And if so, where were the humans?
Zhar followed him through. After the airlock closed, the sound of welding and cutting came through from the other side. A moment later a loud creaking sound filled the corridor, then silence.
"The human ship is cut loose. The Unggoy Deacon and Saal say they're towing it free and casting it off," Zhar said. "So far, no human ships have come to sniff around."
"Good." Thel looked around. "Unggoy toward the bridge. Zhar and I will secure the other airlock from the docks and eliminate any Kig-Yar there."
The Unggoy dutifully headed up the corridor.
Zhar patted the plasma rifle in his hands. "Let's go, then."
Thel's old friend took the lead, turning corners as Thel quickly followed behind, keeping him covered as they thudded down the inside of the ship through bulkhead after bulkhead.
Zhar turned a corner and flinched as human gunfire slapped into his armor. The old Sangheili fired downward, and the shots stopped.
The now dead human, its back against the wall, had been already wounded. A large shot to its thigh had bled the creature's strange red blood out onto the floor. Zhar had shot it once: clean through the head.
"It was sitting down," Zhar said. "Startled me. I barely got a return shot in."
"You are lucky it didn't have a more powerful weapon." Thel kicked away the handgun lying by its side.
"Indeed." Zhar actually sounded somewhat shaken. He squatted in front of the dead human. "I wonder why they left one of their own behind like this? Was it a trap?"
"Who knows how they think?" Thel said. "Who cares? They are heretics. They do not deserve names or life."
Zhar wouldn't stop worrying at some idea deep in his head. "I don't know, Thel. You're a true zealot, I know, and I would never doubt the word of the Prophets, but we've fought the humans for years and they show some capacity for honor. Look, they left behind one of their own, who was bleeding and dishonored, to spring a trap and die with honor. Don't you think that indicates something profoundly noble about them?"
Thel looked down at the dead alien and thought about it. "You think too much, Zhar."
As he said that, Thel saw something move quickly out of the corner of his eyes. Zhar snapped out his plasma rifle and fired, just as the large, gray-armor-clad human fired back with a rifle of its own.
Thel pulled out his energy sword as the armored human smacked into him, carrying them both rolling down the corridor until they struck a bulkhead hard enough to make Thel's vision blur and knock his sword loose.
"I cannot get a good aim," Zhar shouted, as Thel struggled to get a grip on the powerful human's rifle.
The loud human gun fired into the floor several times as they fought over it, and then Thel got the barrel in both his hands.
He stared at his reflection in the alien's visor and roared as he bent the weapon, straining to make it useless. The gold visor stared implacably back at Thel. There were no sounds, though the alien was straining just as hard.
What creature did not choose to show its face that wasn't a soulless and dead one? Thel roared again. "Demon! Heretic. Unholy alien!" He headbutted the gold visor, snapping the human's neck back with each whiplike blow.
The human threw him back and yanked a primitive knife from the chest of its armor.
The two warriors stood, staring at each other for a split second. Thel suddenly realized that they would both die, fighting to the very end, equally matched.
Equally matched with a human.
Thel spat purple blood from his mouth. This was a surprise.
The human looked over at the other dead marine, shook its head, and then took off down the corridor.
"We follow it," Thel gasped, out of breath. He'd broken a rib with that impact.
"What was that?" Zhar asked, cautiously pointing his plasma rifle around the corner.
"I do not know," Thel said. "It was strong, though." He joined Zhar, turning around the corner.
"Looks like it was headed to the docks. Let's go."
Zhar had a small limp, and it hurt for Thel to run, but neither of them would allow these to slow them. Both Sangheili ran all out, grunting occasionally, to the airlock dock.
They got there just in time to see the gray-armored human disappear past the lip, running out into the large cavernous docking area where human tracers and Covenant plasma filled the air.
Kig-Yar corpses lay around the airlock.
Zhar took one side, Thel the other, forgetting about the strange new human for now. "It looks like the Kig-Yar were protecting the ship," Zhar said.
"But were surprised by the attack from inside."
"The humans are moving out onto the docks, back into their habitats," Thel noted. "They have done us a favor. They cleared the ship."
He shut the airlock door with a laugh and walked over to Zhar and clapped him on the shoulder. "Guard this door, old friend. I will head to the bridge and get us moving. We will pick up Saal, and then we will see what our options are."
Zhar nodded.
"But you should also check to see what it was the humans were doing aboard when we get clear," Zhar said. "We do not need anymore surprises."
Thel thought about the pain in his ribs, and what had felt like a close brush with death, and nodded.
What had that human been?
Chapter FORTY-NINE
HABITAT TIAGO DOCKS, THE RUBBLE, 23 LIBRAE
The sound of the ship's airlock doors shutting echoed throughout the spare cavern that the Kig-Yar had as a docking bay. The lanky aliens paused, looking over at the doors. Two of them ran for the lock, banging on the door, as loud clanks and hisses told everyone in the docking bay that their ship was undocking.
Delgado watched the panic spread through the Kig-Yar as they realized what had happened. The Kig-Yar had kept bunched up on the far side of the docks, close to their ship's airlock. That had made getting out onto the docks a dangerous exercise, but the Kig-Yar had realized that letting the humans get off their ship was better than trapping them in it. Now they were no doubt wondering who the heck was taking their ship.
Keyes, hunkered down on the far side of a shipping container they were both using as cover, waved Delgado over. The immense bulk of the gray Spartan Jai stood behind the lieutenant.
"I'm sorry to hear about Faison," Delgado said. The word had spread as they'd remained pinned down by the Kig-Yar. The aliens, with their energy shields and snipers, were doing far better now in the large, open docking bay than in the tight confines of the ship.
Keyes nodded. He looked tired, Delgado thought. These men were all his responsibility. The four dead in the open area of the docks were on Keyes.
Now so was Faison.
"Jai has an idea," Keyes said.
The Spartan stepped forward. "You had them all suit up, Keyes. Everyone's vacuum ready. Only a few Jackals are equipped. If we figure out how to flush the air out of the entire dock..."
"We'd need Juliana for that," Delgado said. One couldn't just flush the atmosphere out of a habitat without extensive overrides.