I don't own Halo or any of its characters! Bungie Studios does (or is it now 343 Industries and Microsoft Corporation). I only own Nala 'Aidasee character and other OC's that might appear in this story.
Halo: Crossed Fates
Chapter 25
In the Jungle
Planet Earth. African jungle.
The Spartan had taken the fact that the sangheili, that were his mortal enemies, were now his allies rather well. Or at least that's what Nala and Thel were hoping, since they couldn't see through that helmet. The Sergeant then turned towards his men. "First squad, you're my scouts." he then turned to his two sangheili allies. "Arbiter, Nala you both watch Chief's back." to that the Spartan seemed to have something to say, but Sergeant interrupted him. "Sorry Chief, but you have to deal with it. Besides, we are going to have more of these squid faces coming to help us." he said. That seemed to make the Spartan consider what he was going to say.
"Understood." the Spartan finally said, nodding.
"Good." the Sergeant said. "Now, let's move out. Quiet as you can." he ordered. Everybody moved, while the Sergeant seemed to contact some other humans that either Nala or Thel had any idea of. Before they could ask him when he had contacted them a howl was heard from the distance.
"That sounded close." one of the marines whispered and Nala could hear some fear in his voice.
"Yeah. Too close." his companion said.
The team moved forward, but now more alert. The Sergeant and his marines in front, the Spartan behind them, Nala and Thel all the way behind. "Commander, what's your location right now?" Thel asked.
"Arbiter, we are hidden in some a small human structure at the edge of our landing zone." the Special Operation Commander answered. "And the jiralhanae are already here. Searching. What is your command?"
Thel considered for a moment. If he ordered them to attack now, which might give him and others their own element of surprise. But that might mean they would sufferer some causality. But his thoughts were quickly cut by not only the Spec. Ops Commander, but also a familiar sound. "Arbiter! Watch out, a jiralhanae Phantom is patrolling the area!"
"I noticed it." he said. Cutting the connection incase the pilot of the vessel might notice their communications.
"We stick together, we're gonna get spotted. We'll split up, and meet back at the LZ." the human Sergeant said after his brief discussion with one of his marines. He then turned to the Spartan and the sangheili behind him. "Chief, you, Arbiter and Nala can head toward the river." he said. But Nala quickly interrupted.
"Wait. I'm going with you." she said.
"Nala, what are you saying?" Thel asked confused. He really didn't want to leave Nala's side.
"You already have a small band of Spec Ops waiting for you that will give you a perfect advantage." she started explaining. "But no matter how good the Sergeant and his humans are, they still might stand poorly against jiralhanae." the human Johnson seemed like protest, but Nala gave him a look that told him to quiet down. For now.
"And I have a feeling that Commander Kani is waiting us over those hills." she pointed above the waterfall. "So, I will be alright." she assured him.
Thel considered for a few more minutes. In a way, Nala was right. If she and the Sergeant reached Commander Kani, they would have even better chances fighting off the jiralhanae. Thel couldn't help but sigh when Nala's idea had sense. "Alright." he said. Sounding bit defeated. "But be careful." he said. "And project the Sergeant and his humans." he quickly added when Nala was about to give him another comment about her surviving chances.
They were going to survive this war he told himself. They already survived the Floord, second halo and Tartarus. They haven't gone this far just to die. There were many things he wanted to do with Nala after the war. "I will." she said calming tone. Which made Thel feel a bit better and believing that they will survive. After that, they departed.
Even though Nala didn't show it, she didn't want to leave Thel's side yet. Well, they had plenty of time at the Righteous Fire, but it didn't feel like enough. But they had a new duty and there wasn't enough time for these feelings, which were rising to the surface.
"Don't worry." Nala turned to look at the Sergeant. "We'll get through this and have one helluva fun time!"the Sergeant laughed. "And you and Arby can have some alone time." which now made his men laugh.
"Uuuh… thank you." she said bit awkwardly. She and probably Thel too, was confused that how the human had learned about their… relationship. And the Sergeant probably could read the question from the look on her face.
"Just happen to cross paths with your medical bay and saw you two." he simply said. Not wanting to give much away to his marines since he had a feeling that they might tease the female Elite, who might take them little too seriously. And he didn't want to have an angry female Elite probably beating up his troops.
Neither of them spoke anything when they heard noises coming towards them. "You sure this is the way?" a familiar voice growled.
"Yes Captain." the second one answered. "This is ahead is the place where I saw the sangheili controlled Phantoms land."
"Aaaw, crap!" Johnson hissed quietly. He then turned to Nala, but only to find the Elite gone. "That was fast." he mumbled. He then gave a gesture to his marines to take cover and be ready for anything.
Soon they heard a explosion and confused roars of anger as some of their own were blown away. "Alright boys, let 'em have it!" Johnson ordered. The marines quickly jumped from their covers, firing their plasma rifles, Repeaters and Needlers.
The Brutes didn't stand much of a chance when Nala started firing her Carbine and soon there were small pack of Brutes, lying on the jungle floor. "Nice work." Johnson gave Nala a thump up as she revealed herself. "Not half bad." she said back. "Shall we go on?" Johnson and the marines were quickly on the move and Nala followed suit.
To their surprise, they didn't come to pass by any more Brutes. But some corpses here and there, which gave Nala the idea that Commander Kani and her squad had to be nearby. "Hey, uuh… Nala." one of the marines said little awkwardly.
"Yes?" she asked. But not meeting the humans gaze incase a jiralhanae decided to make a small surprise attack.
"If, we are suppose to get some help from your friends." the marine started. "And so far, all we've seen are some bodies of these guys." he pointed at the new found bodies of two jiralhanae. "Where is the cavalry?"
"Right next to you human." a voice said right next to the marine that had asked the question.
"GAAAAH!" he screamed when night black armored Ultra appeared right next to him. Everybody else slightly jumped and raised their weapons. And suddenly a group of sangheili Special Operation Team appeared in front of them. Not only sangheili, but also unggoy and to everybodys surprise, couple kig-yar. Their weapons drawn also, defending their Commanding Officer.
"Nala 'Aidas." the Ultra said with a female voice. Nala turned to look at the newcomer who couldn't be none other than Special Operations Commander Kani 'Ralad. Unlike most of the Ultra's, Kani's helmet didn't have a face mask that usually hid their faces. And just like her Special Operation Team, her armor was painted in black color. But her armor also had some Forerunner symbols that told she was a higher Officer than ordinary Ultras.
"Yes. That is me." she said. "And could we all lower our weapons?" she asked, her own Carbine already lowered. Changing glances between the humans, Spec. Ops. team and Commander Kani.
Kani didn't have to give any commands as the Special Operation team lowered their weapons. But the humans didn't seem to like idea. "Do it boys. I doubt we have nothing to worry about." Johnson ordered, to which the marines felt like not lowering their weapons in case the Jackals wanted to have some human meat to eat, but they complied.
"Good." Nala said, then turned to the Commander Kani. "We jumped into a small pack of jiralhanae scouts." she told Kani.
"I heard that." she said, her mandibles turning into a small smile. "And you did quite good job with them." Kani seemed to say more but didn't. It looked like someone was contacting her. "Good. I'll let them know." she said. "It seems that our human friends ride has arrived." she said.
"This is getting too easy." Nala thought. So far, they've only encountered only one scouting pack and the bodies which were taken out by the Commander Kani and her Special Operation team. But either way, they needed to move quickly.
As they started reaching the river Johnson reached for his COM. For a moment he tried to reach someone, but it seemed like there came no response. "Pelicans are en route, Chief, but I can't reach Bravo." he called the Spartan, which probably meant that he and Thel were close by. "If you find 'em, get 'em to the extraction point."
"Understood." the Spartan answered back.
Nala hoped that Thel was alright, but she had a feeling that the Spartan might provide some protection. But she knew that Thel didn't need that much of protection. After all he was the former Supreme Commander of Fleet of Particular Justice. She suddenly heard some rustle before her, which in her response she raised her Carbine.
Suddenly from the bushes, a pink round fired at the group and everybody could hear familiar alien rambling. "Kig-yar!" Nala first thought, but then something larger than ordinary kig-yar ran right on their left. "Skirmishers!" one of the Spec. Ops. sangheili yelled.
But soon as one of the larger version of kig-yar revealed itself, three more suddenly appeared. All of them armed with Needler rifles. "Take cover boys!" Johnson yelled. Knowing that they were more vulnerable to these kinds of weapons than their sangheili friends.
As the Skirmishers stared running around the group and evading their shots, Johnson couldn't help but take a quick glance towards the Jackals that were with these Elites. He had expected some kind of act of treachery from the bird-like aliens, but none seemed to come.
And he had already put it on notice that they wore completely different kind of armor. Unlike their last one, this armor seemed to cover even more and they made then look bit more muscular. They also wore small helmets, which covered some part of their head. And just like the Elites and Grunts, their armor was completely black. But that wasn't the weirdest part. Both Grunts and Jackals seemed to have Energy Shields installed in their armor.
"Since when the Elites became so generous?" he thought. But then again, from what he heard, these were the Elites that had left the Covenant. His trail of thought was cut when a pink projectile flew just few inches away from his head. "Damn!" he screamed. "Eat this you over sized turkey!" he fired up his own Plasma Repeater. He seemed to have some luck on his side, since he was able to hit the alien. But not lucky enough to kill it, but to slow it down a bit.
But its smaller counterparts took it down with ease with their Carbines. Never in his live Johnson thought that a Jackal would come to his rescue. But then again, he had the same thoughts about the Elites. "What next, a Brute wanting to become my BFF?" they quickly moved before any more Skirmishers might appear. Or their masters.
But as they moved forward, they started hearing more noises coming from the jungle. Lot of barking and squalling. Before anyone could really react, the humans had already started firing. "What the...!" Nala couldn't finish when the jiralhanae returned to fire. And so did Nala, Kani and her group.
As the firefight progressed, the group found themselves moving forward as the jiralhanae forces were pulling back. And jiralhanae weren't usually the ones that wanted to shy away from a fight."What are you up to?"Nala wondered as she reloaded her Carbine.
"Damn it!" Kani suddenly cursed. Nala turned to look what the Commander cursed about, and soon found the reason. Right behind them were four Phantom dropships. Dropping off full load of jiralhanae, unggoy, kig'yar and Skirmishers. Suddenly they found themselves outnumbered. "Keep on fighting!" Kani yelled, which sounded like an order which was directed at the unggoy and kig-yar.
Nala fired her Carbine taking down the jiralhanae Captains shields, but her Carbine was empty. "Damn it!" Nala cursed and quickly hid behind a tree as couple sharp looking spikes from the Captain hit the tree were Nala was hiding. "Come out Warrior Priestess and die like rest of your kind!" the Captain challenged.
And much to its pleasure, Nala answered to his challenge. But now armed with a Energy Sword. "Ha!" the Captain laughed. "You think you can kill me with that?" he asked, while raising his strange looking weapon. Nala didn't want to stay and see what it would do but didn't want to wait and see.
But Nala knew that the distance would be too far and she might suffer some damage, but that didn't scare her away from the challenge. She had already faced couple dire situations and made it through, and she would make through this lonely Captain. Nala then started running towards the jiralhanae, as he started pressing the trigger.
But before either of them could do anything, a purple beam shot right next to Nala and through jiralhanae's open mouth. "Thought you might need assistance Commander." a voice, which Nala recognized as a human voice. But oddly familiar.
Kani let out amused laugh. "Your timing could have been better." she commented. "How is the landing zone?" Kani quickly dodged a strange looking grenade which stuck right on the tree next to her and exploded. Releasing lot same looking spikes like the ones from jiralhanae's weapons.
"Not good." the voice answered. " There are already another patrol closing in. Commander you need to hurry. Fast!"
On the other side of the jungle...
"Tell me its location!" the jiralhanae growled at its human prisoner, who only gave him a challenging grin. "Kiss... my... ass..." the human gasped.
Thel had seen enough and pulled the trigger, sending a volley of plasma towards the Captain, just in time as the Spartan had started emptying his Assault Rifle. With ease, the Captain soon fell dead from the log. His body full of bullet holes and plasma burns.
"Are you alright soldier?" the Spartan asked as they hurried towards the wounded soldrier.
"I... I think so." the marine said. Getting.
"What happened here.?" this time Thel asked.
The marine seemed to think for a moment. No doubt his mind was still bit cloudy after a harsh treatment of the jiralhanae. "Brute Cheiftain." he started. His voice bit shaking. "Phanton. Pinned us down... killed my men." both Spartan and Thel looked over the marine and could see the corpses of other human marines.
"Don't worry soldier, you are save now." the Spartan said reassuringly. "What's your name and rank?" he then suddenly asked.
"S... Sergeant Reynolds. Sir!"
"Can you fight Sergeant?" the Spartan asked, eying the marine. No doubt wondering if he is yet qualified to fight.
"I... I think so." Reynolds said, sounding bit unsure. He then went to one of dead marines and took his Assault Rifle and couple rounds. But also seemed to take something else. "Don't worry. buddy" he whispered to the body before him. "I'll give this to her when and if I can." he then got up. "Alright. I think I'm ready." he said.
"Good. Let's move!" Spartan ordered.
Almost immediately when they got up, they were greeted by jiralhanae and kig-yar. "These guys are everywhere!" one of the startled marines yelled while firing his Plasma Rifle.
As the firefight began, Thel took one of his Plasma Grenades and threw right at one of the jiralhanae. Which missed it, but stuck right square on the unggoys face. "AAAAAAH! NO! GET IT OFF!" it screamed as it started running towards its masters. "No! Get away from..." the explosion threw the jiralhanae off their feet while others took quick cover, which gave their enemies a better chance.
As the enemy lines started faltering, Thel let out a loud battle cry drew his Energy Sword out and started cutting down any enemies that stood in his way. The jiralhanae tried to defend themselves, but Thel easily cut their weapons in half and then proceeded to cut the creatures themselves, while Spartan and his marines provided him with covering fire. To keep the enemy bit busy.
The fight was soon over and the forest floor was filled with blood and body parts. "To the river hurry!" Thel hurried them. Having a bad feeling that something might have happened to Nala, but he still doubted it. She could keep herself save. But he still had a feeling that there might be even more jiralhanae waiting for them at the landing zone.
"Thel!" a familiar voice called him through his communications.
"Nala! What is it?" he asked.
"We made it to the river." Nala said. Thel felt as he released a breath that he was holding. "But the jiralhanae sent reinforcements. And the humans have trouble to hold their dropships. Please, hurry." Nala almost sounded pleading. The connection was then cut something probably just flew past Nala.
"We need to hurry. They are at the river!" Thel told them.
"I know." The Spartan said. "Lets move people! Double time!" the speed, the Spartan and Thel ran, seemed to be too much for the marines and so they were bit left behind which slowed them down.
"Go on without us!" Reynolds yelled sounding also bit out of breath, while chasing them. "They need your help!"
"Arbiter. You and Spartan go ahead." one of the Special Operation sangheili yelled to them. "We'll make sure these humans will make it safety to the river!" both Thel and the Spartan nodded at them and continued their faster running. But then suddenly the Spartan stopped fell onto one knee to the ground.
"Spartan! Are you alright?" he asked. What had just happened? He wasn't hit or anything. As far Thel could saw, the Spartan hadn't suffered that much of a damage and suffered from it.
"Yeah." he groaned. "It's nothing..." the Spartan quickly got up and continued running, Thel right behind him.
As they made their way to the river, the entire shore was in carnage. Two Pelicans were waiting for them and Thel could see Nala clearly inside one of the dropships. And right behind the dropships were sangheili Spec. Ops. fighting against jiralhanae. "Thel! Spartan!" they both heard Nala from their comm's. "Hurry! Commander Kani and her team can deal with them!" Nala said. Her voice bit raised.
"Hurry it up boys!" they Johson yell at them.
Suddenly two familiar looking flying vessels appeared right above the Pelicans. "Banshees! Fast and high!" they heard one of the pilots yelling. "Break off. NOW!" another pilot yelled. But it was too late, the Banshees answered with their Fuel Rod Cannons and Plasma Cannons.
"Nala!" Thel yelled, but the comm's were filled with Pelican pilots who were loosing the control of their ships. Thel looked helplessly as one the Pelicans tried to get up, but only to hit the small hills and disappearing behind them. The other crashed at the dam and disappeared under the river.
"Arbiter!" Commander Kani's voice called Thel who, for a moment simply stood still and his mind bland. Nala couldn't be gone. No! He shouldn't think like that! He needed right now focus on the task before him, and that was destroying the jiralhanae group and aid Commander Kani.
Thel quickly collected himself and answered after the Commander had called his name twice. "I'm here Commander. What's your location?"
" I'm on the other side of the shore." Kani answered, sound out of breath. "Damn hairy bastards just keep coming." it sounded bit weird for Thel that a sangheili used human words. But before Thel could answer, he heard movement behind him. He turned around just in time to see two jirlahanae raising their weapons at him.
Thel quickly raised his Carbine, but suddenly the giant brutes fell down as two beam shots, shot through their heads and then fell on the ground. "What's the meaning of this?" Thel asked out loud. "Thought you might need some assistance." a human voice suddenly answered.
At first Thel looked around, trying to find his mysterious rescuer. He then noticed some movement right above him. A figure jumped down and Thel couldn't believe his eyes. He was almost completely sure that the Spartan that traveled with them was last of his kind. But now, another Spartan stood right in front of him. But his armor was completely different from the other one.
This one's visor was smaller and instead of golden yellow, it had reddish-orange color. A strange clothing was tied all over the armor, like some kind of simple camouflage. "How is this possible?" he asked. Sounding really shocked.
The new Spartan suddenly raised his Beam Rifle and fired three more shots right behind Thel, taking out a jiralhanae Captain and two unggoy's who were trying to flank the Commander and Spartan. "How about we take the introductions after we've killed these bastards?" the strange Spartan said. After that the Spartan ran away from Thel, who still stood still from the shock. But he quickly recovered from the shock and returned to the fight. The faster jiralhanae were dead, the faster Commander Kani and this new Spartan could give him the explanation, the sooner he would reach Nala.
The jiralhanae forces couldn't hold their ground when Thel and the new Spartan revealed themselves. The unggoy's and kig-yar ran away as they saw that there was more than one Demon. Only few were left to fight, but only because they were afraid of their jiralhanae masters. But that didn't matter either way as the fight went on, the missing marines and the Special Operation forces emerged from the jungle.
Soon, every jiralhanae, unggoy and kig-yar that stayed and tried to fight were all dead and what was left of their forces, those who had fled, were hiding somewhere in the jungle. Thel watched as the Commander talked with the new Spartan. It was strange sight to see. Almost as if they've known each other for a while.
And he could also see that The Spartan was also really confused, so stood forward and asked the very first question that seemed to have come in his mind. "Spartan, what is your serial number and squad?" he asked. Bit harshly, but Thel also could hear some hope in his voice.
"Spartan III A266-Jun of Noble Team, reporting sir!" the Spartan answered.
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter and sorry if it sucked. And sorry for taking this long, but I'm sure you understand that I'm right now in the army and I've also uploaded some videos on my YouTube account (check out for Juu50x if you are interested). But the good thing is that in january, it is finally over and I can have little better chance of writing "Crossed Fates". And how did you like the ending? Didn't expect that did you :D?
Also, if you are Fang/Lightning or Samus/Zelda fan (or both) check out my new two-shot (or three-shot) Christmas fic "Interesting Christmas Dinner".
And don't forget to comment/review either this chapter or the entire story. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
Till next time, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!