Halo: Twenty Miles Below

Cole Protocol

The cabin was freezing. Many soldiers were in cryo-sleep because we had to jump into slip space to get to Reach and they haven't woken up yet, so the heat generator has to save its energy for when they wake up so they don't get freezer burn almost immediately when they wake.

Gavin thought and knew too much. He sure as hell wished he knew just as much as what he knew about the damn heater in place of Covenant knowledge. There was no way he'd survive a full blown firefight. He'd seen what SPARTAN-IIIs inevitably turned into; Scattered pieces of meat and metal. They were suicide puppets. Death is near, he thought to himself. He'd seen some scarring things that Insurrectionists did to their captured. Imagine what the Covenant could do. He was nowhere near as ready as Doctor Halsey said he was.

Gavin jumped slightly to the sound of blaring alarms and unforgiving red lights flashing. "WARNING. BRACE FOR BOARDING. ALL HANDS ON DECK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." Gavin grabbed his M6G Magnum and a Fragment Grenade and dashed out the door. Gavin looked left and right, and went right, running down the long hallway. The steam exhaust pipes had snapped and the hallway soon filled up with so much steam that Gavin couldn't see past three feet. Gavin found the elevator and went up towards the main deck up to were Captain Henderson and Doctor Halsey were. If he wanted to figure out what the hell was going on, he'd find out there.

As soon as he reached the Deck, he saw engineers and scientists dashing here and there, frantically trying to download files and collect classified documents before it could fall into the hands of the enemy. He spotted Doctor Halsey talking to the ships A.I., Andria, a smart A.I. that appeared as a Japanese housewife, with an orange kimono on, and chopsticks through the bun of her hair. "Andria I need to get to my research lab to finish my project! It cannot fall into the Covenants hands..." Gavin glanced at Captain Henderson, standing tense as he saw the map onscreen light up almost immediately with red dots. The computer spoke loudly in a monotone voice, "WARNING. MULTIPLE COVENANT CRUISERS INBOUND. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT, EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

"I've got multiple readings nineteen meters away from us. Captain, We've got multiple Sangheili coming our way." Andria exclaimed. "Elites?" Captain Henderson asked with some anxiety in his breath. What the hell are Elites?, Gavin thought. "Andria, prep a Pelican for Doctor Halsey and have her escorted to her lab on Reach, I'll make sure Noble Team escorts the package onboard the Pillar Of Autumn. I want that Pelican escorted by a Longsword, got that?" "Yes Captain, prepping a Longsword and a Pelican." Andria said. "Good, Halsey, take that Spartan to the armory and suit him in his regular SPARTAN-II armor for now. There's no time for his armor transfer." "Alright" said Halsey trying to hold all the folders and portfolios of other Spartans and other classified ONI documents. "Captain, Elites cutting through the blast doors, run!" Andria yelled. "No, I have to stay. Captains rules." Captain Henderson quickly extracts Andria and tosses the chip to Gavin. "Halsey, Spartan, get the hell out of here!" Gavin and Halsey ran out of the room and the blast doors behind them locked. Captain Henderson and the remaining crew on deck grabbed whatever weaponry they could find. Captain aimed his MA37 Assault Rifle at the door, sparking as the Elites tore through their blast doors. The tension in the room was easily felt. It fell quiet. Everyone stood steady, aiming. Ready. Captain Henderson spoke to himself, "I've lived as long as I needed to, so come at me you son of a b-" 

The blast doors flew open, spraying an explosion and releasing heavy smoke. As Gavin and Halsey ran down the hallway, Gavin could hear intense screaming and those... things... Elites?... Roaring and speaking an unknown language. They slaughtered them all within seconds.

They arrived at the armory, and Gavin quickly put on his MARK-IV Armor, and then Gavin and Halsey Ran towards the Hangar Bay. As they ran Gavin could hear the ship groan and shake, followed by an explosion everytime. The alarms were still blaring, although Gavin had a gut feeling it didn't matter, considering that mostly everyone was dead.

They finally reached the Hangar Bay, as a Pelican waited for them, engines revved and ready to fly. The pilot ran out from the back of the Pelican and ran to the front to hop into the cockpit. "Any of you poor bastards know how ta' fly a Longsword?" the pilot asked with a desperate look on her face. Halsey almost spoke in a sort of 'disbelieved' tone of voice. "Where are the rest of the pilots Lieutenant?" "The rest of us were slaughtered by those Covenant sonsa' bitches during our sleep in the cryotubes, the others either evacuated already or got sliced by their god damn light swords." Gavin finally realized the Covenant was nothing like the Insurrectionists. Another explosion erupted within the ship, and the hanger moaned and screeched, as it shook the floor. "Come on! One of you gonna spit out an answer? We're burning time!" the pilot yelled. "Gavin, can you do it?" Halsey asked. Gavin nodded. The pilot motioned her arm towards a docked Longsword.

The cockpit of the Longsword closed on top of Gavin as he got himself seated in the cramped seating. He flipped on the ignition switch and the Longsword roared to life, lifting up ever so slowly. The sound of the air pressure compressing in the cabin was like a sharp whistle screaming into his suit, even making his ears pop painfully in his helmet. The comms beeped and soon the sound of the Pelican pilot and Halsey was heard. "Let's get the hell outta here Spartan!" yelled the pilot. Then the Hangar Bay Shields freed open. Immediately, balls of Plasma green, purple and blue, flew across the windows. Gavin had no time to look, and took off going so fast his head was pinned to the headrest of the seat, as he escorted the Pelican behind him. Then he heard it over the comms from the U.N.S.C: Poseidon: "Initiating Cole Protocol." Gavin felt an intense blast of heat as bright light behind him blinded him for a couple seconds, and heard a loud screeching noise in his ears. As soon as he looked back, the Poseidon was in shreds of white, yellow and orange. Suddenly, he saw Halsey's Pelican take a hard nosedive down to Reach's surface. "We gotta dip Spartan, debris headed our way! Split up!" yelled the pilot. Andria exclaimed in anger and confusion, "What the fuck?!"

A piece of shrapnel flew into the rear boosters and made it catch flames, slowly burning up the ship. "Watch your right!" Andria exclaimed. Small pieces of debris starting penetrating the right-wing, sounding like bullets going through titanium. Almost immediately the very tip of the right-wing flew off the Longsword, and Gavin lost control of the ship, spinning, plummeting towards Reach. The G-forces that Gavin was feeling was slightly crushing him, as they kept spinning endlessly. "I didn't ask for a roller-coaster ride you know!" Andria yelled over the blaring alarms and blinding red lights. Gavin was already finding Andria to be highly obnoxious.

They were flying right through Reach's atmosphere, as their reentry to the planets' surface was accompanied with enormous amounts of fire and more fire. With the damage already done to the Longsword, and the constant pieces of debris zooming past them like meteors, the Longsword wasn't holding together. The ship shook and croaked as it slowly shook itself apart. The blinding light was too much for Gavin to look at, even with his helmet on, so he closed his eyes.

The Longsword finally made it past the atmosphere, though heavily damaged, and still on fire for the most part. Gavin was able to finally take control of the Longsword once again, and brought it back to center. Suddenly, both twin boosters shutdown; they were in a free fall. All Gavin could do was glide it down to the surface, and use the Air-Brakes, considering the wheels were already melted to a pasty black. They were going to crash land in one of the many lush jungles of Reach, and were too far away to the nearest UNSC Firebase to land, although one was in sight to the far left of them. "Whoa, hold up, I'm receiving a transmission... keep her steady Spartan!" Andria commanded Gavin. The comms lit up on screen, and Gavin could hear a voice coming through. "Identify yourself immediately, or we will be ordered to take you down by force, repeat, identify yourself immediately." a marine from the surface commanded. "Yes! This is UNSC Smart A.I. Andria, request for entrance to Reach, and send help will you?" "Hello, do you read? Repeat, please respond. We will take you down by force in 10 seconds. Please respond!" yelled the marine. "Hello?!" Yelled Andria. A streak of yellow light jumped up from the Firebase, headed straight towards them. "Gavin, eject now!" 

Gavin ejected from his seat and shot up into the air. It was silent. He heard the gentle breeze and air enclose all around him as he fell. It was quiet; falling so fast but feeling so still. Then he looked up, and the silence broke into screaming, blinding lights as the missile projectile from the Firebase struck the Longsword and blew it to pieces. "Hope you can swing on vines Spartan!" Yelled Andria. Gavin then abruptly flew past tall vibrant green trees, spun around to see the rock formations near a small waterfall, as it got closer and closer, then black.