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Operation: RETRIBUTION: Difference between revisions
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About a hundred paces into the adit the teams came upon a charging station stocked with vehicles used for mining.<ref name="R24"/> A [[JOTUN]] [[Arilus]] and a [[Traxus]] [[powder wagon]] both bore tires that had been recently slashed, and someone had evidently taken [[laser drill]]s from the Arilus' [[Wikipedia:Drilling jumbo|drilling jumbo]]. The powder wagon's loading hatch had been jimmied, which indicated to Veta and the Spartans that [[Papa-10]] had been looking for explosives. Newly-made tire tracks from a missing vehicle also led away from an empty equipment bay deeper into the adit. The map of the mine Veta had acquired showed that there should be a explosives storage magazine about two-hundred meters further ahead of them. At that moment, however, she and the others were suddenly thrown off their feet by a powerful pressure wave. The blast knocked out Ash's [[HUD]], disabled Olivia's mic, and rendered the photoreactive panels on Mark's SPI armor incapable of camouflaging him. Fred, Kelly, and Linda confirmed in rapid succession that no hostile contacts were immediately present and Damon suggested that a [[Wikipedia:Gelignite|gelignite]] packet had been made into a makeshift grenade. And explosions within the confines of the mine's narrow passageways would naturally result in very focused pressure waves like the one that had just struck them all. Mark and Ash joined the [[Spartan-II]]s in pursuing the source of the blast while Veta and Olivia hung back somewhat to provide counter-ambush cover. Olivia occasionally made sure diverting passages were clear as they moved forward, beginning with an access tunnel leading to Adit 1 on their left and then continuing with multiple [[Wikipedia:Stoping|stopes]] that had been dug to a large cavern where the ore body had once been extracted by the mining operation. Veta eventually joined her in this endeavor, as the two took turns clearing the many stopes before continuing behind the others. At last, the teams came upon both survivors of Papa-10 and their Jiralhanae pursuers, who had cornered the humans at the site of a cave-in. Both sides appeared to be out of ammo, as the Brutes were chucking rocks at the humans who were defending themselves with laser drills. Blue Team moved to eliminate the Jiralhanae while Mark and Ash went to relieve and resupply the other ONI team.<ref name="R24"/> The Jiralhanae realized what was happening as soon as the Spartans began to fire. Fred was struck in his helmet by a large boulder hurled at him by [[Castor]], who had been hidden within the darkness of a stope Fred had been trying to clear.<ref name="R25">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 25''</ref> The Papa-10 operatives took this opportunity to make a move of their own as well. The massive ten-ton [[Wikipedia:LHD (load, haul, dump machine)|load, haul, dump machine]] the three had hijacked lurched forward and ran right over the [[MJOLNIR]]-clad Spartan without a second thought given by its operators for him. Olivia managed to hit the [[dokab]] with a few shots as he jumped onto the back of the vehicle.<ref name="R26">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 26''</ref> Veta spied one of the two men in the LHD's loading bucket preparing a gelignite grenade, but still gave them the benefit of the doubt, as she could also see that Olivia was shooting at someone else. Lopis switched off her SPI armor's [[active camouflage]] and ran into the path of the oncoming LHD in the hopes that she could signal its driver to stop. When instead she accelerated and raised its loader bucket to shield herself from attack, Veta instantly knew that Papa-10 was not friendly. She could do nothing else to save herself from the LHD barreling down on her but to throw herself prone in the center of the adit. The LHD passed overtop of her harmlessly, but not before she grabbed a cross member on its underside with both hands to be yanked along for the ride.<ref name="R24">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 24''</ref> | About a hundred paces into the adit the teams came upon a charging station stocked with vehicles used for mining.<ref name="R24"/> A [[JOTUN]] [[Arilus]] and a [[Traxus]] [[powder wagon]] both bore tires that had been recently slashed, and someone had evidently taken [[laser drill]]s from the Arilus' [[Wikipedia:Drilling jumbo|drilling jumbo]]. The powder wagon's loading hatch had been jimmied, which indicated to Veta and the Spartans that [[Papa-10]] had been looking for explosives. Newly-made tire tracks from a missing vehicle also led away from an empty equipment bay deeper into the adit. The map of the mine Veta had acquired showed that there should be a explosives storage magazine about two-hundred meters further ahead of them. At that moment, however, she and the others were suddenly thrown off their feet by a powerful pressure wave. The blast knocked out Ash's [[HUD]], disabled Olivia's mic, and rendered the photoreactive panels on Mark's SPI armor incapable of camouflaging him. Fred, Kelly, and Linda confirmed in rapid succession that no hostile contacts were immediately present and Damon suggested that a [[Wikipedia:Gelignite|gelignite]] packet had been made into a makeshift grenade. And explosions within the confines of the mine's narrow passageways would naturally result in very focused pressure waves like the one that had just struck them all. Mark and Ash joined the [[Spartan-II]]s in pursuing the source of the blast while Veta and Olivia hung back somewhat to provide counter-ambush cover. Olivia occasionally made sure diverting passages were clear as they moved forward, beginning with an access tunnel leading to Adit 1 on their left and then continuing with multiple [[Wikipedia:Stoping|stopes]] that had been dug to a large cavern where the ore body had once been extracted by the mining operation. Veta eventually joined her in this endeavor, as the two took turns clearing the many stopes before continuing behind the others. At last, the teams came upon both survivors of Papa-10 and their Jiralhanae pursuers, who had cornered the humans at the site of a cave-in. Both sides appeared to be out of ammo, as the Brutes were chucking rocks at the humans who were defending themselves with laser drills. Blue Team moved to eliminate the Jiralhanae while Mark and Ash went to relieve and resupply the other ONI team.<ref name="R24"/> The Jiralhanae realized what was happening as soon as the Spartans began to fire. Fred was struck in his helmet by a large boulder hurled at him by [[Castor]], who had been hidden within the darkness of a stope Fred had been trying to clear.<ref name="R25">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 25''</ref> The Papa-10 operatives took this opportunity to make a move of their own as well. The massive ten-ton [[Wikipedia:LHD (load, haul, dump machine)|load, haul, dump machine]] the three had hijacked lurched forward and ran right over the [[MJOLNIR]]-clad Spartan without a second thought given by its operators for him. Olivia managed to hit the [[dokab]] with a few shots as he jumped onto the back of the vehicle.<ref name="R26">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 26''</ref> Veta spied one of the two men in the LHD's loading bucket preparing a gelignite grenade, but still gave them the benefit of the doubt, as she could also see that Olivia was shooting at someone else. Lopis switched off her SPI armor's [[active camouflage]] and ran into the path of the oncoming LHD in the hopes that she could signal its driver to stop. When instead she accelerated and raised its loader bucket to shield herself from attack, Veta instantly knew that Papa-10 was not friendly. She could do nothing else to save herself from the LHD barreling down on her but to throw herself prone in the center of the adit. The LHD passed overtop of her harmlessly, but not before she grabbed a cross member on its underside with both hands to be yanked along for the ride.<ref name="R24">''[[Halo: Retribution]]'', ''Chapter 24''</ref> | ||
Improvised gelignite grenades were used to cover the LHD's escape as Fred wearily recovered from being run over.<ref name="R25"/> He had sustained injuries to his right collarbone, ribs, and arm but had received a [[biofoam]] injection from his armor. The armor itself had lost all [[energy shielding]] capabilities, was not allowing Damon to reboot, had nonfunctional reactive circuits, excess pressure bleeding from the [[hydrostatic gel]] layer, and had suffered the loss of the cooling system for its compact fusion reactor. An injured Jiralhanae was attempting to drag him into a | Improvised gelignite grenades were used to cover the LHD's escape as Fred wearily recovered from being run over.<ref name="R25"/> He had sustained injuries to his right collarbone, ribs, and arm but had received a [[biofoam]] injection from his armor. The armor itself had lost all [[energy shielding]] capabilities, was not allowing Damon to reboot, had nonfunctional reactive circuits, excess pressure bleeding from the [[hydrostatic gel]] layer, and had suffered the loss of the cooling system for its compact fusion reactor. An injured Jiralhanae was attempting to drag him into a stope to finish him off with a rock, but Fred overcame the gel layer's pressure to fight back by headbutting the Brute, as his [[assault rifle]] had been crushed and reaching across his body for an [[M6C magnum]] that was likely clogged with mud would have alerted his enemy to what he was doing. The Keeper still managed to smash the rock over the Spartan's head, but two well-placed kicks allowed Kelly to land a line of shots from her [[MA5K]] that killed the alien. Fred warned her concerning the imminent overheating of his armor's reactor so that she proceeded to help him shut it down. [[File:Castor.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Castor is one of the Keepers of the One Freedom's leading dokabs. Following Operation: RETRIBUTION, he was left alone and injured but alive on Meridian's surface.<ref name="R27"/>]]The other Spartans confirmed that three of the four Keepers had been killed but that the one that surprised Fred had seemingly gotten away. Veta's hitching of a ride on the underside of the LHD had also gone unnoticed, so her status was unknown to them.<ref name="R25"/> | ||
Meanwhile, the LHD was being driven deeper into the mine. Its driver had taken two sharp left turns so that it now was within Adit 1.<ref name="R26"/> As Veta clung to its belly, she tried to transmit an update to her squadmates, but the attempt was in vain, given the extensive amounts of rock between they and her. She had spied Castor's foot hanging off the back of the LHD, but after it disappeared she began to painstakingly climb backwards toward the vehicle's rear. Through letting her SPI-clad feet drag for a but on the ground, Veta managed to flip over and hoist herself onto the back. She quickly climbed into the bed of an ore box to keep herself from flying off of the speeding machine. Within, she spied three cryo-jars and the wounded dokab, though he did not see her. His attention was on the other humans and it wasn't long before he had waited long enough to spring his attack. Despite his injuries, he crawled out of the box and into the loading bucket occupied by the two with laser drills. Veta rushed to pack [[C-12]] around the jars so that she could destroy them if necessary while Castor battled the others. The LHD hit a corner, which sent one of the operatives flying out of the bucket to be crushed under the LHD's tires. Castor appropriated the dead man's drill but could not dispatch the other with it before the driver tipped them both back into the ore box where Veta was. Castor got his kill anyways, slicing the man in half. Lopis remained as still as she could, but the mud on her armor made her presence obvious to the Jiralhanae in spite of her active camouflage. Realizing she couldn't hide, she chose to deactivate the camo and drew her mud-caked inoperable magnum on Castor in the hopes that he couldn't tell it wouldn't fire. As they fast approached the mine's exit, Veta motioned to Castor to jump out, having fully resolved at this point to destroy the jars and the organs within them. Castor did not take seem to kindly to her signal of a truce in light of their common enemy, but as he raised the drill a support beam caught him on the back of his head. As the LHD careened into open air and landed to race across the mine's tailings basin, its driver intentionally trying to shake off her uninvited passengers, Castor was tossed from the vehicle.<ref name="R26"/> Veta soon followed by her own design, abandoning the machine for the safety of firm ground beneath her feet. The LHD slowed to a stop next to a Pinnacle Station utility skiff. [[Bartalan Craddog]] descended its ramp and pointed the LHD's driver to pay attention to Veta behind them. The driver snatched Craddog's assult rifle and aimed it at her, but Veta detonated the C-12 at that moment. The LHD, the two humans, the skiff, and the cryo jars were all torn asunder and engulfed in a fiery explosion.<ref name="R26"/> | Meanwhile, the LHD was being driven deeper into the mine. Its driver had taken two sharp left turns so that it now was within Adit 1.<ref name="R26"/> As Veta clung to its belly, she tried to transmit an update to her squadmates, but the attempt was in vain, given the extensive amounts of rock between they and her. She had spied Castor's foot hanging off the back of the LHD, but after it disappeared she began to painstakingly climb backwards toward the vehicle's rear. Through letting her SPI-clad feet drag for a but on the ground, Veta managed to flip over and hoist herself onto the back. She quickly climbed into the bed of an ore box to keep herself from flying off of the speeding machine. Within, she spied three cryo-jars and the wounded dokab, though he did not see her. His attention was on the other humans and it wasn't long before he had waited long enough to spring his attack. Despite his injuries, he crawled out of the box and into the loading bucket occupied by the two with laser drills. Veta rushed to pack [[C-12]] around the jars so that she could destroy them if necessary while Castor battled the others. The LHD hit a corner, which sent one of the operatives flying out of the bucket to be crushed under the LHD's tires. Castor appropriated the dead man's drill but could not dispatch the other with it before the driver tipped them both back into the ore box where Veta was. Castor got his kill anyways, slicing the man in half. Lopis remained as still as she could, but the mud on her armor made her presence obvious to the Jiralhanae in spite of her active camouflage. Realizing she couldn't hide, she chose to deactivate the camo and drew her mud-caked inoperable magnum on Castor in the hopes that he couldn't tell it wouldn't fire. As they fast approached the mine's exit, Veta motioned to Castor to jump out, having fully resolved at this point to destroy the jars and the organs within them. Castor did not take seem to kindly to her signal of a truce in light of their common enemy, but as he raised the drill a support beam caught him on the back of his head. As the LHD careened into open air and landed to race across the mine's tailings basin, its driver intentionally trying to shake off her uninvited passengers, Castor was tossed from the vehicle.<ref name="R26"/> Veta soon followed by her own design, abandoning the machine for the safety of firm ground beneath her feet. The LHD slowed to a stop next to a Pinnacle Station utility skiff. [[Bartalan Craddog]] descended its ramp and pointed the LHD's driver to pay attention to Veta behind them. The driver snatched Craddog's assult rifle and aimed it at her, but Veta detonated the C-12 at that moment. The LHD, the two humans, the skiff, and the cryo jars were all torn asunder and engulfed in a fiery explosion.<ref name="R26"/> | ||