Hey

Well, just a warning, this is my first Halo fic.

Nywho.

Read on my fellow fans…

(I don't own Halo and I never will)

Another explosion shook the base, Brigid felt herself hit the ground as the rumbling increased and looked around. The marine that had been carrying her was down, she could see blood trailing from his mouth. Brigid shook it off and rose shakily to her knees. It had only been a mine, no Covenant were around. Brigid looked around, her eyes hurt. It had only been a little over a week since her operations and she was still feeling the side effects in full swing. She had not been trained to handle what she was going through, and there were no Spartans here to guide her.

Another rumble shook the building and Brigid clutched the wall to remain upright. She felt a little better now as her knees came under her. She felt light without any armor, there was very little she would not have given to have armor around her. Her surgeon had forbidden her to wear armor and she was only clad in a grey UNSC shirt with black cargo pants and sturdy boots. A new Marine put his arm around her waist, Brigid shook him off, she did not need to be babied. They turned as a thud resounded at the door.

"They're coming!" One female marine shouted.

"Brace!" The sergeant yelled. Two marines turned two benches into a door blockage.

"Sergeant!" Brigid yelled. "I need a weapon!" The sergeant tossed her two pistols and Brigid armed them, pointing them at the door.

"Fall back to the armory," Sarge said, "Lisak, get a satchel on that door and blow it as soon as we're through." Lisak nodded and threw a charge at the door, the detonator was in his hand. The squad backed through the door and ran into the armory. Brigid ran around, she grabbed two shotguns, a belt for her pistols, a battle rifle, and as many grenades as she could. Brigid then equipped herself with a chest-plate, gauntlets, and leg guards. Brigid winced as the gauntlet closed over her left arm, the stitches from repairing her arm were still new. Her arm had been split open to the bone and four bones in her arm and hand had been replaced. The accident had changed her life, and it was still changing.

"Sergeant," Brigid called. She was out of uniform and his junior in rank, but she was still a battle-hardened veteran. "Sergeant we need to get to the hanger and get off this rock. The Covenant aren't going to wait to glass this planet." The Ku-Lita was one of the most outlying systems that the UNSC controlled, and backup was distant. Sarge nodded at Brigid. A plasma blast hit nearby and Brigid winced as two marines were burned away. Brigid felt heat filter over her back and she was blown back through a doorway. She shook her head and raised it as dust and rubble poured down around her. Brigid coughed and saw that the squad she had been talking to was now gone. She crawled over to each one, keeping her head down, and scrounged the Sergeant for any information about Reach, or Earth, or any other military base. Thankfully he had none and she could continue her crawl out.

"Brigid!" She heard a familiar voice sound. Kyle ran in from the cafeteria. "Brigid!" Brigid got to her feet and Kyle wrapped his arm around her. "You're all right, I've been looking for you."

"Kyle," Brigid said, "Come on, we've got to get out of here."

"Jo and Brian are up ahead with Sarge," Kyle explained. "This way." Brigid followed Kyle to another one of the many armories in the base.

"Who else made it through?" Brigid asked as she saw gunfire from the other side.

"Just the five of us," Kyle replied, "Matt bought it back in the barracks, Luke and John died destroying some hunters, and Juba caught one in the chest a couple hallways back."

"Let's get moving," Brigid replied. She and Kyle moved and caught up. Brigid and Kyle ducked behind a table and Brigid recognized a familiar form crouched behind it. "Hey asshole! Glad to see you're still alive!" A small marine with a Jackhammer on her back turned around.

"You to, you fucking bitch," Jo replied.

"Will you two cut it out?" Another, Brian, asked, "I mean, I know you two love cussing each other out, but come-on!"

"You know we love each other," Brigid answered, throwing a grenade casually over her shoulder and several death cries followed. "Now, how do we get off this rock?"

"There should be some shuttles in the hanger bay," Sarge replied, "I think we can get to those ok."

"Shall we?" Brigid asked. Jo smiled and stood up, emptying both tubes of her rocket launcher.

"Just like training," Jo answered. Brigid and Jo ducked out from behind the table. Brigid was standing and Jo was kneeling in front of her. Kyle and Brian took up kneeling and standing defensive positions on either side of the girls. Sarge turned and knelt, he had their six. The five together were unstoppable. Brigid, Jo, Kyle and Brian had all been in the same platoon since Basic training. They had gone straight there to Ku-Lita for advanced training. Brigid saw an Elite come through the door and fired several bursts at his shield, then Jo followed up with a shotgun blast that took out the weakened shield. Kyle swung his battle rifle around and fired a spurt into the chest of the Elite, it dropped to the floor dead in less then three seconds. Twenty Jackals entered through the doorway.

"Delta 2, 4!" Brian yelled. Brigid and Kyle threw grenades to the right of the Jackals, who turned their shields to protest them form the blast. Less then a second later Jo and Brian threw grenades to the opposite side and the blast hit the Jackals on their unprotected sides. Bits of them pasted the walls.

"Ew," Kyle said, "Alien guts! Gross!"

"Hm," Jo said, taking out a grunt squad, "The color looks good on you. You should wear it more often."

"Enough joking," Sarge said, "More killing."

"Yes Sergeant!" The four sounded off. Then more grunts came in. The squad may have joked around, but they were the best marines that had graduated from the academy in the past five years.

"Plasma fodder," Brigid yelled, "Dead ahead!"

"Wait!" Jo sounded off. The grunts charged. "Wait! Wait! NOW!" The four unloaded their clips at all the same time. They aimed at the same height and swept their weapons from side to side. Grunts barked and squealed as their tanks ruptured and the methane mixture they breathed vented. A plasma grenade rolled free from a few bodies, as they got close and Brigid activated it, she chose a grunt in the group and pinpointed it with her sharpened eyesight.

"Fire in the hole!" Brigid yelled. The grunt she hit with the grenade ran back towards the center of the ground and it detonated the methane pack causing a large explosion. Brigid and Jo were knocked to the ground from the shock wave of the combined methane packs and grenade supply of about forty grunts.

"Come on!" Kyle yelled. He picked up Brigid and Jo by the scruff of their collars and set them on their feet. "We have to get out of here!" Kyle and Brian shoved the two girls out of the door and lay down covering fire as they retreated.

"This way!" Sarge yelled. Brigid, Jo, Kyle and Brian all ran through the door after Sage, laying massive amounts of covering fire. They got to yet another cafeteria on the way to the hanger and ran into a Covenant blockade.

"We can't get around this," Brian said, "We're going to have to find another way to the hanger!" Brigid's mind raced at a million miles an hour, everything around her moved in slow motion as her accelerated mind raced through her memory.

"The vent system," Brigid said, walking over and jumping up on a table. "Come on, this way." Brigid pulled out a ladder that reached halfway to the floor and pulled herself up. The Covenant had not found the way into the system yet. "It's clear!" Kyle and Jo pulled themselves up followed by Brian and Sarge. It was not fast moving through the vents, and sight was poor as best. Brigid could see because of the repairs to her eye, but she would have scars on her face for the rest of her life. Brigid found an opening close to the hanger and opened the door. Covenant were only a hallway away, crowding around a blast door. Brigid made the hand signal to keep quite and stay put.

She dropped down to the floor and silently creeped across the hall. She looked up as she did, every blast door was designed to hold in a corner and went though to the vent system so that anyone in the area would be kept safe, or in this case, trapped. Brigid suddenly noticed a grunt look at her and bellow in her direction. About four elites turned and Brigid made a dive for the control panel. She pushed the button and the door slammed down as the covenant began throwing their bodies against the door. Two Covenant had gotten caught in the door and their blood oozed out from between the seal.

"Yugh," Brian said.

"That should buy us some time," Sarge said, "Good thinking, now lets keep moving." Sarge held his rifle at the ready and peered around the corner. He lifted his hand and made a series of signals. Keep quiet. Move quickly. Stay low. Hold fire unless necessary. The squad nodded and turned the corner. There were three hallways and the closest one would take them to the flight hanger, three meters beyond the hallways rested a squad of grunts with two mounted plasma cannons. Brigid and Jo groaned and picked their feet up. It was a short, silent sprint, but nerve racking at the same time. Brigid turned and covered the hallways until Kyle hit her shoulder to signal the clear. Brigid turned and double-timed down the hallway, they were that much closer to the hanger, and survival.

"Move," Sarge said, waving them through the doorway.

"Clear," Jo said, "We're thirty meters from the hanger, we'll need to repel down two levels to get to the ships."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Sarge replied, "Do we have an inventory of the hanger?"

"We won't know what's been taken until we get there," Jo replied, "If we're lucky we may be able to nail a transport fighter and get to the next system."

"That's going to be our best shot," Sarge said, "Jo, you and I will pilot, Kyle your navigations, Brigid and Kyle, I want you two to take the guns as soon as we're aboard. Understood?"

"Yes Sergeant," the four barked.

"Good," Sarge replied, unslinging his rifle, "Let's move." Brigid unslung her own rifle and check ed the ammo counter, she only had half a clip of ammo left in it and she wanted to keep her other weapons until they reached a safe system.

"Sarge," Brigid asked, "Permission to take Kyle and go get supplies for the field."

"Denied," Sarge said, "We'll get stuff there."

"Sergeant," Brigid said again, "All due respect, but we can still rendezvous in the hanger, we'll come out on the ground floor and we can belay the repel lines while one of us covers the hanger. The Covenant haven't worked their way into the vent systems yet and if worst comes to worst we can bail out through the internal systems. Please sergeant, we don't know how long we'll be away from UNSC. There's field supplies in the armory one level down that we'll need."

"Move," Sergeant said. Brigid smiled and hit Kyle on the arm.

"Let's go," she said. They moved quickly from hallway to hallways, sticking mostly to the bases vent systems to avoid detection. Brigid saw the armory was clear and dropped down to the floor with all the noise of a whisper. She signaled Kyle that it was clear and he fell to the ground.

"We'll need ammo," Kyle said, picked up a small crate and began throwing weapons and ammunition in. Brigid got a jackhammer and as many rounds as she could carry with spares in a box. They got a sniper rifle with a hundred rounds, and well over ten thousand rounds of battle rifle ammo. Shotguns and belts were thrown in and Brigid scrounged around for food. She threw as many MRE's (meals ready to eat) at Kyle as she could find and found a container of water, she also found twenty eight full canteens.

"This is a lot," Brigid said, "Think we can carry it?"

"We'll have to," Kyle said, "This is standard issue material and we'll need it to survive. Besides with the repairs you should be able to lift three times your own body weight."

"Right," Brigid said, strapping her rifle to her back. "Cover me." Kyle walked to the door and Brigid took hold of the massive crate, she heaved and surprisingly the thing moved. It wasn't easy, but she was able to drag it to the hanger, just as they entered three ropes hit the ground. Brigid unslung her rifle and took aim at the nearest doorway as Kyle helped everybody down.

"Damn," Sarge said, "I thought you were going for supplies, not an arsenal."

"We'll need it," Brigid said.

"Come on," Sarge said, "Let's get the ship prepped." They had to walk through three sections of the hanger before they fond a ship with sufficient fighter power to blast their way off the planet.

"Three MAC guns can't stop one of their ships," Kyle commented as he put extra fuel cells in the cargo bay, "And we're going to blast out of here in THIS?"

"They think that all the humans are dead," Brigid said, "With any luck we should be able to blast through undetected and make a jump. It's a miracle we've survived this long, no reason to think we should die in a vacuum."

"Well," Kyle said, "Let's hurry. If we're going to die I want it to be quick."

"Amen," Brigid said, exploring the ship. There had already been weapon's and supply cashes on the ship as well as launch pods. They could probably survive for a year off of what they had brought combined with what was on the ship. Brigid's mind raced tactically, if worst came to worse they could use the ship as a base and remove the turrets to more strategical positions wherever they camped.

"Come on," Sarge called, "We're ready."

"Covenant!" Jo yelled, "Advancing on all positions. Kyle, Brigid, close the fucking ramp and GET TO THE GUNS!"

"Kyle!" Brigid screamed as he sprinted, "Kyle get over here!" She saw an elite raise his rifle and she sprayed him down with rifle fire. Brigid found a string of grenades and pulled the pin on one of them, throwing them far over Kyle's head. The explosion that followed insured dust cover and confusion. Kyle get to the ramp but took a plasma shot in the leg before he got aboard. Brigid grabbed his uniform and hauled him into the ship, closing the ramp quickly. "We're on, take off, Kyle got a leg wound before I get to the guns."

"Make it fast," Sarge said, "Then get him tied to his gun, we'll take a look at it once we're away." Brigid saw that the wound was not to serious, but plasma was still new and she wasn't sure what it did to humans. Brigid put an anti-burn gel on it and wrapped the thigh in gauze.

"That should hold," Brigid said as the ship shuttered to life and lifted off from the ground. "Come on, we have to get strapped in before we break atmosphere." Brigid threw his arm around her shoulder and got him quickly to the underbelly gun. She strapped him in and made sure they were tight.

"I'm fine," Kyle said, "Get to the top turret and get strapped in. Go!" Brigid climbed the ladder faster then she ever had in her life, she could feel the ship beginning to heat up and knew that Sarge was waiting until the last minute before firing the thrusters so that they were strapped in. Brigid dove for the seat and quickly clicked the straps into place.

"I'm in Sarge," Brigid yelled, "Go!"

"Firing thrusters," Sarge said, "Brace yourselves!" Brigid crossed her arms over her chest and loosed her neck, the jolt could snap her neck like a twig if she tensed it. Brigid was thrown back in her seat and felt the straps cutting into her shoulder through her tee shirt. She winced for a moment and then let the pain pass.

"Enemy frigate," Jo said, "Dead ahead, beginning evasive maneuvers. Brian, start working on some jump coordinates. Kyle and Brigid, fire only when necessary and pick your shots. Here's everything we know about Covenant battle tactics and weaponry, remember they have shields and try to coordinate fire for maximum damage." Brigid targeted the nearest ship, but held her fire. Next to her a small AI appeared on the panel.

"Who are you?" The system asked.

"We can talk later," Brigid said, "I don't mean to be rude, but could you go help our navigator make a slipstream jump?" The AI was dressed in a practical battle costume with long sleeves and a skirt that came only to her knees.

"Sure thing," the AI said. She disappeared and Brigid turned back to her screen. She monitored the nearest ship, but it had not picked them up yet.

"Great ready for the jump," Sarge said, "They haven't seen us yet. Two minutes in I want everyone to get down to the cryo chamber and get prepped for sleep." Brigid nodded even though Sarge wasn't even in the room. Years of training had turned the squad into soldiers who would follow the Sarge to death if that is what was ordered of them. "Jump in five, four, three, two, one. Mark." There was a jolt and they entered slipstream space. Brigid relaxed and slipped her harness off and floated freely in the ship. She worked her way down to the bridge and looked at Brian.

"I'm going to go get Kyle," Brigid said, "His leg needs to be look at."

"I'll do it," Brian said, "Take my job." Brian floated free and Brigid took his seat. She strapped herself in and the AI presented herself.

"I am Firefly," the small form said. She wore a red dress and had wings coming out of her back.

"You're no who I saw before," Brigid commented.

"No," a voice said as the first AI Brigid saw appeared, "I am. I am Killjoy. We're the AI's here on Crimson Revenge."

"Two AI's?" Brigid said, "Isn't that a little strange?"

"Abnormal," Firefly answered, "Yes it is."

"But not considering our cargo," Killjoy said, "We'll have to destroy the MJLONAR armor we brought for testing."

"Don't destroy it," Brigid said. "We may still have a use for it."

"Come on," Sarge said, "We have to get to Cryo."

"Wake me up when we get close to exist point," Brigid instructed the AI's, "Coming Sarge." Brigid unhooked her straps and floated down to the Cryo chamber. Kyle was already frozen and his leg was bandaged up. Jo was getting the monitors strapped on and Sarge had already opened his tube.

"Come on," Sarge said, his favorite phrase, "The hard part's over."

"Yeah," Jo said, "Now we only have to find an inhabitable planet and find a way to get UNSC all the way out here in time to save us from a Covenant patrol. That's just a walk in the park."

"Keep quiet," Sarge said, "The sooner we get in Cryo sleep the sooner we can get out of it."

"Whatever you say Sarge," Brigid said, sticking the heart monitor on her chest. She climbed in the cryotube and looked down as the lid closed automatically. She had a few seconds before the sleeping gas came in and froze her for the trip through space. Brigid could feel the winding scars that covered her body and thought of her family back home. Beauty has been a prize there and she had once been one, Brigid knew in her heart that her mother would never accept the fact that her once beautiful daughter had turned into a twisted Frankenstein. Brigid clenched her left fist for a moment and could feel when metal replaced bone, she had yet to feel the full side effects. She had no idea how she was going to feel without any modern medicine, the chance of finding a civilized planet was less the zero. Brigid knew that she would probably die, but she wasn't going to give up. Brigid relaxed and breathed deeply, letting cryosleep carry her to darkness, she only wished she could sleep through the pain.

Well, what did you think?

Like it, hate it?

Please review, I love criticism.

Flames are welcome, just review.

Aa'menealle nauva calen ar' malta. (May your ways be green and golden.)

Hannon le. (Thank you)

Verya