- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
The PM's have been sent, thanks to Konoka_chan who helped me out there. If you got one from her detailing the release of Chapter 8, don't worry, its ligit.
My laptop was repaired, even though it took longer than I would have liked. It's a little late, but here's Chapter 8
The End of a War
Chapter 8
Guns are for Sissies, a Real Man uses Nukes
“There is a high probability that they will shoot us instead letting us dock,” Cortana pointed out as their damaged dropship continued floating towards Honor Without Mercy at an agonizingly slow pace.
“If you are perhaps bored Construct, than might I suggest finding something more worthwhile to do than pointing out the different ways we might die?” the Arbiter replied as he sat slumped in the copilots seat, exhausted. It had been several hours since they had started their dreadfully long run towards the Covenant flagship, and he was beginning to feel the fatigue. His actions from the past few days were finally catching up to him.
Honor Without Mercy, which had started out as a tiny blip in space, had grown slightly in size but certainly not large enough where he was beginning to feel safe about their futures.
“I can pilot this ship fine on my own you know,” Cortana said as her image appeared on a pedestal located in between the pilot and copilot seats. “If you’d like to rest then go right ahead.”
The Arbiter didn’t respond as his gaze slipped back out the front where the other ship waited. In truth, he really did need the rest, but something held him back. The vision he had before, even though he had written it off as a simple dream it had shaken him deeply, and he was in no hurry to relive it were he to fall asleep.
“I suppose we won’t have to worry about that anymore,” Cortana said. The Arbiter turned to look questioningly at her but she was staring out the front of the ship. Following her gaze the Arbiter glanced back to where the other ship waited.
It took him a moment to spot them, the squadron of Seraph fighters that detached from Honor Without Mercy and sped towards them. The wave of relief that washed over him was quickly replaced with worry as he saw them approach in a strafing formation.
“Do you think they’ll shoot first and ask questions later?” Cortana asked as she continued to watch them approach. The Arbiter merely grunted and watched as the imposing fighters streaked towards their damaged dropship.
“Have they tried hailing us?” the Arbiter asked, not removing his eyes from the ships.
“Yes, I can intercept their messages; though the ships communications were damaged in such a manner that transmitting is next to impossible.”
“Then all we can do is wait,” he said, almost to himself. Silence filled the cockpit as both occupants waited as the fighters grew closer, breaking formation and moving into a pincer attack.
“They are requesting we respond, to prove that we are not Flood,” Cortana informed him. “I don’t mean to critique but, the Flood is capable of using the voice of the infected host, so merely requesting a voice transmission isn’t very safe. I believe a visual confirmation check would be more efficient.”
“I will be sure to correct that the moment we get aboard Honor Without Mercy, Construct,” the Arbiter paused, then corrected himself. “If we get aboard Honor Without Mercy.”
“Were about to find out,” Cortana said. The fighters were within range now.
Several tense moments passed as they waited for the barrage of plasma that would destroy their dropship. It came as quite a surprise when one of the lead Seraph fighters disengaged from the attack pattern and drifted close to the dropship. The front of the fighter was facing the cockpit now, and the Elite piloting the ship was gazing intently inside the dropship.
“I think you should wave,” Cortana suggested. When the Arbiter turned to stare at her, she shrugged. “Unless you have a better idea.”
The Arbiter raised his right arm and waved at the Seraph pilot, who seemed surprised somewhat before making a few motions with his hands.
“I believe he is offering to tow us back to the ship,” the Arbiter said. As if to prove his point, the Seraph fighter drifted closer, turned around slowly, and revealed an Elite with a cable.
“At least we didn’t get shot,” Cortana said as their dropship was hitched together with the fighter.
“Yes,” the Arbiter responded simply.
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Huff…hah…huff…hah…
Johnson watched with hooded eyes as Gravemind struggled to pull itself back together. His breath was hitched and he had one arm wrapped around his chest, trying to stop the intense pain that was reverberating inside his chest cavity.
The fuel rod gun he had picked up from one of the downed Hunters was in his only free hand, radiation spilling off it in waves, burning his arm yet he paid it no heed. The Flood leader had somehow disabled all the access ways into the chamber, which cut off any reinforcements that were coming to his aid. He had lost track of how long their battle had been going, but he knew it felt like hours.
The regenerative properties his body possessed came at a great price. The damage he had received from the fight was great, and the healing process was excruciatingly painful.
I’m just about out of juice, but this bastard looks like he’s just starting to feel it.
“You possess strength human,” the Flood leader’s voice filled the room. “But this battle is in vain, your death has been predetermined.”
Johnson looked up and scowled as he saw that the Flood leader was back together again, no sign of the injury he had just inflected upon it.
“Predetermined or not you dirt sucking parasite, your going down with me.”
Gravemind wasted no time replying as it lashed out at Johnson, the tentacles slammed through the pillars decorating the room, collapsing them and causing the resulting debris to slam into the ground.
Taking off at full sprint, Johnson fired on the run keeping his aim steady while avoiding the Flood leader’s attacks. The radioactive rounds shot forth from the fuel rod gun slammed into Gravemind, ripping through it and melting it’s body in the process. A roar of outrage spilled forth from the creature and a tentacle swung sideways, intending to slam him into the far wall. Johnson let his legs give out and fell to the floor, watching as the tentacle flashed by above him.
What!?
Johnson let out a startled shout when another tentacle appeared above him and wrapped around his waist, hoisting him up into the air. The air escaped his lungs as the tentacle’s grip increased tenfold, nearly crushing his ribcage.
Reacting on instinct, Johnson fired the fuel road gun, the last round the gun held. The shot was wild, and he grimaced as it impacted the ceiling above Gravemind. As the weapon began to grow hot, Johnson remembered this particular Covenant weapon had a fail-safe protocol when it ran out of ammo. Giving as best a throw as he could, Johnson tossed the weapon at Gravemind.
The Flood leader paid no attention to the weapon, deeming the final act of defiance by the human to be beyond his notice.
“Heh,” Johnson smirked as the fuel rod gun sailed uninterrupted, hitting the ground and sliding to rest before the Flood leader. The radioactive weapon’s fail safe activated detonating the small reactor inside. The floor was torn asunder as the explosion sent shrapnel and concentrated radiation spilling through the air. Gravemind bellowed once more, the tentacle that had held Johnson suspended in the air was severed, dropping the sergeant several feet to crash heavily upon the ground.
Getting painfully to his knees, Johnson cast a hurried glance around him. It would be only a few moments before Gravemind was back in the fight and he needed a miracle if he was going to finish the creature off.
His eyes settled on one of the Hunter’s corpses. Specifically the fuel rod gun it had been carrying. Struggling to his feet, Johnson limped his way to the fallen Hunter, wrenching the weapon from its grasp.
The first one did a number on the bastard, but not enough.
A discarded plasma grenade a few feet away caught his attention and he nearly laughed as an idea popped into his head.
Gravemind had begun to pull itself back together, it’s tentacles flailing wildly, crushing more of the columns. Johnson activated the plasma grenade, slapping it onto the fuel rod gun fusing the two weapons together. Gritting his teeth against the pain the movement brought, he reached back and threw the improvised weapon at the Flood leader. His eyes never left the device as it sailed across the chamber.
Despite trying to pull itself together, Gravemind was still capable of batting the improvised weapon up above itself. Johnson cursed loudly and was turning to find another weapon when the grenade detonated.
The grenade did what Johnson had expected it to do, detonating the small fusion reactor in the weapon without having to deplete it’s ammunition. What followed he had not anticipated.
Johnson’s earlier wild shot had damaged the ceiling above Gravemind, and the damage Gravemind itself had inflicted from destroying the many columns positioned around the chamber had weakened the structural integrity of the room. While the Flood leader had knocked the weapon far enough away from itself where it would not do much harm, it was close enough to the ceiling to do sufficient damage.
Neither Johnson nor the Flood leader were prepared when the ceremonial chamber began to collapse.