B312 stared up into Jorge’s reddish-bronze visor, watching him pace away from the Pelican and towards her, an aura of nervous worry radiating off his form. Something wasn’t right; there was a sinking feeling in her gut that had been there ever since she’d woken up that morning. And now, it was so much worse.
“Well, I got good news and bad news,” the old bear began, trying in vain to sound light and easy, “This bird took some fire and her thruster gimbal is toast.” He hooked a thumb at the dropship behind him as he spoke.
“And that means....?” she queried, her own voice, pitched low, was rougher than it usually was. She was not going to let her fear get the best of her. They’d make it through this, one way or another.
“That means, the only way off this slag heap is gravity.” Jorge finished, and he sounded slightly somber.
Right. Well, freefalling wasn’t a problem. She was more than used to it, and perhaps she even liked it. Hell, the Lieutenant enjoyed it. There was nothing quite like being weightless, tumbling through the atmosphere towards the ground below.
“So what’s the good news, then?”
The Spartan-II’s shoulders slumped. “That was the good news.” He was unable to keep the disappointment and frustration from creeping into his tone.
Her heart sank.
“At current velocity, fifty-three seconds to endpoint.” Auntie Dot chimed in. The Lieutenant immediately thought that the AI was being unhelpful, at that point in time.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah...” Jorge rolled his eyes, the loud movement translating through his helmet, before taking the piece of armour off, tossing it somewhere behind him. His face was now visible to B312, and the worry in his hazel eyes had a knot forming beneath her breastbone. “Bad news is, timer’s fried. I’m gonna have to fire it manually.”
No!
The shout went through her mind as much as it did her heart. Beneath her own aqua-tinted visor, her lips trembled. A protest hung in the back of her throat, waiting to creep out and escape, but it lodged there. She merely stared up at the old bear in horrified silence, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place.
“That’s a one-way trip.” was the only thing that she managed to get out, finally, after a seeming eternity of quiet.
“We all make it sooner or later.” Jorge’s eyes turned steely with resolve. “Better get going, Six, they’re gonna need you down there.” Her mind went to the rest of the team, on the ground and waiting for the two of them to return. But her heart stayed with Jorge. She didn’t want to — couldn’t — lose him. He was like family to her. “Listen, Reach has been good to me...”
He reached into the space between armour plating and bodysuit, and yanked his dogtags free of his neck. He then wrapped her hands around them, squeezing tight.
“...Time’s come to return the favour. Don’t deny me this.”
The rumbling growl warned her not to protest, and she pressed her trembling lips together. All she could do was squirm uselessly as he picked her up with a single hand, as though her quarter ton armour weighed no more than a weapons crate to him, and began to walk to the shield bay door of the corvette. He paused for just a moment, and she knew that the muscles in his body were bunching and tensing, preparing for one last act of strength.
“Tell ’em to make it count.”
The image of his gentle countenance and warm hazel eyes burned in B312′s mind as the old bear tossed her out of the corvette, and she began to sink towards Reach’s atmosphere, her momentum and the gravity well of the planet boosting her speed. Tears blurred her vision and streaked down her face as soon as she saw the great purple hole open up from within the corvette, expanding, expanding until it consumed the supercarrier and exploded outwards, bisecting the massive vessel in two.
And as she finally, finally drifted closer to the ground, the communications link echoing with panicked voices.....
Artemis screamed.