Kelly-087: Difference between revisions

Nearing the provided waypoint, the fog had lowered to shoulder-height, allowing the Spartans to discover that the ''Starry Night'' was largely intact, but sat atop a large avalanche about seven hundred meters up the quarry wall. Fred spotted a Covenant intrusion corvette sliding over the rim of the quarry and descending over the prowler. Kelly theorized that they may be trying to recover the ''Starry Night'' themselves. Realizing the danger, John declared to his teammates that the mission was no longer a rescue mission. Their primary objective was now to deny the Covenant from recovering the prowler and the data stored within. Then, John opened the command channel again and relayed this information to Crowther, who echoed John's concerns and insisted that they could not let the Covenant take possession of the ''Starry Night''. The vessel's [[navigation computer]] and other onboard data devices could reveal the locations of UNSC outposts, entire force deployments, or worse. Crowther asked Nyeto if there was any way that the prowler's [[Fury tactical nuclear weapon|nuclear]] [[self-destruct]] system could be remotely activated, to which the lieutenant commander responded in the affirmative. However, there were only three positions that had access to that ability. The first two were the flight commander and wing commander, both of which were roles held by Captain Ascot, who was either dead or unable to be reached aboard the ''Starry Night''. The final person with the ability to remotely detonate the prowler was the captain of the ''Vanishing Point'', which was holding station two planetary orbits out from Seoba. At that distance, it would take nearly an hour for the request to be sent to the cruiser and for the return signal to arrive. By then, the Covenant might already have retrieved sensitive data from the wrecked prowler. Crowther began to reluctantly order the Spartans to prevent the ''Starry Night''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s capture, but John cut him off, assuring him that they would not fail. The Spartan requested that Task Force Yama assist them by keeping the assaulting corvettes off their backs. Nyeto began to say that their prowlers were not designed for ship-to-ship combat when Crowther interrupted him, promising that they would find a way. Crowther started to tell John to standby for instructions on how to manually activate the prowler's self-destruct, but he reassured the colonel that his Spartans already knew how to activate a [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]].{{Ref/Reuse|HSS14}}

Just then, a [[Type-32 Ghost|Ghost]] appeared on John's motion tracker, firing at him through the fog. Once it showed itself, he killed its [[Jiralhanae]] driver with his MA5B's [[M301 grenade launcher|underbarrel grenade launcher]]. Shortly after that was handled, more Ghosts entered the quarry, so John ordered Green and Gold Teams to deal with them as Blue Team followed him. At this point, the looming intrusion corvette had begun deploying EVA-equipped Sangheili, Jiralhanae, and Kig-Yar warriors via gravity lift, with the first already looking for a way inside the ship. Another corvette crested the edge of the quarry, firing its main cannon on the Spartans. [[Grace-093]] took a hit, and John requested an ETA on Nyeto's support. The lieutenant commander told him not to worry, as it was nearly set up. However, John realized it would be too late for that and he ordered Blue Team to simultaneously fire on the avalanche just below the ''Starry Night'' with their grenade launchers to cause the vessel to fall to quarry floor and prevent the Covenant from gaining entrance. Despite Kelly and Fred's uneasiness, all members of the team acknowledged and followed his order. As they feared, the volley of [[grenade]]s worked a bit too well, bringing the avalanche down on top of the Spartans, but successfully delaying the Covenant in their boarding attempt.{{Ref/Reuse|HSS14}}

 

Six of the twelve Spartans were buried under the flow of ice, including Kelly and John. As he and the others worked on freeing themselves, John gave Fred operational command, ordering him to board and destroy the ''Starry Night''. Fred, Linda, and [[Malcolm-059]] prepared to enter the prowler while John once again accessed the command channel, demanding that Nyeto's support arrive immediately. The other mobile Spartans of Gold and Green Teams fended off seemingly endless waves of Covenant ground vehicles, and Nyeto's support finally arrived in the form of prowler strafing runs that destroyed two nearby intrusion corvettes. Meanwhile, Fred's team had boarded the ''Starry Night'', secured a handful of survivors, and began manually arming the vessel's [[Fury tactical nuclear weapon]]. At this point, John had freed himself from the avalanche, informing the others of approaching Covenant boarders and that the looming intrusion corvette was preparing to recover the prowler via its gravity lift. After dealing with the boarders, Linda began the nuke's thirty-second countdown sequence. The three-Spartan team and the survivors boarded the ''Starry Night''{{'}}s escape pod and launched, soaring through Seoba's low gravity and out of the blast radius. By the time John warned the other Spartans about the nuke, Kelly had already extricated herself from the ice. She, along with the rest of the Spartans, made it away safely before the explosion, which consumed both the ''Starry Night'' and the intrusion corvette. Colonel Crowther had some prowlers land and retrieve them after the [[electromagnetic pulse]] had cleared.{{Ref/Novel|Id=HSS15|HSS|Chapter=15}}