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Hotel California by PeterPiperArbiter
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Hotel California: Part 1: No reason to be afraid
Date: 27 June 2005, 4:22 pm
"Any time of year, you can find it here." read on the dimmed poster on the wall.
"Yeah. Right." I thought while tossing my bag on the reception desk. I was one of the men and women who were assigned to clear the so-called hotel and ready it for work as a makeshift headquarters for the local operations. The Covenant had already begun its attack on Africa, and it would surely be only a matter of time before they get here. Where? I was stationed only about 150 kilometres away from New Mombassa, which was completely destroyed by an in-atmospheric slip-space jump.
Our official local command post was overrun only a half an hour ago.. Or at least I think it was. My team was evacuated a few minutes before the battle started ringing behind us. Yes, we were techs. We had no business in battle..
"Hey, you! You gonna stop dreaming boy? Anytime soon would be nice." a nearby soldier said.
"Uh.. Yes sir." I muttered, as I was starting to gather my tools up from the bag.
"Never mind them.." Kathy, my girlfriend, said to me and smiled.
We were happy together. As happy as you can be, I suppose, when you'd have to fear the end of your existence as a race at the same time. How I wished I could hold her now, but no.. Not on duty. I remember how she said that. It wasn't in any way mean. Just, that we'd get our jobs done once in a while, that's how she said it. She always was a bit worried about everyone else and what they thought about us.
Well, the place was somewhat tidied up now, at least there weren't any tables or broken chairs lying anywhere near. We started on working with the electrics.
"Sheesh! This place must be ancient. When was the last time you saw one of these?" Kathy said, and showed me an ordinary light bulb.
Those were indeed ancient, but the electric system in general was in good shape and somewhat modern. It wouldn't be as bad we thought it would.
There wasn't much to do inside the place. We hooked the computers over to the electric system and everything worked out fine at least for now.. Nothing blew up. Outside, more specifically, on the roof.. It was a different thing. We'd need to set up comlink –stations, some sort of a radar system and we'd have to hide them as well, so they wouldn't get scorched immediately in an air raid. Not that this place could withstand too much punishment, but guess it's the thought that counts..
Speaking of thoughts, I was just thinking that the night was about to land above us. Me, Kathy, Helen, Nick and John worked anyway to get the base up and running, that was our job and we shouldn't rest before it was done. Not today.
Helen and John were working with the wirings, the rest of us three workaholics were doing our best getting these things working again - after who knows how long storage time.
Marines and other staff, like commanding officers and such, had been arriving and making the place a home away from home all day. We had just got the radar working, somewhere around 1 a.m., when Kathy tapped me on the back and pointed up. There were no clouds, and the sight was in all of it's ghastliness, beautiful. We decided to take a small and damn well earned break.
Our fate, as far as we know, was being decided up there. You could see small explosions and "shooting stars", beams and flashes.. It was beautiful, and this could be our last night.. With me and Kathy.. I was just about to kiss her when a marine ran up behind us and yelled us to get the hell inside and quick. The reason was clear; there was a group of Phantoms in the area. Under the moonlight, they were flying low and about a few kilometres away from us, you could see the light reflecting from their armour. It certainly was a wakeup call, and a real reminder that love really does make you blind..
There were no fixed, heavy defences. We simply didn't have the time to make any. We went to the bomb shelter, with the few civilians that were still around and rest of our tech group.
Hotel California: Part 2: Risky business
Date: 27 June 2005, 4:58 pm
Two marines were communicating with hand signals, hiding in the bushes near the entrance of the hotel grounds.
"Stay silent, lay low."
"Roger that."
There were a few Warthogs in the parking hall, two Gauss and three Gatling. Two Scorpion -tanks were hidden also in the underground parking lot.
The Phantoms came closer and closer, they went over the rooftops swiftly like hummingbirds, they circled around the city as if looking for something. Two of them left almost as suddenly as they came, but one stayed behind a while longer. It left though, headed south like the other two. But without a doubt it left a few enemy troops in the town also.
"Whew. Now I can breathe again..." private Gillis sighed in the bushes.
"Shouldn't we send a team to neutralize the enemy?" private Lufkin, also in the bushes, asked.
"Didn't you read your manual? No, no team is sent until the enemy is identified. Well, ok, one team, scouting team will be sent to investigate.. But we don't attack them, we don't want to get more attention before we get more manpower over here.. They'll just have to come here if they are up for an ass-whooping." Gillis said, and grinned while gripping on to his battle rifle.
Sergeant Banks, pvt. Terry and private Lathe were assigned for the scouting patrol.
"Keep your eyes open, never walk in the middle of the road and avoid getting in to trouble. That's now your motto, move it!"
"Aye aye, sir."
Banks took the lead, Terry behind him and Lathe as the last in "line", they moved up street by street. Then, after they had walked for about a kilometre away from the hotel, Banks stopped and turned to face Terry and Lathe.
"Now listen carefully and listen good. We're now about 500 metres away from the point where the Phantom stopped. They are most likely somewhere near by now, unless they came down here just to take a nap. So we'd better be ready to jump in some cover any time possible." he whispered.
Speak of the Devil, and it jumps up behind you. Ghost. You could hear it.
The small band of brothers became understandably nervous. There was one place in the immediate vicinity where you could hide; the local museum's entrance was only five metres away.
"Just hope the door isn't locked..."
It wasn't.
Banks watched from the corner of the glass door, rest of the men holding their breath, as the Ghost slowly glided past them. More followed, there was a team of Elites also on the move, most of them had dark blue and black armour, but the leader had almost ghost-like, menacing but yet astonishingly beautiful white armour.
"Well this isn't good.." Banks said, and then looked at the two frightened men behind him.
"I know you're afraid, but for the name of our Lord, get a grip. At least for that long that we can get this information back to the HQ."
Feeling a bit more secure, Lathe was just about to raise his voice when Banks hand signalled that two enemies were approaching, evade at all costs. Terry signalled back that there was an exit about fifteen, twenty meters behind them.
"Move. Be ready."
Banks continued signalling, before they started to run at the door. Lathe was the first to reach the door, readying himself to grab his pistol; he twisted the doorknob and stepped outside. He didn't see or hear anything unusual, at least not before a glowing plasma sword hit him in the stomach, after that tearing him neatly in half. The heat sealed the wound instantly and he was alive - he screamed in agony a few seconds until his head was crushed by a hit on the head. The Elite watched his plasma rifle, now partially covered in human secretion, mostly blood.
"Kaew." it said.
Banks saw all this from the doorway and even though he was a battle hardened soldier, he just stood there and looked with a stunned expression at the Elite. The alien looked back, readying itself for another kill. As it started to lunge its weapon of terror at Banks, there was a silent sound. A pin dropped on the floor. As the sword went right through his heart and in this gruesome act the Elite was almost standing on his chest - on air - there was a short silent moment. Then they both were coated with expanding air and fire. The Elite's shield dropped instantly and it flew like a rag doll almost ten meters back. It was already dead before hitting the ground.
Terry had ran for cover in the bathroom, and he knew he was violating orders of radio silence but the others would have no chance unless he'd warn them.
"This is Private John Terry to any UNSC forces who can hear this. Rest my reconnaissance team has been wiped out, there's confirmed information on invading Covenant forces. At least one white armoured Elite, and uncertain number of dark blue and black armoured Elites. I'd estimate that there's around ten of them..." Then the message ended, as the hand using the radio was cut off from its owner.
Hotel California: Part 3: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Date: 26 August 2005, 7:03 pm
"Please repeat, over.
Please respond, over." a man sitting in front of the communication's desk kept saying. After five minutes of unsuccessful efforts to get contact, he said
"No response, ma'am." and turned to face the Master Sergeant.
The Master Sergeant, Ellie Wincott, looked calm. Inside she was worried. No one had ever before seen a white Elite, or at least lived to talk about it. The colours of other Elites were also confusing.
"Do we have any long-range communications?" she finally asked.
"Yes ma'am. Who do you want to contact?"
"Central Command of operations in Africa."
The communications officer, named Jonathan Loken, began working with his equipment, only to find out that no-one answered. He tried again, his fingers started to sweat as he desperately pushed the buttons on the panel. After a few awkward minutes, he gave up.
"I'm sorry ma'am. It seems that something is wrong, either in our end or on their end. We could try sending a recorded video message and hope someone
can hear us."
"Anything will do." she replied.
"Very well ma'am, come here. You can sit on my chair, the camera's that spot there", he said and pointed at a small black lens on the corner of the monitor, "I'll just activate it and.. There you go."
---
"This is Master Sergeant Ellie Wincott, stationed at Nyali, local HQ of the Kenyan operations. We currently have a quite of a shortage in men, ammunition,
and material. Pretty much everything on our hands, is all we have. We are requesting any nearby UNSC forces to report in, and relay this message to anyone
who could provide us with more supplies. Thank you - and may the God be with all of you." she said and stopped the recorder.
Jonathan now returned to his chair, started once again to work with the panels and keypads, and after a while stated; "The message has been sent,
along with the co-ordinates."
"Well... Let us hope that we have been heard.", she said and walked again in front of the window. It had started raining.
--
Meanwhile, about a kilometre away:
The group of Elites stood in front of the museum, the white Elite was discussing with one of the Spec-Op Elites about recent events.
"Are you absolutely sure about this?"
"Yes. I do not question the word of my brothers."
"Hmh. Well. We'll have to contact the humans somehow. It seems that we are now on the same side…"
The black Elite looked like it just had remembered something, and said:
"Excuse me, sir." after that he ran back inside the museum.
When the Elite came back, it was carrying something.
"Sir.. One of the humans was talking on this thing before I killed him. I think I know how to use it."
--
Back at the base:
"Ma'am. We've had some luck.. We've received a few replies to our call.. Most of them are troops that are left of New Mombassa. Unfortunately not much,
but better than none I guess. They're coming here as fast as they can, even as we speak. There's two Scorpions coming, each of them are armoured with
marines.. I mean, they don't have any aerial units left, and they're relocating. The old fashioned way.."
"Good, I'm sure that four Scorpions.." she replied, but was interrupted in the middle of her sentence.
"Uh, sorry ma'am, I'm receiving an incoming message.. It's identification is.. It's from private Terry.. But it doesn't make any sense. I'll put it on speakers.." Jonathan said, and pressed a button on the console.
"…Ew evah neeb deyarteb. Ew wonk erehw ouy era, snamuh, dna er'ew gnimoc. Esaelp, t'nod toohs, ew hsiw ot klat ot ouy. "
Master Sergeant Wincott stood in front of the window, of which opened a great view to the small recreational area behind the hotel. She just watched for a while, but finally turned to face Jonathan and muttered behind her hair which had escaped the clutches of her uniform and now was covering her face.
"That's the Elite's language.. But I don't understand it. Not completely, at least. Do we have any means of trustworthy translation?"
"I'm checking.. Yes. Cortana has gathered quite a dictionary. Though this may not be 100% accurate, but it's the best we have. I'll just run it in to the voice recognition software.. And.. There. Want me to read it?"
"Go ahead, Jonathan.."
"Uhh.. Um. Well. It apparently says, that they know where we are.. And they are asking us not to shoot them?" Jonathan faced Ellie and looked as dumbstruck as she did.
Wincott seemed to be thinking hard. She closed her eyes and sighed.
"I must be out of my mind.. But I'm issuing new standing orders: Do not shoot approaching enemy units, unless they fire at you first. Send this order also
to the reinforcement teams."
"Ma'am?"
"Just trust me. I have a good feeling about this."
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