Chapter Nineteen

The jungle was humid and foggy and difficult to maneuver. The humidity didn't affect me, thanks to the temperature and condensation control in my armor, but still.

I'd grown tired of flying several hours ago, so now I was limping behind John.

He tried to slow his pace for me, but he was eager to get to the Song to try and defend it. So the pace was less than was comfortable for him and significantly more than was comfortable for me.

But I was fine; I had to be.

I wasn't a fool. John was a SPARTAN. He could have reached the ship in less than two hours if he was by himself. He had slowed himself considerably for me, even at this rushed pace.

He'd offered to carry me several times, like he had on Harvest - the first time I ever saw combat. But I'd grown since then. And I figured he needed his hands free in the jungle, for balance and whatnot.

And also my pride wouldn't let me accept his help.

So, there we were, moving at a relative snail's pace through the jungle. But the ship was close; I could feel it.

The question was; had it survived the landing? They'd almost certainly crashed, and even if they hadn't the Didact might have destroyed the entire ship upon landing.

We climbed over another tree root several times bigger than both of us.

I had to fly myself over; my ankle was thoroughly done with everything. Even walking on the relatively flat ground was painful enough to give me pause.

God, I was starving. And my whole body ached. My right side was still sore from when the Didact had thrown us across a room. My mind was screaming with fatigue; I'd been using my power too much.

Not that John was much better off than me. He had that burn on his side - it still hurt a little, I could tell - and he, too, was starving. He needed a lot more food than me, and the effects were really getting to him.

But he refused to let it show. As long as he was strong enough to fight, which he was, he wouldn't say anything about his own suffering.

He stopped. I almost bumped into him, and catching myself to avoid doing so made my ankle scream again.

My gaze lifted from the forest floor, following John's. There, in the midst of a huge valley cleared by the crash, was the UNSC Song of the East.

"I-it looks- he didn't...break anything?" I cocked my head in confusion.

John looked up at the floating cryptum, which had just scanned the ship. "Something tells me that's only because the Didact wants something from it."

Something in our ears crackled. "This is Lasky to UNSC Song of the East. We're up to our necks in bad guys down here, does anyone read?!"

It was a man, and he sounded desperate.

In addition, when John heard the man's name something flashed inside him. Recognition.

He opened a comm. "This is Sierra one-one-seven of the Forward Unto Dawn. We're on station, ready to assist."

The Didact scanned the ship again.

"Negative copy, sounded like you said 'Forward Unto Dawn'? Come again-" Lasky's voice dissolved into static.

John straightened his back. "We're going to find Lasky. Stay behind me."

Going after Lasky was, unfortunately, the safest choice. We couldn't well go into the ship being held by the Didact. He would kill us on sight.

John must have lit up his suit's friend or foe tags, because he turned away from the Song and said, "IFF tag nearby. Let's move."

We walked back into the thick jungle. I forced my exhaustion and raging hunger down. Lifted up into the air. We couldn't be slow anymore.

Even if we were both starving and dehydrated.

"Song of the East to Commander Lasky." Captain Del Rio's voice filled out ears. "We've lost contact with your Pelicans. Report in!"

John led us over a small hill. Down into a thicket of massive tree roots. "They must not have received his distress call."

I lit up the friend or foe tags on my own HUD. Sure enough, a few meters away, there was a friendly tag.

My mind reached out. "John, I can't feel anyone down there."

Realization hit me; that meant whoever the tag belonged to was probably dead.

John ducked under an archway made by a root. There was a small clearing. Two bodies.

The first humans we'd seen in almost three years.

Funnily enough, the last human we'd seen was also dead. Sergeant Major Avery Johnson...I hoped he'd gotten the funeral of a lifetime. He deserved that, at least.

John knelt beside one of the bodies, picking up the IFF tag.

"'Paulo J. Jimenez'," he read. "Lasky's still out there."

I looked down at the fallen soldiers. "This looks like Prometheans."

John didn't respond. Just picked up an assault rifle from one of the dead men. The Covenant rifle he'd found had some ammo left, but not much.

He slid the assault rifle onto his back and kept the Covenant gun out, for now.

I felt deep, sick fear somewhere ahead. My stomach dropped. "John, there are marines up there."

"How close?"

"Really close. They're...they're surrounded by crawlers!" I realized with some more prodding. "We need to hurry."

I rushed through the thicket, ignoring the branches and wet leaves that slapped against my armor. The sounds of gunfire and battle were closer and closer.

As we reached the battlefield John ran out ahead of me. The Covenant rifle tore through the crawlers. He took down three in a few seconds, tossing a grenade towards another large group of them.

There was only one surviving marine. He was lying to my right, sprawled over a root. He had a sniper rifle out, aiming it at the crawlers. But I could see the blood running down the side of his head.

I landed next to him, on my knees. "Are you okay?"

He jerked. "The hell? What are- I'm fine."

We both turned to look as more gunfire erupted. John shot down another crawler.

One jumped towards him, claws out and ready to tear through his armor.

Before I could cry out a warning John turned, grabbing the crawler by the neck and throwing it viciously across the clearing. Its body shattered against a root.

"A SPARTAN?! That's a SPARTAN!" The marine looked back at me with a giddy air about him. "I've never seen one in the flesh!"

John walked back to us. "We need to move. Do you know where the Commander is?"

The marine pushed himself to his feet. "Heard him on the comm, but I couldn't tell you where he's at now."

"Can you fight?"

"Hell yeah, I can fight. These metal bastards killed my squad; I'm lookin' to knock some heads!"

The marine was good at masking his grief with rage, but it was still there. His friends were dead.

John looked down at me. "Tawny, stay back."

I wanted to argue, but I knew I was growing more and more exhausted. Even flying myself was tiring.

My head hung. "Okay."

I could feel something nearby. Mechanical, with biological memories. Prowling towards us from the fog.

"John, there's a knight!" I pointed behind him.

He turned, emptying the rest of his ammo into the knight. We all watched as the knight dissipated into a swirl of orange dust.

John dropped the Covenant rifle and pulled out the assault rifle he'd found. "We need to move."

There was a path of sorts through the trees.

John led the way. The marine took up the rear. I was in the middle, protected and useless.

Completely useless.

Well...not entirely. I could still scout ahead with my mind; I would be able to feel any aliens, humans, or Prometheans before even John saw them.

I did feel Prometheans.

"Wait," I whispered.

We'd reached a drop off into a bowl of sorts. The fog was so thick, it was hard to see much of anything inside it.

"What is it?" John didn't turn to face me, moving his gun slowly around.

"That valley's full of Prometheans. A-a pack of crawlers, and two knights."

John did turn then, looking at the marine. "How's your aim?"

"I didn't scavenge this gun, sir, it's mine." He held up his sniper rifle proudly.

"Take out the knights."

The marine shoved a magazine in his gun. "Knights are the big ones, right?"

John nodded.

"You got it." He crept forward and knelt right before the lip of the dropoff.

A single shot rang out, and I could feel a datapurge from below us.

The crawlers were quick to return fire. The marine scrambled away from the barrage of hardlight rounds. "Shit!"

John ducked behind a root, laying down heavy cover fire. "Find the other knight."

The marine set himself back up, scanning the bowl through his scope.

He would never find it; it was deep within the fog.

I knew where it was.

"Don't shoot me," I warned them.

"Tawny, don't-"

I didn't hear the rest of what John said. I'd teleported right behind the knight. I called a huge lightrifle to me, catching the knight's attention.

Before it could attack me I'd shot it right in the face. It collapsed into an orange dust storm; a datapurge.

I teleported back up to John and the marine. "Okay, I got the knight. There's only a few crawlers left."

"I told you to stay behind me." John's voice was harsh. Almost a yell. "That's not behind me."

I took a few steps back. My ankle twinged. "I-I'm sorry. It's impossible to see through the fog, I thought I could...I thought I could help."

"Or you could get killed."

My lip curled. "I can-"

"You're weak. You haven't taken a break in hours."

"Neither have you!" I felt tears welling up in my eyes; I hated how scared John was for me. I hated that he was right.

"I'm a SPARTAN, Tawny. You're not."

"Clear!" The marine called. He'd taken out the rest of the crawlers while John and I were arguing.

He looked up at both of us.

Something - recognition - flashed through his mind. "Oh, you're-you're the Master Chief, ain't you? And you're Blue Five." He turned to me. "You're shorter than I thought."

"I'm what?" I glanced up at John to see if he had any idea what the marine was talking about. "'Blue Five'?"

"You and the Chief are martyrs. Sacrificed yourselves to secure the Ark. The only SPARTANs to die in the war." He paused. "Well, I guess you aren't, seein' as you're alive right now."

"SPARTANs…" I looked down thoughtfully. "I'm not a SPARTAN."

He blinked. "You're not? The Outpost said-"

John moved towards the drop off. "We need to find the Commander. We can worry about this later."

He jumped down.

The marine saluted me. "Sergeant Abram, it's an honor."

I floated up into the air, moving towards the edge. My hands were up in front of me. "Please don't salute me. I'm-I'm just a civilian."

"Huh?" I could feel his shock and confusion.

What had happened while we were gone?

I landed beside John in the thick fog. There was an IFF tag ahead of us, past the bowl.

The Sergeant landed roughly next to me.

John nodded ahead. "There's a tag up there. Let's move."

We moved together across the valley. Then we reached another wall of earth. John wasted no time, grabbing a protruding stone and pulling himself up. The Sergeant followed suit.

I lifted up into the air. My strength gave out for a second, and I nearly crashed back into the ground. I held back a groan as I resumed the strain on my mind, forcing myself higher and higher. There was no way I'd be able to climb that wall myself.

My chest was heaving when I landed. I tried to steady my breathing; John was worried for me enough. We weren't safe yet, so I would have to be okay and not distract him.

There was a dead marine on the ground.

John picked up the tag. "'Lucile H. Ball'."

"Damn." Sergeant Abram put his hands on his hips. "I knew her. Damn best pilot I ever knew."

"Pilot?" I turned to him. "Did she fly Pelicans?"

"Sure did." He wiped at the blood that was slowly coagulating on the side of his head.

John knew what I was thinking about the pilot. "She could have been with Lasky."

"Maybe he's close." I looked down at the body with regretful eyes. "She just died."

John nodded towards the trees in front of us. "Anything ahead?"

"I don't know. Let me see." I limped forward a bit. My hand came up to press against a huge root, steadying myself as my eyes closed. "There's a knight ahead, with a pack of crawlers."

I felt something else, though. My eyes widened. I turned back to the soldiers.

"There's humans! They-they're inside a Forerunner structure!"

"Are they safe?" John asked.

"I think they're hiding inside."

John checked his ammo. "We're going to assist them. Stay behind me, Tawny."

I looked away.

"Tawny."

"Fine." I bit my lip. "I'll stay back."

"I'm serious."

"I know," I muttered. I could feel how serious he was.

He started walking again. "How far ahead?"

"About a thousand feet? Close, b-but not too close yet."

"Let's go."

oOOOOo

Author's Note: I'll be updating Chipped: The Rewrite as quickly as I can, I promise. In the meantime, please enjoy your regularly scheduled Chained!