Halo: The Dunes of 2560

Chapter 10: SOCCSO

The UNSC Spark teleports above The Dunes, they see the Covenant vessels below through the screen on the bridge, Red curses under his breath, "It's the Prophet of Death, this is really bad..." Thel 'Vadam was unaware of who the Prophet of Death was, but kept quiet about it. On the surface, they could see flashes of light on the surface, David uses the comms panel to gain access to Fen 'Lisin's communications network, he finds a connection and hails them. A small screen to the top right corner of the window pops up and it's Fen, he's bloodied and his left eye is closed, "Who is this?" he's hoarse, and exhausted. David stutters, he wasn't ready to speak with him, "W-what's the situation General?" Behind Fen is a weapon's cabinet, "We found refuge in some sort of UNSC Bunker, they're bombarding our towns on the surface, almost all of our forces and equipment is destroyed... I know you." He looks closely at the screen, he tries opening his other eye, but it's just a bloody socket, David felt nauseous at the sight, he sighs, "Yeah we deserted our post there to the North, the UNSC is corrupt. We need to figure out a way to get the Covenant to back off from The Dunes, innocent lives are at stake." Fen got pissed, "My life is innocent too! I never hurt anyone when I was living on Sangheilios, shall I be saved? No..." Vixon gets in David's way, he has his helmet off, "Fen, we will help you, and bring you somewhere safe, ok?" Fen grimaced, "Don't bother you disgrace." Pilot raises his hand, "Uh, we can just take all the survivors and just put them somewhere else,,." They all look at Pilot, he finished his statement, "The Spark has teleportation technology that allows the ship to pick up a large number of lifeforms, and put them somewhere else in an instant. The capacity is around 10 billion life forms." Vixon stammered, "Where would we put a whole bunch of Sangheili, Humans, Spartans, Marines, and SFA personnel?" Pilot pondered for a mere second, "We can put them all on Earth." David hung up on Fen, and decided to hail the UNSC, and got an immediate response, the screen pops up again and a General on the screen looks at them with judgemental eyes, David breathed deep, "Hello General, I think now is the time to put differences aside." The General tilted his head down, "You told them about The Dunes..." David chuckled, "Your intelligence groups do a poor job of informing you of the truth, no, we are not and were never in contact with the Covenant. We are going to use this vessel to transport all life on The Dunes to a safe place, in return, allow us to operate under the current conditions, without being on a Most Wanted list of any sort, including the SFA's list." The General on the screen, thought hard for a while, behind him, people were scrambling around, he looked up at the screen finally, "Those Sangheili, they aren't... Spies, right?" David looked the General in the eyes, "No, they aren't. Don't doubt me." Candy and Trent gave David a glance, then they looked at each other. Trent whispered to Candy, "Nobody can talk like that to a General, right?" Candy was befuddled, "Fucked if I know guy." The General nods, "Okay, you have a deal Sir." The screen disappeared, Trent spoke up quickly, "What the hell is going on David?" David ignored Trent, and turned to Pilot, "Do it now."

Within a few seconds, all lifeforms on The Dunes were transported to Earth, they appeared over Rio De Janeiro and could see that about a few thousand Spartans and Marines were laying around in the streets, a Sangheili dressed in a flower shirt and shorts nearly stepped on a Spartan, "Oh, I didn't see you there, I apologize." He walked around the Spartan, before feeling a grasp at his ankle, he turned to see the Spartan shoving a pistol in his mouth. Another Spartan tackles him down, from the Spark, David tells Pilot to get an up close view of this. In the zoom, they see an OSDT holding down a Spartan in MJOLNIR Mark IV armor, and the Sangheili scrambling away in fear. The OSDT has a purple stripe on his helmet, David mumbles, "It's him... Get me down there." David is teleported right behind Stripe, he grabs him and gets him in a choke hold, pulling him off the Mark IV Spartan. Stripe elbows his kidney so hard, he chokes in pain, letting go of Stripe. "God damn, you're going to fuck me up, huh? Oh shit, I forgot my helmet." Stripe was silent, he held a stance that made him much bigger than David, his feet faced forward, spread apart, and knees bent, he held his hands up in front of his helmet. David noticed the Mark IV wasn't moving, "You killed him?" Stripe rushed David, but he was trained in CQC, he used Stripe's momentum to get him to face plant into the pavement. Stripe's helmet visor shattered, David picked up stripe and got him over his back, "Damn you're heavy as shit. Teleport me." He teleported back onto the Spark, Stripe punches David's head, so he drops him on his head and kicks his visor. He keeps kicking Stripe, while holding his legs up, in a fit of rage, he picks him up and throws him at the wall, making a thunderous metallic boom. Candy grabbed David, "You're gonna kill the fuck!" Thel 'Vadam watched David closely, and then Vixon, who approached the Striped ODST who was laying face down, motionless. Vixon nudges him, "Hey, get up." He doesn't move, so he rolls him over, and notices his visor is cracked, pieces chipped out, but is multi-layered, he removed his helmet. He held his helmet as he stared at a face that sent his hearts racing, his face got hot and his hands and feet froze, "This can't be possible..." He crushed the ODST helmet in his hands.

David would represent them in a court with UNSC officials, where he'd be granted immunity from his and his platoon's crimes as a resolute unorthodox mission carried out by an officer who's rank granted him the right. David had the option to sue the UNSC for using him as propaganda and slandering him and his platoon, but decided against it as it'd be a waste of time and money. The SFA would not be involved in the proceedings, but had to grant the UNSC to speak on their behalf about the UNSC Spark, which would now fall into David's ownership. David now owned the Spark, and his rank was restored, the Judge concluding the court proceedings, "I hereby grant Dave Larson Churnovil his rank as Special Operations Chief Commander of Spartan Ops officially restored as of August 18, 2560. Case dismissed." David squinted, "Dismissed?" The Judge clarified, "Yes, you were found not guilty, but not innocent either. The UNSC was found not innocent. Your rank, as it stands, allows you to perform actions that would be considered above the law, as long as your actions are ethical and benefit the human race. Some would say... you have a higher rank than a General or an Admiral. You have a good rest of your day SOCCSO Churnovil." He felt gross being called SOCCSO. It was just David that had to be there, as he didn't want the others to know the truth about his rank, he was just Commander to them, and that's what he thought was best for them to know.