Chapter 6: Farewell to a proud Spartan

Crimson's Pelican was reaching their destination on what the Spartans now call it the 'Sniper alley'. Inside the dropship, the three Spartans of Fireteam Crimson were loading their weapons. For the first time ever, James changed his classic loadout for a different one. His weapons were a Battle Rifle, a Plasma Pistol, a couple of frag grenades and a Highlight Shield. Once Crimson's leader finished loading his weapons, he turned to look at his team.

-"Okay, Spartans…" James said. "As you know, we're being sent to discover the whereabouts of Gargarin science team. Sam, the coordinates." He ordered the female Spartan, who took out a small holographic map. Once it ignited, it showed the very same Sniper alley.

-"According to the coordinates that command gave us. The entrance to Gargarin's last known position is inside the structure." Samantha said and Greg took a look to it.

-"Well, it points to the Refuge. We were there in one of our previous missions, right?" Nodding at Greg's question, James pointed at the beginning of the structure that leads to the entrance to the Refuge.

-"If I'm right, there's gonna be a lot of Covie snipers here…well, according to what Intel says." Then the ship started to shake.

-"Spartans, hang on! We're under heavy enemy fire." The pilot that piloted Crimson's Pelican informed.

-"You think there are AA guns down there?!" Greg asked as he was holding the edge of his seat.

-"Probably!" James shouted as the outer explosions were louder and louder. Then an explosion had pop out from the floor next to James.

-"WHOA!" James exclaimed as he heard the pilot's warning.

-"We're hit! Mayday! Mayday! Crimson's Pelican has been hit! We're going down!"

Before the Pelican crashed into the ground, James noticed a lot of sparks coming out from the wall behind Sam, the engines of the right sided wing were exactly behind that door and they were about to blow up.

-"Sam, move!" James exclaimed as he pushed his fellow Spartan and the wall exploded the moment he pushed her away. And then, the Pelican crash-landed on the middle of the entrance to the canyon.

Greg opened his eyes and he could hear merely whispers, his vision was blurry and his head was hurting a lot. When his vision and hearing were back to normal he could hear Sam's voice.

-"Greg! Greg, talk to me. Are you ok?" Samantha asked as she grabbed Greg's hand and helped him to get up.

-"Yeah…so far so good." Greg said. And then he looked around and he couldn't find his leader.

-"Have you seen James?" Sam shook her head at her teammate's question.

-"I'm here!"

Both Spartan turned to their side and saw their leader deep beneath the rubbles of the Pelican. Gregory and Sam removed them and they helped James up.

-"Boss! Are you alright?" He only nodded at Sam's question. Then James grabbed his Battle Rifle and looked around.

-"Where's the pilot?" James asked as Greg headed to the Pelican's cockpit. He brought the cabin out and he noticed the pilot still sitting on the pilot's seat. He placed his fingers on the pilot's neck to feel a pulse but he felt nothing.

-"Pilot's gone." Greg informed and James sighed.

-"Okay, looks like the crash messed up the comms. So we're on our own here. " But the affirmation of Crimson's leader proved to be wrong when they could hear the signal from Commander Palmer and Spartan Miller.

-"What the hell brought them down?"

-"AA guns in the area."

-"Well, they can pick up our IFF tags. Where to now?" James looked around as he found the way into the refuge.

-"We stick to the plan, Greg." Then the three Spartan headed towards the road they once walked. As they passed through they encountered lots of Covenant assault squads as well as Jackal Snipers holding the front and the entrance to the refuge.

Once they got there, it was awfully quiet. There was no sign of any Covies, Prometheans nor Gargarin team.

-"It's awfully quiet here." Sam's observation made James a little nervous. He tried the comms channel but to no avail.

-"Comms are down again. I guess we're all on our own." Greg scoffed at his leader report of comms. Why couldn't things go right for once?

Then, all of the sudden, the lights were killed off and there was darkness all around the Spartans. They loaded their guns as they could expect anything. Suddenly, the lights returned but at a small intensity.

-"Ok…this is spooky." Sam commented and James nodded in agreement.

-"Alright, Crimson. Stay together and keep your eyes open." James ordered but as soon as he said so, a sound of loud steps echoed throughout the refuge.

-"You guys hear that? Let's check it out!" Greg exclaimed and then he rushed into the origin of the sound.

-"Greg, wait!" Sam shouted as she and James tried to catch their teammate. When they catch up with him, they were keeping their sights open until they heard growl and something picked Greg from the neck, chocking him.

-"Greg!" James shouted then he and Sam started to shoot at the assaulter, who still remained in the shadows. But their shots were bouncing off it. Without losing any more chances and not risking more time for his teammate who was being chocked. James tried to punch the assaulter while Sam jumped and tried to stab it with her combat knife. But both Spartans were sent away with a single swing from their enemy's arm.

Yet, Greg managed to break free of its grip and stabbed it with his own knife in the chest. Apparently he did hurt it for he could hear a pain roar but this thing managed to grab Greg by his arm and it broke it.

-"Gaaaaahh!"

The green Spartan wasn't able to move his left arm anymore, and then this creature stabbed its metal claws in his stomach.

-"No!" Sam shouted as she could see how her teammate was being impaled by claws. She grabbed a plasma grenade she had and threw it at the creature. The explosion did not killed it, but it damaged it enough for Greg to get free of its grasp again. Yet the fall to the ground made him lose his helmet. Quickly, James grabbed his teammate by the back of his collar armor and started to drag him away while Sam retreated as well providing cover fire, but Greg wasn't out yet. He took out his sidearm and started to shoot and empty the clip on this newly found enemy.

-"Infinity! This fireteam Crimson! Something hit us! Spartan Greg is down, we need immediate extraction now!" James shouted but the comms were not working yet. As they managed to retreat, the creature stepped out of the shadows. It was an Elite, around the rank of a general but he seemed different. This one had a Forerunner armor and a golden glowing energy sword. As it walked slowly it stomped and crushed Greg's helmet. Then it spoke in Sangheili.

-"Yes…run humans. You shall not escape nor hide for long. Hunt them down!"

As he said those words, tons of Crawlers stepped out of the shadows and rushed to find the Spartans.

Meanwhile, the three Spartans managed to get behind cover inside the last location where there was a distress beacon from Gargarin team, luckily for them there were a lot of UNSC ordnance around to fortify a defensive perimeter. They scavenged all they could of grenades and ammunition, also they blocked the entries to the lab by placing barricades to keep the Prometheans and the promethean Elite away. James was keeping a lookout for any hostiles that might enter while Sam was trying to patch Greg up.

-"How bad?" James asked while Sam just sighed.

-"Not good. The piercing is too deep, his stomach's been hit and he's suffering internal bleeding." Sam reported and Greg let out a faint groan of pain. James knelt down to take a look at the wound. Sam had patched him up enough to stop the bleeding temporarily, but it wouldn't be enough.

-"There, I've done all I could. It's not much but it's something." Sam said catching her breath, her leader simply placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded, she nodded back.

-"Thank you, Sam." James replied and then both saw Greg opening his eyes.

-"Ugh…guys?" Greg whispered and both his teammates helped him sit down.

-"Easy, buddy. You've been hit." James said and then Greg looked down and saw his chest covered in blood.

-"I managed to stop your bleeding. But it's not gonna be enough, James already contacted Infinity though it was hard. We'll get an extraction in 20 minutes. We just have to hold on until then." Sam said and Greg nodded.

-"I know you're not in your best moment, pal. But we're gonna need you to move and fight all you can." James said and Greg simply nodded.

-"Alright. Let's do it." Greg said but James pushed him away and used his Hardlight Shield to block the shot of an Incineration Cannon. Luckily, none of them were hurt so they opened fire as many crawlers and Knights blasted through the barricades and attacked Crimson.

-"Watch your six!" Sam shouted as Greg evaded a shot from a Crawler and destroyed it with his DMR. Sam had taken a Battle Rifle and started to destroy all the incoming Crawlers she could see. James had used his plasma pistol to disable the shields of the knights and then he threw a frag grenade at them.

-"Enough!"

Then a promethean force push destroyed the Spartans weapons, and from the air came down the Promethean Elite, his glowing golden energy sword in hand as he was getting close at killing the Spartans.

Sam soon saw in the middle of the scattered UNSC ordnance a small EMP generator. Without wasting time she took it and activated it, though the Prometheans had more advanced technology, it was still vulnerable to an EMP charge and so, the remaining Crawlers and Knights were disabled for a short period of time, as well as this newly Promethean Elite. Its armor did not respond nor move for a short time.

-"How dare you, foul humans!? I will make you scream of pain until your voice reaches the stars!"

-"It's not gonna hold them off much longer, we better head towards the EP now!" Sam shouted as she and James carried Greg towards the exit where an extraction pelican will rendezvous with them. As they made their way towards it. James noticed a couple of high intensity explosives, he picked them up and carried them with him. The explosion was strong enough to level the entire refuge and anything or anyone inside it.

-"Come on, we're almost there." James exclaimed but Greg fell down to the ground as his wound started to bleed. James and Samantha tried to pick him up but before they got close to him, he threw a plasma grenade on a structure above them, making it explode and fall in front of them. Separating him from them.

-"Gregory! What the hell are you doing!?" James shouted through comms.

-"Sorry, guys. It's obvious that I'm not gonna make it…and those things are awfully getting closer. I'm only gonna slow you down…but I can buy you some time." Greg said as he stood up and took a deep breath before slowly walking towards a mounted turret and detached it.

-"Greg, you listen to me, you idiot! You're not gonna play the hero role, you hear me? We're going to get you out of there now!" Sam shouted through comms but Greg simply chuckled.

-"Sorry, Samantha. But I have to do this…it's been an honor serving with you guys." Greg said before he shut off comms from his end. James and Samantha tried to remove all the rubble and tried to reach their comrade.

But Greg saw hordes of Prometheans closing by and he kept shooting at them with the turret. But then knights started to show as well as the Promethean Elite.

-"This isn't good. There's got to be another way." Greg thought as he took cover, but his wound was bleeding tremendously.

Meanwhile James and Sam still tried to each Greg.

-"James, we won't get there in time. We need strong firepower to open this!" Sam said and James nodded.

-"I recovered some explosives. We can use them, to-" James said but then he realized the bombs were gone. Gregory must've taken them.

-"That son of a bitch." James cursed and then both he and Sam were spotted by a Pelican's flashlight.

-"Fireteam Crimson, we have you in sight. Prepare for imminent extraction."

Meanwhile, Gregory kept firing on the knights but they were being guarded by Hardlight shields developed by Watchers. Then he saw the Promethean elite dashing towards him. Greg threw the turret away and tried to run back but the Knights shot him in the back with Scattershots and the Elite grabbed him by the shoulder and stabbed his energy sword in his back. Then he dropped the Spartan next to the explosives he stole from James.

The Elite laughed as it managed to speak in English.

-"Now…you burn in hell, human."

Greg turned around as he grabbed the explosives detonator and chuckled before spitting blood in the Elite's face.

-"I'll see you there." Greg said as he pressed the button and the explosives ignited.

*KABOOOOM!*

The explosion was visible throughout the outside as the Pelican that extracted James and Sam was close to it. Both Spartans saw the explosion.

-"No…" Sam whispered before she sat down on her seat. James kept watching the fire, his fist started to shake…his friend, his teammate…is gone. Spartan Gregory-655 was gone, he sacrificed himself for his fellow Spartans and destroyed a formidable enemy that the UNSC would not fight anymore. Sam got up and placed her hand on James' shoulder.

-"He always hated that place." James commented before Sam simply hugged him slightly from behind while he kept watching the fire.

There was no celebration of victory that day, only mourn. The UNSC lost a good Spartan...and James and Sam, they lost a friend and a brother.

To be continued…