Behind the Skull
Hi and welcome to my first fanfic! Any positive feedback and constructive critisism will be accepted. Enjoy the lecture!
UPDATE ON 26/01/11: I have corrected and rewritten several chapters, and fixed the whole "Holstered-Unholstered" debacle.
DISCLAIMER: Halo and Mass Effect are solely the properties of Bungie and Bioware, respectively. I do not own anything.
Emile silently cheered as another Phantom dropship was blown out of the sky, the burning parts plummeting several miles towards the ground. He glanced quickly towards the landing pad, where Noble Six and a squad of marines were desperately trying to hold off another wave of Covenant soldiers. Emile sighed, remembering the time since Noble Team first arrived on Reach. Ever since, they had fought a losing battle for the salvation of the planet. He saw the faces of the people who had perished in his squad. Jorge, who had sacrificed himself to stop a Covenant Super Carrier in vain. Kat, a shot peircing her helmet after the nuclear blast in New Alexandria. And their commander, Carter, who sacrificed himself too by flying his Pelican right into a Scarab. All of them killed while defending Reach.
A low hum woke him out of his daydreaming. As he looked up, he saw a Phantom in the distance, making it's way to Six and the others. He charged up the MAC gun and fired, the supersonic slug tearing through the Phantom and obliterating it. After the debris had fallen out of sight, Emile gazed through his skull-clad helmet towards the horizon: the Covenant seemed to withdraw.
He sighed in relief and turned his attention to Noble Six again as he handed the package to Captain Keyes. Emile smiled: The brass had proven himself well in combat, and Emile was proud to have this "hyper lethal vector", as he was called, in Noble team. He silently watched the horizon again, only see a Covenant Cruiser headed their way.
Emile heard captain Keyes' voice crackle through his intercom:
"Noble Four, I need fire on that cruiser or were not getting out of here! Do you copy?"
"I have your window sir", he responded as he slowly turned the MAC gun towards the Covenant ship.
Suddently, a Phantom emerged, shooting the second Pelican that had arrived with Keyes. The dropship caught fire and was slowly starting to spiral down before it eventually crashed on the landing pad, almost crushing Noble Six. Emile turned his head quickly; the Phantom was coming right at him!
The Phantom hovered above Emile, sending down an Elite toward him. He unholstered his shotgun. As soon as the Elite had landed in front of him, Emile let out a savage cry before blasting it. Wounded, the Elite reeled backwards and feel on it's back, only to see the Spartan look over him. Emile fired a shell right in it's face.
"WHO'S NEXT?"
He suddently felt a sharp pain before realising that he had an Energy Sword through his stomach. He turned around; he saw the Zealot that had stabbed him grinning in triumph. He slowly felt the pain going away and his vision became blurred. He felt death creeping into his veins; his memories of Reach flooded into his mind; all of his squad member's faces flashed before him.
-I'm not going to die now! Emile thought. For Noble! For Six!
"I'M READY? HOW 'BOUT YOU?"
With all the strength he had left, Emile grabbed his knife and dove it into the neck of the stunned Elite. Before it had time to react, he dragged him down dowards the stairs, where he pulled out the knife and dove it in again. The body laid besides Emile, it's eyes still wide open in surprise.
Slowly, Emile dragged himself to the railing and looked towards the dead Zealot. He was starting to cough up blood inside his helmet; he knew he wouldn't survive.
-This is it... He coughed up more blood before the world darkened before his eyes. Noble Four... Signing off...
He stopped moving.
Noble Six hurried up the stairs towards the MAC gun. He had stayed behind to gain the Pillar of Autumn some time to lift off, while he would take care of the cruiser. He saw Emile's body lying down, supporting itself towards the railing. Six made a final salute towards his downed comrade.
He didn't have time to mourn much longer though; the cruiser was closing in fast. As Six Seated himself into the MAC controls, he saw several Phantoms move in towards him. He charged up the gun and blew up one.
"This is for Emile!" He shouted.
He destroyed another one.
"This is for Carter!"
Another Phantom went down.
"This is for Kat!"
Another one.
"For Jorge!"
He sighted the final Phantom and blasted it into Oblivion.
"For Noble!"
The cruiser had come closer to the Autumn now. Six charged up another shot.
"For Reach!"
The slug pierced right through the ship's hull. A huge explosion tore through the cruiser before it went sailing down into the valley. The earth began to shake as the wreck crashed into the ground. Noble Six then saw the Autumn take of, dropping the takeoff thrusters before it flew away from the planet's atomsphere and dissappeared into the clouds.
Six sighed. It was over. Noble team had nearly lost all of it's Spartans but it was over. Now that Jun was gone too, he really was the last Noble. His thoughts went dowards his squadmates, as they were valiantly defending Reach from the Covenant war machine.
But we still lost.
He gazed toward the crimson horizon again: Fires were raging behing the mountain range, and the echoes of a cacophony of gunfire could be heard. Six looked around him; several Elite bodies were on the floor. He chuckled.
At least Emile went out with a fight.
Remembering his fellow Spartan, Six turned towards where Emile had his resting place, only to be shocked.
Emile's body wasn't there.
Phew! There goes the first chapter!
So where do you think Emile went? Will Six search for him? Stay tuned for another chapter!