Chapter 22: Pandora's Curiosity
Orbital Defense Ring Alpha, Fall Back Position Zulu, Earth Equatorial Orbit, Sol System
The second to last escape pod pushed away from the docking bay and headed to the nearest UNSC vessel at full speed. The last pod sat with its engines warm. At the touch of a button it would fire away like the rest had. Two humans waited at it peaking down the main outer hallway. All along the hallway plasma scores and blood from different species covered the walls. Most of the lights were out; the ones that did work sat flickering. A jolt forced one of the humans out of their trance and they pulled their Battle Rifle closer to their shoulder.
"Fall back position Zulu? You copy?"
"Yes we copy, what direction?" one of them responded.
"Unknown, we got caught up…" there was a pause, "took some casualties and have been trying to locate an escape pod since then. We're approaching the main hallway now, just the direction isn't clear."
"We'll hold our fire to ID targets." Another male voice came over, stronger.
" This is Spartan Oh-Four-Three. My topo map shows us arriving about hundred meters in front of your position. For that distance we'll be in need of some cover fire so we can make it to you safely. How many of there are you?" One of the Humans shot a glance to its partner. Spartans, they both thought.
"There are two of us here, we've got a pod warmed up and ready for you to arrive," one responded. Almost at the same moment they finished a small group of Humans exited a hallway and sprinted directly to the pod station. A few seconds later two Spartans emerged and cautiously checked behind them before jogging towards Zulu. They did a final check before entering the small room. One of them bumped into a Heavy Recon soldier who was frozen in his place. The Spartan looked at what he was staring at and paused. It's head cocked to the side a tad before extending a hand.
"Oh-Four-Three here, that's Oh-Five-Eight over there. What's your designation?" he asked.
"Nine-Five-Two, and Five-Oh-One," the one who replied removed their helmet, "Chris and Kat, and you're Will and Linda. We were under the assumption that there were three Spartan-IIs on this mission."
"Not now, this ring is losing its integrity. We'll talk in the pod," Will replied tersely. The group obliged and moved into the last pod.
"None of those tags are coming up on my roster, Linda, I don't know who these Spartans are."
"I'm trying to do a background check on the tags but its classified information. Whoever they are, we aren't supposed to know who they are," Linda replied. She glanced quickly out the main window and watched the Covenant and Human ships duke it out. A Longsword bomber dropped down in front of them then quickly peeled off to attack the tear dropped Seraph fighters.
"So, I was under the impression we were being reinforced by three Spartan- IIs. But there are only two of you, did the third join another group?" Linda was standing in front of Chris facing the window. She spun her head to face him and stared at him.
"You mean to tell me you didn't hear any of the comm. transmissions?"
"No, Ma'am, I didn't," he replied innocently.
"Well, the third Spartan is dead, go look out the rear window and you'll see why," she replied coldly. Chris listened and looked out the rear window. His eyes caught sight of the huge hole in the ring and turned around.
"What happened," asked the other Spartan, Kat.
"His back was broken and he took out a whole Covenant boarding party with Lotus mines," Will replied, "But I have a question for you, who are you? I have no records of your existence." Chris turned around and looked at Kat. Will traced his eyes as they darted back and forth. Will heard the rustle of the marines behind him but didn't take notice.
"Tell me who you are, now," he said dangerously. Again, no one said anything.
"We're Spartan-IIIs, only about a hundred were trained and currently only five, including us, remain," Kat said quietly. Her voice had a melodic tone to it; it wasn't battle hardened and coarse, yet not innocent. She removed her helmet and let her shoulder length hair fall down. Will looked into her cool blue eyes. They were distant; they'd seen too much death for their young age.
"How old are you?" Will asked Kat directly.
"I'm twenty eight, you?" She was cunning. Will just shook his head and gave a slight shrug. Chris walked away from the window and slipped past Will and Kat.
"What ship are we heading too?" He asked to no one in particular. Linda stood next to the control consol and slowly nodded her head.
"We're heading for the Pandora's Box," she said out loud.
"I don't know of any UNSC ship with that name…" a marine interjected.
"It's not a UNSC ship," Kat replied. Filling up the main veiwport was the last functional Covenant Planet Killer. All around it Human ships were maneuvering to surround it.
"Oh…God…Oh…God…" a marine said while beginning to hyperventilate.
"It's plasma turrets were brought off line by a lucky MAC shot. With all of the UNSC ships moving around it, even the Covenant can't jump," Linda continued, "We're going to try and get on board relatively undetected, hundreds off escape pods and Pelicans are going to be launched at it in the hopes that we can get on board it. Hold on we're going inside of Pandora's Box, the place of all our evils."