(Lasky Pov)
The smell of smoke made me instinctively cough as I jolted awake, 'What the hell happened?' The last thing I could remember was riding shotgun in the Warthog and then… nothing.
My body felt like it had been crushed in a hydraulic press. For a moment, I tried to move my toes and fingers, only feeling relief when I felt their ache against the ground. Using my hands, I sluggishly patted my torso, feeling for any wounds like impalement. I felt lucky when I seemed to have the same number of holes I had before the crash
The distant sounds of a crackling fire echoed faintly beneath the ringing in my ears. As I began to open my eyes, all I saw was darkness with a blood-red filter over it. I could see nothing. The smell of smoke made me instinctively cough as I jolted
'Shit, don't tell me I am blind,' panic set in as I scrambled, bringing my arms up despite the throbbing pain coursing through them.
I immediately started rubbing my face with my hands. They scratched around my eye sockets and slowly began to pull out a thick, gooey substance. When I opened my eyes again, though my vision was unsteady, I could vaguely see my surroundings.
My head ached as I ordered my legs to stand up. Warm liquid smeared my hand as I raised it to the side of my skull. In the moonlight, I could see that it was blood.
'Probably a scrape or a gash… hopefully I didn't crack my skull open,' I pushed the thought away as I braced myself against a tree with my other hand, "Sully, Chyler…Captain? Where are you guys?" I weakly called out barely above the sound level of a regular conversation.
I had to have been suffering from a concussion with how my vision seemed to spin with any movement of my eyes. I felt around for a pocket and pulled out a small syringe, Strezinol(Shock Stimulant), it said in small writing on the side of the tube. Uncapping it, I placed the plunger between my teeth as I gripped a bit of fat in one hand, then stabbed and compressed the plunger.
I paused, closing my eyes for a moment as the cocktail of chemicals ran through the course of my nervous system, and when I opened my eyes again, the world remained still. Similarly, the ringing in my ears faded until all I could hear was the still active fire nearby and the surroundings of the forest.
'I need to find where the rest-'
CHINK-CHINK-CHINK
My head shot up as I heard the familiar sound of an M41. 'That has to be the Spartan… thank God,' he probably needed my help, so I bent down to look for my rifle in the nearby brush.
After a few moments, I realized how dumb my thoughts were and stopped. First, he didn't need me for anything, and especially not to fight. Second, it was nearly pitch black, and I had no idea where the BLACK rifle could be. Thirdly, even if I found it, who knows if it still functions?
Still, I needed to regroup with the Captain, and hopefully, both Chyler and Sully were with him.
I took one last glance and started making my way in the direction of what appeared to be a large fire in the darkness. I moved slowly, watching for roots and branches, and tried not to step on leaves. The less noise I could make now, the better in case more of those aliens were nearby.
All the while, as I moved, I heard bursts of chaingun fire through the treeline-
"Tom….Tom…." I froze as I heard a weak voice.
I quickly looked around as my heart began to beat faster. Finally, I noticed a hand reaching out shakily in a trench beside the gravel road. I rushed over, stopping once I was beside…Chyler.
Her face softened as I appeared, "...How bad is it?" she barely eeked out. Looking down I could only gulp as I felt my skin go cold.
She was covered in blood on her chest, a grey spike poked out from her right breast. It… looked deep, and based on the amount of blood around… if I removed it she would bleed out within minutes.
Parts of her uniform was torn revealing road rash, a mess of scrapes and scratches that oozed blood. Her ankle was twisted unnaturally… I doubted she could walk.
I struggled to answer, "It's-uh… you're gonna be-I mean you're fine," I immediately reached tore through various pockets of mine and hers looking for pain killers.
Whether it was my poor attempt at lying or maybe my expression, she saw through me. But instead of looking depressed at her curent situation.
She looked at me with pity as if I was worse off than her.
'You're about to die and you pity me???' I wanted to shout at her, 'You're about to die for not a damn thing,' I furiously checked every pocket for biofoam, before moving onto her.
'You're about to leave me alone,' that was the truth. That was what I was most scared of first Cadmon, and now Chyler. Why couldn't it be just be me, so it wouldn't be my problem anymore?
"To-AUGH," As Chyler was going to speak a gargle escaped as she reached up to grasp her throat. The spike must have punctured her lung, and it must be filling with fluid.
"Damn it, there's no biofoam!" I tried to think of something else, but came up with nothing. I wasn't a medic and had no idea how to perform a traque.
For an instant I believed that I had no choice but to watch as Chyler drowned in her own blood.
That was until I heard the thudding of metal boots, and at that moment, I realized I no longer heard the sound of chaingun fire.
THUD
I nearly pulled muscle in my neck as I snapped to look to beside me. I nearly kissed the blackened metal of a three barreled chaingun that made me sweat from the heat it gave off. As I readjusted my view I looked up.
I saw the Captain, as I had decided to call him, standing peering down at the both of us. Chunks of his armor had been ground down losing their green coating and reflecting grey metal. His helmet's visor remained untouched, its honey color glowing faintly just as the moon behind him. What surprised me however were the three spikes, the same size as the one in Chyler's chest, impaled across from the white 003 that remained if a bit smudged.
Seeing him I began to open my mouth to beg, 'Please help her!,' I was about to say but was stopped.
"Punctured lung," he immediately recognized as he set the chaingun down to the side as he crouched down. Even crouched on one knee he still looked like a giant.
"Cut away her uniform and discard the plate," he ordered me as he began fiddling with a pack on his thigh, "Be quick, even if I can clear the airway, if too much fluid fills the cadet's lung then it will collapse. Even I can't raise the dead,"
I immediately turned pulling out my knife urgently as I cut off the part of the uniform around her chest. Once the uniform was away, I hesitated for a moment before I cut the link of her bra, I couldn't help but feel my face heat up seeing her bare chest, but quickly suppressed any stray thoughts.
Beside me however the Spartan seemed to not feel the same, nor share similar thoughts. He reached over grabbing the jagged tungsten spike and tossing it behind him. In his other hand was a small canister which he connected a nozzle to the end of before putting the tube in Chyler's wound. With a twitch of the hand I heard the sound of biofoam filling her chest cavity, her torso expanding minorly as if she was in permanent inhale.
Then he reached and grabbed another tube and before I could recognize it he stabbed it into the base of her neck.
Cough cough cough
Chyler immediately spat up blood that had been collecting in her throat as I heard a wheeze come from the tube placed into her neck, "Chyler! Chyler are you ok?"
She coughed again before she looked at me, her eyes showed exhaustion but relief, "Better than I was. It looks like you've saved me again,"
I smiled for the first time in a long while with genuine relief, "Thank God I thought I lost-"
"Save the talking for later," 003 cut in as he stood back up tossing the biofoam canister to the side and grabbing the chaingun, "Wrap her chest up with bandages, we need to keep the biofoam in place. Her ankle is broken, you carry her while I shoot,"
'Right, back to business..' I told myself and got back to work.
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(David Pov)
'This was stupid,' I… couldn't help but admit as I stood guard while the cadet Lasky began to bandage the other cadet.
'I shouldn't be here,' my reckless plan to jump into the jaws of death to save some cadets calling for help had so far been a monumental failure. Not only did I only come across three… I wasn't even able to keep all three alive to the extraction point.
'And if I die here then humanity loses a Spartan and Mjolnir in exchange for what exactly?' The Chief was sounding more right by the moment, had I just finished the mission in the city then I wouldn't be in this position now.
'At least it's not Daisy or Cal or Sheila or Jorge or anyone else. If it had to be anyone then it should be me,' behind me I heard the rustling of branches and I pulled myself out of my thoughts to turn around.
"Ready" "ready" Both Cadet Lasky and Cadet Silva were up. Lasky held Silva with one arm behind his neck and the other holding her waist.
"Stay Close," and we began to move through the forest.
We still had multiple kilometers to get to the LZ for the pelican. Even with the chaingun I wielded, I could easily outrun both cadets even if they hadn't just been in a car crash. Yet I stayed at a pace where they could easily keep up, though I wanted to speed up.
"Wait where's Sully," I heard Cadet Silva meekly and weakly ask.
I remained facing forward but answered, "Cadet Michael Sullivan is K.I.A he did not survive the wreck,"
I did not turn to see their reactions and only heard a slight sniffle behind me. It only reminded me of the current failure that had been my attempt at being a hero.
And just as silence set in again another interrupted it.
"So what was that about being nearby?" A transmission and familiar voice hit my helmet as I felt the urge to sigh.
"Ran into trouble and lost a cadet and the Warthog," I spat out a half-truth wanting to get off the com as quickly as possible, "We are moving on foot now, only a few klicks away,"
Daisy nearly scoffed, "Funny that's almost exactly what you said last time," she said clearly not fully buying it.
I didn't respond and instead remained focused on the surroundings.
Daisy sighed over the radio, "The Captain of the prowler and the pilot of the pelican are pissed. I don't know how much longer Cal and I can convince them to stay,"
"I just need a bit longer. But if not… then I'll find my own way-"
"That's NOT an option," Daisy cut in, "Even if I have to shoot the damn pilot I am not leaving without you,"
I was speechless for a moment before a small smile crept onto my face beneath my visor, "Understood… ma'am,"
A green light in the distance flashed interrupting the calm, "DOWN," I ordered as I crouched down. The cadets behind me doing the same as a large green glob flew over the top of us and creating a crater behind us.
My armor's inbuilt geiger counter alerted me to the high amount of radiation the crater gave off. I turned back and in the distance I faintly could make out the enemy.
It was a massive dark blue armored monster easily a few feet taller than me, and thicker than multiple tree trunks combined. On one arm was a shield the same color as its armor, and on the other a massive almost mace like weapon with green bulbs hanging from the back. Spines were just barely visible from its back.
Most importantly it had no face, no eyes, no mouth. No report had mentioned anything about the creature ahead of me. It was brand new ground.
BING-BING-BING
The barrel of my chain gun spun as I laid down covering fire and turned my head so that I could be heard by the cadets, "Head in that direction for six kilometers," I nodded my head to the north east, "You will find an open field, that is the LZ. Do not stop, do not slow down, and do not wait. No matter what you see or hear,"
I paused firing, the barrels slowly spinning to a stop as I prepared to close the distance, "I'll buy you as much time as I can. Now go get out of here,"