Cyberpunk: Spartan Walker

It stared at the wound on Tommy's shoulder and laughed with confidence. The elite warrior's hand went to the weapon belt on his waist, took out the hilt of the energy sword, and flicked his wrist - then his eyes suddenly widened, and his whole body trembled, and the tip of the blue-white energy sword appeared. It suddenly emerged from the surface of its chest, carrying the aroma of barbecue.

Amid its screams, the tip of the sword hid itself in its chest, blood spattered everywhere, and the Spartan hunter fell to the ground with a plop and made no sound.

The Master Chief slowly stepped out of the shadows behind it and retracted the energy sword. His armor was stained with blood and scorched by the plasma beam, and it was clear that he had just experienced a great battle.

Sorry, I'm late. He kicked the corpse next to his feet. On the way here, I was delayed by this thing's companion. My team stayed in the engine room to defend.

Tommy nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. With John here everything will be fine. He looked towards the engineer.

The engineer, who had been floating behind him, accelerated toward the failed power coupler. When manipulating a small square piece of optical chip, it kept making hissing and chirping sounds as it cleaned up the internal circuitry of the coupler.

Ellie, Tommy opened the communication channel, I have reunited with the Master Chief and found the coupler. The engineer seems to know how to solve the problem. You will have power to activate the jump fault generator in a moment.

It's too late, Ellie told him.

****

The flagship plunged headlong into the churning atmosphere of critical star currents. Ellie is unable to maintain the altitude of the ship. It staggered downwards, leaving a burning gash in the clouds.

Without the shield, the temperature of the flagship hull continued to rise to thousands of degrees Celsius. The bow shone with a dark red light, the middle part seemed to be painted amber, and the stern turned into white-hot gas.

The pipes and thin antenna arrays were melted and decomposed, and the molten metal exploded one after another behind the hull. The pressure on the bow of the ship was too strong, causing the entire hull to vibrate. The spacecraft would have been torn to pieces in a matter of seconds as it rubbed against the planet's dense atmosphere.

Ellie, Tommy said, I've rendezvoused with the Master Chief and found the coupler. The engineers seem to know how to fix the problem. You'll have power to activate the jump fault generator in a moment.

It's too late. Ellie replied, We are now too low to escape the gravity field of the critical star. Even if we turn on full power, we can't stop the gradual descent of the spacecraft, nor can we open a jump fault space. tunnel.

She recalculated each set of data: thrust, speed, and gravity. Even after she overloaded the reactor to the point of meltdown, they couldn't escape the downward spiral. Data doesn't lie.

The engineers must have fixed the power coupler, because the jump fault generator is firing again - which is a good thing for them after all.

To enter the jump fault space, the spacecraft must stay away from the strong gravity field. Gravity distorts the quantum wire's extraordinarily delicate shape, which Ellie relies on to calculate its path. The Covenant's slipspace technology was indeed extremely advanced, but she doubted the enemy had ever attempted to enter slipspace so close to a planet.

Ellie hesitated to give it a try - activate the jump fault generator. Maybe she was lucky enough to seize the one-in-a-billion chance to determine the correct vector coordinates through the large mass of quantum wires distorted by gravity. But she ruled out that possibility. Judging from the current speed, any attempt to control the spacecraft into the slip space will cause it to roll randomly and fall into an irreversible situation.

Try it, Tommy said, his voice surprisingly calm. Try everything.

Ellie sighed, I understand.

She activated the jump fault generator, and software information immediately poured into her consciousness. The UNSC's Sean-Fujikawa Slip Generator uses force to tear a hole in normal space, but the Covenant's technology uses a different approach. The sensors are wired, and Ellie can actually see the web of quantum wires crisscrossing the flagship.

It's amazing, she whispered.

Covenant forces could find their way into the subatomic dimension, where the slight thrust from the generator expanded the energy field just enough for the ship to enter another dimension intact with minimal energy. They are many times better than human technology in improving spatial and temporal resolution. Ellie feels that she has been blind before. The universe surrounds her, but she has always turned a blind eye to it. It's so beautiful.

This explains why Covenant forces are able to space jump with such high precision. It is no exaggeration to say that the error in their designed paths is no more than one atomic diameter.

How's it going, Ellie? Tommy asked suddenly.

Wait a minute. There was a hint of annoyance at being interrupted in her tone.

With such a high resolution, Ellie can clearly see every magnetic field line produced by the critical star in space, as well as other planets and stars in this galaxy, and even the space distortion caused by huge spacecraft. Can she undo the effects of those distortions?

Pressure sensors detected damage to seventeen decks of the ship. Ellie ignored this. She shut down all peripheral systems and focused on the task at hand. This is the only way for them to get out of here: to enter the slip space and get out of the current dangerous situation.

She was sure that the huge fleet of the Covenant was coming soon. Even if their two ships sank all the cruisers chasing behind them, they would not be able to fight against the entire fleet.

Her thoughts are spent on how to enter this ever-changing space. She performed extensive mathematical operations to estimate and eliminate the distortion caused by gravity, but soon realized that she could not complete such a huge calculation alone with her current abilities.

To make matters worse, she felt a stabbing pain in the core of her logic - the damaged part blocked the progress of the calculation.

Damn it, she murmured under her breath.

She realized she had to ask for help, which made her angry and frustrated. She couldn't remember the identity of her donor, but this deep-seated pride must come from her.

She cleared the magnetic field lines around the planet that interfered with communications and connected the channel signal to the warring Truth and Harmony. Cortana, do me a favor.

After a burst of static, Cortana's voice came out. Oh, are you finally willing to ask me for help?