Chapter 27: Leap of Faith

Pandora's Box, Location Unknown…

The door in front of the Spartans slid open silently revealing grayish white clouds. Will took one last step before plummeting out of the ship. Purple metal flew past him as he brought his legs and arms tight against his body. He gave a slight look backwards and saw three other sage green shapes flying after him. Below and behind him was what looked like a huge troop barge. Three gravity lifts were connected to the barge and black shapes were already moving around on it. Will pushed the hordes of Covenant out of his mind and concentrated on the task in front of him. Surviving. He checked his altimeter and it read 40 km but on an alien world you he could never be sure. A sudden sense of vertigo hit him as the clouds started to rush at him.

"Once we get visibility again I want get into Echelon Right." Three acknowledgment lights. Sometimes he missed real voices compared to three blue dots. Will felt the wind start to tug on his equipment but he knew the magnetic clips would hold. Water started to splash off his suit as he fell through the cloud. He gave quick glance back and saw the three blue triangles that were his comrades moving farther and farther away. Will pulled himself out of his dive and spread his arms and legs out, slowing his descent. Suddenly he exited the clouds and saw that he was in the middle of a sandwich. The clouds below him were a lot darker and menacing looking.

"Heads up, we've got a layer of clouds below me that look like a nasty storm."

"Okay, by the looks of it the light is almost gone," replied Linda.

"Thanks, speed up to me so that we can enter this together." Right as he finished the other three Spartans fell in around him and matched his speed. He took his right hand and angled it almost vertical and took off in a dive again. If there were a lot of side drafts it was best to blow right past them. The vertigo sensation came back again as he entered the storm cloud. Immediately upon entering it he was buffeted by the winds and rain inside of the cloud. He constantly had to move his arms and legs to counter act the winds and turbulence but it was no use. He started to roll side to side and rock back and forth.

"Shit," Will said as he did a 360. Right as he thought he would never leave the cloud he dropped out of it and was looking at something he never expected to see. Below him was a giant megalopolis of purple buildings and the ghostly blue of plasma. It was hard to make out anything in the torrential down pour but he could definitely see something of interest. Near the middle was a building that looked like a cylinder had been cut in half and separated apart. The two parts sat on top of a pyramid like structure that dominated the Covenant skyline.

"Do you think this is-," Kat started to ask.

"Yeah, yeah I do," Will cut her off. Will went back to concentrating on the building that was clearly larger than the others and would be the most likely house someone of importance.

"We're heading towards that building over there," he said as he put a nav point on it. He them shifted his body so that he resembled a wing so that with every meter lost he would gain one in distance. He immediately felt the lift and started to hurry towards the building. All of the crafts that were flying around the city were staying away except for one that had dropped down from the clouds and headed straight for it.

"Wanna bet that's the Chief?" Linda asked.

"I will," replied Chris. A quiet alarm started to whine in Will's ears as he started to reach a low altitude. He grabbed a small cable that was strapped next to waist and yanked on it. A gold sheet sprang from the parachute backpack and created a pocket of air slowing him down quickly. Luckily the now dark sky hid the incredibly shiny, yet incredibly strong material from view. It took about a minute to coast towards the building and see that there were plasma turrets all along a high wall along with what appeared to be Brutes standing atop it. Thankfully the night sky enveloped them and they slipped over unnoticed. About halfway down the two buildings was a landing pad that had a Phantom sitting there. It was the best place to land so that's what they did. The four Spartans landed on the pad and got rid of their parachutes. Each one of them reported that it was clear. Chris and Kat took a knee and started to watch the two walkways leading to the pad while Linda and Will checked inside the Phantom. Seeing that it was clear they came back out to see a startling site. Surrounding the landing pad were brutes with their weapons lowered on them. Standing in front of Chris and Kat was the John and Linda.

"I knew you were going to get here eventually, I just didn't think you'd be this ingenious," the Chief said. The already heavy rain started to fall harder and caused all six of the Spartans' shields to become visible.

"Move them on to the Phantom, we're going to go see the Holy One immediately," Kelly said.

"Where is Dr. Halsey?" Will asked directly.

"I wouldn't know, the last time I saw her was when the Holy One chose me."

"Stop this Holy One bullshit." One of the Brute's gave a roar and was about to fire. But a blue glow circled him and he fell to the floor. Will looked at the Chief and saw a blue circle around him that was blocking the rain. '

"Insubordination will not be tolerated on all sides," he said, his voice twisted and warped again, "Load them on now so that we can leave. We are setting in motion things that have not happened for thousands of years."