Halo: Gauntlet

Chapter 5

"Lee? Lee?"

Lee snapped out of his trance. He focused his vision in front of him, to see Kuzo shaking his shoulder.

"You still with us?"

He shook his head to try and concentrate, "Yeah, I'm here." He looked around and realized he was still on the Houston, in the middle of a war zone. He took several deep breaths and shook his head to try and regain some focus. 

By this point, the lift had stopped and the spartans scrambled to the hangar. There, a marine was waiting for them. 

"Spartans! Over here!"

They stopped once they reached him, and once he saw that they were all there, the marine then told them, "The pelicans on decks three and four are yours! Good luck!" Another rumble shook the ship and a fire burst out of a different docked Pelican. 

Once they reached the pelicans, the squads divided up and took one last look at each other before they would be thrust back into combat.

"See you on the ground boys!", Klace shouted.

"Hopefully not six feet under!", Carly replied.

Bravo Squad got into their Pelican where their pilot was making last-minute checks, flipping switches, and checking gauges. He looked back and noticed the new occupants of his dropship.

"G'day Spartans, my name's Bowman, and I'll be your pilot on this fine trip to a Halo ring. Be advised we may have some turbulence-"

"Bowman, shut up, and fly!" Lee ordered sternly.

"Alright, alright, don't need to get your knickers in a twist."

Bowman hit the throttle and the Pelican was off, flying out of the hangar and into the warzone outside the ship. To describe it as Hell would be an understatement. Banshees flew past Broadswords as they tried to take one another out while more Seraphs unloaded onto the multiple flak cannons of the Hammer and Gavel. Bodies both human and alien floated about while explosions turned the black, inky void into bright oranges and yellows. The desperation to win the battle was clearly a sentiment shared on all sides. Bowman pitched the ship down and they headed down to the surface of the Halo.  Several more Pelicans flew in to join them, one holding Omega, the others full of marines.

"This is the landing party?", said a stunned Bowman. He recounted the number of Pelicans around him. "We're gonna f*cking die."

The ships all banked away from some debris and began getting hit on all sides. One of the Pelicans began to smoke, which gave way to fire, leading to an explosion that rocked its surrounding carriers. A Banshee screamed towards them and sprayed plasma at the convoy, eventually firing its bomb, and taking down another Pelican. 

"We just lost two Pelicans! If we stay here any longer we'll end up space debris!", shouted Chase over the comms.