Demons and Wolves

(A/N: Thanks to Master DV for editing this, i make too many mistakes its not even funny. Anyways Enjoy!)

Chapter 4: A Hard landing

As we moved towards the ring; Chief turned to me again, but this time instead of him talking to me the clear voice of Cortana blared into my helmet speakers."Huh, so this is the first time we meet face to face, well- technically speaking. I never got to thank you for getting me off Reach." The A.I. said.

"Just following orders Ma'am."

"You sound just like him-Chief, I mean. Anyways let me update you on the information of the ring. It has a breathable atmosphere, artificial gravity, and in fact, it has all the markings of a lush world full of life, except for the fact that it is well, artificial." She said frankly.

"All right then, thanks for the update." Noble Six curtly replied.

The conversation lulled for a minute before Cortana spoke up again. "Well anyways, when we are on the ring, I am going to help provide information to both of you, It's gonna give us more of a fighting chance on the ring."

I decided to forego replying, giving a short nod and turning to the cockpit. Chief seemed to have the same thoughts as me. We both stared at the ring as it grew progressively bigger. Now seemed like it was a good time to think for a bit, who knows when the next time we would get any rest from our campaign across this alien ring-world.

I thought I was going to die on Reach, but thanks to Keyes, I had somehow made it out of there alive. How many Spartans were left? Noble team was gone, and from the reports I heard all the Spartan-II's were taken out on Reach as well. I don't even know what happened to the rest of the S-III's. All I know is that I'm still here, and they aren't. The best I can possibly do is just to honor their memories. For now though, it would do well just to focus; I was part of a new team now, one with a legendary warrior and his A.I. companion. To say we were lethal would be an understatement. I had fought with noble for a while, so I guess it wouldn't be anything unusual.

We had been falling for at least 5 minutes, and I could see the trees and structures populating the ring. My best guess was we were going to set up camp there, and hold out. My thoughts however, were rudely interrupted by a sudden jolt coming from the back of the lifeboat.

"I'm losing her!" The Pilot yelled as we suddenly made a massive dip to the point in which we were almost perpendicular to the ground. I grabbed a handle and Chief did the same, as we plummeted in a downward arc. Suddenly there was an earth-shaking crash and everything went black.

XXxXxXxXxX

"You both look really cute together, you know that?" An amused voice that cut through the fog that clouded my mind said. I shook my head to clear out the dizziness out of my vision. We had crashed onto the surface of the ring. Chief and I were stuck together in a slightly awkward position. We looked at each other and I calmly rolled off of the Chiefs back. We both got up and brushed the dirt off of our armor; as good as it did to remove the grime collected from past battles. I looked around the interior of the escape-pod; I walked over to one of the slumped marines and checked for a pulse. Nothing, the man was dead. I looked over to the Chief who had checked the pilot; he shook his head in a negative gesture. Damn it; we were the only survivors of the crash; I bowed my head for a second in silent mourning.

Walking out of the crashed lifeboat I took surveyed the area around us. It was sunny, and it looked to be early in the morning by the sun's position in the sky. You could see structures of the ring on the horizon, curving upwards like a monolith. It was an interesting sight to say the least. The lifeboat was still smoking and bodies littered around the crash site. The Chief turned to me. "Stock up on ammo Six, we don't know how long we will be without any resupply." He said in his gruff voice.

I nodded as we began to scavenge the bodies and lifeboats for any ammo or supplies left. I was checking the body of a marine when suddenly Cortana's clear voice sounded in my speakers," Covenant dropship in the vicinity, you two best find some cover." She said in a concerned voice. I pulled out a M392 DMR from the lifeboat along with a pistol. The Chief grabbed an MA5B assault rifle and another pistol. I spotted a platform of rocks, littered with trees nearby. It would provide us with good cover from enemy fire. I signaled to Chief the position I saw and we made a run for it. Crossing the distance in a matter of seconds we hunkered down against the rocks, patiently waiting for the drop-ship to arrive.

Less than a minute later, a dropship arrived; the marines had taken to calling it a Spirit. The tuning fork-like dropship circled around for several seconds before descending. I looked towards the Chief, who nodded back at me. We immediately rose from cover, firing in unison. The grunts, which dropped first, stood no chance against the powerful rounds that pierced their fleshy bodies and killed them. The Elite barked a guttural war cry, and threw himself behind several rocks, protecting him from fire. Chief grabbed a grenade from his belt and lobbed one behind its cover in a perfect toss. The Elite warbled a surprised cry, as the grenade plinked in front of it. In an explosion of red, oranges, and purple, it turned it and several grunts into confetti.

I rolled out from cover, firing my DMR as I strafed. Popping two grunts in the head, the Chief pulled out his pistol and put down the last of them. We were about to take a quick breather when suddenly a large screech burst overhead. Plasma fire rained on our shields as the Banshee cut through the air; turning around for another salvo. We both returned fire at the aircraft, spraying what was left in our clips. The armor piercing capabilities of the assault rifle shone through as the bullets killed the pilot sending the banshee sailing over a cliff and out of sight. An explosion sounded off signifying its death.

A waypoint popped up on our HUD (Heads Up Display). " I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should look to see if there are any survivors." She explained. We made our way across the tiny canyon meeting minor resistance in the form of some scouts. We made quick work of them with a few rounds of our pistols and continued on our way. Coming up to a structure we saw a couple of marines who had set up a sort of rally-point in the large two-leveled structure. A private approached us, the name Bisenti, along with his rank, showed up on our HUD.

"Good to see you, Sir's! Welcome to the party! Come on I'll take you to our CO." I smirked under my helmet in admiration of the young marines' personality. Kid didn't let the situation get to him and was able to keep his spirit up. "When the rest of the world is going to hell, an optimistic personality goes a long way." Is what Jorge had said to me once? Damn, how I missed the Spartan II sometimes. Following the private we met up with his CO. Sergeant Johnson was on top of the second story floor looking down at us, his eyes in a rifles scope surveying the horizon for enemy movement. From the first look you could tell that he was a no nonsense kind of guy but then he put down the rifle and placed a cigar in his mouth his rifle, a BR55 battle rifle at his side. He smiled and walked down the ramp to us. "Good to see you're still among the living Master Chief but you're gonna have to introduce me to your new best friend." Johnson said while giving me a pointed look. He seemed surprised that they had another Spartan with them, huh; he must have not heard the news.

The Chief had an amused tone as he replied." Noble Six is under my command for now; he's a good shot. What's the situation sergeant?" He asked in his gruff voice. It seemed like they had a history together, seeing as all the marines here were fresh from the battle of Reach I would wager a guess that they had probably met on the battlefield. They moved off to one side and talked for a while about the current whereabouts of the Captain and the officers and how the rest of the marines who were scattered around the valley. This continued on until a young marine voiced cried out warning us.

"Heads up! We've got a Covenant drop ship coming in over here!" We checked our clips and double timed over to stop the advance. In the sky was another purple aircraft. A Phantom slowly descended onto the grassy plain, plasma spitting out of its front-bow turret. A squad of grunts hefting plasma pistols dropped down, with a red armored elite following soon after. I chucked a fragmentation grenade over to their position; unfortunately they managed to dive before the grenade exploded. Ramming behind rocks for cover before we could open fire, we quickly did the same.

Using the DMR, I took out the Elite's shields with a couple of well-placed headshots. He roared and went back into cover, and I could hear his cries of anger in his alien tongue. I was sure he had cursed at me. I reloaded, grinning in anticipation of what was about to happen. The Chief had silently moved around, flanking the group. The covering fire from the marines on the structure helped kept them from peeking their heads out and spotting him. The moment the Elite finished cursing me to whatever their equivalent of hell was, the Chief hopped on his back and snapped his neck. As the Elite collapsed to the ground the Grunts became fearful, and started running around in a panic, from there it was easy to deal with them. Slamming a fresh clip into my pistol, I put the rest of them down.

Two more drop-ships had arrived while we had dealt with the first deployment and soon the structure became a battleground for the conflict between the alien troopers and the Human survivors. After a few minutes of heated battle the marines had managed to kill the last of the enemy invaders. Fortunately all the marines had managed to survive the encounter; all that was left to do was bandage our wounds and wait, hoping for the lifeboat beacon to lead to our rescue.

A transmission suddenly blared into our headsets." This is pelican Echo 419. Does anybody read me? I repeat: any UNSC personnel respond."

Johnson picked up the horn for a quick reply."We read you Echo 419, this is Fire Team Charlie. Is that you Foehammer? "

"Roger that Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya!" The pilots' happy reply was heard through the Comms. It seemed that she was relieved to find some survivors.

Johnson gave a toothy grin. "If you're not too busy, Foehammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport and we have to find out where the rest of the men are."

"I'm on my way." Was her reply.

Chief and I stood at rapt attention, weapons scanning the sky to check for any banshee's or more drop-ships incoming; luckily there was none. Soon the Pelican, presumably driven by Foehammer, came into view with a warthog attached to its underside.

As the transport ship slowly descended over a clear patch of land I suddenly heard Mendoza yell out. "Up high! Lifeboats at 12 o'clock!" We raised our heads as the lifeboats fell downward like a shooting star crashing into valleys nearby.

"They're coming in fast. When those lifeboats make it down the Covenant are going to be all over them. Foehammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. Chief, Six and I are going to see if we can save them." Cortana spoke out to the pilot over the comm.

There was a large thump as the pelican sank down to our level and dropped its Warthog onto the ground." I'm going to stay on station for any survivors you're going to need pick up for." Foehammer told us as the marines all filed into the ship and she flew away. Chief walked over to the 'Hog, hopped into the driver seat. Seeing that he had the wheel, I hopped into the chain-gunner position. Cortana's' cool voice came into both our heads. "All right boys, ready for a road trip?"

Chief kicked the warthog into gear, and the dirt flew as the 'Hog sped towards the navigation point that had Cortana set. It led to a cave that would take us to the first lifeboat.

As we drove closer to the opening, I noticed that it wasn't really a cave, and that it looked more like some sort of underground structure. Cortana had the same thought as she voiced it to us as we moved in closer." This cave is not a natural formation."

"Tell me something I don't know." I replied back. Cortana gave a huff of indignation and I could've sworn I heard Chief chuckled a little.

XXxXxXxXxX

After navigating the crisscrossing tunnels, we entered a large cavern, a large trench dividing the floor with no visible way to cross it. Covenant soldiers were everywhere and had the position heavily fortified. Chief floored the pedal and brought the hog screaming into the fray. He mowed down some unlucky grunts before he hopped off. I stayed on the gun and gave him some supporting fire. They stood no chance against the high caliber rounds the turret spat at them, tearing apart anything not smart enough to take cover. The Chief flanked behind and shot them with his pistol. With their cover compromised they had a choice of fighting the super soldier or taking their chances of moving to a better position while under machine gun fire.

To them the choice was obvious; they jumped out of cover and ran for their lives. It made them easy pickings as I tore them apart with the turret. After they all had been killed I dismounted the gun and looked around for a way to cross. "There must be some mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a control panel or switch." Cortana's voice told us.

Chief motioned for me to take the right side, while he moved to the left. I slung the DMR over my back as I quietly walked along the cavern, my footsteps echoing against the metal surface. I walked forward until I noticed a break in the wall, leading to an ascending hallway. "Chief, I found something" I said into our comm. channel. At the end of the hallway was a panel, which seemed to be some sort of hologram. Chief had taken over and I let him examine it. As he moved his hand towards the panel I expected it to pass right through the display. His hand touched the panel and caused it to react by activating a bridge. It looked as if it was made of light; it formed right in front of our very eyes.

"From what I can tell," Cortanas' voice sounded through our head speakers. "That bridge is made from some kind of hard light. It should be safe to cross over with." Chief and I shared a look at each other and shrugged, we walked back down the hallway, back to the Warthog. It was quite dangerous to move onto a bridge seemingly made of light so Chief drove as quick as possible and before we knew it, we were on solid earth again.

At the other side of the cavern an opening led out to a large canyon. Cortana set up three waypoints, signifying where the three crashed lifeboats should be. We drove to the closest of the three. It wasn't long before we heard bullets and plasma fire being exchanged, and when we turned the corner and we saw a rock slide where the lifeboat had landed. Some marine's were exchanging fire with the Covenant but it looked like they wouldn't last any longer if they didn't receive help soon. Chief gunned it to drive right between the survivors and the Covenant. We both took a couple of hits that drained some of our shields but before they could fire again I squeezed down the trigger and lit them up with 75mm rounds. Needless to say they didn't live long enough to even readjust their aim. With the current threat eradicated we both hopped off to speak with one of the marine's. "Am I glad to see you two. What's the current situation sir?" the marine hefting an SRS99C-S2 sniper rifle asked as we walked over to his position.

I took the initiative to reply. "There are several life boats scattered around this valley. The Chief and me are riding around rounding up survivors. We need to clear this LZ so evac can pick you up." The marine nodded, pulled the catch on his sniper rifle and turned to face the enemy.

"Fall back, fall back!" Someone yelled. I peered over the edge to see who was issuing the order and I saw several other marines running away as an Elite rushed into the rocks. The sniper covered the Marines with a couple of shots; he managed to blow the head off the Elite who was chasing them down. The Marines then took cover in their new position and the sniper filled them in on the current status of rescue. The news of evac seemed to invigorate them and a fire must have burned within them as their efforts increased ten-fold. They fought even harder to kill the xenophobic bastards preventing them from getting off this god-forsaken rock.

"Provide some suppressive fire!" A sergeant yelled. We, the Chief and I, moved towards the rocks trying to push back the Covenant and drive them off. The sniper lagged back sniping off any Grunt or Elite stupid enough to poke their heads out of cover. I dove from cover and opened fire on an Elite who was pressing on our right side. The rounds punctured his helmet killing him instantly. The Chief then used his assault rifle to put a Jackal out of his misery with a burst of fire. The radar pinged a warning and I turned to notice a grunt hefting a lit plasma grenade rushing at me. Moving at ludicrous speeds, I dove backwards to avoid it. The sniper thankfully saw it and put a round through its head. The grunt fell to the ground and the grenade detonated, spreading a blue mist around its body in a flash of burning hot plasma.

The Marines used a combination of Assault rifle fire and grenades to put down the rest of the stragglers. "We're not done yet; I see two Covenant drop ships coming in hot!" The sniper shouted to us from his position higher up on the rocks, his scope looking into the sky. Deciding against wasting ammo, I waited for the ship to come to a stop and drop off its cargo. I lobbed a frag grenade into the drop zone. The resulting explosion turned the group of Grunts into bloody ribbons. Other marines had the same idea and followed suit with the other squads of aliens. A series of explosions made sure that those Covie bastards thought twice before setting down any more troops near a group of marines. Finally, it seemed like we had a breather. Cortana activated a beacon and soon enough Foehammer's voice blared into our headsets.

"Echo 419 to Cortana, please acknowledge. "

"We read you, Echo 419. We have survivors and need immediate dust off." She replied back.

"Roger, Cortana, I'm on the way. I've spotted additional lifeboats near your position, one near a cliff, another near the head of the river. Hard to see, but I think there are some more survivors."

"Acknowledged, I'm on the way." Echo 419 slowly descended, and I caught a glimpse of Foehammer. She was wearing the standard fatigues that the pilots wore when off duty. It seemed that she had to make a quick escape from the Autumn when the Covenant had boarded. It was a good thing she did because we would have been toast if we didn't have some form of air-support to help us out. Noticing my look she waved at me, I waved back. With the marines loaded up she flew away to take them to whatever place we had decided to use as a rally point. I walked back to the warthog and manned the gun again. Chief once again got behind the wheel.

"We still have two lifeboats to get too boys, let's move out." Cortana said.

The riverhead was nearest so we headed there. Water splashed as we drove right into the stream. We continued to move to our next objective scanning the nearby area for any survivors or enemy scouts. We could hear the sounds of gunfire coming from nearby hills. Cortana set a waypoint and gave us some information. "There are some marines hiding in the hills above the structure." She pointed out. Chief drove the warthog up the hill, and we came onto a plateau like area with a monolith and futuristic structure nearby.

One of the marines looking around warily; he then noticed us and waved us over. Exiting the vehicle we walked over to him. "We could use your help in clearing out the structure; looks like this might be a good place for an LZ." We nodded and surveyed the structure. The marines picked a good one, with good cover, and several stories making it available for a fallback point.

I noticed one of the marines carried a flamethrower, and it seemed like he had difficulty holding it. He must have noticed me looking at him, he shrugged and said." I'm just carrying it in case we need it later on."

"Here, give it here." I held out my hand towards him.

The marine hobbled over and dropped the weapon at my feet. I'd always wondered why they made flamethrowers so heavy to the point in which only a Spartan could carry it without much difficulty. I hefted it up towards my waist with a grunt; even for me it seemed somewhat heavy to carry. Instead of using the weapon, I opened up the fuel lodge and took out the gas canister. I dropped it at the bottom of the structure intending to use it as an impromptu explosive tank. In case things got hot. I looked up and saw the Chief motioned me for me get to the top of the structure, and I hopped up quickly.

"All right boys I'm picking up several large heat signatures coming up from the south, I recommend forming up and hunkering down, there's ample cover and ammo in case." Cortana informed us.

"You heard the lady; Mendoza! Man the left side, Chief and Six will assist with some covering fire. Everyone else, form up on me." A sergeant yelled his orders. I checked my ammo counter, it read full. The Chief did the same. I strode over to the left, my footfalls making small clanks on the metallic ground. Chief followed behind me, his light footfalls making it seem as though there were a young child behind me, not a giant super-soldier.

I scanned our position, two barricades angled to deflect aircraft fire, the position laid on top of a small crest. It helped as we could focus fire downwards. A large shade turret stood nearby it was probably captured from the previous occupiers of this place. Behind us was the building, as long as the marines could hold this position, we would be fine. Chief motioned me to one barricade, he moved to the other, and Mendoza hopped on the turret.

Less than a minute after we got into our positions, the familiar whine of a Covenant dropship filled the air. Like a vulture circling its prey; it slowly looped around our position, hosing us down with plasma fire. Thankfully the barricades held and we waited as the dropship slowly sunk down to drop its load. The dropship landed on the bottom of a hill and ejected its cargo: two Elites, one hefting a sword, the other a carbine; a half dozen grunts, hefting an assortment of plasma pistols, cannons, or needlers, and finally two jackal's their shields glowing crimson as they dropped down.

They wasted no time in putting up a barrage of bolts and plasma. Mendoza opened fire with the turret, spraying the squad of aliens full of powerful plasma bolts. He managed to kill three grunts that were unlucky enough to be in his line of sight. That was all he could do before an Elite tossed a grenade onto the barrel of the turret. Mendoza dove out of his seat, just managing to avoid the blast. "Holy hell that was close!" he yelled out as he rolled into cover. Chief and I exchanged fire with the aliens. Master Chief calmly switched to his pistol, popped out of cover, and put a round right through the opening in a jackal's shield, managing to make it stumble and drop its shield. The Master Chief took advantage of the opening and put a round right in its head. A marine whistled his approval, as he slunk back into cover for a reload.

I noticed one elite was getting closer to us, advancing recklessly and he was about to pay for his mistake. I rose quickly, pulled him from the top, and before he could make a sound, I stabbed him in the neck with my combat knife. Another Elite watched his ally disappear, and quickly backpedaled to the safety of cover. He barked commands to the remaining grunts and they pounded my position with suppressive fire, pinning me down. This gave Chief and Mendoza an opportunity, as they quickly rose sprayed the rest with molten lead, putting them down for a dirt nap. We only got a moment of rest before several more dropships were sighted coming down, and this position wasn't good enough to hold them.

Cortana informed the current C.O. "Sergeant, we're going to get overrun on our side, we're moving back into the structure, how's it going on your side."

"Same thing, we held them off as best we could but there is too many of the fuckers. We're moving back now." His voice came over the comm. We could hear the gunfire through the connection as the marines fought tooth and nail.

We just passed the flamethrower tank that I had prepared earlier and I signaled for Chief and Mendoza to hold at this position. It seemed that it would be of some use after all. They both nodded and pressed against the corner, with me in the middle, waiting for the first sign of opposition. Two minutes passed, before I saw what seemed like a mirage appearing right ahead of me. I opened fire and was rewarded with a warble of surprise, as the Elite's camouflage generator was hit. The element of surprise gone, he opened fire managing to get a few hits on me, draining my shields by half and that was as far as he got. A quick burst from one of the men behind me, and he went down. Behind him, covenant troops streamed in to overtake us but I waited for the right moment to unleash my trap. I put a single shot into the tank and watched the chaos ensue. The screams of the Covenant troops put a grim smile my face. It seemed that the explosion had killed the last of the enemies at this position so we moved over to the other squad to assist them.

They were pinned down and looked like they needed some help badly. It was a good thing we had arrived when we did. We moved behind the enemy and proceeded to open fire. The others must have saw us moving up from behind as they popped out of cover to draw the enemy fire and give it right back at them. It was a textbook pincer attack and it was goddamn effective as we finished them off in a matter of seconds.

The rest of the day went by in the same fashion as we cleared the LZ with the survivors of the final lifeboat. We had managed to get though relatively unharmed, save for several marines lost in holding out. We got most of them out and that's what counted. I was tired to the bone and the sight of Echo 419 overhead put a small smile on my face as we could finally rest easy and get out of here. The marines loaded up and we managed to get the warthog back onto the ship. With the chief and me stepping on the pelican shook as the weight of two Spartans coming onto the ship made it wavered. It was near weight capacity but it barely managed to hold all of us on it. With all of us buckled in and secured we signaled for Foehammer to lift off. The Chief let out a sigh of relief in the chair next to mine. It had been a long day of fighting and even more so for us Spartans, who fought on the front line. I couldn't help but feel just as exhausted as him. I looked out the back of the ship as we flew through the air towards the horizon.

I knew that in the days ahead there would be more fights like the ones today and I knew that this was just the beginning.