Epilogue 3, Execution
Behind Brute outpost, Beod, Kinist, January 29 2556, 0950 hours
I get to a vantage point, I spot the door, around it are many barricades and 4 Brutes.
"I spot four guards. Is everyone in position?" I ask over radio.
"Where all set Sarge." Responded Sarah.
"Ok Imps, let's raise some hell."
I line up my sights and take the first shot. The Brute is hit square in the head, killing him instantly. The others rush in, guns blazing. The Brutes are caught way off guard by the sudden attack, one reaches for his weapon, but is rushed by Andre and riddled with rounds. Sarah got the jump on another and stabbed it with her Knives. The last one starts to fire, but catches a Sniper round to the skull.
"All clear, I'm coming to you." I say over the radio.
I slide down the dusty hill. Sarah is already at the door, Marco however is inspecting the Brute's weapons.
"Damn, they had a Plasma Launcher? These things were put out of commission after the fall of Reach! Can't see why they did, they may be slower than Plasma Casters, but they are good against vehicles."
"Focus Private! Sarah hows that door going?"
"Not good sir, this stuff is nonsense. Even for Covenant tech this is foreign."
"Let me have a try." Asks Marco.
"Sure, go ahead, not like it'll just open up-"
After a few quick taps the door opened right up, Sarah stood there shocked.
"Wha? How? When?" She stammered.
"When you don't have a lot of friends but you do have an abandoned Covie base nearby your childhood home, you tend to learn a thing or two." Marco responded.
"Let's move people!"
We all rush inside, two Grunt technicians see us and draw their Plasma Pistols. Me and Declan took them out before they could fire a shot. Micheal set down the case he was carrying and opened it up, inside were two Remote Detonators Launchers and 8 bombs.
"There are 8 support pillars I need to stick." Said Micheal.
"Wait! Let me check something!" Shouted Marco.
Marco ran to the computer one of the Grunts was sitting at and clicked through
"YES! This base runs on a type 44B power core, these were more powerful than the 44A variants, but like most Jiralhanae tech they overheat quickly, if we blow up the cooling fans near it this base will do the work for us."
"Good thinking. Here, take this." Said Micheal, throwing one of the Launchers at Marco.
"Lets hustle!"
We made our way towards the core, Marco knew the layout of these bases like the back of his hand. We ran into a few more Grunt technicians, none were able to land a shot on us. We made it to the Core.
"Micheal, Marco, begin setting the charges, Sarah, calculate a blast radius, the rest of us will cover you."I order.
Sarah brings down her attached visor and begins tapping at her wrist pad. We set up around the door, and suddenly an alarm went off.
"Looks like someone found the Grunt corpses." Said Andre.
"Charges set sir!" Exclaimed Micheal.
"Let's get going!"
Andre exits first and mows down two Brutes outside the door, Marco leads the way to an escape route. We make our way down the halls, Marco in the lead. He rounds a corner and opens a door, waiting on the other side is two Brutes that open fire at him. Andre pushes him out of the way and takes a spike to the chest and falls.
"NO!" I shout.
I activate my sword and block the spikes as I rush the Brutes, I decapitate one and impale the other. But after I exit the adrenaline high I feel a pain in my left leg. I look down and see a spike in my thigh.
"SARGE!"I hear Declan scream.
I fall on my right knee, Sarah rushes over to me and picks me up, I look back and see Micheal holding up a barely conscious Andre.
"How far till your escape route?" I ask Marco.
"Just through this hallway."
We open the door into what looks like a garage filled with Brute vehicles.
"Anyone know how to drive these things?" I ask
"I do!" Responds Marco.
"Of course you do," says Sarah.
We hop on a Skiff as Brutes rush the door to the garage. Marco Blast a hole in the garage door and floors it. Some brutes jump on Choppers and give chase. The Choppers fire off shots at the skiff, Sarah and Declan peek around the side and open fire, Sarah now using Andre's SAW. One Chopper gets a few bullets in the wheel mechanisms and jams, it flips over and explodes, killing the driver. A Prowler jumps over a nearby dune and begins to shoot its turret. Marco sees this and grabs the Plasma Launcher and shoots three Plasma Grenades at the Prowler, it attempts to get away but the Grenades follow it and blow it up and its wreckage hits another Chopper.
"Told you it was good against vehicles!" Shouted Marco.
"Less talking, more driving!" Responded Declan.
"Sarah, how long until we're out of the blast radius?" Micheal asks
"Bout 100 meters, why?"
Micheal fires two of the spare Detonators at oncoming Prowlers.
"No reason!" He responds.
We continue to drive, only a few more seconds until we are out of the blast radius, suddenly a shot hits our booster and we start to slow down.
"MICHEAL NOW!" Shouts Sarah.
The charges at the base explode, along with the two on the Prowlers. The base erupts into a brilliant red explosion. The shockwave starts to throw the vehicles behind us away.
"HOLD ONTO SOMETHING!" Shouts Marco.
The Skiff is flipped by the blast, it does two flips mid air and lands on its side. I get up out of the wreckage.
"Everyone ok?" I ask
Marco pokes his hand out of a pile of rubble with a thumb up.
"No." he weakly responds.
That was fun to write. It's me, the author. Been a while hasn't it. Hope you've enjoyed this fic as much as I have had writing it. Stay tuned for the final epilogue next chapter.