Chapter 20
UNSC Charon class light frigate Forward Unto Dawn
Unknown Star system, 2557, July, 21st
Orbiting Forerunner Shield world Requiem for 4 years and 8 months and 10 days.
A large green being stirred as someone shouted his name."John, wake up!" shouted a women's voice…. One that stirs his memories….. "I need you!" He fought with the tiredness that filled his body as he tries to get up. "Please!" He wanted to shout out a reply to reassure her….. "Wake up, John!" Suddenly he burst into full awareness turning on his helmet's flashlights, shaking his head to clear away the after effects of cryosleep. "Chief!" With a quicken pulse, he forcibly pushed the lid of the cryo tube open and rushed over to the holotank, nearly hissing out as the freezer burns heightens. "John..."
"I'm here." Replied the Spartan. Their reunion was cut short however as an explosion occurred nearby, destroying the bulkhead and exposing the cryobay into hard vacumn. The Spartan wasted no time removing Cortana's chip from the holo projector and inserting it into the specially build interface on his back of his skull. Even as the feeling of cold mercury poured into his mind followed shortly by a jammed spike of pain in his forehead but little of this affected the Spartan II soldier as he pushed off the Holo projector, his superhuman strength propelling him down the now exposed hallway with speed. A second explosion ahead threw up a debris field which was blocking the Spartan's way.
"Use the thrusters" suggested Cortana before the Spartan send a mental command to activate his suit's attached thrusters. He quickly maneuvered through, dodging flying grinders and other debris before flipping to deliver a kick to a damaged door twisting as he reorient himself the Master Chief quickly continued his escape from the collapsing frigate. Suddenly noticing something of use, the Spartan struck his hand out and grabbed a M363 Remote Projectile Detonator that was floating by. With a quick aim, he fired the magnetic explosive at a piece of debris that was blocking his way before stopping by grabbing a piece of protruding grinder activating his boot magnets, he firmly planted his feet on the edge of the hole made by the slipspace portal. Grabbing another spare explosive from one of his ammo pouch, the Master Chief quickly reloads the weapon and stares into space.
A giant bright light was shined on the wreckage as a giant iris like opening pulled the wreckage along with the Spartan II soldier into. "We should keep moving." Suggested Cortana as the Spartan took his eyes away from the widening entrance. He spotted a nearby elevator shaft and checked it for artificial gravity before starting to climb up. When he reaches the top however, he was surprised when an energy sword wielding Sangheili charged at him. Reacting quickly, the Master Chief grabbed the Elite's hand and wrestled the white hot plasma blade away from his faceplate before shifting the Elite and with a kick send him into the elevator shaft where he falls to his death.
"Any ideas?" Asked the Chief as he opens the door to a sealed armoury. Once inside, he grabs a MA5C along with twelve magazines for the rifle before ditching his M363 for a standard M6G pistol. "Your guess is as good as mine. Now hold on, we should take a better gun." Replied Cortana as she accessed the armory's computers. The pistol rack moved as the rollers behind it activated, revealing an entire rack of hard chromed M6Ds complete with boxes of preloaded magazines in packs. Grabbing a duffel bag, the Spartan filled it with more ammo along with a spare rifle and pistol while replacing the M6G with a M6D. Moving to the back, The Master Chief paused slightly in front of the rack of M6G/GNR Spartan Laser.
"I know what you're thinking….. and we both know the answer to that." Said Cortana as she watched with amusement as the Spartan shrugged and turn away from the heavy weapons. He went over to a crate of M9 HE-DP and grabbed a bandoleer before moving towards a supply crate putting into the duffel bag canisters of Biofoam and military rations. With the first bag full, the Spartan grabbed a second duffel and began to filled it with demo charges, canister of C12 as well as 3 pairs of Lotus Antitank mines. Grunting as he hefted his gathered supplies, he moved out of the armory scanning the corridor as fast and safe as he could.
When he rounded a corner, a familiar battle cry filled the corridor. "WORT! WORT! WORT!" and bolts of plasma splashed the bulkhead, missing the Spartan's faceplate by mere inches. The Master Chief pulled back while he fired his MA5C at the Elite lance which consisted of an Elite major and 5 Grunts. 2 of the Grunts dropped from headshots while the Elite roared with rage as his shields sparked before failing, During all of this the Lance failed to notice a M9 rolling towards them until it touched the wall with a PING. A Thump echoed down the corridor as the Spartan step out of cover.
"Can we possibly make any more noise?" Protested Cortana as another 3 Lances turned up at the next intersection. Rummaging through the Duffel, the Spartan took out a Lotus antitank mine and set it on timer before throwing it like a frizz bee at the incoming Lances. "I guess so." Said Cortana as the mine detonated, collapsing the already weaken corridor. An Emergency bulkhead slammed down, sealing off the compromised section. When things settled down, the Master Chief went and policed the plasma grenades still hanging from the first Lance before moving on. "We should head to the aft observation deck, the area should be well reinforced to protect us from the crash." Suggested Cortana as she rerun her calculation on the impact force generated by the frigate's controlled crash. "I have projected a nav point for you, this will take us through a secondary hallway. Hopefully we won't encounter anymore lances."
The Master Chief gave a slight shrug before following the Nav point, upon enter a maintenance tunnel he encountered a trio of grunts that stood stock still terrified as the master chief walk towards them. Before he could say anything, the lead grunt gave a shrill shriek and run back into the tunnel they came from. The other two grunts looked at each other before quickly turn around and follow their leader. The Master Chief watched with amusement with his head cocked to one side before saying "So much for stealth." Cortana gave a slight huff as if she was annoyed that Murphy was having a field day.
The Master Chief continues through the tunnels, his shields occasionally scrapping the wall when he had to make a turn. "There! That should lead us to the Observation deck." As the nav point shifted towards a door. The Master Chief waited patiently as Cortana interfaced with the ship's remaining system to unlock the door. "There, it's opened. Let's see what's behind door number one." The thin metal doors slid opened revealing a crouching Sangheili with his mandibles split open in an inhuman grin. The Master Chief backpedaled as the Sangheili Warrior moved forward, even as the Spartan brought up his rifle, the Sangheili held up a hand.
"Hold your fire, Spartan. I'm not your enemy." Said the Elite with slight difficulty as he try to pronounce the human words.
The Master Chief lowered his rifle slightly but not enough so that he couldn't snap it back up. "Explain" said the Chief in a Cold, calm and demanding tone.
"What you see here is the remnant of a Sangheili Separatist fraction. They called themselves the Servants of abiding Truth." Said the Elite as he quickly shut the door behind him. "I was sent to infiltrate what remains of their leadership and provide information to the council."
"You're an Ossoona!" exclaimed Cortana as she shifted through her databanks. "That would explain your holographic armour."
The Elite looked considerably amused as his armour shifted before turning back into the standard Ossoona armour. "Very clever, construct. Not many people lived to tell the tale after seeing an Ossoona."
The Chief suddenly interrupted by asking "Wait a Separatist fraction? I though all the Elites are united under the Arbiter?"
"You give us more Credit than we deserve, Spartan. That was to regain our honour from those deceiving San 'Shyuum. After that a minority decided they would not follow the decision of the council nor the Arbiter, those minority became the Servant of Abiding Truth." Said the Elite, as he checked the outside of the door for any guards. "Now go, we must not tarry here any longer. You have your mission and I have mine. I'll seek you out should it be necessary." With that his armour once more morphed into that of a Sangheili major.
"Wait. Why are you even showing yourself to them? I though you can remain stealth with active camo indefinitely." Asked Cortana as the Spartan and Elite moved out of the tunnel system. " And what is your name?"
The Elite glanced back as the Spartan and him walk their separate ways "There are more ways than one to remain hidden, Construct." When he reached the end of a junction, "You may call me Dhara' Nosolee"
With that the Elite disappeared into the next junction. Cortana was silent as the Chief made his way towards the observation deck. Hang on, I'm picking up faint movement up ahead." Whispered Cortana as she noticed the slight movement on the motion sensor. The Chief walked slowly forwards checking the next corridor but nothing. "Switch to VISR" suggested Cortana as she runs a more detailed scan of the area with the motion sensor. The chief did as the AI suggested and suddenly he noticed the outline of several stealth Elites staring at him. "They don't think we noticed them yet." Whispered Cortana as she hacked into the com units of the Elites. "So play it safe?"
The Master Chief continues scanning the room as if nothing happened while his left hand slowly reached for a plasma grenade. Cortana noticed it and cheerfully said "Bet you cann't stick it."
"You're on." Replied the Chief as he move into the next corridor, firing his MA5C one handed while his left hand threw the plasma grenade. The glowing blue orb sailed through the air, before landing on top the helmet of one of the stealth Elite. The Elite gave a warble of surprise before the grenade detonated, taking him out with 2 more stealth Elite. The last one was killed as 7.62x51mm rounds smacked into him, making him dance before falling to the ground dead.
"That's twice I won" said the Spartan as he slotting in a fresh magazine into his MA5C assault rifle. Before moving towards a door with the sign "Observation deck" in front of it. Moving quickly, the Master Chief cleared the corridor and moved into the room. With his VISR still on, he quickly scanned the room for any more hostiles before locking the door behind him.
"There! Put me into that terminal." Said Cortana as she highlighted the said terminal on the Chief's visor. The Spartan moved towards the terminal and pulled Cortana's chip from his neural interface before slotting it into the terminal. "Activating armour plating." Said Cortana through the room's speaker. All across the Observation deck, thickly armored plates slid down, covering the thick viewscreens the filled the room. "Done, now yank me and get comfy. I calculate that we have 10 minutes before the decent begins." She paused slightly as she noticed elites all aboard the ships retreating back to their dropships. "It seems the Separatist are retreating. Well , trouble for a later time I guess."
The Chief removed Cortana's chip from the terminal before replacing it in his neural interface. He scanned the room before choosing a likely spot and smashed his fist down on the armor-plated floor, locking his armour in place.
Outside on a Space Banshee that was retreating, Dhara Nosolee watched as the remained of the frigate tumbled into the iris of the opening Shield world. From what he had gathered, the Forerunners called this shield world "Requiem". It would seems that the humans as dictated by their legacy are indeed the Reclaimers. The race who will once more unleash a power never seem for hundreds of millenniums by reclaiming the Forerunner legacy.
Author's Note: Now this part is slightly AU from the series hope you all dun mind. Now I'll put up chapter 21 sneak preview as soon as I can. Hope you all enjoy this chapter and give reviews. Enhoy.