Contact Harvest

by CommanderApplejack

Chapter 22

Honour and self-saccrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier.

We shall remember.

-Eric S. Nylund

The pelican slowly circled the seemingly dormant space station, only a minimal power signature visible on the scanners. The moon it orbited sitting in the backdrop as our dropship's powerful floodlights illuminated the black structure, the ONI listening post did not seem to be damaged in any way though.

I don't like this, there should at least be damage if they were attacked...

I checked the vacuum seal on my armour just to see if there was any leakage as I suspected I would need it soon.

"Linda, Grace, keep circling the station and coordinate area scans with the prowler. We're going in to confirm the status of the nav computer," Maria stated, turning to the rest of us. "Confirm vacuum seal, we're going out."

All of us gave a thumbs up and made sure our weapons were properly mag locked, the spartan pressing the button that cycled the air out of the hold and opened the back ramp. One of the station's docking bays lay before us, Bloom being the first one to jump, having her shotgun in hand as she got in and opened the door for the rest of us. Not a whole lot later the other four of us joined her into the station, flashlights on to bring light to the dark corridors. There was no air in the hallways, just the same vacuum as the space outside which dampened the clangs our mag-boots made. Occasionally the floodlights from the pelican shone in through windows, brightly illuminating the hallway for a brief moment before bathing it into darkness again.

"Where the hell is the crew? Was this place just abandoned?" I muttered over the radio, carefully eyeing my limited oxygen reserves as we advanced.

"There aren't even-" Bloom stopped talking as she reached an intersection, throwing up a fist which made the rest of us freeze in place, ready to react to whatever she had seen. "Found them."

Bloom had already lowered her shotgun as we came around the corner too. Bodies floated around the hallway, motionless, blood pooled around them as holes from spikes that were still embedded in the walls pierced their bodies. There were over a dozen of them.

"Looks like they were herded into here and then executed..." Ana stated as she moved in close to examine the bodies. "They've been dead for a while, I don't think we're going to find the responsible party around here."

"We found a hole in the station's superstructure, looks like life support was taken out." Linda came in over the radio.

"The data stores are down this corridor," Sweetie pointed out softly as she too was clearly horrified at the sight. Bloom nodded and took the lead again, carefully moving the deceased humans aside with as much dignity as she could.

"Firewing, Belle, go clear the rest of the station," Maria ordered, she too looked a little disturbed at the sight. "We'll take care of verifying the computer has been dealt with."

"Yes ma'am," I replied, motioning for Sweetie to follow me down another one of the hallways, the one that lead to the living quarters in specific. Even though we suspected we were completely alone we still cleared every room as if there were combatants still present. In this section there were clearly signs of a struggle, though no damage from live fire was present, suggesting that they were caught completely off guard.

The commander of the force that attacked must have been very good if they were this unprepared...

"Scoots, look." Sweetie caught my attention, pointing at another hallway. "Cryo section."

"On a space station?" I asked in confusion as it wasn't exactly a necessity on a non-slipspace capable craft.

"It's ONI, they probably had their reasons," Sweetie replied, taking position at one side of the door and brought up her magical shield. I counted down with my fingers, hitting the open command as I got to zero, the two of us stepping in and scanning the room. There were about twenty pods in the cramped room, ten on either side of the lengthy room. All open except one. "Holy... checking vitals."

I immediately opened our longer-ranged coms to reach Maria. "Lead one, come in."

"What is it, lead two?"

Sweetie gave me a thumbs-up as she confirmed the pod's integrity. "We've got a survivor a cryo pod."

"He's in a pressure suit, if it has enough oxygen we can take him out," Sweetie observed. "Power is low so we only get one shot at this."

"Any alternatives?" I asked as rushing someone out of cryo could potentially be fatal.

"Tethering the prowler to the station and pulling the pod out completely. So no, it's this or leave him to die after the power reserves are drained," Sweetie stated as she started the procedure for emergency release.

"What is the date on pod activation, lead two?"

"October fifteenth," Sweetie told me, which I, in turn, relayed over the radio.

"Systems were wiped correctly on the thirteenth, the enemy got nothing. Get the survivor out if you can, we need to know what happened here." Maria ordered, Sweetie took that as her queue and initiated the revival sequence.

"Lead one, this is lead three," Linda came in over the radio. "We've got an incoming signature, corvette, heading straight for the station."

"Shit, did we trigger something?" I asked as Sweetie was cursing and looking around the cryotube to see if it was compromised, yanking off a purple device and showing it to me. "Damn it. Lead one, we found what's probably a beacon rigged to the cryo pod."

"Life signs are dropping... we lost the occupant. FUCK!" Sweetie cursed as she slammed her fist into the cryo pod's steel exterior. "It was all just a trap!"

"Lead two, RV at the docking bay," Maria ordered, the two of us sprinting away from the cryo bay in defeat, running back to our entrance point. Linda had the pelican hovering outside the bay doors, ready to blast off at a moments notice. The others were already strapped in as we jumped the distance and joined them.

"Gun it!" I called out as my boots loved to the pelican's floor, dropship rumbled as it immediately shot off.

"How close are they?!" Sweetie asked as she had to struggle to get into a harness under the g-forces we were experiencing.

"Too close! They were waiting on the dark side of the moon for someone to show up," Grace called out from the cockpit.

"Is there a possibility they actually managed to get into the data? Was our arrival expected?" Bloom asked, looking over at Ana as she'd been the one to check the system.

"All signatures of proper deletion are there..." Ana grunted as Linda made a particularly high-G course correction. "Shit, the nav data seems to have been deleted hours earlier than the rest of mission data. It's highly likely they knew we'd be passing through soon."

"And now they have us right where they want us," I growled.

"The question is why they have not opened fire on us yet," Grace stated, "We've passed into know weapon's range and we've not been turned into slag yet."

"Take the dropship and try getting to the dark side of the moon again!" Maria called out front. "We need to give the captain the opportunity to close in unseen or exit without notice!"

I felt a stone in my gut as I really did not feel like being left in a system where the only FTL capable ship was filled with elites. The pelican made another high-G correction as Linda steered it to the appropriate flight path. "They've launched fighters."

"Evade!" We got tossed around further as we could see plasma pass by the pelican through the cockpit window. Linda put up a valiant effort but there was no way to keep dodging forever as the pelican shuddered.

"Lost my engines... we're drifting."

"Hey, Sweetie, you don't happen to have mastered teleportation in the last five minutes?" I asked of our magically attuned squad member, it was in a joking way but I did know she had tried to get the hang of it a while ago.

"Sorry, that's a negative."

"Right, what could they be after that they want us alive?" Apple Bloom asked as we were now drifting. "Could it be that map we found in that asteroid?"

"Hell if I know, it could also be them wanting to get personal revenge on us for blowing up those mining facilities," I growled as I hated the helpless situation we found ourselves in.

"Well, we will get to ask them personally very soon. They're closing in fast," Linda stated, leaving the cockpit to Grace alone.

"They were launching fighters, right? that means there's a hole in their shielding we may be able to pass through," I stated as I was not just going to sit idly by to helplessly be picked off. "We have our thruster packs on right now, let's go out and take the initiative before it's too late."

Everyone looked over at Maria to see what her reply to my proposal would be. "We wait until it's so close the fighters can't respond anymore."

"That's right about now," Grace informed her, joining us in the hold as well. "It's slowing down to match our velocity."

"Then get ready," Maria ordered, facing the pelican's ramp, getting ready to blast off. "Opening in three... two... one..."

The ramp slammed open as Maria overwrote the safeties that should prevent that. The explosive decompression gave us a little boost out as all our thrusters fired at maximum power to cross the vacuum as fast as possible. We could see point defence weaponry power up on the corvette's hull but the distance was closing so fast I wasn't sure if it was going to matter, they had closed in too much and now they were going to pay for that.

A waypoint was placed on our hud by Grace, tagging the landing pad for fighters on top of the corvette, marking where we should land. Before we arrived though, purple lasers started streaking through our formation, forcing us to take evasive action in the last few seconds of our approach but failing to hit any of us.

"Ah have no clue how that worked," Bloom laughed as four elites immediately rushed out onto the upper deck and opened fire, Sweetie being the saving grace as she barely managed to put up a shield in the coverless environment. The four elites didn't exactly stand a chance after that as we took them out one by one with overwhelming firepower.

"We need to find the ship's reactor or command centre and make sure either, at a minimum, stops working so we can escape," Maria stated as she ran up to what seemed to be an entrance at the centre of the platform we stood on, an energy field leading down into the vessel itself.

"This isn't my first time on a Covenant vessel. I can set the reactor to overload," Linda stated as we jumped down into the interior, another firefight starting as the elites there weren't going to let us get away with walking around their ship unopposed. "It should be located near the rear on these smaller vessels."

"Then that's our target," Maria stated as she peaked over a barricade and unloaded half a magazine into an elite, popping his shield. Bloom then jumped over her own cover and blasted it away with a close-range shotgun blast. "Grace, get the doorways! Blow them if you must!"

The spartan in question immediately went to work on the rear door while the rest of us gave her cover fire from the increasing waves of forces sent in our direction. Grunts led by elite minors were starting to pour into the chamber we occupied, individually they wouldn't be a big threat but the volume of them would quickly become a very dangerous threat.

"Stand clear!" Grace called back to us as she jumped to cover, the door she'd been working on being engulfed in flames for a second before revealing the door was completely annihilated. "Path's open!"

"Ana, Sweetie, Scootaloo, rear action! Bloom, Linda, Grace, on me and advance!" Maria didn't wait for acknowledgement as she sprinted into the blown hole. Meanwhile, I along with Sweetie and Ana held down the doorway, Ana and I lowering shields and mowing down grunts while Sweetie went for kill shots on harder targets.

"Sweetie, go! We've got you covered!" I called out, firing a full clip of my battle rifle towards a group of grunts. Sweetie sprinted past me into the hallway where the others had gone. Ana was next but instead of running fully through she gave me cover fire from the doorway until all of us were out of the direct line of fire for now. "How are you two doing for ammo?" I asked as we sprinted after the power armoured members of our team who'd already ran quite some distance to the rear of the vessel.

"Low, we can't keep up fighting at this intensity for long," Ana stated, slamming a new mag in her assault rifle.

"How long is that reactor going to take?" I called out as the first grunts were already running into the hallway on the far end.

"Not long," Linda replied, "There's another problem though... Last time I did this we left someone behind to make sure the sabotage wasn't undone."

The shock made it that I forgot to stop firing at the grunts entering the hallway for a second. "WHAT?!"

"Whoa, whoa, we're not just going to leave one of our own behind!" Sweetie agreed in horror, using her magic to shield me and Ana as we kept the hallway clear. My battle rifle chose that moment to click, I scowled as I knew that had been my last magazine.

"I'm out," I stated as I tossed the rifle aside, it just being dead weight without ammo, and drew my pistol. Grace took my position as she did have munitions left.

"I've armed the core, you girls need to go," Linda stated as she stood in front of the reactor's control panel. "I'll hold them off for you to get clear."

"No," Ana stated, walking over to the spartan. "No, you will not... because I will."

"Whoa, Ana! That's certain death!" I shouted in shock, hating what was going on here.

"Do you think I don't know that?!" She spat at me. "But when it comes down to it I'm the most expendable here! You three need to get back to your world in one piece so we have a better chance of getting your people's help, then there's you spartans, I still don't fully understand what kind of fucked up shit ONI did to make you but you are armies on yourselves... And then there's me."

She pulled off her helmet and looked us all over with a determined scowl. "I do not have magical powers, don't have augmentations, nor am I an interdimensional alien. I'm just a regular human. A soldier that, in the end, can be produced in the thousands."

"Ana..." I felt a lump form in my throat as this was really happening, tears rolling over my cheeks under my helmet.

"It's okay Scoots, it'll be for a good cause." Ana smiled at me as she grasped my hand, pulling me in. "I'd have gone with you girls to the end, to a completely different universe if I had to, but if I have to give my life to give you girls that chance... I will. Now go, you're burning time. Make this one count for me."

I nodded, not being able to say a word as I swallowed the lump in my throat, turning away to avoid breaking down into tears right there. Neither Sweetie nor Bloom said anything either as they both gave a quick hug to our teammate and returned to the hallway where grunts were being led into another attack. A final glance back showed the three Spartans giving Ana a quick salute before they joined us too.

Sweetie lit up both her hands with her magic, using her usual strategy of creating a shield with her left and tossing plasma with the right... the amount of plasma though was a little different as she absolutely decimated the grunts in front of her, the few critically injured survivors receiving no mercy as she simply walked past them. The small size of the vessel meant we quickly found our way back at our entry point, the vessel already shuddering as the reactor was going critical.

"We scatter after takeoff to avoid giving them a way to take us all out at once, understood?" We all acknowledged the order, jumping up and then off the corvette. I could see the power fluctuating throughout the ship by various systems blinking on and off as we sped away from the vessel, seconds later the only thing stopping me from being blinded was the self-polarising glass of my helmet as the covenant vessel detonated, sending bits of it scattering all around. I should have been happy to be alive that moment but I only felt numb.

"Everyone still alive?" Maria asked over the radio, I only clicked my radio in acknowledgement, unable to take my eyes off the expanding debris field.

"I'm sending our coordinates to the prowler, expect a pickup soon. Turn off all beacons until she gets here. Lead one out."

Author's Note:

Yes, I'm on a roll. Expect another chapter tomorrow as well.

Alternative quotes for this chapter:

When you decide to die, remember to give your enemy the same honour.
-imperial though of the day

When I die and go to heaven to St. Peter I will tell,
"One more soldier reporting for duty, sir, I've served my time in hell."
-Hal Popplewill

Comments

[Joe Toon]

Welcome Back Commander

[Chadbunger]

R.I.P. Ana see you on the other side.

[dvdspires]

"Live signs are dropping... we lost the occupant. FUCK!" Sweetie cursed as she slammed her fist into the cryo pod's steel exterior. "It was all just a trap!"

Life.

[Nightshade Dawn]

Rest In Piece Ana. You landed feet first in hell, try and make sure it's empty when they get there.

[stag the story teller]

Keep rolling

[Frostgear]

I know the covies aren't ones for p. o
w.s. but I really hope Anna is still alive. No body means MIA not dead especially in the halo universe.

[Tempestus]

RIP Ana, be waiting for you at 0500 for that PT run Helljumper.