Trying to get at least 1 more chapter posted before I leave for Europe this coming weekend. N joy!
(CHAPTER 52) SILENCE
"There is no way in hell I lived through that, is there? I was to close to that blast, and this armor can only take so much punishment." Eric was in vertigo. All he saw was a bright flash right before the explosion; now all there was, was nothing. He couldn't feel pain, he couldn't figure out his location, and he didn't know if his heart was still beating.
In the distance, he could hear a familiar voice calling out to him. The voice was calling his name, he knew the voice was familiar but he didn't know who's it was. He again heard his name being called and he began to recognize the sound. "Devon…" he thought. Yes, he could finally recognize the voice. He could hear his words in a muffled tone, "Come on! Don't let go now!" He then felt a pulse jolt his chest and again heard Devon calling out, "I know you're still in there! Come on! Come back!" He again felt another pulse jolt his chest. "I can't do this one by myself!"
His vertigo seemed to collapse around him. His world faded to darkness and he could feel pain. He tried to focus and felt his pain intensify. It was a good sign though, it meant he was alive. His vision then returned and his world slowly focused into view. Instantly he gasped out for breath and quickly tried to reach for his helmet to take it off. He felt something stop him, and then heard Devon's voice say, "Calm down, take a deep breath." Eric again tried to pull his helmet off, thinking it was what was keeping him from breathing. Unknowingly to him, it wasn't, his lungs were deflated and were struggling to refill themselves.
Eric's vision then returned. He could see himself in the large room of the ship which was now covered with extensive damage from the blast. He also saw Devon with his Angel Pack's wings spread and floating next to him. Devon was holding onto him. The two were floating in zero g, high above the floor. Devon gripped onto the wings of Eric's Angel Pack said, "Just relax and take a breath." Still trying to realize what happened, Eric called out as he again tried to take his helmet off, "I can't breath!" Devon immediately stopped him and continued, "Just relax, you need to get some air back in you. Leave the helmet on, we're in hard vacuum now. You take it off and you're done."
Eric took in several deep breaths and quickly calmed himself down. He then got his focus back and again looked around, "What happed?" He asked. Devon shook his head and said calmly, "You flat lined for a few seconds, we all did. That blast was to close and to big for our shields to take. I sent out an emergency Nanite deployment before the blast hit me, it's the only thing that saved us." Eric again looked around and asked, "Where's Kalder?"
Devon sighed and said, "I don't know. He was the closest to the blast and I'm not seeing him or picking up his location. A lot of my equipment was damaged in the blast so I can't track him." Eric looked up at the large hole in the roof of the room that was showing off countless stars. He then said back, "He was to close to the blast, wasn't he?" Devon shook his head, "I don't know, once that A.I. appeared, we all scrambled. I didn't pay attention to anyone else, I was busy fighting with it." Devon paused and continued, "…It killed Dokuro, Eric. That bastard murdered my A.I."
"What?" Eric said back, "How do you know?" Devon shook his head in anger and sharply said, "It had her Halo. It's probably going after Kobalt now. Who knows what it probably already did to Mitsuki." Devon paused and continued, "I know why that thing took Kalder's form. It was manipulating Mitsuki."
Eric shook his head, "That can't be it. Mitsuki is smart enough to realize that Kalder could never go into any system." Devon then replied, "No, think about it. Kalder said Mitsuki was damaged when he was escaping with Izumi; if she was damaged and none of us realized how bad of a condition she was actually in, she could be malfunctioning in a way that would make her believe she was seeing anything in these systems. You know how attached Mitsuki is to Kalder; you know how attached all of our A.I.'s are to us, if Mitsuki is damaged and scared in an enemy system, and she see's her Spartan coming to rescue her, she would go right to it."
Eric again paused and then asked, "But if she saw that it killed Dokuro, why hasn't she reacted to it. I've seen what Mitsuki can do on enemy ships from missions I've done with her before; if she wanted to, she could bend a ship to function in anyway she wanted, even if another A.I. stood in her way." Devon then said back, "She wasn't damaged during those missions."
Eric paused and looked around. He and Devon were still floating in zero g, high above the floor of the room. He and Devon both then heard a click of static followed by Kalder's voice. He groaned out and said over the COM, "What the hell just happened?" "Kalder!" Devon called out, "Where are you." There was a pause and then Kalder replied, "I'm in space." "What?" Devon asked.
Kalder again said back, "I must have gotten blown out of the ship when the explosion happened, hang on, I'm floating about 5 miles from the ship. I'll meet back inside with you." Devon then said back, "Hold on, I think you should do an external assault." "What do you mean?" Kalder asked. Devon said back, "We're going to try and cause enough havoc as we can in here, and seeing as how you're already outside, why don't you try and disable some of the ships weaponry." Kalder sighed and said back, "You know I hate zero g." "Well it's your own fault for getting yourself blown out into space, you're already out there so you might as well do it." Kalder groaned. "Fine, I'll try to keep up the same pace as you and make my way back inside when we get closer to the Prophet." "Alright," Devon said, "I'll keep you posted."
Kalder's COM clicked with static as it cut out. Devon then looked back at Eric and said, "Can you fly?" Eric nodded, "Yeah, I'm good." "Good," Devon said, "cause I got an A.I. to kill." Devon spread the wings of his angel pack and readied to fly. Eric then called out as he repositioned himself, "Whoa! Hold on! What are you talking about?" Devon shot back, "That A.I. killed Dokuro! I'm not letting it get away with killing my A.I.!" Eric said back harshly, "Hold on! We have to think about what we're doing in here now. We're on the Prophet's ship, we don't know how many Covenant forces are still left for us to deal with. You can't just go running off on a ship this large to try and track down an A.I.!" "Watch me…" Devon uttered out. He then activated his thrusters and took off for the ceiling of the massive room. He then primed a grenade and tossed it at a mesh screen that was covering an air vent. The device detonated and Devon quickly slipped inside and out of sight.
"Devon!" Eric called out. "You need to calm down! I know how important Dokuro was to you but we need to focus on killing the Prophet!" He heard no response, "Devo! …God dammit!" He cursed. He then quickly looked around and saw that the NAV marker that Kobalt had left for him was still active. It was pointing to a door that was near the air vent that Devon had disappeared into. He then activated the thrusters of his Angel pack and glided to the door. As he flew, he found himself worrying for Kobalt's safety. With Dokuro destroyed he didn't know how Kobalt was progressing on her mission or even if she was okay. He sighed and said to himself, "Please be careful in here, Kiddo."
Yuna was sitting in the hanger with the Theta's. As she requested, the weapon placements had been taken down and the Theta's were finally acting less skittish and allowing themselves to rest. She sat on a small chair next to where Devon's Theta, Thatius was resting. She was with him as he was treated for the wound in the roof of his mouth and she was making sure that he was going to recover. She watched as the ODST's she had requested stood guard, making sure that no unauthorized personnel came near the Theta's. All were the troopers that where down in the Pit and all were the ones who knew that she was an A.I. that became human.
She was thankful that these soldiers had kept their word and made sure that she wasn't discovered. She knew that ODST's were dependable, especially the special assault team that had gone down in the pit with her. Yuna looked up and saw Field Commander Calabrese walk into the hanger. He was in his jet black combat armor and he carried his helmet at his side. She could see a look of frustration in his face as he walked in.
Yuna stood up and walked over to him. Calabrese saw her approach and he instantly saluted. "Ma'am." He said crisply. Yuna replied, "At ease." She watched as Calabrese let himself out of his military stance and hide a sigh. Yuna cocked her head and asked, "Is everything alright?" Calabrese paused and then asked, "Let me ask you the same question, Ma'am. After what just happened with ONI and your Sister A.I., I think I should be the one wondering about your safety."
"What do you mean, what happened with my Sister?" Yuna asked cautiously. Calabrese looked at her and said, I figured you would be on a ship getting yourself as far away from ONI as possible right now. Why are you here, and why are you wearing an ONI uniform?" Yuna shook her head and said back sharply, "Tell me what happened to my Sister!" Calabrese sighed and said, "ONI knows about you. One of their top Intelligence Officers interrogated myself and Dokuro about what happened down in the pit. She managed to probe into a smart A.I. and get hidden information; information regarding you!"
Yuna froze, if she had been found out, why wasn't she already in custody? She then heard a familiar voice from behind the two call out, "Relax Calabrese. Everything was taken care of." Yuna turned to see another ODST in his familiar black and deep purple armor. "Shepard." She said.
Shepard walked into the hanger and approached the two. He looked at Calabrese and said, "Dr. Halsey has handled this situation to its limit." He looked at Yuna and said, "The only one who knew about you from ONI was Patterson, and luckily, Dr. Halsey managed to swap you with a copy. As of right now, the only thing ONI will have to work with is a dead lab rat."
Yuna shook her head and called out, "What about Dokuro? What did she do to her?" Calabrese sighed and said, "The same thing that I went through, a rigorous interrogation. Patterson was digging at Dokuro's thoughts so much that she finally broke and fried every system in the room. She went through a lot, but the last I saw her was when I brought her back to SPARTAN-69." Shepard then added, "Patterson got what she wanted, but it was a fake. So as of right now, and hopefully for the rest of your life, you're in the clear. Still, you're playing with fire by working for ONI but I suppose Halsey knows what she's doing." "Here's hoping that we're right." Calabrese mumbled.
"Exiting Slip Space in five seconds Commander." An Elite called out from the bridge of a Cruiser. The commanding Elite Zealot sat in his drop pod. He made a smile on his split jaw and simply waited. He could feel himself shifting in the pod as the ship decelerated. He opened his team COM and said, "My brother's we are going to get back what is rightfully ours. Take no prisoners on their ground, eliminate anyone who stands in your path!"
From within his pod, he could tell the ship was positioning itself over their target. He then continued, "Remember, once we are within their stronghold, move silent and swift. Our prize will no doubt be kept within the most secure area. Search any system that you find to target where our prize is being kept. We will restore our honor with the Hierarch's."
He then heard, "Strike team! Prepare for deployment!" He then felt his pod rapidly begin to accelerate as it was jettisoned towards the surface.
Something caught Yuna's eye. She turned away from the two troopers and took notice of the Theta's. All of the Theta's that had been relaxing and laying on the floor of the hanger and resting, suddenly raised their heads as if they had heard something. She then heard the UNSC radio that had been set up in the hanger that was giving off troop transmissions suddenly fill with static. Calabrese and Shepard then stopped and listened. "What the hell?" One of the other ODST's called out.
From across the hanger, the three heard the voice of the green horn ODST. Private Phil Gowen. Yuna hadn't seen him since they first went down into the pit. With all the chaos when they left, she never realized that he had been part of the group that had survived. Gowen rushed over to Shepard and said, "Sir, we're getting multiple reports of distortion coming from high orbit." "Is it ours?" Shepard asked. Gown shook his head, "Not sure yet, Sir. They just started coming in."
Over the radio, Yuna began to hear incoming messages from UNSC ships in high orbit. "Attention all UNSC forces in the Luna system. Slip space ruptures are being detected around the entire perimeter of Aurora, I repeat, slip space ruptures are being detected around the entire perimeter of Aurora." That transmission was immediately overlapped by another emergency communication of, "Covenant forces detected in high orbit!" And again by another, "Covenant reinforcements inbound, begin defensive maneuvers."
Soon the radio was overrun by the chaos of multiple warnings coming from UNSC ships in high orbit. "Dammit!" Calabrese called out, "Not now! We just got the last few ships contained!" Thatius then began to let out a deep, low grow as he focused his neon green eyes at the aurora filled sky overhead. He could see the sky began to warp and distort and saw flickers of static fill several locations above the city.
Yuna stood and locked her eyes on the sky above the city. She knew what was happening, but she didn't want to believe it. She slowly shook her head and uttered out, "Oh no… no, no, no…" A bright flash filled the sky as a Covenant Cruiser appeared out of its slip space rupture. Yuna and the other ODST's watched with horror as another Covenant fleet appeared above the city.
She practically had to force herself to move and alert the base. She quickly forced herself out of her trance and quickly pulled out her PDA and contacted the bases A.I., Victoria. She frantically called out, "Victoria, you need to get the entire base into full combat alert! Covenant reinforcements are inbound, I repeat, Covenant reinforcements are inbound!" Yuna heard Victoria reply in her proper voice, "At once, Ma'am."
Almost instantly, the bases alarms began to scream and UNSC troops scrambled to ready for combat. Yuna watched as more Covenant ships appeared, it was a large mix of Destroyers and Cruisers. She quickly estimated about 25 ships in her sight; however, she was unaware if anymore had appeared in high orbit.
From behind, she heard a loud roar. Yuna quickly turned and saw Thatius quickly approach her and kneel down. He motioned his head as if to tell Yuna to get on. She quickly ran over to the Theta and hopped on it's back and tightly gripped onto its jet black scales. She then looked over to Calabrese and Shepard and called out, "I have to get back to Command. I want each of you to mount a Theta and stand guard. They will listen to your commands, just treat them with the respect they want and they will continue to fight along side you!" "Yes Ma'am!" Calabrese called back as he pulled his Battle Rifle off of his back and headed towards one of the Theta's.
Shepard then turned to the rest of his troops and called out, "You heard her! Mount up! All of you!" The other ODST's scrambled and quickly got their helmets back on and stocked up on ammo. As they all went to mount up on the Theta's, Shepard called out, "Don't be shy! They won't bite!"
Yuna then looked at the Troopers and called out, "Spread out and guard the outer parameter of the outpost, if you see any Covenant troops approaching, stop them before they have a chance to react. The Theta's will do a majority of the work but please assist them as much as you can." "Yes Ma'am!" They all called out. Yuna nodded and kicked her heels into the side of Thatius' neck and he started to move.
As the creature began to move, Yuna softly said to him, "Are you able to fight after being wounded?" As the Theta ran, he gave a grunted growl as if to tell her he was ready for anything. Yuna nodded and said, "Alright, once you drop me off, I want you to patrol the grounds of the base, we can't let the Covenant reach Izumi. The Theta again nodded. Yuna patted his scales and said back, "Thank you."
Up ahead, Yuna could see Jimmy rush outside. He was holding his helmet in his hand and he looked over to see her approaching him. She could see him waving her down. "Go to 76." Yuna instructed. The Theta obeyed and went as quickly as it could to the Spartan.
Jimmy hadn't seen the Theta's before in person; he was only briefed on them. Seeing one in person, charging at him for the first time wasn't the most comforting feeling. He even felt himself reaching around his back for his Battle Rifle but stopped when he saw Yuna riding on it's back. He watched as the Theta slid to a stop with sparks spraying from under its massive, razor sharp talons. "Jesus!" Jimmy called out, "Don't you girls usually have cats as pets?" Yuna scoffed and said, "Hey, Thatius is Devon's guard dog! I'm just borrowing him!" "Thatius?" Jimmy called out. "He named him, not me!" Jimmy looked at the creature and cautiously approached. "It's alright," Yuna told him, "He won't attack you. He knows who to fight for and who to attack."
Jimmy walked up to the Theta and said, "That's an interesting feature, does it come with cup holders too?" Yuna grinned and said, "No, but he has really huge teeth!" From up above, the two heard another loud boom as another Covenant ship emerged from its slip space rupture. Yuna gasped and looked up at the ship. She then turned back to Jimmy and scowled and shouted, "God dammit you're distracting, Jimmy! Don't you realize what's happening right now?" Jimmy held his arm's out and snapped back, "Hey! You're the one who charged up to me riding your big black death machine, I'm the victim here!" Yuna shook her head and said back, "We need to get every soldier we have on station, right now!"
"No! We need to evacuate, right now!" Jimmy called out. Yuna looked up at the line of Covenant ships that were spreading over the city. One of the Cruisers was making it's way from the main fleet and heading towards the base. "Where are we going to evacuate to, Jimmy?" Yuna replied sharply. "We're stuck here until our ships can clear the area!" The Spartan held his arms out and yelled back, "I don't know! Somewhere that doesn't involve a fleet of ships that are trying to kill us!"
The Theta that Yuna was sitting on hunched itself back in a defensive position as it looked towards the fleet of oncoming ships. It made a deep growl and raised it's razor sharp spines. Yuna pat the Theta on his head and said, "Steady…" She then looked at Jimmy and called out, "You're the Spartan here; shouldn't you be the one that's over eager to charge headfirst into battle?" Jimmy held his arm out and pointed at the ship that was nearly on top of them and called out, "Yeah! But not when I have a gun that big pointed directly at my face!"
From up above, the two saw a flash. Instantly, Yuna thought it was plasma fire but focused on the light source. It looked like small missiles had been shot from the ship and was heading towards them. No, those weren't missiles. Yuna followed the streaks of light through the sky and watched as they drastically changed course and were now heading right for her and Jimmy's location. Her eyes widened and she yelled, "Look out!" Her Theta quickly leapt from the danger and Jimmy quickly jumped out of the way.
There was a loud scream; almost like mortar fire, that shrieked through the air followed by the sound of a loud impact. Yuna held her arms in front of her face to protect herself from the blast. She then looked to see a crater that had been blown into the ground that was spewing out debris and a shower of sparks. She then looked over and saw Jimmy's jet black helmet rolling across the pavement. She was relieved to find the Spartan on the ground with his arms coving his head and then watched as he quickly got to his feet. "What the hell was that?" Jimmy called out.
From his helmet, his A.I., Adrine appeared, projected at her actual human height. She immediately called out, "Covenant Drill Pods are being deployed into Outpost Bravo! We need to get every soldier in the base ready for combat, right now!" Around the base, more ear piercing mortar screams tore through the air as additional Drill Pods plowed into the surface and dug their way down inside the lower area's of the base. Yuna's eye's widened as she called out, "We need to get to Izumi!"
Yuna then hopped off of Thatius and quickly turned to him and said, "Go join up with the others, keep on guard, I'll be fine." The Theta made a roar and nodded its head as it quickly leapt off to rejoin its brothers. Yuna then rushed up to Jimmy and said, "I'm going back inside, I have to get to Izumi!"
"What?" Jimmy called out as he picked his helmet up off the ground, "Are you insane? The Covenant are deploying inside the base on who knows how many different levels; how is getting to Izumi going to help us?" Yuna shot back, "Because Izumi is what the Covenant are going to be after, she was already their prisoner once, they won't accept the fact that she got away. I'm getting her, and Anna and we're going to Command, it's the only place where we can have total protection and where we can know the Covenant's every movement."
"And you just plan to walk in there on your own; UNARMORED I might add, and avoid all the Covenant that are being deployed?" Yuna turned to Jimmy and cocked her hips sassily and said with a grin, "Of course not, you're my escort, remember?" Adrine reappeared and said, "She has a point, you know." Jimmy frowned and put his helmet back on and hid his frustration behind his black visor. "God dammit…" He uttered.
Yuna then walked up to Jimmy and pulled an SMG off of his leg plate, "Thank you." She said as she flipped the safety off. "Go ahead, you can use it… thanks for asking…" Jimmy told her. Yuna then patted her hand off of the plated belt of Jimmy's jet black armor and said, "You take point, I'll tell you where to go." Jimmy raised an eyebrow and said, "A second ago you were ready to charge in guns blazing, what happened to that?" "Nothing." Yuna replied with a smile, "I just have someone big and bulky to stand behind now."
"You know I don't like escort missions." Jimmy uttered. Yuna said back with playful sarcasm, "I know, but you've been doing a great job so far babysitting me and the other girls, don't give up now!" Adrine then spoke up and said, "That and she also outranks you… by a lot!" Jimmy paused and then started to move. "Just shut up and stay behind me… Ma'am."
