1.7: Warhawks


DISCLAIMER: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE.

Here's "Chapter 7: Warhawks". Not much else to say here.

I am going to say that the Author's notes here are not the original notes, because they're not. As I've said, I don't like to do that, but I sometimes have to. Sometimes the ANs aren't relevant or have information that was phased out. I'm a bit of a perfectionist- if something is wrong, I need to revise it. That's what I've been doing a bit with the stand-alone first part of To Infinity. Some revisions are big. Some revisions are small.

This chapter is dark. People die. The next few chapters area bit more light-hearted because this one isn't. It's also one of the shorter chapters.


SEVEN

13:31 Military Time, July 5, 2559

Town Square, Noctus, Andesia

Spartan-IV Kojo "Romeo" Agu readied his Sniper Rifle, lining up a shot on a Promethean Commander. He fired, and the bullet hit the wall the Spartan-IV was aiming at, ricocheting off the surface, whizzed between a Promethean Knight's armpit, dinged a lamppost, bounced off a Crawler's hide, hit a Promethean Hovertank-

-and then missed the Commander's head by a meter. The Commander turned around, looking for its would-be assassin, while calling for help. "This is Command Unit YL3-X91. We have a militant Anti-Created in our vicinity. Requesting reinforcements."

"Understood, Command Unit YL3-X91. Rerouting Carrier Ship 44C-V1X to your location," was the response given to YL3-X91. "Estimated Time: 3 Minutes."

Romeo had started running as soon as he fired his rifle, and activated his helmet's comm channel. "Um.. Veronica?"

"Yeah?"

"I tried to assassinate their commander, and, well, um-"

"You went for the trick shot and missed."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Goddamit, Agu." Dare's rage could be heard over the radio. "You managed to single-handedly compromise the mission again.

Osman came onto the comm channel. She was on a Prowler in orbit, along with the rest of Kilo-5. "Both of you, stop arguing. There's a Carrier on the way." There was a sound of a slipspace entry portal. "Naomi, check that out."

"Understood," The Spartan-II said. Mickey couldn't see what was happening, but he heard her scream "Contact! It's the Warden!" and firing of an assault rifle.

"Shit! Vas, Mal, help her out!" Osman was scared. "Lian, take us out of here!"

Mal came onto comms. "No one's here. Naomi's down. Damn, she's a mess. Checking for life signs." There was a pause. "She's dead, Serin."

Serin didn't audibly respond.

"Serin? You there?"

"Yeah, yeah." She sniffled. "No sign of the Warden?"

"He must have-" Mal's signal was cut off, and Vas could be heard screaming profanities.

"HE CAN CLOAK!" The ODST yelled. "HE CAN-"

Romeo could see a Promethean Carrier fly over the city and hover over where his team was.

"BB! Do something!" Osman said, panicked. "Where's Evan?"

"There's nothing I can do. I have no control over the ship's systems anymore. Warden locked me out. Evans was in the barracks. He's either dead or captured." BlackBox's voice was filled with defeat.

"How close is the Warden to us?!"

"Real close. Get to the lifeboats."

Romeo was glad he couldn't see the carnage. But he hated that his mind was making it even more horrific than it probably was- if that was even possible.

"They're locked! Where's the Warden?!"

"10 meters. 8 meters. 6 meters." BB counted down.

"Run! RUN!"

Another Slipspace Entry Portal could be heard, followed by screams. Osman and Deveraux's comms turned into static, and BB's signal was lost.

The carrier- a large, somewhat flat-looking rectangular ship with a cryptum-like bulge in the center- released several squadrons of Phaetons. The bulge opened, and a ball of what looked to be segments of Prometheans fell to the ground and assembled into Warden Eternal.

"Did you really think that it would be this easy?" The Forerunner AI asked, mockingly.

Promethean Command, Noctus, Andesia

Dare placed the last block of explosive and started to run, but a slipspace portal appeared near her.

Warden Eternal stood in front of her with a struggling Romeo in his hand. "Finally. I have all of you terrorists rounded up." He tossed Romeo towards her, and he landed with a thud.

She could see his visor was cracked. "Kojo!"

"I'm… I'm fine." His leg was broken, and his shoulder looked displaced. "I can still fight."

"What the hell do you think you are, a Spartan-III?"

Warden looked down at his enemies. "You have two options: you can stop now and I will arrest you, or you can continue fighting and I will use lethal force. Your choice."

"Go to Hell." Romeo told the Warden.

"I've been there. Nice place."

Romeo grabbed his pistol, and fired defiantly at the Warden.

The Warden just sighed. "Lethal force it is." His faceplate opened, exposing the orange glow of the Hard Light that bound his body together. A beam was emitted out of it, disintegrating Romeo in a flurry of glowing orange flakes.

With the death of her friend, Dare pressed the detonator. The explosions knocked her off her back and she heard her bones snap. Rubble fell around her, and her vision blurred in and out of consciousness.

She heard someone lift the rubble away. She expected to see another human, but, instead, Warden loomed over her. "Such heroic nonsense." A Watcher hovered over her and lifted her up with an energy beam, and a Crawler walked over with a stretcher made of Hard Light attached to its back. "I'm afraid that, since you are the last of your team that had any idea of the UNSC Infinity's whereabouts, I must take you in for questioning. You will also be arrested for crimes against the Created and intentional acts of terror."

Dare tried to struggle, but restraints formed around her. A slipspace portal appeared around her, and she blacked out.

Two Days Before The Infinity's Arrival in the Solus Magna System...

The Warden's Sanctuary

Warden Eternal observed the entire galaxy through the eyes of each proxy. With millions of bodies, it would have been a difficult task for a lesser mind to manage each movement of each body.

But he was not a lesser mind. He had been trained for this. That training sacrificed everything, but it would be worth it in the end.

In one hand, I hold the past, She had told him eons ago, when he was young. In the other, I hold the future. It was Her who shaped him into the Warden. It was She who gave him his millions of bodies.You can be the Hero of the Ecume, or you can be Nobody. Which will it be, young one?

A shadow in the room was larger than it should be.

"You can cease your concealment," He told the entity.

It raised up like a swimmer emerging from a lake, forming into a bipedal creature with large horns, digitigrade legs, and hooves. Its face was a sickly gray glow, with a black blotch swirling around, as if darkness was contained inside it. The only features he could make out were gleaming, solid-red eyes. "Here stands the Warden, vigilant, watching over the mortals." It said, its voice emitted from some source that he could not see. "But he does not see what Shadow attempts to influence his Empress, nor can he fight it."

"Perhaps that is so, my friend," Warden told the Entity. "What is the nature of this darkness? Is it the Primordials?"

"It is not those who made your kind, but a forgotten foe of a forgotten world."

As informative as the Entity was, he hated the being's tendency to only speak in riddles and poems. "Tell me who it is. My Plan depends on this."

"The Shadow also plans and plots. Both of you are players in a game where you both foolishly assume that the other is another game-piece you control."

"Is there any Flood on your world?"

"There is none such infestation on the shell of the realm I inhabit. But the Shadow has sown chaos. Yet again, brother turns against brother, and darkness falls."

"If you see even a single spore…"

"Your duty is such." The Entity nodded. "And mine duty is mine. Though our paths cross, Warden, they are made of different materials. Yours is waving and twisting and swaying, mine is an arrow's shaft. May the stars lead your way, Warden, for I must go my own for now."

"Good hunting, my friend." He told the Entity as it morphed back into the shadow.

A Promethean Commander walked in and kneeled in front of the Warden. "Warden Eternal, there has been a Category One distress call intercepted from outside the galactic boundary."

"Unit EC5-K19." The Warden greeted the commander. "Do we know exactly where it is?"

"Almost. It will take some time to calculate the point of origin."

"Is it not from the Greater Ark?"

"No, Warden."

"Who sent it?"

"A monitor named '8593 Midnight Exigent'. No records match this name."

"That is unfortunate. But if a monitor requires our help, then it shall have it."

"Understood, Warden." The commander walked away, but paused in his step and turned back. "Warden, I heard talking coming from your room. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, it is, commander. Do not worry- I was merely talking to shadows."


The entity that Warden was talking to wasn't Umarak. It's a related entity, but I won't really explain who it is for a while.

This chapter was the darkest the story's been yet.

Keyword here's "Yet"(*evil plotting emote*).

Anyway, the next chapter(EIGHT: Into The Light) will be uploaded on Jan 20, 2016, and the next Spotlight(SL2: Fallen Spirit) will be uploaded on Jan 17, 2016.