Hey everyone! Sorry about the long break between chapters. Life got crazy, and I got busy with other projects. However, I have not forgotten, and I come with another. This one is a bit shorter, and a bit slower (sorry in advance if you were hoping for a chapter of death and destruction), but don't worry. Next chapter will have plenty of excitement. I broke this one off where I did for pacing. Anyways, you all should enjoy it nevertheless.
One last note. At the end, there is a scene with the clones and the Chief. To explain what happened, I figured I should note that those are ARF troopers- the guys who specialize in not getting spotted.
So, now that I have finished with my customary pre-chapter ramble, I give you chapter 4...
"We're passing through the gravity well," warned the pilot.
Anakin's response was cut off by the shaking of the gunship. The overhead handholds were all that kept Anakin and the Clones from being tossed around inside the deployment bay. For the next five minutes this went on as the pilot fought with gravity for control of his ship. As the seconds and minutes ticked by, Anakin felt the pilot becoming more nervous. The pressure was obviously becoming stronger.
"Easy Hawk. We're fine," Anakin mumbled.
Despite his quiet volume, the force touch was there. Slowly but surely, Hawk began to relax. The ship's movement became slightly less abrupt, and the panic began to dissipate.
"Sir, incoming transmission from the Resolute," Rex announced.
"Put it up," Anakin ordered with a nod.
"Yes sir."
With that, the dark deployment bay was illuminated by the glowing blue form of Admiral Yularen.
"Captain Rex, Gen- I mean- Knight Skywalker," he began, "We were able to decrypt what is being transmitted from the ship and surrounding area."
"What exactly are we flying into?" Anakin quizzed.
"A three way mess. Upon crashing, the Infinity came under attack by a force that they called the 'Storm'. In turn we just got into the 'Storm' comm systems- for all the effort it was. They've been dealing with harassment from some other hostile force. I advise caution. The crew of the Infinity speaks basic, and at least portions of the Storm seem to speak a Rakatan dialect. Of the three sides, neither the 'Storm' or their unnamed enemies seem to like humans," Admiral Yularen explained before specifically addressing Rex, "A rough translation system should appear on the your men's HUDs."
Rex and Anakin briefly traded looks. Even with Rex's helmet blocking his face, the two quickly reached a silent consensus.
"Well, Admiral. It looks like we're going to become tight friends with this 'UNSC'," Anakin declared.
"Assuming they survive. Based off of comm chatter, that ship's taking on more than her crew can…" Admiral Yularen stopped as an officer whispered in his ear.
The conversation was hushed, but Anakin still felt dread's familiar gut check as the two exchanged words. Finally, after a few moments, Admiral Yularen turned back to the Captain and Jedi.
"It appears that third group has arrived on scene. Details are fragmented at best. Until the panic subsides in everyone's comm channels, we'll be blind as to the details. I advise caution," Yularen hastily warned.
"Understood. Keep us updated. Skywalker out," Anakin concluded.
You could have heard a pin drop in the deployment bay as Yularen vanished from view.
"Well, this just got… interesting," observed one of the Arch Troopers.
"'Dicy' is the word I would choose," Rex added before addressing his former CO, "Well sir, what's the plan? If we put down on the crash sight, there's a very real chance of friendly fire or just being overrun."
"I agree. As much as I don't like it, we'll put down early and find out what's ahead," Anakin decided with an annoyed sigh.
Rex nodded before turning toward the cockpit and declaring, "Hawk. We need a new landing sight. At least a kilometer out from the crash sight."
"Yes sir. Consider this your ninety second warning then," Hawk acknowledged.
"Understood give us the view," he ordered.
The only response was a sharp hiss as both sets of blast doors snapped open.
"Well, I've seen worse," Rex mumbled as he stared at the thick forest.
"When?"
"Felucia," Rex answered with a wry smile.
"I'll save that judgement until after we know the bug and disease rate," Anakin stated as he remembered his own experiences with the planet.
Down below was a mess of trees, vines, and thick undergrowth. For most it would seem pretty. Dots of color added a nice contrast to the varying shades of green, all of which added as a nice contrast to the clear blue sky. However, to Rex it just looked like an endless sea of hidden obstacles and impossible terrain that stretched as far as his eyes could see.
"Well, one way or another, we're going to land in it," Anakin concluded.
"This is Sierra 117 to Infinity. I'm in route to assist. Over," the Chief called into his helmet comm.
The response was nothing but static as the Chief picked his way through the undergrowth.
"Sierra 117 to Infinity. Come in. Over," the Chief tried again.
By this point he felt dread turning into annoyance.
"Cortana, how hard was the impact?" he quizzed.
"Judging by- 'Reach was our last stronghold… our last-' Damn it!... Judging by the last impact, someone should be able to pick up the mic," Cortana fought to answer.
The Chief raised an eyebrow as an idea worked its way into his brain.
"Cortana. Did we really un-jam the frequency?" the Chief quizzed.
"Yes. That was what was causing the interference. However- Wait… Chief, I think we have bigger problems," Cortana declared with an ever paling voice, "The Storm battle net just went dark like it did in the tower."
"How does an entire battle net go silent?" the Chief wondered as he ducked under one half of a lightning-split tree, "More specifically, why is it always the frequencies that are convenient to us. First it's in the tower. That one lasted long enough to cause confusion, end a potentially fatal firefight, and allow us to miss most of an equally deadly battle... The second one happens now, as a force is attacking the Infinity. Sudden loss of communications could break down the operation and work in the Infinity's favor… Cortana, is there a way to disguise where a jamming system is working from?"
The next few seconds were silent as Cortana thought over the question.
"Theoretically, yes. However, it would have to be under just the right conditions and no one has successfully done it. Speak-Speaking from previous kn- knowledge, ONI attempted this but was unsuccessful," Cortana finally answered before guessing, "You think someone is playing us."
"I think that meeting with Abeloth is causing me to reconsider how much of this planet has to do with this planet is Forerunner," the Chief replied firmly.
"Oh, everything on this planet has had to do with the Forerunners in some way. The architecture… the constructs… everything," Cortana stated.
"What about our mystery woman? Nothing about her looked or acted Forerunner. I'm starting to think she is the one that runs this place," the Chief countered.
"True. She was quite human, and seemed at odds with them. but-" there was a flash of static some garbled noise and then Cortana again- "But that bitch was condescending enough!" Cortana suddenly yelled.
The sudden aggressiveness in her words caused the Chief to stop short.
"Cortana, are you going to be ok, or-"
"I'm fine," Cortana immediately reassured him, "It's just a little harder to function."
There was a tremor in her voice that made the Chief question that statement. Her voice contained a measure of fear that the Chief had almost never heard from her. He had heard joy, excitement, sadness, and worry. However, this was the first time he had heard genuine fear from her.
"Cortana," he began with a relative gentleness, "It's not that, it's the fact that you-"
The Chief was again interrupted. However, instead of Cortana, it was a far out sound. The noise was quiet, mostly carried by the wind, but the warbling noise was definitely not in his head.
"Cortana do you hear that?" he quizzed, all thoughts of the last conversation shoved to the side.
"Yes. It just appeared on the sensors. Six smaller craft closing fast. That's odd…" Cortana confirmed before trailing off.
"What?"
"The craft. They made it through. They're following the Infinity's exact flight path. Yet they obviously did it without power loss unlike the Infinity," Cortana explained.
The frown under the Chief's helmet quickly hardened as he processed the information.
"Could they have gotten lucky?" he inquired.
"I doubt it. There's luck and then there's the kind of luck needed to withstand an EM field in a ship not much bigger than a Pelican. Put simply, that luck doesn't exist," Cortana answered.
"Someone's playing us, be it the woman or someone else. There's too many conveniences to be otherwise," the Chief decided.
The next few minutes carried on in relative silence as he continued fighting through the forest. Trees, rocks, and small streams made for an endless obstacle course. However, foot by foot and kilometer by kilometer he pushed through. Over the crunching of plants and splashing of water, he could hear the warbling getting closer, until they suddenly roared over. Looking through a clearing in the trees, he could see all six of the ships streak by. Under three of them, he thought he could see some sort of object hanging down.
"Those aren't UNSC," the Chief noted apprehensively.
"No, but they sure aren't Storm either," Cortana added.
"Forerunner?"
"No. I don't believe so. The electromagnetic signature is different. Its odd, the suit's sensors keep trying to identify them as Pelicans. However, the power plant emissions don't match anything produced by UNSC craft," Cortana answered.
"They definitely weren't UNSC or Storm," the Chief countered as he continued on his way.
"No, but I get the feeling that we'll find out who they are soon enough," Cortana said.
"What do you mean?" the Chief quizzed as he climbed over a set of massive boulders.
"They've altered their course slightly. If th-they stay on their current trajectory, the ships will set down about a kilometer this side of the Infinity," she explained.
The Chief simply nodded as he continued on his way. He wasn't exactly eager to meet someone new. Every time he had done that, he seemed to end up with more issues than what he started with. It happened with the Forerunners. It happened with the Flood. Finally, it had happened with that… that freak. The Chief winced as he recalled her transformation from rather attractive human to hideous, monster.
A loud blast snapped him out of his thoughts. Birds… or at least what the Chief wrote off as birds… scattered out from the trees. Hidden behind their veil of vegetation, animals went scattering as another blast tore through the forest. In the day's silence, the round almost sounded like an atmospheric MAC shot, though the Chief knew it was much too quiet to be so.
"Cortana?"
"I heard it. Dead ahead. Up the second-"
Cortana was interrupted by series of cracks and muffled follow-up explosion. Somewhere in there, the Chief thought he could hear some kind of small arms fire.
"Second ridge, right where those ships were going," Cortana declared.
The Chief broke into a run as he fought through the undergrowth toward the commotion. However, as he drew closer, he noticed that the explosions and other sounds had come to an end. By this point, the ground turned sharply upward, telling him that the landing site was relatively close. In the expectant silence, the Chief heard another noise. There was a muffled roar as one of the ships flew by over head. A couple minutes later, the Chief encountered another overhead.
"Their circling around, almost like they're looking for something," Cortana noted, "I have three others moving in a tighter south-to-north arc.
The Chief looked up with a raised carbine as another briefly stopped above him, before moving on.
"Not something… someone," the Chief amended, "There was some sort of ball turret on the side. It was moving around like it was scanning for targets."
"Th-That wo'd make sense," Cortana agreed.
He heard a muffled curse over his helmet mic as Cortana fought her rampancy.
The idea of meeting another faction- friend or foe- made his body tense. However, instead of worry, it was out of anticipation and annoyance. Even if they weren't hunting him, surprises and complications were getting really old really fast. Despite this, he continued up the slope.
"Heads up, you have multiple life forms coming down the hill. Make it one squad's worth," Cortana warned.
The Chief nodded as his eyes shot straight up to his motion tracker. A second after her warning, red blips began to appear on the outer edges of his tracker. He counted one… two… four… six… Six figures were slowly making their way toward him.
"They're spread out far enough," Cortana commented.
"Well trained," the Chief guessed.
Without a motion tracker, that kind of spacing would make it next to impossible to know how many there were.
"Or battling the terrain," Cortana offered half-heartedly.
"Until I know otherwise, I'm going with option one," the Chief declared as he continued forward.
As he made his way up, he watched the blips come down toward him. Slowly, they began to break away. He almost didn't catch it at first, but they were splitting into two distinct groups of three. One group was going on either side of him. As they drew closer, the Chief saw a brief flash of grey. However, it was gone in the brush before he could fire. His trigger finger was starting to metaphorically twitch. However, he kept the impulse at bay. He wasn't going to waste precious ammunition on blind shots. Slowly the noose began to tighten. However, the Chief continued to walk while slowly circling with a raised carbine.
"Definitely good," Cortana conceded.
They were about ten to fifteen yard off every side, and the Chief couldn't see one of them. The Chief was about to go flush them out, when a twig snapped behind him. The Chief spun around. His Carbine leveled three inches from someone's head. The humanoid's hands (one of which contained a weapon) instantly raised in a no combative motion. Despite obvious attempts to keep his dignity, the Chief noticed a nervous twitch in the being's hands.
"Drop it!" yelled a voice behind him.
The Chief reflexively spun around. This time, he was face to face with the lethal end of a weapon. The new comer didn't move his weapon, even with the Chief's own weapon remained leveled at his chest. This person seemed to lack any of the nerves that the other person had displayed, or at least was better at hiding them. Behind him, the Chief heard a metallic thump as the other humanoid re-leveled his own weapon.
"Hold your fire," barked the first person.
Suddenly, there was a series of crashing sounds as the other six humanoids came tearing out of the forest. Each one had a weapon leveled at the Chief. He reigned in his reflexes as he assessed the situation. One of him, and six enemies of unknown power and capability. However, there was an obvious discipline and skill to group that the Chief noted.
"We don't want to hurt you. We just want to talk," the man stated.
Despite the being's attempt at a disarming tone, the Chief noted an obvious amount of tension.
"Prove it," the Chief demanded.