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Oh Thirteen Part 4
Posted By: Stuntmutt<stuntmutt@yahoo.com>
Date: 24 March 2004, 11:56 AM
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Doodu cringed. Any second now, the White Elite would give the signal, the pillars would energise and Doodu would shuffle off to the Great Methane Cloud In The Sky in some unspeakable manner.
'Utsoree raised his hand. The Engineer at the pillar controls flexed a tentacle. The Silver Warder cackled. The pillars began to glow.
"I have to do something," said Jonah, looking down at Doodu.
Bean frowned at him. "Huh?"
"I destroyed the ship he was on. It's my fault he's in trouble. "
"Isn't destroying Covenant ships your job?"
"Yes, but... look, he saved my life. Don't worry, I've got a plan."
Bean raised an eyebrow. "Let me guess. You're going to charge in and smack them all in the back of the head?"
"No," said Jonah indignantly, "I intend to employ stealth tactics, a flanking manoeuvre, then, uh, some stealth, er, tactics... yes, all right. I'm going to charge in and smack them all in the back of the head. Stay here."
"You don't stand a chance," said Bean. "That's one probability I don't need the aid of a Scanalyzer to calculate."
"We'll see," said Jonah. He hopped up over the walkway rim and dropped to the gantry below.
The last thing to go through the Engineer's mind was the back end of a Forerunner Sentinel, which had found a new calling in life as a makeshift rifle butt. Having bashed the operator senseless, Jonah discharged a blast of energy into the control panel. The pillars instantly began to power down. A pair of Jackals was first to react. Stationed at either end of the control gantry, they stalked towards Jonah, shields and plasma pistols raised. The Spartan cut one down with a sizzling beam, then pivoted to make short work of the other. Alerted to his presence, Blue Elites leading squads of hobbling Grunts scrambled towards Jonah's position. From the chamber floor, Jackals took pot-shots with homing plasma blasts. Jonah snapped off beam after beam in all directions, but the numbers were overwhelmingly against him. An overcharged pistol shot dropped Jonah to one knee, blowing his shields and setting his suit alarms screeching. Elites rushed him from either side. With his shields down, a plasma rifle would finish Jonah off with a couple of shots. His new guerrilla tactic of hit and run without the run was unlikely to make its way into the texts and of great military strategic comportments any time soon. The first Blue Elite to reach him shoved its plasma rifle point blank into Jonah's faceplate.
"No." The word echoed around the chamber.
Every single covenant soldier froze. Jonah squinted past the rifle muzzle and down at the issuer of the command. It was the White Elite. And it had spoken in the human tongue.
Doodu had closed his eyes expecting to die. When he heard all the commotion, he thought he was dying. When he opened his eyes a little while later, he couldn't believe he wasn't dead. Then, when he saw the captive being brought before 'Utsoree, he wished he was.
Bean rolled onto her back, stared at the domed ceiling and cursed under her breath. There was nothing she could do to help. She didn't have a gun and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to use it. Then again, for the moment the Covenant's attention was focused solely on Jonah...
"Why. Are. You here?"
It was odd to hear an Elite speaking English. The delivery was halting, and accented by a deep, growling slur. Jonah had to admit it was better than his Elite-ish. The only word he knew was 'wort' and he wasn't a hundred percent on its meaning.
"I crashed here," said Jonah.
"Quite a. Co. Incidence." The White Elite circled the Spartan slowly. He gave Jonah's improvised Sentinel gun a cursory inspection then handed it to a Blue Elite. "That. You should crash. On this par. Ticular. Section. Of what. Remains."
"The particular section that's crawling with Covenant? Just my luck."
'Utsoree stopped circling and regarded Jonah silently for a moment. Jonah got the distinct impression that the alien was sniffing him.
"I detect. No falsehood. Interesting."
He turned and walked away. For a split second, Jonah thought to see the Elite blur as if he had moved a few feet without actually taking a step. Some of the Covenant guards who had also witnessed it exchanged uneasy glances.
"You will help. Me. Understand how this." 'Utsoree made a sweeping gesture indicating their surroundings, "Works."
"I do not know how this works," said Jonah.
The White Elite softly uttered the only word of Covenant language that Jonah recognised three times.
"You. Misunder. Stand me."
'Utsoree gave a curt nod. Two Blue Elites strode forward and each took one of the Spartan's arms. They marched him towards the centre of the room, as the Silver Grunt dragged Doodu back to the side. Jonah raised a hand as their paths crossed.
"Hey, how's it going?"
Doodu's replied with a mournful whimper.
"Yeah, me too," muttered Jonah.
According to the Scanalyzer, the panel a cluster of Engineers worked feverishly to fix controlled the activation of the chamber. But a different section, located in a gallery set higher up in the wall, controlled the actual power flow. The Engineer that had been overseeing the power controls had been drafted in to help with repairs, and every last soldier alien had swarmed to the chamber floor to form a ring around Jonah. Whispering words of encouragement to herself, Bean crawled on her hands and knees towards the interconnecting ramp that would take her to the upper gallery. She was going to pull the holographic plug.
Something in the walls of the chamber emitted a gurgling, burbling sound not dissimilar to that of a rumbling stomach. This was hardly surprising as, the other side of the wall, the Something detected a generous serving of Covenant on the half shell. With a pickled Spartan on the side.
"Does your kind honour last requests?" asked Jonah.
"No," replied the White Elite.
Jonah sighed. That put paid to a rendition of nine million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine beers on the wall.
'Utsoree raised his eyes to the Engineers above. One of them floated forward and prodded a control.
Jonah braced himself.
Nothing happened.
'Utsoree growled at the Engineers who squeaked miserably. After a few seconds of jostling each other and much flailing of tentacles, they turned to 'Utsoree and whistled forlornly.
A roar began to build in the White Elite's gorge. The Engineers quivered and sank closer to the floor. Then a second Elite howl rang out from above. Jonah and the Covenant craned upwards to see a Blue dangling Engineer First Class Emma Bean over the side of an upper gallery. Bean had her eyes screwed shut. Her face was ashen.
"Brave girl," Jonah said quietly. "It was a nice try."
One of the Engineers sped off towards the upper gallery like a balloon with a puncture.
"Bring her. To Me." 'Utsoree turned to look at Jonah. His lips parted to reveal four rows of teeth. "She. Can. Go next."
The Blue pulled Bean back up over the ledge, and began to drag her along the walkway. The Engineer behind them trilled excitedly. His fellow creatures at the controls below whirled back to their holographic panels. A flick of a rubbery tentacle later, the pillars began to glow.
"Can't wait to see how I get out of this one," said Jonah. The energy level grew and he was engulfed by brilliant light. Jonah had the sensation of being pulled forwards, like some peculiar type of vertigo. All sound diminished to silence. His vision gave way to nothingness. Everything went white.
Then, as suddenly as it had whited out, everything returned to normal. The pillars powered down. Jonah stared at the Covenant. The Covenant stared back. At Jonah. And at the figure that had winked into existence next to him.
It was partially covered in what seemed to be Spartan armour. But where the left arm should be, a twisting, fleshy tendril curled out from the shoulder. Hideous growths sprouted through the plates all over the suit, and the visor had cracked away to reveal a mangled, rotting parody of a human visage beneath. Just visible on the chest plate between protruding fleshy palps was the designation Jonah 013.
"I bloody said something like this would happen," said Jonah. The apparition let out a sickening gurgle and lashed out at him.
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