1753, Febuary 16th, 2543 [MILITARY CALENDAR]/ Planet Thrug, one mile from Covenant camp
My teammates have no time to react as the Elite grabs me and pulls me behind two other massive Elites. They had all been cloaked and had snuck up on us. I'm completely helpless. Unable to reach my weapon and unable to fight back. I can only hope that my team comes up with something before i'm dragged off and killed.
The Elite on the left barks something at the Spartans who promptly ignore him. But once they don't respond, the one holding me speaks broken English. "Drop weapons!" he snaps in a strange voice. After their initial shock, my team doesn't comply. "Make me, you dumb shit," 211 snarls. The Elite then reminds them of the situation by tightening his grip on my throat, making me choke for air. I give them a pleading look, because I know that one of them has something in mind. Namely Parkson.
Parkson is first to lay down his weapons. Kia and 211 follow reluctantly after. "You had better have something planned," 211 growls. Parkson's stance draws my eye to a small red beam lancing across the ground. It's a tripmine. If the Elite crosses it, the planted explosives are going to blow and kill them. And possibly us. Parkson's idea is crazy, but it just might work.
The two Elites begin to advance forward, and one trips the trigger. It's an instant reaction. There's a single explosive and then a delay, then the chain of explosives set around the room goes off and drowns the room in white noise.
I am thrown back against the farthest wall and the Elite holding me lands on top of me. It's a mess of dust and blank noise for what seems like forever. Then I hear a growing rumble. All of a sudden, the ground underneath me gives and I find myself sliding helplessly down the mountainside in the resulting landslide.
While the mountainside was mostly clear, I found myself bumping off of dislodged rocks and rubble from the nearby houses that had come with the first. I see no sign of my team and no sign of any Elites coming down with me. But right now, i'm only worried about surviving this.
The lower I get, the more frequent the trees get. And soon enough I find myself bumping off of tree trunks. But all of a sudden the ground beneath me disappears and I find myself soaring off of the edge of a cliff. I had tried to catch myself, but my hand only slipped off of the rocky surface and sent me flying.
Time seems to stand still for a split second before I'm sent crashing back down. Freefall only lasts thirty seconds, but it's enough to make me realize the gravity of my situation.
I angle myself down to face the dirt and brace for impact as the ground comes rushing back. I hit hard and tumble out of control down the rest of the hill. At one point, I hit my head on something hard and I'm knocked senseless. I see dark spots as unconsciousness creeps up, threatening to pull me under.
At one point I come to a stop in a shallow creek, laying face-up in the water. My head is pounding and I hurt all over. But I'm alive. I feel faint and woozy and I know i'm not getting up for a long time. As the world spins, I am aware that i keep drifting in and out of consciousness. For how long I stay like this, I'm not entirely sure.
A while later I am able to pull myself into a sitting position and crawl out of the stream. I check myself for injuries and don't find any obvious open wounds. My helmet had safely survived the fall and my armor only recieved a few scratches. No broken bones, no problem.
About ten minutes later I am on my feet and attempting to find the rest of my team. 211 answered almost immediately but Kia and Parkson didn't. 211 informed me that he hadn't fallen with the rest of us because he had managed to get out of the door and halfway down the stairs before he was taken down with the slide. He says he saw where Kia and Parkson went but hadn't seen where I fell. I give him my coordinates and tell him that neither Kia nor Parkson had answered my call. I tell him that I'll meet him at the base of the nearby mountain and we'll look for our two missing teammates together.
My plans are quickly shattered once I am found by a squad of Covenant. They come up on me loudly while I was distracted and begin firing, not bothering to ask questions. The first volley of bullets brings my shields down and singes my back, but I am able to dodge to the side to avoid more shots. 211 evidently hears the fire and attempt to contact me, but I don't answer in fear of being killed by the distraction.
Turning on my heel, I hastily sprint away and put a good distance between me and the Covenant I had just run into. Once they're far behind me, I contact 211. "Do not come after me. I have Covenant soldiers behind me. I think they came to investigate the blast. I'll find my own way to safety. Just worry about Kia and Parkson now," I tell the Spartan. He tries to protest, but I give him an order and he is forced to obey.
To keep ahead of the patrol, I begin to make my way uphill. I am practically sprinting and my lungs are screaming for rest. But I ignore the exhaustion creeping up on me and push through.
I run for two miles before I find that the trees are thinning out. And before long, I reach a rocky clearing. Boulders are strewn about the area and patches of grass hang on to cracks in the stony ground. This would be the perfect place for an ambush, but I don't find any hint of it. And I don't think that the patrol I ran into could have set up one this fast. So without thinking too much more about it, I enter the clearing and begin searching for a rendevouz point.
I'm only fourteen minutes into my search before I get a call from 211. My COM crackles to life and before long the sounds of gunfire fill my helmet. "The Covenant found us. We're falling back off of the mountain and trying to get to a safe point. We spotted a group beforehand headed towards your location. I don't know if they have found you yet. Be ready for a fight!" 211 says. I can hear his DMR going off rapidly while he speaks, and soon the sound of an exploding frag grenade follows. "I'm headed back for your location. I'm two miles out. I'll be there soon," I tell them. But before I can move, Kia comes on sounding angry. "Don't worry about us. Just worry about protecting your own damn hide!" Her tone surprises me, and I am about to reprimand her when a sharp sensation pierces into my shoulder. The shot hadn't dropped my shields, but it did graze my biolayer.
Hissing out a curse, I quickly pull behind a boulder and try to spot the attacker. I find the glare off of the sniper's helmet sitting on top of a rock, perched like the Jackal it is. I'm about to return fire with my pistol when a second needle from another attacker shatters against the rock just inches from my head. The orders from a nearby Elite echo off of the stone and Grunt chatters quickly follow.
I quickly find myself surrounded, pinned inside of my makeshift cover. Three large rocks surround me. They tower above all others and provide excellent cover. But I have no windows to shoot through, and only my radar as proof that they're nearby.
211 soon comes back after I had cut off, sounding worried. "Jackson are you there?" he asks. The firefight sounds like it was dying down where they were, a good sign. I decide to mute my outer speakers to talk to him. "They're surrounding me. I've got at least two snipers, an Elite, and a group of Grunts. No doubt more that I can't see," I tell him. 211 audibly curses and I can practically hear him thinking it through. "We'll be there soon. Just...hold on!"
I can hear the sound of boots just outside of my cover and I tense up. I then take a grenade off of my belt and take the clip off. It cooks for a few seconds before being rolled out of my cover. The Elite outside gives an angry cry and I can hear the shields breaking. The nearby Grunts start an uproar of cries and squeals as the Elite begins raging in their language. "You will suffer an execution for the assassination of our General!" The Elite snaps, speaking near-to-perfect English. "All heretics will be wiped from this existence! All hail the prophets!" the second shouts, sounding more alien than the first. His sentence is followed by a large chorus of shouts and cheers from the rest of the soldiers, giving me a good idea of who is around me.
"And why do you think you'll kill me?" I ask them, trying to buy myself some time until my team can reach me. There is a long period of silence where the Covenant fall silent. I fear that they were planning a stealth attack, but the first Elite suddenly comes back with a vigorous voice filled with pride. "Because you are only a heretic. A filthy stain that stands in the way of the Great Journey. All stains must be cleansed before we can take the path to the Great Journey."
I have no clue what the "great journey" is. I haven't actually heard Elites speak English before. So this was both surprising and scary to me.
"And why do you think we are stains?" I ask, glancing at my team's tags and watching them get closer by the second.
"You defile the Gods temples! You insert yourself and ruin the holy sites that have been untouched for centuries. You are unbelievers, you must be punished!" The Elite spits. I can hear him pacing just outside of the rock, his footsteps thumping hard against the stone. "And I will be the one to punish you!"
With this, the Elite suddenly charges inside. But I was expecting this. The Elite finds an Energy Sword embedded into his stomach before he can even set his eyes on me. With his torso severed, his legs fall helplessly. The Elite can only scream for a few seconds before I sever his head.
This causes an uproar. Apparently the second Elite recognizes the sound of an Energy Sword and tells the others to back off. This will definitely buy me time.
But before long, I feel the newcomers before I see them. The ground shakes furiously as their footsteps land. Two Hunters. Their cries reverberate through the rocks and make the Grunts whimper in fear. This is just perfect.
I am thinking of a hundred different ways to escape this, but come up with none. That is until I spot the camofluage attachment hanging on to the back of the dead Elite. The Energy Sword had just barely missed the attachment. With great force, I am able to pry off the Camofluage. It's large, large enough to dwarf my hand. It's alien and strange. As I am turning it around and desperately wondering how to activate it, my thumb hits something.
The responce is instant. I am cloaked in invisibility and I can't even see my own hand. But as soon as I drop the device, the insibility stops. I can work with this.
With energy sword in hand, I perch next to the closest entrance and wait for the Hunters to enter.
The first sticks its body inside shield-first. Then the second follows quickly behind. They massive forms pass just inches from me. But neither of them see their attacker coming as I bolt from cover with my camofluage in hand.
The energy sword finds its target and it rams into the exposed back of the Hunter. Without wasting time, I turn the handle and rip the blade out. I jump back and am instantly invisible again. The first hunter had reacted swiftly and whipped around to bring its shield down, cracking the stone as it hit. But I had side-stepped the attack and was currently ramming my blade into its back. As soon as I take the blade out, I go invisible again. With both Hunters dead, this could go just a little bit easier.
A jackal had its shield up in fear of being shot, but his back was completely exposed. He soon found his neck being snapped and dying without ever having seen his assassin. The three other Jackals that had been in front of him suddenly turn around, only to find nothing but the dead body of their friend. Their squawks of surprise alert the remaining Elite who instantly goes to check it out. He is followed by a second Elite dressed in blue armor. The second Elite was about to check the dead body when the first stops him. He hisses something before barking out an order. The snipers up top train their weapons down into the small area. The Elite in blue armor fans out to cover my last exit. The last Jackals had moved behind me, and the first Elite blocks my last exit. They don't know for sure I'm still there. So if I stay absolutely still...
My thought is broken when the first Elite throws a Plasma Grenade right in front of me. While it was a lucky throw, it sure made me panic.
Ditching the camofluage, I push off of my heel and dodge to the left, cursing as my shields go down from the explosion. Now I'm completely exposed, and being watched by about twenty Covenant soldiers.
"Oh shit..." I say to myself, watching the soldiers as I recover from my roll. They haven't attacked yet. But that's not necessarily a good thing.
Finally, the first Elite who wears maroon armor steps forwards. I could swear he is grinning. "You assassinate General. You will suffer execution, heretic," he growls. "I don't think so," I say and activate my Energy Sword.
The Elite gives a furious growl and takes a step forwards, clenching his left fingers and activating what looks like an Energy Blade. It comes out of his gauntlet and has only one blade, instead of two. "A fight to the death? Fine," I say and wait for the Elite to make the first move.
I would have to be faster than ever. I could tell this beast was an experienced fighter, a Zealot. No doubt an expert in the use of energy blades. I had never gone toe-to-toe with another Elite with a sword before. I would hope his temper would get the better of him and he would make a mistake. But I can't rely on that. Go for the kill, no flashy moves. No prolonging the fight. I can't risk that.
As soon as the Elite lunges forwards, I side-step and slice with my sword. But I had taken the bait! The Elite ducks my sword and grabs my wrist. His grip is like a vice and he forces me to drop my sword. Moving my foot back, I ram my elbow into his stomach. His grip loosens just enough for me to free myself and retrieve my blade just in time to block his Energy Blade. I catch the blade overhead and shove it back, jumping away from the dangerous threat. He comes back quickly but I react just as fast by punching with my left arm and cutting a small slice in his upper leg. Alien blood spills from the wound and the Elite gives an angry hiss. I guess he was done testing, because he suddenly begins jabbing again and again with lightning speed. His thrusts are quick and precise, each hit going for different vital spots. I can only block and dodge because he doesn't give me any time for offensive attacks.
I find my opening during a heavy hit that was meant to be a crippling blow. While his fist does hit my shoulder, I don't let myself get knocked off-balance. While he is about to deliver another hit, I lunge forwards with my sword and slice right through his left gauntlet. Blood flows from a shallow wound as the damaged gauntlet falls to the ground.
The Zealot backs off, hissing angrily. But he never gets to attack again because a plasma grenade falls from nowhere and attaches to his head. He can only stare in stunned silence a few seconds before the grenade explodes. I am splattered by his remains, his blood tainting my armor. The Covenant have no time to react, because the ambush is so flawless. Only one kind of soldier could pull this off. UNSC Spartans.
Bullets rain down from the boulders and from the tall grass. A distant Sniper Rifle cracks and takes down the final Elite. A loud explosion takes out the grunts, and the huge hulking form barrels into the Jackals, running them into the ground.
I can only laugh in disbelief and relief as I watch my team finish the Covenant off.
Once the last Covenant soldier is finished, Kia and Parkson drop down from their spots and Kia meets me with a smile. "Glad to see you're okay, sir," she says. "When that tripmine went off, I was sure you were a goner. Good to see you back," 211 says. Parkson taps my shoulder and points to the distant horizon. he then pulls up a new objective on his tacpad. It takes me a moment to realize that another group of Marines had requested an EOD's assistance in securing the way back into a UNSC base. He was the nearest to them and told them he would help. He would be leaving us temporaly for a while.
"Contact us when you're done. We'll be in sector twenty-six," I tell him. He nods and looks to the sky to see a Pelican coming in to evac him. He nods his goodbye and sets off at a jog to catch up with the bird.
"What's next?" 211 asks me. I pause a moment before I remember our next task. "UNSC has painted a bridge for us. A convoy is on its way towards it and we're going to knock it down," I tell him. 211 looks over his shoulder at Parkson who had just left. "Um..." he says in confusion. "We can handle the explosives ourselves. Recon says there are several loose supports that can be easily blown up with remote detonations. We plant the explosives and detonate them once the convoy is in place," I explain. "I can place them," Kia volunteers. I nod and look in the direction of our Falcon. "Lets get moving. Daylight's wasting."