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Fan Fiction

Blood Canyon by Aleks G.



Blood Canyon
Date: 30 March 2007, 8:21 pm

      A warning klaxon blared as the Burning Sparrow took another hit, the ship was built like a brick house but no amount of armor could take this much of a pounding. A hole opened near engineering in the ships belly, by the aft section, and atmosphere vented into the cold empty vacuum of space. The ship shuddered as the venting air angled it toward earth in a nose-down position. On the dorsal camera, near the bow, a covenant ship turned toward the Sparrow and charged its main guns. Blue plasma ringed the leading edges of the ship's plasma turrets as they aimed at the drifting Battle Cruiser. The captain glanced at the screen, his eyes were cold and blank, and he didn't expect to see the end of this battle. The ships engineering room, and therefore the engines, were completely destroyed, and the ship yawed sideways venting radioactive coolant into space. This served as a calling card to all of the covenant ships in the area, a big easy target to shoot at. The ship rolled to port as the captain ordered his ops console manager to fire them; he wanted to be nose to nose with the covenant cruiser when it fired. The engines were destroyed, but the small "station-keeping" thrusters weren't, and the captain abused their power to line up with the cruiser. The quadruple Mini-MAC's under the ship charged to full power, despite regulations limiting them to a maximum of three per charge, the captain didn't believe that the regulations were written with a situation like this in mind.

      The bridge dimmed down to only necessary electronics, which were the view screens, and targeting computers, and they filled the cramped metallic room with an eerie blue glow. The ship jerked back as the MACs all fired simultaneously, another frowned upon act in the book of regulations. The four Ununhexium Composite rounds hurdled through space, propelled by some of the most powerful magnets in the universe, and traveled across a few thousand kilometers with devastating speed. The rounds all struck, one after the other in the ships nose, the covenant cruiser reeled backwards as the ultra-dense rounds punched through its shields, armor, and its inner decks, literally gutting the ship from stem to stern. The other ships witnessed the destruction of their own ship and all advanced on the battle cruiser. The captain unbuckled his strap and addressed his crew,
      "Attention bridge personnel, under Cole Protocol Section 8 we are self-destructing and abandoning this ship, everyone leave your stations and head for the bridge escape pod."
One by one the men stood and left the bridge, and as his First Lieutenant walked past, the captain grabbed his shoulder and spun him about.
"I need you to help me," The captain said to Lieutenant Lesyk, "I want to leave a nice fireworks show behind on this ship, and send them all to hell" He pointed at the screen, which was now filled with covenant cruisers and single ships. The lieutenant ran to a nearby computer and quickly tapped controls; he wiped sweat off his forehead, and typed faster.
      "Security overrides on the Shivas have been removed, now for the Archer missiles… there, the reactor is redlining now, it should detonate in time with the Shivas, and the missiles will fire right after we leave in the escape pod. It's going to be a hell of a show if we live to see it." Lieutenant Lesyk stood from the computer and saluted the captain, "It's been a pleasure to serve under you sir."
The captain returned the salute, spun on his heel and ran for the escape pod hall. The captain was never a strong runner, but an excellent tactician, the only battle he hadn't won was still happening. His first Lieutenant sped past him easily; as if he were standing still, and made it to the door at least 30 seconds prior to his superior officer. A young woman stood at the door, her weapon at ease, waiting for the captain, she allowed him to step in then quickly followed him, sealing the pressure door behind her. It closed with a hiss and the pilot waved his hand toward the sign on the ceiling of the cramped metallic tube. The sign read: "Sit Down, Shut Up, and Hold On, Fasten your diapers ladies and gents, this is gonna be a wild ride" The pilot, Officer Adam Depenau, laughed as he put the acceleration handle to the Maximum throttle position. The M-684 "Killer Bee" escape pod buzzed its engines like an angry hornet as it accelerated out of its launch tube. The captain had just put on his safety belt, and he thanked God it had connected the first time, or he would have met a cruel fate against the back panel of the escape pod when it accelerated away from the doomed ship.

      The captain looked through the window, along with the rest of his fascinated bridge crew, at their ship's last moments. At least a dozen ships horded around the Burning Sparrow, and were caught in a massive explosion that swallowed at least 4 enemy ships whole, and nearly halved many others. Single ships swarmed, suddenly without leaders, and charged for the escape pod. One of the Seraph fighters made the mistake of flying in front of the small pod, and learned why it was called the "Killer Bee". The twin .50 cal. Rotary guns tore through the single ship and ripped through it's pilot, killing him instantly, the Seraph wobbled in space for a moment before veering off it's path and exploding in a ball of blue fire and shrapnel. Other seraph's grouped behind the small craft and readied their weapons. One of the Archer missiles that Lieutenant Lesyk had fired from the ship flew into their battle group and blew them all apart. Tiny chunks of molten debris spattered the rear of the escape pod as flaming pieces of single ships sent gobs of burning metal spinning in every direction. The pod rocked as waves of overpressure from the missile washed over it. The pilot swore as he jerked the control yoke sideways, trying to overcome the ships rolling inertia. The tiny pod wailed an alarm as it came into close proximity with Earth's atmosphere; the pilot squelched the beeping alarm with the quick press of a button then summoned the calculations and vectors screen to safely enter a planetary body.

      The ship warmed as it entered the atmosphere, as friction quickly started to generate heat around the speeding pod. The tiny craft blew through a cloud layer, fire now licking at its leading edges, and alarms constantly screaming warnings of changes in oxygen density, speed, and the "glide slope" angle, which helped slow the pod for a safe landing. The captain looked toward the front of the craft, the woman who had followed him inside sat directly next to him, and he could see her crimson red hair peeking out from the bottom of her helmet, she turned back to face him, then turned back to the front window. Directly across from her was a nervous Warrant Officer, Scott Trapp, who had been in a long-term relationship with the young woman, and was extremely jealous of anyone, even if they just talked to her, he had almost been discharged from the USNC for his behavior. The man was jittery; he had never taken well to flying, especially something this small and weak. He glanced at the young woman and smiled, then looked back at the captain's Second Lieutenant, David Frost, who sat calmly staring at the ceiling. Warrant Officer Trapp asked the lieutenant how he could be so calm, considering the situation they were in. Lieutenant Frost answered with a simple response,
      "We can't control what's going to happen, why worry about it?" He was exactly right; all of their lives were directly in Officer Depenau's hands, and the young man up front knew it. Nobody else said anything, instead they all silently prayed to themselves, mostly to God, but one man had always prayed to Satan in times of need, and he had always got the job done right. That was Warrant Officer Burton; the captain had been friends with him since he could remember, and even then, Richard was a Satanist, he never let it interfere with his duty, however, so Captain Gingras appreciated having a very skilled and undoubtedly lucky man on his team. Richard looked at the captain, his eyes burning with the glow of anger; he had always hated the covenant more than anyone else, and was willing to lose his life to kill a single Grunt. The pod came down to 5000 ft. and the pilot spun around in his seat to address his passengers,
"The LZ is hot, you guys might wanna secure your guns, there's some bad shit going on down there." The officer laughed and activated the airbrake fins, the ship jerked and slowed to a manageable speed. Adam put his foot to the floor on the reverse thrusters, the ship slowed to about 30 k/ph and rammed into the ground belly first. The pod rolled on its back and slid through a covenant gun emplacement, killing several Grunts and a Brute. It kept sliding on its back and finally ground to a stop right in front of a clutch of Marines.

      The door on the back of the pod burst open and the bridge crew piled out. The marines took cover behind the belly-up pod and opened fire on the advancing covenant. Brutes roared in anguish as bullets penetrated their bodies and tore their organs apart, Grunts screamed as the large caliber guns plucked them off their feet and hurled them to the bloody grass. A young man with spiky black hair grabbed the captain's hand and towed him behind the pod; he went back for the lieutenants as well. The Captain gasped and drew his M6-9D, and stood, his long barreled pistol swept over the pod and kicked back as he fired at a nearby grunt. The .45 caliber bullet thundered as it left the weapon's elongated barrel and tore through the Grunt's midsection. The man who had dragged him to safety saluted, the captain returned the salute and spoke over the staccato report of gunfire,
"Thanks soldier, name and rank please" The man responded quickly, like a machine.
"Shaun Merritt, Sargeant Major, sir" The man had a light, but noticeable, British accent and as he spoke, he snapped up the rifle and shot another Grunt. The covenant was advancing, and everyone was forced to pull back toward a deep canyon. There was a forest nearby that could be used for cover and the large group ducked and ran for the relative safety of the tree line. Plasma scored the ground behind them and marines near the back of the group screamed as they were put down by bolts of blue fire. Warrant officer Burton dropped to his knees when a radioactive round caught his shoulder, he was a stone's throw from the tree line, but he would never get there. He spun and lifted all four grenades from his belt; he primed all of them and ran towards the advancing alien army.       Plasma bolts splashed his body, but his anger fueled adrenaline kept him going, he jumped and landed on a brute, he placed a grenade in its mouth, then hurled the other three in random directions. He grinned at the tree line, and was engulfed by a ball of orange fire as the grenades all detonated at once. Screams of pain and terror increased as the aliens tried to figure out what had just happened, by then, the marines had regrouped, and they stood up from the brushes… and opened fire.



Blood Canyon
Date: 12 April 2007, 2:41 am

      Bullets ripped through the air, propelled by unseen rifles hidden in the bushes. Brutes grabbed their chests in pain, and grunts were thrown from their feet as the heavy rounds rammed their small bodies. The aliens had very little time to react to the assault; they had expected the humans to keep running deeper into the trees and attempt to hide. After several dozen casualties resulting from the barrage, the aliens had finally regained some control over the situation and began returning fire. Two marines were instantly struck down by long glowing metallic shards fired from a Spike Rifle, they didn't have time to scream as the sharp blades cut their throats and impaled their bodies. The marines dropped to a low crouch to avoid the incoming fire, and Sgt. Merritt paused to take the men's Dog tags. Corporal N. Delisle and Private C. Baughman were the unlucky men, and Sgt. Merritt hoped to avoid a similar fate, but that was beyond his control. The Sargeant spun to see that most of his marines, as well as the remaining bridge crew were retreating deeper into the woods, and he jumped up to follow them. A sharp pain struck his back, followed by what felt like thousands more, and he dropped to his knees. The long shards were different from the ones that claimed the lives of the other two men though, they glowed bright pink and seemed warm, he felt blood in his mouth, but before he had a chance to spit it out, the pink shards erupted in a large pink explosion. Shaun was torn apart as the needles erupted and hurled tiny crystal shards through his flesh and bone, nothing could have survived the wrath that they ensued.

      The other marines had reached the canyon's edge and were staring over the edge when the needles exploded; they spun to see a fading pink blur, and knew there wasn't much time. Warrant officer Morse had already strung a line down to the bottom of the deep trench, and started to climb down, the young woman, whom the captain had seen earlier, followed suit, and the rest of the bridge crew after her. The captain was the last one down, and just as his feet touched bottom, a Seraph fighter bombed the forest into a burning crater. The covenant thought they were dead, so they had a little free time before the alien horde decided to make sure, they took this time to make their way through the winding canyon, heading north. There was no basis for their choice, just the fact that it sloped downhill toward the north, and it seemed logical to go away from the covenant forces, rather than towards them. A small recon group, consisting of Lieutenant Lesyk, the young woman Corporal Stol, and Lieutenant Frost scouted ahead while the rest of the group of seven men hid in a shallow cave near the stream that had cut the wide canyon. Captain Gingras ran his palm against the reddish rock in the cave; it came off as blood red dust on his hand. He brushed it on his grey naval uniform, and streaked a long dusty "gash" on his leg. Zach made it back first, and he spoke while breathing heavily,

      "We… found a warthog… it's rolled over… come on."
Before Private Stol and Lieutenant Frost returned, Zach had already begun running back, with the Captain walking briskly behind him, truth was, he was in a dead run. All of the other men had arrived before the Captain, even though they had started behind him. It was mostly due to the Captain's extreme laziness, were it not for his tactical intelligence, he would have completely failed military training. When he arrived, he saw the warthog lying on its back, with four wheels in the air, there was no blood or any bodies around the upturned vehicle, so it was safe to assume they made it out alive. Zach didn't think so, and his suspicious nature spread to the Captain, and his Second Lieutenant.

      "Everyone, be careful… this smells like a trap." Captain Gingras cautioned his men, and he hoped to God he was wrong. The red haired woman, Kate, stood over the Warthog, examining its frame from the underside. When she glanced up Scott was standing across from her, watching her eyes intently. A shadow washed over him and he shouted as an elite slid down a rope towards the warthog, the elite hit the warthog's belly hard, and bounced onto the reddish mud it rested on. It leveled a slender boxy steel weapon at Warrant Officer Trapp's head. The weapon seemed very peculiar as far as covenant weapons went, normally they were sleek, rounded, and blue, or at least vague purple, this weapon was just, wrong. The rifle poured a sickly orange glow from its triangular barrel and the elite grimaced when it looked at the human's face directly. The gun wavered for a second, and then the elite lowered it to the ground. The 9 foot tall alien spoke in his own tongue, which was quickly translated into a synthetic English voice by his real-time translator.

      "Put down your weapons humans, I mean no harm to you, unless you wish to fight"
The voice was garbled, but understandable enough for Warrant officer Trapp to aim his M6E at the elites head, and challenge him.
"Yeah right, you're probably just trying to screw with us, so you can shoot us in the back!" Scott racked the slide on his pistol, "But it ain't gonna happen today" The elite glanced at the man, and then looked away. Without warning the elite's arm punched through Scott's uniform and plunged into his chest, he made a gurgling noise as his heart was ripped from him and blood wept from the gaping hole in his body. It wasn't long before Scott's heart stopped beating, and he was still alive to watch it happen before he collapsed to the ground. The other marines trained their weapons on the elite, but Captain Gingras raised his hand and stopped them from firing. He walked toward the elite and turned his back to the menacing creature,

      "This thing just offered us peace… if it was a trap, they would have shot us by now." The captain spoke with the knowledge of 10 years of experience with the covenant, and the marines believed him, "I bet there are dozens of elites waiting for the sound of gunfire just behind those rocks, and they'll kill us if we kill him" The captain motioned toward an outcropping of large boulders farther north, and a glint of metal shone from behind the rocks. The elite turned and barked an order in his language. Three black elites and two hunters stepped away from the rocks and advanced on the group. The hunters were absolutely massive aliens in blue armor. Their arm mounted metallic shields glinted in the sun and reflected the eerie green glow of the fuel rod cannons on their other arm.

      The spines that ran along their back perked up when they saw the humans; they lowered their bodies into a defensive stance, and slowly trudged forward. The elites were all heavily armed, but again, not with covenant weapons, instead they were similar to the rifle the elite held, but differently sized and shaped. The elite mumbled something in his language, and the others turned to the rocks and waved. A long purple point slid out from behind the rock, it hovered just a few feet off the ground and made a loud whining noise as the pilot accelerated it out from behind the relative cover of the large boulders. The vehicle was about the size of the warthog jeep, but was wider, and more streamlined. Its mounted gun was unmanned, and the nearest elite hopped onto it. The other two elites moved toward the upturned jeep, stepped over Scott's body, and heaved the vehicle onto its wheels, the left front wheel landed on Scott's head, crushing it into a bloody paste.

      The elite turned to the humans, and ordered them into the Warthog.
"Now wait just a second," Officer Depenau cut in, "The captain's the boss around here, what he says goes, I'm not takin' orders from no alien creep"
"Your bravery against me will not be forgotten" The elite raised his rifle and fired. Officer Depenau's death was quick and painless, and after the bright light faded, his half slagged pistol clattered to the ground and bonded with the dirt. The smell of Ozone filled the air and heat radiated off of the weapon's barrel as the elite glanced at the spot where the pilot once stood without remorse.

      "Stop killing us you bastard!" Captain Gingras shouted, "If you keep this up, you won't have any allies left to fight with." The elite aimed at the captain, then lowered his weapon, the human obviously had a point. The alien spoke again "You will get in the jeep, all of you… we will cover you in the Specter"
"Fine," The captain said, "we'll do it your way"
An elite hopped into the Driver's seat of the hog, and lieutenant Lesyk rode shotgun. The rest of the crew piled in the back, normally a mounted turret would have limited the warthog's capacity, but this gun had been removed for one reason or another. The captain turned to the elite behind the wheel, "floor it." The alien put the pedal to the metal, and rocks crunched under the Warthog's massive tires as it leapt forward. The hog had stiff suspension, so it bounced about wildly as it sped over the rough terrain in the canyon. The Specter Wailed loudly in an attempt to keep up with the quick LRV.
Lieutenant Lesyk turned to the elite and asked, "Where the hell are we going exactly?" The elite turned to him, but kept an eye on the road, "We have found a base, built by the forerunners, in this canyon."

      "Huh?" the captain cut in, "a base? Really?"
"Yes" the elite turned its head farther to face the captain, "it should serve us well when the Brutes glass the other areas of the planet." The captain nodded, and the elite returned to navigating through the canyon. The captain took some time to look at his crew, and he noticed that they were uneasy; they had just watched two men die, though, so it was understandable. He looked over at Corporal Stol, her eyes looked distant and glazed, he tapped her shoulder and she snapped back to reality. She stood up in the back of the warthog and looked over the roll-bar.

      "Shit, everyone out!" she screamed. The crew bailed out of the hog just before it was struck by a plasma bomb. The hog flipped nose up and bounced on its rear, it then rolled over and exploded, sending fragments of metal flying. Plasma flew from the encampment the elites had discovered earlier, apparently, the Brutes found it moments later. The Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, and Drones had made a pretty decent defense camp for the time they had. Plasma raided the ground, probing any areas around the warthog where something could have survived, it burned the warthog's metal to a matte black, and scored the ground around it. The crew had taken cover behind a turnout in the canyons structure. And aliens slowly moved to their position. The jackals went first, holding their wrist mounted energy shields in front of them, behind this wall of jackals, was a platoon of grunts, and a dozen brutes. With their shields the Jackals were going to be a real problem if they didn't take care of them now. That's when Kate stepped around the turnout's wall and heaved a grenade into their midst.



Blood Canyon Part 3- Last woman Standing
Date: 16 April 2007, 4:09 am

      The grenade fell short, and blew the file of Jackals apart at the middle. Plasma fire scored the rock next to her, and Kate ducked back behind the canyons turnout. The Specter that was supposed to be covering them was nowhere to be found, a sharp explosion, followed by a throaty roar of defiance signaled its demise. The hunters near the Specter had met a similar fate. Kate stepped around the corner and fired, her rounds bounced harmlessly off of the jackals shields as they advanced toward her and the surviving crew. The captain paused to scoop up a Covenant Particle Beam Rifle and snapped the barrel around the turnout. A brute appeared in his scope; he waited for the sight to flicker red, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle uttered a piercing squeal as twin magnets concentrated a ball of energy into a beam of purple light. The beam sliced the brute's head open and allowed its brain to spill out onto the dirt. He squeezed the trigger a second time and the gun shuddered; he lifted it up and squeezed the trigger again. Nothing happened, the damned rifle was empty. He drew his pistol, and for a split second, he prayed that his gun was loaded. His M6E scanned the area, mostly Jackals and Grunts, but he wanted a brute, a chieftain. He finally found it, standing on a rock near the back of the formation, shouting orders to disoriented aliens. He aimed slowly, and squeezed the trigger. The first bullet did very little but bounce off of its helmet, but the other eleven served to damage the brute's brain and spine quite heavily, the captain didn't stop firing, even after his magazine was empty. The captain came back to reality and snapped back to his cover, he looked around and saw Lieutenant Lesyk putting grenades and other explosives all over himself, stuffing his pockets and lining his light jacket.

      "Um… what are you doing lieutenant?" he asked inquisitively.
      "I always wanted to die using my expertise" Zach answered, still packing grenades and C-4 into his belt.
"Pardon me?" the captain didn't quite understand what he was talking about.
"I'm going to die in a big explosion that I made, I will kill them all!" Zach's eyes flashed, and he laughed like a maniac.
"Zach, you can't… I forbid you to…" The captain paused, realized that it was the only way out and stepped back, "give the bastards a show!"
Lieutenant Lesyk saluted one last time, and whirled around the corner. Plasma fire couldn't touch his speed as he ran straight into the middle of their formation; a brute grabbed him by the neck and lifted him from the ground. It growled and stared at him debating whether or not to kill him now.

      Lieutenant Lesyk was still alive, and he stared into the cold eyes of the big hairy warrior that could kill him any second.
"You have 5 seconds to put me down you piece of shit!" He spoke with a tight voice; the brute's mighty hands were crushing his throat. "Five….four….three….two…." the brute crushed his throat and he couldn't speak, but he still managed to mouth the word "one." A blast echoed through the canyon and fire roared through the ranks of Covenant, the remaining crew moved around the corner, and mopped up the survivors. The wall to the base the elites had found earlier was closed, but a quick touch of a panel activated the mechanism. The door was a lot bigger than they expected, and it opened with slow deliberation. Light speared through the opening and shone on all of them from inside the structure, suddenly Warrant Officer Morse was struck down by a brighter beam of light and the captain yelled "Sniper!"

      The crew dove for the ground and Kate squeezed the trigger on her MA5C. The gun roared loudly and tore the Jackal to pieces, the shallow magazine was a decent trade off for the increased power, but right now, Kate wished she had a two thousand round magazine to destroy anything else that killed her friends. Lieutenant Frost, Captain Gingras, and Corporal Stol were the only ones left. The captain couldn't believe it, his whole crew reduced to him, his second lieutenant, and a young woman he hadn't met until this day. The small crew moved into this base, and learned it was more of a complex maze, and a massive, seemingly pointless facility. For some reason, other than the Jackal that killed Warrant Officer Morse the place was empty. The walls were all plain metal, and there were no arrows or colors indicating where the hell they were. Finally, they found a deep shaft with a plate sitting over it, an elevator. The three people stepped on, and stared at the control panel; it flashed hundreds of colors and re-formed constantly.

      "So corporal… any idea how to get us to go down on this thing?"
"I could push this…" she said as she pushed a glowing blue icon, the elevator jerked and floated downward, completely silent despite being large and heavy.
Lieutenant Frost snickered,
      "You do realize you just asked a girl if she could make us go down on this thing, don't you?"
Aleks blushed and looked up the slowly stretching shaft, hoping that going down was a good idea he laughed to himself again. Captain Gingras was a little immature, but Dave could catch onto any joke, you could say anything around him, and he would make it dirty. Kate looked at Dave, and his silly laugh ceased like someone had flipped a switch, he looked at the ground and Kate spoke through gritted teeth.

      "I could punch you in the stomach, and you'd go down on this elevator, but that wouldn't be very becoming of a young lady like me, would it?"
"I wouldn't know, you've never acted like one before" he quipped, and a long mechanical tentacle grabbed his head from above. The machine didn't quite have the power to tow Dave up though, and after Kate was done with it, the bullet holes didn't help either. Dave lied on the ground panting, dark red lubricant soaked his naval suit, and he had almost died. Kate picked him up and brushed the metal fragments off his arm, "I just saved your ass, so I suggest you treat me well, or I'll change my mind next time"

      Dave smiled and nodded, "no question ma'am"
She let go of his arms, and he coughed up a little bit of oil onto the metallic floor. He looked at the robot that tried to grab him, the beast was fairly small, about the size of a lawnmower, and had eight foot long tentacles attached to its cylindrical core. It's "wings" were long and angled, and they were turned to conceal the red eye at the front of the cylinder from the attack. Dave shot it several times and stepped on its wing, it made a satisfying cracking noise, so he left it there to rust. Minutes later, they arrived at a door. It was locked, unlike most of the ones that they had passed through many times before, and it was also stained with blood. Dave touched this red blood smeared on the wall, and made a discovery.
"This shit ain't blood, its oil, just like the kind on that son-of-a-bitch that tried to ice me!"

      The captain looked at it, and then at the ground below, tiny bits of metal littered the doorway, and a large chunk was under a small candle pond across the hall from the door.
That's when he realized that bullet holes and plasma burns were everywhere, from top to bottom all across the opposite hall. He thought about what could have caused this, and before he could stop Dave from opening the door with his B.I.P.A.S. code breaker, hundreds of rounds squeezed through the half open door and tore his body apart. Aleks looked around the corner, only two brutes with an M247 Light Turret and plasma cannons caused that much damage. The captain coughed and pulled his pistol from his holster, he spun and fired on the brutes, his gun kicking violently with each shot. The first brute went down quickly but the other didn't want to die, and he opened fire on the captains exposed arm. The M247 tore through the captain's flesh and rattled his bones; he pulled back and sprayed the wall behind him with blood. Kate had just seen all of her partners die, and her last companion get severely injured, when she finally snapped, and spun around the corner firing. The brute too all thirty two rounds to the head and chest, Kate reloaded and fired again, making sure the bastard was dead. She turned and tended to the captain, who was lying next to the doorsill bleeding. She held his good hand, and tried to stand him up.

      "No," he said, "I'll just slow you down"
"You listen to me," she cried, "You're coming with me, or I'll kill you"
Okay, okay, okay" he struggled to stand, "I'll go"
A brute appeared at the opposite end of the hallway they had entered, and roared a warning to his comrades.
"Go, I'll be right behind you" the captain said.
Corporal Stol stepped through the door, she spun just in time to see the door close and lock behind her, the captain still outside.
"No!" She screamed and ran back, looking at him through the slender window, "You bastard, leaving me here all alone to die"
"Leave!" he shouted, "Leave now, they'll get through eventually!"

      Kate held back tears, and ran for the door across the room. Brute corpses surrounded her as she made her way deeper into the structure, nothing could slow her down, but she paused when she saw a monitor with the captain on it. A brute held him by the neck and he said something to the alien, there was no sound, so Kate had to interpret what he said by reading his lips, "I'm sorry… Kate" She saw it as that, and that's what she truly believed he said. He actually said something else, but on her mind, that's all he could have said, and she took comfort in his apology. The brute shoved a blade through his torso and blood sprayed the screen, Kate looked away and stepped through another door. A golden yellow light provided the only lighting for this pitch black room, and it seemed as if it was moving toward her. The light paused and floated directly in front of her for a second it then spoke with a light British accent, and it almost sounded like it was talking through a pipe,
      "Hello, I am one-seventeen six forty-nine, Precocious Icon, I am the monitor of installation zero, please come with me."
Icon turned and hovered away slowly; Kate watched it leave and shrugged.

"Why not?"






(Not part of the story, just a comment to be included)


In light of MC's Cousin's advice, I avoided abbreviating ranks, made it a little more real sounding, made some of the lines more human, and described a little more. I hate code, it can go die, I firmly believe that, so I am a little bad with it, but at least it's not as bad a some of the crap stories I've read, not gonna mention any names. I tried my best and ended the series here, apologies who want to know what happened after this, but I really have no idea what happens until H3 is released. So maybe one day, I'll finish it for good. I also capitlaized covenant, and all of their names, but he'll find something to bust me on, I know it
Till then, I have many other stories, just don't read the "Ark of the Covenant" It sucks, and I wrote it, so I should know.





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