Chapter 11
As we got out I went to the right, since it was standard boarding procedure to have the first person out engage the most dangerous threat.
"Backblast clear!" Brad yelled, to which I responded with a rocket. All that was left was a wounded Jackal, so I walked over to it and curb-stomped it.
"Johnson, you take… Ah, to hell with procedure. Let's all have some fun! Everybody just follow me," I ordered. I heard a chime that told me a door was fixing to open. "Watch this, guys." I rolled a frag grenade to the door, which had just opened. Four Jackals came out with their shields up, but unfortunately for them the grenade was now behind them. The explosion sent them all flying several feet. We rushed into the doorway to find more Covenant to kill.
"Hang on, sir. That sounded like a Brute up ahead," Davis warned. I heard some footsteps behind us and turned around.
"We didn't miss too much, did we?" the Arbiter said, brandishing his Energy Sword as he approached us from a side passage. Behind him were several Elites and Grunts.
"Not at all. The fun's just about to start," I replied. I pulled out a mirror to look around the corner and, sure enough, I saw a Brute in quarterback mode. I traded the mirror for my knife and whistled to get the fur ball's attention. It came running on all fours and right when it turned the corner I drove my knife into its eyeball. The blade was nine inches, so it hit the brain as well, causing the Brute to collapse. I pulled my knife out and noticed that the eye was still on it. I kept it hidden and called for Keyes.
"What is it, sir?" she asked. I showed her the eye on my knife and she almost puked.
"You hungry?" I asked with a smile, causing everyone to laugh.
"Sir, you have no idea how gross that is."
"I've seen way too much to think that an eyeball on a knife is 'gross'," I replied. As we were moving on I almost felt sorry for any Covenant that got in our was, since they'd get their asses handed to them. Almost. As we entered the next room we were greeted by some snipers who had plenty of cover.
"Okay, Miranda, what do you do when you're pinned down by a sniper who has cover?" I asked.
"You send a team to flank him, sir." I glared at her. "Oh, shit, we're indoors. Nevermind, then."
"Good job. Brad, how would you take care of this situation?"
"I'd 'nade his ass, sir!" Cummins replied. I nodded, and Brad chucked a frag grenade, which landed behind the snipers. A few seconds later, they were sent flying out by the explosion. Our team moved on, eager for a real engagement. I decided that to achieve this, we'd have to move to the bridge.
"Next course of action is a direct charge to the bridge!" Everyone agreed with me, so off to the bridge we went. As I predicted, the resistance grew as we went. We even encountered a barricade, but that was after we had commandeered three plasma cannons.
"Set those turrets up. Everyone else, provide suppression fire for them," I ordered. We had gathered several weapons from the stands that littered the halls, so our wall of fire was just plasma. We all were dual-wielding, so if they stuck their heads up for even half a second it would have been melted off. We started throwing grenades as well, so the barricade didn't work too well.
"Okay, pick up the turrets and gather as much weapons as you can," I said. By the time we moved on I was carrying the rocket launcher and rockets, my pistol and ammo, two Brute Plasma Rifles, and two regular Plasma rifles. Again, I almost felt sorry for any Covenant that got in my way.
Once we arrived at the bridge it seemed like they had moved their whole armory to it. They never stopped firing. We tried to get to a firing position, but they wouldn't let us get any closer.
"Sir, I spotted a big ass pile of Plasma grenades that you could shoot," Posada said. She led me to the corner and told me to look to the left. I pulled my mirror out and spotted it. "How big would that explosion be?"
"Probably blow a hole in the ship, but I'm not sure," I replied. Just then the door started closing. I pulled my SPNKr to the firing position, leaned around real quick and fired at the pile. I pulled back to avoid incoming fire and heard a very loud bang followed by lots of screaming.
"Henson, since they closed the door I'm assuming that they shut off the life support system for the rest of the ship. We have very little time to return to our ships," the Arbiter replied.
"You're right. I can already feel the air getting thinner. Marines, discard any extra weaponry and double-time it back to the ship." Several Plasma Rifles and Needlers hit the ground as we went. "Arbiter, have your men do the same." I didn't know how much time we had, so I was pretty worried. I didn't want to tell my squad that because then they'd worry, and that's not their job. It's mine.