Halo: The Search

Chapter 3

September 3rd, 2551

(Victor Huff) The atmosphere had changed.  Explosions, gunshots, a mix of human versus alien-affiliated noises were not far.

Help had arrived.

I scrambled out from my hiding spot, walking out into the open. A scorpion shot a nearby building, obliterating it.  Wind blew my thick hair and dust pelted my face.  The burnt, torn body of a Brute landed in front of me, skidding to my feet.

He looked at me as I moved back cautiously but after a few seconds, let out his final breath. I picked up my first ever weapon, his fully-automatic spiker.  Heading towards the battle, I slowed down, being met with a problem.

This was the wrong side of the battlefield. Sneaking through was my only option, because shooting the backs of aliens would draw too much attention. 

Before I could formulate a game plan, another building was struck by an explosive shell.  I dove out of the way of a metal door that flew towards me.

"Not this time door..."

"Human!"

Instinct kicked in and I turned around, holding the trigger. A grunt with a charged plasma pistol flinched violently.  All my shots landed and purple blood gushed from his body.

The plasma pistol went off and I fell out the way of it.  A green light whizzed past my face.  Not much time after staring at the body did two jackals walk back to investigate the rear commotion.

One saw me and pointed.  Scrambling back, I weaved around a building, just missing the rounds of explosive needles that pierced the wall behind me.

While running, my eyes fell upon something.  A chopper was sitting in its lonesome, ready to drive.  Being a kid, this probably would be hard to operate. It seemed I was just tall enough when I mounted the vehicle. My 5'3 frame managed to find and reach the acceleration, but I had yet to find the brakes.

After fiddling with some of the controls, it ignited to life.  I carefully turned towards an opening that led back towards battle, pressing the acceleration.  Almost falling from take-off, my head lurched forward, regaining sight of what was in front of me.

The two jackals had rounded the building in perfect time, getting splattered.  However,  the enemy was getting pushed back.  Brutes, Grunts, Jackals, all saw what I did and plasma grenades were their response.

Turning harshly,  I held the acceleration and managed to turn back around.  I would have to drive away from battle and get around the enemy.

My heart was hammering in my chest.  If I wanted saving, I was gonna have to work for it.

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(Red ODST) "Spartans, pinging signs of life behind enemy lines."  Commander Huff's voice crackled through comms.

A grenade flew towards the dirt pit me and some marines were dug in. I smacked it like a bat with my assault rifle.

Realization struck me that it was a plasma grenade and it had stuck to my rifle. "Shit!" I chucked my rifle across the battle field. It spun like a frisbee into the head of a brute and exploded.

A few pings appeared on our HUDs.  I sighed and climbed out the pit onto level ground.  Gunfire immediately was directed towards me. I grabbed a metal door off the ground and held it in front of me. Out the corner of my vision, a Grunt was readying a plasma grenade.

I tossed the metal into the air and round kicked the door. It flew into the Grunt and his plasma grenade fell before getting thrown. A fiery blue explosion took the lives of a Brute and some Grunts.

One Brute belted out a warcry and charged towards me, providing little time and space to react. He tried ramming into me and I used his weight against him by vaulting over. In the midst this, my arm wrapped around his neck. Planting my feet into the ground, I pulled down as hard as I could.  His head came down and body flew up, choking as his wind pipe got crushed. Taking his spiker and a spike grenade, I finished him with a few shots.

"We already got two kids Garrett, what have you been doing?"  Three Brutes approaching me got gunned down by Alice.  When their helmets came off, I took advantage of their confusion, getting rounds off on their heads.

I looked at Alice who had blood splatters on her armor, hiding the usual orange accents.  "Ty, rendezvous on me and Alice, we'll push through and get to the last objective."  I ignored her taunt and the marines from behind got up from cover to follow.

Rounding the corner of a house, a Brute had gone primal, barreling into me.  The blow depleted my shields and we fell to the ground. 

Getting pushed back, I shot at him as he ignored bullets.  Alice joined in and he fell before landing another blow.

I noticed two jackals behind, already shooting needler rounds at us.  Catching the body of the brute, I used him as a meat shield from the fire, while Alice domed the two with her magnum.

The accumulation of needler rounds caused a super-combine explosion, causing chunks to fly from the brute's back.  I dropped it before the force could push me, the body slamming into the ground.

"Alice, you look like Garret."  Ty had shown up, clean enough to the point where you could see his blue accents.  A dark-skinned boy was walking with him, a less scared expression on his face than I expected.  That didn't mean he wasn't scarred by this experience.

"Yeah, I was saving Garret.  Garret, what's your ping?"  Alice waved her gun at me as my shields recharged.  "Sharing it."  As I said it, there was silence when looking at the marker. 

It was moving away from us, fast.

"Hey, they're retreating!"  A marine shouted and I started sprinting forward, Alice and Ty following behind.

"Commander, final kid is moving away faster than-"

"I have eyes Garret, get in a Warthog and follow."  A marine was already riding up behind us and hopped out so the three of us could fit in.  I took driver's seat and gave chase.

"He's going in a straight direction, either towards the forest or more jammed territory.  Either way, the ping will end up disappearing."  Denver's voice was slightly agitated. 

If he knew it was a boy... "Sir-"

"If it disappears, do not engage. A pelican will pick you up."  I stayed silent.  Ty said, "yes sir."

This area was dangerous, with lots of uncovered, jammed and sketchy territory that we were lucky to have the element of surprise on.  Even so, we knew who that kid was and our frustration hung in the air.

"He's alive.  We'll talk to the survivors later for details, but there's more to be done."

We could only hope Victor would stumble upon human territory and not alien. 

Driving caught us up with the retreating Covenant and an EMP round hit the vehicle.  Ty let the turret's barrel spin and I heard Denver curse over the comms.

We would fail to retrieve him again.