Chapter Seventeen
I looked at the portal node, a hundred feet away. "We'll have to run for it."
John stepped out of the hallway and prepared himself to sprint.
I closed my eyes and connected the node in the complex to the node where we'd originally entered the core. A swirling blue portal opened up, catching the attention of the nearest Prometheans.
"Go!" I lifted off of the ground, flying for the portal.
John had no trouble keeping up on foot as the Prometheans opened fire.
He hit the portal first. I followed. As soon as we were through I shut it down, preventing the Prometheans from following us.
I landed on the hard ground, rolling onto my back. A groan filtered through my teeth.
"Tawny?" John looked down at me with an air of distinct concern.
"I'm okay." I took a few deep breaths. "Just tired. But we have to warn the Song before they get sucked in."
He bent down and offered me his hand. "Come on."
I gripped his hand and let him pull me up. I tried to keep most of my weight off of my right ankle, something he took immediate note of.
I kept his hand in mine as we walked back down the hallway. The door opened, once again revealing the massive orb-like satellite.
Something about the satellite made me want to shy away from it.
There was only one beam hitting it now, from the right side. The other pylon; we would have to take it out. Quickly.
Just as I accessed the system to take us to the second pylon, several slipspace ruptures appeared in the space around the orb.
My eyes widened as the ships filed out.
"It's the Covenant," John said darkly.
I swallowed. "W-what are they doing here?"
"They're moving for the second pylon."
He was right; all of the ships were speeding towards the wall of the core, right where the remaining purple beam rose up.
"Get us there."
"On it." I pulled up the portal. "Okay, let's go."
He ran ahead, jumping through the portal. I limped after him.
We were in another hallway. This time, when we walked out, we were met with stone tunnels. Light filtered through; they weren't very long or deep.
John stepped out of the hallway, moving his suppressor around. "Anything nearby?"
"No." I glanced around to confirm what I could feel. "Nothing."
"Maybe the Prometheans don't want the Covenant here, either."
I nodded. "Probably not. The Prometheans want to protect the planet. I can't- I couldn't imagine the Covenant getting it any easier than we did."
We moved down another tunnel. There was light at the end; the way out.
I paused before the mouth of the tunnel. "John, look."
He followed my gaze, tilting his head back. Hovering above us was a Covenant ship. It was dropping huge, egg-like pods full of soldiers.
They landed in the clearing before us, shaking the ground. Covenant soldiers piled out of the drop pods, filling the clearing.
"So much for a clear path." I chewed on my lip.
John nodded at something on the far end of the clearing. "Look."
I followed his directions. There was a pack of crawlers tearing through a group of Unggoy.
"We can move around them. Light steps," he instructed before moving down the path. He clung to the wall, ducking behind a stone.
I followed, floating an inch or two off of the ground.
The Prometheans tore through the Covenant. Not to say it was easy for them; the aliens put up a formidable fight. Especially once the initial shock of the Promethean attack wore off.
I saw an Unggoy lob a grenade at a small group of crawlers.
"Stick to cover," John murmured.
He rushed forward, silently, to another stone along the edge. I was right behind him, crouching behind a slightly smaller boulder.
There was a Sangheili directly in front of us.
Before I could offer to take care of him, John crept forward. Unsheathed his knife.
He yanked the Sangheili down by the back of his armor, stabbing the knife into his throat. The Sangheili gave a single, dying gurgle. His body convulsed for a moment.
He was dead.
I pushed my sympathy down and nodded to the end of the clearing. "We're almost to the path."
"Break for it." John shoved himself forward, running the last fifty feet.
I was beside him, hovering scarce inches over the rocky ground. Fatigue was needling swiftly through my mind as well as my body, but I ignored it.
The pathway was mostly empty. Save a single Promethean, engaging a single Sangheili, we were alone.
The Promethean used the blade on its forearm to slit the Sangheili's throat and tossed the body to the ground. Then it turned its rifle on us
I formed a shield in front of us, blocking the shots. Then I sent it forward and slammed it into the Promethean.
It stumbled back, momentarily disoriented.
A moment too long.
John took swift advantage of the knight's distraction, running up and shoving a grenade onto its chest. He kicked the Promethean away and threw himself behind a boulder.
The grenade destroyed the Promethean's core. It dissipated into a cloud of orange particles, which faded away like dying embers.
I pointed. "The pylon is just ahead."
"We're taking this one together."
I limped alongside him down the path. "Okay."
There was a small clearing ahead, littered with Sangheili, Kig Yar, and Unggoy corpses.
A squad of Unggoy was holding off some crawlers. They were between us and the door into the pylon controls.
Right beside the mouth of the clearing was a huge Ghost.
No, not a Ghost. A Wraith.
It was sitting empty, abandoned in the Unggoys' haste to defend themselves.
"John," I pointed, "can we use that?"
He jerked his head towards it. "Go."
We ran together towards the Wraith. Well, I was flying. My ankle was still complaining, even without any weight on it.
John opened the hatch and dropped in. I followed.
"Can you drive it?" John asked.
I looked down at the confusing controls. "I...I don't think so."
"Can you shoot?" He gestured to the gunner's chair behind me.
"I can try."
He moved into the pilot's seat. I pushed myself up into the gunner's chair. It seemed to work like any other gun, not that I knew how to work any human or Covenant guns.
It couldn't be that hard, could it? Point and shoot.
I took aim at the pack of crawlers. Pressed the largest round holographic button in front of me, praying it was the trigger and not some self destruct sequence.
A single shot, which reverberated throughout the whole Wraith, took all four of the crawlers out.
The next shot eviscerated the Unggoy.
John drove us through the door.
Another garbled transmission came through. This time, when it showed the Song's position, they were right outside the entrance.
"John, they're almost out of time!"
John put on even more speed, rushing through the intricate hallways.
We rushed out into a similar complex as the first pylon. He slowed a bit to give me easier targets. "Target the shield generators. We need to hurry."
He drove us around the complex, dodging plasma fire. I shot down Prometheans and Covenant along the way. When we flew past the first shield generator I shot through it.
There was a pack of crawlers running towards us. Two shots killed all of them.
Take out that Banshee before it can shoot us.
The second generator was just ahead. I shot it, destroying it.
Only one more, and the shield around the beam controls would lower. Then John and I could move together and disable it. From there, we could warn the Song away from the gravity well before they got torn apart.
A Sangheili lobbed a plasma grenade at us. It sailed cleanly through the hatch and into the cabin right in front of me.
"Bail out!" John pulled me out of the chair and all but threw me out of the hatch.
I caught myself in mid air, turning to see how John had fared. He tumbled out of the Wraith just as it exploded.
"John!" I landed roughly, crying out as pain tore up my leg from my ankle, and limped towards the wreckage.
John threw himself towards me from the smoke, bowling me over. One arm wrapped around my waist, the other caught us before we hit the ground.
A plasma round singed the canyon wall above us; it would have hit one of us if he hadn't tackled me.
He pushed himself up, pulling me with him. "How many shield generators are left?"
"Only one."
"Where?"
I pointed to our left. "Right there."
He pulled his suppressor off of his back. "Take it down, I'll cover you."
I lifted up into the air, flying slowly backwards for the generator. "Be safe."
"I will. Go!"
I turned around, picking up speed as I flew towards the generator.
When I reached it, the sphere of energy and light keeping the shield up, I looked around for something to destroy it with.
There, beside the remains of a Promethean, was a scattershot. Kind of like a human shotgun.
I reached out for it, wrapping it in ultrasound. It flew up into my hands.
I pulled it up to my shoulder, landing heavily on the ground.
I had to get this power generator offline.
I fired a round.
The recoil knocked me off my feet. I tumbled back, landing harshly on my butt. But I'd offlined the last generator.
"John! It's down!"
He shot through another Promethean knight. "Let's go."
He led the way towards a series of ramps. A knight dropped down next to me, blowing me back down the ramp. He shoved John into the wall and teleported away.
I floated myself off of the ground, grabbing John's hand. "Come on, there's no time to run!"
He lifted shakily into the air beside me; he had no practice flying. But that wouldn't stop him from trying.
We flew up together, following the path into the pylon controls.
There was a short hallway, leading to an elevator. Just as we reached the elevator, setting ourselves down on the ground, a comm from Captain Del Rio came through.
"UNSC Song of the East to survivors, Forward Unto Da-a-a-awn. Reading faint IFF tags near the pla-a-anetary core. Do you read?"
John activated the elevator. "They know we're here."
"May-maybe we can contact them," I ventured, "if they can locate us."
John knew that was a long shot, mostly wishful thinking, but he opened a comm. "Song of the East this is Sierra one-one-seven. Do not approach Forerunner planet-"
"UNSC A-A-Asset," the Captain sounded tense, "we read you but you're bre-e-eaking up! Helm, increase speed by point-seven."
"Negative, Song, do not approach. I repeat; do not approach Forerunner planet."
They couldn't hear him, and merely said, "If you can hear u-u-u-us, keep transmitting."
John ran for the controls as soon as the elevator stopped. He was running so quickly that he was almost a blur in my eyes.
I limped behind him.
He reached into the controls, grabbing the piston and pulling. It was difficult for him; a testament to how heavy the rod was.
As desperate as our situation was, I couldn't help but admire the way his muscles flexed as he pulled the piston up. The fact that he could even lift the heavy thing was impressive.
When he'd pulled it all the way up he braced himself, shoving it back down.
The beam cut out.
"Sierra one-one-seven to Song of the East, do you copy?"
No response.
"My suit's transmitter isn't strong enough," John realized. "Can you get us to the satellite?"
I nodded, pointing to the other end of the room. "I'm opening a portal now."
It appeared, a swirling black and blue mass, between two metal brackets. John ran through it first. I lifted off of the ground and moved into it, fighting off my disorientation.
We were on a walkway. Before us was the round satellite, hanging over the horizon like an imposing enemy.
I could feel Prometheans, and Covenant. Just ahead of us.
To the left and right, through doorways. They would lead us to the satellite.
"John, the Covenant is already here," I said in a not-quite-whimper.
"We need to get to the satellite."
I reached out. "There's less on the left."
He jerked his head.
As we walked over, he checked the ammo in his suppressor. It was almost empty.
I opened the door beside us. There was a brief ramp, up into a metal courtyard of sorts. I could still see the satellite to our right.
And so many enemies ahead of us.
oOOOOo
Author's Note: I decided to do two chapter this week, since I'm so bored and I feel like some of y'all are too. Hope you enjoyed them!
And as always, I love you guys so much!
