Location: Installation 00 (The Ark)
Date: February 21st, 2559
Within the empty void of space, the Spirit of Fire remains stationary in the orbit of the Ark. Captain Cutter can be shown in the bridge of the Spirit of Fire contemplating on his next move after the retreat of the Banished.
"Isabel, I've changed my mind. Re-deploy red team with their 2 marine squads to the last known position of the banished. I have reason to believe that the Banished survivors are still alive. We need to ensure that they won't send reinforcements." Said Captain Cutter.
"Understood Captain, I'll call in the new orders for them." Said Isabel.
Isabel motioned her hands to pull up a comms channel to relay the command to the pelican where Jerome and other members of red team was in.
"Red team, change of plans. We're going to eliminate stragglers from our previous battle with the Banished. They're most likely constructing new base to fall back to at these coordinates. There's a large mass of enemies so be careful, we need you to scout the area before we can provide reinforcements." Said Isabel.
"Understood Ma'm. Take us to those coordinates pilot." Said Jerome.
The pelican pilot understood and nodded.
Location: Banished Citadel
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1500 (Military Time)
"So it seems that they've failed to penetrate the defenses of the humans." Said Atriox searing with anger.
Atriox looks over to Shipmaster with a scowl. The Shipmaster kneeled down out of fear.
"I need you and Colony to provide reinforcements and supplies to the remaining survivors of our last battle with the humans. Prepare to extract them and bring them to me." Said Atriox.
"Understood..." said Shipmaster.
The Shipmaster left the war council and re-grouped with his elite rangers to escort him to Colony.
Location: Isolated Region, the Ark
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1600 (Military Time)
The pelican's thrusters made its descent down to the ground, as it deployed the proper landing gear to make a safe touchdown with the ground. The pelican emitted a calm hiss and opened a hatch that fallen downward to the ground. With haste, red team and the marines exited the pelican.
"Captain, we arrived at the coordinates. Awaiting orders." Said Jerome.
"We need an open area for the drop-ship to deliver a firebase to send reinforcements." Said Captain Cutter.
"Understood, let's move everyone!" Said Jerome to his team and the marines.
"Hoo-rah" said the marine squads.
Red team and the marine squads began to move towards the forest with the intent to find an open area for the base. They took a walk through a trail while looking out for enemy movement by pointing their weapons to any suspicious activity. The vast forest that is littered with tall trees and vegetation felt too quiet. It felt eery for the marines, but the brave spartans of red team weren't fazed and kept moving. Jerome caught something in the corner of his eyes. Without hesitation, he moves towards to a different direction in the bushes. Beyond those bushes lies an excellent location for the firebase.
"We found a good spot sir, sending the coordinates now." Said Jerome.
"Understood, we're sending the firebase for construction to your location." Said Captain Cutter.
A pelican dropship arrived to deliver a base structure to the open field.
"Firebase constructed, it's time to scout the enemy base. I'm sending 3 warthogs for effective as reinforcements ." Said Captain Cutter as 3 pelicans zoomed by the Spirit of Fire.
"Understood Captain! Get on those warthogs as soon as they get here everyone!" Said Jerome.
The pelicans arrived to Jerome's position at lightning speed, as they slowly start to descend. The electromagnetic clamps of the pelican released the warthogs downwards to reach the soil.
"I'll be driving. Douglas, you take shotgun. And for you Alice, you'll be the gunner." Said Jerome.
"Copy that, you heard him Douglas." Said Alice as Douglas nodded to her in agreement.
"Marines, stay close to us. We'll need your assistance." Said Jerome.
"Yes sir!" Said the marines.
The ignited engines echoed a roar as it's ready to be driven. Red team took the lead and continued on the trail. Tire marks were left on the dirt as the warthogs continued driving on the path. Little did they know, those tire marks alerted nearby banished troops in the area.
"Traces of human vehicles... Alert the other survivors! We must not let them near the outpost!" Said an Elite as he de-activated his active camo.
Location: Banished Outpost
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1600 (Military Time)
The news about the humans left the banished survivors distraught. They weren't sure what to do next, until they received a message from the Shipmaster himself from the holo-projector.
"Survivors, I bear good news. I'm sending reinforcements to your outpost for extraction. Hold your position, Atriox is the one who you should truly fear. Not the humans. So prepare yourself!" Said the Shipmaster.
The hologram of the shipmaster dissipated from the holo-table. Leaving the survivors with hope that they can escape from the onslaught of the humans. Some were afraid, afraid that Atriox is going to punish them for their failure but kept silent about it. Off to the distance, a loud engine roar can be heard.
"There's the base up ahead. Let's decimate that structure." Said Jerome.
"I'll start opening fire on enemy troops. Douglas, contact the Spirit of Fire to fire a Mac blast to disable the shield." Said Alice.
"On it." Said Douglas.
A horde of suicide grunts were waiting idly until they had their sights on the enemy. They ran towards them with ignited plasma grenades on their hands.
"Suicide grunts! Don't let them get close!" Said Jerome.
The coordinated fire of three chainguns mowed down the suicide grunts like flies. Ignited plasma grenades were set off from dead corpses and killed off any remaining suicide grunts.
"Keep moving, kill off their infantry. Douglas, were you able to contact the Spirit of Fire for the Mac blast?" Said Jerome.
"I did sir, the ship just needs to position itself." Douglas responded back.
After Douglas's response, a mac round from orbit hit the base with at a fast velocity disrupting the shield.
"Open fire!" Said Jerome.
A wave of bullets along with a few grenades damaged the outpost into oblivion. As a response to this destruction, a swarm of engineers descended from the sky and made slow repairs to the base to prevent it from being destroyed completely
"Target the engineers!" Said Jerome.
The chainguns were aimed at individual engineers and opened a barrage of bullets, which easily killed half of them.
"We're almost done, keep pushing them!" Said Jerome.
"Hell yeah! To hell with those Banished scum!" Said by a marine.
It was going great, too great. A glassing beam was charging up to eradicate Jerome and the marines.
"Jerome, a glassing beam is imminent at your position. Fall back!" Said Captain Cutter with a worried tone.
"Understood Captain, all units retreat back to the hill!" Yelled Jerome.
"Understood! You heard them marines!" Said by a marine sergeant.
Jerome and the other drivers pushed down the gas pedal to evade the glassing beam chasing them. One of the marine squads weren't fast enough and ended up getting obliterated by the beam.
"We lost a marine squad!" Said Alice.
"Split up!" Yelled Jerome.
The two warthogs split up into different directions to prevent any further damage. However, the glassing beam came to a halt when chasing red team.
"Let's re-group and get reinforcements. Jerome to Spirit of Fire, we need support!" Said Jerome.
"Copy that, I'm sending you scorpions and ODST squads!" Said Captain Cutter.
Drop pods rained down from the sky and released scorpions and ODST squads upon impact to the ground.
"Great, now let's destroy that outpost for good!" Said Jerome.
A loud clanking stomp can be heard from the distance getting closer.
"It's an enemy scarab! Open fire!" Said Jerome.
The scarab charged up a firing mechanism and released a powerful unstable beam, resulting the nearby environment and a few scorpions to be incinerated. The remaining survivors from the initial attack successfully evaded the beam and started shooting bullets, tank shells, and thrown grenades at the legs of the scarab. The scarab was brought down to the soil, but it's not over yet.
"It seems like you've weakened the scarab. I'll launch archer missiles to destroy it for good, so stand back!" Said Captain Cutter.
A volley of archer missiles were launched from orbit and descended towards to the Scarab at a high velocity. Upon impact, the scarab combusted and scattered debris cutting down nearby trees.
"Jerome, I'll send in a mass of different units to the outpost. We must not let those survivors extract." Said Captain Cutter.
"Understood, let's destroy that structure once and for all!" Said Jerome.
"It's time to strike back! Reminds me of that one movie." Said an ODST trooper.
The scorpions and warthogs moved forward to the outpost along with the ODST's. They were able to re-group with the new units and decimated the outpost with ease.
Location: Banished Dreadnought (Orbit)
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1650 (Military Time)
"The battle is lost." Said Colony in a monotone voice.
"It's not over yet Colony, there's a few survivors left. They're at this Gate-like structure, it's not forerunner however. It's something else entirely. I'm sending phantoms to extract those survivors. I've also marked that structure as a point of interest, we'll re-capture that area to research that structure. I have a feeling that Atriox would be interested." Shipmaster responded.
"Fascinating... But I shall give you support... for your phantoms..." Said Colony in a intrigued tone.
Location: Unknown Structure "Gate"
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1655 (Military Time)
"We're under fire! I can't hold the humans for too long brother!" Said a Brute with a worried tone.
"It's fine brother! The Shipmaster is providing us a way to esc-." The brute was cut off by getting shot by a sniper.
The brute's comrade went into cover and blind fired his spiker at the humans with a fit of rage, which killed a few marines in the process. A phantom with skitters can be seen overhead, firing its turret and the combined firepower of the skitters. But was shot down by a wolverine's missiles.
"This is too much. They've shot down our phantom, and the humans are penetrating our last means of defense." Said an Elite Ranger.
"Elite! There's another phantom by the cliff! Get in now!" Said a Brute Chieftain.
The elite ranger nodded and ran to the phantom to board it. Gunfire hit his shielding but kept running. Two hunters provided covering fire for the elite ranger. Eventually, he was able to get in the phantom just barely. The phantom sealed its side doors and descended to the chasm as cover from gunfire and anti air armaments.
The elite ranger sat down and rest with the other survivors.
-Sighs- "Rather unfortunate, the rest of our troops perished." Said the Elite Ranger.
"They've made their decision to sacrifice themselves, we can at-least honor them." Said by another elite ranger.
"You're right..." Said the Elite Ranger.
Location: Unknown Structure "Gate"
Date: February 21st, 2559
Time: 1659 (Military Time)
"They've escaped, captain. Should we chase them down?" Said Jerome.
"Negative, let them run. We've taken this territory from the Banished. It's a small victory, but still a victory nonetheless-." Said Captain Cutter.
"Captain, I have something important I need to inform you of." Said Isabel cutting off Captain Cutter.
"What is it Isabel?" Said Captain Cutter.
"It's about the structure nearby our units. I've ran scans, it appears that this structure isn't forerunner in origin. Not to mention, this structure seems to be made recently. Almost as if it just popped up out of nowhere." Said Isabel.
"Do you know what kind of structure this is? A tele-porter? A makeshift base of some kind?" Said Captain Cutter.
"From what I've seen, it seems to be an entrance of some kind. Like a gate specifically. But the most interesting part about this is that I'm detecting a slip-space rupture within that gate." Said Isabel.
"That's... impossible. Just how can a slip-space rupture be confined in such a small space." Said Captain Cutter.
"I'm not sure Captain, but whatever is beyond that Gate might be the key to escaping the Ark. Let's re-deploy our units on an expedition to find out what's on the other side." Said Isabel.
"I'll relay it back to red team, hopefully you're right about this." Said Captain Cutter.
Isabel pulled up the comms channel to red team on the holo-table for Captain Cutter to speak to.
"Jerome, I need you to gather all of the local units and re-group at that "Gate" like structure. We're going on an expedition to find out what's on the other side." Said Captain Cutter.
"You got it Captain -turns away-, I need everyone to re-group at the unknown structure. We're going on an expedition to see what's on the other side." Said Jerome.
Everyone understood and followed Jerome to the structure.
"The door is sealed tight, is there any mechanism to open it?" Said Jerome.
"Negative, we're going to need destroy the doors with a powerful explosive. I recommend getting our vultures to fire a phoenix missiles to destroy the doors." Said Alice.
"Copy that, phoenix missile fired!" Said a Vulture pilot over the comms.
The phoenix missile descended at a slow velocity and impacted the doors of the gate causing it to explode hurling debris afterwards.
"It's open! But there's no light on the other side?" Said Alice.
"Let's check it out anyways, we have our orders." replied Douglas.
-Chapter End-
Author's Note: Ty for reading the 1st chapter! It took pretty long to make.