spartan 420 made it this far and got so tired wating and collapsed, after about 15 minutes he woke up. He was totally out of energy..........but he didnt exert himself too much.........what made him collapse then?................then he he figured it out...he needed a fix....he needed his drugs, but where would he get them?
"All clear, ma'am. Dey no more rebels on dis ship," reported Jonas, "But we find a few tings dey tryin' to steal from us."
"What exactly, Jonas?" asked Col. Yi. Before Jonas could reply, she sighed. "I'm afraid we might need to let them keep it, or else we'll compromise our undetectability."
Jonas didn't even have to think before he answered. "Two crates weapon an' ammo, notin' special. Grenades, knives, de usual. An' five Mongoose."
"If you can do some creative sabotage with the weapons, something that won't show for a month or so, do it. Make it look like someone took the Mongooses off to make room for something else, we'll forge some recordings that make it look like these two onboard were going to take something special from the Covenant and then leave the rest to die," Yi ordered.
The weapons expert nodded at Banken, who was immersed in a virtual world. His fingers were moving as though manipulating a keyboard, among other controls, though he wasn't touching anything other than the air. "'e almos' done?"
"He said ten minutes, so we have about five left. Take care of that cargo, and make sure Ydrionis gets those trackers in the right places. Have Vintorez record the serial numbers from all the cargo, too. That's another way to track them."
When Jonas left to follow through with his orders, Yi turned back to doing what she had been doing.
Seven minutes later, Blue Team was assembled in or near the cockpit, ready to begin. Banken was still immersed in his virtual world, but was communicating with the real world via hand signals occasionally. He signalled "Go".
"Edwards, come in! We've got a situation here, the Covenant. . ." Yi said into the comm, and Banken signalled for her to stop. He had been reprocessing her voice through a program which turned Yi's voice into the unconscious rebel's voice, using the data that Banken had recorded when he screamed at Yi briefly.
A voice replied through the poor-quality communications system of the Rebel ship. "DiSilvia, stay there, we'll head back and get out. Something really tore up the Covenant, and it wasn't the Choragus' crew. Can you hold out til we get there, maybe five minutes?"
Yi made a hand signal for Blue Team to move out and cover the hangar. She and Banken stayed for a while longer.
"I don't think so, they're. . . Oh, GOD!" Yi gave a startlingly accurate rendition of a strangled scream, and Banken played the recording of the Elite's war cry at the same time.
"DiSilva! DiSilva, come in! He's gone. . . C'mon, double time it back to the Ax, men!" ordered the rebel on the comm as Yi and Banken exited the craft to hide in the shadows.
A few minutes later, when the rebels ran into the hangar, they met a barrage of plasma fire, to the yells of Covenant Grunts, Jackals, and Elites from the shadows. Surprisingly, none of the rebels was seriously wounded, at least not enough to keep them from speedily boarding the rebel ship. Inside, they found bloody trails where Covenant and humans alike had been dragged out of the ship. The ship's records would indicate that the Covenant had overrun the ship when DiSilva and Levi, the two left in charge of the ship, had tried to take an important Covenant object and then leave without the others. The object and the bodies had been removed just minutes before, showed the logs.
The rebels had the codes to open the hangar doors, which they did with all speed, hoping that the explosive decompression would kill the Covenant. The enemy fire dwindled quickly, but no Covenant were thrown out of the hangar as the rebel ship sped from the hangar.
In the shadows, tethered to the wall with an EVA line so she wasn't pulled into open space by the sudden loss of pressure, Yi waited until the rebel ship became a dot in the distance and keyed the codes to close the hangar door and repressurize.
"Ship's sensors report no active hostiles, ma'am," reported Banken.
"Blue Team, light up, we're going to rendezvous with the Spartans."
Their IFF transmitters winked on, and they unhooked themselves and their two space-suit-clad prisoners from the walls. The unconscious prisoners were loaded onto the back of the Mongooses, and Yi boarded Banken's Mongoose while the rest of Blue Team boarded their own.
"Spartan 116, this is Col. Jane Doe. We are inbound on your position, ETA three minutes. Keep the hallways clear and notify us of any enemy presence if the sensors have missed anything." radioed Col. Yi.
“…should we fail in this regard then our Covenant will fall. Gutted from it’s inside out. The Core will not let this happen. With, or without, the help of the UNSC, we will use whatever power it is we have left to prevent the Sundering from occurring. Whether or not the Drake references to our biblical religion is startling or not, whether or not the Ark is completely incapable of even slowing the advance of our foe, Core will stand…and without the aide of the UNSC or the Argent Dawn we will fall.” Antioch reached down, plucking a data pad off the table. “You, Commanders, have one day to decide. Blessed Sanctum must be eliminated.”
“Spartan.” The Lieutenant Axel recognized snapped to attention. “The Helljumpers minds were made up long ago. You have our support.”
Antioch nodded, “I would expect no less from you Lieutenant Keyes.”
”Antioch.” The same man who had contradicted him before now rose. “This…meeting of yours, entirely unorthodox and out of protocol. You talk more like some mad prophet than what we would expect of a Spartan. Whatever sanity you have left… What if you are wrong? Our fleets will leave Earth and Angel Moon open to attack. Let alone Righteous Ascension! The Elites would not refuse to do battle… Your “plan” will leave us defenceless.”
”I know.” Antioch said. “But I ask you this… since Omircon’s death, have I ever been wrong?” The Spartan turned to face the man, “What if I am right? What if tomorrow, this war could be over? What if an era of peace could settle on our galaxy? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Ackerson, Isn’t that worth dying for?”
Suddenly two loud thuds were accompanied by five ornately armoured Elites stepping out of the shadows at the far end of the room. One of them, the one at the front, wore black armour, outlined by gold. He wielded a great war hammer of some kind. “Preator Shxzalor.” He said, a voice full of power and serenity. “Lord Antioch, the Blood Angels are yours.”
Another Elite spoke, wearing black and silver spec-ops armour. His body was largely cybernetic, and hideously scarred. His left eye was replaced by an implant. “Lord Tekka, Dreadnought Caste. The Alpha Legion backs you on your journey. Our sword is your sword.”
Slowly, the Elites and Humans assembled at the table voiced their agreement. Antioch’s helmet slowly turned on it’s perch as he followed the cascade of unifying decisions. After the last man had offered his support, the Spartan finally turned to face all of them. Taking in a deep breath. Axel got the distinct impression this Antioch was crying. “I know not all of you believe what I believe…” He started, “But-“
Axel’s eyes snapped open.
"You're relieved Sergeant." The Lieutenant paced into the room as the doors slid open with a near silent whoosh. "I'm to handle things from here." He stopped, clear 1st Lieutenant insignias on his uniform, eyeing the tank in which Axel was located, before returning is ice cold gaze back to the Sergeant.
"Sir?" The Sergeant rose out of his seat, "I was told that-"
"I know what you were told." The Lieutenant offered the man a PDA. "I'm Lieutenant Kore from ONI, Section 3. You're dismissed, report to the Colonel in charge of the situation. This subject has been subject to change. As of now a new staff will take over. Again, report to the Colonel. You're being shipped out."
The Sarge eyed him before looking at the PDA and running standard programs through it to check the validity of the device. Everything checked out. "I'll have to check this out of the Doctor." The Sarge said, making his way to the door, eyeing the man skeptically. "Sorry for the delay sir. Please wait in this office."
The Lieutenant waited until the Sergeant left before turning to the console and injecting the virus into the bases AI via his PDA, taking one last glance at the tank, he left the room, dissapearing from the base within a few minutes, all traces of his existence were deleted from the records, except the Sergeant's eyewitness account.
When the Sarge returned to his office, the only thing to greet him was Axel's hands pressed up against the now cracked glass, distorting the slow bobbing of his motionless figure, and the steady monotone ring of a flatlined heartbeat.