Chapter 14
Rachel
...
The dim glow from the monitor's was the only light provided in the control room. Cortona had been busily working within the system. Searching through and resetting various pass codes and identification numbers. She was doing everything she could to make sure that when the time came to carry out their plan, there wouldn't be any mistakes. It was a critical mission, one they needed to complete without failure. If any part of the mutated flood got lose, it would be a complete disaster and make the war with the covenant look like a wedding between Ken and Barbie.
Cortana's holographic image appeared on the console as T.I.M floated in the air. " What's the flood count?" she asked the orb.
" The specimen has tripled in population since the last time it was recorded. " he informed her.
" Damn. They're multiplying faster than I thought. " she said.
ALERT. BREACH IN VENTILATION SYSTEM A.
A synthetic voice announced as a red light began to flash, indicating the urgency.
" It appears with the over reproduction of the parasite they have begun to expand into the other areas of the base. " T.I.M. added.
Cortana flickered. " I've sealed all ventilation shafts and the ones you travel through. We can't risk anything. " she said looking over the numbers she let out a sigh. " Alert chief. It's time to set the charges. " Cortana said.
The floating orbs ocular device expanded and retracted, then it floated out of the room.
-
Tracing John's battle scars with her slender gingers, Rachel felt both the roughness and the smoothness of the healed over skin. A testament to all the effort and years he put into fighting and training. Even more so all of pain he endured that became the result of the scars.
" I don't remember not having them. " he said as he could feel her fingers on his skin.
Looking up at him her golden eyes connected with his for a moment before returning to his body.
" You're not the only one with them." she said slowly as she moved his hand from the small of her back to the middle of her back where she had a large scar that ran down her back.
" A scar like that has to have a story. " he said slowly caressing her back.
Letting out a small sigh she nodded. " Indeed it does." she said as she began to remember back to when it had happened. " I was on a cover stealth mission. Just me and two other Spartans. We had simple instructions. Get in, get the key code and get out. But, as much as we'd always want it to be, our missions are never just that easy. Especially not in this war. " she started. " We got in with no problems, however we didn't count on three camouflaged zealots to be protecting the artifact that we were supposed to retrieve. Needless to say, we were caught off guard and after taking down one of the Zealots, I was careless in watching my back and had a sword almost go right through me. If it wasn't for one of my teammates, I would have died." she said, as she finished explaining how she got the scar.
" Those bastards are fast." Chief commented. " I've had my share of run ins with them, and those energy swords." he added.
" It must be good to not have to be at war with the Elite's anymore." she commented.
" Their aid was appreciated, and welcomed. Especially against the flood. But.. it was hard to trust them in the beginning. It took a lot of time for me to actually trust any of them with my life.. though, there was really only one I trusted." he said thinking back to the time before he arrived on this planet. " His name was The Arbiter. " Chief said. " Cast out of his kind, and forced to be a martyr, he defected from his prophets and began to follow his own path soon convincing the other Elite's to do so. If it wasn't for the hate and rivalry between the Elite's and the Brute's, I'm not so sure the betrayal would have happened at all." he finished.
" We're not all that different you know." She said, repositioning herself so that she could face him better, her hand tracing his strong jaw line.
"How's that?" He asked.
" Well... we're at war because we're both two different kinds of species just trying to protect our own and survive." she said.
" They're trying to activate the rings which would undoubtedly destroy the universe. Our world and theirs." he added.
" Yes well, they do have those that wish for things like that. The extremists that cause only destruction and death. But...are we so different to judge them? We have made plenty of mistakes and have had many people who do things for only power and money. " she explained. " Take a look at the scientists and those in charge of what was happening here. They were experimenting on their own people...and to what end? How can we judge the other race so quick without taking a look at how corrupt our own is." she said, more quietly at the end as the memories of what happened flooded her mind.
Chief responded by rubbing her back gently and then placing his hand under her chin bringing her face to his and kissing her passionately. " Everything that happened will be corrected. We'll destroy this base and all of the sick experiments that went on. Then we'll deal with the commander and I'll take you somewhere far from all this death." he said to her. " I promise." he said softly.
Her eyes softened as she looked deeply into his. It meant a lot to her that he would help to fix everything that had happened. It meant even more that he would stop fighting and leave with her to some place where there was no fighting and there wasn't any war. But.. she wasn't sure that it would work.
" Are you sure that we can just stop fighting. We're Spartans... we were born to fight. Trained and bred to do nothing but kill." she said slowly.
Chief was silent. It was true. They were killing machines and they didn't know anything else. Though, even during the wars and the hardest times, it would seem that there was a light. There were times for John to know what it felt like to be loved and to love somebody else. To care about something beyond war. Beyond fighting and killing, to have another reason and purpose to live.
" We may have started out that way..but we can decide how to live out the rest of our future." he said to her, rubbing the side of her face gingerly.
" I don't know how long we'll be able to survive without killing something." she said with a small laugh.
John smiled in return as he leaned in for anther kiss. " Meeting you has finally made me realize that there's more to live for than just killing." he said sincerely. To hear something like that from him was...rare. Though it was Kelly who initially made him feel differently about things,but he was way to stubborn back then to really pay attention and actually take action on his feelings. He was too much of a solider to realize there was more to life. But after her death.. he took it hard and held regrets, regrets that he vowed to repay in the deaths of his enemies.
But then he met Rachel, and once again his heart softened. Except this time, instead of pushing her away and focusing on nothing but killing the enemy. He opened his heart and accepted hers. Experiencing for the first time what it was like to feel love, to love and to be loved.
Now he knew there was more than just survival to fight for.
The door made a beeping sound as it slowly slid open and the floating orb entered. John quickly pulled the covers up covering both him and Rachel as he looked at the orb, wondering what it was disturbing them for.
" Apologies for interrupting the copulation of the Lieutenant and the Master Chief but, Cortana requests your presence. The parasite has tripled in population and she says its time to carry out the mission." he informed them.
Rachel and John looked at each other before nodding to the orb as its eye widened and retracted and it floated out of the room leaving them alone once more.
" Well...I guess it's time." Rachel said slowly. Her heart almost seemed to beat fast as she felt a bit of nervousness. It was somewhat of a foreign feeling to her as she never got nervous before a battle. But, it wasn't really the fighting part that got her nervous. It was what they were about to do, and the risk they were about to take.
Leaning in, John kissed her again, holding her close once more before pulling away. " We should suit up." he said reluctantly. He would've liked nothing more than to spend the rest of the day in bed with her but, duty calls.
Nodding, she exited the bed and pulled her clothes on before exiting his room and heading to her own where she would enter the machine that would attach her armor as Chief would do the same.
-
It wasn't too long after that both Spartans met in the control room where Cortana's holographic form was present and T.I.M floated near them. Cortana had just finished explaining the situation to them as the light on the wall continued to flash red and a bunch of different graphs and the map of the facility was present on the huge screens in front of them. Certain area's highlighted in red, displaying where the parasite had infected and how they were traveling fast through the facilities systems, breaking through some of the sealed vents.
" How much longer until they reach the main level? " Chief asked.
" According to the speed that they're moving and how fast they're breaking through the defenses I'd say... twenty minutes before the breach the main floor." she informed him.
Chief and Rachel looked at each other. Both of their reflections in one another's visors.
" We have no choice then. Set the charges." he said as Cortana nodded.
" I'll set them to detonate in fifteen minutes. That should give us enough time to get to the transport bay and have the pods ready to launch. I'll set the co-ordinates to the UNSC Hurricane. We should be far in orbit before the explosions set off, at a safe distance. " she explained to them.
Both Rachel and Chief nodded. " What do you need us to do ?" Rachel asked.
" We can amplify the explosion by overloading the cores. There's four and the co-ordinates have been placed on your maps. Once you get to the terminals at each core, I'll have the codes sent to you that will provide a manual override and will set them into a meltdown. " she said to them as the locations appeared on their HUDS. " You may run into some trouble with the parasites as they have spread throughout most of the base." Cortana warned them.
" We'll be fine. " Chief reassured the A.I as he cocked his gun and held it to the side. " Alright, I'll take the two cores on the third floor, you get the ones on the second floor." he said to Rachel.
She hesitantly nodded, knowing that he was giving himself the more dangerous floors. As much as she wanted to argue it, she knew better.
" Let's get this done in five minutes." he said to her as she nodded and they both sprinted out of the room, heading towards the staircases and towards the cores.
As Rachel reached her floor, she was immediately met with some resistance by the parasite. The small creatures began to move towards her fast. Firing her weapon, they all exploded as the bullets rained down upon them ending their lives. Moving fast, she activated her sprint ability on her armor and moved through the halls like a blurr.
Reaching the first core, she approached the terminal. " Alright Cortana, I'm at the first terminal." she said.
" Codes are coming through now." she answered as the codes were soon displayed on Rachel's HUD.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she inputted the override code. After hitting enter, a siren went off as lights began flashing signalling the beginning of the meltdown. Turning, she began running to the opposite end of the floor where she would activate the second core. Looking at the countdown on her HUD it said that she had three minutes left. Activating her sprint ability, she began moving faster again counting on cutting the time in half.
Rachel skid to a stop as bodies that were taken over by the flood approached her in their grotesque humanoid forms. Lashing out at her with their mutated grown arms, she had to move quick to avoid their hits directly. Her shields took most of the damage as two of the infected made contact with her. Shoving the butt end of her gun into one of its throats she quickly brought her leg up and planted a hard kick on its chest pushing it back. Switching for her shotgun she fired off a shot point blank, its head exploding and the body falling to the ground in pieces. Doing the same with the other one, she continued to run as she dispatched the two enemies.
Finally reaching the second core terminal she found she didn't have to contact Cortana as the codes were sent to her automatically. Assuming that Cortana was keeping watch of their locations. Inputting the code, another siren sounded as more lights flashed.
WARNING: CORE MELTDOWN IMMINENT. EMERGENCY ESCAPE ROUTES SUGGESTED.
A voice rang out over the intercom system. " Okay, I'm done." she said through the comm.
It was just then that one of the larger mutated bodies grabbed her from behind, throwing her across the room like she was made of paper. Climbing to her feet, she saw that her shotgun lay on the floor across from her. Looking up at the creature as it charged, she brought her arms up to counter its attack. Pushing against its mutated arms she used all her strength to try and hold it back, while one hand tried to reach for the combat knife on her chest.
Finally reaching it, she lashed out at the creature creating several deep gashes in its body. However, it proved ineffective as the creature kept coming at her, whipping its long and sharp body parts relentlessly. Hitting her several times, she was slammed against the wall once more, letting out a small cry of pain.
Holding her arm, her armor was beeping, indicating that her shields were low. Equipping her pistol she began to fire off rounds into the creatures head, but even that didn't slow it as it charged at her again. Rolling on the ground she dodged it's attack and neared her shotgun. Once it turned to charge at her again, she was bent down on one knee, her shotgun aimed at its torso. Pulling the trigger a few times the mutated body exploded into an almost green mist as the body parts lay strewn across the room.
" Rachel, are you okay?" Chief's voice came over the comm.
" Yeah,I'm on my way up now." she replied back, activating her sprint once more and moving fast through the second level not long after reaching the first where she met up with Chief again. Looking at the clock she smirked." With one minute to spare." she said proudly.
She watched as Chief approached the terminal and took out the chip that was Cortana. Placing her in the back of his helmet, he led the way to the docking station where they would take a pod to the UNSC frigate that was orbiting the planet.
" Stay close." He said as he led her through the infested level.
Her breathing was steadied as she ran to keep up with Chief. Her suit made it easier for her to move fast and not have to worry about her body getting tired. Firing off rounds from her pistol, she shot at any of the flood that tried to get to close. They didn't have time to get rid of all the opposition. Their main goal was to get to the hanger where they would take the pod to the frigate in space and be clear of the facility before it exploded.
" It's just through those blast doors." Rachel said as she hit back an advancing enemy as they drew closer to the door.
" It's opened." Cortana's voice rang out as the doors slid open, the hiss of the hydraulics from the doors confirming it.
Running through Rachel could see the pod as smoke was forming around it. Cortana had it prepped for them to use. Approaching it, the door to the pod opened as Chief climbed aboard, extending his hand to help Rachel up.
" I've sealed the blast doors. They won't be able to get inside the hanger." Cortana said
" How much longer until we can leave?" Rachel asked.
" The pod will be ready in three minutes." Cortana said.
"And until the detonation?" Rachel inquired.
" Approximately eight minutes." Cortana replied.
" Will the blast doors hold?" Chief asked.
" They should." Cortana answered
" And if they don't," Rachel said cocking her gun. " We'll have no choice but to keep them off of us until launch." she said determined.
Looking at Chief, she couldn't help but form a small smile. They had finally done it. They had carried out their mission and had both made it to the end. Of course, Rachel knew better than to get too overexcited about things before the mission was fully completed but - she just couldn't help thinking what it was going to be like for them to start a new life together.
Of course they would try to get back to Earth, but she didn't care too much about where they would go, all she cared about was being with him. All of the pain and suffering that she endured throughout her military - Spartan career would all be worth it in the end. True, they were Spartans until the day they died.. but they would be Spartans with each other.. and they would live for each other.
Suddenly, there was a big explosion and Rachel had to hold onto the side of the pod to catch her balance. " What was that ?" she asked as she saw smoke rise from somewhere inside of the hanger.
WARNING - CORE MELTDOWN IN PROGRESS. WARNING.
A loud voice erupted over the intercom throughout the facility .
" Uh, Chief. The time has just went from eight minutes to three. " Cortana said.
" What happened?" he asked.
" The cores seem to have overheated at a faster rate then I thought ." she said.
" What now ?" Rachel asked.
" I'm trying to speed up the launch sequence for the pod but.. it keeps locking me out. It says..." Cortana paused. " It says it needs a manual override code. " she informed them.
Both Chief and Rachel looked at each other. Manual meant that it had to be a human being that physically put the code in. But, if either one of them left the pod to input the codes then they would die.
Thinking and moving fast, Rachel pushed Chief to the side and activated her sprint ability which launched her from the pod and into the hanger.
" Rachel!" Chief's voice yelled as he straightened himself up .
Reaching the terminal, Rachel hit a button that activated the see through doors to close separating the launch pad where the pod was and the hanger where Rachel was.
Exiting the pod, Chief was stopped by the door. Rachel watched as he pounded on the door but it wouldn't brake.
" Rachel!" He yelled again.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she inputted the override codes.
OVERRIDE ACCEPTED. LAUNCH WILL BEGIN IN T-MINUS 60 SECONDS.
A voice chimed.
Letting out a sigh, Rachel took her helmet off and walked over to the door where Chief was standing on the other side.
" Rachel what the hell are you doing ! Open these doors !" he yelled frantically.
" Chief, we don't have much time." Cortana warned him.
" Chief... " Rachel started as she looked at him. " I'm sorry but.. it had to be done." she said as she held out her hand and had it pressed up against the glass.
" No...no it didn't. We could've figured out a way. We could have both survived." Chief said.
" You and I both know that's not true. " She said with a small smile. " Remember, sometimes sacrificing is the only way you can win a war. " she said as tears started to form.
T-MINUS THIRTY SECONDS TO LAUNCH.
Chief shook his head as he outstretched his hand and held it opposite to hers on the glass.
" Not if it's you... " he said slowly.
" I'm sacrificing myself to save you. The galaxy still needs you Chief." she said.
" But I need you ." he answered.
" I'm glad I was able to meet you. You brought happiness and love into my life when I needed it the most and I know that I.. that I can die happy now." she said as a tear rolled down her cheek.
T-MINUS TWENTY SECONDS TO LAUNCH.
" Rachel you're everything to me.. I love you ." he said, his voice faltering.
" I love you too." she said leaning closer to the glass. " But you have to go now John.. there isn't much time left. We can't both die here." she said to him , urging him to leave before it was too late. " You have to go.. " she said to him as more tears fell down her cheeks.
Chief stood there, reluctant to leave.
" John.. " she said again.
T-MINUS TEN SECONDS.
NINE.
EIGHT.
Chief slowly turned from the glass and headed into the pod. Once inside, the door slowly closed and he stood looking through the window at her as the metal doors on the ceiling began to open.
FIVE.
FOUR.
Rachel lowered her hand from the glass as she stood there and watched him, having a smile on her face the entire time. There was no way that she was going to have Chief have the last image of her upset and distraught. No, she would smile for him.. for them. For all the love that they shared and the happiness they brought each other.
TWO
ONE
The rockets at the end of the pod lit up as it began to rise from the hanger and soon into the sky .
Rachel watched as it disappeared from her sight. She could hear explosions sounding off all around her and the scream of the parasite as they burned and still tried to get through to her. Looking at her wrist she held her arm up to her face as she played around with some switches on her armor.
Hearing another explosion she braced herself, her eyes cast into the sky once more.
" It's all up to you now, my love." she said as the final big explosion sounded and with the combined power of the explosives they stole from the covenant and the core overlaods, the entire of the facility exploded taking the new mutated parasite with it... and the life of Lieutenant Rachel Fleming.