Ch 3

The group moved down a sloping hallway, Cortana breaking the silence with an announcement, “ The Covenant just destroyed two of their own ships and I’m hearing reports of small arms fire throughout the fleet.” The Marines left the hallway and came out on yet another platform. The platform had a large grav-lift in the middle that seemed to transport the user to the neighboring platform on the other side. What the Marines saw next was incredible, they seemed to be miles above the ground and far enough up that there was a near-translucent cloud layer between them and the vast city below them. The city seemed to go on for hundreds of miles; the Marines had never imagined that anything artificial could be this big. As vast and incredible the city below them was it was overshadowed by the towering monolith that lay in the center. It was huge, bigger than any of the buildings that surrounded it, supported by three massive legs with a fourth pointing out of the top like a spear, it was illuminated by High Charity’s massive lights; the effect was quite astounding, the light gleamed from the seemingly flawless metal giving it an almost angelic haze.

Just as they had stepped onto the grav-lift one of the Marines motioned towards Schaeffer’s left. Schaeffer spun around and saw a painfully bright white disk appear out of nowhere. A second later a ship sprang out of it, having been stationed on it for several months Schaeffer instantly recognized it as the In Amber Clad. The ship flew right over them as they floated down the grav-lift’s path and the noise of its engines was deafening, he could barely make out what Cortana was trying to saying through the Master Chief’s external speakers, “Slipspace Rupture! It’s In Amber Clad! …..no life signs detected……..” What the? Schaeffer thought, how could the In Amber Clad be here and have no life signs? Who could be piloting it? Deep inside his subconscious he knew that he wouldn’t like the answer.

Over the next fifteen minutes the Schaeffer’s ragtag force had traveled through another of the long hallways not unlike the one where they had first encountered In Amber Clad. On these they always discovered Covenant fighting each other, Brutes rampaging through Grunts, a squad of Elites locked in battle against superior numbers. Fearing the same fate as Garcia they just watched and waited for the fighting to die down and then picked off the survivors from a distance. They also heard increasing numbers of announcements from the alien.

At the end of the second grav-lift they entered a hallway just as two Drones were flying by, the aliens seemed in such a hurry that they didn’t notice the five surprised humans standing at the doorway. The Marines followed in the bug’s wake keeping a distance from the Drones should they look back. They looked into the room that the Drones had entered and were greeted with utter chaos. At least half a dozen Elites were fighting a swarm of Drones and multicolored plasma was sailing through the air. They watched for maybe ten seconds before a door on the opposite side of the room slid open revealing a pair of Jackals and a trio of Brutes. The Elites were being overwhelmed, plasma from the newly arrived Brutes was too much for them, Schaeffer saw an Elite with a jetpack go down after weathering a storm of bright red plasma. Schaeffer knew if the Marines didn’t do something the Elite’s would be finished and the Marines would then have to face the full-force of the Brute’s and Drone’s combined attacks; something that Schaeffer wasn’t sure they would survive. Schaeffer ordered his snipers to take aim at the Brute’s heads and open fire; each fired two shots and they all hit perfectly, the first shots taking off the Brute’s helmets and the second shots pierced their skull’s, burning a fist-sized hole through their brains.
The Elites now had a reprieve that they used well; finishing off the Drones they quickly turned on the remaining Brute who was cut down by the combined fire of the Human Snipers and the surviving Elites. The Elites were quickly eliminated by the Chief, who had snuck up behind them and delivered a killing blow to the back of one Elite’s head while sticking the other with a Plasma Grenade. Without a word the Marines headed for the exit, none even glancing at the carnage that surrounded them.

The Marines once again came to a vertically traveling grav-lift, by now they were used to it and stepped on without hesitation. They traveled down a walkway that was similar to the ones they had crossed already, until they came to the hanging gardens The hanging gardens were exactly the same as the ones where they had encountered the Brutes fighting the Elites except there was no fighting, there were at least a dozen grunts running at the edge of the stream but the Marines could see no immediate threat that would cause the Grunts to panic. Schaeffer watched one Grunt run up a ramp that was opposite to theirs and then saw its body fly back down, landing in the stream with a splash. A Brute came rushing in, its huge form bent over on all fours and charging madly at anything that moved, crushing Grunts, crates, and anything else that moved. Another Brute came down the ramp opposite them and watched it pound a helpless Grunt into the ground, at the rate the Brutes were killing Grunts there wouldn’t be any alive in seconds and then they would have to find something else to kill, and Schaeffer didn’t plan on that happening anytime soon “Marines, open fire on those overgrown monkeys, and try to go for their heads if you can” A wall of plasma and projectiles slammed into the nearest Brute as he was smashing a Grunt into the floor, the force of the repeated impacts actually caused him to fly head over heels landing on top of the Grunt. The other Brute already enraged, threw the last Grunt off the ledge and into the abyss and charged at the Marines line. “Marines! Give him everything you’ve got! Don’t let him reach us” halfway through Schaeffer’s shouting the Marines and the Chief opened up with everything they had; plasma, grenades, and bullets pelted the Brute’s thick hide but it was so enraged it didn’t feel any pain. The Brute bashed aside the Chief as he tried to get between the Brute and the Marines and threw the 2^nd Lieutenant next to Schaeffer into a wall. The Brute grabbed the front most Marine, Private Carson, by the leg and twisted hard, Schaeffer winced as he heard the distinctive crack of a bone breaking and used his Carbine as a hammer, bashing the Brute in the skull. Schaeffer’s improvise hammer wasn’t having any effect on the raging beast and Carson’s leg was twisting to an unnatural angle. Suddenly Schaeffer heard a whooshing noise and was pushed aside, the Master Chief, with his Energy Sword drawn stabbed it deep into the base of the alien’s neck repeatedly until the thing finally died, its body finally failing it, and let out a last enraged howl.

Carson’s leg looked bad. There was definitely no way for him to walk and carrying him would seriously slow them down. The fact that they were deep in enemy territory, probably as far in enemy territory as humanly possible, made matters all the more worse. As Schaeffer was contemplating what to do he heard Carson gasp “Go on sir, leave me here, just kill that fuckin’ Prophet for me” In that moment Schaeffer’s mind was made up, “Negative Private, the leather necks never leave a man behind” Smith, give the man a lift, lets move out Marines!” Carson’s injury would be a major setback but Schaeffer would be damned if he left a man behind.