Garrett woke up quicker than lightning to a small tremor that was getting louder slowly. He was out of his tent with his rifle set before Archerson even woke up. He tapped on the tent side rapidly before Archerson unzipped the front and looked around, then felt the tremor.
"What the hell was that?" Archerson said before Garrett told him to be quiet and get dressed. Archerson got dressed quickly and put his rifle to his shoulder before sitting next to Garrett in a crouched position.
"See anything?" Archerson asked.
"nothing. It's not on visual but…" Garrett felt the tremor suddenly get stronger before 20 feet away from them a large worm like creature ripped out of the ground and roared.
"holy shit!" Archerson yelled as both unleashed 60 rounds in 3.5 seconds flat of high impact armor piercing bullets. Almost all of them hit, and all of them looked as if they had no effect as they struck some form of energy and were ignored.
"that is so not indigenous to this planet!" Archerson yelled as both dove out of the way as the worm tried to lash out with a quick bite. Garrett rolled to his feet and lunged, trying to grapple the worm and throw it. As he slammed into the side of it's chest, his shields flickered and strobed against it's unusual skin, almost watery in look, before the shields electrified and suddenly turned the skin into lizard scales, something he didn't expect.
More of the worms jumped out of the ground, puncturing through the crust like tentacles, all hostile.
"what the hell are these things? We can't hurt them!" Archerson yelled as he fired more rounds into one before backing up and reloading a new clip. Garrett punched the one he had in his hand with a full strike, and the worm roared in pain. He flipped back and unsung his rifle before firing a new clip into it and saw it slump.
Garrett couldn't figure out what was happening. One minute his bullets had no effect on the ethereal skin, the next minute he could rip apart the worm's head. The next worm rushed towards him as he dove backwards and rolled, slipped behind a tree and reloaded. He checked all HUD readouts before finally checking his shield frequency. Something was interesting involving the rotating modulation, as it was similar to a modified EMP effect in the data he retrieved from KOS-MOS.
Before he could read into it further the worm smashed through his cover and he rolled out of the way, firing wildly as he ran full blown behind it and flank the others to get their attention. He was moving slower than normal, partly due to his protectiveness of Archerson and also of the droid laying against the tree, otherwise he wouldn't even be seen as human, just a blur because of his augmentations. He needed to be a target, a second force to divert attacks to. He needed to be a meat shield.
Archerson leapt almost right under one of the worms as it tried to bite his head off and fired, the rounds having no effect. Garrett touched it and his shields had the same effect, an electric strike ran through the worm and it materialized, and the final 10 rounds Archerson fired tore into it's stomach.
Garrett checked the data as both pulled back and reloaded, slamming a clip home and raising it to his shoulder as the worms bull rushed them.
"Hilbert Effect huh…" he whispered as he fired another half a clip before altering his shields secondary emitter to fire at the same frequency. It was a clumsy endeavor, one that made him jump over the right frequency multiple times as he dodged and weaved around the worms to keep both him and Archerson alive.
Finally, Garrett had his emitter setup and fired it, the second shield dropping in a wide berth EMP wave Hilbert effect, as the range equaled 1 kilometer, as well as sending a wide range map ping of every worm in the area that was materialized. Garrett's motion sensor was off the charts as over 10,000 pings were registered nearby.
"dear god…" he whispered to himself as more worms jumped out of the ground, annoyed that they had been brought into a material plane of existence. Garrett heard the cal chon alarm inside his helmet ring as his second shield struggled to recharge quickly, the neural network in the armor rapidly trying to adapt it's pathways to keep it from happening again with the Hilbert effect in the future, and hopefully increase it's range.
Garrett blind fired the area as he ran backwards, Archerson doing the same as they tried to gain some distance.
"shit, hold up! The droid!" Archerson yelled as he pointed towards the tree where KOS-MOS was braced up against. The worms rushed towards the tree, straight at her as Garrett sprinted as fast as he could and leapt, gaining easily 10 meters straight up and covering a football field as he snapped his rifle to his back plating and opened his hip armor plates. Twin handles popped out as he flipped both through his fingers and ignited twin plasma blades, courtesy of the Elites, and came down on the worm's head as it was about to bite into KOS-MOS laying there. Over half a ton of Caduceus and Spartan slammed into it, slicing clean through with the blades in half moon arc as he continued forward, splitting another worm and placing the handles back into his hip armor before pulling his shotgun from his back armor and fired as the worms got close. Every time one was about to bite, he would fire a blast straight into it's mouth, blowing it's head clean off as he moved slowly forward.
Archerson watched as the Spartan moved deftly between the beasts, trying to help where he could. He didn't know if the Spartan's shields would ignore the attacks the worms used on him, or if the armor would protect him, but frankly, he didn't wanna find out anytime soon, and just hope Garrett could continue dodging. He knew very little about the armor Garrett wore, only that it ignored all sensor profiles and gave quite a bit of power to him, and that it for the most part ignored all small arms and even a good deal of the heavy arms used against it in testing, including Mk IV ARCHER anti ship missiles. The problem was, the armor was programmed to protect against and adapt to that impact, he had no idea what the network was doing right now to a brand new threat.
Suddenly, of all things, the worms disappeared back into the ground as a low groan was heard beneath the surface, and Garrett walked back to Archerson who panted.
"those bastards left? Why?" the Captain asked as he looked around worried.
"I dunno, but seismic sensors aren't detecting anything, radar shows blank and motion is zip. They're gone from the area sir" Garrett said as he saw his commanding officer lean up against the tree KOS-MOS was laying against and pull out his canteen.
"those were definitely not native. There's no such thing as a worm that size on Earth. Something is definitely wrong here" the hell jumper said between gulps.
"I can see that for myself sir" Garrett responded as he checked the area.
"how the hell did you get those things to be hurt by our guns? I saw your shields do something, what was it?" Archerson asked.
"it's called a Hilbert Effect, something I read through from the droid's OS logs. A special EMP wave that brings those beings into a material plane to be hit by a physical object, mainly, our weapons" he stated.
"wait, you read the droid's logs? Oh ya… those… abilities… well, what did you find out?" the Captain asked.
"I need a power supply to get her back up and running, I'm thinking I can jury rig her to my suit's reactors until a better system is available. At least she'd be more capable of giving us the info. I was cut off mid interrogation. I don't quite think I'd be able to do the same again in the future with the potential hostile threat in the area" Garrett told him as he reloaded 12 new shells into his shotgun.
"hmm, is that wise? I'm no specialist on that armor of yours, but, I don't know, she seems slightly… old tech? I mean… nanites… oy… and what, a Tritanium frame inside from what I see? I know your state of the art and most of the info was classified from what I read of your file, before you joined our squad… but… I dunno, I think your reactor could blow her up more than turn her on…" Archerson shook his head in thought, then looked up at the Spartan.
"I could check on my armory and look for an external power source, though that might take some time."
Archerson raised an eyebrow and waved his hands around a bit. "Corporal, look around you, time is definitely what we aren't lacking unless those worms come back. We're stranded on some odd world that shouldn't be Earth, yet it is, with hostile giant worm things thinking we're a late night snack. Get it done son. I wanna know what she knows. Yesterday" Archerson ordered.
"yes sir" Garrett acknowledged and checked through his lists, sorting through power controls, vehicles, deployable reactors and generators, for at least an hour. The list went for quite a long while, as the armory was already pre stocked long ago. As he finally found a reactor small enough to use, he materialized it and then had an auto repair system bot come out as well and scan KOS-MOS.
(VERIFY. COMBAT ANDROID. TRITANIUM FRAME. CURRENT WEIGHT 94 LBS. STANDARD WEIGHT ESTIMATED AT 206 LBS. ARMOR IRREGULAR. STANDARD ARMOR CALCULATIONS UNSATISFACTORY FOR CURRENT COMBAT WITH COVENANT. WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE. MOLECULATRONIC BRAIN OFFLINE. SCANNING… ERROR. ANDROID/CYBORG CURRENTLY IN CRITICAL CONDITION. ERROR. IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION NEEDED. REPAIR NOT NEEDED)
Garrett and Archerson looked confused.
"What the hell? Medical? She's not alive…" Archerson tapped the deceitful controls on the repair bot as Garrett thought for a second.
I have one… a small one… but it is there… a gift from her before she left…
"override the repair and maintenance controls and engage reignition and attachment of reactor alignment" Garrett told him as Archerson nodded and typed in some commands. The bot complied slowly with a warning of the overall effects, medical jargon of "Side effects may include nausea, cancer, cellular rejection, cybernetic disruption, death…" until he disabled the warning and hit the yes button. The bot went to work sliding it's mechanical arms through the openings in the pelvis where KOS-MOS's "guts" were hanging out, and started to fuse wiring and parts to the reactor and dismantle the old reactor and pull it out. Archerson winced as he heard a small crack come from inside, and covered his forehead as the bot started drilling in one area.
"please tell me this thing isn't trying to improve on her… we just need her operational…" and his words were cut short as the bot tried to frantically pull it's arms out as nanites poured onto it, ripping apart the armor and disabling it, but not before the new reactor turned on. The bot fizzled and popped as it was torn apart and used as parts to repair KOS-MOS, mainly most of the lower abdomen and the right arm. The legs were never created, as the bot wasn't nearly large enough to give the right amount of materials.
Garrett and Archerson backed off and raised their rifles as the nanites rebuilt her upper body to a certain extent, and closed off the smaller holes in her lower half.
"whoa… ok… maybe not so old tech… but still… probably couldn't handle a covie toe to toe…" Archerson whistled. The nanites were useful, and could probably repair her against bullets and whatever she was made to fight, but against burning plasma, even a Spartan had difficulty keeping up against enough firepower.
Both watched as silence filled the air for a few minutes, the nanites stopping and receding, nothing else to consume for repairs. Garrett flipped through his sub armory and wrote the first repair bot off as destroyed, then finished and watched as the new right arm's fingers twitched. KOS-MOS's eyes slowly opened, beautiful crimson red orbs looking around as two pairs of eyes, one green, one blue oculars, watched her.
"hello, again" she said. Both men lowered their guns as Archerson raised an eyebrow.
"so, you met our renown supersoldier, now I want some information from you, I…" Archerson said before Garrett cut in.
"How are you. What's your status KOS-MOS" Garrett asked her.
KOS-MOS looked down at where she thought her legs would be, then saddened suddenly and looked away.
"operational at 64 percent, I am semi capable of moving on my own… I can crawl. Most weapons are offline. I am… ineffective at defense" she said, still looking away, flexing her left arm slightly.
"I meant how are you feeling, but that works too" Garrett said. KOS-MOS looked up at him suddenly, confused that he asked that, then smiled.
"I feel better now. Thank you for asking me, Spartan" she said softly.
Garrett nodded then looked around at what was left of the camp. For the most part it was destroyed, not that it mattered much.
"Think we should start moving at dawn before those things appear again?" Archerson asked Garrett, while KOS-MOS looked between them, slightly feeling out of the loop.
"I don't think moving will have much of an effect, but we need to find at least some sign of civilization, I seriously doubt we went back in time or to an Earth that doesn't have a humanity living on it sir. If New Mombassa is still 20 more miles up ahead, we might at least find a communications array, something to figure out what happened and where we are" Garrett responded.
"think UNSC is looking for us wherever we went?" Archerson asked as Garrett put his hand on KOS-MOS's shoulder as she looked confused, his armor registering durability of her repaired plating in certain areas and the slightly altered half visor over her ears through touch. He pointed up at his helmet and she nodded, understanding. Her upper body was mostly repaired, which was amazing considering the amount of materials in the repair bot to use, but from the waist down she was a cripple, and to Garrett's eyes in a saddening state. The poor thing had seen a lot of combat, but unfortunately, Garrett did not have the resources or the skills to fix her, and wasn't about to lose another repair bot when he may need it in the future.
"there's the repair bot's duranium plating… and it's structure… diamond mesh webbing… she even rebuilt the cpu control circuits and interlaced them for muscle control" Garrett said. KOS-MOS sighed slightly at hearing this, and Garrett looked down.
"you absorbed the repair bot we used to insert the reactor, that's why I'm checking to see if any abnormalities happened. Nanites can run frantic and in some cases berserk. It's the reason they became obsolete with microorganics technology and molecular bonding through a complete fuller sphere molecule augmentation. Sorry, but this stuff inside you is slow and can be given the wrong signals at times. It's 75 years old to us" Garrett told her.
"I see" KOS-MOS nodded, understanding.
"for the most part, what just happened shouldn't have happened, and technically, we should be shooting you for absorbing that military tech into yourself, but under current circumstances, I'm pretty sure the Cole Protocols can be damned. Just keep those things off us" Archerson told her.
"you have nothing to worry about. It will be alright. However, as the Spartan has just said, you do not need to move, someone is coming. Someone I have missed greatly… and she will be here soon…" KOS-MOS said, looking towards the sky. Garrett and Archerson looked up too, wondering what she was looking at, then looked back.
"regardless, we can't wait out here, we need to move at dawn to a new location, this area isn't defensible after that attack" Archerson cocked his rifle.
"orders?" Garrett asked.
"well, the sun should be coming up in a few hours, we'll brake camp when it jumps. Carry her and we'll head out towards where NM should be. Sound good?" Archerson asked.
"got it" Garrett nodded.
(3 hours later)
Garrett strapped KOS-MOS to his back armor plating as she put her arms around his neck, looking over his shoulder as he adjusted her to have a view forward, now that she was operational. He altered his rifle to a more comfortable position for her out of instinct, as he expected her to at least feel something of a large metal gun pressed against her side.
"alright, let's get moving" Archerson said and both started walking forward, the sun starting to come up.
For the most part, their trip was in silence, none of them speaking, KOS-MOS simply being carried and observing both men, Garrett checking terrain, temperature, weather, and all sensors in the event the worms showed up again, and Archerson lead the way forward.
"I know it's just around this… er… maybe it's the next corner…" the Captain said. They moved around the next corner of a mountainside, Archerson climbing over some boulders as Garrett leapt up to the top and gave him a hand, KOS-MOS putting her own hands out to assist him where possible.
"I could have sworn it was… but where…" Archerson looked behind him at both faces.
"Don't gimme that look! I know where I'm going!" both Garrett and KOS-MOS looked at each other over his shoulder then looked back at the ODST.
"I didn't say anything sir" Garrett responded.
"neither did I, mayhap we have turned a wrong corner however? Mombassa is 13 kilometers to our north Captain" KOS-MOS said.
"but… grrr… damned droid…" Archerson grumbled and walked on.
"actually it's 13.4 kilometers from my readings" Garrett said inside his helmet.
"I know, but I did not want to sound… out of place. I am not as… calculating as I once was" KOS-MOS said.
"once was?" Garrett asked.
"I wasn't always like this… but I have blossomed since Shion helped me find who I am… who I can be" KOS-MOS said.
"with your soul as you have said" Garrett said.
"yes…" KOS-MOS said.
Silence filled the air as they moved on, before KOS-MOS turned her head and looked at Garrett as he strode forward, taking one step for every 3 Archerson took.
"thank you for believing me. For trusting me. Everything will be made clear in the future, not through words, but through your own eyes. You will see. I know it" she said as he looked at her confused, then shook his head and suddenly dropped to a crouch.
"you feel that?" Archerson asked as Garrett nodded.
"no way, they couldn't be back… shit we're screwed… open terrain… watch our back…" the Captain whispered as nothing but a fallen tree was out alongside the mountain for them to hide behind. Garrett flipped around, rifle pulled and aiming around, checking motion sensors. A sink hole suddenly opened nearby and what looked like biped lizards with bug heads crawled out, firing what looked like molten fireballs out of one hand and a giant claw on the other, and the weird part was they were strafing and attempting to gain cover. All of them had the same ethereal skin, the bullets Archerson fired having no effect.
"they are gnosis. This will not work. My Hilbert generator isn't operational. We must run" KOS-MOS told Garrett as he fired a few rounds and rushed forward, slamming his shoulder into the side of the mountain and slipping his head out to fire a few rounds then slipping back in.
"Wrong" he said before his second shield flared an EMP wave, this one far stronger than the first and only taking half the energy down, as over 100 kilometers of area suddenly was hit by the Hilbert wave.
"you altered your shields…" she said in a curious tone.
"Captain, hold position, I'll flank right" Garrett yelled as he rushed across open terrain, molten fire hitting behind a good ten feet past. He became a blur, sliding and changing angle before strafe firing and pulling walking fire across a good portion of whatever was coming out of the sink hole, shredding most of the bug men. One lunged out through the air and attacked Garrett, and he suddenly struck out with the butt of his rifle, smashing the skull in.
Garrett swaps his rifle to his back, nudging her aside in the motion as she shifts to let him do so and pulls a plasma grenade, primed it, and throws it into the hole as more men pour out. The grenade detonates, closing the hole and killing more of the men as they fire at him before his shield absorbs the damage and he returns fire. The power registry on his shields ticked from 100 percent to 90 percent after 3 hits, not nearly enough to even make a note of as they recharged mid fight before another hit struck at 97 percent and brought it to 94. Whatever a gnosis was, it would not take this Spartan down. That still didn't override his basic training of cover and movement exceeds defense of shields. Shields were a last resort in case he couldn't dodge.
Garrett leapt, spraying the area of the last remaining as he came down, butting one of the soldiers in the face and uppercutting it, sending it flying and knocking over another. He turned and saw another soldier gnosis aim and fire at him, and he blurred forward with a burst of speed, turned and fired a spray of rounds, cleaving the gnosis's head in two before ejecting the clip and slamming another one home.
"Bring it!" Garrett yelled a battlecry as the last 3 soldiers suddenly had another hole open up under them, and they slipped back in.
"nice show of force there Corporal, remind me never to get into a boxing match with you…" the hell jumper behind him said as he walked up to the armored titan.
"they stopped again. Something doesn't feel right…" Garrett whispered again, his external speakers off so only he could hear himself.
"they do not act like they normally do… this is odd. They seem to have adapted…" KOS-MOS said.
"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.
"ya, what DO you mean? need to know info here, spill it" Archerson ordered.
"those gnosis were not normal. They were far more human in looks to what I have fought in the past, and far more tactically aware of their surroundings. They don't blindly move in and attack without worry for their own survival, they fight in groups it looks… and they are hounding us. They may be low on numbers" she told them.
"low on numbers? Not from what the Corporal told me, what with the ping of over 10,000 worms the last fight… the ground was practically moving to eat us…" Archerson grumbled.
"it seems we were not fully successful in our endeavor… some may have still rejected life… that is sad to hear…" KOS-MOS looked away.
"you can explain this to us later. Captain, we should get moving quickly, I don't wanna be caught out in the open like that again with little defense besides a mountainside. We need to close the distance between Mombassa and here fast" Garrett said.
"agreed. Hey… wait… I can see something… THERE!" Archerson pointed northward towards the distance. Towers could be seen, somewhat damaged, but definitely buildings.
"doesn't look like anything we'd make… pretty old fashioned if you ask me…" Archerson raised an eyebrow.
"Lost Jerusalem disappeared in 2010 when the Zohar was found and accidentally activated. I would not be surprised that some cities have stayed in their current state for quite sometime since that year" KOS-MOS said.
"Lost Jerusawho? And 2010? Um… that's a long long long time ago…" Archerson said.
"current date is 4762 for this world. Exactly what year is it for yours might I ask?" KOS-MOS asked.
"2653, but still, we have better tech than you guys do right now it looks… but I guess it was because of the Covenant War" Garrett said.
"the Covenant War?" KOS-MOS asked.
"ya. 2552, first contact was made with extra terrestrials. We lost contact with the outer colony of Harvest. We sent a scout ship to investigate, no response back. We sent a task force to retrieve the scout ship. 2 weeks later one badly damaged destroyer limped home telling us we were at war, and that they wanted nothing more than our destruction. All humanity knows that… or at least on our side they did" Garrett told her.
"the Covenant, are they similar to the Gnosis?" she asked.
"hah! Hell no girl! These bastards aren't on our plane of existence, the Covenant are but far outclassed us in tech when we fought them, there was a big difference. We were outnumbered and outgunned, we lost almost every colony except for fringe worlds. We almost didn't stand a chance if it wasn't for the Spartan program… er…" Archerson said before cutting himself off.
"and you are a Spartan yes?" KOS-MOS asked.
"he's… er… um…" and Archerson shut up after that, realizing all information was classified, even he only knew certain details because Garrett was in his squad.
KOS-MOS expected Archerson to continue, but he didn't, and Garrett went silent as well.
"you were about to say something?" KOS-MOS asked, attempting to continue the conversation, not really gaining the idea to stop asking.
"that's classified, don't ask again" Archerson said over his shoulder, his face going solemn and cold. KOS-MOS wasn't expecting such a sharp order to be said, and fell silent as well.
All three continued towards Mombassa, and hopefully towards some form of civilization with someone living besides Gnosis.