- MaxRealflugel
- |
- Elder Mythic Member
All of the Spartans followed Dr. Halsey out of the small office before heading for the monorail-mounted transit car.
After a short ride they reached a room filled with computers and technical equipment. The room itself was roughly twenty metres in diameter with a tall ceiling and a single large viewing area one floor up. Stood in the glass fronted viewing area was the familiar sight of General Moorethe R&D officer. Stood next to him were Admiral Cole and a high ranking female officer with grey hair that John was not familiar with.
Dr. Halsey cast them a quick glance as she made her way to the far side of the room. Stood there were seven large containers.
"Cortana, open the HAZMAT containers," ordered Catherine.
Cortana appeared next to the line of containers. "Yes ma'am."
One by one each of the containers was lifted up to reveal a highly modified version of the 6th variant of the power armour. It was covered in additional plates of armour and a thin exoskeletal frame of some sort.
All of the Spartans walked forward.
"HAZMAT?" John queried.
Catherine smiled. "Stops people from touching my work."
John walked up to one of the suits, inspecting its armour. There were unusual plates of armour added to the standard issue of power armour which made it look bigger, in fact, almost Brute sized.
Catherine flipped open her laptop and keyed in a few commands. There was a thin whistle of air before all of the suits opened remotely. "The suits have been drastically redesigned," she started. "They are all capable of operating in a complete vacuum for an extended period of time and the onboard oxygen scrubbers are 77% more efficient. The armour is a composite of Brute and Hunter armour, all fitted as an additional layer to the standard Mjolnir frame."
Ash looked a little nervous, almost reluctant to accept the new armour in favour of his SPI variant. "What about the Photo Reactive technology?"
"Don't worry, Ash. This armour has a more effective camouflage system, with an updated software package. They also have increased speed, manoeuvrability, strength, reaction times and extreme combat durability."
John turned around to look at Dr. Halsey. She had a large grin spread across her face. "How did you manage this in such a short space of time?" he asked.
"Actually this has always been a working project. Ever since your first encounter with the Hunters on Côte d'Azur I have been thinking of a more effective armour system. The Hunter shield armour gave me that idea, but what I lacked was a sample. Now I have it, and the Covenant Engineers are able to work at an alarming rate."
"Can it take a direct hit from one of their weapons?" Fred probed.
Catherine placed her hand on one of the armoured plates. "This material is an extremely dense composite that can actually regenerate over time. It utilises an organic compound to achieve that. It should be able to take several direct hits. The exoskeletal frame acts as a Faraday cage to dissipate the energy from your armour plating. That, combined with the new shield technology and other enhancements should make you a far more dangerous opponent"
"An organic compound" Kelly muttered. "You mean those worm things?"
"Yes, but this armour uses a bio-neural circuit layer that not only increases reaction time but acts as a surrogate system for the armour plating as well."
John gave the armour a light tap with his knuckle, as if testing it in his mind. "Let's get these suits on, Spartans."
Everyone quickly donned their new armour.
John pulled himself into his suit and the neural link connected immediately. At first he was a little uncomfortable, but then his suit quickly moulded to the contour of his body and skeletal frame.
He slowly moved his arm, testing the reaction times of the suit on a small scale. The suit almost predicted the movement.
All of them started jumping around the large room, punching bulkheads and kicking out at the remaining boxes that were piled in the far corner.
Kelly was testing her speed with a few laps of a centrally mounted technical area, one that was used for testing the strength and recharge rate of the Mjolnir shields. To John and the others, she was just a blur.
Suddenly, a wall mounted alarm started to sound and several revolving red lights covered the room in a blood-red glow.
John looked up at the observation booth, only to see it empty. "Obviously they're not sticking around," he whispered to himself.
Hood rushed to a nearby intercom and keyed in the command cell access code. ". "Status report lieutenant."
John didn't need to use his imagination or the suits monitoring system to tell what the problem was. The look on Hood's face said it all. The Scourge ship was approaching.
John and his team made their way to several pre-arranged areas where they would help defend the station.
It was hoped that the Scourge would attempt a boarding like before on the Shadow of Intent, but in truth there was no way to be sure.
Hood and Dr. Halsey, however, rushed along the corridor to the command cell. There they would co-ordinate the pattern of fire from the remaining orbital MAC platforms as well as the fleet. As a last resort they would use nuclear mines and thousands of interceptor craft and Pelicans. After that they would be using sticks and stones.
Hood rushed into the command cell and immediately activated the holographic tactical console. The small table illuminated and the ghostly image of the Scourge ship appeared, floating, just above the flat surface.
As usual there was little detail that he could make out, even with the additional scans that had been run. The Scourge, apparently, had a need to keep their enemies in the dark whilst they would asses the situation before attacking.
Hood had a feeling that the first attack with twelve of their ships had been either an error on their part or a simple act of overconfidence, but he doubted the Scourge, after all of this time, were that stupid.
"Cortana, what are we looking at?"
The question was more rhetorical than anything, but Cortana appeared behind the tactical console.
"The Scourge ship is moving on a direct course for Earth and us. They'll be within weapons range in just under two minutes."
Hood stared at the hologram of the ship. Then he had an idea. "Cortana, divide the fleet equally into two separate task forces. Give the Arbiter command of one and leave the other to me."
"Yes sir."
Cortana's skin flashed briefly as she disseminated the order to the fleet. On the holographic display she panned the image to give a plan view of the entire system.
Hood looked on as the two fleet dividedeach force with an equal compliment of Elite and Human vessels. In the very middle was the stationwith its MAC at the ready.
"Push the fleets further apart, Cortana."
"But sirthat will leave the station vulnerable and unprotected."
Hood repeated himself and Cortana reluctantly complied.
On the display both of the fleets pushed away from each other, leaving the station wide open for an attack.
Dr. Halsey displayed a concerned look as Hood widened the gap, but she remained silent, hoping that he knew what he was doing.
Everyone in the command cell watched the image as the holographic ship sped through the system.
Then the Scourge ship slowed to a halt.
Dr. Halsey peered at the hologram. "What are they doing?" then she looked at Hood. "More importantly, though, how did you know they would stop?"
"I didn't, Doctor," he replied. "It was just a feeling. Our previous encounter was a simple face-off with them. And at all times they controlled the environment; they held all the cards and ran the game according to their rules. All I did was change the rules a little."
"They need to re-evaluate the situation," Catherine concluded, "before they can adapt and attack according to what they know."
"We have to take the initiative before they're ready. We need to be the one's attacking, not them. Cortana, order the fleet to attack. Get them to do as much damage as possible."
Cortana acknowledged the order and reassured the Arbiter of the plan on the COM. Elites were not one's for complaining and he was no different. The Shadow of Intent sped forwards along with the rest of the fleet, weapons at the ready.
Hood panned the image manually to show both of the fleets, Cairo station and the Scourge ship. "Cortana, how long till intercept?"
"Twenty eight seconds, sir,"
Hood rubbed the stubble on his chin as his mind tumbled through a range of scenarios. Then he decided on one. "How long will it take the station MAC rounds to reach the scourge ship?"
Cortana quickly realised what he was thinking. "Nine seconds. I can fire two volleys from all twenty-four planet side stations before the fleet reaches the enemy vessel."
"Do it," Hood grinned.
Cortana became a brief blur of lines and symbols as she rapidly calibrated the twenty-four nearest stations. A second later the station shook as the MAC released a slug the size of a Warthog at the Scourge ship.
Hood continued to watch as the display changed again to show the MAC rounds speeding through the vacuum of space. They all hit their targets, piercing holes in the mammoth-sized ship.
A second volley erupted from the stations, again, hitting the ship with pin-point accuracy. Small plumes of fire were ejected from the hull, throwing debris into space.
The fleet arrived and moved into their attack formations before peppering the Scourge colossus with MAC and plasma fire. They were damaging the enemy vessel, just not enough to kill it.