John ran faster than he'd ever run his entire life as the amalgamated horror that used to be the Spartan Washouts pursued him. He had no anti-tank weapons to even try to kill the thing, and he didn't dare get close to it, lest he become part of it.
Samara was running the middle of the group, biotic energies lighting up the dark corridors around her. She was keeping up with the Spartans by maintaining a low-powered biotic charge at all time.
"I'm not as spry as I used to be!" Zaeed said, as his pace began to slow. "I won't keep this pace going like this. Goddamn, I need to do more cardio!" He was panting and starting to make mistakes in his otherwise excellent sprinting. Just one stumble on a fallen piece of metal or rock, and Zaeed would undoubtedly be devoured by the amalgamation that chased the group.
"Carry them," John ordered. "Override all safeties and keep running."
Mjolnir armour was guided by mental command, and in desperate situations, the Spartans could order parts of the suit to move without the help of the Spartan inside, although this would quickly result in the Spartan in question suffering horrific contusions and bruises. As John sped up, his Bio-Monitor began warning him of micro-tears in his tendons. In a few minutes at his current speed, his feet would violently tear and his armour would crush them as it continued to run.
A quick mental command brought up the map he'd taken from the ONI techs. It would take him just three minutes at the current speed to reach Jai and the shuttle. His achilles tendons would last two minutes longer than that.
Cal grabbed Zaeed mid-stride, and slung the Spartan-I over her shoulder, still running at high speed. Inspired by this, Carter grabbed Sergeant Johnson, and Arthur lifted up Kirrahe. With their charges secured, the Spartans began to up the pace down the long corridor, running so fast and with such force, their footsteps dented the floor with each long stride.
"Drop grenades." John ordered, and he began pulling out grenades as he ran, setting them to proximity detonations, and letting them drop as he ran. The rest of the Spartans began to follow him, and they left a trail of grenades as they ran.
There was horrific screaming and squelching from whatever their comrades had been twisted into, but the motion trackers continued tracking it getting closer. It was fast. Too fast. It would intercept them in just under a minute at the current pace.
There was a horrifying metallic screech as the hallway bent and twisted in an angle, metal plates tearing apart to let rubble and rocks pour down. John dodged a boulder large enough to crush a grown man, careful not to step on anything he might trip over.
They ran through a series of security checkpoints, tripping the scanners and causing automatic turrets to descend from the ceiling and fire upon them, but the smaller calibre rounds bounced off of their Mjolnir Armour. Cal and Carter opened fire on the turrets, blowing them off their mounts. Then they arrived at the train platform which was meant to take them to the hangar,But there was no train waiting for them. John looked at the clock, and saw that there were no planned arrivals.
The train ran along a single magnetic rail at the centre, but there was enough room beneath the rail for the Spartans to run the length of the tunnel. Evidently ONI built its secret underground train lines to be easily repaired.
He leapt from the platform down onto the ground below and kept running. They'd find their way back out of the maintenance tunnel when they reached the end of the line.
It was a straight run through the tunnel for two kilometres. The Spartans sped down the tunnel, running as fast as their legs could carry them through the straight pathway. John glanced over his shoulder, and saw no amalgamation chasing them.
"This place is an aberration. It must be destroyed." Samara said as she ran, leaving a blue blur behind her as she ran. "Complete orbital bombardment, down to the bedrock."
"Agreed." Zaeed said from the shoulder of the Spartan who was carrying him. "Nuke the bastards. Every damn one of them."
John's boot stepped on something hollow and metal. He glanced down, seeing that it was a drainage grate beneath the train. And the Amalgamation looking up at him through the grate with its three fused heads.
The Amalgamation burst up through the ground, forcing his way through the metal grate and the reinforced concrete around it. It lashed out with a massive claw, nearly taking off John's head. Propelling itself through the floor with incredible speed, slamming through at least a meter of wall with contemptible ease.
The Spartans immediately opened fire on the monstrosity, but their bullets either pinged off of the Mjolnir armour plates that covered much of its bulk, or appeared to pass through it without leaving any serious damage.
Samara began picking up speed, biotic energies glowing from inside her so brightly that John's visor automatically tinted itself. She turned around, and using her biotics partially ran up the side of the tunnel, before turning around and leaping from the wall towards the Amalgamation's head.
Samara drew her Commando blade and cut through times, gouging out the eyes of the Amalgamation. It screeched and wailed, lashing out in all directions, and sending Cal and Carter flying hard enough to leave dents in the walls.
A beam of golden light shot through the tunnel wall and out the other side, followed by a stream of drones flooding in. The drones moved with their booms behind them, allowing them to pass through the narrow passageway they'd created. Upon entering, the drones immediately began forming tetrahedrons by locking their booms together. Power flooded through the booms as each tetrahedron concentrated its power into a single component drone. Beams of golden light shot out from the drone, blasting into the Amalgamation.
"Keep going." John commanded, glancing around as he ran under the swarm of drones moving to engage the amalgamation. "We need to reach the Trainees."The abomination lunged forward through the beams, its Mjolnir hide absorbing much of the damage. Its massive clawed arms tearing through drones, while a massive maw snapped and tore another tetrahedron apart.
Then, swarming through the tunnel, came a swarm of black drones with glowing red eyes. They opened fire upon the attackers, moving to support the amalgamation. A rolling tide of cybernetic monstrosities surged forth from behind the Amalgamation. Freshly converted ONI personnel, the arthropod-like Infectors, misshapen Spartans crammed full of cybernetic weaponry, and a tide of atrocities on legs that was each more twisted than the last.
John was suddenly sent flying by a blast of energy that tore through the facility and tore massive rifts into the facility. The running Spartans were knocked off their feet and went flying down the tunnel, landing in heaps or tumbling across the ground with enough force to dent the metal floor. Thick clouds of dust and debris spread through the hallway, blocking lines of sight. The world went white and John wondered for a moment if this was some kind of energy weapon.
John pushed himself to his feet and began to help Kat and Carter to their own. He glanced down the tunnel, which was devolving into a brutal melee between the Leviathan's minions, and the drones that sought to contain them.
"Sitrep." He ordered over TEAMCOM. Green and yellow lights popped up on the HUD. The Spartans were alright, if shaken.
"That felt like a biotic shockwave. But I've never felt one so powerful before. " Samara said, gathering her biotic energies and using it to push back the cloud of dust and debris from around the Spartans. John decided he needed more Biotics with the Spartans. Maybe even some biotic Spartans if possible. As the Spartans got up and secured their charges once more, they began running down the tunnel again.
"Shuttle engines are hot. But they REALLY don't want us to leave." Jai said over TEAMCOM. There were explosions, screams, roaring flames, and what sounded like the whine of engines. "We're on our last Thermal clips and firing on limited. Linda contacted us from Camp Currahee. They've thrown back several attacks by ONI, and are preparing for evacuation. Kelly is back at base. She's awake, and the medics confirm she hasn't had any tech implanted in her."
A weight was lifted off of John's chest. He wasn't sure he could deal with another Spartan turned against him. Emile was already a heavy enough burden on him. Especially not Kelly. Not her.
He had handed a teenager to ONI, and they had turned the child into an empty husk. John felt a sickening feeling in his chest as he remembered Emile's eyes looking at him. Had they been begging him for help? Or glaring in murderous rage. All because John had been trying to play the game of ONI politics.
He'd caught angry glances from Kat. And deep down, he knew he deserved them. John was going to submit himself to a Court Martial for what he'd done. It was the right thing to do.
"I want everyone ready to leave within two minutes. We're evacuating Onyx." John said "The drones aren't holding back whatever is chasing us, and this planet is full of potentially hostile drones. " He paused for a moment. "I'm designating a massive husk that's following us as Amalgamation."
There was a pause from Jai. "Blue-One. Without Onyx. How are we going to augment the trainees?"
John paused. He hadn't considered that. The augmentation drugs used to augment Spartan Threes were stockpiled upon Onyx and produced at hidden chemical factories somewhere on the planet. Without those, the Spartan Threes were just child soldiers.
"Halsey can restart Spartan Two augmentations." He responded. "The augmentation drugs aren't the only option we have. We'll loot the camp before we leave and take anything we can use. We also have the bloodwork of existing Spartan Threes."
John could see light at the end of the tunnel, and the telltale roaring of a Prowler's engines. He glanced over his shoulder for the Amalgamation, which was… running away? It had turned around and was moving away from the Spartans, even as the Reaper drones
John caught himself mid-thought.
Reaper.
Why was he using that instead of Leviathan? He had read it mentioned once in the lab report on the Spartan clone template. But it just felt normal to use the word Reaper. Even though everyone so far referred to it as a Leviathan.
The drones had not detected any 'indoctrination' in John. But he still wasn't sure what was affecting his thought patterns. He'd have himself checked in for a full psych-eval when he reached safe space. He'd recommend to Lord Hood that anyone who came into proximity to a Rea- the Leviathan, was treated as potentially compromised.
He was almost at the boarding ramp. Parangosky's personnel yacht was nothing less than a custom-built heavy Prowler. The design was unlike any John had seen before.
It looked like a massive sleek fixed-wing stealth aircraft which hinted at aerial operations. The ship would be able to smoothly descend into a planet's atmosphere, and be invisible to most forms of RADAR and LADAR detection. Although its size meant dedicated equipment would still be able to track it. There were closed gun ports along the sides which could easily fit point-defense turrets, and their overlapping fields of fire would provide excellent defense from any fighter that tried to make a run for the ship.
But the gun at the front was what looked off. The gun appeared to be concealed inside of an internal weapon's port beneath the ship's nose, and consisted of a small two-barreled turret. John couldn't see the point of the weapon. Wouldn't it just be simpler to have a Mass Accelerator run the length of the ship?
Inside the hangar itself, ONI Shock Troopers were emerging from hallways and hidden pathways to engage the Onyx drones with rocket launchers and particle-rifles, taking down several of the machines, while massive Husks composed of dozens of people stitched together charged and pulled drones to the ground, ripping them apart.
Drones locked booms and began to systematically burn and purge their way through the hangar in the form of Tetrahedrons, whose many eyes systematically scoured any Leviathan-based technology from the room.
One of the Tetrahedrons of interlocked drones suddenly broke off from the combat and moved higher into the air, taking up a position above the Spartans, firing its many beams as they carved a path through the Husks and ONI troopers. John didn't ask any questions why, and led the Spartans through the inferno, storming over the charred corpses of Husks and ONI troops.
The boarding ramp of Parangosky's Prowler was being guarded by Jai and Michael each of them laying down withering suppressive fire on any Husks that tried to make a room on the sprinting Spartans.
John fired his assault rifle with one hand as he ran, gunning down a pair of Husks that was rushing towards Jai, before quickly making his way into the Prowler with bounding strides. Carter and Jun took up positions on either side of the boarding ramp, adding their firepower to that of Grey Team. Jai and Michael used the covering fire of the Noble Team members to run up the ramp. Samara lifted Carter and Jun with her biotics and carried the two off into the Prowler, then whirled around and threw back the boarding ramp with a blast of biotic force just before the first husks could climb onto the ramp.
"Noble Team. Sweep and clear the ship." John ordered, venting the heat form his current heat-sink now he finally had some time. "Secure all cargo hatches, and make sure nothing tries to claw its way through the hull." The hatch slammed shut behind, and the ship began to move. "Green team. Guard the bridge and the airlock. Zaeed, Johnson, find materials to flash-fabricate into Thermal Clips. Kirrahe, tend to Kat's arm."
Sergeant Johnson pointed at a sign that marked a bathroom. "I'llI plug the sinks so we can dump our thermal clips in them to cool."
John nodded sternly. "Clever thinking." He got his first good look of the interior of the ONI prowler.
The ship was 'ONI Black', as could be expected. But there was a surprising amount of room for a Prowler. The hallways were wide enough for multiple people to move through comfortably side by side. There was even a map of the ship posted at the entrance. John suspected this meant the ship often received guests. Perhaps it was what Parangosky had used to bring visitors to Onyx?
The hallways were exquisitely crafted, with lights inlaid in the ceiling with such precision that they appeared to be part of the ceiling itself, and could turn off to to look just like any part of the wall. John traced a gauntlet across the wall. His armour couldn't even detect the cracks where the metal and the lamps met. There was also ample space all around, and it felt more like a luxury liner than a Prowler.
"Keep an eye out for any Leviathan technology. Throw it out the airlock if you find it." John ordered after Carter.
Kirrahe was knelt down next to Kat, who had removed her helmet and was leaning against a wall. Kirrahe was tending to the grievous arm wound Kat had suffered from Kurt being turned on them, and his work was excellent so far. He was quickly and effectively clearing away dirt and bits of shattered Mjolnir from the wound. "Should be able to put your old arm back on. We will require reconstructive surgery and implants for your shoulder though."
"Just give me a mechanical one. With a gun in it." Kat muttered. She gave John an angry glare. A major faux pas for a Spartan.
John needed to get the Spartans back together, and do so soon. The unity of the Spartans was starting to fray from the string of betrayal and loss they had suffered. But first, they would have to escape the zone.
As John moved through the ship he noted there were bodies lined up in the hallway, all of whom had taken gunshots to the back of the head, implying Grey Team had been executing ONI personnel that had surrendered. It was a sad but necessary business. At least for those directly handling the technology of the Leviathan.
Jai was sitting at the pilot's seat of the Prowler. The bridge of Parangosky's ship was more like a cockpit. Just how maneuverable was this ship? Jai was quickly working his way through the final pre-flight checklist. There was blood on the controls, and brains on one of the bulkheads. "This ship is good. Can we keep it? Seeing as we're technically rebels now."
"Cut the chatter." John said. "Land us outside Camp Currahee. But keep the sensors running. We need all the information we can get about these drones." John looked out the windows, and towards the hangar exit the ship was heading towards. The hangar door was starting to slide shut.
"What weapons does this ship have?" John asked. "Shoot the hangar doors. I don't want to have to go outside to force them open."
Jai looked over the controls. "Small point defense lasers, and something called a 'Magneto-Hydrodynamic cannon'." Jai reached for a button on the joystick he was using to control the ship. A targeting reticle appeared on the cockpit's window. Jai targeted one of the sliding hangar doors.
Then a beam of red shot out from the main cannon of the Prowler, blowing a hole clean through the hangar and passing through with a clean hole. Jai looked surprised for a moment, then fired the other barrel of the turret on the other hangar, blowing apart the hangar mechanism. The ship's engines began to roar as Jai guided the ship forward and out of the hangar.
The sight that met John made it look like the planet was spewing out a stream of drones. Great fissures in the ground had formed, and a solid wall of drones was violently erupting forth from each. "Avoid those drones. Power down the guns and keep them that way. If they attack us, we're done for."
Jai worked the controls, and the ship continued to taxi out of the hangar. "I'll keep a wide berth and avoid punching the throttle until we're out of weapons range."
John made his way back from the cockpit, passing through the hallway of dead bodies again, and noting that Zaeed and Johnson had piled up a large pile of scrap and electronics, which they were using with their Omni-tools to fabricate new Thermal Clips. They worked quickly, piling up new Thermal Clips neatly, allowing for the Spartans to reload.
The ship shook, and a familiar feeling of weightlessness passed through John. He held his breath for but a moment, but there was no sudden impact as the drones turned upon the ship.
He addressed the Spartans and their allies over TEAMCOM. "We'll land outside Camp Currahee in five minutes. Prepare for a potentially hot drop. We'll secure the trainees first and then loot the armoury for every piece of Mjolnir that's left."
Carter returned from the doorway to the right of the entrance. "The ship has been cleared. No ONI survivors." Carter had taken many glancing blows from ONI particle rifles, and he walked with a slight limp.
"There's a hidden room here." Kirrahe said. Getting to his feet and pointing at a wall that looked completely normal. "There's a faint heat signature inside." He activated a weak laser on his mechanical arm's integrated Omni-Tool, and pointed out on the wall where the door was. "Shall I cut it open?"
"Do it. Prepare for breach." John ordered. He tried to think of what could be behind the door. He prepared his assault rifle and got into a position to breach. The other Spartans got ready, getting into position.
The cockpit was to the left when entering the Prowler. And the rest of the ship was to the right. But a much larger room had to be directly opposite the entrance. John tried to think of what it could be. An armoury? Perhaps a barracks? The ship was not built like any Prowler John had ever gone aboard. But it had to have an INFOWAR section. He assumed it was just more perverted science.
The door slid open.
It was the biggest and most opulent room John had ever seen. It was an executive lounge with a wooden interior, which was decorated with paintings and exotic carpets the likes of which John had never seen. And going by the stairs in one corner of the room, it went down multiple levels. This executive lounge had to take up the majority of the ship's nose.
And on the centre, there was a wooden table inlaid with ivory and gemstones, upon which silver plates were laid out. And above which, a whole Moa spun around slowly on a spit. There were large plates filled with lobsters, golden bowls filled with shrimp, and jars and small vases containing foods that John had never even seen before. There was also a large cabinet in the back, containing bottles of what had to be exotic alcohols. Several had labels so decayed, that John could barely make them out.
He felt his stomach rumble at the sight.
"Goddamn, that bitch was fancy." Zaeed said as he entered, mouth agape. "This must be where she had her special guests. All it is missing is a stripper pole and some cocaine, and we can have a proper party."
"What's a stripper pole?" John asked genuinely.
Zaeed paused, avoiding angry dissapointed looks from Sergeant Johnson, before grinning at the Master Chief. "I'll tell you when you're less socially stunted, chief."
"I appreciate it," John said earnestly. He assumed Zaeed meant it in good spirit. He'd keep the Spartan One to the promise, however.
Cal turned on her Omni-tool and scanned the food, carefully going over all the foods in the room. She then turned to John. "No contamination. No nanotech. No foreign chemicals. That's a Moa, alright." There was an awkward pause, as she looked at the meal laid out before them."Permission to eat that Moa, sir?"
The Spartans all looked at John expectantly. Those whose helmets were off glanced at the meal laid out before them. John didn't blame them. The food smelled incredibly good, and the fighting had worked up an appetite. "We'll be landing soon."
There was some minute disappointed body language, but nobody raised any objections. Spartans shared their burdens and problems with each other.
John continued. "Two minutes. Eat up."
The ensuing feeding frenzy would not be one of John's prouder moments as the Spartans who had so far subsisted off of the recycled water of their Mjolnir, and a feeding drip of nutrients descended upon the dining room like a pack of rabid dogs. With no time for niceties, and technically still being in hostile airspace, the Spartans indulged in the ancient soldierly art of stuffing their faces while they had the opportunity.
Lobsters were eaten wholesale as if they were chicken legs, while bowls of shrimp were devoured as if they were crackers. Mjolnir Gauntlets grew sticky with fat and grease as Spartans removed their helmets and quickly shovelled food into their mouths in the brief window of time before they landed at Camp Currahee.
Those bottles which were not alcoholic were opened, and glasses were taken from the cabinet. Juices and exotic liquids ran like water through thirsty throats.
Samara and Kirrahe slowly backed away from the feeding frenzy, while Zaeed and Sergeant Johnson happily joined in, taking plates of exotic seafood and large slabs of Moa meat they ate in massive chunks.
John saw a large crystalline jar filled with minute black balls, which he mistook for some kind of seeds. He took a spoonful of the substance. It was wet and tasted salty and a bit like fish. Were they eggs? He worked the contents down quickly, just wanting to have some proper food in his stomach for once. He'd grown tired of nutrient paste.
Sergeant Johnson was enjoying a massive slab of Moa meat, when he caught a glimpse of what John was eating, his eyes going wide. "Chief. That's Beluga Caviar, don't hog it for yourself!" He paused, looking sheepishly. "Can I have some?"
John looked at the mostly empty jar. Fish roe? It tasted weird, but was filling enough. But he didn't particularly care for the experience, and he could see that Sergeant Johnson evidently wanted some. He offered the jar to Sergeant Johnson, who began dividing it up with Zaeed and Samara. They at least were preparing normal-looking plates instead of pulling chunks of meat off the Moa. There were crunching noises as the Spartans cracked the bones of the Moa and sucked out the marrow, with many even eating the smaller bones. There was little point to wasting good nutrients, especially when there was no clue when one might receive their next meal.
There was a voice over the Intercom. "We're approaching Camp Currahee. We'll land in two minutes." Jai said. "Also. Save me some of that Moa. I can smell it from here."