CHAPTER 27

Margaret 053 slowly eased down the massive drop into the interior of the structure, pressing the weight of her kit, weapons, and the obvious for her armour, down further through. Roma had only managed to fit the tapper to get partially through the hex-shaped energy. She had a limited area to ease down by, squeezing through the gap in the energy dome, she cursed the ONI techs for what she swore was the only time she regretted being heavy. She never liked being hinted as being "fat", as she had told Otto, who was now following behind her.

Her armour plated boots met the curvature of the covenant interior, a mere shadow in the darkened space above, unnoticed. She unlimbered her SMG and took point, inspecting the odd angles, and double checking the ominous shadows throughout the room, which somehow seemed even more alien to her than the species that made up the Covenant themselves.

Otto finally made his way to the ground, typically gave a complaint to Roma, which she shrugged off about his weight, as she followed suit behind Victor, who was already inspecting the left flank of the vast room with his sidearm.

"Quiet" he whispered, "I'll bet on an ambush"

"ain't a ballsy bet to make, Four" Otto came back "we're hella popular with the folks here"

Otto and Victor both had a point. The Covenant were by no means stupid further ahead of a grunt. They surely knew they were here, if they hadn't done so before, and knew surely someone was hunting them.

"Keep an eye to your motion trackers and keep it tight" she then added "comm silence"

the three others stood as still as statues, but three lights winked in TEAMCOM.

Margaret turned the corner in front, alien metal secured by a cyan circular glyph. It detected her movement, gave a metallic hum and simply fell apart into the sides, below and above the doorway to reveal a tunnel of sorts, it was strangely beautiful to Margaret, the elegance of an alien design.

She rose her thumb to her chestplate and then transformed it into a full palm, a slicing motion, the signal for "I'm taking point".

She rested her hand back on the folding foregrip of the M7 and moved forward slowly, the three visual TEAMCOM signals that represented her squad followed behind her.

After a few steps, she felt a hiss, and rose her palm back and into a fist, telling her squad to hold, lowering to a crouch and backing into the corner panels, Roma did the same, Otto and Victor the same on the adjacent side.

A small group of grunts, wielding nothing but mere tools and maybe one or two plasma pistols. She made a slicing notion, and withdrew her knife, and her silenced M6C sidearm.

She sliced into the neck of a grunt and fired two shots into the second lead grunts neck, bursts of bright cyan blood hit the floor in unison with the brass casing of the fired rounds.

Three elegant and deadly, muffled and coughing bursts came from behind her, silencing the others before they could do as much as yelp, they were all dead within mere moments.

She withdrew the knife from the grunts neck, methane and alien blood bubbled from the wound, wiped it on it's crimson red harness, and placed it back onto the sheath, she kept her pistol up, now with 10 rounds in it's clip.

The AP rounds the M6C fired were well fitted to punching through the grunts armoured harnesses, but it wouldn't even shimmer much with an elite in comparison with the bulkier M6D, that's where the covenant plasma mounted onto her left thigh would excel, in unison, she theorised it would send the elites down in moments if done right, it was a natural part of her training, to utilise all the assets around her to her own advantage.

She moved forward through the umbilical. Scanning each of the nook and crannies, setting crosshairs on where she would have expected something to emerge.

Upon the end of the umbilical lead to a vast, chamber like room. Various pressure seals and other odd technology scattered in the rooms angular, purple and bulbous architecture, maintained by a winged collective of beings laden within the chambers walls and ceiling, the winged entities were unarmed, flying from fixture to fixture, in a strange nest that resembled hardened gunk in texture and shape.

"Eww, it's a spit house!" Otto voicing his distaste on TEAM-COM, "Why did it have to be buggers?"

"Why did Three never shut up?" Roma humoured him

"Cut it out, you two. Or I'll throw you both at them myself" she joked to them both.

"Yes, Ma'am" Otto innocently responded

"what do we do, One?" Victor asked, the visor of his helmet met her own.

"evade, no need to say "hello" no need to greet everyone, leave them a party gift though" she said.

Victor nodded and stowed his weapon on his magnetic plate. Then eased himself "tiptoing" out of the room, Roma followed suit with Margaret, whom was watching over Otto, as he placed a C-12 charge directly in the interior of the structure through a crack in an uncompleted segment.

Drones were generally unarmed, and more focused on task, though not easy. Three could slip a charge in, and not leave out the nest.

It was likely the insect like beings that ONI identified as "Yan'me" or as everyone else in the UNSC universally called them: "Buggers" had a Queen stowed within the vast chamber of mucus, elegant as a spiders own web and equally disgusting to most. Otto surely didn't stick around long in the opening. "Not many of 'em a home, boss" Otto said

"a single charge oughta blow out the hive, don't believe they won't be mad about it." he continued

Margaret nodded and gestured for him to join Two and Four in the next room outside the chamber, though it was only accessible through a particular shaft.

"huh, might want to be ready for a tight squeeze, only way through"

"are you saying I'm fat, three?"

"No' Ma'am" Otto drew his innocent act, "wouldn't dream of it"

"I sure hope not" she played around with him, as she slowly climbed up the shaft, easing herself in the tightness of the cylindrical unit, and also careful not to wake anything above and below that would be sleeping directly vertical to her.

She eventually reached the end, and hopped down, Two and Four were already crouched and viewing what was in front of her. Another good view of the main objective

"some view, huh?" Victor whispered

"Yeah. It'll be some crater when we're done here" Otto responded