Last Hope

Chapter Twelve

The two lower brutes clung to Logan's legs, but the one that went to his head wasn't so lucky.  Logan threw one punch and knocked the brute out of the air. 

"A little help," Logan said through the radio.

"Sure thing," Noob said.

There was another crack of a rifle, and one of the brutes loosened it's grip.  Logan kicked it off like a soccer ball.

"And for the other," Tucker said grabbing it by the back of the neck.  "I've got special plans for you."  Tucker took his knife and shoved it in the brute's spine, it let out a load roar as it slowly died.  Rose turned her gaze away from them.

"God I hate blood," she whispered.

"It's OK," Sabre said putting his hand on her shoulder "soon you won't have to see it."

Rose smiled, and just stood there.  Tucker pulled the brute off Logan's leg, and helped Logan keep steady.  Balance wasn't really his thing, he was more of a heavy hitter. 

"Well," Doc said "that was fun."

"Yeah," Frost said.

"Let's do it again," Junior said looking towards Tucker. "Can we daddy?"

"No," Tucker said "and I told you to stop calling me that."

The entire team laughed, and stood there for a little longer.

"We should get moving," Chy said "we've got a quarter of a mile left.  It's almost time for the last shuttle."

"Alright," Clementine said "let's get there."

"You heard the lady," Logan said "double time, marines."

They all started to jog towards the evacuation center.  "Time?" Tucker asked.

"Eight o'clock," Logan said "on the dot."

"We've got sixteen minutes till dust-off," Tucker said.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"Dust off means," Clementine said "when we leave."

"Oh," Rose said "thanks."

"No problem," Clementine said.

They made their way toward the area the evac shuttles where.  Tucker looked at his data pad on his wrist, the time was eight ten, almost time.  They got to the shuttle with very little time left.  A marine was standing guard near the shuttle.

"Cutting it close huh?" He said "a couple minutes before take off."

"Yeah," Tucker said "I've got a question."

"Yeah?" the marine said.

"You got any spare armor?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah," he said scratching the back of his head "but it's Spartan armor."

"That's fine" Tucker said stepping forward "I'm a Spartan."

"Alright," he said pointing toward another marine.  But this one was a lady, "follow her, she'll lead you to the armor.  I'd make it quick though."

Tucker jogged away.

"There still room on the shuttle?" Sabre asked.

"Let me check," the marine said looking in the shuttle.  He came back a minute later.  "Sorry to say this guys, but one of you is gonna have to stay."

They all looked at each other, they were scared.  Who would have to stay?

"Are you sure?" Chy said "there isn't an extra space?"

"Let me check," the marine said and walked back into the shuttle.

He came back a couple seconds late, with a sad look on his face.

"I have some bad news," he said "some people just sat down and there's room for only one more person."

"What!?" They all said in unison.

"Sorry guys," he said "better figure it out soon."

They all went silent.

"I think we should let Tucker go," Chy finally said.

"Yeah," Rose said "from what I've seen, he needs to get out of here."

"So we all agree," Sabre said "we let Tucker take the shuttle.  Correct?"

"Yes," they all said.

"Junior," Sabre said "go tell Tucker to get on the shuttle, ASAP."

Junior nodded, and jogged toward the building.  Everyone sat down on a bench outside.  Junior walked up to them, and the shuttle took off.

"Did he get on there?" Chy asked.

"Yeah," Junior said sitting down next to them.

"So what do we do now?" Clementine asked.

"We wait I guess," Noob said "till morning."

"Yeah," Doc said "we should head inside, and wait there."

They all stood up, but then heard a noise.  They all turned and looked where the noise as coming from.  They didn't like what they saw.

Two Covenant wraiths were coming straight toward them.  They all looked at each other, fear was on Rose's face.  They couldn't move, they all frozen even Logan didn't move.  Both wraiths' shot their main cannons, the blue bolt arced in the air.  Coming straight toward them, they still didn't move, Sabre and Chy held hands.  The wraith shots were almost on top if them, when something fell right in between them all.  A bubble shield appeared around them, the wrath shots hit the shield.  The bubble dissapeared, and nobody was injured.

They looked around and saw nobody.  But out of nowhere there were three thuds, with a metallic sound, dust filled the air.  When the dust settled, three drop pods were now in place.  The doors flew off the pods, three soldiers popped out.  All three soldiers...

Were Spartans.

They jumped out of the pods, two of them had jackhammer rocket launchers.  They took a knee and fired at the wraiths.  Both rockets hit the tanks, and they turned into a ball of blue flames.  The Spartans turned toward the team.  None of them looked familiar.  One walked toward Sabre.

"You the leader?" Sabre asked.

"No," the spartan said.

"Then who is?" Chy asked.

"He should be here shortly," he said.

There was another noise, the spartan turned and saw a Covenant drop ship.  It lowered itself to the ground and opened up.  It dropped a mass of troops.  Rose gulped, she'd never seen that many before.

They started to hear a second noise, this was coming from above.  Everyone looked up, an object was falling toward the surface.  It hit the ground with a thud.  It wasn't a drop pod, or a weapon pod...

It was another Spartan.

"Welcome back, sir," the first Spartan said.

The Spartan that just fell, stood up straight.  He had no weapons, just a sidearm pistol.  He was a cyan blue, with a strange symbol on the side of his helmet.  He cracked his knuckles and finally spoke.

"Great to be back," he said.

The entire team of ODSTs had an update in the team roster.  Sabre opened it up and looked, it said...

New squad mate: Spartan 609- Tucker