Chapter 24: In the Hands of the Traitor
Covenant Planet Killer Pandora's Box,
Linda peeked out into the main hallway and raised her sniper rifle with its suppressor and sighted an Elite walking. She got his head in her sights and held it still. Linda grabbed the bolt and quietly slid it back and then let it slide forward. But at the last second it got out of her fingers and clicked into place. The Elite held its breath but didn't turn around. He cocked his head a little bit and then continued to breathe normally. The Spartan brought the Elite's head back into focus and fired a shot. A quiet thwack followed. The bullet hit its mark tearing the Elite's head open. Purple blood splashed onto the floor and walls of the ship as the dead body fell to the floor with a muted thump.
"Oly Oly Oxen Free," she called out quietly. Three Spartans emerged from hallways ahead of her and covered the main one. She got up and brought her rifle up scanning down the long corridor. At the end she spotted their objective; the gravity lifts up through the command pylon to the brig. All around the lifts were the small portable plasma shields in an overlapping pattern. Something caught her eye and she saw a Grunt had peeked its head out from the corner of the hallway to her left.
"I've got one Grunt, most likely more with some Elites commanding," she reported.
"Roger, I'm looking at some schematics of the ship and it looks like there is a maintenance hallway directly to your right. It should lead you…above actually," Chris replied.
"How'd you get the schematics?" asked Will.
"AI, sister of Cortana actually, sent with Chief Mendez," he replied.
"I wish I had known about this, but we've been rushing this, see if there is another route for us to take. Linda, you come in from behind and do what you can until we come in," Will reported.
"Got it, moving now." Linda spotted the hallway and moved to it, she got inside but had to deactivate her shield. Slowly creeping along she arrived to a small ladder and started to climb up. The fifteen-foot rise would give her enough space to dangle out of the maintenance way and, hopefully, be undetected. She slowly crouched out towards the hatch and pulled out some of the high strength cord and wrapped it around a small conduit and then around her right leg. Linda again slowly crawled forward and took the hatch off. Slowly dropping down she was about twenty feet behind the Covenant. Before grabbing her rifle she spotted a Jackal standing almost directly beneath her. Her heart started to beat quickly as she grabbed the Jackal's head and snapped its neck. Linda quietly retracted back into the maintenance pathway and laid its body on the ground. Repeating the process she was hanging again and sighted an Elite in red armor. She fired and watched as the bullet tore a fist-sized hole in his head. Blood splashed across the walls and his comrades. The body slammed into the wall and slid to the ground. Linda quickly primed a grenade and bounced it into the group before escaping back to the passageway. A thud reverberated through the passageway as the frag grenade detonated. This time before going back out she checked it with an optic cable to scan the area. Almost all of the Covenant had been killed, save for an Elite that was missing an arm, a few Grunts who were to the side, and two Jackals who had used their shields to protect from the shrapnel. Linda just gave herself enough slack to put her waist at the edge of the hatch before bending over and firing a round at the Elite. Once she fired the other Spartans emerged from a maintenance hatch next to the gravity lifts. Erupting from the doorway was the staccato firing of SMG's, which tore apart the remaining Covenant. Linda unhooked herself and dropped down.
"We need to move fast, we have to get up these lifts before they lock them all down. Grab some of those shields in case they have a welcoming party," Will ordered. The group grabbed the shields and arranged them on the lift in the same overlapping pattern as they were originally in. Chris pressed on the console and felt the lift start to rise.
"The infidels have taken control of one of the lifts and are coming right now. Shall we lock them down and depressurize the lifts?"
"No, send a party of Grunts down to meet them, but let them get here, I want to meet one of them head on."
"Affirmative, sir."
Will heard a quiet squeak of a Grunt and raised his SMG's. The Lift stopped and he saw the Grunts were set up around five of the plasma shields.
"Three…two…one!" The group of Spartans jumped up and unleashed a withering hail of gunfire on the Grunts. One shot hit the methane tank on their backs and detonated it causing a chain reaction. The few remaining Grunts ran away but were shot down quickly.
"Something's up, if they wanted to stop us, they wouldn't use Grunts," Chris said with a hint of disgust in his voice.
"You're right, twenty Elites would've done more than twenty Grunts," Will replied, "But we have a break so we might as well expose it. Are there any other hatchways that would lead into the bridge?"
"They all converge into one, but there is one that would most likely be lightly or even not guarded. But we wouldn't be able to fit with our armor."
"I'll do, I'll strip down and go in. I'll cause a distraction until you can in," Kat said.
"It's too dangerous, we'll just find another way in." But it was too late, Kat had already started to take her armor off. She walked over to a door to their left and checked the room inside of it. After about two minutes she was down to the skin tight under suit that had the crystalline layer for AI's. Linda handed her the sniper rifle and extra ammo. Chris gave her the directions to go and she headed into the maintenance hatch on her stomach.
Kat arrived at the hatch and looked into the bridge. To her right was the gargantuan view port for the ship. To her left were consoles being manned by Elites and Grunts. The room had to be at least sixty feet wide and a hundred feet long. She brought the scope up to her face and felt the cold steel against her slightly bronzed cheek. In the background she kept hearing portions of a conversation in English but couldn't pinpoint what they were saying. Putting it aside she potted an Elite that was standing at a raised platform in the center of the command consoles. She put his head in her sights but held her fire. The conversation was more pronounced and she started to listen intently.
"The four of them are waiting outside of this door. If you want to live I suggest you stay in here until they decide to enter. Until then you will wait and continue to guard this door." Whoever was speaking knew English amazingly well and didn't have the typical warbling and throaty sound of an Elite speaking.
"I will wait, your Excellency, but I am disgraced at not being able to attack the infidels. But I want to be the first to attack them when they enter." The second voice was definitely an Elite. Kat tried to lean out and see who was talking but only saw a black shape with gold trimming on it. It was most likely just a high-ranking Elite. But when the Elite started to walk it turned out that it wasn't an Elite. It was the Master Chief. He quickly walked toward the view port before pulling out a plasma sword handle and powering it up. The blueish purple blade erupted from it and coalesced into a shimmering sword. The Chief started to walk towards where Kat was hiding. She started to slide back but the Chief swung his sword down and cut the hatch in half. He reached in and pulled her out by her neck.
"Who is this? You're new," he said. Kat stared at him with her cold blue eyes, "I didn't know the Spartans could be this beautiful. Except of course for Linda," he said glancing behind. Kat gave a glance behind her and saw another Spartan standing in the rear with modified Mark V armor on.
"You're my bargaining tool for when your friends arrive."