Garrett tried to materialize a warthog from his sub armory as they moved towards Mombassa, however his armor's phase controls for that part of the armory were still running a long diagnostic, something he didn't realize would happen if his OS was restarted when he first landed. Until it was fully operational, they were on their feet to move for a while.
Archerson walked through a large gate, and stared down what looked like a highway ramp with buildings every which way.
"yup, some things never change…" Archerson sighed as he walked on, Garrett following as KOS-MOS looked around. They moved from what looked like the upper city, with what looked like motels and restaurants, until after a few hours they entered the slums area, below the highways, looking somewhat to sprawls. Damaged cars lined the streets, bicycles in certain places, almost all of them stripped of paint.
"KOS-MOS, how big did Mombassa get in 2010 by chance would you know? And was there any military presence of any kind by any government that might have a base command centered somewhere?" Archerson asked.
"I unfortunately do not. I am sorry" KOS-MOS said.
"hmm… well, let's see, if I was a strategic architect… where would I put a launch base…" Archerson mumbled to himself.
"sir, I have a grid location, underground, other side of the city" Garrett said as he looked at the ground, his oculars changing to red then back to blue.
"hmmm, other side of the city? Would take us most of the day to navigate there… it's already the afternoon for crying out loud… let's see how far we get then we'll set camp where we stop" Archerson said.
"understood" Garrett responded as they walked down the street, checking buildings through windows and doors for any signs of life. The day wore on, and for the most part, everything was uneventful.
Garrett and Archerson set up camp as dusk came upon them. KOS-MOS was placed back first against a wall of a building as both men posted their tents and lit some wood and scrap in a trashcan for light. Just as they finished making the camp, and night came up, Archerson started cooking and Garrett stood guard nearby.
"permission to scout the area sir" Garrett asked.
"wha? Alone? Er… well, ya, report back in 1 hour, don't get cocky, you see hostiles you retreat back got it?" Archerson said.
"understood. 1 hour" Garrett replied, and with that he stealthed with his active camouflage and photo cells and disappeared.
"that always creeps me out when he does that…" Archerson sighed and continued to cook as KOS-MOS sat there, watching the fire.
"do you eat?" Archerson asked.
"my condensor in the past allowed me to consume food and burn it away, however, I never did care to taste flavors. However, I believe now… what is it you are cooking? It appears to be curry" KOS-MOS asked.
"hehe, my favorite, learned it back in boot when we hated the grub they handed us for MREs. In all honesty it's a form of chicken vindaluu, problem is no popadoms, just the texas toast here. Try it if you want" he said before lifting a spoon with a bit of the food to her mouth as she tasted it.
"It requires more seasoning. There is little spice in this dinner to be considered a vindaluu" KOS-MOS said. Archerson barked a laugh in approval.
"I haven't finished it yet, but ya, your right. Problem was if we made it too hot in the past, it'd give us boots the shits for calisthenics the next morning. Had to keep it at a maximum allowed to keep our bodies from not blowing it out of our asses" Archerson grinned ear to ear. KOS-MOS did not seem very amused, and did her best to hide the slight confusion and disgust of the thought he placed.
As Archerson finished the cooking, and poured some orange powder into his canteen and shook it, a rumble was felt in the ground.
"oh shit… no way… not now…" Archerson whispered and grabbed his rifle, bracing himself against a concrete guardrail as KOS-MOS lifted herself up into the crook of a doorway overhang, trying to hide in the shadows. Archerson looked around carefully, controlling his breath as best he could, the fire the only thing making noise besides his oh so loud heartbeat.
Archerson squinted his eyes as he saw movement around the corner of the building at the end of the street, and cursed as it definitely didn't look 7 feet tall. It was humanoid, but he definitely saw the razor claws on both hands, and they looked like they were shambling forward.
"this is definitely not good…" the ODST said as he looked down the other side of the street and saw more of the things turning the corner. He was cut off. They were moving slow, but he definitely believed they were gnosis.
"Corporal.. Do you read me… we have a problem at camp… get your ass back here NOW…" he whispered into his com rig in his ear. All he got was static.
"shit this is not good…" Archerson whispered.
"gnosis?" the Captain asked behind him towards KOS-MOS.
"yes, and many of them."
"shit…" Archerson swore and held his fire as the shambling horrors slowly moved down the street towards him. They were definitely coming for them, not just moving, and Archerson pulled back to the doorway KOS-MOS was in, nearly stepping on one of her hands.
"shit sorry. We might have to make a run for it" he said as he attached a small amount of plastic explosive to the door and popped the handle. He tried his best to lift KOS-MOS onto his back, and lucky for him, she didn't weigh nearly as much as what he thought she would. He strapped her on as she put her arms around his neck, and he aimed around behind him quickly before moving in, running up the stairs to the top and kicking the rooftop door in.
Archerson looked down the stairs to see the shambling horrors not come in.
"what the… shouldn't they be here by now?" Archerson asked.
"it's strange… they are acting completely irregular. I do not understand them now" KOS-MOS said.
Archerson slowly moved to the side of the rooftop and looked down. The shambling creatures were keeping away from the trashcan, which happened to be near the front door. They wouldn't dare go near the light. One of them tripped on some trash and fell forwards, face first, towards where the light was, and it howled in pain and started to burn before recoiling.
"they're… afraid of light?" Archerson asked before hearing some shuffling. He quickly flipped around, looking to his back and shining his flashlight. A shambling horror screamed as it was hit by the flashlight, the being coming around the side of the rootop doorway before recoiling back around the side. More started to move past it, and he shined his flashlight on all of them before a large explosion was heard below, and the dim light of the trashcan below went dark.
"Shit, this is definitely not good…" Archerson swore and was truly afraid as he saw the faces of these things with he flash. They were hideous, still ethereal, but looked similar to rotting corpses, undead almost.
Archerson backed towards the side and leapt to the next rooftop, the shambling horrors shifting on the other side, not making a sound besides their movement.
The Helljumper ran along the top of the rooftop to the other side before being cut off by another group of the horrors, and he fired half his clip into one of them, not having much of an effect aside from annoy it, but the flashlight brightened and burned away it's skin, making it recoil and howl.
KOS-MOS reached towards Archerson's hip and pulled his pistol, which made him jump a bit before he realized what was happening, and she aimed at one while he aimed at another.
"please say you can do that Hilbert thing now Kos…" the marine asked hopefully.
"I… give me a minute…" she said, closing her eyes.
"we don't have a minute… in a minute we'll be ripped to pieces…" Archerson grumbled before jumping up to the lip of the rooftop, balancing with the android's extra weight on his back. His flashlight was dimming, the batteries starting to run low.
"damn…" he whispered as he hit the thing, the light brightening for a second before dimming again. The shambling horrors moved closer to him, wanting to attack.
KOS-MOS's visor around her ears flipped and moved, trying to gain a position that would operate how she wanted it, and her hair shifted to accommodate the movement.
"stand by" she said as the twin side gems on each side of her ears glowed and let off an electric pulse wave around her, shifting the gnosis into the material plane.
"now we're talking!" Archerson yelled and opened up on the nearest target, which was almost upon him with his flashlight dying. He sprayed wildly before moving to the corner of the building, jumping off the lip and running past two of the horrors, dodging their attacks before KOS-MOS put two head shots in. her pistol rang empty as she ejected the clip, reaching for another at his belt as he reloaded, before the ground under him opened up in a circle of armor piercing rounds, dropping him to the floor below him. He fell on his face before scrambling to get up, KOS-MOS still aiming around before coming face to face with a blue goggled helmet.
"glad you showed up, the party is just starting, pour it on boy!" Archerson yelled as the horrors fell through the hole he made before having three weapons fire a lead shield towards them.
"fall back, I've opened up the building below, there's a back door to it, move and head down 5th Jaruba Street. There aren't any hostiles there sir. I'll hold them here" Garrett responded as he smashed his fist through a horror's head.
"wha? Are you kidding me? What about you?" Archerson yelled as Garrett took on two at the same time in close quarters, his shotgun ringing twice before he slipped more shells in.
"I'll regroup with you afterwards, keep them focused on me while you escape. We do not have the manpower to be flanked here. We're too open. Down Jaruba Street is the main highway. Go down it towards the base entrance. You'll travel 8 miles before reaching it. I'll meet up with you there" Garrett said and pushed Archerson out the door to the room he was in before slamming it closed.
"shit! Spartan! Open this door!… damn… you better survive this damn it! God damn you better meet us there!" Archerson yelled before he turned around, KOS-MOS clinging to him as he ran down the stairs, firing at straggling horrors before kicking out the back door and running out of it. The horrors seemed to be churning into the other building, swarming towards where the Spartan was fighting. There were so many moving down the street in the front he couldn't see the camp. Down the side passage he saw Jaruba street's sign, and almost no horrors nearby. He ran down the street only to hear a smash and one of the horrors get thrown through a wall up above, flying into the chain fence nearby and splattering. The Spartan was still in the game.
"He will be alright" KOS-MOS said softly as Archerson kept running, trying to console him.
"of course he will. He's a Spartan. He's handled worse than this, though he's never really fought against these shitheads before. He'll keep his word. I know it" Archerson said, agreeing with KOS-MOS, and trying to convince himself that it was true.
Archerson grabbed onto the street sign pole and swung himself around it, barreling straight down Jaruba and up the ramp to the main highway. He just kept running, hearing the echo of bullets flying and combat behind him as he ran.
As he sprinted forward, the Captain looked up to see a small shooting star move through the night, over the horizon of the mountains.
"she… she's here… finally…" KOS-MOS whispered as Archerson stopped for a second before looking behind him. He could see in the faint distance the horrors slowly moving down the highway towards him, but they were so far away he didn't care. He looked forward to see in the distance a small bunker size building, and he ran towards it, not hearing KOS-MOS speaking as the star started to get larger, moving towards them.
The marine after an hour of pacing himself, coughing and tired and weary as he moved towards the door of the bunker, he didn't realize KOS-MOS was still strapped to his back, and frankly didn't care, as he flattened himself against the wall and caught his breath, the concrete wall ignored for a softer fleshy cushion behind him. KOS-MOS didn't say a word, trying best to let him rest enough to continue inside and away from the gnosis.
Archerson stood up, wobbled a bit as he was trying to balance KOS-MOS on his back, and then slowly went down the stairs into the front of the bunker, checking around with his rifle to make sure he wasn't ambushed. As he looked around, he saw an outline of a door with a passcode pad on the side, inoperable.
"shit… god damn, we don't have any power!" Archerson whined as he looked back and up the stairs. He saw through the moonlight shadows slowly coming down the steps, and he readied his rifle and primed a grenade, throwing it up the steps.
"holy!" was yelled up above before the grenade exploded, followed by a spray of rifle fire as the figures jumped to both sides.
"who the hell is that?! Damn, they might have KOS-MOS down there…" the captain heard a male voice come from upstairs, and it didn't seem to be hostile.
"cease fire, please Captain. She must be here" KOS-MOS said as she pushed his rifle down in his hands, he not being nearly strong enough to resist her overpowering push.
"KOS-MOS? Is that you?" he heard the voice again.
"yes, Allen, I am here, don't fire" KOS-MOS said as Archerson heard footsteps.
Allen walked downstairs, putting down his crossbow as he seemed to be wearing wrinkled combat fatigues Archerson had never seen, and he clearly didn't know how to wear. This man was definitely not a soldier. On the other side of him was a woman, blonde haired with a beret on her head, holding a pistol in her hands.
"wow, hey KOS-MOS, Shion will be really happy to see you again. Glad your distress beacon was on, we could track ya" the woman said as she sighed.
Archerson was still wary of both of them, and still had his rifle primed.
"she is not here it seems. I thought she would be with you" KOS-MOS said softly.
"she's on the other side of the city with the little Masta, they heard gunfire and wanted to investigate. I wonder why you can't pick her up on your sensors, they might be damaged though. We gotta get you out of here, er… who is this guy by chance?" Archerson heard the blonde say.
"Mary, this is Captain Archerson, he and his friend have been carrying me and repaired me enough to function until now" KOS-MOS responded as Archerson sort of nodded towards both of them.
"a soldja huh? Wait a minute, repaired?" Mary asked. Archerson looked back towards KOS-MOS and rotated somewhat, showing her legs were ripped off.
"oh god… KOS-MOS…" Allen whispered as Mary covered her mouth. Both regained their composure as they looked up at both the captain and her.
"We… we gotta get you back to the ship. Shion, can you hear us?" Allen said into an earpiece.
"yes Allen, we can hear you, have you gotten KOS-MOS back yet?" Shion asked in a crackling com channel.
"ya, we found her… um… you're gonna want to get back to the ship soon… she needs some repairs… but… but she's ok honey. She's ok. And she wants to see you" Allen almost whispered. Shion sounded as if she was choking back tears.
"I'll… I'll be right there. Jr! we have to get out of here! Whoever was here isn't here anymore! Let's go!" Shion yelled out behind her as gunfire was heard. A small "you got it!" was heard in the background.
"We'll be there soon. KOS-MOS, I'll see you there!" Shion yelled out for the android to hear. The com line turned off and Allen looked up at the red eyes looking towards him, smiling, and if she could, he was sure she would be crying right now.
"alright, let's just get to the ship now and-" Allen said before the back door creaked open, the passcode pad popping off the wall, rust breaking the sides. The door angled slightly, still in place, but no longer locked.
"uh… huh?" Archerson looked at it, rifle raised as Allen raised his crossbow, yelping at the same time.
"KOS, anything?" Archerson whispered.
"nothing… no gnosis detected" she whispered back.
"lets get back to the ship before anything else weird happens" Allen whispered as he started to go back up the stairs.
"wait…" KOS-MOS said before her mouth almost fell open, she blinked a bit looking around, looking somewhat surprised, and a bit awkward.
"KOS-MOS? Are you ok?" Mary asked.
"this… she's… we must go inside" KOS-MOS almost breathed out, almost pushing Archerson to go towards the door.
"um, why" the captain asked.
"please. Listen to me. We must" she said softly.
"we gotta meet Shion at the ship, we can explore later once your repaired KOS-MOS. Don't worry about it" Allen said as he tugged on Archerson's shoulder. The marine pulled away from his pull violently and glared at Allen, annoyed that he did that and warning him to back off.
"please, we need to get her… Shion… she will want to see her as well…" KOS-MOS said.
"see… who?" Allen asked before shuffling was heard up above.
"We can talk about this later! Move!" Archerson wheeled around and with a few leaps up the stairs and some sprays of bullets later, was at the top, Mary jumping out of his way as he fired.
"which way to the dz?!" Archerson yelled back down.
"uh, wha, er, left! Go that way! Wait, what's a dz?!" Allen yelled up and scrambled to reach the top, shambling horrors moving towards the captain as Mary fired at a few.
"go go go!" Archerson yelled as he fired and ran, blind firing behind him as Mary fought to keep up with his movement, Allen slipping and flipping around and trying to run with them.
The small group ran towards a small light that was getting bigger off of the highway, and as they got closer, Archerson saw that it was a fairly large ship that had landed.
"whoa…" he mumbled out as the other two ran by him and told him to keep running. He broke into a sprint again, but a rumble was felt through the ground.
"what the.." Allen said before a worm leapt out of the ground and snarled.
"what is that?!" Allen yelled as KOS-MOS's half visor turned on, the Hilbert effect enveloping the area. Allen shot an explosive tipped bolt at the worm as they ran, and it howled a bit as the round punctured into it's side, before it tried to lunge… at Archerson.
"Son of a!" he yelled and dove, the weight of KOS-MOS barreling over him and throwing his roll off as he flipped and flopped and got up slowly, bruised. The worm attacked again, but before it could take a bite out of Archerson, KOS-MOS threw her left arm up and accepted the blow, the worm biting into her to protect Archerson.
"no! shit! Bastard! Raaaaahhh!" he yelled as he emptied his clip into the worm as her arm crunched slightly and wires and circuits sputtered inside. Before he could get away though, the bolt exploded nearby, throwing him backwards and slamming KOS-MOS into the ground under him, making him look like an overturned turtle.
"you stupid little shit…" Archerson groaned and fought to get up as Allen realized his mistake. All three ran up the ramp of the ship as it closed, the ship lifting off the ground as more of the worms erupted from the ground.
"well, glad to be out of that mess…" Allen said before Archerson clocked him in the mouth and sent him flying to the ground.
"next time you shoot something like that with me nearby, I will personally feed your ass to those fuckers!" Archerson growled. Allen rubbed his jaw, wincing and looking at the muscled old man.
"I, uh, sorry, I didn't think it would-"
"you didn't think it would attack? Unknown hostile pops out of nowhere and you think it's not going to attack the slower moving target? Gee, nice one Rtard" Archerson growled again.
"um…" Allen looked away sheepishly.
"Leave my daddy alone!" a small boy's voice was heard, and a small leg kicked the marine in the shin, the armor absorbing it for the most part with a clang, as the boy ran to hug his father.
"wha, who, huh" and the ODST shut up in thought.
"it's ok Kevin, don't worry, daddy's ok" Allen said as he got up, still looking toward Archerson.
"where's mommy? Isn't she with you?" the little boy asked.
"what, wait, isn't she already here?" Allen asked, looking around.
"no, she's still out there" Kevin pointed.
"damn it, we gotta go back out there!" Allen moved forward but was stopped by Shelley as she held him back.
"we've already lifted off, Shion warned us they would get back to us at another location, right now those worms and beasts are following us for some reason, and with us in the air, it would be difficult for them to attack. Since they cannot attack us, we can move them away from Shion, then fly back and pick her up. This is the best way" Shelley said calmly.
"but… I.. alright.." Allen sighed.
"someone mind telling me a bit of need to know please?" Archerson said slightly tapping his boot.
"who is this?" Shelley asked.
"Some guy KOS-MOS teamed up with. Said something about another guy, but he wasn't around. Said they protected her until we got here. Her… her legs… she's…" Mary said before looking away.
"alright, KOS-MOS, we were already prepared for this before hand, lets get her into her pod, the professor has already gotten the equipment set up. Allen, please assist him" Shelley said before motioning towards a door on an upper tier. Archerson moved towards the door as Shelley nodded. The door slid open and an old man and younger man were arguing.
"I told you professor! Shion will not let you make her body transform this time! She wants her just the way she was when we rebuilt her!" the younger man said.
"Scott! I don't care what she asked for! This is for KOS-MOS's own good! She'll never need to worry about another thing again with this new body spec! I'm telling you I-" the older man said.
"Shion wouldn't really like it if you didn't do what she said for KOS-MOS professor. You know how she'd get if you went against that" Allen said.
"now assistant number 2! I… oh ya…" the professor said before thinking worriedly.
"well then… put her in the carriage now" the professor said as Archerson just stood there.
"what? Me? Oh, um…" he walked to the pod and sat on the edge of it, KOS-MOS helping undo the straps holding her to him and lowered herself into the open case.
"now assistant number 5! Get away before the pod closes damn it!" the professor said as he shooed Archerson away.
"hey old man! Knock it off!" he said as he moved back and the pod closed.
"is that auntie Ka…ka.. Cosmos?" Kevin said as he hid behind Allen's leg.
"yes she is son. She is" Allen said and scratched his head, KOS-MOS looking in their direction as the pod slowly closed.
"what's wrong with her? Will she be ok?" Kevin asked.
"she's… hurt. But she'll be ok. She just needs to sleep a little bit until mommy gets back. Don't worry. You'll be able to talk to her soon. But wait…" Allen said as he looked at his watch.
"it's time for bed little one, come along" Shelley said and pulled him away from Allen as he watched.
"but… I'm not tired" Kevin said as he put his hand in Shelley's.
"I'll read you a book then, how is that?" Shelley said as she led him out of the room.
"ok, read me the one with the-" and Kevin's voice died off as they left the room.
"dear god what a mess…" Allen said and put his hand to his forehead.
"ok, now I want a few answers. Who are you guys" Archerson asked.
"I believe we both have some questions to ask. You gotta give as well as you receive now pal" Mary said with her arms crossed, her gun in her holster.
"as I figured… fine fine fine, shoot" Archerson said as he sighed.
Both sides began to talk, question for question about the situation as time ticked away, the gnosis stirring around below the ship as it hovered across the open land and city.