"Well this isn't exactly the highlight of my week." said Fallen, giving an exasperated sigh as her feet pounded rhythmically into the sand.
The day had taken a turn down the drain, as we were needed to escort the team of researchers to what was assumed to be another artifact. I gave off a slight chuckle in response to her comment. Fireteam Majestic was at the back of the group, obviously bickering amongst themselves. I scoffed before turning to look ahead once more. We were walking along a small plateau which lead down into a cavern that was suspected of holding the artifact.
I instinctively closed my eyes as the wind stirred up the loose sand and flung it against my visor. Sarah enlarged a small window in the top left of my HUD as usual, the same smile on her face.
She sighed, "Real eventful out here isn't it?"
I chuckled once more, "Depends on your definition of eventful."
I thought for a moment, and remembered a question I'd been wanting to ask ever since I'd gotten Sarah, "Sarah, when I first implemented you, what were the visions that I saw?" I asked.
Sarah's face drooped a bit, her eyes becoming a bit more solemn and her smile slowly fading into a thin line.
"Those were my memories. My flash cloned brain's memories anyways." she said, avoiding looking directly at me and brushing a strand of hair from her face.
"Really? What year was your brain cloned?" I asked, now intrigued.
"I was originally scanned in 2016, an exact digital replica of my brain, my entire consciousness was uploaded to a computer. And 500 years later here I am." she said with a strained expression on her face.
"Wow, 2016! That was ages ago!" I quietly exclaimed, "Why were you scanned?"
"For research, I was dying, and they wanted a brain scan, so I said fuck it. Fuck it all."
"Wow… I'm sorry." I responded, no knowledge of how to deal with this situation, or what to say.
"So, marines huh?"
"What?"
"You were a marine, back in 2016, were you not?" I asked
"I was, why?"
"Just trying to make conversation."
"Well then, let's talk. yes I was a marine, and yes that's how I died."
"How?"
"I was in Syria, moving in to escort refugees onto a boat to move them to America. I checked each of them for explosives, weapons, y'know the drill. Anyways, I was patting down one man when the man, no not man, animal behind him, pulled out a detonator and screamed something like 'Aloha Snackbar'. That was an old earth marine joke by the way."
"Ok, but what happened next?" I felt sort of bad for prodding even further but the subject interested me.
"Well, I rushed him just as he pushed the button. I was the only one within 20 yards still alive, at that point anyways. My vest caught most of the shrapnel, but the shock wave had broken three of my ribs, which punctured one of my lungs. A few pieces of shrapnel had also slipped past my vest and under my arm. Some of the shrapnel was a bit too close to an artery and I bled out three days later. They performed surgery to stop the bleeding, clamped it up and everything but it just wasn't enough with the rest of my injuries. I was scanned a day before I died."
I couldn't find the words at this point. Sarah seemed about on the brink of tears as she went to speak again.
"My uh, my boyfriend back in Georgia must have really missed me. My mom and dad too. All thanks to those muslim pricks!" she screamed into my helmet.
I recoiled for a moment, "Well it wasn't really the muslims' fault as a whole was it?"
"Well no, it was a large group of radicals. They'd called themselves ISIS and had been terrorizing the world for a few years then."
"Why hadn't you already killed the ISIS group so the rest of the muslim people could live in peace? The rest of the world really?"
"Because they fought differently than any other army. They didn't wear a uniform and have armies. They hid in crowds and planted bombs. They fought like cowards, they wouldn't stand up and fight like men, they didn't fight at all. As soon as troops would roll through suddenly no one was military, but the next day the same people would shoot innocents on the street, or go bomb another country because they were generous enough to take in refugees from their forsaken country. And I guess I'm just a bit prejudice because of it."
"I could see how you would be, but that doesn't make it right." I said, trying to calm her.
"I know, I know it isn't right and I'm sorry for it, but no matter what anyone says, I will always hate radical scum."
I shifted uncomfortably in my armor, kind of unsettled by the conversation. I wasn't alive when all this went down so I couldn't lay down too much justice, but I didn't really want to upset her either, she'd been through plenty as it was.
"Where do you stand on religion Sam?" she asked.
I thought for a moment, where did I stand?
"Well I'm Christian, grew up in a Christian household and whatnot, but you know how that goes. I haven't prayed or anything for years now. I just kinda believe he's up there you know?"
She scoffed, "I believe you're entitled to your opinion and all but I've come to the point to where I believe there is no god. What kind of god would do this to someone?"
I didn't really have much to say. I wasn't a bible thumper by any means, and I wasn't fixing to try and talk some wisdom to her, not my strong point. I kind of let the conversation sit there, looming over us in the silence. I internally sighed a breath of relief when the comm started up again.
"Site should be close now, be alert we don't know of the hostile threat in this area yet."
"Roger that." I responded to DeMarco, who had finally figured out how to work the maps.
We reached the edge of the plateau and we could see over the edge. There was a winding pathway carved into the side of the plateau that led down into the ravine. I gathered up my fireteam and walked over to Majestic's.
"Alright, I've got a plan. if you guys can split up and take the front and back of the researchers, me and my squad will go ahead and make our way to the bottom quickly and scout ahead. We'll flash the red acknowledgement three times if anything goes wrong."
DeMarco wanted to deny my plan, I could see it in his stance, but he could tell it was the better course of action.
"Fine, you guys go, we'll wait for you to reach the bottom before starting."
"Won't be necessary." I said with a smirk, "Crimson, follow my lead." I said over comms.
I turned and started off at a jog towards the edge. I kept running until my feet left the ground and I began to fall. I looked down and saw the pathway rising quickly. I slammed to the ground and absorbed the shock with my knees. I heard seven more ground shattering pounds beside me and I smiled inwardly as I made another jump. We did this about four times to the bottom and looked up to see Majestic just now coming halfway down the first path. I flashed my green light to him, to which I received one back from Thorne. I turned and gestured to move as my team formed a line beside me.
We approached the large opening in the ravine with raised guns, stepping carefully into the entrance.
"Standard 5 meter spread, let's go." I said as the line steadily widened.
We stepped through small puddles on the ground, dripping down from the ceiling. I crunched through a pile of small rocks on the ground. We walked a bit more before there came a curve in the wall. We followed the curve into a larger, spherical cavern, containing a large glowing artifact.
I opened comms with Majestic, "Artifact located, all cl-" I was cut short by the sound of a scream.
I left the comm open on accident as I wheeled around to face Kathryn. She raised her sniper rifle and fired a round into the head of a crawler on the wall.
"Contact!" I yelled over two comm channels unknowingly.
I raised my battle rifle and felt the familiar jerk of the gun in my hands as I fired at some crawlers that seemed to pour in from nowhere. I slammed another clip home and ripped through several more crawlers before catching a guardian mid flight. I destroyed it in threes straight rounds, slicing off both of its wings.
"Guardians, that means knights people!" yelled Phoenix.
"Solid Copy!" I yelled in return.
I saw Crow in the corner of my eye, spraying down a wall covered in crawlers as a knight appeared behind him.
"Crow, 6o'clock!"
He spun on his heel to fire just as the drum mag clicked empty. He threw down the gun and was in the process of drawing his shotgun when the promethean grabbed him. The knight seemed unphased by the bullets that pinged off of his back.
"Let go of me you forsaken beast!" yelled Crow.
And then he was gone.
Just like that. The promethean had grabbed him and teleported away. He was gone.
"We lost Crow." I said, my voice much too low for a combat situation.
Radio silence was maintained for two solid minutes before someone else spoke.
"Help!" was screamed over the comms from a distressed Athena.
We all turned to fire on whatever had caused such a disturbance, but she too was gone.
"Kat!" screamed Meteor as he realized her absence.
"Fuck! They got Kat!" he screamed through obviously gritted teeth.
Meteor grunted over the comms as he transitioned from his drained light rifle to a fresh storm rifle. He began to shoot, but he was getting careless with his movements. He shot at random things, anything that moved. He whirled to shoot more and looked into the skull face of a promethean knight.
"Come on!" he screamed in the knight's face, then he too was gone.
"What's happening!? We're losing men quick!" I exclaimed, merely stating the obvious.
"I do not know! But they do not seem to stop coming!" yelled Dragon.
"Behind you!" yelled Phoenix, pointing in my direction. I turned to suffer the same fate as Meteor, just as the screaming face of the knight flaked away in yellow shards. Fallen appeared with her DMR in one hand and a knife in the other. She nodded at me before continuing on. I made a note to thank her later.
"Early warning system active, Kikyo Kudo now a-a-a-a-a-" came the mechanical voice as we all turned to see Lilith's crimson red visor headbutt a promethean away before being grabbed from behind and taken away.
"We're down to Four!" Phoenix yelled.
"I'm sending the signal to Majestic to stay back!" I relayed over the chaos.
"Too late Crimson, hope we aren't too late for the party." resonated Thorne's voice through my helmet.
Majestic came around the corner guns blazing, Paul DeMarco leading the pack. They wielded their weapons with an impressive amount of coordination and skill. Soon enough though I heard what I'd dreaded would soon come across comms.
"They got Grant sir!" came the voice of whom I'd recognized to be Hoya.
"Is she dead?" asked Thorne.
"Gone!" came the response.
I looked around the room at the chaos that was unfolding and prayed silently to myself for the first time in a long time.
Our father
Another burst from my rifle.
Thou art in heaven
The sound of a grenade
Hallowed be thy name
I slammed another clip into the port.
Thy kingdom come
Hoya was gone, the final blast from his shotgun echoing around the room.
Thy will be done
I shot a promethean knight off of the back of Thorne.
On earth as it is in heaven
I beat a crawler from mid jump, smashing the butt of my rifle into it's head before continuing my bursts of controlled fire.
Give us this day our daily bread
I slid away from a promethean's grasp and sliced a knife into the back of its neck.
And forgive us our trespasses
I came back to back with Thorne for a moment, turning and using his shoulder as a mount to take out a guardian in the process of resurrecting a knight.
As we forgive those who trespass against us
Madsen was ripped from this world, losing his grip on his sniper rifle as he was teleported away
Lead us not to temptation
I grabbed dove for Dragon's hand just as it slipped away from me, he too disappearing.
But deliver us from evil
I just barely saved DeMarco from his certain fate by ripping him from the promethean's grasp.
For god is the kingdom
A crawler pins Thorne as Fallen shoots it off.
The power
I jumped up and forcefully drug a guardian to the ground, ripping it apart with my hands.
And the glory
I was saved once more, this time by DeMarco, who shot the knight just as it was lunging for me.
Forever and ever
Me, DeMarco, and Thorne backed against each other and continued our fire, attempting to hold them back.
Amen
I looked to my right and saw Fallen in the middle of the floor, grabbing at her chest and neck, screaming as crawlers swarmed her.
"Jasmine!" I yelled with an intensity I'd never felt before.
She ripped off her helmet to reveal the same glowing veins from earlier that day, and I watched as she grabbed at her chest, light seeped through any break in her armor. She suddenly screamed a loud and pain filled scream as the room was flooded with the same light as the one in the tent. As the light cleared, Fallen was left lying in the middle of the floor, surrounded by the inactive husks of crawlers, guardians, and knights alike. We all lowered our weapons as we found all of the prometheans had dropped, every last one. The electronics in my HUD were going haywire as well. I ripped my helmet off and jogged over to Fallen who had once again fallen unconscious.
"Is she ok?" came Thorne's voice, both of the remaining members of Majestic losing their helmets as well.
"I think so, she's passed out before from this but I'm sure you would know that already." I said as I picked up her helmet in one hand and slung her body over my shoulder with the other.
"Thorne, would you mind grabbing my helmet and holstering my rifle?" I asked, shifting Jasmine's, miniscule but existent, weight on my shoulders.
"No problem." He responded.
I felt my rifle snap onto its magnetic holster before I nodded a thanks and headed for the exit of the cave.
"So what now?" asked DeMarco.
"We find our Fireteams."