Flight
(Part One)
(Disclaimer: I don't own Halo)
Bunker led Menendez and Fatima down the long corridors following the map presented to him on his HUD. They were approaching the reactor core when five red dots appeared on his motion tracker. He halted the other two and dropped into a crouch peering into the darkness ahead. He activated his night vision and a sudden motion caught his attention in a door way. It was a maintenance access way and the dots were inside it. He reached to his belt for a grenade and a sudden blast of plasma erupted from the darkness.
He cursed and hit the deck, hearing a garbled scream behind him he resisted the urge to turn around and began spraying the opening with his submachine gun. Finally pulling the pin on the grenade he lobbed it into the opening and ducked his head against the blast. It blew in a great eruption of noise and he scanned the area again, finding the red dots were gone. He turned to see what had happened behind him to find Fatima lying face first on the deck his helmet burned away, face melted and brain bubbling.
Shuttering, he and Menendez quickly stripped the body of weapons and gear and continued on their way. 'The ship was secure,' he thought to himself. 'Wonder if there's any other down this way.' He keyed his mike.
"Corporal, we lost Fatima," he was always as blunt as possible.
"Shit," was the reply, "I'm assuming enemy presence is light down there?"
"Yes, Corporal we're continuing on with the mission," he radioed back.
"Take no more chances then you have to," was all he got back from Corporal Dawn.
"Roger that," Bunker said sincerely. He looked at Menendez and could imagine his frightened look. "You okay?"
"Fuck no," was the answer in a sudden outburst.
"It gets worse," Bunker said turning away, "Much, much worse."
They both dropped into a shooters walk and continued in an even more, if it was possible, alert mindset. Bunker was scared but determined to survive and Menendez shivering slightly out of fright.
It was another ten minutes before they entered the reactor room, where Bunker radioed his team leader.
"Corporal Dawn, permission to set a forty five minute timer?" Bunker asked.
"No," was the quick reply. "Set it for thirty and haul ass back to the birds wait until the twenty five minute mark and leave without if you have too."
"Yes Corporal," Bunker responded.
"Was that gunfire in the background?" Menendez asked him quietly. Bunker nodded and set about to arm the devices. Dropping both on the deck next to the reactor he nodded to Menendez and both set out sprinting for the hanger which would be their salvation.
***
They were a single hall way from the hanger when a sudden burst of gunfire caught their attention. It was followed by a roar and then a scream. Bunker gripped his M7 sub machine gun tightly and turned the corner towards the scream and ran nose to nose with a very surprised, but very angry Elite in red armor.
"Oh shit," was all he managed to say before a fist came crashing into his side slamming him into the opposite wall. He felt his ribs break and his snapped back on impact dazing him. Menendez opened fire on the Elite before he was cracked in the head by a melee blow from the Plasma Rifle in the Elites hand. His visor cracked and he hit the deck hard and just stared as the Elites boots came down on his head. His helmet was all that saved him until Bunker opened up with his submachine gun. The Elite howled in anger and turned to finish off Bunker who pulled his pistol and fired both until they ran dry. No time to reload he dropped them and pulled his combat knife.
'It might be useless but it's better than nothing,' he thought as he braced to fight the Elite. A single shotgun blast took the Elites head off and it collapsed at Bunkers feet. He watched in a trance as three ODST's swarmed into the hallway taking out the Grunts that he hadn't noticed. As the brief fight finished he turned to Menendez and saw that he been knocked unconscious.
"Grab him and go Bunker," James told him. "Head for the hanger we'll give you a few minutes start."
Bunker nodded and managed to get Menendez in the hanger in time to board the last Pelican where he collapsed on the floor alongside him. It had been a long day and his ribs were throbbing and caused him to gasp in pain at every movement. He was alive though, and that was more than Fatima or Staff Sergeant McPherson or any others could say.
He sat up as his remaining three team mates came aboard and yelled over the comm. link for the Pelican to take off. He grinned with relief; they were on the way out of this great big mess. 'Fuck my life,' he thought with a grin.