UNSC In Amber Clad Log

ENTRY 4

Ancient Structures

Private Jack Shyld

October 20th, 2552,

20:27 EAT {East Africa Time}

Shake of loud ringing in his ear rattled the brain. Scrambling it like eggs the mind could not think or process. At that moment all he wanted was for it to stop. The sharp jabbing sensation slowly died, and he was able to open his eyes to reality. He was laying on the floor of the ancient Forerunner passageway. Chiseled rock and stone along his armor made it to where it was smooth and he slid a lot farther away from the tank than what he thought. Destroyed Ghosts around with the bodies of their pilots mangled with their vehicles.

The Scorpion he noticed was largely damaged, the main cannon had huge black scorch marks along the main base and neck, and the cockpit lid was gone, nowhere to be seen. Treads were worn and shot at and sustained plasma burns, who knows if even the engine is still in function. Rolling over and quickly grabbing his rifle groaning and feeling the soreness of his muscles. A strange burning sensation played from his chest and he looked down, seeing a black burn upon his BDU. Obtained probably from the blast of that grenade, he mumbled,

"Jesus, fuck."

The roar of a crashing ghost against the wall of the cave sent an echo of shrieking metal to everyone's ears. Jack was immediately startled and pointed his rifle in that direction from being on his knees (the sound came from behind the tank so he could not see).

The female screams were just soul shattering. Immediately recognizing it as that of Mckenzie's. It shocked him a little. Sound carried a bit as the echoing sensation rocked over the gunfire and explosions and grunts and gruffs from the aliens. Something like the wail of bloody murder was to that of an innocent civilian seeing a Brute for the first time.

An ex ODST such as her has seen twice as much combat as he and the shrieking squeal must have been horrifying to witness from the eyes. Quickly standing up he tactically moved up to the battle tank and used it as cover as he peeked his head over the top to get a view. Over green paint and the smell of smoldering metal his eyes could not believe him. Gunfire and plasma rounds boomed across the inside of this tunnel to a baffling sight.

A seven foot tall Sangheili blue in uniform held a glowing ice colored energy sword in hand. Reflective light hallowed off its armor like a mirror and so did it bounce off Mckenzie's to a demonic ice cold hue. He pointed it like a spear to Mckenzie who was on her butt scooting backwards and away. No weapon in sight, this was seemingly the end. Jack could see even from behind her chest rise and fall to such an increased degree. There was no thought to tell how much adrenaline was pumping through her veins right then and there. Death was standing with glowing green eyes in front of her, with the tip of the blade not even a foot away.

But right as the Elite raised his arm to plunge it into the Marine, something miraculous happened.

The Master Chief, the pride of humanity, seven feet of green MJOLNIR held an Elite Minor by the back of throat. Hoisting it into the air it struggled to break free as the Spartan was crushing its wind-pipe. The Ghost behind it was damaged with bullet holes inflicted by the Chief, and never, never before had Shyld had seen anything like this. He had heard legends of the Spartans, heard the encounters other Marines had with them. Tales of lifting hunters off the ground, chucking car doors like throwing knives. Even overpowering some weakened brutes in a wrestling match. But to see it for his own eyes, Jack was flabbergasted. Face pale and jaw dropped hearing the bone crunching as the Elite slowly stopped struggling against the Chief. Finally a single snap was heard (probably the neck breaking), and the Spartan let go letting the corpse plop to the ground.

The Elite's husk of meat let out one last exhale of life as air left its lungs. Eyes twitched and watered too. Breathing by Mckenzie was still sharp and intense for the moment. It did not calm even seconds after that close encounter. The Chief stood above her, glaring down to his blank emotionless MJOLNIR face. He could recognize that intense veer of adrenaline, something that always perplexed him to be honest. A soldier the same as they, yet the threshold for the Spartan's was practically not existent to insanity due to the horrifying operations they would have to go on, the death they saw and endured. Desensitization was not even the right word to use. Emptiness like the black void of space was the only closest one could get.

Spartan 117 stuck out his arm to her, his massive hand open with an outreach. Mckenzie looked up confused but appreciative. He said no words to her, and Jack saw the whole thing from a distance behind the tank. She instinctively reached out to his hand, and using it got up from on her butt. Standing up, shaking herself off it was strange. It was almost as if the Spartan was injecting a new breath of life to her, in a good way of course. Her inhaling slowed as heart rate lowered, and Mckenzie was super confused. Within that moment there was no word uttered to any of the three of them, in this empty Forerunner corridor. It was in this perplexing show of what seems like emotion, Mckenzie saw something deeper. This Spartan, the ultimate soldier, knew what it was like to be a soldier. Funny how the statement sounds like an oxymoron but to them, Marines, the rest of humanity anyway, saw these seven foot tall fifteen-hundred pound super men not just as the best of soldiers, but to an extent as unkillable gods. Even the Covenant saw them as this, nicknaming them as "demons."

But even still, this begs the concept of the Chief's emotion. The depthness of his soul by the marines was shallow to a perception, but now, it was almost dark. Not as in bad but dark as in so deep it has turned into an abyss of shadow. Deeper than anything they could imagine.

A couple second pause followed the eerie and quiet arcade when the Chief broke it. His deep and commanding tone boomed around and gave a slight ringing echo, "The tank is not functional, we need to move the rest on foot."

Both marines hesitated to respond as Shyld came around from behind the tank, "Yeah I can tell."

"What now sir," said Mckenzie trying to break the pause.

The Chief responded with a hollow response almost as if he was half ignoring the marines, "Cortana?"

"There is an opening to the passage around the next bend," the synthetic feminine voice retorted.

Gazing down to his Battle Rifle, the Spartan checked how much was in his reserves before walking forward, "Let's move."

Two marines tattered and a bit worn following in behind the SII passed the destroyed vehicles from the previous incursion. The arcade was damp and dim as Jack now noticed. Fighting between the Covenant made the scenery unnoticeable. Moss hung from the chiseled ceiling with sometimes water dripping between the groupings. Vines intertwined the sections as they exposed and pushed their way through the cracks to grow in Mother Nature's way. Symbols displayed to the walls in strange ways that were cut way too perfectly to have been done by hand, or if it was by hand it needed to be done by a master builder. They however were covered in vegetation just as everything else made it difficult at first glance to tell what they were saying or displaying.

At the end of the corridor was the bright light from outside. Readjusting to the light, an open slight chasm with columns scattered around with broken rock. This used to be an arena of sorts. Grass pastures were passing around in a soft grow. A fountain in the center, having water in its bowl, but none coming out of the tip, had a layered line of pete on its surface. Moss was spewing at a very slow rate out the sides telling how long it had been manifesting. A dip down ramp to the left going into the arena, and a huge exit to the otherside.

But inside the arena, was a couple of jackals and grunts already setting up shop. Covenant light shield barricades encircled purple crates that acted like blights to the landscape of the rested environment that was the Forerunner rubble.

The Chief turned to the outlook, seeing the enemies below,"Three Jackals, six grunts. Stay low, I will draw their fire."

"Yes sir," said Mckenzie.

"Aye," Shyld responded.

Two marines went into the arena as quiet as they could using the bushes and columns as cover. Barricading themselves up against their surroundings, it took a second for them to get placed to decent spots. Jack peaked around his cover of his huge pillar and saw a jackal not even twenty-five yards away. Boney and scaly it was a wonder how they even moved looking so malnourished. But that was to his perspective, nevertheless, he glared back up to the Spartan with a nod, to which the Spartan nodded back.

It was honestly fun to watch an SII in combat. So quick and with haste their precision with just a basic rifle is something beyond just experience, it was inhuman. They were something more, something surpassing any capabilities.

Spartan 117 fired upon the enemy with snappy fast motions the moment he 'tagged,' one (killed). Shots fired out of his rifle and echoed around to the empty chasm bellow in a balloon bowl effect. One, two, three, dropped instantly. At that point the two marines turned their rifles and returned fire in support. Blue and purple blood exploded on the foliage and stone. Waddling pleas from the grunts in particular shrieked the area around, as the group received little conflict from the opposition.

As the last of the troops were dropped, the Chief looked up to the far side of the entrance to see two ghosts coming out with their pink contrails on full display. They barreled down at well over thirty miles an hour straight to the two marines behind their cover. Plasma cannons opened fire, batting and spraying anything they touched in a horrific black scorch effect.

"Oh shit!" wailed Mckenzie turning around and literally swan diving out of bushes and behind a huge stone and nearly missing one of the ghosts barely as it rammed through.

Sleek and purple they were very distinguishable from the Covenant's arsenal, and in particular for marines as they were annoying to shoot at and hard to hit. But for a Spartan, especially when the pilot is a grunt, is a piece of cake.

Chief aimed his rifle as he got a good broadside of one as it passed through for another run. Sights aligned, he pulled the trigger. A single triple burst from his battle rifle left the chamber and pierced straight through the pilot's head. Blue blood spit out the other end as the creature let out a failed breath of life. Its arms went limp on the steering wheel and slowly drifted to the left, tearing apart a giant bush in its wake. Coming out the otherside of the vegetation, the other grunt pilot was racked with fear of the dead ghost coming at him straight on.

It wailed in an anticipating dread as both ghosts collided in an oncoming accident with a huge thundering crash of metal and blue fire incinerating the bodies of both grunt pilots. Seared grass below the wake of such destruction and hot fire baking the iron to hundreds of degrees. The fireball of eruption was so heated that both marines could feel the intensity upon their faces thirty yards away.

A moment of calmness came as this area was cleaned out of Covie attention. As gunshot echoes faded, the only sound left was both Mckenzie and Shyld's heavy breathing. Weapon still pointed down range, Jack lowered it for a second shaking his head laughing, "Fuck I am so glad we have a Spartan."

"You can say that again," said the combat medic with a returned chuckle.

Lesss gooo next chapter! Hope yall liked it. Sorry for the late update. It's been a busy start to this year and summer! But we pulled through.

Updates are still going to happen. Don't worry. Anywho. No real new updates going on but we all have things going on right?

Anywho, here we go. A bit later than expected but we still are having so much fun with this story! Got so many ideas coming through don't worry hahah.

Comments!

TheBobinat0r - thanks dude it means a a lot for the double comment. Literally S tier thanks dude!

I hope yall are doing wonderful. This has been a wonderful time so far with this story. Gonna keep going and KEEP GRINDING!

Stay safe guys! We all doing amazing,

~1DL1NG KN1GHT