Project Britannia: Endgame

==Plot Summary==
After half of beta squad's operatives are abandoned and captured aboard a Covenant cruiser, the surviving members decide to investigate, and they come across a secret that will spell the downfall of Project Britannia.
== Roll Call ==
Belfast.png|Martin O'Neill
Vanity_634748507925937500.png|Daniel McConkey
Chris Harley
==Prologue==
Bangor jumped behind cover, joining Wolverhampton. The two ODSTs, who appeared to be in SPARTAN-like armour, were being barraged by needler rounds. Bangor, who was donning orange and black armour, ripped a needler round from his chest guard and tossed it back before it exploded in his hand. It did little damage, simply blowing off an Unggoy's gas mask and causing it to explode in the air, Sangheili having been cautious to avoid it whilst some Unggoy were not so lucky.
"Where did the rest of the squad go?," asked Wolverhampton.
"Yeah, we kind of split up," replied Bangor.
Five minutes ago, Wolverhampton was sending a salute to a team of seven. He walked along, grumbling, wondering why he had to be sent to retrieve the data. They had been sent on this mission to capture intel from the Covenant, but he had to travel alone? What if a stealth Elite decided to lunge at him? He continued to be pessimistic until he reached the control room, where he pulled out a data chip and downloaded 3 Terrabytes of Covenant data. He then put away the chip and began to exit whenever he spotted gunfire and seen figures heading his way on the radar. The rest of the squad had left him so they could traverse the corridors and make sure no Covenant came for him. He congratulated them under his breath sarcastically before diving for cover and waiting.
Now, he was interrogating Bangor. "How the hell did you split up?"
"They're on the other side of a door which shut when I was at the end of the party. Unfortunately, I found myself with only this room as an escape," explained Bangor.
"Wait, doesn't Bothwell know about these systems? Couldn't he just-", began Wolverhampton, before being interrupted by human gunfire. As the barrage suddenly died down, the two looked up. Six more ODSTs arrived - one clad in brown, with red tints, speaking up.
"You really couldn't last a minute without us, Bangor?," he laughed, in a seemingly mocking yet lighthearted tone. Bangor simply responded by getting up with a smug look on his face. "I couldn't last a minute! I could last an hour! Just had to get to cover, that's all!"
"Then why were there only three dead bodies," mocked Belfast. Before they could continue their banter, A radio transmission came in.
"The Pelican is at the hangar. I repeat, the Pelican is at the hangar. It will be departing in five minutes, please get here ASAP, over."
Belfast looked back at his team and pulled a Carbine from an Elite Minor's dead body, holding it up and beginning to run, his team following. The halls were relatively clear, the Covenant forces clearly aware of the Pelican as well. A few Grunts and Jackals met the wrath of the Carbine, but it was almost unnervingly empty. Reaching the hangar, They shoved and punched their way past Covenant. Most of them were relatively harmed except for a few bruises. However, Bangor had a different fate, holding onto his arm and attempting to stop blood flowing from a wound. There had been a needler round he was forced to dislodge in his arm. However, he refused to tell his team, instead boarding the Pelican. As soon as Wolverhampton boarded it, however, it began to fly away.
Belfast immediately responding with shouting. "Stop this vehicle at once! We have men still down there!" Unfortunately, despite how hard he plead, there was no response. Looking out of the hangar bay and firing down as much Covenant as he could, he watched helplessly as the four other members of his team were grabbed and forced away to the cells. As soon as the Pelican bay doors shut closed, he slammed a fist against it. To Britannia Corps, this was a success. To him, it was no more than a pyrrhic victory. 
==Chapter One==
Wolverhampton delivered Bangor to the medical bay before returning to the hangar, where Belfast and Bothwell were planning. He greeted the two with a friendly "hello," although only Bothwell returned the greeting. Belfast was too busy, making a final decision as to whether his team would return to the carrier and rescue those left behind or not. Thankfully for the rest of his squad, the positives outweighed the negatives - although they'd have to risk their lives, being four strong was definitely not going to work in their favour. Although their armour was developed off SPARTAN technology, they were certainly nowhere near as strong or agile as the average SPARTAN-II.
"What are you doing?", questioned Wolverhampton, looking at the scrap sheets of paper littering Belfast's work area, which mostly had unintelligible and heavy writing on them, as if the ODST needed to take out frustration. The latter ODST looked up at Wolverhampton.
"Didn't you notice anything unusual about those Pelicans? They abandoned us and left the rest of our team for dead," he stated firmly.
Wolverhampton shrugged and responded with, "Well, we could have been too overrun, or they thought that everyone was on board." Belfast shook his head. "No, the pilot makes sure everyone is on board. Ours was no exception."
Wolverhampton began to grow curious. "How do you know?"
Belfast held up a small chip, no more than a thumbnail in size. "I stole this from the engine rooms," he bragged, standing up and placing it into a small computer. A Dumb AI appeared as a featureless grey mannequin-like figure, mesmerising Wolverhampton.
"Hello, Director. Project Britannia servers are currently: ONLINE. Connection to Hades Base currently: ONLINE. Services enabled. Please state your service."
Belfast strode back over to his desk and picked up a sheet of Insurrectionist bases known to the UNSC. "And Hades base..," he began, pointing to it's name on the sheet, "is an insurrectionist base."
Wolverhampton slammed his hands on the desk. "How didn't the UNSC find out?"
Bothwell quickly snatched up the chance to explain that. "It's simple. This is still a UNSC project. They're just transferring data to the Insurrectionists. Every attack they know about. They can be prepared easily. Not only do they recieve that, but they'll get all the new UNSC technology. We get delivered captured Covenant technology, Britannia passes on half of what they recieve to Hades Base."
Belfast nodded, taking his pistol from the desk and dialing a four-digit number into the door.
Bothwell and Wolverhampton both looked at him, the latter questioning, "Where are you going?"
Belfast looked back. "I'm shutting down this project for good."
== Chapter Two ==
Belfast strode through the corridor, opening a comm channel to all active helmets in the area.
"Project Britannia is not what it seems. It is an insurrectionist project. Meet me in the hangar area. Copy? Over."
There was silence for a second. Then, green lights began to flicker on the hud. London. Bothwell. Newtownabbey. Wolverhampton. Bangor. Manchester. Birmingham. Halifax. Armagh. Antrim. Edinburgh. Peel. Ramsey. Carrickfergus. Dundee. Stirling. Irvine. Johnstone. Liverpool.
Then eight red lights: Derby. Sealand. Ballynahich. Magheramorne. Larne. St Saviour's. Coleraine. Cardiff.
Who were those people who red-lighted it? He had never encountered them, nor had he heard mention of them. They were complete strangers. Before he could continue to ponder, he heard rushing footsteps behind himself. Turning around, he seen Newtownabbey, London, Bothwell, Wolverhampton and Edinburgh catch up to him. Bothwell rushed to stand beside him.
The former questioned Belfast, or Martin. "Martin, what are you going to do with this giant team?"
"We're going to get out of here and report this to the UNSC. Simple," he replied, believing it would be an easy feat.
Belfast, London and Edinburgh stood upon a balcony, joined by their right-hand men - Bothwell, Newtownabbey and Ramsey, respectively. Down below them were the regrouping members of Project Britannia. As soon as the group of multi-coloured helmets was assembled and a headcount had been performed, Belfast began to speak.
Belfast's voice boomed. "Attention, everyone! There are two problems surrounding Project Britannia! First, there are eight members never accounted for! They are going under Derby, Sealand, Ballynahich, Magheramorne, Larne, St. Saviour's, Coleraine and Cardiff! We have to either locate and interrogate each and every one, or follow through with the original plan - get out of this ship! This brings us to the second point - Project Britannia is, and always has been, an Insurrectionist operation! The director only proposed this project so new equipment could be dispatched to Hades base! We have to reach the UNSC and demand that the director is brought to justice!"
London and Edinburgh ordered each of their teams to gather their belongings and return within twenty minutes. Belfast was the only person who had brought his possessions with him and, as such, was left alone in the base. He began to ponder upon the difficulties. First of all, they needed to take down that Covenant carrier and rescue the rest of the Beta helljumpers. Second of all, that fourth group could have relayed the communication channel to the director. As such, he needed to replan his strategy.
Meanwhilst, Riley Weiter, known only as 'the Director' by his pawns, was standing over every marine on the ship. With his army at least two hundred in size, lead by a team of eight ODSTs donning the same SPARTAN-based armour that the rebelling ODSTs wore. He had, indeed, been provided with the information on the three teams, having the fourth team trained but not armed. They were a reserved team, incase this formerly hypothetical situation would be caused. Unfortunately, the two hundred marines had been deceived into believing that the 18 rebellious ODSTs were insurrectionists and they were in the right. However, Riley didn't dare strike yet. He had left the rest of Beta on the Covenant cruiser, which was a perfect place to strike. The ODSTs would have already been weakened by the Covenant forces.
Oblivious to aforementioned plan, the uprising had regrouped, London approaching Belfast. The former asked, "have you decided your plan yet?"
Belfast shook his head. "I'll need you, Edinburgh, Ramsey, Newtownabbey and Bothwell's help."
London stuttered, slightly worried. "But what can we do?"
"Organise and lead your teams. Designate a pilot and board a pelican each. We're off to rescue some ODSTs."
== Chapter Three ==
Three Pelicans took off, containing Alpha, Beta and Gamma teams. Belfast, commanding Beta, started up a radio channel. "The Covenant corvette is no more than three miles away now. I need confirmations though. Has anyone left anything of value to them on the ship?"
The lights all went red. Belfast then asked, "Everyone remembers the briefing?"
The lights all went green. Belfast then turned off the radio channel and walked into the cockpit, talking to their pilot, Bothwell. "Alright, Bothwell. Is three miles really how far it is?"
Bothwell smirked under his helmet, sitting back as the Pelican headed towards the corvette. "What, are you saying the cracker is bad at judging where something is?," he quipped, relaxed. "Anyways, three miles isn't long at all! We're practically there already?"
Belfast slapped his arm as he sat back. "Yes! We're there already! Now get in the hang-" he started, before spotting two jetpacking Sangheili landing on the scorpion. He quickly snatched up his DMR and rushed to the back of the Pelican, jumping onto the scorpion as it shook. On the other end, the two Sangheili landed, each wielding a plasma rifle. Belfast looked back at the entrance of the pelican and saluted before dropping the scorpion. As it soared down in the sky, he was forced to hold onto the cannon whilst the Sanghieli simply jumped off and jetpacked underneath. He felt the ship shake and almost lost his grip as his footing changed and he found himself upside down, holding the DMR in his free hand. One of the Sanghieli emerged and he fired again, managing to put enough pressure down to stand on his feet once again. Suddenly, the other Sanghieli appeared on the other side, firing at him and forcing him to 'jump' over the cannon. Now firing in two angles, he was forced to let go, beginning to gain elevation. The ground started to appear for him, which caused a sudden need to hurry up. Using his feet to grab onto the cannon, he pulled himself down before pushing off and tackling one of the Sanghieli. He stomped his foot on the stomach of the Sanghieli and grabbed the chest plate, successfully ripping it off whilst avoiding the Sanghieli tackling him. chucking it to the side, he grabbed the Elite by the stomach and turned both of them around, grabbing onto the jetpack and kicking the Sanghieli away, shooting it in the chest until it died. He successfully attached the jetpack to his back mid-air, trying to activate it until he realised it was connected to the helmet. Swearing under his breath, he taunted the other Sanghieli, who had been firing at him this whole time, albiet being a horrible shot, especially when it comes to an opponent who is spinning around in the air.
It jetpacked over to Belfast, who snatched the plasma rifle from it's hand and easily ripped off it's helmet. "You know what? I think I'll let the ground kill you," he said, pulling off his own helmet and slipping on the Sanghieli's helmet, hooking it up to the jetpack and going as far up as he could, looking back at the scorpion crash on the top of the UNSC Athenian, Britannia Corp's frigate, as he activated his radio and told Bothwell to pilot down.
Meanwhilst, London and Newtownabbey looked out from the back of their own pelican, as they had been watching the fight. Newtownabbey looked up at London, rather confused. "What just happened?," she asked.
"A fight, I guess," replied London to the best of his abilities. "Don't know why he abandoned his scorpion though. The UNSC's probably going to hate him for that."
Newtownabbey nodded, before noticing her pelicans had stopped. Walking into the cockpit, she questioned the reason for this. The pilot, Manchester, responded with, "Bothwell told us to hold position whilst he rescued Belfast."
Liverpool called , in his distinct Liverpudlian accent, "We're here already, why haven't you made a bloody moveon already‽". He recieved no response other than Halifax pointing out at Bothwell's pelican, which was now returning.
Back in aforementioned pelican, Wolverhampton was talking with Bangor. "Why do you think he jumped?," the former asked, Bangor smirking.
"He never likes boring battles. I think he wanted an excuse to get a jetpack as well," quipped Bangor, which Belfast ignored despite hearing it.
Before they could continue bickering, Belfast walked out of the cockpit. "You two, arm up. We're going in to rescue our team."
==Chapter Four==
A team of four walked down the hallway. London and Belfast stood up front, whilst Newtownabbey and Bothwell stood behind them, each holding their respective weapon.
"Newtownabbey, is this the corvette we fought on together?," asked London, Newtownabbey green-lighting it. the former gulped, grip on his Battle Rifle tightening. Belfast looked back to ask Bothwell a question but, before he could even speak, a door slammed down in front of them, making him jump back a little. He called in, "Bothwell, crack into the door's panel!," London piping in with, "You too, Newtownabbey!"
There was a moment of silence save the pressing of buttons, before the two commanders heard swearing from the other side of the door. Belfast was curious as to what was going on, but his curiosity was soon laid to rest whenever he seen the door panel on his side flickering red. The door was broke and the team was split into two.
Belfast was prevented from thinking whenever he heard a conversation between two Sanghieli officers, although he could not understand their language. Quickly surveying the room, he seen a stairwell in front of him where the voices were originating.
London began to speak, but before he could even finish a single syllable, Belfast interrupted him. "Covenant approaching. Prepare."
London smirked, suddenly disappearing in his camo. Suddenly, Belfast heard the cry of an Elite dying. Curious, he approached the stairwell and awaited a repeat of the sound - which came quickly. Belfast, quickly checking his radar, headed down the staircase and was met with two elite bodies, laid limp on the floor, their blood meeting the feet of London, weilding an energy sword.
"Never seen you fight," stated Belfast. "Shame I don't have you in my team."
London smiled humbly in response, without any accompanying words. Suddenly, he was pushed back by Belfast, who whispered smugly, "now it's time for me to show you my skills."
He had been watching his radar and another elite had emerged on it. Whilst he pinned London to the wall, he grabbed a grenade with the other hand and chucked it to the other side of the room. The explosion caused the approaching elite to rush, coming out of a hallway opposite the staircase. Rushing to the explosion to see the remains, he found nothing. Turning around in curiosity, a knife was suddenly pushed into his jaw. As soon as Belfast pushed the knife down and cut down into the throat, he pushed the elite to the ground and ripped his knife out. He looked back at London and grinned, taking a replacement plasma grenade from the alien corpse. Before London could say a word, Belfast grabbed him by the arm and tugged him down the hallway.
"Hey! What are you doing!" called London, attempting to get free from Belfast's grasp. "Get off of me, I can walk myself!"
Belfast let go, but not before briefly tightening his grasp, just to annoy London. "Fine, fine. Look, we should probably just radio in the UNSC. They'd have enough firepower to take down this ship and it's hangar has entrances accessibile from both sides of the ships."
London nodded. "We've just got to gather up whoever's on this side first, though."