A/N: Alright, here's Chapter 3, packed full of action, violence and general badass-ness! Also, make sure you review! Also, for the sake of this fanfiction, I am going to use the human time system (seconds, minutes, hours), because I don't know what the Covenant one is.
DISCLAIMER: You know the drill. I own nothing recognizable, with the exception of K'tal.
CHAPTER 3: PRISON BREAK
Six stared at the blades on the floor. Why the hell had that Elite given her the knife and kukri back? It made no sense.
She picked up the blades, looking at the dried blood still encrusted on their surfaces. And why had he told her he'd be back? The fact that he'd been wearing enough weaponry to outfit a small squad had made it sound somewhat ominous. She stared into the bloody metal, pondering.
...
K'tal paused outside the entrance to the bridge, double-checking all his weapons for problems. Satisfied that they were all in working condition, he checked through a compact Special Operations field kit he had taken from the armoury on his way to the bridge to make sure everything he needed was inside. Satisfied that everything was working properly, he clipped the field pack to the back of his waist armour, activated his Active Camouflage, and settled in to wait.
Soon enough, a Sangheili carrying a small holographic display pad and tapping industriously away at it walked out of the bridge, and K'tal took the opportunity to slip in quietly, without the odd spectacle of a door appearing to open for nobody. Grimly, he surveyed the soon-to-be-battlefield. The odds were very uneven. Including the Shipmaster, there were eight Sangheili arranged around the bridge, manning various stations. The Shipmaster himself was flanked by a bonded pair of Mgalekgolo, the
twelve-foot tall gestalt creatures towering over him. He had to pity them, slightly.
K'tal pulled out one sword handle, but did not activate it so as not to alert anyone. In his other hand, he took a plasma grenade, and, keeping his Active Camo up, walked silently closer to the closer Mgalekgolo, primed the grenade, and threw. The grenade stuck to the wormlike Lekgolo that made up the abdomen area of the creature, and exploded. The Mgalekgolo staggered back with most of the worm-creatures of its midsection incinerated, and collapsed. The surviving one gave a low growl of absolute rage, casting around and looking for the source of its partner's death. K'tal waited until its back was turned, and activated his sword. As the Mgalekgolo swiveled to face the source of the noise, K'tal swung his blade in an upward arc, carving its back armour wide open. He quickly rammed the sword into the breach, stabbing and hacking at the exposed flesh, and finally tearing through the chest armor and out through the front. The Mgalekgolo collapsed, K'tal barely getting out of the way, and for a few seconds it clawed at the enormous ragged hole in its chest before expiring in a pool of orange blood.
Knowing that his Active Camo had become unneeded due to the fact that it ceased to properly maintain invisibility when the user moved quickly, and that everyone on the bridge knew he was there, K'tal deactivated the module. In a single stride, he crossed to the nearest Sangheili, and with three quick movements, removed the Sangheili of his arms and plunged the blade into his chest. Flinging the corpse aside, he grabbed and activated his second energy sword, crossing it with the other as he swiveled to face the rest of the bridge crew.
"Get him!" screamed the Shipmaster. "Get him, or the Hierarchs will have your heads!" K'tal assumed a fighting half-crouch, one sword extended with a straight arm and the other cocked back over one shoulder. As one, the group surged forward, pulling sidearms from their resting places on their armour.
As the first came abreast with him, K'tal deactivated one sword, and, still holding the hilt, punched the Sangheili in the skull, and as the unfortunate warrior reeled back, dazed, he used the still active blade to decapitate him. K'tal was quick to reactivate the first sword, and flicked his arm out wide, burying the blade prongs in another opponent's throat. He pulled the sword free and spun in a pirouette of deadly energy, cleaving three more opponents limb from limb, and they fell away with various combinations of missing arms, legs and heads.
A flurry of plasma came from one of the remaining fighters, draining his shields, and he sprinted over to the attacker, who swung the plasma rifle at him in an attempt to stun him. K'tal cut straight through the offending weapon, cutting it cleanly in half and sparking the plasma core inside. He leapt back as the remains of the weapon exploded, spraying globs of plasma onto the weapon's holder and another standing nearby, who dropped to the deck in agony as the plasma ate through his shields and into his hide. The one holding the weapon was more lucky, as he was hit with enough of the superheated goo to be almost instantly killed. K'tal walked up to the wounded Sangheili, deactivating and storing one blade on his armor, and mercifully ended the pained warrior's life, sliding the other sword into his chest. Throwing aside the now-drained sword, bowing his head for a short moment in respect. Surrounded by the bodies of the fallen, K'tal uttered a quick prayer for the souls of the dead.
He then turned back, toward the Shipmaster, who had already drawn his own, ceremonial energy blade. K'tal could tell that he barely even knew how to wield the weapon properly, just from his stance. K'tal didn't bother using his remaining sword, instead activating his energy knives, getting inside the Shipmaster's swinging arc so he could not maneuver properly with his larger weapon. The fight was short, lasting only a few seconds before K'tal had his opponent disarmed and helpless, blade at his neck.
"What are you?" the Shipmaster croaked. K'tal realized how utterly terrifying he must look, literally dripping with his enemies' blood.
K'tal's response was simple. "Your death." he growled, cutting the Shipmaster's throat with a single movement of his wrist.
Deactivating his weapons, K'tal stepped over the still-convulsing body of his opponent and picked up the Shipmaster's dropped sword to replace his drained one. Walking to one of the bridge stations, he quickly accessed the shipboard functions. Quickly he shut off the ship-wide announcement speakers, to keep them from blaring out any automated alerts or evacuation orders. Right after that, he set the shipboard power core to overload, essentially initiating a self-destruct for the Indomitable Retribution. At the rate of overload, he guessed he had about thirty minutes left to get off the ship.
Wasting no time in exiting the bridge, K'tal, aware of the timeframe he had to get off the ship, stopped only to lock the door. Pulling a layered strip of metal from his field kit, he stuck the strip to the recessed door, and peeled away a layer. Immediately, the metal of the strip, due to a catalyst inside, began to glow white-hot. Quickly stepping away so the portal closed, he carefully watched as the seam between the door and the frame glowed orange and began to melt and fuse, melting the door to the bulkhead.
Spinning on his heel, K'tal stalked in the direction of the prison block. There was still one thing he needed to get before getting off this ship.
...
Six leaned against the back wall of the cell, waiting for something to happen. She had slid the kukri into the back of her shredded bodysuit, through a pair of roughly parallel slits in the material, situated roughly over the small of her back. The combat knife was supported by the very point between her middle and ring fingers, with most of its length hidden behind her forearm, in a way that made it easier to keep concealed while also able to quickly be dropped into a more combat-appropriate grip. The dog tags had been hung around her neck under the torn collar of her bodysuit.
Eventually, she heard the faint but unmistakeable sound of plasma weapons firing down the corridor outside her cell, accompanied moments later by the whistling of needler rounds. A Brute stumbled in, fur blackened and smoking from plasma discharge, nursing a burn on its abdomen with one arm. With its other arm, the alien grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the bulkhead, lifting her off the ground a few inches. Six inadvertently dropped the knife, but was thankful the Brute did not notice it clatter to the floor. The kukri's blunt side jammed uncomfortably into the small of her back, out of reach.
"Demon, you will come with me as a hostage. Your friends will not shoot one of their own, I think." the Brute snarled, sounding like an animal even through its translator. Six scrabbled at the Brute's hand around her neck, desperate for air. She had no idea what friends the Brute was talking about. Dimly, she heard the plasma fire cut off.
Suddenly, the twin prongs of an energy sword sprouted from the Brute's lower chest, and quickly ripped upward and to the side, out through the alien's shoulder, nearly cutting its arm off in the process, and killing it. As the arm holding her sagged and loosened its grip, and the dead Brute fell to the side, Six dropped to the cell floor, coughing and lightly holding her throat.
After the coughs subsided, she looked up at the face of her rescuer. It was the Spec Ops Elite who had given back her dog tags and knives. He was splattered with enormous amounts of semi-congealed Hunter blood all over his torso armor, even some on his head, and there were small amounts of Elite blood peppering various places on his chest and arms, though it did not appear to be his. In one hand, he held a lit energy sword, and loosely cupped in the other by the forward grip, pointed at the floor, was a needle rifle.
"Can you stand?" he asked, with a look that might've been concern in his eyes. Six nodded, still massaging her throat, and picked up her fallen knife.
"I need a gun." she rasped, motioning at the small armory on his back.
He nodded, flipped the rifle around to hold it by the barrel, and handed it to her stock first. "Can you shoot?"
She nodded once, and took the needle rifle in both hands, comforted by its solid weight. "You had better be ready to move fast." the Elite said. "This ship will be destroyed in about fifteen minutes." With that, he turned and walked from the cell, motioning for her to follow.
They ran quickly through the ship. By a stroke of luck, no enemies of any consequence were discovered. The few Grunts and Jackals they encountered were easily overpowered and killed within seconds of engaging them. As they got to the entrance to the dropship bays, the Elite signaled her to stop. He peered around the edge of the door, then withdrew and looked back at her.
"I need you to provide cover fire." he stated, as she caught a glimpse of several blue-armored Elite Minors. "There are six Sangheili on guard inside, and I will not be able to defeat them all by myself." He looked as if it pained him to admit that, and Six remembered how obsessed with honor Elites were, to the point that they probably didn't like admitting that they needed help from anyone. She nodded an affirmative as he drew a plasma rifle. She wondered for a moment what he had meant by 'Sangheili', but supposed that it was the Elites' name for themselves, given that she could only see Elites in the room and had no idea what else Sangheili could be.
"Stay under cover, and wait for my signal." he said before activating his Active Camouflage and disappearing. Six wondered exactly what he had meant by a 'signal', but she had a hunch that it involved him attacking the guards unexpectedly. She readied the needle rifle, bracing herself against the doorway.
...
K'tal slowly made his way behind the main group of guards. He hoped that the human would not do anything rash. She hopefully knew better than to attack before he had a chance to give the signal, and that she would have the sense to keep under cover. He still didn't know exactly why he cared whether she lived or died, just that he did. Ideally, he would have told her to stay in cover and not risk herself, but unlike the enemies in the bridge, those in the dropship bay were too spread out for him to take on alone. Special Operations fighters had weaker shields than other Sangheili, due to the power needed to run their Active Camouflage, so taking on spread-out groups of enemies alone was risky.
As he drew near the trio of guards, K'tal pulled a small plasma charge from his field kit, fixing it to the floor directly behind them. Holding the detonation trigger in his free hand, he backed up to a safe distance and activated the explosive. The blast killed one of the guards, who was closest, and depleted the shields of the other two. K'tal quickly leveled his plasma rifle at one of the unshielded guards and fired one-handed, sending a plasma burst up into the unfortunate Sangheili's back, burning through his armor and hide. The guard dropped like a stone, and K'tal used his free hand to draw one of his energy swords and activate it. As he charged for one of the remaining guards, he saw out of the corner of his eye the human open fire on the other unshielded guard, and the needle rifle rounds supercombined and blew his chest apart, armor and all, releasing a conical spray of indigo blood.
K'tal leapt at and over the guard, decapitating him with the energy sword as he did so. He landed behind the guard's collapsed body, deactivating his sword so he would not stab himself as he rolled to absorb the impact. As he stood back up, he saw that the last guard, all the others having been killed by either him or the human, had pointed his plasma repeater at him.
K'tal looked up at him, weighing the energy sword hilt in his hand. At the current distance, he was to far away to dispose of the guard with the sword, and the plasma rifle would take too long; the guard would be able to kill him easily with his own, more powerful weapon. Suddenly, however, there was the whistle of a needle rifle round past his head, and said round thudded into one of the guard's eyes. The guard roared in pain, staggering around, his aim thrown off.
The guard, having tightened his grip in the plasma repeater as a response to the pain, and thus pulled the trigger, sprayed plasma bolts randomly, one of which hit the human, searing into her side. She gave a cry of pain and collapsed, unmoving. K'tal, seeing it happen, found a dark, all-consuming wrath well up inside him. He reactivated the energy sword as he picked himself up, and charged at the injured guard. A couple of plasma bolts impacted his shields, but he ignored them, and with a flick of his wrist cut off the hand holding the plasma repeater. He continued with his charge, bodily slamming the guard into the side of a Spirit. Bones crunched under the impact, and the guard slumped, wheezing. K'tal showed no mercy, bringing his blade in an sideways arc and burying the points in the guard's skull.
Turning back to the human, he walked over to where she lay, putting away the plasma rifle along the way. Stripping off his helmet so he could hear better, he placed the side of his head against her chest, listening for a heartbeat. He found one, and allowed himself a sigh of relief, realizing she was just unconscious, buckling his helmet back on and clamping the needle rifle he had given her to his back, and then picked her up in both hands, and carried her to one of the Phantom gunboats. Keying the door open, he laid the human gently down on a bench situated against the back wall.
As he readied the Phantom for liftoff, the human stirred. "What's going on?" she groaned, holding her plasma-burned side.
"We are leaving." he told her simply, through the speaker that allowed communication between the troop area and cockpit. They took off and flew from the doomed ship, out into the midst of the fleet. K'tal looked around at the vessels nearby, searching for a suitable one. He knew that they needed a Slipspace-capable ship to escape, and he grinned slightly as his eyes alighted on one that would do perfectly. He steered toward it, gunning the engines of the Phantom to make sure that they were far enough away from the blast radius of the Indomitable Retribution. Looking at the rear-view display screen, he watched as the assault carrier trembled, rents spitting purple-blue energy opening up on the hull, then cracked in half as the core exploded in a silent but huge detonation which consumed the majority of the what was left of the ship and scattered fragments in all directions. K'tal watched as a large amount of the shrapnel impacted a destroyer, completely obliterating its shields, and tore out the other side causing a second explosion, and then switched his vision back to the forward display as the blasts faded, piloting in the direction of the small ship he had chosen to steal.
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Well, there was Chapter 3. Review, or I'll get K'tal to eat you. I can you know, and he thinks humans taste like chicken! And as this is the last I will write until after Christmas, happy holidays!
Also, for the people who probably want to know what K'tal looks like, just think of a large Elite (think slightly smaller than the Halo Wars Arbiter) wearing Hunter blood-splattered, jet-black Spec Ops armour, carrying a small arsenal of Covenant weaponry. (Chapter 2 has the full list of weapons)