Disclaimer: I own nothing, just borrowing for fun!
Chapter 39
Showdown Part II
March 3, 2558
Shield World Requiem
USS Voyager
It didn't take long for the Spartans to enact repairs on their armor and prepare for the next mission.
Even though the last one hadn't been very difficult, they hadn't been expected. Now that they'd given their show of force, Jul 'Mdama would no doubt increase security around his most valuable asset.
The Librarian was his prize now that the Didact was gone.
While John-117 knew he and the others could handle whatever Jul could throw at them, what bothered him was that Halsey was a requirement.
He did not like having to baby sit civilians, especially troublesome ones like her. He still hadn't quite forgiven her for kidnapping Kelly in the middle of an operation during the war.
Speaking of Halsey...
He, with Cortana, went to the bridge where Halsey was busy catching up on everything that was happening. With Kalmiya's help, Cortana knew that a woman with a 200 IQ coupled with a Smart AI should be done by now.
As he entered the bridge, he nodded to Miranda and Connor. Both were discussing naval tactics. Apparently Connor had taken a keen interest in the subject since stepping on board Voyager for the first time.
John Henry sat still at the helm, his body was not needed to control the ship. Cameron kept herself isolated from the system and was currently running ops for John Henry.
Moving past them he entered the Ready Room where Halsey was busy manipulating holograms with a full sized Kalmiya by her side.
They seemed to be getting along nicely.
"Good to see somethings never change..." Cortana told him privately, "They always were a good team."
"What about you?"
She smiled in the corner of his visor, "We were too much alike to work that well together."
He guess he could understand that knowing Halsey and Cortana's stubbornness as he did.
"Hello, John." Halsey greeted before shutting down the projection.
"Ma'am," he also gave Kalmiya the same greeting before addressing Halsey again, "Are you ready, Doctor?"
Her eyebrow quirked at his words, "As ready as one can be on such short notice."
Despite her slightly exasperated tone, the glint in her eyes told John that was more than a little excited to meet the Librarian.
Wordlessly he turned and left the room with Halsey following on his heels. Kalmiya kept a graceful pace with her even though she wouldn't be going with them. She'd be working with someone else during their mission.
It didn't take long for everyone to gather aboard the Aero. All the Spartan IIs and Six were present with Doctor Halsey and Cortana. They would be the primary team with Allison, John, Derek, and Cameron as backup aboard the Delta Flyer should anything go awry. This was too important a mission to leave anyone on the sidelines.
Only the most essential people were left on Voyager.
Once the Aero and the Delta Flyer cleared the area around the L.Z., they'd land and send in Blue Team while Red guarded Doctor Halsey.
They'd gone over this plan a hundred times before they'd even arrived at Requiem; they were ready.
Allison and Six coordinated, with help from Kalmiya, as they targeted the defenses with quick efficiency. Anti-air barely had time to warm up before they were smoldering piles of junk. The surrounding soldiers didn't fair any better, and their comrades farther away didn't have much time to respond before the two small craft vaporized them with pinpoint fire guided by targeting algorithms designed by Cortana herself.
No sooner had the last guard had fallen did Blue Team beam down and rush the entrance.
Because of the mini-series, they knew the layout of the place, and Cortana guided them as they quickly made their way down the wide corridor.
"I hate to point it out," Cortana said as they mowed through Covenant and Prometheans alike, "but they're making this way too easy."
Fred agreed, "She's right, they're putting on a show for us."
No one objected, but they didn't have a choice.
Before they entered the main chamber Kelly put in her own two cents, "Keep you eyes peeled, who knows what 'Mdama's up to after we destroyed those anchors."
It almost went without saying, but Kelly had been a tad more protective of her comrades lately.
The battle for the main chamber was more difficult since the space was so large, but it wasn't anything they hadn't done before. With Cortana's guidance on enemy positions, Linda was able to pick off anyone trying to snipe them or use heavy ordinance, leaving the regular foot soldiers for the rest.
By the time the chamber was cleared, five minutes had passed since they'd beamed down.
After making sure the area was secure, they sealed all but the main entrance before the Chief triggered his comm, "We're clear, send her in."
While Red team escorted Halsey in, the Chief noticed the signs of a previous battle. They were partially repaired, but one corner of the room was heavily marred by Forerunner weapons fire.
There was also some dried blood spattered on the wall. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was Kelly's from the battle that had brought them back together.
Watching Kelly, Linda, and Fred, John could tell that they were more on edge than usual. This could very well end in the same trap as last time.
Cortana was constantly monitoring the Covenant battle net looking for any indication of retaliation. As of now, it was unusually quiet concerning their attack.
Red Team entered the room with Halsey in the middle of them.
Being as observant as the Spartans that surrounded her, it didn't take long for her to get her bearings.
Equipment was scattered everywhere, some of it old UNSC tech. Someone had been tampering with the Librarian's 'shrine'. From what she'd been told, it had been Doctor Glassman who'd been forced to work for the Sangheili. It didn't surprise her that he hadn't gotten very far.
The only progress he'd apparently made likely wasn't even his doing. The multi-layer bubble shield would be giving him too much credit.
Using her tablet, she quickly activated custom protocols she'd designed to access the equivalent to a Forerunner wireless network. A few rapid commands got her started and a few new ones she'd just come up with did the trick.
The shield went away when the shrine activated.
A satisfied smile spread across her face; she took immense pride in her ability to manipulate Forerunner tech.
Cortana mentally rolled her eyes, even though she had no room to talk.
"Hold this, please," she held out the tablet while taking a step toward the shrine. John took it from her, and she stepped into it without another word or thought on the matter.
The Chief turned his back on the shrine and opened a comm channel to the Aero, "Six, what's your status?"
She was quick to respond, "We're all clear up here. Covies are keeping awfully quiet considering we just wiped out their outpost."
He didn't need it spelled out for him to realize just how badly they were being set up. He figured that as soon as Halsey was finished talking to the Librarian, whatever trap that was being laid would be sprung.
Jul M'dama had wanted Halsey to help him access the Librarian, and now he was just letting them do that in his stead. When she emerged, they he'd try to claim her and his prize.
Since they're were no ships in the immediate area, that left Prometheans as the first wave.
"Cortana, " he asked her privately, "is there any way to teleport us out of here?"
"No, John. This chamber is too heavily shielded for any transporter to penetrate. We have to get outside."
"And the Prometheans?"
"Again, not much we can do. There aren't any turrets in the room for me to control," she explained apologetically. Worry was etched on her face before she vacated her corner of his visor.
That left him with one option, call in the backup.
Not all of them, of course, but one in particular.
Cameron.
When the Chief's request came through, Kalmiya was the one to answer. She was occupying the Delta Flyer's systems assisting Allison as she flew the craft in a holding pattern.
She would pilot the craft should her compatriots need to deploy.
"Cameron," her avatar popped up on the dashboard, "the Master Chief is requesting your presence on the surface."
Still without a covering, Cameron's glowing purple eyes turned toward Kalmiya, as did the human's. "What about the rest of us?"
"Connor and the others may be needed later, right now the Spartans are guarding Doctor Halsey, but they can't insure her safety if Jul M'dama springs the same trap as he did before."
Cameron stood up, her hand lingering on John as Kalmiya beamed her down.
As soon as she was gone, both Derek and Allison shared a look. Connor noticed, but he wasn't sure what it was about.
He hoped it wasn't about him and Cameron. That was not a conversation he wanted to have right now. He knew they would never truly understand his attachment to her, nor did he blame them for not doing so.
Still, it was something that would need to be resolved eventually, but for now they all needed to concentrate on the mission.
Cameron quickly understood why the Master Chief wanted her on the surface, but not with them in the main chamber. Her job was to provide an opening for escape once the Prometheans attacked.
It was a smart move, in her mind. She was the most resilient of them all, and she'd proven her effectiveness against the Forerunner soldiers before.
She hid herself in the main corridor behind some crates the Covenant had left behind waiting for the action to begin.
"I'm in position, Cortana."
The AI responded, "Good. With you we may get out of this in one piece."
While she waited, her analytical mind began to take in the Forerunner structure around her. She thought about how it worked, what all it could do, why it was designed that way, what material it was made out of.
She was a curious creature to be sure, and it only made sense to study her surroundings. With the tricorder in her head, she tried, and failed, to identify the material from which the wall was made, but she did know a bit about its power systems and data distribution network from Cortana.
With the tricorder she began tapping into the data stream. Using the techniques Cortana had taught her, she was able to translate bits and pieces of the data, but nothing of consequence.
At first, anyway.
With the co-processors that came with the TX-3, she was able to quickly tweak the filters and algorithms given to her. Doing so allowed her to view the data in a fashion more suited to her than a Smart AI.
Switching through the streams wasn't difficult, but finding any meaningful data wasn't. She didn't like admitting it, but she was a outdated compared to Cortana and the Forerunners.
That didn't stop her from stumbling onto a set of data streams that struck her as familiar. It took almost a minute for her understand what it was for, and when she ran it past Cortana, it confirmed her suspicions.
It was the part of the network that linked sensory data to all the terminals on Requiem. Its nervous system so to speak.
Since she was performing an unauthorized tap, she had only her own internal buffer to make sense of the enormous amounts of data flowing through the network.
Slowly she began dividing up the data into planetary sectors, levels, and finally by data type. She could only access a small part of it in real time due to the speed of the network.
After sorting the data she set up algorithms to switch between the different sectors based on activity. She was hoping to catch a massive relocation of Promethean troops so the Master Chief would have a few seconds more to prepare.
What she got instead was an anomaly in a sector far away from here. She wasn't entirely sure what it was and sent the data to Cortana for analysis. What she told her was interesting.
The reading was of a continuously active portal. What made it unusual was that it was part of the defunct long range portal system that the Forerunners used to use inside the galaxy to get from installation to installation without a starship.
It wasn't like the one that sent Blue Team to the Ark, these only had a range of a few thousand light years.
She took an interest and focused on the data in that area. What she found surprised her. Three humans exited the portal, two of them wearing armor. They were accompanied by a Huragok.
It struck her as odd that the UNSC would deploy troops so far behind enemy lines in such an unconventional way. There was nothing in the area of interest other than the portal itself.
Unable to get anything further from the network, Cameron went back to waiting for the Prometheans to relocate, but not before sending the data to Kalmiya on board the Delta Flyer.
They could do with her findings as they saw fit, she didn't have time to think about it.
Halsey had just exited the shrine with the Janus Key, and she'd just detected a platoon of Promethean soldiers teleporting away.
The trap was about to spring.
"Master Chief," she said through the comm, "they're coming."
The Spartans hadn't been sitting around while Halsey conversed with the Librarian. They'd spent that time moving crates and containers around to form a defensive perimeter around the shrine. They'd need cover if they were going to survive this.
When Cameron's warning came through, the Chief had already grabbed Halsey and put her behind cover. The woman looked worried, and it wasn't because of the impending battle.
Ignoring Halsey's mood, John-117 took aim at the first wave of Prometheans.
Crawlers, Watchers, and Knights filled the room with weapons blazing. They were determined to kill everyone.
They took care of the ones with heavy weapons first, especially the Battle-wagons packing Incineration Cannons.
Within a minute the room was an orchestra of weapon's fire and explosions as the Spartans battled the AIs with their powerful phasers. They kept coming, just as they did when Fred, Kelly, and Linda had been cornered a month ago.
It was then that Cameron joined the fight.
With her twin cannons she blasted a path to them and kept the others at bay.
The Chief turned to Kelly, "Take Halsey and get her out. Linda and I will provide cover."
"Yes, sir." She responded, even though she was loathe to leave her teammate in such a sticky situation. She grabbed the smaller woman and pulled her close to her chest.
Cameron was taking heavy fire and couldn't maintain her position much longer. Kelly crouched down and then sprang into a run. Halsey gasped as the breath was forced out of her lungs from the force of Kelly's acceleration.
Cameron ran behind them as she provided fire-support for the sprinting Spartan.
With Kelly's speed it didn't take long to exit the corridor. Nothing was waiting for them outside, thanks to the Covenant forces being needed elsewhere. As soon as she saw sunlight, Kelly commed for beam-out.
Just as Six acknowledged her call, Kelly noticed someone approaching. A Spartan IV in white Recon armor dual-wielding Magnums. She didn't need her HUD to tell her it was Commander Palmer.
She also knew she was here to kill Halsey.
"Doctor, stay behind me."
Halsey didn't argue and kept the two halves of the key close to her chest.
"Hurry up, Six," Kelly thought as the Commander got closer.
The hot-headed woman stopped dead in her tracks upon recognizing Kelly, who was considered MIA.
"What the!?"
Fortunately for Kelly, Six energized the transporter before the conversation could continue.
Watching them disappear in a column of blue light stunned the woman for a moment, but it quickly turned to anger realizing that Halsey had gotten away.
Palmer grit her teeth in frustration, but thoughts of losing Halsey were pushed aside when her augmented eyes landed on someone else who'd earned her ire.
Cameron didn't have time to argue, or fight, so she turned tail and ran back into the complex knowing Palmer would follow.
Leading her back inside would provide a small amount of help evacuating the remaining Spartans.
By the time she got back to the main chamber, the situation was starting to degrade. The Spartans' armor was beginning to wear down, many of them had nicks burns on their armor plates.
The terminator did her best to relieve the beleaguered Spartans with her phaser cannons, reopening the hole in their perimeter.
The Master Chief immediately ordered Red Team to retreat after telling them to throw the last of their grenades towards the Prometheans at their rear.
Multiple explosions destroyed many of the Prometheans at the rear, allowing the Spartans to do a sweep with their phaser rifles at high power to clear out many more in their way.
"Spartans, move out!" The Chief yelled over the screams of the dying Prometheans. Everyone made a mad dash for the corridor while Cameron, the Master Chief, and a very confused Sarah Palmer covered their retreat.
Once Red Team, Fred, and Linda were in the corridor, Cameron, the Chief, and Palmer held the Prometheans back. Palmer, who hadn't prepared for an engagement like this, soon ran out of ammo and was forced to retreat with the rest.
Cameron and the Chief accelerated their retreat once the others had beamed up to the Aero, only Palmer had been left behind.
Just as they were about to exit the complex, Covenant storage containers near the entrance exploded in a fiery blast; throwing them backward into the corridor. As her senses returned, Cameron watched as the entrance collapsed.
Her sensors told her it had been plasma bombs, which had blown out the walls and trapped them inside.
It suddenly occurred to her that this had all been set up for the Master Chief, not Dr. Halsey.
Changes to the timeline had skewed the accuracy of the information they had on future events.
As her systems recovered from the explosion, she noticed the Chief slumped against the back wall; he was conscious but disoriented.
She, too, wasn't in the best shape. The blast wave had warped some of the smaller pieces in her transforming arms, making the cannons useless. Her shields still worked, and her mobility hadn't been compromised, but the armor plates on her torso had taken a beating from shrapnel.
Needing to rearm herself, she forced her cannons back into hands, but not without having to eject some of the components too damaged to shift back into place. With her hands usable again, she picked up a Scattershot before checking on the Chief.
Kneeling next to him, she did a more detailed scan of his vitals and realized that blast had caused some internal damage. Bio-foam injectors would solve that issue, but that wasn't what worried her; a large piece of shrapnel was embedded in his abdomen.
Since he was still recovering from the blast, Cortana spoke for her Spartan, "How bad is it?"
"He'll live," she told her while opening her abdominal compartment. Inside was a can of bio-foam and other medical tools from Voyager. In less than a minute she had patched up his gut, rebound the muscle, sealed the skin, and fixed his armor. This was one of the many situations they'd prepared for.
The Chief, now more alert, took her hand and stood up, "Thanks," he said while pushing aside the pain he was feeling.
Cortana sighed audibly, "I've alerted Six and Keyes of our situation, but it looks they're about to get busy. 'Mdama's sent a battle cruiser and two corvettes to secure the area; troops are already being deployed."
"What happened to Commander Palmer?"
Cortana checked with John Henry, "She's about 100 meters away with fire team Majestic. She wasn't close enough for the blast to harm her."
As she finished, all three picked up the sounds of Prometheans echoing down the corridor.
"They're regrouping," Cameron observed while picking up more ammo, "We need to leave."
"I second that," Cortana said as the Chief did a brief check of his phaser rifle.
Seeing that it was still operational, he opted for the most obvious option, "We can vaporize the debris."
That would have worked, if Prometheans hadn't blocked their escape. They began teleporting in forcing them to fight. Cameron took on the smaller targets while the Chief used his rifle to vaporize the Knights. The numerous pieces of debris served as their cover, but it was clear that the regrouping Prometheans coming from the main chamber would make that a moot point.
Cortana knew that would not end well, "They're going to box us in!"
Neither the Spartan or the terminator responded; they already knew, but they weren't being given much of an option. They would just have to fight their way through the ones in front of them.
The Chief put his phaser on wide beam and pumped up the power to maximum. He opened up on the group blocking their exit keeping the level 16 burst on for several seconds to make sure the Prometheans died.
He cut the beam and changed out the cell before switching to a narrow beam to cut through the now red-hot Forerunner metal. The beam only cut a narrow hole in the metal, forcing the Chief to make a cutout. Halfway through the cut, two Knights teleported in.
One was closer than the other; it had an incineration cannon, then other had a binary rifle. Cameron engaged the greater threat first and fired upon the closer Knight, barely able to kill it before it was able to fire.
Unfortunately, that gave its companion ample time to aim its powerful rifle, but not at her.
To Cameron, the Chief was as expendable as she was. They were soldiers, and while valuable, they didn't compare to Cortana in her eyes. The AI had to survive.
Not knowing exactly what would happen, Cameron made her choice.
She positioned herself between them just as the Promethean fired.
The Chief had turned around just as Cameron had destroyed the first Knight, but didn't have time to aim before the other fired. He watched Cameron take the powerful shot intended for him.
Without checking on her, he returned the favor and vaporized the Knight.
"Chief! Her shields were already weakened! We need to help her!"
Cortana's concern was warranted; Cameron's chassis was sparking and smoking, and she wasn't moving.
Though her head was intact, her chest and abdomen plates were gone, and her internals had taken grievous damage. High voltage wires sparked as they shorted out, actuators in her shoulders and abdomen groaned from the damage, but still continued to function whilst her shield system failed permanently.
Keeping an eye out for more Prometheans, the Master Chief inquired about her condition.
"Backup power cell connections destroyed, primary power source failing. Shields destroyed, mobility down to 60%, CPU and co-processors intact," her voice module was damaged as well; her voice came out with pops and crackles on the high and low frequencies.
"How long can you stay online?" He knew her systems were failing.
"Five minutes, thirty-nine seconds before reactor safeties shut me down."
Knowing what needed to be done, he handed her his phaser rifle and took up the Incineration Cannon and the Scattershot. Cameron finished the cut and punched the cut piece out.
As soon as she did though, it was clear that they weren't home free.
Surrounding them were dozens of Covenant troops surrounding them with air support flying above them. Her sensors had been damaged, and she hadn't been able to detect them. Cortana hadn't either, for the same reasons.
"We're surrounded," she deadpanned just before the Covenant opened fire.
Ten minutes earlier...
John Connor wasn't keen on the change of plans, especially since Cameron might need their backup.
When said cyborg had reported an anomaly behind enemy lines, Commander Keyes had told them to investigate. He had wanted to object, but he didn't have a reason yet for doing so. Especially if there were potentially friendlies walking into a hostile situation.
With their cloak and the Delta Flyer's speed, it didn't take long to find the source of the anomaly.
It was just as Cameron had said. Three humans, two were Spartans.
Only one problem: one of the Spartans was dead.
"Any idea who they are?" he asked Kalmiya as they circled around the site.
Their service profiles popped up on the screen in front of him, "The Spartans are two of the few remaining Beta class Spartan IIIs, like Six."
Lucy B-091 and Tom B-292, John had heard stories about them. So had Derek and Allison.
"The other is Franklin Mendez; the man who trained the Spartans," the AI informed them, "Needless to say, he's definitely someone we could use."
Being in charge of the operation, John gave the order to clear out the nearby troops with phaser fire before landing the Flyer. As soon as they got out they were forced to engage what remained of the Covenant forces.
They'd taken out their communications and all of their heavy units, including the Prometheans. Connor was confident that his battle hardened Resistance teammates could handle the rest.
They did not disappoint.
The three of them had trained in the holodeck against Covenant forces, and because of their experience with both humans and machines alike, it'd been easy. With their phasers and photon grenades they made short work of the remaining troops, clearing a path to the three wounded humans.
Only one of them was any real threat, and she was shorter than Allison. Mendez was clearly fighting to stay awake and Tom was dead.
Still, one Spartan was more than enough to cause trouble, and right now she looked like a cornered animal.
"Identify yourselves!" Her voice was cracked with emotion and pain.
Connor, knowing they couldn't stay her much longer, did something that was either incredibly stupid or very smart.
He stowed his rifle on his back and put his hands up in surrender.
Allison hissed, "What are you doing, John?"
Derek seemed to understand, "Follow his lead, Allie."
She hesitated momentarily, but obeyed.
Lucy was still weary, "You're not UNSC," she said while keeping her weapon trained on him.
"We're not part of any faction you're aware of. We've been..." but Derek interrupted him.
"John, " he pointed to the Huragok, "the Engineer!"
Connor turned to where he was pointing and saw the slightly singed purple and pink Engineer floating near the portal as it desperately tried to shut it down. That wasn't what Derek was talking about, though, it was the remains of a Terminator endo-skull clutched in its tentacles.
Lucy kept her weapon trained as Connor approached the Huragok, "Don't touch him!"
He stopped and looked at her, "He's not what I want." he explained before kneeling down in front of Prone to Drift.
"Can I hold that?" he gestured to the endo-skull.
"You know who did this?" it inquired.
Connor nodded, "I've fought them all my life. They're who we're trying to stop," he explained before opening a comm link to Voyager, "Commander, we have a problem."
"What sort of problem?"
"Our targets weren't an insertion team, they were escaping a Skynet attack," he said while holding the remains of the skull in his hands.
There was a pause on the other end before John Henry came on comms, "Mr. Connor, destroy that portal. We can't afford to divide our attention any further."
Since the conversation had been private amongst the team, they hadn't heard what had been said. "Allison, set a charge on that portal. We don't have time to screw with the metal bastards," he tossed the skull to Derek, who immediately scowled under his visor.
Allison's fists were clenched and was almost tempted to go through the portal and fight them, but judging by the newcomers' condition, it would be a short fight for the machines.
Connor was glad the Huragok didn't protest and turned to Mendez whom he assumed outranked the still suspicious Lucy.
"Chief Mendez?"
The man was sitting on crate, his face burned and one of his arms was useless by his side.
"Who's asking?" the man groused through his cracked lips.
He depolarized his visor, "I'm Connor," instead of going on about who he was behind the name, he simply opened his med kit and loaded a poly-pseudo-morphine cartridge into a hypo spray.
"This will reduce the pain." he told the silver-haired man, but Mendez leaned away.
"I don't trust you, kid," he groused.
Connor shrugged, "Then don't, but you'll pass out from the pain in a few minutes. I've seen these kinds of wounds before."
Realizing it was a moot point if he was about to be injected with a sedative, he resigned himself to at least pass out in less agony.
"Fine," he managed.
Connor injected the pain killer as Allison finished setting the anti-matter grenade. As the pain began to fade, he told Lucy to stand down.
"We need to get out of here, Lucy, and no one else is offering."
She nodded hesitantly and holstered her weapon. Immediately she knelt by her fallen partner and took his hand in hers own.
Connor knelt down next to her as Derek, Mendez, and the Huragok headed for the Flyer.
"He hasn't been gone long, has he?"
Lucy shook her head, thankful that the visor hid her tears as she watched Connor examine her friend's head, "What are you doing?"
"We can save him, he's not too far gone, Lucy."
She locked eyes with him through their visors, "Don't promise what you can't... keep."
Her broken sentence, filled with sorrow and anger touched him in a way he didn't expect. Maybe it was because she was a Spartan? Or maybe he was used to being on the on the other end of the conversation.
"I don't make promises I can't keep. As long as his head's intact, we still have time," he told her before motioning for Allison to help carry Tom's body, "Come on, we need to go before the Covies come back."
Without another word, she followed the mysterious 'Connor' and his Spartan comrade hoping that he hadn't lied to her. It was a terrible feeling; all this uncertainty and emotional turmoil was wreaking havoc on her state of mind.
She felt as unstable as a Gamma who'd forgotten their Smoothers.
She hated this feeling, and she hated even more not knowing what was going on. These strange people dressed up like UNSC but weren't and knew about the machines that had killed Tom and so many others.
Past the trees surrounding the portal was a sleek craft unlike any she'd seen before.
Once they'd all boarded, she went back to her friend's side as the red Spartan took the helm. The two dressed as ODSTs were in the back with Mendez doing something about his wounds. At least, that's what she could gather from what was being said.
A shock wave rocked the ship after they took off, indicating that the bomb had been detonated, and the portal had been destroyed.
Prone to Drift stayed near her as it examined the machine's remains; ignoring the fact that these people had just destroyed a Forerunner device. Normally he'd be up in arms about such a thing, but he too was suffering the consequences of that brutal attack.
As Allison flew back to Voyager, she told Kalmiya to alert the Doctor about two incoming patients. "We'll beam them over as soon as we're close enough to clear this interference," she told the pink AI.
Kalmiya shook her head, "The Covenant are catching onto our little trick, we'll have to be within a kilometer to successfully transport them."
The Spartan sighed, "Any update on the Janus Key?"
"Recovered, though some of our teammates are currently trapped on the surface. The Master Chief, Cortana, and Cameron are currently being besieged by the Covenant forces."
Allison frowned, the last thing they needed was to lose two of their most valuable assets not to mention the symbol of hope for the UNSC.
And secretly, her's too.
"What about backup?" She asked without a hint of her inner turmoil about the situation.
Suddenly Kalmiya looked surprised and concerned by something, "Uh...it appears that Six is making herself the backup."
"Oh no..."
She knew exactly what her mentor was doing; she was going after her brother.
Six was not known for being reckless.
She was as stable a soldier as any other. Disobeying orders or deviating from a plan was not her M.O.
That was before she knew she had family; before she knew she had a brother.
The other Spartan IIs didn't like the situation any better, but they had their orders. Both Doctor Halsey and Voyager must be protected. With their anonymity disappearing by the second, and transporter range greatly reduced by the Covenant's primitive attempts to jam them.
After getting close to the ship, she was able to beam them all over.
"Commander, I'm going back. I can't leave them down there." The determination in her voice was enough for Keyes to know that she would not be persuaded otherwise.
The woman was not pleased by her deviation in plan, but didn't object to it. "What of the Aero? We can't afford to lose her."
As the shuttle descended, still cloaked, under the 2,200 meter CCS-class battle cruiser, she realized there was only one way out of this. "The only way that's going to happen, Commander, is if you clear the skies."
Her hologram looked hesitant for a moment, but then Miranda smiled. "I'll see what I can do, Keyes out."
Six was beginning to like that woman more and more. She understood now why she'd risen so fast through the ranks, she was open to ideas, but only the right ideas.
Though she had to admit, this one was stretching it. Once Voyager revealed itself, the cat was out of the bag.
She thought of firing on the troops, but with the cruiser and corvettes above, it would be unwise. She'd have to do this the old fashioned way.
After setting the autopilot to land the cloaked shuttle nearby, she jumped out of the Aero.
Spreading her arms and legs as she fell, Six was able to control both her speed and direction; she wanted to disrupt the troops surrounding the Chief and Cameron to give them some breathing room.
Every twitch of her fingers and subtle movement of her limbs moved her closer to the spire that she was going to use to slow her descent. Her thrusters would not be enough to slow her down from this height, but with her magnetic soles she could ride down the side of the spire and use it slow herself down.
With no one shooting at her it wouldn't be too hard, but it was risky none-the-less.
She fired her thrusters as she neared the spire until their capacitor's ran dry. As soon as they did, she activated her magnetic soles, but not at full strength. Doing so would have flipped her straight into the tower and turned her to paste. Instead she allowed herself to ski down the side of the spire as she slowly increased the power to the soles in order to slow herself down.
Five hundred feet above the ground a gunner saw her, and in response she tossed her photon grenade in the middle of them. The short timer she'd set guaranteed that she'd be able to ride the blast wave without cooking her own goose. The upward blast slowed her descent further, and with it she jumped off the spire and used her recharged thrusters to bring herself to the ground.
Six landed in a hard roll before regaining her footing and sprinting for cover inside the collapsed entrance where her teammates were.
As the dust cloud from her entrance swirled around her, the Master Chief regarded her with a look of amusement, "Nice entrance."
Shrugging, she replied, "I aim to please," before tossing him a new power cell and an antimatter grenade.
Taking a look at Cameron's endo she added, "You've seen better days. How long's that reactor going to hold up?"
"Four minutes, five seconds until shutdown," she replied.
Six shook her head, "That's cutting it too close. I parked the Aero two klicks to the west and there are a lot of Covies between us."
"She's right," the Chief said as he took his rifle back from the Terminator, at which point Cortana suggested a better alternative.
"Detach the endo-skull; we can override the safeties on the reactor and give the Covies something else to think about."
Cameron was getting a little weary of sacrificing her bodies, but it was thankfully replaceable, "Like we did with Skynet?"
"Yep."
Without waiting for input from the Spartans, Cameron released the locks on her skull and switched to the small cell in her head to keep her CPU powered.
Using the mag clamps on the small of her back, she carried Cameron's skull like she'd carried Cortana's chip back on Reach.
As they got ready to run, the two Spartans noticed fighting about three hundred feet from their position. The Chief remembered Commander Palmer and a Spartan IV fire team were trapped down here with them. Whatever vehicles they'd come down in had likely been destroyed by now.
While Cortana opened a channel to Palmer, the Chief motioned Six to lay down cover fire before signaling Palmer to join them.
Being the Master Chief generally meant that people obeyed him when he said something, whether they outranked him or not.
As she and Majestic team joined them, Palmer confronted the Chief, "You have an extraction plan?"
"Two klicks east. We can't transport out with the Covenant jamming the signal," he explained while vaporizing an ambitious Elite.
Privately, Cortana urged Six and the Chief to get moving as Cameron's zero point reactor became increasingly unstable.
"We're leaving," Six announced before breaking into a sprint and shooting what ever Covenant got in her way. The Chief and the others followed suit an instant after.
As they gunned their way through their way through the small canyon, Spartan Madsen, the sniper for fire team Majestic, found himself eyeing the Chief whenever there was a lull in the fighting.
His father was a general in the Marines and the reason why he was a Spartan at all. That also meant that he knew more than he should when it came to the shadier parts of the UNSC and ONI.
He knew the Chief had gone missing, and that Blue Team had chased him into the same fate. It was something that the brass were trying to keep quiet.
Then there was the other Spartan with the skull of the machine that had attacked Commander Palmer on the bridge. Her IFF tag was off but her movements betrayed her. He knew she was a Spartan III.
"Madsen! On the ridge!" Demarco cried, snapping his attention upward. He quickly dealt with the would be sniper.
Whatever the hell was going on, it was going to make one hell of a story.
Things were a lot quieter on the Delta Flyer as they approached Voyager. Connor was busy helping Derek treat the worst of Mendez's wounds while Allison and Kalmiya avoided enemy patrols. Armed with the dermal and osteo-regenerators, they were able to repair most of his injuries. All the Doctor would have to do is flush the radiation from his body and do other anti-rad treatments.
While they had treated him, he'd told them about the Dyson sphere and how everything and everyone had been wiped out before anyone knew what was happening. He told them about the new machines and how fast they were.
Connor was impressed by how calmly he relayed the experience and how he didn't let the overwhelming hopelessness consume him.
"You said you'd fought them before." He inquired.
John looked at him through a depolarized visor, "All my life; Derek and Allison too."
Mendez looked skeptical, "It's more than that."
A smirk was the only answer he got before Allison came over the comm, "We're ready to beam them aboard."
"Answers will have to wait," he told the man, "Our Doctor will patch you all up, and when this is over we'll talk."
Not having any option, Mendez gave a curt nod just before he disappeared.
After stowing the medical supplies, Derek and John both headed back to the cockpit. Just as he was about to take a seat, John's console began beeping.
It was an alert about Cameron.
Hiding his concern he calmly went through the details hoping he wouldn't find the worst, but lucky for him she was still online.
"What's wrong?" Derek asked, but it was Kalmiya who answered.
"She protected the Chief and Cortana, the TX-3 took heavy damage to its torso. They've detached her skull and set the reactor to blow."
Allison snorted in amusement, "Again?"
Kalmiya declined to comment, as did John.
After a few seconds Derek broke the silence, "Must be getting rough if she's taking hits for the Chief."
Allison shrugged, "Not so bad after Six made her grand entrance, so Kalmiya says."
The pink AI crossed her arms, "She jumped out of the Aero a few thousand feet up. Needless to say the Covies weren't expecting that."
Curious as to how they were getting extracted, Allison asked; "How are they getting out?"
"The Aero. She set it down where the wasn't much of a Covenant presence."
Under his helmet, Derek grimaced. She was taking an awful lot of risks she normally didn't. Like Allison, he knew why she was doing it.
Looking over at Connor, he could see that he was tense. John was as worried about Cameron as he was about Six. Feeling Derek's eyes on him, John turned his head and met the man's gaze as Allison brought the shuttle in for landing.
Derek knew he could see his tenseness just as much as he could see John's. He also knew that John was putting the pieces together in his head.
Allison set them down hard before grabbing Kalmiya and rushing out door. John and Derek followed suit.
Voyager was going to war.
Cortana was anxious.
They's gotten out of tough situations before, but this one was becoming more volatile than she was comfortable with. Their backup had been drawn away by the arrival of Mendez and the two Spartans who had been attacked by Terminators.
Cameron losing her body and the Chief getting injured hadn't made her feel any better.
Now they were making a mad dash through the Covenant lines trying to reach the Aero before the Covenant closed in or the battle cruiser dropped on their heads.
Commander Keyes would begin her attack when Cameron's reactor exploded; providing a double distraction for the ground troops and the Banshee's that were harassing them. That left little time to escape, and with the Chief trying to guide the less experienced Spartan IVs, it put him in a very precarious position that she hated seeing him in.
As an AI she could see numerous paths to victory and defeat, and she always feared for him when the odds stacked up against them.
From her accelerated point of view she watched as he directed the group with the same commanding authority he'd honed before most of them were even born. Their effectiveness increased dramatically; they listened to the hero that had saved them all.
As they neared the Aero, Cortana warned her Spartan that Cameron's reactor was about to blow.
"GET DOWN!" He shouted before grabbing a helmet-less Spartan Thorne and shielding him as the zero-point reactor went critical 1200 meters behind them.
As everyone hit the dirt, everything turned bright white; washing out everything. Then the pressure wave came and hit the Spartan's like a ton of bricks. It wasn't enough to harm them, but Thorne's ears were bleeding without his helmet to protect them.
After it passed, everyone got up and ran as fast as they could. Debris was raining down around them. Bits and pieces of rock, metal, and carbonized organic material rained down around them.
Six, knowing Miranda's plan, warned them as the Covenant troops began to recover, "Voyager is commencing her attack on the cruiser, we'd better pick up the pace if we don't want it coming down on our heads!"
As she gunned down another Elite with her dual Magnums, Palmer was getting fed up with being in the dark, "How the hell are you going to do that? There aren't any other ships besides Infinity and the Covies!"
Nobody answered her, and she hadn't been expecting any. She knew as well as anyone that older model Spartans didn't talk much.
Cortana might have chuckled if the situation hadn't been so serious. Snipers were taking shots at them; it seemed only Jackal scout patrols were out this far. Still, some of their shots were hitting home, but they didn't have time to hide and wait for their shields to recharge.
When they were only a hundred meters away, the Chief did something unexpected: he pulled her chip from his helmet and handed her to Six, ignoring her protest.
"Secure the AIs and get the shuttle ready for takeoff" he ordered as a Banshee strafed them with its guns. Six immediately broke into a sprint for the cloaked vehicle.
Using her helmet's wireless link she decloaked the Aero and opened the loading ramp. Once inside she plugged Cortana into the nearest data port and stowed Cameron's endo skull before rushing back outside.
Even though she was mad at John, she didn't waste time in restarting the Aero's engines and getting her off the ground. The Banshee took notice, but it's weapons did little to the shuttle's armor even with the shields down.
Six provided cover from the edge of the ramp as it lifted from the ground while the Spartan IV began jumping onto the ramp one at a time while the rest tried to pick off the gathering Covenant snipers on the bluff behind them.
After picking off another Jackal, Sarah Palmer noticed it was her turn to board the strange craft. As she did she saw the Covenant CSS-class battle cruiser being sliced open by a small, fast moving ship she'd never seen before.
"This day keeps getting better and better," she muttered before firing the last of her ammo at the snipers to keep them behind cover as she jumped onto the ramp.
The Master Chief fired his final volley at the Jackals; vaporizing the last of them.
Or so he thought.
One of them was a veteran of the Human/Covenant War and had fought against Spartans before. He'd never taken one down, but he'd harassed them well in the past. He also knew when to engage them, and having so many in a group was suicide, especially since two had weapons that could vaporize him with a glancing blow. One by one, though, they entered the shuttle leaving only the green one behind.
He knew who he was: the Demon.
This was a golden opportunity to gain favor with his superiors.
He watched as his fellow snipers were finished off by the killing machine before the Demon decided it was his turn to board the grey craft.
Hidden amongst the dirt and the rocks, his tan hide blended in perfectly. He lined up his shot as the Spartan turned his back on him.
When the Demon jumped, he fired.
Cortana watched in horror as the focused plasma bolt appeared on her sensors. The sniper had been hidden by the residual radiation from the TX-3's destruction, but not the shot.
Processing data at her speed meant she could only observe as the bolt traveled in slow motion towards her Spartan. She could not warn him or anyone. There was nothing she could do.
Even Kelly wouldn't be able to avoid it.
A billion scenarios ran through her mind, and none of them ended well.
John's shields were too low; the shot would penetrate the armor.
He would die.
Six saw the shot out of the corner of her eye.
She knew there was nothing she could do; warning him would do no good.
In reflection, Six was wasn't sure who shouted his name first.
"JOHN!"
The Master Chief was mid jump when the round hit him like an Archer missile. Pain exploded inside of him as the round punctured his lower back and blew through his right kidney, intestines, veins, and arteries before the heat cauterized everything into a mess of charred flesh.
The pain was beyond description, but he was still conscious the following instant as his leap brought him closer to safety.
His hand was outstretched, reaching for Six's so she could pull him aboard.
Their hands locked, but he didn't have any strength left; as if the life was being sucked out of him.
Six grabbed his forearm with her open hand and pulled him up, but massive explosion above them shook the Aero and they went tumbling overboard.
They landed hard and tumbled as the Aero wavered fifteen feet above them.
Losing grip of the Chief she used her momentum to flip back onto her feet. Her weapon was out immediately and began firing on the spot the sniper had shot from. The phaser was set to level 16; needless to say, there was nothing left of him or cliff face.
Another explosion above her turned her head to the source: Voyager was making strafing runs on the battle cruiser, and clearly winning.
The detonations must have been the fuel tanks exploding.
Pushing aside the fact a ship was about to fall on her head, she went to the Chief and picked him up.
She was about to tell Cortana to beam them up when Palmer jumped out of the Aero and landed next to them.
The woman rushed over with a familiar device clutched in her fist.
"I don't know what this is..." Six hit a button on it before Palmer could finish, and gripped the Commander's forearm just before Cortana locked on and beamed them up.
After they materialized in the cockpit, Six rushed into the back as the Aero went into a hard acceleration to get away from the flaming ship as it fell from the sky.
There was no medical station on the Aero; the floor and a med kit was all they had. She sat the Chief down while desperately trying to hide her concern and fighting to maintain her objectivity.
Her brother was dying, and he didn't even know he had family.
"Help me!" she cried, as emotion colored her voice in a way she hadn't intended, but had the effect of breaking the stunned Spartans out of their shock. She dumped the tools to remove his armor on the floor; only taking the one she needed to remove his helmet.
By the time she slid it off his head the other were busy separating the chest and backplate.
John had flat lined during this time, but Six didn't let it panic her anymore than she already was. The Doctor had proven the dead could be brought back, and the Chief was only on the brink.
All they had to do was get him back in one piece.
When the Aero faltered, leaving everyone scrambling for support, Six knew she wasn't the only one struggling with emotions.
After most of his armor had been removed, they flipped him on his back as Six scanned him. Seeing that the wound was cauterized, filling it with bio-foam was pointless, it would only get in the Doctor's way.
What they really needed was a way to keep his heart and lungs working to keep his brain oxygenated. Damaged as they were that wasn't possible, unless...
As the shuttle faltered again, Six pulled Cortana's chip and placed it on the Chief's back. "You know what to do," she said, before rushing up to the cockpit to keep the Aero from falling out of the sky.
As Six took the controls, the Spartan IVs watched as the AI chip emitted blue light that wove into and penetrated the Chief's body.
None of them interfered, especially when the Chief's chest began to rise and fall.
Commander Palmer knelt next to the Chief's unconscious form to get a better look at the data crystal chip. It was unlike any she'd seen before, and she had no idea how it was keeping the Master Chief alive.
As to what was possessing the chip, she was sure.
They'd all heard the voice coming from the intercom, but only Palmer had heard it before.
"How the hell are you still alive?" she whispered to herself, not expecting an answer.
"Commander?" Thorne had picked up what she had said.
"Never mind," she told him as she picked up the Chief's helmet, "Team leader, Keep the Chief secure in case things get bumpy."
Demarco nodded in acknowledgement, "Aye, Ma'am."
On her way to the bridge, she tried contacting Captain Lasky, but the transmission wouldn't go through. They were being jammed.
The white clad woman found her target in the front piloting the strange shuttle/drop-ship/whatever-it-was through the chaos of small Covenant craft that had escaped the doomed cruiser.
Seeing that they were approaching a ship of similar design, Palmer guessed they were rendezvousing with it. "Are we your captives now?"
She was only half joking, and Six knew it.
"No," her voice was down-beat, but who could blame her? Palmer certainly didn't.
"Then what is all this? Why is the Chief with you?"
Six didn't answer as she guided the Aero under Voyager and engaged the docking sequence. "Why are we with them? Because they've shown us things that warranted investigation and they were willing to provide plenty of info. They've worked with us and we've worked with them. Anything else will have to wait, Commander."
As the docking clamps locked them into place, Six shut everything down before leaving. By the time they got to the back, the Chief had already been transported away. Palmer watched as the grey-clad Spartan picked up the skull of the machine that had attacked her on Infinity and wondered if that was what the Lieutenant had meant by 'warranting investigation'.
Whatever the case, she wasn't getting any answers on the shuttle. After directing Majestic to pick up the rest of the Chief's discarded armor, they followed suit.
The deck trembled, but not from an attack. Majestic and Palmer knew it was the shock wave from the cruiser crashing into Requiem's surface. It was another reminder that whomever the Chief was working with had tech capable of mocking the Covenant's best.
To Palmer's tactical mind, that was both an interesting, and worrying, prospect.
What had they gotten themselves into?
A/N: Long chapter, but one I've been wanting to write for a while.
Now that I'm full time at work, but no longer have school, I hopefully will be able to continue writing at the same pace, maybe be even faster.
I've already got part of the next chapter written, but we'll see.
'Til next time...
-OZ