The sky's orange hue didn't hold promise like it used but instead held a funereal glow to it. The air aside from the humming from invading drop ships and patrolling Banshees was dead silent. To Noble Six it seemed apt. Noble Team was gone. So many of his fellow Spartans lay dead, most of them he didn't even know but they were his comrades, his family since that day he lost his biological ones so many years ago. He wondered if Jun and Dr. Halsey had survived or if they had met similar fates as the rest of Noble Team.
He couldn't smell. The breathers in his suit filtered out any toxins in the air but also made it so that the only scent was the tin textured scent of the black body suit that under the hard titanium armor. He was sure that the air was stained with the smells of smoke, gunpowder and bunt flesh. The technology wasn't able yet to allow scent inside the enclosed helmet, which Spartans compensated for by "smell by sight" as Noble Six called it.
Six made a game of it during his training in Beta Company on Onyx with Adam-004 in their sealed SPI armor. Any training mission always began with Six asking Adam what scent he thought the area around them smelled of. That was before he was deployed apart from his squad after training, before Beta Companies decimation on Pegasi where Six thought he should be. Over the years Six would ask the question to various personnel and on rare occasion, other Spartans, over the years.
"Noble Six, you are one strange Spartan." Kat answered before the offensive on Szurdok Ridge.
Six couldn't remember what he was asking her as he stared off at the darkening horizon. He was only knew of Kat during training back on Onyx as one of the 300 other members of Beta Company. Over past days he only got to know her slightly better after his assignment to Noble Team. Everything had occurred so quickly since he had come to Reach.
"It takes so much to build something but only an instant to destroy something. Huh." Six pondered to himself as he idly held the rifle in his left hand.
Death and destruction wasn't new to him even before he was drafted to become a Spartan and as a Spartan, Noble Six caused had his fair share of it. But this was something new entirely. Glassing a planet he had heard was a spiritual experience for those who had seen experienced one. It was almost unfathomable to think of that level of obliteration.
Six raised his rifle into the familiar position in his hands and took aim at the lone approaching Grunt firing at him with its tiny plasma pistol. Bolts of green light flew overhead as he took aim at the large odd shaped head of the Grunt and squeezed the trigger, causing a splatter of bright neon blood and the Grunt to fly off its pudgy feet landing on the ground in a prone position.
"One down, seven million to go." Said Six as he scanned for any other incoming Covenant.
A pack of Grunts came waddling towards him and firing haphazardly before he fired a kill shot for each of them. Grunts were pack animals and would rarely act without leadership of much larger Elites, who were armed with more advanced shield technology that protected the Mjlonir powered armor of the Spartans.
Six glanced up from his rifle to feel an impact against his shields, causing them to hiss and cover his armor in a yellow film briefly. It kept the deadly, heated gas from burning him but some of the physics of the impact still rattled his bones.
He looked over to see two Elites advancing to his left less than twenty feet. The Grunts had been a distraction to allow the Elites to outflank him. It was a classic maneuver.
Six cursed at himself. He attached his rifle to his back and was forced to one of the nearby heavy gun placements that were more effective at tearing through the Elites with its 12.7mm rounds. The gun spooled to life and quickly wore down the Elites shields and tore through their bodies like wet paper, leaving them a pulpy mess of dying gurgles.
"I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost."
Carter's words echoed in his head.
The appearance of a Phantom drop ship firing its heavy cannon forced Six to abandon his position and retreat for cover. With a thought he activated his armor's sprint function to propel his legs faster than without it. He didn't need to look back to know the doors were already open to allow a ground unit of Covenant to land and give chase.
A burning in his lungs began to settle down as the sprint function wore off and Six slowed to a trot behind a burnt out building and stopped. He changed the magazine in his rifle when he heard the shuffling of heavy feet.
Without warning he felt an impact against his right side and was tossed sideways, landing unceremoniously on his butt. His suits hydrostatic gel layer absorbed the brunt of the blast but the right side of his visor was cracked. The ringing in his ears drowned out all other sounds as he looked up to see two large hulking Brutes charging him firing hot blasts from their concussion rifles that impacted around Six and shook the ground beneath him.
He hoped his hearing would return. Without it he would be at another disadvantage.
Six rolled backwards to his feet and charged forward, his rifle aimed for the closest Brute and entered what was commonly referred to as Spartan time as the world slowed with the surge of adrenaline. He knew the Brutes were saying something, or roaring, the closet Brutes mouth and chin were stained dark with blood, Six wondered if it was human blood. A single eagle flew in the distance inside his scope, amazing the Spartan that there was any wildlife left around them, considering the toll the battle took upon Reach, it gave Six a moment of pause to admire that something could survive in the desolate wasteland, and if that eagle survived then could humanity still survive?
His rifle cracked a volley of shots, knocking both Brutes off their feet and hitting the ground. To an outside observer the precision and speed would have occurred in the blink of an eye but to Six it was seemed drawn out. He was still shaking off the effects of explosion that tossed him into the air.
The familiar warning beeps followed by the hum of his shields recharging told him his eardrums weren't burst. Another small saving grace to a terrible day.
But already there was another set of pursuing Elites coming from his right. Using his forward momentum, he tossed his spent rifle aside and scooped up the Brutes weapon and activated his sprint function again to find cover.
"Any UNSC personnel this is Spartan 312. Come in." said Six into his headset.
Six's heavy breathing was the only thing that responded.
"Damn it. Ok. Scratch my plan for finding a ride. New plan: Just don't die." Six said to himself as he leapt over a dead body of a UNSC trooper.
His shields flashed again the impact of Covenant Needle rounds ricocheted of him forcing Six to return fire in their general direction. There wasn't any time to for strategy or aim, he wasn't evne sure who was firing at him. All that was left was to run and gun.