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All Roads Lead To Sol...Just Make Sure To Bypass Mars: Chapter 17
Posted By: S7N<n.j.r.jones@brighton.ac.uk>
Date: 1 December 2003, 11:56 PM
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Chapter 17
1727 Hours, August 30th, 2550 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC Frigate Horatio, orbiting Corona
"Fincher, where the hell are you taking us?" Manny screamed, trying to figure out his friend's logic. They had passed Raynes a few minutes ago and were wondering where he had gone. Crewmen ran everywhere, and whenever one of the marines tried to ask where the hell they were, or where the hell they were supposed to go, nobody stopped to give them an answer. And if one of them did, they kept running as they shouted back at them, meaning that the soldiers never got the end of what they said.
"I don't know!" Fincher yelled back, a look of confusion on his face. "I've never been on this ship before!"
"Then will you stop saying," Harris interrupted "'I think it's this way!' because you obviously aren't thinking!" Fincher shot him an angry look. They stopped at a crossroads, with people flowing in all four directions.
"Who are all these people, and why are they everywhere we go?" Walker shouted above the claxons and the loud din of people panicking.
"This is a frigate," Manny replied "not a carrier. It may be a smaller ship, but there are twice as many crewmen. If we were back on the Pliskin we'd have marines running everywhere."
"I doubt that," Fincher mocked him "do you not remember the body count?" a pang of regret and sorrow ran through them all. Walker and Cochran tried asking some technicians whizzing passed them, but only ended up yelling abuse at them as they completely ignored them.
"I've had enough of this." Harris proclaimed. He reach out and grabbed a man in a blue jump suit by his collar and yanked him over to where they stood. He pinned the small man up against the wall, using his huge frame as an imposing figure. "UNSC Marines, where are they supposed to go?"
The small man stammered, a look of fear in his eyes; he didn't know what to say.
"This is an emergency, is it not?" the tech nodded, "Right, then where to we go?" the tech pointed down to where they had come from and uttered something. "I can't hear you!" Harris boomed.
"Ser...service corridor 2...to the..to the main hangar...it's signposted all the way." Harris settled the man back on the ground, gave him a pat on the shoulder.
"You can go now!" he grinned. The tech had turned a deathly pale, and Manny could have sworn the guy had wet himself. He just turned and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction, not looking back. Manny gave a chuckle then turned to Fincher.
"Down this way, eh?" he slapped him lightly round the face. "C'mon you pansies, lets double-time it." Fincher rubbed his jaw and put on a scornful look, but it didn't stay there long as Harris grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him back down the corridor.
The marines quickly found a sign saying "Hangars A-F". Fincher piped up about what hangar it could be, but they all ignored him.
"We're going to check all of them, thanks Finchy boy!" Cochran said, producing a chuckle from Walker who ran next to him. The amount of techs and crewmen began to thin out, until there were none in sight at all.
"You sure we've come the right way?" Fincher said, the slight hint of a grin entering his features. They all looked at him, and he prepared himself for another verbal or physical attack. "Just asking, guys."
Manny looked around but there was still nobody to be seen. "We must have come to the right place, look the sign says "hangars" this way. Don't you people remember coming off of the Pelican and where we went after that?"
"Yeah," Cochran said bitterly, aiming it at nobody in particular "but I was a bit war weary to remember,"
Harris ran off down the other end of the corridor, disappearing round a corner. They all stared after him, hoping he would come back with good news. Instead he came back with bad news and a scorched backside.
There was a loud screech, a fizzle of electricity and a shout of pain. Then the huge frame of Harris came flying round the corner, holding his rump. Had it not been such a dangerous situation, Manny would have burst into laughter. The image of Harris running full pelt like a soldier on parade in fast forward, smoke coming off of his burning trousers.
"Run, you fools! Run!" he shouted, cursing as he did. At first the others couldn't figure out what was going on, but then the unmistakeable sound of a Jackal's bird like cackle made them turn tail and run. A long stream of obscenities uttered from the trooper's mouths as they ran, chaos raining behind them in the form of plasma bolts and needle shards. If anyone had seen them, they probably would have laughed their heads off' six hard-as-nails marines legging it from a group of creatures half their size, with one of them grabbing his ass.
It was only when they all stopped screaming that they realised they had turned full circle and ended up right where they had started, only this time they were being chased.
"We need to find weapons, and quick!" Fincher yelled, grabbing his chest and trying to force air into his lungs. The others grunted in approval. They came to a t junction.
"Left or right, guys?" Manny piped up.
"It doesn't matter which way, so long as we..." Fincher started, but was rudely interrupted by a series of plasma bolts that scorched the deck next to his feet. He leapt a metre off of the floor and then sprinted down the right hand corridor. He noticed a sign saying "Armoury" and arrow pointing in the opposite direction. He skidded to a halt and noticed that the only other person near him was Harris. The others were all running the other way, and as the two men turned back after them a group of angry looking Grunts appeared from where Fincher had nearly been shot. They let off a lethal volley, but missed both men by a good metre or so.
"Come on," Harris said, pushing Fincher back. "We gotta keep going, we'll meet up with the others later."
"We need to get out of here now, sir!" Raynes yelled at the cyborg. "There's too many of them!" He aimed his rifle down the long corridor and fired off a deadly hail of bullets, catching three grunts off guard. He ducked back as a volley of lethal green and blue energy bolts flew passed him, splashing over the nearby wall. They turned electric blue for a split second before sizzling a black hole into the dense material. "Sir?!"
"Give me two minutes." The rough voice said. Raynes felt like running away from the onslaught, but the only place left to run was the airlock behind them. This was nuts! He swung his rifle round the pillar he hid behind, firing off a few rounds to catch out any unsuspecting advances.
"Nice shooting," the green commando said. The Sergeant peered round and saw a dead Jackal lying face down, purple blood spilling out of numerous wounds. Wow, he did that? The heat of an incoming energy bolt made Raynes duck back once again as fiery energy smashed through a wall. Those plasma canons were getting closer and more accurate.
"This is insane." he muttered under his breath.
"If it were insane we'd be dead by now," the Spartan said, his voice clear over the exchange of weapon fire. How had heard that? Raynes barely heard himself say it. The gold visor turned to him and although all he saw was his own reflection somehow he knew that the expression on his face meant the Spartan knew exactly what he was thinking. This was too freaky.
"Are two minutes up yet?" he yelled back. As he did so a huge roar erupted from down the corridor followed by an explosion. Raynes thought better of poking his head round but was surprised to see bits of grunt and jackal fly passed him, landing in crumpled heaps on the floor. Another explosion made him crouch down, the noise becoming a deafening roar. His chest armour dug into his belly and his boots wouldn't allow his legs to bend properly and so he found himself half crouching, half sitting. He closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
Then all was silent, except for the loud ringing in his ears. He opened his eyes and saw the Spartan looking down at him. He extended a green hand to the Sergeant, who gladly took it and allowed himself to be hauled up. He turned and looked down the corridor. A huge crater lined each wall where the aliens had been. Pieces of dead bodies littered the floor, purple and bright blue blood soaked the walls, and black score marks painted every surface.
"You were lucky." The Spartan said. He pointed to just above where Raynes had crouched down. A huge metal sheet that looked like hull plating was embedded in the wall, sharp edges cutting through the surface. More to Raynes' surprise was the fact that his helmet was pierced on the end of it. He felt his head, realising for the first time that when he ducked he narrowly avoided death from decapitation. There was a small cut on his neck, but apart from that he was fine.
"What the hell happened?" he managed to sputter out. The Spartan pointed down the corridor and Raynes saw two more green giants appear from one of the craters. They carried Jackhammer launchers, with shotguns slung over their shoulders. The barrels of the launchers smoked as the two Spartans walked up to where Raynes was quivering. As they neared him he noticed one was smaller than the other, and had more of a female shape to it than the other. And when it spoke he realised that it was, in fact a woman.
"Got everything?" she said, her voice was quiet yet immediately audible. She cocked her head at him and appeared to look him up and down. The Sergeant heard a chuckle come from behind him.
"Er...yeah...I guess...so." He looked away from her and bent down to pick up his assault rifle. When he came back up the three Spartans stood huddled together. The male Spartans, he presume the other one was male, were now indistinguishable and Harland couldn't remember for the life of him which one had saved his life only minutes ago.
"What's our sit-rep?" one of them said.
"We got triple the amount that was here coming down to check us out." The female said. "I'd say two platoons of Grunts and maybe two-dozen Jackals." She looked over her shoulder at the door behind them. She looked back at the other two and they seemed to nod. In unison they walked over to Raynes, grabbed him and marched through the airlock doors. As they closed behind them a large dent appeared in it. Raynes looked back through the window and saw numerous Elite Grunts charging up their plasma guns. They were on them already, and they had nowhere to go. He felt something hard hit his back. Turning back round he saw one of the Spartans holding an EV suit.
"You gotta be shitting me!" he took a step back from them. This was crazy, where were they going to go? A loud thump made him jump back towards the Spartans.
"Hurry, they'll get through that in no time." One of them said. He quickly donned the suit, pulling the safety helmet over his head and pressurising it, then felt three pairs of hands checking his seals, but his vision was obscured by the helmet's chin-piece. He heard another thump through the helmet's speakers. This was insane. He looked out the main airlock window and saw a Covenant destroyer coming closer, feeling his heart skip not one, but two beats. This just got better and better.
"Have you guys seen that?" he pointed out to the incoming ship.
"Yes," three voices said. They stood and walked over to the airlock switch.
"Hurry." One of them shouted. He stood between the two male Spartans and felt them clasp his arms. God they were strong; the vice like grip with which they held him nearly stopped the blood supply to his fingers and they began to tingle. He was just about to protest but a loud whooshing sound deafened him. He looked out in front and saw the airlock doors sliding open.
"This is crazy!" he yelled at the top of his voice, and he found himself paralysed by fear.
"Don't worry," he heard one of the men say. "We've done this before." He glanced at the other two Spartans. The female shook her head, the other just turned back to the door. Harland felt the pressure around his body increase as the airlock doors cycled open more.
"Well I haven't!" as he said that his arms were tugged forwards and he found himself flying out into the black expanse before him.
That and the ever enlarging Covenant Destroyer.
When Manny saw a big red sign that read "Armoury" on the ground in front of him, pointing towards a big metallic door, he nearly cried with joy. He punched the switch and the doors hissed open. He ran straight over to where the shotguns were cased up. Kicking open the cabinet, he pulled out a metallic, short-barrelled twelve boor, flicked it open, and placed two cartridges in the chambers. He snapped it back up and grabbed two ammo belts, the loopholes filled with shells, slinging them over each shoulder.
He then turned to the left side of the room and grabbed a pistol belt, strapping it round his waist. He pulled the tough and reliable M5 from its holster, snapped a clip home, cocked it and placed it back in the holster. It could be fitted with a scope, but Manny really didn't have the time. And it probably wouldn't come in handy either.
He turned back to the others. Walker stood with an MA5B cradled in his arms and a loaded Jackhammer launcher on his back. He had also clipped four frag grenades to his combat belt. Cochran held a sub machine gun in each hand, and an M6-D pistol tucked into his trousers. He had a bag, presumably filled with extra ammunition, slung across his body.
"You two look like you should be in a movie." Manny scoffed. They gave him unapproving glances. He looked to his left, then to his right. Then he glanced over his shoulder, and then turned around to look behind him.
"Where the hell are Finch and Harris?!" he exclaimed. The other two glanced around and shrugged.
"I thought they were right behind us, " Walker replied, a bemused look on his face. "Maybe they got lost." He smirked at that, but realised this was serious and stopped as quick as he started.
"Dammit! Looks like we're gonna have to go find them." Manny started towards the door. "Keep your eyes open, call if you need help, and for god's sake, don't get lost!" Walker and Cochran smiled at him, then followed in closely behind him as they left the armoury.
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