I stared at the still burning shell of the warthog, propped against the Wraith. I couldn't believe it, it's not what I was seeing. I blinked, attempting to wake up.
A sudden tug on my arm spun me around, "We have to go now! We must help them Ardent!" screamed Dragon, Crow looking at me expectantly.
I bounced on my feet for a moment, turning swiftly and charging down the hill at full speed, I hit the bottom of the hill smoothly, gliding into the transition between slope and flat ground with trained precision, my legs using the momentum to run even faster. I sprinted through the crossfire in which Phoenix and Athena were caught in, Athena's gauss cannon spitting out lasers furiously at the enemy. I rolled past a plasma grenade that landed in front of me, dirt spraying up and over me from behind, my feet kept moving. The Wraith came into sight, the enemy unaware of the very angry SPARTAN charging them. I jumped, feet still kicking in midair before landing on the Wraith. I pulled a plasma grenade off of my side, primed it, and stuck it right down into the gunner's seat. I backflipped off of the front, flipping over the warthog wreckage and turning on my heels before sprinting in the direction craters in the sand where the warthog had hit. I drew my Battle Rifle and fired at the cheering enemy in front of me, they all turned towards me collectively, the grunts running scared before returning fire. I continued my suppressive fire, hitting my targets only so often, taking a few plasma shots as I rolled between rocks. The Covenant then turned away from me, firing back at a rock in which bullets were being fired from. The Covenant unit was caught in a crossfire.
I prayed to every divine god there was that it was Jasmine and Silas that were shooting back. I crawled behind another rock, closer to the line of elites, grunts and jackals. I once again opened fire, soon there were none left standing. I stood raising my gun triumphantly. I called out to the figure behind the rock.
"Hey! Meteor, Fallen, that you?" I yelled, hoping for a friendly face to pop up in return.
A marine popped her head out to the side of the rock, "Sorry, just me." she said with a cringe.
I ran over to her, kneeling next to her. I needed to find the rest of my team, but I noticed that her leg was bloodied and twisted at an awkward angle.
"Med-" I started to scream, realizing all too late that Meteor was in the crash, I muttered curses under my breath.
The marine went to move her leg and cringed again, I needed to find my squad, but I needed to help her first.
"Wait here." I said.
"Don't have much choice sir." she chuckled.
I walked off to find something to use as a crutch temporarily. I walked back to the warthog and now Wraith wreckage and looked inside of the warthog for anything useful. I reached in and grabbed what looked to be a straight piece of metal from the warthog, what I pulled out was a DMR. Fallen's DMR. I looked at it for a moment before returning to the marine.
"Use this for now." I said holding the gun out to her.
She smiled, taking it and standing, "Thank you sir, I think I'll live."
That was one thing I liked about these marines, their surprising amounts of optimism. I nodded at her, walking back to where the warthog initially was fired upon. I was walking along the divots before I looked over a bit and saw something glistening in the sand. I walked over to pick it up and held my breath as I looked into the visor of Fallen's helmet, she couldn't be far. There was a small outcropping of rocks, a small overhang surrounded by smaller rocks. I raised my gun and turned on my floodlights, walking up to the shadowed area and leaning against the exterior wall, ready to peek around. I swung my body around, gun raised and what I saw greatly relieved and concerned me. Fallen was sitting against the wall, one arm hanging limply at her side, another holding weakly onto an MA5B Assault Rifle. Lain across her lap was Meteor, unmoving, the floodlights on his helmet pointed toward the front of the outcropping, several grunts and jackals lay sprawled across the floor here. She swung the gun toward me before smiling.
"Took you long enough." she said.
I shook my head, "You can't do that to me, I thought you were dead!" I said, angry at nothing in particular, just angry.
She didn't take kindly to this, "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you." she said with a scowl.
I calmed myself a bit before speaking again, "Look I'm sorry, it's just that it's my first mission in the field, I'm nervous. Now let's get back in the fight soldier." I tossed her her helmet, which she gladly took, slipping it onto her head.
"Meteor is unconscious, we need to exfil him." she said, standing and throwing the limp SPARTAN over her shoulders.
"On it, the marine that was with you, she's hurt too." I said, typing in coordinates for a pickup location.
"Glad she made it out alright." Said Fallen.
A warthog's motor behind me caused me to turn around to a very wobbly driving job done by Nikolas. The warthog came to a jolting stop, Crow almost falling off of the back, he didn't seem very angry about it though.
"Generators 2, 3 and 4 are down." said Crow.
"Good only two left then." I said.
Dragon and Crow both nodded.
"Exfil will be on top of the hill right above us, ETA 10 minutes." I said to Fallen.
"I can work with that." she said, hefting the unconscious soldiers body farther onto her shoulders.
"Good, pick up that marine on your way out, get her back safe." I said, she nodded.
Phoenix pulled up beside Dragon much more skillfully, "Let's go ya'll Palmer is getting impatient."
I nodded, walking over to my original warthog, Dragon scooting into the passenger's seat and I taking the wheel. I spun the tires and whipped it around, taking off to the last two red diamonds.
The next few minutes were uneventful to say the least, we pulled up on the generators with little to no resistance. On our way back though was when he problems arose. Drop pods were coming in everywhere, Phantoms dropping in all kinds of troops. We swerved and weaved through them, making our way back to exfil hill, as we had so cleverly nicknamed it. Phoenix once was flipped over by a fuel rod cannon. The problem was swiftly dealt with.
"Ardent come in, this is Meteor." came a drowsy Meteor across the comms.
"Go ahead Meteor." I responded.
"Encountering heavy resistance on the hill, need immediate reinforcements" I heard the sound of a plasma bolt whiz by, "Exfil won't be here for another 5." He said.
"On the way" I cut comms with Meteor and opened one to Phoenix, "Phoenix, Fallen and Meteor are in trouble, we gotta go now."
"Understood, we are Oscar Mike, be there soon." he said.
I drove the warthog over to the hill, Phoenix already at the bottom, Driver missing and Athena still firing her gun. I slid the warthog up next to her, jumping out and running over to her.
"Sitrep!" I yelled at her over the sound of the Gauss Cannon.
"No casualties! Phoenix is at the top of the hill dealing with a pair of hunters, he could use your help!" she screamed back.
I needed no further instruction before running up the hill with Crow and Dragon in tow. I shot a jackal as we passed, getting an angle on his shield. We reached the top and saw what Chaos ensued. Two hunters bombarded a pile of rocks, both of their shields up. I gripped my last Plasma grenade before jumping on the back of the hunter and shoving it deep into its worm like back, priming it inside. I pushed off and watched as it struggled to get the grenade off, which was impossible at this point. I was painted in neon orange blood. The second Hunter turned to me, enraged. But was cut short as plasma bullets tore through his back as well. Fallen gave me the thumbs up from a Plasma turret off to the side. I returned the gesture before running to Phoenix's position. I saw Meteor and the marine both sitting there as well. Meteor worked furiously over the marine girl who was bleeding out of the corner of her mouth, a now dull needler crystal stuck through her breastplate. She had her teeth clenched in pain, a demonic sight seeing as the white teeth had been painted red by the blood in her mouth. Meteor made sure the wound was fine to be worked on before ripping out the crystal and placing a can of biofoam in the wound, squeezing out the quick forming sealant. The marine went to scream in pain but no sound came out. Phoenix fired over him, taking out an elite. Meteor then helped the girl stand, her leg put straight now, and the DMR wrapped to her leg, keeping it stiff. She held one arm around Meteor to keep her steady as they both fired in tandem with their weapons.
"This is Pelican Pilot Sixer-Nine, we are coming in for evac, ETA 30 seconds." came over the comms, a beautiful sound to be heard. The Pelican broke the horizon, coming over the red rock mountain and hovering just off of the side of the hill. The door lowered, touching down on the top of the hill.
"Let's go SPARTANs, we've gotta get outta here before stuff gets interesting." said the Pilot.
I motioned for everyone to get inside, Meteor radioing Athena while he helped the marine inside. I kneeed outside the Pelican, waiting until everyone was aboard. I then turned and filed inside with everyone else, signaling to the pilot we were all on, the door shut and we were lifted upwards, back towards infinity.
Well, I hope this long chapter satisfied your needs for now.