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First off, I have labeled the white sergeant (the very same one of Silent Cartographer fame) Sergeant Daux. I have collaborated with Traumatized Marine to bring you a story that few have thought about.. As my first Halo fan fiction story, I would love to hear comments- email me at jamirus9@bestweb.net
-Jamirus99

Update: Yes, I did find out after I submitted it that Sarge's name is Stacker, named after the voice actor who played him. Thanks for all the great comments: I really appreciate it!


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Sergeant Stacker ran down a hallway, hoping this one would lead him out of the facility. Behind him, three-dozen infection Flood hopped along after him. Sarge turned around momentarily to fire his shotgun at them, finally blowing away the last of his pursuers.
"Damn it." He said as he kneeled and shoved some more rounds into his 'gauge. He was running low on ammo, and sanity, come to think of it. He had not had a peaceful day in his life since, well, since before Reach. Although Stacker had served for 10 years in the military, and had turned down many promotions (finally having stopped taking them at First Sergeant), he had just about had it with this place called Halo. He had served with his men proudly in many campaigns against the Covenant, but nothing could have prepared him for this. After making a 'blind jump' (as Stacker was beginning to believe the jump wasn't so random after all) the Pillar of Autumn had emerged from Slipspace near a "giant hula-hoop" as his sergeant friend Johnson called Halo.
Stacker got to his feet and began jogging up the hallway, going as quietly as he could, hoping to avoid more of those horrible monster things. Even thinking about them chilled his blood, as he remembered what had happened to his Second Squad. Storming the beach on the Silent Cartographer island was different- Sarge had trained all his life to fight the Covenant, and besides, they had had Master Chief with them. He wished the Chief were here now- the Spartan's training was clearly superior to that of Sarge's marines.
Up ahead, the hallway began to widen out, and Sarge realized he had finally found his way out of the building. As he cautiously walked out into the swamp and got his bearings, he realized with horror where he was- the entrance to the building that he and Second Squad had been covering when the monsters had appeared. Stacker was surprised to see all the bodies of his fallen comrades were gone, and nearby in the swamp, a fire was burning. Sarge walked into the remains of a camp, and the first thing he saw was two blood-smeared marines, with their Assault Rifles aimed at him. They lowered them instantly and saluted.
"Sarge.." One marine said slowly, "Is there anyone else?" I have to pull myself together Sarge thought, and get these soldiers out of here: though the sheer moments of horror had almost overwhelmed him in the structure, he had now had the lives of other men on his hands.
"No marine, there isn't. As commanding officer now, I need both of your names and ranks," Sarge said, his crisp voice at its usual ordering tone.
"Sir, yessir! I'm Private Bryant!" the marine said.
"And I'm Private Furley," the other marine added. Both of them looked horrible, and their almost traumatized tones told Sarge all he needed to know.
"Alright boys, tell me what happened here, and which squad you were assigned to.
"Sir," Private Furley began, "we were part of Fire Team Zulu." We were one of the last Fire Teams off of the Pillar of Autumn- our bumblebee launched when she was almost in the atmosphere. We landed in a snow-covered region- our lieutenant said we should stay near the bumblebee and await pick-up by a Pelican. We weren't there long when the Covenant started arriving. Apparently, we were near Halo's control room, and the Covies viewed us as a threat. We actually were holding our own for a while, until those big Covenant Hunters showed up. The lieutenant got himself killed trying to act like a hero, but just when we thought all hope was lost, the Master Chief showed up in a Scorpion tank with some more of our squad! He shot those bastards up so quick-"
Sarge interrupted: "That's enough Private- get to the point! I want to know how you got here, and how you managed to get out of that facility alive.NOW!"
"Right," the flustered Furley began. "Victor 933 picked us up to serve as reinforcements for Keyes; he had just arrived at the weapons cache building, and wanted as many units as he could get to guard against possible Covenant attacks. The pilot set our squad down at the edge of the swamp, and we went into that building from another entrance, which Captain Keyes then told us to guard. About a half-hour later, these.. things, horrible things, began to attack us. We heard Second Squad's distress call, and figured we were surrounded- and those monsters kept on coming! I saw one of my friends get taken down by twelve of them, and he started twitching and screaming. Oh God, the screams!"
"Calm down, CALM DOWN!" Sergeant Stacker yelled. "I went through the same HELL that you went through, and I don't intend to DIE out here because you're yellin' and screaming!" Stacker felt himself show a lot of emotion as he shouted above the Private. The privates saw it too, and Furley stopped yelling and sobbing.
"Maybe," Furley meekly said, looking ashamed of him-self for having broke down in front of a Sergeant. And to think he had joined the Navy for adventure- they never mentioned the blood and gore and screaming in the reports. "You could tell us what happened to you, Sarge.." Furley trailed off.
"You know what soldier, that's a good idea, but let's be quiet now, and I'll be quick- we have to move out of this area soon, before those monsters come back!" Stacker found himself relating how he was the Sergeant in command of the Second Squad, and all of their adventures since they had landed on Halo: being picked up by Foehammer after Master Chief saved them, and brought to the Command Shuttle.
Stacker had been in charge there for a while, organizing the marines to rescue Captain. Sergeant Johnson had showed up, and although they didn't really like each other, they became friends. When Second Squad had ponyed-up to be backup for First Squad and Master Chief, who were going to rescue Captain Keyes, Stacker had to use his newfound influence over a drunken Johnson to save his life.
However it turned out that Second Squad wasn't needed by Master Chief, and a day later, Foehammer returned with another Pelican, and Captain Keyes flying a Covenant dropship! The marines assembled had been given a choice- go with Master Chief and Cortana to find the Silent Cartographer, or go with Keyes to find the weapons cache. Stacker and Second Squad were the only volunteers for the Master Chief, but they had succeeded in taking control of the Silent Cartographer island from the Covenant, at which point he and Second Squad had their first run in with Death: more than ten Covenant dropships had landed on the island in quick succession. Second Squad got their communications array knocked out early on, so the Master Chief and Cortana thought they were dead, but the marines pulled it together and rallied around parked Warthogs. Armed with rocket launchers, pistols, and pilfered Covenant weaponry, they fought off the Covenant.
Stacker found himself not having to dig deep back in his memory as his story went on. Foehammer, after dropping Master Chief and Cortana off so they could get to the control center, had flown Second Squad almost all the way to where Captain Keyes was, where the same Victor pelican that had ferried the two privates and Fire Team Zulu took them to the swamp.
"He landed us closer to the structure than you describe him as doing, and it obviously wasn't the same place as where you were dropped off. I guess he had found a better spot after dropping Zulu. We met up with a marine, who led us to Keyes. Not surprisingly, he told us to guard the entrance that we had come in. We trooped back up there and found those little monster guys waiting for us. They tore right through half of my troops, but we held together. It got worse though, Covenant bodies that looked already dead began attacking us, first with these whippy tentacles they had on their arms, and then Covenant weapons. We had shotguns, and we managed to get an organized retreat going, when those little popcorn monsters and the Covenant zombies began this unending assault. I watched as each one of my men died, taking down as many as they could. I fired off all the shotgun shells I had, and then fled into the structure, thinking I had to get to Keyes. I arrived in the room where I had left him to find it in total chaos. Nearly all of the marines without shotguns were dead, although there were some guys holding their own with Assault Rifles. Keyes was being dragged away by those Covenant zombies, and the bastards kept on coming. I took some ammo from a dead marine and began shooting again, but with the monsters pouring out of the hallway I had ran down to get there, the end looked near. Sergeant Johnson and I managed to get all the marines together, but we wouldn't have lasted long."
"Well boys, you may not believe this next part of my story," Stacker paused, looking at the quiet Private Bryant with a huge gash in his leg and one eye gouged out, and Private Furley with hair missing and every part of his body bloodstained. "Then again, he muttered, maybe this isn't so hard to believe."
"Surprisingly, it was the Covenant that saved us." Stacker started. "They burst into that room, jackals, elites, and grunts, and every one of them was carrying a needler. I've never before seen a jackal use anything but those damn plasma pistols, but here they were, needlers filled up and fitted into that little notch in their shields. Another thing I haven't seen from the Covenant is mercy, but when they came into that room, purple needles flying, they didn't so much as bat an eye towards us Marines! The Covenant destroyed everything but us in that room, and then turned to us. I thought we were goners, but the Covenant didn't shoot! Instead, they turned around and ran, and we ran after them. We didn't want to kill them at this point, but Sergeant Johnson hoped that we could follow them out of that building. By the time we got to the next room, the Covenant was far ahead, and we were surprised to see that they had dropped their needlers and ammo to run faster. At this point, those monsters came again, and we all ran. I don't know exactly what happened but I heard marines dying behind me- Johnson and I continued running with what was left of the marines. We got separated when those beasts attacked again, and I was just running down random hallways till I found the exit." Stacker ended the last part of his story with a sigh. He was ashamed that he had run away from the enemy, instead of dying with his men.
"Alright marines, let's get this show on the road. Do you have any shotgun ammo here? I'm almost all out, but the shotgun seems to be much more effective then anything else I've used against those things."
"Sir, we have shotgun shells, but you're the only one with an actual shotgun. We scavenged all we could from.. from Second Squad, and burned their bodies. Sir, I saw some dead marines back there, like you described the Covenant: they were fighting against us. We figured if we didn't leave the bodies." Private Bryant broke off. "Sir, do you hear that?"
Nearby in the swamp shotgun blasts, assault rifle fire, and plasma rifle shots could be heard. "All right Marines, lets get moving and see what that is," Stacker whispered, feeling his heartbeat increasing as adrenaline rushed through him. They quickly put out what remained of Second Squad's funeral pyre, picked up as many bandoliers of grenades and pouches of ammo that they could hold, and set off into the swamp. The sounds of battle intensified for a few minutes, then died off- but Sarge and the marines were much closer. Five minutes later, the strange trees around them began to part, and the ground underfoot began to harden as they walked towards a tower. At it's base, a group of marines huddled. Nearby, strange machines hovered- they quickly turned towards Sarge, but didn't fire any weapons.
"Sergeant Stacker, is that you?" one of the marines called out, breaking into a rare smile.
"Private Chips Dubbo, how the hell did you get here?" Sarge asked as he jogged with the two privates up to the marines. "And what the hell is going on here?"
"Sir, you missed it all!" Dubbo began, speaking quickly, and explaining how he had met up with several marines after Second Squad fell. "Sir, I was right behind you for most of the way, but I must've takin a wrong turn somewhere, cause after running for a while, I came to an elevator. I went up and found a couple of marines fighting off the Flood- we took 'em down real easy with shotguns and Covenant weapons. Course, then we had some of those Flood fighters, but they weren't that bad."
"Hold on just a second now, soldier," Stacker interrupted. "Why are you calling those things the Flood?"
"Wait Sarge, please, I'll get to that. Anyway, we were holding position at that entrance trying to get someone on the radio when Master Chief came up the elevator. This was only about twenty minutes ago." Dubbo said. Sarge then listened in fascination about how Dubbo and the marines had fought with the Master Chief through the swamp.
"He told us about Jenkins, and Keyes being taken away, and Victor 933 crashing. He also told us about that those things were called the Flood, and the Covenant feared them a lot: We were nearing this tower thing, where Echo 419 said she could pick us up, when those machines appeared. Between the Master Chief's shotgun and those thing's lasers, we got to this place okay, but this glowing blue thing that talked like an AI just teleported Master Chief away!"
"Goddamnit!" Sarge yelled. "We heard you boys fighting in the swamp, and were coming to investigate. You say Master Chief was here? I can't believe we missed him!" Stacker exclaimed. The events of the day now weighed more heavily on him then ever before.
"Don't worry sir, we should be out of here in minutes," Chips said. "Foehammer's coming."
"Am I correct in saying I am the ranking officer here, too?" Sarge asked.
"Yessir!" the private responded.
"Okay," Stacker said, addressing all the marines. "For those of you who don't know, I am Sergeant Stacker, former commander of Second Squad. You are now all part of my squad, and will take orders from me. Are all of you privates?"
"Yes sir- I'm Private Lewis," a big marine carrying a shotgun said.
"What's the situation here, Private? Has Dubbo here left out anything?" Stacker asked him.
"Well, sir, we've got several wounded from those tentacles on the Flood fighters, but we found a medkit nearby- I'm guessing some marines from the Pillar of Autumn landed here too. We were just planning on waiting here until Foehammer came, and Master Chief was the only one with a working radio."
At this moment, the roar of a Pelican's engines was heard, and Foehammer swung around the tower structure and slowly touched the Pelican down.
"Foehammer to ground teams," she said over the Pelican's speaker. "Get in! A lot of strange things have been happening, and I've lost the Chief's signal. Come on, I'll take you to a safe zone!"
The marines clambered on board; ten of them taking seats, while the wounded were laid on the floor and several marines dressed their wounds. Private Bryant was given an antiseptic swab and an eye patch. One of the marines apologized, but it appeared that that was the only thing in the medkit for eye wounds. Foehammer called back from the cockpit as she flew the Pelican off.
"I have several HUD helmets near the ammo, and a Sergeant's hat for you, Stacker. I suggest you boys get outfitted, cause we'll soon be at our safe-zone!"
Sarge could finally stop acting like an emotional old muse and more like the man he once was. "I want all you troopers to outfit yourselves with shotguns, and to take enough ammo for two people. Foehammer obviously has enough to go around. I ALSO expect you to take pistols, and to have another weapon of your choice slung over your back- just in case. We are gonna show those Flood monsters, and anything ELSE that gets in or way why the UNSC hired us. NOW MOVE, THE NAVY AIN'T PAYIN US BY THE HOUR!" Sarge bellowed.
Once all the marines were outfitted, Sarge himself walked up to the piles of ammo. He used a crowbar to pry open a box of shotgun shells, strung another bandolier of frag grenades around his torso, and took a pistol. He donned the new Sergeant cap, and finally felt in control. Foehammer once again yelled back from the cockpit.
"I'm going to set you down near the Pillar of Autumn's crash site- the Covenant security around it has tightened, so I can't get too close, but several other marines and I have set up a base of sorts that will serve as home for awhile." The Pelican's back door began opening slowly as Foehammer set her down. When they lowered enough for Sarge to see, he was amazed to see two Warthogs guarding the entrance to a small cave, which was at the bottom of a small hill. Two marines clambered out of the Warthog guns, and approached.
"This is great Foehammer!" Sarge said, as he and the marines unloaded all of the equipment and wounded into the cave, which was already full with medkits and ammo boxes. The two marines approached him as he watched Foehammer fly away to search for more marines.
Great, Sarge thought, as he looked at them, two more privates. "Sir," one of them said, "It's good to see a Sergeant- we're at your command." The rest of the marines filed out of the cave and nodded. "We got rocket launchers, and tons of other stuff, but it hasn't been enough. However, we do have a surprise for you."
The two privates led Sarge to the back of the cave, where a Covenant Shade gun turret awaited him. It was in good shape.
"Where in God's name did you find that, boys? And, for that matter, what squad are you from, and how did you get here?" Sarge asked
"Well sir, we're what remains of First Squad. We were on the Pillar of Autumn when she crashed, and you can actually see her just over that hill. We've been engaging the Covenant in guerilla warfare, and were actually doing okay: we stole that gun turret during a supply raid on the Covenant. We were doing pretty well sir, until the Flood showed up. They had infected marines, Covenant, and these strange carrier forms that blew up when they were near someone, throwing out a bunch of those popcorn types. We beat em back, eventually, but me and Private Cooper here were the only survivors. Foehammer found us then, and we set up this camp. She dropped us Warthogs and supplies, and she's been out searching for survivors ever since. I'm glad you're here, sir," the Private (Darrell Reglia was his name) ended his story.
Sarge was tired of hearing these stories. Too many men had lost their life to the Covenant in his lifetime, and now they had to deal with these Flood things. "Alright marines, it's gonna be okay. BUT," Sarge yelled, only if we get our acts together here!"
He marched out of the cave and went straight up to Private Lewis, who had an HUD helmet on. "Private, I want you to try and hail the Master Chief, or any marines."
"Yes sir!" Lewis said, and sat down, muttering commands into the helmet. Two minutes later, he stood up and offered the helmet to Sarge. "Sir, I've got Cortana on the line!" he said excitedly.
"Cortana?" Sarge said, taking off his cap and putting the helmet on his head, "Where are you?"
"Sergeant Stacker? Is that you?" Cortana's cool voice flowed out of the speaker in the helmet. "I'm in Halo's control room. We've got a situation developing here. I sent Master Chief off to find Keyes, but after he encountered the Flood, a Forerunner monitor teleported him away. He's jammed the COM channels to the Chief without him even knowing it. He's trying to make him get things for him so he can activate Halo!"
"Wait a second," Sarge said, "I thought that was a good thing! I mean, isn't Halo a weapon that we can use?"
"Sergeant, it's hard to explain, but Halo is a weapon like no other- it destroys sentient minds so that the Flood cannot inhabit them and use their bodies. It is a Flood container, not some gun! You see, although Halo is a weapon, it's also a research center for the Flood." Cortana said. "Listen Sergeant, I'm going to try something once the Master Chief gets back with that stupid Forerunner machine. I can see you're near the Pillar of Autumn, but I could use a little update on how you got there, and what's happening."
Sarge quickly summarized his story for Cortana, ending with how Foehammer had dropped him at this well-equipped base.
"Okay," Cortana said slowly, digesting all this information. I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I plan on destroying Halo. We can't let this thing be fired. You really can't help me do that, but what you can do is harass the Covenant and Flood for me, and try not to get any of your men killed. I'm going to contact Foehammer now. Oh, and for handling the Flood, I've dug up some interesting documents on them. I'll transport them to your HUD. Good luck"
The cool voice of Cortana stopped coming from the helmet's speakers. Through the HUD screen, he quickly scanned all of the info that Cortana had given him, then took the helmet off, and handed it back to the Private. Around him, the marines stopped and looked at him, awaiting orders. "Alright boys, we are going to continue what the flyboys started!" Stacker turned to the two privates who had been part of First Squad. "You boys are now officially part of Second Squad. Now, I want you to tow that Shade out here! Go, go, go!"
"Sir, yes sir!" the two privates said, gathering a couple of Marines to pull the thing out of the cave. "They never should've put it in there," Stacker muttered, and then turned to the rest of the marines.
"Private Chips Dubbo, get your ass up here, soldier!"
Dubbo ran up to Stacker and yelled, "Private Chips Dubbo reporting for duty, sir!"
Sergeant Stacker looked Dubbo over once, and liked what he saw. "Private, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Corporal, for showing leadership qualities! And as your first task corporal, you will post scouts in all directions needed. I'm sure both the Covenant and Flood both know we're here by now, and I want to know how long we have until this party gets started. Cortana dug up some info on the Flood for me- they're parasites! I want ANY marine who can handle a shotgun to get one, and some ammo, from inside. Buckshot completely annihilates the Flood, WHEREAS an assault rifle bullet may damage a Flood infection form, but won't kill it. ALSO!" Stacker yelled, feeling his adrenaline rising as he prepared for battle, "NOBODY will use a sniper rifle. The caliber of the bullet is too small to do any useful damage to a Flood fighter." Sarge yelled, ending his harangue towards Dubbo.
"Finally," Stacker yelled to all the marines, "You better get your guts up boys, cause we may very well be seeing some infected marines fighting with the Flood. REMEMBER, THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THEM IS TO KILL THEM AND PUT THEM OUT OF THEIR MISERY! Now everybody move!" Sarge yelled. The marines scrambled for the cave, helping the Shade get put into place, and running for the weapons stockpile. Stacker however, turned: his discerning ear heard shots being fired
Stacker climbed the hill and approached Dubbo. "What do we have, Corporal?" Sarge asked.
"Sir, you'd better take a look at this!" Chips said, motioning to a pair of field binoculars. "It appears the Covenant sent a team out to reconnoiter our site. The Flood were already moving towards us, but have stopped and have engaged the Covenant. I've got men with sniper rifles coming to help the Covenant."
Sergeant Stacker did a double take. "Come again" he said incredulously. "First off, I said no men with sniper rifles, and secondly, HELP THE COVENANT?" Stacker's gratitude towards the Covenant saving his life didn't go too far.
"Sir, listen!" Corporal Dubbo responded. "I read Cortana's report too, but I've been thinking- it wouldn't matter if a Flood fighter wasn't hurt if he didn't have an arm to shoot with. And, if you think about it, helping the Covenant really helps us- they're doomed to die, so the longer we can let them live, the more damage they can do to the Flood!"
Sergeant Stacker thought this over for a second, and then nodded to Dubbo. "Get your men in position, Corporal, and tell them to aim for the arms. Tell them NOT to shoot the Covenant- I want them to see that we're helping them."
"Sir, yes sir!" Dubbo shouted, and spoke into his newly acquired HUD helmet. "Alright boys, you heard Sarge- fire at will!"
Stacker surveyed the battle through the binoculars, while Dubbo spoke alongside him.
"Sir, you see those stationary shields, like the ones we saw on the Silent Cartographer Island?" Dubbo let his rhetorical question slip out, before answering it himself. "The Covenant were had them floating on these sled-like contraptions. As soon as they saw the Flood, they set them up."
Stacker grunted his assertion. The battle he was surveying had the Covenant in a better position- the Flood were in a wide valley formed by the hill Stacker was standing on, and by the one the Covenant were standing on. He saw Hunters firing their fuel-rod cannons, and could almost hear them roaring- the elites were doing likewise with needlers and plasma rifles. Sarge zoomed in with the binoculars, and could barely make out a golden commander leading the Covenant: it looked like four or five Hunters, a rapidly dwindling amount of Jackals and grunts, and ten elites. "Looks like they really wanted us dead," he murmured to Dubbo, before turning to the five snipers assembled. "You heard the Corporal! Try to take out their weapon arms, and don't attract too much attention."
The marines saluted. "Sir, yes sir!" they shouted, and then began to take cover behind various rocks on top of their hill. Stacker then turned to Dubbo.
"Good work Corporal. Now, I need you to assemble the rest of the marines. Get them up here in five minutes, armed with Jackhammers and pistols. I also need everybody to take an assault rifle and shotgun. I know I already said this on the dropship, but we need to get ready now. Hurry! I expect everybody to be up here in five minutes Corporal!" Stacker watched the Corporal salute and run down the hill. "And make sure they get grenades," he yelled, then turned back to watch the Covenant battle the Flood.
Sarge turned to the snipers. "Fire at will, boys, and make 'em count!" Sniper rifle reports, while loud, didn't reach the Flood. The bullets, however, did. The snipers' first shots hadn't done too much damage, but the point was to hinder the Flood: there was no way five snipers could take out an army that looked like it stretched over a thousand, and that was only counting the Flood warriors and the strange blob Flood. Stacker sighted his binoculars on the Covenant line of shields, which had now been broken. He had seen those shields recharge countless times before, but he didn't they would help by the time they recharged. However, the Covenant rallied around the Hunters, against which many popcorn Flood seemed to be bursting; they couldn't seem to penetrate the armor of the mighty behemoths.
The Flood, true to their name, couldn't be stopped, however, throughout this all, Sarge's snipers fired again and again. Sarge saw the golden Covenant Commander jump nimbly into the now crowded fray, slashing Flood left and right with his sword. Behind him, the last of the Grunts fired their needlers.behind them; a small phalanx of Jackals provided covering fire. The end was near for the Covenant, but Sarge appreciated their tenacity. Then, his blood chilled as he saw the Golden Commander buried around a mass of popcorn Flood, while Flood warriors fired rockets from their Jackhammers at the Hunters. Sarge yelled at the snipers, "Hit those RL-toting bastards! They'll kill us real quick if you don't. Stacker then turned back to his binoculars to watch the results of twenty quickly fired shots. The snipers' aims were true, and many of the Jackhammer toting Flood suddenly lost their arms. A last moment of hope for the Covenant came when from beneath a veritable mountain of popcorn Flood the Golden Elite rose, staggering, his plasma sword blazing blue. He was covered in blood, and wavered as the Flood renewed their attack on his now regenerated shields. He looked over the valley to Sarge's hill, and finally recognized the help he had received from the humans, as sniper rounds took off the limbs of nearby Flood. He saluted Sarge with his sword (Stacker saluted back) and let out a final roar that could be heard even over on Sarge's hill, before flailing away with his sword, throwing plasma grenades wildly.. then at least finally succumbing to the Flood and his wounds.
Sarge watched, feeling emotional again, as the last Covenant were killed across the valley. He had seen the humanity in the Covenant yet again, and wondered if some of them had objected towards attacking the humans, and not just allying with them. He sighed, and then turned towards Dubbo and the assembled men. They had seconds to spare.
"Alright boys, fire any rockets you have first, then switch to your pistols. As soon as the Flood come closer, switch to your assault rifles, and then, finally, to your shotguns. Don't conserve your ammo- there's no need," Sarge added, knowing that these Marines knew what he meant- they were probably all going to die anyway. He gestured to three of the snipers. "Go man the chain guns on the Warthogs, and the Shade." He turned to the other two snipers. "Get another weapon," he said, almost laughing. "Finally boys, on my signal, we will fallback down the hill in an orderly fashion. Our boys will cover us. But, when I order the fallback, first throw as many grenades as you can in five seconds." Stacker said. He then turned to face the Flood, who were beginning to turn around and address the humans.
"Fire! Come on boys, let's show these Flood devil's hell!" Sarge yelled. Ten jackhammer missiles flew out of their launchers, all of them flying at different areas. They hit, and all of the sudden Flood bodies were flying everywhere. The majority of the Flood, however, turned and charged up the slope. Even worse, more Flood poured into the valley via a small gap. "Pour it into them," Stacker roared, as the marines opened fire with their longer-range weapons. The first salvo of fire caught the first ranks of charging Flood warriors and stopped them in their tracks. All too soon, the marines switched to their assault rifles, and began to dodge enemy fire as Flood warriors finally got beads on targets.
Fortunately for the marines, the Flood's tracking abilities were limited; by simply strafing from side-to-side, Sarge and the marines managed to dodge most of the enemies fire.
Several bullets pinged off of Stacker's armor as he scrambled for the bush were he had stashed his shotgun as the first of the Flood rounded the top of the hill...and were promptly shredded to bits by a hail of buckshot. The semblance of the marines in control didn't last long; the popcorn/infection Flood finally completed their jumping journey up the hill, and began to spring at marines. "Retreat!" Sarge called out, priming two grenades and throwing them at the mass of Flood now running up the hill. Twelve marines (none had been lost) did the same, and ten they were stumbling and running down the hill. The Flood ran after them eagerly.
Followed by a horde of popcorn Flood, the marines got to the bottom of the hill. The Warthog gunners and the marine in the Shade opened fire, redefining carnage as Flood just exploded. There was no stopping the Flood, though, and even with the swathing lines of fire coming from the gun turret and Warthogs, they poured down the slope. "MARINES, FIRE!!!!" Sarge yelled at the top of his lungs, his words barely heard over the thrumming of the Shade and the bone-rattling noise from the two chain-guns. The marines turned and fired, then dispersed, finding cover behind Warthogs and rocks. Sarge saw a marine finally go down from a vicious blow by a whip arm of an infected Covenant: the marines couldn't hold much longer.
The Flood finally wised up and focused their firepower on the Warthogs and Shade. The marine in the Shade went down as he took a pistol bullet through his head. "Dubbo!" Sarge yelled over the fray. "Get in one of those warthogs and DRIVE!"
Even in this moment of crisis Dubbo had the time to yell "Sir, yes sir!" He ran to the nearest Warthog while Sarge ran for the other one. A marine jumped in the side seat, jamming shells into his shotgun as Sarge fired up the Warthog and began driving. The rest of the marines holed themselves up near the entrance to the cave, and near the Shade.
"Come on, COME ON!" Sarge yelled, running countless Flood over. They tried to track him, but their aim was horrible. Between his Warthog and Dubbo's, the Flood became mincemeat to marines riding shotgun, the chain gun, and the front bumper of the Warthog. However, Sarge's rising hopes went down as more and more Flood poured over the top of the hill. Countless Carrier Flood exploded, letting out an even greater amount of popcorn Flood. He could see that this wasn't going to well, and turned to the marine in the side seat. He was surprised to see it was Private Bryant, his eye-patch hanging loose.
"Private, get Foehammer on the radio. Request emergency pickup NOW!" Stacker yelled, swerving around a rock at the top of the hill and driving back down. The Warthog jounced around as Carrier Flood turned and tried to explode near it. The four marines hiding behind the Shade made a break for the entrance to the cave- ten meters away. Although the five or so other marines covered for them, only two made it to safety.
"Protect the marines!" Sarge yelled to the gunner, his voice shrill. "We've gotta hold out until Foehammer arrives!....
Meanwhile, Corporal Dubbo was doing figure eights with his Warthog, trying to kill as many as he could. His gunner slumped over the chain gun, shot dead by too many plasma bolts. The marine riding shotgun couldn't get to the gun with Dubbo driving so crazily, and without the chain-gun, the Warthog was a much easier target. Dubbo was forced to drive parallel to the advancing Flood lines while the marine (Private Reglia) clambered into the gunner seat, gingerly letting the other marine fall to the ground, before strapping himself in and letting off a round of tracers.
The roar of Foehammer's engines startled the hopeless marines. The six in the cave made a break for it, dragging the wounded. Foehammer swung around the cliff that the cave was part of, flying so low to the ground that she actually scraped a large percentage of the Flood coming down the hill away.
"Foehammer to marines," she shouted, "GET IN!"
Sarge smiled as he quickly drove the Warthog under the Pelican, hopped out with Private Furley and Private Kread (the gunner) and got in the pelican. The marine's escape must've been too much for the Flood, they poured down the hill in greater numbers than ever before. Dubbo and Private Reglia abandoned their Warthog and jumped aboard, narrowly missing a hail of assault rifle fire from the Flood. But all of the marines would not escape- only two of the six marines form the cave made it aboard, dragging two of the injured marines. Foehammer rose suddenly, and the marines watched the Flood destroy the Shade and other Warthog (Sarge's was clamped to the Pelican's belly) before the bottom of the hill streaked away from site. Cortana's voice came over the comm. Unit of the Pelican.
"Cortana to Echo 419, come in Echo 419!"
Foehammer responded, "Roger Cortana. I read you, 5 by 5.
"The Pillar of Autumn's engines are going critical, Foehammer! Request immediate extraction! Approach the crash site and be ready to pick us at external access junction 4C as soon as you get my signal!" Cortana said, her voice rising over the radio.
"Affirmative. Echo 419 going on station." Foehammer responded. She then yelled back to the marines as they headed towards the Pillar of Autumn, "Access junction 4C is one of the emergency pickup points for techs stranded in the reactor pipeline. Things must be pretty bad in the Pillar of Autumn if Cortana wants us to pick her and Master Chief up there!"
Sergeant Stacker's life seemed almost good again. Apparently, the thing that Cortana was going to try when the Chief got back was blow up Halo using the Pillar of Autumn's engines. However, he knew that for Cortana to have permission to blow the Autumn, she would need permission from Captain Keyes. Because Keyes hadn't come on the radio, he would have to assume that the Captain was dead. Stacker looked over at the other devastated marines, and could see that they had come to the same conclusion.
The Pelican came closer to the Autumn's crash site, and Sarge could see many Covenant Banshees firing at it, in an attempt to destroy it. "Echo 419 to Cortana. Things are getting noisy down there. Everything okay?" Foehammer asked, her voice full of concern from the cockpit.
"Negative, negative! We have a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion core! The engines must have sustained more damage than we thought!" Cortana's voice said.
Foehammer increased the speed of the Pelican as three Covenant banshees turned and engaged Echo 419. Dubbo grabbed the last Jackhammer they had and fired. "Boom, baby!" he yelled as one of the banshees exploded. The other two banshees, however, began to pepper the Pelican with plasma fire. The Warthog exploded and flew off of the clamps, the chassis spinning wildly as it too exploded and plummeted to the ground.
Foehammer turned around a corner of the Pillar of Autumn's carcass. Stacker ran up to the cockpit, where Foehammer's hands were busily dancing across the controls, trying to evade the Banshees. On a distant walkway, a Spartan stepped out of the driver's seat of a Warthog and waved. Cortana's voice once again came on the comm.
"Cortana to Echo 419! Two Covenant Banshees are approaching on your six! Evade, say again, evade!" Cortana yelled.
Foehammer didn't have time to respond that she knew- all of the sudden a fuel rod bolt hit the Pelican, and it lurched. "I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday! Airfoil structures have been shot to hell! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!" Foehammer yelled over the comm., before the radio unit went dead.
The Pelican was rapidly approaching the access junction now- too fast. "Go down!" Stacker yelled, hoping the Foehammer would realize they should at least give Chief a chance to escape. Foehammer jammed the navigation stick down, and the Pelican fell, just barely missing the bridge. Sarge went out of the cockpit, and saluted the Warthog containing Master Chief and Cortana, who were driving back into the Pillar of Autumn's reactor coil access hallways, being attacked by the Banshees.
Sarge sighed, then turned around and looked at the marines, who were holding onto emergency straps for dear life, as the Pelican shook and the flames became more intense. "Okay boys!" Stacker yelled, looking at each of his newly acquired men with pride. "We will NOT being making it off of Halo. The Pillar of Autumn's reactors will go critical, and we will all be fried. Needless to say, I'm damn proud of you all."
Foehammer came out of the cockpit with a thruster pack strapped on. "We have about a minute before the Pelican crashes," she yelled. "I suggest you all grab a thruster pack and make for higher ground- we should at least get a nice view before we die!"
"Alright, you heard the lieutenant!" Sarge yelled. Grab a thruster pack, and let's go!" All of the marines grabbed thruster packs, and jumped out of the back of the Pelican.carefully timing their thruster pack launches so as not to incinerate anybody else. They all formed up and began to fly over the Pillar of Autumn; fuel concerns weren't necessary, so they didn't pace.
It was almost beautiful, Sarge thought, looking down at the ship that had brought him to his doom. He hoped his wife and kids were okay.the eight marines, plus Foehammer, landed several hundred feet above the Pillar of Autumn, and looked out for their last view of Halo. All of the Banshees had fled, and pitched battles between dwindling numbers of Flood and Covenant could be seen.
Sarge took out his binoculars, and zoomed in at a dot down on the canyon floor, He began to scan the floor of the canyon, looking for that dot again, as the rumbling beneath him increased. He finally focused in on his friend Sergeant Johnson fighting with an elite over an assault rifle. They both looked exhausted- Sarge couldn't imagine how tired his friend must be after having trekked all the way from the swamp to the Pillar of Autumn, hoping he would be rescued. The Pillar of Autumn's reactor went critical, and Sarge looked below him as explosions began to reach up to him and the marines. Stacker remembered that the Autumn still had two Shiva warheads aboard. "Well, I guess this is it," he said, thinking that this was going to be one hell of an explosion. All the marines nodded. Sarge turned for one last look at Johnson, and found that his friend and the elite were hugging. How touching, he thought.
Just as the explosion was about to consume him and the marines, Sarge heard another roar, and looked up to see one Longsword fighter reaching for the stars. "That son of a bitch made it!" Sarge yelled happily, and the marines cheered. And that was the last thing Sarge ever saw- his marines cheering as the Longsword blasted away from Halo.
Then, everything went white...............
El fin!

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