The Battle For The Beach Has Begun
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, so please don't sue me!
Axton sat next to Ryan, who was lying down on the floor of the Pelican, and he talked to him.
"Ryan, there's nothing I can do about your arm – I'm sorry – but your leg is dislocated."
"That explains a lot," Ryan said, grinning, mischievously.
"No, no, it was dislocated when you hit the wall."
"Oh, okay, it was just that, umm…"
"S-something you want to talk about, or-?"
"No, nah I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yep."
"Okay…" Axton said, confused about what Ryan had said.
"Here goes…1, 2-"
Crraacckk!
Silverman, standing at the back of the Pelican, winced at the sound of his comrade in pain. He heard Ryan shout in surprise, and pain, as Axton relocated it on the number '2' instead of '3'. He checked his weapons – a Battle rifle, 2 frag grenades, a Magnum and a knife.
"Hey Silverman!"
He turned around to see Axton helping Ryan onto a seat.
"Do that trick with the knife, you know, how you twirl and catch and all that?"
Silverman grinned.
"For you or the patient?"
"Uhhh… No comment."
He laughed, giving in, and slung his Battle rifle.
"Alright, alright."
He unsheathed his knife, and balanced it on one finger, making sure that only the bottom of the handle connected with his finger.
Suddenly, he moved his finger away so fast, that there was a delay in the fall of the knife, and then he moved his left hand out to grab it by the blade. He caught it, and twirled it, spinning it around and throwing it up and catching it some more. He moved his left arm behind his back, and threw it up and over his head. He bent down and stuck his right hand through his legs and caught it just before it hit the ground.
He threw it up again, almost a soon as he caught it, and stood up again. He raised both arms, and he caught it between his hands, and then tossed it up, but it didn't spin at all, and it came down vertically, with the tip of the blade pointing straight down. He raised his right arm only, and outstretched his index finger, leaving it still in the air. The knife was about to rip straight through his finger, when he moved his finger down, and the blade was only just touching his glove. He moved his arm down at the same speed of the knife, decelerating at the same time, and then moved his arm sideways, bringing it up at the same time, and then lashed out with the tips of his left hand's fingers.
They tipped the blade, and it began to spin around on the tip of Silverman's finger. Soon it stopped spinning, but remained stationary on his finger. He threw it, spinning, into the air one last time, and took half a step forwards, letting it fall perfectly into its sheath on the right side of his belt.
Axton clapped 3 times.
"Well done," he said sarcastically.
"Looks like you owe me another 5 bucks." Silverman said.
"Just 'till you drop it, mate." Axton said. "Do you take credit card?"
Laughter echoed in the pelican, although its back door was open, and then there was a thump in the ground, which left Silverman lying on the floor.
"What the hell was that?" Ryan asked, suddenly alert, cradling his bad arm.
Silverman stood up, and with Axton, walked over to the back of the Pelican, unslinging his Battle rifle. Axton leaned around the side, and saw smoke rising in large columns over the other side of the beach, but didn't have a view of the beach itself.
"Something's going on," he said as Silverman joined him.
Silverman nodded in agreement.
They heard a whining sound, which appeared out of nowhere, and then saw a Ghost, then another, to go with it.
"Shit," Silverman swore whilst running back into the Pelican.
"What is it?" Ryan asked.
"Two Ghosts, 4 Covenant bastards.
"Their holding more than one now?"
"One is riding on the front on each."
"Fuck…"
Silverman grabbed Axton's SMG and tossed it to him, and Axton caught it in the air, pulling out the magazine and checking the number of rounds it had. Satisfied, he pushed it back in, and then held it at the ready position.
Silverman approached one of the 2 'Emergency' cabinets on the wall and opened it, finding a rocket launcher, with a single rocket. He pulled it out and loaded the rocket into it.
He ran over to the back of the Pelican and leaned out, looking through the scope and targeting one of the Ghosts, then holding down the trigger.
"God I hope this is one of the new ones," he whispered to himself, letting go of the trigger.
The rocket zoomed straight – past the moving Ghost, which then turned to look at him.
"Shit!" he said "Down, now!"
He dove back as plasma bombarded the back of the Pelican. He landed hard on the metal plating, and saw Axton take a hit to the arm, whilst Ryan shrank back towards the front of the Pelican.
Axton screamed and dropped his SMG, falling to the ground and clawing at the burn mark, which was eating away at his skin. It spread from his forearm to his upper arm in a matter of seconds, and then stopped, leaving his entire left arm black, charred and smoking. He lay still, but Silverman could hear him breathing – he was alive, but not in any state to fight.
Suddenly, he heard gunfire, followed by an explosion, and then inhuman screaming, quickly followed by another explosion. He recognised the gun firing as the LAAG on the back of a Warthog, and to confirm that he heard a marine cheering.
"Come out, Silverman!" he heard Quanse's voice, and he stood up, leaning around the corner and seeing a Warthog come to a stop just outside the Pelican, with, what his helmet's systems identified as Quanse on the turret, the Sarge in the side seat next to… the Master Chief.
He had heard stories about him – the only person – save Sergeant Major Avery Johnson – to survive the battle of Reach and the battle on the first Halo, completely classified, of course – Sergeant Johnson, or Uncle Ave to Silverman, had told him the whole thing.
He noticed that the Spartan was standing in front of him, a full foot taller than Silverman, waiting for the answer to a question Silverman had not heard.
"Report, soldier." He said blankly.
Silverman snapped into motion.
"Yes, sir – we have to wounded, one critically. Suggest immediate Pelican medivac."
The Master Chief nodded, approving of Silverman's quick, no BS, assessment of the situation. For about 20 seconds, the Master Chief didn't move a muscle, and Silverman assumed he was communicating with a pilot, or somebody with a high rank.
Finally, he stepped back over to the Warthog, and hopped back into the driver's seat, starting up the engine.
"Cpl. Quanse, I want you to stay with these 2 wounded here, and when the evac arrives, rendezvous with us at the bridge with any available soldiers or ordnance."
"Roger that, sir."
Silverman watched as Quanse leapt off the back of the Warthog and ran inside, seeing to Axton's wound.
"Hop on." The Master Chief said blankly to Silverman.
Silverman willingly obliged by climbing onto the back of the Warthog and holding onto both handles of the LAAG.
He grinned, but nobody could see it, of course.
"Let's roll."
An explosion shook the ground underneath Xan's feet, but he regained his posture and resumed firing at a half-dead alien which then dropped, smouldering. Clones all along the beach ran forwards to any cover possible – destroyed tanks, enemy 'bunkers', or just craters made by explosions.
Xan ran with a group of 4 other clones along the front of the beach, and water splashed at his feet.
"Down!" he shouted, throwing himself to the ground to have an enemy aircraft fire plasma at him and the squad, but only wound one clone, who screamed whilst falling to the ground. A green rocket zoomed over their heads, and they jumped up again, spreading out to avoid a plasma grenade tossed at them.
The only sound on the beach was the sound of plasma weapons and clones' weapons firing, and explosions. Xan reloaded, diving to the left and landing hard in the sand to dodge a burst from one of the tall blue aliens. He stuffed the clip in and rolled to face the alien, squeezing the trigger and letting it have it, not giving it a chance to get another shot off.
He stood up again and resumed running along the beach, taking 5 steps back to pick up Blay, whom he had found a few minutes earlier. He dragged Blay along for a few metres before dropping him to take out a number of the smaller aliens.
Boom!
There was an explosion which engulfed his squad, only leaving numerous body parts to fly away from the scene, accompanied by blood. He held his stomach, but then picked up Blay and dragged him some more, finally letting him go and lying down inside the hole that was created by the explosion that consumed his squad.
"Hawkins!" he shouted through the comm.
"Yeah?!"
"I need you to take out those damn rocket emplacements using any means necessary!"
"Roger that, Xan! Consider it done!"
Hawkins lay on top of the highway tunnel's support, where he was when the battle had started, and acknowledged Xan's message.
"Roger that, Xan!" he shouted, ducking back to dodge some plasma fired from a turret that had spotted him.
"Consider it done!"
A chunk of concrete just in front of him was blown away, and the remains of it tumbled down to the sand below.
"Shit!" he clumsily crawled backwards to avoid more plasma, and then moved forwards again, taking aim quickly, pulling the trigger in time to take out the small creature at the turret and dodge some of its last plasma bolts. He moved forwards and leaned over the edge, looking through the scope of his DC-15 Sniper rifle to see the building that the aliens had taken. He saw some strange looking devices, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw one fire a green rocket and obliterate some clones.
"Xan, this is Hawkins, position confirmed – stand by."
"Roger that – just take them out, quick!"
He took aim and fired the sniper rifle at the alien on one, and it went down with a shot to the head. He quickly took aim at the second, but his aim was 4 millimetres off target, due to the fact that he hadn't stopped to aim properly, and the projectile entered the alien's strange gas mask, which provided methane for it, which, in turn, lit up instantly, and gouts of flame spurted outwards from it.
The flame penetrated the breakable glass that held the explosive liquid which was then transformed into a hard shell, with the liquid inside, and it lit up instantly. The explosion tore a chunk out of the building, and it spread to the next one in line, which exploded as well, and the other 3 met the same fate.
"Xan – the building is clear of the rockets – go, go, go!"
Blay awoke.
His eyes took in the situation in an instant.
Beach, battle, Xan running towards him, Blay's own broken leg.
Ouch.
Blay yelped in pain as Xan dragged him across the sand, unaware of the fact that Blay was awake. Blay chinned the speaker controls, still feeling immense pain.
"Xan!" he shouted.
Xan turned around and kneeled down as plasma zoomed over his head and, without hesitation, put Blay's arm over his shoulder and helped him hop across the ground to the lip of the crater in the sand.
"Covering fire!" Xan yelled over every comm channel.
All of the clones on the beach rose as one, and all fired a devastating wall of blue at the aliens, and they were forced to take cover. The clones ran up the beach, continuing the firing, and Xan and Blay soon ended up inside the building.
"Stay here," Blay heard Xan say to him as he lay him against the wall.
Where else am I gonna go? Blay thought to himself.
Xan advanced up a ramp on the outside of the building, and a squad of 7 little alien bipeds were guarding it, and they screamed as he took them down with precise shots.
He made it to the top, but backed down as plasma streaked past his helmet. He leaned back up and managed to fire off a few shots, but then ducked again as an explosion showered him with rubble. He switched clips, seeing that he only had 2 left, and leapt up again, taking down the blue alien that had him pinned.
He pulled out a Thermal detonator, rolled it to the feet of another group of aliens, and then ducked back, feeling the explosion shake the building as blood flowed past him. Xan jumped out and stepped onto the roof, taking down 2 survivors and being joined by a fire team. They took down 3 more, and the area was secure.
He looked back across the beach; saw that there were hundreds more aliens, and that the clones were pushing them towards the highway tunnel.
"Bring in the ARC-170s for a strafing run," he said to the clone next to him, who saluted in response.
"That should mop up the rest of them."
The trooper nodded, spoke for a few minutes over a private channel, and then spoke to Xan.
"Sir – they are on their way, and should be here in about 20 minutes."
"Roger that, trooper – good work. What's your number?"
The clone hesitated for a second, and then answered.
"812," he said. "Clone trooper number 812."
"812, huh? 325 – You call me Xan."
"Xan…" the clone trooper said slowly, smiling under his helmet.
"Excellent."
Scorp was awoken abruptly.
"Sir," the voice of one of his senior officers came through his personal quarter's channel.
"This had better be good."
"Yes, sir – 2 things. First, we found him. We found Xan."
Scorp sat up straight.
"Where?!" he asked immediately.
"In another time, sir. The crystal we processed apparently has the ability to make hyperspace faster. Combine that with the power and speed of the new hyperdrives, and you have yourself a time portal."
"Do you have the co-ordinates?"
"Yes, sir – the second thing – a message was broadcasted to us by a clone – someone who obviously new what he was doing, and who he was looking for: us."
A message was played over the comm channel.
"This is… -ound Xan, attempt-…going to follow orders. Orders that were given to me by your superiors, Scorp."
Scorp's eyes widened as co-ordinates were relayed – a planet called 'Earth' was Xan's location.
"I am going to kill Xan, and regain my position in the Republic fleet. CT-812, out."
A/N: I am so sorry that took a while, but I was getting back into the habit of going to school, which is really annoying.
I hope you enjoyed it, and could you please leave a review on your way out.