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Necropolis by RogueDragon
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Necropolis: Prologue – New Arrival
Date: 9 August 2007, 3:53 pm
Necropolis: Prologue – New Arrival
Location: New Munich
'Fall back, fall back.'
Rounds of flaming white plasma tore around the small complement of marines as they pulled back down the street, the enemy hot on the heels.
Dropping to one knee Lieutenant Mackenzie sprayed off a several rounds from his assault rifle at the advancing covenant infantry.
'Squad four lay down covering fire, everyone else fall back, I say again fall back.'
From the suburban housing to his left a series of muzzle flashes lit the darkness of the night as the few remaining marines of beta squad pumped round after round into the enemy. A series of angered yell's and inhuman bestial howls yelped up from further up the street and Mackenzie new the flash of an elites personnel shield when he saw one as well as the dying cries of grunts. After a sixteen year career of war consisting of bloody engagements with the covenant forces Mackenzie had come to anticipate the alien's tactics during battle and knew now the elites would be threatening the lower creatures into a firing line.
Sure enough a few seconds later searing purple plasma lanced across from the street corner and strafed the marines above. Radio chatter broke through to his comm. bead from the team above, 'this is beta squad, we have two marines down, requesting orders, Sir.'
'Sergeant' Mackenzie replied touching a finger tip to his comm.'s bead, 'pull back through the building, regroup at the drop point.'
'Will do Sir, out.'
The comm.'s went silent, two dead marines, two veteran soldiers who could never be replaced, the UNSC was barely holding the line as it was, they needed every good solider they could find. Mackenzie looked around at the shattered ruminants of his own platoon reduced to half strength and falling back. Secretly he knew he was lucky, his platoon was one of the few operational units remaining in the dead city.
He tried not to look at the plasma charred corpses a few yards ahead that had been first and the better part of third squad. Had Mackenzie been given the time, the Lieutenant knew that he would have broken down and cried at the vast numbers of marines he had lost in combat but as the situation became more dire he knew he didn't have that luxury.
Rolling into cover behind the remains a burning car Mackenzie reached down and fed a new magazine into his battle rifle before analysing the situation. His remaining marines were trapped in the remains of a long abandoned shop, the windows were smashed and the door had been blown away. Massed plasma fire now stitched its sides ensuing that anyone trying to escape would be cut down before they ever reached safety.
'Raleigh, fire team on my position double time.'
From the ruins of the building sergeant Raleigh charged out, two marines in tow, one armed with a sniper rifle. The fire team made a ditching roll towards him to avoid the fire; this was not the first time they had been under fire.
Sergeant Raleigh landed right next to him, battle rifle held securely in her gloved hands. The two marines rolled in either side and took up firing positions of the bonnet and rear end of the car. Nodding a silent acknowledgement to Raleigh the four marines took there firing positions and opened up with a barrage of fire.
At least six of the grunts fell, each one producing audible squeaks and strange cries of pain, the human projectiles taking them completely off there feet.
Snapping his head round to the waiting marines Mackenzie nodded, 'its clear move.'
The small squad sprinted from the shop to the other side off the street covering each other along the way, Mackenzie and his fire squad were about to follow when the plasma fire opened up again. The marines ducked down making use of any cover they could, the other marines attempted to lay down covering fire but the amount of plasma the covenant could bring down on them made any counter seem non-existent.
Looking through the smashed window of the car the Lieutenant could see the enemy clearly now through the darkness. They were Jackals, bird like creatures that served a heavy infantry role in the covenant ground forces. The aliens had lapped there shields over one another to form a defensive shield wall that they could advance behind, smart little irritants.
Flicking his rifle to burst fire Mackenzie gestured wordlessly towards Raleigh his orders, she nodded then signalled to her marines.
The covenant formation advanced through the steady barrage of enemy fire, there multi-tinted spectrum wall absorbing all the fire that was sent towards them. An amplified bird shriek signalled that one of the Jackal's had fallen to the sniper's marksmanship, the last kill he would ever make.
Less then a second later a lancing beam of energy tore through his skull, Mackenzie knew the beam of a particle beam rifle when he saw one. Unfortunately for the covenant, they would never be able to get a second kill either.
While the marines had lain down covering fire Mackenzie had taken one of the grenades from his flak jacket and pulled the pin. Instead of throwing it at the enemy, as sniper's and grunts would be wary of falling grenades ready to shoot them down or give ample warning for the other soldiers to scatter, he rolled it like a ball down the slopping road.
It was dark and the jackal's eyes were scanning the top of the car, not what was rolling out from underneath it. The only warning the covenant phalanx received was when one of the jackals looked down when it felt something move past its hoof.
The alien formation erupted as an explosion tore through the front. Those at the rear of the very front were blown off there feet, some sported terrible wounds while others died of there injuries. Only a few who were not screaming in pain or dazzled by the blinding flash while trying to restore order among the lower ranks thought to fire back but by then the humans were already moving and there stray shots hit nothing.
The remaining marines filled into the entrance of the tube station. An extensive underground network of rail tunnels and underground maintenance shaft ways that the covenant had not yet gained entrance to. Once they were all inside Mackenzie had them seal the door behind to prevent the covenant from getting in. He turned to corporal Brinson, his platoon's formal expert when its came to explosives.
'Corporal, set a demolition charge, we can't let them follow us in.'
'Yes Sir' replied the freckled faced marine, as he passed by Mackenzie grabbed him by the arm.
'Set it too detonate as soon as they enter, fry a few of the bastards before.'
Brinson grinned, a deranged look in his eyes, 'It'll be an honour Sir.'
As Brinson got to work the remaining marines took the opportunity to rest, many had been fighting for the past two days straight and had barely had anything to eat of drink, fatigue was beginning to set in.
'Sir'
Mackenzie turned to see the familiar sight of Sergeant Raleigh at his shoulder. The veteran sergeant had seen more then her fair share of combat over the past couple of days, her normally short brown hair red become red with blood while her facial features had become cold and hard. Even her thin lips seemed as hard a rock but with the amount of troops under her command that she had lost he couldn't blame her.
Mackenzie nodded signalling for her to continue, 'where are we heading Sir, I take it you haven't forgotten that the marine barracks were overrun.'
'There's a small military depot on the edge off the city where the defence comity stored a flight of pelicans. We're going there.'
Raleigh bit down on her tongue, it was a habit the young sergeant had developed when she felt she needed to say something, 'with respect sir, the colonial defence fleet was on the verge of collapse during there final transmissions, the covenant could have full orbital control by now.'
Mackenzie rounded on her as if he was about to shout, he hated being reminded of such possibilities that could leave his unit with no hope and no purpose. Shutting his eyes he calmed himself remembering that it's was Raleigh's duty to ask such things; 'there last transmission stated that they were pulling back to the Cyris moon base to re-group. The moon base was not among the covenant's main targets, there could still be slip-space capable transport for us to use.'
'And where do you suggest we go, Earth is a warzone and we can't lead's the covenant to any remaining colonies.'
Mackenzie rubbed his forehead, he could already feel a headache coming on, just brilliant, 'I don't know sergeant, we'll decide if and when we get there.'
Raleigh was about to speak again when he held up a finger causing the sergeant to shut her mouth, 'Do you really want to be here when the plasma starts to fall.'
After a few seconds Raleigh gave a simple nod, her face not betraying any of her true thoughts. Brinson returned from the tunnel behind, the satchel he was carrying gone, 'it's primed sir, covenant won't know what hit them.'
'Good work' Mackenzie replied turning towards Raleigh and shaking his head. She turned back round to the resting marines, 'All right marines, nap times over suit up and get moving on the double.'
Within twenty seconds the marines had formed a small formation with three scouts in front and two sentries guarding the rear. The rest were in the middle, weapons ready in case the covenant had found there way into the tunnels and were now exploring the human's last line of defence.
Quickly and silently the marines moved out disappearing into the dark dank tunnel before them. There footfall's were muffled by the explosion's above as the city on the surface was slowly erased by the covenant armour and infantry.
Location: Human colony New Berlin, eastern continent, city of New Munich, UNSC science division research station gamma-4.
Doctor Carla Casey's fingers hammered down on the keypad while her finger tip swung violently over the touch screen mouse pad. The covenant could not find what they had been working on, it was far too important and perhaps humanity's last hope. She had so little time, the covenant were on there doorstep and she could not let them get there blood stained hands on the information stored here.
The platoon of Orbital Drop Strike Troops along with a company of colonial militia had held off the covenant brilliantly but they were now so few left alive and so many of the enemy.
Looking up she could see the two ODST's Naval-Command had assigned to protect her. They were clad in there usual black combat armour, one turned his head towards her and Doctor Casey saw her face reflected in the sinister reflective visor the man wore. Neither had said anything to her since they arrived, Casey assumed they had been told to protect but her but under no circumstances to interfere with her research.
She returned to the computer screen and began to upload the virus that would sweep clean the hard drive and leave nothing for the covenant to probe, she hoped. She could already here the sound of gunfire down the corridor as well as the terrifying noise of searing plasma; the aliens must have been closing in on her lab.
The door's to the lab swung open, a young militia trooper clad in urban fatigue's and body armour appeared with a MA4 rifle over his shoulder, his face white with fear, 'doctor, the convoy's here we have to go.'
'Just a few more minutes' Casey said as she copied the information from the hard-drive. Five circular disks emerged from the server column, all the information she had on her project stored on them. Quickly scooping them up she loaded the disks into a portable briefcase safe with a lock combination. If the wrong code was entered the disks would be wiped with the software inside the armoured case, 'we can't leave anything for the covenant to find.'
The trooper glanced nervously over his shoulder, 'you have the disks' he was no more then a boy, sixteen at the most drafted into the war-effort, the military had such few troops left on New Berlin.
'If the covenant get one hint of what we've been working on here then it's all for nothing. We can't allow that to happen.'
The trooper stood there, his face now completely pale with panic; he never got to say another word.
A burst of purple plasma tore through his chest, his eyes widened as he mealy stood there, his body drifting back and forth, the shock running down his legs was all that was holding the corpse up.
The doors were smashed open causing the militia corpse to go flying, 'get down' shouted one of the ODST's, Casey ducked as plasma fire sprayed the room. The broken doors were kicked in again forcing them to the ground; a hulking creature came through clad in blue armour, a plasma rifle held in its claws. Casey had heard of these creatures before but had rarely seen one in the flesh, a covenant elite.
The alien grunted, small beady eyes looking around the room, its mandibles clicked something in its inaudible alien tongue and to more elites entered the room; one was clad in dark red armour and led the other two as they spread out across the room.
Gunfire tore apart the silence as the two ODST's rose up from there cover, took aim and fired. The first elite had not even turned when the rounds hit him (or her, Casey couldn't tell), its shield's flickered and the small projectiles tore through its armour turning the elite into a blood drenched twitching carcass.
The two remaining elites traced the fire and opened up; thick bolts of plasma sprayed the elite marine's location. Most of the blue elites shots went wide but the high ranking read armoured elite clearly possessed better aim. A bolt of plasma impacted on the chest of one of the ODST's who was thrown back a second tore through his head dropping him to the ground, dead, his friend would not be caught out so easily. Tucking down low he rolled out between to bench's while the elites were still firing on his previous position. Three armour piecing rounds tore down the shield's of the blue elite, as it turned to look where it had been shot from another three tore into its head, two in the eyes and one through its throat. Unable to scream the elite collapsed, its last few seconds alive saw it drowning in its own blood.
The ODST leant back against the lab table and ejected his spent ammunition changing over to a spare one. As he rose from his cover he found the elite had gone.
Setting her hands on the table Doctor Casey surveyed the area, the beating of her heart thudding in her brain. The elite rose a few lab stools away from her mimicking the ODST's strategy concerning cover. It raised its weapon but not at the ODST, Casey found herself staring down the barrel.
Her whole life flashed before her eyes, her graduation from the Tokyo based science foundation, her work with the legendary Doctor Catherine Halsey, the birth of her two children, her induction into ONI and her posting on New Berlin, all about to end.
The elite let out a pain filled cry as a round tore into its back. Casey opened her eyes as the beast turned to face its attacker as a second round dissipated its shields and punched through its right hand causing it to drop the plasma rifle.
Grabbing at its bleeding fist the elite growled, Casey looked over the aliens shoulder and saw the attacker. Clad in the combat armour of an ODST was Chief Inspector Creedy, her liaison to the Office of Naval Intelligence. It appeared that the ONI spook had requisitioned some body armour from the bases armoury but he had decided not to wear a helmet. In his hand he bore his own customized M7C Magnum or as she had heard the other ODST's refer to it as the 'covies nightmare.' He had rebuilt the pistol from scratch using increased gas pressure and armour piecing rounds, no wonder it dropped the elites shield so quickly.
Yelling an incomprehensible threat at him the elite lunged, Creedy was faster. A chrome tipped round cut through the elite's right leg, the beast stumbled and fell as his feet. A second attempted lunge was thwarted by a round to the arm, the elite was now coughing up bloody and it took all the aliens strength just to look his opponent in the eye.
Creedy levelled his pistol point blank at the elites face, 'Sangheili scum' he muttered and pulled the trigger, the elites brain's blew out coating the glossy lab floor in thick blue blood.
'What' Casey said getting to her feet, she had heard him saying something but it had been drowned out as he fired.
'Nothing' said Creedy feeding a spare ammunition clip into his pistol. Creedy had been with her on New Berlin for five years yet his presence still sent a shiver down her spine every time she saw him. A deep gash lined the right side of his face, his black hair was cut short and his cold grey eyes seemed to cut deep into her very soul, despite all this she was glad to see him.
'Doctor, we have to go now, the convoy's here.'
'What about my children' she asked checking the progress of the virus. It had deleted twenty-five percent off the vast amounts off data in the System Core, 'I need to know that they are safe.'
'There being escorted from the refugee camp as we speak, we need to go, now.'
'We can't go until the core has been wiped, the project is too important to be compromised especially at this time.'
As she continued to work Creedy hauled the surviving strike trooper to his feet and checked the man over. He paid no heed to the dead Militia trooper on the ground or the fallen ODST; it was as if there deaths meant nothing to him.
'These server's, they hold all the information in the core' Creedy said inspecting the line of computer Server's lined up towards the rear of the room.
'Yes' Casey said, irritation in her voice, the virus had stalled.
'And the only way the covenant can get at the information is by probing these.'
'Yes' she said again, 'but I can's see what…' she heard the cock of a gun barrel.
She looked up to see the ODST without his battle rifle; it was in the hands of Creedy who had levelled it towards his shoulder. She watched as he fed a full round into the nine server's, the thin metal surrounding them shattered while burst of sparks erupted as the armour piecing rounds tore them apart.
Casey was not sure whether to be overjoyed or in tears. She would have never thought of destroying them, five years of work going up in flames but the data was gone, the covenant could never get the hands on its, its only copy lay in the armoured brief case beside her.
Casey heart was pounding as Creedy came round the table and grabbed her by the arm, 'come on, we're leaving.'
'Sir, are you sure the covenant can't access them' said the ODST who was now on point, 'if they, I don't know put humpty-dumpty back together again.'
'Good point' replied Creedy unhooking a grenade as they passed the doors. Pulling the pin he through it into the lab, it landed behind the server row. He pushed Casey to one side and covered his ears.
Casey was just working out why when a deafening explosion caused her to temporarily loose her hearing. They shattered remains of a server top was thrown out off the labs. She saw Creedy mouthed something as they left, while she couldn't here the ODST heard and suppressed a snicker, 'Let the covenant shift through that if they want to find out what we were doing here.'
As Inspector Creedy, Doctor Casey and the remaining strike trooper headed towards the waiting convoy in the fortified depot, half-way across the science facility and four floors up, something very strange was happening in lab 9-D.
Lab 9-D was a storage lab where much of the equipment that had been used during the preliminary testing of the military project Doctor Casey had been performing was stored. The computer screens and diagnostic boards were flickering on and off. This in itself was not unusual as the labs were frequently subject to power fluctuations, something that annoyed many off the divisional researchers stationed there. This would not have been unusual, had the power generator for floor nine not been destroyed earlier in the day but a stray Wraith mortar round.
Even without power the labs electronic systems continued to function, the power source being harnessed from somewhere else. A gibberish collection of numbers and letter's appeared on all the screens as the computer's failed to process what was being fed into them, all except one.
The slip-stream diagnostic panel was the only instrument that could make sense off the information being fed into it and it kept repeating one continuous message.
Project Gateway now operational
Confirmation code: *****
Confirmation received: *****
Classification: ONI priority intelligence
Subject: Route found, slip-probe locked onto unknown holding.
Newly discovered radio waves, gateway will not disengage, unknown holding increasing in density.
Situation considered by available AI psychical impossibility, recommend mission abort and a diagnostic be run off this station, system shutting down.
Confirmation code: *****
Confirmation received: *****
Program End
During the covenant incursion of research station Gamma-4, Lab 9-D had not been considered a priority target by the covenant assault force and had not been of a high enough priority to keep a full squad of ODST's to guard it. While much of the technology being used in the project was developed there, it could all be rebuilt with the files Doctor Casey had been ordered to downloaded then destroyed. Had the covenant got a hold off it, all information had been wiped from the computers and the hardware left behind was useless without the correct information which Inspector Creedy had made sure could never be accessed again. For this reason the covenant kill teams had swept past ignorantly ignoring the room, had they seen it now they would not have been so ignorant.
The computer's had finally shut down, the source of there power now forcing its way into the darkness. Blue lightning tore its way into the room cleaving gashes into the wall and bursting into the ground uprooting the glossy floor tiles. The entrance off the lightning point became a miniature storm, a dark cold void beyond it. After a few seconds the object the sensors could not identify fell through the rift and the storm sealed behind it leaving darkness and silence.
The unknown object was a body, or a least an armoured shell of one. The being that had dropped through wore dark purple armour of an exotic design. When viewed from afar the creature did not seen dissimilar from the Spartan-II's currently in use. Heavily armoured, tall and slender. When you looked closer, you saw that the ceramic plating was much more advanced and moulded to fit the body exactly without the slightly cumbersome look of Spartans. The armour was different in that the ceramic's covered almost the entire body, only small parts of the body-glove membrane could be seen underneath, not a Spartan at all.
The being awoke in pain, it did not scream, it did not cry but any who looked at the creature could see it was. It stretched out an armoured gauntlet, bladed fingertips dragging across the floor as it tried and failed to haul itself up. It could remember nothing, not its name, not is purpose, not even what it was looking at.
Exhausted, broken and in pain the armoured being slumped into and unconsciousness state.
The surviving marines reached the depot within the half an hour at a full run throughout the tunnel system. The good news was that they had not yet run into any of the covenant which indicated that they had not yet gained access to the tunnels. The bad news was that they had not run into any additional marine or militia forces, the tunnels had been the final fall back position which meant the majority of the human forces in the city must have been wiped out. Still it was not as bad as they feared, there were indication's that scattered remnants of the city's defence force had been down here. There were marine standard foot-prints inlaid in the dirt leading off to other areas and the occasional end of a cigarette or a bandage with blood on it, all small signs that humanity had not been defeated yet.
They had found the exit, a sealed security hatch at the end of the tunnel. As the squad engineer got to work on it Mackenzie looked over the marine squad under his command. He had started off with a command of twenty four marines, now including himself he was down to eight; still they were perhaps the best eight marines in the city.
The city, he reflected on this, it was only a week ago that the covenant fleet had torn there way into the system. As Earth itself was under siege over half the colonial defence fleet had been sent to assist, this still left eighteen capital ships to present a significant thorn in the covenants side.
Instead off attacking directly the covenant fleet had held position engaging the UNSC fleet in small engagements. The aliens seemed to be more content with sending small assault teams to the surface, rumours went around off relics of pre-human origin, that was before the covenant must have found what they wanted.
The covenant fleet suddenly attacked, after a single day of fighting they had destroyed the human orbital defence force and began to glass the planet all apart from New Munich. There they sent the ground forces, a massive army to remove the human infestation and find something, that was what the marine commanders had summarised.
Two days ago Mackenzie's squad had been part of the 250th Marine brigade, two and half thousand men and women at the head of ten thousand local colonial militia designated to guard a city with a population of a hundred and fifty thousand.
After two days that number was reduced to a handful of scattered marines across a burnt out Necropolis, several hundred militia with them.
Civilian casualties had been off the chart during the first few hours. Many were shot on sight by the covenant, for others there fate was much worse.
During the night, when the marines had still held the barracks, there had been reports of mass column's of civilian's be rounded up by the covenant forces. Old people no longer capable of fighting, men and women who had never held a gun in there life, even children who did not understand what was happening, then they had heard the screaming.
Most had tried to block in out as the covenant had exterminated the survivor's in mass shootings, inhuman displays of strength and cruelty, over half the cities population in one hour. The barracks had been overrun shortly after that, the human forces loosing the final strong point in the city.
Mackenzie lent back against a wall, there were now less the one thousand people in the city, and thousands of covenant troops who were even now hunting down survivors.
'Sir' said the engineer breaking him from his thoughts, 'its open.'
'Raleigh' said Mackenzie shouldering his assault rifle, 'heads up we're going in first. Marine's, form up, two ranks behind us watch each others backs.'
The marine's were immediately in formation, he and Raleigh at the head and slowly they advanced into the darkness of the warehouse, there last hope off making it off this rock alive.
The mammoth sized Scarab slowly lumbered forward, the bestial body of the terrifying machine hulked high above the city of New Munich. Four bladed legs repeatedly stabbed into the soft marshes below upturning layers of earth just as the invading covenant army had upturned this world.
From the observation platform of the mechanized arachnid Field Master Koru Zanakree watched the human city die. The golden armoured Sangheili braced his thickly muscled shoulders stretching out a cramp that had build up his long neck. From when his forces had first been deployed around this city, he knew right away that this is what would happen. For there part the humans had fought well, though this thought was sinful to think, Zanakree knew it was the truth, the prophet's had mealy presented him with more bodies to charge into the enemy lines then the humans commanders here had been given.
Zanakree had turned the scarab into his mobile command centre; since he had a dozen of them in his arsenal one would not be terribly missed. If he were to be truthful, he would prefer to fight on the front lines, but he had to ensure that his 'special' guest was well protected.
Behind stood a collection of figures, in the centre suspended in its hover chair so it did not have to lower itself to the indignity of walking like some lowly creature was the Prophet of Salvation along with his personnel retune. Next to him sat a second prophet of lower rank and title, the prophet of Inquiry, less a title and more an administrative rank.
To the other side of the prophet stood a lowly Jiralhanae, it made Zanakree's skin cruel to think that this brutish thug had not only wormed his way into becoming the prophet's military advisor (indicated by the symbol burned into his hide) but was now in his military HQs. The others were either members of the newly instated (much to Koru's displeasure) Jiralhanae Honour guard and a select team of handpicked veterans from Zanakree's own legion. Just because the Sangheili had been pushed aside from the duties, it didn't mean that Koru would not do his duty to protect the prophets. They had all heard the stories that the arbiter was alive, that he was leading a rebellion but those were just stories. There were still too many councilor's who had their claws dug into the foundations of the covenant, while they lived the Sangheili would always be part of this alliance.
Zanakree looked down at his legion, he had started off with over twenty thousand infantry along with over seven hundred and fifty tanks or infantry support vehicles. For him it was a relatively small force, in the past he had led armies that counted in the hundreds of thousands until his family had lost confidence in him. The human city itself was a mess, city was an overstatement, all that was left was a shambled collection of burnt out husks. Some humans continued to move about ruble streets evading the tightening gauntlet off his forces; soon they too would be exterminated when the covenant had taken what they wanted from this world.
Turning from the dieing city Zanakree made his way towards the Prophet and his entourage. The Scarab was currently set to a course of patrolling around the city, its pilots issued with orders to wipe out any attempts the humans made of a breakout.
The spindly old prophet looked more like a collection of dead skin wrapped around a loose frame then a living creature; years of lavish excess had taken its toll on him. As he neared the prophet raised a withered hand towards him, the bones looked as if they were ready to burst out, "Fleet Master, how good off you to join us.'
'You're Excellency' Zanakree said falling to one knee and bending his head low. He sensed movement from the Honour guard standing about the prophet who were clearly not enthusiastic about a Sangheili getting close to there charge.
'Rise warrior' said the prophet of Salvation, 'you have served the Forerunner's well.'
'I exist to serve Excellency'
Salvation grinned, the nature of his almost toothless mouth set Koru's senses on edge, 'Tell me, has the vermin's stronghold fallen yet.'
'I received a message from them only recently my lord, the human facility has been cleansed of the infidels. Our forces are now securing the area.'
'Inform them not to touch anything' said Salvation, a spike of threatening intent in his voice, 'my attendant, the most noble prophet of Inquiry and Vigruss, my military advisor will be arriving very soon.'
'As you command' replied Koru rising to his feet and walking past the entourage, 'I will see to it.'
'And Field Master' chirped Salvation, 'prey to the forerunner's that what we seek is there, or this entire expedition would have been for nothing.'
'Human this way, human this way.'
The Unggoy were a most annoying race and it was beyond Major Ukra Kalnakee why the Forerunner's had seen hit to create them.
The little creature stumbled forward so overawed in excitement it was not looking where it was running. This caused it to stumble over several times and Kalnakee found it hard to resist the urge not to throttle the creature there and then.
Two blue armoured Sangheili moved in front of the red armoured major, another two Sangheili cautiously brought up the rear. The ten unggoy of his unit had been sent out to scout around the human labs. This method of tactics suited him fine, at least a few of the annoying creatures could be expended by a latent human trap or stray warrior while the Sangheili were alerted by the unggoy's death and could dispatch the threat.
His hand rested on the hilt of his deactivated Energy Sword, there could still be a few human defenders lurking about the darkly lit corridors.
The sangheili fire team cautiously advanced into the human lab the unggoy had been leading them to. As he looked up he could a human title or inscription over the door, thinking nothing of it he advanced into lab 9-D.
Two of the other unggoy were already in the room, upon seeing the arrival of the sangheili they were sent into a frenzy of excitement like children believing they were about to be rewarded. For Ukra however it was the final straw and he let fly with his rage, the unggoy in front didn't see it coming.
Ukra's armoured hoof came smashing into the unggoy at full speed and sent it hurtling across the room behind one of the work benches. He didn't care if it was dead or unconscious; it would not be the first lower creature he had executed during his career. The two other unggoy immediately fell silent and sunk back not wanting to find themselves at the receiving end of there masters next outburst of rage.
The sangheili themselves spread out across the room, two took up fire points either side while the two remaining sangheili took up firing positions either side of him. Looking down Ukra decided to see what all the commotion was about, his eyes widened in surprise and fear.
The human lay in the centre of the room, it looked immobilised and harmless however there was something that unnerved Ukra to the very core of his being. The human was completely armoured and not in the way that the standard vermin were usually armoured in primitive ballistic repellent armour. At first he had thought it was a demon, a human super-soldier that the vermin had been known to utilize but this was no Spartan. Its armour was a deep coloured purple and lacked the more bulky appearance of the human demons; instead the armour was like a carapace to the human moulded exactly to fit its body. In fact Kalnakee was just guessing this creature was human, its armoured body prevented him from seeing it too clearly and he could not tell what it was.
Fixing the barrel of his carbine on the human Kalnakee waved nodded towards the squad medic, Abro. The medic moved slowly towards it, his own plasma pistol trained on its head, his carefully touched a hoof down both side and bent down. Reaching behind he withdrew a MST (Medical Scanning Tool) and began to move the rectangular pad up and down the body.
'Well' Ukra asked.
The medic stared back at him, 'it's dead.'
An unseen gasp of relief went up from all in the room, there was something unnatural about this, whatever by the Forerunner's it was.
'What about its weapons.'
Abro looked down towards the weapon the human had been carrying, a medium-range rifle laying limp in one hand. Picking it up Abro found it was attached to a cable that fed into the sealed backpack built into the human's hind armour on its back. Another cable led up from the backpack and connected to the base of the human's helmet, Ukra guessed it was attached o the back of its skull.
'It looks as if the weapons are linked synapticly to its brain, very advanced to for human tech.'
'There primitives' breathed Ukra, ''they don't posses that kind of technology.'
Abro looked back up at him, 'and neither do we.'
This was becoming more and more uncomfortable by the minute, averting his eyes from the human's head Kalnakee looked at the rifle. It lacked the crudeness of human engineering; instead it was a finally arced rifle with a smooth sleek barrel ending in the handle grip and trigger like most human weapons ended. By the look of the crystallized nozzle he had a heretical thought that it was a plasma based weapon.
The MST suddenly lit up in Abro's hand, that and the faint red glimmer reflected from the reflective floor was the only warning the sangheili in the room had.
The human was somehow up on its feet behind Abro before they knew what was going on and with breathtaking speed Abro found an arm thrust around his throat just as the sangheili had raised there weapons.
Kalnakee bit down on his lower mandibles, none could fire without hitting Abro who was being used as a physical shield. The human leveled its weapon towards Ukra and the remaining sangheili behind him, Abro attempted to push back and free himself but the human snapped back his arm shattering the bones and making Abro roar out in pain.
'Blasphemous vermin" Ukra spat, 'drop you weapon.'
The human mealy stared at him, its aim unwavering, the sangheili major didn't like to think what kind of targeting logistics this thing possessed.
'Do not try my patience vermin, drop your weapon and I can promise you a quick death.'
The only reply the human gave was a grunt like noise, it was almost as if it wanted to speak but could not. Ukra could not let this thing live, it was a blasphemy that deserved only quick end.
Before Kalnakee had even given his orders to fire the human had already seemed to judge his response and it was the human who fired first. A lance of pure green plasma flew forth from its weapon and cut into the sangheili behind him. One shot dissipated his shields, the second cut clean through his chest, the soldier dropped to the ground, dead.
In the time that it took for Ukra to turn around, Abro was dead; his head snapped back, a quick and painless death.
The human dropped to a crouch, the warrior to its left was the next to die, cut down by a burst of plasma, not from the human but from his opposing sangheili who in his haste had missed his target and cut down his comrade. Before he could correct his aim the human was upon his, a foot kicked the weapon from his hand. Ukra watched in shock as the humans fist pounded relentlessly against the young novices armour, it was so fast Ukra could not tell when its fist left, pulled back then met the armour again. The shields finally gave way and within seconds of Abro dieing the sangheili's armour cracked open like an egg. With nothing left to stop it the human plunged its bladed fingertips through the sangheili's side rippling out an assortment of internal organs, blood crusted across its mandibles as the young warrior was grabbed by the arm and the leg and hurtled across the room leaving a blood stained trail to follow.
The human turned to look at Kalnakee, the only remaining warrior in the room, the unggoy fled when they realized this creature could not be killed, Kalnakee still tried. He had gotten off a single shot from his carbine before a pin-point shot from the humans weapon cut it from is hand (not to mention one of his fingers).
Grasping his hand in pain Ukra drew his Energy Sword, it did him little good. Before he could use it the human had swept under his defense radius and was in front of him, Kalnakee found himself face to face with a blood red visor that glowed an unholy shade of red. A cold piecing pain stabbed through him, he went very cold. He looked down to see a silver blade lancing forward from inside the top half of the human warriors gauntlet, good hiding place. It was at that instant that Kalnakee realized that this creature was more dangerous then any human weapons or Spartan, it was even more dangerous then a displeased commander, it was a cold killer.
Pain lanced through him as the human withdrew its blade then plunged it back again. Ukra's mandibles hung open but all he could manage was a dribble of a moan, the pain he felt was so much worse them he could have imagined. The human withdrew its blade then stabbed again, withdrew then stabbed, withdrew stabbed withdrew stabbed over and over, it had just remembered how to kill and it liked it. By the time it had stopped stabbing Kalnakee was nothing but a mess of fleshy organs scattered across the ground.
Newly arrived and newly blooded, the creature rose to its feet, assault rifle still held in one hand. It walked out of the lab leaving a full fire team of elite covenant soldiers dead or incapacitated, all in the space on one minute.
Unconsciously activating its cloaking device, more out of reflex then tactical sense, the armoured being faded from view. A minute later the first fire teams arrived in lab 9-D and could not believe the horror of what they saw.
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