- MaxRealflugel
- |
- Elder Mythic Member
Part 10
March 27th 2553 (Location unknown)
John grabbed the last alien corpse by the leg and dragged it over to the corner of the chamber, where the rest of them were piled like firewood.
The armour again seemed to soften slightly with his grip before hardening. Even when these aliens were dead their armour was still active, as though trying to protect its dead wearer from further harm.
Despite the carnage within the chamber, the Forerunner was completely unharmed, a testament to Cortana’s theory that he was not really here in the physical sense. But this did nothing to help John’s situation, he was still stranded on an ancient monument to advanced warfare, and although he was not completely certain, John had the distinct feeling that his dark suited opponents would be back and in greater numbers, and that was a problem.
The destruction of the Pelican and his encounter with both the sentinels and the aliens had left him with a severe ammunition and weapon shortage, which meant that his options in dealing with the aliens again would be limited.
“Chief I’ve been going over your previous engagement, and I think I’ve found a weakness.”
“Go on,” prompted John.
“The aliens seem to demonstrate an amazing resilience to energy weapons, such as the ones used by the Forerunners and the sentinels, but they were less protected by your attack,” Explained Cortana “That’s probably why they were assessing you before they attacked.”
“So their armour is specifically designed to repel energy weapons, if so then why were they still in one piece when I used the M19?”
“Their power armour seems to be aimed at protecting them from Forerunner weapons in particular, but they will obviously have some inherent resistance to kinetic-based combat or weaponry,” said Cortana looking at the dead aliens “That’s why the M19 was more effective than the sentinel attack, and it’s probably the same reason why your close encounter with the remaining alien was also more effective, they have a weakness to kinetic attacks.” Stated Cortana with a smile
“But that means one thing…”
“I know chief, every encounter with them, unless you have something more powerful than a Battle rifle, will mean hand to hand combat.” Interrupted Cortana
John looked around the already familiar chamber, trying to think of the next step that they should take. Whatever he was going to do it would have to incorporate a method of fighting a technologically superior enemy, and a means to reach Earth.
In hindsight, the one positive aspect to fighting the Covenant had been that although they were more advanced than Humanity, they could still be killed with a rifle and a handful of grenades. Failing that John could still tackle them in hand to hand combat, even the Elites were not as skilled or as quick as a Spartan.
But the encounter with the alien’s weaponry had left John with some serious doubts. In one attack a single energy weapon had completely depleted his shields and it had severely tested his Mjolnir armour, and his own physical endurance. And that was with the computer terminal taking most of the attack. A direct would surely kill or permanently injure him. It was then that the memory of an old friend surged back into his thoughts.
John cast his mind back to his training on Reach, and to one of his most promising scouts, Fhajad.
Fhajad was naturally adept at tracking any individual regardless of the conditions, and he was an excellent scout. John had hoped to utilise his skills after they were fully trained, but unfortunately he never got the chance. Unlike the majority of the trainees Fhajad’s body rejected the augmentation process and shortly after he succumbed to the onset of Parkinson’s disease.
It was the image of Fhajad in a wheel chair that disturbed John the most, something he wanted to avoid, but he had to admit, these aliens were far more formidable than the Covenant had ever been.
The memory of Fhajad set off a sequence of memories of his other friends; some had been killed in action and were long gone. But the fate of some Spartans in particular were simply a mystery to him.
Fred, Will, Kelly and Linda had become the closest thing to a family that he had, but it had been months since he last saw them, and John’s return to Reach after the Covenant had taken the planet seemed more like years. Even his brief reunion with Dr Halsey was a distant memory.
It seemed to John, now more than ever, that Cortana was probably the only thing keeping him sane, in a time of madness and overwhelming uncertainty.
John glanced over at Cortana who, by now, had returned to trawling the vast library at her disposal. “Cortana can you detect any more ships?”
She briefly glanced at the ceiling of the chamber before coming back with an answer, “No, according to the sensors there’s nothing within a radius of thirty four thousand light years, and even then all I’m seeing is a distant Covenant outpost, less than four hundred personnel.”
John stared in amazement, “You can see that?”
“I can see a lot of things, but the further out I go the less detail I can see.” Replied Cortana
John suddenly realised the opportunities available to them, “What about Earth?”
Cortana’s calm face turned to a look of extreme concentration, the lights in the chamber dimmed as she did everything in her power to see Earth in as much detail as possible.
Her skin became a blur.
“I can only see small areas at a time in detail, there are several vessels in orbit both UNSC and Covenant.”
“Brute or Elite?” asked John.
“I can’t be certain from this range, but judging from the lack of weapons fire I’d say they’re Elite controlled vessels. They appear to be carrying out repairs on several orbital facilities including the few remaining MAC stations.” Cortana suddenly smiled “It looks like the Elites are trying to make up for things.”
“What about the Arbiter?”
“There’s no sign of his ship the Shadow of Intent, it’s possible that he may have returned to his home world or that he’s simply overseeing the rebuilding phase on a different planet.”
Cortana continued to search around, looking at different locations within the Sol system. For the first time in over 30 years all looked well with Humanity.
Inside John was smiling, Cortana had rerouted several systems and the display screen was now showing what she could see. John could finally see for himself that the war was truly over, and that Mankind was rebuilding again.
With that in mind John had to create another mission for himself, he needed something to do, something to strive for, something to achieve. And the aliens that he had encountered were the answer.
“Cortana we need to get to Earth, is there anything on this planet that looks like a ship?”
Cortana shifted her gaze from the deep space search to a more thorough sift inside the vast library database.
She was tempted to copy herself again, to speed up the search process but that would only quicken her advance into rampancy. So instead she opted for a slow laborious search. She had to preserve the few years that she had.
Three and a half minutes passed by before she answered.
“There’s a large hangar bay another six levels down, but it’s on the other side of this continent. We can reach it by a series of teleporters along the way.”
“How long will it take for us to reach Earth?” said John with a hint of anxiety, the last thing he needed was some more time in stasis.
“Just over six hours” came her reply.
“Six hours!” coughed John, “Is that all?”
Cortana quickly realised that John was not able to see what she could see, “The ships that are in the hangar are not designed for long periods of spaceflight, instead they utilise the Forerunner portal system to travel around. We simply activate the portal when we have the ship and fly through. It’ll take us directly to Earth.”
John looked over at the Forerunner and the pile of aliens on the floor nearby, he wanted to speak directly to the Forerunner and to the aliens, but the situation, as per usual, was conspiring against him. There was simply no time for talking.
Mankind had another problem to deal with, one that they were not yet aware of. John’s return would no doubt be a thing of celebration, but he would soon deliver the bad news. The only good thing would be that they would have a Forerunner vessel at their disposal.
“We’d better go.”
Cortana nodded and disappeared into her chip before John inserted it back into his armour.
A series of waypoints appeared on his HUD.
After collecting what supplies he had left he steadily jogged out of the chamber, heading for the nearest waypoint.
After his small marathon, John’s next stop would be Earth.