Halo Deeper We Go Chapter 1

Chapter One: Brawl in the Enemy’s Bar TENTH CYCLE, 154 UNITS (COVENANT BATTLE CALENDAR/ABOARD PATROL FRIGATE, INFINITE CHAOS; IN ORBIT ABOVE PLANET RHOMEGRA – SYSTEM: MEGRA INFINITUS Ped pointed his green-glowing Plasma Pistol at the Kig-yar hologram 50 meters away from him, and fired. The overcharged plasma bolt hit the target, making it crackle with sparks, then disappear, with only a white-glowing ball remaining on the purple-plated floor. Holo-drones was a rare variant of equipment, and usually only given to Sangheili from the Special Warfare Group. But they were, like almost everything else the Covenant created, available on the black market, which was where Rud – who picked up the orb-looking ball and strapped it to his belt – had gotten two of them. Thanks to that, Ped, Rud and all the other Kig-yar on the Patrol Frigate Infinite Chaos had an additional thing to use to pass the time. Being stationed on a patrol ship at a recruitment (or breeding, in case of Unggoy) world wasn’t the most epic of experiences. The closest to action the Kig-yar had come was the occasional exercises that were held yearly when important Covenant dignitaries came by to inspect how recruitment went or to see if new equipment worked the way they should. So, Ped was happy that Rud had managed to get the one hundred Kig-yar some more enjoyment. Other than doing target practice against the Holo-Drones, the Kig-yar mostly played Pikr’Tas (a dice game where one player roll up to five dice and the other four players say a number, and the one who comes the closest to the dice’s totaled numbers, wins, and gets to take or do something against the losers) or discussed about what females each one preferred. Ped himself preferred Shipmistresses, since they were so wealthy and powerful compared to other Kig-yar, indicating that they would mostly be good egg-layers.

Suddenly something shook, surprising Ped greatly. Relieved, but also angered at himself, he realized that it was his signal unit. He turned it on, and the voice of Chieftain Drussus boomed into his ears: “Zealot, prepare your Kig-yar for ground deployment!” Ped resisted the urge to hiss angrily at the Chieftain. He knew all too well what happened when insulting the Chieftain. Ped was in fact the fifth Kig-yar Zealot on this ship since Drussus had taken command of the ship, and there was always only one Zealot at one time on a ship. “Honorable Chieftain”, he replied calmly, “if I may ask, why are we deploying?” “Humans.” The word was more than enough to describe the seriousness of the situation, Ped knew that, though in his mind, he asked himself a lot of questions, like how the humans could be here, and why they were here. He turned off his signal unit and turned towards the other Kig-yar. “Get your equipment,” he hissed as loud as he could in order to get everyone’s attention, “and get onboard the dropships. Humans have been spotted, and the Chieftain wants us to deploy and hunt them down.”

The Kig-yar were silent for a moment, then quickly attached their Point Defense Gauntlets to their arms, strapped Plasma Pistols to their belts and rushed to the Spirit dropships. As soon as the craft were filled, they floated out of the hangar bays through the energy shields, and then flew with full speed towards the purplish-hued planet underneath. Ped could, through the Pilot’s window, see a partially visible human-looking vessel that sped away from the Covenant Patrol Ships, towards the desert moon, apparently hoping to get cover behind the moon’s dark side. Then suddenly, two of the pursuing Frigates burst into flames, their shields heated, shone…and failed. Their hull shimmered, melted…and then the ships fell apart, exploding into chunks of debris. Space got less and less visible, as Ped’s dropship entered the planet’s cloudy atmosphere. Soon, Ped could differ massive Covenant structures from the terrain, glowing purple close to the ground’s blue rock. As the ship closed in on the southeastern structures, Ped could see that the methane suites were burning, carrying signs of a massive explosion, probably by a plasma bolt fired inside the methane-thick air. But the destruction was nothing compared to what Ped saw at the Unggoy barracks; four demons in emerald-colored armor rushed between covers while firing their crude human weapons. Unarmed and armed Unggoy attempted to fight back, but they fell quickly to the demons’ attacks. One of the demons rose out of cover and threw a grenade, which then exploded in the middle of a lance of Unggoy. The subsequent explosions from the methane tanks added to the grenade explosion, killing the whole lance. Ped looked away and went to his seat, waiting for the time when the fork-like prongs would open their doors, and Ped along with his fellow Kig-yar would have to jump out and face the demons. Ped felt fear in his veins, and his spines colored blue in response to this, the Kig-yar’s natural signal indicating fear. Ped wasn’t the only one; all the other Kig-yar in his prong had similarly colored spines. As one, all the Kig-yar swallowed once, then the door lowered, the cloud becoming visible. The Kig-yar jumped out as one, screeched as one and took up a phalanx-formation, firing their pistols into the Unggoy barracks, forcing the demons into cover. One demon attempted to fire at the formation, but the crude human bullets just bounced off the Kig-yar’s shields.

Randall cursed quietly as he crouched behind a rack of Grunt harnesses. The Covvies had sent reinforcements, he thought to himself. He turned on TEAMCOM to Silver Team. “Silver Team, do you have the data yet?” he whispered as good as he could, as a Plasma Bolt streaked a little too close his shoulder. “No sir”, Lavernius, currently head of Silver Team replied, “they locked down the primary entrance and some gorilla-thingies ambushed us. We’ll try to find another way.” “Then do it quick, the Covvies have dropped reinforcements, at least a few platoons worth of Jackals.”

“We’ll do what we can Randall, just hang o-“ static was heard on the other end, then stopped, and Lavernius was heard again; “Will have to quit now sir, just don’t die, will you?” Randall shut off the transmission, and turned on TEAMCOM with White Team, Thomas-035’s team. “Thomas, have your guys cover me, I’m going to surround ‘em” An acknowledgement light winked on his HUD, and Randall turned off the channel. He took a deep breath, then rushed as quickly as he could to the other end of the room and ducked as he sneaked through the door, holding himself as invisible as possible, all the time closing in on the Jackal Phalanx formations that were now forming rows behind each other. When he could feel the smell of hairless skin and burned metal, Randall laid absolutely still, reaching for the BR55X Battle Rifle on his back (a prototype weapon used in ONI to great efficiency). He pointed at the center Jackal of the first row. Only when he was certain that he had the Jackal in the middle of the crosshair, he opened fire. The three-round burst penetrated the creature’s skull, spraying blood on his comrade to the right as it fell to the ground. Randall quickly switched target and fired at the confused comrade, quickly followed by the others in the row. After Randall had wasted his magazine and took cover under a crashed pillar, seven jackals were dead, along with ten heavily injured, with blood flowing out of their legs, arms or spines. Randall could overhear additional gunfire and more Jackals screeching in pain as Randall slotted a new magazine into his Rifle. He turned to the sound of another Covenant Dropship closing in on the surface. He took a solid grip of his rifle, took a deep, deep breath, and then rushed. Plasma bolts flew and hit the walls behind him. A bolt hit him in the shoulder, but he ignored the heat and pain, continuing towards the dropship, which had now stopped above the ground and prepared to open its doors. As the door opened, revealing a new wave of angry-looking Jackals, Randall jumped inside the prong, causing the ship to temporarily tip to Randall’s side of the craft. He punched the Jackals as they sat trapped in their seats, one by one, while moving towards what he guessed was cockpit. He turned out correct, seeing a Grunt at the ship’s controls. Without remorse, Randall pulled out his sidearm and shot the creature twice in the head. The creature’s body was pushed against the control panel by the power of the bullets, and suddenly the ship flew downwards and crashed straight into the Kig-yar formation. Randall lost his footing and crashed with his MJOLNIR suit straight into the cockpit’s wall. Randall saw stars and felt groggy. He overheard gunfire and grenade explosions for a while, until it quieted down. After a few minutes, Michael appeared through the cockpit’s entrance, looking down on Randall. “Hit your head?” Michael said, with a slight humor in his tone. “Otherwise, why would you lie their like a ragdoll?” After chuckling a bit, he offered his hand. Randall took it, and Michael helped him up on his feet. Randall shook a little, then started to go through the entrance. “Nice maneuver, Randall”, Michael said to Randall as he walked, “but you should check that shoulder. Plasma burns don’t feel good.”

“I’m fine”, Randall replied sharply, but he knew Michael was right. His shoulder was burning with pain and smelling burned flesh and blood. “A little biofoam and I will be ready to fight flawlessly again. How much damage did I accomplish?” “Killed most of them, a few survived and continued to fight, others fled. Tom felt it unnecessary to follow.” “Good, now lets get going! We should hope that Silver Team has gotten a hand of that data so that we can plant the nuke and get out of here.” Michael nodded, and took a tighter grip of his Assault Rifle. Randall left the dropship and rushed to the rest of White Team, with Michael shortly behind him.