A/N: I really hate school. My new one sucks. Alright, enough of my problems. I don't have anything new to report in terms of the story. Well, alrighty then. Enjoy Chapter 10 of The Life of an ODST.
I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE TITLES LISTED HERE. I just enjoy them.
Chapter 10: First Meeting
Anthony rounded the corner, flattened against a wall. He looked around the hall, and into the next room.
"Clear" he whispered. The team moved into the room and spread out.
"We need to find the general." Leon said. "Where would a prisoner be held?" He asked as he walked about the room.
"A secure area with guards that can easily see all entrances, has available cover, and is brightly illuminated?" Makie asked. Everyone looked at her with different looks. Shock, confusion, one that accused her of being crazy, and Master Chief's visor. "Sorry, I didn't think it was such a bad-"
"Actually, she's right." Leon interrupted.
"Wow, I'm surprised she would come up with something that genius" Nathan said.
"Shutup, jackass." Anthony spoke.
"Let's move" Chief moved ahead to a door with a sign above that read "Armory" Chief moved into the hall, and peered around the corner. Three grunts moved into a room with a fleet of covenant troops inside it. Inside, the troops were eating and conversing. "Mess hall" Chief said. They continued moving further down the corridor slowly and silently, only to see small, unimportant rooms to them. Bunks, communications, supplies, armories, and some other stuff. All important to the covenant and, if destroyed, would prove to be very bad. But unimportant to the team on search for the general. They stopped and looked at each other, still crouched.
"Where the hell is he?" An impatient Nathan asked.
"I'm not sure. The best place to look would be on the lower levels. It's more well guarded." Leon said. "Did anyone see any-" he was but off by the 'KSS' of an air compressed door opening. The team looked around, and jumped to the closest hiding spot they could. Anthony jumped to an open closet, Leon behind a small cylindrical mechanical object. Nathan grabbed Makie and jumped with her behind a wall. Which left Chief with nowhere to hide. Chief jumped up, and grabbed a hold of a series of pipes lining the ceiling. He picked his feet up to his body just as the elite looked his way. The elite looked around, swearing he heard some sort of noise. He dismissed it and turned left.
"Damn" Chief thought to himself. Makie and Nathan were gonna be seen. Soon, if he didn't act. The elite passed by Chief without noticing him. Chief let his feet fall, and twisted around as he let go of the sturdy pipes. He met the floor with a small tap, unusual due to his size. He silently stalked behind the elite, and grabbed it in a strangle hold just as it was about to notice the two nervous wrecks hiding behind the wall. Chief kicked the back of the elite's leg, snapping it. The elite tried to cry out in pain, but with Chief's tightening grip, it only managed to let out a small choke. The elite fell to one knee, and Chief took the opportunity to drill it's head into a wall, the result being in it's ultimate demise as it's skull shattered. The motionless body fell, and Chief looked at it, and the wall. "Hard to cover that up..." He was referring to, of course, the large blood splatter and brain matter that remained on the wall of the seemingly low- secured base. Even a grunt would know something was wrong if it saw that. Anthony and Leon came out of their hiding spots, and noticed the dripping mass on the wall as well. As they looked around for something to use to cover up their seemingly dirty crime, Makie met Chief with satisfaction at her accomplishment.
"It seems you do care.... We're even now, I guess." She said with a wink and a smile as she ran over to Anthony.
".....Women.... such unusual creatures...." Chief said to himself. He recalled when he said something similar to Mike when he was talking about Linda behind her back. He couldn't quite recall what it was about though.... He knew it was going to eat at him, especially since he wanted to always treasure every moment he spent with his only friends. Nathan looked to the dead elite, and kicked it as if in revenge for his fallen friend. He then picked it up, and took it into the shadowed area behind the metal object Leon hid behind. He set it down, and searched it for anything the team could use. All he could find was an oily wash rag the elite had used for repairing the mechanical structures in the room it originated from.
"I got something" He said to the others. He got up, and walked to the wall, and began wiping up the gory mess. Once the wall and floor was clean, Nathan threw the rag back onto the elite's hidden corpse. The team regrouped and continued to walk the way they were heading before they were so trenchantly interrupted. Leon stopped, and looked left in a thought process. Everyone turned around and looked at him, and at each other, puzzled. Leon looked at them, smiled, and ran back to the room their enemy came from. Inside was a series of supercomputers, and likely if destroyed, would turn the base into chaos. The team could have done such a thing, but didn't want their presence known and that wasn't their primary objective. Leon ran over to a large monitor overlooking a series of keyboards. He began typing as the screen began moving. Eventually, a map of the large underground structure was brought out. Leon looked around for anything that looked like a printer. And, of course, there was nothing in sight.
"They have all this, but no printer?" Leon whined.
"Quit complainin'!" Nathan said as he walked towards the monitor. He pulled a wire and a small PDA out of his sack, and plugged it into the computer's designated port. He pressed some buttons, then the screen read "DATA WRITING....FINISHED!" Nathan looked at Leon and smiled. He unplugged the PDA, and gave it to Leon. He then looked at the screen and thought to himself. The team started walking away but turned around to see Nathan staring at the keyboard.
"Nate, lets go!" Makie said. Nathan looked at her, puzzled.
"Nate?" He asked.
"Yea, your new nickname!" She said cheerfully. Nathan shook his head, and looked at the team.
"Uuh, go on ahead. I'm gonna check on something. I wont be long." He said as he turned around with determination in his eyes. Makie looked scared, and walked over to him.
"Nathan, what are you doing? There's nothing to do here, we have what we need." She said as she grabbed his arm and started pulling. He looked at her and tried to don the most authentic smile he could muster, given the circumstances.
"It's OK, I'll be right behind you." He said. Makie could see right through the seemingly transparent smile and happy attitude he gave her, and saw his resolve. Strong willed, just like Anthony. He must have took a thing or two from him. And if that was the case, he wouldn't be budged easily. Anthony walked over to her, and pulled her away from Nathan, it seemed he took the hint as well. She unwillingly turned around and began running with the team, leaving their comrade behind... never to see him again. Nathan pulled out a small portable storage device and plugged it in. He grabbed his weapon and faced the door as the screen read "COPYING ALL DATA.....". He didn't have much time before someone knew what he was up to. But it was long enough to get it to the UNSC. He really hoped they would get something out of this.
Makie ran with the team, with Leon following. They ran from hall to hall, until they reached a large flight of stairs. They began to walk down slowly and quietly. Leon peered around the corner, and pulled his hand up, calling the team to a halt. He turned around slowly. Trying not to draw too much attention.
"2 brutes. 4 honor guards, and 10 grunts. This is the most secure area of the base. The general is definitely through the door they are guarding." He explained. "How we are going to get to that door is another problem altogether." Leon obviously didn't have any ideas, and neither did the rest of the team. Leon looked up and noticed something, the ceiling was different than the rest of the building. It was tiled. He looked down to the others, who were still stretching for ideas. Leon got up, and felt the ceiling tiles, they were fairly sturdy. Definitely strong enough to hold up a person. Not Chief, but the rest of them, probably. Leon had an idea, that was just crazy enough to work.
Leon, Anthony, and Makie ruffled through the ceiling, dodging the heating ducts, and aluminum tubing while all the while trying to be as stealthy as possible. It was a fairly long distance before they got to where they needed to be. Leon tapped the floor... rather... ceiling, trying to find an opening to use. He looked up to Anthony and Makie, with disappointment.
"We'll have to fight them to get in. They have no openings whatsoever in the holding cells." Leon said. Anthony radioed in to Chief to give him an update.
"Chief, it's a no go, we're gonna need to fight to get in. Be prepared to lend backup, because we'll need it." Anthony whispered into the microphone.
"Got it." Came the dark, quiet response. He was trying his best to stay hidden as well. Anthony looked at Leon.
"Less we get in each others way and end up killing each other, we're gonna need a plan. I have a fairly simple one, but it's gonna require a lot of trust and deduction on our end. We go in one at a time. I'll go first, and pick off as many as I can get. Try to take care of the grunts, to get them out of the way. Once it gets to the point where I can't handle one guy, one of you will have to step in and start attacking." Anthony explained. It seemed simple, and easy. The only hard part was figuring out when someone else had to run interception. The two nodded their heads, and Anthony walked a little ways before nodding to his friends, and jumping into the air. He landed and fell through, onto a grunt that gave way with a loud cry, which lead to everyone else's alert of his presence, aside from a large human standing right in front of them. Leon and Makie began firing, and managed to pick off 4 of the remaining grunts. The others began running, and Makie jumped down and ran after them. She knew they were gonna call for backup, which was definitely unwanted attention. An honor guard approached Anthony, with a brute following armed with a gravity hammer. The elite pulled up his arm in an effort to strike, but Anthony punched it in the chest, and pulled its arm into an arm lock. He then grabbed the inactive energy sword on its leg. The brute behind had picked up it's gravity hammer before Anthony made the move on the elite, and started swinging. It didn't have enough time to withdraw the hammer before Anthony dodged to the left, and the hammer hit the elite, both sending it flying and smashing it to pieces at the same time. Anthony ignited the energy sword, and without giving the brute any time to recover, drilled it into it's abdomen. Anthony then spotted the second brute picking up its hammer, and began to lower it. At the same time, Anthony heard a series of loud thumps behind him, but couldn't move given his current position. Before he knew it, Chief had appeared in from of the brute, and was standing straight in the path of the hammer. The brute swung it with ground breaking force, but was intercepted by the Master Chief's forearms. He had actually caught the hammer in an attempt to save Anthony. Chief then pivoted both arms around the hammer, and grabbed it with both hands. Chief used an amazing feat of strength, and picked up the brute, hammer and all, and smacked it down onto the floor headfirst, sending blood flying. Anthony heard a sword ignite behind him, and the heat of an energy sword as it approached his neck. He then heard a silent "CLICK" that stood out from other things he had heard. An elite fell on him, which impaired him from moving. Chief turned around to see Leon holding a beam rifle. From where he got it, he didn't know. Chief saw another honor guard approaching Leon from behind. He drew his knife, and threw it at the elite with such accuracy, that it made a slight incision on Leon's head when it landed into the elite's neck. It scrambled to hold onto the wound, clinging to dear life, and collapsed as Leon dove forward, just missing it. He got up, and ran to the Chief.
"Thanks, I owe you." Without acknowledgment, Chief proceeded to pick up the elite and brute that was toppled on top of Anthony and threw both to the side, giving the newly freed soldier some air to breathe. Makie was down the hall opposite where they came from running towards them. Anthony got up, and greeted her as the team regrouped. Anthony looked at the Master Chief.
"The guards had no key. There's no way to open this door." The Chief explained. Chief looked around for something to use, but found nothing but Leon's beam rifle, and two gravity hammers, which would most likely turn out to be useful later during their escape. Whereas Chief saw nothing, in Anthony's eyes, he saw the only tools he needed to open the door. Anthony turned to Leon.
"Can I borrow that beam rifle for a sec?" He asked.
"Umm, sure?" Leon replied, confused. He gave Anthony the rifle, and watched as he picked up the gravity hammer, and gave one to the Chief.
"We have to overload the circuits powering the force field protecting the door. Using the power of the hammer, we should be able to do just that. We both have to hit it together though, otherwise it won't work." Chief took the hammer, and both faced the door with the protective barrier. "On 3....1......2......3!" Anthony cried. Both charged at the door, and swung the hammers, contacting the door at the exact same time. No dice. "Again." The two backed up, and charged again, and again, and again. "One more time" The two stepped back a little further, and charged faster into the door, and swung harder, amping up the power output. Sure enough, the door shut off, and the remaining power of the hammer dented the door slightly, leaving a small opening where the two doors met. "Now comes the job of the beam rifle." Anthony picked up the beam rifle, and jammed it in the small opening. Anthony picked up the gravity hammer, and faced the beam rifle so he was looking at it from the side. He backed up, and ran to the rifle, and hit it sideways, opening the door in the intended direction it was made to go, but not exactly in the most simple of ways. Inside, was a medium built man with short brown hair and a high officer's uniform on. Chief was the first to approach him.
"General, I am Spartan- 117. I am here to transport you to the intended area for extraction by order of the UNSC."
"I know who you are, Spartan. There is no need to greet me formally, seeing the position we are in now. I thank you for coming to my aid, but we don't have time to get through all of this now. Let's go." The general quickly began the journey to get out of the base, as if he was expecting something bad to happen. At this, Makie knew something wrong was going to happen, and the general was at the center of it all.
A/N: I don't know if you guys saw it, but I uploaded a small trailer- ish thing for my next story, entitled Ominous Spirits. Check it out, you just might like it. It won't be started until this story is finished, however. This is going to be my main priority for quite a while. Otherwise, I won't come back to it.