Flowing water and the sound of multiple animals surrounded Staff Sgt Rick Matthews as he opened his eyes to re-join the world of the living. First he looked down at himself to see he was still buckled to the seat.
'That's a good seatbelt. Maybe a little too good.'
He looked out what was left of the window and saw they were out of the water. Pain coursed through him as he over looked his body and saw multiple scratches. Then he felt something dribble down his forehead, he waited for it to fall off of his forehead and saw it was blood when it hit the floor of the Pelican.
Pressing his hand to his helmet he tried to contact anyone. "This is Staff Sgt Rick Matthews. Does anyone copy?"
Static was his answer as he said "Shit". He hoped that his comm line would work, but of course the crash must have damaged it. Rick was hoping to contact anyone and get help before some more bad things that were definitely going to happen.
But above all else he hoped that Samantha, Elizabeth and Ahsoka got to the base safely. For the first time in a while Rick chuckled. Here he was sitting in a crashed Pelican, injured badly with his planet being invaded by the Covenant and the first thing on his mind were three girls. He needed to get his priorities straight.
He was in bad shape he had a splitting headache. He just hoped that someone would find him soon. Rick tried to stand up and this time the latch to his seatbelt gave way and caused him to fall onto the floor.
Coughing Rick looked up to see the back of the Pelican intact with scratches here and there. The floor was littered with bodies of his fellow Marines. They were all motionless. Rick couldn't stand it anymore. In the past weeks Marines had been dying around him. Perfectly good soldiers were dying, all the while he was still alive.
Why? Did he even deserve to be alive? Rick felt like it was all his fault.
"Temple check out that Pelican for survivors". Rick looked to the ramp of the Pelican to see where the male voice originated from. He waited, watched and hoped to see someone come in and save him.
A person came into Rick's view and watched as a flashlight was beamed into the Pelican. Rick tried to call out for help but to no avail. Eventually the beam landed on him and right away the person yelled out "I got a live one here". It was a female voice. Part of him knew it wasn't Elizabeth or Samantha and it definitely wasn't Ahsoka. But hey a man can dream can't he?
Rick was flipped onto his back and propped up against the wall. "It's one of the pilots" she screamed out. Rick watched with glassy eyes as she overlooked his wounds. "Hey stay with me buddy you're going to be fine". Another funny line Rick hadn't been fine for about two, three years now.
"Shit" she said silently "Sergeant Major he's not looking good I need some help".
A few seconds later an African American male with a cigar in his mouth was next to him. "What's the problem?" he asked. Rick felt as though he knew this guy for a second, but the splitting pain in his head pushed that notion to the side for now.
"His head is looking really bad I think he is going to need staples".
The man Rick now confirmed was Sergeant Major looked at his dog tags and back at Rick. "Don't worry Matthews I'm getting you home".
Rick looked at the credentials of the man and saw 'Johnson' and he was also a Sergeant Major.
Sergeant Johnson stood up and yelled "Polasky, Rogers! Get your asses in here". Silence followed and after waiting about a minute the Sergeant Major got annoyed. "Come on help me with the Staff Sgt here."
Both of the Marines picked up Rick and threw his arms over their shoulders dragging him out of the Pelican. They were about to leave when the Johnson yelled "Polasky, Rogers did you two numbnuts hear me? Or am I going to have-".
Johnson stopped when he saw the scene in front of him. The other two men that survived the Pelican crash and escaped the Brute tracking party with him were on the ground covered in their own life juices. The Sergeant Major felt sick to his stomach and knew that something was wrong.
Rick felt his right side loosen as the body of Sergeant Major fell to the ground. Both Rick and the female Marine looked to see almost a dozen Brutes uncloak from their invisibility.
"Son of a bitch" she yelled while she tried to spin and fire her magnum, but she too was hit in the back of the head with a weapon. She too was unconscious.
Without any help Rick fell on his stomach. He groaned in pain and a pair of furry hands quickly spun him onto his back. In a matter of seconds a Bruteshot was pointed at his face. Looking up slowly at the disgusting Brute Rick could see what would have passed as a smile.
Rick felt more hatred to these monsters than any other thing in the galaxy. "Come on you big ape what are you waiting for? Kill me already" Rick said taunting the large ape.
The brute punched Rick on his right cheek. Instantly Rick felt blood in his mouth as he heard the laughter of the Brute. That stopped fast though as Rick spit the blood at the Brute hitting it directly in the face. It wiped the blood off of his face and pointed the gun even closer to Rick's forehead.
"Come on do it. You think I'm afraid of death you stupid piece of shit".
A roar was heard behind the brute and Rick could see another brute holding a gravity hammer. His roar was directed at the one holding the Bruteshot to Rick's face. He could easily see that this Brute was a high ranking officer because only high ranking brutes were allowed gravity hammers and this brute also had red armor.
A snarl was heard from the brute in front of Rick and he put the Bruteshot away. He punched Rick in the face knocking him unconscious.
The brute picked up the body of Rick and threw him over his shoulder heading for the inbound Phantom. But it stopped when it smelt something familiar.
(*8*)
The Pelicans, Phantoms and Clone transports landed into the hangar of the UNSC Crow's nest base. Elizabeth and Samantha were talking in the Pelican waiting for it to land.
"Look Samantha I know you're mad at your brother but you have to forgive him" Elizabeth said hoping to calm down the young girl. Samantha didn't answer right away but ultimately said.
"I don't know Elizabeth it's just after years of not seeing each other he pulls that shit on me. I feel like he has to say sorry to me and maybe I will forgive him". To say Samantha was mad was an understatement.
The Pelican landed and soon after the ramp lowered down. Elizabeth and Samantha waited for everyone else to get out before making for the exit. Elizabeth looked over the Marines as they left and she saw different reactions. More than half of them she could see were scared and it wasn't hard to understand why.
Elizabeth was scared to. Her whole time in the army she wished that the war would end before Earth was found. The only thing keeping her sane at the moment was the two new allies the UNSC had made.
Waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp was Ahsoka with a smile on her face. "Hey Ahsoka it's good to see you made it down here in one piece" Elizabeth said.
"You too. It looked like hell up there in space". The last time Ahsoka had seen such an intense space battle was when the Republic were trying to destroy the Separatist blockade on Ryloth. It's a good thing the council allowed them to help the UNSC because, well, Ahsoka didn't want to say it out loud but she felt the UNSC would have not survived without their help.
While those two were talking 3 Marines walked towards them. When they got close enough they saluted at the Staff Sgt getting their attention.
"Sorry to interrupt sir, but Commander Keyes wishes to see you and Private Matthews in her quarters."
Elizabeth and Samantha looked at each other quizzically and Samantha told them to lead the way. The Marines turned and walked out of the hangar. It was a quick walk to the quarters as they passed multiple Marines walking by them.
They came to one hallway and the only thing in it was one door. They got to the door and the Marine opened it. "She is waiting for you" the Marine said and turned the other way to guard the door.
The two females walked in and the door slid shut behind them. They looked around the office to not see much. The walls were black and there were two windows showing the hangar they just entered. In the middle of the room was a holographic desk like the ones they have in a bridge of a space frigate.
The last thing the two say was a chair which spun around to show Commander Keyes. "Ah good to see you two here finally".
Both Elizabeth and Samantha stood to attention and saluted the Commander.
"At ease you two". Commander Miranda Keyes stood from her chair and motioned for them to stand next to her at the holo table. "We obtained this Mayday from Pelican 05-2B9H. I thought you two should hear this."
Keyes played the recording "Mayday, Mayday this is Pelican 05-2B9H. We are 3 Klicks Northeast of Crow's Nest". The recording ended and Samantha and Elizabeth knew exactly who that was sending out the mayday.
"This is why I called you two here. Samantha your brother Staff Sgt Matthews is as of right now M.I.A."
Samantha couldn't believe it. She always knew Rick had the worst of luck, but getting shot down after just getting out of the infirmary. It's like the universe is just torturing him over and over again.
"You're letting us go after him right?" Elizabeth asked hopefully.
Commander Keyes shut off the holo table and sighed. "Yes, but I need another favor from you."
Elizabeth nodded and Miranda continued "I want you to inform that Jedi Ahsoka of Staff Sgt Matthews being shot down and convince her to tag along with some of her soldiers".
"Why sir?"
"Well many people here, including me feel lack of trust to our new friends like the situation with the Elites. I want you to scout out these Jedi and Clones to see that their trustworthy."
That sounded reasonable to Elizabeth. "Okay I'll do it"
"Thank you Staff Sgt. Now go save Staff Sgt Matthews. Here take this it will lead you to the Pelicans Mayday beacon." Commander Keyes sat back down in her chair as she heard the opening and closing of her door. She never did like delivering bad news about family members, especially ever since she was given the bad news about her father.
(*8*)
Neither women talked at all on their walk back to the hangar but they were both thinking about the same thing. Rick.
Elizabeth was thinking about how it was all her fault and that she should have been with Rick the whole time or at least forced him to go into her Pelican. Samantha was thinking the same thing blaming herself at how she should have apologized to Rick earlier, saying how it might have gotten him on their Pelican and he could be safe right now.
The door to the hangar slid open and Elizabeth already spotted Ahsoka standing next to one of her transports talking to one of her soldiers.
They walked towards her and when they got close she turned to face them due to the fact she sensed their presence. "Hey you two what happened? Is everything alright?"
"No everything is not alright. Our Commander told us Rick's Pelican was shot down". Samantha said sadly.
Ahsoka was shocked. Rick yet again was in danger and she felt terrible. Ahsoka has no idea why but she felt like it was partly her fault for the possibly dead Marine.
"I'm so sorry. Do you need me to do anything?"
"Actually yes" Elizabeth answered keeping her promise to the Commander. "Due to the fact that there isn't much Marines here yet, I was wondering if you and a squad of your clones could come with me and find Rick."
"Of course I'll help. Here" she pointed to the clone transport behind her. "We'll take my transport let me just go get a squad. Wait here."
Samantha and Elizabeth watched as the doors slid open for them. They stood in there and watched Ahsoka round up some clones. "What do you think of Ahsoka?" Samantha asked.
Elizabeth didn't know what to say. From first meeting back on the ice planet she looked like a very weird girl, not just because of her orange skin. But after talking to her those days when Rick was in the infirmary Elizabeth now knew she was an extremely nice woman.
She didn't get out an answer as Ahsoka showed up with about a dozen clones with blue paint covering most of their helmets. "This is the most men I could get for right now. Ready to go?"
"Yes let's go". The clones and Ahsoka piled into the transport and Ahsoka called the Pilot calling him 'Eight ball' and told him to lift off.
(*8*)
The Clone transport landed in a clearing and the doors slid open letting the Clones run out pointing their weapons in multiple directions. There were no enemies around so Samantha, Elizabeth and Ahsoka walked out behind them.
Elizabeth looked down at the tracker and saw that the Pelican wasn't far away. "Tell the pilot to wait here. We're not far from the crashed Pelican."
Ahsoka nodded and relayed the orders to the pilot.
"Alright troopers let's move out. Follow the Staff Sgt here" Ahsoka ordered and everyone said a solemn yes sir.
They walked for minutes into the jungle of Africa. Elizabeth looked to the right to see Samantha and then to the left to see Ahsoka while they're flank was covered by the clones. Elizabeth could easily see that the clones were nervous, they were pointing there weapons at every sound. From the cracking of twigs to the sounds of the birds.
They eventually came to a clearing and the Pelican was in sight. They also saw two Marines standing out in the open what Elizabeth looked to be they were guarding the ramp to the Pelican.
Ahsoka walked forward intending to talk with the Marines but a hand stopped her advance. She looked to see Elizabeth the one stopping her. She was going to ask what the problem was when Elizabeth talked before her.
"Something's not right everyone get down" Elizabeth said and everyone crouched down into the plantation of the Jungle.
The small squad waited and watched for something to happen until something did. Two brutes that were invisible de-cloaked and they both punched the Marines in their backs. The Brutes fist protruded from the chest of both Marines as the other hands of the brutes covered their mouths making their death screams muffled.
"Oh my god" one of the clones said behind Elizabeth.
She turned towards the clones hoping to give them some advice. "Alright troopers I have two tips for everyone here when it comes to fighting Brutes".
"One. The Brutes weak spot is their back not entirely their head. And secondly don't get to close to them without any ammo because they will either do that to you" pointing at the dying Marines."or they will rip your arms and legs off. Understood?"
The clones looked around and nodded their heads yes.
Elizabeth knew she might have taken the speech thing of hers too far, but it's better than having their arms and legs actually ripped off. Which she heard has happened to few Marines.
Elizabeth turned back towards the Pelican to see the Brutes were gone. 'They must have went invisible again' Elizabeth thought.
After a minute three more people came out of the Pelican and Elizabeth, Samantha and Ahsoka knew who one of them were.
There limping in the middle was Rick. Elizabeth knew they were in trouble, she wanted to warn them but it would give their position away starting a massacre.
Ahsoka watched as the black male was knocked to the ground, soon followed by the female Marine and lastly was Rick. She watched the whole thing as the Brute punched Rick in the face.
Ahsoka felt her grip tighten immensely around the hilt of her light saber. She wanted nothing more right now then to kick the crap out of that Brute. In all her time being a Jedi she had never seen such brutality from an enemy. Fear struck her at that moment and she wondered if the Brutes were going to do the same thing they did to the two Marines from before.
'In the name of the force I will not allow that to happen to Rick' Ahsoka thought as she watched the scene in front of her play out, waiting for Elizabeth's call to strike.
Elizabeth was convinced that all of the Brutes were de-cloaked. She saw the Brute punch Rick again and saw he was now unconscious. The Brute picked up Rick, while the other two Marines were also thrown over the shoulder of a Brute.
A Phantom came into view and Elizabeth knew it was time to act. "Alright everyone fire on my will. While you Ahsoka go out and try to retrieve those three Marines".
Everyone agreed. The Clones set there blasters on top of a downed tree and waited for the order while Ahsoka was ready to dash forward.
Elizabeth saw the Brute holding Rick stop in its tracks and start to sniff the air. 'Shit he's got our scent' she thought as the order was given out "Fire!"
Bolts of energy were released from the weapons of the Clones as multiple Brutes fell to the ground. Elizabeth was impressed with the weaponry and accuracy of the Clones. It only took a shot or two to take down an armored Brute which was a lot better than any Marine.
Ahsoka rushed forward and activated her dual light sabers. Bullets flew at her which she easily deflected away from her. Rushing forward she slashed through one of the Brutes dropping the body on the floor.
Ahsoka looked to see the three Brutes holding Rick and the other two were running towards their ship. "You're not getting away from me you beast" Ahsoka said running forward while slicing two more Brutes.
She got close and was about to slice the Brute holding the female Marine when something exploded in front of her sending Ahsoka backwards. She landed on her feet and looked to the left to see another Brute holding a different kind of weapon.
It fired the gun again forcing Ahsoka to dodge out of the way of the explosion. Ahsoka had enough of this Brute and turned her light sabers off placing them back on her belt. The Brute roared at her and fired another three shots.
The Brute expected the orange skinned alien to be blown to shreds, but that was quite the opposite. Ahsoka used the force and caught the three explosion canisters and sent them back at the large ape, quickly killing it.
Ahsoka looked toward the ship to see the Brutes getting pulled into it by some sort of energy and before Ahsoka could do anything the ship flew away.
"Shit" Ahsoka said. It was her job to save Rick and she failed, now he could never be seen again.
The Jedi Padawan turned back and saw the Clones along with Samantha and Elizabeth running towards her. Ahsoka activated her comm and patched through with Eight ball.
"Eight ball I need a pick up now and hurry".
"On my way sir" he replied.
The rest of the group reached Ahsoka and Elizabeth said "Guess you didn't get them in time? Now what?"
"Don't worry I called Eight Ball he'll be here in a second and we will tail that ship."
Just like Ahsoka said the clone transport landed next to them and they piled in quickly taking off. In no time at all they found the drop ship and tailed it until they landed in what looked to be a compound.
The pilot dropped them off as close as he could and stayed there to avoid any attention from the Brutes. They were dropped off at a higher vantage point and Elizabeth took out binoculars looking over the base. She could see multiple Phantoms including the one they followed hovering over the compound.
There were dozens of Brutes, Grunts and Jackals protecting the compound. Next Elizabeth looked down to the corner of the base to see Rick still unconscious being carried into a small shack. After Rick, Elizabeth now confirmed it was the Sergeant Major. He was getting pushed into the hut now being conscious. In a split second Sergeant turned around and punched the Brute in the chest plate, getting no reaction from the large Brute. It kicked Johnson in the nuts sending him into the building.
She was continuing to scout out the base when she heard a clone yell from behind her "Contact!"
Elizabeth turned around to see the Clones pointing their weapons at the new comer. Ahsoka had her light sabers activated. Elizabeth couldn't make out who it was but the form looked to be human, but it was extremely tall for a human.
"Come out of the dark" Elizabeth said.
The person immediately obliged and Elizabeth couldn't believe her eyes. Even though the large green monstrosity was standing in front of her.
"Master Chief?"
(*8*)
Well I'm pretty sure a good amount of you could see this coming. Anyway getting into this 10th chapter I already see that you are interested and that I am thankful for. It is especially proof that I have almost 8,000 views already which has never happened to me.
Yet again thank you for reading and I will see you in the next chapter.