XIII
Kipp knew staring at the rear view mirrors every few seconds wouldn't yield any new results. He expected to see one of the stocky aliens appear in the closer-than-they-appear mirrors, staring at him with its beady eyes of malice. And then it would slap a plasma grenade to the M-18 and blow him to hell. He really didn't know what else to think. The man was an easy target, stationary and immobile. He'd done what he was asked: he drove the M-18 around to the receiving dock of the compound, trailer facing the sealed bay doors, and waited. A simple assignment, and yet his anxiety was through the roof. He preferred to be mobile, his sidearm in hand with a full view of his surroundings; but no… he was here in a cold truck with terrible blind spots.
"Where the hell are you, Naomi?"
The woman had been missing for the past ten minutes. She'd gotten out of the truck after four minutes—Kipp counted—and said she would survey the area. Survey the area. Maybe that was code for I'm not being isolated in this target-of-a-truck. He wanted to get out and look for her, but his legs made the decision for him by remaining like concrete. Rey had given him his orders. Until they had the Engineer in hand, he was to stay put. He wasn't going to screw that up, even though every mental inclination practically screamed at him to do the opposite.
The passenger door cracked open.
Kipp jumped for his sidearm, snatching it from his hip holster and aiming it at the door.
Naomi stood on the opposite side with her hands up. "Whoa, calm down!"
Kipp lowered the gun, holding his free hand over his beating chest. "Where were you? You can't just leave like that, y'know? We're in the middle of a hellstorm!"
"I'm aware." Naomi climbed up into the truck and shut the door. She laid her rifle across her lap and leaned forward to snap on the M18's dashboard computer. A spinning UNSC insignia dematerialized into a dozen cubes before an interface appeared. Naomi selected their location and accessed the motion sensors. Still nothing.
"There's an opening around the corner from the receiving doors. Looked like it was blasted open. I went inside to check on Astrid's theory."
Kipp looked at her with pursed lips behind his balaclava. There was no point of telling her just how dangerous and risky her actions was. He only shook his head like a disappointed parent and inquired. "And what did you find?"
"I heard some movement inside. They may be using the receiving bay as additional living quarters. Once we get the green light, blowing those doors will likely make them scatter to warmer areas of the compound. That should clear a path for the others to get through."
"Or it could lead a herd of freezing Grunts directly in their escape route," Kipp countered. "I wonder what's going on in there? Think they're okay?"
Naomi turned away from Kipp, staring out of the window without a destination for her eyes. She wondered the same thing. Had they found the Engineer? Were they fighting for their lives? The radio had been dead silent. Rey wanted to keep the channels clear of all non-essential chatter. If you didn't have anything raid-critical to say, then you kept to yourself and off the radio; and that included checking on the welfare of someone. Jacen wasn't an idiot, she knew. He wouldn't do anything to get himself killed.
Naomi turned aside from her reflection in the window. "I'm sure they're fine."
Jacen flipped a Grunt that had clawed its way on his back and threw it down to the floor. He put two rounds from his pistol into it's torso, swiftly spinning around gun down another on approach. The alien dropped, giving way for a trio to take its place. They were unarmed, angry and persistent. He backed into a maintenance closet, grabbing the first object he could get his hand around. A caliper was stuffed in a plastic container with a Chapman set that was missing most of its parts. He took the tool in his hand, throwing it at the closest Grunt among the three. It reeled back from the impact, largely unfazed.
A pair of strong hands latched onto Jacen's shoulders and pulled him back with enough force to give him whiplash. He was thrown to floor, seeing Damon rush around him with plasma pistol and shot an overcharged shot. The bolt of emerald plasma boiled away the Grunt's lower jaw and a portion of its neck before it fell forward. Jacen got up, draining his last three shots into the heavyset creatures, killing one and injuring another. Damon shoved his weight into the sliding door, pushing it close as it struggled to move across its track. A dozen more Grunts began to stampede toward them. Jacen dropped his sidearm and assisted Damon, pulling as the army corporal pushed. The Grunts reached the closing gap, their thick arms reaching and swiping. Jacen forced them back with a few kicks until Damon was able to shut the door.
"That's not going to hold," Damon struggled to say between breaths. The door shook behind him from the Grunts pounding on the metal, sending bone-shaking vibrations through his body. He caught his breath. "That's three rooms. All clear. Where's that friggin' floating squid?"
Jacen picked up his sidearm, reloading his last magazine. He was beginning to think the Engineer wasn't even here. It was probably somewhere else, tinkering with some crap that was more interesting. Or the Grunts may've sealed it away once they knew the humans were back. Hell, he didn't know. What he did know was that ammo becoming more and more precious after every shot, and more disheartening when one of those shots missed. The Grunts were massing, flooding in from every direction it seemed. They had no weapons for the most part, but Jacen knew their strategy: soften them up first. Once they ran out of ammo, the Grunt soldiers would come in and finish them off. Smart little critters.
"We're wasting time," he said. "It's not here. Maybe Rey and Aiden have had better luck."
Damon shook his head. "It was bad idea to split up like we did. If they get overwhelmed, they won't have us to back them up."
"Back them up with what?" Jacen grunted. "At this point, we'll be throwing shell casings at the Grunts. We need weapons, Covenant weapons."
"Yeah, good luck with that." Damon moved away from the door, tethering his empty M7 and swapped to his sidearm. "Let's keep moving."
Jacen prepared to say something, but Damon held up his finger as his earpiece came alive. It was silent as first, but he could hear slow, controlled breathing. "Rey?"
Still nothing.
He looked at Jacen with a shrug.
"Damon."
Damon knew he heard his name, but the voice was too low to catch anything else. He and Jacen moved to the next area, scoped it to make sure it was clear, and advanced through what appeared to be the server room. All the tech was decommissioned as some of the bundles of wiring had come loose and hung low like the moss from weeping willows.
"Damon, come in."
The corporal took a knee. "Captain?"
"Did you find the prize?"
Damon strained to hear the man. "That's a negative, and why are you whispering?"
"Because I have three Grunt heavies right in front of us. We've located the oxygenator. Still no sign of our primary target, but that may change. I'll drop a NAV on our position, but keep a low profile. The heavy hitters are out now. We may be getting close."
"Copy that," Damon nodded with an acute smirk. "We're headed your way." The radio went silent and looked at Jacen. "Time for the fireworks."
"Hell yeah," Jacen agreed.
It was a brief trek to reach the NAV marker Rey had dropped. The two men passed through two additional rooms connected to the servers and another containing secondary storage equipment for the ventilation wing before coming within ten meters of the NAV beacon. They slowed their progression, taking one step at a time—heel-toe, heel-toe.
They approached the next room that was mostly dark with an inkling of light. Jacen went inside first, pulling down his NV monocular. His heart catapulted into his throat when he saw Rey and Aiden crouched low underneath a workbench that extended from the wall. Rey held up his finger where his mouth would be and waved them over. Crawling on their hands and knees like babies, Jacen and Damon went over to Aiden and Rey and positioned themselves beside them.
Rey gestured to the open doorway. "Look."
A quick examination revealed what Rey had informed them beforehand: three Grunts, heavily armored in hulking bluish-emerald armor and armed with plasma rifles. They gathered around the oxygenator like children confused over a mysterious spectacle they'd never seen before. Chirps and growls were exchanged between them, growing in hostility until one shoved another.
"What happened?" Damon asked Rey.
"Sabotage at its finest," answered Rey. "We damaged it, cut a few lines. Still functional, but it sent out a warning alarm. Grunts came running to check it out."
"Safe to say they don't know how to fix it," Aiden added.
"D'you think they'll… ?" Damon left his words in the air.
Rey shrugged, finishing his incomplete thought. "One can hope."
The men sat in silence and watched. The shoved Grunt answered back in rebuke, grumbling before lumbering out of the room. For an agonizing ten minutes, the only action was observing the remaining Grunt heavies argue with one another as they examined the oxygenator. One of them held one of the severed wires in its hand, royally pissed. It stomped away, kicking over a container of liquid methane. The fluid spilled out over the floor, splashing out near the boots of Rey.
Not so much fun when your crap's broken, huh? Rey thought to himself. Now you know how we feel.
In time, the Grunt that was shoved eventually returned. It waddled into the room, glancing over its shoulder for a moment before coming in to stand near the oxygenator. Rey could've sworn time slowed to a crawl when the Engineer floated into the room. His mouth parted open. There it was, the elusive beast they were here to capture. It was one thing to see it in a virtual hologram that DEV produced to reality. He couldn't have spoken if he wanted to. This was the alien that would possibly save their lives, or at least give them a glimmer of hope.
A chain of paralysis had suddenly struck the men at the sight of it. All the planning, all the fighting had led them to this solitary moment. There was no way in hell they were failing now. They were going to capture that Engineer and bring it home. No exceptions.
Rey shouldered his battle rifle. "Get ready. Wait until we have a clear shot on the heavies."
Jacen gripped his sidearm so tight that he felt he was going to crack the handle. The Engineer gracefully went over to the oxygenator, extending two of its six appendages to carefully lift the cut wires. Each tentacle split into a dozen needle-fine cilia, wrapping around the wire and eloquently mended them back together that was a show in itself.
The Grunts surrounded the Engineer—one in the center and two off to the side.
Rey tensed. They would need to be precise with their shots. One erred shot and they risked injuring or—worst yet—killing the Engineer. It was now or never. The alien would finish the repairing the oxygenator at any moment. They has to act.
Rey gave the order. "Engage!"
The four men rolled out from underneath the workbench and stormed into the room. Rey fired first, sending a pair of three-round bursts into the Grunt on the far left. It dropped before it could react. Jacen was next. The middle Grunt spun around in shock, but Jacen was already practically on top of it. He aimed his sidearm at point blank range and squeeze off three shots into its head and throat. Lastly, Damon and Aiden team shot the last Grunt heavy standing. It toppled over, its plasma rifle falling out of its lifeless hand.
"Clear!" Damon announced.
"Let's work fast, people!" Rey said. He unslung his pack and unzipped it, carefully extracting the IED Kipp had rigged up.
The Engineer turned and looked over the dead bodies of the Grunts and the human visitors with little interest. It went back to the oxygenator and reached out another tentacle to repair the second cut wire.
Rey moved around it, peeling off the adhesive on the back of the IED and placed it on the base of the oxygenator. The Engineer suddenly chirped, pulling back from the severed wire and angled its elongated neck down at the bomb. With a gentle push, it moved Rey back and began tinkering with the bomb.
"No!" Rey jumped between the IED and the Engineer, easing the alien away from it. It's body felt peculiar to the touch, hanging somewhere between a hard and soft material. The alien didn't fight back, but simply flexed an ounce of its strength and lifted Rey up and gently placed him out of the way and went back to investigate the strange object placed on its project.
"Aiden!" Rey shouted.
"You got it." Aiden went through his own rucksack and fished out Kipp's modified bubble shield. He didn't know exactly how the device would operate, but he trusted Kipp knew what he was talking about. He ran over and placed the canister under the Engineer and hit the activation switch before stepping back.
In that instant, a shimmering sphere of gold, transparent light with hexagon imprints enveloped the Engineer. The alien shrieked, tentacles flailing. It quickly regained its composure and reached out to touch the interior, only to be met with resistance.
Damon went up to the bubble and placed his hand where the Engineer's tentacle was touching. His hand didn't phase through, even when he applied a modest amount of pressure. "Kipp's a friggin' genius."
"We can stroke that nerd's ego later," Rey barked. "For now, let's get it out of here! Pearce and Aiden, you're on bubble control. Damon, we're support. I'm setting the charge for three minutes. Move!"
Jacen and Aiden got on either side of the bubble pushed it toward and out of the open doorway. The Engineer bobbled inside, bouncing against the interior as it was being transported. Rey and Damon relieved the dead Grunts of their plasma rifles and went out into the hall, one in front and the other behind the bubble.
Rey jumped on the radio. "Bravo Team, get in position! We've got the prize and we're heading out now!"
"You're joking?" Aaron replied after a twenty second delay. "Holy hell, you actually found the thing. Copy that. Moving!"
"Roger that," Naomi came in, her voice stricken with shock and disbelief. "Moving into position. Give me the green light and I'll light this place up!"
"Not yet," Rey reasoned. "Wait until we're closer. I'll let you know."
"I can't believe this might actually work," Kipp added.
Rey laughed. "Stay alert. We're not out of the woods yet."