Chapter (20) Into the Dark

N̶o̶v̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶2̶7̶,̶ ̶2̶5̶2̶5̶

̶D̶a̶m̶a̶s̶c̶u̶s̶ ̶M̶a̶t̶e̶r̶i̶a̶l̶s̶ ̶T̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶F̶a̶c̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶

̶1̶3̶0̶0̶ ̶h̶o̶u̶r̶s̶

(3rd Pov)

The CommonWealth drifted away from the drop-off point, hoping to gain some distance from their aggressor. The entire handoff of three Pelicans to Chi Ceti's surface lasted less than a minute, and the Paris-Class Frigate did not slow its speed whatsoever. This was to give the impression that no action occurred and to keep the Covenant vessel's attention fully on them. Meanwhile, the Spartans deployed to the Materials Testing Facility will be able to acquire Project: Mjolnir and somehow turn the tide.

Three hours went by before the Commonwealth was re-engaged with the purple cruiser. The battle cruiser was almost triple the frigate's length and nearly quadruple the width. It was a miracle that the ship wasn't disintegrated in the first wave of attacks, or perhaps it was on purpose that the remaining crew were still breathing. The entire battle seemed like one large game of Cat and mouse according to the Captain, and it appeared that the Covenant were 'playing with their food'.

Captain Wallace knew that if the Commonwealth were to get into another slugging match with the craft, his ship's fate would mirror the battle group that was dispatched to Harvest: complete annihilation. Nonetheless, he steeled himself, he had a duty to give humanity its fighting chance and he would be damned if he and his crew didn't go down with a fight.

"Bring the ship about. Seems our 'friends' have finished their repairs, and we need to buy some more time," The Captain called out calmly while leaning forward with his hands wrapped around the metal railing on the upper platform, "Turn us into a broadside with the most armor and weapons remaining. Keep the reactor at 95% output focusing on the engines and damage control systems. We'll see if we can't avoid some of these plasma torpedoes by outrunning them,"

As he finished his order he could feel that there was enough tension in the air that one could cut it with a knife. His realization arrived just as everyone else's did. The bridge had come to the conclusion that space would be their tomb and the Commonwealth would become their coffin. He could understand their sentiment, when faced with overwhelming odds it was human nature to shy away from the conflict, but it was also human nature to rise above it. Wallace understood that fact and wanting to meet the 'grim reaper' with pride made a decision.

"I won't lie to you, the odds are this will be our final maneuver," he spoke grimly with his hands tightening around the cylindrical steel, "This battle is certain to be one of many in a long bitter war, and many will follow in our footsteps laying down their lives in order to give Earth one more day of opportunity. But let no one question our role, our duty. Today we anoint ourselves and spring forward into the dark to give the Covenant a glimpse of the soul of humanity. And today they will hear our howl of defiance as we welcome their challenge to our very own existence. Though there will be many more battles fought, though there will be far more sacrifices than ours today, though our names may be forgotten in history. No one shall strip us of our bravery and courage in the face of this enemy. And so do not be downtrodden or fear-ridden, but instead meet our adversary with gritted teeth and a burning spirit as we show that we WILL NOT go quietly into this unforgiven dark. Am I understood?"

The Captain's voice which started off in a quiet accepting tone rose to a fierce determination that rubbed off on his men and women. They all sounded off accepting the circumstance and ready for what was coming their way, even if death was all that awaited them.

15 minutes went by as mass drivers beat on the cruiser's shields like a tribal drum. Fire suppression systems in the Commonwealth worked overtime to stop the raging infernos that glowed brightly in the black of space. The Captain though appeared pale, his eyes were no sharper than swords as they pierced through the viewport and his vocal cords continued to coordinate evasion after evasion of plasma weaponry.

And just as he believed that his luck had run out when he was forced to reduce power to the engines, a true miracle arrived, "This is Sierra One-One-Seven to Commonwealth. You are clear to disengage we will take it from here," a deep voice announced over the battle com and was broadcasted all over the ship.

One could hear a pin drop before waves of cheers and shouts were let out. The Captain visibly relaxed before waiting for his crew to calm down before he replied, "It is good to hear from you 117. We are peeling off to get out of its range, but will be back to pick you up once that ship is destroyed," The Captain sat into his chair for the first time today, "Lieutenant get us the hell out of that thing's range on the double!" he smiled as he said his words.

"Aye Aye!" the Navigation officer called back as the ship turned hard to starboard almost rolling onto its side.

Wallace pulled out his datapad to read the following damage report:

Communications and navigation dishes destroyed.

Armor in sections 3-7 down to four centimeters from 60 cm.

Hull breach in section three.

Ship AI memory core overloaded.

Leak in the port fuel tank.

Fire in sections one through twenty. (Atmosphere vented, fire extinguished.)

Port armor destroyed

Decks two through seven in section one melted away. Decks two through five in sections three, four, and five out of contact

Deck thirteen destroyed

Hull structure came close to "buckling" (integrity about to fail) and the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon was taken offline

Reactor only able to output ten percent of rated output

He sighed as he stowed the report and prepared to give the necessary orders to do the most immediate repairs. According to the report, the only thing intact was the engines and slip space drive thankfully.

He looked one last time at the viewport before whispering a silent prayer, "Good luck Spartans," he said before turning to the work at hand.

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2 hours earlier

(Alpha Pov)

Chi Ceti IV is an outer colony located on the outermost edge of UNSC-controlled space. It is inhabited by maybe a million or so people. It is almost unheard of for anyone to visit this planet, in fact, there isn't even a space elevator nor are there any orbital defenses. There is only a handful of cities primarily focused on mining within rock quarries. In other words, this planet was in the middle of the fucking space boonies.

The materials testing center was similarly tucked away and hidden. It was practically planted in a wall of a ravine deep within unoccupied territory with the only signs of any facility existing in the first place being the anti-air guns placed at the entrance. It was a bit close for comfort for landing with three Pelicans, but all in all O.N.I. did well constructing this facility.

The inside of the facility was obviously meant for very few people to ever come in contact with. The building was sectioned off and divided countless times so as to keep privacy and also as a means of protecting the experimental equipment. There was even a painted yellow line meant for visitors who were supposed to keep their eyes down and follow the line as they made their way through the place. Since we were a bit short on time we decided to 'skip' the standard procedure and instead made our way to the innermost room of the facility for its most guarded secret.

The room was large and spacious with a curved wall like a colosseum. In the center was another concentric circular platform that rose and lowered like a pedestal with a terminal beside it. We filled in and around the base of the platform in arc-shaped rows. Me being taller than most I stood in the back.

'This 'Mjolnir' better be worth it,' I was unsure if anyone else realized it, but as it stood now we had no chance against these aliens. Plasma weaponry, shielding, and even slip-space technology that we had never even heard of were just a few of the pieces they had over on us. Not to mention that the few species we were introduced to far outclassed the majority of humanity, with one of them being capable of ripping the limbs off any person with little struggle. To say the least, our outlook was pretty fucking bleak, and I had been holding my tongue from raining on everyone's parade. However that has led to me having a terrible mood over the month.

Catherine finished talking to a researcher who was working on the terminal and strode in front of us. As she made her way I could hear the mechanical whirring of gears as the circular platform opened up to a dark bottomless pit, "You have all been wondering what 'Mjolnir' is for some time correct? Before you wield it, I must inform you of the context behind them. The truth is the Spartan-II program was divided into two sides," Catherine began to speak drawing our attention as we glanced between her and the slowly rising platform, "Each and every one of you, your training, your augmentations, all of that was one side of the coin. Meanwhile, here at Damascus, we were hard at work creating the perfect spear and shield, that was the other side of the coin," as she finished the platform was finally illuminated by the lights in the room and all of us identified what our new tool was.

Standing upright were over 30 sets of armor colored in Green, Gray, and some other miscellaneous colors, but stamped and printed upon every chest piece was a three-digit white number. I glanced around, '023, 010, 052, 117, and there it is… 017,' I spotted the armor with my designation.

It was a tall suit that was surprisingly sleek with clean edges on each piece of body armor. The chest piece was broad and bowed slightly to perfectly wrap around my chest while covering all vitals. Below it was chunks of armor that covered the abdominal area but it was more sparse so as to allow for more movement. The legs were completely covered with metal plating while being sure to keep mobility in the joints, the same could be said with the arms. Underneath it, all was a black layer of what looked like kevlar chainmail mixed with our jumpsuit.

Catherine had my interest as my right eyebrow rose. I had expected some type of weapon, not a suit of armor, but nothing was simple with her. Slowly she began to speak again capturing the class's attention once again, "It has been said that 'it's not the sword that makes the man but the man that makes the sword', however, the truth is a swordsman can only be as strong as his blade is. Without his sword he is useless, and without him, his sword is useless. Take that with you wherever you may go wearing this armor," She spoke before a hologram was projected showing multiple elements of the armor.

She cleared her throat, "This-" she gestured to both the hologram and the armors behind her, "Is the Mjolnir Mark IV Powered Assault Armor, which despite its name is the first of its kind. The armor is composed of an inner and outer shell around the wielder. The outer shell is a mostly titanium alloy with multiple support systems such as an immediate bio-foam injector port, low-impulse propulsion jets, magnetic weapon holder strips, and much more. But the real magic is in the inner shell-," the hologram morphed displaying the undersuit with its layers spread apart like a dissected animal.

"The inner shell is made up of several different layers with similar but different purposes. First is the skin-suit that connects with the second, gel layer, to balance out and maintain perfect temperatures for the wearer as well as communicate with your neural interfaces. The Hydrostatic Gel, or 'gel layer' as said previously regulates temperature but also changes density to fit the shape of its user, and once pressurized can protect from high-velocity impacts. Last but certainly not least is the Liquid Metal Crystal Piezoelectric layer, this layer is made up of a liquid crystal coating that deforms and changes shape upon its interaction with an electrical current. This reactive piezoelectric effect increases the strength, reaction time, mobility, speed, and all-around physical performance of the suit's user, it is akin to having a secondary set of muscles,"

"In other words the suit lets us run faster, punch harder, and take more damage?" Daisy voiced after hearing Halsey's long-winded explanation.

"Yes Zero-Two-Three, in laymen's terms your physical abilities are amplified by a multiple of 5," Catherine glared slightly at Daisy before nodding her head. Catherine's words got everyone's attention, especially mine. Without the suit, I nearly killed a fireteam of ODSTs with some held-back punches… with the suit….

I began to smile for what felt like the first time in a while. My face held a devilish look, but nonetheless, I felt a genuine joy. Hearing Halsey's words and their implications of them, was more than enough to get the blood pumping again, and instead of being in a depressive state, I began to look forward to meeting our new guests on this backwater colony.

"Sign me up!" Kelly said in response.

"What are the drawbacks?" Linda asked sensing that such an opportunity had to have its own problems.

Catherine sighed as the hologram morphed into a video, "The system is so reactive that all of our tests with unaugmented subjects ended in…failure," the video began to play as we saw a man in one of the suits. It seemed he was currently propped up and was given the simple order to move his arm. Once he moved his arm his hand immediately bent down and back towards his arm forming a sideways parabola. His arm snapped from the sound in the video and the rest of his body began to almost fold in on itself as he began to cry out in agony, "The amplified movements broke their bones and tore their muscles. Their own agony-induced spasms killed them, but you are not normal humans. By all accounts, your enhanced musculature and skeletons should be enough to allow you to harness the suit's power," the hologram once again faded.

"And so I will need a volun-"

"I am your guy" "I volunteer"

I stared at John as he stared back, "I figured you two would be the ones to volunteer first," Catherine said as we continued our star down.

I spoke first, "I think I volunteered first," I said slowly my gaze not leaving his.

John matched my energy and replied, "Maybe, but I think you still owe me for a bet earlier,"

I narrowed my eyes, "That was for a simple protein bar, not for a possible life or death risk," I said calmly

John nodded, "You're right, but I still won the bet and winners get to decide their spoils," he said before he smirked, "Besides this is an order, stand down,"

I stared at him for a moment and he continued to not back down. John was stubborn over some things and I could tell by the look in his eye that this wasn't something he was going to give up. So I broke eye contact grumbling, "Damn it, whatever you say 'boss', but this means we are even," and so John turned around before being escorted by Catherine away

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"So this is Mjolnir, huh?" I asked rhetorically as I moved my armored arm and hand.

The armor was strange, to say the least. Imagine moving around in tightly compacted water balloons and you might have some idea of what the inner shell was like. And that wasn't the weirdest part, the armor practically moved before you did. According to Halsey, the Mjolnir armor system was linked to our neural implants meaning, the armor gets the signals from my brain before my arms do. That's all not even mentioning the fact that I have almost as much body armor as a tank, yet feel lighter than I did before I put it on.

"Alpha your missiles are secured," I felt a pat on my shoulder as I was brought out of my musings. I nodded before grabbing the MA2B and placing it on the upper magnetic mounts of my back that were not occupied with Anvil air-to-surface missiles, "I would also suggest putting that on," she gestured toward the helmet sitting on one of the seats behind me, "If we get so much as grazed then the pressure lock is going to disappear,"

I nodded before grabbing my helmet and seeing my reflection in the orange/honey-colored visor. I then tossed the helmet around 180 degrees and shoved it on. This time the VISR feature lit up with a motion tracker along with the usual grenade indicator, ammo counter, as well as waypoints and other support. 

I turned and noticed that Linda was simply staring at me, or at least I thought she was seeing as her helmet was pointed in my direction, "Got something you wanna say?" I asked jokingly

"No," she responded nonchalantly, "Just admiring your weapon choice," she said and I could tell she had a shit-eating grin underneath her helmet.

Her comment was not something that didn't have any basis. I was bringing two M7 caseless submachine guns that were currently magnetically attached to the mounts on my thighs. Along with that was an assortment of grenades, and a pouch of miscellaneous things that I viewed to be extremely important if shit hit the fan.

I shrugged, "Consider me a pioneer because I am about to make these two a staple of Spartan combat," I said as I tapped my fingers against the small guns. Linda shook her head before John and Fred walked out of the cockpit of the pelican.

"We are closing in on the cruiser, and I have given the order to pull out to Captain Wallace," John informed as he grabbed an MA5B and placed it on his back, "We'll probably have to jump and use our inertia to propel us towards the ship. Because the ship's shields only react to objects above a certain speed and/or mass we shouldn't have to worry about getting caught on the shields, but do your best to look for gaps in the protection so as to not chance it," he said.

As he finished we heard an alarm sound from the cockpit warning us of incoming high-energy projectiles, "Seems we have their attention, I wonder how green and gold are doing," Fred said

"I guess you'll have to cut out the 'inspiring' speech John," Kelly said mockingly

"I guess you are right," John said bantering back, "Alright Blue team let's give the Covenant a taste of the UNSC's finest," we began to make our way to the back of the dropship.

Our boots magnetically attached to the hull of the inside as Linda hit the rear door release button with her fist. 

What I saw as the bay door opened could only be described as chaos. Plasma streaked across the starry night sky with tails of glowing energy radiating behind them. Amidst the zero-G battlefield were two more pelicans in addition to ours carrying gold team and green team respectively. But front and center was the behemoth that we were tasked with taking down. An almost two-kilometer-long purple beast, it was wounded but was still more than capable of destroying Chi Ceti.

"You ready point man?" John asked as he lightly bumped my arm bringing me out of my thoughts once again. I glanced to the top middle of my HUD and noticed we were only a couple hundred meters away from the drop-off zone.

"Oh," I said cracking my knuckles, "I was born ready squad-lead," I glanced once again before I leaned forward, "I'll see you on the other side, John," I spoke over my shoulder before I kicked off the bay door of the pelican using the impulse thrusters to propel me through open space toward the unknown.

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So what did you think? Let me know your thoughts and opinions.

I am already working on the infilitration of the battle cruiser, so expect that to be out soon enough, but be warned I am about to have finals and work is coming for my ass with these late ass hours.

Anyway if you have any questions drop em and I will See You Star Side