- Wolverfrog
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Sorry I've been slacking on the parts lately, exams and coursework have made my time limited.
Part 34 - Breach and clear
"You know Harper, I could help pilot a ship. I'm very good at it actually. What do you say?"
"Fat chance Eden. Keep whining, and I'll send you out on the frontlines," Harper replied. Eden gasped from inside his cell.
"You wouldn't! I don't know a thing about using a rifle!" the disgraced leader pined, his face ashen. Fleet Admiral Harper smirked.
"Rifle? You overestimate my generosity, you'd be lucky if I gave you a M6D."
"When I get out of here Harper, I'm telling you, you will pay," Eden threatened, expression dark and livid. John smiled at the scene as he walked by, checking his weapon. The Spartan glanced at the imprisoned man, narrowing his eyes. Instantly, Eden lost his haughty composure, and scurried into a dark corner of his cell.
"You all set Chief?" Harper had turned in John's direction, his look inquisitive.
"Affirmative."
"Just stick to the plan son, and we'll all get out of this just fine."
John certainly hoped so. Doctor Halsey had come up with a good strategy, which had been refined and tweaked by warfare experts. John was to take command of a small task force, comprised of he, his Spartans, the Arbiter and a few Elites, and two Brute Stalker Commandos. Whilst the main forces would be attacking, they would cut through to the centre of the Flood, where the Gravemind resided underneath the Citadel of Vadam. John would then inject Mendicant Bias, and the virus he held stored into the central hive of the Flood, wiping it out once and for all. Cut off from their main intelligence, the Flood would be confused, making them easy pickings for the soldiers above ground.
That was the plan anyway. But John knew that what was drawn on paper rarely executed exactly out on the field.
He met the rest of his task force inside the hanger of the Soul of Ice. Fred, Kelly and Linda were stood in a corner, checking their weapons and equipment. The Arbiter in his new, gleaming armour stood with another Elite, a Special Operations Commando who John faintly recognised from the battle at the Ark. And stood off to one side, looking sullen and not a little imposing were the duo Brute Stalkers, helmets affixed. How a Brute could be stealthy was beyond the Chief, but somehow the Stalkers managed it.
"We good to go sir?" Linda asked, jamming a third sniper rifle into her pod. John even spotted a Covenant beam rifle in there. He nodded.
"As soon as the green light goes. Everyone ready?"
There were nods from the task force, as they clambered into their assorted pods. The Arbiter came up next to John; he was to be his 'buddy' in the upcoming fight.
"This fight shall be an arduous one Spartan," the Golden Elite said. John nodded slowly, before holding his hand out.
"One we might not survive. I'd just like to say you've been a good soldier to fight alongside Thel...and a friend."
The corners of the Arbiter's mouth curled upwards, and John's hand was soon engulfed by the bony, almost skeletal hand of the Elite.
"And you I. Now come, let us enter our pods."
The Spartan turned away from the Elite, opening the hatch on his SOEV. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the luminous eye of Mendicant Bias staring at him expectantly from within.
"Ah, finally you have decided to grace me with your presence Reclaimer. Do climb in, I believe there is adequate room for both of us," the Forerunner AI implored, and, awkwardly, John managed to fit himself inside the pod, with Mendicant resting on his lap. The hatch of the SOEV swung close with a finale thud.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Die, I mean?" John asked gravely to the Monitor, who blipped twice in affirmation.
"I have lived for over one hundred thousand years John, all of them leading up to this moment. I have scene civilisations rise, and fall; empires conquered, only for a new one to be born from its ashes. I am ready to die, if you can call it that," Mendicant answered with a blunt brutality that John understood. The Monitor had lived most of its existence in perpetual guilt for its betrayal of the Forerunners. This final act was almost like an atonement for him.
"You'll be forever remembered, with gratitude this time, not with hatred," John told the AI, who chuckled.
"And it warms my metaphorical heart to hear that John, truly it does."
Before the Spartan could reply, the green light in the drop bay began to flash, and a moment later John was swivelling around as the HEV prepared to drop. John felt Mendicant Bias squirm ever so slightly.
"Are you quite positive this is safe?" he asked, and John smiled within his MJOLNIR Mark 7 helmet.
"It's safe. Well, most of the time."
"Most of the--?"
The AI was cut off as the launch timer began to bleep, scaring him into silence. John was surprised to learn Mendicant could be afraid. Perhaps he kept his emotional algorithms active to make him feel more...alive.
"Hold on," John warned the Monitor, who looked up at him with what the Spartan assumed to be an incredulous expression.
"Hold on with what?" Mendicant demanded, and John grimaced as he realised that the AI's concern was valid; he had no limbs. Only a spherical chassis and holographic golden blades which extended in different directions from the body, sinking through the floor of the pod.
"Point taken. Activate your shields, trust me, you need to," the Master Chief advised, and a few moments later the AI had erected a golden barrier around him, an inch or two thick.
"Very well, but why?"
As Mendicant finished that sentence, the HEV as well as the others in the group immediately disengaged from the Destroyer, and soon the small pod was in free-fall, fast approaching the tainted atmosphere of Sangheilios below. John heard a shriek as Mendicant found himself slammed into the ceiling of the HEV, his hastily thrown up shields protecting his body from damage.
"Precursors above!" the AI gasped as before his artificial eye, the sky flew by outside of the bullet proof window of the pod.
"You okay?" John shouted out; his armour luckily kept the high speeds and pressure of the fall from affecting his speech. Mutely, the Monitor gave a small bleep of confirmation.
Happy that the most important asset of the upcoming mission was safe, John forced himself to stare out of the window as the pods broke through the visibly brown atmosphere.
What he saw caused dread to rise in his gut. The surface of Sangheilios had been completely and utterly decimated, no life of vegetation save Flood infected biomass could be seen below. One of the flying Flood swarms came inches within the HEV, causing the metal pod to sway slightly.
How on Earth are we supposed to defeat this?
The battle below had already begun, the diversionary one intended to give the task force John led the time it needed to defeat the Gravemind. In the smoke and unnatural fog below, it was nearly impossible to see who was winning. Marines and the Covenant Separatists and Loyalists were being tossed, lifeless, out of the fray, but an equal amount of Flood forms fell too, stumbling out of battle as bleeding husks.
The Arbiters voice echoed in John's ear.
"In all my years, I never thought the domain I once ruled would succumb to such a terrible fate." the Elite's voice was soft, and sombre.
"Worry not friend, the parasite shall pay dearly for this decadence!" another voice answered, surprising John as he realised it belonged to one of the Brute Stalkers in the task force; Commander Icarus. Brutes consoling Elites? Much had changed since the Flood threat had arisen.
As the floor of John's HEV began to grow hot, the Spartan hit a button, activating the rotary blades on top. These spun for a few seconds, slowing the pod down considerably, before disengaging and allowing the HEV to fall many more metres by its own accord.
With a slightly painful jolt, the pod smashed into the dead ground, wedging itself firmly within the lifeless soil. The task force had landed on the opposite side of the main conflict, at the back door of Vadam's Citadel.
John kicked the door open, grabbing his weapons as he did so. He'd chosen an MA5C, and one of the newer experimental UNSC weapons, which somehow fused human bullet technology with the advanced Covenant plasma technology. The bullet fired would generate a miniscule magnetic field around it, attracting plasma whilst preventing it from melting the projectile. The plasma coated bullet would then smash into the enemy, doing twice the damage a bullet by itself would do, and dealing twice as much penetration as plasma would on its own. The weapon had been named the Symbiosis, due to it being the first weapon collaborated between the United Galactic Council. Mendicant Bias floated behind him, still seeming a little shaken by the drop.
It killed things, and that's all John really cared about. He looked around as one by one, the rest of the task force exited their own pods, coming to look at what had once been the majestic Citadel of Vadam.
Now it could only be described as a monstrosity; Flood biomass covered the entirety of the tall structure, giving it the semblance of being alive. John felt a golden plated shoulder brush his, shaking. He turned to see the Arbiter, ashen faced and wide eyed.