Flesh Wounds

Chapter Fifteen "Flipped And Confused"

Nick Pov

Everyone on the warthog is tense as we speed down the road.

"We have only a few miles left, I don't understand how we haven't come across anything on this journey," Sparky tells us as we drive past an abandoned truck.

"Well you're just jinxing it now," 5000 says pulling back at the mounted turret, "I'm sure we'll deal with something."

"Well, I've finished filling 34 with biofoam," I added some good news into the mix.

But of course 5000 has to add one of his average comments into that, "You did this too yourself- Bowchicabowwow!" Loudly, add a comment.

"What a way to blow our position Cade," Sparky face palms for a moment but then grabs back on to the wheel with his one arm.

I can only stare and shake my head smiling, whether that actually screwed us over or not. 

"What? You set that up I swear," 5000 said still looking behind us on the turret.

"Well one way or another you probably jinxed us now," I shrugged it off and leaned on the front of the warthog. If I could I'd be sitting down but 34 needs a place to be in.

"Exactly, this is the jinx's fault, so watch what you say about me," 5000 jokes, clearly in a better mood than before.

"You know, we're going to get out of here!" Exclaims catching on to a bit of 5000's mood.

"Like we'd die on this planet," I crossed my arms and watched as we were engulfed by a tunnel inside a mountainous feature.

"OKAY, now you can't say you haven't Jinxed it," 5000 continues on his repetitive blaming of superstitions.

"Wait a second. Doc take a look at what's ahead of us," Sparky says and I pick up his DMR to look down the scope.

"Oh crap we've got covenant at the end of the tunnel," I reported looking at the force in front of us.

5000 turns the turret around and spins it up, "Any alien cars in the way?" He asks, short on vocabulary.

"None in our way, just some grunts and elites," I respond and lower the DMR.

"Then we're going straight through!" 5000 gave a war cry as we got closer to the opening.

"I second that option!" Sparky gives a triumphant yell as I can feel the warthog accelerate to its max speed.

I crouch down and grab the roll cage to brace for the quick impact.

We flew straight into a group of covenant and without any resistance we zoomed past any sort of problem.

"Problem!" Sparky yelled as an elite with broken shields started to climb over the hood, "We must've hit him and he won't have it!" 

A grey barrel shones itself over in the corner of my view, "Problem fixed," 5000 said and pulled the trigger on his shotgun, smoking the elite as they slipped and fell off the hood.

In one fatal move the elite falls under the warthog and the whole thing flies off the ground, the last thing I heard before I was out of the vehicle was, "Speed bump!" From 5000.

?????? Pov

I stood above all the scientists and biologists, "We're not drawing straws from hats here people! Let's get this algorithm done so we can get this rolling." 

I watched as majority wrote down lines of small code through the computers, "Full augmentation is one month, and we need the new data to be inserted to the schedule."

No one responded to me but it was obvious that they heard, the only small chatter was coming from some of them exchanging different notes and equations. 

I stood up straight while standing off nothing but thin air and entered in some key codes to open the unit files. 

One hundred new Spartans of different wings and specialties, all open in front of me. There's a lot of variables that will go into this, but after we get this last piece of the project finished, we can begin the first, final, procedures.

Unit 0-0, 0-1, 0-2.. the list goes on till unit 9-9. All capable to come back from their current operations. Almost half are on Reach, but I'm confident the soldiers I chose will return.

I look over many files in a quick succession, unit 0-3, unit 2-4, unit 4-3, unit 6-8, and unit 9-8 are all just as easy to see as the back of you're own hand.

"I got it! The perfect calculator!" One of the scientists yell out, successfully catching my attention.

"Let me see this.." It only takes me a second to read it all, "Promotion, expect good news."

Nick Pov

"Bigger problem!" 

"No we are good! 34 is fine!" 5000 says as he comes back with the amazingly still unconscious 34.

"No. Our car is flipped!" Sparky points out the actual problem at hand.

"Listen, can't 5000 just flip it back over?" I ask putting my hand on the side of the upside down warthog. 

"I don't think he has enough energy left," Sparky says and looks around to make sure we're safe, "Not to use his power. Not currently.."

"You have an idea though," 5000 states as Sparky visibly lights up in thought.

"Yes I do. I'm not entirely sure that it'd work though," Sparky tries to reach behind his own back, "This is gunna be really weird."

I look over Sparky and realize our new situation, "Well whatever it is do it fast!" I yell running around the warthog to try to pull the turret off, "Enemies are coming!"

"I'm going to try to get our power couplings to stick! If yours is low on energy mine should magnetize towards it if we release them!" Sparky tries to quickly explain when he sees the Covenant troops coming.

"What a way to poke at the hornets nest! Who's fault is that?!" 5000 yells out as I finally get the LMG off the warthog.

Both me and Sparky answer in a panicked unison, "YOURS!"