Baden

Baden-G027 stood and listened. Spartan-051, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose, had designated him as the leader of Yellow team, so he stood by and took note of the flurry of orders coming from the bridge. They had been attacked, not fifteen minuets ago, a Covenant carrier and two cruisers jumped into the system and opened fire on them. Their first volley knocked out the generator and their main MAC cannon. The Courage Under Fire was dead in the water.

Capitan Fergo had given them strict orders to take Aha, the shipboard A.I., and escape to complete their mission on Isis. Personally, Baden thought that it was a suicide mission from the start, but it wasn't his place to question orders.

"Alright everyone, you know the deal, lock and load, the Covenant have already boarded, and are probably about to be knocking on our door."

Baden leaned down and keyed the data console on the wall. "Aha, ready to go?"

"Yep, let's do this."

Baden pulled the chip out of the console and inserted into the data port at the base of his skull. A flash of ice water shot through his brain, and suddenly, there were two people in his head. Hmm, kinda roomy in here. Aha quipped.

"Very funny, now let's get down to business, what's the quickest way outta here?"

"Alpha level, green sector. Hanger bay, estimate you can make it in ten minuets." Aha replied all too fast.

"Sounds good, let's move out."

Baden pulled back the charging handle on his MA2B and released it, racking the first round into the chamber. His other three Spartans charged their weapons, and they were off, moving silently and quickly down the corridors to the hanger.

They encountered light resistance on the way, Baden figured that he wouldn't want to be invading a ship that's about to blow up either. They entered the hangar bay and Baden looked around at the availabilities. "Ok, probably the best way to get into that ship is through the hangar bay, so we won't be taking that way..."

"Why not?" Spartan-G266, Allison, interrupted.

"Because, if that's the most obvious way into the ship, then it's the most obvious place for a trap." Baden concluded.

Aha, could you give me a surface scan of the carrier please? Baden asked mentally.

A schematic of the carrier's hull popped up on his HUD almost instantly. He scanned it for a few seconds and decided on a plan. "Ok everyone move quickly, we won't have time to try this twice. Jake, load every scrap of explosives we have onto that pelican over there, C-7, lotus, grenades, anything you can find, then I want you to program the autopilot to fly straight into the middle of the carrier. Everyone else, strap your equipment down, this is gonna be a rough landing."

Everyone nodded and quickly started about their tasks, they didn't have much time. Baden took adhesive strips and taped his clips to his thigh plates and his chest, then secured his rifle on top of them. The rest of the team did similar.

I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work. Aha chimed in.

And why is that? Baden inquired.

The chances of you actually connecting are astronomical, even if you make it onto the hull, how are you going to get inside?

Baden chuckled, You worry too much.

In case you've forgotten, it's my job to worry.

And in case you've forgotten, the Spartans were created to do the impossible.

Aha just gave a mental sigh. Baden looked out the hangar bay view port to see if the carrier had drifted to this side of the ship. He looked for a few seconds before he saw it, it was coming around slowly, but would be in range in a few seconds. "Ok Jake let er rip."

Jake punched a button on the hangar control panel, and the huge blast doors shuddered open. The noise was deafening as everything in the bay was pulled out into the cold darkness of space. The four Spartans held onto the wings of the pelican for a few seconds, then released just before its thrusters went into full burn. The pelican rocketed ahead, smashing into the carrier. The resulting explosion did absolutely no damage to the huge ship, but served to create a small hole in the shield so the Spartans could rocket through. They smashed hard onto the hull. Baden saw stars and tasted blood in his mouth, but he was alive. There was no time for it now, pain could wait. All four soldiers activated the magnetic plates in their armor, and started the long crawl towards one of the ship's many plasma turrets. A few minuets into their crawl, a bright sun lit up off the port side of the carrier. The Courage Under Fire was no more. It took them almost an hour to reach the closest turret. Baden stuck his head over the lip that led into the bowl shaped turret housing and, spotting an access hatch, signaled everyone to prepare their weapons. He reached down and ripped the cover off the access hatch's outer control panel. Aha's voice trickled into his mind. Lean closer to it, I can activate it remotely from here, I just need to slice the code. Got it.

The access panel clicked open and Baden rushed through, barrel first. There were no threats immediately on the other side, only a narrow access corridor, probably used by the Covenant engineers. Baden sealed the hatch back up and lead his squad down the tunnel. The four emerged from the access corridor in what looked like a storage room. There were alien crates and equipment stacked all around them. Baden scanned the room, and stopped when he found what he was looking for. There was a small data port on the opposite wall, near the door. Dump me in there, I'll get to work on the security systems, but you'll have to pull me back out before you get to the bridge, the navigation and weapons controls are separated from the rest of the systems. Aha said.

Jake and Pete moved on either side of the closed door as Baden moved over to the data port. He pulled the chip from his skull, and slid it into the alien computer. Aha's voice sounded over his comm set. "Ok the bridge is only four corridors down, but there are all kinds of patrols in between you and it."

"I have a solution for that" came from behind Baden.

He turned around to see her standing next to a crate of plasma grenades. "This whole room is filled with them. If we blow these all off, it'll cause a major distraction."

Baden thought for a second. "Do it."

He walked back over to the wall. "Aha, I'm puling you back out."

"Go for it."

Baden yanked the chip form the wall and put it back in his head. I wanted to wait to tell you this so the others wouldn't hear, there's a strong security detail on the bridge. They are not going to leave, I don't care what kind of distraction you make.

Well then we'll just have to deal with them the old fashioned way. Baden said.

I don't think that would be a wise decision either, there are a lot of them in there. Aha said with a resigned tone.

Exactly how many is a lot?

Well, the roster reads 2 squads of Brutes, 3 of Jackals, and an almost equal amount of drones. Not to mention, the ship master and his pilots. I suggest reinserting me into the computer net and I'll vent the atmosphere in there.

Ok, do it. Baden said as he headed back to the terminal.

After Aha had vented the atmosphere, the Spartans ran down the empty corridor outside the storage room, and hid around the corner. A few seconds later they saw a massive blue flash and felt a wave of blistering heat. Their HUDs momentarily went out because of the EMP burst from the grenades, but quickly rebooted. They heard the heavy thump of many alien feet running this way and that, and they tried to push back into a crevice, to avoid being seen. After they though everyone had passed, Baden motioned the group to move to the bridge. He crammed Aha back into the console by the door, just to make sure it was pressurized, and keyed the door open.

The bridge was a charnel house, filled with the bodies of the security detail. The Spartans stood as still as death, waiting to see if anything moved. Nothing stirred. Allison sealed the door back up as Baden made his way up the ramp to the main computer, and inserted Aha into the main computer network. "Oh hell, it looks like the ship master got a distress signal off before he ran out of air, the other two cruisers are powering up their weapons systems. We need to get out of here now."

Baden looked at the visual display above the control island. He could see the two cruisers turning towards them, their plasma turrets starting to glow a dull red. The ship started to accelerate quickly, but suddenly jerked and stopped. "What was that?" Baden shot a look at the computer.

Aha responded, "Looks like we lost power from the main plasma reactor, one of the conduits must have been severed."

"Ok, Pete, you stay here and guard the bridge, the rest of us are going to see if we can't find some of those damn engineer things and fix the problem. Aha, I need you to vent the atmosphere in the rest of the ship. That should slow down anyone trying to get at us." Baden said quickly.

Baden located another of the access tunnels, like the one they had entered the ship through, near the back of the bridge. He tore the hatch off of it and stuck his rifle in first. His barrel hit something squishy, and with blinding speed he reached in and threw it on the ground next to him, training the barrel on its head. Aha's voice sounded over the comm again. "Easy, it's harmless. These are the engineers, you'll need them to repair the conduit."

Baden and the other two Spartans with him moved quickly down the narrow hall, with a handful of the floating engineers trailing behind them. Finally, after what seemed forever, they emerged in the reactor room. It was huge, easily 300 meters long and half again as wide. The Spartans fanned out and slowly started leapfrogging towards the sparking, sputtering conduit. Baden had just ducked down behind a low wall, when a plasma bolt dug a gouge out of the floor he had just been standing on. He flipped his rifle over the wall and opened fire. Three quick bursts took out the Elite's shields, and one more put it down for good. The rest of his buddies must have noticed, because the air was suddenly filled with plasma and bullets. Baden kept low, as he drug the engineers to the damaged conduit. As they started working on it, he noticed that it had been cut clean, like someone had used a laser or something.

Suddenly Baden saw something out of the corner of his eye, he dove to the side just in time to avoid the energy blade slicing through the air above him. He rolled back to his feet and faced his opponent. The Elite was easily as tall as he was, if not taller. His gold armor shone as brightly as his energy sword, and he looked pissed. Baden sidestepped a quick lunge, grabbing the creature's sword arm and smashed it against his knee, causing the sword to drop from its grasp. He didn't anticipate the Elite recovering so quickly, so the leg sweep caught him by surprise. He hit the floor hard, but rolled to the side in time to avoid the knee intended for his head. The Elite dropped all his weight onto Baden's torso and started to pound at his head with his fists. Baden saw stars with every blow, but the elite was too distracted with pummeling him in the head to see where his hands were.

Baden's hand found what it was searching for and too late, the Elite realized his mistake. His head rolled off his shoulders and onto the floor, and his body went limp. Baden grabbed his dropped rifle and stood back up, planting a round in the head of an approaching Jackal on the way. The attack had died down, and Jake and Allison were mopping up the last of them. Abruptly, Baden heard a sound like cracking bone, and saw Allison fly across the room and smash into a wall. She dropped to the ground and lay still. He looked back in the direction she came from and saw three Brutes charging across the room for him. He popped in a new clip and unloaded it into one of them. It didn't even seem to phase it. Baden bent down and scooped up the sword again, igniting it with a flash. The brutes charged right at him. He leapt into the air, doing a summersault over them, sword blade flashing into the back of the first one. It dropped like a bag of rocks. The other two screeched to a halt, and with perfect timing Jake popped out from behind the conduit with his M-90. They didn't even see him, and the second Brute didn't see anything after the round went through his head. The third and largest Brute lunged at Jake, smashing his shotgun away from him and knocking him to the ground. Baden jumped on its back, but he threw him off like a rag doll. Baden jumped back up, but didn't see the Brute anywhere. Cautiously, he made his way back to where he had last seen Jake. He found him, lying in a pool of his own blood, his vitals were all flat lined. His neck was twisted at a weird angle, and his chest piece was smashed inwards into his chest. "What will you do now Demon? All your friends are dead, it's just you and me." The Brute's voice drifted from behind him.

"I'm going to kill you, plain and simple."

With that, Baden sprinted at full speed, straight at the Brute. He must have caught the thing off guard, and he speared him against a bulkhead, slamming his fists into the things sides and chest. The brute raised his hands in a double fist and smashed them down on Baden's back. It knocked all the wind out of him and threw him to the ground. Lying on the ground, he swung out with all his strength at the Brute's leg, hearing a satisfying crack and a howl of pain. The Brute slammed to the ground next to him. Baden rolled on top of it, pounding into its head. He didn't stop until he realized he was punching little more than chunks of bloody bone. He got up and went over to check on Allison.

As he got closer he felt a pang of regret, her vitals were dead also. He opened up the Spartan III roster, listing Spartans G266 and G035 as MIA. He threw their bodies over his shoulder and carried them back to the bridge. Aha had already made a short slipspace jump to the edge of the system.

"Aha, make a jump to Isis, we still have a mission to complete."

"I cannot do that, according to the Cole Proto...."

I know what the Cole Protocol says! But it's null and void now, the Covenant have already found earth! Just do it!"

"Ok, routing energy to the slipspace drive now."

And with a burst of light, they were off, to finish the mission.