Chapter Twenty One
Lasky perked up at John's comm. "They did it."
Indeed they did. I couldn't help the burst of elated relief that John was okay.
Of course, I knew he was capable on his own, but it felt weird and bad for us to be separated when he was knowingly walking into a firefight.
Lasky surged forward, pressing the radio. "Roger that, Chief. I'll get you the coordinates for the-"
"Mayday! Mayday!" Captain Del Rio interrupted. "Code red! Hostile elements attempting to gain entrance to the Song of the East's bridge!"
I shared a glance with Lasky; that didn't sound good at all.
I wiped my eyes as best as I could as the radio filled with chatter. None of it sounded good; they'd breached the bridge.
"They", if I had to guess, was the Prometheans. Though John and I had seen plenty of Covenant vessels on our way over. I wouldn't be surprised if they were in on it too.
"All units return to Song of the East immediately! That's an order!"
Lasky sighed, looking around as he formulated a plan. "Chief, you have tactical command of the forward assault force. Take NOBLE, rendezvous at rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot, and take back the ship."
"Yes, sir." John sounded so determined.
"Good luck, Chief. Lasky out."
He turned around to Sergeant Abram and the marine that wasn't injured.
"Can one of you help Johsia? We're hoofing it to the LZ."
I pushed myself up, my breath hitching as my side pulled. "I can pull- I can carry him."
"How- are you sure?" Lasky turned and looked me up and down. "You look beat."
"Oh, I am." I pulled my helmet on. "But my leg isn't broken. Come on, Johsia, we're getting you out of here."
"Glad to hear it." Johsia sat up.
"You should lay down."
"Pardon?"
"I-I mean...you can sit up, but it's easier if you're laying down."
He held up a hand. "Listen, lady, if you're about to carry me in your arms-"
"I'm not." I held out a hand and wrapped him in a loose bubble of ultrasound. It was actually easier to lift him than it was to fly myself; he weighed about half what I weighed in my armor.
"What the fuck?!" He looked down at the ground like he expected to hit it. When he didn't, his eyes lifted to me. "Is this you?"
I turned to the Commander. "How far is the LZ?"
"Not far. Let's move, marines."
We walked together out of the building. Lasky had a handgun.
He glanced over at the marines. "Weapons free. We don't know how clear the path is."
There was only one uninjured marine. Sergeant Abrams, for all that he could walk and shoot alright, had lost a lot of blood from his head wound.
I had yet to see the actual wound, but the coagulated blood coating the whole side of his head wasn't a good indicator.
Still, though, he had his sniper rifle up and was ready to shoot at anything orange and grey, which is what mattered.
I limped between him and the uninjured marine, floating Johsia out in front of me. He'd laid down so it was easier for me to balance him.
Still, that didn't mean it was easy. I'd pulled my helmet on to free up my hands, but also to hide the strain on my face.
We were moving down a steady incline. My ankle was complaining heavily. I tried to keep it quiet, but my breath was heavy. I was full-on panting by the time we reached a relatively flat area.
It was a long, winding path through the trees. I limped along after the Commander, who'd taken point. The Sergeant and other marine were behind us, occasionally turning around to check our six.
My arm was shaking. I had it out a bit, keeping hold of Johsia. My chest was heaving as I struggled to keep him afloat.
No, don't think about it. Focus on how bad your ankle hurts.
Focus on the pain, it can distract you from how tired you are. How exhausted you are. How every step feels like it's weighted.
There was a rock. I only discovered that when my right foot came down on it. My ankle gave out with a sharp burst of agony.
I landed harshly on the ground with a shrill scream. I heard a pained cry as Johsia hit the muddy path.
"Alright, you're too tired for this." Lasky was there, helping Johsia up, even as he spoke to me. "Dion, come help him. Tawny, can you walk?"
"I'm fine." I shoved myself to my feet.
It was impossible to ignore the pain in my ankle, though. I tried to covertly put all of my weight on my left leg.
Lasky noticed. I saw him scan me, noting my body language. "We're not far. Come on."
Sergeant Abram took up the rear by himself. Dion was in front of me, with Johsia's arm over his shoulders. He was helping the wounded marine walk.
I should have been able to carry him. Instead, I dropped him. I dropped an injured person on the ground.
Granted, he wasn't very high. It didn't hurt him.
But still.
I limped sullenly behind them.
Turns out, John and NOBLE Team had cleared the way, instead of sneaking through. We passed several crawler corpses. We met no opposition.
We made our way through a Forerunner doorway and into a stone valley. The LZ.
Lasky radioed for evac. Then he turned to us. "First priority's getting the wounded to medical. Sergeant, can you fight?"
"I'm all yours, sir." Abram nodded, determined to ignore his dizziness.
"Good. Dion, get Johsia and Tawny to the Song's medical ward and report back to me as soon as you can."
Dion saluted. "Yes, sir."
"Alright, that's our ride." Lasky looked up as a Pelican circled. "I want Johsia on the stretcher."
The Pelican landed, extending its ramp. It had two stabilizing legs on the rear that lowered when it landed; that was new.
We climbed in and Dion helped Johsia settle on the stretcher.
I sat down across from Lasky, who'd pulled out a datapad. "Commander, I-I don't need medical treatment. I'm just tired."
"Nice try. I saw the way the Chief helped you in. Your ankle-"
"Is fine."
Jesus, why was I so snappy?
I looked down and softened my tone. "I'm fine. I just need to rest; I'm not taking resources and time away from people who actually need it."
Lasky conceded. "Just make sure you get it checked out when all of this dies down."
I didn't respond. I knew what the nurses would say; it was sprained. It had been sprained several times before. I knew how to handle it.
Lasky pressed the comm in his ear. "One-one-seven, Lasky. Proceed to starboard hangar two-dash-one-nine and we'll link up with you there."
I didn't hear John's response.
As soon as we landed Lasky was out of the Pelican. "I need ammo! Dion, med bay!"
Dion helped Johsia stand. "Come on, let's go."
We all limped out into the hangar. It was full of tension; I could feel it all. It was almost physical, coming from all around me.
I just hoped the Didact wouldn't attack either John or me while we were separate. We'd hardly stood a chance together, let alone apart.
Not that I could be of much use to anyone right now, in any situation, much less against an all-powerful Forerunner.
We walked through the slightly less busy hallways. Some of the doors didn't work, and none of the shuttles worked, so we were taking the long way.
I pulled my helmet off, wrapping my arms around it like it was a stuffed animal. My eyes were on the ground. "Johsia, I'm sorry I dropped you."
"It hurt like a bitch." Johsia was mad, and in pain. "Don't say you can do something you can't, yeah?"
"Yeah." I bit my lip.
There was the medical ward. Dion helped Johsia get settled in with an overworked medic.
I found a relatively empty wall and limped over, sliding down. My head fell back against the wall and my eyes closed.
I was so tired...I hardly cared that we could die at literally any minute.
Of course, I was worried for John. No amount of exhaustion would ever make me apathetic towards his well being.
But the rest of the ship? Myself?
I was entirely too fatigued to be able to care.
My eyes closed. My mind began to wander. Not just my thoughts...my perception.
Suddenly, I was seeing things blurrily from the eyes of a nearby medic. Then I could feel the ship's crippled systems. The emotions in the room became even more tangible.
I was so exhausted, my control over my powers was slipping.
Someone was talking to John through a comm. I listened to it, my grip on reality slipping. I was half-asleep.
"Master Chief? This is Del Rio. Lasky just radioed. You picked a hell of a time to rejoin us!" The last part was a condescending yell.
I bristled; how dare he talk to John like that?
John didn't seem to care. "Sir, what's our status?"
"That satellite took down the ship's defenses and is extracting data from the ship's mainframes as we speak."
It was true, I could feel it stealing data.
John was quick with a solution, though. "Can we break the connection?"
"Main point of contact's on the ship's upper hull. The fastest route is through the maintenance causeway. There's a Mantis docked inside the door. Take it; you'll need the extra firepower."
Maybe I could still be useful.
Technokinesis used almost none of my energy; it was the big stuff like telekinesis that drained me.
I connected to John's suit. He immediately tensed, feeling the foreign entity.
"Don't freak out." I didn't speak aloud. I spoke into his suit's comm system; it felt almost like talking in someone's mind. "It's just me."
"Tawny?" I could hear him like he was right next to me.
"Yeah. I'm kinda beat. I can't do much in terms of fighting, but maybe I can still help you get the Didact out of the ship's systems."
"Where are you?"
"In a medical ward. I'm fine, though."
I was completely blind. I began looking for a camera in his suit; I knew MJOLNIR had helmet cams.
"Are you safe?"
"Is anywhere on the ship safe?" I shot back. "I'm not near any active fighting, so that's good."
Ah, there was the helmet cam. I tapped into it.
John was climbing up into a huge suit of armor at least fifteen feet tall. A Mantis, like the Captain said.
"Stay away from any active zones," he said.
"Don't worry, I'm not leaving where I am. It's you I'm scared for."
"I'll be fine." He moved the Mantis down a ramp and blew open a doorway.
The entrance to the maintenance halls, I realized.
He moved the hulking exosuit into the large hallway. There was a team of Unggoy. As soon as they saw him they began running desperately away.
He shot through them, knowing that if he didn't someone else would. Or, if nobody did, they would eventually try to sabotage us.
He had to fight his way through sparse Covenant patrols. A few Promethean knights.
So the Covenant was working with the Didact.
Not that I was surprised by that fact; he was one of their gods. And he was a megalomaniac. He would jump at the opportunity to gain even more followers.
Just as John reached a service elevator, Lasky came through the comms. "Chief, it's Lasky, come in!"
"Go, Commander."
"We've identified several Covenant jamming devices on the outer hull."
John took a guess, one that was probably spot on. "That's how they're blocking the ship's defenses."
"Exactly what we were thinking," Lasky agreed. "Neutralize them so we can get our guns back online and show that satellite we're more than just a big paperweight."
"Understood, Commander. Chief out."
Hopefully the Song would have enough firepower to drive the cryptum away.
I reached out, feeling for the jammers as John moved the Mantis towards the outer hull. He was nearly there.
"Okay, John, I found the jammers. There's a small Covenant squad guarding them."
He walked out onto the sunlit hull. "Light them up on the HUD."
I...didn't know how to do that.
I quickly began scanning the HUD's abilities; there were a lot. Normally I appreciated how much the armor could do, but now it was a huge pain in my back.
"Sorry," I apologized, "I had to figure out how to do it. There you go."
I painted the three jammers on his HUD.
"Thanks."
John took the first two jammers down as easily as he took down the Unggoy guarding them. There was a single Sangheili, who died just as quickly as his underlings. Oh, and two Banshees.
They were circling above John, firing down on him.
He simply turned the guns upward and shot them out of the sky. Careful to avoid the flaming wreckage as it slammed down onto the ship's hull.
As John destroyed the last jammer I could feel the ship's systems jump back to life. Of course, I could also feel the Didact grow more desperate in his treasure hunt through the ship's systems.
"Del Rio to Master Chief. The rate that thing's searching our systems just doubled! I think it knows what you're up to!"
John looked up as a Phantom approached. It dropped off several Unggoy and a handful of Kig-Yar. A trio of Sangheili.
They were trying to reset the jammers. Make the Song defenseless once more to the Didact's physical and digital conquest.
If I'd been in my body I would be tense. But I wasn't. Much like when I controlled a large number of other people, the only brain activity that would register in my body were the most basic of functions.
Most of my conscious mind was in John's suit. Some of it was scanning the systems around him. None of it was in my body.
"Del Rio to one-one-seven. The MAC network's reading operational but our EM relays are malfunctioning. You'll have to initiate the link manually."
"On it, Captain." John razed a squad of Unggoy with the gun on the Mantis. Kept firing in an arc that cut down several Kig-Yar and at least one Sangheili.
He made fighting almost like an art. Moved with such a grace, a practiced ease, that it was easy to forget that he was in danger of being killed, too.
When the last of the Covenant soldiers were dead, John had the suit crouch down. It was still several feet taller than him.
He jumped out, landing heavily on the ground, and walked over to the MAC controls. He pressed the button to activate them. I could feel the system surge to life.
An Unggoy fired at John. He turned, pulling the energy sword off of his thigh, and cut through the Unggoy. The arc continued and lobbed the head off of an approaching Kig-Yar.
That was all of the Covenant forces threatening the hull.
John looked up as the MAC gun recalibrated. Then it took aim at the Didact's cryptum, which was hovering in front of the ship.
Del Rio came over the comms. "Forward MAC batteries, get that damn orb away from my ship. All cannons, fire at will."
Everything shook around John as the MAC gun before him fired. Even the less powerful guns on the ship were unloading on the cryptum. I could see orange ripples where the rounds hit the satellite.
It began ascending.
"He's retreating," I sighed. Tension melted from me in waves.
John watched as the cryptum floated up, turned away from us, and flew off. It was out of sight in seconds.
There was silence for a moment.
"Del Rio to Song of the East, all hands. We are Condition Yellow. Stand down. Section heads report in, begin damage assessment."
"So that's it, then." I was still only talking to John.
"For now."
"Yeah, for now," I agreed. "When do you think he'll be back?"
"Too soon," John said.
I could see him walking towards one of the more widely-used doorways to the ship.
With all the systems back online, he could use the regular walkways instead of machine-inhabited maintenance tunnels.
"I'm coming to you, where are you?"
I put a little map of the ship in the corner of his HUD. Then I pinned myself, and him, and made a little dotted trail. "Across the ship from you. Wow. Glad the shuttles are working again."
"You need to rest."
I began slowly pulling out of John's suit. Now, there were absolutely no distractions to keep me from feeling the crushing pain and fatigue throughout my entire body.
The last thing I remember doing before I fully fell asleep was murmur, "Yeah, I think I'll do that."
oOOOOo
Author's Note: Here's a second chapter, since the last one felt short for some reason. Idk. Also I just like posting chapters lol.
I'm trying to stick to a schedule, tho, so I'll refrain from posting a third chapter this week. Maybe.
Anyway, I love you guys! :)
