Chapter Eleven
October 22, (Military Calendar) /
Downtown Brooklyn, Earth, Sol System
Ellie crouched back behind the car she and Azo were hiding behind, "Looks like there is no one alive at the crash site." The Elite rubbed his chin in deep thought, it was a few seconds before he replied, "It is best that we avoid it, if I know the Covenant, and I do they'll have probably placed a sniper somewhere among the buildings nearby, watching the crash site."
The crash site in question was a downed Pelican, its engines and fuselage lay in partial ruin behind the green flying machine. The front part of the dropship was in an awkward angle. It had gone down right in the middle of an intersection. It wasn't smoking so it could be assumed that the Pelican was shot down on the opening day of the invasion.
Ellie made a motion with her SMG, "I need ammo for my M7, that last firefight exhausted a lot of my ammo."
Azo nodded, "Very well Ellie, I'll flank around the back of the bird from the right, you slip in from the left and we will meet in the back." Ellie nodded and then set out towards the crash.
He's getting better at saying my name, she thought as she slowly moved forward, watching the adjacent buildings for that supposed sniper. She got to the cockpit and crouched down. She peered inside. Both pilots were dead in their seats. There was no sign of struggle so she assumed they died from the crash itself. She made her way around the right wing of the dropship and stopped. She heard noises; it sounded like people talking.
"Hurry up we got to get out of here before any Covenant show up," a female voice said.
A deeper man voice replied back sharply, "If you would shut up and help us carry this crap then we could be outta here faster." Ellie heard the women scoff.
Ellie slowly made her way around to the back of the Pelican. She stopped just short of the edge of the troop bay and peered around the corner. Three humans were there. One; the women heard earlier, stood there holding an ammo container full of stuff. Two men were going back and forth from inside the troop bay. They picked up anything they could find. Guns, ammo and supplies.
She watched in horror as one of the men carried a dead marine over his shoulder outside of the troop bay. He threw down the marine with little care and began pulling off grenades and ammo from him. The other man grabbed the deceased marines' helmet and began to take his shoes off, "I like these shoes a lot, he won't need these anymore."
That was enough. She came around the corner with her weapon raised. "Drop it all of you drop it and stand back," she ordered aiming her SMG from one to the other, "That is property of the UNSC." The women dropped the container she was holding; which had more ammo and grenades, and put her hands up. The man who had taken the boots stepped back, tripping over his untied laces. However the last man didn't budge. He made as if to put his hands up, but quickly withdrew an M6D from his coat pocket.
"Drop it man," Ellie screamed, "I don't want to hurt you."
The man laughed, "Hurt me, lady if you haven't noticed there is three of us and one of you." Ellie looked around, the women had slowly flanked behind her and the other man had a M6 of his own drawn and pointed right at her. She knew she was in trouble. That is until she remembered Azo.
"Ha, you don't want to be looting like that," She said with authority, "Stealing from the UNSC is punishable by death."
"Fuck the UNSC," the man yelled, "They haven't done anything for us." Ellie shook her head, "What do you mean? They've been protecting sorry ass people like you from the Covenant."
"Protect! Where was their protecting when they burned down my home world of Madrigal. They haven't been able to stop the Covenant for over twenty eight years and now look, the Covenant have gotten to Earth." The man had the mid set of an Innie, and he probably had been one before they sort of just disappeared around 2537.
"We have been doing the best we can to stop them, and looting them isn't going to help nobody, now leave this stuff here and nobody gets killed," Ellie threatened.
"Pff we got you outnumbered," the leader repeated, cocking his pistol.
Ellie smiled, "I don't think so, Azo." The leader cocked and eyebrow, "what's an Az…" he was suddenly picked up and tossed into the other man by an invisible force. They both quickly regained their composure and looked over to where a weird transcend of light stood nearly eight feet tall. The invisible force slowly transformed into a alien. The alien was armed with a glowing sword made of energy.
"Thanks, Azo, I was unsure if I was going to win there," Ellie said to Azo as she stood next to him. Azo nodded, "Hmm little humans stealing from the honorable dead, that is quite dishonorable."
"Wait, what the hell is going on, you working with a Covenant," The man said pointing accusingly at her, "You are a traitor."
Ellie rolled her eyes, "No I'm not, the Elites separated from the Covenant, they are on our side…" she grunted as a bullet hit her side. She went down. The women had a pistol of her own and had shot Ellie. Azo flew into action. He quickly sliced off the woman's hand; still holding the pistol. There was no blood as the plasma from the sword cauterized the wound almost instantly.
The women let out a blood curdling scream of agony as she grabbed the stump of her hand with her other. Azo quickly ended her screaming by driving his sword through her throat. Her headless body fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. Azo turned to the other two humans; who sat there in complete shock, "Now will you leave peacefully or by force?"
That was enough for them they got up and sprinted away from the crash site at unnatural speeds. Azo turned his attention to Ellie; who was sitting up looking at her side. "You okay?" he asked. She looked up at him and smiled, "Yea, it just grazed between my arm and side." She looked over at the headless body of the lady, "Boy you sure did a number on her."
Azo looked away in slight embarrassment, "Sorry I got a little carried away, just seeing you hurt put me into a blind rage." Ellie took of her helmet and pulled back the hair in her face, "Aw that's so cute, going into blind rages over me."
The pair laughed for a little bit before an awkward silence prevailed over the scene. In the distance the sounds of battle could be heard. Ellie got up and re adorned her helmet, "Well looks like we should be going soon."
Azo looked over the dead body of the marine, "Did you get your ammo?"
"Oh I almost forgot," she went into the troop bay and quickly found some ammo for her M7S. Azo waited outside just in case any more looters or Covenant came. He turned when he heard Ellie come back out. In her hands were two silver tags on chains. "What are those?" he inquired.
"Dog tags," she said sullenly, "Human soldiers where them around their neck for identification." She walked over to the dead marine and pulled off another dog tag. She stored the tags in her rucksack, "We also collect them when we are unable to bring the dead with us."
Azo nodded, "A very honorable thing to do, you honor the dead by carrying their dog tags."
Azo stripped off two grenades from the marine, "Do the Covenant have ways of honoring their dead?"
"We Sangheili recite a war passage for our dead, but when it comes to the rest of the Covenant I don't know what they do. I know for a fact that the Unggoy don't do anything for their dead since they have such great casualties."
"War passages eh?" Ellie acknowledged, "You mind saying some for these guys here."
"It would be my pleasure," Azo said sincerely walking over to the trio of bodies lain on the ground. He kneeled down and put a hand on the marines head, "Let the gods know that these great human warriors fought for what was right. They fought and died for their survival of their species and the mistakes of my sins. They are brave and deserve every right to partake in the Great Journey."
With that he touched each humans head and then stood up, "It is done."
"Thank you," Ellie responded, she took one last look at the bodies and then glanced off into the sky. The sun was almost at its highest point, "Come on Azo we must get to the Brooklyn Bridge before midday."
She went off in a fast walk. Azo easily matched her pace by regularly walking, "Why must we get to this Brookwyn Bridge?"
"I'll explain it to you as we go, we just got to hurry." With that the two unlikely companions strode off through the city, unaware they were being watched.
Authors Note: I know this Chapter is short, but I figure why write anymore when I can leave you guys in suspense. Anyways thank you for the great comments and I will try my best to keep this fic going as long as I can.