A/N: Well, I've finally made up my mind; I'm not going to divide Charlie Company up into separate stories, but write them all in the same thing…that way people know what's going on and can read it all at the same time!
Warior: I'll take that as an "I enjoyed this."
WilltheWatcher: Ohh and it will only get better.
Zichalo: Thank ya thank ya.
Lecter42: Oh, I did. I did.
Dairokkan: Two words; ass-kicking.
HaloObsessed1010: Actually, not all of them agreed; remember, Isca didn't like it at all.
NoneAvailible: Heee…all I have to say to that is
MyHumps: Whatcha gon' do with all that junk? Sorry…couldn't help it. Thanks for reviewing.
Linkmaster2832: Here you go!
Firebendingguy: Uh…sure!
Capt.ShaneSchofield: Thanks a lot!
At this time, I would like to ask a favor of anyone who reads this; I'd like for all of you to begin leaving reviews so that I know what kind of following Charlie Company has…and they get my lazy ass to write faster.
The Marines of Charlie Company
Book Two
Aftermath
The greatest threat known to humankind is closing on Earth; more than half a dozen alien races have their minds on nothing more than man's destruction. Reach, the UNSC's greatest port and last line of defense, fell no more than a week ago to the Covenant's unceasing blitzkrieg across it's colonies. Only one ship, the Pillar of Autumn, managed to escape Reach as the Covenant ships solidified the small planet's atmosphere and killed hundreds of thousands of troops. Aboard the Pillar of Autumn was a skeleton crew of Marines, Crewmen, the shipboard AI named Cortana and Captain Keyes. All in all, they numbered somewhere in the hundreds in the beginning, and even fewer when they landed on Halo.
The Covenant, highly aggravated by these humans, launched hundreds of ground teams against the human survivors on Halo and would have wiped them out had the Master Chief not also been aboard the Autumn. With his help, the Autumn's crew managed to survive and fight battle after battle against the Covenant, striking at vital positions only to sink back into Halo's lush grasslands and forests. Among these heroes of this futuristic United Nations was a single soldier, an average Joe if you will, named David Carson. Until Halo, his fate was the same as any other soldier's; obscurity. However, the Forerunner changed the course of his life forever.
They warned him of a great evil that lay lurking below the ring, waiting for a being uncanny enough to unleash it. The Covenant managed to do so once, and the human Captain, Jacob Keyes, did so again. In a flash, the Autumn's forces were not fighting two enemies, but one; the Covenant troops, for the most part, sided with the humans as a matter of survival. Wave after wave of the Flood swept over Halo, engulfing any and all in it's path, turning once beautiful creatures in to horrible, twisted shells of their former selves.
Unbeknownst to David and his team, the Master Chief was still alive as they headed back to Alpha Base to try and rescue any survivors. Upon arrival, Echo-419 was called away to another extraction at the Pillar of Autumn's crash site, leaving David, three Marines and four Elites to fend for themselves as they fought through the Flood infested Alpha Base in their search for anyone left alive. One marine, Yaegar, died early on in the fighting and Fyodr was badly wounded, but Franklin, the third Marine, made it through unscathed. The fighting in Alpha Base was close quarters and fierce, but the determined soldiers made it through to the crew's improvised landing pads. Several waves of Flood attacked afterward and nearly overran the survivors, but a single Pelican, Bravo-266, arrived just in time and evacuated the mixed Covenant and Human survivors.
However, an Infection form latched itself to David just as the pelican lifted off…
'Takamee snarled loudly as the Infection form popped in his steel-hard grasp. Fleshy bits of the creature rained down for a second, then ceased as the last remains settled on the floor next to the now-still Marine that he was protecting. A hole had been bored in the Human's chest cavity where the Parasite had latched itself to him, and 'Takamee watched as the female began to bandage the wound that was still pumping out blood. Amazingly enough, though, the wound had begun to heal already.
"Zamamee, look." 'Takamee said, pointing down to the human on the floor.
He watched as the younger turned from the Elite he had been talking to and stared in awe; no wound would heal as quickly as this one among any creature either had ever seen.
"This is…this is unprecedented. How is that possible?"
No one seemed to have an answer, so no one spoke. Instead, many of the passengers in the cramped compartment gathered around their wounded comrade and the woman at his side and watched as the blood indeed ceased flowing from the wound and it began to heal at a rapid pace. A few gasps and mutters of 'amazing' filtered through the small crowd of observers as the marine that lay before them began to stir slowly. 'Takamee could hear David groan softly as consciousness returned to the human that lay on the cold floor and as he tried to regain his bearings. The Elite watched his comrade slowly sit up and glance around at the faces of beings around him.
"What the Hell are you all looking at?"
David was confused; why was everyone here staring at him like they'd just seen a ghost or God or something of that sort? It was then that he remembered; that little Flood had latched himself onto him…he could still feel the tentacles and digits of the creatures writhing about in his chest cavity. Then, there was the sharp pain in his back before everything stopped…had he been infected? Was he going to turn in to one of those things? David shuddered quite violently at the thought, and many of the beings around him shrank back slightly.
"What happened? Where am I?" he asked, trying to remember further past the Flood latching on to him, but there was nothing but a big blank.
The Lieutenant began explaining everything he could, from the time the Flood attacked Alpha Base to the battles before and after David and his troops had arrived and after that. David noticed that the Lieutenant hesitated for a moment when he came upon when Carson was attacked by the Infection form and paused for a moment, as if he was searching for the proper way to explain it. After a moment or two, he found the correct words and explained that after that, Bravo-266 made a run for the atmosphere and space. Not too long after they exited the atmosphere, there was a massive explosion that originated around the Pillar of Autumn's crash site and only one vehicle, a Longsword fighter, escaped.
Jackson then went on to say that the Pelican pilot, Warhammer had since cut the Pelican's engines to save fuel and that they were now drifting toward the world that Halo orbited around. They had discovered that the planet was called 'Threshold' and that several hundred Covenant signals were coming from a small structure built there and hanging from some kind of extremely thick cable. 'Takamee was the only Elite that recognized the signals and identified them as Heretics; Covenant Rebels that were hunted like the Humans were. How the Covenant had missed these was beyond the Special Forces Elite, but he also knew that they could find aid there.
David took in all this information and mulled the possibilities over in his mind; these Heretics could offer the tired soldiers aid…but, again, they could just blast them out of the sky before they had a chance to make a call for assistance. He tapped his fingers softly on the titanium flooring as he thought, then pushed himself to his feet after a moment or two of thinking. David turned toward the cockpit and ducked through the door.
"How far away are we, Foehammer?"
"Six…seven hundred kilometers from the atmosphere and then another four or five hundred inlet to the structure."
David grunted thoughtfully and stepped across so that his entire body was in the cockpit and pulled himself in to the comfortable co-pilot's seat right next to the pilot.
"What's our ETA to the atmosphere?"
"At current speed," the black pilot began, "twenty minutes. We've only got enough fuel left for an hour or two of full-out burn."
"All right, this is what I want you to do. Use whatever power you can to boost the transmitter and get a message down to those Heretics. After that, get us a bit more speed; I don't want to stick around out here if the whole God damn Covenant fleet shows up."
Foehammer nodded as David stood and headed back into the interior compartment of the Pelican. He began systematically going through the weapons storage lockers, looking for anything that might be of use to the survivors in case things got rough. After several minutes, he took stock of the situation; four spare MA5Bs, seven pistols, eight extra clips for each, a half dozen fragmentation grenades and whatever else the Covenant on the ship and the Marines had on them. David sighed and shook his head; if trouble were to arise, they'd be in deep. There was no medical equipment aboard this particular Pelican (it had probably been used either on him or previous occupants), and ammo was near none.
So far, the last two weeks had been the worst of David's life and were looking to spiral even further downhill.