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Liberation Part IX: Some Leap of Faith...
Posted By: Hoju<hojuu@hotmail.com>
Date: 10 January 2003, 1:34 am
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Author's Notes It's been a while since I last posted anything, but I've been having a LOT of computer problems lately. But everything is more or less sorted out, so OPEN THE FLOOD GATES!
Teff estimated they had been in slipstream for a good hour. He knew it was going to take an hour and twenty-eight minutes until they left slipstream, but he decided to get his team ready now, despite the amount of time they had.
"Alright, Spartans. Time to get weapons ready. No rush, just make sure your weapons are in working order. We are approximately twenty minutes out," Teff said, speaking only on his team's channel. Although Bates tried to stop them, the ONI spooks wouldn't allow the Spartans to pilot the Raven. They made sure that they were in control of the cockpit, and Teff didn't want to talk to them. They were too secretive, as if they had their own hidden agenda, which with them seemed entirely possible. Teff cocked his MA7B Battle Rifle, and put two extra clips into the clip canisters fixated to his suit. He then took a M6D Pistol and put it in his leg holster, which was also mounted into his suit. Most of the Spartans also did this, except a select few. He was only able to fit eight Spartans into the tiny Raven, so he picked his team well. He was Blue Leader, with Blue 2, Boarders, Blue 3, Harvey, and Blue 4, Huds. Harvey was their sniper, who packed one of his modified sniper rifles. It had a 20x scope, as well as the normal tracer bullets a sniper rifle carried, and as a sidearm, he carried an M6D pistol. Huds was their Heavy Weapons man, carrying a Jackhammer Rocket Launcher, and a Battle Rifle. Depending on the circumstance, Blue Team's orders were to basically head in and gain control of the command centre of whatever was in system, if anything. Green Team, which consisted of only three Spartans, was their backup, in case there were other threats. One of the ONI men in front yelled turned to face the Spartans in his vacuum suit.
"Five minutes out, Master Chief," the man said. "I suggest your team prepares for combat."
"Already done," Teff told him. Normally he saluted anyone that spoke to him, but not the ONI men. They weren't military, but they weren't civilian either. "Depressurize the cabin when we come out of slipstream and open the tail hatch. Understand?"
"Yes, Master Chief," the ONI man said, turning back around. Teff set his transcomm unit to his team's setting once more.
"As soon as we enter normal space, the tail will be opened," Teff explained. "I want Blue 3 and I up there." He turned to Harvey and spoke directly to him. "I want you to use your scope and tell me if you see anything hostile. If you do, and if possible, take it down. Make sure you have explosive rounds." Harvey merely nodded. Through the blast screen he caught the glimpse of his boyish grin. He stood and cocked his sniper rifle. There was a soft buzzing from the front of the cockpit.
"Slipstream drives terminating, sir," the ONI pilot said from the front. "Stealth gear activated, cabin depressurizing. Entering normal space now." With that the buzzing ceased and the view of bright blue space faded to the black vacuum filled with stars. "Tail opening, scanning for any Covenant vessels." After the tail opened, Harvey leveled his sniper rifle and began looking through the scope. He moved it around for quite some time, Teff standing beside him in the opening.
"I'm seeing nothing, sir," Harvey said, continuing to scan the stars. Teff walked up to the cockpit.
"Well, sir, nothing on the visual scans, but I'm still scanning for power sources," the pilot said. After a few moments, he spoke again. "I don't see anything on the scopes. No great power sources, except in the direction of the closest star. That is most likely from the star though." Something felt wrong to Teff.
"Make a thousand kilometer loop of the area, and bring us back to this point. We have to make sure the Covenant isn't hiding anything," Teff said, and walked back to Harvey.
"See anything?" Teff asked, hopeful.
"No movement, if that's what you mean," Harvey replied, lowering the rifle. "But we don't have much knowledge of the Covenant stealth technology. It is possible there could be ships all over the place here, but we cannot see them. Although I'd think that if there was movement we would be able to spot it."
"Alright, we're going around for another pass," Teff said, patting Harvey on the shoulder. "Keep looking. I have a feeling something's around here, but I need some evidence." The Raven straightened out, and began heading back in the direction they had come.
"Wait, wait, I think I see something," Harvey cried. Teff lifted his head and looked at the Spartan. "I saw a shimmer. Like those of a shield. I'm not sure, but it looked pretty big. About forty-eight degrees to the left."
"Turn this ship around and bring it towards the position Blue 3 has marked," Teff said. He walked up to the cockpit, and reached towards the control panel, removing a disk and inserting it into his helmet. He didn't want Spark in his head for the entire hour and a half trip, he had stored him in the Raven instead. When he inserted it, Spark piped up right away.
"Oh, good day Master Chief," the high voice said. "Did you travel well?"
"No time for pleasantries Spark," Teff said, annoyed already. "We are basically in combat, minimal chatter." Teff was with Harvey again in time to see another shimmer. It was indeed an energy shield, nothing had such a color, such a glow in space.
"Sir, there's a slight gravity well," the ONI pilot said in the front. "But I don't know where it's coming from. Permission to change course?"
"No, stay on course," Teff said. They were fairly close to shield, Teff could tell now. Possibly ten kilometers away, probably more. If whatever this was produced a gravity well, then it was indeed very large, rivaling the size of a cruiser destroyer.
"Sir, the gravity well is increasing, if I don't turn around now then I can't guarantee we won't hit anything."
"Slow velocity," Teff said back. "And turn us to starboard." As Teff said that the Raven began tipping slowly to port.
"No, starboard, not port," Teff said.
"Sir, the gravity well is increasing, I don't think we can-"
"Turn us around now!" Teff yelled, realizing how close they were to the structure. The Pelican began turning, but not before it contacted. There was a hard crash, and Teff and Harvey were launched out the tail of the Raven. Boarders poked his head out, hoping that they didn't stray far. When he did, he saw no signs of them. The saw a silver shimmer, and a small hole in a large gray sheen closing in. As soon as the hole disappeared, so energy shield.
"Pilot, scan the area for Blue Leader and Blue 3," Boarders said to the pilots.
"Scanning," the pilot said, pressing a number of buttons on his panel. "We took severe damage from that hit, the engines seem in working order, but only with a fifty percent capacity, but the tail is stuck open. We won't be able to enter slipstream."
"And the Spartans?" Boarders asked, looking out the back.
"Well, sir, they're gone."
Teff and Harvey flew from the back of the Pelican. They saw the shields fall around them from the force of the Raven hitting, and saw the hull of the great structure. They both collided with the Covenant structure in time to see the shield close in behind them.
"3, you alright?" Teff asked.
"Affirmative, Leader," Harvey responded. "I still have all my equipment. How about you?" Teff did a quick check.
"Yeah, nothing lost," Teff replied. He saw the injured Raven floating back out into the vacuum. "They won't be able to see us because of the camouflage." Teff was right. The Raven slowly circled, and its own camouflage kicked in, making it practically invisible.
"Master Chief, if I may interject," Spark began. Teff did not bother speaking, he knew he could not stop him from speaking. "I have found what seems to be an airlock not far from our position. If we can get inside and you can enter me into their station's controls at any point, I should be able to locate the command centre for it. If you can bring me there, I should be able to deactivate both the shields and the camouflage."
"Good job, Spark," Teff said, speaking genuinely to the AI. "Mark the airlock with a nav point and we'll float on our way." Within half a second of Teff saying this, a blue marker appeared on his and Harvey's HUDs. They pulled themselves along the hull of the station the short forty meters to find a small alcove. It didn't seem to be an airlock, but definitely an entry point of some kind. Teff approached it to see various clamps around the outsides, and the film that covered the opening looked much like that of the Covenant shields.
"It looks like a loading point, sir," Harvey chimed in. He was right, the opening was too big to be used for only personal use, and the clamps obviously showed where the Covenant craft would dock.
"Spark, it doesn't look like this is a viable entry point," Teff said.
"No, sir, it doesn't," he said, sounding distracted by something. "But a small Covenant loading ship has entered the system, seemingly bound for this entry point." Teff turned his head to see a very small craft approaching them. He hadn't noticed it at first, for unlike most Covenant ships, it was jet black. Teff and Harvey dove out of the way as the ship docked. Amazingly, they hadn't seen them. Teff looked in the view port beside where the ship had docked, and saw the ship begin unloading. Two grey Elites walked out first, followed by one of the floating scientist races that had yet to receieve a name from the UNSC. The elites stood covering the scientist until he was clear of the hall they were in. The only exit was an airlock on the opposite side of the room. As soon as the airlock closed, the two grey elites turned around and motioned for whatever was inside to follow them.
"Sir, this is most odd," Spark spoke. "Never before have we ever seen a grey elite. This doesn't bode well, no not at all. We should find a way in, soon." The elites began walking toward the airlock, followed by something Teff had also never seen. They were about the size of a grunt, but had no atmosphere suit. All they had was a face mask attached to their mouths and noses, which was joined in a chain to each of them. Their hands were also bound to the mask. They looked like scronny chimps, covered in brown hair except their faces, hands, and feet. Their hands and feet looked black, not like the soft brown colour of their faces. Their hands looked as if they were made of rock, with short, sharp claws on the end.
"Spark, the recorder's running, correct?" Teff asked. This was odd behaviour indeed, Covenant bringing obvious prisoners into a space station in the middle of nowhere. Teff wanted it all on tape. After the small monkey like creatures had left the ship, Teff got a good look at one of their faces while they entered the airlock. Their faces looked quite a bit like chimps as well, but instead of having the flat nose and a snout, they had what looked like the nose of a pig with a small slit underneath that was obviously the mouth. After the group of elites and chimp-creatues had left, two hunters emerged from the back of the ship. With them they carried what looked like an orange egg. One of the hunters entered the air lock, the other about to follow, when he stopped suddenly. He turned and pointed directly at the small transport ship, and stepped backward into the airlock. He fired one blast of his fuel rod, incinerating the back of the ship as the airlock closed. The air began to vent from the small room, the port in front of the two Spartans shattering. Two corpses began floating backward out of the ship's hull slowly, and Harvey floated over to see what exactly they were. They were two of the scientists, both of which were singed by the blast.
"Well, at least we have a way in now..." Harvey said. Teff floated toward the wreckage, and right inside.
"Spark, if I let you into the ship's log, do you think you can find anything of importance, translated of course, as to what just happened?" Teff asked, hopeful.
"Well, if you give me a few moments then maybe," Spark said. He was becoming more and more annoying by the second. Teff plugged him into the console, in front of him, and the ship seemed to come to life. Within five minutes of waiting, Spark's voice came strong out of the computer.
"Sir, I believe I have found something. I'll try and play it back for you," Spark told him. On the screen appeared a picture of the three scientists and one elite. Apparently it was a feed from the other elite's camera attached to its helmet. The audio began wavering, then began in the Covenant's language. Within a few seconds, it all changed to broken english.
"What you mean you want to go back?" the elite with the camera said.
"We wish no part in this," one of the scientists said, the one beside him obviously agreeing. "We want to go back, as soon as possible. This inhumane, not meant to be done. How can Prophets make such a decision? It will surely anger the Gods."
"Exalted gives orders, we must follow," one of the scientists said, moving closer to the elites. "What he says is our God's will. He would not say if it otherwise."
"All the same, we wish no part," the first scientist said. "Imagine if you one of them?" One of his tentacles motioned off camera, and the elite moved his head. The chimp creatures were lying in a heap, obviously exhausted. They also look as if they hadn't been fed in a few days. One looked up with sympathetic eyes, and tried to speak.
"Pl... please. Food... please..." the creature said, in a high pitched voice. The on screen elite moved forward, and lifted the creature with one hand to his height.
"No speaking!" the elite cried, delivering a blow to the side of its head. The creature went limp in his arms, and the elite pulled back to strike him again. The scientist that had kept quiet so far floated toward the elite quickly, and wrapped a tenticle around the elite's arm.
"Please, no!" the scientist cried. "If he will die, he will die in battle. This would waste a life. And if he is going to lose his life, it might as well be in destroying the humans." The elite looked angrily toward the scientist, then lowered his arm, and dropped the creature. It looked injured, but still alive.
"Right, right," the elite said. The scientist floated toward the other side of the ship, where it had been resting earlier. When the scientist turned his back, the elite delivered a blow that looked as if it could have killed a hunter. The scientist crumpled and fell to the floor. Purple blood began flowing out from under it.
"We're here," the camera bearing elite said, as the camera panned out the window and the space station came into view.
"That's about all of interest, sirs," Spark said from the terminal. Teff pulled the AI out and put him back in his helmet.
"Whatever's going on here can't be good if it makes the Covenant question their faith," Harvey said. "We know how devout they are."
"Then it will most likely be important information to us," Spark said.
"And that's exactly why we have to find out what's going on," Teff said. As he finished saying that, a red light came on throughout the ship. Teff looked toward the loading bay doors, he saw them begin to close.
"Ship's docking procedures failing, doors closing," Spark said. Teff and Harvey pushed off the walls of the ship and began floating toward the closing doors. Harvey floated into the doorway, and braced it open. Teff floated up behind him, and helped him push the doors far enough apart to get them both inside. When the doors closed, the artificial gravity picked up instantly, and the two Spartans fell to the ground.
"Spark, find out which way they went," Teff said. "We need to find out what the hell is going on here."
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