Chapter XXX

(bow-chic-a-bow-wow)

(just kidding)

(. . . perverts)

Red Squad was unable to reach the Relic Fortress via teleportation so they settled for the next fastest way; air travel. The Albatross-Class transport that was sent by Red Command had been airborne for barely an hour when the island came into view . . .

"Private Donut, what is our bearing?" the Chief asked.

"What? Chief, I can fly this thing, but I have no idea what the little knobs and dials say. All I know is that if I pull up on the handle bars, the ship goes up and that if I push it down, the ship goes down. The red buttons shoot stuff and the green button activates the on-flight movie. Other than that, I'm lost. I'm not even fully certified to fly this thing."

"Let's just keep that out little secret, pilot."

"Whatever you say, Chief."

Master Chief stood in between the pilot and copilot seats where Donut and Tex sat respectively. He had been standing there for most of the trip since there weren't enough seats for everyone. Six could sit in the passenger area, which meant that Andy was being held by Lock-jaw. Tex and Donut had volunteered to fly the ship and the Chief decided to stand.

"We're coming up on the island now, Chief," Tex said. "We're being tracked by the AD turrets. We'll be in their range in four seconds."

The Chief turned to the passenger section. "Buckle up back there, things are about to get bumpy."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, the turrets opened fire. Hyper-accelerated rounds fired from the magnetic accelerator cannons and either flew past the transport or scored hits along the armor. The Albatross slowly began to descend while trying to avoid the heavy fire, but to no avail. One of the rounds scored a hit on one of the wing bases. It shuddered from the speed which the rest of the ship was going and broke off from the rest of the craft, spiraling down into the sea. The turrets registered the hit as fatal and stopped firing. The Albatross crashed into the ground nose first and skidded along the sand. The reverse thrusters were opened and the ship slowed to a stop just before crashing into a large hill. The Chief made sure Donut and Tex were ok before checking on the rest of the squad, who were also unharmed. The Chief kicked down the door that led to the vehicle cargo area and found that the three sides had fallen off and the warthog had slid down the ramp behind it and had rolled to a stop in the sand. It was only slightly damaged.

"Alright Red Squad, we're making camp here. Grif, I need info on the fortress' defenses and I need it three minutes ago," the Chief ordered.

"Great Scott, I left my DeLorean back at the warehouse! Man, this is heavy," Grif said while leaving to get into position.

"Simmons, take tabs on the gear. I want to know what's serviceable and what's not," the Chief continued, ignoring Grif's remark. "Donut, Lopez, check and make sure the hog's ok. We'll need it. Everyone else, we're setting up camp here. Tex, Lock-jaw, come with me."

The soldiers and the alien walked into the destroyed Albatross and, after several minutes of otherwise fruitless searching, found several bullet-proof titanium shields stowed away in a compartment. Lock-jaw took them and set them up near an opening behind the downed transport. While the alien was busy, Tex saw several stationary turrets. She and the Chief both took one and walked out of the ship. The Chief set his up near the shields that Lock-jaw had set up and Tex set hers up on top of the downed transport. After the defenses were established, Lock-jaw went to set up his tent within the semicircle surrounding the area where a fire would be made. Grif came down from his scouting position.

"They've got at least fifty guards all over the place. Some of them are loading ammo into a tank and a few more are getting a warthog ready. Chances are that they're coming over here to make sure there weren't any survivors."

Simmons walked up to them while Grif was reporting.

"Sir, all of the weapons and ammo are intact and accounted for. There were also a few more rocket launchers than initially thought. There's ammo for all of them as well."

The Chief knew that if they engaged the enemy, they would attract the attention of the rest of the guards. Still, there seemed to be no other choice.

"Grif, prep the squad. We're taking as many of them down as we can. Simmons, contact command and see if they can send us any reinforcements. We're not going down without a fight.

O'Malley stood before the two Blue soldiers in the brig. Their wrists were bound together by energy binders and their feet were magnetically sealed to the floor. O'Malley looked directly at their faces. Or rather, he looked at Private Tucker's face. Church, being a lost soul inside a robotic body had no head beneath the helmet. Tucker looked uneasy. Of course, anyone would be uneasy if their mortal enemy was standing barely a foot away from them holding a fully loaded shotgun.

"So, you fools tried to escape my fortress?" O'Malley asked. "A futile gesture, no doubt."

"We didn't try to escape, those Reds let us out!" Tucker cried.

"The Reds let ya out?" Sarge said. "Now why would they do that? I mean, they're Reds, after all. If it was me, I'dda just shot ya right through the glass. Problem solved!"

"Yes, and thank God it wasn't you," Church said. Church was abnormally calm, but since he was a ghost, O'Malley had no power over him. At least, he didn't think he did. And, if worse came to worst and O'Malley decided to kill them, Church could just get up and leave.

"Apparently our cobalt friend is overconfident, Sarge. He believes he is perfectly safe. Is this true?" O'Malley's voice was laced with anticipation. He had something up his host body's gauntlet.

"Well, I'm a ghost. Ghosts are already dead, and I don't think they can die twice. Unless that's what you're all excited about and you found a way to kill ghosts."

O'Malley snickered sinisterly. "You are correct; there is no known way to kill ghosts. I've done something better!"

Sarge walked over to a lab table where a white cloth was draped over something. The red armored hand grabbed the sheet and yanked it off the table, exposing a body lying in a comatose state. Church instantly recognized the face.

"What the . . . ok O'Malley, how the fuck did you get that?"

"What, this old thing? I have Doc to thank for that. Long story short, a sample of your blood allowed me to clone you a brand new body! Isn't that just magnificent?"

Church was shocked. O'Malley had gone through the trouble of recreating his old body from a blood sample? That process would have taken at least a month of direct observation and upkeep.

"What's the catch?" Church was still unable to think that O'Malley would do this out of the kindness of his heart.

"Catch? There's no catch, my friend . . . because you don't have a choice!"

O'Malley began to cackle in his familiar evil voice while Sarge picked up a device lying next to the body.

"We specifically designed this to be excruciatingly painful, ya dirty Blue," Sarge said.

"Designed what? What the fuck are you talking about?" Church was now concerned. They had made something that could hurt him, and that wasn't any good at all.

"You see, there is a device implanted inside the head of this body. It emits a very powerful beam that picks up all electromagnetic fields. Since ghosts are mostly energy, and thusly are partially composed of electromagnetic waves, you will be forcefully removed from your robotic body and placed inside of this organic one. Attempting to leave the new body will kill you, permanently, and attempting to remove the device will kill you, permanently. Any questions? No? Good. Begin the procedure!"

O'Malley resumed laughing evilly as Sarge pressed the button on the remote. Church suddenly felt his ghostly form moving out of his robot shell. At first, it felt like he was leaving his body like he would normally do, but he wasn't in control of his body. After he was outside of the shell, however, his ghostly form began to demolecularize and was sucked into the new body.

"Wait! NO! I have questions! I HAVE QUESTIONS!" Church bellowed.

Every second of the process was extremely painful, and it only got worse as his body was sucked into the receiver. He tried to scream, but that only made the unimaginable pain worse. It throbbed throughout his entire body until he could take no more. Church blacked out. Tucker watched the whole thing and was now extremely scared.

"You're not gonna pull that shit on me, are you?" he asked.

"No, why would we waste our precious mechanical resources on you? Church was the one that required an organic body, and you already possess one. It is very disgusting, unkempt and ugly, but it is present."

"Hey!"

"Can it, ya damn Blue. He's right; yer as ugly as sin! Maybe even as ugly as Grif!"

"Now that's just plain rude."

"Quiet you fools, he's waking up."

Church groaned and slowly opened his eyes. After several moments, they focused on the red helmet hovering over him.

"I swear, once I get my armor and a really big gun . . ."

"Silence! There is a reason I have brought you here and have done these painful things to you."

"What would that be? So you can laugh and tell your poker buddies about it later?"

"No! Well, sorta. Not entirely. Maybe justa little-"

"Shut up!" O'Malley exclaimed. Sarge had come close to exposing them. "Church, there is something you must know about your precious friend Tex."

"I heard you had her. So what happened?"

"That is untrue. She was under my care until that dreadful Red Squad showed up. I don't know how to say this in a way that is unoffensive, so I'm just going to say it blatantly and in a way that will probably cause you emotional pain. They killed her, Church. They killed Tex."

"Caboose!" shouted the Master Chief, "get down!"

Caboose, who had become much better at taking orders dropped to the ground as a tank shell roared just over his head and exploded into the hill behind him showering Red Squad in sand and rock. The battle had been getting progressively worse for Red Squad over the course of the last few hours. The numbers of the guards was almost the same as the number of Blues at Terminal, and the squad had managed to reduce the numbers to thirty before the initial attack began. Unlike the Blues at Terminal, however, these guards were highly trained. After losing almost half of their numbers in a blind rush, they had regrouped and were using the strategic advantages the Fortress and its immediate surroundings provided. The guards had been slowly advancing and were forcing the squad into tighter and tighter quarters as the battle wore on. The current situation also reflected the battle at Terminal. However, at the end of that battle the Rhinoceros had come to the rescue. The Chief realized that they wouldn't be so lucky. And that's when he and Red Squad heard three words that might as well have been spoken from the mouth of God himself.

"Firing Main Cannons!"

To Be Continued