Chapter 7.- Genesis.
Part 1.- Searching.
(October 26th, 2558 [Military Calendar] - [UNKNOWN TIME] - Mission clock of Captain Thomas Lasky, Commander Sarah Palmer, Doctor Catherine Halsey, Fireteam Osiris, General Han Solo, Senator Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, the astromech droid R2-D2 and the UNSC Smart AI RLD 0205-4 "Roland" - Location: Aboard the UNSC Infinity, unknown system)
In space, in the middle of nowhere, aboard the flagship of the human fleet, the UNSC Infinity, the Captain of said ship was entering one of its debriefing rooms, accompanied by the Spartan-IV Jameson Locke, as well as Senator Leia Organa and General Han Solo, speaking about the events of Meridian and other cases that had occurred in similar times, while they headed to talk to Dr. Halsey and Commander Palmer.
"There have been five more events following Meridian." Said Captain Lasky. "That's eleven colonies. I need a means to stop this. Now."
"The Warden confirms Dr. Halsey's theory." Locke said. "Cortana is activating the Guardians."
"But not this one, not yet." Dr. Halsey said as she showed everyone a diagram of a Guardian and a city. "Sunaion. A pre-Covenant religious site on Sanghelios."
"There's a Guardian in the Elite homeworld?" Lasky asked.
"If we can get a team on the ground we can access that Guardian..." Palmer said.
"Assuming we can, because unless we can get Artoo or one of your artificial intelligences in, there's not much we can do..." Han snapped.
At that moment, Lasky sighed and looked back at the screens.
"Sangheilios is off limits." Lasky blurted out. "The brass want nothing to do with the Arbiter's war."
"That's because they haven't heard my great idea." Said Roland, the ship's AI.
Han, Lasky, Palmer, Leia, Locke, and Halsey turned to see Roland projected onto a holo-table, and as soon as he had everyone's attention, the AI clapped and projected various Forerunner characters, numbers, and a sound record.
"That noise is an encoded numerical pattern." Roland explained. "Paired quantum phase sets. Slipspace coordinates for a Forerunner map."
"We could feed the Guardian the coordinates recorded on Meridian..." Leia said.
"It would take them to the same place Cortana took the Master Chief." Palmer said. "Tom, we can stop this."
Lasky only managed to wince, weighing the pros and cons of what Senator Organa and Palmer had proposed.
"I know I have neither voice nor vote here, but I suggest that you accept it under the table, Captain." Han said. "Something tells me that getting into a civil war will be the least of your worries if we don't find this Master Chief before Cortana does."
Lasky sighed, then took a step back and nodded.
"I''ll make arrangements." Lasky said.
With that said, the Captain of the UNSC Infinity left the room, feeling uncertain about his decision.
On the other hand, Locke, Leia and Palmer began to argue about what would happen to Team Osiris now that the Senator had suggested that she, Han, Ron, Chewie and Hermione could join the team temporarily so that they could find their friends.
In the meantime, Han was only thinking about two things: Finding Luke and destroying C-3PO for stealing his ship.
(October 26th, 2558 [Military calendar] - [UNKNOWN TIME] - Mission clock of Blue Team, Jack Skellington, Bentley Wiseturtle, Murray Hippo and Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox - Location: Forerunner structure, unknown point over the surface of Genesis, Genesis, unknown system)
On an unknown planet, in the middle of nowhere, in an unknown star system, Blue Team, with its new provisional members, Carmelita Fox, Murray Hippo, Bentley Wiseturtle and Jack Skellington, materialized over some kind of platform, which was connected to a bridge that led into a Forerunner structure.
After letting out a deep sigh, Blue Team grabbed their weapons and began to walk towards the structure, while in the distance, another Guardian emerged from slipspace.
"There's another one." Kelly said.
"What're Cortana and Penelope up to, Chief?" Frederic asked. "Why'd they bring us here?"
"Let's keep moving." John said.
With that said, Blue Team continued walking slowly into the Forerunner structure in front of them.
"Where we are?" Carmelita asked.
"No comm traffic on any band. No long-range uplinks at all." Kelly said.
"My scanners can't triangulate our position." Said Bentley.
"Long way from nowhere then..." Linda said.
"We were brought to this position for a reason." Said Bentley. "Let's find out what it was."
Moments later, Blue Team entered the structure and found that their path was blocked by a ramp that projected a hard-light shield. Seeing that they had no other choice, John and Bentley walked up the ramp as some sort of control panel lifted off the ground.
"Console lit up as we approached." John said.
John and Bentley moved a little closer to the console, while it emitted some kind of sound, which puzzled John, Kelly, Fred and Linda a bit.
"What was that?" Asked Jack.
"It came from the console." Bentley replied.
"How many years has it been since we used that signal?" Fred asked.
John didn't respond, he simply lowered his weapon and extended his hand towards the console with some doubt, but feeling a hint of familiarity with its operation, so he touched the screen of the console in the center, then took one of the three lights surrounding it and dragged it to the center as the rest of the team joined them.
Instantly, the structure shook and the console returned to the ground as a hard-light shield surrounded them and some sort of elevator activated.
"Cortana... Cortana, do you read?" John asked for the communicator.
After a few seconds without an answer, Kelly sighed and said:
"No response."
Once the elevator reached ground level, the shield vanished and Blue Team raised their weapons to continue their exploration.
"What is this place?" Murray asked.
"Forerunner planet, without a doubt, the thing is that we do not know what's on this planet." Said Jack.
"You know the Forerunners?" Fred asked.
"I know many species, young man, I've been around for two millennia and my family kept secrets about many things." Jack explained. "That's why we must stop Cortana and Penelope, because the Forerunners had other enemies besides the Precursors, the Humans and the Flood, and some of them are still alive and swore revenge."
"Great, Clockwerk all over again..." Murray muttered.
"Either way, Cortana and Penelope brought us here. They're out there somewhere." John said.
"Hey guys, back on Meridian, that was brutal..." Carmelita sighed. "There were civilians..."
"Maybe they didn't know that'd happen." Murray said as he scratched the back of his neck.
"And if they did?" Linda said.
"We'll have to find them to figure it out." Said Bentley. "Let's hurry up."
The team nodded and continued on their way across the strange planet, noting that it differed little from a natural world.
"This place is amazing." Murray said as they went down some sort of cave.
"The biological readings don't compare to anything I've seen before." Said Bentley as he checked his scanners.
"There's a formalness and precision to it all." Linda said. "It seems... artificial but still organic."
"Dr. Halsey would have already started taking samples by now." Kelly said with a smile.
"She would've probably figured out the exact coordinates of this planet by now." Said Fred.
"Hmm, that Halsey girl sounds like someone really smart." Murray said.
"That's an understatement, trust me."
"Well, we must continue, Cortana and Penelope are not gonna stop themselves." Carmelita said.
The team continued walking along a path between two huge rock formations, until they reached a clearing with a view of another Forerunner structure much more impressive than the one they had been in before, which had some kind of circular projectors on top, which rotated and projected a blue colored intense light.
"Accessing that console activated that large structure, right?" Kelly asked. "Given the signal we heard... You think they are there?"
"Possible..." John said.
"Hey, guys, I think we've got company..." Carmelita said as quietly as she could while she looked over some sort of cliff.
The rest of the team rushed to Carmelita's position, but the Spartans soon took Bentley, Jack, and Murray out of sight, since unlike Carmelita, they were not subtle at all when they took a glance. And the reason behind the humans' actions was that at the bottom of said cliff, they could see a group of Covies next to a crashed ship.
"That's an Elite... What the hell are the Covenant doing here?" Fred asked.
"I don't know, but they seem dangerous, so I guess we should finish them off." Carmelita said as she changed the configuration of her shock pistol from stun to kill.
"Indeed." John said. "Murray, Bentley, you guys stay here. Fred, Linda, go to that edge. Kelly, Carmelita, you go to that cliff. Jack, you come with me. Wait for my signal to attack."
"Got it, Chief." The Spartans nodded.
Jack and Carmelita simply nodded and took their positions quickly.
Once everyone was in position, John leaped forward and readied himself to hit the ground with the full power of his thrusters. Once ready, the Spartan made a Ground Pound on the bottom of the small cliff and struck the center of the Covenant gathering, sending all the Grunts, Elite and Jackals flying away.
Seeing that they had an opening, Carmelita and Kelly slid over the wreckage of the ship and opened fire on the Jackals, managing to finish one off before he could cover himself with his shield and in a joint effort, they finished off the other.
For their part, Linda and Fred slid down the rocky slope and fired at the Grunts, managing to finish them off with just a few shots.
Lastly, the Elite threw down the carbine in his hands and roared as he activated his energy sword, while John got into position to defend himself with his assault rifle, but luckily, before the Elite could get close enough, a blue blade pierced his chest from behind, causing the Sangheili to grunt in pain and fall to the ground with a hole in his chest, undoubtedly dead, and reveal Jack putting away his lightsaber again.
"That was new." Said Jack.
"Time to kill humans!" Barked a Grunt as he ran to attack.
Carmelita sighed in frustration and fired at her right without seeing, listening with an iota of pride as her shot hit the Grunt's head accurately and put him down with a thud as he dropped his weapon, at the same time that Bentley and Murray glided down the slope to join the rest of the team, the genius wearing a horrified expression and looking pale at the scene.
"What are the Covenant doing here?" Linda asked.
"Well, from what Kelly and I heard, it seemed like they had arrived by mistake." Carmelita said.
"My hypothesis is that their ships must have been trapped in that slipspace bubble created by the Guardians." Bentley said as he sighed. "But what really disturbs me is the fact that none of you hesitated to kill them.
"Bentley, when you've been in the force for years like I have, you learn to recognize threats that are not gonna stop and that want to kill you at any cost." Carmelita said.
"According to what I asked Linda on the way to the Guardian, the Covenant is quite similar to a terrorist group, since they basically kill humans because they're 'heretics' to their religion." Jack explained.
"These things are better off dead, trust me." John said.
"But..." Bentley tried to say.
"There's no time to chat about morality, Bentley." Said Fred. "We have a mission and anyone who gets in the way will try to kill us, so we shouldn't let them do it until we know what Cortana and Penelope are up to."
"I guess you're right, my brainiac chum." Murray said with a sigh. "But we need to go before more of those things arrive."
John nodded and took the lead, guiding the team down the path to a pair of rock formations, which created some sort of double arch into a clearing, in which John spotted a slightly larger group of Covenant and several energy shields spread out around the area, and some kind of rock wall not far from them.
And before he could warn the others, several shots from a Phantom's heavy cannon were aimed at him, making him gesture at the team to take cover behind the rock wall as the shots slammed into the entrance to the clearing.
"More hostiles." John said. "Ready up."
The Blue Team nodded and they got ready to fight, then ran into the clearing, taking cover with the energy shields.
As the Spartans and Carmelita scattered across the field, firing at the Grunts, finishing them off quickly, Murray and Bentley stayed behind one of the energy shields.
"Dang! The Murray can't do anything against those guns!" Murray said.
"Maybe if I had one of those energy shields those medium-sized aliens have, I could adapt it so that you could take cover against the shots and make you able to fight with them toe to toe." Said Bentley.
"You need one of those shields?" Said Jack.
"More like at least two, I don't think such a small shield can cover Murray well."
"Alright, I'll get them for you, move before the shield disappears, I doubt the color change to red is a good sign."
Bentley and Murray nodded and ran up to another shield as the one covering them disappeared, at the same time that Jack drew his lightsaber and deflected a shot back at a sniper Jackal, just before running towards a pair of Jackals that were coming out from behind of a rock pillar.
The Jackals fired at the skeleton, who blocked the shots with his saber and threw one end of his soul robber to catch one of the Jackals and lift it up, after which he slammed it into the other several times, causing them to hiss in pain.
After knocking out both aliens, Jack retracted his soul robber without releasing the Jackal and pierced his abdomen with his lightsaber, killing him instantly. Then he cut off the alien's forearm, dropped the corpse and took the energy shield off it to throw it at Bentley, managing to notice a pair of Grunts getting closer him.
The Grunts barked and fired purple crystal needles at the Pumpkin King, who attracted the other Jackal with the Force and used his body to cover himself from the needles.
Jack smiled when he saw that the needles only dug into the alien's flesh, but his smile disappeared when he noticed that the needles glowed brighter and exploded, sending the skeleton flying several meters back, making him crash his back against the rock wall.
Bentley caught the energy shield and saw the Grunts attacking Jack, then while John, Kelly, Fred, and Linda were distracted wiping out the rest of the Covenant troop in the area, as the Grunts got dangerously close to Jack, Bentley scowled, grabbed one of his bombs and threw it at the Grunts, blowing them to pieces to save the fallen Pumpkin King.
Jack grunted and got back to his feet as he clenched his teeth, then he roared and engulfed himself in flames, turning into a pumpkin-headed scarecrow of sorts and ran at the retreating Covenant troop, spitting a torrent of flames at the aliens.
Taking advantage of the confusion over Jack's abilities, Carmelita and the Spartans ran after the scarecrow and fired at the aliens, killing them quickly.
Meanwhile, Bentley rolled his wheelchair over to the remains of the Jackal's corpse and picked up the creature's forearm with some disgust, taking the shield off it and throwing the rest of the alien away while he felt a chill running down his spine at what he had just touched.
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever done in my life..." Bentley said.
"I know, pal, but we've gotta stop Penelope at any cost." Murray said as he walked towards him.
"That's right, big guy, well, let's catch up with the others before we get lost or more aliens find us."
Bentley and Murray rushed to catch up with the rest of the team, while Jack sighed and was covered by some sort of aura in the form of a flock of bats, which returned him to his normal form.
"That was... impressive..." Carmelita said. "Any other abilities you might wanna tell us about, Bones?"
"Maybe I'll show you later, now it's better to keep going." Said Jack.
The Blue Team sighed and marched on, finding a cavern, which was full of enemies, according to the movement trackers of the Spartans' armors.
"How will we evade them?" Linda asked.
"I think I have the solution." Bentley said as he pulled out a green bomb from his chair. "You guys might wanna get away a little, this thing releases a very powerful narcotic gas and I increased its range."
The Blue Team walked a few feet away as Bentley pressed a button on the bomb, making it emit a faint beeping sound and a flickering green light. The genius waited a few seconds, then when the light began to flicker faster, he threw it into the cavern and it detonated, releasing a cloud of a greenish gas.
The Blue Team waited a few more seconds, as they listened to the groans and growls of the Covenant warriors, followed by several thuds, prompting John to order Frederic to take a look.
The Spartan-104 peered over the rock formation at the entrance to the cavern and smiled as he saw that the Covenant were sedated.
"It worked." Said Fred.
"We must hurry, the effect won't last long." Said Bentley.
"Then we have to finish this as soon as possible." Said Jack before he extended his soul robber to grab several plasma grenades. "These things are explosives, right?"
John simply nodded and grabbed one of his frag grenades, while Kelly, Linda and Fred followed suit, at the same time that Jack gave Carmelita a plasma grenade and another to Murray.
"Press the button and throw it." Kelly said. "Don't take too long or they'll stick to your hands and will possibly kill us."
The hippo, the vixen, and the skeleton nodded, then the Blue Team activated the grenades and threw them into the cave in different directions, just as a pair of Covenant warriors were awakening.
The team heard a couple of barks of confusion and alarm, then the grenades detonated and several grunts of pain were heard, after a few seconds, John gestured at Fred to scan the area. Fred nodded, took a careful look, and smiled when he saw that the Covies were dead.
"Clear, Chief." Said Frederic.
John nodded and they all climbed up the small rock wall, entering the cave and gazing a bit at the remains of Covenant weapons and equipment around them.
"Wait, hang on for a bit." Bentley said before he picked up a third shield from the remains of a Jackal, feeling a chill down his spine again.
"What is it?" Linda asked.
"I think I can adapt some of this technology to allow Murray and I to be more useful in combat, also I think I could replenish part of my bomb supply with Covenant grenades."
Bentley pulled a couple of tools out of his chair and scanned the shields he had, then he began to disassemble two of them, analyzed their components carefully for a few minutes, and then began to dismantle one of the shields to join part of its pieces to the other.
"You know what you're doing?" Kelly asked.
"Not quite but thanks to the scans and what I'm seeing, I can get a good idea of what each piece is and how I can use them to modify the shield." Said Bentley.
After several minutes, Bentley finished altering the shield, so he got rid of the useless parts and managed to solder the upgraded shield while he smiled.
"I think it's ready, big guy." Bentley said as he extended the shield to Murray. "Try it."
Murray nodded and placed the shield on his left wrist, then pressed a button and gasped as he saw a sizable red shield be created by the device, while Bentley smiled at his work.
"It should be twice as strong as the normal shield of those medium aliens." Said Bentley.
"Jackals." Said Frederic. "They're called Kig-Yar, but call them Jackals. The pesky little ones are Unggoy, but you call them Grunts. And as I mentioned before, the four-jawed big ones are known as Elites, but they're called Sangheili."
"Ok, thanks for the info." Bentley nodded as he gave the third shield to Carmelita. "You use this one and give me one of the grenades that are next to your feet."
Carmelita bent down to pick up the three grenades at her feet, then handed one to Bentley, grabbed the shield from his hands, put it on her left wrist, and placed the other two grenades on the magnets she used to hold the batteries of her pistol on her belt.
"Well, we better keep going... did you hear that?" Asked Bentley as he put the grenade in his bomb supply.
"Yeah, sounds like Grunts..." Carmelita said.
Blue Team raised their guns and walked through the cave, reaching another slope where they could see a couple of Grunts complaining about a shield.
However, as he turned around, one of the Grunts caught sight of John and let out a yell before running off, causing his partner to look in the direction his partner had seen and gasp as he noticed how John and the rest of the team was hiding.
"The Demon!" The second Grunt yelled.
"Run!" The first Grunt yelled.
"There goes our cover..." Linda said.
"Spread out and don't take your eyes off the enemies." John said.
Blue Team nodded and leapt off the small cliff, getting ready for combat.
Carmelita received several shots from a Covenant carbine with her shield, which turned red, causing the inspector to roll on the ground and take cover behind a rock, while Linda aimed her rifle at the sniper who had shot Carmelita.
After her shield recharged, Carmelita came out of hiding and began firing, while Murray charged a Jackal and smashed it against a rock, aided by his new shield.
"Seems there's a Forerunner structure up ahead." Said Jack.
"And also the Covenant seems to think it should belong to them." Said Fred.
"Break through their line..."
As Blue Team dispersed through the area, Jack dodged the Grunts' shots before they were finished off by Frederic, but to his misfortune, he ended up in front of an Elite who was taking cover behind a barricade the Covenant had placed in the cave. And before he could react, the Elite grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the wall with terrifying ease, momentarily stunning him and giving the alien enough time to take the energy sword at his waist.
However, the Pumpkin King kneed his attacker hard, making his energy shields flash and giving him time to grab a piece of loose rock and smash it with all his might against the Elite's head, managing to break free from his grip and get rid of his shields.
Once he was free, Jack felt how easily he fell about a foot from the point where the Elite had crashed him against the wall, which greatly surprised him at the great difference in height between him and the Sangheili, as he was used to being the tallest among his acquaintances.
Still, the skeleton didn't have time to delve further into that fact, as the Elite recovered from the attack and activated his energy sword with clear intention to kill, so the skeleton rolled on the ground, dodging a thrust and drawing his lightsaber from his torso to block the Elite's blade.
However, to the misfortune of both swordsmen, a plasma projectile fired from the cannon of a Phantom flying out of the cave, exploded near both of them, sending them flying and causing the alien's newly recharged energy shields to disappear, causing Jack to crawl on the ground and hide behind a rock wall, as a plasma turret tried to finish him off.
Taking advantage of this, Carmelita took cover from the shots of the Phantom that had attacked Jack and the Elite, and fired at the four-jawed alien until she heard him exhale his last breath, then moved her hand to the earpiece that Bentley had given her and linked to the Spartan comm system.
"Hey! How do we get rid of that thing?" Carmelita asked.
"I have an idea, but I need Fred and John to imitate me!" Murray said as he broke the neck of the Jackal he was fighting with.
Murray deactivated his shield, to everyone's surprise, and ran over to one of the multiple purple boxes that the Covenant always carried around, then stomped his foot and this propelled the box up, so that Murray was able to lift it over his head. Without much effort. Immediately afterwards, the hippo threw the box at the Phantom, causing the dropship to shake, destroying the turret and killing its gunner in the process.
Before the Phantom could aim its cannons at the hippo, Jack raised his hand toward the ship and Force-ripped the cannon out of it, while John and Fred picked up two more boxes, at the same time that Jack used the Force to lift the barricade, and they threw them at the Phantom and make it give an unceremonious spin, which was seized by Linda, who grabbed a fuel rod gun from the ground and fired twice at one of the Phantom's thrusters, causing it to explode and make the ship to fall down the cliff outside the cave.
"If there are more Covenant forces in the vicinity, surely they already know we're here." Said Jack.
"Then we better get ready." Fred said as he threw a plasma grenade at Murray. "In case you need it."
"This one too." Linda said as she gave him the fuel rod gun.
"Hey, I don't know how to use guns, least of all an alien gun." Murray said.
"That one's the trigger, you hold it like this over your shoulder and it recharges by removing this part from here." Linda explained before taking ammunition from the corpse of the Grunt to which the weapon belonged. "You have eight rods of ammo, three in the gun and five for reload, make them count."
"Well, we have to keep moving." Carmelita said while reloading her shock pistol. "I have six of these left, I should have brought more, I'm not comfortable with any other type of weapon."
"We get you." Kelly said as she noticed that her ammunition supply for her shotgun was low. "We'll worry about that later, let's go."
Blue Team started moving again and exited the cave, managing to see the Forerunner structure and that there was a large contingent of the Covenant in front of them, which had installed two Shade turrets right at the entrance.
"Murray, you shoot at the turrets, even if they don't have gunners, they are a great danger." John said. "Linda, they probably have snipers, so keep an eye on the rock formations on the sides."
"Yes, Chief." Linda said.
"I'll take point." Jack said as he grabbed his lightsaber. "I'll evade the fire of the snipers and the turrets to take care of the Elites, you take care of the rest."
"Are you sure you can?" Carmelita asked.
"The question hurts."
"I'll help Murray with the turrets." Said Bentley. "I don't have many nor are they that powerful, but my explosive darts should be enough help for Murray's gun."
"I'll say it again, I don't know how to use guns. I know how to use turrets, but this one..." Murray said.
"We trust you, big guy, we're all out of our comfort zone, so we need to work together and do whatever it takes to reach our goal."
Murray sighed and looked at his fuel rod gun, then nodded and waited for the signal, before noticing that one of the nearby walls looked quite fragile.
"Hey, do you think we could use that to our advantage?" Murray asked.
"Hmm, according to the scanners... it looks like muscovite." Said Bentley. "Thin enough for the Spartans or Murray to break it down relatively easily and it seems to lead to a cave that is closer to the entrance, dodging most of the enemy fire."
"Murray, you and Bentley better go around." Said Jack. "While Fred, John and I attract their attention, you take advantage of the proximity to take care of the turrets."
Murray nodded and prepared to charge against the thin wall, while the Spartans reloaded their guns.
"Kelly, you and I better go with Bentley and Murray, they'll need covering fire as soon as the Covenant notice them." Carmelita said.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Inspector." Kelly said with a smile under the helmet.
"Murray, Kelly, charge against the wall when you hear the Covenant attack Jack." John said. "See you at the entrance."
Kelly nodded and prepared to lunge into the wall along with Murray, then Jack ran forward and was met by two Jackals, who let out a couple of roars of surprise, after which the nearest Jackal was hit with Jack's soul robber, which deactivated his shield, while the other tried to protect himself with his energy shield from Jack's lightsaber, but had reacted too late, as the blade of the saber had already pierced his chest. Before the other Jackal could avenge his partner's death, Fred shot him twice in the head, killing him instantly and receiving a couple of shots from a plasma pistol in response. John quickly joined the fray, opening fire with his assault rifle as Jack charged an Elite, who had ignited his energy sword and prepared to engage the skeleton in a duel.
On the other hand, while Linda got a pair of Jackal snipers off her teammates, Murray and Kelly lunged against the wall, hitting it as hard as they could and knocking it down with ease, being followed by Bentley. Upon reaching the end of the small cave, Kelly stopped the anthropomorphic animals and shot a Grunt, which had tried to shoot at them, while Carmelita jumped over the Spartan and gave a couple of powerful kicks to another Grunt, managing to get rid of his methane mask in the process.
"The coast is clear!" Carmelita said as she covered herself from the fire of more Grunts that rushed at them barking.
"But hurry up, there are two Elites heading for the turrets!" Kelly said as she threw a grenade at the approaching Grunts.
As the grenade detonated and sent four more Grunts to hell, Murray and Bentley ran to the center, managing to see Fred and John firing at the Elites trying to climb the turrets, while Jack disarmed his opponent and beheaded him with his saber.
Without wasting another second, Bentley activated his Binocucom and fired two darts at each turret, while Murray fired his fuel rod gun twice at one of the turrets and once more at the other, destroying one of the turrets and severely damaging the other. While the hippo was reloading the fuel rod gun, Bentley deactivated his Binocucom and threw a couple of bombs at the last turret, destroying it.
After this, the team gathered on the ramps that led right inside the structure, dividing into three teams: Murray, Fred and Linda on the right, John, Kelly and Bentley on the left, and Carmelita and Jack in the center, below the platform where the turrets had been.
Once ready, the groups on the ramps ran upward as Carmelita mega-jumped and Jack threw his soul robber onto the platform to pull the slimy mass and climb up alongside the Inspector.
Once at the top, the Covenant opened fire on Blue Team, making them all take a couple of steps back and spread out as they began to fire back.
Again, after a couple of seconds and following the movements of his teammates with his eye sockets, Jack felt that something was wrong, so he waited without doing more than blocking the shots that were directed at him, until he heard the characteristic hiss of an energy sword behind Carmelita, who was in the center of the platform. Without thinking twice, Jack pushed Carmelita out of range of the invisible Elite's blade, taking the attack in her stead.
Meanwhile, Carmelita fell to the ground and spun around, watching in horror as Jack was lifted from the ground by an Elite, having an energy sword piercing his abdomen. At this, the Interpol Inspector stood up, roared angrily and kicked the Elite in the face, knocking him down and causing him to drop his sword, then before the Sangheili could react to the attack, Carmelita managed to pin the alien down to the ground and shoot him point-blank at the head, emptying the entire magazine of her shock pistol on him, filling the air with the stench of charred flesh.
After unsuccessfully trying to shoot the dead Elite a few more times, Carmelita grunted and stood up, changing her murderous countenance for one of concern as she ran at Jack, being followed by the rest of the team.
"Jack? Bones? You ok?" Carmelita asked.
"Yeah..." Jack growled. "I lost a couple of ribs but I'll be fine, although the bastard ruined my suit."
"Be more careful. I thought you had actually gotten hurt."
"You care a lot for someone you just met."
"That 'someone' just saved my life, it's the least I can do."
"Area clear. Move up." John said. "The shield lowered when the last of the Covenant dropped."
"Almost like if someone trying to keep the Covenant out." Murray said as the team started moving up.
"But not us." Linda said.
"Assuming we're right and Cortana and Penelope are on this planet, how did they get here?" Kelly asked.
"The Didact's ship was pulled into slipspace, it could have ended up anywhere." John said.
"I don't understand that, but I suppose it's a perfectly reasonable explanation." Carmelita said. "However, it doesn't answer what happened to Penelope."
"It is an assumption, but I think that the fact that her time machine was defective, it may have altered the coordinates that she entered, sending her not only to an extremely remote past, but also to another planet." Said Bentley. "At least that's what I have recorded in the travel log."
"Wait, time machine?" Linda asked.
"Someone must be pulling the strings on all this. Knowing the cosmic entities, one of them must plot something far-fetched just to entertain themselves for a while with us as their toys." Said Jack.
"This is all messing up my brain..." Murray said while scratching the back of his neck.
"Well, enough talk, Blue Team, let's move on." John said as he approached the console of the structure in which they were.
Again the console emitted the signal and moved up, drawing John closer to it.
"The signal again." Linda said.
"Should we activate the console?" Asked a doubtful Kelly.
"We should." The Master Chief affirmed.
With that said, the Master Chief activated the console, causing the console to lower, a hard-light shield to raise around Blue Team, and the elevator to began to descend as the massive structure in the distance underwent further changes.
"More activity around the large structure." Said the Master Chief.
"Chief, what's happening to that building when we use these consoles?" Linda asked.
"I don't know..."
"Too bad the Forerunners didn't think to leave a manual." Said Fred.
"If that signal are Cortana and Penelope, they're leading us to the consoles." Kelly said.
"Cortana hasn't proven the most reliable guide lately."
"And let's not talk about Penelope." Carmelita said.
"We better keep going and we'll find out what is really happening." Bentley said as the elevator reached the bottom.
The shield around Blue Team lowered and they set off again, walking through another cavern in deathly silence, which was only interrupted by the sound of their footsteps.
After a short walk, Blue Team came to a door, which raised itself to let them out into a small clearing, which gave them a magnificent view of a strangely beautiful landscape of the unknown planet they were on. The team walked a little further and a few meters away from the door they had exited, a slipspace bubble opened again at the distance, letting out another machine like the one that had taken them from Meridian to the unknown planet.
"It's another one of those." John said.
"It seems your hypothesis was right, Bentley." Kelly said. That thing brought a lot of garbage with it in the slipspace bubble."
"Come on, there's a bridge here." Carmelita said. "And from the looks of it, I'd say we're definitely being led somewhere."
Blue Team headed towards the light bridge, walking through it being very aware of their surroundings, and as soon as they crossed the bridge, it deactivated, causing the team to let out a collective sigh and raise their guns to continue to the foggy cave in front at them, keeping their guards up.
After a couple of steps, the fog cleared enough for the members of Blue Team to see a dead Elite laying on the ground, and beyond that they found a rather grotesque scene, as there was an entire Covenant troop slaughtered in front of them, right at the entrance of another Forerunner structure.
"What did this?" Kelly asked.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Murray said as he activated his energy shield.
The Blue Team continued on their way, avoiding the multiple bodies around them, while keeping their guard up, then they heard a metallic noise and saw how some kind of giant robot walked from behind some sort of bulkhead until it was in front of them with slow steps, his gaze examining everyone as Blue Team aimed their guns at it.
"Identify yourself." The Master Chief ordered as he tightened his grip on his rifle.
"I am the Warden Eternal." Said the machine. "I stand in defense of Cortana and Penelope."
"They called us to them." Said Bentley.
"And you came scampering." The Warden said as he walked towards the group. "They know your forgotten names. Who you were before you were 117 and the brains of the Cooper Gang."
Bentley and John narrowed their eyes, still looking directly at the Warden as he examined them.
"Do you find it odd, that your trusted companions should keep so much for themselves?" Asked the Warden.
"Honestly, I'm not surprised to hear that, not after everything they've told me about them." Jack snapped.
"Your opinion about them is irrelevant, Infinity Watcher, after all, they are not the only ones keeping secrets from them."
"I see they've done their homework..."
"We'll figure that out later, take us to Penelope and Cortana." Bentley demanded.
The Warden Eternal seemed to make a sound similar to a chuckle, then he spread his arms as a slipspace bubble opened behind him.
"Not just yet." The Warden said as he disappeared into the bubble. "Come, let us talk some more..."
The slipspace bubble closed and the door to the Forerunner structure opened, then everyone looked doubtfully at Jack, John, and Bentley, who sighed deeply and walked at the structure, determined to face whatever the Warden had in store for them.