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Rise To Honor - Part 5: Expected Betrayals
Posted By: Shadow<Shadowolf16@aol.com>
Date: 1 July 2002, 9:14 pm


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As he fired, the elite's head popped up off his body like a jack-in-the-box, and landed right next to one of the nearby grunts. Meanwhile, the body shook for a few seconds and then fell to its knees as blueish purple blood sprayed out of the, gaping hole in his neck and then fell to the ground chest first. Shadow smiled at his kill and immediately backed off from the building edge as elites and grunts from the entire base tracked his shot from that building. He had pulled back just in time as blue and green plasma bullets went through the very spot where he was just standing. Additional shots that weren't so accurate slammed into the side of the building, creating large holes in the concrete after each shot. As soon as the number of plasma shots began to dwindle, he ran back to the edge of the building. Only this time, he ran to one of the corners, sure to be as far away from where he stood on the edge last time.

He lifted his sniper rifle and pumped two shots into a grunt and another elite. The elite's head popped off similarly to the first one, and the grunt was sent flying back into the base as his body splattered all over the alien building. Once again, green and blue shots came right at him. Instead of backing off, he merely sidestepped, heading for the other end of the building's edge. Meanwhile, he continued to track enemies with the rail gun, bursting off a shot whenever possible. By the time he hit the other end of the building, 9 enemies were killed and his clip was out. He quickly backstepped, kneeled down, and unloaded his clip with a swift pull. The clip landed with a small clank, and he clipped a new one in its place.

As he reloaded his sniper rifle, he heard from human machine rifle fire coming from Tartif Street. Looks like the other mercenaries had started as well. He came to the edge of the building again and pumped 3 shots into some grunts that were going to move in behind the other mercenaries. He should have let them live, thin down the ranks of his possible enemies. But he didn't know for sure, and for now, they were on his side. He wasn't THAT cold to let them die merely because he had suspicions. As soon as he took out those grunts, a com message came up on his arm device. He lowered his sniper rifle and activated it. A video feed came up of the lead mercenary of their team.

"Shadow here."
"We almost have them, but we might need your help to clean this place out completely."
"I'll be right down."

A trap? Maybe. He should be on his toes. He turned around, and snapped his sniper rifle to his shoulder strap while he jumped onto the rusty old hoverbike. He instantly activated it, and it sputtered to life. He moved the bike forward a little bit, and changed some settings on the bike. After that, he pushed the throttle to full, and the edge of the rooftop came closer, and closer until it was gone. He seemed to float for a few seconds and then dropped at full speed down towards the ground. The wind ran past his face at high speeds, and the fast winds pumped up his adrenaline even more. A beep came from his device, but he didn't bother to look at it.

"Sorry man, but you were killing our business."
"What?"

He pulled to the left, but it wasn't in time. A rocket clipped his wing and ran right into the building behind him. He could feel the immense heat of the rocket exploding on the building behind him, and it made his skin burn just a bit. Just great. He was right about those scumbags. They really did turn on him. He'd have to bail, obviously, but the right time would be right before the thing crashed into the ground. He waited for a few seconds, decided the right time, and jumped just as the bike slammed into the concrete of 1st street and nearly flattened itself against the ground. As he flew down in the air, he unstrapped his sniper rifle over his shoulder, and did the same with the assault rifle in the other hand. He landed in a kneeling position right in front of the crashed hoverbike and fired two quick sniper shots off at the awaiting bounty hunters. They both went flying back as their bodies were torn apart from the shot. Meanwhile, he dove to the left just in time as machine gun and sniper rifle fire hit the crashed hoverbike behind him. It exploded in flames, and he ducked just in time to dodge a flying piece of metal from the blown bike. It cut right over his head and dug itself into a nearby tree behind him. He quickly ran through a set of bushed to that thick tree to take cover.

He peeked to the side, and saw two soldiers perched on the roof of a building across the Covenant base. So they had backup snipers too, eh? Guess they didn't have the balls to do the job with four. He stood with his back to the tree, and breathed in deep. He rolled away from his cover and fired two one-handed shots from his sniper rifle aimed to the snipers on the roof. The first one lost his head, and immediately dropped to the ground of the roof. The other lost his arm, and screamed in extreme pain before falling off the building to a neck-shattering death. With his other hand, he mowed down the last two original assassins on the ground level.

He heard the roar of hovercar engine coming from above. He looked up and saw two cars full of reinforcements coming down from 2nd Street. Just fucking dandy. They screeched to a stop a few hundred feet in front of him and bounty hunters piled out of the cars as he ran into the center of the square, into the Covenant base. He dove behind the Covenant headquarters just in time as machine gun and pistol fire came. As he leaned against the back of the base, he could hear a Covenant elite coming out of the base as well as his screams of agony and surprise as the assassins turned their attacks to him. Well, no more Covenant threat. He heard another vehicle coming down from 2nd street. Great, more fucking reinforcements. Or not? He looked up and saw a military hover APC come down right next to him. It lowered and spun around, revealing the bay doors. Soldiers popped out from the doors, and immediately began taking fire from the assassins. Well, it seemed that the military and he had a common foe. He turned around and climbed a Covenant ladder to the top of their base. But instead of jumping to the top and revealing himself, he stood on rungs that were 3rd from the top, concealing everything but his head and his gun. He took aim and fired three quick shots. The first two went right through the hovercars. The bullet went straight through, into the building behind, and a few seconds later, the cars exploded in flames, consuming all the assassins residing within or near the cars. The third shot went right through the stomach of the one assassin that was too far from the cars to be hurt from their flames. He crumpled over as he died. He strapped his sniper rifle in, but kept his assault rifle on his arm. He ran towards the wreckage of the two exploded cars, the military APC following close behind. It made him uneasy, but he had just saved their asses, so even if they knew that he was an assassin, they probably wouldn't do anything about it. He leaned down to one of the dying assassins, and held his rifle to his head.

"Who the hell sent you?"
"What do you care?"
"I'm going after your boss. Tell me who he is!"
"NO!"
"YES!"

He slammed the guy with his gun, and then once again held the gun to his head.

"Now tell me, who's your boss?"
"Ok, ok. It's Travion. He wanted you dead so all of us could get more business with you out of the way."
"Alright. Get out of here before Travion has you killed for telling me."

The surprised man got up and ran like he was on fire. He knew that Travion was coming for him, and he was definitely going to skip town for a while. He turned back to the military troops.

"Whoever you are, you saved our asses. We are thankful."
"Yea, well it seems I'm number one on the bounty hunters' hit list. I think I need to get out of this city for a while."
"No problem, we'll take you back to our HQ for now, and when you deem it time, you can be on your way."
"I don't think so."

He was about to answer, but three more cars came in, guns blazing from their residents. He and the troops ducked as the cars slowed down, and landed, bounty hunters pouring out again. That damn Travion really wanted him dead if he was sending so many thugs after him.

"On second thought, I think I'll go with you."
"I thought you were going to say that."

He and the troops jumped in, and the door swung close just in time as fire pinged off of the APC's thick armor hide. He took a seat away from most of the troops, and felt a jolt as the APC started moving. He sighed, and he was off to get involved with the group that he sworn that he'd never come back to.





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