A/N: I deleted my previous Halo story because the main character had no personality and the other characters weren't exactly great either, and it'd be boring to read. So I wrote this instead and uploaded it instead.
A beam of crimson light tore through the hovering Wraith tank, and a violent explosion destroyed the alien vehicle. SPARTAN-151 ducked behind the rock he was standing next to, his target destroyed. His Spartan Laser hissed as it cooled down.
"Nice shot," said SPARTAN-287, who was huddled behind a rock three metres to 151's left.
"Of course it was, Ruth. It's me!" SPARTAN-151 said, using 287's name.
Ruth laughed. "That makes it all the more surprising, Nick."
Nick frowned behind his visor. Then, he vaulted over his rock and scanned the terrain with his eyes. The rocky mountainside was swarming with grunts - short, grey-skinned aliens with pyramid-shaped gas tanks. He raised his MA5B Assault Rifle and gunned the nearest one down before it could raise it's plasma pistol. Ruth added some shots of her own, taking out two more Grunts with her M392 Designated Marksman Rifle.
"Whereas I..." she said, ejecting the magazine from her rifle, "Consider good shots sloppy."
"Elitist..." Nick murmured jokingly.
A normal human might not have heard that remark. Ruth, however, had augmented hearing. She heard it.
"How polite, Nick," she said, smiling.
Plasma fire hurtled towards Nick, and he slid across the ground into cover, behind the stump of a petrified tree. Ruth was slower to find cover and took a hit to her thigh from a sizzling blue plasma bolt. She winced as she hunkered down behind a rock.
"Are you alright?" asked Nick, his voice full of concern for his teammate and friend.
"I'm fine!" Ruth snapped, angry at herself for her mistake.
Nick popped up from his cover and, in two quick bursts of rifle fire, finished off the last two grunts in the Covenant squad. A solitary green plasma bolt whistled past him, the intense heat causing his armour to light up his HUD with warning symbols. He turned his sights on the final alien, a towering elite clad in blue armour. He pulled the trigger, but no bullets came from his rifle, only the click of an empty magazine.
Shit, it's empty, Nick thought, How could I be so sloppy?
The elite fired at him and Nick had to duck back behind the stump. Shot after shot blasted into the cover, and it began melting away.
"Ruth, I could do with some help here!" Nick shouted.
A green acknowledgement light appeared on Nick's HUD. Ruth had heard his request for help. Nick risked a glance at the elite, just in time to see a green blur streak up behind it. The blur collided with the alien, knocking it to the ground, and a moment later Ruth plunged her combat knife deep into the elite's neck. Blue blood sprayed out of the stab wound.
"You owe me two now," Ruth said, wiping her blade clean of blood.
"You still keeping track of that?" Nick said.
"Oh, I'll always keep track of that," Ruth said, swiping two fingers across her visor in the 'SPARTAN smile'.
"Let's get a move on. We need to regroup with the others," Nick said, referring to the rest of SPARTAN-II Delta Squad.
The squad had been en route to the planet's surface via Pelican dropship. Their task was to assault and destroy a Covenant base atop Gonzales Mountain, on the colony world Veritas. The Covenant were assaulting the highly populated and very rich planet, and their base on the mountain was key to controlling the region. However, before the Pelican could land, it was set upon by a flight of Banshees. The SPARTANS had jumped out of the dropship, and ended up scattered across the mountain. A waypoint was set for regrouping at. Nick and Ruth had been about halfway there when they had met a Covenant patrol - an elite lead grunt lance with a Wraith tank attached.
"Yeah, that skirmish slowed us down quite a bit," Ruth said, slinging her rifle across her back and starting to jog towards the waypoint.
The two SPARTANS only covered about twenty metres before their built-in COMM systems crackled. "This is SPARTAN-174, I need backup. I'm pinned down by a large amount of Covenant with armour!"
"Salim, this is Ruth, what's your location?" Ruth asked over the comm, using her comrade's name.
"I'm at the meeting point. It's swarming with Covenant," Salim said. The sound of gunfire was audible over the COMM.
"Alright, we're on our way. Good luck, Salim," Ruth said, grabbing her rifle.
The two SPARTANs took off at a run, moving at the speed of Olympic sprinters as they wove their way between rocks and around trees. In about a minute they came up to a ridge behind the meeting point, and saw Salim in cover behind a rock. Dozens of Covenant infantry, and five Wraith tanks, were bombarding the area with plasma. Nick charged up his spartan laser, and unleashed it's wrath upon one of the tanks. It vanished in a cloud of fire and smoke. Ruth fired her semi-automatic rifle as fast as a machine gun, picking off the grunts with headshots.
"Good to see you two," Salim shouted, spinning out of cover and rolling a grenade into a cluster of grunts. "Now give me a hand up the ridge!"
"Alright. Ruth, cover fire - keep their heads down!" Nick bellowed above the sound of the battle.
"On it!" Ruth replied, switching to her assault rifle and spraying rounds at the aliens, who scattered and ran for cover. The wraith tanks continued firing, but their aim was off and the SPARTANS were untouched.
Salim sprinted for the ledge, and jumped halfway up. Nick reached down an grabbed his hand, then hauled him up onto the ridge. A plasma shot hit the ground a hairsbreadth from Nick's foot, and he quickly backed away from the Covenant's line of fire. The three SPARTANs retreated from the battle and hid in a small cave, the entrance to which was partially obscured by a wall of moss.
"I'm warning the others," Salim said once the trio were all gathered in the cave.
"Good. Otherwise I'd need to save their lives, too," Nick said, depolarising his visor to reveal a cocky grin.
"Don't pat your own back too much," Ruth said, "I did all the hard work."
Salim sighed, tired of Nick and Ruth's arguing already.
"It was a team effort," he said, acting as a peace maker.
"Ruth, how's your wound?" Nick asked, moving over to the other SPARTAN. Salim looked over.
"It's fine. Didn't get through my armour," Ruth said, looking down at the scorch mark on her thigh armour.
After that, they waited in silence. The first SPARTAN to arrive was Amy-222, Delta Squad's specialist medic.
"Good to see you lot are all still in one piece," Amy said as she entered the cave.
Ruth's keen eyes noticed scorch marks along the medic's side, barely visible in the dark cave.
"You've been hit," she said.
"It's nothing much, just a few plasma bolts that clipped my armour," Amy replied, not even looking at the burns across her side.
The conversation shifted with the arrival of SPARTANs 184 and 244, David and Melissa. David was carrying the unconscious Mellisa over his shoulder, and the latter's MJOLNIR armour was scorched black in several places.
"What happened?" Amy asked, getting out her medic's kit and rushing over to her wounded teammate.
"We were attacked by Spec Ops Elites. I barely managed to get out of there with Melissa," David explained as Amy laid Melissa out on the ground.
"Weapons used?" Any asked, activating the torch in her helmet and inspecting Melissa's wounds.
"Plasma rifles," David replied.
Amy didn't reply, just started healing Melissa with a combination of injections and bandages, working quickly and quietly. She was in something the team called SPARTAN mode - where nothing mattered but the task at hand. Whereas the first class of SPARTAN-IIs were permanently in that mode, the second class - Delta Squad's - had been allowed to remain 'human', for reasons such as being more able to work with Marines and Troopers, and being able to blend better with crowds. As the medic worked her magic, the other SPARTANs started talking.
"So what's the plan?" David asked, turning to Salim.
"We head straight for the base," the Squad's leader replied simply.
"Cunning. I like it," Ruth said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Shut up!" Salim snapped, then he returned to the plan, "As we walk to the base, the Army will stage a dummy assault on a Covenant outpost nearby, allowing us to reach the base relatively uncontested."
"I like it. Actually, this time," Ruth said, mildly impressed.
"What do we do at the base?" David asked.
"We find the main plasma reactor and let Nick," Salim said, nodding at Nick, "do what he does best."
Nick hefted his Spartan Laser for emphasis.
"One problem - that'll make the base explode," Ruth said.
"No shit," Nick said.
"The problem with that is what, exactly?" asked Salim.
"We'll be in it?" Ruth said in a voice usually reserved for saying 'duh'.
"It won't explode instantly," Salim sighed, "I did think this through."
There was a few seconds of silence.
"Amy, what's Mel's status?" Salim asked.
"She's stable. Burns of all degrees, all wounds cauterised by plasma. Full recovery is highly likely. However, she won't be fighting today," Amy explained, finishing her medical work.
"Damn. Stay here and guard her," Salim said, "Everyone else, let's get going. On me!"
The four SPARTANS proceeded up the mountain quickly and quietly, taking out the few Covenant they encountered with lethal efficiency. At a few points they had to climb parts of the mountain too step to walk, and once they had to backtrack at a steep overhang. Despite that delay, they still only took a short period of time to arrive, granting them a view of a smooth, purple Covenant base and hordes of aliens firing down the other side of the mountain at the army troopers launching a fake assault on them.
"The army are doing their part," Ruth said.
"The sky is blue," Nick said, "What else is new?"
"Actually, it-" Ruth started.
"Shut up," Salim said.
At that moment a green bolt hit the grounds inches from David's foot. The four SPARTANs rushed into cover behind boulders.
"Jackal marksman, ten o'clock," David shouted, pointing towards the source of the plasmafire.
"I see it," Ruth said, aiming her rifle. She fired and almost instantly the Jackal fell off of the base's walkway, dead. Fortunately for the SPARTANS, its comrades inside didn't notice it's death.
"No other Covies on this side of the base," David said.
"Then let's go inside and kick some alien ass!" Nick said.
Ruth opened her mouth to speak, but before she finished the first syllable Salim told her to shut up.
The four SPARTANs jogged across the open ground leading up to the Covenant base, and stacked up on the smooth purple doors leading inside it. Salim spoke into his comm and the army company opposite the SPARTANs retreated down the mountain.
"Plant the charges," Salim ordered.
"And one day they will grow into a beautiful explosion," Ruth said, causing Nick to chuckle as he planted charges either side of the door. The charges detonated with barely audible poofs and the doors fell over inwards. Salim charged into the corridor inside, the others tailing him closely.
They made their way through the corridors, quieter than mice, until they reached a fork in the path. An elite clad in red stood there, shouting at two grunts. The SPARTANs ducked behind a corner and attached silencers to their weapons.
"Nick, Ruth, get the Elite. David, get the grunt on the left," Salim whispered.
His comrades nodded, and he started a countdown with his fingers. Three. Two. One.
A small lightshow lit up the corridor as bullets carved their path through the air, and the two Grunts head's exploded into clouds of blue blood. The Elite was torn to shreds before it could call for help or return fire, it's energy shields broken by human small arms. Ruth, being the team's unofficial scout, ran forward and checked the two forks. She peered down each for several seconds, then waved her friends forwards to her position.
They met no other resistance on the way to the base's reactor, and were soon standing in a small room, as hot as a furnace, looking at a shielded plasma reactor. The only obstacle left to the team of supersoldiers was three Elite Zealots wielding energy swords, their golden armour glowing slightly blue in their weapons' light. Their reptilian eyes were glaring straight at the SPARTANs who dared to invade their base.
Ruth moved first, rolling through the closest one's armoured legs and hitting it in the back. It stumbled forwards, shields beeping, and Salim rammed his combat knife into it's chest as Nick opened fire on one of it's comrades. The first Zealot fell as two and three charged. Nick kept his aim on two until the last moment then leapt to the side, almost slamming into the wall. David dropped a burst into it but the rounds bounced harmlessly off if it's shields. Meanwhile, Salim and Ruth dished around three, swiping with combat knives and fired their magnums one handed. The zealot got a lucky hit on Ruth and she fell to the ground, her left arm seared open along it's length and her right kneecap cut open. Nick and David quickly finished off zealot two and moved to help, but Salim had already disarmed the Elite. Nick grabbed the energy sword from the ground and cleaved the zealot almost in half with it.
"Ruth, are you okay?" Nick asked worriedly, crouching beside her.
"What do you think?" Ruth said, angry at herself for getting hit again.
"Can you run?" said Salim.
"No," Ruth replied in her best 'duh' voice.
"Alright, David, carry Ruth. Nick, make a bang," Salim ordered.
Nick stood up and aimed his Spartan Laser at the reactor. It charged and then sent a scarlet red beam through the reactor. Alarms sounded, and the SPARTANs fled. Plasma bolt and explosive pink needles nicked their armour as the Covenant tried to stop them escaping. Purple corridors rushed by like cars on a highway. Alien shouted curses at the running and carried superclusters as they broke out into the sunlight and got as far from the base as possible.
They were a hundred and sixty meters away when it exploded in a flash of heat and light almost half as powerful as the sun during it's peak femtoseconds. The SPARTANs were sent tumbling to the ground even from their distance and their armour was singed.
"That's a sight to wake up to," Melissa said over the COMM.
"I made the explosion," Nick said, "Aren't I great?"
"I made it possible," Ruth said, hiding the pain in her voice effectively.
"I was the mastermind, so I win," Salim said, "Now let's go join that army company, help them until we get extraction."
"Aye aye," Nick said, brushing dust off of him.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!