FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Major

Streets of New Mombasa

13 Hours After Rupture

“There it is,” the Major said, holding his weapon by his side as he fiddled with his helmet. The road they’d been following terminated in a rough line, Seela stopping at the precipice as they gazed out into an unimpeded view of their objective.

After their romp in the shower, he and Seela had followed the final few directions left by the kiosks, which had brought them to the base of a towering wall, maybe two hundred feet high and curving gently in both directions. The wall was familiar to the Major, all they had to do was follow the obstacle around until they reached its gate, which was yet another blast door like all the others, except it was already open before they’d even laid eyes on it.

He could feel the wind hammering his front as the gale swept through the area, cold air biting into his exposed forearm. This area beyond the wall was completely void of buildings, the wall creating a massive circle of space circling hundreds of meters out in front of them.

Seela stepped up to the lip of the road, which morphed into black and twisted metal after a few meters, as though a massive explosion had raised the ground here. Below the broken metal was a huge body of black water, made bright here and there as it reflected the fires that burned the horizon.

Beyond the ruined road, two rows of pillars jutted out of the lake, spaced out in regular intervals, topped with rebar and cracked concrete. He followed the struts with his eyes until they came to rest on the structure that sat in the epicentre of the walled-in lake, the Major allowing himself a moment of relief. At last, his objective was in sight.

At a glance it was a massive cube, or at least what remained of one. Chunks of metal had been ripped out of it here and there, plumes of smoke trailing out of the gaping holes. He could make out metal ribs lining the inside of the gigantic structure, his eyes tracking one as it fell from the ceiling, the crash very loud despite being a couple hundred meters away.

The cube was built upon a large artificial island, most of its features hidden behind a perimeter wall, giving it an almost medieval fort-like appearance, the body of water acting as a moat, and the ringing wall an extra layer of protection. There had been a bridge at some point that allowed vehicles and personnel to come and go between the site, but someone had obviously destroyed it, if the columns were any hint.

“Your mission has been obliterated,” Seela said, her gaze turning skyward. The orbital tether loomed in the backdrop, more a tower of fire and smoke than anything else, most of its length obscured by the dark clouds, themselves choked with ash and smoke. “Though, it seems the Covenant are as interested as we are.”

It was obvious what she was talking about. Despite the bridge being destroyed, the island was still connected to where they were standing. Where there was once a strip of metal and concrete, a band of blue light drew a line over the body of water, roughly the same width as a two lane road.

It was a Covenant light bridge, and he hadn’t seen many of these outside of alien strongholds or ships. He was no scientist, but the light bridge followed the same logic as Seela’s energy sword, where emitters projected a shape of light that hardened enough to become solid. There was an emitter on this side of the bridge, which looked like just a long stretch of thin metal with glowing boxes on either end. There was a soft humming noise coming from these boxes, the Major guessing they were generators of some sort.

“I suspect they moved vehicles across,” Seela continued. “They would not deploy a bridge otherwise, the Covenant would just use dropships.”

“Least you don’t have to swim,” he noted, patting Seela on the arm as he walked by. “Come on, we’re running late.”

Every bone in his body was telling him that he would fall right through the light bridge as soon as he stepped on it, and its slight transparency did nothing to help settle his nerves. The drop was a good fifty feet, and he could see no boats or emergency ladders ringing the wall, falling in would be a death sentence.

He placed one boot onto the glowing bridge, then the other. If he closed his eyes, his body would be sure he was stepping onto solid ground, but in reality walking onto hardened light was something his mind just couldn’t accept on some basic level. He kept his eyes locked on the site ahead of them, trying and failing not to think about it.

He turned to see his companion was having no such trouble. She was standing at her full height, giving him an amused glance as she paused by his flank. “This technology is an echo of the Forerunners,” she said. “it will hold us.”

She took a slight lead, the Major switching his focus from the island to the path behind them. The city had been so clustered with structures, and being out here with massive sightlines was putting him off. The lack of cover wasn’t helping either.

“Tell me the significance of this place,” Seela asked after a bit of silence. “What was its purpose for the city?”

“This was Alpha Site, the main headquarters of ONI, the group I’m part of,” he explained. “They did some pretty sensitive research here, hence the lake and the lack of ground access. Only visited a couple times myself, but I remember the layout.”

“And that giant building over there?” she said, pointing at the towering cube engulfed in flames. “What did it do?”

He realised she was trying to keep him focused on their objective, and not the sheer drop below them. She could read him pretty well by this point.

“That’s the HQ, and it’s filled to the brim with data about the city as well as intelligence for the Navy. It’s mostly made up of offices and storage banks, or was, anyway. Looks like some idiot thought it would be a good idea to blow it all up.”

“Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” she asked. “If the Covenant had access to sensitive data, you would be at a disadvantage.”

“All the important crap is stored below the site, destroying just the surface didn’t erase everything. That’s where we’re going, by the way, we can take one of the elevator shafts down to our objective.”

“And pray the island doesn’t come crashing down on our heads,” she mumbled.

As they walked over the halfway mark, Seela shouldered her carbine, the Major dropping to a knee behind her as she aimed at the island ahead of them. When she didn’t open fire, he asked her what she saw.

“Brute vehicles,” she replied. “But they are unmanned.”

They stalked forward carefully, the island soon coming into more detail. There was a perimeter wall compounding most of the island, with a gate that resembled a palisade, further adding to the whole ‘castle’ façade.

There were two hulking shapes in front of the main gate, the Major getting a better look once they were within a stone’s throw of the island. They were Brute Choppers, assault bikes that could ferry up to three Brutes at a time. The front half of the bike was a giant armoured wheel, with a spiked prow mounted on the front, designed for ramming down other vehicles. The back half was a single seat with a control dash, the chair so low against the wheel that only an Elite or Brute could be able to see over the top when piloting one.

Like the kickstands used by human motorcycles, the Choppers listed onto spikes protruding from the bottom of their frames, the design such an accurate mockery of human technology one might assume the Brutes had copied the design philosophy.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief as they neared the edge of the bridge, his boots clocking as he stepped onto paved cement. They approached the pair of identical vehicles, the Major noting the mounted guns sticking out of the middle of the big wheels.

“It is unlike Brutes to leave their vehicles unattended,” Seela said, sweeping her carbine around.

“Probably couldn’t fit them through the gate,” he replied. “Hey, check it out.”

She looked to where he was nodding, a third vehicle sitting off to the side of the gate. Unlike the Choppers, this one was human-made. It was an all-terrain armoured truck, with a flatbed that housed a mounted chaingun, the weapon training into the sky as though its previous user had been aiming at aircraft.

The Warthog looked intact, save for the massive gash cut into the driver’s side of the chassis. Maybe one of those Choppers had rammed into it. It was a little beaten up, but as long as the hydrogen fuel tanks weren’t damaged, those things could drive for miles.

Walking over, he peeked into the cockpit, reaching over the wheel and flicking the ignition switch. The lights on the dash lit up, and his suspicions were confirmed as the fuel gauge lit up in green, almost a full tank.

“Finally something good swings our way,” he said, Seela looking over his shoulder as she joined him.

“Are we driving this thing inside?”

“No, this’ll be our ticket out once we’re done,” he said, turning the switch back to the off-state. “No more walking around for us.”

That seemed to please her, the two returning to the gate as they made to press on. ONI’s logo was emblazoned on the space above the gate, the Major glancing up at it as they moved into the compound. As he’d expected, there were pylons poking out of the ground below the arch to limit foot traffic as well as block vehicles from passing through, Naval Intelligence didn’t skimp out on security.

They passed beneath sheer meters of steel, emerging onto the other side. The compound stretched out before them, stairwells taking up the majority of the area, laced here and there by pine trees that were burnt to cinders, their stumps black and jagged, as though the island had been pounded with napalm.

What few patches of grass around here were brown and decayed, as was most of the pavement, peppered with burn marks and pieces of rubble. There were walls of sandbags standing in front of this side of the gate, the Major moving past one and spotting a dead Marine propped up against the other side of the barrier.

It wasn’t the only dead body he could see. At a glance there were dozens of dead Marines and police officers in the immediate area alone. Covenant were in abundance as well, all the various species splayed out along the steps, including Hunters, their giant bits of armour lying around in clusters of metal.

“This is one distinct battle we missed,” Seela noted. “That’s a wrecked Phantom over there. Your data is more important than I thought if the Brutes threw so much at this place.”

They walked through the thongs of the dead in silence, moving towards the towering headquarters built into the far side of the island. They encountered barriers of steel that had no doubt served as ample cover, not big enough to block the way, but giving the defenders an edge over the invading Covenant.

The stairwells sloped up towards the headquarters, and after a few minutes of walking, they arrived at yet another wall. This one hugged the base of the destroyed Alpha Site, the building looming over them, like a box of fire and metal. Parts of the wall had been blown apart, and from the way the metal was shredded, the damage had come from inside the building, further proof the HQ had been set to blow by the Marines.

A stairwell sloped down towards the main entryways into the site, Seela ducking her head as she followed him into one of the curving walkways labelled Administration. The path turned for a ways around the headquarters, terminating at an archway, and through it he got a good look at the inside of the Alpha Site, and the results left by the Marine’s choice to destroy the place.

Most of the ground was gone, leaving a pit of darkness that was just barely illuminated by the fires blooming on the ceiling. He knew from past visits and the mission briefing that the Site had many elevator shafts leading below ground, and he could still see remnants of them built into the sides of the giant pit, which more resembled a hollowed-out pillar of metal and earth. It was like standing on the top of a landfill, a sea of destruction down and around him.

“You are sure your data survived all this?” Seela asked, leaning over the sheer drop. With so much empty space below the building, it was a wonder the rest of the island hadn’t collapsed with it. The building creaked like the hull of an old ship at that moment, the two looking up at the skeletal remains of the headquarters worryingly.

“Have to get down there,” he said, pointing down into the darkness. The rubble filled the shaft with huge pieces of concrete, but there were doors spaced out down the length of the drop, places where elevators would usually stop. The way down looked precarious to put it lightly, but compared to what they’d fought through to get here, it was pretty tame.

“You are quite mad, Andrew,” she said. He didn’t know why, but hearing his name from her lips, or mandibles, made him smile. “Even the threat of a collapsing building isn’t stopping you. I love it.”

He activated his visor, his HUD fighting off the darkness, picking out the edges of the rubble to make the going easier. The shaft stretched down for maybe a hundred meters, but the shards of concrete that had served as the floor sloped against the walls, creating ramp-like slopes that looked navigable. As long as no more of the headquarters collapsed, they should be able to make their way down to the lower levels

He vaulted over the bus-sized pieces of debris, leveraging his descent with his gloved hands, the trickles of dust raining down from the Alpha Site the only other noise besides their footfalls. As they delved deeper into the pit, they passed by one of the archways built into the sides of the shaft, labelled with the number six, the automatic locks struggling to open when he triggered the motion detector.

He kept things slow so he didn’t fall on his arse, Seela holding no such reservations as she leapt down precarious falls with her hands firmly on her carbine, her long legs absorbing the impacts as she dropped after him. The light from the fires slowly faded into a point above them, the two passing by door number ten after a bit more footwork.

At one point, his boot slipped, the Major’s stomach lurching as his bodyweight leaned over an edge, the pit so deep down even his visor couldn’t help him see the bottom.

He felt a giant hand grip him by the bicep, hauling him back onto the slope of metal before he could fall.

“Where has that famous dexterity of yours gone?” she asked, lowering her hand when he found his balance. “Mind yourself.”

He thanked her, leading the way down to the base of the pit, the two delving as far as they could go after a few more minutes of descending. Pieces of rubble the size of cars plugged the base of the shaft, the walls webbed with cracks, the Major moving over to one of the larger breaks in the smooth stone and peeking through the sliver. An abyss yawned below their very feet, at least a hundred meters of complete emptiness creating a cavernous space directly underneath the shaft, and occupying it was a single structure, the Major viewing it from directly above at this angle.

It was a tower of metal and lights, jutting out of a floorspace too deep and dark to see. It was connected to the northern wall of the empty space via thick cables and walkways, the lighting strips hanging over the area providing enough light to see a few doorways down there, the number twelve signed above their arches.

“What is that?” Seela asked, joining him as she peered into the crack.

“Data centre,” he said. “That’s where we need to go. Shame we don’t have a jetpack or something, we could just drop down right on top of it.”

The door closest to the bottom of the shaft that wasn’t obstructed was level eleven, and the Major climbed up to it, quickly realising the electronics had been busted, the door staying firmly shut when he approached.

“You’re up, Seela,” he said, getting out of her way as she prepared herself. She wedged her fingers between the grooves, her muscles bulging beneath her suit as she wrenched the doors open through force alone. She pushed them back into their recesses with a pair of loud crashes, wiping her hands as she stood back.

“After you,” she said, gesturing for him to proceed.

The door led into a long hallway, featureless except for the ribbing pieces of metal spaced out along the length, the walls coloured a spartan grey. The far end of the corridor took a solid minute to trek, ending at another door, which Seela didn’t have to pry apart, it swished open automatically.

They stepped through into a space with a lot of open sight lines, far less cramped than the city streets, despite them being far underground. The ceiling was high above them, vaulted enough that a Pelican dropship would be able to navigate its way around in here. The open air was broken up in places by giant metal cylindrical structures, acting as both supports and electrical banks to store whatever power and other hardware the nearby data centre required to operate. Catwalks ringed around these columns, one of which extended out before Seela and the Major as they stepped into the space. The metal mesh rattled as they stepped onto the walkway, the short rail guards occasionally broken up by a low wall that sheltered a computer or terminal.

There was just as much empty air below the catwalks as there was above them, maybe fifty meters of a pure nothingness between the suspended walkway, and an even deeper sublevel of the Site.

“Gods,” Seela gasped, and for the first time he detected a hint of uneasiness in her voice. It wasn’t the height that troubled her, however, her eyes were aimed up at the roof.

He uttered his own curse. Built into the corners of the ceiling were massive clusters of green, webby substances, their surfaces pocked with hundreds of dark orifices, each hole spewing forth an ominous green mist. Parts of the webbing sagged towards the walkways, almost like giant, organic stalactites, nearly as thick around as the support columns and with rounded ends. At a glance they almost looked like giant wasp nests, the material holding a very resin-like quality, strong enough to keep the nests aloft by no other visible support.

“Bugs,” he sighed. “Thought I was done with these things.”

“You’ve encountered Yanme’e before?” Seela asked, looking down her carbine as she scanned the area.

“Just the once, back at Kikowani, and the bugger was alone.”

“We will have no such luck here,” she replied. The nests spanned in every direction, no inch of the original ceiling could be seen. “What is the plan?”

“There should be lifts or ways down all over this place,” he said, gesturing to the far wall where the catwalks trailed towards. “The data centre is that way, we should be able to drop down on it from over there.”

“We go through, then,” she said, shouldering her carbine with a look of determination on her face. “We should favour stealth in this situation, but I doubt the Hive is slumbering…”

“Why’s that?” he asked, the two stepping out onto the walkway, the grating wobbling with each step they took. No matter how lightly he stepped, the echo of his boots hitting the metal was very loud in this place.

“Look around you,” she answered. He did, and when he was about to ask her to explain, he saw what she meant. There were dead bugs sprawled along some of the catwalks, their green blood trickling over the edges. They passed one such corpse, the drone curled up like a dead spider, the Major noting its armoured chest was riddled with bullet holes.

“Someone’s been through here recently,” he said. “Could be one of my squad mates.”

“Perhaps,” Seela whispered. “Let’s not linger, I do not like being out in the open like this…”

The catwalk rounded one of the drooping nests, the pair passing close enough the Major could have reached out and touched the resin if he’d been utterly insane enough to consider it. He could hear a crackling sound as he passed by the alien construct, the noise reminding him of the sound a fire makes, and he realised with a grimace that the nest was flexing in on itself, as if something on the inside was constantly wriggling.

The path branched into two directions, ringing around another of the columns. They took the left branch, the path taking a gentle curve. As they made the turn, something stirred within the nest up and to their left, the two aiming their guns as something crawled out of one of the orifices.

Clawed hands gripped the rim of the hole, a drone pulling its thin body out of the lump in the nest, like a parasite emerging from an open wound. Its carapace was the same as the one he’d fought in the tunnel, tinted slightly orange, its thin, green eyes glowing brightly as it glanced around.

It settled its lifeless gaze on the Major and Seela, the two parties staring one another down for a long moment. Two pieces of chitin rose above its shoulders, a pair of insectoid wings emerging from the casings and flexing to their full lengths.

The wings began to blur as they flapped, the drone taking off with a flurry of buzzing sounds. The Major followed it with his shotgun, and he pulled the trigger, the slug hitting it centre mass and blowing it in two at the waist. The wasted drone listed through the air, the two parts slapping against the floor far below with a crash. The slug had overpenetrated its brittle body, the kinetic force tearing a chunk of the nest behind it apart, the resin falling like a giant breadcrumb.

“Stay behind me!” Seela ordered, stepping forward when they saw more insects pulling themselves out of the cavities, brandishing plasma pistols as they extended their gossamer wings. Three began to take flight, with another three gripping the nest and scampering up its lumpy surface for cover.

Seela fired from the hip, emptying her carbine into the emerging drones, shells breaking off their bodies as her shots found their marks. More started to emerge from the holes, but she took advantage of the bottlenecks, sweeping her weapon over the nest, bringing a cluster of them down before they could even draw their weapons.

“Always wondered if I would ever battle the Yanme’e,” Seela said as her shields absorbed a few incoming bolts. “Out of all the Covenant species, they were the most alien, and unpredictable.”

“Keep moving,” he said, sticking close to her flank. With nothing else to cover him on the walkway, Seela’s shields were his only protection.

The sound of beating wings grew in volume, the Major turning back to see a drone landing on the catwalk behind them, the bug brandishing two plasma pistols. He sent a slug its way before it could fire, the alien spinning like a top as it collapsed. Another drone landed to take its place, its wings folding back into the protective casings as it darted across the grating, this one holding a blade out in front of it.

He pulled the choke and fired again, dropping the sprinting bug, snarling as a stray bolt from somewhere above caught him in the ribs. His armour did its job, displacing the heat over a wider area so it didn’t melt through, but there was still enough kinetic energy to knock the wind out of him.

They moved across the walkway, firing as they went, his tall companion twisting on the spot and picking off targets of opportunity as more nests began to stir. The air was thick with movement, more and more drones pouring out of the nests. For all their numbers, a drone couldn’t survive a radioactive bolt to the chest, even glancing shots snapping their brittle carapaces apart as Seela emptied her carbine into a cluster of drones above them, the aliens dropping like paralysed flies.

He slotted fresh slugs out of his bandolier, reloading as he checked their progress. The catwalk they were on turned at a right angle, circling another support column, the obstacle thick enough to provide a small amount of cover.

Seela put as much of herself behind it, slamming in another cartridge and letting her shields recharge, the Major taking a knee nearby. He dropped another drone trying to get around them, the hulking insect clanging loudly to the walkway as its wings drooped uselessly over its shoulders.

A pair of drones flittered up onto a nearby column, their sharp fingers gripping the metal for leverage as they took aim with pistols, the plasma splashing against the walkway at the Major’s feet. He ducked into cover, trading fire with them and killing one, but the rest were keeping him pinned, the concentrated balls of gas sailing past in the dozens.

He and Seela coordinated, firing on the airborne bugs that made to flank, the lack of cover making them easy targets as they succumbed to shotgun shells and carbine bolts, their bodies disappearing over the sides of the walkway.

He heard something below him, and he looked through the metal grating to see a couple of drones climbing up the column from the level below them, turning their slatted, green eyes on their position. There was something almost spider-like in their movements, the way they scurried up the smooth metal with a worrying ease.

“Seela!” he warned, but his companion had already noticed. She dropped her carbine, brandishing her energy sword and igniting it with an electric snap. The drones scrambled up the column and jumped onto the catwalk when they were high enough, brandishing knives and pistols, the melee weapons the same design as the one the Major was intimately familiar with.

Her sword in hand, Seela charged the drones down, beheading two of them in one sweep before they could react. The Major emptied his shells into the flying bugs while she cleared the catwalk, stealing the occasional look as he watched her slice apart the drones.

The bugs who chose to clash swords with her were quickly dispatched, Seela changing her sword from one hand to the other so she could cleave to either side of her. She impaled a drone through the chest, another drone coming at her and driving its dagger towards her shoulder. She simply swatted the thing aside, the backhand strong enough to snap its neck, the bug falling to the catwalk in a twitching heap.

As much as she was a deadly force in melee, the drones in the air were more of a problem, peppering her with plasma bolts from on high, her shields saving her from a death of a thousand cuts. She pulled her sword-arm back, almost looking like she intended to throw the blade like a tomahawk, but then reconsidered, moving back to pick her carbine off the floor.

“My last cartridge,” she warned him, slapping the fresh cylinder into the weapon as she hunkered.

“Focus on the ones further back, my shotgun’s better up close.”

He fired off another shell, the buckshot catching two of the flying drones in its cone of fire, ichor spraying as he and Seela cut the bugs down to size. When only a few remained, hiding behind the column at their backs, they resumed their push, Seela’s shield taking the brunt of the plasma fire as the drones pursued.

As he paused to reload, he turned to see the catwalk straightened into a line, and at its far end it terminated at another pressure door, maybe fifty meters away.

They couldn’t afford to stop, the two firing while moving, Seela putting herself in front of the majority of the plasma fire. She couldn’t be everywhere at once, however, the Major taking another bolt, this time to his leg. He dropped, but Seela hauled him back to his feet, shoving him behind her as she continued firing from the hip.

“Do not falter!” she ordered, her flexing mandibles framed by her shield. “We will not die by the hands of these insects!”

He ignored the pain in his leg, joining her as he filled the air with buckshot, catching another bug that was strafing to the side, trying to get around Seela’s stubborn shields to get to the Major. The bugs were flittering between the columns, Seela picking off those who didn’t get to cover in time.

They rushed towards the end of the catwalk, the grating slagging in places as bolts filled the air around them. They skidded to a halt in front of the pressure door, but the two halves did not open.

“Wait!” the Major yelled, Seela moments away from ripping the thing right off its hinges. “We’ll seal it behind us, so the bugs can’t follow. Cover me.”

There was an emergency release panel to one side of the door, and he made his way over to it while Seela aimed her carbine back down the catwalk. More drones had dropped to the walkway with knives in hand, rushing Seela down without any sense of self preservation. She cut them down, then turned her weapon up at the flying counterparts, the bugs scattering for cover behind the columns as she unloaded her carbine at them.

Seela growled as her shields broke apart like shattering glass, taking a knee as she fumbled at her belt. The walls around the pressure door flared out a little, providing a hint of cover, but it was wasn’t much for the tall alien.

“I’m out!” Seela reported, placing her spent carbine on her back, the magnetic locks holding it in place. She let out a pained yell as a bolt caught her on the chest, charring the white plating.

“Here, use this!” he said, tossing her the shotgun. She caught it, flipping it into the correct position, pulling the stock against her shoulder. The Major keyed in the security sequence on the number pad, remembering the codes from the pre-mission briefings.

The shotgun rocked into her shoulder, Seela surprised by the recoil judging by her reaction, her hooves slipping against the grating. Despite the kick, the suppressor made the shot unusually quiet, the snap of gas drowned out by the plasma fire. The drone she’d been aiming at dropped to the walkway, flopping onto its back with a loud crash.

She pulled the trigger again, but it didn’t fire, Seela cocking her head as she flexed her finger once more. “It won’t fire!” she said, giving him an exasperated look.

“You gotta pump it!”

“‘Pump it’? I don’t know what that means.”

“You remember what we did in the shower?”

“Is this really the right time, Major!?”

“Pull the bottom of the barrel back!”

After taking a second to think, she gripped the choke with her fingers, the grooves catching on her digits as she made a pumping motion. The mechanism slid back with a satisfying clack, the spent shell tumbling out of the receiver. She braced her cheek against the grip, and fired again, another drone falling out of view as she cut its flight short.

The weapon looked tiny in her giant hands, but she started to get into the rhythm, each shot and pump more fluent than the last as she chewed through the bugs. Some of them began to retreat, regrouping with another fresh swarm of drones that flittered out of the nest to their right.

“Got it!” the Major announced, the pressure door sliding open with a quiet whoosh, another long tunnel stretching out before them.

Seela dashed after him as they pulled back, the grey walls enclosing protectively around them. Once Seela was inside, he punched the access codes into the panel on this side of the threshold, his progress frantic as the drones flew towards the doors like a swarm of pissed-off bees.

A pair of buggers dropped to the catwalk, their knives glinting as they raised their weapons over their heads like charging medieval knights. Before they could get any closer, Seela plugged the threshold with her bulk, blasting the drones back with a cone of lead.

He hit the confirm button, and the doors joined together, the Major getting one last look of the nests through the sliver before they slammed shut. There was a series of scratches as the drones piled up against the door, but the Major breathed a sigh of relief, unless the bugs had explosives, they wouldn’t be getting through.

He watched as Seela pumped the shotgun with one hand, her other arm hanging by her side as the spent shell discharged, his companion giving the weapon a satisfied nod. “I like this gun,” she said, turning to him. “It has plenty of kick for such a small thing, much like its owner, hm?”

“You okay?” he asked, wincing as he leaned on his knees, his burned leg aching. “That was way too close.”

“Do not concern yourself with me,” she said, moving to his side. “Your leg, it was shot, and you almost fell.”

“I’m alright,” he said, but Seela wasn’t having it, the alien kneeling down and giving him a questioning glance. She gave his leg a push, and he recoiled, he would have tripped over if Seela hadn’t reached out to catch him.

“You are not alright. Use your medigel, Andrew.”

He saw no point in arguing, so he did as she said, peeling back his BDU and rubbing a handful of gel onto the burn. When he was done, he put a little weight on his leg, and it was more tolerable.

“You work quick, little warrior,” Seela said, glancing back at the doors. “if I had broken those doors, this tunnel would be overrun with those things.”

“I think you could have taken them,” he added, half-jokingly. “You’re one mean alien with that energy sword. Clearly the Covenant made a mistake not giving you one of your own.”

“I’m flattered,” she cooed, wrapping her arms over his shoulders, resting her chin on his head. He returned her embrace, resting his hands on the small of her back.

They soon released each other, the Major gesturing for her to follow, as they still had a mission to see through. She passed him the shotgun, and they moved down the passage, the walls lit by Seela’s sword as she brandished it.

“Wonder how far those nests go,” he muttered as they walked. “Securing this city is gonna be difficult if they’ve made a whole colony underneath the streets.”

“You should see what the Yanme’e do on carriers when travelling between planets,” Seela added. “The Shipmasters give them entire decks to do as they please, this Hive is small in comparison.”

The hallway lowered into a ramp, the two following the incline until another door blocked the way. After Seela forced it open, the Major stepped through, finding himself in another area with a vaulted ceiling towering over his head.

An immense space stretched out to the right, the data centre occupying it, connected to where they’d emerged by a gently sloping bridge. The sightlines to the tower were blocked here and there by Covenant weapon caches, crates that were as tall as Seela with weapon racks built into the recesses. Fluorescent light strips built into the ground illuminated a bloody scene, Brutes numbering in the tens laying about in pools of their dark blood, the occasional Grunt and Jackal laying among the corpses.

The bodies carried on up the slope towards the tower, the Major trying to imagine what kind of carnage must have ensued as he and Seela proceeded. A Chieftain with his hammer nowhere to be seen caught the Major’s attention, the Covenant had brought a lot of firepower to take this place. As he and Seela moved towards the data centre, he noted that no plasma burns killed these Brutes, and there were no Sangheili around either.

“We seem to always miss the larger fights,” Seela said. “I see no human bodies, either Imps or Demons came through here recently. I know for a fact you are stubborn above all else.”

The thought that one of his squadmates could be in the tower right now was filling him with anticipation, but he had to control himself, this was a lot of Brutes for anyone to handle, and he had to assume the worst until proven otherwise.

After stepping over the bodies, the data centre towered above them, the pair standing at the entry doors, which were twice the height of Seela, though strangely enough they were wide open. Given this was where the most sensitive data in the city was stored, the fact he could just walk straight in was making him suspicious.

Just over the top of the tower, he could see a sliver of light through a crack in the ceiling high above them. That was the shaft leading from the Alpha Site, where they’d first spotted the tower.

“Let us complete your mission,” Seela said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “I am interested to see this weapon, does it have as much recoil as your gun?”

“Not really,” he answered, leading the way as he stepped into the threshold. They made their way down the hallway cautiously, the passage ending at another doorway, this one open as well.

They stepped into the tower proper, the corridor petering out into a small room. It was dark, the Major activating his visor to cut back the shadows. Lining the base of the walls were tall, blocky machines, each one sporting a terminal where users could access the data stored on the servers. Ten of these data banks cramped the space, five on each side, their tops stretching to the roof. The place reminded him of a vault.

He swept his flashlight over a large machine in the middle of the room. At five meters across and just as long, its silver surface decorated with a circle of light not so different from the Superintendent’s logo, it stood out as the most important piece of equipment in the room.

“Well?” Seela asked, appraising the darkness. “I do not see any weapon.”

“Got a confession to make,” the Major began, stepping up to the large machine, slinging his shotgun over his back. “I said my mission was to retrieve a weapon, but you probably thought I was being literal. Remember how I told you about my sleeper agent?”

“Yes…” she said, her tone implying she wasn’t following.

“Well, my objective and him are one in the same. My team was sent here to get him out.”

“But there is no one here,” she said. “Unless there is a human hiding in the shadows back there. Come out!” she called. “We are here to rescue you!”

“He’s not human,” he explained. “He’s the AI that controls the city systems, he helped us through all those blast doors, remember? Everything the Covenant’s done up to now, has been recorded by the AI, and with that data, we’ll know what they’re after, and how we can stop it.”

She watched as he moved over to one of the terminals, pressing a button that powered on the little screen. “Sorry that I didn’t tell you before,” he added. “Wasn’t sure if I could trust you.”

“It is no matter, all I need to know is where our charge is,” she answered. “Speaking of, where is it?”

“Just a sec. What the….” He furrowed his brow as he tapped into the storage banks.

“Problem?” she asked.

“It’s not here,” he said, navigating through the menus. “The AI core is right here in front of me, but it’s… empty.”

He recalled his orders on how to compress the AI into a portable storage unit, but none of the subroutines were responding. Confused, he checked through the recent activity logs, and the very last one caught his attention. Data transfer complete. Emergency shutdown initiated.

“Did your team already extract your AI?” Seela asked, the Major shrugging at her.

“Don’t know, it says here the AI shut itself off after a data transfer, but it doesn’t say to where. I don’t recognise these passcodes used, either. It couldn’t have been one of my squad mates.”

“Other humans, then?”

“Maybe, but no one outside of ONI would know how to access the data core, unless the Brutes managed to splice in, but I doubt that.”

“So,” Seela began after a pause. “have we wasted our time? We came all this way only to find someone has already done the work for us? Brilliant…”

“Not exactly,” he said, returning to the terminal. “The core was shut down, but the data is still here on the backup drives. I can make our own copy and wipe the rest, make sure the Covenant never learns what the Superintendent learned…”

After extracting the data onto one of the drives and purging the system, he walked over to one of the data towers, pulling one of the portable drives out by the handle. It was the size and shape of a book, and he clipped it onto his belt, giving Seela a thumbs up when it was secured.

“That’s it?” Seela asked. “We fight tooth and nail, and the mission is completed with a few presses of a button?”

“Thought it’d be more difficult?”

“Thought there’d be a little more flare, at least,” she grumbled. “But, why bother copying the data?” she asked, glancing at the drive dangling from his hip. “someone has already made off with the core.”

“Never hurts to have a backup,” he said, shrugging. “Besides, I’d rather not leave this city empty-handed after all this trouble.”

“Fair enough,” Seela replied. “Let us return to the surface, and pray the Alpha Site has not collapsed in the meantime.”