Cath

The Cradle

Vreta’s maneuver would’ve panned out, if it weren’t for some unusually dexterous arms on the monster’s front. As the Rothian tried to guide the male creature into a pillar, they reached down and grabbed hold of his helmet, grasping tight. Instead of being propelled away, some of the force was transferred back into Vreta’s legs as the creature swung round.

With a chittering squeal it wrapped around him like an apron, back two insect legs scraping and dancing along the ground. The front two legs flicked back and forth, trying to make a purchase on his shoulders and chestplate. What was left of its jaw crunched against the top of Vreta’s head.

Freyr screamed and let go of Vreta’s tail, firing full auto into the melee as she made a run towards the stairs. She didn’t make it far, as the desperate female creature in front lunged at her. Unfortunately, that sudden movement applied the final bit of pressure required to finish 595’s work.

The front half of the female came free from the back half. A bright plasma cut through the middle opened up. Gouts of black ichor sprayed all over Freyr and the Agent. The creature’s egg sac burst, sending a slurry of fluid and eggs all over 595 as she struggled to get up. The two parts of the female collapsed in opposite directions, twitching furiously on the floor.

“Help me!” 595 winced, extending an arm from her position, partially covered by the front half. Her other hand held the activated energy sword. Freyr rushed over and started to pull her from the mess. Shrieking filled the subway from the separate struggle nearby.

Halo: Aegis Team

Surprised and enraged in equal measure by the audacity of this Human’s response, Tar chuckled. Not a cheerful sound, but a hoarse, venomous warning that any living being with sense would run from. When she spoke, her voice was soft and conspiratorial, with a razor-sharp edge. “Ah... A beggar, here for knowledge that isn’t yours. Did you know, little one, there are a lot of places to hide a bag of skin and bone like yours on a Hekar Taa?”

Tar softly grasped the front of Flint’s shirt with her right hand as she said this. She slowly lifted him off the ground until the Human was right in front of her face. “Not to mention the black maw of space, patiently waiting to swallow you forever.” She gestured subtly with her head towards the dark canvas they had just come from in the Pelican, visible behind the forcefield off to one side. “Tell me why I shouldn't slay you right now for your insolence.” Tar hissed.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar nodded in response to Ryker; pleased despite the dark cloud hanging overhead.

“I’m glad.” She rasped.

---

The Commando was silent for the entire Pelican flight from their lodgings in HIGHCOM Bravo-6 to the Magnificent Defiance. She held onto an overhead rail as the ship rattled through the atmosphere and into space, glowering at the space between atoms in front of her.

She still couldn’t fully believe that Uztel had betrayed the family. There wasn’t much worse you could do in a close-knit Blood Keep. The missing pieces nagged at the back of her mind; what possessed her little brother to do it - was it greed? Or was something else motivating him now? Tar had to find out.

The sounds, smells and cavernous tremors of the hangar bay assaulted Tar’s senses from the moment the ramp started lowering. She immediately yearned for somewhere quieter, so she could contemplate the situation further. She was following Spartan Ryker towards the door her map indicated went to the armoury, when she heard someone talking to Vael and Grik on one side. The words made Tar grit her mandibles together.

Circling back behind the small Human as they extended a hand in greeting, Tar stalked up to their shoulder. “And what does this one propose to exploit, on my homeworld?” She purred, butting in, staring menacingly down on the man. She was small among the other Sangheili, but still loomed over the new arrival.

The Cradle

As soon as the creature reared up, 595 crawled backwards over the uneven vines, one arm reaching for the Rothian sword. She wasn’t looking when a second barrage of plasma splashed all over her attacker’s neck area. The superheated particles on the exterior joined with the coating that was currently melting the creature’s throat. The monster’s head listed alarmingly towards Vreta, and its screech slurred into a loud humming. Its leg glowed bright as the third shot sprayed it, but the incredibly strong superstructure remained intact.

595 grasped the sword with one hand and turned to look at the creature just as one of its legs came down on her thigh, piercing the armour and the flesh behind her bone. The Agent roared out loud as the razor-sharp end twisted around when the creature tried to drunkenly pivot towards the Rothian. Activating the sword in her left hand, 595 swung it into the insect’s midriff and tried to pull it through. She added her other hand to the hilt as the beast writhed sluggishly around, a sickly slicing sound filling the subway.

The other creature did not take this well. Issuing a final terrifying war cry, it raised its front arms as if to throttle Vreta, who was in front of it, and shambled forward alarmingly fast. Freyr moved with Vreta’s tail as he swivelled to address the other threat, and noticed now that the other creature was considerably smaller and stockier than the female 595 was now cutting into. The shots to its legs slowed it slightly, but it carried on despite the risk of collapse. It used its tail to cross the final distance, leaping at Vreta like some flying, plasmafied spider. Freyr screamed and fired at its underside, flaring the Rothian’s shields again by mistake.

The Cradle

The female creature’s fleshy jaw melted under the plasma fusillade, but it didn’t stop coming. Burbling with rage, it reared up and stamped on 595’s midriff with both front legs. The Agent’s battered shield popped under the weight of the impact. She scrambled wildly for the Rothian sword, just out of reach, while trying to maneuver out from underneath the creature.

Bouncing off 595’s shield before it broke, the creature reared up for another attempt. Freyr shot underneath Vreta’s shoulder at the thing, with the occasional shot activating the Rothian’s shield too. A spine-tingling roar emanated from the other side of the platform, and she caught a glimpse of the other creature running, off to their left. “Look out!" Freyr shouted, still holding onto Vreta’s tail.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar growled threateningly, leaning over the table towards Ethat. Both of her hands rested back in the divots she’d created; the stanchions screeched in complaint. When she spoke, her voice wasn’t raised anymore, but soft and laced with poison. “Then your warriors had best remember to stay in line - behind me.”

Tar pushed off from the table and stalked out of the briefing room along with the rest of Aegis team. The last thing she wanted was a lecture from Spartan Ryker, and she made that abundantly clear through her body language, though no doubt the Human wouldn’t pick it up. “Don’t concern yourself with my welfare, Ryker.” She growled.

Martialling all her discipline, Tar tried to make the best of the Spartan’s obvious investment in this operation by sharing what really puzzled her: “I know my brother. This treachery was always in his heart, but Uztel wouldn’t readily plunder our world. Something doesn’t smell right - I need to talk to him, before I kill him.”

A pair of facility orderlies pressed their backs firmly against the wall to let them pass. “Can I count on you, Ryker? It has to be me who confronts him - if I fall, don’t let ONI take him. Brissekh will fall apart without blood continuity. It's the only thing holding us together.”

The Cradle

595 only made it a few more strides before the creature she’d hit with her shotgun reappeared. Clambering up onto the platform, ablaze with light blue fire and screeching manically, it slashed at her with one of its dagger-like legs. The Agent dived away from the lunge, rolled among the slithering vines, jumped to her feet, turned and swung the blade with all her might.

The plasma blade scythed straight through the middle of the monster’s beak as it rushed forward, cutting the end off each. It reared up and pirouetted madly to get away; its razor tail flicked round smashed into 595’s side. She flew through the air towards the stairs, scraping her helmet against the ceiling then bouncing off a vine-covered pillar before rolling over a few times, right into the path of second creature. The automatically deactivated blade clattered by the steps.

Moving to cut off Vreta and Freyr before this bite-sized woman arrived in its lap, the female creature charged forward, jaws extending out past its beak to crunch 595’s neck.

The Cradle

“Umm, ok!” Freyr replied, fumbling for the proffered tail-end one hand while keeping her pistol up with the other. Another chittering screech made her flinch; Freyr looked over and saw the slavering monster closest to them hop up onto the platform. It clicked deftly through the vine-covered alleys, striking a diagonal line between them and the stairway.

“It's female!” Freyr gasped, mainly to herself. Through the vines, an egg sac was fleetingly visible under the thorax, behind the arms. She’d never seen Cradle creatures displaying the ability to procreate, but she pushed the thought from her mind as a gurgling snarl issued from the other side of the platform. Freyr’s view was obscured by rapidly growing vegetation, but she imagined the other one was not best pleased. “Oh no. Let's get out of here!” She pleaded again.

The Cradle

595 burst through a particularly flammable clump of matter with the staircase just a dozen metres away when the source of the chittering sound revealed itself. An armoured carapace with four insect legs, a long jagged tail and slime-dashed teeth clacked out of the tunnel and chittered furiously. Freyr screamed.

The Agent charged her shotgun to full power, narrowed the vector and fired at the monster. A sheet of plasma covered the front half of its body just as it began clambering up the side of the platform from the tracks. It screamed, recoiling back underneath the parapet where 595 lost sight of it.

A gurgling cry issued from the opposite tunnel; the Agent swivelled towards the new threat as it appeared on her sensory grid. Before she could complete the turn, two vines decoupled from pillars either side of the way forward and lunged at her. 595, fully dialled in behind the stubby shotgun, blew one of the vines to pieces before it gave an electronic sigh as the energy cell drained. The second vine wrapped around the gun and tried to yank it from her hands, so 595 grabbed the Rothian energy sword from her waist, flicked it on and slashed the vine in half.

The Agent shook the vine off the shotgun, then compacted it down as far as it would go and magnetised it to her chest plate. There was no time to reload now. She glanced behind her, but realised Dr Lang was no longer there.

Freyr recoiled from the terrible fascination of the creature coming for them, and stumbled off to the right, towards the middle of the platform. She fired her blaster wildly in front of her, still shouting and swearing, until another of the creatures burst from the tunnel on the opposite side of the platform. Freyr’s shout raised in pitch, and she turned tail to run back the way they’d come.

The Cradle

Keeping her shotgun poised with one arm and her eyes scanning around them, 595 unsheathed her nine inch blade and passed it back to Freyr. She then turned and gave it to Vreta’Sori. “Let's get out of here…” Dr Lang pleaded.

“We’re moving - stay close and don’t make a sound.” 595 hissed, as the train doors closed behind them and the train rattled off into another tunnel. The Agent picked a path through the maze of detritus and vines on the platform. Moving quickly, she barely made any noise at all as she headed for the stairs leading out of the subway.

Freyr by contrast, seemed incapable of being stealthy. After a few seconds, she yelped as she sent a piece of CraSec armour scraping across the floor with her foot. A guttural snarl accompanied by frenzied chittering echoed around the station. “Shit.” Freyr looked down at her feet as if to scold them personally.

“Run, now!” 595 ordered, setting off at a loping jog, hopping over clumps of vines as elegantly as one could in a suit. The sound of click-clacking rose significantly in volume from both of the tunnels on either side of the staircase. Vines began shifting and licking at their legs; 595 fired an incendiary shot across the platform, setting some of them on fire in front of them. They gave a shrill, gaseous scream.