Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine
chapter 34: raiders of the lost ark
November 9, 2552
location: pelican dropship victor-88 somewhere on the ark
Kyle awoke to find himself lying on his back in the pelican. Will was standing over him with his hand out. Kyle took it and Will helped him up.
"you're fine" said Kalmiya. "Just a little bump on the head."
"status?" Kyle asked.
"both pilots are dead, Chief" Will reported, "the pelican is in no shape to fly."
"any injuries?"
"none, aside from your bump" said Will. "Kelly and Linda are scouting our LZ".
"Will, if the Chief's up you better get him over here" Linda said over the COM.
Kyle nodded to Will and retrieved his assault rifle and laser from the overhead rack and exited the ruined dropship. Kyle was immediately hit with another feeling of deja vu, Kelly waved them over to her position on a rock suspended over a small creek and it was then when Kyle realized where they were, Valhalla. It was identical to the multiplayer map right down to the creek flowing below them.
"Something wrong?" Kelly asked.
"this place is another multiplayer map" said Kyle, "Valhalla."
"then you know a way out?" Linda asked.
"not quite" said Kyle. "All the multiplayer maps on Halo 3 are designed as theater level combat. I searched all of them and there's no real way out".
"Except there" said Will as he pointed to the ocean beyond the one of the bases.
"oh yeah, we'll just build a raft like Tom Hanks" said Kyle.
"Tom who?" Kelly asked.
"he's nobody" said Kyle, "but we don't even know where we are on the ark".
"Well we were on a decent towards John's position" said Kelly. "We can't be that far off."
"unless you plan on swimming" said Linda, "lets head for that structure. I bet we could find a way out"
"there wasn't anything much in there" said Kyle, "but nothing about these maps seems normal. Lets go."
They took the side way through the rocks and arrived outside the Valhalla structure and they entered through the lower entrance. Kyle took point as they entered the small chamber with the glass ceiling, looking up. Kelly swept the other door before they proceeded up the ramp to ground level, made a left and went up the ramp to the upper level.
"What's this?" said Will as he approached what looked like an open vent, but it was spewing some kind of blue gas.
"Don't" said Kyle, "let me", he marched pass Will, removed a spare magazine from his belt and tossed it in. The clip was sent skyward and disappeared from their sight. "We call them man cannons" Kyle explained, "they have enough force to send even a Spartan halfway across the map".
"What about this one?" said Kelly as she pointed to the cannon next to the main one.
"Its a lower intensity one" said Kyle, "it'll only send you to the hill over there. Linda, those rocks in the hill were always a favorite sniping spot of mine. I want you to post there, but first, do you see the twin rocks over there?"
"yeah" Linda replied.
"there's a pass between them. I want you to check out the Forerunner wall, see if we can scale it. That might be our way out"
"on it, Chief" she said as she approached the man cannon and stepped in. At first she tumbled through the air, but she quickly oriented herself for landing and toughed down feet first. Linda winked her status light green before sprinting off for the pass.
"Will" said Kyle, "use the other cannon and get back to the pelican, salvage anything you can. Communications gear is our top priority, climbing gear is second".
Will nodded and stepped into the man cannon and like Linda was a bit lopsided through the air, but landed feet first. After a few minutes Kyle checked in with them.
"I've examined the wall" said Linda over the COM as she positioned herself in her perch on the hill. "I doubt we could make it with climbing gear and there's nothing even remotely resembling hand holds".
"Will, what about you?"
"no COM or climbing gear in the wreckage" Will reported. "I salvaged a BR55 with a couple extra clips, but no explosives aside from a single lotus mine".
"Chief, I've got a contact" said Linda. "Single phantom dropship, its not flying separatist colors".
"What's it's position?" Kyle asked.
"its running a search pattern on those islands out there, but I'd estimate no more than ten minutes before they arrive".
Kyle quickly formulated a plan and addressed the team. "That ship is our ticket out of this gorge so we're going to lure it here. Will, I want you to find a tool kit and stand by, I'm on my way. Linda, hold position. Kelly, wait five minutes then pop a smoke canister at the base of the structure then find cover". Kyle got three acknowledgment lights so he stepped into the man cannon and was sent across the terrain.
--
Thelek, a brute Captain, and his patrol team where scanning the ocean next to the silent cartographer, when his pilot noticed green smoke coming from a gorge on one of the islands. He ordered his brutes to prepare and had the pilot change course. They landed the dropship on the beach and his seven man brute team exited their phantom. He had the pilot and two of his brutes stay with the dropship while he took the rest to investigate the structure. Suddenly, a green armored figure appeared from a side passage and accelerated, tackling one of his men before sprinting off up the ramp.
"After the demon!" he yelled as he charged up the ramp with his team but the demon was just standing there next to venting gases. It raised its hand and put up its middle digit before stepping backward into the gas stream and sent into the air. Thelek was about to give chase but a crimson red beam appeared and cut through one of his brutes and struck the floor upon which they were standing, thelek noticed it was made of glass which shattered under the force of the beam. They plunged only a few feet to the lower level and were otherwise uninjured. Thelek was teaming with rage that a demon would use such trickery but his fear soon turned to panic when he saw what was in front of him.
--
"I'm clear" Kelly said over the COM as Kyle saw her fly across the gorge from his position in Linda perch.
"Copy" said Kyle as he squeezed down on his laser's trigger, built up the charge, and blasted a brute shattering the floor. They fell and Kyle quickly grabbed the detonator for the lotus mine, normally a single lotus mine wouldn't be a match for five brutes, but combined with the two full fuel bladders Kyle and Will had salvaged from the pelican would make one hell of a bang. "Burn in righteous flame" Kyle said as he hit the detonator and flames roared out from every exit of the structure. Kyle saw a brute captain on fire run out of the structure and for the creek, hoping to put himself out. Kyle raised the BR55, activated the 2X scope and squeezed off a three round burst that put the brute out of his misery. Two cracks sounded from Linda's rifle and the two brutes guarding the phantom dropped dead. Will bounded from his position and hopped aboard the dropship, muffled gunshots could be herd followed by the dead pilot's body being thrown from the phantom. Kyle and Linda left their position and reached the phantom just as Kelly arrived. They all boarded with Will at the helm and took off.
--
They flew over the ocean of the ark for close to fifteen minutes, most of the time Kyle was in the back compartment going over the ordinance load with Kelly and Linda but Will called him up into the cockpit.
"Take a look at that, Chief" he said pointing out the window. In front of their dropship the ocean seemed to drop away at a massive waterfall. Beyond it was an unusual structure built into the side of a desert plateau. As they got closer they saw UNSC hornets buzzing around in dogfights with Covenant banshees. A scarab walker appeared and started coming down the side of the upper part of the structure and started attacking UNSC forces coming from a security wall at the top of the plateau.
"That's John's team" said Kyle. "The structure is the silent cartographer".
"Incoming" Will screamed.
One of the hornets mistook them for an enemy and launched a pair of anvil missiles at their phantom. Will tried to avoid them, but they blasted the aft engines. Will pitched the dropship up and brought it in for a crash landing on one of the lower levels of the cartographer. Their dropship crashed on what appeared to be a landing deck but as Blue Team exited the wreckage Kyle recognized it for what it was, the multiplayer level construct.
"Everyone ok?" Kyle asked.
He got three green status lights, but Linda's quickly changed to red, and with good reason. On the upper landings were jackal snipers, Kyle could see brutes and grunts descending the main grav lift.
"Take cover" Kyle screamed as the grunts started lobbing plasma grenades at Blue Team. Kelly was too slow to avoid one that detonated next to her, causing her shields to flare up and sending her skidding across the floor and falling down the ramp to the lower level. Kyle saw it as their only way out and he had Linda and Will follow him. Their shields were ablaze as they were struck with needles, plasma and spikers as they ran for the passage and ducked inside. Kelly was getting up when they arrived and Kyle could see the brute entering the side passages, thankfully like the construct level this one also had forerunner fusion coils in the walls, so Kyle drew his M6C in one hand, held his BR55 in the other and he shot out the coils on both side, killing the brutes.
"There" Kyle said pointing to one of the grav beams. Kelly went in first followed by Will then Linda. Kyle popped a grenade before jumping into the beam and being sent to the upper gallery. After Kyle was deposited the beam shut off probably caused by Kyle's grenade.
"Chief, take a look at this" said Kelly as she pointed to the crates of Covenant gear in the room. "This must be their weapons cache".
"The jackals have cleared out" said Will as he took a look down at the landing where they were posted earlier. "The ones on the other side are gone too and the forces on the main level are regrouping at the main grav lift".
"They're waiting for reinforcements from the upper level" said Kyle. "Then they'll take us by force. This place was also a multiplayer level and there's a good defensible position over there" said Kyle as he pointed to the main hall where the energy sword was kept on this level. "Kalmiya, see if you can signal the friendlies upstairs and tell them we need a ride, quick".
"On it" said Kalmiya.
"Chief, I've got something" said Linda from the next room. They entered the room and found Linda standing over a crate filled with deployable covers.
"I've got an idea" said Kyle. "each one of you take two and deploy them in the passages, block them so we can slow the brutes down".
Kyle got three green status lights from his team so he took one of the devices and activated it in the small passage between the two glass panels, then he retreated down to the catwalk where the energy sword was kept. There was no sword there, but it was still as good as a defensible position as they were going to get, but they couldn't jump down because this part was suspended over the edge. Linda, Will and Kelly joined Kyle on the catwalk shortly after. Linda crouched so she could see the galleries and could make out Covenant troops moving along them, a lot of them. There were explosions from the grav lift rooms as the brutes blasted their way through the deployable covers they had wedged in the doors.
"Here they come" said Kelly as a brutes came around the corner and they all opened fire, cutting them down. Kyle exhausted his BR55's clip, dropped the weapon, drew his M6C and started firing close head shots at the brutes. Will tossed him an spike grenade he'd found so Kyle twisted the top and the whole thing started to vibrate. He threw it and it lodged in the armor of a brute major and detonated, sending spikes through his body and his companions.
"I'm out" said Kelly as the bolt on her MA5C snapped back.
"I've got half a clip" said Will.
"last mag" said Linda as she slapped her magazine into her rifle.
"Get behind me" Kyle said to Kelly as he slapped a fresh clip into his M6C. He considered using his laser, but it took too long to charge. The brutes moved forward cautiously and jackals jumped down onto the forward section of the catwalk, shield gauntlets active and starting marching forward. Kyle opened fire as did the Covenant.
"Kyle, multiple contacts on the motion tracker, closing fast" said Kalmiya.
Kyle glanced at his motion tracker and saw a sea of dots coming from behind him and to his sides. He risked a glance left and saw hordes of sentinels rising upward. Everyone stopped firing, including the Covenant and watched as they assumed flanking positions. They opened fire, on the Covenant only. Crisscrossing beams of energy eliminated the jackals on the catwalk and the sentinels spread through the grav lift rooms eliminating the brutes. The regrouped after their work was done and continued their ascent.
"Were those what I think they were?" said Kelly.
"how can that be?" said Linda. "They don't look anything like the ones on Onyx."
"these are the standard versions" said Kyle, "easier to take down" he pointed to the wreckage of several sentinels on the upper level, ones the brutes got lucky with.
"Kyle, your ride is here" said Kalmiya.
A pelican dropship descended from above and hovered next to the catwalk the Spartans were on.
"Chief, this is hocus" said the pilot. "I can't get you from there. I'll land on the lower level".
"Roger, hocus" Kyle replied as he led the team along the catwalk until they were over the lower level and were able to jump down. The pelican landed next to the crashed phantom and the Spartans quickly filed aboard.
"The Master Chief was able to get truth's location from the cartographer" hocus told them. "He and the Commander are on their way to rendezvous with that shipmaster fellow, we'll meet them there".
"Copy that" said Kyle as he sat down next to Kelly. "What happened back there?"
"what do you mean?" she asked.
"you didn't see that plasma grenade coming and if it weren't for the new linear accelerators in your shields you'd be back on dermacordic steroids" said Kyle.
"I just got tired all of a sudden" said Kelly, "and I've been feeling like crap all day".
Kyle knew what she was talking about, he was also tired and every muscle in his body ached like he'd been fighting nonstop for a decade. Kyle could see signs of fatigue in Linda and Will too.
"Change of plans" said hocus from the cockpit. "I just got a message from your lieutenant, says he's found something over at the aegis fate's LZ and wants your team there ASAP".
"How long until we arrive?" Kyle asked.
"about twenty five minutes" hocus replied.
"get some sleep" he said to his team, "that's an order".
Kelly leaned on Kyle a bit and Kyle noticed that Linda did the same with Will. He forgot to ask Will how his conversation with Linda back on the dawn went, but that could wait.
"You know, you should get some sleep too" said Kalmiya.
"I'm fine" said Kyle, but he shut his eyelids and a few seconds later he was fast asleep.