Chapter Twelve
I was sore again. My chest felt bruised. My left shoulder felt like it would pop if I moved it.
There was something important. I couldn't...I couldn't remember what. It was in the back of my head; something I had to do.
The ground underneath me shifted.
Then it groaned.
It wasn't the ground at all. John was below me, just waking up. His fingers twitched, tensing into a fist. "Tawny?"
I slid off of him, sitting on the ground. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Are you?" He pushed himself upright and cupped the side of my helmet.
I nodded and picked up his rifle, which had fallen beside us. It was large and awkward in my hands as I held it up to him.
He took it and checked the ammo.
I looked around. We were surrounded by burning wreckage; the Covenant fleet had been torn apart by the planet's atmosphere. The remains of the ships towered above us, creating mazes and caverns in their smoking depths.
"Where...where are we?" I winced as my shoulder clicked.
John pushed to his feet. "Somewhere on the surface."
He offered his hand.
I took it, pulling myself to my feet. "Are you sure you're okay?"
He'd been hit pretty hard. And I'd landed on top of him; that couldn't have helped the situation.
"I'm alright. Come on, we can't stay here." He turned to face a random direction.
I pushed my own soreness down, following him through the skeletons of the once-great ships. A Phantom flew overhead.
"Maybe...we should follow those," I suggested, "if they're after Forerunner ships. W-we can't let them get to them."
John nodded and changed our course.
We made our way through a barren, stripped hallway that had once been part of a Covenant ship. There was a Sangheili ahead of us, limping heavily. He had one hand on his ribs, the other around a small plasma pistol.
He aimed it at us weakly, but before he could fire it his legs collapsed.
I closed my eyes. "He's dying."
John looked back at me, impatient to keep moving.
I turned to face the fallen soldier, who was panting weakly on the ground. "I'm so sorry."
"I do not...seek...your pity." He gasped as some injury twinged. "Worm."
I felt the life leave his body.
A heavy sigh deflated my body. "That's it, then."
This once-great soldier was gone. Killed senselessly. Uselessly.
"Tawny."
I reached up to grab John's hand. "I know."
We had to keep going. We couldn't stop because one person - our enemy, no less - had died.
We reached a steep dropoff, from the broken ledge of a spaceship to the sandy bottom of a canyon. I floated up into the air and turned to face John. He glanced up at me and then jumped down, landing fifteen feet beneath me.
I landed beside him, running the back of my hand down his forearm.
"We need a way off this planet."
"We can take a Forerunner ship," I offered. "That's what they're after. We'll keep them from getting them, a-and take one home."
He nodded. "We'll have to fight our way through."
I held back a sigh; we had to fight so much. Couldn't we, for once, face an opponent who would be reasoned with?
We continued through the canyons of Requiem. Something pinged, a small alert popping up on my HUD.
I paused. "John, did you catch that?"
"I heard it."
"It looked like a comm. I-I couldn't make out what they were saying."
"Can you tell who it is?"
I shook my head. "No, it's really weak. For it to find us, though...i-it might be UNSC."
"Let's not make assumptions."
"I know. But if it is, we might have an easier way home."
John lapsed into thoughtful silence. "Can you triangulate it's position?"
I slowed a bit. "I...maybe. I-I'll need to sit still to do it, though."
"We're not safe here. Let's get somewhere secure first."
I nodded in agreement.
We walked over a hilltop, through a stone archway, and I found a massive Forerunner structure. It covered the entire valley beneath us, with a series of massive floating towers high above.
"Wow." My voice was soft. "This is beautiful."
John was silent, staring up at the floating towers. They pierced through the clouds, disappearing from sight.
I felt the Domain trying to swell around us. It was weak here. Still there, just below conscious perception, but muted.
"Look." John nodded to our left. "A warthog."
I grinned. "Can I drive?"
"You need to triangulate that signal."
"Oh, right."
He walked up to the warthog. It was laying on its side, but whole. He put one hand under the side and shoved it back onto its wheels.
Holy Jesus, that was impressive. I was glad John couldn't hear my thoughts, because they were entirely inappropriate for the situation and making me blush.
I climbed up into the passenger side, taking a breath, and forced myself to focus. As John shoved it into first gear I closed my eyes and pulled up the transmission.
It was hard to focus, with the hog's roar and the bumpy road, but I did the best I could. The transmission was incredibly weak; I still couldn't even make out who sent it.
It was a complete dead end.
My eyes opened, and I leaned back in the seat. "It's hopeless."
John cocked his head towards me a bit, an indication he was listening,
"It's too weak. I-it's barely strong enough to reach us, let alone give us any information."
Then, just as I was about to call it a lost cause, another transmission came through. Slightly stronger, but still much too weak to be useful.
I perked up. "You-you saw that, right?"
"It was stronger that time."
I nodded. "So maybe I can get something from it."
My eyes once again closed. I prodded at the signal, trying to follow it back to its source. I wasn't sure if it was a transmission from the UNSC, but it didn't feel like it was Covenant at least.
I didn't want to say it was friendly, not for sure, but it probably was.
"We've got a problem," John said.
I opened my eyes. "What?"
"Look." He tilted his head.
There, in the valley ahead of us, was a Covenant encampment. Crawling with soldiers.
I put a hand on John's shoulder. "I drive, you shoot?"
He nodded.
We stopped behind a large boulder, and John leaped out of the warthog. He climbed up on the gun in a smooth motion.
I slid over into his seat, stretching my toes in an attempt to reach the pedals. "I forget how tall you are sometimes."
"I forget how short you are," he fired back smoothly.
My head snapped around to face him, a bit of a grin on my face. "Rude."
He moved the gun around. "Let's move."
"Oh, yeah." I grabbed the handle under the seat, moving it forward. When I could actually reach the clutch I pushed it in, moving the gear shift to first, and let it out.
We rushed down into the valley, taking the Covenant troops completely by surprise. I heard an Unggoy scream in shock a moment before John pumped him full of lead.
We stayed in second gear, which was low enough to be maneuverable but fast enough to keep us safe from the hail storm of plasma sent our way.
I dodged behind a boulder as a Kig Yar sent a barrage of needler crystals towards us.
As soon as we were out of the cover John forced the gun up, taking the sniper out. His corpse fell from the floating platform he was on, landing harshly on the ground.
I saw the air ripple off to the left. "John, there's a Sangheili beside that boulder!"
John spun the gun around and let loose a flood of bullets. The Sangheili rippled into view just in time for his shields to fail. I turned my head away as his body spasmed.
He was the last soldier; we'd killed them all.
I looked up, over the canyon walls, to a Forerunner tower ahead. There was a pathway that looked like it went in that direction.
John moved to sit beside me, shaking the warthog when his weight settled in the passenger seat. "That looks like the right way."
"You know it's...it's going to be crowded."
"I know."
I pulled my helmet off, looking up at him with watery green eyes. "I wish we didn't have to fight."
"It's not up to us." His voice was steady, but I could feel how much he wished the same.
But, at the same time, he didn't. Fighting was all he knew; both a fear-filled danger and his comfort zone. He knew fighting. He didn't really know much else.
Once again, grief at his horrible life filled me.
My head fell against his arm with a thunk. "You're right. We can't let them get the ships."
His hand moved over my head, tugging on a loose strand of hair. "We should move."
"I don't think the warthog will fit in there." I looked over to the pathway through the canyon. It was narrow, too narrow for the hog to comfortably fit.
John climbed out, pulling his rifle down. "Then we'll walk."
I landed harshly on the ground, holding my helmet to my chest.
"I don't like this," I said as we walked towards the pathway. "Something feels...off."
oOOOOo
Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry if this is a bit later than usual; I'm in a different time zone and it's messing up my alarms. And I have a research paper due in three days and I haven't finished reading the source material yet. Lol I'll (probably) be fine I just like venting here where none of you know me IRL.
Anywho, I love all of you! You're all so amazing!
