Chapter 4
May 27, 2537, 18:30
"Exobis", Polaris System
Will strolled through the caves, his helmet's duel flashlights lighting the dark corridors of coffee-brown rock. The tunnels were smooth and cylindrical, giving Will an all too eerie feel about what made these tunnels. They didn't seem to be excavated by any Covenant tools. He held his Assault Rifle at a restful stance, but was ready at any moment to aim and fire. The Spartan only made the lightest sound; his footfalls were so soft they didn't even echo.
Will checked his motion sensor for the fourth time, and again there was only the lonely yellow dot in the center. I guess it was better than being surrounded by red, but he was beginning to miss the two other yellow dots that would usually be to his left. Will stopped for a moment and turned off his light. In front of him there was a single ember dot in the darkness in front of him. Will zoomed his visor in, and could see a small triangular ember in the middle of the void. He turned on his light but nothing was there.
The Spartan looked around and saw that he stood in another four-way intersection, the tunnels stretching out for as far as he could see. A buzzing sound filled his speakers, and Will cringed in surprise and pain, turning them down. At the same time something of significant mass hit his back, causing him to fall over. Will could not catch it or see what it was before buzzing noise stopped, as quickly as it begun, and Will could not tell which tunnel would lead him back.
"Will-043 repor-" Will began, but stopped and remembered that there is no signal in the caves. He turned in circles many times, looking down each tunnel to see if he could find any clues to what tunnel he went down. He took a few steps forward down one but saw something he wasn't expecting; a dark red puddle of liquid came into view. After another two steps, the Spartan could see the source of the puddle, but it was so disfigured he wasn't entirely sure if it was human.
Peter-041 found himself standing just a few meters from a Covenant barricade, only hidden by the corner of rock in the tunnel bend. The tunnel he started in ended its 30 degree slope upwards about 20 meters backwards and had evened out until this sudden shift, when the floor raised 20 degrees upward, leading to the outside of the caverns. Looks like the Covenant know we're here. Peter thought as he took a step away. I guess the only thing now is to turn back and report.
The sound of metal colliding with soil along with shattering suddenly filled the air, and as Peter whirled around, the sound of hundreds of metallic spheres rolling down stone caused some loose dirt from the ceiling to fall. Peter then witnessed utter chaos as hundreds of plasma grenades flowed down the tunnel and against the wall. Peter began to run, but as he turned he saw a few bolts of blue plasma fly past him, lighting up the tunnel with a faint blue before impacting stone or fading out all together. Judging by the amount of natural light still in the cave in front of him, Peter knew that trying to end this by blowing up the plasma grenades would end badly for everyone. Peter heard the sounds of a ghost's boosting systems kick in and sprinted, diving as he heard the cry of twin plasma cannons firing.
Spinning around, Peter fired duel Magnums at the ghost, aiming for the cannons. After half a clip from each is expened into the cannons, they finally cease, smoldering and broken. Peter leaps up as the ghost begins to charge forward, and leaps in the air when he feels it is close enough. A red smudge passes through his radar and Peter sees the light purple trails from the ghost fly off in front of him. He chucks a grenade into the darkness and hears a scream when the explosion sounds, confirming the kill. He turns to see no Covenant following him.
Odd, but then again I'm not surprised. Peter decides he is far back enough, and fires at the large pile of ocean-blue orbs that had accumulated at the bottom of the incline. As he fires Peter dives to the ground and shuts down his speakers. A magnificent light manages to glow through to his covered face as tremor shakes the entire tunnel. The sound of crumbling instantly follows the explosion, and the Spartan lunges forward, sprinting as deep into the darkness as he can before running into something that causes him to flip.
As he gets up, Peter sees that there is no longer a faint light in any direction. He switches his lights on and is met with a confusing sight. A ghost stands in front of him, unmanned and barely a scratch, save the destroyed cannons and a few bullet indents in the front. This had to have been the same ghost that he encountered just a minute ago, yet that one was destroyed by a grenade. The confused soldier circled the vehicle once before finding something even stranger. Just 11 meters in front of the ghost was a large scorch mark on the ground, which means the ghost was never even effected by the grenade.
What caused this to ghost to stop so abruptly, and what happened to the driver? I couldn't have just imagined his screams. Peter pondered confused, fear starting to nag at him. He didn't want to be here anymore; he began to take off in a sprint, but suddenly halted when a faint buzzing noise filled his speakers.