Concurrence Chapter 8-2

2152 words

“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 there 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 the 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 keep 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 climbing. 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 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 coridor 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 in a grid pattern, one of which extending out before Seela and the Major as they stepped into the space, the sides flanked by short rail guards and the occasional low wall that sheltered a computer or harboured screens of data.

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 a green, webby substance, 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, with rounded ends and nearly as thick around as the support columns. 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 direction, ringing around one 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 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 took 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 flying drones, shells breaking off their bodies as her shots found their marks. More started to emerge from the wholes, 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 hide behind 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 they’d just come from, 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, but another drone landed to take its place, its wings folding back into the casings as it darted across the grating.

He pulled the choke and fired again, letting out a snarl as a stray bolt 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.

He and Seela fired while on the move, his tall companion twisting on the spot and picking off targets of opportunity as more nests began to stir. The nests were becoming alive with movement, more and more drones pouring out of the holes, beginning to number in the dozens even as the two cut them down with relative ease. For all their numbers, a drone couldn’t survive a radiative bolt to the chest, Seela demonstrating the fact as she brought down a score of drones with a single mag.

He slotted fresh slugs out of his many bandoliers, reloading as he checked their progress. The catwalk they were on turned at a right angle, circling another pylon, 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 flying over their heads, the hulking insect clanging loudly to the walkway as its wings drooped uselessly over its shoulders.

A pair of drones clambered up onto a nearby pylon, their sharp fingers gripping the metal for leverage as they took aim with pistols, the plasma splashing against their walkway at the Major’s feet. He ducked into cover, trading fire with them and killing one, but two more were ready to take its place, their sheer numbers were starting to outweigh the kill count.

The sound of tapping metal alerted him to drones closing in, the Major looking through the metal grating to see a squad of drones climbing up the strut from the level below them, their slatted green eyes fixed on their position.

“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 onto the catwalk, one of them brandishing curved knives, the same one the drone in the tunnel had used on the Major before.