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Shadows of Archon II (part 2) - A Night on the Town
Posted By: Wado<wyamauchi@msn.com>
Date: 20 August 2002, 10:51 am
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The Earth is in ruins. Every major metropolitan area destroyed -- New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, the list goes on... The Covenant High Command initiates Operation Lucifer's Hammer. Millions of Covenant dropships blacken the skies over the last strongholds of human kind -- Their mission, search and destroy.
In a small village, a lone Spartan limps as he enters a stone house filled with refuges. A wounded UNSC marine, badly burned on his right side says to the Spartan, "Master Chief, where were you, we needed you. You're too late now. Damn you to hell sir. You killed us all."
"Noooooooooooooooooo!"
------------------------------------------------
John wakes in a cold sweat. He throws off his wet blanket, "lights on, what time is it?"
As the lights turn on and a computerized voice states the time, there is knocking at the door. A womanly figure enters. It is Cat wearing a thin semi-transparent blue outfit shaped to the curves of her body. The outfit lightly hovers on her body, barely making contact with her skin. It has no straps or seams or any other visible way that it could stay on her, but it does.
Cat speaks, "John, I felt you in distress and then I heard you screaming. What happened?" She moves closer and sits next to him.
John, shivering from the cold, "Cat, I had another one of those dreams. Tell me again why I can't go back to Earth."
Cat, "There are many things in this vast universe, as it stands now, that neither you nor I will ever understand. All we can do is trust our hearts to do the right thing and have faith. That is the Archonian way. However, you have the seed of the Great Experiment in you. As an Archonian sleeper you can use both logic and your heart to make choices. Often a sleeper's mind and heart seem in conflict, but deep inside you can find them in agreement. Look deep inside yourself and tell me what we should do." She lies next to him on the bed, stretching her body out like a frisky feline.
John gets up and puts on a robe, in his mind his thoughts are twisted. He tries to no avail to come up with anything.
Cat stands next to him, places her soft hand under his robe and on his bare chest. Softly speaking she says, "Relax John, when the time is right, it will come."
Relaxing is the last thing on John's mind. Her touch is delightful. Her sweet scent fills his lungs. John puts one hand on hers, slowly runs his other hand through her soft red hair. John whispers, "Cat, I..."
"Shhh! Not yet." Cat interrupts him. Then her eyes start to glow and her hand gets very warm. John feels her hand enter inside his chest, but it doesn't hurt. John looks down to see that she is buried almost to her elbow in him -- John is totally freaked out.
John pulls away, "What the, the hell." His breathing is short and erratic.
Cat, "Did you not want to join with me John?" In between her words she grins.
"Well, yes, but no, crap Cat what did you do?" John says as he splashes cool water on his face. Then it snaps into his head -- A sudden realization. His path is clear."
Cat says with a smile on her face, "Goody it worked. Sometimes a good shock to system is all it takes." She claps her hands with joy.
For a moment, the sleeper inside awakes. John says, "It's a trap. If I go back to Earth now, the unseen enemy will be waiting for me. They expect me to go directly to Earth. If we go the way of the portals to the Heart of Darkness, we will go on a path the unseen enemy can't defend against. From the Heart of Darkness we will have the power to do anything or undo anything if that is the case. The path won't be unguarded, it won't be easy, but it just might work."
Cat says, "And John, how do we go the way of the portals?" She moves closer to John and grasps onto his robe.
John replies, "I must lead the way, there are things a sleeper can see that others can't. We will have a team accompany me through the portals. At each portal location there will be a sign of some type to point us to the next destination." As he speaks, John moves a few steps way from Cat, his robe comes untied and falls off.
"Will we all travel by portal, what about the ships?" Cat says as she tosses John's robe on to the bed.
John says, "Cat, since you are an Archon, you can pilot my ship Destiny's Blade. After the team's location is transmitted through the portal, you will use Destiny's Blade to create a stargate and travel to us. We will repeat this as many times as necessary until we reach the Heart of Darkness."
John moves to the bed to get his robe but as he bends forward the side seam on his underpants rips completely. He instinctively holds his underpants on with both hands. Cat is playing with a small knife that she hides away in a wristband.
From across the room, "Very good plan John," says a lady's voice from the shadows.
John calmly says, "I didn't hear you come in my Lady." As he backs away and wraps his robe around his waist.
"I never left," the Lady replies. Then she steps out of the shadows and says, "That's Nomdian humor. Your door was left wide open and you seemed very preoccupied. Seemed like the opportune time to use stealth."
"Please," says Cat, "you made so much noise I could have calibrated a sonic sensor on you from the next room in my sleep." She moves so that both John and the Lady are in her line of sight, seemingly no longer interested in the game she was playing with John. She adds, "That's Archonian humor, by the way."
John feels more relaxed now. He looks into a mirror, "Almost as good as one of your plans, huh Max?"
Cat, "Who's Max, John?"
John, "A friend of mine I met on Medusa. He sure was a dandy at making plans. Some of them backfired on us, but we always seemed better off afterwards. I sure wish he were here with us now. And that Croaker too, old geezer of a reptile."
The Lady speaks, "Tell us about your adventures on Medusa."
[Alert light goes off on John's comm.]
Incoming message, "We need help, grunt down..."
John says to the ladies, "Some other time, looks like there's trouble." John moves to retrieve his comm.
As John and group move out, we move back to earlier in the night, in the mining town of Can Can.
------------------------------------------------
A Night on the Town
In an open roofed large dining hall, the crowd chants, "Chuga, chuga, chuga, whoo!" Two figures sit opposite of each other, one a large Covenant hunter, the other a sharply dressed grunt in uniform. Full goblets of some brown liquid litter the table before them. Over two dozen damaged goblets lie about the floor around them.
The over muscled hunter finishes his drink and slowly says, "Ya, Gunter pumped up now. Reminds-th me of the old days-ss in the Corp." The hunter holds up a plasma pistol, waives it around as the crowd tries to duck out of its line of fire. Awkwardly he then throws his empty goblet in the air over 4 meters high and shoots it with his plasma pistol. The shot burns a hole through the metal goblet. Thud, the damaged goblet hits the ground.
The grunt takes his pick of full globets, then chugs it down to the chanting of the crowd. He says, "Gunter the Hunter, I never knew you ever served, I thought you have always been a smuggler." The grunt then tosses up his empty goblet and shoots one shot at it. Instead of a goblet, a tube hits the ground -- the shot burned a perfect hole through the bottom. The crowd is silent, then cheers.
The hunter grabs a full goblet and swallows its contents in one big gulp. In a slurred voice he says, "Zax, I tell you, Gunta do what necessss-sss-s... to ss-vive. I was-ss in 20 years. Bad heart, had to leav-th." He then throws up his plasma pistol and tries to shoot it with the empty goblet. Thud, hunter passes out flat on his face. The crowd cheers.
The grunt staggers to his feet and says, "Gunter, it's time to get you home, call it a night."
Outside, Gunter the Hunter, Sub-commander Zax, and Alpha Squad all stagger through the streets of Can Can. The night air is cool and the streets are empty.
Squad leader Deetz says, "Sir, something doesn't feel right. Even the rats aren't out tonight." Deetz taps his men, a signal to be alert.
Zax looks around and says, "Deetz, call for our ride out of here while I bring Gunter into his house, two grunts cover me." Gunter leans on Zax as they go towards a building.
Gunter says, "Zax, stop, my guards aren't here, them slackers. Did I ever tell you that there's a price on your head? Ya, those two assassins you killed last time you were in town belonged to the Needler Gang."
Incoming message on the comm, "We need help, grunt down..."
Deetz, "Sir our backup is pinned down by sniper fire, I recommend we find better cover and sit this one out. Help is on the way."
Zax, "Too late Deetz, everyone stay down, on my signal only, head for Gunter's home full speed. Gunter get out of here while you can."
Several groups of cloaked figures come out of stone houses around the complex of buildings. Each holding a needler or two -- More than a hundred of them in all. An unseen leader among them shouts, "You die tonight, no one messes with the Needler Gang and lives! Death by a thousand needles! Ha, ha, ha!"
Zax, "It's me they want, what are you waiting for Gunter, get out of here." Gunter looks at his home with hesitation in his eyes.
Deetz, "Sir they're not firing at us, the path is clear, let's make a break for the house."
Zax, "No Deetz. It's a trap isn't it Gunter?"
Gunter looks around, "I don't know Zax, but things aren't right. Them Neddlers never do anything on the up and up."
Out of the corner of his eye, Zax spots an open path to some swampland some 100 meters away. Covering his mouth he says, "Gunter, don't look, keep it on the by, but how deep is the water over there?"
Gunter covers his mouth and whispers, "The reservoir is about 1 to 2 meters deep."
Zax, "Everyone, lighten your load, we run for our lives. On my GO run like you never have before to the water. Everyone get your mark." Zax then throws a single plasma grenade through the window of Gunter's home.
Boom! BOOM! BOOOM! Multiple explosions go off. Then one huge blast shakes the ground as Gunter's home is propelled off the ground in many pieces.
Zax, "GO! Go, go, go!"
They all run for the water, throwing a few grenades at the thugs and firing off random shots on the way. Hundreds of glowing red needles fly towards them. The squad forgets about cover fire and just breaks into a full out sprint, running for their dear lives.
As the squad dives under the water some needles explode above them. One of the squad, grunt Ront and the over-muscled Gunter are the slowest. They aren't going to make it. A few needles explode and Ront goes down. Gunter tries to throw Ront in the water but he is hit with needles also.
Deetz and Zax head back and dive under the needles, causing the needles to explode on some nearby plant life. Deetz grabs Ront and Zax grabs Gunter. They all dive into the water just before a second wave of needles can reach them.
They wade out to the middle of the reservoir. As more needles come, they dive under the water for cover. The sure shots of the squad take out any of the Needler Gang that ventures too close to the water.
The stand off lasts for five more minutes, then the silent hum of Destiny's Blade is heard. Followed by a stiff downward breeze. As the ship comes out of cloak, its hull radiates with light. Out shoots thousands of small energy balls that strike at the Needler Gang like a world champion boxer's knockout punch.
With fractured bones and cracked exoskeletons, the Needler Gang withdraws taking their dead with them.
Gunter and the squad are sucked up into Destiny's Blade.
[The ship enters back into cloak, disappears completely in a strong breeze that sends a wake through the water below.]
-- Next, The Journey Begins --
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