BraK3R's A/N: Hey guys, sorry it took me a while to get this one out. I've been busy with stuff, hope you enjoy :P
DelVarrO's A/N: Hey, I'm back! Yes, i am alive so you dont have to worry about me being dead. Like i have said earlier (month ago i think) i had a series of exams and i was pretty busy preparing for them so thats why i was delayed for so long. Anyway, once i was sober enough to write i still had some other small business to attend to but today i found the time to write and here ya go. We have a new chapter. To my delight, this chapter is longer than usual, which i love doing. Dont know why. I just do. Anyway, i wont delay you any further as i assume that many have waiting for this chapter since i left it on a cliffhanger (:O)! So have fun reading!
Chapter 8 - Running Blind
1146 Hours, February 7, 2563 (Military Calendar) / Planet Venatio / Echo Squad
"Echo Eight, report!" Leone barked into the open COM channel but received no reply. He looked at his squad and gave a simple signal with his hand. As soon as they saw it they all raised their weapons and moved to his position. "Echo Eight, report," Leone tried again but still received no reply. "Damn it Jimmy, say something!"
"Where the fuck is he..." Damian heard Kyle mutter. Whatever had killed the marines, was still here and if Jimmy's disappearance was any clue, then they were close. The squad silently moved to his location, the sergeant repeatedly asking Jimmy to say anything. A sudden, loud rumble caused them to stop in their tracks. A large shadow passed over them, which caused them to look up to see the rear section of the New Dawn crashing down in a burning ball of flames, leaving a small trail of debris falling behind it. To Damian, the scene was breathtaking, both because in some morbid, sick way it looked magnificent and because of all the people that died aboard. It passed above them in seconds and soon disappeared from view, only to be heard crashing down miles away with a loud roar of crushing metal and explosions.
"Over here guys..." came Jimmy's voice to their right. Surprising the squad, everyone turned to that direction, guns pointed. The voice was hoarse, weak, barely above a whisper.
"Jimmy?" Leone asked quietly but still, no response. The only possible explanation he could think of was rather grim; Jimmy was wounded and was unable to use their COM channel.
"Over here... help..." they heard it again, closer. Leone gave them a nod and they moved to Jimmy, slowly and carefully. It might be an ambush.
Several seconds later Sean gave them a signal to stop and everyone turned their attention to him. Damian approached him, flanked by Brass and Akira. When they reached him they saw him crouching on the ground fingering a small patch of dirt, soaked by something red... Damian immediately tensed and he knew that Brass and Akira did the same.
"Blood," Sean confirmed their suspicion. "Still Warm."
"Fuck," Brass muttered.
"Help me..." Jimmy's voice could be heard once again. The odd thing was, the voice came exactly from their position, as if he was right there before their eyes but they couldn't see him.
"What the fuck..." Brass said under his breath as he raised his weapon and looked around. This was becoming very, very fucking creepy.
"I think we shoul-" he was interrupted by a black object dropping right in front of him and into the blood-soaked ground. "Gah! Fuck!" he cried as he jumped back, aiming his carbine at what turned out to be an ODST helmet. Jimmy's helmet...
"Shit..." Kyle said aloud, pretty much voicing everyone's thoughts. Brass carefully approached the helmet while everyone was looking around, Kyle nearly jumping at any foreign sound. Once he was right by the helmet he crouched and reached out with one hand while holding his weapon with the other and picked up the helmet.
What no one expected was something to slide out of the helmet and drop to the ground with a sickening squelch. They all turned to look at the sight that chilled their bones as Jimmy's head rolled on the ground, a permanent expression of terror etched on his face.
Brass dropped the helmet and took several steps back until he had his back to Damian, who could hear the man's heavy breathing.
"Oh god, oh god, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Kyle said breathlessly as he stared at the disembodied head of his friend.
"Get a hold of yourself trooper!" Leone hissed as he grabbed Kyle firmly to keep him in line. It was apparent that the kid was panicking.
They continued to stare at the head before something else happened, something that would be scarred into their minds for the rest of their lives.
"Help me... over here..." Jimmy's voice said, once again very, very close to them. This sent Kyle over the edge as he swung his weapon frantically in all directions, looking for something to expel his frustration into. It was obvious to everyone that Jimmy could no longer speak...
"What. The. Fuck?!" Brass said in anguish. Damian bristled all over and goosebumps rippled throughout his entire body. Every eye in the squad, save for Leone's, was wide in shock and fear, and they all agreed with Brass's exclamation.
Unfortunately, they never had the time to find out how Jimmy had died because at that exact moment, the sound of breaking branches and ruffled leaves interrupted all thought processes as a headless body crashed onto the ground right in front of Kyle. With the dismemberment of his only friend in Echo Squad, and the added shock of seeing Jimmy's headless corpse crash right in front of him, finally sent Echo Seven over the edge. He raised his weapon and aimed it up and unleashed a barrage of bullets from his SMG. Mary joined him soon after, believing that he'd seen something. After several seconds they both stopped to see that the only thing they had accomplished were a couple of mauled branches. Kyle was breathing hard, leaning against a tree, his SMG still help upwards. Leone approached him silently and delivered a vicious punch to his helmeted face.
"Are you fucking insane? You just told the whole freaking jungle that we're here!" the sergeant shouted, knowing that there was no point to keeping quiet anymore.
Just then they heard an odd sound. A strange clicking gurgle, somewhere between a growl and purr, coming from above them. They all froze at the sound of the strange noise, not one of them daring to move for a few seconds before they slowly inspected the area to see that nothing was there. Whatever had made the sound was hidden well. Out of the corner of his eye, Damian spotted something strange on Akira's head. He turned to fully face her and his eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw three red dots in triangular formation moving over her head, coming to a stop right at her temple. At that moment, he simply acted and right as he did, all hell broke loose.
It was as if time slowed down for him. He ran at her in full speed, saw her slowly turning to the sound of his rushed footsteps, heard an odd 'whoosh!' sound and a flash of blue somewhere above him and then he just tackled her out of the way. While that move probably saved Akira's life, the large blue plasma bolt – it couldn't be anything else – missed Damian's torso by inches and impacted the ground right by his legs. The plasma bolt then exploded once it hit the ground, much to Damian's surprise, showering his legs with unbearable heat and sending him flying ass over head. He landed painfully on his head several feet away from Akira's position, legs smoking. At that moment everything seemed to go to hell.
Through his blurry vision and brain-clouded pain he saw several of his squadmates, he couldn't tell who exactly though, firing at something above them. The occasional blue plasma bolt flew past or near the squad, exploding upon impact with the ground. He wanted to help his team, but he had lost his grip on his rifle and he wasn't sure he could aim properly.
His vision was suddenly filled by a black shape. He shook his head to gain better vision and to his amazement, it cleared just enough to see Akira's face behind her depolarized visor, looking at him with fearful and worried eyes.
"Get up!" she screamed at him, her voice suddenly breaking through the cacophony of his surroundings. She started pulling him to his feet and he growled through the pain his slightly burned legs caused him. At least he could still stand.
She started pulling him away to the squad, who were firing wildly into the trees. He risked a look back only to see nothing. What were they shooting at? He pulled out his handgun as he couldn't see any trace of his rifle and finally managed to regain proper balance enough to walk by himself.
"Retreat!" Leone shouted, urging them away from the jungle. At that moment another plasma bolt ('Why are they so big?' he thought to himself) blasted the ground just a few feet away from the sergeant, leveling glassed dirt of slightly molten rock at him. Damian risked another look back, to see where the shot came from only to, once again, see nothing.
Once Akira and Damian caught up with the rest of the squad they threw all caution to the wind and broke into a run, occasionally turning around and letting off a few shots to the direction the plasma bolts came from.
"What the fuck are we shooting at?" Damian shouted through his gritting teeth as he jumped over a fallen tree and dived into the underbrush once he heard the telltale sound of a plasma bolt coming his way. He stood back up, pistol aimed and released several random shots to the direction the attack came from. He couldn't keep fighting like this. What the fuck was he even fighting?
"I saw one of the assholes!" Sean shouted as he ran beside Leone. "Big guys, cloaked!"
"Brutes?" Mary asked aloud as she took cover behind a tree as another plasma bolt sailed above her.
"I don't think so! These guys are on the fucking trees!" Sean replied, shooting at the tree tops from his carbine, his rounds tearing several branches apart.
Damian nodded to Akira who sent him a questioning glance as she ran beside him. He turned around briefly and released four more shots into the trees. At least now he knew where to shoot. All that was left was to hope that he hit something.
"Fuck it, just run!" Jake shouted over their gunshots. It took several seconds but everyone wholeheartedly agreed. They couldn't fight like this and at this rate they wouldl be picked off one by one. Jimmy was proof of that. He had just been a couple dozen feet away from them and they hadn't heard a single thing at all. How could you rip someone's head off in a completely silent manner? That unnerved Damian greatly.
They continued to run, taking cover whenever another overgrown plasma bolt sailed by, often too close for comfort. He wasn't sure how long they had been actually running for now, but he took note that Leone was at least leading them to the direction of the base which gave him some comfort atleast. The worrying part though, was that whatever or whoever was chasing them was still after them. Whatever they were, they definitely were not brutes...he was sure of that. Brutes were noticeably less subtle than this in their offensive maneuvers.
He suddenly heard an odd whirling sound, accompanied by a small, barely audible hum. He turned around just in time to see something small whirl its way towards his face. By instinct he dropped to the ground just as the thing, which he now saw as disk-shaped, sped over him. He quickly rolled from his back and followed its trajectory to see that it was heading for Leone.
"Sarge!" he shouted in warning. The sergeant turned around to the sound of the shout and saw the whirling disk coming his way. Showing his decades of experience and his still-amazingly quick reflexes, he simply sidestepped the disk just as it was upon him, allowing it to sail just inches away from his neck and into the tree behind him.
Damian wasn't sure what he was expecting but he didn't expect the disk to cut through the damn tree. There was a loud 'crack!' and buzzing sound for a split second before the disk emerged from the other side of the tree as if it was never there. Both Damian and Leone remained rooted in place, dumbfounded as they stared at the tree, which slowly dropped to the side with a loud creak. Both Leone and Damian looked back at the disk which took an unexpectedly sharp turn, making its way back to them.
"What the fuck is this thing?" He shouted in outrage, unable to accept what he saw.
Leone rolled to the side and dodged the disk and Damian, from his position on the ground, simply rolled aside as soon as he saw the disk whirling its way to him. He barely managed to dodge the odd weapon this time as it impacted inches away from him, sending large pieces of the ground into the air as it bounced off the dirt and then continued on its way through another small tree as if nothing happened. Damian stood up and followed the disk to see it disappear into the high branches of the tree where the plasma bolts came from. He aimed his handgun in that direction and opened fire.
He was turning around from the series of random potshots when he felt an intense pain in his left bicep as his whole arm was sent lurching forward. The pain that accompanied that movement told him that whatever he had gotten hit with could probably tear off his arm if he was unlucky enough. Unfortunately, he stumbled and landed painfully on his face. He looked at his arm and saw a large, thin spike protruding out of it. His first thought was 'a spiker!', which would've confirmed that they were indeed fighting brutes but at second glance he saw that it was longer, made from a different alloy and wasn't superheated.
He felt someone's hand grab him under the armpit and pull him to his feet. He looked up to see Brass pulling him forward, firing his assault rifle one-handed. Damian got to his feet and followed Brass. Leone threw a frag grenade into the jungle. Akira was unleashing a long series of shots from her handgun. Kyle was frantically spraying bullets into the tree tops. Mary added another grenade.
Sean was reloading at that moment and wasn't fast enough to see a plasma bolt sailing through the air. He managed to activate the PDG just in time. The round shield sprang up just as the bolt impacted it but to his dismay, the shield failed the moment the plasma bolt made contact and hit him right in his right shoulder. Damian watched in horror as Sean was sent spinning through the air to land with a thud on the ground and stop moving after that.
Brass ran up to him and lifted him over his shoulder and continued running with a single shouted phrase. "Just run! Fucking run like hell!"
They proceeded to do just that. They continued to run, this time not bothering to slow down enough to shoot back at them. They just ran, veering aside to throw their pursuers off course, which didn't work, and sometimes running in a zigzag pattern, which did help in some way. Leone eventually lead them to a large stone wall that belonged to the small plateau that was near the base. Damian felt some relief that they were getting closer. That relief was crushed when a plasma bolt zipped right in front of his face, causing his HUD to blur for a moment.
"In here!" Leone barked and Damian saw him standing in front of a small cave. They quickly filed inside, slowing down a bit as the cave entrance wasn't large enough to allow two of them to enter at the same time. Once they were inside they all crashed down to the rocky floor as Brass took out his shotgun and crouched near the cave mouth.
They sat in silence for several minutes, no one saying a thing, everyone just catching their breaths. Akira stood up after several minutes and joined Jake, taking her sniper rifle and using it to look outside.
"FUCK!" Kyle shouted, partially in rage and partially in dismay, punching the wall to let off some steam.
"Shut the fuck up!" Brass shouted back, glaring at the young man through his polarized visor.
"Fuck you! Jimmy is dead..." he said, more quietly this time.
"Shit happens, people die," Jake said simply. Kyle didn't say anything after that.
Mary sent a glance over at Damian from where she was tending to Sean's wounds and motioned him over. Damian stood up with a grunt and walked over to her, his legs feeling wobbly from all the running and the small burns they'd suffered. Sean's shoulder was a smoldered, still-smoking mess. He frowned at the burned hole in the middle of his right shoulder, exposing burned meat and some scorched bone.
"Give me your arm," she said to him evenly. He did as he was told, already prepared to what would come. She grabbed the spike that was imbedded in his arm and yanked it out in one fluid motion. He gritted his teeth but didn't make a sound at the pain. She then took one glance at his legs, which were a bit scorched. "They will be fine, nothing too serious. Get some biofoam on that spike entry" she said before returning to Sean.
Damian nodded to her before returning to the spot he now occupied and crashed against the wall. Taking out a biofoam can, he injected it into the wound, once again gritting his teeth at the stinging sensation.
"Are they still there?" Kyle asked.
"In case you forgot, they have active camo and we were unable to see them before. Even now I still can't see them," Akira replied with some amount of bitterness. Kyle nodded and leaned back.
"What the fuck were those things?" Brass suddenly asked.
"Dunno, ain't brutes, that's for sure," Damian replied.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, the spike I was hit with wasn't superheated so it wasn't shot from a spiker. I could be wrong but since when do brutes jump around in trees?" He asked, somewhat heatedly. "And those plasma bolts aren't normal."
"Heh, you're kinda right about that," Jake replied with a chuckle.
"They can imitate voices," Akira added. Brass replied with an intelligent 'huh?' so she continued. "Did you happen to not notice Jimmy's voice repeat itself, even after his head was...uh, ripped off?" she asked.
"Well yeah, I noticed that, pretty hard...not to..." Damian muttered.
"Never heard of covvies doing shit like this before," Kyle said, joining the conversation.
Damian gave him a sympathetic look behind his helmet. From years of fighting with people who had their faces behind helmets, pretty much every single member of the squad could read body language. Poor kid's body language spoke of dismay and depression. His shoulders were sagged and there was something in his voice, as if he was broken. This was probably the first time Kyle had lost a true friend, if his reaction was any indication. They all had lost friends, a lot of them. He couldn't imagine how many friends Leone'd lost, having fought humanity's most brutal war from the beginning to the end. Some learned how to deal with it, some just grew distant from people, avoiding any attachment. They probably didn't show it, but Jimmy's death affected them all.
"What makes you think its Covenant?" Leone said, his words bringing uncomfortable silence to the cavern and bringing Damian's attention back to the conversation.
"What do you mean by that?" Mary asked, still busy bandaging Sean.
"Exactly what I said. This doesn't look like the covvies. They don't operate like this. Well, not now at least. I know that there were several Sangheili squads that operated like this."
"Yeah, you told us that story. They basically slaughtered a whole garrison without anyone realizing, right?" Brass asked, risking his eyes off from the entrance to glance at the sergeant.
"Yep, that's exactly what happened but even then, they used their energy blades. It was the classic 'slit your throat while you're not watching' scenario. Here they just overwhelmed us with plasma fire and those spikes they shoot."
"And those fucked up disks," Damian added, earning a nod from Leone.
"Disks?" Akura asked.
"Yeah, exactly what I said. There was a weird disk flying around outside. I actually think it was a homing disk, nearly killed me and Sarge twice. Cut right through two trees as if they were fucking made of air," he said heatedly, still unable to get over the existence of such odd weapons. Plasma weapons? He got used to it. Growing up during a war against an enemy which used these weapons pretty much turned it into part of their lives. Flying homing disks that could cut through trees? That was a different story.
"Covvies never used these things," Leone said, his tone final. A moment of silence ensued as everyone processed what he was implying.
"So you want to tell me we have another alien race hellbent on eradicating us again?!" Kyle asked incredulously.
"You don't know how much I hope that this is just a bunch of weird covvies with weird weapons..." Leone summarized.
"You can't be seri-" Kyle began but was interrupted by their COM's crackling. Everyone became immediately silent as they awaited the voice that would transmit.
"Can anyone hear me? Is anyone alive?" A male voice said, whispering? It sounded... frightened? Panicked? The squad exchanged glances.
"What if its a trap? Like they did with Jimmy?" Kyle asked, his voice betraying his anxiety. This was a possibility. And the guy used the global channel, broadcasting to anyone available. What if this was a trick?
"Please, if anyone can hear me, please respond..." the man said, the desperation in his voice nearly caused Damian to wince. They exchanged glances again, most of them aimed at Leone. After a minute of pondering he replied.
"This is Echo one of Echo squad, do you copy?"
"Oh thank god," the man said, the relief in his voice evident. "yeah, I hear you. Is everyone alive?"
"No, we lost one man. Whats the situation at your end?"
"It's hell. I'm the only one left. We got into a lifepod but around ten minutes after we landed these... things came. They were everywhere, all around us. We didn't even know where to shoot. Pretty much everyone died and we started running away. There was another marine with me but I lost him... I don't think he's alive anymore. I'm hiding now," the man finished, apparently a marine, defeat in his tone.
Leone sighed at the similar situation. "Same here. We're currently in a cave, they didn't follow."
"I see. I'm trying to contact any other survivors but I don't think we got that many. No one responded other than you."
"Do you know where Research Base Alpha is?"
"Yeah, I know where it is. If you're about to ask me to go there, there's no way in hell."
"We're attempting to get to the base. It's safe there."
"Huh, good luck with that. Those things are still out there, I know they are. I'm going to stay in my hidey-hole for a while. I'll try to get to the base once they stop looking for me."
"How can you be sure that they are looking for you?"
"They were upon us ten minutes after landing and they followed us when we ran. If it's not a hunting party then I'm a fucking Sangheili. Listen, I know that the base is safer but I suggest you to lay low and wait it-... shit!" he nearly shouted the last word.
"Whats wrong?" Leone asked him.
"Fuck, they know I'm here. Listen, stay in hiding and-" there was a noise that sounded like a plasma bolt being fired before static filled the channel.
Several seconds of utter silence passed between the group. "Fuck, we didn't even get his name," muttered Brass.
"So what should we do?" Kyle asked.
Leone remained silent for several seconds before replying. "I still think we should get to the base. They might try to flush us out of here and I don't want to be trapped in a tight spot with our backs to the wall," he said, earning nods. "You have fifteen minutes to rest and after that we're going back to the base. It's not far from here. Mary, try to wake up Sean, we can't afford to carry him, it will slow us down."
"Roger that," she said before she injected something into his bloodstream.
Soon after that Sean woke up and after several minutes he groaned in pain, saying many words that would even offend a brute for leaving behind his carbine. After his tantrum, he seemed calmed down enough and allowed everyone to fill him in. Before everyone knew, their fifteen minutes were up and a tense atmosphere filled the small cavern.
"Do you see anything?" Leone asked.
"No, there is nothing that might indicate they are there. Under normal circumstance I would say the area is clear but here and now..." Akira replied.
"We can't stay here. Sean might not last long and the base has the proper medical equipment," Mary said. Leone stood there for a moment, obviously thinking. Finally, he picked up a rock of medium size and hurled it outside. The rock landed on the ground and rolled a few feet but nothing happened.
"You actually think this will work?" Damian heard someone say in a slightly exasperated tone, it was behind him but wasn't sure who exactly said that.
"Like Mary said, we can't stay here," he said, frowning.
"I say we run for it," Brass offered.
They continued to bicker until it was decided that they would run for it. They stood at the mouth of the cave, Brass supporting Sean by his uninjured shoulder. They carefully climbed out of the cave, Leone in the lead, before breaking into a sprint.
Damian was running in the middle, inspecting the surrounding area as they ran, keeping close to the plateau wall. They were just about to pass beneath an overhanging large branch when he spotted it. It was large, around seven feet tall and its form was blurred, like shimmering air. He fought his share of spec op. covvies and he knew how active camo looked like.
Without hesitation he aimed his handgun and released the whole clip into the figure. He was rewarded by an inhuman growl as he saw two small luminescent green spots appear on the form before it jumped away. "Run! As fast as you can!" He shouted as soon as he lost sight of it.
They doubled their speed as soon as the words left his mouth. They ran like their life depended on it, and it did. Behind him Damian heard an inhuman roar. It was incredibly loud, so loud that it probably echoed for miles from its location. When they heard it, they doubled their speed again. Kyle ran up to Sean and helped Brass carry the wounded man, sometimes picking him up and leaving his feet to dangle beneath him.
"Almost there!" He heard Leone shout, which brought some amount of relief to the squad.
A plasma bolt exploded near Leone, which caused everyone to scatter. This patter continued for a minute or two, everyone scattering, unexpectedly veering side to side. A plasma bolt nearly hit Leone but he turned on his PDG when it was several feet away from him. The shield survived the hit but it sent Leone to the ground. He rolled with the fall and within a blink of an eye was again on his feet.
Mary picked up more speed when the gate of the base came into view. Leone turned around and started blindly firing his assault rifle with Damian and Akura joining him. Within seconds the gate started slowly opening and Kyle and Jake, now fully carrying Sean, slipped in. The last trio broke into a run and rushed inside. By the time they entered the doors were already closing but not fast enough. Two plasma bolts slipped inside, narrowly missing Leone's head and hitting the wall behind him.
The doors closed with a dull thud, leaving them in silence and illuminated in the dim lights of the corridor.
BraK3R's A/N: 2 more chapters guys! Then i'll finally be writing my own chapters from scratch! I'm excited and hopefully you guys are too! Please review and follow, it really helps!
DelVarrO's A/N: Heh, damn, i love this chapter. Things are really starting to roll now :D. Heh, poor Jimmy. You know, i got the idea of the 'head slipping out of helmet' thing from Star Wars, really i did. Remember Episode II? Where Boba Fett's father had his head lopped off? And then we see young Boba pick his father's helmet up? Well, me and my friends pretty much laughed our asses off when we imagined if young Boba picked his father's helmet and then his dad's head will pop out with a comical 'pop!' sound. That will probably scar him for life. We laughed so hard. Yeah, we're horrible people, we know.
Anyway, thank you for reading this story. I'm very glad that you loved it so far and continue reading this. I gladly accept constructive criticism, ideas and suggestions. You can simply point out a flaw or something that you didnt like and I will be glad to hear your opinion so dont stalk in the dark and tell me what you think. :) Until next time, which wont be so long, Delvaro out!