Chapter 17: Did Someone Call For Backup?
Truth wasn't dead.
Despite the discovery of Miranda's stasis pod, John kept coming back to that one reality. He hadn't missed the disgust on the Arbiter's face when he showed him the former prophet, staring at them through the mysterious amber-colored resin.
He trusted High Command to do whatever it took to insure that the prophet would never be revived from his status state. It was out of his hands now; he needed to focus on getting Cortana -and the Key- back to the Light.
As he stepped off the lift, Cortana activated her avatar from the control panel. It still took John a second to adjust to the bright purple color that she emanated. The calculations whizzed across her body. It was a stark contrast to how she had been after her initial encounter with Bias.
"You didn't pick up any Monitors this time," she noted with a smirk.
He approached the control panel. "I learned my lesson after Spark," he replied. "You're the only AI I trust."
She rose her eyebrow, but didn't call him on his overt compliment. In fact, if the slight burst of pink was any indication, John would have thought she was embarrassed by his statement. "Did you get it?" he asked, shifting topics.
She smiled triumphantly and held her hand out. A small floating holographic key, similar-looking to an ancient skeleton key, hovered over her right hand. "Did you doubt me?"
"Never."
A coy smile passed over her lips. "My, someone is in an-" She stopped unexpectedly, her eyes widening.
"Cortana?"
Less than a second later, he heard Johnson's voice cut through his comm channel. "We need help up here."
Then the comm channel went quiet. "What's happened?" John asked Cortana.
"Apparently one of your buddy's right hand men decided to flip on the Separatists and has stolen Truth's pod," Cortana explained quickly.
He reached over to the holotank and ejected the chip. He reached around and slid her chip into the slot and allowed Cortana to transfer herself back into his armor. Once the vertigo passed, John sprinted to the gravlift.
"How did this happen?"
She sighed. "According to the video feed from Major Hillston, when they got out of the building, one of the Elites started acting strange. He and the Arbiter got into a bit of a debate and before anyone knew it, he had knocked the Arbiter out and started attacking Johnson and his men."
John gritted his teeth as he willed the lift to go faster.
"I'm accessing the live feed from the Hive's security grid." She paused. "It doesn't look too good, John."
"Johnson?" He stepped off the lift and ran towards the large doors at the end of the corridor.
"Alive. For now. He and Major Hillston are the only one still standing. I've already for the Harbinger ready to take out anything leaving the atmosphere."
"Good." He jumped into the Warthog and pressed the pedal as hard as he could. From this distance, John couldn't see what was going on. He hated being out of the loop.
"Major Hillston...he didn't make it," Cortana reported forlornly. "Johnson is the only one is alive. We need to hurry, Chief!"
Though he itched to pull out his assault rifle, John knew from this distance that hitting the rebel Elite would be nearly impossible, even for him. The two figures were pinpoints on the horizon. He continued to navigate to Johnson's position.
Cortana patched the Hive's video feed into John's HUD. In the corner, he watched as the invisible Elite attacked Johnson, causing him to fall on his knees. He was speaking to the Sergeant, but the feed had no audio so John couldn't tell what was being said. Then, the Elite did something unexpected.
He walked away from Johnson.
"He didn't kill him?" John asked as he sped towards the Phantom.
"Apparently not..." Cortana sounded as confused as he felt. She terminated the video feed as they got close enough to where John could see what was going on.
Feeling confident in his proximity to the Elite, John raised his rifle and took aim at the fleeing traitor. He unleashed a three round burst which hit its mark.
The Elite howled in pain, but continued to move the pod onto the Phantom.
John ran forward as a dozen Separatist soldiers and Keyes came rushing out the building, guns drawn.
"Take him down!" Keyes shouted.
They fired at the Phantom, but the Elite had enough of a head start to where he was able to activate the docking ramp once he had finished pushing the pod on board. Instinctively, John sprinted for the Phantom. As the ship lifted off the ground, John leapt and grabbed a hold of the Phantom's bay door as it was about to shut completely.
The closing mechanism whirred in effort as it tried to overpower to gravitational pull of an unexpected half-ton Spartan pulling on it. After ten long seconds, the door lost its battle and started slipping open as the Phantom continued to rise.
John attempted to pull himself onto the fleeing ship, but the Elite intercepted him. He slammed his foot on John's hand, crushing his fingers.
John still held on.
"You truly are the Demon," the Elite marveled, looking down at John. "But not is the time for the Prophet to rise. You will no longer stand in the way of the Great Journey."
Then, without warning, he lifted up his foot and kick John square in his helmet.
Unable to keep hold of the door, John plummeted back towards the ground.
The Hive came rushing towards them. He spun widely in the air from the impact of the kick.
"I guess this is as good a time as any to tell you that I'm scared of heights," Cortana quipped.
The tiny dots on the ground were now morphing into distinguishable figures. It wouldn't take long for the impact; John only hoped that his armor would protect him as it had in the past.
"Cortana, I-"
Then there was darkness.
Chapter 18: Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are