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And now all hell will break loose Part 8
Posted By: metallicafan<metallicafan84@hotmail.com>
Date: 11 November 2003, 5:52 AM
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Finally, movement could be seen from the inside of the Pelican. It was Chuck. As he gradually woke up, he realized three things:
A: He was upside down,
B: The Pelican had crashed,
and C: He was the only one awake.
He carefully loosened the straps, then flipped down onto the Pelicans floor--roof-- with a dull thud. The Pelican was dark, yet there was barely enough light filtering down from the mouth of the cavern to see. Barely. He walked over to Fox and tapped him. Fox stirred.
"Hey man what the . . . " He trailed off as he realized the situation. "Whoa!" That was loud enough to wake up Merker and O' Conner. All three unstrapped and landed, more or less.
"Sheesh. We hit hard." Fox commented, pointing at a bent-in portion of the wall.
"No crap. I feel it. I'll go get Martez." Merker ran to the cockpit. "Hey man get up!" He yelled and crouched next to the pilot's seat where Martez was curled up in a fetal position, with glass over him. Martez stirred when Merker shook him, then opened his eyes.
"Bad crash, huh?" He asked
"Yea. Everybody's okay though."
"Good. Now get off me, I can't breath."
Merker did so, then Martez stood up and brushed the rest of the glass off of himself.
"You're bleeding." Merker pointed at a bloody part of Martez's forehead.
"No biggie. Just a shallow cut." Martez almost ran out of the cockpit. When he got there Fox opened his mouth and began to speak. Martez cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"What now?" Martez asked.
"John, I don't know if you've realized this, but we've been awake for only five minutes now."
First name basis now, eh? Martez thought.
"Yea, and the Pelican is also now officially beat to hell!" Fox added.
"Merker, did you bother checking the transmitter screen when you got to the cockpit?" Chuck asked. He was now using the command that came with being the senior Captain.
"Err . . . no."
"Do it now."
Merker ran, again, to the cockpit, only to report with bad news.
"Power's gone."
"What!?"
"Start it manually." O' Conner said slowly.
"What?" Merker had a confused look on his face.
"Pelicans' don't come with backup generators. Too much money for a craft its size." Fox rolled his eyes at that. "However, if you have direct access to the engine, there is a crank you can . . . well . . . crank to give enough power for emergencies."
"What about the doors?" Fox asked.
"Oh. Those things." O' Conner shook his head. The ramp/door to the bay of the Pelican was easily 200 pounds, and it was closed.
"Damn. What about getting our gear out?" Chuck asked.
"I say open the door, get out, start the engine, then get our stuff." Martez said.
"Will the power be enough to lift and hold the door?" Chuck asked O' Conner.
"Yes. Once it is all the way up, there is a locking mechanism to hold it in place. Granted, gravity is not supposed to be against the door for it to work, but it's worth a shot. The door needs to be higher up then we can lift it, so cold-starting the engine is the only way."
"Let's go. Wait, didn't the cockpit glass shatter?"
"Yes, but in case you're thinking of going through it, the cockpit is bent up, with metal poking out of the bigger ways we can get out. Plus there is glass everywhere. Real mess."
Chuck grunted in agreement, then started toward the bay, with everybody following.
It was actually easier then it looked, or at least that's what Chuck thought. All five of them crouched down and were able to push open the door manually, and hold it up long enough for everybody to exit the Pelican. Everyone ran to the bow of the Pelican, and Chuck opened the hatch for entry into the bottom of the engine. The Pelican was geared for service right side up, and upside down in emergencies, so Martez extracted the crank handle from the compartment, and hooked it to the engine. The handle was long enough, once extended fully, that Martez, Chuck, and O' Conner were all able to help. They cranked the handle ten times rapidly, and the battery that the crank powered had enough juice to cold-start the engine. The battery did so ,and the emergency systems came to life. Because they were the two lowest in rank, Fox and Merker stayed and continued to crank, while everyone else walked to the rear of the Pelican. Once there, Chuck pressed the button to raise the bay ramp. To everyone's relief, the ramp "raised" and locked in place. Martez ran inside and proceeded directly to the cockpit. The lights and gauges were on. He studied the diagnostic gauge first. The VTOL thrusters were out. "Too bad," he decided. Those could have been used to lift the Pelican upright. No chance of recovering it then most likely. He moved his eyes over to tracking gauge. He couldn't believe what he saw. The gauge said that Kaani had not moved since the Pelican had crashed. The gauge was made to be portable, so Martez snapped the case out, and from behind the place where the gauge had been, pulled out a battery pack and hooked it to the gauge. He ran out to the bay where Chuck and O' Conner were packing up supplies and gear.
"Anything?" Chuck asked.
"He hasn't moved." Martez replied.
"You gotta be kidding me." Chuck dropped a bag and walked over to Martez to look at the gauge. "Damn."
"What do we do?"
"Well, the range says he's about 3 miles from here. I say we go after him, and follow him until we get a shot off."
"I'm for it."
"Good. Gather the rest of the gear with O' Conner and meet me outside. I'll be telling the others about this." He stepped outside.
Fox's reaction to the information was about the same as Chuck's. Merker just stood and listened. 5 minutes later, they were all assembled outside of the Pelican. Fox, being the demolitions expert, was rigging up an explosive to blow up the Pelican to prevent Covenant from retrieving it. The rest were in a circle, readying. Chuck initially picked up his Sniper Rifle, M9 Pistol, and the two SMG's that were his standard issue. After a few moments, he decided that the Battle Rifle's extra weight was worth it, so he took it instead of his Pistol. Merker picked up his Battle Rifle, M9, two SMG's, a few grenades, and laid aside Fox's Shotgun and Rocket Launcher for him. He was also sure to put down the box which contained the nuke very gently, even though he knew that the engineers had deemed the bomb stable. O' Conner picked up his Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle, with the two SMG's and a few grenades. Martez picked a Battle Rifle and a Pistol and carried no extra weapons. After all, he was a pilot. They all packed lot's of extra ammunition. By then Fox was done and was ready too.
"Is that all?" Chuck asked.
"Yes it........Wait! There is one more compartment I forgot to check!" O' Conner ran toward the front of the Pelican, and opened one of the outside storage compartments. Inside were five suits of armor, in separate bags. He lugged them out of the compartment and brought them out to the rest.
"These are. . ." He set them down. ". . . older versions of the suit you have seen on the Master Chief. They were just declassified for normal use, and we are one of the first to get them.
They are a little confusing to put on though." Everybody came forth and picked up a bag. Around
ten minutes later, everyone had agreed that O' Conner had been right about the suits being annoying
to put on. When everybody had finally put a suit on, and had re-gathered their gear, Fox broke the
silence over their radios.
"Dear God is it hot in here!"
O' Conner answered him. "See that little panel on your right? It flips up. Inside there should be a. . . " Fox and everyone else quickly got the point, and activated the interior air flow that would cool them down.
"Much better."
"How far away is that thing we're after?" Chuck asked.
Martez studied the tracking screen, which was now attached to his suit's wrist. "6 miles."
"Easy little Sunday walk." Nobody could see it, but everyone else rolled their eyes.
They headed out.
***********************************************************************
After 3 hours of marching, they finally came to a rather forced clearing. Kaani was there, and what he was doing astounded Martez.
"He sleeps!" Martez started at it from behind his visor. Kaani was indeed sleeping on a bed of trees which he had knocked down, hence the new clearing.
"Damn man, I'm starting to feel like I'm on the Discovery Channel!" Fox yelled.
"Yea no crap."
"Now what? We have to wait for him to travel in another dimension to shoot the portal!" Merker said.
"Um. . .wake him up?" Fox said uncertainly.
"That's it. I'm gonna shoot ya." Chuck raised his gun half-seriously.
"He doesn't need to be waken anyway." Martez pointed at Kaani with his gun. Everyone looked just in time to see Kaani's tail flap around and smash into the ground. Kaani was awake, but had no idea he was not alone.
"Let's follow him. If he goes to another...." Chuck trailed off as a blue light appeared about 30 feet in the air, and growing bigger.
"And we could never see that why!?" Fox said.
"Screw that get your rockets loaded." Chuck heaved his Sniper up to his shoulder after going to the prone position.
"Oh yea. . ." Fox followed suit, and loaded the atomic rocket.
By that time the blue light had grown to reach to the ground, and about 50 feet up in the air total. Kaani resized himself to fit, and started walking near it.
"Oh shit man this is it!" Chuck yelled. He settled his sight over the portal, and set the laser. "Got a lock!"
"Fox readied himself, and fired. The rocket took off, but it was at its normal, slow pace. Time seemed to pass in slow motion, the rocket spiraling closer to the portal, but Kaani was also getting closer. Kaani reached the portal, and took a step through when the rocket was about 100 feet away. Chuck was in a full sweat, and worried. The rocket flew within 50 feet, and Kaani stepped completely through. The portal started becoming lighter, then the rocket finally hit the portal.
It went through it.
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