Chapter 1: The Thunder of Battle

Okido Hasu Henso, a Mgalekgolo, stood, patiently, with his bond-brother, Dosso Hasu Wesnu, behind the exit of the Phantom. Behind them stood nearly a dozen Special Operations Sangheili and Unggoy.

"Be ready..." Their black-armored, Sangheili leader, Officer 'Ulfa, said. "As a final debriefing, we are heading down to rescue as many UNSC personnel as we can. Expect heavy resistance from the Covenant Remnants! We'll only have enough time to charge in, grab the survivors, and charge out."

"You listened to all that, brother?" Dosso asked his bond-brother in their semi-unintelligible speech of grunts and growling.

"Every bit" Okido replied.

"We're uncloaking" 'Ulfa spoke, again, as he prepped his plasma rifle, and rechecked his inactive energy sword for the fourth, anxiety-filled time, making sure it was still attached to his side. "Touchdown in ten seconds! Be ready!"

The door opened, and sunlight flooded in. Okido felt the wind of the descending ship brush against his six, spike-like sensor nodes lining his armored back, giving him a pleasurable feeling.

The thunder of battle sounded ahead, and Okido and his brother could see multiple units of the enemy Covenant Remnant, who had not noticed their arrival, judging from how none of the enemy troops that were right in front of where they were landing looked back in reaction. The enemy also appeared to be firing at something in the rocky, sandstone-colored, canyon-like environment they were arriving on.

"Spec-Ops... Attack!" 'Ulfa shouted in a battle cry, as he leapt from the Phantom, to the battle below. "Show these deluded fools to their afterlife!"

Okido and Dosso hopped off as well, impacting the ground with tremendous force, cracking the rock they landed on, followed swiftly by the remaining SpecOps Unggoy and Sangheili.

The sound of their arrival, and possibly the Phantom flying overhead, triggered all the several dozen nearby Covenant Remnant troops to turn their heads in response.

Before the Jackals could even start firing their carbines and plasma pistols at their assailants, or before the Grunts could even start trying to flee in terror, the Hunters were upon them, firing their fuel rod cannons into their ranks, and bashing them into the ground, and through the air with their vaguely arrow-shaped shields.

Following in suit, the rest of Special Operation forces began to attack as well, blasting the foes in view with an assortment of plasma-based weaponry, and the occasional Spec-Ops Grunt throwing a grenade.

"The mighty Mgalekgolo tramples through the war-torn field, unstoppable in his fury, unstoppable in his zeal, all his enemies falling before him like grass on a layer of dirt, fellable in their weakness..." Okido began, stopping, briefly, from his bloodlust to recite war poetry, after he had finished crushing a grunt underneath his foot in a squelch of broken bone and flattening armor.

"...I weep not for those who I have slain, for they left this land for a better one, a place of joy and eternal bliss..." Dosso also said, as he finished unloading a burst of his fuel rod cannon into the platoon of attacking Unggoy and Kig-Yar, showering rocks, screams, and dismembered limbs with his booming shot.

"Oh, is that a verse from the "Mirror into the Well of Eternity" volume I hear, brother?" Okido asked, turning his bloodstained form for but a moment to his bond-brother, before looking back to the battle.

"Why, yes it is!" Dosso replied in as surprised of a tone Mgalekgolo could make, given the rumbling vibrations their basic speech was made up of, as he bent his massive, armored frame forward, and shielded himself from multiple, plasma-based shots that made up the returning enemy fire. "How did you know?"

To their enemies, which as far as the two could see were solely Covenant Kig-Yar and Unggoy, the sound of the two Hunters conversing sounded like nothing more than angered, guttural growling and rumbling noises, directed to them, warning them of their coming doom.

"Bravo down!" The SPARTAN, Caroline, shouted, as she placed a bullet from her magnum in between the eyes of the last Storm Jackal in view. She felt an attack from behind pelt the shielding on her blue power armor, and turned to face a red-armored Storm Grunt wielding a needler, and an angry expression.

Without so much as a second thought, she shot it in the face with the final bullet the gun in her hands had, watching as the stocky alien let out a yowl of surprise, before falling to its back, its red armor now stained with its blue blood.

Attempting to reload gave her the wicked revelation that she was out of ammo for her final weapon. Growling, she threw the magnum away with her left arm, and simultaneously snatched the needler that the dead Unggoy had with her mechanical, prosthetic, right arm, and continued her trek forward, through the hail of fire and roars.

"You're out of ammo already, Carol?" A cocky, male voice said behind her. She turned briefly, and saw her teammate, Cameron, a blue-armored SPARTAN-IV like herself, come up to her.

"Oh, and you're not?" She asked, as she peeked over the ditched-in rocky crevice they were hiding behind, spotting the multitude of Covenant forces still there, firing blindly at their location.

As she continued to look on, a loud, green explosion suddenly caught her eye, located from on top of one of the many shelf-like rock columns. Several enemy troops went flying through the air, some not in one piece, and whatever it was provoked the attention of many of the two SPARTAN's attackers.

"Friendlies?" Cameron asked, as another explosion went out.

"It might be the evac command spoke about" she replied, just before pressing two cybernetic fingers to her com, and speaking into it.

"This is SPARTAN's Caroline and Cameron, we're the only remaining members of our unit. Is this the Spec-Ops unit from the Swords of Sanghelios?"

"We are, and we have you, Spartan" a deep, guttural Elite's voice replied. "This is Officer 'Ulfa Au'vek of the Sectarian's Bounty. We heeded your allies calls."

"Was that explosion from you?" She asked.

"It was" he replied. "We have two Hunters fighting on the ground, and we're attempting to reach your position."

"Did he say "Hunters?"" Cameron asked, as he stopped firing his rifle from behind the cover to look in his teammate's direction. "Aw, yes!"

"Spartan, even with two Hunters, I don't think I'll have enough manpower to get through all their defenses" 'Ulfa spoke again, in a much graver voice. "You'll need to get what's left of your unit, and fight your way to us."

"Understood" Caroline replied, taking her two fingers off the com.

"Damn. We need to hold out here until an opening comes up, and then fight our way out" she said again, still watching the battle unfold. "You still got any grenades on you, Cameron?"

Caroline turned her head when no response came.

"Camero-"

She cut herself off the second she saw her teammate, held by his throat, and the glowing tip of an energy sword sticking out of his chest.

"Cameron!" She shouted, aiming her needler to the Storm Sangheili zealot behind her impaled teammate, and began firing it.

Speaking some form of threat in its language, the zealot dropped the dead Spartan the moment Caroline ran out of rounds for the needler, and started towards her, sword in hand.

"Shit-" Caroline tried to growl, pulling her knife out the second the Elite lunged at her.

Two Covenant Sangheili minors, both in blue armor, but with one armed with a sword, and the other with a needler, ran at Dosso the moment he was separated from his brother and the group. Charging his fuel rod cannon, the green lights on its side glowing brightly, a green burst flew from the device around his arm, but missed his targets, exploding on the ground behind them.

The Elite with the needler ran up first, pelting the Hunter with the multiple, crystalline projectiles, forcing him to raise his shield. The moment he stopped to reload, Dosso lowered it, and saw the Sangheili with the sword approaching.

He bashed his shield against the Sangheili when he jumped through the air at him, and knocked him away, scattering dirt where the multi-mandibled soldier fell.

Refocussing on the Sangheili in front of him, Dosso charged his cannon as he made his way to the meddlesome warrior, and fired it, only to be disappointed once again as the shot missed its target when the blue-armored warrior jumped out of its way.

Deciding that his foe was too agile for ranged combat, Dosso began running up to the Elite with an unexpected speed, raising his shield for the attack. Cornered against the rock wall he was in front of, the Sangheili, with a grunt, dove forward, just past the shield that came smashing down upon him.

Before he could get up, he felt as the Mgalekgolo's armored foot pressed down on his back. Screaming, he tried to pull himself out, but was helpless to escape, and was soon crushed to death by the five-ton creature's heel with a brief cracking of bones and armor.

The victory was short lived for Dosso, however, for as soon as he pulled his foot off from the mess he created, he felt a striking pain going through his back, and sensed several of the Lekgolo that lined it die, or writhing around.

The Sangheili, that Dosso previously knocked away, tore the blade out of the fresh wound it created, orange blood spilling in a stream from the sliced open orange-red Lekgolo worms that helped make up his body.

As the Hunter bellowed in pain and surprise, he lifted his shield, and slammed it down behind himself. Just as he saw that he missed his target, the Elite, already on the other side of the behemoth, took a plasma grenade from his side, and stuck it in the opening it created, in between many of the worm-creatures, activating it just before he let go, and jumped back.

"No!" Dosso cried out, after realizing what was happening. Seconds later, the glowing, blue orb inside of him exploded in a burst of noise, scattering both living and dead Lekgolo, and orange blood. What was left of Dosso's body and armor collapsed on the ground in a puddle of orange vital fluids, and writhing strands of Lekgolo worms.

Just several meters away, Okido heard his brother's cry, and ran to the site, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw what was left of his bond-brother lying on the ground.

Standing next to it, he saw the blue-armored Sangheili, covered in his brother's juices, who was still looking at its handiwork, oblivious to his presence

"You! Curse you!" Okido roared in absolute outrage, coming out as only a quaking growl to the Elite, who turned with surprise and dread to the enormous congregation of worms and armor that began charging his way in a burst of speed.

The Sangheili knew there was a fine line between honor, cowardice, and stupidity, and this Sangheili also knew that to challenge a pissed-off, twelve-foot tall, five-ton Hunter with only a half-charged energy sword fell under the "stupidity" category.

Turning tail, he began to run away from the Mgalekgolo, hoping to get as much ground between himself and the rampaging beast as possible.

Rolling about on the ground, the Elite and the SPARTAN continued to wrestle, neither of them gaining any advantage over the other.

Squeezing the wrist that the Sangheili was using to wield his sword, in her left hand, with all her might, Caroline finally got the zealot to let go of its sword, watching as the glowing weapon fell to the ground and deactivated.

Now with an advantage over her enemy, Caroline pushed the Elite over, until she was the one who was on top. Quickly dropping her knife from her captured, cybernetic right arm, into her free one, she lifted it, and stabbed the creature's chest before its flailing arm could stop her.

The fight was not yet over, though. Letting go of the prosthetic hand, the zealot curled his four-fingered hand into a fist, and, with a nasty cracking noise, hit the SPARTAN directly in her unarmored neck, stunning her.

With great effort, and a growl to show it, the zealot finally removed Caroline's hand from the knife, and swiftly ripped it out of its chest, throwing it away, before throwing Caroline herself off himself as well.

"Itz nah rungto, Daemon..." The Elite bellowed, as he crawled through the sandstone dirt, grabbed his sword, and quickly jumped to his feet. Caroline also did this, but at a slightly slower rate, as she was still trying to regain her senses.

Rushing at her while she was still on her knee, the zealot swung his sword at his enemy. In reaction, the SPARTAN lifted her right arm in an attempt to stop it, and watched as the sword sliced through the steel and wiring that made up the forepart of the prosthetic limb, rendering it useless.

Unhurt, she dove to the knife that laid on the ground next to the zealot's right leg, and snatched it with her real, left hand, before stabbing the blade into the alien's thigh.

"Gar!" The Sangheili cried out, sinking to one knee, and falling back on the energy sword in his hand, for support.

Wasting no time, Caroline grabbed the Elite's collar on its armor to lift herself up, and as soon as she was stable, let go, and punched the Elite in the face, breaking one of his four jaws, and knocking his helmet off, revealing his barren, brown, scaled head.

She punched it again, this time in the eye, knocking him down.

Scooping her knife off the ground, Caroline jumped on the fallen Sangheili, but didn't expect the Elite's two-toed foot to come up at the last second, and catch her.

With with a tremendous kick, he sent her off himself, and into the rock wall behind her, with enough force to have killed an average human.

She fell back to the ground, face-first, and went still. The zealot slowly got up, sword in hand, and limped to the unconscious Spartan. He raised his weapon, and prepared to kill his enemy.

"Cra Mgalekgolo, dedres nes! Nes!" Another voice suddenly went out. The zealot stayed its hand, and looked to the noise, a confused look spreading on its reptilian face.

Another Sangheili wearing the blue armor of a minor, coated in an orange liquid, and holding an energy sword, ran and stopped directly next to the zealot, panting heavily.

"Mgalekgolo?" The zealot asked in apparent surprise, looking toward its ally, who was pointing to something at where he just ran from. Before the minor could answer, it gave a look of terror the moment a garbled, bellowing noise was heard, and ducked its head as it ran off again, prompting the zealot to turn his view to where his ally came from.

The last thing the zealot saw before he left this world was a large slab of metal, at the end of the arm of a very angry Hunter, heading directly towards his face.