Chapter VI: Island Assault

Recommended Listening: It's Me Again by Korn

When Alex came awake again, the dropship was in the air; moving. He looked around and saw the others, mostly they were just staring out the window. Sergeant Kelly was situated next to him, absently cleaning the barrel of an M90 Shotgun.

"We're heading back to Delta Station briefly." he stated. "But we've been called to another mission. If you want, we can drop you off back at base."

"Is that an order?" Alex replied, straightening up.

"No, just a suggestion." Kelly stated.

"Then I'm going." Alex said almost immediately.

"Alright. But I really recommend you take a breather. You look like shit."

"What's the mission?" Alex asked diplomatically, changing the subject.

"Word has come down from high up, The Chief and Sergeant Johnson managed to pull a successful rescue of Captain Keyes on the Truth and Reconciliation, which was the Covenant's cruiser that he was being held on. Keyes returned to Alpha Base and gave some more information, apparently this place is called Halo. And it's a weapon. They're searching for the Control Room and they've discovered some place called the Silent Cartographer, and the Covenant are already there. It's an island, out in the middle of nowhere. We're to mount an assault on the Silent Cartographer with the Master Chief and help him secure the island and the Cartographer itself; supposedly this thing will lead us to the Control Room of Halo. So, that's the gist of it. Land on an island, kill all the Covenant there."

Alex nodded and sat back, gritting his teeth against the various pains that assaulted his senses. He could still feel the ache that ripped through his chest, namely his ribs; but modern medical technology was fast working. He'd been injected with a healing stimulant that made the healing process hyper quick. It was no nanotech, but it worked. The Marine pondered the mission, he enjoyed islands; if they were small. So the ringworld was called Halo and it was a big weapon, of course; now Keyes would do everything in his power to take control of Halo and make sure the Covenant couldn't use it against humanity. It only made sense. He would also try to use it against the Covenant, which probably wasn't too smart in its own right. He knew nothing about the ring and the consequences it could have if used.

But, these were all things to worry about later; or not at all. It wasn't his problem really, and if it was; he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Alex looked out the window and noticed that they were on their final approach to Delta Station, he stretched and grimaced ever so briefly as an assortment of hurts shot through his anatomy. The dropship landed and the back ramp lowered, the Marines filed out.

"Get to the armory, gear up; then get your asses back here double time!" Sergeant Kelly shouted, and the men gave their replies and headed off. Alex went with them, he saw that the Marines at the station had brought the armory up top. There were a number of crates serving as tables and real foldout tables spread across the edge of the landing pad, which now contained a number of other Covenant and Human vehicles. Alex came to the makeshift armory and sorted through the weapons, he'd lost his assault rifle and now his pistol was down to its last clip; he was nearly totally dry. First he grabbed a half dozen pistol clips and secured them, then he secured four fragmentation grenades to his bandolier.

After that he grabbed an assault rifle and let it hang across his back, then secured ten clips of ammo for it. Finally, for the main course, he grabbed an M90 Shotgun and pocked two dozen shells for it. Now, feeling a hell of a lot better and prepared, he turned and retreated back to the dropship. Within a few moments, the others joined, with a few more Marines and the dropship took off as it was filled up with a dozen green armored men and women.

Alex looked out over the great, blue sea that they flew across it. A total of four dropships were making an assault on the island, not too bad considering each dropship held about a dozen Marines, plus one Spartan onboard one of them. Nearly fifty troops against an unknown number of Covenant, possibly hundreds were on the island. Speaking of which, Alex looked out the window and saw that they were approaching said island. It wasn't very big, he could see a beach and a large rocky formation in the middle of it; taking up most of the island. Already, he could see the small, dark figures moving around; Covenant. A U shaped dropship was making its way from the island, taking off in the opposite direction; and another two were coming in for a landing somewhere else on the island.

Alex gripped his M90 and readied himself, he felt prepared even if he was sore, hurt, tired and hungry. The pilot shouted something about coming in hot and then the dropships were over the island, landing on the beach. The back ramp opened and then all hell broke loose. Alex pounded down the ramp and found himself in the midst of total chaos. The dropships took off after unloading their cargo, perhaps going to do something else more important on the ringworld. Alex began running, charging an assault; there were dozens of them. Elites, Jackals and Grunts; all firing upon the Marines position.

Alex raised his shotgun and fired at a Grunt that had been caught in a pisspoor charge, he put a very large hole in its chest and threw its body about a meter or two backwards. Everyone was right in the fray, there was no quarter given or taken; no place to hide. Just the total madness and pandemonium of a full fledged assault. Alex turned and spotted an Elite coming towards him, he raised his shotgun again and fired. The blast completely wiped out the monster's shields, Alex fired again and blew off its head. He suddenly was thrown off his feet as another came up and slammed him directly in the chest. His armor dented and he couldn't see for a moment, immediately he raised the shotgun and pounded out another few rounds. He was rewarded with the death cry of the Elite that had hit him.

He quickly got to his feet and saw that the Marines were winning, and the Covenant were in retreat. He fired off the rest of the shells in his shotgun and was rewarded with the death of three more Grunts and a Jackal. He let it hang by its sling and while he grabbed for his assault rifle, primed and tossed a fragmentation grenade towards a wall of retreating Jackals and Grunts. There was a mighty explosion of fire and metal fragments and sand and the bodies were flying everywhere. As Alex readied his assault rifle, he spotted the Master Chief at the front of the assault. His green armor seemed to glow as he ran like a madman into the Covenant, he was among them; moving swiftly and gracefully.

He dealt a deadly blow to the back of a Grunt's head and sent it flying forward, then he was already putting rounds into the back of three Jackals that were fleeing. He snatched up a plasma grenade, primed it and tossed it; the thing burst into blue and white flame and then attached to the chest of an Elite that was just getting ready to fire. The Elite shouted and cried out, but it was far too late; the grenade erupted in a flare of blue white flames. The body was picked up and thrown into a group of Grunts, sending them flying like ninepins. Alex tossed a glance over his shoulder as he shoved the last of the dozen shells into his shotgun, having decided to reload it, and cocked it. Behind him was a field of death.

At least half of the Marines were dead by now, but they had almost wiped out the Covenant. Alex grabbed his assault rifle and charged towards the Covenant with the survivors and the Master Chief. He burned through a clip without letting up, putting down an Elite who didn't have a functioning shield and two Grunts. He quickly reloaded and then spent the next few moments burning through another five clips. When he finished reloading yet again, he looked up, ready for anything; and found that everything was dead. He relaxed momentarily and looked over the place as one of the dropships informed them that it was bringing a Warthog in. Alex let his gaze wash over the aftermath of the battle.

There were bodies everywhere, and various kinds of blood stained the sand of the beach. They had started in a blank spot on the beach, and worked their way up a small hill that the Covenant had held. There were a few supply crates and portable plasma shields, now most the crates and shields were toppled over onto the ground. They'd then progressed past that to a small structure with no discernable means of entrance that was attached to the island. Alex looked up as he heard the familiar rumbling of a Pelican dropship, he watched as Echo 419 dropped off a Warthog. Immediately the Master Chief and two Marines began to make their way towards it, Alex watched them go as they hopped in a took off.

"Alright men," Sergeant Kelly said, obviously in charge now. "Let's set up camp. Spread and search, you know the drill." he stated in an authoritative voice. The Marines moved quickly out, simply replying with a string of 'yessirs', and got to work. Alex was among them, letting his guns hang by their sling. He began searching the bodies first, enemy and friendlies, checking for pulses or signs of life. He spent the next amount of time doing this, thinking to himself; falling deeply into the abyss of his own mind. His hands worked on their own while his mind toyed with his emotions. He wondered how long it was going to be before he was just another corpse on the ground, left for dead and coldening.

He wondered how he would die, from a crash or a stray bullet or a grenade. Or something else entirely, there were a number of ways one could reach the post mortem status. A toe tag for Steele. Nowadays, Alex only thought about a few things. One was his death. Another was the many ways on how to kill the Covenant, the cold, mathematical logic behind his every movement on the battlefield. The skill and quality and precision it took, each bullet fired, each wound dealt or received; each kill stacked up in a red, digital counter in his brain. He thought of how he had to compensate for how much ammo was left in his magazine when he took on the next opponent, if there were enough rounds left.

He calculated the average amount of bullets for the specific type of gun he was holding it took to kill whatever enemy he was fighting. He could put together this equation in seconds, each combat engagement was a formula; a numerical code. Elites were best put down with either almost a full clip of 12.7mm rounds or a full clip of 7.62mm rounds. Grunts went down easily from a blast to the skull, and that little part on the back of their methane tanks, breathing packs; if it was hit just right it could be used as an explosive device. How the Jackals formed shield walls, and left just a little bit of themselves exposed. He thought of how an Elite's head looked coming apart when serviced with an M90 8-gauge magnum (3.5") round. Yes, Alex Steele's mind was a shambling, dark field of broken glass and razor wire.

Besides that, he, occasionally, thought of finding another. Hell, everyone did; in their own way. People say they get over the need for a significant other, but they never truly do. There's always that nagging need in the back of ones head. It's like energy, it can never truly be destroyed; only ignored or satisfied. For the moment, Alex was ignoring it; but he knew it was doing untold damage to him inside. He was worried that he was dying inside, and when and if he finally found that one special girl; that there might not be enough of him left to enjoy her and treat her properly. In a sort of sick and twisted way, he envied Marines who could live with themselves after a night of hard drinking and harder sex.

He wondered if he'd ever be able to do that, but never brought himself to stay the night with a woman just for the sheer enjoyment of sex. In his mind, it was far too special for that. The way he figured it out, there were three levels of sex. There was love making, which was sex strictly out of love. Screwing, which was sex strictly out of lust; and sex itself. Which was love and lust combined. Now, Alex had no problem with lust; but he had to justify it to himself by making sure that the lust was there because of love. So, he could see himself having all three levels at one point or another; but the love had to be there first. Or something like that. Maybe he'd just collapse and give in and go have sex with the next willing female. Who knew? It was very complicated and yet so simple at the same time.

Alex realized that he'd run out of things to do, he'd checked all the bodies in his area and had gathered up all the weapons and placed them in a useable, easily accessible pile. The other Marines were setting up a small, mobile base camp and had also managed to call in a few more Warthogs. Trios of Marines were going out as scouts onto the island to help secure it. Alex perked up though, as did many others, at a transmission on the general comms.

"Mayday! Mayday! Dropship Bravo 22, taking heavy enemy fire! Repeat, we are under heavy fire and are losing altitude!" Distantly, Alex could hear the sound of an areal battle; and the sounds were getting closer.

"Sounds like it's on the other side of the island, Steele, take Jackson and go figure out what's going on over there. Back them up if need be." Sergeant Kelly ordered, Alex and Jackson both nodded their yessirs and began to head towards the last available Warthog. They both hopped in and Alex started it up and took off, as he did so he heard Cortana update the Marines. Apparently they'd run into a locked door issue, but the Chief had fixed that and was now doubling back to get deeper into the island to discover this Silent Cartographer. Alex drove on, listening to the soft chatter of Marines on the general comm line that most Marines used; but it was heavily encrypted so the Covenant couldn't pick it up.

He heard Foehammer,

"Echo 419 to ground teams, I'll stay on station and keep an eye out for Covenant, folks."

Followed by a Marine who was presumably at another site,

"Second Squad, ready to roll as soon as everyone's topside."

Then Sergeant Kelly,

"LZ looks clear, nothing moving." Alex kept going, coming around a long bend and seeing the destruction that the others had wrought. There were Jackals bodies spread out along the first area, then an assortment of Grunts and a few Elites; Master Chief had been through. The one man wrecking crew. He came to a fork in the road and took the lower road, going down along the beach and passing a structure built into the side of the rock formation. There were a few Marines and a Warthog there, securing the entrance to the facility; there were corpses everywhere. He kept on moving, passing more scenery and dead Covenant and a few dead Marines until finally he found the crash site.

Alex took one look at the area, after he'd pulled up, parked and exited the Warthog; he knew that Master Chief had already come and gone. The War God, the demolition man. There were dead Jackals and Grunts and Marines all over the place, bullet holes and plasma scars where everywhere. Alex moved over closer to the crash site and looked around, all the guns lying around were empty of any mags and there were no spare clips lying around. Further investigation showed that the weapons locker had been completely raided as well, empty weapons lying all over the place. Alex sighed, the Chief never left anything good.

Alex stood there for a moment longer, Jackson idly smoking a blunt in the back of the Warthog; mounted on the chaingun. He looked pretty ridiculous. The comms unit suddenly crackled to life,

"Foehammer to ground teams, you've got two enemy dropships coming in fast!" The pilot of Echo 419 stated loudly, Sergeant Kelly came onto the comms.

"Dammit! Okay people, we've got company comin'. Let's set the table. Engage enemy forces on sight!" Cortana began speaking,

"It'll be easier to hold them off from inside the structure, Sergeant; can you get inside?" She asked. Kelly sounded desperate,

"Negative! They're closing in too fast! Negative! Chief, you gotta find the Cartographer! We'll keep em busy for as long as we can!"

"Give em Hell, Marine." Cortana said, then the comms was cut. Alex cursed and began making his way back towards the Warthog, he could already hear the dropships coming in; and it sounded like more than two. He hopped up into the drivers seat, Jackson tossed his blunt down onto the ground and held on as Alex took off.

"Steele!" Sergeant Kelly shouted in a burst of static. "Get your ass back here, double time!" There was gunfire intermitted in the background of his speech, as well as screams and explosions.

"Yes sir."Alex replied calmly as he floored it. The Warthog's top speed was 55 mph, which he was daring to push at the moment. He moved forward, logically surmising that the island wouldn't be too far round and that it'd be quicker to go forward instead of going back. Within a few moments he came upon the battle scene, and beheld its madness. Four dropships had landed and unloaded a few dozen Covenant, Elites and Grunts and Jackals and two pairs of Hunters; not a good deal. There were only about twenty Marines left on the whole island, some of whom were still being called over for back up. Alex left Jackson to open fire with his LAAG and then began making his way across the field.

He opened up with his assault rifle, approaching a half dozen Grunts from behind who thought they were smart and would flank the Marines. He burned through a whole clip and managed to put them all down, Alex quickly reloaded and spotted some Jackals forming a shield wall. He depressed the activation button on a frag grenade and threw it into their midst, the thing exploded and sent them all flying in every direction. He tore through another clip of rifle ammo and in exchange for his sixty bullets, got the death of three Grunts and a Jackal. Alex reloaded, then let the gun hang by its sling and grabbed for his shotgun. He spotted an Elite being a general bastard, ran up to it, put the barrel of the shotgun to the back of its head and squeezed the trigger. The Elite's body flew forward and its head disappeared in a fine mist of deep, thick blue blood, brain matter and skull fragments. A beautiful sight.

Alex hear a whoosh and felt the mighty heat of a Fuel Rod Cannon round flying past his head. It hit the rock wall behind him and the Marine spun round to face the Hunter that had fired at him, he set his features and set off to do battle with a creature three or four times his size. It had been separated from its Bond Brother, or perhaps its Bond Brother had been killed. Alex didn't care, he just wanted to kill it. The creature fired off another round, but Alex dove out of the way to avoid it. He regained his composure and started firing, aiming for the more sensitive parts of the Hunter. The massive beast groaned with pain as blood fountained out of the wounds, but refused to go down. Alex kept firing and walking until he had just a single round left, that's about when the Hunter charged for him.

Alex ran to get out of its way and while it was still busy with regaining its composure, he spun round, put the barrel to that little exposed area in its back and fired. The Hunter let out an earthshattering death wail and collapsed to the ground with a heavy thunk, dead. Alex, his shotgun spent, let it hang by its sling and grabbed for his assault rifle; there was more death to be dealt. He burned through another clip, killing another trio of Grunts and of Jackals; then realized he didn't have enough time to reload. He primed and tossed a frag grenade and blew away an Elite, at the same time extracting his pistol. There were Grunts coming his way with murder on their minds, at least a dozen of them.

Alex aimed his pistol and fired off the whole clip, by some miraculous gesture he scored a dozen headshots; killing all the Grunts that had been coming towards him. He quickly went about reloading the pistol with skilled, quick, proficient and entirely professional movements; and then looked about and saw that there was nothing left to kill. He cocked the pistol then slid it back into its holster, then reloaded his rifle, hung that across his back and finally shoved his final dozen shells into the shotgun and cocked it. He just finished this as Sergeant Kelly approached,

"Damn son, you really do have some skills. Look at you." He said, Alex looked down and realized he looked a mess; he was covered in blood. Mixed blood, red and phosphorescent blue and deep blue and purple. Some of it was old and stained, some was still fresh and dripping from his armor. Some had even somehow gotten into his hair. He realized his tactical data screen was stained and went to wipe it off,

"So did we make it, sir?" Alex asked, looking around. There were just a handful of survivors left, barely a dozen.

"Yeah, we made it son; the Chief has found the Control Room and is now headed that way." Kelly replied.

"Are we backing him up?" Alex questioned.

"No, we're packing up here and returning to Delta Station for some down time." Kelly replied, Alex nodded quietly; part of him was grateful. But another part desperately wanted to return to the fray, to feel the rush of adrenalin as he blasted through the Covenant. To feel the rush of life as each one of them was cut down. He simply began to search through the bodies, gathering up gear as a few dropships came to pick them up.