Brewing Storm
Chapter 2: Reunion
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any of characters involved except Guardian L. Lightning
Lightning and Johnson's squad approached the armored figure, the soldiers took up positions save for Johnson and one other who slid down to a knee beside the figure.
"What his status?" Johnson asked, the cigar bouncing in his mouth as he spoke.
"Armor's locked up tight," The marine replied as he pulled out a small data pad.
Inputting a few keys the figure's arms, which had been locked in an upward position, dropped to his sides and the hiss of air was heard in the small clearing.
Johnson sighed "Radio for VTOL, heavy lift gear, we're not leaving him here," he turned to tap off some of the ash from his cigar when the figure's hand reached up and grabbed his arm.
"No, you're not," it said in a deep voice as it stood.
"Crazy fool, why do you always jump? One of these days you're gonna land on something as stubborn as you are, and I don't do bits and pieces," Johnson looked into the visor of the Master Chief, his face reflected in the orange light.
"Lightning," Chief said to the young Guardian.
"Sir…" Lightning replied, not quite sure what was going on.
"What's your situation Lieutenant? Where's your armor?" Chief asked him.
"I… I don't know anything about what's going on," Lightning replied.
Chief looked to Johnson who shook his head.
"Alright, we'll talk once we're somewhere safe," Chief nodded to Lightning before his head jerked to his left.
The Arbiter was coming out of active camouflage and Chief leapt into action. Reaching down for Johnson's side arm he pulled the weapon out and readied a round before shoving the weapon between the Arbiter's lower two mandibles.
"Wait! Chief, he's with us!" Johnson shouted as he realized what was going on.
"C'mon now, we've got enough to worry about without you two tryin' to kill each other,"
Chief lowered the weapon and the Arbiter shook his head, "Were it so easy,"
"Uh… I hate to interrupt, but should we be standing here?" Lightning asked.
"Kids right, we need to move," Chief looked to Johnson.
"Yes, the brute's must have our scent by now," The Arbiter turned and began to head back into the jungle.
"Then they must love the smell of a real hero," Johnson said as he signaled for one of the marine's to give him his rifle.
The soldier handed over the weapon to Johnson who in turn handed it to Chief.
"Stay low, keep quiet, we'll get you home," Chief told Lightning as he walked past him.
The young man nodded and followed the group through the jungle. The team silently made their way through the trees and dense foliage before eventually arriving at a shallow lake and overheard the engines of a covenant dropship. They all ducked into the leaves and waited as the strange craft flew past. Chief rounded a corner, only taking a half glance as he remained in cover behind a small cliff face.
Before him was a squad of six grunts and their brute commander on a lower ridge standing in the middle of the shallow creek that flowed from the lake. The dropship lowered down on the far side of the ridge and more grunts began to leap from inside it. Soon there were just over a dozen grunts and three brutes. Chief lifted his left hand and signaled to his squad the size of the enemy force. He then followed those signs with a set of signaled instructions. When he finished the marines went on the move.
Keeping low they darted from the cover of the cliff face to a large boulder on the opposite side of the ridge. Johnson, Lightning, and the Arbiter moved up to be directly behind Chief.
"What's the plan Chief?" Johnson asked in a whisper.
"Marines on the other side will lay down a burst of fire, get them to dart into cover and allow us to move up. We push the offensive while the marines lay down more covering fire,"
"Simple," Johnson nodded.
"Should I stay here?" Lightning asked.
The Arbiter put a hand on his shoulder which drew his attention to the large alien's face. He nodded to Lightning once, a simple gesture, and Lightning knew what to do.
Chief raised his hand quickly so that the Marine would see the motion, it was currently clenched into a fist. He waited for a second before opening his hand by sticking his fingers straight up, he then pointed them at the two merged squads of covenant below. The marines ducked out of cover and began to lay down a barrage of bullets. The two squads, startled at the sudden sound of gunfire, scrambled for cover, a majority of the grunts went down in the initial barrage. Once all of the hostiles were either dead or hiding Chief took off around the corner. Johnson and Arbiter followed suit while the Marines fired off a short burst of gunfire whenever one of the covenant poked their heads up.
Lightning waited patiently, his nerves running a million miles an hour as he heard the continuous sound of gunshots and plasma blasts from the retaliating covenant forces. Then, after a few minutes everything went quiet.
"All clear!" Johnson shouted.
The marines moved up to regroup while Lightning sighed in relief before moving to join them. The squad continued into a small cave, Chief had a brief moment where his vitals peaked and he was unresponsive, but he shrugged it off and ordered everyone to continue moving. Fighting through two more squads of covenant patrols the group eventually found themselves at a water treatment facility. Three large groups of covenant foot soldiers were engaging a large dropship. A single mounted machine gun in the troop bay was keeping all of them pinned down, but as the group arrived they heard a woman's voice come over the comms link:
"Banshees! Fast and low!"
Before the response could be issued three small, purple crafts flew by and dropped explosive green charges on the dropship. The large craft began to spiral out of control and eventually crashed on the opposite side of the river. The covenant soldiers, now free to move about stood and resumed their patrols. Chief delivered a quick plan to his squad and the soldiers were quick to enact the plan. Moving forward the squad laid down a barrage of gunfire in all directions that made quick work of anyone caught in it by surprise. As they were finishing up the last of the soldiers they heard the return of the Banshees as the vessels screamed back toward them.
"Find cover!" Chief shouted to his team.
The soldiers all ducked behind the large boulders and watched as the Banshees flew by overhead.
"I think they spotted us Chief! They're turning around!" One of the soldiers called out.
Lightning saw their position and knew they were sitting ducks. His nerves overtook him again and he began to panic. His heart began to beat in his ears drowning out the loud scream of the banshees, his vision focused to one point as it began to darken on the edges. He knew he was going to die here, this was it.
Then another vision came to him: He saw himself stand up straight and put his ringed hand through the loop on his belt, energy began to collect around his hand and as he pulled it back through he was holding a large weapon of some kind. His sight returned to normal and without hesitation he repeated the actions he saw. In his hands was a large, long-barreled rifle. Aiming the weapon up at the incoming Banshees he put the sight on the craft and pushed the trigger, but nothing happened.
"What? Is it broken? C'mon," He muttered as he lowered the weapon and looked at it.
"Kid! Get down!" Johnson shouted at him.
Lightning heard the growing loudness of the banshees and thought of something: He aimed the weapon again and this time he held the trigger. The barrel began to glow with energy before, in a flash, one of the banshees was sent careening down into the river. Lightning grinned before taking aim and firing two more times, dropping the three aircraft. Chief and his team poked their heads out of cover and looked to Lightning who was holding the smoking weapon.
"Nice shooting kid, but would you mind telling us when you're gonna do that next time?" Johnson said to him.
Lightning nodded and pushed the weapon back through the loop on his belt, causing it to dissipate into energy once again.
"Let's move," Chief said to the team and they all followed him deeper into the jungle.