- Sergeant Murph
- |
- Noble Legendary Member
Chapter Seventeen
Evil's Finest
It didn't seem real. Nothing seemed real. There was a strong intensity running throughout the room, but I felt none of it. I only stared aimlessly at the pieced together body of my enemy--the enemy that had been driven to the furthest reaches of insanity to kill me. And now, after we'd left him to rot on the Delta Halo, he'd turned up again. It didn't make sense.
Kovalee seemed to be enjoying himself, drumming his metal fingers against the table. It hadn't even occurred to me yet that I was lying on my back at the mercy of his blade.
"It's not possible," I murmured without even moving my lips. I could pretend on the outside, but deep inside of me I knew it could only be Kovalee.
"Isn't it?" he asked sweetly; innocently. But I knew well that nothing he said or did innocently mattered. He was a monster, more so than ever.
I shook my head. "I killed you."
"I'll bet you'd like to think that."
"You weren't breathing!" I argued. "You had no pulse. We checked four times, just in case." It was true. Before we'd left we'd had to make sure this threat would never rise again. It turned out we'd made a monumental mistake.
He laughed--a disturbing mix of croak and screech. "By the Prophets, heretic. I knew from the very beginning how reckless...you were...but it wouldn't have crossed my mind that you couldn't...tell the very well living from the dead."
Kovalee leaned forward, and I immediately sprung into action, leaping to my feet and redrawing my blade. I relaxed a bit when he only rested his arms on the table separating us.
"How did you survive?" I pressed. "Even you couldn't live through a stab through the chest."
His eyes darkened, and I saw in that instant that asking him that was a mistake. He gritted his teeth--about the only completely natural part of him--and curled his fists.
"My brothers did not help me, that I am certain of!" he roared. "No! They abandoned me! They left me to die and forgot of my existence! They betrayed me! You all betrayed me!" His great shoulders seemed to become broader with every breath, and I took a short, inconspicuous step backward before he exploded.
"But my true family didn't! The Covenant... found me. They took me in at my dying hours. They showed me the... light again when all others drowned me in shadow!" he screamed. "My masters brought me back. They did everything they could to keep me alive, even digging out my limbs and replacing them with new, enhanced technology in which I could continue."
"Kovalee, this is madness!" I shouted. "They ripped you apart and still you kiss their feet! They lied to us! They eliminated our race!"
I barely had time to stagger backward as he brought his one good fist down on the table, snapping it half as if it were paper. He then hurdled the destroyed pieces at me. I had to flatten myself on the ground to avoid being struck by one of the sharper pieces.
"And by who's wrong step did they resort to that?" the mad Elite barked. "Who's cowardice gave us a bad name in the Prophet's ears?"
"I did," I put simply, not bothering with lies. "I took the wrong step. I was the coward." I looked away for a moment, looking back on the shameful moments of my past. "But I am a coward no more. I stand for the Sangheili, not the 'San-Shyuum. I took the risk all others of my kind should have taken long ago."
He laughed again (to my dismay). "You stand for Sangheili? You're the hero in this blasted story? Please, heretic, you are but a shameful, ugly beast."
"That makes two of us."
Kovalee sighed. "Your wit is sharp as ever, I see."
"Enough of this talk!" I demanded, taking charge of this reunion. "You came here to fight, did you not? You came here to fight me."
The deranged Sangheili blinked twiceor rather winked, since only one eye was operable. "No, heretic," he corrected me. "I came here to kill."
I nodded solemnly. "Then let the killing begin--and let this be our final confrontation."
Without warning, I activated my Battle Blade at the same time that his own Energy Sword roared to life, and the two of us began our battle to the death for the second time.
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Sikanoy pressed a palm against the rock wall the pipe had led them to. Cholahee lagged shortly behind, wading his way through the slime that had been trapped inside the pipeline for years. Something was different about this wall. It wasn't identical to the ones around it because of its slightly lighter, more artificial features. "It's hollow," Sikanoy declared, knocking his knuckles on it twice.
"Brutes?" Cholahee inquired, already pressing a hand down on his weapon belt.
His partner shrugged and pressed an ear to the wall. When no sound came through, he turned back to Cholahee. "I cannot hear through it, however it does not block off that stench." He grimaced. "It must be a secret entrance. Should we pass?"
Cholahee looked behind him, as he had done several times throughout the walk. There was no sign of Hunter.
"I don't know, brother. We know not if our friend has perished. What if he needs our help?" Cholahee pointed out.
Sikanoy shook his head. "I, too, care for his life. But this is not a matter of losing one man."
"Agreed."
"Then we pass?"
"We pass."
Without further hesitation, Sikanoy wrenched his fingers beneath the rock and steadily shifted left, dragging the fake wall along with him. With a grunt, he tossed it aside and looked ahead. There, through the perfectly cut rectangle of a doorway, seven Brutes glared angrily back at them, ravenously searching for their weapons. One even did manage to snatch his Brute Shot, but Sikanoy was too quick on his feet. He flitted forward and punched the Brute square in the jaw, knocking him backwards into unfamiliar machinery.
Cholahee laughed, as if it was all just a game. "We fight?"
Sikanoy replied with a nod and a vicious smirk. "We fight."
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Hunter had never felt so nervous in his life.
The flow of the water was inevitable. Soon it would blast through the tunnel and be upon him. Which was would he go? Back to face the Brutes or forward to face the fast-moving current that would either drown him or carry him back to a death sentence by the hands of the Brutes.
Flowing. Running. Gaining.
Where to go? What to do?
Closer
Thinking...thinking.
Closer
The rush of gallons of water deafened the Lieutenant, who had it bad enough already. Last moment thoughts thrust through him, but to no avail. It was over. There was no sly escape this time.
Upon him.
Gone.
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Zens Kovalee could have had no limbs and would not have lost one bit of his fighting ability. His moves were swift and quick, seemingly leaping out from all angles at once. I lunged first, but he quickly drove my sword to the side and kicked me hard in the stomach. I gasped and rolled backwards, just avoiding the searing hot tip of his blade on my neck.
It was my turn now, and I took my speed advantage to whip around, blocking off his attacks and throwing open the door. He roared in displeasure.
"You haven't changed, heretic! Still you run from me like the cowardly child you are!"
I ignored his nasty comments and made my way down the hall and to the next set of stairs, this one not nearly as beautifully carved as the other. There was still a matter of deactivating the turrets. The Covenant must have set up a mainframe somewhere in the building, but where? Would I have to check every floor?
I heard Kovalee's agonizingly painful footsteps growing closer and closer. Checking every floor was an impossibility. I had to pick one and hope that luck was on my side.
I swung around the staircase and jumped up two at a time, Kovalee following close behind. I could hear the sharp hiss as his sword flailed about just behind me, but out of reach.
I picked up speed and hustled up the stairs to the third floor. Would the control panel be here? No, the Covenant would not be so sloppy in the placement of their headquarters. Something in my head was screaming the top floor.
"Kill...you!" Kovalee roared. "Finish what I started!"
"Not today!" I retorted, leaping up four stairs to avoid the massive arc of his sword. Still, my long journey up the staircase continued.
It seemed like ages when I finally reached the top floor, a rusty, long forgotten metal door with a number 18 printed on the front. I drove my shoulder hard into the door, praying that it didn't falter my momentum. It screeched and flung away. Kovalee, who hadn't been able to keep up with me, was now rounding his final two floors before he'd be upon me. I had to hurry.
I gasped when I glanced into the room.
There, before me, was the entire station of Covenant earth assault operations.
[Edited on 04.04.2009 6:29 PM PDT]