1; Part 1 Ch. 2 "Divine Intervention"
Kurt on Onyx
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"Good-bye," he said after Lucy and Tom slipped into the rift. They were gone. All of them. Now Kurt could concentrate on what had to be done. He picked up Tom's MA5K. It's ammo counter indicated half a magazine. It would have to do. He grabbed the last missile launcher, too. He was sure he could find a use for it.
The "hill" around the center was only a meter tall now and shrinking rapidly as the concentric rings eased back to the floor of the room. The finlike towers folded inward, almost flat against the ground.
Elite snipers poked over the top of the hill and fired a tight cluster of Plasma. Kurt was too slow to dodge the shots. His SPI armor heated cracked, and half his chest plate shattered away. Smoldering, Kurt dropped to his knees. Blackness clouded his mind. He struggled to stay conscious- fought his way back by sheer will power, and his vision cleared.
The snipers backed away, not bothering to finish him off. More Elites appeared on the hill, now only a half meter tall, sinking even faster toward a level topology.
A Hunter pair appeared on the slight rise and assed Kurt. They snorted, unimpressed.
/Almost there, / he thought. /Almost done. Almost won. /
Kurt grabbed the SPKNr launcher and fired from the hip. The missile rocketed toward one Hunter, hit, and knocked it off the top. Kurt leveled his assault rifle and sprayed the other Hunter, but it turtle behind it's shield.
The rifle's bolt clacked- empty.
The Hunter stood and growled. It's mate, bloodied and still smoking from the missile impact, stomped toward Kurt, hands ready to tear him to pieces.
Kurt ventured a glance back. The rift was only a flicker now, and shirking. He noticed a small black sphere, about the size of a marble, stuck to the inside of one of the finlike towers. /What is that? / He thought. He dismissed it as nothing of importance at this point.
Kurt's mission timer read "0:47"
A sharp bark behind the Hunters made them halt in their tracks. An Elite in golden armor strode toward them, gracing Kurt with a glance that was part disdain… and part respect. It jabbered orders at the Hunters and the others. Kurt's translation software deciphered part of this: "Damage not the center. Engineers with slipspace shunts… Reopen the Silver gate. Glory is ours!"
A roar of thunderous triumph burst from the gathered Covenant.
Kurt struggled to rise. There was more pain than he'd ever felt and his legs had turned to wet sand. His vision tunneled… but he got to his feet… and raised his hands in fighting stance.
"You haven't won," Kurt said. "You've still got me to get through."
The Ship Master assessed Kurt and nodded, perhaps understanding him, perhaps not. It gazed upon Kurt as an equal. A fellow warrior.
Around them the concentric rings settled to the floor, and with a whispered hiss, all of the ridges melded into a single smooth surface. The fins touched down silently, thirteen clamping armatures splayed two meters from the center of the room.
His countdown timer blinked at him: "0:00"
He felt a small nudge on the back of his foot and saw that the small black spot had managed to move right under him. He ignored it again and he opened his team roster- subheading status- and moved Will, SPARTAN-043; Dante, SPARTAN- G188; and Holly, SPARTAN- G003 to the Missing-In-Action column, adhering to the tradition of never listing a Spartan as "Killed-IN-Action".
Kurt then highlighted Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose… and moved that name to the MIA list as well- next to Kurt, SPARTAN- 051.
The room started to spin. His mouth went dry, He tried to swallow. Couldn't.
His vision doubled and he thought he saw Tom and Lucy come back to get him… but it wasn't them. It was Shane, Robert, and Jane from Team Wolf Pack. There were hundreds of Spartans with him on the platform- from Alpha and Beta Companies, even Sam… All ready to fight and win this last battle with him.
Hallucination? Maybe. It was nonetheless welcome
The ghostly Spartans nodded and gave him the thumbs up "Can-Do" signal.
Kurt wouldn't let them down, All he had to do was single handedly stop a Covenant army. One last impossible mission… the short definition of any Spartan. It was the least he owed them.
The Fleet Master Elite snarled at Kurt, and the translation filtered through his helmet's speaker. "One last fight, demon. You will die and we will reopen the silver path."
"Die?" Kurt laughed. "Didn't you know?" He told the Elite. "…Spartans Never Die."
Kurt turned his gauntlet face up and pressed the Detonator.
It happened in the blink of an eye, although Kurt saw it from a much slower point of view. The force of the FENRIS warheads pushed him to the ground, where the little black marble made another appearance. It sparked and expanded as the nuclear energy exploded out slowly from the pack. Kurt felt a tug on his back and saw that Shane and Sam were pulling the pack off his shoulder. "This isn't where you stop." Robert said from behind them. Kurt was confused. /How is all this happening? / He asked himself. The black marble, which was the size of a watermelon now, was right under him, pulling him in. He looked back at the ghostly Spartans. Some saluted him, others, like Jane; gave him the traditional Spartan two-finger "smile". The tug from the expanded portal grew stronger and pulled him completely inside and it closed seconds after. Kurt felt sick and his pain was too much he fainted.