HRP reboot - Chapter 2: On the Run

=rushes into the newly opened hole and fires his dmr killing several grunts=

we need to get the next room to resupply air then come back and set up the mine and try and jack a seraph

=runs to the next room firing at anything that moves=

After a few BR bursts and dead Grunts later Dan flashed another green light to Marik. He moved behind Marik into the next room, closing the door behind the two Headhunters. This room seemed to be little more than a hallway.

"You sure placing it here will ensure the outpost's destruction?"

not fully but the blast should render it inoperable and set it in motion because of good ol physics so gonna set up some defenses before we headback

=moves to the doors in the hallway and sets up the claymores right to the edge of them=

all set here

"Alright. Get the bomb ready in the other room. I'll keep the hall clear here. Once you're done, dip back into this room, get you air full and we'll break."

roger that

=head out and begins setting up the makeshift bomb in the other room=

Multiple Elites decided to show up where Dan was and began throwing plasma shots his way. He didn't have much cover but he was able to keep them suppressed. Dan then decided to do something that he would soon regret. He stuck a charge of C-12 with a frag grenade and tossed it down the hallway, the explosion caused an opening in the wall, into the vacuum of space. The good news was that the Elites were long gone, but now Dan didn't have a source of air.

"Alright, Marik. Finish that up. I'm gonna go grab ourselves a Seraph. I.R.I.S. bring the ship around, we're gonna need it."

Dan sprinted down the outpost hallways. With each door he opened, a group of Covenant were sucked into the vacuum. If he came across a locked door he'd blow it with C-12.

almost done aaand ok it set i'm heading your way now

=heads back and runs down the hallway watching the claymores go off as elites opened the side doors to flank him

hows it's looking dan?

Dan had run out of explosives and was hacking through the door to the hangar.

"Oh you know. Only a few minutes left of air, while hacking through an alien computer that I barely understand the language to. Same old same old."

With that the door hissed open and the two were met with more plasma fire. Dan fired back with his Battle rifle, dropping an Elite before reloading. The hangar had plenty of Seraphs and Banshees.

=fires his dmr as fast as he could as he could at every target that moved=

lets keep going

Dan flashes another green light and runs for the closest Seraph. Stopping once he reaches it, giving Marik cover fire to move next.

"Open it up! I'll cover."

=runs to the seraph opens it up and begins starting it's systems up=

get in hurry!

Dan emptied the rest of his mag into Covie soldiers before getting into the ship.

"I'm in!  Get this thing outta here!"

Dan sat down in one of the awkwardly shaped seats and grabbed an over-head handle.

"I.R.I.S. you better have the ship ready."

Dan then looked over to Marik.

"This should be a good test on your piloting skills."

Dan was referring to parking the Seraph into the Advent's hangar.

dude it's a fighter not a sports car and of course i can pilot it

=fires it's main weapons at the hangar wall blowing it up and takes off out and makes it clear just in time as the moray goes off crippling the outpost and sending it and the rock it was on into motion=

now lets hope i still rememeber how to parallel park

=flies the seraph to the Advent's hangar and carefully maneuvers it into the docking station=

we're good

=takes off his helmet and breathes deep to refil his lungs with clean air=

close one

"Funny."

Once the Covenant ship touched back down in the Advent, Dan exhaled some breath that he didn't know he was holding until then.

"Yeah. Close. That seems to be the norm, really."

Yoshino wrote:

Skye sighed and stared at the bottom of the top bunk as she lay on her own. Her arm throbbed slightly where she had injected the drugs, but she was used to it. It was a small price compared to how much more efficient it had made her in combat, she thought, but sat around on a ship made it go to waste, not that she minded resting either.

After a while, Skye had gotten up and headed towards the mess hall, having remembered that she hadn't eaten today. As she entered, she glanced around. In the corner were a group of ODSTs, probably discussing a mission, and around the mess were a combination of marines and crew members. Skye walked over to the food counter, and without really looking, got her food.

David looked up, and watched people tricked into the mess hall one by one. A few ODSTs had come in earlier and, like the punkish teen-brained morons they were, grouped together, acting like the 'cool kids' in some vain attempt to keep a hold of whatever sanity they had left.

He saw someone who looked a little... bizarre, enter not long after. She looked young, but... also not. A lot of things seemed strange about her. He... sort of recognized her, actually.
David shook his head, leaning back and rubbing his neck. He was too tired to try and figure out why some marines looked the way they did.

Instead, he began to eat whatever small portion of food he had left, as he returned to his datapad, seeing a few Admirals trying to get his attention.

Skye sat at a table, alone as usual. She watched as the crew of the Iris interacted with each other. The engineers and other non-combat personnel, she noted, were quieter and less obnoxious than the marines, but even the loudest marine was quieter than any of the ODSTs.

She looked over at the Helljumpers from the corner her table was in. One of them was talking loudly, and the others were listening, and while Skye couldn't hear the words, it was obviously interesting to them, suggested by their sudden silence.

Missing ships, planets going dark, some random trash about secret programs being run behind everyones back, yadda yadda... experimental Covie tech... Innies...
David let his head fall back and sighed, rubbing his neck softly as he thought on the discussions he was continuously being forced into. First there was some more talk of GOLDCAT and Force Recon operations, and then some talk about some other ONI plans, and then some Section Zero talk about Covenant tech...

"I need to stop... responding, to people... Then again I'd probably get shot."

David closed his eyes, sighing softly to himself as he looked around the room again. Still, the ODSTs were being loud and obnoxious, and everyone else was too scared to say anything.
And David, too lazy too.

The UNSC Iris then was hailed. Along with every UNSC ship in range.
"Attention, all UNSC Forces. This is Admiral Monroe of Battle Group Kagatsuchi. I am currently leading a fleet against an entroaching Covenant fleet attempting to take over Cesaro. I am requesting all reinforcements available immediately. There are a total of twenty five ships for them, thirty for us. The odds are not in our favor. If you can make it, make it. We'll try and buy Cesaro time. Monroe out."


The Long and Dark December roared forward.
"This is Requiem to all troops. Prepare for boarding operation. You have thirty minutes as of...now. All falcon pilots prepare for your transfer. All boarding troops load into your ships." He turned to the two ODSTs on the bridge. "Daniel. You must find the package. As of now we will have it codenamed OBLIVION. That is all. Get to your posts."

"Got it," Daniel said. "Josie, follow me," was all he said with a follow gesture, before setting off down the hall. He hailed Requiem over the comm, as well as Chris. "Requiem, where exactly are we heading again? Falcons or drop pods?"

"Pelicans. Falcons are for clearing the top floors of the hangar and the pods are situated on the underside anyways." He replied.

The mess exploded into activity as the order was given for the crew to enter their action stations. Skye was one of the first to her feet, and set off towards the armoury at a fast jog. As she crossed the mess, she bumped into a soldier, and as she looked at him, she recognised him. She paused for just a second as she looked at his face, before apologising and taking off again. She had orders, and they were important.

David sighed, looking down at his datapad. It seemed the Iris was going to be called into combat right... about...

"Attention, all UNSC Forces."

Now.

David rubbed his head gently, as he saw the throngs begin to make their way out. David waited a moment before getting up and heading out of the mess hall.
He was bumped around a few times, before finally one person caught his attention - the same person he'd noticed before, that just seemed to stand out. The two of them shared stares for a moment before she left, and David made way to his quarters, thinking for a moment.

"Why is she so recognizable..."

Skye reached the armoury, and was quickly equipped in her SPI armour. She checked the systems were all working, and checked her weapons as marines did the same.

A couple of marines were talking as they checked their assault rifles,
"Finally, we might actually get something done,"
"You kidding? Check her out," he said, nodding in Skye's direction, "Special Forces and ODSTs are gonna be ground side, we'll probably be kept on the ship or at an FOB, make sure that we have somewhere to fall back,"

Skye finished clearing her Battle Rifle, and slung it on her back, pistol and SMG strapped to either leg. She pulled her knife out once, checking it didn't stick, and put it back. Skye, now fully equipped, set off for the bridge for her orders.

David sat in his quarters, now looking over the portable computer that was set up on a large desk, personnel files and briefings scattered around the room. First things first, he needed to find out more about this little battle group heading to Cesaro, and as he was being told by a few Admirals and 'agents', it had been deployed in quite a haste.

Bizarre, he thought, as he continued to go over the list of ships. They were all pretty well equipped, and considering a report he was reading about the battle at Cesaro, chances were the Covenant wouldn't have an easy fight.

The doors to his room opened and in a spin, David was up, holding the intruder up against the wall by their throat, M6K held at the mans temple.
"Oh God! Oh God! I'm sorry! Stop! I'm just delivering a package!!"
David quickly snapped the small parcel away, checked it, and then wide eyed let go, patting the crewman on the back gently.
"Knock next time."

A few minutes passed with David in silence, looking at the package, sighing to himself before returning to his routines.

"Hm... A fair amount of Covenant ships... likely with backup at this point... a relatively small human fleet facing them... Jeez... Who does Monroe think he is? He's far too outnumbered... unless that whole fleet is made up of Marathons of course."

As the woman cried. A demon in the form of Set was summoned by Rha'. His feet echoed dully upon the ships floor. He had with him rags, clutched in his claws, and what little medical supplies would be needed for the debilitated prisoner. As his dark shadow appeared behind Rha', he looked down at the decrepit human. Yellow eyes flashing in the dark.

The Covenant ships had no backup, and as UNSC reinforcements came, the Kagatsuchi had all longswords launch as all their ground forces headed for the planet. As the fighter-bombers engaged with enemy, the ships held position, letting the covenant come to them.
"This is Admiral Monroe. I need the Forever and a Day and Ezylryb to come with me. Rest of you, fleet flagship control transferred to the cruiser UNSC Pantheon. We will execute Operation: Freedom's Bell and then hit the Covenant from behind. I want all reinforcements vectored in to flank the enemy."
A chorus of affirmatives were heard.

Requiem sighed softly. "Daniel. Hurry up. Admiral Monroe has called for help but he says he can only give us the allotted time. We can't waste a second."


Siri saw Set, then closed her eyes and curled up, whimpering.

"Understood Requiem!" Daniel shouted into the comm. "Just got to the hangar bay; Chris, into the pelican now with the duffels! Josie, grab a seat." He followed Chris into the Pelican, grabbing a seat next to her while he let Josie figure out where she wanted to sit. "How's Lin?" he asked. Chris said nothing as she strapped in, then said "She's fine for now; still sedated and Rin's with her." Nodding, Daniel hailed Requiem again. "Yo Requiem, we are good to go down here."

The captain of the Morning Star, a grey-haired,battle hardened Navy lifer with a few battles under his belt; stood at the bridge of his ship, his Comms officer patching Admiral Monroe's hail through to him. The captain had a deep respect for the man, and also felt that this was a sound tactical option. He said, "Understood sir." And the cruiser's crew jumped into motion as the alarm sounded for general quarters, everyone scrambling as the alarm rang throughout the ship.  

The man barked, "Comms, get me through to the Pantheon. Nav, keep an eye on the Covenant battle group, and hold position until ordered." A chorus of affirmatives came back, the ship rumbling forward

He barked another order, "Weps, remove all Archer missle safety interlocks and load up the MAC gun. Do not fire until we're ordered." The Weapons officer gave an affirmative, and the ship's AI popped to life, the expression and body language suggesting that she wasn't too thrilled by the situation.

Meanwhile, deep within the bowels of the ship, Anastasia and the Spartans of Raider team readied up in case things got real hot and desperate. She knew the remarks that the crew often said about her appearance, notably her mask. It made her look like a demon sent from hell.

Fine by me...I'll take all those bastards there with me...

Rha' nodded, sighing to himself as he took the rags in hand, walking down the cell and easily stepping through, his energy shields protecting him. The true master of this ship had ensured that, when the shields and doors for places like the brig were set up, any Sangheili of the rank Ultra and above would always be allowed through them. This meant that, in the case of mutiny or capture, those few trusted would still be able to access the majority of the ship until the enemy hacked the ships mechanics.

The Sangheili threw the rags down onto the cowering woman, before looking back at Set and groaning. He needed to remember to requisition to station a Sangheili at the controls of the brig when he was done here.
A minute later, the shield was down again, giving Set the ability to walk through and commence to deal with the injuries the human had received.

"I hope you appreciate this human. Feel fortunate that you still have a purpose to us that requires your life."

Rha' looked around the brig, now clean for all but the few Sangheili guards that had come in lately. Rha' sighed softly - he'd never had prisoners, really, so he never felt like the use of guards was even considerable. But with what had happened here, it would be best to station some at the very least, and Special Operations Officers seemed like the perfect choices. He'd need to talk to the Shipmaster beforehand though, to see what his experience was with prisoners.

"Human," Set said, his voice not but a hoarse whisper, "Do not move, Your wounds will be mended." Set moved his claws about the human, applying what would be considered basic first aid to the prisoner. He roughly straightened her from her curled position so that the wounds would not be stretched and thus worsened by her own fear.

Rha' had left Set to deal with the prisoner, and once he noticed the Kig-Yar was gone, had reactivated the shield door. Hopefully she'd make it through the wounds.

The Sangheili, of course, had no care for the human or her race, but rather for the information she had. Any information that could be used in the war effort would be greatly appreciated by the San 'Shyuum and the whole Council, and so Rha' was doing everything in his power to get some. It had held him back at Ultra for years now, ever since that failure at the Battle of New Harmony, that had resulted in devastation for the Covenant. Rha's greed had gotten the better of him, and he needed to redeem himself, and this would be how.

Opening up a private comm channel, Rha' contacted the Shipmaster of the Exoneration, Und ‘Taramee. The growl of the old Sangheili greeted Rha'.
"You need more Sangheili guards stationed in the brig, Shipmaster. Some of my own Kig-Yar were abusing my prize."
The Shipmaster growled in acknowledgement before shutting off the comm. Not the kindest of the Sangheili Rha' had met, but none the less he’d never been so hasty and rude.

The Ultra sighed as he prepared to make his way down to speak with his Commando, before being interrupted by a comm uplink from the Shipmaster, now ushering a shipwide call. His gruff, angry voice silenced them instantly.
"General Saha ‘Nduamee, Ultra Rha' Taydumee, and Commando Set, report to the bridge! Immediately! The humans have prepared a counter attack!”

Rha’ looked down at his Kig-Yar companion, and then back at the human prisoner, snarling.

"Set, you head for the bridge alone. I have important business that requires my immediate attention. Tell the Shipmaster that I will be by his side as soon as I am capable."

As he watched the Kig-Yar leave, he also saw a group of Sangheili arrive in the brig. To his surprise, they were the more elite soldiers onboard the ship, Special Operations Ascetics. The chances were that the Shipmaster had done this to instil fear in the Kig-Yar or Unggoy, while also proving capable if the ship was invaded by enemy personnel, especially now.

"Human. You denied me the location of your races home planet. You denied me the name. You denied it of me entirely, and your strength is admirable. But I will not accept such silence any longer. If you deny to give me your home, then you will give me something else."
Rha' pushed through the shields, looking down at the human girl, standing over her, snarling and spreading his mandibles threateningly.

"You can give me the location of something that is worth your life, or you can die a dishonourable death. Artefacts. Constructs. Something more than a simple planet."

Set, in the true spirit of a commando, disappeared from his position without a sound. As he dissapeared into the darkness of the Ship, He heard Rha say to the prisoner: "Human. You denied me the location of your races...[Home plant]"

Set walked quickly and quietly, arriving before the Shipmaster sooner than if he had walked with any Snagheili, "Shipmaster, Ultra Rha' will be joining us shortly..."

"P-Paradiso. A...artifact at...UNSC Base...Lagrange Three." She whimpered to Rha'.

The December's hangar blasted open, throwing all the aircraft out. The Exoneration had been hit with MACs and kissiles on mostly that side, cleaeing the way. Anchoring cables kept the December close, while the Ezylryb kept the December's flank clear. The Pelican fired it's guns and settledndown.
"Infil Team, Grizzly One is your rally point. Head there until an opening is there." Requiem ordered. "Good luck. Everyone, general order: lock helmets and activate magnet boots."

Earlier...well, Exoneration was just blasted to hell. Just barely.

=gets a comm message from IRIS=

hey dan it looks like a seraph apparently just fled nearby  and is about to use it's impulse drive

I chuckle as I slam a round into the last grunts skull. I start reloading my shotgun as I watch the grunt fall, "That's another block cleaned up." I walk over to the elite I killed, it's body sprayed with buckshot and I say. "Teaches you to not run at me, but I don't think you can use it anymore."

Rha' stepped on the humans chest, pushing her onto her back, as he leant down and snarled at her, a bare few inches from her face. It'd be easy for him to snap his jaw shit right there and pull her face clean off, but he needed her alive now. More than ever.

"You will not die yet, then. But if you have lead us into a trap..."
The Sangheili turned, leaving the cell and looking back at her with a snarl, his hands flexing for a moment as he thought of the many cruel, terrible things he would commit to her.
"...then you will wish I had killed you long ago."

The Ultra left the brig, leaving behind him an utter silence as his boots let out a light reverberating ring through the halls. Step after step, making his way past the Kig-Yar and Unggoy running through the ship, and a few of the gently floating Huragok, as everyone prepared for repairs, boarding’s, and war. Most, even veterans, still didn't like fighting on this vessel, and some Unggoy would hide even in naval combat. Rha' thought that had more to do with the fact that the Exoneration was an old ship, and not as well adapted, though he'd never say that to it'd dedicated crew.
And certainly not the Shipmaster.

The Ultra looked at the bridge, the many panels and holograms and scattered all around the room showing the world outside. They stood, now, almost directly in the centre of the ship, and yet they could see all around it.
Rha' made his way over to the General, Commando, and Shipmaster, the General giving him a sharp, disdained look for a moment as they stood side by side. The crew was working fast, ensuring guns and defenses were operating properly.

"Good to see you join us, Ultra. I noticed you were busy in the brig with your prisoner again. When will I be able to have her removed from my ship? I do not like harbouring a human."
Juva ‘Zamittaree was always on the brink of anger, his years of war and combat making him far colder than most, even for the Sangheili. He turned, looking at the white armoured Sangheili before turning back to the screens. Rha' took that as a window.
"She has given me what I desired. Once I can assure her word is true, she will be disposed off, Shipmaster. I promise you this."
The Shipmaster barely nodded, as he looked at his crew.

A great, glistening, beautiful and terrifying orb of burning land sat upon the frontal screen, a shield of purple ships covering it, hails of plasma constantly bombarding the ship as a naval battle began to shatter the peace of the sky. Rha’ could see the fury in Juva, as he looked out at the attack by the humans, angered by their cowardice. As always, they tried to outnumber the Covenant.

“The Prophet of Exaction wishes for any valuable ships to retreat on his location. I cannot deny the Prophet his demands, and so-“
Rha’ normally obeyed his Sangheili superiors, but with a gut reaction he stepped forward, speaking loudly and with purpose.

“A retreat? You would slander your honour with such cowardice, Juva!”

The Shipmaster turned, snarling as he and the Ultra stood face to face, sharing glares of wrath with each other.
“No.”
The bridge fell silent as Rha’ took a step back, looking at Juva.
“I will lead the first defensive against the humans. My honour will be known then, will it not, Rha’?”
The tension was a little too much, and as the Shipmaster left the bridge, followed by his General, Rha’ felt the eyes of the crew on him.

“Set, you must ready our crew. If the Exoneration is overcome, we cannot risk losing this information, or the human.”

Rha’ looked at the screens, the flashing lights that indicated the weakness of the shields as the humans bombarded them. Despite not being the largest, the strongest, nor the greatest threat, the UNSC had seemingly converged on the ship, and Rha’ could already tell why.

Set chirped in affirmation. He left the bridge and gathered those few who served under Rha'. As he gathered these Sangheili and Kig-Yar, and unngoy, he was asked, "What do you think?" and his response was as such, that he disagreed with Rha's actions, but nevertheless thought they would also lead them to survive many an encounter with the humans. What Set did not reveal was that he thought most of them would die and only the higher-ranks, such as he, a Commando, and the few Sangheili of similar ranks.

Rha’ looked up at the screens, watching the combat around them. Typ-31 and Type-27 XMFs swirled around each other, fighting anything and everything in their path, even small human Starships. It was fairly even for now, as the ships of the Covenant began to turn away from the planet and begin to fight against the new human arrivals.

As Rha’ looked to the ships interiors screens, he saw numerous Typ-31 XMFs set down in Hangar One, as the Shipmaster and his closest kin entered their fighters, bent on defending the Exoneration with everything it had.  

The Ultra rubbed his helmet over his head, sighing and shaking his head. Shields gone, Shipmaster about to head into the thick of the fight, and likely a target onboard the ship. He needed to think of something.

The hangar assault went off with losing one Falcon to a launching Seraph, and a Pelican was clipped by another Seraph and spiraled into the floor, pancaking and blocking one door. The survivors clambered out and opened fire. As the Pelicans dropped tanks, the Covenant were already firing. Marines dropped as they scrambled from the Pelicans and fanned out, but soon dug in as the Falcons bombarded the Covenant. The Pelicans pushed off and opened fire as well, leaving the Infiltration Team to scramble in behind the Grizzly tank dubbed as Grizzly One.
"This is Requiem; enemy Seraphs are attempting to engage. We're holding them off with thanks to the Longswords from the Battlegroup. Don't dawdle."

Outside, the December held on as Longswords swarmed it.


Earlier, the Kagatsuchi had gone with it's frigate escorts and unleashed the righteous fury of hell upon the frigate, blasting the shields away with both it's MAC shots coupled with the two frigate's. No Covenant ship of that size had survived five MACs in a row, and right now, this one did not prove different.

As Plasma shots burst upon the Ezylryb and the Forever and a Day lurched as a torpedo struck midship, Kagatsuchi fired a salvo of missiles into the side of Exoneration.

Ironicly enough, as the shipmaster of the Exoneration tried to defend his ship, a stray Archer locked onto him as a trio of Longsword interceptors banked and headed right for him.

Lindsey had been uncharacteristically quiet when she boarded the pelican, preserving the silence until she along with the rest of the infiltration team had deployed. The chaos of the battle was beyond description and the initial Covenant response appeared to have inflicted heavy losses on the marine support. Unlike the rest of the team who had bolted behind the cover of one of the tanks, Lindsey became separated from them stopping to treat an injured marine with one of her bio-foam canisters. She ignored the plasma rounds that whistled past her as she dragged the casualty with her. A nearby detonation of a fuel rod gun round sent her sprawling, shaking her head to clear her vision she recovered and began to drag the marine once more. It was then that it registered in her mind that the marine was dead, the fuel rod gun round claiming his life. Releasing her hold on him, she scrambled towards her comrades, narrowly avoiding being killed by a burst from a plasma rifle. She slid into cover, breathless but alive.

=ends up passing by serah on the way to the bridge=

serah need you to come with to the bridge stat

Daniel and his team were crouched behind a tank, firing supressing fire, attempting to make a hole or at least some extra room. When Lindsey had crawled back over Daniel immediately chewed her out, yelling "Dammit Lindsey you stay with your squad at all times unless I tell you otherwise! Now help us hose these bastards!"

Lindsey looked at Daniel, cocking her head slightly. "With respect I'm not going to leave an injured comrade behind" She responded, her tone even yet there was a hint of a challenge. She flinched as a few plasma bolts whistled uncomfortable close. She popped up out of cover and fired the grenade launcher, as the round left the weapon, a plasma pistol round punched into her right shoulder. The impact knocked her off-balanced, she disappeared back behind the piece of cover.

"Lindsey!" Chris shouted, ducking behind the tank to check on her squadmate. The bolt of plasma had hit her in the shoulder with the robotic limb, melting the armor and boiling away some of the metal to the limb. She was unsure if it was still functional or not. "Dammit Lindsey, you okay?" she demanded.

Lindsey looked at the still smouldering limb, with her human left hand she investigated the damage cautiously before attempting to move the limb. It remained limp for a moment before functioning, behind her visor, Lindsey frowned. That was a bad sign, she was right handed as well to make matters worse. "Fifty percent functional" She replied finally answering Chris' question. "Make that forty" She added on quickly, mumbling a curse.

"Shit," Chris said as she helped Lindsey into a sitting position, back to the tank. "Daniel, Lindsey's arm is barely functioning. We need to track down Siri fast and get the hell outta here!" Daniel didn't immediately respond, busy firing at incoming Grunts with his assault rifle. "Well fuck," he managed to say. "To whomever is driving the damned tank," he said into his radio. "I need you to blow a hole by those doors over there so my squad and I can do our job."

Lindsey seemed to be a bit shaken up, her usual stream of sarcasm had stopped completely as if the river that fed it had dried up. In her left arm she stubbornly held onto the grenade launcher. "I can still fight, I've had to fight without this arm once I can do it again" The name that Daniel said made Lindsey looked at him suddenly but she said nothing returning her attention to the grenade launcher. As much as she may disagree with the efforts being made to save a single life, Lindsey was in no position to argue besides she lacked the rank to. "Bloody aliens... Always messing up my arm" It did not help that the limb was often worn without armour due to Lindsey finding it rather uncomfortable strangely.

Rha’ hammered his fist down hard as he watched the screens before him, the battle that raged outside taking a dangerous downward turn. The Covenant tended to hold a strict code of conduct when it came to these sorts of battles, and that code had resulted in the Exoneration being left almost completely outgunned and majorly outnumbered by a large mass of enemy ships converging on them. Rha’ swore to himself, as he saw the Type-27 XMFs, Type-31 XMFs, and Type-25 Gunboats all combating the huge amounts of UNSC fighters.

“General Saha ‘Nduamee! Mobilise all remaining Type-27 and Type-31 XMFs immediately! We must uphold the sanctity of the Exoneration and the Covenant!”
Rha’ looked back to the screens, watching more of their own fighters go down. When the Shipmaster, Juva ‘Zamittaree, led his battle group out into the fray, no one had expected the enemy ships to receive such heavy reinforcements. The Shipmaster was dead and most to all of the Type-31 XMFs had been taken out before the battle had even really begun, along with the best pilots in the Shipmasters experienced crew.
This had forced Rha’s hand – he had called for full deployment of all Type-29 CSFs, Type-25 Troop Carriers, and Type-25 Gunboats. Never before had Rha’ been so brutally backed into a corner before.

The Sangheili Ultra looked down at the Minor before him, operating the controls of the ship hastily. He was sloppy and he was young, but the ship was still running at optimal level. All Huragok, and many Kig-Yar and Unggoy were running all across the ship, making sure every gun, every engine, every aspect of the ship was running properly. If it wasn’t for this, chances were they’d already be long beaten.

Rha’ looked at the field before him on the screen, wishing he had some better degree of naval skill. Whatever ability he had on the ground was barely transferrable. All he had to go off of was his knowledge of the enemies and his own ships.
He recognized many of the ships of the enemy, which helped him out to some degree. The basic fighter that the humans had relied so heavily on throughout the war was now one of the few things that gave Rha’ an edge, having seen them in combat many times and bearing a vast well of knowledge on how to combat them. However, there too was the heavy gunship that had proved so effective before, and the human transport ship that was common from long before first contact. It was these ships that were proving the most effective, with Rha’ bearing almost no idea on how to combat them effectively. This, along with the sheer number of enemy ships, had forced Rha’ to move all ships into defensive, trying their best to hold the enemy off while the Exoneration tried to prepare itself.

“This is Ultra Rha’ Taydumee making contact with Commando Set! Set! Respond!”
Rha’ kept his eyes on the screen, frowning angrily as he saw another fighter go down. Though the Type-25 Gunboats had the supreme firepower and the Type-31 XMFs had the supreme speed, the battle was still against them.
“Major Jhal ‘Datrimee! Prepare to launch plasma torpedoes at the human frigate!”
Rha’ watched the ship turn slightly, facing the UNSC Long and Dark December. If the fighters could just give them a little bit more time…

Meanwhile, in Hangar Two, one Unggoy had an idea. Running through the fire towards the nearest command panel, he began to fidget and scramble, before finally putting in the command he wanted.

In a sudden gulping boom, the Covenant and human forces saw crates, corpses, and all manner of things get sucked out the door as the atmosphere began to vent. The Sangheili and Kig-Yar had powerful magnetic boots, but for the Unggoy they needed to find somewhere to hid before being sucked out. For the human, who were right near the now venting entryway, had far smaller survival rates.
For almost a full three minutes, the hangar was sucked clean, crates and weapons flying out into space. Thankfully, all fighters had already been deployed, meaning the debris field was far less problematic for the Covenant than it could have been.

Rha’ watched that screen intently, his breathing slow as he watched. Whatever it was that was going on there, he could not comprehend. The crew were checking all signals, and it seemed the shields had still been up, so the Ultra had no idea how it could even be possible for the humans to get in.
But it didn’t matter now; they were in, and he and the forces of the Exoneration would need to deal with them.