Disclaimer - I don't the Halo series. It belongs to 343 Industries.
"Well, that went to hell pretty fast."
Their pilots nonchalant reply didn't help anyone. One of the two banshees tailing them fired its fuel rod cannon attempting to destroy the pelican. The pilot managed to tilt the ship a bit to the left, causing the shot to barely miss, but the other banshee was still firing a steady stream of plasma fire that did not miss. The plasma had burned through a considerable amount of the ships bulkhead. The first banshee fired it's fuel rod cannon again, barely missing again, and the second one had stopped shooting, it's gun having overheated. The back of the pelican opened, and one of the marines aimed his rocket launcher at one of the banshees, while the rest fired at the other one.
The rocket hit the banshee and it fell apart in a large explosion. The other banshee was torn apart piece by piece by the marines' concentrated fire, but not before it managed to fire it's plasma turret, the shots easily burning through three of the marines' BDU and kill them.
After the two covenant fliers were destroyed, the back of the pelican closed up and the marines slumped into their seats.
How could this have happened? The thought going through the marines' minds. This was supposed to be just a regular recon mission. There were reports of some minor insurrectionist activity in the area, so they were sent to investigate and if necessary engage the insurrectionists. But instead of insurrectionists, what they found were a bunch of burned corpses, and next thing they new they were under plasma fire. There had been two squads sent, and a pelican each.
Now, there was only little over half a squad and barely intact pelican. "Emmert, are there any nearby UNSC personal?" the head marine, Sgt. Finn Borden asked their pilot. "Negative sergeant. Scans aren't detecting any UNSC personal. Good news is that were not detecting any Covenant signals either." was the reply of Warrant Officer Lora Emmert.
"Well that's one good thing." He probably just jinxed them saying that, because a few moments after he said that, two ground side plasma turrets fired on them. The damaged pelican wasn't able to take anymore and it's left wing fell off. A bit after that the pelican crashed.
The five marines plus their pilot braced themselves for impact. And a minute or so later after the crash four people in marine armor came out of the wreckage. The remaining soldiers then ran after hearing footsteps that were too heavy to be human. Shots of plasma were fired behind them, with three green bolts killing one of the marines, while blue bolts killed another.
The two remaining marines managed to find cover behind some rather large rocks. "Get a distress signal out now!" the Borden ordered his sole remaining subordinate, who hurried in doing just that. "This is Private Louis Farley calling to any UNSC personal in the area. We have encountered Covenant forces. Sustained heavy casualties. Two survivors. I repeat. this is Private Louis Farley calling to any UNS-" the soldier was cut off by a pink needle to the head.
Borden fired his MA37 assault rifle at the source of the shot, and a few seconds later he heard a Jackal's distinct death wail. Hearing the footsteps get closer, he popped out of cover and unloaded the rest of his magazine onto the pack of grunts lead by an elite minor in front of him. Two grunts fell, the Elite's shield fizzled, and shots were returned. A stream of plasma from the Elite's plasma rifle clipped the mans shoulder, knocking him to the ground.
The man quickly crawled back to his cover. The Elite laughed at the sight of the human sprawled on the ground, crawling pathetically. Humans were nothing but heretics that deserved to be annihilated. A plague to be wiped out by a sea of holy fire.
The elite slowly walked toward the human. He wanted to savor the look of terror on the human's face. Borden had managed to reload his assault rifle and began shooting the Elite. The alien's shields withstood the barrage of lead, and the Elite fired his plasma rifle in response, aiming for the man's arms. The blue bolts melted the gun and burned his arms, exposing his bones.
Borden attempted to flee, crawling as fast he could, howling in pain with every motion of his arms. The Elite chuckled, taking sick satisfaction at the sight. He walked up to the crawling man and kicked him onto his back. Borden's eyes widened in fear, tears forming along with the knowledge that he was about to die. The Elite stomped on the man's chest, eliciting another cry of pain. The Elite aimed his plasma rifle at Borden's head.
But before he could fire the fatal burst, an explosion occurred, and his grunt subordinates went flying past him. A stream of bullets hit him, he turned to the source of the fire and shot back. The Elite's shields dropped and the rounds punched through his armor, rupturing his organs. With a gurgle, the Elite dropped to the ground lifeless.
Borden saw an armored figure walk toward him. His rescuer was huge. Standing at over 7 feet, and clad in thick armor that had a series of number on the left side of his chest piece that he couldn't make out. He heard the man calling for a pelican while walking towards him. He stopped next to the man, and started speaking, but Borden was in too much pain to hear what he was saying. All he could do was grunt in pain.
Another group of four elites walked into sight. Three minors and a major. The giant of a man turned his rifle on them and opened fire. The shields of one the minors fell, and after a moment, so did the elite. The others moved into whatever cover they could. The armored man lobbed a grenade over the cover of the Elite Major. The alien ran out of cover to avoid death by explosion, only to find himself in front of the human in the strange armor, who bludgeoned him with the butt of his rifle. The Elite fell to the ground with depleted shields and a cracked helmet.
The two minors popped out of their cover and opened fire at the man who returned fire. His assault rifle's rounds hit one of the minors, eventually dropping the shields and killing the alien. The aliens plasma bolts hit him, but unlike the marine BDU, his armor withstood the bolts. He aimed his rifle at the other elite, who jumped back into cover. He then returned his attention to the elite on the ground. He fired the few remaining shots in his gun at the elite. Normally, that few rounds would do nothing but inconvenience an Elite, but this one had no shields. He died almost immediately.
The other elite noticed the human reloading, and decided to use the small window of opportunity. He popped out of his cover and unleashed a stream of plasma at the human. The man dropped his rifle and equipped his pistol. With incredible accuracy, he shot the plasma rifle out of the elite's hand. The Elite responded with pulling out his energy sword and charge the human. The alien managed to close the distance and slashed with his sword. The man dodge and then ducked a stab before tackling the elite onto the ground. The elite raised his sword attempting to kill the human, only for the man to knock the sword from his hand. The man grabbed the elites head and smashed it against the ground twice.
Before he could smash it a third time, the elite managed a kick and pushed the man off him. The Minor started standing up, only for the large man to deliver a bone shattering kick to the alien's head, sending him back to the ground. He didn't move again.
"Maybe this war isn't as hopeless as I thought." Despite the pain, Borden could still form coherent thoughts. Ever since the war with the Covenant began, he didn't really have any hope for humanity. He saw what the aliens could do. They had better weapons, better armor, better technology, and there was just too many of them. But now, seeing this man fight four elites, the Covenants best soldiers, and win, he thought, that maybe, just maybe, there might be some hope after all.
His savior walked towards him, moving to pick him up. The sight of armored hands moving to lift him was the last thing Borden saw before he blacked out.
Author's Notes : Well, here's my first story. I know it's short, but I didn't really want to make a long fic right now. Might make a longer fic after a while. Anyways, write me your thoughts.
