Please refer to the disclaimer in the first chapter.
When I was in training, one thing was on my mind: become a Spartan.
I learned that to become a Spartan, you had to be able to react to anything. You had to adapt to any situation and overcome any obstacle, no matter how impossible it seemed.
So with that in mind, I was determined to catch that Prophet no matter what.
I fought against the blackness induced from the bash to the head and looked ahead. I was on my back, and above me was the hole I made a few...how long was I out?
Didn't matter. Needed to get up. Needed to get out of here. Already drew too much attention.
I gripped my knife, threw off the wooden boards that fell on me, brought my legs up, rolled backwards onto my feet, and used the incline of the wooden crater to launch myself forward. The wood splintered and slipped under my footfalls, but I had enough momentum to jump out of the pile.
I smashed through a thin wall to find myself in a narrow dirt street.
After sheathing my knife I checked my person. My MA5K was still on my back and my MS6 was still at my side, with two spare magazines for my AR and five for the magnum on my belt. I had one frag grenade left. My armor was perfectly fine, shields and all.
I looked to the left to find the Spirit dropship disappearing over a large mountain range. I checked the compass at the top of my HMD to see where the Prophet was going, but the cardinal directions were spinning out of control. The UGPS on my left wrist wasn't functioning either. I was geographically blind here, but I knew which direction the Prophet was going, so I only had to follow him.
I wielded my AR and advanced down the desolate street. As I jogged down one side, stopping only to check alleyways, there was one overbearing observation: these wooden and straw buildings. Obviously civilization, but not even close to the standard living of the outer colonies, at least before the Covenant showed up.
'Perhaps these people are rebuilding from scratch and haven't been able to make steel yet.'
'Perhaps, but... where are they?'
I jogged for approximately five minutes, and so far: nothing. Not even my radar showed a sign of life. There were no blood smears, no scorch marks or fires, and the only known Covenant presence was the Prophet's ship, which has now disappeared. It was unsettling.
'Whatever the case, the target is over that mountain, so keep moving.'
I kept moving, and I ate away at the massive distance. At times the buildings changed, from straw huts to multistory complexes (some of which were partially built from stone) then back down to huts. Still, not a single living thing emerged, not even a rodent hiding underneath the deteriorating houses or an insect sitting on the walls.
However, ten minutes after emerging from Slipspace, my radar finally winked a grey dot. I didn't stop advancing.
A minute later, another dot appeared for a second. Then another.
Five more minutes of jogging, and the radar was almost entirely grey, and I heard people all around me save for a clear line that was my street.
I didn't stop. The mountain was right there, and I needed to find out where the Prophet went. Of course he could be anywhere by now, but I had to be sure on what was over that mountain. I had a feeling...
The street suddenly terminated at a large plaza, and I found myself coming to a halt in front of a dense crowd. I looked to the left, then to the right, but it seemed as if all the people in the region decided to all move through here and block me. Why? I didn't know.
I observed the people carefully. All of them wore faded and torn sheets, and many were caked with dirt. A few people here and there had simple sandals, but other than those everyone was barefooted.
One child near the front of the crowd stopped and tugged at the rags of what I assumed to be his mother, pointing at me earnestly. A man heading the other way saw the child pointing and turned to see me. His eyes widened and he gasped, causing several others around him to turn to him, then to me.
This snowballed until the entire crowd had stopped and began staring at me. I stared back at them.
...
I wasn't sure how to proceed. It's been years since I've had to deal with civvies, and these people looked even worse off than insurrectionists, yet the Covenant haven't attacked them. It did not make sense at all.
A man melted out of the crowd and approached me. I made sure he knew I was facing him. Whoever these people were, they weren't UNSC. I had to be cautious.
The black-haired, grizzled man spoke, but not in English. The tone was that of a question, but the actual context was lost to me.
"Translating." said the Winter fragment. Two lines of text appeared on the right side of my HMD:
"Are you a Shinigami?"
"Speak, and I shall translate."
I did not know why Shinigami didn't translate, and I didn't know what a Shinigami was, so I said "No."
There was a pause, and the mechanical voice of the AI fragment spoke the foreign language. The man and several people in the front took a fearful step back.
"Winter, what are you doing?" I whispered. I was able to mute myself inside my helmet so no one could hear me speak, but the AI's voice caught me off guard.
"I have been able to retain translation abilities." said Winter inside my helmet. "However I do not have the ability to mimic voices. If they are to understand you, they will only hear my voice."
'They'll only hear that voice? Alright.'
The man stepped forward tentatively and asked, "Then what are you?"
I went with protocol. "Spartan of the United Nations Space Defense Force, Captain Sierra zero nine four."
The voice Winter used was making everyone either really confused or uncomfortable. I saw many of them shuffling slightly back and forth, while others were trying not to look at me.
"What is a Spartan?" asked the man.
"Me."
The man raised an eyebrow at me following protocol, though I was just as confused as he was. Apparently, these people were on such a remote planet, they have never heard of the Spartans (even though only the Spartan-IIs were known). However, the Covenant were present, so...
I shook my head mentally. Again, this whole situation just didn't make sense at all.
'Why can't things be simple?'
I was about to ask to see who was in charge when I spotted movement on the mountain ridge. I looked up and zoomed in with my built-in binoculars to see a pair of bulbous yet sleek Phantom dropships rise over the mountain and head straight for me.
'Well, wasn't being THAT serious.'
'No matter. We'll deal with this.'
I had Winter toggle my voice amplifier. "Everyone," I yelled out to the crowd, my helmet acting like a speaker, "There are Covenant troops heading this way. I advise everyone to evacuate the area."
I pointed to the two Phantoms that were now over the mountain and heading straight for the plaza. The crowd collectively turned around and saw the dropships.
What happened next surprised me.
The people scattered, but not like one would expect. Without screaming, trampling over each other, or panicking in general, everyone, at once, faced a direction and sprinted out of sight. Women picked up kids and men led women away in silence. All of them disappeared behind stalls, into buildings, even into secret spaces within the walls.
I busied myself by running to one of the nearby buildings and taking cover around a corner. I reloaded my AR before I peeked around and saw not a single soul in the plaza. I looked at the mission clock and saw that the whole thing took about fifteen seconds.
'Impressive.'
When the dropships came into range, the cannon protruding from the bottom of the first Phantom turned to me and fired, sending several blue balls of plasma in my direction. I sprinted away from the corner and out of sight of the dropships. I heard wood splinter and catch fire behind me when the plasma hit.
I ran past a few buildings before turning into an alley to flank the infantry that would undoubtedly be deployed in the plaza. I then turned into another alley that eventually led into the plaza, before I crouched and slowed down so that I couldn't be detected by radar. I settled at the tight corner of a building on the edge of the plaza and peeked my head out. The Covenant dropships, like I predicted, disgorged their cargo.
From what I saw, two dozen Grunts, a dozen Jackals both with shields and carbines, two Brutes, and a Brute Chieftain dropped out of the Phantoms' bottom hatches in that order. This Chieftain, unlike the one on the station, had a more streamlined helmet, and had several large spike grenades on his belt along with his Gravity Hammer. The spike grenade was another invention of the Brutes and acted like a frag grenade, only the shrapnel was replaced by superheated spikes.
While the troops spread out, the Chieftain hefted his hammer above his head before slamming the spiked butt into the ground. Even from thirty meters away I felt the ground shake slightly.
"Demon!" the Brute called out in the opposite direction I was in. "You have sealed your fate by following our Prophet! Face me, and you will at least be granted a warrior's death!"
I didn't answer, and I saw the Chieftain look around to try and find me. When he couldn't, he "hmphed" and turned to the subordinate Brute Captain that wielded a Brute shot. The Captain nodded, and aimed the alien grenade launcher at a wide, single-level house opposite of where I was.
Five yellow balls of concussive explosives were let loose on the wooden building. The weak material that made up the wall simply exploded, sending splinters everywhere. I heard a prepubescent child and a woman scream from inside. When the debris settled, I saw that the Brute shot made a hole that could fit in a warthog lengthwise.
Inside was a worst-case scenario: trapped civvies. There were five people: two adults, one elderly, and two kids; a boy and a girl. They were all huddled together, and all of them were bleeding from the flying debris.
I realized the Brute only fired five shots. Before I could debate with myself over saving civvies or stealth, I switched my rifle for my pistol and fired at the Captain. The shot hit the back of the Brute's head, but his shields held firm. The band of aliens turned around, and the Captain let loose his sixth and last shot down the alleyway.
I was already moving when the explosive blew up more wood.
"Yes! Run, Demon!" yelled the Chieftain. "It will make our hunt more enjoyable!"
As I circled around counterclockwise to where the family was, the rest of the civvies was running silently away, careful not to leave anyone behind. They ignored me.
'Good on them; they'll stay out if the way.'
The Jackals were the first I ran into. Six of them were advancing up a dirt street that I was about to cross. Their shields were locked in a phalanx formation, leaving their sides exposed for me to bash through.
So I did. Holstering my magnum and grabbing my combat knife, I lunged out if the alleyway and grabbed the first bird in line. A quick and silent jab to the gullet killed it, and a horizontal slash sliced open the back of the second bird's thin neck. Green carbine bolts began to zing past me just after I nearly decapitated the third Jackal and snatched its plasma pistol from its dead claws. The carbine fire alerted the remaining Jackals to my presence, and they quickly turned their shields around to face me.
With my element of surprise gone, I sprinted past the shield Jackals, taking fire from them and the Jackal marksmen. I felt a plasma bolt hit my back, but my shields blocked it and allowed for me to escape into another narrow alleyway.
I circled some more until I came to the back of the house the family was in a few seconds later. Peeking through a hole in the wood that was just to the left of them, I saw what was typical Brute behavior: The Captain was strolling across the plaza towards the family, dropping a string of grenades in his launcher with a gleeful smile. He was going to relish was he was about to do.
After looking past the Brute and seeing that every other covy went off hunting for me, I made my move. The wall was just rotting wood, so I only backed up a little while wielding my pistol in one hand and charging up my liberated plasma pistol in the other. I bolted forward shoulder-first and smashed through the wood in a explosion of large splinters. In that moment of general shock and confusion, and still in the motion of ramming through the wall, I aimed at the Brute.
I released the plasma pistol's trigger and let the bright-green ball fly at the Captain. It blasted through his shields and the force made him take a step backwards out of the opening, turning his head. I then aimed with my M6s and took a single silenced shot at the exposed cranium. The high-piercing round zipped right though the Brute's helmet and skull, carrying a bit of brain matter with it.
Before the body fell to the ground, I turned towards the civvies who were in the same position the time I saw them. All of them but the little girl were staring at the Brute corpse in shock. The girl was staring up at me, in awe I guessed. I took a step towards them and gestured to the hole I made.
Before Winter even translated me saying "Get moving." the adults picked up the kids and retreated through the jagged hole, careful not to get any more cut up. Keeping it professional, I followed them through while looking out for either a band of Grunts or the Chieftain.
Seeing no covies, I turned and watched the family hurry away. The little girl, who was being carried by the man, wriggled out of his arms enough to look back at me and wave with a smile.
I nodded in acknowledgement, but I doubted she saw it.
'Right, back to the Covenant.'
I was about to begin looking for the rest of the covies, when I heard several plasma weapons discharge and plasma grenades go off. They were followed quickly by the Jackals and Grunts chattering and crying out in terror. Many of them were silenced mid-scream.
'Are the civvies putting up a fight?'
'Perhaps the military of this settlement has arrived.'
The sounds of carnage did not cease as I moved through the alleyways. There were no ballistics being fired, which confused me even more.
'Please don't tell me they're using something other than firearms.'
As I approached another dirt street, an explosion echoed across the mash of buildings, followed seconds later by an earth-shaking crash and another explosion.
I poked my head out into the street and looked to the left. About fifty meters down the street was the flaming wreckage of one of the Phantoms.
'Oh, so they do-wait...'
I looked closer, and I saw the silhouette of a man in front of the purple and pink flames. From his unnaturally spiky hair and lean form, I determined he wasn't wearing any apparent armor. What truly surprised me, though, was what was hanging at his side: a sword.
No rocket launcher, no explosives, not a single firearm. The man just had a thin, slightly curved sword in a sheath as he looked at the Phantom. I zoomed in to make sure I was actually seeing the simple melee weapon.
I was so shocked I almost didn't see the red dot coming up from behind me in time. I dived back into the ally, and the Brute Chieftain's hammer swung through the air where my head once was, instead blowing open a hole in the corner of a shack.
"Found you!" he roared as he chased after me from the street. I really had no destination in mind to run to, just somewhere that would be difficult for the Brute to pass through. I sprinted between the building, randomizing which way I would turn at an intersection, but the Chieftain somehow kept up with me. He also kept smashing through everything in the ally that I had to vault over or slide under. I even managed to jump onto and over a low-lying hut, but the damn covy just ran right through that too. There was no shaking him.
I was out of escape options when I finally ran out of alleyway. The walls were too high to climb without the Brute tossing his spike grenades at me, and I didn't have time nor space to smash through these walls like I did a minute ago. I had to fight this time, so I turned and aimed with my one-two combo at the Chieftain, who was just rounding the corner. The plasma bolt hit him square in the chest and drained his shields, but it didn't slow him down. I fired my magnum.
The bullet ricocheted off the Brute's invulnerability shield. Now encased in a bright, impenetrable shield, the Chieftain cocked his hammer back and leaped at me.
Imminent death made my mind click. My pupils began to dilate, but the bodily action was both too slow and unnecessary since I still saw the swing coming from a light-year away. I saw the trajectory of the head and lunged at an angle. Similar to what happened on the station, the hammer went right above me, and I was now behind the Chieftain. I ran, but I didn't get far when a spike grenade flew past me and attached to the wall that marked the three-way intersection. I tried moving to the left, but the fuse time on spike grenades were way too short. It detonated a two meters behind me.
My shields were strong, but not enough to absorb a spike grenade so close. I stumbled forward from the blast, yet I kept my footing long enough to round a corner and hear the beeping associated with depleted shields. I felt spikes embedded somewhere in my right side, but I didn't have time to check my injuries.
I looked behind me, and the Chieftain was still encased in that white invulnerability shield as he chased me again. I estimated the shield had five seconds of charge left. A couple more turns and the five seconds were up, however his normal shields had time to charge up, and I had to do the combo again. I spun on my feet and raised my weapons. My right arm flared up in pain, but I just gritted my teeth and charged up the plasma pistol. In that second, the Chieftain closed the distance and raised his hammer high over his head. I launched myself into a backwards summersault, but my injured right side caused my roll to slow.
The hammer slammed into the ground just before my feet touched the ground, and I found myself being flung much further back. I tumbled a few more meters before slamming into a wall and falling to the ground. Now on my stomach, I lifted my head up and saw the Chieftain slowly walking over to me. I raised my hands again, only to find both of my weapons missing. The Brute noticed and chortled.
"The hunt is over, demon. It was fun, but the will of the Prophets is clear: you and the rest of your kind will perish, and-"
He paused both his speech and his stride and looked somewhere above me. The distraction was long enough for me to grab the robust assault rifle on my back, aim, and fire. The Chieftain staggered back a bit, but his shields protected him and the large ape roared as he charged through the storm of led.
He took two steps before...something happened. There was a flash of black, and the Chieftain's shields flared up as if they stopped something. The shields then failed as I emptied my fourth mag, and the Brute's chest and head were reduced to gurgling chunks of meat. The force of whatever hit him caused him to stop in his tracks, and the 44 full-metal-jacket, armor piercing rounds made him topple over on his back.
...
I slowly stood up, careful not to agitate my injured side. I then released the spent magazine of my AR and loaded my fifth one before walking over to the fallen Chieftain's side and kicked away his hammer. A massive pool of purple-ish blood was forming around his body, yet his torn-up chest was still moving up and down. The damned alien was still alive.
A thousand-or-so kilos of pressure from my armored boot to his head finished him off. I lifted my foot out of the hole it made and scraped the gore off onto the dirt that made up the ground. I took a few seconds to catch my breath before looking around to see where I was. The fire from the Phantom wreckage was visible, and had I kept running I probably would have ended up there.
I was about to check my injuries when I saw a grey dot appear behind and above me. I spun around and aimed with my rifle.
The man from earlier was standing on the rooftop next to the alleyway. He was wielding his sword in his right hand, and he was looking down at me with a mildly angry look on his scarred face. He wore what looked to be a sleeveless black robe with a white undershirt. He had a black armband on each arm, along with a patterned black collar around his neck. His spiky hair matched his robe in color.
Some tense seconds passed, and then I asked Winter to translate for me.
"Identify yourself."
The man's expression went from slightly angry to slightly confused, but he answered. Winter translated: "Higasi Shuhei, Lieutenant of 9th Division."
"So you are part of this place's military."
Another pause. "Yes."
I lowered my rifle and turned my head to where the wreckage of the Phantom would be, but I kept my eye on him. "I assume that was your doing."
I saw the man grip on his sword tighten just a bit. "Yes."
"I thank you then." His grip loosened, and I turned my head back. "Though I must ask: how did you manage to take down a dropship?"
Once again the man's eyebrows scrunched together. "I preformed a Kido spell on it."
"A spell? Like magic?"
The man acted like I asked him who the insurrectionists were. "What are you?" he asked.
"Captain Sierra oh-nine-four. Spartan of the United Nations Space Command."
I saw the man straighten up when he heard "Captain". "Why are you here, Captain?"
I didn't want to say I came here on accident, so I took advantage of the fragment's monotone voice.
"To take care of your Covenant problem."
I thought I wouldn't be shocked again by this guy, but I was when I read the next translation:
"The Covenant?"
...
"You don't know about the Covenant?"
The Lieutenant shook his head slowly. "No, I do not."
Had my helmet been off, Suhei would have seen a rare expression on my face. I lowered my head and my shoulders sagged. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
'What planet am I on?'
