Hunted

Enstahn ran as fast as he could. His lungs begged for air, muscles screamed for rest, and yet he heard them still coming.

He fled down the path, sprinting towards the village. He could see smoke rising in the distance.

He rounded the final bend, he could see the buildings, he made it.

He called out to his uncle, "Saka, help!"

He ran to the town's center but was not prepared for what he found. The corpses of many littered the square. No one came to his cry.

He heard another clatter of footsteps behind him, and fear gave flight to his legs. Once more he ran, this time across the bridge and into the forest. Again, the sounds of popping tree nuts came from behind and another series of objects whistled past his head this time closer and to his left. He veered away from the whistling, pushing himself faster. Branches slapped his face, thorns scratching his skin, and yet his pursuers still came.

Nothing could stop them, all fell before them, his uncles, his mother, his siblings, none were spared. The old, the young, the strong, the weak, none were spared.

His mind reeled, why were they after him, what did they want? He searched for a refuge. He tripped, fell, and skidded in the dirt. Pain, it burned in his legs. "Not now," he pleaded, "not now."

He struggled to move, stumbled to his feet, fighting the pain, and still he ran.

His eyes fell upon a fallen tree, hollowed by time and nature, and dove in. He crawled to the back and dug in the dirt, desperation grasped his mind, and he hurried to cover himself.

The sounds drew closer. He held his breath. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the sounds passed. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, the sounds faded. 11, 12, 13, 14, Enstahn allowed a shallow breath, the air damp and musty and yet so sweet.

His mind wandered to that morning, before this nightmare, before the meteors, before they came.

The morning was bright in the clearing. The forest was still, wildlife was singing, and the river bubbled. His mother and the other females were prepping the beast his uncles had hunted the day before. He and his siblings dueled each other with sticks.

Then the radio flashed, and an image appeared. His uncle Saka, the village elder, went and read the message. He saw his uncle's expression change from relaxed and happy to serious. Saka then rang the village bell, signaling an important message to the village. When they had gathered around him, he spoke. "A message has come from the nearby outpost. they have detected a small group of objects falling from orbit, that they believe to be a meteor cluster. This is a special opportunity, as most meteors fall far from populated areas and, thus, this is a rare sight." He pointed towards the horizon opposite the suns' rise, and said, "they will soon be visible."

All eyes were on the sky. They waited, then they saw what looked like balls of fire. They started small then gradually grew. They arced through the sky, burning a path from the heavens to the ground. Orbs of fire, varying in size, and about nine in total. They soon disappeared behind the trees. When they were gone, his uncle spoke again, "When you hear explosions do not worry, that will be the sounds of the meteors' landing."

A minute later several large booms were heard and the ground shook.

Saka then gathered five of the strongest and brightest of the village and sent them to scout the impact and, if possible, bring back a piece. The five took three land and two air vehicles and left at once. The young crowded the elders, excitement in their voices, asking questions about what they had seen.

Around noon the (radio) flashed again. This time it was the scouting party. They had found only five craters and were waiting for the rocks to cool. The two in the air were searching for the other impacts. When they signed off Enstahn noticed that his uncle looked puzzled.

About midafternoon a single air unit was sighted. It was trailing smoke and was flying erratically. Its landing was not the graceful swoop he was used to seeing, but a nosedive into the ground and it scraped to a stop. Several of the elders had rushed to the craft and lifted the pilot out. The pilot was panicked and yelling, and Enstahn could see that he was wounded and bleeding. The elders rushed him into the townhouse and close the door.

Everyone could hear the wounded pilot scream in pain and yelling incoherently. Saka came out of the townhouse and quickly went to the radio and called the outpost. Something was clearly wrong already, but this crushed any remaining doubt. Saka never called the outpost; they always took care of things on their own.

His uncle then began yelling orders, and things happened fast. The strong and the warriors donned armor and weapons. The females gathered the young and led them down the path to the caves, where they usually took shelter when there was a severe storm. Enstahn went to the armory, grabbed his armor and weapon, and went to join his brothers, but a hand on his shoulder held him back. He looked up to see his uncle's grim face. "No, young warrior, you go with your siblings. Defend your mother and the young. We will face this threat."

"But uncle," he started to say.

But Saka had shook his head. "No, that is an order young Enstahn. stay and defend, we will be back. You are not ready for this yet. Be strong."

"Yes uncle," Enstahn paused, "and fight with honor."

Saka smiled, patted his shoulder then called the warriors together. "Brothers, we face an unknown threat. The enemy has attacked without honor. We shall show them how real a warrior fight."

The warriors cheered and raised their weapons. And then all hell broke loose, and the nightmare began.

The Hunters

A sound like a rush of wind came from behind, and a streak of fire sailed over their heads and exploded against the townhouse. A second streak of fire flew through the doorway of the armory and blue fire and smoke roared out the door. When the warriors turned towards the source of the attack, Enstahn saw flashes of yellow light from the tree line, and a sound like tree nuts popping in fire. Some of the warriors fell as their skin was torn by an invisible force, their blood splattering their comrades and staining the dirt blue.

Fear entered his mind, as Enstahn saw the warriors die, but anger quickly flooded in.

The warriors returned fire, flashes of blue and green globs flew towards the tree line and shredded the trunks and shrubbery. The yellow flashes stopped and the warriors, wasting no time charged towards the forest.

Enstahn became aware that someone was shaking him. He shook his head trying to clear the haze that seemed to cover his eyes. He found himself staring into his uncle's eyes. The elder was pointing in the direction his mother and the others had gone. Saka's mandibles were moving but Enstahn could not hear him. Then his uncle mouthed three words that Enstahn understood. "Go, defend and mother." He nodded, turned, and ran down the path.

As he ran down the path to the caves, Enstahn's hearing came back. He heard the sounds of battle slowly fade behind him, and the fear came back. He had much to fear. He had never been in combat, never killed anyone, and had only ever practiced shooting at targets. He also feared failure and bringing dishonor to his family and clan, and of course fear of the unknown.

He ran for what felt like hours, desperate to find his mother and the others. He came to a fork in the trail and turned right towards the caves. He ran till he saw the opening in the cliffside, only then did he slow to a walk. He whistled a tune he had been taught since birth, a tune that only his clan would recognize, and waited. There was no response, perhaps they didn't hear him. He approached the cave entrance, took a deep breath, and whistled again. He heard nothing, then a soft moan reached his ears. As he peered into the darkness his eyes suggested, only then did he see the horror.

Blood stained the walls and had pooled on the floor. Going from the pool into the caves was a pair of tracks he did not recognize. And on the left side of the entrance the tracks lead back out. Concerned he called out for anyone to respond. When he once again heard nothing, he took a breath and readied his weapon and ventured into the caves. He did not have to go far, rounding the first bend, he saw nothing but carnage. Everyone who had left the village was dead, their mangled corpses littered the ground. Enstahn felt sick to his stomach, and the smell of copper filled his nostrils, he turned and ran from the caves. Once he was outside his stomach got the better of him, he leaned over and vomited. When his stomach was empty, he sat by the entrance and cried quietly to himself.

He sat there for a few minutes thinking what to do, if he went back to the village, he would have to tell his uncle that his mother and everyone else was dead, and that he had failed. He did not know what scared him more, the thought of him admitting to his uncle he had failed, or the thought of confronting the monster that had did this.

He finally steeled himself and stood up and decided to go back to his uncle. Maybe at the very least his uncle would see that his nephew was too young and inexperienced to do anything and was lucky to be alive. He made his way back to the fork in the road, turned left and began making his way back to the village.

He was walking along lost in his thoughts when he tripped. Just as he fell, he heard a crack like thunder from behind him and something whistled as it passed over his head. He turned to see what had caused the sound, and dread filled his mind. There at the fork in the road stood four dark figures, their skin a mottled pattern of gray and black. One had what seemed like a weapon raised, and a small billow of smoke rose from the tip. Another of the figures raised its arm, pointed towards him, and roared. At that, all four began running at him. He panicked as fear flooded his mind, and his body moved without thinking. He leapt into motion and sprinted as fast as he could towards the village. And the four black figures followed.

From the relative safety of the log, Enstahn's mind tried to make sense of what had happened. He thought of the village and a thought occurred, had the warriors survived? Was anyone left? He then thought of the caves, and he became sick again. Another thought occurred, what creature would attack females and the young?

A twig snapped nearby, and Enstahn froze. His mouth was dry, he listened for any sounds, and prayed to the gods to spare his life. Then something seemed to land on the log. With a sudden crack the log was ripped open, and Enstahn stared up at a dark looming figure. Before he could do anything, the figure grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. He tried to scream but the grip choked him. In desperation he grabbed the pistol on his belt lifted it and fired directly into the creature's face. That stunned it, and with a grunt the figure released him. Enstahn crumbled to the ground and gasped for air but was suddenly lifted from behind. He craned his neck to look, and his heart sank. A second figure had him by his armor and the other two were behind the second, and what was left of his courage evaporated. He felt tears slide down his face as he stared at the first figure, who reached to its waist and pulled a long sharp piece of metal out, a knife. He knew then that he was about to die. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his face and waited. But instead of pain, he felt a sensation of being twirled in the air. He opened his eyes to see the figure that had a hold of him had handed him to a third figure while the latter smacked the metal out of the others hand.

The third figure then took a length of rope and tied Enstahn's hands together. This was worse than death, death was a mercy and an honor, but capture? When the second figure finished with the first, it turned back and took Enstahn from the third, then slung him over his shoulder. The group then moved back to the trail, with Enstahn bouncing up and down as they moved. His mind raced as his thoughts turned to his position. Despite being terrified he had made some observations, the one carrying him appeared to be the leader and the group moved as a unit. He realized that, though he did not recognize them, they were soldiers and what he thought was skin he could feel was a suit of armor. Another observation was that though the groups armor was all colored black and grey, each member had different colored shoulders. The leader was red, the one who had tied him up was yellow, the third who had pulled the knife was blue, and the fourth was green.

When they reached the trail, the groups pace changed from a walk to a run, and he became uncomfortable. The group ran for what seemed like hours. When they finally stopped Enstahn felt bruised and beaten, but he had no time to feel his injuries as the leader set him on the ground. The third came up to him with the ropes again and tied his legs together, then threw a length of rope up and over a tree limb. He then tied the rope to Enstahn's wrists and hoisted him into the tree. Once up there the leader tied him to the trunk. Then the group left, and Enstahn was left alone to ponder his fate.

(About an hour later.)

He heard footsteps approaching, and soon the group of black figures appeared. The leader climbed the tree, and pulled a knife out, but instead of using it on him, the leader simply cut the rope that bound him to the tree, then grabbed him around the waist and jumped to the ground. The leader carried him up a hill and there, Enstahn saw a large purple structure with a large antenna array. The leader dropped him in the entrance to the structure, pulled the knife, and cut Enstahn's hands and legs free. Then the figure pointed inside and roared. Terrified Enstahn scampered inside. He looked back to see the figure turn and leave. Confused, he stopped, why had the figure simply let him go? Why did it not kill him? Perhaps, he thought they did what they came to do, had mercy on him and let him live. Nevertheless, he was free, and in a structure that seemed familiar to him. He suddenly realized he was quite hungry, and so he wandered further into the structure, in search of food.

Three days later.

Enstahn was alone and fear had started to creep in again, when he had entered the building the first night, he had found another massacre, both the corpses of his kin and Unggoy littered the structure. At first, he was scared to explore, but his hunger and will to survive drove him forward. He searched for hours until he found a storage crate filled with ration bars. He ate his fill then realized how tired he was. So, he found a spot and fell asleep.

For the next two days he had wandered the structure searching for survivors, water, weapons, or anything useful. By the third day he began to worry he was alone. But at noon of the third day, he heard dropship. Excited he ran to the exit and was nearly trampled by several soldiers running in. when he saw his own kind, he felt relief and joy, and with a cheer he hugged the lead around the waist. He was safe.

Epilogue

ONI Log #********-***

Subject: Debrief of Spartan-III Team Orange on mission to CLASSIFIED.

Mission Objectives: Recovery of Covenant fleet data.

Status: Complete

Casualties: None

Report: Team leader "Blitz"

Insertion went smoothly and our cover as part of a meteor group was successful. We contacted a small scout party around noon and was able to destroy three ghosts and a banshee, but unfortunately one banshee got away but with heavy damage. We pursued the banshee hoping to stop it before it warned anyone else but came across a village where it had landed. We paused long enough to produce a plan of attack. Orange-2 and I would attack the village head on with rockets and assault rifles, while Orange-3 and Orange-4 would flank the village from behind. We waited 5 minutes, and then Orange-2 fired two rockets into the village, one striking the side of a large building, while the other went inside the armory and destroyed their ammo reserves. Immediately after we sprayed the large crowd with fire and used two grenades each. We were lucky that they had not activated their shields yet, and we were able to kill all of them quickly.

When we had finished with the village, I realized that Orange-3 and Orange-4 We're not at the village. When we pinged them for locations, we realized that they were several kilometers from us. Because we were under orders for radio silence, we did not attempt communication. Instead, I called up a topographical image from our insertion, and marked a spot on a map as a rendezvous point, that spot was a junction of trails.

When we got there, Orange-3 and Orange-4 were waiting for us. That was when we learned that they had spotted a group of elites running from the village and followed them to some caves and made sure there were no witnesses. While we were discussing, we heard footsteps approaching our location. We watched as a lone and young elite ran past us and went towards the caves. Orange-3 wanted to eliminate him as well, but I told him that since the young elite had not seen us, we should prioritize the comms tower. We argued about it for a lot longer than we should have. By the time we were done I realized that 3 was probably right, so I told them to stay put and that I would take care of it. Before I could move though the young elite came back from the caves and headed towards the village.