"Where is Ian?" the Master Chief demanded from his captive.
The Elite only roared in denial. It swiped its hand, smacking the side of the Spartan's head. The soldier winced, allowing the alien an attempt to get up. But it was only halfway straightened when suddenly the Master Chief aimed his magnum at it and fired. The beast fell back down onto the pile of rubble, dead.
"Another one bites the dust," the Master Chief muttered.
"Literally," Cortana added in attempt to add comedic relief.
It didn't help as the Chief only sighed. The day after Ian had been kidnapped the Spartan and a squadron of marines had been scavenging the city, searching for any clues. Unfortunately there were even less Covenant forces than before, and the ones they did find offered no assistance. The Chief suspected they didn't even know any human language.
"This is a waste of time," he suddenly overheard a marine say. "Why would the Covenant want a kid?"
Staying in his spot, the Spartan shot a glare at the rookie. The smaller man didn't need to see the super-soldier's eyes to flinch from the gaze. Assured he got the message, the Chief looked away in thought. He was interrupted with a call.
"Hey, Chief!" another soldier hollered.
"Yes?" the Spartan replied.
He looked up towards the direction of the sound to see yet another marine, an identical copy to his comrades. He pointed upwards at an angle to his right.
"How about that building?" he suggested. "It could definitely give us some recon."
The Master Chief followed his direction to see a large, tall skyscraper towering over its neighboring buildings. It owned some scars and holes from shells and other war products. Even though, it was still perfectly stable and offered multiple purposes for anyone in need.
The Spartan smiled. Why not?
The Master Chief trotted across the ground, slightly crouching. He skidded to a halt and rammed into a wall, pressing his back against it. He gripped his assault rifle with both hands, the barrel raised upwards. He cautiously looked around the ruined building's corner at his target.
Two dozen meters away was the front steps of the building, leading up to the glass wall of the entrance and the lobby behind it. But surrounding that entrance was Covenant forces, mostly Brutes. They were leisurely patrolling and resting, their equipment spread out across the area. The Chief even saw a Wraith sleeping in the corner, currently shut down but its driver hovering near it. The Covenant got there first. Great.
Well, it was largest amount of aliens they've found all day, plus they weren't just going to walk away leisurely. The Master Chief waited patiently as the other marines got into their positions. Thankfully they saw their enemy from a distance, and had time to divulge a plan.
The Covenant had the advantage of already setting up base; having all of their necessary equipment and numbers, but they didn't choose the best strategic spot. The entire area in front of the building was an open plaza around fifty meters in diameter. The only thing providing shelter were the few equipment and barricades planted in place. Creating a perfect wall around the plaza were multistory buildings, broken by narrow streets. It gave the humans good enough cover and allowed them to set up a few snipers on the higher levels.
It was turning out to be a pretty easy ambush. But the Master Chief was still cautious. Even though it seemed like a perfect base, he couldn't believe the Covenant would ignore such factors. They could have a few tricks up their sleeves. Well, it seemed it was the Brutes were in charge of this squadron. Almost everyone knew they weren't as intelligent as their counterparts, the Elites.
After a long time, the Master Chief finally heard the echo of "ready" signals from multiple marines. The Spartan shifted his weight.
"Alright, on my mark," he ordered. "Three, two, one. NOW!"
Immediately the soldier wheeled around the block of concrete and fired, over a dozen marines following his example. The once quiet plaza filled with lazy aliens was now filled with screams and chaos. In the first wave of bullets, almost half of the Covenant fell.
But the survivors quickly regained themselves and grabbed hold of their tools for a counterattack. Brutes fired aggressively at the buildings, outraged at the attack. Rage must have been blinding their vision, because their aim was poor, firing more at walls of concrete than actual human flesh. Thankfully the Wraith wasn't moving yet; a sniper who must have been a genius took out the driver first. But that wasn't long though as a new Brute scrambled into the cockpit, able to make the deadly hailstorm.
Immediately the alien tank roared with life, rising to a few inches off the ground and impeded armor projecting outwards, including its powerful canon. The tank twitched a little as the Brute pondered where to aim. Finally a great ball of blue fire shot from the canon, arching over the plaza and forcefully slamming into a nearby alley. The air was filled with an electrical explosion and few human screams.
The Master Chief grinded his teeth. "Destroy the tank!"
He turned again and focused his aim on the beast. But the tank was able to position behind some barricades from the Chief's position, and what hit bounced off harmlessly. The Spartan growled and realized he would have to do something crazy. He would have to take out the Wraith himself.
He gave a few moments of bracing himself before drawing a breath. He lunged from his position and charged at full speed at the tank. A few alien warriors tried to intercept him, but a clear shot from his still loaded magnum took care of them. But he was only halfway to his target when suddenly someone screamed, "Chief! Watch out!"
Instantaneously red plasma engulfed the giant, provoking a startled grunt. He automatically switched his course and skidded behind a barricade. Now protected, he peered around the metal to spy two plasma shielded stationary guns had been set up by the glass entrance. Well, the Spartan suspected they would have tricks.
But I have some, too, he thought cunningly.
Crouching out of sight from his enemies, The Chief pulled out a frag grenade from his belt. But before he could pull off the top, a roaring sound filled his hearing. A blue explosion slammed into the barricade with a clap of thunder. Thankfully the barricade was steady enough to stay in place, but it jolted, knocking into the Spartan. He growled, but chose to ignore.
He continued on with his task, ripping off the grenade's flask. He then tossed the ticking bomb over his head, sending it flying over the Covenant's heads. After several moments of flight, it came down to gun, exploding impact. The blast spread to the turret, completely destroying it along with its Grunt who let out a high-pitched scream. At the same moment, a sniper took out its partner.
The Chief grinned, and a few moments later, another explosion rose into the plaza, reverberating the ground. The Wraith had been destroyed. The big threats out of the way, the Master Chief rose from his shelter and began to open fire once again. By now there were only a handful of survivors, and they were terminated quickly.
The military leader lowered his weapon and let himself relax a little while the marines came from their own shelters, whooping in victory. Even though their mission was to question Covenant soldiers, they knew by now the aliens would not talk. And the battle happened too fast and the invaders were too angry to allow the UNSC forces to take any prisoners. The Chief turned to a nearing lieutenant.
"How many casualties?" he asked.
"Four," the woman replied.
The Chief turned back towards the building. Honestly more than he wanted, but it could be worse. He still had a good number of marines currently under his command. With a single wave of his hand as a signal, they moved inside.
The inside the building had a faint scent of musk that grew stronger each level up. The layer of dust grew, too. The only thing that remained constant was the amount of debris and ruins crowding the space, hinting that the Covenant had ransacked the building and it had seen more war than they originally thought. But no one complained as they steadily climbed the tower, on guard for any ambushes. Thankfully the building held no surprises save for a handful of deserting Jackals and Grunts.
They were now on one of upper floors, owning a wide view of the city and seeing far out on the horizon. The Master Chief settled next to a marine who have a pair of high-tech binoculars glued to his face, shielding his eyes. He was looking out a broken wall that was exposed to the outside world.
"I'm not really seeing anything," the man reported. "Uh, you mind telling exactly what we're looking for, again?"
"Any signs of Covenant activity would be a start," the Chief replied.
His subordinate nodded in confirmation and continued his task. But only a second past before someone hollered from the other side of the room.
"Um… Chief, you might want to look at this," someone whined, uncertain of the value of his words.
The Spartan looked over his shoulder to see the marine was looking out another tear in the wall on the opposite side, also owning binoculars. The soldier left his spot and made his way over. He halted next to the shorter man and peered across the city to see a perfect view of a Covenant Cruiser. The Chief wasn't surprised; it was the one that had been there ever since this thing started.
It shadowed almost half the city, being almost city-size itself. It was long and narrow, with sleek alien metal curving at different angles. (I'm not going to go into depth because we all know what a Cruiser looks like.) Projecting from the belly of the beast was a long, slightly transparent purple beam that reached toward the ground. It disappeared behind structures of ruined buildings, where it would end at the ground. That was no surprise, either. It was an anti-gravity pad where the Covenant traded supplies.
At first the Master Chief was bored with scene, seeing nothing abnormal. But he quickly realized that something was off. He noticed multiple black specs racing up the beam, sometimes one at a time and others in a group like swarm. The Spartan quickly realized what those "specs" were.
"Those are supplies and equipment," he announced. "The Covenant is packing up."
"Yeah, but for what?" his fellow marine asked.
As in answer, right on cue the last of the specs disappeared inside the ship and without warning the ominous beam switched off. The marine exchanged glances with the lieutenant.
"Uh, oh," they whimpered in unison.
There was only one reason why a grounded Cruiser would ever shut off the pad like that. They were preparing to leave. In a hurry.
Immediately the Master Chief turned away and switched his com-link to the channel connecting to the Frigate.
"Commander Keyes, we may have a situation," he reported.
"Already on it," Miranda replied. "A Pelican is picking you up. You are to return immediately."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sir, the Prophet is bugging-out. Request permission to engage!" Miranda demanded hastily.
She stared down at the tiny screen composing of Lord Hood, who stared back up at her but obviously distracted by the busy commander center around him.
"Negative, Commander," the old man replied stubbornly.
Miranda bit her lip and sucked in a breath to control her frustration. Suddenly a call from one of her technicians drew her away.
"Ma'am, Slipspace rupture off the target's bow!" the man reported. "It's going to jump, inside the city!"
The Commander focused her gaze on yet another monitor. This one showed the Carrier from one of the Frigate's outside cameras. It was moving over the city like they were predicting, accelerating with each second. But suddenly a burst of light appeared on the tip of a bow like there was some sort of explosion. Purplish electricity pulsed around the explosion. But despite the strange colors, the Cruiser continued its pace, pushing into the light. The explosion bended with the force, like its invader was pressing it as if it was a solid object. Miranda Keyes knew it wasn't light at all. It was space. The Cruiser was bending space.
She twisted back to the video-com containing Lord Hood. "There's no time, sir!"
The naval commander looked away in thought. After a long moment, he refused to look at her as he said, "Green light. Green light to engage."
Immediately the young woman whirled to face her awaiting crew of technicians.
"Get us close!" she ordered.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The commander center came alive with the sounds of furious tapping and pounding. The crew was so focused on their task they barely noticed a Pelican pulling into an open hanger. They were so oblivious to this the second the drop-ship entered, the Frigate gigantic engines blasted, sending the ship forward.
They rammed right into the Cruiser, but the alien ship was so focused on its task it paid no attention to them. As the human battle ship pulled next to the other, it just showed the significant size difference. The In Armor Clad was like a bug compared to massive, bulky Cruiser. But this allowed them to slip in one of the giant's alcoves, now forced to follow along as finally the bow pushed into the bended space. Immediately the rest of the ship (and the Frigate) slipped in after it and ceased to exist.
But the Covenant was not aware of the consequences of their actions.
Just as the silhouette of the stern disappeared into the strange portal, the light lost control. With a deafening sound like a nuclear bomb's, the light exploded. The portal of bended space grew into a dome of light and electricity. The dome rapidly grew larger and larger, consuming its surroundings and destroying anything in its way.
In a matter of moments, the entire city was annihilated.
A/N: Wow, finally a longer chapter! Sorry guys for failing my promise at trying to give this story more potential. I'm just having very lack of ideas with this story. So expect fluctuating chapter sizes from now on, but that's how most of my stories role.
