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Inferno - Chapter 11: First Wave
Posted By: Skul<skulkrusha2000@hotmail.com>
Date: 2 October 2008, 10:39 pm
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0215 hours, June 13, 2553 (Military Calendar) / Fire Base Alpha Zulu Foxtrot, Planet Earth
In the silence of the corridor, John could hear the creatures inside the mess hall breathing. It was a harsh, horrible sound – almost like the sound of someone breathing from an oxygen tank.
Although he knew they were dangerous, John found himself wondering what these creatures looked like. After the varied species of the Covenant, he was sure nothing could surprise him.
Turning his head from the mess hall door, he looked over at the Arbiter. The alien warrior seemed to be having trouble keeping his eyes open. His shoulders were slumped and his head waved on the long neck.
"What's wrong? You feeling tired, too?"
"I… no… I…" the Arbiter sighed, and looked at the Chief, "Yes…"
"Then sleep. If it comes to a fight and you're tired, then you won't perform at your maximum capability."
"What about you, Spartan?"
"I'm fine."
"Very well. I… I shall… rest here."
Easing his body down, the Arbiter sat on the floor with his back against the wall and closed his eyes.
John looked at the Sangheili warrior. It was hard to believe only a few months ago they had been bitter enemies, ready to tear each other's throats out. Now, he was fighting alongside his former adversary.
As both fighters and sentient beings, John respected the Elites. He didn't… couldn't… consider any of them friends, not even the Arbiter, but he accepted that the Elites were now allies.
John stiffened as he noticed the base was completely silent. He listened carefully, but couldn't hear the harsh breathing of the creatures. They couldn't be gone. Why would they just suddenly leave?
John had patched his armour's communication system into Captain Osmond's radio frequency and was considering contacting him when Cortana hastily spoke, "Chief, I'm detecting movement!"
Before John could ask "Where?" the mess hall door blew out from its frame. The Arbiter cried out and groggily started getting to his feet, using the cold steel wall as leverage.
Reacting instantaneously, John aimed his Assault Rifle at the new opening in the warped doorframe.
What he saw made him fall back a step. Standing just behind the doorframe was a huge, ten-foot monstrosity, hunched over, looking through the gap directly at him with blazing red eyes set in a bull's head. Two black, twisted horns jutted from its forehead and flames billowed from its mouth with every exhalation. Its heavily muscled, dark brown skin was marked with ugly bruises and scars. At the end of the muscular arms were large, almost human-looking hands, which were gripping the sides of the doorframe. Supporting the beast's powerful upper body were two large goat legs. Dirt and blood matted the brown hair above the creature's black cloven hooves.
The minotaur's grip on the doorframe tightened. Its muscles bulged and, with seemingly no effort, the minotaur tore the frame out. Throwing the wrecked doorframe away, the minotaur turned its attention back to John.
"...This is new..." said Cortana.
"What are you?" asked John, his MA5C still aiming at the beast, "Are you with the Covenant?"
The Chief didn't think this thing was, but it was possible. Remnants of the Covenant were still out there, scattered across the galaxy. However, it wasn't unfeasible to think that they would be trying to regain their former strength.
Instead of answering, the minotaur sucked in its breath. John guessed what was coming next. He ran and grabbed the Arbiter by the arm and shoved him away from the mess hall before diving forward, himself.
Flames roared around him just before he dove, and his shields drained quickly. A low-pitched beeping sounded, alerting him that his shields were completely down.
John looked over at the Arbiter who had lost his footing after he was shoved. He was breathing heavily, but seemed unhurt.
The Chief began helping the Arbiter up as his suit's high-pitched beep told him that his shields were recharging. He turned to face the monster in the mess hall, aiming his rifle with one hand, holding the Arbiter with the other.
The minotaur, fire licking out from between its lips, reared back and used its body weight to smash through the remains of the doorway and into the fiery corridor.
Standing slightly hunched over, the monster took up almost the entire hallway.
By now, armed marines were running towards the scene. They stopped and cried out when they saw the beast, its shape silhouetted by the unnatural fires burning behind it. Then, it slowly began walking towards them.
"Stay calm," said the Chief, backing off slowly. The marines fell back in time with him.
The Arbiter gently pushed the Chief's arm away, brought out his Covenant Carbine, and levelled it at the minotaur.
The marines, barely getting over the shock at seeing the huge creature, pointed their own weapons just as Captain Osmond arrived.
His eyes widened when he saw the bull-headed beast with its flaming mouth.
"Holy shit...! What the hell is that?"
"I don't know, sir," replied the Chief, "But it's probably not a good idea to let it live."
"Agreed. All right marines," said Osmond, aiming his MA5C, "Ready... fire!"
The minotaur roared and charged down the corridor. The barrage of fire, however, forced it to slow down and fall to one knee.
The beast looked up at them with rage. The Chief could guess what it was planning. He stopped firing his assault rifle and quickly took out his M7A. He took careful aim and waited. Less than a second later, the creature's burly chest swelled. The Chief squeezed the trigger and the powerful bullet sped towards the minotaur. The beast's right eye exploded as the bullet tore through it. Surprised by the sudden pain, the minotaur's head snapped left just as it exhaled, causing it to set its own arm ablaze. It let out an agonised roar as its right hand flew up to the ruptured eye.
"Nice shot!" commented Cortana.
"Thanks."
The marines stepped closer, some firing at the head, others set their aim on the burning, charred arm.
The creature writhed on the ground and let out a deep moan that sounded exactly like a wounded bull. It looked up at the Chief with its one eye and then collapsed, fire escaping from its mouth one last time.
The marines continued firing, however. The large corpse twitched as the bullets flew into it.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" yelled Captain Osmond over the noise of the gunfire and flames.
Examining the body from afar, Osmond saw no signs of life. He sighed heavily. This was just getting stranger and stranger.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked at the roaring flames, wondering why the automatic fire suppression system wasn't activating.
He pointed to two marines, "You and you, get fire extinguishers and put that out."
The marines saluted and, taking another look at the unmoving bull creature on the floor, followed the Captain's orders.
"What the hell is go—" Osmond stopped when his radio crackled.
"Osmond here. What is it?"
"Sir, I think you'd better come to communications," said the marine at the other end of the radio.
The Captain heard an edge in the marine's voice, "What's going on?"
"It's the pentagram, sir. Satellite's showing it... uh... well, something's happening."
"Alright, I'll be there soon. Osmond out."
The Captain looked at John, "Chief, you're with me. The rest of you, stay here."
"You stay too, Arbiter," said John.
"As you wish," replied the alien warrior and watched the Chief follow Captain Osmond down the corridor.
As John passed the marines, he could tell many weren't comfortable with the idea of the Arbiter staying with them. Indeed, a couple eyed the Elite suspiciously. The Chief couldn't understand it. The Elites had been allies for several months, now. If they were going to betray the humans, they would have, by this point. There were many times the Arbiter, not to mention a hundred other Elites, could have easily driven their Energy Swords through his back at any time in the past, but it had never happened. John had learned to trust them – why couldn't they?
Captain Osmond entered communications. A bank of monitors lined one wall, each screen displaying the feed from the cameras in the base with hand-written labels underneath the screens referring to their respective cameras. Almost all of them had now been tuned to the external cameras that focused on the pentagram outside. Osmond looked at the two monitors labelled 'Mess Hall' and noticed they were completely blank. The Captain turned his attention back to the other monitors and tried to ignore that he thought he had seen grinning faces in the blank screens as he looked away.
"What's going on, soldier?" asked Osmond.
"Just watch the monitors and you'll see, sir," answered the marine.
Osmond looked at the multiple images of the giant pentagram that sat north of the base. The strange shape was slowly rotating. As Osmond watched, it started spinning faster, quickly blurring into a solid circle. The spinning pentagram lowered into the ground, creating a huge, gaping pit. There was a deep boom and a large gout of flame exploded from the hole. There was a change in the air and the sky turned from black to blood red.
The cameras zoomed in on the pit; its sides alight with what looked like glowing red-orange veins. Nothing happened for several moments. Then, a shape crawled out. It didn't look like one of the mess hall monsters; its squat body was covered in red scales. Small, leathery wings sprang from its back. The impish creature walked on all fours and stayed near the pit. Eight more of its kind swarmed out of the hole and advanced a few feet towards the base before stopping.
"What the hell are those things, sir?" asked the marine.
"Keep cool, son," replied Osmond. He hit a button and spoke into a microphone.
"This is Captain Osmond. I want everybody armed and ready. We have unknown contacts outside the perimeter. Contacts may be hostile. All personnel, arm yourselves and stay alert!"
The Captain lifted his finger off the button and looked up at the monitors to see two new beasts clamber out of the hole. Large, red-skinned monsters that looked to be even taller than an Elite. Like the imps, they had wings on their backs. The two-legged creatures had almost reptilian faces and powerful, muscled bodies.
One of the creatures roared and a flood of more demonic nightmares surged up from the kilometre wide pit. They were of all shapes and sizes, some flew, some crawled and some walked upright, but they were all grotesque, evil-looking things.
"Fire Base Alpha Zulu Foxtrot," the radio crackled. It was Major Harland, again. He was the one who had sent the Pelican that delivered the Arbiter and the Master Chief.
"Yes, sir," answered Osmond.
"Captain Osmond? If you're in communications, I guess you know why I'm contacting you."
"Yes, sir, I do."
"I've managed to get a hold of a couple of patrol teams. They'll arrive much quicker than anything I could send out. You should have two Pelicans dropping off reinforcements. The first one should be there in about ten minutes, coming from the west, the other one'll arrive around five minutes after that, from the south."
"Good. Thanks, sir. It looks like we'll need all the help we can get," the Captain turned from the microphone for a second, "Send men out to meet those Pelicans," he told one of the other two marines in the communications room. The marine acknowledged and issued the orders.
"Captain, we'll be keeping an eye on you via satellite. Do whatever it takes to defend that base. If it gets overrun..."
"I know, sir..." replied Osmond. He knew all too well. If a base as important as his got captured by hostile forces, an orbital MAC Cannon would open fire on the location. The Captain knew that right now, somewhere high overhead, one of the powerful Super MACs was aiming at the base, ready to fire the instant command confirmed that the hostiles had taken over. It would be a bitter pill to swallow, destroying a key fire base along with any survivors, but leaving the enemy free to access the data archives and armoury would be much worse.
"Captain Osmond, we're going to try something right now," said Harland.
"Sir?"
"We're changing the MAC's target to that pit. Hopefully, we'll be able to seal it. Be alert, just in case."
"Alright. Do it, sir."
Osmond, John and the assembled marines watched the monitors. A few seconds later, there was a huge explosion, sending the creatures pooled around the pit flying in all directions. Sand flew up seventy feet and smoke rolled out to cover the area as the three thousand ton round flew almost directly straight down the huge hole. The lights in the base flickered and some monitors showed static for several seconds before transmitting again, while others were knocked out entirely.
"Did we get it?" asked Osmond.
"The smoke's clearing up top," reported Harland.
"Something tells me it hasn't worked," said Cortana to John, keeping her voice off the suit's external speakers so as not to alarm the others in the room. The Chief said nothing. He felt the same as the AI.
"Oh, damn it," said Harland, "Captain... it's still there. It's like we didn't even touch it."
The smoke dissipated and Osmond could see, as the view gradually became clearer, that the Major was right. Some new hills of sand were created after the explosion, but apart from that, the pit was the same and freakish nightmares still crawled out of it.
"My God..." whispered Osmond.
Then, the creatures moved forward, but slowly, with purpose.
"Oh shit... get everyone to the north entrance... hurry!"
A klaxon beeped and marines barked orders.
"What about the teams meeting the Pelicans?" asked one marine.
"Yeah, them, too," the Captain nodded.
Osmond turned to the John, "Master Chief, get the Arbiter and join the marines."
"Yes, sir," John saluted.
A few minutes later, one hundred and sixty two marines plus the Master Chief, the Arbiter and the marines from the first Pelican dropship stood at the north entrance, ready to fire.
The creatures came directly towards them, still moving slowly.
Then, one of the tall, two-legged monsters hunched over and bellowed a deep roar. The marines readied their weapons and the creatures surged forward.
"Fire!" barked a Lieutenant.
Weapons of all kinds fired round after round. SPNKrs thudded from the roof of the base and sent rockets soaring overhead. They exploded in a shower of flesh, scales and blood, tearing large rends in the enemy's swelled ranks. Snipers and marines armed with BR55s took out flying beasts and dropped any targets of opportunity on the ground for the few seconds that the sky was empty. With additional support from Scorpion tanks and the mounted turrets on Warthogs, the invading force was rapidly cut down and the fear and dread the marines felt when first faced with the strange, frightening beasts was swiftly replaced with confidence and courage.
The second Pelican arrived from the west. It hovered for a few moments as the pilot tried to take in what he was seeing and then landed.
The newly deployed marines joined the battle, their position allowing them to flank the enemy forces.
After twenty-five minutes, the creatures from the pit stopped coming. A final sniper round punched through the head of a particularly corpulent creature. Its large figure fell backwards to the sand and landed with a muffled thump. The only thing that could be heard was the warm wind blowing from the direction of the pit. They had suffered many casualties, but ultimately, they had prevailed.
The marines lowered their weapons, smoke rising from the hot barrels.
A deep, bellowing laugh rolled across the desert, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. The sound penetrated to the bone and made the most battle-hardened marine go white with terror.
You have not won! This was only the beginning! Eternal damnation and suffering awaits you! You are only delaying the inevitable! Give up your souls willingly and perhaps I will make eternity slightly more bearable. Come to the Gate and surrender yourselves to me. Join your friends.
Nobody moved.
Very well. You will perish under the second wave. None shall survive. Spend your last moments alive well. You will never get them back...
A huge gout of fire erupted from the pit, turning the surrounding sand to glass.
Nobody said it, but they all knew who the voice belonged to. They knew what they were fighting. They knew what lurked inside the pit... inside the Gate.
Hell.
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