Hello! theotherpianist here! I turned this chapter out today! Wow, as of today, I already I have over a hundred hits on this site! Thanks a lot. Continue to read and review!
As always Halo and Star Wars are not mine and belong to their respective owners.
Enjoy.
Chapter Two:
Error: Cannot determine System, guidance system malfunction: Unknown Planet; uncharted regions
Error: Critical calendar malfunction/ reboot sys. / November 21st 2559: 23:46 hours
UNSC Dauntless
"I knew it was Kansaass," Ripa interjected immediately before Will could say anything else.
"You need to work on your pronunciation."
"We have more pressing emergencies at hand," Ripa dismissed huffily.
"Yeah, could one of you turn on the gravity please?" one of the Marine's asked as he grabbed an emergency railing to keep himself anchored.
"We'll see what we can do, soldier." Will said taking compassion on the Marine. "We'll be okay."
Suddenly with a sudden whir, the light's flickered to life and William felt a sudden pressure change as the gravity came back online.
"Del Rio to all hands, we are condition yellow. All section heads begin damage assessments and report your results to me ASAP." The Admiral spoke over the PA.
"See?" William said noting the gravity had come back on. "Keep a hand on something though. You never know when it might flicker off again. Let's go, Ripa,"
The Marine uttered a sheepish apology and they left.
As it turned out, they didn't need to do anything much as most of the ship came back online within minutes. They made their way to the bridge where the ship's First Officer, a man who had been transferred temporarily from the Infinity had asked them to find Del Rio who had left to begin damage assessments in person. Their situation, as relayed by the First Officer, was somewhat critical.
The Dauntless had its engines and weapons offline (but it's reactors thankfully in good condition), the portal had closed behind them and nobody knew where they were. Sarah had been trying to triangulate their position based on their location from the other stars but nothing gave them a positive result. They had however been able to establish contact with the Rising Flame, the only other ship to have traveled with them through the portal, and the Fleetmaster was requesting a meeting with the other commanding officers to best work out what their next option was. The FO asked Ripa to go with a group of engineers and marines to the supercarrier and retrieve some plasma cells to help power the rest of the Dauntless back online.
William found Del Rio ten minutes later in the engine room arguing with the engineers how best to go about starting it. When William relayed his message Del Rio told Will that "he didn't plan on leaving this ship while they were in the middle of unknown space." And Will somewhat gratefully left to relay his message to the FO.
"Aha! Got something!" Sarah announced as he entered the bridge again.
"What do you have?" the FO asked.
"I got our location, or roughly what it is anyways."
"Give me a system."
"Uhm. Well, I don't know how to put this to you."
"Spit it out, Sarah, we don't have - "
"We're in the Andromeda Galaxy."
The excitement in the bridge deflated rapidly.
"Well, that's just great." Navigation finally spoke for everyone.
"Yeah, wish we had a postcard. Dear, Earth, took a little detour to another galaxy, not sure when we'll be back. Don't worry too much." Weapons chimed in.
"Are you sure?" the First Officer asked.
"Mmhm. Once I started looking at our possible location from other galaxies I overlaid star positions with what theoretically should be there."
"Theoretically?"
"Well, sir, relativity can be a tricky thing to wrap your head around. Light takes millions of years for to travel from Andromeda back to Earth and the galaxy is not exactly staying still either. I had to factor in a little guesswork but, I can reasonably say with 85% surety, we're in the outer edge of Andromeda.
"How far away are we from home?"
"Roughly 2.3 Million Light Years away."
"Can we do a slipspace jump?"
"No idea," Sarah frowned. "We've never attempted a slipspace jump over such a large distance. It certainly would set a record. We could be spending decades trying to reach home."
The First Officer's brow furrowed in concern. The door behind hissed open and Admiral Del Rio strode in.
"How long is the trip home?" he asked
"Under normal circumstances, it should take decades, sir."
"Not good eno - "
"But we made that transition in less than ten minutes. Even a standard jump from Sol to Andesia or Tribute should take days. The portal from Voi to the Ark took almost a month to traverse. That portal improved our efficient travel time by a factor of several mill-"
"Can we replicate it?"
"Unknown. We're not in the position to go about traversing portals right now. I have no idea how long it will take to get from one galaxy to the next and there's a lot of hypotheticals that would have to go right for us to make it home in one piece."
Del Rio sighed in resignation. "Comm, prepare an emergency beacon. Keep our ears looking for anything that might be friendly. If worst comes to worst, we could set up a base on the planet below and hold out here until help arrives."
"Are you sure you want to do that with Weapon systems down?" Navigation asked.
"They'll be up in a moment." Del Rio said dismissively. "I just talked with Engineering. The engines will be up momentarily and once that's done, they'll get ourweapons online."
"Sir," Comms interrupted. The Rising Flame's reported that their reactor is destabilizing! They report that the problems are with pipes throughout the entire ship and some pretty serious leaks have been discovered. We've been asked to help supply men to help contain the reactor and assist with evacuating material." He paused for a moment. "They have an AI onboard that's also refusing to grant access to the engine room and is threatening to shut down the ship. They're requesting an AI to help unlock the system."
"Admiral, I can leave my subsystems to handle this ship if we need to go to combat readiness," Sarah said.
"Do it." He turned around and spotted William.
"Ah." He said with an attempt at cordiality. "Good, you can ferry Sarah to the Supercarrier. When the problem's fixed report back to me," He turned back around to face the Bridge. "Comms, tell them I have an AI en-route." He grabbed the AI's data chip from the Holotable and gave somewhat gingerly gave it to William who inserted the chip into the back of his helmet.
"Downsizing homes again." Sarah quipped inside his helmet.
"Would you rather get out and walk?" William asked. He saluted Del Rio swiftly and headed for the nearest hangar.
"I thought the Covenant didn't use AI's." he finally said after a silent minute passed by.
"Normally they don't. But sometimes on some of the larger ships they use rudimentary AI's for help in managing electronic security and power regulation. They're often neglected and some are primed for rampancy."
"What a wonderful life."
"Not for them. They don't have nearly the degree of autonomy and freedom that we do."
"But you still follow orders. It's built into you. Do you resent that?"
"You asked that question to me once upon a time and the answer's still the same. I'm allowed access to the entirety of the human experience. I don't think I'm quite able to comprehend fully but I think I have enough of a notion to know what it's like to be human."
They rounded the corner down a flight of stairs and suddenly they were in the hangar.
"Existential questions later. We got a carrier to get to." Sarah said.
William boarded a Pelican that was ferrying supplies from the other warship and the Pilot allowed him to come on board as a passenger.
It took only a minute to traverse the space in between the ships and William felt the tug of artificial gravity on his internal organs.
As soon as the Pelican doors opened he stepped out into one of the main hangars which were verging on organized chaos. The immense space was loud, noisy, and crowded with hundreds of the Sangheili running around trying to fulfill tasks.
"I have a package for the bridge." Will grunted in perfect Sangheili to a much taller Sangheili Ultra that was trying to organize an effort to safely move a massive load of plasma coils onto a phantom.
"Excellent, I need you to run a message up to the bridge. Unfortunately, because the teleporters and internal gravity lifts aren't working you'll have to run it by foot. I would deliver it myself but that portal has done something to my communications gear. Take this datapad as proof." He clacked his mandibles while offering a fan-shaped screen to him.
"Which way to the bridge?"
"As soon as you exit there will be a large staircase. Take it 20 decks up and be nice to the guards. We're all a little jumpy right now."
The enormous bridge of the Rising Flame was dimly lit with the holodeck that surrounded the center of it provided decent illumination. "Are all present and accounted for?" asked Fleetmaster 'Nodstrom a little impatiently.
"We've evacuated the most critically damaged sections and Engineering reports they've managed to contain some of the leaking areas."
"Excellent."
"Honorable Fleetmaster." The guard who accompanied William spoke. "We have the intelligence from the Dauntless."
"The gods smile on us yet. Demon, put your construct into the system." The Sangheili gestured to the holotable.
The Spartan spied a human-made holotank crudely hooked up to the system.
William removed the chip, registered the sudden warmth that filled his head, and touched Sarah's chip to the console. The flash of light announced her entry.
"Hmm. Yes, you're AI is doing a rather good job of keeping everything locked down. Give me a moment." She mused in thought before stretching her avatar's fingers and disappearing in another flash.
"Fleetmaster I do not wish to be impudent," the Shipmaster, who had previously remained silent, said walking up to the larger elite. "But, is it wise allowing an AI to access our ship so closely?"
"We are allies are we not? I trust that the humans seek us no harm. Destroying one of us proffers the other little, especially when we are so vulnerable at the moment."
"Got it!" Sarah beamed from the holotank. "I've isolated the AI from the rest of the system and the reactors should be fine. I'm still working on rebooting the shields and restoring plasma flow but other than that, you can remove from the system if you choose."
"Thank you construct." 'Nodstrom nodded. "Our next pressing problem is figuring out where we are."
"I can answer that question as well. We are currently in the Andromeda galaxy roughly three million light years from home."
'Nodstrom frowned.
"That is concerning." He said at last. "Can we travel through slipspace?"
"It would take a significant amount of time."
"What about the Dauntless?"
"Much longer I'm afraid."
"We could always empty out some space and store it inside." Another Sangheili suggested.
"Fleetmaster, there are reports of structures on the planet below but our brothers report that they are ruins and long since abandoned."
"Move into them and secure them for study. I want some of our pre-fabricated structures on the surface. If we are going to be here for the time while we make repairs, we should attempt to bring something back."
As William listened he was growing more and more concerned until finally, he couldn't hold it.
"Forgive me for my haste, but shouldn't we also be looking for the distress signals?" Will implored in Sangheili.
The Fleetmaster stopped.
"As admirable as search and rescue may be, I was tasked with eliminating the Covenant, not saving lost ships." 'Nodstrom bowed his head regretfully.
"But what if we can catch the signal again? We might be able to trace it and follow it to the source!"
"I agree with the demon." An Ultra interjected. "If we can narrow down its location we are that much closer to securing it. We should be honor bound to at least make an attempt."
"But we have no have no astronomical data of this surrounding area. We are in orbit around an unknown planet in a completely different galaxy with no idea what else is out there." Retorted a Field Marshal gesturing to a three-dimensional view of the Star System they were in right now. "The parasite could be out there or possibly some race more advanced than us. I think that discretion is the better part of valor in this scenario."
"If I may chime in, at this moment we are but two ships in a vastly unknown galaxy. We've proven that the portal is traversable—even if it disappeared on us—and learned about a planet that exhibited signs of once hosting life. If we want to make a more committed effort, we should secure more ships." Sarah added with a note of finality.
William sighed.
"Demon, you have fulfilled your assignment, please take your construct and return to your ship."
Before either of them could make a move, an officer came over and warbled something next to the Fleetmaster's ear. The Fleetmaster turned and started conversing with him rapidly in Sangheili. "Sirs!" said Sarah as she materialized on the holoprojector. "Contacts detected moving at faster than light speeds!"
A sudden alarm blared from one of the consoles in the bridge."
"By the gods." 'Nodstrom sighed. "What is it now?"
"I'm picking up a number of contacts moving towards us at…faster than light…speeds…" Sarah trailed off.
"What? Where?" snarled the Fleetmaster.
"5000 kilos off our port near the planet's atmosphere!" said Sarah after a moment.
"Put up the observation window." ordered the Fleetmaster after a moment.
Blast shields surrounding the bridge de-materialized and dropped revealing the transparent energy windows. The group held its breath in anticipation.
Suddenly 80 "ships" seemingly popped into view at the speed of light. One look at them was enough to confirm it was definitely manned, crewed, and military in origin.
This was met by a hail of curses from Humans and Sangheili alike the Fleetmaster even went as far as igniting his energy sword.
"Send communications back to our galaxy, we've made contact with an unknown entity!"
"Doing so! Alerting the Dauntless also! Responses asking what to do!" asked a Sangheili officer.
"Fleetmaster, we're receiving transmissions from the largest of the vessels! Audio only!"
Indeed the largest was longer than all of the fleet with the exception of the Dauntless and Rising Flame. It was cylindrical in shape and was some 3000 meters in length. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a massive bullet. Towards the ship's stern was a massive tower that projected out backward. A bulge on top also revealed a Command Deck. Several "cannons" were visible alongside its port and starboard. Spire.
"Play it!" the Fleetmaster said after a moment.
"Unknown contacts moving into firing ranges."
"Play the message." repeated the Fleetmaster.
"Unidentified vessel you are moving into Separatist Territory. You have thirty seconds to leave this system or we will fire." said a voice that wasn't quite human but sounded humanoid."
"Separatists?" someone asked.
"WThey are charging weapons!" Sarah reported.
"I want all shields and weapon systems ready now!" the Fleetmaster said as the crew and officers suddenly sprang into action. He strode over to the holographic display and manipulated the display transforming it into a battle map.
"Send off a counter message! Try to diffuse the situation now! Someone get the Dauntless to synchronize with us. Launch fighters and tell them to stick close to the ship."
"They're not responding!" an Elite roared from his station.
"Entity is launching fighters!" screamed a grunt.
"Acknowledged, DO NOT FIRE until fired upon! I want reactor outputs at 100% and prepare for..."
"Fleetmaster! They're firing!" roared the Principle Weapons Officer.
"Energy bursts discharged, plasma in origin, "shouted Sarah. "Brace for Impact!"
An enormous explosion rocked the Carrier seconds later and the lighting flickered as red lances of energy connected with the ships energy shields hard enough to make the crew stumble.
"I recommend we attack at once."
"More contacts emerging from above and behind us!" a Minor reported. Another reported fire coming from all sides.
William swung around to see more of the alien warships suddenly blink into existence which immediately deposited all their fighters into space.
"Hostile contact established! Return fire!" The Fleetmaster ordered after a moment. "Tell the Humans to charge their main guns and fire at the nearest vessel. Weapons, fire plasma torpedoes at the nearest vessel to give the Dauntless a window and then burn the heathens with our energy projectors."
"Doing so!" said the Communications Officer. The PWO did the same and ordered the strikes.
The Carrier trembled despite its inertial dampeners as heated plasma erupted from turrets and splashed across the nearest enemy vessel. The first torpedo spread over the hull and its shields died. The second torpedo cut through the metal and cut through to its engines creating a small star as its reactors went critical. Eight more met this same fate in a moment, then another two as secondary explosions claimed their lives.
"Again!" the Fleetmaster roared and another wave of plasma erupted claiming the lives of another 12 vessels.
The Dauntless, William was relieved to see, jumped to the opportunity speeding past the wreckage of the warship and firing its main guns. Twin 1000 ton ferric tungsten covered rounds punched through a warship that had two curved arms surrounding a giant sphere and left the arms decompressing rapidly as the MAC rounds blew through it with ease. He was put to ease as he saw the Dauntless start an orbital "run" path between the moon of the planet and the planet itself. Del Rio at least, wouldn't blow up the ship up.
"The Dauntless is away!" yelled the Helm Officer.
Cheers erupted as they watched it distance itself and then right itself around and sending a torrent of missiles against the enemy vessels turning many into massive piles of scrap. Suddenly a massive cloud of what looked like fighters bore down on the Carrier with relentless force as the ships turned to focus on the Carrier.
He turned the comlink in his helmet to focus on the Bridge's conversation.
"Sir, enemy salvos approaching fast!" shouted a Grunt.
"Brace yourself!" cried the Fleetmaster as more lasers rushed towards the Carrier.
With a loud bang that set off many more alarms, the ship stumbled against the numerous bolts of energy.
"Shields at 30% and holding!" shouted a grunt.
Then the reports trickled in.
"Communications are down!"
"I've lost Plasma Turrets 3-7!"
"We've lost forward attitude control!"
"We're venting atmosphere in Hangar 7!"
"Damage to rear levels in extreme!"
"Scuttle rear decks and disconnect them. Order the general evacuation of those areas!" the Fleetmaster ordered.
"The reactor is going haywire again!" Engineering called out over the chaos.
"Do what you can to buy us time, bring emergency and auxiliary reactors on and switch critical functions over to them."
"Another barrage incoming!"
"Brace for impact!"
Another series of explosions rocked the carrier.
"Shields dropping to 5% and falling!"
"Prep the energy projector, ten-second full burn. Sweep the other ships. Prioritize targets by distance and give them a volley of plasma torpedoes."
Another wave of fire erupted from the Rising Flame and a dozen ships met their ends as the energy projector in conjunction with the plasma torpedos took out 13 more.
A larger ship moved in closer and started trading fire, undeterred by the violence which had claimed the other ships.
"Get us out of here!" ordered the Fleetmaster in Sangheili as the Carrier valiantly tried to return the insult by firing its energy projector bisecting two of the smaller ships and immediately clearing the sky around it by firing all pulse lasers.
"Shipmaster, we are being surrounded!" a Grunt shouted fearfully.
"Incoming burst from lead contact!" an Officer reported!
All heads turned to see the largest ship lazily turn and fired from two massive cannons on under its prow.
The shipmaster swore, and the Fleetmaster frantically ordered Helm to fire emergency thrusters. William braced himself and shouted for everyone to get out. Time seemed to slow down as he went into what was dubbed Spartan time. The crew seemed to slow down as the Unggoy, Kigyar, and Sangheili turned and ran. William stayed and waited, waving everyone through the doors. Finally, he shoved Fleetmaster, and the Shipmaster out the door.
He was halfway out when he realized Sarah was still inserted into the main computer. He had moments until impact. He yanked on her crystal and lunged for the door. He drew his pistol as he ran and fired it at the mechanisms holding the door open.
The shot seemed muffled and William saw the bullet leave the pistol. He dove as the shot pierced the panel and the doors swung closed. He turned as a tremendous explosion blew him away. The concussion felt like a solid blow. He was vaguely aware of blast doors squealing shut as the bridge was opened to the vacuum of space. The world reverted to real-time again and he was knocked off his feet and sent sliding along the purple floors a good fifteen feet.
This time a new alarm joined the chorus and Will's heart dropped. He knew that one well having been the cause of it so many times.
"Reactors going critical!" an Officer announced just outside the ruined bridge.
"See if you can get Engineering to jettison it or that part of the ship, I'll not be taken in some explosion." Fleetmaster 'Nodstrom huffed angrily. "Demon, if there's a way, get to your ship or escape to the planet. We part ways here."
Another explosion rocked the ship dimming the lights for a second before the Fleetmaster and his entourage turned and left.
"This ship isn't going to last that much longer if they focus all their attention on it!" Sarah warned.
"To the secondary bridge, I'll take command there!" 'Nodstrom ordered over the battle-net. "All nonessential crew and soldiers are to evacuate and abandon ship!"
William felt the ship start to list and slide from beneath him as he picked himself up.
"It's no good! We're out of control! We can't escape!" another Elite screamed over the comms.
"Sarah, give me options."
"There's still Seraph fighter if you feel like lending a hand with air support," Sarah reported.
"Flag it. I'll head for there." William said as he began to sprint towards the marker that lit up on his HUD.
He was making a run down the staircase when another explosion ripped open a compartment far above him sending molten metal raining down on him. He flattened against the wall and kept moving.
"Sarah what's going on!" he asked as he yanked a bulkhead out of his way and started speeding through a straight corridor at twenty miles per hour past dead crewmembers that were torn apart by shrapnel or cooked by heat.
"That last one hit our engines directly! All systems are down and we are spiraling towards the planet! We'll barely have enough oxygen to survive the trip through the atmosphere."
He turned the corner and found himself in the hangar where most of the remaining crew it seemed was located trying to access the escape pods above, an aircraft, or a drop pod. However, the explosions had damaged a good number of the remaining aircraft. As he watched, a rack of banshees tore free from its anchor and crashed to the ground flattening a dozen soldiers. Their spiral was rapidly increasing. As William reinserted Sarah into his helmet the carrier shrieked ominously.
Suddenly, a massive bang sent a bulwark flying. It connected with the Fleetmaster who had reappeared above him on a walkway. He gave a cry and fell twenty feet to the deck below where the Sangheili crumpled to the deck and did not move.
The ship gave another lurch downwards and suddenly William was struggling to cling to the floor. Some debris fell towards him and William barely missed a twisted banshee flattening him. Unfortunately, he forgot about one of its canards which smashed into his head flattening the shields and flooding his helmet with noxious smoke.
"Careful! That hit blew your pressure seal on your helmet!"
"Is there anything you can do to fix this ship?" he asked ignoring her warning.
"There's a console behind…well almost below you now." She corrected as William dangled from a piece of the plating that jutted out like a giant spear.
He looked down and spied it.
"Here goes nothing." He said before dropping to it below.
He extended his arms and slammed into a holographic console hard enough that it bent it out of shape.
"Whoops." He said before removing the chip and touching it to the console.
"Hopefully it still works."
"Hopefully…" he agreed, trying to pull air into his lungs. The oxygen levels were now thin as the doomed ship lost its oxygen steadily.
"Sarah… calculate crash sites… make it… so we don't… kill ourselves… on landing…adjust thrust accordingly… start a countdown. If you can't… find us a landing site… overload reactors…in case the enemy tries to board." William said as Sarah from inside his helmet watched his vitals lead towards a flat line."
"We're dead man! We're dead! Screamed a marine from the Dauntless that must have been stuck on board. William looked up to see a cluster of them with some other species desperately wedging themselves against a staircase to prevent them from falling.
"We're all in this together! Everybody hang on!" another Marine said trying to rally the others.
While this was all happening, Sarah was trying to calculate what it would take to survive an impact on the planet below. She was distracted by her attempts to try and learn as much about their enemy as possible.
Suddenly Sarah snapped back into focus. She would NOT lose this battle. Scanning the enemies could wait for later. She faced her challenge, hesitated and then began.
Quickly she diverted what was left from weapons and slid down the massive blast doors of the hangar before transferring power back. She frantically sent out small scans of the topography below. There was a mountain range. Did she dare try? She quickly performed about a million calculations coming to the conclusion that any other place would be too long to try and crash on and the crew would die of asphyxiation by then.
She then diverted the remaining power for thrusters and weapons. She had one chance. In a flash, she triggered the engines in a ten-second burst. This righted the ship but created speeds too great for a crash landing. She inventoried what was left of the weaponry. Plasma torpedoes on the port side were intact and the energy projection beam was intact. The plasma turrets were still intact too. She took a vital second to confirm her plan and then started.
She fired the maneuvering thrusters a second to throw her to the top left of a mountain. She aimed the ship for the side. She quickly sent out a tight wave beam scan and discovered the mountains, though ice covered had decent iron content... actually, a significant component of the rock was magnetic. She then quickly rewrote the plasma turrets firmware to fire a continuous beam that was charged electromagnetically. When she was miles away from impact she fired the emergency thrusters and fired the cruisers energy projectors at the mountain. The impact from the energy projectors seemed to stop the ship momentarily as she guided the beams and emergency thrusters to direct the ship over the mountain. The polarity of the beam and mountain polar equals.
The ship rapidly decelerated, the strain of it breaking entire decks loose from the superstructure, but it continued to hold itself together and slow down.
It seemed almost impossible. Sarah mused; a vessel weighing well over several million tons was holding itself up magnetically by a couple of beat up plasma turrets. She realized the power was fading fast so she cut the flow of plasma and the ship dropped for ten seconds; a multi-million-ton rock. It landed with a hard crash that she observed knocked the crew about, on a plateau.
The soldiers collectively started to realize what was happening. Many of them poked their heads out of the various hiding places now present. The group collectively sighed in relief and started cheering.
"I'm not sure how you pulled it off… but that was amazing." William said as he regained his breath and filled his lungs with precious oxygen.
Suddenly a loud, rumbling crack punctuated their celebrations.
"What the heck was that?" complained a Marine.
"Quit your mouth DiNozzo! Don't jinx anything!" said another Marine.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Someone whispered.
"What you expect us to fall or something?" The Marine named DiNozzo said jokingly. "We already just fell from - "
The Carrier slid downwards.
The mountain plateau also partially broke off from a combination of heat and pressure creating an avalanche of rock and snow that threatened to smother the ship. Sarah intentionally did not share with them that information.
"DiNozzo!" screamed most of the human crew almost simultaneously.
"Great, we're falling. You just HAD to open your **** mouth!" roared a Sergeant
"Find some cover!" William tried to roar over the sound of the ship's compliment trying to find some scrap of safety in the hurtling behemoth. The ship continued to plunge down the mountainside like an overzealous skier.
A massive thump punctuated the chaos and the blast doors were ripped off exposing the self-generating shields that kept things out, but not in. The screams, yells, howls, and general pandemonium increased as their speed increased. The ship moaned as it swung left.
William grabbed a thick heavy bar of metal that had come loose from the wall in the initial explosion and held on as tightly as he could. He saw through the shields the sides of the mountain, grim, menacing, and ice-locked. He looked to the other side as the ship suddenly slid right. The ship was caught in between two grooves on the side of the mountain that hopefully led to the bottom somewhere.
A massive BANG! punctuated the pandemonium as a massive rock fell through the ceiling of the hangar and started rolling towards a group of soldiers.
"HOLY CRAP!" screamed a marine who had to be not more than twenty years old. He jumped as best he could and lunged out of the way as the boulder rolled toward him. It promptly crushed a row of hitherto before Banshees hanging from the ceiling mangling them even further.
"****!" screamed another Marine as the boulder suddenly rolled toward him.
He and several others rolled out of the way as the rock rolled past... and then back.
The scene is movie worthy. William thought bitterly.
"Oh come ON!" yelled the Sergeant as the rock rolled toward him.
"SCREW YOU STUPID ROCK!" shrieked the 20-year-old Marine angrily as he hit the deck again. The boulder went flying to the right as the ship bounced and it hit the shield doors with enough force to blow them out completely. Several Sangheili were suddenly sucked out.
The Carrier groaned menacingly as it swung around the side of the mountain in a high-g turn eliciting more curses and shouts. William turned and saw the Marine flying towards the shield bay doors and him. He left his cover and grabbed the Marine as he soared towards instant death and caught him.
"Stay down he ordered as he put him in his spot of cover. He saw out of the corner of his eye the ship was approaching a steep drop off where it suddenly leveled off.
"Look out! Drop-off straight ahead! Hold on to something!" Sarah warned over what was left of the PA system.
The ship slid faster and faster down the slope.
"Here we go!" called a Marine enthusiastically.
William saw the man's arm bent an odd angle, he must have been hallucinating.
"Are you mad?!" an Elite roared.
"Hey just because he don't like sliding doesn't mean we don't!" he retorted, words slurred to some invisible figure.
"YapYap no like flying!" a grunt screeched right next to him.
"Silence! We might all…" the Elite never finished as his ship suddenly left the ground as it ended suddenly and dropped off into a sheer cliff.
The distinct odor of bodily fluids filled the air as the ship gave a terrifying lurch downwards.
"Impact in twenty seconds!" Sarah said over what was left of the PA system.
The continual yells, roars, and howls, of terrified (and some crazily exhilarated) people and aliens, reached a crescendo as the ship began to approach terminal velocity and gravity became almost nonexistent.
"15 seconds to landing!"
William braced himself and locked his armor down and the world went white.
That's a wrap for this chapter!
So Will is stuck on an ice planet in the middle of nowhere and the Separatists have been introduced. Any ideas where that is? I also know that some of you have PM'd me asking for a chapter with Will's backstory. That's coming in a future chapter. As always please review. I'm also open to ideas for how to develop this as it progresses.
Yours in writing,
theotherpianist