- Gr33n Knight
- |
- Exalted Heroic Member
Well, what was a normally unproductive day turned into a bunch of writing, so here's Chapter 11. Chapter 12 is already underway, and I've also got Chapter 2 of Jiralhanae coming up. I'll hopefully be bookin' along this summer.
Chapter 11
Major Salvich opened his eyes, but saw nothing. He sat up, blinking, and saw a dim green glowstick on the floor across the room.
Confused, he stood up, with difficulty, and reached through the darkness to shake the Commander.
"Eh! Wait, what's going on?" He asked Salvich as he pulled himself up.
"I don't know, but something's up. Do you think they found this place?"
"I sure hope not, maybe the power was knocked out by an EMP, something nearby?"
"I don't know, I'll see if I can find a wheelchair, I'll be right back."
The Major walked off, grimacing with each painful step as the burns cracked under the bandages. He picked up the glowstick on the floor, using the dim light to see where he was going.
Something on the wall a few halls over caught his attention, as he focused on them, he recognized them as plasma burns.
A noise at the end of the hall scared the Major, and he covered the glowstick as he looked in that direction. A nurse came running in his direction, and pushed him aside, into a doorway. She was clearly terrified of something, so he looked back to the end of the hall.
Another figure came around the corner, this one much more massive than the nurse. It chased after her, and quickly caught up, sprinting past the Major as it activated its energy sword.
A muffled scream came from the nurse as the sword tore its way through her body. The elite tossed the body aside, put away its weapon, and began walking back.
Salvich watched it as it turned around, then ducked back behind the door. He backed up and waited in the small room.
As the elite passed by, Salvich ran as fast as he could at the beast, and tackled it into the wall, reaching for the spot where he had watched it put its sword. Fumbling for second with the unfamiliar weapon, Salvich struggled to activate it as the elite's mind recovered from the surprise attack.
It kicked Salvich off of it, and back into the dark room, where he crashed onto an abandoned hospital bed, bouncing onto the floor.
The burns all over his body screamed at his mind to stop, but the Major focused entirely on the weapon in his hands. The elite ripped the door to the room off its hinges and threw it in the Major's direction, then made his way to him, overturning anything in his way.
The Major was nearly blind in the dark as he fumbled for the button, barely able to see the deathly figure approaching him. The elite picked up the hospital bed in front of him, slamming it down on the Major, then picking him up by his neck.
Suddenly, a light showed the creature's face, its teeth menacing. Confused, both the elite and the Major looked down for the source of the light.
The sword had activated, piercing the elite's chest. The beast looked back to the Major, then fell, dropping the injured officer onto the now overturned bed.
Salvich rose with difficulty, the pain of the struggle mingling with that of the burns. He lit the sword once more, using the light to search the room, and spotted a wheelchair in the corner.
Grabbing it, and carrying it over the debris that littered the floor, the Major rushed back to Collins.
"About damn time!" he exclaimed when the Major returned. "I could've grown new legs while you were gone!"
"I got held up." Salvich shot back wearily, "The Covenant are here, had to take down an elite."
"-blam!-! Well, it couldn't have been that hard."
"Say what you will, but I managed to come out of it with both legs!"
"Aww, come on, was that really necessary?" The Commander returned as he pulled himself into the wheelchair. "Let's get moving, we can't fight the Covenant alone. We need to find a map.
"Agreed, but where?"
"Try the walls, this is a hospital, not a dungeon. Directions shouldn't be hard to come by."
The two checked the other beds in the room, but they were all empty. As they made their way through the halls, searching for directions, a noise sounded nearby.
Both the Major and Collins remained perfectly still, listening intently for any sound. When none came, they continued down the empty hall.
"Can't see a damned thing!" The Commander whispered.
"Oh!" Salvich exclaimed, remembering the glowstick from before. He pulled it out, and held it up, displaying an eerie green light along the walls.
"You couldn't have used that earlier?"
"Sorry, I forgot about it, I hid it when the elite was nearby."
"How'd you take it out, anyway? Neither of us have weapons."
"I used its sword on it." The Major replied as he pulled out the weapon.
"Jesus! Are you keeping all the good stuff from me, Major?!"
"Not intentionally, I'm focused on more Look!" Salvich exclaimed, pointing ahead to a wall with a map printed on it.
Navigating from the unnecessarily large 'You Are Here' marker, the Major traced a path to the main office.
"If we're gonna defend this place, the first thing we need are blueprints, they should be here."
"You're right," The Commander agreed, "but we're also gonna need someone to defend it. The two of us can't do it alone. I say we split up, you go get the blueprints, I go and rally some troops, we can meet up here." The Commander leaned forward to point to a small room halfway between the two points.
"You sure you can make it? You don't have any weapons, what if there is debris covering the floor?"
"I'll manage, try to stay out of sight. This is a big base, I don't think it's a large force attacking, or we'd have crossed paths with them by now."
"Yeah, I think you're right. Here, take this." The Major held out the energy sword to the Commander.
"You sure? It's your only weapon."
"Yeah, but it'll be easier for me to grab more than it will be for you. Besides, there's no telling what you'll come across when you find the others. They could be surrounded by covies, for all you know."
"Yeah..." Collins nodded, accepting the sword. "I guess we'd better get going then." The Major nodded, both of them taking one last glance at the map, and heading their separate ways.
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Talo 'Zamamai stared at the body of his fellow Sangheili, noting the mark of an energy sword on his chest.
"Fleet Master!" another Sangheili called out from behind. Talo turned around to see the Field Marshall. "There is a human body down the hall, killed by an energy sword."
"How is that helpful, Vano?" The Fleet Master spat back, enraged that a human had managed to kill a member of his team. The Field Marshal cringed at the sight of the Fleet Master, a long scar running alongside his helmet, a remnant from the first contact with the Jiralhanae.
"I apologize, Fleet Master, perhaps it was one of the Demons?"
"Don't be a fool, Vano, this is a human medical facility, if what they say is true, the Demons have no need for medical treatment." Talo looked once more to the body, "He was careless, the human probably caught him by surprise in the darkness."
"Most definitely, Fleet Master, the darkness can often be the greatest of foes."
"This does, however, mean that not all the humans here are helpless. We must be careful, Vano. An animal trapped fights even more fiercely, humans are no different. We need to find the data and get out, as even we could fall victim to the humans if they are able to overwhelm us."
"Indeed, Fleet Master, I shall rally Ranish and Keran."
"Do so, quickly, I feel uneasy in this place." Vano left the Fleet Master alone, and went to find the two other Zealots in the team. Talo grimaced once more at the body, then turned and walked out of the room.
This assignment is becoming more and more complicated he couldn't help but think to himself. He knew that, despite his thirst for battle, he would rather be commanding his fleet, the Fourth Fleet of Magnificent Sacrifice, than leading a small team to locate human data.
Talo stopped, clenched his jaws in frustration, and then resumed his search in the dark maze that was CLINIC Base.
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[Edited on 05.08.2011 7:29 PM PDT]