Author note: Hallo again everyone I finally got around and finished this chapter. Like in the last chapter there will be a link for the wiki pages I have written about info on the weapons, ships, etc. Also I have taken the liberty to change Cortanas last name from Jinx to Griffin because I truly didn't know that jinx actually was a word for... well, a person who bring bad luck. I'll change it in the other chapter too. As always please leave a comment and enjoy the ride.
Link: wiki/The_Return_of_Forgotten_Empire
Battle for the Capital
The 03/13/2581. Somewhere in the Orion arm.
The massive imperial fleet shot out of slip space, the different types of warships ready for the coming siege. A few thousand kilometers ahead of the fleet were hundreds of perfect circular platforms arranged in a spiral formation around the 100.000 kilometers long core platform. All the platforms were covered in cities with buildings in all shapes and sizes. The Forerunner capital was quick to respond to the human's presence. All the platforms started moving into a spherical shape and its powerful energy shield was charging up.
The war room in the council building, located in the center of the core platform, came to life as billions of ancilla gathered in the room's computer systems and showed themselves in Forerunner forms on one of the many holotables spread out across the room. Quite a few of them had fallen into rampancy a long time ago and were showing their forms in different shades of red. But the few who had gone rampant tried their hardest to get a hold on themselves.
"Unknown warships detected, Capital forming defensive position, all automated defenses activating and the shield is changing." One of the ancilla informed the others. A moment went by before the same ancilla talked again. "Hostiles identified. It's the Reclaimers … No, it's Pure Humans!" Loud mumbling was heard from the large number of ancilla. How could it be Pure Humans? They were all, after all, wiped out a long time ago.
"That can't be right; they should all have been killed a long time before the Halo Rings were fired more than 100.000 year ago! There should only be the Reclaimers left" One of them yelled across the different systems, many others agreeing.
"The scan says they are Pure Humans and some of their ships are up to 90 % identical with the ones the Pure Humans used during the Human-Forerunners war. " A third one stated along with a few others who had done the same scan.
"It doesn't matter how the Pure Humans have survived the halo firing, the only thing that matters now is that they are here at our doorstep. We'll split into three groups; one group will take command of our ground forces while the second group will coordinate the remote-controlled warships we have stored in the military docking areas." The commanding ancilla ordered. "The humans will most likely attempt a frontal attack and hit us with all their might. We focus most of our forc…"
BOOM
A large explosion could be heard throughout the entire Capital when a medium sized platform was torn apart. All the Ancilla who were stationed on the platform screamed in pure agony before their image vanished forever.
"What the hell was that!? I want a report, NOW!" The Ancilla commander yelled. One of the holograms on one of the tables changed into a map, showing the massive human fleet to the far right side and the Capital in the middle. Currently the Capital had almost completed its transformation but a single platform at the length of 25.000 kilometers was torn in half right down the middle. Explosions could be seen on both of the two halves with a few seconds in between as they drifted further and further away from the rest of the Capital.
"The shield generator located on the platform appeared to be damaged; it's most likely because of the halo ring that was fired not far from the Capital many years ago." An Ancilla shouted as it analyzed the reason why the shield generator blew up. It didn't take long before another Ancilla reported that the human fleet had started to move towards the great hole.
"Commander the humans are relocating their fleet and there is no shield to hold them back anymore, they can march right through our first line of defense!" The Ancilla commander's image flared deep red for a few seconds when he heard the dire news. His rage had sent him into rampage for a short time but he somehow managed to pull himself out again.
"T-then deploy al-all warships inside the Capital a-and activate all other defense systems… including the Vanguards." The other Ancillas looked at their commander with hesitation and doubt. Was he alright and still able to lead them? The silence was broken by the same Ancilla who had reported the humans movements.
"Commander, surely you can't possibly be serious about deploying the Vanguards. They have never been probably field-tested before."
"That doesn't matter anymore, our forces need numbers and the Vanguards have been produced in waste numbers since our creators started the project." It was clear that he didn't want to discuss this any further and the other Ancillas accepted it and did as they were told.
"Good. As I said before, we'll split up into three groups. One half will take command of our air units and fleets above the cities and a third will upload themselves to a vanguard command units and take command of our vanguard forces, the last third will observe the enemies moments and report back to me . I will stay here and command our sentinels and direct your movements." The Ancillas did as ordered and went to work. The commander's small holographic form turned around on the table with crossed arms and looked at the holo-screen displaying the hostile fleet nearing the opening slowly along with the Forerunner warships exiting various docking bays inside the Capital. In the streets of all the cities could different ground forces be seen deployed from transports, teleports or had flown there themselves. The commander had a grim look on his holographic face. This didn't look like it would end well for them at all and the appearance the ancient humans would mess up the Liberians plans for sure.
_Ω_
Meanwhile on the bridge of the Lord of Admirals ship.
It came as a huge surprise for everyone on the ships bridge when one of the platforms had exploded all of a sudden. Aldu Tasmor had of course seized this opportunity as soon as it was confirmed that the powerful shield around the Capital was down in that area. He had ordered the fleet into a more passive formation witch easily could be turned into a simple offensive or defensive formation when they got through the hole. He wasn't sure if the destruction of the platform was some kind of trap to lure them in or if it was just a lucky miracle to befall them. It didn't really matter if it was a trap or not he had faith in his soldiers, they were all good and hardened soldiers.
"Prepare all ground forces for drop and make sure that we have a few Armageddon-class dreadnoughts near the front with full support" Aldu shouted to a communication officer "They are to bombard the nearest platforms if any kind of threat prove too much for our ground troops to take care of." The officer nodded and passed the order to the ships near the front of the fleet.
"My lord, the scan for any lifeforms is complete!" Another officer yelled from his post. "I-it appears there are no lifeforms of any kind on the Capital, my lord." The odd news didn't seem to have any impact on the rest of the bridge personnel, they were too professional to let such things affect their work, but they all thought it was weird that the Forerunners had evacuated every single person in their capital, even all the warrior-servants. Why would they do that? Was this really a trap? If it was a trap how did the Forerunners know they were coming in the first place? It made no sense at all.
Noticing the awkward atmosphere on the bridge the Lord of Admirals opened a channel to the entire fleet and began his speech.
"A scan of the entire Capital shows that there is not a single Forerunner on the Capital but it doesn't matter if the Forerunners foresaw our arrival and fled with their tail between their legs like the cowards they are. What we're here to do is to take the Capital by force. We're here to make an example. To show them that we can strike where ever we want when we want and by taking the capital we'll cut the head of the snake and the rest of the Forerunner Empire will fall into chaos and confusion." Aldus speech had done its part and raised the moral of the whole fleet. Now every man and woman was fuelled with rage and hunger for battle, they had all hoped to spill the blood of their hated adversary and now they were denied just that. Now they just wanted to show the Forerunners how strong the Human Empire had become in its long exile.
Back on the bridge smiled Aldu Tasmor for himself. He could see the first ships entering the large hole along with thousands of dropships, fighters and bombers making their way towards the nearby platforms. The battle for the Capital had begun.
_Ω_
"Alright Ladies and Gentlemen, the party have already begun without us so get your fat augmented asses into the dropship on the double!" Siflion Barked at his troops, as they tried to crossed the hanger floor toward a nearby dropship through the chaos of people, tanks and dropships. The team of Sinners finally made it to the dropship and boarded it. A few minutes later they were passing through the blue energy field. The Flames of the Moon had entered the hole a while ago and hadn't made it to the frontline yet. Only a few of its long range canons fired from time to time when they had a clear shot at the hostile forces up ahead.
The dropship made a shape turn and descended down towards one of the many platforms near the hole, two dozens of other dropships followed close by. The dropships quickly passed the distance between the fleet and the tops of the massive skyscrapers decorating the platform. Now they just looked for a perfect place to touch down and let their cargo loose. One of pilots spotted what looked like a big park with a few large rocky hills. The pilot contacted the others and they all changed course, heading for the park.
When the ships was just outside the parks perimeter the hill tops suddenly opened up and revealed three or four large anti-air turrets on each hill. The turrets turned towards the two dozens of incoming dropships and unleashed hell upon them.
The dropships thick armor was no match for the powerful energy beams and within seconds most of them was send crashing down with explosions, fire and burning corpses.
"Shit, it's a trap!" The pilot of the Night Lords dropship yelled over the com-link as he tried to pull the shuttle away from the turrets line of fire.
"Find somewhere else to land; we'll handle those canons from the ground." Siflion ordered. The pilot complied and headed down a nearby street at high speed. But faith was a cruel bitch to day. The missile lock-on alerts came to life as a missile sped toward the dropship out of nowhere from its right side.
"Incoming missile port side!" The pilot shouted through the com-link before the deadly missile hit the cockpit from the right, sending the dropship spinning out of control at break neck speed before it hit the corner of a building and smashed into another one on the other side of the street, sliding down its side before it finally came to a stop after tearing up a good part of the street.
_Ω_
Anyone out there!?
Everything was dark when Siflion opened his eyes, an annoying ringing in his ears made him half deaf.
Respond if anyone gets this!
"A radio transmission?" He thought as he heard the same voice again. He tried to move but found that he couldn't. "Damnit. A suit lockdown."
"Restart the combat-suits systems now." He commanded to his suits Servitor. A few seconds went by before his HUD came to life and he could see again. A list of data popped up to the left while a small screen displaying a silhouette of a long haired woman showed up to the right.
"Good to see you awake again, master. I took the liberty to put your armor into shielded lockdown when the dropship was hit. Unfortunately I was not quick enough." Siflion raised an eyebrow in confusion and tried once more to move. He shouldn't have done that. A massive amount of pain sprung up from his left side. He turned his head to see the source of the pain and spotted a large piece of metal sticking out from his side. Luckily it hadn't pierced anything vital.
"Oh that's just great." He groaned to himself before he slowly grabbed it with both of his hands and slowly pulled it out with gritted teeth. He let out a heavy sigh of relief when he finally got it free from his body, blood spilling from the now completely open wound. He threw the cursed piece of metal away.
"Get as many nanos to fix the wound as quickly as possible." He ordered through heavy and painful breaths and his Servitor complied, always eager to help her master in any way possible. It was after all her purpose in life to assist her master with whatever he commanded her to do, anything, he just needed to command her.
If someone was to look closely to Siflions armor they would be able to see how the layers of metal armor shifted and moved to close the gaping hole in it and its wearer. The first nanomachines started with gathering as much of the spilled blood as possible before they grouped together to stop the bleeding from the inside and out. The progress took only a few minutes and they then proceed to repair the damaged tissue and strengthen the armor around the wound.
"The nanos have successfully stopped the bleeding, you should be able to move now but you'll have to take it easy for next few hours before the wound is fully healed." The Servitor reported and Siflion slowly and carefully got back on his feet. His side still hurt like hell. He looked around and spotted all his squad members spread out on the floor, all passed out but alive nonetheless. He proceeded with waking them up one by one and soon they were all up and around again. All had had a rough landing but at least the others had been luckier than Siflion.
"Ugh my back hurts like I was some kind of 20.000 year old granny." Whined No'el as he stretched and rubbed his back to ease the pain.
"Walk it off you pussy and check the com-links. I swear I heard a call for help from one of the other dropships a while ago and someone please go check on the pilot!" Siflion ordered and his squad mates went to work. The pilot appeared have been killed instantly when the missile hit, most of his head had been blown off along with other damages, and it also appeared that survivors from another dropship were indeed under heavy fire. The Night Lords checked their equipment before heading out to assist their brothers in arms.
The Streets were dead silent, only the faint sounds of battle from above broke it. Lucky they didn't have to walk for long before the sounds of battle and explosions were heard in the distance. The Night Lords picked up their phase while looking around for any signs of danger.
"This is Siflion from the Night Lord squad do you read!?" A moment went by before someone answered his call. "This is High Hastari Telon. We read you loud and clear. Please hurry, we are taking heavy fire from some kind of humanoid Forerunner droids." A few shots of ionized particle projectiles hitting the cover could be heard in the background, the High Hastari cursed before the sound of his antimatter rifle fired a few rounds at the new type of droids.
"We'll get to you as fast as possible just hang on tight!" Siflion turned to his squad members and ordered them to move faster. A few moments later the sound of explosion and high energy gunfire could be heard just up ahead.
The skirmish took place on a large square shaped plaza with the imperial dropship crashed near its center. To right of the Night Lords were the forerunner machines, numbering around 40 to 45, slowly advancing towards the imperial troops who had abandoned their dropship and retreated to the buildings opposite of the forerunner forces. A few unlucky soldiers lied dead on the way from the downed dropship to the buildings. Lucky for the Night Lords the forerunners hadn't noticed them yet, to busy trying to rip their opponents in front of them to shreds.
"High Hastari Telon, how are your men holding up?" Sifloin asked over the com-link. He made a few hand signals to his squad to spread out and take cover. Heloan and the rest of the squads' snipers tried to find some good positions on higher ground.
"We have suffered 3 casualties and 4 more have been badly wounded. What is your plan my lord?"
"My squad will attack them from their left flank and draw their attention. When they are busy with us you'll bomb them with whatever you have left. Be it grenades or grenade launcher mode morphers." The Hastari replied his understanding. And the plan of attack was set in motion.
The vanguards was taken by complete surprise when a few of their allies heads exploded in a shower of burning metal from sniper fire and the next second a wave antimatter rifle fire hit them from their left.
"Come on keep up the fire! Show them who the real threat is!" Siflion shouted over the roars from the muzzle fires. Before long, most of the remaining vanguards had turned their attention to the Night Lords. That was when grenades were thrown or fired from their completely forgotten opponents. Explosions appeared all over the Forerunners ranks, turning the vanguards into scrap metal in mere seconds. What remained of the vanguards who had survived the rains of gunfire and explosions was quickly finished off.
"Secure the plaza while we call for reinforcements and medical aid for the wounded!" Siflion commanded to all the troops present. The troops complied and took positions near the streets leading into the plaza while a few snipers climbed the buildings to get a better view over the nearby streets. Meanwhile Siflion got in touch with a commanding officer on one of the ships above their heads.
"This is Captain Siflion Talma of the Night Lords requesting medical aid for severely injured troops and reinforcements. We have secured a landing zone. Repeat we have secured a landing zone." There was a small amount of static before a reply came.
"Roger that. Is the LZ big enough for siege tank drops?"
"That's a negative sir. We have a crashed dropship in the center of the plaza. The infantry you'll deploy must be dropped off on some of the smaller building until we get the dropship out of the way."
"Alright, you'll get your reinforcements. Use them to take the large park where you were shot at during your deployment. We can begin mass deployment on this platform when those anti-air canons are destroyed."
"Roger that sir." One and a half hour later the reinforcement arrived, a full company strong. The wounded were taken back to the fleet and the large force of imperial infantry started fighting their way towards the park through countless sentinels, enforces and vanguards. A few hours of bloody fighting later they have fought their way to the park. They had suffered a few losses but nothing to serious. With the 11 Sinners as spearhead they had left a trail of destruction in their wake. And now here they stood in front of the hills. The hills were swarming with vanguards and sentinels. A frontal attack could work but many would lose their lives if they all had to charge the high hills.
Siflion and the leader of the company, a principes, had agreed to let the men rest just outside of the large park while they and a few others, including No'el and Heloan, would discuss how to take out the canons without losing to many men in the process.
"Those hills are a damn fortress." The Principes growled as he pointed an accusing finger at the well-defended hills. The others had to agree on that. The hills made quite an amazing natural fortress in itself and the damn Forerunner droids had reinforced it with lots shield barriers, walls, watchtowers and so on. To put it more simply; the droids were hell bent on holding those hills. The gathered officers had yet to find an easy way to overcome the defenses and it was slowly getting on everyone's nerves.
"Can't we just use some makers and get one of our ships above us to bombard the hills instead?" A young Hastari asked but the others just shook their heads.
"No, that wouldn't work. Can you see that spire at the center of the top hill?" Siflion turned to face the hills and pointed at a large spire at the top hill. Every few seconds a faint glow of blue would travel up from its midsection to its tip. "That's a powerful shield generator that protects the hills from fire from above. It would take hours before our ship would get through it, and that's not taking into account that the ship need to defend itself in the meantime."
The young Hastari gave a heavy sigh of defeat before leaning heavily against a wall. Meanwhile Siflion was still looking at the hills with a thoughtful expression on his face as he tried to come up with a plan of attack. He was so deep in his thoughts that he was caught completely off guard; his heart even jumped one or two beats over, when Heloan appeared right beside him.
"What are you think about?" She asked in the most innocent tone she could muster without giggling at her surprised captain.
"Damnit woman, haven't I told you to stop doing that!?" She just nodded her head a few times in a rather eagerly playful manner. Siflion Just growled at that before he answered her question.
"I was thinking that a frontal assault might be our best shot at taking the hills. If we left No'el and his men with the company to take care of the assault, the rest of the Night Lords could circle around and climb the hillside and take out the shield spire while most of the droids are concentrated on the company."
"Well if we're going through with this then it might be best if you stayed with No'el and his boys." She said in what Siflion thought to be an upcoming challenge. With a raised eyebrow he asked her what she meant with that.
"Oh nothing really captain. Just saying you'll expose us if you're coming with my team." That did it. Here she was accusing HIM, the prince of the entire Empire, not to be stealthy enough for a simple infiltration mission like this.
"Is that a challenge I hear?" He asked.
"Maybe, wanna bet on it?" She extended her hand to seal the bet and he took it. Of course he would agree to this bet, there was no way he would lose this simple bet.
_Ω_
The assault on the hills proved to have drawn most the defensive forces towards the aggressors and left only a few hands full of guards back to watch the canons. However there was more than Siflion had thought there would have been and he cursed their current situation. He had lost the bet with Heloan right away.
They had been discovered, or more specific Sifion had been discovered, shortly after climbing the hillside and had ever since been under heavy fire from lightrifles, scattershots and suppressors. The enemy was pinning them down while sentinels tried to fly over their heads and disintegrate them with their beam weapons. So far the sentinels had all been shot down before they could do much more than scratch the Sinners shields.
"Damnit, we can't waste more time just sitting around like this." Siflion mumbled to himself before he rose from his cover and fired a few rounds at an unshielded vanguard, making its chest explode in a shower of burning metal pieces, before diving down again just in time to dodge a dozen or so suppressor shots from hitting him in the face.
"You're always so impatient captain." Heloan said, almost laughing, before she took aim and pulled the trigger. Far way a sentinel spun out of control as it was hit by the sniper fire and crashed into an unlucky vanguard beneath it. Heloan smirked underneath her helmet before she dug down behind her cover again. "You're three kills behind me now cap. Try to keep up or you'll lose this bet too." Siflion could almost see her stick her tongue out in a playful manner under the helmet. "Show off." Siflion grumbled to himself, just loud enough so that the nearby Sinners wouldn't hear him.
The fight kept going like this for a few long moments without the Sinners making any real progress. That was until Siflion spotted what looked like a vanguard inside of a nearby tower, the only building on this hill for that matter, near one of the windows. It didn't really do anything except switching its attention between the Siflion and his Sinners and the company of imperial troops led by the Principes.
"It must be some kind of commander or observer. Maybe it's passing information about our whereabouts to their troops?" Siflion thought to himself as he watched the droid turn around to observe the imperial company again. He turned to Heloan.
"Heloan can you see that droid up in the tower?" He shouted to her over hails of fire coming from both sides. The Female sniper glanced over her cover and up at the tower, spotting the said droid.
"Yeah, What of it?" she shouted back, a hint of irritations in her voice. "It doesn't do anything, it just stands there."
"That's the problem. I think its passing information to its commanders or something like that."
"So… What do want me to do about it? Shoot it?" Siflion would have facepalmed if he wasn't holding a charging grenade in his hand. He threw the grenade before he replied. "Yes!" The sound of the grenade exploded, making him stop answering until it had quietened down a bit. "I want you to shoot its fat metal ass off!" Heloan only nodded and the next time she got up from cover she aimed her Cold Wind rifle up towards the tower. A moment later the window exploded and the vanguard fell to the floor without its head.
"Sorry cap, I couldn't get its ass from this angel so I took its head instead." Siflion was about to give her a comical reply when he noticed that the Forerunner forces were attacking with less and less ordination. "So it was some kind of commander after all." The fact didn't really matter anymore but he made a mental note to pass on the new information to the rest of the army.
"Alright guys let's wrap this up. One fin-!" He never got to finish his order before No'el Jumped over his own cover with both of his hardlight blades in hands and screamed with all his lungs could muster.
"Charge!" The assassin sprinted towards the nearest vanguard in sight, dodging Whatever they fired at him, and swung his blades as soon as he got into range, separating its head from its shoulders, before moving on to the next.
Siflion just shook his head and followed the crazy assassin SINNER along with the rest of his unit. Most of the Sinners had drawn their hardlight blades and were now cutting through the scattered Forerunner ranks, showing no mercy. Soon the hill had been taken and the Sinners moved to secure the shield spire. Half an hour later the hills had been cleared from any kind of Forerunner war machines.
"Heloan get someone to place the explosives on the spire so we can get out of here." Siflion ordered. Heloan saluted and turned on her heels to get the explosives and some poor souls to order around. It didn't take long before the charges were in place and ready to turn the Shield spire into scrap metal. The Night Lord and the rest of the imperial forces left the pack in a hurry and detonated the explosives. The above the hills disappeared and the fleet were now able to rain doom down upon the automated anti-air guns. And so they did. A nearby Wave-class Battleship turned its focus on the now exposed hills and fired all of its canons once or twice. The entire pack was engulfed in fire and explosions. A few of the blasts missed and hit some of the building just outside the pack limit, collapsing under their own weight.
"Good job everyone." The Principes clapped a few of the soldiers on their shoulders before he came to the Sinners. The Principes Stood face to face with Siflion, looking him in the eyes before he slowly extended his hand. "And you Sinners, you did a great job. Hell we probably couldn't have pulled it off without you guys."
"We just did our job; we wouldn't have made it without you and your men either." Smiled Siflion, accepting the hand and shook it. "Now let us get some more troops join the battle and hopefully also some tanks."
"Aye, but you and your squad are needed somewhere else. The Lord of Admirals wants you and the rest of the Sinners gathered up on the Gaia Titan, Darkhive, for some new mission." Siflion nodded and left to prepare his unit for departure.
They got on the first dropship to land at the now completely destroyed pack and were off towards the Darkhive located near the center of the fleet. The fleet had done a great job at ripping the Foreunner defense fleet apart and had forced the enemy to retreat deeper into the Capital, leaving many platform exposed from above, The Empire was winning but not without casualties.
_Ω_
The Night Lords entered a large room filled with large teleport-gates at the opposite side of the doorway they came from. They had been directed to this room as soon as they land on the Darkhive and it appered hey were the last to show up. The other 99 Sinners stood in a half circle in the center of the room around a holographic projection of Aldu Tasmor, the Lord of Admirals, the other SINNER squads looked like they had been fighting some pretty hard battle before they were ordered back to the Darkhive.
"So now that we're all present, I'll begin the briefing." Aldu said as he looked at each of the 110 Sinners who all stood at attention and listened quietly to their commander-in-chief.
"So far our attack on the Capital has been with great success but at the most of thousands of lives. Therefor I want to end this battle quick and easy. You're all going to be deployed by Transport Drop Spires at the Forerunners council building where we have found 'core' of the Enemies data stream if one of you will be able to upload our AI killer computer virus from the core we would kill all the Forerunner AI's in this cursed place." A second holographic image appeared in front of Aldu, showing the council building in the middle surrounded by buildings. The air was clear of warship for the time being but it was only a question about hours before the area would be swarming Forerunner forces. "So to sum it all up, each team will be equipped with the virus; you'll all be teleported near the forerunners headquarters, fight your way to the command center and upload the virus. Is it all understood?" The SINNER nodded. "Good, may our ancestors watch over us all." Aldu said before his holographic image disappeared; the Sinners started preparing for the gates to be activated by the spires computer systems.
Outside, the Darkhive fired eleven spires towards the very center of the Capital. The 24 meter long spires sailed through the air, through countless waves of large antimatter blasts, ionized particle beams explosions and pieces of what once had been proud ships of war from both sides. The spires quickly covered the distance between the Darkhive and the council building, smashing into the roads or nearby building not far away from the Sinners target. The Spires activated their shield and started transmitting the coordinates for the teleportation back to the Darkhive.
"Alright everyone let us end this battle once and for all!" Siflion shouted to all the gathered Sinners as the teleport gates activated, a pitch black/purple glow in the middle with blinding white light as frame. The different Sinner teams charged trough the portal and emerged around the Transport Drop Spires. Siflion was the last to enter his teams' gate and emerged on the edge of what used to be a wall before the spire had smashed through it and most of the room. He took a few steps away from the edge; just to be sure he wouldn't fall down. Behind him was his team securing the nearby rooms for any kind of hostiles. Heloan and a few of her snipers had moved a few floors up to get a better view at the council building just up the street.
"Captain, it doesn't look like the buildings perimeter is heavily guarded at all only a few sentinel patrols." She said over the squads' com-link.
"Thanks you, return to back to us." Heloan said confirmation while Siflion turned to No'el. "How are the other teams doing?"
"Most of them had no problems at all, however the Rune Blades got spotted by a nearby sentinel patrol and had to eliminate it. The enemy knows we're here." Sifion cursed under his breath at the news. Now the Forerunners knew they were here long before he had liked them to know but there nothing he could do about it now.
"We'll proceed as planned and head towards the target. Tell all the other teams that whoever arrives first will head to the command center alone while the others will fend off any enemy reinforcements." No'el nodded and passed the order to the other teams. The Night Lords gathered and headed towards their target.
As Heloan had stated there was only a few patrols of sentinels between them and the council building. The sentinels proved to be no challenge at all, but they served their purpose by slowing down the Sinners for as long as they could.
"Cap, we got three cruisers heading our way." Siflion looked up to the skies and spotted the three cruisers. They would be here soon and unload swarms of sentinels and enforcers down upon their heads if they didn't get the gates soon.
"Damn. Double time everyone!" He called out to everyone in his squad and they pushed forward at a little faster.
_Ω_
Siflion parried another hit from the hardlight blade coming crashing down towards his head with his own hardlight blade. He didn't even have time to try to make a counter move before the machine raised its right arm; its underarm was replaced with a Scattershot shotgun. He managed push the blade away and roll to the left before the machine could split his chest open with its deadly firearm. He finished the roll just to the machines left side and spun around, swinging the sword so he could separate its lower region from its upper only to cut through air as it teleported away from him and up on an balcony high above his head.
"Damnit, get back down here so I rip that ugly head of yours off!" He yelled at it, swinging his sword around as if it would get the machine down again. This machine, a Promethean Battlewagon, had put his patience on one hell of a test. He only got a twisted scream as an answer before it curled up and teleported again.
"Captain, dodge!" One of his teammates shouted. Siflion threw himself forward, almost getting sent flying through the large hall as the Battlewagon appeared beside him and charged with insane speed towards him. This time however he was quicker and swung his blade across its chest, dropping its shields and cutting off one of its arms closer to the chest. It screamed in agony and rage. Before Siflion could turn the blade to finish the Battlewagon off it hit him in the face with its Scattershot, almost breaking his shield and sending him airborne before he landed on the floor a 2 meters away. It screamed at him again, this time revealing the blue-colored-burning-like human skull behind its helmet.
"What the… That was a human skull! What did the Forerunners do to those we left behind?" He thought to himself as he prepared for the Battlewagon to charge him again. It charged with teleporting straight at him but he wouldn't fall for the same trick again and rolled to right angling his sword so the machine charged right into his blade, cleaving itself into two with its own momentum. The machine disintegrated before it even hit the floor, turning into a little glowing ball just hovering above the floor. Siflion let out a breath he hadn't noticed he had hold in. He got back on his feet and looked around the large hall. The rest of his squad was just finishing off their own Promethean Knight.
The knights had suddenly appeared out of nowhere while the Night Lords had been passing through the many halls and chambers that made up most of the council tower. There had been eleven knights, one for each of the Sinners. The fight had been prolonged because of the knights' rapid use of their teleportation capabilities. The knights had used a lot of hit and run tactics, apparently knowing that they wouldn't hold long against the Sinners with brute force alone. But in the end the knights had been no match and was all reduced to glowing orbs scattered around the floor of the hall. At the far end were the heavy blast doors leading into the Forerunners command center.
"Hope that's the last line of defense." No'el said as he rubbed his right arm. His knight had managed to land a heavy kick on it before he was able to split its head in two. "I don't want to fight more of those things for a time." A few others gave their agreement Siflion himself included, they had wasted to much time fighting these weird machines and the longer it took them to get to that command center and upload that virus the more of their brothers and sisters in arms would lose their lives.
The doors was of course lock when they reached it but a short hacking into the doors systems later and the doors opened up like it would for any Forerunner with the required authority. Imperial computer tech had for many millenniums ago surpassed the Forerunners with multiple leaps.
The squad, weapons at the ready, moved into the dimly lit command center, weak light from the holetables was the only light source in the large room. Nothing moved except for the Sinners as they move further into the room, securing from any possible threats.
"Room Clear, cap-" The room was suddenly bathed in light when all the lights in the ceiling came to life and the holotable located in the middle of room brightened and a figure of a blue male Forerunner appeared, the Ancilla Commander.
"How, How are you live? You… you should all have been dead for more than 102.000 years ago." The Ancilla asked, confusion overtaking its face and with eyes of defeat. The Sinners ignored it and searched for a portal they could upload the virus from.
"ANSWER ME!" Sparks sprung from most of the computer equipment, the Ancilla Commanders own form flicking a bit and taking a permanent lighter red color. The Sinners shielded their heads from the sparks with raised hands. Siflion ordered the others to keep searching the now damaged equipment. Meanwhile he turned to the heavy panting Ancilla on the holotable.
"How we survived doesn't matter now, only that we're here to get our revenge for what your masters did so many years ago." He moved up to the table, towering over the AI's form. "Now tell me where I can find your cowardly creators. Since it seems like they ran away from here before we came."
The AI chuckled a little, hearing this, and shook his head.
"Well they aren't here and I don't know where they have gone off too. So… " The AI looked at the other Sinner spotting that they had found an operational portal to upload their foul virus and was doing said uploading right now. The Sinners reported that the virus had successfully uploaded and was now racing through the entire network that spawned the Capital, slowly eating the AIs away. This also happened to the Ancilla Commander, his feet and lower legs slowly disappearing and moving up towards the rest of his body. "…I just have this to say to you all… Get OUT OF MY COMMANDCENTER!"
A portal quickly can together at one of the walls and activated, sucking the Sinner like a hole in a window on a spaceship in space. One by one the Night Lords was sucked in and consumed by the whirling vortex. The portal deactivated when all of the Night Lords was gone. The Ancilla Commander grinning madly before what was left of his head disappeared forever. The Humans had finally won the battle of the Capital.
_Ω_
The 03/15/2581. Growth: Unknown location.
Siflion and the rest of his men slowly came back from unconsciousness. Just by the look of the designs in the floor could Siflion guess that they were somewhere in some kind of Forerunner facility. However it was clear they were not alone here. The noises of insect wings flapping and other weird sounds made the Sinners look around them. They were standing on a raised podium pushed up against one of the rooms four walls with a large portal powering down behind them. The floor and the three other walls were covered with different life forms. Some looked like giant insects that were all over the walls. On the floor in front of the podium was what looked like an ugly cross between a bird, a lizard and… something else along with some oversized apes wearing some kind of fancy looking armor. All of the three races were either bowing or kneeing before the Sinners.
At the very front of the gathered races was a large kneeing ape in Golden armor and a large hammer in one of his hands, probably the leader. The golden cladded ape raised his head, looking at the Sinners I awe before he spoke.
"Praise you, holy ones for letting us bath in your eternal glory. We…" The ape spread out his free hand, gesturing to the gathered aliens. "are but your lowly servants who seek your unmatched wisdom so that we, one day, can ascend to the higher reals just like you did. For you are the Forerunners, our gods."
The Sinners stood in complete silence while the ugly ape spoke. The Speech had shaken them a little. To think that there was races worshiping the Forerunners as their gods.
"Sir what do we do?" One of the Night Lords asked over their com-system.
"That's an easy question. We kill them all for worshipping the wrong 'gods'." Siflion said with disgust and hatred before grabbing his hardlight blade, activating it, and jumped at the gold cladded ape, the sword high above his head. His squad followed right behind him, their weapons raised for the coming slaughter.