Chapter 10: Friends in Various Places
"Fuck. Me. Running." Zaeed had been in quite a few compromising positions in his life. He'd been scolded by his mother (a lot), gotten some… unfortunate STI results back from ScrubSec, too much to count. Yet, he'd never been effortlessly carried by a fully grown Sangheili warrior. That one took the cake. Ate it, too.
"You sure you couldn't have just let me die?" He groaned, blood still trickled down his face, the medigel dulling the pain. He'd heard that Sangheili medicine had improved in the years following the end of the Covenant, however, he'd never thought they would carry human medigel. Or any medigel at all really.
"As much as I would rather not carry you, human, you are a high-ranking officer of your military, which means you might have the answers," The Sangheili cleared the rubble of the tunnels, the light blinding the marine's face briefly, before his eye adjusted to the shock, "we are looking for."
Zaeed was in a fireman's carry, which didn't give him the best view of the city. But, as he turned his head, he couldn't help but gasp. "What… what happened!"
"Ah, it seems you were underground before the explosion-"
"Not answering the question pal!" The city had looked rough before, two weeks of interplanetary warfare tended to do that. But… God. The Spire, the stout marble skyscrapers, all had been, reduced… Reduced to rubble. A small Raptor vessel skirted the smoking ruins, poking the dying city with bright, booming power every so often, power that rumbled far off, signaling the end for another pocket of… whatever was left.
"The vessel your stronghold was harboring performed an in-atmosphere jump, likely to escape the orbital bombardment that had commenced on it's shield. I'd also suggest you be quiet, we aren't alone out here." The Alien growled.
"Oh…" Zaeed fell silent. The air tasted of iron and ash. Twilight was colored queerly, hints of green and purple burned across the sky. Smoke swam in this torrid glow, and ash swirled into twisted caricature, mocking the gentle clouds forced into retreat.
The fate of this city hung in the air, the purple snow twinkling in the choking smoke. "We are close to my camp human, try not to annoy my fellows-" Something whizzed past them, and the alien hit the dirt in the blink of an eye. A roar of displeasure met the rancorous snaps of the Raptor's guns. The Sangheili screamed something alien, before sloughing Zaeed into the dirt. In a moment, a plasma rifle was in hand, and blasting it's glowing retort in the general direction of the enemy. "Use this human!" Zaeed barely caught the plasma pistol lobbed towards him.
"Is this a fucking antique!?" The marine fumbled briefly with the circular weapon, before launching his own barrage of fire down range. Christ. Pinned down in the middle of a street… They were of course lucky. The wide boulevards of New Landing were usually not marked with terrible craters, and thus, would have been a killing field if not for the massive hole in the pavement. Raptor siege warfare once again working against them. The Warrior took a long look down range, shields absorbing the few stray pellets that managed to hit him, before pulling back into the little foxhole they now called home. "You don't happen to have any smokes!?" Zaeed shouted.
"I would have used them! It seems their holdout is 120 meters up street, I will shield you in a dash toward cover."
"What?" Zaeed was pulled into a bear hug as the alien leapt into the air, in a sprint toward the slightly more defensible ruins of… something. The plinks of Raptor bullets impacting the shield scattered like rain, before something got through. A sharp sting brought Zaeed back from awe-struck contemplation- shit, his hand! The biting heat of his new wound settled on him as they reached cover. "Fuck you!" He directed at no one in particular. He hoped his voice carried to the encampment. Or that his shield would magically start working again. Either or really.
A voice squawked in the alien's headset, and a fierce bout of yelling began between the alien and presumably the alien's contact. Zaeed took the time to peek back onto the street. A bullet zipped past him for the trouble. Okay, fine. Fuck you. That didn't stop him from seeing the slow, inexorable advance of the Raptor force. "The enemy is advancing buddy! You have a plan?"
"I'm working on it human! Hold them off!"
"With what!" The Elite tossed it's storm rifle without a second thought, returning to it's debate with his handler, or whoever. It was a hefty thing, practically as big as his arm, but it'd have to do. He maneuvered the weapon, and began to spray-fire the thing into the street, hoping it'd at least give them second thoughts. Still, it wouldn't hold them off for long. Indeed, it barely stemmed the wave of fire that quickly rendered the weapon a smoking piece of junk. Zaeed barely had time to shout before the Elite latched onto his shoulder, and pulled him away from the blossoming power of a plasma explosion.
A sharp beam of green erupted from a fuzzy mass of air in the sky, casting the surroundings in an emerald sheen. The earth shook as the ray smashed into the ground, and the unlikely pair was buffeted by a wave of hard air and sweltering heat. The marine, weak from his injuries, barely weathered the storm of hot plasma. The second blast swept him off his feet in short order. The third beam was probably overkill. In a moment, the patterns of sharp air seemed to refine, first into shape, then color, and then fully into the phantom that had been their savior. It lowered itself quickly to the ground, taking cover among the ruins as a tractor beam emerged from the bottom.
"Quickly human!" The warrior was on his feet in a snap, dragging the marine by the armor plates. As the adrenaline thudded softer in his ears, and his body was ushered quickly into the air, and into the safety of the newly cloaking craft, his eyes lingered on the smoking ruins of the street, and the dazed survivors -the few there were- ogling the sight in awe.
John shoved the garage door back open. "Let's go." He said tersely, sending the boy scrambling out. No vehichle again...
At least Kaiden was good at following orders. A lucky thing, as John had little experience with children who didn't. The kid was superbly light-footed, extremely quiet. Only spoke when spoken to. There was certainly something more to that. Not many children went through what he had survived. Few saw what he saw. Fewer lived to tell of it. John debated saying something to him. And yet, he couldn't think of anything. John's trauma therapy had mostly consisted of… nothing. Hell, he'd never really been punished for anything in his life...
He was never one for tricks and pranks, he had to admit. That was… he… what was his name? On Reach, it was Kurt wasn't it? Who played that joke on Kelly? Or was it Linda? He tried to see their face, the smile they sported, the laugh they shared before being silenced… a host of faces flashed before him. All of his friends, their eyes, their noses, Linda's fiery hair, Grace's faint freckles, Anton's… he couldn't remember Anton-
"Chief? Your vitals are spiking, are you doing alright?"
Cortana. He remembered her at least. "I'm fine Cortana." It seemed she didn't agree, being that she appeared in a dialogue box with a look of determined concern. Kaiden was quicker on the draw.
"Who's Cortana?" Came a choked voice. Fuck, I thought I'd- Cortana took the lead.
"Hi! My name's Cortana, I'm your friend's AI." The AI managed in a whisper through John's speakers.
"Cortana…" John began, (muted this time) as he pulled the boy into a studier piece of ruin.
"Oh, uh, that's cool. What do you do?" Kaiden asked, mimicking the almost breathless whisper of his new companion. Something brightened in his eyes for a brief moment, and the huff of 'wasting time' and 'dangerous territory' seemed to die in John's throat. Cortana was already responding to the question as the Spartan eked out a silent "3 minutes."
It was a quick three minutes. The child spit out questions about as fast as Cortana could answer, and for a moment, things almost seemed, okay? He couldn't describe the feeling he felt watching the exchange, seeing the little twitch of a smile edge into Kaiden's expression, the… cute..? Little attempts he made to stifle his laughter tugged at something he'd never felt before. When Cortana cut the kid off, a part of John almost regretted it. "Let's get a move on." he grumbled, briefly checking his surroundings, before marching back into the street. There was a weapons depot close by.
That brief ray of light was quickly shoved into the small part of John's brain, where he held his good memories. All around him was death. The purple flecks floated ever-presently, gathering in the crooks and furrows of the war torn city. Covering the bodies in a parody of color, violet mixing with violent shards of blood and gore. The corpses of the Raptors offered an occasional respite from contrast, the drying blue melding with lavender, forming a strange harmony of color. All was framed by the glorious sky, itself a reflection of the carnage below.
It was in this awesome sight that he heard it. Over the incessant din of gunfire and low rumbles. It was unmistakable, even miles away. "Covenant?" he whispered. Cortana was quick to chime in.
"It sounds like a plasma cannon… should we-"
"Kaiden! Come here." The boy was in place in mere seconds. "We need to make it somewhere fast, I need you to hold onto me." The Spartan picked the child up as if he were holding an unwieldy load of laundry, and placed Kaiden on his back. "Hold tightly." He said, before he began sprinting toward the target.
It had been awhile since he'd ran quite this fast. He noticed the lag in his step, the slight pain he felt as his heavy footfalls carried him over the ruined terrain. Deft placements of his boot crushed concrete shards, and bent rebar steel. Sent horrible reverberations through his bones. But that was not the issue. He'd done worse and survived unscathed. He'd broken worse, and suffered through it. This was nothing.
It was a short run, though not as fast as he would've expected. What he found wasn't welcome. The deep scar carved into the earth was still smoking, still burning its angry red. The asphalt still ran in some places, the violence of the blast having melted the road where it had not simply obliterated it. And yet, where was the Covenant? Their gaudy purple could be spotted for miles. Hell, from what Cortana had told him he'd assumed they didn't even exist anymore…
John let that confusion simmer for a moment, before realizing what the target had been. Raptor corpses were strewn about the place, half burnt in some locals, or reduced to mere metallic shells.
"Nice to see we're all on the same page…" Cortana quipped, "I can't pick up significant readings Chief, I think we missed the party. At least for now…"
John ducked back into cover, pulling the boy with him. I need to get some sort of vehicle, but nothing around here seems to…
"John! 6:30!" He turned quickly, saw the half burned body of a Raptor. Propped up against a wall, it's face was practically shattered by force, and it's armor was barely visible beneath the layer of soot and cinder. But it was alive, and pointing it's gun. Not at him.
The Spartan lept for the boy, who it seemed was simply staring at the menacing alien. And yet, 10 meters in half a second? Impossible.
John heard the shot before he dared look. But when he looked, a purple glow had enveloped the child. That didn't matter now. He had to get him out of here. Now.
Nobody knew what was happening. That was a common occurrence for Jessa nowadays. Something wasn't right with her body, with her mind. She couldn't stop feeling. Reaching out with something she couldn't explain. She… she simply couldn't understand the power that was coursing through her.
It started when she awoke. Something jostled her, and her eyes flew open in an instant. She tried to move, to scream, but found no words, and barely any strength.. She did raise her hand, trying to stop whatever it was, and heard the scream. Well, the yelp. It was only when she turned that she saw it. The burning blue coursing down her arms. She started screaming herself, if she was honest. Probably would have done more, had her catheter not been in. She felt no shame in that. Most people don't wake up on fire, generally speaking. In any case, yeah, she was burning for a solid 5 minutes. Only screaming for the first minute. Well, that was until someone came in with a fire extinguisher. That put a damper on the calm atmosphere.
The next fire came an hour later, as a nurse was running a test on her blood. The little pinprick caused her eyes to flare, 'Like a blue demon' according to the nurse's testimony. She didn't know what was wrong. Why they'd moved her to an isolation ward, and why they only came to talk to her in hazard suits. She felt more and more like a freak, which if she reasoned it out, she essentially was.
A kind doctor, a man with sharp eyes and an easy smile, came in to ask her questions. 'What does it feel like when you "flame?" Can you make it happen right now?' stuff like that. She didn't know what his name was, she never managed to get the question out in time. Shyness came easy to Jessa, especially when you were in a top-secret government facility, being treated like a peculiar rat in a peculiar maze. At least he didn't wear the suits with her now. He just kept an arms length.
The stress made it easy for the flames to show again at least. It took a nice meal, and a bit of rest for it to… recharge? And then... BAM! The flames ignited! It was a rush of energy, of power, that consumed her. The power was always there, creeping at the back of her mind. It was like… how she felt when she wanted to stretch her arms, but all the time. Releasing that built up power felt... good she supposed? Like a nice scratch on a persistent itch, or finishing a race after a burst of speed, completing a hard video game… it was satisfying. Thrilling, even.
The true realization of her power came entirely on accident (not uncharacteristically mind) when Smiles (As she called her nameless doctor friend) dropped his tablet right in front of her. She reached out to try and save it from a likely inconsequential tumble, and caught it! Just, not with her hands.
That was the first time she'd seen Smiles without one.
And that had been the state of her for the past few days. Flexing what seemed to be telekinesis out of boredom, as they'd refused her access to a tablet, a phone, hell, even dusty old books! That meant it was just her in what she soon began to regard as a cell. She'd managed to decorate the place somewhat. They'd found it within themselves to at least give her a dry-erase.
She'd taken up writing on the walls. It was relaxing, writing down her feelings, calculating orbital velocities, drawing pictures of the starships that she'd hoped to fly. Her dreams of entering the pilot academy seemed so far away now. Flying interstellar big-rigs was cool and all, ran in the family, as Uncle Arna used to say, but she'd always wanted more.
She was in the middle of drawing an old Longsword when the door opened. Good old Doctor Smiles entered. "Oh hey Smiles! What's…" he was followed by a dour looking woman, shoulders straight and legs girded by a drab grey pencil skirt. "...up."
"Jessica! I'd like you to meet the Director of Research at our Installation, Thalia Sarama!" The tight lipped woman managed a tight grin, as she stuck her hand out.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Shepard." She spoke in smooth voice, her light brown eyes meeting my own in a quizzical, perhaps even studious way.
"Uh… yeah…" Jessa shook her hand loosely, before slinking back to her hospital bed.
"I'm glad to see you're moving again, especially after such a nasty trauma. This whole episode must be really hard on you."
"Sure, um, sorry Director but, can we cut to the chase here? You're not just here to make small talk, we both know that." There's a certain relish in her voice, knowing that she could put a stop to this awkward conversation immediately.
"I… yes Ms. Shepard, let's do that." The woman took her seat across from Jessa, with Smiles taking position at her right. "During your trauma, it seems a large amount of a potent form of exotic matter has embedded itself in your lymph nodes."
Jessa… Oh fuck, the Director actually enjoyed that didn't she… The wave of satisfaction she'd been riding slammed into the rocks, just as fast as it began.
"Like… cancer?" Her heart thudded in her chest. She'd heard about cancers arising from plasma wounds before, but this fast-
"We're not sure Jessica. But we have good reason to believe that it's not dangerous, at least not yet. It seems that your body has integrated a substance we've recently discovered, called 'Null,' into your lymph and nervous systems." A look was exchanged between her two interrogators.
Smiles spoke up this time. "There is a possible explanation for your condition, but I need your assurance that it will be kept secret Jessa." Jessa flinched. He'd never called her that before.
"I… sure. I just want to know what's going on!"
There was a pause, before the the Director leaned forwards. "Jessica, what do you know of the 'Mantle of Responsibility?'"
The Merry Dancer was in better shape than one would expect. That didn't manage to remove the bitter taste in Heras' mouth, or the shaking of his fist. "Zizka?" Was all Heras had to say to make the AI appeared before him. Instead of his true form, the intelligence had been reduced to a shapeless glow of purple light. It seemed even the AI was stretched thin by the circumstances.
"Receiving Captain." There was no mirth in his voice, only the cold skeleton of duty.
"I'd like a status report on Lt.-"
"Deceased. Sorry Captain. Nothing we could do. Is there anything else?"
"I- nothing Zizka." The AI's predictive speech terrified him sometimes. The AI was gone in a moment, back to running and aiding the various other tasks of the ship. Usually other junior AI would be helping him run things, but those had been stripped from the ship to aid in the defense of New Landing. Who knew where they were now, if they were even still alive? And Lieutenant Jin? Dead? Christ. They'd taken significant damage plotting their jump. With so little time to plot a course, gravitational interference had taken its toll on the vessel. As had enemy ships, as they plotted micro jumps through the dark. The Translight was still fucked six ways to Sunday, and that meant nothing but bad things. Still, Dancer made it to the rendezvous point. And had found nothing.
True, gas giants were, well, giant. But there are few places a ship can safely rest within one, as the Dancer currently was. And indeed, even fewer places to gather food and much needed medical supplies. Water filtration was running over time and water was still running low across the ship. And food? They were just scraping by on S-Rations. They'd be officially out of food in about four days, Feeding this many people after your food stores are raided by besieged civilians was no easy task. Christ, this whole business was no easy task. They'd been out here chasing ghosts for days, and had continued to find nothing. He was seriously considering ditching the ship in atmosphere, and finding somewhere to hide his crew in atmosphere.
"Captain! I'm picking up a slipspace transition! Estimated size at less than five ships!"
That was a promising number. "IFFs?"
"It's the Shanxi Fleet!" Ji- Lt. Arbridge turned in his seat, excitement plain on his face. "We might be able to reach them in time Sir!"
"Where are they?" Heras cooly responded. He couldn't get too excited about this, not yet. "Why have they shown themselves like this? Can you get a tight beam to them Arbridge?"
"Not from inside atmosphere Captain, our concentrator is still fried."
"Nako, prepare the mayday message, and have Vang patch up our engines best he can, we're going to intercept-" Heras was making his way to tactical as the engines sputtered to life. It shook the ship, and the inertial dampeners struggled to maintain cohesion, as the Dancer shook itself awake. Heras stumbled only briefly.
"Raptor vessels are approaching the fleet Captain! Ten ships, even spread of Corvettes/ Light Frigates. I'm detecting weapons fire!"
"We need to jump fast Helm! Prepare your calculations! Sidhu! How's our MAC!"
"Fucked Sir!"
Heras swore under his breath. "How many shots?"
Sidhu was frantic, typing hard into the console, as her subordinates scrambled around her. "Three, maybe? Yeoman missiles are barely operational Captain, we're at 25% operational readiness… I can't recommend we engage anything right now."
Zizka appeared now, his form remarkably together. "Captain, we can't afford not to try! We won't last without their assistance!"
Sidhu stood. "And if we die in the attempt?"
"We'll die if we do nothing!"
"Enough!" Heras finally shouted over the two. "If we don't do this, we die! We can't let our fears stop us-" A loud, impressive blaring shook the deck. Arbridge went white. "Captain… we're receiving a slipspace signal… estimated size at 250 ships…"
The bridge went silent.
"On main screen." Heras breathed.
The Dancer broke through the clouds, as the relief fleet smashed a hole back into reality. A smattering of forces pushed their way out of a swirling hole ripped in spacetime. First came the Screening Fleet, a smattering of 'Minesweepers' and Light Frigates. Then, the sleek frames of Harvest-Class Destroyers, the thick hulls of Hoplite-Class Heavy Cruisers, the long, dagger like outline of Jupiter-Class Artillery Ships. And of course, the Super-Carrier.
"I'm receiving an… an all call Captain…"
"Play it Arbridge."
It came clear as crystal. "This is Garrison Fleet 3, from the UNSC Indomitable. The cavalry has arrived."
A/N:
*EDIT: OH GOD IT'S KAIDEN NOT AIDEN! I'M SO SCREWED, THERE ARE LIKE THREE CHAPTERS WITH KAIDEN IN IT...
Tldr: The Cavalry Arrived. I'd like to thank everyone for the 500 FAVORITES! WHAT!? I'M SO HONORED AND HAPPY AND WHY IN GOD'S NAME DO YOU LIKE THIS!? $#%#
Ah, anyway. Thank you for all your support and please, I hope you enjoyed today's update. The next chapter has been long awaited, I'm sure. So far, it's coming out to something like 7000 words, which means that it's gonna be awhile. My bad, leaving you guys on a cliffhanger this juicy. I can't promise when this guy will come out, but I'm betting sometime in about three weeks. Again, thanks for all your support lads and lasses, I can't express how much it means.
Please write reviews! They keep the pencil sharp, and they allow me to answer questions you may have! It's a win-win!