3

He furiously tapped another key sequence and the viewport pulled focus all the way back from the cliff and angled around until it was facing the ramp that leads to the command deck. He had gained manual access to one of the two cameras on the control panel of the main deck's support columns. Brutes were rushing past the camera and mouth of the ramp. He was running out of time.

Listing a bit to the left, he could see Itan and Iceman hurrying down the ramp from the top deck. Brutes were storming in force. Halfway down the ramp, Itan turned, aimed, and lobbed an orb at an incoming Banshee. A Banshee tried to swerve out of the way but wasn't fast enough and exploded in a bright green and purple flash. The Imp was bleeding all over the place and stumbling like a drunkard on a raft. He tripped and rolled down to the bottom of the ramp in clearly visible agony.

A couple of Brutes diverted from the others to tear the easy prey limb from limb. They were met with instant consequence. In two shotgun blasts, the first lost a decent sized chunk of its head while buckshot sprayed through other one's torso and painted the camera in dark blood. Through the spatter, Mar could see Itan pull the human back and hurl the overheated fuel rod gun down the second ramp. Mar turned around to see a Brute coming from around the corner, where the entrance to the ramp was, surely with more following behind him. The fail-safe on the fuel rod gun activated and incapacitated however many Brutes had been behind the lead one, because none came around the corner after the blast.

The led Brute however, let loose an angry roar and charged at him like a ram. Mar exercised patience and timed his response. He waited until the Brute telegraphed a punch, then flipped the needler around and slammed it shards first into the Brute's face. Next, he twisted the gun to the side so the needles snapped off, still embedded, and shoved the Brute away with an open palm.

His enemy staggered back with his trembling hands up to his face before a pink catastrophic explosion blew his head, neck, and most of its shoulders, off.

Mar loaded in a fresh magazine as more Brutes poured into the room. He couldn't activate the security door, not until his teammates made it in. He sent a stream of needles to both sides of the column the Brutes were coming from behind. A group of needles super combined and blew apart one of the Brute Majors leading the assault in a mess of bloody limbs and crystalline splinters. Luckily, the resulting explosion caused the other airborne and ricocheting shards to detonate in a massive chain reaction. Brutes wailed and howled as they were caught in the needle explosions.

Fear the pink mist.

Mar turned back to the viewport.

Iceman was standing by the entrance, blasting away while Itan retreated down the ramp.

Firing from the hip, the Imp turned his head and yelled something to Itan that could barely be heard over the explosions and shells discharging.

"No! Go, just go! I'll try to hold them off!"

A Jiralhanae Captain caught him off guard. In a blur of disgusting ferocity, the Captain snatched the shotgun away, then used its other hand to grab him by the head. Iceman kicked and struggled, but the Captain lifted him off the ground and slammed the back of his skull into the wall. The Captain dropped the dead Imp and tackled Itan from the top of the ramp. The Elite managed to hold its footing but backpedaled furiously onto the command deck while fighting the Captain. Brutes were storming all around them.

Mar wheeled around and slapped the blue square icon and the energy door materialized. When he looked back, a wall of Brute soldiers was forming, some of them survivors of the needler shard detonations. They all had their weapons raised.

Behind their ranks and to Mar's horror, the Brute Captain overpowered the young Itan and knocked him up against a wall, then retrieved the grenade launcher from its back holster. Itan yelled and pounded the Brute with both fists. The Captain, with its shaggy fur and thick hide, ignored the blows and lunged forward with the bayonet of the launcher.

The long, curved blade stabbed Itan through the abdomen and pinned him to the wall. As the impaled Elite Minor was gripped by a pain unlike that he'd ever known and weakly struggled to free itself, the Brute Captain leaned close and roared in his face. The other Brutes holding Mar at gunpoint celebrated with loud whoops and cheers of victory. A moment later, life slowly crept from Itan and left him pinned to the wall, slumped over on the blade.

The Captain left the brute shot where it was and the crowd parted, allowing him clear passage to the front. He took his time getting there, as if he owned the place.

Well, he does own the place now.

Major 'Garaisee knew this was the end. He tossed his needler to the Brute's feet, held out a hand, then curled his fingers towards himself. Only days before the massacres began, he had graduated from the Bin Son Sangheili, and his textbook technique was still fresh in his mental and muscle memory. If he was going to die, it would have to be by hand.

The Captain, clearly amused, hiss-grunted something in Jiralhanae to his subordinates that caused them to put away their weapons. The Captain kept prolonged eye contact with Mar as he did so, and neither of them blinked.

The Captain issued another order and three Brutes moved to apprehend the red Major.

I'm ready to die. How many can I take with me?

The first Brute to reach him was the first to go. Mar countered his lazy grab attempt with a rock-hard fist to the bicep of the incoming arm to knock it away, then stepped to the right and elbowed him in the jaw. Following up with his other hand, he clamped around the lump in the Brute's throat with two fingers like a pair of pincers, yanked back, and ripped the Adam's apple out of place.

That Brute collapsed clutching its throat as Mar ducked under a wild haymaker from one of its allies. The Elite lashed out with a knee smashing sidekick and the Jiralhanae who threw the punch went down too.

Mar saw the third beast running at him with hands outstretched to strangle and stepped forward, meeting the Brute before it got to him. He got his own arms inside and spread them apart, knocking the arms of the Brute off to the sides, grabbed the vulnerable Brute by the head and forced it to a helmeted headbutt. His opponent staggered back, and Mar reared back and soccer kicked him in the crotch. The Brute cried out and dropped face down holding its furry genitalia, and landed chin first onto Mar's rising knee.

'Garaisee hadn't even recovered his balance when the irritated Captain bull rushed him and knocked him into the computers. He had also abandoned the previous weapon rules, now coming at the Elite with a small jagged piece of metal that barely passed as a knife. The Captain brought the blade down to nail Mar to one of the energy screens but the latter saw it coming and weaved to the left. The Captain completely pulverized the screen he'd been in front of to a splash of energy and plunged the knife into the monitor.

Mar had just gotten back to a fighting stance when he looked over to the broken splitscreen and saw, off to the side, a peculiar white dial. If there was one thing he knew about Scarabs, it was that each one had a fail-safe installed, in case the human's tried to hijack one that had valuable intel, equipment, or individuals on board. The Walker would go into emergency shut-down and self-destruct. This was the first thing he thought of when he saw the dial and instantly knew what he had to do.

If I'm going down, they're all going down too.

He lunged for the dial and turned it right as the Captain yanked the knife free and lunged at him, slashing. The handheld kinetic weapon blithely ignored Mar's energy shields and screeeeeched a long scar diagonally across the front of his ruby combat harness. A shrill, repeating alarm sounded and the ground suddenly jolted and convulsed beneath them. Both lost their footing, as well as all of the Brutes that were off to the side supervising the fight. The power went out and dull red light flashes intermittently in sync with the alarm.

I'm sorry, Madiba.

Fully prepared to die and with nothing else to lose, he leapt at the stumbling Captain to try and wrestle the knife away. As they grappled and struggled to bring each other down, Mar saw the spike grenades on the Captain's hip. Desperate, he loosened his grip on the knife and grabbed one, the tension snap sending the Brute flailing back into its teammates, a few from the ramp now rushing in through the powered down energy door.

Mar almost fell back too, but had both arms out for balance and caught himself. That's when he noticed light. Not the flashing alarm lights but sunlight, shining up into the command center in thin rays from the floor beside him. He hadn't noticed it before.

He primed the spike grenade and raised it up by the handle. It hissed like cold water hitting red hot metal. The Brutes all braced for the worst. Instead of at them, Mar turned and hucked it at the floor, blowing open a square escape hatch.

By the Gods...

He'd never seen a more beautiful sight. Wasting not a second more, he crossed his arms over his chest and pencil-dived through the hatch, out the bottom of the command deck. He could see Phantoms and Banshees still flying around as he fell through the air and the Scarab exploded overhead just as he sliced into the water with barely a splash. Once underwater, he scrunched up and shot downward, kicking and clawing as hard as he could to swim away from the capsizing wreck and back to dry land.