"So this is the guy that took out one of the new generation Spartans?" Linda asked as Chief and the man walked onto the pelican. The man held his pump action shotgun with a sort of twitch that simply said that he didn't like holding it when he wasn't allowed to shoot. "How soft did they make the program?"
"Still not an easy feat for a normal person." Fredrick observed. "Heard he doesn't talk much."
"No he doesn't. I don't think he's uttered a single word since waking up." Master Chief informed them. "You all know the plan?"
"Scout and secure. Pretty basic." Kelly said stepping on. The man now codenamed Ripper sat down and strapped himself in but did not allow the bar to lower itself. He rested his shotgun in the seat next to him while holding onto the fore-end, and since he sat in the very corner no one was going to sit next to him. "Well isn't he cheery?"
"His codename is Ripper." Master Chief told them while going to the cockpit and tapping on the glass of the door. "All members of blue team accounted for."
"Thanks Spartan." The captain called back and started up the engine. "Kick some ass for me would yah?"
"Affirmative." Fredrick called to the front, the man in the corner curled and uncurled his fingers around his shotgun. He did not like the way they were talking. Not enough talking about killing for his taste. He jerked his neck to the side a bit and the sound of his cracking neck turned the heads of each member of the blue team. He then did it for the other side just to make sure they knew how little of a shit he gave.
The peligan game to a stop about twenty feet off the ground and the back door opened up. The man stood up and walked up behind the Spartans. Fredrick looked down at him as he walked up and held out his arm slightly.
"Need a lift?" He asked.
The man knocked away his arm and jumped out of the peligan. Fredrick looked over at John who simply shrugged. They jumped out after him, compressing the rocky ground around their feet as the thousands of pounds of metal slammed into the planet. The man looked back behind him as they landed and waited for them to pull their feet out of the small indents that they had created for themselves. Linda checked the monitors in her helmet.
"120 degrees. Hot." Linda said. The man's body jerked for a little bit before slowly shaking his head. If the Spartans hadn't known better; they would have sworn that he was laughing inside that helmet of his.
"Alright. We go 6.5 clicks north from here, deeper into the woods. Thermal picked up movement around there along with a sort of encampment." John said with a gesture. "From there we eliminate the enemy, and scout 2 clicks in all directions from that position before getting another location. Let's head out."
"Can he keep up?" Kelly asked. The man looked at her and he almost seemed to sigh.
"If he can't we'll slow down." John answered. "Come on."
They began to run. Even though they were practically wearing tanks the Spartans could easily match the best marine sprinter. With the majority of them being able to run between 25-30mph. Currently they ran at roughly 20 to make it easier on the man that they were in charge of overseeing. But even after five minutes of that speed, a speed that most would consider a high level of sprinting, the man remained right beside them. So they kicked it up a bit; going up to 25 mph. A few minutes after that and he remained right next to them.
Kelly began to get slightly annoyed because of this and actually began to run even faster than the rest of the group. The man sped up as well and ran next to her. She was running over 30 mph and yet he seemed not to even care how fast she was. Even when they began to leave the rest of Blue team behind he kept up with her. She went as fast as she could and looked over and found him keeping pace. How could a non-Spartan run 40 mph? Even then she was the fastest of all the Spartans.
She stopped almost immediately as she saw the convenient encampment just ahead; her boots digging into the dirt. Her shoulders rose and feel. He on the other hand didn't even seem winded. He looked ahead and dropped his shotgun into his warp pack and pulled out his assault rifle. A machine gun that most men would never be able to even fire with any sense of control. As the rest of the blue team arrived he reached back into the warp pack and pulled out a scope and slide it on top of the rifle.
"Why did you run ahead?" John nearly demanded.
"Sorry. Got a bit excited I guess." She said looking over at the man who was scoping out the group of aliens. After counting at there was a little more than twenty that he could see, and guessing there was three times that in total, he seemed slightly disappointed. "Plan?"
"By the looks of it a flanking strategy would work best." John said. "Kelly you attack from the side."
"Guys." Fredrick started.
"Linda cover fire with Ripper. Make each shot count. We're here to make it fast." John continued, seemingly not hearing Fredrick.
"Guys." Fredrick said, now slightly angry.
"Fredrick you're with me up the middle." John turned to Fredrick. "What?"
"He's gone." All the Spartans turned and stared down at the spot where the man once was.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Kelly hissed.
They then heard gun fire up ahead and off to the side. They looked out over there and found the man taking on the entire group by himself. He ran in from the side, shooting down grunts as he went. One grunt turned to run and he ran up to it to rip off its methane pack and threw it into a group of three jackals before shooting the grunt with an explosion. He tossed a grenade towards a brute, the brute stopped and covered its face. The man looked down the scope and shot the hand off of a jackal as it hid behind a shield as it screamed he blew off its head before taking off the scope and sliding an attachment to the front of the riffle. The grenade exploded and the man jumped at the brute as its shields lowered while shooting a rocket from the rifle into it. He turned away from it and sent the rest into another brute.
The rockets exploded and the first brute found its head ripped in half by the explosion while the other had it shield lowered and was bleeding across its torso. It roared at the man ran up to it, knocked it down, grabbed its leg, broke it backwards, and forced it to cave its own face it with its foot. All within the matter of three seconds. A carbine shot knocked back his shoulder and he looked up at a perch. The Jackal looked down and gulped and began to unload the clip. The bolts bounced off his armor as he jumped up several feet before the rockets went off on his legs and he pulled himself onto the perch. He grabbed the jackal by the head and smashed it on the tree. He reattached the scope while jumping off it and shot into a group of grunts.
"He doesn't like to stand still does he?" Fredrick asked.
"So the Spartans didn't get weaker? That's good to know." Linda said looking down her scopes and pulling the trigger twice. An elite had his head blown off while a grunt running for a turret was also taken down.
"Grunt?" John asked.
"Not telling." Linda said.
Fredrick jogged forward as a brute jumped out from the side while shooting a spike launcher. Fredrick ran up to it while unloading his battle rifle into it. He knocked down its shields before swinging his rifle and knocking it to the ground before stomping on its head. Kelly ran out from the opposite direction and shot gunned down two grunts before running at a Jackal while dodging plasma shots from its pistol. When she reached it a second later she jumped over its shield while shooting down to kill it. Master Chief walked forward while unloading his clip into each and every covenant soldier that was out of cover. An elite with an energy sword rushed him and he brought up him arm as a block while he sent his armor into locked mode. This stunned the elite and found his stomach filled with a clip from the Chef's rifle. He reloaded and moved on.
Toward to back of the encampment the man pulled out his pump action shotgun and began to blow away grunts and Jackals. A brute slammed into him, sending him flying into a tree. The man landed on his feet after a slight rotation as the brute pointed its rifle at him. The man ran at the brute while shooting. The brute let loose two dozen shots from its rifle. The man destroyed its shields while pushing the brute back. The brute swung at him and the man dodged with a jump off to the side. As the brute turned its eyes went wide as the barrel of the shotgun charged up. Three massive burst erupted from the end of the barrel and blew the brute apart with ease. The man cocked his shotgun and turned to kill a Jackal to find it already filled with lead from master chief. John walked directly up to him and looked down at the man who returned the gaze.
"We don't run ahead. Do that again and we will put shackles on you. Is that clear?" He warned. The man shrugged and walked over to a metal crate and sat down. The other Spartans followed Master Chief up to his location. "Brutes."
"Been a while since we've seen them around. At least with such a major part of the covenant fleet." Fredrick said. Linda squatted down and examined the head of the brute after picking it up. "Anything special?"
"Not that I can see." She said while standing up and tossing the head over to the man who rested a foot on it. "So which means we got extremely unlucky by stumbling across a part of their fleet that's becoming more integrated as they once were. Or…"
"Or the brutes are regrouping for something big with the covenant." John finished. Kelly circled around and came around the building that the man was sitting in front of. "We clear?"
"All clear." She said the man's foot continued to tap rapidly once more.
So fast that it almost matched the rate that a machine might have had. The woods around them remained nearly completely silent, shy of the sounds of alien insects and the tapping of the man's foot. George looked over at him and glared through his helmet. The man looked back at him with a slightly tilted head as if to say "What? You want me to sit still? Not my style." The radio burst to life with the sound of gunfire and screaming marines.
"- back up! We need back up! A red thing is here, weird energy is coming out of it! The covenant are getting back up! They're twisted! They're messed up! Oh god…. Now our guys are getting back up! Their f***ing zombies! We need back-!" That was the end of the transmission
"What the hell was that!?" Kelly demanded. The man was already on his feet. He stood up the moment he heard about a red thing with weird energy coming out of it and things coming back to life in a twisted form. Yeah… that was all too similar.
"No idea. It's 3 clicks that way." Master Chief pointed.
The man stepped in front of them and rolled his head forward, almost to tell them to keep up with him for a change. He began to go at his full speed. Kelly sprinted after him at full steam. She knew he could keep up with her at her best, but as he continued to run faster and faster she realized that she couldn't keep up. Kelly slowed down just a bit for the other Spartans to catch up to her.
"Linda. How fast do you think he's running?" She asked. Linda watched as the man continued forward, with no sign of slowing down.
"Well, best guess? Easily 45. Maybe all the way to 55 mph." She told her. "That guy, he's faster than some rocket launchers."
"What the hell is he?"