Ok all, enjoy.
The group of six all stood silent for one moment, each of them all looking down the hallways they found themselves in. It was dark, the only light available to them came from two sources, reflection of the ruined planet's light from outside and two small lines that ran long the floor up against the walls. A lot of purple, he couldn't help but notice that as Alt starred at the floors and the walls. Everything was so smooth as well, there were no exposed wires or piping and the hallway seemed to go on for a stretch "what now sir?" Sam said as all the Spartans had their weapons ready.
It was a good question and the second his feet hit the ground of the hallway, he tried to look through the ship and find out what to do from there. Key word there being tried, as when he did try, to his shock he found that he wasn't able to see through any of this. Not a good sign, he's known for a long while that while he's been able to see through pretty much every different type of physical object, the only thing that he wasn't able to get through was lead. Which this ship seemed to be lined with.
"I can't see through it" he told the others who didn't flinch at the news. Seeing as there was a sealed door just behind them where they entered from, he faced the opposite direction "follow me" he said as he started to walk forward with crouched legs. The others following close behind him with their weapons not dropping even for a moment.
There was complete silence around them no doubt due to the vacuum of space taking it all away. Though Alt could feel the hum of the ship's engine through the floor and that was his plan, that was what he was going to follow in order to deal with this ship. When he realized that they would need to board this ship in order to take it down, two ideas immediately went into his head... more like two options. And it will all depended on one simple thing.
Where these aliens his people?
If they were then the plan would be to do as much damage to the ship as possible, curtesy of the tactical havoc nuke John was carrying that would be placed near the ships core. Hopefully they would be able to take out some of the members of the ship to be taken back for study. If there wasn't any of his people on board on the other hand, then they would try bit by bit to get a feel for the enemy and if there whereas... weak as humans where at least compared to him, then they would systematically take out the entire crew and get the bridge, from there they would try and get some of the ships data. Try being the key word there. This was completely alien to everyone and who knows how their systems worked.
"Linda, at the rear. Sam stay close to her. Kelly and Fred at the front with me. John in the middle" he ordered them all and they all moved without question it made the most sense as with John holding the payload, he would need be protected the most.
The group slowly for a few minutes before they reached a door, it was large, it looked like it covered the whole hallway but with the lights and patterns on it "pressure door" Fred said quickly.
"Looks heavy duty" Kelly added.
Alt couldn't see any method as to get through, no latches or handles or anything like that. The only thing he could somewhat recognise was a holographic panel next to it. It was full of many different types of symbols that none could recognize.
Except for Alt.
When he looked closer at the panel, three different symbols dominated the middle of it, to the others it was three different collections of lines and curves and to be fair it was that to Alt as well. He had no idea what any of them said or what they meant, yet there was no denying that as he reached out to one. His gut was telling him something, or the deepest part of his mind was.
He moved his hand and pressed the left most symbol. When he did, there was slight hum and the door broke off into two pieces, one went into the ground and the other into the ceiling, opening the way forward. Which led to another corridor going forward, it looked no different from all the others.
And so they all moved forward still "How did you do that?" John asked as they moved, all of them still holding their weapons ready.
He answered honestly "I don't know, a gut feeling I guess"
"Just as long as you don't remember it from somewhere" Linda said from the back of the group with Sam "that's the last thing we need" Very true, him remembering it means these are his people, which would be very bad news.
But that was when it all changed, when they got the answer, they were all too scared to ask. As they walked, the sounds of footsteps were heard and before Alt could order any of them to move to the side and hide, it was too late. An alien walked out of a side corridor and quickly turned, seeing them.
It didn't look like him, that much was clear. It was about two thirds the size of them, it had a large hunch on its back that almost looked like a small pyramid and it had a couple of tubes that when around its neck that went up to a type of mask around its face. It looked right at them, and Alt moved before anyone else. He reappeared in front of the alien and reached forward with his hand, acting on quick instinct he gripped the alien's skull with his hand and made a fist. Crushing the skull easily under his strength.
The body fell to the ground with only a small thud, then it was complete silence. Not even Alts mind was working as he thought about what he just did "Not immortal" John said as they slightly lowered there weapons "good to know" he added.
Alt stepped around the body and looked at his hand, dripping with god knows what from the left-over skull "collect some samples" he told the others who quickly got to work "whatever you can fit" he added as he saw what the alien was carrying. He didn't know what to think for a moment, reaching down he grabbed from the alien's hand and held it closer. He took a step back to allow the rest of the Spartans to gather the samples.
"Think we maybe should have tried communication?" Linda asked as the Alt looked closer at what he could assume was a weapon. It looked like nothing he's seen before, that much was true but when he looked closer he could make out some familiar things. He pointed the weapon down the hall and pulled the trigger. A quick and small shot of green plasma was fired from the end and hit the wall staining it.
"I think they understand us just fine" Fred added himself as the others all stood up. Alt didn't waste any time as he stepped forward and handed the weapon the Kelly who took it and placed it on the small of her back, they'll turn it in later and who knows what they might find about it later.
"Come on" Alt said as the others all stood up "we don't have much time" he made the decision to walk down the corridor that the alien came from.
"Are we making for the bridge?" Sam asked as they moved carefully.
It was a good question and Alt had thought about it, he may not be able to see everything but he could make out the sounds around this ship and there were a lot of them, he was confident that if this was his ship, he would have been able to hear someone take out a member of this crew. The fact that no-one of his kind came running at them immediately showed one very important thing, while the fact he could feel some form of familiarity with the door controls, his people were not here "yes, we are" he answered.
The group walked for another few minutes without finding anything else and no-one found them either, at least that they knew of. Though when they came across an open doorway, it led them to a large open room that had very low lightening and a thin layer of mist. For one brief moment Alt walked forward into the room, the others following behind him.
He stopped mid step and the other immediately followed suit. There was a tense silence around the room as Alt continued looking in the distance of the room, he was looking directly at it, whatever the hell this thing was. He could see the silhouette, he could make out it's breathing, it's heartbeat. It was another alien, this one was completely different to the others.
And it wasn't alone, he could hear more spread out on the opposite side of the room. Though one stepped forward, there was a type of shimmer around its body and it came with a full view of it. It was bigger, bigger than them, that was for sure. It let out a large growl at them and when it did it raised its arm at them, with a flick of its wrist, a white two-pointed blade sprung to life from its hand. Then more came, he counted six in total. Six aliens that were the same species as the one with blade came forward, seemingly turning off this cloaking tech they have and turning on their own blades.
The Spartans all raised their weapons and waited, all they needed was an order or an excuse. Alt kept his helmet firmly looking at the one in front. The two starred at each other for just one more moment.
"RRRAOOOOR!" the alien yelled as he charged forward towards the group, his comrades falling in closer behind him...her... it? It didn't matter. Alt ran forward to meet it, Blue Team following him. Unlike Alt however, all of them began to open fire on the aliens but to Alt's amazement and fear, these guys seemed to have the same type of shields as the ship did. This was going to be tricky, he was about to give orders but now was not the time. He had the trust that Blue team could look after themselves.
When Alt ran forward, he didn't use his top speed, he didn't want to. He didn't want to let the enemy know what he was capable of just yet. Both groups met in the middle of the large room and the fight began.
The alien moved his weapon to slash Alt in half at the waist, he slid down to his knees and leaned back. Sliding across the ground, he tilted his head back, missing the blade by just an inch. As he moved besides the aliens body, he reached out with his arm and wrapped it arounds the leg. Using his strength he brought the alien down with him, still moving across the ground. The alien fell down to the ground and as Alt moved with fluid motion he moved back up to his feet and twisted.
The alien was dragged across the ground, and thrown across the room with great force, it flew through the air, screaming as it did so and slammed into the far hard enough to break most of the bones in its body and kill it. The Spartans met the rest of the aliens who seemed so distracted by what Alt did that they nearly completely lost focus on them.
Fred was able to get right up the alien that met him in the middle, he ducked underneath a slash that the alien threw at him once it recovered from seeing what Alt did. He hit the alien with the bud of his weapon and then as it staggered, he placed the barrel right under... chin? No. These things didn't have chins, he placed it right up against the bottom of its head and pulled the trigger, causing the bullets to fly out of the top of its head.
Kelly sprinted right into her alien and jumped at it before it could attack her, her knee was slammed into its gut and thankfully it seemed that it did damage to it, which showed that they weren't incredibly strong. It showed they could be beaten and killed. As the alien tried to punch her, she ducked under the attack and jumped on its back when the attack didn't land. As she grabbed onto it, she brought up her pistol to the back of its neck and fired, it took a couple of shots for the personal shield to go down but as the alien tried to fight her off, it died when the bullets pierced its skin.
From the far side of the room, Linda looked through her scope and aimed right at her marked target, she hoped this would work. It took a couple of seconds longer than she would like to lock onto the larger target that was running towards her, yelling as it did so and activating this cloaking that it has. Thankfully she could still make it out as this cloaking wasn't perfect and went it was close enough, she fired. The large fifty calibre bullet left the barrel of her sniper, and it flew through the air, despite having not even touched this one's shield before. It made no difference in the end, the bullet when through the shield and the skull of the alien, before it even hit the ground the back of its head exploded.
John had his weapon trained on the final alien remaining, his assault rifle firing none stop. He would have liked to get closer with the others but due to being the one who had to carrier the payload, he needed to stay back in order to make sure it was safe. The alien charged towards him, with its weapon raised at him, ready to slash him in half. It closer than he would like and was about to dive out of the way in order to avoid the attack but it would seem he didn't need to. Sam moved in to intercept, with his shotgun. He fired his slug close range into the alien side causing it to stagger and diverted its attention to him. Not that it would help it as the shotgun brought down the rest of its shields allowing John to finish it off and it fell to the ground.
The targets where eliminated and there was a moment of silence amongst all those present for just a moment before the training kicked in "clear!" John called to everyone.
"Clear" the rest of them said.
Alt on the other hand didn't speak, he was too busy looked down to one of the downed aliens and was looking at it closely. It was down on the ground, bleeding a blue coloured blood. Though he wasn't just starring at it, he was looking much closer at the armour it was wearing, not because it was so tough but because it was so advanced, he could see all the pieces of tech packed into such a small space. All cantered around a Powersource placed within the back plate. Knowing what he had to do, he reached down and started to dig into it, his fingers denting the metal as he applied the pressure.
He doubted that some people 'cough cough Halsey' Would complain that it wouldn't be in good enough condition to use but it would have to do. At the very least, if this ship proves to have defences too strong for the A.I on the Commonwealth to get through then whatever they bring back with them will have to do "do you think that will be enough?" Fred asked him as the last pieces of the armour gave way and he lifted the armour off the body before handing it back to him.
"Most likely not" he answered as the spartan took the piece and placed it on his back, it was larger than any would like but they didn't have a choice here "but it will be a start if nothing else" he said before Alt moved towards the door opposite the one they entered from. The others all followed him and stopped just before the door "I can't make out any sign my people are here, which means we make for the bridge" he told them as he moved to open the door.
"And if we can't get any data from there?" Linda asked and it was a fair enough question.
"If that's the case" he started "then we plant the nuke there and exfil from the nearest exit, with some luck it should be enough to destroy the whole thing" he pressed his hand to the door and it gave a hiss before opening like the others did "and get ready" he added before he crouched into a running position.
The others all raised their weapons as he did so "what is it?" John asked from the middle of the group.
"They know we're here" Alt told them, he may not be able to see through the ship but that didn't mean he could hear the hundreds of feet stamping the ground "the entire ships coming are way" he told them as they looked down the long corridor.
"What's the plan?" Kelly asked him with a calm voice.
"I'll clear the path, you will all stay as close as you can and pick up any of the stragglers that I miss" he said calmly.
"I like this plan" Kelly added with a small smirk.
"You would" Fred sighed back as the sounds got louder and louder. Like a small stampede of thudding, not to dissimilar to the marine troops all marching somewhere, just louder. The corridor they stood in front of was long, with many different entrances to it. From what Alt could also see, on the furthest end it wasn't a door but a turning point between two directions, which could work in their favour.
"Ready" he said to all of them as he gave his shoulders a slight shake.
"Ready" they said in one voice as they raised their weapons again and took a similar stance to himself.
Then he saw it, the first sign of the incoming force. A foot just stepping around the first side passage to the corridor "Go" he said to them all.
As one the entire squad moved as one unit, every single one of them sprinting down the corridor as fast as they could. Alt for his part slowed down slightly in order to make sure they had strength in numbers, but that didn't mean he wasn't sprinting ahead of the group. As they moved, more and more of the aliens started to pour into the corridor.
The Spartans fired their weapons first and they were able to score a few kills, when they moved Alt was able to process all that he was seeing quickly. The first thing he noticed as he punched one of the shielded aliens in the head so far that it came of completely was that there was another alien species here. It was a similar size to the first one they saw but it was much skinnier and more Avien like. It also carried a portable shield in his arm that looked very useful, but it seemed to have one flaw in the design. A small gap in the side, he took a moment to think about why it was there but that was answered when it brought its other hand, which held the same weapon that the first alien had. It was about to fire through it but was stopped when a bullet when through that hole and the alien fell to the ground either screaming or yelling, he didn't know which.
Not that it mattered, Alt reached the alien and stepped on its head, turning it to mush. All the Spartans were firing none stop as they ran. Alt himself was acting a shield to the other Spartans, whatever rounds these aliens where using started to hit him the more and more that appeared. And it was a lot, the team seemed to be outnumbered a hundred to one. But they couldn't stop, when an alien that looked the same as the first one they saw did decided that it would be a good idea to step out in the middle of the corridor in order to try and stop them. Alt grabbed him but its face and held it in front of him, using it as a shield and it stopped screaming from all the wounds it just inflicted. He twisted his body as he moved, throwing the alien as he did so just before they reached the end of the corridor.
From there Alt had two seconds to make a call "LEFT!" he shouted and as one, all of them turned direction and almost slid across the ground in order to turn and keep the same speed. When they made the turn, he noticed a large weight being freed from his back as if all the weapons being fired at him had stopped. At least they would have a few seconds before they got shot again, in the back not the front as when they started to move again. It was just another large corridor filled with aliens.
The difference being that this one had a large bulkhead door at the end of it, as well as a small army of aliens in between them. Knowing that if they waited for too long that they would be swarmed from both the front and back so Alt knew that he needed to pick things up a bit. He started to move faster, he started to hit harder. As the Spartans ran they couldn't help but stop firing as they saw Atlas pretty much disappear in front of one alien he just killed and reappear in front of another, rinse and repeat.
He did only go for the ones who seemed to have those shields and cloaking which did not help them here, leaving the smaller ones for the Spartans to handle. Thankfully, even though Alt moved quickly he still stayed relatively close to Blue team and when they neared the door at the end, he wasted no time. Alt raised two fists above his head and slammed them down on the bulkhead door, now while they whole thing didn't fall to the ground. It did make a hole big enough for the others to come through.
When Alt took the two seconds he needed to get an accurate layout of the room he found himself in, he noticed a couple of things. Number one being that this room looked much more official, it was large, nearly the entire far wall was a window that gave a view out of the front of the ship and it was full of personal. From this first glance he could see sixteen different aliens of every race he's seen so far "FRED DOOR!" he ordered as he moved forward with the rest of them.
The whole of Blue team moved forward with Alt in front of them, all the aliens where already in a frantic state of panic due to their attack and where already running around with weapons. That didn't change much, Alt killed two of the aliens quickly before something caught his eye. It was another alien, the same one as the others but its Armor was bigger, brighter, almost golden with yellow highlights. That could mean any number of things, it could literally mean anything, everything is alien.
But from what he could see and basing some of it on human customs, he was willing to bet it on this one being a higher rank from the others. Someone they could use, a source of information, a hostage. Could they do that? Putting aside the fact that they knew nothing about these things, least of all language. So getting information out of it would be crap, but at the same time if they manage to take the ship they'd have plenty of bodies to choose from.
He moved forward, killing more of these things in his way. Three to be exact, not that it mattered as he moved he could see that the Spartans where doing good work, at least he thought so based on the bullets that were flying over his shoulders. And hitting all the other aliens present, while not doing too much against the one with shields but others fell quickly. When Alt reached the one he thought was in charge, he moved to the side in order to avoid the energy blade that was about to hit him. As it moved over him, he reached out and grabbed its arm, locking it in place. With his other hand he grabbed the back of its head, something that easily done considering the size difference between them. He lifted the alien in the air before slamming it headfirst into the ground and then threw it upwards, rasing a good twenty feet to the ceiling, hitting it with a loud bang before falling limply to the ground.
The sounds of weapon fire intensified around him and he side stepped just in time to avoid another stabbing, as the large alien moved past him trying to regain its momentum, Alt lifted his leg and kicked down on the alien's knee and it screamed as a satisfying snap echoed the bridge. Well, it would have if it wasn't for the gun fire drowning it out. The alien fell down on its hands and tried to get up but Alt grabbed its helmet and twisted its head, a snap could be heard by him and the whole things body went limp. He did make a mental note to remember that if you snap the neck the whole thing dies, that was good to know.
He looked down back to the golden one and could see that it was still breathing, useful "ATLAS!" Fred's voice shouted drawing his attention, while Blue team did look a little beat up and their armour was scorched in some areas, the bridge was clear for now. The door on the other hand.
Fred was getting overwhelmed by the amount of fire that was coming through it, as fast as he himself could blink. Atlas appeared right next to the hole and grabbed the bent pieces he himself made when he opened it, one by one and with a lot of damage being done to his armour he slowly started to seal it back up. It took a couple of seconds but he was able to get it done, not that it was airtight by any means, but it certainly better than before. As he did what he could to close the small gaps, they could already hear the banging on the door as they tried to get through "that door won't hold for long" Fred said as the others all looked to each other.
"Status check" Alt said to them all.
"Green" they all said as one, indicating that they were all still good to fight
"Multiple suit breaches" Kelly said as she looked down to herself as they could all see her armour was ripped up badly.
"Same here" Sam added and sure enough his was as well but that wasn't a surprise. They all had breaches in their suits.
"Ok, so we're not leaving without a ship" Alt said as he looked around the bridge.
"Which we won't get unless we can get control of this ship" John spoke up as they looked around "Considering the alien language, I doubt that's happening any time soon"
"Or the army outside the door" Fred added with a nod to the door which had stopped being banged on, a clear sign the aliens were getting something else to do the job.
"What's the plan sir?" Linda asked looking to Alt and the others all followed suit.
Alt himself looked down to the ground for a moment, his mind going over all the different scenarios from which they could move. All of them dying here was not an option, he refused to accept that "Ok" he said as he moved a little further away from the door until he stood in the middle of the bridge, while all the Spartans looked at him, they still had their weapons pointed at the door.
He reached down to the ground and dug his fingers into it, with a tug he pulled the ground out from under him and gave few to wires, panels and vents "John, plant the payload, arm it for remote detonation" he ordered.
The leader of blue team was quick to respond and moved over towards him, reaching behind him he grabbed the warhead and placed it on the ground in the middle of the hole before pressing one of the buttons on it. It gave a ding and he stood back up, Alt quickly reached down and placed the panel back. It looked dented and it would be easy to see something was wrong but he just hopped it would work "Ok, we need to lower the ships shields, or at the very least get access to the systems. That's on all of you" he said to the team as he stopped in front of the door "just push some buttons"
"What are you going to do?" Linda asked.
With his legs bent slightly, he gave his neck a small shake trying to work out the knots. He turned his head to look at them "I'm going to buy you time" he added before he could hear the marching footsteps coming back to the door "don't take too long" he said before he charged forward. Bashing the entire door down this time as he did so.
"WHAT NOW!" Kelly shouted in order to be heard over the sounds of all the weapons fire coming from the hallway.
"We do what he says!" John said back quickly, taking his position as leader of blue team "Fred, Linda. Stay on the door! Make sure no straggles get past! The rest of us" he added looking to the remains Spartans, even when he knew it would be a terribly unprofessional thing to do, he let out a small shrug "push some buttons"
That was all he said but apparently that was enough for the others as all three of them made their way over to all the different controls and started pushing and pressing. John moved towards the front of the bridge up against the windows, placing his weapon on his back he started to put his fingers through the different holographic controls doing his best to ignore the weapons fire coming from the entrance "this is Sierra 117, Commonwealth, do you read?" he said into his helmet as he tried to get the ships systems down.
"We read you 117, don't know what happened but the signal to you is clear. What's your status?" the voice of Serin Osman came through his helmets radio.
"We've sustained injury, but we've taken the bridge, we think. It's hard to tell with aliens" he added, not that anyone could blame him, for all they knew this room could just be some observation deck.
"What's the status of Atlas? We're not getting any signals from him" again, something that they couldn't be blamed for since Atlas's suit won't be able to read his vitals.
"He's green, indisposed at the moment as he's keeping the bridge clear with help from Fred and Linda" he told them as he the ship started to shift slightly, looking out the window he could see that the entire thing was tilting and soon, the view of the once lush planet had flipped itself telling them that they were now upside down but since this ship had artificial gravity, it didn't do much for them.
"Sorry" Kelly said from behind him "I think that was me"
"117, you are aware of your objective. You must lower the ships defences to allow us..." Serin started but before she could continue another voice interrupted her.
"Wait, John" the voice of Halsey came through and John knew that Serin would not be happy with her hijacking the radio signal "have you seen any signs of artificial intelligence on board the ship?" the doctor asked him before a "ARFK!" came through followed by a loud slam, it wasn't hard to tell that Serin just slammed the older doctor down on the table "Do not do that again" that was Serin's voice "but she does make a good point, have there been?" she asked.
"None that I could see, if there was I doubt we would be allowed to talk over a radio" he answered as he pushed another button but had little effect.
"117, this is Captain Walus" the captains voice came through the radio next "if there is no sign of alien A.I then you're clear to try and lower the ships cyberwarfare systems, if you can't do that than a simpler solution would be to see if you can lower the ships shields, if you can do that then the Commonwealth will launch the reminding payloads we have left and target their anti-ship weaponry. We'll get close enough to launch a tow cable at your location and from there you'll form a physical connection"
"Sir, we'll get it done" he added before he hung up his end of the call "did everyone get that?" he asked the team.
"Copy" they all said back at once.
"How the hell are we supposed to find the shield controls?" Sam asked, a tone of frustration in his voice as he slammed his hand into the one control.
"I don't know, but we need to figure it out" he said back as he went back to his own controls "Fred, Linda, what's the status of Atlas?" he asked the other two Spartans who he did notice had stopped firing.
"He's fine, at least I don't think he needs us anymore" the voice a Fred echoed throughout the bridge as the sounds of weapons fire died down.
"Good enough, Linda stay there and keep an eye on him. Fred, help us figure this out" he ordered them.
"On it" Fred said back as he placed his weapon on his back and moved forward towards the rest of them while Linda looked down the hallway with the scope of her sniper.
"What's the plan if enemy reinforcements show up?" Kelly asked as she worked on her own console.
John didn't say anything for a moment as he knew that would be a very bad situation "we'll deal with that situation when the time comes" was all he was able to say about it, knowing that would be a no-win scenario.
"Hey, I think I have something" Sam quickly said.
As one the others all moved over towards him and they could see what he meant, it wasn't there before but he must a pressed something to get it up, in front of him was a holographic image of the ship that had a very clear image of a circle going around it "that has to be the shield" Fred said.
"Don't forget what you pressed to get that up" John as the others started to look at all the other controls around it.
"What now" Kelly asked with a small shrug.
"Let me" John said as he moved forward and did the only thing he could, he made an educated guess based on what he knew. It wasn't enough for him to be sure and he's never done this before but he's hoping that this luck he seems to have would work here. There were dozens of different signs and symbols he didn't recognize but the one thing he did was a line underneath the image of the ship and a small symbol that was small enough to be a ball at one end, he gave himself a mental shrug before he pressed his finger against the dot and held it in place, before he then dragged it along the line, nice that was done he waited for a moment.
Then the circle around the ship disappeared from and the image of the ship inflated with a head warning light "Blue team, you read me" Walus' voice came in through their radio "I don't know what you did but the ships shields are down, firing the archer missiles now, be advised this will be danger close"
"Understood sir" John said back before he hung up his end of the call "we need to get Atlas back here, if he's too far away then he's in danger of getting hit by the archers" it went without saying how bad that would be, Atlas is tough but an Archer missile wasn't something to scoff at and if he was far enough away from them then there was a chance he would be caught in the blast"
"Good idea" Fred said as he reached up and pressed two fingers "Atlas, do you read?" there was complete silence on the other end of the radio "Atlas, come in"
"Linda" John said with his own voice over towards the Spartan who still stood on the edge of the open doorway with her sniper raised and the scope pointed right at her eye "status of Atlas?" he asked her.
"Green" she called back "but his armours wrecked" she added before she fired her weapon, no doubt hitting the target she could see but others could not.
"We need to get him back here" he called out to her.
"I'm on it" was all she said before she fired her weapon again.
His breathing was heavy as he punched another target, his visor was covered in the blood of his enemies that started to stain what was left of his armour in a multi coloured sludge as it all mixed together on him and that was the part did leak its way onto his face, through the crack in his helmet that came when one of these alien blades managed to get closer than he had wanted it to. Dashing forward again, not caring for the energy projectiles that where being fired at him from the others.
He extended his foot and it was imbedded into the larger alien form, going through the body and denting the mental wall on the other side. Instead of letting the body just slide off the leg he instead twisted his body and jumped in the air, then let out a powerful kick, the body flew free and through the air, hitting one of the smaller aliens with the body. It didn't even kill the thing but it fell to the ground and proved unable to lift the weight off of itself.
For a moment, all he saw was green and then there was a great force and knocked him back a couple of steps. It didn't last long but it was enough to be a problem. Once he reigned his balance he ground that his helmets visor was broken, so he was only able to see through his right eye and that was because of the crack the alien blade gave him, of course he could see through the helmet with his enhanced eyes but he didn't want to waste concentration on doing that when he should be focusing on the fight.
He briefly looked through the crack in his helm and he stopped moving for a moment, there was only one alien left. Weather that was in the whole ship or not was a mystery to him and at the moment he didn't care. He's never seen one of these yet, this thing was huge, by far the larger alien he's seen. It had many pieces of exposed skin but it looked... wrong. And when he looked closer he knew why, it wasn't just one alien. It was dozens of them, they looked like worms that had moulded together to create something bigger and stronger.
He didn't know what to think about this, but he would need to deal with it later. Reaching up with both hands he gripped his helmet before he not so gently lifted from his head, tearing the rest of it apart as it did so. Exposing his head as he did so, for the first time he breathed in the alien air and looked at the larger alien. It was full of pieces of thick armour, it's left arm seemed to have a large shield on it that he could tell would be harder for small arms fire to deal with. It didn't even have a right hand, just a large cannon like weapon that was used to hit him earlier.
As his now broken helmet fell to the ground with a clang and he looked at the larger foe. It didn't seem to be impressed with him and slammed the large shield into the ground, letting out a roar as it did so. He didn't know how it did that considering it didn't have a mouth, but he wasn't going to question that right now. Once it lifted its shield it raised its right arm and its weapon with it. It started to crackle with green energy but Alt didn't move, he just waited for the moment.
As the weapon fired, a green ball of energy flew towards him. Alt ran forward a couple of steps before diving forwards, the green energy attack sailing under him. He fell forwards, his stomach sliding across the ground as he moved. When he moved near the alien he reached out with his arms and grabbed hold of the larger legs, twisting himself around them, he brought himself up while at the same time using his strength to bring his larger opponent down and it fell forwards with a roar. Alt didn't give it a chance to recover as he rose the leg he was holding in the air and brought his foot up, then slamming it down into the head of the larger being but unlike before, Alt didn't think this killed it.
It stilled for a moment and Alt dropped the leg to the ground and looked closer at it. He was about to look closer when he felt a bullet impact his chest, surprised by the attack, he quickly looked back to the bridge in order to see Linda looking at him from the entrance. When their eyes met, she raised her hand and beckoned him over. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to hear anything over the radio, he was about to make his way back to them when the ground shook underneath him. Even he found himself stumbling slight as he realized that the ship was being hit with something.
It didn't take him long to realise that Blue Team must got the shields down and even less to come up with what they were being hit with. He was on the bridge of the Commonwealth; he knew what they had left over after their first encounter with the aliens. Archer missiles where the only thing they could use. Knowing that he needed to get back to the others but at the same time not wanting to leave this alien alive but also not knowing how to kill it without going over every single worm it was made from. Even now it was trying to move again, Alt picked up its back leg, turned around and threw it.
It wasn't as hard as he could but it was with some of his strength, that seemed to be enough to send it down the farthest point away from him at the other end of a the large corridor. Knowing that was delt with for now, he started to make his way back to the bridge, hopefully they could start to get some data from this ship. Not wanting to run again after finding himself almost out of breath, he started to calmly walk. Though as he neared the bridge, he really wished that he could make use of his suits mag boots so he would shake around so much because of the missiles being fired at them.
It only took him a few minutes of stepping over dead bodies before he reached the door, Linda gave him a firm nod as he moved past and towards the others, the sniper joining him as she no longer had the need to watch the door. When he did enter he could see that the Commonwealth had come much closer, and the front of the ship started to fly over the alien one "Be advised away team" he could her Walus's voice come through Blue teams' radio "firing to cable now, danger close"
"Wait what?" Alt asked out loud, that was when the others all turned to look at him and no doubt realizing that he doesn't have his helmet.
"Alt" Sam started as he looked at him "Where's your..." he trailed off before he quickly turned to look out the window "Commonwealth! Hold the cab..."
That was how far he got in his warning before the large cable meant for towing other ships smashed through the front window of the bridge, slamming into the ground going through the many controls as it did so. Which broke the pressure seal over the bridge, opening the ship up to the vacuum of space.
As all the air started to get sucked out of the ship, it took Alt with it. While the other Spartans could use their mag boots to stick themselves to the ground, Alt did not have that option and found himself lifted from the ground and fired across the air towards the large hole that just came from the broken window.
While three of the five members of blue team where close enough to him to try and reach out and grab him, all of them missed and he found himself being dragged towards the large void of space. He was only just able to grab onto a piece of metal that was sticking up from ground by the edge just before where the windows were. At the time he didn't know what it was and it wasn't until later that he realized it was a piece of the floor that the tow cable tore up when it broke through the window.
By some miracle it was able to hold steady despite his weight of him and the force of him being pulled out by the ship's oxygen. Then came the other type of debris, namely the large amount of dead bodies that he just killed came rushing out. He couldn't help but think this may have been a type of karma for what he just did. One of the larger aliens came at him and due to him hanging on with his hands and barely having a grip, he wasn't able to get out of the way in time. It hit him right in the chest, while it did nothing to him as he barely felt it himself, that added weight was enough to cause the debris he hanging onto to snap off and Atlas let out a chocked gasp as he started to fly out of the ship and into space.
Now, he was panicking. He wouldn't deny that, for all he knew this was going to be how he ended, drifting off into space until he suffocated, or froze to death. The only think in his head was how he would save himself, he started to look around franticly trying to see anything he could that would help. And he found it, the alien that he beat before, the large one with the arm cannon, it was flying through the air and heading right towards him.
Knowing that he had to ask fast, he reached out with his hands and gripped it tightly. He twisted it around his body and pressed both his legs against it, as the span around in the void, Alt used the alien's body as momentum and kicked out with his legs, allowing him to change direction. The good thing about this situation was the bridge of the alien's ship wasn't at the front of it like it would be on a UNSC ship, it was in the middle of it, but it was on an elevated position so it could overlook everything. So, by the time Atlas was able to change position, he was still above the ship allowing him to move downwards towards the top of it.
When he got close enough, he brought his hand up and slammed it down with enough strength to rip a small hole in the bulkhead. He was to rip open and bigger hole so he could get back inside but he stopped himself. In fact, he froze up completely, his mind just processed something it should have done immediately. He looked around himself, he was on top of the alien ship, completely exposed to the vacuum of space without his helmet leaving his head exposed to it all.
And he was fine.
He reached up and touched his face, when he felt it, it felt it was completely normal, there was nothing forming on his face that should have happened to exposed skin in space. In fact, he didn't feel anything wrong, everything felt completely normal. He opened his mouth and breathed in and it worked 'but that can't be right, there's no air here' he thought to himself. Which only left one question 'what the hell am I breathing?' he added.
Knowing that he should be waiting here for much longer, his eyes looked up to the Commonwealth that was hovering above him and the tow cable going to the bridge. He should get moving, these were questions that would need to wait. He kneeled down slightly and looked at the angles that he would need to use and then he hopped forward, letting the lack of gravity carrying him the rest of the way. As he moved he could hear the radio chatter from the helmet Spartans "We've lost the signal from Atlas's transponder!" he could hear Serin voice come in from someone's radio "launch all probes on his last known trajectory, get him back now!" she ordered.
"Launching probes now, Pelicans are being prept. ETA thirty seconds!" another voice he didn't recognize sounded.
That was when he made it back to the destroyed window. Blue team where all gathered around the tow cable and pulling out some wires from its base, they were not the most capable when it came to hacking alien tech so instead of looking for a type of port they could plug the wires into, they just ripped up some wire from the floors and walls and made a physical connection that the Commonwealth's A.I could use "connection established, good work Blue team" Walus said.
They didn't see him until he made his way back inside "ATLAS!" Kelly shouted as she ran towards him as fast as her suit's mag boots would allow her too. The others all turned to look her way when she spoke "We have to get you back... inside" she started to trail off as she realized that he was fine "You're ok" she said as she took a step back from him.
He opened his mouth to talk but stopped when he remembered that he wouldn't be able to talk because there would be no sound... his eyes widened, how did he hear them talking over the radio when he was exposed to the vacuum? He could hear through space? That was a bit much, even for him.
"This is Serria 117, hold off on probe launch. Atlas made it back" he said aloud but he knew it was over the radio.
"... Say again 117" Serin's voice came through after a long pause "I thought you said he didn't have a helmet on and was exposed to the vacuum?" she said back with an unsure voice.
"That is correct but... he's fine" he said with an unbelieving tone himself.
All Alt could do was give him a small shrug, unable to say anything and it felt the best way to tell them that he had no idea how either "...Understood" Serin said back before the line went dead.
There was nothing but silence around the away team as they all starred at each other, Alt knew they no doubt had questions, but they would need to be simple as he all he could do was answer with nods, shakes or facial expressions "are you alright?" Linda asked him.
He once again looked at himself before nodding "that's one hell of an advantage" Fred commented and the others couldn't help but agree with him.
"Did you see any sign of your people on board?" Sam asked him and the question made him feel uneasy. He shook his head, answering no but there was no denying that the written language that these guys seemed to use felt familiar to him. He did not like that one bit, and he knew that he would be spending a great deal of time thinking about it later.
Before any more of them could ask questions of their own, a sound hit Alts ears and he turned his head in order to see a small flashing yellow light on the far side of the room that was defiantly not there before, the terminal the holographic light was connected too was there, but that light defiantly wasn't. Before he could even ask Alt could hear every one of their radio's go off at the same time "This is Walus to the away team! Evacuate now! We've just detected forty new signatures that match the ship you're on enter the system! We are leaving!"
Every single one of them moved without any type of delay, their training wouldn't allow them to be too shocked to move. They'll panic about how out numbers they are later, each of them moved to the cable that was imbedded in the ground, seeing it as the only way off the ship. A Pelican would take too long to get here and line up with the breach. They didn't just hang onto it, they knew that would be inadvisable with what Atlas planned to do. Blue team deactivated their mag boots and jumped, going a few feet above the base of the cable and dug their hands into the metal giving them a good grip.
It wasn't difficult for them as the cable itself was a good five feet in diameter, so there was plenty of room for all of them. When they were secured Atlas moved forward to the base of it and gripped it with his hands, he then pulled. The ground underneath them turned and twisted as the cable was ripped free, all the wired connections that Blue team just did where ripped away as he freed the cable from the ground, he them hopped off the ground himself and grabbed on tightly. He looked at John who knew what to do "This is the away team, we're on the tow cable and it's been freed, pull us back in" he said through the radio.
"Copy that!" Walus shouted back as the cable moved. It was not gentle, it was fast and violent. Not surprising when you considered how much of rush they were in. Getting back to the ship was quick, getting back in was harder. The cable itself was attached by the outer hull so they would need to make their way inside on their own, thankfully they all had the same idea. The tow cable was based just underneath the entrance to the main hanger, so as it was going back into its port, each of the Spartans jumped and without gravity to bring them down they flew upwards until they reached the shields that led to the hanger. As each of them passed it, the artificial gravity of the ship took effect and they all fell to the ground with a roll.
John found he's feet first and looked to all the others "we're on-board Commonwealth, get us out of here!" he said into his radio.
"All hands, prep for slip space jump" an automated voice said from above them and Alt could hear the ships engine blur louder and he looked out to see that the planet was getting smaller.
That was when his eyes widened, they could just leave like this "John, detonator!" he shouted as he ran for the edge of the hanger entrance.
John quickly reached for his hip where the detonator for the nuke was placed, and he threw it towards him. Alt turned and caught it in his hand before he armed the nuke and looked out of the hangers shield just in time to see the remains of the alien ship before he pushed the trigger.
As the slip space portal opened in front of them, Alt only had a second to catch the brief flash of light coming from the alien ship before they entered slip space and the portal closed behind them. Leaving the planet of Harvest and the alien ship in ruin.
Wait what? Sam survived the mission? You are damn right he did, cause with Atlas they had a much better chance against the enemy. And did Atlas recognize the covenant language? Are we going to find out about that later? You're god damn right you are.
Anyway, let me know what you all thought in the reviews down bellow. A little but of disclaimer, now has a new system that will allow you to control weather or not you get emails telling you of knew chapters or not, I don't know why they did that. I changed my immediately, if you want to get emails about chapters again, you just need to go to your account, then setting and you will find anEmail Opt-in option and from there you can get the emails again.
Next story update: A New Guardian
