The warthog caught a bit of air, then landed. Six and John were heading out to look for other survivors from the Autumn, and so far, their search had come up with nothing.
"Hold on. Stop." Six said.
John slammed the breaks and turned his head a bit in Six's direction. "What? What do you see?"
"There's a cave. Over there." He said as he pointed off into the distance.
"That cave is not a natural formation." Cortana said. "Someone built it, so it must lead somewhere."
"Alright, let's go there." John said.
"What're you tellin' me for? You're the one driving." Six said.
"Oh, shut up." John said.
Six chuckled for a little bit, then grabbed the handles of the warthog mounted Minigun. John pushed the gas pedal and they drove towards the cave.
When they got there, they were welcomed by silence.
It was too quiet.
"I've hacked into the Covenant battlenet. They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels!" Cortana said. " We should show them who they're dealing with. Master Chief, I'm going to use your suit's transponder system to monitor their chatter."
"Hey, Cortana, link me up, too." Six said.
"Will do, Six." Cortana said.
They walked around the cave for a while, looking for any signs of sentient life. There were none.
"Hey, Six! Come look at this!" John shouted.
Six ran over to John and was greeted by a spectacular view of a large cavern, with a chasm dividing the floor into two halves. It was a nice sight.
"Do you think that we can cross this thing?" Six said.
"Maybe we could—" John was cut off by the roar of a Sangheili.
Covenant, everywhere, surrounding them on all sides. Elites, Grunts and Jackals all around.
"Get down!" John yelled.
Six slammed his body to the floor behind a boulder.
Six could hear the sounds of Covenant weapons going off from behind cover. He popped up. Took a shot. Went back down again. He popped up a few seconds later and shot a few rounds at a couple of Grunts. Suddenly, a shout from behind by a high pitched voice startled him. He whipped around and saw a Grunt running right at him with two plasma grenades it its hands.
"Oh, shit!" Six said as he dodged the first grenade.
Instead of throwing the second grenade, however, the Grunt decided that he would take Six down with him, and jumped on Six's back. He tried to plant it on Six's neck, but missed and dropped it to the floor as Six was trying to shake him. Six threw the Grunt on the ground in front of him, directly on top of the plasma grenade, and dove away from the explosion backwards, having no time to turn around and run.
"You okay?" John said.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just… Just fine." Six replied over the sound of gunfire.
There were more Covenant approaching from Six's side, maybe a dozen elites and a handful of jackals. He pulled his DMR up and aimed down the scope. Then he fired three bullets, going into the neck of a Jackal, the skull of an Elite, and the chest of another Jackal. He unloaded the rest of his clip with extreme precision, killing Covenant with every bullet in his clip.
"How's your side!?" Six yelled
"Working on it!" John replied.
It took them almost four more minutes before the rest of the Covenant in the cave were killed. Both John and Six had resorted to Covenant weaponry, as their own was depleted. After picking up a new clip for his Carbine, Six turned around to face the monstrous chasm. Hundreds of feet deep, and no visible way to cross. Naturally.
"Hmm…" John grunted.
"There must be some mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a control panel or switch." Cortana said.
"Aright, let's get searching then." John said.
Within a short period of time, John had found a control panel.
"Hey, Six! Found something." John said.
"Is it a switch or anything? Does it turn something on?" Six replied as he climbed up to the balcony that John was currently on.
"I don't know, I haven't pressed it yet." John replied.
Six gave John an are you serious look, then pushed the button on the control panel. The button activated a series of four giant silver beam-generating bridges that extended across the chasm, forming a surface made of hard light. It was a nice sight, but they didn't exactly have time for sightseeing.
"Let's cross this thing." Six said.
"Right behind you." John said.
They crossed the hard light bridge one their warthog and navigated through a few tunnels. Six's radio crackled to life.
"New traffic on the Covenant Battlenet... a lot more crew made it off the Autumn than I had predicted - the Captain really gave them hell! If we can find Captain Keyes and other survivors, we have a chance to coordinate an effective resistance." Cortana said.
"And then. Hopefully, we can keep the Covenant's hands off of Halo." Six said.
"Exactly." Cortana responded.
They arrived at the exit of the cave and were greeted by nearly the same terrain as before. Grassy, green earth, tall trees, and tremendous mountainsides. But there was something different. Six couldn't put a finger on it. Then, he spotted it. Shadowy smoke wafting into the air off in the distance. Six guessed that John saw it too, because he pointed it out first.
"Look over there. Smoke. It might be from one of the lifeboats." He said.
"Maybe. Let's check it out." Six said.
And with that, they drove towards the smoke.
Clancy's feet were getting tired. Any moment he felt like he might collapse. The wound on his hip he got from the crash had reopened, and he had to get it gauzed up to stop the bleeding. He wished someone could take his place, but there weren't exactly soldiers lined up and ready. They were short on men when they crashed, and Clancy was hoping that Six and John weren't food for the wildlife. They were probably fine. They were Spartans. They were unstoppable. New tears filled his eyes.
The same couldn't be said about Abigail.
His sister had boarded one of the lifeboats and made a crash landing on the planet as well. While Six and John were out searching for survivors, a small group of marines were, too. They had come across a crashed lifeboat nearby their campsite. Clancy was looking for survivors, and he came across her. Her face was charred, burned. One of her legs was gone. Her knuckles were worn and bloody. But the worst part of it all was that he was the one who had to find her. He had stood there, just looking at her. Her features were marred and dirty, and her uniform was torn where her leg was severed.
And then, another marine found her leg. He had no idea whose leg it was, but he was making a joke about it, the insensitive prick. Something about it being a shame that whoever the woman who used to have it had to "go to waste". Rage filled his being, and he had tackled the soldier and beaten the shit out of him. Knocked his helmet off. The guy was scared and confused, and he had a bloody nose. Clancy had gotten off of him and looked at his hands.
They looked just like his sister's. Bloody and beaten.
"Why the fuck did you do that?!" the marine had shouted, scared out of his mind.
Clancy looked at the marine with the coldest stare that he could possibly make. He grabbed the marine by the vest and rammed him into the side of the lifeboat with the strength of a Spartan as the lower down soldiers watched with fear.
"That leg is my sister's, you fucker!" Clancy boomed into the frightened marine's face.
He lost control of his hands and just let go. The marine slid down the side of the lifeboat like a ragdoll and looked with guilty eyes as Clancy looked at his hands, put them in his face, and cried. It was a soft cry, hard to hear, but you could tell he was crying. After a period of staring from the other marines, Clancy walked over to the leg that was once Abigail's, picked it up, and went inside of the lifeboat. The other soldiers watched as Clancy came out of the lifeboat with his sister's body and her leg, dug a shallow grave with his knife and his hands, and buried his sister. As he was about to put the final few handfuls of dirt covering her face, he looked at her for the last time. He looked at her pretty hazel eyes and closed the lids.
He covered his sister's face up with the soft earth and took a couple of sticks, tying them together with a long, narrow leaf, and stuck it at the head of the dirt, marking her grave. He sat down in front of the grave and just looked at it.
No one but the few marines knew, and they were all obligated to not tell anyone, as they were all lower ranks than he, and Clancy had told them to never speak of it.
When the other marines got back to the campsite, the one Clancy beat up said that he tripped on a rock.
The others said the same.
Sorry to end this chapter on a sad note.
To those who believe that Clancy will die, don't worry, he isn't going to. I'm planning on making him into a bigger character, and a stronger one, too.
Keep reading, Wolfgang.
~Husky