0955, April 17th, 2543 [MILITARY CALENDAR]/Planet Grovaar, near UNSC military base Strike Far
Gunfire snaps me awake and I instantly try to get to my feet. After a moment's struggle, I realize that the metal supports for the cockpit's hatch had collapsed and trapped me. Fortunately, the belt kept me from coming to serious harm but I am definitely hurt.
I key my COM and find it still alive. Fearing that my team would be in some kind of trouble, I try for instead Zeke who was with me when we crashed. "Zeke, sir. Are you there?" I call. There's a long moment of silence before a yellow dot on my radar comes to life. Zeke responds on the COM's sounding pained but alive. "Yeah...i'm here. I got thrown pretty damn far," he says. "I can't get out. The hatch got me trapped," I tell him. "Give me a second and I'll get you out," Zeke says.
I look around to try and pinpoint our crash location and find out that we had come down half a mile from the blast doors. My internal clock says that we haven't been out for long. But the obvious sounds of plasma fire tell that the Covenant have come back full force.
The Falcon rocks as Zeke grabs a hold of the crumpled hatch and rips it off after a brief moment of effort. The hatch flies a few feet before skidding to a stop in the dirt. The metal straps that had trapped me went with the mess and I pull myself out of the cockpit. Zeke stops me from moving any further when he spots blood on my leg. Upon further inspection, he finds that a broken console cut into my biolayer before the biofoam kicked in and cut me fairly deep. "Hold still," Zeke instructs as he pulls a biofoam canister and sprays it on the wound. It stings for a few seconds before soothing out. After the biofoam settles, I turn my gaze towards the nearby battle. I notice that the Covenant soldiers are pushing the others further into the forest and the two scarabs have been reduced to one.
"I tried raising the others. COM's are jammed. I think our ride out is still sitting in the clearing. If we can rendevous, we can get out," Zeke says. "We'll need to come up from behind. We don't want to get caught in the cross-fire," I say.
Zeke looks around, thinking, before turning around and climbing the hill directly behind us. I follow him up after putting away my Assault Rifle and grabbing a medkit.
But when I crest the steep hill, Zeke isn't in sight. It doesn't dawn on me until it's too late that something might be wrong.
An overcharged plasma shot sends me to my knees, and a boot throws me the rest of the way down. A furious sounding Elite holds his pistol to the back of my head and shouts its alien words like a drill instructor. My hand is pinned close to my chest, which means I can still grab for my knife. But are there any other contacts? Will I get killed before I can defend myself?
The Elite seems to be quickly losing patience as his foot presses harder and harder onto my back. I count to five before flexing my hand and grabbing the knife that sits on my chest. It slides easily out of its sheath and cuts into the Elite's ankle. It jerks its boot off in panic and I quickly gather my feet underneath me. The blue armored Elite doesn't look too experienced, like it's young or new. But that doesn't stop me from retrieving my gun and rolling away as it tries to stop me. I come up on one knee and empty the entire magazine and am satisfied when its shields break and it drops to the ground. Not risking anything, I make sure to double-tap before putting away my gun.
Zeke reappears shortly after. He had been waiting in a tree and I can tell that he let me kill the Elite, instead of helping. "Training excersize?" I ask him. I'm a little annoyed that he led me into that situation. But I keep it too myself. "Yeah. Sorry for the sudden engagement, but the timing was perfect," Zeke says. My rage is just about to boil over when we get a call through the main UNSC COM channel.
It's a loud burst of static that shuts both of us up. "...into heavy...forcements. Squad...down, requesting...respond." The voice belongs to Jessica from Zeta and she sounds rushed. Zeke grabs his weapon and turns his head to the sound of an explosion. "Come on," he says and takes off at a run.
The firefight is beginning to get louder, meaning we're drawing closer. But the sudden downwash from an overhead Phantom makes us nearly stop dead in our tracks.
The Covenant ship bears down on us and turns its plasma gun around and begins to fire. "Shit! Get down!" Zeke roars, throwing me onto the ground. His body slams into mine just as the Phantom opens fire. Its heavy rounds tear into the ground and disturb the pine needle blanket that had engulfed the ground. The heat from the blasts burn through my helmet and heat up my face. The barrage only lasts for a handful of seconds, but it felt like an hour. During the attack, I look up to see a dip in the ground. Roots from a nearby tree had stuck up out of the ground and disrupted the dirt, creating a shallow wall. I waste no time in grabbing Zeke and shoving him towards the temporary cover.
Once I drop down, I help the other Spartan down as well just as a plasma missile slams into the ground where he just was. The blast sends pine needles and dirt flying over our heads and clattering to the ground.
"It's coming back!" I yell, watching the shadow move closer to us. "Run!" Zeke roars, getting up and booking it away from the Phantom that threatens to kill us.
I can hear the trailing bullets burning trees and creating scarred holes right behind us. The Phantom is hot on our trail and shows no signs of giving up. Looking to the sky, I realize why it hasn't lost sight. We're in a relatively thin part of the forest. The opening between the trees is enough to see two Spartans fleeing for their lives. But the canopy is becoming thicker and thicker, and the light begins to dim as we head into the sparser sections.
"Watch it!" Zeke yells back all of a sudden. I look down in time to leap over a fallen tree and clear it. But I had overjudged the size of it and end up landing with my foot in between two roots. My ankle stops abruptly and brings my body crashing down. My chest slams into another root and knocks the wind out of me. I can only feel pain for a good fifteen seconds before I come back to my senses and pull myself off of the root.
My ankle is flaring with pain, and i'm pretty sure I sprained it. My chest hurts as well, but It's ignorable.
The hum of the Phantom's engines roars past me and keeps going. Zeke had stopped when he realized I fell and was making his way back towards me and kept casting wary glances skywards, watching for the nearby aircraft.
"You alright?" He asks me, crouching down. "No. Hurt my ankle," I say, removing my boot to examine my foot. There was internal bleeding for sure, there was a bruise already forming. But other than that, it was fine. I could still walk.
"If you're fine to walk, we need to get moving. That Phantom's going to call in for reinforcements soon," Zeke says. I take his offered arm and pull myself to my feet. After a few seconds of limping, I start walking "normally" again. Zeke turns away from me and puts two fingers to his helmet and begins listening to something. I can tell he's talking with the other Spartans by what he's saying. And soon enough he turns to me, looking pissed. "Rendevous point is a no-go. Bastards got to our bird first and sabatoged it," he says. "Jess called for evac and they've landed a few klicks from our location. We're still in the hot zone, though. So we'll need to hoof it for a while before we can be pinpointed."
I look up the steep grassy hill and resist the urge to groan. "Alright. Lets get moving."
It's a quiet climb to the rendevouz point. But this planet is truly beautiful. Most of the trees' leaves are a dark orange color with pale brown trunks. They look soft and spongy, but are as hard as a rock. The forest floor is riddled with hardened leaves and hidden roots that threaten to trip you into deep holes. The mixed sounds of the wind in the trees and the scattered wildlife would be peaceful if we weren't being hunted. The threat of the Covenant soldiers at our backs is breathing down our necks and keeps us walking fast. While our radars are still silent and nothing reaches our ears, we already know to keep our guard up just in case something unexpected happens.
As we are clearing another fallen tree, something darts out in front of us. Zeke is the first to train his gun on it and pull the trigger. He fires a small burst from his Battle Rifle before realizing it was just a small rabbit-like creature. It stops in its tracks and stares back at us with three large eyes. Its ears are trained forwards to us, listening to see if we're threats or not. Its small whiskers twitch before it suddenly springs off into the bushes. Zeke watches it leave before putting back down his weapon.
Another distant noise draws my attention and instantly puts me on alert. It wasn't a quiet noise, and Zeke heard it too. "The hell was that?" he hisses. Even though we aren't sure what it is, it makes us stay quiet. "Scarab?" I guess. Zeke pauses, listening, before shaking his head. Our questions are soon answered when a fairly large tree comes crashing down right behind us. It splinters the already fallen tree with great force, making the ground jump under our boots.
A rather large red dot springs to life on our radars and sits just behind a sparse growth of bushes. But before we're able to begin running, a bulky armored creature throws its head and knocks down another tree.
The creature has to be fifteen feet tall and twenty feet wide. Its shoulders are large and bulky, and make it look much more intimidating. Its head is huge as well and heavily armored. Two bony horns protrude from either side of its skull, forming a handy double sided hammer. It has three eyes, six in total, sitting behind the hammers. They blinked at us at the creature breaks through the overgrowth and then gives a terrifying bellow before charging forwards.
We didn't need another warning. Both me and Zeke bolt for our lives. I'm not sure I've ever ran so fast before in my life. My feet are a blur as the creature makes earthquakes behind us. Its bellows are getting closer and closer and the unmistakable cracking of trees and undergrowth chases us as well.
"Keep running!" Zeke yells. "I have a plan." Zeke had been slightly ahead of me to my right. But all of a sudden he shimmers out of existence and I'm left alone at the mercy of the creature behind me. "This...Is NOT what...I signed up...for!" I say between breaths.
"Jackson, head right!" Zeke tells me after a few agonizingly long seconds of running. "What?!" I demand, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I knew it's a bad idea to question a superior officer, but that thing is right behind me waiting to trample me. To my right was an even thicker expanse of woods. It looks positively deadly. "Just do it!" Zeke yells.
I slow my pace and flatten myself against the slight slope. The creature hadn't expected the sudden stop and runs right passed me. I see its clubbed tail a split second before it slams into me and duck to avoid it. The tail crashes into the ground, disturbing wood and leaves. I then clamber up the hill and find my footing on the loose soil. After pausing for only a second, I begin running again.
But it seems like Zeke had either misjudged his idea, or had tricked me because the steep incline was too steep to run up. But the creature wasn't slowed.
While I was cursing Zeke's entire heritage for getting me into this situation, the ground suddenly drops out from underneath me into a steep hill. My feet come out and I quickly drop into a slide and make sure to avoid rolling. The armored creature hadn't expected the drop and I can hear it screeching in surprise and anger as it begins clumsily rolling down the hill.
The ground below is hard and covered in short grass. But it's flat and free of obstruction. "Jackson, get down!" Zeke yells through the COM.
I obey because I had just heard a Rocket Launcher discharge and the distinct whoosh of the missile is getting very close.
There's a split second of silence before the missile detonates and explodes the entire hillside. Debris rains down on me and i am pelted with dirt and rocks. But the raging beast had been silenced and its massive body is laying at the base of the hill, crumpled and very much dead.
My heart is still jack hammering when I pull myself up to me knees and stare dumbfoundedly at the creature that had just tried to kill us. It's massive body sports four legs and a hammer head with two huge tusks. Its six eyes are frozen open with phantom rage.
"Sorry about that, Jackson," Zeke says over a static-filled COM signal. "had to use you as bait there."
I shake my head and divert my attention from the beast and find Zeke standing atop the hill, looking down at me. "It's...alright, sir," I say, taking a breath to calm my heart. "Head to extraction, boys. You're holding up progress. Captain's called for evac of all UNSC personnel," Jessica tells us through the TEAMCOM. I look over to her waypoint and find the rest of my team with her, safe and sound. "Copy that, sir," I respond and begin walking across the stretch of land to the Pelican.
I reach the extraction point with time to spare and climb into the bird with the rest of my team. A team of Marines and the last remaining prisoners meet me and Zeke in the second Pelican. I realize that three of the four surviving prisoners were inside. And by the looks of the soldiers, it hadn't gone well. I cast a curious glance to Kia who just shakes her head. We'll talk later.
"Good to have you back, squad leader," 211 says with a nod of his head. His left arm is in a sling and his gauntlet lays underneath the seat he's in. The gauntlet is destroyed, meaning that he had gotten attacked. "You all have some explaining to do," I tell them with only half of the seriousness I usually would. "With all due respect, sir, you can sure as hell wait," 211 says with a tired smile. "I'm with 211. Lets wait for the reports until we've had some rest," Kia says while stowing her Sniper Rifle. "Alright. I'll allow it," I say and take off my helmet after I sit down across from my team. "Dust off in three!" Jacobs calls from the cockpit. The others get seated as the Pelican's door closes and begins the lift-off sequence. There's a faint rumble as the engines come online and lift the bird into the air, propelling us far off of the planet's surface and into the atmosphere.
"Thanks for watching our backs down there," I say to Zeke who suddenly looks up, as if I had startled him. His abnormally grim expression turns into a friendly smile. "Yeah, no problem. Someone's got to look out for you Greenhorns." Jessica looks at Zeke with a strange gaze, but soon drops it once Zeke gives the slightest shakes of his head.
"Once we get back, after we've had some rest, drinks are on me," Arnold says with a grin. "I could use one. Or two," 211 says tiredly. "As long as Jackson doesn't get any. You know what happened last time. He could get court martialed this time," Kia says. It wasn't very funny, but we all share a well earned laugh. It feels good to finally be off of the field and back into safety. But we all know it won't last long. So we have to treasure it for as long as we can.