Sgt. Johnson pumped his shotgun, ejecting the spent shell that took off the head of a Brute that was charging him. Back in his universe, Johnson knew engaging a Brute in CQC was a tossup not in his favor, even with his shotgun. But with the upgraded T-45d power armor Sarah gave him, he was able to take a hit from the giant monkeys and return the favor in spades.
The fighting on Johnson's left flank had slowed to a crawl, turning into a grueling battle of trench warfare between the two sides. The Imperials and Covenant were too set in and Johnson's company didn't have the necessary armor and firepower to break through. But that was fine with the Marine. His job wasn't to wipe out the enemy he was facing, but to hold them back and keep them from flanking Tassadar's push in the center.
The brief moment Johnson had to recover was interrupted as several superheated spikes landed around him, one of them smacking into his left shoulder pauldron, only stopping due to the armor's Mass Effect barriers. Johnson looked at his shoulder in confusion. The angle of the spike, along with the matching angles of the spikes around him, showed that the attack came from above.
Looking up, Johnson saw a squad of Jump Pack Brutes, flying right for him. "Brutes, up high!" Johnson shouted, raising his shotgun as he blasted upwards.
The Geth around him all similarly raised their pulse rifles and opened fire as well. Several of the Brutes fell out of the sky, but the rest were able to maneuver their jump packs, dodging the gunfire and returning fire with their spikers. Several Geth around Johnson died as the spikes broke their mass effect barriers and pierced their platforms. The aerial attack forced Johnson to hunker down, picking up a destroyed piece of a metallic barrier with his enhanced strength and using it as a shield.
As a dozen super heated spikes impaled themselves into the sheet, the familiar crack of a revolver rang out, followed by the sounds of bodies hitting the ground. Peering past the barrier, Johnson saw the dead Brutes and dropped his makeshift shield.
"I have to say." a voice snarked from behind Johnson, "I love the aliens of your world. I mean seriously, flying monkeys? This is something right out of Oz."
Johnson rolled his eyes as he picked up his shotgun. "Damnit Buck, take this seriously."
"Buck?" Cayde asked as he walked up to the Sergeant. "Who the Hell is Buck?"
Johnson had to do a double take as he looked at the Exo now in front of him. "Uh sorry, mistook you for someone I knew. Doesn't matter now. You have an update for me?"
Deciding to ignore Johnson's confusion, Cayde moved straight to business. "The Imperial armor stopped Rylanor's push. He got pretty far but the blitzkrieg failed."
"Damnit." Johnson shook his head. "Well, regardless, all we need to do is buy time. As long as we can keep the attention of Chaos on us, we're doing our job. Best thing we can do now is keep this war of attrition going, grind down both sides while Shepard and the others do their thing."
As Johnson finished his sentence, the sound of heavy motors and grinding metal echoed through the valley. Turning their heads to the source, Johnson and Cayde saw several massive blast doors at the base of the Citadel open up, and from within a veritable flood of black mass rushed out as Chaos was now releasing their Grimm. At the same time, leading this horde, the mighty Grimm Wyvern lumbered out, taking to the skies as it was joined by three Imperial Shuttles who were flying in to reinforce the army of Chaos.
"Huh." Cayde shrugged as he watched this all occur. "You know, normally it's me that jinxes everyone like that." He looked at Johnson. "Weird to see this from the outside."
"Goddamnit." Johnson swore under his breath. "Everyone, fall back to the Center line! We're forming up with Tassadar!"
Then, the Legionnaires all watched as a squadron of three Imperial shuttles flew from the Citadel and towards the battlefield. The squadron then split apart, one shuttle heading for the left flank, one to the right, and one to the center. On the left flank, Johnson watched as the Imperial shuttle opened up its rear hatch, and the familiar sight of a silver furred, mohawked Brute leapt out, flanked by several bodyguard Brutes.
Meanwhile, the Geth under Johnson's command continued to backpedal, firing their guns in a fighting retreat as they pulled back. Quickly however, they realized speed was more favorable and abandoned the fighting retreat for simply sprinting towards Tassadar's forces. Many of the Geth attempted to follow, but many more were too slow and overwhelmed by the oncoming tide of both Grimm and Brutes.
As they ran, Johnson saw that T3's AT-TE, which was immobilized earlier in the battle while fighting the AT-AT, was now being swarmed by Grimm.
"When it goddamn rains…" Johnson grumbled as he turned to Cayde. "Cayde, I need you to take what Stalkers you have left and go save T3!"
Cayde glanced at the AT-TE being overwhelmed, and then to the rampaging Tartarus behind them. "Uh, I can do that, but you sure you wanna tango with tall, silver, and ugly all by yourself?"
"I can handle him." Johnson said with a nod. "Now go. I'll meet up with Tassadar."
"Roger that." Cayde said with a two finger salute. Whistling, Cayde called his Geth Stalkers to him, and they began rapidly making their way to T3's walker.
As Cayde broke off from the sergeant, Johnson heard a roar from behind him as the fleeing Exo seemed to only embolden Tartarus.
"Human!" The Chieftain of Chieftains roared. "You shall not escape me!"
Johnson however, was not particularly interested in fighting Tartarus head on and kept running as he taunted, "I put you down once already mohawk, I can do it again!"
At the sergeant's provocation, Tartarus roared and to Johnson's surprise, leapt dozens of feet into the air, way beyond what he'd seen other brutes do. It only took a brief moment for Johnson to realize that Tartarus had been strengthened by the Amalgamation, granting him some control over the Dark Side of the Force like he did with Skull Face and Kai Leng.
Tatartus landed from his Force empowered leap right next to Johnson, creating a telekinetic shockwave that sent the human marine flying despite the fact that he was weighed down by his power armor. After a graceless landing, Johnson groaned as he slowly picked himself up. Still on all fours, Johnson looked up as the sound of heavy footfalls beside him. Grinning as he landed, Tatarus approached Johnson with his gravity hammer in both his hands.
"The Arbiter isn't here to save you this time, human." the chieftain said through a savage grin as he raised his weapon up.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning slammed into the Brute's body, sending him flying backwards. Johnson then felt a large hand lift him up as Tassadar and his Geth had moved to meet the sergeant halfway.
"The Arbiter may not be here, but we are." Tassadar cooly said as Wynne also appeared beside him. Johnson felt some of the fatigue and battle damage leave him as Wynne cast a healing spell on him.
Tartarus rolled himself off the ground, fur smoking from the psi-lightning, but still alive and combat ready. Snarling Tartarus roared as he charged at Tassadar, the Dark Side enhanced Brute meeting the Psionic Protoss in a vicious melee. As they dueled, Tassadar easily took the advantage as Wynne began buffing him with magic, increasing his speed and strength.
However, as Wynne began casting another spell, a bolt of red lightning struck her, sending her backwards. Johnson turned towards the source of the attack and fired off his shotgun, his shells hitting an older blonde woman wearing plate armor that was reinforced with blood red crystals wielding a sword made of the same material.
"Meredith Stannard!? The Templar Commander of Kirkwall!?" Wynne shouted in recognition as she picked herself up, her Aura and armored robes keeping the attack from wounding her too bad. "What are you doing fighting for Chaos? Your order is dedicated to fighting for the good of others, to protect others from demons, not join them!"
"In my eyes, killing all mages like yourself is for the good of all other." Meredith spoke dispationally as she pointed her Red Lyrium sword at Wynne, ready to charge.
Before she could, a flashing red beam of light appeared on her chest. Meredith saw this, and immediately turned towards the source, sword raised to block. As she did, a massive laser beam impacted the Red Lyrium sword, which began to glow crimson as Meredith blocked it, before she was forced to side step and dodge the attack.
"You know, normally I'd have some reservation about kicking an old woman's ass." Johnson shouted as he aimed down his Spartan Laser, the barrel still smoking from his previous attack. "But you seem crazy enough that I'll make an exception."
Further into the battlefield, the armored convoy that made the speartip of the Legion's attack fought a savage battle against the torrential flood of Grimm. The Geth Armatures and Colossi fired their plasma as fast as they could, and while they scored many kills, the slow rate of fire kept them from killing enough. Not designed for melee combat, the Geth were being made short work of as the Geth walkers were soon overwhelmed by Beowolves' and Ursai's claws.
"Fall before me, Daemons!" Rylanor boomed as his assault cannon roared across the battlefield.
The multi-barreled firearm attached to Rylanor's right arm unleashed a torrent of slugs that ripped through the Grimm. The Ancient One's barrage cut down hundreds of Grimm and as the mere Ursai and Beowolves had no defense against the terrifying technology of the 30th millennium.
But for every Grimm Rylanor scythed down, ten more would take its place. It was as if the entirety of the Grimm population in the Final Destination was being released on the Legion. As Rylanore continued to shoot, he noticed too late as the Grimm Wyvern descended from above, grabbing onto the cybernetic walker with its two massive talons.
Usings its massive size and momentum, the Wyvern was able to rip Rylanor off the ground and fling him away. Rylanor flew gracelessly through the sky, crashing back to the earth several hundred meters away. With the dreadnought removed, the rest of the Geth armor had little to no chance of fending off the oncoming Grimm.
T3-M4 worked as fast as he could repairing the AT-TE, but the impact of the Imperial's laser from the previous fight had done more damage than he could easily fix. While the Geth troopers fired their laser cannons and mass drivers in all directions, slaughtering Grimm, the AT-TE itself was still immobile, and vulnerable to the horde bearing down on it.
As T3 rerouted a power cable to try and bring energy by the leg's servos, a series of thuds impacted the AT-TE, followed by the sounds of savage roars and rending metal as the Grimm began to claw their way into the walker. It seemed that the Grimm had managed to make it past the gunners of the AT-TE and began attacking them directly.
A beowulf then broke its way through the reinforced glass canopy of the AT-TE's cockpit, tearing apart the Geth platform that was piloting the walker. As the Grimm began to rampage within, T3 immediately spun around and fired off his plasma thrower, a stream of super heated gas incinerating the Grimm. He then began to burn the area around the cockpit as well, creating a wall of flames that prevented the Grimm from entering, while the heat, smoke, and gasses wouldn't affect the synthetic crew as long as they stayed away from the flames themselves.
Calculations ran through T3's artificial intelligence on what to do next. Before he could come to a conclusion however, a series of gunshots and high powered mass effect rounds rang out, and the Grimm currently mounting the walker all let out pained cries as they died.
"Hey little guy, we got you a way out!" Cayde-6 shouted over the radio.
T3 sent out a beep of acknowledgement, but at the same time also came to a conclusion. The Geth armor had been completely overwhelmed, and once the Grimm destroyed them, they would move on and overwhelm the rest of the Legion. Unless their attack was stopped, the Legion was going to lose the ground battle. Unfortunately for T3, the only way he could stop all the Grimm now was with a high-yield bomb to cleanse the entire area, which T3 didn't have.
What T3 did have however, was a high-yield energy reactor that powered the now crippled AT-TE. It didn't even take milliseconds for T3 to make his choice. The droid sent Cayde a short response in a series of beeps and whistles, which translated into a simple message, Negative. Detonating Fusion Core. Get to safe distance. Good Luck.
There was silence over the radio as T3 got to work overloading the AT-TE's reactor core. After a few seconds, Cayde finally spoke.
"Gotcha." The exo somberly said. "Give 'em Hell, T3." Cayde then began shouting to the Geth around him. "Alright fall back, everyone fall back!"
As Cayde and his Geth fell back, T3 continued to disable security systems on the AT-TE. Coolant systems were disabled while power generation was set to overdrive. Grimm were already clawing at the walker once more, replacing those which were taken out by Cayde, cutting off any avenues of escape for T3.
Not that T3 had planned on escaping anyways. As the Grimm sliced through the armored hull, hacking their way through the remains of the AT-TE, T3 crossed the final wires and his world was filled with white.
Cayde-6 winced as he watched the AT-TE burst into flames, the explosion annihilating everything around it for hundreds of meters. Luckily for the Legion that meant thousands of Grimm were now nothing more than black dust and ash. However, that also meant that the little droid had no way of surviving the detonation.
Cayde shook his head, lamenting on how completely they fell into Chaos's trap. Chaos had let them push forward so aggressively with their attack. They sacrificed the lives of hundreds of Covenant and Imperial soldiers just to let the Legion overextend themselves. And they did, they trapped them with an overwhelming number of Grimm.
But thanks to T3's sacrifice, a huge chunk of the Grimm were wiped out, and any momentum the forces of Chaos had was now gone. What was left of the Grimm were scattered, running about without objective or leadership, some even attacking fellow Imperials or Covenant who bled too much negative emotions. Now was the perfect time for the Legion to rally and push forward once more.
Before Cayde could start to gather any of the Geth around him or fall back to the others however, a voice roared out.
"Guardian!" the deep, bassy voice shouted out.
Suddenly the area around Cayde was suffused with explosions and rockets began carpet bombing the area. Cayde dove to the side, using his superhuman reflexes to dance around the explosions. Once the bombardment stopped, Cayde looked up and saw who was attacking him.
It was the huge, white armored Cabal, flying with a jetpack in the shape of a pair of wings that Cayde immediately recognized as Ghaul, the Dominus of the Red Legion who nearly destroyed the Last City. Flying beside him were several flying Stormtroopers, armed with rocket launchers. It seemed that Ghaul was the passenger within the shuttle moving for the center of the Legion's push, and had now elected to join the battle as well.
Before Cayde could say anything, Ghaul then coated himself with Solar fire and formed a savage looking sword in his left hand. Ghaul threw the blade at Cayde, the weapon exploding on the ground in a burst of heat as Cayde dodged and rolled away. As he did, the Jet Troopers following Ghaul opened fire, trading blows with the Geth Snipers and Stalkers accompanying Cayde.
As Cayde dodged another explosive sword with a graceful flip, Cayde drew the Ace of Spades mid jump and fired it twice. Two bullets flew at supersonic speeds, the first hitting a sword flying right for Cayde, detonating it in mid-air. The second sped through the smoke, and slammed directly into Ghaul's forehead, staggering the mighty Dominus.
Seeing that Ghaul was stunned, Cayde fanned the hammer and fired off several more shots at him as he emptied his cylinder. Ghaul however, being the veteran warrior he was, was quick to recover. Shifting his power from Solar to Void, a purple energy shield formed itself around Ghaul, protecting him from Cayde's bullets.
Cayde hissed as he flipped open his revolver's cylinder and reloaded, watching as the energy around Ghaul then shifted from Void to Arc, crackling coils of electricity surrounding the Cabal. Focusing his powers into his hands, Ghaul then flung a ball of pure lightning at Cayde. But Cayde wouldn't be caught by such a slow attack, as he drew a throwing knife from his belt, coating it Solar fire, and threw it. The two projectiles met halfway, resulting in an explosion of energy and sent shockwaves out, staggering both fighters.
"Guardian!" Ghaul boomed out once more as he looked down on Cayde. "I look forward to tearing you limb from limb for Lord Nihilus."
Glaring at the flying Cabal, Cayde smirked and said, "You know, I'm surprised that the great Dominus Ghaul would bow to anyone."
"Lord Nihilus has opened my eyes to true power." Ghaul spoke reverently. "He has shown me power beyond anything the Traveler could give. And for killing you and all of your disgusting ilk, it will be mine as well"
The smile immediately left Cayde's face as he scowled at Ghaul . "You know, I was always disappointed I never got to put a bullet into that fat head of yours for what you did to the Traveler. Not to mention, I just watched a friend die. So I'm going to take my time killing you, and I'm sure as Hell going to enjoy it."
Back on the right flank of the battlefield, Six and Church watched as the last of the Imperial shuttles hovered above them. The shuttle's doors opened, and out of its loading bay, a human wearing white-colored Mjolnir Armor and armed with a brute shot looked down at the Six and the AI.
"Oh fuck! Oh fuck that's the Meta!" Church screamed as Six raised his shotgun and fired off several shots at the ex-Freelancer.
The slugs bounced off the Meta's shields, the former elite mercenary ignoring the rounds as he leapt out of the shuttle and dove right for Six. As Church switched Six's armor enhancement to his speed and agility boost, Six rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the Meta's fist that created a small crater in the ground.
Dashing forward, Six threw two punches, a quick jab followed by a cross. Both strikes hit their mark, but the Meta only seemed to ignore them as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Six in a bear hug. Six tried to break out, but to his shock, he found that the Meta was stronger than him. The Meta then lifted the Spartan-III off his feet and body slammed him into the ground.
Six bounced off the ground as the Meta then planted his armored boot into Six's stomach, sending him flying backwards with a kick. As he rolled back, Six was able to spin back up, and as he did he drew his pistol that was holstered at his hip. He fired off several rounds at the Meta, who continued to ignore the punishment as he aimed his Brute Shot at the Spartan.
"Bubble shield!" Six shouted, and Church immediately complied.
Smacking his fist on the ground, the dome of blue energy appeared, protecting Six from the alien grenades. As the rounds detonated, a cloud of smoke appeared around Six, obscuring his view as the bubble shield faded.
Glancing at his motion tracker, Six saw a red dot rapidly approach him. Dropping his stance low, Six then met the charging Meta head on, the two tackling each other like football linebackers. When Six felt himself get pushed back, he then called upon his Semblance, Feral Wolf, drastically increasing his physical strength and speed. Roaring, the two supersoldiers began swinging their fists into each other, each bone breaking hit, echoing throughout the battlefield.
The Meta swung first, throwing two wild haymakers that had his full power behind them. But Six's enhanced reflexes and extensive hand to hand training allowed him to dodge the blows, easily slipping beneath them. As he dropped low, Six used the momentum of him shooting upwards to add onto the power of his left hook, which slammed right into the Meta's liver.
The impact caused the Meta to slightly crumple, lowering his guard just enough for Six to shoot his hands past the Meta's and get into a clinch. Wrapping his arms behind the Meta's neck, Six then twisted, flipping the Metal over him with a hip throw. The Freelancer hit the ground with a heavy thud, kicking up a cloud of dust at the impact.
With the Meta on the ground in front of him, Noble-Six raised his boot into the air to crush his head with a curb stomp. Six brought his foot down hard, looking to mercilessly execute the Meta. But before the boot could connect, the Meta caught Six's foot, his brute strength stopping the attack completely.
Despite all of his weight and strength behind the stomp, Six found himself unable to overpower the Meta. The Meta then used his immense power to fling Six away. Six soared through the air, making it several meters before he impacted a nearby cliff face.
"Oh Goddamnit." Church swore, but Six could barely hear him through the ringing of his ears as he slowly pushed himself up and forward. "It looks like the Meta is using Tex's strength enhancement. The Imperials must've somehow gotten him access to all of his Freelancer equipment again."
"What does he have?" Six asked as he slowly picked himself up.
"Uh let's see, super strength, invisibility, bubble shield, time distortion…" Church listed off as he counted on his fingers.
Six turned to the hologram, incredulous. "Time distortion?"
But before Church could answer, the Meta instantaneously appeared in front of Six as if he teleported. Caught unawares, the Meta hooked Six across the face with a heavy punch. Six staggered back, rocked by the strike, and unable to resist as the Meta shot forward and moved behind Six. Dropping low, the Meta then wrapped his arms around Six's waist and bent himself over backwards, slamming Six's head into the ground with a German Suplex.
The force of the suplex would've pulverized a regular human, and for thrice-enhanced superhuman like Six, it still would've snapped his neck. However, Church operated at a speed faster than even the Meta worked, and between the time the Meta picked up Six and when Six's head hit the ground, Church activated Six's Armor Lock. Six impacted the hard stone below but took no actual damage from the throw.
While Six was unable to move, Church took the opportunity to sneak a comment to him. "Yeah the Meta can kinda stop time."
Six groaned as his armor lock deactivated. "Ughh… that's bullshit."
With Six now vulnerable to damage once more, the Meta grabbed his Brute Shot off his back and stabbed downward with the blade. But before Six could find himself impaled on the wrong end of the alien grenade launcher, a shot rang out. The Meta found himself moving through the air as Sev fired a round from his Widow Sniper Rifle and scored a hit directly on the Meta's spine, knocking him off Six.
Sev pulled the bolt back on his rifle, quickly ejecting the spent thermal clip as he aimed to fire again, but the Meta twisted and with one hand aimed his grenade launcher at the clone commando. Dodge rolling, Sev was able to avoid a high explosive death, but he also lost his opportunity to shoot. The grenades then kicked up sand and dust in addition to their own explosive clouds, and by the time they cleared, the Meta was gone.
"He's invisible!" Church yelled out as Six picked himself back up. Meanwhile Sev moved back to back with the Spartan-III and switched to his regular DC-17m blaster.
"Find him!" Six barked out as he raised his fists, ready to instantly react the moment the Meta reappeared.
He didn't have to wait long, because after only a few brief seconds the Meta reappeared directly in front of Sev, swinging his Brute Shot to decapitate the clone. Sev was barely able to dodge as he bent backwards, almost falling to the ground as he did. Before the Meta could follow up, Six instantly spun around and threw a roundhouse kick at the Freelancer.
Letting go of the Brute Shot, the Meta was able to catch the kick, hooking Six's leg with the crook of his arm. The Meta then raised his opposite arm into the air, aiming to break Six's leg with an elbow strike. But before he could actually bring his arm down, Sev had managed to recover and began an attack of his own.
Extending the knuckle plate vibro blade from his gauntlet, Sev lunged forward, stabbing the knife into the Meta's leg, just above the knee plate. The vibro blade easily cut through the black undersuit, drawing blood and causing the Meta to roar in pain. Sev wasn't done yet however. As he stood, Sev yanked the vibro blade out of the Meta's leg and drove it forward once more, this time slipping the blade into the unarmored ribs beneath the Meta's breastplate.
The blade sunk deep, biting through both flesh and bone. But this only seemed to enrage the Meta further. Bringing both hands onto the leg of Noble-Six that he still held, the Meta twisted and lifted Six off the ground, swinging him at Sev. Sev, who was shocked at the fact the Meta could do that, wasn't fast enough to dodge the blow as the Meta bludgeoned the clone with his teammate.
The Meta let go of Six as the two Legionnaires collided, both falling a few feet away from the impact. Bending down to pick up his Brute Shot, the Meta reloaded his weapon and unleashed another volley of explosives.
"Church!" Six shouted as he picked himself up.
"On it!" the AI immediately replied as a bubble shield formed around the three of them, protecting them from the attack.
While Sev writhed on the ground, Six readied himself once more. Meanwhile, seeing his gun wasn't working the Meta holstered his Brute Shot and charged into melee as the bubble shield deactivated. The Meta leapt and swung with a heavy haymaker. Six easily slipped the punch, and countered with a jab of his own. When the probing punch connected, snapping the Meta's head back, Six continued his assault, following up with a right cross and a left hook.
The punches all hit their marks, beating the Meta back. Following the Spartan's final punch, the Meta's guard dropped slightly, allowing Six to wrap his hands around the Meta's neck in a clinch once more. Dragging the Meta's head down, Six simultaneously brought his knee up, smashing it into the Meta's visor. The knee rocked the Meta, sending him staggering backwards.
Before the Meta could get too far away from the Spartan, Six shouted, "Church, speed boost!"
The safety limiters on his Mjolnir armor disabled, Six ran forward at speeds that could only be matched by the fastest of the Spartan-IIs. Six then jumped in the air, throwing a superman punch right for the Meta, adding the speed of the sprint to the force of his strike. But the moment before Six's fist connected once more with the Meta, he froze. From Six's perspective, he was still sailing through the air, about to punch through the Meta's helmet. But from the Meta's perspective, Six and the rest of the battlefield were frozen statutes as he stopped time.
Knowing he didn't have much time, the Meta unholstered his Brute Shot from his back. Winding back, the Meta then focused all of his natural strength and the power from his Strength Enhancement mod, and slashed forward. Backed with such power, the alien blade cut through the immobile Six, slicing through both his armor and his Aura while he was helpless to do anything about it.
Before Six could even realize what happened, the Spartan was flying backwards with his armor systems all blaring warnings about critical damage. He then crashed into a stony cliff face, the force of the impact creating a crater in the rocky wall and ground. Six groaned as he looked down at his wound, the massive gorge in his armor cutting deep into his flesh. Blood began pouring out of both his mouth and the cut as he slowly brought a shaky hand up to his torso.
"Shit!" Church cursed as he appeared in front of Six, looking at the damage. "Hold on Six, I'm putting out a distress beacon! Dammit why doesn't your suit have a healing unit!?"
But before Church could say anything more, a flash of movement caught his sensors. Turning, Church watched as the Meta's Brute Shot spun through the air, flying in a straight line right for Six.
"Dodge!" Church cried out.
The Spartan attempted to shift, but only moved a few inches before the blade found its mark. The heavy blade of the Brute Shot sunk into Six's chest, impaling him and pinning him to the wall. Six could hear Church yelling at him to move and get up, but the words were dull and muted, and Six could feel himself lose control of his body as his limbs went numb.
While Six bled out, the Meta slowly approached him. Standing over the fallen Spartan, the Meta stared at his foe in silence. What was going through the Meta's mind, Six could only guess. Then, without reservation, the Meta ripped the Brute Shout out of Six's shoulder, eliciting a pained gasp from the Spartan as the Meta raised his weapon high. Shakily, Six raised his head, his visor meeting the Meta's as they stared at one another. Without a word, the Meta then brought his weapon down, intent on executing his opponent.
Moments before the blade fell however, Church's hologram appeared between Six and the Meta. "Wait! Wait wait wait!"
The Meta stopped his attack mid-swing, and stared intently at the AI. The Freelancer AI had been the focus of the Meta's obsessions for years, and it was impossible for him to ignore Epsilon when he was right in front of him.
"Look, I know that you're here to kick our asses to next Tuesday, but you also only talk in grunts so…" Church said as he tried to buy time. "I'm just going to say this one line for you." At that very moment, Church saw a red laser dot appear on the Meta's torso. "Oh! Son of a bitch!"
The sound of a sniper rifle echoed over the battlefield as Sev, who had recovered and picked up his weapon once more, fired his weapon right at the Meta's head. The bullet struck true and what was once the Meta's breastplate exploded into a cloud of blood, bone, and metallic fragments.
The Meta staggered back, hands twitching as he looked down at the gaping hole in his chest. It was at that moment Six, got his second wind. Fighting through the pain, Six shot up and ripped the Brute Shot out of the Meta's hands. The Meta, far too wounded, was unable to resist as Six then flipped the grenade launcher around and drove the bladed bayonet into the Meta and through the ex-Freelancer's heart.
Both Six and the Meta fell to the ground, Spartan-B312 falling face first. Church called out to Sev for help, and the Clone Commando immediately made it over to his fallen comrade with medkit already in hand. Sev flipped his friend over and began applying Medi-gel to the wound.
But Sev grimaced as he applied the first aid. This wound was bad, the Brute Shot piercing one of Six's lungs and destroying his rib cage. It wasn't something that Medi-gel alone could fix. Maybe Wynne could heal it, but she was nowhere close to them. Sev caught Six's eyes through his visor, and the Spartan only nodded. Six knew he was done for, there was no reason to waste supplies on him now.
"Hey Sev! Come on, Six's vitals are flatlining here, keep working!" Church cried out as Sev stopped his treatment.
"Church." Sev said quietly. "There's nothing I can do."
"What!? Oh come on, that's Bull! Six, hang in there buddy, we can get somebody else here!"
"Church…" Six rasped out, causing the AI to look at him. "It's… fine."
Church stared at Six blankly for several seconds, before his head fell forward, hanging in defeat. "God fucking…" Church sighed, taking a deep breath before he stood straighter, and looked back at Six. "Six, this… this was worth it. We'll make this worth it."
Six only weakly nodded at the AI, before he slowly reached for the back of his helmet and pulled out Church's AI chip. He then looked to Sev and handed it over, the Clone taking it and gingerly placing it in his belt. "It's been an honor, Six." Sev quietly said.
"Finish… the fight." Six whispered out as all strength then left his body.
Sev looked down at Six for a few moments, when Church's hologram reappeared next to him.
"You want to say goodbye?" Sev asked the AI.
Church joined Sev in looking down, and after a few seconds said, "No. If we don't say goodbye, it's less like he's gone, and more like… he's just not here right now."
Sev was silent, contemplating Church's words. "Yeah… yeah." Was the only response he gave before he turned around and began making his way back to the others.
Despite their loss, there was still a battle going on, and they had to finish the fight no matter what.
A/N, 5/27/21: A big doozy of a chapter, with lots of death. And Church's line to the Meta to distract him before he dies is a reference to the Meta vs Carolina death battle. The Legion is now down T3 and Noble-Six, while Chaos has lost the Meta. Who will fall and who will survive? Find out next time!