Chapter Six – Elder
1158 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Aboard Covenant Phantom dropship, over unknown Covenant city
Jack listened to the gentle hum of the Phantom dropship as he and his team descended closer to the surface. It had been easy for the Engineer to send false counter-messages to the inquisitive authorities that demanded identification. The Covenant destroyer was listed as damaged and potentially dangerous. No personnel would be allowed to board due to the chance of an unexpected explosion. The Engineer explained to the Covenant interrogators that a Phantom dropship with the surviving crew would be sent straight to the Holy Shrine of the Rings and was not to be disturbed, due to a delicate and classified object being onboard.
While the request was acknowledged and confirmed, Jack knew several other Phantoms were stalking them cautiously just in case. All of this had been flash-channeled to Jack's mind via the Engineer, and he had explained the situation to his team.
No doubt Grunt fire teams would be sent onboard the Covenant destroyer and their gig would soon be up. Fortunately, they had rigged the ship's plasma conducts to overheat and explode in the event that they were discovered. On the other hand, having to do so would strand Green Team on this alien world and compromise their mission. Still, a plan B was always helpful.
Jack glanced back over at the Engineer. Parts of the scattered memories inserted into Jack's mind had told him to follow this creature into this 'Holy Shrine of the Rings'. He knew that there was some person or item, some secret within those chambers that this Engineer, for whatever reasons of its own, wanted them to find. Jack wasn't too concerned about discovering whatever lied within. No. He was more concerned about how they were getting out of there alive with it. No doubt he would think of a plan on the run. His first aim would be for another Covenant warship with a slipspace drive. Any other option was rather grim.
Jack smoothly ejected his pistol magazine and hefted its light weight of three rounds. He couldn't feel it, but he knew the cold steel would have pressed ominously against his skin, had his hand been bare. That's what the war had come down to. What the UNSC had come down to. A cold, hopeless battle that seemed already lost. Low on ammunition and about to run dry. There wasn't a moment where Jack doubted the possibility of Earth and her colonies becoming obliterated behind his back before he had a chance to shoot. He knew it was only a matter of time before that trigger pulled and mankind had nothing left to throw at the Covenant, no more will to survive.
Jack turned the pistol over in his hand and caught the dull shimmer against the reflective steel. And yet, there was still some hope. The spirit of mankind's soldiers had not quite yet run out. There was still the idea that they, that we, could win. That the heroes wouldn't have to die in vain. That we Spartans might live long enough to know other things, peaceful things.
But when Jack considered it again, he wondered just what exactly he and his Spartans would be good for anymore if the war was won. What exactly would they do? Most likely we would retire, stick together. Find out who our relatives are, if any of them are even still alive. But what then? What else was there to share, to say, to dream about when all we've known is how to kill and how not to get killed? What about the inside? How not to die slowly from within? Are we not already dead? How long can a soldier fight for something when he can no longer remember what he's fighting for?
There it was. The feeling again. The panicked tightening in Jack's chest and the desire to get away to escape from it all. He tried to pin down his thoughts and decipher what it was he feared. Certainly not death. No, that would be almost fortunate. Something else, something worse…what was he afraid of?
Jack glanced up at Rachel, who sat, legs outstretched and crossed, head lowered in deep thought. Jack then let his eyes shift about the room to the others. Logan gently tapped his plasma rifle against his knee, staring straight ahead to the opposite wall. Eric held his needler tightly, staring at the deck. Rachel rose from her seat and sat next to Eric, placing a gentle hand on his arm. Ashley's body lay propped against Eric's other side, almost leaning on his shoulder, a bitter-sweet reminder of the caring woman who was no more.
Yes, Jack had let Eric bring her along. If only because Jack hardly had the heart to argue against him when he had lifted her body to board the dropship. But Jack knew sooner or later he would have to talk some sense into Eric…or dispose of the body himself. But not the armor. While Ashley's shield generator had been split in two by the energy sword, the rest of her armor still held parts that could replace any damaged ones the team might suffer in the future.
Is that what it takes to lead? Am I supposed to ignore the death of a friend and think of how best their demise can benefit the rest of the team?
Of course. That's what a leader does. Keeps his team alive, at all costs, even at the expense of a deceased friend's last gift to them, even at the expense of the leader.
Even at the expense of a team member.
Clack.
Jack slid the magazine back into his pistol.
Not if I can help it.
o o o
The Phantom slowed to a hovering stop. Logan was first to the drop portal centered in the deck, and without a moment's hesitation, leapt down into the column of anti-gravity particles and was propelled silently to the ground below, plasma rifle sweeping left and right.
Rachel came next, stepping lightly into the beam and joining Logan to secure their perimeter. Jack looked up at Eric, gesturing with his pistol-arm for him to go first. Eric hefted Ashley's body over his shoulder with one hand, needler clutched in the other, and dropped down below.
Jack stepped from the wall and stood at the edge of the portal and turned to the Engineer. The creature had already made it clear that it intended to lead them into the Holy Shrine of the Rings. Jack clicked on his external speakers, knowing full well that the Engineer couldn't understand his spoken words.
"I just have one question for you. When we find this secret, this Elder…how much more must I sacrifice to win?"
The Engineer's tentacles trembled a little, and the creature deflated one of its suspension air sacks and sank closer to the ground, as if in sympathy. Jack stared down into the glow and cocked his pistol.
"Don't bother. That was rhetorical."
And he disappeared into the purple beam of light.
The first thing that caught Jack's eye as his boots clicked against the ground was the immensity of the structure before them. Above loomed what could almost be described as a three hundred meter tall, vertically-elongated oval building, with rivets running round the rim in seven stacking columns, creating a similar stair-like appearance to the kind found on the pyramids of Egypt back on Earth. From this smooth, layered body curved long arcs of some sort of luminescent material, at various intervals up the building's length. Within these tube-like tendrils flowed a bright, shimmering blue substance, perhaps a liquid energy of some sort. Each of these tubes arced down into a central point lost deep within the shrine, where no doubt a main power source kept whatever was inside turned on. Jack smiled inside his faceplate.
His Spartans were about to find out.
The team of four and the Engineer stood on one section of a much larger series of ship docking ports, curving about the base of the center structure like the petals of an upturned flower. At least a thousand meters above them stretched the dark purple ceiling of what appeared to be the inside of a great sphere. They had entered this artificial bubble and now rested somewhat near the bottom.
Each Spartan flashed a green light, clearing all corners, and Green Team moved out. The stalking Phantoms that had trailed them were nowhere in sight. As fast as they could, the Spartans clanked lightly across the deck towards the structure's entrance archway: a tall opening similar to the shape of the entire structure, with a reflective blue shield wall blocking passage. Harsh, sharp echoes radiated from their boots about the cavernous place, and the sheer immensity of it all threatened to overwhelm their senses.
Reaching the glowing shield doorway, all halted to consider their options, listening to the energy field's soft hum. Jack turned to the Engineer, who had already moved to open a hidden panel nearby. Jack wondered how the thing knew all of this, but decided against pondering it further. He was too busy peering through the wavering shapes of energy for enemy contacts waiting within. Nope. Not a single guard could be seen. But Ashley's gurgled warning echoed in his mind.
Not all Covenant warriors could be seen.
Jack kept his plasma rifle raised for just such an event as the Engineer continued its rapid dance of tentacles inside the paneling. Rachel and Eric watched their six. Logan kicked his foot out towards the barrier impatiently.
Before Jack could tell him to stay back, Logan's spine arched as rippling waves of energy rolled over him. Almost as soon as it had started, Logan was propelled bodily through the air and sent sliding midway across the deck. Jack had the discipline to keep his plasma rifle trained on the doorway as Rachel moved to Logan's side.
In a moment Rachel and Logan's green lights flickered, and Jack allowed himself to sigh with relief. Even his and Logan's earlier feud couldn't stop Jack from feeling the uncomfortable shift in his gut at the possibility of another lost friend.
His armor still steaming, Logan returned to his position before the doorway and shook his head.
"That's a new one. Forgot I lost my shields. Guess they should have put up a 'Do Not Touch' sign."
Jack didn't need to say a word for Logan to speak again.
"Sorry, Green-One. Won't happen again."
Jack glanced up and down at the energy field before them. Obviously shooting their way in wouldn't work either. It's defenses had already eliminated hostile action. It was all up to the Engineer to…
The dull thrum died and the blue field faded.
Jack and Logan rushed silently inside and swept the interior. Rachel and Eric kept their backs covered. After a moment, Jack let his plasma rifle lower slightly at the spectacle before them.
The room felt just as cavernous as the outside, with all the tubes of shimmering energy stretching like eerie, luminescent spider webs from the walls and ceiling hundreds of meters above. All of these found their way to the center point halfway up the structure's height and met in an interlocking spiral of flowing energy. This column of power shot straight down to a raised, seven-sided platform of steps. But it was what waited atop this dais that held the Spartans in awe.
Enthroned like an ancient king sat what was unmistakably a Prophet, encased within the large cylindrical tube of energy. The alien sat suspended, arms stretched slightly to either side, long-fingered hands facing outward in a gentle gesture of peace. Or perhaps of helplessness. But most impressive of all, a large, twenty centimeter long pink crystal shone with a brilliant luminescence from the center of the Prophet's gold and silver headdress crown.
Jack and the others cautiously neared the figure, and they could begin to see that its eyes were closed, as if it lay hovering in a dreaming sleep. Donned in robes of silvery gray, with gold geometric designs woven into its silk-like appearance, the Prophet appeared almost like an old and graceful priest. Its confined state reminded Jack of his Spartans' time in cryo tubes.
Jack raised a hand slightly to halt the others as they reached the foot of the platform stairway, and they silently obeyed his command and fanned out to cover all directions of attack. Jack felt the Engineer by his side as he began ascending each step, one by one. As he neared the imprisoned Prophet, no doubt this supposed Elder, the instilled memories within Jack's mind seemed to squirm with excitement, coiling to strike into his consciousness like a cobra.
As he reached the top, Jack felt a sudden desire to remove his helmet, and did so willingly. He watched as the Engineer placed one tentacle against the glass-like material of the tube, and raised another to his forehead. They touched.
It was like lightning.
Jack found himself mentally sailing through a storm of figures and places and ideas, all accumulating into a giant tidal wave of emotion that threatened to overtake him. Finally a voice shouted to him from the edge of the waves, faint at first, and then accelerating in volume and intensity until it was the only sound, the only thought, in Jack's mind.
Reclaimer!
It was not the word, but the idea, that penetrated Jack's mind and focused his being on that entity, the Elder who lay suspended in space and time. He could now follow the beacon that arose from the tide of memories. It was more a feeling of the Elder's presence that spoke to him, rather than actual speech. But the meaning behind it all was the same.
Let go your fears, listen and watch and experience and live, rejoice and suffer along with me, as we walk along the path to truth…
Jack hesitated, then surrendered his mind to the Elder.
Alright then…show me.