sliceitwithwind

Braig gave them a room number, "We'll be in there, gathering what we need."

Dilan didn't wait, he was heading towards their room. "My cats..."

Braig added, "His armour is in there, too. So's mine."

She tossed Braig the pin anyway, "In case you have to move." In case it wasn't a drill and circumstances changed. Just in case. Best to be prepared.

"Signal for evac if you can get a signal through," Nevada also recommended. "Better if we're overreacting."

Braig caught it, then trotted after Dilan.

By the time the two Spartans got to their room, Dilan had three cats in a bullet-proof carrier (it's not paranoia if you were raised to be a Spartan) and Braig had an unconscious Halsey in a set of armour that had apparently been glued shut.

"She argued." he explained.

Aya came in and squatted on her knees beside Halsey, looking the woman over. "She would," she sighed. "Just like she would be here instead of in one of the main compounds or labs."

"We're isolated," Nevada supplied. "No signals because all the nearby towers on the ground were slagged. We're under orbital assault." Which was, in general, bad. They'd managed to get up to a level of the lab where super heated rock was leaking through rents torn into the building. That had given them a pretty good look.

"Good news there's a supply shuttle. We hump it there, cram you all in, get it into orbit." Aya sighed and tapped her fingers lightly on the woman's faceplate. "It'll be rough and there almost no shielding on the supply mule but it's all we have record of in dock here."

"We encountered no one else." Alive. "Who was stationed here? It is an isolated lab..."

"Just the three of us." Dilan said quietly, "Halsey did get the embryos loaded before we managed to get her into the suit. If you and Braig carry the stretcher," he indicated Nevada, "I can carry Halsey and my cats."

Leaving the cats was not an option. Every line of his body said that, and Braig's echoed it quietly.

Aya shifted her gaze to the cases she had assumed were simply equipment. Ah. Embryos. She wasn't certain how she felt about those really. They were necessary, and in theory some of them were hers...eh. She'd work through the emotions of that when they weren't in an emergency situation. "I still have the active camo on my suit, and Nevada has deployable shields in case we get pinned in a hallway. Give me a five count then follow?"

"Ten count," Nevada countered. "You'll be going slow to test the heat levels." Neither one of them even batted an eye at the cats. If they were getting carried out and weren't slowing anyone down then they were fine.

The scientists nodded, Dilan putting Halsey over his shoulder and picking up the cats in his other hand, and Braig taking his end of the stretcher. They were ready at Nevada's word.

Nevada gripped his end of the sled while Aya slipped out the door. A wry moment later he admitted, "Glad you yanked what was causing the static." Just because that would have been a pain on top of 'our planet is getting bombarded'. "Go. Left out the door stay low."

Both Braig and Dilan did as ordered, low and to the left. Braig had a weapon; Dilan notably did not.

The reason for the 'low' order was apparent immediately. The center of the hallway, even built into the ground as it was, was red hit and sagging from above. "Faster," Nevada encouraged. The doors above are jammed, need to get through the crawl space into the access tunnel. It'll be tight but no sign of enemy forces yet."

The two scientists nodded and moved as quickly as they could. The armour helped compensate for Dilan's problems; they were faster than non-Spartan trained people would have been, if not as fast as the Spartans would have been alone.

Alone they'd have still had to compensate for Halsey, so frankly he preferred this. "The tunnel will come to a sealed door, Aya got around it and is trying to override the blast door for us. Take a moment to breathe." Two minutes in fact as metal pinged and shifted around them.

Then a blast door hatch was irising open and Aya was poking her helmet through. "Starting to get battlnet chatter out here. Sounds like the Convenent caught wind of something interesting here."

Both scientists did. The natural urge was to chatter in the silent time, but neither did. Dilan checked on the cats (sleeping, thank you) and resettled Halsey more firmly on his shoulder and Braig just rolled his shoulders.

Chatter was for later. "See if one of your radios can tune in the covenant battlenet. Listening in could be useful but I need Aya focused." Nevada checked his rifle and nodded as Aya unslung her own.

...

"Did either of you think to squirt the lab AI off site and rig the labs?"

Dilan started fiddling with his radio and Braig said, "Yes. They're set to blow when we're out of the blast radius."

"Alright good. I apologize, it should have been a priority for us." But Halsey out alive kind of superseded any other priority.

"We'll be alright. How large is the blast radius?" Aya offered, leaning through the iris to snipe something casually. "And can it be triggered remotely if necessary?" In case they didn't get out.

Braig quoted a sizeable hole-to-be, "Yes, it can. It will be, the AI will make sure of that."

Dilan nodded grimly, "She knows what's at stake."

Nevada gave a soft whistle and tapped Aya's shoulder so he could lean out and view the incoming forces. "Good. They've been hunting AIs. And advanced tech. Probably why they're here." The spartan home world for all intents and purposes. Take the heart out of the Spartans and a war was in their favor.

In theory.

"We need to get across and up that hall. I'll get behind them."

"And I'll come in the front. Braig, Dilan? We drop those Jackals you pick those shields up."

"Affirmative." the scientists agreed, without hesitation. "None of the things they want are in any shape to be rescued, even if they get in. I blew the important things when I was done getting suited up."

"They are in," Aya noted almost cheerfully before flicking on her camp and leaving again.

"They're just not getting out." Nevada agreed wolfishly. "What are you getting on the battlenet? Anything useful?" Because of course they spoke Covenant. All the spartans had had training in most the dialects when the possibility of war arose.

"Not really." Dilan said, shaking his head, "They seem to be having as much trouble with radio as the two of you were."

"Aya dropped the damper you pulled out in the helmet of one of the scouts. It's set to broadcast on an open channel." Nevada grinned and held up his hand in a slow countdown. Yep, swinging out now to start mowing into a group so they wouldn't notice Aya moving in behind them.

"Did you want it back by the way?" Aya offered quietly across their own radio channel.

"No, that's fine." Dilan said, shaking his head a bit and once again resettling Halsey, "I can rebuild it if I need to."

"His memory is perfect." Braig explained.

"Good to know. The helmets blend together after a while." Except Elite helmets. Those were about as distinct as Spartan helmets.

"Wort wort," Nevada offered genially under the sound of gunfire.

"Don't tease my kill. You'll make him feel bad. Sirs? You can move now. Still stay low, we'll push them back another corridor past the one we need."

"We're not military." Braig said mildly, although he did remain as low as possible...which was much lower than Dilan could manage, although he was crouched as low as he could and dragging Halsey. Can't get lower than dragged.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject