Halo: Rapture

The tram reminded me of the underwater elevators on the second Halo I visited. The only difference is that it doesn’t drift and stays balanced. I look over at the Major and find him checking his weapons for the tenth time.

I look out the window and see the oddest sight. Some Splicers with gills and fins are fighting a lone Big Daddy on the ocean floor. Luckily they don’t notice us.

“This is indeed a cursed place.” I just nod and turn away from the fighting. That’s when a sea shanty starts playing over the speakers. The Major and I look at each other when a grisly voice starts singing along with the music.

“Oh, no! It can’t be! Didn’t Peach kill you?!”

“Arr, what ye, cigar chomping son of a weevil eating barnacle brained boot licker, doing here?”

“Answer my question you butcher of the English language.” That’s when the tram came to an abrupt stop.

“I’ll start the tram when ye land lubbers start singing.” The Major and I look directly at the camera and reply at the same time, firmly.

“NO”

“We’re not singing, now start the tram.” The Major growls as his hand goes for his Plasma Rifle.

“You think that’s wise, firing a weapon in close quarters?” Asks Conviction.

“I don’t care.”

“Listen, White Beard just start the damn tram.” Conviction says sharply.

“Or what? Ye’ll sic that dog on poor Ishmael, like ye did last time! He hasn’t been right since!” We hear the sound of feathers flapping and the voice of a parrot.

“Belgian waffles.” Then the parrot whistles.

“Arr. Shut your porthole, Ishmael. Or I’ll send ye to the Choir Invisible.”

“Where they serve waffles.” It whistles again.

“What did Dog do to the parrot?”

“I couldn’t tell you but I’ve never seen Dog move that fast.”

“What did Ishmael do to Dog?”

“You know, I can’t remember.” Conviction’s avatar appears on a small holo-pad near the control panel. He flips through a few pages in his notebook before coming to a stop at one page.

“Oh my.”

“What?”

“Never you mind.” He replies quickly and just as quickly pockets his notepad. That’s when another avatar appears next to Conviction. It shows a man with a yellow raincoat and rain hat sitting on a rock with a parrot on his shoulder. Looking closer he has an eye patch on his right eye and a peg leg which has some fishing equipment sitting beside it…and no beard.

“Please start the tram.” White Beard is about to reply when Ishmael just starts freaking out, squawking at the top of his holographic lungs. White Beard just rolls his eye and takes a waffle out of his tackle box and shoves it into Ishmael’s beak (who happily eats it).

“I’ll never forgive your dog for what he did to my parrot. I have to live with this everyday.” Dog opens one eye and then closes it as if nothing had happened. Ishmael’s seemed to have two wandering eyes that blinked out of sequence. He gave a short whistle when he was finished with the waffle.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Oh, poor Ishmael is a couple of worms short of a can.”

“What?” the Major says in a completely lost voice.

“A few lobsters short of a trap.” The Major looks blankly.

“A couple of fish sticks short of a fry basket.” The Major blinks.

“A couple crackers short of a barrel.”

“Excuse me?”

“He’s rampant!” I finally yell not able to take it anymore.

“All hail Citizen Snips.” Ishmael’s eyes blink out of sequence as he whistles. We chose to ignore the poor bird.

“Ishmael is the reason why Peach couldn’t delete me.”

“I can see why.” I mutter as I look at all the way the tram still had to go to get to Neptune’s Bounty.

“Can you please start the tram?”

“Arr, fine.” He grumbles to himself.

“Show me the way to go home. I’m tired and I want to go to bed.” He sings quietly to himself as he puts away his bait and reaches for the tackle box.

“I had a drink about an hour ago and it’s gone straight to my head. Now wherever I may roam, by land, sea, or foam. You’ll always hear me singing this song. Show me the way-BEES!” He screams when he opens the bait box and bees come out.

“Aw, my bees.” He whistles.

“Damn it Ishmael! What did I tell you about this?” He swats at the bird and it flees out of the projection. He glares after it before reaching back into the bait box and pulling out a remote and pushing a button. The tram begins moving immediately.

“Ever think to yourself, wow I’m stuck with him the rest of my life.” Conviction says past the cigar in his mouth.

“Waffles!” comes over the speakers but the parrot doesn’t return to the holo-projector. White Beard grabs for a harpoon but doesn’t throw it.

“One day, just one day.” He mutters to himself as his avatar disappears. Conviction just shakes his head and disappears as well. The ride continues smoothly enough even with the grisly singing, Conviction muttering to myself in my helmet, Ishmael’s squalls, and the Major’s continuous pacing back and forth. But at least it isn’t tense.

The tram stops and the doors open. The Major un-holster our weapons and make a sweep of the area. White Beards avatar is waiting for us on a holo-pad near the tram. He’s whistling to himself and baiting his fishing line. We appear to be in a security station for some reason. Before I could ask, Conviction beats me to the punch.

“The tram is usually only used by police officers, which is why it’s located not far from Sullivan’s office. Fontaine’s Fisheries is not too far from here, you’ll be coming up the back ways.” I nod as my eyes search the office for anything useful. Stun grenades and sleeping gas, that could be useful. I quickly pick them up and walk towards the door with the Major following closely behind me.

I crack the door open a bit and take a peek out. There is a Splicer in a police uniform trying to fix a turret. He growls and kicks it as hard as he could and the thing beeps and starts working again. The Splicer sighs in relief and begins to pick up his tools. That was when the Major uses his Carbine to put a shot through his head.

In retaliation, a group of Splicers jump down from the ceiling. I spare the Major a look before un-holstering my pistol. “The best laid plans of mice and men right, Major.” He just glares and says “Such deeds strengthen the blood now take your pick demon you need some target practice” And with that we level our weapons take aim and…Damn! Where did they go, they were just about to charge us.

“Demon listen.” The Major quietly hisses I did as he suggested and then I heard something like… “There on the ceiling! “ I call out. Without so much as a word the Major primes one of the stun grenades and tosses it in the general direction of the Splicers it detonates but from the sound of the maniacal laughter it fell short.

“Arr, you throw like a fish wife.” White Beard says through the loud speakers distracting the Splicers for a brief moment and that’s all I needed now that I got a line on them I take aim on the nearest Splicer and fire two anti personal rounds at chest and she back flips out of the way with little effort “Damn these Splicers are quicker then the others.” White Beard suddenly comes on the line, “Arr that’s why Peach stays in the Fisheries…that and I think he likes the smell of dead fish.”

“Why don’t you do something constructive and help me, like get the Sentinels down here.” Snaps Conviction. “Why always the fighting?” Whistles poor Ishmael. “Silence all three of you!” Growls the Major. “We have all the problems we can handle at the moment without the chorus of you three morons constantly arguing and-” The Major is cut off before he could finish as two Splicers jump him and try to cut his throat and the other trying get the Carbine away from him.

I take careful aim with my pistol in my right hand and my Winter Blast in my left, almost instantaneously I hit the Splicer still trying to get The Major’s Carbine. With the Winter Blast I freeze both the Splicer and part of the Major with it, causing the other Splicer on the Major’s back to pause giving him the opportunity to smash it into the wall behind him. There was the unmistakable sound of bones being crushed and she let’s go. I put a single round through its grotesque head.

The Major glares at me and says in a perfectly civilized tone, “If it is not too much trouble for you I would rather not spend the rest of the fight frozen to this WALL!”

“Your welcome.” I say in equally civil tone dripping with sarcasm. I quickly smash the Splicer still frozen freeing the Major and his carbine …with the Splicers hands still attached to the barrel The Major gives me his death glare and all I can say is, “What?”

“If you two children are done I have some good news and some bad news.” Conviction reports.

“What’s the good news?” I ask whilst reloading our weapons “Well, it took some sober effort for me, White Beard, and his sanity challenged fowl to get the Sentinels to activate, we just barely managed to get it done.”

“Great so what’s the bad news?” Out of the corner of my eye I spot one of the Splicers crab walking on the ceiling towards me. “Wait, hold that thought Conviction.” I fire three quick rounds and drops to the floor with a thud, I look towards The Major and see that he has all ready killed five of them but like the Flood they just seem to pour out of the walls and they were getting closer. I put away my pistol and grab my shotgun. “If I may suggest Chief, you might want to switch to the Exploding Buck.”

I did as he suggested. The Major was busy reloading when a new wave of Splicers came from the ceiling. While four or five charge for the Major, I take aim and let out four shots and the buck did as its name implied, on contact four of Splicers went up in flames. “Mmm somethin’ smells gooood.” Replies White Beard. “Just like waffles.” Whistles Ishmael. “Arr, enough with the damn waffles.” Snaps White Beard.

The Major looks up in time to see six more Splicers coming straight at him. “We’re just Lonely, we need your blood!” Upon hearing this The Major tosses aside the Carbine and grabs his Energy Sword. He smiles in his species’ own particular way “Come and get some.” He then proceeds to cut down the Splicer ranks with ease as it was too late to stop them somersaulting towards him, he laughs as he says, “Good exercise, is it not Demon?”

I just nod and finish reloading my shotgun while we wait for the next wave to come, but it never did. Me and The Major stand there for what felt like an eternity watching for anything out of place……nothing, we’re alone again. I lower my shotgun and The Major retrieves his Carbine from were he dropped it. I then break the silence, “All right Conviction what’s the bad news?” There was a pregnant pause before White Beard replies, “What this gutless cur is dancing around, is the fact that when we finally got the damn Wobble Bots on our side we tripped a security wall all over this area”.

“Who’s one Sullivan’s or Peach’s?” I ask and Conviction replies, “Neither it was Ryan, it was a well laid trap.” The Major comes over to me and says, “So we’re stuck here until either one of you Constructs get past the firewall.”

“No we can’t do anything in here, we are all prisoners in this place, and everything beyond this room is now effectually locked to AI’s, Splicers, and you two.”

“Can’t you Constructs just ‘Hack’ your way out?” The Major asks. “NO!” They both reply.

“And Cortana said I’m stubborn.” I mutter to myself whilst scanning through the blue prints Victor gave me. Nothing that will help.

That’s when I hear tapping against a wall. It’s…Morse Code. No one uses Morse Code anymore, I’m glad Deja taught me this. Even though she thought it was outdated.

“S…..T….A…..N….D…Stop, new word.”

“Demon, what are you doing?” I just hold up my hand for silence.

“B….A….C..Oh.” I dive away from the wall whilst pulling the Major with me. I cover my head and the Major follows suit when a large explosion rocks the area.

We look through the smoke and debris to see a tall man with deep black hair and pale blue eyes. He’s wearing a mechanic’s jumpsuit with a nametag that says ‘Harvey’ on it. A pair of beat up old fashioned cowboy boots covers his feet.

“What the hell are you standing around for?! Don’t you know a jailbreak when you see it? C’mon get up off you ass…..and, whoa! What the hell is that?!” He yells as he points to the Major and goes for a wrench tucked on his belt.

“He’s with me.” I reply before he can un-holster his wrench.

“Uh….you have interesting tastes.” Harvey replies in an uncomfortable voice as he examines the Major from a distance.

“Not like that. I meant that he is accompanying me to Fontaine‘s Fisheries.”

“Johnny’s faithful companion.” Ishmael whistles. I just look at the insane parrot oddly; I don’t even want to know how he knows my name. The Major just looks confused.

“Anyway, where did you come from?” I ask turning back to the mechanic/demolitions expert. Harvey points behind him.

“Irrigation tunnels, they run from here to Arcadia!” He yells a little too loudly. He obviously had been too close to one to many explosions.

“Yes, but who sent you?”

“What. A little louder, I can’t hear ya chief.”

“WHO SENT YOU!?”

“Gosh, you didn’t have to yell. My ex-boss sent me.”

“Victor?”

“Yes, uh, well, no, actually. Atlas told Dr. Harrison to tell Victor, who told me to tell you. Well, are we going or not? Ryan’s itching to have me nailed to his trophy wall.”

“Why does Ryan hate you?”

“Well, I blew something up that I probably shouldn’t have, and when I was told I was getting fired I MAY have accidentally….you know what! That’s not important right now. Remember what the rancher said to the Shepard. “Let’s get the flock out of here.”

With that, the odd man turned and walked back into the hole he blew into the wall. The Major and I look at each other before I gesture for him to go first. He then shakes his head and gestures for me to go ahead. Shrugging, I follow Harvey.

Pipes run along every wall, a few pumping stations every couple of yards and dirty water running in between two walkways.

“Where are we going?”

“Atlas told me you wanted to find Peach, I’m to direct you to the Fisheries. Though you’ll come in through the back way. By the way, don’t mention me!”

“Why?”

“What!”

“Why!”

“What!”

“WHY!”

“Yes, that’s very kind of you. I knew I could count on you not to say anything.”

“NNNOOO! III SSAAAIIIDDD, WWHHHYYYY!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

“Oh, well. It’s not my fault the man can’t take a joke. If you hide a few firecrackers in the fish he’s gutting, you’d think you’re the devil himself.” I won’t even bother to ask him why he put a couple of fire crackers in a fish.

We walk for a few more minutes in silence (aside from Harvey whistling and Ishmael joining in every so often) when suddenly our guide stops walking and turns to face the Major and I.

“Okay chief, I ain’t going any further but you should be able to find your way on your own.” He pauses for a moment and looks toward the way we were going. “Okay what you want to do is keep going straight for about fifty paces and then make a right. And you want to stay to your left, not the right, the left. And whatever you do, don’t go into the water. Land mines and all that.” He gives us a crooked smile as he walks down another tunnel. “Don’t worry; I know this place like the back of my hand.” And that when he hits his head on a pipe and promptly falls unconscious.

“Somehow, I don’t have a good feeling about this.” The Major says as he shakes his head.

“Don’t you worry, Harvey might be a bit nutty but he’s surprisingly reliable. If you ask me, I think it’s just an act he puts on to get him under the radar. How else could he have survived Raptures Civil War? But enough of that, your almost to the Fisheries, I’ll be coming in through another entrance after you take care of Peach.” Atlas’s Irish accent fills my helmet’s speakers. It’s been a while since I’ve heard from him.

“We’re all fine by the way, thanks for asking.” I say sarcastically.

“Yes, all he is asking us to do is go after another mentally questionable individual lead by information from another mentally questionable individual, this is just perfect.” Growls The Major.

“Don’t you mean just peachy.”

The Major just looks blankly at me, I just shrug it off and we continue onward. “Anyway, if you keep to the path you should be there in no time at all.” Atlas cut the line once again and we walk in silence for an hour until we reach an office of some sort and we hear rustling in side, thinking it was one of the ‘sane’ inhabitants we both decide to check it out. The Major carefully opens the door.

Inside is one of the clearest rooms I’ve seen since we got here …well apart from the water dripping from the ceiling and the rather surprised looking Splicer dressed in a formal looking business suit with no jacket…or pants, his shirt once white was now bloodied and tattered his face looked like it recently gone through a meat grinder, it was poorly banged and he only had one arm.

He seem to get over the shock of us barging in and flips the disk over and pulls out a SMG and starts shooting and screaming at us as we quickly take cover on ether sides of the door frame. “I didn’t mean to hurt her I didn’t, I swear!” He kept saying over and over. Me and The Major get bored and decide to end this quickly, so The Major primes a Plasma Grenade, takes aim in the direction of the desk and throws it. A split second later we hear, “Aaaaah, get it off for the love of god get it off!”

The room and the Splicer explode. We sweep the area and find that very little survived. “Nice toss.” I say to The Major who just nods. “Your aim is improving.” Says Conviction. “Arr, it was all luck, you sad excuse for a sleuth.” White Beard cuts in. “At least I’m not stuck with Fruit Loops the Parrot!” Fires back Conviction. “I love waffles with lots of syrup and Monkeys!” Whistles Ishmael.

“At least my bird isn’t a drooling mongrel with A.D.D! ” I tune the rest of the argument out. I’ve heard of AI’s developing odd personality’s but those two are just to much. The Major also looks exasperated and walks ahead, I follow but then my eyes caught the sight of a painting of a man in a fishing boat and then my vision goes black for a moment.

-

A man and young boy sat by a lake holding fishing rods, behind them is a little girl happily picking flowers and humming to herself.

-

“Demon are you coming?” The Majors cuts the fog in my head and in an instant it was gone. “Yes.” Was all I could say giving the painting one last look, I quickly catch up to him and he says something along the lines of ‘what took you’ but I did not hear nor did I respond for some unexplainable reason the vision I just saw in my mind was very fond to me and then a single word came to me for a reason beyond my understanding…Nostalgia.