Chapter 6

It was late. 12am to be exact. We had all gone to our quarters. The quarters all were next door to the other, with a small window in the wall so we could communicate with the next person if we wanted. I was in quarters in between Jorge and Jake.

I decided that I needed to take a shower, so I did. I then changed into shorts and a tank top, and proceeded to clean my armour, then i not so gracefully fell into bed.

Later that night, I was awoken by a loud SWISH sound. Looking around my room, I saw a light in the corner. Then, I heard feet shuffling, and I realised a Sangheili Elite was in my room, cloaked with invisibility. Well, this could be a problem. Reacting quickly, I grabbed my pistol and jumped out of bed.

"Jake! Wake up and get through here!" I said through the window. I heard someone stumble out of bed and walk out of their room and into my room. When Jake saw the elite, he snapped awake and pulled out his knife. I saw what he intended to do, and started distracting the elite, hoping that it wouldn't notice Jake behind it.

"Hey! Over here!" I said. "Bet you can't get me!"

The elite shuffled towards me, and Jake acted quickly. He reached up and grabbed the elites shoulders, and used its leg armour to climb up it. He wrapped one arm around it's chest, and use the other to slash across the elite's throat. The elite fell to the ground, dead.

"Beth! Beth, are you ok?" Jake asked. He looked concerned as I sank down onto my bed.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I said. "It was just a bit of a shock. What was it doing in my room? How did it get here?"

"Let's wait til morning before we answer that question, shall we?" he asked me gently. I stood up and walked over to him and he opened his arms. I sank into his chest and he held me as I shivered from shock.

"I shouldn't be so scared. I am a SPARTAN after all," I said chuckling.

"Hey, its ok. Just go back to bed and we will deal with this tomorrow," Jake smiled at me, and I smiled back. "I am surprised Jorge or the others haven't woken. They must all be very heavy sleepers…"

I agreed, and after one last hug, Jake left and went back to his room. I crept quietly over to my bed and fell asleep.

The next morning…

"Wake up, wake up!" Carter barged into my room. After the event a few hours prior, i was startled, so i immediately grabbed my pistol and shot him in the foot.

"Yowch!"Carter yelped. "Why would you do that?"

He started hopping around which was hysterical to watch. I knew it didn't actually hurt that much; he was just carrying on. Carter then noticed the dead elite on the floor and froze.

"What on earth?! Why is there a dead elite in your room Beth?" he asked me frantically. By this stage, Jake had come through and was standing behind Carter.

"Beth woke up last night and found this elite in the corner of her room. It tried to kill her, but I didn't let it," Jake said.

"He assassinated it," I said.

"Well, congratulations on your first assassination," he said to Jake. Turning to me he yelled, "Why didn't you tell me last night when it happened?!"

"We thought it would be best to leave it till morning," Jake said. "And Carter, please, it was my idea not to tell you, so please don't yell at Beth. If anyone, yell at me."

"You two are a funny pair, aren't you? Always protecting each other," he said. "Lets go get the others and then head down to the mess hall for breakfast. Beth, you get into your armour while Jake and I go and get the others, ok?"

We agreed and I started to change into my armour. I pulled the gel lining up to my waist, then looked at my back in the mirror to see if there was any scarring from the training incident. Yes. There was a line form the top of my right shoulder going across my back to my left hip. Lovely. The scar, however, was only very faint, as though it had happened a long time ago. Sighing, I continued to get my armour on.

I met up with the others and we started walking towards the mess hall. The mess hall lay over a ridge overlooking a lake. It was quite a beautiful place.

As we got to the ridge, we all stopped in shock.

"Noble Team, prepare for action," Carter said through the comm.

Right before our eyes, were several dozen Covenant drop pods. Elite, Hunters, Jackals, Grunts. They were all there. Everyone started sprinting for the weapons bunker and we picked out our weapons.

Once we were all tacked up and ready to fight, we stepped back outside and prepared to face the battle. Marines were already fighting, and plasma was everywhere. I ran into the fight with Emile and Jorge by my sides. Shooting an Elite in the face, it immediately dropped dead on the ground. I took out copious amount of jackals and grunts, then moved on to help the others with the larger Covenant species. Seeing a plasma grenade on the ground, I grabbed and stuck an Elite, who quite stupidly ran off into three of his kind, exploding them. I chuckled, then I went for the Hunters.

Booyah! This was what I brought my rocket launcher for! There were only four Hunters, but I was going to make them wish they never even set foot on Reach. I saw a slanted rock, and ran up it. Jumping off, I shot my rocket launcher at one of the Hunters backs and took it down. The next one was harder. He had turned around, protecting his back from me but I shot my rocket launcher anyway. The rocket sent him back a few feet, and I reloaded. Reloading took a little longer because I was constantly dodging spheres of burning, green plasma.

"Noble! I need backup!" I yelled into the comm.

"On my way, Six," I heard Jake say back.

Taking aim again, I took out the Hunter, but before I could react to the others, I was sent flying. A Hunter had punched me across my back. I landed on my arm which cracked a few times, but I got up and started reigning bullets from my DMR down on the next Hunter. Jake came up behind the beast and started pummelling its back.

"Jake! Watch out!" I screamed.

The one remaining Hunter came up behind Jake and lifted his arm to punch him. I ran over and jumped up over him, pushing him out of the way. The Hunter brought its arm down on my and I crumpled to the ground. I saw the other Nobles running over taking the Hunter down on the way. Some red liquid started dripping down into my eyes, and I soon realised it was blood. I blacked out.

When I woke, I was in a hospital room. Great. What had I done this time?

Beth.

A green figure came to life on a holo pad on a console. It was wearing casual clothes. A t-shirt, jeans, a leather jacket and black sneakers. Deja was also carrying a skate board with a UNSC logo on the underside of it.

Deja. How are you?

Just fine, but I should ask, how are you?

I feel bloody fantastic.

I heard sarcasm in that, Beth.

There was a knock on the door and the Noble Team came in, smiling and greeting me. All of us were dressed in casual clothes, even Emile, but he still had his helmet on. Jake jogged over to me and enveloped me and a bear hug.

"Six, how are you feeling?" everyone asked me.

"Just fine now that you are all here," I smiled back at them all.