Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Halo/BattleTech crossover redux.
I apologize for taking so long to post this new chapter. Life was really busy, and with my other crossover going on, I wasn't able to devote as much time as I normally would to this crossover. Thankfully, I was able to get this chapter written and ready for publishing.
As always, leave a review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or MechWarrior/BattleTech franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, FASA Corporation, FASA Interactive, Catalyst Game Labs, WizKids, Piranha Games Inc., etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.
Circinus IV
Corbulo Academy of Military Science
April 26th, 2558, 2030 Hrs
Running up the steps towards the building at Corbulo Academy's Space Elevator Tether, Lasky winced at the deafening screech of the warning klaxons and felt his heart thudding with terror and adrenaline. What's going on? Why are we being ordered to head to the Tether? Is this an Innie attack, or something else?
Then Lasky saw a familiar face in the growing crowd of panicked students. "Chyler?"
"Lasky!" Chyler, a young woman Lasky's age, broke through the crowd and joined him, her eyes wide with alarm. "Is it the Innies?"
Lasky grabbed Chyler's hand to make sure they didn't get separated. "I don't know. Come on!"
Lasky and Chyler pushed their way through the panicked crowd and reached the building's front doors, where a single, well-armed marine stood guard. "Attention all students!" he roared over the din. "Proceed to Tether, now! This is not a drill!"
Once inside, Lasky winced at the increased chaos, with Marines shouting orders to prevent a pandemonium. Dammit, this was getting worse by the second! But at least a familiar female Colonel was here, a certain Colonel Kennedy Mehaffrey, who stood like a pillar of courage and calm in the chaos.
"Colonel!" Chyler cried, waving her free arm. "What's going on? What should we do?"
"Just get to the tethe and regroup with your squad, Lasky, Chyler," Colonel Kennedy barked. "Stay calm and focus! Don't lose your heads, now!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Lasky anad Chyler cried in unison, and they doubled their haste through the building's crowded hallways. Next, they ran across a dark-skinned, spectacled young man, who promptly joined his fellow cadets with a look of relief on his face.
"Chen. Glad you're okay," Lasky panted.
"Likewise. The rest of the squad's at the Tether. Come on, it's not much further." Chen motioned and hurried down a side hallway, with Lasky and Chyler tailing him the whole way. There, near the Tether's cable cars, stood the rest of Lasky's squad, primed and ready for whatever came next. Lasky and his friends rushed over, with Michael Sullivan, April Olenski and Walter Vickers, three more members of their squad, welcoming them along with Dima Tchakova in the rear.
Lasky finally let go of Chyler's hand and wiped his brow. "Seriously, what the hell is going on? An Insurrection attack?"
Michael shook his head. "I have no idea, man. We were just ordered here to the Tether's cable cars."
"The sooner we get up there, the better," Lasky said tensely. These cable cars could quickly and smoothly transport squads like Lasky's up the long Tether and up into a space station where several waiting warships were docked. Lasky's squad just needed the order to board the next cable car and get up there. Any second now...
Everyone hastily looked up when they heard a sudden, thunderous sound, and through the academy's glass ceiling, Lasky recognized several vapor trails. "They're dropping in ODSTs," he realized out loud. Just as the words left his mouth, an ODST pod slammed down nearby, and an armed ODST trooper stepped out.
"What the fuck?" Vickers blurted out.
"Why are ODSTs dropping here?!" Michael yelped. "This doesn't make sense!"
Lasky couldn't deny the truth any longer, horrible as it was. "Because we're under attack," he said. "This is the real deal. No more simulation exercises and drills for us." Chyler and the others looked more terrified than ever at the thought of it, and Lasky couldn't blame them. He actually felt more terrified than any of them, but he didn't dare let it show. He needed Chyler, Michael and the others to believe in him and Olenski. Whatever it took.
Dima, who was clearly overwhelmed, clenched her fists and made an aggravated noise. "Screw this! We're getting into that cable car! Right now!"
Olenski recoiled. "No! We have to wait for orders!" Things were chaotic enough as it was; what if the squad made a fatal mistake?
"We'll die if we stay here! Look at all this!" Dima cried, motioning with her arms. "We gotta protect ourselves."
"Dima." Lasky reached out and took hold of her shoulders. "I admit it: I'm pretty freaked out, too. But we gotta put our faith in our instructors and the ODSTs. We'll make it out of this alive. Just don't lose your head before then."
"He's right," Chyler added gently, taking Dima's hand. "Please. We have to play this smart. Trust us."
Dima hesitated, then tore her hand free from Chyler's. "You wanna die, fine! I'm going!" She pushed her way through the crowd of babbling cadets, fighting her way toward the nearest Tether cable car.
"Dima!" Lasky shouted. He shot out a hand to stop her, but he was too late.
"Dima!" Michael shouted. "Come back!"
Then a Marine intervened, and held up a hand to stop the runaway Dima. "Return to your squad, cadet!" he ordered.
"I'm getting on that Tether. Get out of my way!" Dima cried, clearly panicking.
"It's filled to capacity, cadet! Wait with your squad for the next one!"
Dima bared her teeth. "My mother is Secretary of FLEETCOM. Your choice, Marine!"
The Marine looked at her, clearly wondering if he'd risk losing his job over this. With a sigh, stepped to the side. "Don't make me regret this. Go."
Dima didn't waste a second. She stepped aboard the cable car and shot the Marine a dirty look through its open doorway.
"This evacuation is taking too long," Michael groaned. "You know what, maybe we should bum-rush it like Dima."
"No!" Olenski cried. "Dima made her choice. But the rest of us have to stick together."
Michael hung his head. "Okay."
Honestly, Lasky couldn't blame him for wanting to rush the cable car. A part of him wanted to, too, but defying orders would just make things worse. Come on, let there be another free cable car soon...!
In the meantime, Dima's cable car shut its doors, and it shot straight up the Tether and away from the academy. Mere seconds later, the ground suddenly shuddered violently, and the cadets cried out in terror. A few lost their footing and fell, and Lasky had to extend his arms to maintain his balance. What the...?
It was a corvette, an arrowhead-shaped one descending toward the academy from its clouds, its thunderous engines shaking the entire academy as it drew closer. Then another one descended next to the first, then a third, all with their gunmetal gray hulls floating over the academy, with green and violet lights blinking at regular intervals.
Lasky stared in disbelief through the academy's glass ceiling, his stomach tightening. "What the hell are those things?"
"I've never seen 'em before," Chen admitted.
"Maybe -" Michael started, and then all hell broke loose.
In a flash of sudden light, the nearest ship fired a weapon. A single blue-white beam of light cut through the tether, severing cables and blasting apart a considerable chunk of that ring on the tether. The tether swayed, the carbon nanotubes in the elevator fighting to keep the elevator upright. Then, to Lasky's horror, the Tether's cables snapped with a loud TWANG, sending the lowest portion of the cable falling to the ground with a crash.
Chunks of debris came hurtling, smashing into the ground like meteorites. A wave of dust swept through the hallway toward the people gathered inside, while the aftershock raced toward them like a tidal wave. Lasky had barely enough time to shout, "GO!" before everyone snapped out of their daze and fled the approaching dust cloud.
Screams of terror filled the air as the cadets ran, while debris began raining down onto them. A female cadet tripped, screaming before one of her squadmates roughly threw her back onto her feet. Two other cadets were promptly swallowed up the by dust cloud, while Lasky and the others continued to run. All sound seemed to fade away, with the only thing he could hear being his own harsh breathing.
Then it felt like someone had tackled him, with the aftershock knocking him to the ground. The cloud of dust flew over his head, obscuring his vision and casting the entire place into darkness. Dust stuck to the back of his throat, making him gag and cough as he struggled to get his bearings. Grunting, he began to force himself back onto his feet. He thought heard a muffled voice calling him by name. "Tom?"
"Hastati?" came Olenski's voice. Lasky winced; the aftershock must've hit him harder than he thought.
He was jolted out of his stunned state when something hit the nearby window with a loud THUMP. He jumped as he heard a loud, inhuman sound that resembled the squawk of a bird. Head snapping to the left, he watched as an ODST fired his rifle, while what looked like pink colored crystals whipped past him. Then he heard something else, a deep, growling sound, that rumbled through the air. Purple lights appeared, moving in a predictable manner.
"Oh my God! What is that?!" Chyler whispered in horror.
They got their reply moments later.
Lasky watched as a two pronged blade seemed to pop into existence, casting a light on the inhuman figure approaching them. Two crooked legs supported an armored torso, while two arms ending in four fingered hands connected to a pair of broad shoulders. An inhuman face was on it's elongated head, the helmet obscuring all but the eyes. It approached a statue shaped in the likeness of the Roman Centurion that was the namesake of the academy. Growling loudly, the alien swiped at the statue with the two bladed sword. Lasky gazed in horror as the statue was promptly cut in half, with the upper half fell to the ground with a clang. Horrified, Chyler shouted, "Tom, come on! Come on!"
Shaking off his stupor, Lasky quickly scrambled onto his feet, ignoring the pain coming from his stomach and chest region. "What was that?" he asked.
"I don't know," Chyler said, her face a mask of fear.
"What was that?" Olenski asked.
Just as she did, Lasky thought he heard a scream, then all of them jumped as someone fell down onto the glass ceiling. There was a loud, meaty THUMP as the person in question smashed through the ceiling, while shards of sharp glass were scattered everywhere, cutting and gashing anyone that was too close. A flash of light revealed a pair of familiar brown eyes and blond colored hair, causing him to bellow in horror. "DIMA!" he heard Sullivan scream.
Sullivan rushed forwards to help when Olenski grabbed him and pulled him back. "NO, MICHAEL!" she shouted. "WE CAN'T HELP HER! GO!" Another harsh thump followed, along with the sound of shattering glass as the people that had been on the elevator car minutes earlier came falling down to the ground. All of them began to run like made, even as glass flew everywhere and bodies landed with meaty thumps. Lasky's breath came in quick, sharp gasps, even as tears began to sting at his eyes.
Racing through the corridor, the cadets quickly found themselves at one of the exits to the building. Vickers, running on full adrenaline, smashed through the door, hitting it with such force that the glass in the frame cracked. Holding the door open, he waited for everyone to get out before rejoining them. "WHERE DO WE GO?!" he shouted.
"THE BARRACKS!" Orenski shouted. "WE CAN HIDE THERE FOR NOW! GET -"
"LOOK OUT!" Michael screamed, tackling Olenski to the ground. A pink crystal flew through the air where her head had been, embedding itself halfway into the wall. "WE CAN'T STAY HERE! RUN!"
All of the cadets began to run like mad, terror and adrenaline lending speed to their limbs. Lasky watched as something that glowed blue-white stuck onto an ODST before detonating, blasting the man's armor apart and sending the ODSTs limbs flying. "INCOMING!" an ODST shouted as he spotted the cadets.
"HOLD ON!" another shouted. Shouting at them, he said, "MOVE IT!"
"WATCH OUT!" a Marine screamed, before a green glowing blob hit him in his head. There was a flash of light, then the Marine fell headless to the ground.
Running like mad, Lasky only caught glimpses of what was going on. A large squad of Marines and ODSTs were fighting like mad against aliens that seemed to have been plucked straight out of a sci-fi film. A large bird-like alien fired more pink crystals at a Marine, gutting the man and sending him tumbling to the ground, while another alien was gunned down by an ODST. Pieces of the space elevator continued to fall down around them, causing even more dust to obscure the air.
Olenski, continuing to lead the team through the chaos, shouted, "COME ON! LET'S GO!"
Stumbling, Lasky hit the ground and rolled. Getting to his feet, he tried to look around for the other members of his squad, only to find no one. All around him, cadets were running in all directions, while Marines and ODSTs continued to fight valiantly against the alien invaders. Turning around, Lasky watched as a Marine was hit in the back by a bright green crystal, sending the Marine screaming to the ground. Another of the large, hunched over aliens fired a blue-colored rifle, sending two more blue-white bolts into a pair of cadets. Both cadets fell down dead, their skin melting and burning as the plasma bored into them. "CHYLER!" he screamed in fear and desperation. "HASTATI!"
He was about to pick a direction and run when he felt someone grabbing his hand. Shouting as he raised a fist to fight, he stopped when he saw the familiar face of Colonel Mehaffrey. "Colonel Mehaffrey?" he asked. "What -"
"No time!" Mehaffrey shouted. "Get to the dorms! GO, GO, GO!" Jerking Lasky's arm in the general direction, she began firing her rifle, a blue-white laser beam darting out from the muzzle and towards the aliens.
It wasn't to last. Time seemed to slow down to Lasky as he watched six pink crystals tear into Mehaffrey's chest. The woman fell to the ground with a cry, before the crystal's glow intensified. There was a loud BANG as they detonated, tearing Mehaffrey in half and sending chunks of flesh and bone flying. Lasky screamed as those chunks splattered themselves all over him. Glancing to the left, he spotted more cadets running, while to the right, a Marine roared defiantly at another alien as it raised its rifle to end his life.
Then, another hand grabbed him by the arm, jerking Lasky along in his trance. Gazing distantly in that direction, his mind snapped back to reality when he recognized Chyler's face. "TOM!" she shouted."COME ON, LET'S GO!"
As the aliens continued to whittle down the UNSC personnel, another familiar face ran over and grabbed the two of them. "JJ, is that you?!" Lasky shouted.
"COME ON!" Silva screamed.
"TO THE DOOMS!" Chen thundered.
Somehow, in all of the chaos and madness that was happening, they stumbled onto the entrance to the dorms. Coughing as they stumbled inside, Lasky nearly shouted when Michael and the rest of Hastati squad came into the place. "What's happened?!" Sullivan shouted. His question went unanswered.
Running to his dorm's door, Vickers tried to open it. A loud buzzing sound rewarded his efforts. He kicked the door in frustration. "Doors are locked!" he snarled.
"Over here, in Lasky's dorm!" Michael shouted.
"Come on, come on!" Silva shouted. Everyone quickly piled into the room, gasping for breath as their hearts hammered inside of their chests.
As they entered, Lasky suddenly had a terrible thought. "Where's James?!" he asked. He got his answer when another young man with brown hair and blue eyes burst into the room, gasping and wheezing for air. Bending up, he revealed his name tag, as well as the eight point Cameron Star that was on his chest.
"I'm here!" James gasped as soon as he could speak. "I'm alive!"
"Where's your exchange officer?" Lasky asked. "Where's Anestia?!"
"I don't know! We got separated in the commotion!"
As the room fell silent, the reality of the situation began to hit them. Sullivan's face became a mask of grief and horror. "Oh my god… Dimah, she's dead," he sobbed out.
Lasky was in a similar state of grief, even as he wiped chunks of gore off his face. "Colonel Mehaffrey…" he mumbled.
"We will be too if we don't do something!" Vickers said angrily.
Moving to where Lasky's computer was, Olenski tried to activate it, her hands brushing aside expended cartridges and shotgun shells. When she got no response from the computer, she said, "Comms are offline."
"It's a whole new war," Vickers said. For a few seconds, that thought dominated their minds.
Their silence was shattered when they heard a woman's scream echo through the dormitory, only for a buzzing, stabbing sound to ring out, with the woman's scream falling silent. "That sounded close!" Vickers gasped.
Lasky moved towards the door and opened it ever so slightly. Peering through the crack, his eyes widened in terror as he saw one of the large aliens he'd seen earlier in the hallway, its blade piercing through the body of another cadet. He looked on in terror, even as the alien pulled its blade out. Then, to his utter horror, it seemingly vanished into thin air. Jumping back, he said, "It's invisible."
"What the hell's invisible?"
"The alien," James said, his mind beyond all horror now. "One of those fucking things is in here with us, and it's invisible!"
Leaning out into the corridor again, Lasky couldn't see the alien. He could, however, hear it growling. Then, the glass for another one of the dormitory's doors shattered. Screams of terror erupted before becoming wails and bellows of agony. Lasky flinched as blood splattered onto the floor outside of the dormitory.
At that moment, he realized that the dormitory was no longer a safe haven. It was now a prison, with the rooms being cages, while the alien was the executioner. A courage he'd never felt before rose up in him, silencing the fear that had been present before. "Let's go," he said. "We gotta get out of here."
Sullivan was aghast. "No, no, no, no, screw that! We stay here!"
"Where're we gonna go?" Chen whispered.
James stumbled over his words, then said, "The training room! The guns are there!"
"He's right," Orenski said. "We'll go to the training room. We're gonna get prepped up. We're gonna get weapons."
"I'll take point," Chen said. "I know the way best."
"Come on! Come on, line up!" Everyone quickly formed a line, with Chen at the front. "All right. Tell us when. Tell us when, alright?"
Chen remained silent, jumping when the sound of glass being shattered erupted through the place again. Peering around the bend, he waited until he saw the glass next to their dorm shatter, then he shouted, "NOW!"
Everyone bolted out of the room as though hell itself was chasing after them. Lasky heard the alien roar in anger as they flew out of the dorm. Reaching a T-Junction, Chen took the left hand turn. Just as Lasky followed him, Chen stopped suddenly, an expression of shock on his face. Orenski, running around the corner, shouted, "Go, go, go! Hurry! What -" she stopped when she spotted Chen.
"Guys?" Sullivan asked.
"Why'd you -" Vickers asked.
It was James, the closest one to Chen, that spotted what Chen had seen. Gazing directly ahead, he spotted what he thought looked like a shimmer of some kind. Hearing a growl, he screamed, "RUN LIKE HELL!", before throwing himself backwards. At the exact same moment, two pronged blades stabbed through Chen's abdomen, with the young man being hurled over the shoulder of another invisible alien.
"JJ!" Vickers screamed.
"RUN! RUN!" Richard hollered, with everyone quickly following him.
After what seemed like hours of running, they stumbled into the training room. Missing a step, Richard tumbled to the ground, forcing the others to run over him. As the SLDF cadet picked himself up with a grumble, Orenski said, "Lasky, send the distress beacon. Chyler, help me get the weapons." Seeing that Richard was back onto his feet, she asked, "James, what should we grab?"
"Grab the Mauser IIs!" he suggested. "While we were running, I saw the Marines bullets bouncing off some kind of barrier the aliens had! Maybe lasers will cut through!" Orenski nodded, before taking Richard and the others towards the weapon lockers.
Moving to the door, Lasky began working on closing it and sending the distress beacon, while Orenski began working on the lockers for the weapons. She swore as she got a negatory beep from the keypad. "It's locked! My code isn't working." Vickers and Sullivan, trying a different method, kicked the doors to the lockers. Sullivan didn't get through, and all Vickers earned was a stubbed toe.
"Lasky, door!" Sullivan shouted.
"Yeah, I'm-I'm trying!" Lasky replied.
"April, come on!" Silva shouted.
"It's not working!" Orenski huffed in frustration.
There was a slight jolt as the door began to close. As it did, Lasky keyed the distress beacon. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Cadet Thomas Lasky! I repeat: mayday! Mayday! There's been an attack on Corbulo Academy! Excessive casualties! I repeat: excessive casualties!"
At the weapons locker, Orenski stepped back, frustrated. "I don't have access to the live rounds."
"I think the beacon's down as well," Lasky said.
"We're dead," Sullivan moaned. "We're fucking dead!"
Angered by the comment, James slaped Sullivan in the face. "Get your act together, asshole!" he shouted, shaking the terrified cadet. "We're not fucking dead, not yet!"
Hysteria began to take hold. Shaking somewhat, Orenski mumbled, "Okay, alright. Think, think, think, think…"
Lasky advanced towards her. "We can't stay in here, April."
"We can't go out there!" April retorted.
At that moment, Vickers had a moment of inspiration. Advancing towards a fire extinguisher, he pulled it out, then returned to the locker and began giving the locker doors a sound thrashing. For a moment, everyone wondered what he was doing. Then they saw that the metal on the locker door was starting to give. Seeing this, Lasky shouted, "Come on, Vickers! Harder!"
"Harder, Vickers!" Sullivan added. Encouraged, Vickers began hammering at the doors harder and harder. Soon, there was a prodigious dent and if he kept up at it, he would have enough room to get the extinguisher inside and use it like a crowbar. Sweat poured off his face.
Any sign of hope almost instantly faded when they all heard a loud banging sound. Everyone promptly stopped, then looked at the door. Horror blossomed in their hearts when they realized what that sound meant. "Uh oh," James whispered.
"Hide!" Orenski hissed. The cadets promptly scrambled to the back of the room, with Vickers and Richard going right, while the others went left. As they pressed into the alcove, Vickers noticed that Richard was holding something. He opened his mouth to ask, only for Richard to put his finger to his lips.
There was a roar as the alien outside of the room found that the door was withstanding its efforts. There was a pop as the lights failed, sending the entire training room into pure blackness. Then several large thudding sounds, like something heavy was being thrown at the door, erupted. There was another bout of silence, then a loud CRASH as the door finally gave in. When it slid past their position, Lasky noticed it had a massive dent near the lower portion of the door.
Almost everyone moved to a new hiding spot out of fear of being found out. Only James and Vickers didn't move. Peering around the corner, Vickers looked at Lasky, who put a finger to his lips. Nodding, Vickers slid back into cover, while James shifted his grip on whatever it was that he had. Moving quietly to the corner of the locker they were behind, Richard leaned out until his right eye was exposed.
He quickly moved back behind the locker when something bumped into the door, causing it to scrape loudly on the floor. All of them recoiled and froze as they heard the alien stepping into the room. "Go," Lasky whispered, before beginning to move forwards. Sparks erupted from debris that had come from a part of the room that had collapsed, making him pull back. Crouching down on all fours, he began to slowly crawl out from his hiding spot, with the others following. Richard and Vickers remained where they were at.
Moving beneath the debris, Lasky came to a stop near where the end of the small tunnel the debris had formed. As the others gathered, Sullivan whispered, "Lasky, go for the door!"
"We can't leave Vickers and Richard behind," Lasky whispered.
"Where is it?" Silva asked.
Dropping quietly to his stomach, Lasky peered out beneath one of the lockers. The flickering lights made it hard to see, and he knew that the creature was still invisible. He was about to look at Silva when he heard a meaty thump, as though something had fallen down. A small puddle ahead of him suddenly distorted, with three small indentations forming in its surface. Lasky's heart leaped into his throat. Quickly getting up, he whispered, "Right there."
"What's it doing?" Orenski asked.
"It's doubling back," Lasky said. That was bad news. If the alien doubled back while they were trying to get out, it would spot them, and then the pursuit would start anew. They had to either wait until the alien lost interest and left the room, or they would have to wait until it wasn't looking at the door or their hiding spots before escaping. On top of that, we can't leave Vickers and Richard, he thought.
There were more footsteps, then a blue glow filled their hiding space as the alien activated its twin blades. Everyone froze, then a beeping sounded, and alien words came over what sounded like a radio. The alien uncloaked, it's misshapen body visible for the cadets to see, before it began to talk. Apparently, it wasn't too happy, as its voice, if it could be called a voice, had a growling undertone.
On the other side of the room, James and Vickers were still holding position. Checking on Vickers, James watched as a look of determination came across Vickers face and he noticed his hand clenching the extinguisher. Out of fear of having the alien hear his voice, Richard shook his head quickly, them hefted what he had in his hand.
To Vickers surprise, James had the leg of what appeared to be a table in his hand. Then he remembered hearing odd noises from James while Orenski was trying to open the lockers. It occurred to him that sound was James using brute strength to break one of the table legs off, turning it into a makeshift bludgeon. He began to inch towards the edge of the locker. Before James could react fast enough, Vickers charged out of cover and shouted, "Hey! GUYS, RUN!" Raising his fire extinguisher, he threw it at the alien with every ounce of strength he had.
The alien turned just in time for the fire extinguisher to slam into its face. There was a loud POP as a blue-white barrier around the alien simply shattered like glass, with the fire extinguisher bouncing off and hitting the ground. Out of reflex, the alien fired its plasma weapon, hitting Vicker's square in the chest. The cadet didn't even utter a sound as he fell to the ground, dead.
"VICKERS!" Sullivan shouted, drawing the alien's attention. It stepped forwards, the energy blade illuminating the crawl space they were in. Upon seeing the cadets, the alien began to laugh menacingly, a low, rough series of growls as it raised its weapon.
At that moment, James acted. There was no sound from his mouth as he charged forward, before striking the back of the alien's legs with his makeshift bludgeon. A meaty WHUMP filled the air as the bludgeon connected solidly. It was a good aim, but James had underestimated the force that he needed for the blow. For all his efforts, he might as well have been trying to move the moon.
Surprised nonetheless, the alien threw an arm back, catching James in the bottom of his chin. The young SLDF cadet flew backwards, his head smacking into one of the locker doors. Slumping to the ground, dazed, he looked up to see the alien drawing its arm back. Fighting through the haze, he grabbed his bludgeon again and roared in defiance as the alien prepared to kill him.
The blow never came.
The alien was about to stab downwards when there was a loud, steely scrape that filled the air. The alien roared, then gurgled as purple blood erupted from the back of its neck and from the front of its throat. It slumped forwards, then toppled to the ground next to Richard with a meaty thump. Looking up, James and the cadets saw what had saved them.
To their infinite relief, it was another UNSC soldier, though he wasn't like any they'd ever seen. Covered in armor from head to toe, the man was taller than any of them, and had been only slightly shorter than the alien. There were no identifying features, save for three numbers on his armor: 117. Turning on his helmet lights, the man advanced towards the cadets and said, "We don't have much time. Let's go."