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Hunter/Hunted Ch.6, In the House.
Posted By: LordsFire<EarthMartianSpaceBob@hotmail.com>
Date: 25 April 2005, 10:11 PM
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I do not think I slept at all, but most the journey passed as a haze, so I cannot be sure. I had no idea how they had managed to add the strength assistance to my armor, but it seemed to be a gelatinous layer that responded to the miniscule electric impulses that traversed my nerves. Fortunately, it could be manually overridden and set, so I set it to lock my grip. Strangely, when I set this command, it said "beginning calibration" on the HUD. Between that and the heating that I did not even vaguely understand how functioned, I know I would never have survived that journey without the techies modifications. But for my faith, I'd never have had the strength to attempt the trip. I nearly froze to death as it was. My armor, which had fit like a glove before Yung and the techies had been at it, now fit like a second skin, and was vacuum sealed.
High Charity! I had once before walked the cities hallowed halls, to receive my command from Honor himself, and I greatly anticipated seeing my oath-master again. The Banshee's comm system was highly erratic, functional, but all encryption was shot, and reception was awful. Fortunately, an Unggoy was able to receive my transmission, and directed me to a landing bay. Oddly, he had been unable to find me docking space until I mentioned my name, and my lineage carried no great weight in High Charity.
I touched the Banshee down in the directed docking bay, strangely enough it was on one of the lowest levels of High Charity, a warrior in the Special Ops branch carried more prestige than landing amongst the oxygen processors. Climbing out of the Banshee, I looked for the Engineers that should be manning the bay, and rolled my neck from side to side, working out the cramps from two periods in a Banshee cockpit. A stench reached my nostrils.
Jiralhanae. I raised my gaze, finding a quartet of Brutes with their accursed grenade launchers stepping out of shadows around the large, and painfully empty docking bay. A low rumble of their animalistic laughter came to my ears, and they pointed their weapons at me. Activating my energy blade, I set myself into a ready stance, preparing to die from massed fire.
A creak sounded from the Banshee, and two of the brutes looked over my shoulders to it. With shields, that would have been the moment in which I struck. But I was both unarmored and unshielded, and any rush would be met with a one shot death, my foes were ten spans away.
"You smell of human, Sangheil," one who I immediately marked as their leader said, "I'm surprised a real Covenant warrior hasn't already killed you."
I growled at the insult, and bared the teeth in my mandibles at him.
Suddenly, the Brute to the far left gurgled, and fell to the ground. All of us stared at it's fallen form, as blood pooled around its mangled throat, and it's weapon suddenly was swept through the air at their leader.
This time I did charge, and skewered the nearest brute through the chest. Whipping it's spasming body around to shield me from the others, I disengaged my blade from it's chest. The collapsed body was jerked out of my grasp as it flew to pieces, and I felt a small piece of Shrapnel imbed itself in my belly. Roaring, I leapt over the bloody scraps that remained of the Brute's corpse, and flung my blade into the captains head.
Where it joined a blade already protruding from his face.
Clasping my perforated gut with one hand, I fell to a three point stance with my other hand, and watched as Evans slowly faded into view, trying to jerk his blade from the dying captains neck, but the captain had grasped it with his dying strength. At last he pulled it lose, and turned to face me.
And collapsed as a backhand blow from the fourth brute smacked into the back of his armored head.
"As for you," The remaining Brute said, "I've got a present straight from Truth." He paced towards me.
The last in a series of surprises, the Brute's head slipped of it's shoulder as a red-clad Sanghiel came in to my fading view. Clad in an honor guards uniform except for the helmet, the Sanghiel turned towards the bay's personal door, and made the gesture for all clear.
Honor, the Prophet I served, strode into the room, surrounded by helmet-less honor guard and grey clad elites with their accompanying grunts. I heard phantoms approaching the bay doors, and saw the emblem of the Brilliant Truth, the command ship that Honor personally commanded emblazoned beneath their cockpits. Struggling against the pain arcing through my abdomen, I rose to my feet.
"Sir." I bowed stiffly to Honor.
Honor smiled. "Somehow Idu, I'm not surprised that of all the warriors Regret brought along with his foolishness, you would be the one to survive." His face turned grim. "I only hope his idiocy has not brought our doom upon us all."
I heard a dripping noise, and looked down to see my blood speckling the deck-plate. "Sorry sir" I gasped, and blackness rose to consume me.
Idu fell to the deck, his eyes closing as he over exhausted and bled himself into unconsciousness. Sanghieli rarely studied anatomy, even their own, and just did not seem to understand that their bodies had limits.
"Kurin, Anto, get him aboard one of the phantoms and launch for the Truth immediately. We shall follow shortly. Take the grunts with you."
I watched them load Idu's relatively small form into the phantom, making their usual jokes about how he would be dead many times if he were a large enough target to hit properly. There was a strange smell in the air, which I did not recognize, almost overridden by the Jiralhanae stench. I turned to my second in command.
"Teryn, what is that smell"?
Teryn Contanee sniffed the air experimentally, and then abruptly raised his carbine.
"Human, Sir."
Upon the instant that he spoke, my entire guard snapped into combat stances, well trained eyes surveying the air dock. Taut as I have only ever seen elites, they silently and efficiently began to survey the dock. One of the dead brutes, the one with the mangled head, began to roll over. A grunt sounded from behind its large, inert form, and an armored human rose somewhat unsteadily to it's feet. One hand held the back of it's helmet, the other a metal blade, the like of which Covenant had not used in several Ages.
Almost every weapon in the bay was trained on this lone, practically unarmed human. It shook it's head, and looked around, surveying the entire bay, every member of my squad, and myself. It paid particular attention to me. Dropping into a combat stance, blade pointed straight at Teryn, the largest elite in the room, it spoke.
"Who's first"?
I felt a slight tremor of wind upon the tips of my mandibles, and then water against the surface of my gills. I opened my eyes, to see the medical bay of the Brilliant Truth. I sat up, pulling my neck out of the oxygenated pool it had been resting in, and breathing deeply through my lungs alone. Judging by how fresh my gills felt, I had been in this state for at least several periods. My abdomen was sore, and I saw that it was wrapped with pressure bandages.
Great, they'd probably had to patch my stomach and intestines again, another week of bloody excrement to look forward to. Gingerly, I rose from the recuperation table, and stood. The door to the medical bay opened, and Kurin'Theramee entered. He looked at me, and laughed.
"Anto and I made a bet with some of the rookies as to how long before you were up. I said five periods, Anto said six. The rookies said nine, ten and eleven." His mandibles twitched, and I managed a pained grimace. "Bobl won again, didn't he?"
Kurin grunted, and I smiled.
"Four periods. How does that Grunt always know?"
My smile broadened, but I didn't answer the question.
"What happened after I passed out? My memory is a bit hazy, but I thought I saw the human there." I gingerly began walking to the door, and Kurin looked at me curiously.
"You've encountered this human before?"
"Yes. He was actually there then?"
We passed out of the medical bay, and Kurin indicated we should head towards the brig.
"Indeed. He was rather impressive. After Honor had us haul you aboard, we watched from Theryn's combat camera. Honor smelt the human's stench, although he didn't recognize it; Theryn did when he mentioned it, and the human popped out from under a dead brute."
"Did it still have it's blade?"
Thurin looked at me strangely again.
"Like I said, I've encountered this human before."
"With a sword?" Thurin said incredulously.
"I've never seen Evans fight with anything else."
"You jest."
"He fought the flood."
Kurin stopped dead, and stared at me, unbelieving.
"Have you seen him fight yet?" I asked.
"No."
"Then I'll leave explaining until you have, you would not believe otherwise."
Kurin snorted, "I doubt I'll get the chance." We arrived at the correct door, and stepped into the larger ships brig, on the upper level of course. This brig had two levels, the upper the guardroom, the lower had the cells. The upper deck had energy shields in case the prisoners tried to climb up, but there were always at least two Elites stationed with Carbines on the upper deck, making it extremely unlikely. Now however, there were half a dozen elites aside from ourselves, including Theryn. Honor was leaning caually against the railing, looking down into the brig. A double fist of Jackals occupied the cells below.
"Sir" I said, saluting Honor, then Theryn.
"Ah, Idu," Said Honor, "Wherever did you come up with this human?"
I considered for a moment, and then spoke; "Sir, I encountered him first on one of the Human orbital stations over the Ark."
"Orbital stations?" Honor replied,
"Yes sir, the Humans have over two hundred of them."
"How then did Regret penetrate the planets atmosphere?"
I snorted, "Through no merit of his own sir, his entire fleet was ultimately destroyed, but first our force commander, Hyren Korlass, devised a stratagem that allowed Regret's personal craft to enter the atmosphere and land troops in one of the human cities." Honor gestured for me to continue. "He sent all our boarding craft and fighters out ahead of the fleet, targeting a single group of the human defense stations, and we planted bombs on all three. I know that two of the three were destroyed, and he apparently was able to slip his own ship through the gap, although at the cost of every single other ship in his fleet. The Humans seemed exceptionally protective of the Ark."
On the lower deck, the external access door opened, and a pair of red-clad Elites entered, dragging a rigid Evans between them. It was obvious that they were barely restraining him. His sword had obviously already been taken, and his helmet had also been removed. Red blood dripped from the back of his head, but the intensity that shone in his eyes was unmatched.
"You said apparently Regret was able to slip through, you were not present to observe the event?" Honor said, startling my concentration from the injured human.
"Yes sir, I was unconscious at the time."
"Unconscious? How did this come to pass?"
Evans was thrown forward by the Elites, who immediately drew energy swords, and then backed from the room. Evans whirled towards the Elites as soon as he gained his footing, and warily watched. The instant the door closed behind the Elites, the cells the Jackals were contained in slid open, and Evans had a new problem to deal with. "I suspect you will see how it came to pass shortly, sir. Why have you left him his armor?"
For a moment, Honor turned his unfathomable gaze to me, and considered something, most probably my words, and then looked back to the arena below. "With the exception of his helmet, we have been unable to strip his armor. It seems to have adhered to him. After he dies, we shall have to study it in autopsy."
I did not expect there to be an autopsy on Evans anytime soon. I looked below again.
Initially, the Jackals had been in shock over the fact they were suddenly free, but this lasted only a few moments before they realized that a human lay in front of them, and apparently unarmed. The quickest amongst them charged forward, screeching it's harsh battle cry as it almost instantly closed the short distance. Evans' head instantly locked onto the approaching threat, and he turned to face it. As the Jackal lunged the last distance, Evans neatly sidestepped, reached out, and snapped it's neck. It's inert form slid across the arena floor, and thumped into the bulkhead beneath us.
The seven remaining Jackals watched the corpse intently, and then turned their attention to Evans, the feral intelligence alight in their cold eyes. Whistling softly amongst themselves, they circled forwards, enclosing Evans in a tight, rapidly shrinking, circle. I wondered in passing how the rest of them would die.
A Sharp trill sounded, and the three Jackals behind Evans suddenly lunged forwards, claws stretching towards his unarmored head. Already leaping, his head snapped around, and as his leap cleared the wave of Jackals, his feet snagged one of the Jackals small, aquiline heads. He'd obviously originally intended a full back-flip, but the Jackal considerably slowed his momentum, and so he abbreviated his backwards motion to half complete his flip, planted his hands, and arced his legs downward rapidly behind him, slamming the Jackals head into the deck, leaving naught more than a bloody mess.
Neither he nor the other Jackals paused a moment. Rushing as one, the Jackals screeched and tore towards Evans, spreading to a battle line, intent on not allowing him to slip past or over them again. Evans pivoted on the deck, from prone to back down, gathered his legs beneath him, and then thrust up and backwards, slamming his armored back into the face and chest of one of the Jackals, then bearing it to the ground beneath his weight.
A thought struck me.
"You took both his blades?" I said, glancing towards Honor and Theryn for a moment.
Theryn looked at me, "Both?"
Already knowing what I would see, I looked back to the arena below, and quickly as I could, moved towards Honor, knowing what would have to come soon.
Evans second blade had appeared from somewhere, and already four of the five remaining Jackals were in pieces, and as I watched, the last was hawn in half. It was only two of my paces to Honor, but I leapt the last. Without breaking his combat rhythm, Evans hurled his blade end over end at Honor, and I arrived barely in time to bat it aside. I felt the sutures in my gut pull, and with a slight tearing, I began to bleed again.
Immediately, Theryn stepped between Honor and the human, and the Honor Guard around him were but a moment behind, as the sentries pulled out their energy blades, and leapt below to face Evans.
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