Assessing One's Foe

Assessing One's Foe is a short story about an Elite's brief encounter with James O'Neill.
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Voro 'Marakamee raised his plasma rifle and fired two shots into the human soldier's back, sending him sprawling to the ground. He was fairly disappointed with its actions, as it made no attempt to fight back and merely ran away. Pathetic, he thought. He stepped over its corpse, now painted a deep red, and fired upon the human position on the small hill.
Among the cluster of gray and green metal and fabric, Voro could make out one human in particular that stood out; he wielded one of the longer, spindly primitive weapons the humans used and wore gray armor. He could tell by the way he moved and ordered others that he was in a command position. He watched the human fire its weapon, hitting an Unggoy in the head and killing it. He could tell that this human would make a much more challenging foe. 
Voro flexed his mandibles and took cover behind a large rock for a short time before running into the fray, followed by a small group of Unggoy. A few of the humans' projectiles bounced off of his shields as he ran, but he ignored them. As the Unggoy and another Sangheili charged the other humans, Voro focused his sights specifically on this human. He hopped over the humans' crude barrier and fired his plasma rifle at the human. It rolled away from the blasts before crouching down and firing its own rifle three times before Voro knocked it out of its hands. His shields were all but gone by this point.
He tackled the human, pinning him to the ground, dropping his plasma rifle in the process. He began to reach for his plasma pistol when the human slammed its knee into his lower midsection, sending Voro tumbling off of the human. 
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James O'Neill rolled away from the Elite and stood up just as it did the same. He quickly pulled out his M6 and pointed it at the Elite, firing into its gut just as it stood up. It fell down, looking up at him. O'Neill couldn't make out much from its face, but he could see its eyes, and they looked at him in a way that said Good game. He lowered his M6 towards the Elite's head.
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Voro looked up at the human, the human who had bested him, and made no effort to get up and stop him. The human had won fairly, and Voro respected that. The human stood there in a very authoritative way, showing no sign fear or qualms or hesitance as it raised its crude weapon and prepared to fire, Voro watched. The human fired four times, and Voro's consciousness was blown out of the back of his head. The human grabbed its rifle, raised it, and looked back at Voro's corpse and unrecognizable face before he fired his rifle at the remaining Unggoy.
Category:The Weekly