The new Spartan stepped through the smoke, to find the one who wielded the plasma sword. He was gone.
"Damn, we're too late."
"I have located him, but to get there, we are going to need another shield generator. The one you have doesn't have enough energy to jump again. I'm marking it with a nav-point on your HUD now."
He ran off to find the oversized battery, then he would find his target."
**************************************************
"Where is everything, Cortana?" The Master Chief said. When he had killed that elite, the hall seemed to turn into smoke, but when the smoke cleared, the entire hall seemed to be devoid of life. And death, for that matter. Everything had vanished.
"I…I don't know…" Cortana said slowly. "I suggest, though, that we try to find a way off this ship, while we can. I'm going to pull up some of the ships logs, and see if they can provide an answer."
"Fine." And with that, the Master Chief set off to where he remembered the hangars to be.
After a while, it was clear that he had no idea where he was going.
"Cortana, where are we?" He asked
"Not where you think we are." She replied, "You'll never believe it, but this isn't the Bountiful Hunter. Well, at least not the way we remember."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, according to the ships schematics, this is the Bountiful Hunter. Only it seems to have been heavily overhauled. The outer hull is made of a completely different material, and the engines resemble those of a CCS-class warship, only much smaller.
"But in order to do that, they must have at least needed some time to redecorate the place, right?"
"Yes, which brings me to my next point. I don't think we are where we were a few minutes ago. Actually, to be technically correct, I don't think we are where we were a few years ago."
"Great. I have a plasma sword on low energy, and I'm on a ship in the future. I the Covenant managed to continue the Immortus Project, then there won't be much I'm going to be able to do."
"In which case, you definitely aren't going to like this. This ship is Earthbound. Which wouldn't be too bad, except for the fact that it has an entire load of Immortus-III products on it. I advise that we try the get off this ship right now. I'm brining up a nav-point or the nearest exit now."
The Master Chief was just about to run to the exit, when he heard a low voice suspiciously like his own shout.
"WAIT!". The Master Chief turned around to see another Spartan. Although this Spartan was different, somehow. His battle suit showed a likeness to his own, but had more defined sections to it."
"Who are you?" He said, activating plasma sword. It shimmered and sparked a few times, as a result of the lack of energy it had, but stayed active.
"You." The figure said calmly.
"He's right." Said Cortana as if in a dream.
"Well, not quite. He's the future you." Said the AI in the other suit in a manner-of-fact tone. It sounded exactly like Cortana.
"You're what?" The Master Chief asked the other Spartan.
"You. I'm you. I'll try to explain later, but at the moment, our orders are to get to the bridge. Now."
"Give me one reason I should believe you." The Chief said.
"I don't need a reason. Either you come with me, or you become cannon-fodder. It's your choice." And with that, the future Chief ran off. With a sigh, the original Spartan reluctantly followed.
He had quite a time keeping up; this new Spartan seemed to be a lot quicker than himself. They encountered very few enemies on board this craft, and any they did encounter, were efficiently dispatched by the future Chief. Even the grunts here seemed to be a lot more muscular than he remembered them to be.
"Getting to the bridge will allow us to take control of the ships steering. Once the Covenant realise where we are, they will try to launch an assault on us, but should only be able to use close-combat weapons, due to the fragile nature of the circuitry on the bridge. We will have approximately five minutes to do our job, and get out of there," Cortana was filling the original Master Chief in on the mission specifics. "Then, we need to make our way to the engine room. It should provide enough radioactive disturbance to prevent the Covenant from tracing our jump back to the 'past '".
The doors to the bridge opened up, and what met both of the Master Chiefs eyes was not what they were hoping for. It seemed that the reason that the halls were empty was because most of the Covenant were waiting to ambush them at the bridge.
"Maybe we should come back later" said the original Master Chief uncertainly. He turned around slowly, only to meet the other half of the crew forming behind them.
"You should be able to use this" The future Chief threw a now outdated plasma rifle the Spartan. "Get to the controls. Try to take the ship away from earth. Then destroy the panel. I will try to hold the enemy. On my mark. Three…..two……one……go!"
They both ran forward, weapons blazing, the light of the elites shields reflecting off the shiny walls. The future Chief ran into an elite, and shoved the butt of his rifle into its face. Knocked back, the elite fell into one of its friends, who pushed it back.
The rounds of his rifle were aimed at the right shoulder of the elites. It was rumoured among the regiments, that there was a switch that controlled the shield active state of the elites, and was placed there. No-one had survived long enough to test this out, though. Either way, if it didn't make them easier to kill, it would make them using their right hands for holding weapons a whole lot more difficult.
Two elites ran towards the original Spartan, he turned around, and pushed his sword into the stomach of one of them. While the elite was pulling the sword out itself, he shot the other elite with the plasma rifle, before turning back and trying to fight his way to the control panel.
An elite jumped into the air, with power that easily surpassed the original Chiefs, and brought its sword down onto the future Chiefs helmet. The Master Chief dropped to the floor, and all of the elites turned to the Spartan that still moved.
"Hurry up!" The original Cortana shouted into the Master Chiefs helmet. "I have all of the information necessary to modify the ships course, but I need to be inserted into that terminal in front of you. Hurry!"
The rifle he held was beginning to overheat.
"Damnit" The Master Chief said under his breath, as he ran as fast as he could to the control panel.
Another elite lunged at him from the side of the room, and tackled the Chief, sending them both sprawling to the ground. About five other elites jumped onto him, in an attempt to prevent him from moving. Their armour was more heavy than the Master Chief had thought they had been. He could lift humans, cars, even tanks without effort, but this was just too much for him. He lay there, trying to figure out what to do.
There was a clunking sound, followed by rapid fire as each of the elites got back onto their feet, and started firing their weapons at their enemy.
The Master Chief attempted to get up, but two plasma rifle barrels were held in front of his face. He laid back down, and saw the control panel, thirteen feet, Cortana informed him, away.
One by one, the elites fell, but the firing was getting slower, as the plasma weapons of this ally were overheating.
The Master Chief brought his arms down by his side slowly, so that he didn't alert his Covenant 'guards'. Then he forced his elbows into their knees, and with a sickening crunch, they broke. No longer able to hold up the elites that owned them, they buckled, and the Master Chief grabbed both rifles, and brought them onto the backs of the elites that had fallen to his mercy.
He watched as he saw that the future Chief had somehow gotten back up and was firing two plasma rifles at any elite that opposed him, hitting them with deadly accuracy.
These elites were stronger, faster and more accurate than the Chief could ever hope to be, and yet there he was, his future self, killing them off, like they were a pack of grunts.
"The control panel…." Cortana woke him out of his trance. The Master Chief turned and jogged over to it. "Right, now follow my instructions exactly…" she said, and walked him through it, as the future Chief picked off anything that got close to the panel.
A few seconds later, a loudspeaker announced something in the Covenant mother tongue, and the original Spartan stood back and fired upon the panel, until it was reduced to nothing more than a pile of burning circuits. Then, both Spartans stood back to back, and fired all four of their rifles, at the remaining elites, while making their way to a door. The future Spartan dropped his, having spent all of their energy while the ships course was being reset, and picked up a new pair.
They finished off the last few elites, before entering a hallway, and locking the door behind them.
Well, that's another chapter complete. Sorry it took so long; what with all of the coursework and stuff I couldn't find the time to do it, but Chapter 5 is finally here. I will try to explain all of the time-travel stuff in the next chapter, when they try to get…no…you can wait until the next chapter :) Well, enjoy, people. Oh, and thanks Sxith-mon, for pointing out my errors. On consultation with my dad (ex-squaddie), I realized that there were a lot of differences in the military life that I wouldn't have thought even mattered. I shall try to be more accurate from no on, but still, if anyone finds errors, please report them to me. Oh yeah, and Please Review!!!! :) "I see the end coming. I see the darkness spreading. I see death." Cool :)