George swerved the pelican, trying to avoid the banshees tailing them, David sat on the turret unloading rounds of chain gun into the, the gun roared and the empty round casings clinked as they hit the ground. Niall fired his sniper twice and the pilot of one of the banshees fell. A banshee exploded as one of the chain gun rounds hit the fuselage, it exploded brilliant blue and spiralled towards the ground. Sean sat, doubled over in pain, nursing his arm. Troy sprayed assault fire at the banshees. George swerved again, there was a huge flash of light, and a nuclear mushroom cloud rose into the air. George accelerated faster and put the pelicans through it's pace as he tried to avoid the EMP from the blast.
Sean could have sworn he seen a phantom leaving the camp they had come from and dock in the carrier, which seemed unaffected. The seven banshees chasing them fell from the sky as they were hit by the EMP. The pelican shuddered violently
"EMP!" George called back, "I'll get us as close as I can, strap yourselves in though cause it's gonna get bumpy"
Sean used his remaining arm to lift the harness over him and strap himself in, the other Spartans also strapped in. The pelican lurched down, Sean could see George struggling with the controls in the cockpit. The ramp folded up. Sean could tell the pelican was picking up speed, then it lurched up violently, the pelican hit the ground again and scratched across the ground, Sean felt the hull start to heat up as the pelican scraped across the ground, then they ground to a halt.
Inside the pelican was dark, but Sean's altered vision let him see everything. His squad was unconscious. Sean unstrapped himself and walked through to the cockpit. George was out as well, there were several warning lights flashing, Sean pressed the buttons to open the ramp, it was unresponsive, hydraulics weren't working.
Sean walked up to the ramp and pushed his weight against it, it slowly opened and he fell out the ramp.
The sun had started to rise, creating a blood red sky, Sean marvelled at how it represented his loss, of his arm, of his squad and of his mentor. He could not believe that the invincible Captain Peter Benjamin was gone.
He looked around to get his bearings. George had gotten them very close, he could see the weapons cache. He went back into the pelican and gave every one a nudge. They woke up immediately. The Spartans solemnly left the pelican and went in their cache. Sean opened the COM
"Right" he said wearily, "I have no UNSC contacts in orbit, which means, there is no help, it's just us. I want one man on watch, rotate every four hours"
"Sir yes sir" the squad replied
"Good, Niall grab some ammo, your on first watch" he said
He went into the cache, sat down by a wall and immediately fell asleep. He hadn't realized how tired he was. He slept for four hours, then woke up. He walked out and tapped Niall on the shoulder, Niall turned.
"I'll take watch now" Sean said, picking up his magnum.
Niall nodded and headed back into the cache. Sean sat down, outside of the cache, and switched between the times two zoom on his magnum and normal mode, then he heard a noise from the pelican. He went to lean on his right arm and fell over onto his side.
"This is gonna take some getting used to" he thought
He moved over to the pelican, and went inside. It was still dark, someone was in the cockpit. Sean rounded the corner and found George sitting in the pilots seat. Sean tapped him on the shoulder. George turned, nodded and returned to work.
Sean put his hand on the chair and leaned forward. "What're you up to?" he asked
"Well" George said "I'm trying to make sure that this baby will fly again, hydraulics are screwed so I need to heat that back up, most of the electronics are fried." George stared at him, then said "exactly what did you expect to gain from this conflict, apart from five squads of ODSTs and a Spartan dead"
They stood in silence, staring at one another. Sean knew that the battle had not been worth the losses, it was fine at five Spartans but then everyone got involved. That force of hunters would have killed hundreds though, wouldn't it. Sean ran these thoughts over and over again in his head, he left the pelican and walked back to the cache, the blood red sky turning orange as the sun rose. Sean wondered, were those lives wasted, or lives well spent.
Conar walked into the interrogation room to where a demon was strapped to a large curved, purple operating table. The demon's armour sparked as the huragok touched it. Conar gestured for it to leave.
"Demon" Conar said in a gruff voice, it turned its head to face him. "You will tell us the location of the other demons"
"Go to hell" the demon replied, through the alien translation software,
"You don't have to co-operate" Conar said smoothly, "we have other ways" he continued. He drew his energy dagger and stabbed the demon in the leg, it went through the shields and armour. The demon howled in anger.
Conar extracted a cable from a nearby huragok, and plugged it into the back of the demon's head.
"Yes" Conar thought "soon they would know everything the demon's every place that he had been and they would just go to the place he had stayed the longest. Only Conar's infiltration squad had survived, that was all he had command of. As beta Arbiter he had to show his worth. Whether the demon survived the process was no concern of his.
Sean slept well when he switched off shifts, he had given Niall command of his squad due to his inability to fight.
"Phantom!", the shout had come from outside, Sean grabbed his magnum and ran outside. It was indeed a phantom dropship, it land ten metres away from them. No one seemed to get out. The five Spartans stood outside the cache, then Sean noticed a blur in the clear air.
"Camo!" he called out, and as he did, nine elites materialised out of nowhere, Sean rolled to the left and shot one of the elites in the face, the slug burst out the other side, spraying purple blood.
Troy was locked in a fierce sword battle against two of them, Jack, George and Niall were trading fire with six others. David was fighting hand to hand against two more, Sean recognised one of them as the elite that had taken them prisoner.
Sean ran forward and charged into the elite, he hit him hard, and even with one arm he managed to push the elite back against a wall. He hit the elite in the back of the head and then kneed it as it lowered it's head.
Conar threw the fierce human off of him, his armour sparked to show no shields. They stared at each other with complete focus, then Conar took out a sword and engaged it. The demon stepped back, then Conar threw the demon a second sword. They would have honourable combat to decide the victor.
Sean caught the sword and activated it, the elite nodded, then they both charged at one another. The swords clashed and crackled as the two blades met contact, the elite swing, Sean ducked.
The demon did a downward slice, Conar side-stepped.
The Sean cut the elites sword arm off.
"Now you know how I feel" he said venomously, the elite stood and spread his arms, Sean stabbed him in the chest.
Conar accepted his death, he had been beaten by a better opponent, these demons truly were a fierce opponent, a worthy adversary. Blood seeped from his wound, he only regretted that he wouldn't be able to witness the death of the demon, but no matter, he was about to make the great journey. And with that Conar fell to the ground, dead.
Sean disengaged the sword and threw it to the side, he walked to the elite and put his boot on the dead aliens head. Then he lift his foot up and brought it down hard, the jaws of the creature snapped, blood oozed from the creatures mouth slowly, creating a small puddle. Sean turned, drew his magnum, and ran to help his team.