The gate opened and revealed more of the city. Jason silently made his way along the road, sticking to the shadows as he loped down an incline. He quickly was faced with a decision. Another fork in the road. He looked left, then right. One way looked just as inviting as the other: flickering lights casting awkward shadows on derelict structures and the burned remains of his friends and foes alike. Paper drifted aimlessly through the air and the rain fell like eternity. Everything was glazed over, painted in soft neon green.
He sighed, shrugged and turned right. Jason quietly missed his Mongoose, wishing to ride it through the city ceaselessly. For some reason, he just loved the little ATVs. Jason froze as a loud hiss filled the air and suddenly a pair of roadblocks popped up out of the ground. He stared at them curiously, and waited for something else to happen. Nothing did. He shrugged and walked around them, continuing his path.
Temple took this time to come back to life.
"Any luck with finding the others, DuPree?" he asked, his voice coming in smooth over the soft hiss of an open channel.
"Zippo," Jason replied. "Dare's pod was empty. No clues as to where the hell she went. I haven't found or heard shit from anyone, man. It's depressing. I'm not much of a detective," Jason said, pausing and hiding in a dark, rainy crevice, nestled between a pair of derelict, anonymous buildings. It made him feel a little safe.
Temple chuckled. "Chin up, kid, you're doing fine. Every now and then, I hear explosions. I'm sure I can credit them to you. Between the two of us, we'll clean this city out. And we'll find our squad, have no fear, man."
Temple was silent again while Jason considered that. Lots of things were hurting inside now. His chest ached and his right leg throbbed dully in pain. His head, which had finally cleared of hurting not too long ago, was yet again volatile with injury. That Hunter had really done a serious number on him. He was worried that one of his ribs might be cracked. But he was lucky to walk away from the incident at all.
"So, it's your turn, DuPree. Tell me about yourself," Temple said.
"You already read my file," Jason replied.
"Tell me what the file can't." Jason considered this. Temple seemed like a pretty cool guy, maybe even a good friend. If they got out of this mess alive. He couldn't even imagine how poorly he'd be handling the situation if he were truly alone.
"I don't know...I was engaged, once," Jason said, surprised even as the words left his mouth.
"File didn't mention that."
"Yeah...I never told anyone after...well, after she died on me."
"...I'm really sorry, Jason."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the things he always kept on him. Her picture. She looked so beautiful...but she always did. And always would, in his memories. He put it away as the rainfall began to get it wet.
"Me too...killed in a Covenant glassing. It's why I joined. Her name was Lindsay Reeves. It was going to be Lindsay DuPree." Silence then, and nothing more.
"I'm sorry."
Jason didn't know where to go from there, and, apparently, neither did Temple. He was pulled from his memories, however, as he heard the noises of another Covenant patrol up ahead. He began working his way down an incline into another plaza.
Already sticking to the shadows, Jason ducked down and took advantage of his element of surprise. He was eager to get back into combat, to ease the miserable pain of the cold memories. Ahead, patrolling the ruins of what looked like the aftermath of a huge battle, were a few Grunts and Brutes. Jason frowned, thinking.
Slowly, a smile crawled onto his face.
It was time for some sneaking.
Carefully, ducking low, he hurried across the street towards sparking remains of a Wraith Tank. One of the Brutes was leaning casually up against the front of it, eyes drooping, half-lidded, apparently attempting to doze. It would be his greatest, and final, mistake. Being extremely careful and quiet, like how Price had taught him, he snuck forward until he was right next to the Brute. Carefully, he reached forward and activated one of the Spike grenades attached to the Brute's satchel. He immediately pulled back around the other side of the Tank.
The Brute jerked awake at the sound, and simply exploded. Pieces of the Brute splattered here and there, and Jason had to suppress a laugh as everything jerked awake as the explosion echoed down the lonely roads. The two Brutes that were left over stared around in apprehension, and one began to approach the Tank. Jason remained static, waiting for the right moment. He gripped the spike grenade he had appropriated what felt like so long ago and prepared to use it. The Brute would be so close, he couldn't miss...could he?
Jason shrugged mentally. He was working on the fly now. The Brute came to stand where the original had been standing. The ODST slowly stood up, spike grenade held tightly in his white knuckled grasp, and remained hidden by the shadows. The Brutes couldn't see as well as he could. They had no VISR. Jason grinned darkly as he activated the spike grenade and threw it directly onto the Brute's face. The thing screamed as the spikes jutted into its facial features, and then stopped screaming and flew apart as the grenade ruptured.
Before the pieces could even finish raining down from above, Jason stalked coldly out of the darkness, raised his pistol and began firing. Each shot was precise and perfect, capping all the Grunts in the area. Six shots, six deaths. All that was left was one Brute. Jason dodged as a brute shot grenade was hurled his way. It exploded against the hull of the Wraith behind him. He raised his SMG and opened fire while moving sideways.
He traded one full magazine of ammo for one Brute corpse. Alone now, Jason quickly reloaded and raided the Grunts for grenades. After appropriating a compliment of plasma grenades, he hurried to the center of the area, on a slightly elevated platform. He looked around, taking in the scenery. It was obvious a huge battle had occurred. There were a pair of Wraith Tanks, a ruined Scorpion, lots of bodies mixed in...hell, there were even a few crashed Banshees around, one of them still burning brilliantly across the way.
More choices...he thought that he could see another gate not too far away. Jason hopped down and made his way across the area, towards a few stairwells that led up to another apartment building. As he hurried up the stairs, he hesitated at the entrance to the apartments. On a whim, he tried the door, and found that it opened.
He stared into the dark opening for a moment, then finally decided against it. Probably nothing in there. He turned, another open gateway lay up the street. He hurried over to it and activated it. Jason scouted the new area as he pressed on, and wondered absently if he had been there before. He briefly checked the map...but it wasn't really of any use. He couldn't follow it too well. Briefly, he mused once more that it had been pretty poorly designed.
The next area was another large, open, circular plaza with a gazebo structure in the center. He hurried through it, finding the area abandoned and forsaken. Before long, he came to another fork in the road and broke left, deciding that the incline didn't look too appealing. He briefly thought about his squad mates as he continued through the dark, lonely silence. It was true that he was the new guy, and he only had a few days spent with them before this, their first mission together. Which could hardly be considered a mission at all.
Despite the small amount of time together, he felt as if he had gotten to know them well. Buck seemed like a good, solid leader. The others felt fairly comfortable with each other, like they had been through a lot together. Jason had hoped to fit in with them, they seemed to be warming up to him at least somewhat. He wondered just what it was exactly about Temple that seemed to make him so vague in his memories.
A familiar humming noise brought Jason out of his thought process, jarring him back to reality. He had worked his way to another area. An incline led down to his left, and up ahead he could see another incline parallel. Further to his left something burned brilliantly. But what had grabbed his attention was a Ghost. The first working vehicle, besides the Mongeese, he had seen ever since he had crashed to the earth out his jump pod.
It was being manned by a Grunt, simply hovering there. It looked as if the Grunt had dozed off. Jason grinned. He hurried up, reached forward and snapped the Grunt's neck simultaneously pulling it away from the Ghost. It died without a sound. Jason hopped onto the Ghost and grabbed the controls. It was time for some Ghost Patrol. Grinning, he slowly brought the Covenant vehicle around to the second incline and made his way down it.
Ahead, he spotted a small group of Grunts and a Brute making their way towards him down the road. Clearly his Ghost was within view, but they weren't panicking. And why should they? It was supposed to be a Grunt riding in the vehicle, and it was dark out...Jason looked forward at the Covenant and all he saw were bowling pins. And he felt like a bowling ball. He nudged the thing forward, ducking down as not to appear too tall. As he got within range, he gunned it. And there was nowhere to go as the Ghost plowed through the Covenant.
No more enemies were around for now, so Jason cruised along. He worked his way down the streets and up to another plaza with a large, towering piece of art, he assumed it was at least, in the center that dominated the view. He saw many paths, and chose one at random. It led to a closed down gate that refused to budge. Slightly annoyed, Jason worked his way back and chose another path. He worked his way down another path that eventually wound around to yet another plaza area. He blew through a pair of Jackals getting there, but hesitated as he spotted more Covenant in the area ahead. To his left, an open gateway was appealing.
He cruised quietly up to it and hopped off, quickly activating the gate and jumping back on. Slowly, he wound his way through more anonymous, dark streets. This place seemed fairly abandoned. Jason allowed his mind to wander more. What would he do when he reunited with his new squad? Probably get in trouble for not getting into contact with them. Well, Temple would back him up. And he'd already tried, several times, in fact.
As he pressed on, he found a pair of Jackals on patrol and gunned the bastards down. Up ahead, one route was blocked by a massive Covenant shield. He ignored it and continued along, making his way through another square where even more Jackals resided. He quickly ran the birdlike aliens over and hovered along. Something told him he was nearing...something. He wasn't sure what. He came into another open area, roughly rectangular shaped.
Jason slowed to a stop in front of a few large grates that were closed over big, dark spaces that led down to some tram tunnels. He scouted the abandoned area for a few moments, and eventually happened upon something random. A biofoam canister had been tossed haphazardly onto the ground in front of the one the gates. Jason knelt and picked it up. It was empty, used. Why was it lying here? Could it have something to do with his lost squad?
His imagination began working as he stared at the biofoam canister. He could see his squad, reunited after a long and bitter struggle across the city against the Covenant. Tired, injured and determined, maybe they fought their way through the tunnels in some stolen Covenant vehicles. A gigantic slaughter, possibly ending with something as huge as a climatic battle with a Scarab. He could picture Buck crashing a Banshee into the Scarab, hopping out and blasting its core. Then racing away, back in his Banshee, as the explosion resounded for miles.
But is that really what happened? Had they even come this way? For once, as Jason tossed the canister aside and stood up, he began to wonder...were he and Temple truly alone in this city? Had his squadron already left, leaving them behind, believing the new guys to be dead? Were they wandering this desolate city, chasing ghosts? Did it matter? Shoving all these doubtful thoughts aside for now, Jason returned to his Ghost and hopped back on.
It was time to keep on searching.
What else did he have to do?