I do not own Halo.
"LOOK OUT!!!"
I screamed a reply. Logan had a rolling office desk that he had brought
around the corner and was rocketing towards my window. I stepped back as
he let go of the desk and skidded to a stop. The desk slammed up against
the window and caused the whole thing to spider web, ricocheting backwards.
The window began to crack more and more as time went on. The whole window
was now weakened, so I took a chunk of plaster from the wall and smashed it
through the window. It fell hundreds of feet to the ground below. The
window soon followed, it was shattered almost entirely and shard of glass
rained down on the street. The noises were now amplified because the sound
barrier that the building naturally presented was shattered, the noise of
gunshots and death flooded my ears. I grabbed the anti vehicle rifle and
moved back to the elevator. If the Covenant were to get us it would be
through them. I set up the behemoth at the door to the elevator so I could
shoot them and stop their coming up. I then emptied the backpack and began
to attach things to the rifle. The first was a box for the chains of
ammunition and set it on the ground feeding the ammunition into it. I
turned on the winder and pulled out the silencer as it whirred and sucked
up some ammunition. The silencer was probably never used and still freshly
greased so it spun on with ease. After I was done setting up the gun I
gathered some items to create a bunker with. I slid a few desks towards my
area and flipped them over on their sides to from a wall and then lined the
inside with plaster to give them more armor. Creating the barricade was
easy because the entire floor were had chosen to occupy was covered in
shards of the walls and piece of equipment. I also sent all of the
elevators up to the top floor to stall their advance a little longer.
Logan was hard at work plucking enemies off of the nearby rooftops and some
of the streets. Our APC had lost most of the people originally occupying
it and the remainders of the forces were moving supplies into the building
while others provided them with cover fire. I walked back to Logan after
seeing this to ask him to go down to help them.
"Logan, I have to go help them." I said.
"I was wondering when you would ask. From the sound of it things
aren't going good. Go." I wondered when he learned to read me so good, I
was just beginning to figure out what kind of a person he was. But I was
just beginning to figure out who I was too. I put a hand on the bump that
was where Skips Bible was in my pocket. I left and called one of the
elevators down to me, then hitting the ground floor button to help out the
Marines. As I went down the elevator music became less prevailing,
defeated by the noise of gunshots and screams. I grabbed the anti vehicle
guns handle and slung it up to fire right as the elevator hit the ground
floor. I jumped out and quickly surveyed the room. There were no enemies
so far though I heard lots of noise from near where I had come from. I ran
down the escalator to the lobby and saw the ammo dump that the Marines had
set up. Three of them were frantically dragging ammo back in as I ran up
to them.
"Where am I needed?" I yelled over the noise of gunshots.
"What?" the Marine pushed his ear forward as a sign he hadn't heard me.
"Where am I needed?" I yelled a little louder.
"Oh! The front would be good! Carry that gun out to the gun nest that the
CO had set up!"
"Right, I'll cover you, but hurry up!" I said beginning to shuffle out the
door to jump into combat. I came out the door and out into the open and
instantly saw how desperate it was outside. I heaved the rifle forward and
jumped into an area surrounded by fractured pieces of the wall nearby and
bricks. It had to be the gun nest they were referring to, but where was
the CO. Suddenly I got my answer, he was wounded. Two Marines had him
slung over their shoulders and were limping with him back. I pushed them
along on their backs friendlily and then charged the gun nest hopping over
the wall upon my arrival. I lay down on my back, my head propped up
against the smashed wall and checked the gun to make sure it was all ok.
Everything checked out so I flipped up and propped the gun against the top
of the barrier and fired at the enemy. The suppressor tried to do its job,
but failed horribly anyway because the gun was so noisy. The shell casings
were forming a small pile and rolling down the street into the steaming
gutter. I hit a Grunt first, it was running between some buildings to move
from position to position when I was able to train my sights on it and I
shot it to pieces. Another few Grunts ran out and dragged it back but I
hit their horde with a couple rounds, so a few were WIA and would soon be
incapacitated if nothing else. Unfortunately I saw nothing as to where my
gunshots were going, only the damage snap of the shots hitting them. I
flipped on tracer fire to let me see the gunshots and watched as the
gunshots arced towards the enemy.
The Marines nearby stood up and shouted something at me pointing to me.
"What?" I replied, yelling over the gunfire.
"Behind you!" I heard him crisply this time. I spun around and looked
back. A few of the Covenant were running across the street. I opened fire
on the mass of them and killed 3 Grunts, wounding a few Jackals and Elites.
Suddenly I saw the behemoth that we all feared, a Hunter. The Marine who
had warned me of the Covenant was already inside the building running for
his life. I too began to run, passing by some of the barrier and grabbing
the Marines on the shoulders to alert them. But if they didn't get that it
was time to flee they would be pinned down, but not for long.
I got inside the door and began to catch my breath, "Hey. Uh."
"What is it?"
"Hunters." Fear entered our conversation, "Hunters?" He said.
"Yeah! Hunters. Two." I wiped some sweat off my forehead as the other
Marines ran in.
"COME ON PEOPLE! LET'S MOVE!!!" The Marine yelled. Everyone to the roof,
I'll call in a transport! We have to hold them off!" I ran for the
elevator.
"This way, follow me!" I ran up the escalator almost tripping at the top
but retaining my balance. We were at the elevators quickly, but some
Covenant were coming up the opposite sides escalators. I shot a few rounds
at the Grunts and killed them, following up with a grenade into the
escalator. I disabled it and the fire sprinklers activated, spraying the
building with water. They quickly put out the fire on the stairs but the
elevator was out of order.
"Fire emergency. Please utilize the stairwell. Fire Emergency. Please
utilize the stairwell. Fire emergency. Please utilize the stairwell.
Fire Emergency. Please utilize the stairwell." The mechanized woman voice
repeated. I hit the elevator, the elevators were out of order now.
"Alright people, lets lock and load, we're gonna have to take the stairs!"
"Damn it! We're sure to get caught now!"
I looked around, "Not if I can help it. Anyone got a mine?"
"Here." The Marine nearest to me handed me a trip mine.
"Thanks." I grabbed the two units and walked over to the wall and smashed
the fire extinguisher off the wall and set it against the door frame
wedging I in the top corner to keep the door open. I then got a bench and
began to drag it over to the door. One of the Marines rushed over to help
me, and the rest, understood my plan ran up the stairs. The other helped
me to block the door and then ran up the stairs following his allies. I
set the trip mine across the doorway and backed up. It was perfect, but if
the fire extinguisher were to dislodge the door would close and set off the
mine. I turned and ran up the stairs. Our footsteps echoed up the empty
room making it sound as though there were hundreds of us. I hit the 49th
floor and hopped out into the room for a second, hearing the echo of an
explosion come up the stairwell, my trap had worked, and if it all went
right the doorframe collapsed and the fire extinguisher blew shrapnel all
over. A large scream echoed up the stairwell as I went to get Logan. I
grabbed him on the shoulder, "We have to get out of here!" I said.
"Alright."
"No, you don't understand, Hunters are coming!"
"Oh. Well, just a second."
Footsteps began to come closer up the stairwell, "No, we leave now! Come
on, they'll leave without us."
He sat for a second and shot another Covenant who was coming into the
building. Then he stood up and moved towards the stairwell. He dragged
one of the rolling desks towards the stairs and shoved it down the stairs.
It rolled for a while and ricochet off the wall and down the next flight
and so one, making a great noise as it rammed all the walls on the way
down. About 18 smashes later we heard a loud scream or a Covenant, so we
knew that they were close.
"Come on, we have to get moving, they're right on us!" I heard a loud
crash at the bottom of the staircases, they hurled the desk off the edge of
the stairs. We ran up as quick as we could and got to the top quickly,
slamming the door behind us. Logan was leaning up against the door
catching his breath while I ran into the garden on the top of the building.
I grabbed a bench and began to slide it over in front of the stairs.
Logan came over to help and we dragged the bench against the door, leaning
it beneath the handle of the door. Hopefully it would bar their path. I
set up the gun on the other side of the door. And braced to fire. "You go
tell them I'm here. Come back if you hear gunfire and tell me where I need
to go to get aboard the dropship. And bring me some rope."
"And if there's no gunfire?"
"I will be dead."
He nodded and ran away to find the others. I aimed the gun at the door.
The footsteps were getting closer, they were almost on the other side of
the door. Suddenly the doorknob twisted and pulled back but it was barred
with the bench. It was released and then pulled on again. I opened fire
on the door and heard screams on the other side as my gunshots went thought
the door and blasted some of the enemies away. The door was quiet for a
moment and suddenly the banging began again, so I fired some more and heard
some screams. I was surprised at their persistence, but the third time
they came the door was pulled once and I opened fire on it but heard no
screams, something wasn't right. I shot the door some more, but there was
no activity. Had I killed them all? Suddenly the door was rammed with
incredible force, the Hunters were up the stairwell, I was done here!
Logan appeared behind men and handed me some of the rappelling cable the
marines used I thanked him and tied it around the trigger of my gun aiming
at the door. I then ran following Logan. I could hear the gunfire getting
further and further as we came closer to the Dropship. Logan jumped in and
sat down. The ship began to lift off, and Logan and the Marine on the
other side reached down to grab me A bullet struck the Marine in the arm
from my gun, the Hunters might had hit it and flipped it over. Gunfire
whipped by me and shot some holes in the tile on the top of the building.
My hand finally reached that of Logan as we began to lift off of the
ground. Another Marine stood up and grabbed Logan to hold him in as Logan
grabbed my hand with a second hand. We took off leaving the building as I
flopped in the wind behind the Dropship as we flew over the city at an
altitude nearing a thousand feet. I was terrified, if I were to drop I
would die on impact for sure, and it would be one prolonged way to die,
falling and tumbling through the air. They were able to pull me aboard
after a brief struggle and I jumped into the cabin. The ship closed its
gate behind me as I looked at the city. Around the bases of buildings
explosions echoed and green, blue, and orange explosions encircled the
entire city in bright flashes and windows shattered. Dropships were
buzzing around picking up few people. We were lucky. I looked down at my
chest for a second. There was a bullet hole right over my heart. In a
panic I pulled the armor off to reveal no bullet in my chest. I looked in
the pocket and there was the bible with a bullet hole through to the Ten
Commandments in the book. The bullets last indentation was on the ten
commandment printed, "DO NOT LIE" cryptic I though, wondering if this meant
anything.
****************************************************************
I put a hand on the back of my neck, that devastating attack had to be an
ambush. But there was no way that they could have predetermined we would
attack the mines unless we had a traitor among our ranks. But who.
"Hey Jacob, whats up?" Skip walked into my tent. It was too warm and
sticky though we were actually in our coldest winter season. The Covenant
did this to us.
I raised a hand to welcome him in and he stepped from the doorway of my
tent to the center of the room that I had. His Bible was sitting on the
table that I had set up as a nightstand of sorts. He gestured to it and I
looked up to see what he was doing. He nodded towards it and I caught on
quickly. Why was there this awkward silence now? I spoke out, "Not much.
I owe you one." I tossed him the Bible.
"Yeah, no kidding. Look at this bullet hole, right through to the
commandment do not." his words trailed off. "Yeah, well you still owe me,
had it not been for me you would have died. You owe me your life."
"No, I owe that book my life. I can't believe that I had missed out on
religion for so long. Too bad that on my deathbed of sorts I learned about
it. Look at this bruise though." I drew back the shirts neck to reveal a
large black swollen bruise above my heart. It beat in rhythm with my
heart.
"Wow, look at that! To think that you'll die with that."
Suddenly the speakers called us all to attention. "All personnel, report
to the briefing room immediately! We have a code Red emergency!" The
alarm followed his voice as we all ran to the briefing room.
We sat down in the seats of the briefing room. About a hundred of us had
to stand up. "As you know, on the last mission we lost hundreds of Marines
because we fell into an ambush. That mission was aborted and only 50 of
the survivors were recovered. We don't know if one of our own who was
tortured turned on us or one of the ones sitting beside you right now is
the traitor. But somehow the Covenant found this base, so we are ordering
a complete mobilization to the launch station for the blockade runner.
Anyone who can point out any traitors among our ranks will get first dibs
on a seat aboard the blockade runner. There is no time left, we have to
get out of here now! So I want you all to get on a dropship or sit here
unarmed waiting for them to come and mop you up. There is no longer any
sympathy for a slacker! Come on, go, go, go!" I stood up. I was too
tired to go on another mission. All I wanted to do was go and sleep and
never wake up again. This was a world of suffering, hurt and death. But
this was naturally a mission to escape, so it would be a way to evade this
planet, and hopefully evade death as well. I trotted at a quick pace to
the area with the dropships. Camouflage nets were draped over them to help
them to blend in with the forest but the leaves were drying up and the
trees were now the orange colors they were between the winter seasons and
summer. The ships looked unnatural in the center of this clearing. I was
going to ride in one of the new Pelicans as I had hoped. They were state
of the art and were new to the outer fringe worlds like Lunar 4. I was
also going to board the escape ship with any luck; I am sure that we can
take them by surprise and get a foothold in the capital to launch the
escape ship from. I walked again into the supply tent. I remembered this
supply tent, it was the first place that I had gone after waking up here,
or rather one of the first, and I was sent on my first mission as a result
of the suicidal Marine. I still felt bad for him, having to resort to that
to escape his problems. Then I slaughtered that Elite in the river and
earned myself some more respect around the camp as a result of my brutal
killing. I moved over to a familiar crate and grabbed a pistol as my
sidearm out of the crate, the Saber Patrol pistol, I always wanted to use
one but wasn't able to yet. I got to hold one though, on our raid of the
peeper networks satellite receiver. I walked over to the end of a line to
get an assault rifle, and I stood idly for a few minutes, too long by my
standards. The line however quickly progressed forward and I grabbed an
assault rifle, slinging the rifles neck strap on to carry it while I picked
up the rest of my armaments. I then stepped outside to the center of the
camp, which was still bustling with activity. People were lined up to get
grenades, and I was no exception, I wanted dibs on at least 3 of them, and
I would use them all, I was sure of it. I was finally up to the front of
the line after the long wait and extended a hand for grenades. Since the
battles here had begun I had been a little more of a quiet, scary, sadistic
person, and almost acted as if avoiding all fun or joy. Two grenades fell
into my hand, disappointed I slid them into a pocket on the side of my
pants. I stepped into a corner, which had the boxes of ammunition and
grabbed half a dozen magazines for the assault rifle and only a few less
for the pistol. I clipped off the wrappings as not to have to do it in
combat and dropped them into a chest pocket over the right side of my
diaphragm. I left the tent and headed for the dropships. People were
darting all around this area, and many vehicles were flinging about the
camp with perilous speed, attaching themselves to the back of the transport
or loading into the modified Long Range Troop Carrier, a belly as long as a
football field and as wide as a half of one. The Pelican sat three stories
high, and was loading the majority of the Special Forces and Maroon Berets
aboard it. The compartments could hold about a hundred marines
comfortably, eight large vehicles or artillery pieces, and a dozen light
vehicles, such as the warthogs. Unfortunately that also made it a priority
target for the Covenant, so everything in it was to parachute from a safe
altitude. I wasn't too fond of heights, so getting aboard that ship was
something that I wanted to avoid at all costs. I shoved my way through the
crowd of Marines gathering the occasional grunt of disapproval or shots of
comments like, 'Hey, watch it buddy!' and others like it. I finally made
it through and saw the behemoth clearly. We had parked it in a pit to hide
it more effectively, the LRTC (the special Pelican I referred to earlier)
A file of Marines were marching into it, occupying the bottom floor as a
tank rolled just feet to their left up a ramp into the second floor. I
quickly focused my attention to the left where a few Pelicans were resting,
and a few Marines were quickly running up to as if to grantee their
survival. I, joining in on the fad, ran for a Pelican, I arrived at the
first and peered quickly around the corner, it was all full. I looked at
the other and caught a Marine in the corner of my eye staring at it. We
both broke into a run and tried desperately to beat each other to a seat
aboard the Pelican. He beat me in the race, and disappointed I darted over
to the third dropship which was also full. Suddenly my stomach felt sick,
I turned around and saw the group of Marines being marched into the LRTC.
Shrugging it off to show to the people in the Pelican that it was no big
deal I walked past them, hiding how afraid I really was. But there comes a
time when all people have to face their fears, or else they will never
recover from it. I walked into the crowd moving towards the LRTC and slid
my helmet lower down so that the top of it was right above my eyes to hide
my humiliation. I felt someone jab me from the side, and turning over to
face them angrily I realized that it was Logan. A brief nod of recognition
however and I was already back to worrying about a high altitude mission,
my first. However, his persistence showed as he again poked me in the
shoulder to draw my attention.
"What is it?" I said while turning around, my sudden stop causing a few
Marines to ram into me, pushed along by the crowd of Marines.
"Ah, nothing special, I just figured that we could be dive buddies. For
the parachuting, we both keep track of each other and help each other out."
"I guess, lets get aboard, we want to get a seat, right?"
"Yeah, we better hurry or else we'll be standing, and it could be a bumpy
ride."
We resumed walking along with the horde as I spoke, "Could be? I think you
mean will be."
"You have a point, but who knows, we could make it in pretty easily."
"Yeah, right." I muttered as we boarded the ship and clamored onto the
bottom floor, grabbing a parachute from a Marine who was distributing them
as we steeped on. I slid the backpack over my armor and began the slow
process of making sure all the straps and buckles were secure while also
reassuring myself of my security of jumping from a plane and walking over
to the chairs, which were rapidly filling. I slid into the first available
seat and heard Logan slip into the one next to me clumsily, a packet of
ammo flopping from his hands as he sat down. He was still holding all of
the ammo and weapons in two extended arms. He carefully put all of the
munitions away and shook a little as we began to take off. I couldn't tell
if it was from fear or from the internal rumblings of the gargantuan
Pelican as we lifted off. I was too terrified to even tremor, but I wasn't
sure if I were more scared of going on a mission that was almost admittedly
a suicide mission at best or of jumping out of a plane. The back of the
pelican began to cover the openings, which helped me to deal with the
heights, however before they closed completely I noted seeing the tops of
the trees at least 80 feet below us. We lurched forward suddenly causing a
careless Marines gun to clatter to the floor and slide to the back of the
ship hitting a few people who were so unfortunate as to have to stand
rather than sit. A friendly looking man walked carefully to the back of
the ship, which was still accelerating, to grab his gun, then returning it
to him before grabbing back onto the cargo net on the ceiling of the
Pelican.
Suddenly announcement, the intercoms crackled, "Soldiers, we have some unfortunate new to present to you. We have just received word from the command plane. They have video uplinks to the peeper network, and they have spotted that one of our Pelicans was captured before it could manage to take off. Luckily, and unfortunately, the crew was only a half dozen, however, that is still many men that will have died as a result of a tiny technical failure. What that also means is that our enemies have captured the base that we had in the." His voice trailed on though I paid no attention to it. I was preoccupied with planning for my own survival, and also wondering who the traitor was. I pondered it for too long a time, and soon we were at the base, Logan still trembling. That answered my question as to whether he was scared or jarred by the launch. He was clearly terrified even more so than me. A sure looking man progressed to the back of the cramped compartment, his hands always on at least one of the ropes that made up the netting above our heads. He go to the back and spun around swiftly, his very style breathing that of a drill instructor, and his relative aggression compared to his small size was another indication of his dominance. He began to scan the room looking for who would jump first, seeming to come to no conclusions related to who would go first. The back doors began to open, the suction of the wind whipping all of our faces. "Its time for you newbies to go on your first jump, are you all ready?" shouted the short man. "You are now about to go on a mission where you must be able to react to any possible troubles with speed and precision, or you will die a horrible death. We have enough slots on the ship to take as many of you as will probably make it, so get you asses out of this ship and plummeting towards the ground, ready to die to save every one of your friends, GO!!!" He grabbed a Marine, dragging him closer to the edge of the open back panel of the ship. "Now listen, when you see the little dial right here," he pointed to a wristwatch like object that was in actuality an altimeter, continuing to speak, "and when this says two thousand, I want you to pull the little cord right here and make sure that you hit flat, crumpling quickly, and don't get caught up in your cords. GO!" He shoved the Marine out the back of the Pelican watching as he whipped out into open air. :GO!!!" he shouted again throwing another man out. By now most of the Marines had gotten the idea and were beginning to line up, ready to jump out into the abyss of nothingness. I checked the altimeter, 35,000 feet, slowly declining. I jumped into the line behind Logan as the line quickly extended behind me. I had a hand on the cord that I needed to pull and the other hanging limp from the ceiling to support my weight. The ship rumbled as we hit some turbulence in the sky. A cloud passed behind the back of the Pelican, a reminder of how high we were, as a few Marines fell over as a result of the turbulence, each one making sure to stand up quickly, knowing that otherwise they would drop out of the ship. Unfortunately we all had to make the jump eventually and it was Logan's turn. Avoiding the stress with some humor, if you could call it that, spun around to face us then flipped backwards out of the plane. I quickly followed breaking into a dash and leaping from the plane.
Suddenly announcement, the intercoms crackled, "Soldiers, we have some unfortunate new to present to you. We have just received word from the command plane. They have video uplinks to the peeper network, and they have spotted that one of our Pelicans was captured before it could manage to take off. Luckily, and unfortunately, the crew was only a half dozen, however, that is still many men that will have died as a result of a tiny technical failure. What that also means is that our enemies have captured the base that we had in the." His voice trailed on though I paid no attention to it. I was preoccupied with planning for my own survival, and also wondering who the traitor was. I pondered it for too long a time, and soon we were at the base, Logan still trembling. That answered my question as to whether he was scared or jarred by the launch. He was clearly terrified even more so than me. A sure looking man progressed to the back of the cramped compartment, his hands always on at least one of the ropes that made up the netting above our heads. He go to the back and spun around swiftly, his very style breathing that of a drill instructor, and his relative aggression compared to his small size was another indication of his dominance. He began to scan the room looking for who would jump first, seeming to come to no conclusions related to who would go first. The back doors began to open, the suction of the wind whipping all of our faces. "Its time for you newbies to go on your first jump, are you all ready?" shouted the short man. "You are now about to go on a mission where you must be able to react to any possible troubles with speed and precision, or you will die a horrible death. We have enough slots on the ship to take as many of you as will probably make it, so get you asses out of this ship and plummeting towards the ground, ready to die to save every one of your friends, GO!!!" He grabbed a Marine, dragging him closer to the edge of the open back panel of the ship. "Now listen, when you see the little dial right here," he pointed to a wristwatch like object that was in actuality an altimeter, continuing to speak, "and when this says two thousand, I want you to pull the little cord right here and make sure that you hit flat, crumpling quickly, and don't get caught up in your cords. GO!" He shoved the Marine out the back of the Pelican watching as he whipped out into open air. :GO!!!" he shouted again throwing another man out. By now most of the Marines had gotten the idea and were beginning to line up, ready to jump out into the abyss of nothingness. I checked the altimeter, 35,000 feet, slowly declining. I jumped into the line behind Logan as the line quickly extended behind me. I had a hand on the cord that I needed to pull and the other hanging limp from the ceiling to support my weight. The ship rumbled as we hit some turbulence in the sky. A cloud passed behind the back of the Pelican, a reminder of how high we were, as a few Marines fell over as a result of the turbulence, each one making sure to stand up quickly, knowing that otherwise they would drop out of the ship. Unfortunately we all had to make the jump eventually and it was Logan's turn. Avoiding the stress with some humor, if you could call it that, spun around to face us then flipped backwards out of the plane. I quickly followed breaking into a dash and leaping from the plane.