John-117/Late War: Difference between revisions

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John and his team departed from ''Ascendant Justice'' on the Spirit dropship. As they descended to the surface of Reach, a pair of Covenant [[CRS-class light cruiser|light cruisers]] pinged the dropship, and Polaski returned with the programmed response Cortana had given her. Three Seraph fighters swooped in close to the dropship but merely passed by before returning to the cruisers. John found himself once again noting similarities between himself and Corporal Locklear and considering what kind of Spartan he could have made. Polaski took the dropship into a deep canyon and John sent the countersign for the emergency broadcast they had received over an encrypted channel and it became apparent that it had been heard. Polaski set the Spirit down on an overhang in the canyon and John decided to investigate the signal alone for two reasons. First was he wouldn't have to worry about saving the team if the signal turned out to be a trap set by the Covenant and second, he could buy the team time to escape with Cortana back to Earth if the Covenant were waiting. As he left the dropship, his [[motion tracker]] picked up a single contact that didn't register as either UNSC or Covenant. The contact revealed itself as [[Anton-044]], one of the Spartans of [[Red Team]] that John had presumed lost when the planet had fallen. Anton brought John to the entrance of [[Camp Independence]], where we met with [[Grace-093]] and [[Li-008]]. Inside the cavern, John met [[Danforth Whitcomb|Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb]]. With the area free of Covenant forces, John radioed Haverson to bring the others from the dropship in. Admiral Whitcomb requested a report from the Chief, uncertain as to his presence after the initiation of [[Operation: RED FLAG]]. John filled the Admiral in on everything that had happened since he had left Reach: his recovery of the NAV database on Gamma Station, the ''Pillar of Autumn'''s escape from Reach, the discovery of [[Installation 04]], his encounter with [[343 Guilty Spark]], as well as the [[Flood]], the Halo's destruction and finally the capture of the Covenant flagship. Whitcomb then told John and his team what had happened on Reach: while everyone had been trying to evacuate from the planet, the Admiral's people had been working on a new superweapon , the [[NOVA bomb]]. Designed as planet-killers, Whitcomb intended to use them during space battles to level the playing field with the Covenant. However, the Covenant attack on the planet left the NOVAs on the ground and so Whitcomb decided to repurpose them, setting a timer for ten days with the objective of either stopping the Covenant on Reach or destroying their homeworld if the Covenant take the bombs away for study. Whitcomb than informed John that his last transmission from the rest of Red Team was that they had retreated to [[CASTLE Base]] but the Covenant had deployed at least a dozen companies of soldiers there and were digging into the mountain, making the survival of anyone inside extremely unlikely. Admiral Whitcomb agreed with John that they needed to make their way to the base, using the captured Covenant dropship, and get any survivors out of there, as he refused to leave anyone behind, especially not a Spartan.<ref name="HFS19">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 19''</ref>

The team returned to the Spirit dropship and they linked up with a large convoy of Covenant ships that were making their way towards [[Menachite Mountain]]. John and his team armed themselves with a variety of weapons, both UNSC and Covenant that had been retrieved from Camp Independence. John took five magazines for his [[MA5B assault rifle]], as well as a [[M90 shotgun|shotgun]] and three fragmentation grenades. The convoy of ships made their way towards where Menachite Mountain had once stood, now completely razed aside from a single hole that penetrated into the rock, and a [[Covenant cruiser]] hovered above with it's [[gravity lift]] activated. On Whitcomb's order, Polaski directed the Spirit dropship into the gravity lift and they were pushed into the hole. At the bottom of the hole, the dropship emerged into a gargantuan circular room three kilometers across with a holographic display of a sun and a number of moons across the ceiling. They noted a contingent of Covenant soldiers, mostly Unggoy that appeared to be clearing a cave-in and weren't expecting them. With Li remaining in the dropship with Polaski, the rest of the team left the dropship and promptly engaged the Covenant in the room. While Grace and Locklear used long-range explosive ordnance to clear out the majority of the surprised Covenant, John and the rest of the team closed the distance with their foes. John and Anton used plasma grenades to blow apart a [[Kig-Yar]] phalanx formation before Grace used her [[Type-33 fuel rod gun|fuel rod gun]] to kill the survivors. Shortly afterward, Spartans [[Frederic-104]], [[Kelly-087]] and [[~~Will~~-043]] revealed themselves. After a brief reunion, Fred ushered [[Catherine Halsey|Dr Catherine Halsey]] into the room. John was briefly struck with emotion, he had never thought he would see her again. Their reunion was short-lived however, as a massive force of thousands of Covenant soldiers: Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili and Mgalekgolo gestalts, were revealed to be present in the room, crowding the twelve tiered galleries on the circumference of the room. The team had failed to detect them before due to all the dust and haze in the room. When a pair of Mgalekgolo opened fire on the gathered team with their [[assault cannon]]s, the Spartans formed a phalanx protecting the unarmored members of the team. Kelly took the full brunt of the fire, collapsing to the ground. In response, the rest of the Covenant opened fire, but not at the humans as John initially thought, but instead at the Mgalekgolo that had fired the first shots. In an instant, the pair was vaporized by the thousands of energy weapons fired at them. A golden-armored [[Sangheili]] warrior instructed that no-one was to fire at the "[[Forerunner crystal|holy light]]". Sangheili and Kig-Yar used [[Covenant rope|ropes]] to descend to the bottom of the room. The team opened fire, John ordering them into dispersion pattern Delta while he picked Kelly up off the floor. The team began to lose ground as waves of Kig-Yar used their [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|wrist-mounted energy shields]] to prevent grenades from being used against them while others moved in tradional phalanxes shielding their Sangheili masters. Fortunately, Polaski arrived and picked the team up, and they managed to make their escape. When the Covenant cruiser intensified its gravity lift, attempting to push the dropship back down, Whitcomb ordered Li to fire several rockets up toward the ship. Upon being exposed to the gravity lift, the Forerunner crystal in Dr Halsey's possession underwent a dramatic change: the top half split along its facets and opened apart like a flower blossom, the sapphire petals undulated and the facets spun in a geometric dance, reshaping the crystal and changing its color to a cool green. The gravity lift was completely nullified by the crystal, allowing Polaski to maneuver the dropship out of Menachite Mountain.<ref name="HFS22">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 22''</ref>

The team returned to the Spirit dropship and they linked up with a large convoy of Covenant ships that were making their way towards [[Menachite Mountain]]. John and his team armed themselves with a variety of weapons, both UNSC and Covenant that had been retrieved from Camp Independence. John took five magazines for his [[MA5B assault rifle]], as well as a [[M90 shotgun|shotgun]] and three fragmentation grenades. The convoy of ships made their way towards where Menachite Mountain had once stood, now completely razed aside from a single hole that penetrated into the rock, and a [[Covenant cruiser]] hovered above with it's [[gravity lift]] activated. On Whitcomb's order, Polaski directed the Spirit dropship into the gravity lift and they were pushed into the hole. At the bottom of the hole, the dropship emerged into a gargantuan circular room three kilometers across with a holographic display of a sun and a number of moons across the ceiling. They noted a contingent of Covenant soldiers, mostly Unggoy that appeared to be clearing a cave-in and weren't expecting them. With Li remaining in the dropship with Polaski, the rest of the team left the dropship and promptly engaged the Covenant in the room. While Grace and Locklear used long-range explosive ordnance to clear out the majority of the surprised Covenant, John and the rest of the team closed the distance with their foes. John and Anton used plasma grenades to blow apart a [[Kig-Yar]] phalanx formation before Grace used her [[Type-33 fuel rod gun|fuel rod gun]] to kill the survivors. Shortly afterward, Spartans [[Frederic-104]], [[Kelly-087]] and [[William-043]] revealed themselves. After a brief reunion, Fred ushered [[Catherine Halsey|Dr Catherine Halsey]] into the room. John was briefly struck with emotion, he had never thought he would see her again. Their reunion was short-lived however, as a massive force of thousands of Covenant soldiers: Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili and Mgalekgolo gestalts, were revealed to be present in the room, crowding the twelve tiered galleries on the circumference of the room. The team had failed to detect them before due to all the dust and haze in the room. When a pair of Mgalekgolo opened fire on the gathered team with their [[assault cannon]]s, the Spartans formed a phalanx protecting the unarmored members of the team. Kelly took the full brunt of the fire, collapsing to the ground. In response, the rest of the Covenant opened fire, but not at the humans as John initially thought, but instead at the Mgalekgolo that had fired the first shots. In an instant, the pair was vaporized by the thousands of energy weapons fired at them. A golden-armored [[Sangheili]] warrior instructed that no-one was to fire at the "[[Forerunner crystal|holy light]]". Sangheili and Kig-Yar used [[Covenant rope|ropes]] to descend to the bottom of the room. The team opened fire, John ordering them into dispersion pattern Delta while he picked Kelly up off the floor. The team began to lose ground as waves of Kig-Yar used their [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|wrist-mounted energy shields]] to prevent grenades from being used against them while others moved in tradional phalanxes shielding their Sangheili masters. Fortunately, Polaski arrived and picked the team up, and they managed to make their escape. When the Covenant cruiser intensified its gravity lift, attempting to push the dropship back down, Whitcomb ordered Li to fire several rockets up toward the ship. Upon being exposed to the gravity lift, the Forerunner crystal in Dr Halsey's possession underwent a dramatic change: the top half split along its facets and opened apart like a flower blossom, the sapphire petals undulated and the facets spun in a geometric dance, reshaping the crystal and changing its color to a cool green. The gravity lift was completely nullified by the crystal, allowing Polaski to maneuver the dropship out of Menachite Mountain.<ref name="HFS22">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 22''</ref>

Once clear of the mountain, it became clear that large numbers of Covenant craft had converged on their position. Flocks of [[Type-26 Banshee|Banshees]] and [[Seraph]]s circled while an additional six Covenant cruisers had arrived in addition to the first one. Admiral Whitcomb assured the team that they wouldn't fire, as they didn't wish to destroy the crystal in their possession. John warned Whitcomb that they needed to rendezvous with Cortana at 0715 hours, giving them only twenty minutes. They made haste as quickly as the Spirit dropship would go. As they left, a number of Seraph fighters attempted to box them in however they soon peeled apart when Polaski moved to ram them. As they broke orbit, they noticed that there was far more Covenant ships than there had been previously, as well the husks of many destroyed vessels, obliterated by Cortana during a naval skirmish while they had been planet-side. It became apparent that the Covenant were not willing to give up, legions of [[Sangheili Ranger]]s, engineering drones and singleships were inbound from all directions. Worse they were at the [[Landing zone|LZ]] and the ''Ascendant Justice'' was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the ship appeared from slipspace - now piggybacking the {{Class|Paris|heavy frigate}} {{UNSCShip|Gettysburg}}. The dropship managed to make it into ''Ascendant Justice'''s launch bay shortly before Cortana moved the hybrid-ship to slipspace, destroying two of the Covenant cruisers as she left.

John-117/Late War: Difference between revisions

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 John and his team departed from ''Ascendant Justice'' on the Spirit dropship. As they descended to the surface of Reach, a pair of Covenant [[CRS-class light cruiser|light cruisers]] pinged the dropship, and Polaski returned with the programmed response Cortana had given her. Three Seraph fighters swooped in close to the dropship but merely passed by before returning to the cruisers. John found himself once again noting similarities between himself and Corporal Locklear and considering what kind of Spartan he could have made. Polaski took the dropship into a deep canyon and John sent the countersign for the emergency broadcast they had received over an encrypted channel and it became apparent that it had been heard. Polaski set the Spirit down on an overhang in the canyon and John decided to investigate the signal alone for two reasons. First was he wouldn't have to worry about saving the team if the signal turned out to be a trap set by the Covenant and second, he could buy the team time to escape with Cortana back to Earth if the Covenant were waiting. As he left the dropship, his [[motion tracker]] picked up a single contact that didn't register as either UNSC or Covenant. The contact revealed itself as [[Anton-044]], one of the Spartans of [[Red Team]] that John had presumed lost when the planet had fallen. Anton brought John to the entrance of [[Camp Independence]], where we met with [[Grace-093]] and [[Li-008]]. Inside the cavern, John met [[Danforth Whitcomb|Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb]]. With the area free of Covenant forces, John radioed Haverson to bring the others from the dropship in. Admiral Whitcomb requested a report from the Chief, uncertain as to his presence after the initiation of [[Operation: RED FLAG]]. John filled the Admiral in on everything that had happened since he had left Reach: his recovery of the NAV database on Gamma Station, the ''Pillar of Autumn'''s escape from Reach, the discovery of [[Installation 04]], his encounter with [[343 Guilty Spark]], as well as the [[Flood]], the Halo's destruction and finally the capture of the Covenant flagship. Whitcomb then told John and his team what had happened on Reach: while everyone had been trying to evacuate from the planet, the Admiral's people had been working on a new superweapon , the [[NOVA bomb]]. Designed as planet-killers, Whitcomb intended to use them during space battles to level the playing field with the Covenant. However, the Covenant attack on the planet left the NOVAs on the ground and so Whitcomb decided to repurpose them, setting a timer for ten days with the objective of either stopping the Covenant on Reach or destroying their homeworld if the Covenant take the bombs away for study. Whitcomb than informed John that his last transmission from the rest of Red Team was that they had retreated to [[CASTLE Base]] but the Covenant had deployed at least a dozen companies of soldiers there and were digging into the mountain, making the survival of anyone inside extremely unlikely. Admiral Whitcomb agreed with John that they needed to make their way to the base, using the captured Covenant dropship, and get any survivors out of there, as he refused to leave anyone behind, especially not a Spartan.<ref name="HFS19">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 19''</ref>
-The team returned to the Spirit dropship and they linked up with a large convoy of Covenant ships that were making their way towards [[Menachite Mountain]]. John and his team armed themselves with a variety of weapons, both UNSC and Covenant that had been retrieved from Camp Independence. John took five magazines for his [[MA5B assault rifle]], as well as a [[M90 shotgun|shotgun]] and three fragmentation grenades. The convoy of ships made their way towards where Menachite Mountain had once stood, now completely razed aside from a single hole that penetrated into the rock, and a [[Covenant cruiser]] hovered above with it's [[gravity lift]] activated. On Whitcomb's order, Polaski directed the Spirit dropship into the gravity lift and they were pushed into the hole. At the bottom of the hole, the dropship emerged into a gargantuan circular room three kilometers across with a holographic display of a sun and a number of moons across the ceiling. They noted a contingent of Covenant soldiers, mostly Unggoy that appeared to be clearing a cave-in and weren't expecting them. With Li remaining in the dropship with Polaski, the rest of the team left the dropship and promptly engaged the Covenant in the room. While Grace and Locklear used long-range explosive ordnance to clear out the majority of the surprised Covenant, John and the rest of the team closed the distance with their foes. John and Anton used plasma grenades to blow apart a [[Kig-Yar]] phalanx formation before Grace used her [[Type-33 fuel rod gun|fuel rod gun]] to kill the survivors. Shortly afterward, Spartans [[Frederic-104]], [[Kelly-087]] and [[Will-043]] revealed themselves. After a brief reunion, Fred ushered [[Catherine Halsey|Dr Catherine Halsey]] into the room. John was briefly struck with emotion, he had never thought he would see her again. Their reunion was short-lived however, as a massive force of thousands of Covenant soldiers: Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili and Mgalekgolo gestalts, were revealed to be present in the room, crowding the twelve tiered galleries on the circumference of the room. The team had failed to detect them before due to all the dust and haze in the room. When a pair of Mgalekgolo opened fire on the gathered team with their [[assault cannon]]s, the Spartans formed a phalanx protecting the unarmored members of the team. Kelly took the full brunt of the fire, collapsing to the ground. In response, the rest of the Covenant opened fire, but not at the humans as John initially thought, but instead at the Mgalekgolo that had fired the first shots. In an instant, the pair was vaporized by the thousands of energy weapons fired at them. A golden-armored [[Sangheili]] warrior instructed that no-one was to fire at the "[[Forerunner crystal|holy light]]". Sangheili and Kig-Yar used [[Covenant rope|ropes]] to descend to the bottom of the room. The team opened fire, John ordering them into dispersion pattern Delta while he picked Kelly up off the floor. The team began to lose ground as waves of Kig-Yar used their [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|wrist-mounted energy shields]] to prevent grenades from being used against them while others moved in tradional phalanxes shielding their Sangheili masters. Fortunately, Polaski arrived and picked the team up, and they managed to make their escape. When the Covenant cruiser intensified its gravity lift, attempting to push the dropship back down, Whitcomb ordered Li to fire several rockets up toward the ship. Upon being exposed to the gravity lift, the Forerunner crystal in Dr Halsey's possession underwent a dramatic change: the top half split along its facets and opened apart like a flower blossom, the sapphire petals undulated and the facets spun in a geometric dance, reshaping the crystal and changing its color to a cool green. The gravity lift was completely nullified by the crystal, allowing Polaski to maneuver the dropship out of Menachite Mountain.<ref name="HFS22">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 22''</ref>
+The team returned to the Spirit dropship and they linked up with a large convoy of Covenant ships that were making their way towards [[Menachite Mountain]]. John and his team armed themselves with a variety of weapons, both UNSC and Covenant that had been retrieved from Camp Independence. John took five magazines for his [[MA5B assault rifle]], as well as a [[M90 shotgun|shotgun]] and three fragmentation grenades. The convoy of ships made their way towards where Menachite Mountain had once stood, now completely razed aside from a single hole that penetrated into the rock, and a [[Covenant cruiser]] hovered above with it's [[gravity lift]] activated. On Whitcomb's order, Polaski directed the Spirit dropship into the gravity lift and they were pushed into the hole. At the bottom of the hole, the dropship emerged into a gargantuan circular room three kilometers across with a holographic display of a sun and a number of moons across the ceiling. They noted a contingent of Covenant soldiers, mostly Unggoy that appeared to be clearing a cave-in and weren't expecting them. With Li remaining in the dropship with Polaski, the rest of the team left the dropship and promptly engaged the Covenant in the room. While Grace and Locklear used long-range explosive ordnance to clear out the majority of the surprised Covenant, John and the rest of the team closed the distance with their foes. John and Anton used plasma grenades to blow apart a [[Kig-Yar]] phalanx formation before Grace used her [[Type-33 fuel rod gun|fuel rod gun]] to kill the survivors. Shortly afterward, Spartans [[Frederic-104]], [[Kelly-087]] and [[William-043]] revealed themselves. After a brief reunion, Fred ushered [[Catherine Halsey|Dr Catherine Halsey]] into the room. John was briefly struck with emotion, he had never thought he would see her again. Their reunion was short-lived however, as a massive force of thousands of Covenant soldiers: Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili and Mgalekgolo gestalts, were revealed to be present in the room, crowding the twelve tiered galleries on the circumference of the room. The team had failed to detect them before due to all the dust and haze in the room. When a pair of Mgalekgolo opened fire on the gathered team with their [[assault cannon]]s, the Spartans formed a phalanx protecting the unarmored members of the team. Kelly took the full brunt of the fire, collapsing to the ground. In response, the rest of the Covenant opened fire, but not at the humans as John initially thought, but instead at the Mgalekgolo that had fired the first shots. In an instant, the pair was vaporized by the thousands of energy weapons fired at them. A golden-armored [[Sangheili]] warrior instructed that no-one was to fire at the "[[Forerunner crystal|holy light]]". Sangheili and Kig-Yar used [[Covenant rope|ropes]] to descend to the bottom of the room. The team opened fire, John ordering them into dispersion pattern Delta while he picked Kelly up off the floor. The team began to lose ground as waves of Kig-Yar used their [[Kig-Yar point defense gauntlet|wrist-mounted energy shields]] to prevent grenades from being used against them while others moved in tradional phalanxes shielding their Sangheili masters. Fortunately, Polaski arrived and picked the team up, and they managed to make their escape. When the Covenant cruiser intensified its gravity lift, attempting to push the dropship back down, Whitcomb ordered Li to fire several rockets up toward the ship. Upon being exposed to the gravity lift, the Forerunner crystal in Dr Halsey's possession underwent a dramatic change: the top half split along its facets and opened apart like a flower blossom, the sapphire petals undulated and the facets spun in a geometric dance, reshaping the crystal and changing its color to a cool green. The gravity lift was completely nullified by the crystal, allowing Polaski to maneuver the dropship out of Menachite Mountain.<ref name="HFS22">''[[Halo: First Strike]]'', ''Chapter 22''</ref>
 Once clear of the mountain, it became clear that large numbers of Covenant craft had converged on their position. Flocks of [[Type-26 Banshee|Banshees]] and [[Seraph]]s circled while an additional six Covenant cruisers had arrived in addition to the first one. Admiral Whitcomb assured the team that they wouldn't fire, as they didn't wish to destroy the crystal in their possession. John warned Whitcomb that they needed to rendezvous with Cortana at 0715 hours, giving them only twenty minutes. They made haste as quickly as the Spirit dropship would go. As they left, a number of Seraph fighters attempted to box them in however they soon peeled apart when Polaski moved to ram them. As they broke orbit, they noticed that there was far more Covenant ships than there had been previously, as well the husks of many destroyed vessels, obliterated by Cortana during a naval skirmish while they had been planet-side. It became apparent that the Covenant were not willing to give up, legions of [[Sangheili Ranger]]s, engineering drones and singleships were inbound from all directions. Worse they were at the [[Landing zone|LZ]] and the ''Ascendant Justice'' was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, the ship appeared from slipspace - now piggybacking the {{Class|Paris|heavy frigate}} {{UNSCShip|Gettysburg}}. The dropship managed to make it into ''Ascendant Justice'''s launch bay shortly before Cortana moved the hybrid-ship to slipspace, destroying two of the Covenant cruisers as she left.