[b]Chapter 5[/b] The force of the blast sent me flying back into the wall of the generator building, dirt and fluorescent orange blood coating my entire body. I blinked away the blackness that had clouded my vision, and as the dust cleared, I saw a familiar, tear-drop shaped hunk of metal where the hunter had just been, a big slab of the hunter's nearly impenetrable armor protruding from underneath it. I smiled, the 105th had arrived. My smile quickly faded to a look of disbelief as a Covenant Carrier that had been floating above the generator station nosed into the ground about a kilometer away. The tip of the ship crumpled under the weight of the craft. The flaming center of the craft visible at that angle, I saw it explode, engulfing the middle of the carrier in flames. The ship was sheared in two from the blast, and I felt the ground shake as the two pieces touched down, sending up a huge cloud of dust and smoke into the air. A hissing sound from the drop pod grabbed my attention. I looked to see a small puff of white steam shoot out from the front. I realized what it was and dropped onto my stomach, the front hatch barely missing my head as it shot from the pod, cracking the concrete wall behind me. I looked up to see the ODST emerge from the still smoldering pod. "You in charge here?" He asked me via the comm. link. "Yeah. I'm Sergeant Roland." I answered, "You do that?" I asked, motioning to the smoking cruiser. He turned to see it, then faced me again. "Just a normal day for the ODSTs." I felt that he was grinning under the polarized visor. "I'm Lieutenant Duncan. You're under my command now. Status?" I checked my wrist computer, pulling up the info on my team. Stone was still unconscious, Nguyen was seriously injured, and I didn't know if any of the civilians were alright. "I've got one man unconscious, another injured, six others in fighting shape, ten armed civilians; unknown status, and one spartan KIA. There are approximately fifty men locked inside this building and there is a carrier full of -" I remembered the ship that had just crashed, realizing that this was the main force assaulting the generator, "-scratch that, numerous drop ships full of Covenant trying to destroy it. I've got three remaining troop 'hogs, and one normal possibly functional, but flipped." "Sounds to me like you've got quite a mess here, Sergeant. I've got twelve ODSTs, including myself. Why don't we try and gather your force?" We wandered through the dust, relying on the Lt.'s HUD for direction. Luckily, the Covenant had gone searching for survivors on the crashed carrier, so we had ample time to gather the rest of the men. The second hunter had done its job, destroying one of the civilians' troop hog, killing hardy and four others. My squad had managed to kill it before it took anyone else out by using the rocket launcher, but the damage was done. The remaining five civilians were low in morale. Those were their neighbors and friends who had been killed. Nguyen had been pierced by one of the hunter's spines, and was losing blood, fast. Sharpe had grabbed Stone from the warthog, and was unharmed, but shaken from being thrown from the passenger seat. Duncan's squad was mostly OK. Of the thirteen that launched, one lost control in the drop, and two more didn't survive the landing. That left us with a force of 21, not nearly enough to hold off the Covenant forces for long. We needed to get inside to the others if we hoped to survive. We found the front entrance, luckily reinforced to defend against insurrectionists, but now, they were the least of our worries. Unfortunately, the comm link that would have allowed us to contact the men inside was melted by plasma rounds, and our own comms couldn't penetrate the abnormally thick concrete walls. We were going to have to blast our way in. Not likely, as our rockets had been used on the hunter, our spartan laser had been crushed under Lt. Duncan's pod with the hunter, and we had used all of our grenades against the Covenant. To make matters worse, the Covenant's attempts to enter the building had melted the thick, metal doors together, so the men inside wouldn't be able to open the doors even if they wanted to. My men and I did all we could. We built makeshift barriers around the doors, and prepared for the assault we all knew was coming. The Covenant had finished their search for survivors of the crash, and they were on their way back with a vengeance. First to strike were the ghosts, their elite drivers giving up when they realized that our barriers melted, than solidified into even stronger structures thanks to their plasma. They retreated back into the main force, which, by then, was not far off. The Covenant Spirit Dropships dropped the remaining hundred or so soldiers nearly on our heads. Fortunately, when the aliens realized that they wouldn't be able to get in the generator station, most of them went back to the approaching carrier, which was going to use its weapons to simply destroy it. When the unlucky ODST careened into the ship, most of the troops were killed in the crash, and only those who were left behind to keep watch on the station survived. Even so, there were far too many for only 21 soldiers to take care of, even with ten ODSTs. Nevertheless, we held our ground, feeling the tremors as one hundred aliens touched down simultaneously. I looked around at the others. I saw the enigmatic ODSTs behind their visors, the frightened civilians clutching their rifles in fear, my men showing no emotion, they knew that this was no time for emotion, only for determination and focus, then I saw the covenant troops. I recognized at least 5 elites, that meant trouble; 20 or so jackals, their shields would be difficult to get around; 2 brutes, I had only seen them once before, and the carnage I had seen created by their hands haunted me for years, they would be incredibly tough to take out; the rest were grunts, about 70 of them, not much trouble if isolated, but with this many, they could be deadly. I checked my trusty assault rifle, put my finger to the trigger, and turned out of cover. -------------------------------------------------------------- Keiichi woke up, his mind still swimming from the fall. While it wasn't nearly as far as his leap of faith out of the pelican, it was enough to knock him unconscious, the blow from the elite didn't help either. He looked over to the corpse next to him, its armor plating dented and punctured from the blows of his massive fists during the fall, its four mandible still open wide from its final screams as the spartan had ended its life. Keiichi grabbed the dead warrior's plasma weaponry, jogged to the downed banshee, which was luckily still operational, climbed inside, and out of some strange combination of intuition and instinct, worked the controls, making his way towards the generator station. -------------------------------------------------------------- I looked into the eyes of the massive figure, my feet held aloft by its massive, bony hands. I stared at its razor-sharp teeth as its mandibles contorted into what I imagined to be a grin. It raised it other arm, clutching a metal cylinder. A long, blue blade slowly appeared, shimmering as he pulled his arm back, pointing the tip of the blade directly at my chest. Time seemed to slow as my life seemingly neared its end. My eyes darted around. I saw my assault rifle lying below me on the ground, a few new scars adorning its surface. I saw Private Reynolds, crawling away from another elite raising its own plasma sword, about to take Reynolds's life. I saw a brute slam its massive, bladed weapon into one of the ODSTs, shattering his visor and sending him flying backwards. The battle raged around me, and seeing the other men around me triggered a change. I felt renewed strength surge through me, memories of the pelican ride here and the beauty of this planet reminded me that I still had something worth fighting for. I snapped out of my trance, brought my foot into the roof of the elite's mouth, pulled out my knife while it was distracted, and plunged the blade into its hand. It howled in pain and anger as I fell to the ground. Once my feet touched down, I grabbed my AR, rolled forward between its legs, got back to my feet, and climbed on the beast's back, firing rounds into the back of its neck. Despite my greatest efforts, however, the elite was too quick. It reached an arm over its head and grabbed me by the neck, throwing me over and back against the wall. As I looked up, I saw the massive alien approaching me, sword drawn and a look of fury on its face. A banshee flew overhead. [i]Perfect.[/i], I thought to myself [i]just what we need, more enemy air support.[/i] I lowered my head, accepting that I couldn't do anything more. I heard the elite grow near, the humming of its weapon drowning out the noise of the surrounding battle as my mind blocked out everything else. Then, out of nowhere, the sound stopped. I looked up, surprised, to see a green cloud engulfing the elite, dirt flying up around it as the banshee flew overhead. As the cloud cleared, the elite was gone, nothing but a crater remained. I was confused. That was a banshee mortar. Why had the pilot fired on its ally? Then a flood of realization hit me. I checked my wrist computer, and brought up the bio-meter on Keiichi. My mind revisited our brief conversation in the woods. [i]"My suit must have malfunctioned on impact. Looks like my vitals metering is malfunctioning; it says I'm flatlined."[/i] The spartan's words rung in my ears, and I smiled. He didn't die after all, but his bio-monitor was fried, my computer saw him as KIA. [Edited on 05.08.2011 7:19 PM PDT]