Chapter 3

Derelict Vessel, Pentagon Worlds, November 2822

"How much longer, technician?" The impatient officer, a certain Elemental Star Captain Meghan Buckler asked Karl as he continued to cut through another of the many series of doors, placing a bit more emphasis on the word 'technician' clearly stating her feeling on those not in the warrior caste.

"Only a few more minutes Ma'am," was his reply, all the while mentally mocking her. This particular bulkhead door seemed a bit thicker and more resistant than the previous ones encountered thus far, this one leading to a section labeled Cryo Storage. One did not have to be a member of the Scientist Caste to figure out what lay beyond, and the drifting mausoleum continued to give him and the rest of those present the creeps.

Overall there were another three technicians aside from the Elemental Point, which consisted of 5 Elementals total, the Star Captain being one of them. The standing orders for the team was to recover any material or items of interest, and in the unlikely event of there being any survivors, they should be rescued and recovered as well, rather than taken as bondsman, the Clan equivalent of POW's, since this was not a declared battle with no specific opponent, anyone or anything aboard would be granted full-quarter. This was a move that more than one warrior was bothered by, Star Captain Meghan Buckler among them, but no one dared challenge the Captain to a Circle of Equals over an issue that most felt was completely unrealistic.

The entire Clan culture centered around a very strong martial code and honor called zellbringen. Emphasis was placed on the importance of 1 on 1 combat in an attempt to keep civilian and collateral damage at a minimum. From the outside, the Clan method of combat, in particular bidding the fewest number of forces to complete a specific objective, would seem to be more like a game than warfare, but the entire martial code was based around the idea of avoiding collateral and wasting resources, both of which were a major source of strife in the Inner Sphere around the fall of the Star League. It also served the dual-purpose of ensuring that forces were not wasted, and that they kept themselves at the highest level of proficiency.

Part of the code dealt with those captured. If a warrior was captured by a rival, he or she was expected to offer no resistance and in fact openly assist their captors, the belief being that if one is defeated in battle by a superior opponent, then that opponent deserved only the utmost of respect which the newfound bondsman could only provide by offering their complete unquestioned cooperation.

Of course the code of zellbringen only applied to those who respected it, and should an opponent openly disregard the code, the Clans had no compunction whatsoever with resulting to more "traditional" methods of combat, again traumatically demonstrated in the retaking of the Pentagon Worlds.

Karl returned his focus to the cutting torch, the last few inches of the titanium door finally yielding. Meghan motioned him aside as two other members of her elemental point, also clad in spacesuits, slowly began to force the door open.

Fear was as alien an emotion to a SPARTAN as love. The closest thing that a SPARTAN felt to fear was being unsettled, and at that moment John-117 was feeling rather unsettled. Forward Into Dawn was being boarded by unknown forces in an unknown location at an unknown time. Strength, unknown. Intent unknown, far too many unknowns involved for his comfort.

He watched intently as the door was slowly forced open, and rays from flashlights shone through. He counted eight of them, all in spacesuits. Three were relatively small, at least compared to a SPARTAN, about average for human, and at this range he could tell they were definitely human. This eased his concern slightly, but the other five gave him pause. All carrying weapons and just as large as himself, they fanned out in the room in a deliberate search pattern, clearly on the lookout for something. They moved with a smoothness that only came with years of training.

Cortana whispered into his ear, "So what do we do Chief, do we come out shooting, or find out their intentions first, and then shoot?" The Chief did not speak or even move as he considered his options, not wanting any sudden movement or sound to give away his position. The air in his suit would not last long, and if he had any chance to get off this wreck, now was as good a time as any.

Analyzing the five giants, he noticed one in particular that was giving move and command orders with nothing more than hand signals, clearly the leader. Not exposing himself further from behind the cryo tube, he trained his MA5C on the soldier, and let out a standard military challenge, "Halt, and be recognized!" The Chief bellowed, using the speakers in his armor to amplify his already booming voice.

As one the five immediately froze and trained their rifles on the source of the sound, faintly seeing the dark green and black armored clad figure in the corner, drawing down right back at them. A tense moment followed, but no one opened fire. The Chief recognized it immediately as a battle of wills, and who would give first.

On the other side, to say that elementals rarely experienced fear as well as surprise would be an accurate statement as well, so when Star Captain Meghan Buckler heard someone not clearly on the recovery team or her Elemental Point shout a challenge at her, she was to put it mildly, shocked.

On instinct her entire point had already drawn and leveled their weapons on the unidentified source. What in the name of Kerensky is that? She thought as the source of her shock came into focus. It was humanoid, green-armored with a reflective faceplate, and easily the size of the biggest elemental that she ever knew. Stravag! Next time I have a gut feeling about challenging an order......

Trusting her point, which kept the draw on the strange visitor, she remembered her orders and slightly lowered her weapon. Still clearly at the ready, but not directly pointing at the figure in the corner. The visitor, however, made no such move and kept his rifle trained squarely on her faceplate.

She made a step forward, and cleared her throat to speak. "I am Star Captain Meghan Buckler of the Clan Wolverine. You will identify yourself, place your weapon at the deck, and step back away from it if you value your freebirth life," she stated evenly.

The Chief took a moment to respond. I could take them, but do I really want to, and do I need to? Cortana seemed to pick up on his thoughts and finished them for him.

"She is a military woman, Chief. Keep respectful but hold your ground. If she had intended to kill you, they would have already opened up without asking questions. At the least they're human and not Covenant." John grunted in agreement.

"I am Master Chief John-117, SPARTAN. You are standing on UNSC territory, and I will not yield myself or my weapon to you until you are recognized. State your intentions!" He barked back, still maintaining the edge in his voice.

Meghan could not but help to repress a small grin. This John was certainly a cool character. Most opponents in five to one odds against elementals in personal combat would have long since yielded...or found themselves dead. He did not give an inch. Either he is extraordinarily brave, or extraordinarily stupid, or both. We will find out soon enough.

"We are here on a salvage and recovery mission. I have standing orders to recover and rescue anything and anyone of value. I suppose I might bend those orders to allow them to encompass you." The figure still did not move and continued to keep his weapon trained on her. Meghan groaned slightly, this standoff could not continue indefinitely.

"Either come out or be left here to rot. I have already lowered my weapon, and my point will not fire without my authorization, but I have little time to waste and I have a remarkably limited patience. We will lower our weapons and you will come out, or this will get messy, quiaff?"

This was not entirely true, elementals were trained on initiative and decision-making while in combat, but standing orders were to rescue any survivors, and loathe that she was to admit it, this John character could be a very valuable wellspring of intelligence. Meghan made motion with her left hand, and the point as a whole, lowered their weapons.

John stayed put a moment longer, unsure exactly what quiaff meant, then called out, "I accept you at your word!" He slowly raised himself up, and lowered his MA5C partly, a calculated risk. He was betting that should they be duping him that his shields and speed would allow him to get off the first shot and return to cover. Fortunately, that opportunity never came.

The Star Captain took another step towards the stranger in armor, "you will come with us!"

"Come with you where?" Was the Chief's reply.

Meghan shook her head. "You are an insolent freebirth, quiaff? I cannot believe that the Captain would make me sully my hands with the likes of you. You are to be our 'guest' aboard the JumpShip Supernova. My superiors have many questions for you."

"I have no intention of being anyone's prisoner," the Chief replied, visually tightening his hold on his rifle. Meghan sighed again in agitation.

"I said 'guest', not 'prisoner' or even 'bondsman'. Now, you will come with us," the Star Captain replied evenly as she made another step towards the SPARTAN.

"Go with her, Chief," Cortana advised. "What alternative do we have? Wait another few centuries for the next strangers to come by?" The Chief gritted his teeth behind his faceplate, not quite wanting to admit Cortana was right. "We really do not have any other options at the moment. Live to fight another day. I suggest you hand over the rifle and play along, for now. You.....still have it don't you?"

The Chief nodded to both Cortana and Meghan at the same time. Cortana's question of it referring to the Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword hidden in a compartment in the suit's back, and also in acknowledgement that he would comply with the Star Captain's request. After a moment more of hesitation, he stepped forward slowly, lowered his rifle and presented it butt-first to the Star Captain.

The Elemental point slowly moved in and formed a line around the Chief, two in front, three in back with him in the middle and started to work their way back towards the JumpShip. All carried their weapons at the ready, with the Star Captain in the front, who had her rifle slung casually over her back and the Chief's MA5C in her left hand. As they led him out of the doomed ship, the Chief asked, "by the way, what year is it?" Meghan merely gave him an irritated sidelong glance as they moved onward.

Elsewhere in the Deep Periphery..........

The Snow Raven aerotech was bored, another long day on grueling garrison patrol along the outskirts of the binary system his JumpShip had stopped at to recharge their drives.

So when an object moving at an erratic course came at him suddenly out of nowhere, was very surprised. Catching a flash and glimpse out his starboard window, he banked his fighter hard to the left and gave chase, not bothering to radio the JumpShip.

The object zipped and zagged, but compared to his aerotech fighter it was cumbersomely slow. He got a closer look as the distance was closed. The object was purple, cylindrical in shape with what appeared to be two small engines sitting on pylons on either side at a downward angle of approximately 45 degrees from the main body. Suddenly, the engines on whatever the object was went dead and began to drift out of control. The aerotech got in closer for a visual inspection. Interesting design, looks like some kind of one-person transport. It looks far to fragile to be anything formidable.

The aerotech opened a comm channel to the JumpShip. "JumpShip Vindicator, this is aerotech patrol Blackjack 6. We have some kind of stranded craft out here in the asteroid belt. Requesting a tug for recovery, over." A static-filled response came a moment later.

"Aff on your request BlackJack 6. ETA 2 hours, stay on station for recovery operations."

Stravag! Two hours? Do they not realize these things do not even have a privvy?! The aerotech mentally cursed the freebirth at the other end of the comm but sent his acknowledgement of the order.

Two hundred yards away inside the free-floating Banshee fighter, a lone Sanghelli body lay inert, but the Flood infection spore still buried in its chest still pulsed very much alive and twitched in anticipation, ready to take the Flood to the next stage of evolution.