The Lost - part 1
Posted By: A Halo Fan...natic
Date: 25 November 2004, 2:28 AM
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I hope you like this story. It's a lot different from what I thought it would turn out to be like. I noticed that there were a lot of people who didn't know what a strakkaker was. I'll bet that after this, you'll definitely want one. Anyways, as usual, I hope you enjoy it.
Sergeant Ryan Williams cursed himself for being so stupid. About five minutes after leaving his apt he noticed that he hadn't brought spare energy cells for his heavy strakkaker. Ammunition for the gun was no problem - it could fire broken glass if need be - but it devoured energy like crazy. Without spare energy units the gun could only be used for a couple of hours at a time.
As he drove back to his apt he listened to the reports coming over the radio. From what he had been able to piece together a damaged Covenant cruiser had landed approximately two miles away from the center of the city. UNSC forces had apparently tried to board the cruiser but so far they had had no success.
Williams rounded the curve and floored the brake pedal. There was a phantom lifting off from just in front of the apartment complex where he lived. The phantom jerked slightly and one of the turrets started to fire at him. He immediately grabbed his strakkaker out of the passenger seat and jumped out of the stopped car. He landed in a tight combat roll with his prosthetic arm scraping on the asphalt. He came to his feet and ran behind one of those useless signs that tell you when you're entering a neighborhood or apt complex (as if you couldn't already tell).
The sergeant looked around the edge of the sign. The phantom was still firing at the now smoking warthog. Good, it hadn't noticed him. Williams looked around for the infantry he knew it had probably brought. After about fifteen seconds he spotted the Covenant going up the first series of steps.
"Oh my god..." he whispered. Four Grunts, two Jackals, and two Elites. Not good odds for a single marine armed only with a strakkaker and a 9mm sidearm. Especially when that marine was forty-two years old. He looked down at the clothes he wore. Jeans and a button up shirt. With his armor he might have stood a chance but not in this. He sat in thought for a moment when there was a tremendous noise and he looked around the edge of the sign again. The civilian warthog was in flame: its molecular distortion battery must have finally gone.
Well, this is just great , he thought to himself, here I am, hiding behind a big plastic sign, pinned down by a Covenant phantom with my only means of escape destroyed. Well there was no hope for it. His only option was to fight. He slowly lifted the strakkaker up over the top of the sign and sighted on one of the phantom's turrets. He lined it up as precisely as he could and took a deep breath. He pulled the trigger. There was a loud whine as circuitry and mechanics that had laid dormant for seven years suddenly kicked into action. The strange metal that the Covenant used peeled back as the hyper-velocity rounds impacted into the outer shell of the craft. The covenant infantry looked up as their ship reeled under the force of the gun. An Elite with a carbine started firing randomly into the surrounding area. The other Covenant copied his actions.
Williams laid off his fire on the phantom, which was now listing dangerously and starting to fly off. He targeted the Elite with the carbine and opened fire. The creature's shields flared for about a second before giving in to the barrage. The thing let out a cry that cut off suddenly as its armor gave way. Its chest cavity was suddenly nothing more than pink bone that collapsed as the weight of the rest of its armor pulled it down. The sergeant took his attention off of the now dead elite and sprayed the rest of the platform with fire. He saw the other elite for a second before it ducked out of sight. Two grunts collapsed as dozens of tiny glass shards slammed into them in speeds of excess of eight hundred miles per hour.
The marine jumped from around the sign and raced for the building. The complex was a five-story structure with a series of platforms going up the center with apartments coming off it from two sides. Multiple staircases connected the platforms and there was a fire escape on each side of the building. Williams ran up one of the staircases to the first platform with the strakkaker in his left hand and the parabellum in his right. As he reached the first landing he saw a grunt tending one of the ones he had hit from the ground with the strakkaker. He was about to fire when he remembered that it was against the laws of war to kill wounded or a medic without good reason. The grunt looked up and gave a surprised yelp. It picked up its needler, which was lying on the ground. It got no further. The sergeant quickly fired a round from the parabellum straight throught its head. Williams scoffed himself for forgetting that the Covenant didn't follow the laws of war either.
The sergeant started to go up the next staircase to the second level when he looked up and saw the business end of a Covenant beam rifle pointed straight at his face. He looked up from the gun to see one of the Jackals standing three steps above him.
"Damn...", he muttered under his breath. He'd been reinstated as a marine sergeant only fifteen minutes ago and now he was about to die. He was pretty sure it was called irony. He had been so pumped up and now here he was with the barrel of a beam rifle centered directly on his forehead from only two feet away. "Well?" he said as he noticed that he had been standing there for nearly a minute, "Aren't you going to kill me?" The Jackal adjusted its aim and its finger tightened on the trigger.
Suddenly there was a growling from behind Williams. He slowly looked back over his shoulder. There, at the foot of the steps was his neighbor's German Shepard. The big dog was standing menacingly and growling deep in its throat. He looked back at the Jackal. Its face was a frozen mask. Williams started to feel a headache. Things really weren't working out today. There was a sudden flash in his mind and he threw himself flat just as the dog jumped. The animal landed on the Jackal and started to tear at its throat. There was a sudden burst of blue plasma and the dog fell to the ground lifeless. The remaining Elite slowly stepped around the corner and stared down the stairs.
The Elite let out a low laugh and started to raise its plasma rifle. So this is how it ends for me, Williams thought to himself, An Elite took my parents, an Elite took my arm, and now and Elite is going to take my life. The Elite slowly raised the plasma rifle and...
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