Xander's War

Finish the fight.

Sierra 117

The jungle had a spectacular beauty that rivaled the gorgeous stars above, but it was lost on the man that maniacly hurried along the floor. Xander ran faster than he ever did before through the african forest, his chest heaving violently with the effort. The Covenant patrol he and his friends had run into was so close behind him he could almost feel the Brute's breathign down his neck, and it was gaining. Clutching a stolen plasma rifle in one hand and the stock of a dirty carbine in his other, he bolted around enormous trees and through thick ferns, over craggy rocks and shallow streams.

He felt a burning spike zing past his ear, missing him by a few mere centimeters, and Xander quickly leapt behind a rock. He jammed the plasma rifle into the makeshift holster he had made for it from fern leaves and shoe laces. Jenny, his younger brother's pretty girlfriend, had painstakingly taught him how.

Xander kept running, despite the fact that his heart was pounding in his chest like a sledge hammer. He was the last, and he be damned if he was going to kick the bucket too. Xander knew that fighting when he was out numbered and out gunned was suicide, but he was blinded by the want for revenge on the Covenant for Paula, Jack, Gordon, and Jenny.

The five were hungrily scrounging for food when the Brute shot Jack in the back. Gordon was the next victim, cut down and gutted by the blade of a Brute shot. Paula died from many burns from plasma fire, and Jenny's side had exploded from needler rounds. It was over almost as soon as it began. Xander only got a few defensive shots off before he was forced to retreat.

Tears painfully stung the cut on his cheek he had received from the violent skirmish, courtesy of the same Brute that had evilly filled Jack with spikes. He quickly wiped away the traitorous tears that blurred his vision. There was time to mourn later, it was time for revenge, and retribution should always be swift. He needed to get to higher ground and rain death and hellfire on the murdering scum. He patted the stolen plasma and spike grenades. Swift retribution.

He carefully snuck through the foliage now, no longer on the run. He silently climbed up a steep incline, and slowly doubled back to the murderous Covenant, keeping well hidden.

The Brutes were trying to sniff out his trail, having lost sight of him. There were just two Brutes, both in blue armor- Minors, if Xander remembered right, and if the Brutes maintained simular ranking style of the Elites. The Grunts were lazily sitting around, some already falling asleep because of the sudden lack of action.

Xander carefully strapped the carbine to his back and pulled the two spike grenades from his belt. Priming them, he took a running leap off the ledge.

Screaming like an enraged primal animal, he unleashed his fury upon the Brutes first, savagly throwing the grenades and hearing the satisfactory 'slunk' that meant that they had met targets. Xander dove behind a rock for cover.

One Brute had caught it in the helmet, one of the spikes pinning the headpiece to its skull. The Brute wasn't in agony long. The grenade exploded, sending the other spikes into the air in the form of lethal shrapnel.

The other grenade had missed it's intended target, instead sinking into the methane tank of a Grunt that bolted upright as Xander had screamed. The unlucky alien had been dozing right in the path of the grenade and the Brute wielding the Brute shot. The grenade blew, igniting the methane and the resulting blast killed several nearby Grunts and weakened the power armor of the remaining Brute.

Xander grabbed the carbine and unloaded the weapon on the surviving Brute, making the beast sink to the ground and into the cold talons of death.

Xander ejected the carbine's clip, if it could be called that, and replaced it with a new one. He noticed it was his second to last clip of carbine ammo. He switched to the plasma rifle, then retrieved the spiker. He mercilessly unloaded the spiker on the unorganized Grunts and used the plasma rifle to finish them off.

He glanced at the plasma rifle after he tossed away the spiker, noticing it was at quarter-charge. He needed to conserve ammo, now more than ever.

He carefully and thoroughly combed the area for the needler and the Grunt that wielded it. Having found the weapon and it's previous owner, he reloaded the weapon and grabbed it's remaining ammunition. He holstered the plasma rifle, and carried the needler in his hand. After collecting replacements for the grenades he used, he quickly left the blood soaked area.

He wandered haphazrdly in the forest for hours, mourning his friends. It was too dangerous to return to bury the bodies, so he forged his own trail further into the jungle and away from them.

He had stumbled upon Master Chief purely by accident. He saw the small impact crater and the green Spartan not far from the crashed piece of spacecraft hull. Everyone knew who Master Chief was, so Xander had no doubt on if this armored man was a friend. Keeping the needler handy, in case any Covenant were around, he climbed down the incline to the unmoving Spartan, worried that Master Chief had joined those who had crossed beyond.

Almost immediately after he reached the Chief, Xander was surrounded by angry marines. Quickly dropping the needler on the ground, he raised his hands above his head. "Don't shoot!"

"Stand down, marines. He's a human, not Covenant scum," a gruff voice ordered.

The marines lowered their assault rifles, and Xander turned to the man he recognized as Sergeant Major Avery Johnson. Xander had seen the award ceremony vid that had been taped just before the First Battle of Earth. He nodded to the Sergeant.

"Thank you, sir." Xander gingerly picked up the needler again.

"You alone, kid?" Johnson asked.

Xander decided to let the 'kid' comment slide. "No, sir... until this afternoon, sir. My friends and I ran into a Covenant patrol... and I'm the only one left."

Johnson started to scan the jungle, and the marines trained their weapons on the trees. Xander shook his head.

"That patrol isn't going to bother us. It's been wiped out." Xander patted his new grenades.

Johnson studied him. "The work of you and your pals?"

Xander shook his head sorrowfully. "No. My friends died in the ambush, and I had to retreat. I doubled back once I got to higher ground and returned the favor."

Johnson studied him again. "All by your lonesome?" He asked, skeptically.

Xander nodded.

Johnson leaned towards him. "How many were there?"

Xander thought for a moment. "Two blue armored Brutes and half a dozen Grunts."

The marines shook their heads in disbelief, and Johnson got right in his face. "Are you telling the truth, kid?"

Xander turned the needler around in his hand so he as holding the bottom of it, offering the weapon to Johnson. "This is the needler that killed one of my friends."

Johnson stared at it for a moment before backing off. "Good man. Ever think about joining the Marines?"

Xander laughed. "Yes, but my father was an Army man. He had connections that prevented me from joining the Marines each time I applied."

"How old are you?"

"Thirty."

"Any your pappy had that much control over your life?"

"He tried."

The Master Chief grunted, and Johnson spun towards him. "Private!"

One of the marines bolted forward with something in his hands. He pressed a few buttons on it, unlocking the armor and letting the Spartan up.

"You damned fool, why do you always jump?" Johnson lectured angrily. "One of these days you're going to land on something as stubborn as you are, and I don't do bits and pieces, Chief. Cortana, how's things?"

After a moment of silence, Xander looked around at the names stenciled on the armor of the marines to see if any had 'Cortana' on it."

"Cortana? You in there?" Johnson asked again, knocking loudly on the Chief's helmet.

Xander thought for a moment that perhaps 'Cortana' was the Chief's real name.

"Where is she, Chief?" Johnson asked pulling the AI chip from the back of the Spartan's helmet. "Where's Cortana?"

Chief took the chip from the Sergeant Major. He looked at it a bit, making Xander think he was remembering something. Chief put the chip back in the helmet. "She stayed behind."

Xander spotted a shimmer behind Johnson. He was about to yell a warning and raise his needler, but Chief beat him to the punch, snatching Johnson's pistol and grabbing the invisible Elite. His movements were a blur to Xander.

Xander had seen vids of Elites, but this one's armor was different. Johnson shouted at the Chief. "Chief, wait! The Arbiter's with us!"

Chief didn't remove the pistol from where the Arbiter's chin would have been it the alien had been human.

Xander had raised his needler after Chief had rushed the Elite, but a glare from Johnson made him lower it.

"Come on now, we have enough problems without you two trying to kill each other."

Chief removed the pistol and the Arbiter adjusted his mandibles. "Were it so easy. Come, the Brutes have our scent."

"Then they must love the smell of green." Johnson took an assault rifle from a marine and handed it to the Master Chief. "Let's move out."

Feeling sorry for the Marine, who was now left with only a pistol, Xander handed over his needler and the ammo for it. The Marine nodded his thanks.

"I'm Private Bill Wilson."

"Alex Blacksmith, but my friends call me Xander."

"Am I you friend now after I've pointed a gun at you?" Wilson asked coyly.

Xander shrugged. "Only if you want to be."

Johnson glared at them. "Shut it, marines." He glanced at Xander again. "What did you say your name was, kid?"

"Blacksmith, sir. Xander Blacksmith."

"Shut it, Xander." Johnson returned his attention forward and Xander resisted a small urge to rudely flip Johnson the birdie while the Sergeant Major's back was turned.

A familiar howl filled the air, and Xander dove under cover of a rock ledge, his bones rattling from the howl. The marines kept moving, though one whispered into his radio.

"Sergeant Major, Phantom inbound!"

Xander didn't hear Johnson's reply, but Wilson waved at Xander to follow him. After seeing Xander hesitantly comply, Wilson turned and followed Master Chief and the Arbiter as the group split up.

Xander pulled out his carbine and jogged forward. Chief easliy jumped up onto a rock, and Wilson hurriedly climbed up after him. Xander made a running leap onto the rock, though he had to throw his weight forward to avoid falling off the way he came. Xander knew it wasn't much of a feat, but he really hoped that the Chief had seen it.

Instantly, Xander mentally chided himself. "Idiot," he thought, "showing off and trying to impress someone, especially a Spartan, will only get yourself or someone else killed."

He spotted the Brute up on the ledge across the stream. He instantly plastered himself to the rock and aimed his carbine. He had figured out how to use the 2x zoom on the carbine the first day he took it from the dead Brute that owned it before him. He was about to squeeze a shot off when the Master Chief opened fire with the assault rifle in short, controlled bursts. The Brute moved, and Xander kept his carbine on him. Xander waited until the Chief took out the armor, then Xander squeezed off three shots right to the Brute's head, taking the monster down.

Chief quickly glanced around to Xander's position, and Xander shrugged. "Can't let you have all the fun." Xander ran ahead, managing to score head shots on all the disorderly Grunts as they panicked.

A Phantom appeared over the edge of the cliff, looming over the earthlings, and a Grunt opened fire with a plasma turret. The Arbiter sniped it, and one of Xander's shots ignited a methane tank belonging to another Grunt inside the Phantom, killing several other Grunts inside the alien drop ship. This earned Xander a thumbs up from Wilson.

The Brute that had just jumped out of the Phantom opened fire on the Arbiter, only to change targets when it spotted Master Chief. Xander savagly attacked the Brute's flank, helping Chief and the Arbiter take down the power armor by combining fire on their target. The Brute keeled over, dead before it hit the ground. Xander helped pick off the rest of the Grunts in the immediate area, while the Master Chief and the Arbiter attacked the next group coming out of the caves ahead.

Wilson fired the needler, filling a Grunt with needles. The needles exploded lethally, igniting the methane tank and killing a few more Grunts that had lingered too close to their doomed brother. Xander emptied his clip into the remaining Grunts, then reloaded, remembering that this was his last clip of ammo for the carbine.

The group ran quietly through the caves and stumbled to a halt when they made it through to the other side. Xander saw Chief carefully examine the area. One of the marines pointed at a sleeping Grunt.

"Sleepers!" he whispered. "Tap 'em out!"

"Wait," Chief quickly grabbed the marine's shoulder. "There are jackals with carbines out there, not to mention several Brutes. We have to do this quietly."

They moved as stealthy as they could, meleeing Grunts, killing the small aliens before they awoke. Xander and Wilson flanked the Covenant's right side as the Chief and the others flanked the alien's left. One of the Brutes spotted Xander, and it loudly raised the alarm. The Arbiter, who had taken a sniping position, opened fire, and the Chief unleashed his rifle.

Xander and Wilson had fewer unfriendlies to deal with, so the two joined up with the others rather quickly. When the last of the stuborn Covenant went down, Xander raced over to the supply cases filled with alien weaponry. He reloaded on carbine ammo. He didn't find another plasma rifle, so he kept the one he had, even if it was at quarter charge.

Moving into the next area, there was a mean looking, gold clad Brute standing on a solid, naturally occurring bridge to the ledge above, questioning a marine it was painfully dangling in the air.

"Tell me its location," the Brute snarled menacingly.

"Kiss my-" the marine began, but was interrupted by Chief's rifle, roaring bullets into the Brute. The Brute dropped the marine, who scurried away, and the Arbiter fired on the Brute as well. Under the combined fire, the Brute's armor gave way, but the Brute launched itself down, landing heavily on the ground beneath the bridge, and drew its weapon. Xander's carbine fired four shots to the Brute's head before the beast dropped, and the Grunts were made short work of.

The group viscously fought their way through the next group of Covenant and entered the caves. Chief stopped suddenly, shaking his head as if he was trying desperately to clear it. A data pad beeped loudly. The private carrying it looked at it, then worriedly turned to the Chief.

"Chief, you okay?" Wilson asked, noticing the Chief's state.

"Your vitals just pinged KIA," the private with the pad added.

Chief ignored them and quickly pushed past. Xander raised an eyebrow at Wilson, but his newfound friend just shrugged.

The Pelicans were raining death and fire on a large group of Covenant at the rendezvous point. The Arbiter picked up a grenade at the edge of the ledge, primed it, and threw it. "Grenades, blow them to bits!"

Xander picked up two frag grenades and put them in this belt, then quickly primed another from the ground and tossed it at a group of Grunts. He watched the entire group explode, their methane tanks blowing like oversized firecrackers on the Fourth of July.

Xander heard a loud, haunting wail in the air, like the scream of some terribly horrible monster. Wilson worriedly looked up.

Two purple Banshees flew by the Pelicans and fired green death upon the drop ships. Xander watched in horror as their only way out of this jungle hellhole lost control and disappeared down river.

The group vengefully charged the Covenant troops along the river. The aliens never knew what hit them. One Brute went berserk, but Chief viscously shoved a broken metal bar through the alien's skull and let the monster sink to the ground.

Xander and the Arbiter provided sniper fire from the roof of an abandoned structure to support the others, while the Master Chief and the others rushed the structures ahead.

After they cleaned that area, the Arbiter turned to Xander and carefully regarded the man for a moment. "The Banshees will return. Quickly, into the jungle."

Xander and the Arbiter quickly caught up with Chief and the others. Wilson nodded towards the trees. "Jackals. Looks like they've got carbines."

Xander smiled mischievously. "Excellent. Target practice that gives you back your ammo, with interest!"

After they finished killing the Jackals, Xander climbed up a ledge and saw Johnson and his marines falling back from the crash site, firing on the Covenant troops. "Come on!" Johnson shouted tauntingly. "You want breakfast, come and get it!"

Chief and Xander's group somehow managed to avoid fire from a Phantom, kill the Covenant by the cliffs, and make it to the downed Pelican. The party began restocking on ammo. Chief traded his M6 pistol for a S2 sniper rifle, Wilson traded his own pistol for an assault rifle, but kept the needler. The others, except for Xander and the Arbiter, stocked up on ammo.

"Sergeant Major went this way, Chief. Through the caves," said the marine with the data pad.

They came upon a good sized dam, and the Arbiter pointed at something across the water. Xander squinted and could barely make out Johnson, being kicked into a small building by a Brute chieftain. "See how they bait their trap?" the Arbiter asked the Chief. "I will help you spring it."

Chief began sniping the Brutes, Xander and the Arbiter began shooting the jackals with their carbines, and the marines lobbed grenades down on the Covenant that were too close to snipe.

The Brute chieftain had disappeared somewhere, and the group rushed the building on the near side of the dam. They were pinned down from enemy fire, but the Chief and the Arbiter, having shields, managed to thin the Covenant ranks. Xander pulled off a few shots before he had to duck behind his cover again, but he accedently tripped over a dead Grunt, falling off the platform and into the room underneath. He glanced up to see the missing Brute chieftain, standing over him with a wide, evil grin and a gravity hammer.

The monster raised his weapon, preparing to strike his quarry, but Xander quickly rolled between the Brute's legs, then sprang to his feet. Spinning around, he started shooting the Brute's headpiece. The helm was made of sterner stuff than the other helms, so it took more shooting to knock it off. Until Xander could shoot it off, he had to dodge more viscous attacks from the hammer. Their duel led them down the passage under the dam's top, where the Brute didn't have the room to swing his hammer, and to the other side of the dam. It was then that the helm popped off the Brute's head, but then the Brute activated a shield.

Xander cursed quietly under his breath. He quickly dropped a primed grenade and dived away before the explosive went off. The shield took the brunt of the blast, but the Brute was now even angrier than before. Xander hurriedly ran into a larger room and sped up a ladder.

The chieftain started to move faster and bash the hammer around more haphazardly, not caring if he got close to Xander or not. He leaped up after Xander, and pursued the much smaller human running across the top of the dam.

Reaching the building where he fell into the clutches of the Brute chieftain, he dropped another primed grenade, hoping to take down the shields of the crazy alien. He turned on a dime after the explosion and emptied his clip on the alien while backpedaling. Before he could reach for another clip, the Brute swung the hammer again, trying to crush Xander into the ground. Xander quickly leaped for safety. The hammer busted a crate and sent it flying. Xander landed safely, then rushed the Brute, violently smashing the stock of his carbine in the Brute's face like a baseball bat, breaking the rifle.

The Brute's hammer had been poised over it's head for another strike, but the carbine to the face caused the Brute to drop the large weapon over its back to instinctively grab its own face in pain. The hammer landed, sending a shock wave that killed the Brute and sent Xander flying into a wall. The last thing Xander painfuly remembered before he blacked out was yet another Phantom approaching.