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Halo: The Ring World: The Covenant Eyes by Blanchette
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Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 1: Fatigued Arrival...
Date: 29 August 2004, 5:40 PM
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 1: Fatigued Arrival...
2375 Hours, September 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Covenant Cruiser: Truth and Reconciliation / Halo Installation 004/
Canyon Environment Area 012/ Banshee Flier
The air was cold in the night atmosphere of Installation 004, a strong breeze continuously cooling his nerves through the open ends of the Banshee, it wouldn't be long until they reached the vessel. Wort once again contacted his supporting dropship to make sure he was still on the designated path, a grough voice echoed in the small cabin space of the flight control area in front of him, informing him that he was still on the correct path. He watched the animated purple view-screen for it's coordinates, he nudged the flight control sticks a little to his right, creating a soft 'whooshing' noise from the tail-fins in the back. He relaxed his body a little, letting the machine cradle his body into a moment of pure peace and silence; then took a deep breath and opened his eyes, he could now see the vessel's dark structure forming in the distance, a small NAV Reticle highlighted two bright purple rectangles at the lower end of the ship; the docking bays, where he now needed to go. He focused the Banshee's automatic flight control pattern to interlock with the vessel's automated docking system, letting the machine do the rest of the work and landing. Wort then turned the view-screen to the current drive-area in front of the Banshee; showing the bays again, he then typed a command in to zoom the screen in more, it squared-in on the docking bays, there was a lot of activity going on, he could see fire from life forms, but he couldn't make out their species, maybe another type of human? He was thoroughly briefed for the mission, but not even the Commanders knew what exactly to expect, there was a sudden flash of red in the tiny view-screen, someone was sending a message to him, he pressed the little glowing button off to the side and a voice came over the sound units, it was a Grunt; Wort wasn't supposed to take orders from lower class Covenant Species, but it seemed to be important, so he listened anyway; hearing it's shrill, fearful voice from miles away. It informed him of hostile in their LZ, and to be prepared for enemy fire has soon as they drop in. Wort powered the Banshee's Plasmic Weaponry with it's Armorment Superconductors; ready to take some of the those "things" down before he landed; he knowingly realized that the LZ was already a tight squeeze, and he wouldn't be able to circle the entire bay and take them all out with the Banshee before the dropship deployed and took up half the landing space in there, so he'd just be ready to do whatever he could. The Banshee then reanimated itself, bold purple Covenant calligraphy poured down holographically over the screen; telling him that he was now approaching the target-zone. Wort was ready.
The other Banshee beside him took to his rear; letting him take point, the machine turned slightly, matching up with the bay's opening as it got closer, and closer, until finally Wort gripped the weapons' triggering clutches and squeezed, bright bursts of blue painting the night sky as they pierced and sizzled into a foreign body; an enemy he had never encountered, nor seen before, but his awe was short; he snapped back to focus and continued to repeatedly squeeze the triggering nubs again, sending the bursts of blue all throughout the bay. And then the whole Banshee began to turn sharply, making Wort roll to one side as it was coming in to land, but then there was a violent jolt that shook the small purple craft, and a distorted hiss could be heard over-head; a hostile had jumped onto the Banshee!
Wort tried to eject himself from the endangered vehicle, but before he knew it the Banshee had landed and was sliding him out the back, the hostile was still on the roof of the Banshee when he got to his feet. It's whole color was a moldy and scummy green-yellow; bulging with small infections, in what looked to be the shape of a human figure, but it's arm-like appendages were flailing in every direction; even though the humans were low, they were still intelligent enough to wield weapons, and have thorough mental stability, besides; this thing had dove from the upper platform of the bay, and landed directly on top of the Banshee; something a normal human could never do. It then looked at him, but before it could act a thick purple blade sliced through it; it was the wing of the second Banshee! And out hopped the second Spec Ops Elite, Wort turned, looking up into the levels of the bay, plasma and human weaponry fire burst everywhere, their muzzle-fire flashing erratically, producing loud roaring sounds that echoed off all the bay's walls, Wort jumped back to the Banshee and pulled out a Plasma Rifle from it's storage rack, immediately turning around, just in time to see his comrade fall to the floor by another of the foreign species, he opened fire on the disgusting thing, green pints of bloody slime spewed everywhere, and finally bringing it down. Wort ran to his downed partner, but to his dismay he was dead, dark-purple pools of blood enveloped his body, Wort reached over him and obtained a second Plasma Rifle, using the pair in a dual-action manor of combat. Just then a rain of blue fire washed over him from above, someone, or thing, was shooting at him, and disrupting his shielding too, Wort ran to the nearest bay doors; trying to find cover from the constant strain of fire up-above, he made it just as the dropship entered the bay, it's Shade-Class Cannons firing non-stop at the hostile things. Wort continued to run up the small purple metallic ramp, small patterns of texture providing his legs with better traction. He listened to his head as he started remembering his first task; secure the Command Deck of all Vital Covenant Information; to make sure the Homeworld stayed safely away from the enemy, then the ship's complete destruction; starting with the reactors, unless this foreign race could be contained, but that was highly unlikely, Wort had already witnessed their brute manor of combat, these things couldn't be negotiated with...
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 2: The Hall of Fame...
Date: 31 August 2004, 9:47 PM
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 2: The Hall of Fame...
0050 Hours, September 22, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Covenant Cruiser: Truth and Reconciliation / Halo Installation 004/
Canyon Environment Area 012/ Vessel Halls
Wort was sure he was close, he could feel it. The long purple halls of the Truth and Reconciliation had lead him on a wild goose-chase through another shuttle bay and a hell of a lot of hostiles, the yellow-green things were now being identified throughout the Covenant Network as 'The Flood', some sort of viral species too dangerous to imagine. The hall ahead of Wort was scarred with burning flames and debris, a large gaping hole in the roofing exposed another shaft above the one he was current on, it looked dark up there, but all was clear, so he proceeded. But, the shaft above him was certainly not clear; just as he had neared the end of the hall the Flood had sprang down from an enclosed position above; effectively ambushing Wort, he cursed himself for being so foolish, he would surely die here...
He quickly ducked down into a defensive position; his primal combat instincts kicking in. He charged the area ahead of him, knocking down a few of the things on his way, he scidded to a halt and turned around, raising both Plasma Rifles at the on-coming enemys, the bright blue bursts of energy flared into their slimey, rotting skin, tearing pieces of loose flesh from their bones, but they didn't seem to notice, nor care that they were being shot at, they just continued to charge Wort. So he had no choice but to keep firing, at least until a plan came to mind...
Bunches of the things had fallen, but there was just no end to them, as soon as one wave went down there was another right behind them, then another, and so on. The Rifles' bursts burned from bright blue to white; the raw energy practically melting through the gun, Wort hadn't checked his situation on power, but he was sure it's exhaustable supply would end very soon, as he had shot down many of their kind on his way over...
And sure enough, after a few more shots the Rifles simultaniously sputtered and coughed up the last few shots that remained withing it's chamber, he dropped them and refocused his attention. The enemies were still coming stronge, their numbers just seemed to rise within seconds, doubling, nearly tripling! And Wort still remained without a weapon, he retreated back a few steps, immediately feeling the cold, hard feeling of metal as he backed-up into a sealed door, it's red outline shimmered in the dark area around him, sparks flying from the walls as the Flood began to charge at him, their groups enormously huge next to the lone Elite that is Wort...
Hand combat was his only answer to this problem, he let out a long roar directed at the decaying group, and took a giant step forward, rearing his fist way up above them, and then as his right foot hit the ground he brought that ball of pure momentum down, hard. Hitting the first creature strait to the face, slaming it to the ground with immense force, the sound of bones breaking could be heard for miles throughout the long halls of the vessel. Then the rest were on him, one grabbing at his arm with a whip-like appendage, Wort struggled to free himself, bringing his free hand up and chopping through the greasy meat-like rope, eventually tearing it strait from it's socket as he pulled the thing towards him and brought up his leg, recoiled it, and shot it out like a cannon, hitting it squarely in the chest, again bones could be heard breaking, but thing felt no pain, just feel to the floor and played dead, it's whole body limp, yet still craving for his blood...
There were now three rest, the scummy things had him surrounded, circling him in a menacing manor as to figure out when the appropriate time to strike was, and it wasn't long, at least a second had passed and the Flood jumped at him in unison. Wort dove for cover from their suicidal attempts at killing him, sliding to one side as the three banged heads and roared a deep gurgling howl for blood. This might be the only chance he would get, Wort thought to himself as he extended his arm out in front of his face and began to charge the creatures, plowing two of them down and punching the third on his way through the crowd, the thing fell to the hard, purple ground and squirmed, ready to get up and try again, but Wort made sure that wouldn't happen as he picked-up one of his depleted Plasma Rifles from the floor beside him, and whacked it over the fallen creature's head; completely shattering it's skull. He looked up and located the others, this time he would finish them...
This first came at him, flailing it's arms in every-which-way, hoping that by some off-chance, it may hit Wort, but those chances were slim for a reason; as Wort easily backed out of it's way and smacked it over the head as soon as it was behind him. The other did the same; running in a crazy, uncoordinated path of attack, trying to somehow hug and kill him at the same time, neither worked though, as he instantly shouved the barrel of the Rifle strait into it's face, knocking it backwards to the floor, dead, all of them, for the moment at least. Wort didn't know what else the things were capable of; some form of retaliation, combat tactics, maybe even immortality? He absolutely couldn't; wouldn't, take that risk. He had to complete his mission at all costs, then; if needed, death could come, but until then; he was immortal, not them...
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 3: All Hands Off Deck!
Date: 2 September 2004, 10:09 PM
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 3: All Hands Off Deck!
0050 Hours, September 22, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Covenant Cruiser: Truth and Reconciliation / Halo Installation 004/
Canyon Environment Area 012/ Vessel Halls-Command Deck
It was a long jorney from the great battle in the hall, but Wort had finally reached the Command Deck. The vast purple of the room made the huge holographical control panel in the center platform seem like a tiny illuminated glow. Wort quickly scanned the room for anything suspicous, and other than the giant, bulbous, yellow-green pod stuck to the control platform that seemed to hold no threat, there was nothing out of the ordinary. He walked on up the steep ramp, surveying the half-finished alert messages to the crew, and danger messages of a drastic depletion in the Reactors' Coolant Supply, apparently the 'Flood' had made it to the ship before anyone even realized. He quietly tapped his enlonginated fingers at the purple light, each movement he made co-responded to another, the Covenant's calligraphy started to pour down from the ceiling in bright, bold, letters that warned him of the dangers he could cause by earasing the ship's data-stream and A.I., but he was specifically assigned these orders, as was the rest of his crew, so he continued on without hesitation...
Wort finished the long proceedure a few minutes later, but what didn't seem right was the usual nagging of their Systems' A.I. Structures on board, but everything remained silent. This got him extremely suspicious and nervous at the same time, if that A.I. was missing, it would be his head, that thing had held the Home and Capital World of the Covenant, if it had fallen in the wrong hands, who knows what might happen. Was the race he was encountering now able to fly such a ship back to our World and attack? Or worse, could there have been a human aboard? If one of those things got it there would be no end to the damage they could do, the Covenant were good at offensive attacks, not defensive. Wort tapped a few more keys, looked at his arm's Holographical Systeming Pad and pressed it's activation button down, entered his code and opened a file that contained a small message inside, telling him the ship's security over-ride code. The Pad illuminated with floating purple holographic Covenant signs and displays, the appropriate code focused onto the pad and Wort entered it into the main processor panel. It scanned and loaded security files to check for it's accurate verification, it would take a while Wort knew, so he examined the bulb of what he thought was another form of 'Flood', though not able to attack or kill anything, but it had what appeared to be a human figure molted in it, wierd, Wort thought, then turned back to the now ready panel...
Just as Wort had feared; the A.I. Crystalline Memory Card was gone. He paused and took a few deep breaths of the stale air in the chamber, trying not to rush into a rash decision that would get himself killed, yet trying to decide what a logical solution would be, if there was one. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, trying again to think strait, but his focus was quickly cut off by a flash of dark-green that darted across the Deck's protected observation window, he wasn't alone. He quickly sealed off the intersecting doors from that area to here, using the now unprotected command function on the security-less systems, which he had to deactivate when he was going to pull the plug on the A.I., now anything or anyone with enough capable equipment could hack into it's data-base, but it would be a tremendous waste of time, as he had already erased it's contents. But the ship's A.I. wouldn't be affected in any way, which was bad, he also need it's memory wiped for the location of their Home and Capital World to be safe. The green thing was long gone now, he walked down the ramp and peered through the thin curving lines into the damaged and smoldering hallway, nothing. Wort began to think again, that thing he saw wasn't what he immediately thought it was; 'the 'Flood', it looked more 'mechanical', like body armor! Oh, Shit! The humans were aboard this vessel! He had to get to that man, and get the A.I. back before their World's location was identified. Wort reactivated his Personal System Holo-Pad and uploaded a security file into the vessel, allowing him, and only those with his password, access to the ship's command system and it's HUB's order assignments. This would give him a little better edge in catching up with that human, he activated the ship's blueprint schematic and tried to locate the man using heat identification software, it could work, but it wouldn't give him pin-point accuracy. There, he was heading toward the storage compartment, but there was alot of interference from the hull, it must have been severly damaged somehow. He reopened the doors with his HSP, now hardwired with the ship's command system, he was set. The metallic doors slid open just as the blip on the map disappeared; the human's heat signature either left the vessel, or he had been frozen in under a second, leaving Wort with the first logical thought; nothing could freeze with such great speed that he knew of...
He could, wouldn't, allow him to escape with that information, but it might already be too late, if he had some sort of relay messaging system then the humans might already know. Wort immediately pushed those thoughts out of his head, the humans were far lesser in comparison to Covenant Technology, there was no way that could happen, but he was still worried, and still had to get that A.I. back, so his objective remained the same; get that human...
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 4: The Hunt Is On...
Date: 8 September 2004, 11:21 PM
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 4: The Hunt Is On...
0175 Hours, September 22, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Covenant Cruiser: Truth and Reconciliation / Halo Installation 004/
Canyon Environment Area 012/ Command Deck-Vessel Halls-Storage Compartment-Environment: Canyon 012
Wort ran as fast as his legs could go, the textures of purple on the walls and floors became a blur to him as he sped through lines of those 'Flood' creatures. Their putrid, rotting skin rubbing off on him as he past, they started to chase him, but he couldn't stop to fight, he still had no weapon. And he knew he would have to find one sooner or later, or it would be the death of him and the ship. At the far end of the corridor he could see dead end, the left and only intersecting passage was blocked by flaming debris, and the things were still close on his tail, how had that human made it through here? Wort thought angrily, but all his worries then faded away when he saw the small floor panel missing in the center of the room, creating a small, but still maneuverable hole to escape through. He ran around it's edge and looked back, seeing the group of rotting creatures jump for him, hungry for his blood, but Wort was too fast for them, he merly hopped down the passage and their hunt ended, the things above too stupid to figure out were their prey went. But things right next to him, didn't have that disadvantage, they were waiting for him downstairs too! The gastly creatures had cut him off, Wort slowly backed away from them as they continued to analyze him, his back made a metal thud when it hit the storgae compartment doors, they automatically swung open with a loud mechanical noise, the 'Flood' now alert with the fear of their prey escaping, came jolting at him, jumping and swinging a lethary whip of flesh at him at the same time, causing Wort to back-up a few steps and cover his face from the lashing blows, his shields sustained massive damage, but they still held stronge, but that wasn't what worried him; the huge, gapping hole and inch from his foot was what scared him, he had no where to go; he was trapped...
The 'Flood' creatures knew this and continued with their onslaught, Wort almost defenseless from their brutle attacks, swinging a fist here and there when he could, but mostly stood in a defensive crouching stance to counter the blows, until finally his shields deminished to nothing, and went temporarily offline to recharge. Wort was screwed, and he knew it. One of the things came forward again and whiped his arm over Wort's head, knocking him senseless, his vision blured, but the barrage of fists and whips stopped. The creatures seemed to part into two rows, lining an honorary walkway to him as a giant bulbuos creature waddled forward from around the corner, it's upper torso dominated by a huge sack that seemed to be carring something moving inside. It walked right up to him, Wort too anstonished to do anything until it practically fell on him, it's weight could have thrown an average human off balance, but Wort was an Elite, and a damn strong one at that, he thought as he pushed the rotting blob back into the crowd of 'Flood' and just out of the blue, exploded! The sharp, stringy blast rocketed Wort and some slimey shrapnel across the huge hole, and sent him to the floor all the way across deck. Wort got up, his body ached but he would be alright until his shields recharged, he looked back over to the opening; the 'Flood' things started to hiss and gargle with fury as they sat back up and prepared to jump the gap. Wort quickly surveyed the area, the room was stockpiled with weaponry, rifles and pistols scattered all throughout the floors and crates, as well as grenades and hand-held plasma blades too. Wort had no time to choose his favorite as the 'Flood' approached, he grabbed the two nearest things to him; a few Plasma Grenades off the floor, and an inanimate blade and handle of a Plasma Sword on the crate directly behind him. Wort ran to the edge of the hole, pressed the blue ball's activation button, and hurled it into their decaying mass of flesh, it stuck to one of the ones in the back, it's blue fire-like detonation and stick flame sparkled and notified Wort of his hit. A second later a burst of fiery blue consumed the doorway, eradicating the things, but just as their named stated, their was a whole other flood of 'em clogging-up the doorway. Wort squeezed the Plasma Sword's handle as it's gel-like substance covered his hand; shielding him from any heat radiated by the sword's exposed Plasma radiation. The dull aqua of the inanimate blade burst to life in a firey blue and white that completely covered it. The first of the creatures lept from it's jagged metal purch and was expecting to land on Wort, killing him with it's whip-technique, but Wort had an ace up his sleeve, and pulled the Sword out from behind his back and gave a great, big slash at the thing, it's soft rotting flesh was like cutting through butter with an axe, as the thing landed behind him as a whole, but fell to the ground in half. Then there were more of them, jumping in uncoordinated paths that sent some to the depths below, and others merely crashing into each other, but the ones that did make it, didn't really make it that long, as they never caught on to Wort's Plasma Sword's abilities. He never grew tiresome of weiding that sword, but he knew that time was of the essence, and he needed to get that A.I. back before that human got too far away to track. So Wort slowly backed away from the hole, switched the sword off and tucked it away safely, turned and ran, leaving the the creatures behind him for the moment...
It had been a long trail through the halls to get to the Grav-Bay, but he was finally there, he stood on the large gray pad at the center of the room and typed the command in to the vessel to activate the lift area. The room hummed to life and a control booth by the pad activated and projected a holographic activation switch, Wort walked over to it and tapped the air it was floating over, the button highlighted itself and purple started to wash over Wort, his eyes blurred and the room began to spin, the darkness. He opened his eyes, Wort was in a small canyon area, the ground he was on was lifted high into the air by an arch formation, all around him was the sputter of erradicly firing weapons and vehicles, his comrades were all below, fighting off the 'Flood' things and doing what he hoped wasn't what he thought it was; loosing. He quickly ran down the steep gravely ramp-like structure and located the corpse of a falled comrade, he picked up his weapon, a Plasma Rifle and began to search for the human, or other enemies around him. His focus almost got him killed though, as he dove out of the way of a damaged Banshee, crash-landing and exploding into little pieces right were he was standing not a second ago. It was too badly damaged to fly again; just as he had thought, but merely checked the flier just in case, he wouldn't want to give up such an oppotunity that would allow him to quickly survey the whole canyon for the human in the thing. He continued to walk cautiously around the tall arch he was on, to his left was a small hole that led to some coolant pools that the 'Flood' creatures seemed to be crawling out of, he trained his weapon on the dark figures and fired, the blasts vaporizing parts of their decaying skin until they finally fell to the ground. He then turned back around to his right and noticed a small resistance of them on a ledge in the canyon wall, he carefully took aim, and fired, but his shots missed by a long-shot, his aim thrown off by something grabbing at him, it was the creature, it was still alive! Wort shook his leg in pure panic, not wanting to get any part of the slimey, smelly creature on him, he pulled the Rifle around and put it's dual-barrel strait to it's head, careful not to hit his foot, and fired, the shot creating a gapping hole in it's rotting forehead, leaving a ragged corpse behind. Wort continued to run through the lines of fire, ducking here and there, and shooting the things when ever he could. He could see a the canyon forming ahead, it's passageway a tight for any drophips to maneuver through, he ran across the rugged terrain of rock and dirt, leaving the horrific battle behind in search of the human. Running over sharp hills and gullies that jutted out in ever direction, making the passage a rough trip to get through. Wort continued to run through the canyon, destroying any obsticales in his way, he shot at the creatures on another far ledge of canyon area, but his shot was knocked off by the blow sustained from a 'Flood' creature that had jumped from it's perch and lashed at him, Wort immediately shot the creature, but was still in an extreme state of panic, not because of the creature, but because of what it was holding; a human rifle! The things could use weapons! Wort didn't like this one bit, he fell back to the ship's Grav-Lift area to retaliate his loss of knowledge and get his head thinking strait. He passed by one of his comrades just as he was impaled by a barage of the Needler's purple trojectories, glowing and then bursting into an explosion of bright acid-like dust; the things could also handle Covenant weaponry! Wort came back up on the opening of the canyon to the Grav-Lift, he could see the bright purple beam shinning bright still, a good sign. But there was something else up there that got his hopes up, high up, it was the green armor-clad human! Wort had him now, he was actually entering the ship through the Grav-Lift, how stupid could the guy be? Wort had control of the ship, of the guy too, and he knew it, it was all just a matter of time before the task was completed...
Wort ducked as a bright blue ball of light fluttered by him, and sticking to a small, cowering Grunt behind a rock, the thing screamed it's head off before it finally burst into a million pieces as the Grenade detonated. The human was already on the ship, but Wort couldn't get back up to the lift yet, there were just too many hostiles and just not enough cover. He would have to wait for the rest of the Strike Team, if there were any left, he thought. This got him even more impacient, the rest of the team was probably long gone from his position by now, either that or dead. He backed away from the canyon wall as another of the creatures came to life behind him, but not even a second chance was enough to take Wort out of the picture, he thought as he dropped the depleted Rifle and picked up the thing's Needler, not his prefered choice of weapon, but it would have to do for now. He turned the corner sharply again, out into the open of the canyon with the Grav-Lift, and fired off a few rounds at the things still perched on the ledge, the needles stabbed into their targets and imploded, killing one, but the others remained. He jumped back into the darknes, hiding, as lights of plasma and darts of bullets cut through the air where he was a second ago. This was taking way too long, Wort thought, he needed to get aboard of that ship now! His head flooded with anger as he silently counted down in his head, and then finally burst from his cover and ran across the wide, open space to the Grav-Lift above, bullets and plasma rippled the ground behind his every move, he held out the Needler as he strafed the area, and fired, the thing shaking his whole arm, probably because it took up practically his whole arm. The sharp, purple glowing sticks pierced the rotting skin of the creatures above as he exhausted the whole clip, and a second later, the needles imploded in a firey hail-storm of purple dust and shards, melting away at the soft-skinned mutants. And before he knew it, a haze of purple washed over his body as it was lifted into the air, but something about it was horribly wrong from all his previous rides through the lift, his gut seemed to have been repeatedly stabbed by a million knives, the pain extremely intense. Then the purple haze cleared from his eyes, put the purple glow did not, Wort's chest had been impaled by a needle from the one of the Needlers that had been fired at him. He paniced and struggled to free it from his chest, a with success, though the crystalline needle had imploded in his hands, making him suffer from third-degree burns. Wort looked at the wound, he was bleeding, though not as bad as if it had imploded while in him, and for that he was thankful. Wort dropped the horribly weak weapon in place of another Plasma Rifle laying near a dead Ops Grunt by the pad, something the Grunt obviously couldn't handle. Wort reactivated the Personal Holopad System on his arm, the human was in here, and close, if Wort of stayed put, he would've been right where he was a few hours ago; the Command Deck. This time there was no escape...
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 5: The Stockpile...
Date: 11 September 2004, 4:00 PM
Halo 1: The Ring World: Ch. 5: The Stockpile...
0250 Hours, September 22, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Covenant Cruiser: Truth and Reconciliation / Halo Installation 004/
Canyon Environment Area 012/ Gravity Lift Pad-Shuttle Bay
The human was now headed towards the Shuttle Bay, Wort looked over the ship's schematics again and found a decent path to cut the man off at, and with plenty of room for an ambush, but he'd need to rally up some of his comrades, something he couldn't afford to sacrifice though. He needed them to hold off the 'Flood' for as long as they could while he got the A.I. back, and telling them of this loose data might start a riot or make them loose all confidence in him, and all hope; that, he wouldn't let happen, ever. The human's heat signature had been recognized again on the ship's systems, though Wort already knew this and shut the alarming sound to alert him, off. The man was now on the Command Deck, it seemed to be waiting for something, then there was a pulse of energy that flashed on the Holopad's main HUD, the man had exposed a human Implant Unit and Wort was getting all kinds of alerts about this it's presence from the ship's security terminals and systems. He quickly shut these programs down to relieve the stress on his Holopad, but there was just more messages filling their place, Wort got so aggrivated over this inconvienance he almost ran right into another 'Flood' creature, the thing hadn't noticed him though, so Wort got a precise aim at it's upper torso and rammed the butt of his Rifle into it's fleshy back, it fell to the floor and violently shook, then layed still. After Wort was sure it was dead he began to run at a little slower pace as he examined the new messages, it was one of his admiring Strike Teams, though Wort didn't have the authority to give them orders, they were always happy to help, after all; he was a true veteran to them. He examined their location closer on the Pad, they were near the Command Deck, where the human was, and they were aimlessly shooting at the creatures before them; awaiting on a new set of orders they could execute due to the loss of radio communication to the Flagship. Wort sent a brief voice message over the Pad's Oral Recorder and sent them the location of the Command Deck, he would expect them to already know where the Command Deck on any Covenant Ship was, but they were the newest recruits for the Covenant's Spec Ops, and he wanted the job done quickly so he gave them a directionalized schematic anyway, hopefully that would help. Wort then turned the Pad off and refocused his attention on getting to the Shuttle Bay to cut the man off; that is, if it survived that Team's lethal onslaught...
Wort had finally made it to the Shuttle Bay, the same one infact, that he had flown into just a few hours ago, back when this whole mission started. The Dropship he had flown in with was gone, but there was another one in-bound, he could see it in the night sky from the top platform of the Bay. It was getting closer by the second, Wort squinted his eyes to see if it was the same one he had flown in with, but a bright wash of light and force on his back made him immediately turn around, his shields flickered and died for the moment. One of the 'Flood' things had gotten behind him, he shot the thing with the Rifle but the weapon was too low on ammo to finish it off, so he dropped the depleted supply and went to work on it, beating it sense-less to the point where even a thing like itself could feel pain...
Wort turned around again cautiously, keeping a close eye out for anything behind him still. The Dropship was now docked and unloading it's cargo: another Unit of Spec Ops; there was a pair of his brethren Elites, and a couple of Grunts wielding the un-integrated Fuel Rod Cannons; hefting them heavily over their shoulders carefully, as not to drop it and trigger it's safety device; a rather bad thing to do while cramped up in a small space like in the Dropship's dual unloading pods, as there would be no escape from it's titanic blast. Wort had used the big things a couple of times in training, but never really thought that that kind of fire power and weight was needed to defeat the human forces, as did the others he knew, but now with these 'Flood' things running a muck, he thought it might be worth it's down-sides...
Wort searched the perimeter of the Bay again, it was all clear, he quickly walked to the ledge over-looking the small, thin docking platform where the Ops Team had just unloaded onto, their Dropship's Captain was instructing a few of the white armor clad Maintanance and Engineering Grunts to lower some hard-wired Communications and Storage Pods from the ship's Grav-Beams. And there they were, the huge, curving, purple structure of the Cannons lay gently stored in one of the Storage Pods on the platform below. The Captain of the Dropship walked back into the cabin to prep for another take-off. Wort welcomed the thought that the weapons below would soon help the Covenant, and him overcome this foreign race and turn this new war, once again, in their favor. The crate only a few feet below him, was stocked to the brim with the Fuel Rod Cannons, and the one behind it with Rifles, and then there were Pistols in another to the left, and Grenades in the next; it was a whole weapons stockpile! Wort couldn't contain his glee, his once defenseless state would now be a hard-core armored killing-machine, ready for anything that even moved to turn to dust by a flick of his trigger finger...
Wort jumped from the upper catwalk down to the docking platform, nearly a story below him; his huge, muscular legs bracing his fall onto the hard, purple metal, now beneath his feet. The tiny Grunts below trembled with fear as he landed only inches from them; scared that he would have of landed on them and crushed them all; which was entirely possible. They all squeeked uncontrolably with fright from Wort's dynamic entrance right before their eyes. He brushed right past the small creatures; a cold shoulder the only thing that he welcomed them by, showing only his back to their unrewarding cowardice manor, and approached the purple Storage Pod now in front of him which held the Fuel Rod Cannons. Not only could these things help him in combating the 'Flood', they would also play an important role in his little plan to ambush the human, Wort though menicingly. He picked it up, hefted the thing somehow easily over his shoulder, Wort could of swore it weighed more; but then again, he wasn't that big in training, maybe his build matured more than he had thought. The thing fit perfectly over his whole right arm; wielding it would be a cake-walk to him now, he thought, as he looked at it with extreme intrest in it's many uses over the years. Then there was some slight noises that could be heard; Wort snapped his head around, cranning his neck out and staring strait at the Grunts behind him with a gaze that could pierce the hull of any ship in the galaxy. The Grunts yelped with fear in thier voices, the utmost terror in their eyes, and began to scramble frantically about the platform, getting back to their work at their stations and never looking back up at him again. As did Wort, not with fear though; with thought. He started to map-out what tactical proceedure he would take to execute his ambush precisely; he wouldn't be able to survive getting through the 'Flood' creatures to the man with just a Fuel Rod Cannon; those things used close-range combat, and if he hit them with a weapon of the Cannon's power it would kill him in the process; remembering the close range that that thing had gotten to him from behind the last time he was on the upper deck. So Wort decided to load up with a Plasma Rifle too, the dual weapons would help with both maneuvering his aim of fire; the Rifle's job, and with great force too; the Cannon's job. He also clipped a few Grenades into his armor's back-compartment just in case things hit the ceiling too fast to handle with both weapons. Wort fired up the Cannon; the gun illuminated itself as a bar of green highlighted across it's control panel; indicating full power and a full stock loaded; he was ready, the trap would soon be set, and after the human was out of the picture, the A.I. would be back in the Covenant's possesion; right where it belonged...
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