Deus Ex Machina: Episode 10 – "Take it Back!" Part 1
It seemed as though only a moment had passed from when Jon shut his eyes. He was after all only going to blink to try and clear his vision. He was feeling run-down and very cold at that moment and his vision was starting to blur. So he blinked but when he re-opened his eyes, he was in a completely different place yet a very familiar one too. A quick examination of his surroundings suggested he was lying down and that there was no one else in the room. He sat up, only to be overcome by searing pain but he fought against it. He then heard the door open, and turned to face the direction of the noise only to see Karl walk through.
"Well I guess you could say it's been a while since you were, hasn't it?" he said as he closed the door behind him.
Yeah…I guess," replied Jon.
"Let me say one thing before we begin…you are one lucky son of a bitch," said Karl as he pulled up a chair. "You were expected to bleed out, before the end of the day…but somehow…the biofoam patched you up. You'll be just fine so long as you don't see any combat which…might be difficult today."
Jon perked up. "What? How long was I out for?"
"About six hours," replied Karl. "But a lot happened in that short timeframe…you see-"
"Karl, we're deploying in five," interrupted Jack; the pilot of the hornet.
"Ok thanks," replied Karl.
That got Jon's attention. "Karl…how far have the covenant come along?" he asked, now fully aware of what was going on.
"There's no easy way to say it so I'll just say it…they over-ran the city defense perimeter and almost the entire outer residential sector. While their infantry are mopping up what's left, the aerial units have begun bombarding the rest of the city and the large, empty spaces where people may be hiding. Making matters worse is that there's an armored convoy carrying a huge bomb pushing right into the business district onward to the mall where the rest of the UNSC has set up shop. If they nail the mall, it's over.
Jon looked at him with absolute horror. "…and we're doing…what about this exactly?" he asked perplexed.
"Relax Jon, all of us here are gathering whatever strength we have to go and help defend the city…don't know how much good we can do but we have to do something."
"Karl, come on!" yelled Jack.
"Ok, be right there! Listen…we'll talk later when I get back," said Karl returning to Jon.
"No! Take me with you!" said Jon trying to get up.
"Hey, easy!" replied Karl trying to push him back down.
"Take me with you!" shouted Jon.
"Are you nuts? Have you taken a look at yourself lately?"
"I don't care, I want to fight!" asserted Jon.
"Jon, listen to me. You're in no condition to fight. You won't be able to do anything. You'll only end up dying needlessly!"
"But I have to go!" Jon retorted.
"Why? Why die like this?" Karl asked.
"Because I know who's behind all this; the invasion, the robot attack, everything. I'll know he'll be there," said Jon.
Karl paused, giving Jon an uncertain look.
"Look…" began Jon. "I've done virtually no good in recent weeks. I started off by accidently killed a kid because I was so trigger happy, went on a rampage to boot causing even more destruction…I…I let my best and only friend left in the world die…" At this point, Jon was fighting back tears. Just the thought of those moments were enough to rip him apart on the inside.
"I know humanity really has no chance of winning this war but even at that I don't wanna die hiding like a coward. I've done enough hiding lately and I'm sick of it. Besides, you and I both know the covenant won't stop until they butcher every last one of us. Even if I can't do much, I at least want to die knowing I helped defend our existence. I actually want to believe I made something of a difference, even if I really didn't. If nothing else…just allow me to watch humanity's final stand. It won't matter where we are if we lose, we'll all die anyway. You know it, I know it, we all know it."
Karl contemplated what Jon just told him. It was true. There would be no more resisting if they lost this battle. Even if he left Jon here, the covenant would find this place and destroy it brick by brick. He took a deep breath and started directly into Jon's eyes.
"Alright…I'll allow you to come with us," he said. Before Jon could reply, Karl stopped him. "One condition: When we get there, you find a safe place and you stay there. You don't fight unless it's absolutely necessary…I've lost so many people important to me over the years through pretty much everything; drugs, crime, you name it…and whether you believe it or not you're a hero to everyone here. I don't wanna lose our last beacon of hope to just because he feels completely inadequate and wants to play hero," he said sternly.
"Wait here…gotta get some morphine…" said Karl as he walked out of the room.
As the door shut behind him, there were a million thoughts racing through his mind but he was only able to utter two simple words.
"Thank you"
Salvation City, 30 minutes later
In the past six hours, thing had gone from bad to worse at an alarming rate. Falling back into the outer sector of the city after a long grueling fight where the few privileged had set up shop, the covenant wasted no time in laying waste to the area. Attempts to conduct guerilla counter-strikes to slow them down or hold the inner city perimeter failed with numerous civilians paying the price.
That's not to say the covenant hadn't taken a few losses of their own. The battle of the defense perimeter was no easy victory for the covenant. A third of the banshees had been shot down and almost all the covenant scouting parties had met the most unlucky of fates at the hands of M41 guns from the remaining Warthogs. Since they had been coming through rocky, jagged terrain, getting vehicles through was almost a chore and the ghost's fast movement was almost a hindrance, leading to the destruction of much of the alien's vehicle power. Despite this, the Sangheili were simply stronger, faster and far more resilient than the marines due to their biology. Sporting a double set of pectoral muscles and being raised as a warrior since birth, one of them was easily worth three marines and being outnumbered from the start didn't help either. The Sangheili did take losses but their numbers were measly compared to human losses.
Overall, the battle didn't go well for the humans. The UNSC had lost at least 60% of their remaining men and were only able to hold the defense perimeter for a measly two hours before being forced to fall back into the downtown part of the city itself. Prefab fortifications were hastily built inside the city's mall and with that, Captain Roy Griffiths and his surviving crew of a few hundred marines prepared to make their last stand against the alien menace. They had built roadblocks, set up AA guns, dug trenches, fortified enclosed buildings, placed whatever snipers they had left in critical locations but they all knew it wouldn't be enough. It was only a matter of time before the covenant destroyed the mall and whatever chain of command was left.
The battle began mainly by air: Banshees flew around harassing entrenched marines, going one on one with the AA guns and hitting any high-rise buildings…one of them being the mayor's office. Before long, many of the high-rise building lay in ruins and numerous scorch marks, dead bodies and brass shells littered the landscape. To make matters worse, a single armored convoy was moving right into the heart of the city headed directly for the mall consisting of two wraiths in the front escorted by ghosts and anti-air wraiths in the back to ward off any hornets. That and they made practical ground combat vehicles too due to their rapid fire fuel-rod guns. In the middle however was the biggest threat of them all: A shadow carrying what looked like a bomb big enough to turn the entire city into a smoldering crater. That explained why there wasn't a mass charge of infantry or a horde of Locust walkers.
Still, something was odd about this. This whole set-up wasn't like the covenant. Normally they charged in en masse, butchering everyone by hand and sending in scores of walkers to rip apart all the buildings before the massive explosion. They savored every kill, took their time clearing out a city. Blowing everything up was the last step, not the first. These thoughts would have to wait though as Griffiths studied the screen. The main concern for now was clearing out the shadow's bodyguards and taking out the crew without setting off the bomb and given how few men he had left, the captain was down to only one option. If this didn't work, it was game over.
"Captain," came the voice of Fitzgerald over the com channel."We're in position sir, just say the word."
"Copy that Fitzgerald. Wait for my command," he replied.
Two snipers; one in a medium-rise apartment building and the other concealed in some foliage were in position to take out the driver and the gunner of the shadow. In addition to those two, the transport section carried four red-armored Sangheili, which were no doubt meant to ready the bomb and act as additional bodyguards. The bomb was being carried on the underbelly just below the transport seating. In order for this to work, the two snipers positioned on either side of the shadow had only one shot to take out the gunner and driver simultaneously. Then they would still have to act nearly inhumanly fast to take out all four passengers before they could get at the bomb and possibly set it off. There was no room for error. If even one of them missed a single shot, humanity's struggle for survival would be over.
Both snipers watched as the convoy came into view. First the ghosts came through, followed by the wraiths and finally, the shadow itself. Both marines locked on to their respective targets and waited for the signal. It was now or never.
"Fire!" ordered Griffiths.
Just as he gave the order, an explosion shook the apartment building, knocking the marine off balance just as he fired his gun. As bad karma would have it, the round instead found a new target: The head of the sniper opposite of him. Immediately, all four of the crew as well as the rest of the convoy scrambled to action. The now dead sniper's body in the foliage immediately fell out of cover, leading the majority of the covenant to turn their attention to the apartment building.
The Marine scrambled to his feet and what he saw was not the covenant forces waiting to turn him into a pile of vapor and ash, but the fellow comrade he had just accidently killed. Ironically, the only thought that passed through his mind was that he felt responsible for his friend's death and that he didn't deserve to live as the covenant made that a reality. Griffiths could only stare at the screen as he saw what had just taken place. That was it, his last ditch effort to save humanity. It was over, humanity was finished and the part that hurt the most was the knowledge that he had failed them all. He saw the crew scrambling toward the bomb, presumably to activate it and knew it was over.
"Captain! Orders?" screamed Fitzgerald. Griffiths could only stare and remain static.
Two banshees then swooped over-head, most likely a routine "Everything okay?" check. Then, just as the banshees passed over the convoy, one of them suddenly rammed into the other. Off came the cockpit ceiling like it was nothing and a red-armored Sangheili jumped onto the fellow banshee. He primed his sword and plunged it right into the purple metal. The banshee spun out of control and crash-landed two streets over.
"Captain…are we seeing things?" asked Fitzgerald.
"I…I don't think so…" replied Griffiths.
"Wait…turn your attention back to camera 2!" said Fitzgerald.
What he saw again shocked him beyond belief. From the screens point of view, the Sangheili crewman on the front right-side of the bomb lay dead with the crewman originally in the back right-side now gripping the gunner by the neck, his sword raised. It let out an uncanny screech before be-heading the gunner. The two crewmen on the left side looked at the other one with utter shock but before they could react, the Sangheili flipped over the gun onto their side before brandishing another energy sword. Two swords in hand, he rammed them right through the other crewmen's heads just as they spun around. Both dropped dead to the ground, killed instantly. The rogue alien then let out another screech and plunged both swords into the bomb itself. He quickly put both swords away and dislodged and item from the underbelly before jumping away as the bomb malfunctioned and let off a powerful crack as it exploded with tremendous force. This sudden, unexpected betrayal didn't give the shadow driver any chance in hell either.
While it didn't take the whole city with it, the bomb left a 10 meter wide, 2 meter deep crater in its wake. Again, even more puzzling as to how little damage the bomb did…until Fitzgerald came through on the com with almost nothing but static.
"Fitz, I can barely hear you, say again?" A long pause. He came back on the com again after about a minute, this time clearer.
"Is that better?" he asked.
"Yeah," replied Griffiths.
"Captain, there's a lot of electronic interference in the immediate area where the bomb detonated. I'm guessing it was a-"
"Jammer," interrupted Griffiths. "They were going to jam all our electronics so we couldn't coordinate effectively."
"Eh…not so much…judging by the explosion, it was more of an EMP bomb which detonated pre-maturely so only a small sector was wiped out. What we're experiencing right now are its after effects but they should dissipate quickly," said Fitzgerald.
"Yeah…but it makes no sense. Their technology is EMP shielded. They could detonate in the city with their forces here and it wouldn't have any effect on them either way," replied Griffiths.
The explosion reduced the shadow to ash and managed to take the bulk of the convoy with it. The two wraiths in front were unfortunately too close to the explosion and their back halves were caught in it, taking the rest of their vehicle bodies with them are their power cores self-destructed. The two escort ghost were flipped over with the driver's struggling to get out from underneath. The AA wraiths on the other hand were still operable. While the gunner's had been killed from the flying shrapnel, the driver's had been protected and were primed and ready to get some payback.
Just as they were about to make a move though, they heard another uncanny screech as one of the rogue Sangheili jumped over the hill where one of the marine snipers were. Wielding a gravity hammer, it brought the hammer down hard on the cockpit. The hammer struck with such force that the entire front end of the wraith literally split apart, purple blood running like a faucet out from the wreckage seconds later. Just as the other wraith turned to fire a shot, the second rogue alien latched onto it from behind as it plunged it's sword into the spinning disk in the back before jumping off. Its power core ruptured, the vehicle burst into a ball of brilliant white light a second later. The rogue aliens were then quick to finish off the ghost drivers who had only started to climb out of ghost's wreckage.
"Captain…what the hell are we supposed to do? Engage? Call out to them? What?" asked Fitzgerald regarding the rogue Sangheili.
The captain could do nothing but stare, speechless at what had just happened to the point that he hadn't even heard Fitzgerald's voice until he heard him make an order to engage the rogue aliens. His brain working again, he was just about to countermand the order when an unknown radio transmission broke through on all the com channels.
"Soldiers of the UNSC, hear this and take heed. This is Karl Doyle, leader of the former Salvation City resistance. Hold your positions against the covenant, help is on the way."
"Captain, we've got four unidentified human aircraft incoming," said one of the snipers over the com."
"Let them through, do not engage," he ordered. As he gave the order, four heavily modified hornets suddenly appeared on the horizon. Two swooped down onto different sections of the battlefield while the other two began firing missiles onto the edges of the city where platoons of Sangheili, previously unseen by the USNC forces, were waiting to charge en-masse. As the other two hornets touched the ground, resistance troops poured out of them and began engaging the Sangheili that had started the charge. Unfortunately, the ones that had started the charge were survivors of the platoons that had recently been bombarded by the hornets and in their current condition, were no match for the resistance fighters who were well-armed and ruthless. As the battle was underway, one final smaller hornet touched down near the mall behind UNSC protection.
"Thanks Jack. Keep the engines running just in case," said Karl as he, Jon and three bodyguards walked out. Two marines walked up to greet them.
"Christ I thought we were done for. Thank you whoever you are," said one of the marines.
"Thank me later, the battle isn't over yet…and I need to speak to your captain right away," replied Karl.
As the two marines began to usher him toward the command center, he turned to the rest of the group. "You two come with me. Jon, stay here," he said. Having remembered the agreement between the two, Jon said nothing and walked back into the hornet, too afraid to even show his face.
"Whoever you guys are, you sure are brave," said Griffiths as Karl walked into the command center.
"Yeah? Well what can we say? Neighbors wouldn't keep it down so we thought we'd see what was up. Anyways, don't worry about those two rogue Sangheili, they're friendly so far as we can tell."
"Yeah and you figure that how again?" asked Griffiths.
"Ever hear of a man named Leonard Phillips?" asked Karl
"Yeah, he used to be a scientist who worked for us. Left about five years ago and we never heard from him again," replied Griffiths.
"Well since you're wondering, he started working for a drug-lord named Derek Owen. Luck for him, he had a few covenant test subjects to work and those two are the result. I had worked with him for a period of time but when I saw what Owen was planning, I left and formed the resistance. Lucky for me, I had the recipe for the pheromone that controls them. So needless to say: They're under our control."
"Guess we got real lucky then," said Griffiths.
"I'd say so. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be of much help," replied Karl.
"Captain," came Fitzgerald. "There's another wave on the edge of the city. Much bigger than last time. Orders?"
Griffiths turned to Karl. "Any chance you can whip another hail of those missiles?"
"Afraid not, those were the only ones we had," replied Karl.
"Great…what about your little alien friends?" asked Griffiths.
"We still have a chance but we're in for a rough ride," said Karl. He then clicked on his com. "All of my guys, fall back and find some decent cover, we got another wave on the way. Hornets, get to safety, we can afford to lose any of you."
Back at the battle, the resistance members had just finished off the first wave with only two KIA's. As the second wave appeared on the horizon, they fell back into what few building were still standing on the outer edge of the business district, no time to fall back any further. As the second wave approached and the humans/decapitators moved into position, they suddenly stopped.
Everyone looked out at the scene bracing for any new tricks the covenant might try as the advancing covenant suddenly stopped as if literally frozen in their tracks. Then they all mysteriously turned around and looked to the sky as though they were being spoken to by a god. They began to walk in the other direction, away from the city. Within minutes they were out of sight.
"Fitzgerald…assessment," ordered Griffiths.
"Sir…they're all heading back toward the ship…infantry, vehicles, even aircraft. It's a full-scale withdrawal."
Griffiths turned toward Karl who merely shrugged.
"Orders captain?" asked Fitzgerald.
Griffiths paused for a minute trying to take in what just happened, unsure of whether or not it was a trick or if they actually were really retreating. The covenant never retreated, they made sure they killed and destroyed everything human before they left a battlefield leading him to believe that they were now planning to wipe them out from orbit but even that made no sense. They only took out a city from orbit when they had killed everything in it themselves. Orbital destruction was the last step, not something they resorted to in the middle of a fight. Still, he wasn't about to let the time they'd been given go to waste.
"Keep a recon team on the edges of the city. We've been given time so let's use it but we are still on high alert nonetheless. All personnel who are not on the recon team, fall back and regroup…god knows we need it."
1 hour later…
The surviving humans had spent the past hour doing whatever they could to prepare for the inevitable second wave of covenant. They gathered their wounded, rounded up ammunition, vehicles, etc, fortified the strongest standing structures, set up traps, defenses and did whatever they could to entrench themselves as far as possible into the still-standing parts of the city. Meanwhile, Doyle rounded up all of his men to discuss their next move when he was summoned by Griffiths.
"I think I speak on behalf of nearly all that's left of mankind when I say 'Thank you for your help.' Now…who the hell are you?" he said as Doyle walked off the main hornet.
"The time for sugar-coated words have passed, so I'll be blunt captain. We were the former salvation city 'Resistance' if you wanted to call it that, rebelling against the crime/drug syndicate led by a man named Derek Owen whom you refused to do anything about. Now I understand that you were dealing with fighting off an alien menace trying to destroy us all but a nice little police academy wouldn't have hurt," said Doyle.
"Fair enough," replied Griffiths. "Derek Owen? I didn't even know that bastard was still alive. I thought he died of insanity…shows you how well supervision is on our part…anyways, Doyle was it, maybe you can explain the day I'm having here, between the awkward tactics the covenant used, and their sudden full-scale retreat considering you guys and the rogue split-lips seem to be best buds," he said, referring to the Decapitators who were now mingling by the band of resistance members.
"Well there is an explanation of the latter three. Long story short: Owen hired a man named Leonard Phillips to do some freaky experiments on covenant crash-land survivors and the 'Decapitators' as they're called were the result, but he was killed recently by them because he didn't have the pheromone needed to control them prepared. Luckily we did have a few connections still, yes we used to be friends, and he gave me the recipe fearing that he couldn't complete it in time. So with those guys still locked in the compound, we had plenty of time to create the pheromone. As for the former two, I'm equally stumped," explained Doyle.
Griffiths was just about to reply when he spotted Jon walking out from behind one of the resistance's hornets. Jon stopped, noticing him but couldn't even bear to look him in the eye.
"You!" Griffiths almost yelled as he practically stormed toward Jon, making him cringe. He was cut off on his tirade about two steps in as Doyle stood between the two.
"Captain…respectfully we can deal with him later. We have far more pressing matters to deal with right now and I think going after him can wait," he said firmly.
Griffiths looked at Doyle hard for a minute but reluctantly backed off, knowing Doyle was right but still kept his eyes on Jon. "Continue…" he said after about a minute.
"Now just as I was about to bring him up, he was in our care for a time a ways back when he still held the status of hero. While he was in our care, we placed a distress signal in him that would active should his life signs ever get dangerously low. When we retrieved him, he passed out due to blood loss but kept rambling on about them. Sure enough, when we went back with the pheromone, we found them standing over a pile of covenant scouting parties. As long as we have this, they're completely harmless and will obey every order without question and we should use that to the fullest advantage if you ask me," finished Karl.
"Well that care of that I suppose…now the next I wanted to talk to you about was deciding what to do next but we should head into the command center. We can discuss matters in a much more secluded environment there," replied Griffiths.
Inside the command center, Griffiths, Fitzgerald and Doyle discussed their next move, all divided on what direction to go in. Griffiths had informed Doyle on everything that had happened before he had arrived to help, Doyle having already known of the Deus Ex Machina robot attack. Doyle had suggested attacking the covenant but Griffiths was for holding the city for as long as they could while Fitzgerald proposed sending out a scout team to determine the covenant's overall strength. Needless to say, the meeting wasn't going very well.
"Maybe you don't understand captain, we have nothing to defend. Hell I don't even think the Pillar of Autumn II exists anymore," said Doyle.
"Yeah? Ok then, you tell me where the covenant are gathered," shot back Griffiths.
"Captain, that's why I suggest we send out a scout party and-"
"Negative lieutenant," interrupted Griffiths over Fitzgerald. "I'm not wasting any more men. Have you forgotten what happened back there?"
"No sir, I'm just saying-"
"Then save it! We're not wasting any more good men on useless Easter egg hunts. If Doyle and his men wanna go, that's fine but I'm not," snapped Griffiths
"So we just sit here and wait for the covenant to try and cream us again?" asked Doyle.
"Got any better ideas?" replied Griffiths. Doyle gave no response.
Griffiths sighed. "If only we knew where Jacob was…"
"Jacob?" asked Doyle
"My best scout. Lost contact with him shortly before the first attack. Last we knew of him, he was holding up deep in enemy controlled territory…"
"Think he's still alive," asked Doyle.
"I don't know…I'd like to think he is but I don't think anyone could survive that deep in-"
"Captain!" shouted specialist Verginson as the door flew open.
"You better have a damn good reason for interrupting us," growled Griffiths.
"Its Jacob sir! He's on the com channel right now!"
Griffiths wasted no time in practically sprinting to the communications tower that miraculously survived the attack, Doyle and Fitzgerald barely able to keep up. Once inside, relief flooded into him as he heard Jacob's voice.
"Captain,"
"Jacob! Goddamn is it good to hear your voice," said Griffiths.
"I don't have much time captain. They'll find me any second," replied Jacob.
"Ok, go ahead. What have you found?"
"The covenant have taken over the Pillar of Autumn II. There are no covenant ships in the planet's atmosphere so I'm guessing there's a transporter inside the ship. That must be how they're getting all their troops and supplies to the surface…and it looks relatively weak in terms of defenses on the outside at least…I know it may seem like a long shot, but maybe…just maybe…oh fuck! They found me!" With that, the radio went dead.
"Jacob…Jacob! Fuck!" screamed Griffiths as he slammed his fist into the desk.
"Griffiths," began Karl. "I know exactly what he was about to say…we have to attack the Pillar of Autumn."
"I already told you I'm not doing that!"
"But it's the only chance we have of surviving," Doyle shot back. "We'll all die if we stay here!"
"I agree with Karl," said Jon. All four turned around to see a completely different Jon standing there, no longer afraid of showing his face but a look of determination, a look of confidence.
"You're both insane," said Griffiths.
"Captain listen to reason. We know where they are and we have an estimate of how strong they are. As impossible as it seems, we actually have a shot at winning this but we need to act now. It's like Karl said, we either take the shot we've been given, or we sit here and die. Or are you truly able to do absolutely nothing and go to your grave without regrets knowing you could have prevented the annihilation of our race?" spoke Jon with a newfound strength and conviction he hadn't felt in a long time.
"Well said," said Doyle.
"What can I say? I'm tired of running and I bet you all are too. Sooner or later, we have no choice but to face our demons. What matters is how we choose to face them and I for one plan to take em head on," replied Jon.
Griffiths turned to his men. "Fitzgerald? V-Verginson?" he said nervously.
"Sorry sir…but we both agree with those two," said Verginson.
A look of utter horror crossed the captain's face. "Jesus Christ…I'm surrounded!" he shouted. Finally, realizing he was beaten, he let out a heavy sigh.
"Alright…you win…better go tell the troops," he said as he began to walk toward the door. Suddenly, he stopped.
"Two conditions: Karl, take as many as you need and head back to your little hideout. Grab anything and everything that you think we may be able to use. Jon, come with me…I need to talk to you alone." Just as they went to walk out the door, Verginson stopped them.
"Umm…captain, I just remembered the other thing I needed to tell you."
"What is it?"
"That Deus Ex Machina robot…it was a dud…there was no bomb on it…and then it suddenly reactivated and its now functioning as if it's one of us," he said.
"What?" replied Griffiths.
"Meaning, its taking orders from us and everything," said Verginson.
"Patrick…" said Jon. Griffiths turned toward him.
"Yeah…now I definitely need to talk to you…if the robot tries anything, destroy it. Fitzgerald, you're in charge until I get back. Let the troops know of everything that's happened. C'mon Jon…"
On the outer platform of the tower overlooking the barren wasteland that lay outside Salvation City, the two men stood at opposite ends staring each-other down. Griffiths was the first to break the silence.
"So…you've been causing quite the ruckus over the past few weeks…let me just say you are one lucky mother fucker that the mayor was killed in the first attack and we're in a so incredibly desperate situation because if not, you would have been shot dead in the middle of town square by now," said Griffiths with a clam yet enraged tone. Jon said nothing but didn't look away from Griffiths.
"So the first thing you can do if you want even a little leniency when all this is over is to start explaining, quite literally, everything from your point of view and if its convincing enough, I just may believe it."
So Jon told him everything, ranging from when he first started out leading through the Derek Owen Saga, and everything that followed after that up until this point, including the debacle with Patrick and how he was behind both the robot clone and the reason as to why the covenant were able to land on the earth in the first place. Griffiths took in a few moments to comprehend and process everything he had just learned, the gears turning in his mind, trying to come up with a way, an explanation, a solution. Finally after about five minutes, he spoke.
"If what you said is even remotely true…that does change things a bit…there just may be a way I can save you but you must be willing to do anything…even if that means sacrificing yourself in the process," said Griffiths.
"…Go on…" replied Jon.
"Find Jacob…or at least what became of him. I know there was one last piece of critical information that he never got to tell us and even if he may not be able to tell us in person, I know he kept his recorder running as he made that broadcast and if it's still intact, we can still get our hands on it. Now…should all this come into fruition and it actually does help us win the war…I will clear your name."
"How do you plan to do that?" asked Jon.
"Think about it Jon. If I survive this encounter, which will the final battle mind you, I'll come out as a war hero. People will no doubt want me to be the new mayor of the city and I'll be in a perfect position to re-write everything. You'll come out a hero as well. I don't know all the fine details right now but I'll figure it out if and/or when the time comes and I'll keep you safe and hidden from the public until then. That much I can promise you but only if you accept my offer. If not, then there's nothing I can do for you. The choice is yours…" finished Griffiths as he held out his hand.
There was no doubt in Jon's mind as to what his answer would be. He had caused far too much harm in recent weeks unto everyone. This was his first and only chance to redeem himself and he wasn't about to let it slip, no matter what the risk of him dying was.
"I accept," he said as he shook Griffith's hand.
End Episode 10…
Authors note: I know I went far too deep into talking and not nearly enough action but don't you worry. This was the story-based episode. The next chapters will feature much more action although there is still a good chunk of story to be told and if you thought Griffith's offer was a kicker, wait until you see what the next chapter holds. Stay tuned, it WILL get better, I promise you that.