Elijah MK III
Nihilistic Existentialist
(Yeah, I think boredom is a large part of the problem. You can only post "they drove around and shot Covies" for so long))
No sooner had the Rolling Thunder reached the point indicated by the LT than the radio crackled again. "Er, sorry, Major, but we got through that chokepoint, have retrieved the AI, and are en route to the hangars by a different path. I guess we'll see you there? We're meeting no resistance--I wonder if we killed everything on board this ship already?" A burst of plasma gunfire cut into the comm. "Scratch that. Light resistance, but nothing we can't handle. Over and out."
Brute looked back at the Major and shrugged. "So. . . I guess that's it? We're done here?"
Janet Elisio's voice answered him from the trailer. "It ain't over til it's over, kid. We still have to get off this ship."
"Close enough. Let's get going, Brute. Interesting as everything is, this place gives me the creeps," said Davaran.
"But aren't we gonna blow up the core or something? I mean, that's what they do in all the vids. Otherwise they're going to repair the ship and chase us, right?" argued Brute.
The others chuckled, and Davaran spoke again. "Did you see a big red button labeled "self destruct" on the Core controls, there, Brute? It's not that easy. If we tried to do something that would detonate the core, we wouldn't be sure that we'd have enough time to get out. This ship is too damaged to play around with. Besides, I'm sure Flores, the AI from the Iron Fist, made sure this ship wouldn't be going anywhere, if they plugged her into the system at all. She IS a smart AI, you know."
Within a few short minutes, the Rolling Thunder had arrived in the hangar where the Pelicans waited, ready to go. The crew dismounted and boarded the birds, ready to take off.
As Davaran boarded, the LT saluted him. "Major Davaran, sir, thanks for all your help. We'd still be trapped in that life pod if it weren't for you. We have just one more small problem. We're short a pilot--but that's what you do best, right? Do you want to fly this Pelican out of here and back to the Razor's Kiss? My piloting skills are very, very rusty."
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Yi watched Nuron fly the WarHawk away, and snorted derisively. "Boys and their toys." She worked her way around and up the hill, and switched to a beam rifle she had nabbed from one of the dead Jackals. The base was not much to behold--a single atmosphere chamber for Grunts to relax in, a patched-looking habitat for the air breathers, guarded by a few Shades and three Wraiths. One Wraith was already trailing smoke. Yi waited until Rae had dashed in from the brush and was approaching one of the undamaged Wraiths before she opened fire on the Elite driving it. While she didn't kill the Elite, she did wing it, which wasn't bad for a 500-meter shot with an ill-fitting Covenant weapon, with the target moving, to boot. It was the work of a few seconds for Rae to wrench open the Wraith's pitifully armored hatch and bash the wounded Elite's head open, after which she climbed inside and destroyed the other two Wraiths, which were just turning around by the time Rae opened fire.
The few ground troops who emerged from the shelters were short work for Atkins, Rae, and Yi. One Elite boarded a Ghost and tried to make a run for it--the one with Ten's helmet. He chose a poor vector, however, because it brought him straight in front of Rae's Wraith, which she promptly boosted and ran the Elite over with.
"Is that all of them?" asked Yi over the comm.
"Looks to be," replied Atkins.
Rae had just managed to pry Ten's helmet from the smashed Elite's hands when Yi arrived at thier position. The older woman scowled at the damaged helmet. "I hope we didn't do that." Then she opened up a comm channel to the WarHawk. "Tetra lead, this is Red Two. We have secured the helmet and are ready for extraction. Or do you want us to walk back to the Kiss?"
"Red Two, this is Tetra Lead. Cover your ears." The WarHawk arrived with a sonic boom, and decelerated from Mach 4 alarmingly fast.
Yi held out Ten's helmet, upside down. "Thought you might want to show off your good aim by dropping a nickel in here, Tetra Lead." she joked. To her surprise, one of the Mini-MACS did almost that, dropping a shell with almost no velocity right into the center of the helmet. "Show-off. Real soldiers don't need fancy toys to get the job done, you know. Are you going to let us in?"
As the trio boarded the WarHawk, Nuron called out over the internal speakers. "Real soldiers might be able to get by with a stick and a few rocks, but they can't get off the surface without something a little better." He closed the doors and began the ascent to the Razor's Kiss.