Purpose Of Existence Chapter 42: Escape From Ark
You guys have no idea how relieving it is to get out of school, at least for few months Jesus xd. Now I have nothing to stop my uploads (except personal lazines :D).
FoxsoulRedux: Thank you for your comment, always nice to see new faces brave enough to type what they think. I'm not afraid to take critic, its what ultimately makes these stories better but could you be more specific, are the spelling errors more of a problem during the earlier chapters or the later ones? I never believed this fic to blow up the way it did so I ask you to understand I haven't had the time to get a beta reader, and my native language is finnish.
Everyone else too, don't be afraid to give your ideas and thoughts, they help a lot.
oooOOOooo
When Chief opened his eyes for the first time, after a moment of hazines he realised he was still being dragged, or carried? Shit, everything felt numb. His chest hurt like hell and his head throbbed, almost felt like somebody had kicked him while being down.
He could hear distant gunfire, or at least it felt distant, everything felt distant to be all honest. He could make out a blurry line of blue and brown running behind him. That means Fred must be the one dragging him. Or someone from red team, where the hell even are they? Chief shook his head trying to clear the hazines out of his gaze, and failing miserably.
Chief got a moment of clarity realising there was no hud to inspect, when did he lost his helmet? And why the hell did his chest hurt so goddamn much. Someone must have realised that he was afraid since they were slowing down. He could now make out the approaching blue figure as Kelly, her helmet was also off and there was a nasty bruise running alongside her cheek, her bottom lip was also swollen and there was a plasma burn on her upper left chest.
She crouched down next to him, the gunfire was still present, that must mean they don't have much time. Why are they even slowing down?
"Chief!" That voice was most definitely Kelly's, impossible to misplace. "John, look at me, can you hear me?" Kelly could see his eyes moving, it seemed like he was searching for her, but couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from. "We need to get him back to the Infinity, a concussion that hard and a stab wound cannot go untreated for long".
Palmer and the others merely nodded, Fred who was dragging Chief now pulled him over his shoulder. No small feet, taking in consideration that the man even without his Mjolnir was too heavy for most to lift or even move.
He almost lost consciousness again, Fred's running wasn't exactly the most stable, their hurry was evident in his long strides. "Bias?"
"Yes Reclaimer, i'm here". Confused Chief tried to look around, his voice wasn't coming from his helmet speakers, it was coming from… wait.
He had no helmet. Chief managed to raise his head, and saw that the source of Biases voice was Kelly's helmet speakers, instead of his own lost one.
"How did we end up here?"
"We entered the gatekeepers portal, it teleported us to a nearby forest, close to one of your randevu landing points, it is also worth noting that the portal that originally brought you here, seems to have reopened. The Infinity and The Spirit of Fire are already moving towards it".
A explosion down the path interrupted them. The convoy however didn't stop, they didn't have time to reassess the situation, it would be their demise. Sometimes the only solution is to run.
"Seems like the uglies got themselves some heavy weaponry".
"No shit buddy!"
"just do yourself a favor and keep running!
"Roger that commander, any further orders?"
"Jesus Buck, how do you always manage to find the worst times?"
"Cause i'm the best at everything I do ma'am".
Palmer could image his grin behind that helmet, and oh boy did she want to punch him right here and now.
They around 600 meters away from the landing point when a thought hit Alice "What should we do about the flood, we can't just leave them here. They will find a way to escape, they always do?"
It was Bias that answered her question, it wasn't quite what she was expecting.
"I believe the gatekeeper, has the flood under control. They will be dealt with, focus on getting yourself aboard your vessel spartan".
ooOOoo
It spread throughout the soldiers like wildfire. A spark of hope. Everyone could see the portal opening above them. Perhaps there finally was a way home. Perhaps this war wasn't completely hopeless. And some of them even had doubted the spartans chance of success.
Sergeant Smith wasn't one of them. He knew the spartans would succeed. He always had admired their work and selfishness.
What he didn't expect, was three teams worth of spartans running through a small gap in the dense forest, rushing towards them.
All of them had taken quite the beating, but one stood out from the rest. Nobody could mistake the silent giant with his green armor, thrown over another spartans shoulder. It was clear activating that portal had not been as simple as many would have thought.
The spartans barely glanced his way as they rushed inside the three pelicans currently landed on top of the small forerunner platform. He barely made it inside himself as the pelicans blasted of towards The infinity, leaving the giant artificial world behind them.
As Fred set The Chief down, Kelly was already darting towards the nearest medical kit. Meanwhile Palmer had made her way towards the nearest holo uplink and started a connection with Lasky.
It barely managed to beep, when the Captains face popped up. Sarah didn't even give him a chance to talk.
"Please tell me that portal takes us to earth. I'm really not interested in going another galaxy wide adventure like the dear Chief there on the floor".
Tom's eyes widened for a moment "The Chief's on the floor? Why?.. Never mind, yes Glassman's initial calculations, very very rushed calculations might I add, do indicate that portal should take us to earth".
"That egghead better be right Tom or I'll ship him out the science bay airlock so fast he doesn't even have time to call for help".
One of Tom's eyebrows rose to his hairline. "Should I post guards into his laboratory Sarah?"
"They won't help and you know it".
At that Tom cracked a small smile. The tension in the Captain was evident. The events of these last few days had taken quite the toll on him.
"Just get yourself aboard Commander so we can get the hell out of here ok". After that the link was cut, and in the privacy of her own helmet Sarah Palmer gave a small smile. "Roger that, captain".
ooOOoo
Meanwhile the Chief's state was only getting worse, he had lost consciousness again and he was losing a lot of blood. The plasma sword wound Cauterized itself, but all his other plasma burns, like ones from his own grenades, still ate his flesh. If they couldn't get him to a medicalbay, they would lose him.
Linda watched John's struggle silently. She was a calm person, she calculated everything before it happens and thought of different variations of different situations, making plans to counter them. It was in her blood to remain calm.
Yet when she was injured, he had come to her aid. He didn't care about her personality, nor her attitude. He knew her in and out. Even if they didn't talk much.
So she dropped her beloved sniper rifle and ran to the pelicans cockpit, pulling the original pilot out of his chair, not caring about the protocol or his protests and took the controls for herself. The flood might not have had any way to follow them yet, but that didn't meant they didn't have anything to try to shoot them down with.
And oh boy did they try. Even with her advanced concentration and spartans coolness, it was difficult to dodge everything coming their way, putting it lightly.
If it were up to her, they would be going straight up, but that meant keeping Chief stable would be impossible. So she was forced to gain altitude relatively slowly, thus slowing their progress majorly.
When The Infinity finally came to vision, Linda had taken major damage to one of the pelicans wings, and the cockpit glass had been broken by a lucky cannonshot. Only her helmet and armor saved her from the immediate death of vacuum. With the majority of control lost, she was forced to crashland the pelican inside on of The Infinity's many hangars...again.
After she had "landed" the ship, Chief was immediately rushed to medical bay, followed by about half of the spartans who were part of the operation. She had taken the most little damage and thus stayed behind to clean up the situation.
She was also the only one, along the hangar bay crew and the bridge to witness, what was coming next.
The center of The Ark started to glow yellow. From the core, long lines started to spread around, slowly covering its entire surface. It looked absurd. Suddenly all the grass and animals, trees and plants looked so out of place. It looked like some type of glitch from a video game.
For few minutes it just remained like this and when The Infinity entered the portal, entering their way back to home…
The entire ark exploded. Causing a ginormous supernova, destroying everything around it.