The Lost Mission
Part one faulty equipment

  The deep blackness of space was suddenly ripped asunder as the UNSC Damascus appeared, as if from nowhere, its black hull blocking out stars.
  Colonel William McKinney paced, waiting here on this ship was terrible, no ground under your feet, at the mercy of a bunch of space jockeys. He heard an audible explosion, and he felt the ship list heavily to the side.
  The Colonel, six feet eight inches of marine stood still, listening to the alarms piercing around him. He scratched the stubble of beard growth on his chin, the beard the same shining black as his hair.
  Will appeared far younger than he really was, appearing to be in his thirties, while really much older. The only evidence of this was the grey specks in his hair.
  “Sir, we’ve got reports coming in of covenant boarding the ship.” Wills XO, Major Sean Clark said, the Majors white hair reflecting light slightly, giving it an almost shining appearance. He stood almost a foot shorter than the Colonel, topping out at Five ten.
  “Thanks for the update Major, put that in a memo and title it shit I already know.” The ODSTs standing around him looked around anxiously, waiting for his order. Suddenly, the ship board P.A crackled.
  “Colonel McKinney, report to the bridge, have your ODSTs get to their HEVs immediately.” The soldiers around him cheered.
  “Well, y’all heard the lady, hop to it!” The men and women under his command began scurrying around, collecting weapons and ammo, policing gear, making sure all was ready for the inevitable drop, feet first into hell.
 
  Admiral Samuel Monroe, grey eyes flashing, called out, “Open fire, the main gun!” Down to Lieutenant Devont at the weapons station.
  “Firing main gun!” She called back, inputting the firing coordinates. She typed a command and the Damascus shook as it unleashed its super MAC cannon, which ran down the length of the ship, into the nearest Covenant cruiser.
 The enemy ship shuddered as the massive slug impacted it, its shield dissipated and the remaining kinetic energy tore the ship apart.
  “That’s another clean kill sir, though I do not agree with your plan of dumping excess power from the reactor to charge the MACs faster, how do you plan to maneuver, much less escape?” The shipboard A.I, Lucy commented dryly.
  “Lucy, you don’t need to agree with my plans just carry them out.” He replied, a little angrily.
  “Aye, Aye sir” She answered. She appeared to be a medium build blond, wearing a UNSC Lieutenants uniform. “Sir three cruisers closing on the port and starboard side!” She called out.
  “Devont, fire whatever is ready, push them back enough so we have time to charge the main cannon!”
  “Aye sir!”
 
  Will moved around the corner slowly, eyeing the pack of grunts with their backs to him. He threw up a quick hand sign, signaling Major Clark and Captain Samson to move quickly to the other side of the bulkhead.
  Samson, scratched his shaved head, and then raised the MA5C he carried. The captain was taller than the major, but was still dwarfed by the Colonel.
  Will held up his hand, a count down from three. When he lowered his last finger, he whispered “Fire.” The three soldiers opened up, bullets tearing into the diminutive aliens. “Finish up with single head shots.” The trio moved out, putting single gunshots into the heads of the dead squad.
  “All clear,” Samson reported “Some blood here, appears to be hunter. My guess is their farther up that way.” He said, motioning towards the sounds of automatic fire and sizzling plasma.
  “Well, let’s get moving, it sound like they need a little help.” Will said. Major Clark chuckled
  “Sir, if we’re goin’ after hunters, don’t ya’ think we’re gonna need some heavier fire power?” Will smiled.
  “Major, don’t you think I have that covered already? We’re near an armory, we’ll arm up there.” They made several turns, and ended up inside a large armory, guns on their racks and in wall cases, just sitting there ripe for the taking.
  “Alright, grab just what you can carry, and that includes ammo, Major.” Will said.
  “Awww Colonel...” He said, a pair of SPNKr rocket launchers in his arm.
  “Major, we need to haul ass to the bridge, you think we can do that lugging half the ships arsenal?”
  “No sir.” They exited the armory, heading down the hallway, following the cues painted on the floor. They rounded a corner and came upon several Covenant Elites, a few jackals, several grunts and the hunter pair they had been searching for.
   The surrounding floor was littered with Marines bodies, and a few grunt corpses. The first elite, a gold armored one, turned around quickly, and sighted the three ODSTs. Major Clark raised his rocket launcher and fired, the first rocket going a little wide, slamming into the wall directly behind the group of Elites.
  The all flew forward, the force of the explosion propelling them away from the wall. Sean fired the second rocket just as the hunter pair whirled to face them. This one was better aimed, and it slammed into one of the hulking aliens, blowing it away.
  The second one raised its large metal shield just as Will and Sam let lose a barrage of bullets. The hunter extended its arm, the one with the fuel rod cannon affixed on its arm, and fired. The green blast flew toward them, and the trio had barely any time to dive around the corner before it hurtled past, exploding against blast door behind them.
  “Grenades?” Sean asked
  “Grenades.” Will answered. They all primed frag grenades, pulling the pins. “Heave ‘em!” Will yelled, chucking his grenade around the corner. The other two followed suit then crouched, as awaiting the blast.
  The explosion was deafening, and they heard the hunter roar in anger. The turned around the corner smoothly, firing as they turned. The hunter’s arm had been blown off by the grenades, and it just stood there, stunned by the blast.
  The large beast went down in the withering amount of gun fire, finally slumping to the deck. The area around it was coated in orange blood, the walls and ceiling dripping.
  “Let’s get the hell out of here.” The colonel said. The traversed the large corpses, moving out into the long corridor.
  “C’mon, we’re almost there.” Sam said.
 
  “Sir, we’ve suffered extreme damage to decks G-N, we’re venting atmosphere. She can’t take very much more of this punishment before we have zero hull integrity.” Lieutenant Stevenson reported from the diagnostics station.
  “Keep her flying for as long as you can, before too long we’ll be going in any ways.” This earned him several surprised looks.
  “You plan on bringing the ship in, sir?” Lieutenant Devont asked him.
  “Yes lieutenant I really do.” He nodded grimly. “Before that time all of you will have left in a life boat, am I clear.” This order was received with a chorus of “no sirs.” “Ladies and gentle man, that was not a request, I am ordering you all off this boat. You all have no choice in the matter.” One of them chuckled.
  “Sir, do you really think that you by yourself will be able to get us to jump ship? We are willing to wait till your ready to come with us sir.” He sighed, feeling a tinge of happiness and guilt at the same time.
  “Fine, I’ll allow you all to stay, but if we survive this, you’re all getting a nice big court-martial.” This elicited a laugh from everyone.
  “Yes sir, thank you sir.”
  “Hey, Admiral, you call for a couple of ODSTs?” The admiral turned and saw Colonel McKinney and two of his officers walk onto the bridge.
  “About damn time Colonel, you’re late.” Will smiled
  “We were…held up, by some of our unexpected guests.”
  “Well, I’m glad you made it. We have some serious trouble on our hands, Lucy?” The A.I appeared on her Holo-tank, crossing her arms over her chest.
  “The admiral has decided to bring the Damascus in. not to mention the hundreds of covenant swarming all over the ship, oh and He hasn’t finished instituting the Cole Protocol yet.” Admiral Monroe looked down disapprovingly at the A.I who didn’t seem to notice.
  “Colonel, your priority is to get off this ship and complete your mission, and failing that, get back to Earth. You need to leave now, but first…” He pressed several buttons on the Holo-tank, and then Lucy disappeared, a small chip ejected out of the console. “Keep her safe Colonel, if you manage to get a ship, she’ll be your only way home. Now, Semper Fi, and god speed.”
  William saluted smartly. “Thank you sir”
 
  Captain Alice McBride watched as some techs from the ship and a few marines finished loading computer equipment onto her bird. The Pelican drop ship was completely stock except for the paint job she sported near the cockpit canopy.
  The silhouette of a woman with the word “Molly” had been painted on her bird without her knowledge and when she had tried to have it painted over her request had been denied several times. Though over the course of the years she had taken a liking to it and even had begun call the Pelican “Molly” affectionately.
  “You all ready to go back there?” She asked.
  “Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here!”
  “Alright Jimmy, let’s go.” Her co-pilot, James Lorne nodded
  “Right Captain.” They fired up the engines, just as the covenant broke through the ranks of marines defending the hangar doors. They stormed into the hangar firing at the fleeing Marines.
  “Wait Jimmy don’t go just yet.” She turned back to look at the guys in the Pelican. “Hey, get as many of those marines on this bird as possible!”
  “Yes ma’am!” One called back. They began calling as many marines as they could to board the Pelican while unleashing covering fire to keep the Covenants heads down. More and more marines piled onto the pelican, ducking under the Warthog LRV hanging from the back.
  “All right, we’re full, go go go!” She yelled. The Pelican lifted up off the deck, turning to face the entrance. They shot out of the hangar, out into the open blackness of space. Alice was glad to see that she had not been the only one with the idea to leave.
  All around the pelicans were leaving the hangars, Heading down towards the planet.
  “Ma’am we have coordinates for a landing zone and and rally point, we should be met by ODSTs on the ground.” She nodded
  “Good, let’s hope we make it.”
 
  Colonel William entered Hell’s waiting room, the ODST prep room. The four hundred or so ODST that made up his unit were ready and waiting.
  “All right, we have hostiles on the ship and hostiles on the ground. We are going with almost zero Intel aside from the topographic photos we’ve taken of the LZ and the surrounding area. Load up and get ready, launch on my mark.”
  The ODSTs loaded into their pods, going through the pre-drop set up. Once every status light shone green he opened up a comm. channel to everyone.
  “All right, drop in three…two…” He input the ODST anthem over the channels, a gross breach of protocol use of the comm. Put it was necessary for…moral purposes. “We are go for green, I repeat go for green, ladies and gentle men we are on our way, feet first into hell.”
  All around him he felt the shuddering of drop pods releasing, launching into the black. But his pod hadn’t launched. His should have been the first to go, yet it he hadn’t.
  “Son of a bitch.”