Chapter 8- Just our luck.
Authors Notes- I lied accidentally about not starting the chapter until I finished my summer homework. Anyway, here is the sort-of novelization of Outskirts. As always, Rate and Review, but mostly Review. I need to know what you like and dislike about the book. "Your enjoyment of this book is the will of the Gods. And I… I am their instrument." I may be able to get chapters 9 and 10 up before school starts, but after that, expect slow updates. Sorry. Also, I need to know if you want the former Noble team to stay on Earth after the Prophet of Regret jumps to Delta Halo and help the ODST squad from H3: ODST, or go with John, kick Regret's ass, meet the Arbiter, and then either go with John to High Charity to kick the Prophet's asses, or go with the Arbiter, kick Tartarus' hairy ass, and stop the ring from firing. So many choices… so little time. Either way, there will be ass-kicking. I will not post Chapter 9 until I have made a decision on whether they stay on Earth or go to Installation 05. Thank you in advance for your time. One more thing, we have over 1000 views. Holy crap, I never expected it to get this popular in just about 2 weeks! Keep reading and tell your friends about this story.
As the Pelican carrying Bravo Team neared its target, they all caught the message coming from the Covenant Assault Carrier, their target. Cortana relayed the message back to In Amber Clad and the cockpit, where Sgt. Johnson was. "The message just repeats: Regret, Regret, Regret." Commander Keyes responded uninterestedly. "Catchy. Any idea what it means?" Johnson answered proudly, "Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet." The two pilots responded at once, "Hooh-rah." Cortana told Johnson that Regret was the Prophet's name and that he was calling for help.
One of their recon teams sent to scout the LZ reported in. "Immediate, Grid Kilo Two-Three is hot, recommend mission abort." One of the pilots keyed the comm. "Roger, recon." He turned to Johnson. "It's your call, Sarge." Johnson thought for a moment, and then responded, "We're going in." He turned to the ODST's (Buck had gone back to his squad in order to prep to board the carrier via orbital drop pods.) and ordered, "Get tactical, Marines!" Lord Hood contacted Bravo Team from the Cairo, which was still functional after the battle. "Bravo Team, get aboard that carrier, secure the Prophet of Regret. This is the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land; That Prophet is going to tell us why."
The Pelican's intercom buzzed and one of the pilots came on, "30 seconds out, stand by to… whoa." The Chief walked over to the comm terminal. "What is it?" One of the pilots screamed over the intercom, "SCARAB! BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Carter looked up from examining his DMR. "This feels familiar." Just then, the Pelican was hit by a barrage of plasma, presumably from the Scarab's AA gun, flipped over and crashed into the ground.
The door to the now destroyed Pelican flew open, and the Spartans, plus three of the ODST's crawled out. One of the ODST's, a Lieutenant, said out loud, "Shit, we lost Jameson in the crash." Johnson walked out. "Shake it off, Marines! Clear the crash site. Go, go, go!" Jun stood up and remarked, "Just our luck." Carter looked at Six, who had kneeled down to pick up his MA5B and the Plasma Rifle he had acquired from the Stealth Elite near the armory of the Cairo. "Now this really feels familiar." "Yeah, but we aren't on Reach, there isn't a Scarab that the Pelican is lodged in, and you aren't crippled from the crash." "Good point. But there is a Scarab to deal with." Emile looked over at the two. "Later. Let's go." They fell in with the marines, moving to a nearby alley where a lone Grunt was patrolling. When it saw the Spartans, it panicked and ran away. Six drew his knife and threw it, piercing the methane sack on its back and its spine, killing it instantly.
Six retrieved his knife, and the group moved silently into a nearby building, which curiously had ammo lying around and a machine gun turret set up already, but no bodies. As Six was pondering the reasons why this could happen, he collided with the back of an Elite Minor, who turned around, roared, slapped Six' Assault Rifle out of his hands, and then threw Six onto the ground and prepared to stab him with a plasma dagger. Six rolled just as the Elite thrust its dagger into the ground, drew his Plasma Rifle, and fired right at the Elite's head. Its Shields quickly went down and shortly thereafter, it joined all of its brothers who had died in the space battle. The Master Chief walked up, kicked Six's AR back to him, and then said, "Next time, watch where you're going."
One of the ODSTs helped him up, and the group moved on, inadvertently starting a firefight because the Chief had kicked a Grunt, sending it over the edge of the building and onto a Jackal that was walking by. A nearby Elite saw the "accident" and ran to the source, only to have its head explode as a 14.5X144mm AP-FS-DS round passed through its head. The Spartans turned to look at Jun, who they thought had fired the shot. He had a DMR and a Magnum, but no Sniper Rifle. "Wasn't me." The Chief looked around and then said over the comm, "Thanks, Sergeant." "No problem, Chief. Next time though, don't kick the Grunt. Just shoot it." Six looked over at the Chief. "Next time, watch where you're going."
Johnson yelled down, "We've got Jackals in the courtyard!" Six ran over to the machine gun and blasted 2 Jackals to the afterlife. The Chief jumped down and caved in an Elite Major's skull with one punch. Emile blasted a Jackal in the back with his shotgun. Carter stabbed another in the back of the neck, and Jun shot one through the mouth with his Magnum. The ODST Lieutenant stabbed an Elite Minor through the neck and proclaimed, "That was for Jameson." Six yelled down at the group, "Buggers coming over the rooftops!" He pointed to where a group of Drones were flying towards the group and then opened fire with the machine gun, killing 5 in the initial barrage, but overheating the gun in the process. "God damn, that hurts!" He shook his hands to dispel the heat, and then opened fire again, killing only 3. The Chief took down 2 with his M7 SMG, and Emile killed 1 with his shotgun. "That's the last of 'em." Cortana contacted the other Pelican that had gone down. "2nd squad, what is your status, over." "We're operational, ma'am, barely. Our pilot didn't make it." "Find a hole, stay put, we'll come to you." Another Pelican flew in overhead and hovered over the courtyard. "My girl's a little big for that courtyard, Sergeant. I see a good LZ a few clicks down. I'll meet you there, over." "Roger that." He yelled down to the ODST's, "Get a satchel on the gate."
Before anyone could get near the door, it fell over and a pair of Hunters stormed through. Johnson contacted the ODST's. "Hang back, let the Spartans show you how it's done." Six opened fire with the turret, wounding one, while Emile and the Chief ran behind it and shot it in its weak point, killing it. The ODST Lieutenant ran up to one, blazing a hail of bullets from his SMG. The Hunter ran forward and back-shielded the trooper, sending him hurtling into a nearby apartment, and killing him. Six obviously had a fondness for ODSTs, because in a fit of rage, he yanked the turret off the stand, jumped over the side of the building, and blasted the Hunter with the 200 rounds it kept in a box magazine, killing it within the first 100 rounds, but in his anger he kept firing. The Master Chief looked at Carter, amazed at Six's performance. "Does he do that often?" "Not that I know of, but he did seem to have a fondness for ODSTs after working with them in New Alexandria."
The group moved through the door and into another alleyway, this one containing 4 Jackals, 2 of them snipers, and 3 Elites. One of the ODSTs was hit in the shoulder with a Beam Rifle round and went down hard. The other ODST ran over, dragged the trooper to a safer area, peeled away the burned armor, and inspected the wound. "You're not going to be moving that arm for a while. It looks like the skin has melted to your shoulder. It's a miracle your armor didn't too" The injured trooped pulled out his sidearm and sniped the Jackal that had injured him. Six saw the troopers and ran over. "What's wrong?" "Beam Rifle round in the shoulder. Melted the skin to his bone." The trooper pulled out his medkit and patched the injured trooper up as best he could. The Corpsman turned to Six. "You can't do anything here, Lieutenant. This trooper needs to go to a field hospital, wherever that is." "I can help take him there." "No. Go with your team and find 2nd squad. I'll handle this." Six ran off to join the other Spartans.
When Six caught up to the others, they were already close to where 2nd squad had set their beacon. A Pelican dropped down and hovered near where Sgt. Johnson was. He jumped on the back and looked at the Chief. "Chief, Commander needs me to help some soldiers who are dropping supplies. I'm not going to need this anymore." He handed his Sniper Rifle to the Master Chief, who in turn handed it to Jun after the Sergeant had left. The Spartans moved on, eventually coming to a building surrounded on its front by Covenant forces. The Spartans ran toward the entrance, where a lone marine sergeant was taking pot-shots with his DMR.
After all the hostiles had been killed, the Spartans walked over to the sergeant. "Spartans? I thought they had all died on Reach. Anyway, I'm Gunnery Sergeant Stacker. The LZ is on the other side of this building." They followed him into a dark corridor, where on the other side they saw the shadows of 3 Elites running towards the corridor. The Chief opened a team-wide frequency. "Get to cover and don't move. Do not engage until I give the signal." He received 4 green lights, which meant they had all gotten the message. Jun reported that there was a squad of Grunts behind the Elites, presumably in case any humans decided to ambush the Elites from behind. After the Grunts had passed by, the Chief gave the signal, and the Spartans sprang from their hiding places, killing the Grunts and a Minor undetected. Emile shot an Elite Major through the chest with his shotgun, causing the other Major to turn around and lunge at him, only to fall backwards onto the ground as a 14.5X114mm AP-FS-DS round flew through its head. Emile looked back at Jun. "How many is that now, Jun?" "Four, but who's counting?" "You."
The team moved out of the corridor and found themselves in the middle of a firefight between a group of marines and a Phantom dropship, which had just dropped its compliment of troops: 6 Grunts and 2 Elite Minors, which all opened fire the second they hit the ground, killing 2 marines and injuring a third. The Spartans rushed forward, spraying fire on all hostiles in their way, killing all the Grunts and breaking the shields of one of the Minors. Emile ran behind the Minor and ran his kukri through its neck, while the Chief tackled the other and held it down while Carter shot it with his newly acquired DMR.
A pair of Warthogs drove up on the street beneath them and when they jumped down, the marines jumped out of the drivers seats. One of them looked at the Chief. "Compliments of Commander Keyes, sir." The Spartans piled into the Hogs, Emile driving one while Carter sat beside him and Jun operated the gun, and Six driving the other while one of the marines sat beside him and the Chief operated the gun. They drove off, heading for a highway that would supposedly take them to the carrier. Before they got to the highway, they encountered numerous Phantoms and Elite drop pods and had to fight them off before advancing.
As the group traversed the highway, part of the ceiling collapsed, and there was a beam that looked like a Scarab's. Carter looked over at Six and keyed the comm. "There's your Scarab." "My Scarab? When did it become mine?" The Chief cut in. "When you started bitching about it being yours. Besides, it hasn't noticed us, so you don't need to worry about it just yet." Emile cut in. "Can we all just agree that it's all of ours, and get the hell on the move? I'd like to be in the carrier when it leaves, not sitting here bitching about who has to deal with the Scarab." They drove to the end of the tunnel, and found a pair of marines, one of whom looked like he had just seen a ghost. The Chief walked over to the other , while the rest waited for him to return.
