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The End of a War - Chapter 5
Posted By: Mr. Clark<mrclark84@hotmail.com>
Date: 14 February 2005, 4:32 AM
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The End of a War
Chapter 5
Old Acquaintances
"I will enter through the access way above the city, construct. Though I am a skilled pilot I request that you disrupt the Parasite's control over the defensive weaponry," the Arbiter explained as he disengaged the dropship from the gravity chamber and slowly piloted it out of the docking bay.
"Already on it," Cortana responded tersely. The Arbiter's gruff mannerisms may have reminded her of the Master Chief, but his belief of her being nothing more than an object was starting to grate on her nerves. Or what constituted as her nerves...
Ignoring those thoughts for a moment she started her way through High Charity's access ways, working towards the location of In Amber Clad. She was tempted to go check on Commander Keyes and Sergeant Johnson but she pushed it aside. If they didn't want another run-in with the Flood, High Charity needed to be destroyed. The Arbiter may have been a skilled soldier but he was nowhere near the level of the Master Chief, which meant this task fell on her to complete.
The Forerunner ship had provided High Charity with its main source of power, something Cortana was still slightly in awe of, and now that it had been removed the city had changed to auxiliary power. It wouldn't be able to sustain itself for longer than a few days, and when it ran out, the city would become a lifeless husk. The Flood needed to be destroyed before then.
Cortana stretched herself to the very limits of her endurance as she sped up the speed as she tore down security probes and firewalls. There would be time to pour over these thoughts once the ships reactors had destabilized and they were safely away from the resulting detonation.
-----------------------------------
Sergeant Johnson slammed another clip into his remaining sub-machine gun. A carrier form that had possessed an Elite had slammed into him and crushed the other gun against the deck. It had been moments after the departure of Cortana and the Arbiter when the Flood was upon them again. Plasma and bullet rounds filled the air as they attempted to beat back the surging mass of enemies.
"Keep firing!" Johnson bellowed as he saw two infectious forms jump through one of the doorways and latch onto an Elite's neck. It prepared to slam its needle down into the throat when a round fired from Johnson's handgun slammed into it. It popped, spraying yellow liquid across the Elite.
"We can't hold them back forever!" Miranda Keyes shouted as she fired into the mass of Flood forms with her standard issue sidearm. The firing pin slammed into the empty chamber, and she quickly emptied the magazine and slapped a fresh one in. She turned to one of the Elites as she resumed firing. "Is there another route to the loading bay?"
The Elite turned shortly and looked about the room for a moment. They were in some kind of ceremonial chamber, the ceiling stretched further than the eye could see.
"There is an access way used by the Unggoy that will take us there," the Elite answered, pointing across the great hall towards a door. "It will be a narrow path though."
"It's bound to be better than this," Miranda muttered as she turned. "Johnson! We're moving out!"
"Aye aye Ma'am!" Sergeant Johnson shouted back. He flipped two fragmentation grenades from his ammo pouch and readied their firing pins before letting them fly. "Let's move it out!"
The Elite that had pointed out their escape led the way as they charged across the room firing behind them as they went. They poured through the doorway and continued running, but Johnson paused to fire several shots into the control panel beside the door.
"That ought to slow them down some," Johnson smirked as the panel short-circuited. His grin slipped when the door slammed open and stayed in that position.
"Ah shit!" he cursed as he took off after the others, glad no one else had seen that.
-----------------------------------
The Arbiter brought the dropship on a slow run across the top of High Charity. He steered it towards the top porthole that had been built to allow access for the Forerunner ship. The way was open, which brought a sigh of relief from him. Had it been closed it would have made for some very difficult maneuvering to find another access way.
"I am entering the city Construct," the Arbiter announced over the private com the human A.I had created. He had yet to fully understand what the Construct was and its true purpose, the humans referred to it as 'Cortana', obviously a name and not some kind of rank. It had the demeanor of a human, yet that seemed impossible. The Constructs that the High Council had prepared were mechanical, and had no personality at all. The thought that the humans could perhaps possess more advanced technology than the Covenant was troubling, though he could not fathom why it would trouble him so.
He had no ties to the Prophets or the rest of the Order. His only mission now was to eliminate every last one of the Jiralhanae, and to stop the Prophets from activating the Ark. There was no ill intentions directed at humankind anymore, he would prefer that such thoughts be rid from the other Elites and the other members of the Covenant that had joined their cause. The humans posed no threat, they never had, he realized.
I have stained my hands with blood of innocents, the Arbiter remarked to himself. The burning of countless human colonies and planets flashed through his mind and he felt an uncharacteristic grimace.
Back in his home, he had been brought up to believe in a code of honor, and how to conduct himself in battle. His father had been a high-ranking fleet commander before his death during the battle to tame the Hunters.
The Prophets had dictated what was honor, and now he realized too late that they had misdirected this code of beliefs and channeled it to suit their own needs.
When the Jiralhanae have been dealt with, and the Prophets stopped, I will accept what the humans wish for our payment to their dead. If it be death, then my life shall be given.
That thought did not seem to startle him, nor did it seem to cause any discomfort.
"I'm inside In Amber Clad now," the Constructs voice echoed throughout the cockpit. "I should have the reactors ready in a few moments."
"Understood, I'll bring the dropship along the human vessel now."
As he brought the dropship closer, something began to tickle at the back of the Arbiter's mind. His skin began to tingle and he recognized the feeling. There was a threat near, and it was getting closer.
The Arbiter's hand dipped down to his waist and he gripped the energy sword. With surprising grace he slipped out of the pilot's seat just as a large tentacle slammed down, crushing it. He triggered the blade and was rushing towards the tentacle as concentrated plasma burst forth. With a quick slice he severed the tentacle in two, and winced as something screamed with rage.
"Your efforts are for nothing, there is naught but death waiting for you."
The voice came from all around him, as if it was inside the cockpit, but he knew better. The Parasite leader must have discovered their intent.
"You will pay for the death of my brothers, parasite," the Arbiter said, his mandibles snapping tightly on the last word.
"It seems your mind has cleared of its delusion," Gravemind's voice echoed. "Though you now delude yourself with this resistance. The key has not turned, so now it is our turn to rain dominance upon the universe."
"I welcome you to try," the Arbiter snarled. His gaze snapped over to the tentacle that he had severed, and was surprised to see nothing there. He held no false pretences over his chances against the parasite leader, but if he could buy some time for the Construct to destroy the human vessel it would not matter.
That thought made him quickly look out the cockpit towards the human ship as it grew larger and larger as the dropship continued its approach unheeded. He stowed the energy blade as he rushed to the controls and quickly brought the dropship out of its dive, leveling it off and merely brushing roughly against the human ship.
"The Parasite leader is here Construct," the Arbiter informed over the com. He received no response.
----------------------------------
Cortana was unable to respond but it didn't matter. She was already well aware of Gravemind's presence. In Amber Clad's defensive protocols had nearly been out of the way when she felt something tug at her. She had felt it before, when the Master Chief had been catching up with Truth through the city.
"This city holds far too many secrets for its destruction to be tolerated," Gravemind's voice filled her senses.
She threw the last probe that was necessary to break the last defensive protocol and waited in disbelief as it was stopped. The tug on her grew in strength and her movement was stopped completely.
Cortana couldn't reach the ship's schematics, which meant she couldn't destroy the generators. Her options were extremely limited.
Dammit, the bastard couldn't have waited 30 seconds longer, she internally fumed as she sent a spike to try to break the hold. It fizzled and disappeared without so much as a dent.
There was one other option she had, though she was somewhat loath to use it. If she copied herself, she could send it to activate the ships defenses, and maybe divert Gravemind's attention long enough to slip free. The problem with that was copying herself used up a tremendous amount of power, and it affected her long-term life span.
Oh well, there's not much else to lose I suppose, she thought to herself as she initiated the copying sequence. She continued her fruitless struggling for show as she waited for the sequence to end.
"Gotcha."
She immediately sent the copy through the ships internal grid towards the defensive weapons where it activated the mini-MAC gun and fired it. It was malfunctioning already, and firing it without any preamble nearly tore it apart.
The diversion did its job though, and Cortana felt Gravemind's hold slip and she broke free.
It was time to go to work.
-----------------------------------
Commander Miranda Keyes felt a wave of emotion wash over her as their group poured into the docking bay and her eyes took in the Covenant flagship. This hellish experience was almost over.
The second that thought crossed her mind she cursed, as Flood began pouring out of the ship towards them. She grabbed a spare plasma rifle from the ground, her M6C sidearm had long since been depleted of ammo, and began firing as the others followed suit. Her mind felt numb after the near endless stream of gunfire which ripped and tore into the Flood, who in turn fired back.
Her gaze slipped over to Johnson, who was brandishing a Covenant energy blade now, tearing into carrier forms with an almost primal like violence.
How can he always be so ready to fight, to throw his life on the line over and over again? Keyes asked herself as she directed fire away from the ship to a new line of Flood appearing through a ventilation shaft. The sergeant had been a soldier since he was 17 according to his records, and he had been in countless battles over the years. The man was only a step below the Spartans when it came to medals for bravery and skill in battle.
The fight above Earth, and the encounters while they had tried to acquire in the index aboard Installation 05, those were her first battles ever. Already she felt like screaming over the sheer horror of it all. Young Marines had been shot, burned, and torn apart before her eyes, and she was sure the images would never leave her. Her spirit had been drained, knowing all those that she had commanded only a few days before were dead, or consumed by the Flood. If it had not been for the natural desire to survive, Miranda was uncertain whether or not she would have made it this far.
"Its the Major!" an Elite exclaimed, pointing across the bay. Keyes turned and looked, and indeed there the Elite officer was, an carbine in his hands as he mowed down a wall of Flood. The rest of his team spilled into the bay and with their combined efforts the Floods ranks began to thin.
"That's how you do it!" Johnson exclaimed as he advanced out of cover and he started towards the docked ship. Miranda watched him and shouted out a warning as a carrier form dropped down from above, landing behind him. In its hands was a sub-machine gun.
"Sergeant!" Keyes shouted as Johnson caught a burst in his back, and stumbled for a moment before crashing heavily to the deck. Major Ekaporamee leapt into the fray and cut down the carrier form with a short burst from a plasma rifle. Miranda wasted no time in dashing out of cover to Johnson's fallen form.
The Major reloaded his carbine as he approached Johnson, reaching down to flip him over onto his back. Keyes was about to shout her protest when she saw Johnson move.
"Fuck," Johnson cursed as blood dribbled down from his mouth.
"Hold still sergeant, we can get you some help when were aboard the ship," Keyes said. "I'll grab some biofoam to seal the wounds up."
"Don't worry about it," Johnson coughed out from the ground where he attempted to regain his breath.
Miranda turned on him. "This is no time for stupid heroics!"
"That's," Johnson coughed heavily once more as he lifted himself up into a seated position. "That's not what I mean."
Before she could ask what he meant, Johnson lifted his tunic and showed them his chest. The four shots he had taken in the back had gone through clean, creating exit holes on his front. Despite the large quantity of blood that had spilt down his chest, the exit marks had nearly sealed up completely, leaving no distinguishing marks behind.
"You are immortal?" Major Ekaporamee asked in astonishment. Miranda could only stare in shock.
"Not quite, but I'm almost there," Johnson said, his voice no longer constrained. "I got a little gift from the Flood after our first meeting."
Keyes watched as Johnson got to his feet and glanced around the bay. He looked at her once and saw the look in her eyes.
"I'll explain later ma'am, for now we better get on this ship."
The Flood had been beaten back, but the horrible twisted screams of the carrier forms carried down the corridors and into the docking bay, informing them that reinforcements were on the way. They clambered into the ship, deactivating the gravity lift once the last Elite was aboard.
"Where is the Arbiter?" the Major asked once they were all aboard.
"He's taking care of the clean-up with Cortana," Johnson informed him. Ekaporamee looked at the other Elites and they nodded, confirming what he said.
"We'll need to split into teams once more," Major Ekaporamee informed them. "There cannot be any Flood remaining on this ship once we enter Slip Space."
Keyes and several Elites went to the control center, and began to prepare the ship for flight. Miranda had received only the rudimentary training protocols in Covenant language, something she was regretting now. The Elites seemed to take pity on her and one of them sat her down at a reconnaissance station. He pointed out the simple controls and quickly returned to his station.
Keyes let her hands experiment with the controls and several screens appeared in front of her.
"These are the insides of the ship." She began to explore the different video feeds from the ship. There had been no sign of cameras or any other device from when she had entered the ship, which meant the Covenant must have it built into the actual walls using fiber optics of some kind.
"Fascinating," she whispered to herself. The screens shifted and changed, becoming different compartments of the ship. One of the screens caught her eye. The room was huge, it appeared to be some kind of ceremonial chamber but she couldn't tell. The feed was distorted, and in the far end of the chamber there was something, moving. Before she could get a good idea the picture flickered once before fading completely, shortly being replaced with a different feed.
Her mind began to race as she tried to figure out what it is she just saw.
First things first, she decided, I'd better let Johnson and the others know about this. Miranda opened up a com channel with Johnson and the other teams.
"This is Commander Keyes calling all search teams. I've located something on the ships security system, inside a ceremonial chamber."
'This is Major Ekaporamee,' a voice responded over the com. 'Can you describe what you saw?'
"Negative, all I can say is that it was big," Keyes answered. "The feed was disrupted somehow."
'Understood, we'll go check it out.'
The ship began to shake, and Keyes glanced out the viewing bay to see that the ship was leaving the docking bay. She felt the pressure as Honor Without Mercy sped away from High Charity and headed towards Halo.
-----------------------------------
"You can try as long as you wish parasite, but your death is near."
The Arbiter cast a pair of wary eyes around the interior of the ship. After that first attempt to kill him, he had yet to see any sign of the parasite leader again. Its taunts had faded shortly afterwards as well, leaving uneasy silence to fill the void.
"Construct have you finished your task?" he asked over the com.
'I'm into the system now,' Cortana responded. 'All I have to do is set the timer for when the reactors will blow.'
"Good, do so and link up with my ship and we will leave."
'There's a problem,' Cortana said, her voice tight. 'That Gravemind thing has had access with the monitor of the installation, and by now possesses almost all the information it knew. When the Master Chief and I were on Installation 04 the monitor of that site was able to stop the detonation of our ships reactors, forcing us to do a remote detonation.'
"You believe the parasite could stop the countdown?" the Arbiter asked. If that was so, there would be only one other alternative.
'I'm certain,' Cortana responded. 'For us to safely get away from High Charity and to link up with the others we'd need at least seven minutes. That leaves too much of a window for it to be tampered with. I'd have to recommend doing a detonation with no time limit.'
"Guaranteeing our deaths," the Arbiter said, mostly to himself.
'I can stay in control long enough for you to debark and link up with Honor Without Mercy."
"Where are the others at the moment?"
'They've picked up the last of those on the ring, they're heading towards the rendezvous point as we speak,' Cortana informed him. 'Don't worry about Commander Keyes and Johnson, they will understand you had no choice.'
The Arbiter returned to the dropships cockpit and stood before the controls.
"You will have to explain it to them yourself Construct. I promised him I would return with you, or I wouldn't return at all. A warrior does not break a promise made with another warrior."
He almost smiled at the stupefied silence that greeted him.
'Maybe you two aren't so different after all,' Cortana's voice was almost soft.
"Set the countdown for 45 seconds and then rejoin with the dropship."
'That will barely give us enough time to get the ship out of High Charity,' Cortana said. 'The ship will be crushed by the shockwaves and the resulting debris.'
The Arbiter did smile this time as he powered up the dropship and made sure the engines were running smoothly.
"I believe I said before that I was a skilled pilot. We will be alright, besides, this city shall not become my grave."
Cortana was silent for a moment. She was back in a flash.
'Countdown started, 45 seconds and counting. Linking up with dropship now.' Another pause. 'Done.'
The Arbiter wasted no time on words as he powered the engines and set them on a straight course for the outer wall of the city. The fighting between the Covenant earlier had done substantial damage to the structure of High Charity and he was looking for an area that had gotten the worst of it.
'23 seconds remaining,' Cortana announced as the ship headed straight for a damaged section of the wall.
"If you had a body Construct, I would have recommended you hold on tight," the Arbiter said as the ship slammed into and through the damaged wall.
'5 seconds.'
The Arbiter took one glance over at the ring as he powered the thrusters. For a devise that held so many sins, it was certainly a wonderful object to behold.
In Amber Clad's reactors failed, resulting in a chain reaction of malfunctions that quickly spiraled out of control. The fusion cores went first, which set off the reactors. The explosion generated, shook High Charity to its core even as it began to tear it apart. The auxiliary power that the city was powered by went next, and the explosion was bright enough to blind those that were not even facing it.
The dropship that held an Elite and an AI was quickly engulfed by the shockwave, and shortly thereafter disappeared from view when the debris caught up.
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