Chapter 6

To say it was awkward was an understatement. The vehicle that the Brute drove only had one seat, and since he didn't seem amused by the offer to run alongside the Chopper as he drove, Mongrel was forced to sit at his front, in his lap. Maybe it could have been worse. It wasn't that bad actually, save that occasionally his heavy breath blew over her head and made her start to sweat. She wished he had let her retrieve her helmet.

"North by north west," she said, then gave a very soft chuckle. "Sparrow dared me to break into ONI's super secret office back on…uh…a planet that will remain nameless. Never thought anything I learned would do me any good. But there's an ONI base on this planet. If Rejwan is still here, then that's where it is."

Exilius grunted.

"About three hundred more meters. Maybe you'll want to cut the engines?"

If anything, the chieftain sped up. Mongrel sighed, wondering if she could pull one of the combat knives from her chest's sheath, but thought better of it. Even if she swung upwards and put a knife beneath his jaw and the penetration killed his brain, they were going several miles an hour, and a crash would undoubtedly kill her. And then no one to kill the general.

Firebase November 4 was located at least seven klicks from any human base, to assure ONI could do their business in private and peace. That's probably why the Covenant had never found the base: it wasn't large or well guarded with towers climbing high to the sky and a dozen Warthogs driving in a circle around the perimeter. It was flat and easily covered by the thick trees. No large generators to cause heat that could be tracked. It was entirely possible that it would have slipped beneath the Covenant's notice until they glassed the entire planet, giving ONI ample time to evacuate resources and important personal. But Mongrel knew where she was going. She had been taught and trained never to forget anything. And she remembered sneaking into ONI's base and learning what she could. After a time, Exilius pulled the Chopper to a stop. He picked Mongrel up and set her down a distance away, before climbing out of the Chopper and following after her.

"Hang on," she said. "ONI codes. Let me get the door." She scurried forward to the building's main entrance, and quickly typed in a code that sent the door creaking and moaning as it opened. Honestly, at that moment, she thought the chieftain would swing his hammer and smash her into a puss. But looking over her shoulder at him, she noticed him merely walk in. It was as if he were in a trance. Rather passively he took the hammer off his back. The ONI soldiers, probably alerted by the opened door, came into the hallway out of doors in the side of the wall. With a roar, Exilius charged forward.

There seemed little doubt that the Jiralhanae would level the entire base. Mongrel watched briefly with a morbid amount of fascination as he swung his hammer madly, stomping heels into torso, reaching out and twisting heads off of shoulders. Like some grand, green monster, pummeling and crushing. There was the rat-a-tat of assault rifles and SMGs, but those lower caliber weapons would probably bounce off his armor. The chieftain just kept forward.

Mongrel really didn't care. Let the Brute stumble and rip through the base. She had other matters to tend to. The chieftain would spend hours and hours ripping everything apart, searching for that one room that held General Rejwan, and probably never find it. Human bases were designed to be confusing and difficult to navigate, not to mention several hallways and doors were purposely quite small, giving the larger Covenant difficulty in getting through. All designed so that the VIPs of a given base would have time to burn any files and escape. Which meant that, more than likely, General Rejwan was headed for the hangar. Typical protocol.

Except for the fact that they had captured a Prophet. The Prophet was too valuable to just up and leave, at least not before interrogation. She growled under her breath. She would have to look through the base to find the general, he could be anyway. Mongrel squatted, and put her fingers into the rungs of an air vent grate. Putting her boot on the wall, she pulled back, and gradually yanked the vent away. She was slightly proud of her strength, and set the grate down against the wall. Lowering to all fours, she scurried into the narrow confines of the vent, disappearing into the darkness after a turn at the corner.

***

There was a very large, orange spike sharply contrasting the black surrounding armor of his chest plate. Exilius approached the human he had made sure just to wound, casually dropping a big foot onto the one of the human's spread legs, earning a loud scream. Twisting his hammer, so the scythe blade was aimed down, Exilius readied a swing. He took a moment, thinking, remembering the word he had heard humans use. He moved his mouth, trying to form his awkward lips into the right shape. Finally, he growled out, "Prophet?"

The human spat a laugh. "You'll kill me if I say or I don't, monkey. Rather go see the saints with some honor intact."

Exilius growled, grinding his heel down, crushing bone slowly, and earning a louder wail. "Prophet?" he asked again.

"Fuck you! Fuck you, you fucking Brute! FUCK YOU!"

Exilius sighed and rolled his eyes. This was just boring, and annoying, and he really wanted to find Wrath. Honestly, he would let this human go if it cooperated. He had no interest in killing bugs. He just wanted Wrath. If only he could speak to the human, but the translator in his ear only interpreted their language, it didn't work this other way.

Instead, he simply got angrier, and angrier. His eyes started to glaze over as a show of mounting intolerance. Lifted his foot, he dropped it just between the human's spread legs. The human sat up slightly, a shock and confusion seen through his cracked helmet's visor, until the chieftain lifted one of his toes. He slowly dropped the toe onto the human's groin, and applied pressure. The human screamed and thrashed. Exilius lifted his foot, but when the human didn't give the answer, he dropped his toe again.

"The brig. For fuck's sake, the brig. At the back of the base. Just keep going back you fucking monkey."

Exilius grinned, and took a step back. A moment later, he swung the hammer down, driving the scythe blade through the human's heart. Exilius growled. That whole thing could have been so much easier if the human didn't have to play the tough guy. No time for this, he turned and headed deeper into the base.

***

The low scuttle coming from the roof finally stopped, and Mongrel kicked a foot through the air vent's grate. The grate broke away and tumbled to the ground, making an awful crash. The foot pulled out, and upside down Mongrel hung from the vent, looking around. Without her helmet, she had some trouble seeing, as she was so used to the advanced HUD readouts and enhanced vision to aid her with targeting. But after a moment, she noticed the general casually walking, surrounded by his two bodyguards. Probably going to take stock of the situation, mount the defenses, organize the troops for this stand. Taking hold of the rim of the vent, she pushed herself out, and carefully lowered herself out. Hanging still a moment, she dropped down, noisily hitting the ground on all fours, yet the general didn't seem to notice. She drew the knives from her chest, her "fangs" as she had dubbed them ages ago. Two combat knives, with a black finish that reduced visibility, and kept over her breasts. Knives she had carried with her for what seemed like ages.

Giving a soft growl, she began scurrying forward, nearly on all fours and staying close to the ground. The general and his bodyguards were talking about the evacuation, the general still giving orders about what must be done before the glassing started, what files must be saved and what files can be destroyed. They didn't even notice Mongrel until she jammed one of her blades into the bodyguard on the left, putting it through the small of his back. She had to say, she loved her blades, sharpened so fine they could penetrate even the body armor of ODST's or the little skinsuit of the Covenant.

Twisting to her side, and putting her other arm across her chest, she swung horizontal, and slashed across the second bodyguard's throat, just under the helmet, as he turned to face her. Rejwan turned around, and reached for his pistol. Holding both knives in hand, Mongrel leapt, snarling and barking as she tackled him to the ground. He popped off three shots of the pistol, but Mongrel managed to position herself away from the muzzle. She lifted her knives above her head to jab them down, when the general swung his empty hand and punched Mongrel in the cheek. Again, she missed her helmet. That punch made her dizzy and stunned. Rejwan swung the magnum, and smashed the butt into her temple, and sent her onto her side. She groaned, a throbbing pain in her skull, as the general rolled onto his knees. He swung the gun again to bludgeon her, when Mongrel lifted one of her knives. The general's arm fell onto the blade, the tip slicing neatly under the muscle of his thick bicep. Mongrel barked loudly, and jammed her other knife into Rejwan's belly. Pulling the knife out of his arm, she stuck it into her chest. Then the other knife into his neck, and finally pulled the knife out of his chest and jammed it through his forehead. She gave a little bark and snap of her jaws, holding her blades ready in case he should somehow spring to life.

Happy with her work, she stood, and yanked the knives out. After cleaning them on the dry spots of the general's uniform, she returned them to their place on her chest. With a little spring in her step, she bounced along to towards the hangar. One of the Mongooses would let her ride to her escape. All things considered, it had been a good day.

***

The problem of getting into the brig was solved when Exilius swung his hammer into the door. The door whined and bent inwards, the frame struggling to sustain itself. Being a brig, after all, it was well reinforced. Exilius braced himself, and swung again, and this time the door bent nicely. He used the blades of his hammer to cut and widen a hole that he managed to climb through. It was awkward, and seemed like just another twist of fate that cost Exilius precious moment from finding Wrath. Finally, he was through, and looked to each of the cells for his charge.

"Exi?" Wrath asked, coming to the front door of her cell. She reached out her hand through the bars, trying to alert him to her presence, when she felt a slight squeeze of his large hand.

"Step back," he said softly, and she did, walking to the other wall. She was afraid that he would try to break the door down with several swings of his hammer, which might in turn leave her crushed by the flying door, but no. Instead, he took her blade off his belt and activated it, before carefully pushing it into the door. He moved the blade slow, heating then cutting through the thick metal, until he took it and yanked it out of the way. The door was far, far too small for him to fit through, even if he took off his armor and lowered too all fours. Instead, Wrath ran to him, putting her arms around his thick neck and hanging comically off him like a child. Exilius brought his hands up, returning the embrace and supporting her so she wouldn't fall. "You're not hurt?" he said softly.

"My arm hurts," she said softly. There were other things as well, but what was the point? When she got back to the base she would receive proper medical attention. She just mentioned her arm so that Exilius would take care as he held her.

Exilius shifted her around, and held her, as he turned and climbed out of the door to the brig again, and into the hallway strewn with bodies.