Marines and Elites

Chapter 7: Phone Home


Marines

Eight hours after Chapter 6

The sunset was a dark orange, starting to dissipate against the dark night sky. An ordinary person would have been watching the sunset but unfortunately for the soldiers of the canyon, they weren't exactly ordinary people.

Ed carried the coffee to Howard's office; apparently he needed some after the confrontation. To Ed, this was odd, as he and Tim both needed a glass of strong alcohol afterwards. Perhaps Howard was just different like that.

Ed opened the door. "Here's your coffee, Howard." He said, placing the coffee on the table.

"Thank you." Howard took the coffee, taking a sip. Needed more sugar, but he wasn't complaining. He had other things on his mind. "I still can't believe that there are Elites here." He muttered.

"They don't seem too tough." Ed pointed out. "If anything, they're like Covenant sim troopers."

"True. But it can't be denied that they have more combat experience than us." Howard replied. "They could easily injure one of us. Horribly too."

"And you care?" Ed joked.

Howard looked at him. "Ed, I've been friends with you guys for my entire life. Hell, our families have been close since the twenty-first century. Of course I care."

Ed chuckled. "I know, I know. But what can I do? I live to annoy and insult you."

"In all seriousness, though, what would we be able to do if that happens?"

"Nothing." Ed replied simply. "We don't know how to do stitches. We don't know how to treat burns. We don't have any medicine either."

"Unless you count that stuff that Tim brought when we first came here…" Howard sighed,

FLASHBACK

"This is our base?!" Ed complained as he looked over the place. "It's just two spires in the middle of a box canyon!"

"Ed, stop complaining." Howard snapped. "Do something useful and go check out the base. The inside, Ed." He added when Ed just looked up and down the tower.

"Oh, fine." Ed muttered irritably. He walked inside the base, saying things under his breath.

"Tim, help me unpack." Howard requested. The blue soldier was tottering around, for some reason blissfully unaware of his surroundings. So Howard had say it louder. "TIM!"

Tim jumped and looked at Howard. Then, realising what Howard had asked, went over and starting pulling stuff out of the crate.

Howard started to do the same, muttering things under his breath. Then he noticed a small object in the bottom of the crate.

A bottle full of pills.

Howard frowned as he picked up the small bottle in the crate. "Tim, what are these?"

"Oh, those?" Tim said brightly as he pulled out an assault rifle. "That's just my heart medication."

Howard stared at him. "…You don't need heart medication."

"Yeah, but they taste nice. And they're strangely addictive." Tim proclaimed happily. "Well, gotta go annoy Ed. See ya!"

Howard watched him go. Then he walked over to the stream and poured the contents into the water.

END OF FLASHBACK

"You still remember that?" Ed asked. "That was over seven months ago."

Howard shrugged. "I seem to have a photographic memory. It's very useful."

Ed thought about it. "Huh. Anyway, if you want my advice, you should ask command for a medic. God knows we could use one."

"Yeah. Remember that time when Tim tried to bandage a paper cut with toast?"

Ed groaned. "Yes. Sometimes, I wonder about him."

"Hey Ed!" Tim's voice came from the living room. "Can you help me find the remote?"

Ed rolled his eyes. "Like he isn't holding it. Well, guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yup." Howard took another sip of his coffee. Ed exited the office, deciding that he might be better off telling Tim that the TV hasn't worked for years.

Howard thought about what Ed had said. It was true that none of them had any medical experience whatsoever. The worst they had ever gotten were a few paper cuts. But with Elites here, it was all too likely that they could be injured badly.

Howard sighed, walking over to the screen. He turned it on, the screen switching to the UNSC logo. He typed up a few things and waited. Then he said to the screen "This is General Howard Einstein, of the UNSC Equipment Testers. Over."

"Loud and clear, Einstein." came an obnoxious and smirking voice. "Loud and clear."

Howard groaned bitterly. "Why is it always you?"

A smirking, unshaven face appeared on the screen. "Probably because I like you best, cuz."

"Hello Mac." Howard muttered. "I need ask you a favour."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "A favour? From me? You feeling alright?"

"I need a medical officer." Howard replied. "One who can actually do his job. Not just some guy who says he's a medic and doesn't even know how to deliver medicine."

"Before I do anything, let me ask you something." Mac leaned forward in his chair. "Why do you need a medic? You've been fine for the last few years."

"We have a new development." Howard already knew how Mac would react to this. "A trio of Covenant Elites have landed at the opposite end of the canyon."

Mac snorted. "Elites? Yeah, right."

"Somehow, I knew you'd say that." Howard grumbled.

"You were always the one who wanted the attention, weren't you Howard?" Mac sneered. "You always lied to get your way, to get your attention, to get noticed. Well I won't let you be that arrogant."

Howard really didn't need this. He really didn't. He would do anything just to talk to someone else at command just for once. But unfortunately, Mac was his only option.

"Mac," Howard said sternly. "The incident was twenty-one years ago. Time to let it go."

Not even listening to him, Mac said "Tell you what; if you get proof that there are Elites at the other side of the canyon, then I'll send you a medic. But in the meantime-"

Howard interrupted him by typing on the computer, putting up an image of the three Elites shooting at them while they were behind the rock. He let the image stay there for ten seconds, so Mac could have time to see if it was legit, then he put it down.

Mac had a dumbstruck look on his face, Howard knowing that two conflicting emotions were going to war in his head. Sending a medic will be doing what Howard wanted, something that Mac had been fighting against for his entire life. On the other hand, he had taken a long time to get to his post and not sending backup would be a sentence to his own demotion.

Mac sighed. "I'll see what I can do." He mumbled.

"Excellent!" Howard said brightly. "I hope we don't see each other again. Good day!"

And with that, he turned off the monitor.


Elites

"…Obviously the Marines will be expecting us to attack with a frontal assault, seeing as their base is at the opposite side of the canyon. So we can't do that, as they will most likely be prepared for it. We'll have to sneak around behind their base so as to…"

Tracer just let Atar drone on. There was no point stopping him. Once he got started, he was impossible to stop.

Utarz was doing his best to ignore it and was succeeding for the most part. Every now and then he caught a snippet of what seemed to be a plan that resulted in his death.

"…And that's the plan! What do you think?" Atar concluded.

Utarz's head snapped up, suddenly paying attention. Tracer just said "Hm? Oh, yes sir!"

Despite what Utarz frequently said about him, Atar wasn't an idiot. Deciding that he would be better off giving them a simplified version of the plan, he growled "We sneak around the back and then Utarz blows up the base."

At this, Utarz sat up straight, suddenly alarmed. "Hold on, hold on, what? Why do I have to use the explosives?"

"Well, you don't know anything about explosives, so you're likely to kill yourself in the process."

Even Utarz could see the flaw in this. "Uh, Atar?"

"General, or sir."

"Whatever. Since I don't know anything about explosives, what are the chances that I'll actually succeed in blowing up the base?"

This seemed to convince Atar. He stood still for a moment, trying to figure out a way around this. Then he turned to Tracer. "Do you know how to use explosives?"

"Yes sir!" Tracer lied.

Atar looked at him.

"…No sir."

"Besides, we don't have any explosives." Utarz pointed out.

Atar growled. "Tracer, do you know how to make explosives?"

"No sir. And even if I did, I don't think we have the right materials."

Atar stood silently, thinking. If they didn't have the materials or the personnel necessary for explosives, then they needed to get them. And the only way to get them was to…

…Call Brutus.

Atar sighed. "Tracer, did you manage to reroute the radio?"

Caught off guard by this question, Tracer said "Um… yes sir?"

"Good. You two go to bed. There are still some beds in the side rooms."

"But I'm not tired!" Utarz complained.

"Here's a deal. Go to bed now, and I'll give you chocolate like a good little boy." Atar replied sarcastically, basically telling Utarz what he was being reminded of right now.

Utarz spluttered. Atar just left to use the radio.

Atar never called Brutus unless they absolutely needed to. There was a good reason for this: Brutus was a Brute, a creature in the Covenant that the Sangheili had a personal grudge against. In their opinions, the Brutes were just that, brutes. They were animals that deserved neither pity nor respect.

Atar turned on the comm link. IT was bad enough that he had to talk to a Brute, it was made even worse by Brutus' attitude. It was hard enough to talk to him, even harder to get stuff from him.

Brutus' face appeared on the screen. "This is Brutus, reporter to the- Oh. It's you."

"Spare me, Brutus." Atar snapped. "I didn't call you to get scorn and annoyance."

Brutus just grunted. "So what do you want? We don't have much to spare, what with everything going on."

Atar was curious. "Like what?"

"We've managed to pinpoint the location of a sacred artefact."

Now Atar was excited. "A holy ring?"

"No. We're not sure what it is, to be honest. But don't bother trying to learn about it. You won't be going. Now what do you need?"

Atar glared at him. "We need a demolitions expert, or at least a demolitions user. We'll send you the coordinates so that you can send him. We also need explosives."

"Dare I ask why?"

"In the canyon we're in, we've got three humans that are… similar to my squad."

Brutus understood that statement. "You're in luck. We've actually got someone for you. He goes by the name of Repora."

"Good. Send him. And don't forget the actual explosives."

Brutus chuckled. "If I were you, I'd let those humans have a fight. After all, you'll be there for a long time."

Atar sighed. "You're not going to rescue us when we're done here, aren't you?"

"Atar, if we did, then we would have a bunch of idiots on a spacecraft with no-where to go. And that crowds up space. It's much simpler if we just send them somewhere remote."

That did make sense. But it didn't make Atar any more pleased about it.

"Whatever." Atar growled. "Just send us the material. We need it urgently."

"Very well." Brutus replied. "He'll be there in two days."

"Two days?!" Atar shouted, outraged. "Why don't you just send him now, we can-"

Atar was cut off by Brutus ending the comm link.


Right, so I'm thinking about starting a tumblr account for the Marines and Elites so that you can ask them questions. It depends on how popular this fanfic gets and if you guys want me to. I mean, I sure as hell do.

Thanks for watching.

Potato.