Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, all OCs are mine
chapter 36: live and let die
November 9,2552
location: the ark, just outside the citadel
Fred, Kelly, and the others materialized right where they were supposed to, then immediately noticed Kyle's disappearance.
"What the hell happened!?" said Kelly in a blatantly concerned voice. "Where is he?"
"Kyle, acknowledge?" Fred said over the Blue Team channel.
"I don't have his IFF tag in range" said Linda. "He could be anywhere."
Kelly was about to start looking for him, but there was activity over the COM.
"citadel in sight" said a Marine. "Brutes are mobilizing everything they've got".
They could hear distant explosions from the top of the cliff followed by two large thuds that shook the ground.
"I count two scarabs. Repeat, two scarabs!" a pelican pilot said over the COM.
Fred and Kelly emerged from behind the rock where they landed and had a look. Sure enough there was a pair of scarab walkers near the entrance to the citadel. A scorpion tank on the cliff started shooting at them from long range and a few warthogs traversed the side path to engage the scarabs at ground level. A hornet descended right in front of the Spartans, piloted by John.
"Do I even bother asking how you got here?" he said over the COM.
"I tell you about it later, Chief" said Fred. "Tom, Lucy, you have the launchers. Get on the Chief's hornet and take scarab one. Blue Team will handle two".
Tom and Lucy winked their acknowledgment lights and climbed aboard the Chief's hornet which took to the skies a second later and began harassing one of the scarabs. Fred flagged down a warthog armed with a M68 gauss cannon. He had Linda post on the rock and target the brutes manning the stationary guns on the scarabs. Kelly manned the cannon while Will took the passenger seat with his BR55 and Fred drove. Kelly remembered what Kyle had said to her aboard the dawn, that they should put her feelings aside for the mission. Kelly found it extremely difficult to do so, but her Spartan training kicked in as the scarab started taking shots at them from its swivel turret. Fred managed to keep their hog under the scarab, preventing them from being hit by the scarab's main weapon.
"Hit the legs" Fred ordered as he put the hog into a sort of doughnut under the scarab. Kelly kept the turret on a swerve as she punched the legs with 25mm tungsten shells. The walker eventually collapsed due to the damage and Fred brought them out from under the scarab. The brutes had gathered on the lower level of the scarab hefting fuel rod guns which made an entry impossible. Kelly glanced over at the other scarab and saw it down as well. John's hornet hovered in the back and Tom and Lucy destroyed part of the back, exposing the power core. The Chief sent two anvil missiles into the core then backed off as the scarab exploded in a flash of blue light. Kelly eyed the identical cover on their scarab and targeted it with the gauss cannon. After three shots the cover broke away and Kelly sent two tungsten slugs into the core. Fred got away from the scarab just as it exploded, but the shock wave sent the hog tumbling end over end until they landed at the base of the ramp to the citadel.
"Both scarabs down" said Keyes over the COM. "Well done."
Fred, Will and Kelly were soon joined by Linda and she helped Will out from under the hog. John landed a few moments later and they linked up with Tom and Lucy. Together they met The Arbiter and guilty spark at the top of the stairs.
"The flood scales the citadel's far wall" said The Arbiter. "Activate this bridge, oracle". He turned to John, "the prophet will die by my hands, not theirs".
"calamity" said spark as he activated the bridge, "if only we had more time".
The Spartans charged across the bridge and into the citadel. As they entered they noticed a number of video screens on which truth was giving a message.
"My faithful... stand firm" truth started. "Though our enemies crowd around us, we tread the blessed path. In a moment I will lite the sacred rings and all who believe shall be saved". The Spartans entered an elevator shaft and Kelly immediately looked up at its immeasurable height.
"Oh no" said Linda.
Kelly looked down and saw Linda staring at one of the screens along with the others. Truth had moved off camera to reveal a brute chieftain holding a struggling Kyle by the neck.
"Chief, how close are you?" Keyes asked over the COM.
"not close enough" the Chief replied as he glanced up the shaft.
Kelly immediately hit the controls and activated the lift platform sending the group upward. After a couple of minutes the lift stopped and they got off, but were ambushed by a pair of flood tank forms.
"Do not shoot... but listen" gravemind said through the flood forms. "Let me lead you safely to our foe".
Infection forms starting sliding past their legs and down the stairs. The Spartans and the arbiter followed.
"Only you can halt what he has sent in motion" said gravemind.
--
The brute tossed Kyle to the floor in front of the controls. He tried to get up, but the brute pinned him with his foot.
"Come on, asshole, take your best shot" Kyle said to the brute which enraged him. He gave a grunt and picked up Kyle by the throat and punched him in the stomach. Kyle coughed up blood onto his visor.
"Oh...yeah, I have to say that they exaggerated your strength a little" Kyle said.
the brute raised his fist and prepared to strike again.
"Stop, you imbecile!" truth barked. "he wants you to hill him. I would prefer you did not".
The brute walked over and slammed Kyle's head on the console.
"What's wrong?" Kyle asked Truth. "Daddy didn't leave you the keys to his shiny toys?"
"I admit I need your help" said Truth, "but that secret dies with all the rest".
"Why don't you go fuck your mother, oh wait, you people have a gene pool problem so you probably had to already" said Kyle as he let out a small chuckle.
Suddenly a pelican smashed through the citadel window and crashed on the platform. The brute holding Kyle let him go and he pushed Truth away from the console. Johnson and Keyes emerged from the back of the pelican, each wielding a shotgun.
"Spartan" Keyes called out. "sound off"
"leave... me" Kyle said as he struggled to stand up, the pain in his chest was getting worse and he tried to will it away.
"Not without you" said Keyes as she blasted a nearby brute. Johnson killed another one but there were too many. Keyes drew her pistol and duel wielded both weapons.
"You're delaying the inevitable" said truth. "One of you will light the rings. You cannot hope to kill them all".
Miranda lowered her weapons but stared at her pistol for a moment before saying "you're right". She pointed her pistol at Johnson and her shotgun at Kyle who was slowly getting up from the console.
"Do it" said Johnson, "us, then you... now!"
Kyle saw truth pick up a brute spiker in his frail hands and point it at Miranda. "Don't" he screamed at truth. "I'll do it ok" he said as he moved over to the console.
"Chief, what the hell are..." Miranda started before she let out a gasp then collapsed, with a single spike round in her thigh.
"No!" Johnson screamed as he held her and examined her wound, which was bleeding badly. Truth walked over and tossed the spiker to the ground.
"Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion. Steeled themselves for what needed to be done" he said as he walked over to Kyle. "I see now why they left you behind... you were weak, and gods must be strong". He grabbed Kyle's hand and pressed it against the activation button. There was a small surge of static around the button as the whole platform began to raise and six of the seven holographic rings lit up. But they suddenly went out and a series of yellow words appeared over the console.
OUT OF ORDER
"ooops" Kyle said in a taunting tone. "I think I broke it".
"NO!" truth screamed as he tried to run down the stairs, but as he did a wave of flood combat forms came over the light bridge and began attacking the brutes, but left Johnson and Miranda alone.
"That went well" said Kalmiya from the console.
Truth ran for his hover chair but Kyle grabbed him by the robes. He also gingerly picked up an infection form that was crawling around on the floor. "Say hello to my little friend" said Kyle as he thrust the infection form onto truth the dropped him on the floor as it burrowed inside him. Kyle immediately rushed over to Miranda's side.
"I guess I kind of owe you one, Chief" she said through gritted teeth, she was also breathing heavily.
"Just take it easy, ma'am" said Kyle.
"that was some trick" said Johnson. "how did you get her in there?"
"my gauntlet" said Kyle as he showed them his palm, "its been equipped with a mark VI's AI transfer system, so all I have to do is touch a computer surface".
"Good.... work" said Keyes.
Kyle turned his attention back to truth who was climbing back up to the console. He walked over and stood over him. "How the mighty have fallen" he said.
"Can you see, demon?" said truth. "the moment of salvation is at hand".
Kyle grabbed truth by the neck and pulled him closer. "I have to know one thing... why. Why did you do it, declare war on mankind? You knew that we were the reclaimers and that your 'gods' would be offended... but you did it anyway. What I want to know is WHY!?" Kyle yelled.
"For the promise of the great journey" said truth. "your kind would have never believed in it".
"Lies for the weak. Beacons for the deluded" gravemind said through truth.
"Admit it" said Kyle, "you probably did it for the power. It was tempting, find an accuse to enrage the Covenant and then usurp control from the previous prophets. It was never over the existence of living forerunners".
"How did you know!?" said truth, his eyes paralyzed with fear, not over the flood infection form consuming his body but from Kyle himself. "It...does not matter for my feet tread the path... I shall become a god".
"You will be food, nothing more".
Johnson tossed Kyle Miranda's M6C. He caught the weapon with his free hand hand held truth up.
"I... am... Truth, the voice of the covenant!" he said as Kyle pressed the gun to his temple.
"Sorry buddy" said Kyle, "but the first amendment doesn't apply out here". He pulled back on the trigger and blew truth's skull open. He dropped the corpse and the pistol and looked over to the light bridge and saw the other Spartans standing there along with the arbiter. Kelly pushed past the others, ran up to the platform and stopped right in front of Kyle.
"I..." Kelly started but she couldn't muster the words to express how she felt.
Kyle reached out a hand and touched the console and downloaded Kalmiya back into his armor, the icy sensation filled his mind but he didn't notice as he looked into Kelly's faceplate, wishing she would depolarize it. "What's say we get out of here?" he said as he took her hand and brought her down from the console.
"Not bad, Spartan" said The Arbiter. "But I would have preferred you left him for me".
"finders, keepers" said Kyle.
Tom and Lucy assisted Johnson with helping Miranda into the pelican. Linda entered and started to treat her wound.
"Its bad" Linda said. "We need to get her back to the ship".
"then pile in" said Johnson as he entered the cockpit. Will and Fred boarded but before the rest of them could get in, flood tentacles appeared and wrapped themselves around the platform. One of them was swinging right for Kyle and Kelly. He pushed Kelly to the ground and allowed the flood tentacle to hit him. Kyle grabbed hold as it swung around but it was too slippery for him to hold on. It whipped him over the side and out the shattered window.
Kyle reached a hand out to try and grab hold of the tentacle again... but it was too late. He started to fall over the side of the bottomless cliff.
"NO!" Kelly screamed as she ran over to the side of the platform and was forced to watch as he fell out of sight. She dropped to her knees and reached a hand out over the side, in a futile attempt to get him back.
Fred accessed the team BIOS and saw Kyle's were still transmitting, Fred watched as his heart rate spiked... then suddenly flatline as he hit the bottom... Kyle was dead.
"Come on, Kelly!" Fred screamed as he pulled her by the arm, away from the edge and into the pelican. Johnson engaged the engines and the dropship lifted off. John and The Arbiter grabbed onto one of the landing gears as Johnson flew the ship out of the hole, but gravemind whacked the dropship. John and The Arbiter fell off and back onto the platform and the dropship began to spin out of control. Tom closed the pelican's hatch and everyone got into a crash seat and held on as Johnson tried to regain control. The pelican finally stabilized.
"Everyone ok back there?" Johnson called from the cockpit.
"We're fine" said Fred. "what about the Chief?"
"The flood are crawling all over the citadel" said Johnson. "I can't make a safe landing. I think the Chief can find his own way out".
Fred looked to his right where Kelly was seated, she was leaning on Fred and everyone in the dropship could hear her cry. Linda came over and took the seat next to Kelly and put an arm around her. Fred stood up and surveyed the compartment. Tom put an arm around Lucy and Will came over and set a hand on Kelly's shoulder.
"I'm so sorry" Miranda said clutching her leg where Linda had applied a dressing. "He saved my life, if he didn't pull that double cross with truth, he'd probably kill us both".
"Thank you, ma'am" said Fred.
"hey, el-tee" Johnson called out, "you better see this".
Fred entered the cockpit, Johnson pointed out the object rising out of the edge where Kyle had fallen, the Halo he'd released earlier.
"I didn't know this place could build them" said Johnson.
"sergeant, take us back to the dawn" Fred ordered. He went back into the passenger compartment, accessed the Spartan roster and made the following addition.
Kyle-091: MIA
November 10, 2552
location: UNSC forward unto dawn- infirmary
"you're fine" Doctor Halsey said to Tom and Lucy as she returned with their test results. "you can go".
"if its all the same, Doctor" said Tom, "I'd like to stay, for her" he said pointing to Kelly. She was sitting on one of the examination beds. She didn't even take off her helmet or speak to anyone after they got back. Fred had them report to the infirmary to assess any injuries. He, Linda and Will had been cleared and allowed to leave.
"I think she needs to be alone right now" said Halsey.
Tom nodded and he and Lucy left the room. Halsey started to walk over to Kelly. She had been on the aegis fate supervising the Spartan IIIs as they were placed into cryo stasis to prevent further damage to their brains caused by Kurt's mutagen. The second she herd the news of Kyle's death Halsey got on the first pelican out to the dawn. She looked down at her data pad where Kelly's test results were displayed, physically she had no injuries aside from a few bumps and scrapes, but emotionally Halsey couldn't even imagine what she was feeling.
"I can't believe he's gone" Kelly croaked as Halsey stood by her side and took Kelly's hand.
"Kelly, I am so sorry" said Halsey. "I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through. I don't know if this helps, but according to the telemetry his death was probably quick and painless".
"I want him back" said Kelly. "I don't want to go on without him".
"What do you think Kyle would have wanted for you?" said Halsey. "Besides", she took Kelly's hand and placed it over her abdomen, "he's left you something to remember him by".
Kelly looked up at Halsey. "I don't understand" she said.
"you're pregnant, Kelly" said Halsey.
"pregnant!?" said Kelly. "Are you sure?"
"positive" said Halsey, "but I need to know when exactly conception took place?"
"Back in the Dyson sphere" said Kelly, remembering back to that wonderful night. "Why do you need to know?"
"because according to the scans I took of you, the fetus appears to be three weeks old" said Halsey. "I think your reproductive systems were given a speed boost by your augmentations, if this is the case then you could carry to full term in a few months. If you wanted".
"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.
"Kelly" Halsey started, "it can sometimes be very emotional for a mother-to-be, in your situation, when the father has died. The pressure of trying to raise a child alone can..."
"No" said Kelly cutting her off, knowing what she was suggesting. "No, I'm going to have this baby".
Halsey smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. Now we need to decide what to do next. We'll have to tell everyone eventually, we can't keep this a secret".
"How about just for now?" said Kelly. "Please, I just want to get over everything that's happened".
"of course" said Halsey. "I'll tell Fred you have a debilitating injury and can't continue the mission".
"Thank you" said Kelly as she stood up and hugged the older woman, very lightly.
--
Halsey had told Kelly to try and get some rest, but every time she closed her eyes all she saw was Kyle. She just lay on the bed, running her hand over her armored lower chest, where her only connection to Kyle slept, but her euphoria over finding out she was pregnant was replaced by sorrow. She wanted closure. So she snuck out of the bunk room and went down to the armory, grabbed an M90, grenades, and a field first aid kit. She was on her way out when she saw the ONI crate lying in the corner. Inside was three Spartan lasers, she took one as well then made her way down to the hangar. None of the techs payed any attention as she loaded her weapons onto a pelican and went to the control panel to release the dropship.
"Why don't you let me drive" said Will from behind her.
Kelly spun around and saw not only Will but Linda and Fred, all armed.
"You don't have to do this" she said to them, "this is personal".
"We're not about to let our friend go into a combat zone alone" said Linda.
"Thanks" said Kelly. "lets go."
She hit the release and the clamps freed the pelican. Linda and Will took the cockpit stations while Kelly and Fred rode in the back. When they were clear of the dawn, Fred decided to get some answers
"why are you doing this?" Fred asked. "You were ready to accept his death and suddenly you're out looking for him".
"I have to know, Fred" said Kelly. "I have to know if my child is going to grow up without a father".
"Child...?" said Fred "oh god, you're not..."
"pregnant?" said Kelly.
"What the hell are you thinking!?" said Fred, "coming out here in your condition?"
"please don't take us back" Kelly pleaded. "I just want to know, to see his body so I can be sure".
"Kelly, listen to me" said Fred. "he's not going to be waiting for us alive and well when we get there, things are not going to go back to normal. He's dead and the only thing waiting for us is the grim reminder of that. I'll give you an hour... no more".
Date error
location: unknown
Kyle awoke to find himself unable to see, so far as he could tell. His whole body felt like it was set afloat in a great black ocean.
"Hello?" he called out.
Suddenly a piercing green light filled his eyes from above followed by a hellish voice.
"this is not your grave, but you are welcome in it".
Message from the general: reviews please, and I know you all have something to say.