Halo: Alien Senses

Chapter Two

Seconds later, Derek found himself waking up to the sound of gunfire coming from outside of the crashed Pelican, which he was surprised to find himself still lying in. He did a quick evaluation of his surroundings, despite his disorientation. Both pilots were dead along with two of his squad. As he began to heft himself off the ground to join in the fight, shook his head to hopefully counteract the disorientation. With his split second of recovery, he picked up his weapon and exited the downed aircraft.

"Clyde! Take that thing out of my sky!" Reynolds howled at a squad mate, who was attempting to revive the Pelican's turret back to operable status. He was finally successful after avoiding two strafing runs by the fighter. He cycled the action on the heavy caliber weapon and opened fire. The rounds tore the alien craft apart in chucks, soon engulfing it in bright blue flames from its ruptured engine. Clyde exhaled deeply, collapsing and resting his head on the turret. "Bandit's down."
Derek lowered his weapon and sat down. He was still shaken up from the crash. Reynolds went to lend him a hand. "It's alright," he said, "I'm still in one piece."
"Bowski," Reynolds called, "status."
"Two men down, including the lieutenant. We've only got so much ammo to get us to our objective location and that's only if we carried the extra weight."
Derek got back on his feet. "So what do we do?"
Just then a radio transmission kicked in through the remains of the Pelican's communications system. "Garuda Zero three five, come in. This is the UNSC frigate, Dawn Hammer. Please respond"
"Speak of the devil." Mates said.

"If anyone out there can hear this, a large Covenant force has been launched from orbit and will be touching down right on top of your location in a manner of minutes. Advise you pull back to the civilian settlement and await reinforcements. ETA in fifteen. Hang in there."
"Copy that, Dawn hammer. Garuda out."
The team stood in silent shock for a moment before Clyde broke the silence. "Guys? We're not moving."
"No time." A ODST replied. "By the time we're able to hightail it a quarter mile to the City, the covies will have already gotten to us. We're better off making a stand here until the Dawn hammer's back up gets here."

Clyde nodded. The rest of the team seemed to acknowledge the notion as well. Reynolds looked around at the crash site''s surroundings area. They had crash landed just about at the base of a hill. The Pelican was laying on its side, its back plastered against the ocean.

"Well," Derek began, "at least we have out backs covered by the shore line. No one, neither UNSC nor Covenant would be dumb enough to send a pod down into the water."
"True." Reynolds turned, facing the sun as it disappeared on the horizon. "Plus, we just about know what their focal point is going to be for when they mass their attack." He pointed at the top of the hill. "More than likely they'll try to favor the high ground and make their way down to us after raining plasma on our asses. Best grab all the ammo you can carry and dig in. These are going to be the longest minutes of our lives."