Retrieval
His speed was readily increasing as he was propelled towards the ventral side of the Truth and Reconciliation. He thought that he might actually be smashed into the hard metallic hull; but as he came near to the ship's bottom, a circular door above him slid open and the gravity lift pulled him through the opening.
The Chief halted midair in a large room. He hovered above the floor for a few seconds as the remaining twelve marines shot up from the surface. As the Chief would've guessed, Johnson was the first of them; the rest followed. After they had all been lifted into the cruiser, the gravity generator deactivated and gently lowered all thirteen marines onto the floor. They raised their weapons and scanned the area with their eyes.
"We're in." sad Cortana. "I've got a good lock on the Captain's CNI Transponder. No Covenant defenses detected."
"That doesn't mean they're not here." said the Chief. He looked towards Johnson and motioned to him with his hand. Johnson nodded.
"Fall out," Johnson ordered, "double time!"
The marines formed a circle in the center of the room. They all searched, looking for signs of Covenant presence; none was evident. The Chief and Johnson broke formation and walked around, searching behind cover and in the shadows - anywhere that could conceal the enemy.
"What? There's no Covenant here?" said Mendoza, "Think maybe nobody's home."
The Chief and Johnson nosed around a bit more; they both seemed satisfied.
"We're clear." said the Chief.
"Fall out," shouted Johnson!
The marines stood and walked around, trying to find an exit from the room. All of the doors were locked. They couldn't find any way out.
"We may have to make our own way Chief," said Johnson.
The Chief saw something on his motion tracker, then another; soon there were at least a dozen blips moving toward the marine's position, and fast.
"We've got contacts," alerted the Chief, "lots of contacts."
The Chief could sense the marine's tension rise; he looked every which way trying to identify the door that they would come through first. The door behind them hissed open; they turned only to see nothing. The door closed.
Another door opened to the left, but still nothing; that door closed. The Chief still saw the objects on his tracker coming closer and closer; they were right on top of them.
The Chief tightly gripped the stock of his assault rifle; he pulled the trigger.
"Fire!"
The marines began shooting in all directions; their bullets were ricocheting off the walls and floor. They also illuminated four Covenant elites, who were all dressed in suits of light blue armor: infiltrators. One of them was directly in front of the Chief; he promptly beat the elite over the head with the butt of his rifle.
After being aggravated by the marine's deadly weapons fire, the elites stood back, withdrawing from their belts small handles.
The one facing the Chief lowered his hand down to his waist and activated the device. From the handle emanated a bright, shimmering, two pronged blade, nearly a meter in length. The glows of their swords were enough to brightly light the large cargo bay.
All four of the Sangheili dropped to their attack stances, their loud roars echoing off the walls and ceiling.
The one in front of the Chief lunged and swung at his head speedily with the deadly blade. The Chief anticipated this and quickly ducked, spun around and elbowed the elite in the gut. This caused the elite to drop his energy sword to the ground and fall back slightly. The warrior was only stunned for a second when he re-gained composure; but the Chief had already recovered the Infiltrator's sword and effectively sliced off his head.
"'No Covenant'!" Stacker quoted Mendoza "You had to open your mouth!"
The Chief looked back to see six additional dead bodies strewn around the room; only three were elites.
"That was way too close, Chief." complained Cortana.
The Spartan paid no attention to her as he counted how many marines were left. All of the original marines were still alive, but three of the novice ones had been killed by the elites. This would make it that much harder to reach the brig and Captain Keyes. The marines gathered in the center of the room and reloaded their weapons.
"Area secure, sir." reported Stacker, "But we'd better keep moving."
"What happened to all of those contacts, Chief?" Foster asked.
The Chief checked his motion tracker. The reinforcements had apparently left after the infiltrators had been eliminated.
"They're gone." the Chief answered.
"Just gone?" she asked.
"Yeah, just gone."
"Most likely because they're too darn chicken to come out!" Johnson stated.
"We need to find a way out, Chief." said Cortana. Mendoza pointed to the door near Stacker.
"How about that door?" he asked.
Stacker turned to the door and began tapping on the control console next to it. He let out a sigh of frustration. He had been attempting to access the servos for each door, but each time he tried it denied him access.
"The door's locked, sir." Stacker said with a sigh. "I can't bypass it. We can't get through here."
The other marines were also developing mild cases of frustration just thinking about their current situation.
The Chief walked over toward the direction that the elites had come from. He figured that the elites probably had forgotten to lock the doors behind them. Sure enough, when he stood in front of the door, it slid open.
When it separated, it revealed a large, dark corridor. The Chief motioned to the marines.
"Over here." The marines jogged to the Chief position and gazed into the corridor in uncertainty; there may have been more Covenant awaiting them in the shadows. The Chief fearlessly stepped out of the bay, into the corridor; Johnson followed after, almost as fearlessly. No other presence seemed evident in the dark space other than the Chief, Johnson and the hesitant marines.
"All clear." said the Chief.
The party moved on through the door way and down the inclined walk way. They rounded the corner and there before them stood yet another door. The edifice stood at least three meters tall.
"I don't believe this." said Cortana with an annoyed attitude.
"The Covenant sure do like their doors." said Stacker with the same attitude. Johnson yelled to Stacker.
"Stacker, open that door!"
The marine approached the controls and tried to bypass the security codes for the door. His efforts did no good.
"Sorry, Sarge." said Stacker, "I can't bypass it, we can't get through here."
"Don't be so sure," said the Chief, looking at Johnson. Johnson smiled, knowing exactly what was going through the Chief mind. Johnson turned to Dubbo, his demolitionist.
"Dubbo," Johnson said, "blow that door."
"You got it, sir!"
Dubbo unhooked his pack and set it on the floor. He opened it and pulled out a small device about as big around as his hand and stuck it on the face of the door; it was a satchel charge.
"How many Covenant are on the other side," asked Mendoza?
"I'm detecting at least twenty life signs in the next room." Cortana replied.
"Did you hear that, everyone?" asked Johnson. "Ya'll better get ready for some butt-kickin' action, because you're about to get it!"
Dubbo activated the remote receiver to the appropriate frequency and set the yield to medium. Johnson had the marines stand back, away from the door.
"Ya'll better stand back now," ordered Johnson," or this door's gonna' be your last meal!"
The marines stepped back as far as possible, crouched down and covered themselves. The Chief and Dubbo quickly rejoined their comrades and also crouched down. Dubbo withdrew a remote detonator from his pocket and held it in his gloved hand; he pressed the big red button.
It was as if some fool had opened the door to the bottomless pit and released a legion of savage demons, only the bottomless pit was a satchel charge and the savage demons a platoon of marines. Though their ferocity and battle cries were not nearly as wild as an angered monster, they still proved more than enough to put fear into their enemies.
The shrapnel which used to be the door scattered towards the Covenant that were nearby and cut them to ribbons. The marines all ran through the smoke, guns roaring, mercilessly pelting the feeble grunts who were hopelessly trying to find cover. The Chief shot at the Covenant who had taken cover behind the energy barricades
The marine's bullets reflected off the barricades and weren't able to reach the enemy. So the Chief withdrew a grenade from his belt and tightly gripped it in his hand, careful not to drop it. With careful aim, he threw the grenade toward the ground; it skipped across the distance that separated the marines from the Covenant and stopped.
The Covenant were too distracted by the marine's weapons fire to notice the deadly package that had been delivered.
There was nothing in sight. The Ooman's had been efficient in taking out the other aliens, as could be told by the colorful display of aliens all over the battlefield.
'Why don't these Ooman's take trophies from their prey?'
Guan was puzzled as to why they would create such a superior soldier yet not use him for hunting purposes; but he couldn't be distracted by irrelevant facts. This was a hunt. The hunt of a lifetime.
Guan approached the gravity lift that the Oomans had used to infiltrate the alien craft which he could hear humming hundreds of meters above his head.
'Wherever my prey leads, I will follow.'
Guan walked up the slanted side of the landing platform, proceeding to enter into the shimmering beam of light that he knew would bring him into the ship.
He began to experience himself being lifted into the air. Soon he was as light as a feather, being shot upward towards the alien vessel.
He had reached the end of his short journey. As he approached the vessel, the door above him opened and the gravity lift ferried him into a large space with an even more colorful display of aliens.
He sniffed around, making sure that he was the only one there; he smelled nothing. He shifted through his different visual modes: infrared, ultraviolet, heat imaging, low-light amplification, and motion detection; he saw nothing. The room was lifeless.
Guan began the task of tracking the path that his prey took. There were many passages that led out of the room, but there was only one that led to the Ooman. It was obvious that none of the doors had been forced; so he would check for a door servo that had been bypassed. After he surveyed each door, he found only one that could've been used. The door slid open, allowing Guan transit into a dark passage; everything was tranquil and still, so much so that he could hear the droning within the bowels of the alien vessel.
When he rounded the corner at the end of the corridor, he was faced by a door with a gaping hole with jagged and charred edges. It was apparent that his prey had used an explosive device to blast through the door.
Guan began to wonder why they would want to board an enemy vessel.
'What is the purpose?'
But he quickly regained himself, realizing that he was once again losing sight of his goal. What his prey is doing and why he's doing it must not interfere with the hunt.
Guan stepped through the opening, wafting the fresh smoke away with his hand. As he always did, he searched for signs of another presence, but yet again found none. Guan considered that these aliens realized as much as he did that this Ooman was out of the ordinary; they must've had previous encounters with him.
He mused to himself as to where his prey was now. The corridors of this vessel were not the ideal hunting ground; it was harder to detect motion, heat, and sound. All the senses Guan usually relied on were now slightly dampened. But he would have to make due.
He was trained for hunting with limitations. He would have to use the clues that his Prey had so graciously left him. Guan had the feeling even if he were on the ideal hunting ground, this Prey would still be elusive.
It was times these that Guan disliked. He had never liked the idea of technology playing a major role in the hunt, for it made one seem too dependent on something other than his own abilities. But Guan wasn't going to risk losing his Prey now; he was so close.
The door to the brig slid open, but there was nobody there. The Covenant grunts sniffed around, looking for the disturbance that had opened the door, but they couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the room and the grunts were blown apart; the Chief quickly stepped in and filled the flustered Covenant with lead.
As usual, it didn't take long for the Chief and his men to take care of business.
The Chief spotted a control panel at the back of the brig; he observed that each side had four cells parallel to each other.
The Chief stepped onto the platform at the far end of the room where the panel was located and pressed the button that looked most likely to deactivate the containment fields that trapped the prisoners inside the cells.
The force fields shut off. The marines were assisting the other prisoners while the Chief looked for Keyes. Entering the cell to the far right, the Chief saw him lying on the floor in the corner. He appeared to be exhausted, but the Chief's earsplitting entrance shook him up.
Keyes' half-closed eyes fully opened as the Chief reached down with his hand and pulled the Captain to his feet. Keyes glared at the Chief and sighed.
"Coming here was reckless," he scolded, "you two know better than this." He paused and smiled. "Thanks."
Johnson walked up to the Chief and the Captain, and gave a report.
"We found three of them in the other cells; they all seem to be pretty beat up."
"We'll have to get them all weapons," said the Chief. "Can they walk?"
"I don't know." Johnson looked backed to his men who were assisting the injured, looking for an answer.
Dubbo nodded at the Sergeant.
The Captain walked over to one of the alien corpses and picked up its weapon. It was a large weapon with a blue stock similar to most Covenant weapons except for one unique characteristic: it had at least two dozen thick pink "needles" erecting out of the top of it. The other three former captives also retrieved Covenant weapons.
Keyes walked to the center of the brig and gathered the marines.
"Marines, lock and load your weapons," he told them, "let's be ready to move."
"Yes, sir," responded Johnson.
"While the Covenant had us locked up in here," he began, "I overheard the guards talking about this ring world. They call it, 'Halo'."
"One moment, sir," said Cortana, "accessing the Covenant battle net." Cortana paused.
"According to the data in their networks the Ring has some kind of deep religious significance. If I'm analyzing this correctly they believe that 'Halo' is some kind of weapon: one with vast, unimaginable power."
"And it's true," added Keyes. "The Covenant kept saying that whoever who controls Halo controls the fate of the universe."
"Now I see," Cortana realized. "I have intercepted a number of messages about a Covenant search team scouting for a control room. I thought they were looking for the bridge of a cruiser that I damaged during the battle above the ring, but they must be looking for Halo's control room."
"That's bad news," said Keyes eerily. "If Halo is a weapon and the Covenant gain control of it, they'll use it against us and wipe out the entire human race."
He looked to the Chief with a grim look on his face. "Chief, Cortana, I have a new mission for you. We need to beat the Covenant to Halo's control room. Once we get out of here, we'll formulate an operation"
"Aye, Captain," Cortana responded.
The Captain lifted the "Needler" and took a deep breath and looked towards the Chief.
"Are we ready?" he asked. The Chief nodded.
"Marines, let's move."