Purpose Of Existence Chapter 33: Mistakes Of The Past
It was quite a sight. The symbol and religious center of The Covenant's government, High Charity was truly one of a kind space station...Or a city, depending on how you look at it. What made the sight even more absurd was the giant energy bubble surrounding the massive remains of the Covenant capital world. Cutter and Lasky briefed them that The Banished had been performing salvage operations and scrap runs for a while now and Spirit Of Fire's captain wanted to put a stop to it. However the problem was that the UNSC simply didn't have the recourses for a assault of such scale. Before the arrival of The Infinity, their forces were indeed quite limited. Now tho they could finally find out what had The Banished going off like they did...and where the missing UNSC scout teams went.
Master Chief was standing at the rear of their transport pelican, gazing at the fast moving stars above him. Moments like these gave him time to think, to recall old memories, good and bad.
"Don't give me that face Chief"
"What face"
"The one where your eyebrows narrow by 0,09 millimeters and your lips go 2% more thinner than normally. The legendary Master Chief annoyed face".
"Cortana nows not the time"
Cortana just pouted and put a hand on her hip, her signature position.
"What am I interrupting your fifth round of assault rifle cleaning duty?" Cortana asked giving him a knowing smirk.
Chief merely turned his head and shrugged "I'm not made for standing still and waiting for the inevitable to happen".
"Oooo, but thats why Im here, to keep the famous Master Chief from dying to boredom". Cortana opened her arms wide to emphasise her point.
Chief gave Cortana a small genuine smile "Did you get our orders yet?"
Cortana merely rolled her eyes at this "For the fifth time, we will get our orders after the admiral has returned from the press conference held right now on the command deck".
Suddenly Cortana's avatar's gaze turned distant and Chief knew she was probably watching the press conference (without permission naturally) "Think they are about halfway through, this means we have plenty of time". Chief simply rose an eyebrow and waited for the over energistic AI to play her cards.
Then Cortana disappeared and her avatar was replaced by a chess game, her voice however sounded from the pedestal's speakers "Come on big guy, let's see if you still have what it takes".
Now that was something no spartan would turn down. A challenge.
"Chief?"
The super soldier was brought out of his thoughts by a female voice behind him. Turning around he saw Kelly's emotionless faceplate staring at him. "You ok?"
Of course i'm not ok...she's not ok. "Fine, Kelly". John answered, hoping that she will drop the subject, it was a long pelican ride after all and he really wasn't in the mood to dodge questions all that time".
"You drifted off again".
And there went that option.
"Now, none of that Chief I know it, the others know it, hell I think Lasky and Palmer know it by now, don't even try to deny it". Kelly's voice was gently but had a commanding tone to it. Clearly she was frustrated by John's stubbornness on dealing with everything by himself.
Kelly knew John, could see under that emotional armor of his, blocking everyone but his closest friends and comrades from seeing how completely destroyed the man was from inside. She could see his pain and suffering, his unwillingness to believe Cortana could do any of the thing's she so coldly executed. His cold and calculating eyes were dim and they just didn't have that burning edge that they once had. Yet they also carried hope. As long as they lived there was always hope, always a change for a miracle to save them, Cortana and the galaxy from the event's that are currently haunting their future.
As Chief remained quiet and kept staring at her, she continued "We are a team, a family John. Yes we might have been separated for awhile and i'm sorry for that...that we weren't there when you needed us the most, but we are here now...and you don't have to do everything alone. Not anymore".
At this Chief finally snapped "I didn't have to do things alone when she was there! She was always there!" His breathing came ragged and suddenly he got a terrible headache. Not that Kelly could see this, however what she did see was his shaking hands, even his armor couldn't hide their trembling. It was a rare to see Chief angry, in fact it was rare for him to show any emotion at all.
Not after Sam passed. Kelly thought bitterly.
Their argument was cut short by Fred who came running from the pelicans cockpit. "We are approaching the LZ but there is something wrong". Fred walked to the edge of the back ramp only centimeters away from falling down. He turned his head slightly and waved them over. "Have a look".
They followed him, Chief taking hold of the nearest seat and Kelly grabbing his forearm for support. They both leaned over and looked down and saw…
Nothing.
There was absolutely nothing. No equipment and most certainly no Banished. Only thing there was a empty scarab, looming over a clearly forcely opened entrance.
Chief turned his head to face the others, pulling Kelly up with him.
After grabbing his assault rifle and making sure the magnetic lock was holding, he ordered. "Gear up, be ready for anything, Kelly inform red team, we will group near the entrance". There was no answer but Chief knew she heard and understood the orders.
As blue team stepped out of the pelican the looming silence became even creepier. The vast green hills and snowy mountain tops surrounded them, creating a calm and honestly quite terrifying environment. The massive scarab stood in front of them, abandoned and unmoving, its hull creating a shadow underneath it. About ten meters away was a small entrance, leading deep inside the abandoned capital.
They could see red team not far from them stepping out of their pelican. John noticed that they too were stiff and clearly on edge. The two teams exchanged looks and started moving inspecting their surroundings for any kind of threats. As they passed the small hole clearly created by the scarab, they arrived in a dark hall, only illuminated by the small burning fires around them.
There was a fight it was clear, somebody fought something. It was strange tho…
"Where are the bodies, there's every possible sign of battle yet not a single body". Jerome muttered, kicking a discarded and broken brute shot. It flew and smashed to the wall opposite of them, landing unceremoniously on the floor.
"Perhaps they already managed to clean up?" Douglas suggested, earning a sight from Linda "Elites don't "clean up" This was done by something else ".
"I agree but there's no point contemplating about it here, we should keep moving". Chief cut in, ending the short lived conversation quickly
The group of eight kept moving deeper into the smashed and ruined purple corridors, occasionally forced to destroy a malfunctioning door that had got stuck during the opening process.
"What part of the high charity was this?" Alice asked offhandedly, clearly far too distracted inspecting the giant structure around them.
Chief turned to her "Not positive but I might have used some of these corridors during my escape when the flood invaded".
Alice merely nodded, knowing full well after Chief's breakdown in their night of reunion that there was far deeper story to the escape of High Charity than what he just told.
"We have to cross the balconies that overhang the entire capital if we want to get anywhere, so why don't we cross that obstacle first and then thing where we are going?" Fred suggested earning small nods of agreement from everyone.
"Allright the fearless leader shall take the lead then" Kelly sarcastically bowed slightly and pointed onwards.
Under his helmet Chief had to smile to this, she always was the most human of the group. Always trying to raise the spirits with small remarks and comments, of course doing it in a way that it didn't endanger the mission.
Fred merely pouted and took the point. He was the first to step out of the dark corridors into the large space of the High Charity's top ,where the ancient forerunner keyship was once located.
And the sight before them was breathtaking to say at least. Not because of the beautifulness of the city or the insane size of the structure, but because of the immense destruction that was laid before them. Even Chief's eyes went wide, remembering how High Charity ones looked like… This was something else. It was barely recognizable anymore, If they didn't know they were inside a Covenant capital city, they could never have guessed their location. There were destroyed structures, crashed ships, caved in buildings and the once mighty ceiling of High Charity had caved in at the middle, burying half of the city with it.
"I'll be damned" Muttered Jerome quietly.
"Yeah, that would be the only way to describe this place". Douglas replied slightly bending over the edge, looking straight down towards the chaos.
"Let's not get stuck sightseeing, we have to find our recon teams and the Banished, if there are any left I mean". Kelly cut in, starting to walk towards the opposite end of the giant bridge structure.
"Yeah let's…" Murmured Douglas giving the city a last glance before catching up with the rest of the team.
Alright peeps gotta cut it there but I can assure you in the next chapter our spartans will indeed make a interesting discovery. Also I thank you, whoever defended me and other fanfiction writers in my comment section earlier. I DO NOT have anything against religion but this is not the place to spread your "word" If I may say. Go find someplace this stuff belongs but it's not here ok?