Chapter 6: Buckle up Dorothy
Location: Earth, Sol system. UNSC controlled space.
------Australia, Sydney, ONI complex.
Date/time: 3073/2553 AD, Mar. 19th. 18:27 GST (galactic standard time.)
Disclaimer: I don't own mechwarrior, Halo, or anything else here.
Specter dropped his bag onto the concrete. "Guys..." He stammered, trying to find the right words. But they seemed to elude his grasp. "We're not in Kansas anymore."
"What are you talking about?" Falcon crossed her arms, annoyed because she didn't know what he was quoting.
"We are not in the inner sphere." He replied, rubbing his wrists and pacing a couple feet in either direction.
"Then where are we? Back in time?" Hannibal suggested.
"No, not even close. If we were the Star League would already have been forged." His face caught a more thoughtful expression. "We are in an, an alternate dimension; a different universe, a parallel universe."
"How did we get here?" Buzz brushed his cropped hair and asked with a confused expression.
"I'm not sure, but don't you remember what the captain said about a strange reading?" Specter asked, suddenly catching on to another idea.
"I kind of remember." Bullseye traced his finger along a tattooed maze on his arm.
"I think there's some kind of doorway, right outside Outreach, that leads to this universe." He took grabbed his bag and started to run toward the ship. "I think I know how to get home!"
"That's all just a theory." Beowulf insisted.
Specter turned and ran back, and explained in gasps. "But that's how we travel! That's what the KF drive does! Only it usually brings us back into our universe thirty light years away!"
"But this time it... left us here? In this universe at the exact same coordinates? That's quite a pirate jump." Beowulf mulled it over.
"But it makes sense doesn't it?" Specter yelled as he continued running back toward the ship.
The rest of the group looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. Finally they all sprinted back to the ship, leaving a baffled guard at the door of the ONI complex.
Once they were inside the ship, Specter ran to the bridge and over to the comm. station. "Patch a channel to the admiral again."
The comm officer sighed and clicked a few keys on the board. "Coming online. Now."
The admiral sighed wearily. "What is it now?"
"I have a proposal." Specter began, tapping his fingers on the board barely missing the keys.
"And what proposal is that?" Lord Hood brushed his shoulders and rubbed clean one of the medals that graced his navy uniform.
"I will hunt down, or explore, or do whatever you need if you'll develop a lithium-fusion reactor for our jumpship. We have schematics on board, but this would be a major help."
"You'll sign on that? We only have a few shipyards left, and to build something like that will take time. But if you agree, I have a mission for you, or several." Hood's eyes brightened only a little bit, but he still would not smile.
"I'll sign."
The Talon class drop ship of Specter's crew rumbled violently as it escaped the atmosphere of the cradle of humanity. And soon the veil lifted and the black sky came into view, dotted with stars and seeming completely empty, with the exception of all the wreckage of destroyed ships and defense stations.
Falcon leaned against the railing of the bridge's view-port. "What is the mission?"
Specter, who stood beside her holding a mug to his lips, smiled. "A rescue mission."
She looked surprised, but didn't let much emotion escape. "Is this another charity mission? Like the one your crew tells me about?"
Specter sighed. "Hesperus II was not my favorite place. And that mission was almost a waste of time."
"So this is not for free." She concluded, tossing her emerald eyes back at the stars.
"No." He took another gulp of coffee and left her at the glass. He stopped by the captain's chair and nodded before taking the elevator down to the crew lounge.
It was in the crew lounge where he found the rest of his team busy at a game of old sayings. This one was an updated version of the old "Wise and Other Wise". Buzz was holding all the paper slips and shuffling them.
Buzz read the first one. "An old Kuritan saying: A farmer blames... his hoe." He looked around the room. "Who guesses that one? I've got one over there? Specter your vote doesn't count."
He continued. "A farmer blames his donkey." Again he lifted his eyes to see haw many people voted for it. "Ah, I've got two."
Specter left, he had already played with that card before, and wasn't interested in the rest. Instead he walked over to the corner, where a couple of weight machines and free weights sat unattended. He lifted a thirty kilo weight in either hand and started to curl.
The master chief of course, waited patiently until Cortana announced that the air in the ship was running low, and that he would have to recycle from then on out.
Disappointed he felt his suit seal, and began to break to gross tasting recycled air. "When did you say that they would arrive?"
Cortana's shape lifted its shoulders and hands. "Right about now?"
At that instant they saw what looked like a flash of lightening and a large shape was spat from it in the shape of a huge ship.
"Cortana, what am I looking at?" The Chief noticed that the insignia on the alien ships' hulls were different.
"I'm not sure."
"We've got a signal coming in!" The captain exclaimed over the comm.
On the bridge a voice came over the line, hissing and cruel. "Those who dare to defy the blessed Blake will be crushed into dust."
Specter ran onto the bridge feeling absolutely helpless. He was not a fighter pilot, and he was not a ship captain. He was a ground based unit. "Just get the objective and hide!"
The captain shook his head as the ship rumbled with fire as particle cannons and lasers burned into the armor of the dropships. "We can't do that, the jumpship needs two days before it can make another jump."
"What can I do?"
"Chief! It looks like those newcomers are under fire." Cortana exclaimed. "We've conserved enough fuel, hit the gas help them!"
"How do we know that they are our friends?" The Chief wisely cautioned.
"Because the message we got came with an ID tag for that ship! It's a friendly."
He nodded and started the fighter once more and lifted off of the asteroid. While Cortana all the while urged him to steer for the ship's docking bay.
"Sir! We've got a contact, it is confirmed as friendly. And it is heading right for the Skippy's mechbay!" The Nav. officer yelled above the fire of weapons.
"Open the bay doors, and have the techs clear a spot for it." He ordered with his heart racing. "This is not a warship!"
The chief engineer nodded and channeled the order down. And Specter got his own idea. "I'll cover him!"
He ran down to the mech bay and jumped into the cockpit of his one and only Templar. A huge eighty-five tonned beast that he had equipped with two gauss rifles, and one third light gauss.
Once the cockpit was sealed, he ordered the bay doors to open. "Tie a tether to the mech!" He had no desire to fall out.
The bay doors groaned open, revealing the precious cargo within. Specter walked out, and floated outside of the ship so he could fire at the enemy. Three harsh vibrations reverberated through his mech and through his bones as he fired his gauss rifles.
Three slugs screamed toward the leading enemy dropship and impacted on the nose with devastating effect. The power died, and the ferro-glass shield of the ship cracked and depressurized violently ice and mist and men flew from the open bridge of the enemy ship.
"One down!" He screamed.
"Thanks for the assist." The captain's relieved voice echoed over the comm. Let the contact in and let's brief him. It seems that this was the only Word of Blake ship in the system, likely still looking for him."
"Yes sir!" Specter aimed his mech, and used his jump-jets to float gently back into the hangar.
In the meantime the Chief was burning hard and entered a steady drift that carried him directly into the bay. And once the room was pressurized the seal on the cockpit popped and he climbed out of the fighter.
The techs in the bay were grimy, but they were still cheering as the awe inspiring sight of the Spartan dropped to the deck.
John heard the amazed exclamations and nearly smiled under his helmet, but he could not; not after all he had been through. Instead, he quietly walked down the aisle of techs and toward the door.
"Wait!" A voice called after him.
John looked up at a large machine, 14 meters tall and painted for a jungle. It had large guns attached to its arms and barrels sticking out of its chest, with two spikes along the tops of its shoulders.
A man climbed down the ladder that led to the open cock-pit at the top, and dropped to the floor with a click as his magnetic soles connected.
"Wait." He called again and ran up to him, looking up at the greatest hero humanity had
Specter shook his massive gauntleted hand with a grin. "I'm glad you made it out of there. I'm John."
The "real" John smiled this time, and spoke through his helmet. "No you're not."
Taken aback, Specter went blank like a computer that had received contradictory information. "Oh!" He exclaimed catching on."You're a John too aren't you?"
"Spartan 117, who is in charge here?"
Specter thought about it for a moment. "You mean the captain, or the one who hired the captain?"
The chief stood impassively, waiting for Specter to answer him.
"Okaay... I'm the leader, but it's a hard call sometimes. ." Specter replied. "Follow me."
"You sure?" John 117 was confused, he hadn't expected a response like the one he had been given.
"Of course I'm sure. Now follow me." Specter shook his head and walked out of the mech bay and in the direction of the crew's lounge.
He pointed at the couch, and sat down in his arm chair. "I'm sorry my friend, but I'm afraid you'll be with us for two days until we can head back to get comfortable, get some rest, and some not so fresh or good tasting food."
"Thanks." The chief sat in the comfortable couch and relaxed, a little. The metal endoframe of the couch groaned under his weight, and the wieght of his suit.
"And I'd uh, appreciate it if you didn't wear that suit all the time, I don't want you to tear my couch." Specter placatingly spread his hands with an apologetic expression.
"Where will I stay?" The chief suruptiteously allowed Cortana to go into Specter's lap-top that sat open on the coffee table.
"When I heard that we were picking up a passenger I arranged for your quaters beforehand. I did hear that you were of some importance, so I hope that your quarters are adequate." Specter raised his hand, as if to allow the Chief to follow him.
The chief brushed his hand against the computer and allowed Cortana back into his suit and turned off his external speaker as he followed Specter out of the room.
"What did you find?" He asked the AI.
"A few interesting things. First, is that that man is a mercenary commander, and his crew are all mercs as well. Second, all the files of his missions are in the thirty-first century. But they never mention the Covenant or any alien beings."
"That's interesting." He mused as he trodded behind Specter who led him past the mess.
"Indeed it is. But what I found most interesting is the recent file he created on researching the possibility of a parallel universe." She rambled on as the Chief walked down the dreary hall of the ship.
After what seemed to be an hour's walk they arrived at a nondescript door. "These will be your quarters for the duration of our journey. I hope you find them suitable."
Specter left John with a door key and walked away with a long breath. His mind screamed, "Glad to get away from that guy!" But he was still interested in the living tank/elemental.
John slid the door key through the slot, and watched as the light turned green, and as the door slid open with a hiss. He was given a large room, but it had only the neccessities a person could need. Private bath and shower, twin bed, dresser, and a closet. Not to mention everything was bolted in.
He found a change of clothes, and placed his armor in the closet only when he was sure that he would be safe, and when Cortana was safe in the ship's computer. He was relieved when he found the computer terminal in the room was actually an outlet to the ship's computer, it was a safe place for her.
This was when he laid down on the bed and tried to sleep. Sleep came hard for him, ever since Reach, and Halo, and the Flood, he found it hard to sleep without them coming back into his dreams. But even though he knew that the Flood were wiped out, they still mocked him in his dreams. Gravemind laughed in his gurgling and inhuman voice, wrapping his slimy tentacles around him once more.
But finally, the wave of Halo hit them, burned them into ash, and he could sleep.
Meanwhile Specter sat down with his whole team, games forgotten, they listened, and Cortana listened.
"What are we going to do with him while we wait? I mean who is this guy?" Shredder asked placeing his hands on his hips.
"I don't know, but the Brass at Earth didn't want to answer any questions. However, I did know of the possibility of the toaster worshippers being there." Specter replied. "I say we leave him be and just wait."
(Author's note: When the term, "toaster worshipper" is used to describe the Word of Blake followers they are describing what they do. The Word of Blake believes that they must pray to the machines they are working on to keep them working, and that they must thank them for working well as long as they have been. Wierd huh?)
"Well if we have to wait, I'm going to go work out." Hannibal sighed.
Falcon just left the room, and pretty soon, after most people had declared what they would do with their time, the room was empty.
Specter sat on the couch and opened his lap-top, typed in his password, and reviewed their budjet, plans, and worked on his research on his theory.
Castle, the tactical officer, leaned against the door frame. "Are we still getting paid?"
"In a way, yes." He mumbled his reply and continued to hit his keys.
Through all of this, Cortana absorbed what information she could about their hosts, and waited until the Chief would get her again.
I hope you all like the update. Thank you all very much for your reviews. Rouge Baron, your review is the one I appreciated the most. I hope that this chapter is better. Quiaff?
-Tremble wolf