Halo:Insurrection
Geo knew he didn't have much time before the rest of the patrol was alerted to Wolf Team's presence. That rebel had the metal cover in his hands and was kneeling down to peak inside.
He needed a distraction. "Jill, things are gunnu get heavy out here. Hurry up and complete the objective." He reached around a unclipped a fragmentation grenade from the back of his armor, pulled the pin and tossed it over the hill an about 10 feet from the rebel patrol. He held his breath with his BR55 tucked close, waiting for the detonation. A single dull thump echoed off the metal wall, giving him the cover he needed. With the inny in his sights, he squeezed off a single 3 shot burst.
He had nearly silenced the whole patrol, save a few who had been far enough away from the grenade. He was expecting a wave off heavy armed solders to emerge from the fortres, guns blazing. But instead, the doors opened to expose the true threat. There had to be at least fifty Brutes, and even more insurrectionists behind them. "Jake, any ideas?", for the first time in his military career, he was scared. Not of death, but the safety of his team, Jill was behind enemy lines and once they figure out a sniper is picking them off one at a time, he would surly be a huge target. "Keep your head down. Do what I do and relocate often." Geo flashed his green light, but the next thing he saw made him stop cold. The line of Brutes all ignited plasma grenades and tossed them. Fifty blue spheres arched through the air, most landing far enough away to do any damage, but he knew they weren't ment to kill him.
It was a wall of brilliant neon blue as the grenades detonated in unison. The combination of explosions set off a chain reaction on a massive scale, creating a large EMP burst. The burst killed Geo's active camouflage, leaving him fully exposed. He was slightly disoriented from the blast, but he was soon back to his current situation. "Geo get back now!", Jake screamed over the com. And he didn't need to be told twice, he could hear the footsteps of the approaching threat. He quickly switched over to his MA5B and slowly backed away from the hill.
Jake was giving Geo intel on the mass of innies and Brutes, he had countless targets, to many for him to bring down before he ran out of ammo, he would have to wait for the best possible shots. There were benefits of having rounds the could punch through 13 feet of flesh and bone. And the hill would give him the best shots possible. But he also had to cover the vent. He couldn't just assume the patrol hadn't managed to inform the base of an intruder. So he took turns between watching the vent, the doors, and Geo. "What the?.." He zoomed in a bit on the humans that marched along in the fray. They had all been armed with brute shots or spikers. "Geo you need to watch out they have alien weapons. All of the do." Geo's green light winked once.
Geo crouched down low, rifle aimed at the top of the hill. Simultaneously three Brutes mounted the hill, then in an explosion of blood, bones and a thin white strip of smoke, they dropped to the ground. "Good to know Jake's paying attention. Any ideas?" As a "lone wolf" kind of SPARTAN, he only had so much experience at being outnumbered. Most of his missions consisted of taking out a convoy or stopping a chain of supply. This was knew to him, but he was still trained to fight in a situation like this. Kona replied, "I'm trying to hack the enemy com system and make it look like your a detraction. That may pull some of them back an lighten up the forces on you. Just one more second and...got it! Now we need to hope they take the bait." Excellent, he thought to himself.
"Geo, half of the Brutes are pulling back." Hearing Jake tell him that lifted a weight off his heart. "Great, where are the most enemies concentrated at?", he waited a second for a reply. "Left side 13 meters from your position." Geo pulled the pin from another fragmentation grenade and gave it a nice throw over the left side of the hill. The bang went off, followed by a showed of blood. "We need a game plan, I can't keep them at bay like this for long!" An insurrectionist came sprinting over the hill, only to be cut down by a short burst of automatic fire.
Jake had two more brutes dropped in one shot, "they make it to easy." He took a moment to search the surrounding area and watch over the vent. As he began to go back to covering Geo, a large rounded shadow passed over the ground. He took his eyes away from the scope and looked up. A dropship came to a shaky stop about 20 meters off the ground. A purple tube shaped beam lowered from the underside of the ship, allowing 5 Brutes to drop out. They came out in a formation similar to the "5" side of a 6 sided die. He recognized the center Brute immediately. Clad in a brilliant shiny gold armor, with an elaborate head piece, he was with out a doubt the Brute in charge. The four around him had equally stunning armor in the color red, but with less elaborate head pieces. As they came down the ground, Jake managed to put one his armor piercing, fin stabilized sabot rounds through the forehead the nearest outer Brute, the round traveled through the alien's skull, and emerged to smack into the leader's energy shield. The shield shimmered a brilliant white for a few seconds, but by the time Jake had another opportunity to fire, it had recharged.
Romars felt the spray of blood on his face the same time his energy shield faired up to protect him. The Brute to his right dropped from the gravity lift, lifeless. He let out a loud growl, "where did the shot come from?!" His feet hit the dirt below him and he instinctively jumped to the left, a bullet whizzed passed his head, saving him but not the Brute behind him. He only had 2 personal guards left, but I traced a thin white line of smoke back to the source. "Follow me! We won't do much with this demon shooting us, don't stop moving." The trio tore off towards the young SPARTAN.
Geo was taking heavy fire, fortunately the protective plates of the SPI armor did a good job of deflecting spiker rounds. He had been taking the battle in strides, using the natural terrain to his advantage. If an enemy came over the hill, he could cut them down. If they came from the sides, a few well placed shots would drop the antagonists. But the Brutes were becoming more angery. Every time he killed one, another took it's place, and apparently he did a good job of pissing them off. A Brute came from the left side of the hill, shoulder lowered at him. He rushed Geo in an all out charge, in an attempt to close the distance quickly. Geo had two grenades left, he did a quick calculation, the popped the pin out of a frag and tossed in underhand. The Brute ran right over the frag, exactly what he wanted it to do. Not but a second later it detonated, and like a sling shot it pushed the Brute toward him. He reacted quickly, like a baseball player hitting the ball, he lifted the butt of his MA5B. The rifle's stock collided with the alien's skull causing it to cave in.
"Behind you!", Kona screamed. His eyes went to his motion tracker, a large red dot was inches from him. He fell to one knee, and grabbed his rifle near the barrel and pushed it back. He felt the gun collied and heard ribs crack. Geo dug his heal into the ground and pushed off, the back of his helment smashing into the under side of his opponent's head. He watched through his HUD as a waterfall of thick blood cascaded down over his visor. He spun on his heel and unloaded the last few rounds into his adversary's gut. It was another Brute. The SPARTAN dropped to one knee, released the spent magazine, and slid another one into the the magazine housing with satisfying click. The bolt cycled and he had another 60 armor piercing rounds at his disposal.
Jake had to take his focus off defending Geo so he could take out the Brutes that may try to expose him. As they ran, he tried to bring them down. His first round impacted in one of the guards' chest. The heavy round broke every rib and gutted him of a few vital organs. The next round slammed into the other guards' right arm, breaking every bone from the wrist to the shoulder, but still he charged on. The bolt clicked back, indicating the clip was empty. He pulled the spent mag out of the rifle, and slid another in. He pulled the bolt back a bit, the let it slide forward as it pushed a fresh round into the chamber. But by the time he had the rife tucked into his shoulder, the Brutes were no where in sight.
He slowly left his prone stance, rising up to both feet, yet staying low. He swept the ledge where he hid, and small rocky path he had used to reach the elevated location. Nothing. Not even a sound, save the gun fight his friend was heavily envolved in. A red blip to his right moved on his motion tracker, but disappeared just as quickly as it had showed up. He was reaching around his back for a frag grenade, but just as the tip of his finger touched it, a small blue sphere arched up and landed a mere 2 feet from him. He lept back a full 7 feet, but was caught in the blast while in the air. By the time his boots hit the ground, the EMP burst had reveled him. Though he was exposed to the enemy, sprung leaning out over the ledge a bit to get a good angle.
He had them both within his sight, but only slightly. He only had a clear shot on the gold armored Brute. The soldier's eyes met the alien's gaze through the scope right as he fired, but the leader pulled his comrade infront of him and used him as a shield. Jake watched nearly half of the brutes head explode in a gory flash of blood and bones, the shimmer of the leader's energy shield behind the corps. The Brute rushed him, he only managed to squeeze off one more shot before the Brute's massive paw connected with his chest plate, knocking him from his perch. It was a 20 foot plummet. He watched the Brute get farther from him as he fell, the ground coming up to meet him. A dull thump coursed through his body as he hit the ground. His vision blurred and his mouth tasted like copper, but when he could look up at the ledge, all he saw was the leader falling to the ground, hammer raised high over it's head. Jake pushed with his elbo and rolled away from the Brute's landing. He managed to watch the leader come down and smash his hammer into the ground where he laid not but a second before.
The ground exploded under the gravity hammer's huge stone head, bits or rock and clumps of dirt flying in all directions. Jake managed to jump to his feet and draw his side arm, an M6D pistol. He pumped rounds as fast as the semi automatic hand gun would cycle them, but his efforts were in vain.
The rounds bounced harmlessly off the Brute's shield. The slide clicked back, his pistol's clip was spent. He dropped the useless weapon and moved in, attempting to establish hand to hand combat, but as he moved forward, the leader raised it's leg, extending it right into Jake's chest. He felt a warm sensation and felt a few ribs pop, but he came right back at the Brute. It was all he could do In hopes of defending himself. The gold clad Brute swung it's hammer once more, this time catching Jake in the side. He flew several feet away, his armor failing as the light alloy bent inwards and literally fell off the mate black layer beneath. The SPI armor had literally fallen apart.
He landed on his back, unable to move. He watched the sky, white clouds suspended in midair being pushed across the beautiful blue sky. "This is it...", he managed to cough out of his mouth, blood running down his lips. He opened his HUD's team manager file and listed himself as MIA. I only have one chance left, better not waist it... He could hear the massive alien walk towards him, and come into view. The Brute grabbed Jake by the neck and pulled him up to look him the face. "Hi, hows it going?" The Brute's face twitched in shock. "You are moments for death at my hands and you mock me? Incompetence!" Jake chuckled through blood stained teeth, "death? Hahaha, fool...SPARTANs don't die, there just missin' in action." In that instant Jake activated his armors failsafe feature. The power source forced itself to go critical, erupting in a brilliant flash of white light and fire. The fire ball engulfed the pair, and when the explosion subsided, not a trace was left of either one.
Geo knew his friend was gone before the explosion sent tremors through the ground and blinded every one with a flash of bright white fire. Though he knew what had happened, he still had to check the teams file. There it was, Private Jake SPARTAN-D088, MIA. His friend was gone, but the mission was still incomplete. He turned his attention to a group of disoriented humans, caught off guard by Jake's sacrificial suicide. He unleashed a full automatic spray, cutting them down in mere seconds. But as he killed them off, he watched his ammo counter hit 00. The bolt on his MA5b locked back, and rendered the trusty fire arm worthless. He slid it beck onto the black magnetic plate where it hung with his BR55 and he unholstered his M6D. He had used his last grenade and all the ammo he had left for his rifles. "Shit." A group of Brutes came rushing over the top of the hill, Geo cycled rounds through the side arm one after another. The lead slugs buried themselves in the tough flesh of the aliens, but did almost nothing to stop the threat. They brought their Brute Shots up, almost ready to fire the grenade launchers when Geo saw Jill's acknowledgment light wink green. Before the Brutes could get a single shot off, the ground under their feet exploded. Bits off rock bounced off the young SPARTAN's armor.
"Jill we need to go right now." Her light went green as she came right over the hill, her back towards Geo. She fired another rocket, the detonation was accompanied by screams of pain and aguish.
She dropped the spent launcher at her feet and drew her rifle. "I'm out of rockets and going on my last three clips! We need to fall back now!" Geo nodded in agrement, "but where do we go? Our extraction has been compromised." They began to step back to begin their retreat. A large shadow came over head, "this is SPARTAN Mason-D011, hurry up, this is your extraction." A Pelican drop ship made a strafing run, the chin gun ablaze as it cut down enemy after enemy before coming to a stop over the the hill. The bay door dropped and 5 SPARTAN-IIIs clad in SPI armor motioned Wolf Team over.
"Well this is a nice surprise. They hadn't even told me we had a ride out of this one." Kona mused at the sudden change in plans. Geo and Jill sprinted forward and up the hill, jumping straight into the Pelican's bay. The second they were inside, the drop ship lifted itself skyward, giving them a view of the battle ground. Black chard grass, craters from explosions, blood, weapons and dead bodies. The scene was littered with the evidence of a battle. "Just one more thing left", Jill whispered. She pulled a detonator from a compartment in her armor, clicked the safety off and pushed a small red button. The insurrectionist base exploded, a shock wave sounded through the ground and air the bucked the drop ship around as it flew. The bay door began to close before Jill could watch the building burn, but that wasn't important. The Pelican's com was opened up for the the SPARTANs to hear, "we have multiple in-system slipspace ruptures! That fleet is jumping toward Earth, we need ever one-" The com cut off to the sound of static, multiple EMP bursts from the slipspace rupturs ending the trasmition.