INSPIRATION COMES FROM THE STRANGEST PLACES… and the randomnest of times.
So… I was playing Halo 3 with my brother and we were starting at the Covenant and finishing to Halo. Well during Covenant I kept losing Marines. They kept going in before I could help and they DIED. Well I'm very protective of my Marines and it made me sad to see them die.
Well by the end of the game at the end video, when they have the memorial service, I saw the pictures of several of the Marines'. THIS made me sad too. It also got me to thinking…
What if we focused more on the lives of the Marines?
Here's a romance idea…
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo
BEGIN
"I need Marines!" The Spartan shouted over the gunfire. The Marines could handle the stragglers but he needed a team to help with infiltrating that base. What he needed was inside and there was no time to waste.
A group of Marines ran up to the Spartan. "What do you need us to do?" One Marine asked gruffly.
"We're taking these vehicles," he indicated to two Warthogs and a Mongoose, "to that building." He pointed to a large structure that was above them on a cliff. "I'll be taking one of the Warthogs and two Marines." He finished.
Chief looked at the group for no more than 3 seconds before pointing out two Marines. "You two." He threw a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the Warthog.
"Yes sir!" One of the Marines saluted and headed away followed by her comrade.
She heard the The Spartan order the other Marines to pick a vehicle and go.
She saw her comrade fall into step with her on the corner of her eye. "What do you think we're goin' up there for?" He asked.
"How should I know?" She shrugged, she looked down at the ground when she felt the ground harden under her, the sandy beach turning into muddy grass.
"You know, that's getting' old." He said angrily.
"What is?" She adjusted her assault rifle on her shoulder and rolled her neck.
"The fact that Spartan never tell us a damn thing. They point, say shoot and we do. We never know why." He Sighed and
"Do we need a reason to kill hostiles?" She asked looking at him as they continued their quick walk to the Warthog.
He looked tired; his usually dark flipped hair was flat and light with sand. He had mud smeared on the side of his face, trailing his jaw line up to his ear. He looked older than he was; with the bags under his eyes and the fatigue and frustration clear on his face.
She didn't expect to look any better.
"No… but it would be nice to know WHAT we are actually doing instead of just followin' some guy in a suit because we don't know where we're goin'." He looked over to her just as she looked away. "Why do you always defend them?" He questioned spite clear in his voice.
"Because they aren't the enemy, Nick." She looked over to him.
Nick almost huffed but refrained. "Yeah, but Karen-"
"Step to it Marines we don't have all day!" The Spartan came up next to them and ran past.
"Yes sir…" She replied immediately before speeding up her pace with Nick.
Karen grabbed the bar and pulled herself up and in the passenger seat. She braced herself against the seat by putting her right foot against the outside from of the door, her assualt rifle at the ready.
She felt the Warthog bounce as Nick jumped up onto the back of the vehicle and grabbed hold of the torret.
Chief slammed on the gas and took off down the narrow path up the mountain and towards the large structure on the hill.
HALO
"No!" Karen screamed from the passenger seat as the Mongoose exploded in front of them. She watched helplessly as the Spartan drove passed without casting a glance to the dead or dying Marines.
Nick slammed his fist into the bar above her head in frustration before swivveling around and riddling the grunt and the Ghost with a torrent of bullets.
"Sir we have to…!" She argued pointing behind her.
"They're gone. We have a mission to finish." The Spartan said simply, not even looking at her.
Karen turned in her seat to look at Nick who looked just as upset as her and he shook his head at her, as if saying 'this is what I'm talking about'.
They were all that was left, only minutes before the Mongoose's destruction the second Warthog had been destroyed by a Wraith; the Marines had died instantly, never stood a chance.
'They don't do anything for us. They are sent to finish a mission no matter what. Protecting us is NOT their mission… out there with a Spartan or not, we're on our own.' She could hear her Commanding Officer now. She had scoffed and said he was wrong; that, 'Spartans were the best thing that had happened to us since the beginning of the war'. She wasn't so sure anymore, what if Marines really were just expendable to them? Helpful but not a priority? … That couldn't be right.
The Warthog sped up the last incline before he slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop in front of a massive door.
Karen stared wide-eyed at the massive doors; they were all black and had strange markings on it. There was foreign writing around the edges of the doors, anything on the inside of that writing however was all designs; curves, slants, strange flowers, and faces decorating the black door.
"Where…" She turned to face the Spartan but he was already outside the Warthog and walking up to the door.
Karen stood up on the outside of the vehicle, The Spartan put a single hand on the door and seemed to soak it all in.
"Nick wha-"
"No idea…" Nick interrupted.
"Nick?" She turned to face him.
"What?" He seemed to be avoiding eye contact.
"Do you think The Spartans think we are… expendable? I mean I know THEY are Marines… in a manner of speaking. But could they… think we just help the process, finish the last parts, and clean up the mess?"
Nick sighed and looked at her. "Karen I have no idea." He looked away to watch The Spartan as he seemed to scan the large door he was talking to himself but he figured he was just talking to Cortana. "I don't think that they believe we are just pawns for them to use in battle, but I don't think they think of us as one of their own. They won't come back for us if we're in danger." He admitted.
Karen looked down and away from Nick, "I thought… I thought they were heroes." Karen's mind flashed back to all her friends lost in battle under a Spartan. Their faces flitted through her mind, and then she flashed to Spartan's; he didn't even look back, or say anything. He just kept moving as if their screams and deaths meant nothing, it didn't even faze him.
"Karen." Nick ducked down to her line of vision until she looked up at him properly. "They ARE heroes. Karen… without them we wouldn't have gotten this far."
"But…"
"I know. But just because they don't have emotional breakdowns or have the tendency to come back for friends… they could just be… used to it. In their line of work they've seen hundreds if not thousands of people fall. After awhile, maybe, they found that going back wasn't always an option, or wasn't always the best for the sake of the missions success."
Karen sighed as did he.
"We can't save everyone." Nick finished.
Karen smiled a little. "Since when did you start defending them, 'partner'?"
He smiled as well, "Around the time you stopped believin' heroes were heroes."
Karen looked behind herself to see that the Spartan was still focused on a closed door that was in no point in time ever going to be opened without some sort of control panel, or a HUGE explosion.
He turned around and started heading back, jumping into the Warthog and taking off.
"Where are we going?" Karen asked, just about as tired as Nick was about being left out of the loop.
"Cortana said we can access the doors controls from another facility a while off." He explained quickly.
Karen nodded curtly before flashing Nick a look of frustration earning her a smirk from him, she simply rolled her eyes and Ben turned around in the torrent chair, facing the back to cover their six. She looked back in front of her; only in time for her to scream and point.
The Spartan turned on the wheel sharply, avoiding a collision with the Ghost but it resulted in slamming the passenger side of the vehicle into the cliff wall.
They were currently in a narrow pass. Their 'road' was a grassy trail that was currently drowning in mud from the downpour that had ended only an hour before they were recruited by the Spartan; on either side of them was a wall of rock.
Behind her Nick grunted but when she looked back he appeared unharmed. "You alright?" He asked her.
She nodded, "You?"
"Fantastic."
The Spartan pulled the Warthog away from the wall as Nick aimed up with the Ghost, the two having a shootout. When she moved to put her own ammo into taking down the Grunt in the Ghost she saw two more coming up beside them.
"We have company!" She shouted, aiming her grenade launcher up with the two new Ghosts rather than the first.
"Yeah!" Nick whooped when the Grunt finally died and ran his Ghost into the cliff wall, her own focus still on the other two. She aimed up her launcher; on her last grenade and got prepared to fire, aiming directly for one of the drivers when the jeep lurched as the Spartan punched the gas and sent them flying away from the remaining two.
She screamed in frustration throwing the launcher out of the vehicle. She heard the metal bash against the hard rock making a loud bang.
"Why would you do that? I could have had it!" She yelled at the Spartan, angry her shot and grenade had been wasted.
When he didn't reply it took all of her will power not to cross her arms and pout. Behind her she heard Ben's torrent firing. She looked behind her to see both Ghosts following in close pursuit and firing.
"Shit" She cursed and un-shouldered her assault rifle. She faced the rear end of the Warthog and poked out her door, firing her rifle at the Ghosts.
One of the Ghosts caught fire and crashed, exploding on impact; both Marines whooped as they focused their fire on the last one, not long after it was down the same way.
"Yeah!" Nick pumped his fist in the air as Karen plopped back down into her seat properly.
"We're clear." She announced, laying her assault rifle across her lap.
Spartan nodded and turned the corner and shot down the trail, "Good shootin' 'partner'." Nick complimented, she looked over her shoulder and looked him, smiling.
"Thanks. Not so bad yourself." She winked at him. She caught a glimpse of purple behind him and perked up moving to see a better view.
"Nick behind you!" She screamed and pointed, to the Ghost that had come up behind them.
She pulled her assault rifle off her lap and got ready to cover him while he got situated but was too late.
Nick screamed in pain and jolted forward as one of the blasts from the Ghost hit his back. He slumped backwards and fell off the back.
"NO!" Karen screamed watching as his body got smaller and smaller. "Sir stop! We have to go back!" She screamed pulling at his right arm.
"We don't have time." He said pulled his arm out of her grasp.
"STOP!" She pounded on his arm before turning around and firing at the Ghost. She climbed out of the passenger seat and onto the torrent platform.
However, instead of just using the torrent to take the Ghost down faster she tucked and rolled off the vehicle and ran towards the Ghost instead. As it was about to hit her she dropped to the ground on her back throwing up a grenade at the same moment.
As the Ghost continued forward only 5 seconds later did it erupt into flames and explode. She jumped to her feet and ran in the direction that Nick was.
CLIFFHANGER