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Pride and Honor by Tom Murphy
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Pride and Honor Part 1
Date: 03 January 2002, 12:14 am
Three Weeks After the Escape From Halo
I am just a marine. One person. Easily killed, armed with a pistol and an assault rifle. We expect to win the battle? Maybe. The Master Chief has taken command of all military activity. He has drawn out and attack plan on a Covenant ship which the humans nicknamed the Ramos. One hundred thousand Marines, and one Spartan II. That's almost all the people have left in terms of a military. Even after a worldwide threat of destruction the different countries or types of government cannot find a way to come together to fight. Our numbers are weak. Instead of fighting together as one, we fight separate, as many. Its no wonder we're losing. The covenant has all sorts of species fighting us, small and big, smart and stupid. However we cannot fight together because a difference in skin or government? Yes. That is why the Covenant will destroy mankind.
They fight under one religion; we fight under many different ones. But for the sake of survival, can we not put this behind us? Many countries have allied, mostly the stronger ones, and on the eastern side of the Earth, but still it is not enough. I will die fighting and they will die arguing. I am an American, and have been drafted for the Marines. I am an American and did not choose to fight, but am glad I now have the chance. I always had the chance, but would not take it unless I was pushed to do so. I will die in this battle. I know that. But when I do, I will die with more honor than those pigs that squabble with each other back on earth. The master chief is coming to speak to us now, and out of the one hundred thousand of us that stand here in lines facing him, we all stand proud.
"Marines!" the Master chief said emotionally, "In one day, you will all go into battle. You help prove to those alien bastards that humans are better than they are. That you are better. Instead of simply destroying their ship we will claim it. We will steal their weaponry, we will steal their armor, and we will steal their pride!" Cheering sprung out from the thousands of marines and the Chief waited for them to finish. "How will we do this? You may be asking yourself. Well, we will have the Earth's most skilled pilots circle this ship to confuse them and try to dismantle any ship weapons for us. Then when they are concentrated on the small fighters ships we will burst in through the side using a one-way airlock shield. We burst through all at once fend them off. After this they will probably try to do the same, attack us as a huge mob, and as soon as you see them do this, chuck every grenade you have. By this time we will have won. And then, we can figure out how their weapons work, how their ships work, and most off all, how the vehicles work." Another cheer echoed out through the room but I didn't cheer. Instead I stared up at the Chief with extreme admiration. Although genetically enhanced, he was the type of man we were fighting for. He stood looking prouder and less afraid then any of us. Still in full armor but without his helmet, his black hair lay flat upon his head and his chin pointed straight out, and they eyes showed he was more than willing to die for his world. Just like the rest of us. I took out my family heirloom, which I brought with me everywhere. An American quarter from the 20th century which hand the words, E Pluribus Unum inscribed on it, which was Latin for "Out of Many, One."
I am not a afraid.
One day later I found myself inside the biggest transport ship I'd ever seen. There were no seats and there were perhaps twenty-five thousand marines inside this ship. All of whom were standing looking for something to hold onto as the ship bounced and rocked wildly during the passage through space. It should have been smooth- but for some reason it wasn't. It must some sort of space turbulence because we were not being shot at. I pushed my way through the crowds of people and made my way to the small round window. Outside was a huge dark purple ship about three times the size of our drop ship completely engulfed in the blackness of space. Our ship was cloaked so it had no idea of our arrival, the only way the could spot us is by noticing the slight blur cloaking makes. The bumping stopped and we gently slid past each star. The Covenant ship drew closer and closer, and then I noticed it was firing, but not at us. But at the hardly visible small fighter ships. Bullets flew through space unaffected by gravity or any force and rammed themselves against the enemy guns.
Hot pink plasma shot out of the enemy turret guns and flung through space barely missing one the fighter ships. Two more fighter ships appeared around the side of the Covenant War Cruiser and commenced firing at the guns. Then there was a small 'pop' as the Covenant gun flew into pieces sending a few small and short-lived balls of flame into space. A bullet shell gently tapped against the window and then floated away.
The small fighters kept attacking and our transports moved in quietly and stealthily. The dim lighting of the transport made it easier to see outside and harder to see inside. I knew we would be heading in soon and so I had to think of a way for me to survive. I looked through the nameless faces and saw a man with a smooth face a dark brown eyes. His helmet was strapped on tightly and his head up proud. He toted his gun across his chest and kept the butt between his elbow and ribcage. I decided I would follow him. He looked like he knew what he was doing.
I looked back out the window and saw the Covenant War Cruiser had tripled in size as we had neared it, and I could see a man floating over to the side of the Cruiser attached to the wire, with small square machine blinking green in his right hand. He placed it onto the Cruiser and began pushing buttons. He then pushed hard backward with his feet floated back to the transport quickly. Less than a moment later the side of the cruiser exploded sending balls of flame everywhere his soon curled up into themselves and disappeared. Then a bright bluish screen covered the newly made hole and the transport began moving quickly towards it.
I looked back at the people who started to look scared and some were puking onto the other Marines shoes. Screams of regret shot out through the ship but I just stood, with my head up, saying nothing. I stepped over to man I had chosen as a sort of partner.
Roughly two minutes later a loud mechanical sound filled my ears and the transports doors started opening. Immediately I heard blasts of plasma and screams of pain. Then, bullets shots. Then a huge tidal wave of people came flowing through the doors, me included, and began fiercely fending away the Grunts and few Elites. I looked back when I got out and saw the four other transport ships and the thousands of men flowing out of the too. Then a plasma ball flew by my waist and I propped my Assault Rifle onto my shoulder and began firing, being careful not to hit the marines in front of me. We never stopped moving forward or firing and the Grunts squeals or pain never stopped. The marine's screams were much fewer than that of the covenant. Shortly after, we had defeated the first wave. That when we were ordered by the Master Chief to hold our positions. We stood waiting for sometime, in utter silence. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of my face. My hair was damp under my helmet and my heart was pounding against my chest. The suspense was almost unbearable. Then I heard a sound. It was a faint 'clink' at first but it slowly grew in volume. Until I saw an entire army or at least sixty five thousand Covenant about thirty feet in front of us. For a few moments we just stared at each other until I decided to get out my pistol and try to snipe them, even though the zoom was weak. I looked down at my hand as I reached into my shirt to take out the pistol and when I had it out I heard the guy next to me whisper something in total and absolute terror.
"Oh shit-"
"What is it?" I asked, from his behavior even I was a little shaken.
"It hunters," he whispered and began walking backward in terror bumping and tripping as he went.
I looked back at the Covenant. Now it was my turn to be afraid. One line of hunters stood in front of the Covenant standing upright. They must have been twelve feet. They were a somewhat light shade of blue and held a huge metal gray I felt like puking. Instead I just looked up at the bright fluorescent light and tried to think about something else. I thought of the chief, and how great he was. How he managed to stop the Flood. The deadly group of aliens who could have wiped out the entire universe, how he saved hundreds of marines from sure death, back on the destroyed Halo.
A loud roar from one of the hunters interrupted my thoughts as they leaned over and got into battle stance. I saw an elite in front of them all push his arm forward signaling an attack. At the same time the chief yelled to us to chuck every grenade we owned. But before we could huge green mortars flew through the open air into the first line of marines who yelled and the fell over dead. I felt a drop of blood smack against my face and I brought my hand up to clean my forehead. That's when we got our chance; I pulled my frag grenades out and flung it through the ship. It landed next to one of the Hunters with and he rolled away just before it exploded. Seconds later thousands more grenades went sailing over my head and landed with multiple metal clinks on the ground near the Covenant, mostly near the Hunters. Screams of death floated through the air but when the smoke cleared it looked as though we hadn't killed a single Hunter. This did not falter our hope though and another hundred thousand grenades were flung into the air. Still no Hunters were dead. Each marine had two grenades left. And after the third grenade was used there were seven dead Hunters on the ground. After the fourth there were fifteen dead Hunters corpses on the ground. That left five more. One turned around and began what looked like speaking to the Captain of the Covenant. I had heard that on shot with a bullet on the orange spot of a Hunter would kill him immediately.
So I whipped zoomed in with my pistol, aimed at the unprotected orange spot, and fired. With a small grunt the Hunter fell over dead. I looked around for another one that was turned around and there were none so instead I looked for a plasma grenade from a dead Covenant body, found two and chucked one at a Hunter. He saw it coming though and brought up his shield to protect himself, and the blue ball bounced off his metal shield, and exploded hurting no one. I looked for a more vulnerable target and saw one charging up his mortar. I aimed as best I could and tossed the grenade. It landed directly on his head and stuck there, but not before he let his mortar out which came and killed five Marines with deafening strength. When the grenade exploded on him, the hunter died. That left only three more. The chief shouted at us all for attention, and then told us we were to charge with full strength at the Covenant, using any grenades, ammo, armor, or shield we could find. And then he pushed his arm through the air and that was the signal for us all to start.
At this every last Marine, even those who backed away in horror at the site of the Hunters began running forth waiting for a chance to kill.
Pride and Honor Part 2
Date: 03 January 2002 8:42 pm
Huge crashes from the sound of the mortars echoed through my head. Screams of dying marines rung out into space. Death himself was walking among all of us. I looked back at the transport ships and saw that there were snipers crouching on top of them picking of Covenant soldiers one by one. I kept running and took out my assault rifle again.
Before the first mortar I was at least the eleventh line back, now I am the third. I wouldn't be long until I was on the front. I stopped moving and brought the aimer of the rifle up to my eye and switched it to burst to increase the accuracy. People rushed past me bumping into me making it harder to aim, but eventually I got a clear shot of one of the Elites and fired. The shells shot out and fell to the floor and the Elite's shield rippled with a yellow glow. I fired another burst, and another until the shield stopped rippling and purple blood spurted out behind the Elite as the bullets tore through his skin. I fired one last burst and watched as the elite fell over screaming and dribbling blood.
Suddenly, when I looked up I saw a Hunter charging at me full speed, with his shield up high. He was closing in fast so I switched the rifle from burst to auto and began firing, but it seemed to have no effected and the bullets just bounced off his shield. I was going to die. Just then a bullet whizzed by ear and pounded through the Hunter's head spattering his purple head all over my face and clothes. I looked back at the snipers and one of them gave me a brief wave.
I turned back to the Covenant and realized that the Hunter that was just killed was the last one and that the Covenant's numbers were wearing thin. We were winning. This would be a great victory for the Earth. A very great victory. I took out my pistol and began shooting the Grunts. Squeals of their unknown language spilled out everywhere and it was hard to hear now. Until I saw one whip out a plasma grenade and throw it into the air. I quickly glanced at the one I had chosen to follow who was still standing and fighting fiercely. Then I looked back at the grenade. It was sailing through the air and the landed on a Marine and stuck to him.
"Oh no!" I heard him yell desperately. He blew up kill three other Marines and spraying human body pieces all over the area. I was now the second line and there were very few Covenant soldiers left. I kept running.
I could hear myself breathing hard and my hard felt like it was about to explode. The man in front of me was hit with a plasma ball and toppled over dead with a small yelp. I took his place and found myself face to face with a Grunt who I hit hard in the face with the butt of my gun. The Grunt squealed and died and I stole his grenades. I looked next to me at my 'partner' and saw he was still toting his gun proudly and fighting with honor. I looked ahead of me and saw a Gold Elite, red in skin and armed with a plasma rifle. I whacked him with my assault rifle and then fired at him using an entire magazine.
Making sure not to give him time to let his shield recharge I whacked him again before changing magazine and once I had finished reloading shot him dead. He fell to his knees screaming in a deep sub-human voice.
I heard a human voice next to me let out a small yell and I looked over and it was my partner. Blood flew off his body into my face and I could feel the hotness of the red liquid. However instead of falling over, he just kept moving. Kept running. Kept shooting. Held his head up high. Another plasma ball flew into his arm causing him to drop his assault rifle and lunge over a little bit. "Dammit!" I heard him yell. However, he still did not fall, with his strong arm we took out his pistol and managed to take out four more Covenant soldiers until a last plasma ball flew into his face and sent him toppling over backwards. Before the ball hit him however he managed to hit the Grunt that shot him in the head with a bullet.
I ran passed his body trying not to let it bother me. I shot every Covenant soldier I saw, and killed every Covenant soldier I shot. "Die you stupid bastards!" I yelled as I suddenly found myself separate from the blob and surrounded by Grunts. I took out three with my Assault Rifle, holding the trigger until it clicked, killed one more with my pistol, and killed the last two with the butt of my AR.
I joined back up with the marines who were all screaming and yelling and looked around for more Covenant but saw none. That's when I realized the Marines weren't screaming, they were cheering!
I myself rose up my gun and began yelling in joy. This would be the turning point of the war. This would be the beginning of the end. Mankind will prevail. We searched the ship for Covenant survivors and turned them into our slaves and interpreters. Some told us how to work the machines and others told us how to defend the plasma balls. When we had finished with them, we killed them. I took out my coin and rolled it around in my hand. E Pluribus Unum the words rolled around in my head. We won.
I soon found myself face to face with the Chief who stared at me with his visor up. "Marine," he said to me. "I saw that trick you did with the Hunter. They teach you that in training?"
"Training sir?"
"Yes training." He said somewhat angrily.
"They don't train us. We're all they have. And they need us to get out here quickly. So they just give us a gun, so us how to shoot it, and dress us up and send us to combat."
"No training?! That's insane. Well then, for the next month I will be training you Marines. And you, you will be a Captain."
"Me, sir?"
He shook his head and then slid his vision to my face. "What's your name Marine?"
"Scott Thompson from the 43rd regiment and 18th legionary."
At the word legionary the Chiefs face showed a faint sign of a smile. "Do you know where that word comes from, Thompson?" He asked me.
"Legionary? Yes, sir. It's a Roman word."
"I'm surprised, not many people are so in touch with the most important parts of the History of War."
I thought back to my high school teacher who had taught us about Rome and Latin, and Greece and Greek. How she had lectured us for hours about how smart these groups were with war. About the story of Hannibal, about Gaius Marius. And most of all, about how she reminded us constantly how we would know more about war tactics than any other student on Earth when she was doing it. I hated her then, but now I suppose I should thank her.
"I had a good teacher, sir."
"Come into another room where we can speak more privately and sit down." As he said this I realized there were two Marines watching us conspicuously and that the Chief and I were standing up. The Chief and I moved into a small room that appeared to have been and office.
Once we were seated there Chief spoke slightly more freely. "Do you realize, Thompson, that this is the turning point of the war? Because now we can figure out how to defend against plasma, how to manufacture plasma weapons, and most of all, where the Covenant planet is."
I had known this the entire time; it was basically all I could think about.
"Yes, sir."
"Well right now, I am going to get Cortana-"
"Cortana, sir?" I accidentally interrupted him, yet he did not seem angry.
"Cortana is the A.I. I had uploaded into my helmet. She can hack into systems and do tons of other useful things. I uploaded her in here," he said tapping his helmet, "right before the Pillar of Autumn crash landed onto Halo."
He didn't need to explain anymore. It had been only three weeks and everyone knew the story of the Master Chiefs Legendary acts on Halo.
"You should probably get to work on some sort of training program," he instructed to me and turned around and started talking to himself- or to Cortana.
I eventually found my way to the ships and bridge and saw every surviving Marine just hanging around leisurely having nothing to do. I stepped up on a small square platform and yelled to them. "The Master Chief has instructed me to train you. Any of you who were trained in military camp can step up here now." About three hundred soldiers pushed their way through the crowd and stood around me.
"You all will help me instruct these other Marines. Turn them into brave warriors. Each of you will be assigned a group to take maybe tomorrow or so and a training program. The training will go on for one to two months. That's basically it for now." I said slightly unprofessionally.
Next I had a question to ask them. "Does anyone know where the plasma research has been going on?"
"The East Wing," a few anonymous voices shouted back to me.
"Well, that's it Marines, go back to whatever you were doing. I began the walk to the east wing looking at every single thing until I had gotten there. But while I was walking something caught my eye about the walls. Every single inch of every wall had a sort of glossy look to it.
When I had reached the research center I saw that the scientists had already begun work on new shields and armor. Although it didn't seem to be working. They had set up dummies at the other end of the room and were firing fully charged plasma pistols at them. The dummies held up small metal shields that looked like iron and steel. When the plasma ball had struck the shield it just burnt right through the shield and toasted the dummy. I sat and watched for somewhere to an hour as they tried every shield they had made before hand. None worked.
Finally I decided to mention to one of the scientists what I had noticed. I couldn't be sure, but maybe the gloss had some defensive significance. Maybe. "Um, sorry to bother you," I said scratching my head, "but I noticed something on the way here."
The scientist seemed annoyed, maybe not so much at me but at his totally failing shields. "Well, go on. What did you see?" He said in a condescending tone.
"Well first of all, the walls here are not affected by plasma bullets-at all. And, um, well I noticed while walking here, that there's a sort of glossy look to them I haven't seen on any other ship."
Suddenly the scientist perked up a little bit grabbed a needle and told me to follow him. When we reached he spoke again, "Yes this is quite peculiar." He said nodding his head. He stuck the needle about a centimeter into the wall and took a sample of the 'gloss'. He told me that for the next few hours he would be doing something I would find very boring and told me to come back in four hours.
When I had arrived for the second time, after eating and taking a short nap he told me the great news. "It's perfect!" He said with a great smile.
I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"The 'glossy' substance on the walls is some sort of mineral that absorbs huge amounts of heat! Watch!" He said shoving a huge shield into me arms.
"Crouch down and get ready!"
I went to the other side of the room not even thinking that I would get hurt until those words came out. "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit." Every muscle in my body tensed as I held the gray shield in front of me not bother to look. Then I heard the whoosh of a plasma ball shooting out of its weapon and I looked next to me and saw it sailing past. "Oops," I heard the scientist say.
Another shot was fired and this time I felt it hit my shield but it barely felt like anything hit at all. It was more of a tap than a hit. "See?" the scientist yelled happily, "It's perfect!"
In two months the troops were well trained and the Chief was setting us up for another mission. This would be something much bigger than a Mission to claim a ship. We were to claim an entire planet.
We decided we would not use plasma weapons because the Covenant is probably well protected against them. Instead we would use our regular human weapons. The only reason plasma grenades working are because the gloss has a point where it heats up too much and kills the owner. But if only a small amount is fired on it at a time, it slowly expels the heat without any harm done to the owner.
The marines had been taught to use the Roman's Turtle formation in which the front lines held their shield out to protect from oncoming fire, and the other lines put their shields up to protect from above fire. When we did this we moved forward in a crouched position very slowly. When we were in this formation we looked like one person. E Pluribus Unum.
We can win this.
Pride and Honor Part 3
Date: 10 January 2002, 11:58 pm
"Be on the ready Marines! The doors will open in approximately three minutes!" A million clicks of cocked guns filled the air. In three minutes we would be heading into a dense rainforest like area. The most heavily guarded area on the planet. The Marines thought they had no reason to fear. I knew the truth though.
Two weeks before today we had been sending messages across the radio back to earth that we thought were safe. However one of these messages had been intercepted. The Covenant had cracked the code and now knew everything, but the arrogant bastards in charge, (besides the chief) thought we could take them on anyway.
The Covenant knew where we planned to land, how many troops we had, and most of all, they knew about the shields. My thoughts were interrupted by the huge sound of the doors opening and the Captain yelling something to us. Once again we all began running out of the ship. Not I though. I was checked for special talents and they assigned me to sniper for this battle. So I let everyone rush past me and timidly stuck my head out the doors looking for a good tree.
When I had found one and positioned myself perfectly, I stuck the scope near my eye, closed the other tightly, zoomed in twice and looked for a target. I found one. A gold Elite. The captain of the first Covenant battle force. All around him I could see little Grunts falling over, as the 'turtle' moved in closer.
I aimed directly at his head, and fired. But somehow, before the bullet reached him he moved, jumping down off the rock he was standing on. He was killing a Marine that had tried to rush them. One hit in the back of the head with the Elites gun and the Marine was down.
I aimed again. Being careful this time, because the last shot may have given away my location. This time I aimed for his eye. I waited one moment, though I'm not sure why, and fired. The kickback on the gun was more than I had expected and it rammed back into my cheek and made me only hit the arm of the Elite.
"Dammit," I whispered to myself. I aimed once more, being wearier of the kickback, but noticed a Grunt next to him was looking straight at me. It fired three times sending the plasma balls flying toward my face. I aimed quickly at its head at fired and watched only a second of it falling limply to the muddy ground. I brought my shield over my face and felt three taps against it and the shield warm up slightly.
I could see the Marines who weren't part of the turtle running back and forth, ducking and rolling, and always firing. Yet they were being killed quicker than I could count by elites. Luckily there were no Hunters this time.
Suddenly I heard an insanely happy shrieking of a Marine behind me, and the tiny hum of an engine. The humming drew closer and I pulled my eye away from the rifle to see what it was. Two Marines were driving a warthog straight to the massive cluster of Covenant, screaming enthusiastically the whole way. The one in the back fired like he was the only one on the battlefield, perhaps taking out more Marines than Covenant. However the driver seemed to know what he was doing, and plowed through the forces, missing very few, and clearing an entire row out. Skidding and turning hard he was taking out more Covenant than we may have the entire battle.
Then one plasma bolt struck the gunner, who mouthed a yell and held down the trigger and kept firing, this time only getting Covenant. Then another plasma bolt and another, and another, and he keeled over onto the gun and died pulling the trigger down, firing bullets into the air.
More plasma was fired at the jeep, this time at the driver who wasn't as easy to hit. He skidded and veered often, making him a difficult target to keep up with. Yet finally, after taking out many more Covenant, plasma balls came in from his left knocking him out of his seat and onto the ground.
Then battle just stopped. The turtle stopped moving, the Marines stopped firing and the Covenant gathered around the driver's body bending over as the leader did something to it. The Marines just stared at the truck, which sat motionless except the gun that just fired into the air continually.
The gunner's body just lay slumped on the gun, holding in an upright position, so it remained firing into space. Finally, the Covenant, all stood up straight and watched the Gold Elite, whose arm was purple with blood. In his other hand however, he held something. He yelled something out in his language to us, and chucked whatever it was into the air, and over to the Marines.
I pushed my eye up to the scope so I could see what it was that was now sailing through the clouds. I caught a short glimpse of it, and realized it was the driver's heart. The air was ripping blood from it, and the pressure turned into more of a flattening ball, than a heart. I looked at it without the zoom and watched as it landed with a thud on the ground next to a Marine, who looked at it, than looked at the Covenant with extreme hate.
"Die you fuckers!" He yelled, and began charging straight at them, firing non-stop. He reached the front line and hit the Grunts around him with the butt of his AR furiously. He took out three or four, but they fired at him and hit him. One shot and he was still up, killed to more. Another shot, and he was still up, killed three more Grunts. He swiped at a Grunt with his shield sending it onto the ground with force. One more plasma bolt came which he blocked with his shield, but then the captain snuck up behind him, grabbed his head and neck, and turned hard.
The man fell to the ground dribbling blood.
A huge angry cheer erupted into the forest and the turtle began moving again, and every marine fighting more fiercely than ever. I took my aim on the Gold Elite. I pulled my eye about two and half inches from the sight and fired as soon as I had the crosshairs on his head. The Elite let out a huge roar of pain and fell limply forward into a gray puddle.
Once again, the Covenant number were quickly wearing away and the Marines were winning. It seems the death of that Covenant captain had been quite a loss to the Covenant because when they saw him die, many of them gathered around his body sorrowfully. However I did not give them time to mourn, and I shot them all with the help of the other snipers.
The turtle was very close to the Covenant front lines and was just destroying anything that got in its way.
The snipers made it look like the Grunts were suffering a massive disease, because it seemed they were falling down for nothing. And they fell before blood managed to come out.
The first Covenant force was dealt with, but they probably had much, much more. Then I heard loud clicking of metal armor and very low grunts and roars. I knew exactly what it was. Hunters. They all stood in their attack stance, probably about eight feet tall. Two separate groups marched in from each side of the forest, behind what was left of the first Covenant force. There must have been about fifty-seventy hunters. One Hunter, presumably the captain, stood full height and looked like he was talking to them. He was moving fast and looked impossible to hit.
The chief had taught the Marines about the Hunters weak spot. Everyone had the chance to kill them, because they were facing sideways, and the orange was somewhat visible. I aimed quickly. I fired and before my bullet hit my target I saw at least seven other Hunters fall over dead nearby.
Then eight more. And then more were falling than I could count. Eventually the Hunters realized what was happing and turned around forwards. There were still maybe, twenty to twenty-five left.
I switched my aim to their heads and began firing, but it wasn't enough. They managed to get off a good three or four mortars before falling. The mortars were destroying the turtle.
When they hit you could see the Marines not only being burnt by their shields but flying backwards over the heads of the other lines, sometimes even landing on those shields facing up. I took out two or three more until I heard some loud behind me.
The unmistakable hum of a Scorpion. A loud pop, whoosh, and bang. The missile was flung through the tops of the forest trees and right down to the Hunters. However it didn't kill any. I knew it wouldn't. It takes at least two missiles two kill a hunter. The same whoosh and bang. Two Hunters fell this time.
Then more hums, three or four more. From behind the Hunters came two Scouts and a CBT. (Covenant Battle Tank) Then I heard a whoosh; one much different than from that of the Scorpion's missile, or CBT's blue mortar. I looked up and saw a banshee fly over the Marines heads and start firing.
Luckily we had something to counter this with. We brought eight fighter ships with us, and the same pilots who distracted the Battle Cruiser. A moment later I saw them in the sky fighting the banshee. Yet I realized they had five banshees, not one.
It was the most amazing battle I had ever seen, both types of ships maneuvering around with such ease. Swerving around the trees and firing every time the other team came into sight. I couldn't watch this forever and I had to get back to sniping.
I took at two more Hunters and then took a look at the CBT's progress. It was smoking badly but it had almost demolished our turtle. It didn't even bother with the Scorpion which was flinging missiles at it maybe every ten seconds. I saw one more missile fly into it and it exploded in a burst of wild yellow and red colors.
There were only three or four Hunters left now and maybe twenty elites. The Warthog had been knocked onto its side long ago and had run out of ammo. The gunner's body still lay slumped over the gun though.
Now the Marines were losing number fast, and the turtle was much smaller than when it had started. I saw only two Marines fighting outside of the turtle but all the sniper were still alive.
I looked back at the Covenant. No Hunters were left, no Grunts, I saw nothing in the air, the Ghosts now lay as smoking trash on the muddy floor of the jungle. I saw only three elites, who fell in about five seconds.
This wasn't all though. Now we had to go claim the building in which the planet ruler dwelled. I couldn't understand how we would do this with such small numbers.
I started climbing out of the tree but my foot slipped both my legs fell away. My head slid away and I hit it hard on a branch. I could feel blood dripping down my face. I was holding onto a branch my one hand, and I was quickly losing my grip.
I fell. The trees were about thirty feet up, and on the way down I hit brambles and branches and stained the tree with my blood. My vision turned a disgusting shade of pink I dribbled blood. Pain was searing through my body and I landed with a thud and a splash in a small puddle of mud.
I turned my quickly weakening head to the ground and saw the thousands upon thousands of bodies across the muddy floor. The mud was mostly red and so were the puddles. I heard a sort of hum and turned my head up to the sky and saw a drop ship which looked like it could have carried twenty-five thousand people coming onto our body strewn war zone.
Why should I die such a death without honor? I thought to myself. What will happen to man and mankind?
With my last ounce of strength I reached into my pocket and fumbled for my coin, but I dropped and I watched as it fell with a 'sploosh' into the reddening puddle I lay in. Then my vision faded out black.
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