Chapter 7
True to my prediction not long after we started to move again we came across a squad of grunts with a brute captain and three minor brutes ordering them around. We would of avoided them but our luck ran out as a civilian stubbed their toe on a piece of concrete and let out a painful yelp of pain that got the brutes' attention. At first no one moved with the brutes glaring at the master chief and elites while my squad and I eyed the brutes. All of the civilians, marines, and grunts looked between the forces of the UNSC and the brutes to determine who would yell out the first command to attack or to be the first one to shoot. We all stayed in that position for what felt like hours when a lone tumbleweed rolled through the two groups. As it passed everyone was staring at it as it pasted everyone without a care in the world. Once the tumbleweed had passed both sides gave each other questioning looks as to where that tumbleweed even came from. The looks of confusion went away when a brute zealot rounded the corner behind the brutes and saw our group. The brute zealot gave a war cry and started to charge at us with its brute-shot aimed at us. At that second all hell broke lose with the civilians, marines, my squadmates, and the elites taking cover while the master chief and I just raised our weapons and started to fire. The chief released controlled bursts from his assault rifle with each burst taking out a grunt. While the chief was burst firing I had my mini-gun rotating at full power and I was just unloading bullets into the grunts and mowing them down. As I fired my mini-gun I noticed that the zealot brute's armor was too small on him which led me to believe that it was meant for elites and with that notion in mind I raised the stream of bullets higher and aimed for the zealot brute's head. Like all the shields before the shield failed instantly with the brute getting decapitated by the flow of bullets. To say it was messy and gross would be an understatement because as soon as the zealot brute fell several grunts and a brute minor were covered in its blood before they were killed by either the mini-gun or the assault rifle. After a few minutes I ran dry on the clip I was on and the chief just emptied another clip of ammo totaling about six clips spent in that firefight. I lowered my mini-gun and looked across the street at a lone grunt that had been smart enough to take shelter behind what used to be a corner of a concrete building. After my mini-gun cooled down I reached back and grabbed another string of ammo and inserted it into the belt feeder. I started to walk forward with my mini-gun starting up again when the grunt threw his weapon down and held his hands up and walked out.
"don't shoot. Please. I don't want to die like so many of my species."
The grunt's actions and almost perfect English made all of us freeze as very few grunts could speak English.
"what is your name grunt?"
"My name is Ungy former soldier of the sangheili arbiter."
We all stood there in shock of that when the arbiter himself uncloaked next to us.
"I will be the judge of that."
The arbiter circled the grunt while examining him for any marks that looked familiar. After a few minutes the Arbiter was about to pass his judgement when the sound of a needler pistol firing rang throughout the streets. It felt like time slowed as the pink needle impaled into the back of the grunt's head and exploded causing the Grunt's head to be no more. The Grunt's body toppled over to reveal that the brute captain was still alive if barely. Instantly everyone brought up their weapons to aim it at the brute. When the brute saw this he just started to laugh like a mad man or ape in his situation. Then he brought up his needler and fired another round off. The chief promptly shot the brute dead but as time slowed down again for me I saw that the needle was heading straight for Jaynè and her damaged armor. I slowly turned and lifted my mini-gun and blocked the shot with the barrel but the one thing I didn't take into account was the needle slipping through the outer barrel and hit the core of the mini gun and exploded. The explosion from the needle caused a chain reaction as the rounds that were chambered in and the coolant system erupted. The explosion made me drop the mini gun as it launched me away from it. Luckily my shields protected me from the explosion but they didn't protect me from hitting the ground hard. My ears were ringing as I struggled to get up but the blow to my head was too much as I blacked out.