Halo: A City Freed
Chapter 1
Spartan-101, David, stepped from the Pelican wreckage. His pearlescent green armor reflected the hot sun of the desert planet. Sariph-9 was the planets name, David's' mission, rescue the civilians holed up in the only city on this planet.
Sershah-9 had been one of the newest planets taken over by the Covenant. They didn't have to do much, there was only city here, but it was a large city. The Covenant had come in and just wiped them out, but, unknown to the Covenant, there were still humans remaining on Sershah-9.
The ship, War Galleon, had intercepted the small distress signal early the day before. The War Galleon was making random Slipspace jumps to Reach when they stopped next to the desert planet. The ships short-range sensors had intercepted the signal that was sent by a group of civilians stuck in the city, so the War Galleon headed for Reach. Once at the military moon, the captain of the War Galleon received authorization to send a rescue party, that rescue party also included a Spartan.
A freighter called Gladiator had taken the rescue party to the outskirts on the planet, not wanting to get too close so that the Covenant could pick up their signal. The rescue party was flown to Sershah-9 in a Pelican but before reaching the atmosphere of the arid planet, a squad of Seraph fighters had ambushed the Pelican. The pilot made a crash landing on the desert surface of the planet. The only one to survive, out of twelve Marines and two pilots, was Spartan-101.
David chinned the buttons in his helmet and brought his motion tracker into full-view. He watched it for a minute, looking for any movement within a fifty meter radius. The Spartan saw nothing and brought the tracker back to the lower left-hand side of his HUD, still keeping a watchful eye on it. 'If the Covenant shot us down, they know we're here.' David thought to himself as he lifted a large piece of the Pelicans hull. He peered under it, searching for a weapon. The only weapon he had on him was a Combat Knife, which in a Spartans hands was as deadly as any gun, but he felt more comfortable with a ten pound bullet-hose in his hands.
The Spartan stepped a few yards from the wreckage, looking at the Pelican. It was shredded. The Pelicans lower-half had been ripped off as it landed, strewing pieces of debris across the inch-deep sand. What was still in tacked was rittled with holes made from plasma shots. It hardly resembled the Pelican he had been on just ten minutes ago. David felt himself for any wounds, checking his life signs monitor for any internal damage as well. He knew that he had certainly cracked or broken three to five ribs, fractured his left femur, and had a small cut across his forehead, due to hitting his skull on his helmet upon impact. His training kicked in and he immediately pushed the pain from his mind.
Suddenly, a red dot pinged on his motion tracker. It stayed for a split second, and then vanished. The dot had appeared three meters from his current position, directly behind him. David kept looking forward not wanting the Covenant to know that he knew where they were. He kept facing forward, watching his motion tracker. Spartan-101 felt a bead of sweat pool above his brow in anticipation of the incoming fight. His adrenaline began pumping; his heart beat faster and faster. Then, a red dot popped on his motion tracker, right behind him. In one quick movement, David had his foot-long Combat Knife out of its holster and imbedded into the cloaked Elites skull. The enemy gurgled, dark purple blood streaming from its four-jawed mouth. David ripped the knife from its skull and kicked it into the sand, blood pooling around its head. The other Elites uncloaked, knowing that he knew they were there. The Spartan flipped the knife in his palm and crouched into a combat stance, the Combat Knife pointed towards the Covenant attackers.
There were three Elites total. Each one brandishing a Plasma Rifle. The three blue-armored Elites began to circle him, each one taking a side to make a triangle around the Spartan. David kept an eye on his motion tracker, just incase one of the Elites behind him decided to attack first. The Spartan began to turn in a circle, awaiting the attack. With his blood pumping and adrenaline running through his veins, he was ready for anything. Then, the Elite right in front of him fired. It squeezed off a glob of plasma that sailed like a bullet straight towards him. David dived to the left as the Elite fired upon him. The Spartan rolled up into a crouching position and shoved the knife into one of the Elites gut. David ripped the knife from its stomach and pulled his leg back, building up strength, and lashed out with a booted leg that snapped the Elites knee inward. Giving the leg a sort of grasshopper look to it. As the Covenant fell, David snatched its Plasma Rifle from its grasp.
The two remaining Elites opened fire on the Spartan. Squeezing off round after round. David hoisted the dead Elites body up in front of him, using its shields to stave off the barrage for a few seconds. Then, the shields flickered off and plasma burned holes through the Elites flesh. David threw the body to the side and rolled to the right. When the Spartan came from the roll, he spotted one of the Elites Plasma Rifle had overheated. That gave David just what he needed. The Spartan ran as fast as he could towards the Elite with the overheating rifle. Three bolts of Plasma dissipated on his shields as he made the run in seconds. David football tackled the Elite to the sand. The Covenant roared a battle cry as it wrestled with the Spartan. David felt a hard hit from the side as the Elite landed a right hook to his helmet. His visor flickered for a split second from the punch. The Spartan brought up the Combat Knife and tried to plunge it into the Elites neck but the Covenant held his wrist firm. David fired three plasma globs into the Elites shield, killing them. In his peripheral vision, he saw the last Elite bringing up his Plasma Rifle. David rolled to the side just as the Elite fired, bringing the other Elite on top of him. The Elite he wrestled with took the shot in his spine; it burned through his back and out his stomach, hitting David's shields. The Spartan then slid the knife vigorously across the Elites throat. Blood poured from the wound and David pushed the body off of him. When he looked up his saw a Plasma Rifle pointing right at him.
The last Elite stood above David, pointing his weapon at the Spartan. "Today is the day I will have killed one of you Demons!" the Elite roared as he put pressure on the trigger. David knew that his shields were too low from the earlier shots to deflect this one.
David watched its hand. His heartbeat filling his hearing. Thoughts of this being the end surfaced themselves. David beat those thoughts away and worried on the problem at hand. Just before the Elite fired, time slowed for a brief second.
Spartan Time was what they called it. It was when a culmination of adrenaline, blood pressure, and the Spartans augmentation met at a head. The Spartan moved slightly faster than anything else, giving them a sense of slow-motion.
Spartan-101 kicked the Elites wrist. A loud crack reached his ears as the Elites wrist snapped from the sheer power in the kick. The Plasma Rifle fell into the sand next to the Elite. The Covenant roared as it bore down upon David. The Spartan took a punch to the head by the Elite. His skull jostled in the helmet, David tasted copper in his spit. The Spartan kneed the Elite in the chest, knocking it off of him. David quickly rose up to his feet followed by the Elite. David brought the Plasma Rifle up and squeezed off two shots before it was hit from his grasp. The two globs of plasma dissipated on the Elites shields. The Covenant attacker kicked at David with its large hoof-like foot. The Spartan dodged to the side and delivered a kick of his own to the Elites chest. The Elite was knocked off balance and fell sideway into the sand. David quickly scooped up a Plasma Rifle and began firing at the Elite head. Three shots hit the shield before they died. The fourth bore its way into the Elites skull, as did the fifth.
David stood back. He holstered his knife and looted three plasma grenades from the dead Elites. The Spartan grabbed another Plasma Rifle, clipping it to his belt with the other, and checked the ammo bar. Almost one-hundred percent full.
The Spartan turned back to the Pelican and stepped back in through what was the back hatch, which was now lying somewhere in the stream of debris behind the Pelican. David gathered four M9 HE-DP Fragmentation Grenades, which he deposited with the other grenades in his belt pouch. He dug through the mixture of bodies and metal until he pulled up an M90 8-gauge Shotgun. David checked the ammo. 'Twelve rounds should be enough to punch through a squad of Covenant.' The Spartan thought as he slung the shotgun over his shoulder.
David stepped out of the shaded Pelican wreckage and back into the blistering heat of Sershah-9. His visor dimmed as to shed out most of the blinding light from the planets sun. The Spartan brought up his objective on his HUD.
/19:00 UNSC High Command/Mission:
Head to the city of Veriah. The group of civilians must be rescued at all cost.
A topographical map filled his HUD. His location was shown as a black dot, while the cities location, which was a good twenty miles away, was a big red square.
/24:00 Extraction Time/
He chinned the objectives off screen but kept the topographical map minimized in the upper right hand corner of his HUD, next to his life sign monitor. 'Well, better get going.' David thought. The Spartan began to walk off into the arid desert of Sershah-9…