Chapter three: Falling pillars.
14.3 miles from the yard...
Six looked over at Emile, who was silent, sitting in the corner of the Pelican. Normally, a Spartan didn't care if they lived or died, They normally lacked feelings for anything really. But today was different, very, different.
Kat had nearly died, getting shot multiple times in the shoulder and arm. Emile didn't want to hear everyone be silent for another five to ten minutes, so he broke the silence.
"Boss, what's the plan?" "Well, me and Kat are going to stay in the Pelican, while you two deliver the package, We'll meet you at the landing platform."
Six had thought this idea was very foolish, considering the skies were covered in Covenant air assault vehicles. Carter knew what they were thinking, but he wasn't stupid. "Trust me, it'll work."
Kat had a better idea, it seemed she always did, despite not being the first in command. "That's going to get us killed, no offense." Carter knew what Kat had in mind, dropping them all off wasn't a bad idea, but they had a deadline, flying in a Pelican was much faster, and wasn't risking as much.
"Well, I guess we could la-" Just then, they heard plasma fire, and it was close. "Kat, open the doors." As she opened the Pelicans rear facing doorway, they were met with two Banshees and a Phantom. Immediately, Emile grabbed a grenade launcher, only to be shot at by the two Banshees. "Cover me!" Emile demanded as he attempted to fire his Grenade launcher. The Pelican filled up with plasma fire, so Carter swirved the Pelican around in the air. It didn't do much, but they needed to EMP the Banshees.
"FIRE!" Carter ordered Emile. Emile fired, and then reloaded. Six and Kat were hiding in between seats, trying not to lower their shields. Emile was pissed off no one was helping him. "WHAT THE HELL YOU TWO?! I NEED HELP!" And indeed he did, his shields cracked a while ago, so he felt anything that hit him. "Sorry, jeez." Kat got out her M6G magnum, and fired at the Banshees's Plasma canon. She was acting as a useful distraction, so Emile could fire his M319 Grenade launcher, a favorite of his.
Suddenly the Banshee had it's wings and Plasma turrets disabled, and flew into the other one, Exploding the two of them. "Holy shit!" Six exclaimed in excitement, seeing the massive explosion. However the Phantom wasn't dead yet, and shot Six until his shields were completely drained. He got back behind cover and rehealthed. Suddenly, the Phantom just readjusted course. Disappearing completely. "Why'd it just leave?" Emile asked with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "I don't know, but let's get you to the Autumn as fast as possible." Kat was getting Enemy threat sigs on her Threat sensors. And they were massive. "What the hell?"
Just then a Scarab came into view form behind a mountain. Kat was the first to see it on her motion trackers. "Holy sh-"
Just as she was saying this their Pelican was fired at by the Scarab.
"We're going down!" Carter yelled aloud.
"LOCK YOUR ARMOR!" Emile told everyone, grabbing an Armor lock for everyone before their inevitable crash.
Six and Kat quickly jumped out, Armor locking mid air. Emile then gave one to Carter. "Here you go sir, now lo-" As he said that, they crashed. Kat and Six saw that the Pelican hadn't exploded, so they could check if they were alright.
"Are they alright?" Kat asked. "Only one way to find out." Six replied sarcastically. "We better stay out of site of the Scarab." "agreed..." As they came into the Pelican, they could see the Cockpit, where Carter had been flying, was completely destroyed.
Kat knew Carter just died. Suddenly, she had a flashback, from when she first met him... "Hello." Kat looked over, seeing the man that had just died. "Oh hello, who are you exactly?" "I'm Carter, I've been sent here, to recruit you into my Spartan team."
"May I ask what the name of the team is?" "Noble, Noble team." "The name is, interesting, to say the least. What made me stand out from the others?" "Your hacking skills are above acceptable, They've deemed you to be not expendable, a trait ONI wanted to make Spartan-III's." Kat thought in her head: "That was all too easy for me, how am I not "Expendable?" " Carter saw her smirk. "Well, will you accept the offer?" "Of course, now, what'll we be doing first?"
Suddenly Kat snapped back to reality, seeing Carter's dead body. Under her soulless looking visor, she shed a tear. The glass from the Pelican's cockpit had shattered his shields, then the crash had crushed his life-support chip.
"Oh my God..." Kat said almost silently to herself.
"Kat, I-" Six couldn't finish his sentence, he knew they were close. "Let's get Emile." Kat couldn't think of any words suitable for the situation, so she stayed silent. They found Emile lying outside, apparently he had flipped around all over the place, so his armor attachment auto-started. He was unconscious, but very much alive.
"Oh my, what happened here?" Six asked himself. "I think he flew out." "Well, let's get him out of here, that Scarab is still a threat. Let's move."
With that they moved through the tunnel systems until they came across an eagle eye view of a bridge, With several Marine veterans fighting hordes of Covenant. "Kat, you stay here with Emile for a few minutes, I'm gonna take those Covies out." Kat had agreed to the plan because she didn't care what might happen, Carter just died, someone she genuinely fell for, got killed by a Goddamn Scarab. Spartans were, and are supposed to stay committed to the mission, but they are still human, Kat couldn't help it.
Meanwhile Six Immediately jumped head first down upon an Elite, who was standing still. "ARUGH!" The Elite groaned in pain, Six had broke the Split-lip's back, a few seconds later he pulled out his combat knife, and shoved it into the Elite's neck.
Milliseconds after a few grunts burst into fear, running for their lives. Six quickly got his M6G Magnum sidearm and fired three times at the two Grunts running, killing both of them. Six had felt pity for the poor Grunts, even though they were capable physically and mentally of violently killing an innocent person, they had been through much more hardship than any Human could imagine. From their entire species being enslaved by the Covenant, and not even getting proper food or weapons to fight, to a full on rebellion against the entire Covenant, to living only Thirteen years if you weren't the Grunt on the frontlines. Truly a harsh world.
But they were an enemy nonetheless. And they were brutal if they had an advantage.
Six spotted a few Jackals roaming the bridge, and opened fire, these Jackals had shielding to protect themselves, and they could kill a Spartan if they were trained enough. But this was no "Spartan", this was one of THE Spartans, and he was deadly, one of the two only Spartan to be given the "Hyper lethal" designation. The group of Jackals was quick work for Noble Six, after he had killed them he got shot right in the head by a concussion rifle, draining his shields.
He lay flat on the ground waiting for his shields to regenerate.
"AROUGH!" The Elite roared, coming up to ensure his fine kill only to be met with a knife in his back. "ARUGH!" The Elite exclaimed in horrible pain, it died, slowly on the ground, bleeding out. The Marines on the other side of the bridge were firing at a group of Five Grunts, who had killed almost all of them.
After all the Enemies had finally been Killed in action, Six signaled Kat to come down with Emile.
"If you Spartans want to restock on Ammo and supplies, there's plenty over in the outpost over there."
One of the few surviving Marines had pointed to a small bunker looking outpost around twenty yards from the Bridge. "Thanks, how many of your platoon are left?" The shaken Marine had hesitated to tell him, his entire squad, besides him and one other, had been wiped out, although Marines were far better trained than the Covenant forces, there was far fewer of them, and so, they would be constantly overrun by worse, yet deadlier forces. "Only me and Chipps dubbo over there."
"I see, Well, you two are coming with us. We're gonna need a path to the Pillar of Autumn."
"Pillar of Autumn?! Why would you get on there? Only VERY valuable personal are allowed on there. Unless you have something." "Yeah, I'm delivering this "Ai", her name's Cortana." "For an Ai? Seems a bit overkill." "Well its not, so you're coming with us, two Marine's won't make a difference in defending the Autumn."
"Ok, there's a Warthog and Mongoose crashed around here somewhere, that should get us pretty far." "Ok, let's get movin'" With that they hopped in the Warthog, while Kat and Chipps were on the Mongoose. By the time they dropped off close to the bridge, around fifteen minutes had past.
The Autumn's schedule for departure was in around an hour, so Noble team would have to hurry. With that they took off in their vehicles, killing any enemies that got in their way. Suddenly they came across a valley FULL of Covenant scum, From groups of Jackals, to Elite generals commanding small outposts, to Grunts being dropped off all around them, it would be a close call if they made it through, which of course they would.
They had to use the turret on the rear end of the Warthog they were driving, and lend Kat some cover fire. Just then, out of nowhere, Two Scarabs came from the sky, probably being dropped off by a Covenant super-cruiser
"Two Scarabs Six, Do not Engage, I repeat do not engage!" Said Kat, with almost an ordering voice.
There was a pathway down the valley, so they used that whilst Kat and Dubbo ran straight down the valley, rolling off a hill once. "Ouch! What the hell! I guess I'm not used to a Woma-" "Shut your damn mouth." Kat ordered, she was aware of her God awful driving, but she wasn't having any of it. And off they went, killing Grunts and Jackals all over the place via their Warthog.
Banshees and Phantoms covered the sky, shooting at Falcons, Noble team, and basically any Unsc Vehicle or personnel that were defending the Pillar of Autumn. What was once a Beautiful planet full of life, peace, and prosperity was now hours away from being completely uninhabitable.
The distant sky was full of blood-like storms, lightning constantly flickering miles away. A world straight out of a horror movie. As they went through multiple tunnel systems, there were hundreds of Covenant killing all sorts of Unsc soldiers
What remained of Noble team did their best to help any soldiers fighting, whilst driving as fast and far as they could. Kat passed Six, who was driving the Warthog like an absolute beast that he was.
When they were almost out of the caves systems, Chipps received intel that the bridge up ahead had been blown up. "Ma'am, The bridge ahead is completely destroyed." Kat then opened a communication link with Six, and told him.
"The bridge ahead is blown up, we're gonna have to jump it!"
"Put your peddle to the mettle!" Six exclaimed in excitement. With that they put their Vehicles at full speed, and got ready to jump the bridge. "Might want to hold on to something!" Kat warned. This jump, if they didn't make it, they would fall to their demise. Only a around fifty feet from the bridge, their Vehicles sped up to their full potential, and made the jump. The jump was about forty feet or so, so this jump would be deadly if not done correctly. All five of them did, thankfully, make it across. but the Mongoose flipped over, crashing both Kat and the other Marine. Kat looked over to see the Marine lying over on the ground, his arm scraped with blood from rolling over very fast.
"You okay?" The Marine was a little pissed off that Kat couldn't drive or keep him properly safe, but he shook it off. "Yeah, I guess."
Six saw a huge group of Brutes and Grunts, who were protecting a cave system. "Got a huge horde of Covenant blocking the cave systems, wake Emile. He'll be useful." Emile woke up and asked: "What's the situation?"
Six hesitated at first, but he knew he had to tell him. "Carter is dead. we fled the Scarab's wrath and drove here. We gotta go through those cave systems." Emile realized he hadn't given Carter the Armor locking system in time, thus, blaming himself for his boss's death. Emile turned his head in disbelief at first, but then accepted the sad reality. "Understood. let's get moving." "Kat, get on the Warthog turret and gun down those Brutes." Six ordered.
"LET'S MOVE FORWARD!" Emile yelled, running straight into combat, killing numerous enemies before reloading his Shotgun he found laying in a building.
Multiple Brutes came charging at him, only to be met with a Shotgun blast to the chest. "AOURGHH!" The few remaining Brutes roared, charging at Emile and Six.
Meanwhile Kat was shooting down a Sniper tower for Jackals, exploding the entire thing and killing almost all of the Jackal snipers. One slipped away though. Running for it's puny, little life. Just then they spotted a Wraith across the scrapyard, getting ready to fire at them...
"KAT GET THE HELL OUT'A THERE!" Emile harshly yelled at her, this would surely cost her her life if she didn't escape. She reacted as fast as she could, but it was too late...
BOOOOOOOM! Everyone, including the enemies across the scrapyard, heard a huge explosion. Six looked over and saw that their Warthog had been completely and utterly destroyed, leaving dust, and few scraps and bolts laying around.
...
Kat had been blown across the scrapyard, her Shields had been completely obliterated, and wouldn't recharge, an almost direct shot to her Armor nearly killed her, somehow she survived by how far she ran before it got to her. She was barely conscious, Wraiths weren't something you'd want to come across. She had also been slammed against a rock, the pain she felt was tremendous.
The Jackal she'd nearly killed had spotted her again, and got ready to fire his needler, going in for the kill. "THEEOUM!" Suddenly the Jackal was shot in the head, and rolled over, dying instantly. Kat was coughing up blood in her suit, she needed medical attention. "You alright Kat?" Six asked the nearly unconscious Spartan. Kat had still been coughing up blood, but she made a few words come out of her mouth.
"N- No. I- *Coughs* need medical attention." "You'll get it soon enough, how'd you survive that? Sheesh."
Emile had cleared the last of the enemies, leaving the exception of the Wraith, and it's Gunner. "Emile!" Emile turned around. "Kat's alive, but she's wounded, she'll need medical attention." "Damn it she's always needing help." Emile sighed, Kat was an expert at hacking, decrypting, etc. She was definitely not an expendable Spartan, but she was not all that good with her situational awareness.
"Yeah well, she needs help." "On it. You go take care of the Wraith, you can handle it ri-" "Of course I can." Six cut him off, Kat needed that help as soon as possible, or she might bleed out.
Six was shooting at the Wraith's gunner, as it would be completely vulnerable if he had taken it out. "AOURGHH!" The Brute cried aloud, getting shot in the arm whilst continuing its fire towards Six. But before he could kill the damn thing, his ammunition ran out on his Dmr, so he went in for the kill with his MA37 Assault rifle. The Brute had died within seconds, as planned, so Six went in for a grenade to finish the job. "SPHLOOUUUUH!" The explosion had been even bigger than the one that had nearly killed Kat.
"Kat! Hang in there, we're gonna take care of you." Kat looked at him from beneath her visor, she was slowly passing, but Emile wasn't gonna let that happen. Not anytime soon, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. As long as he lived he would protect his team with all he had. Kat could barely even speak with how bad she was wounded. Emile used a health pack, how it would work was by, one: take off the Spartan's helmet. two: inject the liquid into a small hole that was designed specifically for this kind of occasion. Three: hope and pray that they would be alright. Kat's breathing slowed, then stopped, she had gone unconscious, but only for a couple minutes, this was intentional for any pain that might do them more harm.
"Chipps! Emile! Time to go!" Six ordered everyone, they would be overrun by reinforcements if they weren't leaving soon. "Hol' up Six, I'll be right there!" Emile picked up Kat and rushed over to Six and the other Marines.
"What's the situation?" "Time to get out of here, there's nothing else here, we gotta get movin." And with that, they went through the tunnel systems between them and the next set of buildings. Kat came back from unconsciousness.
"Where are we?" "We're going through mutiple cave systems, we're almost out though." as they were moving through, they came across Buggers, a formidable foe, not in healthwise, but they could dodge almost anything you shot at them.
"SHIT!" Emile exclaimed yet again. He set down Kat and started firing his gun. Six caught up and started firing, as well as Chipps and the unnamed Marine.
The Buggers had nearly drained Emile's shields and killed the Unnamed Marine. "NOOO!" Chipps cried, he was all he had left. Chipps started firing his Assault rifle like crazy, hitting and killing 3 more Buggers before reloading.
There were no more Enemies, so they continued moving forward. As they came out of the Cave systems, they came across an M6 Spartan laser. A weapon that when fired, could destroy a wraith in a single shot.
They saw multiple Shade turrets firing at a squad of Marines that were fighting forward.
"Chipps, get on the Laser, take out the Shade turrets, Me and Emile will go help out the Marines." "On it." "Also make sure Kat will be okay." "Will do sir." Emile and Six slid down the cliff and started firing at Covenant forces. Meanwhile Chipps started obliterating the Shade turrets, and a Ghost.
"What's the situation?" "Don't worry about it ma'am. We'll be fine, although if you need to know, we're currently taking care of the few remaining Covenant in our way." "Give me a weapon, please." Chipps didn't want to disappoint Kat, but he knew his orders. "Ma'am you are in no condition to fight, I still need to take care of these hostiles." Kat didn't want to argue. So she just leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
She, and the rest of Noble team, had been through excruciating amounts of pain, and suffering throughout the Human-Covenant war. From having almost all the squad being taking out multiple times, to getting limbs dismembered, to going through horrible amounts of trauma. War isn't fun.
Meanwhile Emile and Six stocked up on Ammo, and started firing away at any Covenant they saw. From Grunts running for their lives. To Jackals being quick work for the Marines Assault rifles. The Covenant was no match for Spartans.
Suddenly a Ghost came into view. A Grunt was riding it, and was going straight for Six. "SIX!" Emile shouted so that he could defend himself. Although he was quickly able to dodge the on-coming attack.
The Grunt that was controlling the Ghost had been shot in the head. One of the Marines had shot it, having the perfect angle from behind.
"Thanks." Said Six, his shields had been disabled by the plasma firing. So he felt what hit him. Emile was firing at the remaining Jackals and Elites that were still fighting, although they all quickly ran away. "Where they goin?" Emile asked himself aloud.
Since all the enemies in the area had been killed or left, Six ordered Chipps to come down, whilst he went to get Kat. Once everyone was together, they were going to move through the buildings, and to the landing platform where they would meet Captain Keyes. Suddenly, the ground shook. Six looked into a puddle, seeing that his reflection was being tampered with. "Something's coming, something big." "Well then let's not stand around, I don't want to find out."
"Agreed." And with that they moved forward through the buildings. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! A building a couple miles away was blown into oblivion by a Scarab. Yeah, we're gonna have to go, like NOW!" Yelled Emile, to all the Marines that were still alive. The sky was only getting darker, more dead. More, hopeless. No one could even hope to make it off the planet, besides maybe a few Spartans. They rushed through the empty buildings, not a soul in sight.
Only dead bodies. Such a tragedy this war was. Suddenly they stopped into a room hoarded with Traumatized Marines.
"Spar- Spartans?! What are you doing here? Dry dock's through that structure."
"Thanks, any Enemies up ahead?" The few Marines looked horrified, as if they'd seen gore beyond what you could imagine. "Full of 'Em, Probably fifty or so." Just then a huge platoon of Elites, Jackals and Grunts came in and ambushed them. "AMBUSH!" Emile shouted. Six sat Kat down and told her to keep quiet. They couldn't risk losing her. A huge battle took place between their forces, killing almost all the Grunts immediately and focusing on the Jackals.
But Chipps had gotten hit. "AHHH!" He shouted in horrific pain, A plasma shot to the leg was all, but it hurt like hell. "I'm hit!" "One second Chipps, I'm busy." But Six couldn't come, so he helped himself.
Six moved forward and took out a Jackal, then threw it at another one as hard as he could, killing them both. Then he rushed up to an Ultra Elite. "AOUGHRR!" It shouted a battle cry before fist fighting Noble Six.
Six had disabled it's shields almost instantly, and attempted to go in for the kill. He tried pushing it off a ledge, but it fought back and threw him into a pillar. "Haha, think you're so clever, huh?" Six sighed and then continued to fight.
Meanwhile Kat got up, not wanting to feel like a burden to carry. "Hand me your gun please." She asked politely to the frightened Marine. "Uhm, he- here, take it." Six continued to fight on, it was an exhausting fight, even for a Spartan, this one was exceptionally strong. Six took advantage of his grenades he was still carrying, and stuffed it up the Elite's mouth, then punched it out of the way. BOOOOM! The Grenade exploded. Killing the Elite instantly.
Six let his shields recharge before fighting again.
Kat got up and started walking, very slowly, towards Six. "Kat, what the hell are you doing up, you're supposed to be lying down." "I'll felt like shit, I'm fine now." "Well, if you say so." "Only one more Elite up ahead, it's an Ultra." Emile told Six.
Emile sprinted up to it, only to be punched right in the face. "AOURGHHH!" The Elite shouted at Emile, rushing in for the kill... BANG! The Elite died on the spot. Emile had shot it in the chest with his Shotgun. With that they moved up a flight of stairs only to be met with a huge Hunter blast coming their way. "INCOMIIIING!" Emile shouted to everyone. Hunter blasts were extremely deadly, being able to kill a Spartan if directly being hit.
"Come on, lets go get behind some cover." "Kat, get a Shotgun, you'll need it." "Roger that."
They snuck behind another wall, with Six Shotguns. Six picked one up and then ran at one of the Hunters. BANG! The shotgun blast met the Hunters exposed legs. Hunters were a collection of worms making one big lifeform to fight. The Covenant took advantage of them and conscripted them into their military. The Hunter was furious, and attempted to hit Six. But he quickly slid under it, and shot it directly up its back. "AOURARH!" It let out a fierce roar, then blast Six against a container.
It was about to kill him but fell over and died. Kat had killed it with her Shotgun. "Yo- *coughs* You're welcome. Suddenly the open platform shook, as if something massive was shaking the ground. Just as Six got up Jackals surrounded them and started firing...
The Marines that had been following Noble team had finally caught up, Spartans could basically run for miles without taking a break. Six and Kat had been holding off against The Jackals, shooting them in the chest with their Powerful M45 Shotguns. Kat's shields nearly ran out, so Six took care of the rest. But there was still another Hunter...
Kat got behind a container, and reloaded her Shotgun. Then leaped out of cover, threw a grenade and charged straight for the Hunter. "HOURAGH!" The Hunter shouted, trying to hit Kat with it's shielded arm. But it had missed, Kat used it's arm a stair way and jumped off it, shooting it in the back, killing it instantly. She had successfully killed both Hunters. But she still hurt, even doing that caused tremendous pain. She let out a sigh and continued onward through the buildings.
"Let's move!" Six had ordered, knowing that the Marines wouldn't make it off Reach. Upon entering, they were met with a sniper shot nearly hitting Kat, yet again. "Kat what the hell you're gonna get yourself killed!" Emile was pissed off at Kat since she kept nearly dying, she had to get better at some point or she would be in a grave.
"My bad." Kat honestly didn't care much anymore, Carter being dead meant that she was the soul survivor of the original Noble team. "Alright, here's the plan, I'm gonna rush in and give you three cover fire, then you two will rush up and kill any Jackal snipers in our way, any questions?" "No sir." A Marine quickly responded, wanting to get into action as fast as possible.
With that Noble Six rushed in and started emptying his Shotgun of it's ammo, and the three Marines started to fire at any enemies they saw. The room filled up with plasma fire and gun lead. Then the other two Marines rushed up the flight of stairs and started firing at the Jackal snipers. Kat also rushed in and nearly got sliced in half by an Energy sword. "Woah!" She yelled aloud and then blasted the Elite in the chest, nearly killing it. But it wouldn't go down so easily, it struck again only to be met with a punch to its mask, knocking on the floor. Kat cocked the Shotgun and then blasted it's face. "Oh god." A horrified Marine looked over at the Elite's body, with a weak stomach. "I wanna puke so badly righ'bout now."
Only one sniper was still alive, and it had shot one of the Marines... "HOLY SHIT!" Another Marine beside the dead solider screamed. He immediately fired at it with his Dmr, and killed it.
With that they moved up the stairs, and through the halls, The landing platform was right outside the Building they were currently in. They came across a weapon stash full of grenade launchers, and M6G Magnums. Emile spotted a couple Brutes that were camping, waiting for them. They knew that Noble team would come, They knew about the Ai, somehow, but they did. And they were waiting patiently...
"I say we rush 'Em, they won't know what hit 'Em." Said Emile, who knew that they didn't have much time on the clock. "Agreed, You three will fire at them while we sneak from behind." "Yes sir." "Who's going on the Mac canon?" Emile offered, but Six declined since they would need as many Spartans as they could get. "No Emile, the Marines can do that." Emile seemed shocked that Six didn't care about them, that he would so easily discard of his own people.
"Six what the hell, they won't be able to hold off against an ambush. you know that."
Six admitted that he was being selfish, but the Pillar of Autumn's crew wouldn't allow them on anyway. "I guess you're right about that." Emile sighed. "You two, go up and fire the Mac canon at any Phantoms or Banshees. We'll cover you."
The three Marines instantly ran out an fired their standard Unsc MA37 Assault rifles at oncoming Brutes. "AOURGHH!" The Brutes roared in pain, and battle cries as the huge firefight commenced. Around twenty minutes were left on the clock, they made good time. But now they would have to hold out against all incoming enemies until Keyes arrived. And kill a super-cruiser if it came to destroy the Autumn. Kat came out to help the Marines, she was an excellent distraction.
Emile and Six snuck under the scout tower the brutes were in, and came up behind to claim their kills.
"AHHROUH!" The Brutes cried out in horrendous pain, although they could take Ammunition like a sponge, they were very vulnerable to Knives. Especially in the neck area. They had gained the scout tower for their advantage, and used it as a sniping nest for incoming enemies. "Kat you get on the sniper, Me, Emile and Chipps will hold out against any for as long as we can. Have the other three Protect you while you're sniping." "Will do." About four Phantom dropships came in and dropped off troops of all sorts, most unfortunately, more Brutes. Brutes were dreaded amongst Unsc Forces. Being bullet sponges and not dying to almost anything you threw at them. To being absolutely chaotic and deadly. They were a species you wish you hadn't met, ever. The Unsc personal alongside Noble team fought on against the incoming waves of enemies. About ten or so Phantoms dropped in total in their firefight.
Brutes landed all over the landing platform, Kat easily took most of them out, but a few slipped through the cracks she provided. Emile, Six and Chipps were fighting the other groups of enemies whilst the Mac canon fired. "There's a group of Jackals and Grunts, Chipps throw a Grenade." Emile ordered, with Kat not being able to fight against an Enemy in hand to hand combat, that role went to Emile. He was fourth in command of Noble after all.
The Grenade killed four of them, so Six went in out of cover and finished the rest off. He meleed the first one and threw it against a wall, and killed the other one with his Shotgun. How he was running low on ammo, four shots left...
A drop-pod full of Suicide Grunts dropped and went to kill the Marines up top. Thankfully the two Marines were able to hold off against them. The Mac canon fired on an incoming Phantom dropship, and everyone in it had been killed.
BOOOOM! It exploded and blinded everyone temporarily. The pieces of the ship flew everywhere, killing a few enemies that were hiding.
The platform once again filled up with plasma fire and gun lead in the air, slowly, one by one, Marines fell. Out of the five that were with them they only had three now.
"Six, we need reinforcements. There's no way in hell we'll get this thing on there if we don't have more men." "Agreed. Calling for more backup now." "This is Noble Six, I'm on the final available platform to get on the autumn, I need reinforcements." "Copy that Noble Six, help is on the way. Only nine minutes were left on the clock before the autumn departed, so this was the final wave of enemies.
"More Covies inbound." Kat said aloud. Three Phantoms dropped fifty troops all together. The troops dropped off only for one of the Phantoms to be destroyed by the Mac canon. "WAY TO GO!" Kat cheered whilst she ran out of ammunition for her SRS sniper rifle. She quickly dropped it and picked up a MA37 standard issue Assault rifle. She ran to go save Chipps, who was under fire, A group of Jackals had separated him from Six and Emile.
She instantly took down one, threw a combat knife she got from a Marine, and then strangled the last one, throwing it over an edge. "Thanks." "No problem, we gotta go help them, Keyes is almost ready to come pick us up."
Only a squad of brutes remained, one Chieftan, a plasma gunner, and five standard military Brutes. The seven of them put up a huge fight. Killing off the last Marine they had besides the Mac canon assigned ones.
Suddenly a Pelican dropped off a huge supply of troops, a quarter of them died upon landing, but they were very helpful. Around twenty of them total had dropped off.
The Standard issue Brute troops were all killed, only one now. The Chieftan ran towards the group of Marines, and smashed his hammer into the ground, killing another four... The remaining eleven troops had scattered, and attempted to drop its shields.
...
It's shields had dropped, he was not going down without a fight. He picked up a Marine and threw him against a wall, killing him. The final half had emptied their mags. Emile came rushing in with a shotgun and knife out, ready to kill the bastard.
He had immediately shot his Close quarters combat Shotgun into the Gravity hammer, it had completely destroyed the Hammer's parts that made it tick. "AROUGHH!" It had roared at Emile and slammed him against a railing, knocking his shields out. Kat then came to the rescue, got onto his back, and shoved her combat knife deep into its neck, painfully killing it. Six signaled Captain Keyes, the landing platform had been cleared entirely. The ten Marines were welcome aboard the Pillar of autumn, there were already plenty of other Personal fighting. Chipps also got on. Keyes came down to greet Six and the rest of his team. "Halsey said I could count on you."
Six knew that Carter and Jorge had died fighting. "Not just me sir." "They'll be remembered." The huge super cruiser they feared would come had came to their location, getting ready to glass the Pillar of autumn, brutally killing anyone inside.
"Cruiser, adjusting heading for the Autumn. Marines I need fire on that Cruiser or we're not getting out of here. Do you copy?" The Marines were very depressed. This was the end, everyone knew it.
"You'll have your window sir." "Copy that. The rest of you are coming with me." Just as they were preparing to get out of there, a Phantom dropship came into view. The other Pelican escorting Keyes had been destroyed, and plummeted to its demise...
It had dropped off a group of Grunts and Elites, they had killed the two Gunners... "SHIT!" Emile exclaimed. He knew someone would have to stay behind and fire. Kat volunteered, she was first in command now since she was capable of combat.
"No, they'll need you out there, I'm just another standard Spartan." "Emile, no, I'm staying, leave with Si-" "Kat, let Emile stay." Kat felt a little betrayed, she wasn't going to let Emile just give his life for her, from her point of view, multiple people she cared about had gave their lives for her, she wanted to return the favor. "What!? Why? You can't just do that to me." "Kat, Emile is the only person here able to fight off against five Elites at once."
"What about you? Why aren't you staying?" "Kat this is not up for discussion." "I'm team leader now remember?" She couldn't process what was going on. A Phantom had ambushed them right before they left? Smart move.
...
"I'll stay with Emile, help him get up there." One of the Marines volunteered to stay with him. "Good luck to you sir." Emile shouted to Keyes. "Good luck to you too, Spartan."
"See you in hell, you two." Emile told Six and Kat. A final farewell... They had rushed aboard the Autumn, only three minutes left. Emile and the Marine that came with him both worked their way to the Mac canon.
Emile couldn't even guarantee that he would hit it, He might get shot down by a Banshee, multiple Phantoms. Etc. This was Humanity's best and only chance at survival. If he didn't shoot his shot, Humanity as a whole might pay for it.
Around ten Grunts surprise attacked them both, with an Elite at their side. Emile threw his grenade and killed seven of them, these grenades were incredibly powerful.
The other three simply ran away to the other Elites, the only enemy in their way to the Mac canon.
Emile had ran up to the Elite and shotgun blasted it in the chest, killing it instantly, the Marine, which Emile didn't know the name of, killed the three Grunts that had ran away. Moving up there were only four Elites, this would be hard though.
They were Zealots. A rank only given to the best of the best. The cold, hardened veterans. War Hero's. This wouldn't be any easy task.
Two of the Elites ran up and rushed Emile, trying to eliminate any chance for their enemies to survive even another day. Emile fired his gun, lowering the shields of one, whilst the Marine was fighting the other one.
Emile had knocked his over, and punched it until there was no life left. The other one was giving the Marine a hard time, so he ran over and shot it. Instantly killing it. Emile only had four shots left, he would need to make them count.
The two of them moved up to be met with a fuel rod gun almost killing the two of them. They quickly ducked behind cover while the Elite fired away at the two of them. "What's your plan?" The Marine had the shock of his life,
he had nearly been obliterated by a fuel rod gun, thankfully had Emile saved him.
"You pop up for a few short seconds and fire your assault rifle, I'll shotgun 'Em and throw a grenade." "Sounds good." They had done their plan, first, he popped up for a few seconds, firing his MA37 Assault rifle at the Elite, The Emile dropped it's shields. He then leaped onto it, stuffed a grenade up its mouth and tuck'n'rolled out of the way. BOOM! There was one Elite left. Then they would have to fire the Mac canon. It had wielded and Energy sword. And fought Emile in hand to hand.
It had failed to stab Emile, and that would be its downfall. He kicked it over and punched it until it was nearly dead, then stabbed it. Emile loved for the enemy to slowly, painfully die. They had conflicted so much suffering onto mankind throughout the war.
"GO GO!" Emile was worried they wouldn't make it, but they had a minute to lock onto it and fire. Emile got into the Mac canon. He had never done this before, but he prayed to God that his friends would be safe.
"If you're out there, help them, they deserve at least that." He whispered to himself. Banshees and Phantoms from all over the place focused their fire on the Canon. But one by one, they all went down in a blaze of fire.
"Noble four, do you copy? FIRE NOW NOBLE FOUR!" Keyes was extremely stressed, if he didn't make this shot, everyone would be dead. Not just everyone here, on Reach, but everywhere.
Cortana really was that important. The Cruiser was readying up its shot on the Autumn...
But before it could fire, Emile had readied his... PSHLEEOOOH! The Cruiser had been hit directly in the Belly.
"Good guns Spartan! All stations brace for cast off." Emile and the Marine looked in both pride, and depression as they saw the Pillar of autumn completely leave them behind, going up into the clouds.
They were surely going to die. The depressing reality of war is that no matter what you do for your friends, you might survive instead of them. No matter what you might do. In this situation everyone was toast. Maybe surviving another day if you were lucky...
Chapter done! Sorry it took incredibly long, but I deleted the documents multiple times on accident, but now its finished!
Going forward in this series I think I'll have Emile survive against all odds, As well as Kat and Six. I'll decide Jun's fate another day... Stay tuned!
Hint: Next chapter will be about Emile surviving as well as Kat and Six dealing with personal things aboard the Autumn...