Chapter 7

Once the Hunters stopped firing I blindly rushed to meet my foes. My first victim was a marine Combat Form. I stabbed it in the face to distract it and fired into its chest. Next was an Elite Combat Form, which retained its shield. It had an energy sword as well.

"This is gonna be fun," I said to myself. A second before it would have struck a Sniper shot disabled the shield.

"Useless against the Flood, huh?" I put a round in its chest while it was stunned.

"Except when it's in your hands, Davis." I then holstered my weapons and readied the Energy Sword. It's a bad day to be a Flood, I thought to myself. Several Flood were gunned down before they could get to me, but I still got my fair share of kills. I then heard some talking interrupted by a Battle Rifle on the radio.

"Sem…" a burst rang out, taking down a Combat Form, "per…" another burst, another Flood, "fi…" a third burst claimed its target, "bitches!" A fourth burst crippled yet another Flood. I looked and my HUD told me that it was Nicholson who was doing that.

"Arnold, can you just shut up and kill the damn things? I mean you're not the only one that hears what you're saying," I scolded.

"Sorry about that, sir. It's just that I've been recording our whole mission and this adds to the intensity," Nicholson replied as he continued firing.

"Nicholson, I hope you realize that you're the biggest damn idiot that I've ever met." I cut a nearby Combat Form in half. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard a Marine do." I then lunged at another, butchering it to pieces. This is fun, I thought. Now I see why so many Elites have these. A nearby explosion caught me off-guard, but was too far away to injure me.

"Sorry, sir. I saw the grenade on its waist and I couldn't resist," Davis apologized. "I didn't think it was close enough to hurt you."

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine." I just continued hacking at Flood while dodging their attacks. It actually came quite naturally to me. I actually wanted for the Combat Forms to get close, but they were being shot before they reached me. I considered telling the turrets to cease fire, but decided against it. Instead, I calmly waited for one to get past them. One never did. "Men, rally on me!" I commanded over the radio. The Hunters were there first because the Marines had to retrieve the turrets.

"Excellent work just now. According to my clock, our evac should be arriving very soon. In the meantime, let's recover any gear we can that the Flood dropped." The Hunters returned to camp to inform the others of our coming departure while my ODST's and I remained to collect gear. I turned around to see Commander Keyes walking towards us.

"I have to say, Miranda, you have the worst damn luck when it comes to fights. You always seem to come when they're over," I shouted to her. "Or maybe you are afraid of a little combat."

"Ok, I guess I won't help you take gear back, then. See ya," she replied as she turned around.

"I'm just kidding. Sheesh, is it illegal to crack a joke? Now, what did you come out here for?"

"Johnson wanted for me to check if you guys were ok, since he's helping the rebels pack their equipment up. So, are you guys ok?"

"Yeah, we're fine. If you feel like it, you can look for something to replace that Plasma Rifle. It may work for you, but they've always seemed underpowered to me." I spotted a nearby shotgun. "See? I found you a new gun already."

"I don't really like shotguns because of their slow reloading, but I guess I can look for a new gun." She started looking through the pile we had made of weapons. "Have any of you seen a Battle Rifle around here?" she asked.

"I've seen one Battle Rifle, but I took the ammo from it. Sorry, ma'am," Davis replied as she was running over to us. "Hang on, I think I see one out there close to Henson. I've got plenty of ammo now, so you can have it." I walked over to it and picked it up to inspect it.

"It's got about five magazines with it, so that should be plenty of ammo. Why are you still standing there? Don't look at me like I was supposed to bring it to you. You can come get it." When she finally got to me I reloaded it and handed it to her. She took it and looked at it to ensure that it still worked. When she looked back up at me there was a horrified look on her face. "Sheesh, calm down. All I did was reload it." I noticed that she was looking beyond me, so I turned around. "Damn, that's a big ass group of Flood. Look alive, Marines! Contact in ten seconds!" I calmly slung my Energy Sword down to activate it, then I began to slowly walk towards the enemy.