Corporal Juan Perez
Halo
Time: 0:05 (Arrival on Halo's surface) Date:Error 27-B
The escape pod burned as it entered the ring world's atmosphere. Inside the pod the Marines, Ranger, and other personnel sweated from the intense heat. Perez looked around at the other occupants of the life boat. Hightower was in the seat next to him, a few Marines had made, only two Naval personnel had made it into this particular boat.
Perez felt a sharp jerk as the ship's brakes deployed, "We hit ground in five!" the pilot called from the front of the lifeboat. Perez gripped his harness as the life boat decelerated sharply and dove toward the ground. The boat landed on the ground spraying dirt in all directions.
The hatch to the lifeboat slid open and Perez unbuckled himself, grabbed his rifle, and stepped outside. He shielded his eyes against the sun, blinked a few times to get accustomed to the light, and looked around.
It looked like they were in a canyon, with two ways in or out. At the edge of the canyon was large hill, with a few rocks. There was also a large structure in the middle of the canyon. It sent up what looked like a flair every few seconds.
"Who's the ranking officer here?" Hightower asked.
"That would be me." A tall black man in a Naval uniform said.
"You gotta be shittin me." Perez said under his breath.
The man turned to Perez and looked him over, "You say something, Corporal?"
"Yeah, I asked what your rank is, sir." Perez answered in a normal tone.
"I am Lieutenant Lankers, and I am taking command here."
Hightower glanced at Perez, then back to Lankers.
"No offense sir, but I am in command of all tactical units in the immediate area." Perez told Lankers.
Lankers turned to Perez, eyebrow raised, "Is that right?"
"I believe so sir, yes." Perez said.
"Listen you undisciplined ODST, I'm the commanding officer, and I'm in command here, end of discussion." Lankers turned and started to walk away.
"Ranger." Perez called behind him.
Lankers stopped, turned, and walked back to Perez, "Excuse me?"
"I'm not a Helljumper, I'm a Ranger." Perez clarified.
"I don't care what the fuck you are, you will…" He was cut short by a Marine radioing in a contact.
"Enemy dropship inbound!" the Marine yelled.
They all turned around and saw the U-shaped dropship, flanked by two banshee escorts.
"All right everyone in the structure, we'll hold em off there!" Lankers ordered.
"No, we need to head into the hills, we'll be higher up and the rocks will offer better cover." Perez said.
"Do not question my orders soldier!" Lankers yelled at him.
"If anybody wants to make out of here alive follow me!" Perez yelled and turned and started making his way up the hill. Hightower and the rest of the Marines followed Perez. Only Lankers and the other Naval officer were left.
"I'm going to have every single one of you court-martialed, you hear me?" Lankers yelled after them.
"Piss off swabbie!" One of the Marines yelled back.
The dropship descended and opened its side hatches, Grunts, Elites, and Jackals jumped from the hatches on the sides, and ran toward the Marines.
"Why cant they just kill that damn swabbie and leave us the fuck alone?" Hightower yelled.
Perez laughed and shouldered his M-16, "Come on Hightower, nobody deserves bein stuck down there with the good Lieutenant, those Covie bastards would shoot themselves if they had to listen to him!"
Hightower laughed, dropped to a knee, and looked into the scope of his sniper rifle. A second later the gun jerked as a round found its way to the head of an Elite, which disappeared in purple mist.
A group of jackals made their way up the hill, bullets ricocheting of their shields. One of the Jackals leveled their Needler and aimed it at a nearby Marine. The Marine was sighting an Elite through his sniper rifle, but before he could get a shot off the Jackal opened fire and purple shards pierced the Marine, then exploded.
"Fuck!" Perez yelled, primed a grenade, and threw it behind the Jackals; one of them noticed this and dove out of the way, leaving its two comrades in the wake of the blast. Perez ran up to the surviving Jackal, yanked the gun from its hand, and bashed it in its head with his rifle.
He turned the Marine that had been shot. The Marine managed to prop himself up against a rock, sniper rifle still in hand.
"You ok buddy?" Perez asked.
"Not really, no." the Marine answered.
"I'm gonna go get you a medic, hang in there." Perez said then ran off to find the squads medic.
"MEDIC!" he yelled.
A plasma grenade went off nearby, sending him flying into a boulder. Stars filled his vision and there was a ringing noise in his ears. Time seemed to slow, he saw Hightower yelling at him, but Perez couldn't quite make out what he was trying to say.
Perez shook his head trying to clear it, slowly time seemed to resume to its normal pace and he could hear clearly. He raised his rifle and fired a trio of bursts at a group of Grunts that ventured too close. One Grunt primed a grenade before taking a burst in the face, dropping it. The grenade detonated and engulfed the remaining aliens in a flash of brilliant blue.
Perez ran, rifle in hand, to a squad of stranded soldiers.
"Where's a fuckin medic?" he yelled.
"I'm a medic." A scrawny red-headed Marine answered.
Perez grabbed him by the shoulder, "Ok, you come with me, I got something for you to do."
The red-head motioned to the other two Marines, "What about them?"
"They got legs don't they? Come on lets get the fuck outta here!"
The ragtag squad of a medic, a Ranger, and two Marines made their way back to the wounded sniper.
"Christ he's fucked pretty bad." The medic said after looking the wounded man over.
"We need to get him to a medical station in the next thirty minutes or he's gonna be in trouble."
Perez looked around for Hightower, and found him firing away madly with his sniper rifle. Perez walked up next to him and shot a Jackal in the face. The Jackal fell on its back and started twitching.
"We need to call in an evac or we're toast." He told Hightower grimly.
"Don't I know it, I'm almost out of ammo."
Perez checked his own rifle, he only had one clip left, plus the half empty one in the rifle.
"Same here 'mano."
Just then, two Elites charged the pair. One Elite hit Perez in the side of the head, sending him sprawling to the ground. The other Elite knocked Hightower's rifle from his hand. Hightower pulled his sidearm and unloaded it in the Elite's face. The warrior's shield flickered and died as the last rounds tore through its face.
The other Elite saw this and howled in rage. He activated his energy sword and lunged at Hightower. Hightower saw this and tried to dodge but was too slow. The blade cut into his arm, causing him to howl in pain. The Elite's mandible split into what could have been a grin, and raised the sword over his head.
Suddenly shots rang out and the Elite stumbled forward, shields flaring. Perez had gotten back up and was unloading his .357 in the back of the Elite. The Elite turned as Perez fired off the last shot. The Elite's shields died but the alien kept coming. Perez pulled his knife out of its sheath on his leg, and threw it at the alien. The knife lodged itself between the Elite's eyes, and the alien warrior fell to its knees, and then fell face down.
Perez walked over to Hightower and offered him a hand. Hightower groaned as he was pulled to his feet.
"Let me see that." Perez said.
Hightower shrugged him off, "It's not that big of a deal, I'll get patched up when help arrives.
Perez noticed that the gunfire had ceased and looked around. The canyon was empty with the exception of the UNSC forces and the dead bodies of Covenant. But the victory had came at a price, the sniper that Perez had sought help for was dead, along with five other men. Perez gathered each casualty's tags and put them in his pocket.
Suddenly Perez's radio cackled to life, "This is Echo 419 to any UNSC forces, I repeat this is Echo 419 to any UNSC forces, please respond."
Perez keyed his mike, "Echo 419 this is fire team Bravo, we have wounded and need immediate extraction."
"Copy that fire team Bravo, I'm on my way."
Perez walked over to Hightower, who was leaned against a rock and breathing heavily, "Get everybody ready, we're getting the hell out of here."
Hightower raised his good arm in a mock salute, "Yes sir Mr. Ranger sir!"
Perez smiled and walked away, he then noticed that someone was missing.
"Where the hell is Lankers and the swabbie tag a long?" Perez asked.
A nearby private answered, "I dunno sir, we looked for him after the fightin was over, but we didn't find him, maybe he got captured."
"I pray to God we're that lucky." Perez said.
The private smiled and continued helping wrap up the wounded. After a few minutes the sound of a Pelican's engines were heard and the pilot's voice crackled on Perez's radio, "Howdy boys, this is Foehammer on station and ready for pick up."
"Damn to good to hear from you Foehammer, now get us the hell outta here!" Hightower said.
Foehammer laughed, "Calm down you damn Jarhead, patience is a virtue."
"Patience my ass!" Hightower exclaimed, "I got a fuckin hole in my arm the size of a damn tree and she tells me to be patient!"
Perez laughed, "Down boy."
In fifteen minutes fire team Bravo was loaded onto the Pelican and making their way to the new base.
"I picked a hell of a time to join up with you assholes." Perez said to Hightower.
Hightower laughed, "Yeah but look at it this way, would you be havin this much fun where you came from?"
Perez thought for a minute, "Yeah, I wouldn't be seventy fuckin lightyears away from home."
"Welcome to the UNSC buddy!" The two soldiers laughed so hard their sides hurt as the Pelican descended on a landing pad at the UNSC base on Halo.
A/N: Like a bad case of herpes, I'm back! Sorry for the long update but alot of stuff has been happenin around and here but i promise ill try and update more often. Anyway, tell me what you think, id love to see some reviews!
