Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse…

The Pelican shuddered as it took another round in the left wing. The Master Chief looked back out of the Pilots door and saw the Pelican behind him get extremely close to him, then disappear from his sight. What the hell? He checked his radar, looking for any signs of life. Nothing. Then he lurched as the entire ship shook. Shit! They're trying to board me! He was right, as the thought went through his mind, SEAL troopers were piling into the Pelican's back cargo door. He switched the Pelican to auto-pilot, drew his Magnum, and turned around. Whack! A hand slammed into the Chief's armour, damaging his shields by a fraction. He raised his Magnum and fired. The SEAL trooper in front of him dropped to the floor, dodging the bullet. He stood up, and the last thing he saw was a fist closing in on his face. The trooper sailed out of the troop bay and slammed into the snowy cliff below them. The Chief turned, to see the Pelican fast approaching another cliff. Again, he was in a closed off space, with few exits. Choices: Jump. No, been hurt too many times already. Stay and die. No, been there, done that. Kill these bastards and steal their Pelican. Maybe. No. I want to keep my Ferret. Fuck this. He set the Pelican to do a loop, circle back round, and hit the cliff. He turned around and shot the man in front of him. The man's head exploded, and his body slumped to the ground. The Chief ran to the back of the Pelican, and slowly started to lower himself down towards the Ferret.

"-the hell is this guy doing?"

"-just climbed out the back-"

"-don't have a visual-"

"-Aurie is down-"

The Captain heard the chatter through his comm. He frowned as he saw the chief attach his Sniper rifle to the side of his Ferret, then detach the side-car. The Side-car fell sown and smashed into a million pieces. He frowned again as the Pelican, on auto-pilot, began to rise above the cliff. What the hell?

The Master Chief got ready. His plan was crazy, but it just might work. He mounted his Ferret and hit the button to detach the Ferret from the grip of the Pelican.

"Holy shit!"

"-just detached his motorbike-"
"-get the snipers in here!"

The Captain was unprepared for the loop that the Pelican's pulled.

"ARRGGH!" He heard the screams of his men as they fell out of the back of both the Pelican's. The Captain regained himself and stared forward.

Shit.

The sniper bullet the Chief fired hit the pilot square in the forehead, showering the Captain next to him with blood. Then he put the bike into gear, and drove off as fast as he could.

"Get us off of here!" The Captain screamed to the pilot. The pilot saw the cliff approaching them and was about to hit the "unlatch" button when his head simply blew up. The Captain squeezed his eyes shut as the blood from the pilot covered his armour, from head-to-toe. He reacted immediately. His hand lashed out and hit the button. "Yes!" he cried in triumph when he felt the jolt of his Pelican coming away from the Chief's. He pulled the control stick toward him as hard as he could, but a second later, the Pelicans smashed into the cliff and the Captain was engulfed in flames.

The Master Chief heard the sound of the explosion, but kept on going. He looked to his left and swore. A banshee patrol had spotted him and was moving toward him. He brought the Ferret 'round in a sharp left, the bike handling the snowy terrain with ease. Plasma peppered the area all around him, and he came to a sudden halt. In front of him was a drop leading into the abyss. He looked across. A structure dominated the cliff on the other side. He jumped off the bike, forgetting about the banshee, grabbed his sniper rifle, and was blown to shit.

The Sergent called over his radio, raising his Assault rifle at a shadow that he thought was moving. "Help," he whispered silently. His radio crackled as he dived round a corner, gun raised. "Sir this is McCabe, are you alright?"

Is that a question? Thought the marine as he blasted something to smithereens. "Negative," he replied, scared. "Negative. My team is down and there are people trying to kill me! Fucking people! And there's something else here. Something that is much worse than the covenant…"

"Sir." McCabe walked up to the CO. "We've lost contact."

"What? Ho-"

"We don't know sir. He was really shaken up though."

"Ah well. We'll get him back."

"Sir?"

"What is it McCabe?"

"He said something about something worse than the covenant. Also he said something about being shot at by people. Is it true?" The CO shrugged. "Don't know. But we'll find out."

"How?" McCabe asked, concerned.

"There's a team of SAS and navy SEAL's waiting out outside the barrier." McCabe froze, wondering why the UNSC would send both the SAS and the SEAL's in. Then it hit him.

"Oh shit."