Chapter 11

Nathan Bradshaw woke up to the feeling that something was sitting on him.
He tried to rub his head, which felt like a Hunter had stood on it, but realized that he couldn't move his arm. He looked down, and realized that the scorched corpse of Ajax O'Connors was draped across his chest.
With a stifled screech, Nathan sat bolt upright. Ajax's body slid down into his lap. Nathan carefully pushed it off, then stood. He needed to figure out where exactly he was, so he could call the rest of the team.
To his back was an enormous pile of wreckage, with a heavy black smoke pouring out of it. As Nathan looked around, he saw more and more heaps of rubble, the smallest one the size of three Phantoms.
With a start, he realized that he stood in New Alexandria. Or what was left of New Alexandria. The buildings were all flaming rubble, laying shattered and broken in the dust.
Nathan sighed and activated his comlink, "Nathan Bradshaw, reporting for pickup. I'm sending my coordinates now." He keyed in the coordinates of where New Alexandria had been.
"This is Jewel. We're coming in. How many survived the mission?" blared the comlink.
Nathan looked back at Ajax's body, "Unsure. O'Connors is dead, but I haven't seen Noble Five."
"This isn't good," said Jewel, "Dark Wolf won't like this..."
"Why not?"

Five hundred feet away from Nathan Bradshaw stood Blay'de Haulduur. Just like Bradshaw, he had just called in his own pickup. He was checking the ETA of his reinforcements when his comlink crackled to life.
"Supreme Commander," said the Elite on the other end of the line, "We are picking up human communications. One of the humans is to your left."
Blay'de grinned viciously; so he hadn't killed all of the human strike team after all! This will be fun, he though, jogging off in the direction he had been pointed.

It was Bradshaw's radar that saved him.
The tracking system activated at the last moment, warning him of the enemy closing in. Bradshaw reached for his assault rifle, but then remembered it had been destroyed. All he had was a magnum. He turned to face Blay'de, just as the Elite leaped over a pile of rubble.
As Bradshaw fired, Blay'de activated his stolen jetpack, and flew over the rounds Bradshaw had squeezed off.
"Two can play at that game," whispered Bradshaw, and activated his own jetpack.
The two fighters spiraled upwards, each trying to get the upper hand. Blay'de dove forwards, hacking with his energy sword, but Bradshaw ducked the attack and kicked Blay'de in the stomach. Blay'de twirled away, ready for another pass, but then his fuel ran out.
Bradshaw watched his opponent plummet to the ground below, and decided that the Elite would suffer fatal injuries. He let up on his jetpack, slowly drifting down after the Elite. It was only after the Elite reactivated its jetpack, put away its sword, and tackled him in midair that Bradshaw realized it was a ruse.
Blay'de grabbed both of Bradshaw's wrists and tried to head butt him. Bradshaw lifted his knee and the Elite knocked himself in the head. Then Bradshaw pressed forwards with his knee, trying to make the Blay'de let go of his wrists. Unfortunately, the weight of both a human and an Elite was proving too much for the jetpack, and the grappling opponents began to drift back down to the surface.
Just as Bradshaw's feet touched the charred ground, Blay'de swept them out from under him with a swift kick. Blay'de then lifted his target by the wrists and threw him almost ten feet. Before Bradshaw could get back up, Blay'de had his energy sword out and was closing in the distance between them.
Blay'de grabbed Bradshaw's head in one hand, and hefted the energy sword with the other, ready for the killing blow. Then the ground a few feet away from them exploded.
Blay'de snarled and looked up, only to see an enormous Pelican, its cannon ready for another shot. As he watched, lines dropped from the back of the Pelican, and ODST marines began to rappel down to the ground.
A squad of marines marched towards them.
"Let the soldier go!" said their leader in English. This human was larger than the others, and probably a Spartan.
Blay'de looked at his prisoner, then back at the squad of soldiers. He grunted, contemplating what to do next.
"Come on, alien! There's no escape for you!" said the Spartan.
Blay'de thought of something. It was rather daring, but it would probably get him out of this predicament alive. He shrugged, and then threw his captive at the squad. While the humans were distracted with ducking, Blay'de charged.
He hurdled the Spartan, and leaped on the group of soldiers crouching behind it. He dispatched one with a quick slice, and kicked another away. The other humans scattered, seeking to put a good distance between them and the Elite.
Blay'de tackled one of the humans, and raised his energy sword, but something grabbed his hand. He turned in time to see a close up of the Spartans fist.
SMACK!
Blay'de realized he was lying on his back in the dirt, an extreme pain in one of his lower mandibles. Then something grabbed him by the neck and picked him up. It was the Spartan.
Blay'de had no doubt of a Spartans strength; he had seen them flip over extremely large vehicles, vehicles that would kill a normal human just by running them over. Thus, being picked up by a Spartan was not a good idea.
Blay'de looked about for his energy sword, just in time to see the Spartan kick the deactivated weapon aside.
He looked closely at the Spartan; something seemed familiar about this human…
"You cut off my hand." The Spartan whispered.
Oh, yes. The Spartan had dared to wield a sacred weapon. In retaliation, he and a group of other Elites had subdued the Spartan and cut off his hand. They had though it would end with the humiliation of the Spartan and expulsion from the human military. To them, humiliation was far worse than death. But, here was the Spartan, and now, Blay'de noticed, with a mechanical hand. He should have killed this one when he had the chance. Then Blay'de remembered something.
The Spartan he had cut the hand off had been female.
Blay'de was being defeated by a human female.
With lightning speed, Blay'de unclipped his second energy sword from its place on his back and swung it at the Spartan. The human female caught this hand as well, then tossed Blay'de over her shoulder.
Blay'de rolled when he hit the ground and sprinted good distance away from his opponent. Turning to face the Spartan, Blay'de checked the ETA of his reinforcements again and smiled. And the ground exploded again as a Phantom, escorted by two Banshees swept down out of the sky.
The Spartan turned to the Pelican, still hovering nearby, and motioned for it to get away. The Pelican obliged and flew away, tailed by one of the Banshees.
The other Banshee sprayed the ground with plasma fire, forcing the humans to take cover. The Phantom set down next to Blay'de, who quickly climbed into the large carrying area underneath the craft.
He smiled as the Phantom swept up into the air, and away from the pesky humans. The Spartan would not get her revenge today.

Meanwhile, Jewel crept out from behind a pile of rubble, and watched the receding Covenant aircraft.
She turned on her comlink, "Well, we're on the surface. What's our next mission?"
She did not think Dark Wolf would be happy about either their next mission or the fact that Tim was MIA.
3mins ago