(3rd Pov)
The fire from the Hunter's assault cannon was dying out slowly amongst two figures. Its light flickered, illuminating the army green of David and the nanolaminate of the lone Hunter.
The two seemed to pause, staring each other down, both were calculating and considering how to kill the other the fastest and for the Lekgolo, the most gruesome way imaginable. The colony of worms had just watched its mate die in front of it without being able to save it.
The tragedy had echoed through the colony's members, forcing them into something of a blood rage. They saw red and wanted to tear apart anything that even remotely looked human, and especially the perpetrator in front of them.
Meanwhile, emotion played no role in David's thinking, 'All I have left on me is my knife… and my hands,' he analyzed, 'It's capable of crushing me if I allow it to, and that plasma cannon will keep me from running away. Besides, if I run now, it will catch up to the other two ahead. Despite the alien monster being around the weight of a fully grown elephant, it could move at a surprising pace.
'I have to get in close,' it was a simple fact based on the situation at hand, and one especially deadly if he was not careful.
David brought his gauntlets up to his chest, grasping one hand with the opposite, audibly cracking both sets of knuckles. The fire bounced off the glowing orange honeycombed visor as the world through the green color of night vision flowed into David's eyes. His eyes darted left and right. It was still one-on-one, no one seemed to be interested in interrupting.
At last, one of the hot coals of the fire cracked as if it were a starting pistol, and the two apex predators sprang forward toward each other.
As David neared the Hunter, he dove into a slide, performing a similar trick to the one he'd done against the other. He passed through the creature's legs, dirt flicking off in the path he traveled.
Popping up behind the alien, he snatched his knife out of its sheath in a reverse grip before shoving it deep into the unprotected lower back of the worm colony. It groaned loudly as David twisted the knife with both hands.
The moment the Hunter felt the sharp pain of a blade, it spun around its torso as if it were a top. David's reflexes activated a hair too late as he momentarily hesitated to leave the knife embedded in the colony.
And that second cost him.
The edge of the Hunter's shield smashed into his body, throwing him into a nearby tree. His armor slammed into the tree's bark, and fibers exploded from the impact, sending toothpick-long splinters. His helmet, clipped by the edge of the shield, had sustained a particularly heavy amount of damage, but had kept him from breaking his neck or losing his head.
Dazed David forced himself to look up through the visor of his helmet. He noticed the obvious crack that ran down the visor from top to bottom near the center of his helmet. The elements of the HUD blurred, becoming fuzzy, and even the night vision struggled to maintain projection through the damaged glass.
Yet he didn't have time to recover. The Hunter came upon him to finish the job and brought down the underside of its shield haphazardly with an overhead strike. David stepped up as both of his hands shot up, catching the shield before it could come down.
His arms shook as they strained to hold the force of the Hunter, but a quick plan formulated in his eyes, and he acted.
With a quick jerk, he did the unthinkable, pulling the Hunter on top of him with his grip on the shield. As the Hunter moved to catch itself from collapsing, he adjusted, catching the shielded arm in an underhook as he circle stepped to the side and reached, just barely pulling out his knife stuck in the Hunter's back.
Knife back in hand, he slammed the blade into the joint of the Hunter's arm repeatedly. Orange fluorescent fluid splashes onto the already orange, cracked visor. The Hunter roared and flailed, trying to pull him off, but each time David would yank, causing it to stumble further, nearly tipping over repeatedly.
At last, after ten or so strikes, the Hunter's arm hung limp, and David relocated. He pivoted and jumped onto the Hunter's back, using its short legs as footholds and shoulders as climbing grips.
'I need a bigger target,' the small gap at the bottom of the Hunter's back was not sufficient enough for him to attack in his current position.
Holding onto the Hunter's shoulder with a grip stronger than steel, he brought his other hand and held the back armor plate of the Mgalekgolo.
David grunted as he began to pull at the nanolaminate armor. His muscles bulged, and even that armor seemingly grew in size as it flexed. The Hunter, all the while, thrashed around, even scraping its back against a tree, all in an attempt to dismount David.
Then a sound called out into the forest-the armor began to give way. The composite cracked and crunched, letting out a scream begging for mercy as it began to flex and bend. As the angle of the bend increased, David's hand turned to shove the metal open.
In David's eyes, it was nothing different than using a can opener to crack open a tube of rations.
Once the hard outer surface had been peeled back, David looked for the writhing slimy center of the Hunter. Though the Lekgolo worms could not see in the literal sense, they vibrated to map their surroundings, so it would not be incorrect to say that as David peered down at them, they in turn looked back into the metal helmet of their killer.
David didn't hesitate as he began to butcher the colony. Slashes and stabs rained down onto the worms until the accumulated blood caused his gauntlets to slide off the handle of the knife. Instantly, he pivoted and ditched his knife, opting to simply rip each worm out by hand. His fist dug deeper and deeper into the innards of the armor housing the colony, with each grasp, another member was crushed and their corpse tossed into the surroundings.
When the colony finally died, there was no sound; instead, the body of the Hunter fell to its knees before face planting into the ground.
David let go of the body and stood over it, watching it to be sure it had been rendered inanimate once more. A few seconds passed, and he let out a deep exhale and pulled off his helmet for a moment. Reaching up with his free hand, he wiped away blood that had begun to pool in his eyesocket from a scratch on his forehead.
He couldn't help but feel his eyes pulled down to the crack in his helmet. He ran his thumb over the crack, feeling the bump separating the pieces of glass. His hand clenched into a fist despite his face not showing any change in expression.
His attention was again caught as he saw a glint reflect off the broken visor as he realized that the sun was beginning to climb into the sky, 'I am late,' he shoved his helmet back on, the night vision deactivated via his implants, and he took off toward the LZ.
Silently, he hoped that the cadets had made it and that he wasn't going to be too late.
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"This should be it," Lasky said, flinching away from the rising sun.
He held Chyler panting, completely exhausted. If before he was running on fumes, now he was struggling not to just break down and collapse.
Chyler was the same, but due to her wounds, she was starting to slip unconscious, as demonstrated by her head bobbing up and down like a teeter-totter. She didn't respond to Lasky, only looking ahead at the empty field, but with a massive green object that stood out like a pillar marking salvation in her mind.
A Deep green painted Pelican with the white MARINES painted on its back landing struts stood perfectly in front of them. Around it were four other tall green figures that stood above the long, wild grass in the field. Both Chyler and Lasky couldn't help but compare them to the Captain, and the similarities were clear.
2 of the figures noticed them and began running to them. The same uncanny sprint that the Captain had, they also showed. What had to have been at least one or two football fields away, they were covering in seconds.
SNAP
"WATCHAWAAAA"
A tree limb snapped just above them, and Lasky twisted his neck to see a Skirmisher, a cousin to the jackals, pouncing on them. Spit seemed to spill out of its snout, but its eyes remained with a predatory glint.
Even if he wasn't stuck with Chyler in his arms, Lasky had no hope of fighting off the over six-foot-tall avian creature. Claw raised, the tip glinted as it hurled toward him, aimed for his throat.
'Not right at the finish line,' Lasky exhaustedly thought with wide eyes.
Thankfully, five fingers wrapped in a black titanium woven garment gripped the back leg of the jackal variant. The Skirmisher flinched as it felt a bear trap snap shut around its ankle. In one sharp motion, its already quick descent turned much more rapid.
It slammed into the ground on its neck, kicking dust into the air that revealed David standing hand outstretched before it was retrieved. He didn't say anything, only waiting for the other two Spartans to reach them.
"You made-" Lasky began to say, but was quickly stopped as the Captain raised a hand to stop him.
The two Spartans arrived, "We're sprinting to the Pelican, carry both of them. The girl has internal damage, be careful." They nodded.
"Wha-" before Lasky could verbalize, he felt a strong hand grab his shoulder. Then he was picked up and thrown over a Spartan's shoulder. Glancing over, he saw Chyler being gently lifted into a princess carry before a sudden jerk of acceleration.
The pair was whisked across the field with David sprinting ahead of them, crossing the field in a matter of moments. A fresh trail of trampled grass followed behind them.
The two Spartans stood guard as the five other humans boarded the Pelican before turning and following suit. Sheila, who had been carrying Chyler, lay the cadet down and began to open compartments, gathering medical equipment and supplies.
Daisy, who had been carrying Thomas, plucked him off his shoulder and set him down by the back of his uniform. He let out a small grunt as he hit the chair, as Daisy wasn't a particularly gentle Spartan.
"Get us out of here, pilot," David said the moment Jorge's foot hit the lowered bay door of the Pelican. He stood on the bay door as everyone else filled in the seats behind him. He watched the surroundings on guard for anyone trying to intervene in their takeoff.
"On it," a cool voice came through the speakers of the Pelican's cargo bay, and with a series of pops, the Pelican's thrusters roared to life.
"Sky's jammed up with Banshees, you're gonna have to knock out any that get on my tail. Otherwise, we'll just be leading them back to the Hush-Hush," The pilot said as the landing gear retracted.
"Solid," David said before turning around, "Hand me an M319," he ordered as Cal stood up, opening an overhead cabinet and pulling out a small break-action grenade launcher. Jorge, at the same time, reached underneath his seat and grabbed a bandolier of 40 mm EMP/HE grenades. Cal tossed the grenade launcher, and Jorged handed the bandolier to David.
David slapped the end of the grenade launcher whilst holding the release lever and slammed a 40 mm grenade into the tube before clicking it back shut. The Pelican climbed into the air, gaining altitude as the ground became increasingly smaller.
"Three bogies coming in fast at 7 o'clock!" The pilot called out, and sure enough 3 purple dots were closing in.
David raised the grenade launcher, his arm slowly lowered as he adjusted the pitch according to the trajectory projection that his helmet struggled to read out through its damage.
Just as his finger neared the trigger and blue plasma bolts streaked by the bay door, the Banshees made an unbelievable choice.
"They're pulling back?" Sheila asked with a clear tone of confusion.
The purple fliers dipped to one side without any warning and pulled off from their pursuit, turning a full 180 degrees around. The action even gave David a pause from the unexpected response.
Jorge looked at David as he stood with the grenade launcher lowered, looking around, trying to find an answer, "When have you ever seen the Covenant retreat?" he asked through his thick accent.
"Never," David said simply, giving the group all the more unease
"They could be trying to regroup," Cal voiced
"Or they don't think we are worth the effort," Daisy pointed out
They continued to debate, offering answers and conjecture, all the while David stood watching silently.
Meanwhile, Lasky was having whiplash trying to keep up. He'd only first run into this "Covenant" a few days prior, but the Spartans talked as if they'd been fighting them for years. But with the tone they spoke and the bits he picked up, it was clear that this was an abnormal situation.
"If I may, how do you guys know this much about the aliens? Isn't this the first attack?" he asked, feeling like a student in a classroom.
The Spartans stopped and turned to look toward David. The finer details about the Covenant and their interactions with humanity were still classified. Despite that fact, none of them particularly cared about withholding information from Lasky, who was now obviously implicated in the war. But David, the captain, was the one who had final say.
David moved his head to speak over his shoulder, "Jorge, tell him what he needs to know, nothing more," and just like that, he returned to being a sentry.
"Understood," Jorge said before reaching up and taking his helmet off and facing Lasky.
For an instant, Lasky's eyes widened as the face of a war-hardened 30-something-year-old man that he had been picturing underneath the helmet was completely upended. In front of him was… was someone who looked even younger than him. He was expecting something like Space Rambo, not some kid.
As soon as he had the reaction, he immediately shelved it, after all regardless of age these were still the ones who'd saved him.
"To answer your question, this is not the first time we've run into the Covenant, nor is it the first battle between the UNSC and them," Jorge said, answering his question but staying away from specifics.
'Well, that told me nothing,' Lasky couldn't help but remark internally
CRACK
"What the hell!?" the pilot shouted as the very atmosphere around them seemed to rumble. The pelican jerked quickly from both the pilot and an abrupt change in wind flow.
David gripped the bulkheads of the craft tightly as he steadied himself from falling out. From the roof of the transport, a dark shadow slowly grew as it passed over. It was massive with curved cross sections and lights that glowed calmly on its underbelly. But at the center of its disc-like core, an orange and red light seemed to glow in a concentrated ball of fury and malice.
While Lasky looked on, confused, the Spartans knew exactly what was about to happen.
"They're not…" Sheila's voice trailed off
"I think they are," Cal said calmly as she watched the ventral weapon charge.
"This quickly? It's only been a week." Jorge muttered as he grimly watched on.
"Wait-what? What's happening?" Thomas asked, looking around, trying to see what was going on.
Daisy turned to him and snorted, "You're about to see what the Covenant does after it wins a battle," she said before turning back to the outside.
Lasky watched and couldn't help but hold his breath as a sharp crack rose through the air and a red light fell down like a thunderbolt upon Circinius IV. The beam kicked dust into the air instantly, as it looked as though an eruption took place. Slowly, the shadow that released the attack was concealed behind ash.
David, having seen enough, silently tightened his fist as he reached up and closed the bay door with his other hand. He stepped away from the door before reaching up to his chest. He slowly plucked the tungsten spikes out of his armor, releasing each and letting them fall to the floor.
He said nothing as he proceeded to the cockpit to step up into the co-pilot seat as the door shut behind him.
"Wha-What was that?" Lasky sputtered out through his shock.
"Glassing," Jorge answered, "Superheated plasma meant to render planets uninhabitable."
He leaned in. "That's what the Covenant wants to do to every human world,"
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That's all she wrote for Forward Unto Dawn. So tell me whatchu thinking.
Was it good? Bad? Better or worse than the original?
Coming up we have a few chapters of consequences before we go into the next arc.
And as a little aside I hope you guys do know that the reviews and comments give me fuel me to continue writing outside of my own motivation. So thank you for your kind remarks.