(CHAPTER 55) GUN BUNNY
Yuna made her way through the dark halls of the base. With her steps sluggish and her mind feeling dizzy from blood loss, she was finding it difficult to make her way through the corridors. The emergency lights pulsed between red and total darkness. Yuna pulled up her PDA and pulled out a small ear piece. The small device would make it much easier to communicate while she was tying to navigate. She activated the small earpiece and spoke. "Victoria, can you get the lights back on down here?" She heard no reply. "Victoria! I need light, can you hear me?" Still nothing. She sighed and kept moving.
Up ahead, she heard shuffling and the wheezing sound of a Grunt breathing. Yuna paused and put her back to the wall. Bringing her SMG up to firing position, she carefully inched her way over to a bend in the hall. Carefully, she looked around the corner and saw two Grunts waddling their way away from her towards a series of locker rooms. She watched as one of the Grunt's kicked an object. She narrowed her eyes and saw that it was kicking an ODST helmet. The one Grunt then spoke in its muffled voice, "These black armored ones too tough. It good we had Zealot to kill them all."
Still with narrowed eyes, Yuna lifted her SMG up and took aim. She lined up the sight with the back of the Grunt's head and squeezed the trigger. The weapon jumped in her hand as it popped loudly from rounds discharging. A burst of rounds caught the left grunt in the back of the head, killing it instantly. Yuna had trouble keeping the weapon level. The recoil kept kicking its aim high above her target. She let of the trigger, refocused her sights and fired another round. The bullets impacted off of the side of the remaining Grunts orange methane pack as it turned in surprise to investigate the gunfire. It screamed in surprise as its methane pack ignited sending it spiraling through the air and bouncing off the walls before it crashed to the hard metal floor.
Yuna quickly came out from behind the corner and approached the two fallen aliens. As she approached, she saw the one with the damaged methane pack gasping for breath as it lie bleeding on the floor. She almost had pity for the Grunts. Small, cowardly creatures that were always sent in as cannon fodder. As it wheezed from breathing in poisonous oxygen, it reached up its stumpy hand out towards her as if it were begging for help. Yuna frowned. She was never one to be the cruel type. Raising up her SMG, she aimed it at the Grunts head and said calmly before she pulled the trigger. "You're lucky I'm a nice person or I would just leave you to suffer." She then squeezed the trigger as a small group of rounds popped from the SMG and impacted on the aliens head, killing it.
The hall was again silent as Yuna lowered her weapon. The rush of adrenaline from the quick fight left her feeling light headed. Trying to shake off the effects of her blood loss and the nausea from the Grunts foul smelling blood she pressed forward. Further down the hall, she began to see a mix of both Covenant and human blood along with a large amount of spent shell casings scattered all over the floor. She knelt down next to a small pool of human blood and put her finger in it. Though it was cold from being on the metal floor, it wasn't congealed meaning it was fresh. It had only been about an hour since the Covenant started attacking the base, this blood seemed no older than fifteen minutes. She looked around, though this battle had just happened, she wasn't seeing any sign of troops, either Covenant or UNSC. Her guess was that the Grunts she had just killed were part of a scavenging team trying to recover weapons for their Elite leaders.
Yuna stood and staggered as she found herself nearing one of the ODST's equipment rooms. Looking down at her SMG, she had half a clip left. It would be enough for a scuffle with a small group of Grunts and maybe a Jackal or two. She needed an ammo restock and another weapon.
Slowly, she made her way inside the equipment room, trying to shake off her blurring vision. The room was quiet and illuminated only by a flickering light bar on the wall; the only light that looked as though it hadn't been shot by gunfire. Once inside, she instantly smelled the foul stench of methane. Walking further in, she discovered the smell coming from three dead grunts that were laying in a pool of their thick incandescent blue blood on the other side of a bench. Spotting no motion, she continued inside.
After taking a few steps, she heard the sound of glass cracking under her shoe. She looked down and saw pink shards scattered all over the floor. Yuna instantly recognized them as the remains from a Needler. The shards were everywhere, and the walls around her were peppered with impact marks.
She then walked around one of the rows of lockers and spotted something that she didn't want to see. The lifeless body of a fully armored ODST was laying face down on the floor with a large amount of Needler impact marks on his combat suit. Yuna sighed and walked up to him. Kneeling down at his side she tilted his helmet up slightly and hoped to discover a pulse as she placed her fingers on his neck. She wasn't surprised to find no sign of life; but with her blood loss and being stuck deep underground with an unknown amount of enemies trailing her, she was looking for any type of upper hand that she could get.
Looking around, she discovered that one of the equipment lockers was open. She stood and walked up to it and saw exactly what she was looking for. A small medical pack sitting among unfolded clothes and other things that whatever ODST assigned to this locker had at the time of the attack. She pulled the pack out and opened it. It contained the basic field medical supplies that a trooper would need in battle. She took off her uniforms beret and set it on a bench next to the locker. The pure white fabric was soaked completely blood red. She again reached her hand up to inspect the wound.
She ran her fingers through her blood soaked hair. Her metallic sky blue locks were slick and sticky. Running her fingertips through her scalp to find the wound; she let out a hiss of pain as she felt the gash. It was still open and still bleeding. She brought her now blood soaked hand back down to the med kit and looked through it for supplies. Taking out what she needed, she poured an antibacterial solution on a gauze pad and began to carefully clean the wound, trying her best to ignore the sting it made.
She tossed the bloodied gauze pad onto the floor and again looked through the kit. Bio-Foam was to much for a wound this small. She then saw a small tube that almost resembled superglue. The label read Liquid Stitch, perfect for this type of wound. She quickly uncapped the tube and placed it at the gash on her head. She squeezed the liquid stitch out and let it seal shut. She then checked one last thing. She used the tips of her fingers to put pressure on the area around the wound to check for a scull fracture. Thankfully, she didn't discover one, but undoubtedly she would be having headaches for the next few days; if she lived long enough to see them anyway.
Yuna didn't even bother to put her uniforms beret back on, it was already ruined and it was no longer serving a purpose. She left the bloodied garment on the bench and kept searching for supplies. She walked around to the other side of the room, discovering a body of a bloodied Jackal and spent shell casings. She also found something else she was looking for, a weapons locker.
She walked up to it and tried the latch. It made a clacking noise when she tried to open it. Sure enough, it was locked. Yuna sighed, "Figures." She looked around for anything that could be useful in getting it open. Yuna raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her SMG. "Better than nothing." she uttered as she brought it up to firing position. Yuna squeezed the trigger. The SMG popped loudly as the rounds sparked off of the handle of the weapon locker. She let out about twelve rounds before she let off the trigger. With a smile, she saw the door broken loose from its lock. Yuna reached out, taking care not to cut herself on the now jagged metal. She opened the weapon locker and her eyes widened. With a sassy smile she said, "Ooo, Candy!"
She discovered a line of Assault, and Battle Rifles as well as a Sniper Rifle. After looking at the weapons, she quickly ran to one of the ODST's lockers and attached an equipment belt around her tiny waist. Of course, even with the straps pulled their entire length, it was still to big for her. She would have to make do with the bulky equipment belt hanging loosely around her. She quickly went back to the weapons locker and loaded her belt with three clips for the Assault Rifle; as well as, two Frag Grenades and a combat knife.
Yuna paused and thought. She looked at the Sniper Rifle for a few seconds. She remembered trying to shoot the Shotgun back in the underground and getting knocked onto her butt, that was only an 8 gauge weapon. The S2AM was a .50 caliber rifle meant for one shot, one kill use. She knew everything about every weapon in the UNSC and Covenant arsenal, but one thing sat on her mind that she never got to learn about until now. Her curiosity got the better of her. She reached up and pulled the large rifle down. The first thing the noticed was its weight. Unloaded, the Sniper Rifle weighed twenty five pounds, that number would go up as soon as a clip was in it. Second, she noticed its length. The weapon was over half a foot longer than she was tall. Their size fit perfectly to a Spartan, or even a well built soldier; but she was barely five feet tall.
She rested the butt of the weapon on the ground and held it upright by its barrel. She then grabbed a clip and fed it into the rifles chamber. Yuna lifted the heavy weapon up and tried to hold it out at firing position and immediately failing due to its length and weight. She lowered it and thought for a moment. "I can't hold it up, but that doesn't mean I can't go prone." She quickly grabbed one extra clip of ammo for the weapon an slung it high on her shoulder to keep it from dragging off of the ground.
The weapon put an additional thirty pounds of weight on her tiny body, not including the weight of the Assault Rifle and extra ammo. She tried to ignore it and proceeded with her objective. Yuna held her Assault Rifle at a lowered position and went back out into the halls of the base; she again pulled out her PDA and checked her map. She was nearing an elevator that would take her the rest of the way down to ONI's secure bunker. However, still without power and hearing no word from Victoria, Yuna couldn't help but worry about the final leg of the trip.
Gunfire illuminated the dark hallway as Jimmy rapidly shot rounds from his Battle Rifle. The Zealot quickly retaliated as it leapt forward and rolled towards the Spartan with its Plasma Sword ready to strike. The Zealot raised its weapon high in the air as it readied to strike the Spartan down. Jimmy quickly leapt up into the air and rapidly spun his body around and kicked his heavy boot off of the Elite's forearm, throwing off its aim. He then quickly landed and knelt down as he fired more rounds from his Battle Rifle.
The three round bursts barely put a dent in the Zealot's overshields. The alien shook of the rounds and prepared for another strike. It quickly brought its sword down towards the Spartan. Jimmy again leapt out of the way and turned only to see a Plasma Sword rushing towards his black visor. He quickly held up his Battle Rifle to block the attack. The sword came down leaving Jimmy's only weapon to take the force of the swing. The white hot blade sailed through the rifle like a hot knife through butter. He watched as the blade came within inches of his visor. Even he would admit that attack was to close for comfort. He again brought up his boot and kicked the Elite away form him as he rolled out of the way.
He tossed the now useless rifle away and quickly unsheathed his combat knife from his armored belt. He brought up his knife to a fighting position and yelled out, "You wanna dance? Then let's dance!" The Zealot snarled and said back, "You underestimate my skill with a blade, Demon!" Jimmy cracked a smile under his visor and said back with a laugh. "And you underestimate mine! I'll warn you now, I'm way to good with blades!" The Elite snarled and spat, "We shall see!"
The Zealot again roared loudly and leapt at the Spartan. Jimmy leapt out of the way with an agile quickness. Jumping into the air, he kicked his boot off of the wall and vaulted himself behind the Zealot. Not hesitating, he quickly slashed his blade at the Elite's back. He watched as his blade slid across the Zealot's shields spraying white sparks as it went. The Zealot quickly turned and lunged forward. This battle was very one sided. Jimmy was great with a combat knife, however it was next to useless against a Plasma Sword. It couldn't deflect that blade, the plasma would simply burn through. He would have to dodge attacks until he saw an opportunity.
Jimmy again rolled out of the way as the scarlet armored Elite rapidly brought its sword down at the Spartan. While the Elite was distracted, readying itself to deliver another blow, Adrine quickly projected her hologram; however, she wasn't in her usual form. She projected herself to be an exact copy of Jimmy's MJOLNIR armor. "Need a little help?" She said with confidence over his COM. Jimmy looked at his A.I. She had pulled off a rather convincing copy, her hologram gave off no glow and in the darkness of the corridor, it was difficult to notice that she was transparent. Jimmy grinned under his visor and said, "Mirror my movements." "Way ahead of you." She replied coolly.
The Elite regained its fighting stance and suddenly tensed in shock when it saw two black armored Spartan's standing before him. Not hesitating, it snarled loudly and again began to attack. Aiming for Adrine's hologram, Jimmy dove out of the way, and in perfect unison, Adrine did the same. The Zealot again tried another attack against the two but couldn't get in a direct strike on their mirrored movements. This only made the alien angrier. Its attacks became more rapid and more aggressive. Adrine said over the COM, "This is getting to intense for this confined space. You have no firearm and your combat knife is useless against a Plasma Sword; we're ending this now! Let that Zealot attack me." "Won't that damage you?" Jimmy argued. Adrine sighed and said, "He'll only attack my hologram, my programming is in your head remember? Just make sure you keep that intact please." Jimmy shrugged, "You're the boss."
Deep within her data chip, Adrine cracked a sleek smile on her delicate lips. Despite her cool demeanor, when it came to risky battles, she had no objections to fighting dirty. Her hologram broke away from its mirrored motion of her Spartan's movements. Now with her control regained, she sloppily slashed her combat knife at the Zealot and purposely lost her footing. Without hesitation, the Zealot lunged its sword at Adrine's hologram. The white hot blade impaled her directly in the chest.
Adrine's hologram staggered as the Elite held the blade in place. She mimicked Jimmy's voice and made a few groans of pain as she slowly lifted her head towards the Elite. A grin appeared on the Zealot's split jaw. It had killed one of these wretched Demon's and it felt nothing short of complete pride. Adrine then began to mimic Jimmy's laugh. The Zealot looked at her with confusion, and then she morphed back to her normal form. The Elite's eyes widened as it watched the Spartan morph into the young girl. Adrine showed a sly grin on her face as her voice changed back to its normal tone and said with sass, "Surprise!" Adrine then sent out an EMP that traveled up the Zealot's blade and into its shielding. The high level EMP completely killed its shields. The Elite didn't have time to react before it felt the heavy weight of a Spartan jumping onto its back. Jimmy twirled his combat knife in his fingers and then quickly brought it down into the base of the Elite's neck, penetrating right into its jugular.
"Ooo! How'd that feel? It looked like it hurt!" Jimmy laughed to himself. The Elite staggered and fell to its knees as it bled out. Its Plasma Sword fell from its grip and deactivated as its hilt fell to the metal floor. The Zealot then groaned out its final breath before collapsing to the ground. Jimmy pulled his combat knife out of the Elite's neck and flicked the blood off. As he resheathed his blade, Jimmy looked up at his A.I. and said, "Now that's teamwork!" Adrine folded her arms and flicked her wavy aqua hair back over her shoulder, "You're welcome." She bragged. Jimmy nodded and said, "Hop back in, we need to keep moving." Adrine walked towards her Spartan and her hologram vanished back within his armor.
"Yuna, come in." Jimmy said as he made his way deeper within the base. "Go ahead." She said back quietly. "Are you holding out okay?" Jimmy asked. After a wash of static, Yuna replied, "I'm fine; still heading towards the bunkers. How far did you make it?"
Jimmy said back, "I just took out a Zealot; working my way towards Command now." There was a pause before Yuna said back, "A Zealot? Have you seen others?" Jimmy could hear the concern in her voice, "So far only one, but who knows how many more could be down here. Can you get this bases A.I. to give you a reading on how many Drill Pods breached this place?" After another wash of Static, Yuna said back, "I haven't been able to reach Victoria since this attack started. I'm guessing her systems were damaged during the first bombardment. I'll keep trying, and when you get to Command, send Adrine in to look for her." Jimmy nodded and replied, "Yes, Ma'am. And you be careful down there. If you see a Zealot, get away to a safe area and don't get spotted. There's no way you can handle one of them on your own." Yuna said back, "For once I'm not going to argue."
The COM cut out and Jimmy made his way deeper within the sub levels. "Show me the layout of this level." He said cautiously. Adrine complied and instantly brought up a map onto her Spartan's HUD. Jimmy quickly looked it over. The map showed a complete layout of the floor he was on as well as gave him his most direct route to Command. The area near his destination was splotched with flashing red circles; however, he didn't pay them any attention. "Keep my NAV marker going, Adrine." Jimmy said. Adrine paused and then uttered out, "Take it easy down here." Jimmy slowed his pace and asked, "Why? What's wrong?"
Adrine sighed, "Didn't you notice all the red near Command? Those indicate heavy damage to the level structure, damage that as of right now, can only be caused by a Drill Pod pushing its way in." Jimmy frowned. "So their trying to beat me there, huh? Over their dead bodies!" Adrine again snapped back, "Don't you realize how outnumbered we are right now? All of the other UNSC forces that were down here are out on the surface fighting off the ground units. We're all that's down here." "I doubt that." Jimmy said back, "There has to be other troops still down here. They wouldn't abandon Command."
"Listen to me!" Adrine called out, "Those Drill Pods did some real damage when they tore their way down here, with little to no power, all of the systems on this level are either damaged or in need of a hard reset, and I can't get into the Base's systems without an override from Command." "Can't you have this facilities A.I. do that for you?" Adrine sighed and said, "I've been trying to contact her since we came back down here. Whatever the Covenant did when they got here, it damn near fried all of the systems. I can't do anything until you get me to Command."
The thump of Jimmy's heavy boots began to echo off the walls as he started moving again. He grinned under his visor and said with confidence. "Then let's get you there." Keeping his guard up, the Spartan kept moving, keeping his pace just shy of a run so as to keep the sound of his heavy foot steps down. Through the muffled thumps of his boots, Jimmy heard the sound of brass tapping across the floor. He looked down and through the red emergency lights, he saw brass shell casings scattered across the floor.
Jimmy knelt down and picked one of them up. He activated his helmets flashlight and looked. These weren't rounds that had been spilled from an ammo pallet during the initial chaos of the first attack on the base, these rounds were spent. Jimmy then looked up and he felt himself inhale sharply. The walls were peppered with both bullet and plasma impacts, and the floor was now a resting place for spent rounds, weapons, and bodies, both UNSC and Covenant. "Well…" Jimmy uttered as he stood, "We know what happened to the rest of the troops that were left down here." There was a pause before Adrine said back, "You better find yourself a weapon. You'll be needing it more than they will now." Jimmy frowned and tossed the spent shell casing aside. "Looks that way."
He carefully walked through the hall, not wanting to disturb the fallen soldiers. He saw a stray Assault Rifle lying near the body of a Marine. Its alloy looked scuffed as if it had been slid harshly across the ground. Picking it up, he also discovered it was blood stained. Jimmy quickly grabbed some spare clips; as well as a Plasma Rifle with a large amount of power left. An object caught his eye. It looked like a sphere attached to a tripod. He shone his helmet's flashlights onto the object and he discovered that it was a Bubble Shield generator. Without thinking twice, he grabbed it and he kept going.
As he made progress towards his destination, he kept finding more bodies and more signs of battles. Jimmy kept his guard up as he jogged through the dark corridors. He held his Assault Rifle at the ready, always expecting to bump into a Zealot around every corner. He saw a blip on his motion tracker. Two red dots positioned next to each other down in the next hallway that he was supposed to go down. "It's going to get heavy now." Adrine told him. "Those strike teams are going for the same thing we are." Jimmy grinned, "Then their going to have to get through a big storm of my bullets!"
Ten minutes had passed since Yuna last heard from Jimmy. She staggered and was running out of breath. She was feeling the fatigue of her injury, carrying heavy equipment, along with running on little sleep due to the amount of chaos over the short period of her new life. She thought to herself as she staggered forward, "God, how does Eric do this without breaking a sweat." She shook her head as she forced herself to move forward. She had a splitting headache, and she felt dizzy.
Ahead of her was a large armored door. As Yuna walked up to it, the first thing she noticed was it required a special code for entry; a code which she knew, but the lack of power was going to be a problem. She pulled out her PDA and opened it. Establishing a connection she said, "Jimmy, could really use some power down here." "A little busy!" Was all she heard back over the sounds of gunfire.
An Elite groaned loudly as armor piercing rounds tore into its chest. The blue armored alien doubled over and fell lifeless to the ground as brass shell casings fell to the floor around it. Jimmy quickly leapt over the Elite and kept moving. Ahead, he saw a line of three Jackals standing in a wall formation with their glowing shields protecting them. With their Plasma Pistols firing, Jimmy quickly pulled out a Frag Grenade and whipped it at the bird like creatures. The device impacted off of one of the small energy shields and fell to the floor. The three aliens quickly ducked down behind their protective barriers for protection. There was a loud wham and a bright flash. The small energy shields that the Jackals carried gave little to no protection against any type of high explosive.
Again, Jimmy kept advancing. "I'm picking up more movement!" Adrine announced. Jimmy nodded and said back, "Good! They haven't even given me a challenge yet!" Jimmy dashed around the next corner and saw a small squad of Grunts. They yelled in shock at the sight of the Spartan rushing towards them and shooting. Their sloppy aim was no threat as Jimmy opened fire with his Assault Rifle and quickly brought them down.
"We're almost there!" Adrine called out. "Just get through that next security barrier and we'll be at the outer sector of Command!" Jimmy brought up his pace to a full on run and double timed it to the security barrier. Much like every other area of the base that was heavily guarded, the door was large, and reinforced. A small key pad flashed red on the wall near the door. "Do you know the code?" The Spartan asked. Adrine's hologram appeared and she approached it. Tucking her wavy hair behind her ear, she bent over the key pad and quickly examined it. Holding out her glowing hand, she quickly accessed the terminal and sent her code through, letting the systems know that a Smart A.I. was trying to gain access. Not even a second managed to pass by before the key pad flashed green and chimed as the door slid open. Jimmy motioned for Adrine to retract herself back into his battle suit, which she did, and then he continued inside.
The other side of the door was a hallway that was decorated with framed pictures of the UNSC's highest ranking officers; as well as, some of the more popular recruitment posters and other UNSC propaganda. The hall led to a glass door that opened into the Command sector. The glass was spider webbed with cracks, evidence of the concussive force of an explosion that had gone off. Jimmy cautiously looked through it and found himself standing at a final checkpoint before someone was granted access into Commands base of operations. The room was large and open, much like a lobby of an office building. A lot of wasted space in the Spartan's opinion.
Peering through the cracked glass, Jimmy saw the damage caused by three large Drill Pods that had torn their way inside. He didn't know if any had managed to find their way into Command. He also saw a large number of Covenant forces. He could count at least twenty of both Grunt's and Jackals and from what he could see, five white armored Ultra's. "Still not feeling challenged, Jimmy?" Adrine asked with sarcasm. Jimmy quickly fed a fresh magazine into his Assault Rifle and said back, "This is more my speed!"
Without hesitation, Jimmy quickly pulled out another Frag Grenade and primed it. He let it cook in his hand for two seconds before he kicked open the glass door and shattered it. He quickly tossed the grenade at the largest group of Grunts and Jackals before they had a chance to react. The grenade detonated, sending bodies and slick blue and purple blood flying into the air as he rushed in and opened up on the remaining forces.
There was no turning back, and no cover. Jimmy rushed to the center of the room and stood at firing position as the Covenant surrounded him. He quickly threw down the Bubble Shield that he had found and stood at the ready as the weapon fire temporarily stopped. Adrine's hologram appeared and she stood back to back with her Spartan, and summoned her defensive weapons. She held large duel revolvers, modeled after an 1800's style Colt .45. She grinned and looked up at her Spartan. "Ready for some back to back?" Her Spartan nodded and said, "Show me what you got!"
The bubble shield burst and instantly, weapon fire erupted. Jimmy quickly sighted on one of the Elite Ultra's and tore away at its shields while Adrine took aim and fired EMP rounds from her Revolvers. It was a strategy that the two had developed several years earlier. When the two would fight back to back, Adrine would fire EMP rounds at Elites to significantly weaken their shields while Jimmy would finish them off with live rounds. The only drawback was that the power used to create the EMP's that she fired came from Jimmy's shield generator. With every shot she fired, it ate away at her Spartan's shields.
"At your 6!" Adrine called out. Jimmy quickly turned and unloaded on an Elite that Adrine had been firing at. The alien Quickly dropped. "Jackals regrouping left!" Adrine again called. As Jimmy turned, he called back, "Ultra to your right!" The two again changed position and opened fire. Jimmy kept a careful eye on his shields. If he wanted to survive against this many Covenant, he would have to make every bullet count.
Jimmy quickly took aim at the small divot in the Jackals shields to throw them off balance before he finished them off. "6 o'clock!" Adrine announced. The two again changed positions and continued firing. Jimmy managed to tear through the second Elite. As it began to stagger, his Ammo counter on top of his Assault Rifle read 00. He quickly pulled the spent clip and slammed in a fresh one. His Rifle popped loudly as another barrage brought the Ultra to the ground. "Grunt's right!" Adrine shouted. Jimmy again turned and quickly brought the small aliens down.
Two small orbs of plasma from the third Ultra's Plasma Rifle punched through Adrine's hologram and splashed off of Jimmy shields. Adrine fuzzed from the rounds but it didn't stop her attack. She quickly shot several more EMP's at the Ultra; tearing through its shields and stunning it from the shock of power. "Third one is down!" She called out to her Spartan. Jimmy and Adrine again swapped positions. He raised his Assault Rifle and unloaded a burst of armor piercing rounds into the Ultra, killing it.
Through his helmets speakers, Jimmy heard his suits alarms chime as his shields reached low power. He quickly called out, "Adrine, Shield Generator emergency power, now!" Adrine's eyes glowed an intense aqua color as she quickly sent a part of herself into her Spartan's armor to restore his shield power. Jimmy watched as his suit flashed gold while his shields revived themselves. While Jimmy finished off the remaining Grunt's and Jackals, Adrine rapidly twirled her duel revolvers on her dainty fingers and quickly sighted on the fourth Ultra. She grinned and said, "You want a piece?" The Elite snarled angrily and unloaded its plasma rifle.
Adrine's two revolvers kicked hard in her hands as she fired. Four EMP bursts shot in rapid succession slammed into the Ultra, completely killing its shields. "Jimmy!" She called out, "6 o'clock! Kill it!" Quickly, the two again spun back to back and Jimmy gunned down the fourth Ultra.
As Jimmy brought down another enemy, Adrine quickly began to sight her final target. As she turned, her bright, aqua eyes widened in shock. She saw a pulsing blue orb sailing directly at her. Quickly, she yelled out, "Dive!" Jimmy turned in time to see a Plasma Grenade flying towards him. He quickly flexed his legs and dove to the floor and rolled out of the way. The grenade landed just shy of ten feet from him and detonated. The close explosion impacted hard on the Spartan's shields and left them fully depleted. With his suits alarms screaming, and still laying prone, Jimmy quickly unloaded his final clip into the Ultra, bringing it to its knees and finally falling lifeless on the floor.
Adrine cautiously looked around at the room of dead Covenant and turned to her Spartan. She showed him a triumphant smile and chirped, "We did it!" As Jimmy got back to his feet, he grinned under his black visor and said in his comedic tone, "Yeah we did! You don't mess with Jimmy without getting a face full of my bullets!"
From above them, both Jimmy and Adrine heard the sound of glass shattering. With a panicked look on her face, Adrine yelled, "Zealot!" Jimmy turned in time to see a scarlet armored Zealot hurtling down towards him in a shower of broken glass from an observation window that it had jumped through. He didn't have time to react. He only managed a "Fuck my life." Before the large alien landed full force onto the Spartan, slamming him to the ground on his back and knocking the wind from his lungs.
As Jimmy rapidly tried to inhale air back into his lungs, he saw the Zealot draw a dagger like blade of plasma from the forearm plating of its armor. Jimmy frowned and quickly brought his arm up and slapped the blade away from him. The Elite snarled and Jimmy quickly delivered a harsh uppercut to its split jaw. The Zealot snarled with spit flying from its mouth and splashing onto the Spartan's black visor. The Elite again brought its wrist blade up and with extreme force, brought it down towards Jimmy's visor.
Quickly, he reached both hands up and gripped tightly onto the Elite's forearm. Jimmy grinned his teeth and forced out a loud groan as he tried with all his strength to keep the Elite from killing him. The Zealot looked at Jimmy square in the eye and said in an almost sinister tone, "I'm going to enjoy every moment of watching you die, Demon!" Jimmy angrily yelled back, "You better hope you kill me, because if not, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard that all of your dead friends I just killed are gonna feel it!" The Zealot again snarled angrily at the comment and spat back, "Your blood will spill!"
Both Jimmy and the Zealot heard several loud bangs. Before either could react, the Zealot felt its shields being pelted by EMP bursts. It lost balance and fell to the side, looking up to see the hologram of a human girl firing at it. With its shields significantly lowered from the hits, Jimmy quickly recovered and pulled the Plasma Rifle off of his leg plate and opened fire on the Zealot. The Elite quickly kicked itself to its feet and sprinted for the nearest exit it saw. Before it was out of sight, Jimmy managed to completely deplete its shields with his Plasma Rifle and wound the Alien. The weapon then jumped in his hand and began to vent it self after its rapid fire overheating. After the Zealot was out of sight, Adrine yelled, "Get inside Command, now!"
He watched as Adrine's hologram hacked her way into the entrance to Command and then motion him inside. Jimmy quickly ran and made his way through the entrance to Commands central hub. Adrine sealed the door behind him and said, "Get me uploaded into this place, now!" Her hologram then vanished back inside his armor as her Spartan began to look around. The room was running on emergency power, the large monitors were fuzzed with static while red emergency lighting pulsed in the room. With his helmet's flashlights on, he quickly made his way passed all of the separate work stations in the Command room and down towards the large central data terminal. He quickly pulled out Adrine's chip and inserted her in the base's systems.
Her hologram again appeared and she said with worry, "My god, this place is in complete chaos. Everyone in the sublevels were evacuated to other area's of the base when the Drill Pods started coming down. They caused so much damage when they impacted, they left this area of Bravo is next to useless." "What about Izumi?" Jimmy asked. "Her area was hit too." Adrine told him. "However she is down within this base's most protected bunker. Even a Drill Pod can't cut through that much titanium."
Jimmy looked around and then asked, "Can you contact this Base's A.I. for some extra help?" Adrine paused as she began to search for Victoria. Pushing herself through as much of the base as she could to try and find her. After a full three seconds, Adrine said back with worry, "I can't locate her." Jimmy sighed and said, "Can you at least get some backup power going and get the defensive turrets online?" Adrine nodded and replied coolly, "The power is simple enough; however, I'm detecting a large amount of damage in the base's defensive systems, I can bypass it and get them running; however, it's going to take some time." "How long?" Jimmy asked. Adrine paused and then replied, "Five, ten minutes tops. It all depends on how long it takes me to bypass damaged systems and reroute defensive orders." Jimmy nodded, "Do it."
Jimmy opened his COM and said, "Yuna, we made it to Command, standby for power and defensive systems." He heard her tired voice call back, "Standing by. How much opposition do I have ahead of me?" Jimmy paused and said, "Expect heavy Covenant presence near the bunkers, and don't get your hopes up for any backup. This entire sector of the base has been evacuated due to the heavy damage from the Drill Pods. So as of right now, we're the only UNSC presence down here." Yuna paused and said back, "…Alright. I'm hoping to run into some Onyx Guards near the Bunkers. I doubt even they would evacuate when the Chancellor is still down here." "Let's hope so." Jimmy said back. From across the room, Adrine called out, "Power has been restored." Command lit up and Adrine instantly began to reboot everything.
Bright lights flashed to life in the hall outside of the ONI compound. Now in full light, Yuna quickly went over to the keypad and typed in her access code and watched as the large blast door slid open. She went inside and shut the door behind her to keep out anyone that might be following her. "How long until the turrets are online?" She asked. She heard Jimmy say back, "Adrine estimates about five minutes," He said back, "ten tops. It all depends how quick she can get them operational. These systems are a mess."
Yuna brushed one of her blood soaked bangs out of her face and proceeded deeper within the ONI compound. "Alright," She said back, "I know she's working hard already but don't let her be afraid to push her limits in there. I want no holdups once I have Izumi, and Anna secured." Jimmy then said back, "You'll have all the cover fire you need, but don't do anything until we have those guns operational. You can't take on a group of high ranked Covenant by yourself."
Up ahead, Yuna could see a lone Grunt that looked as though it was standing guard. Quickly, she ducked out of sight down a side hall. Cautiously, she said back, "I'm gonna have to call you back." "Why?" Jimmy asked. Yuna replied quietly, "I got company already. If you can get the security camera's operational and give me some feedback, that'd be great!"
There was a pause before Jimmy said back, "Hang on, loading them now." While she waited, Yuna poked her head around the corner and again saw the Grunt with it's back turned. She debated on just bringing it down with her Assault Rifle, an easy kill but it would also alert anyone else in the area to her presence. Jimmy then came back on and said, "Alright, I can see you… why do you have a Sniper Rifle?" Trying to keep her voice low, she said back harshly, "Because it kills things easier!" Jimmy then said back with a laugh, "Yeah, when you can hold it at firing position and actually aim with it!" "I can manage." She said back. Jimmy replied sharply, "That gun is taller than you are!" "I'm aware! Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Relax… Ma'am! I'm working on it." From back in Command, Jimmy worked on focusing the cameras for a clearer view. Yuna was in an unlit corner of a hall trying to stay out of sight and he managed to catch a glimpse of the butt of her Sniper Rifle as well as her long hair that was flowing around her ankles. He watched as Yuna poked her head out to look at the Grunt ahead of her and his eyes widened. He again opened his COM and said with a gasp, "You lied to Jimmy! You told him you weren't hurt but look at yah! There's blood all through your hair and all over your uniform!"
"Wow, you still go into the 3rd person when you're mad." Yuna said back. "Yeah I'm mad!" Jimmy shot back, "I trusted you when you said you were fine but you lied to me!" Yuna shot back, still trying to keep her voice at a low tone, "I'm ONI! I'm good at telling lies! How do you think the Spartan program stayed under wraps for so long? Deniability baby!"
From down the hall, the Grunt turned its head. Clearly it had heard Yuna's voice. Jimmy saw what was happening over the security camera and called back over the COM, "Hey shut up a minute! …Ma'am! You're getting to rowdy down there now that Grunt heard you." He watched as the Grunt turned and began heading towards Yuna's location. "Get down and don't move." The Spartan ordered. Yuna backed down into the shadows and lifted her Assault Rifle. Through her wireless earpiece, Jimmy fed her information.
"It's still makin' its way towards you; don't move." Yuna held herself motionless as she waited for the small alien to near her location. Her heart rate elevated with each passing second. She couldn't believe that a lone Grunt was making her this scared. She could clearly remembered Eric mowing over entire platoons of the little bastards without a second thought. Still, she was wounded, unarmored, and most likely outnumbered. If there was one Grunt down here, there was bound to be more up ahead.
"It stopped!" Jimmy reported. "Stay low, its turning back but it's taking its sweet time." Yuna narrowed her eyebrows down angrily as she silently unsheathed her combat knife. She then quietly said, "Is its back turned?" Jimmy then replied, "Yeah, but hold there for a few…" Before he could finish, Yuna dashed out into the hall and ran up behind the Grunt. She quickly grabbed the top of its head and tilted it back. Before the alien could react, Yuna slid her knife across its throat. The Grunt got out no more then a muffled gasp and made a few gurgling noises before it fell limp to the floor and bled out.
"Spartan's aren't the only one's who can get assassinations you know." Yuna said with sass as she flicked the slick blue blood from her blade before resheathing it. She felt something strange. A sharp pain spiked through her head and her vision blurred. Over her COM, Jimmy said back, "How bad is that wound. Don't try to hide it either, I got you on camera and I can already see the blood." Rubbing her hand against her forehead, Yuna said back, "It's fine. I closed the wound and stopped the bleeding but I…"
Yuna paused and felt something new. Her stomach churned and she felt nauseated. Her only conclusion for this happening was most likely caused by the smell coming from the Grunt she had just executed. "Yuna! What is it?" She heard Jimmy call out over the COM. Before he could reply, Yuna felt herself double over and instantly, she began to vomit. Her eye's widened in shock as it happened. She had never experienced this before. She felt her abdomen rapidly tighten as her body convulsed while the disgusting taste of vomit filled her mouth.
"I knew it." She heard Jimmy say over her COM. "You have a concussion. You're in no condition to fight, I'm coming down to get you." "No!" Yuna shot back as she wiped a strand of mucus from her lip. She spat more of the foul tasting fluid onto the floor and continued, "I need you to stay exactly where you are and control those turrets. If you don't give me cover while I go for Izumi, then we're all going to die! Do you understand me?" There was a pause before Jimmy said back with hesitation, "I don't think you understand your situation right now. You are in way over your head with enemies right now. What if you can't pull this off?"
Yuna again spat onto the floor and tried her best to regain her composure. She reached up to her shoulder and pulled the heavy Sniper Rifle off of its strap and then held it at a lowered position. She frowned and said back, "Then I'm going to make it hard for them until my least breath." She didn't hear a reply. With a frown, she tightened her grip on the rifle and limped forward. After a few moments she heard a click of static over her COM and heard Jimmy say with agitation, "Just so you know I got eyes on a group of Covenant troops. Most look like Spec Opps; all in black armor, I'm counting three Elites, and about five Grunts." Trying not to let her fear get the better of her, she kept moving forward. "Is that it?" she asked. Jimmy sighed and said, "Don't talk like you can handle them all by yourself."
"I don't have a choice right now!" She said back harshly while trying to keep her volume low. "Fine then." Jimmy said back, "I have the auto turrets coming online, they should be ready to fire in about ninety seconds. They'll be able to do the heavy lifting for you but if you can, I'll need you to try and kill at least one of those Elites. There are only three turrets in the area up ahead, they'll do the job but not fast enough to get them all at once." Yuna frowned and said, "I'll take care of it."
Up ahead, she could see the balcony that overlooked the area leading to the bunkers. Trying to be as quiet as she could, Yuna crept forward up to the banister and looked over. Just like Jimmy said, a group of Covenant forces were standing around a large door with weapons at the ready while one of the Black armored Elites was attempting to hack a key pad to gain entry. Not wanting to get spotted, she quickly but quietly went prone on the elevated balcony. Again, her COM clicked and Jimmy calmly said, "Alright, from now until the first round is fired, you communicate with me through hand signals. Adrine's got the camera's focused on you and the Covenant." Jimmy watched as Yuna nodded her head and gave a thumbs up behind her back.
She motioned towards her scope and then pointed her finger back towards the Covenant, letting him know that she was scoping her targets. Through the scope, Yuna focused on the Covenant as they attempted to crack the keypad lock. She reached up to her scope and adjusted it to a low range, 2x zoom. As she scouted her targets, she could hear the Elite's talking among themselves in their native tongue. She still had a knowledge of Covenant language and managed to hear them talking about reclaiming what was rightfully theirs. Yuna frowned, she knew all along this was about Izumi and this had confirmed it. She focused her sights on the Elite that was attempting to hack the terminal. She lined up her crosshairs directly on the back of its helmet and carefully held her hand up to signal to Jimmy that she was ready.
Over the COM Jimmy said back, "Alright, as soon as you take the shot, I'll light them up with the turrets. Just try to get that Elite down as fast as you can." Yuna signaled her reply with a light nod of her head. Her knowledge of firing this style of weapon kicked in and she slowed her breathing. With her finger rested on the trigger, she began to squeeze it. As the weapon readied to fire, Yuna froze and pulled her finger away from the trigger and held her hand up telling Jimmy to stop. "What's wrong?" Jimmy asked. Yuna, not taking her eye off the scope, again raised her hand up and pointed down towards the Covenant troops.
Yuna frowned as she watched a new target approach. Down below, the Covenant forces stood at attention as a Zealot, clad in scarlet armor approached the door and spoke harshly in it's native tongue. "Why haven't you broken through?" The Elite that had been attempting to hack the terminal instantly replied, "Their security measures are unusually advanced in this area of their stronghold. We have made progress but it will take some time to finish getting through." Yuna could hear the Zealot make a snarl as it continued, "You have already had enough time, if this door hasn't been opened within my next breath, I'll see to it that your next breath will be your last!"
The Spec Opps Elite held back its anger as it went back to attempting to hack through the terminal. In an agitated voice it reluctantly said back, "It will be done." Yuna watched as the Zealot folded its arms in frustration while it impatiently waited for entry deeper into the base. "You know that Zealot's have Overshields, right?" Jimmy said over Yuna's COM.
Not taking her focus off of the scope of her S2, Yuna simply nodded her head. Jimmy continued, "That gun would drop an Elite with no problem, but those Zealot's take at least three for a skilled rifleman to bring down. I know you're infinitely smarter than me and you probably already know what I'm telling you," Yuna simply cracked a smile and shrugged her shoulders as she silently agreed with what Jimmy had just told her. He continued, "but you need to understand that all the smarts that you have in that little head of yours won't help you when it comes to sniping. You may know every little fact and bit of information about that gun, but without being trained in firing it, you're going to be in for a rough time."
Yuna froze and the thought again filled her mind. Sure, lining up the sights on a stationary target was easy enough, however when it came down to actually pulling the trigger, she would have problems. Again, she remembered back in the underground when she tried to fire a Shotgun. Her small build made it difficult for her to keep herself stable while firing weapons. Even standard issue Assault Rifles gave her problems. She quickly thought her situation through. This time she wasn't standing, she was lying prone. She had more stability this way and the recoil would have less of an impact.
Her COM clicked and Jimmy said, "I'm not asking you to kill that Zealot, but if you can at least get its shields down, that will help us a lot." Again Yuna nodded and took aim. As she lined her crosshairs directly at the base of the Zealot's crimson helmet, Jimmy said, "Adrine has auto turret controll, fire when ready."
Yuna took in a few deep breaths and slowed her breathing. It wasn't a distance shot by any means but with her lack of skill at firing this type of weapon, she would need all the accuracy she could get. From down below, the Elite attempting to hack through the door called out, "I have it! It's opening!" Yuna could hear the large armored doors alarms sound as it began to open. If she stalled any longer, she would loose her chance. She tightened her grip on the Sniper Rifle and put pressure on the trigger.
Suddenly, there was an ear deafening bang and the rifle kicked violently against her shoulder. She gasped out in surprise and quickly tried refocused. It felt like slow motion as she watched the Zealot double over from the impact of the high velocity armor piercing round as it struck directly on the back of its head. Its shields flared and the alien quickly reached for its Plasma Rifle. Yuna knew she wouldn't have the time to refocus her aim. Around her, the defensive turrets dropped from the ceiling with rotating barrels. The room filled with the roar of automatic weapon fire as the turrets began to tear down the Covenant forces. Through the deafening noise, Yuna quickly aimed at the Zealot. She knew that attempting to aim for the head again would take to much time, and the stunned feeling of the first shot rocking her tiny body still left her shaken. She managed to aim for its center of mass and again squeezed the trigger. Once more, the .50 calibur rifle slammed hard into her shoulder as it discharged. Through her scope, she watched as the Zealots shields flaiered and died.
With the defensive turrets tearing down the platoon of Covenant troops, Yuna quickly stood and pulled out a Frag Grenade from her equipment belt. She quickly pulled the pin and tossed it over the balcony's railing and watched as it landed about a yard away from the Zealot's feet. Yuna flinched as it detonated. The loud bang rocked the room and blew the Zealot off of it's hooves. Its thick purple blood sprayed through the air as it fell lifeless to the ground along with the rest of the Covenant forces that were eliminated from the turrets.
Yuna felt herself shaking as the sound of weapon fire died. The room again fell silent and her ears rang loudly. "They're all dead!" Jimmy called out, "Hurry and get to Izumi before more show up. Adrine will keep as many of them away from you as she can." Yuna could only nod as she shakily knelt down and picked up the heavy S2 into her arms. She held the weapon much like a mother carrying a child would. She couldn't bring herself to sling it. It was out of fear and her high adrenaline levels that she kept it at the ready.
Yuna quickly double timed it down the stairs to the rooms floor. She ran towards the keypad that the Covenant were attempting to hack, kicking countless shell casings as she ran. The floor was littered with them, along with pools of blood and dead bodies. The sound of brass shell casings clanging echoed through the room as her foot steps kicked them out of the way. Yuna quickly went to the key pad and saw that the door had resealed itself when the defensive turrets began to fire. She set her Sniper Rifle down and leaned it up against the wall while she pulled out her identification card. She swiped it and then put in her access code and stood back as the large door began to unlatch and slide open.
While she waited, Yuna knelt down next to her S2 and popped out its half spent clip. Reaching to one of the pockets in her equipment belt, she pulled out a fresh magazine and fed it in. With the door open, she again picked up her rifle and made her way inside. Once in, she found another keypad. With a quick tap of her finger onto a flashing red button, the door again sealed shut.
Yuna then opened her COM. "This is ONI Officer Yukari Halsey requesting ODST support on sublevel 6B. I'm down in the high security bunker about to extract Chancellor Izumi for evacuation! I repeat, ODST support is needed for Chancellor Izumi's evacuation!" Yuna heard a wash of static as well as Calabrese's voice. It was broken up but she managed to hear him say, "Understood, the Theta's are handeling the outdoor assault well enough on their own. We're heading in now." "Copy." Yuna said back.
Ahead of Yuna was another three security checkpoints of large, vault style doors. All of which her high level access code got her into without hesitation. The halls were dark due to the power loss. The only illumination was the red emergency lights. Finally, she came to the final bunker door. She typed in her access code and the door slid open.
