Chapter 6: Svenson

Svenson didn't realise he was sleeping until he was woken up.

"Hey," said a muffled and far away voice, "anyone alive back there?"

He heard more voices. Words he couldn't understand, but in voices he only slightly recognised. No, I wasn't sleeping… I was knocked out…

"Svenson?" came a sharp voice, it was loud enough that it sounded like it was coming from inside his own head.

Svenson felt like he should jump, like he should be startled at the loud noise, but he wasn't. He didn't respond.

"Yo, Svenson? You alive?" the voice came again, quieter this time.

"Uh…" Svenson groaned in response, "yeah… I think…"

Svenson opened his eyes slowly, his vision was blurry but it was coming back to him. He looked towards where he heard the voice coming from and saw a brown face. Private Kamal… Should have recognised your voice… Private Kamal wasn't someone Svenson regularly interacted with, but he had an incredibly distinct voice. Smooth and sharp, and with a Texan accent. He had no idea what Texas was, but he was told that's what the accent was called.

Svenson turned away from Kamal and looked across from him at where Faraday was sitting. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving. Svenson tried to get up and reached for her, but the lifeboats restraints held him back. He groaned as they pushed into him, making his chest and shoulders hurt. His body already ached all over, and he was just making it worse.

"Allen…" Svenson said, using Private Kamal's first name, "is… Private Faraday still alive?"

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kamal get up and move over to Faraday. He didn't take his eyes off her. He didn't want his promise to her to be broken. Kamal took a hold of her shoulder and shook her a little, she still didn't respond.

"Allen," Svenson spoke again, "check her pulse. Dumbass."

Kamal glanced back at him for a moment to give him a shut up, I know what I'm doing look. Then he turned back to Faraday and touched her neck.

"She's alive," Kamal confirmed, "just probably not taking this very well. Hell a small gust of wind could probably knock her out."

Svenson wanted to tell Kamal to stop talking, but he knew he was right. Svenson gripped the bars holding him in his seat and pushed them up, freeing himself from the lifeboat's restraints. The doors at the back of the lifeboat clicked and started to slide open, but they got stuck.

"Aw hell, don't tell me the door is jammed!" Arceneaux said from the pilot's seat at the front of the lifeboat.

"It's a little open," Svenson said, looking through the small opening.

He could see green grass outside. No, that shouldn't be right. The thing they were heading towards was a giant ring floating in space. The only planet near it was a gas giant. There shouldn't have been grass outside.

"Allen, you see this shit?" he asked, not looking away.

Kamal got up next to him and joined in looking out through the doors. Svenson moved around to see what else was out there. Cliffs, trees, he swore he could even see little animals running around. This has got to be a dream or something. There was something else out there he couldn't quite make out. It looked like part of a massive grey metal tower. No longer was he caught up on escaping. Now he wanted to get out of the lifeboat just to see what was out there.

Arceneaux turned the pilot chair around and stood up, approaching the two Marines as they stared outside.

"Yeah, yeah, it's real pretty," Arceneaux said sarcastically. He had already been given quite a good view of the outside world through the windows at the front of the lifeboat. "Think you guys could get this door open?"

"Let's give it a try," Kamal said, grabbing the left side of the sliding door.

Svenson grabbed the right side and started to pull. He didn't have much strength, but he was using everything he had to pull that door open. After an entire minute of sheer effort, the door wasn't budging.

"We could use an extra set of hands," Svenson said, out of breath.

"There's barely enough room, but, whatever," Arceneaux said. He stood next to Svenson and grabbed the door.

Private Wade got up from his seat and joined Kamal at his side. Once the other three had taken hold of the door, Svenson joined in.

"Three…" Arceneaux started counting down, "two… One… Pull!"

All four of the Marines pulled the door apart with all of their might. The sound of metal grinding against metal filled the entire lifeboat until they made an opening big enough to let one person through at a time.

Before anyone went through, Arceneaux stepped in front of the door. Svenson grew frustrated, and he was tired enough that it probably showed. All he wanted to do was get outside and find out where the hell they were.

"Last call!" Arceneaux shouted, "who here is awake? I need to know if I gotta carry you or not."

Slowly, one by one the Marines called out. Stevens confirmed, followed by Hanoi and Jilani. Svenson, Kamal, and Wade were already up and running. The only voice that he didn't hear was Faraday's. She was still out cold.

"Alright, come on out," Arceneaux said before stepping outside.

Svenson quickly followed Arceneaux out, with Kamal behind him. He stepped foot onto the soft grass outside the lifeboat. It was like nothing else had walked here in a very long time. At least nothing big enough to make an impact. He turned to look around at everything on the horizon, and there he saw it.

The rest of the ring stretched up into the sky in front of him, all the way until it looped around and he could then see it behind him. They were on the ring, on its inner surface. Seeing it on the horizon was beautiful. Svenson looked around at the other Marines, they were all as awestruck as he was.

Suddenly the entire situation of being chased by aliens wanting to kill them had been forgotten. The realisation of that hurt. Svenson knew the Covenant would be hot on their tails soon, he wouldn't be able to enjoy this moment.

"Alright!" Arceneaux called out to the Marines around him, "since Faraday has failed to wake up yet, we gotta decide who's carrying here. It ain't gonna be me."

"Not it," said Kamal.

Every other member of their squad then said 'not it' at pretty much the same time. Svenson didn't say anything. If anyone was going to watch over Faraday, it was going to be him.

"Well, looks like someone's in love," Arceneaux said, staring straight at Svenson.

Svenson didn't say anything back. It was useless to argue about it, since the Marines were going to tease him about it no matter what.

"Great," Arceneaux clasped his hands, "I'm gonna start figuring out where the hell to go from here. I doubt this place has satellites, so comms are off the table for now."

While Arceneaux spoke to the rest of the team, Svenson went inside the lifeboat. There was Faraday, in the exact same position they left her.

I hope you're as light as you look, Svenson thought as he reached out and removed her restraints. He gently took her into his arms and pulled her out of the lifeboat.

"We ready to get goin'?" Arceneaux asked.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Svenson responded.

The half of Fireteam Delta that Arceneaux was leading had been walking for at least an hour. Nobody knew where they were going, the terrain they traversed was completely unfamiliar. Every now and then, Svenson would glance at the sky and look at the other side of the ring, but he couldn't look for long as he needed to keep his eyes on where he was going.

"Where are we even going?" Private Wade asked after another ten minutes of walking. Svenson had started keeping track of time.

"Over…" Arceneaux scanned the horizon, pointing his finger as he looked, "there."

Arceneaux's finger landed on a grey tower, half hidden behind the face of a cliff. Svenson recognized it as the tower he'd seen outside the lifeboat when they first landed. That, or it was a completely identical tower somewhere else.

"We need to find a place to hole up. That looks like it'll do it," Arceneaux explained, "we stay there, see if this place has comms, and hold off any Covenant we come across until someone can pick us up."

"Sounds solid to me," Kamal said.

"It's as solid as it's gonna get."

The team manoeuvred around giant cliffs, and through countless trees. The trees reminded Svenson of pine trees he'd seen in footage of Earth, he hadn't seen any back at home, he'd lived in a city for most of his life before joining the Marines, and since then it had been aboard one space ship after another.

Everyone seemed to stop very suddenly, breaking Svenson out of whatever memories these familiar yet unfamiliar trees were bringing to him. He realised Arceneaux had his fist up, and the other members of the team were crouched. Svenson did the same, making sure he didn't drop Faraday.

A distant humming was soon heard in Svenson's ears, the sound of a Covenant dropship. He stared up at the sky, waiting to see it pass overhead. The backward two-pronged shape of a Spirit appeared over the cliff the Marines were moving around, and it very steadily flew through the sky. The stillness of the ship made it seem as if the world was moving around it rather than it moving around in the world.

Not a world, a ring, Svenson told himself.

"Looks like the Covenant are already here," Arceneaux whispered, "we may be running into hostiles pretty soon here."

"We'll take care of them if we do," Kamal said. The Marine grabbed his assault rifle from his back, and so did the others. Svenson couldn't since he had to carry Faraday.

After they were sure the Spirit wouldn't be able to see them, the Marines got up and continued on their trek.

Eventually the Marines found an opening in the cliffside, a linear path that led to a massive enclosed space beyond. Svenson could just see the edge of the tower they were moving towards past the rocks.

"Well boys, there it is," Arceneaux said as the Marines took cover again. Arceneaux motioned for the team to stay still while he moved ahead.

Nobody made any noise. Not even the crunching of grass under Arceneaux's feet was noticeable. The Corporal eventually stopped and gestured towards the Marines to let them know that it was safe to move.

"Let's get into that structure before that Spirit comes back," Arceneaux said.

Svenson swallowed a knot in his throat that he didn't know was there. The Spirit would be back, along with a whole Covenant army. And chances were there would be nobody to save them.