First HALO fan-fic ever written - based around the movie "HALO Legends", it's basically my written version of "The Prototype" from the movie. All credit goes to the creators, this is purely fan made - etc etc. I loved writing this and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I take my reviews seriously, so please feel free to tell me if anything is wrong with this text.
Ghost…
The night was cold, even though my armor blocked out most of the chilling night air, somehow it seeped through, stabbing me with its icy touch. Mist was slowly filling the forest of switch I sat in, holding her, watching, focusing only on her. The battle was over and done with, the rest of my platoon dead, but she and she alone, was the last of my squad. Blood poured from the wound on her leg and torso, she had been shot three times in the chest, possibly hitting her lung or her heart, both were high likely, yet all the same, unlikely. She had a knife wound on her upper thigh, slashed right through her armor. I watched as her breathing became slower, she tried her best not to give into death's sweet temptations.
"C-Captain…The skies are so beautiful here…Do you think anyone noticed-"
"Stay quiet, the BioFoam's working but you're still bleeding." I said, still holding her. My grip was loose, too afraid to tighten it, so afraid that if I did I'd crush her. The BioFoam was doing it's best to close up her wounds; the bluish white puff could be seen on various parts of her armor.
"There's something I've al-always wanted to ask you…Your call-sign…Ghost…What does it mean?"
"Stop talking, you've gotta hold on until the med-evac gets here."
"You finally have a reason to show you care…"
She chuckled lightly, but as soon as it came it faded. It must've been painful, she took a shallow intake of breathe shortly after she stopped chuckling.
"…Captain…Wh-what was I too you?"
"What do you mean? You're a soldier…A soldier with a promising future ahead of you…You're…A soldier…" I said, too uncertain with my own words, my own voice to fully comprehend anything.
"And you're a ghost…" She whispered with a hoarse voice. Blood fell down from a small cut on her forehead; I could see the blood dripping down her face through the visor of her helmet. I slipped the visor up to see her sky blue eyes staring at me, so intently, so painfully. Strands of her brunette hair fell in front of her eyes, covering them slightly.
"What?" I asked.
"Feelings pass right through you, don't they? So cold and unforgiving in every choice you made in battle…A pure soldier…I think that's what let us trust you…"
I was shell-shocked. For a moment I didn't even believe she was talking to me. Like I was just the audience, watching her speak from a silver screen in a movie theatre. But she was talking to me, and I had heard her every word over the unearthly silence of the forest.
"You…You need to stop talking, you have to save your strength." I said, once again I was unsure if I was even speaking.
"I don't need it," My eyes widened as she spoke, was she accepting death? "I need you to be strong…Strong enough to do what you've never done in your life…Can you be strong enough just to allow yourself to be…" She trailed off and I leaned in a little closer. Her hand slipped into mine and she squeezed it tightly.
"To be what?" I asked softly.
"Can you just be human?"
The words came so quietly, an audible whisper, soft and gentle; but behind them was a bullet that pierced through me, canceling out any thought I had after it. She squeezed my hand tightly once more before it slipped through my fingers and her head fell back, limp. Her body slouched, all movement stopped…and I just sat there, taking it all in.
After moments that felt like hours, I gently laid her head back and removed her helmet, placing it just above her head. There were a few red lilies at the edge of the pond next to us. I reached over and plucked a few of the lilies, lacing them in her fingers that laid on her chest. I stood and stared down at her, muttering my silent prayer.
I looked up to the skies, just as she had been doing before, and I stared at the darkened red moon of this planet, this untamed and dangerous world. Smaller blue moons, around three of them, lay behind the large red rock. The skies were beautiful, peaceful; something the galaxy had not been for a long time. The wars had raged between the humans and the recently discovered aliens that dotted these planets. They were stronger than most of us, smarter than us, but the rest were gullible idiots. Everything before now had seemed so perfect. I had my own platoon that I was in charge of, so many future missions to go on and complete, so many victorious days that laid ahead…All torn from my grasp. I wanted to force it back towards me, just I had been doing before, but it seemed no matter how hard I tried, I seemed to push it all away at the same time.
The starts twinkled in the darkness of the night; the red moon covered the forest in a healthy glow. I heard the sounds of feet approaching, but they seemed so far away, so distant. My hand slipped and grabbed hold of the pistol that was strapped to my left leg. My hand lifted and lifted until the barrel of the silver pistol was pressed against the side of my helmet. The bullet would tear through the metal easily, and it would forever free me from this horrible disease. The footsteps got louder, each one of them, human feet tapping against the rocky surface of this forest. Few of them stumbled and tripped over the roots of trees or holes in the ground, but they never stopped moving, never stopped coming.
I had truly become a ghost…
This night had proven it to me…
Just a shadow…
Surrounded by death…
I continued to stare at the sky, and at that moment, I had made up my mind. This night, the night I allowed my comrades to perish…
I looked up at those moons again, and something died inside me.
A conscience is something that gets in the way…
That all the soul is…an obstacle to overcome…
I can't atone for failing to protect them…Nothing I do will ever atone for it…
As the footsteps got closer, my index finger drifted slowly to the trigger of my pistol. It would be so instant, that I wouldn't register it. As they neared the clearing, I whispered something into the microphone in my helmet; I spoke the words quietly to them, my superiors, to the night of this planet, to the worlds all around me.
"This is Ghost," I heard shuffling through the receiver in my helmet, then a startled voice, "Over and out." Once those words left my mouth, I heard the startled voice break into an open cry and I squeezed the trigger of the pistol tightly, securing my own death.
And for one last instant…
I was Human again…