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P.21
The squad piled into the pelican, and the hatch closed. There was the short moment of G-force as the pelican took off. Everyone sat down in their sheets, and relaxed. Shadow sat in the back by the cockpit with Saline, holding her hand. "I thought"
Saline removed Shadow's helmet, and kissed him. "I promised we'd leave something behind. Nothing can make me break it."
Bayard turned to Dante with a confused face, "Where's your demolition?"
"Gone." E18 replied. Dante looked at Private Silvers, "That was some good shooting you did back there. We could use someone like you in Red Team."
The Private nodded nervously. He knew how dangerous accepting this invitation was, but he was a Ranger after all, and it was about time he manned up.
The commander cleared his throat. "Our fleet is being torn apart, so we've made a change of plans. Haul ass."
"What about the evacuations?" Silvers asked.
"We've done all we can."
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Dante said, looking Bayard dead in the eye.
"Probably not," Bayard replied, "But it's necessary."
"If we lose Earth, this will be a huge demoralization." 117 stated.
"We need our fleet Chief."
Shadow sat silently next to Saline. He never should have let Boomer come on the mission after seeing his country's capitol obliterated. He had most likely just gotten Boomer killed. "Let's resign."
"What?" Saline whispered.
"That was too close." Shadow said, "I can't lose you."
"We have a duty Terry." Saline replied.
Shadow frowned, "Saline, please. We've served our years. The UNSC has Dante and the Chief. Everything will be okay."
"Okay," Saline said quietly, "Where are we going to go."
"Reach has been unglassed, and it's nicer than ever. We could buy a place on an island, right on the shore."
"That sounds perfect." Saline whispered, closing her eyes and leaning on Shadow.
Dante looked away from the two, remembering what he had lost, but that was the way it had to be. He was a Spartan after all. He wasn't allowed to love. He learned a valuable lesson, the hard way. "Where are the rest of your fours?" The Chief asked.
Dante was silent for a moment, then spoke. "MIA."
3 months later
Terry sat on the edge dock of his ocean side home, his legs dangling over the edge. The sun beat down on his tan skin as he cast out his fishing line into the crystal clear water. Behind him was his house. It had an unpainted wooded exterior of vertical planks, and a thatched roof with an underlying wooden base.
The man felt a tug on his line, and began to reel it in. In a moment a tropical fish was dangling from his line, hanging right in front of him. He pulled the hook out of its lip, and threw it back into the ocean. A soft hand touched his muscular shoulder, and Saline sat down next to him. "Hey." She had grown her black hair past her shoulders, and the sun had darkened her fair skin.
"Hey beautiful," Terry flirted, "How's the baby?"
"The kid's a real kicker." The two laughed. Saline was only two weeks in. Saline always managed to make Terry laugh, not matter what mood he was in.
"Mike should be here soon. I can't believe how long it took him to get leave."
"Sorry for barging in," Mike said, "I knocked, but nobody answered."
The couple turned around to see Mike in a wheelchair, and missing an arm. A pang of guilt hit Terry. Somehow he felt guilty for this. "Good to see you Cani-Mike."
"Hi Mike." Saline smiled.
"You guys have it made out here." Mike said with a grin.
"Yeah," Saline replied, "It'll be a nice place to raise the baby."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that. I never got the chance to say congrats."
Terry smiled, "Thanks man. If you don't mind me asking-"
"Plasma bolt to the spine. I'm paralyzed from the waist down."
"Can they fix it?"
Mike shook his head, "No, not if it's a plasma hit."
"I'm sorry Mike." Terry said, frowning.
"Don't be man, It's about time I left the service anyway." Mike put on an unconvincing fake smile.
"Shall we go inside?" Saline asked, motioning to the house.
"Yeah yeah, sure." The three went inside, and into the living room. There was a table in the center with comfortable chairs a few feet away, and a couch behind it that faced a TV. Two sliding glass doors led back outside, and white hung at its sides.
Saline looked at Mike with a smile, "Can I get you anything?"
"No, thank you." Mike said, wheeling over behind the table. He pushed his arms up to get onto the couch. Terry moved in to help him, but mike sat back down in his wheelchair, and held up a hand. "I've got it." Again, he pushed his body up, and grabbed the arm of the couch, pulling himself up. He leaned forward, collapsed his wheelchair, then sunk back.
Terry sat down on the couch and Saline between them. "So," Terry said, "How's the rest of Red Team."
"Red Team broke up. After I got shot in the spine, one human hanging around with two Spartans seemed to be pointless."
"Private Silvers?"
"Lieutenant now," Mike corrected, "He's back with whatever's left of the Rangers."
"So it's just Dante and the Chief?" Saline asked.
"Yeah, they go by Hunter One. We lost contact with them about a week ago. God knows what they're up to."
Insurectionis Cruiser: Holy Penance//Elite Division
117 ducked under the wing of an energy sword, and elbowed the Elite in the spine, snapping it in half. Dante brought his boot down on the creature's head, sending a mixture of purple and grey across the floor. "What if that innie gave us false intel?"
The Chief shook his head. "Do we look like the people you should lie to?"
"Good point," Dante checked his HUD, and was pleased to see that they were almost at the bridge of the alien ship. "Alright, they'll probably try to delete the plans, so watch out for anyone who looks like they're up to it."
When the two Spartans got to the door to the bridge, it was locked. Dante ran forward, and smashed them open. He immediately dropped to the ground as a wall of plasma flew over his head.
The Chief ducked behind a bulkhead, narrowly avoiding the searing hot bolts of fire. Dante got up, and rolled behind a holo pad. The device was thrown into the air as a hunter smashed it with a near impenetrably shield.
E18 rolled to the side as the hunter brought the two spikes on the bottom of its shield down onto his previous position. The shield jammed itself in the floor, and the hunter was stuck.
Getting around behind it, Dante delivered a roundhouse kick to its back, splitting the creature in half. It's bond brother ran at the Spartan for vengeance, but an energy sword severed its head, and it dropped to the ground.
The Master Chief turned around, and lunged at an Elite, making a diagonal gash from its collar bone to the bottom of its ribs. Multiple plasma bolts splashed against the shields of 117's mark VII MJOLNIR armor as he whipped around, and returned fire.
A panicking grunt ran 117's way. The creature squieled and thrashed as The Chief snatched it. He swiftly drew a plasma grenade from his belt, stuck it onto the grunts methane tank, and threw the squirming creature into a crowd of elites.
"Fire in the hole!" The Chief shouted, crouching behind a station. There was a loud boom accompanied by the roar of flames that washed through the entire room, killing everything that didn't have significant cover, in other words, everyone but Dante and the Chief.
Dante slowly raised his head above his cover, and looked around the room. Scorched and mutilated bodies of insurrectionist Elites and grunts lay everywhere. "Nice improvisation." Dante said, standing up.
"Thanks." The Chief replied. The two Spartans went to the main console, and searched through its database. They located what they were looking for.
The Spartans scrolled through it, and Dante shook his head. "It just shows where their fleet is going to come out of slipspace, and their formations. There's nothing about the actual attack on Reach's surface.
"That's because they aren't going to take Reach," 117 replied, "They're going to glass it."
[Edited on 05.04.2010 8:02 PM PDT]