(David Pov)
The flashlight attachment on the end of my shotgun lit up my path as I slowly began to move in a direction away from the breach. My position was near the outer edge of the circular center of the ship. And I needed to head in a diagonal direction toward the back center of the ship.
That was based on the suit's readings. I was following the traces of Cherenkov radiation, something that is emitted from nuclear reactors. If I had to guess based on the technology, it probably had one if not multiple fusion reactors.
I moved along steadily at a smooth pace. Keeping my gun ahead of me, I maintained focus on what was in front of me, but did not neglect to pay attention to my surroundings.
The inside of the ship was just like the outside, almost exclusively purple in color. But the hallways were curved and rounded. I walked along the curve, making sure that my helmet was recording all of what I was seeing. No one had seen the inside of a Covenant ship, so I would be making history. In the dark, it was difficult to get a full grasp of the appearance of the inside, however.
Eventually, I found a purple metallic door with a circular center. Just like the corridor I had moved along, it was also dark. It seemed all of the power in this section of the ship was knocked out by the Archer missile that managed to get through.
I lowered my weapon and inspected the door. From this side, it looked like there was no manual override, or more likely, I didn't see one. I brought my hand up to the thick plating and ran my hand along it, searching for a groove in the metal. If they had advanced technology, then there was no way they didn't have automatic doors.
'Damn, it's completely smooth,' I cursed and began to readjust. 'There goes the subtle approach,' I exchanged my shotgun for a small canvas-covered square on my back and unfolded it till it came to be about 1x1 feet. I yanked off adhesive strips that ran along the perimeter on the underside before firmly pressing it onto the center of the door. I patted it down roughly, making sure it would be attached. I stopped switching my attention to a mechanical detonator on the side of it. I carefully adjusted it, setting it to a timer of thirty seconds.
Hearing the tell-tale beep of the countdown starting, I turned and quickly got just around the corner. Glancing in the top left of my helmet, I noticed that a new timer had popped up. 'That's convenient.' This set of armor just seemed to keep giving me surprises.
5….4….3….2….1…
*BOOM*
I peaked back around the corner, shotgun back in my hand, raised, and began to approach with a hurried pace.
Now there was a gaping hole from where the door used to stand. I moved through the doorframe and spotted the doors, finding them blown off but still relatively intact, leaning against the hallway wall.
The new hallway was thankfully lit up, and in the light, I could better see the interior of the ship and had to make an addendum to my earlier observations.
Walls arced in sweeping curves that met the floor without seams, like the inside of a seashell, all plated in that same dull violet metal that I was beginning to grow accustomed to. Light didn't come from bulbs but instead from veins beneath the surface: thin, bioluminescent lines that pulsed with yellow and white light.
My boots clicked on a surface that didn't quite sound anything like the titanium flooring of the UNSC ships. No, this was denser. As I looked around, my HUD tried to translate alien script along the bulkheads into blocky, halting glyphs. Where humans bolted plates and rivets, the Covenant had braided ribs and layered filigree that looked ceremonial and structural at once.
Corners were soft, corridors funneled into alcoves, and niches held alien devices that hummed with quiet, dangerous purpose. Each and every part of the ship told me that the Covenant viewed these ships not as tools like us but as works of art.
Something caught my eye on the hallway wall, leaking and blooming from behind the wall. I moved closer, finding a bio-luminescent light blue viscous liquid. I refrained from touching it; no telling if it was some type of pathogen or something worse.
Checking the readings, I began in the direction of what I thought was the main reactor of the ship. The dull thrumming of electricity around me, and the tight clicks of my boots filled whatever gas that was in the ship.
I had not made it passed the bend of the corridor when I stopped.
I gripped my shotgun tightly. I heard chittering and the dull beat of what I believed to be footsteps, 'Voices?' I wondered. Whatever made that sound made a high-pitched squeak, almost, from the reports I vaguely remembered hearing about some cone-headed aliens that spoke in high-pitched voices.
'They used plasma pistols, but I cannot remember if they had shields or not,' My fingers silently tapped their tips on the forend of the magazine tube. They were close, about ten feet from the bend. 'Well, I guess there's only one way to find out,'
I pushed off the wall, swiveling to look around the bend. My eyes quickly identified four of the cone-headed creatures. They were covered in what appeared to be rocky scales on their arms, while most of their body was protected by orange armor.
"WAHHHHHHH"
My eyebrow shot up under my helmet as I yanked the trigger of my shotgun for the first time. One of the lead ones screamed before turning and running in the opposite direction. That one managed to evade the slug but instead dumped the target onto his buddy, who was behind him.
The slug struck the orange metal, shattering it instantly. Blue blood spurted, and the five-foot-tall alien fell backward immediately. I snapped to the other two, holding down the trigger, I pumped another shell instantly firing it, and slammed another one in less than a quarter of a second.
I was a Spartan. I felt no recoil, but the aliens certainly felt the slug.
I blew the head of the first one off, more bioluminescent blood spilling into the puddle on the floor that was rapidly forming. The second one lost half of its face, the energy from the round turned it into a mushy lump, its sharp teeth shattering into specs like glass.
I pumped the 3rd shell out, the orange hull flying outward with the cartoon rhinoceros smiling at me as it went. The chamber flung it out to my left, and my final enemy had gained another ten feet, but it didn't matter.
I fired another shell. This time, I was shocked to watch the alien literally explode. The moment my shell landed on the cone on its back, a fireball in the middle of the corridor erupted. A charred object flew out as whatever had ignited burned up in an instant.
I paused in the hall, pulling out two shells and racking them into my shotgun before grabbing another two.
*BING BING BING*
Without thinking, I broke into a sprint. I knew an alarm when I heard one. I ran through the blue blood, kicking droplets onto the lower half of my armor. I passed the charred corpse and at another door. It detected me and opened quickly the circular center spinning as if it was unlocking. I didn't slow down and kept running, my boots now clanking loudly, keeping my gun at the ready.
"WAUGHHHHH"
I was jerked to the side as a branching door snapped open and a giant alien rammed into me. It grabbed onto my shotgun before pushing me into the wall. I gave it a quick glance: four distinct jaws, reptilian skin, and snake-like eyes. It was muscular, covered in white armor, and was a bit taller than myself.
I reacted the instant he appeared. I quickly smashed my uparmored visor into its mouth with a quick headbutt. A white energy seemed to instantly disperse from around it, and it stumbled for the briefest of moments, but still gave me more than enough of a window. I ditched the shotgun due to the proximity, kicking it to the side of the open doorway and thumbed my combat knife with my right hand.
Purple blood seemed to leak out from its mouth, and before the thing could react, I plunged my knife into its throat before ripping it out a stream following my blade. I took a step to look around it, and my senses alerted me as time slowed down. I pivoted back behind the still-standing alien that was bringing its hands to its throat.
A burst of plasma pelted the wall beside me, and in the instant, I saw two more aliens, different from the ones previous. These were a weird mix between birds and reptiles. It had what looked like a beak but was loaded with razor-sharp teeth, it had talons but glowing slit eyes, and the comparisons could go on. These ones seemed to have wide plasma shields that covered their entire body, but unlike the big one, this one was more rudimentary, reminding me of round Viking shields from our history class.
I stashed away my knife as I ran into the freak bleeding out in front of me. With my left hand, I braced on its upper torso, and with my right, I snatched an SMG from my thigh. I moved forward, pushing him as a body shield, gaining the distance I needed. I flung the body to one side onto the body of the bird-thing and brought my smg to the face of the other.
*VRRRRTTTT-VRRRTTTT*
Like a buzz saw, bullets rained out of the barrel of my machine gun, folding the alien over itself. I noticed that the shield it had was attached to what appeared to be a gauntlet covering its wrist, and the moment it fell over dead, the shield deactivated.
I turned on the balls of my feet and took a small step before delivering a side kick to the twin of the alien that I had just mowed down. It had just gotten the corpse of the big one out of the way, and before it knew it, my metal boot folded the beak on its face like an accordion. Its head jerked, banging into the wall behind it before slumping to the hallway floor.
Though its shield was also deactivated, I emptied the rest of my SMG into it. I didn't need any of these three coming after me once I let my guard down. Finished, I turned back heading the same way I was originally going.
I picked up the pace, seeing no more hostels. I hit the release and jammed another magazine into the side of my SMG. Poking back into the main corridor, my hand swooped down, snagging my shotgun, and replacing my SMG as it went back to my thigh.
'I hope Daisy and Blue team are having an easier time,'
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A rare double chapter feature, how'd you like it?
Anyway I got good news: Your main man MEMES absolutely crushed his Thermo test and made a 100.
Seriously if I was any more locked in for that test I would be in a jail cell.
Anyway this battle is pretty small so I think there will be four more chapters after this one. Plus an interlude or three, then we'll skip a couple of months to the next major involvement of Alpha team, and Alpha will actually be reassembled.
Hope you like it.