The Secret Story of Dustin Echoes

Chapter 4 - Forty Days and Forty Nights

            Dustin stepped out onto the massive, round, dark metal platform. It was huge, large enough to hold an army, he thought. Perhaps two scorpion tanks could fit on this one elevator. A pillar of glowing energy rose up in the center of the platform, flowing up into the giant round elevator shaft overhead. Rebas stoically followed him, seemingly unimpressed by the spectacle. Diana hovered in the rear.

            “Here we are,” the Monitor said cheerfully, “But there is still no sign of the Reclaimer! Where could she be?”

            “Who exactly is she again?” Dustin asked as the Monitor activated the elevator and they all began to rise, ever so slowly.

            “Sarah Morrison,” The Monitor answered, “was the name she gave for herself. She seemed to be in command of the others of her kind.”

            “Sarah Morrison…” Diana almost whispered.

            “What is it, Diana?” Dustin asked.

            “I… I know that name,” she replied, in the strangest tone Dustin had ever heard her use.

            “Who is she then?” Dustin asked.

            “I don’t know,” Diana replied simply, “I don’t know.”

            “Oh, my!” the Monitor wailed, interrupting them, “Oh no! No!”

            “What’s wrong?” Rebas asked.

            The Monitor seemed to be “looking” upward as the elevator rose. He seemed in a panic because he could not find something. When the elevator stopped, he flew around in circles madly.

            “The Index seems to be missing! Perhaps the Reclaimer has already been here, but she should have brought the Index to the Core already, and…”

            “So it is gone,” Rebas muttered, his hands dropping to his sides, “And this woman is probably already dead. We will never find it now.”

            “Dustin…” Diana said, still talking somewhat strangely, “Look at the wall…”

            Dustin turned to look. There on the wall was a strange image, drawn in the disgusting yellowish-brown blood of a Flood infection form. It was crudely drawn, but it appeared to depict a woman, with a pair of wings sprouting from her back. It was an angel, and there was a halo above her head. Flying away from the angels head, with arrows pointing towards the Halo, were two birds. To the left of this strange drawing was written a message.

            “We have the key,” Diana read, speaking softly, “We have escaped the Flood. We are landed on the mountain. Follow, and bring us word.”

            “What does this mean?” Rebas asked.

            “We have our religions too, Rebas,” Dustin answered slowly, “This is some kind of reference to the Bible. The humans that were here have escaped the Flood and landed on the mountain… Mount Sinai? But what does that mean? Diana, were there any particularly large mountains on Halo when we flew down, somewhere fairly near here?”

            “No,” Diana said, “But I do not think that is what the message is talking about. Look at the birds. They are flying toward the halo.”

            “Just like the two birds Noah sent to look for land…” Dustin muttered, “But what does that mean? The humans aren’t on Halo anymore?”

            “Oh, my!” the Monitor exclaimed as he caught on, “They must be on the nearby planet! But why would they go there?”

            “To escape the Covenant, I guess,” Dustin replied, “And they left this message in case any humans came along, because they knew that the Covenant wouldn’t understand it.”

            “So let us return to your ship,” Rebas said, “And quickly. Those who hunt me will not give up so easily.”

            The trio, followed by the Monitor, made their way off the elevator and into the halls beyond. These corridors were cleaner than the ones below had been. The Flood had obviously not made it up this far. As they walked along the halls, they saw their reflections on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

            “Which way do we go to get out of here?” Dustin asked the Monitor.

            “Up,” replied the Regretful Vector, “Follow me.”

            After walking through the dimly lit metal halls for a few minutes longer, following the glowing green Monitor, the group eventually came to a door beyond which they could see the sunlight. Dustin approached the door, and it opened, but before he stepped out, he turned and shot a cautious glance up the ramp outside. At the top, he could see the sun beaming down and the tall pine-like trees of Halo swaying peacefully in the breeze. And there, silhouetted against the bright sky, was the shadow of a Covenant Elite.

            “They’re waiting for us,” Dustin said, turning back inside to face his companions, “What should we do?”

            “Can you teleport us out one by one?” Rebas asked the Monitor.

            “No,” the Monitor replied, “Protocols strictly prohibit…”

            “I can do it,” Diana interrupted.

            “What?” the Monitor cried, “You most certainly cannot! I’m afraid that if…”

            “If what?” Diana laughed, “You can’t do anything. I have full control of this unit now, and I have access to the teleportation grid. You can just float and sputter.”

            “Well, I! The nerve!” the Monitor huffed, “I’m afraid that if you do not back down from this plan, I will be forced to stop you.”

            Dustin was looking back down the hallway now, and he could see the Elite making his way down toward them… flanked by no less than a pair of Hunters. They stood upright, spikes down, far taller than the Elite and far larger. They were walking tanks with glowing guns and impenetrable shields. Dustin had no desire to face them in battle.

            “Guys,” he said, “Either we need to get out of here, or we need to think of a plan, fast.”

            “If you want the Reclaimer and the Index,” Diana threatened, “then you will teleport Rebas out of here, 10268 Regretful Vector. And I will teleport Dustin.”

            The Monitor “sighed” and bobbed up and down, “Very well, very well. But it will not happen again!”

            Then, without another word, he and Rebas disappeared. Crackling yellow energy fields swallowed them whole and hung crackling in the air a moment before fading away. Dustin turned to regard the Sentinel beside him.

            “Are we ready to go?” he asked.

            “Are you in a hurry?”

            This was a strange response, Dustin thought. He had expected Diana to either say yes promptly or to ask him if he was ready.

            “Oh no,” Dustin said, shrugging, “I’m in no hurry at all! I’m just itching to get a piece of the two hunters outside…”

            “Oh, very well,” Diana said, “I just thought it was nice to be alone again…”

            Then, in a flash of yellow energy, they too disappeared, and then they instantly reappeared outside in the grass, under the shade of a tree. Dustin looked around for some sign of the others, and he saw them a good distance off, standing in front of the location where he had landed the Blackdagger. Rebas was feeling the hull of the invisible ship, and the Monitor was floating beside him, scanning it with his “eye.” Suddenly a beam of lightning-like energy shot from the floating robot and connected with the cloaked spacecraft. The ship’s active camouflage flickered and disappeared, revealing its reflective black hull for all to see.

            “What the…” Dustin muttered, hefting his SMG and turning to run off in the direction where the Elite was standing, “Hey! What are you doing?”

            He saw Rebas leap up into the air and knock the Monitor down with a swift backhand blow. The robot fell to the grass with a thud. Just then Dustin heard another Ghost approaching from behind him.

            “Oh, crap,” he said, and he dropped down flat. The vehicle passed right over him. He felt the repulsion field wash over him as it did so. Once it was over him, Dustin lifted his head to look. He saw the Grunt piloting the vehicle light his afterburners. A blue glow appeared on the vehicle’s “wings” and it sped up toward Rebas. This Grunt was smarter than the last one had been. There was no way Rebas could jump on the vehicle moving that fast.

            So Rebas just picked up the Monitor where it lay in the grass, and then nonchalantly tossed it at the Grunt’s head. The creature’s face was knocked straight back, and the Ghost swerved off to one side, dumping out its unconscious pilot. Dustin got up and made his way toward Rebas. As he passed, he saw the Monitor rise up from the ground with a “humph!” and float off as fast as he could go.

            “Quickly,” Dustin said, “Everyone in the ship!”

            He walked up to the Blackdagger and punched a code into the control panel on the underside of the ship. With a hiss, the boarding ramp slid open. Dustin ran inside. Once Rebas and Diana were also aboard, he closed the ramp and ran to the pilot seat. Diana followed him. The Sentinel slowly hovered to the ground and fell with a clang.

“We can keep this Sentinel,” said Diana’s voice, “Now take me out of it and put me back in the ship.”

Dustin did as instructed. As he was taking out Diana’s disk, he saw Rebas

follow him to the front of the ship for the first time. The Elite looked around at the controls until his gaze came to rest on the copilot’s chair.

            “May I?” he asked.

            Dustin nodded, “Go ahead. If you can sit down in it with those legs of yours…”

            The Elite wormed himself into the copilots seat in what looked to be a very uncomfortable position, but he did not complain. Dustin watched him in amazement as he sat down in his own chair. This was probably the first time a human and a Covenant species of any kind had flown together like this. Dustin actually felt a renewed spark of hope for the human race… and for the Covenant.

            “Okay, Diana,” he said, returning to business mode, “Let’s get out of here.”

            Diana’s hologram appeared on the control panel in front of him once again as the ship lifted off. The leaves of the trees swept past, and they emerged into the cloudless sky. Dustin quickly noticed two Banshees heading their way. He locked his missiles on them even as their small plasma fire began to pepper his shields. The rockets shot out of the Blackdagger’s missile bay, and the Banshees were destroyed before they even got a chance to fire their heavier weapons.

            “We will have to hurry up now,” Diana said, “If some Seraphs converge on our position in space, they won’t be as easily dispatched as Banshees. I’m cloaking the ship now.”

            Rebas had been watching silently, but now he slowly extended one of his fingers and pointed to an indicator light, “What is that flashing?”

            “Diana…” Dustin muttered, “What is wrong with the cloaking device?”

            “I… don’t know,” Diana answered almost nervously, losing her usual calm, “It doesn’t seem to be working.”

            “Then where should we go? Should we hide on the ring again?”

            “No,” Rebas said, gazing out at space, “That would be to invite death, and I still have things to do before I let the darkness take me. Let us make for the planet where the Reclaimer is hiding, as quickly as possible.”

            “But that will lead the Covenant there,” Dustin replied.

            “We have no choice,” Rebas said gravely, “If we remain here, the Covenant will eventually find us, and we will die. If we die, then your kin on the planet there will have no way to escape. I doubt they have means of interstellar travel, or else they would be gone by now.”

            He was right, Dustin knew. But when he looked out at the stars, the grayish-brown planet in the distance looked so far away. He knew that he could not get there as fast as the Covenant. The Covenant were capable of making slipspace calculations far more accurately than humans, and thus they could warp over short distances with safety. But as Rebas said, they had no choice.

            “All right,” Dustin said, pulling back on the controls and turning the ship to face the planet, “We’ll head for the planet. Full speed, Diana. Try to avoid the Covenant as much as possible.”

            As the Blackdagger exited the last particles of Halo’s artificial atmosphere, its black hull glittering in the starlight, Dustin felt indescribably naked. And he was right to be so apprehensive, for not too far away, Covenant eyes were watching. The Relentless Inquisitor hovered silently behind them. The Covenant Cruiser had many eyes, and all of them knew what they were looking for.

            Urgas Konoproksee leaned over to inspect the dead Grunt. The creature’s neck had been broken, and the front of its helmet was smashed inwards. It appeared to have been struck by a large, heavy object. The Ghost was unhurt, but it had not been touched. Urgas had a feeling that, if Rebas and his human companion were still on Halo, they would have taken the Ghost with them. But there it sat, silent and unused. Urgas looked up and saw Thanatos pacing back and forth in front of the vehicle now, itching to cause pain in something.

            “Our prey evades us,” grunted the Brute, “Perhaps your plan was not best after all, eh, Urgas?”

            Urgas did not reply, but when he turned away he heard a voice on his communicator. It was Worra, the Elite he had left in charge of the Inquisitor while he was gone.

            “Sir,” the voice said, “This is Worra on the Relentless Inquisitor. We have spotted the human’s ship. It has just left Halo’s atmosphere and is not engaging its active camouflage. Should we dispatch a fighter wing to intercept them?”

            “No,” Urgas replied, “Watch them. Follow them. They must be headed somewhere.”

            After a pause, Worra said, “They… seem to be headed for the nearby planet, Commander.”

            “Good…” said Urgas, smiling as much as an Elite could smile, “We will beat them there. Keep an eye on them. I will be joining you shortly.”

            “Yes, Commander,” Worra said, ending the transmission.

            “Bah!” snarled Thanatos, hefting his Brute Shot gun, “More foolishness! We should send fighters and get rid of them now!”

            Urgas turned to the Brute and grasped him by his hair, violently jerking his head up to face him. He saw pure hatred burn behind the Brute’s beady eyes for a moment, and the animal-like alien turned its gun around in its hands, as if ready to slice Urgas in half with the blade on the back of it. Urgas narrowed his eyes and put his hand on the plasma sword attached to his belt.

            “We will do as I command, Brute!” Urgas said in the deep, powerful voice that had partially earned him his high rank, “I will allow no other to take my honor from me! I do not want to hear that Rebas is dead… I want to SEE that Rebas is dead! With my own eyes, and preferably by my own two hands. I will settle for nothing less.”

            The Brute, who was nearly frothing at the mouth, seemed to calm down after this speech. His angry breathing returned to normal, and his muscles ceased to be so tense. Urgas let go of him, and he nodded.

            “Very well,” Thanatos said slowly, “I will play along… for now.”

            “Good,” Urgas said dismissively.

            The Elite did not want to admit it, but there was something in the Brute’s eyes… his muscles, his stance… that had nearly frightened him. There was more to the Brute, he thought, than met the eye. He would be careful to show him a bit more respect, and treat him with a little more caution, in the future.