Chapter 23

Harvest held up his hand and curled it into a ball, before poking his helmet around the corner to peek out into the giant room

The massive dome had repair catwalks around the sides, in the middle was some sort of temple that would have to be gone through if the trio intended to get through on time

"Whatever's up with that temple, it's got some E tags and possibly a direct route to the dark room." Tatyana reported into their helmets

"Don't get into an ambush." Young warned, "A place like this, they'd might as well have brutes."

Morris nodded, "There's almost definitely a passage in that temple."

Harvest sighed, "Then into the temple we go."

The trio formed a triangle and made it to the entrance, fearing for their lives every step of the way. Upon entering the temple they could see several cages

"These are the E-tags I guess" Young spat, "Captured humans, knocked out and possibly brainwashed."

"What do we do about them?" Morris held his DMR, "We can't just shoot them can we?"

"As long as they don't see us" Harvest said, "But if one wakes up then this silencer will come in handy."

Near the center of the temple was a gravity lift, Harvest stepped forward and found a panel for passengers to stand and float down safely

"If that gets us there, I don't care if an elevator is the devil's stairs." Harvest jutted his jaw, and stepped forward

[…]

Qualomee signaled Daniels to run, and the pair quickly made it across and onto the catwalks above a shrine or something, then back into the shadows towards the service vents

"These are intended for the Engineers" he explained, "However we should be able to fit."

"Tatyana, give me a HUD point for the engine room." Daniels said, "And if you can find the one that requires the least amount of shooting."

"We all know you like you're shooting Joseph." Tatyana had a smirk in her voice

"Once we get out of the corridors we will have plenty of room for combat" Qualomee warned, "Be prepared for an assault."

Daniels nodded and went forward, the yellow of the VISR lining every dent and curve of the corridors, without it he wouldn't be able to see

The corridor ended fairly quickly, and soon they were in a well-spaced area where several plasma cores were being moved by Engineers and grunts

"Where are all of the Elites?" Daniels wondered, "This place is armored to the teeth and yet doesn't have those to operate the weapons."

Qualomee nodded slowly, "This is truly bizarre, come Human, let us solve this mission."

Daniels nodded, holding the shotgun ready before lobbing several grenades into the crowd, which promptly panicked before getting blown into several thousand pieces

Qualomee opened up, firing several blasts of hot plasma into the panic-stricken grunts before taking cover from some fuel rods

"Let's blow this thing and get back to the Phantom!" Daniels shouted over the chaos

[…]

Morris watched behind them as the pathway led deeper into the shadows, something was going to happen, the question was what, and when.

"I think those two have started making some noise" Young noted, "That means we're low on time."

The trio then began to briskly jog down the corridors, the yellow light of the VISR allowing them to see

"We'll deal with whatever's waiting as soon as we surface" Harvest said

"The Dark Room is only twenty yards, you'll find it; the door is rather impressive." Tatyana said

And the door was impressive, a large door with two massive halves, leading into the arch that formed the door

"How will we get through that?" Morris asked

"The chamber is insulated against any waves, but a couple of decisive rocket shots should do the trick." Tatyana marked the spots, "One rocket each spot, make them count."

Harvest took the rocket launcher off of his back, then fired the first two, besides a small dent there was no response from the door

The next three spots made a loud groaning sound, but somehow the door held

Harvest had one last rocket, and a HUD marker appeared in the center of the door, taking aim he launched and struck the center

A massive groan filled the room as the metal strained under the weight of the door, but miraculously the door managed to stay in one piece

"Now what?" Morris threw his hands up

"I think I know…" he pulled the dart gun from his hip, before screwing with the air pressure

"A shot at this range with that thing…" Tatyana paused, "Try hitting here."

A final HUD marker appeared in the center of the doors near the floor, Harvest took aim with the dart gun and fired its single shot

Unsuspecting of the kickback, Harvest nearly broke his hand, luckily the armor took most of the blow

A small hole had appeared at the shot, big enough for a single file line

"Let's finally get that Artifact and get out of this place." Young fell in line

[…]

Tatyana was quickly performing scans, the UNSC marines were stirring, and quickly set up a perimeter, but it wasn't a defensive one

The heating for the engines skyrocketed, meaning Daniels and Qualomee were doing their job, the life sign scans for the ship showed no Elites on the entire station

Grunts Engineers and Humans, the only Elite on this ship was Qualomee. What was so important for not having any other driving force except for Humans?

Then it hit her, like a truck, right as the ODSTs exited the hole

It was a murder hole now

"Harvest! Take to cover!"

[…]

Harvest ducked, and then slowly rose out of the small gravity lift on the floor. The Marines had the hole surrounded

"You will stand down!" he ordered

The marines stayed silent, something kept them from attacking

A hologram appeared, one of the weird aliens known amongst the Covenant as a Prophet

"This is the little squad that has been causing us so much trouble?"

"They appear so" a marine said

'What the hell?' Harvest thought, why was he taking orders from that thing?

"I don't want any blood on the Artifact, however it cannot be helped." The Prophet made a slitting motion across its throat, "Kill all of them."

The marines charged their plasma weaponry, Harvest tensed, he could tell Young and Morris was ready to fight

Daniels' acknowledgement light winked three times, the signal for Get the Hell down!

Two rockets left grey trails in the air as they exploded on the makeshift forts the marines had made, all attention shifted to Daniels on one of the many catwalks above

"I don't know about you, but I'm not sticking around to watch the fireworks." He voice came through the COMM

"Make for the exit!" Harvest shouted, before firing off several rounds and sprinting away

He had what they wanted, the Artifact, a bright magenta crystal plate, this was what the Covenant wanted so badly

Daniels and the rest of his squad met up at the cross section

"Let's blow this popsicle stand" Morris joked

"There are about fifty marines on your tail" Tatyana said, "Unplug me and we'll get off this deathtrap."

Daniels grabbed Tatyana off of the database and plugged her into his neural link

"Let's not stick around" Young suggested, "I'll take the yoke."

The doors began to bang, Daniels Harvest and Qualomee all took on a defensive position

"Get to the ship you two" Daniels said, "I'll keep the door covered."

"Not on my watch Human" Qualomee said, "This is not the time for heroics, I owe your men my life; now is finally the time to repay that debt."

Daniels motioned for Harvest to get on the ship, the trio slowly began to give the door some berth as they stepped away

The doors exploded into plasma, Daniels was knocked down by the concussion, Harvest already stood in the Phantom bay

"Now is not the time for your death!" Qualomee shouted over the plasma fire, easily tossing Daniels into the Phantom

Qualomee unslung the plasma turret from his back, firing into the crowd of marines as they swarmed the doorway

Daniels stood up, "It was good knowing you Qualomee, you were a true hero."

"And we're off!" Young called from the ship's control room, "Next stop: anywhere but here."

The squad was reduced to four, losing a most loyal member in saving the planet yet again

"Set us down near Ponyville Fields, we should fix up our armor and-" a violent jerk cut Harvest off

"Banshees" Morris sighed, "They'll blow us out of the sky!"

"Plasma Power Core reaching critical" Young reported, "Even if we survive the Banshees we'd explode on impact."

"We're not going to die now" Daniels reviewed his options, which were dwindling by the second

Morris took a deep breath, before stepping towards the ship bay doors

"It's almost funny" Morris said sadly, "See you in Hell."

"Morris, don't you dare touch tha-" Daniels' protests were drowned out by the howling wind outside the Phantom

Morris waited for one second, before thrusting himself out of the Phantom, spreading his legs like a parachute he slowed down, before a Banshee attempted to knock him out of the air

Latching onto the outside of the vehicle, he tore open the cockpit, taking the pistol from his hip and point-blank firing at the pilot's skull

Taking control, he maneuvered the air assault vehicle towards the other Banshee, with this rust bucket's weapons down, there was only one option

Taking the yoke, he smashed the boost as far as it would go, the anti-grav pods quickly hit max as he approached

The magnificent flash of blue plasma was the last thing he ever saw

[…]

Daniels shut the bay doors, Harvest was fiddling with a pouch on his belt

"The Banshees are gone, but we'll still blow on impact." Young said over the COMM, "I can't stop it, but we're landing in the field so nobody's getting hurt."

"Get in the trooper bay" Harvest held out the Artifact, it glowed steadily

Daniels put a gauntlet on the Artifact, it was imbued with power, he could practically taste it

Young followed suit, the glow became brighter

"Is this going to work?" Daniels asked

"It better" Young said, "Otherwise this was a terrible plan."

"One way to find out" Harvest smiled a little, "See you in Hell."