Chapter Eleven
The Sangheili flickered into sight, snarling down at me. He was suspended in the air, completely helpless, and he knew it.
I walked up to him, my hand up in a fist to keep him still. "What is the Didact's Hand after?"
"I do not speak to human filth."
"And yet here you are, speaking to me." My voice was harsh to hide the fear.
He growled again. "You are dirt, and we shall walk upon your remains when we tread the Path."
I pushed my queasiness aside, made a fist, and twisted it sharply to break his neck.
"What did he say?" John asked.
I turned to face him as the body dropped to the floor. "No-nothing we didn't already know. I...I don't think any of them really know w-why they're here."
"The missile bay is close." He was ever focused.
I nodded and took a breath. "Right through that airlock, actually."
We walked together into the airlock. The missile bay wasn't pressurized even when the ship was whole, so the safety measure was a necessity.
"John...you know it's full of Covenant, right?" I asked quietly.
John shoved a fresh magazine in his rifle. "I know."
"Just-just making sure."
He placed a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. Then he straightened up, entirely a soldier again. "Open the door."
I nodded, sending my mind into the ship's systems once more. The airlock behind us sealed shut, and the door in front of us opened. We were weightless, floating through the air.
Well, I was. John had immediately magnetized his boots to the floor.
I pushed myself back down with a wave of ultrasound and activated my boots' magnets, looking over the missile bay.
We were up on a platform. Below us was the main part of the bay, full of Covenant soldiers. Mainly Unggoy and Kig Yar, though I did see several Sangheili.
Beyond the missile bay, beyond the Covenant fleet, was a huge metal planet. I felt it calling to me immediately.
"Oh, wow," I breathed. "Requiem."
"Requiem?"
I looked up at John, realizing what I'd said. "Requiem...John, that's what the Sangheili said in the observation deck! H-he must have meant this planet."
"It's a shield world." John walked over to a weapons pod and restocked on ammo. "Maybe they're after another Forerunner fleet."
"We can't let that happen."
"Where are the missile controls?"
I reached out. They were above us, on the left side of the room. We would have to make our way through pretty much the entire Covenant company to reach them.
"O-oh...great." I sighed.
"What?"
"They're...they're all the way over there." I pointed up to the controls.
John looked up at it, then down to the hoard of soldiers. His rifle was pointed down at a fresh squad of Unggoy, who'd just been dropped off by a Phantom.
He was perfectly calm. "Ready?"
I nodded, holding a hand out.
"Now." John opened fire on the Unggoy, taking several of them out. Their bodies floated lifelessly through the air.
I crushed the Phantom, sending it crashing into a collection of Unggoy and Kig Yar. A Sangheili got caught in the wreckage, too, and died with the rest.
John shoved himself off of the platform. "I'll clear the way. Get to the controls."
"Got it." I ran ahead of him, through the Covenant soldiers.
They fired at me when they got the chance, but that was a rarity. John was behind me, shooting down any immediate threats. Those who got too close, even despite his bullets, were shoved back by a pulse from my hands.
I ran up a ramp, taking out three Kig Yar who were in my way. I could see John at the base of the ramp, ducking under the shot from a sniper.
He saw me pause and yelled, "Don't stop!"
I bit my lip; I didn't want to let him get hurt, but the missile needed to be activated.
He moved from his cover, taking the Kig Yar down in a single shot.
He turned back to me. "Go!"
Okay, he was safe. And I'd done nothing to help him.
Well, I'd be helping both of us by activating this missile.
I walked up to the control board, pressing the button to fire it.
John was behind me. "I told you to keep going."
"I know." I looked down. "I'm sorry, I-I just wanted to-"
A loud screech cut me off. Metal on metal.
John's head shot up. "The blast door must be stuck."
He was right; I could see the missile below us, across the bay, and I could see the blast door trying to seal. Trying desperately to fire.
John vaulted over the half-wall, falling all the way to the ground. It must have been thirty feet.
Of course, in the zero gravity, he was perfectly okay. I suspected he would have been fine in normal gravity too.
He sprinted across the missile bay and up to the missile. His hand shot out and a massive pulse rippled through the air. It shoved against the blast door, forcing it down into position.
As the missile fired through space I disengaged the magnets in my boots and floated over to him.
The missile found its mark, destroying the nearest ship. They must have had their shields down, or it would have been harmless.
I glanced up at John as I engaged the magnets once more. "N-now what?"
Something massive rippled. John felt it the same time I did; something in the planet had shifted. Not physical. Something...else.
Abruptly, from the surface of the metal planet, a beam of orange light erupted. It scanned both of us.
I stumbled back, watching as it coated my body in orange light.
"John?" I whimpered.
Part of the planet seemed to...open. Pieces of the metal that fitted together like slices of pie, suddenly opening up like a giant, mechanical flower. And it was pulling everything nearby into it.
"John!" I grabbed his wrist.
He turned, running through the launch bay with my wrist firmly in his grasp. "Where are the closest escape pods?"
It was hard to access the ship's system and run at the same time. It took me most of the length of the launch bay, but I did it.
"The vehicle bay," I panted. "There are escape pods in the vehicle bay."
"Tag it." His voice was level, even though he was sprinting.
I closed my eyes and put a navpoint on John's HUD, directing him towards the escape pods.
We were forced to pause as we entered another airlock, near where we'd originally entered.
John looked down at me. "We're going to make it."
I didn't say anything, knowing whatever I had to say would be pessimistic. We were in a ship that was already falling apart, speeding for the surface of an unknown planet.
John may have been raised to succeed no matter what, but I wasn't. Failure was an option for me, one I experienced often. In this case, however, failure was death.
I could feel the Dawn shaking around us. It threatened to knock me off of my feet.
The internal door to the airlock hissed open. An announcement came over the ship's speaker. "Hull integrity at 30%."
We rushed out into the hall. John had his handgun out, prepared to shoot should the need arise. Not that it would; any Covenant soldiers we met would probably be trying to escape just as desperately as us.
As we turned down another hallway the same emotionless voice said, "Warning. System depressurization. Please proceed to the nearest lifestation. Hull integrity at 25%"
The floor in the hallway behind us caved in. We'd just barely made it through in time.
I felt my heart palpitating, but I didn't say anything. That would slow us down, and we had to get out of here.
"Hull integrity at 20%"
Explosions and structural collapses plagued our way. I was praying we wouldn't get crushed by a falling ceiling before we made it to the vehicle bay. It could happen at any time; we had no way of knowing it was coming.
The floor below us could collapse. The floor above us could collapse. We could be too late, and get torn apart by Requiem's atmosphere.
"Hull integrity at 15%."
I whimpered as John put on more speed. I knew he'd been holding himself back so I could keep up, and he was doing that less and less as the situation deteriorated.
I floated up into the air, where I actually stood a chance of keeping up with him, and shoved my terror down. I could freak out later; freaking out now could get both of us killed.
"Hull integrity at 10%"
We were in another hallway. Almost there; so, so close. There was a Sangheili, limping down the hall. A small squad of Unggoy running desperately ahead.
None of us wanted to fight each other at that moment, but we didn't want to help each other either.
Well, the desolate Sangheili did tug at my heartstrings.
But I could feel his hatred for us, even if it was on the back burner. Any other time, he would gladly have driven his energy sword through our hearts.
"Hull integrity at 5%"
John shoved the Unggoy out of the way as he ran. I followed from a few inches in the air, whispering prayers under my breath. My entire body was tense; it was very possible that we would die horrible, flame-filled deaths.
The system's emotionless voice rang out once again. "Personnel are advised to evacuate immediately."
The vehicle bay was at the end of the hallway to our left, behind a doorway. John reached it, his hand moving towards the door controls.
The system chimed, "Warning. Catastrophic depressurization."
The doors in front of us got sucked out into the intense vacuum. John grabbed the doorframe, but my untethered body hit him and we both went flying.
Faster than I could hope to process, he'd grabbed both my wrist and the guardrail. His hand was painfully tight around my wrist. Not that I was going to complain; he'd just saved my life.
The guardrail was the only thing keeping us from the intense suction of the gravity well, and in extension the hot and merciless atmosphere of Requiem.
I gripped his wrist with my free hand. "Don't let go!"
He didn't let go.
The guardrail did, though.
It broke off, releasing us into space. I screamed even as I tightened my hand around John; we could not get split up.
There were massive chunks of the ship all around us. If we hit one...it wouldn't be good. Painful, gory, but definitely not good.
John pulled me close, latching an arm around my back, and kicked us away from a piece of debris several times bigger than either of us.
I was looking out towards the planet. "John!"
He turned just in time to see the massive slab hurtling towards us. Right towards us. There was no way to kick it aside.
His body was suddenly curled around mine, prepared to take the brunt of the hit.
It would probably kill him, or at least hurt him badly.
I brought my arms up around his back as best as I could and closed my eyes. A bubble of ultrasound surrounded us just in time, and the slab crumbled around it.
I winced as another jagged piece of debris dragged itself along the bubble. I would have to ignore the pain; our only chance of surviving was this bubble.
Maybe, if fate was feeling fortuitous, it would keep us alive through our free fall all the way from orbit.
Suddenly, I felt the strength of the bubble grow. It wasn't my doing.
John, who was still curled around me, was also lending his strength to the protective shield.
We could make it together. Our combined strength was immense; we would almost certainly survive the fall.
It would hurt like a bitch, but we would survive.
Chunks of destroyed ships battered at the shield as we fell, but neither of us were willing to release the shield. It hurt, but it was better than dying. It certainly hurt less than actually getting hit by the debris.
We were coming ever closer to the outer layer of the shield world. So close, we could see the cloudy atmosphere beneath.
We were about to fall through the hole.
When we hit the atmosphere I could feel it burning at our protective shield. I cried out, gritting my teeth against the pain. I could feel John tense around me; it was hurting him just as badly as it was hurting me.
I kept my arms around him, pressing my helmet tight against his chest. We had to keep the shield up. We would die if it collapsed.
John was stalwart even through the pain. His strength never wavered, and his steadiness helped me stay strong.
This wasn't just to protect me; John was relying on me just as I was relying on him. If I gave up now…
I wouldn't.
Something slammed into us from above; a chunk of a Covenant ship. I groaned, trying desperately to keep the shield up. My strength flickered, increasing the strain on John.
No, I wouldn't leave him to do this alone.
I took a deep breath, forcing the shield to stay up. We were out of the initial atmosphere, so flames no longer surrounded us. That was good.
I felt John's fear, strong and sharp. My head twisted and I saw a massive fragment of metal rushing towards us. It was on a direct collision course; there was no way around it.
My arms tightened further around John, who returned the favor.
It crushed into the shield, cracking on its way. My strength completely cut out. Without my help John's hold wavered, the shield falling for a moment.
I tried desperately to force it up again. Over John's shoulder, I could see another chunk of debris spinning towards us.
Before I could even open my mouth to warn John, it slammed into his back. The impact jarred both of us, and my vision immediately cut out.
When it restored we were still falling.
And John's mind was empty; he was unconscious.
The ground was only a few hundred feet below us.
I wrapped even tighter around John and made another bubble just in time.
The impact jarred both my body and my mind; we went tumbling through jagged, burning debris that littered the ground.
When the bubble stilled, by a massive wall of charred metal, I let it dissipate. I was breathing hard, still wrapped around John beneath me.
A slab of metal crashed next to us. I didn't get the chance to scream before an explosive shockwave sent us flying.
We slid to a stop a few hundred feet away. We were...fine?
My thoughts were so distant. I couldn't grab them. They were like fleeting whisps.
Whisp...what a strange word.
Then my body went limp again.
oOOOOo
Author's Note: Hi guys! For some reason, this felt like a hella long week. Idk, did it feel long to you?
Anywho...I'M ALMOST DONE WRITING THE FOURTH BOOK! GUYS I AM IN DISBELIEF! I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD WRITE THIS MUCH, HOLY CANOLI! I have sO much planned for Tawny lmao you guys are gonna love it (I promise)
