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The Long Ride Home 9
Posted By: Joshua Barreto<jrunfire@yahoo.com>
Date: 20 June 2002, 12:48 am
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The appearance of the flood with rocket launchers and assault rifles was confirmation that they had indeed escaped the Halo installation. The Chief had just dodged a missile by a mere hairsbreadth. They had gone and gotten backup for another fight with the Covies.
"Let's try and get to that ventilation shaft Chief. It's marked by the nav point. Hurry, we haven't got much time before another Covenant invasion force catches us."
He saw the shaft. It was 50 meters above the tunnel floor. The Banshee crashed into the grating and landed inside the 15 foot high by 10 foot wide shaft.He could still hear the echoes of battle reverberating throughout the metallic workings of the Covenant structure. Turning on his flashlight, he proceeded cautiously down the long shaft. Cortana's download showed him that there were no flood within the entire network of the vents. This was another surprising behavior change to the Spartan Cyborg. * * * Luthos was now preparing to dock and land his fleet on the moonbase VILO. Although the ground assault force was being attacked once again, it was only a matter of time before the flood were wiped out.In the wake of the Mist's destruction, a secret team was dispatched to destroy the " heart."
"Dominus, send out a squadron of seraph fighters to bombard the cannibalistic filth. Also have the strike force we deployed to the "Heart," give us knowledge on their current status."
"Sir, your word is made so at this very moment."
The Kir'dun began to enter the moon base's artificial atmosphere. Each and every starship shook and vibrated, as they descended on the moon's surface.
"Dominus, have the destroyer, The Keep, ready it's weapons. We're going to pull back the ground assault, and consume the rest of the flood with our fire."
"Sir!"
A holopanel displayed The Keeps Captain as he spoke.
"Our weapons are ready commander."
"Fire on my count."
Small sparkles of light dotted the side of the destroyer's hull. It was going to rain its Firey heat in only a few minutes. The Covenant forces below began their temporary retreat. They knew that lingering to battle the flood would mean instant death in a short time. The Seraph fighters had napalmed a decent number of the beige fiends. But it seemed that they had prepared themselves well for this round. The base's armory withheld a small number of Wraiths and turrets. The flood found a way to pilot the hovering tanks and carry the turrets topside. The result was catastrophic, for the Covenant. Although they had done their tasks well, Seraph units found themselves shot down quite frequently.
The Bandits had picked up a good number of the assault force. Any who weren't fast enough to board one were left behind to share in the fate of their enemy.
The order was given. The Keep let several hundred energy beams hit the floods' positions. The accelerated heat boiled the turrets and Wraiths,destroyed the creatures and left deep, 20 or 25 foot craters within the ground; smoldering hot as the sand around it turned dark brown and black shiny glass.Luthos let out a grin of satisfaction.
"That should have pushed them away for now. Let us land on the roof of structure 09. I shall be going in myself."
"Sir, what are your intentions?"
"My Al'djurians need their leader to join in the fight. They must see their leader is not a coward."
His cruiser came down over the structure. The rest of the fleet settled down around it, hovering 150to 200 meters above the grounds. The invasion had begun in full force.
The teleporters from the cruisers and destroyers dropped thousands and thousands of Covenant warriors.The skyline between the starships and the ground was littered with small specks of individual warriors amidst the purple haze of the teleportation devices.Seraph fighters flocked the air in fours, patrolling for kilometers all around. Luthos saw his fleet, and the armies he commanded on the holopanels of his brig.
"We shall take back this base. Our leadership shall be pleased."
"Sir, reports indicate that the human has escaped our watch again."
"WHAT?!" Luthos was now fed up with the Master Chief's elusiveness. He made up his mind about how to deal with the cyborg now, even though it was against the Council's advice.
"Alert all of the commanding Al'djurians. The human is to be slain on sight. He has eluded watch twice now.It is clear that he is following his own agenda, and we must now allow it. If he uncovers the secrets within the base, he will surely foil my purposes. No human is going to make me appear as a fool to our leadership." * * * The Master Chief had now made his way down through several small elevators. The battle above had shaken up the rooms and various barracks below. He encountered little flood activity, mostly in the mess halls, and had found some laboratories. The map on his hud showed him that he was on sub-level 108. Cortana had told him that the control room was on sub-level 150. There was something else that the Chief wanted to see though.The map displayed a detailed depiction of every level of the base. Except sub-level 140. It was empty.
"Cortana, why isn't that level displayed?"
"Don't know Chief. The layout that the Covies had,label the area as classified. Only certain Covenant leadership and scientists are allowed in."
"Is it sealed up?"
"What is it, are you trying to write a book now?"
"Just answer the question."
"No. It's not even acknowledged as a place on this structure's schematics. According to the maps normally used, there's only 399 levels. This one is totally skipped over on elevator access."
"How do we get in there?"
She marked a path from his current position to a shaft that went straight down and through every single level to the bottom.
"It's the quickest way, Chief, I'll give you that,but it's highly dangerous to just drop down."
"We'll be all right."
He made his way through the vent/corridor to the downward shaft. It was dark, with a soft glow illuminating certain spots on the way down. He asked Cortana to mark the level with a nav point. Then he jumped.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?! YOU MIGHT AS WELLHAVE JUST SHOT YOURSELF AND SAVED ME THE GUT WRENCHINGPAIN, in a matter of speaking."
A green glow lit up his visor, and his body, as he activated the plasma sabre. In an instant he stabbed into the wall, slicing a long orange line into it as he continued his plummet of 108 levels. His gloves and soles of his feet hummed with the sound of magnetism as he attached his limbs to the wall at the same moment. Intense heat was felt as friction built up between the magnetized hands, feet and the metallic structure. Sparks were flying everywhere, as electricity started to course through the metal wall.His hud's nav point rapidly neared him, counting down from 50 meters, 40 meters...
"You are one crazy M---"
Her words were cut off as he jerked his hand sideways, putting a sudden pull on his weight toward a grating. His one ton MJOLNIR crashed through it, and rolled a couple of hundred feet before slowing down.After a few seconds, he got up, shook his hands and dusted himself off.
"Is this the place?"
"This is a vent. Continue forward, there should bean opening somewhere near."
She was right. He turned on his flashlight after his shield battery recharged, and walked until he came upon an opening to a corridor. Nothing bleeped on his motion tracker, so he readied his shotgun and was about to step off. Then he saw something huge move with a sort of uncoordinated berth.
"A Hunter? Down here?"
Then the clanking sound of its armor accompanied by the unmelodious scraping noise from its shield told the Master Chief otherwise. In the limited amount of light from his helmet, he saw greenish brown blood oozing forth from the creature's position.
"An infected Hunter."
Oh Cortana, how absolutely pointless your comments and observations at this moment are, thought the Chief.A huge green light shined forth from the creature's right arm as it charged its fuel rod gun.Instinctively, the Chief dodged its line of fire.
"You've got to disarm the creature, then finish it off with your weapon, Master Chief!"
The creature jumped up into the air, ten feet,maybe more, at him. Its left arm a mix of mangled flesh, metal and newly formed tentacles.
WUMP!
The huge left arm laid a blow to the Cyborg's chest, knocking out his wind. He coughed up saliva and some blood, while he tried to regain his breath. He saw from the corner of his eye as the creature went to give him another swipe. He activated his plasma sabre, and held it up.
"Good move, Marine."
Greenish brown blood splattered all over the place from the open wound in the side of the infected Hunter.But wasn't done attacking yet. Another bright glow lit the area up, and the blast ensued. The Spartan warrior was sent six feet, into a wall, and knocked down.
"Are you all right?! Chief, answer me!"
He got up, vision still hazy, and jumped to the right just in time to dodge another blast. He ran up to the creature, and emptied out his entire clip of plasma shot rounds into it. The Hunter/flood warrior was a behemoth of rotted, mangled flesh and oozing blood. The Chief activated a plasma grenade, and punched a hole into the creature. He sliced off both legs and ran in the other direction. The blast sent dozens of pieces of the creature in all directions through the air, as well as a good shower of its blood.
"Well, that takes care of that."
"What's down here that's so important, Cortana?"
"There should be a door somewhere around here,look there on the wall."
He looked at the wall, raised his hands in the air and shook his head.
"Thanks, I think I found it." He had a little hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Found what?"
"The wall."
"Why don't you try touching it smart ass?"
He put out his left hand, and a panel lit up,uncloaked a blast door, and lit up the corridor. He pressed another function, and the door opened.
"There, let's go in and find something useful.Over there, place me into the AI connection slot. The Covies seem to have use for AI constructs as well it seems."
He locked the crystal in. Immediately after,Cortana stood up on the control panel with a million alien symbols running through her body.
"What did you find?"
"This place is a laboratory."
"What kind of laboratory?"
"It's for...oh no...I can't say. I...I...I'll show you."
The Chief wondered for a second what was wrong with her. He then remembered how she was a construct with the personality of a civilian. It was the obvious reason for her behavior.
Six doors slid open behind him, all with a glass tube within them. An energy bed floated beside the tube. Then he saw something that made his stomach tingle. In each cell, was MJOLNIR armor, hanging on the wall. But the suits were empty.
"I read some life from each of them Chief, but they're all very faint. The sustenance fluid has kept them alive, for I read numerous internal wounds.But..."
He held up a finger issuing her silence. He walked up to the cell closest to him, and saw the bodily figure floating limb in the fluid. As he passed by the MJOLNIR, it read on its back-BLUE TWO-as he saw it from the corner of his eye. He continued forward,and could make out the figure little by little. She was slim, and pretty. Her hair flowed in the liquid across her face as he stepped to get a closer look. He placed his hands on the glass, after removing his helmet. He uttered one word that seemed an eternity to make out. It was like a freight train blaring through a silent neighborhood, as he choked out the person's name.
"Kelly."
"They were captured on REACH, and kept alive for interrogation. These Covenant bastards. They wouldn't let a human have even the basic of rights. The right to die. I can try and revive them, but..."
"Do it Cortana! I want to see them moving, at least with one last breath before I depart. I want to let them know that we won. I want to let them know we are winning. I want to let them know, how we're going to win."
"If I drain the sustenance fluid, there's an 80percent chance they could die from their wounds."
A tremor shook throughout the room that made the Chief lose his balance for a second. He looked at Kelly one last time, then closed his eyes as he made his decision.
"Go ahead. Revive them."
"Countdown to fluid drain initiated, tubes will be flushed in ten seconds...9..8..7..6..."
The countdown continued as he watched the fluid go down. It was only a matter of time before they would come to life, or meet their final end in the peace of knowing their lives weren't wasted.
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