Author's Notes: Firstly, I apologize that this chapter has been so long in coming. Navy life for me has become increasingly hectic, and the only reason I had a chance to finish this chapter up now is because I'm on leave at home. It's a little short, but it gets the point across, and sets the stage for further plot development in the next chapter. I hope you will enjoy, and forgive my tardiness. Hopefully – though no guarantees – the next chapter won't take as long.
0433, October 3, 2552, Local Time
Surface of Eridanus II, 500 Meters from the Echoes of Eternity:
John couldn't have asked for a worse approach to the downed Covenant cruiser. A grand total of six rocks the approximate size of large ammo cases were all the cover that was offered. They would protect a Marine from one shot from a plasma rifle. Two, if the Marine was lucky. The rest of the cover had been ground into powder by the force of the Eternity's fiery crash.
His instinct was to run across the open ground. If he were by himself, he would have done just that. He was almost twice as fast as the Marines, and his MJOLNIR could take several shots before he was in any real danger. Even the toughest Marine couldn't afford to take one.
That meant they had to close with the Eternity at a slower pace, which gave them a few advantages. It ensured the Marines would not be already exhausted and unable to fight by the time they reached the cruiser, just from trying to keep up with him. It also gave them more time to watch for Covenant movement – and make a well-placed shot, if the opportunity arose.
John had the sensitivity of his motion sensors set as high as it would go as he led the Marines out across the open ground, and his eyes were constantly moving behind the reflective gold faceplate of his helmet, scanning for anything that might present a threat. But even now, fifty meters closer to the Eternity, there was no sigh of Covenant life. That worried him. Mitchell had been right; any aliens still onboard the ship could not have failed to miss the arrival of the Humans. The sonic boom from the ballistic re-entry of the Pelican alone would have attracted attention.
And unless something more than an ion storm and a crash landing had happened to the Eternity, there were still plenty of Covenant alive in there somewhere.
At two hundred fifty meters, John halted and brought his battle rifle up, scanning the wreckage from end to end.
"Looking for a way in?" Mitchell asked.
"Looking for the ambush," he replied bluntly. "Linda, did you bring your sniper rifle?"
"Of course," came the expected reply. The female Spartan peered through the more powerful scope of her own weapon for several moments. "No movement," she reported. "A lot of hull breaches though. Plenty of places to hide in."
"Maybe they lost atmospheric containment on the way down?" Mitchell suggested hopefully.
John shook his head. "The outer sectors, maybe, but blast doors would have sealed off the rest."
"Sir, I think I found a way in," came an eager voice just to John's left.
He glanced over and saw Lance Corporal Dupont sighting through her rifle scope. He followed her line of sight, and found what she was looking at.
It was a five-meter gash in the hull, at least as high as it was wide. It wasn't remarkable, considering the rest of the damage the ship had taken, but it was right at ground level, providing easy access into the outer corridors. John studied it for a quick moment, not wanting to linger any longer in the open. It looked clear. He signaled with his left hand, and they started moving again.
A hundred meters out, the Marines started getting edgy.
He couldn't blame them. They should have come under fire by now. Ordinarily, the lack of an attack would have been a good thing, but in a situation like this, it just meant that the surviving Covenant were up to something. He didn't like that idea, either.
Finally, the massive hulk of the downed cruiser was looming over them, covering them in its shadow. They entered a sort of false twilight as the sun disappeared behind the flowing, iridescent curves of the hull.
Moments later, they were approaching the hull breach they'd decided to use as their entrance. John could now see that there were several more gashed in the hull above it. Girders of metal alloy that had been ripped like paper in the force of the crash jutted downward like skeletal, alien fingers reaching for them.
"I'm on point," John said, still moving forward. He didn't want to be caught standing still this close. "The rest of you, fall in behind me. As soon as we're inside, Linda, cover right. Mitchell, cover left."
They didn't respond verbally, but took up their positions, most of their attention focused on their surroundings.
Three meters out from the breach, John activated his armor's floodlight, for only a split second. The brief flash was all he needed. Even as the light faded, the image of the interior was replaying itself in his mind. The hold opened up onto a corridor, filled with debris. But the breach had penetrated deeper into the ship, and there were more corridors beyond. And standing to one side, carefully pressed up against one bulkhead where it would be invisible in the darkness was a blue-armored Covenant Elite.
"Contact!" he warned, and everything seemed to go into slow motion as his faster reflexes kicked in. Even before he'd finished shouting his warning, he was bringing his battle rifle up and sighting in on the enemy. His gun barked once, and purple sprayed across the bulkhead behind the Elite as it took the round between the eyes. It hadn't even had time to activate its shields.
Behind him, the Marines started scrambling for the cover of the ship, but they were far too slow. Streaks of plasma started to drop toward them from a dozen different positions above them, drifting like deadly rain as the Covenant snipers tried to track their scattering prey.
"Go… go… go…" Mitchell's voice sounded distorted in the Master Chief's ears as his adrenaline kicked in and made him move even faster.
He sidestepped the Gunnery Sergeant, ducked a plasma burst, and sighted in on the Grunt that had fired at him. One shot sent the alien tumbling from its perch, but even its body seemed to fall slowly as John kept moving. The Marine in front of him took a shot to the chest and started falling backward, his rifle spraying a dozen rounds skyward as his finger convulsed on the trigger. John was past him before his body had even hit the ground, and another shot from his weapon killed the Jackal that had dropped the Human.
Behind him, Linda was moving just as fast. Her sniper rife thundered, its supersonic round leaving a visible trail of super heated air in its wake as it flashed out to take an Elite through the chest. The armored foe was slammed into the bulkhead behind it before dropping with a gurgling wail.
Most of the Marines were running madly for the cover of the gash in the ship's hull, but John was surprised to see Dupont still out in the open. She was still standing in the same spot she had been six seconds ago when the shooting started. Just as he started to shout for her to move, she dropped to one knee and brought her rifle up. She fired a burst of three rounds, reacquired, then fired another burst. A Grunt toppled from its position three decks above the ground as the first burst punctured its armor, while the second burst spun another Grunt around and planted it face first in the dirt. Then Dupont was up and running, barely escaping a hail of blue fire that tracked her all the way to cover.
The Master Chief sidestepped the body of a Jackal the dropped from somewhere above, picked off by a shot from Linda, put two rounds into a red-armored Grunt on the deck above ground level, and then he was under cover with the rest of the Marines. Linda stepped in right behind him.
The silence was deafening as the Covenant abruptly stopped shooting. No doubt they were trying to reposition so they could get visuals on the Human intruders again.
The entire engagement had lasted less than twelve seconds.
"We have a man down," Cortana reported grimly.
"Status?" John asked.
"He's dead."
"We have to go get him," Mitchell said.
"Negative," Linda put in. "The Covenant have probably left snipers up there just in case we do exactly that. They know we come back for our dead."
"We can't just leave him laying out there!" Sergeant Avery put in vehemently.
"Enough!" John put in firmly. "We don't have time to stand around and debate. The Covenant are closing on our position as we speak. We need to keep moving. We'll come back for him before we leave the planet. For now, leave the dead where they fall. Now move out."
Keeping his rifle at the ready, he led the way deeper into the ship, following the gashes in the bulkheads until they were several corridors in. "Cortana, pull up any schematics you've got on Covenant cruiser layouts and designs. If there's anyplace that we can access the Eternity's AI, it will probably be the control room. We need to get there as soon as possible, before the Covenant realize what we're up to."
"Accessing," Cortana responded. A second later, a holographic overly flashed on the inside of John's visor. "Every cruiser that we've boarded so far has been slightly different," she reported. "But all of them have several basic similarities. Based on the schematics I have and the corridors that I've been able to map so far here on the Eternity, this is the most likely route to the control room." A green line appeared on the overlay, following corridors and snaking around corners until it ended in a chamber that pulsed brighter than the others. "That should be the control room. But I can't make any guarantees."
John paused as he heard the distinctive howl of an Elite somewhere behind and above them. "For now, it will have to be good enough." He turned right into a new corridor. "Keep your eyes open, people."
