Part 2, finally.
Part 2-First Floor; Shields, aliens, and explosives.
Six navy-blue spines shifted from Fusu Nug Tun's back as the colony shifted and communally brought the energy cannon to bear on the human below, who sat gaping in awe at the size of the shielded monstrosity. A ripple of adrenaline shot through the worm colony, and Fusu charged down the bluff beside his bond brother, Tutchan Nug Tan. In unison they began their destructive dance as Fusu fired and Tutchan threw his shield arm at the silly alien with the long weapon. The metal bent and the alien flew back into its vehicle, momentarily stunned. A narrow dodge allowed its companion to escape the burning mass of energy that flew from the blue plated Fusu. He swept his beam of destruction across the human line, laughing in the voices of fifty different meter long worms with a chorus of grunting shouts. The aliens ran for their cover, which Fusu melted or Tutchan crushed. The two wielding the Kig-Yar shields tried to break the armor of the pair with puny projectile weapons.
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Husong leapt above the swinging beam of light and heat, a sadistic game of jump-rope. He jumped behind the Warthog and tried to catch his breath while the aliens blindly attacked. The M7 couldn't break the armor the beasts wore. Plus the shields were nigh on invincible, made of some obscure plate alloy that Husong could not identify. Pulling out one of the alien pistols, an idea came to his mind. Husong could see what looked like a trigger mechanism and a grip; he needed no more information.
Fumbling for a moment, he got a grip and raised the weapon, holding down the trigger. Instead of plasma flying out from the barrel-area, a green bolt accumulated. He released the trigger, and ducked back behind his half-melted cover to see what he was doing wrong. Husong then heard a loud rumble, and the explosions stopped. Another roar was released, this one farther away. Again rolling away from the Warthog, Husong saw the gold-plated worm structure running at Ramsey, who was baiting it to come at him. A little closer to Husong, laying on the melted ground was the blue-armored beast. A hole in its side glowed green, with the worms near it completely melted or burned. Then, another roar, as Ramsey jumped aside from the charging alien as it catapulted off the mountain road, slamming into trees, rocks and finally landing in a river, one of its armored 'hands' flying off from the force of the impact.
Husong's heart hammered. This was only the second time he'd ever actually been in real combat; and the adrenaline had wiped the fear out of him the first time. Now, breathing in gasps, he staggered over to Ramsey, who was clutching his broken ribs and smiling as he also wheezed. Husong put his hands on his knees and broke into a joyous, relieved laugh. Correnti walked over and joined them, and even she began grinning stupidly.
The Lieutenant snapped them all back into reality, saying "Hey, its not over 'till the fat lady sings. We still have a hell of a lot of ground to cover until we get to that mass driver station. Ramsey, get on the radio and warn Command about our little... encounter."
"On it, sir," Ramsey retreated to the rear of their now-formed line, pressing his hand to his ear, suddenly serious again and back into his ever-vigilant mindset.
Husong trudged over to the Warthog and began recovering all the supplies he could gather, quickly stuffing them into his pack. Wasted supplies were worse than no supplies at all. The paved road cracked under his feet where the alien monstrosity had fired its massive cannon. Its body lay just ahead, where Husong had dropped it forever. Looking at the corpse up close, he could see the orange worms still burning and smoldering from the shot from the alien pistol. It was still strapped to his side, and the Greek-style energy shield was mounted on his arm. Scanning the device, he found a button that shut down the shield. Making sure he could turn it back on again, he thought once more that wasted supplies were worse than no supplies.
After an hour, they'd covered the distance to the mass driver cannon. An engineer with several burns on his body approached them outside the complex.
"You boys are a little late to the party," he said, looking at the holed corpses of Covenant. "What held you up?"
"Ambush," The Lieutenant pushed the engineer aside absently and began giving orders.
"Ramsey, see if one of these grease monkeys can fix your rifle up. Then, I want you in a perch. Correnti, Husong, follow me. We better prepare for the next wave of these bastards."
As he said this, a loud boom echoed from the mass driver behind him. A white-hot projectile sped off into space, targeting whatever ships had come to attack.
All of them except for the engineer plugged their ears.
"Holy -blam!-, that's loud!" Correnti yelled over the sound.
The engineer took out his earplugs, chuckling. "What? I couldn't hear you with my earplugs in!" He emphasized the "earplugs" part. Correnti raised her hand as if to punch him, then lowered it and scowled.
Husong followed as the Lieutenant and Correnti entered the compound. A long hallway extended before him, with multiple doors and stairwells up to the cannon. A bad situation if they manage to get through the outer defenses, he thought. The only way to stop that would be to find a way to either barricade the doors against high-energy weapons, or set traps.
Husong had only two grenades remaining, and counting up the ones on his comrades' belts, they altogether only had six, and there were plenty more access passages than that.
"Lieutenant, mind if I have a few grenades? I think I have a plan in mind to surprise our uninvited guests," Husong said from behind Gei.
Lieutenant Gei responded with a sigh, "Alright. Just don't go around tinkering with vital electrical systems or anything."
"Actually, that's exactly what I had in mind."
Another sigh. Then, "Well, I don't have any ideas. Go right ahead."
The others racing off up the stairs, Husong found the generator room. It took him a few minutes, but he soon found a storage cabinet and after some digging, several cables.
"And here comes the tricky part..." Strapping on rubber gloves, Husong hooked the cables to the generator and snaked them to the front entrance. He set a tripwire up high, along with three grenades. Then, carefully, he removed the coverings from the wires so that their bare edges touched the metal doorway. A faint zap was produced.
"Perfect!" Husong admired his work and carefully stepped back, making his way up to the second floor. Another boom from the mass driver made him speed up.
Up above, Correnti had set up an HMG and was mowing down approaching Covenant from the south side. The Lieutenant had placed his alien shield on one of the pipes that fed coolant to the mass driver and was using it as mobile cover. Husong quickly activated his own scavenged device and joined Gei. Nearly two dozen of the little aliens were charging the base of the mass driver, barely even firing at the Rangers. After the aliens were dispatched, a strange humming noise filled Husong's ears. At first he dismissed it as a trick of the biting wind. Then it grew louder, and soon nearly deafened him. Was it some kind of Covenant sonic weapon?
Then, suddenly, a dark shape blocked out the sun. Looking upwards, Husong saw an aircraft of some kind with two twin extrusions protruding out from the central area. It lowered itself onto the roof, and an unseen door fell open.
"Oh, sh-" Husong hardly recognized what he saw by the time a thousand plasma bolts flew at him. Firing his battle rifle one-handed, he managed to strike one of the aliens, armored in red, and felled it. Its four companions shouted in rage and drew glowing swords. The one colored in orange flew at him with lightning speed, and the 9.5mm bullets of the BR55 bounced off. At the last second, Husong threw his rifle to the ground, drew the SMG, and rolled. The sword struck the shield, throwing Husong off balance. The rounds of the smaller weapon had an even lesser effect then the rifle. A kick flew at Husong's ribcage. He threw the shield in front of his chest, and again tumbled to the side. When the weapon ran out of ammo, he threw it to the ground as well and pulled out the alien pistol. I really should have thought of this earlier, Husong thought as he charged the weapon in the same manner he had done before. The tall alien threw another kick and the pistol flew out of Husong's hands. The pistol discharged right into the alien, and a popping sound indicated it had breached the Sangheili's shielding system. With a faint click, Husong pulled the knife on his hip from its sheath. The alien yelled again and charged. This time, Husong did too.