Chapter XV – High Charity
"What's on your mind…?", Kate asked the Lekgolo standing motionless in the hall, staring outside.
His turquoise eyes wandered for a moment, then met her green ones, "I was thinking about our destination…", he spoke.
Kate nodded slightly and stood next to him, staring at the same nothing he was staring at earlier. "What's so special about High Charity?", she asked quietly, fidgeting with the small pocket PC she had with her.
But Xehn remained quiet, and she noticed he was somehow reluctant to tell her.
"Hmm, I see…", she said and paced away slowly.
Xehn fought the urge to watch her leave, he felt she didn't have to know what happened.
The moment she left the hallway Akena's voice sounded over the COM, "In four hours we will be arriving at High Charity, I strongly advice you all to rest up and repair your gear… you will be needing it if you're going down…".
Xehn sighed and walked towards the Lekgolo quarters, it was time to get ready to face whatever horrors were waiting for him down on the planetoid he grew up on.
Chakuth yawned and stretched himself, scratching the scaled skin on his left arm, "Gruelling eight hours behind us… another horrible four to go…", he spoke in a broken, sleepy voice.
Akena sat back in the comfortable chair behind his control panel, "No worries sir, I'm sure these four hours will pass just as fast as those last eight did.", he said with his cheerful voice.
"Akena, could you do me a favour…?", Chakuth started.
"Anything, sir.", he replied.
"Yes, well can you stop calling me sir, it's creeping me out, just call me Chakuth, please…", he spoke to the young shipmaster.
"Ok, then Chakuth-sir, I mean…", he looked somewhat confused, then looked away.
Chakuth shook his head slightly, then smiled, "So, did you give Duthaz a particular job around the ship?", he asked.
Akena stared at the Unggoy for a while, "Yeah I thought tactician would be something he could do perfectly.", he replied. The general frowned slightly, "Tactician… hmm…".
The Shipmaster nodded, "Well he did have his own fleet before the destruction of the first ring.", Akena spoke.
"Right… I forgot about that..", Chakuth said, and yawned again.
The hours passed incredibly slow in the Lekgolo quarters, Kahlanx had almost found himself lying on the floor out of boredom wasn't it for Xehn's return to sit next to him in boredom.
Xurru and Garrex were playing their stone game again, but Kahlanx didn't seem to understand the rules at all and wasn't feeling like being embarrassingly beaten again.
Instead he was just listening to the many conversations that were held around the room and trying not to fall asleep.
Xehn had observed his friends' silly game for a while before he suddenly felt a bump against his arm. Upon looking at what it was he saw Kahlanx had fallen asleep against him and slowly slid off.
He shook his head and positioned himself to comply with Kahlanx' sleeping position.
While staring down at his sleeping brother he smiled faintly, thinking of the youth they shared before the training and the accident. He took a deep breath and sat back against a wall placing his hand on his brother's chest.
'I would never neglect you… ever…', he thought before closing his eyes.
Duthaz gritted his teeth and felt the irresistible need to smash the console he was sitting at.
"Damn it, connect!!", he shouted at it in a wave of panic and anger and stared at the closed door of his small office-room.
A loud beep, followed by a few less loud ones and the word 'Connection Failed' came upon the screen.
"No!!", he shouted and finally smashed the board.
He closed his eyes and hit the connect button again for the last time and softly pleaded to himself for it to work.
It took abnormally long this time, Duthaz was standing with his forehead against the window when he heard the sound he wanted to hear. He looked back at the screen and saw the words 'Connected, patching through'.
He didn't know how fast he had to get to the console, but it didn't take him long.
The COM opened and static could be heard, Duthaz waited until the image slowly formed itself.
"Duthaz? Is that you? Where are you?!"
"I'm on my way to High Charity, where are you?",
"It's horrible here… Almost every one is gone, hardly anyone… or anything is alive.", it sounded as the voice slowly formed into a more female tone.
"Don't worry. It wont take any longer now…", he spoke and closed the COM, sitting back in his chair.
Almost the entire team had fallen asleep the moment they arrived at the ruined ghost planetoid High Charity, Akena had woken them when they were ready to approach the docks.
Chakuth's team stood at the entrance to the Gravlift, as silent as the grave as they waited for the mechanism to engage and the doors to open.
A loud hiss told them the Gravlift was ready to use, and as the doors opened, Chakuth was the first to walk through.
As they stepped on the platform, light engulfed them, a slight tingling sound could be felt as the beam of purple light took them down into the heart of the Covenant city. The holy capital, once it's power unmatched, now but an infected shadow of itself.
The sight below them loomed back at them, the Flood infestation was at a point none of the members of Chakuth's team had ever seen before.
Bulbous masses spread over the walls and floors, giving life to new parasites. The stench was unbearable, even through the protective methane masks the Unggoy wore, they couldn't even imagine what it had to be like without it.
Even though nothing seemed to move beneath them, they all felt a presence of some kind.
When the beam of light ended it dawned to them how severe the situation was, most of the lights had broken down and there hung a suspicious mist just above the floor, hiding anything smaller than one foot.
Chakuth felt the floor under his feet move as he stepped on a vein of some sort, he narrowed his eyes and gulped, trying not to yelp back at it.
"Still think this is a good idea…?", Duthaz whispered sarcastically but seemed to have his own plans.
Chakuth didn't reply and gathered all the power he had to keep his dinner inside and kept walking.
"What exactly do we know about these Flood creatures..?", He whispered and scanned his surroundings using his motion tracker.
Duthaz stared at Chakuth, "You have different kinds, Parasites, Carriers and Attackers, The parasites aren't really dangerous to Lekgolo or Unggoy… it's the Sangheili who are endangered by them…", he spoke quietly, paused for a moment then continued, "The Carriers explode… if you make contact with them… Well… say your prayers… The attackers are lethal but easily killed with the right kind of weapons, human shotguns seem to work really well…", he added to it.
"Alright then… let's go.", Chakuth said, "We'll head through the Lekgolo quarters to the databanks.".
The first few steps were the hardest, but when they had left the Gravlift well behind them Chakuth started to feel uneasy, it got worse every step, and stopped.
"Something is watching us…", he said.
Miph's eyes grew larger as he stared at Chakuth, "Don't… say such things, please.", he whispered at Chakuth.
Xehn stared around quietly, "I noticed that since we passed the first few crates… Something is following us rather than watching us…", he said dryly as he turned around.
Miph started to tremble as he grabbed Chakuth's arm, "Seriously… what is up with you guys, don't make it worse, you're not helping!", he said trying not to break his whispering.
Xehn stared at Miph, rolled his eyes and walked towards the crate calmly.
"Xehn, don't!", Chakuth and Kahlanx said simultaneously.
Xehn shook his head and reached behind the crate, as his hand grabbed at the being behind it, it screamed. A familiar high scream.
It fought against being lifted, but as soon as it realized what it was lifted by it just stared at Xehn.
"As you can see… Nothing to be afraid of…", Xehn spoke and put the human down.
"Miss Bane?", Chakuth started, obviously confused.
Kate patted the slime off her coat and stared at Xehn before staring at Chakuth, "Yes… Hello Chakuth.", she replied, a bit sheepishly.
Duthaz crossed his arms and sighed, "Now that's just great, don't think I'll be looking after your ass too, girl…", he said before walking ahead.
Kate gave him a disapproving stare, "I don't think I'd need your help.", she replied and crossed her arms at him.
Xehn shook his head, slightly agitated at the fact Kate had followed him down onto the grounds of death. But there was no way to lecture her now, it would have been too obvious and too dangerous.
"Let's just keep going, no point in going back now…", Xehn stated and started following Duthaz.
Chakuth stared at Xehn and shrugged, "He's right, but is it smart to take the human along?".
Miph shrugged as well, "We'll see wont we?", he said.
Kahlanx felt he frowned at how Kate had grabbed Xehn's arm and was walking as close to him as possible. If he wasn't sure before, there was no doubt about it he knew now, his brother had a soft spot for the female human doctor, and Kahlanx felt it was his sole duty to find out how and why.
Duthaz stared at how his armoured feet almost disappeared into the flood-covered floor, his orange eyes narrowed in disgust at the parasite as he saw how his kind was affected most.
A gurgled roar, and Duthaz drew his weapon to aim at the maimed and rotting infected Sangheili, the way it moved and how the tentacles whipped around made Kate jump, instinctively she clamped to Xehn.
It was about to jump at Duthaz as a charged plasma gun shot blew it's chest apart.
The Sangheili looked back at Chakuth and how he put the discharging gun back behind his back.
"Better shoot anything flood fast…", Chakuth said quietly and kept walking until he passed Duthaz.
Duthaz growled softly but decided against saying anything about it.
The odd sounds around High Charity were starting to get to them as they trotted through the Covenant Capital, every sound they heard, living or not took about a full minute or three to check out, along with the never ending darkness and horrors around them it was taking more energy than the answers might be worth.
It had been easily an hour since they left the Zealous Liberator and it finally seemed the Lekgolo quarters were getting closer.
"Chakuth…", Miph started, and scratched his left arm, "Don't you think it's weird we only encountered about twelve of those flood things? Wasn't it overrun by them?".
The Unggoy general stared at Miph for a second, his heart racing.
Duthaz rolled his eyes, "There is nothing left for them to eat, they go into a certain state of hibernation to ensure their survival, waiting… lurking for something to come by.", he spoke and pried a shotgun from the former human marine.
"Even humans died here…", he sighed and loaded the gun.
"Well it doesn't matter anymore now, let's get this over with…", he spoke and walked ahead.
Xehn stared at Kate for a few seconds until he continued walking as well, "Sangheili seem to be the only prey the Flood feeds on… humans and Sangheili…", he said softly and stared at the bodies.
Chakuth stared at the Lekgolo, "Plenty of others died just because they tried… None of us will be spared, regardless of our race…", he said quietly and grabbed a shotgun too.
Miph frowned at Chakuth's doom-saying and ran after him, "Wait up Chakuth… what did you just say?".
Xehn shook his head and stared at Kahlanx, "There is something here… Something didn't go into hibernation…", he said in their tongue and watched Kahlanx nod.
Duthaz stopped, before him stood an army of the infected, all wanting his body to breed in.
The moment Chakuth saw them he was petrified, the way they moved, growled and looked, all combined into nothing Chakuth had dared to have nightmares of.
The only golden armoured host started staggering at them at a slow pace, showing the rest what to do. Then another growled, and it didn't take long for the army of them roared and ran at them. Duthaz growled back and ran too, "Die assholes!!", he shouted and held the weapon to his head to aim.
Chakuth stared at Duthaz for a second before he realized it was the only way to get out of this mess, he to loaded the shotgun and waited for the rest to attack as well.
Xehn gave Kate a small push to stand with Chakuth and the other Unggoy as he and Kahlanx walked towards the Flood.
Kate had never seen them in action before and observed as they truly worked, thought and fought in a pair.
Xehn hefted his shield to his chest and calmly walked towards them, he knew damn well that whatever armour crushed under his powerful blows would be devastating to the flesh and bones of the cursed parasites.
He nodded at Kahlanx and started running, shields up.
In true unity the two brothers bulldozed the first line of parasites away and scattered them to eliminate them in a painful crushing death, one by one.
Kahlanx' shield came down, crushing bone and armour before it reached the small infection form within the chest of the ex-Sangheili. It exploded, sending the small bits of flesh and skin flying against everything in its way.
As soon as they had driven back a number of twenty flood into a corner of the big hall they fought in Kahlanx walked back casually, leaving his brother facing twenty hungry and angry Infected.
Standing back Kahlanx heard his brother's thoughts in his mind and started charging his fuel rod gun. With all the determination in the world he fired, the super charged green plasma waste made its way to Xehn, and when it was about to pass him he walked, not a care in his mind, past the heat of the blast to a distance where potential chunks would miss him.
They didn't even watch the carnage they had created, as they were on their way to murder the next wave.
Kate had watched them, their cold bloodedness in battle was astonishing, Xehn was right about one thing, Humans had the Spartans, the Covenant had Behemoths.
End Note: Aaaaand another one (: