Realizing that Alpha Squad, if they were still alive, wasn't nearby, Delta Squad was about to continue with their search for them and the resonator, walking toward street nearby the enormous E-hole, to which they needed to cross through on their way to the House of Sovereigns. But just when they stood before the street, they faced a Troika gun emplacement, maintained by a Locust grub, aimed directly at them. The grub hissed a familiar growl of "ground walkers", its eyes glaring directly at them with its mouth twisted into a teeth-baring grin, as if it'd silently waited for them to come before it's crossfire. While it stared at Delta Squad, it began to squeeze the trigger of the turret, ready to rain fire upon the Gears.
"Troika!" Dom shouted, realizing the danger they suddenly faced. And soon, the grub squeezed the trigger of its turret and fired countless rounds at the squad.
"Everyone, take cover!" Cortana shouted just as soon the grub began its firing, forcing Delta Squad to quickly run for cover; half of them behind the wall whose corner rounded toward the street and the other half behind the white van that stood near the edge of the E-hole. To distract the grub from firing at his comrades, the Master Chief began firing back at it with his own assault rifle while the rest of Delta Squad ran to their covers, catching the grub's attention and beginning a firing duel between it and the Spartan. But the Master Chief's armour shields held up against the grub's relentless fire while he stepped side-to-side toward the wall where Marcus, Dom, Kim and Guilty Spark were hiding, his eyes never breaking the contact with the grub's until he managed to join Marcus' side.
"Told you that it was a trap," Marcus commented to the Spartan while he tried to fire back at the grub whose Troika quickly eat up the edge of the wall, slowly reducing it into concrete crumbs.
"Then I guess I'll keep my helmet than," the Master Chief dryly joked while he reloaded his assault rifle. "Any idea, Cortana?" he then asked, wondering what to do now that the grub had the entire Delta Squad pinned down.
"Don't know, Chief! I don't see any way to flank that grub! I guess you just must wear him out," Cortana answered, seeing that trying to take out that Troika-firing grub would be a difficult match even for the Spartan.
"Right," the Master Chief could only comment while he joined Marcus and Dom in their attempt to take down the grub. But the Troika's endless, mighty fire barely gave them any room to fire efficiently at the grub, nor could the other squad members, including the Arbiter, hiding behind the white van do much to take down the grub without risking getting reduced to bloody pieces splattered violently across the ground.
"But there must be some way we can take that ugly grub down?!" Dom shouted while he hid behind Marcus and the Master Chief, who were desperately firing back at it. But they could barely peek their heads out to shoot before countless rounds were fired directly at them, quickly reducing the concrete they were hiding behind to pieces. "What now, lieutenant?!" Dom then shouted back to Lt. Kim, who was standing behind him, just as unable to fight himself since the Spartan and the pair of Gears were already taking all the room behind the cover before the relentless firing Troika.
"Don't know! Just keep firing at the grub!" Kim answered, having nothing better to offer since that grub pretty much had the entire Delta Squad pinned down. "We can't stay here all day long while Alpha is out there waiting – just do whatever you can!" he shouted, his teeth clenching as every second the grub managed to keep Delta Squad pinned down is another second wasted from finding Alpha Squad and the resonator – and another second wasted from giving this seemingly endless war the end it so desperately needed.
"Getting reeeeally annoyed right now," Marcus muttered after he shot a few rounds at the Troika-managing grub and quickly pulled back behind his cover. "If that grub doesn't stop with that shitty attitude of it, I'm going to march right up to it for some serious talk," the Gear declared as his own frustration with the grub was beginning to grow.
"Leave that for me if that push comes; we only need one crazy soldier in this squad," the Master Chief answered, trying to bring some humour, if in his own dry, Spartan-like way, to the rather difficult situation. But even that did little to ease the tension and frustration the entire Delta Squad was feeling by being pinned down. The Master Chief gave a quick look toward the white van to see how the squad members over there were doing, and they weren't in much better luck themselves dealing with that Troika. In-fact, he could see the Arbiter's mandibles were twisted to what the Spartan would guess a Sangheilian equivalent for a frustrated sneer, and it seemed that Johnson was having one of his famous ranting moments again, with Carmine seemingly trying to not get in the rather belligerent sergeant's way. Realizing that they wouldn't get anyway by remaining where they were at and that only pushing forward could they break the statement and continue to search for Alpha Squad, the Master Chief was soon about take a gamble and let the Troika-shooting grub face all the Spartan might and luck he had.
"I've a feeling that you're about to do something crazy right now; right Chief?" Cortana then asked, having known the Spartan long enough to quickly realize when he would pull one of his usual and seemingly impossible heroic stunts against an overwhelming enemy.
"No – I'll do something insane," the Spartan answered back with his familiar dry sense of humour. "Need to learn to step up my game after-all."
"Well just make sure that you don't get all too reckless because if you die here right after all what we've faced and survived, I'll get less than pleased," Cortana said, her playful tone still possessing a small amount of seriousness as she hoped that the Master Chief knew what he was about to. Not that this wouldn't be the first seemingly impossible obstacle for the Spartan to overcome – and most likely wouldn't be the last – but this new situation that she and the Master Chief had suddenly found themselves in had made her rather uncertain.
"Right; you guys cover me while I'm go out there to teach that grub the error of its way?" the Master Chief asked the pair of Gears behind him.
"You can count on us, Chief!" Dom said as he gave a thumb up to the Spartan.
"Whatever your plan is, make sure that it'll hurt," Marcus encouraged while he quickly reloaded his assault rifle, ready to spray the entire magazine at the grub the moment the Master Chief would go on with his assault. The Master Chief nodded and was about to run toward the grub before another voice called for behind him.
"Wait, Reclaimer – allow me to help you!" Guilty Spark called for the Master Chief right before he was about to take his chance and charge toward the Troika. The Spartan turned around to face the Monitor, still unsure if he'd really heard right that Spark offered to help on this one. Not to mention that ever-since they'd arrived at Sera, the usual chattering monitor had been unusual quiet that one had almost forgotten that he was with them.
"How?" the Spartan asked, wondering what idea Guilty Spark had and what kind of help it might have against the Troika.
"Allow me to serve as a distraction for that savage before you begin your own counterattack. From what I've observed, the technology – and most of all, the weaponry – of this world is primitive even by your own current standards. That heavy weapon will not be able to harm at least me, built and blessed by the Forerunners as I am, so I can stand before it and it can barely make a scratch at my covering. It'll give the opening you need to eliminate it," Guilty Spark explained, some of his earlier confidential – and sometimes in the Master Chief's ears, arrogant – tone returning, though in a smaller dose. The Spartan listened to the monitor's plan, and while it sounded useful for his counterattack, he still wondered if Spark might was getting a little bit too overconfident on his late makers' craftsmanship of him… or if he was just being deliberately reckless by the hope that the Troika would destroy him.
"You sure you're up to it?" the Master Chief asked Guilty Spark, to which the monitor answered with a firm tone; just as firm as it was back at the Ark when he temporary refused to let the Spartan fire the incomplete installation: "Indeed I am, Reclaimer."
"Very well," the Master Chief said and then turned his head toward Marcus and Dom, who were looking at him, waiting for the Spartan to give them the signal to fire all out. "You guys ready?" the Master Chief asked them.
"Ready when you are," Marcus answered, his eyes meeting the visor of the Master Chief's helmet, just as seriously dedicated as his tone was.
The Master Chief nodded, knowing that he now had all the support he needed to quickly end this stalemate. "Then let's roll."
That was the signal. Guilty Spark, despite his limited knowledge of the Reclaimers' current use of words and terms, knew at least that this was the signal for him to fulfil his promise to the Reclaimer back when he reunited with him at Earth, and he quickly hovered out of his cover. Immediately he caught the attention of the grub, who was firing its Troika at the monitor. But as he'd mentioned, the heavy bullets barely caused as much as a scratch at his covering. And when Guilty Spark had hovered out of the cover far enough to give the Master Chief the opening he needed, he quickly took it.
"Now!" he ordered, and both Marcus and Dom immediately began firing at the Troika while the Spartan ran out of his cover and charged right toward the grub managing it. Distracted by the strange, hovering machine ball that seemed to be one of the ground-walkers' latest small field robotics, the grub was taken by complete surprise by the Gears' firing and when it moved the Troika toward their position, it quickly saw that the one of the strangers – the one wearing green armour and a helmet that covered its entire head – was charging toward it. To the grub's horror, it realized that despite its heavy armour, the surely massive weight barely slowed the stranger down at all like it'd for the other ground walkers, charging at the grub with the speed of a Berserker. And just like with a charging Berserker, the grub was beginning to panic as it tried to quickly aim at the attacker and fire at it before the stranger could reach it. But it barely had the time before the stranger pulled out its oversized handgun from its seemingly invisible holster at its right hip and simultaneously fired both it and its assault rifle, the force of recoil that surely should've disturbed the stranger's duel-wielding firing barely there. Just as the grub was about the pull the trigger, the stranger's bullets reduced the grub's head into splattered remains, silencing the Troika and opening the road for Delta Squad to continue their way toward the House of Sovereigns.
"Well, that went easily enough," Cortana commented, seeing that the Spartan's so called "insane" plan was more of one of his regular charging ahead type of attacks that he love to use during active combat. "The Troika has been dealt with, lieutenant; time to move up," she then radioed to Kim.
"You heard her; get moving!" Kim ordered, and soon the entire Delta Squad ran out of their covers. Just then, Cortana caught a couple of signals further down at the street, and she quickly calculated that those signals must belong to more grubs that were waiting for Delta Squad. "Still some more cleaning you need to do, Chief," she stated while the Spartan could see the grubs' signals appearing at his HUD radar.
"Indeed, I do. When I'm done, the street will be as good as new," the Master Chief commented as he turned the Troika around just as a group made of a couple of grubs charged from the other side of the street, their hateful hissings of "ground walkers" echoing through the narrow way. He soon aimed the Troika at them and pulled the trigger, raining fire at them while his fellow squad members quickly took cover amongst the ruined debris that littered the street. It didn't take long for the Master Chief to gun down all Locusts that had tried in their foolish savagery and bloodthirst to charge at him head on, leaving their torn up, bloody corpses splattered all over the ground. "There, less grubs for us to clean after," the Spartan dryly stated before he let go of the Troika and led the way for Delta Squad.
"Well, I feel sorry for the guys who will do the actual cleaning afterward," Johnson commented while he and the rest of the squad were moving forward behind the Spartan. "But hey, we're just the exterminators – we deal with the pests invading places, we leave the cleaning for the back troops." he continued while as he jogged toward the next debris, where he covered beside the Arbiter.
"Well, they would've to end up doing more cleaning, because more grubs are emerging before you," Cortana said as a few grubs were charging toward Delta Squad from further down the narrow street, hissing and growling like a pack of hungry wolves.
"I count three!" Marcus shouted right before he fired his assault rifle at the grubs while he ran toward the nearest debris to cover behind. After he fired the magazine empty, he then tried to reload the weapon with a new one, but in the midst of it, the gun suddenly jammed, and Marcus tried to fix it before the grubs might get to him. He tried to manually and quickly pulling the bolt several times over in hope to get the ammunition out from jamming the pipe and while the bullets were firing all around him, the heated situation caused him to pull the bolt even more carelessly.
"Ah, come on!" he shouted as he now began to hit the left side of the rifle with his open palm, finding no other way to get the gun from stop jamming when he needed it the most. Fortunately, the force he'd hit it with seemed to work, as the bullet that had jammed inside the pipe finally let go and the gun was finally properly reloaded. Without further hesitation, he quickly fired at the grubs, ready to take one or two of them down.
"Fire in the hole!" Dom shouted while he threw away a Bolo grenade toward the grub that was hiding behind another set of debris and soon, an explosion could be heard along with the death cry of that grub.
Using his superior speed to that of humans, the Arbiter had managed to catch up with the Master Chief, Marcus and Dom, and was now sharing the same cover with them. Taking a moment to look around, he saw an opening of the right side of the wall that was leading toward another narrow path toward there Delta Squad was charging at. Realizing the perfect opportunity to flank the Locusts by their right side, he turned toward the Master Chief, who was being occupied with reloading his assault rifle.
"Spartan, I believe that I found a way to outflank the Locusts," the Arbiter stated as the got the Master Chief's attention. The Spartan then also saw the opening and quickly realized the Arbiter's plan.
"Then go and give them a lesson they soon won't forget," the Spartan answered, to which the Arbiter nodded and right after that began to activate the active camouflage of his armour.
"Try not to shoot me when I bring them our wrath upon them," he managed to finish before he seemingly disappeared into nothing. Marcus and Dom, noticing that as well, could now only blink at the spot where the Arbiter seemingly vanished from.
"You're kidding?! First a spaceship, then energy shields, then laser swords and now goddamned invisibility! Just how many light-years away do you guys really live from us?!" Dom asked as he could only shake his head with a grin on his lips, as he still couldn't really believe his and his fellow Gears' luck. For how could it really be that these aliens, few that they were, with their awesome technology that the Gears wouldn't even dream about, ended up here of all places at the cosmos only to agree to help him and his fellow Gears out? It was almost too good to be true.
But now that they'd agreed to help the Gears out, Dom felt that for the first time in many years, he finally could afford the luxury of hoping that he'd find the one whom he'd been searching for the last couple of years by now. Maybe Marcus was right and that the aliens really were guardian angels sent here to Sera to help its poor mortals in their time of needs.
While the Arbiter seemingly disappeared literally out in the air, Delta Squad continued to engage their Locust foes, slowly but steadily advancing through their tenacious defence. But as the battle continued, suddenly it seemed as if an invisible force was attacking the Locusts behind their flank and was cutting them down one by one with an invisible sword. The Locusts, not realizing what had hit them, turned their fires away from Delta Squad and began firing all around their own position, desperately trying to take down whatever invisible foe that was cutting them down one by one. But it was a hopeless, futile effort as whatever what was slaughtering them barely stopped and soon, all the Locusts that had tried to stop Delta Squad lied dead on the ground.
Seeing that all their foes that been taken care off, the members of Delta Squad peeked their heads out of their covers, and further down the narrow way they saw how suddenly the Arbiter seemingly appeared out of nowhere with his plasma sword held his right hand. With a quick sway with his hand, the plasma blade of the sword was deactivated, and the Arbiter quickly returned the tilt back to his hip, where the magnetic force of his armour kept it at place. The Arbiter then turned his eyes back at Delta Squad and gave them a wave with his right hand while he stood tall and proudly amongst his fallen foes.
"The way has been cleared. Come before any more of these emerges," his shouted back to his human comrades with a deep tone, casing whatever doubt they might yet have to leave as they soon ran up to him.
"Wow! That was awesome! How can you do that?!" Carmine asked with a loud, barely detained tone while he ran behind the Arbiter, who led the way alongside with the Master Chief. Hearing that admiration in the young soldier's voice, the Arbiter allowed himself a Sangheilian equivalent of a grin.
"With several decades of hard and gruesome training and combat experience since a young age, combined with several millenniums of technological advancement and improvement: that's how. And after when we've completed our mission, I might teach you one or two things if you're interested to learn," the Arbiter answered, giving Carmen a sideway look to show that he meant that, as the Arbiter wouldn't mind teaching the human some bits of Sangheilian art of war, now that he was an ally than a foe. And the Arbiter could tell that behind the young soldier's combat helmet, there was a wide grin hiding behind that blue-themed visor.
"Really, would you?!" Carmen asked, finding the thought of himself under the tutorship of this strange yet loyal alien warrior very interesting. However, his thoughts were quickly dashed as a hard voice broke through them.
"Focus, soldier; this's not the time for fanboying right now," Kim demanded as his squad continued their way forward.
"Right," Carmine quickly confirmed, knowing that right now, it wasn't the time to let oneself be distracted with daydreams and fantasies; not when the fate of all of Sera was at stake.
"A little bit of buzzkill; isn't it lieutenant?" Marcus dared to ask, finding that the lieutenant perhaps was getting a little bit too mission-focused for the morale of the squad to handle.
"Not when we're pressed for time, private. Once we done finish this mission, then we all can take up whatever training in alien combat offered without worrying if we'll lose this war before getting that chance," Kim retorted, having a hard time believing that the rest of his squad didn't seem to take things seriously, considering the stakes that were at play here. The aliens he could perhaps forgive for whatever careless attitude they might have since they just literally crash-landed at Sera today and so didn't have much need to care despite their insurance of their allegiance toward COG. But that his Sera-born Gears didn't seem to realize the one and only opportunity they finally had to win this war baffled him.
Delta Squad continued to run until they arrived to what seemed to have been a small square. And amid it stood a pedestal carrying a statue that the Master Chief would guess was portraying a probably dead bigshot from a time before the Emergence Day that colonel Hoffman mentioned. And around that statue was a ring of stonewall to which the Delta Squad quickly jumped over and hid behand as cover while they aimed their weapons toward the square before them, making sure that they weren't any grubs hiding amongst the ruins or debris to attack from.
"So…any movements, Cortana?!" the Master Chief asked while he aimed his assault rifle toward the square. So far, his HUD didn't reveal any enemy signals, but with the grubs one couldn't be all too careful.
"No Chief, I find no si… wait, I'm getting some. They're coming from everywhere!" Cortana suddenly shouted when suddenly, the Master Chief's HUD lit up with enemy signals coming from all around Delta Squad's position. And if an earthquake was announcing its coming, the ground shook as several E-holes emerged across the entire square, opening to whatever evil force emerging from the underground in dozens, screaming and hissing guttural threats and demands for the ground-walkers' blood.
"Let them have it!" Marcus shouted as he fired his assault rifle as the first grub that had dared to climb out of its hole, and the rest of his fellow squad members quickly followed, firing at the grubs that began putting up a siege all around the ring wall that Delta Squad were covering and firing behind.
"Uglies to your right!" Cortana shouted as a group of three or four grubs were trying to charge Delta Squad while they were being mostly occupied with the grubs attacking from the left side of their ring wall from the more open part of the square, leaving a flank open for them to try and attack. But Cortana's warning quickly alerted Delta Squad, who quickly moved to try and stop those grubs from charging through their line.
"Oh no, you don't!" Dom shouted as he ran toward the right part of the ring wall there only Johnson and Kim were stationed at, firing at them while dodging their bullets, taking down at least one of them. But more kept coming out of their E-holes like a massive swarm of cockroaches that refused to be allowed themselves back underground.
"Here; a little Earth gift for ya!" Johnson shouted as he threw one of his M9 fragmentation grenades toward one of the countless E-holes across the square, its small and light form allowing him to throw it without putting too much strain on his old bones. Its small form also allowed it to be easily missed by the grubs as they were too focused on their foes, and it soon rolled down at the E-hole. Not a second too late, it exploded in a small yet powerful blast, sealing the E-hole and burying whatever grubs that were still climbing up beneath a heavy mass of fallen, shattered concrete and dirt.
But the grubs' attack was relentless, and it seemed that there were in endless numbers as they kept climbing up their E-holes and immediately fired upon Delta Squad's position as soon they were above the ground. At one point, Marcus had a close, dangerous encounter when as soon he ducked behind his cover to reload, a couple of spray bullets were firing at the exact spot where his head just had been just a second before. And even he finished reloading his assault rifle, he found himself forced to keep his head down as the bullets were eating up his cover, slowly reducing his part of the ring wall into shattered concrete. And he wasn't the only having to deal with it, as the entire ring wall he and his fellow squad members were covering behind was slowly being reduced into shattered remains that soon would no longer offer them anymore cover. Noticing this, he turned his look toward the Master Chief, who was firing his assault rifle toward the grubs, his armour shields flaring as the bullets the grubs were firing at him were hitting him from everywhere.
"Hey Chief!" Marcus shouted, catching the Spartan's attention while he kept firing at the grubs "You got any more plan to turn this around?" he asked, trusting that if someone would do so, it definitely would be the Spartan.
The Master Chief gave that question a small thought while he kept firing back at the grubs, taking down two of them before he believed he cooked up an idea. "…Maybe. It'll depends on what we got in our magical toolbox," the Spartan finished right as the magazine was depleted, forcing him to cover and try to reload another one to his assault rifle. After he quickly reloaded, he turned his attention toward the Arbiter, who was firing back at the grubs alongside with Carmine and Spark.
"Arbiter!" the Master Chief called out, catching the Sangheili's attention. "You got a spare bubble shield for me to borrow?" the Spartan asked, as his improvised plan might need one of those if it had to work out.
The Arbiter quickly searched amongst his spare equipment while his human comrades kept holding their position against the grubs, who were slowly but steadily breaking through Delta Squad's line despite their casualties. He soon found one and quickly threw it toward the Master Chief, who caught it. "Here," he called out while he threw it toward the Spartan. Then he continued to fire his plasma rifle at the grubs until it, to his horror, ran out of battery, having no more shots left to give. Giving out a Sangheilian curse, the Arbiter quickly put aside his plasma rifle to take out his spare Eos'Mak-pattern plasma pistol to continue the firefight with the grubs. And while the plasma pistol could be a decent weapon if used right, it was no doubt that it was a lesser weapon compared to the plasma rifle, as the Arbiter found out when one of his plasma shots hit a grub by its right bicep. A plasma rifle shot might have taken the whole arm off, but the grub had to instead deal with a nasty and painful, but not lethal wound that only made it more determined to break through Delta Squad's position.
"Now what, Chief?" Cortana asked, realising that the Spartan had a plan that might turn this firefight around.
"Now I need some explosives; sticking ones," the Master Chief answered, only lacking the few last things he needed to build the improvised weapon he needed to turn this skirmish around.
"Got it," Cortana confirmed, realising the idea that was being formed inside the Spartan's head. "Everyone!" she then began to call out to rest of Delta Squad. "The Chief is going to need more than one Bolo or Plasma grenade to get his demolition plan to work. We need you to give him well enough of them!"
"Fine by me!" Marcus called back as he threw a Bolo grenade toward the Master Chief, who caught it and quickly and carefully stuck it to the bubble shield. Soon, most of the squad did the same thing; with Dom, Carmine and even Kim throwing a Bolo grenade of their own toward the Master Chief, and the Arbiter two Plasma grenades to the Spartan. He soon stuck them around the inactive bubble shield, forming one huge ball of grenades stuck together, ready to explode a few moments later as soon as the Spartan had pressed just even a button of only one of the grenades.
"From which main E-hole are the others connected with?" the Master Chief asked Cortana, who quickly calculated which one amongst the seemingly countless ones that was the main one the grubs were using.
"The one right to the left," she answered as she finished calculating and then marked the E-hole's position at the Master Chief's HUD. Wasting no time, he pressed the button of one of the plasma grenades and quickly threw his improvised bubble shield covered by half of dozens of stickly grenades toward the main E-hole. The metallic, strangely formed ball flew pass the grubs that had climbed up from the underground and down to the deep ground cavity. Soon, a heavy explosion could be heard, and with it, a yellowish glow could be seen shining up from the underground. And like with a building put up for demolition, the explosion that happened underground, which had activated the bubble shield at the exact same moment, causing it to reflect and spread the explosive force of all the combined grenades that had covered it, shattering the thin underground walls that separated the countless amounts of E-holes from each other's, causing a chain reaction as each E-hole began to crumble. The ground trembled as the E-holes shattered together into an enormous mass of falling concrete and dirt as the holes caved in, burying any remaining grubs that were still climbing up, leaving the remaining few up on the ground with fewer reinforcements to throw at Delta Squad's position.
"Nice throw!" Dom shouted with a grin on his lips after when the Master Chief's improvised grenade seemingly reduced at least half of the E-holes they'd to face with.
"Don't celebrate yet; there's still a few of them left," Cortana commented as even with the main E-hole and its connected, smaller offsprings dealt with, it still was two or perhaps three, separated from the main one, that kept spewing reinforcements.
"Then seal them up as well, Delta; we can't be here all day!" Kim demanded while he was firing at one of the grubs that just had climbed out of one of few remaining E-holes and quickly began attacking Delta Squad.
"Another E-hole demolition on the way," Marcus called out as he began swinging one of his Bolo grenades and threw it toward one of the last remaining E-holes. It fell down the hole and soon, its explosion sealed the E-hole just as efficiently as before, cutting out more of the reinforcements that the grubs now needed to break through Delta Squad's line.
"Only last one left," Cortana stated as after Marcus's self-proclaimed demolition, it really was only E-hole left amongst the recently countless amounts, the grubs' superior numbers failing to break Delta Squad and their superior determination and discipline. "You think that you can take care of that one too, Chief?" she then asked while that playful, familiar tone in her voice.
"Wouldn't be much of a Spartan if I didn't," the Master Chief answered, quickly taking out one of the few M9 grenades he still had and quickly threw it toward the last E-hole. And it didn't take long before it exploded as well, sealing the last E-hole tight and leaving a few remaining grubs left without reinforcements.
Not like that it'd stop them from trying to take out Delta Squad. The few remaining grubs continued to attack Delta Squad's position, firing at them with everything they got. Johnson managed to kill one of them before he, just like with the Arbiter, found out that his borrowed plasma rifle was out of battery.
"Damn it, I'm out!" he shouted before he dropped the rifle and took out his handgun to fire upon the few last grubs. During the skirmish, one of the grubs managed to reach the ring wall and jumped over. And it soon revered up its chainsaw bayonet to try and cut down a surprised Carmine. But fortunately, Spark fired upon it with his optic beam, immediately killing the grub as its entire chest was reduced to burnt, blackened and molten flesh and bones.
"Thanks man," a somewhat shaken Carmine thanked the Monitor, realizing just how close he was to a gruesome death that only perhaps the grubs themselves deserved to suffer from.
"That's the least I can do, Reclaimer," Guilty Spark answered, his tone still rather humble. Also, his term "Reclaimer" confused Carmine, who didn't know what the monitor meant with it. He'd to assume that it was some form of an unknown term that only Spark, and his fellow alien maroons knew what it meant. Surely it couldn't be a general term for Serans, barely a day they'd been here on this war-torn planet. If he survived this mission, he figured that he'd ask the Master Chief or the Arbiter that the term "Reclaimer" meant.
With the last grubs dealt with, Delta Squad stopped their firing and silence filled the square along with the countless corpses of dead grubs.
"That was the last of them… for now. And let's hope that it'll remain so for the moment," Cortana stated while her scan found no more grub signals or any upcoming E-holes.
"Yeah, let's hope so. Let's grab some ammo and shit while we still can," Marcus advised, realising that this firefight, along with those earlier, had depleted much of his fellow squad members' ammo and equipment. Therefore, it might be a good idea that they scavenged amongst the dead grubs for some extra shit before they moved on in their search for Alpha Squad and the resonator. One didn't want to be out on anything when it'd count the most, after-all.
"Alright squad, collect whatever you might need and then gather up; we still got a squad and a resonator to find!" Kim ordered and his squad quickly searched and scavenged amongst the dead grubs for any extra ammo and equipment that they could carry. After when they'd finished scavenging amongst the dead grubs, Delta Squad quickly gathered up ready to continue with their search. But not before the Master Chief came up toward Johnson and the Arbiter.
"Here," the Spartan began while he offered one of the dead grubs' Lancer assault rifle to the sergeant. "Merry Christmas, sergeant. Sorry that I couldn't package it and tie a bow on it; no store available right now for that."
An awestruck Johnson accepted the native assault rifle and with wide eyes and open mouth carefully examined it like if he was a young child again who just got the best Christmas present he could wish for from his old aunty. But what really impressed him was the rifle's chainsaw bayonet and as he stared at his own example with a deep, intensive look, he could imagine himself using it on whatever poor, unfortunate grub dumb enough to try to pick a fight with the meanest and nastiest sergeant to ever live in this corner of the universe.
"Don't know it, Chief, but I believe you just made the day of his life," Cortana commented as she took in the old sergeant's childlike enthusiasm. If she had been in her holographic form, she no doubt would've given Johnson a small smile, finding it endearing that this old fighter with at least fifty years of combat experience still had an innocent side of himself left, even it too had its morbid form.
"Thank you Chief; this's the best Christmas gift I've gotten. I'll be sure to take good care of it," Johnson said, almost sounding if he was going to cry with joy and happiness, leading the Arbiter to give the sergeant an unimpressed look before he accepted the second Lancer assault rifle offered to him by the Spartan.
"Yes, let see if this weapon will help us reach our goal," the Sangheili commented while he inspected the weapon, though with less childlike enthusiasm than Johnson, giving it out an uncertain look. Being a veteran for several years during the war against the UNSC, he'd learnt to master most of UNSC's personal firearm and weapons, if only to be on the safe side during a battle, and from what he'd observed, those of COG were no different. Therefore, he was confident that would soon learn to master this one as well. Though the thing was that the more… brutal and savage nature of humanity's kind of weaponry - really not that much different from that to the Jiralhanae or the Locusts - was something he doubted he'd ever get used to; not when he preferred the more elegant and graceful nature of the Sangheili. And he really didn't share Johnson's glee about having to use that chainsaw bayonet if the moment would force him to. But he wouldn't be picky of what tool of war he and his fellow comrades had to use if they'd to get through this victoriously against the grubs. "Let's see to it that we will."
"Alright, let's form up squad; time to go!" Kim called out after when his squad had finished gathering the things they needed from the dead grubs that were splattered all around the small square.
"Those fucking holes, man! They can just pop up anywhere! It's like if they'll never stop coming!" Carmine shouted while the squad began to run toward the road out of the square toward a ruined apartment nearby, still shaken up by that close encounter with that chainsaw-welding grub.
"You would think we'd figure out some goddamned defence by now," Marcus commented, finding it hard to believe that even when COG had been at war with the grubs for at least fourteen years, they still couldn't predict, less prepare, for the grubs' attacks from the underground.
"I take it that their offensives from beneath the earth have been rather difficult for you Gears to counter against," Cortana stated while she listened to the Gears' conversation, catching her interest of what they'd to say about the Locusts and the war against them. After Colonel Hoffman's tale, she was eager to learn more about the new, unknown world she and her friends had found themselves on.
"Yeah, they are. Command had tried every trick from the book and more, but nothing so far has worked. If the Locusts want to come up, they come up; simple as that," Dom answered the A.I., painting a rather grim picture for the alien visitors about the new, native threat they were facing.
"And I thought it was bad enough when they came from the sky. But at least we only must deal with these ugly freaks for now. From where we come from, we'd to face something far, far worse," Johnson commented as he jogged behind Carmine, ready to use his new, early Christmas present at any grub that would stand before his way.
"You mean those undead eldritch alien zombies you mentioned from before?" Marcus asked as he turned his head toward the Master Chief, who was running alongside the Gear by his right side. Hearing the Gear using that term, the Arbiter, Johnson and Guilty Spark turned their attention toward the Spartan, figuring out that he and/or Cortana might have shared some more detailed info about what they'd to face before they arrived at Sera.
"Yes, those undead eldritch alien zombies," the Spartan confirmed Marcus' question, his tone being a little quieter and sounding more distant than usual, as if just mentioning them was enough to rattle even this powerful soldier hiding behind all that heavy armour to his core.
"What do you call them?" Marcus dared to ask, as his curiosity about a foe, who might be even worse than the Locusts out there, peeked.
"The Flood," was the Master Chief's short answer to the Gear. And just like that, the entire squad became silent, as if that name alone was enough to rattle anyone who would even hear as much as a whisper of it. And for some strange, probably primal, subconscious reason, Marcus and all his fellow Gears felt an icy feeling crawling through their spines right after when they heard the name of some unknown, eldritch threat they'd never faced themselves but obviously their new alien comrades had – the very same alien comrades who treated the grubs like they were some sort of a warm-up or a cool-down compared what they'd to face before arriving to Sera.
"And let's us all hope that we'll not have to face them again," Guilty Spark suddenly commented, his voice causing the squad to look at him, not expecting him to speak up. "After from what we've to sacrifice to stop them, the last thing we need is for them to return, less here of all places of the galaxy," the Monitor finished, his last words causing that eery feeling within every squad member to deepen.
"Yeah… let's hope so," Marcus quietly agreed, not at all wanting to face this Flood in the future; especially when they seemed to scare even the Master Chief the way that not even the grubs had managed to do. And so, Delta Squad continued their way toward the House of Sovereigns in their search for Alpha Squad and the resonator.