Chapter Twenty: The Beginning of the End

Corporal Joshua Porter and I made our way carefully down the rubble, trying to get to the ground level so that we could figure out what to do from there. Because the base hospital was nothing but a huge mound of miscellaneous debris ringed around a crater now, there was no way we were going to find a working COM anywhere, and Plan B was to get outside to eventually rendezvous with Lewis. Seeing as the medical wing had been utterly gutted, we no longer had to look for a route out of the base, either. We used the broken parts of the building to slide down instead.

I wasn't sure if it was the smell or the agonized sounds of burned and bloodied UNSC military personnel that did it, but my eyes began to water the instant Porter and I started our morbid trek. As I held onto loose chunks of concrete and twisted metal to keep from slipping down the mountain of wreckage, I noticed a fine white-gray ash coming up from beneath my combat boots, choking up my lungs just as the smoke had earlier. I nearly gagged when I realized that it wasn't just pulverized plaster and concrete from the structure, but cremated bodies.

Whatever the Covenant had used to level this place, it had certainly taken an unimaginable toll in human lives.

"C-Captain?" I heard my aide anxiously stutter behind me. He hadn't said a word since he'd first seen what had become of the medical wing, and now that we were slowly maneuvering among the dead and dying, the poor kid seemed to be in even worse shape. He wasn't a stranger to the horrors of war, but likely he'd never seen anything quite like this before.

I'd never seen anything like this before.

My throat was so dry from the dust and the smoke that I had to cough loud and hard before answering. "Not now, Corporal. Just keep going, and try to focus on where you put your feet. It's a long way to fall." That way, you won't focus on the corpses all around us, I added to myself.

Holding onto my assault rifle tight in one hand, I used the other to continue to ease myself down the smoking heap. All through the hike, a steady stream of moisture dropped from my eyes, my nose still clogged up with now-dried blood, my throat raw from the fumes, and my skin slowly burning up from the heat of the late evening sun.

But I didn't register any of it when I suddenly slipped on a large pool of dark red blood.

One of the corpses just in front of me had had its entrails sprawled out on a shiny piece of steel, and my boots lost traction in an instant. I fell face-first into the powdery white-gray ash, felt the anonymous Marine body beneath me shift, and I started to tumble right down the rest of the way to the ground.

I grunted harshly as the back of my torso armor clanged into another piece of jagged metal on my way down, and I shut my eyes tight as I braced myself for the many more impacts I knew were coming. My heart started pumping faster as I gained momentum, and I realized that if I ended up rolling all the way to the dirt level, I was either going to be bloody and unconscious, or bloody and dead.

And that either way, that meant my unborn child would be dead, too.

Thankfully, something stopped me before that could happen.

He caught me by my midsection as I came tumbling past, forcibly halting my momentum in a precise motion so that the impact was relatively soft. He knew as well as I did that if my body got jarred too violently, I'd lose the baby, so he kept his stance low and his weight on his haunches so that he absorbed the shock instead of me.

Still, I was so astonished by the abrupt maneuver that I kept my eyes closed for several seconds after the collision.

"Captain? Captain! Are you ok, ma'am?"

When I'd finally convince myself that I'd truly stopped, I took in a deep breath and opened my eyes. They were still watery from all the dust, but I could make out the figure crouched in front of me even before I wiped the tears away. It was Doc Reynolds.

His blue eyes were full of panic as he noticed that I was still slightly disoriented from both the tumble and the hit, and he kept his arms firmly around my waist so that I wouldn't fall any further. Since I hadn't answered him the first time, he tried again, using my last name now.

"Captain Cooper?"

That was what eventually brought me back.

"Yeah, Doc," I rasped, my voice sounding more hoarse than ever. "I'm ok. Thanks---" I paused, wincing for a second against the dull pain in my side. "Thanks for the save, Reynolds. I would've been reduced to a bloody pulp pretty quick if it weren't for you."

The medic chuckled humorlessly. "That's what I'm here for, Captain. Let's get you up, huh?"

I shook my head fiercely, keeping my arms wrapped tight around my abdomen as I choked out, "My baby, Doc. What about my kid?"

"Don't worry. I think I caught you in time, ma'am. We'll get you checked out as soon as possible, though, all right? But for now you should get up, Captain. It's not safe to stay here."

Reluctantly, I nodded in agreement.

Petty Officer Reynolds half-stood then, fighting with the rubble to get traction on his own boots. Once he'd managed to get his feet firmly planted among the wreckage, he slung his battle rifle across his back and helped me to stand again.

It was then that I saw the blood dripping steadily onto the light-colored ash, but for once it wasn't mine. It was Reynolds's.

"Doc, you sure you're ok?" I asked, staring not at the devastation all around us, but at the large gash on his right arm. His whole bicep looked torn up, and his uniform was bloodied and tattered around the wound. Still, he tried to cover it up as soon as he realized I'd noticed.

He gave me a shaky grin. "You're not supposed to be worried about my wounds, Captain. That's my job. It hurts like a bitch, but I'll be fine."

I cringed inwardly for a moment, knowing how much it must have hurt him to stop me with his arm in such bad shape. I wondered how he'd managed that without even so much as crying out in pain when I'd slammed into him.

But there wasn't time for any of that right now. I was forced back into the present surroundings when I heard Corporal Porter slide down to my side.

"Ma'am? Are you all right?" the young noncom asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah, Corporal. I'm good to go, thanks to the medic, but we've got to get moving." Picking up my ash-covered rifle from the debris, I shook it out and added, "We need to get on the ground now, before whoever or whatever blew the hell out of the hospital decides to come back. And we need to rendezvous with Lieutenant Lewis and the rest of Bravo, ASAP."

"Yes, ma'am."

Making our way down the rest of the trashed mound was easier than when we'd been at the top. Although there was a significant increase in the amount of bodies as we got closer and closer to the bottom, the steep incline of wreckage gradually leveled off once we were near the ground. Everything had accumulated and rolled down from the top, so the dangers of slipping and falling weren't as great.

The downside, of course, was that Porter, Reynolds, and I now had to carefully step our way through the victims---and not all of them were dead yet.

Since there was nothing we could do for these people, as Reynolds had noted to Porter and I that they were already too far gone for treatment, we had to simply block out their sufferings as best we could. We still had a job to do, and maybe, if we managed to do it right, we could avenge their deaths that way.

I didn't know how, but I was able to snap out of the daze the horrible scene had produced we finally reached solid ground again. It was something I had to do, to keep from being overwhelmed by the complete horrors of the past several minutes.

"All right, at least we've hit dirt now," I said, bending over for a moment to catch my breath. The trek down had been arduous, and I still couldn't get oxygen through my broken nose yet. I could only hope that my poor kid was doing ok after all the rough handling. "We've still got to find Lewis and Bravo, though, so we're going to make a quick circuit around base. Understood?"

Doc Reynolds and Corporal Porter both nodded at the same time. "Yes, Captain."

"Good. Then keep your eyes and ears sharp, be ready for the Covenant, and let's get moving," I ordered. "Josh'll take point."

While we made our way through the cratered and pockmarked ground, I turned back to Petty Officer Reynolds, who was marching along behind me, and looked at him. "Doc?"

He was keeping a tight grip on his weapon with one hand, and an equally fierce clamp on his wounded arm with the other. The medic didn't let his discomfort come out in his voice, though his expression did look strained---and he was sweating. "Yes, ma'am?"

I swallowed hard and asked, "Were you in the medical wing, Reynolds? When it was taken out?"

"That's affirmative, Captain," the medic replied, visibly wincing. "I got stuck in all that shit, ma'am, same as everybody else, and I have no idea how I managed to get out with just a broken arm."

"Broken arm?" I repeated incredulously. "Jesus, Doc. Your arm's broken and you don't tell me?"

"I was kind of busy trying to save you from taking a really nasty fall, Captain. As bad as that tumble you took was, it would've been a lot worse for you and for your child if you'd gone down all the way."

God, I hope my kid's ok, I thought to myself.

"Speaking of which, what are you even doing in battledress, ma'am? You're not allowed on patrols, and there wasn't any training scheduled for tonight. You shouldn't even be fighting right now."

That did it; I just couldn't stand him rebuking me at a time like this, so I snapped at him. "What the hell should I be doing then, Doc, huh? Lying in my bunk waiting for the Covies to come shoot me in the ass?" Realizing that this was neither the time nor the place for a confrontation, I ran a quick hand through my hair and said, "The alien bastards came a knockin', Reynolds. Unless I wanted to be dead, I didn't really have a choice."

Both Reynolds and Porter looked a little taken aback by my outburst, but I didn't stare at them long enough to see them recover. I looked up wide-eyed at the mammoth thing taking out a chunk of the hangars on the other side of the base instead. That was where I was probably supposed to go, to get evacuated with the rest of the wounded. Like the medic had said, I sure as hell couldn't stay and fight.

"Holy…shit," Corporal Porter murmured. "Uh, Captain, what in the hell is that?"

"Damned if I know, Corporal," I replied, my tone quickly going from angered to astonished. "But I'm willing to bet that's what hit the base hospital, too." Turning to Reynolds again, I asked, "That true, Doc?"

Startled, Reynolds answered, "Y-yes, ma'am. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. I don't remember all that much from before I heard the blast, though."

The three of us watched in dumbstruck horror as the large, walking metal insectoid contraption ambled closer to base. The ground quaked beneath our boots with each of its thundering steps, and then it came to an abrupt halt in front of the rest of the base's airstrip.

"Oh, no," I breathed. "Fuck, Doc, it's gonna take out the---"

"Humans, get down!" a voice behind us suddenly roared.

We all hit the deck along with Atalom 'Kuatee, hugging the earth as the huge robot thing rotated its central eye…and then loosed an enormous blue-green laser burst at the remainder of the hangars. The impact was tremendous, the scream of twisting and melting metal echoing throughout the area while the laser burst continued. Chunks of debris toppled from the nearby buildings, grounded Pelicans and Longswords alike taking the most direct shots.

And just like that, with only two hits, our entire air wing was destroyed. And so was my ride out of here.

Once it was over, when the ground beneath me had finally stopped rattling my armor plates, I moved my bare arms down from my unprotected head and brought them back around my weapon. Pushing myself up off the dirt, I stood, holding my assault rifle tight against me, and glanced over at the Elite.

"You'd better tell me what the hell that…thing is, alien boy. Right now. Because it just managed to destroy two-thirds of the base without so much as blinking its huge eye."

'Kuatee immediately scoffed at me as he got back to his feet as well. "I am not one of your warriors, Captain. I am not to be commanded in such a manner."

I didn't have the patience for this anymore; I had a kid to protect, and I needed to know what we were up against. I stalked right up to the ex-Covenant's chest armor and looked up at his face. "Unless you want to get vaporized by that thing, too, I suggest you stow the superiority bullshit and give me some damn answers, Atom."

But Atalom definitely wasn't having it. The Elite used a hand to grip me by the throat in an instant, and he raised me up off my feet until my eyes were level with his own.

"It is a Scarab, human," 'Kuatee informed me angrily as I struggled for air. Holding my MA5C in one hand, I used the other to grab onto the Elite's large fist, which currently blocked my body's path to oxygen, and started kicking at him reflexively. Neither did much to help my situation, however. I still felt myself turning blue.

"Hey! Let her go, Atom, come on! She's pregnant!" I heard Doc Reynolds shout just as I started getting tunnel vision. "I don't want to have to shoot you, 'Kuatee, but if you're trying to kill the captain---"

Without another word, Atalom suddenly dropped me back to the ground. I landed hard on my knees, thankful that my leg armor took the brunt of the impact, and I blinked a few times as air entered my lungs for the first time in minutes.

"Never forget your place, human," 'Kuatee said as he bent down towards me. "So often you forget that were it not for my race, yours would already be extinct."

Lifting a hand up to my sore neck, I had to take in several more breaths before I was finally able to attempt to stand again.

And this was exactly why I hated being allies with the aliens.

Before I had a chance to object, the medic's arms were under my own, pulling me back to my feet. I'd wanted to make a show of getting up by myself in front of the Elite, if only to demonstrate that humans were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but I didn't say anything.

"You ok, Captain?" Reynolds whispered when I was standing again.

I quickly nodded once. "Yeah, Doc. Thanks."

"All right."

Reynolds let go of me in an instant, then took several steps back. He continued to keep a cautious eye on the Elite, however, just in case 'Kuatee decided to grab hold of me again.

Still holding a hand to my neck, I turned back to Atom and said, "Well? So what's a…Scarab do?"

"It is not so much a weapon as it is a force, Captain. A purely destructive force." The Elite hefted his carbine and aimed in the direction of the thing, which had since moved off from the rubble of the hangars and was moving on to its next target. "It is far more effective than Wraiths or explosives. A Scarab simply tears through all, human, and is controlled by a heavy crew of at least four Jiralhanae and a half-dozen Unggoy. It is also nearly indestructible."

As Doc Reynolds and I exchanged a confused glance, it took my brain a moment to catch up with what 'Kuatee was saying.

"So…nearly indestructible?" I asked. "That means there is some way to kill it, right?"

"Yes. But you must destroy it from the inside out."

Corporal Porter frowned at the same time I did, but he was the first to reply.

"And how exactly do you go about doing crazy shit like that, Atom?" my aide inquired in a tone of disgust. It was the tone he always used when speaking to members of the Covenant---former or no. "That thing's friggin' huge, not to mention tall."

"You must leap in from above, Corporal," the Elite answered.

I looked back over at the titanic walking metal thing, the terrifying object that had just reduced both the medical wing and the airstrip and hangars to dust. I could hear machine guns and explosions going off in the distance---fifty cals and SPNKR rocket launchers trying to take it out from the outside.

They didn't know you had to go in.

So that's exactly what we were going to do.