The rest of the marines had arrived at the front entrance and had a similar reaction to Oliver although most were more fearful and some were starting to panic. Their gaze turned towards the lieutenant and sergeant who started barking out orders.
"Man the machine guns!" yelled lieutenant Podolski. "I want ten men on the walls, six in the warthogs and the rest take up positions along the barricades!"
The covenant were approaching rapidly. Jacob started a countdown to when they'll hit their position.
"30 seconds!"
"25"
"20"
"15, okay FIRE!"
Bullets were sent flying towards the enemy like a shower of golden death. It was soon equaled by a stream of green and purple plasma, with the blue plasma of the energy swords rapidly approaching the marine's positions.
The slaughter quickly started. The energy swords shredded through their defences. They were losing men faster than Oliver could count. One elite charged at their defences and was gunned down but not before impaling a marine on his energy sword. Oliver rushed over to help the fallen man but was hit on his shoulder pad by a stray shot. The pad absorbed the worst of the damage though the heat was burning away at his skin.
The lieutenant, knowing they were going to lose gave the order to retreat. The remaining 16 marines and 3 security guards gladly obeyed however Oliver was determined to carry the injured marine with him.
Oliver raced over to him and slung him over his shoulder. He could only lightly jog with the extra weight over his shoulders so soon the advancing covenant caught up to him and as he was at the back of the group of marines they targeted him first.
Bolts of colourful energy whizzed over his head as he tried to duck and dodge. Unfortunately one of the deadly plasma balls struck him on the back of his leg. He collapsed, dropping the unconscious marine as he fell.
The plasma burned Oliver's skin and it felt like someone had smacked him with a glowing hot iron rod. He grimaced in pain but he focused himself as he still had a slim chance of getting out of there.
He pushed through the pain coming from his leg and managed to stand, putting most of his weight on his uninjured leg. Plasma shots were still being sent his way so he leaped to cover behind a pile of sandbags.
The damage done to his leg meant he was most likely not going to be able to escape without the covenant catching up to him. He had to make a choice. Take the near impossible odds and try to retreat or stay and fight to buy his platoon more time to escape. In the end the choice seemed obvious to Oliver, he would stay and fight.
He took his assault rifle that was slung over his shoulder and readied himself. He peeped over the sandbags and saw five tall figures, each donning dull dark blue armour, all with energy swords in hand. Elites.
He threw his med bag as a distraction and he then quickly stood from his hiding place which surprised the elites and with shaky aim he started firing at the nearest one. He managed to deplete it's shields and got a few lucky shots to hit the side of it's head, dropping it but not before he had spent the current clip he had in his assault rifle.
The menacing looking figures were charging at him, angry over the death of one of their brothers. Having no time to reload his rifle Oliver dropped it and took out his magnum. He aimed for the next closest elite. He could see the pure hatred in it's eyes, a terrifying look when the owner of those eyes is charging at you.
He squeezed the trigger rapidly, the target at near point blank range preparing to lunge at him. He depleted the elites shield and managed to hit it once in the stomach before the clip was emptied but it wasn't enough to stop the advancing elite, just making it more angry which Oliver thought wasn't even possible.
The elite, realising Oliver had no way out smiled menacingly, gloating silently. He readied his sword for the strike that Oliver believed was going to be the one to end his life. That strike never came, but a different one did.
Two pointed blue plasma prongs from an energy sword were protruding high up the left side of his chest above his heart but still doing plenty of damage. The sword was so close to his face he was sweating.
He turned his head slightly to see the wielder of the sword. It was an elite with the rank of ultra with white armor and a bronze-rose as a secondary colour. There were red patterns on both sides of the head and chest armour which were symmetrical.
Oliver's strenght was fading and he couldn't keep his head up any longer so he let it hang limply, staring at the ground. After a couple seconds the energy sword deactivated and Oliver collapsed into the ground, laying on his back.
He kept slipping in and out of consciousness but a loud explosion awoke his brain fully for just a couple of seconds. He tilted his head up to look at what cause the explosion. The base was now just ruins, the top half completely blown off with smoke rising out of it and he could see huge towers of flames jutting out of the remains of the building.
The covenant had set off a bomb to completely destroy any communication equipment. Oliver coughed up some blood and after that his breathing got steadily worse.
'This is not good, my lung has been hit and I'm going to drown in my own blood soon if I don't find some biofoam' he thought.
He looked over to where he had thrown his mad bag. He was thinking he could probably crawl over to it though it would be hard but he would first have to wait for the covenant to leave and time was not on his side.
Roughly three minutes later dropships came to collect the enemy troopers and presumably chase down Oliver's retreating platoon.
'This is my chance' he thought.
He swivelled around slowly to lie on his stomach. He concetrated on just putting his hands forward to drag himself over the coarse terrain, pushing forward with his legs aswell.
He was using so much of his energy and concentration he almost didn't notice the soft thud being made as feet hit the ground. He paused and looked to his left to try and find the source of the noise. It was getting brighter out so he could more clearly see the figure. It was tall and wore bright white armour and was making it's way towards Oliver. His heart sank when he realised it was the same elite ultra who has caused him the injury and it must have been left behind to check that everyone was dead.
The med bag was almost in reach but that didn't matter anymore. He noticed the elite had not taken out it's sword but it wasn't in a rush. It stopped right in front of Oliver, inbetween him and the med bag. It made no move to take out it's sword, instead just staring at Oliver. Then it simply turned around and picked up the bag. It opened the bag to inspect the contents then turned to Oliver and knelt down, handing him the bag while saying 'I think you need this' in a tone slightly higher pitches and more gentle than the other elites he had heard whilst he had been defending Aplin base.
'Yes. T-thank you' he groaned, still unsure of the sudden change of nature of his enemy.
It then pulled out a UNSC radio and handed it to him. It turned to leave but stopped when Oliver called out "Wait. Why are you helping me?"
"I still do not know entirely why yet, human. I just want the death and fighting to end between our species and maybe this is how to start the end of the fighting."
Oliver nodded and questioned "What is your name?"
"Shi'ae. And yours human?"
"Oliver. Thanks for the help Shi'ae."
"You are welcome hu-Oliver. Goodbye now".
Oliver smiled and said goodbye back.
Shi'ae turned around and started walking away. She liked his smile, it made her feel like she had made the right decision in helping him. She walked to the pick up zone, content with herself.
We meet the sangheili that saved Oliver! Yay! On another note I'm going away soon so there may not be an update for a short while but when I get back I will keep to a weekly schedule.
Reviews:
MemoriesOfReach: I'm glad that you like it : )
Guest: Thank you for the review I really appreciate it and I've tried to take what you've said onboard and make it more descriptive. I hope this chapter is more enjoyable!