by Matt Forbeck
The rafakrit repeatedly bashed into the Phantom, shoving the hovering ship deeper into the Repository’s interior as the predator tried to reach its prey. The other soldiers then unleashed all of their weapons at its backside, but in its rage, the creature kept its single-minded focus on Mike. It would not be dissuaded from getting to him first.
Mike slid behind the back of the Phantom and moved toward a Covenant Wraith tank, and the rafakrit spun around the other side of the dropship in pursuit. If Mike was trying to distract the beast long enough for everyone else to escape, he was doing an excellent job. Molly only wondered who would help him.
Kasha put a finger to the side of her head and spoke to Mike over some kind of comm system Molly hadn’t noticed earlier. “Mr. Spenser? We are clear.”
He said something in response that the rest of them couldn’t hear. Kasha nodded and answered, “Help is on its way.”
“Get back into the transport,” she said to their group.
The four of them remained still, however, their eyes fixed on Mike as he scrambled up the side of the Wraith.
“Why can’t Mr. Spenser use that Wraith to defend himself?” Kareem said.
“He cannot get to the controls,” Bakar said. “Not with the rafakrit knocking the craft around in that manner.”
The beast smashed into the Wraith with more force than it had exerted in all of its other attacks, frantically trying to seize the human. The Covenant vehicle was crushed beneath its efforts, and Molly wasn’t sure there would be much left of it for Mike to use, even if he could board it.
The soldiers advanced then from the perimeter, humans and Sangheili fighting side by side as allies, one of the strangest things Molly had yet seen. They began firing once more at the creature, this time finally getting its attention. Their shots slammed into the beast’s thick hide but drew no blood. It reared up again on its four hind legs and bellowed. When it hit the ground, it spun about and charged at its new attackers.
For something so large, it moved incredibly fast. It was on the soldiers in a heartbeat. The two Sangheili warriors moved up to meet it, blasting hot bursts from their plasma rifles. They burned scorch marks in the rafakrit’s face, but remarkably, the thing kept coming.
The charging rafakrit drew back its claws as it reached the Sangheili and knocked them aside as if they were rag dolls. Both hit the adjacent wall with nasty crunching sounds, smearing trails of indigo blood where their bodies fell.
The remaining marines poured every round they had into the creature, but that only seemed to make it more frenzied and violent. It turned on its hind legs and tore into them like a dog hunting rats, swiftly picking them up in its teeth and ending each of their lives with a sharp jerk of its jaws.
Only seconds later, the blood-coated beast spun about and began scouring the hangar floor for more prey, keeping its snout close to the ground as though it could smell something. It suddenly seemed to remember its previous quarry and charged right back toward where it had last seen Mike.
He’d gotten away from the now-ruined Wraith and was sprinting toward a UNSC Warthog instead, a rough-and-tumble wheeled vehicle with an open top surrounded by protective roll bars. This one had a Gauss cannon mounted in its rear bed, positioned so that a soldier standing in the back could use it.
“Gods,” Kasha said. She had been too shaken by the sudden slaughter to even yell at the four of them. “What could kill such a monster?”
“We don’t need to kill it,” Molly spoke up. “We just need to get it away from Mike long enough for him to get away.”
“Or get that weapon working,” Kasha said.
“What?” Kareem said. “Aren’t there more soldiers here?”
Kasha scanned the hangar. “If there are any left, they are nowhere to be found. The duty falls to us.”
“According to the ancient stories, the rafakrit despises high-pitched noises,” said Bakar. “That is why they tell Sangheili children to whistle in the dark: to keep the creatures away.”
“I suppose it is worth a try.” Kasha shrugged uncertainly. “Now take the others and get them back to the transport. It is not safe out here.”
Bakar scowled as Kasha turned her back on the group. “That seems like a poor reward for coming up with a solution to our problem.”
Molly shot him a doubtful look. “Are you saying we should trust our lives to your memory of a children’s tale?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Kasha answered the question by charging headlong toward the rafakrit. “I’m on my way, Mr. Spenser. Get ready.”
As Kasha got closer to the monster, she began waving her arms and shouting to get its attention. When that didn’t provoke any response, she stuck the two thumbs on her right hand into her mouth and produced the loudest whistle Molly had ever heard. She didn’t even think Sangheili could whistle, given their anatomy—but she was very wrong. The sound was so sharp and piercing that it seemed as if it could wake the dead. Back on Earth.
And it did the trick, getting the creature’s attention.
Just as the rafakrit was prepared to smash into the Warthog, which Mike had clambered atop, it whipped its massive, tooth-filled face around and glared in Kasha’s direction, only a few hundred meters away. It snarled as if the sound she’d made had pierced its head and was burrowing its way into the beast’s brain.
“We should get back to the transport, right now,” Kareem said, his eyes fixed on Kasha and the beast. He didn’t sound too urgent about it, so the rest of the group ignored him. Somewhere behind them, a few of the students in the vehicle were screaming.
Kasha moved off to the right, toward an open set of hangar doors, as the rafakrit edged in her direction and replanted its legs. She clearly didn’t want the beast to charge at her and then run headlong into the transport if she could help it. As Kasha angled away from a straight line between their group and the rafakrit, the monster tracked her with its head for a moment. When it felt the time had come for it to attack, it launched itself away from Mike and toward Kasha.
The Sangheili headmaster spun on her heels and ran. She burst out of the hangar at a speed that shocked Molly and launched out into the open fields on the far side of the Repository.
The rafakrit chased after her, moving incredibly fast. Its agility was more like that of a hunting cat than something the size of a maglev train, and it seemed only to pick up steam as it went.
“It’s going to get her,” Gudam said as the beast bore down on Kasha. “We have to stop it!”
Molly put a hand on Gudam’s shoulder to keep her where she was. All that chasing after Kasha would have done for the little Unggoy was to add another casualty to the list. Molly respected Gudam’s grit and bravery, despite her diminutive size, but that would do no one any good. And Molly also was growing fond of the alien.
While the monster charged, Kasha kept blasting out more whistles the entire way. The creature closed the distance, and the rafakrit’s shadow began blotting out the sun over the headmaster, the two running at full tilt.
Then the Sangheili skidded to a halt.
For an agonizing moment, the four of them watched as the rafakrit reared up on its four hind legs, still charging forward, preparing to pounce in one single blow. Its toothy mouth opening wide, it looked as if it might be able to swallow Kasha whole, along with the ground on which she stood. As the beast brought its ferocious maw down to strike, Kasha dove to her left, completely out of Molly’s field of view.
Gudam let out a loud squeal of terror. The rafakrit turned its head to see what had made the noise. Its face smashed into the ground, losing the headmaster and driving its body headlong, forcing a spray of grass and dirt into the air.
Molly spotted Kasha on the far side of the beast, darting away. She had tumbled clear in time.
As the creature got its bearings, its head snapped around to focus on the fleeing Sangheili. Kasha was favoring her left leg just a bit. She’d been injured in some way. While she had been able to a
void the rafakrit’s attack once, it wouldn’t happen again.
Back behind the group in the hangar, Molly could hear Mike fighting to start the Warthog, but the vehicle’s systems seemed to refuse to comply. Molly wondered if they’d been put on security lockdown, given the creature’s rampage. To her, it didn’t seem as if any help would be coming from that quarter, at least not right away.
“Do that again,” Bakar said to Gudam.
“What?” The Unggoy was still gaping at the sight of the rafakrit clawing itself up out of the little crater it had made in its first assault and then charging toward Kasha.
Molly instantly figured out Bakar’s plan. It was stupid, insane, and dangerous as hell, but too much was at stake with no time to argue.
She grabbed Gudam by the shoulders, looking intently into the creature’s beady eyes, and said, “He means squeal! Just like you did before, but louder!”
Gudam goggled at Molly, seriously shaken.
Molly shouted at her even louder. “Do it—now!”
The little Unggoy let out an earsplitting shriek at a much higher frequency and volume than before. If any glass had been nearby, Molly had little doubt that it would have completely shattered.
Molly looked over at the rafakrit, which had been rushing toward Kasha again. The animal stopped dead in its tracks and held its position for a long moment, shaking its head at the intensity of Gudam’s voice.
Then the beast let out a shuddering roar that seemed to shake the sky.
Both Gudam and Molly stood there stunned, but Kareem grabbed their hands and hauled them away. He sprinted straight past the transport, out into the open, but in the opposite direction of the rafakrit. Molly couldn’t see it, but she knew the rafakrit was readying to charge their position.
Molly didn’t think; she just followed at full speed. It was all she could do to keep up with Kareem. Gudam couldn’t even manage that. Her legs were too short and her waddling gait slowed her down even more.
Bakar sprinted up from behind the three and scooped the Unggoy up into his big arms. She squealed again in surprise, which produced another gut-wrenching roar from the rafakrit. As the ground began to rumble beneath their feet, there was no question about who it was coming after now.
But the sound from the beast’s trampling feet only spurred them all on faster. The question was: How far can we get before it reaches us?
Molly looked back and then immediately regretted doing so. The creature was pursuing the four of them at full speed, its eyes locked onto their position. Kasha had stopped in the far distance, turning to gape at them as they scrambled across the open ground on one side of the facility’s outskirts.
Molly realized now that the tree line nearly a hundred meters ahead was too far. She searched around for something closer to hide behind: a tree, a boulder, anything. But on this side of the Repository, all that lay before them was open ground. They would not make it to the forest in time, and even if they did, it held no guarantee of safety.
The beast was closing on the four of them fast and would be on top of them in seconds. Molly only hoped that Kasha had figured out what they were trying to do and had a solution in hand. Meanwhile, the rafakrit had drawn so close to them, Molly could feel its hot breath on the back of her neck.
Molly was bringing up the rear, with Kareem just a bit ahead of her. Even with Gudam in his arms, Bakar could outpace all of them. The rafakrit would get to Molly first, there was no question about it. She gritted her teeth tight and kept sprinting, feeling its thundering footsteps pounding into the ground.
As the beast’s wide shadow descended to pluck Molly from the ground, Kasha’s high-pitched whistle rang out again.
Once more, the rafakrit skidded to a halt, then took off back toward Kasha. The resultant spray of dirt and grass rippled along the ground at Molly’s feet and sent her flying to the side. She tumbled to a stop on the turf, spinning to see the beast as it charged away from them, once more unleashing a bone-rattling roar.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Kareem said, as he came up behind Molly, completely out of breath.
Bakar set Gudam down beside Molly and let out a deep sigh himself. “You do realize the worst part of all this?”
“Other than being chased down by a monster and almost devoured?” Molly asked.
He nodded. “The stories of the rafakrit said that whistling would drive it away.”
Gudam shook her head. “Whoever came up with that story was trying to kill you all.”
Molly pointed at Kasha, who was now racing back toward the Repository at top speed, her injury showing more with every step.
“Where is Kasha drawing that thing now?” Molly asked.
Bakar gestured toward the Repository. “I think Mr. Spenser has an answer for that.”
The Warthog appeared in one of the open hangar doors with Mike at the wheel. He punched the vehicle past the transport and brought it right to the edge of the Repository. There, he stopped the machine, jumped out of the driver’s seat and clambered over the roll cage for the Gauss cannon mounted on the Warthog’s bed.
The rafakrit hadn’t noticed Mike yet but was catching up with Kasha fast. It was only seconds from overtaking her. Molly turned to Gudam, but she had already cupped her hands around her mouth. The Unggoy let loose another loud and piercing shriek. This time Molly covered her ears, for all the good that seemed to do.
She worried that the rafakrit might have gotten too far away to hear Gudam’s cry, but the thing once again halted, reared up its head, and shot a cold look in their direction. Just as it did, Mike opened up with the Gauss cannon and stitched a line of gigantic ferric tungsten rounds into the monster’s flank. The impact was more violent than Molly had expected.
The rafakrit howled in pain as the alloy slugs punched holes into its torso. Its awful death throes sounded unlike anything Molly had ever heard. Despite its injuries, the animal wrenched itself around on its hind legs and attempted to charge the Warthog.
Mike was no fool. He unleashed another volley of rounds, this time directly into the rafakrit’s face. In seconds, the beast toppled over onto its side, its massive form falling limp to the ground, the fight completely drained from its body.
Mike blasted it three more times for safe measure.
Molly didn’t like to watch anything die, but she made an exception for that thing. She had no remorse about seeing the animal expire, even if it had been the last one on Onyx. It had almost killed her and her friends.
Friends? she thought. Are we friends?
Then she looked behind her and realized whom she had just survived alongside: a human, an Unggoy, and a Sangheili. The three stood with weary faces and eyes wide, staring at the lifeless monster in the distance. They had survived together, a bunch of outsiders.
If that didn’t make them friends, Molly wasn’t sure what would.
CHAPTER 17
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With Even Keel’s help, the Servants of the Abiding Truth now had access to many places inside the shield world, and Dural meant to make that advantage work for them. To that end, the Huragok had begun a slow and methodical categorization of the places they could effectively reach by means of their base’s portal system. It was astonishing how versatile the system was and how far it could take them.
Dural’s advance-strike forces had found themselves scouting many strange lands populated by all manner of creatures, but their methodology of exploration had not been an exact science. Even Keel noted that much of this world’s portal network was either incomplete or malfunctioning. The Huragok claimed that they could pass undetected for a time, but eventually others on this world would be sure to notice them making use of the system.
If they did, so be it. The Servants of the Abiding Truth would be ready. While they had the wind to their back and relatively unfettered access to Onyx’s portal network, they should exploit it.
Some of these lands—such as the region from which the rafakrits came—had s
tronger gravity, and the sun shone with a diminished light. Other regions had lesser gravity, and their skies were sometimes filled with creatures far too large to take flight on most other worlds, such as Dural’s own. Some were overflowing with mountains, while others seemed to feature nothing but endless seas, and others had both, with mountains that floated like islands in the sky, among vast oceans of dense clouds. There seemed to be no end to the variety of places Onyx was comprised of, a thought staggering at first, yet almost dreadful if pondered too deeply.
But by this method, the Servants had soon discovered the other Huragok and its location: the Repository. Dural decided to travel there personally to reconnoiter it, not trusting anyone else to give him the details he needed to create the right strategy.
The portal leading into the Repository opened into a gigantic hangar filled with a vast panoply of craft, many of which he could take cover behind. The Pale Blade used his modified armor’s active camouflage to help ensure that he would not be seen. Due to his armor’s power requirements, Dural could only bend light around himself for a handful of seconds at a time, but that proved more than sufficient for his purposes. Once inside the Repository, he carefully prowled the outskirts of the hangar’s interior, clinging to the shadows.
Some of the vehicles in the Repository were spaceworthy, while others were designed for use on the ground. They included designs from all over: Covenant, Forerunner, and human too. Dural recognized that this absurd menagerie of firepower, if leveraged properly by the Servants, could easily give them a distinct advantage in the coming days.
He was not as concerned then about such weaponry, though, as he was about the second Huragok. That was the real prize. One thing was clear to him: Engineers were the currency of the gods on a world filled to the brim with Forerunner technology. If the Servants had any hope for victory, they needed to secure as many of the Engineers as they could as fast as possible.