Chap. 3
Greta
They have just loaded me up into their Phantom and discuss where they are going among themselves. Rtoka doesn't want to tell me, hell I can understand why. Rtoka made sure to stand next to me and put me in a corner of the ship to keep a close eye on me and so the others do not kill me. Hell it is a tight squeeze in here. I am trying my hardest not to jam into the side of Rtoka. On one side it is all Elites with six. The other side of the ship is all Brutes, they take up most of the space on the ship with ten.
One of the Brutes looks toward me and opens its mouth to speak. "Hey, you think we can put that Human in a feast when you are done with it?" he smiles and it seems like he is trying to scare me.
To be honest, I don't know who I hate more. Brutes or Elites. I fought Brutes back on Harvest when the war started. The place I was born, joined the Militia there then joined the UNSC once the Militia was pretty much destroyed. I look at Rtoka and I can see his left fist forming into a ball. I don't know if it's about the Brute's comment or they just hate the Brutes.
"You won't be able to hide behind that Sangheili shield of yours for long." the Brute continues.
Rtoka
Clenching my fist real tight when the Brutes speak. I hate them so much for being incompetent. They are savages, have no honor and think they can accomplish more than us. Vire can tell I am angry and he nudges my right arm with his elbow and whispers.
"Rtoka, we won't get anywhere if you kill them, besides we won't be landing with them."
I look over to Vire and sigh. "Yea you are right. I think most of them will die before they can even get to the Icon."
Vire nods and looks down to the right where the rest of our brothers are and looks back. "I know you do best separated from the team, but the Commander wants everyone to stay close."
I give a reluctant nod and close my eyes to calm myself. Over the intercom of the phantom, I hear the Brute pilot mention that we are almost there. We are being placed on the outer wall of whatever we are landing at. Doesn't matter where we land if it can lead us to the Sacred Icon. The ride lasts for a few more units and I hear the pilot tell us to drop, and with a snarl as he says Human. I make sure the Human exits the ship before I do. To make sure the Brutes don't attack it.
As all of us left the phantom and landed, I look over to the Human and talk to it. "Stay close to me and you will be fine."
It sighs and nods, reluctant to follow. I would be to if the enemy cuffed my hands and forced me to follow in a warzone.
Greta
These Forerunners like to make things complicated. All of these twists and turns, all of these drops that we need to go down. Rtoka told me that we are put on the outer wall. If the Covenant want this so called Sacred Icon, why couldn't they drop us closer? Hell, doesn't seem like they do since there are a shit ton of dead Brute, Jackal and Grunt bodies all over this place. Thank god these Brutes are dead.
If combat does come, I won't be able to do much to help them. I just hope I don't have to shoot my fellow Marines. We do reach a bridge and the leader tells us to stop. I look down to see a dead jackal with a convenient plasma pistol. To be honest, I can't tell how long we have been down here. Walking cautiously here seems to be slower than a patrol or going to an objective in the Marines.
We get called to move forward again and once we get half way across the bridge, the leader tells us to stop AGAIN. For some reason a floating robot goes by us.
"A Forerunner Construct, Sentinels, guardians left by the gods." Rtoka exclaims to me.
The Sentinel flies by all of us but then turns around again. It is like it is scanning us. The leader tells us to keep moving since it seems to want to fly back and forth. We all get up and start moving to find a way out of this place.
When we get off the bridge and find split up on both sides to find a way down or up, another Sentinel pops out of nowhere. This time, it attacks Rtoka. My instincts make me raise my plasma pistol, overcharge it and shoot it at the Sentinel. My mind is telling me no because I am helping the enemy, but that thing could of changed its target to me. Surprised that the overcharge worked as it make the Sentinel drop. Rtoka shoots it a bunch with his Carbine and it explodes. The sound of fighting makes the other group run towards us and they raise their weapons at me.
"Rtoka, are you hurt?" the Commander asks.
"No sir, the Human saved me from the Construct." he responds.
The Elites looks confused for a moment and I point to the wreckage with my plasma pistol and hands still cuffed at the wrist. I must say, the kick kinda hurt my wrist because I could not get a proper hold on it.
They look at the wreckage we made. While they are busy looking at it, Rtoka takes off my cuffs and hands me his Plasma Rifle. I look at him with a confused look and take the plasma rifle with my right hand while my left hand rubs my wrist.
"What are you doing?" I look to the voice and it was caused by the other red Elite.
"I have a feeling the Human would be more use to us without the cuffs on." Rtoka responds.
The others give a reluctant nod and sigh.
"Over here!" the leader shouts and we follow his voice.
He found another Forerunner panel that activates a barrier that rises into the ceiling. We jump down it and I take a few steps forward. What I see makes me stop in surprise.
Rtoka
I see the Human stop, I get behind it to see what it is looking at, and it too makes me stop. A large Forerunner Construct. I look to our Ultra to see what he wants us to do. I just hope our minors survive if this will be a tough fight.
"Everyone, fan out and find cover, we don't know how dangerous this thing is. So don't bunch up. Human has to stay back." the Ultra tells us what to do.
The six of us fan out across this massive room. The construct looks at all of us like it keeps changing targets. It brings up some frontal shields, this is going to be tough. Two soldiers go on both the right and left side of it. I take the first shot to draw it towards me. The big Sentinel starts turning towards me but as soon as the other Elites start shooting, it move to face them.
This will take awhile since we don't seem to do much damage. The Human found a solution though, might not be the best one but the Human starts to shoot the Sentinel directly in the shield. Burst firing the plasma rifle I gave her. Does not take long for the shields on the Sentinel to fall.
"Focus fire!" our Ultra yells for us to all shoot while its shield is down.
We all focus fire on the Sentinel and it loses an arm. It returns fire with rockets and some weird red light that it shoots at us. The rockets are slow and the person they target has enough time to evade them. The shields go back up and the Human does the exact same thing again. Burst fire on the shields till they go down. This time, the side that falls first is the group that shoots until the other shield falls. This second hail is enough for the Sentinel to blow up and fall to the ground.
Our special operations Elite gets up and goes to the wreck to make sure it is dead. Our two minors are the next ones up and rush over, they seem very interested. The Ultra walks over to the three and then Vire and I get up and watch from afar. I look back to see the Human cautiously moving out into the open. I walk over to it and look down.
"Are you hurt? I ask and the Human looks up back at me.
The Human looks up and down checking itself. I should stop calling the Human an it when it is a she. She has a hand run through the slice in her shirt to take a look at the scar that will be left behind. "I am fine. Anyone else hurt?"
Surprised at her question, I give her a head of my head and turn around to meet with the group. The Human follows close behind. My Elite brothers have already activated some weird consoles that were on some small pop ups. The four then turned to a different color and a console in the center popped up.
The special operations Elite presses the console and the what we are standing on moves and is apparently a platform. A big door in front of us opens up and it shows a massive wall, a second wall. the platform also floats. Vire goes over to edge and tells us it is a big chasm under us.
Greta
I sit next to the console as we travel. I look up to see some phantoms fly over and out in the distance, to my left, I see another platform starting to move. The Covies really want whatever is here. I am starting to like the red split jaw that is Rtoka. Even though his race burned my home world and many Human colonies. I can't stay made at him for some reason. He released my hands, gave me a weapon, checked to see if I was okay, gave me my helmet back, and extended my life. I just hope he has my back in this, because I am going to watch his since I know he can get me out of here alive.
Putting my life in the hands of a split jaw, never thought the day would come. Well, the platform stops and I get up. Looking around I point to where it looked like a giant window opened up in the center.
"There, it looks like we have to get in trough there, might have to climb a bit though." the Elites look at me and for once. It makes me feel scared the way all six of them turned and looked at me all at once.
The Ultra is about to say something then all of a sudden Sentinels come out from holes in the wall and start attacking us. They seem to hit the Elites first. All of us run and jump over some strange structure placements and then jump in the giant window way. When I go all the way through, a very powerful smell hits me right in the face. Smells like rotting corpses. I then turn to see all but one Elite has made it through, the last one who appears to be an overzealous minor is covering us. Right before he could jump in all the way, four sentinels all shoot their beams at him when his shields are down and pretty much burn him to death there are some holes in him that are burnt.
"Rest well brother." the purple Elite says to their fallen comrade.
I look up and look around at the feeling of someone is staring at me and it is Rtoka. He watching me like he is afraid of something.
"Is everything alright Rtoka?" I ask him and his head perks up.
"I am just worried about you Human, because after this, death is better than what we will face." He says in a stoic voice and all the Elites look at him like what the hell is he talking about. "Let's move, the more we sit, the closer the parasite approaches."
Parasite? I scratch my head and follow him anyway. Seems like he has some knowledge about what we are going to face. We find another drop down and to no surprise the smell is even worse. There is a small hallway and I walk through it, then in the door a figure drops in front of then everything goes black with a sharp pain.
