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Elysian Fields (part two): The Artifact
Posted By: Commander Demitri Wolf
Date: 6 January 2006, 6:40 am
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1312 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
planet Elysium, Fontana Mersinias System,
Civilian Estate designation A-32
What are they doing here, here of all places, James thought to himself as he gunned the domestic 2553 series Warthog carrying his entourage across the fertile land. Sarah sat in the back of the converted military vehicle with her son, who James had discovered was named for his grandfather – and James and Sarah's father – Casey.
The Spartan, in an attempt of making himself less threatening to his newfound family, had removed his bulky Mjolnir helmet, something rare for the soldier as well as something that left him feeling slightly vulnerable. But not nearly as vulnerable as they were about to become.
Overhead the Covenant numbers had multiplied threefold, with at least eighteen of their ships now in low orbit of Elysium, "It's overkill," James had told Sarah as they left his sister's cottage, "There's something here they want."
As the 'Hog bounded over a hill, clearing a fence and leaving the property, James swung the wheel around and brought them screeching onto the road, "Cool!" cried Casey, his mother was not nearly as impressed.
"Sorry," James replied, almost sheepishly, "I'm not used to driving these things carefully." He zoned out as the vehicle sped down the highway and thought back, to Reach, the Covenant vessel, and his curious arrival here. Running the events over in his mind, James forced himself to remember the last seconds aboard the doomed Capital ship.
He could remember his roar of triumph as he bisected the Ship Master, the euphoria that was overcome in milliseconds as he literally collapsed onto the command pedestal. No, before then, he had hit a random key, hadn't he? Now that James recalled the moment the symbol drilled into his mind, and he could hardly remember consciously pressing it.
James wiped the memory from his mind as the Warthog received an uplink signal from SiriusHub, the information network portal. The passenger side windscreen became a projected information station, and as James stole glances at it, filled with live images of Covenant blockade.
The Spartan called back to his sister, "How do I get the communications network?" She responded by climbing over the armrest in the front seat and sitting down in the passenger side, as she buckled in she tapped various keys on the dashboard and the display changed.
She handed James a Chatter from the glove box compartment and he attached the device to his head, "Good to go, Chief." Sarah smiled as she dialled him in to the UNSC Personnel Switchboard.
Seconds later, he was speaking to Admiral Kale Fenton, having given the AI at the switchboard his Spartan designation and asking to be transferred. Fenton was Admiral of the Fontana Mersinias UNSC Fleet, which made him the number one person for James to contact.
"Son, I don't know what the hell you are doing in this system, last news I got, all Spartans were on a Blacklist operation off-planet Reach, but while I got you here, I ain't lettin' go." The Admiral spoke with a Texan drawl that reminded James of Thomas, a long dead Spartan friend of his listed falsely as MIA. And – James noticed – the way he labelled James you, an individual person, there had been many a time when he had been spoken to like an object, one of many mindless creatures.
"It's extremely complicated, Sir, I don't fully understand the scope of this myself." He kept his voice calm as he spoke, drove, and cycled through the travel directory on the Warthog's SiriusHub uplink.
"Well then, I'll be blunt with you Spartan; we have a situation here," That's an understatement, James thought but let the Admiral speak, "Recently our archaeological team lead by Professor Aleksandr Lazutkin have been making…discoveries."
James steered the Warthog around an obstruction on the road with ease and replied, "Sir?"
The older man sighed, James could see a mental picture of the man now, dishevelled, unshaven; he was on the end of his tether, "We have something that they want, Spartan – hell! What is your name soldier?"
He asked the question not in a rude or angry manner, but rather inquisitively, which the Spartan appreciated, more and more he was beginning to like this man, "My name is Spartan-003, Sir, but… I am called James."
Fenton chuckled, "Thankyou, as I was saying, James," he paused as if collecting himself for a second, "Ten hours ago, the Professor and his dig team unearthed a crystal of sorts, I think that may be what brought them here, what brought you here."
A crystal, James thought, just like on Sigma Octanus IV. Subconsciously he ran his fingers over the seared patches on his Mjolnir over his arm, the arm he lost at that very conflict, because of the crystal
"Sir, that crystal is very likely a dangerous artifact, I have previously come into contact–"
Admiral Fenton cut him off quickly, "I know, soldier, that's why it is extremely fortunate for me that I just landed myself a final lifeline; you. I'm patching you through the most direct route from your location to the dig site; your objectives are being updated into your HUD."
James discarded the chatter and donned his Mjolnir helmet again and reconnected the link to Fenton.
He accessed his objective menu, as the Admiral had said; five new objectives now filled the screen. It told him that his primary objectives were the securing of the artifact and the safe transport of it to the Space Lift on his HUD map.
His secondary objectives were as simple, protect the Professor, prevent un-necessary losses of military personnel and lastly, prevent civilian fatalities, these objectives were the usual ones for a mission like this, "Ten-four, Sir, Spartan-003 en route to target destination. But, Sir, I noticed one thing missing on my objectives, extraction of you, and of the rest of the Admiralty."
Fenton sighed, "That's because we're we are, James, we don't need extraction. If you could see me now soldier, you'd see an old man saluting you."
There was a hiss of static and the line disconnected, for the first time in minutes James remembered the presence of his family in the car when Sarah gasped, "James, look," he followed her pointing finger to the sky, "they're engaging the Covenant."
Sure enough, a convoy of around twenty assorted UNSC ships, Destroyers and Cruisers mainly, had started a bombardment of the Covenant fleet. James chinned a control inside his helmet, and instantly individual identification tags spat on his screen, each marking a ship, and sure enough – and just as the Spartan expected – at the head of the human armada, launching a miniature salvo of Archer missiles an two gigantic MAC rounds, was a colossal capital ship, the UNSC Empire State, Fenton's flagship.
James raised his hand in a salute to the Admiral and muttered, "And I salute you too, Sir." Casey leant over from the backseat and place a hand on James' shoulder, he didn't say anything; he didn't need to.
As the Warthog spun out onto another highway, Sarah finished telling James about the last thirty-five years of her life, "And the father?" James asked quietly, cocking his head slightly towards Casey who was watching a HoloVid in the backseat.
His sister smiled and replied in hushed tones, "He was killed two years ago," James winced, "Captain Leroy Nelson, UNSC." The Spartan looked up with a new look on his face.
"Captain of the New England," he murmured, as he again removed his helmet, realising he had once served under his brother-in-law without ever knowing, "I was there when he died, we had entered a ground engagement, plasma bolt," James jabbed his right index and middle fingers into his chest, "right to the heart."
"Oh my God," Sarah had tears forming on her eyes by this stage and James put an armoured arm on her shoulder, this was how he had seen officers console war widows before.
The Spartan smiled at her when they parted, "He was a good officer, and a great man," the scene oddly played back in James' mind, the explosions, aerial strikes, and then everything froze as Nelson, his commanding officer during the campaign, was hit.
It went into slow motion as the life faded from the man's face and he slumped, first to his knees and then on his face, as six more globs of plasma hit and seared away flesh on the dead man's body.
He could remember looking up and seeing a lone Elite towering above his prone figure, he recalled scooping up and priming a plasma grenade from the debris covered ground and flicking it with his wrist towards the great laughing creature.
And last of all, he saw its face contort into a look of surprise as the glowing ball stuck to its neck, heard it bellow in rage as it clawed to no avail and finally he felt the adrenaline and fury flowing through his body as the creature was disintegrated by the blinding explosion.
"I said, we're there," Sarah had dried her eyes now and was staring at the entranced Spartan, "Wake up."
Though he was driving he had slipped into a daydream, he brought himself back and apologised, "You stay here with Casey, I'll be back for you." He scooped his helmet up in his hand and smiled at his family, he would protect them. The Spartan eased the Warthog into a park near the dig site and hopped out.
He placed the helmet over his head and clicked it into place, atmosphere venting from the airtight seal as the HUD came online, the flashing red icon telling him he had incomplete objectives.
It was then that he looked at the actual site of the excavation, it was huge. A giant charged fence ran the perimeter, maybe a kilometre square, and inside the land was dotted with tents, equipment and in the middle of it all, surrounded by many smaller ones, was a hole that looked a good twenty metres in diameter.
James was aware of how little time there was and began to sprint to the security barrier that had been constructed at the main entrance to the site. The MP at the station was alert, his BR55 unslung and pointed at the running Spartan, "Halt!" he called and James obliged, time-wasting formalities followed before he was allowed clearance, and not a second later he had resumed his dash.
He was met twenty metres into the dig site by a man in his late forties, his face and clothes were grimy and dirt stained, the nametag on his excavation helmet read 'A. Lazutkin'.
"Professor," the Spartan said as he looked around the site again, men were running in every direction, fleeing the site as news of the attack reached them. In fact, the only person remaining calm was himself, even Lazutkin was looking panicky. "I need to extract you and the artifact now. The man before him nodded and replied, "It is in the main tent, we must hurry."
Lazutkin cocked his head towards a tent off to their left, and with a nod the Spartan ran to it with him following close behind. James roughly pushed aside the tent flap and stormed inside, his eyes falling on the pedestal in the centre of the tent. "Is that it?" he asked Aleksandr as he came through the flap.
"Aye, that's where she is." He replied simply and looked metal encased holding chamber with a smile. James stepped up to the pedestal and tapped in his UNSC override code to the keypad affixed below, the titanium-A battleplate armouring receded and a bright green light shone out from inside. James' blast visor darkened to protect his eyes as they focused on the intricately designed crystal beyond the aurora like haze.
James tore his eyes from the mesmerizing sight and turned back to the professor, "Can I hold it? How am I meant to retrieve it?" Lazutkin snapped from his trance and looked at the Spartan with horror on his face, "What ever you do, don't make direct contact with the crystal!" The Spartan wasn't sure he wanted to know why, and thought against asking, "We lost three workers early into the excavation, they just...died."
They just died? James didn't want to know more for the moment, that could wait, "Will my shielding system be able to handle it?" The professor looked the Spartan over and then nodded, "We used Mach I's for the excavation, you should be able to hold it without trouble.
Cautiously James reached out a hand and touched the green crystal with his index finger, it responded to his touch by ceasing to glow and pulsate, and by casting a wave of static over his HUD. The Spartan looked at his spectroscope and noted the quick spike in the gamma range, but when nothing else happened, he took it as a sign of success and grabbed the crystal quickly. He looked to the professor as another man entered the tent, he was panting and looked terrified, "They're here…they've found us, we have to get out of here!"
James thrust the crystal into the holding canister attached to the pedestal went to the front of the tent and looked up at the sky, three Covenant dropships were descending on the site, spewing plasma down on the sentries. Sarah, Casey, James thought, he looked into the room and eyed the only weapon he could see in a locked glass cupboard next to Lazutkin. He moved like lightning, "Get out of here, now!" He bellowed to the professor and the other workman as he smashed the glass and grabbed the backpack inside; he furiously threw it over his arm and snapped it on, grabbing the attachment in his armoured hands and twisting the ignition valve as he exited the tent after the two men.
The first dropship had just set down fifteen yards from the tent when James burst free, the flamethrower in his hands already licking the air a good two metres in front of him. The Elite that jumped from the dropship was the first to be incinerated, the flames engulfed his shield and as it flickered and died the tongues of fire seeped through grooves in the armour and delivered deep burns to the creature.
Unable to remove its armour, the Elite fell to the ground wreathing and screaming in pain as its skin was seared off its body. Two Grunts jumped down next, firing plasma pistols at the Spartan, two bolts glazed his Mjolnir armour as the flamethrower hissed over their methane tanks and exploding with the sound of a small bomb going off.
Pulling the safety catch on the dual nozzle, James spun the release valve and along with the first jet of flame intensifying threefold, a second burst accompanied it off to the right, so now two identical streams were licking at the hull of the dropship; the result was almost instantaneous.
The remaining occupants of the dropship were cremated unceremoniously as the fire caught them, the dropship dipped as the internal temperature of the cockpit skyrocketed and the elite pilot collapsed over his controls.
James ran for it.
Behind him the dropship, now well alight, crashed to the ground and exploded, sending large piece of chassis flying over his head. The second craft that had been flying in behind it hadn't seen the explosion till it was too late, and was caught in the eruption as well. But the third dropship was still well alive, and as the Spartan and the two men with him escaped the compound it released a violent burst of plasma from its turret.
Everything went into slow motion for James as the plasma rain dropped to the ground, he grabbed at his bandolier of grenades to find only two left, he primed them at once – leapt – and hurled them with the accuracy of a bullet. The hung in the air and then descended down on their target. One hit the gun turret and the second the pilot's compartment, James dove for the ground as they erupted three seconds later.
The final dropship exploded twenty metres above the ground and came crashing down a moment after, surveying his handiwork James got to his feet and pushed the two men forwards, "Get in the Warthog, now!" He threw off the smoking flamethrower and jumped into the driver's seat of the vehicle that his family still sat in, "We're getting out of here."
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