"Do you guys have transportation." 009 asked.
"Dude we walked here." Amythest said nonchalant.
"How far." He asked.
"About 4.2 human miles away."
He stepped ahead of them going down a different hallway. "Follow me." He said.
They were walking toward the hangar when they passed by one of the outer walls of the ship when they saw where one of the weird biomasses was. Rose started talking."We found those all around the outer walls of this ship but we didn't know what it was."
"Quasar can you tell me what it is."
"Chemical analysis shows traces of protein polymers, fabric, trace bits of metal and ....oh God. 009 looked deeper into the mass and pulled something out.
It was a dog tag.
"I found what happened to the rest of the crew."
The gems were shocked. Pearl looked like she was gonna puke if she could, even Amythest looked a little quesy. Rose looked on the verge of tears and Garnet even looked down.
009 put the dogtag in a pouch on his armor and said. "I'll give what's left of them a proper burial later."
(Just so you know how this happened. The explosive decompression sucked the crew members that were t buckled down out to the hull and sucked mangled their bodies into holes like human Play-Doh)
They continued down the hall and 009 picked up the dogtsg from all the bodies he could find. "Thankfully it was a skeleton crew."
"How many crew members are usually on this ship." Pearl asked.
"Roughly a thousand personnel with a varying amount of marines and ODST's. But all the soldiers were gone and the ship was operating on a skeleton crew. So I'd guess there was no more than 350 on board." 009 replied.
"Where was everyone else that was supposed to be on board." Garnet asked.
"Dead."
Before the gems could ask them how they reached the hangar door. It was another large bulkhead. Garnet was about to step forward to open it but 009 beat them to it. He clasped his hands where the 2 halves meet and pried. The sound of metal scraping echoed throughout the ship.
"How are you that strong, that door must have at least weighed several tons." Rose asked.
"Because I'm no ordinary soldier."
"And what kind would that be." Pearl asked sceptical.
"That's classified."
They dropped the subject for now to look at the hangar. Like everything else on this ship it was huge. Spanning at least 150 meters long and 70 meters wide. (For all you metric users). There were several different types of vehicles strewn across it. Most were damaged in the crash. Several aerial looking vehicles were either missing wings or engines, some even had holes blown in them. The ground ones looked in better condition but some were still missing key components.
009 started across to a large truck like vehicle that looked relatively in one piece. It was a military green with armored plates and a large gun hanging off the back.
009 hopped into the driver's seat of it. His considerable size looking at home inside the vehicle.
"What are you waiting for get in. And if your wondering if you can fit then don't worry, this was designed to fit all body shapes."
The gems looked at each other than walked forward. Rose got in the passenger seat while Amythest garnet and Pearl got in the back.
"Hey what's this thing called." Amythest asked.
"The Warthog." He said as he started the engine. It roared to life and lurched the vehicle forward.
"If you are from 500 years in the future then what does this thing run on."
"Nuclear fusion drives."
The hangar doors were already open from the previous battle so he just drove out of the door and onto the forest floor. It was a bit of a bumpy ride in the forest but due to the suspension of the Warthog it was no problem
He was about to pull onto the road when he stopped. "What direction." He asked simply.
Garnet gave him direction and he started to drive again.
Pearl turned to garnet in the backseat. "Don't you think the weapons and look of this thing will garnet to much attention from the humans."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Garnet replied.
They reached Beach city but thankfully it was still night time. He pulled up to the beach, stopped the Warthog and got out. The gems followed suite.
Quasar appeared on his shoulder. "Wow it really is a statue of a giant woman." The AI stated.
Rose walked in front of them, with the rest of the gems following behind her. The soldier and the AI looked at them suspiciously.
"We told you where our base was and gave you directions all the way here. Do you really think we would boobytrap it!" She saidalmost in a hell clearly getting tired of this situation.
They looked at each other. "Fair point." 009 replied.
He slowly started after them, looking in every direction. While Quasar was looking to see if they had any electronic security.
As they got closer they could see a cave settled into the lap area of the statue. With the 2 lowest arms positioned as if they were protecting it. He could start to make out something in the cave.
It was a giant blue crystalline pad. With on odd door with gemstones in it behind. The whole cave was actually strange. Another unknown crystalline substance making up the walls and floor.
"Can you tell me what any of this stuff is. Or if it has a purpose." 009 asked Quasar inside his helmet.
"Well everything is made of gemstones of a strange nature. And I can tell you that circle door isn't a normal door. But other than everything I here being weird I can't tell you much else." The AI replied.
"This place seems pretty empty for a base. So logic would dictate that at that pad must do something. And I know that isn't a normal door, just not quite sure what it does?" 009 said to the gems.
"First you will answer is a few questions before we tell you anything more." Garnet stated matter of factly.
"First off, why are you here." Pearl asked.
"A FTL malfunction." He said purposely vague.
"So you don't have an ulterior motive for being here." Garnet asked again.
"It wasn't my choice to be here. If I could I would be back fighting the Covenent."
"You've said that before. And even asked us if we are a part of it. What exactly is this 'Covenent'?" Rose asked.
"They are who we are at ear with. Without a doubt one of the largest war's in history." 009 said.
"Oh please it can't be that bad. Try defending an entire planet from an empire that wants to see you crumble." Pearl replied nochalantly.
Quasar looked angry and was about to talk when 009 silenced him.
"You know nothing of war." He said.
"Oh yes I'm sure this 'Covenent' are so scary compared to a galaxy wide Homeworld empire!"
"You don't know do you. You think this is some petty squabble. Some fight over territory. No this is a fight for our very will to live! The Covenent want nothing more than to see every last human Man, Woman and child dead and burned! They've turned entire planets to glass. Already killed billion of soldiers and civilians alike. Destroyed hundreds of ships smaller and larger than the ARCTURUS. And the worst part is... we're losing. Their stronger than us, vastly outnumber us,have better technology and they SHOW NO MERCY!" 009 yelled. Unbenounced to him green flames started to sprout from his body.
The silence was deafening in the base. Each one of the gems was wide eyes and stunned. Not even Homeworld would do something so evil. Rose looked like she was barely holding back tears. Pearl was stunned, Amythest looked like she was shaking, and Garnet had to take a step back.
"Spartans like me are the only things even buying us time." But there are to few of us and even then a good few have already died trying to hold back the tidal wave. So if you ask me if you think I want to be back fighting then yes, yes I do. But as far as I can tell I'm stuck on this rock." 009 turned around and yanked out Quasars chip and tossed it to the ground. "He can tell you what you ask."
He turned and walked out of the base. His foot steps turned black from the heat and the flames growing bigger.
"Is what he says... true. Rose asked.
Quasar looked downtrodden. "I'm afraid so. Everything he said was true. From the casualties, to the planets, even the Spartans."
"And what was with the fire." Amythest asked.
"I'm not sure, most files retaining to him are classified to even me. But I can tell you he is the only Spartan or even human that can do that. But it would be best you give him some time to cool off. Because even without whatever that was, an angry Spartan is something few have lived to tell about."
(Please leave a comment or a suggestion, it would be greatly appreciated)