A/N: This isn't dead! Far from it!
First off, an extreme apology is necessary after a lack of activity for the past couple of months. I got sidetracked with real life issues (application for grad school out of state, acceptance from said grad school, finding housing, making the two-day move, work, grad school beginning), but now that I've settled in I got the chance to bang this out and here it is.
Of course, I've still got two other projects that need attention, plus I've got my real life obligations, but I'll do my best to make this this gets the focus it needs to be great.
Big S/O to LucDragoon and smart grid for the beta reads.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except my original content.
Her vision came and went, with brief flashes of the futuristic setting coming into view before fading to black. As Elizabeth's vision began to clear, she noticed that her hair was being tightly pulled on with her face very close to the metallic road. She looked to her left and saw a pale, grey-skinned and black furred thigh of the alien that strangled her unconscious, its strong grip nearly ripping the hair from her scalp. She tried to move her wrists and feet, but they were bound by an unbreakable energy band that stung against her bare skin.
The rain had finally stopped but the lightning flashes and rumbles of thunder continued well into the night as Elizabeth continued to be dragged through the empty streets in the darkness. She was thrown against the metal of the street, where she landed on her shoulder hard in a shallow puddle. A sharp pain flashed through her upper body as she tried to pick herself off the ground. Her arm began to swell and her eyes started to water from the discomfort and pain.
This was definitely the day from Hell.
She wiped her eyes clear and looked around, only to be deeply shocked and disturbed by the scene around her. Large portions of the surrounding courtyard were engulfed in flames; from whatever buildings that weren't completely destroyed, to the over-turned vehicles and even most of the exotic-looking trees. And what wasn't on fire was covered in ash. A majority of the overhead lights weren't functioning or were running on low power, so Elizabeth's visibility wasn't where it would be on a clear night.
Aside from the environmental devastation around her, she was surrounded by very alien looking creatures, each wielding some form of weaponry. There were the gorilla-like aliens she encountered before, along with the avian-like aliens with the glowing, circular shields, and there was a new alien species she had just now encountered: this orange-and-blue, tiny alien (compared to the others) featured oversized forearms compared to the rest of its body and a triangular back along with what looked like a breathing mask on its wide face. It featured black, soulless eyes that short, stubby legs that barely seemed to hold up its broad-chested midsection.
And to top it all off, knelt beside her was another alien, this one radically different than the others she had seen. It possessed a long neck with an angular face that featured scaly skin, rows of incredibly sharp teeth and pitch black eyes, reminding Elizabeth greatly of a shark except for its four-mandibled mouth. Its hands featured only four fingers, and at the end of its long, powerful-looking legs were a pair of hooves.
It was incredibly tall, even when knelt next to her, and was very muscular underneath its sleek pearl-white armor. The claws on its hands were sharpened to fine points, and its pearl-white armor was covered in reflective glyphs that seemed to be engraved into the armor. It was covered in bruises, cuts and purple blood – both fresh and dried. A particularly nasty cut just above its eye stood out to Elizabeth, as its purple blood flowed freely from the open wound like a raging river. Pieces of its armor were also missing, especially around its right shoulder and half of its long helmet. It looked like it was tired and in pain as it breathed deeply while its arms were restrained behind itself with a pair of glowing energy bracelets.
Elizabeth, fearful of this new alien species, did her best to look away from it. Yet at the same time, her curious nature took over and she couldn't help but stare. There was so much about this alien she wanted to know: Where was it from? Did it speak English? Why were the hostile aliens attacking Earth? What significance were those strange markings along its armor?
She hadn't realized it, but the alien was now looking back at Elizabeth with its black eyes. Elizabeth was paralyzed with fear as the towering creature and her were locked eye-to-eye in the darkness. She got a much better look at the rows of incredibly sharp teeth lining the inside of each of its four mandibles as a bolt of lightning lit the sky for a brief moment.
It said something to Elizabeth, or at least she think it said something. The sounds coming from the wounded creature's mouth were powerful and sharp, but were also impossible to understand. While she was unable to comprehend a single thing the long-necked alien said, the tone of its voice sounded nowhere near as threatening as the oppressive aliens' garbled language.
It repeated the same garbled language several times, each time slightly slower and attempting to make its language sound clearer before giving up and reverting back to silence. The act reminded Elizabeth of when she first learned French and she tried teaching it to Songbird; she would draw out the phrases and slow down her speech, but the automaton would only cock its head and silently stare back at her. As much as she hated the warden of her tower, she couldn't help but wish he were here. The giant mechanical bird would occupy and take out these hostile aliens with ease while Elizabeth figured a way out of these damned restraints.
But he wasn't here now, no matter what kind of comfort that brought Elizabeth, so it was up to her to think of a way out of this situation without costing her her life. Without her ability to manipulate tears or the assistance of her gun-toting companions - where they were was another question - she was on her own.
Elizabeth was snapped out of her thoughts by the sounds of loud, powerful footsteps and metal dragging on metal off in the near distance. As the footsteps grew closer and closer, she could hear the alien next to her growl something while it tried to break through its restraints, the energy stinging her milky-white skin with every attempted struggle.
Striding out of the shadows was a trio of the same gorilla-like aliens that captured Elizabeth and presumably the wounded alien. However, there was something different about these captors. The two on the outside wore elaborate, prestigious-looking bronzed power armor that covered the entirety of their fearsome faces. The ornate armor featured several distinct features that set it apart from the other armors, like the demonic horns protruding a few inches in the air and the obscuring all but their angry-red eyes. Along the mouths of their coverings featured crude etchings of intimidating facial expressions over where their mouths would be. Also notable on their armor were skulls mounted on their shoulder plates. They looked to be the skulls of a human and an alien that Elizabeth assumed was of the same species as the alien next to her. It was of similar shape, had its eye sockets in a similar position and featured a similar row of teeth along the roof of its mouth.
Even more distinct in the group was the alien in the middle covered head-to-toe in blood-red and black armor. This one towered over its already-tall comrades and looked like it was made of nothing but fur and muscle. The red-black armor the beast was covered in was incredibly intimidating and gave off an air of significance and power to the already-fearsome creature. The armor fit tightly to its wearer, not a single sound being made as it strode effortlessly across the street underneath the dim street lighting. And being dragged behind it was a long, large metallic hammer. On the other end of the hammer was a curved, sharpened blade that reflected the low lighting of the street lamps and the occasional flash of lightning. It was difficult to make out, but Elizabeth could just see dried splatters of red blood around the edges of the blade.
Elizabeth assumed that this was the leader of the group, as it pointed to the two, made several garbled noises and walked over to the small metal platform. The bronze-armored aliens walked over, forcefully grabbed the mandibled alien and dragged him over to a small platform made of a strange metal. It featured two polls at arm level – or at least arm level for Elizabeth – along with two more stands spaced out over the platform.
The four-mandibled alien kicked, elbowed and did everything it could to break free of its captors, but a savage beating from the two guards put any thoughts of escape the alien might've had to an immediate rest.
The two guards held the alien tightly by its forearms and placed it atop the metal stump. Another, grey-armored alien went over to a holographic display, pressed several buttons and walls of green energy materialized out of the arm-height platforms, encasing the alien's hands and head while perfectly exposing the four-mandibled alien's long neck.
The heavy-armored alien let out a deep laugh at the imprisoned alien, uttering something to its prisoner. The wounded alien remained silent, either unable to speak or not wanting to, glared at the gorilla alien with malice in its eyes. The beast simply laughed, flipped over its hammer so the bladed-side was facing down. In a swift, effortless motion, the alien brought its hammer high into the air and just as quickly brought the bladed-side down on the captive alien's neck.
The curved blade cut cleanly through the prisoner's neck and sparked against the metal platform. The energy containers around the now deceased alien vanished and the head fell to the ground, purple blood oozing onto the street as the now-limp body rested on the metal stand. One of the bronze-armored guards picked up the detached head, tilted its head as if to examine its face before laughing and chucking it over a dozen feet into the darkness. The other guard unceremoniously removed the alien's lifeless corpse and just as cruelly dumped the body aside.
With the captive alien's headless body carelessly tossed next to the stand, one of the ape-like aliens tightened its grip around Elizabeth's neck and dragged her over to the inorganic stump that was covered in the purple blood, mixed in what Elizabeth could've sworn was dried up human blood. The metal street along the stand was slick and sticky as the teenaged woman did everything in her power to resist being brought to the platform. A powerful backhand from one of the gorilla aliens stopped any resistance as Elizabeth's vision doubled and any air escaped from her lungs.
The hammer-wielding alien licked off some of the blood from the curved blade before laughing heartily and deeply with his fellow cohorts. The leader barked an order to a smaller alien, who gleefully tightened its grip on Elizabeth as the commander flashed a malicious grin.
Struggling to free herself from the brutish alien's incredibly tight grip, Elizabeth refused to accept the fact that this would probably be the end of her. She never thought in her wildest fantasies that she would die at the hands of a gorilla-like extraterrestrial species in a partially destroyed African metropolis over 600 years in the future.
There had to be something she could do, some way her intellect and cunningness would give her the opportunity to slip away and find Edward and Booker and leave this horrible place. But as the beast grabbed her by the neck and dragged her over to the execution platform, it dawned on her that barring a miracle, there was no way she could escape.
This was the end.
As she closed her eyes to accept her fate, a distinct clanging of metal-on-metal was heard as two dull grey cylinders bounced along the street. The cylinders rolled against each other for a few seconds before crashing against a nearby purple container and halting. A group of the aliens curiously approached the cylinders before a pair of thick clouds of smoke erupted from the tops and bottoms of the cylinders.
The clouds quickly engulfed the immediate area and obscured the flash of movement quickly approaching the makeshift execution space. It moved with a great purpose towards the stand and the two aliens guarding Elizabeth.
The young woman heard harsh several loud bangs of gunfire and thuds of armored bodies hitting the street. Elizabeth was too stunned and disoriented to even cover her ears when the aliens surrounding her wildly fired their foreign pistol-like weapons into the smoke cloud. Another duo of gunshots rang out, this time much closer to their position, and another body drop lifelessly to the ground. She felt a splatter of maroon blood against her face and blouse, while a clawed hand strongly grabbed Elizabeth and placed her in a choke hold while growling and hissing at a blur ahead of them.
As the cloud began to dissipate some, her glimpse of the blur began to clear up.
"Edward?"
With a quickly dissolving cloud of smoke surrounding the area, Buck was aiming the barrel of his M90 shotgun right at the head of the Brute holding Elizabeth captive.
His plan was simple; After performing a brief visual recon of the area and assessing the number of hostile forces, Buck was to lob a couple of smoke grenades into the courtyard to disrupt whatever was going on before using the smoke cover to lay waste to as many Covenant as he could before being discovered. He would then find and extract Elizabeth and take her to the tear before any Covenant reinforcements arrived.
The plan had been a success up to this point. A total of ten Covenant – mostly Brutes with a handful of Jackals – had occupied and held Elizabeth captive at the farthest point of the small courtyard. Along with the multitude of available cover and the low lighting of the street lights, there was plenty of room for Buck to move around.
But the one thing Buck didn't have plenty of was time. The way the Brutes moved and spoke amongst each other proved to Buck that they were restless and ready to slaughter any more humans caught in the aftermath of the Slipspace event that leveled most of the city. His keen eye saw that not far away from Elizabeth and a wounded Elite commando was a stumpy-looking platform with raised clamps that was covered in dried-up blood.
When he witnessed the Chieftain behead the commando, he knew Elizabeth was next and swiftly and quietly moved into position behind a wrecked car. Buck gave a quick glance over the hood of the vehicle and primed his two grenades. The smoke just started to billow as Buck lobbed the grenades into the most enclosed area he could reach. He waited several seconds until the area was truly blanketed with smoke before moving from cover and unloading on the enemies ahead. A quick blast from the M90 into an unsuspecting Jackal kicked off the op as the experienced Marine carefully sprinted through the smoke. Another pair of shotgun blasts took down a Brute, followed by another Brute regular and one hapless Jackal. Buck quickly slid six more shells into the close action weapon as he dodged an incoming bolt of green plasma and fired off a shell in the direction it came from, taking down the Grunt Major.
While Buck was furiously firing off rounds, he had to be careful with the amount of shots he took. The amount of shells he and Booker took from the ammo box didn't have anywhere near as many shells as he had hoped.
Buck primed a plasma grenade and chucked it into a mob of Jackals, the avian-like aliens standing obliviously next to it until it detonated in a blue explosion, vaporizing the aliens. Buck saw a bronze-armored Brute charging him, two Type-25 Spiker carbines with their dual-blades ready to chop and hack Buck to bloody bits. He rolled underneath the Brute, narrowly evading the downward-thrusted Spikers. He landed face-up directly underneath the hulking Brute and fired off a shotgun round. The 8-guage pellets powerfully struck the shields, breaking them down quickly. Buck ejected the empty shell and cocked a new one ready to fire when the Brute turned around and continued to swing its carbine pistols. The sharpened blades came within inches of Buck, but the Marine dodged another swing and fired at the Brute's chest. The shotgun pellets tore through the bronze armor and penetrated the skin. A vital organ or two must've been hit as the Brute staggered back and collapsed on the ground in a pool of its own blood.
The one remaining Brute guard held Elizabeth tightly against his chest in a chokehold, growling and snarling at Buck as he aimed his shotgun square at the beast, the other holding a Spiker at Buck with its finger on the trigger. He couldn't get a shot off without any of the pellets hitting Elizabeth, and if he even tried to take out his sidearm, the Brute would more than likely slit her throat. With no other options that wouldn't put Elizabeth in jeopardy, Buck slowly lowered his shotgun.
Suddenly, a blast of ingenuity struck Buck, who did everything he could to suppress a cocky and confident smile. He raised his free hand as to show that he was letting go of the shotgun, and with his other hand tossed the M90 on the street beside the Brute.
The M90's trigger always was sensitive; Buck had heard of stories from Marines that unless the safety was on, they had to be careful when handling their shotgun unless they wanted their weapon to discharge randomly and give away their position. But this time, Buck was counting on his gun's sensitive trigger.
As soon as the shotgun hit the ground, an 8-gauge shell was fired from its barrel, the pellets crashing into the Brute's shields around the foot, collapsing them and staggering the mindless beast for a short moment. Buck quickly pulled out his knife and stuck it in the ape's thick forearm. The large beast let out a merely discomforted snarl, but it turned it focus for the moment on the knife jutting out of its arm as instead of Buck, loosening its chokehold on Elizabeth. He took full advantage of this lapse and knocked Elizabeth out of the Brute's grasp, quickly leaping onto the towering creature's broad chest and holding onto the edges of its armor for support.
Buck then unslung his assault rifle, placed the barrel in the alien's mouth and tightly held the trigger down. A tidal wave of 7.62x51mm rounds quickly took down whatever was left of the massive Brute's shields before piercing its tough skin and sending chunks of skin, cranial bone and brain matter mixed with its own blood out a gaping exit wound in the back of its head.
The Brute Major collapsed in a noisy heap as Buck rode it all the way to the rain-soaked street. He quickly released the empty clip and slammed home a new one as he turned back to see a stunned and shaken Elizabeth.
"Are you alright," Buck asked, reaching down to pick Elizabeth off the street. She gave him her dainty hand and he lifted her off the wet street.
"I don't…" She could barely speak her voice was quivering so strongly. For Buck, at least this part of their increasingly odd journey was somewhat familiar. He'd come to terms with horrors that happened here long ago after the defeat of the Covenant and the rebuilding of Mombasa. And even Booker, in spite of his earlier outburst and regret, had acclimated nicely to the surroundings once a firearm was placed in his hand.
But Elizabeth was completely out of her element and she was an absolute mess. While she was normally possessed a strong personality and a razor-sharp wit to her, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. She refused to pick her chin up from her chest, struggling to even breathe steadily.
Buck looked into Elizabeth's large blue eyes. They were looking everywhere but at him, but every now and then they would lock their gaze. He saw strength and courage behind her fear-filled eyes, and he knew from their journey up to this point that she was strong-willed and brave. He needed to say or do something to help restore that confidence in her that once radiated.
"It's going to be alright." Buck said in a soothing, calming voice, letting a weary smile naturally come across rather than force it. It proved to be enough to settle Elizabeth enough for her breathing to return to normal.
"Me and Booker found a tear and we're all leaving this place for good. I swear it." Buck heard the Chieftain let out a powerful roar from beyond the smoke cover, sending his heart into his throat for a half-second.
"But right now, I need to get you back to the courtyard so you can open the damn thing. Are you OK to run?"
She quickly nodded her head and the two were off in an instant. They quickly left the smoky battlefield and sprinted as fast as they could down a long straightaway trying to get to the first courtyard before they were recaptured and killed.
"Booker, it's Buck," Buck shouted over his comm. "I've got Elizabeth and a whole mess of baddies comin' up behind me!"
"Loud and clear," Booker responded. "I'll be at the spot in ten."
"Make it five!" Buck and Elizabeth ducked underneath another barrage of spikes and quickly rounded another street corner.
With their legs pumping as furiously as possible, Buck looked back and saw that the Chieftain was quickly catching up to them. He could hear the crazed Brute's blood-thirsty howls growing louder and louder with every second.
"Any day now, Booker!" Buck waited for some kind of response when he heard a mighty roar coming from directly behind him. He turned around and saw the fearsome Chieftain had leapt high into the night sky, Gravity Hammer brought over its head and ready to crush the both of them into a fine pulp. Even from this distance and the darkness obscuring some of his view, Buck could still see the burning red eyes underneath the intimidating and fear-inspiring headdress the Chieftain possessed, the finely-sharpened fangs showcased on its wide grin, and the strong roar it bellowed as the Brute began to rapidly descend.
Buck grabbed Elizabeth's arm and together they dove out of the way of the Chieftain. Its hammer impacted the street with great force, forcing large chunks of the metal everywhere along with sending out a great wave of dust in every direction.
The two picked themselves up and sprinted away from the impact zone as quickly as possible. Buck would occasionally turn back to fire a few hopeless rounds at the charging Chieftain, but they did their best to maintain their speed. With the Chieftain continuing to close the gap and the rest of the Brute/Jackal pack following closely behind, Buck began to worry about when was the right time to make a final stand.
Out of the darkness in front of them, though, was an eruption of smoke and fire as a shaped charge blinked from the emptiness and streaked towards the two. The explosive flashed past Buck and Elizabeth on a direct path towards the lead Brute, its 102mm high-explosive payload looking to put an end to the fearsome Jiralhanae. But instead of facing an explosive demise like it was supposed to, the Brute Chieftain skidded to a stop and took a big swing with its hammer.
The gravitational-distortion effects of the Jiralhanae Type-2 Energy Weapon/Hammer – more commonly referred to as a Gravity Hammer – were still a mystery to UNSC and UEG scientists some eight years since the end of the Covenant War. Initial studies and analysis immediately following the war had discovered that there was a field generator at the head of the weapon that created the gravity manipulation field, but they were uncertain how it functioned or even caused the distortion. Buck had seen countless Brutes expertly wielding the powerful weapon smash through the armor of an M808B like it was tissue paper while deflecting away countless barrages of weapons fire. It often took two whole fireteams just to break through their incredibly resilient shields, let alone take down the damn things.
So Buck was less than surprised to see the Chieftain perfectly time his swing to deflect the rocket a whole two feet away from the powerful alien, the gravitational waves forcing it behind and to the right of the. The shaped charge tumbled end-over-end behind the pack leader and directly into the group of five lower ranked Jiralhanae. The dumb Brutes were too slow to get out of the rocket's way, and the explosive hit dead center of the pack and detonated in a fiery display. Shields instantly collapsed and those that weren't blown to bits in the immediate explosion were killed by the heat, pressure and shrapnel expelled from inside the explosive.
After the smoke cleared, the only non-human left standing was the Brute Chieftain. He forcefully growled back at Buck and Elizabeth, who quickly turned and continued down the street-way, slowly. It... smiled at the tiny humans as it approached, gaining speed as it hefted its hammer in both hands. Buck and Elizabeth immediately turned and booked it as the Brute laughed deeply and resumed the chase.
"How'd that thing knock away the explosive," Booker asked over the radio.
"The hammer," Buck said in-between breaths as he and Elizabeth rounded the corner. "We've only got one shot left, so we'll have to make it count. I'll keep it distracted long enough for you to hit it. Make that shot count, Booker."
The two finally made it to the courtyard they had been teleported to, but there was no sight of DeWitt anywhere. All there was was the emptiness of the courtyard and the ghostly glow of the tear in the distance.
But hidden behind a weapon's crate, Booker was aiming down the barrel of the M41 SSR rocket launcher with one rocket left in the tube to take out the Chieftain. Its shields were too strong for the shaped charge to do any significant damage, so the Buck had to find a way to strip the Jiralhanae of its shields so Booker could take it out quickly before it took them all out.
The Chieftain finally caught up to them and swung its massive hammer in between the two. Buck shoved Elizabeth out of the way and dove to the right just before the hammer hit the ground, the gravity-manipulating effects forcing Buck flying into the air and crashing onto the hood of a half-destroyed two-seater. The Marine sat up and seeing the Chieftain turning towards Elizabeth caused Buck to take out his assault rifle and squeeze off several quick bursts at the powerful Brute. Its strong shields deflected every single bullet, and only angered an already rage-filled alien.
"I'm right here, big guy!" Buck fired off another three more three-shot bursts at the Brute, silver shields flaring up to ricochet the AR rounds away. "Come and get me, you dumb son of a bitch!" He emptied his clip into the hulking beast, trying to wear down its shield for Booker's last rocket to have a maximum effect.
The Chieftain roared at Buck and charged, crossing the distance in an instant and readying its hammer like a baseball bat. It swung and Buck ducked underneath the powerful melee weapon and took a step back, but tripped over a piece of debris from the damaged overhead freeway and fell on his back. The vicious Brute took advantage and placed its massive foot on top of Buck's chest, pinning him to the ground. It viciously ripped Buck's MA5C from his hand and threw it behind them. The Brute snarled and pressed down slowly with its foot, taking great joy in making its human prey squirm in pain and agony.
Buck tried with all his strength to lift or move the foot off his chest, but it weighed too much and the Brute was applying too much pressure to do anything. The Chieftain wanted him to suffer; it could've shattered Buck's chest or smashed it with its hammer if it really wanted to, but instead the beast wanted its prey to squirm and suffer before mercilessly putting it out of its misery.
As Buck felt the foot continuing to apply pressure on his chest, he heard the crackle of his comm line. "Buck, I'm in position but I don't have a shot!"
"Take the shot." Buck weakly said. H could feel his ribcage crushing from the Chieftain's vice grip with each passing second. He struggled to draw in air and keep his eyes open, focusing on the sneer and sharpened fangs before him.
"Say again, Buck, I didn't understand that."
Buck managed to suck enough air into his lungs and focused only on the words coming out of his mouth. "Take… the… shot!"
A/N: This was originally going to be a one-parter, but I decided that a 10,000+ word chapter was a little too much so I split it into two separate parts. Don't forget to favorite, follow and leave a review!
