Isolated Forerunner Facility
Galerius
Lucan System
Two days later
California tore the Promethean Crawler in half like it was a piece of cardboard. As the body disintegrated, he loosened his grip and allowed the halves to drop lifelessly to the floor. His gold edged red armour gleamed in the orange light that was emitted through the lines along the wall. He looked around the room, hard-light spear in hand, searching for anymore enemies to kill. All that remained of the Promethean-Guardians was essence of orange plasma on the floor and on the walls.
California retracted the spear as he removed Ultor's chip with his free hand. "Is that all of them?" asked California. "Indeed." responded Ultor as his avatar of a Roman Legionnaire appeared. California holstered his retracted spear. "Where is it?" California asked. Ultor pointed to a metallic box that had no corners. "There, the device is there." California inserted Ultor back into his helmet and began walking toward the box.
"I have to say, I had not seen this coming." said Ultor. "What. The Prometheans?" "Yes, I thought the Librarian had taken all of his Prometheans and locked them away on Requiem with him. I'm guessing that the Didact found this device important enough to store some unlinked Prometheans here to guard it." Ultor explained as he put his hand to his chin. "Well, when you create a device which can project a hard-light image of someone, you would think that you would want to keep it somewhere safe." "I suppose so. I recommend that during combat, if I were to use The Projector it would be far more effective, due to the fact that it would take equal effort in fighting to control your holographic duplicate as it does for you to fight with your own body." "Well." California started as he pulled Ultor's chip out and prepared to insert it into the lock slot of the box. "Let's just see if it works or not." As California inserted the chip into the slot and the box began to float and glow orange along certain lines that travelled along the box. The lid on the box slowly split into six pieces, which slowly slid apart.
Inside the box was a small circular shaped object no larger than a Grifball. Its shape was very unusual. It had a glowing sphere in the very centre, and was covered in metal plates, all with different shapes, placed in a form that would still allow the centre to be visible through lines in between the plates. But, given the nature of the origins of the object, California was not surprised. California slowly took it out with both of his hands and as soon as California touched the ball, it started to glow and pulse orange. The ball was not very heavy, but it was also not very light either. California eventually lifted the ball out of the box and balanced it in one hand to examine it with great interest. It eventually stopped pulsing and its glow became very dim.
"California, pull me and insert me into The Projector. If my precognition is correct, Idaho will be arriving soon to face us." said Ultor. Ultor has the ability to predict the future based on different events that happen. He has never been able to tell the exact future, but by eliminating certain possibilities in events that happen, he has been able to have a small number of possible outcomes to pick from. California quickly removed Ultor from the box and inserted his chip into the object known as The Projector. The lid of the box slid shut again and it dropped to the floor. It began to glow brighter and pulse again. "Just throw the sphere on the ground when I tell you to and let me handle the activation." Ultor told California. California nodded. "Oh and, to your left." Ultor said and California immediately responded by shifting his head to the right as a bullet flew by.
California had heard the sound of the gun shot only milliseconds after the bullet had flew past him. California slowly turned around. He knew who had fired the shot as was not surprised in the least that he was here. 'Ultor was right was again.' thought California and smiled a half smile. He turned to face Idaho, who was standing in the doorway.
California grinned as he spoke. "Well, well. Isn't this a nice surprise." California spoke sarcastically. "You came all this way here to look for me." "I want Zeta back, and you're not leaving here until you give him to me." Idaho demanded, with his sidearm pointed at California's head. California chuckled, "And what will you do to stop me? Talk me to death?" California taunted. Idaho quickly unloaded the entire clip of shots at California. California quickly activated his shield which deflected the bullets in different directions. When Idaho ran out of ammo, Idaho quickly placed the sidearm on his holster and drew his rifle at California. "Tell me Idaho, how would you prefer to die?" California said in an attempt to anger Idaho further knowing that Idaho had little chance to defeat him. "How about after you?" Idaho responded and fired an entire round of shots at California. The shots bounced off the shield like flies on a windscreen. California did not lose his position at anytime. He was still waiting on Ultor to give him indication to activate The Projector, which he still held in his free hand.
After Idaho had exhausted his clip, he lowered his rifle and breathed heavily, for he had held his breath as he fired the shots. "Haven't you learned by now Idaho? I'm not that easy to kill." California said as he lowered and retracted his shield. "Then I'll just have to gut you like a fish." Idaho said activating both of his Energy Daggers, anger burning in his eyes and sweat dripping down the side of his face. California smiled amused at Idaho's comeback. "I have a better idea. Why don't we put down the weapons and settle this like in the days of old. If you can beat me at hand-to-hand combat, I will give you Zeta. If you lose, you let me walk out of here."
Idaho thought about California's proposal for a few seconds. "How do I know I can trust you?" asked Idaho still in his battle ready stance. "The last time I did that, you locked me in a Forerunner facility." "You could always try to take him from me. Unfortunately, I don't think that will work out for you very well." There was a pause for a moment, and all that could be heard was the sound of the low hum of the facility around them. "Alright, no dirty tricks okay?" said Idaho as he deactivated his Energy Daggers. California did not respond but took up a fighting stance and placed The Projector on the box. Idaho got the impression that the silence that he received was a response that meant that there were going to be no promises. Just the way Idaho preferred it.
They circled each other for a few seconds, but eventually, it was Idaho who struck first. His blow missed California's head by centimetres. California struck back and after three, carefully placed blows, knocked Idaho onto the floor. Idaho quickly stood upright once more, ignoring the pain, and with a war cry, charged at California once more. This time, Idaho's fist was able to glance at California's left arm. California struck back, but Idaho was able to block his punches. California smiled to himself inside his helmet. "That's the spirit, Idaho. Give me a real challenge." he mocked.
Stopping California's blows was like trying to block concrete slabs with your hands to Idaho. Idaho was able to fight through the pain, clenching his teeth as he did, and after his Tactical Perception was able to detect that California was tiring for a split second, Idaho was able to hit California in the shoulder. Idaho had his Perception on for most of the time, but chose to ignore it during the shoot out because he knew that even his Perception had no way of getting by a shield of energy. Idaho had thought to himself 'Not even California could be aware that I have my Perception on.' thought Idaho. Unfortunately, it didn't matter if California knew or not. Idaho was determined to beat him. Idaho knew that California would never allow him to get very far with Zeta, if he still had Zeta at all. Idaho was hoping that sooner or later, there would be a chance for him to deal a deadly blow to California or one that would leave California in such a way so that California would be incapacitated for a short period of time, just so that Idaho can find out where Zeta was and get some distance between him and California. Hopefully sooner than later.
California hardly found Idaho's fighting technique a challenge. They had gone at least ten seconds and California had just about extended the chance he was willing to give for Idaho. California quickly knocked Idaho in the head which sent him sliding across the floor again. A drop of sweat ran down California's face. Even if Idaho were to somehow defeat him in the fight, he would have just used one of the three hundred ways to incapacitate Idaho that California had thought up during the fight. California grinned 'He is an interesting one. No wonder Ultor has plans for him in the future. But when that future has past, I will kill him.' California thought to himself.
Idaho had had enough. As soon as Idaho got up, he half stumbled half charged at California and as he did, he activated his Red Energy Dagger and tried to force them into California's chest. 'This time, I'll finish him for good.' Idaho thought to himself as he charged at California determined to end the fight here and now. To Idaho's surprise, all he forced his dagger into was a surge of light, as California had teleported behind him using his Promethean technology. 'Blast. He knew this was coming.' Idaho thought as he realised he had seen California's trap all too late.
California kicked Idaho to the floor. Idaho laid on the floor for a moment, then propped himself up with his elbows. "Now California, activate The Projector!" Ultor said over the communications channel to California "You have not honour when you fight." California said as he walked over to the box to pick up the Projector. Idaho quickly stood up and took a few steps back before drawing his SMG. "Ha" Idaho remarked "Who needs honour when you've got a fully loaded SM-" Idaho stopped himself "Wait." Idaho looked around the room "Where's Ultor? The whole time I've been fighting you and I haven't heard one word of that bastard."
California chuckled. "Are you really that eager to meet him?" California dropped the ball next to him. "Well, here he is." In a matter of seconds, the plates on the ball shifted apart and it began to float in mid-air. The plates then flew in four different directions and the ball began to emit an orange light which formed and odd, prism-like shape. In a matter of seconds the shape began to look like a figure and soon, the figure took the form of Ultor's avatar, with a spear and a shield in hands.
Idaho smirked. "What is it? Some kind of holographic projector?" "Oh I assure you Idaho, I am more than just a hologram." said Ultor "Care to test it?" "Sure" Idaho said before firing several shots at Ultor. When the bullets hit, the area where the bullets made contact created a wave that spread across Ultor's form. Idaho lowered his gun in a strange form of fear he had not experienced before. He had expected nothing less of Forerunner technology, which is one of the reasons why he feared it so. Idaho just never expected to be the one on the end of the sword.
"Vos qui estis morituri te salutant te." said Ultor as he began to walk towards Idaho. Idaho, sensing that he would need to give his all if he wanted to defeat both California and Ultor, quickly aimed his SMG at Ultor and began firing again, the shots bouncing harmlessly off Ultor. Idaho kept firing at Ultor until his SMG ran out of shots. Idaho quickly reloaded his SMG, but as soon as he raised his arm to aim at Ultor, California grabbed Idaho's wrist and tossed him across the room.
Idaho lay very still against the wall. California grinned as he knew that he had won the battle. No. He had known all along that this was a futile effort. But Idaho was strong and stubborn. Under circumstances Idaho and California could have been- No. That would have been a different Idaho entirely.
Idaho quickly regained consciousness. But as soon as he looked up, he was grabbed by the neck by Ultor. Ultor's hand was like a stone. Idaho found it very hard to breathe and Ultor's whole body was radiating heat, so his hand felt like hot charcoal against his Nano-weave neck. Idaho tried to struggle, but found it was useless. Ultor smiled as he tilted his head. "Not so, holographic anymore am I, Idaho?" Ultor asked before throwing him against the other side of the room and Idaho hit with a 'thud'.
California was about to walk over to Idaho's unconscious body, but just as he put his hand on the hilt of his tomahawk, Ultor said, "Not yet California." California grunted. "He will cause more problems in the future if I do not dispose of him now." "Perhaps, but the future I see requires that he live, for now."
California removed his hand from the hilt of his tomahawk and walked back to Ultor as Ultor deactivated The Projector and California removed the chip and the sphere folded into a disk shape. California attached it to his back as he inserted Ultor into his helmet. California turned to look at Idaho. "Next time." he growled as he knocked out Idaho with a single punch to the head.
