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Ascendant Part V
Posted By: Archangel's Blade<archangels_blade@hotmail.com>
Date: 16 June 2002, 12:27 am
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Former Human Colony Summer
9:09 p.m.
Com. Michael Sheener, Spartan Mark VII, Number 235
I worked the jammed doors open. The grunts obviously didn't want what they were running from to chase after them. What I saw startled me.
The floor was covered in burned Covenant bodies. Blood was splashed everywhere. Computer terminals were smoking and sparking. The lights overhead flickered constantly, and I was forced to rely on night vision. What really scared me was what I saw along the walls.
Lining the edges of the room were rows of tubes. Each tube was covered in what passed for Covenant glass. Each tube held a human soldier.
Each tube was scorched and burned.
Running to the nearest tube, I checked what I thought were the life support readings on the Covenant version of the cryogenic suspension unit. The readings were in the form of coloured bars. The bars were all dropping steadily. Not good!
"Let me try," said Archangel, "Maybe I can figure out how to wake them up."
"You'd better hurry up, then," I said as I reached my hand up to my helmet.
I heard noise, like a grunt pleading for its life. As I moved to find out what it was, I saw that it was a grunt pleading for its life. But what it was pleading to wasn't human. It wasn't Covenant. I didn't know what it was.
"Please master! We only kept the humans as a sacrifice to you! Please, master; don't hurt me like the rest! Please! NO!!"
The creature, composed of some form of orange energy, raised its hand. Speaking in a voice that sounded like it shouldn't exist, it told the grunt the last words it would ever hear.
"I told you miserable worms to kill all the humans you encountered! I can't have another generation of Forerunner scampering around the universe, creating creatures to combat my species! I won't have it! Die worm!"
It motioned, and the grunt was crisped from the inside out. Then it noticed me.
"Another Forerunner?! Another one survived the Ringworld installation?! I thought I had hunted you all down! No matter, you won't survive to create another version of the Flood."
Raising its hand, it motioned.
I flew.
Right into one of the sparking control panels.
Sparks flew as I hit, and my shields went out immediately. Wave upon wave of electrical (or whatever the Covenant use) energy pulsed through my body. Archangel screamed at me to move. I couldn't. I was frozen in place. My gun was still slung over my shoulder, untouched. I spaced out.
"We don't have to do this, warrior," said the paladin, "Just turn yourself over to my custody, and I'm sure the bishop will give you a quick death for sacrilege and heresy."
I couldn't let that happen. What I knew had to get out to the people. The church had lied to us all along. There was no God. There was no 'magical creation'. It was all just a lie. And they knew it.
"I'm afraid that it's not so easy. The medallion I found in the tomb proves it. And I'm not going to give up so easily."
My hand snaked for the sword over my shoulder. It never made it. My head flew.
"Breathe, Mike, breathe, dammit!! You can't die on me this easily! You lived through those grenades; you can live through being electrocuted! Breathe, you miserable Spartan fucker!"
I tried to breathe. I really did. But I couldn't. I just couldn't.
"Son, hand over the medallion," said the mounted knight.
"Can't. Too valuable," was my reply. I couldn't let anyone have it. He said not to. He made me promise.
"Boy, I'm warning you. If you don't hand that over, I'll kill you."
"Can't. I promised."
"Promised who? You know you stole it," was the knight's accusation.
"That's a lie, and you know it. I promised! You won't have it!"
I didn't see the dagger until too late.
"Hold on, I'll call for help, and try to tap into the controls through the Covenant Battlenet."
"I-can't hold-on-much-l-longer-."
"I'll hurry. You just sit tight."
Easy for him to say. He's not the one with hundreds of volts of electricity jolting through him.
"Give me that medallion, and I promise you 3 billion credits."
This curator was no different from the last. Always trying to scam me out of a priceless alien artifact. An artifact that belonged to a species unknown to mankind.
"Give me 500 billion and I might consider."
"500 billion?! That's insane! The most I can offer is 90 billion credits. Please, this is the best offer I can give to you, and I can assure you that it's the best you'll find."
My medallion wasn't going to go anywhere without more money than that! I had risked my life hunting through that collapsing tomb for it! Those knights sure did know how to boobytrap their brethren's tombs!
"150 billion, no less."
"Please, just lower the price. I lied a little when I said 90 billion. I can offer up to 120 billion. Just give it up."
"130"
"125"
"Done. It's all yours."
I hoped I had done the right thing. I mean, life wasn't cheap nowadays, and 125 billion credits might not cover it. I barely heard him say, "Thank you. Don't worry, that artifact will be just fine in the Museum of UNSD and Alien History."
I finally figured out what I needed to do. Remembering that electrical power moves slower in cold environments, I activated the armor's internal cooling system with a thought. The electricity had slowed down enough for me to pull away from the console. My lungs were immediately flooded with freshly filtered air, and I was overwhelmed. The last thought running through my mind before I blacked out was, what the hell were those memories doing flooding my head? They weren't even mine-.
I was rudely awakened by a pair of curious grunts kicking me in the sides.
"Is he dead? If he is, I get his gun! I saw what those things could do in the courtyard!"
"But I want it! I saw him first! I want his gun!"
I hated to interrupt their argument, but I still wanted my phase rifle. Standing up, I scared the grunts out of their wits!
"AAAACK! HE'S STILL ALIVE!! RUN!!"
Punching one, I punctured his methane tank. I turned to the other, and picked him up before he could scurry away any farther.
"What the hell was that big ugly orange thing that was here a while back?"
"I ain't talking human! Won't tell you about the master! Not even if-" I raised my pulse rifle, "-Okay, okay, just don't shoot!! He's something he calls an 'Ascendant', one of the 'Elder Races'. Please, don't shoot!"
Don't worry, little guy, you're coming with me! You've got more info than I do, so you can tell high command!"
"Are you sure that's such a good idea," Archangel asked, "I mean, won't the Covenant try to get him back? They have in the past."
"Relax, Arch. I know what I'm doing. I think."
"Oh, that's really reassuring."
Ignoring my AI, I strolled leisurely out of the room of dead humans and Covenant, back to the courtyard where I knew my fellows were waiting.
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