Heyy all, sorry about the horrendously long update time. Uni started again, I was super busy at the end of the summer...and then Destiny came out :p
Anyway, updates are going to slow down as uni and rowing will keep me busy, but I hope you all bare with me on that.
Thank you for all the favorites, follows and reviews I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.
Mr Review: Glad you like Roh, can't say if he'll stay, guess you'll just have to wait and see ;) Sorry for the long update, enjoy the chapter.
Mars. : Your wait is over! :D
Guest: Thank-you, hope you think the same of this one :)
AK74FU2: Thank-you and I will :)
Telron: Thank-you, I'm glad you like him, wasn't sure how he'd be received as writing the thought process from someone from the Covenant is pretty difficult :L
"Speech"
"Sangheili"
Thoughts or words that are stressed upon.
High Above The Ground
Noble Six
Her breaths fell short and heavy. Her movement was a cross between a run and a jog. The fatigue was catching up with her and while she was a Spartan, there was only so much she could endure. She could feel her determination slipping and her vision narrowed until it was settled on the glowing blue orb she was following. Why? She didn't know. She only hoped that it had a way out for her so that she could live to fight for humanity another day.
Sleek, glowing walls whizzed past her as the orb led her deeper into the ground. The few doors they passed simply opened before them and she wondered how far behind the last Elite was. But, her wondering was stopped when they stopped before a huge door. This one obviously hadn't opened straight away for them.
But why?
"It appears this door requires a while longer to open," The orb said and after what felt like minutes of waiting the door opened to reveal a massive room. The architecture was the same as the corridor she'd been running through; blue glowing lights were embedded into the sleek silver walls and floor as well as the sharp and complex webs of straight lines that ran the length of the rooms.
The few moments Six spared to look at the architecture took her breath away. She could appreciate the beauty and the simple yet complex flare it had. The designs seemed so human, yet so alien. But her sightseeing was cut short when everything around her started shaking. Her head instantly snapped up to the orb, who gave her a quick -but cryptic- reply.
"Travelling through Slipsteam-space in unsuitable conditions is not advised."
Six frowned, how does it plan on…
She stopped herself short because at that moment a large expanse of the room's floor slid away and a platform rose up from deeper underground. What caught her attention wasn't the platform but what was on it.
The structure was at least fifteen meters tall, with what she guessed was the main body, being held five meters off the floor on top of thin and fragile looking stands that were of the same design of the room. There were four of the stands and all of them exited the main body at an outwards angle. The tops of the stands were chunkier than the rest and from what Six could tell, they weren't physically held in place. A sharp but streamlined body rested upon the stands and continued the same design she'd seen on everything else. It stood another ten meters tall with more a few pieces of metal fanning out at the sides and floating against its sharp spine at the back. What she'd decided to label as the cockpit was about ten meters wide at the base and steadily sloped inwards to a width of five meters at the top. At each side of the cockpit's base were a set of 'wings' that –like everything else- weren't physically attached to it and were split down the middle.
Six's eyes traveled all around what she could only guess was a ship of some sorts. A ship who's makers had evidently had a geometrical design in mind, but also ensured it held the same decoration as the structure she was currently in. Many questions filtered through her mind, ranging from 'who were these people?' to 'how did we miss this?'
She was about to ask the orb something when a soft blue light reached down from the center of the silver ship and the orb called out to her.
"We must leave this place now Reclaimer," it called. "This way!"
Her eyes narrowed as she watched the orb float up the light with her helmet in tow. A frustrated sigh escaped her while she curled her hands into a tight ball and dashed after it.
The inside of the ship was softly illuminated by blue lights that lined the walls. At the front, in front of a large window, a blue holographic interface flickered into existence over a blue glowing block of silver metal. The interface had a simple circular image surrounded by many other blue straight lined shaped buttons. A single small red button was positioned off to the left and at a right-angle to the whole of the interface were multiple square screens. All of them contained different images that Six had a feeling were to do with the status of the ship.
The sound of her boots hitting the metal floor echoed around her as she walked closer to the control panel. The orb was already there, placing her helmet in a small beam of light that allowed it to hover in mid-air. As the helmet was held suspended in air, Six's thoughts briefly flickered to the AI that she hoped was still there. But before Six could contemplate on DOT's status the orb spoke to her.
"Welcome to the Forerunner planet escape shuttle Liberator," it said, whizzing over the control panel. "Press the center button to prepare for launch."
Despite the doubts she held Six pressed the button and braced herself for the worst. But, as her fingers left the tangible button nothing happened. No explosions, no one jumped out with a gun in hand and tried to kill her. The only thing that did happen was the small shudder that reverberated throughout the ship and ended with sensation that they were hovering above the floor. A quick glance out of the window confirmed Six's suspicion before she turned her attention to the orb.
Time to get some answers.
"What are your intentions?" She growled, keeping the question as vague as possible in hopes she'd yield more information.
"My intentions?" The orb repeated. "Why to help the inheritors of my creator's legacy, of course. I was also given the objective of getting a Reclaimer to the Librarian on Requiem."
Six noticed a sharp change in pitch when the orb mentioned Librarian and frowned at the action. But, gathering information took priority at the moment so she pressed on.
"Who is the Librarian?"
"The Librarian is the leader of the life workers of the Forerunner ecumene." There was no change in pitch this time and it left Six wondering whether or not her fatigue was getting to her and causing her to hear things.
"What does she intend to do with me?"
The orb appeared to sadden slightly, "I'm afraid I was not given that information. All I know is that it is very important."
Six frowned at the orb. Something was wrong here, she could feel it. It was niggling at the back of her mind and whenever she tried to focus on it, it would simple slip through her fingers. However, she wasn't done questioning the orb.
This time she decided to take a different approach, "What is this facility?"
"Outpost zero-seven was originally built for transportation to in-system planets, but was later turned into a means to evacuate the planet to the nearest shield world. Because of this the structure had to be heavily reinforced and redesigned in order to withstand opening Slip-space portals. The majority of these Outposts were destroyed in order to prevent the Flood from gaining access to the shield worlds."
Six processed all the information she was being told and some of it opened up more questions than answers. Subjects such as the 'Flood' made her wonder why an obviously highly advanced race was scared of water. Unless, it's a label for something much worse. Something that had these 'Forerunners' worried enough that they would destroy entire facilities to stop it.
Her short trail of thought was stopped when the orb yelled something out to her.
"Reclaimer, numerous life-signals have been detected entering my Outpost. The self-destruct program is available for activation if you do not wish for them to follow. To activate it, press the yellow button on the far right."
Without hesitation Six quickly reached out and pressed the button. As soon as she did, the screen above that section changed to three symbols in a line. The symbols began to rapidly change, confirming that it was a countdown, but for how long Six had no idea.
A noise at the back caught her attention and Six snapped around to see if anything was there. Her eyes were met with nothing except the closing of the hole she'd come in. As soon as the hole hissed shut relief washed over her.
She'd made it.
But, she was alone. The thought hit her as she slumped against the wall. She dug her hand into the satchel on her leg and pulled out four dog tags; Jorge's, Thom's, Kat's and Emile's. She knew that Thom was the one she'd replaced, the one that some members of the team blamed themselves too much for his death. Curling her hand into a fist around the tags Six felt a strange feeling envelope her. It was something she hadn't felt in a long time. Loss.
It was a small niggling sensation at the back of her head; almost non-existent. It hadn't always been like that, but everything had been so different back then. The last time she'd felt the full force of the emotion was when she'd lost her parents all those years ago. She'd lost one to each enemy of the UNSC; Insurrectionists and The Covenant. Like many other children she'd been promised the chance to gain vengeance and oh boy had she. Since being pulled out of Beta Company she'd eradicated as many militia groups as she could and then she'd gone on to eliminate as many Covenant as she could. But, there'd been the time she'd spent in a team.
She'd spent over a month in Noble team and despite her efforts to remain emotionally distant from her team, it had been inevitable that they'd become close. She couldn't remember how it'd happened, but she supposed that working in close proximity with them had just led to it happening. She was sad that they were gone. Although, she probably wasn't as sad as a civilian would be. But, that was because she was a solider and they'd been soldiers. Back when she'd lost her parents she'd reacted much differently; sadness had overtaken her at first before changing into rage. But the rage she'd built up back then was something that she'd honed over the years in order to be the best killer she could be.
"Your current combat skin is damaged," the orb piped up. "The ship's logs state that there is a single combat skin left in the storage compartment at the back of the transport."
Six only graced the orb with a nod before making her way over to the back of the ship. She noticed straight away the compartment the orb had been talking about, after all there was half a blue sphere poking out from the wall right next to the doors. Placing a hand on the orb Six wondered what this combat skin looked like. Then, as the door hissed open Six got her first look at Forerunner combat skin but it was safe to say that she was unimpressed.
The advanced looking armor was scorched in multiple places, with burn holes piercing through one arm and the legs. What she guessed had been a silver colour was now a tainted and tarnished dark grey. A frown creased onto her face and Six pulled the armor set out of the storage compartment. But, just as she was about press the button again something on the floor caught her eye. It was relatively small and appeared have a less elaborate design of the ship she was currently in. With the combat skin weighing down her one arm Six placed its helmet on the floor and scooped up the small object.
It was heavier than she had anticipated and just smaller than her hand. Down the front she could feel convex groves that felt like they formed different symbols. Figuring she'd investigate it more later, Six clipped it to the magnetic strip on her thigh and scooped up the helmet before returning to the orb.
"It appears that the combat skin is severely damaged," it said, turning in her direction. "A shame as a class eleven combat skin would offer much more protection than you current class two."
Six raised an eyebrow in mild confusion. Was it comparing her armor to the almost completely battered piece she was holding? If the piece she was holding was so good she wondered what kind of weapon could have done so much damage. Her mouth twitched at the thought. Weapons like that could win the UNSC the war. It was then that Six decided that when –not if- she returned from Requiem she would find a way to bring all its treasure home and help the UNSC beat the Covenant. Another thought then hit her and wondering if it would work, Six asked the orb.
"Would it be possible to incorporate this 'combat skin' into my current one?"
The orb didn't say anything for a few moments as it mulled over her question. When it finished it whizzed around her as it spoke, "It should be possible, given the right amount of time and resources."
Six nodded, "Time to leave?
"Of course, while you were acquiring the combat skin I took the liberty of imputing the co-ordinates to the slipstream-space portal that we would be using. All you need to do Reclaimer is press the green button to the left."
Before blinding stumbling forward and pressing the button Six stopped to think for a moment, well aware that the symbols on the countdown were being to whittle down to the last few. She wanted to go to this Requiem place, but not for the reasons the orb had said, instead she wanted the tech to help humanity prevail. However, she was sure that the orb wouldn't take that lying down, but that didn't mean she was going to mindlessly go through with its plan. But before she could even being to decide on what to do something knocked her out the way and took over the control panel.
Six cursed to herself as she looked up to see the Elite from earlier ripple into existence and try to use the control panel. Apparently he wasn't getting anywhere as he soon hammered down a fist on the interface. But immediately after he did he glanced at her, and what Six guessed was the Elite version of a grin curled onto his face. He lunged for her and she just about managed to dodge, all the while the orb was yelling at the alien to stop interfering or it would be eliminated.
Not wanting to give the Elite an opening to catch her, Six's eyes locked onto the Elite seconds before it disappeared into nothing. Six listened carefully and darted her eyes around the room in order to find any sign of where the Elite was.
There was a split second between her noticing the Elite and it tackling her. She'd attempted to again dodge out of the way and deliver a hard blow to the back of its head, but evidently her plan had been halted before it could begin. It pushed her towards the control panel with the force of its tackle and using her still cuffed hands to its advantage it started trying to use her to change something.
"Y…ou mu-st no-t-," it growled to her in broken English.
Paying little interest to its words Six resisted against whatever buttons it wanted to press and tugged the Elite with all her strength. The motion brought the Elite along her side and crashing into the control panel. With the Elite still recoiling, Six managed to sweep out its legs but as she did so she unintentionally altered the set path. Unaware of her mistake, Six slammed her hand on the green button.
There was a silent hum, but before it could register the small ship shot forwards and into the dark portal that had appeared before it. Just as they entered the portal the outpost behind them began to explode, giving the ship a quick boost as it entered the portal.
The darkness of slipspace was the only thing visible through the window. The sterile like lights where the one source of illumination in the ship, but Six had no time to stand and admire it all. After all there was an Elite dragging itself up from the floor right next to her.
Not wanting to give it a chance to attack her again, Six aimed the strongest roundhouse kick she could muster at it. But, her movement must've been sluggish from fatigue and she found her kick hitting below her mark of its head. The Elite grunted at the contact and tipped to its right before grabbing her foot as she wasn't fast enough to pull back.
Her reaction to the grab was instantaneous and watch she did next was the quickest thing she could muster. She wrenched her leg towards her, but the Elite held strong and she was pulled towards it. This however did not affect plan as she then slammed her foot down –forcing the Elite to let go- and at the same time she delivered a swift uppercut with both tied hands. As the Elite was sent stumbling backwards, Six dragged in a breath of oxygen and reached down for Emile's kuriki and began bringing it down one the alien in front of her.
Instead of stabbing it through the neck as she intended, the Elite managed to grab her hands and twist them so that she dropped the weapon. Her body was then forced to bend backwards at an awkward angle as the Elite kicked out the back of her legs, which caused her to crash towards the floor as the Elite twisted her back round so that she landed on her back.
With the breath knock out of her Six attempted to roll out the way, but she was too slow as the Elite's giant foot came crashing down on her chest; crushing into her wounds and sending her nerves haywire. A pain filled moan escaped her as she felt the biofoam over her wounds crack, and the warm sensation of blood seep out of them. Her vision began to go blurry and as she tried to think of a way to get out of the situation her thoughts went to the strange device she'd strapped to her leg; perhaps it could do something to help her.
As the pressure on her chest increased, her vision became more blurry and her hands fumbled more frantically as they tried to reach her leg. Just as the Elite noticed what she was reaching for, Six managed to press the buttons and as she did the ship shuddered and out of the corner of her eye she noticed a blue glow. The motion of the ship destabilised the Elite and allowed her to roll out from under it. Then she swept out its legs so their positions were essentially reversed.
As she dropped her weight onto the Elite another rockier shudder –as if entering atmosphere - rippled through the ship, but Six held steady. Pinning its arms under her legs, Six lent forwards and applied pressure to the Elites neck using her forearm.
"This is for Noble, Hinge-Head," She snarled, increasing the pressure. And evil, sadistic grin made its way onto her face as she put her arm down more and the Elite began crawling at her hands even more. Its attempts at breathing increased and eventually descended into choking.
Suddenly, the orb yelled something that Six didn't quite hear and the temperature inside the ship began to increase and Six could hear the groan of the ship as they continued their decent through a planet's atmosphere. As she sat choking her enemy, the sound of the heat hitting the front of the ship roared behind her and everything around her shook. Suddenly, the ship pitched forwards until it was almost facing downwards and the motion dragged Six to the back along with the orb and the Elite. She looked over to the orb and saw it was holding her helmet and praying that she could still wear it she stretch out her hand.
"Give me the helmet!" She yelled above the roaring heat that was trying to bake them alive. The orb complied with her request and dropped the helmet into her hands. Six quickly shoved it on and sighed in relief as the familiar hissing sound filled her ears.
Her relief didn't last long as the ship then abruptly smashed into something solid and the motion threw Six and the Elite to the front of the ship. Blinding light hit her eyes and was the last thing she saw before she hit the glass everything went black.
/#537- Guardian's Approach. Accessing…
/ATTENTION!/
/Collision Imminent!/
/Reclamier Status: Poor
/Reclamier In Need Of Immediate Medical Assistance
/Wirelessly Hacking Into Local Networks/
/Networks found. Filtering/
/Potential Network Found/
/Designation: NEST/
/Collision Vector Changed/
~/~
NEST, Diego Garcia
A large shudder ripped through the NEST base of Diego Garcia. The occupants of the base weren't as surprised as they should be. After all, they'd been tracking the cause of the quake since it hit Earth's atmosphere. Initially the whole of the base had believed that it was wave of Autobots, but they had confirmation that it was not of Cybertronian origin. The news was not something that eased the leader of NEST's mind.
William Lennox quickly made his way up the steep flight of open stairs up to a platform, which currently surrounded Optimus Prime. He strode along the top walkway before coming to a stop in front of Optimus. Behind Will, on a large screen was General Morshower whose picture would sporadically flicker from time to time. In the shadow of Optimus stood three more beings like him and a few groups of soldiers who were ready to go to the crash site.
"This is defiantly not you guys right?" Will checked. "Not even the message that was referred to General Morshower at the Pentagon?"
"I'm certain; neither of these things are of Cybertronian origin." Optimus assured.
Running his hand down the side of his face in frustration Will struggled to find his words, while in the background the General also appeared disconcerted. He however, remained silent.
"So this is a whole new…alien?" The word 'alien' felt strange on his tongue, though that was probably because he worked with them and had never imagined meeting new ones.
"I would not worry, Major. No matter what events occur, we will always stand with humanity."
"Okay," Will murmured before asking, "What about the signal the General forwarded here? What did you guys get from that?"
"The message was highly encrypted, but I believe with our collective effort we have managed to gain the general meaning." Optimus paused, "It was a distress message that was requesting human aid for a 'Reclaimer' and contained a set of co-ordinates, which we cannot convert."
It was then that the General spoke up, "do you mean to say that the language this message was in could be understood?"
"That is correct General," Optimus started. "We were concerned when the message appeared to be in Earth's English. But, we have not ruled out the possibility that they have visited the World Wide Web as we did."
"That may be true, but they specifically requested human aid," the General frowned. "We need to find out what these people want and why they need our aid. I'll leave the rest in your capable hands Major."
"Yes, Sir."
Morshower's screen flicked off and Will turned back to Optimus, who appeared deep in thought. But, when the large being noticed Will's eyes on him he spoke.
"We should go," Optimus said. "These beings may be in serious trouble."
The phrase weighed heavily on everyone's mind as they all wondered if the cause of the crash was in pursuit. But, it was with that thought that everyone loaded up all they needed and left the base as quickly as possible.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to review, favorite and follow.
If you have any questions, improvements or I got something wrong just let me know :)
