Sean hit the water hard; he kicked and swam to the surface. He broke the surface and hauled himself onto the hard pebbles next to the basin. They scratched against his armour as he lay there panting on the rocks. Then, he pushed himself on all fours, and then stood up. He looked around, the lush green leaves surrounding the water basin.
As he bent down and picked up his assault rifle he recognised where he was. This was the place where they had done their training exercise that had allowed him and his squad to go through to the bio-augmentation stage of becoming a Spartan.
Memories came flooding back to him. Memories of their very first time holding rifles, memories of their first time wearing ODST armour, memories of this very place where they had fought against Delta squad, when Niall had hit Mark with a warthog. These memories flooded back to him in a flood of realisation, he drew on these memories and they seemed to give him strength, they burned inside him like a fire, instilling him with courage and power.
He sprinted into the jungle; he knew that he had to head for Sierra base. That's where the marines were heading, that's also where Niall and David would head as well; he levelled his assault rifle, keeping his eye on his radar.
He jumped over a log without stopping, he hopped from rock to rock as he crossed a small stream, then he got four blips on his radar. They flashed red to signal that they were enemies. Sean pushed a branch out of his way so that he could see. There was nothing there but his motion tracker still flashed. He threw a frag to the position of the blips, it exploded and four elites were shown, their energy shields sparking.
Sean dove forwards and hit one with a controlled assault rifle burst, he jumped over another, drew his knife and slashed it twice in the back, it roared in pain as it fell to the ground.
Another elite fired bolts of plasma at him, they splashed over his shields, bringing his bar down halfway, Sean sprinted forward from side to side to avoid the plasma, the he stuck his knife his the elite's head and punched it in.
A plasma grenade landed about a foot from him, he rolled backwards as it exploded, he was knocked of his feet. The elite advanced on him, it picked him up in one hand and drew a small dagger, which looked like one of their crystalline swords. Sean put both of his feet against the elite's chest and kicked with all his force, the elite was sent staggering back, Sean crawled towards his assault rifle, and picked it up. The elite drew a crystalline sword and ran towards him, Sean rolled so that his gun faced the elite and fired a burst at it.
It hit the elite full in the face; purple blood flew from its face as it hit the ground with a muffled thud. Sean walked over to the elite, which had his knife sticking out of its face. He wrenched the knife, blood spewing from the wound as the knife came out. Sean wiped his knife on the grass to rid it of the purple blood, and then re-sheathed it.
He stared at the creature with mingled hatred and pity, the creature looked idiotic, lying on the ground with its four jaws spread wide. He looked around at the dead elites; they were all wearing black armour, like the one on Omega VI, that must be some kind of special infiltration class. He made sure to take note of this; no doubt ONI would be interested.
He started to walk through the jungle again, when he heard a rustling sound. He turned, assault rifle levelled. Kowalski came stumbling through the bushes. He had a cut down the side of his face, a large gash on his arm which was bleeding, his combat gear was torn, and his blonde hair was spattered red with blood. The man fell to the ground, shivering. Sean ran to him, and crouched next to him.
"Kowalski, what happened?"
The man looked up, glassy eyed, a shadow of his former self. Sean shook him gently.
Then, several things happened at once. Kowalski jerked and made a move to grab Sean's side arm, at the same time a beam rifle cracked and the blue beam hit Sean's armour making his shields flash red. Sean reacted instinctively, he smashed Kowalski's hand aside and rolled behind a large tree stump, the man screamed in pain holding his broken arm as another beam rifle shot cracked through the air and hit him in the forehead. Beneath the blood that poured from the hole in Kowalski's head, Sean could see him smiling as he hit the ground and remained motionless.
The second beam rifle shot had shown Sean where the sniper was; he fired two magnum shots in the direction and heard a man scream in agony. Sean hopped over the tree stump and sprinted towards the direction of the screams. He emerged into a large clearing, where the man was lying on the ground. He was dressed in the red insurgent colours.
Then, thirty more men emerged, some in warthogs and mongooses, all of their guns pointed at him. Sean recognised the man in the middle immediately, it was Rufus Clarke, the man they had captured when they first used their MJOLNIR armour.
"Nice to see you Rufus" he said softly
Rufus stared at him, trying to remember who he was, then he clicked his fingers as he remembered, "you" he said "you were the leader of that squad that captured me, aren't you?"
Sean nodded
"I recognise the way you hold yourself" Rufus said "all high and mighty, like you freaks are the best chance humanity has, well you're not. We the common man will win this war and no bio-altered freak is going to stop us, take aim!"
All of the men levelled their guns at him, then a phantom dropship flew overhead, Sean sprinted for the nearest warthog and threw out the driver, he punched the gunner in the face, hopped into the drivers seat and kicked out the passenger.
"Kill him!" Rufus screamed
Sean hit the gas in the hog, and the jeep shot forwards, bullets pinged off of the armour as it crashed through the undergrowth, knocking over trees, crashing through bushes and ploughing through streams.
The warthog flew over a small ditch as yet more bullets pinged off of the side of the jeep, in the background there was the sound of the phantom's plasma cannon firing, the purple blobs splashing onto the ground. Sean's warthog swerved as a gauss gun hit it; it swerved and fishtailed as it got hit again.
Sean pulled it into a power-slide and took out his magnum. As the warthog spun round Sean fired his magnum and hit the drivers of two warthogs. The two jeeps crashed into each other, swerved away and then crashed into two other vehicles. The jeeps exploded and smoke billowed from their wreckage in thick plumes. Sean spun his warthog around and hit the gas.
His waypoint said that the base was only two kilometres from his current position. The warthog powered on, assault bullets hitting its armour.
"There must only be mongooses left now," Sean thought, "otherwise they would use heavier weapons". Sean turned suddenly, taking his jeep into some bushes, and then he bailed out, rolling to the side, taking cover behind a tree. His warthog continued on and out of sight. Soon enough, the mongooses passed by the tree in the direction of the warthog. Sean crouched behind the tree and waited for them to go out of site.
The sun was beginning to set now. It cast a bright orange colour over the top of the horizon and gave the sky faint traces of purple. Sean went through a clump of bushes; his waypoint said that the base was past these bushes. As he pushed past them a scene of utter chaos met his eyes.
Smoke billowed from a fire on the outside of the barracks, there were several jeeps on fire and more were overturned and smoking. There was a large hole in the wall of the armoury that had been blasted apart, there was no mess hall left, the ground was scorched black and bodies were scattered everywhere, human and Covenant. Among all of this the command centre stood there, the only building that was relatively undamaged, its metal window shields had been folded down. Sean walked around to the door of it, which looked like it had been smashed inwards. It was dark inside, the lights had been smashed or the fuse had been blown, but Sean knew he would have to venture inside. He slapped a fresh clip into his assault rifle and walked inside.