Spartan One 007

Entering the next chamber at the end of the hallway, the spawning ground was full of insectoid eggs, pools of goo, and a large three story tall honeycomb like structure. 

The vapor was especially thick in this environment, and Orion's vision was extremely limited. He couldn't see beyond 5ft in front of his face. Even with the infrared version, the Warrior Bugs only came across as red blurs. Thankfully, their Spartan armor also had the motion tracker built into their HUDs, so they weren't completely blind. If he were an ordinary trooper, aiming at the weak points on the bug would be impossible. This would doubtlessly be a dead end. Fortunately, [Shredder Ammo] mitigated such complications. 

The darkness was terrifying, and even if he felt fear, righteous fury steadied his nerves. 

“No, Nick!” A woman screamed in fear. 

Through the infrared lens, the entire squad witnessed a long spike ram into the crown of some man's head. Red hot fluid was sucked up, as if the Brain Bug's appendage was a straw. 

Just as Orion was about to pull the trigger on his rocket launcher, the Brain Bug locked eyes with him. Its six black, lidless orbs-each one the size of a grown man's fist-seemed to grow even darker, like the endless void. 

Tilting sideways, Orion fell to one knee, barely keeping conscious. A splitting migraine pierced his brain, and he lost all vision in one eye, all he could see was a big white wall. Vertigo assaulted him, and blood leaked out of his eyelids. A rich, coppery taste fell upon his tongue. He growled, trying to will himself to stand. His nascent ESP pressed back into the bug, and he had a second of breathing room. 

Blinking his eyes to remove the fog, Orion saw that all the Mobile Infantrymen they had brought along were passed out, and the Spartans were twitching wildly, like someone experiencing a seizure. The Warrior Bugs had already dragged a Spartan up to the Brain Bug. Watching on in horror, he tried to lift his arms. 

Come on…

COME ONNNNN

He willed himself, clenching his teeth so hard, he felt a tooth crack. And yet, no matter how much he growled, he had only been a psychic for a week at this point. 

Just as he felt like all hope was lost, Johnson-the Spartan who was being dragged forward-suddenly rose from the ground, and drew his shotgun. 

“You're so hungry for my brains? SUCK ON THIS!!!” 

A pointblank blast of Johnson's shotgun blew out the Brain Bug's eyes, popping them like waterballoons. Black ink-like blood showered upon the Private, as the beast recoiled in pain. 

Johnson angrily laughed as he whirled around, blasting the Warrior to his left. However, the Arachnid on his right had made its move, piercing the brave soldier through the chest. 

“Ahhh!” Johnson screamed in pain as his blood spilt freely into the air, and that vapor burnt his exposed wounds. 

Tossing him in the air, the Warrior opened its jaws intent on biting him in half. Just as he fell, Johnson twisted, and pumped several slugs into the Warrior, killing it dead. Collapsing on the ground, the Spartan was drowning due to the blood clogging his lungs, yet even so, he roared his defiance, spraying bugs until his gun ran dry. 

By now, the psychic link that the Brain Bug had imposed upon them was broken, and clarity had once more returned to Orion. Whilst everyone else was slow to get up, the enemy didn't wait for them to recover. Hounded on all sides, the Warriors dragged away 24 Mobile Infantrymen, feasting upon them with glee. 

Orion saw a dozen Warriors crowding around Johnson, then looked at the fleeing Brain Bug. Pulling out his sniper, he quickscoped four of them, before it ran out of ammo. 

‘Swapping to the sidearm is faster than reloading.’ 

Dropping his gun into his inventory, he instantly swapped to his dual wielding magnums. The pair of guns barked ferociously, their heavy rounds making three more Warriors collapse. Advancing forward at a swift walk, he shoved out his hand, pulling three more into a [Warp] Mass Effect field. 

Then, picking up a run, he slid underneath a claw, blasted the bug's thorax with his shotgun, and then rolled forward as the big body collapsed dead. Breathing heavily due to the exertion, he rolled to his feet, jumping over a bug corpse to close the distance. Blasting another bug along the way, he jumped on top of the Warrior that was about to gore Johnson, and then blew its brains out. Yellow-green blood coated his all black armor, but he didn't give a damn, as he still saw the small rise and fall of Johnson's chest. 

Pulling the Executive Health Spray out of his inventory, he gave it a squeeze along the Private's chest & back, exhausting a quarter of the canister. Then, a miracle happened. Coughing up blood, the wounds on Johnson's body stitched together at an alarming rate. 

Just as Orion held out a hand to help the man up, and was about to say something, Johnson roughly reached forward, and pulled him out of the way of a lethal claw. Then, stealing Orion's shotgun, the ballsy man blasted the sneak attacker dead. 

Orion was momentarily flabbergasted, and was stunlocked in place for 2 seconds due to the amazing turn of events. 

“Damnit. I know I'm beautiful, but we've got bugs to kill, and civvies to save! Get your head in the game, LT, and maybe you can buy me a round of beer.” Johnson exclaimed as he reloaded his stolen shotgun. 

Orion let out a chuckle, then began to reload his new shotgun. By now, the rest of the squad had come to, and the bark of automatic fire filled the hallway. 

“Sergeant, arm the bomb, we're getting out of here!” Orion roared over the din of battle. 

“It's set to blow in 30 minutes…it took us 45 to reach this point.” The Sergeant solemnly intoned. 

“You heard the man, it's time to haul ass, Spartans! Grab who you can, I'll cover our retreat!” Orion exclaimed, whilst ducking one claw, and then firing another [Warp] into a tightly packed cluster of enemies as Johnson blasted the bug who was assailing him. 

“Nick, no, I can't go on without him-” The one lady from earlier said, only to catch the butt of Johnson's shotgun. 

The Spartan then picked the unconscious woman up like a sack of potatoes, placing her over his shoulder. 

“I didn't take you for the caveman type, Private.” Orion joked as he started to toss grenade after grenade into the chamber. 

“Ahh, stow it Lieutenant.” Johnson growled. “Besides, you're one to talk when you're tapping that psychopath.” 

Orion found he had no proper comeback, so instead he went on the attack. 

Frag explosions released shrapnel everywhere, incendiary devices set the world ablaze, and flash bangs brought the light of God upon the uncivilized insects, driving them back in droves. To top it off, [Shredder Ammo] was applicable to anything that was a weapon, and absolutely melted the Warriors. 

Having called upon Harper's favor, he had practically emptied the Mad Cap's armory of grenades. Right now, at this very instant, he was like a videogame character on Legendary difficulty, tossing an endless amount of grenades. Explosions ran rampant, and his frequent abuse of [Warp] finally began to make the Space Bug shudder and groan. 

“Pump those legs! Are you Mobile Infantry, or glue eaters like the Colonial Marines who only know how to advance?” Orion roared at the surviving troopers, trying to get them to move by stoking past rivalries. 

The 60 or so men & women who remained after the brutal fight pushed their mechanized leg attachments to the limit, and soon everyone was moving at 40mph. Even if a bug ambush awaited them, no one had time to stop. It was an all or nothing, all out push! 

Hallway by hallway, floor by floor, they blasted their way through. Shell casings, bodies, blood, they all mingled together on the dark floor, never to rise again. The roars of the living, and the wails of the dying echoed everywhere as this desperate fight for survival was fought with everything they had. 

In the hands of the soldiers, about 8 civilians were being carried, including a little boy & his puppy. Orion, meanwhile, was at the very back, covering the flank. Every few seconds, he would pop a grenade, reload his sniper or rocket launcher, then give the enemy a taste of Human retribution. 

All the while, Johnson was having the time of his life. At some point, he had picked up his heavy machinegun, and with the damsel in one hand, and a big gun in the other, he would cover Orion every time he had to reload. 

“The hangar is just ahead.” Orion said, breathing a sigh of relief. 

Checking his chronometer, there were five minutes remaining before the nuke was detonated. Plenty of time to evac. 

“Lieutenant, we have a situation!” The Sergeant-who was leading the charge in escape-said from the front of the line. 

Exchanging a glance with Johnson, he ran forward, and saw a mountain of Warrior corpses clogging up the ‘hangar.’ This, however, wasn't the big news. 

“There's only one left.” The Sergeant whispered, gesturing to the Pelicans. 

Of the 13 that had made it into this room, only one appeared to be undamaged. The rest looked like they had had big chunks bitten out of them. Orion felt his blood run cold. There were 12 Spartans, 8 civilians, and as of now 58 Mobile Infantrymen. The absolute maximum capacity of a Pelican-when armorless, and packed together like sardines-was 50 people. 

The math wasn't mathing. They couldn't get everyone out. 

Just then, one of the damaged Pelicans began to have its lights flicker on and off. Its engines whined like a dying beast, and it struggled to get lift. Scorched and covered in bite marks, it ever so slightly hovered above ground. 

“This bird isn't making it back to the fleet, we'll have to do an emergency landing on the surface. Certainty of death. Small chance at success. What are we waiting for?” Hood's voice sounded out on the speakers. 

02:59

Glancing at the timer ticking down, Orion knew he had to make a decision, and fast. 

“Spartans, with me. I need eight Mobile Infantrymen to tag along too! Everyone else, escort those civilians back to the fleet on the undamaged Pelican!” Orion shouted as he hauled ass to the back of the scuffed looking, highly worn Pelican, Romeo-247. 

Just as he was about to board, one of the ‘dead’ Warrior's rose up, jump scaring him, and hitting him head on. Caught by surprise, he recoiled as [Tech Armor] popped, knocking the Arachnid back. 

Hood had entered the cargo hold at some point, and walked down the ramp, guns blazing. The assault rifle in his hands belched hot lead, driving the Warrior to the ground, putting it down for the last time. 

“Sorry about the boots.” Orion joked, dragging his tired ass into the hold, and plopped down into a seat. 

Hood ignored his sass, then rushed back into the cockpit. A second later, everyone had filed in, and the ramp closed shut. The Pelican creaked, and flew somewhat sideways at a tilt. 

0:15

0:05

0:00

Clearing the Space Bug, a catastrophic explosion erupted across the dark void. The Pelican, was caught up in the debris field, and a random glob of bloody bug goo struck her on the side, sending her into a tailspin. 

Emergency lights flashing, and beeping noises sounding their alarm, the Pelican fell into Troy's orbit at an alarming rate. Hot red fire scorched her bow as Hood fought to stabilize the ship. 

Orion felt his stomach going out of control, and closed his eyes. 

Then, he felt a lightness in his chest as the Pelican made contact with something, skipping along the ground. When they suddenly came to a sudden stop, Orion groggily got to his feat, and opened the emergency latch. 

Poking his head out the side, he saw that they were crashed on a river that ran through a techno-opolis type futuristic city. He didn't have much time to think, however, as an explosion rocked a nearby bridge, and a Warrior corpse dropped down in front of him. 

Taking a deep breath, Orion reloaded his guns, then turned to his squad, and the eight Mobile Infantrymen handing out ammo to each of them. 

“You have five minutes to collect yourselves. The invasion force is estimated to be less than 20,000 bugs, and I want them dead by sunset!”