Seven days later

Base 1 Holo-fight centre.

In the past seven days since the taskforce had finally been brought together, they had undergone some hard training. Some of it was easy, especially to those who were already marines as they had undergone it before. However, there was some that was hard even for them. One example, and probably the one everyone in the taskforce feared, was the holo-fight centre built within the base.

The holo-fight centre was well known through the taskforce because it involved a taskforce member having to enter a large square arena and battle a holographic form of a Covenant soldier, whether it was a Grunt, Jackal, Elite, Hunter or a Brute. Taskforce members who had fought Grunts and Jackals had been deemed 'lucky' by their comrades because these two types were easy to defeat in hand to hand combat. Those who had already fought the Elites or even the Hunters or Brutes, it had been a different matter. Even though these were just holographic forms of the Covenant soldiers, the combat they were inflicting on the taskforce members sent to fight them was real. The Elites had thick armour as well as strength to aid them. The Brutes was pretty much the same, though more for strength than armour, and the Hunters were just the worse out of the lot. They had a huge metal sword built onto one arm that would easily break someone's back with just one swing, and it had a cannon built onto the other arm that would fire plasma balls at their enemies, which would explode with devastating effect. Plus, their size made things worse when fighting them.

Today, Marcus and a group of other taskforce soldiers were having their turn in fighting a holographic form of a Covenant soldier. Among them were two men and two women. One of the men was Eric and a new friend Marcus had made. He was called Tyler, he had blonde hair and brown eyes and was about the same height as Marcus and, also like Marcus, and he was a former marine, only he had only seen action on Tura.

The group of four taskforce soldiers entered a large room with windows at the front wall of the room, giving a clear view of a large square arena below. Below the windows, also on the front wall of the room, was a long control panel. On the left wall of the room was an elevator door, which probably led down to the arena. A tall, heavily built sergeant with a small black moustache, who was standing behind the control panel, turned to face them.

"Good day, troops," he greeted. "My name is sergeant Avery and I'll be overseeing your hand to hand combat. Head down through the elevator to the preparation room."

The four nodded and walked over to the elevator doors, which opened as they approached them. They entered the elevator, which was completely transparent in a tube-like tunnel, giving a clear view of the arena and a large rectangular-like building below them. The doors closed and the elevator jolted slightly as it descended down towards the large rectangular-like building at the bottom. When it entered the rectangular building through a small hole in the building's roof and touched down on the floor, the elevator opened and the four got out. A small computer screen attached to the right wall just above a steel door was pretty much all that was in the room.

"Alright troops," Avery's voice boomed all of a sudden. "This type of training, as you may have heard, is dangerous. The aliens are only holograms, but their hand to hand combat is real. But don't worry, if you get severely injured or knocked out, then we'll halt the training. Let's see if you can do as well as Eve did two days ago. Now, any volunteers on who wants to go first?"

The other three taskforce members stood back, leaving Marcus. He went to do the same but quickly realised the others had chosen him.

"Good for you, Marcus! Now, head through the door into the arena,"

Marcus sighed in annoyance and looked over his shoulder at the others.

"Thanks a lot, guys," he said to them in an annoyed voice.

"Our pleasure," Tyler replied.

Marcus rolled his eyes and walked through the now open doorway into the arena. The door closed behind him.

Marcus gazed around the arena as he walked towards the middle. It was a large square shape with a steel metal floor, about eighty metres in length and about seventy in width, and rock walls and a rock ceiling, showing it was built underground. At the four corners of the arena were steel columns that went up to the ceiling, where girders stretched across the rock from one side to the other.

HIIIIISSSSSSSS

Marcus jumped and looked ahead of him to see a large section of the middle of the floor descend into a huge tunnel and disappear. Marcus stepped forward cautiously to see what was going on. Then, just as he reached the edge of the hole, the section of the floor shot up back up into place, which, again, made him jump; only this time there was a tall creature standing on the section of floor.

It was a tall creature with dark blue bulky armour around It's torso, head, arms, legs, hands and feet. Just below the armoured helmet on the creature's head, he could see two pairs of mandibles. An Elite. Although it was only a minor rank, it was still dangerous nonetheless.

The Elite looked up at Marcus and, as if it recognized him as an enemy, growled and bared It's teeth and clenched It's hands into fists. It was actually quite scary to see this creature preparing to fight you. Marcus even gulped in fear, but held his position, though he was not going to deny he was not scared. Even though he had fought these creatures in the past, they had been with weapons. In fact, because neither him nor the Elite had a weapon, this was actually going to be the first time he had fought an Elite in hand to hand combat, and, because of his experience of their strength in the past, hje knew it was not going to be easy, or pretty.

"Good luck, Marcus!" Avery's voice boomed. "Begin now!"

Suddenly, the Elite charged towards Marcus and swung It's fists at him. Luckily he ducked, but before he could strike back, the Elite swung one of It's armoured arms at him, hitting him in the side of the face and throwing him to the floor. Marcus groaned in pain and placed a hand over where the arm had struck. That had hurt, a lot.

Then, the Elite grabbed Marcus by the chest with both of It's hands and pulled him to his feet and swung a punch at him, hitting him in jaw and even lifting him off the ground a few feet. Marcus fell back onto the floor with a crash, though this time it was much more painful. He had to fight back or he was dead!

The Elite growled as it stood over him and grabbed him again, though this time by the throat. However, as it went to lift him up, Marcus suddenly swung his leg into the Elite's, knocking it off balance. The Elite roared in surprise and fell on It's side. Marcus, seizing the opportunity, jumped on top of the Elite, grabbed the creature by the helmet and swung a punch at the mandibles. The Elite roared and, with a powerful attack using It's knee, struck Marcus in the back and knocked him off onto the floor.

"Argh!" Marcus grabbed his back with his hand as tears formed in his eyes. That had hurt more than when the Elite had hit him in the jaw and this move by the creature was going to make this fight a lot harder. Every time he moved, it hurt as if he was being struck with a hammer.

Another growl made him stop, only to be met with another strike to the stomach by the Elite's foot. Marcus was winded by the blow and struggled to breath for a few seconds. The Elite, however, did not stop there and it grabbed by the throat again and lifted him up above the floor, making him gasp for breath even more. The Elite bared It's teeth and lifted Marcus higher into the air. It was going to smash him into the floor! He had to do something!

Just as the Elite was about to throw him down into the floor, Marcus, who had been lifted about ten inches further above the ground, brought back his foot and swung it at the exposed stomach of the Elite. The impact must have winded the creature because it immediately let go of Marcus, causing him to fall to the ground, and placed both of It's arms around stomach and began struggling to breath. Marcus saw his chance.

He shot up from the floor, grabbed the Elite by the back of the helmet and threw it past him onto the ground. However, the Elite got up quicker than he had anticipated and lunged at Marcus, but missed as his target dived out of the way. As Marcus got up, he saw the Elite running towards him. Gasping in panic, he ran towards the rock wall, the heavy footfalls of the Elite following close behind.

What was he going to do? He could not run forever! He knew the Elite with it's faster speed would eventually catch him or out-run him and when it finally caught up with him, it would want to get him back for winding him. He had to do something, and fast!

Wait! The rectangular building! The hard side of the building could be a good advantage to him. Yes! He would use it, only if he could get to it.

Marcus suddenly turned left and ran towards the building. The Elite ran after him, picking up It's pace, which Marcus quickly realised as the footfalls of the creature were gradually getting louder. He began to sprint, but he was using up his reverse of strength, and he was going to need them for what he had in store for the Elite.

Finally, he reached the side of the building, but just as he turned to face the Elite…

WHAM! The Elite had swung a punch at Marcus just as he had turned to face him, throwing him to the floor. Marcus yelled out and placed both of his hands over his nose. Blood began to seep through the gaps between his fingers. Oh great. By the looks of it, the punch by the Elite had broken his nose!

The Elite stood over Marcus and raised It's armoured foot. Marcus went wide-eyed as he saw the threat. He shut his eyes tightly and waited for the Elite to strike down at him with It's foot.

It never did. One second passed. What was the Elite doing? Two seconds. What was going on? Why had the Elite not struck, or was this a trick? Slowly, Marcus opened one eye slightly and opened both of them in shock. The Elite was gone.

"What the…?" he said, though it was slightly muffled, but the confusion was soon overcome by the pain flaring from his nose.

Then the steel door opened and two marines ran out of the building and ran over to him.

"You alright?" one of them asked.

"No!" Marcus replied, though it was slightly muffled.

The two marines pulled him to his feet by his shoulder and, with Marcus tipping his head back to try and dabbing his nose with a few tissues one of the marines had given him to try and stop the blood from flowing out of his nose, led him out of the arena and back into the rectangular building, where the other three taskforce soldiers saw him.

"Are you alright, Marcus!" Tyler asked as he ran over to him as one of the marines ran over to the elevator to bring it down.

Marcus shook his head and groaned in pain from doing so.

"We saw the whole thing on the computer screen above the door," Tyler said "Will he be alright?" he asked the marine standing next to Marcus.

"He'll be fine," the marine replied. "Doctor'll have something for his nose."

"Alright, elevator's here," the other marine announced.

The marine led Marcus over to the elevator and they entered with the other marine. The doors closed and the elevator rose up the tube to the control room at the top. The door to the control room opened and three stepped out of the elevator into the room and the door closed behind them.

"Well, that was a bit of bad luck," Avery's voice said a few moments later. "But don't worry, you shouldn't fare as bad. Alright, who's next?"