Cole ran forward, and smashed his shoulder into the ODST Lieutenant. Toyle weighed nearly twice as much as he did, but he hit the bulky man with enough force to send him reeling a few feet to the ground. The other ODSTs cried out in surprise over the radio link, and instinctively weapons were aimed at him. The Sentinel laser hit the ground where Toyle had been standing just a few moments ago, burning through the strong metal and opening another door to open space. Another startled yelp swept through the squad, and rifles swung around. Soundlessly, the weapons kicked against their owners hands, and spat out silent bullets. With no air resistance, the bullets were able to travel even faster, and smashed relentlessly into the shield of the Sentinel. The Forerunner guardian's light blinked in surprise, pushed back by the sheer force driving into it. Light flashed suddenly and aggressively as the blue shields of the Sentinel buckled. The rifles continued to fire, this time crashing into the metallic chassis of the simple AI. The Sentinel descended to the ground as it buckled under the pressure of the bullets, before finally hitting the cold floor with a silent thud. One of the ODSTs approached the motionless Sentinel cautiously, keeping her rifle aimed at it as she did so. The light of the Sentinel's lens flickered and blinked repeatedly. A lone bullet fired. The light was extinguished, permanently. The ODSTs were all looking with shock at the dead Sentinel, breathing heavily now in a similar manner to Cole. Eventually, one of them rushed to Lieutenant Toyle and helped the heavy ODST leader to his feet. Toyle straightened his back, and stared at Cole. It was impossible to discern his emotions behind that mirrored visor. "Sir," the ODST began. Cole head up a single hand, stopping him. "Stow whatever it is you're about to say, son. I expect you to be more vigilant than that in the future; if I hadn't been here you could have gotten yourself and your men killed. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes sir," Toyle replied in a shaking voice, snapping a sharp salute. Cole nodded once, knowing that he'd once again established himself as the superior of this little group. "Very good. Well, Lieutenant, carry on." Toyle nodded, before complexly manipulating his hands to convey orders to his squad. They nodded simultaneously, before moving out across the large, hallowed room. Cole stood watching them for a few moments, before heading out. He chuckled to himself as he walked. "Baby-sitter my ass." * * * * * * * * * * * * "This is UNSC Artificial Intelligence Cortana, serial number CTN 0452-9," Cortana sent the message over the short range communications link, the radio waves bouncing through slipspace for a few moments before hopefully exiting at Sangheilios before being picked up by friendlies. There was a dreadful silence, interrupted only by the violent shaking of the Longsword, before suddenly a message was thrown back into slipspace and at their Longsword. The words came through grainy and weak, but were understandable. "Cortana?" R'tas Vadum's gravelly tones blared out of the speaker, faint as if he were standing on the other side of a football field. "Affirmative, Imperial Admiral," Cortana answered, before executing a roll and slicing another foolhardy Sentinel in two. "You're alive! How many escaped?" "Not the time, R'tas. We're in slipspace and being pursued by multiple Sentinels; our target vector is Sangheilios and the ETA is thirty minutes. Be ready." A pause, and a violent shudder as another beam fired by a Sentinel glanced off the port-side wing of the Longsword. "By your word, Cortana. Wait, you say you are in slipspace? How on Sangheilios are the holy warriors following you?" [i]Boom![/i] "Never mind that now, R'tas! Be ready! If we don't arrive within the next twenty minutes, then assume we were KIA." "Very well. Wait, tell me one thing; is the Arbiter with you? And the Demon?" "Yes," John and Thel replied, their voices shaky and nerve-wracked. "And I'm alive too," Johnson chimed in in a wounded voice. "Y'know, in case you were wondering." "Forerunners be praised. Good luck, all of you." * * * * * * * * One of the curious things about the ship was that there were no doors. Not in the conventional sense at least. The room Cole and the ODSTs had arrived in was completely sealed aside from one, glowing portal embedded high into the cold, monotonous wall. It was obviously intended for Sentinel use, but Cole reckoned that a human could fit through if he or she crouched. The Admiral and the group of eleven ODSTs were gathered below it. It was several metres up from the base of the wall; easily the height of three or four men. "Now, how would we go about reaching that?" Cole wondered, his hand blocked by his helmet as he habitually attempted to scratch his beard thoughtfully. He heard several nervous coughs over the radio link. "Are you insane? There's no way in hell I or any of my men are heading through that, sir. It's probably dangerous." Cole turned on him, glaring beneath his ODST helmet. Most of the other ODSTs were nodding along with their Lieutenant. Realising that trying to change their minds would be futile, he abandoned that train of thought. "Very well," he spoke raptly. "If you're all too afraid to do your jobs, then I'll have to head through myself." The Admiral delved deep into the boarding craft, and rummaged around for half a minute. Finally, he found what he was looking for, and strapped the contained jetpack to his back. To his pleasant surprise, it hung lightly off his back. "Sir, there is no way in hell I'm letting you go through that thing. Even if it doesn't kill you, you'll never make it on your own!" Lieutenant Toyle protested, actually daring to put his hand on Cole's shoulder to stop him. The Admiral shrugged the hand off easily, and half-turned to face him. "Come with me then," he told them, before igniting the jetpack with a quick movement of his hand. The pack didn't use fuel to operate, but instead worked in a similar way to the Sangheili's Ranger packs; utilising a form of anti-gravity technology. The ODSTs were watching him mutely as he climbed slowly, careful not to push the pack into too high a throttle lest it smash him into the ceiling. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Cole could hear Toyle shouting down the radio, attempting to convince him to stop. He ignored the overly-cautious ODST. Finally, he reached the base of the small Sentinel-hatch, and swung himself up onto its rim, disengaging the pack. It was a small box-like structure protruding from the wall, with a glowing light shining brightly inside it, so bright that it was impossible to see what was on the other side. Cole felt fear as he stared into it, wondering if it could kill him after all. The thought of seeing Offensive Bias cowering at his feet eradicated that fear. "Admiral Cole, please! Get down from there at--" the words of Lieutenant Toyle were suddenly cut off as Cole tumbled through the glowing portal, yelling. The world was awash with a myriad of colours and an ear-splitting buzzing sound, when suddenly-- [i]Pain![/i] Welcome pain, though. It told him he was alive. Groaning, Cole picked himself off the floor, and looked around unsteadily. Another glowing portal was just above him, one he'd evidently just tumbled out of. Cole checked the wrist watch strapped to his left hand, and was surprised to see that between heading through the portal and now, twenty minutes had passed. He must have hit the ground harder than he thought; enough to knock him out cold a short while. He was definitely in another section of the ship. That much was made abundantly clear by the gigantic, pulsating object in the centre of the room, hundreds of stories high. He was standing high up on a thin beam, one of many criss-crossing the entirety of the gigantic room both above and below him. The Sentinel-hatch he had just tumbled out of was just one of hundreds-- no, thousands orderly positioned around the entire room. Just as many Sentinels flew around, some attempting to repair the clearly malfunctioning object, which had no doubt been damaged by the AA turrets down on Sangheilios. Others seemed to be simply patrolling the area. "That must be the engine room," Cole deduced, thinking aloud as he stared at the huge, almost barrel shaped glowing object in the centre of the room. "Which means the bridge isn't too far away," a voice spoke from behind him suddenly. Cole cried out with shock, nearly falling off the small beam he was perched on. He turned around, and relief immediately flooded his senses. "Dammit Spark, don't do that!" he chided the stationary Monitor firmly, his heart still pounding a mile a minute. "I apologise, Reclaimer. I arrived on this ship to find your companions staring up at a teleportation conduit, and they informed me that you had entered through it. I assured them that it [i]probably[/i] wasn't dangerous, but they didn't seem to believe me. And so I headed on alone to find you." "[i]Probably[/i] wasn't dangerous?" Cole demanded, his voice rising an octave or two. "I've never seen one who isn't I or a Sentinel head through the teleportation conduit, Reclaimer. But never mind; you survived! Well done." "Gee, thanks. What are you doing here, anyway?" "Why, to help you subdue Offensive Bias of course. Allowing a rampant construct to roam freely is absolutely unacceptable, and very much in breach of protocol. I think we would have a much greater chance of success if your soldiers were with us. Would you like me to inform them that the conduit matrix is truly safe?" Cole nodded. "Yes. And tell them to bring jetpacks," he added as an afterthought, staring at the huge empty space in the gargantuan room. "We're going to need them." * * * * * * * * *