Chapter Twenty Five
I held my arms out as Professor Anders clipped the armor onto my biosuit. It was dark blue, almost black, and looked like a cross between John's and Kelly's. The armor wasn't as thick, of course, and the entire suit was much smaller.
I'd only been practicing my technokinesis, as Anders called it, for ten days. It was enough, though. I could control the datapad fluidly from across the room, as if I was touching it.
She finished putting all of the armor on. "Does it feel okay?"
"It feels good." I swung my arms. "Weird. Like, it's really heavy. But it uses its heaviness to help make me stronger? I don't know if that makes sense."
"Good, that's what I was going for. ONI gave me a few reference reports on MJOLNIR, all I had to do was dull down the reaction time."
She pulled out a helmet. It still had a smooth, motorcycle helmet look. But the visor was golden, with a honeycomb pattern.
"You ready?" she asked.
I nodded. "Ready."
She slid the helmet on. In the armor, I was still two inches shorter than her. She was 5'9", which I decided was really tall, so of course I wouldn't quite reach her.
My height didn't matter, finding the artifact did.
"Take a few minutes to move around. Mess with your HUD a bit; you can always have it return to default, so you can't mess it up too badly."
I moved my arm up and down. "The biosuit feels like my old armor."
"It's similar. I couldn't make it as compressive, since you're going to be wearing it for longer periods of time, but I wanted to give you a little extra support."
I hopped up and down on my toes. "I like it."
I was connected to the suit. It wasn't quite subconscious at this point, but it would be.
Someone was comming me. "Tawny, are you ready?"
It was John.
"Yeah, I'm ready."
"We're about to load up."
"Oh," I turned to Anders, "I have to go!"
"Good luck out there."
"Thanks!" I waved to her as I ran out of the room.
Moving in the armor was...strange. I moved the armor, yes, but it seemed to move me, too. It responded to my mind and moved on its own.
Blue Team was on the tarmac.
I grinned when they came into view. "Hey, guys!"
"Tawny, is that you?" Fred turned to face me.
"Yep! Do you like it!"
"It looks just like MJOLNIR," Kelly noted.
"I know! Professor Anders said she just dialed back the reaction, since I'm not augmented, and that's about it. It feels pretty cool."
"You don't have a neural lace." Linda crossed her arms. "How does that work?"
"Okay, so remember when we were on Installation 04?" I walked up the ramp beside her.
"Yeah."
"When I called the elevator up, I wasn't using my telekinesis. I was in the computer system that ran the elevators, or something. I've been working with Dr. Anders to get better at that stuff."
"So you're connected directly to the armor without an implant." She crossed her arms.
I nodded. "Pretty much."
John was standing beside the door to the cockpit. He looked back at his team. "Ready?"
A series of affirmations from the SPARTANs.
He knocked on the door to the cockpit.
As the ramp closed I walked up to him, grabbing the handle beside his.
I looked over, comparing our heights for a moment, before looking up at him. "I'm up to your shoulder now, that's nice."
I could feel his amusement. "Give it a few years, you may reach my chin."
I made a face that he couldn't see. "Give it a few years, you may be able to implode a sun."
He huffed with good-natured indignance.
He was good with his powers, but not quite as practiced as me. I'm sure he was my equal in raw power, which meant he probably could implode a sun if he wanted to, but he didn't have as much experience as I did.
Not that any of us could do much of anything to a real sun. The sun I'd imploded on the shield world was artificial, and small.
John turned to Kelly. "Is the tracking gear online?"
"Affirmative."
"We jump in five. Call for evac as soon as the artifact is secure."
I was eager to protect the artifact, but I was also nervous to be back on the field.
I opened a private comm to John. "What do we do if the Covenant shows up?"
"We take them out."
He walked to the rear of the Pelican, standing by the ramp controls.
"Ready to move?" he asked us.
I nodded.
Linda slid a rifle as tall as me onto her back. "Ready, Chief."
He slammed his fist on the button, and the ramp lowered.
Linda was the first one out, free-falling from just below the clouds. Kelly and Fred jumped at the same time, spreading their arms to slow their descent.
John jerked his head. "Ladies first."
"What a gentleman." I shoved my nerves down and threw myself out into the air.
I could use my powers to catch myself. They could survive a fall from this height, as long as they landed right. And if any of us had problems, the suits had booster packs. So everything would be fine.
It really was an inexplicable feeling, falling through the air like that. The wind roared past my helmet. I could see the other members of Blue Team below me, weaving back and forth in the wind. A quick glance up, over my shoulder, revealed John above me.
"Blue Team, sound off."
"Kelly here."
"Linda online."
"Fred here, Chief."
"Tawny here."
We reached the treeline. I surrounded myself with ultrasonic waves, bobbing around the branches and slowing my descent. The SPARTANs kicked themselves away from the obstacles, or shoved off of them with their arms.
They each landed with an Earth-shaking boom. I held my hands out, dispersing the ultrasonic bubble beneath me and sending it out below me. It rippled over the ground, halting me completely.
I landed lightly beside Fred, immediately reaching out with my mind for any threats.
There was nothing nearby, thank goodness, other than wildlife.
John marked the target location on our HUDs. "Move out, Blue Team."
We made our way through the thick forest. I could feel the artifact ahead of us.
The comms crackled.
"Did you guys hear that?" My voice was a whisper.
Linda had her gun out, pointing it around us. "I heard it."
"You are, all of you, vermin."
I felt my heart stop at the unfamiliar voice.
John turned to us. "Kelly, locate it."
"I'm on it."
The voice continued. "Cowering in the dirt, thinking what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass. And not even your Demons will live to creep, blackened, out of its hole to marr the reflection of our passage. The culmination of our journey."
Kelly piped up. "It's broadcasting on several frequencies, both public and military. Originating from above the atmosphere."
"Covenant ship?" Fred sounded tense.
"Must be," Kelly agreed.
"For your destruction is the will of the gods. And I? I am their instrument!"
Linda was walking backwards, her rifle aimed behind us as we moved. "Definitely Covenant."
"We have to secure the artifact," John ordered. "Double time, Blue Team."
Linda turned to face the front, running alongside them. They were sprinting in earnest; I had no chance of keeping up with them on foot. I lifted up into the air, flying alongside them.
Something was wrong; the Domain was warning me. There was someone else at the artifact.
"Guys." I moved in front of them, flying backwards. "They found the artifact."
"How many?" John asked.
I landed in front of him and reached out. Hundreds of Sangheili, each with command of several hundred subordinates.
My heart fell. "Too many for us."
"I'm picking up a distress signal from a nearby base." Kelly pinned the beacon on our HUDs.
John paused for a moment. I knew the Domain was feeding him knowledge; an entire Covenant fleet above the Artifact.
He turned in the direction of the base. "New mission; we're helping that base. We can gather forces there and take the artifact."
Kelly continued relaying the distress beacon as we ran through the forest. "They have wounded. We should hurry."
oOOOo
We burst out of the trees where the beacon was. There, in the ground, was a hidden base.
Not so hidden, it would seem. Sangheili, Brutes, Unggoy, Kig Yar, and Drones were inside. They hadn't seen us yet.
"Chief, is that you?" It was Sergeant Johnson on a secure line.
"Affirmative, Sergeant. Put us to work."
"We've got Pelicans with wounded holed up in that hangar. They can't get out with those Covies blocking their way."
John peered down into the hangar, which looked like a giant cube cut out of the ground. "Roger that."
There were at least twenty Sangheili and Brutes shooting at marines down there. John leapt down into the fray without hesitation, landing atop a Covenant Phantom. Fred followed suit, plunging one of his knives into an Unggoy's neck.
Kelly nudged Linda's shoulder before she hopped down.
Linda turned to me. "Help me take them from up here."
"Got it." I reached out and threw a Kig Yar off of the Phantom, just before he shot Kelly.
I steadied myself and surrounded the Phantom farthest from us. When it was under my control I lifted it up and out of the hangar. I crushed it into the ground, making sure everything inside had perished.
The second Phantom landed heavily inside the hangar. Its pilot had been taken out by a member of Blue Team; Fred was the only SPARTAN I couldn't see.
He jumped out of the Phantom. "The hangar's secure. Why don't you two join us down here?"
Linda jumped down, landing heavily beside John. I flew down, letting myself drop the last few feet. The ground shook a little when I landed; I was almost four hundred pounds inside the armor.
"Blue Team, Ops Center. Double time!" The Sergeant sounded tense.
I heard a Pelican, loaded with wounded soldiers, take off behind us. John led the way through the base, strewn with bodies of aliens and humans.
Several hallways later, in a room full of battle-worn marines, I paused. "There's something in the vents."
The SPARTANs immediately focused their weapons on the ventilation system. The marines, upon seeing the SPARTANs jump into battle positions, followed their aim.
Drones poured out of the vents, opening fire on the soldiers. A marine fell to the ground, her body riddled with plasma burns. Another clutched his leg and let out an agonized scream.
Despite the accuracy of the soldiers firing on them, there were so many Drones. We'd lose a lot more men at this rate.
I snarled, diving into their minds.
All of them at once.
I hadn't done that in awhile, it was more taxing than I remembered.
My body went limp, but inside the suit all that meant was that I didn't move. It would just look like I was standing still, when I was in fact almost entirely unconscious of my own body.
The Drones hit the ground as I forced them all to be completely still. One jerk and I killed all of them. All seventeen. I felt their last moments.
My mind fell back into my body and I staggered backwards.
"Alright, they're dead. Let's go." I forced myself to set my personal revulsion aside.
John nodded for us to follow him into the control room. An african woman was on the screen, just finishing up a conversation. "I'll see you on the last Pelican out."
The screen went black.
Sergeant Johnson, who'd been talking to her, turned to face us. "Follow me, Blue Team."
We ran after him, even deeper into the massive underground base. It was much easier to keep up with him, especially with my armor doing most of the physical work for me.
He led us to a sealed blast door. Marines were outside it, waiting for orders. Their guns were up and their minds tense.
"Covies have taken the barracks. Marines are trapped inside. Those aliens ain't much for mercy, Chief." Johnson looked down at me with a meaningful expression. "We all know what they do to prisoners."
A knot formed in my gut.
I forced it down, instead focusing on my desire to help the marines avoid the fate I'd suffered in the bowels of the Covenant ship for that awful month.
I looked up at the Sergeant. My voice was level, cold. "Let's get them out of there."
He nodded us towards the door. "Get to the barracks! Save those men, then escort them to the landing pad for evac."
We made our way through the door and down several flights of stairs.
Another door.
A big, open room full of Covies.
I snarled, sending out a massive pulse that killed, or at the very least destabilized, everything it touched. Kelly mowed through a line of disoriented Unggoy.
We left a trail of blood, none of it red, as we stormed towards the barracks.
I picked a Brute up, sending him flying into the jagged edge of a crate that he and his soldiers had probably broken. It stuck out through his chest like an oversized arrowhead.
I couldn't find it in myself to feel bad for him. Or for any of them. None of them felt bad for me, after all.
We were in the barracks. I wouldn't have known, they looked just like every other room we'd walked through, but a human soldier went flying across the room from around the corner.
He died instantly, his body breaking against the wall.
He'd been thrown by a Brute.
I turned the corner, seeing the Brute and a Sangheili. The Sangheili was lifting another soldier high into the air by his throat.
Wrath and rage made my lip curl as I killed the Sangheili instantaneously with my mind. The soldier grunted in discomfort as he hit the ground, but he was alive.
The Brute didn't have any humans in his grasp, though. I picked him up, crushing his throat with a clench of my fist. Cold, dark rage was all that I felt.
When he didn't die immediately, John took aim and shot him through the heart. I dropped the body, feeling the ground tremor when it landed.
We made our way across the room, and I toed the dead Brute's body. "I will not let them hurt any of the marines."
To our left, in another large room, were even more Covies, and even more injured marines. I forced myself to tune out the bodies.
Except for the Covenant bodies. I added significantly to those.
The SPARTANs blasted through them with their guns, which seemed to me the more satisfying way to kill an alien.
I was throwing them around, hard and fast enough to ensure that whoever was within my clutches died. Their bodies broke against walls and walkways, floors and ceilings.
The marines who weren't seriously injured had taken up weapons and fired on their captors.
I saw one Sangheili who looked similar to the prison guard. I knew, deep down inside my mind, that it wasn't him. But the memories that his likeness evoked placed a seed of nauseous fear in my stomach.
I turned it into fierce rage, and used my powers to snap the Sangheili's neck.
The selfish anger that caused his death gave me pause. I faltered, even, in my rampage.
I'd killed him for such a horrible reason. I killed him because I was mad at someone he looked like.
It felt like two seconds that I stood there, but it must have at least been two minutes. Every single Covenant soldier was dead by the time I snapped out of it.
Linda paused in front of me. "You good?"
My eyes wouldn't focus.
I shook myself. "Yeah, I'm okay."
But I didn't sound very sure.
She said nothing, drawing two fingers across my helmet in the shape of a smile. A SPARTAN smile.
A sense of honor, and unworthiness, filled me. SPARTANs never shared their signals with outsiders. For Linda, the most apathetic towards me, to share with me a SPARTAN smile…
A new sense of duty filled me.
We were in this together, and I had people depending on me just as I depended on them.
I returned the smile, drawing my fingers over where her mouth was. It was awkward to stretch to her height, but the meaningful gesture wasn't lost on her.
We followed the others out into another large room. Every room in this damn base looked like every single other room. I couldn't get a sense of direction for the life of me.
Fred could, though. "There's an elevator ahead that can get us close to the landing pad."
"Let's move." John led the way towards the elevator.
As we moved up I felt something massive ripple through the Domain. John tensed, almost imperceptibly, beside me.
I staggered back. "We got it all wrong."
"Tawny?" Kelly grabbed my shoulder. "What is it?"
"The artifact, it was never something we could secure. It's massive. They've been there, unearthing it for months."
"What about all the patrols we stopped?" Fred looked down at me.
"Distractions. They-they wanted to throw us off the scent so they could-"
Another ripple. I gasped, looking up into the distance. Towards the now-active artifact.
"What just happened?" A marine was looking at me with a wary expression.
"They activated a slipspace portal." John's grip on his rifle tightened. "They've found the Ark."
oOOOOo
Author's Note: THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK OMG
Sorry if it's not that much of a cliffhanger, or a very satisfying ending. I promise, you guys are gonna love what I've got planned. This coming book is definitely my favorite that I've written so far.
Once again, I love all of you so, so much for reading :)
(Edited 1/1/2020)