Chapter 18: Snow
10:24:09. Will felt, one of the rare
times in his life, exhaustion from desperation. Watching the mission
clock continue to wind upwards he focused his mind on the task ahead
of him, or, rather, the white plain ahead of him. Crushing another
footprint into the snow with his heavy boots he looked around at the
environment that seemed to have stayed static during their long
ordeal. 10:24:57. Through the haze of the light snow, Will could
begin to see the two parallel mountain chains converge together with
a third that ran almost perpendicular to the others. Dreading the
sudden increase in their altitude and steepness, he glanced up at the
dark gray clouds overhead blocking out the last weak rays of light,
the temperature already beginning to drop below freezing again.
"Man, this is going to be a cold
night," JJ remarked over his external speakers. Will agreed with
him but didn't say anything, continuing onward. Checking the comm
channels again, every single one was completely dead. Beginning to
start the same routine he had been following all day to keep his mind
off of the aching that was screaming at him in his legs, he brought
up the map and located their position on it, putting them about a
hundred miles south of the city. He had already done the math and
even with severe rationing in combination with a blistering pace,
they were unlikely to make it there in under a week. That was
assuming there was still a city, or even a planet for that matter,
remaining. Switching his rifle to his other arm, he stretched his
tight right hand before using it to hold the Battle Rifle at his side
again. 10:26:30. Finally forcing his body to stop, the rest of the
Spartans gathered around silently. Leaning onto the butt of his
rifle, Will let his legs get a brief reprieve before beginning to
walk again.
12:57:04. Finally feeling the weariness
of twelve hours of walking on top of everything else he had gone
through over the past two days finally began to overcome him and he
had to stop once more. Moving over towards a jet black rock, he
lowered himself down into the snow and let his legs finally begin to
rest. The other Spartans did the same, finding a comfortable position
before letting themselves go.
"Alright, we'll sleep here for the
night. I want two people on watch at all times." Both JJ and Matt
stated they would take the first watch before Will had even
volunteered himself. Content with their actions he rose the internal
temperature of the Mk VII a few degrees and closed his eyes, rifle
across his chest.
Flames roared all around in hellish
pyres that rose hundreds of feet into the air. Columns of smoke
poured into the red sky, making it impossible to tell what time of
day it was. Stepping over mutilated bodies and piles of debris Will
tried to make sense of the two shapes fighting in front of him. Just
as he came into view, a blue blade erupted through metal and flesh,
the body of Spartan tightening up for a split second before going
limp, sliding backwards away from the tip of energy. Waving his hand
to brush away a rain of embers, Will was taken back as a building
nearby collapsed to the ground sending shockwaves through the
concrete and filling the air with the screams and screeches of metal
and glass. Overhead a portion of a building fell to the ground,
landing directly on top of the other figure. Pushing the rocks out of
the way, the silhouetted figure stood up to it's full seven and a
half foot height and waited, wisps of smoke coming out of the
different portions of the armor, whining noises of servos and pumps
just barely audible in the hell the found themselves. Just as the
other figure began to turn around, there was a sudden force against
Will's shoulder and his rifle was instantly into his shoulder.
"Hey! Hey! It's just me," someone
said, whispering forcefully. Snapping his eyes open, Will surveyed
the darkness around him. Standing to his right was another Spartan,
bent over a little, hand on his shoulder pad. "Think you could take
over for a little bit? I can barely stay awake," Kayla asked.
Shaking his head to clear his head he then nodded and raised his hand
weakly.
"No problem, get some rest." She
nodded in return and took his place leaning up against the rock.
Switching his view over to night vision/thermal he scanned the frozen
plains, not expecting anything, and seeing nothing.
"Sleep well?" another
female voice asked kindly.
"Not really,"
he responded quickly, probably too quickly.
"Something
more than the freezing temperatures and complete lack of contact with
UNSC forces?" He could here Kat moving around behind him but he
kept his focus on the snow around them.
"It's really
nothing."
"I don't
believe you, especially since you were like this when we were on the
planet killer..." Closing his eyes for a few seconds, he tried
to figure out what to say next. To his right he could see Kat come up
next to him, scanning the same area that he was.
"Just a dream,
nothing more." She grunted in approval but he knew she didn't
believe him. Off to his left he could see light beginning to filter
through the clouds and with a quick check of his mission clock,
23:05:54, he knew it was probably time to get going again. "Let's
get the others up, we've got a fun day today." Walking back over to
Kayla he nudged her shoulder a little, her head snapping up. "Sorry
to wake you up but we're going to need to move."
"No problem, I
justed needed to rest my eyes." She pushed herself up with her left
arm and was standing up in only a second. Moving between all of the
others the squad was wide awake and ready to begin again. Pushing
forward through the haze and darkness he began to make his way up the
slowly steepening terrain. Looking up at the mountains that were a
few miles off his heart sank a little as he saw now that the pass he
had planned to go through was blocked by a large glacier. Instantly
different thoughts began to rush through his head. They had no
climbing gear, they weighed a few hundred pounds at the very least,
from this distance the glacier could be twenty feet tall or two
hundred. Pushing the thoughts out of his mind he stopped and looked
around, there were no other visible ways to traverse the mountains
and any kind of detour would stretch their already overextended
supplies beyond even their limits. Every time he tried to come up
with a new plan it always came back to climbing the glacier.
"Looks we're
going to have to climb," Linda said matter of factly.
Staring up at the
glacier to his right and the black stone to his left, Will looked for
a suitable foothold. Forcing his left foot into a small edge, he
pushed himself up and put his right boot into a crack in the ice,
putting most of his weight onto his left leg. Looking back up at the
hundred foot ice wall and the almost sheer stone he composed himself
and found two new foot holds. All around him the sound of the ice
creaking and shifting echoed throughout the pass, the closest pops
making Will freeze for a few seconds before beginning to slowly move
again. Down below him the other Spartans were making their way up
except for one who was still waiting, giving the person in front of
them a little more room. Reaching up with his right arm he grabbed
onto what looked like a sturdy piece of ice only to have it break and
crumble in his hand. Losing his balance for only a second, his right
foot shifted just a little too much and splintered the ice it was
rest on. A cloud of white fell down onto the Spartan below, Matt, who
forced his body up against the rock and tucked his chin to his
forehead letting the ice deflect off of his shields that suddenly
flared up."Sorry about
that, misjudged it."
"No worries,
didn't even feel a thing," he replied with a slight chuckle.
Beginning again, Will was even more careful in choosing where to put
his limbs to try and prevent what had just happened. Slowly making
his way up to the top, he finally reached the edge and grabbed onto
it. Making sure it was firm enough he pulled himself up and crawled a
few feet before standing up. Now in the middle of the cloud layer,
large snowflakes began to fall, severely diminishing his sight and
began to hamper his bearings. Crouching down he headed back over to
the edge and put his arm over, grabbing onto Matt's. Pulling him up
he waited as the others made their way. Helping each get up on top of
the glacier, Will finally stepped away from the ledge and looked up
the steep incline. Just barely visible in all of the snow and fog he
could begin to make out the sides of the mountains that formed the
wide pass. On his right side, about a mile away in front of him, a
small bulge of black rock jutted out into the middle of the glacier
that abruptly formed with the rest of the obscured peak. Much closer
to them another small outcrop formed from the peak to their left
although much smaller in size. Having a hard time making anything out
in the weather, Will was finally able to spot the different branching
paths that led up to different portions of the mountain. Crouching
down in the snow he brought a topographical map and located their
exit pass on the thermal satellite image. Looking up at the pass
itself he could see the narrow band of snow on the far left. Standing
back up he marked it with a NAV point and began walking. As they
walked the weather continued to steadily get worse as the wind picked
up and the snow came down even harder. Crouching down to keep from
getting knocked over he continued to push forwards as he made his way
towards the hovering blue triangle. Despite it being the afternoon he
was forced to flick on his helmet lamps, illuminating the area in
front of him. Putting one leg in front of the other, his attention
was suddenly broken when a small blue icon began blinking on his HUD.
Drawn as a small radio tower with waves emanating from the tip, it
represented the acquisition of a radio signal.
"This is
Spartan-Oh-Four-Three, come in." Tucking his head behind his left
shoulder and into his chest he tried to listen for anything to come
in over their radio.
"Reading you
loud and clear Oh-Four-Three. My Dagger wing is coming near your
location. Mind telling us what you're doing there?" The pilot's
stereotypical twang caught Will off guard a little but more so
because they would be picked up.
"Our Hawk was
shot down as we came in."
"Shame, we'll be there in a few
minutes, hang tight."
"Affirmative,
over and-." Staring up at the passes, he began to see a dark cloud
moving down the one they were heading towards. "Shit," he
said loudly.
"What's wrong?
What's the problem?"
"We've got a lot
of bad guys moving in on our position." Pointing to five of the
Spartans he motioned to the large outcropping he had spotted earlier.
Grabbing JJ he headed towards the smaller outcropping. Running up the
black rocks they got behind cover and watched the Forerunners advance
towards their position. As they began to come into view better he
could see large dark shapes intermixed with the foot solders.
"Damnit, they've
got heavy armor but we're not equipped with anti-tank weapons,"
Will said, radioing everyone.
"That's not
exactly true," JJ said, pulling his backpack in front of him.
Opening it up, Will saw that it was stuffed with satchel charges.
"Jesus, what were
you planning on using those for?" Just shrugging his shoulders he
proceeded to pull out seven charges. "Alright, put them out there
along their general path, we'll set them off when they get close."
"I've got a
better idea, we're on a glacier correct? That's made of ice on a
slope? Why don't we just blow them and send a sheet of ice flying
down the mountain?" Stopping for a second Will figured it would be
worth a shot. JJ took hold of them with his left arm and began to
make his way down the rocks. Reach the snow he began to sprint across
the open ground, laying a charge down every so often. As he was doing
this Will pulled a suppressor out of his bag and screwed it onto the
front of his rifle. Looking back across the glacier he could JJ
placing the last satchel charge, disappearing into the other outcrop.
Only a few miles away the Forerunners made their slow advance down
the glacier. Sitting down next to a rock, he propped his leg up onto
a small boulder in front of him and rested his rifle on his knee,
taking aim at his enemy.
"Hold off on
picking us up, we've got an ambush set up," Will radioed to the
pilot.
"Affirmative."
Watching and waiting, the Forerunners slowly made their way past the
ambush spot when JJ set off the satchel charges. Seven orange and
black explosions blossomed into the air. Plumes of snow and ice
rained down on the glacier as the heat washed over the ice, instantly
vaporizing it. All throughout the pass the shockwaves and
reverberations from the explosion shook the rocks that Will was
sitting on. Staring at the large craters and fractures that had
formed from the explosion. Waiting a few seconds nothing happened.
"Light 'em up!"
He finally called out to his squad. Standing up from behind his cover
he opened fire with his rifle, not used to the quiet "thwap" of
the silencer. Just as he was getting ready to switch magazines he
heard a low rumbling off to his left. Glancing over he saw a
frightening sight. Roaring down the mountain was a wave of boiling
snow heading straight for them. Hurrying down to get on the backside
of the rock hill he was standing on, he found a small indentation in
the rocks and got up against it. Having only a few seconds to spare
as the ground began to shake violently, the avalanche suddenly roared
over the rocks, slamming into the ground just a few feet in front of
him. In an instant the snow began to fill up on every surface it
could cling to. Just as fast as it came, the air around him cleared
of the wall of snow, he slowly exited his cover, pushing the feet of
snow out of the way that had come in those few seconds. Looking
around, the snowflakes continued to fall and the wind continued to
howl as if nothing had happened. "Linda? Chris? Are you guys
alright?" Walking out from the rocks and onto the glacial field he
waited for a response.
"Ugh...yeah,
we're alright. That was something though wasn't it?" Linda
replied back. Will laughed a little as the roar of the Daggers was
audible.
