Chapter 13: Echoes of Terra II
Hive world Syphon, Reach Debris Field, Epsilon Eridani system
"Fred, keep your head down!" Right as Linda finished there was a loud crack and a 7.62 mm bullet zipped over Fred's head leaving a contrail that slowly faded away.
"Thanks," he replied.
"Don't mention it." Fred was sitting behind the remnants of a blown out Warthog which was being torn apart by plasma fire. He looked up and saw a Pelican come over, it's chain gun spraying .50 cal bullets into the Covenant position but didn't make it out alive.
" This is Spartan- One-Oh-Four asking for evac from my position, over," he waited but nobody replied, "Linda, can you see any friendly forces in our area?"
"Negative, we're all alone Fred. I can't see anybody nearby that could come to us. I suggest you come to my position."
"Okay, I'll need some cover fire, preferably a smoke bullet." Another crack and his request was granted. The bullet gave off a thick cloud of blue smoke creating a nice screen for him. He got up quickly and sprayed a quick burst from his SMGs in the Covenant's general direction and ran toward the nearest building. Fred called up a NAV point to give him Linda's exact position. It centered on the middle floor of a large building three blocks down. He started to run again and came under a hail of plasma fire. Fred looked back and saw a large group of Covenant coming through the smoke. Some Grunts started to scream and yell before letting loose a barrage of green plasma.
"Close your eyes Fred." He did so and waited for the inevitable crack, which quickly followed. But there was a loud bang almost immediately after which startled Fred. She fired off a flash-bang round right in front of the Covenant. Fred kicked it into overtime and sprinted the last two hundred feet before the Covenant could recover. He slammed through a window in the lobby and quickly ran up the stairs to Linda. He came in and was met with the barrels of two pistols.
"Damnit Fred, couldn't give me a heads up?"
"Sorry," he replied quickly. The two of them walked to Linda's sniper perch and lied down overlooking the street that Fred had just been on. The Covenant had recovered and were now scouring the road looking for the Human. Linda was looking down the scope but holding her fire.
"I'm looking for the commander," she informed him. He decided to help so he pulled out his pistol looking for the elusive commander.
"Got him," Fred said. He pointed him out for Linda who put his head in her crosshairs.
"Prepare to move once I fire. They'll see the contrail." Fred just nodded. She started to pull the trigger but stopped suddenly. Fred looked at her but didn't say a word.
"Oh…My…God…F-Fred, look at th-this." She handed him the rifle so he could see what she saw. They were both stopped dead in their tracks.
The Master Chief was leading a large group to help in the scouring of Syphon when they came under sniper and small arms fire.
"Get to cover!" he yelled out. The Chief ran to a corner in front of his group and get against the wall. He peeked out and saw a small band of Humans running to cover also. Raising his Pulse Rifle he brought up the sniper interface on HUD and got a Human in his sights. John fired one bolt and watched as the thin red beam sliced through the air and blew a fist-sized hole in the man's head. He kept firing at the Humans before moving back towards his soldiers. They were taking quite minimal casualties for the amount of sniper fire they were under. One round took out his XO, another taking out a Jackal hurrying to better cover. He couldn't quite get a fix on the sniper but he had a general idea where they were. Suddenly they started to take fire from someone behind a Warthog. The Chief got the attention of a nearby Elite and told him his intentions, he would turn on his light-refracting cloaking and move up behind the Human. By the time he was ready the sniper had set up a thick smokescreen. They were about to move when a quick burst of fire made them dive for cover. He motioned for the Covenant group to move forward. They quickly charged to the smokescreen where they moved through slowly. Once out of it they opened fire on the Human who got behind cover. Suddenly the Grunts started to freak out and fire madly. Something was different about this Human. Then there was a shot from the sniper and his hearing and vision were gone. He dove forward and slammed into the Warthog and waited. There were echoes throughout his head, screams and bangs as the sniper took pot shots. Eventually his senses came back and he got up. All around him were dead bodies, but his group was mostly intact. They were scouring the road for the elusive Human. The Chief walked over to his new XO and was talking to him when a glint caught his eye.
Fred was looking down the scope when the Chief turned and looked directly at them.
"Crap, get cover quick," he whispered. They rolled opposite directions to the nearest table or desk and waited.
"That wasn't him Fred. It can't be, he was killed!" she screamed and cried at the same time.
"I know, but it's not an Elite in his armor."
"How do you know? For all we know it could be a robot!"
"No! Linda snap out of it! He's one of them now! He's gone!"
"Bullshit!" He didn't respond to her, instead he slowly crawled over to the sniper rifle and prepared to kill the Chief.