Convergence Infinites: Halo

Chapter Seventeen

Down on the main floor were big service crates spaced randomly throughout this section of the bay. A collection of Grunts and Elites were exchanging shots with an unseen soldier. Next to him on his right was a catwalk that led to the other side of the bay. The catwalk forked out towards a massive glass window that covered the entire wall that was directly in front of him. Down where the Covenant were, a boarding craft had cleanly punctured its way through the glass window and its troop deployment hole currently had a plasma-field over it On the other side of the bay was a Pelican dropship, currently not in use. On the first fork closest to him was a Navy officer trading shots with the Covenant using a M6C Magnum. Next to the Chief, on the floor, were a bunch of fragmentation grenades.

He bent over to pick up four grenades, slinging the battle rifle onto his back in the process, and attached them around his waist-line. He picked up a spare one, pressed the "pin", and tossed it into the middle of the Covenant soldiers. There was a clink as the grenade bounced off the floor, followed by a loud whump as it exploded. All the Grunts sailed through the air in various directions, some with limbs missing, others screaming as they crashed into bulkheads and containers, skulls crushed.

The blast only managed to damage one of the Elite's shields. The other one, a red-armored major, was hiding behind one of the service crates. The Elite with damaged shields spotted the Chief on the upper walkway, growled a loud cry for vengeance and proceeded towards him. Before it could manage to leap up to the second level, the reports of the M6C were head and the bullets impacted the alien in the neck, left arm, and on the left side of its ribs. It cried in pain as it continued running, before falling forward on its face.

"How's that feel, you ugly-ass freak!" the Navy officer screamed as he slammed a fresh magazine into the grip of the pistol and continued exchanging shots.

"Nice shot, sir!" an unseen Marine exclaimed, somewhere below. The sounds of a M7 burped from underneath the catwalk.

The officer turned toward the Spartan. "Wow, a Spartan!" he exclaimed as the last Elite fell from the M7.

"Good to see you sir," the unnamed Marine replied from below.

"Keep your eyes open!" the Chief yelled, watching the plasma field drop on the boarding craft. "Incoming targets from the dropship! Open fire!"

The Chief brought up his BR55 and fired. Grunts that had been levitating out of the craft were put down with streams of hot lead. The Elites that came with each wave were a bit tougher, but easily put down under the combined fire of the Master Chief, the Navy officer, and the Marine.

Then the waves of Covenant stopped floating from the dropship entirely. John searched the other side of Hanger Bay A-01 before jumping down to the first floor over the railing. He walked over toward the large glass window.

"Hey, check it out!" the Marine exclaimed, pointing to the outside. "The Malta's already driven off its borders!"

The Spartan's eyes darted about the vacuum of space, looking for the Malta amongst the many other Super MAC platforms before realizing it was almost in front of him. A small fire dotted one part of its hull, and the small Covenant boarding craft seemed to be leaving the station. This puzzled John, as he knew that the Covenant were inclined to fight to the last soldier. But then again, as he had learned over the course of two months, everything about the aliens' tactics had changed completey. The one example that stuck out in his mind was when he, Sergeant Johnson, and a few others had travelled back to Reach and discovered a Forerunner artifact that could bend space and time. It was also where he had found some of the last remaining Spartans, still alive and fighting.

"Malta, what's your status, over?" Cortana asked over the FLEETCOM channel, pulling the Master Chief from his thoughts.

"I don't believe it!" the Malta Defense Coordinator replied excitedly. "They're retreating, we won!"

As soon as the defense coordinator's sentence was finished, the Malta detonated in a plume of fire, the barrel of the MAC gun breaking loose and lazily tumbling upward into space. The remaining chunks of the Super MAC platform rocketed away from the center of the explosion, and went flying through space. There was no sound, but the rumble was felt throughout Cairo.

A horror-stricken look was on the Marine's face. "Ths is bad! Real bad!"

The Master Chief agreed. The Malta had just randomly exploded, and all the Covenant boarding craft had evacuated...which was too much of a coincidence. A Covenant bomb perhaps? Catastrophic mechanical failure? Whatever it was, the Chief felt a sense of dread in the bottom of his stomach.

Behind the Pelican, a smaller explosion sounded. He craned his neck and saw more Covenant enter the bay, partially obscured by a large metal crate. Unclipping his BR55, the Chief spun behind the cover of another metal crate nearby. He quickly peeked his head out to survey his foes: three Grunts and two Elites, one of them a major.

John primed a frag grenade and hurled it around the corner of the crate. A second later there was a flash as bits of shrapnel killed two of the three Grunts, tossing their corpses back through the twisted frame of the blastdoor. He heard one of the Elites growl, and he peaked out and saw it charging him. He quickly fired three bursts of battle rifle rounds into the creature's head, lowering its shield. A final burst to the head and a spray of purple blood signaled the kill. The Chief was grateful when the naval officer and Marine joined in with combined firepower, and took down the last remaining Grunt and Elite.

Meanwhile. . .

The Ark

Warder and Eternal Ranger as well as the daughter of Delvargus and Barriss Offeee Zicia stretched out her feelings through the Force to try and take physical hold of a targeted object or object - that being a small box, exerting her will on it so that it performed as she wished. Zicia tries applying the Force with her mind to some other space or object. While Moving objects allowed the user to exert force on a target as if they where physically interacting with it, it is primarily used to suspend force already exerted on a target, such as gravity, allowing a user to levitate a target, defying its weight, or to attract and repel an object in a similar manner to magnetic or gravitational force.

[The small box lifted slightly and Zicia jumped and clapped for joy as it dropped] I did it! I have to tell the others!

Author's Note: Stay tuned next week.