Battle of the Ruins - Fireteam Eagle
Snake crouched low amongst the lush, wetland vegetation. Small moths and fireflies buzzed around him, occasionally signaling to one another with their bioluminescence while crickets filled the void with their orchestra of chirps. The air itself had a fine, light mist, further obscuring the night sky. This was Venom Snake's element. Large ferns and wild grass carpeted the ground, while massive trees the size of Redwoods shot up to the sky, fading into the night.
For a survival and espionage expert like Snake, this combat zone was made for him. He couldn't help but smile, remembering his adventures in both Tselinoyarsk and Angola. He remembered swimming his way through crocodile infested waters, only to get covered in leeches, and dueling against Eli on his waterborne fortress. No, wait. He never went to Tselinoyarsk. That was the real Big Boss, his original. The phantom now known as Venom Snake only shook his head. That distinction didn't matter anymore. He was also the Big Boss, so the original's memories were his as well.
So Snake pushed on with the rest of Fireteam Eagle, Thane, Pyrrha, and Sarah, in tow. Raising a fist, he signaled the rest of them to stop. Everyone froze as Snake peered through the scope of his assault rifle. This being a combat focused mission, Snake eschewed the use of his sniper rifle and sneaking suit, instead wearing his fully armored battle dress while using a heavily modified UN-ARC rifle and Killer Bee Rocket launcher. The rifle sported a drum magazine, foregrip, enhanced scope, and longer barrel for greater accuracy. Beside him, Thane held his standard M-97 Sniper Rifle while Pyrrha clutched her mechashift weapon close. Sarah, on the advice of Galen, swapped out her normal gatling laser for a minigun and more 5mm rounds than a normal human could carry, along with a UNSC issue rocket launcher just in case.
Snake could see a clearing nearby that housed their objective. With the strange ruins in sight, Snake observed what few enemies he could around the pyramid. Two Imperial Stormtroopers stood at attention at the entrance to the Pyramid, giving looks of thinly veiled revulsion at the aliens patrolling the perimeter. The Covenant patrol squad consisted of a single brute minor, along with a jackal, and four grunts. Hardly an elite team of sentries. In addition, a few dark grey, collapsible, durasteel barricades were placed about, to give them cover they could quickly fall behind.
"Is it just me, or do their defenses seem rather... sparse." Pyrrha whispered to the others in a hushed tone.
"Don't worry Red it was the first thing I noticed too." Sarah murmured before leaning to Snake. "What do you think Boss? Ambush?"
Snake looked at the surrounding foliage. He saw no movement save for the swaying of the wind, and a double take with thermal sights revealed nothing as well.
"I don't think so. They must have a skeleton guard on the surface so they don't draw too much attention. Majority of their force is probably either underground or stationed nearby for a close range redeployment." The Boss inferred.
Chambering his assault rifle, Snake aimed at the Jackal and Grunts before giving his orders. "Lyons, cut down the brute. Nikos, Krios, you're on the stormtroopers. I'll handle the rest. On my mark."
"Affirmative." They all responded in unison.
Patiently, Snake watched the grunts bounding around, plopping their way through the damp swampland, until for a brief moment, three grunts lined up in front of him.
"Mark!" Snake cried as he opened fire. His assault rifle cut through the grunts swiftly, blue blood and methane spraying into the air.
Without hesitation his allies let loose as well. With a mighty battlecry that was only outdone by the BRRRT of her minigun, Sarah Lyons annihilated the brute that was caught completely unaware. Meanwhile, both stormtroopers slumped on the ground, their heads now sporting new holes courtesy of the assassin and the huntress.
The exterior now clear of hostiles, Fireteam Eagle pushed forward to fully secure it. Snake and Pyrrha began moving the durasteel barricades into rows of defensive walls to protect the entryway to the ruins, while Thane and Sarah placed frag mines along the obvious avenues of approach.
As they were setting up these defenses, their comrades of Fireteam Raven arrived, armed to the teeth and ready for action. Shepard, armed with her N7 Crusader and her N7 Tempest SMG, traded nods with Snake as she led her team into the ruins. It didn't even take a full minute for Snake to hear gunfire and alien screams from within the pyramid.
"We've kicked the hornets nest down here Snake, you guys better get ready for incoming." Shepard called out over the comms.
Snake called both Pyrrha and Sarah over to him, the trio planning on holding the defensive line at the gate. Thane, being the stealthy assassin he is, moved out to the forest, climbing the trees and moving to a hidden position a hundred feet up amongst the canopy. Another minute of waiting passed until the electronic hum of Imperial dropships could be heard in the distance. Soon enough, the inverted Y design of a squadron of Lambda-class Imperial shuttles came into view as Imperial reinforcements begun their assault.
The first Imperial Shuttle hovered directly in the clearing adjacent to the ruins. From its belly an entry hatch hissed open as two front facing laser cannons opened fire upon Fireteam Eagle's position. The legionnaires ducked behind cover as bolts of hypercharged plasma flew at them. Meanwhile, ropes descended from the shuttle as stormtroopers rappeled down into the swamp.
Snake spread out, moving laterally to get some distance between him and Sarah, dividing the shuttle's attention. Seeing the Boss switch to his Killer Bee, Lyons did the same, drawing her own rocket launcher. The air around them grew hazy as the temperature spiked from the suppressing blaster fire. But such heat would not bother a Brother of Steel clad in full T-45d power armor as Sarah launched two rockets at the Imperial shuttle.
The first rocket exploded several feet from the dropship, crashing on its deflector shields. The second failed in a similar fashion, the damaged blocked by a glowing blue barrier that began to sputter and die from the repeated attacks. This was all the opportunity Snake needed to fire his own missiles at the Imperials. The shuttle attempted to swerve, dodging out of the way of projectiles, but unfortunately the Killer Bee's rockets were smart missiles, locking on and following the ship. The missiles slammed into the outer hull, breaching it, and set one of its engines alight.
The ion engines flickered and died as the flames spread along the exterior. The ship began a slow about face, trying to limp away, when two more rockets courtesy of a reloaded Sentinel Lyons slammed into the aft of the ship. The shuttle was sent into a death spiral, crashing into spongy, swamp ground. It wasn't an explosive crash landing that Sarah had hoped for, and many of the passengers were probably still alive. But the ship was down nonetheless, and the other approaching shuttles gave the ruins a wide berth, opting to drop their payloads away from any anti-air fire.
The initial stormtroopers that were dropped off by the first shuttle scrambled, running for cover amongst the flora as they returned fire. Pyrrha attempted to snipe them, firing Miló from behind cover while protecting her face with Akoúo̱. But the stormtroopers were quick despite all of their body armor. They would dive and go prone, making themselves difficult targets regardless of their white coloration. As Snake and Sarah switched back to their automatic weapons following the shuttle's downing, a deadly crossfire formed between the two sides. The foliage and cover made it difficult for Fireteam Eagle to score confirmed kills, while suppressing automatic fire combined with Pyrrha's sharpshooting made it impossible for the stormtroopers to advance.
But if the Empire had one advantage in its world and this one, it's that numbers were almost always on their side. Soon enough, stormtrooper platoons from the shuttles that landed further in the swamp arrived to relieve their beleaguered brothers. These fresh soldiers all took their places firing at the Legion. When one trooper would get cut down by minigun fire or dust rounds, two more would take his place, and the Legion did not have an unending supply of ammunition.
Unbeknownst to the stormtroopers however, a predator lay in wait. Jumping from branch to branch, Thane hid within the canopy, lining up his scope. Both behind and above the Imperials, a quick pull of the trigger resulted in the swift, painless death of a stormtrooper. His target dead, Thane then leapt to another tree, constantly moving. By the time the Imperials on the ground realized that their ally had been shot, he was far from his original position, already hunting his next quarry.
It became a game of cat and mouse. Thane would assassinate a trooper, and his allies would all then turn and open fire at the treeline, hitting nothing but leaves and branches. The assassin continued to cause havoc behind enemy lines, forcing a squad sergeant to place two fingers to his ear, calling out for help on the radio.
"Sir! We have an unknown contact in the canopy! We can't get a bead on him and he's tearing us apart!" The sergeant yelled.
About two hundred meters from the sergeant's position, a shadow stormtrooper received the call for aid. Holding up his fist, he gave a hand signal. Quickly two stormtroopers sprang forward; wielding heavy repeating blasters, they opened fire on the canopy. They did not care for knowing where Thane actually was, but instead used their overwhelming firepower to destroy nearly everything above their allies. It was a textbook example of overkill, and it worked perfectly.
The suppressing fire forced Thane to move and hunker down behind the trunk of a large tree, hoping a stray shot wouldn't hit him. But the Shadow stormtrooper was not done yet. Signalling a scout trooper next to him, the scout crept forward, pulling out a thermal camera. Scanning the treeline for any humanoid heat signatures, the scout eventually zeroed in on the mysterious assassin's position. Pointing him out to the Shadow Stormtrooper, the commando then signaled a shocktrooper forward, gesturing to the location. The shocktrooper swiftly ran out, kneeling amongst the grass, wielding a high yield rocket launcher.
Pulling on the trigger, the missile flew at Thane, who barely saw the explosive coming as he peaked from his cover. Thane knew that the tree wouldn't be able to protect him from rocket, either the explosion or the shrapnel would kill him. So he did the only thing that made sense, he jumped out of the tree.
With a blisteringly hot explosion trailing behind him, the shockwave knocked him forward, sending him tumbling forward through the air like a ragdoll. Thane tried to correct himself and catch a nearby branch, but he only wound up smashing his ribcage along the limb, piercing his side and knocking the air out of his lungs as he then fell to the ground.
As he hit the ground, there was a distinctive cracking sound he usually only heard when breaking someone's neck. Looking down, his saw his leg was twisted and swollen, something definitely broken within it. Thane then felt all the associated pain that comes with a broken limb as he quickly slapped medi-gel onto it, soothing the pain and stopping the bleeding. As Thane tried to steady himself and limp away, bolts of red energy flew around him as the Stormtroopers had arrived to finish off the shadow that was plaguing them.
Seeing their companion against the ropes, Snake called out to Pyrrha. "Nikos! Get him out of there!" He shifted his position and held trigger down in a fully automatic frenzy to give Thane covering fire.
"On it!" She returned, switching Miló to spear from and raising Akoúo̱ high to protect her face and torso.
Forcing her aura into her legs, Pyrrha rocketed from her position. The stormtroopers could barely follow as she covered the distance between her and Thane in seconds. She stood over Thane, Akoúo̱ covering both of them as she bent down to pick up Thane. But as she moved to aid her friend, Pyrrha felt a searing heat on her back as she was knocked forward. She grunted as she fell forward, landing on her hands and knees. A quick peek at her HUD indicated her aura was at 76%, a lot of damage for a single hit.
She turned to see that a Shadow Stormtrooper decloaking, apparently hiding in wait to ambush whoever would be foolish enough to come for Thane. The shadow stormtrooper leveled his light repeater and opened fire on Pyrrha. She quickly raised her shield, deflecting the first few shots. Akoúo̱'s surface became red hot and charred black as it blocked the repeated blaster fire. With a quick twirl she then threw Miló with a recoil enhanced boost. The spear flew faster than the commando could react, piercing his breastplate, eviscerating and pinning him to a tree.
The shadow stormtrooper could only gurgle blood as Pyrrha used her polarity to recall her weapon. Helping Thane up, the duo began making their way back to the defensive line. They moved in staggered lines, weaving back and forth to avoid the mines they had placed down previously. However, they were so focused on avoiding mines and blaster fire, that they hadn't noticed the rhythmic quaking the ground made behind them.
Without warning, the retreat in front of them was cut off by heavy blaster fire, scorching the ground and sending dirt and smoke flying. From behind, an Imperial AT-ST bipedal walker chased them down. The duo spun and side stepped, trying to get out of sight from the vehicle as it attempted to incinerate them with continued blaster fire. With Pyrrha's aura low and Thane slowed from his leg injury, they knew that outpacing the walker would be near impossible.
As the flurry of crimson death grew closer, the duo's salvation came in the form of a whistling rocket that slammed into the hull of the AT-ST. The walker stumbled back, rotating to face the now higher priority hazard, the armored sentinel Sarah Lyons holding the literal smoking barrel.
The walker's laser cannons charged up once again, unleashing a volley at the sentinel's position instead. Sarah had an expression that could only be categorized as Oh Shit as both she and Snake dove backwards into the ruins while laser bolts tore apart their cover. The driver held down the trigger like a man possessed, caught in a blood frenzy as he unleashed a torrent of blaster fire at the ruins. He was so focused that he did not pay attention to the specific pattern the two Legionnaires beneath him were using to navigate the swamp. With a simple misstep, the AT-ST stepped directly onto a frag mine, blowing off its right leg and sending the machine crumbling to the ground.
The barrage now over, Sarah could now pop out of the ruins with a fully replenished rocket launcher.
"Smile you son of a bitch!" she cried out as she fired another rocket for the now immobile cockpit.
The AT-ST burst open with a fireball of destruction as Pyrrha and Thane made their way back to the ruins entrance. They threw a new medi-gel pack onto Thane's leg and chest, and he moved to the front of the ruins to give direct fire support while the others reinforced the damaged defensive barricades. From suppressing the standard stormtroopers to counter sniping scout troopers, Fireteam Eagle continued to hold this line, fighting against the numerically superior force.
As the battle continued on, a final Imperial Shuttle was heard descending on Fireteam Eagle's position. Unlike the others, this shuttle cared little for the Legion's anti-air defenses and hovered right above the ruins.
"I got this one." Sarah grunted as she aimed down her rocket launcher.
With a pull of the trigger she fired the rocket, expecting it crash against the deflector shields like the others, and readied to fire a second one to overload the barrier. However, to everyone's shock, the rocket did not burst upon the shields in a fiery detonation, but instead froze in place several meters away from the ship, struggling against some unknown force.
All of the Legion froze and looked up at the sight. As the metal of the rocket strained, it soon twisted and crumpled, exploding in place as the lower exit ramp of the shuttle opened up.
With a terrifying hiss, a single, blood red blade of light appeared from the darkness of the shuttle. The figure, wearing all black robes, with a matching hood and balaclava, sneered down at the insects below him, annoyed that he had been summoned to fight such weaklings.
The Dark Jedi leapt from the shuttle, slowly gliding down to the mire beneath. He arrived in a three point landing, and stood tall, eyeing the Legion up and down as they did the same to him. As they stared at one another, Venom Snake's eye widened as a familiar cyan mist gripped the battlefield. Soon enough, with familiar whooshing sound, two grey skinned, parasite enhanced Skulls super soldiers seemed to teleport to the Dark Jedi, flanking him.
The whole battlefield froze. For the Legion it was caution and wariness that kept them from moving. For the Imperial Stormtroopers it was straight fear at the sight of the Dark Jedi. None would act without orders from the acolyte.
The Dark Jedi smirked. Tilting his head to one of the Skulls he simply ordered, "Do it."
The Skulls stepped forward as black and cyan mist leaked from their bodies. Then the screaming began. Bodies of both living and recently killed stormtroopers convulsed, crying out in pain, twisting and contorting in inhuman positions. Then the raucous noises stopped as the stormtroopers slowly rose. They slowly limped forward, emitting similar cyan particles as the Skulls, their bodies turned ash grey underneath their hardsuits.
Pyrrha's jaw dropped. As much as she wanted to say she has grown since her first death, she felt an instinctual, primal fear as she saw what could only be described as an insult to life itself. Zombies, the undead, a twisted malformation and parody of what she fought to protect. Thane and Sarah grit their teeth and steeled their resolve. Unlike the huntress they had seen similar phenomenon before, reaper husks and feral ghouls respectively. But still, they knew the terror of the flood they were about to face.
Big Boss crouched down, and carefully loaded a fresh magazine into his rifle. His pulse quickened at the sight of his tormentors of a past life, but he would not show it. He didn't then, and he wouldn't now.
"Pyrrha." He spoke, pulling the teenagers attention from the walking dead. "Can you handle the Sith?"
Pyrrha's eyes widened as her mouth mimicked that of a fish out of water.
"Head in the game huntress! Can you take him?" Snake scolded, eye and weapon not leaving the new hostiles.
Pyrrha's eyes hardened as she shook her head to refocus. "I'll do what I must." She declared, shifting Miló to its sword form.
Snake nodded. "Sarah, Thane, take down the zombies, I'll handle the Skulls."
"Affirmative." they replied in chorus.
As just as quickly as the battlefield froze over, it erupted into chaos as the Boss fired his rifle, roaring, "Go!"
Pyrrha was the first to move, dashing from her cover once again to meet the Sith in hand to hand. Simultaneously the zombie stormtroopers staggered forward en masse, meeting hidden frag mines and hot lead as Sarah and Thane opened fire on them.
Having sparred many times with Galen and seen first hand the destructive capabilities of a lightsaber, Pyrrha did not wish to commit to a direct attack lest she destroy her own weapon. So instead of blindly charging with her sword, she abruptly stopped and raised her hands. The Dark Jedi raised an eyebrow in amusement as chunks of the destroyed AT-ST levitated behind him. Pyrrha howled as she threw her arms down, flinging the burning scrap towards the Sith.
The Dark Jedi turned, sensing the danger behind him, and raised his own hands calling upon the force to stop the debris. The metal groaned under the power of the forces as the Dark Jedi ripped control of the scrap from Pyrrha, sending it straight for the redhead.
Pyrrha leapt in the air, turning with a butterfly twist over the debris which hurtled passed her. But the Dark Jedi attempted to capitalize on this, and launched a savage horizontal slash the millisecond she landed. Straining her body and aura, she flipped backwards with a back handspring, dodging the attack.
With a motion developed through years of practice, Pyrrha mechashifted Miló to its rifle form mid-flip. As soon as she landed again, she fired off three rounds in rapid succession. But the Sith would not be surprised by such a tactic, and deflected each of the shots.
Hoping the catch the teenager by surprise, the Dark Jedi then threw his lightsaber at her, the prismatic buzzsaw seeking to take her head. To his surprise, the girl had chosen not to retreat with the attack but instead charged. As the blade moved to strike her, Pyrrha dropped to the ground with a slide tackle, causing the lightsaber to overshoot her. Her target now unarmed, Pyrrha let loose a mighty battle cry and attacked with her blade.
Pyrrha lunged for the Sith Acolyte, cutting towards the body and following up with a thrust towards his face. With his foresight enhanced reflexes, it was a simple matter for the Dark Jedi to slip both attacks. But with a quick pivot she bashed him in the chest with her shield, too fast for even his enhanced senses. The Dark Jedi staggered back as Pyrrha planted her foot into his sternum. However instead of kicking him backwards, she used him as a springboard to kick off of, backflipping in the air once again, dodging the lightsaber that was on its return trip from behind.
The Dark Jedi would not be stepped on so lightly. With an annoyed grimace, he sent a stream of lighting towards the huntress while she was mid jump. Pyrrha screamed as electricity coursed through her body. Gritting her teeth, she focused through the pain, summoning her polarity and creating a magnetic field around herself. She landed as the lightning began to deflect off her very being, her magnetism directing the electrons themselves away.
Pyrrha knew this wasn't working. Thinking back to the briefing, she briefly thought about the words Galen said, about mental interference. She ponders on which emotion she should use, but quickly decided on which would be the easiest.
Pyrrha roared once again, going for a direct charge with Miló shifting to a spear. The Sith smiled, raising his lightsaber to meet the attack, reaching out to her mind through the Force to sense where she would strike. But instead of discerning her intended target, his thoughts became confused with images of a goofy looking blonde teenager, wearing white and gold armor, crying as he blasted away in some kind of rocket propelled locker. Pyrrha's mind was bleeding guilt for leaving her friends and loved ones behind at Beacon.
With a thrust directed straight for his throat, Pyrrha moved for a killing blow. The Dark Jedi snapped out of his confusion, and barely leaned to the side, swinging his blade to cut her weapon in half. But as he moved his blade to parry, Pyrrha spun Miló in her fingers, transforming it into a xiphos held in a reverse grip, and cut across the Dark Jedi's chest. The Dark Jedi howled as Pyrrha finally drew blood. She pushed forward, dashing to the Sith's exposed flank and slashing him once again.
Snarling, the Sith counterattacked, wildly bringing his lightsaber down on Pyrrha's head. The tournament champion instinctively brought her shield up to protect herself. Within milliseconds the shield once again began to glow red hot, searing her arm and threatening to melt. So Pyrrha pirouetted backwards, regaining a few feet of distance while changing Miló to rifle form.
Pyrrha fired a dust round at near point blank right for his gut. But even at such a distance, the Sith spun his lightsaber in a defensive twirl, his hate now boiling over. Pyrrha moved to charge once more, but stopped as she felt a suffocating pressure grip itself around her throat. She gasped, dropping her sword and bringing her hand to her throat. She saw the Sith, holding out his own hand, sadistically smiling as she began to levitate off of the ground as he force choked her. Pyrrha kicked and struggled, unable to focus on anything as blackness crept into her vision. She felt tears run down her face as her very life was strangled from her.
"You bastaaaard!" A warcry screamed from behind Pyrrha as her hearing was overwhelmed with BRRRRRRRRRRRRT.
Sarah Lyons, leaving her position in the doorway to help Pyrrha, unleashed a hail of minigun fire towards the Dark Jedi. The Sith hissed in annoyance, bringing both hands to his lightsaber. Pyrrha fell to the ground, both hands on her throat, desperately gasping for air. He spun the blade wildly, deflecting as many bullets as he could. And had it been blaster bolts he had been blocking he might've been able to stop all of them. But the speed and amount of slugs flying through the air were too much, and partially melted slag hit him in the thigh and shoulder.
With a pained grimace, the Dark Jedi reached through the force and yanked Sarah, pulling her towards him. Sarah stumbled forward, the Sith's telekinesis overpowering her powered armor servos. The Sith moved forward as well, lightsaber raised. Sarah tried to recover, raising her minigun to blast the acolyte away.
But he was faster, much faster. With a single movement the Dark Jedi sliced the barrels off of the minigun, leaving only a hot-orange stub of molten metal. He then pirouetted, spinning his lightsaber, and plunged the energy blade right into the stomach of Sarah Lyons.
Sarah gasped out as the Dark Jedi drove the blade deeper, melting its way through her armor.
"NOOOOO!" Pyrrha cried out as she watched the Sith impale her friend.
Pyrrha saw red. Overcome with grief and fury she dashed for the Dark Jedi, both hands on her sword, going straight for a killing blow. It was a swift, powerful strike aimed to split his head in half. But the Sith only turned to her and smirked, withdrawing the lightsaber from her friend and parrying the rage fueled direct attack. Pyrrha's eyes went wide as she saw the top half of Miló fall in front of her, melted in half by the crimson blade. Rage was replaced by fear and regret as she looked back up to the Sith, now poised to drop a finishing blow.
The huntress did not break eye contact with the Sith. She would die defiant in the face of her enemy. As the Sith moved to deliver the final blow, and resounding crack echoed in the air as a burst of red shot out of the Sith's side. Back in the ruins, Thane saw the trouble his comrades were in, and took a crack shot at the distracted Dark Jedi.
Not letting this opportunity go by, Pyrrha shot upwards. She gripped the wrist of the Dark Jedi, and focused all her anger and aura into her hand. Pyrrha felt the Sith's wrist shatter under the pressure of her superhuman grip. Pyrrha didn't even have to think of her next move as they were already drilled into her by the Boss.
While the Sith cried in pain, Pyrrha raised her leg, and let loose a devastating push kick towards his knee, breaking the entire leg as she kicked through it, bending completely backwards. The Dark Jedi fell forward, unable to support himself any longer as Pyrrha twisted his wrist, and with her offhand yanked the lightsaber free, disarming him completely. She then reversed the grip of the blade, let go of the limp wrist, and drove the lightsaber straight into the heart of the Dark Jedi.
The Sith looked at her. Fearful, surprised yellow eyes met cold, resolute emerald ones. With a gasp, the Dark Jedi slumped backwards, falling to the ground dead. Pyrrha briefly inspected the lightsaber, before deactivating it and holstering it on her belt. Quickly Pyrrha rushed to Sarah's side. She checked her pulse, slow, but there, just barely. Pulling out the medi-gel, she immediately began treating the stab wound. It was cauterized closed, but dealt significant damage to her internals.
"Stay with me Sarah, stay with me!" Pyrrha pleaded as she kept pumping medi-gel into her fallen comrade.
Snake could hear cries and gunfire from his comrades but he couldn't focus on it, not now. The super soldiers in front of him had his undivided attention. The two Skulls teleported around him, stopping only to raise their assault rifles and fire at him. Snake sprinted for cover, diving behind a tree to dodge the volley of gunfire.
Popping out, Snake fired an assault rifle burst at the Skulls. However, as the round flew out, they pinged off of the Skull's bodies, now hardened into metallic stone by the Metallic Archaea within them. Charging the metallic archaea into its hand, the Skull punched the ground, summoning massive metallic spikes that smashed their way to Snake. Waiting for the last second, Snake dove out of the way of the spikes, dodging the possible impalement. However the spikes then grew red-hot, before exploding and blasting the Boss to the side, pelting him with fragmentation.
The Boss rose from the ground, shaking his head clear from the explosion. But as he did, he could hear the familiar whoosh as a Skull dashed in front of him, and with a leaping strike attempted to execute the legendary soldier. Snake's body reacted instantly, his robotic arm parrying the machete to his side. Snake then stepped forward into the Parasite soldier, and with a twist of his robotic arm, ripped the machete from the Skull's hand. Snake pivoted to the outside, spinning around the Skull and ended up behind it. Machete in hand, Snake drove the corrosive archaea blade into the back of the Skull.
From the blindspot created by his eyepatch, Snake didn't notice that the second Skull was summoning a boulder of metallic archaea, levitating it in the air in front of it. The Skull smashed its fist into the boulder, sending it flying towards the Boss. Boss couldn't see it coming, but senses honed by decades of combat could feel it nonetheless. Grappling the Skull in front of him that was writhing in pain, Snake twisted and threw the supersoldier between himself and the boulder. The metallic archaea detonated in a massive explosion, shredding the Skull, but also throwing the Boss backwards, wounded further by the shrapnel and heat.
Meanwhile, Pyrrha was not having a good time. Sarah was stable for now, but she couldn't move her, not without help. A booming explosion caught her attention as she saw the Boss get blown out of a cloud of fire and smoke. She moved to go support him, but stopped when the groans of the undead sounded around her. She looked for the source, and saw that more stormtrooper zombies were making their way for her position. Looking down at her ruined weapon, Pyrrha frowned as she used her semblance to call a fallen stormtroopers blaster rifle to her. It was a small, carbine-sized rifle, an E-11 blaster if she remembered Six's weapon lessons right.
Like a mother cat protecting her cubs, Pyrrha knelt over Sarah's body, growling at the incoming enemies. She pulled the trigger for each uncauterized face she saw.
"You will not have them!" She screamed. No one. Not the Dark Jedi, not the Skulls, and not some damn zombies were going to take her friends away from her.
Snake stood up once more. He was bleeding from his face and arm, his battle suit punctured at several points. His head was ringing, color coming in and out of vision, meaning that the shrapnel in his head was probably aggravated. His mental stupor was broken when he was pelted by assault rifle fire. Snake looked up and saw the remaining Skull had tracked him down and began firing. Running on adrenaline and willpower, Venom Snake stood and ran, trying to dodge the bullets.
The Skull took a few steps towards Snake, when a sniper shot rang out, slamming into the armored form of the Skull. Turning towards the source, the Skull saw a limping Thane, who left the ruins as well to support his allies, clutching his sniper. Thane took another shot which pinged off of the Skull's head, damaging the metallic archaea but not breaking it.
Angered the Skull the moved towards Thane. Thane gave a small smirk as the Parasite soldier walked right into a frag mine. The explosion tore chunks into the Skull soldier's armor, but wasn't enough to put it down. Annoyed at being so easily baited, the Skull instead dashed at Thane with superhuman speed. It launched a series of cuts with its machete, that Thane struggled to dodge with his injury. Focusing his biotics into his hand, Thane shoved the Skull backwards, getting some much needed distance.
The Skull stumbled back and hissed, drawing its assault rifle, ready to mow the alien down. But a series of light beeps drew its attention. Turning its head, it saw its original quarry, the Big Boss, now moved to a new location aiming at the Skull with his Killer Bee rocket launcher. The Skull roared in defiance as the Boss pulled the trigger, delivering the high yield explosive payload right down the Skull's mouth.
The Skull burst apart, collapsing in a pile of burning meat and cybernetics. As the Skull burned, the cyan mist around the swamp began to dissipate, and the zombie troopers collapsed. Seeing the undead fall one by one, Pyrrha finally allowed herself to relax, as the battlefield seemed to be clear of hostiles. Swiftly Snake made his way to Pyrrha, and using his medic training from two lifetimes ago moved to treat Sarah.
Fireteam Eagle held the line, now all that was left was to hear from Fireteam Raven.
A/N: This was a fun battle to write up. Definitely the longest one so far since it's been broken up into two separate chapters.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone for reading, and if you enjoyed it please follow, favorite, and review! I'm trying to get better at responding to reviews, and feedback is always appreciated.
Also I got a new cover image that I quickly threw together in photoshop.