It was as if the whole escape pod was on fire, the whole object trembling with fury as the marines hung on to their seats for dear life. Even the Master Chief was having trouble managing to stand up as the escape hurtled towards Halo. His feet began to lift off of the ground and he clung to the seats, dimly he heard one of the marines screaming in terror and Cortana hissing, "Do you mind taking a seat now?!"
"We'll be fine," he said grimly, gaining his footing once more.
"CHIEF!" she screamed, making his ears ring.
A jarring impact informed the Chief that they had landed. He blacked out.
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Silence enveloped the life pod.
Cortana anxiously searched the HUD monitor for any signs of life. There was none. Only darkness. "C'mon Chief." She begged softly.
A cough rang throughout the silent air.
"Chief!" she cried eyeing the yellow dot that beeped slowly and then blacked out once more. "Are you there?" the yellow dot appeared once more
The coughing continued until the person cleared his throat and Cortana sighed in relief. "I told you to take a seat." She chided gently, but was too relieved to go any further.
The Chief shook his head to alleviate the fog that threatened to engulf him. He coughed once more, feeling as if he had broken all the bones in his body. He got up carefully, checking for any damage when he saw the scene around him.
"The others," she said, her voice full of emotion. "There was nothing we could do…"
Unlike him, the other marines didn't fare so well. The marines where still strapped to their seats, their heads bowed at an odd angle with their necks broken. The pilot was also killed, leaning over the dashboard with hands pale and lifeless hanging from the controls.
"We should move - there isn't anything we can do about it." She said.
Without saying a word, he quickly rounded up all of the dog tags of the fallen marines. "I'll give them to Captain Keyes later." He explained quietly.
"Alright." She agreed when it quickly turned into a gasp. "Drop ship in bound Chief. If we're lucky, and you move now, we might be able to avoid it."
He nodded, understanding her plan.
"There are some boulders you could use as cover, over the bridge. Move it double time Chief."
Quickly selecting his choice of guns - an assault rifle and pistol – he exiting the life pod where a couple more marines had actually managed to escape their seats and lay fallen with their bodies sprawled. Blood stained the grass around them and out of the back of his head, he heard Cortana suck in a mouthful of air.
Gritting his teeth, he saw the bridge up ahead and headed towards it. It connected the 2 cliffs together, well over a 3,000 feet drop to the water below, the slippery surface of the bridge making it hard to remain balanced. He quickened his pace, not daring to look anywhere else but ahead of him when he heard the thunderous engine of the Covenant drop ship nearby.
Glancing up momentarily, he couldn't see the drop ship but his HUD monitor indicated that the ship was very close along with 2 other red dots. Predicting that it was just around the corner, behind the cliff wall, he hastily made it towards the other side and ducked behind some bushes when the drop ship appeared with 2 banshees flanking it.
Peering through the bushes, he saw the ship hover just a couple of feet off the ground as the passengers jumped off, securing the premise. The drop ship left, but the 2 banshees remained, also hunting for any survivors. The 3 elites and 4 grunts searched the life boat, looking for any signs of life when suddenly, one of the elites straightened up, and turned to look right at him.
Master Chief ducked behind the bushes once more, but the damage was done. He heard the elite shout something in his guttural language, alerting the others.
The first of many plasma shots hit the bushes, immediately incinerating the leaves. He took a step back and ducked when another plasma shot just barely missed his helmet.
"Keep your head down!" Cortana hissed angrily just as another plasma shot cremated a close by leaf. "There are 2 of us in here now!"
Right, the Chief though sarcastically, but I'm the one doing all the work right?
Gripping his pistol tightly, he zoomed in on the lens, sniping out as many grunts as possible and ended up killing 3 of them successfully. Switching guns, he got out of his hiding place when Cortana interrupted once more.
"What are you doing?" she cried. "You'll kill us both!"
And as if on cue, a banshee whirled around to face its target, rapidly shooting its plasma guns at the SPARTAN, who dove to one side to avoid the blows. Suddenly, there was a burst of green light that seemed to explode from the ground and the Chief was thrust backwards when he caught site of the banshee pulling away just before he hit the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he got back up, trying to make sense of his surroundings. The 3 elites were hurrying over the bridge, shooting every so often and the 2 banshees were whirling around, readying for their 2nd phase of attacks.
A movement caught his eye and swiveling around, he caught the grunt that had snuck up behind him with the butt of his gun, cracking open its skull. He shrieked and fell in its own blood while the Chief calmly cleaned the end of his gun which had acquired some blood onto it.
After reviewing over a couple of different possible strategies, he chose the most abstract one, knowing Cortana would love his idea. Thinking it over once more, he nodded it to himself, although this stunt would require perfect timing, or he was a goner.
The 1st banshee neared, firing its plasma guns rapidly and then veering off in another direction when the other banshee took its place.
Perfect, he thought smugly, running at full speed towards the banshee who had ventured closer to get a better aim when he leaped. Barely managing to scrap his hands over the hood of the banshee, he heard Cortana say, "Oh no, ho, ho, ho, no."
Probably already guessed my intentions, he thought glumly then brightened. Well she can still enjoy the show.
Nonetheless, he placed the plasma grenade onto the hood of the banshee, which stuck to it, and then let himself slip off the smooth surface of the banshee. Amazingly, he managed to execute the move perfectly and ended up right on top of the other banshee which had been flying underneath the 2nd banshee at the moment.
Letting himself slide off the rear end of that one, he grabbed the elite's legs which were sticking out of the banshee and yanked hard. Using the momentum gained from the yank, he managed to take control of the banshee. The elite sprawled through the air, shrieking the entire time until it hit the ground below, its mangled body disturbing the other elites whom had paused to watch his incredible stunt.
Go, go, go! He pulled the accelerator on the banshee, hooking his legs in the back.
Almost instantly, the banshee behind him exploded into a fiery ball of fire, encasing its pilot and itself in the explosion. The banshee's contorted frame hurtled back down to the ground with a loud crash and the Chief grinned behind his visor.
"You're lucky." Cortana growled.
He ignored her, steering the banshee around to face the remaining elites and slaughtered them in a matter of seconds. I have to ditch this thing. I'm too noticeable in the sky
Landing the banshee, he got out safely and continued on foot towards the hill and the waterfall.
"We have to get to higher ground. If we can reach the top of that peak up ahead, we might be able to spot other life boats." Cortana informed him just as he cleared the hill, the waterfall to his right practically droning out her voice.
He trekked up another hill, a clearing up ahead with a few bushes. Good, so I don't have to worry about ambushes. Or not, he thought, grumbling to himself when he saw a flash of red on his HUD.
"Incoming hostiles," Cortana whispered unnecessarily to him.
With his assault rifle in hand, he ran up the hill as if nothing had happened and went on his merry way when an elite launched itself at him, growling something incoherently.
The Chief simply ducked and the elite went soaring over his head, landing heavily on the ground. He stuck a plasma grenade at him and backed up a few paces as the elite got up and screamed, yanking at the plasma grenade. But it was no use as the elite blew up, taking down a nearby elite who was invisible at the moment and hadn't seen the bomb on him.
Smiling satisfactorily, he cracked open another grunt's skull and it too fell to the ground.
He continued up the hill once more and managed to reach the top of it without anymore disturbances. There was a vast marbled structure in the middle of the vacant field which was pockmarked with boulders, trees, and craters.
"I'm picking up different signals Chief." Cortana inserted. "They seem to be coming from inside the structure. It'd be best if we checked it out for any marines before we move on."
He was heading towards the structure as Cortana had instructed him to do when he saw 2 more life boats speeding towards the ground, and disappearing over the mountainous region.
"More life boats!" she exclaimed and the Chief grunted in response.
The Master Chief picked up his pace, keeping up a steady jog, and entered the structure. It was cold and damp inside of it, his footsteps echoing throughout the halls. No one appeared on his radar but he continued forward.
There was a ramp ahead of him, leading towards the basement of the building. He took the ramp, slowing to a stop when he reached the ground below. It was dark and smelled musty with grime and decay. He turned on his light, holding out his assault rifle, ready to shoot.
The SPARTAN was about to turn a corner when he heard a shout and turned in the direction of running feet. It leaped at him, but moving as fast as only a SPARTAN could do, he grabbed the assailant by the neck who choked and gasped for air.
Bringing the person up to his light so he could see, he saw that it was a marine instead and immediately let him go.
The marine gasped for air and a single yellow dot appeared on his HUD followed by numerous other yellow dots that all seemed to crowd him. Out of the shadows came other marines with an African American sergeant in lead.
"Sorry about that Chief." The marine managed to say in between breaths, rubbing his neck where he was grabbed just moments before. "I shouldn't have scared you like that. We thought you were another one of those Covenant b*******. They somehow keep finding us. Sorry."
The Chief shrugged but the sergeant stepped in to scold the other marine.
"When I say hold your fire, I meant it, you idiot!" he snapped, narrowing his eyes at the sheepish marine.
"No harm done though, so…" he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"No harm done?!" the sergeant barked. "What do you think would have happened if that was not the Master Chief then, huh? No harm done. You'd have been lying on you're a** with a broken neck and yet another casualty for me to report back to Keyes."
The marine cringed, looking up at the Chief to see what he thought of his faulty, but the Chief remained silent, not wanting to deal with their problems.
The sergeant, after dealing with the marine, turned to the Chief, his expression grim. "We keep tagging invisible Covenant forces. There are probably more Covenant forces just outside."
"You have a plan?" the chief inquired.
"Well…" pink splotches appeared on his dark skin as he stumbled over his words. "Not exactly…But we were thinking of sending out a small team to scavenge the field, that way we'll know what's going on outside."
"I don't know about that though, Johnson." One of the marines said, his face scrunched up in thought.
"What do you mean?" Sergeant Johnson snapped, getting aggravated.
"Well, for starters, what happens if one of us gets hurt or possibly even killed? We haven't had any fatalities, and remember, Keyes said-"
"I know what Keyes said!" Johnson interrupted. "But I don't see any other bright ideas out on the table, now do I? We'll just have to do the best that we possibly can. And the best that we can possibly do at this moment right now is to fight back!"
"We could die though!" the other marine practically shouted at him.
"Son, at this point, this is a straight up suicide mission. We have no other options. If there were any, I would take them under consideration, but there is none!"
"So - what? You're going to kill us all off now? Is that what you're expecting us to do? To die with honor? What honor?"
While the 2 continued to banter, the Chief was able to tone their voices out, in order to listen what was happening outside. He darted off to the entrance of the room they were in, listening closely to any signs of Covenant. It was right when he returned to join the marines once more did he hear the faint shuffle of feet.
He immediately turned in the direction of the sound, silencing the marines with a raise of his hand. Clutching his assault rifle tightly, he soundlessly walked to the direction where he had heard it, when he saw a faint blue spark that seemed to be emitting from the ground. Not stopping to think, he dove backwards in record time to avoid a grenade blast that echoed loudly throughout the entire room.
Slowly, the ceiling of the exit began to deteriorate and huge chunks of marble tore off and hit the ground, creating a loud crashing sound. More pieces of marble detached from the ceiling, thus covering up the exit.
He hastily stood up, dusting off his armor to look at the marines who were gazing upon him in shock.
"We have to move. They know where we are." The Chief said, heading towards one of the 3 remaining exits with the marines trailing behind him wordlessly.
It was then that the 2nd grenade went off and the SPARTAN and the marines were thrown across the room. The marbled ceiling also broke off and covered the entire exit.
"They're trying to seal us in!" one of the marines cried out, panic clear in his voice as he got up, grasping his assault rifle tightly.
"Move it marines!" the sergeant bellowed, sprinting towards one of the exits that hadn't been blow apart. "Let's go, go, go!" he ushered the marines through, whom zipped out the exit as fast as they could.
The Chief was the last to leave when suddenly he heard a cry from back inside the structure. He turned to see a marine scrambling towards the entrance with a bloody leg when the exit exploded and the Chief was thrown off his feet.
"What are you doing Chief?" the sergeant shouted at him, not having seen the trapped marine. He was already up the ramp and out of the structure with the rest of marines crowded around him.
"There's a marine still inside!" the Chief answered calmly, rushing up the steps and towards the opposite end of the structure, not waiting for a response, when the sergeant stepped in his way.
"What are you talking about? What marine?" he demanded.
"The previous blast from the explosion must have wounded him. That's why he wasn't able to escape with us in time." He answered with forced impatience, his HUD monitor detecting a huge red dot. Not good. It was a Covenant drop ship heading their way.
The sergeant cursed just as the ship's thunderous engine was heard, echoing throughout the skies. He glanced up and cursed once more. "I'm not leaving behind a marine Chief. No god d*** way I'm not." He warned.
"Good. So you'll stay here with the rest of marines until I get back." Master Chief was about to walk past him when the sergeant blocked his path once more.
"I think you got that last part wrong there Chief."
The Chief felt like tossing him aside, but forced himself to remain rooted in his spot. "I don't have time for this."
"And neither do I." Johnson agreed, turning to the marines. "Go find a place to hide and we'll be back as soon as possible. Give them h*** marines." With that, he ran past the Chief who stared at him dumbfounded, at once getting angry with himself for letting Johnson do this to him.
Nonetheless, he said nothing, but his anger mounted when he saw the drop ship unload a wad of Covenant near the marines hiding place and then disappear once more. He saw the marines open fire, trying their best to ward off their foes.
"They'll be fine." Johnson assured him just as they reached the opposite end of the structure. Fortunately, the exit was not blown apart and they were able to once more go underground.
Their footsteps echoed throughout the room as they walked down the ramp with their assault rifle in hand. They continued down the ramp until they reached the room they were in before, scouting the area for the lost marine. There was indeed a blood trail from the past cave-in that he hadn't noticed before, and scolded himself for it.
They were gazing around the room when his flashlight hit something. Rushing to the object, he saw that it was one of the marine's helmets. He picked it up and handed it back to Johnson, who, paled face, took it. He turned the helmet over to reveal the name tag hidden underneath the flap.
"Jenkins," he whispered.
There was shuffle behind the Chief and he immediately swiveled around to face the sound. Heading deeper into the room he saw nothing until he saw a pale hand peeking out from around the corner, near the one of the caved-in exits. Running towards the hand, he turned the corner to see a white-faced marine with his mouth, hands and feet bound. His left leg had a huge gash and was still bleeding freely.
Crouching over the marine, the Chief quickly tore off the rope from his mouth, hands, and feet. The marine doubled over and gasped for air, with trickles of sweat and blood oozing from his scalp and running down his cheeks.
"You okay Jenkins?" Johnson asked, running up beside the Chief to gaze at the marine. "For god's sake marine - what the h*** happened?"
Right when he was about to answer, out of nowhere, the sergeant buckled and fell to the ground, letting out a moan of pain. Standing behind him stood an elite with his weapon raised in midair. His eyes were bloodshot with murder in his eyes.
"SPARTAN!" it hissed, pointing at the Chief and raising his weapon.
The Chief immediately raised his arms to signal no harm. Just as the elite lowered his weapon, lunging at him, he grabbed the plasma rifle from his hand and pounded it against his skull. After successfully killing the elite, he helped Johnson to his feet, who rubbed his head with a scowl on his face.
"Let's get him onboard a pelican. I don't think he can endure the rest of the time here." The Chief suggested, gently pulling Jenkins to his feet who groaned in pain, but otherwise said nothing.
"Good idea." The sergeant responded. "I'll lead the way out."
The 3 of them ascended the ramp, at once entering the chaos that threatened to engulf them. A storm of Covenant troops were spread out across the field in vain attempt to hunt down the marines, whom had managed to successfully avoid the Covenant. But as soon as they saw the 3 emerge from the fallen shelter, the Covenant opened fire.
Hiding behind a corner of the structure, the Chief began to instruct the sergeant of his plan. "Go back to the marines with Jenkins. I'll hold them off for as long as I can. Find someplace safe and I'll come find you later."
"I'm not leaving-" Johnson began.
"It's for the best." He snapped, handing him Jenkins, who was unconscious. "Now go!"
Nodding reluctantly, Johnson took Jenkins and left, going from behind the structure. Grimly, the Chief reloaded his gun as Cortana chimed in.
"Are you sure you don't want help?" she asked queasily.
"I'm not risking any of their lives." He said emotionlessly. Saying that, he turned the corner and opened fire, gunning down at least 4 grunts before having to reload again. He headed towards one of the biggest elites, whipping out his pistol and firing simultaneously. The elite dodged a few of his shots, but eventually fell mercy to his pistol.
Another elite came and attacked him, swinging his gun. The Chief had just enough time to weave out of the way to avoid getting hurt when the elite attacked again. The butt of his gun rammed into the Chief's ribs, knocking the breath out of him. Feeling lightheaded, he tried to regain his composure when the elite slammed his foot into his stomach, causing him to double over in pain.
Seeing that Master Chief was starting to fail, the rest of the marines quickly welcomed the sergeant and Jenkins into their huddle, and whipped up a plan. All of the marines minus Johnson who was tending to Jenkins, created a mass diversion, shooting the Covenant and fanning out in all directions.
Of course, the rest of the Covenant turned to them but the other elite remained rooted in his spot, standing over the Chief. He kicked his side multiple times, with Cortana hissing in sympathy to each hit until the Chief grabbed the elite's foot, and yanked. The elite fell and the Chief rose to his full height, bringing out his pistol and shooting the fallen elite in the skull.
The elite let out a horrible cry, its blood soaking the ground beneath it. The rest of the marines had able to gun down the rest of the grunts and kill off a couple of elites. Only a few remained, staying in close formation. Hatching an idea, the chief took out a grenade from one of his various pouches he carried and lightly tossed the grenade at the unsuspected elites. They tried to weave out of the way, but only managed to run into each other. The bomb exploded and fragments of their body parts flew out, splattering a few of the marines and the Chief himself.
One of marines nearest him grinned, wiping the elite's blood off his face. "Nice one Chief."
The rest of the marines whooped and hollered with joy.
"Oh yeah! Purple hearts for everybody!" another marine shouted.
Meanwhile, Cortana called upon a nearby pelican to help pick up the marines. "Echo-419, this is Fire-team Charlie, requesting for a pick up."
"It'll be my pleasure Cortana." The female pilot responded.
Shortly, a pelican arrived with a warthog attached to the bottom of it. The pelican hovered above the ground, dropping the warthog from it's grasp and then descending. The marines rushed towards the pelican with Johnson and Jenkins safely getting on board.
"Mind if you can spare a few men?" Cortana asked the pilot.
"Of course." She answered.
Two marines ran towards the warthog, taking the gunner and shotgun seats. The Chief took the drivers seat after seeing that the pelican left safely. Putting the key in the ignition, he started up the vehicle.
"Let's see if we can make contact with the rest of the marines, Chief." Cortana said, just as they began to head down the hill.
"Right." The Master Chief said. Considering that they're still alive.
*this took a really long time, and I'm sorry for the long wait, but I've had a pretty hectic couple of weeks so I wasn't able to get on the computer. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hopefully there will be more coming soon. I wanted to split this chapter into a couple of parts because it got too long, so I'll try to post the rest of the chapter online soon. And for those who are still reading this, thanks!!! I'll try not to disappoint!!