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And now all hell will break loose Part 9
Posted By: metallicafan<metallicfan84@hotmail.com>
Date: 23 December 2003, 5:11 PM
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"Sonuvabitch!" Fox yelled out.
"We're screwed now." Merker said, amazingly calm.
Suddenly the portal grew darker.
"Oh shit he's coming back! Shoot shoot shoot!" Chuck yelled.
Fox centered the portal in his own crosshairs, and fired. The backup bomb sailed through the space between them and Kaani as slow as the first. The portal grew darker and darker, and Kaani stepped halfway through. The rocket "hit" and passed through the portal just as Kaani stepped clear. The portal grew bright blue with lightning bolts running through it. It bulged up and outward, nearly doubling its size, then snapped back and imploded silently and without any explosion.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Fox began jumping up and down with excitement.
************************************************************
The same thing was happening at the center that was set up to oversee that mission. All the people in the room were out of their seats laughing and hugging. Some were even crying. Wayne heard all this in his office next door and ran over to investigate. When he entered the room, he pulled aside the first supervisor he saw.
"What just happened?" He asked.
"They did it!"
"Did what?"
"Killed the portal!"
"What! Their Pelican went down almost 4 hours ago!"
"I know! I don't know how they did it, but they did!"
"Where is our closest force to pick them up?"
"Umm....Carl!" The supervisor called to his assistant and asked him the same question. After the assistant studied the forces map the supervisor told Wayne the answer.
"The Covenant Zanaziz whatever his name is forces."
"Zanozi's?"
"Yea, him."
"Good. Contact them, tell them to get there ASAP. After we confirm, and ONLY if we have totally confirmed it, do we launch the nuke."
"Will do, sir." The supervisor saluted and left.
Wayne exited the room and went back to his office. He would have to leave it in other people's hands now. He hated that.
************************************************************
"Hey Martez, what's up with you? You're sweating." Merker asked.
"Its...its nothing. Just from the excitement I guess."
Fox was still jumping up and down. In the apex of one of his jumps, a rock of some sort landed at his feet. While still jumping, he looked down at it to see what it was. The flashbang, what Fox thought was a rock, went off, blinding and deafening him. Even the protection on his helmet couldn't protect him enough. He crumbled to the ground, and fainted from his disorientation. The flashbang had similar effects on everyone else. Martez, being farthest away, lasted the longest, about four seconds, until he blacked out too.
"Marvelous little human devices, no?" Zanozi said in his own language. His lieutenant nodded in agreement.
"After our modifications, of course."
"Did we get the green one?"
The lieutenant hesitated. "No, sir."
"What! Fool! Where could he have gone!?"
"Sir, I. . .I think he was never here."
"You're the one who told me he was!"
"Your greatness, I thought he. . ."
Zanzoi grabbed the lieutenant by the head and stomach armor and slammed him against a tree. "I do not settle for 'you thought.'! I need facts! Incompetent!" He reared his arm back and slammed his fist against the lieutenants throat. With his air supply cut off, the lieutenant gasped for breath. Zanozi dropped him on the ground. He looked at the rest of the Elites, and called the next highest rank, what would be equal to a human Sergeant. He "smiled" and said: "Tie them up and attach them to our Ghosts, and go to the rendevous we discussed earlier."
"Yes, your greatness." The underling backed away quickly. No need to anger his superior. He personally saw to the job of taking some of the "rope" that the infidels had with them to attach them to the wings of their Ghosts. He then mounted his Ghost and started it up. Zanozi and the other three Elites did the same. Before Zanozi led them out of the area, he threw a grenade on the lieutenants body, blasting it and the lieutenant's Ghost into pieces. He then led them on to a predesignated strip of cleared away land. There a Phantom raced across the area just slower then the Ghosts, and one by one the Ghosts ran up its ramp into the bay, and the Phantom just made it over the treetops. Zanozi dismounted and a Major Elite ran up to him.
"Your greatness, a message is waiting for you in the communications room."
"From whom?" Zanozi answered.
"He wishes not to say. He does say that it is urgent."
"Very well. Oversee the normal procedures for after a mission."
Zanozi walked into the communications "room." It was nothing like the ones on battle cruisers, which were large and spacious. Instead, it was so small Zanozi, with his greater body then the average Elite, could just barely slide onto the bench that was in front of the console and display. When he had wedged himself in, he saw a message button flashing on the console's touch screen, and accepted the message. An image of a Prophet, about 10 inches high and 20 wide, popped up.
Zanozi reeled back. It was J'Rahsa, the leader of his caste, fittingly a member of royalty, and near the top of the Temple. One could barely hope for more power then that in the Covenant. J'Rahsa spoke.
"Zanozi. Hello. Success?" J'Rahsa was known for his bluntness.
"No, your highness." Zanozi prepared for the rebuke.
"Well then. Are we having a problem?" J'Rahsa asked sarcastically.
"No. Not at all."
"Very well. I expect his head in my lap by two weeks from now! Do it, or you will have failed a Prophet." J'Rahsa's image went out.
Zanozi shuddered. Failing a Prophet, the mortal beings closest to the Covenant's gods, meant that for him there would be no everlasting paradise for him when he died. It was a Covenant's worst fear. He squeezed himself out of the seat, and walked to his "quarters",which were nothing more then a bed. It was at least better then the crew and underlings. He slept until the Phantom docked with its mothership. He was woken by his lieutenant, and left to his quarters.
Meanwhile, Chuck and the rest were being hauled off to separate interrogation rooms. In each there was a bed that was inclined to a 60 degree angle. There the person being interrogated would be placed and drugged. Also there was a few seats for the scientists and interrogators. The rooms were arrayed in a circle, so that observers, located in a central, circular room, could see all of the rooms by just turning. Chuck, Fox, Merker, O' Conner, and Martez were strapped in. They all were being prepared for the interrogation, when the Elite administering the drugs to Martez pointed something out to his commander. Martez was instantly unstrapped and hauled away. Everyone else though, was interrogated. With their condition alone, none of them could have withstood the interrogation, which bordered on torture. Add the drugs into the equation and they all either passed out or were taken away before any good information could have been gotten out of them.
Zanozi, now refreshed, walked into the room which held the observers of the interrogation. He tapped the chief interrogator on the shoulder.
"What information have we gotten?"
"None, sir. All the humans could say anything in their state. One of them was "special" and couldn't be interrogated."
"Damn. Will there be another try?"
"Not soon. That is as much as I can say, sir."
"Tell me when you have a date set." Zanozi walked out of the room. He suddenly remembered he had unfinished business. He ran to the communications room and contacted General Wayne.
"What?" Wayne was in view.
"It is me, Zanozi."
Wayne ran into view and sat down. "Did you retrieve them?"
"Yes. Well, all but one. It seems that the one you call.......Master Chief, he was not with them. I am sorry to......" Wayne cut him off.
"He wasn't there. He was ordered to New Mombasa before they left."
It took all of Zanozi's willpower to keep his face straight. "Ah......well, then I guess there is no worries."
"Great. When can we expect them back?
Zanozi hesitated. He was a fool for not expecting that. "Soon. We are quite far away from your base, as you should understand. We are also low on fuel. There is a base nearby, and it will take a day for re-fueling."
Wayne's face stayed impassive. "Ok." He closed the line. Zanozi breathed a sigh of relief.
**********************************
On the other side of the line, Wayne was furious. He picked up his phone and angrily dialed three numbers.
An intelligence officer picked up the phone in his office. "292"
"This is Wayne. What's the information on the tracker?"
The officer looked at the screen in front of him. "Heading is 220.........."
Wayne cut him off. "Is there a base in that path?"
"No sir, the nearest one is behind them."
"Fuel?"
"Full, sir."
"Shit." Wayne hung up the phone. He had been had.
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