Chapter 1, Part 1: Halo
POV: Private First Class Alfonse Reynolds
Coughing. That is all I could hear. We had received orders to abandon the Autumn via a Bumblebee escape pod to some weird ring-planet-thing. Hmph. Surprisingly, we all survived the drop with only one man down. Thankfully, he didn't die, or we would have been one man fewer with what seemed like countless Covenant all around us both literally and figuratively. Whatever we stood upon… it mocked nature. It was a giant… machine looking thing from orbit but when on it, it just seemed like a planet. A really hollow planet, where if you looked up in the sky you saw the opposite side.
"Alfie, you alright mate?" Chips Dubbo asked me.
I slowly nodded in response, looking all around. "Yeah… I'm fine. Great, actually. Glad I'm not as banged up as Tom." I said with a soft chuckle, noticing a strange structure that reached up to the sky.
It was firing some strange, plasma-like thing straight up into the sky. I had hoped that was a good sign, and that whatever it was, it wasn't going to break the Ring and kill us all. Soon I heard a hum, oh that was just great news.
"Shit… everyone get to cover! Spirit inbound!" I called out before rushing over to a rather large boulder.
Sure enough one of those oddly shaped Covenant landing crafts flew through the sky, attempting to shoot us with its cannon. I really hated those things. They always appeared out of nowhere, and before you could even react you had plasma being shot straight into you. Whilst the automated cannon fired on us in cover, it did nothing but make noise. I happened to be using the same cover as Sergeant Johnson. Now that was an inspirational man.
"Mendoza! Get on coms, call for evac! Preferably before we become fried." The eccentric man ordered.
"Yes sir!" Mendoza replied.
I ignored my com as the Private began sending out a distress call. I had no need to know what he said, and the Spirit took off leaving dozens of little freaks and split jawed mother fuckers for us to fight. Nobody had time to listen to a distress call, at least nobody from our squad. Six men were hardly enough for as many freaks the Covenant had wanted to throw at us. Having come from Harvest, and Reach, I had done my homework when it came to our enemy. Spirits carried around thirty of their troops. Taking into consideration we were highly outnumbered, it was safe to say it carried the max amount of troops.
Just taking a peek around the corner of my cover told me what we were facing. I had a good view over the enemy forces, and they didn't know where we were hiding yet. Somehow. I had honestly expected them to know right away, but who was I to complain? They had three formations. Two standard Lance formations, and one Jackal formation. Had it been one or two formations, I would have called it easy. But, with three that usually meant there was an Elite Major somewhere around. I was also surprised at their numbers. They were fewer than expected.
"Alright men, let's light 'em up!" Johnson called out, and immediately our entire squad including myself broke from cover and began firing on the enemy.
I chuckled quietly to myself as I took out two of the Grunts. Those things, though fierce in numbers, were always so fun and easy to take down or abuse. Soon I saw several plasma rounds fly towards me, and I quickly went back into cover to let them either fly by or smash into the boulder. Swiftly, I quickly reloaded my Assault Rifle.
Ten minutes flew by before we successfully took down the strike teams. In the heat of the battle we missed the fact that another escape pod crashed through the sky not too far from our current position. I happily claimed the last kill, as an Elite Minor had charged me just to lose his shields. With unrelenting force, I bashed him to the ground and stuck my rifle into his mouth, unloading multiple shots into it before standing straight and kicking the corpse. We all gathered around it in order to use the time we had earned to discuss our plan.
"Well done, men. Reload and take a breather before more show up! We're gonna have to keep this up for awhile!" The Sergeant said, "Mendoza! How's that distress call coming along?!"
The Hispanic man let out a soft sigh, "Nothing but static, Sarge. Either we're being jammed or I simply can't get a signal here. That's all I know."
"Damn. Very well, we're going to have to come up with a change of strategy. Those last sons of bitches surely gave their friends our positions." Johnson replied. "Any ideas?"
"Why don't we move closer to that structure? It looks like it provides a lot of cover." I suggested, looking over at that strange structure that fired yet another round of whatever that plasma bolt was.
"Good idea, Reynolds! Let's-" The Sergeant began to say, stopping as we all heard screeches, shouts, roars and a lot of plasma and gunfire. It was coming from the canyon to the right. "You boys hear that?"
"Affirmative… friendlies?" I asked.
"Yeah right, we have been lucky so far, but we aren't that lucky Alfie." Dubbo said as he looked over at me with a smile, the commotion in the distance coming to a sudden stop.
"Quick, to the structure! We've another dropship inbound!" Mendoza called out as yet another Covenant dropship landed. This time right in front of our faces.
We booked it as fast as we could, having been out in the open was not something that promoted life. Not with an automated cannon beginning to fire upon us. Most of us made it, but I saw Tom Halvard, the one wounded Marine of our squad getting left behind. He was directly in the line of sight of the cannon. I let out a loud sigh before shouldering my rifle and running towards him, sweeping him off of his feet and rushing him over to the structure. I was just in time, as a plasma round hit the ground right behind us. I could feel the heat on my back, but thankfully I was just out of the impact radius.
"I am getting sick and tired of the Covenant's shit!" I called out to Dubbo as I set Halvard down in the best spot I could find, which was a small entrance to the structure.
The Australian chuckled as he looked at me from his cover. "Well, you're gonna be sick and tired for quite awhile mate. Covie's ain't givin' up anytime soon."
"Tell me about it." I replied in a growl.
Now, we were truly pinned down. The same formation as before, though with less Jackals and more Elites. Typical of the Covenant, I swear they had some kind of code. 'If strategy does not succeed, send in brute force.' The war against the Insurrectionists was hard enough, but ever since the Covenant came into the picture it was like fighting endless numbers. At least with the Innies we knew their numbers were taking big hits from us.
Through the cross fire, I saw something most peculiar. They started dying off quicker than they could advance. Soon enough, between us and whomever was on the other side of the boulder I once took cover at, the Covenant forces were depleted. Killed.
It was then we spotted him. A Spartan! The Master Chief! Sergeant Johnson, myself, and Bisenti rushed up to the Chief whilst the others moved further inside the structure to begin to situate themselves. We didn't know how many more the Covenant were going to bring to this location, and so far with two waves of their forces down, we could only assume that they'd bring a bit more of a fight before giving up.
"Thank God you're here, Master Chief. I thought we were in real trouble." Bisenti said as we reached the Spartan.
Sergeant Johnson sighed, looking directly into the Chief's visor. "It's a mess, sir. We're scattered all over this valley. We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked. Hopefully our beacon is able to get through more than our coms can."
After that we all heard a feminine voice speak through our coms, it sounded awfully similar to the ship's AI. "Don't worry, Sergeant. We'll stay here until evac arrives." Hearing her tone of voice confirmed it. She was indeed Cortana.
Our coms clicked on with another voice this time, Mendoza's. "Heads up! I've got a Covenant dropship headin' in, over here!" He informed us.
"Alright Chief, lead the way. We'll get your back." Bisenti said, obviously confident now that the Master Chief was with us on the battlefield.
The Spartan took the lead and quickly rushed over to where Mendoza had pointed out the dropship. Sure enough, when we had gotten to the other side of the structure we saw the Spirit take off and where it once was poured more Covenant. Immediately the Chief charged into the Covenant forces without any care for taking damage. I guessed he didn't need to, given his advanced armor, enhancements, and training.
We Marines fought together. Whilst those in the structure provided fire support from a vantage point, the three of us fought pretty much as one single being. We stuck close together and shot at whatever we saw. I had the right side, Bisenti the left, and the Sergeant straight down the middle. The Chief chucked an Elite our way whilst he worked on wasting the other forces. Of course we took the opportunity presented to us, and unloaded our rifles into the alien until its shields broke and we could kill it.
When its corpse fell backwards to the hard floor, the Sergeant called out in a pleased tone. "Hell yeah!"
Then our coms clicked on again, and we could see another Spirit coming in for a landing. "Look sharp!" Mendoza called out, "Covenant drop ship on approach! I could use some help over here!"
We rushed over and disposed of that ship's passengers immediately. They weren't anything special, and really were like the past few waves. However, none of us noticed the few that slipped away into hiding.
"Alright men, reload and prepare for more!" Johnson said over the coms, and we all did as he ordered. We reloaded and checked our weapons, just in time to hear yet another call to arms which made me growl in annoyance.
"Uh-oh, another bandit droppin' in behind us! They're tryin' to flank us!" Mendoza said over the coms.
"Chips, they've officially done it. They have pissed me off." I growled into the coms.
"Good on ya, mate. Now put that hatred to use!" He replied before he and the others on the structure began firing down on the Covenant once more. Even Halvard assisted in the battle from above.
We rushed up towards the dropship and began firing. The others had not been using all of their seats. That was obvious. They only had about ten or fifteen soldiers on the ground per drop. This one? Well, we were swarmed. That indicated that they were not holding back this time. That, of course, could have meant several things. It was more than likely their last chance to kill us and take over whatever this structure was.
Fifteen more minutes passed and we took out the last of them. Or, at least that is what we thought until we heard two separate screams. Halvard's body fell from the structure, the Covenant had landed another dropship behind us while we were distracted and we hadn't noticed it. I noticed another one of our Marines fall, damn.
"Fall back down the ramp!" Chips ordered as he and Mendoza moved out of our view.
The Chief began sprinting towards the structure, and we followed the best we could. I armed and threw a frag grenade onto the structures top, and a few seconds later I saw two Grunts and one Elite fly off of it. My vision then got obscured by the walls of the structure, but from what I could hear, the Chief was tearing the aliens apart.
"Beware, there's another dropship coming in. Opposite side." Cortana informed us through the coms.
"Damn, they really want us dead." Chips huffed before he and I rushed up the ramp to take the high-ground approach. Johnson and the other two just stuck to the ground.
I saw the corpse of Perez, one of the Officers we had dropped with. He was a nice man, and it was a shame to see that he had passed away. Damned Covenant. They had claimed too many lives already. I spotted friendlies coming in from a small crack in the mountain range and smiled.
"Chief, Sarge, we've got friendlies coming in. I count eight of them, watch your fire. Three Officers." I called out over the coms.
"Damned good to hear, son. Now, let's give these freaks a preview of Hell before we send 'em there!" Johnson replied as Chips and I took cover behind the short wall acting as a guard rail for the top of the structure.
With the eight Marines arriving, Chips and I decided to devote our time to them. We signaled them to come up onto the structure, and thankfully they did. I looked at one of the Officers and gave a brief smile.
"Any of you wounded?" I asked.
"Negative. We crashed not too far from here. Heard all the commotion. It was rather dead where we came from, so we decided to stop by and see if maybe we could join the party." One of the Marines replied.
"Ah, yeah, our party. Guests just keep on showing up, wanna help us show them out?" Chips asked with a chuckle.
"Sounds like one Hell of a time, let's go get some!" An Officer said before we all lined up and began firing down on the aliens.
Twenty minutes. Somehow, even with the Chief there, that wave took twenty minutes to deplete. By the time the last Grunt dropped to the ground, I almost wanted to do the same in exhaustion. Hours of fighting and adrenaline finally ceased. But for how long? That was a question I didn't really want to know the answer to.
Our coms clicked on, and I felt a sense of dread rush through me. "This is Pelican Echo 419. Anybody read me? Repeat: any UNSC personnel, respond." I let out a loud sigh of relief.
"Roger, Echo 419. This is Fire Team Charlie. We read you. Is that you, Foehammer?" Sergeant Johnson asked.
"Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya!" Foehammer replied.
"If you're not too busy, Foehammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the Command Shuttle." Cortana chimed in.
"I'm on my way." Foehammer said before cutting out.
The Pelican swooped down with a Warthog strapped to it. "Foehammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. The Master Chief and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers."
"Roger, Cortana. Okay, Charlie Team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give 'em hell!" Foehammer said with an inspiring voice.
Cortana spoke again, "Roger, Foehammer. Stand by to evac survivors and transport them to safety."
"That's affirmative. Echo 419 staying on station. Foehammer out." The Pilot finished.
"The Chief and I need some backup, can you spare a few men, Sergeant?" Cortana asked Johnson.
"Sure, Cortana. Alright ladies, volunteers step up on the double! The rest of you, get to the dropship!" The Sarge called out.
I immediately began to walk towards my only ride to safety and peace, before Chips stopped me and dragged me over to the Chief. I watched as everyone else boarded my winged savior, and felt a gut twisting sickness hit me as I realized I wasn't going to be one of those men. I was so close to a break, to be able to rest for once.
"Looks like you got yourselves two of my best men for volunteers! Make sure they make it home in one piece." Johnson said with a chuckle before Echo 419 flew off. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.
I looked at Chips, who looked at me. I gave him a glare before looking at the Chief.
"Mount up." He said in his deep growl of a voice, before moving to the turret and manning it.
"I call shotgun, you drive, Alfie!" Chips said as he rushed to the passenger side.
I grumbled as I approached the Warthog and got into the driver's seat. I turned on the vehicle and looked straight ahead, sighing quietly so no one heard me over the mechanical purr of the vehicle. I could already see some movement up ahead.
"Well… shit." I huffed.