The Spartan Effect

A Monument to All Your Sins

Halo's control room, 3:13

      The Batarian strike team had been deployed to secure the Ring's visible structures hours ago, and so far, they had lost contact with four other teams. One followed a group of human spec ops into a locked facility and went dark. Another was supposed to guard the entrance to another towering structure while the last entered. None had checked in, and the fleet that brought them here was being torn apart. They had tried twice to get evacuated, but both times, a ship big enough to get them came in, and a pair of black fighters blew it apart. The things looked hardly any more complex than a triangle with wings, but they were swift, and from how the shuttles exploded, they also had some intense firepower.

     Now, they had retreated as far into the Installation as possible, though they only made it through a kilometer of the wide hallways before coming across a locked door. The hallways were over fifty feet wide, and the doors they passed through spanned the entire width of the hall. Now, they had set up machine gun nests and barricades with what little they salvaged from the destroyed shuttles. There would be no rescue, no reinforcements, only a futile last stand. Two of his men had taken the easy way out, plummeting their non-existent morale.

     The only thing they were unwilling to do was surrender. Not to the humans. Nothing would bring them more shame. The fleet was pulling back, and their orders were to hold this position for as long as possible. They were sent to hold this station until their larger fleet could overwhelm the UNSC, but they were decimated and abandoned. Now, they were trapped. 

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     The group reappeared moments after, although a few had stumbled initially. They were at the foot of a large pyramid built into the face of a cliff. Canyon walls surrounded them, and sand flew in the wind. Thom gestured forward twice, and the group set off at a jog to climb the ramps of the ancient structure. They met scattered barricades and a few empty crates, and the burning wreckage of a shuttle was the only sign of life until they reached the door. The remains of a tent told them their enemy had ditched the defenses around the door in favor of taking cover inside. 

    "Stack up. Flash and clear." The soldiers took very little time to prepare before their Captain activated the controls for the door. The doors slid open, and they were met with a wall of gunfire. Two loud bangs and a pause in the gunfire were all the Marines and troopers needed to swarm to the first line of barriers and take out the Batarian soldiers. Those behind the following line of defenses recovered quickly and opened fire again, pinning the Marines and ODSTs. Five Spartans rushed forward and leaped over the Marines' positions as the batarian defenders lobbed grenades and fired their weapons desperately attempting to stop the hulking titanium-clad Demons. 

     Thomas still had half his shield strength when he reached the second barrier and vaulted over their enemy's cover. He placed a boot into a batarian, clearing a place for him to stand and turn to hit right. He wasn't worried about his back, Collin was the next spartan over the barrier, and his hammer met the skull of a batarian that had tried to stab the Captain in his back. While Thom gunned down the batarian defenders in front of him, Collin was having a field day bashing in heads and causing mayhem in the enemy line. The sound of Thom's M7 submachine gun tore across the Batarian line and only made it easier for the rest of Onyx to catch up and tear apart the defensive position. 

     The Marines and ODSTs weren't about to be left behind and rushed over the captured barrier to assault the batarians. Their approach was not a dead sprint like the Spartans but a methodical charge. MA5B and MA5C assault rifles spat 7.62 rounds at the few defenders, tearing apart their kinetic barriers with ease. Their Shielding wasn't meant to withstand the nearly 4000 joules of force the UNSC weapons imparted, and their shields and armor crumpled quickly. The Batarians holding the second barrier fell under the firepower of the UNSC Marines and ODSTs, while the Spartans tore down the defender's cohesion. With the second line of defenses taken care of, the group moved to the final door between them and Halo's control center.