1400 hours, November 12th, 2542 [MILITARY CALENDAR]/ Feloot System, Planet Hower, Planet Hower's frontlines
Once I awaken, I feel a huge mound of broken concrete on top of me. I fight back the urge to cough as my suit comes online and vents the dust and excess air that had built up. I sit still for a moment before shoving away the rubble with my arms. I climb atop the mound, crouching on one knee. The ceiling and most of the walls had come down on us, but luckily for us the rubble had shifted and piled up elsewhere so not much had fallen on us, and the glassing beam fortunately hadn't passed over us.
"Kia, Parkson, you still here?" I call out over our TEAMCOM.
It's midday, which means we've been out for a couple of hours. The air reeks of smoke, and is incredibly hot. The basement's dust had settled, so I can see clearly. And what I see is a destroyed house that i can't believe is standing.
My skin is raw and blistering as the biolayer rubs against it. But I ignore the obvious pain and focus on searching for my friends instead.
I hear the rubble shift to my left and turn to see Parkson's fist breaking through the destroyed pile. He grabs a hold of a particuarly large piece and shoves it aside, then climbs out and keeps crouched on one knee. He shakes his head and looks at me after looking around the room. "You alright?" I ask him. He nods and goes over to where Kia last was after a few moments pause. He pulls the concrete and various other materials off of her and helps her out after waking her up. "Hell of a time, eh boys?" Kia says, bringing her tacpad online. "We've been out for five hours. The city is silent, no one's left."
"Did 211 get out?" I ask as i suddenly realize that my Assault rifle is gone. I check for my Energy Sword and find it still fitted on my thigh. "I don't think so. I'm not reading any reports of a Spartan on the rosters. I am getting a faint UNSC tag. Could be him," Kia says. "Only one way to find out," I say and take point out of the building, Energy Sword in hand.
The city is demolished. Leveled buildings, trashed streets, glowing surfaces, dead bodies. We never knew that the Covenant were so powerful. And as we walk through the city, searching for our teammate, we start to get a good idea on what the Covenant are after. Complete and utter destruction.
Its so quiet. Such a busy city reduced to dead silence. Not even the constant gunfire can be heard from the front lines. Absolutely nothing remains, except for us. Three wanderers looking for their friend who might not even be alive.
There is a huge trail of destruction marked by flattened buildings. The trail, which is flat, has a shiny surface which resembles glass and still glows red hot. It's obviously where the beam came through.
We come to what looks like battle grounds. Bodies of both human and aliens litter the area and shattered shells of vehicles pepper the streets. A crashed Falcon sticks out of a skyscraper, its charred remains occasionally falling onto the frozen chaos below.
As we pass a pile of melted concrete, the pile shifts. All three of us whip around to it and raise our weapons. Kia and Parkson had gathered a couple of weapons on the way. Kia had found a DMR and Parkson found a Magnum.
"Hey!" A voice cries from inside of the pile. "Don't kill me! I just survived a freaking Glassing Beam!"
We recognize the annoyed sounding voice and I move to uncover the Spartan.
As soon as the rubble is clear enough, I grab 211's forearm and jerk him out of the pile. His body breaks through the concrete and he climbs to his feet.
His armor is covered in scrapes and dust, but he's alive.
"Good to have you back, Spartan," I say to him. "Good to be back, sir," He says. "The city's abandoned. Other then the unlikely survivor, we're the only ones left," Kia says, casting her eyes to the sky where giant plumes of smoke dissipate far up in the atmosphere.
"We'd better get going then. It's going to be a while before we get back," I say and nod to 211 to take point.
211 hefts a Shotgun which is just as dirty as he is. It's handhold is dented and it looks well used. 211 grabs shells from his utility pack and loads them into his weapon.
We make for the freeway which leads out of the city. Cars and military vehicles are strewn all along the road. Burned bodies lay near the vehicles, both human and alien. "Man, this was one fight," 211 says quietly. "Come on, we need to move," I say, not looking at the carnage. If there's one rule of war, it's stay detached from everything but what's in front of you. Don't pay attention to the faces, don't think about it. If you do, you'll fall into a pit of depression. And as a soldier, you can't afford that.
We reach a point in the road where the pavement has been completely crushed in several places. The rubble lays at an angle, and the material beneath has been pounded to dust. "The hell made this?" 211 says, crouching down to examine it. "Something huge, looks like a vehicle," I say.
"And it's coming back for another round!" Kia yells from her vantage point atop a toppled Semi Trailer. I join her atop the trailer and jump back down, pointing as I speak. "Parkson, set up explosives. 211, keep that thing at bay as long as you can. Kia, pick off the aliens on the walkways," i say. "Lets see if we can't bring it down."
The vehicle has four legs and a large head which looks at us as it crawls over the skyscraper's rubble. A large weapon slowly turns to aim at us as its legs clear the building. Pronged covers protect the joints and bounce as it moves. The entire vehicle is heavily armored, and there is only one entrance that I can see. But the entrance is guarded by an Elite and a Grunt while Jackals patrol the inner area.
As it nears, we get into position. It climbs over and I can clearly see the Covenant enemies onboard, watching us. The top gun glows green and I recognize the look of a plasma weapon. "Break formation! Move!" I yell.
I dive for cover as Kia hops off of the trailer and both 211 and Parkson jump behind cover. My back slams into the barricade just as the plasma weapon fires with a blast of hot air and an explosion as it hits a vehicle. The large mass climbs onto the freeway and faces us. Minor plasma fire begins firing off as the aliens onboard fire at us as the weapon recharges. The head watches us as Parkson peeks over their cover. "Parkson, detonate it, now!" I yell to the Spartan as the weapon charges to its max and begins to fire again. The weapon would incinerate us. And no matter how fast we moved, we would still suffer major injuries. Crippling injuries.
Parkson waits a moment, then activates the explosives.
There are four explosions that sound off at the base of the machine. The plasma weapon fires into the air, missing us by a mile as the two back joints are taken out. The vehicle's rear end lowers to the ground and I charge it.
I grab onto the edge and pull myself up. The Elite manning the plasma turret goes flying as I grab the turret and jerk it off, kicking the alien off and not stopping to watch as the Elite falls.
I quickly dispatch the Grunts and jackals on the lower level and brace myself as the vehicle jerks and begins moving again. I double-tap the aliens, taking no chances.
I crouch along the hallway, waiting and listening for any movements. I remember that I have the Energy Sword and take it out, flicking it on and staying put.
Four resounding thuds collide down the hull as explosives are launched at the giant vehicle and its occupants. I move forwards, knowing that my team has opened fire. I hear the aliens shouting and firing on the upper level, running back and forth as the giant vehicle stomps closer and closer to my team.
I need to move fast, eliminate every living thing and then find some way to take out the vehicle before they wipe out my team. They're good and fast, but all of this power can easily overwhelm.
At the end of the hallway, I count to five and charge out onto the upper platform and dig the Energy sword into the small of the first Elite's back. I rip it out and sever a Jackal's head from his shoulders and impale two Grunts before the rest even have time to react. But when they do, they react violently. The aliens open fire with plasma rounds and plasma grenades. Chaos erupts as I quickly duck and dodge the frantic rounds. Soon enough, everyone is dead and different colored blood splatters the upper deck. I flick the energy Sword off and clip it to my thigh after doing a triple check.
"I've cleared the vehicle," I tell my team. "Can you deactivate it or something?" 211 asks. "I can try. I might have to destroy the core," I answer. It's Kia who surprises me with a sudden cry. "No!" it startles all of us, it was quite shrill. "No. The UNSC might need it for...their own purposes." It sounds more like she wants to study it. After a moment of considering, I decide to deactivate it instead of destroying it. "Alright. I'll try and bring it offline. You three try and get up here as quick as you can. I don't know if I'll need backup or not," I say and head down the hallway, keeping my Assault Rifle at the ready, just in case.
I find the core room which sits adjacent to the opening. I have no idea how I missed that...
I spot a console on the core's left wall and investigate. After a few seconds, I find out it's a control console of sorts that gives the vehicle, a Scarab, targets.
We were taught during training how to read these kind of consoles and how to operate them. Only the basics, really. But enough to figure out what we needed to know.
"Hm..." I mutter and open up the console and find the targeting parameters. I then delete all of the targets, and am rewarded with a soft lurch as the Scarab comes to a stop.
I go to the back entrance and see my team running up to it. "You got it stopped?" 211 asks. "Yes. Just deleted its targeting parameters," I say and grab 211's forearm and help him up. 211 helps up Kia and I help up Parkson.
"So...this monster replies to commands?" Kia mutters as she works the console. Kia's our Techie. She's the expert in all things technological. Sure, we all have the same basic training. But Kia's knowledge goes far deeper then the basics.
She absentmindedly taps her little finger on the side of the console as she works through it. "I can program it to return us to our Bird, or I can program it to return us to the nearest UNSC base that hasn't been evacuated," Kia says, pulling back from the console and turning to us. "What'll it be?"
"Well, what do you guys think?" I ask 211 and Parkson. As usual, Parkson says nothing but just shrugs. "Go to the base. They probably want an intact Covenant vehicle," 211 says. "That's my vote."
I look to Kia who nods to 211. "I agree with him. UNSC would want this thing," She says. I nod and say, "Then it's settled. Kia, set a course for the nearest base. Lets go home."