Chapter Seven: Falling Back
ONI Research Lab Seattle, September 5, 2559, 5:10 am
The director of ONI was leaning against the wall of his office in the ONI tower, overlooking the battle far below the penthouse office of this fine establishment. The elevator door that led into the room opened, revealing the same ONI official that had been on the Infinity to identify the remains of S-117s armor.
"The good doctor lied to us," he said, walking up to the director.
"How so?" the director asked, inhaling smoke from his cigarette.
"She claimed the armor did belong to S-117."
"Hmpf. It seems Halsey thinks she is outsmarting us. But that is not important at the moment. How is the patient?"
"She's doing fine sir. The hardlight missed her brain by only a few inches. I don't see why we have to keep her secret, thought."
"That is irrelevant. Have you captured one of the rouge Spartans?"
"Several, sir," the official replied. "DNA tests reveal that all of them were confirmed KIA in the Reclaimation of Earth."
"Clones?"
The official nodded. "That's what it looks like. We presume that someone is leading the attack, and we've narrowed it down to a likely possiblity."
"I'm all ears."
"Our theory is this; Spartan B340's quarters aboard the Infinity were searched, and we found 134 blood samples from deceased Spartans. According to his journal, he had 343. That means quite a few were missing."
"What does this have to do with the leader of this madness?"
"Sir, we think that there is a rouge AI flying around somewhere. Intercepted transmissions from Spartans B340 and S6784 have indicated that they are in pursuit of the Infinity's Captian Regenald Deland, whom they believed is possessed with an AI of unknown origin." He sighed. "The AI in question is in relation to the one that some of the current members of Fireteam Rose and Violet stopped years ago."
"I see. And where is Deland heading?"
The official gulped. "Here sir." As if on cue, several Spartans broke through the windows, flying on jetpacks. Each had an MA5D and trained them on the ONI personnel.
"Where are you keeping Doctor Halsey?" the leader asked.
The director paid the Spartan no mind, as he was looking at the ship that had appeared in the city a few seconds ago. It was one that was famous among ONI. The Shadow of Intent.
Seattle Streets, September 5, 2559 5: 13am
"Well, my day just got a lot more shitty!" Ginger exclaimed as he saw the ship. It was Covenant in appearance, but it seemed to be holding its ground, and not firing at every human city it saw.
"This is UNSC Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood to all UNSC forces. The Arbiter, Thel Vadum, has committed all of his Sangheili forces to the city of Seattle in an attempt to aid the UNSC in putting down the rebellion. Do not fire at Elites, they are not with the Storm Covenant."
"Isn't that just peachy?" Simmons commented, dodging two abandoned cars in the middle of the road. The Mongoose had reached its top speed, and the engine was on the verge of over heating.
"This seems so unrealistic," Ginger said, "but yet it's happening."
Several Pelicans flew overhead, engines roaring over the noise of the Mongoose. They all seemed to be heading toward a UNSC frigate just outside the city, hanging in low orbit.
"The question now is whether those are our Pelicans, or theirs," Simmons said as the Mongoose slowed to a stop. Ahead of them blocking the road were several Elites, dressed in the former Covenant armor. Three blue and one red. Cars and wrecked UNSC vehicles had been piled up on the highway in order to prevent any of the rouge Spartans in or out through this passage.
"Hey, we need to get through!" Ginger shouted to the Sangheili. They stared at him.
"What is your purpose?" The Major clad in read armor asked.
"We're after some dude that had to have come through here," Simmons replied, revving the Mongoose's engine.
"No one has come through here in the past few hours," The Major replied, putting his Beam Rifle on his back.
"Dammit!" Ginger threw his BR55 to the ground, pissed. "We lost Deland," he muttered to Simmons, who nodded and turned the Mongoose around.
"This is Commander Frank Burns, temporary commander of the Spartan Fireteams. We're recalling all UNSC Spartans to the UNSC Infinity, as we prepare to chase after the fleeing rouges."
Ginger connected to the comm channel. "Can I ask a question, sir?"
"You just did, but shoot."
"If we chased them off planet, then how will we track them? They would have gone into slipspace, right?" Ginger glanced up as a Pelican flew towards them, preparing to pick the two Spartans.
"The Sangheili are showing us some of their old tricks on how they tracked us so many years ago." There was a rush of static on the line, indicating a sigh. "Thing is, I don't know if I can trust them. Their kind killed my entire family on Jericho IV."
Simmons jumped in the open hatch of the Pelican with several other Spartans, while Ginger slowly walked on. The blue Spartan banged his fist on the wall, informing the pilot that they were ready for dust off. "I don't have great experiences with Elites myself," Ginger replied to the Commander.
"...Do you want to talk about it?"
"What? This ain't Doctor Phil," Ginger said, deciding to cut the channel before that got any weirder. "Simmons, you know were the rest of the team is?"
"No sir," The maroon Spartan answered, pulling a datapad out of a pouch on his armor. "After we all split up, everything went to hell."
Ginger cursed to himself. "Find them as soon as you can."
"Yes sir."
The Pelican's engines roared loudly as the dropship went up into the atmosphere. It was quiet in the troop hatch, and dark. The only light came from the red emergency lights, and the glow of Simmons datapad.
The Infinity was waiting, and the hanger was, for once, in complete silence. Ginger walked over to the orange avatar of Roland, who was watching the dropships come in.
"Who's the Captian?" Ginger asked, removing his helmet and looking over the crowd of Spartans in the hanger for his team and Lachlan's.
"Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood himself," Roland replied, turning toward an incoming Pelican. Several medics ran over, and began removing the Spartans inside. Their armor had been removed, and it took four ODSTs to carry one of them. The other three were carried by Marines.
Ginger caught a glimpse of the wounded. "What the hell happened?" He asked Lachlan, as the stretchers passed by.
"You won't believe it," Lachlan replied, leaning back on his stretcher. He and the remains of the two Fireteams were taken to the infirmary.
A final Pelican flew in, with the final member of Fireteam Violet in it. Caboose jumped out, and casually looked around, and when he saw Ginger, he ran over to him.
"Hey Cinammon? Do you know where we're going?" Caboose asked.
Ginger raised his eyebrows. "It's Ginger, and no, I have no clue."
"Trust me, you never get used to his stupidity," Simmons said. "But, still, he hasn't been acting as stupid recently."
"Is that a bad thing?" Ginger asked.
"Well, to hell if I know."
Looking around, Ginger saw some Marines packing crates into the back of a Transport Warthog. "Hey Caboose, go help them."
"Okay. Are there buttons over there? I'm good with buttons."
"Just help them."
Simmons watched as the blue left for the Marines. "What do you have against those soldiers?" he asked Ginger.
"Um...nothing. Why?" Ginger questioned.
"Telling Caboose to help someone usually ends badly." As if to prove his point, Caboose knocked over the entire stack of crates. The Marines yelled at him, and Caboose walked away with his head down.
"I guess that was going to happen," Ginger sighed, and headed to the bridge.
Requiem, September 5, 2559, 6:45am
Deland held the test tube in his hands, looking at the crimson blood. He had managed to escape his persuers, and make it to the cloning building through the portal. Smirking, he was ready to begin the final cloning.
"Please inform Captain Freer to prepare the augmentation lab," the corrupted Deland said. The Forerunner AI had complete control over him. Turning to the clone of Sarah Palmer, another smirk crossed his face.
"I'm afraid that you're needed no longer," he told her. A confused look appeared on her face.
"But I thought I was-"
"No, you were to be my vessel, I was to use your body as my own, and get the Didact's revenge." Deland held up the blood sample. "But then I found the DNA of the famous Reclaimer. The one who killed the Didact."
Palmer's confusion was lost when a look of fear spread across her face as Deland pulled a Magnum out and aimed it at her head. "Goodbye, Palmer."
She squeezed her eyes shut, and winced when the pistol fired. Breathing deeply out of fear, she found herself still alive. Risking opening her eyes, she saw the Captian on the ground, clutching his blood-stained wrist. Another man stood at the door, holding a Magnum that was smoking from the barrel. He wore a white tee shirt, with a few tears and rips. His face was cut and bruised in several places.
"Make one more move, and I'll kill you, Deland," former Captian Thomas Lasky.
A/N: Well, I updated again. I kinda slacked off since 6/7 reviews were for chapters 1-2, even though I just made it to seven.
Anywho, expect normal updates for the time being, as I just got a massively good idea on how this will all end.