Her rifle barked and a Jackal's skull was split in two. She ducked as a blot of plasma struck just where she was, boiling away the concrete. Kneeling and poking out again, she sniped a pair of grunts, splattering fluorescent azure blood onto the grass. She yelped as a plasma round struck her shield, staggering her, before she dived back into cover and dropped her spent magazine.
"Movin' up on your rear, Six!" Jorge called, his voice filled with an unsettling amount of fury. He moved up to the window, hefting his LMG and squeezing the trigger. He swept the area ahead as spent fifty-caliber casings clinked to the floor in a pile. An Elite soldier, clad in their standard blue armor, was caught in the first fussilade, bullets tearing its shields asunder, then puncturing the armor plate and undersuit. The creature's mandibles split open as it died, purple blood smearing the corrugated steel of the shed behind it.
Jorge took cover as his MG cooled, which was Sakura's mark. She poked out, shouldered her rifle and snapped off several rounds again. Two more grunts, a Jackal and a Skirmisher fell. She looked to Jorge and said, "See ya outside!" before radioing, "Noble Six, going external!" and jumping out through the window. She landed with a roll, charging toward an Elite and drawing her knife as she met an Elite. Said Elite activated its energy dagger and stabbed toward her, but she dodged, twisting the knife so its blade faced down, then sliced the toes of the monster, piercing its shield.
She sprung to her feet and planted the edge of the blade into the Elite's eye as she swapped to her Assault Rifle. She let loose bursts of 7,62, forcing a Jackal into cover behind its energy shield. It squawked at its biological cousin and the Skirmisher squawked back, before running to the left. It tried to flank Sakura, but Jun's sniper cracked, the Spartan noting, "Got your back, Six."
"Thanks!" She replied jovially, before pulling the knife out of the Elite's eye and sheathing it. She charged the Jackal, firing her assault rifle on full auto and watching as the counter clicked zero. The Jackal's shield broke at just the last bullet, making the girl grin. She spun her weapon and, with the momentum of her run backing her hit, struck at the beast's jaw, shattering its teeth and snapping its neck.
She then spun about and pulled her knife out again, throwing it at an Elite that was charging her. She nailed it right between the eyes, but didn't have time to celebrate. Noble Team pushed out beside her, Kat's fist sending a Grunt flying to her feet. She quickly reloaded her AR and put a bullet in its skull, before looking to see Jorge stomping toward them, firing his weapon. Carter ordered, "They're pulling back! Move it up, Noble!" just as she managed to grab her knife back.
"Right on it!" Emile laughed as he surged forward, his shotgun's roar reverberating across the valley up ahead. The group moved together, across the bridge over a creek and toward the hills. A squad of Elites clad in white armor appeared, one of them hefting a bulbous, scarlet weapon that was charging. A concussion rifle, Sakura soon realized. She yelped as the first hit struck center-mass before she could dodge it.
It stopped her momentum dead, staggering her, but she managed to regain her footing. Taking cover behind one of the rock outcroppings as plasma and needle rounds struck around her. She watched Carter tank two green bolts from the plasma pistols, slide into cover and lob two grenades over his head. He looked to her and told her, "Enjoying your outing, Six?"
"Best I ever had!" She quipped, smiling almost reflexively behind her helmet. Carter nodded approvingly at that reaction, before lifting his rifle. Sakura looked forward and pile-drived into the Elite that'd just charged her, pulling her knife out of its sheath again and slamming it into the monster's throat. She slit it, letting purple blood flow. She drew her assault rifle again and opened up on the other two Elites up ahead.
One of them charged her, slamming against her and growling from behind its mask. Despite that attempt at intimidation, the girl was unfazed. She kicked the Elite in the gut twice, causing it to stagger back, before doing a double roundhouse kick. One knocked its weapon out of its hands and the second caused it to double over due to the impact upon its skull.
Its shield weakened, too. Just enough for the girl to be able to put the barrel of her AR through it and squeeze, sending its helmet flying, spatters of purple blood painting her armor. She let the body collapse as she sidestepped it and aimed for the one with the concussion rifle, only to watch Emile snap several shotgun shells off at the creature, staggering it before he drew his knife and put it down.
He looked to Sakura and gave a nod as he flicked blood off the knife and sheathed it, "Not bad."
"Thanks," She replied, her voice steady despite the CQC they'd just gone through. Carter gave two chops of the hand, the team pushing forward, deeper into the Valleys ahead. They mounted a pair of civilian transports to traverse the path ahead much easier, through the cracks and crags amidst the tall, rising walls of the valley around them. Sakura drove the vehicle in which she, Jorge and Carter were, with Emile and Kat taking a different route.
Sakura murmured, "This makes no sense. Every ship that travels through Reach would've gone through Cole Protocol. What would even drag them all the way to Reach?"
"Seems more like a scout party," Jorge suggested, though his tone seemed grim. Understandably, she thought. It was still his home. By accent alone, the girl could tell Jorge was probably a local, a Hungarian-descended native of Reach, perhaps. As she turned the wheel, her radio crackled to life. Tapping it to enhance the volume, she looked over to Carter.
"Mayday, this is Three Charlie Six, does anybody copy?" A terrifyingly calm voice spoke. Sakura's heart skipped a beat as she heard the voice, however. Even through the radio distortion, it felt familiar. The soldier spoke, "We've been ambushed by Covenant forces while en-route to the Visegrad Relay. Requesting assistance from any available force, ASAP..." as gunfire rattled over the com.
Carter started, "Six, get us around to-"
"Already on it, sir," She reported, turning the wheel hard left as they approached the route. Jun reported seeing the troopers and, in the distance, the gunfight echoed. She drove like a bat out of hell, too, maxing out the spedometer of the vehicle and flooring the pedal. That voice. It was too familiar. Way too familiar. She hooked a left as she hit the brakes, slamming into an Elite and sending it tumbling backward just as the Spirit that disgorged it and its escort landed.
She jumped out, drawing her rifle and opening fire. Bullets rang from her rifle, her heart racing as she pushed forward with Jorge and Carter in support. Carter himself radioed, "Jun, go pick up Kat and Emile! Get them to the Relay! We'll secure the survivors and meet you there!" before watching the girl intensify her fighting, each shot from her weapon hitting something vital on an alien.
Purple and blue blood intermixed on the floor, one of the Elites' shields overloading only for the girl to pop its skull cap open. She drew her knife, planting it again into the head of another, splitting the hinge-jaw's face in two and slamming the tip of the blade into a Grunt's eye before yanking it out. She pushed forward, noting the Army Troopers beside her now engaging the Covenant.
Jorge aimed his MG up at the other Spirit that was flying in to drop troops as one of the Army Troopers, a woman, called out, "Spartans! Thank God!" before ducking as a bolt of plasma shot just over her head, "We thought the Corporal was talking to dead air... This place feels like it's fucking jammed!" only to yelp as another plasma round boiled past her ear. She raised her rifle and opened fire, a full one-second burst of AR fire.
"Hang tight, Trooper. We'll get you out of here!" Sakura replied, then snapped off a shot at a pair of Elites that landed. One of them charged her and her comrades. She primed a frag off her belt and threw it at a clutter of Grunts, letting it detonate to kill them off, before focusing on the last remaining Elite. Jorge whittled its shields down, Carter shot it in the stomach and she finished it off.
A full magazine of assault rifle fire caved its chest in, sending it to the floor in a sprawl, blood foaming within its throat. With the barrel still smoldering and hot, the woman lowered the rifle, breathing heavily. Carter walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder, stating, "Good kills, Six... Are you doing alright, though? I've never seen anyone be this prompt in responding to a mayday."
"A feeling, sir..." The girl breathed, then slung her AR on her back and turned to the troopers. A couple were missing limbs as they hobbled out, but most were merely bruised and battered, their armors slightly singed by shots that were near-misses. The Corporal that had contacted them, tagged on her HUD as 3-Charlie-6, stepped up, slinging his own DMR onto his back and snapping a salute.
"Trooper," Carter nodded, "This all that's left of your Platoon?"
"Afraid so, sir..." He spoke again. Sakura's head snap-turned toward him. She turned on her heels to face him and could immediately tell the confusion in his eyes despite the balaclava and tinted visor of his helmet. Despite that confusion and with a voice so eerily familiar and easy to recognize, the young Trooper told Carter, "We were hit on our way over to Visegrad... Our units got split. The situation sounded bad on the coms, so I had my fireteam hole up in this house..."
"Smart move," Jorge commented, "Might've saved your men."
"... Not all of them, sir," The Trooper spoke, his voice slightly lower now as he took a step to the left. Six body bags lay within the confines of the garage. A vehicle similar to that which they rode lay, taken apart around them. He sighed and told them, "It's why I'm in charge. Our Lieutenant and Sergeant got turned into ash the moment we made contact..."
"We'll get you CASEVAC, Corporal..." Carter nodded, then radioed, "Charlie-9er, touch down. Trooper unit requesting CASEVAC at our POS..."
"All due respect, sir," The Trooper started, "Negative. We've got a score to settle with the split-lips..." and he sighed, "We should've seen the ambush. We shouldn't have even been fighting Covvies in the first place. Intel thought they were Innies," before turning to face their dead, "So we aren't leaving yet, sir. If you want to secure the Relay, we'll back you up..."
"Understood..." Carter sighed, "Niner, belay. Touch down for retrieval. We're headed for Visegrad..."
All the while, Six approached the trooper. She looked over at the dead and spoke, "I'm sorry for your boys..." her tone solemn, "World knows too many humans have been dying in this damn war..." only to get a hum of agreement out of him. She sighed and asked him with a slight crack to her voice, "Do you have a name? I'd like to know the people I'll be working with. Especially someone as stubborn as you."
The man snorted, then said, "Corporal Shiga Haruki. 23rd Infantry Division..." only to turn toward the Spartan. She stared dead into his eyes, which caused a shiver to shoot up his spine. He turned to face her and asked her, "Something the matter, Lieutenant...?" only for his heart to start chattering like an assault rifle on full-auto as he saw the fading Sakura petal emblem.
The woman seemed to tremble ever so slightly. Her hands gently went up to her helmet and twisted it slowly to the left, the armor's seals unlatching with a hiss. She took it off, revealing a brown-haired, if blue-eyed, beautiful young woman whose face was only blemished by minor scars, but was recognizably her own. She heard the man's breath hitch in his throat.
He pulled his mask down and took his helmet off, revealing a tired-looking veteran with buzzcut black hair, but with the unmistakable features of the Japanese boy she'd met so many years ago. Both stared at one-another, wary, unable to utter anything for a good second. The one to break the ice was Haruki. He took a deep breath and said, "Y-You... Certainly got another glow-up... Heh..."
Sakura blinked... And couldn't help but smile, bursting into a short laughing fit at that comment. Though a Spartan giggling like a schoolgirl would've been unnerving to everyone, other Spartans included, the solemn moment having been broken up by it seemed sort of... Okay. Almost natural. Through the giggling, she shot back, "And you're as stiff as ever...!" with a smile on her face. She wiped an almost unnoticeable tear from her face and whispered, "Haru-kun... You're here..."
"Yeah..." He sighed, then smiled, too, "Hey, Sakura..."
"Haruki, you know a fucking Spartan, dawg?" Asked the female Trooper.
To his credit, corporal Shiga nodded, stating, "Yeah. Long story," before turning back to Sakura. She squinted and grinned, to which he pre-emptively answered, "No. I know that look, Sakura, and this isn't that. The platoon's just buddies of mine..." only to see the girl suddenly beam at him with a bright smile. He was about to comment, before turning to watch their Falcon come in, its rotorblades chopping through the air. He slid his helmet back onto his head and said, "We can talk when we're aboard."
"Okay..." She nodded, still smiling, then blinked and put on her poker face, sliding her helmet on and patting him on the shoulder, "Let's go, Corporal Haru-kun~..." with an audible smugness. A few of the Troopers laughed at the nicknames, marching up to the chopper with Haruki and boarding it. The Commander and Jorge looked at Sakura, the latter probably smiling behind his helmet as the Chopper lifted off. Carter seemed more confused.
Understandably enough, Sakura thought.
It wasn't every day that the friend you thought you left behind returned!