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.