Chapter 21: Sacrifices for the Greater Good
Orbital Defense Ring Alpha, Earth Equatorial Orbit, Sol System
Linda slid up against a wall and looked down the hallway to her left. An Elite roared and fired off his plasma rifle. She ducked back behind the wall and saw the plasma splash off the wall. Her shields flared but didn't lose any of their charge. Across the hallway, Fred slid a new clip into his Battle Rifle and inched toward the corner. He pulled a fiber optic cable out of his backpack and stuck it around the corner. The Elite started to move forward slowly, his mandibles clicking. Fred retracted the cable and gave hand signals to the H.R. troopers in his hallway. Linda followed suit and told them what they were going to do. She looked across the hallway and Fred started to countdown.
Three.
Two.
One. The two Spartans rolled out of the hallway and unloaded with their Battle Rifles. Their three round bursts tore across the Elite and he stopped in his tracks. He tried to raise his weapon but was in paralyzed from the bullets hitting him. The Elite's shield blew off and the 7.62mm bullets punctured his body, blood spraying on the walls and floor behind him. He gave one last roar and fell to the ground, dead. Fred and Linda rolled back into the hallway and reloaded. The small group of Humans had been inserted onto the defense ring to help protect the MAC stations from being attacked. At the moment it was a stalemate. The Humans and Covenant kept reinforcing with just enough to prevent a loss of ground but not enough to tip the tides. For the moment no Covenant were anywhere in their vicinity so they started to move forward. As the group walked past the Elite one of the H.R troopers kicked the Elite in the head; purple blood gurgled out of his mouth. Fred brought up a topographic map of their position and checked where they were. According to the map they were on the middle and only one hallway away from the airlocks.
"We need to head toward the airlocks and hold the Covenant off there. Or…we could blow the complex and just seal it off."
"We shouldn't do that," a young H.R. said, "What if we need to get reinforcements in through this sector?"
"I doubt we have anyone we could spare, everybody is staying where we are, no one from the surface is coming up and no one from space is going down unless we've been overrun," Linda replied.
"I guess we'll blow it," Fred said with a small hint of excitement in his voice.
"Fred, Linda? It's Will, I'm heading toward your position with some ODSTs in tow I'll call back when we're nearer."
"Good to hear from you Will. Don't worry if you hear an explosion. We're going to blow an airlock the Covenant are using to board," Fred replied.
"Affirmative, too bad I'll miss it. Will over and out." The group headed off towards the airlocks. They came to within twenty feet of the last straight away when they ran into a small group of Covenant. The five Grunts and three Jackals wandered aimlessly down the hallway. The Humans stopped at the corner before them and waited. One of the Heavy Recon soldiers peaked out and pulled a grenade out of his vest and primed it. He peaked again and sprinted across the hallway, tossing the grenade no more than two feet in front of the Covenant. The Grunts squealed and spun around but it was too late. The grenade went off. The Grunts' methane set off a chain reaction killing the whole group. Fred looked down the hallway and peered through the smoke from the grenade and looked at all of the blood and unidentifiable body parts then looked at the trooper.
"Nice job," he said, and then headed towards the airlocks.
"Was that the airlocks going off?" Will asked.
"Nope, that was a grenade, we're almost to the airlocks right now."
"Got it." Fred looked at the four airlocks. Red, purple, and blue blood covered the walls. The first group of marines tried to hold them off but we unable to. He looked to his left and saw a marine with a plasma burn across his chest. Fred grabbed his dog tags quickly.
Garnet, Kyle, Garnet, 172526- b.2528.
Hearing a noise behind him Fred spun around and brought his rifle to bear. He peered into the shadows but didn't see anything. Fred turned on his flashlight and scanned the dark hallway. Something brown and gray lunged at Fred and through him to the ground. A pair of strong arms grabbed at his throat and started to choke him.
"Help…me…now," he managed to say. Fred opened his eyes and saw what had hit him. A Brute. The creature had pinned his hands down with its knees and was straddling his stomach, forcing every ounce of strength to pop his neck. Fred caught a glimpse of something shimmer in the air and saw a combat knife lodged into it's should. His shields blew away and he felt the hands tighten around his neck. He heard the rattle of gunfire in the background but he was close to unconsciousness and it didn't register. Purple blood sprayed all over Fred but the blackness closed in around him and he finally went unconscious.
Linda slapped another round into her rifle and continued to fire. The Brute started to slam Fred's body against the floor and immediately lost interest in him. He got up and gave an ear splitting roar. She raised her rifle and brought the Brute's head into her sights and fired controlled shots. The rounds hit the armored plate on his head but did nothing to stop him. The Brute bent over and picked up his weapon, a grenade launcher of sorts. He fired and the blue-ish green plasma flew past them and tore a hole in the wall behind them.
"Back! Get behind the corners!" Linda ordered. All but one of the troopers listened and fell back. The one who didn't was the trooper who had killed the Covenant with his grenade. He fumbled for his combat knife and tossed it at the Brute. The knife lodged itself into the Brute's chest but, again, did nothing to stop him. The trooper started to fire his rifle again. Round after round hit it's body but he didn't even flinch.
"GET! BACK!" Linda yelled but he didn't listen. The Brute, fed up with him, lowered his weapon and fired. Linda looked away as the Heavy Recon trooper's upper body disintegrated. His lower body and legs were five feet away from where he had been hit. She knew they couldn't keep fighting like this so she decided to do something risky. Pulling out her S2 sniper rifle, she nestled it against her shoulder and leaned out into the hallway. She brought the Brute's head into her sights and fired. The sabot round impacted an inch below the head plate. She quickly fired another round and it impacted in the mouth of the Brute, his neck exploding. The huge body fell to the ground with a muted thump and the group ran to Fred, but not before Linda picked up the Brute's weapon for later use. She slid to ground on her knees and instantly pulled Fred's helmet off. Linda also pulled hers off and put her cheek near Fred's mouth. She didn't feel anything and turned to the troopers.
"Watch around here, there might be more Covenant." The trooper nodded and started to tell the Heavy Recon soldiers where to go. Linda pulled a small earpiece out and inserted it into her ear and tried to get a hold of Will.
"Will! Will! God Damnit Will, respond!!!" She yelled.
"I'm here, what's wrong?" He responded.
"It's Fred, he's not breathing! Where the hell are you?"
"I can see some of the troopers right now, I'm almost there. Start CPR on him now, I'll see if I can get an evac," he said trying to calm her. Linda obeyed and started to remove his chest armor. Once it was off she started chest compressions, then followed it with mouth to mouth. She felt a touch on her shoulder and knew Will had arrived. He proceeded to take his helmet off and also put an earpiece in.
"This is Spartan Oh-Four-Three requesting an immediate dustoff for a critical, potentially fatal, wound. I'm sending location info to all ships within range of this transmission." He looked down and watched as Linda kept giving him chest compressions. Will took his right gauntlet off and checked Fred's pulse. He felt a bump on his fingers.
"Linda, only mouth-to-mouth, he's got a pulse," he said with his hand on her arm. She nodded and began mouth-to-mouth. With no reply for an evac Will tried to get a hold of someone again.
"Damnit, it's to messed up out there for anybody to worry about one wounded person," Will said with despair in his voice. But right as he said that Fred coughed and started to choke and then vomited to the side.
"Fred? Are you okay?" Linda asked quickly. He nodded but didn't say anything or open his eyes.
"Hey, somebody's coming! Looks like a medic!" A trooper yelled. Will rocked back on his knees and saw a marine run up with red crosses on her armor.
"I got your call, what's wrong?" She asked calmly. The medic looked at Will but he shook his head.
"He was attacked by that thing," Linda replied pointing towards the Brute.
"Okay, I'm going to check him over for any broken bones." The medic pulled out a handheld x-ray and hooked it up to a small screen. She started to scan Fred's body starting from the feet. When she reached his pelvis area she stopped and her shoulders sagged. The medic looked up but didn't say anything.
"His back is broken. From what I can see, he'll probably never walk again." Linda looked at Fred who didn't respond. She started to cry and grabbed Fred's hand. Will ran his unarmored hand through his hair and wiped the sweat away. As they sat there was jerk and Will checked the airlocks' status'. The Covenant troops were going to use them to get through. They had about two minutes total before the Covenant would get through.
"Take the Lotus mines and set them for remote detonation," Fred said quietly. Will obeyed and grabbed the mines and started to place the ten mines. It then dawned on Linda what he was going to do.
"Fred don't, we'll get you to the Trafalgar and we'll get you healed up."
"I'm going to go down with as many Covenant sons of a bitches, and, if you ever find John. Do whatever you have to do to get him back on our side." Linda nodded and wiped the tears off her face. Will placed the final mine and handed Fred the detonating switch and then helped prop Fred up. Fred grimaced but didn't make a sound.
"Set my suit for self destruct, give it a minute. Whatever comes first, the Covenant, or me, this place is going to blow." Will hooked his gauntlet into place and sealed his helmet. The medic and two Spartans jogged away from Fred. They reached the end of the hallway and stopped. There was a banging as the doors were broken down. Then the bulkhead doors started to slide down in front of them. Through the glass they saw Elites standing around Fred and then it disappeared in a wall of flame and molten metal that stopped instantly in the vacuum. The medic walked away and didn't see Linda fall against Will and cry.