Chapter 3:The Icy Grave
"Ow..." I groaned.
I opened my eyes, hearing a high pitched beeping. My shield had been slightly damaged. I would have to get one of the Marines to fix it.
I jerked my head up and realized that I was lying on snow.
"Marines!" I yelled waiting for an answer.
A snow storm was just starting to pick up. I couldn't see two metres in front of me.
"This is Master Chief to Marines, can you hear me?" I spoke into my intercom.
No answer.
I peered into the fog looking for any signs of movement.
None.
I stood up and walked forward against the wind towards a large dark object looming nearby.
As soon as I got near it, I realized it was the ship.
I ran to the door and looked inside. There was no one in the ship. I quickly looked around the ship to see if anyone had survived.
I could here the storm's intensity rise. I was just about to head into the ship when I heard a faint high pitched beeping.
I looked behind me to see a dark shape lying on the ground about five metres away.
I struggled against the strengthening wind towards them. I placed my hand onto their shoulder and rolled them over.
A bright blue visor gleamed up at me. Major Rhea.
I leaned forward and leaned her on my shoulder and quickly dragged her into the ship. I layed her onto the floor and quickly closed the door.
I pulled her helmet off and checked her breathing.
She rolled over and coughed several times.
I sat down on the floor and asked calmly," You ok?"
She looked up and gave a faint smile and nodded.
"I'll live," she replied coughing.
I tilted my head a little and asked, "Doesn't seem like it. You should rest."
She pulled herself up so she was leaning against a wall.
"The Marines? Are they...?" she asked wiping her brow of a trickle of blood.
I looked down. "I don't know," I replied flatly.
The wind now howled outside.
"We won't know until this storm dies down, so might aswell get some rest till then," I told her.
She nodded and layed onto the floor, not saying a word.
I leaned against the wall opposite her and felt my eyes get heavy as I drifted off.
I woke to a small movement and quickly reached for my gun and aimed towards it.
Rhea froze, halfway through picking up a ration bar from her bag.
I relaxed. "Sorry, thought you were something else," I replied, a little embarrassed.
"Thought you might be hungry," she replied, throwing me a ration bar.
I caught it with one hand and layed my gun down with the other.
It was morning. The storm had passed.
I pulled my helmet off and breathed the cooler air. Then I peeled the wrapper from the ration bar and threw it away. Taking a large bite from the bar, I began gulping it down.
Rhea seemed to be taking smaller bites and chewing longer.
"What you doing that for?" I asked with a mouthful.
She swallowed her food and replied, "You never know if this could be your last meal. I dont want to take the chance."
I had already finished mine. I didn't care if it was my last meal. The feeling of truimph of killing something before you die was an insatiable meal, that maybe one day will happen.
She finished her food and stood up. She grabbed her helmet off the seat next to her and pulled it on. Then reached into her bag for a gun. A BR55 Rifle.
I pulled my helmet back on and picked up my machine gun.
Rhea grabbed her hologram pad out before putting her bag on her back.
I pulled open the ship's door. A thin sheet of snow trickled off it. The seemed to be light coming from a star several lightyears away, which lit up the snow.
I walked out into the complete whiteness with Rhea behind me.
Several hours later, no sign of the Marines.
"Could they have gotten out of the crash alive?" asked Rhea observing her hologram map.
"There was no sign of blood in the ship to suggest anyone got hurt," I replied walking onwards.
As we kept walking, I notced a very large looming object in the distance.
"Any idea what that is?" asked Rhea, pointing towards it.
She looked up and then looked back at her map, tapping several buttons.
"The North and South Ruins," she whispered.
"The North and South Ruins. What is that?" I asked stopping and looking at her.
"Oh, just something I've read," she quickly said, before walking past me. I followed.
The Ruins were very big once we got close enough. It looked extremely old. In most places, crumbling to dust. They were joined together by a large bridge that seemed to also be falling apart.
We walked up the stairs into the Entrance of the North Ruin.
It seemed to be quite dark. So we turned our lights on our guns on.
Rhea led. We winded through the corridors of mouldy stone.
"What are looking for?" I asked starting to get tired of walking in circles.
"Anything that will explain why this is here," she replied.
After an hour, we finally made it through the first ruin. We walked out of the back door towards the large bridge.
"So, next one I guess," I said tiredly.
She nodded and began walking slowly over the bridge, listening to the bridge slowly breaking. I walked behind her, watching my every step. I looked over the side of the bridge to see ice covered by a thin sheet of snow.
I hurried over to the other side. If I fell into the water with my armor on, I would sink to my death.
We searched the entire South ruin and found nothing. There was no door on the other side of this ruin, so we walked back towards the bridge.
When we got to the bridge I turned around and said to Rhea, "Well, that was a waste of time."
"I don't understand," she replied, "We should of found something, the writing said so."
"Well we didn't. This is is why I work alone. I don't have some...female, telling me what to do and getting us lost," I said angrily looking at her.
"Why you... If that's so, why didn't you leave me to die out in the storm!" she replied furiously.
"Because...," I replied, lost for words.
"Well fine then. I'll stay here and you can go find the Marines and leave me here to study. At least I'm out of your hair," she said calmly walking back into the South Ruin.
"Fine then!" I said walking back over the bridge.
I couldn't believe that we wasted so much time looking for nothing, when we could've been looking for the Marines. I fumed.
As I got over the other side of the bridge. An huge figure stepped out of the North Ruin door, blocking my path.
It was a Hunter. A huge alien capable of crushing you to a bloody pulp with one massive swing of its arm. It also carried a large weapon called a Fuel Rod Cannon that could kill with one hit.
It swung it's large arm towards me as I just narrowly missed it. I pulled my gun out and opened fire on it. The bullets bounced of its near-impenetrable armor. It took another swing and took a step forward. The ground beneath us trembled. I jumped back from it's swing and shot at the orange flesh showing near it's stomach area, as it gave a horrifying roar. Orange blood squirted out as the creature smashed a wall nearby, showering me in stone. It caught me off guard as it knocked another wall on top of me. The gun slipped out of my hands and slid across the stone out of my reach. The Hunter now started swinging its arm at the wall protecting me. I couldn't move from underneath it, as the creature continued to try smashing it apart. My shields beeping violently. Any second now, I was gonna die.
Swish...Swish...
The Hunter gave a almighty cry of pain. The wall had broken in two on my back, leaving one hit left to kill. I crawled out from underneath to see what had made the creature cry out in pain. Then I saw who it was.
It was Rhea.
She stood on the highest point of the bridge, holding what seemed to be an alien sniper rifle. She had wounded the Hunter by firing into it's most vunerable spot. Its flesh.
I watched as she fired two more rounds into the Hunter's soft flesh. More blood spilled everywhere. Then she had to reload. The Hunter had her now. It was injured, but it's weapon wasn't. It charged up and it's long green burning ammunition flew towards her.
"Rhea! Watch Out!" I yelled.
She looked up from reloading just in time to see it and narrowly missing it, she jumped out of the way. I could here her shield going offline.
The Hunter now charged at her. Its every step shaking the stone bridge. Rhea quickly stood and aimed at the Hunter. It drew closer and closer. The bridge now beginning to fall to pieces.
Then she fired. One hit into the last intact piece of orange flesh of the Hunter. Its dying cry like nothing ever heard of. It crashed to the ground just metres from Rhea. The bridge shook violently and there was a large crack of the bridge breaking apart underneath the Hunter's body. The bridge gave way as the Hunter's body fell and crashed through the ice and into the dark freezing water below.
I watched in horror as the stone beneath Rhea fell apart. She fell through.
"Spartan!" she screamed before plunging into the icy water.
I layed there shaking.
Rhea was dead. Because of me.
My shields had come back online.
She had saved me. Even after we argued, she still cared.
How could anyone care for me?
Footsteps were coming towards me from the North Ruins.
Let them kill me. I didn't care anymore. The taste for killing before death was gone from me.
The footsteps came closer and I could hear muffled voices.
Make it quick and painless, I thought, like Rhea's.
The footsteps stopped as they came through the door.
Someone barked orders in a weird language.
I was hauled up over two other's shoulders and taken out of the Ruins.
I was too exhausted to lift my head, let alone open my eyes.
The dragged me onto their ship and placed me in a tank.
They pulled my helmet and armor off and placed a mask over my mouth and nose.
The tank slowly filled with a warm liquid. I breathed a sweet air coming from the mask and fell asleep.