Pain.
It was all consuming.
Devoid of her other senses, Maddie was forced to feel the pain that shot about her shoulder, her arm, and her leg.
My leg?
The girl's eyes widened, though there was no one to see what was causing her leg to scream in pain and no light to see what she already knew was making it ricochet through her flesh and bones like a pinball. Rubble had encased her leg in a cast of concrete and metal rods. Her undamaged hand began to dig herself out. The rock and debris rustled and chinked as she clawed at it.
Erun… I should have finished you with the axe when I had the chance.
She grimaced.
Wait, the axe!
She unclipped the war blade clumsily from the sheathe on her chest and jammed it into the rubble. She leaned heavily on it and the rock shifted. Maddie rolled away, out the way of the concrete as it collapsed back on her and rolled with it down the down a slope until she slid unceremoniously onto the cold floor.
"Ah, for God's sake" she groaned into the darkness.
Maddie breathed deeply and felt a light breeze brush through the tears in her uniform.
That's strange… there shouldn't be any breeze down here.
Maddie realised that she could breathe easily, too. There was a wide-open space as far as she could tell, her voice had seemed to echo off the walls when she groaned and the floor, she'd rolled onto seemed smooth like freshly shaved skin.
Am I in… a tunnel?
She pulled off her helmet and struggled to check it for damage. It had been cracked in several places but as she ran her fingers over them, she figured it was mostly superficial
With a sigh of relief, she booted it back up and smiled as Walsingham appeared on her head.
"Ma'am, are you alright?"
"Wally, thank god," she gasped, trying to sit up.
"Relax, Ma'am, I believe you have suffered multiple fractures."
She nodded, "yeah, I think that might be an understatement, Wally. Oh Christ..." she added, attempting to stand.
"If you wanted an accurate medical diagnosis, you should have programmed me as a medical AI." He replied, somewhat irritably.
"Noted" she said, half laughing from the throbbing pain in her leg. "Do you know where we are?"
"We appear to be underground." Walsingham said flatly.
"Oh, very funny, Walsingham. Can you be more… ah, specific?"
Walsingham begrudgingly relented, "there's no record of this place in the cities archives and yet…"
And yet there is a tunnel down here.
"What is it, Wally?"
"Oh, do stop calling me that."
"Focus, please, I don't think I have long."
"Well, we are near the Chalybs building, it's possible this is connected to an underground complex hidden from both the city planners and the Office of Naval Intelligence."
Maddie sat up with a great degree of effort and clicked on her flashlight.
"I need medical attention ASAP, Wally," she said grimly. "I'll lose this arm and leg if I'm not careful, an undocumented secret complex is not an ideal place for me to be stuck."
"Indeed. May I recommend the medkit? It should have something in there that will prevent the tissue in your arm and leg from dying."
Maddie ruffled painfully through her pockets and produced a small vial of yellow liquid.
"You sure this stuff will save my limbs?" she asked, hopefully.
"It's a stop-gap measure, Ma'am. It will not save you on its own, you should take it and make finding biofoam your top priority. Scan's show that the Private had some on his person before the collapse."
Duggan… poor kid.
She bit on the lid and revealed the syringe, plunging it into her leg as the instructions suggested. Maddie could afford to lose an arm, the military replacements were almost better in some cases, but the leg prosthetics were a long way off from being viable in the same way.
"Did you see where his body went?" Maddie asked, activating the flashlight.
It revealed a dingy collapsed tunnel, one that seemed to be filled with cracks and yawning concrete supports.
"No, Ma'am, I lost contact with him after your helmet went offline. I could draft an approximate location but without any reference points or satellite data we are somewhat in the dark, if you would pardon the pun."
The liquid rushed through her leg and to a lesser extent her arm. Maddie forced herself to her feet using a long chunk of metal reinforcement rod as a makeshift cane.
"Well..." she said, grimly, "there's only one way out of here, let's go, shall we?"
"Lay on, Ma'am." Walsingham replied.
}{=}{
Damn it!
The medicine had more than worn off and Maddie had continued to stumble through the tunnels until she found herself on the other side of the rubble pile that had collapsed through the roof. She slumped against the wall, the cool feeling against her scarred back sent a shiver of pain through her body. Although by this point, the battered spook barely registered it for the searing hot sensation building in her arm.
A faint echo seemed to sound from far away. It sounded almost unreal and yet familiar but it was as though the sound had died as it reached her. Delirious from the pain and the after effects of the medication, Maddie struggled to believe that the sound wasn't in her head.
She felt nervous as she whispered to Walsingham.
"What do you think this gift is, anyways?"
"Could be anything Ma'am" he replied in text on her HUD. "All analysis of the Skopje files and materials suggest a blessing or birth right. Although what the forerunners saw in us, I cannot say."
"At least we know why the covenant want it." Maddie said, inching towards the direction she had come.
"Indeed. The theological implications for their religion are… well. Astronomical. Their entire justification for the war would be void, at the very least, it could throw the covenant people into disarray."
Maddie couldn't help but agree, years ago it had been so inconceivable to a prophet that he almost threw up at the notion of it. How could they justify a religious war against their god's chosen? Maddie couldn't even begin to speculate on the real reason the covenant fought them but she had more than a suspicion that it wasn't a matter of religion to the highest prophets.
A glimmer of light flicked into view down the tunnel and Maddie froze, waiting for a moment to move slowly to cover.
"Who's there?!" Shouted a voice.
It sounds human.
"I am UNSC personnel, identify yourself or you will be fired upon."
Then Maddie recognised the accent and grinned.
"Private Duggan?"
"Lieutenant? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me" she grimaced as the light bounced. The trooper jogged over to her, his boots echoing through the halls as he rushed to her aid.
"How the hell did you walk all that way? When I came around, you were out cold, I went looking for help but there's no one here." He said, kneeling beside her, "I did find some biofoam and some metal to make splints from"
"Medkit stim… got me most of the way, wore off about an hour ago though…" Maddie replied as Denning lined the splints against her leg, "ah, careful!"
Denning smiled, he wasn't wearing a helmet anymore and his hair clung to his face in little clumps of sweat.
"Sorry, Ma'am, but I need to set this or you're f-" he started, "uh, boned" he added, sheepishly.
"What are you gonna do with the biofoam, you know that stuff is for stab and bullet wounds, right?"
"Yeah," he chuckled, "which is why I'm sorry for this."
A sharp pain screamed in her leg and Maddie yelled a flurry of curses at him as he pinned her in place and pushed the nozzle of the canister into the fresh wound. A cold oozing sensation could be felt inside her leg and the young woman relaxed as she felt her body rejoice at the sensation as it flooded the lower part of her body.
"You should have told me you were going to do that," Maddie said with a scowl.
"Sorry, I uh, I forget that you're a hardass. The last person I had to do that to was a civilian back on Draco III." he said, his eyes were glassy.
"Oh, Duggan, I'm sorry, I didn't realise." she gasped. The Battle of Draco III marked a particularly low point of the war for the UNSC. The unspeakable horrors that the covenant committed on that planet was beyond reproach. As Maddie thought about the stories she'd heard, she struggled to find the words to express her hatred. Not even the litany of swears she knew seemed enough to truly convey the contempt she could feel for the covenant at times.
"How did you get away?" Maddie asked, pushing the thoughts of slaughter from her mind.
"I was attached to a Marine task force covering the escape of some high value targets from the main settlement." he shook his head, "I guess you could say I got lucky" he pointed to his gut, "needler round" was all he needed to say.
Maddie had seen what it had done to Maggie, becoming a SPARTAN was what might have saved her from a very painful death. "You really did get lucky, huh" she joked as Duggan held the long combat knife to her arm.
"Ready?" he asked, determination glued into the features of his face.
Maddie nodded. She felt the sharp pain again and gritted her teeth as he slit open the skin and pushed the nozzle into her arm.
"I was in the right place at the right time, an ODST team in charge of the HVT's chucked me on the shuttle and that was that." he paused, blinking into the darkness. "I was only there because the radio was down and the Sarge needed a runner."
"You shouldn't feel guilty about that..." Maddie said as the heat receded and her body seemed to cool, "I doubt there's anyone left who didn't get lucky."
"Maybe..." he shrugged and pulled himself to his feet, "still, that doesn't make it any easier, does it?"
Maddie took his outstretched hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "I suppose not."
There was an awkward silence as they walked through the tunnels. Maddie supposed that Duggan had some idea as to where they were going as he led her down a very specific set of corridors towards an errant light that seemed to flicker into view every now and then.
"So, you learned that trick with the biofoam on Draco III?" she said, breaking the silence.
"I'd rather not talk about Draco, Ma'am, but yes." he stated flatly.
Maddie nodded, cringing a little that she had upset the usually chipper private. She tried to think of something that would put him at ease. "Why do they call you Nuggs?" she asked, a little sheepishly.
Duggan looked at her with a raised brow before smirking.
"Tell you what, if you ever tell me the truth about the Sirens of Skopje, maybe I'll let you in on my secret."
"It's classified, though," Maddie pouted.
"Exactly," Duggan replied with a chuckle.
"Very clever, Private." she said, forgetting her pain with the help of a broad smile, "I could order you to tell me, you know."
As they neared the lit area of the tunnels, Maddie tensed a bit, her eye's darting between each shadow as it receded slowly from sight.
"Yeah, you could, but you won't." he said, surprisingly assured in himself.
Maddie cocked a brow and looked up at him as she drooped from his shoulder. The biofoam trick might have helped her move about and feel less pain, but she was still walking on shattered bone.
That Biofoam won't last forever…
"What makes you think that?" she replied, searching his face for what he might have meant.
"You aren't that kind of spook." was all he offered in response.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she shot back, a little annoyed.
"Oh, I didn't mean to offend, it's sort of a compliment, actually." he fumbled his words with a nervousness that struck Maddie as at least somewhat genuine.
"It's fine," Maddie shrugged, "I would be lying if I said I didn't feel in over my head. This mission is…"
"I get it, it's your first one" Duggan offered, trying to give her an olive branch.
"No, it's not that, it's personal, you know?"
Duggan nodded as they approached a larger tunnel, it was wide enough to fit vehicles down, which was a promising sign. It meant there might be a way out. The ODST seemed to contemplate his situation, and looked at the young agent several times before finally plucking up the courage to speak.
"I have dealt with a few agents from the office over the years," he admitted darkly as they trudged towards the main tunnel. "You might be green but you're one of the better ones."
"Must be a low bar" Maddie said, glibly.
"It is." Duggan said, looking straight ahead with malice in his eyes.
"Who was the worst?" she asked, fearing the answer as the silence of the tunnel seemed to intensify around them.
"The ones who killed my dad." he shuddered.
Maddie swallowed, "I-I'm sorry..."
"Don't be, like I said, you're different… it all happened a long time ago anyway."
Maddie's stomach churned a little. She was more than aware that ONI was up to some shady stuff, and she supposed that hits on civilian agitators wasn't entirely out of the question but even still…
To be faced with it again, it shocked her.
She remembered the old man in the taxi and how his son had died getting Naomi to Skopje's surface. She now found herself wishing that Duggan's loss had been worth it, too.
"What…" she asked, hoping he wouldn't hate her for it, "what happened?"
Duggan slowed to a halt and Maddie slowed with him, allowing him as much space as she could whilst held up by his shoulder.
"He was a lawyer for AmnestyGalactic." He smiled into the low glow of the emergency lighting; pride stricken at the thought of it.
Maddie agreed, "Damn, that's some serious stuff."
AmnestyGalactic was the spiritual successor to a human rights group on earth, stretching way back. Almost half a millennium, in fact. Maddie, and most humans, held institutions like that with a reverence fit for God's. Time had a funny way of granting power to those that remained afloat in its currents the longest.
"I was too young to know what it meant; I did know that he was a good man, though. He was always an inspiration to me and my family." Duggan noted as they trudged along the tunnel. "Dad never was one for the fanfare or bells and whistles that came along with the job. Prosecutor General's get the toughest cases and the best perks but dad always had a way of keeping us all humble."
"Sounds like a good man." Maddie replied, images of her brothers and sisters danced in her head.
"He was until he was assigned to Ballast." Duggan spoke darkly all of a sudden, "and met your lot."
Maddie gulped and felt clammy. She was relying on Duggan to save her life, if he abandoned her, she'd never escape in time to save her arm and leg from amputation.
"He gets mixed up in an OP or something?" Maddie asked, her voice faltering.
"I uh…"
"If you don't want to say, that's fine, I um, I was prying anyways."
"No, no, it's just not something I've spoken to a stranger about before" he sighed heavily. "Okay. My Dad took a job back on Ballast, the colony I grew up on. He'd been away for a long time, doing work in the last remaining outer colonies, even took a job here on Meridian for a bit."
Maddie listened as the tunnel sloped upwards gradually. She thought that far away she could make out sunlight but it seemed muted to her, or strained.
"Eventually though, the war saw most of them burned and butchered, the only people there were refugees and my dad could only help them in the colonies they wished to escape to. You know, making sure they were let in, given proper shelter and all that. Now, if there's anything you need to know about Ballast, is that it's the colony all the minor aristocracy pissed off to during the golden age of expansion." He shook his head, "these guys were nobodies back on earth, but on Ballast, they were the kings of the castle. They instituted some unholy corporatist-feudal hybrid that kept them rich and in-charge."
"Sounds like your dad had been away for too long." Maddie said, her fear as to how this story would end grew with each little detail.
"I don't know about that; the problems were always there on Ballast. I think the war opened my dad's eyes even wider and the closer the front got to inner colony space; the more desperate things became. Ballast's treatment of the lower classes had always been hidden by the grandeur of its largest city, which is damn near a utopia but my dad knew what building that facade cost the poorest, hidden away in the hills of Francesca." He shook his head in disgust, repositioning Maddie onto his other shoulder.
"My family were relocated there, to Ballast." She said, nodding, "I've never heard of Francesca but I know the capital, Constantium."
"Ah, yeah, refugees from Skopje were the first to resettle on Ballast after my Dad was killed." He nodded, gripping her tightly as she tried to remain standing as the incline grew, "your family got lucky, the ruling families know how to keep their power, kept the useful ones close and sent the rest away to Francesca."
"Your dad took them on, didn't he?" Maddie asked as they neared what should have been the entrance.
"I don't think he knew about ONI when he did but…" he trailed off, "Dad was never one to back down from injustice. I think if anything, knowing you lot were involved might have made him more determined."
The road tapered off, gradually sinking under dust and increasingly large chunks of rock.
"Looks like we need to find another way out," he sighed, putting Maddie down on a chunk of debris as he pulled his water bottle from his belt. The air was warm, thick, and oppressive. It made them both feel uneasy as they shared the cool liquid and though it eased their discomfort, the realisation that they were trapped was beginning to take hold.
"What was he sent to do?" Maddie asked, handing the bottle back to him.
"Originally, he was supposed to make the ruling class accept the refugees. You know, apply a little pressure, threaten their comfy lifestyles. No revolutions, obviously, that would be too easy, but fewer balls, a smaller yearly stipend from the people? That'll get the big wigs sweating on ballast like little else." He replied, leaning against the wall of the tunnel. He looked away in disgust, not daring to meet her eyes.
"Sounds almost Dickensian" she mused, watching him like a hawk.
"Almost what?" He asked, a thin smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Dickensian. You know, those old books by Dickens? Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol?" Maddie replied astounded.
Duggan's smile broke into a grin as he shook his head, "well yeah but they're ancient. You seriously read that stuff?" He asked incredulously.
Maddie rolled her eyes, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." she said in the most eloquent voice she could manage.
"Impressive." He shrugged, offering her a hand, "come on, we should get going."
"Lay on, MacDuff" she grimaced, rising painfully to her feet. He cocked his head.
"More Dickens?"
"No. Shakespeare" she replied wryly.
Duggan chuckled, "You're a strange one, Lieutenant."
Maddie laughed as they walked back the way they came. With great difficulty she kept pace with the burly ODST and sighed as she wondered what the rest of the unit might think about her injuries.
A shiver ran through her spine.
My first thought isn't even to wonder if they are alive?
She felt a disgusted, Duggan likely wouldn't have been surprised if she told him but he had said she was different.
What does that even mean?
"So, did your dad overstepped his jurisdiction?" Maddie asked, hoping the Marines story might exonerate her.
Duggan nodded; a grave look struck him. "In the eyes of Ballast's governance, he did. The problem was that officially, he had the power to do it. Dad was never one for pushing the boundaries of the rules to make things easier. He used to say that people who need to cross the line to achieve their goals lack imagination and moral character."
"Wouldn't have liked me then." Maddie stated.
"No, probably not," Duggan said with an awkward shrug, "then again, that pig-headedness was what got him offed by yours in the end."
"He refused to compromise, caused too much trouble and unrest?"
"Yes but, that wasn't what got him killed. It was naivete. To him, the idea that ONI might kill him was inconceivable." Duggan paused and looked Maddie in the eye for a moment as their footsteps echoed into the darkness.
"Seriously? Hadn't heard any of the rumours about them?" Maddie didn't quite believe that someone older than her could be more ignorant than she was as a 20-year-old. It was weird to think that she was an adult now, with adult problems and adult flaws.
"Oh, he had heard them; Dad was a bleeding-heart human rights lawyer from Australia. To him, all the problems in the world could be solved either in a courtroom or over a pint in the local pub." he smiled wistfully, looking off into the distance fondly. "ONI took advantage of that at every turn, I think, played him like an idiot."
"If they played him, why did they kill him?"
"Because the problem wasn't going away. Idea's don't just go away once they've been pushed into the world, and Dad had riled the people, not just the poor, but sympathetic nobles, and liberal reformers looking to be modern civil rights heroes. Dad's primary gripe was the refugee crisis, so they killed him and let most of the desirables from Skopje settle in a new suburb of the city." Duggan spat this as thought the words tasted sour, "In one move they silenced my dad and gave the more powerful backers of the people what they wanted… enough to get them to shut up anyway."
"But not the people?" Maddie replied.
"No need, at that point. They had no support and no one looking out for them again."
Maddie didn't want to ask but she had to know. Duggan's father was a good man, and clearly meant a lot to him. Damning her obsession with the truth, she opened her mouth and spoke.
"How-"
"Do I know it was ONI?" he interrupted. Clearly, he had expected her to ask eventually. Duggan shrugged and shook his head. "I got no proof, if that's what you're looking for but there were a team of Spook's operating near Francesca that took a serious interest in the Colonial government."
It was a slim connection but Maddie knew that she only needed to look at Drake to know that worse had been done for less. It reminded Maddie of when Drake sacrificed a fleet to deploy a SPARTAN. Hell, she had signed away her sister's body for a chance for survival. The truth was that if ONIs mission on Ballast was important enough, a hit on an annoying lawyer was practically standard procedure. They wouldn't have blinked an eye.
"I'm sorry" Maddie sighed, "I-I shouldn't have..." she paused, stopping dead in her tracks.
"What?" Duggan asked, his voice lowered.
Maddie hushed him and listened. There had been a scuffing noise. She had heard it, she was certain.
"Someone is here..." she whispered.
"Shit."
Maddie nodded. They were unarmed and Maddie had control of only half of her limbs. She leaned against the wall and tugged at her chest, ripping the hatchet from its sheath and pushing it into Duggan's hands.
Then they heard it, the light patter of footsteps followed by a tense pause. Duggan glanced at Maddie, who shook her head, she couldn't see anything at all.
"Marco" came a hiss from the darkness.
"P-polo!" Duggan replied, giving the countersign.
"Harper? Is that you?" She said, stepping out from the shadows far closer than Maddie had expected.
"Katya." She said, wondering if the tall woman would just execute her where no one could see her and put an end to her desire for revenge. Maddie didn't think she had it in her, but the fact the thought had come to her was as much a sign as anything.
Katya is dangerous.
Maddie shuddered as Katya crouched beside her and inspected her wounds.
"Chyort! Really done a number on those limbs. Come, I found a bunker, Major Seer is being treated there but…" she glared at Maddie, "he doesn't have long left."
He's dying too? Damn it.
Maddie felt sick. How many men had died for this? Just to fail? Duggan's face fell and Maddie knew how the news would hit the rest of the men. Seer was level headed and intelligent, he was a unifying force for the various commanders in the unit and had kept the greenest unit of ODST together during the last two days of intense fighting.
"The Major isn't going to make it?" Duggan asked, holding Maddie tighter over his shoulder.
Katya shook her head, "no".
"What's this bunker?" Maddie asked as they hurried along the path as best, they could.
"It's a CDS lab, built to observe the process of glassing. Its fully staffed and designed to be encased in plasma melted rock for almost twenty years." She said, holding her gun up as they moved back the way they came.
"They're studying it?" Duggan asked, trying to make sense of it. "What good does being glassed do them?"
"Reverse… engineering." Maddie heaved.
"Learn exactly what it does, how much power it uses, the temperature of the beams, their EM signature etcetera." Katya added, "it is like identifying a type of knife based on the damage it does"
"Seems like a very roundabout way of copying their stuff" Duggan noted, struggling to hold Maddie up as she began to flag.
"We're just that far behind their ship-tech." Katya stated, pointing her gun down a corridor as they walked by.
It was a fact that made Maddie's failure sting all the more intensely. There was no hope for a conventional end to the war and Maddie knew that anything the Forerunners might offer them could shift the balance of the war, regardless of how late in the war they were.
"Kat...ya..." she coughed, her vision blurred and she swayed.
Duggan put her down and dug around his pouch for meds. "Lieutenant, stay with us, hey, you got any biofoam left?"
Katya shook her head.
Duggan pulled out a pack of sedatives and pushed some into Maddie's mouth, along with a gulp of water. She felt a little relaxed instantly, and looked up at her rescuers.
"I don't…" she said, weakly, "know how you can stand the sight of me."
"I can't." Katya spat. Her face hard and angry.
"Not you" Maddie smiled, "your… father, I'm sorry."
"Hey, don't be, it had nothing to do with you." Duggan replied, kneeling besides her. "Humans have always been their own enemy first. Long before there were any aliens or spaceflights. My Dad wouldn't blame you; I know he wouldn't. So why should I?"
"Because I signed up. That makes me complicit." She said, firmly.
Katya watched the exchange like a hawk.
"My… mother, tore my family apart when we escaped Skopje. My sister didn't make it," she lied, "Mag's death hurt my dad, he was never the same. Then I joined the office… he doesn't like the UNSC…" she said, drawing her strength, "didn't like the UNSC"
"Save your strength, Ma'am, we'll get you to the bunker."
Maddie shook her head vigorously, "no, I need to say this. Joining the office cost me more than I could ever say and my family couldn't handle the fallout. Mother, she became selfish and took the easy way out. Dad… he couldn't cope, he needed support that me and my kid sister couldn't give him. I'm a fuck up." She groaned, her strength fading, "I lost all my friends, my family… screwed you over, too." Maddie sighed, looking Katya dead in the eye for the first time. "I thought I could fix everything by being an uncompromising hard-ass like Captain Drake but this whole thing has been a disaster."
Katya rolled her eyes and dragged Maddie to her feet.
"I will not pity you and neither should you." She growled. "Besides, it's not over quite yet, there might be something in this bunker we can use. There's still that transmission to follow."
Maddie nodded. Her body hurt like hell and she grew more and more worried by the second. Duggan held her up but he was quiet now, as if deep in thought.
Katya walked ahead confidently, though she glanced back once or twice, catching Maddie's eye as she shot strange glances her way.
Her head throbbed and the dark dingy tunnel seemed to fade until the last thing she remembered, was the surprised gasp from Duggan's lips as she slipped into a deep unconscious state.