SGTLEGENDKILLEЯ
Fate Continuum
Act II Chapter IV
"Chasing The Demon"
H.C.D: August 23, 2552
The air was tainted by the sharp nip of a slight chill. A soft breeze that had been slowly building over the period of several hours shoved warm damp air up over the side of the mountain face. The stench of gunpowder, smoke, and ozone from plasma usage lingered with the breeze on occasion. It was not that upsetting of a smell completely as the occasional front of sea smelling air moved along with the wind currents. The sun rested just over the ocean in the horizon, illuminating the peaks of the mountains and mostly what was left of the near anarchic chaos that was the Human city of New Alexandria. As the breeze had began to cross the city, meeting the city as the night approached, a blanket of fog had become to form between the ground level and the high rising buildings of the city.
K'an grimaced as he shielded his eyes from the sun's rays as he looked over the city. He had spent several long moments surveying the battle below the mountain ridge. Currently he was advising a mid-sized group of assorted Covenant troops as they built a large scale communications jammer on top of a plateau of the ridge line. The group was one of many who were building these jammers around the perimeter of the city. Several similar jammers had been placed in the city in order to scramble the forces inside of the city perimeter from one another. The Covenant was making sure that no communications were getting out to the rest of the planet. He further grimaced as the light reflected off of the hull of a passing group of Phantom. Naki approached him from behind.
"K'an, they are almost finished with assembly." She said.
"Good…" K'an paused, turning to her. "How are the other groups going?"
"Already done, however they started before we even arrived here."
K'an hummed softly in agreement and with a nod he turned back to the view of the city. "Something isn't right about this… This siege is taking too long."
"Its a siege, the Covenant does not usually perform sieges." Naki said. "Thats a problem right there."
"Well why this city, then?"
"There is a human intelligence center there. Other than that, I do not know."
"There must be something special here." K'an admitted "For I have seen the Covenant drive through a much larger city and still get more of a grip on it than this."
"Perhaps, but we have to do this anyway. We have our orders." Naki shrugged.
"I understand that…" K'an sighed, pausing once again. "However it does make you wonder if there are hidden motives."
"There are always hidden motives. I should get back to the jammer." Naki nodded and headed back to monitor the assembly.
"Very well. I think I shall join you." K'an turned and followed close behind her.
K'an looked past her to see how the jammer was coming along. Working on the large device were a pair of Huragok and several Unggoy aiding the construction. The Huragok were placing the final pieces of alloy onto the outer casing and the jammer powered up.
"Good" K'an started with his hands behind his back. "Now we wait for further orders." K'an paused once again. "Ryau!" He called out.
"What is it?" Ryau responded.
"Pull out some rations for the squad. Naki, go inform the others who have been assembling the jammer to feel free to eat their own rations." Ryau and Naki nodded and began their tasks.
K'an waited for their return. Ryau returned a few moments later lugging a crate of Field Rations. Once Ryau had set the set down, K'an let everyone else grab one before taking his. K'an took a rest on top of a decent size boulder and began to open his on his lap. He opened the packaging to find that it contained a serving of dried Muka Fish and a pair of Morla rolls. K'an took one of the rolls, split in half, and placed a large bit of fish in between the halves. He then took a bite and looked back onto the others nearby. He watched the other Sangheili eat theirs as he slowly eat his food. The fish was flavorful as it was a fish of the sea, the lace of salt and deeply pitted seasonings laced the easily breaking flesh.
"Far beyond Provocation. This is Minor 'Sannwikhee on the Leveling Strength. You are being repurposed, the Demon has been spotted in the vicinity of jammer 2." 'Sannwikhee reported. "Leave the assembly team and provide support for Ultra 'Valnsee."
"Which jammer?" K'an asked loudly as he lowered his sandwich to put his hand to his headset to hear.
"The coordinates are being transferred to your tactical display. Hold." Sannwikhee said. A few moments passed and a waypoint appeared far into the city, in the vicinity of where they had been evacuated from the day before. "Understood?"
"Understood…" K'an looked towards the rest of the group. "We need to get going. Come on."
K'an stood from his spot and walked towards the other side of the jammer. He quietly passed the group of Unggoy who rested just off of the jammer to approach the pilot of a near by DX class Spirit transport. The Sangheili pilot was sitting down enjoying some delicious steamed Rika tail and a small serving Imusina cake. Ryau, Naki and Sig piled aboard past the pilot, leaving K'an standing in front of the pilot alone.
"We need to leave now." K'an told the pilot. The pilot gave a shocked look.
"We can not" The pilot stated.
"Why in the gods not?" K'an questioned rather loudly.
"It is for the reason that I am off duty" The pilot snickered.
"Tell that to the fleet master." K'an suddenly, in a spurt of anger, grabbed the pilot by his collar, took the key to the Spirit from his side. The pilot didn't have much time to react as K'an shoved him away from himself, sending the pilot onto his rear.
K'an quickly boarded the Spirit and stood before the controls. He slipped the key into the little holographic ignition bank and pressed a few buttons. The engines bursted to life as the craft began to warm. Outside K'an could see the pilot having a temper tantrum just outside of the craft.
"What's going on?" Ryau asked.
"Do not be bothered by it." K'an began to control the craft from it's hovering position. "It was just a simple act of insubordination." he answered without breaking his eyesight from the screen over the control panel.
"No, not that. What are we doing?" Ryau asked again. "What have we been reassigned to do."
K'an paused for several moments. "There was a Demon spotted within the city. We have been tasked with defeating it." The cabin grew quiet as the craft leveled out flat as it sped off towards the city. "I'm sorry…" K'an admitted. "I don't know how you all feel about this task."
"We just need to get it done." Ryau said.
"Do you honestly understand what must be done?"
"Yes, I do." He nodded. Sig could be seen nodding his head along side Ryau.
"Alright, hold on" K'an warned. With that, he suddenly dropped the pronged nose of the transport downward sharply just as the craft cleared the edge of the slope.
As he did, he slammed the thruster controls forward on full. The craft lurched and buckled harshly as it began to pick up quite the large amount of speed. K'an watched his fellow Sangheili struggle with their harnesses as the propulsion engines began to greatly whine loudly from the rear of the craft. The transport plunged quickly, losing altitude at nearly the pace of freefall. After several moments of this, K'an pulled the nose of the craft upwards as fast as it would go. The rear of the craft struggled to keep up with the direction the front was aimed at. The craft quickly leveled out however and pushed on at speeds higher than a cruising speed. K'an pushed the craft to it's brink directly to the location of the assigned beacon.
"This is Special Operations team, Far Beyond Provocation. We need multiple transports of heavy reinforcements to head to inner city jammer at location two. Is anyone close?" K'an questioned loudly over the local communication broadcast. He had to speak over the noise of electronics and the deep rumbling of the craft's engines.
"This is Phantom Guiding Light I am currently holding a pair of Mgalekgolo. We are at your disposal, Far Beyond Provocation." Another transport answered his hail.
"Remain on stand bye for now." K'an replied.
"Yes sir." Guiding Light replied.
The transport rocked to the left sharply as K'an piloted the craft around the side of a building. The craft shook for a moment as the fast moving metal craft lanced just a few short meters from the side of the building. K'an went as fast as he could as he banked the transport around several more buildings. However, as the onboard computer listed that they were less than fifteen hundred meters from the jammer, the communications went off again.
"Far beyond Provocation. This is once again Guiding Light. We have been ordered to reinforce jammer at inner city location one. Sorry." The pilot said.
"Which jammer, we will accompany you!"
"All Lances, The first jammer has been destroyed, strengthen all defences, the Demon is in the vicinity." Command stated over the broadcast.
"Which jammer is it heading too? We will respond." K'an asked.
"Unknown, all jammers are being assaulted by human ground forces"
"Which has the highest need of aid?"
"Far Beyond Provocation, you are to continue to provide support to Ultra 'Valnsee at jammer three. Your orders have not changed."
"Very well." K'an replied.
K'an continued to pilot the craft speedily towards the jammer. Suddenly, the Spirit vibrated as overhead, a CCS-Class Battlecruisers rumbled high above the skyline. Finally the Spirit came into view of the building cluster's main landing pad. The jammer had been placed a few levels below, but this was the only way inside. The landing pad was placed on the roof of a section of building and was surrounded by a terrace like setting. Ultra 'Valnsee's Phantom was beginning to take off from the rooftop as the troops it had left, quickly entered a doorway under the present hospital sign.
"Far Beyond Provocation, this is Ultra 'Valnsee. We are moving to secure the lobby and I have sent my Sangheili Rangers forward to deal with the Demon." The Ultra told K'an over headset. "Stand bye until we need you."
"Understood" K'an replied. He rolled his eyes in annoyance behind the secrecy of the audio driven headset.
The Spirit shuttered and buckled slightly as K'an lowered the pace of the craft to a crawl. He then carefully maneuvered the craft towards the left in order to begin circling the building. The craft moved around the building and soon it was hovering along side of the skybridge that connected hospital to another closeby building. Through a virtual window on the Spirit's control display, K'an could look down the inside of the skybridge through the many external windows to see the hall within. He slowed the craft to a halt in order to monitor the hall.
"Ultra 'Valnsee, this is Far Beyond Provocation. I have a current view of what is going on the pathway to where the jammer is. I will keep you updated." K'an informed the Ultra of his new vantage point.
K'an watched as the several Sangheili Rangers that the Ultra had sent forth enter the hall. They stopped briefly for a moment to scan their immediate surrounding before they fanned out to move forward. They did not get far before K'an got a glimpse of an armored Human moving quickly towards their section of the hall. The grey armored Human quickly began to fire upon the group of Rangers.
"Ultra!" One of the Rangers yelled out through the headsets. "The Demon is here!" The group began to spread out using their thruster packs in order to try to take the Human off guard. Their tactic was unsuccessful however, in just under half a minute, the Human had dispatched them.
"Ultra, the Demon has slain the Rangers. He is going towards the lobby." K'an informed the Ultra as he watched the armored Human moving quickly out of the hallway going to the lobby.
"Far Beyond Provocation! Your clear for entry!" The Ultra began. "The Demon-" He screamed moments later but was cut off as his headset was disconnected.
K'an growled under his breath as he shoved the throttled ahead full. The Spirit lurched harshly as the warmed engines rang to life loudly. As fast as it would accelerate, he attempted to pilot the craft to the other side of the hospital in order to intercept the Human. The transport turned around the building fully as the a Human VTOL hastily was speeding off from the terrace.
"Command, the Demon has destroyed the communication jammer three."
"Understood, change course to jammer one. Procede how you see fit from there." 'Sannwikhee reported.
"Very well." K'an grimaced. "Cinotee! Come here." K'an called loudly
Ryau hurried to the cockpit. "What is it K'an?" He asked.
"The plan has changed. The Demon got through the jammer." K'an paused to steer the craft around a building. "We need to think about how to go about this. I will not have us just running blindly into a building after the Human." K'an watched as the deep olive colored VTOL turned away from the direction of jammer one. "Do you still have a record of the city layout?" K'an questioned with a thought. "The one from when we were on the ground?"
"Sig had that." Ryau said. "But there are some Beam rifles in this Spirits field armory."
"I mean to ask how is your memory? Do you remember that Human tower? Sinoviet it was called?"
"Yes, the one with the big green arrow over there." Ryau pointed to the building.
"Very good." K'an admired the youth's memory. "I want you to play navigator. Find a building over looking the landing station of the jammer one building." K'an shuffled over slightly to give him room.
Ryau sat down at the navigator station instead. "There are plenty of buildings in the area, but they're too tall to see the landing pads."
"Find me one, Cinotee." K'an ordered.
"There's one." Ryau placed a waypoint on a building that was just tall enough to see into most of the club's landing deck."
"Thank you, Cinotee." K'an gave the Sangheili some praise as he turned sharply towards the waypoint.
K'an piloted the large craft through the dark city. The hard rain was not letting up and hard wind gushes shook the transport in between the buildings. Eventually the craft came upon the waypoint. K'an lowered the craft to the roof of the building at a safe height for exit.
"Cinotee, grab me one of those rifles and a viewing set." K'an barked. "Sig! You take the helm of the Spirit and remain nearby." K'an ordered. He followed Ryau out to one of the troop sections and began to open the side door as Ryau grabbed the supplies from the field armory. "Cinotee, your with me. Lets go!" K'an motioned out of the craft.
Sig took the controls of the transport as Ryau hopped out of the side of the Spirit first and K'an followed behind him. Once the pair were on the rooftop, they quickly made their way over to the roof's edge that overlooked the club. K'an looked back at the Spirit and watched the side hatch close. The Spirit rose slightly higher from the roof, began to move backwards from them, and then disappeared behind the other side of the building.
"Here we are. Good sight lines to the only way out." Ryau said as he looked over the edge of the roof.
"Yes…" K'an agreed as he found where the landing pad for the jammer building was. "Now lets get set up."
With that, the two found a vantage point on the second of three levels of balconies and then began to piece together the proper assembly. Ryau set the viewing set down on the surface against the inner lip of the roof and K'an found a railing to properly rest the rifle upon. K'an knelt with the rifle and pressed the primer for the weapon located next to where his thumb rested on the handle. Weapon gave a quick whine as the bolt slowly traveled from the tip of the barrel back to the rotating plasma cylinder. The bolt then snapped forward back to the end of the barrel. A accenting strip of light purple illuminated along the length of the barrel.
"Have you ever used one of the viewing sets, before?" K'an asked Ryau.
"Yes I have." Ryau began to answer "But they're not commonly used since the Kigyar visors do it all at once. Sangheili sniper teams are rare on the battlefield." He admitted while turning the viewing scope in his hands.
"I agree. The Sangheili would rather be in the fray than to sit and wait." K'an sighed as he lowered himself to his belly. "That is one thing that I don't like about us as a species: There is a high percentile in the population that works in a one track system." Ryau soon joined him in prone.
"Could you explain?" Ryau asked as he put his face against the viewing scope.
"Oh, so you are willing to talk on such manners?"
"We touched on it before…"
"I guess we did." K'an remembered. "What is your question then?"
"Explain what you meant just now."
"Well…" K'an started as he put his eye forward to the scope of the rifle. "I think it festers from the extreme religion that runs the entire Covenant. We as a race- oh. All of the races together are raised to follow and not to think.". He paused again to auger his cheek against the weapon.
"Possiblly, but there are always the ones that don't follow the flow." Ryau said. "Like you."
K'an hummed. "Maybe a part of it is that most of the military is made up of youthly individuals." K'an admitted. "It seems that the ones who are free thinkers have too high of power to be so. Some what dealing with heightened benefits. Do you think?"
"I think its the opposite of that, the free thinkers don't have any power to try and push some of the changes. Like what happened when Zelso changed some of the laws which in turn altered some traditions." Ryau had recently finished reading the book of Zelso's history.
"Interesting…" K'an thought on Ryau's input. "Then I now think it is a mix of both of our beliefs. It makes sense." K'an continued watching down the scope of the Rifle at the illuminated group of landing pads. "Apologies for talking so much on these social topics."
Ryau shifts suddenly as he seems to see something. "K'an, here he comes." He pointed over to an incoming Falcon.
"I see it." K'an acknowledged as he turned the barrel of the rifle along with the new found Falcon.
K'an traced the Falcon's smooth trajectory with the rifle. The two then watched the Falcon change pace as it began to lower to one of the helipads. As it did, the heavy caliber barrels on the front of the craft rained volleys of anti air rounds at the stationary plasma cannons set around the landing pads. The Falcon landed after it had successfully dispatched the cannons; the twin rotor craft barely had begun to stop before the armored Human climbed out. With a raised weapon the Human quickly made entrance the club's main door.
"That was him." K'an muttered. "We will wait for him to exit the building. I have a very well placed shot." K'an paused. "Is there an open comlink to the forces in that building?"
"No, it seems they've gone dark since he entered." Ryau said.
"I do not find myself surprised by this result." K'an grumbled lowly as he settled himself into the weapon so the sight was directly aimed at the height of a Human's head on the middle of the door. Moments later, Command notified all on the coms that the jammer had been destroyed. "He should be coming out soon. Pay attention, Ryau."
Several tense moments passed as the pair lay wait. K'an watched down the scope of the weapon at the door. Suddenly, both of their shields flared as rounds from several Human assault rifles hit the pair from behind. The two struggled to get up as fast as they could in the wave of Human's projectiles. Ryau was up before K'an got to his hooves. By the time he had gotten up, his shields were about to give. K'an quickly shoved Ryau towards the cover of the corner as he raised his Beam rifle towards the group of Humans who were advancing up the pathway. A quick loud crack rang out as he fired at one of the Humans, the lightened rail passed through the abdomen of one of the Humans. He fired another blind shot as his shields cracked as they failed and the weapon overheated; the seven Humans, as he had frantically counted as they stormed from an opening, continued to volley rounds at him. several rounds pinged off of K'an's armor.
"K'an!" Ryau called from the corner as he began to fire his needle rife at the Humans.
K'an began to move as soon as Ryau pushed suppression fire at the group. However he was just about behind the corner when a well placed round of a Human DMR nearly went completely through his leg just below his upper right knee. K'an yelped out in pain as he collapsed heavily to the floor. His hands were quick rendered empty as he writhed in pain and tried to comfort the now half limp leg. K'an swore in pain as he tried to slide himself behind the corner. Ryau leaned out from behind the corner and pulled K'an the rest of the way by his armor. K'an, through his gaping gasps of pain, called for Sig for immediate recovery.
"Ryau!" K'an blurted out "Get us some ground." K'an ordered as he struggled with the Type 25 pistol on his hip.
"Working on it." Ryau pulled K'an along the wall.
Ryau had no pulled K'an too far before one of the Humans attempted to round the corner. K'an sent several green bolts of plasma at the Human's torso. The Human fell back screaming as the plasma melted the chest plate. K'an held the hand weapon out straight and as steady as he could as Ryau continued to drag him backwards.
Suddenly, the loud whine of an Ion engine approached and was followed by a crash sound from the side of the building. A metal screeching sound rang out loudly and several Humans suddenly were thrown around the corner and over the ledge. Following them was the right front prong of the Spirit transport; Sig had scraped the walkway with the transport in order to void it of Humans. The Spirit moved to their side of the walkway and lowered itself to be even with said walkway. The troop hatch opened vertically for them to enter.
Ryau quickly did his best to carefully drag K'an onto the transport. As he was being dragged by Ryau, K'an watched around the corner for more Humans with the side arm raised. He figured due to the lack of advancing Humans must have meant that the scrape against the building was very effective. As the hatch closed, Ryau carefully positioned K'an in a crash harness towards the cockpit area.
"Get us out of here, Sig" Ryau called back and Sig quickly complied.
Soon the comms called out "All personnel are to evacuate the city. You have five minutes to vacate the area"
"You heard them, to the waypoint." Ryau checked to see how K'an was doing.
"Only five minutes?" K'an muttered as he cringed at his leg, his blood heavily trickled out of the entrance wound. "That isn't enough time to hardly get out of the city."
"Its plenty of time K'an." Ryau said. "Do you need me to stop the bleeding?"
"If you know how too" K'an cringed.
Ryau went to work and started to patch the wound with a gel healing pad.
"Ryau…" K'an started after Ryau was tending to the wound.
"What?" Ryau asked.
"May I purchase you a drink when we return to the ship?"
"Of course."