"New things might not always be good"
This chapter will be seen through Master Chief's perspective and Samus will be called "The Assailant" because of my lack of imagination.
Chief landed on the surface of the planet with the unknown energy signature. Turns out, it was a tower. He was far enough from it that he wouldn't be seen if anything were there. The place was covered in white "snow."
"Be careful Chief, this substance is highly corrosive but no enough to melt through your armor. It's liquid form might be strong enough but let's not stick around to find out." Athena said.
"Athena," Chief said "send a message to the Andromeda. Tell them we made it."
"Can't, something's jamming my signal, must be whatever's in that tower." She said.
"I thought you had the most advanced tech in the galaxy." Chief said.
Athena seemed offended by Chief's comment. "This is something neither the UNSC nor the SOSH (Swords of Sanghelios) have ever seen before. It's completely out of my capabilities." She explained.
"Then keep a video record of what goes on here. We'll show them what happened when we get back to the ship" Chief grabbed his guns and trudged through the terrain towards the tower.
"No one seems to be home." Chief said. He would definitely have would have been shot at at that distance from the tower. Just in case though Chief cocked his rifle and pumped his shot gun, y'know just in case.
He was now at the base of the tower. He reached out to touch the structure but thought better of it, he might set off a security alarm.
"I've never seen anything like this before, even with my extensive knowledge." Athena said, her face appearing in the top left corner of Chief's field of view. Chief saw what looked like a door to his right. He stepped closer to it, his rifle raised. The door hissed and it opened for him automatically. He stepped inside cautiously.
The hallways seemed empty, no life to be seen. He continued straight on, cautiously keeping an eye on his radar. He continued to walk through the empty corridors when a red blimp appeared on his radar. "Chief, be careful. We don't know if it is friendly or hostile." Athena said. He just nodded and waited for it. He holstered his gun and pulled out his handy dandy combat knife from its compartment in his right shin.
"From the right" Athena warned. He stepped out of his cover to reveal himself fully. If the creature stopped, he would make contact but if it attacked then it will be to the death. The creature currently running towards him was unlike any of them have ever seen. It hard a hard exterior with multiple points in its body glowing red. It had a pincer like structure on its right hand and a wicked looking blade on its left hand. It looked like it had a hard exterior, but that remained to he seen.
The creature didn't stop. Instead it raised it's bladed arm and swiped at him. Chief dodged easily, sidestepping to the left. He brought his knife down on the creatures back but it just bounced off. The creature attempted to swipe again at him. Chief just repeated his movements, this time sidestepping to the right. Chief raised the knife over his head and put his left hand over his right hand and slammed it down into the creatures back. The knife cracked through the creatures armor and into its flesh effectively killing it in one blow. The red glowing spots began to dim into nothingness.
"Looked like it's weapons are grafted onto its body surgically. Talk about commitment." Athena analyzed. "It seems to have a hard carapace but the real question is, can bullets penetrate it?"
"Only one was to find out" Chief said as he brought out his shot gun. He fired a single shot at its torso. The sound echoed through the empty hallways accompanied by a cracking noise. The bullets went through the shell just fine. "If you ever find yourself out of ammo, go for the stomach area. There seems to be no armor and it's looks very vulnerable." Athena analyzed.
"Again, only one way to find out." Chief drove his fist through the general stomach area of the creature, specifically where the glowing spot was. Predictably it went through without a problem. Chief shook his hand to shake away the, what he assumed was, blood from the creature.
"At least we know it isn't a friendly. Be on alert, we don't know how many of these things are there." Athena said.
"Don't tell me how to do my job." Chief said rather rudely in her opinion. She just replied with a humph.
"Maybe this'll help." Athena said. Chief's shield began to deplete instantly as a pink glowing ball of light emerged from his chest, like a Promethean sentry. The blue orb merged with the closest wall which was to his right.
"Downloading schematics and blueprints of the building now. Scanning... Scanning... Aaaand done. The power source we're looking for is just up ahead. Up three sets of ramps on the left and you should be there." Athena said. A mini-map of the tower and a way-point appeared on his visor. Chief didn't question how she did that (and neither should you) and continued on, shotgun in hand.
He went up the aforementioned ramp and came up to a door at the end. He opened it to find a room of those creatures lying dead on the floor. Chief turned one over to inspect it. No bullet holes, just a black mark, usually left by plasma burns. Which meant a plasma based weapon, like the Covenant's.
Someone or something has already been here. No marking, other than plasma burns, to indicate any use of blades. There was clearly a struggle in this room. There was a glowing orb in the middle of the room. "That's a Covenant power core. What's it doing all the way out here?" Athena said. There was a console with unknown markings on it.
"Don't know, but we can find out. See if you can hack into this console." Chief said walking closer to it. 'What have the Covenant gotten themselves into now?' Chief thought.
"Dunno, but whatever it is, it can't be good, especially if it's the Covenant." Athena replied. He forgot she can read his mind.
Chief hovered his hand over the console and Athena transferred over to it. She appeared, hovering, over the console as she brought up what looked like documents in an unknown language.
"It'll take me a while to decipher all of this so go do something." Athena dismissed. As she finished her sentence rhythmical clanking of metal on metal could be heard getting louder and louder. Chief retrieved his shotgun and place himself flat against the side of the door. Athena didn't bother to hide herself as she continued to search through the files, learning and deciphering the text.
A humanoid figure with gold looking armor emerged from the door. It had a blue green-ish thing on its right arm, which, chief guessed, was its main source of fire power. A green visor shielded it's face from Chief. It made its way slowly over to the console where Athena was at. It stopped short of her.
"I thought I told you not to bother me Chief!" Athena yelled turning around. "Uh, your not Chief." She said looking slightly nervous. She looked at Chief's general direction to see him creeping towards the assailant. He put his pointer finger in the middle of his helmet where his mouth should be, forming the universal sign for 'be quiet.'
"Wh-who are you? State your business!" Athena said trying to stall the assailant. She had to buy time for Chief to sneak up on it. The Assailant tilted its head to the right. Chief tried his very best to sneak up on the assailant. He didn't want to risk anything like last time.
Chief was about to place a hand in its shoulder area when the assailant grabbed his hand hand and threw him over its shoulder. Chief landed in his feet with shotgun raised. The assailant had raised it's right arm now, pointing what looked like a canon in his direction. They waited for the other to make a move.
Chief slowly stood up and strafed to his right. The Assailant strafed to its left, never taking its green visor off of Chief. Chief was now in front in the console again. Athena was raised her arms in a 'pick me up' sort of fashion. Chief outstretched his hand and took Athena back into his visor.
Chief did a complete 180 and bolted down the ramps again. As he reached the very bottom of the ramp he pressed himself once again against the wall closest to the door. He held his shotgun by the barrel and readied it to hit the assailant if it followed. Surely enough, rhythmic metal clanking could be hear getting louder and louder.
Chief swung the shotgun where The Assailant's head should have been. The Assailant, at the last minute, ducked under shotgun as it swung. It slip on its shins leaning back as far as it could. It then jumped up and got back into a battle stance.
Chief quickly recovered and fired two point blank shots at the assailant. This time it couldn't dodge because the spread pattern for a shotgun was highly unpredictable. The shots hit but it only seemed to stagger it as a force-field like structure, much like Chief's own shield, appeared around it. The assailant raised it's cannon arm and fired plasma shots at him.
The plasma shots were faster than any shot the Covenant ever fired at him so it didn't surprise him that he was now leaning against the wall for support. His shield had given out but that was just it. He had to buy some time until his shield was back up and running again.
"Did you get the data?" Chief thought.
"Half of it but enough" Athena replied.
"Good enough, buy me some time, at least until my shield recharges." He said. Athena gave a nod and got to work. While she was in the console she had hacked into all of the building. She now controlled it all.
A door between the two suddenly closed and separated the two combatants. "Where's the nearest exit?" Chief asked.
"Right behind the doors you're looking at right now." she said, her voice adopting a grim tone. they both silently agreed that there was only one thing they could do.
"Athena, search the structure for a wide open space. We'll confront it there." He said.
It took a moment but a way-point popped up in the top right corner of his helmet visor. He looked away from the pounding on the door for a minute and looked down the hallway where the way-point pointed. A yellow line drew itself along the middle of the floor and went along the hallway and turned the corner to the right. "It's a new navigational feature," said Athena, "follow the yellow brick road." She said with a small smile.
"Make sure that thing follows us." He said.
"Will do Chief." she replied. The doors that did not lead to Chief's destination closed down airtight. Chief readied himself to run.
"On 'go'. Three... twooneGO!!" Athena exclaimed. He fully expected her to do that and because of his inhuman reflexes he was fully prepared for the surprise. The door opened just as she finished her sentence.
He sprinted to his destination with The Assailant close in tow behind him. Greenish-blue bolts of pure plasma whizzed by his head, dangerously close to it. He winded through the dark empty corridors until he came upon a large domed room. It was directly above the Generator room that they where in before. A narrow cat-walk was the only thing keeping them from certain Game Over, a.k.a death.
Chief pivoted on a foot and faced his opponent in a fighting stance. The Assailant seemed to know that this is where they where going to make they're final stand. The Assailant also took, what he assumed to be also, a fighting stance though he had never seen anything like it before. They watched each other with laser point focus, not letting even the smallest movement of the enemy escape their attention. Since they didn't know anything about each other they were extra careful. A single droplet of acidic liquid dripped from the ceiling and landed on the platform making the softest of sounds. As the drop hit the cat-walk they charged at each other with reckless abandon.
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Author's notes
How ist the story so far? Good? Bad? Comment? Please?
I know, took me long enough right? I'm very sorry for the long wait, I've been dealing with some... uh... family problems. I honestly feel bad and terrible for keeping you, my dear patrons. All I can do is ask and beg for your forgiveness. I'm so sorry.