Master Chief watched as Samus grew smaller in the view screen, descending towards the Ring. The Hunter fired its engines and rocketed away from the Ring. Adam killed the engines and let The Hunter coast towards the surface of the terrestrial planet. The Chief slouched in the captain's chair watching the planetoid engulf the view screen. "That is odd." Adam's monotone synthesized voice noted, breaking the silence.
"What?" the Chief asked, trying to face in the direction where the sound originated from.
"The Pirate's seem to be at an observational disadvantage. The planet's body will block any electromagnetic scanners from reading the ship."
"We already knew that," The Chief explained, "that is why we waited until the base pasted the terminator."
"But they don't even have relays to by-pass the problem of line of site. The Pirate's are neither that stupid nor hubristic to be that careless. I thought I would have had to evade at least one satellite."
The Chief was beginning to follow Adam's train of thought, but before he could piece it together Cortana spoiled the ending.
"Oh My God!" She cried, "The Ring, it must be the relay station, they must have picked up the ship's signature by now."
The Chief cursed under his breath, he shouldn't have been so careless, underestimating the Pirates like that.
"I don't think they have seen us yet." The Chief said, reassuring his AI companions, as well as himself. "We would have seen some sort of interceptor by now, either from the planet or the Ring."
"Quite possible," Adam agreed, "unless they are waiting for us to fall into range of their planetary defenses."
"Thanks captain bring down," Cortana scoffed, "but who needs planetary defenses when you have an orbital weapon platform, we probably got lucky and caught them at a shift change."
They worriedly kept to the plan, dropping off the Chief some distance from the base. Adam lifted the Hunter off to rendezvous with Samus at the Ring. The Chief waited until the ship was out of site before starting his trek towards the Pirate's base. Removing the palm sized pyramid from his pack, he placed it in his hand. The point was facing upward, while its base rested in his hand. Bringing the point up to the MJOLNIR breast plate, resting it on his armor. Taking both hands across the base of the pyramid he thrust the alien object into his chest, infusing it with his armor. His suit shimmered momentarily as its components were overloaded. When the glare faded, nothing was to be seen of John or his MJOLNIR armor.
Cortana started ticking away the seconds until the cloak would wear off. She displayed the time on his face plate, so he would be aware of their impending exposure. John raced across the surface of the planet, thankful for both his genetic and cybernetic augmentations, allowing for his inhuman endurance. He arrived at the base ahead of schedule, giving plenty of time to survey the area. He was in no hurry to under estimate the Pirate force again. This base was different from the last one he had encountered; this was more of a compound. It was broken up into half a dozen buildings, of which he could only guess at their functions.
"I'm picking up Terran bio-signatures in building 3," Cortana said breaking his concentration. She highlighted a building in red on his HUD indicating the building she was talking about.
"Thanks," He muttered, "I'm just scouting around; I don't want to barge in there with out a plan."
"What?" She mocked, "Not going to use the classic bust in there and shoot anything that moves maneuver?"
He ignored her; she had a strangely human response to fear, for an AI. While he had a robotic one, in which he became cold and calculating, it was how he was trained to deal with it, it was why he had survived so long. It probably worked out for the best, she said what he wanted to, so he didn't need to waste time dealing with that, and he could just proceed with the mission. The walked by what appeared to be some sort of electrical conduits. They sat along the wall, running in and out of various rooms. The Chief assumed where the most electrical equipment converged would be the control deck for the Ring. A purple electric discharge came off some piping or wires, it was hard to say, due to the angle the Chief was at.
"Cortana," He said starting up a new conversation. "Did you see that?" He said indicating the electric discharge. "It seemed to have been floating in front of the conduit."
"I saw it, you're probably just imagining things," She teased. "I figure it was some sort of static electricity discharge, maybe some charged dust particle or something floated close enough to the wiring to cause the electricity to jump out to it, you know like lighting."
The Chief tried to convince himself that her explanation would work.
"I guess when it made the jump it could cause it to look like it was just floating in mid air." He agreed.
He tried to figure out which course of action would be the better idea, rescuing the captives first or dismantling the Ring controls. He knew either one would set off numerous alarms, which would drastically reduce his time to complete his mission, time he desperately needed. He wondered down a corridor, seeing only a single Space Pirate sentry standing at ease, obviously not enjoying his watch. The Chief was heading around the corner of the corridor, not wanting to cause any collateral damage. He knew that the sentry might have an access card of some sort which he could use to get to certain areas of the compound, but he also knew they area wasn't confined and isolated. He was hoping that the Pirates had bathroom facilities which he could employ for such an attack, it would be the ideal place for an ambush, and no one would find the unlucky Pirate until he was long gone. Of course things seldom go as planned.
When the Chief was roughly at arms length from the pirate, a jet of steam from a cracked pipe hissed out at him, exposing his presence. The jet of steam outlined his silhouette. The pirate reacted immediately, lunging towards the intruder swinging his fist, having no time to retrieve his secured weapon. The pirate brought his arm around in a long arch, it was a haymaker. Using the distance to build speed and power, putting all his weight behind it. Before the blow could reach him, Master Chief stepped in towards the blow, to reduce its allotted travel time. This would cause a decrease in the blows momentum.
He shot his right hand up, halting the swing with his forearm resting it in what appeared to be an elbow joint. The blow was strong and would have knocked a grown man down, and the uninterrupted swing would have killed a normal man. But the Chief wasn't a normal man, and he was well braced for the emanate impact. He reacted instantly as the blow connected, snaking his right arm around the attackers left. The speed and strength of his counter-attack caused the pirate to turn 180 degree, putting his back flush with the Chief's chest, and it lodged his arm into a chicken arm hold which was impossible to get out of. The pirates chitin endoskeleton crunched under the strain. The Chief reached over and pulled off a piece of piping that ran along the wall. He thrust the thin piping between the shoulder and neck of the attacking pirate, causing a spray of goop to shoot up from the puncture point, not unlike squishing an oversized bug.
It was all over in a second, The pirate slid to the ground at the Chief's feet, one would think he had just fell asleep at guard duty, until you saw the piping protruding from his neck. He hoped his extra effort in neutralizing this pirate would pay off, he didn't was to discharge his firearm and have the whole station running after him. His silent attack should go unnoticed for at least a half an hour, unless of course he had a check point sign in before that. Crouching above the body, John's eyes dart over the corpse. "Cortana do you …"
"Way ahead of you Chief," She interrupted. "It looks like he has an access security card of some sort. It appears to be imbedded in his armor, in the left shoulder area. It just looks like a magnetic key; I could probably just replicate the signal." John noticed her emphasis on the word 'probably', she didn't sound to sure of herself. A modest Cortana is something rare, and that bothered the Chief, he couldn't recall a time where she had ever been humble.
"What do you mean 'probably'?" He asked, while his hand hovered over the possible security card.
"Well, maybe there is more to the reader than just seeing the card's magnetic key. Such as reading its position, composition, chronometric frequency of check-ins, or any number of other things. Look I could do it, it's just your suit's sensors are poorly designed, they are designed for combat specific scenarios, I just don't trust their readouts, that is all." She said sternly. Now this was the Cortana John knew and was used to dealing with. It was always something else's fault that she could perform a task.
"For a second there I thought this was something serious," he joked. "A task that even the great Cortana couldn't perform."
"I told you it isn't my fault. It is the suit!" She said tersely, letting a hint of frustration slip out.
He smiled behind his gold-platted face plate shaking his head. He didn't let this moment of being at ease last long, he still had a body to dispose of, before someone's preying eyes spotted it. He drug the exoskeleton across the floor, hoping to reduce any the chances of being spotted, just about everyone is going to notice a floating body. He hid the body in a corner, using some equipment that was lying around to conceal the felled pirate. While he was hiding the body, he had Cortana locate the most likely place for the controls of the Ring. As he had figured before it had to be where most of the power was being piped to. Cortana located the control room, but the only problem was it was in another building, several stories below ground.
The Chief didn't like this discovery; it would give him less time than he had anticipated. Using the Groucho heal-toe walk he quickly and stealthily made it to the entrance of the control room. So far he hadn't been able to test out his so called security card; he had timed his entrances by other people's entrances or exits. Up until now all doors were transparent, or had transparent sections on them, which was a good sign, that meant that the reinforced steel door he was in front of, all four tons of it, had to be protecting something. He waited, hoping someone would exit the room, so he could sneak in unnoticed. He waited a full 5 minutes, and no one came, he had to chance it, he didn't have the luxury of time. His cloak and departure deadlines were both fast approaching.
He stepped in front of the door, hoping the pirate he offed was high ranking enough to be allowed in this area. A red LED started down where the Chief was standing. After a few seconds its evil glare was replaced with a friendly green glow, welcoming the Chief in. There was a slight hiss, as the door cracked open, he hoped it wasn't audible, but he knew it didn't matter since the ping that accompanied it would alert everyone to his presence. If it wasn't for his quick reaction time, the Chief would never have avoided the exiting Pirate, luckily the Pirate was taking his time, probably joking with the other technicians, or whatever the Pirates do for fun.
He slid by the Pirate, thankful for his seemingly never ending supply of luck. As Cortana said, what he lacked in brains he made up for in luck. He located the main terminal for the Ring controls. On the under side of the terminal he removed his C-7 Foaming Spray, and gave the underside a nice thick layer covering. The foaming spray works like most foaming aerosols. It is a liquid in a can, which upon exposure to air, creates foam, this foam however becomes an adhesive explosive resin. John placed the detonator inside the plastique lancing it deep below the surface.
He then hurriedly approached the door. He was still uncertain to whether or not his security badge opened the door, or even was a security badge. As he walked towards the door, he slide a low slung box out in front of a distracted Pirate, causing him to trip into the path of the scanning red LED. The door hissed open, giving its usual greeting of a friendly green and loud beep. The Chief was around the hall before he could hear the angry exchange between the pirates. He could only hope it was from tripping over a box that no one knew was there. He headed back to the surface towards the compound with the Terran bio-signatures in it. He was wishing right now that he could contact Samus, but he had the same problem the pirates did; no line of sight. He would just have to stick to the plan and hope that she was off the Ring.
Cortana ticked away the seconds to the minimal escape time. He gave her five more minutes past the deadline. By this time his cloak was starting to fade, luckily he still had the cover of darkness. The unnatural green light of night vision bathed his eyes as he looked at the door that held the human captives. He approached the door, in a few seconds he wouldn't need to worry about stealth. He forcedly stepped forward with is left leg picked up his right leg, slamming it into the door in front of him. The impact was explosive; the kick sent the thin plated steel door off its hinges, throwing it across the room only stopping when it collided with the wall on the opposite side of the room. He didn't need to worry about injuring the captives, they were held in a yet another section of this room that was quartered off by another door.
Using his momentum from kicking the door open he pivoted on his left foot, landing his right one inside the room. He was in a wide legged stance with his Magnum drawn. He checked the room, it was surprisingly clear. He bent his forearm, causing his gun to point at the ceiling. He wasn't about to holster it yet. Besides no guard, no notable alarm was tripped either. Stepping deeper in the room, the Chief caught a glimpse another electric discharge. Only this time, it was headed straight for his head. The blow toppled the Chief sending him across the room; luckily the crumbling table beneath him broke his fall. The Chief blinked, to help clear his spinning vision.
"I must be more dazed than I thought," he muttered. "I don't see anyone."
"He must be employing some sort of cloaking device as well." Cortana said, confirming his thoughts.
"But it isn't perfect, it lets off electrical discharges," She continued "probably when he moves."
"Great." All he had to do is wait to be hit, then he could tell where the blow came from. Then an idea occurred to him, he took aim and fired at a pipe that traversed the ceiling. His gunfire was preceded by a loud beeping. Of course he thought, the alarm is triggered by weapons fire they don't want the station damaged.
"Great job." Cortana said sardonically.
The pipe the bullet hit burst, letting loose the pressurized steam it carried, just like the steam that did in his cloak. The steam parted around an invisible object, through the steams deflection he could make out arms blocking the steams path to a face. He took aim at what the arms were frantically trying to protect, and fired. The pirate dropped, along with his cloak, landing on the ground in a goopy puddle.
"Let's give them a real reason to sound the alarm." He said to himself. He removed the remote detonator from his belt and pushed the switch. A huge explosion went off, engulfing the building that once held the Rings override controls. A new set of alarms went off.
"Well," said Cortana, "That should draw attention away from this little prison break."
"That's what I am hoping."
He grabbed the door sealing in the human prisoners and pealed it off like the top of a sardine can. He saw a little girl, trying to hide herself with her mother. He reached out his had to her.
"Hurry," He said, "We have to get out of here."
He scooped up the little girl in his left hand; she was now clinging to him like a backpack, put on backwards. Reaching for the mother with the other hand, he half lead, half dragged her out of there. All that could be seen against the fiery backdrop was a giant human silhouette with a growth on its left side, carrying a woman away from the fire.