In the present time
No POV
Pecry looks up from the table to see the reaction of his men. Most are speechless while others are chalkwhite. All however have epressions contorted with rage.
"You were there champion." An orc growls. "And they betray you like this? What a dishonor."
Percy laughs harshly. "Thats the thing about Olympians. You can save their asses and they would still think of you as an enemy."
"And they take away all you ever cared about." Someone adds.
Persephone appears leaning on the entrance of Grommash hold. Percy smiles warmly at his sister. "Come and join us."
"What are you guys talking about?" She asks, taking a seat.
"These guys are curious about are lives before jouning the Horde." Percy replies.
"Oh, what part are you at?" Persephone asks.
"When we get separated." Percy say.
Many years ago.
Percy's POV
"I hope you understand this Percy." Commander Ambrose says, looking at me.
I sigh. "I understand sir." He frowns and places his hand on my shoulder. "I know this isn't easy for you. If you like I can talk to your sister for you."
I shake my head. "She needs to hear to from me."
The commander nods and I head to the landing pad. There my sister is checking her gear one last time. Her helmet resting on a nearby crate.
"Sis, can I talk to you?" I ask sheepishly, taking my seat beside her. How am I goung to tell her this?
She looks up and smiles. "Of course seaweed brain. What about?"
"Well, do you know I'm not taking part in Operation T.O.R.P.E.D.O with the other Spartans."
Persephone rolls her eyes and gets back to cleaning her gun. "Weren't you listening seaweed brain. Neither am I, the chief told us that. The two of us are gonna fight the covies on the colonies."
I shake my head.
I bite my lip, dreading this moment. "I mean I'm being shipped somewhere else, we're being separated."
Persephone's POV
I set down my rag and look at him. "What do you mean? Where are they sending you?"
"To a military training camp on Earth." He replies.
I feel a knot form on my chest as he says this. "Why are they doing this? We're the best team on Beta company."
He nods. "They said someone high up wants one of us in the camp."
"Can you do anything about it?" I ask hoarsely. He can't possibly be serious.
He shakes his head. "I tried everything, they won't listen."
I feel tears streaming from my eyes as I let out a sob. I always hated looking weak in front of everyone. I haven't even cried since my parents died six years ago. But this time I don't care, I'm losing my brother.
Percy wraps his arms around me and gently strokes my back. "I'm sorry sis, I'm so sorry. But theres nothing I can do."
"Will Spartan-313 please report to hanger H-2." The person on the intercom say.
"Sorry sis, I have to go." He says, but I continue to hold his arm.
"Percy? Can you promise me something?" I ask.
"Anything"
"Promise me you'll survive the war and that by the end of it we'll meet up again." I say.
Percy smile. "Of course sis, you know .i never break my promises." He pulls out something from his back and hands it to me. I look at it and smile. It's a picture of the two of us our arms over each others shoulder with huge smiles. "Keep it."
We hug one more time as he leaves.
Persephone's POV
"Spartan-312, are you listening?" My CO, Colonel Urban Holland says. I immediately snap back from my thoughts. "Sorry sir, just a little nervous."
He nods. "I understand Spartan, but I need you competent for this mission."
"Sorry sir. Please go on." I apologize.
"As we speak, this frigate is headed to a nearby colony. As you know Cole Protocol dictates that the destruction or capture of a UNSC A.I. is unacceptable. So you will be dropped with a team of ODSTs and your gonna make sure A.I. out of there." He explains. "Unfortunately the presence of Covenant ships in the area will anything other than dropping a few pelican impossible. So don't expect much air support."
I salute. "Yes sir."
"Good. Now lets get you out of that fossil you call armor." He smiles, pointing at a set of Mjolnir Mark V[B] armor.
An hour later I head to down to hanger, looking for Pelican Charlie-785. There a group of ODSTs are preparing for take off.
One of them, my FOF tag identifies as Staff sergeant Stacker nods at me. "Welcome aboard Spartan." He says in a thick southern accent.
Another Helljumper with a sniper rifle snorts. "Oh great, a windup toy is joining us."
I clench my fists and step forward, prepared to beat some respect into this girl. The sergeant steps in between us.
Stacker shots her a warning look then turns to me. "Sorry about that. Some of them are not too fond of Spartans. But that better not interfere with our job. Right Kathleen?"
The ODST with the sniper shrinks back. "Yes sir."
The sergeant turns to me. "I'm sergeant Stacker." He gestures to the other ODSTs around him. "I see you meet Kathleen. This is Parker, Anderson and Jones."
I nod as the pilot enters the cockpit. "Prepare for take off boys and girls."
We all sit down as the hanger doors beneath the pelican open up. The docking clamps open and the pelican falls from the frigate followed by two more.
The engines roar to life as we fall. My teeth chatter as we descend towards the planet below. I shift aound nervously, this is the first time I've ever been in combat without Percy watching my back.
Stacker looks at me and chuckles. "First mission?"
"Yes."
"Don't worry kid, it gets easier."
I sure as hell hope so.
We reach the surface within minutes. The dropship hovers above the sand for a few seconds before opening up the bay doors.
"Go, go, go!" Stacker barks, leaping out of the pelican with his battle rifle raised. Me and the ODSTs follow suit and scan the area.
The beach stretches for miles, but in the distance I see the facility. "Sorry, I had to land a klick away from the facility to avoid drawing attention." The pilot apologizes.
Stacker shrugs. "I don't mind a walk, but you better get out of here before the Covie air patrol spots you."
The pilots drop of the other ODSTs then take off. There are roughly twenty of us in all.
"All right fireteam Zulu, lets move." Stacker shouts.
We quickly move through the beaches, fortunately the rocks provide us excellent cover. Within half an hour we encounter the first group of Covenant.
About a dozen small aliens in orange and red armor surrounded by two larger ones both wearing blue armor. Grunts and elites. All are patrolling the beaches and headed straight for us. We all take cover behind rocks.
I take a deep breath "Stay calm," I instruct myself "this is what I've been training for."
"Kathleen can you do something about these guys?" Stacker whispers.
She whispers. "I spy with my little eye-"
A gunshot rings out followed by a scream. I peek from the rock and see an elite laying in the grass surrounded by the gore that used to be his head.
The others Covenant quickly look around, aiming their guns.
I ready my assault rifle and take aim.
Suddenly I remember a conversation I had with Percy when we were younger and excited about the idea of our first kill.
"Why aren't you here with me Percy?" I whisper softly.
A jolt on my chest brings me back to reality. I look and see the grunt firing at me. My shields draining quickly.
Stacker fires a burst from his rifle and the tiny alien falls, still clutching his chest. I mentally scold myself for getting distracted and fire burst and a second grunts falls with most of his neck gone.
The second elite quickly returns fire and soon so do the other grunts. Stacker and the others open fire as well. The grunt turn to attack then, but are swiftly killed. The elites shields absorb the rounds and advances until one bullet hits his stomach.
Jones fires a quick burst at the aliens head before moving up. A panicked voice suddenly appears on the COMs. "The Covies are breaking through the barricades. We needs backup."
The man screams as an explosion is heard in the background. "Lets move marines!" Stacker roars, leading up forward.
The rest of us follow closely, as we advance to the facility. Aside from a few patrols we face almost no resistance.
We finally reach the main courtyard where a large group of Covenant is assaulting the bases outnumbered army troopers. Several dozen grunts, jackal, and elites, even a pair of hunters.
Anderson unslings his grenade launcher and fires a round at a hunters. The hunters raises his shield and blocks it.
"Second squad help the army troopers. First squad take out the hunters!" Stacker snaps.
I rush forward, firing my assault rifle, followed by eight other ODSTs. The hunters roar and return fire with their assault cannons.
One ODST literally melts as he's consumed by the twin blobs of plasama. The rest manage to hit the dirt.
From the floor I level my gun at one of the hunters midsection. The burst injures the hunter but doesn't kill him. The hulking Covenant warrior kicks my aside.
The other hunter prepares to charge, but is hit by a grenade followed by rifle fire caused by Anderson and his group of ODSTs.
My shields flare up and die. The hunter raises it's boot and prepares to crush me. It suddenly roars in pain and reels back. I look up and see Stacker holding a smoking rifle.
Five other ODSTs all fire at the hunter. The hunters armor can withstand any light firearms, but even they can't withstand hundreds of assault rifle rounds. The hunter crushes one soldiers with it's shield and blasts another through the chest. The others move back and fire from a safe distance.
But soon the armor gives out and the bullets pierce his wormy appendage. The beast lets out one final roar before collapsing.
This frees us to attack the regular Covenant while the rest of the troops push their attack. The Covenant are caught between the two groups and are decimated. But not before taking half a dozen troopers with them.
Stacker approaches one of the army troopers. "What happened here soldier?"
The Army trooper look at us, still wide-eyed and terrified from the recent attack. The mans unhinged, but takes a deep breath and says. "They came in about half an hour ago. We tried to hold them off but there were just so many. A few slipped through while the rest has been trying to keep us from getting inside."
Stacker nods. "Stay here and secure the area, my men will clear the inside."
One of the army troopers get the door open, revealing a long hallway with over a dozen army trooper corpses. In the end is a single elite holding a dead trooper by the throat.
The elite lets out a low growl then throws the body aside. I drop down to a crouching position and fire my gun full auto.
The elite fires his plasma rifle as his shields flare up. The other ODSTs fire and the shredded remains of the elite drop to the ground.
Stacker leads the marines forward, clearing the facility off Covenant. Several army troopers and naval personnel join us. One of the officers salutes. "We've already began evacuating the bases crew and equipment."
I nod. "Well then the only thing left is the bases AI."
"Thats the problem, when the Covenant first attacked, they sent a group to capture the command center where the AI is. Luckily the AI shut itself and the computers down during the attack and the Coveis are still trying bring it back online."
"Then we better stop them before they do." Stacker says, says placing a fresh clip into his rifle.
The next ten minutes felt like hour as we move through seemingly endless amounts of narrow hallways and corridors. With Covenant seemingly waiting and attacking in every opportunity. Finally we reach the command center room. We all prepare as one of the army troopers begins hacking the lock on the door.
"Get ready." Stacker whispers stepping to the right side of the door. The doors slide open showing a single grunt standing guard.
The tiny alien cries out in alarm and raises his pistol. Stacker moves first, grabbing the grunts neck and twists it until theres an audible SNAP.
The other Covenant hear this and raise their weapons. "Cover fire!" Stacker yells, firing his gun and retreating to the side of the door.
I crouch down and spray several bursts at the Covenant, dropping a pair of grunts and a jackal.
The other jackals crouch down behind their shields and lock them, like a greek phalanx while a trio of elites moves behind them. The ODSTs of fireteam Zulu open, but their bullets ricocheted of their shields.
"Kathleen, take out those jackals." Stacker yells.
The sniper fires several rounds at the small gaps in between the jackals shields. Several fall leaving gaps in their lines.
I prime a frag grenade and throw it in one of the gaps. The grenade goes off and chunks of gore splatter on my armor. The ODSTs take this chance to open fire, elites begin falling and grunts are blown of their feet.
One elite runs to the controls and tries grabs the AI before trying to run off.
"We've got to stop him!" Stacker cries.
I draw my pistol and take aim as the elite tries to run through another door. I fire one sh, placing the chip to my belt and the elite falls to his knees, clutching his bleeding arm.
I grab the AI as the elite runs away, activating his cloaking. "We should go after him." I say.
One of the soldiers shakes his head. "The Covenant air patrols are coming around. Looks like they're going to bomb the facility!"
The room is suddenly shaken by an explosion.
"We need to get out of here!" I shout. "Call for evac!"
"Covenant air support is too thick for evac here." Another marine says. "But we might be able to evacuate somewhere else."
The officer nods. "If we can reach the motor pool, we might be able to use the warthogs. I should be this way." He says, leading us down.
"Come on marines, just a little more!" Stacker snaps, taking cover behind a pillar. Keeping us from reaching the warthogs is an unusually aggressive group of grunts and jackals.
Me and the other marines scatter, taking cover behind pillars, crates and destroyed vehicles.
We exchange fire as blobs of energy sails at us. I fire my rifle until the ammo counter drops to zero I then draw my pistol and fire my entire clip, dropping three grunts.
Despite the Covenants ferocity, their numbers are quickly thinned as we move forward. "Grenades up!" One of the marines yell, pulling the pin out of a frag.
The rest of throw of us throw grenades behind the Covenant as well. The chain reaction of explosions consume the remaining Covenant.
"Lets roll out!" Stacker climbs onto the drivers seat of one of the jeeps as I hop onto the machine gun turret. The other ODSTs and army troopers climb into a pair of troop transport warthog and another standard machine gun warthog.
The marine steps on the accelerator and then jeep races through the beach followed by a convoy of other warthogs.
There were a number of Covenant walking around the beach, those that didn't get out of the way were splattered or shot.
A loud hum of Banshees fill drown out the noise. Plasma bolts explode in front of the warthog, heat washes over me as bits of shrapnel ping of my armor.
"Damn it, Spartan the turret!" Stacker shouts.
I quickly aim the gun and squeeze the trigger. Bullets cut through the air, but the nimble aircrafts dodge the projectiles.
I fire until my fingers go numb, but the banshees are too far to hit accurately. One of the banshees trails back and fires a sickly bolts of plasma at the rear of the convoy. The gunner desperately fires the turret at the enemy fighter.
A few bullets hit hime, but they simply ping of the banshee's armor. The fighter descends and shoots it's fuel rod cannon, scoring a direct hit at vehicle.
As the banshee tries to move back up to higher ground I aim the turret and fire. At this range the fighter armor is quickly torn away by the hail of bullets.
The other banshee break away and retreats. I relax and lower the turret. Stacker drives to a large rcoky canyon big enough to fit a dropship and have room to spare.
"Wheres the evac?" I ask, checking my belt if the chip is still there.
"In a minute, the pelicans still trying to get past enemy air patrols." A soldier replies. "Incoming Covenant dropship!" The soldier suddenly cries out.
Dirt and plasma explodes around us, as a phantom hovers our convoy. I fire the turret at her, but the phantoms armor easily protects it.
The phantom turns it's gun at the rear warthog and fires. Theres a loud explosion as the jeep flips over and crashes into the warthog in front of it.
Stacker speeds up, but another plasma bolt strikes the hood of the jeep, causing it to soon out of control and slams into the canyon wall, throwing me off the warthog and causing me to lose consciousness for a few seconds.
I wake up near a tangled heap of broken metal. I shakily climb to my feet and make my way to the ruined vehicle. "Spartan...help me." Stacker groans weakly.
He's still strapped to the chair, blood dripping from his waist. I cut his seatbelt loose and drag him out of the wreckage. "Where are the others?" He asks.
I quickly apply biofoam inti his wound. "They're back there." I say jerking my thumb back.
He picks up a fallen rifle and run back to where the others are with me at his heels. There the marines are feebly trying to return fire at the phantom. Kathleen approaches us. "I got some guys digging in the wreckage for survivors but it won't matter if theres no evac."
"Just keep fighting." Stacker replies.
I head to the warthogs where nearly a dozen soldiers lay dead. The phantoms bay doors open and a large group of grunts leaps down and attack the marines.
An elite clad in gold armor steps out and fires his needle rifle.
The shard strikes an injured marine who was being pulled out of the jeep. The elite leaps down and stares at me. "Demon." The elite says roughly. Give me the Construct."
I raise my rifle and fire a burst at the elite. The elite growls and fires his needle rifle, the rounds strike my chest and causes a chain reaction of small explosions.
My shields flare up and die as I fall to my knees as the elite aim his rifle at my head. I grab my gun and fire a burst at the elites gun. The zealot growls and draws an energy sword.
He sprints forward, dodging all my shots. He's only five meters away when my ammo counter reads zero.
I draw my pistol as he covers the distance. I only manage to fire a single shot before he swings his blade at me. My training kicks in as I duck under the swing and smacks the butt of my gun at his body.
The elite grabs me by the neck, easily lifting me off the ground and levels his sword at my neck. I free my combat knife from my belt and jam it in his arm.
The zealot cries out in pain, dropping me. I raise my pistol and fire at the elites belly. The rounds deplete his shield while the fourth pierces his shield and stomach.
The warrior clutches his belly and falls to the ground. I plant one foot on his sword arm and empty the clip at his head.
Meanwhile the marines have finished off the grunts while the phantom prepares to fire. Suddenly a missile flies out and strikes the rear of the phantom. More strike the ship until it falls out of the sky in a ball of fire.
A pelican descends to our position and opens it's bay doors. Hollands voice crackles in the radio. "Spartan, we got communication back up. Did you recover the AI?" He asks.
"Yes sir." I say, climbing aboard as the pelican take off.
Authors note: Ya sorry this took so long. I'm a little rusty when it comes to writing gun fights so I'm sorry if the fights not that good.