Purpose Of Existence Chapter 30: Temper Management
It was madness. Yes that was the only real way to describe it. Yet among the chaos there was order. The movement of the legendary spartan II-s was truly something. Like a single soul was directing them all, giving them directions, telling them where to shoot, when to duck or when to help a comrade. Not a single shot was wasted and every grenade took at least four Banished down to meet their maker.
It was so very confusing. Even Palmer seemed to be frozen staring at the chaos unfolding in front of them.
Atriox swinged his hammer, trying to decapitate Chief where he stood... Barely missing him by inch, growling in frustration his swings turned wilder and wilder with every passing moment. Palmer finally snapped out of her trance as a plasma shot landed next to her.
"Osiris, help blue team!" She yelled, ducking another shot coming straight for her. She pulled her twin magnums out of their holsters, starting to ran directly into the chaos. Palmer killed the first unfortunate Jackal by hitting it with her magnum, pulling the bird like creature to her chest as two grunts overheated their plasma pistols firing at the dead body. She threw the body away firing two shots, killing both grunts... Only to be tackled down by a brute.
"Oh, get the fuck off me you fucking ugly monkey" She yelled kicking the ape like creature to its groin, sending it flying. She quickly got up and shot the brute emptying almost all of her ammo before it decided to die off. "Fucking hate brutes, fucking fucking fuck". She muttered and kept clearing her way towards the rest of the spartans, still pinned down in the middle of the command center.
"Incoming!" she heard someone yell and franticly started to look for the source of the threat...seeing a mad brute take a fuel rod cannon and starting to fire it without aiming, hitting both spartans and banished...Mostly Banished. Realising his cannon was empty the brute roared and charged towards Osiris like a madman, clearly going in a frenzy. Her team however saw this and killed the brute before it managed to get too close.
The problem was they weren't making much progress and what little they actually managed to gain, was far too slow. At this pace, blue team would be overwhelmed before they managed to get even halfway to their objective. She needed to think of something and she needed to find a solution fast.
The solution however seemed to introduce itself as dozen of sentinels flew into the room, now clearly in intention to attack something. She stiffened and aimed towards one of the flying buggers, only to relax when they started killing Banished forces.
Osiris started moving towards blue team who now with the help of the sentinels were keeping the Banished onslaught at bay. Not without difficulty but holding out nonetheless.
As Osiris arrived and they finally started pushing their enemy back, Kelly yelled to Sarah trought her helmet speakers "Go help Chief, we can deal with this". Her tone was cold and professional...Yet if you listened carefully, you could hear a small bt of approval and even acceptance. It was no secret at this point. Commander Sarah Palmer is and has always been seeking acceptance from the originals the "real" spartans. Being their superior never really felt quite right. Taking in consideration that they were the legends, not the fours.
She took of in a sprint jumping and dodging dead bodies to save time. She could see them still going at it.
"You will die spartan, this will be your grave...as it should have been so many years ago". Atriox taunted and it seemed he had hit home as Chief stiffened for a second, gaining his composure just in time to dodge a devastating swing from the Brute. He answered the swing by charging against him sending them both flying, landing beneath the control platform. They slowly rose to their feet. Both Atriox and The Chief were panting at this point. Even tho deadly it was still thrilling to fight against a opponent who could match the strength and speed of a spartan.
This Atriox was clearly different from the rest of the brutes. He was smart and cunning. He didn't run head first into battle like his brothers, instead he analyzed and planned, even used fear tactics if necessary to maximise his change of victory. He had clearly learned from the mistakes of the Covenant and had potential to be much more dangerous than any of the prophets.
This is why Chief needed to end this here and now. Atriox could not be allowed to escape.
First he needed to get rid of the hammer. It was a advantage that made his victory almost impossible and thus had to removed. Dodging another blow he searched for something to use as a weapon. Seeing a energy sword still stuck in the hand of a dead elite, he made a dive for it. Atriox pulled his hammer over his head, bringing it down where he just stood and cracked the metallic floor. The force of the hit must have been insane.
Chief took the energy sword mid combat roll and activated it, just barely catshing the electrified hammer from smashing him to pieces. Their weapons locked and both gazed their opponent down. Chief had his helmet on but he could still feel Atriox's eyes bore to his very soul and he returned his gaze. He could see the raw, untamed power flowing trought his opponent's body and he could see the amount of hate his eyes carried. What had the humans done to him, to cause such hate? Chief's energy sword gave his faceplate a blue hue and Atriox's red hammer gave him a menacing dark angry red look.
As their weapons parted Chief took a step back, his gaze never leaving Atriox. The hammer wielding brute charged, swinging his hammer sideways, Chief ducked under it bringing his energy sword upwards, the brute sidestepped it and kicked Chief backwards. He charged again spinning his hammer around his body, leaving Chief no other choice but to jump over the hammer and tackle brute down.
Just one successful swing and it would be over, as they separated from the tackle Chief swinged his sword missing the first strike but recovering and taking the brute by surprise, pushing his blade directly towards his heart…
That's why Chief was taken completely by surprise as Atriox grabbed the handle of his energy sword, stopping the stapping motion. He grinned menacingly and backhanded the Chief sending him flying backwards again. He landed roughly, vision foggy and back hurting like hell.
All he could see was Atriox's form materialising in his view ready to deliver the killing blow with his own sword.
However as the brute was bringing his sword down, three shots went trought his shoulder. making him stagger and roar in pain. Atriox quickly turned around to see Palmer charging at him. If his shoulder would not have been injured, he most certainly could have killed her. But that wasn't the case and Palmer jumped on him, bringing her combat knife to his shoulder. Atriox roared again and threw her off. taking off in a run towards the giant window looming over the entire Control Center. Palmer ran after him but was too late and saw the brute jumping trought it. Falling down to the dark abyss.
Palmer came to a halt gazing down from the brute sized hole. Only to see a red phantom rise from the depths of the canyon, turning its turrets towards her.
"Shit" She muttered, eyes wide...and then she was off, running towards the nearest wall and ducking behind it, just barely dodging the phantoms plasma shots.
"This isn't over spartan". Atriox yelled, the dropships hatch closing as it took off.
Palmer sat there, back against the wall and she saw spartans Buck running towards her. he came to a halt dropping to a croush taking off his helmet...Only to reveal that infuriating smug grin of his. "Got your ass handled back there Commander, you all right?" Face still full of that damn smug but his voice gave away his concern and Palmer just puffed saying that she'll live.
After gathering her thoughts and letting her pulse calm down, she got up and walked to the Chief. He was still laying down on the floor, chest rising and falling evenly, he was clearly completely in his own world and she had to tap his faceplate to bring him back to the land of the living.
"So big guy, still breathing in there?" She asked.
At first Chief only turned his head and she was certain the he wouldn't actually answer her. Then he suddenly said "For now". After that he got up and walked to his siblings leaving commander palmer croushing startled.
Palmer was brought of her haze by giggling and laughing. Turning around she saw the entire fireteam Osiris laughing at her expense, even Locke smirked under his visor and she had to admit the laugh was pretty infectious.