*Insert fan raving about not owning stuff here.*
[Redacted]
Covenant-loyalist controlled forest moon.
14 February 2554
Brutes.
Big, hairy, scary. That was what most humans who faced them thought of the simian-like soldiers of the covenant. They could take lots of damage and keep on going. A single swing could pulp a man's head and that didn't count the brutal weapons they were fond of using. And there were a lot of them.
Yet for all their fear inducing properties, there was one thing that brutes shared with all other species. When burning, their flesh smelled like...
"Chicken."
The word made a man in SPI armor poking said burning body turn to the speaker.
"Everything smells like chicken to you." He casually noted.
The speaker nodded as he leaned on a tree, the wood bending slightly under the combined weight of him and his own SPI armor. "Aye. Then again, I remember reading about how our head takes any new smells and finds the closest match. Chicken fits mostly."
"...That's morbid. So when I'm eating chicken, I might be actually eating something that I have never tasted before?" His counterpart complained, making his way past dense undergrowth towards him.
"Aye. Have fun chowing down then."
Their conversation was cut short by a crackling radio. "Cut the chatter boys. The patrol should be coming. Soren, get to your position. Aden, set up yours."
The speaker chuckled. "You heard her. Get to your post." He echoed.
"Next time Aden, I draw straws first." His fellow complained, disappearing off into the trees.
The man laughed again and picked up a helmet next to him. He put it on and grabbed a rifle, the long, exotic design made clear it's non-human origins. The man carried it with casual experience.
"You got a good down wind. The brutes will be getting lovely whiffs of their own." The radio continued, now contained within the armor.
"Maybe if we placed it closer to their base, they will get hungry and eat each other." Soren noted, also using the radio.
Aden grinned. "I'll pay to watch that." He added, slowly moving towards a depression on the ground. Dry leaves broke quietly under his armor as he made his way through overgrown ferns and rotting logs. He climbed around a large root and lay in the depression, freezing like a statue.
"I'm in position. How about you partner?" He questioned.
Soren grinned, silently breaking the neck of a jackal, the avian-like alien dying with a light snap."Just clearing out the local shrubbery. Thing really get messy when you don't manage the garden well." He returned, retrieving the dead jackal of its ammunition.
"Right, nothing on the comms. Proceed as before. Aden, how's the charge in your beam rifle?" The radio continued.
The prone man checked his weapon. "Enough to take on every member of the patrol. Not counting my sidearm."
"Soren?"
"6 full magazines, counting the two I liberated. A half charge plasma pistol. That jackal was a stingy one." He returned, settling in between a pair of trees overlooking a trail.
"Right. Don't fire your carbine until they got your back turned towards you. We want this as dishonorable as possible."
"Lady, this turned dishonorable the moment we stepped on this planet." Soren answered, aiming his Type-51 carbine at the trail.
A growl made him grin. Almost perfectly, a group of covenant troops appeared on the trail, each distinctly different. The large brutes, towering over their subordinates in their power armor. The stumpy grunts, waddling along carrying their methane tanks.
All walking into a trap.
"I count 3 brutes, 1 major 2 minors, 9 grunts, all minors. Tagging." He noted, highlighting each with a red outline and a icon for the different ranks.
"I got them. Targeting the major." Aden returned, looking at the same red outlines from his position. He took aim at the head of the only different icon and smiled.
The brutes stopped and sniffed the air. They growled as they smelled the burning flesh of their kind. With a angry roar, they turned and sped up, moving towards to the source. The major barked at the grunts, ordering them to follow faster.
"Distraction's working. They are deviating." Soren returned, aiming at one of the grunts methane tanks.
"Pulling trigger."
Szzp!
The comical discharge of the rifle didn't make it's effects any weaker. The power armor of the brute major failed immediately, disintegrating even as the beam continued along, cleanly blowing a hole through the head of the brute and continuing on. The alien was dead before he realized it.
Soren followed immediately with a shot of his own, the radioactive pellet of his carbine penetrating and detonating a grunt methane tank. The grunt was sent airborne by the explosion, his compatriots scattered by the blast.
All this in less than 3 seconds.
The two remaining brutes roared in rage and confusion. Suddenly their pack leader was dead and there were explosions. They fired blindly into the trees, emptying their spikers at the unseen enemy.
Aden simply grinned wider. He aimed at one of them, breathed out and fired.
Szzp!
Another dead brute.
His partner kept his own fire, taking out grunts with precise shots, pellets burying themselves in brain cavities.
The remaining brute roared at his rapidly dying troops. He tracked the sounds, spotting the distinctive flash of the carbine.
With a primal roar, he went all fours, entering the berserk rage that all who fought them feared.
Soren simply shifted targets. "We got a angry one." He quipped, waiting for his partner's answer.
A beam of ionized particles lanced across the air, spearing into the brute's armor. The raging alien ignored the hit even as the beam disintergrated its armor and sliced through its flesh.
Pinging a split second thanks to his partner, Dutch fired, pumping pellets into the charging alien. Yet the brute continued, shrugging off hit after hit.
Dutch hissed as his weapon clicked on empty. Switching to his sidearm, he held down the trigger, letting the weapon glow with suppressed energy.
The alien was almost on top of him. With a primal roar, he smashed downwards, the bulging muscles on his arms clear through his fur.
Soren simply rolled out of the smash, the fists pounding on empty. Before the brute could swing after him, he was already up, hand still holding the charged pistol.
The brute roared again and charged him, spittle flying from his mouth. Soren grinned under his helmet and stood still, ready to meet it.
Just before collision, he slid towards the brute. Powerful fists smashed around him as he jabbed the pistol into the mouth of the brute, releasing the trigger.
Brutes were tough enough that they could resist at least 2 charged shots from a plasma pistol to the body. To the mouth? Not so much.
The plasma discharge flashed out the mouth of the alien and even managed to take an infinitesimal notch off his shield display. Still, momentum made the brute continue moving, tumbling over Soren to stop behind him.
The man quickly got back up, his pistol aimed at the brute again. But the alien was dead, steam coming from its mouth.
"Target pacified." He announced.
"Same on my end. Just with an extra s." Aden returned. "Those grunts were kind enough to be practice."
"Boys, we got chatter. They noticed that."
"You heard the lady. Go grab the ammo and we'll head on home."
Soren grimaced. "Why am I always on cleanup duty?" He complained before trudging over to the brute. He kicked the dead alien before retrieving it of its spiker ammo.
"A better question is why do you choose a medium to short pole? I got a longer pole to hit people with, hence I should stay behind." Aden quipped.
"You know me. I take too long to shoot."
"Your too long is a normal person's too short."
Soren chuckled. "Semantics. We aren't normal people."
And then the world exploded.
Spartan III SPI armor was like a sad younger brother, Soren mused.
It really was, without the physically enhancing capabilities of the older MJOLNIR armor. Granted, his had energy shielding and a pretty good camouflage. But it was still outclassed by the spartan II armor.
Still, it performed it's job well, which was probably why he was still alive in the middle of a series of glassy craters. Sure, there was a burning branch on him , his shield display was screaming at him and he could feel a slowing rising heat but hey. at least he was still alive.
"Partner, you still there?"
He grunted as he pushed off a burning log. "Somewhat. I think I lost my awareness though."
Aden chuckled. "Aye, you did. Plasma mortars don't leave much around." He quipped, trekking through the craters to him.
"Must have zeroed their weapons on the patrol. Once the patrol died, fire away."
"The damage assessment team is probably on their way already."Aden continued, giving Soren a hand."Probably expecting a fight too."
"Let's disappoint them then. The lady's waiting for us." Soren returned, accepting the help to stand up.
"Aye, she is. She's still asking about you."
"Really? Wow, this armor really took a hit didn't it?" Soren added, slapping his helmeted head. A fizzle blared in his ears before a worried voice filled it.
"Is he okay Aden?"
"Calm down ma'am. I'm fine. We're leaving the zone now." He dryly answered, as the duo quickly returned into the forest. They picked up their pace as they heard the distinctive hum of covenant dropships approaching.
"Partner?"
"Yea?"
"Good to know that mortars dislike hitting you."
Soren chuckled. "It is what it is."
Base camp
The journey back was long. At least 2 hours of constant trekking brought them back to where the duo based themselves.
The distance wasn't exactly the furtherest of distances. But they moved through difficult terrain into a small mountain range, where the going slowed down to a crawl. At time, they stopped, letting their armor blend with the background as they strained to hear for any sound of aircraft.
But the end was in reach, as the two walked through a break between two cliffs. A soft whir followed their footsteps, the sound coming from under a overhang.
They faced a cave, pure blackness amongst sunlit walls. Casually, they entered, their armor blending with the lack of light. Memory made them turn a corner, following movements of years past.
And the duo were back in light. Artificial, this time.
The cave was filled with various military equipment. Weapons and their ammunition lay stacked against the walls, almost all of them of alien design. Glowing plasma batteries hummed from a hole in the floor, thick wires rising from it. And all the way to the back was a table of shining consoles, wires haphazardly connecting different consoles together. A trio of cots lay next to them, like a insignificant side note.
Standing facing the consoles was a woman, shoulder length brunette hair illuminated against the different lights. She manipulated the different consoles, watching the different displays. At the other end was a covenant engineer, the floating alien paying no attention to it's supposed enemies as it managed the mess of consoles.
At the sound of footsteps, she turned on her heels, facing the two men who had returned.
"Armor off." She snapped, grey eyes stormy.
Soren sighed." Ma'am, I'm fine. The armor held up all the way back."
"Off. now."
The addressed man sighed before taking off his helmet. A pair of blue eyes glanced exasperatedly at her from below a mess of chocolate hair.
The movement made the engineer look up and chirp energetically. It crossed over the displays and floated over to him, it's tentacles reaching for the armor. The appendages started to break apart the armor, Soren resigned to it.
Aden's armor shook lightly.
The woman faced him too. "You too."
He sighed before complying. Wounded brown eyes stared at her under another mess of blond hair.
"I seen threes die from being next to a plasma grenade. A plasma mortar barrage? Hell, you shouldn't be existing ." She mused as she turned back.
"Luck ma'am." Soren returned. "A gratuitous amount of luck."
"Goddamn it. What did I say about off the field? It's just the three of us here." The woman snapped, grabbing a flashlight. The woman pushed the engineer aside, the alien huffing but continuing its task.
"Yes Nora." Soren sighed, as said woman shined a light into his eyes.
"No visible damage. You lucky bastard." She whispered.
"That's good. It would be a real shame to have to chalk only one board." Aden quipped as he grabbed a tacpad from the floor. Turning it on, he tapped twice on the screen, whistling at the information he got.
"Partner, it's been four years to the day now." He announced.
Soren grinned. "So it is. I think we blew the headhunter life expectancy out of the water."
"Aye."
Well, here we have it. Call it a test run for an old fandom that i finally worked up the urge to. Hopefully, you liked it. If you did or you didn't, a quick review willl help me tremedously.