1730 Hours, June 15, 2558 / UNSC Infinity, in orbit around Forerunner shield world Requiem
Yamato POV:
Yamato winced as a ragged piece of shrapnel glanced off her left cheek in a small spray of sparks.
"Is anyone hurt?", she shouted worriedly to Lasky and the Chief.
The Chief didn't reply, but gave a discreet thumbs up with his armored gauntlet.
"Yeah I'm fine as well" replied Lasky "I used a tactic meant for those of us who don't have the luxury of energy shields or battleship-armored skin. It's a little something called 'taking cover'. Ever heard of it?"
Snarky as always.
The door to the armory had been blown wide open, and through the thick smoke Yamato could see flashes of green and purple light. In the chaos, noise, and smoke of the firefight, Yamato couldn't make out a single target to shoot at. The same couldn't be said for the Chief and Lasky, who seemed used to these kinds of engagements and were merrily blasting away with their weapons.
"Yamato", called out Lasky from behind an empty ammo crate "Would real be nice if you started using that big gun of yours."
It wasn't her fault that she was being horribly disoriented by the chaotic and claustrophobic combat occurring within the small confines of one of Infinity's many hallways. She was meant for open sea battles, not CQC skirmishes!
Out of the haze, two magenta bolts caught Yamato in the side. They sliced through her black bodysuit with ease, but were stopped by her skin. One ricocheted off into the distance while the other actually managed to dig into her natural armor a small bit before violently detonating and spraying her face with micro shrapnel. Yamato closed her eyes just in time to feel the speeding shards of fragmented crystal bounce off her eyelids. That had been a close. They had been "needlers" if what she had remembered from Lasky's covenant weapons briefing was correct. They were pretty nasty weapons against unarmored and lightly armored targets according to the database. Luckily for her, Yamato was neither of those things.
Yamato lined up her Type 94 in the general direction of where the needler rounds had come from and squeezed of a quick burst. The weapon emitted a high pitched whine before spooling its capacitors and releasing three hypersonic penetrator rounds.
thwip-thwip-thwip… CRACK-CRACK-CRACK
As the rounds left the barrel, they made absolutely no noise except a series of low thumps. Moments later however, massive earsplitting booms shook the battlefield. It was as if the rounds were moving at such a velocity that the air in front of them didn't have enough time to move out of the way before it was violently displaced.
Along with the horrendous sound, the velocity of the rounds caused the bullets to leave fine white vapor trails that clearly traced their path across the battlefield. The Type 94 slammed hard against Yamato's shoulder as the tremendous recoil forced the muzzle of the weapon upwards and to the left. Yamato looked intently towards where her weapon's vapor trail pointed, and was pleased to see that a spray of alien gore had been imprinted above the low-rolling smoke on the ceiling near where she was looking. Sure the shot had been more luck than anything else, but a kill was a kill.
One down, many to go, thought Yamato before taking aim at her next target.
Master Chief POV:
Three massive explosions rocked his eardrums. He thought that someone had set off more breaching charges! As it turned out, it was just the Type 94 doing its job. The Chief knew that Yamato was inexperienced with this kind of close-up in-your-face combat. At first, she seemed disoriented and confused more than anything else as she just stood there, not sure where to point her weapon. The Chief then watched a long string of needle rifle shots hit her to absolutely no effect. At least she was tough. That would keep her safe for the time being, despite her lack of combat sense. She could take care of herself.
The Chief decided that he didn't really have to worry about Yamato getting herself killed. Thus, he was all free to carry out his little plan.
He hand-signaled to Lasky that he needed suppressing fire before breaking cover and making a run at the main enemy force, magnum in hand.
Even though he couldn't physically see the enemy due to the smoky atmosphere, the Chief could make out at least thirty red dots on his motion sensor. That meant thirty more kills for him.
Lasky complied with his request, and stuck his battle rifle over the edge of the crate he was hiding behind to begin spraying rounds downrange in the general direction of the enemy.
The enemy fire died down a bit as a result, and Chief used this opportunity to sprint into the middle of the enemy formation and activate one of his armor abilities. A massive shock wave slammed across the battlefield, blowing the thick vision-obscuring smoke to the sides of the hallway and armory.
Though this move gave Yamato and Lasky a clear view of the Covenant forces, that meant they could now all see the Chief as well. Who just happened to be smack in the middle of all of them.
A brief silence punctuated the room as all combatants took in an unobstructed view of the now clear battlefield.
The silence was shattered by a cry of "Kill the Heretics!" before all thirty of the Storm Covenant fixed their weapons on where the Master Chief stood, and fired.
