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Beneath the Sentinel Hive by Dr Sky Tower
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BENEATH THE SENTINEL HIVE
Date: 4 June 2006, 6:48 am
Newly discovered UNSC world Priority
Beneath one of four abandoned Sentinel Hives guarding ancient Forerunner facility
"This is Corporal Dakota Jones, we require immediate backup," The marine yelled into her helmet comlink over the sound of gunfire and explosions. "We could do with an additional deployment of troops here! We're under attack from Covenant forces and Flood! Do you read me, SAINT of Honour?"
There was no reply, only static on her comlink. She cringed down when she heard the unmistakable sound of a SPNKR missile whooshing overhead, impacting with a hulking Flood beast, the deafening explosion almost too close to her cover. At that moment she wished she had the strength of a SPARTAN super soldier – as well as the hefty half ton armour they wore – instead of her flimsy battle armour. It would never stop the passage of the plasma rifle shots firing madly around her position.
We've lost contact with the SAINT of Honour! she thought, struggling with her growing panic. We've got to get out of this cavern – we seriously need backup and it won't be coming while we're trapped in this hellhole!
Inhuman screams and roars echoed around the large, artificial cavern she and her unfortunate platoon found themselves trapped inside of. She saw Smythson go down, his head disappearing in a bloody eruption. His missile launcher clattered to the floor. A sniper Jackal perched high in a nook near the roof of the cavern scored a direct head shot on him. Then the scrawny gobbler lurched forward, its screams audible from Jones' position as it was set upon by several mutated monstrosities. They tossed its bleeding corpse over the cliff ledge.
Corporal Jones couldn't tell how many of her company were still alive. They'd walked into this godforsaken place only to find themselves ambushed by the waiting Covenant. The Covie bastards were after the same Forerunner artefact Jones and her company were seeking. According to Intel, the artefact was a crystal, supposedly used to store the memories of Sentinels. This precious artefact was located inside a long abandoned Sentinel hive. Despite its being inoperable any Forerunner facility had the unnatural tendency to spring forth life, be it artificial or something more sinister. The hive's defensive systems could still be operational, so Intel had suggested it would be best to sneak up on the structure from one of the many subterranean caverns beneath the hive.
ONI 'forgot' to mention the place could also be swarming with Flood beasts! Jones thought angrily.
Something huge rushed by – she identified an Elite's cloven-hoofed, double jointed legs – but the Elite had changed into a thing that had become utterly corrupted. She hugged her battle rifle to her chest, pulling down her helmet visor. The shrieking monstrosity hurled itself at a terrified group of small, ape-like Covenant cannon fodder. The shots from their wildly firing plasma pistols barely slowed the beast.
Then an orange beam blasted the towering mutant in the back. It uttered a blood curdling scream, its body seemed to swell, and it exploded. Green blood and rotting body parts splattered everywhere.
Jones' head shot up. Her mouth dropped open in dismay. She watched a unit of six grey armoured, flying mechanoids swooping into the cavern. They were led by – and she squinted at this one in alarm – a GOLD armoured Sentinel?
Damn it! She thought. Goddamn Sentinel hive must still be operational! Those bastards were waiting for us to thin each other's numbers before they come in to mop up the mess!
At a silent order from its gold-armoured leader, one of the Sentinels quickly separated from its unit. Its propulsion drive flared as it applied its boost charge. It flew straight for the red-armoured Covenant field commander. The injured Elite levelled its plasma rifle at the swiftly approaching Sentinel and open fired. The Sentinel shot him as he shot it. His shield went down and he uttered a howl of rage. Then the Sentinel's burning body ploughed into him, exploding in his face. Shrapnel hurtled in all directions.
The Elite slammed back into the wall. Even from her cover, Jones heard his bones shatter. Purple blood sprayed and he slid down, to rest on the floor, dead. Seeing the violent death of their leader, the lesser species of his troops panicked. Grunts and Jackals fled, only to run into Sentinels or Flood. His carcass was swamped by dozens of hideous, bulbous little monsters. Two Sentinels blasted them while the rest of their mechanical brethren focused their attention on the Flood beasts attacking what was left of the Covenant and UNSC troops.
Dakota sensed movement behind her. She whirled and saw a human combat form running insanely at her. She calmly brought up her rifle and open fired into the chest. Green blood splashed and the monster tripped over its feet and fell. No sooner was it down when another leapt crazily for her, tentacle arm drawing back to pound her into the wall. The marine dodged around the boulder, her battle training taking over. The perverted, zombie-like beast thrashed the wall where she stood, and she stepped around, smashing the butt of her rifle into the back of its head. She heard the satisfying sound of its neck vertebrae snapping. The head lolled forward onto the chest.
But instead of going down the Flood beast uttered a shriek of fury. It spun around – and Jones shot it several times in the head. More green sap-like blood sprayed across the wall. The combat form fell to its knees and slumped over sideways.
A spec ops Elite beat his fists into two human combat forms flaying him with their tentacle arms. Despite his blows splintering fragile human bones, the monsters were completely undaunted – the more he beat on them, the more enraged and excited they became. A Sentinel shot one of the combat forms, the deadly orange beam severing the legs off its torso. Internal organs and red blood gushed to the floor as it keeled over backwards. The respite allowed the Elite time to activate his fearsome energy sword. The second combat form went down easily. Then he attacked the Sentinel. Both Sentinel and Elite were blown sky high by the resulting huge explosion caused by his sword penetrating its armoured chest.
Bits of Sentinel and ripped apart Elite pattered and splashed to the floor around Jones.
She saw a stumpy, waddling alien rushing past. His arms flailed and he screamed. Horrible, pulsating things with legs scuttled across his methane breathing tank, thrashing him in the back of his neck. Blue blood sprayed in gruesome little showers. The grunt tripped and fell. He rolled around on the floor, still screaming, trying to crush the monsters under him. But they easily evaded his attempts to squash them, merely jumping off and leaping back on him again, eagerly opening up and exposing his spinal column. They jostled and wrestled with each other over who would get claiming rights to the poor grunt's nervous system.
Now paralysed, the grunt lay there, his breaths hitching in terror and agony, eyes rolling. He saw something flying lazily through the air toward him. Was that a GOLD armoured Sentinel?
"Please help me, Your Excellency," he sobbed in his language, unable to move, knowing the godly Holy Warrior would never understand his Ungoy words but pleading anyway. "Please, sir, don't let them turn me into a – a – carrier form!"
Jones heard the grunt's words as unintelligible pig-like snorts. Appalled at the awful sight, she levelled her rifle at the poor bastard's head.
The gold armoured Sentinel stared coldly down at the pleading grunt, casually observing the infection forms burrowing their way into his dwarfish body. She thought she heard the flying mechanical drone utter an electronic warble – did that sound like satisfaction?She noticed half a dozen little monsters running madly in circles, leaping up at the Sentinel, so they could burrow into the back of its neck, too.
Jones shot the grunt through the head just as the gold Sentinel's deadly blue Sentinel beam weapon cleaved the poor little bastard in half.
The Sentinel instantly whirled, its body zooming sideways as it applied its boost. Its single visual sensor focused directly on Jones' hiding spot. She quickly ducked back behind her boulder. The last thing she wanted was to be spotted by these Sentinels. Although the machines could be brought down fairly easily, their lasers were lethal. She had no protection against such a deadly weapon. She saw the Sentinel's shadow moving across the floor as it quickly approached her hiding place. Then a burst of gunfire brought the machine up short. Jones was surprised to see what was empty air around the Sentinel suddenly flare with light. It had a protective shield around its body, like an Elite! The Sentinel spun around, uttered a gurgle of agitation, and open fired on a Flood combat form wielding an SMG.
I have to get out of here before that thing spots me, she thought. Where is the rest of my platoon?
She saw nobody alive. Blood pooled gruesomely beneath dozens of bodies littering the floor. Dead Flood forms and blown apart Sentinels lay scattered in the gory mess. She scanned the cavern, and saw – aside from the lone Sentinel leader fighting against the last remaining Flood combat form – nothing else moving.
I'm all that's left! She thought, panic-stricken. Where's Evans? Lieutenant Corporal Carter? Juno? Oh, no . . . there's Toy . . . killed by a Sentinel beam! They're dead! My whole platoon is dead!
The Flood combat form uttered a keening death shriek.
While the Sentinel's finishing that mutated bastard off – she thought as she darted from her cover. Survival instincts took over now. She had no time to mourn the deaths of her comrades. She had to find her way back up to the surface.
She headed back the way her platoon had come, sprinting from the cavern. She didn't see the dead Sentinel lying on the floor in her path – well, its head really – or whatever passed for a head on the bizarre mechanical beings. She tripped over it. She fell and her momentum sent her skidding across the floor through pools of red and purple and blue blood, finally coming to a humiliating stop against the wall. Her gun went flying. It clattered loudly several feet away.
The gold-armoured Sentinel slowly turned. Its laser weapon searched for the source of the new interesting sound its auditory sensors picked up.
Play dead! Jones thought. Don't let it see you're still alive! The moment you move, Jones, you're dead meat! Literally!
She fought the instinct to get up and flee from that blood-smeared hellhole. She slumped on the floor, doing her utmost to keep from gasping, thus advertising the fact she was still alive. Lying prone on her back, but with her helmet visor drawn down over her face shielding her eyes, she watched the Sentinel approach.
Its armoured body swooped gracefully through the air, propulsion unit humming quietly. She'd never had the opportunity to study Sentinels before. She'd never even fought a Sentinel before now. It hovered to a gentle stop above her splayed form. This close, she was amazed at how large the mechanical creature actually was - at least seven feet long, from head to tip of rear stabiliser. The arms were huge, almost as long as her whole body. The nasty-looking, claw-like fingers snapped back, to lie flat in the grooves in the palms of its 'hands'.
I hope they are stupid like ONI says, she mused fearfully. I hope they're just pre-programmed unintelligent automatons!
If that were so, this Sentinel would soon ignore her lying there and fly off, letting her up so she could retrieve her battle rifle and shoot its ass to Kingdom Come. Most animals didn't attack something that looked dead. It should also apply to Sentinels too, should it?
The mechanical entity appeared a little confused. It had not encountered an enemy that 'played dead' in front of it before. It heard her breathing and pounding heart beat on its keen auditory sensors. It saw her body heat with its thermal imaging. Everything about her proved to the gold-armoured Sentinel warrior that she was alive, not dead. It scrutinized her, the white gleam of its single visual sensor glaring coldly at her unarmed form. She glimpsed the Sentinel beam weapon aimed at her head. The moment she moved – it would fire.
Jones lay there for ten minutes, hoping the Sentinel would fly its damn ass out of the cavern and leave her alone. But it refused to leave, it simply waited for her to move, seemingly enjoying the discomfort she endured at being unable to reposition herself.
It knows I'm not dead! She deliberated. They ARE more intelligent than ONI claims! It must have an AI unit installed in its CPU, similar to the AI's we use!
She had a maddening itch in her back. The blood from all the different alien species soaked into her uniform. The Sentinel knew she was uncomfortable – she lay painfully on her left arm which had gone numb from the weight on it. Would the mechanical being kill her for just speaking? Would it even understand what she was saying?
Finally she said, "I know you know I'm not dead."
The Sentinel hissed maliciously.
Jones closed her eyes, waiting for death. But it didn't come – not yet. She took the chance.
"Will you let me get up?"
Another gurgling hiss.
"I'm not armed – I won't hurt you."
She lay there, utterly still. Just speaking was a relief. The Sentinel was wary of her – its programming dictated it must destroy everything that could feed the Flood, which included her. But why hadn't it killed her? Why hover there for fifteen minutes and observe her? Was observation – and learning - the function of a gold Sentinel?
"Look, I'm just sitting up, OK? That's all I'm doing. I'm not reaching for a weapon or anything."
It allowed her to cautiously sit up, her back against the wall.
Jones uttered a relieved sigh. Her muscles ached from lying in one position for so long. She leaned forward, her hand reaching behind to scratch the itch in her back. That was a mistake. The Sentinel uttered an angry growl. One of its huge arms lashed out, clouting her across the face before she could react. The blow cracked the visor of her helmet, knocking it right off her head. Blood sprayed from her nose. She keeled over and fell to the ground face first.
She was stunned by the blow and everything swam crazily for several minutes.
It thought I was reaching for a weapon! She thought frantically. That was my fault!
She was seized by the back of her torso armour and slammed unkindly against the wall. She saw a blurry view of a blade-like gold-armoured skull hover close to her face, the bright light of its visual unit blinding her.
"I'm unarmed," she reiterated, spluttering through the blood dripping from her nose. She felt steel finger-like grippers seize her by her fringe and roughly jerk her head up.
"Ow," she said helplessly.
A pair of grippers yanked her chin forward. They groped at her face while the Sentinel took an analytical sample of her blood. Without proper lab equipment, only its onboard data systems, the Sentinel identified the human was of the Reclaimer species. But for a proper analysis of her DNA, it would have to be performed at a Forerunner lab. The entity released her and shoved her back against the wall.
The Sentinel uttered a gurgling hiss that hinted at a question.
"I don't understand what you're saying," she said, shaking her head. "I don't speak Sentinel."
It seemed to understand her. It made a warbling sound that had a mocking tone to it.
She spotted a skittering movement in her peripheral vision. The Sentinel also seemed to sense the approach of the horrid little critters, reacting instantly. It spun and fired upon the infection forms scuttling across the floor toward them. Without a weapon all she could do was sit there and watch the Sentinel coldly and efficiently kill the little monsters. But with her unfriendly captor's attention diverted, Jones could now make her bid for freedom!
She stood up – and the Sentinel whirled. It hissed furiously, lashed out and sent her toppling to the floor again.
Once the infection forms were dead, it turned its full attention back to her. She was roughly seized by the front of her uniform this time, and the Sentinel ushered her into the tunnel she'd made for previously.
"Wait, I need a gun to defend myself!" she yelled. The Sentinel refused to listen. It shoved her ahead of itself and she staggered into the passageway.
"I can help you!" she implored, eyeing up her captor. "I can help you fight them! I won't shoot at you!"
It shoved her forward, unmindful of her pleading.
"Christ, you're one uptight son of a bitch, aren't you?" Jones turned to face her subjugator directly. She wiped blood off her face with her sleeve. "Well, asshole, how do you like this?"
She hoiked and spat a huge glob of bloody phlegm right into the Sentinel's face. Spit oozed down the bright visual sensor. The machine paused momentarily in the tunnel. It obviously didn't get the gist of her insult.
"Damn you, stupid mechanical moron."
When the Sentinel seized her, by the back of her body armour this time, it deliberately dragged her along the floor. It flew so fast she couldn't run quickly enough to keep up with the hovering menace. She lost her footing and her knees scraped painfully on the uneven ground.
"Let me go!" she yelled furiously, slamming her palms against the metal claws clamped onto her armour. Nothing she did would make them release her. The Sentinel appeared unaffected by the added weight it was carrying. They didn't seem strong enough to carry anything, but they were used as transport on the enormous, Halo fortress worlds. The flying machines also looked fragile; but in fact, were extremely strong.
"Slow down!" she yelled, feeling like a puppy being dragged by the scruff of its neck. "There's a crevice my platoon and I came across to get here! You'll pull us down into it!"
She tried slowing the Sentinel's progress by digging her heels into the ground, but her legs whipped out from under her. She gripped the claw-like hand clenching her uniform, struggling to make it release her. Then she hurriedly unfastened the clasps in her armour, skinned out of it, and fell to the floor clad in her fatigues.
The Sentinel coasted to a gentle halt just ahead of her, clutching her empty torso armour.
"Not all of us are capable of flight, moron," she hissed.
The Sentinel made an unpleasant gurgling sound, and tossed her armour back at her.
"You really don't know what the word 'moron' means, do you?" she asked, bemused.
When she saw running movement in the tunnel they'd just traversed, she gazed up at the Sentinel and shrugged her shoulders. "Hmm, a moron back there refused to let me grab a weapon for myself." She said pleasantly.
The Sentinel glared coldly at her, uttering a warning sound.
She smiled. "They're all yours. . . moron," she teased.
Jones stood back and watched the Sentinel angrily take on the pursuing Flood combat forms, blasting them with its deadly blue Sentinel beam. Unlike the others of its brethren, this particular class of Sentinel seemed to have been built specifically to deal with the Flood warrior types. It aimed for the legs of the beasts, cutting them down, killing them instantly. They were bottlenecked in the narrowest part of the tunnel, making it difficult for them to reach their prey. The gold Sentinel took advantage of this, cutting the monstrosities down until it was left facing a grotesque, waddling Carrier form surrounded by four of the warrior Flood. It blasted the Carrier, detonating the bloated monstrosity. The explosion ripped the pursuing Flood combat forms apart.
Jones observed the battle, grudgingly finding herself impressed with her captor's fighting. She contemplated escape, but perhaps staying with this Sentinel was a better survival tactic. It would also have a better layout of these subterranean caverns than her platoon did.
She spotted a shotgun lying on the floor a few feet away. She glanced toward the Sentinel, and just glimpsed something flash by. It was more of a twisting of light than anything, yet the Sentinel seemed completely unaware of it.
It's active camo! She thought, instinctively diving for the shotgun. It's a Flood combat form – wearing active camo!
The light was atrocious, the monster almost invisible. She saw it silhouetted against the luminous yellow glow drifting in from the tunnel ahead, where the piles of rotting, partially cooked flesh was heaped. She hit the floor, seized the shotgun and brought it to her shoulder in one graceful motion.
"Hey, Sentinel!" she yelled. "Back off!"
The Sentinel spun around. Suddenly it was aware of the nearness of something deadly and a long drawn out electronic gurgle escaped from it. Jones open fired. The report was deafening in her ear, especially in the confines of the tunnel, but she barely took heed of it. There was the answering blast of another shotgun that went wide, peppering the wall near the retreating Sentinel. The snarling cough of a Flood combat form issued next, and its shadow flickered as its invisibility shield took the brunt of the blast and deactivated. The combat form screamed with rage and flung its shotgun to the floor. Tentacles flailing madly, it charged at her.
A blue laser beam struck the hulking monster, causing it to slam back into the opposite wall. Pieces of half-cooked meat and internal body parts splattered to the floor in a steaming, rotting pile.
The gold Sentinel turned its attention to her and scrutinized her. She wondered what it was thinking – if they were capable of thinking at all. The mechanoid's eye fixed on the shotgun in her hands. She carefully lowered it, making sure not to make her movements too quick.
"Look, see? I ain't gonna shoot you." She reiterated. "So can you return the favour and not point that weapon of yours at me?"
Much to her surprise, she heard the mechanical entity utter an affirming warble. It turned its back to her and swooped into the reeking, gore-splashed tunnel. It scanned the huge pile of rotting meat and dug into the mess. Then the flying creature flew back to her, wielding in one hand a blood-smeared Sentinel beam weapon.
It warbled at her, the alien weapon poised in its huge hand.
Jones peered curiously at the Sentinel. Its arm stretched toward her, offering her the gun.
It's a peace offering. She mused. But that weapon looks cumbersome. I don't think I'm strong enough to wield that heavy thing.
The Sentinel's claws yanked the shotgun from her grip and cast it aside.
"You want me to use just this thing?" she asked dubiously. "The shotgun's no good?"
An answering warble.
She took the proffered weapon and wielded it. It was considerably lighter than it looked, though still somewhat bulky in her human hands. She slid her hand into the rear of it, found the trigger and discovered she only had to touch the trigger, not press it, in order to fire the weapon. When she did a few practice shots, she was surprised to find although the orange beam was wide and powerful, it didn't kick back into her.
"Nice," she said. "So, you think I won't shoot you with this then?"
She heard an electronic gurgle come out of the flying machine. Did that sound like . . . moron??
"So, what else can this weapon do, eh?" She looked up at her huge gold armoured compatriot. "Can it fire grenades?"
She slung the shotgun into a holster on the back of her body armour and followed the Sentinel as it flew out of the tunnel.
Private Dakota Jones hurried after the gold armoured Sentinel, using it as a shield in case they chanced upon more of the hideous Flood monsters lurking in the subterranean tunnels. She didn't recognise the new route they took. Her platoon had come another way that ONI had suggested. The entire subterranean system appeared hastily and crudely constructed – more boring of solid rock than artificially created structures.
It seemed the entire area under the Sentinel hive was purposefully built this way.
As the two passed through a dully lit cavern, she noticed the presence of UNSC. She found discarded body armour, a few pistols, shotguns and battle rifles, their ammo depleted to nothing. Spotlights had been set up, and she found destroyed communications equipment scattered in pieces on the floor. Despite the pools and splatters of red blood, there were no bodies to be found.
What company are these marines from? She thought. The insignia she found on a discarded back pack was not from her capital ship, the SAINT of Honour.
In Amber Clad, she thought, her brow creasing first in curiosity, then slowly growing anger. ONI never mentioned anything about a company from the In Amber Clad landing here! What were they thinking? It looks like these men perished at the hands of the Flood, so ONI sends my company in without telling us about THIS!
The Sentinel hovered near the exit of the cavern and uttered a warning sound.
"Yeah, just gimme a minute, will you?" she said.
In a dull monotone, she thought – Well, it explains the presence of the human combat forms. She put her hand to her unhelmeted head. ONI just wants that goddamn Sentinel memory crystal, no expense on marines' lives spared! The sons-of-bitches can bend over and kiss their asses for all I care! I'll destroy the goddamn thing before they get their slimy paws on it!
The Sentinel flew over, impatiently uttering another warning growl. But she barely heard the flying entity. Then she spotted ubiquitous burn marks across rock walls and floor. As her realisation grew, so did her anger.
"Your kind did this to these marines?" she demanded in an accusing voice. "Did you kill these men?"
The Sentinel fixed its baleful, cold stare on her. Without warning, she saw – no, felt – an image form in her mind. The briefest glimpse of a Flood infection form flickered in her brain. Then the Sentinel haughtily turned its back to her. She was confused by this image. It obviously came from the Sentinel – were the machines telepaths or something? Did they communicate with each other via image?
The vision was rather ambiguous. It could mean the marines were attacked by and had become Flood. Or the Sentinels killed them before they could become Flood.
The mechanical entity seemed oblivious to her emotions. It didn't care about the deaths of these men. Was it aware of what the UNSC and the Covenant were after?
"Where are you taking us?" she asked the Sentinel. At this moment, she didn't really care. Her willpower was drained. If they walked off the side of a cliff and she fell into an abyss, she wouldn't have given a damn.
That's what Moron probably has in mind for me, she thought, glaring at the gold armoured rear end of her Sentinel companion. But he'll find his ass burned faster than ONI's when I've finished with him!
She jogged after the flying machine as it exited the cavern and its unpleasant secrets now revealed.
"Need to give you a name," she said at the Sentinel flying alongside her, its spotlight eye aiding her visually in the too-dark tunnel. "Can't keep calling you Moron, can I?"
She didn't get a reply, just stony silence from her mechanical compatriot.
"You're a moody SOB, aren't you?" She glared at the hovering menace. "One moment you're almost friendly, next you're like this, silent and sulking. You sulk a lot for a machine, don't you?" She peered quizzically at the flying machine. "Could be your AI is having trouble understanding why it's letting you let me live. I've never saved the ass of a flying robot before. So, what's a good name for you, eh?"
The Sentinel didn't reply to her questions.
"Look, you," she said, seizing it by its left arm and forcing it to a halt. "If we're gonna survive down here, we gotta trust each other completely. We have to look out for each other, you know? I know you can understand me, so don't look away like that. I bet you're in a bitchy mood because there's no more Sentinels around to back you up. Well, my whole platoon is dead, and I got nobody to back me up either!"
The Sentinel uttered a long, drawn out electronic gurgling sound. She had not the slightest idea what that meant. Her inability to understand the flying entity was frustrating to them both. She guessed they talked to each other remotely, probably with sonar or something and communicated in pictures rather than words. It understood her, so she assumed it had a universal translator installed in its CPU.
"It's a damn shame your creators didn't have you equipped with a speech program and a larynx so you can speak," Dakota mused aloud. She gave the Sentinel a quizzical expression. "Don't look at me like that. Verbal speech is NOT inferior to your mind picture telepathy or whatever the hell it is!"
The Sentinel moved off. Jones hurried after it.
"How do you feel about the name Ramases?" She asked. "You remind me of a guy I knew, whose personality was a bit like yours. He was cold, aloof and a real asshole. His name was Ramases."
'Ramases' didn't respond to its new name. It was merely a number, Sentinel Major 055. Although its AI unit was more advanced than those of the lower silver-armoured Sentinel caste, it was simply to lead and direct them. It had no 'personality' so why did the human Reclaimer insist on treating it like an individual? Were all humans this confusing? It searched its vast onboard database for memories of other Sentinels having had the same interaction with humans like this. It found nothing.
'Ramases', as she chose to call him, found she had neural implants in her head. He contemplated using her implants to 'speak' to her, but then discovered they were for improved weapons enhancement ability and nothing more. If he tried using them, they would short circuit and possibly kill her.
So he was reduced to uttering demeaning electronic warbles.
How could he tell her his Sentinel Command ship had left the planet, abandoning him here, under a disused Sentinel hive?
Something had caused the ship to leave, perhaps new UNSC or Covenant ships had arrived, he didn't know because his capital ship had not sent him updates like they should've. All the Sentinel Major had been told by his Sentinel Warrior leader was that a pocket of Flood had infected a small human UNSC base recently built near a disused Forerunner installation. His function was to reactivate the main Sentinel hive, so others of his kind could be teleported via Sentinel launcher within the hive to the location. But now the Sentinel Major had been abandoned by his own kind. He sent one signal after another to his command ship, received no reply. His small squadron were all dead and there were still Flood around that needed decontaminating.
Ramases could not exist alone and lost! He no longer felt the comfort of others of his kind, sensing their constant communication with each other. The constant, familiar buzz in his mind was gone, only silence, and this annoying human who would not stop talking!
Ramases may have been abandoned, but he must still complete his objectives. He would reactivate the hive, as ordered to by his huge, gold and black Sentinel Warrior commander, and get its defensive systems fully operational.
The human female was perceptive. She soon picked up the reason for his bitchy mood.
"Oh, I see. . . you've been left behind!" she said. "So, you've been shafted too, Ramases? Join the club."
To be continued ...
Beneath the Sentinel Hive Part 2.
Date: 31 October 2006, 1:58 am
Corporal Dakota Jones jogged alongside the hovering gold armoured Sentinel Major, wielding a bulky yet surprisingly light alien weapon. She could scarcely see in the near darkness of the warren-like passageway, and she noticed uncomfortably the walls closing in. Aside from the gentle hum of her mechanoid companion's propulsion drive, her panting breaths and clomping footfalls of her boots, there was little else to be heard.
"So, Ramases," she said as she paced alongside the large mechanical being. "Why did your masters decide to have four Sentinel hives guard an unobtrusive installation on a backwater planet like this?"
Talking aloud helped her overcome the unfathomable growing terror she couldn't rid herself of. What was the facility beneath them harbouring? It had to be much more than a mere Sentinel memory crystal that would attract the despised Covenant.
"Maybe they wanted to dig up this Forerunner installation, eh, Ramases?" She rambled on. "I heard the Covies troll the galaxy, searching for Forerunner artefacts like they're pots of gold. What a bunch of fanatical creeps. They destroyed my planet and it was all over a Forerunner relic in a museum! Murdering squid-faced bastards."
She peered sideways at the flying entity, but he didn't answer. She wished he could speak. His answers would've been very interesting.
The age-old machine scanned his surroundings, uttering a low growl of what sounded like trepidation. His keen sensors perceived the unmistakable stench of Flood, but then he detected something new, something far more dangerous. He searched his onboard database for records pertaining to this particular installation. He had never been to this place in his entire life of nearly 10,000 years, but his instinctive memory recognised it. It was used as a Forerunner laboratory where vile research was performed. Rumours amongst his kind even pertained to dreadful experiments being executed on his own mechanoid race. Then it had been converted to a Forerunner palace, where the experimentation continued unabated. That logically explained why four Sentinel hives were required to guard the facility.
Perhaps the Sentinel memory crystal the Reclaimer's kind was searching for would provide additional data.
His visual unit swivelled around and glared in Jones' direction. He sent a telepathic thought to her, the same way he would have to his masters had they still been in existence. Much to his annoyance, the human didn't answer. He uttered a verbal sound.
"What, Ramases?" When she received no answer, she sighed. "OK, then. Lead the way. I don't like it here any more than you do."
She found herself almost welcoming the crazed screams of loathsome Flood beasts to the silence of this claustrophobic and foreboding place. It seemed as if it were heralding the arrival of something far worse than the nightmare battle that had slaughtered her entire platoon. The never-ending sense of premonition was physically and psychologically exhausting.
She smelled the stench before she actually saw it.
They emerged into a large artificially-lit cavern, a hub from which nearly a dozen wide, dimly lit corridors traversed. She glanced upward and saw two more tunnels ascending vertically into a putrescent gloom. But what occupied her immediate attention were the remains of a large Covenant encampment. Equipment and supplies were scattered all over the massive high-ceilinged room. Blue and purple blood was splashed across walls and floor. From the state of the place, it appeared to have been abandoned in a great panic. The truncated corpses of Elites and Grunts could be seen lying in meaty chunks around the room.
It seemed the encampment had come under attack by a vast horde of Flood beasts. But if they'd been attacked by Flood, why hadn't the Flood taken the bodies?
She cautiously approached one of the bodies.
Ramases hovered alongside her, indifferent.
Jones had seen enough gruesome deaths during her service as a PFC, but this surpassed any brutal killing she'd ever witnessed. The Unggoy on the floor had been ripped in half. She glanced up, following the trail of blue blood and viscera with her eyes, and saw his other half lying splattered against the rock wall.
"Grief!" she said aloud. "It looks like someone grabbed him and ripped him in two!"
The Sentinel Major uttered a low growl of agitation.
Goddamn! She thought, enthralled by the astonishing violence.
There, lying amongst several destroyed Wraith battle tanks, she noticed an enormous dead thing. It was Flood-like, the bulbous head alone the size of a Flood carrier form. Four spindly tentacles – two of which had been torn away from its massive body – hung limply atop wrecked Covenant vehicles. Two of the limbs carried huge, scythe-like black blades that were smeared with the blood and body parts of unfortunate Covenant victims. Skeletal legs, almost 8 feet long, were broken and splayed across the rock floor.
Is that . . . is that a juggernaut Flood combat form? Dakota wondered, her mouth dropping open.
Ignoring Ramases' increasingly irritated warning calls, she hefted her beam weapon and dared to approach the unmoving behemoth.
Copious amounts of sallow, pus-like fluid pooled around its enormous mass. The stench was unbelievable. She noticed the head was badly damaged. The Covenant had put up a fierce fight against this ferocious beast. She spotted plasma burns scoring the massive carcass. But could plasma weapons – even energy swords – cause the damage she saw inflicted on the head?
Huge ragged gouges criss-crossed the bulging carrier-form skull. Several of these were so deep parts of the skull had actually caved in. A mixture of green, yellow and deep red blood dribbled continuously, spreading in an ever-widening pool around the partially crushed cranium. Holding back her gorge, Dakota glanced into the meaty maw, and saw parts of infection forms and unfortunate humans and Elites fused into a single mass, resulting in the creation of this juggernaut monster.
What the hell caused these injuries? She wondered, too amazed by the state of its wounds to puke up her ring at the morbid sight. It appears to have been mauled to death by enormous talons!
Her eyes skimmed the room. This looks like they were trying to escape, and not just from the juggernaut. They must've run straight into my company. They fought us in desperation.
Ramases forcibly seized her arm. He snarled something unintelligible, and refused to release her when she tried wrenching her arm free. He ignored her angry protests, instead dragging the human marine to one of the tunnels that ascended into an unpleasant darkness. Now that he was in physical contact with her, she detected the Sentinel's form shuddering. She stared at him. Was that fear? Could Sentinels feel fear? Did he know what killed that giant Flood mutation?
The Sentinel shoved her away from him. He moved off. She hurried after the flying menace.
At first Dakota thought there were Flood infection forms swarming in the passage ahead. But the putrid and sickly glow it gave off revealed nothing moving. It was an enormous mass of puss-like fluid, smeared across one wall. Occasionally, bubbles broke through the surface of this hideous mess, expelling a terrible gassy stench. The odour was so thick and cloying it was like breathing a foul, decomposing liquid. She recognized fragments of body parts inside it. The entire mess uttered sickening, squelching sounds.
Jones covered her face with a trembling, dirt and blood-smeared hand, forcing herself not to retch.
"Grief. . ." she choked. "It's the remains of another juggernaut. . . but this one's been – pulverised – beaten to death. . ."
The Sentinel uttered a warbling sound. His laser weapon dropped to firing position. Without preamble, he open fired. The open wound on the wall was soon incinerated.
"What the hell is killing these mutated freaks, Ramases?" she demanded. Then realised the Sentinel had no way of verbally answering her.
Ramases' sensors did a sweep of the area for more of the rotten fluid seeping from the walls. When he didn't find any, he soared off down the corridor, Jones chasing after him.
After a few minutes of frantic running, she soon came to a halt when she saw the Sentinel Major hovering to a stop ahead of her. The tunnel had arrived at a dead end. She saw no indication of a door in the featureless wall before them.
Exhausted from her exertions both mentally and physically, Jones leaned against the wall to rest. She watched the Sentinel entity face the blank expanse of wall. A brightening azure glow shimmered from his visual sensor, toward a slightly raised indentation in the wall. It bathed the serration in a pale sapphire glow, activating a hidden holo display. It flared to life in shades of cerulean and turquoise.
"Impressive," she admitted. "I take it we're right beneath the Sentinel hive?"
She received an affirming warble.
Then she heard a heavy thud. It shook the entire tunnel. It sounded again.
Dakota quickly straightened, her weariness forgotten. The Sentinel uttered an impatient gurgle.
The reverberation echoed again, louder now, and closer. It was followed by a shrill and rattling intake of air.
Jones backed toward the holo display on the wall. "Christ, I can't see a thing down there. . ." She ignored the jack hammer pounding of her heart as she aimed the Sentinel beam weapon into the blackness.
The tunnel was a murky hole, illumination coming only from Ramases' propulsion unit and the display on the wall. In her fear, she backed herself into the middle of the holo display, impeding Ramases' activating it. The thudding grew louder, and now she heard a whipping, whooshing sound. Finally Ramases uttered an affirming warble and the door yawned open. Jones literally fell through the opening portal while Ramases sped into the wide, dark cavernous room beyond.
As the door automatically sealed, she glimpsed a horrifying sight. It looked like a cross between a combat and a carrier form, and the mutated remains of whatever the dominant predator was on this planet. It was so big it could barely fit into the tight, claustrophobic tunnel. It used four immensely long, whip-like tentacles to haul itself through the small space.
Then it uttered a bone chilling shriek of pain. It twisted madly around in the confines of the corridor. Jones spotted a metallic gleam behind the convulsing juggernaut combat form. Terrible razor-like appendages descended upon the monster's bloated skull. They looked like giant glass fangs. Blood exploded from the Juggernaut's pulsating cranium.
Thick yellow slime, reeking of decomposing flesh, splattered across the floor and Jones.
The door cycled shut. It uttered a heavy clunk.
Dull thumping echoes reverberated through the huge room. The dying screams of the massive Flood warrior could still be heard, even through the three foot thick door. Whatever that was, she could hear it pounding the juggernaut to death, turning it into the same putrid sludge she and Ramases had witnessed further back in the tunnel.
Jones stood there gasping and shaking all over.
"Ghod!" She breathed. "Ohghods! What have these Covenant bastards done? They opened that Forerunner installation, and woke up whatever the hell guards the place!"
She seized Ramases by the left wing-stabiliser before he could get away from her, and made him face the now sealed door. Forcing the Sentinel Major to do her bidding was difficult, he could've easily shrugged her off. But he allowed her to manhandle him, and his visual sensor gazed at the now unobtrusive wall in front of him.
"What is that thing, Ramases," she demanded.
He uttered a musical warble, the tones sweetly bird-like. It was the first time she'd ever heard a Sentinel make such a sound. Their seemingly mindless aggression and predatory appearance belayed the notion such mechanoids could articulate so beautifully. These harmonious fluting tones were not directed at her, but at something on the other side of the door. She heard an ominous scraping sound, enormous talons gently scouring the door. Then, to her surprise, she heard an answering flute-like call.
The scraping stopped.
All was eerily silent again.
Ramases shook himself free and glided up into the dome around them.
She turned and gazed up toward her Sentinel companion. It was too dark to see anything. But as Ramases flew up, the Sentinel Hive awoke around him. Lights glowed from the walls. Hundreds of holo displays flared to life. Jones recognised the strangely elegant yet functional Forerunner architecture around her. She glanced down at the floor and noticed it was constructed of some unknown obsidian material. Geometric hieroglyphs were etched into every panel. As Ramases ascended further, Jones could see the walls gradually curve inward, like a pointed dome. Platforms lined the inner walls around the wide open inner area.
From her vantage point she spotted porthole-like obtrusions also placed strategically around the walls. These were Sentinel launchers, the teleportation devices used to transport the flying mechanoids from one installation to another when intruders were detected.
Grief, there must be dozens – hundreds of those ports, Jones thought, gazing up in silent awe.
She hurried along the wall and approached something she recognised instantly – a glowing column of sapphire light gently twisting and glimmering in the semi-dark. It was a grav-lift, the same type of device the Covenant used to transport troops and vehicles from their capital ships to planetary surfaces. So this is where they got their technology. She mused as she stepped into the circular space at the bottom of the lift. They stole it from the Forerunners, no doubt. The zero-G elevator took her straight up, through several platforms. Finally she stepped out onto an ebony floor right at the apex of the dome. It ringed a ten storey drop to the floor below.
At strategic points around this level, she noticed partitions in the walls. They opened into rooms, devoid of furniture, merely black domed cubicles that contained more complex, yet unintelligible holo displays. Then, in one of these rooms, she spotted an artefact suspended in the air. It was a multi-faceted, multi-hued sliver of crystal that gently turned on its axis. Jones uttered a pleased hiss as she hurried into the room.
It's beautiful, she thought, reaching out, her hand touching the delicate crystal. And it's mine.
Her fingers brushed the sacred relic. It uttered a sweet musical ping. Only the length of her hand and the thickness of her little finger, the artificially created crystal could power the slip space engines of a ship as large as the SAINT of Honour. They were worth billions of credits, and both the UNSC and the Covenant wanted them.
Sentinel memory crystals.
Ramases hovered cautiously into the room. He and hundreds of his kind used rooms similar to this to download memories stored in their CPUs to identical crystals like the one floating in front of the human Reclaimer. It was extremely necessary, higher classes of his kind used the memories as learning devices. It enabled them to formulate new battle tactics and create more powerful weapons against their Flood enemies. Like biological, intelligent beings, these Sentinels also learned and adapted, changing their behaviour and their physical abilities, to deal with the ever-changing Flood monstrosities. They were the only beings in existence that had any control over the vile Flood disease.
Ramases led me straight to it, she thought, the beautiful crystal reflecting in the pupils of her irises. The Covenant were searching in the wrong place!
As she slipped the crystal into her pocket, she was surprised at the complete lack of a reaction from the Sentinel Major. He didn't seem to give a damn about her taking the precious piece of rock. Perhaps they meant nothing to his race. Maybe there were more hidden somewhere in this ancient Forerunner structure? Was she standing inside a treasure-trove of wealth? Would Ramases lead her to a virtual stockpile of Sentinel memory crystals?
Suddenly the Sentinel Major sensed a familiar presence. He opened his comms channel, broadcasting a hopeful signal. His capital ship was still in the vicinity! It had hidden itself inside a slipstream envelope it formed around itself, to keep it from being detected by Covenant or UNSC sensors. Normally Sentinel capital ships did not engage in combat with the inferior alien species. Their leaders wanted no contact with these war-faring races.
Ramases received a warning signal from his ship, the Tokrah TuPaak.
It was imperative he get the Sentinel Hive fully operational as soon as possible.
To be continued...
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