Halo: FUBAR Chapter 05 - Real Men Go Akimbo
#5 of Halo: FUBAR
Previously on Lost... I mean Halo FUBAR:
With a headache, Seth woke in the bowels of the Vipress fleet flagship, only to find himself at the mercy of Chieftainess Ressentia and her stooges.
"The fleet commander has something special in mind for this one."
Taken before the Minister of Arms, who attacked the colony to find the location of earth, Seth is given the opportunity to trade. The location of Earth for the sparing of Olduvai. Seth is not game. Looking torture in the eye, Seth is saved by the Arbiter, who decided to turn her back on the Covenant.
"My name is Mira, by the way. Mira 'Xesolee. I used to be an arbiter. That was fucking thrilling. Now I suppose I'm a heretic."
Seth rejoins Token, the marines, who agree that their situation is well and truly FUBAR. They retrieve Captain Locks with a mission in mind. Use Locks' access to the bee-net and get the hell off Olduvai.
"Shut up and stay behind me... sir!"
---***---
Halo: FUBAR
Chapter 05
[Real Men Go Akimbo]
> 2552, Olduvai, The Inner Colonies, Mission Time: 17 Hours.
All the hallways looked alike. Nine of us, armed humans, apparently the best the UNSC had to offer... and we were fucking lost.
"We've been here before." Token noted, looking down each branching hallway.
"Yeah, no shit." I replied nudging a dead grunt with my foot. The very same grunt I'd perforated with rounds in a small engagement about half an hour ago. "Dude, we're going in circles."
Captain Locks sighed, resting his hands on his hips and looking around like some kind of overly obese Dungeons and Dragons hero. "I think..." he paused, pointing off in a random direction, before continuing to announce himself in a deep voice. "We should head in that direction."
I looked down the way Locks pointed, seeing a trail of dead alien bodies litter the hallway and bullet holes perforate the walls. Obviously we had been there already. "The best and brightests?" I asked myself walking to where Token stood. "What do you think?"
Token was looking at a door. The archway was sealed off by an alien alloy, coloured with little green strips of light to indicate it was unlocked. Token pointed at it and nodded his head.
"That was definitely locked last time we came past here." Token said. "We should try it."
"Alright, I'm right behind you." I nodded.
Token paused to glance at me sideways. "Er... I think considering I outrank you, you should take the lead."
"And I think because I'm an ODST and you're militia, I'm automatically more awesome than you. You go ahead of me." I retorted levelling my SMG and nodding Token on.
The sergeant major let out an explosive sigh, staring at the ceiling before levelling is plasma rifle and stepping closer to the doorway. There was a soft two toned tune and the bulkhead parted down the middle. Both halves smoothly slid away to reveal the next room...
As we stepped inside, the thick musty smell hit us hard, and we were nearly deafened by the noises of wet squelching and soft moans and cries. My jaw hung out the bottom of my helmet. We were frozen in place, unsure whether to keep moving or to back the hell out of there.
The room was high and long. The floor was smooth, and the whole room was much darker than the rest of the ship we had seen. On the opposite end was another door, open and leading out into an open space that looked very much like a hangar bay of some sort. That was definitely our way off this ship, I figured Token knew as much. The only thing standing between us and sweet freedom were little under twenty hunters littering the floor.
These guys were often referred to as different things. Blue meanies, the big one and 'Whoa, would you look at that!' Hunters were huge heavily armoured monsters wielding a massive impervious shield on one arm and a fuel rod cannon on the other. They had long, razor sharp spines on their backs, and the only weak spots were the chinks in their blue armour that revealed the orange worm colony that made up the hunters inside. Hunters were actually colonies of these worm things that dwelled in these 'tank-suits.' I wasn't sure how their biology worked, and I was even more oblivious to how they bred. But what they were doing right now... I suppose it was breeding, but it didn't make sense... but I had to keep in mind, everything that had been happening to me so far didn't make any sense.
The hunters were all sitting in random spots all along the floor, heads bowed down with their chest plates lying on the ground in front of them. For each hunter there was one elite female, lying on their backs, completely naked, legs open and privates exposed to the hunters. Long strings that could only be described as slimy, oily orange tentacles slithered out each hunters' exposed 'chest' and connected with their personal female elites' body in varying ways. I saw some just clinging on to the elite, tentacles, worms, whatever they were slithering all over the naked body of the female, leaving orange slime everywhere. Others were penetrating their elites while holding their legs open with other tentacles and rubbing others over their breasts. Some elites had tentacles shoved into every orifice, even down their throat, pumping and raping them vigorously while more tentacles held their arms and legs pinned down. Each and every elite was moaning in pleasure. A few managed to cry out in ecstasy through the thick, oily worms pumping in and out of their throats.
One elite in particular was sitting at my feet, on hands and knees taking it in both holes from behind while the hunter's worms held around her legs and waist firmly. Her head was thrown back, her black plume stained with orange goo, rocking back and forth as the hunter's 'tentacles' pumped vigorously in and out of her. Oily slime splattered to the deck between her legs and shot up into the air with every thrust. Her eyes were half shut and she was staring out into space, cooing softly in an alien language.
"Holy, shit." I breathed, tearing my eyes off the elite taking it wormy-style and scanning across the room until my visor met Token's eyes. The sergeant major looked halfway between surprise and disgust. "What the fuck is going on?" I added.
"Hangar." Token said slowly and hoarsely in a low tone. He very slowly raised one hand and pointed at the opposite door. "Fastest way."
I nodded in agreement before looking over my shoulder at the marines behind us. They were staring wide eyed into the room, shifting nervously. I gave a hand-signal that meant 'Control your fire. Trigger discipline. Stay quiet.'
"Holy shit! That's like tentacle hentai! Awesome!" a loud voice shouted. The nearest hunter twitched in response, but wasn't pulled out of his breeding trance.
I whipped around and clamped my hand over Locks' wide smile. His eyes immediately widened as he realised I was pissed. "Do... not... speak... don't... touch... anything." I hissed sharply.
The captain quickly nodded, causing the flab on his cheeks to shake slightly. I removed my hand from his mouth, then nodded back, punching him playfully in the chest. There was no point being mean to him now. If any of these hunters woke, we'd all be equally fucked.
Weapon gripped in both hands, I took the lead, stepping softly between the orgy, avoiding the mess of orange worms squirming on the ground and edging past the elite girls caught in what looked and sounded like a non-stop orgasm. One foot in front of the other, I placed my boots on the edge of my heel first, then spread my weight out to maintain balance and silence. Behind me the marines spread out and edged around in different routes, equally quiet. It was surprising how even Locks managed to keep quiet.
Swallowing hard I froze in place, seeing a hunter directly in front of me tremble, causing the sharp quills on his back to chime against each other. The creature shook it off as the elite girl he was in possession arched her back, eyes clamped shut. She was taking it anally from her hunter, and her muscles clenched as juices leaked like a waterfall down to her anus.
Taking a calming breath, I edged sideways around the hunter's spines and shimmied past the next as he lifted his elite girl off the ground and turned her over, doing her doggy like the one I saw earlier. Only this hunter wrapped his tentacles around the elite's wrists and pulled her arms back, a third grabbing a hand-full of her ashy grey hair and yanking it back hard. Her gaze fixed on the ceiling, the girl let out a scream of joy, her mandibles, and probably ever muscle in her body, going slack. I hated to admit it, but like the drones in the subway, all this was disturbingly erotic.
I shook off the thoughts and moved on.
We closed in on the exit. Token was there first, hopping across a long orange worm pumping an orange ooze over one of the elite girls being pleasured by a different hunter. He stumbled to a halt and whirled around, letting out a relieved breath. I was third there, taking extra care to duck past another hunter who shook, causing his spines to dart in my direction. One by one the marines caught up. Soon we had regrouped at the edge of the hangar.
The room was huge, a three storey chamber that formed a cavernous well in the centre with gantries running around the perimeter of the room. Hanging in the cavernous well, facing the long gaping hole in the side of the cruiser was a spirit drop ship, a two pronged hovering alien craft big enough to house everybody and get them safely off this ship. There were a few grunts and jackals patrolling the gantries and the main floor ten meters below us, but nothing we couldn't handle.
Then it hit me. Where the fuck was Captain Locks?
I looked at Token, who widened his eyes as he too realised Locks was missing. We both whirled around at the same time and immediately spotted him.
Captain Locks was a brave man, I had to give him that. A room full of heavily armoured killing machines fucking a group of hot aliens, all of whom could wake up at any moment and kill the fuck out of him. Yet Locks had the balls to stand over one of the elites and snap one off.
His back was to us, one hand holding up his trousers at the hip, the other pumping vigorously at something out of our field of vision. I shook my head with disbelief.
"Locks." I whispered, sweating as a nearby hunter stirred but didn't wake. "Locks!" I hissed a little louder. Still Locks didn't hear me. "LOCKS!"
Every single hunter in the room sat bolt upright. Little under twenty flat, armoured heads perked up and swivelled to look at the captain jerking off over the elite taking it in three holes from orange tentacles like worms. It took a few moments for the captain to realise he was being watched by the walking tanks.
"Oh, we're dead now." Token muttered
When he realised he suddenly stopped what he was doing, and eyes fixed on the nearest hunter he pulled up his trousers and buckled them up. "Corporal?" Locks called out. "What do I do?"
"What the fuck do you think, fat-ass?" I shouted, levelling my weapon and angling my head behind the sights. "Run!"
Locks moved pretty fast for a guy his size. He jumped into action almost immediately, running full sprint towards us. One of the hunters shifted around and swung his shield high. Locks ducked under the blow, crawled on all fours past the next hunter who tried to stab him with the spines on his back, then Locks jumped to his feet, leaping over one of the elite females covered in orange ooze as the final hunter withdrew all his tendrils and reached for the chest-plate of his armour. All over the room hunters were re-fitting their armour and climbing to their feet, making ready to charge us.
Locks ran past us and cowered behind one of the marines. At the same time, Token lifted his knee to his chest and kicked a boot hard against the holo-panel beside the door. It immediately slid closed before Token levelled his plasma rifle and unleashed a bolt of burning hot plasma into the control panel. The green strips of light on the door faded away and were replaced by red.
Lowering my weapon, I scanned over the doorway. It looked pretty thick and sturdy. "That ought to hold 'em..." I stopped as a thunderous clang rang out and the tip of a hunter shield punched clean through the right door panel. "Whoa! Or not! Shoot 'n scoot! Get to that spirit!"
Nobody needed telling twice. Weapons shouldered we ran across the gantry, spread out evenly as we opened up a hail of death in every direction. Locks was clinging on to the back of my belt now, keeping his head low and a free hand shading his face. I hoped he wasn't using his right hand to hold on to me, for obvious reasons.
I heard myself crying out as I squeezed the trigger of my SMG and didn't let go. The silencer coughed out round after round, spraying everywhere. Grunts and jackals caught unaware dropped, dancing to the rhythm of fire before flopping to the ground. A grunt on my right let loose a bolt of plasma, but it went wide, sizzling over my head. I lowered into a crouch, pausing for a moment to empty the remainder of my clip into the squat alien.
"Waaaaah, pain!" the grunt squealed as a dozen rounds breached his suit. He dropped to the deck, blood and methane squirting from the holes in his armour.
"Notify the next of kin, 'cuz they're next!" I taunted, ducking sideways under another glob of plasma aimed at me.
A high pitched voice further up the gantry, next to the spirit's dock tether controls caught my attention. Standing, I sprinted forward and slammed my shoulder against a crate as the grunt by the controls for the dock tether primed a plasma grenade. Leaning backwards, the alien rocked his entire body in preparation for the throw. He then snapped his arm forward and let go of the grenade... but it didn't sail towards me. It clung there, stuck to the grunt's hand.
"Wha..." the grunt stared wide eyed at the flaring blue orb stuck to the palm of his hand before trying to shake it off. It was stuck fast and wasn't coming off. "Oh, not again!" the alien squealed, shaking harder.
The grenade exploded, tossing the alien into his buddies. A chain reaction went off. More grenades in the vicinity exploded, doubling the force of the blow, causing the deck beneath my boots to shake violently.
One of the marines laughed at the sight of five grunts disappearing in a haze of blue fire that quickly died down, leaving bits of fluorescent blue flesh and chunks of broken armour behind. "Ha! I could do this all day!"
Reloading my SMG I saw some jackals crouch behind their personal shields, overlapping the protection to create an impervious wall. Slowly the jackals stood, and like a Roman legion they marched forward with more grunts hiding behind them.
"We'll lose ground to those jackals!" Token yelled over the covering fire provided by the marines. It was useless though, just pinging harmlessly off the jackal shields.
Suddenly a double dozen pink slivers of energy shot past my head and bounced off the ground in front of the jackals. The needler rounds angled upward and all hit home in one of the jackals' shins. A moment later the jackal exploded in a pink blaze. Three of the jackals flew through the air. The others were knocked down. One of the grunts popped, the methane in his suit going ablaze. Two more grunts quickly followed suit. The other aliens scattered in fear and confusion. It was manic.
I twisted around and saw locks holding a smoking needler, grinning broadly. Shaking my head, I holstered my SMG and snatched the weapon out of his hands. The captain seemed disgruntled, but I didn't care. I wasn't having a repeat of what got us on this ship in the first place.
Leaning out, gripping the alien weapon in one hand, I quickly ducked back as more needler rounds scythed past from behind. I twisted back to Locks to see he'd picked up another out of nowhere. I snatched this one out of his hands again, holding an alien weapon in each hand now.
"Where the fuck do you keep getting these?" I held up the right needler.
Locks shrugged.
"Token!" I called. "On me! Let's disable that docking tether!"
Token nodded, slipping out of cover and followed me. We pushed forward. I held both alien weapons at arm's length and scanned for enemies. I couldn't see any. We kept our weapons up none the less until we reached the console.
Token took a knee behind me, by the bulkhead we were standing beside as I inspected the console. It was like a pillar of light, alien symbols and random circles scrolling up and down. I wasn't even sure where to begin.
"Any idea where the off button is?" I asked.
"You got way to much finesse." Token replied.
"Hmmm." I thought about it for a while, then agreed. "Yeah, you're right." Stepping back I started smashing the needlers against the console until it flickered and the light died away.
As soon as the console broke, the beams of light hanging on to the spirit drop ship disabled. The drop ship dropped a few feet, then hung still on her own anti-gravity thrusters. Smiling I turned to Locks to tell that dunce to get over here and fly them out of here. That was when I heard a two toned chime.
The bulkhead beside us slid open without warning and I found myself looking over my shoulder at a group of grunts let by an elite in blue armour. The alien immediately pointed at us, his mandibles stretching open and a long battle cry escaping his throat.
"Awww, nuts." I muttered, staring at the alien.
I twirled around, attempting to bring my akimbo needlers to bear as the elite charged us. I was either very unlucky or way too slow. The elite made contact, running headlong into me. The alien grabbed Token by the collar as he passed and all three of us toppled over the gantry hand-rail. My vision was a blur as we fell, spiralling through the air, and the next thing I remember was the ground focusing inches from my visor. Next thing I knew everything turned black.
I was probably out for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes, everything was in pain. My face was numb, my limbs, my legs, even my eyes were hurting. My vision was blurred as I lifted my head and looked at my hands pressed against the ground in front of me. Slowly everything focused.
A crash of energy caught my attention. Rolling on to my back I saw the elite that had pulled me over the edge was on his feet, an energy blade sizzling in one hand. Elite warriors always looked pissed in my opinion, but there was just something in this one's eyes. He was really pissed as he marched forward, raising his energy blade for the kill.
"Whoa!" I cried out, scrambling backwards. "Whoa!" I cried out again, raising my hands to shield myself. Fat lot of good that would've done.
A radioactive beam of light scythed down from above, cut clean through the elite's head and tossed the warrior sideways. The alien hit the ground beside me in a heap, foul smelling blood spilling from the neat hole in his noggin. I quickly looked up to see where the shot came from and saw a figure lower its pulse carbine two gantries above me.
It was the jackal girl from the escape pod. She lifted her monocle visor, a broad grin plastered on her beak-like muzzle and gave a mock-human salute. I politely gave a small wave back before she backed away into the shadows. My guardian angel.
Climbing to my feet I looked around for Token. I found him a few meters away, his limbs sprawled at unnatural angles, his head twisted all the way around so his back was now his front. My stomach churned at the sight.
It got worse when the sergeant major opened his eyes and looked at the damage himself. "Whoa, shit. See you in ten seconds." With that, Token's head slumped back and he shut his eyes, dead.
I sighed, staring at Token's corpse, wondering how on earth he'd come back from this one. Then again, he'd died more horribly the previously two times. Something in the back of my mind was telling me it was not the last time we'd meet.
A groan caught my attention. I looked up and saw the spirit drop ship, my way off this ship sway sideways, the two pronged 'nose' smashing against a nearby gantry. The ship then reversed and smashed against another gantry. The whole craft then swivelled around, the rear scraping against a wall showering me with sparks. I ducked away and watched the ship drift out of the hangar bay and soar off into the open skies beyond.
"What the fuck?" I yelled loudly taking a few steps after it.
"Locks took it!" an Australian voice yelled. I turned and looked up at the gantry above me. It was one of the marines hanging over the handrail pointing after the escaping spirit. "Captain Locks freaking left us here!" an elite suddenly stepped up behind the marine and drove a sword through his back, the two tips of the energy blade exploding out of his chest. "Argh!" the marine looked down at the sword. "Bollocks!"
The elite stepped back and ran off, leaving the marine's body hanging over the handrail. The next thing I knew, elites were streaming onto the main floor, forming a circle around me. All of them were holding white hot energy blades. A few roared at me, taunting me to make the first move. As they assessed how much of threat I was, I stooped and picked up the needlers I had dropped and held them out at arm's length. More elites joined the circle, activating plasma swords and taunting me with war-cries. There were at least twelve alien warriors surrounding me now. This was not looking good.
"Surrender, demon!" one of the elites yelled at me. I turned to face him, bring both weapons to bear on the single elite in crimson armour, obviously the leader of all the blue armoured stooges.
"Demon?" I shouted back at the alien. "Hey, you're no beauty queen either, calamari-face!"
The alien let out an angered snort. "You have no chance to survive! Make your time!"
I blinked hard a few times, wondering if my helmet translator was working alright. "Er... okay... whatever."
Holding my weapons out, one pointed each direction, I span around on the spot, squeezing the triggers. The needlers shuddered and hummed, shooting pink energy projectiles. I twisted and turned, not letting up for a single second. Pink shards of light thudded into the elites around me and clung to their shields and armour, causing them to flinch and shade their faces. The barrage of fire I laid down, spinning on the spot forced them back a step. The pink slivers of light solidified into spikes as I faced the leader trying to pull a round out of his gut. Fingers tight around the triggers I aimed both weapons forward and emptied the rest of the magazines into the leader. The guns clicked, empty. The elites were stunned, staring at me, knowing exactly what came next.
"Fear the pink mist, motherfuckers." I snarled, letting go of the triggers with a light click.
An instant later the needler rounds exploded. Alien warriors were tossed to the ground as an inferno of pink light arced all around me. I raised a hand to shade my eyes before the light faded, leaving a gory mess of body parts and scorched armour.
I sighed, tossing the empty weapons aside and muttering to myself. "Why is it whenever I do something badass nobody is around to see it?"
They say you should be carefully what you wish for. You might actually get it. I wanted someone to witness my badass. Unfortunately I didn't wish for anyone in particular, so fate decided it was appropriate to reveal my badass to other elites whose brothers I had just mercilessly wasted. Armoured aliens started streaming into the room, bolts of plasma flickering from the muzzles of their weapons. I immediately ducked and ran, blue and green light crisscrossing through the hangar. I was doomed. There was no way out of this... unless.
My eyes fell upon a single banshee fighter not far away. The bulbous craft with short stubby 'wings' was laying on the deck, nose angled upward, the cockpit open wide to reveal the interior. It was no better than a silent prayer, but it would have to do.
I ran full tilt for the vehicle, a plasma bolt glancing against my right shoulder. The impact caused me to stumble, but I managed to catch myself on one of the banshee's tail-fins, my other hand patting out the blue flames clinging to my shoulder. Plasma splashed the ground and the hull of the banshee, forcing me back into action.
I dove headfirst into the alien jet, lying on my belly on the gel-cushions along the bottom of the craft. Immediately the alien holo-displays lit up and the vehicle automatically powered up with a soft hum, audible over the whine of plasma fire outside. The controls looked simple enough. By my right hand was a control yolk, and to my left were several glowing buttons and controls, but one of the controls represented a strip of light glowing from soft green and blending along into red at the far top. That was obviously the power control.
I touched the green as I grabbed the control yolk and pushed power to full, right into the red. My feet caught in the awkward stirrups designed for alien feet as the craft shot upward. I almost tumbled back out of the craft, my stomach churning as I let out a cry of surprise.
I yanked the control stick right, reading the display ahead of me. It was all odd patterns and alien text. Light streaked across the display practically plastered over my HUD creating a view that would have made sense if I were a butt-ugly, squid faced, eight foot killing machine alien. Unfortunately I was not. Essentially I was flying blind.
The banshee bounced and chugged as the right wing glanced off the deck. I levelled the craft out and looked over my shoulder. Realising the hatch was still open, I looked over the edge of the cockpit and saw the Covenant carrier's hangar fall away behind me. Twisting left, one hand holding the control yolk at all times, I looked back, my left hand reaching up to pull the cockpit shut. That was when I saw it.
Plasma is a strange thing. From a plasma rifle it'll tear your arm off, or just boil you alive. A full charged plasma pistol shot on the other hand does fuck all... unless you are a vehicle. It had EMP properties, and on impact could cause electronic equipment to overload and power down, sometimes temporarily, other times permanently. Did it make much sense? Not really. Was it annoying? Yes. Was I fucked because of it? Oh, quite definitely.
My eyes widened as the fully charged plasma pistol shot glowed in my visor, sizzling and crackling as it soared straight up my tail.
"Fuck me!" I cursed quickly, pulling down the hatch sharply and yanking the yolk left.
The banshee immediately reacted, the tail fins twisting to orient me left. The turn would have torn any other jet in half. The banshee's hull groaned, but she held together. I glanced over my shoulder through the small gap left in the cockpit hatch. The plasma bolt arced after me and hung mere millimetres off the banshee's hull.
"Fuck me sideway." I muttered.
The homing plasma hit the back of the banshee. Immediately everything died. All the electronic displays turned off with a crackle of static and the banshee's engines died. There was no comforting hum, no power strip and no response from the yolk. The craft fell like a fucking brick.
"Nononononononono!" I yelled pulling as hard as I could at the controls.
The banshee entered a spin, tumbling end over end, the force of the gees sucking me into the side of the cockpit. A small window opened up in front of me, revealing a plain view of outside. All I saw was a blur that was supposed to be the horizon, spiralling all around me, bobbing up and down every so often as the nose rocked back and forth.
My other fist was banging on the control panel of the cockpit, hoping it would cause the power to come back. It didn't.
The nose angled straight down revealing the blurry ground a mere hundred meters below. It span, like water circling the drain as the banshee rolled out of control. I tugged at the control yolk harder, hoping the fins were at least still moving enough to pull me out of the deadly nose-dive...
But even if they were still working, it wouldn't have made much difference. In one tuck the oddly shaped yolk snapped off in my hand, ripping a bunch of wires and circuits with it.
I stared at the dislodged control stick, then screamed like a little girl, my arms covering my head. It was the best I could to assume a crash position in the banshee's cramped cockpit. I couldn't even put my head between my knees and kiss my own ass goodbye.
I'm not sure what happened after that. From what I gather, the banshee hit the roof of a building and broke through. Now what happened next is not a word of a lie. It's all true.
I survived the crash, plummeting face first at the ground at a speed of at least two hundred kilometres per hour. And if you're thinking 'of course he's alive, he's telling us the story,' then don't be such a fucking smart-ass.
How did I survive the crash? I landed in a pillow warehouse.
When I woke up from a brief blackout, I found myself stretched out in a mass of fluffy pillows. The banshee was sticking out of another pile of pillows not far away, hanging at an angle with feathers drizzling all around me where the impact had caused some of the cotton cushions to burst. On impact I had been thrown from the cockpit and landed safely in a pile of luxurious pillows. My strange luck knew no bounds.
Regardless, after a short while to catch my breath and climbed off the pile of pillows and left the warehouse. I didn't want to get too comfortable. I still had a job to do. A job that would assure me a ticket out of this madness.
Standing in the street outside, I looked up to see the Covenant carrier hanging in the sky. I was looking at the belly and the gravity lift connecting the ship with the camp beneath it. I had crashed at least a kilometre away. I was lucky. I could have landed in between a swarm of angry Covenant. As Mira had said, most of the _Vipress_fleet was looking to get a piece of me.
A shadow glode over my position. Looking straight up I found myself watching the two pronged silhouette of a spirit drop ship fly past... a long trail of black smoke pluming into the air in its wake. I watched as the spirit fell from the sky, smashing into a nearby building. Clouds of dust filled the air as chunks of rubble fell into the streets two blocks away. The spirit glanced off the blow and fell out of view behind the skyline. I counted to four, and immediately after there was a ground shuddering crash I could feel from the few kilometres away from where the spirit crashed.
There wasn't a shadow of doubt that was Locks' drop ship. Shouldering my M7S, I moved out. I had a task to complete. At the time I was thinking 'it's time to finish this.' I had literally convinced myself it would be so easy. Find the crashed spirit, secure Locks, link up with Mira and get the fuck off this crazy planet.
I should have known by then. There was no fucking way it could possibly be so easy.