I do not own Halo.
I awoke a minute later with my leg bandaged, a numb feeling to it. Three
of the members of the squad were gathered around me.
"Where are the others?" I asked as soon as I awoke.
"Oh, they went on, they are going to try to stop the Covenant from
destroying the control room."
"Wait, on their own?" I said, hoping that reinforcements had come.
"Yes sir, but the control rooms is that door right there" he extended his
arm pointing down the hallway to a door about halfway through.
"Well I'll be damned. I got so close."
"Yeah sir, You got lucky sir. A wound this size would have, and probably
should have required that amputation of this leg. Also I really doubt it,
but you kept these bandages on your arm way too long, you wanna get Gang
Green of something? A miracle you are still working I guess."
I was quick to reply "I don't believe in miracles, I am the only person in
control of my life." I wasn't planning on giving religion a chance any time
soon.
Skip cut in saying "One of these days man, soon we'll get ya. Bible and
all!" He hit his heart area twice reminding me of the bible he carried.
"Not a chance. Destiny is for people who are too lazy to make their own
decisions." I was waking up now, and was ready again to fight over
religion.
"okay, fine, but you have to admit though; you have to have a reason to
hate religion. What is it? You can tell me."
"I don't need a reason. I just don't like it." I did have a reason,
though I was embarrassed over it, it was almost cowardly that I didn't want
to fight, and this war was over religion, right?
"Alright, well, lets get a move on, are the others still in the
control room?" I asked. The two bystander Marines picked me up by my
shoulders. I was a little taller than them, so they dragged my foot along
the ground, which was painful, but better than walking it out.
"No, they moved on to clean up the rest of the Covenant in this
facility. Turns out on the way in we killed most of em. If only we had
the luck to come in the other way." The Marine supporting my right side
claimed, probably knowing what was going on." He spoke with an English
accent, maybe from Earth. Earthside people were getting very rare race,
all the Earth's people are stationed around home, not on outer rim planets
like this. This was a small planet too, about a quarter the surface area
of the Earth.
"Alright, are they all ok?" I asked, concerned over the welfare of my
squad.
"Yeah, no one reported wounded so far." He replied
"How are the other squads faring?"
"Status is a mess, we haven't really gotten a good communications
network up yet. But it looks like Alpha and Bravo suffered a big loss,
Alpha got snuck up on by some Jackals. The counter attack though got the
Jackals and no one knows what happened to Bravo. Probably ran away.
Bravo wasn't the most valor filled of all the battle groups." He looked
serious despite his last comment being sarcastic.
"Well, how's the peeper network?" I said, asking about the main goal
of our mission this time.
"Well, three quarters of it is up, which is good. Having a few micro
sats to image the battlefield will be good for us, might help us count them
so we won't encounter any unexpected resistance." He was referring to
Micro sats as in the peeper network. Orbiting around the planet was about
400 palm sized spy satellites. They aren't the highest resolution but
Covenant couldn't destroy them, sot they were valuable. They were made to
be tiny so that they could help us in almost this exact situation. It was
kind of sadistic that the Marine Corps were now planning for this occasion,
the death of a planet.
"See, here are the controls to the peeper network" he extended his
free arm into the room to our left, gesturing in towards the computers
within. There was a large panel on the wall that was the main view screen,
on it was a map of Lunar 4 with the orbital path of the satellites were
shown. Around it were about fifteen little monitors for the individual
controllers. There was again the scent of death in this building, and
sitting at two of the chairs were the corpses of some of the computer
controllers. One of them had one bloody hand on the keyboard, the other on
the gaping wound on his chest. The other was curled up underneath a desk,
where he was hiding I guess. A few of the monitors were shattered, a
result of the gunfight within the room. A live Marine was sitting at one
of the computers, furiously typing, watching intently as the monitor's
display changed, he was obviously attempting to find any stray peepers to
get a complete network up.
"Well, can we bury these bodies?" I said as they sat me down in one
of the chairs.
"I would say so, we are waiting for some authorization from HQ,
speaking of which, we are now able to speak! We have three pirate radio
channels coming in from surviving civilians, all of which are commenting on
how many people survived and where they saw Covenant patrols, doing their
part to help I guess. Yeah, but e can't bury these bodies unless the
family says so. I somehow doubt they will, being that they are on Earth,
and if we contact them, to make sure that these bodies are buried right we
might give away the location of our home." The anxious Marine said.
"Can we just bury em now, HQ will give us the ok to bury them for
sure." I , knowing that it was unsaid that we couldn't anyway, but like
Earth has been since the late eighteen hundreds nothing can happen without
hundreds of checks and balances with your superiors. It hindered our early
space travel, it hindered our movement to Mars, later to the Moon, and
after that other planets. It may never stop, unless the Covenant get to us
that is.
"Nah, desecrating the dead, isn't that a deadly sin or something?"
"Oh I see, so it's not to continue working alongside them ignoring
them?"
"Well, I could get the UNSC flags, we could at least honor them."
"Yeah, you do that."
"Yeah sure, I'll go to the supply room and grab a few." He turned to
walk, but I beckoned him.
"Don't let them touch the ground Private." I said, my way of saying
thanks.
Chuckling of stress rather than humor he turned and paced away.
Maybe I should have left off the Private part. Oh well, too late now.
I peeled the skin tight mask that I had on and laid it out on the
desk next to me, if I didn't get some of this armor off I would drown in my
own sweat. The static shocked my hair once or twice as I pulled it off, a
startling reminder of the zapping that our enemies were committing us to.
"Relaxing a little? Feel free to, the fight is over. Was for you
when you passed out in the hallway and stopped breathing for a minute
there" Skip said, having removed his mask prior to my coming to.
"Wait a second, I stopped breathing? You didn't have to, um.. Do
any. Mouth to." He cut me off.
"No! We just hit you on the chest a few times!" he yelled disgusted.
The Marine who was typing stopped and looked at us. There was an awkward
silence.
"Um. Well this is uncomfortable. But I am glad. Yeah, it's
good..." I said, still almost speech impaired from the painful silence.
The Marine look for a second longer and eventually turned and began typing
again.
"Well anyway." Skip began, detached from his statement by my
question.
"I'm back!" the Private that I had dispatched to get the flags came
through the door, muttering under his breath a sir. Definitely shouldn't
have called him a Private. He set one of the flags onto the table and
walked over the Marine who was curled up underneath the table.
"Why don't you go and lie him out in a less cowardly position." Skip
said. I was shocked by the brutality of his statement; he was after all a
pretty religious guy.
"Is that appropriate?" he asked shocked in the same way I was.
"Well, why not?"
"Alright" he began to drag the body out from underneath the table. He set
it out on the floor. It was a woman; she looked about twenty or thirty.
No wonder she hid, she didn't have a chance against them. He set her out
flat on the ground on her back and lifted a palm onto her diaphragm.
"Good?" he asked Skip who suddenly was the official dead guy specialist.
"Yeah, now lay the flag over her."
The Marine unfolded the flag and lifted it up in the air. It billowed, air
catching beneath it as it began its decent to her body. It began to
accelerate as it spilled air out from underneath it, almost welcoming the
memorial wrapping of woman's body to commemorate her life, and her death.
The flag was a simple one, compared to some of the old Earth Socialism
orders flags. In the year 2223 there were something around one hundred and
fifty well known countries, one of which had 51 flags, all divided among
its divisions and one that hey all shared in common. The UNSC flag is a
vast blue expanse with the Earth in the corner. Speckling it across the
banner were stars, each one recognizing one colony. Half of them however
were only former outposts, all destroyed by the war. The banner floated
gracefully over her body and settled as the Marine looked up at us, to make
sure that he had our approval over his methods. We nodded our recognition.
He then walked over to the table snatching up the flag and walking over to
the other Marine. This one a male with grey hair and a wrinkled, aged
face, probably twice the age of the woman we last ceremonially covered. He
was probably fifty, and seemed, for an unarmed casualty, very noble in his
death. These two deaths showed what toll the genocidal campaign against
the Humans had.
"It think that this is a suiting statement." Skip said, solemnly looking at
the bodies. "War is hell."
"Yeah." I replied
"Not done yet, and life is a sin" he said, taking a long pause between
statements. "When the young must fight the wars that the elders begin, a
poem I think, kind of hard to tell actually. We didn't start this, but we
will finish it. We are so close to killing the Covenant. Just one nuke.
Just on explosion. The war would be over. I just cant take it!" he
clutched his head, "Why didn't we do this a long time ago? Just start
probing space! Just look for them! And when we find them blast them all
to hell!"
"Just keep in mind man, we will win this. Well, we won't, chances are we
wont make it off this planet, but mankind as a whole, will win." I
claimed, very sure of myself, I obviously believed that without actually
knowing it.
"I guess you are right. Well, you wanna pack up and get out of here?" He
said.
"Yeah, our work here is done. Lets get back to the APC and report the
losses."
"Right, you know the way out?" Skip asked.
"Um, no. Why not just follow the bodies. We have a body around every
corner from a jackal or a crater. Also shell casings and stuff." Skip
looked into the hallway.
"Yeah, or why don't we just follow the signs?" Skip said, now looking into
the hallway and clearly seeing a sign marked "EXIT".
"Oh. That'll work." I said, disappointed, I thought that I had come up
with a great idea.
We paced back up to the exit of the building, slowly for my limp, where the
musty smell of the building faded, giving way to the gentle breeze of a
dying planet. It was 15 degrees Celsius warmer now than it was three days
ago. It appeared as if it was a normal tranquil day outside. There was
nothing fighting on the ground nearby and the only noises were that of the
waterfalls nearby and the birds chirping. But if you looked at the sky you
could see what was wrong. Towards the north of us, near the bunker there
was a gigantic blue line that extended from up in the sky down to the base
of the horizon. It was one of the ships. Held in orbit above us firing
down upon us, leaving everyone on the planet helpless. We did have a few
options, only one of which would get us out of here alive though. We paced
around the satellite dish, both observing the ducks flying North again,
thinking that summer had come early. Ducks were among some of the animals
that were accidentally brought to Lunar 4. Few animals exist on Lunar 4
naturally, and we decided to keep it that way. Lunar 4 has relatively
shallow oceans and only one ecosystem, so only a few biological forms were
capable of surviving. Common house pets however were introduced to this
planet around 2420. Stray Dogs, Cats, Rabbits, Parrots, Lizards and a few
others now populated the entire animal world, they had within twenty years
killed off all of the normal animal population. Previously only reptilian
type animals lived on Lunar 4, those reptiles however were quickly bested
by birds, and later larger dogs, causing the great extinction of the
indigenous Lunar 4 population. But that was Darwinism, something that may
later doom us to defeat. We could see eyes staring in at us from the
forest, probably a large dog. They glared at us as if they were a foe, and
then faded away as the beast made its retreat into the woods. Seems as if
all eyes were dependent upon us, not often a good thing when we are
guaranteed to lose in this battle. We arrived at the APC just a short
while later, and came to find the pilot sitting in the cabin with his feet
up and a 7 inch combat knife, whittling a stick to a fine point while
listening to music,
rock music plays in the background
He kicked up suddenly seeing we arrived and fumbled with the radio he had
in the cabin, "Just checking some, readouts sir!" He was embarrassed by the
music he had been listening to, since it was about 600 years old and was
also almost never manly at all, even when it came out. I wasn't just about
to say something, nothing like angering a second Marine today.
"Hey, pilot, hate to tell you this, but that music is crap." Skip said,
acting a lot more like Logan that I was used to. He was usually a
conservative person that rarely said anything that could later come under
fire.
I jabbed him in the side muttering some curse words under my breath,
realizing that this statement was unforgivable.
"Actually, I have a reason for this music. You really think that I would
listen to this crap?" The pilot said.
"See?" I said, hoping that Skip would catch one of the many cues to shut up
that I had sent him and halt his inquisition.
"Um, no, what is your reason?" He said, continuing to ignore, or not
realizing that I was trying to signal him to stop.
"Well, my reason is." Hesitation, he was lying, hopefully he could come up
with a good reason, "Well, um, ah, that's right, to scare off the animals.
Yeah, I think that the dogs don't like the yelling!"
"A good reason, I heard that was true! Yeah, um, on the channel 137 mind-
cast." I said, unsure of what I was really saying, I was just trying to
help out an ally in need.
"There's a channel 137?"
"Yeah, there was." I said.
"Oh, well, shows how dated my mind-cast is. I got the tooth model in 2521,
an old model." He said, he thought that I was telling the truth.
"Well, doesn't matter now anyway, pilot, sir, do you know any info on the
missions success?" I said, changing the topic to what we had actually
intended to talk about.
"Well, Officer Johnson, preliminary reports suggest a complete victory.
Somehow we pulled this off, losing only a dozen men."
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. We came here to tell you the casualty reports
of our squad. We lost one member. His name was." I paused while I
reached into my pocket and produced his dog tag, still a little bloody from
his hand, which was covered in blood that he had coughed up while dying.
"His name was." I read the dog tag. Printed in generic bold fonts was his
name. "Ah, here we go, his name was James McNeil. Put him on the list and
report him KIA."
"Alright, you wounded sir, you look like you have a fresh bandage on your
leg." He said, while writing the mans name on the sheet of paper that he
had waiting on the dash of the cabin.
"Well, yeah, fill me in as WIA. Make sure you add that I'm fine."
"Hey, but you're not, you still are walking on a leg that really should
have put you on a stretcher!" Skip said.
"Do you think that I will live long enough for it to get better?" I asked.
It was warm out, the invasion was over, it was time for us to die.
"Alright sir, but hope you don't suffer more than you need to in this war.
You could just"
I cut off the pilot "I could just what, sit back while my allies die? Not
me, I am no coward!"
"Well, with all due respect, we are all on death row, and you don't have
anything to prove to us. We saw those Elites last night. You are far from
a coward."
I ran up to him, not walking with a limp, the pain hitting me after I
reached him. I grabbed him by the neck of his shirt. "What were you doing
while I was out there watching a Marine die?" I asked.
"I was relaxing. It was my job!" I looked back at Skip, who was staring at
me waiting for my next move.
"I don't have that job. My job is to make sure that my enemies die. My
goal is to make sure my allies live. My goal is to never back down unless
I am told to by one thing only. Do you know what that is?"
"You" His statement was incomplete. "Sir"
"No, that person is death. Unless he walks up, taps me on the shoulder and
says, Jacob, you are dead, you can give up now, what do you thing I will
do?"
This time he got it right "You will complete your goals" I released his
collar and straitened my own.
I leaned in towards him. "See this eye?" I pointed to the mechanical one.
"Wow, you have two different colored eyes, that's rare, right?"
"No, I lost this eye in our first live fire exercise on Reach." I said,
leaning away "They told me to retire, that my career was over, but I wasn't
done yet. I won't be until my foes, or I die." I walked slowly, limping
back to Skip. The impacts of my statements were settling in, I hardly even
knew what I was saying. What was my motivation? I had left that unclear
even to myself.
"Well, you guys can load up if you like, get some rest, you know."
"Yeah, sounds good" I said beginning to stretch. "I need some good rest
right about now." I paced over to the side of the APC and stepped up over
the deflated cushion. I placed a hand on the handle to the door. The door
was flimsy and I pulled it open with ease though the top and bottom flopped
separately as I almost violently pulled the door open. Inside it was warm
and muggy, the stench of sweat overwhelming. I slid a hand up my forehead
and through my hair as I stepped one foot onto the metal grate floor of the
APC. It had a few windows towards the pilot's cabin; however I didn't feel
like sleeping near to him being as to that he might be seeking revenge for
my grabbing his collar. I have been offending too many people lately. Too
mush stress I think. I instead walked over to the back of the APC and
clicked on a small light on the back wall of the APC. Its dim glow
illuminated only a small part of the back of the APC, hardly enough to see,
but enough so that you wouldn't trip or fall on anything that might be left
on the floor. I laid down my armor on the back row of seats, folding up a
few armrests to lay down sprawled across the seats. I plopped down on my
belly and used my arms as a pillow to cradle my head. Forgetting that my
arm was burned I accidentally placed my head upon it, quickly reprimanded
with the acute pain of a burn. It didn't hurt as much as I had anticipated
for, a sign the wound was healing. I quickly fell asleep; my sleep in
recent times had been almost nonexistent.
I awoke the next morning suddenly. I sat up, breathing hard in a
cold sweat. I lifted a hand, passing it through my hair as my vision
sharpened and I sat up. I rotated my head, peeking at the clock, which
said on a friendly display that it was 5 a.m., which was about an hour
before the time that all soldiers must be awoken. I shot a glance out the
door to the starry sky. Off on the horizon there was a blue beam extending
to the ground, breaking the golden moments that I had awoken, before I
remembered all my troubles, which now were death and suffering. I had a
nightmare about the last battle. It was the first time I was so close to a
dying hero. He was not so much a hero in the way he lived as the way he
died though, or at least as far as I knew. It is shocking how you won't
care about anyone or anything until they are gone and beyond your reach. I
was still in the APC, but no one else was, Skip had left. Better that way,
I thought, knowing that I didn't really have any special interest in
sleeping in cramped quarters near to another man. I stood up and felt my
way to the light switch, the room poorly lit by only my clock. I found the
switch and flipped it on, illuminating the APC. A moment after I turned
them on I realized that I didn't need to turn them on; the exit was
illuminated by the starry sky. Fewer stars were showing up, the planet was
warming, and as a result the moisture of the ocean was condensing in the
sky and blocking our view of the night sky. I was fine with it though,
nothing was truly important in the sky. I jumped out of the APC onto the
ground, which was wet, coated in the morning dew. Off in the distance I
heard the cracks of gunfire. They were coming from the end of the valley;
it looks as if the last bunker had fallen. So long ago it seemed my goal,
my sanctuary was that very base which was now cut off from communication.
We should have the Peepers up today as well as the full extent of the
communications network. An explosion blasted off the top of a nearby hill
leaving a scar in the land, a pit where something died and a crater that
would soon be melted as the onslaught of the invasion continued. I still
don't know when they will withdraw their ground forces though. I would be
willing to bet that as I slept the past two days those Marines have been
fighting, no rest, and no mercy.
My first move was to get combat ready, I had a feeling that we would
get an early start today. Rumors are that yesterday we got more supplies
from the base. I put on the arm piece and felt a sharp pain in my arm; I
hope that they have some labskin for me, it would cure these wound that I
had. Supposedly when in the fight we found a locked door in the back of
the structure, something like a vault loaded with tanks, guns, ammo,
everything that we would need to fight back besides a second chance. Today
though we were thought to have some prisons that were found, Covenant ones.
Chances are that we would strike there next, hoping for some new recruits
and a good supply of the anger factor. There was also some relative calm
around that capital. The capital of our planet is a truly majestic place
with 9 sq. mi. of reflective tile surrounding it. The tower in the center
is a mile high pyramid stretched vertically. We had also put a few
defensive structures near there. There is a large bunker near to the
capital and also a cliff edge, valley Gemini, to reduce the area that they
had to defend. Most importantly though was a nuclear missile silo
underground there. Hopefully it was still intact; a nuke could at least
kill them too. I got my gun and went over to the main camp, I looked for
anyone that was awake, surveying the camps many scattered tents hoping for
someone to talk to. Humans have a very hard time with silence. I sat back
near the dying fire and waited for everyone to wake up at reveille time. I
leaned up against the sump of a tree that had been cut down near the fire
for about a half hour, but I began to think to myself about all the future
things that I would be missing and became depressed, so I ran the perimeter
of the camp a few times to get it out of my system, mourning my own loss
was no good, it was the only death ever that wouldn't affect me. I then
moved over to the edge of the forest. One thing that I had always sort of
wanted to do was within my reach. I looked up the tree. It was a pine
about 50 feet tall, and had a trunk that I couldn't reach all the way
around. I took off all of my armor and began to climb. I grabbed onto a
low branch and pulled myself up it. I looked up for the nearest branch. I
saw it and jumped up to it grabbing the branch with my hand. I pulled
myself up. I was like a monkey, scaling the tree at speeds that surprised
me. The low gravity of Lunar 4 helped. All my time on the Legacy my body
was at 1G. After we left the Legacy we had only to deal with about a half
that, at 6/10G. I weighed 200 hundred pounds out in orbit in the Legacy,
and here on the planet only 120, the extra carrying abilities allowed us to
carry an additional couple of clips on this planet, and lob grenades
further. I pulled myself up onto the next branch. I was about 3/4 the way
up, and was as high as I was going to go, I almost fell before I reached
the top. I dropped down about 15 feet and grabbed a branch easily. I
dropped to a stop on the next branch. Why was climbing to the top of a
tree one of my goals. I sat down beneath the tree and pondered it for a
moment. That goal made me look like a retard. Why that? Was it to.
Heighten responsibility? Nah. Why? I was awoken from my thoughts by the
trumpeting of the revile. The trumpet blasted its happy noises as many
groggy sleep deprived Marines awoke. I stepped over, with my armor on and
some of the sharp leaves of the pine tree in my arm and armor.
"Heh, you idiot, look at you, you're all covered in pine crap. What
happened, get sleepwalkin' or something?" The Commander turned looking at
me, tired himself.
"Something like that, I wanted to climb that tree." I pointed at the
tree I climbed.
"You moron, why? Do you think that you would get some pride of other
satisfaction?"
"I was tired. I wasn't thinking clear!" Maybe I was. This could be
the explanation I was looking for.
"Right. Idiot. Surprise the government would even draft you. If
you didn't do as good you do in combat." He stared at me for a second. He
likes to do that. I realize that more and more recently as he began to
take less time to explain himself and more time to use his mental death ray
to stun us into submission.
"Well, did they get any medical supplies in the raid?"
I clutched my arm remembering its wound, "No, I don't think so" the
commander said.
A doctor walked out. With his generic field surgeon appearance and
emotionless sound. He had clearly had someone die in his lap. "Well, we
got some antiseptics, some.." he went on with his list, clearly having it
memorized. Why? He finished his list with the words that I had been
searching for. Labskin. He looked at my arm. "Do you want some? You can
be my first labskin patient ever!" I hesitated for a moment. I peered at
my arm, pain. I thought of it being his first attempt. Possible pain.
I decided that I would take the risk, dammit, this hurt either way! Where
was the old field surgeon?
"Yeah, I'll do it. Commander, hold the operations, right? I want in
on this one!"
"Right, now you just follow him, he'll fix you all up." I followed
him.
We arrived in the tent and I ducked beneath the low door. Inside he
had a bright light set up on a stand and a few crates of supplies nearby.
I wasn't to comfortable getting an operation in this room, though it was a
little one.
"Alright, do you want some sedative, um." he read my name badge
"Lieutenant Johnson?"
"Nah, I can take the pain to go on this mission that's coming up
next." I was hoping to find some old friends in this mission, maybe Logan
and Mac!
"okay, sit down in the chair, make yourself comfortable while I begin
the operation." He slid on some crude latex gloves as he allowed me to sit.
He looked more like a doctor than a field surgeon actually, now a little
bit happier looking. But that could also be that I was watching him move
in the shadows now and couldn't see him. He then rolled out some monitors
to keep track of my heartbeat and pulse and other things like that. He
finally got some labskin from the box along with a puffer within it some
numbing agent in it. He handed it to me. "Breath out, squeeze the top,
breath in and hold it for as long as you can. Do that twice." Well, so
much for the whole doctor thing, he's back to being a field medic type
person.
I followed his instructions at first feeling no results. I blurted
out a short comment about how there was no effects and suddenly I felt very
numb as the statement was a little under half finished. I laid down the
rest of the way as he paced over to my arm with some scissors and a little
bag of some green liquid. He set the liquid on a nearby table as he cut
off my bandages to reveal the wound. "Oh my, this is no good, look at this
wound, did you ever change the bandages?" he sounded a little insane with
that statement, no one had talked like that for hundreds of years.
"Yeah, I just changed it yesterday. I think."
"The Commander is right, you are an idiot, didn't the surgeon tell
you to change the bandages? "
"Um." I thought for a second trying to remember "I don't know."
"Ah well, it doesn't matter, take better care of yourself."
I realized that I was drooling out of the side of my mouth, a
considerable amount actually. A side effect of the numbing agent I guess.
I tried to move my other arm to wipe it up but the field surgeon, not even
looking up from his work said "No moving." And I laid my arm back down
quickly. He was pretty scary for a skinny type.
"Right." My talking was a little slurred and more spit fell out of my
mouth as I moved my jaw to talk. He then set the scissors down and
grabbed the bag of green liquid. He ripped open the top and smelled it
quickly, then flinging it away from his face in disgust. "What is that
doc?" No reply "What is that stuff!?!" He poured it on my arm. I stared
for a second, nothing happened. Then I saw it. It was eating my arms
wound away! "What is this crap?" I watched as the numbness was fighting
the pain, and losing.
"A little acid, to burn the scab off." He said it calmly as if it were no big deal, though to me it was. My arm was dripping on the floor! I couldn't tell it was skin by its color, but it was dripping, and my skin, or rather scab was disappearing. Suddenly the pain hit me. It was like no other pain, probably hurting worse than all the pain that that arm had ever given me. "GGAAAHHHH!!!" I screamed thrashing wildly on the table in pain. The pain was unbearable, a pain like being kicked in the crotch or hit in the stomach. Suddenly the doctor poured something else on it and it turned purple. The pain was gone. I looked as the foam turned into a plaster like build up on my arm. He took out a sheet of artificial skin and smacked it onto my wound. I was braced for the pain that the wound would supply me, but it was gone, the new set of skin had no wound! I was cured! Now for the leg. I ran out to the briefing room getting lost twice along the way asking direction of the slackers who were not in the mission. I arrived right as the commander said "So, any volunteers." I stumbled in confused and hurt, the leg wound wasn't fixed so well and it burned a little where some of the acid remained in small quantities. "I will join!" I said, my words slurred and spit draining itself trough my mouth. "And so now we show our true colors Johnson." He said, joking that I was mentally handicapped. "Nah, numbing agent." "Didn't work did it" Skip said, "We heard you yelling!" "I screamed that loud? Oh well, do you know what they do to you!" "Yeah" The large Russian man from before spoke out. "I got a horrible burn on my chest while I was on a boarding party about two years back. They didn't have any numbing agents in the field. So they tied me down, they stuck a belt in my teeth to bite and they poured on the acid." We all stared back in silence. "okay, fine that was that other guy on my squad, but I held him down!" A mixture of angered grumbling arose as the angered room realized how he had extracted so much drama out of the group. I sat down in the front left corner of the room and listened as the other Marines joined in. An hour later we were all loaded up on the dropship ready for departure. "This is Pelican Echo 123, do you copy Delta base?" "This is Delta you are primed and ready for launch!" Rodger, launching in 3. 2. 1. Launching!" We bounced up in the air, some people were lifted from their seats for a second as we hit off a horizontal cable going across the camp. "This is your captain speaking, the seatbelt light is on, we are expecting some turbulence." It wasn't funny. Skip however was really enjoying the idiotic joke. "Heh, just like on the--" "I know. The Legacy, right?" "Hmm. Have you got all the info on what we are gonna do on this one?" "No, no one has told me, they all gave me the cold shoulder. Did I do something wrong or what, why are they all avoiding me?" "Um. They aren't avoiding you. I don't think. But anyway, we're going on a prison liberation run. We have to hit fast and then get the hell out of there before they get some more back up to the facility. We will be among the first drop group, though we will wait until the Mortar battalion knocks out the turrets defenses. We will be the guard of the rocket squad, that unit will take point while we slip into the base. We are armed a little lightly, as you have notice." I looked down at my pistol and sub- machinegun. The sub=machinegun had a collapsible stock and an eighty round magazine. It had a quick rate of fire, but stopping power was a problem, it was weak against armored units, like Elites. But all the others were fair game. "Yeah, well anyway, we will secure a prison group and get them to the drop ship. We will take cover in the base while we wait for the next division to come in then we will take a ride. If all else fails we will have some high speed light APC's ready to pick us up. If there are no prisoners, you have to get outside as soon as you can, because bad Intel could lead us right into the center of an armory or a training camp." "Uh, one question, do you think that Logan and Mac are in there somewhere?" He sighed. "Hard to say really. I don't know if either would be able to live in a prison camp. Mac is old and weak, but Logan is young. You would think that would guarantee him being there, but Logan isn't one to give up, and unless they dunk up behind him to catch him there is no way that they caught him alive. And if they did he might be dead for disrespecting them. Either way I have my fingers crossed." "This is the pilot, get ready for dust off, I want you all to stick to the plan. Just keep heads down and guns firing and maybe you'll get back on this dropship." "It's go time." Skip said seriously. I pulled out the sub-machine gun and cocked it. "Go go go!" We jumped out of the craft and hit the decks. Covenant covering fire was everywhere and we were buried in gunfire. A rocket blast suddenly exploded among their lines as a few bodies flew through the air. The Pelican unloaded the last of the troops as I fired about 15 rounds towards a Grunt. The spray of gunfire killed it and it dropped onto its back leaving a small pile of weapons. The purple building behind me suddenly exploded as another rocket blast nailed it squarely at the top of the wall. A part of it caved in as the excited Marine shouted some victory call. Another Marine popped up with a rocket launcher and fired towards a door into the facility as a few bodies flew out of the entrance landing near to us. Its head pivoted towards me, its eyes open in desperation. The gunfire had near to stopped; just a Jackal remained as it fired a few rounds into the circle of us. One rocket launcher Marine was shot though, so I fired about ten more rounds at the Jackal as I watched the Pelican open fire on it exploding it with gunfire. Quickly a few men shuffled towards the door into the building. Myself I grabbed the rocket launcher and flipped it up over my shoulder, slinging my other gun around my neck. I paced forward as the two on the dies of the door swung in and discharging a few shots with the rifles that they had. I trotted casually up to the front of the division. "What is that?" Skip said, gesturing to my rocket launcher. "I got it from Sergeant Carsons." I said. "oh. Well, you know how to use it?" "Point and Click Skip, Point and Click." "Right" The Marines down the hall yelled that they had found the prison brigs. "Coming!" I ran forward to the brig area. I bolted around the corner, enthusiastic that we would find some of my friends. I ran to the back of the room and walked up the podium to the controls. "MARINE!!! LOOK OUT!!!" One of the men at the entrance yelled! I looked up. There was nothing. "What?" I resumed looking at the keyboard type holopanel. "LOOK UP!!! CLOAKER AT 12 O'CLOCK!!!" I looked up in a sharp movement and I saw this tiny shimmer of the light. It was there. It fired a few rounds at me as I jumped behind the control panels podium. I set down the rocket launcher and grabbed the handle of the submachine gun. The other Marines were probing the room for him, firing randomly trying to find him. "Cease fire!" I yelled. We were short on ammo. I looked carefully. Where was the beast! I looked towards the left of the room. There was no movement. I spotted something over in the corner of the room and fired a few rounds at it. The bullets hit the wall, no blood, nothing was there. I slowly scanned the room. I saw another spot that I thought it might be, so I fired another few rounds into that area. I still had almost no Idea where it was. "Everybody get down!" I whipped the gun up to a level aim that should hit the Elite no matter what altitude it was at, and expending all my ammo spun around the room firing randomly hoping to hit it. None of my bullets hit home though, and suddenly I realized how trapped I was. I had hastily rushed into this room searching for someone I knew, and now I might die without even seeing my killer. I looked around the front of the room for it to give away its position. I couldn't find it, so I turned round to leave. It was there. Standing behind me I could distinctly see in the shimmer of the armor the silhouette of an Elite.
"A little acid, to burn the scab off." He said it calmly as if it were no big deal, though to me it was. My arm was dripping on the floor! I couldn't tell it was skin by its color, but it was dripping, and my skin, or rather scab was disappearing. Suddenly the pain hit me. It was like no other pain, probably hurting worse than all the pain that that arm had ever given me. "GGAAAHHHH!!!" I screamed thrashing wildly on the table in pain. The pain was unbearable, a pain like being kicked in the crotch or hit in the stomach. Suddenly the doctor poured something else on it and it turned purple. The pain was gone. I looked as the foam turned into a plaster like build up on my arm. He took out a sheet of artificial skin and smacked it onto my wound. I was braced for the pain that the wound would supply me, but it was gone, the new set of skin had no wound! I was cured! Now for the leg. I ran out to the briefing room getting lost twice along the way asking direction of the slackers who were not in the mission. I arrived right as the commander said "So, any volunteers." I stumbled in confused and hurt, the leg wound wasn't fixed so well and it burned a little where some of the acid remained in small quantities. "I will join!" I said, my words slurred and spit draining itself trough my mouth. "And so now we show our true colors Johnson." He said, joking that I was mentally handicapped. "Nah, numbing agent." "Didn't work did it" Skip said, "We heard you yelling!" "I screamed that loud? Oh well, do you know what they do to you!" "Yeah" The large Russian man from before spoke out. "I got a horrible burn on my chest while I was on a boarding party about two years back. They didn't have any numbing agents in the field. So they tied me down, they stuck a belt in my teeth to bite and they poured on the acid." We all stared back in silence. "okay, fine that was that other guy on my squad, but I held him down!" A mixture of angered grumbling arose as the angered room realized how he had extracted so much drama out of the group. I sat down in the front left corner of the room and listened as the other Marines joined in. An hour later we were all loaded up on the dropship ready for departure. "This is Pelican Echo 123, do you copy Delta base?" "This is Delta you are primed and ready for launch!" Rodger, launching in 3. 2. 1. Launching!" We bounced up in the air, some people were lifted from their seats for a second as we hit off a horizontal cable going across the camp. "This is your captain speaking, the seatbelt light is on, we are expecting some turbulence." It wasn't funny. Skip however was really enjoying the idiotic joke. "Heh, just like on the--" "I know. The Legacy, right?" "Hmm. Have you got all the info on what we are gonna do on this one?" "No, no one has told me, they all gave me the cold shoulder. Did I do something wrong or what, why are they all avoiding me?" "Um. They aren't avoiding you. I don't think. But anyway, we're going on a prison liberation run. We have to hit fast and then get the hell out of there before they get some more back up to the facility. We will be among the first drop group, though we will wait until the Mortar battalion knocks out the turrets defenses. We will be the guard of the rocket squad, that unit will take point while we slip into the base. We are armed a little lightly, as you have notice." I looked down at my pistol and sub- machinegun. The sub=machinegun had a collapsible stock and an eighty round magazine. It had a quick rate of fire, but stopping power was a problem, it was weak against armored units, like Elites. But all the others were fair game. "Yeah, well anyway, we will secure a prison group and get them to the drop ship. We will take cover in the base while we wait for the next division to come in then we will take a ride. If all else fails we will have some high speed light APC's ready to pick us up. If there are no prisoners, you have to get outside as soon as you can, because bad Intel could lead us right into the center of an armory or a training camp." "Uh, one question, do you think that Logan and Mac are in there somewhere?" He sighed. "Hard to say really. I don't know if either would be able to live in a prison camp. Mac is old and weak, but Logan is young. You would think that would guarantee him being there, but Logan isn't one to give up, and unless they dunk up behind him to catch him there is no way that they caught him alive. And if they did he might be dead for disrespecting them. Either way I have my fingers crossed." "This is the pilot, get ready for dust off, I want you all to stick to the plan. Just keep heads down and guns firing and maybe you'll get back on this dropship." "It's go time." Skip said seriously. I pulled out the sub-machine gun and cocked it. "Go go go!" We jumped out of the craft and hit the decks. Covenant covering fire was everywhere and we were buried in gunfire. A rocket blast suddenly exploded among their lines as a few bodies flew through the air. The Pelican unloaded the last of the troops as I fired about 15 rounds towards a Grunt. The spray of gunfire killed it and it dropped onto its back leaving a small pile of weapons. The purple building behind me suddenly exploded as another rocket blast nailed it squarely at the top of the wall. A part of it caved in as the excited Marine shouted some victory call. Another Marine popped up with a rocket launcher and fired towards a door into the facility as a few bodies flew out of the entrance landing near to us. Its head pivoted towards me, its eyes open in desperation. The gunfire had near to stopped; just a Jackal remained as it fired a few rounds into the circle of us. One rocket launcher Marine was shot though, so I fired about ten more rounds at the Jackal as I watched the Pelican open fire on it exploding it with gunfire. Quickly a few men shuffled towards the door into the building. Myself I grabbed the rocket launcher and flipped it up over my shoulder, slinging my other gun around my neck. I paced forward as the two on the dies of the door swung in and discharging a few shots with the rifles that they had. I trotted casually up to the front of the division. "What is that?" Skip said, gesturing to my rocket launcher. "I got it from Sergeant Carsons." I said. "oh. Well, you know how to use it?" "Point and Click Skip, Point and Click." "Right" The Marines down the hall yelled that they had found the prison brigs. "Coming!" I ran forward to the brig area. I bolted around the corner, enthusiastic that we would find some of my friends. I ran to the back of the room and walked up the podium to the controls. "MARINE!!! LOOK OUT!!!" One of the men at the entrance yelled! I looked up. There was nothing. "What?" I resumed looking at the keyboard type holopanel. "LOOK UP!!! CLOAKER AT 12 O'CLOCK!!!" I looked up in a sharp movement and I saw this tiny shimmer of the light. It was there. It fired a few rounds at me as I jumped behind the control panels podium. I set down the rocket launcher and grabbed the handle of the submachine gun. The other Marines were probing the room for him, firing randomly trying to find him. "Cease fire!" I yelled. We were short on ammo. I looked carefully. Where was the beast! I looked towards the left of the room. There was no movement. I spotted something over in the corner of the room and fired a few rounds at it. The bullets hit the wall, no blood, nothing was there. I slowly scanned the room. I saw another spot that I thought it might be, so I fired another few rounds into that area. I still had almost no Idea where it was. "Everybody get down!" I whipped the gun up to a level aim that should hit the Elite no matter what altitude it was at, and expending all my ammo spun around the room firing randomly hoping to hit it. None of my bullets hit home though, and suddenly I realized how trapped I was. I had hastily rushed into this room searching for someone I knew, and now I might die without even seeing my killer. I looked around the front of the room for it to give away its position. I couldn't find it, so I turned round to leave. It was there. Standing behind me I could distinctly see in the shimmer of the armor the silhouette of an Elite.