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"Pilot, can you see them yet?" Boarders asked. They had been circling around the area of the gravity well for the past twenty minutes without a sign. "No, sir, I'm sorry," the pilot replied. "I can't see a thing. Are you sure you saw something when they fell out? There could have been some sort of anamoly, a wormhole or something, that they fell into. It's the only explanation. "No it isn't, there's something with energy shields around that gravity well," Boarders spoke back harshly. "But sir, we have no knowledge of the Covenant stealth technology working in space," the pilot said. "We have stealth technology, and they're more advanced then us in nearly every way," Boarders reminded him. "Ever stop to think that the reason we have no knowledge of it is because we've never caught any of them?" With that the pilot went silent. Boarders looked out the broken tail of the Raven once more. He was called back in by the co-pilot. "Sir, I have something here," the co-pilot said. "Is it Blue Leader and 3?" Boarders asked, hopeful. "No, sir," the co-pilot responded, seemingly apologetic. "It's a very large energy buildup. Whatever it is, it seems to be growing quite large. It's coming from the same area that Blue 3 and Leader disappeared into though." Boarders thought for a moment, and the thought of plasma pistol charging came to his mind. "Evasive manuevers, now!" Boarders yelled at him. The co-pilot and pilot began shuffling madly, and the Raven began moving eratically. There was a bright light, and the energy that had built up discharged. All the electronics in the ship began shorting out, the cockpit blazing with sparks that were being put out instantly by the vacuum. The pilot and co-pilot's vacuum suits ruptured, both of their mouths opening in silent screams of pain. The Raven went dead, floating closer to the gravity well, with the Spartans inside. "Spartans, gather weaponry and prepare for impact!" Boarders yelled over their channel. He had never been so glad that the MJOLNIR armor was resistant to EMP. Teff slid the silencer onto his MA7B Battle Rifle, and he and Harvey slid into the airlock ahead of them silently. Harvey had his custom Sniper Rifle he had assembled in the Raven with a pistol sidearm. Teff carried his Battle Rifle and a pistol as well. Through a series of hand signals, Teff indicated to Harvey that there should be radio silence. It was obvious, but he wanted to be sure the Covenant didn't hear anything. If they wanted to observe what was going on on this station, as well as be able to get through whatever garrison the Covenant had left alive, they had to be quiet about it. When they got through the other side of the airlock, they were greeted by a long hallway, which lead to a T-Junction. The two Spartans moved swiftly and silently down the corridor. When they reached the end of the hallway, a shudder moved passed through the ship, and various alarms began sounding. First was what Teff guessed as the collision alarm, the second for some sort of warning to the crew. Sounded as if the other Spartans had made an entrance. When the shudder moved through the ship, a few ceiling panels behind them collapsed. With that there came shouting from an elite down the hall, not far from them. "Stop them! They must not reach lab!" he bellowed. "We must continue, then we have sufficient reinforcements! Move out, they in corridor Alpha-Forty!" With that came the bounding of about thirty sets of feet. Teff pointed up to the collapsed ceiling. Harvey nodded, and walked toward the opening. He leaped up the three meters, and grabbed onto the ledge at the top, then pulled himself inside. He lowered his arm to grab Teff's hand as he leaped, and pulled the Master Chief and his three tonnes of MJOLNIR armor up with one hand. As soon as Teff had gotten into the duct, approximately thirty elites went charging past, followed by eight hunters. "At least there won't be much of a garrison left in the labs," Teff said nearly silently. He began moving through the duct in the general direction of the voice of the elite. After a minute or two of travelling through the vents, the solid ceiling turned into grates, allowing the Spartans to look down into the halls below. What they saw were four elites guarding the door they had just passed over, and four other rooms branching off from the hall. The duct ended just ahead, meaning they had probably arrived in the labs. Each lab would have an air lock, in case of accidents, or so Teff assumed. Teff motioned to Harvey for him to lift the grate, and he would drop a plasma grenade down. Harvey moved in nearly slow motion, lifting the grate and placing it down beside him. Harvey then lifted his sniper rifle, nodded, and focused it on one of the elites. Teff dropped the grenade as an elite walked directly beneath him. The grenade dropped the two meters, landing right on its nose. The elite made a confused noise, and tilted its head. The grenade exploded, vapourizing half of the elite, and killing one next to it. Harvey then fired, hitting an elite dead on, but not quite knocking out its shield. He fired a second bullet, killing the elite, as the last elite raised his plasma rifle towards the ceiling. By the time Teff had his gun again, and Harvey had fired his second bullet, the only remaining elite unloaded on the grates. The plasma burned through the grates, and they collapsed under the combined Spartan's weight. Harvey fell onto his head, his shield suffering greatly with his sniper rifle landing under the fallen pieces of ceiling. Teff fell right before the elite, with it looking right down on him. The Covenant beast reached down and lifted Teff up from his head. Teff punched the elite hard in the stomach, and it doubled over. Teff got to his feet, and charged at the elite who was now about five feet away from him. The elite raised his gun and prepared to fire. Teff reached the elite, and kicked it in the knee. There was a sharp crack, and the elite fell onto his other knee. Teff then used the other knee as a vault, and pushed off of it. He went flying into the air, grabbing the elite's arm, and kicking it as hard as he could in the chest. The force of the kick not only shattered the creature's armor, but because of Teff holding onto his arm, it was dislocated and broken. Teff landed on the ground to see a bullet go flying into the side of the elite's neck, sending purple blood flying everywhere. Teff turned to see Harvey holding his rifle leveled. "Thanks 3" Teff said. "No problem, Leader," Harvey replied. Teff pushed through some of the collapsed ceiling to find his battle rifle, unscathed. Teff motioned for them to move ahead, leaving the fallen Covenant soldiers behind. The Raven slammed through the shields of the station, and broke through the hull. Boarders and the other Spartans were tossed about, but suffered no casualties. Equipment was tossed everywhere, most of it flying out into space. "Sound off!" Boarders yelled. The other four Spartans called over the comm, and most of the equipment was still in tact. Except for Green Team's Jackhammer, everything was still operable. "We need to get into that station. Blue Leader and Three have probably already entered, and we now need to find a ride out. I want us in that station before the Covenant moves against us. In Zero-G, they are far more advanced, even for us Spartans. Everyone understand?" There was a resounding "Yes sir!" from the Spartans, and they fired up their thruster packs. The room they were in was quite small, and had contained only the purple pods that the Covenant had been known to use as storage. The Spartans moved to the door, Boarders cocking his Battle Rifle as they went. Teff and Harvey took the room to the lab on the left first, of which the airlock had been broken. But it hadn't been from the crash earlier, there were plasma burns all over it. The first door of the airlock was mostly melted, and the second had been blown off completely, most likely from one of the hunters the two Spartans had seen earlier. The room was nearly empty, except for what looked like cages all around the room, and a chair set in the middle. Scattered about the room were several of the chimp like creatures they had seen, all of them dead. One of them sat in the chair in the center, dead, but with some sort of helmet on. Harvey was examining a few of the creatures' restraints, which they were brought in on. "Looks like they've been chewed through," Harvey said. "Some kind of jail break maybe?" "It's possible," Teff replied. "But it just doesn't seem right. I doubt that this is an electric chair. I'm sure they'd have a much more efficient way to dispose of these things." Teff looked around the room. Although he had seen a scene such as this before, it was quite morbid. "Think about it. Why would they transport a group of these small animals here, in a stealth ship, without anyone knowing about them, merely to kill them off?" "To build an army!" Spark interrupted. "Oh, of course, it all makes sense! How could we have missed it?" "Spark, what are you talking about now?" Teff asked. "Well, you see, since you wouldn't allow me to speak for quite some time, I've been roaming throughout this station's databanks. After quite a bit of hacking I've managed to find it! Look at those creatures in front of you. Don't they look familiar? Imagine one running away from you screaming in terror. That might clear it up for you." With that it hit Teff. "A grunt? But I thought all of the species were loyal. Why would they have such high security, and why would some want to escape?" Harvey asked. "Maybe they were made to be loyal..." Teff replied, looking at the dead grunt slumped in the chair. "So they bring grunts to this station, brainwash them into thinking the Gods have declared our destruction, then set them loose. Nothing will bind you to a task more than faith." "Exactly, sir!" Spark said. "I have saved as much of the information that will be required to prove this. But may I suggest we go across the hall? There's something there we may find interesting." With Spark's suggestion, the two Spartans went across the hall to a locked air lock door. Teff looked through the translucent purple glass, and saw the large orange egg the hunters had brought in cracked and lying in the bottom of an incubator. Up close Teff could tell that the egg was easily two meters tall, which seemed much bigger than he remembered. "Hunters too, sir," Spark said. "But I'm sure that they would need much less coarsing. Their lack of intelligence would make it quite easy to brainwash them without the aid of a machine." "Lets check the last lab then find the rest of the Spartans, 3," Teff said. "Good. This place is giving me the creeps," Harvey replied. Teff and Harvey walked into the airlock, which was operational and unlocked. When Teff closed the door behind him and began cycling the airlock, an alarm began blaring. A Covenant voice came over some sort of PA system. "Humans have breached the labs," an elite yelled. "I want all teams to cancel export of cargo and move to intercept, now!" "Charming," Harvey said under his breath. "Spark, get this damn airlock cycling!" Teff yelled at the AI. "Already done, sir," Spark said. "Unfortunately, I can't get the air lock to cycle back the way we came though..." With that the air lock doors opened to show an ice covered habitat, with thousands of the unarmored grunts staring directly at them. |
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