A long fight. Because storylines needs bullets

Nightfall

Nora watched the night sky.

Countless stars lit over her. In another time, it would have been relaxing. But all she could do was wonder how many of those stars lit up balls of glass, their surface scorched clear of every trace of human inhabitation.

4 years, she mused. 4 years since that fateful mission and the start of her stay on this forest moon.

"Sir! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Stand your ground lieutenant. Someone got to survive this, wait for the help to arrive."

"Goddamn it Sir! There is no help coming! Open the door!"

She breathed out a shuddering breath as she smiled to herself.

4 years. She wondered if that was worth the life of her fellow soldiers. The lives of an entire prowler crew for a single lieutenant.

Perhaps, in this war, it was more than sufficient.

She turned back and entered the cave, returning to the base camp. Inside, she examined the displays, looking in particular at a holographic recreation of the surrounding terrain, ignoring the engineer working on it. Her eyes focused on a red dot moving slowly across the display.

"Bait."

She turned to see Soren leaned against the wall, half shrouded by darkness.

"They're trying to see if we'll bite. As usual. "He continued.

"Can't sleep?"

"Already did." He returned. "Feeling like suiting up and being look out for a while."

"Get the engineer to help you."

"I think I shall. But first..." Soren trailed off before grabbing a beam rifle beside him and firing at the entrance.

The beam flew through empty air before seemingly stopping at an invisible wall. The invisible turned visible, as a brute and its destroyed armor, flopped dead on the ground, head spotting a hole.

The discharge made the engineer squeal before a light caught its attention, returning back to its task. Nora just stared at the corpse.

"I heard it sneak in after you. Must have been following us ever since the patrol." Soren quipped, moving up to the body, his weapon still trained on it.

"How did you miss it?" Nora questioned shakily. She was outside close to a brute and didn't even know it.

"That what I like to know." Soren returned. He examined the armor, whistling at the find.

"See this?" He informed, picking up a piece of the armor. "We have a stalker ultra here. Real experience to have gotten that. Explains why he was able to out sneak us."

"Which means that phantom wasn't bait. It was a relay." She returned.

"And we got house guests coming." Aden quipped, looking at the displays, as a series of dots appeared at the edge of it.

Nora growled. "It had to be today, isn't it?"

"We prepared for it. Partner, turn on the lights." Soren said as he grabbed his armor pieces. The engineer looked up from its place and chirped, before floating to him.

Aden nodded before tapping on the displays. A louder hum came from the hole in the floor as the plasma batteries glowed brighter and blue dots appeared on the holographic display.

"Ma'am, we need to get you moving. "He quipped as he tapped a different display, causing a light explosion that broke a section of the back wall.

Nora glared at him. "Why?" She growled.

"Protection of assets ma'am. As an former prowler crew member, you have certain information that may benefit the enemy. We have to get you moving out of here."

The woman clenched her fists. "No. And four years is a long time. All the information I have will be useless."

"Outdated or not, we have to assume that the war is still on going and the things you know might help the enemy. You have to move ma'am."

"The hole will take you to an underground river, where it will emerge on the other side of the range. We scouted this hole before we sealed it up and it's a safe journey the whole way. Once we bought enough time, we pull back too." Soren added, fully armored up.

"Absolutely not. I didn't last four years just to run away. I'm staying and that's an order." Nora growled.

"Ma'am."

"Besides, we know what brutes do to prisoners. I won't have any opportunity to give them anything anyway." The woman commented, voice resolute.

The two men glanced at each other. Nora could feel the silent communication between the two, the conversation of eyes that was as loud as words.

"Fine. Ma'am, you'll run the lights. Tell us when any one goes out." Aden informed as the engineer turned to him.

"I'll go give first greetings." Soren announced, picking a fuel rod and its glowing green ammunition. A carbine went onto his back, ammunition included.

"Well then, let's get this started."

The phantom drop ship hummed over the mountain line.

Inside, a cacophony of nervous barks, eager growls and rapid squawks filled the air. The brutes in particular shook with an animalistic fever. The chieftain had offered promotion to the first one that brought him a piece of a demon.

Their antsy movements caused the rest to keep a wide berth from them. A particularly unlucky jackal received a cuff in its head from a snarling brute, relieving his impatience on the lesser alien.

A series of barks from the pilot brute made them howl as the doors along the side opened. They readied their weapons, the gunner grunts moving to their weapons.

Roars heralded their coming.

Soren welcomed it.

The Spartan 3 waited as he watch the alien drop ship come closer for landing. His fuel rod cannon glowed in his hands, the light hidden under a covering of grass.

Slowly, he followed the drop ship progress, waiting for the right moment.

Finally, it slowed, the anti-gravity lift along its bottom lighting up. Eager howls came from the phantom as the first brute fought his fellows to the lift, pushing an unfortunate grunt out of the way. He descended as the lift activated.

He didn't get to touch ground.

Soren rapidly fired his weapon, green orbs sailing to the drop ship. Even with the slow speed of the projectiles, the distance was too slow for the phantom to dodge.

The first struck one of the engine turbines but it held. The second followed the first and caused the turbine to explode, sending flames billowing into the troop back. The third impacted against the thick armor, doing no damage to the drop ship as it started to drop. The rest missed, as the phantom dropped out of the air.

The unfortunate brute was crushed by the crashing vehicle, even as more explosions came from the troop bay. Burning grunts and jackals ran out of the troop bay, their lack of full body armor their death. Every few seconds, a grunt would detonate, it's methane supply set off by the heat.

The remaining brutes stumbled out the phantom. The lucky ones had their armor only scorched by the flames while the rest lost their armor completely. All were screaming at the top of their lungs in confusion.

Soren chuckled. He switched to his carbine and took aim at a particularly wide mouth.

"Night."

The pellet smashed through a fang before burying itself in the spinal cord of the alien.

The remaining brutes tracked the shot. With a roar, they cut loose, firing away at the spartan.

"Sup." Aden radioed in on their private channel.

A beam of energy streaked through the air, neatly burning holes through the heads of two brutes.

"How's the princess?" Soren questioned as he eliminated another brute.

"Simmering. You know how she is." Aden noted, targeting the armored brutes.

"Without armor, a single spike will shred her. With armor too actually." He returned, finishing off the rest.

"A trio of phantoms just appeared." Nora informed, a pleading tone in her voice.

"Understood, we'll handle it." Aden answered, before switching back to the private channel. "She just doesn't want a re-enactment of when we found her."

"Preservation of assets. Her head and what's in it is a gold mine to them. If we can get her back home, it's was and will be a loss to the other side."Soren answered, reloading his fuel rod.

"Aye. If we get back. She was supposed to be our way home." Aden noted.

"A crew of the way home. Then again, she is the last member of her prowler crew so I'll give you that. But the same still applies. Hers over ours."

"Hmm." Aden finished, aiming at the approaching phantoms.

Soren waited, aiming his weapon at the drop ships while Aden fired through the open side bay doors. The shot drilled into a grunt's methane tank and detonated it, sending fire and aliens out the doors.

The phantoms slowed in midair, before landing. Their complements hurried to the bay doors, eager to get out of the vehicles.

Soren fired away with his fuel rod. He targeted squads first, scattering them as Aden took out leaders. The landing zone was a carnival of covenant, with grunts running scared all over the place.

Soren clicked his tongue appreciatively as a shot took out a trio of brutes. "I wonder, are we going to run out of ammo or targets first?"

Aden chuckled. "We could always lets the grunts run away of their own accord."

"I don't know. They could always run in our direction."

A barrage of plasma pistol shots drew their attention, as a phalanx of jackals emerged from behind one of the phantoms, their shields intersecting. Behind them, a brute roared orders, directing the running grunts to fight.

"They never learn." Soren mused before emptying his fuel rod. The phalanx folded immediately, running for their lives before the green shots even hit.

"I'm out." The Spartan three quipped before switching to his carbine.

"Shame. Watching stuff fly is fun." Aden answered, exchanging his depleted beam rifle for another.

"5 more phantoms on their way." Nor announced.

"Good. It was getting boring here." Aden answered, finishing off the last brute.

Soren watched the running grunts as their backs slowly got smaller. "We could steal a drop ship." He noted, surveying the idle vehicles.

"Could she get here in time?"

"Probably not."

Aden clicked his teeth. "That's out of the window then."

"Guys, one of the drop ships fell behind and activated it's gravity lift. Watch for special units." Nora continued.

"One thing at a time." Soren returned, as Aden started to fire at the drop ships

The phantoms hummed over their grounded brothers, stopping behind them. Their gravity lifts glowed into existence as the guns of the vehicles opened up, raking around the Spartans.

Aden fired methodically, firing at the landing troops. Grunt accuracy weren't the best and what plasma that actually hit him were held off by his shields, flashing gold with every hit.

Soren supported his partner, using his carbine to return fire on the gunners grunts themselves. Gradually, the plasma cannons fell silent to sharp barks of the carbine before the weapon directed itself at the troops on the ground.

Even then, the force on the ground grew, as the contents of 4 phantoms grabbed cover behind the grounded ones. Before long, the drop ships completely disgorged their contents and hummed for home, their purpose done.

"That's a lot of aliens down there." Soren noted, emptying his weapon into a exposed brute.

"Aye. They could rush us." Aden returned, firing only at the head of the brutes.

As if on cue, the entire force emerged from behind the phantoms, unleashing a storm of fire. Soren ducked as a charged plasma shot sailed past his head.

"Nora, ready the lights." He ordered.

Back at base camp, the woman hissed in frustration. She watched on the holographic display as the covenant force advanced on the two Spartans, the soldiers firing back.

She slammed her hand on the display and watched as the lights turned green. At the same time, she spotted a series of dots that sailed across the air, traveling in an arc towards the fight.

"We got jump packs." She informed.

"Understood." Aden answered, the sound of battle accompanying his voice.

Her eyes returned to the fight, watching as dots representing covenant stopped moving and disappeared at a rapid rate.

Wait for the help to arrive.

"There is no help." She growled before walking to the weapon pile.

Back in the fight, Aden clicked his teeth as he beamed another brute in the head.

The storm of fire had died somewhat, as the two Spartans gradually whittled down the aliens. Yet, there was still enough to overwhelm them, as the force advanced over their fellows dead bodies.

Soren reloaded his carbine as he watched a teams of grunts charge ahead of the main force. "We got a possible suicide squad."

"Hmm." Aden answered. "The lights should get them.

Around them, the ground moved. Camouflage sheet fell as plasma cannons glowed into visibility, moving on their mounts to dislodge the sheets. Wires connected the normally hand held weapon to hydraulics that moved the weapon, allowing it to independently move, while large cables sent energy to their barrels.

The improvised turrets all aimed at the oncoming grunts, humming in unison.
Then, at some unknown signal, they fired.

The wall of plasma bolts that greeted the grunts almost literally cooked them, their methane detonating in spectacular fashion. The turret turned their attention to the main force, returning the storm of fire with their own.

Jackal shields and power armor failed under the assault, their owners soon after. The attack turned into another rout, as the covenant force folded under the power of plasma cannon fire and accuracy of the Spartans.

"6 more phantoms. They are throwing everything they got at us!"

Soren simply reloaded his weapon. "Well, waste not, want not."

"Those jump packs are probably gonna hit us at the same time." Aden noted.

"Good. At least it shows some sort of intelligence."

The duo watched the six drop ships approach them, their lights becoming less distant. Unexpectedly, the drop ships halted and landed further back, their contents piling out in a mess of lights.

"Hmm, they actually are preparing a proper assault." Soren quipped.

"Yea. In plain view." His partner returned before firing.

An unlucky captain ultra, chosen simply for his position, died instantly.

The shot galvanized the aliens into action, as they move forward into cover around the phantoms, using it as a staging ground. They fired back at the humans, a barrage of fire made to cover.

As more and more covenant reached the grounded drop ships, the troops started to advance. They inched forward, hunkering behind jackals shields.

Still, the two Spartans kept up their fire, taking out covenant left and right. Errant brutes, suicidal grunts and exposed jackals all died to their shots.

Still, the line inched forward, defiant to the death. By now, they had made their way into the kill zone of the turrets and those wasted no time, unleashing a storm of fire.

Even as bodies piled up by the dozens, a brute stepped forth. His elaborate armor, gold and red, signified his position as he heaved a fuel rod cannon of his own. With a roar, he fired, sending a blob of energy at one of the turrets.

The impact destroyed the weapon immediately, the power supply following in a flare of blue plasma.

"We just lost one. Chieftain with a fuel rod." Aden quipped, ignoring a charged pistol shot sailing past his head.

"Understood. The engineer is diverting power to the rest." Nora returned. The fire of the remaining turrets increased incrementally, as their power cables pulsed slightly brighter.

The Spartan pair focused their fire on the chieftain, raining deadly fire onto him. The brute roared his defiance as jackal guards moved forth, overlapping their shields over each other to protect their leader.

"That might be a problem." Soren noted.

Behind the assault wave, a series of burning exhaust brought the presence of the jump pack brutes onto the battlefield. The ghostly howl of the packs as they flew through the air in a arc made them all the more menacing, if they weren't facing Spartans.

Aden simply aimed and took out one of the airborne brute from afar, grinning as his jump pack broke apart and crashed the body into the ground..

"You know. This might be the hardest force we ever fought." Soren noted, ducking from a stream of spikes.

"Aye. But we got a lot more ammo this time." His partner returned before throwing away his emptied rifle and picking yet another one.

Even as they continued their fire, a trio of blasts destroyed yet another cannon as the chieftain advanced with his jackal guards.

"2 down, six to go. And he's actually taking cover." Soren chuckled.

"Guys, that force is approaching the edge of the kill zone. Watch it. "Nora growled.

"Impressive. They died their way forward." Aden grinned, adding another body to the road of corpses in front of them.

"Someone must really don't like us." His fellow Spartan added.

As individual covenant started to pass the edge of the plasma cannons arc, their fellows followed suit. The entire line charged forward, the aliens eager to leave the barrage of plasma fire.

"Out of the pan..." One Spartan quipped.

"and into the fire." The other ended, manically grinning as he pressed a button.

As the force charged towards the humans, a line of small explosions blew dirt at them. Each revealed a hole, carefully dug and then sealed up.

Inside each one, connected to a wire leading back to the humans, a needler glowed bright pink.

The alien weapons unleashed themselves in a stream of pink death. Explosions tore throughout the line, as the covenant died from the detonation of the supercombined needles.

Soon more explosions started to ripple through the line, with grunts and grenades detonating in a symphony of fire. Body parts flew everywhere, some managing to land on the spartans themselves.

That was the final straw, as the covenant force started to pull back in retreat. Of course, that meant that they ran the plasma cannons killzone once again and the survivors began to fall yet again.

"Now that was everything I hoped it would be." Aden cackled.

"If only I could take a picture." Soren added.

At the back of the retreating covenant, the jump pack brutes charged forward. Using their retreating comrades as distraction, they closed the distance with each leap, getting closer and closer.

"Some people are still brave." Aden grinned before shooting the aliens out of the sky.

A roar drew their attention to the ground, where the chieftain charged forward. His fuel rod forgotten, power armor half functional yet the alien still rushed at the Spartans, eyes burning.

"And stupid." Soren sighed before emptying his carbine at the alien. That drew its attention, fists smashing into the earth repeatedly while dashing at him. The two combatants charged at each other.

His partner turned back to the Jump pack brutes. Belatedly Noting that some were already mid jump away from him, he fired, taking out the closest few. The overheating whine of the weapon made him growl, throwing away the rifle for a more suitable weapon.

Landing with a thump, the first brute was met with a hail of bolt to the face. His armor failed instantly as the second shot riddled his face.

Still, there were a lot more brutes to take on, Aden mused, turning his dual maulers onto the next landing brute. That took another pair of shots to the face before dropping, his jump pack spluttering.

Yet the spartan was essentially fighting a cascade, with brutes landing in bigger numbers. A pair took four shot to dispatch, the slow fire rate of the mauler now a problem.

Dodging a alien smash landing, the spartan three shoved the weapon into the unprotected mouth and pulled the trigger. As the brute dropped, the tool that killed him followed, swapped for the spiker that he carried.

Aden fired his weapons into the next group of brutes, pulling back to better cover. He glanced over to his partner, who wasn't having any better time.

Soren rolled out of the way as the enraged chieftain smashed into a boulder. The rock cracked from the impact yet the brute simply turned and charged again.

"You are mildly annoying." The spartan hissed, grabbing a spiker from the ground and emptying it at the brute.

The alien shrugged off the spikes, his armor doing its job. His prey avoided his charged again but the brute had smarted up. Stopping in mid-charge, he swiped at the soldier, sending him flying.

The spartan recovered from the hit, turning his landing into a roll. Reaching for a dead grunt, he grabbed a plasma grenade from its body and primed it, sticking the explosive to the grunt and throwing the entire package at the brute.

The grenade exploded in the brute face, followed by the methane in the grunt. The aftermath of the detonation shrouded the alien but Soren stayed alert, picking up a dropped plasma pistol.

The chieftain charged out of the smoke, his armor gone. The spartan fired his weapon, the shots burning the alien face.

It keep coming.

Aden growled as he struggled with a brute. The alien won, lifting the spartan with bare strength before throwing him.

As the spartan got over to get up, the brute pinned him with his foot. It triumphantly roar as it grabbed a spike grenade, lifting it to smash down.

The blast of a shotgun knocked him over.

The Spartan turned to see Nora, weapon in hand, as she dispatched the brute with a shot.

"You aren't supposed to be here." He growled as he got up, grabbing the brute spiker.

"So stop me." She hissed as the duo took cover from the rest of the jump pack brutes.

With the firing stopped, the duo popped out, firing their respective weapons. Both made note of the sound of explosions in the distance.

"Some sort of counterattack?" Nora asked as they both returned to cover. She threw a magnum to him and reloaded at the same time.

"From that far? I don't know and don't care." The Spartan 3 answered before popping back out, firing his dual wielded weapons.

Unaware of the addition of Nora to the fight, Soren hissed again at the chieftain.

"Come on, you ape."

If the insult mattered to the brute, it didn't care. It charged yet again, roaring through its ruined face.

Soren grabbed a spiker from the ground and waited. As the alien got closer and closer, he crouched, counted and threw himself forward.

He winced as the brute's fist smashed onto his chest plate, the shielding he had enough to prevent any major impact. Momentum propelled the brute forward, continuing onward as the Spartan jammed the twin bayonets into the chin of the brute and depressed the trigger.

Pure inertia kept the two going as spikes filled the brute's head. Finally both slid to a stop and Soren crawled out under the corpse.

A quick check noted the piles and dead covenant and nothing else. He winced as he got up, spotting his partner and someone he didn't want to see.

"A single shot would have shredded you." He growled to Nora as she walked to him.

"Running away would have done worse." She answered.

The sound of a decloaking vehicle made them aim up. A green phantom shined back at them, spotlights focused on the trio. The gravity lift activated, just beyond the plasma cannon killzone.

"If you are going to shoot, shoot now." Aden shouted.

The phantom did nothing as the first passenger came down. A elite stared at them, keeping his distance.

"But we shall not. Impressive work humans. If you were of my kind, you would have been promoted." The elite answered.

"And since we aren't, you'll shoot us right?" Soren returned.

"Perhaps then but not now. The war is over human. I am not your enemy."

"Let me guess. You are our warden."

The answer made the elite tilt his head. "In a different time. Put your weapons down. I mean you no harm."

"The sangheili's right. Drop the weapon Spartans. The war is over." A man ordered as he appeared from behind the elite.

"Earth is safe. The fight is over." He smiled. "We won."

The two Spartan threes glanced at their female partner.

"I cannot follow that order. How do I know that this isn't an elite ploy? "She answered.

"Because Elites can't lie, lieutenant Nora Murray." The man answered.

"Would you like my AI to find your Spartans' names?" He finished.

That made the trio lower their weapons. "So we really won eh?" Aden chuckled. "Ain't that just peachy."

So how was it?