Delving deeper into the strange alien place, the group found more and more damage. The place looked like it'd been torn to shreds by something moving through it, but it wasn't. If one spent any amount of time looking at the damage, they'd probably see it came from the crash. Kinetic damage that bent the walls, damaged the wires and everything meant that this damn thing must've fallen from orbit.
They took a left turn, Neon in the lead with her shotgun and the flashlight on it turned on. Rapi followed next, then Alyosha in the middle, Stella mid-rear and Anis pulling rearmost security with her launcher. Normally, you wouldn't want to fire a rocket propelled grenade inside a confined space, but the girl figured that, with the amount of damage this place had already suffered, the shockwave might not hit so hard.
With their flashlights, they scanned the surrounding walls and the broken doors, some of which still opened and partially shut through the electricity left over in the place's coils and capacitors. There was a flickering holographic display showing scarlet signs of some kind, presumably warnings in an alien language, as they passed by it. Anis murmured, "Man, I hate places like this... Dark, scary and..." She yelped loudly and felt a chill shoot up her spine that almost caused her to lock up when an electrical wire fell from the roof behind her.
The others looked back at her with concern, Stella even flashing her light in her face. The medical girl chuckled, while the grenadier pouted. The group continued walking through the desolate corridors, weapons in hand as they scanned the place, before an EM Pulse struck them, causing Stella to drop to one knee as her body partially locked up. She shook her head, murmured, "Beyond the door..." then sighed and stood up. Tilting her head forward, she approached the door...
Only to find it to be locked by the loss of power. Anis hit the door with her balled fist once, the strike reverberating across the walls, bouncing around and getting more distant. Sighing, the girl loaded grenades, to which Rapi shook her head and said, "There has to be a way around. No need to waste ammo on it..." before pausing as her eyes felt like they'd malfunctioned. She raised her rifle, flashlight on and pointing into the darkness of the corridor behind them.
She sighed and lowered it, murmuring, "There was a ripple..." before looking back at the Commander. Each member of the team felt a pit form in their stomach again, as if they weren't supposed to be here. The hull of the ship groaned back in a belated response to Anis's hit, to which the girls sighed and shook their heads. It might've been something or other falling from the roof.
Hefting his MA5 and keeping his light pointed forward, Alyosha said, "C'mon. There might be a way around through the next corridor..." only to pause as Neon took point again. Right, the whole 'protect the commander' directive was still in effect, much to his chagrin. He listened in on the radio as it continued to flash and flare and scream with static, flicked the off button, then whispered to himself, "Of course..."
A creak to his left caused him to immediately lift up his rifle. He scanned the walls, to see the sight of concealed purple and fluorescent blue blood. There were no corpses, however. Was it the Flood again? God, he hoped not. They weren't physically prepared to take on the Flood, not without protocols UPSILON and CORRUPTER, not without a whole SPARTAN strike team and nukes.
Though, no. If it had been the Flood, there would be growths all over the place and they would probably have already encountered a swarm or horde. As he scanned the ceiling, too, noting that it had open hatches, he wondered just what the hell it was they were facing. Some faint memory scratched at the back of his head, like Chief and the Blues had told them about this place. Hell, like the Sergeant-Major had told them.
In fact, they had told them of a bunch of stuff, including boarding Covenant ships. He blinked, froze, then whispered, "Oh, crap..." before turning to the girls and telling them, "I think this is a chunk of a Covvie ship..."
"What?" All four of them paused, looking back at him. Rapi whispered, "You sure, Commander?" as she tensed, holding close her rifle. Chief had never fully given a briefing on the Covenant's capabilities, nor any documentation. That meant they were only loosely aware of the plasma weapon-using alien hegemony's capabilities, in that their ships could burn entire worlds and carried legions of enemy troops. If this was one, even a chunk, they were in trouble.
"Purple, weird..." The man replied, shrugging as he knelt and examined one of the wall panels, noting the alien symbols embedded and scribbled onto it. Almost resembling of Forerunner ones, but not quite, these ones were terrifyingly more alien, jagged and weird than the standard Forerunner lexicon, which favored a more beautiful calligraphy, based on geometrical equality and the beauty of the design itself. Alyosha whispered, heart racing now, "We only can't tell it's alien because the place has been trashed, probably by re-entry."
"I've read some briefings from other squads who attended Chief's little suare back in the Outpost," Stella, who had so far been quiet about the matter, wanted to remain optimistic as she and Neon held down one side of the Corridor they were in, weapons pointed forward. She almost begged nobody in particular, "You can't seriously think this is a chunk of their old enemy's vessel, right...?"
A blur of motion appeared in front of Neon. She blinked, took off her glasses and wiped the lenses with one hand, then slid them back onto her eyes. Shaking her head as a second pulse, this one more faint, hit them and caused her to almost lose her grip on her gun, she told Alyosha, "... I don't like this, Master..." her voice a hint shaky. Still, she held her shotgun with a steel vice grip. She wasn't about to go without firepower.
"Agreed..." Alyosha replied as he looked back, almost certain he'd heard thumping footsteps. He stood up and aimed his weapon, while Stella tensed and kept looking forward. Seriously, why were they in a horror movie all of a sudden, thought the iDoll Sun and sister to Alyosha. This was supposed to be some routine recce op, but they found the corpses of a squad of MP Nikkes, one Special Purpose beside them and no bullet holes or anything. Just some purple crystals in a corpse and plasma marks on others.
"Let's keep moving and find the Jammer. Turn it off," Anis suggested, trying to keep level-headed in this fustercluck. Best not to panic, she said to herself, then stated aloud to everyone, "Get a call out for Reinforcements and find out after," as she made sure she had grenades loaded. Just in case they had to make for a hot extract. Something was tailing them, though. Everyone had noticed a little something in their peripheral vision.
"Good plan," Rapi nodded to her friend, the praise causing her to smile, even though it was tense. She looked to their shotgunner, who was on point as usual, then told her, "Lead the way, Neon. We'll cover you..." before lifting her rifle. Another pulse caused the girls to slow a bit, their artificial muscles locking up slightly. Sighing, they kept up the advance while Alyosha kept trying to raise anyone on com.
With static still playing up, Alyosha was starting to get irritated. He sighed and continued advancing with the group, making sure to keep his eyes peeled just in case. As they moved farther 'up' the broken chunk of alien hull, they pushed past several completely-collapsed or blocked-off corridors whose doors still emitted a faint purple glow. Each of the group pointed their gun, flashlights lighting the door as they walked past, with Anis last in the rear keeping tabs.
As they pushed deeper in, the breeze of the chilly air outside started to filter through to them. Advancing further yet, past another collapsed corridor, the group turned a right onto basically a dead end. Except it wasn't as much a dead end. The roar of the waterfall filled their ears as they gazed forward into the deep, misty valley made by the running river. They could see chunks of ice floating on the top, going over and falling into the water and rocks below with barely audible cracks. Barely audible amidst the continuous and incessant noise of the water.
It was almost beautiful, were it not for the fact that the group suddenly realized just how precariously perched this chunk of the vessel was. Stuck between the two sides of the former North-Eastern border between the Old United States and Old Canada, the ship itself basically balanced itself on the two cliff faces that made up the walls of the valley of Niagara Falls.
Alyosha smiled a little, surprised at the natural beauty. He spoke, "Grandma used to tell us stories about this place all the time," then he looked over to his sis, who smiled, too. He was about to ask her if she remembered, but it was rather obvious she did. He and Rapi got closer to one-another, looking down at the vast river and water rapids below with a hint of fear and awe. They could faintly make out the remnants of military vehicles that were rusting, as well as dead Raptures.
The latter seemed a little more fresh than the former. They couldn't make out much from here due to the constant stream of water and the waterfall's own 'clouds' of rising water particles. They felt the chill of the water from up there, with Alyosha giving a chop of his hand to a watching Neon, whom had also been enamored by the beauty of nature. Anis, meanwhile, snapped a quick pic on her phone and stowed it in her pocket as they advanced. Moving deeper, past a more narrow portion of the collapsed section of the ship(which, if Alyosha looked at it now, it almost looked burnt), the group made it into a room.
The place was really nothing to write home about. A series of consoles lay off to the sides, barely-living, flickering purple and red warnings blaring on them, but still connected to some form of power. In the middle of the room, however, resided what looked to be a strange, alien artifact almost. Sat on four tiny legs, the thick alien machine looked almost like a small hive of some sort, build straight up. Antennae through which an EM Field coursed emitted the pulses they'd been getting.
And as another one came, the girls groaned. Alyosha blinked, while Anis commented in a murmur, "... Ribbed for our displeasure, huh...?" as she took a step back. She looked to the Commander while Stella was somewhere between laughter and pain and told him, "Looks like you're gonna have to turn it off alone, Commander... This thing might actually just disable our NIMPHs and us with them..."
He nodded, hefted his rifle and walked toward the pulsating emitter. He saw that his weapon's ammo counter cowling was flickering and malfunctioning as well, almost to the same degree as his HUD and the girls, all of whom staggered again as the pulse burst outward, sooner than the last couple. Stella spoke, "It's starting to settle in...! It's gonna get worse the closer we are to it!"
Alyosha nodded, then approached the device, examining it. Aside from a protrusion in front of him that contained some variation of holographic symbol, nothing else appeared on the Device to denote the ability to shut it down. He peered past it to see the door that led them to this room, then sighed. Approaching the central button ,the young man lifted his hand and pressed it firmly against the hologram button.
It glowed once, blue, twice, green and thrice, red. The machine whirred, then began to emit a whine that increased in pitch. The man gasped, then motioned for his team to take cover behind the various boxes and debris. They did, though sluggishly, as the pitch reached its highest point. It was then that the device detonated in a flurry of purple and blue fire, shrapnel embedding itself mere feet from Alyosha's own cover. He blinked, sighed in relief, then tried his mic again. He spoke, "This is COUNTERS Actual, transmitting in the blind... Unknown Jammer offline at point Visegrad. Patrols discovered approximately half a klick from the current position... Dead. Be advised:Alien structure is on-site, unknown at this time..."
Rapi sighed deeply, slinging her rifle onto her back and approaching a console. She activated it and started trying to make sense of the data, utilizing some of the software on her helmet. She spoke, "Well, we know the name of whatever ship this was part of. The Long Night of Solace. I'm seeing errors across the... Board..." and she almost dropped to the floor in surprise, "... This ship was supposed to be massive..."
"How big we talking?" Anis asked as she joined Rapi by the console. She froze.
"... Twenty-nine kilometers in length..." Rapi whispered, then took a step back to look at their stunned comrades. Stella's jaw dropped, while Neon approached the schematics and looked. They were in the 'neck' of the strange alien vessel, from the looks of things. It was the sole bit of the ship that had thankfully made it to the planet, meaning that whatever...
"It's a..."
The door opened off to their right. The group turned about and aimed their weapons. Alyosha looked to everyone and gave a single chop of his hand forward, to which the troop moved up, heavy weapons first. As they pushed back into the hallway, they slowly stepped out into the darkness that'd greeted them before on their way here. Moving forward, the group wound up in an intersection.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Stella murmured, with Anis sighing deeply. Whenever someone said that crap, they always invoked Murphy, the son of a bitch. Alyosha radioed the name of the ship they were on. As they advanced, however, those feelings seemed to intensify in everyone, their bodies and minds screaming at them to run as far away as possible.
It was a little too late, however. As Alyosha first spotted something emerging from the nothingness of the hallway, the first burst of azure fire washed the corridor they were walking perpendicular too. Neon pulled both Stella and Alyosha into cover as bolts of plasma washed over their cover, while Rapi and Anis pulled back to the opposite end. Alyosha swore to himself, then poked his head out as the volleys of plasma intensified, then ducked back into cover as the first needle shot rang out.
Lumbering figures stood at the end of the Hallway. A dozen of them had decloaked in front of the group. A single Elite General stood in front of the group, his armor glowing gold in the darkness. He ignited his Energy Sword and looked back at a trio of Zealots, huffing and tilting his head left. Beside him, a Grunt chittered as he fired bursts from his Plasma Cannon and a Jackal sniper fired from his needle rifle. The three zealots nodded their approval, turned and ran, probably to a parallel hallway for a flank.
Anis poked her head out and yelped as the shot zipped right by her face, then said, "Yeah, that's aliens alright! Commander! Call for help!" with a voice full of panic. Rapi poked out from beside her and fired a burst from her machine gun, with Neon firing her shotgun blindly at the Elite and his supporting platoon of Grunts and Covenant units that'd just decloaked.
Alyosha nodded, then lifted a hand up to his ear and radioed, "THIS IS COUNTERS-ACTUAL TRANSMITTING IN THE BLIND! THE COVENANT ARE ON EARTH! I REPEAT, THE COVENANT ARE ON EARTH! THE ALIEN WARSHIP LONG NIGHT OF SOLACE HAS SURVIVORS!" before looking over to Anis and Neon. He looked back to see that a chunk of the Elites had disappeared, then blinked and looked behind himself, Neon and Stella, who was covering the side. He yelled to Anis, "FIRE ON THE HALLWAY BEHIND US! COLLAPSE IT!"
"ARE YOU NUTS!?" Barked Anis, "IF I MISS, YOU'RE MULCHED AND NEON AND STELL ARE DEAD TO RIGHTS!"
"YOU WON'T, NOW DO IT OR WE'RE FUCKED ANYWAY!" The boy replied as he ducked back into cover, bursts of plasma striking way too close for comfort. Anis grit her teeth and looked to Rapi as the girl fired back at the enemy, only to get a nod of approval. It wasn't usually that the Commander Swore, so he must've seen something in this tactical situation that necessitated such a risky maneuver.
"Fuck...!" Anis swore to herself, hefted the launcher and fired on the ceiling just as the first scarlet-armored zealot appeared. Two grenades struck, shrapnel washing Stella's frame, though thankfully being blunted by the flak jacket. She sighed deeply in relief as the roof behind them collapsed, blocking the Elites from advancing. She then said, "That's done, but that leaves us only two ways outta here! Forward and into plasma fire, or back..."
"To get shot..." Neon whispered as she reloaded her shotgun. She hummed, then paused and pulled out a couple of grenades she'd brought with her for testing, before showing them to Master. The man looked at them, grinned and nodded. Neon smirked, pulled the pins, then threw them forward toward an advancing platoon of Grunts with the Officer at the forefront.
The Jackals in front of the formation arrayed their shields in a wall, protecting themselves and the Elite from the explosions. Only said explosions never came. Puffs of smoke emitted from the two grenades, electrified by something within. The General's shield started to flicker, forcing him back behind cover. Alyosha called out, "NOW'S OUR CHANCE! RUN!"
The group began to run backward in an almost organized chaos. Anis spoke, "So, that's what killed the girls...! I'm almost not surprised! Covvie plasma weapons burn pretty hot, per Doc Halsey's reports!" and she yelped as a burst of Needler fire tracked and narrowly missed them, shattering on the wall to their left as they turned right at the next intersection.
"Add to that those were MP Nikkes..." Whispered Rapi. She looked to Stella, who nodded in confirmation. Rapi, meanwhile, clarified, "They have the most basic gear! Flak jackets and lighter armor than your average Nikke! They can take blasts from missiles and a few bullets from smaller Raptures, but the ones we saw out there were sent before the New UEG took over... Chief's team got incredibly lucky with him in charge even before that meaning they could get better gear... Otherwise..."
"They'd be dead, too," Stella voiced, "And I got lucky I have UNSC-grade armor on me... Even so-" She yelped as a needle round skimmed her helmet and impacted the ceiling. Jackal marksmen ran behind them, skittering, chittering and making strange, almost guttural noises as they approached. She turned about and, running backward, fired bursts from her SMG into them, killing both with lucky headshots. She huffed and felt the top of her head, murmuring, "Ouch..."
"Rang your bell a bit, eh?" Alyosha asked, more worried than joking.
She nodded, then gasped. The group staggered as they saw a dead-end ahead of them, a collapsed ceiling blocking their path and only a little cover between them and the Covenant in the form of overturned boxes and a few blown-out panels. Alyosha scoffed, then turned as the thundering footsteps of the Elites filled the air. Emerging in front of the group as they took cover, the General cocked his head to face them, Energy blade sizzling a little redder than a normal one. He must've been the one to eviscerate the Nikkes outside.
The three Zealots emerged, each armed with ever-more deadly heavy weapons. Behind them, a combat squad of Covenant, maybe two dozen Grunts, a dozen Jackals and a plasma cannon. Anis sighed deeply, whispering, "Well, I've said my prayers for today..." as she shouldered her launcher. "Commander...? It's been an honor," and she looked to Alyosha.
The man was about to reply, before his com came to life...
"... Friendly IFFs confirmed! UNSC Tags identified! SPARTANS, ASSIST!" A male voice barked, recognizably excited.
Another replied jovially, "Time for a little payback!"
And, behind them, the barricade shattered, bulldozed aside by a giant man in a suit of armor. Hefting a heavy machine gun forward, the man called out to the group in a heavy accent, "Stay behind me!" as he opened fire. The Elites roared, their jaws splaying out like flowers as the bullets began to rain on their position. Grunts and several Jackals fell to the volley of fire.
"Spartans?!" Alyosha beamed as he saw a group of soldiers pushing forward. A girl in heavy armor knelt beside Stella and Neon, hefting what looked to be a grenade launcher. She fired two shots from it before slinging it onto her back. The grenades detonated, a small EM pulse shattering the shields of one of the Zealots as he poked out to fire what looked to be a shoulder-mounted launcher at them.
Another figure emerged with a slight manic laughter from a side corridor. His Kukri dug through the flesh of the unshielded Elite, slitting its throat and sending it collapsing to the floor in, splayed out before he could even fire a shot. The man drew his shotgun and fired at the others, pinning them down as a second woman pushed up, blue armored and with her pistol drawn. She pushed behind the big man, who also seemed to heft a giant backpack beside his HMG. She called to him, "Push forward, Five! Seven, Eight, on me! Three, Snipe that general!"
"On it..." A surprisingly jovial male voice replied before a shot rang out across the halls, squeezed between the arm and hip of the big man. The contrail of the bullet led to the Elite that now lost half his face as his shields ,weakened by bullet fire and the shotgunner beside him, failed, purple blood smearing the floor alongside that of Jackal and Grunt troops.
A blue-armored figure with a large left pauldron approached, sliding a fresh magazine into his weapon as he knelt beside them. He motioned to another Spartan to move up and assist the team, then looked at Alyosha and said, "Are you Counters Actual, sir?" as he shouldered what looked to be a Designated Marksman Rifle. The group stared, wide-eyed at them all.
"Y-Yes..." Alyosha nodded, stunned.
The man nodded, then replied stoically, "I'm Carter. Noble One. We're your cavalry. Come with us, we have a route out to RV with the UNSC QRF en-route to receive us," Then he called out over Radio, "NOBLE, pattern Delta! Leapfrog as you fall back and provide cover fire! Seven, Eight, I expect you two to be acting rearguard with Four and Five! And keep an eye out for out Number Six!"
"Aye!" The entire team cheered. As the group slowly pulled back, the Machine Gunner and two riflemen in the rear opened up. The blue one, presumably Noble Two, stepped up and said, "We've got the charges set at the locations requested. Should cave this place in pretty well... Provided it doesn't also block the way for the falls," to which Carter nodded as they advanced.
The man replied, "We'll deal with it as we go," and led the still-speechless Counters to the exit. And found it, they did. Exiting out onto the same side the group had come in from, they were soon greeted by a surprising mass of UNSC vehicles. Tanks, infantry, several Gunships and even ten new platoons of Nikke deployed to the area. The woman in charge of the squad descended from her Gauss Warthog and saluted. Carter snapped a salute back and said, "Ma'am... Are we glad to finally see UNSC forces on whatever mess this version of Earth is."
"Feeling's mutual, Noble One..." Keyes smiled, then looked over to the shocked Counters, "Hope they ain't too shook."
"Nothin' too bad," Noble Four quipped, leaning his shotgun on his shoulder, "Hell, I gave'em forty-sixty chance of surviving if they stopped to fight without us around," before saluting, clearing his throat and adding, "Ma'am..." to which Miranda chuckled. She motioned to the group to move up to a Pelican. It wasn't long before the crew was boarded, watching the UNSC force from the safety of the air as they cleaned the chunk of the Long Night.
They also turned to NOBLE Team, all of whom removed their helmets. They were all relatively young-looking, surprisingly enough, save for the giant lad with the Machine Gun, who offered the group a kind smile in welcome. As they looked to each-other, Alyosha was... Frozen, to say the least. "... Mind giving us a rundown, Commander?" Carter asked him as they stared eye-to-eye, "We're a little lost."
"S-Sure..." The group stuttered.
