"Damn it, where could he be?" Private First class Charles Wilson stared out the back of the hovering Pelican. He was starting to get impatient.
"Oh calm down son," Private Charley looked back at the Sergeant "we've only been waiting a few minutes. Keep your pants on marine he'll be back soon."
"Hey Sarge something's still bothering me,"
"What?"
"What's your first name?"
"Now why in the hell would you ask a question like that son?"
"Is it Herbert? I bet it's Herbert." Another marine called from near the front of the Pelican.
"Ah just shut up already! His name isn't Herbert it's"
But Charley interrupted "It's Dan isn't it"
"No you idiot that's my name"
"Oh, so you're the sergeant"
"Seriously, I'm goanna kill the guy who assigned you to be my partner."
Sarge broke the tension "if you two are done lollygagging we can get back to our assignment."
"Yeah, what were we doing here?"
The hallway was quiet, too quiet. Master Chief stared at the narrow passage that turned a corner in front of him. He was unsure if anything was around that corner so he decided to play it safe. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, charged around the corner. He heard a loud grunt that he'd come to associate with disturbed elites. Responding with instinct, he armed a plasma grenade and threw. He heard another roar and ran backwards. He opened his eyes and beheld the beast who was wielding a glowing energy sword and the Chief's pulsing plasma grenade stuck to his helmet. If it got any closer the grenade would surely kill the chief as well as the covenant soldier. Thinking quickly, the chief ran back through the door that he had used to get to the hallway. The door opened and the chief slipped through it before it closed on the elite. The creature lat out a long painful cry that bled into a loud BANG!
The Chief approached the door and it opened again. The elite's corps was sprawled on the floor of the hallway. The energy sword had been thrown across the room by the blast. There were still lingering traces of a velvety blue smoke in the air. After collecting the alien's grenades, he headed up the last few ramps to the hall leading to the entrance of the building. At the end of the hall a Pelican was waiting for him. He wasted no time, leaning forward; he made a mad dash for the pelican. Without warning, he hit something hard and crashed to the floor. He looked up and was frightened to see a group of at least six elites. Their armor's camouflage was just wearing off.
Calm down, he told himself, any minute now, the marines in the pelican will know I'm in trouble and come help me.
"No, no, no I'm telling you its pronounced ketchup." Charley and a very irritated Dan were having a little discussion.
"That's what I said, catsup" Replied Charley.
"No you idiot, ketchup" There was suddenly a loud WHACK! "Did you hear something?"
"It wasn't me!" Charley shouted in defense.
"No, not that, it was more like… never mind."
"What was it?"
"I said never"
"What was it?"
"Can you ever shut up?"
"Of course I can."
"THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP! Hey weren't we supposed to be doing something?" Charley and Dan looked out of the back of the Pelican, down the entrance hall where Master Chief's motionless body lay face down.
"Why didn't anyone tell me it was nap time?" Said the ignorant Charley.
"Oh shit, this is not good; hey sarge you better have a look at this."
"This had better be good private." Sarge got up and looked out the back of the Pelican as well. His mouth gaped open and he stepped out. "Well I'll be damned. They got him." Sarge gave a solemn sign of the cross before moving forward to collect his ammunition and grenades. He grabbed the Chief's arm and lifted it up. There was a strange shine around four of his fingers, sarge looked closer. They were grenade pins, but where were the grenades? The sarge began to hear low growls and whispering. "Oh!" The sarge turned around and sprinted for the exit. He made a leap to the back of the Pelican and shouted "GO!"
The pilot turned around and asked why but the sarge's only reply was "I said go god damn it!" Everyone on the ship felt a sudden jerk as the ship fled the building. As it sped away from the structure sarge looked back at the entrance hall, which was lighting up like Los Vegas. Bodies of some less than happy elites were being thrown from the tunnel at incredible speeds.
"Hey Charley this is really cool, you should come see this." Charley walked back and looked out from the Pelican. "I don't think someone like Charley should hear about this." He looked to charley who was mesmerized by the flashing spectacle. "So what do we do now?"
"We need to notify Keys that the chief is dead."
"Yeah" Both of them bowed there heads. "do you think we'll be able to win the war without him?"
"I don't know." And with that they remained silent for the rest of the journey.
TO BE CONTINUED…