Chapter 12 – Earth City
1541 hours, October 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Kilindini Park Cultural Center, New Mombasa, Kenya, Planet Earth, Sol system
The sound of a hard-fought conflict met the Master Chief's ears as he led the surviving Marines through the sewage tunnel towards the exit into New Mombasa's Kilindini Park Cultural Center. The distinctive rattle of UNSC weaponry rang through the tunnel, interspersed with the whine of Covenant plasma fire. John beckoned the Marines to stay low as he moved up towards the circular exit, beyond which the warm yellowish hues of the mid-afternoon sun was visible. He wanted to be the first out of the tunnel, so that if there were threats waiting outside, he could take the brunt of their attacks, protecting the Marines.
John emerged from the tunnel and took in the situation at a glance. The park was a large, segmented enclosure with a large amphitheater dome that cast heavy shadows across much of the area, including a series of walkways and circular platforms in the center of the park, upon which an assortment of Covenant troops lurked within a collection of their smooth, purple-shelled cargo crates, all of whom were firing at an unseen opponent below their position.
Towering over the park was the Scarab that John had been pursuing from the bridge. The behemoth's ponderous footfalls were audible over the sound of battle as it stomped its way over the dividing wall separating the immediate area of the park from an adjoining section. John strongly believed the platform was trying to find a suitable area with direct line of sight on the city's towering space elevator. He knew from experience that such structures were common targets of Covenant attacks when the aliens invaded human planets.
Directly ahead of the Spartan was a Jackal sniper who had its back turned to him as targeted a group of Marines and ODSTs who were taking cover on the other side of the park while taking heavy fire from the local Covenant forces. Next to the Jackal were several fallen UNSC Army troopers, reminding John that the park had been used as an evacuation point for civilians before being wiped out by the Covenant.
John sent a narrow-beam transmission to the UNSC troops. "Marine forces, this is Sierra-One-One-Seven. Friendly forces on station and ready to assist. Acknowledge."
John recognized the heavy South American drawl that replied. "Master Chief? This is Gunnery Sergeant Stacker. Good to hear from you again, Spartan!"
"Roger," John replied curtly. "We're going to draw the enemy's fire. Standby to assist."
John quickly scanned the area and decided his move. He darted out of the tunnel, crossing the ten-meter distance between himself and the Jackal sniper with lightning speed, so quickly the alien's exceptional hearing did not save it as the Spartan slammed into the Jackal with such force that the lithe creature's spine was instantly pulverized by the unyielding strength of the MJOLNIR's shoulder pauldron. The Jackal's broken corpse flew off the ledge it was standing on and crumpled to the ground several meters below.
John quickly raised his beam rifle and sighted the opposite platforms, his armor's internal systems compensating for the weapon's unusual alien scope, and he quickly picked out the most significant threats, a pair of plasma cannons that were keeping the Marines suppressed. He squeezed a small area on the rifle's awkward grip twice, and two thin beams of ionized particle beams flashed across the park, striking both Grunt gunners in their methane tanks, causing them to explode in blossoms of flame.
His next targets were the other Covenant snipers as the threat they posed to the Marines was incredibly high, not to mention they were the only ones able to retaliate from such a distance. He swiftly dropped the first two Jackal snipers as well as a third who had just turned to register the unexpected attack. The three rapid-fire shots caused the weapon to overheat in John's hands, and he held the rifle away as white-hot energy spilled out of its elongated barrel. John moved to the side as a pink streak of light flashed past his visor as he swiftly targeted the fourth and final sniper. He fired his now-cooled weapon and killed the Jackal with a round through its toothy beak.
With the most dangerous targets out of commission, he switched his attention to the rest of the Covenant in the area. There were still plenty of them running around so he set to work on thinning out their numbers, starting with the highest-ranking Elites before turning his attention to the Jackals and Grunts.
As their numbers began to dwindle, the remaining Covenant turned their attention from Stacker's team and towards the Spartan's position. John ordered the Marines to move out to the left to engage the enemy while he dropped his depleted beam rifle and opted to attack the Covenant from a different angle. He turned and leapt off the grassy ridge to the well-worn dirt track below.
He landed, drew his battle rifle, and drilled a three-round burst through the head of an inquisitive Grunt that peered out from behind an overturned Covenant supply case. The familiar roar of a Warthog's engine met his ears and a moment later the large, four-wheeled transport appeared, grinding to a halt before the Spartan. John instantly recognized the tanned and weathered face of the vehicle's driver.
"Could use you on the gun, Chief," Stacker said, flashing a small grin at the Master Chief. Without hesitation, John pulled himself onto the back of the Warthog, taking position behind its rear mounted weapon. Unlike the usual Warthogs with their triple-barreled rotary machine guns, this Warthog was equipped with the significantly heavier M68B Gauss cannon. Designed to punch through enemy armor with its an asynchronous linear-induction motor system, the Gauss cannon was for all intents and purposes a miniaturized MAC gun and was an incredibly potent weapon in the hands of a skilled operator.
As John took his place on the cannon, Stacker stomped on the Warthog's accelerator and the vehicle shot forward. Instead of targeting the remaining infantry on the platforms above, John turned his attention to the Ghosts that had just arrived from an opened portion of the park's dividing wall. He lined the first of the alien hovercraft up and pulled the trigger. With a bone-rattling crack, the Gauss cannon fired, propelling a ferric-tungsten slug at a speed of almost Mach 40. The targeted Ghost was struck in the center of its purple cowling, the projectile punching straight through the vehicle's armored plates, internal mechanisms and pilot and the whole craft was consumed in a fiery blue explosion before the unfortunate Elite at its helm knew it had been hit.
"Hell yeah!" Stacker whooped as he swerved the Warthog around the charred remnants of the destroyed Ghost. Bolts of plasma whizzed by as the remaining Ghost moved to pursue the Warthog. Even as several bolts managed to burn deep pits into the ride of the LRV, John had the Ghost in his sights and his second shot vanquished the small Covenant vehicle almost as quickly as he had done to its partner.
Stacker maneuvered the Warthog around the circular park while John proceeded to target the remaining Covenant troops on the platforms. With the Gauss cannon's intended use case being armored vehicles, it was often considered overkill against infantry; each enemy hit by a Gauss slug was blown into small chunks, even the energy-shielded Elites.
After only two loops of the park, the final Covenant soldier fell and the park at last fell silent. John ordered the Marine fireteams around the park to perform a sweep to see if any of the fallen civilians or Army troopers in the area were still alive, and to make sure all the aliens were dead while Stacker drove him forward into the adjoining section of the center. The first thing the Spartan spotted was the single Wraith guarding the tunnel leading out of the park. While there was several more Ghosts and another group of ground troops in the vicinity, John knew that the mortar tank was the real threat.
"Sallow," John barked into the COM. "We have a Wraith tank at our position. We're going to draw its fire. Try and hit it from behind with a rocket while its distracted."
"Roger, Chief," Private Sallow acknowledged.
While the Wraith was undoubtedly the most potent opponent, John knew that as long as Stacker drove effectively, they would be able to dodge its plasma mortar while John focused his attention on the outlying threats.
With that, Stacker drove the Warthog up onto the raised grassy area on the right side of the park, hugging the tall perimeter wall as he went, and John proceeded to fire on the nearby Ghosts. Within moments, plasma cannon fire began to spray through the air as the Ghosts targeted the human LRV. The Gauss cannon boomed, and each Ghost was reduced to shards of broken alien alloy and dismembered Elite.
As Stacker threw the Warthog into a handbrake turn, John continued to fire into the shadowy figures hidden in the darkened tunnel and was soon rewarded with splashes of purple blood and chunks of viscera from the unfortunate Jackals and Elite that had been lurking there.
The Wraith spun around, and the two automatic plasma cannons mounted on its chassis opened fire. Several shots managed to burn holes in the Warthog's armor plating before the Wraith, unable to fire its primary weapon as they were within its dead area, surged forward, energy streaming out of the small fins on the ends of its two large 'wings' as it attempted to crush the smaller vehicle.
Stacker nimbly weaved out of its way, and the enormous tank sailed past. As he shot away, a rocket shot across the park and struck the Wraith in its vulnerable exhaust port on its back, easily breaking the comparatively fragile circular plate protecting the core. The Wraith erupted in a massive bluish explosion as its stored plasma reserves detonated, tearing the vehicle apart from within and throwing thousands of small pieces of metal through the air.
Kilindini Park Cultural Center now belonged to the UNSC.
Unfortunately, the other Marines had confirmed that there were no surviving civilians or troopers in the park; all had been mercilessly burned down by the Covenant, including several that looked to have been killed execution-style, something that always made John's blood boil. To counterbalance this somber realization, the Marines had discovered a damaged, but still operational M831 Troop Transport Warthog, allowing them to more easily travel with Stacker's vehicle.
John ordered the Marines to form up, and as they moved towards the arched tunnel that would take them into the New Mombasa industrial zone, John glanced upwards, knowing that while he couldn't see the assault carrier at present due to the towering skyscrapers belonging to Hannibal Weapons Systems, he knew that the vessel was still there, looming over the city like a symbol of the end times. And somewhere on board, a Covenant High Prophet.
He needed to get on board that ship. Nothing else mattered.
Jiralhanae Chieftain Bracktanus gripped his gravity hammer in both paws as his Phantom exited from the Solemn Penance and dropped towards the human city below. Flying alongside the dropship was several others, each one ferrying down a fresh wave of reinforcements to the battlefield. The mighty warrior was clad from head to toe in extraordinary durable and ornate black and crimson power armor, and atop his head was a matching headdress, its large crest and flanking plates that jutted out viciously in homage to the enormous predatory degaeorth native to the Jiralhanae homeworld, Doisac. Standing in the center of the bay, Bracktanus was a giant, even among those who shared his space.
Almost every inch of the deployment bay was occupied by Jiralhanae. Bracktanus' pack. Each member battle-tested and hungry for battle. Bladed spike rifles dangled from belts next to club-like barbed grenades, hooked breach pistols sat ready on armored chest-plates and enormous death lobbers were slung over the shoulders of the pack's armored captains.
While each member of Bracktanus' war pack was uniquely disciplined warriors and ordinarily able to keep their emotions in check, the unmistakable musk of anticipation hung heavy in the cramped troop bay. Bracktanus understood the reason for such an uncharacteristic display. This was to be a mission unlike any his pack had been on before.
While the orders from the Prophet of Regret were ostensibly to hunt down the elusive portal artifact hidden within the city, the pack's true mission entailed this and more. Bracktanus had been identified as one of several Jiralhanae chieftains that the Prophet of Truth had come to rely on as an agent of his will.
And so it was, while waiting for deployment on board the carrier, he had received a personal transmission from Truth, which had been encrypted with the highest level of secrecy. He was to deploy groundside and wrest control of the battle from the Sangheili. The Hierarch had at last decided that the Covenant was to be rid of the arrogant species that had lorded over his people for far too long.
Bracktanus knew that the Prophet of Regret was a Sangheili sympathizer, and he was also privy to the fact that Truth both knew this and had his own machinations in place to "remove" Regret when the moment was right. And so, while Regret correctly believed that the Jiralhanae's unique ability to locate hidden prey was ideal for the mission on which he had been sent, he remained unaware of Bracktanus', and by extension, his fellow Hierarch's true intentions.
The Jiralhanae had the element of surprise; the Sangheili were completely unaware of the Prophet of Truths motives, and he had carefully placed his most loyal Jiralhanae in positions to easily and decisively overthrow their Sangheili 'masters'. The first step was to remove the Sangheili on the surface of the human world, along with those within Regret's fleet.
As testament to the Prophet of Truth's intellect and cunning, there were Jiralhanae agents planted on each ship within the Fleet of Sacred Consecration. And although they had sustained tremendous losses from the human orbital defenses, the remaining ships that had survived still contained enough loyal Jiralhanae to ensure the takeover was successful.
A vicious grin made its way onto Bracktanus' face as he relished the thoughts of Sangheili bones shattering under the force of his war hammer's gravitic impellers. and he wondered which of the so-called "Elites" would be the first to meet his end at Bracktanus' hands.
The two Warthogs roared out of the tunnel and onto a large open street within Sector B in the heart of the New Mombasa industrial zone. Tall palm trees lined both sides of the road, casting long shadows on the nearby buildings in the yellow afternoon sun. As with much of the city, the area had sustained some damage during the Covenant attack, with broken windows and blackened holes present in many of the large complexes within the zone. Across many of the buildings, large signs flashed red in a state of high alert, warning the city's residents to evacuate.
Abandoned vehicles were present on the streets, although there was far less here than John had seen on the suspension bridge and in the underpass. More important were the pair of Ghosts skimming their way down from an adjacent street. John's Gauss cannon fired twice in rapid succession, and both enemy craft were destroyed in moments.
As they moved up the street in the direction the Ghosts had appeared from, John began to hear the unmistakable sound of Wraith plasma mortar fire. Stacker drove the Warthog up and took a left turn onto another street that terminated at a large Lethbridge Industrial building. This complex seemed to be the primary target of the Covenant forces in the area, and at present, a pair of Wraith tanks were unloading their ordnance into the building. So far, the building had remained largely undamaged, but the constant shelling was beginning to break through the reinforced structure.
More Covenant ground troops were scattered across the area; and atop the pedestrian walkways stretching over the street, John could see several Jackal snipers scanning the upper levels of the besieged building, no doubt watching for any attempts at resistance.
Cortana's voice spoke into John's COM. "There are a number of Marines trapped in that building, Chief. Concentrate on the Wraiths, they're the biggest threat."
"Affirmative", John acknowledged, agreeing with her assessment. As Stacker drove towards the enemy forces, John opened communication with the entrenched Marines.
"Sierra One-One-Seven to Kilo Company, we are approaching your position. We're going to draw the enemy's fire. Can you provide support?"
"Spartan? This is Staff Sergeant Banks." There was a note of surprise in the man's voice, which was all-too familiar to John when regular UNSC personnel encountered Spartans on the field. "We read you and are standing by."
John's first Gauss slug impacted the rear panel of the nearest Wraith, easily destroying its exhaust port and causing the tank to detonate violently before it was even aware of the threat on its six. Stacker cheered as he weaved between a pair of abandoned cars and sped beneath the pedestrian walkway before the Jackal snipers above could target them.
Stacker threw the Warthog into a sharp handbrake turn, smashing into a group of three Grunts taking cover there. There was a crunch of bone and splashes of luminescent blue blood as the three-ton vehicle pulped the small aliens.
By now, the second Wraith had noticed their arrival and swiveled to track the Warthog. Worse, a third Wraith entered the plaza from an adjoining side street. Stacker floored the LRV's accelerator, and the vehicle shot out from beneath the pedway as an enormous globe of blue plasma smashed into the asphalt where they had been only moments ago.
In response, John fired the Gauss cannon into the center of the closest Wraith's large, bulbous carapace, the sheer velocity of the slug punching a deep hole through the ultra-dense Covenant armor. As Stacker weaved the Warthog around the Wraith, John sent two more rounds into the tank. The third cannon blast punched into the vehicle's cockpit, obliterating both the pilot and the Wraith's crucial systems, causing it to blow apart in gouts of blue flame.
The third Wraith was still in the process of tracking the Spartan's vehicle when it was struck by a pair of rockets fired from Private Sallow, seated in the passenger seat of the Troop Transport 'Hog, causing it to explode in a similar manner as its fellow mortar tanks. John knew that the Marine had just expended his final two rockets and hoped that the Marine HQ in the nearby building had enough ammo for resupply.
The unmistakable hum of a Phantom's engine heralded the dropship's arrival as the large magenta-colored troop carrier soared in from above the Lethbridge Industrial complex, casting an ominous dark shadow over the street as it descended, a pair of Ghosts anchored on its underside. Its three belly-mounted plasma cannons opened fire on the two roving Warthogs, streams of red plasma fire burning deep holes into everything they struck.
By now, several Marines had made their way onto a balcony overlooking the area, and they opened fire with an M247 machine gun. Bullets bounced and ricocheted from the Phantom's hull, and although they were unable to seriously damage the dropship, they managed to attract the attention of its automatic cannons, allowing the two Warthog's to engage the Phantom's cargo with impunity. The first Ghost was obliterated before it had even touched the ground; as it detached from the Phantom's belly, a Gauss slug punched through its exposed fuel cell, incinerating the vehicle and rider in a lethal conflagration. The second Ghost was subjected to the combined fire of a half-dozen human rifles and the machine gun, and within moments, the lifeless body of its Elite pilot fell out of the craft, bloody and mangled by the vicious assault.
During the attack, a pair of UNSC Pelicans had arrived, and their chin-mounted machine guns made quick work of the two Jackal snipers on the pedway, as well as the few remaining Covenant infantry units on the street. Now heavily outgunned, the Phantom quickly ascended and flew away in the direction it had come from.
Once the area finally fell silent, the first dropship parked over the pedway, and a fireteam of additional Marines filed out, one carrying yet another GPMG over his shoulder before the second Pelican dropped a Scorpion tank to the ground, the heavy vehicle slamming to the earth with a loud clang.
"There's a Marine Command Post in that building." Cortana said. "We need to help them deal with that Scarab."
With the immediate area now secure, John took the time to connect his armor's COM to the F-99 Wombat unmanned drones that were present in the city's airspace, allowing him an aerial view of the surrounding districts. He saw that the Scarab he had pursued from Old Mombasa was still active, stomping its way through the nearby streets. John noted that the Scarab's trajectory meant that it would be arriving at their current location within the next ten minutes, and that gave him precious little time to plan a way to neutralize the behemoth before it either wiped the humans out, or simply walked right over their heads.
He hoped that if they could funnel the Scarab into the nearby canal, they could trap it there and destroy it.
Stacker ground the Warthog to a halt in front of the Command Post, the blast doors having now being opened by the building's occupants. John climbed down from the Gauss cannon and made his way into the lobby, stopping briefly to retrieve the dog tags from a pair of charred human corpses near the entrance.
A Marine stood guard near the entrance, cradling a battle rifle in his arms. The man's face showed clear signs of fatigue, but his eyes still widened as he took in the sight of the seven-foot tall, armored Spartan before him.
"Sir, Corporal Perez, Kilo Company," the Marine introduced himself. Perez glanced behind over his shoulder, and John followed his gaze, and saw a line of wounded Marines laid out on makeshift stretchers as several Corpsmen tended to them. On the other side of the lobby, several body bags lay, with the shrouded remains of several dead Marines within.
"The lieutenant got hit as soon as we dropped in." Perez said.
"Who's in charge now, Corporal?" asked Cortana.
"Uh, Sergeant Banks, ma'am." Perez replied, caught off-guard by the AI's voice coming from the Spartan. "He's up top. Come on, I'll show you.
As John made to follow the Corporal out of the lobby, his eyes lingered for a moment on one of the wounded Marines. She had a bloody bandage wrapped around her right shoulder, but she was sitting upright on her cot, and was staring at a small, old-fashioned photograph that she held in her left hand. John's HUD identified her as Lieutenant Jane Parisa, the commanding officer of Kilo Company.
The woman looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, and she had raven-colored hair and bright blue eyes. The expression on her face seemed to be one of contemplation, with perhaps an element of sadness or remorse present as well. John paused: the woman's name seemed strangely familiar to him, yet distant at the same time. And her facial features similarly stirred a feeling within the Spartan that he was wholly unaccustomed to.
But it was when his eyes registered the contents of the photograph, he felt his heart stop. Two small figures, a boy and a girl, stood holding hands next to a lake. Even now, over three decades later, John recognized the boy as himself at the age of six years old, with a freckled face, tousled reddish-brown hair and a small gap between his front teeth visible as his mouth was open, the photograph having been snapped mid-bout of laughter. The girl beside him had the same raven-colored hair and glistening blue eyes as the woman who now sat across the room.
John's mind flashed back to that day. The two had been laughing hysterically at John's father's antics while Parisa's father was trying to take their picture. John remembered the happiness he had felt on that day. He had been young, carefree… living each day to its fullest, neither knowing or caring what the following days would entail.
But then, two weeks later, he met Doctor Catherine Halsey. She had tested him, had flipped an antique coin. He had won the game and had been allowed to keep the coin. And then, a little over a month later, he had been abducted and brought to Reach along with seventy-four other children. And from there, he and his fellow "recruits" had been forged into Spartan supersoldiers.
He was struck numb by the intensity of the memories that flooded his mind. He now recalled the lake in the photo as Lake Gusev, one of many such natural beauties that had existed on his homeworld of Eridanus II, which had long since been attacked by the Covenant.
He remembered not only Parisa, but Ellie and Katrina. He remembered how they had competed against one another in rudimentary obstacle courses they had constructed out of junk in an abandoned lot in their neighborhood. He remembered evenings that he and Ellie would lay on the ground outside and stare up into the night sky. He remembered one evening, lying within the thick green grass with Ellie as a gentle wind blew around them, asking her if she wondered about the existence of aliens. She had asked him if he thought they would ever meet them. And he remembered his answer.
I hope so, don't you.
As the memories flashed by in his mind, the Lieutenant noticed John staring at the photo, and she flushed bright red and tucked the photo away in one of the pouches on her combat vest.
"Chief… sorry… I shouldn't have brought this with me." Parisa mumbled, before collecting herself. She opened a private COM channel to the Spartan.
"It's just… It's sorta like a charm. He saved my life once – I walked a bit too far into the lake. Right after he promised to marry me and keep me safe – goofy childhood promises right?" she said sadly.
"Well, I'm holding him to it. I carry it and it's like he's still watching out for me. Anyway, he passed away not long after the picture was taken. Sorry I'm babbling."
Blood roared in John's ears and his mind raced as he processed the revelations he had been confronted with. He had never thought he would see Jane Parisa again. Just like Ellie and Katrina. Distant, long-lost memories. Memories he had not allowed himself to recall in over thirty years. He had never even considered who Parisa, or Ellie, or Katrina would become as women.
…he passed away…
Parisa, all of his other childhood friends… his family. His mother and father. They had all thought him dead after his abduction. They had all continued to lead their lives without him. They had mourned his death and moved on. Just as he had. Only his life had taken a completely different trajectory. Under Doctor Halsey and Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, he had been forged into what he was today. After so many years of training, followed by augmentation and then decades of combat against the Covenant, even the concept of mother and father were almost as alien to him as the very foes which he now fought against.
And now, after so long, all these repressed memories had flooded back into his mind. Here was one of his closest childhood friends, a girl whom he had made a silly childhood promise to marry and protect… it was almost too much to bear, even for the disciplined and battle-hardened Master Chief. He even felt a brief, but intense stab of bitterness towards Doctor Halsey for snatching away his previous life when she had come to meet him on that fateful day in 2517.
Even as his mind toyed with the idea of revealing who he was to Parisa, the more rational part of his brain kicked in. He could never do it. He had no business robbing Parisa of her memories, of reopening old wounds. It was useless to renew a relationship that would not ever, realistically, be able to maintain.
Worse, if the information ended up circulating, it could turn the civilian populace against the UNSC and the Office of Naval Intelligence. If the masses learned that their government had abducted and carried out illegal procedures on children… it would cause a full-scale uprising.
John finally managed to utter a response, "Lieutenant Parisa…"
She smiled at him, which triggered another deep ache within his body as he had seen the same smile countless times on the young Parisa's face. "It's good to see you, anyway, Master Chief. I took a carbine round not long after our boots touched the ground. But it's ok. Reynard's a good Doc," she chuckled, nodding to the nearby Corpsman.
Instead of dwelling on the past, John forced the memories deep down into his subconscious. Carefully modulating his voice, John proceeded to inform Parisa about the encroaching danger of the Scarab. Despite the grave threat the assault platform posed, the Lieutenant seemed optimistic that they would be able to funnel the Scarab into the canals behind the Lethbridge Industrial building. She informed John that the canals had been drained as a result of damage to the city's seawall and as a result, if the Scarab was to maneuver through them, it would find itself trapped, allowing John the opportunity to board and destroy the walker.
"It's a good plan, Chief," Cortana remarked in his suit's COM. "Its our best shot if we want to get a clear shot at the carrier."
"Acknowledged," John replied. Inwardly, his mind still grappled with the revelation of meeting the long-lost Jane Parisa. Seeing her wounded ate at him, and he loathed the idea of endangering her further when the Scarab arrived. But she had assured him that she was in no condition to fight with her injury, and as such, she directed him upstairs, where Kilo Company's acting CO, Staff Sergeant Ethan Banks, was waiting.
With that, John cast one last look at Lieutenant Parisa, that long-since separated friendship that he had once held so closely and wondered if he would ever see her again, before leaving the lobby.
John made his way up several sets of winding staircases, following Corporal Perez. On the various landings, groups of well-armed Marines waited, shotguns and GPMGs positioned with sightlines allowing them to easily eliminate anything hostile that made its way into the building. The Marines who had arrived with the Spartan took the opportunity to restock their ammunition from the plentiful munitions that Kilo Company had managed to salvage during their insertion into the city.
At the top of the final staircase, John followed Perez through a pair of automatic double doors and out onto the complex's exterior balcony. A Marine gunner had an M247 machine gun mounted against the balcony's concrete railing, aiming down onto the streets below, which were now heavily damaged and littered with destroyed vehicles and both human and alien corpses. Marine reinforcements had fortified the overpass and the Scorpion tank was now parked in the center of these defenses; its main cannon aimed down the street in preparation to fend off any would-be attackers.
Also present on the balcony was Staff Sergeant Banks, and he turned to face the Master Chief. Banks had no helmet or cap, and his curly black hair was cropped short. His dark skin was faintly lined, and he was clean shaven. On his back was a standard issue UNSC rucksack, and he carried a battle rifle in his hands.
"When I asked for reinforcements," Banks began. "I didn't think they'd send a Spartan."
Before John could reply, the unmistakable heavy mechanical footfalls of the Scarab platform greeted his ears. A moment later, one pointed leg came into view from around the corner of the building at the end of the street, followed immediately by another, and a moment later, the enormous walker rounded the building and faced the Marine HQ, looking like a supersized, chrome-purple arachnid.
"We got trouble!" Banks shouted as the Scorpion tank below began to open fire on the Scarab. 90mm tungsten projectiles detonated harmlessly on the Scarab's body, failing to even scratch the enormously thick armor plating. In response, the Scarab began to charge its primary focus cannon; the metals on its frontal surface unfurling like a blossoming flower to reveal a central disk which glowed with blue-green energy.
The driver of the Scorpion realized the peril he was in but before he could throw the tank into reverse, the Scarb unleashed a hellish torrent of green plasma. The huge beam of superheated plasma struck the Scorpion tank, instantly destroying it in a violent explosion that was almost completely consumed by the green beam of plasma.
After only several seconds of concentrated fire, nothing remained of the Scorpion tank but a few blackened shards of ceramic-titanium armor plating scattered around the deep, blackened hole that had been bored into the asphalt where the tank had once stood.
With the Scorpion destroyed, the Scarab proceeded to march forward down the street towards the Lethbridge Industrial facility, effortlessly smashing through the pedestrian walkways stretching over the street and causing even more destruction.
"See this look? It's terror!" cried the Marine operating the nearby GPMG as he peppered the front of the Scarab to no avail.
"Marine, did I give you permission to bitch?" Staff Sergeant Banks barked over the gunfire.
Despite the inconsequential rounds that shattered against the Scarab's carapace, the massive walker showed no sign of slowing down or stopping and it continued to march towards their position.
"I don't think it's stopping; get your heads down!" Banks shouted, having reached the same conclusion as John. In unison, the Marines on the balcony threw themselves low, covering their heads as the Scarab reached their position. Instead of simply crashing straight through the structure, the Scarab lifted it's two front legs and pulled itself up onto the building like a massive spider, knocking over a large antenna as it went.
"That thing is really starting to piss me off!" Banks yelled over the loud clattering of the Scarab's legs.
John braced himself and watched as the enormous Covenant walker scaled the building, the pale bluish-white lights on its underside briefly flashing over him. The Scarab continued onward around the various human office buildings and into the canal system behind them.
"Marines, time to kill us a Scarab!" Banks shouted as the Marines picked themselves up. John agreed with the Staff Sergeant; this Scarab had tormented the city of New Mombasa for too long now, and it needed to be taken down now to ensure that the UNSC had a clean shot at the Covenant assault carrier.
"It's over here, sir!" Corporal Perez reported through the COM. The Marine waved the Master Chief over from a nearby unlocked door that led through another industrial facility that would ultimately bring them out at the canals.
John made his way into the adjacent building with Banks and his Marines in tow, following Perez up several more flights of stairs. The Scarab was visible through the large shattered windows in one of the rooms the group passed through.
Finally, John emerged onto the first of several crisscrossing walkways above the canal system. The first thing that John noticed was that the water in the canal had been drained to such an extent that there was a fifty-meter distance between the surface of the walkway and the water below.
It was clear to John that the Marines had used the walkways as storage for additional munitions, and there was certainly no shortage of weaponry and ammunition. John spotted a pair of SRS99-AM sniper rifles leaning against one of the thin supporting bracers on the catwalk ahead of his position and he quickly made his way to them as the Scarab lumbered into the canal, the water not even reaching the top of the lowest segment of the walker's articulated legs.
John grabbed the closest sniper rifle, checked to ensure that it was loaded, and snatched up several magazines for the weapon from atop a nearby crate. It was at this moment that Covenant troops began to pour out from a ramp leading deeper into the body of the Scarab, perhaps sensing their vulnerability to attacks from the surrounding walkways.
As plasma fire poured in their direction, Staff Sergeant Banks and his Marines, who had all taken positions along the catwalks at various points, answered in kind and the air was soon filled with crisscrossing patterns of plasma bolts, needler shards, and bursts of assault and battle rifle fire. Despite this, the Scarab continued to march onwards down the canal, paying no attention to its human foes.
John methodically fired his sniper rifle at the alien forces running hither and yon across the surface of the Scarab. The movement of the walker made it slightly more challenging to hit the comparatively small figures atop it, but John was an experienced sniper, and he soon found himself with a kill count of three Elites, two Jackals, including one wielding a beam rifle of its own, and two Grunts which had been unfortunate enough to have been standing behind the more threatening Elites and Jackals, and had fallen victim to the 14.5x114mm round's extreme over-penetration.
As the human forces continued to whittle down the Covenant infantry, the Scarab rounded the bend in the canal but as it marched forward, it soon found itself stopped by the enormous sluice gates at the end of the canal, beyond which the base of the Mombasa Tether was visible across the large water inlet of Kilindini Harbour.
"It can't go any further this way. We have it trapped." Cortana announced.
As the Scarab paused at the end of the canal, a Pelican dropship swooped in low from over the harbor and unleashed a barrage of ANVIL-II missiles from the rocket pods mounted underneath each of its wings before leaving to not present itself as a target for the Scarab's anti-aircraft plasma repeaters. The missiles flashed through the air, long plumes of gray propellent in their wake before they detonated against the front of the Scarab.
As with most UNSC munitions, the missiles did very little to affect the Scarab; indeed, they barely left a scratch. But their objective wasn't to destroy the behemoth, it was instead to divert its attention from the base of the tether, which was now at risk of being targeted by the Scarab's focus cannon.
Confident that the Scarab couldn't go anywhere, and with all the Covenant on its deck eliminated, John decided that his best course of action was to destroy the walker from within. He told Staff Sergeant Banks and his Marines to watch his back, dropped the sniper rifle and unslung his shotgun. John leapt off the catwalk, crossing the five-meter distance to the Scarab easily.
Landing on the Scarab, John rolled to his feet and bolted for the open doorway that led to the Scarab's interior, pausing only to strip a satchel of plasma grenades from a dead Grunt. He thundered down the ramp, shotgun in hand and spun around the corner. He found himself inside the oval-shaped control center of the walker. Most of the amethyst-colored walls were covered with flashing holographic displays showing various readouts and diagnostics.
A pair of Grunts in pearl-white armor noticed the Spartan's arrival and barked a warning, a split second before the first was silenced by a blast from the armored soldier's shotgun. He racked the pump and fired again, taking out the second Grunt even as a roar met his ears from the other end of the room. An energy sword flared to life in the hand of the commanding Elite Ultra, and the alien bolted at the Spartan. Behind the Ultra, a further two Elites in red armor turned from the control panels they had been operating at and readied plasma rifles.
John stepped back, firing his shotgun at the charging Ultra. The tall creature's energy shielding flared as the buckshot rounds impacted it, but the Elite was undaunted, and it threw itself towards John, slashing viciously with its sword. John rolled under the blow and came up fast before the Elite could recover. He slammed the butt of his shotgun into the Ultra's gut, causing its weakened energy shield to flicker and fade. The Elite doubled over from the blow, providing John with the time he needed to level his shotgun at his enemy's head.
The eight-gauge round transformed the Ultra's entire head and neck area into a mangled purple pulp that splattered across the nearby bulkhead. As plasma fire from the two vengeful Elite Majors splattered against his chest, John hastily pulled back around the corner of the ramp. He heard Cortana's voice in his helmet's speaker.
"Careful, Chief. That Elite was an Ultra, and those pilots are no pushovers either."
John didn't respond, but he saw two red dots making their way towards him on his motion tracker, each one moving to come around the ramp from separate angles. He readied a fragmentation grenade and threw it down the ramp as the Elites rounded the corner, and the explosive detonated between the aliens at point-blank range, hurling them off their feet and shattering their personal energy shields.
John quickly seized the initiative, and with two final shotgun blasts, he finished off the Scarab's final defenders. Glancing around the now-cleared control room, the Spartan briefly considered taking control of the Scarab, seizing it for the UNSC and giving them a hugely beneficial asset to harness for the push to the assault carrier's landing zone.
He quickly squelched the idea; there was simply not enough time to maneuver the Scarab back out of the canal and into an advantageous position to properly utilize. There was no way to quickly transport the mammoth walker. Coupled with the fact that John had never operated a Scarab before, a trait shared with every other human being and the potential for the gestalt of alien eels controlling the machine's inner workings to run amok, he made the decision to destroy it.
John briefly scrutinized the Scarab's primary control systems, before drawing his fist back and hammering the panel with his gauntleted fist, punching a hole into it and causing several nearby displays to blink out of existence. He struck the damaged panel several more times, leaving a deep enough hole that a significant explosion would destroy the Scarab's crucial power bank. He took out the satchel of plasma grenades he had scavenged a minute ago and wedged it into the hole, followed by a fragmentation grenade. He primed the frag and bolted away.
As John rounded the corner of the ramp, a thunderous explosion shook the deck. A massive plume of brilliant blue-white plasma ripped out through the belly of the Scarab, followed immediately by more explosions that blossomed across the rest of its body. The walker's main cannon flew open in a mechanical roar before another explosion erupted from within. The stricken machine's legs gave way from under it, and the entire thing violently lurched towards the ground as smaller fires continued to burn across its surface. John marched through the destruction onto the Scarab's deck.
Through the smoke, he watched as the Covenant assault carrier deactivated its gravity lift, and the gigantic vessel began to move away. He heard the engine thrum of a Pelican dropship and turned around as Bravo 049 lowered itself into view.
"That's right, you mothers! Run!" yelled Sergeant Major Johnson, standing behind the Pelican's pilot.
"Not if we can help it, Sergeant." Commander Miranda Keyes' voice replied, and John looked up to see the blocky shape of the In Amber Clad soar over the skybridges high above them.
"Extract the Chief and return to In Amber Clad."
"Roger that," Johnson replied. The Pelican spun around, and John noticed that the dropship's troop bay was filled with UNSC Marines. Gunnery Sergeant Stacker, Banks, Perez and even Chips Dubbo were just some of the faces he recognized.
"Come on, Chief!" shouted Dubbo. "Let's get out of here."
John climbed into the Pelican, and a moment later, the bay door was sealed, and Bravo 049 quickly accelerated towards the In Amber Clad, which was moving on a perpendicular course towards the Covenant flagship. He noticed that Lieutenant Parisa was not among the personnel on the Pelican and reasoned that the wounded had been extracted separately.
"Status?" asked Fleet Admiral Hood through the COM.
Within the bridge of the In Amber Clad, Commander Keyes was in visual communication with the Admiral through a small video feed on her console. Around her, the rest of her bridge crew attentively manned their stations.
"Sir, the Prophet is bugging out," Commander Keyes replied. "Request permission to engage."
"Negative, Commander. I'll vector two heavies for star-side intercept.
As the Admiral spoke, lightning crackled from the end of the assault carrier's hooked prow and a moment later, a massive bluish void erupted into existence and the vessel began to disappear into it.
As an emergency klaxon blared, the frigate's navigation officer twisted to face Commander Keyes.
"Ma'am, slipspace rupture off the target's bow! It's going to jump, inside the city!"
"There's no time, sir!" Keyes shouted in alarm.
"Green light!" Hood authorized, "Green light to engage!"
The moment Bravo 049 pulled into In Amber Clad's hangar bay, the frigate rocketed forward towards the rapidly disappearing form of the Covenant carrier.
"Punch it, get us close!" Keyes ordered navigations officer Remi.
In Amber Clad's engines flared, and the ship rocketed towards the comparatively gigantic enemy vessel. As the frigate soared through one of the large archways comprising the base of the Mombasa Tether, Lieutenant Remi stared at the calculations flowing across his station's display.
"Ma'am, without a destination solution…" he began.
"We are not losing that ship!" Commander Keyes replied, steel in her voice.
In Amber Clad hurtled after the assault carrier, which by now had almost completely disappeared into the slipspace vortex. Right as the Covenant ship's engine cones disappeared into the void and the field began to collapse, In Amber Clad made it through at the last second.
The moment the slipspace rupture closed, there was a massive implosion as air suddenly rushed to fill the vacuum that had been torn into the atmosphere. A gargantuan electromagnetically charged shockwave swept across the urban metropolis of New Mombasa, bathing the city in blinding light and floods of ionized particles. The city blocks closest to the rupture were completely flattened by the force, while those further sustained enormous damage as abandoned vehicles, dumpsters and other detritus littering the streets were thrown free and trees were ripped straight out of the earth.
The Mombasa Tether canted sickeningly as the shockwave tore through it, the force enough to flex the elevator's megastructure. Many of the reinforced building complexes were also shaken to their foundations, with many crumbling moments later.
Admiral Hood watched the events unfolding from the bridge of Cairo Station. His gaze was fixed on the tactical screen in the center of the room. Dread filled his body as the image zoomed in on the dozens of specks hurtling helplessly into the atmosphere as the EMP wave consumed New Mombasa; these dots were each a drop pod carrying members of the 103rd Shock Troops Battalion.
They had been launched as part of Operation: BUMRUSH, an attempt to board the Covenant carrier from above. The cruiser Say My Name had deployed their contingent of ODSTs only a minute prior, and the troopers were now helpless as their pods lost power and they plummeted to their almost-certain doom.
Commander Keyes' choice to pursue the carrier into slipspace was audacious, and in Hood's seasoned opinion, completely suicidal. The frigate was completely dwarfed by its opponent and outmatched in every conceivable regard; there wasn't a single way that the carrier could be defeated conventionally, and Keyes had to know that. Their destination was completely unknown; for all Hood knew, the carrier was returning to the damn Covenant homeworld itself.
The young officer was certainly fearless and had a tendency for reckless maneuvers that many of the senior brass had issues with. Two years prior, the young, then-Lieutenant Miranda Keyes had rammed a Covenant destroyer with an unarmed science vessel during the Battle of Gamma Pavonis VII. She had been one of only two survivors from that battle, and as a reward, she had been promoted to lieutenant commander and given command of In Amber Clad. Hood had personally awarded her the Silver Star for her actions during that battle.
Whether it was sheer bravery, or simply a desire to live up to the legendary actions of her father, Admiral Hood couldn't be sure. But her decision to pursue their foe into the unknown was one that even the most courageous souls think twice about.
Her single advantage was that the Master Chief himself had made it onto the ship before it jumped. No one else could perform the impossible the way the Chief could, and Hood had to hope that whatever happened on the other side, the Spartan would carry the frigate's crew to victory.
He closed his eyes and whispered, "Godspeed, Master Chief."