(CHAPTER 54) BROKEN CHINA DOLL

Kalder cautiously spread the wings of his Angle Pack and gently thrust himself back towards the Prophet's ship. He didn't want to cause a large heat flare on any of their radar's so he kept his packs thrusts to a minimum. He looked around for a place to set himself down on the ships outer skin. He switched his visor over to pick up any signs of radiation to see if the ships shields were still active. As soon as the option was brought up his HUD was filled with an optical image of the ships shielding still up and surrounding the entire superstructure.

He again looked and saw that near the ships large Plasma Turrets that the shields were still down, obviously down incase they should need to return fire. He set his destination and again carefully thrust himself forward.


Devon had his mind on other things. As he crawled through the ships air ducts his mind was being assaulted with thoughts of his A.I. He refused to believe that Dokuro was dead. He received no alert on his HUD like Eric had when Yuna was thought to be destroyed. Still, Dokuro had put herself out of contact with the Spartan's while she was in the ships systems to avoid unwanted attention. Another thing that bothered him was the fact that Mitsuki hadn't shown herself to them as soon as they got on board. She should have at least sent a small acknowledgement to the Spartan's that she was still functioning as soon as they arrived but she hadn't. He thought that her damage could be far worse than they had originally thought.

However, Mitsuki had to still be functioning due to them not setting off any of the Covenant's security systems on the ship. After Kalder's first mission to rescue Izumi, the Covenant no doubt had the Prophet under heavy guard. The only detection that they had faced was when the Covenant A.I. that had taken Kalder's form spotted them. Other than that it was unusually quiet.

He frowned under his visor as he continued to crawl. As much as he didn't want to, he had to push Dokuro aside in his mind, he still had a mission to do, he also remembered that if need be, an A.I. would sacrifice herself for the good of the mission. "Good of the mission…" He thought.

Devon paused. The thought was eating at him and he knew that he couldn't continue with his assignment until he saw the answer for himself. He set his Assault Rifle down on the air vent floor and then reached around to the back of his helmet. He carefully pulled Dokuro's chip out from his neural implant and looked at it. Dokuro's data crystal was glowing a faint pale purple. Devon frowned under his visor. The dull glow was evidence of the A.I. being out of her chip, however, they still had a connection to their home.

He tapped his gloved finger onto a small button on the metal housing of Dokuro's chip. Instantly, a hologram appeared displaying data and other information. The data's main menu was still broadcasting a signal. Devon felt a small smile return to his face. It meant that Dokuro was still linked; however, he was still unaware of her status. He tapped his finger off one of the holographic buttons on the display menu and selected an option to view Dokuro's status. He selected the option and a screen of data flashed before him.

He read the large fond displaying her name, cereal number, as well as an image of her hologram. He scrolled down and saw something that caught his eye. In flashing red letters it said, "Emergency Backup Power". "…What?" He said to himself. He continued to read through the data; however, most was unable to be displayed due to Dokuro keeping herself in her stealth mode. Devon sighed as all the information he pieced together simply left him with the impression of something had happened to Dokuro; however, she had survived whatever had done it to her. Most likely an encounter with the Covenant A.I. he had encountered earlier. Still, her signal was still transmitting and she hadn't called for an extraction. It left him with the small comfort that she was still okay.

As Devon closed the status display on Dokuro's chip, he sighed thinking back to the fight they had before they left on this mission. He knew that letting his emotions come before a mission was a bad thing, especially to one of Dr. Halsey's special A.I. with open emotions. As he put her chip back in his neural implant he said quietly to no one in particular, "I'm sorry, Dokuro."

Devon then picked up his Assault Rifle and continued to crawl. He pulled up an option on his HUD. It was an entire map layout of the ship that Kobalt had uploaded to all of the Spartan's before she went inside the ships systems. Devon watched as the map pinpointed his location and then gave him a layout of the ships air duct network. Devon grinned to himself and said, "I guess you are a clever little girl." He also saw a blue dot appear on one of the pathways on the map with a number 45 above it. He now had Eric's location and he began to crawl towards it.


Eric's boots clacked harshly off of the ships metal floor. It was still unusually quiet. He had been walking for a good five minutes and hadn't encountered anything since the battle back in the large atrium. Even his motion tracker was reading all clear. The only thing he had seen since his team split up was one loan Engineer that was fixing a damaged power line that ran through the ships walls. He didn't even bother to open fire on it, he knew they were harmless and only focused on fixing things.

Up ahead there was a door with flashing red lights around its center latch. Eric slowly approached the door and rested his Shotgun on his shoulder. He then went to reach out to attempt to override the doors lock and then stopped himself. He remembered back to the door in the underground that was at a very high temperature and Yuna yelling at him for not using common sense. He raised and eyebrow under his visor and quickly tapped his finger on the door. His shields didn't flare. "Okay… not hot." He uttered. He looked at his motion tracker. "Nothing moving." He said again. He then shrugged and activated the doors lock override.

The doors latch spun open and a dull tone sounded. Suddenly, Eric was blown off of his feet as the air in the room seemed to explode around him. He felt himself being tumbled around the hall like a rag doll as his Shotgun was torn from his grasp. He quickly spread the wings of his Angel Pack and activated the thrusters in an attempt to stabilize himself. As he felt himself regaining control of his movement, everything went silent.

Eric looked around. He was floating in the hall and the only sound that could be heard was his own breathing under his helmet. Unknown to him, this was one of the area's of the ship that Mitsuki had vented the atmosphere from. All through the halls in this area of the ship, red emergency lights pulsed silently in the hard vacuum. He then saw his Shotgun still tumbling through the zero G. He quickly braced his boot against the wall and pushed himself forward. Reaching out to grab it, he opened his COM and said, "Ran into a vented section of the ship. Stay alert so you aren't blown off your feet."

He then heard the reply of Kalder's voice saying, "That would be Mitsuki's doing. She did that when we were first up here." Eric rolled his eyes, "Thanks for telling me earlier!" Kalder shot back, "Forgive me, I was busy getting blown out into space, couldn't exactly fill you in!" They then heard Devon come in over the COM and say, "Lock it down you two! Just relax, I ran into it too, almost had my helmet blown off. I'm near your location now, Eric. We'll be able to keep the same pace towards the Prophet."

Eric nodded, "Status Kalder?" Kalder's boots touched down on the ships purple skin. "Just landed on the outside. Going to start looking for external plasma coils so I can shut them down." Eric replied, "Alright, I'm uploading a NAV marker so you can track my movement, I don't want us getting to far apart, especially when we get closer to the Prophet." Kalder nodded and said back, "I'll keep moving then."

The COM channel severed and Kalder looked around. The outer plating of the Prophet's ship was lined with countless tube like designs that covered the entire surface. He didn't know if it was all for wiring or just decoration. However, one large vein of wire caught his eye. If they were in fact power wires, this thick one obviously lead to something big. Making sure his motion tracker was clear Kalder proceeded.

As he walked, he began to find what looked like external power couplings and maintenance access bays. His guess was he was nearing an external weapon source. As he began his search he noticed his motion tracker flash completely red. He inhaled sharply and quickly looked around and froze. In space he saw multiple Covenant ships beginning to emerge from Slip Space ruptures all around the UNSC blockade. He could also see a line of ships heading towards Aurora's surface. 'Shit!" He called out as he again opened his COM.

"We need to regroup now and double time it to the Prophet!" He called out in an almost panic. Eric replied, "What happened?" Kalder called back, "Covenant reinforcements! Both around the Blockade and heading towards Aurora!" "Dammit!" Devon called out over the COM, "I knew they weren't done with us!" Eric then came on over the COM and said, "Kalder, scrap your assignment and find a way back inside! Devo, keep pressing in deeper, we need to get to Redemption and end this!"

"Should we attempt to pull the girls out of the system?" Devon asked. "No," Eric said back, "if they're still alive in there, they have a job to finish, besides, they have to keep the Covenant off of us while we advance, lord knows we're going to need that extra shield once we get in deeper." Devon sighed, "Understood."


Red emergency lights pulsed through the long corridors of Outpost Bravo as Yuna and Jimmy made their way deeper within the UNSC fortress. Now in the sub levels, all of the remaining troops and higher ranked officers had been evacuated to either the surface or protective bunkers leaving them out in the open with no support. Yuna clutched her SMG close to her chest as she ran behind Number 76.

"Anything on your Motion Tracker?" Yuna asked quietly to keep their presence unheard. "All clear for now." Jimmy kept his guard to its maximum; Yuna was only in a standard ONI uniform that offered next to no protection against plasma weaponry, or any weaponry for that matter. He was constantly checking for any sign of movement so he could put himself immediately between Yuna and the danger.

"I've never been this deep within Bravo before." Jimmy said, "Where is Izumi even being kept?" Yuna, still keeping her own guard up for any sign of Covenant activity replied, "We have to reach an elevator that's within the ONI compound. It will take us down to the main personnel bunker. If I had to guess, the UNSC put her and Anna down there with the rest of the higher ranked officers." "Isn't she safe in there for now? It is one of the main bunkers in here after all." Yuna shook her head and said back, "That bunker along with this outpost was built during the wars with the Insurrection and the Rebels. It was meant to protect against heavy nuke strikes. If an unauthorized person made it in to Bravo that far, their technology wouldn't be able to help them hack through to get inside. With the Covenant it's different. That bunker will keep its occupants safe from plasma fire, maybe even a glassing; however, if a Covenant strike team was deployed into Bravo, they most likely have a special team of system experts to pry their way in. And you and I both know that their tech is far superior to ours."

Jimmy cautiously poked his head around the corner and motioned Yuna to advance. As they kept moving Jimmy continued, "And you think their going to try and recapture Izumi?" "I don't think," Yuna said back, "I know. They captured her once and didn't execute her, even when they knew that Kalder was attempting a rescue. They obviously want her for something. I'm making sure that they never get that opportunity."

Around the next corner Jimmy immediately froze and held his hand out to stop Yuna. "What is it?" Yuna asked. Jimmy then brought his Battle Rifle up to firing position and cautiously moved forward. Up ahead, the corridor looked as though a bomb had gone off. The ceiling and floor was destroyed leaving a six foot wide pit before them, and the walls were splintered with cracks. Smoke choked the area and the sound of live wires snapped with the buzz of electricity. The two cautiously moved forward and stopped when they reached all of the damage. Yuna looked up at the ceiling and then to the floor. It looked as though a giant nail had torn into the base and was then yanked out leaving behind the destruction.

Down below, the hole in the floor led deeper within the ground and eventually into other area's of the base. "A Drill Pod went through here." Yuna said as she brought her SMG up and looked around for any signs of a threat. She then looked up at Jimmy and said, "Pick me up." "What?" Jimmy asked. Yuna sighed and cocked her hips as she continued, "Look at me, does it look like I can jump across that hole? I need you to pick me up and jump us across." "How about I throw yah!" Jimmy said back. Yuna raised an eyebrow and said sharply, "Need I remind you of our rank difference, you should be saying "yes Ma'am!" to me every chance you get!"

"You would think that!" Jimmy said with a laugh, "But I've never really been one for military discipline." With a raised eyebrow, Yuna replied, "I'm more than aware, which is why Chief Mendez was always making you do double the push ups and, triple the laps to run around Castle Base." Jimmy grinned under his visor and said, "Yeah, and that's how I got these perfectly sculpted muscles." Yuna sighed and said, "I'm not asking you to let me ride on your shoulders the rest of the way, I'm just asking for you to help me jump that gap." "…Fine." Jimmy sighed as he knelt down and picked Yuna up bridal style and leapt both of them across the gap.

Jimmy landed with a thud on the other side and then set Yuna down. "Was that so hard?" She asked. "This is an escort mission, of course it was." Yuna kept moving and said, "You're a Spartan, working as a team is should be your main strong point." Jimmy brought his Battle Rifle up to a readied position and said back, "I have bad news for you. You were given a Spartan that specialized in solo special operations to act as your guard. I usually work alone." Without turning back to look at 76, Yuna pointed to her ONI emblem on the shoulder of her uniform. "Rank!" Yuna said, "You may be taller, faster, and stronger than me, but I'm still above you. Got it?" Jimmy sighed, "Yes…" "Yes?" Yuna asked. Jimmy rolled his eyes, "Yes, Ma'am." Yuna smiled, "There we go! See, you're learning!"


Kalder made his way across the outer skin of the Prophet's ship towards a maintenance airlock. His task to attempt to disable some of the ships outer plasma weaponry was now scrapped and he needed to get back inside and regroup with the others. It didn't matter that his assignment had been scrapped, there was little he could do on his own without the aid of Mitsuki or any other Smart A.I. for that matter.

As he neared the airlock, he froze. Two red dots pinged on his motion tracker. He quickly ducked himself down and hid behind a large vent. After a few moments, he saw two Brutes in what looked like special maintenance suits meant for hard vacuum. The suits showed no signs of armor plating and they didn't appear to be carrying weapons. Without hesitation, he quickly pulled out a Plasma grenade that he had scavenged. He primed it and quickly tossed it to the closest Brute. The blue orb adhered to the Brute's lower back and before it could even react it vanished in a bright blue cloud. The remaining brute appeared to be wounded by the blast. Kalder quickly pulled up his Sniper Rifle and took aim. Through his scope he could see atmosphere being vented from the aliens damaged suit. He didn't bother to waste the round, the Brute would be dead in moments.

Kalder then quickly made his way into the airlock and waited for the pressure to return to normal. While he waited he opened his COM and said, "Stay alert, I just encountered a Brute maintenance crew. It was small but their starting to investigate the damage we caused. That and probably from that A.I. spotting us." He heard Eric's reply of, "Understood, still haven't encountered anything threatening yet though. Nothing but Engineers." Devon then added. "The same for me. Eric and I both hit the vented section of the ship, the only Covenant we're seeing now are floating dead."

Kalder nodded and then asked, "Have either of you heard anything back from our girls?" Devon sighed and then said back, "Negative." Eric then added, "I've tried Kobalt several times but they're still in their stealth mode; and if what that Covenant A.I. said was true, we won't be hearing from Dokuro again." "That thing lied!" Devon shot back. "There's no way it killed her."

There was a pause on the COM before Devon continued, "It only told us it killed her, it had no proof. I checked Dokuro's stats on her chip and she was still transmitting a signal. There's no way she's dead." Eric then sighed and said back, "Let's just hope that thing was bluffing then because if we don't have our girls for when we get in deeper, we're screwed." Kalder then added, "Well they better contact us soon, because we're almost in the deep end." "I'll keep trying to reach Kobalt." Eric said, "As for you guys, keep alert and let each other know your position updates. I want us regrouped ASAP." "You got it." Kalder said.

His COM channel severed and Kalder sighed as the blast doors opened. Kalder noticed something. There was no hiss as the doors parted and he remained in Zero G. Apparently he too had made it to the section of the ship that Mitsuki had vented.

Kalder floated silently through the halls of the ship. The only sound filling the room was the muffled breathing from within his helmet. It was like being on the ship the first time right after Mitsuki had taken control. He floated up to another door and watched as it opened. He felt his pulse quicken as he saw the lifeless body of a low ranked Brute floating lifeless in the ships corridor. Shaking his head, Kalder pushed himself forward and floated past the dead alien. He for some reason held his breath as he passed as if he were expecting it to come to life and attack. It never happened.

He looked on his HUD and saw a NAV marker that Kobalt had uploaded to him when they had first arrived. This one was showing him Eric's location. He was almost a half mile from his current position. He had a lot of ground to cover if he was going to meet back up with the others in the short window of time they had. He neared the next door and waited for it to open. This time however, something was waiting for him on the other side. His motion tracker flashed with four red dots and on the other side he saw four brutes in atmosphere suits, and these ones were armed. He quickly swapped his Sniper Rifle out and brought his Battle Rifle up to firing position and took aim. As he fired shots off, he opened his COM, "Contact!"


Yuna and Jimmy continued to make their way through the deep sub levels of Outpost Bravo. The halls were still uneasily quiet and the only light source being red emergency lights made their journey all the more tense. Adrine's hologram appeared giving off a cool aqua glow in the hall. With herself projected and walking with the two, she calmly said, "Not to alarm either of you, but I am detecting motion on both the sub levels above and below us. Nothing has breached our level yet so for now I'm reading all clear."

Jimmy looked at his A.I., "Anything in Active Camo?" Adrine ran her fingers through her wavy hair and replied, "Nothing that I am detecting; however, if you like I can perform an entire level scan." Jimmy shook his head, "Don't worry about it. I don't want you getting distracted, for now just keep your focus on the area around us. If something moves, even if it's a pen falling off of a desk, I want to know about it." Adrine nodded. "I understand."

They continued moving towards one of the elevators that would take them deeper into the base. Yuna began to get slightly ahead of Jimmy. She wanted to take point since no threats were being detected on their level; all the while looking at her personal PDA checking base stats and attempting to manually reset the power so they would have more light. They were nearing their destination when Adrine suddenly stopped. "What is it?" Jimmy asked. Adrine carefully put her fingers to her forehead and said with a hint of concern, "Something is heading towards us." Jimmy instantly tightened his grip on his Battle Rifle and said back, "How many?" Adrine only got out the words, "Move!" before all hell broke loose.

From up above the room violently began to shake and almost instantly the ceiling seemed to explode as another Drill Pod tore it ways through the base and dug its way deeper. Jimmy hit the dirt and covered his head with his hands. Adrine's hologram disappeared underneath a wall of debris and instantly vanished. Jimmy continued to shield himself as the pod tore its way through the floor and continued to dig deeper.

In what took only seconds, the noise of the hall around them being destroyed died into silence. Jimmy looked up to find a cloud of dust and rubble in front of him. He also noticed that Yuna was nowhere to be seen. He quickly pulled himself to his feet and attached his Battle Rifle to the back of his suit. He activated his helmets flashlight and looked around. He saw no sign of Yuna anywhere. Fearing the worst, he rushed over to the pile of rubble and began to frantically dig and toss aside broken pieces of concrete and metal. "Yuna!" he called out, "Yuna can you hear me?"

From the other side of the debris, Yuna heard Jimmy calling out to her. Yuna groaned. She was lying on the ground and she felt a sharp pain coming from the top of her head. As she reached her hand up, she called back, "I hear you!" She heard Jimmy call back, "Are you alright?" Yuna placed her hand on the top of her head and felt something sticky. She pulled her hand back down and looked at it. Her eyes widened and she gasped. Her hand was covered in blood. "Yuna! Answer me!" Jimmy shouted. Quickly Yuna assessed her injury. Looking next to her, she saw a piece of concrete that had landed beside her, she guess it had fallen on her during the Drill Pod's entrance.

She pushed herself up and sat on the floor. She groaned and called back trying to hide the pain, "I'm fine." She heard Jimmy call back, "Alright, hold on, I'm going to clear this junk out of the way and I'll crawl through. Yuna looked up at the wall of debris and saw how much of the base had collapsed around them. She guessed from how muffled Jimmy's voice was, that the debris wall was at least five feet thick. It would take Jimmy far to long to clear it out by hand.

Yuna called back, "Jimmy do you have any grenades?" Yuna held her eyes shut as she held her hand over the wound on her head. It hurt and she knew that she needed medical attention, but until she and Jimmy either met back up for finished their mission, it would have to wait. She then heard Jimmy call back, "I don't." Yuna sighed and then looked around. She knew that she wasn't far from the elevator that she and Jimmy were headed for. She then called back. "Jimmy, I need you to listen to me, you're going to have to find another way down. This debris is going to take to long to get through and we're running out of time." Jimmy said back, "Oh no! I'm not leaving you alone down here with Covenant on the loose! I'm not risking your safety…" Yuna cut him off and said back, "I'm not telling you to split up, I'm ordering you! Keep in mind my rank."

Jimmy sighed and said back, "…Understood. But so help me god if you get yourself captured or killed…" "Relax." Yuna said back, "I know this base better than anyone. I used to be able to see the entire place at once remember?" There was a pause and then she heard Jimmy say back, "Where are we meeting then?" Yuna replied as she fought to hide the pain in her voice, "Head to Command. I need you to get inside and have Adrine reset the power and arm the defensive turrets." "And what about you?" Jimmy asked. Yuna reached over and grabbed her SMG off the floor and said, "I'm going to get Izumi and Anna."

There was another pause before Jimmy said back, "Fine, just be careful." "I'll be fine," Yuna called back, "I'll upload a map to your HUD showing you where to go. For now, have Adrine direct you to one of the other elevators that will take you to Command." Yuna then heard Jimmy say, "Yes Ma'am." Before he spun on his heel and headed off for his objective.

Yuna sighed as she felt more of her blood seeping down through her hair. Her metallic sky blue locks now had a deep red patch that was making its way down towards her shoulders. She felt her warm blood seep down her forehead and down her delicate face. She saw her uniforms beret lying beside her. It had fallen off when she dove to the ground to get out of the way of the falling debris. She picked up the small hat and secured it to her head. She then undid one of its decorative blue ribbons and used it to tie it in place over the wound on her head, instantly turning the white fabric a deep blood red. It wasn't the best, but until she found a Med Pack it was the only thing keeping pressure on the wound.

Yuna staggered to her feet, trying her best to ignore the splitting head ach she was feeling. She quickly pulled out her PDA and was relived to see that it was undamaged. She then sent a visual map of the base to Jimmy and finally pulled up her SMG. She knew that the Covenant were somewhere in the base, if she did have to fight her way through some of them, she wasn't going to go down easy.


Jimmy saw Yuna's message pop up on his HUD. He said, "Adrine, look over her directions and keep my NAV marker updated." "Already on it." She said coolly. Jimmy saw the NAV marker appear and began to follow it. With his pace now at a run, he was trying to reach Command as fast as he could. With Yuna now away from his protection and with unknown amounts of Covenant being deployed in the base, he didn't want her running around by herself. If he had it his way he would have simply went to find some grenades or other explosives to clear the debris and meet back up with her, but orders were orders and it did no good attempting to tell a member of ONI what to do; especially a member that used to be an A.I.

As Jimmy ran he heard Adrine say to him, "Hold on, I just felt something move." Jimmy's eyes narrowed, "I know, I felt it after we left Yuna." Adrine said back, "Why didn't you take action?" Jimmy said back, "Because I'm luring it away. I don't want whatever it is chasing Yuna."

Up ahead, Jimmy saw the elevator. He slid to a stop and said, "Can you bring the elevator up, Adrine?" He heard her reply, "I can, but you are aware that the movement is behind you?" Without moving, Jimmy said back, "Oh I know, and it's about to get a taste of my bullets." As Adrine went to call the elevator, Jimmy heard the sound of a Plasma Sword flashing to life behind him. With his grip tightly around his Battle Rifle, he turned and saw an Elite Zealot, clad in scarlet armor and staring him down with it's sword ready to attack.

Jimmy grinned and said, "That pretty red armor's about to get covered in your nasty black blood. I hope it's machine washable." The Elite growled angrily at the Spartan and then leapt forward. Jimmy quickly Sprinted towards the Elite and opened fire.