Tales of The Forgotten

== Part I (Fire Hounds) ==
=== Prologue ===
The ODST next to me lurched back as a plasma bolt hit him in the chest. I nearly vomited when I smelled the burning flesh mixing with the molten armor, I instantly pulled out the biofoam, and started taking care of the plasma burn on his chest. When I asked him his name he said, “My name is Morgan Drochten, Private 1st Class of the ODSTs, part of fireteam Badger.” As I finished up I told him, “Cut the crap Morgan, no need to be formal on the battlefield.” As he started to sit up I told him, “We’re going to get out alive Morgan, we’ll go down in the history books as  heroes!” Right as I finished saying that, a needler round, a crystal shard that’s as sharp as a knife, went straight into his eye.
=== Quote ===
“To be honest, I was never more comfortable before a battle, I was ready to go down in history, but of course, history had forgotten us.” — Bradley 
=== Chapter 1 (Catch up) ===
My name is Bradley Carr, my life has been one hell of a trip, I never expected I would see what I saw, do what I did, or go where I did, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat, I don’t think I could ever miss the chance to meet the people I met. It all started back in the year 2525, I was 7 at the time, I lived on the world of Harvest, it was a normal day, nothing wrong with it, just a bit chilly, I was walking with my parents to the store when it happened, the glassing. 
When the Covenant ship appeared, people were at first confused, but once the giant beam of plasma dropped from the bottom of it slammed into the ground, everyone fought their way to the spaceport, I was able to get onboard one of the ships, but I realized my parents hadn’t, I still don’t know what happened to them, all I know is that they didn’t make it, the first few ships were the only ones that were able to escape. 
We soon declared war on the Covenant, of course, when I heard that I could join the war effort, I joined in a heartbeat, at 18 I thought that I was going to be a hero, stomping out those damn aliens and getting revenge for what they did. But I learned real quick that that wouldn’t be the case, boot camp itself nearly caused me to give up, but I kept going, so when I was able to join the ODSTs, I didn’t give it a second thought, I made it through it all and eventually got a fireteam. 
My team consisted of 4 people: Me (Bradley), Darian, our heavy weapons expert (he was a jokester, but he was always a little to excited for a battle), Erik, our explosives expert (he never said much but he would follow orders to a T, you could order him to kill himself and he would), and Blaise, our sniper. We were stationed aboard the Aurora space platform, and we were simply waiting for our next mission when the Covenant showed up and attacked the station. We were in the mess hall when the alarm was called, and we ran to the barracks and geared up. Almost as soon as we left the barracks, a boarding craft slammed into the wall next to us, Grunts, which  were a smaller species of methane breathers, mostly cowards forced to fight, and Jackals, bird-like aliens that carried energy shield gauntlets and plasma pistols, and sometimes the would use beam rifles (similar to sniper rifles), poured out of it and opened fire right away. The firefight didn’t go on for to long, before the marine next to me suddenly flew into the air as an energy sword rocketed out of his chest, the wound cauterized instantly. As suddenly as he was stabbed, he was dead. We all turned and opened fine on the alien that wielded the sword, it was an Elite: a tall, powerful alien race who could defeat anyone who opposed them in combat and strictly believed in honor. Once it dropped to the ground dead, we all started searching for more of them possibly hidden around the base.
The battle raged on for a while, but we were outnumbered, so we had to retreat and got out of there. It was my first fight against the Covenant, and we lost terribly, It continued like this for years, they would find us, they would outnumber us, we would run. I hated doing it, we all did, for the longest time we gave up, we knew that we would never win, then, we hear of the Spartans, unbeatable war machines that could go toe to toe with an elite and win, and when one came to join us, we gained hope again, we had a chance! In the next battle, we were told to assault a Covenant position to gain control of a key position, which was a Covenant landing zone, as we dropped, I was terrified, it was the first time we would attack the Covenant, not them attacking us. 
The second we landed we were in combat, we were slowly but surely gaining control of the landing zone when a Pelican came down, we were telling it to fly away because we didn’t have control of the area, sure enough, it was shot down when it didn’t buzz away. We were pissed because it nearly landed on us and had made the landing zone even more dangerous; I ordered some of my men to go and get any survivors. When they radioed in that I needed to see something I was expecting a nuke or some heavy ordnance, What I was greeted with was the spartan, it had simply crawled out of the crash like nothing had happened. He immediately started asking about the situation and what could be done to help, It took me a few seconds to respond cause I was still dumbfounded by the situation, but when I gave him orders to move to the frontlines where my squad had been, he did the job of multiple fireteams alone.
We ended up winning that position, we had finally won a battle against these damn things, all of us were celebrating and getting ready to return to the ship when I noticed the spartan wasn’t joining in the celebration, I walked over and asked why he wasn’t joining in and he responded with, “I’m here to win the battles, not to cheer every time that happens.” I simply looked at him and asked what his name was; when he gave me his ID number I told him to give me his  real name: he simply responded with “Ellis.”
I didn’t see much of him after that, he was redeployed to another battalion after the battle, I actually missed him in some ways, he was one of the most effective people at his job and respected orders. If I were to ever have him in my ranks again it would be an amazing pleasure, I kind of got my wish during the battle of Reach.
The battle of Reach was one of the greatest losses we faced during the war, I was on Reach when it happened, it was hell, we fought with everything we could, and I saw so many die during that battle. I was patrolling when they came, once the battle lines were drew my squad was called to do a special mission with a spartan to take out a Covenant landing zone to slow their reinforcements. When our squad got to the rendezvous point, I saw something I never thought I would see again.
=== Chapter 2 (Boots into Hell) ===
“Goddammit Darian, stop running! We are in a war zone!” Bradley yelled as Darian charged around the corner and out of sight. “We should get him a leash, what do you think Bradley?” said Blaise. He was a chatterbox honestly, but even if he was overly talkative, when he was given orders he was never more effective; he never missed the shot. “I should put a muzzle on you while I’m at it,” said Bradley. 
When they turned the corner they ran straight into Darian, “What the hell, Darian! You sprinted around this corner so why the hell did you stop right away!?” yelled Blaise. Bradley was about to do so as well when he realized why Darian had stopped: about 30 meters ahead of him, they saw the Spartan that he hadn’t seen since early in the war.
“Hey! Ellis! Is that you?” Bradley yelled as he started walking forward, the Spartan turned when he heard him and started walking towards him. 
“Ellis! I never thought I would see you again!” said Bradley as he locked in a handshake with the Spartan. “Holy shit! Is that really Ellis!?” called Blaise as he charged forward to catch up. “Long time no see guys, It’s nice to see you,” said Ellis as Blaise walked up with Darian and Erik were not  too far behind. “How have you guys been?” Ellis asked.
“We’ve been doing about as well as can be hoped fighting this damn war, how have you been?” asked Bradley. Ellis simply responded with “I’ve been okay.”
What happened next is still kind of a blur, but out of nowhere, Grunts came pouring out of the alley next to us and opened fire. Instinctively I yelled, “Darian, get to cover and open up! Blaise, back up and get on overwatch ASAP! Erik, start moving towards the nearest building and get ready to make an exit!” They all moved almost instantly, Ellis didn’t even have to be told what to do, he just went to work. By the time Blaise had set up overwatch, we had cleared most of the Grunts out, but now the Jackals and Elites were moving forward. My heart skipped a beat when a Brute came you of the alley, Those beasts didn’t seem to think; they just killed, or even ate, their enemies. 
“Blaise, Brute, take it out now!” I yelled into the comms. Within moments a dart-like 14.5mm  saboted kinetic penetrator slammed through his skull and he shook the ground as he fell on top of a few Grunts, killing them. I was glad to know I didn’t have to deal with that beast, but  my relief was short lived,  because once it died, a Wraith came slowly gliding up the street. Of course, Darian instantly started lighting it up, but wasn’t doing much damage, I was about to call the order to retreat when Ellis jumped up on the wraith and started smashing the door in, the second it opened, he threw in a grenade and jumped away just in time to avoid the explosion that followed.
I couldn’t believe that he had beaten it, but looking at the increasing number of enemies, I knew we would never win. “Bradley, It’s ready.” Erik said calmly into comms. “Everybody, We’re retreating! Erik, blow the charges!” I called. Blaise and Ellis kept fighting as me and Darian started to pull back, the charges went off and the building next to us shook as a massive hole was blown into the side of it. “Goddamnit Erik!” yelled Darian, “You couldn’t have made anyless noise!?” As we ran past him he joined us and said to Darian, “What? You always give me shit for being quiet.”
“Ellis, Blaise, start pulling back!” I yelled into the comms, “We’ve made it through the opening.” Blaise quickly responded, “Got it Bradley, moving now.” And Ellis said, “Moving now, the Covies are following though, I’m gonna slow them down,” I connected with Blaise again and asked him to assist Ellis for as long as possible, Blaise instantly said, “Understood Bradley, moving back into position.”
=== Chapter 3 (Kill Shot) ===
I wasn’t happy with that order, having to move back into position meant putting myself back in danger, not to mention I had a lot more targets to watch for. “Ellis, sitrep.” I said, “How many are we looking at?” When he came on the comms all I heard in the background was gunfire and elites yelling in their native language. After a while of that he responded with, “We have to many to count Blaise, go for the big guys as I set up explosives to slow them down.”  I got into position and opened fire instantly, trying to take out as many as I could before they found me. 
I didn’t realize I was found until a beam rifle shot turned the rubble next to me to slag, “Shit!” I muttered as I rolled into cover, I looked around trying to find where that damn sniper was when I spotted them, Hunters, one of the strongest  things in the Covenant, pretty much walking tanks, the lumbered forward wielding large shields and giant plasma cannons, Their only weak spot was their back, everywhere else had so much armor that a tank shell wouldn’t even get through it. 
“Ellis, hunters moving towards you! How long till you’re ready!?” I yelled as I took out the sniper that found me, “I just need another minute Blaise” he said, “You don’t have a minute Ellis!” I yelled back. As they started to move up the rubble and nearly get to Ellis I took a shot at the front one in an attempt to get it’s attention, let’s just say it worked, a few seconds later I was running for my life as they reduce where I was to slag.
“I’m moving out Ellis, I can’t stay anymore!” I said as I sprinted to meet up with the others, “Perfect, the charges are placed, heading out.” He responded, within moments I heard the explosion as he made his escape, and soon enough both me and him made it to the rest of the team.
=== Chapter 4 (Thrash Till The End) ===
When Blaise got back breathing heavily and covered in dust, I knew that the Covenant had given them hell. But when Ellis can back Like nothing happened, I had the feeling that only Blaise had a hard time. “Blaise,” I said, “How are you doing?” He turned he visor off and looked me straight in the eyes. “You have no idea how quiet I was.” He said slightly grinning. That put a smile on my face, it might of been a bad situation but he could still crack jokes, that’s one of the best parts about him.
When we were all ready to move, we started heading in the direction of the Covenant landing zone, which happened to be the same direction as the Covenant. “God dammit!” Darian yelled, “You’re telling me we have to go back through them!?” I understood how he felt, there was no way we could go back through them that didn’t include death. “Bradley, may I talk?” asked Ellis. “Of course, whatcha got?” I replied, secretly hoping that he had found a way out of this. “We could try to go around them, there was cover further up the street we could use to cross.” Ellis said cooly and calmly, almost emotionless. “It might be longer but it may be the best way to avoid getting killed on the way.”
I took only a few moments to decide, we moved out as quiet as possible to avoid being heard, soon enough we made it to the side of the road. “Hey Bradley, it looks like we got a few grunts on the other side, how should we do this?” Blaise whispered. I thought for only a moment then told Blaise, “I want you to move forward and take them out silently, I hope you can do that without talking.” He just shook his head and said slightly laughing, “I don’t know if I can do that Bradley, but I’ll be sure to try.” As he walked past me he lightly punched me in the arm.
It was always nice to watch Blaise do his work, the second he got over to them he slipped up behind the first one, almost instantly, he had slipped the knife across the things throat. It dropped to the ground with a thump as the methane left it’s breathing tank, Blaise simply ran forward making almost no sound right up behind the next one, he decided to mess with this one. He tapped it’s shoulder and moved with it to stay out of view, and once it turned fully around he wrapped his arm around it’s head and started to choke it out, and just before it went unconscious, he let go, stepped in front of him, and slashed the blade right through it’s throat. He gave the sign that it was all clear and we moved forward.
Once we were across the street we moved quickly and quietly to the landing zone, once we got there, we realized that we were way over our heads. There were hundreds of them, and more kept coming from the phantoms, the covenant form of a VTOL, meant for carrying troops and providing air support, that were going in and out. We moved back to a safe distance and started to prepare. 
“Darian, Blaise, Erik, Ellis, we are about to try and take a Covenant position more armed then anything that we’ve faced. We are just 4 ODST’s and a spartan, so if you wish to head back I won’t blame you, this is pretty much a suicide mission.” I said quietly, afraid of what was about to happen.
“Dammit Bradley, did you really think we would chicken out?” said Darian, “You could drag us down to hell and tell us to attack the devil, and we wouldn’t even question you. Plus, this isn’t just any spartan, this is Ellis we’re talking about, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we sure as hell aren’t missing this chance to be heros.” He took off his helmet and looked around at everyone, in unison they also took their helmets off. All of them looked at me and waited for what I had to say. I just looked back at them in awe, then, something I never saw coming happened.
“Bradley, you are the only person I have ever responded to in words, you are the only person I have trusted with my life, and I’m ready to follow you into that damn landing pad and tear the Covenant a new one.” Erik said monotone, like he was prepared to say it for years. I couldn’t believe it, Erik said more then a quick response for the first time I ever knew about. I looked him right in the eyes as I said, “Erik, you are an amazing soldier, so good you don’t even need to talk to work amazingly, Darian, you may be a big jokester, but you have always been the man to jump into a fight, Blaise, you never shut your mouth, but I have never met a more effective soldier than you, Ellis, we may not know each other well, but I trust you with my life.”
After that we all put on our helmets and looked at each other, we were about to jump into what would likely be death together and we were ready for it. Blaise was looking at the site to find the best way to destroy the pad and where to fight a last stand if we have to. When he returned, he told us that blowing the pad would be easy, but our best last stand was the pad itself. It hurt to know that our best chance was keeping the target there, so I made the call to try and talk to command to get assistance. 
“High command, this is fireteam Fire Hounds, do you read me?”
“This is high command, send traffic.”
“High command, we are asking for assistance in taking out the Covenant landing site, there were more Covenant than anticipated.”
“Fire Hounds, that request has been denied, the Covenant is overpowering us and we are about to start retreating off of Reach.”
“High command, we will not be able to make it to friendly territory, I must ask that you send reinforcements.”
“Fire Hounds, we are not sending more men to die out there, you are on your own.”
I gave up after that one, when I got back to the team, my face told them everything they needed to know. All of them slumped over as they realized death was almost guaranteed. I looked up and said, “Well, this is it guys, this is how we will die, so let’s leave a goddamn mark and go down in history!” All of them responded with a strong, “Hell Yeah!”
=== Chapter 5 (Feet First Into Hell) ===
I never thought I would go down like this, I thought I would die of old age or of being glassed from orbit like countless others, but I was ready to go down in a blaze of glory if it meant putting these damn aliens in their place. Bradley didn’t seem prepared for the fight, and I never expected Erik to talk at all let alone that much, Ellis was as emotionless as ever, and Blaise was checking his SRS99-AM Sniper rifle, one hell of a weapon, could put a 14.5x114mm round into you from 2300 meters (roughly 1.5 miles) away with pinpoint accuracy. I was waiting for shit to go down, sure it may mean death, but I was ready to put it to those Covie bastards.
“Well, I guess it’s time to go guys, I’ll see you all in heaven.” Bradley practically whispered. “Sorry Carr, but I’m likely going to hell, I’ll be sure to send you a postcard,” I responded teasingly. “Oh be quiet Darian, we all know we’re already in hell, and I’ll be sure to give you shit for using my last name,” Bradley said. That made me laugh, I knew he hated it when someone used his last name, but I also knew he cared about us as if we were his family. 
As he stood up, Erik, Blaise, Ellis, and I also stood up in unison, we were all prepared to die for this man, and he was ready to die for us. We walked to the edge of the area as Blaise set up, and once Blaise gave us the all clear, Bradley looked back and told us, “Fight ‘till the last round, and when you run out, start throwing rocks if you have to. Erik, now is your time. Get the charges laid down and get ready to blow them.”
Right as he said go, we stopped in our tracks, cause right when he said go, about 30 SOEIVs slammed into the ground and ejected 3 Spartans and about 27 ODSTs into the battle. Immediately we charged up to meet them in battle, I ran up next to an ODST and asked him what the hell they were doing, he responded, “We heard you guys talking with  HIGHCOM, and we weren’t going to leave you guys out here to fight alone.” 
I was amazed, ODST’s always looked out for each other, but I never expected they would drop into certain death for us. I looked around and realized that we were winning slowly but surely. “Soldiers!” one of the spartans yelled above the fighting, “Take what is yours, they do not own this ground, show them what happens when they take what isn’t theirs!” At once ODST’s started yelling strings of curses and taunts at the Covenant.
Then when I was taking shots on a group of grunts moving out of cover the ODST next to me lurched back as a plasma bolt hit him in the chest. I turned to help him and nearly vomited when I smelled the burning flesh mixing with the molten armor, I instantly pulled out the Biofoam, and started taking care of the plasma burn on his chest. When I asked him his name he said, “My name is Morgan Drochten, Private 1st Class of the ODST’s, part of fireteam Badger.” As I finished up I told him, “Cut the crap Morgan, no need to be formal on the battlefield.” As he started to sit up I told him, “We’re going to get out alive Morgan, we’ll go down in the history books as heros!” 
Right as I finished saying that a needler round, a crystal shard thats sharp as a knife, went straight into his eye. I turned and took down the jackal wielding the needler but it was already to late, Morgan died almost instantly. I sat there in shock until Bradley run up next to me and told me, “Hey, Darian, it’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.” I just looked up at him and nodded as I started to move towards cover.
=== Chapter 6 (Losses Run High) ===
As a squad leader, you see a lot of good men die, it never gets any easier, and you always fear that it’s gonna be one of your squad members you’ll see die. When I saw that needler round head at Darian, I feared that was the end of it, that I had lost one of my men already. I rushed over to find him bent over an ODST that had the needler shard in his eye. I knew he was distraught, but this was a warzone, you couldn’t take risks like that.
“Hey, Darian, it’s okay, it wasn’t your fault.” I said, I knew it probably didn’t help, but when he got up and went back into the fight I knew he was going to be fine. I looked around and realized that we were slowly winning the fight, the spartans even kept the phantoms from landing nearby to resupply the Covenant. 
An ODST ran up next to me and asked if I was Bradley, I of course said yes, then he asked “We are being left behind sir, the home fleet is leaving now, what should we do?” I looked up and told him, “Spread the word of this, let them know that they didn’t believe in us, and tell them now is their chance to go down in history.” I watched as the word spread they found a new reason to fight.
Then things went wrong, I was finishing off an elite when a building suddenly exploded out on top of us and the Covenant, those who had survived climbed out of the rubble to be met with a Covenant scarab, a massive moving attack platform with one massive gun on the top that could turn anything to ash or glass in a single shot. I called for a retreat and as I called it Erik tells me the charges are set and the landing site is ready to blow, all of us started sprinting the way we came to the landing site from in an attempt to escape. I looked back to see the scarab open fire on some of the people that were behind, there was nothing left of them when it stopped to recharge the cannon. 
When everyone made it behind the buildings, Erik fired the charges and ruined what remained of the platform, we kept going for a few more blocks till we stopped and recounted. We had maybe half of the people we started with, only one of the spartans survived other than Ellis, and about 10 ODST’s were with us. My squad made it and I was relieved, until Erik suddenly tipped over and fell face first to the dirt, I rushed over to see what happened and I noticed that he had a small cluster of needler rounds in his right shoulder blade. Me and Darian propped him up so the medic could look at him as we talked to him, “God dammit Erik, why didn’t you tell me you were hit!?” I said angrily.
“I’m sorry Bradley,” He replied, “I planned on telling you but I had to get the job done first.” I looked at him in shock, “You didn’t have to, we had other ODST’s who could have finished the job!” I said anxiously. “Maybe, but god damn I was going to finish my job.” He said as he coughed up blood, “And I would say that I did a damn good job.” Tears came to my eyes as I realized he was slowing down. “God dammit medic! Move faster!” I yelled terrified. “The medic looked at me and said quietly, “I’m sorry, there isn’t much I can do, he’s lost to much blood.” 
I started crying hard as Erik became heavy in my arms, Me and Darian laid him down gently and I closed his eyes, everyone slowly walked up behind us and kneeled down, all hanging their heads. I looked back to see that even the spartans were on their knees, and then one of the ODST’s looked up, saw I was looking back, and said, “Bradley Carr, my name is Gunner Burks, I’m the one who organized this group, and on their behalf, I would like to say I am terribly sorry that Erik has fallen, all of us are torn up too.” he said slowly and sadly, “All of us look to your fireteam as an inspiration, and all of us are ready to go back and face anything to get back at those damn aliens for what they’ve done.”
I looked around as all of them looked up and nodded as we met eyes, I couldn’t believe it, even the spartans were agreeing, I looked at Blaise and Darian and they looked back and both said, “Well Bradley, ready to go back?” I grinned, stood up, and said confidently, “We are going back to kick some Covenant ass boys! Let’s get this soldier the best damn grave we can and get ready to go and show them what happens when you mess with ODSTs!” Everyone stood up and cheered, all of them moving to lift Erik to the grave they dug in the middle of the nearby park.
=== Chapter 7 (For Every One, Hundreds Would Pay) ===
They would pay for every life they took, every last life. That’s what I believed, and that’s what I fought for, I fought for every person who died, I fought for the worlds destroyed, I even fought for the goddamn dirt! By god it may have just been dirt but it was our dirt dammit! I was never more ready to kill those damn Covies than I was after Erik’s death. I was ready to jump onto Elites and try and bite out their damn throats if I ran out of ammo, Erik was like a brother to me, and I sure as hell was going to make the Covies pay for his death.
“Hey, Darian,” Bradley said as he walked up to me, “How are you doing?” I looked him in the eyes and stated, “I’m ready to jump into combat and kick some Covie ass just like usual.” He laughed and said, “I’m with you on that for once, so let’s show the Covenant what happens when you kill a member of Fireteam Fire Hounds.” With that he went to talk with Blaise about what he would be doing, I looked at the small number of men in front of me and thought to myself, “There’s no way in hell we’re winning, but there’s also no way in hell we’re going down easy”
We lined up to move back to the landing site when the impossible happened, as we started to move, Pelicans started flying in and I watched as they started landing around us and dropping of more and more ODST’s, they never seemed to stop coming. It turns out that we weren’t the only people left behind, so all of them grouped up to make a big resistance and heard about our fight, so they ended up coming here.
We all grouped up as quickly as possible, and because of our infamy, our fireteam was the command team, I had my own group of ODST’s to command and we were ready to show the Covies what we could do. As we all took up different positions, my command element was tasked with taking out the scarab, which meant boarding that damn thing. As we snuck up the building next to it we had to quietly take out jackal snipers all the way up, we made it to the last floor before the roof and prepared to make the drop onto the scarab at the others signals.
We got the signals not long after making it up there and my team charged up the stairs, took out a jackal sniper, and jumped towards the scarab. We all slammed down on the walkway except for the unlucky few who went to short and fell another 50 stories to the ground, as we landed, we cleared out the nearby area and started moving to the stairways that went downstairs to the engine room/control room. We looked down the main stairs and saw about 10-20 jackals waiting for us, as they opened fire, they caught a few men with their needlers and knocked them down, we dragged them back and had the medics start patching them up as we threw grenades down to clear them out. 
Things had gone well for the most part, we had cleared the top part easy enough, or so we thought, when we started going down the stairs one of my men flew past me and slammed to the ground at the bottom, it was then I noticed the two holes of an energy sword in him. “Elite behind!” I yelled as I turned, turns out, there wasn’t just one. As we opened up and started dropping them more started coming up from below. “Both sides now! Clear the top so we can escape!” I yelled as I put another round into an elites head.
As we fought the bottom was cleared first so I ordered us to go downstairs, when we got down there we saw  hundreds of Covies waiting for us, we opened fire and started to clear a path when I saw the engine room. We had lost a lot of our forces already so I said, “Everybody, start fighting your way up top, I’ll blow the engine room while you guys get out of here!” One of them yelled back, “We aren’t leaving you behind Sir!” I yelled back, “Shut up and go now!” As they started running back up top I sprinted forward past the Covies and slammed into the engine room. As I pulled the pin on a grenade, I felt a searing pain in my gut, then I noticed the two tines of the energy sword coming out of my chest. 
I heard the Elite behind me utter a deep laugh as my vision faded. I dropped the grenade and said, “Laugh all you want you fucking snake, cause I’m the one who gets the last laugh.” And the last thing I heard was the blast of the grenade and the screams of the engine going critical, and my vision faded to black.
=== Chapter 8 (Domino Effect) ===
My team was stationed to do overwatch and make sure that the heavy targets were taken care of, a relatively simple task, as we cleared the building we would use, we found little resistance and soon were set up. I had my second in command, a man by the name of Jordan Jackson, send the signal that we were ready, and I saw that Bradley’s team was already in position.  Once he sent the signal I saw Darian and his team leap of off the building near the scarab, beginning this final fight.
We started opening up on all of the brutes, hunters, and elites that we could as Bradley’s team waited for us to give them the all clear, once we gave it to him he would have his team charge into the battle to clean up all the grunts and jackals and whatever is left. Things were going well till an explosion rocked our building, I looked down to see that a wraith had opened fire on the base of our building and was trying to blow it out from under us. I said on my teams comms, “Guys, we need to start moving out, a wraith is going to tear this building down under us.” I started getting responses saying they were moving out or that they understood.
As we started moving down, I realized that we had to warn Bradley’s team still so I told Jordan to keep everyone moving down while I would go up to take care of warning Bradley, he said, “Sure thing Blaise, but be careful, if you fall to far behind I’m coming to get you.” I looked at him and told him, “Sure thing, but if I end up dead and you come back for me, I’ll put a bullet between your legs from heaven.” He smiled and said, “I’ll be sure to watch myself then.” And he walked away to catch up with the others.
I marched up the steps and made it back to the signal zone, as I started to warn Bradley that we had to move out, I noticed that the wraith was still trying to tear us down. I nearly tried at taking a shot when I saw the scarab gun start charging to fire, it was at that moment that I saw ODST’s dropping off and then an explosion rocked it and the gun swung in my direction, and fired. All I could see was that beam coming as I felt my skin start to boil and melt, and the last words I said were, “God dammit Darian, why are you always so messy with your jobs?” And the world faded to white.
=== Chapter 9 (The Finality Of It All) ===
I couldn’t believe it, the scarab was destroyed, and so was whatever ODST was signaling me. All of my men stood in shock of what they just saw, I turned and said, “Come on guys, it’s time we cleaned up this mess.” As we all moved out of our hiding spot and started to take cover we fired on the big targets to try and take them out before they could take us out. It seemed strange, the Covenant was ready for us, but they also were ready to run for their lives
As we took control of the landing site, or what was left of it, we noticed that the Covenant was really just retreating, we were all confused but excited. As we watched them run away I contacted the other squads to see what our losses were, I contacted Blaise’s squad first to find out who got hit by the scarab shot. “Bradley? Is that you?” said the ODST on the other end of the comms. “Yes, who is this and who got hit by the scarab round?” I asked quickly. “I am Jordan Jackson, second in command of Blaise team, the soldier lost to the scarab round was first in command sniper Blaise, I am truly sorry.” My heart stopped, I lost another squad member to these damn aliens, I instantly contacted Darians team to see who we lost there. I got a response quickly, “We lost about 6 or 7 in the drop, another 12 or so in the actual fighting, and Heavy Gunner Darian stayed on the scarab to finish it, assumed dead.” I stood there and looked up to the sky, I lost all of my men in one attack.
As I looked up I saw the Covenant Cruiser come under the clouds as it fired its glassing beam into the ground not to far away, I watched as it started moving to our position. Everyone was saying goodbye to each other and cracking jokes like we weren’t about to die, and I realized that they knew they would die, but they won, so why the hell should they be sad. As I watched the beam get closer I said to myself, “Well, I’ll see you guys in heaven, and I’ll be sure to make sure that we go down in history.” And as it swept over us, there was this peaceful silence, like I was back on Harvest again. And as I watched everything go white, and there was this strange finality to what we had done.