Halo – Katerina Duran - "Make It Last: Of Trust and Friendship"
Location: Sentinel Wall, Installation 05
November 3rd, 2552
"There, Lady Arbiter! Big, scary thing!"
Following the Grunts and Jackals, Katerina Duran was taken to where the Enforcer was, occupying the room where the shield generator was. It was her job to overload the power source's lock, remove it and thus opening the way to the wall and through it. That way, Katerina would not have to face the Flood at all once Tartarus picks up her up. Perfect.
"Alright," She turned to the two Grunts and two Jackals. "Use your Plasma Pistols and aim for its shields. One they have been taken down, we strike as hard as possible."
"But Lady Arbiter, what if it strikes back?"
"Do not be afraid!" She told them with much encouragement. "Do you not want to do this for the… the Great Journey? Well the… the glorious Sacred Icon lies beyond this thing!" It would only take some fancy Covenant Religion-related words to convince them.
"Ready? Advance!"
A total of three overloaded bolts from their Plasma Pistols and all three of the Enforcer's shield were down. It stumbled backwards, stunned, at which Katerina and her comrades took this opportunity to proceed forward and fire everything they had on that thing levitating above them. She even sent in a Plasma Grenade for kicks.
Just then, the hovering Forerunner machine began to fire missiles from it back spraying the whole room in an effort to strike Katerina or her comrades. She rolled forward, directly under the Enforcer, and stuck another Plasma Grenade under it.
Within the few short seconds she had before it would explode, she rolled forward once again to escape the explosion and possibly, its destruction.
The Enforcer dismantled into pieces in the air before all the parts came crashing down.
Heaving a huge sigh of relieve, she got to her feet and reloaded her Carbine… only to realize that she was only one standing.
Location: Sentinel Wall (Exterior)
Riding the platform, the gigantic doors before her opened up, revealing the Library. She noticed the bright-green shield surrounding the Library fading away. So the Library's been breached.
Wouldn't this mean… the flood?
Tartarus' Phanom appeared from her right, flying lower as it followed the platform. "Excellent work, Katerina. Our path to the Library is clear," The Brute made radio contact with her. "I will pick you up on the ledge ahead."
"That sounds good to me," She replied, practically elated on the inside. She would not have to fight any Flood!
The door of the approaching wall then opens up… to another Enforcer and upon viewing the Phantom, fired its missiles at it.
She then heard Tartarus growling over the radio in displeasure. "Argh! Blasted machines! Make your own way through the wall, Arbiter!"
"Wait, what?!" Upon witnessing his Phantom flying away from her, she then began to panic as the platform moved closer to the opposite end, where that one Enforcer, a dozen Sentinels and… and Flood Forms began to fight to the death. "No, wait! Tartarus, DO NOT leave me with those abominations! Tartarus!"
He was no longer in radio communication with her. "You unbelievable bastard!" She screeched at his Phantom as it flew off into the distance. "I can't believe you are leaving me like this! I honestly cannot WAIT until I run off with the Index and neither you, nor your Brutes can do a DAMNED THING about it!"
There was no way she could survive this ongoing conflict between the Sentinels and the Flood Forms. She needed a way out.
She had almost forgotten about her armor's cloaking system.
Location: Containment Shield
Katerina had never been so happy to see a piston. Who cares if it was the one with the infuriating slides?
Using her armor's cloaking systems, she managed to slip away and enter the Sentinel Wall. Since the cloaking only lasted a few short seconds, she had to time it perfectly and run as fast as her feet could carry her.
When her cloak did fade away and she knew she was being chased by those Flood forms, all she could do was keep running and turn around to give the occasional shot from her Carbine.
The Sentinels, however, did not give her much trouble. In fact, they were more interested in destroying the Flood Forms. This definitely gave some sort of advantage to Katerina; the forms chasing her would slow down.
Running down a hallway and jumping into a large hole at the end of it, she found herself in another long and creepy hallway. Not wanting to waste any time, she proceeded forward, and made an incredible discovery:
Her COM link suddenly picked up the following: "Proceed to the objective, we'll hold out as long as we can- AH NOOO! Get it off me!"
"Suppressive fire! Suppressive FIRE!"
Humans?
It made sense as to why some of those Flood Forms were Human Forms.
Humans were here. Yet, why? What business would they have here?
Unless… they were here to retrieve the Index. To stop the Covenant from getting it first.
PERFECT. It was going better than expected. She needed to allow the Humans to retrieve the Index first and take it to safety. Looks like that would be the plan now.
As she moved down this hallway, it was relatively empty, which was good thing. Well, except for the Sentinel pieces and the dead Flood Forms. Along the way, the weapons used were scattered as well. And Katerina's violet eyes fell on two Magnums.
A smile played on her lips as she retrieved them and found that their magazines were full. She also found that the nearby Flood Human Form was carrying the extra magazines she needed. This was her lucky day! Over the years, she found this human weapon extremely useful, that it became her favorite choice of weapon. Noticing that her Carbine was near empty, she decided to toss that one aside and carry these two, including her twin Energy Swords, which she was yet to use.
Considering how eerie this place was, she suspected that she would need them for close quarter combat pretty soon.
An Energy Alley, several Flood-infested chambers and halls, and one really-not fun tunnel later…
"Come on, come on!" Striking yet, another control panel on a piston, Katerine turned her back to it and fired her Magnums at the oncoming Elite Combat Forms while the piston opened at a painfully slow rate. "Open up!"
A hard kick to a form that got way to close without knowing what personal space was, Katerina spun around, and practically dove into the tunnel.
No matter how hard she tried to keep her footing, there was just no use; she was going through this tunnel as if it was a pinball machine.
"OW! WAIT! NO, STOP!"
A few more 'ows' and 'oofs' and she landed flat on her face. Again. "Duran's sake… the Forerunners were TERRIBLE designers!" She cursed as she pushed herself off the floor.
She found that she was still within the tunnel, but that there was a large square-like doorway just in front of her. With a pained grunt, she got to her feet and it opened up, revealing the outside. The Library was there, in a distance, against a sky of black and orange.
In these parts of Halo, the weather was meant to be wintery, it seems. The biting, predatory chill gazed against whatever skin the armor did not protect. Walking on the snowy grounds, she decided to stop to rest a little. Two consecutive tunnel rides was not what her body needed.
As soon as she sat on a nearby rock, Orbital Insertion Pods came plummeting through the air and landed around her, giving her a bit of a scare.
About 5 of them were there. Elites kicked open the covers and was greeted by the sight of a tired Arbiter.
"Forerunners be praised!" The lone Zealot in there ran up to Katerina, offering his hand to get her to her feet. "The Arbiter!"
Taking his hand, she questioned him about their presence here. "What are you all doing here, brother?"
"This Quarantine Zone has been compromised, Arbiter," He replied, pulling out twin Plasma Rifles from their holsters attached to his sides. "We must do what we can against the Flood. The Commander has landed further in. Come. Let us join him."
Oh. So Rtas was here as well. The Prophets were not taking any chances! News of the Humans attempting to reach to the Index must have hit them and how they are doing whatever it takes. Well, as long as Katerina was still here that was not going to happen.
A/N: Okay, inukag94, I updated! SO DON'T EAT ME :'(
Happy belated birthday! Thanks for following this story! :)
Yay. National Exams are over! x)
