PROCYON SYSTEM
ARCADIA
FEBRUARY 9TH 2531
Coming out of cryo, Shawn asked for an update as he donned his armor.
[Upon exiting slip space, a system wide scan was conducted. Two Covenant ships have been identified, one destroyed in orbit, the other is engaged on surface activities.]
"What's it doing down there, any idea?"
[Unconclusive, scanning now.]
"Any friendlies around?"
[The Spirit of Fire has exited slip space with us. In system scans show: USNC Belfast, Pilar of Autumn, Texas and Armstrong. Of these four ships, the Autumn and Armstrong are badly damaged, but in no immediate danger. The Texas and Belfast have been lost.]
"Activate the ships cloak and stay in the Spirits shadow, I'll be assisting them. Should something go wrong, return to base with a recording of all that has happened.
[Aye Aye, Captain.]
By the time Shawn reached the bridge of the Spirit, Captain Cutter and the others had already discovered what the other Covenant ship was up to. "The space port is under attack, Spartan teams Omega and Red are helping the local forces, but they're being overrun," Serina said pointing out several key spots on the map.
"Bring the Spirit to combat alert, Forge take drop pods and set up a firebase to provide better support. 118, I need you to find the Covenant's base, and destroy it if possible, if not, I've authorized MAC rounds to get the job done."
He nodded and left to prepare, Forge stayed behind to mess with Anders before she shoved him out of the bridge. He caught up to Shawn with a goofy grin on his face as he nudged the bulky Spartan. "Got any lady friends?" Shawn just shook his head, more focused on remembering where the Covenants base was supposed to be.
Back when he'd played the game, he'd always struggled to keep civilians AND transports safe, so he usually focused on that rather than hunting the Covenant base. He was confident in finding it though since Red Team would be helping Forge while he was out hunting Covenant.
As Forge got ready to drop in, Shawn went to his armory and grabbed a sniper rifle, along with his usual plasma pistol and sword. "Any clue as to where the base might be? {Scans show a mass of Covenant over a portion of the city, as well as a steady supply of troops leaving another section, I will mark the points on your map}
With that all sorted out, Shawn boarded the next Pelican full of Marines, all of them stared and whispered but he didn't pay them any mind, most wouldn't see the end of this war.
Reaching the Firebase that Forge was getting set up, he looked around and spotted a Hornet unattended. Sending a brief note to Forge, he hopped into the pilots seat and started it up, going through the pre-flight check before lifting off and taking to the sky.
Doing a brief fly around, he marked on his map where three transports were waiting to takeoff, as well as a few spots the Covenant were hunkering down at instead of chasing civvies. He sent those locations to Forge before landing the Hornet back at the Firebase and setting out on foot.
He didn't have to go far to run into Covenant patrols, wanting to save ammo for more tricky targets, he blew the head off and Elite Minor and used the fallen Plasma rifle to great effect, laying waste to several squads before throwing it aside for the next one.
As he hunted down patrols, he listened to the chatter on the radio. Most of it was Forge yelling at the transports not to leave yet, since the skies weren't safe, and the transports weren't full yet. He also used distress signals to help anyone pinned down.
He ran into a Scarab at one point, it wasn't the first time he'd taken one out, but this one was a lot harder since it was surrounded by Grunts and Elites, who made it a lot harder to kite around to the back of the tank and slap a Plasma grenade onto it.
He eventually got it taken care of, though he did have to call for support, which Forge supplied in the form of a wing of Hornets, who were more than happy to fill Grunts with lead. Following the trail of patrols that had been marked several hours ago, he eventually found a small Covenant outpost, just large enough to bring troops to ground.
"Spirit of Fire, this is Spartan-118. I've found the Covenant base, repeat: I found the Covenant base. Requesting MAC rounds at xxx-xxx" [Copy Spartan, MAC rounds are on the way. You have two minutes to get clear of the blast zone.]
After marking the base, he didn't stick around to see the show. It was one thing to see MAC rounds get shot from behind a screen, but he'd rather not experience that in person just yet. As he made his way back to the Firebase, he finally got to see Red Team.
"Shawn! What are you doing here?" Douglas said as Jerome and Alice turned, just as surprised to see him. "Just tagging along with the Spirit, we came here after finding something buried on Harvest." Since the other transports had already left, the four Spartans spent a little time catching up.
Even though they all saw each other as brothers and sisters, ONI cared little for their emotions as they sent them out into war. Red Team was actually pretty lucky getting to stick together, most were sent out alone, but since they'd all washed out and came back together, they were now a fire team.
At one point the ground shook as the Spirit demolished the Covenant Base with MAC rounds from atmosphere. "I'm guessing you have something to do with that?" Alice said angling her helmet at Shawn, who just smiled, though none of them could see it.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Forge said as he joined, the other Spartans ceased chatter but Shawn didn't, he'd always been the most 'human' of them all, while at the same time being the most reclusive, save for a few he knew would survive, like Red Team.
"No, we're not playing house like you and the Professor. We're comparing notes on the best way to skin Grunts actually." Forge laughed at the apparent joke, but then looked mildly concerned when none of the Spartans laughed, even Shawn seemed serious for once.
'Shit, he skins Grunts I guess." He thought as Captain Cutter's voice rang out.
{Sgt Forge, get as many men and those Spartans out of there, a massive force of Covenant is entering the city!} "Yes sir, I won't let anyone get left behind!" Forge then ran around yelling orders as the Spartans linked their comms for better communication. "You make jokes now?" Jerome asked Shawn who shrugged, "I got bored, thought I'd pick up a hobby."
Turns out the Covenant army was much closer than they though as they had to leave in a hurry, with a few brave technicians staying behind to arm the base's self-destruct sequence. "We're going to take the traffic tunnels, Serina already has a spot picked where a new base can be set up, but we have to hurry!"