- Wolverfrog
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Here is Part 21, it's pretty long, and some parts may seem a little clunky...I need to improve my action scenes. Anyway, here it is.
Part 21- Sacrifice
“Guns at the ready men, we're going down there.” Blade said, already walking down the other side of the snow drift.
“Blade, are you insane? There must be at least a hundred Covenant down there, maybe more. What we should do is get the hell outta here.” Switch was thinking things through, as usual.
Blade sighed, his gaze captured by the scene of destruction.
“But Switch, Larce is down there. He could still be alive.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, rather than the rest of us.
“Blade, Larce is dead, there's nothing we can do.” He placed a consoling hand on Blade's shoulder, and was shrugged off in an instant.
“No! He's still alive....he-he has to be. We've known each other since the Academy. I can't leave him. You three can go, but I'm going down there.”
And without looking back, he continued down the hill. The rest of us looked at each other, and nodded simultaneously.
“Hey Blade!” Rook called, and the ODST turned around. “You wouldn't last a minute down there by yourself, who else would watch your back? We're coming with you.”
“Y-you are? Thanks guys, I-” He coughed, probably muffling a sob, and reasserted command.
“Right then, lets get down their, and kick some ass!” He shouted, voice solid once again.
“Loud and clear boss” Rook replied, and the four of us set off to the burning base, together as one.
The destruction was horrendous. Trees had become charcoal-like in appearance, the stench of smoke hung in the air, and I even noticed the nearby lake had dried up.
The base was located outside of the cities perimeters, as back when it was a research lab, they preferred not to be disturbed. None the less, the rest of the city of Utgard was a blazing wreck, and faintly in the distance, the agonising screams of the soon to be dead called out in despair.
We crawled in the snow, and I wished our armour wasn't so black.
“That's a good point.” Switch remarked when I told him my worry. “Luckily, the UNSC have a solution. A prototype body suit has been developed, one that reacts to the environment you are in. If it is dark, and no contrasting colours are around, the armour turns black. If it's snowy, it turns white. If it's sandy, it turns brown. You get the idea. It's an impressive piece of kit, codenamed the Chameleon suit. I'm sure we can pull a few strings to get ourselves a few.”
Never the less, we would have to make do for now, so we tried as quickly as we could to get to the black tarmac, where we would be able to conceal ourselves better. It didn't seem like too many of The Covenant were around. Looking behind me, I noticed that they were all heading by the dozen to the main city, no doubt to kill the Civilians who had still been awaiting evacuation.
There was a Grunt patrol about 100 yards in front of us. Reaching inside my bag, I grabbed a silencer and screwed it onto my sniper, and fired into the cluster. Three dropped dead with one bullet, and the others screamed and ran away, arms flailing up in the air. They were quickly dispatched by Rook's Battle Rifle.
“Larce's office is close, stick to the shadows, and keep your silencers on. We'll be okay.”
We proceeded through the grounds of the burning base, and as we went, we continued taking out the grunts that were dotted around the facility. Once, I hit one of them in the strange tanks on the side of it's face, and it exploded, splattering grunt bits on my armour, even though I was about 20 metres away.
We gained ground, and advanced further into the grounds. We were close to Larce's office now.
Then we saw them.
Two of the huge juggernauts we had seen on the enemy cruiser back after we had left Harvest for the first time were patrolling, batting Grunts out of their way like flies as they walked.
We quickly hid behind a destroyed tank, remembering their destructive capabilities aboard the ship.
“Damn it, we were so close too!” I cursed.
“What the hell you talking about Farm-boy? We ain't leaving now.” Blade said whilst reaching inside the armoured bag that he carried.
My face paled, as I realised what he was assembling out of the metal pieces he had brought out.
“Blade! A rocket launcher isn't exactly stealthy!” I implored to him.
“Then we'll just have to kill everything else as well.” He had finished assembling it by now, and was loading it with ammo.
Before I could get another word in, he fired a rocket at the two 12 foot aliens, hitting one straight in the chest. It was sent flying, the mince like flesh which formed it scattered. The other one was also caught in the blast, and more mince went on an air trip. Not wasting any time, we quickly dove out of cover, shooting all The Covenant soldiers we could see.
It was going well, until I got hit by a plasma bolt in the arm. Crying out in pain, my sniper rifle tumbled to the floor, and I was forced to draw out my pistol and use that instead.
After a few minutes of fighting, all the Grunts and Elites lay dead or dying.
“Farm-Boy, you okay?” Blade asked.
“Yeah, I just got hit in the arm by one of those plasma bolts" Even through my armour it burned.
“Switch, unfasten his arm guard and apply some snow to the wound”
Nodding, he unfastened the screws which attached it to my body. As the arm piece came off, he gasped and turned away.
I turned my gaze to look at the damage too, and wished I hadn't. The flesh was white, and split open, with blood spilling out freely. My shoulder was a mess. It looked like I'd be using a pistol for a while.
I tried not to cry out too much as the cold snow was pressed against the wound, but there was still a few involuntary moans. After a minute or so, the bleeding had been halted, and Switch tossed the red snow onto the floor. Tearing off a strip of his shirt, he tied the fabric around my arm like a makeshift bandage. The armoured arm piece went in the bag, it would have been too painful to put it back on.
“Right” Began Blade “Now that's sorted out, lets go look for Larce.”
We nodded, and hurried along the now silent compound.
“Uh...Guys?” We all turned to look at Switch.
“Now may not be the time, but, uh, look at the cruiser.”
We averted our gaze to the Covenant cruiser that now hung about 400 metres in front of us. Being dropped down through the strange lift like beam were hundreds of Covenant reinforcements.
“Quick, lets get to Larce!” Blade called. In less than 30 seconds, we reached the door to his office. We tried the handle, but the lock was melted, rendering it shut. Bracing his leg, Blade lifted it in the air and smashed it into the metal door. Whilst the meta door was intact, the wooden doorway encasing it splintered into dozens of pieces, flying everywhere.
We spread out an searched the rather large office, keeping our guns poised for action.
“Larce! Are you in here?”
No reply. We waited a few minutes while Blade repeatedly called out to his friend. Then.
“Blade?...Is that you?” A thin, weak voice came from inside a pile of rubble.
“Larce!” Blade called out in relief, then rushed over to the rubble and began clearing it, with mine and Rook's assistance. Switch stood guard at the door.
When all the rock had been cleared, a worn, battered Larce crawled out.
It wasn't a pretty sight, his body had been pretty much mutilated by the falling of the rubble, his arm was twisted at an impossible angle, his chest was bloody and mangled, a deep gash ran down the side of his face, one as thin as a thread.
“What the hell are you doing here Blade? Get outta here!”
“Don't talk crazy Larce, come on, can you walk?”
“I doubt it” He looked down at his leg, or rather, lack of leg.
“Well, I'll just have to carry you then.”
“Don't be a fool! The nearest town from Utgard is 120 miles away, how are you gonna carry me that far?”
“I don't know, we'll survive, somehow.”
“Go Blade. More Covenant will be here in a minute. That's an order soldier!”
“Court martial me then” Blade was on the verge of tears.
“Blade, please, respect the wishes of a dead man”
“You're not dead, not yet....”
Larce sighed, and reached into his coat, drawing out a small Magnum .44
“Larce, what are you doing?” Blade's voice was tainted with fear.
“It seems you will not leave me while I still live, therefore...” He brought the Magnum up to his head, finger resting on the trigger.
“Andrew, wait! We can get you out of this, we'll be fine, just-”
“Goodbye, old friend.”
A single shot was fired, and Andrew Larce toppled to the floor, blood trickling out of the small hole in the side of his head.
“No....Andrew...” Switch went over to Blade and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. Blade broke down and began crying.
After a few minutes of awkwardness, we began to hear growls outside.
“I don't mean to be tactless here, but, we gotta go Blade.” Rook called.
“But-”
“It's what the Captain wanted Blade, would you render his sacrifice meaningless?”
“We gotta bury him Rook, I can't just leave him like this.”
Rook lit a match, and tossed it onto Larce's body, which slowly began to burn.
“There's your burial, now come on!”
Giving one last sob, Blade stood up and walked to the door, opening it.
"Goodbye Larce, I'll never forget you."
We closed the door behind us, where the body of the selfless man was ablaze like a beacon of hope.
It was time to go.