I groaned, sitting up. Chief was right in front of me, turning on the lights on his helmet.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw more bright lights coming from within the room.
Remembering the events that happened before I awoke, I searched my person to see if I had any burn marks. Surprisingly, my outfit remained tattered and torn only from my recklessness from before. I did have some soot though.
I climbed onto my knees, standing up. From the circle of lights in front of me, one of them walked forward. I was soon able to make out the figure of a marine, and sure enough, he was speaking to the Chief. As everyone soon walked away, I barely had time to gather my battle rifle.
"You can walk, set our boots on the line." I heard someone say. It was pitch black now, with all the lights from the marine's gone. I struggled to find the doorway, hardly remembering the way to leave the cave. My hands patted against the walls, until I found an opening, in which I almost fell.
Finding my footing, I entered through the doorway, and saw Chief climbing into the driver's seat of one of the warthogs. He looked around, and once he found me, signalled me over. I grinned, jogging over to him.
"Chief's got the right idea. Let's mount up, get the Hell outta these caves." A marine commanded. As he said that, Chief started up the hog, and gave me his hand to climb inside.
Grunting as I fell in, I tried to sit down normally, which just didn't work. I pouted as I couldn't see well, until I remembered how marines an ODSTs usually sat. I put one leg against the dashboard, and the other against my seat. Now, I was in the proper position to shoot. I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned to see one of the marines mounting up onto the warthog to man the gun. Now ready, Chief drove up to the door, which was still closed.
"I'll get the door sir." A man offered.
I felt anxiety in my chest, excited yet scared of the battle that was to come. I started to wonder why I was even here, in the seat next to my favorite spartan, if I could barely even shoot? In a warthog, with humanity's savior no less, as if I could help protect helpless citizens, when I was just as weak as those the soldiers fought for. I wasn't like Cortana either, even if I knew what was to come, simply because I was a nerd. John probably doesn't enjoy my presence, because I wasn't his best friend, like the A.I. was. I know what he thinks of civilians, I know that he sees them more of a chore to have to protect. Was that all I was to him?
My vision began to grow blurry because of all the self-deprecating thoughts, and a squawk from a Jackal came ahead of us before I could rub my eyes.
I gasped as Chief ran straight through the horde, cries of pain coming from below us, as I heard the cracking of their cartilage and bones. I cringed, knowing what we had done to them.
Out in the daylight, I squinted so hard, I thought I'd hurt my eyes. I could hardly see what was happening when the sound of the machine gun went off. Once I was able to open them, I saw the wreckage of the Mombasa Tether all around me. Large pieces of dark steel reflected the sunlight, causing me to wince again. A huge rind had landed outside the base, pieces of the wiring hanging off, steel poking out of the structure, making me think of how gruesome it'd be to accidentally stab yourself through it.
But my ogling was cut short when Covenant began to shoot at us. I yelped as alien bullets whizzed by, singing the seats and the interior of the warthog, other shots leaving spikes as permanent additions of 'decor'. I ducked, covering myself with my arms as we were blasted by plasma shots from a phantom, and the scattered turrets. I couldn't help but scream at every shot that landed too close, or when a grenade exploded nearby.
John skidded the warthog to a stop when we reached the highway that had been blocked off. We were greeted by the sight of an ongoing battle; a burnt warthog on its side, marines huddled together, staying out of sight of the enemies. John jumped out of the hog, and so did I.
"You stay here, all right? The marines and I are going to take these guys out, just stay here." He reloaded his weapon, preparing for the fight.
"John, wait! There'll be drones coming out of the highway, be careful." He nodded, and joined the rest of the soldiers.
I sat against the warthog, looking up towards the sky.
'At some point, the day has to end, right?' I wondered. The sky was a cerulean blue, with fluffy white clouds appearing here and there, the sun high in the sky. My muscles ached, and the soles of my feet felt like I had been walking through Hell itself. I couldn't remember when was the last time I had something to drink, or eat. I also noticed just how tired I felt, and it was unbelievable. I only wanted to lay down on the dry grass, even if it felt uncomfortable just sitting on it. The gunshots still continued, and I could just hear the soundtrack playing in my head. I closed my eyes, and imagined as if I were listening to the music itself.
After narrowly escaping death from the drones, the deafening screech of the Sangheili ship fly over us, four wraiths, and an armored plasma turret, we had made it to the final checkpoint, on the Tsavo Highway. I thought I had felt exhausted before, but I was dead wrong. I heard the cry of a brute, and turned to see Chief had just finished killing the brute war chieftain with its own plasma cannon.
"A little too much, don't you think?" I asked him, chuckling.
"It was getting on my nerves." He deadpanned, throwing the turret to the side as if it were nothing. It made me laugh even more. He walked toward me, then past me. A pelican had arrived, but only for a few minutes to leave us warthogs and reinforcements. John had allowed the audio to play aloud once more, to let me hear Lord Hood monologue. He stood at a cliff's edge, overlooking the ship we had seen earlier.
"...One final effort is all that remains." He finished. Chief walked away from the edge, readying his rifle as he headed to the line of warthogs.
Realizing we still had a couple missions let before we could rest, I threw my head back and groaned, tired of our campaign. Unfortunately, Chief heard me and looked back to me in a questioning away.
"We still have another mission to do, which involves taking down a scarab." I moaned.
"Then we'll be ready for it. We just need to take down the anti-aircraft defenses." He hopped into the passenger seat of one of the hogs.
"Yeah, but it's more than you think." I said, mostly to myself. I soon followed after him. I saw that being close to him, meant having to aim the turret on the warthog. The thought of it made me extremely nervous, but knowing that we would only be driving and there'd only be action once we reached the first door, I decided to mount up.
After I got on, the driver followed the rest of the hogs down the road, further into Voi. There was only sound of wind, tires, and the distant thunder. I sighed, thinking back to all of the times I desperately wished to be apart of Halo, but began to wonder if it was worth being here.
"You've been really quiet recently." Chief commented. I was surprised to hear his voice.
"You know, being inside a fictional, intelligent universe is a lot to take in." I responded.
"I would think you'd have more to say about it."
"I would but I remember some things you've said in the novel series." I aimed the turret away from him, biting my lip.
"And what did I say?"
"Things." I elaborated.
We reached the end of the line, where Chief would have to manually activate all of the doors to allow the warthogs to pass through. Nearly everyone exited out of their hogs, ready for the fight not too far from us. Chief went ahead and pressed the button to open the first door.
As soon as I was next to him, he asked, "Why won't you tell me?"
I looked up at him, furrowing my brows. "Because sometimes a spartan would rather work with other spartans than having to protect their marines." I walked away briskly after I said that, going for the stairs ahead of me. He quickly followed me.
"And you trust words from a stranger more than myself?" He questioned, climbing up the stairs alongside me.
"Well, they're what made you you." I looked at him.
"But not everything is the same." He reached the top of the stairs, and stopped to glance back to me.
"Then should I be so sure of the events to come?" I wondered.
"We'll see." He turned away. I stared after him, and watched as he pressed the second button. As the doors opened, the Covenant began to shoot. He reacted immediately, taking cover behind the wall and firing back. I longed to defend and help out, but I knew there was a greater chance of getting myself killed.
I exhaled, and watched the fight unfold before me.