A/N
Hey, everyone! Welcome back to Blood and Ash. This is the tenth chapter, and is just over a thousand words. It's still not as long as some of my other chapters, but I have already started chapter eleven. Also, I'm already writing the next instalment of what I'm hoping will be a Trilogy. I'm gonna try to find somewhere not connected to me so I can give y'all photos and insider knowledge. Anyway, onto chapter ten :)
Ten
The Arms room was a mess by the time that Tai had finished with the Covenant goons. She could practically feel the adrenaline rushing through her veins. The feeling was almost physical, like she could reach out and touch it if she so wished to.
Her breath was coming hard and fast, far too shallow than what she truly needed. The fight that had taken place was exhilarating, elevating her heart rate to something that would've worried some of the medics stationed on the New Hope. As she came down from the adrenaline-fueled high, she took a glance around the room, her blue eyes catching on the form of a standard UNSC battle rifle.
A smirk drew across Tai's features. She was gonna have a field day. And the Covenant were gonna rue the day they decided to attack this ship.
Now, she just had to make her way up to the Hangar Bay (hopefully without running into the Woods' again…). If she had to bet, she'd place all her credits on the Spartans making their way to the Hangars too. Or they were already there and she was missing all the action. Hah, not in her book.
Racing from the room, she slings the rifle onto her back, grasping the metal bat tighter in her hands. It was still slink with the blue fluids of the Covenant blood. Thankfully, Tai wasn't met with anyone to stop her, not like they could, though.
It didn't take long before the sounds of a fight could be heard by her, the doors to the Hangar Bay having been broken down. If she had to guess, it was by those other goons she'd already… disposed of. The sound of bullets slamming into something met her ears as she drew closer, a cruel smile spreading across her face. Finally, some damned action.
Taking a couple steps back, Tai threw her shoulder into the jammed doors, her entire weight (plus the added strength forced onto her) slamming right into the very solid metal. Right when she got in, her eyes locked onto a specific Spartan in army green armor, before she slammed her bat into the skull of a jackal that had been running at her.
With a loud crunch, the jackal fell to the ground in a graceless heap, a pool of its blue-ish blood already forming under its dented skull. Finally, the few elites in the room seemed to take interest in her, so she did something she'd always been known to do. Cause a distraction.
Considering the fact that Tai wasn't technically a soldier, she technically didn't have the authority nor permission to use the gun in her grasp. Well, not to use it to shoot anything. But, by her definition, that didn't mean she couldn't use it for something else. Say… a flying projectile maybe?
With a shrug, she took the butt of the gun in her right hand and shot it forward like a javelin stick, impaling a grunt on the head of the rifle. She'd come back for that beauty later. For now, she was content on letting the Spartans handle the heavy battles, where she just watched their six.
Shouting, she threw herself at the nearest Covenant, which just so happened to be an Elite in scarlet armor. Somehow, the teen wrapped herself around the alien until her front was pressed into its armored back. She wrapped her legs around its midsection so she had something to actually hold onto, in case things got messy, as she was sure they would. It was practically inevitable in a war such as the one that was being waged between the two races.
Snatching the knife that she kept on the back of her belt from its sheath, Tai stabbed the sharp weapon into the uncovered neck of the Elite, watching as its blue blood started to spill around the black of the knife. Not wasting much time, she twisted the knife and cut it upwards, lodging it into the base of its skull.
The Elite continued to shriek as Tai put more and more of her weight into the weapon that had gotten stuck in its neck. Finally, she seemed to have enough of the extremely loud noise, and yanked the knife out before quickly embedding it back into the Elite's skull, only this time, the alien's screams stopped almost immediately. Wrenching the knife from the now dead Elite, Tai dropped with the body, rolling back onto her knees once the carcass hit the floor.
Once she was back on her feet, she caught sight of a disregarded energy sword, likely from the Elite that she'd just killed. Finally, a weapon she could use without possibly getting in trouble. And one Tai was very familiar with.
The sound of a plasma gun charging is what caused the teen to spin around, coming face to face with an angry looking jackal.
"Shit!" She exclaimed before slamming herself onto the floor. Perhaps a little too hard, but better with a bruised stomach than an open one.
Plus, on the floor she had an advantage over the jackal that the Covenant goon probably hadn't realized. Getting onto her back, she kicked up onto her hands, almost like she was going into a back handspring, and launched her feet into the jaw and throat of the jackal. With the help from the extra momentum, Tai found her way to her feet and slammed her first into the jackal's face, the sound of crunching bones ringing out in the Hangar Bay.
And it wasn't her fist that had broken.
As time went on, the battle seemed to start dying down, more and more Covenant falling to the ground, killed by either a bat or fist, or someone's gun. Finally, the last of the Elites, one dressed in blue armor, was felled. Only, it seemed determined to get out the last word. In surprisingly good English, it said something that confused everyone in the room.
"The Girl is the Key." It seemed like it was about to say something else in that regard, but Tai was quick to stomp out the last of its embers, stabbing her newly acquired energy sword into its gut.
A shift of air was felt just before something scaly and cold wrapped itself around Tai's throat, cutting off the much needed air circulation. Her blue eyes widened in fear as she felt the harsh squeeze of clawed hands. Someone had managed to sneak up on her, and if the weapons of those around her were of any help, it wasn't friendly.
The Spartans had been quick to take up their weapons as soon as they saw the ripple in the air. Unfortunately, the black armored Elite had been quicker. And everyone knew what black armor meant for the Covenant. It was an Elite specially trained in espionage and assassination. And, for some reason, this Elite had targeted Tai.
Frederic watched as the teen clawed at the Elites hands, trying to grapple for the freedom of air once more. She couldn't get enough leverage or space to actually wriggle her way free from the ever tightening grasp of the alien assassin. The Spartans couldn't fire off their weapons without possibly hurting Tai, not even Linda was good enough with her sniper to pull something like that off.
The Elite had managed to put itself so that at any angle but its back, the girl was covering it. It was using her as a human meat shield. And it seemed to know that the Spartans didn't wanna take a shot with any chance of possibly injuring the teen. The gleam in its black eyes was malicious and frankly somewhat terrifying. Especially to the teen that was quite literally fighting for her life.
As the teal Spartan looked around for some kind of opening for one of them to take a shot, his blue eyes rolled over each of his team mates. Only, he didn't see his leader. Where in the dark pits of hell did the Master Chief go?