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Shadows of Archon II (part 24) - Split Decision
Posted By: Wado<wyamauchi@msn.com>
Date: 22 October 2002, 9:58 am
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In long and dead times past,
Devil goddess brought the last,
In the Temple of Xethogoth.
Terrible vicious beauty,
Sweet and soothing duty,
In the Temple of Xethogoth.
Chaos becomes incarnate,
Death's consulate
In the Temple of Xethogoth. In the Temple of Xethogoth, a lone human man dressed in purple robes kneels in a pool of multi-colored blood. He who once was called leader on a far off world speaks saying, "Sweet and bitter goddess, command me and it shall be done."
The shadowy, womanly figure of Xethogoth peers down from an invisible throne above. Her voice is like the sweet harmony of angels but with the metallic aftertaste of chilled blood. Nothing she says is purely sweet -- everything reeks of rotten things. She sips of the blood of many dead that lie about, then with the voice of a young woman she says, "Governor Balisco, I crave the blood of sacrifices but I can never be satisfied, all that I crave only makes me sicker. Where is this pure blood that you promised me?"
"The Covenant collective guard all paths to Earth, their raiders destroyed the last shipment," said Balisco, "and the next shipment may not come for many months."
"What!" screeched Xethogoth with a piercing shrill.
Balisco cringes as blood drips from his ears and nose. "Please my bitter sweet goddess, they are children and pure blood human children are hard to get these days."
Drops of a liquid fall to the ground and sizzle as they burn holes into the stone ground. Above, Xethogoth sheds bitter tears saying, "First the news of Astragoth's demise and now this. Balisco, you keep me trapped here like a little girl. I will not stand of it anymore."
"I beg you..." said Balisco. "What, we are moving?"
"Too late Balico," said Xethogoth. "This entire moon that houses my temple is a ship, a great Forerunner ship and the asteroids that surround it are my sentinels. I will not listen to your false comforts anymore. I have just heard from Margoth and his mighty fleet is in transit. No more will the blood of your petty sacrifices keep me bound here."
So go the words of Xethogoth, goddess and insane Forerunner.
------------------------------------------------
Split Decision
Aboard the Covenant command ship, the Bastion of Light, the stench of death permutated the air. Although in orbit around Earth with shields that can withstand the largest of Earth's remaining MACs, inside the ship there is no victory, only loss.
John looked at his two foes -- strangely armored Hunters, shorter than John and with dual fuel rod cannons armed and ready to fire. In less than the time it took the foes to say die, John dove between the two Hunters and fired his shotgun into the groin of one and his SMG into belly of the other.
As John dove by, the two mini-Hunters tracked John with their weapons, turning towards each other and firing. As the shots of the four fuel rod cannons exploded at point blank range, everyone is caught in the blast. The two mini-Hunters each fly back into the sides of the blast door opening that they stood in and John is blasted forward another 5 meters into the room.
"Wake up Chief," said Cortana.
"What Cortana?" replied a groggy John.
"Good you're awake, shields coming back online now and not a moment too soon," said Cortana. "Those small Hunter-like Covenant look mad as hell."
John slowly rolls to the side and brings his weapons up to fire but in each hand are only the melted remains of a shotgun and SMG. A sharp pain shoots up Johns back causing John to momentarily tense up.
Meanwhile, the two mini-Hunters angrily toss aside their destroyed fuel rod cannons and then turn to look at John. Around the mini-Hunters are small pieces of metal the color of their armor.
"Chief, they took direct hits from their own weapons and your weapons too," said Cortana, "and none of it penetrated their armor, but their armor does seem to be ablative; you could perhaps wear it down with repeated strikes. However, I recommend just running away. The only door out of here appears to be the door we came in through. So to get out, we have to get by them."
"Evisserpmi", said the mini-Hunter on the right as he and the other mini-Hunter stand in one place keenly sizing up John.
"What was that," said John as he feels around to see what weapons he still might still have.
"He said awesome," said Cortana, "and your translator has malfunctioned."
"Can't talk to them, can't get through their armor, stuck with only these. Cortana, are these grappling devices still working?" asked John.
"Checking, yes at 90% power," replied Cortana.
"I've got an idea, it's a long shot, but here goes nothing," said John as he hooks one end of each of the grappling devices together and holds the other ends in his hands. As he drops the connected end to the ground, the cable between the ends lengthens. John then begins to skip forward using the grappling devices as a makeshift jump rope. "Got no mama or a papa,
but I do have a doctor,
go to the doc,
short shock,
around the clock,
tick tock,
go to the doc,
short shock,
Got no mama or a papa,
and now I've really got to drop." When John finishes the lyrics, he is only a few meters from the mini-Hunters who have moved to block the exit. At that point, the connected ends of the two grappling devices come apart and John whips them around the legs of the mini-Hunters. Right afterwards John slams his ends of the grappling devices onto the ground -- the other ends follow suit and attach to the ground firmly.
Before the mini-Hunters can jump out of the entangling cables, the cables pull tight with such force that mini-Hunters fall to the ground and are held firmly rooted.
John rolls over to the side, just avoiding their grasps.
Unfortunately, the entanglement is short lived because the two mini-Hunters just twist slightly and the force on the cable whips them around headfirst until the cable unwinds completely. A little dizzy but no worse for wear, the mini-Hunters again turn towards John.
John stands next to a control panel to the left of the door opening. Slam! A reinforced blast door slams down on the two mini-Hunters, pinning them to the ground. "Nice work Cortana," said John as he began to reach forward to retrieve Cortana from the control panel.
"I see that you noticed the extra-reinforced emergency blast doors," said Cortana. "These newer Covenant ships seem to be filled with them in case of a hull breach. And Chief those old school yard lyrics and the jump roping sure confused them... Chief, your vitals are falling too quickly... oh no, Chief, Chief..."
John never does retrieve Cortana; he stumbles to the ground with a dull pain along his lower back. He looks back to see the trail of his blood left behind and oozing from a several small holes in the back of his armor. The holes were much larger, but the self-repair ability of his new armor has slowly been closing the holes.
"Cortana, I guess they got me worse than I thought," mumbled John. His vision almost gone now as the darkness creeps inside.
From one of the pinned mini-Hunters a voice comes saying, "Forerunner, you may have defeated us, but there are many more, you cannot stop us all."
As ice fills John's veins, he smiles. "I guess the translators fixed." Those were the last words he spoke before fading into oblivion.
John feels like he is floating in the air, his eyelids are heavy but he manages to open his right eye slightly. There is a bright soft white light and the outline of a figure that he cannot make out.
The figure speaks saying, "Spartan you shall not die yet, you or rather your body is still useful to us. The god Margoth has requested you personally, quite the honor to become the god's next eternal vessel. By the way, I am the Prophet Lextus. Remember that name for all the pleasure and pain you feel from now on will be by my command. When I return I shall ask you of this strange device found on you, does it perhaps contain the construct known as Cortana? Think of your answer carefully or you shall find out what great pleasure and excruciating pain I do command."
The Prophet disappears and the light dims so John can see more clearly. John finds he is suspended inside a pool of bluish-green liquid. He sees no sign of his armor anywhere. Looking more carefully around he sees over two dozen white-colored Elites standing guard and a group of four shorter figures approaching.
John tries to get up but he cannot get any leverage in the liquid.
"Please allow us," said a woman's voice. John is lifted up out of the liquid by invisible straps. Beside John are four humans dressed in nothing but thin gray robes -- Two women and two men. The two women begin to clean John off with sponges as the two men prepare to dry John off.
As John is dried off and then dressed in golden robes he speaks to the humans and finds out that they are among one hundred slaves to the Knights of Purity, a faction in the Covenant collective. Unlike the majority of Covenant, the Knights of Purity believe that the Forerunners will return to take their place once again as the gods of all Covenant. They also believe that Covenant have inter-mixed thus diluting the pure blood of the original Covenant. The original Covenant were supposed to have been created by the Forerunners to act as servants and are seen mainly as Covenant Prophets, Elites, and Grunts that retain their white color. White is the color of all Covenant before they are assigned to specific roles within the collective society. The Knights of Purity retain their white-color because they are stronger and will not change color unless directed by the gods.
"So, the Knights of Purity disagree with the rest of the Covenant," said John. "That would explain a bit of all the killing a saw on the ship and..."
At that moment, before John can finish his sentence, one of the human slaves drops the sponges on the ground and some of the liquid splashes up onto the leg of an Elite.
The Elite smacks the human in the back of the head, enough to sting but not enough to kill.
John does not like this, but as John takes one step towards the Elite, all the humans fall to the ground in pain. John puts his hands up saying, "Alright, stop hurting them, I get the point."
"Stupid Spartan, you are the one causing them pain," said the Elite. "There is a device inside you, when you get angry or are in distress, all these humans feel pain. They have receiving devices in them. And if you should die, they will all die too."
"It's true Spartan," said the first human woman. "Please, for the children, do not get angry and do not die."
John thinks to himself. What is he to do, what is the life of one hundred humans to the billions dying below on Earth? There might not even be one hundred humans here -- John has only seen the four. What is he to do?
-- Next, 101 Slaves --
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