Chapter 21: Turning the Tables

"Uh...sir, we've got a possible situation here..." Will got up from tending to Linda and looked at Chris who was standing straight up, staring at him. Watching the Spartan turn back around, his eye went up the street, finally resting on something off in the distance. Cocking his head slightly in confusion, he instantly reacted when he saw a sudden flash of light from it.
"GET DOWN!" An explosion rocked him as the tank round impacted on the corner of the platform they had taken refuge on. "Ugh...shit..." he grunted as debris rained down onto him. Heading over to Linda, he picked her up and slowly walked away from where she had just been sitting. Another round skimmed right over the decorative ledge and impacted exploded in the building to their right. Glass and metal erupted from the explosion, mixing with the concrete and dirt from the first shot. Going down the stairs as fast as possible, Will heard another shot impact to his left but could only see some small debris flying out into the street. Over their internal comm channel, Chris and JJ were arguing as to how they were going to deal with the armor in light of their lack of anti-tank weapons.
"You can't draw fire from a tank! We need to pull back and try and bring it in closer to us."
"I want everyone to fall back to my position right now. Drop smoke to mask our movement." The Spartans complied, pulling out smoke grenades and tossing them out into the street. Thick blue smoke began to pour out of the small green canisters, slowly rising into the air, the smoke finally caught the drafts that tore whipped around the buildings, quickly swirling around in tornadoes of smoke. Once the cloud was sufficiently thick enough, the Spartans pulled back and headed towards Will. Looking around, he tried to visually find a new way to get to their objective. "That street should bring us out about two blocks away from the center," he said, pointing at the street directly in front of them. "I want two of you to help get her back to an aid station because, no offense, you'll slow us down too much." Nodding her head, she easily conveyed her disappointment as he helped her over towards Kayla and Matt. Looking back quickly he could see the smoke was beginning to thin out. Pulling out his only smoke, he hurled it down the street, a small trail of smoke falling to the ground as the canister fell to the ground. Standing up he led the remaining members of his squad, Chris and JJ, in the opposite direction to head towards the downed Pelican. As they walked through the streets, they continually looked to make sure the tank was nowhere nearby. After walking a few blocks north, Will took a knee on the sidewalk and looked through the thick haze that surrounded them, their vision hampered even more by the red light from the fires. Trying to make sure everything was clear, alarms started to blare in his ears as radiation levels began to skyrocket. Moving up towards the end of the sidewalk, he stopped when he saw what was happening. Sitting in the middle of the street was a ball of writhing blue energy. Bolts of energy would occasionally latch to another surface and drag along it, completely destroying whatever it touched. Slowly the radiation began to drop down as the energy began to coalesce in the middle of the street. No longer a loose ball of energy, it came into itself, the blots of energy keeping within itself until it was a blinding orb of light. Standing up, Will was not in the mood to be nearby if it started to do anything. But as he looked back, he could see JJ and Chris staring at what appeared to be another orb forming just a few blocks behind them. Shocked by the sudden blaring of alarms again, a feeling began to wash over him as the peril of their situation continued to become more and more apparent.
"Chris, get FleetComm, there's no way we can move."
"Affirmative."
Moving back to the corner, he watched the orb continue to boil in the air until in an eruption it was no longer there. Blowing him backwards, Will skidded across the street on his back, rifle between his legs. Looking at what had happened, he wasn't exactly sure as to what he was looking at. Replacing the orb was what almost seemed like a window that spanned the entire street. Peering inside, he could see the dark interiors of something large. Down at street level, something moved and caught his eye. Putting his zoom onto his HUD in a picture in picture display, he could clearly make out the shape of a Forerunner soldier. Pressing down the trigger, rounds began to fly towards it, impacting on his shielded helmet. Emptying out his clip, he got up as fast as possible and ran towards JJ and Chris who were torn between watching the second orb and what had just happened.
"Negative on getting the channel, I'm not even getting static like all of the other channels. It's completely dead."
"Get inside, NOW!" he said, completely ignoring his report on the channel. Dipping his shoulder, he charged through the glass, shattering it into a million pieces. Heading towards the stairwell, another shockwave rippled down the street as the second orb stabilized. At that exact moment, radiation levels skyrocketed again as a bright light came from a third street, directly across from the first portal. Slamming open the door, his feet pounded into the concrete steps, the three Spartans sprinting up the stairs.\
"If you don't mind me noting, this isn't the smartest tactical move we could've made," Chris noted only half sarcastically.
"There's nowhere else for us to go, they're boxing us in." Continuing up the stairs, they had reached the thirty-ninth floor before going onto it. Walking into the deserted offices, they slowly moved about in the barren and uninviting maze of cubicals and computer stations. Moving towards the windows, Will looked through the haze and smoke to see a large group of Forerunner moving around outside of the building. Intermingled with the infantry were large tanks, hovering above the ground. Sporting a single, flattened out cannon, they hovered on two blades, the engines built into the rear. All the while, more infantry poured out of the portals, some moving away from the buildings while most began to situate themselves into the four large columns stretching away from the intersection below. "Someone important is coming..." Will said out loud, although to no one in particular. "Chris, do you have mines?"
"Uhh...yeah, I've got a few."
"Alright, put them in the stairwell a few floors down. JJ, jerry rig some grenades to be used as booby traps. Once Chris is back, put them right outside of the door." Both of the Spartans physically acknowledged his commands and sat about doing their work. Switching of all broadcasts except for outside bands, he began hailing everyone and anyone. "This is Spartan-Oh-Four-Three...Fallen Angel, I repeat, Fallen Angel." Reluctantly, he enacted the protocol for soldiers in danger of being over run. Desperately hoping for some kind of air support, he watched all of the channels for some kind of response. "This is Spartan-Oh-Four-Three. We are pinned down behind enemy lines with a large concentration of at least four hundred troops in our immediate vicinity, supported by heavy armor." Taking a deep breath, he walked back towards JJ who suddenly stood up and threw something.
"Live grenade!" ducking out of the way, the grenade exploded in a flash of brilliant golden light, shattering panes of glass and shredding nearby desks. Bolting up, he looked over at JJ.
"What the hell happened!"
"I'm not sure, the detonator just turned on when I was trying to remove it." Walking back towards a spider webbed window, he looked down to a see soldiers running into the building. "Shit... Chris, get up here now, you're going to be having company soon."
"Almost finished, I'll be there in a few seconds."
"Negative, that was a direct order!" Chris didn't respond and Will knew it would be no use trying to convince him to come up. Looking out, Will could see a transport heading towards their position. Not recognizing it as one of their own, he watched it fly by and make it's slow descent to the ground. Similar to the ones he had scene on Thandon, Will felt something tugging at his body and his soul.
"I'm done, coming up...whoa, there are a lot of baddies heading our way." Bringing up a picture in picture of what Chris was seeing, the helmet camera was pointed down the stairwell, muzzle flashes illuminating the stairwell silently. As the Forerunner came closer and closer, their return fire grew heavier and heavier, blowing chunks of concrete off as well as melting the metal railings. In complete disbelief, Will rushed into the stairwell and could see Chris a few floors below him. Looking down the dizzying space to the ground floor, he saw a Forerunner down at the bottom of it, a large weapon in his hand. Only reacting to the bright flash it emitted, Will dove against a wall as it impacted below him. Rocking the ground he was standing on, his vision was obscured by a cloud of concrete floating in the air. Moving down the steps cautiously, he finally saw a large chunk of the stairs and surrounding wall blown away, exposing the pipes and and electrical work in between floors. Listening to the sound of pouring water and footsteps, he tried to locate Chris from the farthest point he could go. Bringing up his team's statuses, Chris's vitals were almost non-existent. Swearing under his breath, he switched to his thermal vision, always wary of the red dots on his motion tracker growing steadily larger. Finally, in a pile of rubble, two floors down, he spotted a warm object.
"Chris, what's your status?" he said urgently. No response. Spotting a Forerunner just a few floors below Chris, he let out a burst of gunfire, causing it to duck for cover before firing off a burst of return fire. Looking back at Chris with his thermal vision still on, he could see a large stream of warm blood flowing away from his body. Firing off another burst, Will frantically looked for some way to get to Chris in some vain attempt at saving his life. But just as he was about to jump down to him, an alarm began to blare in his ears as Chris's EKG monitor flashed red as it flatlined. Clenching his jaw, Will turned the alarm off and hurried back up the stairs. Just before he moved into the office, an explosion rocked the stairwell as the mines went off, his final contribution to Humanity. Looking over at JJ who had the grenade traps ready to be set, he motioned for him to move. "Put them randomly as we go up." The two Spartans ran up the stairs, stopping every so often to place a trap. All the while, he used Chris's camera to try and figure out what the Forerunners were doing to avoid the obstacle they had created. After a few minutes his view was obscured and he shut off the picture. It was only a matter of time before they would get up and only a little longer until they made their last stand. Finally reaching the top floor, the eighty-third, they ran up through the maintenance ways till they made it to the roof top. Opening up the door to the gravel top, they were buffeted by the natural winds as well as those generated by the firestorm that raged throughout the city. Adding an oddly beautiful element to the hell they were in, fragile snowflakes whipped around them before being lost to the black and red clouds that obscured the ground below. "This is Spartan-Oh-Four-Three, we are severely diminished in strength and are facing vastly superior numbers right now. We request immediate assistance now!" Shaking his head at the lack of response, he looked over at JJ who was rummaging through his bag.
"Oh...you've gotta be kidding me," he said, laughing. Raising his arm into the air, Will had a hard time at first making out what he was holding. Then, his eyes attracted to the whipping end, he could see a high strength tether grasped in his hands like some kind of grand trophy. Moving closer, he watched as JJ produced another one.
"Why do you have these?"
"I had them from Thandon. Didn't clean out my bag, just tossed more things in. Good thing now..." Walking over to the edge, Will looked down the side of the building in hopes of seeing some place they could repel to. Turning around, JJ had already begun to tie them together. Moving over the edge, Will kept his rifle and his attention focused on the entrance to the rooftop as JJ anchored the rope down. Waiting for him to begin heading down, he looked over to see JJ grabbing his rifle again, then shouldering it.
"You go first, I can hold them off if they come up. Without you, our squad will be leaderless," Pausing for a second, he then spoke again. "Without out...we won't survive at all." Like with Chris, there was no point in arguing because it would be both of their deaths. Standing up, he walked over to JJ and took his hand tightly, nodding ever so slightly. Then going over to the tether he hooked himself onto it and swung his legs over the side. Sliding down the rope, he kicked off of the windows carefully so that he wouldn't break them. As he was going down, JJ would give a progress report of the situation or would make a short comment about something insignificant. Then, his attitude shifted. "If I hadn't messed up with that grenade, they probably never would've come after us, or at least not that soon. So if they hadn't come after us, Chris would've had time to come back up and we could've waited till help came," laughing as one does when resigned to their fate, he continued on. "We wouldn't have to be doing this either, me stuck up here, you dangling in the air. Hmm, well, everything happens for a reason I guess. Beating of a Butterfly's wings causing a typhoon shit?I just wish I could've told-," cutting himself off, he snapped out of his reminiscing. "They triggered the last grenade. I'd say I've got about thirty seconds till they come through." Looking down below, Will could see a sky bridge only thirty feet below him.
"Get on right now and just slide all of the way down, I'm over an exit right now."
"Negative on that, they'll know someone escaped. And seeing as they know of only two Spartans, they'll never come looking for you." Releasing his grip, Will planted his feet onto the glass ceiling with a thud.
"Alright, I made it down...good luck up there."
"Mmm, will do. Over and out." Listening to the comm channel crackle out was like listening to a death sentence being read. Over head, gunshots rang out, slowly echoing down towards him. Just then the rope slammed into the sky bridge before sliding off the edge to the street. Moving over towards the concrete joint on the bridge, he pressed his body against it to try and stay as concealed as possible. Almost as fast as the shooting started, it stopped. Listening to the sounds of the battle from around the city, he was startled when his comm channel fizzed for a few seconds. Adding to his surprise was the fact that it was coming fro JJ.
"Been a long time since we've spoken Will." The voice he heard, though, pierced his body like a million frozen daggers. "Forty years, no?"
"What do you want?" he responded monotonously.
"What everyone wants. Power. With each step I take, each breath I take, I move closer and closer to exterminating humanity from the face of the universe."
"You'll still be left, going to turn your guns on yourself then?"
"Hahaha, you wish. I think we'll speak very soon though so I'll let you get going, wherever you are." With the sound of a gunshot, their conversation was over. Standing frozen, he jerked back to awareness when a body slammed onto the corner of sky bridge before falling into the clouds again. Sliding down to the ground, he sat staring forward, suddenly feeling completely alone and afraid for the first time in his life.