"ETA 15"
"SOLDIER!! Open your eyes!" Luke's head was ringing and his body ached as he heard Nathan yelling into his ears over the different alarms blaring inside the helmet. "Soldier, this is not your time to die! Keep fighting!" He struggled to open his eyes as the sounds of battle forced their way into his consciousness. His vision was blurry as off to the side into the lip of a burned crater which was filled with water that had risen up a few inches onto his visor. The thing that startled Luke was the spider web cracks all alongside the left side of his visor which was playing havoc with his HUD. The motion tracker and squad information flickered on and off before being replaced by static for a few seconds and then recovering. He turned it off as he continued to get his bearings as his mind made it's way out of the molasses and back to combat speed. Off in the distance he could see plasma and tracers flying back and forth as Covenant troops maneuvered past him, ignoring him as he stayed motionless. He tried to activate his camo but the suit began to run off the list of problems.
"Stealth plating has been destroyed…gel layer has been over pressurized and twenty percent has been leeched…shield generator has been critically damaged and output has been reduced to 18 percent…" the list went on and on as the computer's female voice spoke to him. His armor was in bad shape at a time when he needed to be at his best. Clenching his teeth, he brought his right arm up to his face as the pain washed over his body, his left following a second later much easier. Taking a few breaths he pushed himself back up to his feet as he cried out in pain while he got his footing. A Brute had ducked down behind some burning wreckage and fired of bursts from it's Spiker, unaware of Luke now positioned behind him. Water was pouring off of it's two blades as it fired off another burst which seemed to empty it's clip out and the Brute ejected the magazine from underneath the weapon and started to feel around it's body for another magazine to replace it. Luke knew that this was the prime time to attack and so he looked for a weapon. Off to his left was a Marine's corpse without no weapons around, but strapped to his chest plate was a decidedly non-issue knife that Luke pulled out and ignored the pain as he ran up to the Brute and jammed the serrated five inch blade into the alien's neck. A second later he had stabbed it into the Brute's neck two more times as it's blood sprayed out from it's neck wounds. Another couple of stabs between armor plates brought the Brute down and Luke quickly grabbed it's weapon and grabbed a few of the enormous magazines off of his corpse and slid them into his left belt pockets which hadn't been burned off from the explosion earlier. Dropping into cover he wanted to get a handle on the situation so that he could get back into the fight.
"What hit me?" he asked Nathan.
"Nothing, technically. Judging from data I could retrieve before the suit went offline…and the enormous craters that have appeared it was a glancing blow from a Wraith's plasma mortar. You're lucky it wasn't any closer or else the suit probably would've failed." Luke had no problem believing that's what hit him, especially considering the amount of pain he was in and the damage his suit had taken. "I would like to caution you, I've located a number of serious breaches in your suit that have compromised it's seal; in particular there is a breach that has lodged a rather large portion of shrapnel into your torso. I've administered biofoam to the wound but the laceration is quite large and the bleeding is still serious. If it's not treated within a few hours you'll bleed out." Looking down on the bottom right portion of his chest plate, Luke saw where the edge had broken and where the wound had been sustained. Unfortunately he couldn't see it but the trail of blood that had travelled down his side and leg since getting out of the puddle backed up what Nathan said. But in the end it didn't matter.
"Nathan, my only concern is the next couple of minutes, not a few hours from now."
"With all due respect that's what I'm looking at as well. Bugle is inbound to this location with an ETA of fifteen minutes. You didn't think I'd just let you wake you from your unconsciousness so that you can die a few minutes later, do you?"
"With you I'm not really sure," Luke replied back as he prepared the Spiker. Just then an enormous shockwave reverberated through his chest while a deafening boom echoed over the fields. A split second later he saw a flash of bright light as one of the 90mm shells fired by the Scorpion impacted in the field. Luke could see a Wraith emerging from behind the crop, it's rounded front torn open as plasma spewed in all different directions. Seconds later a second round impacted on the same spot which blew enormous chunks off the Wraith's armor as the explosion was contained inside the Covenant's alien metal. Despite the two shots, the Wraith continued to push forward, it's cannon rising up into the air as plasma pooled up between the nozzle and the three "petals" that made up it's cannon. Unleashing the blinding white mortar, the ball of plasma arced gracefully through the air before impacting somewhere inside the space port, easily overshooting his squad, or at least the tank which was still operational. A third shot rang out which proved more effective as it slammed into the main gun and destroyed it in an explosive mix of flames and plasma. Secondary explosions started to go off internally as the Wraith's plasma reserves were breached until the entire tank exploded in a fiery ball of plasma which engulfed a number of nearby soldiers who essentially melted instantly. Shifting his focus from this duel between tanks, Luke got up but remained crouched in pain as he ran to some other cover which gave him an angle on a number of Grunts and Jackals firing towards the gate. From his angle he didn't have a view on the barricade they had erected but the Covenant didn't care, as long as they could wither the Humans down they'd be victorious. Despite his pain and injuries, Luke decided against firing on them and instead rushed up with the Spiker's blades and his knife at the ready. Stabbing with his left hand into the shoulder of a Grunt, he swiped the twin blades across the backs of two Jackals who fell to the ground instantly, their spines severed and their torsos torn open. Without stopping he plunged the blades into another Grunt before hurling the knife into a fourth Grunt who was just noticing what had happened to his comrades. Leaving the knife in it's body, Luke grabbed one of the Plasma Pistols that had been dropped and held it in his off hand. Without any sort of indicators for ammo he had no idea how many more shots the pistol had but it didn't matter, there were more than enough of the things lying around for him to replace it with. Getting up behind the burned out car, looked out to the center and right side of the parking lot where there were still an enormous amounts of Covenant troops massed for an attack. Something caught his eye to the left hand side and he saw a large Marine running in the open with a crate dragging behind him, diving into cover behind another car that had been blown backwards. Luke then made out the shape of the Sergeant who was still carrying around his precious box of grenades. From behind cover, Johnson opened it up and proceeded to throw Plasma Grenades one after the other towards the Covenant. The bright blue orbs floated through the air until the landed which started their internal three second timer before they exploded. Once the first one went off there was a non-stop rhythm of detonating grenades which scattered the Covenant as they avoided the explosions of bright blue plasma which sent tendrils licking at the concrete and metal that filled the parking lot. This action drew a large amount of fire from the Covenant but Johnson remained almost oblivious to the attacks as he threw more and more. Luke watched with amazement for a few seconds before he decided he would need to help the Sergeant get back from the position that he had put himself in.
"The armor is falling apart, just like you," Nathan chimed in as Luke scooted up to the corner of cover and began scouting the area.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it's just getting started. Whatever power you can spare, route it to the shields, I'm going to need whatever I can get to get out there."
"I'll shut down everything but basic systems, including life support."
"Just do it." Giving the command, Luke could immediately taste the unfiltered air flooding his helmet, a disgusting combination of burnt flesh, blood, and the wet crops. In return a golden hue popped up around him for a little bit as the energy shield got a little more power, however he didn't know how much with his HUD completely shut off. Pushing himself off, he fired off the Plasma Pistol and Spiker to both draw fire and keep the Covenant down until he could get to Johnson. The Plasma Pistol overheated halfway there and the top of it popped open to spew out the excess which burned Luke's left hand and forearm. A number of bolts whizzed past his head before two slammed into his chest which blew his shields off. Sliding into cover next to the Sergeant, he had a surprised look on his face as the soggy cigar dropped from his mouth.
"Holy shit!" he called out.
"Don't sound too surprised," Luke replied, coughing slightly.
"What was that sir?" he asked, taking cover as plasma slammed into the other side of the car.
"I'm bringing the suit back to normal operations. Shielding is offline though, the whole system is fried."
"Don't worry about it," he said over his speakers which had been reactivated. "What were you thinking doing this?"
"Gotta keep these Covenant bastards back till help arrives. Seemed appropriate to give them a taste of their own medicine."
"Fair enough…" Luke said, trailing off. Replacing the clip in the Spiker, he looked down at the pistol whose holograms had dimmed significantly. Tossing it aside, he peaked up over the hood of the car and drew a sizable amount of fire. "We're going to need to pull back to the barricade. We'll have the tank and the Marines provide covering fire for us so that we can get there in one piece."
"It won't be so easy. We're almost out of .50 cal ammo and everything else is getting to the bottom of the box too. Covering fire is going to burn through a lot of that ammo that we'll be needing later. You just had to get that machine gun, didn't you sir?" Luke bobbed his head back and forth for a second before replying.
"I'll take the blame for that," stopping as he winced when taking a breath. "I'll be paying for it too. I guess we'll need a new plan though." He tried to raise his squad on the radio but all he got was static.
"I'm not sure what's going on, either the Covenant is jamming the signal or the antennae is sending back a false positive," Nathan replied a second later.
"Fuck," Luke said to himself before turning back to the Sergeant. "Johnson, tell them that we're going to be moving back to their position and ask them to provide what fire they're comfortable with. Bugle isn't here yet and this battle isn't over. But you're going to use me as cover, understand?" The Sergeant didn't look happy at this but didn't say no either. Luke reached over with his left arm and yanked the car's door off the hinges to use as a makeshift shield to help dull the amount of inbound fire he'd take. Readying his Spiker he got Johnson behind him as he held the door up over his lower torso and stood up. Instantly plasma fire began to slam into the metal, superheating enormous patches which dripped down molten metal. A number of hits impacting his chest and shoulders and the heat was nearly unbearable as he clinched his jaws and continued walking backwards. Firing the Spiker in bursts at whoever stood up, it began to click when he reached the halfway point so he tossed it off to the side and focused on giving the Sergeant cover. More shots slammed into this armor and he could see the layers underneath now exposed while a few more hit the lesser armored areas on his thighs which burned his skin directly. Another carbine round lodged itself into his right forearm but he couldn't remove the slug which was poisoning him with radiation.
"You're almost there!" Johnson yelled, the staccato fire of his MA5B erupting behind Luke as he saw the barrel poke out to his side. Reaching back with his left arm, Luke's hand got a hold of Johnson and pushed him back.
"I'm not doing this so that you can get yourself shot a few seconds later," he called out through gritted teeth as more plasma slammed into his armor and melted even more of it. Out of the corners of his eyes he could see the gates of the space port pass him by and he knew that he was close to safety. Looking out into the parking lot, Luke's maneuver seemed to have attracted the interests of the Covenant who had vacated their cover to hunt him down, possibly hoping to claim him as their own kill. This provided a perfect target for the tank who fired off a single shot into the mass of Grunts, Brutes, Jackals, and a few Elites who were chasing after him. The round landed dead on as the mass of troops were engulfed in the blossom of flames and smoke. Flesh and armor were blown in all different directions as those on the edges of the explosion were torn apart while the aliens in the middle were disintegrated.
"We're good!" Johnson said, patting Luke on the shoulder. Checking over his shoulder he could see the battered and worn barricade which had taken a beating since the last time he saw it. Johnson quickly hopped over the cover and Luke did the same, albeit less gracefully and slower as his wounded body was beginning to slow down from the beating it was taking.
"Oh God, Sword, are you okay?" Katana said, hurrying over to him and kneeling down next to him as he rested up against the barricade for a moment. Portions of his armor were still glowing orange from the plasma bolts impacting on it and she immediately set about tending to his wounds.
"Don't worry about me," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling it away gently. "I'll be fine for now. I just need a gun until Bugle gets here." She hesitated for a second before doing what he asked. Leaning over to one of the dead Marines, she grabbed his MA5B and handed it to Luke, the counter reading a full magazine but he didn't see any other magazines lying on the ground which wasn't a comforting thought. Hefting himself up, he rested the gun on the barricade as plasma continued to come at them from all directions. There was an almost immediate temptation to fire off a burst at some Grunts waddling out of cover for a second but he held his finger on the trigger and waited.
"Bugle is two minutes out!" Dagger yelled in Luke's direction and he just nodded in response. Off to the right an Elite hopped out of cover and made a run towards another save haven but Luke spotted him and began to fire in his direction. The ammo counter quickly scrolled towards zero as the magazine emptied itself out into the Elite who had stopped dead in his tracks as the 7.62mm rounds slammed into his shields and then cut through his armor. Just as the last of his magazine emptied itself out the Elite dropped to the ground.
"I'm out," Luke said in a regular voice as he looked around for some sort of ammo and spotted a M6C still holstered on a Marine's hip and he reached over to take it out. Checking to see if a round was in the chamber, he could see the copper sheath and let the slide slip forward again. Without the wireless uplink appearing on his HUD for the scope he was forced to use the iron sights which he centered on a Jackal who kept popping his head up over a barrier with a Beam Rifle in hand. Squeezing off a single round, it slammed into the skull of the alien and knocked it to the ground. He fired off two more shots at Grunts, one of which was carrying the devastatingly effective Fuel Rod Gun.
"WRAITH!" Claymore yelled out, pointing towards the edge of the field. A second of the purple behemoths hovered out into the open, quickly followed by a third. Coughing up some blood, Luke stood up to full height as he watched their cannons open up and begin to glow brightly with plasma reserves.
"Get out of here, get away from the tank!" Luke started pushing his squad away from the cover as he smacked the hull of the tank. A second later the hatch opened up and the pilot started trying to scramble out of the seat. As much as Luke hated the thought he knew he needed to get away from the Scorpion, with or without the pilot and the machine gunner in tow. Running as fast as he could into the support beams for the raised landing platforms, he was covered in a wave of tolerable heat as the first mortar landed just in front of their barricade which caused the metal panels to blow away before contorting in all different directions from the immense heat. The second hit was on target as it landed on top of the Scorpion and instantly set off whatever ammo reserves the tank had left. .50 caliber ammo shot out in all different directions as the remaining shells detonated inside the hull, spewing out molten shrapnel in all different directions. One piece zipped past Luke's head and embedded itself in a nearby I-beam where it was still glowing an angry orange color. Luke lost sight of his squad as he made his way through the underside of the landing pad, threading his way between beams and supports as he tried to meet back up with the survivors. Just then, in the relative quiet he heard the distinct sound of a Pelican fly over head, a machine gun firing at full speed. Listening to the sound, Luke began to follow it towards the center of the space port where he spotted the Pelican dropping down into one of the large open spaces. Emerging into the open, he waved towards the gunner who was pointing the machine gun out towards the parking lot but had spotted Luke and was beginning to turn towards him. "Where's everyone else?" he asked as he arrived.
"You're the first one. We heard from the rest of the squad as we came in but no one is here yet," the gunner replied back.
"Alright, give me a gun then, I'm going to go an find them."
"If that's what you want, sir," he said, reaching over for one of the BR55s hooked up to the wall next to him. It had a single clip in it but Luke didn't plan on getting into any major firefights. Heading off to the other row of landing pads, he strained his eyes to see if he could see any of his squad but couldn't see anyone.
"Sword!" Turning to his right, Luke saw Dagger with Katana over his shoulders, limp.
"What happened?" he yelled out when he saw her like that.
"She just got knocked out, Claymore and the Sergeant went ahead. Why didn't you get onto the Pelican?"
"I came back looking for the rest of you. Let me take her, you shoot." Quickly getting behind Dagger he took Katana in his arms and stayed to the side of Dagger who was wielding the two Battle Rifles which he was using to fire a few bursts in the direction of the Covenant who were quickly approaching. All of the sudden Dagger pushed Luke back away from the main roadway and held him there.
"Keep your head down." A second later, a salvo of missiles and machine gun fire filled the area as Bugle turned the Pelican and fired off what he had. "Let's go, they can't stick around much longer." Running out into street he ran as hard as he could towards the Pelican as Dagger covered him, taking a few shots which caused his shields to flare up brightly in the darkness. Sprinting past the empty missile pods, Luke placed Katana onto the floor of the Pelican as Dagger followed up behind him. Giving Dagger a nudge, he was the last one on board as Bugle immediately took off over the battlefield. Looking down, Luke's view was obscured by the enormous pillars of smoke that filled the air as a few stray bolts of plasma zipped past them. Once they were a ways away the gunner closed the door and pressurized the rear compartment as they continued their journey back to the Kamiak. Luke made his way to Katana who was lying on the floor with her helmet off, eyes closed.
"Hey…can you hear me?" he said just loud enough to be heard over the engine noise as he brushed a few stray pieces of hair off her forehead. She didn't respond to him so he took a seat and kept rubbing her head and speaking to her as the chief knelt down next to him.
"Sir, you're injured," he said, motioning towards the blood that was still coming out of his side.
"It's fine, take care of her first."
"There's not a whole lot I can do. Looks like she's got a serious concussion and is out cold. Once she's back on the ship we'll have a better idea of what happened; I'm no doctor after all." Luke nodded as he took his helmet off and set it down on the ground next to him. For the next couple of minutes he looked down at the deck as he sat there, his blood creating a small pool around him as the Pelican continued to make it's way to the Kamiak, finally arriving in the hangar bay which was alive with activity. As the doors opened up medics and medical staff ran past as the wounded soldiers were being taken to the medical wings to get treatment for their wounds. A number of doctors hurried up to their Pelican as the chief walked out and began to examine the ship. Dagger, Claymore, and Johnson all ignored the doctors trying to look them over and they quickly made their way to Luke and Katana as they sat on the floor.
"Get him to the ER now so that we can close up this wound!" one of them yelled out, pointing to him.
"No! Make sure she is alright first," Luke countered, getting to his feet as the nurses came up to him, their scrubs already stained with blood. They hesitated for a moment before they walked over to her and pulled one of her eyelids open and swung a flashlight back and forth over the irises.
"She's fine, looks like a concussion. Just take her back to her quarters and we'll send someone by," the nurse responded, standing up from her.
"Then it's your turn," the doctor said as he motioned for Luke to follow him. "We don't have anything that can carry your weight with that armor on so you'll have to walk there."
"It's fine," he said, wincing as he moved his right leg again, the nurses coming to his side to help him. As he was led off he took one last look at Katana before heading to the ER.