Plasma ripping through the air. Bullets flying in all directions. One shot. Two shots. Three. Four. An overcharged plasma blast flew through the air and caught Six directly in the chest. An Elite was running up the stairs beside him to finish him off. It sliced its energy sword directly at Six's face. He dodged the attack. Six punched the elite in the face, twice in the gut, and then stabbed it in the heart. He left the knife buried in the Elite's chest and ran for his life. No time to pull it out. He could hear the sound of a sniper rifle in the distance. Jun. Jun was in trouble. He ran across the base as fast as he could, shooting several Elites on the way.
"Jun? Jun! Do you read me?" Six shouted into the radio.
"I read you, Six! There are too many of them! Get over here, quickly!" Jun shouted back.
He couldn't let Jun die. He had to hurry. He could see Jun in the distance battling several Elites at once. For a Spartan who preferred long ranged combat, he could handle things up close and personal quite well. Six watched Jun as he ducked, span, jumped and rolled around the Elites while hacking away at them with his combat knife. He got into a rhythm, ducking and rolling faster than Six thought possible.
Six raised his DMR and fired the entire clip into the Elites surrounding Jun. One kill, two kills, three, all headshots. Jun took his knife and stabbed the last of the four Elites in the bottom of its chin, killing it instantly. Six reached the top of the hill.
"You seemed to handle yourself pretty well before I helped." Six said as he blasted numerous Covenant.
"I was relying on instinct. What can I say?" Jun replied, killing several Covenant.
"We have to get to one of those Covenant aircraft, Six, before we are overwhelmed."
"Well, what the hell is the plan?" Six responded. "I can't exactly run back in there Jun! Those guys are even more aggressive than the usual Elites!"
"I think you're going to have to, Six. I'll come with you, just to be safe." Jun replied
Six groaned audibly. "Fine. We have no other choices anyways. Cover me, I'm going in."
Six ran into the thick of the battle, DMR in one hand, grenade in the other. He chucked the grenade into a pair of Sangheili, and before they could move, he shot the grenade. The Sangheili hit the terrain embedded with shrapnel.
"Move, Jun! Go!" Six yelled.
Jun advanced down the hill, picking off several of the attacking Sangheili as he went down. A blast from a covenant carbine hit Jun in the shoulder, catching him off balance. He slid down the rest of the hill, almost falling flat on his back.
"Move up, Six!" Jun shouted as he regained his balance. "I have your back!"
"Got it!" Six replied. As he ran, Six could see an Elite dropping every time Jun's sniper took a shot. He was glad his back was covered by someone who knew what they were doing. As he fired upon the Covenant, Six reached the landing platform for the second time that night.
"Go Jun, go! Run!" Six yelled through the radio. Jun was maybe 30 yards away. He was easy pickings for any Covenant that might catch him off guard. Six wasn't about to take the chance. He pulled out his magnum and fired at several Elites that were getting too close to the now mobile Jun. However, while keeping an eye on Jun, he failed to notice the Elite that was behind him. As Six's back was turned, the Elite deployed his wrist blades and went for Six's neck. Six had just enough time to turn before the Sangheili was upon him. Pinned to the concrete. Six could not cover Jun this way. He had to act fast, or the whole plan would be ruined. He grabbed the Elite's arm and forced it upwards, attempting to pierce the Elite's temple with its own weapon, but Six missed the head by a longshot. The Elite readied its other wrist blade and went for the throat.
This was it.
End of the line.
"NO!" Jun shouted. He heard a grunt as Jun tackled the Elite and stabbed it several times in the windpipe, spurting the Sangheili's purple blood on to Jun's dark green armor. The dying Elite made one last attempt to inflict a wound in one of the Spartans, and it made its mark, stabbing Jun directly in the shoulder. The other Spartan merely grunted as he finished off the general, and ran for the nearest Phantom.
"Goddamn things. I fucking hate them." Six said as he caught up with Jun.
"Eh. I kill the enemy, but I do not hate them." Jun replied.
"Your choice." Six fired back with a grin.
The two Spartans approached the controls to the aircraft. Six had no experience piloting a Phantom, but he figured that it was similar to any other aircraft.
"Cover me, I'll man the controls. As soon as I figure out what I'm doing, we'll be fine." Six said to Jun.
"Well, you should really hurry up and learn how to fly this thing, Six. We have company!" Jun responded.
Jun raised his rifle and emptied the clip several times into the attacking Elites. He killed about a dozen of them, but it still wasn't enough. He saw several Banshees approaching them at high speed. They needed to take off, now.
"I've almost got it!" Six shouted.
"Whatever you are trying to do, Six, do it fast!" Jun replied as he downed another half dozen Sangheili.
The telltale sound of Banshee plasma bolts echoed through the air as the green grenade-like missiles struck the side of the Phantom. Jun was running low on ammo.
"C'mon!" Six shouted at the controls, frustrated and afraid.
Suddenly, the phantom went lurching upwards.
"Hey, Jun! I got it! I got it!" Six shouted in disbelief.
"Go! Go!" Jun yelled back.
Six located the booster and flew forwards, going as fast as they could to outrun the Banshees.
No dice. The Banshees were smaller and faster.
Jun was unloading his clip in the most quick and precise manner he could, hitting a few wings and even catching one of the banshees in a booster, causing it to spiral out of control and crash into another Banshee, destroying both. Jun unloaded his clip and inserted another. He fired four more shots. He reached back down to grab a new clip, but came up with nothing.
"I'm out of bullets, Six!" Jun shouted to the new pilot.
"Switch!" Six yelled back.
Six and Jun swapped places and continued their escape.
Six was low on DMR ammo to begin with, and he had maybe three clips left. He also had his Magnum and a few Plasma Grenades that he had looted from the group of grunts that they had killed the day Jun arrived. Not enough to take down a dozen Banshees. Regardless, Six fired away while the Covenant did the same. It took nearly an entire clip to pierce the first Banshee's armor, so Six decided to go for the engines and boosters instead. It took only four rounds to destroy the first booster, which was being used at the time, causing the driver to boost directly left into the cliff face near where the Autumn used to be. Two of the other Banshees were already damaged from Jun's Sniper Rifle, so six aimed for their wings. After two shots, the first Banshee's wing, already badly damaged by Jun, broke off and fell to the ground below, causing the second banshee to go down.
I hope it lands on a Sangheili's head, Six thought to himself.
They were getting far away from Aszod, and eight or nine of the pursuing Banshees retreated back to the now Covenant base. There were three banshees still hot on the hijacked Phantom's tail, and they didn't look like they were going to give up anytime soon.
As six emptied his last clip into one of the final Banshees, taking it down, he felt his heart sink. A Magnum wasn't going to do anything. Unless…
"Is the Phantom's plasma cannon working?" Six yelled to Jun.
"No! It is malfunctioning! I would have activated it sooner had it been on!" Jun yelled back.
"God dammit! That was my last idea, and I'm out of ammo!" Six shouted.
"Are you sure that you have no other ideas?" Jun said back.
"Not any that might work." Six replied.
There was a pause of about five seconds.
"Do you see any Covenant Jetpacks back there?" Jun said.
"Yes, there's a few. What are you going to do, go out there and…" Six stopped himself. He realized what Jun was proposing.
"Take the controls, Six!" Jun shouted. He turned on the automatic piloting system and ran to the side of the Phantom. He started connecting the Jetpack to his armor.
"No, Jun! I'm not letting you do this!" Six yelled.
"I have to!" Jun yelled back.
"NO YOU DON'T! You could DIE, Jun!"
"I HAVE TO TAKE THAT CHANCE, SIX!"
Six was stunned. He had never seen Jun like this before.
Suddenly, a Banshee's Green plasma beam hit the side of the Phantom, knocking six off of his feet. Jun stayed on his feet and braced his balance, then jumped out of the Phantom onto one of the Banshees below.
"JUN!" Six screamed. "Goddammit!"
Six watched with horror as Jun ripped the driving Elite out of the Banshee and threw him to the depths below. Jun them mounted the Banshee and dodged the second Banshee's fire, and then shot a plasma beam directly at the other Banshee, destroying it.
However, Jun's own Banshee had already been damaged by Six's fire, along with the plasma bolts that were shot at it. It was on fire, and ready to explode. Jun rode it up to the side of the phantom, but the Banshee was losing altitude. Jun climbed on top of the Banshee and made a ten foot high super human jump to the Phantom, thirty feet above him. Activating his jetpack, Jun flew up about 18 more feet until the pack began to stall, and Jun began falling.
"NOOOO!" Six shouted as he dove down to the edge of the phantom, hanging on for dear life with one hand outstretched to Jun, the other clamped onto the edge of the Phantoms floor.
Jun caught Six's hand.
Six used newfound strength to pull himself up, then started pulling up Jun.
"Thank you, Six. I owe you—"
Jun was cut off by the beam rifle shot that penetrated his helmet and traveled cleanly through his brain.
It killed him instantly.