Chapter Fourteen
The first soldiers we encountered were several Unggoy and a Kig Yar.
Aside from the Kig Yar sniper, who had his own energy shield, the soldiers were hiding behind some barricades they'd erected. Their guns stuck out, trained on us.
John ducked behind a crate, pulling me with him, and fired out on them. One shot knocked the plasma pistol right out of an Unggoy's hand, another went through his skull.
John wouldn't be able to take all of them. Not in time for us to escape the Sangheili I saw coming our way. He was still a few hundred feet out, a plasma rifle in his hands, but he was moving quick.
Wait a minute...I could teleport. I could go behind them without them ever knowing. Or, at least, not knowing in time.
"John, I'll be right back."
"What are you- Tawny!" He tried to grab me as I disappeared, but ended up batting at blue specks.
I reappeared in the air, two feet above the ground and behind the Unggoy. The Sangheili saw me immediately and opened fire.
I created a barrier of my own, out of rippling ultrasound, to block the shots. My landing, however, was less than smooth. I staggered a bit, my concentration momentarily broken.
Then I made a fist and pulled the Sangheili's rifle out of his hands. It clattered across the bridge behind me.
I sent out a wave of energy, which blew him back and into the canyon wall beside us. His body fell down, down, down the chasm.
The Unggoy were behind me.
John had just shot through the Kig Yar's shield and then his throat, so he was effectively dead. But he would need a little help with the Unggoy.
I made two fists and lifted their barrier up. Cries of fear erupted before they were all killed by clean shots from John.
There were two Kig Yar behind me. I turned and slammed the barricade down on top of them. It was a gruesome death, but relatively painless in that it was instant.
John moved out from behind his cover and picked up the dead Sangheili's rifle. "Not bad."
A plasma shot flew past us, a few feet away. There was a host of Unggoy running towards us from further down the bridge.
"Get down." John pushed me behind a Covenant barricade and knelt behind it with me.
He lined up the sight and shot three rounds. As many Unggoy jerked back and fell to the ground, with clean holes through their heads.
Two more shots. Two more fell.
They were fifty feet away.
I poked my head out the side of the barrier and made a fist. There was a crate beside the Unggoy. It flew across the bridge without warning, snapping the neck of the nearest Unggoy and injuring a few others.
There were only four left. John took them out, then turned his rifle on the injured Unggoy. They were trying to shove themselves up, even with bent and broken bones.
I looked away as revulsion filled me; I had done that.
I was the reason those soldiers were hurting so badly.
It didn't matter. They were dead now. We had things to do, and they were in our way.
They would have done the same to us just as readily.
Why didn't that make me feel better?
Why did I feel...
"John, no!" I turned and shot my hand out.
A pulse of ultrasound locked the encroaching Sangheili in place. He flickered into sight, snarling at us to hide his fear.
He'd been right behind John, prepared to stab him through with an energy sword.
I broke his neck with a twist of my hand, letting the body fall.
My voice was breathy with horror. "Oh, my god. You almost died."
"Wouldn't be the first time," John remarked plainly.
I watched as he turned to the Sangheili's body. He picked up something - an energy sword.
How was he so calm about almost dying?
I could feel his fear, but it was muted. Shoved down. He was a soldier now, and emotions like fear got him nowhere.
So he just...wasn't afraid. He didn't accept the fear. He acknowledged it and then set it aside.
That he could do that was both an amazing skill and a testament to his awful and traumatic life.
He turned the sword over in his hands. "How many are left?"
"Not many." I reached out. "Right now, there are- there are two Kig Yar coming this way."
He nodded to me and stood, igniting his new energy sword.
The Kig Yar never stood a chance.
The sword rendered their shields almost useless, slicing through their bodies like a hot knife through butter. The first Kig Yar was dead in a second. Not a matter of seconds, but a single second. Maybe less.
Something was above us. I looked up and saw two Banshees circling around John, preparing to fire.
"John!" I stumbled out from behind the barrier and threw my hands up. My ankle rolled as I moved, but I ignored it. I'd gotten good at ignoring it through the years.
I took control of both Banshees, throwing them in opposite directions. They hit the canyon walls on either side of us, crumpling on impact.
"John, there are only three left. Two Kig Yar and a Sangheili."
"Take the Elite." He held the sword up. "I'll handle the Jackals."
I nodded, walking ahead. Tuning out the pain in my right ankle. I was reaching out with my mind; the Sangheili was somewhere nearby...invisible.
But invisibility meant absolutely nothing to me. He couldn't hide his mind. His own thoughts, his strategies to defeat me, were his undoing. I could feel him.
I shot my hand out and sent him flying into the massive doorway behind him. His neck broke on impact, and his body slouched to the ground.
I turned around just in time to see John behead the last Kig Yar. The head, which was quickly growing pale as more blood poured out, rolled down the slight incline towards me.
John walked down to me. "Are we close?"
"No." I looked to the doorway. "We have to get through another courtyard."
"Is it occupied?"
I nodded.
"Stay behind me."
My head shot up to him. "Since when was that a thing?"
"Since you're limping."
My eyes widened. "What? No, I-I'm fine."
"Tawny." He took a step towards me, his voice authoritative. Fueled by the fear and love I could feel in his heart.
I looked down under the weight of his gaze. "I'm used to it. B-besides, you're hurt too."
"This isn't about me," he insisted.
"Why not?" I shot back. "I care about you. I don't want you to get hurt worse, or...or die."
"If you get killed…"
"I won't." I put a hand on his wrist. "I promise."
I would bet anything his jaw was clenched under his helmet.
He stared down at me for a long time, his emotions fluctuating as he argued with himself.
Then he conceded. "Open the door."
I'd already sent my mind into the mechanism, preparing to do just that. It slid open to reveal a short hallway. There was another door at the end, which would open to reveal Covenant troops in the courtyard beyond.
We walked through. Our footsteps echoed throughout the empty room; it was almost eerie. After the last several minutes of near-constant gunfire, the silence felt strange.
When we reached the door I pressed my hand against it, closing my eyes. I reached out with my mind. "Ten Kig Yar. Two Sangheili. So many Unggoy."
John checked the ammo on the plasma rifle. "Where's the closest target?"
"To the left. T-two Kig Yar."
"Let's go."
I opened the door. It slid up, revealing a steep inclined path. John led the way up with his rifle out and ready.
I limped up after him just in time to see the Phantom dropping off even more Unggoy before us.
The new Unggoy were unexpected. They were also scarcely ten feet in front of us.
John didn't hesitate. He fired three shots and took down three Unggoy. A pair of Kig Yar nearby flashed around, igniting their shields and taking aim at John.
I made a fist, crushing their needlers.
The abrupt and intense pressure increase made the crystals explode - an unintended side effect that blew the Kig Yar halfway across the courtyard. They died from the force of the explosion and left gory smears when they skidded across the ground.
I could feel someone that I couldn't see. "John, there's a Sangheili behind the barricade!"
He didn't respond.
I turned to see him on the back of a Ghost, grappling with the pilot. He threw the Kig Yar out, jumping into the seat, and asked, "Where?"
I decided to show him, rather than tell him. My hand shot out, waves of ultrasound wrapping around the Sangheili. He snarled as his camouflage and shields cut out, rendering him both visible and helpless.
John fired a single shot from the Ghost, and the Sangheili was dead.
Something slammed into one of the stabilizers of the Ghost. It jerked, warbling in an off-balanced manner.
My head shot up. "Turrets!"
"Go left!" John sped off, to the turret on the right side of the courtyard, as he spoke.
I turned to the left. There, up on a platform, was another Unggoy on a turret. I held my hand out, creating a tiny shield around the nose of the gun.
When the Unggoy shot at me, and he did so fairly quickly, it backfired. He died in the explosion; his body slammed back against the wall and left a splatter of blood.
I turned to face the rest of the courtyard, but I couldn't see John. I could hear plasma fire, though, and that set me on edge.
He was still in the stolen Ghost, which was now smoking, firing on three other Ghosts. They were converging on him, trying to box him in.
Absolutely not.
I wouldn't be able to make it in time. Even if I ran - not that I could do that anymore, thanks to my ankle - I would be too slow.
So I lifted off of the ground and flew over to them, across the courtyard. I moved so fast I was scared I'd pass out.
I didn't take the time to land, just hovered above John and made a fist. I crushed one Ghost into a ball and slammed it into the one beside it.
John shoved himself up, soaring through the air without help from his Forerunner-gifted powers, and landed on the nose of the final Ghost.
Before I could cry out in shock he'd snapped the Unggoy pilot's neck so savagely that it had almost entirely decapitated, thrown the corpse out, and taken control of that Ghost instead.
Without leaving the vehicle, he pulled the rifle off of his back and took aim. There, directly behind me on a platform, was a Kig Yar. This one was special; without a shield. It had a better weapon, too.
John shot him in the throat, right where his chin met his neck. His head jerked back with a spurt of blood.
The shot had gone right past me...but I trusted John.
I landed next to him. "There's one more Sangheili."
"Climb on."
I didn't argue. My ankle was aching, even without any weight on it. It was minor, and I could tune it out, but that didn't mean it was pleasant by any means.
I climbed onto the back of the Ghost, letting my legs fall on either side of John. My hands were gripping the back of his seat to keep from falling; the back of this thing was small and curved.
Hopefully I wouldn't fall.
John glanced back. "Good?"
I nodded, taking a steadying breath. "Yeah. I'm good."
"Where's the Elite?" He shoved us forward, towards the entrance of the tower.
My eyes closed. "Right beside the last pillar."
John opened fire. I saw the Sangheili ripple into sight as he jerked back. The Ghost tore through his armor like it was paper.
"How close are we to the terminus?" John asked.
"It's up near the top of the tower."
He climbed out of the Ghost and offered me a hand. "How many?"
I slid down the side of the Ghost, trying to keep the pressure off of my right side. I reached into the tower with my mind. "I don't know. Give me a...oh my god."
"What?"
"Thousands. Thousands of Covenant are up there."
"Are you sure?" He checked the ammo in his stolen rifle, then in the rifle of the dead Sangheili beside us. His had less, so he dropped it and secured the new rifle to his back.
I closed my eyes again. "It doesn't feel right. Thousands of individuals...but only one mind. It's...it's a Hunter."
"We can take it."
"No...two Hunters." I looked down.
Hunters were pretty much impossible to beat.
John pulled his hand out of my grip and drew two fingers across my face in a smile. A SPARTAN smile. It was a silent message of general moral; we would be fine. Everything would be okay.
We'd made it this far, hadn't we?
I reached up, on my toes, to return the gesture.
He rested his hand on my head and faced the door. "Come on, we need to move."
I tried to hide my limp as we walked. John already knew I was hurt, but I hated feeling weak. And I didn't want to worry him. So I hid it as best as I could.
My mind branched out into the door controls, sliding it open. We were in a small room with two pathways on either side, both of which led up to the ramp in the center of the room. The room was empty.
Everything was eerily silent as we walked onto the platform at the top of the ramp. Before us was an intersection; we could either go right or left. Everything in this tower was symmetrical; it didn't matter which way we went, we would end up in the same place.
When we turned right I gasped, halting in my tracks. "Oh, god."
There, before us, were several Covenant corpses. They'd all been slaughtered, every single one of them. Sangheili, Kig Yar, and Unggoy.
They all sported several deep burns; it made for a gory sort of cauterized wound.
Something had gotten to them before us. Something ruthless.
oOOOOo
Author's Note: Hey guys! I've been feeling a little off today, so I decided to post another chapter because it helps me clear my head and because I love reading about Halo 4.
Anywho that writer's block is back but I hope it'll be gone soon. I'm sorry for posting on an odd day, but don't worry, I'll still post on Saturday!
