Episode Five: The Covenant Part 2

[Lt. Hikari Makoto]

Makoto had retired to her office, and was sitting down as she heard the announcement by the Commander. She observed the moment of silence, a tear coming to her eye. The Major had been a caring man on the inside, she noted, and he would be missed.

Sighing, she resumed her work as the ship got underway.

[Captain Valdora]

The Covenant Armada moved like a swam as it began to pass the giant nebula. It crackled in the background like a atmospheric thunderstorm. At the centre of the other vessel was the flag ship where Captain Valdora was located.

In the nebula the Enterprise came to a hault inside. She was still heavily damaged and could not afford to engage in battle. Aft and starboard shields were all that were powerful enough to protect it. However without Faith's peoples help they wouldn't even be here. They also had a calling card with the hyper space beacon. They only hoped that the Ca'nari were not to busy to answer if needed.

[Lt Andrew Figueroa]

The Lieutenant was busy at work at Deflector controls. He had a crazy idea but was not sure the flaw he saw was real or not. He was relying on incomplete data from their initial computer hack. Either way if this were to work, it would only work once and for only a few measly seconds.

Before beginning his endeavor he stopped by the hangar bay to give the Marines a much needed moral boast in the form of a new tricorder and layout of the predicted target ship. "Gordon, take these." he handed the new leader of the Marines a holographic tricorder and a smaller and more outdated scanning device. "These items may assist you in your rescue and may even proof useful to us." he began to explain the purpose behind the devices. "The new tricorder is to be placed on your right wrist and have it on active scan. It is programmed to coordinate with a map we stole to assist you in planning your course through the rescue. The second, is more intrusive." He paused unsure if the Randall would agree to his request. "I pinpointed what seems to be the main computer core of the enemy vessel and I am unsure if I can hack it again from such a long distance without risking the safety of the crew again. So, if you can place this device on the core itself we may have a chance against this new enemy. You don't have to do anything just place it on the predesignated target and it should do the rest. Unfortunately once you do you have what I can guess is a minute before they know you are on-board." He went on and explained the purpose of it was to both sabotage the fleet and download more data on their foe. "The link is wireless so once you plant the device I can retrieve the data from the ship but I just need you to plant the device. Can I ask you this favor?"

[Major Randall Gordon]

He took the items from the Operations officer and nodded, "It'll be a secondary objective, we'll do it if we can. Thanks, Lieutenant." He then turned to the other two teams of Marines that were decked out in Assault gear. "You'll remain aboard the shuttles until either our cover is blown or I initiate Plan B. Once either of these events occurs, you will land at another part of the hull closer to where we believe their Engineering area is, secure it and place high explosive charges. Since our shuttles will be technically inside their shields, their transporters will get you to the mission critical areas within the target ship, and high explosive charges will be planted at those areas by you as well. Once finished, the shuttles will retrieve you, as well as the rest of the teams and the high value friendly. Any questions?" He asked, and after receiving none, he nodded, before tapping his combadge, =/\="Gordon to Bridge, strike teams are ready to move in, four teams on two shuttles along with a gunship shuttle that will fly with us just in case support is required during our exit." As he waited for a reply, he took out a small cylinder shaped round, one of several that they had been able to produce to go with the grenade launchers, the contents thereof being a mixture of several chemicals and elements that were lethal to the Covenant personnel.

[Commander Micheal Logan]

"Very well lieutenant began your preparations for departure. We'll cover you the best we can from out here. Once your on board its your show. We'll do our job out here. Good luck lieutenant Bridge out."

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

Jade turns toward the Command chair.
"Sir. Recommend we stay in the nebula unless things go sour. A stealth hit and run our shuttles will be much easier and frankly anything involving us would be suicide in our condition."

[Commander Micheal Logan]

"Very well lieutenant we'll remain here. But the first sign of major trouble we're going in." Logan said looking at jade

[Major Randall Gordon]

He watched as the rest of his Marines boarded the shuttles. Starting to go himself, he realized that he was missing something. Turning, he went over to the blue holopad area, and stood. After a moment, the blue hologram known as Enterprise flickered into view. "Enterprise, record what I am about to say and send it to Lieutenant Mandelo's console." "Understood, Lieutenant."

He clasped his hands behind his back and began to speak, Enterprise including a hologram of him for the message, without his knowledge.

"Lieutenant...no...Jade. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about the Major's passing. He was a good friend to us all. But right now, I stand ready to go into the belly of the beast, so to speak. I don't know what will happen, things may go according to plan, or they may not. In case they don't, and for some reason I don't come back, I just want to say that you've made a real impression on me, and I've begun to like you a little more each day ever since I came aboard. Whether it works out or not, can be determined later, but life's too short to not say the things that are most important," At this, he snapped a crisp salute, "SemperFi, and see you when I return." Then he nodded to Enterprise who finished recording and sent the message.

Gordon then boarded the shuttle with the rest of his team, "What was that about?" The Sgt. Major and his close friend asked him, "Just saying some things that were important is all. Let's move!"

With that, the shuttles were launched, Gordon electing to stand instead of sitting down with the rest of them, they cloaked and began their run out of the nebula, proceeding carefully through the swarm of enemy ships, and while there were a few close calls, stealth was not broken.

OOC: Rescue Mission starts in my next post.

[Lt Jade Mandelo]

Jade looks up with a start as the message begins to scroll on her screen. She smiles at it with a nod and turns toward Logan.
"Strike team is away Commander."

[Commander Micheal Logan]

"Very good" He said as he watched the shuttles on the view screen make their way to their objective." Good luck men" He whispered to himself.

[1st Lieutenant Kerak]

Kerak sat on the long bench of the aft section of the shuttle. His weapon was upright and placed against the crowd and he sat hunched over it, ready for battle. As a marine in the empire he had gotten used to heading into battle with the chance that he may never return. But a Romulan upbringing, even one on the outer colonies of the second Romulas had taught him that duty came first.
He looked up and over at his new commanding officer Gordon.
"The Major was to good a man...for a human to be killed by a random exploding conduit sir" he commented.

[Captain Valdora]

Three Klingons had been assigned to the marine squad and they sat over on the far opposite side to Kerak.
"Your Major did deserve to die in battle. Not that you would no much of that being a Romulan Patak" this Klingon was the one that has been thrown to the floor of the bridge by Logan and seemed old and stubborn in his ways. The two Klingons beside him laughed, one less so as if he felt just as the others did that this was no time to be bringing up old bad blood. Even that of pink and green.

TAG: Gordon

***

Valdora's vision had begun to haze over with a red tint but he kept it under control. He knew that by now his eyes would be bloodshot and would hope that he could hide such from his captors. Since he had been here he had kept his mind off of the hunger by watching the souls that passed in and out of the room. He had noted around four species. The foot solders seemed to be the least humanoid ones he had noted as creature like, Malak's seemed to be the only of his race aboard. There was also two other species in between, one that seemed to function as Junior officers. Social order by race.
Valdora turned to look at the guard who was one of the foot solders.
"Do your people speak or just bow before the others?" He asked with a fanged smiled.
The creature simply growled at him.
"I will take that as I no. It doesn't matter. I am going insane from bordom and all I need you to do is listen. If you even understand language that is." Again nothing. "Funny thing is that your species seem to me to be the dirty workers of your Covenant. No doubt because of those fierce claws you have...."
He trailed off as an alarm began to sound. The guard got up to go see what was going on. Valdora made out another approaching as the door opened and heard the other of the higher species say "stay with him. We are under assault from vermin."
Lucan did raised an eyebrow at the guard as he returned to his position.
"Friends of mine?"

[Doctor Calvin Foley]

Foley saw that the death of Major Shepard had created a sombre mood (even more than usual) in the sickbay and that his staff were exhausted.

" Alright everyone listen up!" he yelled and watched as all eyes turned to him.
" I know you're all exhausted. So I want you to get yourselves into groups of three. Then nominate one of you to go for a couple of hours rest. When that person gets back the next in the group will go. That way you will hopefully all get a rest. GO!" he yelled again and watched as activity resumed.

"As for me ..." he muttered quietly and picked up a hypo full of some stimulant to keep he going and alert. He couldn't afford to rest now. He injected himself and immediately felt his tiredness ease slightly before he resumed work.

[Major Randall Gordon]

"Yes he was." he replied to Kerak, but at the mention of bad blood Gordon immediately turned to the Klingon who had said that. "We're far from home, all of us here. And yet you would bring up a situation that's best left back in the Alpha Quadrant? Out here, our race doesn't matter, the color of our blood doesn't matter. We're working towards a common goal, and if you can't do it I'll have you removed from my Marines. Do not dishonor us all over petty quarrels, do you understand me?" Gordon said in his best Marine D.I. voice, and the Klingon merely nodded after a moment, "As you wish...human. Just remember that there are many ways to kill Pataks!"

Undaunted by this Gordon glares at the Klingon, "There are exactly 1,543 ways to kill a Klingon warrior, and I know that all of them can be executed without the Klingon even knowing what hit him. Now, from the data we've retrieved there have been at least 257 ways calculated to kill a Covenant warrior. Let this be an honorable fight for us all." The Klingon began to laugh at this before standing up and shaking Gordon's armored hand, "You're more of a Klingon than I first thought human." He nodded sardonically at this and shook the man's hand back, "I just know how to remove threats to my crew. Take out our anger on the Covenant when the time comes."

At this point, the pilot came over the com. "90 seconds to dust off." He nods and turns to the initial strike team. "Stand Up! Equipment Check!" The initial strike team which was his own and Kerak's team, stood up, and made sure their equipment was in order. "60 seconds." the pilot said as they came close to the Covenant flagship. "30 seconds, going dark."

"10 seconds, Comm check, go to a secure channel." Then the shuttle flew very close to the shaft that they needed to open, and lowered the ramp. "Marines lead the way! Go Go!" Gordon said, stepping out of the shuttle onto the hull of the Covenant ship, the team cloaking devices having already been engaged as the rest of the teams followed him.

As they got to the shaft, Gordon knelt next to the control panel, his hand hovering over the buttons present...and by instinct he pushed the correct one, which opened the shaft doors, and he took a look downward, quickly noticing the means that they'd use to get down. "We using the ladder?" The Sgt. Major asked, and Gordon shook his head and took out the rope, as the rest of the team did the same, "Hook Up. Team One will go first followed by Team Two, move."

Gordon's team was first down the shaft, and they took up a cover position, until they heard footsteps. "Stay in cover, this one's mine." Gordon said as he took out his M1911 and put the sound suppressor before sneaking out the door to see the Covenant warrior walking away from him. As the warrior turned around and began to walk back, nothing was present in the hall, but after he walked back by the door, Gordon snuck out again, and crept up on the warrior before pointing the pistol straight at the back of his head and pulling the trigger, the explosive round entering the warrior's head and detonating, frying everything inside instantly. "Good Night." he said over the com.

A few moments later Gordon returned through the door, lugging the heavy corpse out of view and putting it near the wall. By this time Kerak's team had roped down, and they gathered around. "Alright, our position puts us two decks above the area we believe they're holding the high value friendly at. We'll find our way to their version of a turbolift or a turbolift shaft on this deck, and use that. Move out."

The two teams moved down the corridor, staying to either side until they got to a room to their right. There was no door on it, so Gordon peered around the corner to see two regular Covenant working away at their station. He turned to the rest of the team and shook his head before making an up-right thumb and jerking it forward. The teams moved past the room, the occupants thereof not knowing that intruders were aboard.

Soon they came to the corridor leading to the turbolift-like door, and found two guards standing near the turbolift as if waiting for it, their backs to the Marines. "Take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right." He said to Rosa as he pulled out the M21 suppressed sniper and she did the same. "Go." The two Covenant guards crumpled to the deck after being shot in the back of the head with the explosive rounds. "Tango Down." Gordon said, while Rosa had a slightly sadistic smile on her face, "Good Night." "Move Up."

The two teams entering the now-open turbolift, with Gordon pulling up the data retrieved, and putting part of it to use on his wrist tricorder, soon a voice spoke from it that mimiced one of the warriors they had just terminated. "[Alien Language]{Detention Deck.}" To their surprise, the turbolift complied and began its descent, opening onto the deck where the Captain was held.

One of the two Covenant from before came out, and went to the turbolift. After seeing the two corpses of the guards, he ran back to his station and sounded the Alarm.

The Marines also heard the alarm, and Gordon swore under his breath. "Shit. Gordon to Shuttle Two-Four, Execute Plan B, Greenlight on Bravo, go!" "Roger that Lieutenant." The two Bravo teams comprised of Assault Marines, including the Klingons that Gordon had chewed out earlier, materialized on the Engineering Deck and began to engage Covenant guards outside of their Core Room before moving inside the Room and securing it, planting explosive charges around it as one team held a perimeter, only shooting Covenant personnel that were armed.

Meanwhile, Gordon's and Kerak's teams continued moving tactically towards the Detention block.

As the last piece of Plan B, the Gunship Shuttle call-sign "Spectre." hovered into position in front of the Flagship bridge's rather large viewscreen. "Cleared to Engage, Plan B in effect." the Fire Control officer said to the Gunner, who unleashed the shuttle's firepower of phasers, two pulse phasers and micro-quantum torpedoes into the bridge area as the shuttle uncloaked, causing more chaos both in the flagship and among the fleet, these Covenant appeared to have relied on the Flagship for much of their orders. "Good effect on target Gunner, resume cloak and begin evasive manuevers."

OOC: I'll post later today or tomorrow moving the rescue forward this is just to give people time to catch up.

[1st Lieutenant Kerak]

Kerak moved forward with his weapon pointed toward the far corridor. He men behind him doing the same as they moved like a well oiled machine.
Ahead at the end of the corridor one the creatures emerged. Kerak fired and took it down. However he had friends and they charged for them. Kerak's team fired taking many of them down but Kerak's heart jumped into his throat as two manages to break through. One swung back and brought it claw down, slashing and cutting one of the marines in half with a last scream. The others raised their rifles and fired killing it. The other swung, however Kerak ducked underneath, rolled onto his foot and knee, fired and killed it.
Kerak took a moment before tapping him com badge.
"One dead. We are moving forward."