Chapter 4: The challenge
(A/N: Sorry for not updating in a long time. I was really busy with college and Xbox XD Anyway, hope you all will enjoy the new chapter.)
Fireteams Crimson and Majestic have been dispatched into different locations of a Forerunner fortress. Commander Palmer made a little challenge, as she considered, to the Spartans on their respective missions. Who can clean their base from Prometheans first?
When Crimson arrived to their destination, they had the comms channel open so they could stay in contact with Infinity and Fireteam Majestic. Soon Commander Palmer ordered the challenge. James, besides his feeling of annoyance, heard the commentary from Paul DeMarco, the leader of Fireteam Majestic.
"Yeah? And what do we win if we beat Crimson, Commander?" Though James soon made a small smirk behind his helmet at Palmer's reply.
"The respect of your peers, DeMarco. That should be an exciting new experience for you."
Then Crimson was already near their target.
-"Okay….what do we do now, James?" Greg asked.
-"Awaiting further instructions, Greg." But nothing sounded on the comms except static.
-"….ca….anyo….me?...Crimson…." James tried to find another comms channel but nothing worked.
-"I can't hear anything." Sam looked at the surroundings of the Fortress and she found something that looked like an array. Most likely a comm jammer.
-"Guys I think I know what happened. There's a jammer over there." James and Greg looked into the direction Sam was pointing.
-"Okay Crimson, our primary target now's to take down that jammer." Sam and Greg nodded. The jammer was near the fortress which was down the cliff Crimson was standing. Soon they landed near the jammer but as soon as they set their feet on the snowy ground. Some sort of electric energy started to emit from different points of the ground. Then some sort of robotic dogs rose from those points and started to shoot at Crimson. Greg evaded a shot that was going directly at his head.
-"Crimson, take cover!" The three Spartans took cover behind the jammer.
-"What the hell are those things!?" James asked and Sam shrugged her shoulders.
-"No idea. But most likely Prometheans." Then she started to shoot her Storm Rifle at those creatures, James did the same with his Magnum and Greg with his DMR. When Greg shot at one of the in its mouth the creature exploded.
-"Guys, shoot them in their faces. We can kill them easier!" James nodded and he shot three bullets at three Prometheans.
-"Sam, go! Disable the jammer! We'll cover you!" Sam nodded and she found the controls of the jammer. Once its signal was down, Crimson got back the signals from Majestic and the Infinity.
-"Commander! Majestic and Crimson comm signals are back."
-"About time! Good work, teams. Now then, let the games begin." James loaded his Assault Rifle and his Magnum Pistol
-"Okay, Crimson. Let's finish this. I wanna win this challenge and beat DeMarco and his team!" Then he ran into their new objective. Sam and Greg only looked at each other and then at the direction where their leader went, Greg had a confused look under his helmet.
-"He takes his rivalry with DeMarco really serious, doesn't he?" Sam only face-palmed herself.
-"Sometimes…James can be so childish." Then both of them followed James and soon more Prometheans arrived. Before the Prometheans could appear, Spartan Miller gave Crimson an advice.
-"Crimson, looks like your first contact with the Prometheans. These are crawlers, fast and mean, but pretty easy to deal with."
-"Yeah, we're aware of that. Spartan Miller." Greg said and he started to shoot at the crawlers. Then many portals appeared in the sky and the Watchers came out.
-"Ugh! Crimson, change of objective! Take the Watchers out!" Crimson took all the Watchers that came out before they could activate turrets or another squad of Crawlers. Then James spotted the tower near their position and another one in 200 meters of distance.
-"Okay. Sam, get the first tower. I'll get the second one. Greg, cover us from a grenade position!" As James and Sam ran into the towers. Greg threw a Grenade near three Crawlers and another Watcher that were heading to James' position.
-"Thanks for the assist!" Greg only made a thumbs up.
-"Keep it up, boss!" Then James and Sam reached the two towers and disabled their beacons. James noticed a pack of Crawlers closing on him so he threw a Frag grenade at one of them and he used his Thruster Pack to exit the explosion range.
-"Crimson, let's go!" Greg nodded and followed him but Sam was having some problems getting rid of the Crawlers and a Watcher.
-"Just give me a minute!" Then she placed a Plasma grenade at the face of a Crawler and threw it at the Watcher.
When she joined her team they were moving to their next tower. Then they heard a transmission from Majestic.
-"Haven't heard from you in a while, DeMarco."
Then many shots and explosion could be heard through the comms channel.
- "Just having a discussion with the locals, Commander."
Then Crimson smirked when they heard what Commander Palmer said:
-"FYI. Crimson's gaining on you."
By the time Crimson reached the top of the tower, many Watchers appeared from the sky and they started to place Focus Turrets.
-"Look out!" Greg yelled as he pushed his teammates away but the shot got him.
-"Greg!" Both James and Sam exclaimed but they were relieved when they saw him standing up.
-"It's nothing. I only need a few seconds to regain the shields." When they ran to take cover from the turret they heard another transmission.
-"Second tower down, Commander."
- "Crimson's way ahead of you, DeMarco."
-"We'll catch up, Commander."
The most probable outcome was to be that Majestic would beat Crimson in this challenge. James got to think of it. His childish rivalry with Majestic got one of his teammates hurt and corned them unable to reach the next target. He needed to rectify this outcome.
-"Okay, we're gonna stay here and try to select our shots…screw the challenge. I'm not risking your safety." Sam and Greg were surprised by James' words. Sam looked at her leader and big brother-like figure.
-"Well, I must admit I'm a little disappointed about our defeat on this challenge and his …but it's good to see that James is growing up." She thought until Greg grabbed something.
-"Don't say that yet, boss." Then he showed James some sort of metallic cubes with orange energy on the corners.
-"Hey, that looks like one of the cubes I told Sam to investigate." Then Greg threw it at the Focus turret that was corning them and it released an explosive pulse wave of energy destroying it.
-"Yep, she discovered these are Forerunner grenades called Pulse grenades." Then James noticed a free pass to the beacon of their target.
-"Ha-ha! Guess we're still in the challenge! C'mon, Crimson! Move your butts!" Then James headed to the other beacon and Sam rolled her eyes beneath her helmet.
-"Then again, I can get wrong."
Soon, the leader of Fireteam Crimson deactivated the last beacon and Miller's voice could be heard through the comms.
-"Crimson has disabled all systems, Commander."
- "Good show. Marking an evac location for you now."
Then James' smirk turned larger when he heard DeMarco's complains.
-"Oh, come on! Crimson's base can't have had the defenses our's did!"
-"You're right, DeMarco. Crimson had more to deal with than you."
-"Well, guess that's it. Now we better…" Before Sam could finish her sentence. A Focus Turret took a shot and it destroyed Sam's Storm Rifle and also Greg's Magnum.
-"Blast!" Greg exclaimed and Sam threw a Plasma Grenade at the Turret, the she was angry with annoyance.
-"Are you freaking kidding me!? That's the second weapon I lose this week!" James then shot two Prime Crawlers in their heads with his Magnum and saw Two Suppressor rifles on the ground and he kicked them near his teammates and they started to shoot at the remaining Watchers…Then a couple of them had started to create a pack of Crawlers and they started to shoot at Crimson.
-"Is this ever gonna end!?" Sam exclaimed and then a Crawler shot a Pulse Grenade near Sam and Greg. The explosion caused major damage on their armors. James tried to help them but a Crawler shot him with a charged Boltshot and took his shields out and cracked his visor.
-"Damned dog!" Then James punched the Crawler and curb stomped its head. Soon he kneeled to the ground since he was weaken for the attacks of the Prometheans, then Greg helped him to get up.
-"We did it, boss." James nodded at his teammate's saying, then Dalton had send a Pelican to retrieve them. Once inside the Pelican, Sam took of her helmet.
-"This was really tough…but at least we beat the challenge." Sam rolled her eyes at Greg's comment.
-"We almost died because of that foolish challenge." James only chuckled.
-"But we didn't, did we? Now, once we're back on the Infinity. You two need a new set of armor and I need a new visor. But we're gonna need to be more careful and train harder if we're gonna survive another Promethean assault."
To be continued….