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From Darkness
Posted By: MT<brevard1986@hotmail.com>
Date: 8 April 2004, 7:18 PM
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The Elite's skull opened. A smatter of dark purple blood sputtered high into the air, landing on the wide back of the Elite, fallen face first into the grass. The blood slowly found its way down the Elite's sprawled body, onto the dry earth below.
Sparks flew over the dead Elite, and a group of its comrades were roaring and snarling at the Marines encircling them. They were standing outside a dark and narrow opening, fighting with the ferocity so easily recognised in their species.
Two fell as a hail of bullets ripped through their dissipating energy shields, and smashed against their armour. One of the falling Elite was firing wildly, its head flung upwards and its four mandibles spread wide.
Lieutenant Collins, crouched low, was able to reach a large Covenant crate quickly. He peaked around the Covenant unit and saw the seven remaining Elites fighting and dying.
Damn stupid aliens, why stand and fight? Collins knew that he would have retreated into the passage as soon as possible, but these Elites, like so many, would fight to the bitter end. He didn't recognise how this made the company of Marines' job so much easier.
Collins saw a pair of Marines attempting to flank the group, only to be cut down by the Gold Elite.
Collins cursed, and ducked back behind the crate as a Red Elite turned to look at his general direction. The Lieutenant could see the Sergeant bringing up another squad to finish off these Elites.
"It's 'bout damn time you showed up, Hagi," Collins shouted to the Sergeant with a scowl.
Hagi's face was bland as he indicated positions for the Marines to take up. When he reached the Lieutenant, he gave a quick salute bordering on just rude. Insubordinate Martian, Collins thought with a scowl.
"Sir," Hagi said, breathing hard. "The surrounding camp has been cleared. Eight casualties to report."
Collins snorted, and looked the Sergeant up and down.
Hagi's front armour was drenched with bright blue and dark purple blood. A nasty burn across his face indicated that the Sergeant just avoided a direct shot in the face. His left arm was oddly limp against his body, but his right arm seemed more than capable of carrying the large assault rifle.
The Lieutenant frowned when he saw some of Hagi's uniform shredded. Damn soldiers never care about their equipment. It was a damn wonder why they were alive.
The sudden entwinement of an Elite roar and human scream caused both men to look around the red and purple crate.
An Elite was standing over a fallen Marine, his small eyes flared in satisfaction of his kill. They seemed to dare the Marines to fight, and so, the Marines did.
A series of 7.62mm armour piercing rounds impacted against the Elites shielding. As energy flared around the alien, more Marines joined in the fire. Abruptly, they saw the Elite jolted backward, its energy shield quickly failing. A single round penetrated the energy shield and smashed against the Elite's armour. The blue armour bulked and cracked, a clean hole formed straight through it.
Before the Elite was shredded to pieces by another storm of armour piercing bullets, it roared again and raised its plasma gun high into the air. Two bolts of plasma flew into the air, and the Elite was thrown back.
Now the Marines were tightening their circle around the Elites. They used cover to position themselves, and shoot at the group from time to time.
The Elites responded, and backed up against the small structure around the passage way. Before Collins could wonder where it led, two Blue Elites darted from their positions.
Their long cat-like legs gave them speed unusual for a bipedal. They lowered their upper body and craned their neck forwards giving an image of being streamlined. They were weapon less and were soon brought down.
The first, closest, Elite tripped face first into the ground. Its arms flung widely in the air, and legs going under it. It didn't make a sound. The second was thrown back by a fragmentation explosion. Its right arm and part of its chest fell some distance away from the body.
The four remaining Elites were only inches away from the opening.
The Gold craned its neck back and saw how close they were. When he turned back, Hagi saw that the alien had a new expression on its face. Fear? No, it couldn't be: Elites were never scared. They fought for death, and Hagi could not think of anything he feared more than death. It was something else. Something bordering on fear.
The Gold charged forward, leading the rest of the Elites with it.
The Gold seemed slower than the other Elites, but more inevitable at the same time, like a tank. The flash of blue light from its energy blade caused many of the Marines to back away.
The Gold quickly came upon a pair of Marines, ignorant of the bullets ricocheting off its energy shield; the Gold swung the massive blade instantly decapitating both frozen Marines. Hagi could barely see the cauterised neck as his own shots flared off the Elites shielding.
Two sniper bullets to its chest caused the Elite stagger back, its shield gone. A series of armour piercing rounds impacted on the Gold's physical armour, and the alien collapsed onto the ground.
Five Marines were killed before the remaining Elites were taken down.
Hagi, all the time, kept wondering why the Gold did that. They were known for their ferociousness in battle, but they were rarely blind with battle rage like the others. They were also smart: Too smart to waste three Elites and itself to kill only seven Marines. The Gold would have done everything it could to take out as many of the Marines as possible, and they would have lost much more if the Elites chose the passage way as their last stand.
The cheer from the surviving Marines reminded Hagi of what he had to do.
Collins peered into the gloom.
The passageway stretched into darkness, but he could tell it was going down. How odd that this narrow passage was so long. Suddenly, he was overcome with a sense of fear. What was down there, and why hadn't the Elites fell back to a better position from inside? He glanced over at the Sergeant, who was looking intensely into the darkness.
Hagi's eyes furrowed. Collins wondered, for a moment, what Hagi was thinking. He quickly reprimanded himself. Who cared what the damn Sergeant was thinking? The bastard was just barely able to take down that Gold so close to them.
"Send some marines down there," he ordered Hagi. The Lieutenant spat at a dead Grunt, and he turned back to look at his Company.
Hagi kept looking down the passage way, barely hearing the order.
After another moment, the Sergeant got up.
"Corporal!" he shouted. As a Marine appeared, Hagi waved in another one. "Henderson, you'll take Private Jackson and see where this passage leads."
The two Marines looked into the shadow of the passageway and turned back to stare at the Sergeant.
Hagi's eyes flashed in anger at the Marines.
"Did I make myself clear, Corporal?"
"Yessir!" was Henderson's terse reply.
The two moved quickly into the dark narrow opening.
Private Jackson tried to lower the bulky assault rifle in the gloomy corridor. The sense of overwhelming fear and the narrowness of the space of around prevented him. He kept the gun pointed forward.
Henderson had no such problems, Jackson noted with some disgust. The Corporal had his shotgun pointing at the ground, but kept his eyes alert.
The downward incline of the passage way got darker the deeper they went. Jackson felt the oppressive sensation of darkness grow stronger. Why was this corridor so damn long? Jackson stopped wondering as they were suddenly on a horizontal surface. He spared a glance back at the Corporal and the entrance opening. They must have travel only fifty meters, but already, the light seemed so distant.
Henderson motioned the Private to keep walking and turn on his assault rifle torch.
Jackson obliged, switching on the torch on his rifle, and instantly saw the walls around him.
"What the..." Jackson trailed off. His mouth opened wide.
There were symmetrical and intricate patterns etched into the surfaces of the wall. It seemed to be made of two materials, one darker and the other lighter. The lighter sat on top, where the patterns were more intricate, repeating as far as the light beam from the rifle reached. The darker material only had a simple pattern bordering in odd blocks, but Jackson did not think there was any partition: Both pieces seemed to be one slab of their own.
"Well, that settles it," muttered Henderson. "This ain't no Covie place."
"Are crap, I lost to Will again!"
Henderson chuckled and prodded Jackson forward. After walking a few more paces, Henderson placed his hand on the Private's shoulder to stop him.
He could see some sort of door.
Damn, damn, damn! Collins ducked as another blue plasma bolt lashed out at him.
There was a few more Covenant still alive. Damn Hagi! That fool told him they cleared the camp.
Collins happened to forget that Hagi only cleared out the larger exterior perimeters of the Covenant camp. It was the Lieutenant's job to clear out the interior. He was in such a rush to execute a perfect encirclement of the group of Elites that he forgot to make sure there was no surviving Covenant.
The two Elites were discovered when a group of Marines were trying to uncover what was beneath a tipped-over-slab of Covenant metal. The group was quickly killed, and the Company of Marines were now trying to kill the last surviving Elites.
"Hagi, kill those damn Elites!" Collins shouted into the air.
The Sergeant was crouched low behind an outcrop of boulders. Collins saw him get up and throw a fragmentation grenade at the pair who was firing wildly at the Marines. The grenade landed and rolled between them, and exploded. The Elites were thrown away from each other, landing in a heap on the hard earth.
Bullets riddled their prone bodies, and impaled themselves through the grass and dirt around the Elites. Blood and dirt flew into the air, and landed heavily with sickening thuds against the Elites' chests.
Nobody ordered a cease fire, and every Marine's clip was spent before the shooting was over.
The door was of three parts: A top, and two supporting lower sections. It looked like the three sections will separate from each other, sliding neatly into the side walls.
Henderson could see some transparent materials dotted around the door in rectangles and squares. The Corporal had a feeling that the door was inactive. Maybe the fact that it was completely dark, where some parts of it indicated that there should be some sort of light, gave it away.
Jackson edged forward, and tried to look into the large rectangle on the top section. It looked like some kind of window to the other side.
Henderson suppressed a cry of surprise when the Private bumped into him.
Henderson grunted, and said, "Keep that damn light up."
Jackson mumbled an apology and raised his rifle so the light beam danced off the top section.
The Corporal took a step forward and gingerly touched the door. Cold. He felt around the edges and the transparent materials.
Henderson looked through the 'window', and could only see darkness.
Jackson saw this, and moved closer so his torch was closer.
It was no good. Henderson could only see a foot further, and it was very dim at that.
Suddenly, Henderson flinched back as something flashed past his view.
Jackson let out a yelp of fear and backed away from the door by half a dozen paces. The light faded more the further Jackson retreated.
Henderson was so intent on the door; he barely noticed the fading light. When he did, he cursed loudly and backed away towards Jackson.
The two stood there waiting.
Abruptly, a heavy thud against the door resonated along the passage way. Something could be seen moving behind the door, and Jackson gulped.
A second thud caused the door to groan. Was that a bump? The third bulked the door inward. They could see that the door was indeed meant to open apart in three sections.
"C'mon man, let's get the fuck outta 'ere!" Jackson cried.
Another crash against the door and the lower right partition bent out towards the pair. Jackson started running out, leaving the stunned Corporal in darkness.
Henderson didn't care. He watched as the upper section buckled and bent towards him. A large hole in the centre grew larger as it was being wrenched apart. He felt, more than saw, something lashing out at him.
He gripped his shotgun tighter and slowly raised the weapon. A bead of perspiration snaked its way down the niche of his neck.
The door smashed apart; the creature came at him from darkness, and the Corporal fired.
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