Chapter 2
Enemy of my Enemy
Authors notes: Thank you all for reading my story. To answer a question I got as to why all the text is bolded, I don't know. Just seemed kinda interesting. But anyways, I hope you enjoy this installment. Also, I did alter chapter 1 majorly after its release so if anyone who read it before it was altered and was interested in seeing that, I'm dearly sorry. Hopefully, this will be more satisfactory.
November 22nd, 2560
Location: Zeta Halo
ID: Private Jacob Kubrick
Occupation: ODST
Jacob made a mad dash to the living room, ready to jump back into the frigid cold as to get away from the Hunter.
He reached the door and opened it, only to be met with a wall of snow that had completely covered the doorway.
He was trapped.
He heard the Hunter slowly making its way towards him.
Jacob huddled into a corner, aiming his pistol at the door way that the Hunter would come through. He watched as the massive beast slowly entered the room, turning its head towards Jacob.
He shot at it, the rounds either bouncing off the armor or barely penetrating some of the worms.
The hunter just stood as Jacob fired all 12 shots in quick succession, making one loud ear piercing bang. Soon, he ran out of ammo.
The hunter just looked at Jacob as he panicked. All he had on him now was a knife.
He watched as the Hunter slowly moved to the door that was covered with snow and watched as it closed the door.
The Hunter then turned its attention back to Jacob, its green optics seeming to gaze into his soul.
Jacob stared at it in horror, waiting for it to tear him in two. But all he saw it do was tilt its head in confusion, like it was confused as to why he was scared of it.
It crouched down next to him, the breathing of the Lekgolo worms were in sync. The breathing was actually... weirdly relaxing?
Jacob shook these thoughts out of his head, his nerves on end. He looks around for a moment, trying to find a way to get out of this situation.
He looks down at his knife and up to a wall behind the massive hunter. His heart's racing, if he fucks up, he's dead.
After a quick deep breath, he chucks the knife into the wall behind the hunter. The hunter turns around, tilting its head in confusion. It then hears the sound of stomping as it fades away.
It turns back to see the ODST gone, Jacob running away. Jacob runs into the garage where he first found the hunter and attempts to lift the garage door. While the snow has covered the entrance doorway, he knows that the garage isn't blocked seeing as how the Hunter had gotten in.
As he tries to lift the garage door, the booming steps of the hunter echo through the outpost, getting louder and louder with each passing step.
He finally manages to open the garage door just enough to slip out, his nerves running rampant. As soon as he gets out side, the frigid cold breeze hits Jacob like a Ghost to the side.
His quick rush turns into a slow trudge as he tries his best to get away from the outpost.
He doesn't make it very far as the cold overwhelms his senses, the freezing wind blowing against his legs.
He falls to the ground, the artificial cold wind becoming overbearing and pounding. He lies in the snow, his vision becoming more and more blurry as he waits for everything to go black.
As his vision blackens, he can hear the snow behind him crunching loudly as the hunter from before comes ever closer to his position. Then crunching stops as he hears the same breathing again.
He closes his eyes, waiting for death to take him from either the cold or the beast.
But death never came.
He felt the hunter pick him up and carry him back towards the outpost, the slithering movement of the worms slowly creeping across his armor uncomfortable to him.
"Why?" He thought. "Why isn't it killing me?"
He then hears the door being lifted as he's brought inside the outpost, shivering like he just got out of frozen water.
His vision goes in and out of darkness, his mind slipping into unconscious. Just before he blacks out, however, he sees the hunter lay next to him.
His vision goes dark, his mind plunged into subconscious.
hours later...
Jacob wakes up, shooting upwards as he looks around. His eyes adjust to the light, looking around the room he's in.
He's in the garage. He rubs his eyes and walks into the living room where he originally slept in.
As he walked through the hallway, he saw prints on the ground. Large and... damp? He thought for a moment. He walked into the living room and saw where he originally slept and noticed 12 bullet casings on the floor. He also saw his custom made knife embedded into the wall.
It wasn't a dream, he was saved by that hunter.
"But why?" He said to himself. Those damp prints. Must have been from the worms that made up the hunter's feet, when it was walking through the halls after him.
"But why?! Why would it save me?!" The question felt like an itch under the skin, the word why was all he could think about.
"Whatever the reason may be, I can't stay here. Maybe it kept me alive to contact its superiors to take me prisoner? I don't know but I can't stay."
He walked through the hallway again and came upon one door that had a plaque above it with the word "Armory"
"Bingo" he smiled, some actual weapons.
His hope was short lived as he opened the door and saw the entire room was cleared out of weapons. Well, except one...
As Jacob was about to leave, he noticed an M90 Shotgun out of the corner of his eye. He picked it up, curious if it had any ammo.
He pumped the weapon: nothing ejected.
He looked around the room for some cartridges, buckshot, any shells but only found two shells that hadn't been either taken or used.
Two shots.
He loaded them in and with an instinctive motion, pumped the shotgun and attached it to his back.
As he exited the armory, he looked down the opposite end of the hall. He never actually looked at the end of the hall, being too busy with survival or running away.
There was only one door, it looked old and mold and was made of wood.
He walked towards it, the floorboards creaking underneath his feet with every step. He stopped in front of the door, feeling a sense of dread. He turned the knob slowly, opening it to find what was once a mess hall.
Should have been renamed as a morgue.
Dead bodies, everywhere. Some marines and ODSTs, some employees like chefs and doctors. But most of them were... regular civilians. They were crew who had been aboard the UNSC Infinity before its destruction but oddly, some of them weren't even affiliated with the UNSC. The decomposing bodies of men and women, even children.
Plasma burns and stab wounds were likely what killed most of them but some of them, to Jacob's disgust, some wounds looked to be bite marks. Flesh ripped off and torn to shreds.
Jacob couldn't take the sight, Vomiting at the sight. "How could any sentient creature do this!?" He thought. He knew brutes were monsters beyond redemption but he could have sworn that he saw bite marks that didn't look like something from a brute. Those bite marks were spilt into four puncture marks.
Sangheili.
He gagged at the thought, "what dishonorable bastard would do this?"
He'd only ever told Marcus but the only other things that scared Jacob more than brutes or even the flood were dishonorable Sangheili.
Sangheili were bound from committing torture or cruel punishments due to their honor code. They'd always face their enemies head one, never take them by surprise. But Sangheili who broke their honor only suffered disgrace from their own.
There were no laws in place that would stop them from doing what ever they wanted, no one to stop an invisible monster, no rule to stop some son of a bitch reenacting Hostel.
He pushed the thoughts out of his head, and looked around to find more rooms of use, anything to get him out of the mess hall.
There were a couple of exits but only to custodian rooms. He did find one room that had a use. A vehicle bay.
He opened the door and as expected, all the vehicles were either destroyed or no where to be found. But something caught his eye.
In the back corner of the bay was a deactivated and incomplete HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark ix, better known as a Mantis. The cockpit was exposed, had no power, and looked to be an early prototype but seemed functional.
As he examined it, he heard the oh so tiniest little creak of metal behind him. He unclipped his shotgun from his back, spun around, and held his shotgun up.
There was nothing. But Jacob knew something was. He could see the faintest distortion of the metal gray walls.
"Uncloak yourself if you don't want your frontal lobe coming out of your ass!"
Just then, the figure uncloaked their self, revealing the towering Elite. He wore Zealot class armor with purple accents and a blue hue. He was by Jacobs estimates 8'7, just an inch taller than the average Sangheili. The most noticeable thing about him, however,was the massive energy blade stab wound in his chest.
The Elite had a noticeable rising and falling of his chest, presumably one of his lungs might have been punctured from the blade.
"What the hell do you want?!" Jacob gritted his teeth as he spoke, his eyes piercing into the helmet of the Zealot.
The zealot slowly raised its right hand before speaking in a low and rather raspy voice.
"Human, I am no threat to you-" He was immediately cut off by Jacob
"Don't play with me with that shit"
The zealot sighed, letting out a pained cough in the process.
"I do mean it. I, Xyza Rastomo, and Rikomi are Ex-Banished. We have no reason to give you harm."
"...Who the devil is Rikomi?!"
The elite chuckles softly. He started speaking in a sarcastic voice.
"Oh, how could you forget her? How could you forget the hunter who saved you last night?"
Jacob stared at him, slightly confused. It had a name, obviously, but what confused him was how he acknowledged the hunter.
Her.
"How could it be a she?" He thought. "They are just a collection of worms?"
"Excuse me, Her? It's a hunter, how can it be a her?"
The elite laughed, only stopping after painfully coughing due to his laughter.
"Really, your first question isn't how could you be sure we're telling the truth or to prove we're not lying but rather the sex of a hunter? And you're supposed to be one of the best of the best by humanities standards."
Jacob gritted his teeth, annoyed that he was being mocked by a wounded soldier. His finger was itchy, just millimeters away from pulling the shotgun trigger.
"Don't mock me, I'm not the one who got an energy sword to the lungs. Now answer the question."
The zealot huffed, Scoffing at Jacob's remark.
"If you must know, Rikomi is a she because all the worms that make her up are all female. Satisfied?"
"Eh. Now, what are you doing here?"
The elite sat down on one of the rubber tires lying on the ground floor.
"We are on the run from the banished. They don't take too kindly to defectors. This is the only habitable area where we can survive. Well, you and Rikomi can at least."
Jacob raised his eyebrow, his finger moving off the trigger as he lowered his shotgun.
"What do you mean?"
The zealot Coughed again, a small amount of purple alien blood ejecting out of his mouth.
"I will not be alive for much longer. My wounds are too grievous, too fatal. I will likely be dead by tomorrow morning if not tonight. Rikomi says I will be alright but she knows I do not have much time left."
"And what do you want me to do about it?! I'm not a doctor!"
The zealot sighed as he removed his helmet, revealing his head. He had a gouged eye with a scar running down his eye and one of his mandibles was ripped off.
"No medical attention can save me now. But I cannot leave Rikomi to survive on her own. So, I only have one dying request for you."
Jacob was confused for a second before he realized what the Zealot was getting at.
The elite spoke again
"I request for you to take care of Rikomi, make sure she gets off the ring alive"
Jacob stammers, unsure of how to respond
"I'm sorry, you want me to look after an 18 foot tall Hunter?!
"23 feet tall actually." The zealot remarked with a hint of frustration in his voice.
"Why!?"
"Because she has information that can help the UNSC defeat the Banished!" The elite raised his voice before coughing again, his blood spilling out of his mouth.
Jacob looked at him skeptically, why would a hunter of all defective banished members have vital information about their enemies?
"And how do I know you're not lying?"
"Because if I was, you wouldn't have even woken up."
Jacob stared at Xyza with hatred but also compliance in his eyes.
"How can I even take care of her if I can't communicate with her?"
"That's why I want you to inherit this"
He pulled out a small chip out of his ears, the thing looked primitive yet advanced at the same time.
"It will translate what Rikomi is saying so you can understand what she says. And before you ask me where I got this, it comes with all lances with a hunter pair on their team. I'll give them to you before I die."
Jacob sighed, as much as he wanted to say no and get the hell away, Rikomi was likely Jacob's only chance at getting out alive.
"Fine, I'll do it. Actually. Where is Rikomi?"
"Getting dinner."
Jacob looked at Xyza, confused and surprised.
"Dinner? The fuck do you mean?"
Xyza laughed, this time not coughing up blood.
"Oh yeah, you were out the entire day. I thought you were dead until I heard you vomit."
Xyza stood up and walked towards the door that led back into the mess hall, gesturing Jacob to follow.
Jacob reluctantly walked behind him, eyeing his every movement.
They walked into the garage where Xyza laid down on the floor, closing his eyes as he heavily breathed.
Thay sat there in silence for what felt like an hour before Jacob heard the heavy crunching of snow as the garage door was lifted up, Rikomi dragging about three dead aliens that looked like deer.
She looked over at Jacob and tilted their head in what Jacob would describe as curiosity.
She laid the deer out and began using a sharpened piece of metal to begin cutting the alien deers open.
Jacob then remembered that he hadn't removed his knife from the wall.
He leaves the garage and walks through the hallway into the living room.
He sees his knife. It's engravings are of a eastern dragon that wrap around the blade with Japanese text saying "懸命に戦い、名誉をもって死ぬ" which translates into 'Fight hard, Die with honor'
He rips the knife out of the wall and walks back into the garage.
Rikomi stares at Jacob's knife, seeing the incoherent text on the blade.
Jacob starts to cut one of alien deer, carving out a piece of its thigh
Jacob sits back, wiping the blade with his gloves.
"So, How are we going to cook this?"
The elite grunts, Rikomi nodding her head up and down before the hunter grabs a plasma pistol that was behind some boarding.
Jacob, out of instinct, aims his knife at Rikomi. Xyza gently grabs Jacob's arm and pushes it down before speaking
"it's okay, do not raise your weapon"
Jacob slowly puts the knife down, eyeing Rikomi's movements.
Rikomi charges up the plasma pistol but doesn't shoot it, using the heat from the charging plasma to cook the meat.
Once it was decently cooked, Jacob took the piece of meat and began slowly eating it. The other two simply just ate the raw meat.
While Jacob was eating, he saw Xyza and Rikomi talking to one another. Xyza was speaking in Sangheili so Jacob couldn't understand what they were saying.
Though what Xyza said did make himself laugh a little. Rikomi's response? Jacob couldn't tell, all that he knew was that a couple worms that made up her head shook a little as she looked away.
"Hey, what are you two talking about?"
Xyza laughed a little while he replied to Jacob
"oh it's nothing, just having a little fun"
"better not be a plan to kill me"
Xyza laughed at his remark, "Likely just trying to have as much fun before his death," Jacob thought.
Xyza then spoke to him
"Say, what is your name, human?"
"Jacob, my name is Jacob"
Xyza then asked Jacob, "So, where's the rest of your squad? Don't ODSTs travel in squads?"
Jacob sighed, "My sergeant is likely miles away, and my other member..."
Cassie...
Jacob could feel a tear well up in his eye, the moment replaying in his mind.
Xyza noticed Jacob, seeing him upset.
"Did they die in combat, human?"
"No, Banshee blew her pod up while we were falling into orbit"
Jacob watched as Xyza's face turned to one of disgust
"Dishonorable filth, killing someone who cannot fight is a disgraceful act"
Xyza started coughing rather painfully, Jacob looking at him concerned.
"Hey, you good?"
Xyza in between coughing up blood and heavy breathing was able to speak.
"I... cannot go on... any longer... Rikomi"
Rikomi looked at Xyza, and while the helmets optics could not express emotions, Jacob could tell Rikomi was becoming more saddened.
"Rikomi... the human... Jacob... he will make sure you... get off this ring... Don't be saddened by my death... My ancestors would be... proud"
And, with a dying breath, Xyza stopped breathing. His amber eyes open as he laid on the ground motionless, Dead.
Jacob saw the chips in Xyza's ears and, reluctantly, removed them and implanted them into his own ears.
He looked to Rikomi and She started speaking.
Before he had implanted the chips into his ears, all he could hear Rikomi say was incoherent garbling gargles. Now, with the chips implanted in his ears, he was finally able to understand what Rikomi was saying.
The voice that the Chips made Rikomi sound like was rather suiting. It was a slightly low pitched but feminine voice.
He could hear her slightly whimper as she stared at Xyza's body. Jacob decided to speak.
"I- I'm... I'm dearly sorry for your loss..."
Rikomi looked at Jacob and spoke softly, her voice sounding rather melodic.
"It is not your fault, human..."
Jacob didn't know what else he could say. So he just sat there, thinking.
Suddenly, a beeping echoes throughout the outpost, one that catches Jacob's attention.
Ever since the formation of his squad, Each member had a unique S.O.S signal in case they were stranded.
The one that was ringing through the outpost... It was Marcus's
Authors note: Hello guys, I hope you enjoyed this installment, please leave a review so that I can improve the quality of the story