Decent into Hell<em>part 1: Newly Divided</em>(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwoKgvqBss)<br/><br/><strong><em>Onboard UNSC Flagship Hercules:<br/><br/>Mission Status: Mission Commenced<br/><br/>Decent into Hell: Newly Divided. part 1</em></strong><br/><br/>The warning klaxon's blared as red lights circled in their protective transparent containers, telling everyone that a drop was imminent. Gladiator checked his weapons and spare ammunition, making sure they were secure. Then checked the registered members of the mission on his HUD, counting off the people that he saw were there. He raised his hand and shut the door to his SOEIV drop pod and strapped himself in. Unless a pod had some sort of weight in it, human, weapons, or ammo, the locking mechanism wouldn't be released and the pod would remain suspended in it's bay and the trap door shut. It was a fail-safe, in case any would-be saboteurs  tried to place a bomb in one and destroy the ship. The sensors on and above the locking mechanisms were so precise they'd be able to detect a single pound of weight in the interior of the pod.<br/><br/>Ofcourse if anyone was late to the party, then the deck controller would have to release the pod manually. It happened once in a while but, not very often. Reporting late to duty could land you in serious trouble, even for a Spartan.<br/><br/>Gladiator looked down as the trap door below him was pulled back, the mechanical parts in the floor<em>whirring</em>and moaning with the effort until he heard the<em>shunk</em>of the locking mechanism engage to hold the plate in place so the SOEIV would have a clear path. The blue and gold armored sniper looked through the floor of his drop pod in awe. No matter how many times he made a high altitude drop, he was always amazed at the beauty beneath him. Even if it was mostly just clouds, it was beautiful. He could just barely make out the silver form of something looking like a whale from this height. A lone Covenant cruiser just as they'd been told in the briefing room, hung silently over a canyon of steel and glass.<br/><br/>A moment later another sound announced itself, this time a loud<em>clank!</em>as the lock holding his pod in place was released. For a moment he thought the locking mechanism might have malfunctioned, as a moment of weightlessness enshrouded him. A second later though, it was as if all his internal organs had shifted from their natural locations to the inside his throat, the G-forces taking hold and ripping him downward toward the planet's surface. The wind outside screamed like a fairy tale wraith or ghost, and water pelted his pod as he approached the top most layer of clouds. He looked up for a moment and saw other SOEIV's dropping from the bay. For a moment, the black drop pods almost seemed to blot out the underbelly of the Hercules. Then they disappeared as his pod fell through the clouds enshrouded by a world of gray, water pelting the armored exterior of his craft making a slight hissing sound. He looked down again. It was almost disorienting, nothing but gray, and the feel of the wind as it tried to buffet his SOEIV off course.<br/><br/>His hands firmly on the controls to either side of him, he made minor course corrections as he punched through the top layer of clouds at ridiculous speeds. It was like the worlds biggest roller coaster enhanced with jet fuel. Quite the adrenaline rush. For a moment his brain screamed to get the hell out of there as the danger set in upon him once again, but, his training kicked in and calmed his rapidly beating heart. He still had miles to go, but it would only take seconds to transverse to the RV point. He kicked in the afterburners on the bottom of the pod, slowing his decent to something less than terminal. He glanced around and saw that everyone was still with him, then a blue light caught his eye.<br/><br/>Air rippled around the font of the Covenant Cruiser and exploded into a frenzy of lightning and sparks as the neurons in the air discharged. The Covenant Cruiser's engines glowed brightly a second later and pushed the great craft through the transparent opening.<br/><br/>"Everybody prepare yourselves for emergency crash landings!! This bitch is jumping out!" he found himself shouting into the TEAMCOM as the nose of the great silver craft pushed through the ever widening opening into slipspace. A second later the Cruiser disappeared and the warp field collapsed, the result of the natural forces being ripped open and then closed just as suddenly resulted in a concussion wave that flattened the buildings beneath like paper, and bent the ones surrounding it like a child with a doll. As the wave approached his pod, Gladiator prayed that some of his men would make it out of the drop alive. Then something smashed into his pod with a horrifying<em>bang!</em>and<em>scrunching</em>sound, denting in the door and almost pinning him to his seat. The impact sent the pod spiraling uncontrollably. Ground, sky and water spun randomly about outside, as the Spartan desperately worked his controls to stabilize the out of control SOEIV. Blackness started to creep into his vision but, he batted it away, he couldn't lose consciousness now, his life and the life of his men depended on it. The elements outside dissagreed. The wind was screaming louder than before, unleashing all it's terrifying rage on the free falling peice of metal and the single occupant inside, now that his door had been bent inward from the impact of another drop pod. He couldn't tell if he was over the target zone or not. A moment later he blacked out, unable to grapple with the G-forces any longer.<br/><br/>Seconds later his pod hit something more solid than itself and bounced. The pod flew through the air, impacting upon the pavement of the street and bounced again, leaving a large scar in the mixture of concrete and tar as it hit. It punched through an abandoned diesel truck like a heavily armored bullet through paper, as gravity took hold once again and pulled it down to the earth, it impacted again, this time throwing it's occupant clear, along with the wrecked remains of the door. Gladiator landed on an abandoned car and smashed it's roof flat, either end of the car bowing upward as glass and steel were ejected from it's doors. The SOEIV continued onward smashing cars and signs as it's momentum carried it further into the city. Finally it punched through the side of a building, throwing concrete, bricks and glass everywhere, the impact like that of a bomb going off. The pod was on fire and it was banged all to hell, the entrance to it was bowed terribly trapping it's precious cargo, the MK5 Battle Rifle and the M 6 Sniper Rifle. It's damage was so extensive, not even an average sized man could fit in it now.<br/><br/>Finally, everything went quiet.