Chapter Ten - Victor
TIME: DATE STAMP ((ERROR)) ANOMALY\Revised date
estimated 0911 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
Epsilon Eridani System, in space over Reach
Jack awoke with his hand on his pistol. He rose from the deck, gun drawn, and aimed at the open drop pod.
No one was inside.
Where was Logan?
Jack felt the pistol kicked from his hands as a green armored figure leapt atop the drop pod from behind it. A metallic boot caught Jack in the visor and spun him in a half flip over his back. Jack threw his hands out before him and landed on his hands and knees on the deck. With a shove he threw himself to his feet to meet his attacker.
Logan leapt from atop the drop pod, crystal in hand, and swung a wide fist. Jack swatted the blow aside and hooked an uppercut at Logan's waistline. Logan's armor caught the brunt of the swift blow and he stumbled backwards, hardly phased. Jack took this brief stalemate to shout out.
"Logan! What are you doing?!"
Logan hefted the crystal and laughed.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm taking the crystal. If there was ever a chance to win this war, it's now, Jack. For once, time will be on the Spartans' side."
Jack scolded his lack of caution. He realized he must have only been out for a few seconds. Enough time for Logan to find a better position to ambush him as he woke. Logan apparently hadn't hit him just hard enough.
But before Jack could say anything more, Logan threw himself at him. Jack sidestepped and caught his fist, ducking a swipe from the hand clutching the crystal. They struggled for a moment, until Jack was able to rotate Logan towards the wall and shoved him against it, hard. The crystal dropped from his grasp and clattered to the deck. Jack kicked it away to the side, where it skidded to a stop not too far from Jack's pistol.
With Jack's footing off balance, Logan brought his leg around Jack's and twisted, bringing him to the ground. Jack used his momentum to fall into a backwards roll, coming up on his feet just as Logan rushed forward, another punch on its way. Jack shouldered the blow, letting his shields absorb the force while he shoved back at Logan. Both Spartans staggered back from each other. Jack used this chance to speak.
"Logan, listen to me. We don't know how this thing works. For all we know, our next jump into slipspace could take us thousands of years into the past or future. And if we sit here Vladimir or the Covenant may get their hands on it. We have to get rid of it. I'll even arm the HAVOC myself. Or was that faked as well?"
Logan took a step closer.
"No. It will still need to be activated manually. But we're not going to use it. You, me, and Rachel are getting out of here. We'll take the crystal anywhere we want to go. We can…we can go back. Save the others. Save Reach." Logan took another step closer and held out his hand. Jack looked at it, then back at him. His body was still tensed to fight. Everything inside him screamed to throw another punch at Logan before he jeopardized their mission. But a deeper part of him wanted to take his hand. Logan continued.
"No one has to die today, Jack. No more Spartans will ever have to. It's our job to save as many lives as we can and complete our mission. We can do both together. You, me, Rachel. We're a team. We need you. We need our leader."
"John's our leader."
"He's dead."
"Not to me."
"Then let's bring him back. Let's bring them all back."
"We don't know what it's capable of. What else it can do."
"Then we'll find out."
"No one will."
"Jack...it's our duty. What would John do?"
Jack paused. His heart was hammering. He was torn between what he wanted to do…and what he knew he should do. What could be a frightening but beautiful risk…or what was safe. What was definite. He thought about Logan's words. He tried to envision John standing here now, faced with the same dilemma. He tried to imagine what he would think, what he would say…what he would do.
When you've run out of options, make more.
But when you have too many options, infinite possibilities stretched before you…what then? How do you know which one to choose?
The Chief had told him the difference between wasting lives and spending lives. He didn't say anything about saving lives.
"Jack…"
Jack looked at Logan's hand. With effort, he took it, and Logan pulled him into an embrace. Jack felt suddenly relieved.
His shields drained to nothing, then shut down.
Logan's hand retreated from behind Jack's power generator and grasped his neck. Jack tried to spin about and drop down to one knee and throw Logan over him. But without air, he simply fell weakly to his knees before him, helpless. Logan brought his head close.
"I'm taking the crystal. And I'm taking Rachel. And together, we're going to bring them all back. But not you…no, not you. You will have died during Spartan training. I will see to it that Rachel never gets to know you. You will be a nameless stranger who died while she was too young to care. And I'll be there to comfort her, to tell her that Spartans never truly die. You'll be a memory, Jack…nothing more."
Jack blinked through stinging tears of despair. More than hate and pain and fear, he felt overwhelmed in sadness. He knew Logan had won. That Logan would keep every cold, cruel promise. Jack's vision began to cloud; his fingertips became numb…
There was a deep metallic groan, the sound of rushing air, and suddenly Jack could breathe in time to see that he was sliding across the deck towards the hangar bay doors. He glanced to his side and saw Logan grinding across the deck as well, hot sparks hissing from beneath him. Logan clawed at the steel deck, struggling to find some grip. Jack was already airborne and rotated to face the opening doorway.
To his surprise, the doors had ceased parting and the gap into space was less than a meter wide. Jack spread out his arms and legs as he slammed against the open crack, holding himself inside as crates and other debris crashed overhead or disappeared into space. Logan had caught hold of something and dangled helplessly up above. Jack glanced down to see that the drop pod was pressed tightly against the opening, it's hatch sealed tight.
After a moment, the rushing sound of venting atmosphere ceased. Jack felt the vibration of something powering down deep within the Covenant warship. He realized after a moment that the artificial gravity had been deactivated and they were free to float about. He looked ahead to see the Engineer behind the control room window to the hangar bay. The Engineer raised the crystal in one tentacle.
Jack took his opportunity to leap at Logan up above, who kicked out just as Jack neared. Jack slapped his palm against Logan's foot to deflect the force, but was propelled head over heels across the hangar. He saw as he spun that Logan had leapt off the wall in pursuit.
Jack braced himself for the impact. With a clank he bounced off the back wall and spun in a new direction. His hand caught hold of a groove in the metalwork and he slowed to a stop, drifting in one place. Logan stretched out his arms and pushed off from the spot where Jack had been, re-angling himself for a collision. Jack however noticed something floating in the middle of the hangar, spiraling slowly. His pistol.
Jack kicked off from the wall towards the weapon, just as Logan closed in at a hurtling speed. Logan reached a hand out and caught Jack's leg, angling them both outward in a dizzying spin. As Logan pulled in closer, Jack kicked out with his other foot once, twice against Logan's helmeted head. Both locked arms and their spin accelerated out of control, moving vaguely towards the center of the hangar.
Face to face, they unleashed everything they'd ever held back. Jack slammed his head against Logan's.
"This isn't about saving the world, is it, Logan? It's about Rachel!"
"Rachel is the world, Jack! Maybe not to you, but she is to me!"
Logan reached up and tried to unlatch Jack's helmet, but Jack raised his knees and kicked out against Logan's chest. Both Spartans were propelled away from each other. Jack secured his helmet latch as he soared towards the far wall. Logan arced and readied himself to kick off the opposite wall. He too now saw the pistol gliding steadily towards the center of the deck.
Both Spartans hit opposite walls at the same moment and thrust themselves forward with all the strength they had. Jack noticed too late that his trajectory was slightly off. He reached out sideways and caught Logan's forearm just as they passed, and the two became locked in another spiraling wrestle. Logan's other hand, however, had found the pistol.
Logan tried to bring the barrel to bear, but Jack slapped his hand against Logan's and slipped his finger behind the trigger, blocking it from firing. Both strained to wrestle the pistol from the other's grasp as they tumbled in place. Jack brought his visor close.
"Listen to me! If you loved Rachel you would let her choose who she loves!"
"If you loved her you would use the crystal to save her!"
"We're Spartans, Logan! It's not our job to save ourselves..." And in a wrenching moment of agony, Jack saw the truth in his own words. Eric, Ashley, the other Spartans...John. No matter how hard he tried, some would be sacrificed, would choose to die...to save mankind. First Harvest, the Outer Colonies...Reach. Each had stood its own against the Covenant, glassed so that Earth would remain safe. If no one had the courage to pull the trigger, to fire those last few rounds...
If Spartans began to fear losing friends...then the Covenant had already won.
Jack slammed his helmet against Logan's. The two began a renewed spiral towards the drop pod, still propped against the open crack of the hangar doors.
In their spin, Jack took in the distance from them to the drop pod and estimated their speed and time of collision. At the precise moment, he twisted so that Logan was shifted between him and the hard surface. They slammed against the door, and Logan's grip on the gun slipped.
Jack pressed the barrel into the soft matte-black mesh of Logan's waist, between the armor.
The pistol fired.
Logan's muscles relaxed, and a glob of fresh blood spewed from the wound. Flecks of blood spattered Jack's visor and floated about the hangar. Jack brought the barrel up and pressed it against Logan's visor.
Logan coughed up blood, splashing the inside of his visor a dark red.
"Do it. I deserve it."
Jack hesitated.
"Do it now!" Logan tried to shout, but instead gurgled up more blood.
Jack withdrew his pistol and holstered it at his side with a magnetic click.
"No. It's not over yet, Spartan. I have a new assignment for you."
Jack reached behind him and unsealed the hatch. The explosive contents drifted within. Logan nodded and let Jack ease him inside. Jack turned and saw that the Engineer had already ejected the crystal through a small port in the back wall, and the pink shimmering object now drifted towards them. Jack snatched the object out of the air and sent it gliding inside with Logan.
Jack paused, peering inside from the open hatch. He summoned all his hate and rage against Logan and used it to stem his mounting guilt and grief. He couldn't imagine why he couldn't bear this parting. Logan had tried to kill him…no, erase him…and take Rachel.
Logan reached towards Jack and spoke softly over the Spartan COM Channel, so that Rachel could hear as well.
"I'm sorry…" Logan struggled to say more. But it was all he could manage. A moment ago he had unleashed the darkest side of himself, a monster he hadn't faced in years. It was the same beast that took over when he had to fight the Covenant, when he had to survive. And at the same time, it was something stronger. For some reason he wanted most for Rachel to know that he was sorry. For even considering doing what he almost did to them. He could only cry now silently in his helmet, ashamed that he was ever considered a Spartan.
Jack looked at his long-time friend one last time. He couldn't forgive him. Not after what he had almost done. And at the same time, Jack mourned for the Logan he once knew and loved, who died long before this mission began.
Jack activated the Spartan roster and marked SPARTAN-109 as MIA. A moment later, a new file on Logan's bio-engineering history appeared. Perhaps it was only meant to be read after he was dead. It would have to wait.
Logan gave Jack the thumbs-up. It was weak. But it showed that he was determined to fulfill his final duty and destroy the crystal. Perhaps it was the only thing he could do to redeem himself, even if only a little.
Jack didn't return the thumbs up. Instead, he nodded. It was the only send off worth giving. Unknown to him, Logan blinked back tears of agony and regret inside his helmet.
Jack closed the hatch.
He signaled the Engineer, who activated the hangar bay doors. They slid apart all the way this time, revealing the stars and the smoldering Reach below. Ahead drifted the Surrogate Victor, Vladimir's Pelican already inbound. Jack shoved hard against the drop pod and sent it gliding into space. He watched it for a moment, drifting amongst the sea of stars. A lone lifeboat. Only this one was going to end a life. Jack struggled with his emotions, trying to figure out why his heart felt wrenched from his chest.
Logan would have killed me. Would have taken Rachel…
He was my friend…
Not anymore…
Why did he change? Why does it have to end this way?
Jack turned and left the hangar bay, its doors sliding shut behind him. The Engineer joined him on the way to the command deck. There Jack found Rachel. She took one glance at him- the blood, the slump in the shoulders, the clenched fist- and knew what had happened. Jack put a hand on her shoulder and had the Engineer set them on a slipspace jump straight through the planet towards a randomized vector. Rachel fought back tears and set them on course. The ship hummed and began to accelerate towards Reach's surface, where several other Covenant warships in orbit over the atmosphere now moved to intercept them. Jack and Rachel now faced the holographic projection in the center of the room.
Vladimir's image grinned back at them as the drop pod was brought onboard his dropship. Unescorted, he moved to open the hatch. After a moment it was pried free, and he peered inside with his sidearm.
Blood painted the interior of the lifeboat a dark, dripping red. The explosive ordinance within was lit up by Vladimir's flashlight. A Spartan sat against the back of the drop pod, a HAVOC tactical nuke in his lap. Helmet cast aside, Logan grinned back at the Lieutenant Commander's shock-stricken face.
"Reporting for duty, sir."
Logan pressed a button.
There was a flash, and the projection was filled with static. A side monitor displayed a bright orb of white-hot energy expanding rapidly. There was a pink flash and space warbled in random tendrils about the growing explosion. The Surrogate Victor lurched to avoid the blast.
Jack put his hands on Rachel's shoulders, calming her as they sped towards the Covenant armada now moving to intercept them, even as space began to distort before their prow. Jack watched their forward view screen, staring past the Covenant warships glimmering red with plasma, past the swirling clouds of thunder and flame. Reach still lay in its death throes before them…but there was something amidst the fire that caught Jack's eye and gave him hope; a feeling he hadn't truly felt in a long, long time.
A patch of the planet was untouched, preserved, for some unknown purpose. Perhaps the other Spartans were still alive…
Jack thought of them all, trapped, waiting to be rescued. He thought of the Chief, stranded in space, fighting the Covenant head on in an unknown location.
He thought of Earth. Of the last stronghold humankind still held. The one place still worth fighting for…worth dying for.
Rachel pulled Jack close, and they embraced, blinking away tears for the fallen, for themselves, for everything.
There was a bright pink flash as the blast caught up with them, and they disappeared into the slipstream.
o o o
It was quiet. Several hours had gone by in which Jack and Rachel did nothing but sit quietly together and cry. It was a luxury none of the Spartans had ever really had. But there was no use hiding this sort of thing now.
Both their helmets had been discarded. Now they lay side by side, still in the rest of their MJOLNIR armor, staring into each others' eyes. Rachel ran a hand through Jack's blonde, short-cropped hair. She stared into his eyes, and within the hardened green there was a glimmer of boyishness deep within. She wanted to see the side of him that was not heavy-hearted and burdened with the duties of a soldier, of leadership, of a Spartan.
Jack watched Rachel's eyes follow his, her own sparkle of mischief within those green depths. He tried to envision her brown hair longer, more carefree. He hated to see her like this. Like a soldier. No matter how tough she could get, she would always be a woman he wanted to protect. He couldn't imagine seeing those eyes lifeless, her beautiful white skin charred and bloodied like so many he had seen before. He did notice, however, a thin white scar curve down from her cheek bone to her upper lip. A knife wound she has received in a training exercise.
Here they lay, seeing each other's faces, no longer hidden behind the shielding Spartan visor. Here they remembered they were human. Here they felt again like children. Communicating with looks and gentle touches. Words felt meaningless. Both knew they would throw themselves before the other to take a bullet. They had nothing else to give one another. Normal couples would laugh, make witty comments, talk about life and why they were there, what they were meant to be. Not for these two. There was nothing more to say.
Just children, inside. Never allowed to grow up the normal way. Always playing war games. Always soldiers. One could never get too attached, lest their comrade be shot to death the next moment. And at the same time, this was an even stronger bonding. Every Spartan seemed to communicate on an ethereal plane beneath consciousness. Knowing they all would face the same fate, they were forever brothers and sisters.
Now Rachel moved to kiss Jack, to caste aside the rule against love between Spartans. Jack turned his head, hesitating. Not because of regulation. Not because he didn't want more than anything to return the kiss. But because he wanted to know something.
"Rachel…I killed Logan today. I…don't know what came over him. But he was going to kill me and take you and try to save the others. He was going to use the crystal to change everything. I don't know if I should have let him. I've just as easily sent others to their deaths…would it be so different if I sent myself to mine? So he would kill me and save you all? I…I don't know if I did the right thing. I don't know why Logan, why he-,"
And he collapsed into sobs.
Rachel turned his chin towards her and looked him in the eyes. Green staring into green. Spartan to Spartan. Woman to man.
"I love you because you are a good person, Jack-,"
"But I-,"
She kissed him. Hard.
He kissed back, blinking back tears.
"When we get out of this," Rachel mumbled, "We're going to raise a family-,"
"I know. And we'll have children."
"Lots of them."
"And a house."
"A mansion."
"And a dog-,"
"Just shut up and kiss me."
So many emotions, built up over the years, exploded from them. So long to wait…for what? Rachel thought to herself. Because of war?
Perhaps war is the best time for love.
Rachel began to unlink Jack's armor. He began to do the same for her. Before long, the last piece of the MJOLNIR armor had clanked to the deck. Entwined in each other's arms, they let their instincts lead them. They were clumsy, shaking with excitement and laughing through tears and joy and pain all at the same time. Hours went by before at long last they rested alongside one another, still staring into each other's eyes.
Jack waited for Rachel to fall asleep before rising from their spot in the command chair. He lifted his helmet and slipped it on, activating his Spartans' files. He had to know something before he could let his mind fully rest.
He quickly found and opened Logan's file. His eyes scanned the data three times.
Experimental additional bioaugmentations tested on SPARTAN-109, approved by a certain Lt. Ambrose. Extra doses of aggression enhancement fluids. Stronger muscle and denser bone augmentations. Repressed ethical center of the brain. Symptoms of a darker, alter ego.
Jack let his helmet drop to the floor, renewed grief swelling inside his chest.
Logan…it wasn't his fault after all. And I murdered him. Sent him to his death with hardly a goodbye.
Logan! If I could just go back and tell you that I forgive you! You're always a part of the team…just like Eric…Ashley…all of them.
Jack lifted his helmet off the deck and stared at his reflection in the visor, now dark as his heart. And it was then, in a moment of sadness, that he understood what it was he feared.
Being alone. The last Spartan, without Rachel, without anyone. Living to see the end of the war, knowing that no one he had ever cared about would be by his side to see it with him. He had wanted to take Logan's offer and escape to save the other Spartans. He did take his offer. But when he felt himself near death, he remembered why Spartans fought in the first place. Why their lives were worth sacrificing.
Jack saw his pistol lying on the deck. He picked it up and unloaded the magazine, hefting its weight again. One bullet. The last ones each sent someone to their death…
What life will be spent with this bullet? Who else would be sacrificed for the team, for mankind? Who was this bullet for?
The Covenant.
Jack slid in the magazine and holstered the pistol to his side.
Spartans would only be free once the Covenant were dead. And he would stop at nothing to bring them down. Perhaps Spartans never die because they live on in the lives they saved.
Jack would make all their lives, all their sacrifices, worth something. Worth everything. For Logan, for his Spartans…for John.
Jack placed his helmet over his head and clicked it into place.
Earth would bring him a new mission, he could feel it.
And he was ready.
Jack looked at Rachel, who rose, staring back into his eyes.
They were ready.