Halo
Survival
Chapter one February 12, 2535 Lambda Serpentis System, Jericho VII Theater
Corporal Lawrence Webber was running for his life, never had there been a situation where he had run so far, so fast, for so long. What was left of Webber's squad had a hard time keeping up with him.
"Lawrence we need to stop, Chi and Powers are near collapsing and Vasquez twisted her ankle bad." Webber stopped and addressed the speaker "You do realize we have a horde of grunts on our ass right Kelly?" Kelly was tired and hearing Webber say what he did snapped her last nerve. "Yeah I do, but I don't see any plasma flying past our heads or the sound of several hundred feet behind us. I think it's safe to say where're fine for now. Plus I really need to take a look at Vasquez's ankle or she may not even be able to walk on it." She growled
"Fine go take a look at Vasquez. Chi, Powers make sure you take a swig or two from you canteens." sighed Webber "Thank god for your ankle Vasquez. I thought we'd never stop." Gasp Powers
"Shut up Michael, I'm sure you don't want a bad knee do you?" threatened Vasquez through clenched teeth "Jeez it was a compliment." Said Michael
Vasquez sat herself down on a stump as Kelly Jones the squad's medic walked over. "Gonna need you to take off your boot Jenny." said Kelly "Yeah sure thing doc, might take a minute though." "Take your time, no sense in making it worse by taking it off too quickly." Vasquez reached down and unlaced boot. After much effort, pain and swearing the boot finally came off.
"So how bad is?"
"Worse than I first thought, your ankle swelled up like a balloon. I can't believe you got the boot off your foot!" exclaimed Kelly, but be for she could say anything else Vasquez asked "Just get to the point doc. Can I or can't I walk?"
"Not on that ankle you're not, hell it could be dislocated or broken for all I know. Chi, would you get the stretcher from my duffle?"
"Sure thing Kelly." unzipped Kelly's medical bag but stopped when he heard Vasquez complain about being put on a stretcher. "You want to put me on a stretcher? Couldn't you just take a branch off a tree to make me a crutch or something?"
Jones sighed and said "Quit bitching, your of more use on the stretcher then off it at this point. At least then you could return fire while on the move if need be."
But Vasquez retorted with "Oh yeah put the sniper on a moving stretcher and ask her to kill something, real smart." Before the argument could continue a fait but distinct whump could be heard, but only Charlie noticed. "Hey, did you guys hear that?" he whispered
"Hear what?" Lawrence whispered back.
"It was kind of a thump like artillery of some kind." But before Charlie could say anything more, several trees about 50 meters away blew into thousands of smoldering splinters. Before anyone could react three more plasma mortars hit the ground nearby turning dirt to molten glass.
Once Lawrence collected himself he yelled "Wraiths! Find cover and someone grab Vasquez!"
In the mad scramble Michael was the lucky one to carry Vasquez to safety. "Move your ass faster Michael, I'm not dyeing just because you can't haul ass faster than my grandma!" Yelled Vasquez
"Yeah well I can haul my ass just fine just not two of them. Not to mention how large yours is." Shot Michael
As the squad ran looking for a cave or ditch to hide in, groups of trees were explode left and right from the barrage of plasma. After running for a kilometer or more the squad found a large outcropping of boulders to take cover from the Wraiths mortar fire.
Lawrence knew that if the tank crews knew where they were then either a Banshee flier or a lance of grunts would be sent to scout out their position, and they really didn't want the former of the two. So he took swift action and handed out orders. "Kelly get a brace on Vasquez's ankle. Shifty I need you to get our bearings and tell me where those Wraiths are as well. Charlie do you still have that Jackhammer launcher with you?"
"Yeah, but I only have one set of extra tubes. So we only have four rockets total." He replied
"Shit. What about the C7 you have?" asked Webber
Chi thought for a moment and said "No dice, I have it but do you really expect anyone to get that close to a Wraith. That's suicide unless they're the older models without anti-personnel cannons on them. Even then there are always a few ground troops in the area so we'd have to clear them out anyways." Chi explained
Webber then said "Both are last resorts then. Use the rockets on my order only." He then turned his attention up to Michael who was up on top of one of the larger boulders trying to pinpoint their position. "Michael do you have our position yet?"
"Well we're about sixty clicks from the firebase or anywhere for that matter. Also I tried calling for extraction, but I couldn't get through. Covies probably took out a comm satellite or two in this area." During that entire time Michael didn't move a muscle fully concentrated on processing and transferring the information on to Webber.
"What about the Wraiths and ground troops with them?" Asked Webber
Shifty looked through his sniper rifles scope. "I'd say about five lances of grunts, ten Elites, and maybe six or seven Jackals. No wait make that nine of them, three snipers two with carbines one with a beam rifle. The rest are just your run of the mill shield carriers. As for the Wraiths their just sitting there waiting to rain pure hell down on us what else do you need to know?"
"I need to know the type of Wraiths they are." Replied Webber
"What do you mean type, a Wraith is a Wraith plain and simple!" Yelled back a clearly confused Michael.
"You mean too tell me that they didn't teach you this in basic" said a stunned Webber
"Teach me what!?"
"I'll tell you what ok. One thing that was taught during basic training for most of us was how to tell the difference between the three types of Wraiths. First, you have your garden variety Wraith with automated anti-personnel cannons and no exposed crew! Second, you have a light Wraith that has nothing but its mortar gun and armor! Third, you have a Heavy Wraith with a single heavy repeating plasma cannon for defense!" Screamed Webber
"Damn no need to yell I'm right here." A moment later Michael spoke again "To answer your previous question they're light Wraiths."