Chapter 13

After all that messing around with our newest team member, we had flown to the new base. It was in a jungle, which was nice for a change. There was a row of dorms a nice walking distance away from the mess hall. I was given a dorm in between Emile and Jake. Great. Emile would keep me up all night sharpening his knife and cleaning his shotgun.

As the months went on, we were sent out to fight numerous numbers of Covenant, and all but once we defeated them. One that one occasion, we were forced to retreat, and get back up to full strength. When we had, we went back and finished the fight. We completely destroyed all signs of the Covenant that were in the area.

Thom was really fitting in with the team. He, Jake and I had become best of friends. We were constantly hanging out together and fighting together. We were always telling jokes and laughing about the weirdest and littlest things. Carter and Kat looked on with smiles on their faces as they watched us.

Several months later...

An alarm woke me up earlier than usual. I groaned, pulling the duvet up over my head to try drown out the noise. I snuggled closer to the warm body beside me in search of protection from the duty call. Jake and I had decided, to save space, we would share quarters. Okay maybe it wasn't just for space reasons, but that was a good enough excuse, right? I sat up, yawning, and looked at the flashing red alarm on the console across the room. Great. Another call to clear all traces of the Covenant in the area. We had been given a report that there were more Covvies than usual in the area, but I was ready. I leaned down and kissed Jake, then got up and suited up to get ready to run.

When I looked in the mirror, what I saw scared me a little. Looking back at me, was a Super Soldier, holding a DMR with a Sniper Rifle on her back. She had massive muscles, and grenades lined her waist. Her hair fell spilled down over her amour like honey. She had a strong jaw, and deep brown eyes. The messy hair was scooped into a pony tail and her helmet shoved onto her head. Her gold visor completely hid her emotionless face. She was a Hyper Lethal Vector. She was a Spartan. It was a daunting prospect. Life had changed so much for me. Jake broke me out of my daydream by brushing my arm, and we walked out the door.

When we got outside, we were greeted by Thom, who was carrying his helmet under his arms and looking like Death himself.

"Thom, are you okay?" I asked with a hint of concern in my voice. "You look terrible."

"Haha, I'll live," he replied. I could see he was forcing a smile at me. "I am a Spartan after all…"

I wasn't satisfied with his answer, nor the way he looked at me. I walked over to Kat and Jun who were talking tactics. I didn't join in their conversation though.

"Jake, Thom doesn't look so good, do you think he's okay?" I asked my boyfriend, a concerned frown on my face.

"No, the other day he was in the tack room, acting like he was drunk. He was talking gibberish and seemed like he had a fever. When I asked if he was okay, he looked terrified - as if I was going to shoot him or something," Jake replied. "I think we best keep an eye on him, yeah?"

I agreed, and we walked down to the Falcon bay. The team was split into two Falcons, and we were flown out to the battle zone. The cluster of Covenant enemies below us was enough to sent chills down the toughest of spartan's spines. As soon as we hit the ground, we immediately split up and scattered in our well thought our attack plan. Jake and I cleared a path, then I dropped down and started sniping any enemy that moved while Jake watched my back and took out any stragglers. Once all the Covvies in our area had been mowed down completely, Jake and I advanced. I spied a pair of hunters, and I looked up to tell Jake to back off and let me kill them, but i ended up speaking to the dust his feet left behind as he made a beeline for the creatures.

"Jake! No!" I shouted into the comm. "Don't you dare kill those Hunters!"

"Watch me, bitch," he said calmly back into the mic. Without hesitation he shot it in the back then pummelled it down. Growling, I ran up behind the other one, and climbed up its back, jumped, and flipped through the air and brought my knife down its back. Jake just stood there staring at me in shock.

"That... was... AWESOME!" he shouted through the comm.

"Shut your mouth, tiger, you're drooling everywhere," I said, smirking as i walked passed him.

I looked around. We were going to win this one for sure. I let my gaze look over each member of the team, seeing if they needed assistance. Thom was tempting fate as he took on more than he could handle. Four Hunters plus suicidal grunts. Great.

"Thom! You can't do that by yourself!" I shouted into the comm, but it was too late. He tried using my tactic by distracting them and then taking them down, but it wasn't working for him. A Hunter stood up behind him and roared. It brought its heavily armoured arm down on top of Thom, and he crumpled under the force and weight of the blow. Another charged up its plasma gun and aimed at Thom. I ran. I ran as fast as I could.

"Noble down! Need assistance!" I shouted.

"On my way," first Jorge then Emile said back.

I tried shooting with my Sniper Rifle, but it was out of ammo. I needed to get to Thom and fast. Looking around, I found a big rock sticking out of the ground. I jumped off the side of it, sending flying parallel to the ground towards Thom.

Stumbling to my feet when i landed, I started running again, but Jake flew past me, and fell to his knees beside his best friend. Seeing Thom was in good hands, I turned to utterly destroy the rest of the hunters around me. After brutally killing three of them, I played with the fourth one for a bit before sneaking behind it and plunging my hand into the soft spot on it's back, pulling it apart by ripping it's wormy flesh open.

When the rage of bloodlust left me, I turned to see Jake ripping off Thom's helmet, then taking his own off also. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as he saw the extent of his friend's damage, and he was having a hard time accepting Thom's fate.

"Guys, help me up, i can't do it on my own," Thom wheezed, specks of blood flying out of his mouth as he spoke. Jun and Jake helped him sit up, then let him lean against a piece of debris so he could see us all.

Thom looked up at his Team and smiled. He finally had a team that he hadn't abandoned yet. He had finally found a team worth staying with. He said, "I have had fun with you guys. You are the best Team in the universe, and i sure as hell am gonna miss you. Spartans Never Die."

Thom closed his eyes and breathed one last time. A few tears rolled down his cheeks and he left us. I leant down crying and hugged him, then stood up. Slowly, as if in a daze, each team member paid their respects to Thom by hugging him or kissing his forehead, maybe both. They all got up and started walking slowly to the evac zone, leaving Jake kneeling there by his fallen warrior of a friend. I walked slowly over to him, as if not to startle him, and I helped him to his feet.

The ride home was dead silent. Everyone was in shock of the turn of events. Jake leaned heavily against my shoulder, and when we got back to the base, we all just went our separate ways. I watched as Jake moved emotionlessly, undressing and washing almost mechanically, then he climbed into bed and curled up, crying himself to sleep. I cleaned up the armour he left strewn around the place, tears spilling down my cheeks as I saw a picture of Thom, Jake and I on one of the drawers.

I quietly undressed and got into bed beside my lover, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him closer to me. He woke up when I lay down, turning around to face me. We kissed gently, comforting each other. Wrapping our arms around each other, we held each other close in a warm embrace, and let our sorrow wash over us before darkness swept over the room and stole our souls away into nothingness, until dawn.