Chapter 2: Reinforcements
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to know you were going to die and there was nothing you could do about it? I've felt that feeling. I was feeling it now as gunfire poured in all around me again and I struggled to find some cover. I hadn't been hit again since that plasma bolt that had grazed my arm earlier, but I sure as hell wasn't looking forward to it. A couple of the few defenders with me had fallen to critical wounds since the Brutes had busted down the door to the sick bay. Collens, however, was still alive and had ordered us to find some cover. It was a mess; my worst nightmare. There was nothing we could do. We all knew this was it; there was no use in ordering us into a tactical plan. We knew what to do. Fight bravely and die honorably, at least most of us did.
With my back up against the cold gray wall of the medical bay I checked my ammo with shaky hands. The clip was still full. I hadn't fired a shot. How could I? Sure I had trained, but was never in a real battle with real enemies. I had never faced death, and now I realized it was harder than I thought it would be. So I sat there, cringing against the wall, far from proud of myself, when a bright ray of light suddenly shown down on my face. I stared at it with dazzled blue eyes and thought to myself, am I dying? Is this what heaven looks like?
That was when a harsh shadow of a man dropped through the light and blocked it from my eyes. I heard the sounds of gunfire and more shouting as silhouettes continued to pour through the light which I now recognized as coming from a hole that had been blasted through the ceiling. It wasn't heaven, but it was damn close enough. It was a rescue party.
So why was I still crouched on the floor with my back against the wall?
"Get up!" I yelled at myself, trying to motivate my mind into action. These guys were risking their necks to come in and save us and all I could do was sit and hide. That was not acceptable and I was going to do something about it.
My hands shook as I gripped the pistol tighter and prepared to dart out from my corner and shoot like hell at anything that moved. I took a deep breath, counted to three, and lunged out into the open, pistol raised to firing position. You can guess how shocked I was when, after I belted a very ridiculous sounding battle cry, I saw that the fighting was over! There was just me in a ready position pointing around like mad at a bunch of ODST and what remained of my squad and the dead aliens. The soldiers looked at me and a couple of them chuckled. I couldn't have been more embarrassed.
"Calm down, medic," an ODST captain told me. "The fighting's over. Y'all are a couple of lucky SOB's that the UNSC decided this wasn't a base we should lose."
I holstered my weapon and walked shakily over to Major Collens. He was the only remaining soldier who I knew in the room. I guess Robins didn't make it. "Sir," I said softly. He looked up from a soldier he was administering to, "Yes Henson?"
"What happened? That was over so fast…"
"Well the UNSC sent us some back up as you can see. The Captain was right; we would all be dead about now if it wasn't for them. Now get to work, you're a medic aren't you? Looks like you didn't do half bad with some of these wounded and I'm sure a lot more could use your help."
"Yes, sir!" I replied and went to assist the nearest man. Of course my subconscious at the time was screaming at me to forget it and get some rest, but I didn't, this is why I joined up.
So tired…so tired… was all I could think about as the day drew to an end. I lost count of how many wounded I had helped in the last hours. I was almost on automatic. After bandaging another head wound, I trudged over to replenish my supply of biofoam that the ODSTs had thankfully provided. Of course, stupid me was so damn tired that I wasn't watching were I was going and I slammed right into the thickest and most immovable wall of green that I ever had the chance to run into.
I assumed it was some piece of equipment the ODSTs had brought in since I hadn't remembered it being there before. That assumption led to what seemed like the worst but was possibly the best thing that could have ever happened to me and would change the course of my life forever. I backed up and strained my face up into the setting sun to get a good look at what it was, and found myself face to face with a seven foot tall giant in green armor; a Spartan.
The moment passed quickly, but I can definitely remember it as if it was in slow motion. There he was, larger than life; seeming to be like ten feet taller than my small frame could ever hope to be. The orange light from one of the setting suns reflecting off his already orange visor glinted into my eyes and the MJOLNIR armor seemed to glow like a ghost. I can't even begin to describe how much in awe I was of this mighty warrior who could easily crush me with a thought. That's when I realized that it was I who had slammed into him and the awe quickly changed to fear.
I stood gaping at him like a fish while a pale dread washed over my features. I'm telling you, I was more scared of him than I was of those brutes that had almost killed me only hours ago. I started to back away as he seemed to glare into my soul and, inevitably, I tripped over a water power hose and sent it flying as the force of pounds and pounds of water gushed out of the end and all over the room.
I guessed I had nudged it lose from its secure location when I fell over it, but whatever I did, I made a terrible mess. Shelves, expensive equipment, machines, weapons, marines, ODSTs, and I went flying all over the place when hit with the forceful water from the high pressure hose. I felt sure that if the Covenant hadn't been the end of us that hose would have. Lucky for us the Spartan could stand up to the immense pressure of the gushing water and calmly grabbed the end of the rampant hose, pinched it closed, and turned off the valve as if he was handling no more than a sprinkler.
"Oh, shit," I said under my breath as I surveyed the scene. Everything, and I mean everything, was wet. There were thousand pound pieces of equipment tossed onto their sides and soldiers sprawled all over the floor. Thankfully no one was hit dead on with the water because that would have been the death of them. This was far worse than the embarrassment of that accidental battle cry earlier.
The moaning and groaning started up as people struggled to their feet and I waited for the highest ranking officer to come chew me out. I got a lot of angry glances shot my way and was pretty sure no one was going to be too friendly towards me for awhile. They had all seen me trip over the hose. I didn't get it though. How was it my fault? Anyone would have been startled enough to trip over something if they had just ran into a Spartan and whoever was in charge of tying that high powered hose down sure did do a shitty job of it. I quickly became just as disgusted with all of them as they were with me and decided I wanted nothing to do with them ever again. Unfortunately my resolve was shattered once again when the hero of the day approached me and offered his hand to me, the villain.
Were Spartans supposed to do this? I didn't think they cared? I was obviously wrong when the very giant I had assaulted and caused so much trouble for approached me and held out his hand to pull me up. I hesitated, who wouldn't have he was huge, and then very cautiously put my hand in his. That was the last I saw of it for the moment as the Spartan's hand quickly swallowed up mine and my arm was nearly yanked from its socket as he pulled me to my feet. He then seemed to stare at me a moment, only a short moment, and without a sound suddenly disappeared from my view in the blink of an eye. I rubbed my arm as I turned to watch him walk away towards the command room; so light on his feet and at the same time so heavy. The whole scene almost seemed like I had made it up, that it had never happened, then I was forced back into reality when I saw Major Collens walking my way. Uh Oh, I thought, I'm in for it now.
After I had been thoroughly chastised about being tired on the job and ordered to take a break, I went to the "soldier's quarters", and I emphasize this because it was really just the mess hall transformed with a few cots to make a place for marines and ODSTs to get some R and R. The real barracks had been demolished with most of the base. Not a few moments after I had found an empty cot and was musing over the past events that day I was interrupted by a cheeky ODST as he sat down noisily on my cot. Just who did he think he was anyways?
"Hey, sorry to bother but I heard you were the medic who tried to kill the Spartan with a high powered hose. I just had to check it out for myself," he said.
"I didn't try to kill him; you must have heard a rumor or something."
"Oh yeah? Well the way I hear it you got mad that he was in your way and you kicked that hose that was tied down real tight right into his face," he laughed. "You must have been pretty mad, but I also hear the chicks in the Marine Corps can be pretty buff…can't say as much for you so I have no idea how you moved that hose."
Great, a compassionate Spartan and an ODST full of jokes? How can this day get any weirder?
"Oh come on, I tripped over that hose and it hadn't been tied down properly so it came loose. We would have all been dead if the Spartan hadn't turned it off," I grumbled and tried to give the impression that the conversation was over.
"Well however it goes; you were still pretty brave to stand up to the Master Chief like that. And to even dare to let him help you up? That took courage. There is no way I would have let him touch me. I'd be scared he'd crush me on accident," he replied, eager to keep talking with me. Of course something he said had now aroused some new questions in me. Did he know more about the Spartan, or…The Master Chief as he called him?
"The Master Chief? That's the Spartan right? What do you know about them?"
"Hell, no one knows much. Apparently he's the last one ever since Reach so it's rare when he shows any interest in anyone."
"He probably just helped me up subconsciously. You know, he wasn't thinking about it," I thought out loud to myself. I didn't know much about Spartans, but it surprised me to know he was there was only one more left. It seemed the covenant was winning the war after all.
"Yeah, whatever. Oh, sorry I've been so rude," the ODST said and removed his helmet to reveal short curly black hair and green eyes. "The name's Jet."
"Jet?" I asked as I shook his hand.
"It's kind of a nickname the other ODSTs gave me. Again, sorry to bother you, you look like you could use some rest." He got up and tucked his helmet under his arm.
"Anytime, Jet. My name's Zoey, Corporal Zoey Henson," I said before he walked away.
He pointed his finger at me and smiled. "Doesn't sound too hard to remember, I'll see you around."
I sighed and laid back down as he walked away. He was nice enough, but maybe I could finally get some peace and quiet—that's when I heard the muster call and groaned. Major Collens was calling all personnel to his quarters. Something else was up.
"All right listen up," the Major said as soon as the rag-tag grouped had gathered in his pseudo office. "I called this meeting because, one, the few of you here are the only original personnel from this base left alive, with the exception of those too injured to be here of course, and two, because we have received new orders," he paused as we all waited impatiently for him to continue. "We are to accompany the ODSTs and the Spartan back to the Forward Unto Dawn for debriefing. They will be sending transport in soon and I want you all to be ready to move out when they arrive. We will not be coming back here. Unless there are any questions you are dismissed," he finished and turned to us.
It was all pretty straight forward so I didn't volunteer any questions. We were just moving out, what that was going to be like I didn't know. I wasn't really used to being on a ship in space. Actually, I had never been on one for a long period of time. I hope they were just moving us somewhere else and we weren't permanently stationed on the Forward Unto Dawn. I knew that ship was on the front lines and had seen a lot of action so I wasn't really looking forward to living with a bunch of war hardened marines.
I left the Major's office still wondering about how the space marines would react to us ground folk. Probably just the general hazing I would guess, but I didn't have that much time to think about it because the Major had meant it when he said the transports would be arriving soon. I strained my head up to watch as our transports, a couple of heavily armored "pelicans", came lumbering into the atmosphere. Though they were armored, they weren't equipped with weapons which had led me to assume they were our transports. They were, however, certainly big and looked as if they could be battle ready in minutes. They moved across the planet to a relatively clear area where they could touch down. They didn't really look like pelicans to me, so I couldn't really understand how they got the nickname. I mean, the warthogs at least looked like they had tusks, but pelicans? Not to mention the mongoose and scorpions? Some things I would never understand.
"Hey, Henson, you better get your stuff. Those birds are about to lift off," someone yelled at me. I snapped out of the thought process I had been going through and quickly ran for where I had stashed my gear. I didn't really have much but there were a few things I didn't want to leave behind on the desolate planet I was soon to leave.
Why did I have to pick the pelican with the Spartan on it? I asked myself again and again as my face turned green and my stomach started to churn on the ascent through the atmosphere. Not only was the incident back on the planet an issue between us, but I was also embarrassing myself by getting sick on the pelican. I was pretty good on a boat in the water. You could say I had my sea legs, but apparently a spaceship going up through the atmosphere into space was an entirely different story.
He hadn't looked at me, the Master Chief that is. He just calmly stepped up onto my pelican as it was taking off and the ramp was closing for the climb through the planet's atmosphere. I wondered if he even noticed I was on the ship, or maybe he had forgotten the whole incident already. I sure as hell hoped he had because if there's one thing I hate, it's being remembered for doing something stupid. You can tell it happens to me often can't you.
Soon enough, to my ultimate relief, we emerged into the blackness of space without any incidents including my managing not to barf all over the place. I gazed out into the big black void and found that a sort of peace was coming over me. Everything was so quiet and still. It was such a contrast to what I had been used to planet side where there was so much noise. I sat in silence as the pelican got closer and closer to a large cigar shaped ship in the distance, the Forward Unto Dawn.
The docking bay of the Forward Unto Dawn was a lot different than the serenity of space had been. Once our transport had landed there was nothing but noise. The Master Chief had gotten off first and was soon on his way to more important manners somewhere else on the ship while the ODSTs all pushed and shoved me around as they made their way to where they were supposed to be. And what was I doing; yeah that's right, standing around not having a clue as to where I was supposed to be going and gawking at the immense size on the Dawn. I had never been on a ship of her caliber and was impressed. Of course, compared to a covenant cruiser she was nothing, but still…wow!
"Corporal Henson, what are you doing? Fall in!" Major Collens shouted at me from across the room. I quickly made my way over to him and the rest of my outfit.
"Is your squad all here and accounted for Major?" a female voice asked and I turned to see a very commanding looking woman with brown hair and green eyes.
"All present, Commander Keyes," he replied.
Oh, so this was the famous Commander Keyes. She certainly looked like everything she had been made out to be; a successful, brave, and tactical officer. I admired her greatly, probably because she was everything I had hoped to be when I joined the UNSC. Looks like I'd never reach that goal though. What good has a medic ever done?
"Very good," she said and nodded to her right as she continued, "You will come with the Master Chief and me for debriefing. Your squad may go to the barracks until we reassign them." As she said this I noticed the Master Chief had reappeared and, as quiet as ever, was now standing behind Commander Keyes. I tried not to make eye contact, but that was harder than it seemed since I couldn't tell where his eyes were behind that visor. I decided to just not look at him at all.
"You wouldn't be excluding me from your debriefing. I too am interested in why the Prophets were investigating such an insignificant planet," I heard the deepest voice I had ever come across resound from somewhere behind me. I whipped around only to nearly collapse in shock as I found myself face to face with a seven foot tall alien.
Of course, we all know who the seven foot tall alien is! The Arbiter and Master Chief have made their appearance! There will be a lot more Arbiter in this story since he's my inspiration for it and my favorite character in Halo. Yeah this chapter wasn't much longer than the first, but I plan on fixing that! Again, thanks for reading! :)
