Author's Note: Okay, I know it's been awhile since I've updated... I have school to blame for that. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, its a little longer than usual, and I'll try to update again soon.
Chapter 6: The Attack
The edge of the jungle was dark, and quite save the heavy breathing of a few dozen blood thirsty brutes. They all stared at the ruins ahead, lust for battle filling their minds. Cerberus was keeping them here for a while, letting their rage build up before sending them after the elites.
He would have to time it perfectly, it they were too angry they might turn on each other and not fight properly. If they were at the right level of rage though, they could be unstoppable.
Cerberus gripped his axe tightly, then nodded his head and grunted. As one the brutes let out a deafening roar and charged out of the jungle. Cerberus was in front of the charging line, axe held high so that the sun gleamed off the blade.
Blood would be theirs.
While Nathan was absorbing the information that Fenris had told him, the corporal's head shot straight up.
"What is it?" Nathan asked, just as the sound of charging brutes reached his ears.
Shouting echoed throughout the ruins as the elites hastened to prepare a defense, they were not prepared for a full out attack. Jimaelhae stood and went to the window. He shook his head as he watched the oncoming brutes with axes raised high, and the scrambling elites grabbing what weapons they could.
"They're afraid, they need help," Fenris said.
"Elites do not know fear," Jimaelhae said.
"I don't give a fuck about your customs or honor right now. I'm telling you your buddies are scared shitless and they will be torn to shreds fighting the brutes as they are now," Fenris said.
"What do you think we should do? In case you haven't noticed, we're stuck in a god damned prison cell," Nathan pointed out.
"Yeah I know, but do you know how old these ruins are?" Fenris said, picking up a fair sized rock.
Jimaelhae and Nathan looked at her in confusion. Fenris simply winked and threw the rock at a wall, which smashed out a few of the rocks in the wall. She walked over and began pulling more rocks away making the hole bigger.
"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Nathan asked
"Because I didn't want to attract attention, now let's go find some equipment, I feel like living through this," Fenris said, crawling through the hole.
Nathan and Jimaelhae followed her. They found themselves in a hallway that actually looked out over the front of the ruins. Jimaelhae looked out through one of the many holes and saw the brutes come into the tall grass that was just in front of the ruins.
A small group of elites tried to ambush the axe wielding brutes. The initial blast of plasma from multiple directions cut down half a dozen brutes, but the tide turned quickly. One brute holding a slightly larger axe made the first strike, easily cleaving an elite in half. Purple blood sprayed across the brute who let out a victorious howl.
Nathan looked over and Fenris and noticed her eyes changing from brown to their original hazel and gold.
"Your pills are wearing off," Nathan observed, wondering if she had more.
"I've noticed," Fenris snarled in reply. Nathan was taken off guard and took a few steps back.
"We should find some weapons," Jimaelhae said, ignoring the transition between Fenris and Nathan.
"Those brutes look like they have some nice weaponry," Fenris said.
"They have axes, why would we want them?" Nathan asked.
"Blades are more reliable than guns. Let's see if we can find our armor" Fenris said, and started walking down the hall. Nathan cracked his neck and started to follow her. Jimaelhae looked out the hole in the wall at the battle that raged below. He was looking for Vartainee, but could not find him. The coward was hiding, he was not fighting.
Cerberus cut a bloody swathe through his enemies. The elites were trying to put up a fight, plasma flashed all around the brutes, burning through fur and flesh. Cerberus's bloodthirsty warriors however were not easy to quell, their morale would not falter with some fallen comrades.
"You will pay for the blood you have spilled," an elite yelled just before the blade of Cerberus's axe cleaved through his skull slopping brains onto the elite's shining armor.
"Not just yet," Cerberus said to the corpse, before turning with a swiftness that a creature of his bulk should not have. His used a single hand to swing his blade, lodging his axe into an elite's chest. The elite growled in pain, and Cerberus used the axe to lift him off the ground.
Dark purple blood ran down the shaft of the axe, and over Cerberus's already bloody paws. The brute then swung down with all his might, and the elite was easily cut in two.
"Into the ruins, kill them all," Cerberus roared above the din of battle.
The retreating elites fired streams of plasma into the raging brutes, but it was too little, too late. Cerberus made a small laugh, the battle would be his.
The armory was not hard to locate. Fenris and Nathan quickly found their armor and weapons, as it was the only human equipment in the room, and Nathan's chest plate had a large gouge across it.
Jimaelhae found his old armor and quickly put it on. He gathered some new weapons, a carbine and dual plasma rifles; his weapons of choice. He didn't see a plasma sword, but he had never been very good with them, so he wouldn't have taken one anyway.
"Lets go, and be careful, my… brethren, will use active camouflage in these halls," Jimaelhae said, hesitating.
Fenris replied but hopping out of the armory and firing her shotgun. The blast was followed by the much quieter thud of a corpse hitting the stone floor.
"They still aren't very quiet," Fenris said, shaking her head in mocking sadness, and wiping a spray of blood from her face.
Jimaelhae grunted in response, but otherwise made no sign that Fenris had yet again insulted his people.
"Let's just go, I plan on getting the hell out of here," Nathan said after completing the functions test on his battle rifle, then slapping a magazine in place. To Nathan everything had seemed to slip back into place while in the prison, he seemed to have finally woken up from his ordeal back in the jungle. He had a duty to perform, and no brutes were going to stand between him and that duty.
Cerberus entered the complex and looked around at the already blood stained walls. He let out a small grunt of satisfaction. He began making his way through the halls alone, listening to the far off sounds of screaming elites and roaring brutes. Then he heard a battle rifle firing, and the blast of a shotgun.
The elites were using human weapons? That was odd. Then he came upon the armory. Just outside was a dead elite, the armor on his chest totally destroyed, and the chest almost gone. It could have only been a shotgun blast that could have done this damage. So there were humans in the ruins. Cerberus grunted, this would make the fun that much more enjoyable.
With Fenris on point with the shotgun, the three had been able to get through the ruined temple safely. Both Jimaelhae and Nathan had noticed though that Fenris was taking unnecessary risks. Though they had mostly encountered elites so far, they had gone through a few brutes.
"Fenris, do you even know which way we're going," Nathan asked.
"Yes, but I'm guessing it's not the way you want to go," she answered with a feral grin.
"We're going to check this room here," Nathan said, pointing at a doorway off to their side.
Fenris nodded, and continued down the hallway as Jimaelhae and Nathan entered the room, weapons at the ready. Inside two elites were piling crates to try and make a barricade for a last stand. They turned as Nathan and Jimaelhae entered, and went for their weapons. Nathan fired first, his bullets struck the elite across the chest, and his shield flared up and sent him stumbling backwards into the crates he and his partner had been piling. He fell over backwards and landed in a heap.
Jimaelhae fired constantly with his carbine into the second elite, and soon enough the shields were gone and the rounds went though his chest and through his heart, killing him instantly. Nathan finished the first elite off with a few well placed shots to the head.
Down the hall Fenris turned another corner in time to see a brute splitting an elite's head down the middle with his axe. Fenris raised her shotgun, and squeezed the trigger. It didn't fire. There wasn't even a click of an empty chamber. The brute turned and looked at Fenris just as she checked the weapon. The shell had jammed inside the chamber, and she didn't have time to fix it now.
"Piece of crap," she said throwing the weapon away.
The brute let out a mighty roar and charged, expecting the marine before him to go for the battle rifle slung across her back. Instead she growled, and lifted her upper lip, exposing her canine like teeth. The brute stalled for just a second, and in battle, a second can be the difference between life and death.
Fenris ran forward and dug her fingers into the brute's throat. His eyes went wide with shock as he realized what was going to happen just as Fenris snapped her arm back, tearing out a large chunk of the brute's throat. Blood sprayed across her face from the snapped arteries.
The brute stared at Fenris in surprise, clutching at his ruined throat, feeling his life blood run between his fingers, and down over his chest. Through the dark purple mask across her face, Fenris smiled, and came at him again. The brute tried to scream, but he couldn't do anything as the creature tore into him.
After a full check of the room, Nathan and Jimaelhae walked down the hall. The found Fenris sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and trying to pry a shell out of her shotgun. They noticed the blood splattered across the walls and her. Then they saw the brute's corpse, the throat torn apart, and the face mauled.
"Holy fuck," Nathan said, eyes going wide.
"Yeah, shotgun jammed, I had to do something," Fenris said without looking up from her work. Finally the shell came out, full of dents from the metal rod she was using from her battle rifle cleaning kit stored in the butt of the rifle.
She threw the useless shell away, flipped the safety on, and then proceeded to take her shotgun apart. She let the unfired shells fall out of the weapon. As she looked inside the chamber she shook her head.
"The feeder is broken," she said, and fished inside the pockets of her fatigues until she found a rectangular, black plastic case. She opened it and pulled out her spare shotgun feeder.
"You've been trained to repair your own weapons in battle?" Jimaelhae asked.
"Yeah, cause you never know," Nathan said, patting his own pocket, feeling the comfort of his own case, holding spare parts for his battle rifle. The weapon he knew oh so well.
Jimaelhae glanced at his own weapon; he wasn't even entirely sure how it worked, much less how to repair it in case it was damaged.
Fenris had replaced the feeder, and quickly reassembled her shotgun. She slipped in the shells she had let out, and slipped in some new ones. She pumped the shotgun, loading a shell into the chamber and ensuring the new feeder was working.
"Alright, let's go," Nathan said.
Fenris stopped for just a moment, and picked up the mutilated brute's axe. She heard someone coming down the hall.
Cerberus knew that the battle was drawing to a close. The sounds of fighting were few and far between. He looked in a room and saw two elite corpses, one laying in a pile of crates with its head blown apart, the other face down on the floor, neat green tinged holes through his torso. The humans had been here.
He had even seen a few of his own brutes taken down by the humans. He proceeded cautiously both paws gripping his axe tightly. He walked down the hall, chest heaving in bloodlust, and then he saw the blood. It was everywhere, and when he saw the source he screamed out in rage. One of his brutes, torn apart viciously. Was the parasite here then? No they would have claimed his corpse for their own, or were the infection forms not here yet.
There was a noise behind him, so he turned, and saw a single female marine holding a brute axe. He was about to laugh when he noticed that she was covered in dark purple blood. He realized that it hadn't been the parasite to do this to his warriors, it was this marine. This one marine.
Cerberus snarled and charged forward axe raised. She didn't move until he brought the axe down. When he did she moved to the side and smashed him in the side of the head with the ax shaft. Cerberus stumbled, and the marine followed up with a swift kick to his side, but Cerberus swung his arm out wide, hitting her leg and sending her to the ground.
He laughed, suspecting victory his as he got to his feet. He was about to smash her face in with his foot, but the marine rolled out of the way, jumped to her feet, and smashed the blade of her axe into the middle of Cerberus's chest.
He stared down at the axe in between his ribs, then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell backwards to the floor.
Fenris stood above the body of the brute. He had been a true warrior, too bad she didn't know his name. She went down the hall to rendezvous with Nathan and Jimaelhae. Nathan handed her the shotgun and her battle rifle.
"Can we go yet?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah," Fenris said.
The three quickly found their way through the ruins to the entrance. They walked through the tall grass until a loud voice called out at them.
"Cowards! Stay and fight," Vartainee yelled from the rooftop of the ruins. Jimaelhae stared up at him, and dropped his carbine and plasma rifles. Vartainee saw him drop the weapons, and so dropped his own.
"So Jimaelhae, a low born, seeks to challenge me? Come then, and find your death," Vartainee bellowed.
Jimaelhae started to climb up to the top of the ruins, just as Fenris's ears picked up something coming. She turned her head to the cliff, in time to see Flood infection forms coming down the cliff.
"Oh shit, we're going to have a problem on our hands," she said, getting Nathan's attention. He saw the flood as well, just cracked his neck.
"Well. I guess we're not done here," he said.