Chapter (19) Shit Goes Tits up and the Meeting Continues (3)

[At the end there will be a couple questions one regarding Covenant combat and the other regarding the possible star wars fic so read them in the author's note]

(Mc Pov)

I felt my heartbeat increase slightly as the drop pod began to sway back and forth. My hands tightened around the sticks and armrest as I heard the mechanical whirring of the crane arm as it carried the pod a short distance before lowering the vehicle.

"Systems…are….green. We are a go for launch. Tex make sure you course correct on my signal," Miranda speaks after checking a screen to the side of the camera before looking back with a serious expression finishing what she had to say.

After hearing what she said I instinctively looked up to the countdown clock. It was a small rectangular screen with 5 small squares slightly spaced and were currently all red.

Beep

Bing

On what would have been the final sound the release latch was pulled and the initial thrust propelled me towards the moon.

The initial shock jerked my head forward slightly. What I felt next was the sudden feeling of weightlessness and the feeling that my heart was going to jump out of my chest, as if I was on a roller coaster and was suddenly going downhill.

As I fell towards my destination I took note of the status according to the screens and other gauges. Miranda was mostly likely checking the condition of the SOEIV religiously, but checking them helps me calm down and it doesn't hurt to double-check.

"Alright 30 seconds till correction," Miranda says looking at me through the camera.

I bring my fingers to the trigger and buttons on the sticks. Placing them in the correct sequence to guide the pod into the correct heading. Seconds go by as I wait for Miranda's next directive and finally, she gives me a countdown.

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2-"

*BANG*

On the second to last count my pod smashes into what I can only guess to be a meteor or some type of rock that was in my flight path. The surprise of the initial impact causes the resulting force to slam my head and helmet into the metal shell of the pod.

*BING*

Immediately my pod goes into a tailspin going around like a spinning top. I reach over to grip the bars built into the hatch and side of the pod. Meanwhile, an alarm inside the pod starts blaring in the background as I focus on keeping myself oriented and upright instead of being forced to the sides or into my seat due to the g-forces and inertia acting upon the pod.

Looking around the pod the damage is already quite apparent. There are sparks coming from the ceiling, likely caused by newly damaged circuitry. To the right of the hatch and right side, there is a major dent, how it hasn't compromised the hull integrity I have no idea. The glass on the hatch is beyond fucked, it hasn't shattered yet but there are cobwebs of cracks and fractures running all through it. The display that was showing Miranda is shattered and the image of her shocked face is forever frozen on the screen. While the screen that was supposed to be showing the Captain has gone pitch black.

"Tex! Come in! What happened!? I need you to talk to me! At least give me your status so we can salvage this and recover you." Miranda raises her voice to just below a yell and frantically rapid firing questions to get any kind of answer from me.

By this point, I am practically in sensory overload. Between the alarm blaring, the uncontrollable movement of the pod, Miranda's frantic questioning, and the sudden dizziness as well as the headache that I am experiencing I fully admit that I shut down for a second and closed my eyes like I usually do before missions to center myself.

'Calm down. Calm down. Panicking won't help anyone, but will this hole deeper' I thought to myself with my eyes closed and controlling my breathing attempting to lower my heartbeat, 'First thing respond to Miranda and acknowledge that you aren't dead and need the immediate best course correction that won't kill me,' I had formed a game plan after a couple of seconds and acted upon as soon as I could.

"Keyes, I am here." Before she could say anything or breathe a sigh of relief I quickly asked her the question that was relevant to my survival, "Keyes I need you to calm down and to tell me the next best heading to correct my course."

Understanding the gravity of the situation Miranda held off on her questionnaire and said in a concerned voice, "Ok…readjust for 12 degrees…You will be majorly off course for the original, but you will still be just within the mission range. By suddenly boosting during your readjustment it should counteract the spinning either stopping it completely or slowing it down at the very least."

I let go of the bars and grab the sticks carefully so that in my adrenaline-fueled actions I don't accidentally damage them. Once I have them firmly in my grasp I point them 12 degrees to the north cardinal direction at around 1 o'clock.

I immediately felt a jolt as I began heading in my desired direction. Thankfully the spinning had stopped so I could maintain my bearings a little bit better. Next up was to check my altimeter, seeing as I needed to know the altitude for my deployment of the drag chute. Sadly, my altimeter was also trashed from the impact.

"Keyes my altimeter is out of commission. I need you to tell me when to pull the chute." I say calmly switching to an alternative way of determining when to execute the deployment of my drag chute.

"Understood on my mark," Miranda said in response. A couple of seconds went by as I kept my hand on the chute release lever, "...and…Mark!"

Without hesitation, I instantly ripped the lever down to deploy the chute as fast as I could. I felt the chute come out and extend to grab the air in an effort to slow me down. Thankfully I could feel my velocity declining.

"You are at about 2500 feet and decelerating at an acceptable rate. It seems you have weathered the storm-," was the last words I heard from Keyes before another resulting "BANG* came from outside and coincidentally from where my drag chute would be.

'Damn it Miranda you just had to go and raise a flag? Fuck this is going to be a rough landing.' I thought to myself as I began to pick up a bit more speed instead of continuing to decelerate. What's worse is that I couldn't see the ground so I didn't know when to brace myself therefore I tensed myself up for what seemed like an hour.

"Damn my luck"

*BOOM*

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(3rd Pov)

"Now, the next topic of discussion is the culprit behind this sudden offensive," Margaret Parangosky said, "Lord Hood if you wouldn't mind informing the other members," Parangosky looked at Terrance Hood while gesturing with her hand. Which Lord Hood then nodded and cleared his throat before speaking.

"According to Navy code breakers we are dealing with one single fleet named 'The Fleet of Particular Justice' by the Covenant. It is led by an Elite Shipmaster Thel 'Vadamee, an ambitious elite in the upper ranks of the Covenant." Lord Hood started with a report.

"If I may interject," Mendez said gaining the attention of everyone sitting at the table, "That name sounded familiar so I did some digging and it turns out there was already an encounter with said elite," This statement was met with many curious and interested expressions, "From a report back in 2535 Jai S-006 of Grey team he had a brief encounter with Thel aboard a Covenant ship the 'Infinite Spoils'. During that encounter, they both engaged each other in hand-to-hand combat and both came out unharmed. Jai described him as an extremely capable warrior and said that he was unsure who would have won had they fought to the death."

Everyone took a second before Asher spoke, "...Meaning that assassination is most likely out of the question…Unless we used a Hyper lethal vector. To which we only have one as of now, that being John S-117 or 'The Master Chief',"

"Yes, it would seem that assassination is out of the question. Between the fact that he is usually inside his command carrier, and the fact that he is highly lethal. It would be best if he was killed in an engagement. Though we might have more than one Hyper Lethal Specialist by the end of this meeting." Lord Hood said while ending with an interesting tone.

"We will table our plans for the Fleet of Particular Justice and its leader for another time. Moving on to the next object of discussion, what is the status of Beta Company? First things first, where is the Company's progress according to the original timeline" Parangosky says, moving away from the previous topic.

After the Admiral cleared the room both Kurt and Mendez scooted forward a bit, and looked at each other to which Mendez gave Kurt a nod to go ahead, "So far we are well ahead of schedule. I have been much harsher this time around after what happened during Operation: Prometheus," Kurt said with a regretful look, "Thanks to Chief Mendez. It is my personal opinion that the training of Beta Company will produce better results than Alpha Company,"

Parangosky then gave a questioning look to Franklin Mendez. To which Mendez responded with, "I concur with Commander Kurt's observations," giving a brief nod along with his response.

Finally, the Admiral looked at Naomi to which she stated, "The augmentations for the Spartan-III's haven't progressed much since the original goal of Project: CHRYSANTHEMUM has already been achieved. Because of the success of the project, I have been mostly working on Colonel Ackerson's Project: CHIMERA instead,"

"I haven't heard of this Project: CHIMERA. Why wasn't I informed of this?" Kingsley asked in a slightly accusatory tone.

Margaret Parangosky then gave the man a cold glare before responding, "Because Project: CHIMERA is strictly under the Office of Naval Intelligence and as such is classified to only people required for the project. No leader at this table has been briefed on the project, and it will stay that way until the project is completed or deemed a failure,"

"We will discuss the status of the project and a few small details at the end of this meeting along with an evaluation of the subject that Project: CHIMERA has centered around," Parangosky adds in order to appease any dissatisfaction the other members of the council might have from being left in the dark.

"Moving on, that is some good news. Perhaps, we may be able to deploy the Company even earlier than Alpha if this progress continues. Has there been any worth pulling out of the main company for extra training?" the admiral asked in the same uniform cold voice that she has held since the beginning of the meeting.

Kurt looked down at his list before replying, "Yes ma'am there have been a few besides Agent Texas who has already been deployed. Catherine B-320 has shown remarkable tech skills and combat efficiency. Roland B-210 and Jonah B-283 have both proven great hunters and are competent in the field. I recommend them to be enrolled into the Head Hunter program. There are a few others, but I would like to take a little bit more time observing them,"

"Very well then we shall move on….."

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And new chapter down. Not much to say I guess so I will get right into those questions I mentioned earlier.

So first things first combat with the Covenant is confusing as fuck. Because what the weaponry does is entirely different across all forms of Halo. For example Daisy S-023 was killed in Mark 4 by 3 Needler rounds impacting her chest through her armor, meanwhile John in 2525 or 2526 during Halo: Forward Onto Dawn had any needles that hit him just shatter or literally bounce off. Then you have the books where Naomi S-010 with a single uppercut broke a Brute's neck whereas Chief was boxing Atriox and he stood there eating all of his punches. Therefore my question is basically how do you want me to portray combat? Dial the lethality of the weapons up to 11 or make them not nearly as deadly as they could be or do my own middle ground?

A little side question to the last question is what do you want to see in the combat scenes? It could be in regards to anything just throw out anything you want to see whether it's a weapon a style anything.

Now onto the star wars fic I figured I would throw out some possible details and gauge your thoughts. So I planned for the fic to center around a clone NOT a Jango clone or Palpatine or anything like that. He will be force sensitive, but his force powers will be extremely dialed down and instead would more focus on his saber skills along with other forms of combat. He will learn a few force techniques that I will probably get from KOTOR the original. He will be born a good bit before Anakin but only by like a couple years max and will be somewhat like the Middle brother between Anakin and Obi Wan and will definitely change some events. He won't be like the other Jedi so to say and will have his own ideals that represent what a Jedi is. So what do you think?

Anyway song of the day is "Guns-linger" by Avenged Sevenfold (Really like this song)

And that's about it I hope you all have a blessed Sunday and give glory to god and I will See You Star Side.

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