Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha (I am a genius). Chapter Two. It's quite a bit shorter (a third the length), but only because I really thought that it shouldn't be jammed together with the next chapter.
0919 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Digota Star System, Digota 4, inside underground complex
They were led through a series of consecutive tunnels, a winding maze that led deeper into the planet. Although it wouldn't help if the Covenant found the research colony and decided to glass it. Eventually they came into a command room of sorts. There were consoles all over the room. Other officers were scattered about, some manning two or three consoles.
"Get me in touch with Admiral McCullough."
"Aye aye." One of the crewmen called.
The Master Chief thought; McCullough was the next best thing to Keyes or doctor Halsey, or now that he thought about it Mendez. He shrugged the train of thought off, a quick trip off in his memories could be dangerous. No, the admiral was quite possibly the closest person in contact with the ONI, and would with all possibility know exactly what his original mission was.
In minutes the admiral walked into the room, "What the hell is it, Marine? You'd better have a damn good reason for this." He appeared fatigued, exhausted, and worried. Then he noticed the Spartans.
"Sir! Someone here wants to talk to you, sir!" The marine half shouted at the admiral and moved out of the way of the Chief, although it really wasn't necessary, he was over seven feet in height. The fact that the admiral had missed him and the Spartans spoke volumes on how fatigued and worried the admiral was. Master Chief moved to announce his presence. The Admiral didn't do so much as blink. Most navy officers would stare for a moment before he spoke, like he was an alien as well. Then again nearly seven feet and a half ton of Spartan in his armor and he didn't look fairly normal.
"Ah, SPARTAN 117, what is it?" He paused and added an afterthought, "Oh, and its good to see you, I thought you had been killed along with everyone else on Reach."
"Sir." Master Chief was about to salute when a quick quip from the admiral stopped him, "Our original mission was compromised, sir."
"Original...?" The McCullough stopped, "Oh right. How?"
"Our ship was destroyed, sir, its just me the other Spartans and Cortana."
"So how'd you get where you are?" His eyebrows furrowed as something crossed his mind, "And how so fast? Reach is quite a way, it would take a day to get here in Slip-stream. And what about the Cole protocol, soldier?" He didn't really notice Samus, hidden behind all the Spartans as she was.
Samus, who had been quietly standing in the corner, having Adam transfer data to her head's up display via her scanning visor and taking in information about this installation, and the impending Space Pirate attack finally muttered something as she read the types of pirates she would likely be up against. Everyone looked at her, and the Spartans moved so that the Admiral could see her. She quickly recovered from her slip-up and looked at the man.
"Them surviving and getting here is my fault. Though, those aliens would have to be far more technologically advanced then what I assume them to be from a scan on their ship to follow a closed warp." She shifted a fraction of an inch, as sign of nervousness, "And as much as I'd like to talk to you about universal oddities, I can't."
The admiral just sized up Samus, in that suit she, whom he too assumed to be a he, was nearly was tall as some of the Spartans and just as alien looking. He locked her in a scrutinizing glance, "And why is that?"
Samus just stood up straighter under the glance, showing off her full armored height of six foot three inches in the armor, most likely the reason why she was thought to be a guy, she was just too tall to be female in most people's opinions. "Because, I'm afraid to say, this particular colony is about to come under attack, and it won't be so pleasant as having the planet turned into glass. An race of people, Space Pirates, happen to be coming, and they...go around making sure personally that everyone is dead before leaving and taking anything of technological value."
"So what will you do?"
"Why, they especially invited me over for a meal, and it would be quite rude to decline, besides, they don't take no as an answer." She shifted her right arm, which was covered by the barrel of her gun, conduits glowing a foreboding red. She got a look of distrust, "If you don't trust me, which I doubt you do, I can put you in touch with some other admiral who knows me, knows what I'm talking about, and take someone you trust along with me."
The admiral considered, he didn't know who this person was talking about, but, then a report came into the colony. "Sir, there's a ship coming in from Slip-space, faster then the Covenant, and, sir, it's heading right for us. It's not of known Covenant make."
That changed everything, "Alright, Master Chief, go with him. But I want to talk to that admiral."
Samus just lifted up her left arm, pressed a button at the base of the gun, it collapsed and shrunk, revealing the tips of her fingers. She faced her left hand up, a panel popped open on her forearm at a mental will, she pulled out a flat disk. "Adam, get me in touch with the Federation colony's admiral, now," Wait, "Yes, my holo projector, if you don't mind."
She put the disk on the ground, it glowed yellow, a hologram popped out of it a moment later. It was in the form of a human, life-size too. It was a man that was the same age as McCullough, not much else could be seen, the hologram was pure blue energy.
"Aran, thank god." He looked purely relieved to see Samus. "We got a signal in sub space that those Pirate bastards are coming."
"Yes, I know. Look around you, admiral." She stood even straighter talking to this admiral, the Master Chief didn't fail to notice. Talking to McCullough she almost appeared relaxed, now she looked different.
The admiral did so, "What the hell is going on, Aran?"
"I can't explain now, I don't even understand it, Admiral O'Neal. Just look at the man over there," Samus pointed to the other Admiral, "and have a nice conversation. Oh, could you send a ship over here to hold off their fighter? It might take me a while to get in."
The Master Chief hoped that Samus wasn't insinuating that he would hold her back.
"Is it that bad?"
"Researcher class, heavily guarded. Oh, Master Chief, I'd suggest that you get a weapon that can at least pierce armor."
He nodded, got a marine to hand over his personal favorite, an MA5B assault rifle. Its hardened shells could pierce tank armoring, in combat he found it somewhat effective against the new Elite armoring, this should work. He took two handfuls of extra round clips; this was probably not going to be easy.
'Projectiles...' Samus thought watching the Master Chief, 'Hm, that'll work, just barely, but it will. At the least it'll be a distraction.' When he was ready she just left, leaving him to follow. She wasn't much up for teamwork, preferring to work alone most of the time, but now she needed at least one other person to back her up. These ships were bound to have lots of Elite Pirates, and maybe Phazon Elites too.
Her eyes glinted, nearly smiling at the thought, those special Elite Pirates needed massive amounts of a cancerous substance, just what she had been looking for, for a very long time. She'd have to find the blue Phazon, it would be a tremendous asset, no ands ifs or buts about it.
The Master Chief followed, irritated about being left behind like that, but saying nothing. When they came to the ship, the hole in the ground opened. Samus had the computer open the hatch. She motioned for her teammate to climb in. He did so, this time being careful of the ship's surface and increased the traction on the soles of his boots. Samus climbed in, jumped in, used one of her suits abilities to extend her flight time so she landed directly in her seat. John just stood.
"Adam, we've got a Space Pirate party to attend, can you get us there on time?"
"Certainly." The ship started up, five yellow thruster flames boosting the ship off the planets surface and to the ship of pirates. Samus considered their options. The Space Pirates had artificial gravity, that was true, but to get in one often had to go through a system of security shutdowns EVA. Her suit would automatically adhere her to the ship's hull, but the Master Chief, he'd float off into the vacuum. Not to mention he could only last two hours after leaving the ship. She hoped it wouldn't take more then two hours to go in and get back out, if it did, there was no hope. She drew a long breath, this would slow her down considerably, not to mention she had to make sure he made it out alive.
She turned the seat around to face the Master Chief, "Adam, transfer all pertinent data we have to Cortana." She wanted to see what those two would make of this situation.
"Processing, ETA five minutes."
Cortana got the data and read through it and less then a second. "Here Master Chief, it appears that you'll have some difficulty getting into the vessel." The data was broadcast directly into his brain. He knew now what that sigh was for. How to get him in was now their issue, not going in wasn't an option, Admiral McCullough would be waiting for him to return with recordings.
"Have any ideas?" He looked at Samus with the inquiry.
"If it weren't for all that security that the pirates have it wouldn't be a problem. Otherwise I could have the ship drop you off right out the door and I could bring you in. But I can't bring you in all the way and deactivate security to get through, and make it discreet all at the same time. It will just go right back up until I destroy the core."
"Someone say security?" Cortana's voice echoed through John's helmet to speak to Samus. "If I know the way their systems work, I can get in."
"Hack into their mainframe?"
"Of course, its what I'm good at."
"Its what I do, but the effects are at best temporary. You have to scan certain areas with a special data string to bring down the defenses, but it always goes back up."
"Give me the data string, and I'll see what I can do."
Samus paused, weighed her options briefly, "Adam, give her the data string."
"ETA four minutes twenty seconds."
Cortana got the string in a cycle, managed to wrap herself around how utterly complex it was, and processed an electronic smug nod three cycles later. This, not only would help complete this mission, but give her a more complex and discreet hacking ability. It would come in handy some time, she knew that at the very least. "Alright. I've got it, I'll insert the code at the ready."
"Good." Samus eased back in her chair. The rest of the four minutes that she dared to spend on this task, was spent on explaining and briefing the Master Chief on the Space pirates, so he wouldn't be caught by surprise.
"As you might know, I don't know what information the computer gave you and Cortana, but the Space Pirates don't have a viable atmosphere in their ships for us, or them, their suits rearrange the molecules in the air so they can breath. My suit can do the same, but yours can't, so our time limit is two hours to get in and out. You might want to make sure none of the air gets in, its pure poison to humans. Their suits get sub commands from their computer for the suits to function like that. Sort of like a heart beat for a person, you can't stop it and do it with your conscious no matter how much you want to. So in essence, destroy the ship and they won't function and they'll die in a few minutes. It's the easiest way to kill a planetary invasion. The conceding explosion in the ship will kill everyone aboard, it's not something you want to stick around for."
"Basically," Cortana said, "Get in, set the computer for a self-destruct, get out."
"Correct, but that can only be done from within the ship by destroying the AI, after that the ship blows up in a few minutes. You don't want to be around for the explosion. And getting out is the easy part."
The Master Chief soaked in all of this new information, most likely they would have to fight their way in, and out. When getting out they would only have a small gap of time. So how would getting out be the easy part? The Space Pirates would be dead by then, or at least most of them. That's how. They'd be on a ship with narrow corridors, most likely low gravity, and not a lot of information. Not exactly his ideal conditions, but it would have to do. Spartans either adapted in battle or they didn't and died, it was that simple. They'd been doing that since day one.
"They'll be out in five seconds." The shipboard AI called out. "Five, four, three," Space started to distort, "Two" The distortion became more defined, a ghastly shimmer, "One." With a small shockwave the ship was out, "They're here."
Samus gave the ship a few commands. The ship's thrusters performed small, elegant bursts that evaded the scanners.
