It was strange going from the scolding and beating sun, to such a frozen room like this. Even with all three Spartans out of their chambers, mist still foliated and floated to the floor.
So much so that they could feel their armor condense and get a tiny bit smaller as they entered.
Jorge couldn't believe what was in front of him. These old friends... alive and here...
"Yeah, it's me," he said softly looking down to Alice.
She then stood up, still a little shaky, glaring up and down to his armor. Her golden visor that was on her Mk. V helmet is still frozen over, but starting to thaw, "What... your armor?"
"Eh yeah, not very symmetrical, but it's comfortable."
Jerome got too, but a bit slower. Up from his knees, wiping his lips, his face was young, far younger than Jorge. His hair was clean, buzz-cut, and his eyes were dark like his hair. He had a scar on his right cheek, and was clean shaven, unlike Jorge. He then grabbed his helmet, facing Jorge, open hand to shake him, "Jorge? It's good to see you."
"Likewise sir," Noble five responded hand-shaking S092.
Turning around, Jerome grabbed Douglas by the wrist, pulling him to his feet. Both had similar features in the face, except Douglas vividly looked unfriendly in the face. The scary part was that his face did not match his voice. It was far too deep.
Both the Spartans had frost and condensation on their faces and armor, and looked pretty cold. Squinting his eyes, he too could not believe what he was seeing, "Damn, Jorge what happened to you?"
His deep voice dominated the room as it echoed around. Added to it being deep, it was loud too.
Jorge took a sigh chuckling, "Something you missed, time."
"Speaking of which," interrupted Alice, turning around to the back of the pod, to a small squared box. Being dark back there it took a moment of focus, for it to come to vision. It was only three inches perimeter and black in color, "I set the time to see how long we'd be out, figured it would be awhile..." pausing, she pulled it into the dim light. But after a few seconds, she hesitated seeing the numbers.
This started to worry the others as more time went on. Ten seconds she was motionless before anyone did something.
"Alice?" asked Jerome.
"It froze... at seventy nine thousand hours."
"And what does that mean?"
"Well doing mental math... that puts us at... over ten years."
"That was fast." Douglas scoffed.
Jorge instantly moved in, "Wait ten years? What year was it when this happened?"
The room went quiet again for a moment as Jerome, Douglas, and Alice all looked at each other. They had blank faces trying to think of a good explanation.
Finally, after a few more moments, Alice took a breath to break the silence, "March... of 2560... our Slipspace drive that the forerunner gave us, took some damage fleeing from the banished, and we jumped here randomly after the nav-computer was damaged... only to crash land... and almost no one surviving the crash. We camped out for a day, but then these strange robots attacked out of no where."
Douglas added, "We lost all of them... don't know how we made it out alive."
"Is it recoverable?"
"No... I made a fifteen mile hike up north up to the other part of the shipwreck to find it... it wasn't there. I rounded up the few survivors we had, and moved back to the main half... that's when they attacked."
"The droids?"
"...Their dreadnaught shot at us from space, destroying our encampments. We had a few Archer missiles that were scavenged, so we tried to defended. The missiles did do their job, blew up their engines and sent their cruiser down to us... But that just brought a massive invasion force of robots to us... the few survivors that were left were massacred by thirty two hours."
Jerome then seeing her delay, stepped forward taking the scene, "Fighting them off just wasn't enough. We had no where to go... and just sitting here and doing nothing wasn't enough either. We sat out and waited here for a few weeks, but no one came. No more robots, no Covenant, no Banished, nothing"
Jorge nodded, "So that's how you got in there."
"Figured we shouldn't wait around for the grass to grow," said Douglas.
They looked to each other, not really knowing what to say. It was unbelievable that they both were alive, but now... so many questions remain.
Douglas taking a glance at Jorge, only to eye-roll (with a bit of sarcasm) looking at him, "What about you? Armor probably isn't the only thing that's changed."
"Yeah, I was very busy before all of this…" seeing his hesitation, this made the three listen in more, "Reach is the next invasion target by the Covenant. We were able to stop the SuperCarrier, but I don't know if there is more."
"Reach?!" Douglas shook his arms, now enraged "Those bastards!" Quickly grabbing a one by four metal rod, "Arrragh!" he snapped it in two like a toothpick. Metal dust puffed into the air, along with echoing of broken metal. Some shards of it flew into the air, barely touching them.
Jerome put his arm on Douglas' shoulder, attempting to quickly calm him down, "First we are going to need to get out of here." Slipping his helmet on, its red streaks still frosted over and dull, and with a puff of air, his helmet pressurized. "Then we can deal with the Covenant."
"Yea, I got a ride out of here." said Jorge.
It didn't take long for them to get out of that corroded shipwreck. Red Team knew it like the back of their hand, even though it was deformed.
Along the way they exchanged small talk and other pleasantries. Alice in fact almost dropped in laughter hearing that Jorge got reassigned to a fireteam of Spartan III. It was ironic because she thought he was actually going to be assigned to Blue Team if anything, not some SIII.
But once outside, the beating sun was flawless. As they entered, the frost on their armor almost immediately evaporated, making their sage armor more saturated in color. Although it took a moment for their eyes to adjust to such a scorch, once they did, Red Team saw that nothing had changed.
Their ship was still wrecked in thousands of pieces and chunks. The hot sand had eroded what was left of the mighty Spirit of Fire.
They all put on their helmets, using it to act like shades for such a blaze.
Jorge quickly noticed though that the sun was getting farther to the north. It's beating aroma was not as bright as before. Not too much of a difference but at least he could have a rough estimation of how long a day is on this moon.
In the back however, Alice, took one last look at the ship. Shipwrecked and eroded by time, it was still her home for many years. It was the only place she ever truly found rest. Every battle won, every conflict concluded, and this thing was still there, and now to leave it... it was more than home... It was family.
"You coming Alice?" asked Douglas ten yards in front. His voice was noticeably choppy and angry still. He was still in anger… and needed something to take it out on.
Nodding she snapped out of the gaze of her mind, jogging up to the three, "yeah."
Once to the group, the Red Leader pointed to Jorge who was in front, "Strange backpack you got on."
"Well it just might be the one that'll save us." He turned around, grabbing the strap, he pulled it off and opened the brown flap. Inside was just the disc that Kenobi gave him, and a radio.
Jorge took out the radio, and turned the top nob.
"Jaybo? You there Jaybo?" He said holding it up.
Thirty seconds of silence, along with patchy static. The other three listened in waiting for a response. No answer or any reply. Ten seconds passed and still nothing. He waited for another moment, then spoke again.
"Jaybo? It's Jorge, we are gonna need that pickup."
Like before, only static on the other end.
"Could be out of range," mumbled Douglas.
Jorge held up his finger "Wait, wait."
The static stopped as a response came. It was very patchy and took a moment to hear, but it was there.
"Yeah big guy I hear you... You looking for a ride?"
Sighing, Jorge smiled, "Yes Jaybo that would be helpful right now."
"Alright, hang tight."
Jorge let go of the radio, turning to place it back in his backpack. They now stood together, kind of awkwardly, looking at each other. Didn't take long though, as Douglas the most hated awkward silence, "We wait now huh."
But it really didn't help… it made it worse. They may be family, but it wasn't a friendly reunion. They hadn't forgotten that Jorge left Red Team willingly to another team.
Jorge knows what he did, and it haunts him a little. To know that three months before he was redeployed to another fireteam, Red Team would go M.I.A on a ship that he should have been on.
He was young, foolish, and battle hungry… but now…
He is old… and getting weary each day by this war… yet now, he has his chance to be there for his brethren.
Not much to say other than Jerome wanted to get out of the situation. But instead, he looked up and saw a black spec in the sky. It had a ship-like structure, and was coming in their direction. At first glance he thought it was a meteor, but what originally got his attention was how fast it was moving.
"Not for long." he said.
This black ship was nothing like any of the three had ever seen. Definitely was not human, and it didn't look like the banished.
It in fact was the same bug-like shuttle Jorge and the Jedi's used before. Except this one looked to be far older, with next to no paint on it. It was so old that rust had taken over most of the vessel. Even so, the lights in the front were dim, and the landing gears looked to be lopsided.
"That's the pickup?" asked Douglas, not very interested.
They were all surprised and weirded out by the ship, but at this point, weird was just another day on the job.
As it approached, its big-like legs extended outward preparing to land on the desert ground. Wind and dust was kicked up as it turned around. Gusting in their face, the blast of air felt nice, even with their armor on. Sand did get on their visor, and took away most of the liquid that still remained.
Landing, the ramp folded outward to the floor, revealing the inside of the ship. Inside, was Jaybo with arms crossed holding a wrench.
"A kid?" he said.
Jaybo waved before speaking, "come on then, we don't got all day, faster I get you to where your going the faster I can go back."
On board wasn't much to see. As they went up the ramp, their footsteps rippled around the metal floor. The ramp bent and folded under their combined weights like a wood board. Jaybo actually flinched and was not prepared for that.
But once on, it was crowded actually for such a space to contain four Spartans.
Jaybo then moved to the front cabin with Jorge. Sitting down in their seats, Jaybo in the left pilot seat, and Jorge on the left. The gold Spartan grabbed out the disc that Kenobi gave him.
"What's this?" asked Jaybo,
Giving it to him, he turned around to see the other three finding their spots to sit, "Coordinates to Naboo. They told us to meet them there."
"Ah, well this shouldn't take too long, I don't know how those Jedi got here in that bucket of bolts."
Douglas laughed in the back of the vessel, "And how is this any better?"
"Well this ship has one of the best Hyperdrives this planet has to offer."
Alice then gently nudged Douglas to the side, motioning him to be quiet. Heshook his head and shrugged his shoulders in response, having a 'what gives? 'look.
Jerome with this, looked to the front windshield, standing behind Jorge, "How long will it take?"
"Well," Jaybo bent over putting in the disc into the front slot, "two hours I would say, little more little less... so buckle up."
Jorge gazed outside, to the eroded wreckage of the Spirit of Fire. The mighty bold yet faded white words sat glistening in the sunlight. As the ship's engine revved up, sand was kicked back into the air. And, as it lifted off, he turned back to the front. Some foliated onto the glass blocking their view for a few moments.
"You sure there is nothing there you need?" he asked Jerome.
"Confident. Nothing was there before we were put on ice. So nothing would be there now."
"Fair enough."
Jerome's tone of voice was that Jorge had never heard. It sounded of... disgust. Either it was disgust to see the Spirit in this way, or disgust in general. But either way... he was off.
Alice to the left stood behind Jaybo, glancing over the controls. She was attempting to understand them, considering they were far different than any in the UNSC.
While Douglas, still was looking outside taking in the view of the desert.
Higher and higher the ship went into the sky, and the warm yellow heat of the sand began to fade. The burnt sand was still in view by the Phoenix-Class ship. A long trail were it clearly slammed into stretches for quite a ways.
As they went through the clouds, they were immediately met with the void of space. This blinding yet fluffy embrace of these clouds were impenetrable, which made the view from above more terrifying. The much smaller atmosphere was clearly seen due to the wreckage of ships in the moon belt.
Douglas sat up immediately, staring at all the debris and destruction, "Damn... don't remember this coming in."
"It catches you off doesn't it," Jorge mumbled.
Jerome seeing where everyone's attention was going, looked up too, and saw what was going on, "Holy hell... there must be hundreds... how did this happen?"
As the ship went through all the chaos and wrecks, now confident Drol will not activate.
Jaybo tilted behind from his chair to face Jerome, "Separatist left Drol to make sure no one left… and no one did."
"Damn... those insurrectionists?" asked Alice to Jorge.
"No," Jorge added and shook his head once, "but they are similar, they are just one of those groups that will do anything, just to obtain that one inch of leverage."
"Damn but this, is beyond war... this is terrorism..." Alice then turned back to Jaybo, "how long was this Drol here?"
"Longer than I've been around," he said.
Silence filled the room. As it moved through each of the wreckages, more and more disgust went over the Spartans faces. Every body floating, every shard of glass, they took it all in. Parts floating, metal adrift, and so much disarray. In a sense, it reminds them of the Covenant slaughtering planets for no given reason...
This place truly has become a mental graveyard, as well as a physical.
Jaybo didn't want to waste anymore time than he needed to. So seeing his clearing, the ship went into open space.
From there, once all debris was out of the way, he flicked some switches at the front of his control panel.
Alice immediately took note of it watching his every move. She was extremely curious about this, never had she seen any ship operate like this... or really anyone has. Also, she was trying to find a way to distract from the boneyard outside.
Jaybo then put his hands back on the wheel, only to look up to Alice who was behind him, "Alright, going into Hyperspace now, might wanna hold on to something."
"I'll be fine," she said.
Shrugging, he pushed the Hyperspace lever forward.
Being nudged forward a bit, it caught Red Team off guard. They didn't trip, but did not expect what happened.
But this jump was quickly met with wonder, and amazement.
The stars were stretched and removed from the galaxy like it was rolled out dough. Lights of bright blue streaked across the windshield from the outside, taking their breaths away. All different shades of blue moved along and streaked out. Jorge even saw this earlier, and he too is still taken away.
Within the blue was the black of space, lightless yet making the blue colors more vivid.
Then, out of nowhere, it turned to a wavy purple. A black as night void hit the end of this tunnel, but it looked as if their ship would never reach it... like an optical illusion. It was like moving in a tunnel of blue mist surrounding their ship. Being unbelievably dumbstruck, the group couldn't help but stare like a bunch of hypnotized children.
Jaybo though, couldn't help but chuckle. Not seeing Hyperspace before? These soldiers don't seem primitive. And they seem familiar with faster-than-light-travel... so then what?
He then glanced over to the Red Leader before turning back, "It is something else isn't it."
He paused for a few seconds, only to exhale, "That... it is..." said Jerome.
The last remaining time of Hyperspace was met with awed silence. No one said a word. But even then, underneath all of their helmets, they were all smiling at the view of it. Even Douglas was at ease with this.
The magnificent view of the tunnel outside, was far beyond just taking their breaths away. Neither Douglas, Jerome, or Alice has seen anything remotely as vividly colorful as this. No Aurora could ever compare. Not even the occasional meteor showers on Harvest.
Not much conversation went among the group as time went by. Who could? They were too into the view of Hyperspace... and as Spartans, never they were supposed to hesitate, but now... it was nice to just sit and do nothing. No battle plans, no fighting, no war, just pleasant hesitation.
Yet also, Jorge had no idea how to even start a conversation with such a group, and so did they. It was very awkward… and no one did anything about it.
Jorge gently tilted to Alice, who was still mesmerized by the outside view, "Damn... ten years..."
Although half-way though the flight, Jaybo showed Alice the functions to the ship. She as a solider had every program and log to vehicle usages memorized, even some covenant. But now, to learn a new control system, Alice was interested.
Douglas now had been slight for almost fifteen minutes still locked on gazing into the sight of Hyperspace.
Jorge, seeing this, bumped his shoulder getting his attention, "You seem a little dumbstruck Doug."
"Yea... just... never seen anything that amazing since..."
"Reach Eastern Lights?" Alice answered in the back.
He veered down, only to turn out and amble out of the bridge, his footsteps leaving ripples along the metal, "Yeah... since Reach..."
Alice then approached Jorge, crossing her arms, "Don't mind Douglas, he just is still taking in all of this, along with Reach being attacked. You know it has a special place for him."
"I know…" he took a deep breath, "I am sorry, for everything, I couldn't leave Reach."
She raised her arms and took off her helmet, looking Jorge dead in the eyes, which surprised him a bit, "I know, but you did something no one else could… what no one was ready for… change…"
This still moment quickly turned, as all attention was quickly directed to Jerome. He entered the bridge, with Douglas coming in from behind.
"Jorge?" he asked, his visor dimly lit in the star light from the outside.
Jorge stood up to attention, his crimson visor too being lit, "Sir?"
"Are you confident this planet we are going to is not hostile?"
"I am sure sir... although I am not aquatinted with their politics I know enough it is their republic territory."
"Well glad you figured that out now, because we are coming out of Hyperspace in a few seconds." said Jaybo upfront on the driving controls.
Then out of nowhere, their vessel was jerked forward a bit. It caught the Spartans off-guard, but not enough to make any of them stumble. To make them trip requires a force that not many could muster.
After that, the whole world around them refocused, revealing stars into the far off void. Quickly noticing, Alice recognized none of the stars, at least from that angle.
Like in a starry-night, they were everywhere. Yet in front, catching the most attention was a green planet. It looked similar to Reach, but... much greener and less industrialized.
Almost immediately, static came in through the speakers on the side of the wall. It was patchy, but the hail was clear. It was the voice of one of those clones.
"Unknown vessel, identify yourself, you are in occupation of a separatist vessel..."
Taking the microphone off the wall quickly, Jorge gave a response looking off in the distance to the strange metallic ship in the distance, orbiting the planet, "This is Jorge. General Kenobi and Skywalker are expecting me."
As he finished, he couldn't help but take in the view of the ship coming up. It probably was about thirty miles out, but all so detailed.
Having grey metal colors all around, the ship was V shaped. At the top, it had some sort of a neck, from an angle it looked like a bridge. It was divided down the middle and seemed to have two sections.
Then on the top, was a red bar down the middle and top like a colored stripe.
But catching his thought was the microphone static coming back with a response from that ship.
"The Generals are waiting for you in docking bay seventeen."
Waiting for the solider to finish, Jorge responded, "Copy that," then put the microphone back.
No one truly knew what was going to happen next. At least to Red Team and their thoughts, this could be death, or aid, or much worse.
As they approached this giant ship, which was the size of a UNSC cruiser for sure, they gazed at its strange design. The top, which Jorge thought of before, was indeed a bridge. Light reflected off of it and beamed a bit into theirs, and after focus could slightly see the bridge crew… although it was hard since it was tinted.
Then looking down, the red stripe of metal opened up, like a vice. It was pried open like a can, giving enough space for them to fit through. Inside were glowing blue shields, much like the Covenant. Which inside, the soldiers working seemed unaffected by the will of space. They were lined up individually with at least thirty on each side.
Then with a stretch for their vessel to go, Jaybo began his decent, into the belly of the beast.
The ground in front was metallic obviously, and had strange wires much like what Jorge saw in the wreckage a few hours ago. These blue laser gates glowed dimly and individually onto the stripe that their ship was going into.
Douglas giggled looking around to the inside, noticing the strange symbols that were past recognition, "Into docking bay seventeen they said..."
But then, this docking bay was seen by the General in one of them. They did stand out from the rest of the clones. But what got their attention the most was that no ships were in this corridor.
Completely empty. There were some crates though, but they looked seemingly empty.
"Could be an empty storage or ship bay…" Jorge thought.
The Spartans were bewildered by this laser gate, and how their ship just passed right through it. Even though Covenant used this technology all the time, it was off to see it in the hands of humanity. Especially humanity...
It took seconds though for Jaybo to see his opening. He turned the ship around, and extended the landing gears.
Like a steam engine slowing down before the power off, it slowly floated to the floor. At this point, the Spartans turned around to the back of the ship waiting to fully land.
Finally, their ship rocked a bit as it was fully grounded. Jorge, waited a moment then pressed the lever on the right wall, extending the landing ramp. As it extended, steam and exhaust puffed out the sides as the ship 'relaxed'. Steam foliated to the floor, covering the view from each other a little.
It didn't take long for Red Team to be in view for the Jedi. And when they were, they and were all stunned.
As was Red Team seeing Kenobi and Anakin. Obi-Wan particularly was interested by these soldiers. Were they super-humans? Another sub-species? Or something different all together?
But he knew that Jorge said there were more, but now to see them... here? This was interesting indeed…
"Ah Jorge, I see you have come back with your friends," he said.
Then the gold Spartan took the lead moving down the ramp. Quickly Jerome followed, along with the other two.
"Yea, I did... everyone's still holdin' up right?"
Kenobi smiled, "everyone who got the antidote and is alive and accounted for."
"That's good to hear."
Quickly taking the scene, Jerome stepped forward looking to the Jedi Generals, cutting off Jorge, "I am sorry, but we still have many questions that need answering... like who are you and were are we."
"Right, pardon our manners, we have yet to introduce ourselves," Kenobi did a slight bow with his head, "I am Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi of the Republic."
Red Team could only hesitate again for a moment. Never have they heard the word "Jedi". Or have they ever seen a General wear such a strange uniform.
"Things just keep getting weirder by the second..." Alice thought.
But at the same time... no recognizable Covenant or Banished symbols. So that was a relief.
But nevertheless, Kenobi stuck out his arm. Palm open and looking to hand-shake Jerome. Shaking his hand, Jerome now spoke, "I am Spartan O Ninety Two, but you can call me Jerome," he then pointed to the other two Spartans, "that's Douglas in the back, and next to Jorge is Alice."
Turning around, Kenobi began to walk.
"Alright then, if you would accompany us to the bridge, we have urgent matters to attend to."
The Spartans then looked to Jerome wondering if they should go.
Jerome nodded, and the four of them began to follow behind the Generals. These super soldiers were huge behind the Jedi. Their foot steps left many echoes upon the grey metal floor, which was collectively louder with the four of them.
Even so, the Jedi were barely up to the Spartans chests... absolute behemoths...
Leaving the hanger, they went through a door that opened up diagonally.
Jorge noticed that the hallway they just entered was similar to that of the UNSC. Except of course on every hallway, there was strange oval shaped lights on the sides that stretched went to the ceiling. Upon each corridor passed, their was another door. Every arcade was grey in metal lit by the white oval lights.
Every other door that opened up either had clones in their white shining armor, or officers in dark green uniforms.
As they passed in the hallway, these soldiers looked dumbstruck to the Spartans. They were amazed, bewildered, and unresponsive. All conversations ceased when the Spartans came to sight.
Their armor reflected in the ship's light, along with their visor. Their dulled Mk.V had patches of worn grey steel, showing its age. Even with Jorge, having him changed his armor not too long ago, even had a bit of age on his.
But then eventually they made it to the end of the hallway after some minutes of walking. They could tell since there was a door at the back. It was still a diagonally opening door, but it was a bit bigger.
As they approached, it opened automatically. Inside, there were four soldiers, a darker toned man, and a dirty woman. The woman was talking to one of the men and was oil covered, looked to be a mechanic of some kind. Her clothes revealed that much as they looked like a chefs apron but red, and with pockets that had tools in them.
The man next to her was bald, and had his arms crossed and was looking on another one of those holo tables. It was flashing blue and had some display of a planet.
As they entered further, the bridge they were on had a dip-down on the right and left. In these ten foot or so crevices, one could tell of glowing green controls and other panels, with at least ten men operating in each.
Yet with this bridge having a crew count of over thirty, it was silent. Men gazed upon the Spartans in their glistening armor. Even the engineer and the man stood a bit bewildered. And as they approached, Kenobi introduced them.
"Spartans, this is General Windu, the commander of this ship."
The general nodded before turning to Jerome, which he assumed was the officer of the group, due to his armor configurations.
"Glad to meet you. Kenobi told me of the skills that you possess."
"We appreciate the compliment general,"said Jerome, "but we don't know why we are here, let alone where we are."
"Well, Sarah here can help you with that. She is one of the best mechanical scientists on Coruscant."
With that, the unkept and rather unclean woman stepped forward. Jorge though immediately, had instant respect for her. Seeing someone dirty means they're a hard worker in his book. He never knew why, it sometimes does remind him of the people of Reach, being hard working farmers. Added, she smelt strong of oil, so she knew how to fix things, which sometimes could be a gnarly job.
She had dark jet black unkempt hair, along with deep and black eyes. Noticeably, she had a scar above her left eye. She was only five foot six (164 CM), so unbelievably small compared to them.
"Well uh hello," her voice was very soft and a bit shy, which surprised Jorge. He was expecting to be a deep raspy voice, not seemingly a innocent one, "I am a space engineer and scientist, and I was assigned to figure out the singularity that hit Naboo yesterday."
"That your doing?" Douglas whispered from behind Jorge.
"More or less," he responded quietly.
"Anyway," she turned around, now getting more confident seeing she has their attention, "I went to the swamp to investigate the remains of that ship..." then she pressed a few buttons on the holo table in the middle of the bridge. Only to have a blue holographic display of the swamp, which clearly showed the wreckage of the covenant supercarrier.
"No survivors were clearly found. Only thing remained was a ship made of a metal no one has seen yet. Seared corpses belonging to unidentified species, and radio signals on unknown channels."
"Radio signals?" questioned Jerome.
"Well, why yes," she then rotated back to face the Spartans and Jedi, "these radio signals use a frequency we have never seen... we have the transmitter, but it's no use." Then holding up her arm, she had a purple oval disc. It had a hexagon pattern on it, and had three antennas sticking out of the top. "We were able to record the broadcast."
Pressing a few buttons on the holo pad, static came to ear. It was very patchy and almost inaudible, but it was there.
"Kzzzzt—garbfekzzzzt... DiroveaaakkkzzzzzkVadagksszzzzfacheekrokstt..."
Turning it off, she spoke again, "the rest of the recording is too patchy to make out. Had the best radio workers in the inner side trying to figure it out."
"Damn, sounds like an elite," said Douglas.
Windu then crossed his arms again with eyebrow raised, "Is there any way to fix the static?"
Then Sarah shook her head, "I spent six hours of blood, sweat, and tears into just getting something. It's lucky we got this much."
"You make out anything?" Jerome turned to Alice.
"Not really, the Sangheili language is much like Mandarin Chinese. Thousands of different letters and thousands of words... it's really hard to say... but think I recognized the word 'Diro' though. It's the future tense of the word holy or sanctified."
"What do you mean, Sangheili?" Kenobi asked.
Alice then pointed to the table, "It's the language of the elites, the main ground soldier of the Covenant."
"And they are your enemies?"
"Enemies?" Spartan Douglas butted in, "Damn well be called the galactic Nazi's.
He again stroked the scruff of his beard, not really knowing what a 'Nazi' is, "Oh, I am sorry to hear that..."
The wheels in Jorge's head began to turn with what Douglas said. His mind went deep into the void of his train-of-thought. Just an idea quickly turned to a possibility, eventually the conversation around him began to muffle as more and more conception came to him. Slowly Seconds turned to minutes with this. Quick thoughts of Algebra turned to Calculus, or basic fragments of it. It didn't take long for one of the Spartans to notice his disappearance from the conversation.
Putting his hand on his shoulder, Jerome shook Jorge a little. "Jorge... Jorge?"
Finally coming to it, his mind was snapped back to reality, "what? Yeah?"
"We were discussing how to unscramble the radio broadcast… seems like you got something?"
After finalizing his thoughts, Jorge spoke aloud to the room. "Reason why you couldn't unscramble it might be because of the magnetic field."
"Explain?" Sarah said quickly thinking that his idea was a joke.
"Think about it. Reach's magnetic field could be higher or lower than this planet's. Could be staticky because of that."
Rolling her eyes, she turned around back to the holo table. The three Jedi Generals understood and were fairly interested. And Red Team? Mostly had no idea what Jorge was talking about. Douglas had a general concept of magnetic fields, but the science was far beyond what he knew.
Soldiers only know what they were trained to know, or what they had to learn themselves from trial and error on the field.
"Couldn't be this simple…" she whispered. Sarah didn't want to accept being outsmarted by a strange soldier. It was an insult to her, as she felt needing to be the smartest in the room.
Then after pressing a few buttons, changing the magnetic intensity of the recording, everyone was shocked. It not only fixed the recording, but made it far more clearer than before.
"Gars kyros'vi Nal… dar'wan Evo qvelnuh… Diro quel Ravarnojeh…"
It was a very strange message indeed, since it was in the Sangheili tongue. She only as a linguist was only given what her superiors knew, which wasn't a lot. Not many knew such a strange language… thousands of syllables created by a humanoid with mandibles, and not lips.
This transmission repeated again, and then nothing but static. It was quiet but noticeable.
Alice stood arms crossed looking down, "I recognize two words, Diro again, meaning holy, and quel… where have I heard that before?" Taking a moment to think, it eventually came to her. "Ah, the officers say it a lot when their troops are falling back or retreating, could mean something along that line."
Douglas eye-rolled from underneath his helmet, "Great, we know two words out of an entire gator sentence."
"Nice meeting you, but I've got things to go to and places to see," quickly moving out of the room, she went. General Windu was about to stop her, but Obi-Wan just shook his head.
"Such a strange woman…" thought Jorge.
She seemed a little agitated. Not like a allergy or an offensive word, but like a memory. As if the Spartans just being there gave her ghostly flashbacks that she wants to forget…
But nevertheless, Sarah then jogged through the bridge doors, and almost bumped into a clone officer that was going the opposite way. The bridge door closed behind her, and that officer was walking in their direction.
This man was holding a metallic clipboard, and after closer inspection, one could see a glowing screen with a strange chart and graph on it.
He held it to General Windu , with a concerned look.
"General, you should look at this."
Windu held it and began to read what was on there. As he did, his eyes slowly began to open wider and wider with shock.
"What is it?" asked Kenobi.
He took a deep breath, not knowing what to think, "We… just lost all contact with Doctor Vindi's laboratory."
"The entire company?" He shook his head, "do we have a view from the security cameras?"
"Playing them now General," said the clone pushing some buttons on the holo table.
With the blue sphere popped up, the display was all in blue. But it was not necessary for color, since it was detailed enough. As he pressed more buttons, like a security tape, he began to fast forward and rewind certain areas. Even so, it seemed this camera was outside of the bomb armory.
There wasn't much at first, at the start of the holotape was just troopers talking to each other, carrying boxes, etc.
But then, more troopers began to pour down the hallway. They started moving boxes and using them as cover. At least from view was ten clones in total. And a lieutenant, as one could tell because of his dark indents and black shoulder pads, hoisted up his duel pistols and began to open fire.
More shooting and violence, quickly turned to a battle as the other side (which was out of view of the camera) began to fire back. Plasma bolts pelted their boxes leaving black scorch marks.
The chaos of this continued on for several seconds, as more clones were killed. They were dropping at a rate that no droid could ever do. Not even a commando droid, with its advanced CPU could even land this many hits.
Like dominos the clones began to fall, and with it, their defensive line.
Then, one the lieutenant was hit in the head, falling back crashing into a crate behind. Sticking out of his head, examined by all the Spartans, surprised them a little.
Jerome shook his hands, "Hold on, rewind that."
The officer did what was asked, right before the clone fell over, and what they saw, confirmed the Spartans initial thought.
Flying into the clones head, as the camera reel showed, a Blamite Needle. It landed perfectly in between the clones eyes, killing him instantly.
No droid could have done this because they were not shot by droids…
Yet as such, not knowing what it was, the officer continued the tape…
Douglas inhaled, only to exhale with a "Damn…"
"I've never seen so many troopers killed so fast by droids General…" spoke the officer in shock.
"Those aren't droids…" Jorge interrupted, "their Covenant…"
All attention was quickly grabbed back to the hologram, and what was shown, confirmed the theory. It shocked the generals because they had never seen anything like it before…
An elite Zealot, would be colored in holy crimson if not for the blue holographic display. The purple displays on his armor did show a lot more vivid though since of the blue.
But he charged ahead, with his energy sword in hand. It was very bright, and was a design the Jedi had not recognized.
The remaining clones tried to shoot him, but he dashed through and over the boxes that they hid behind. Slicing through and moving through clones like butter, these soldiers were no opposition. This Zealot from the Spartans view had much experience destroying others that were not of their size. From marines, to now clones, nothing stood in its way.
These soldiers stood no chance against this Zealot. As these troopers were mauled by blades of plasma, more Zealots poured into the camera view.
Four Zealots, and what seems to be a Field Marshall in the back behind them. The Marshall had metal slabs on his shoulders and helmet, and was much bigger. This made him far more intimidating than the others.
All four had energy swords, and all four vaporized a clone company in under two minutes.
The screams were horrifying. Blood guttural moans, wailing screams, the slicing of victims, they were relentless. The Covenant never showed mercy… so why would they now?
Even off camera the Zealots were still doing damage. As they seemingly moved deeper into the laboratory, the screams only got louder. The bone crunching and mangling was a lot to take in.
After seeing and hearing enough carnage, Master Windu turned the projection off. He then held his fingers to the eyes and rubbed a little. "Do we know what they are... or why they are here?"
Jorge bent over a bit, leaning into the table and mumbling, "they can't give us a break can they…"
"General, if the Covenant is here, better have your best men ready, because this is gonna be a hell of a fight." said Jerome with arms crossed.
Before I say anything, I again would like to thank Red-Raptor-Writing and Samuel Warshaw for helping me Beta-Read this chapter. Their assistance for helping me make the story the best it could be really does mean alot. Without Beta-Readers like them, I would not be able to get these chapters out half as fast. And as such, I would like to give them an applause, it is people like them that make this story possible.
Again, thank you and keep up the good work!
Well yeah, I can see it took me a while to post this but I can explain, and something bonus to add.
So I went to Hawaii last week for vacation, and I forgot my laptop, and posting fanfiction from the phone is a little atrocious. So I figured I'd wait until I got back to post. Your guy's support even when I am behind schedule is very helpful. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and its new spoilers for the next one. But anywho, yall wanna see the bonus don't you.
So I had a long time off on vacation, and as such, a lot of story plotting and typing. As such, I have chapter 6 almost finished. So I will probably post it by Tuesday or Wednesday. And if push comes to shove, I WILL HAVE A CHAPTER BY FRIDAY. So Yall will get an early post, which granted, I am late so you ppl do deserve it. that is really all the announcements, so onto the questions!
As noted, the first Benevolent comment shout-out goes to...*drum roll* Lady KDQ !
holy crap, literally fifteen minutes after I posted chapter four? Dang that was super fast! WTF I don't think I have read any review that was that fast for any other story lol.
Ah yes, now it is time for the commented questions.
Guardian of Inheritance - Jctherebel - Flameis -rjconway2003 - yea, your guy's comments are very similar, so I'll answer them the same. I really do try to put out my best. I am kind of a prefectionist, so chapters do take a bit just naturally. I really want you guys to have the best of what I can offer, both story and in grammar. I will post a lot more often if I can try, and more Beta-Readers it would go a lot faster. And as such, I would like to thank my current Beta-Readers again, because they are the really reason why I get my chapters out faster.
Krieger 94485477 - yea, I can see that coming lol
osterreicher97 - I did not plan for it, but I guess yea. They may have different social differences, but in battle, Jorge and Red Team would be fun to watch in battle.
Anywho, all your comments truly mean alot to me. Every single comment adds a little twinkle in my heart that I am doing something right. Anyways, as expected, I thank you all for your patience, and I hope I did not disapoint any of you.
BUT LIKE WTF 200 FOLLOWERS! AAAAH I NEVER SAW THIS COMING!
not trying to geek out, but like actually, I maybe saw this story to get a hundred, but not as fast. But two hundred, this is so cooool. I mean my ultimate goal is 500, but eh one could dream right?
Your guys support is amazing, and I really am thankful for you!
As always, Stay safe, stay healthy,
~NoXXiMillioN
okay guys, as an update, I am officially posting tonight or tomorrow, no more waiting. this is as of 4/16/21