She yelled out now, awaiting an answer. Her breathing was labored and she had a slight wheeze about her. Apparently, she had run there. Incredible, she was running after recovering from a temporarily drug-induced coma. She was truly a legendary Spartan II warrior.

“He went to fight…” Graves muttered under his breath, turning away and looking at the ring they were speeding towards. In front of the freighter the ring seemed to grow exponentially as they sped towards the alien structure. He stood straight up, not wanting to look at Angel. She was undoubtedly shocked by this, having awoken to fight yet again.

“Thank you sir!” The female’s voice sounded out as she snapped steadily to attention, raising her hand to her forehead, and staring ahead. Graves turned, arching an eyebrow at her, confused at her immediate reaction. It wasn’t that of anger, confusion, or hopelessness. It was that of prepared readiness. She lowered her hand, staring at Graves. “Permission to join the fight, as well, sir?” She asked after a moment of silence enveloped their exchanged stare.

“Permission… Granted,” Graves muttered, exchanging a faint smile with the battered woman. She looked no older than twenty five, yet that was not the case at all. It was the augmentations that had been given to the men and women that were part of the Spartan project that kept her and Adrian young looking. Angel smiled back, her white teeth showing for a mere moment, before turning. As she was leaving, she stopped for a moment. “Is she with him?”

“Yes, Helen went with Adrian as well,” Graves said, turning to watch Angel leave the room. She continued down the hallway, a little more solemn in her attitude now, but more focused.

“Good… At least she’ll keep him safe,” Angel said softly, walking down the corridor, kicking the marine who was still lying on the ground, clutching his side. “Get up, soldier, we have work to do!” She yelled out, picking up the marine by the collar and pulling him wit her.

Adrian turned to his bewildered marines, standing and watching him. For a moment, he just stared, confused by the situation at hand. Who was this in his head, now replacing Helen. It confused and scared him… But he needed to take command again. He made a swirling motion in the air and pointed to three of the marines. They nodded, and ran ahead as scouts. “Everyone, form up into squads of five and move out, secure this area. Pelicans, were going to need reinforcements and vehicles ASAP…” Adrian yelled out, as the marines got to work. Curtis and Warren made their way towards Adrian, but he held up one finger and they stopped. “What do you want…” He muttered, cutting off communications to the others, speaking to the construct, 49 Proximal Secant, who had taken over his systems. “What have you done to Helen!” He growled, tightening the grip on his rifle, filled with the anger that would make him unstoppable. Taking over his systems was one thing, but harming Helen, the artificial manifestation of Angel, was another thing completely. CaptainAdamGraves

Jared heard the Pelican touch down behind him before he saw it. He turned wondering who would have the guts to follow right behind the HEVs.
 * "Oh," Juliet said, "While you were in that little fracas, you got a message from SPARTAN-014. That's him in the Pelican."

Jared rolled his eyes. "And why didn't you let me know about this THEN?" A Spartan jumped from the Pelican's ramp, BR55 in hand. That, Jared knew, was Adrian. He nodded his head in acknowledgement and opened a private comm channel. "Adrian. Good to see you. Do you happen to heve any SPNKrs with you? It looks like we're going to need them..."  SPARTAN-091   HelmetComm undefined Juliet  03:18, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Adrian growled for a moment, that rage slowly consuming him. He turned to Jared, who was several feet from him. The private channel appeared on his HUD, signifying that Jared wished to speak to him, so he opened it. "I'm sure we have a few lying around, ask the boys," Adrian said, trying to keep up his spirits despite the fact some strange construct was attempting to infiltrate his systems.

He walked over to Jared, and nodded to him. "I'm going to need a moment alone, can you get them in order?" He asked, turning then continuing ahead so he could gain a second or two to sort out what to do about this intruder. Warren slowly walked ahead, his helmet he had put on underneath his arm, the black ODST armor reflecting off of the sunlight. He looked over at Jared, another of the Spartans and his eyes opened wide. Another Spartan, another Adrian? They might just have a chance to win after all... He though to himself, a smile creeping across his lips.

Adrian muttered a curse under his breath, after closing all comm channels he had open. "I'm listening..." He said with a deep roll in his voice. He waited for a moment to gain the attention of 49 Proximal Secant who had infiltrated his systems. CaptainAdamGraves

Juliet made a confused noise. "I'm picking up something strange from 104's Neural Link... It's probably nothing. Don't worry about it." Jared turned to the tall black marine who stood next to him, asking, "Are you in charge here, (forgot Warren's rank, help!)"
 * "Yes, sir, Master Chief, I am," Warren assented.

"Good. Tell the men in the Pelican to get out all of their anti-vehicle rockets and get into that bunker. We have a squad of Covenant Wraiths inbound."
 * "Yes, sir!" Warren saluted crisply.

"And, (rank here)," Jared added, "You might want to put that helmet on." Warren grinned and slipped the streamlined armor piece over his head, then racked a round into his MA5B's chamber with a quick pull of its acton.
 * "You heard him, Marines! Move it!"

The Spartan, confident in the (rank here)'s competence, resumed his conversation with his AI. "What the status? has his AI gone haywire?"
 * "No," Juliet said slowly, "It's more like someone invaded his Neural Link. I've got no trace from his AI... I think she's shut down!"

"Can I do anything?" Jared asked quickly.
 * "I don't think either you or I can help him. This is his battle."

((If you read my posts before, especially the first 'in space' pelican flight post, you'd know that Warren was a part of the crew. Besides, he's not necessarily in charge. But, I guess the marines that were on board would willingly take orders from him, since they saw him and Adrian fight so well. Yea, he had no rank. He's a mechanic. So I dont know if you want to keep this post, maybe alter it or redo it.CaptainAdamGraves