~1~

"One, two, three!" Mar grunted.

He and Falzud worked together to push the second Prowler right side up, then climbed aboard. Mar decided to drive. Falzud chose the seat to Mar's left and a couple of Marines got into the turret and other side seat.

Moments later, everyone was locked and loaded into a vehicle and headed to the next canyon over. The Demon was leading the way in the first Prowler with the Arbiter manning his turret and a couple Marines hanging on to either side. Behind them was Shadow and a Marine on a Mongoose, then Mar's Prowler, and finally Wildcat and Hotshot on the other Mongoose.

Two Mongoose ATVs, two Jiralhanae manufactured Spectre knockoffs. They were approaching a sloped boulder that happened to make the perfect ramp.

"Get ready!" one of the Marine's shouted.

Another one yelled as they all went off the jump, "Here we go!"

Mar imagined how startled the Covenant soldiers must have been upon seeing the four airborne vehicles, some carrying whooping and cheering thrill seekers like Falzud and Hotshot and the Marine in Mar's turret. He saw a couple of Brutes running for a nearby pair of Choppers and a Grunt climbing into a Ghost.

All four human/Elite controlled vehicles dropped into the lower canyon. Shadow and his passenger narrowly avoided being ram splattered by a hidden third Chopper lying in wait, of whom the Demon gave chase. The other Choppers and Ghosts also arrived to greet them shortly after and soon it became every vehicle for itself.

Mar singled out a Grunt in a Ghost and followed it out of the immediate bedlam so that his turret gunner could take it out. However, the Grunt managed to keep itself alive by boosting in irregular zigzag patterns.

"Stay on him! Stay on him!" the Marine in the turret called back.

Mid-pursuit, the Ghost got on a head-to-head collision course with one of its Chopper allies. Mar saw what they were trying to pull and avoided it before they could. Just before they crashed into each other, the Ghost cut to the left while the Chopper kept coming. He felt that the red combat harness should have tipped them off that this wasn't his first chess game. He wouldn't be defeated so simply.

Mar pulled to the right at the last second. As the Chopper grazed them, Falzud stuck it with a plasma grenade.

Bakoom!

"How did that taste?" Falzud yelled, laughing.

"Look out!" the Marine opposite him yelled right before something exploded against the Prowler.

The Marine who'd yelled the warning was killed instantly. Mar traced the killer's origin to a pair of long, gargantuan boulders that created a sort of valley in the middle. A Brute Major was up there on the rightmost boulder surrounded by Grunts and launching grenades. Mar's gunner pivoted and fired on them, but the Major threw down a protective bubble shield before he could kill any.

"Incoming!"

The Ghost had come back around and taken the offensive, unleashing boiling liquid hell from its twin plasma cannons. Mar's gunner returned fire. Falzud cried out and grabbed his shoulder and fell forward off the side of the Prowler.

"No!" Mar yelled, turning in his seat.

He couldn't see where his friend had fallen or if he had even survived and unfortunately, he couldn't go back. Mar faced forward again and put his eyes back on the road in front of him. Two more grenades launched from the Major exploded first against the front of the Prowler, propping it up for the next shot, which exploded against its underside. Mar and the Marine in the turret were practically doing a tail stand when they contacted their speeding Ghost foe.

Rather than crashing into each other, the Prowler launched off the Ghost's bulbous hood and caught a ton of air. Mar was so focused on leveling out and landing right side up that he barely noticed the fuzzy looking blue object stuck to them.

"Hang on!" the Marine advised, doing just that.

Mar tucked and rolled out of his seat instead, yelling, "Bomb, bomb!"

"Aaah!"

The plasma grenade detonated and ignited the Prowler's fuel reserve. The whole thing went up in a double-clap explosion that consumed the Marine and flung Mar straight into the ground. His personal energy shield shorted out on impact and he tumbled across the sand like a log rolling end over end.

Get up, little brother. Get up!

Mar's eyes shot open. Vehicular combat raged on all around him. Shields recharging, he picked himself up and pulled his sidearm out of its holster.

"Watch out! Move!" someone started yelling.

Mar felt more than heard the intensely vibrant humming behind him and torpedo-dived to the side. An enemy Ghost zipped by with Wildcat and Hotshot in hot pursuit. She merrily beeped the horn as they passed.

Across the war zone, next to the Pelican they had seen going down earlier, he saw Falzud climb into the Demon's Prowler while the Arbiter engaged the Brute Major and the Grunts.

Mar froze in place, a bad feeling brewing in his gut. He turned. With a respectable sense of class and honor only true warriors would know, a Brute in an idling Chopper sat watching him and only attacked once Mar noticed. Explosive rounds raked the ground in front him and he took off running, charging his plasma pistol as he went.

Mar fired, then hit the deck. An explosive round smacked into him and depleted his shields once more. The firing stopped. He looked up from where he lay on the ground and saw the Chopper slowly roll to a stop less than ten feet away. Mar scrambled to his feet and broke into a sprint as the Brute struggled to start the stalled vehicle back up.

"Rrgghhh! Wuudagraan!" the Red Twin roared angrily.

Mar planted one foot in a notch on the Chopper's 'hood', the other foot on top of it, and jumped forward. He landed sitting on the Brute's shoulders and leaned back, tightening his legs and planting both hands in the sand, then flipped. The Brute in turn was yanked deftly from the Chopper and thrown well away from it.

Mar elegantly cartwheeled from handstand back to a regular stance and hopped into the vacant driver seat. By the time the Brute was back on its feet, the tables were turned. All the confident energy visibly drained right from its body like the air out of a deflating balloon.

Fair's fair, Mar thought.

He gave his opponent a few seconds to run before opening fire. However, instead of chasing with his shots like the Brute had been, Mar used a bit of prediction to lead with them. Three explosive rounds made contact and the Brute went down for the count.

Looking around, Mar saw that he was the only one left in this section of the canyon. The others had gone ahead without him, probably in pursuit. At any rate, they still needed his help. He activated the Chopper's turbo boost and floored the gas pedal to catch up with them.