Fire. Screaming. Blackness. Open eyes, then closed. Noble Six was alive. He looked up a bit, but he was slow to do it. He was aching all over. His HUD was buzzing and warping around. What had happened? All he could remember was… The crash!
"We're coming in too fast!" Cortana had shouted.
The lifepod had been racing towards the ground at a lightning fast pace, trailing smoke as it went down.
"Damn! Air brake failure! They blew too early! I'm losin' her. Brace for impact!" The pilot shouted.
And then they had crashed into the floor of this planet.
"Chief? Six?" Cortana was saying. Six's ears were still ringing, and he could barely hear her.
Six stood up. "Cortana?" He said.
"At last! Are you alright? Can you move?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Is the Chief okay?"
"I'm sure he's fine."
"Yeah. Yeah…Ouch. I am." John said as he stood.
Six could hear groaning from outside of the ship. He walked out and gazed at the surrounding area. They were in a mountainous, forest-like terrain. The area around them was scorched, burned by the crash landing of the lifepod.
"H…Help…Me." A familiar voice said.
Six knew that voice. It was the voice of Clancy Maegan, one of the marines that were on the Lifepod with them. He was pinned under a hunk of metal from the now destroyed ship, and he was bleeding from the mouth.
"Hey, hang in there, kid." Six said to him as he attempted to lift the metal.
"Just… Leave me." Clancy said.
"No way." Six replied. "Never leave a man behind."
Six let out a grunt and lifted the giant hunk of metal upwards, holding it in place for Clancy to crawl away. Unfortunately, Clancy didn't look like he could move very much.
"Chief! A little help here?" Six groaned as John walked out of the lifepod.
John ran over to the downed marine and dragged him from the place where he was lying and propped him up against a rock.
"Thank you… Sir." Clancy said as he spit a mouthful of saliva and blood onto the grass.
"You going to be alright, soldier?" John said to Clancy.
"Yeah, I… I think…So." Clancy said.
"Can you walk?" Six said as he walked over to John and Clancy.
Clancy stood first on one leg, then shifted his weight to both. He was surprisingly tough, Six thought. Remarkably, even.
"Is anyone else still alive, Cortana?" John said.
"No. "The others… The impact. There's nothing we can do." She replied.
"Damn." Six said. "Clancy, grab a weapon and get moving."
"I don't know if… I can keep up with you guys." Clancy replied.
"Then I'll carry you, damnit. I'm not leaving you behind if you have a chance at surviving. I'm not letting it happen again." Six shot back.
"Letting what happen again, Six?" John said.
There was a brief pause.
"Never mind. It isn't important" He replied.
"Alright. Let's get a move on." John said.
Before they had even got yards from the area, Cortana started getting bad readings.
"Warning! I've detected multiple Covenant drop ships on approach. I recommend moving into those hills. If we're lucky, the Covenant will believe that everyone aboard this lifeboat died in the crash." She said.
"Good plan, Cortana." John said.
They ran into the forest, Clancy speedwalking behind them.
"You sure you don't want me to carry you or something? You look pale." Six said.
"I'm fine. The bleeding stopped. I'll be okay in a few minutes." Clancy replied.
A few minutes passed. He looked a little bit better, but not by much.
"Clancy, I'm only gonna ask this one more time, are you sure that…" Six said as he trailed off.
Clancy wasn't there.
"John. Where the fuck did Clancy go?" Six said.
"I don't know. I thought he was behind us." John replied.
Suddenly, they could hear the sound of a creature making deep, throaty noises.
"Shit, that's gotta be a Sangheili." Six said.
"Maybe. Come on, let's go check it out." John said.
They approached the noise as it changed from louder to quitter. Deep, throaty noises. They burst out of the covering of the trees. They located the source of the throaty roars.
It was Clancy, puking in a lake.
They lowered their weapons.
"Jesus, Clancy. We thought you got snatched." John said.
"No… I just didn't want to…"
He retched.
"… Puke on your expensive boots." He said with a slight grin.
John chuckled.
Six sighed. "Get moving, Clancy."
"Sir, yes sir." Clancy replied.
They walked through a canyon, and approached a hill.
"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors." Cortana said.
"That would be a nice surprise." Six said.
They hit the top of the hill, and nearby they saw a group of marines. They approached them. At least they weren't the only survivors. Among them was Avery Johnson.
"Good to see you, sir! Welcome to the party!" One of the marines said.
Johnson turned to the Spartans and saluted.
"It's a mess. We're scattered all over this valley. We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked." He said.
"Don't worry, Sergeant. We'll stay here until evac arrives." Cortana said. Six guessed that she had the ability to speak aloud. That confused him, as then she wouldn't have needed to hack his suit…
Ah, screw it. He thought to himself.
Six's radio crackled to life.
"Heads up! I got a Covenant drop ship headin' in, over here!" A marine said over the radio.
Six could see it. A Covenant Phantom was approaching them at a fast pace. It parked itself directly above them and started firing its plasma cannon. A bolt went flying directly towards Johnson, and he didn't notice until a few seconds before it had almost hit him. Clancy tackled the Sergeant Major out of the way before he got hit.
Johnson looked directly at Clancy and saluted him. Clancy nodded and started unloading on Covenant soldiers. An RPG round flew through the air and struck the engine of the phantom, causing it to lose control. The Phantom's occupants jumped from the dropship and prepared to attack.
Several more dropships were approaching as the two Spartans and the group of marines took out Grunt after Grunt, Elites, and Jackals. They were outnumbered at least 5 to 1, but they wouldn't go down without a fight. The Phantoms that had been approaching were now right on top of them, too, shooting plasma and dropping more Covenant it to kill them. John had picked up a shotgun and was killing Elites by the score. Clancy and a few other marines thought that it would be a good idea to dual wield Assault Rifles and take down the Covenant twice as fast. Six liked that idea. He took his DMR and a Magnum and started unloading on Covenant, dropping them quickly. Bullets, grenades and plasma were all flying through the air, as were the corpses of a few unlucky Grunts. There were only a few more Elites, and after they were defeated, the area was clear.
"This is Pelican Echo 419. Anybody read me? Repeat: any UNSC personnel, respond." A marine's voice said over the radio.
Johnson spoke into his radio. "Roger, Echo 419. This is Fire Team Charlie. We read you. Is that you, Foehammer?"
"Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya!" Foehammer responded.
"If you're not too busy, Foehammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the Command Shuttle." Johnson said.
"I'm on my way." Foehammer said back.
"Look, more lifeboats! They're coming in fast. If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant are going to be right on top of them." Cortana said.
She started communicating with Foehammer. "Foehammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. The Spartans and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers." She said.
"Roger, Cortana. Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give 'em hell!"