Part 15
- Onyx
Spartan
Fred-104 strode across the rough, earth-like terrain, holding a loaded
MA55 Assault rifle in his hand. He was on the lookout for any of the
powerful Sentinels that inhabited the place the were, or the "Micro
Dyson Sphere" as Doctor Halsey called it.
The camp the stranded
UNSC personnel had set up was a few miles away, Fred had gone far in
search for some kind of Forerunner artefact. At his side was Tom, one
of the newer Spartans. The domed visor of his SPI suit reflected the
artificial sunlight well, making him harder to see than the Spartan Iis
in their heavy Mjolnir Mark VI.
"You think we'll run into any trouble?" Tom asked worriedly.
Fred
frowned in concern. Before going through the slip space portal to this
place, Tom had been a bright, confident young man ready for anything.
He wasn't coping well though with being stranded in unknown territory.
"The
only trouble around here is us." Fred said bluntly, without glancing
back Tom. He emphasised this point by smacking the rifle he held
against the palm of his hand, producing a satisfying crack as he did so.
"Well
I'm just saying, that we're in danger out here exposed and I don't
think we-" Tom was cut off when Fred turned around. The Spartan II put
his hand on the Spartan III's shoulder in an assuring way.
"Listen
Tom, I know you don't want to admit it but you're not thinking
straight. We will get out of here. I know what I'm doing lad, just
trust my judgement."
There was silence in the air for a few moments.
"I hear you Fred." Tom said, averting his gaze to the floor.
Fred turned around again, and carried on walking.
"Fred, Tom, found anything?" A voice issued from Fred's Com link which could only be that of Chief Mendez.
"Not
yet sir, we're still looking....wait." Fred began, only to cut off when
he saw something out the corner of his eye. Fast, and dangerous. Too
late, Fred realised what it was.
"Tom,
find some cover! Sentinel!" He shouted, and to his relief the younger
Spartan complied with his orders, taking shelter between two jagged
rocks.
There wasn't enough time for Fred to do the same
though, and the Sentinel, now alerted to their prescence, turned upon
Fred. The Spartan realised the danger he was in, and dove to the side
moments before a powerful beam of heat and light would have smashed
into him.
The Sentinels on Onyx were different to the ones John
had described seeing on the first Halo, Fred knew. They were bigger,
faster, smarter, and worst of all, stronger.
"Fred! What's going on?" Came the harsh voice of Mendez. As he ran, Fred struggled to gain breath the speak.
"A Sentinel sir...Tom's behind cover...I'm in a bit of trouble."
An
understatement, Fred realised, as he saw two more Sentinels fly across
the clearing and link up with the first. Which made it much more
dangerous.
"The other Spartans are on their way to your
position Fred. Stay alive for the love of God, or so help me I'll give
you a Court Marshal!"
Evidently, Mendez wasn't concerned by
the fact that Fred had been given a promotion of Lieutenant Junior
Grade, and frankly Fred was releived he wasn't. It would have felt
strange being called sir by his mentor.
Just as Mendez finished
speaking, a powerful laser shot the ground Fred was about to run
across, heating it intensely. Fred was in pain, and felt blisters
spring upon his feet, but he carried on running. Finally, he reached
the rock he had been running towards, and dove for it, arcing his back
as a laser passed just beneath it.
With a thud, Fred landed
hard upon the ground, and pressed his back against the rock, breathing
heavily. The Sentinels had been trained for combat against the Flood,
and whilst the ones outside had fully adapted to the Spartan strategy
of shoot and run for cover, these ones hadn't. They were confused.
The
trio of Sentinels drifted over to the rock Fred was hiding behind,
making confused beeps as they did so. On the other side of the grassy
clearing, Fred met Tom's gaze and nodded at him. Thankfully, the
Spartan III understood what he meant, and nodded back in confirmation.
The
Sentinels rounded the corner and gave out a triumphant cry as it saw
it's foe. Fred heard a surge in the air as the machine's powerful
cannons began to charge, and the shade around him was lit up by a
translucent orange light.
At the last possible moment, Fred
unhooked a fragamentary grenade from his belt, and quickly pulled out
the pin, discarding it. The Spartan jumped over the Sentinels with an
acrobatic flip which would put an Olympian back on Earth to shame, and
as he did so, he took the hand which held the ticking grenade and
jammed it firmly into the small gap between two of the linked Sentinels.
The
Forerunner guardians turned in surprise, swinging around the discharged
laser beam, but before the deadly light could touch Fred, the frag
wedged inside the Sentinels exploded, destroying one in a blue
explosion and buffeting away the other two.
"Now!" Fred
shouted, and Tom leaped out of where he had been hiding, running
towards Fred. The two Spartans opened fire on one Sentinel, the metal
projectiles of their MA5s slamming into the metal chassis of it. Soon,
the red light of the Sentinel's one eye dimmed, and it crashed to the
ground, broken.
The
final sentinel possessed the intelligence to know it was out gunned and
outnumbered. Therefore, it fell upon the back up plan programmed into
it and began to retreat, flying away much faster than a normal human
could run.
Thankfully, Fred and Tom weren't normal Humans.
"The Sentinels must be coming from some place!" Fred shouted. "We're going to find out where.."
Tom
nodded, and the two Spartans ran off in pursuit of the damaged
guardian, staying just far away enough to not be picked up by it's
motion sensory equipment.
They ran through the fields which
wouldn't look out of place upon Earth, jumped through hills and crags
in chase of it. After two hours of continuous running, the Spartans
stopped and gazed in awe up at the sight which beheld them, stopping in
their tracks.
High above them, a high Citadel could be seen,
hundreds of feet tall, with energised bridges leading towards separate
towers. The citadel itself was a lot like other Forerunner structures,
clean, pristine, and yet at the same time able to radiate intimidation
to all that beheld it. At the front of the building, if that's what it
could be called, large doors could be seen which were many times larger
than Fred, and he was one of the tallest people of his race.
However,
the Citadel was not completely artificial. To the left of it was a huge
sparkling lake, surrounded by grassy mores. Trees were dotted here and
there around the place, and what looked like apples were growing upon
them.
Not for the first time since arriving, Fred suspected that
the Dyson Sphere's design had been based upon Earth. But he disregarded
that thought, deeming it as unlikely.
Hundreds of Sentinels
could be seen high above, drifting around. Fred had never seen so many
in one place. The Citadel had serious security, plus magnificent
Aesthetics too.
A Sentinel factory wouldn't look like this, it
was clearly designed for living, breathing organisms. Suddenly, Fred
understood what they'd found.
"Tom, radio for everyone else to get here. Yes, everyone, Halsey and Mendez included."
"What should I tell them?" Tom asked.
Fred paused, and searched for the right words. Once he had chosen them, he prepared to deliver them with appropriate gravity.
"Tell them that we've found a Forerunner city."
"This one has forgotten whether it's heatsink is over capacity. It wonders whether the criminal scum considers itself fortunate" ~ Blasto, the only Hanar Spectre.