Chapter Twenty-Nine: Captured Part II
Estimated time: March 16, 2553 1302 hours
Unknown Covenant warship
Unknown System
A few days after that, Laura and the others were led at gunpoint to a large hall onboard the ship. The Prophet was there, as were several Brutes and an honor guard of Elites. He surveyed the group of humans, eyes falling coldly on Laura as she stood there defiant to the last. Finally his gaze fell upon one of the most badly wounded in the group. He pointed, and two Brutes moved forward.
Laura realized what was happening, even though she wasn't clear as to why. All she knew was that she had to act, and she did. She moved with blinding speed, putting herself between the Brutes and the wounded Marine, pushing him down to the deck as her leg kicked out and caught a Brute in the jaw. Striking out like a cobra, her next kick hit him in the head again, and she continued her attack until he was out of action. A few minutes later, a Brute tried to stand her on her head; she locked both feet around his neck and twisted—hard. Bones broke, the Brute fell dead, and Laura dropped to the deck, positioning herself in front of the wounded man again, dark eyes darting around the room.
"Anyone else care for a round?" she snarled, crouching low in a combat stance.
A Brute bellowed, until the Prophet raised a claw. He activated a translator and addressed the large human before him.
"You have defied our soldiers and our ways for the last time, Human."
"I think not. At any rate I'll not see you take anyone less than I for whatever brutality you plan. Why take those who know less, and who would be easy to break? What glory is there in defeating those who never had a chance?" The Marines' eyes widened, especially when they realized the dual purpose to her barbs: she was trying to protect them by taking their place in the torture session while insulting them and angering them enough to make them choose her for death. Her methods worked, and she was taken and held for torture, while they were made to watch. Taking Laura by the arms, they bound her with antigravity collars, effectively holding her in one place; no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't break free. Two Brutes positioned themselves on either side, armed with spear-type weapons. The torture session was about to begin.
The Prophet questioned her for hours about Earth's defenses, but she gave no answer. Each refusal to speak was rewarded with a stab from the spears, which were electrified and had adjustable voltage output. The Marines were horrified by the grisly session, but shocked and surprised when she maintained her silence. Several times it appeared that one or two of the Marines were going to break, until Laura called out, "Marines! Be strong! Semper Fidelis!" The Brutes and the Prophet were clearly losing patience; the 'holy one' ordered the maximum amount of pain. Laura lost her control only then; she broke, but it wasn't anywhere near what the Prophet was hoping for. She screamed in pain, a loud, echoing sound that tore at the hearts of the Marines, and shocked the Covenant. The Prophet's Elite assistant shook his head in amazement.
"Excellency, that was far more pain than a Hunter could have withstood!"
"What kind of human are you?" The Prophet demanded. Laura smiled wearily, a haze of pain clouding her eyes. The last time her entire body had hurt like this had been her augmentations, but even that didn't come close to the pain she felt now. Still she stood, refusing to let the pain show on her face.
"I am a human Hunter, and I fight for my people and my race." She stood tall for a brief moment, a defiant smile on her face, and then her knees buckled just before she collapsed.
She awoke to find her wounds recently tended, with the Covenant medical supplies. She also noticed two new prisoners in the cell: an Elite and a Grunt. The Elites hands were red with her blood, so she guessed he had treated her wounds. The Elite spoke, the English language uneasy in his mouth.
"You are better?"
"I feel better, thank you. Why are you here?" Her voice sounded scratchy, probably from her shouting and screaming during the torture session.
"Yipin and I disagree with Prophets. They call us heretics, and have planned our execution."
"Just disagreeing with your leaders shouldn't be considered a heresy. The Prophets seem more like tyrants than true leaders. True leaders don't execute people unless they have no other choice." Laura's comments cause the Elite to recoil in what seemed like surprise.
"Many have said that, and none have lived to say it again."
"You will, once we get out of here. I'll find a way out in time, I can promise you that." She groaned as she tried to stand up, and clutched at her sides.
"Brute staves are painful. At most it takes only three jabs to get an enemy to speak. You took over a hundred." It was difficult to tell, but she swore she heard admiration in the Elite's voice.
"I was bred and trained to endure anything, even pain. I'm a survivor."
She staggered to her feet and began looking for a way out, when she heard a loud commotion above her. If I didn't know better, I'd say that was gunfire, an MA5B assault rifle most likely.
"Anyone else hear that?" Several people nodded. "I suggest we get back, this could get ugly."
Everyone retreated to the rear of the cell, listening as the noise came nearer. The door of the detention block opened, and the gunfire suddenly got extremely loud. The other Marines closed in around Laura, just in case their rescue tried to kill her as a traitor; they'd seen what happened to her on base, and some of them even regretted taking part in those cruelties. The gunfire continued to come closer, but they couldn't see anything. Whoever that is, their using active camo, but it's not an Elite, since they don't use assault rifles. Laura was thinking about the highly remote possibility of one of her brothers coming for her when the camouflage generator was deactivated, revealing a giant in green armor.
"A Spartan! We're saved!"
"Maybe. Let's get off this ship first before we throw a ticker-tape parade."
The Master Chief knew that voice, and was glad to hear that its owner was still alive, though it didn't show through in his voice. "That you, Blade?"
"About damn time somebody showed up to bust us outta here. What took you so long?"
"Nice to see you too. I've got some gear for you, compliments of a Miss Nicole Mitchell." He pulled a hefty bag off his back and handed it to her. In a matter of minutes Laura had pulled on a blacksuit, a camouflage belt, a portable shield generator, and her blades.
"Ready to kick some ass. How do we get home from here?"
"I've made a few… arrangements to get us back to Earth. There's a ship waiting on the edge of the Covenant scanners. If we can get off this ship, we should be able to rendezvous with it."
"Then we'll have to get to the docking bay. But first, we should blow this ship. Get me to the bridge and I'll take care of the rest."
The Chief motioned to the Elite and the Grunt. "What about them?"
"They go with us, seeing as how they saved my life, and they're considered heretics."
The Master Chief shrugged, unwilling to argue with her, and secretly worried about her sluggish movements; normally a graceful person, Laura seemed to be struggling to stay upright. As they headed to the cargo bay, he opened a private COM channel with her from inside the helmet of her suit.
"Are you alright?"
"No. They decided to torture me for information with electric spears. How do you think I feel? I can barely move as it is--there must be some internal injuries, but we don't have time to stop and treat them. We need to get to a shuttle or a dropship and off of this bucket. How'd you find us, anyway?"
"Luck, I think. We can discuss that later, once we get off this ship."
They stopped at the bridge on their way to the cargo bay, in order to start the self-destruct sequence and blow the ship. The room was quite crowded, however, so Laura decided to take matters into her own hands: it was time for her to do what she did best.
"Wait here." Turning on her active camouflage, she moved through the room, a shadow among shadows, a ghost among the living. Laura slipped next to the Elites, silently slitting the throats of the enemy soldiers, until she got nearer to the enemy C&C. A gold-armored Elite (who she guessed to be the Covenant equivalent of a Navy captain) stood there, and happened to hit her with his plasma pistol by chance; once he realized what was there, he lunged to attack. Smoke upon the wind, Laura thought to herself as she dodged her attacker, trying to slit his throat before the Marines got in. Finally, she saw her opening: the Elite had swung too widely, missing her by mere inches, but it was enough for her to plunge one blade deep in his throat. Unfortunately, the Elite brought her down as he fell, which only aggravated her injuries; in spite of the pain she kept her mouth shut.
"Move up, all clear," Laura muttered into her COM. The Marines filed in and secured the room, as Laura shoved the dead Elite off her and stood up.
"You are all right, human?"
"Fine," Laura muttered, acknowledging the Elite with a nod. "Let's blow this bucket."
Once they were sure the room was secure, Laura began to encrypt the controls and set the self-destruct, with the help of the heretic Elite. It didn't take half as long with the assistance, and in a matter of minutes they were on the move again. By the time they got to the docking bay, though, only five minutes were left on the countdown. Laura was beginning to doubt that they'd make it out alive. As they boarded a dropship, the Elite was shot in the torso; Laura pulled him on the dropship and tried to stop the bleeding with the help of Yipin the heretic Grunt. The Master Chief sat behind the controls of the dropship, trying to get them out of there. They just managed to rendezvous with the small freighter on the edge of the system when the Covenant ship exploded. Cortana's voice came over the Chief's helmet speakers.
"Well done. How did you manage to destroy the ship?"
"Blade set the self-destruct sequence and encrypted it, with the help of a renegade Elite," one of the captured Marines replied, a trace of respect in his voice.
"A renegade Elite who's just died." Laura's voice began to crack, and her defiant tone was gone. "He sacrificed himself to give us the chance to escape."
Everyone in the room bowed their heads. Not one person said anything like "Good riddance" because they all knew they owed him their lives. Even Cortana paused a moment in silence, before she asked another question.
"What kind of encryption did you use?"
"A traditional one, a riddle I took from Lord of the Rings. One that I knew they'd never be able to guess." Taking a deep breath she recited:
'Alive without breath,
As cold as death.
Never thirsting, ever drinking,
Clad in mail never clinking.
Drowns on dry land, thinks an island
Is a mountain. Thinks a fountain
Is a puff of air.'
"Can you guess the answer?"
"No. I cannot think of anything that matches your description."
"It's a fish, Cortana. It's only a fish." Just as she said that, the pain she'd been fighting during the escape began to take hold; Laura staggered for a bit, and fell into the arms of the Master Chief, who had reached out to catch her as she fell. What a coincidence, that I fall dead in the arms of the man I love, she thought just before she passed out.
The Master Chief laid her gently on the deck of the dropship, and linked in to her biomonitors: there was severe internal injuries and bleeding, and she had slipped into unconsciousness, if not into a coma. If she doesn't make it, this will all have been for nothing, he thought. He opened a private channel with Cortana.
"How long does she have? How long before we reach Earth?"
"Seeing as the Covenant probably already know the location of Earth, I can make only one random jump before we head to Earth, shortening the travel time to twelve hours. Unfortunately, according to Laura's vital signs, she may only last for another fifteen hours without proper treatment."
"What about the Cole protocol?" There was surprise in the Chief's voice.
"Chief, think about it: if the Covenant had a spy waiting to capture Laura in the first place, they probably already know where we are. Plus, I seriously doubt that they're just going to discard our location so easily. The Cole protocol is no longer valid, really."
"Just get us to Earth, as quickly as possible. Do what you need to, just get us there." Cortana noticed the subtle ache lacing his tone, and noticed how he gently removed the helmet and felt for a pulse. So, there is feeling there. I should inform Lorienna, but not yet. Laura's survival is still in doubt.
Twelve hours later, the freighter reached Earth space and Cortana relayed the proper responses so the ship could land on Earth, and the request for methane units to be sent to the pad: the UNSC had many of these units, since the Spartans had brought back a number of Grunt prisoners—and several of their methane bladders and rations, which the UNSC had copied to keep the prisoners alive—after capturing the warship Holy Retribution. She also relayed the need for an emergency medical team to meet the shuttle at the landing pad. As the final landing approached, she noticed the Master Chief tensing perceivably.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Chief. She's been through hell before."
"That's not the only thing I'm worried about."
The hatch opened, and the escaped prisoners filed out. Two of them stopped beside a gurney, exchanging words with a gray-haired doctor. She paled visibly and ran into the ship with the rest of the team close behind.
"How long has she been unconscious?"
"About twelve hours, I think. We came as quickly as we could."
He assisted Dr. Gedeon in lifting her unconscious daughter onto the gurney, following her out with Yipin the Grunt at his side. It felt odd walking next to a Grunt and not trying to kill him for once. When he noticed his fellow Spartans pointing weapons at the diminutive alien, he motioned them to stand down and escorted the little guy to General West, who happened to be standing nearby.
"Sir, this one helped us get off the ship in one piece, as did the dead Elite onboard the freighter. They were imprisoned as heretics."
"Then I'll see to it they're both properly taken care of." West lowered his voice. "I think you have a lot of explaining to do, Chief." As he walked away, John saw his fellow Spartans heading toward him. Fred was the first to open his mouth.
"You could have at least dragged us along! What were you thinking, going off by yourself?" As angry as he sounded, John knew he was also concerned; his going off alone like that was out of character.
"I didn't want you to get in trouble along with me. Ackerson ordered me to follow her and avoid contact, and I let the Covenant capture Laura because I listened to the bastard when he said she was a traitor. I had to go alone, because I made the mistake."
"Was it just because of that?" Linda's quiet voice unnerved him. How much does she know?
"Trust me, it was for the best. Besides, it worked didn't it?"
"It would've worked better if we'd been with you," Will pointed out. To that, John had no answer, at least none he felt like telling.
March 24, 2553 1922 hours
Adams Medical Facility
UNSC Reserve Base Camp Hayes
North America
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but when she woke up she was in a hospital bed; the last thing she remembered was collapsing in the Covenant dropship. Slitting her eyes (she was getting pretty good at feigning sleep), Laura discerned three armored giants standing around the door, as well as her cellmates from the Covenant ship. Someone touched her head lightly, and she recognized her mother's voice.
"She must still be unconscious, but I can't imagine why. According to these readouts, she came out of the coma hours ago."
"Maybe she's just asleep, Dr. Gedeon," one of the soldiers by the door pointed out. "If that's the case, I'd hate to wake her up."
"Or perhaps she's awake and just eavesdropping," Fred's voice was its usual acerbic tone, but Laura noticed a subtle change in pitch and tone which suggested the beginnings of a grudging respect. Dr. Gedeon, hearing the Spartan's words, glanced back at her face in time to see one eyebrow arc in query, a thing that Laura knew drove her up a wall.
"Laura Elizabeth!"
"Good morning to you too, Mom. Or is it afternoon?" Laura murmured as she tried to sit up. Pain lanced through her body as she tried to push herself into a sitting position.
"It's actually late evening. How are you feeling?"
"It hurts a bit, which means it probably hurts a lot. How long was I out of it?"
"According to the Master Chief, you were unconscious for about 12 hours before they brought you in. You've been comatose for about a week." Dr. Gedeon sounded tired.
"Oh, hell, that's not good. It'll take me at least that long to get caught up on all my research and stuff." She finally took a good look at her mother, and her eyes widened in concern: she noticed the dark circles under her mother's blue eyes, which looked extremely fatigued. "You haven't been resting, have you?"
"Yes, I have been, but last night one of Colonel Ackerson's men decided to pay you a visit. We've been keeping watch just in case someone else tried something."
"Damn him!" Laura muttered under her breath, but everyone in the room heard: she had a low-pitched voice that carried even when it was soft. "One of these days I'll see he gets his comeuppance, I guarantee it." Looking around the room, she noticed again that there were only three Spartans. One's missing, but which one? She knew Fred was there, but couldn't tell the other two apart. Fortunately, one spoke up: it was Linda, by the voice.
"What did the Covenant bastards do to you, Laura?"
"Tried to torture information out of me with electric spears. It wasn't pretty, but I didn't give anything away. You would've been proud of me if you'd been there." Suddenly her eyes widened again. "Where's Yipin, the little Grunt?"
"In a prison cell, but he's being well-treated, by General West's orders," one of the soldiers mentioned.
"Guess I owe him one for that; remind me to bake some pumpkin bread for him as soon as I get out of here. I still need to thank the little guy, too. I'll figure out how eventually." Laura rolled over to try and rest, and gasped a little as fresh pain shot through her. Dr. Gedeon immediately checked a readout.
"The painkillers are wearing off. I'll get some more for you."
"No you will not. I'll get hooked on those things before you know it and then we'll be in a world of trouble. I'm not taking any of them, I can handle the pain." She gritted her teeth and rolled onto her back like she'd been before. Dr. Gedeon motioned for the others to leave, but as they left, Laura asked Linda—the closest thing to a military friend she had--to stay for a while. Linda came near the bed.
"Any chance you could take that off? I feel a bit uncomfortable with talking to faceless people." She tried to smile as she said it, but the pain caused a grimace instead. Linda didn't remove her helmet, but she did slide the faceplate up so Laura could see her face.
"Linda, who's missing? I only count three Spartans: you, Fred--who I see still hates my guts--and either Will or the Chief. Who's gone?"
"The Chief said he had some things to take care of. We volunteered to keep an eye on you. And just for the record, Fred doesn't hate you, he's just jealous."
"Why on Earth would he be jealous of me? True, I'm a decent hand with combat knives, but that's about it."
"He envies the way you can stand up to people, your skills in close combat, and I think he's jealous of the Chief's interest in you."
"The Chief could care less about me," Laura murmured as she started to fall asleep. Why do I feel so tired? Probably blood loss. "I'm just another soldier to him, just a weapon. He probably wouldn't look twice at me if I wasn't a Spartan." With that thought hanging in the air, she fell asleep. Just before she drifted off, she thought she heard Linda speaking.
"No, to him you're more than a soldier."