Chapter 14: Brother versus Brother

Hive world Syphon, Reach Debris Field, Epsilon Eridani system

            Fred looked for the Chief but he couldn't find him. The Covenant kept moving around as if nothing had happened. But he had an epiphany. Fred switched on his thermal vision and scanned the area again. Nothing.

"Damnit," he cursed under his breath. He was about to look again when Linda shook his shoulder.

"We need to move to the top floor to get an evac. Give it up." Her voice was slightly jumpy from her breakdown. Fred nodded and picked up everything that he could carry. The two of them rushed up the stairs as fast as possible repeatedly calling for an evac.

"Fred, I think our signals are being jammed by the Covenant."

"Probably, I'm not even getting anything of FLEETCOM: 7, that means trouble." They continued to head up the stairs arriving at the one hundred and thirtieth floor, which was really a large landing pad. Once they were both outside Fred set two Lotus mines next to the doors to at least slow down any kind of large intrusion force. He felt a brush of wind before he closed the doors but he attributed it to their height. Linda immediately set up her rifle again and scanned the Covenant group that had now encircled the building they were in.

"This is Pelican Foxtrot-Nine- Thirty inbound, you still their Spartan-One-Oh-Four, Spartan-Oh-Five-Eight?"

"Affirmative Foxtrot, this is One-Oh-Four, over," Fred replied quickly.

"Nice to know, the evac group was just deployed. ETA of ten minutes, if you could please set out beacons, over."

"Negative, there is a large Covenant group encircling our position, we'd compromise ourselves if we did that."

"Ok, are you in the shadows?" the male pilot asked.

"Negative Foxtrot, we are on the sun side of the building."

"I should be able to see you then One-Oh-Four."

"Ok, it might get hot though, over and out." Fred gave Linda, who was watching the whole time, a thumbs up. She replied with a Spartan "smile". Fred was about to grab all of their gear and get it together when he was thrown to the ground by an explosion.

            The Chief immediately turned his cloaking on after seeing the reflection off of the sniper scope. He sprinted towards the buildings lobby and started up the stairs. John quickly hurried to three floors below the one the sniper was on and just waited. Then he heard two Humans leave that floor in a hurry. He glanced up and saw who they were. Two Spartans were running up the stairs carrying a heavy load of equipment. That's when the Chief made his move. He followed about one floor behind them to the top where they moved out onto a large landing pad. His instincts told him that they would set explosives on the doors so he got out in time. John got outside just before the door was closed on him. He quickly got to the edge of the pad and waited. Scrutinizing the Spartans, the Chief recognized the one by the door as Fred, 104, and the sniper as Linda, 058. He turned on his signal jacking and listened to Fred's conversation. So an evac is coming, he thought, that can't do. The Master Chief slowly moved to the door to set his new plan into action. He placed a coil of high-tension wire on the door and got up against the edge. Fred started to walk away from the door when the Chief pulled on the wire. The blast through the huge warrior forward about twenty feet. Immediately the Chief uncloaked and ran for Fred.

            Fred opened his eyes and saw how far he had been thrown. He was about to turn over when he was lifted off the ground. Somebody was saying something in his ears but he couldn't make out what was being said, "ETA two minutes".

Fred grabbed at the hands gripping his throat and pried them off. Instinct told him to move out of counter-attack range so he did so. His attacker was still unknown but when he saw who it was he was stopped dead in his tracks. No more than fifteen feet away stood a huge creature in black Mark VI MJOLNIR armor. But it was different, there were words and symbols intricately inscribed in gold, but he couldn't recognize any of them. His time of observation was over when the Chief charged at him with his combat knife. Fred started to block each swipe by hitting his lower arm with his arms. Fed up with the stalemate they both threw a punch into each other's chest, there shields flaring up. Out of the corner of his eye Fred saw Linda with her pistol trying to get the Chief in her sights but they were moving to fast for her. Fred did a roundhouse kick that landed square on the Chief's helmet. He was about to do another one but he got thrown to the ground by some kind of invisible force.

"I wanted to fight you fair but I must end this before you are rescued," the Chief said. His voice shocked both Fred and Linda, but she saw an opportunity and started to fire the pistol. The slugs slammed into the Chief causing his shields to flare up, flicker, but before she could fire off more rounds the gun was torn from her hand and flew into the Chief's. He then aimed it at Fred who was getting back up. The Chief fired twice, both rounds impacting on Fred's helmet. The first shot blew his shield off and the second put a dent in the top of his helmet. Linda charged at him but got blown away by the same invisible blast that had hit Fred. She slammed into the concrete and rolled away, unconscious. But before the final blow could be unleashed on Fred a silver Pelican came roaring over, it's chin-mounted chain gun raking the landing zone. The Chief immediately turned his cloaking on and moved away, but not before firing at Fred who was still on the ground. One round missed but the second hit in between the lower leg and thigh armor. Fred's blood sprayed onto the concrete causing him to scream in pain and pull out his combat knife. He threw it at a slight distortion in the air. It hit the Chief and his shields flared. The Pelican, who was hovering with its chain gun moving back and forth, opened fire in the pot where the flare up had occurred.

" One-Oh-Four, I suggest you get aboard the Pelican now. We've got you covered so you can get Oh-Five-Eight." Fred nodded and got up; then limped over to Linda who was laying face down. He rolled her over and looked through her shattered visor. Blood was coming out of her nose but that was all the injuries he could find. Fred struggled to lift her up with his wounded right leg but finally managed to do so. It seemed like forever trying to get to the Pelican that was now repositioned with its rear compartment over the landing pad. He could see plasma bolts racing up toward the vulnerable evac. Fred got to the Pelican and set Linda on the floor of the Pelican which was at about chest level. A crewmember rushed over to try and pull her in more but Fred stopped him.

"Don't, you'll hurt yourself." The crewmember listened and went back to his seat.

"Hurry up, I think the Covenant are coming up here," the gunner yelled down to him. Fred lifted himself into the Pelican and lied down next to Linda who was becoming conscious again.

"We're good to go," yelled the man who tried to pull Linda in. As he said that the Pelican lurched forward then quickly gained altitude.

"Sorry about the wait Spartans, the Covenant armada was jamming our signals. Don't worry though, your Heavy Recon friends took care of the space battle." Fred looked over at Linda and saw she was smiling. Some of her auburn hair was on her face and he gently moved it.

"You did good," she said.

"No, I didn't get him," he replied, his voice suddenly bitter.

"Don't worry about it, you'll get him next time you see John."

*I noticed a mistake in one of the names I used so I changed it