I made some edits to previous chapters, they had a few odd mistakes in them so I apologize for that.

Perspective changes a few times in the chapter, I think I made it clear but I also demarked them with larger breaks between sections.

Let me know what you think of this one and send me some reviews

2562

New Manila, Mars

0510 hours, two hours fifty minutes until detonation

" Stop. Wait here." The master chief said to the girl behind him without looking back, speaking was already an inconvenience but it wasn't as if hand signals made any sense to a civilian.

They'd exited the building he'd found her in and had been weaving through alleyways, darting across streets if he could find a clear spot. The more they stayed out of trouble the more likely it was that he'd keep her alive.

On his motion sensor four markers were coming up on their 9 o'clock, he turned against the wall intending to wait until they got close enough that he could guess what he was dealing with. Nearest to the corner, his back to the wall he stole a glance to his side. The girl's wide brown eyes had that look of fear in them again, her hands trembling at her sides.

He didn't know why he felt the urge to but he reached over and placed a hand on her shoulder and waited until she looked up at him. His reassurance seemed successful, as he felt her relax a bit under his hand. Meanwhile, on his motion tracker the blips were closing in on them.

He let go of Laura and turned around, stepping around the corner and facing a group of grunts. Two controlled bursts and two went down, he allowed their plasma pistol bursts to diffuse across his shield, knocking it down a quarter. Two more bursts and the street was clear, unshouldering his weapon he glanced at Laura and motioned for her to follow.

" We should move quickly." He reminded her, even though for him even her fastest pace was a walk in the park. The mission was, however, to rescue the inhabitants of the unfortunate city and bring them aboard the Infinity. The threat here on Mars, would be exterminated in a matter of hours but it didn't answer what it was they'd come for. In many other cases, the covenant attacked human settlements partially to acquire some sort of technology, would that be destroyed here as well or has it already gone up to the ships above?

He reached the end of the next alley and discovered that there wasn't another across the street, they'd have to move along the road for a bit. He didn't like the idea of being in the open with a civilian under his protection.

" Do you know this street?" He asked her, hoping that she might have some useful knowledge of the area. She nodded and looked out beyond him.

" Its 82nd ," She said smoothing her hair back. " I don't remember alley ways though, it's a busy street with a lot of foot traffic so I don't think they're as open."

He nodded once in acknowledgement and glanced out into the street, first to their left then their right. They had company on both sides and not a lot to work with in regards to cover.

" I think we should double back." He said resolutely, and she nodded her head moving to the side so he could pass her to take point again. High above them the sky began to hum and he whirled around to look up at a Phantom coming down onto the road.

" Looks like our ride is here." He said and the girl behind him took in a sharp breath.

" You've got to be kidding." She said but he seemed to ignore her, looking up at the fire escape beside them instead.

" Can you climb that?" He asked her and she followed his gaze.

" What if I told you I'm afraid of heights?" She asked with a smile of uncertainty.

" Then I'd tell you it's time to face your fears. Start climbing." He said and handed her the extra magazine.

"Give me some cover from up there. Go for the little guys, with the big ones you'll be just wasting your bullets. Stay in cover, don't take risks. Understand?" He asked her, and she nodded turning to begin her climb. He watched her, wondering if this was actually a bad idea as she reached the first landing. When she was in position she glanced down at him and he motioned as best she could understand that she wait until his mark.

Crouching at the corner, he looked down the road to the dropship, it was hovering over cluster of enemy soldiers. It seemed like it must be dropping off supplies, not more personnel, for that he was grateful. He counted four elites, all in the lower cast armor colors, he could handle that. Under their command were two different formations of jackals with their round shields, and a dozen grunts. Up high he spotted a jackal with a carbine, he took in a breath, a bit more worried about the civilian he'd placed above him now. He looked back up at her, she seemed to be surveying the area through her scope. Good, she might be some help after all.

Moving back to a position directly below her he waited for her to look down for his direction again.

When she saw him he held up two fingers, she turned and looked at her two o'clock which honestly surprised him but he continued the message. Switching from the two to one finger in quick succession them to a gun shape , thumb and index finger out. He looked up at her expectantly, hoping she'd understand.

Laura watched his hand and tried to remember what her dad said they meant, the first was easy. A number meant a location, her two o'clock, she looked but wasn't certain. The air coming off the roof was cold and her shivering made the rifle unsteady. She was at the top of the metal escape with a corner of the building roof for cover, if she moved slightly out of cover to the left or right she had a good view of the aliens on the ground.

She felt nervous, she'd never done anything like this before. She'd waited in a tree stand for hours on end to shoot an elk, but an elk doesn't shoot back. She looked back down at the soldier below her, she couldn't believe he was willing to help someone like her. If it was the other way around, she'd probably just save herself. His fingers moved into two more symbols and she thought she might have it. A gunner at her two o'clock. She turned and looked through her scope.

A grayish bird creature like the one's she'd shot in the office was standing on a balcony. Comically placed between two tables set for dinner, it held in its hand a large purple thing she figured was a gun. She glanced back down to the Spartan and nodded once, feeling a blush come to her cheeks as she realized she was imitating him. He gave her the go ahead and she took aim, hoped she was right about how the sights worked and fired. As the gun beneath her boomed to life and the bullets flew she closed her eyes tightly for a moment then opened them. The balcony was empty, the body had plummeted to the street below.

To her side she could hear the chief was starting his approach and she quickly redirected her aim to the small creatures with the triangles jutting out of their backs. She concentrated her aim on them, finding that sometimes if she lost her rhythm she couldn't maintain aim and that the creatures had an odd tendency to jump for no apparent reason. She missed more often than not but she managed to take down at least eight while the green armored figure plowed through them. An elite leveled his weapon at him but he rolled at the last moment, taking the time to swoop up a few blue shapes and lob them in the assailant's direction.

The ball struck the big creature in the chest and he screamed for a moment before it was eclipsed by white and blue light. She stared at that scene for a moment before she realized she'd lost sight of the chief, panicked she glanced about the road and found him a few yards to the right of that ugly scene.

He moved around another big creature and struck it from behind, she could hear the blow for way up there and winced. However the creature just seemed angered, it opened and closed its grotesque split jaw and landed a blow to the spartan. Around him the air seemed to burst and he dropped down, trying to recover from the blow. The creature lifted it's arm for another blow and she jumped into action, jumping up and pushing herself on her elbows to the edge of the roof and firing three bursts in a row. The elite fell over in a heap.

The Master Chief saw the blow before it was coming but didn't have time to correct it, he took it and his shield took the brunt of it. His side began to send him messages of pain as he crumpled down to a knee, he turned his assault rifle towards his enemy hoping he'd done enough to take down the shield and a long burst to the chest would take care of him.

He heard the shots and the elite before him sank down to the ground, glancing up he saw the girl in a fairly precarious position. He felt that strange feeling from before, he was impressed but also confused. How does this girl keep doing these things?

A quick visual scan verified they were alone on the road and he stood and motioned for her to come down and follow. He didn't bother to wait for and instead climbed into the phantom, and took out a grunt heading for the turret and hugged the wall until he reached the control room, leapt on the elite at the controls and with a quick jerk and a sickening crunch sound broke it's neck.

Coming around to the controls he looked them over, wondering if he could handle this thing without Cortana's help. Suddenly the choice to not replace his AI seemed like it was probably poor strategy, maybe he wouldn't even be in this position if he had an AI to fix whatever had gone wrong with his communications.

Laura stepped up behind him, breathing heavily, she must have sprinted over despite how slow it had seemed to him. She collapsed into a seat on the side of the cockpit and lolled her head in his direction.

" Tell me you can fly this thing."

"Yeah. Working on that." He said and pressed a few buttons, trying to jog his memory. Soon he had it lifting up above the city and turned it, directing it West and started out at a slow speed.

"Why are we going so slow?" She complained without looking up, it looked like she was checking over her rifle. Ignoring her question he directed the conversation right to his own.

"How do you know what you're doing with that?" He asked, motioning to the rifle in her hand.

She froze and looked up at him, " It's hard to explain, my dad had a weird way of teaching a girl to be self sufficient. Would you believe me if I told you I just sort of remember how to do it? Like its engraved in my brain?"

The notion was more familiar than she could have guessed, he nodded once and looked back out towards their current direction. The image of a group of kids in a forest, pelting guards with rocks, playing in his memory.

Writing action scenes is super tiring! I will post a new chapter soon hopefully, the next one will be a lot more talking and a little less action.