Purpose Of Existence Chapter 24: Miscommunication
"Chief can you hear me?" The voice was somehow mumbled. Like it was somewhere far far away. Chief opened his eyes and everything was a blur, his head hurt like hell and he could barely hear. It was hard to tell but he guessed the voice was feminine.
"Chief talk to me". The voice came again, this time little bit clearer. His eyes started to adjust and the pain set in. "his conscious!" Kelly yelled as Chief tryed to move. "Woah, calm down hotshot, take it easy". Kelly pushed him down so she could explain whats going on. "John listen to me. You have few broken ribs and a light concussion. Your armor took most of the damage from the fall but without proper examination care I cannot tell the full extend of your injuries.
Chief finally managed to clear his head and looked now to Kelly who was crouched next to him. He blinked few more times and spoke "Any casualties?" His voice was rought. Rougher than normal and it hurt to speak. It was like his tongue was sandpaper. "Our pilots a goner but all spartans accounted for". kelly answered as she hauled Chief up on his feet supporting him lightly. "Oh snap out of it, you have taken worse falls than this". She smiled thought no one could see it inside her helmet. She wasn't there to see it personally but she had heard the stories about the Master Chief jumping from a forerunner keyship and crashing to the jungles of earth.
"Well it doesn't make this any more enjoyable" Chief shot back grunting from the pain. He could feel his suits automatic first aid systems applying biofoam to his wounds. The temporary help would have to be enought for now. "You got in contact with command?" Chief tested if he could walk on his own and after couple of steps deemed himself battleworthy. This did not mean it woudn't take any effort thought."Not yet, something is blocking all outgoing and incoming signals". Fred answered finally stepping in on the one sided conversation.
"How far to our target?" Chief tryed to grap his weapon from his back but noticed that nothing else than air came back. "Have to go with a pistol for now sir" Fred said watching Chief's struggle to find the weapon. "You lost it during the crash".
"There's a wrecked structure three-hundred meters south-east from here". Linda informed. "It seems to be a remains of a tower. Don't know its purpose". Chief walked next to Linda arriving at the edge of the giant hill they currently found themselves in. The sceenery was beautiful. If the situation woudn't have been so dire, he could have said stood there and enjoy the view for hours. Giant cliffs and massive ocean dominated their surroundings. There were large threes everywhere. It was almost like Reach. After a moment of nostalgia he allowed his gaze to settle on the structure.
For couple of seconds he just looked at it...Then something clicked. "I know what that tower was used for…" Chief trailed of at the end. He was recalling a bad memory, a very very bad memory. "It was a shield generator. One of three to be exact". The place where Johnson was captured, was left unsaid. "After I shut down the shield, The high Charity crashed to the Ark sending flood pods crashing trought the windows of the structure...From there it was downhill". Chief finished his voice quiet. It was clear he didn't want to talk about it.
"We should use the tower as a navigation tool. There is a path leading to the command center quite close to it". Medicant Bias said clearly eager to become full ones more.
"His right, I used that path before". Chief confirmed.
"Then that's our plan of action. We should finish this mission ASAP. The faster we get out of here the happier il be". Fred commented and started walking towards the remains of the ones proud forerunner structure. The other spartans slowly falling in formation behind him.
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UNSC Infinity Command Deck/Bridge
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"What do you mean you lost communication with their pelican?" Lasky asked almost yelling turning to look at the communication officer. He looked a bit surprised by the usually stoic captains outburst but after a moment of collecting himself answered "Sir, the communications with the pelicans pilot suddenly cut out. We do not have a definitive answer to why but best case scenario, they just ran to some interference". The officer took a deep breath and continued much slower this time "Worse case... they were shot down". This send a chill trought the captain's spine and after few moments his face turned thoughtful.
After few moments captain spoke "Roland, try to get our connection with the pelican back online". then he turned back to the officer "You, Anthony right?" He asked and the officer nodded clearly confused. "Tell me where did the communications exactly go down and be as exact as possible, there is a large change our spartans are in trouble and il be damned if they get themselves killed under my command".
The Infinity's bridge was a giant hide of controlled chaos. Officers running from here to there, issuing orders or getting new ones. Lasky's gaze however remained glued on the young communications officer now typing furiously, clearly nervous about the captain standing behind him. Lasky was turned towards the officer. His thoughts however were somewhere else. "What did we miss?", "What could have went so wrong?", "Where would they go?" and did they continue their mission.
"There! That's where I lost them!" He finally shouted. However his happiness seemed to fade when he saw Lasky's face. He was death series, almost like he was taking this extremely personally. Of course the officer couldn't have known how much Lasky idolised Chief and how much he respects him. Lasky believes spartans deserve something better and he will be damned if something were to happen to them. He believes that Master Chief deserves to be happy and if his family makes him happy then they should do everything possible to keep t hem safe even tho times are bad and it seems that everything is jsut going against them. Yes they had found answers to some of their questions and even a possible way to take down the guardians but how long can they run before Cortana catches up? How will all this end? Lasky could not know.
"Get me your best estimate where they could have crashed". Lasky stood there for a while waiting for a answer but when none came he frowned and walked to the other side of the console. The officer, Anthony looked up at him stupidly for a moment "But sir, we do not know if they even have crashed. There is yet any solid evidence to come u...". He was about to continue his argument but Lasky's uncharastically cold stare silenced him. Anthony gulped and said "Yes, sir". Starting his search.
With that Lasky turned to Infinity's bridges main holodesk where Roland was standing "Roland get me Palmer and the Red Team and DO IT NOW!" Roland could see Lasky was tense but made no comment of it. High stress situations were normal in the bridge of USNC's largest ship. "Right away sir". He answered and dissapeared.
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Next update tomorrow. I feel like this was left kinda short and didn't get us anywhere… Yet :D :D :D :DDDDDDDDDDD.