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Dangerous Voyages [Part 5]
Posted By: Elizar<kopaka2219@hotmail.com>
Date: 11 May 2006, 9:35 pm
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"Wow." Escaped Darius' lips. He had been told by ONI that he would know what he was to collect when he saw it, but he never expected to be like that. "What do you think it is?" He asked Lex, one of his experts in Covenant behavior. The question was for Darius to figure out what was in front of him, and what ONI could want with it.
Lex gave a hum to indicate she was asking for Darius to repeat his question. "I think it is a library." She said, checking over the small racks which contained several data crystals. She ran her fingers over two of the shelves. The alien language on it seemed at first glance to be pictorial, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there was a pattern to it, and an academic professor in languages would notice that there were just forty characters, while hieroglyphs could be up to five thousand images.
"There must be some important information on each of those crystals. I mean, why keep it in physical storage instead on the network?" Lex continued, having done a quick glance at every shelf.
"But what should we take?" Darius looked over the alien language, as if he was expecting the characters to suddenly change to English and explain to him what he was exactly looking at.
Lex examined the racks more closely, went to each one of them and checked the alien language over. They still had no translation of it, but she felt she could still be able to read it and pronounce it. "I think we should take one of each. What did ONI specify?"
"We will take ten. ONI didn't tell me it would be this." Darius said. The room was large, twenty by thirty meters, and most likely thirty racks in all with five shelves each. He saw that each shelf had around fifteen crystals. "Take ten crystals and put them in a secure place. Make the selection random and not obvious." He ordered to Lex, who obeyed quickly and went around the shelves, reading the alien words though he didn't even know how to pronounce them. She was looking for enough diversity in the words to find diverse data. She selected each crystal carefully and put it aside.
"Sir. This place is clear, and we should be able to hold it." An ODST who had approached Darius said.
Darius nodded. "Alright. I want everyone on alert nevertheless. We will move once the control room is secured."
"I don't get it." James said as he surveyed the empty room.
"I know." York grimaced. The storage bay was quite devoid of any ammo and weapon boxes. "But this is the place." He added, and then motioned the marines to secure the room. "We will hold our ground here." He said and opened a com link to Darius.
"Captain Striker?" He said through the com, bit hesitant to contact him like that.
"Speak." Darius answered.
"I am at the location, and there is nothing here. Maybe few rations, but not what was supposed to be in here. No weapons, no ammo." York said and looked quickly to his right. He thought he had heard something. But he didn't see anything.
"Are you sure?" Darius asked surprised. Things were not going according to plans, and when it did, things went wrong, things went wrong on a large scale. "Could it be you are at the wrong location?" He asked even though he already knew that the chance of it being so was small to none.
"I am sure." York said and sighed. "Let me know when the control room is secured. I will move my team to it. Being here has no advantage."
"I will, over and out."
York sighed as the link was closed. They had to hold their ground in the storage bay for the time being.
"Sir!" James yelled loud.
Lieutenant York turned around to face James, and saw him aim his weapon towards him. "What do – " Then he realized that James was not aiming at him, but behind him. He dived away, finding something grazing his leg.
James saw that since York had gone for cover, he had a clear shot at the target.
The elite had the cloaking device on, but something had revealed him. Maybe he had made some sound while walking, but when the human had the weapon raised and ready to fire, there was nothing to do about it. The elite raised his plasma rifle, barely missing his target, the commander, then he raised his weapon at the immediate threat, the human who had spotted him.
James shot his battle rifle, and as the shields rippled from the firing, the others joined in.
James felt something go against his head, but he didn't mind. He might have been new in the army, still a rookie for several people, but he could fire his weapon and knew how to detect invisible enemy.
The elite let out a death gurgle, dropped its plasma rifle and fell down on the floor. James saw that the threat had passed, so he let his left hand off the battle rifle, and took off his helmet to examine it.
It was amazing, like a divine intervention. The bullet had penetrated the helmet to some extend, but it hadn't struck him, but gone to his side. He checked the side of his head where the bullet would have gone through him, and felt how some of his hair was burned. He gave a low sigh of relief, and put the helmet back on. Though it was not as good cover as before, it was the best he could be with at the moment.
Central stood dumbstruck in the hallway for a second. The doors to the control room were opened, but the way to it was obstructed. There was a hunter pair guarding the control room, and they were armed to be in melee, not to shoot radioactive bombs.
The hunters were still, as if they were waiting for something.
"Grenades at my mark." Central said low to the team, hoping that her order would not be heard or understood by the enemy.
A red elite stepped forward from the control room, but was behind the hunters. Central felt it was bad news. Before the elite could order the hunters to charge, she gave the signal, and over half-dozen of frag grenades flew over to the hunter pair. The hunters charged forward by an order from the elite, but the elite and one of the hunters died in the explosion.
The second hunter was injured, but in a blinding rage from the loss of his trainer and bond brother, he charged forward to the group which scattered. Though hunters were not so new enemies, this one was. The behemoths were usually in distance, shooting from their fuel rods, and snipers could pick out the pink flesh on them and kill them in few shots. A behemoth that was not in the distance, but charging forward and threatening to take out all of them on his own, was too much for some of them.
The hunter swung his arm with the spikes, and the marine in front of him didn't duck in time. He was hit by the spikes, and was stuck to the arm for a second before another swung of it shook him off and threw him dead on the wall.
Baldvin realized that if nothing was done in few seconds, it would all be over. He took up one of the plasma grenades he had confiscated some time ago, and ran towards the hunter as it had its back turned to him. He activated the grenade, and pushed it on the hunter's back. Central saw what was happening, and fired off her shotgun to draw the hunter's attention from Baldvin, so he could get away in time. The shotgun blast didn't manage to do any serious injury to the hunter, but it certainly got his attention. He charged forward and Baldvin got to a save distance, a second later, the sizzling blue orb exploded, splattering fluorescent orange blood on the deck.
Teya'kreleyee saw how quickly the hunters Tanka had trained fell. He cursed Tanka's afterlife, ensuring that his incompetence would not go unnoticed. Teya had never seen humans bring down hunters so quickly without heavy vehicles, and the demoralizing effect he had been aiming for was all for naught. It seemed to even rally the humans further towards the control room. He gave a low growl.
"Go! Kill the infidels in the name of the Forerunners!" He called and raised his plasma sword. The ones manning the turrets in the ceiling paused their firing as they didn't want to hit their fellow elites that charged forward.
Teya looked around the control room, and saw that everyone was on high alert, there were just four elites left besides him in the control room, two with jetpacks manning the turrets, one with a beam rifle and another with a fuel rod cannon slung over his shoulder. There were still dozen of grunts left to divert the humans' attention.
There was a sudden silence, no guns firing, no cheering from either side. Teya stood still, looking through the open doors. The elites he had sent to kill the humans were all dead, but the humans were nowhere to be seen. He saw then a movement from the corner of his eyes. He turned around to the wall behind the control panel, and saw through a grid how the humans were moving to the doors on that wall.
"They are flanking us, be prepared." He said low. Now it was not the time to boast and claim a human kill easily. These humans were different, or led by exceptional human. He smiled, confident that the humans were led by that exceptional human that worried even the Prophets.
"Show yourself so I may kill you." Teya said low, grinning.
All of the three doors opened at the same time. It was a distraction tactic, to get the Covenants confused enough to land lucky kills on them. Teya saw how two grenades took out the elite with fuel rod even before he could kill the humans he was aiming for. The grunts fell down too quickly for Teya's like. He growled, deactivated his plasma sword and begun firing his plasma rifle to whatever target that was the closest. The elites manning the turrets fell down from human sniping rifle. The gas trail revealed where the sniper was, and Teya threw a plasma grenade to where it was.
Anne looked in shock as the sniper by the other doors besides her got tagged by a plasma grenade. She had been just lucky enough to be unnoticed. She had thrown grenades instead of firing any weapons. The number of elites and grunts was too much for her to risk firing her sniper rifle.
She came then to the realization, there was just this much she could do by throwing grenades. She had to provide cover, distraction, even though it meant being in the danger of being tagged by those sticking blue plasma grenades. She held up the Covenant beam rifle and made a quick lean-in to see what would be her target. What she saw was an elite commander, and an elite holding a beam rifle like hers. Both were busy at the main doors, where most of the humans were firing from. She had the doors she was at all for herself. She noticed how an ODST approached her as to guard her from any approaching enemy.
She gave a reassuring shrug, put the beam rifle on her shoulder, went to the doorway and fired two shots in quick succession to the elite with the beam rifle. She figured it might provide confusion needed to distract the enemy for a moment longer to take over the control room.
Teya heard the beam rifle shot, but saw that it was not one of his who fired. He knew that there were just two with beam rifles in his squad guarding the control room, and the first elite had been killed some time ago. He turned around to face the other elite, and managed to see in time him fall from the second shot. He roared in anger as he realized what had happened. It had been one of the filthy infidels, who had used their own weapons against them. Though his shields were rippling from humans shooting at him from the main doors, he charged for the doors to the far end, where the beam rifle shot had originated. Whoever that human was, it had to die for that insult to the Covenants. But a death by a plasma sword was not what an infidel deserved, he had something else in mind.
Anne yelled in a reflex as she saw how the golden armored elite commander charged towards her. Though he seemed to be unarmed, it was still dangerous. She shot two shots in reflex, one that hit the elite but didn't kill the shields, and the second shot just missed him by scant centimeters. She heard the loud clank sound from her rifle, realizing it had overheated. She threw it away and turned around to flee.
The elite was faster, before she could even reach the ODST, the commander grabbed her and heaved her up against the wall. He adjusted his arm so it rested against her throat.
The ODST soldier saw that the sniper who had provided cover fire was in serious trouble, so that he charged forward with his shotgun. But as he came closer, he saw that if he shot where he was, the spread round would surly hit Anne.
The elite commander used that moment of hesitation. He grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and pushed it hard back. It hit the ODST square in the helmet, shattering the visor. A second thrust of the shotgun hit him in the face through the broken visor. The force of the blow knocked the helljumper to his back, where he laid confused for a second from the hit, unable to help Anne.
Anne saw what the elite had done and struggled against him without any success. The elite pushed harder on her throat, and Anne felt how she couldn't breathe. She struggled for a second, then realized that she could survive it, if she acted quickly. Though lifted from the floor, she managed to shift her body to reach the plasma pistol her brother had given her. She got it in her hand, and charged it.
The commander heard the familiar hum, and pressed even further on her. He was no going to let her to live.
The pistol was charged, and because of the close range, she let the shot go, and killed the elite's shields. The elite gave a low roar, but Anne reached for her plasma grenade and tagged him on the side.
The commander roared his final roar and let go of Anne to get rid of the part of the armor the grenade was stuck to. Anne crawled quickly to the ODST, who was coming to his senses. The elite was not quick enough to get the armor plating off, and the grenade detonated. The elite fell dead with his organs out.
"Are you okay?" She asked the ODST, who took off his helmet as he realized it was useless.
"I'm okay." He said, then felt how his nose was bent out of shape. "Darn squid broke my nose." He muttered.
The rest of the grunts were taken out quickly, and the control room was deemed clear.
Central walked in the room, headed up the platform and smiled as she surveyed the room and the dead Covenants they had killed to get the room. It had been worth it, even for the fall of over six soldiers. She still had eight able warriors in her team. She opened a com to Darius and Lieutenant York.
"Captain Striker, the control room is ours!" She said, hoping that it would boost everyone's morale around her.
"Congratulations Central, we are on our way now. Over and out." Darius answered and gave York the signal to proceed to the control room. When everyone was there, it was time for phase two.
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