Cath

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar lit up the Hunter Killer’s shield in the dark with two shots from her carbine. Then she turned her gun sideways and chucked it forward.

Her assailant paused on the top step for half a second, raising one arm to deflect the heavy object whipping toward him through the rain. He was taller than Tar, but not by much. He didn’t have much mass on her either, but he was astonishingly fast.

Seizing her chance while her opponent was distracted, Tar lunged forward and trapped his sword hand under her left armpit. The dual-tips buzzed behind her ear, her shields activated and the smell of singed metal assaulted her senses.

Pushing with all her might, Tar shoved the Hunter Killer up against one side of the door frame he’d just emerged from. Sheets of water poured over them from above. The male looked straight in her face from a few inches away and hissed. “So it is you.”

His left fist smashed into the side of her helmet, blurring Tar’s vision and toppling them both over. While in free fall, the black-clad Hunter Killer jerked his sword free of Tar’s armpit. She crashed onto her back and her assailant leapt on top to pin her. She punched him meatily in the neck as his free hand pushed her chest down. Then she saw him raise his sword and plunge it towards her neck.

Raising her left hand on instinct, Tar caught the handle between the sword’s two deadly spikes. White-hot pain exploded on either side of her hand as the energy bit into her flesh. She roared.

The Hunter Killer leaned into his attack, pressing the blade closer to her head. “Deserting your…Keep, for that PATHETIC…excuse of a Kaidon.” He spat, growling as his weapon slowly came into contact with Tar’s armour plating.

Tar scrabbled frantically for her right thigh holster, her other arm still holding back the sword. But the Sangheili straddling her had his knee in the way of her Mauler. So she groped her arm out manically around her, searching for anything to use.

Despite the carnage and imminent danger all around him, the Hunter Killer appeared to be relishing this moment. He leaned in even more. “Such a shame you’re…too late to save…your brother!”

Tar growled, activating comms while he spoke. "Urgent target on my IFF." She whispered as quietly as she could. She wasn't about to let him escape.

The Cradle

“Agreed, let's get the hell out of here!” Masgard yelled over the sirens, hefting the cannon as he turned back to the group. His usually perfect hair hung down along his forehead, dripping wet from the fire control system.

Most of the civilians had begun a stampede back through the red-hued corridor in the opposite direction. But the fight had only lasted half a minute at most, so the Institute operators at the back were able to shepherd them up and point them in the right direction. The ones in the front fanned out to check the corridor ahead.

Skopec rose to his knees and pushed his helmet back. He peeled a warped slither of armour flex away from his neck, breathing ragged. That done, the Sergeant waved away offers of assistance and clambered unsteadily to his feet, pistol in hand. He looked angry. “As I was saying… I'll make sure everyone gets out. Go!”

---

Not long after, they reached the large corner unit of their floor. A Rothian transport had cut through the glass and was waiting for them with the doors open. They all fit on, except some of the soldiers who went to help their CO, and the craft lifted off. The arcology they had all briefly called home was lit up with a multitude of fires, raging against a dark and rainy background. Police lights flashed through the city below.

Chapter 7 - The Alliance

Freyr slept without dreams for the next 28 hours. The first time in a while. She woke in unfamiliar surroundings.

The Cradle

The droid swinging Skopec released him after hitting Vreta. Not by design; it had just lost control of its arms. They continued to spin wildly around.

Milliseconds after the Sergeant flew through the air, Masgard rose to his feet with the second droid’s discarded energy cannon. Cradling it in his arms, he charged the weapon to full power, aimed and fired.

vvvvVVVVBOOM

The corridor flashed, and the top half of the first droid disappeared. Its legs stumbled forward a step, before pitching over on the floor.

Masgard grinned, relieved. It didn’t last long though, and he fumbled to cool the gun’s energy core for another shot as Skopec crashed into Nirann from behind.

Somehow, the Institute Sergeant managed to push free of the fire door that had been integrated with his armour since the fight began. This slab of metal whacked the Rothian AI on the back at high speed, and the armoured man fell shorter, impacting the base of Nirann’s tail.

The droid on the other side of Nirann didn’t stop charging forward. The energy sword sawed the arm holding the girder clean off; it clanged to the floor. But with Nirann pushed forward from behind the droid used its side to keep the blade’s edge away from puncturing its chest - merely singeing its frame. It took a side step before lunging forward, grabbing Nirann around the neck and pulled him savagely into the stairwell area.

Using its opponent’s momentum, the droid pushed Nirann down towards the other legless machine on the floor.

This one knew that without a knee joint, it was no use in a conventional fight. So it had immediately begun priming its emergency self-destruct charge. The module was embedded in its chest and had been designed for activation either by a human standing in front of the droid, or remotely. So it had taken a couple of seconds to prepare, but the charge now flashed red. A prerecorded message blared for workers to stand back, as Nirann’s head was plunged toward it.

Song Reference time

Do you feeeeeel
The weight of the world singing sorrow?
Or to you is it just not real
Because you got your own things
Yeah we all have our things, I guess.

The Cradle

The two closest Institute operators fired continuous streams of energy at Vreta’s droid as soon as their CO was out of the way. They lit up the dark red corridor, and after a second the entire front of the machine was covered in corrosive plasma. Nirann and the other droid were brushed too in these close quarters. Coils of acrid smoke billowed up into the ceiling ventilation, setting off the fire-defence system for the sector. Sheets of cold water sprayed from all angles.

Skopec gurgled incoherently over comms as the vice-like grip contorted the armour around his throat. He’d managed to pull out his sidearm; he fired it rapidly into the fire door which had been pressed against his suit. Sparks and fires burst from the droid's chest and head as the plasma gouged its armour plating. Its top half spun round full circle and its bottom half staggered forward. Plasma sprayed all over its back and sides until Skopec and the fire door screeched along the opposite wall on another collision course with Vreta.

The other droid didn’t fit back through the exitway when Nirann let go. It moved its one remaining leg to connect with the door frame. It smashed right through, but enough of the momentum was dissipated to avoid it crashing into the third droid and falling back down the stairwell. Instead it rolled in the air before collapsing on the floor.

The third droid sensed an opportunity, trampling straight over its downed colleague with no time wasted. It moved the sharpened girder it held so it pointed straight out in front, to impale Nirann through the abdomen while he was unbalanced. With the other Rothian target directly behind this war machine, it could kill two birds with one stone.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar rose to her feet as Aegis team surged aboard the downed AA gun. She popped the battery out of her carbine and deftly replaced it with a fresh one while surveying the scene.

The storm had rolled over the spine of the mountain range and right onto their position. Shards of lightning scraped the grey peaks around them and splayed over the massive purple weapon they were trying to disable.

Deafening cracks and booms assaulted Tar’s ears, going over and above even the gunfire below her. Black clouds billowed out to obscure the evening light and the view of the forest valleys below.

The rain was increasing its intensity, and a rising wind was blowing it sideways, creating a silver screen which made a mockery of their previous visibility. A metallic taste registered in Tar’s mouth from the water, and a sulphurous smell wafted into her nose.

Wasting no time, the Commando dropped the dozen metres or so onto the leaning AA gun’s troop platform. Plasma bolts flew everywhere; one activated her shield. Plasma grenades went off nearby, jolting Tar into action. She jogged past Spartan Ryker, firing two shots at his Sangheili opponent as she passed.

She didn’t stop though, turning her attention instead to the gaggle of dazed defenders regrouping behind tangled wreckage in the middle. Looking through her sights, Tar loosed two more shots at an exposed head, and one at another shieldless Kig Yar.

She drew fire for that, so Tar jouked across the platform diagonally, taking advantage of whatever cover existed to try and flank them. This brought her close to a low, thin shelter, partially buried into the deck plating. Tar only noticed it when she was practically on top of it because of the driving wind.

Slowing her pace, she covered the wide entryway and approached at an angle. The noise of battle dimmed in her ears as she focused all her attention on the darkness inside, peering past the waterfall of rain water cascading off the top. Her eyes adjusted slowly. Is that…

Two yellow Sangheili eyes opened to look directly into hers, before dashing forward and up the steps. The lithe black frame of a Hunter Killer was upon her in a second, sword shimmering on to impale her. Tar opened fire.

The Cradle

The droids moved very quickly, their usual collision controls disabled. The one facing Nirann dropped its cannon, leapt forward and grabbed the Rothian’s blade arm near the wrist and at the elbow. The lights in the corridor flicked off, to be replaced by red emergency lighting. The corridor was full of scientific personnel, and most of them were not calm.

As the sword blazed through the droid’s right shoulder, it applied enough force to pick Nirann up and turn right, swinging him around 180 degrees. The droid ultimately aimed to throw the smaller robot back through the twisted fire escape exitway. If that worked, a third blackened droid was waiting with a sharp metal girder, torn from the wreckage, to smash Nirann to pieces.

The second droid’s sensory array detected Vreta rushing up on it from the side. It rose up from its crouching position over the prone Skopec, lifting the Institute soldier up with one arm until he was struggling in mid-air. The robot then swung the Sergeant around, to put him between Vreta and itself. It would then try to club Vreta to the ground or back through the exitway with the combined mass of Skopec’s armour and the attached fire door.

There was pandemonium in the corridor, with scientists attempting to scramble back the way they’d came, often over each other. Institute operators were stuck in the melee, trying to get a clear shot on the assailants.

Masgard Xandrus didn’t try to flee though. His face was determined as he moved forward, trying not to get hit by either Nirann or the first droid as he went for the cannon.

The Cradle

Skopec consulted the building plan quickly, before making a snap decision. “Ok, everyone follow me!” He led them back the way they’d come, away from the blast doors that held back a billowing inferno which was engulfing one side of the tower.

An alarm blared throughout the complex, mingling in with shouting voices. More scientists and staffers emerged from their quarters along the hall to join the growing crowd as they evacuated. Freyr could see smoke billowing past the exterior windows of their individual apartments. She could smell fire from her gurney. Outreman fighters screamed past the arcology again, and another titanic grinding sound rattled the fabric of the building. “Everybody MOVE!” Institute soldiers bellowed at the terrified civilians, pushing them into line behind Skopec.

They turned a corner and kept going east along the southern-most corridor.“Tell them to meet us in the south-east corner.” Skopec glanced back while explaining to Nirann. It's a larger apartment - more floor space and windows! I’ll go down and get-”

The Sergeant never finished, because a solid interior fire door flew away from the wall and crashed into him. A seven foot tall industrial droid ducked under the now-open doorway from the emergency stairwell it had just climbed up. Its retro-fit armour plating was blackened and dented from the impact when the first cargo ship had crashed into the building. Curled up and deactivated, it had survived. Though, its regular uplink light was not flashing.

Ignoring the others, it strode across the corridor and punched straight through the door that was now melded to Skopec’s frame. The Sergeant’s helmet slithered across his face just before the droid could grab his bare neck.

Within half a second, another blackened droid stepped through the opening - this one was carrying an energy cannon. It spooled up rapidly into a full-charge state. “ROTHIA MUST FALL” The droid blared in a robotic voice, before firing from the hip straight at Nirann from close range.

The Cradle

The Rothian interceptors only had a few seconds to avert disaster. Outremer’s command and control infrastructure had only recently gone through a drastic, though reversible, reduction in integration with the Cradle. A gap in centuries of unnaturally-fast reflexes allowed the simultaneous hack of two unmanned cargo ships to remain undetected by air traffic control for a whole minute.

As the first cargo ship’s fiery pieces lit up the night sky and crashed into the south-west side of the tower block, the second one flattened out its approach to the north-west. It screamed past neighbouring towers on a collision course as the swarm of Rothian craft surrounded it. The fighters which clamped onto the freighter exerted a huge effort to pull wide of the safe house.

They fizzed past the safe house block by the narrowest of margins, rattling every window. Then, whoever was controlling the suicide bomber detonated what was left of their interstellar engine, barely a hundred metres from north side of the tower.

Freyr couldn’t see much from on the stretcher, except the robot hovering above her and the harsh lighting set in the ceiling. Then there was smoke, and things started to get quite hot. “Please make your way to the nearest fire exit point, indicated on the floor in front of you.” The building’s attendant AI requested calmly. “Other way! Down to the hangar!” Skopec roared, as a wall of fire licked under the newly emerged set of blast doors at the end of their corridor. The floor shook under their feet, and an alarmingly crisp sound of rending metal sounded from all around them.

Freyr’s vision blurred, and a sudden nausea rose from the pit of her stomach up toward her throat. “I was…somewhere.”

The Cradle

“The last of your forebears developed a resistance to the Cradle in the end; broke a billion year cycle.” The strange entity hissed into Freyr’s ear as she writhed desperately about beneath the dark lake.

“What I need to know is…how you managed to break Us up as well.” Freyr saw a cluster of bubbles push their way out of Vreta’s mouth. Her chest started heaving for air.

“You may be useless now. But the more your Other self learns about us, the more we learn from you.”

With that, whatever was speaking to her pushed Freyr’s body completely into the pool. She felt water rushing past her as she sped through the pitch black space towards the haloed opening where Vreta was also being drowned. She raced towards him, arms outstretched, and closed her eyes.

---

With a gasp, Freyr opened her eyes and instantly regretted it. Bright lights from a drone were shining directly at her, and there were sharp pricks all over her body. People were shouting and moving quickly all around her, but she didn’t know where she was or what they were saying.

“He-...” Her voice cracked. “Help.”

“Subject’s vitals are stabilising.” A drone communicated to the Rothian doctor as Sergeant Skopec stopped the procession halfway down the corridor with an outstretched hand. “Doctor Lang. You’re awake! That is good.” He boomed in his peculiar accent. “We need to get you and your team out of here. It's not safe - too many alien craft attracting attention.” He shot an acerbic look at the Rothian delegation. “We’ve got a transport waiting to take you away. Just be still.”

Just then, Skopec’s eyes rolled back as he received a live feed from the AA mechs perched atop the building.

[CONTACT ALERT]

His eyes rolled back into focus, displaying a mote of fear.

“EVERYBODY GET DOWN!” He yelled.

The Institute AA guns deployed for the safe house were state of the art, but the incoming objects were travelling at four times the speed of sound from orbit. Even as the tri-field laser guns tore one craft apart, sizable pieces flew straight into the tower block and exploded with an intensity that shook even the surrounding structures.