Halo: Minorca Saga/Chapter Nine

UNSC COLONY WORLD MINORCA / ALPHA CANIS MINORIS SYSTEM / APRIL 17TH, 2551 (MILITARY CALENDAR) 

Jamal stopped loading weapons into the Warthog, and looked up from his work and into the vast jungle.

What was that sound? Jamal thought, looking into the jungle, and saw a leaf move.

He picked up his BR55 and aimed into the forest, and shot at the leaf. Nothing. He shook his head, laying his BR55 against the tire of the Warthog, and kept on working.

“What’s up, Jamal?” asked Helen, who had also stopped from her work.

“Nothing… just heard something in the jungle Sounded non-jungley… if you know what I’m saying.”

“You think they’re here?”

“Maybe. Anyway, we have to finish loading this ‘Hog. ONI boys found something they call the “labyrinth”, and its not that far from here.

Jamal turned back to continue his work when the ground shuddered.

“Artillery?” questioned Gabriel.

“No… artillery doesn’t sound like that… you should know.”

The three SPARTANs picked up their weapons, Gabriel with his SRS, Helen with her SPNKr, and Jamal with his Battle Rifle, sighting into the vast jungle.

The ground continued to shudder, and then, Jamal heard mechanical whirs, something that sounded like gears.

Within seven seconds, they knew what it was.

In front of them, main weapon armed, was a behemoth of machinery. It was one of the Covenant walking tanks, known to the UNSC as “Scarabs”. There was only one way to take them down – destroy the power core.

Helen sprung into action, firing one of the SPNKr’s High-Explosive rockets into the leg of the Scarab, and she dodged before the Scarab’s weapon fired, turning the ground black. Regaining her footing, she fired again, and reloaded.

Simultaneously, Gabriel sniped off several of the Elites on the vehicle, mainly blue and red ones. Knowing from experience, there would have to be one of the gold ones, probably their commander.

After zooming out of his sight, he rolled to the left to avoid one of the walker’s “feet”, and after ducking, threw a pack of C-12 explosive onto it.

Jamal had already done his job – climbing a tree – and continued to obliterate the forces on the vehicle’s deck, when out of nowhere, the leg exploded in a blaze of fire, and the walker’s alarms went off. Jamal jumped from the tree, and landed, and when he turned, a gold armored Elite stared back.

Jamal backed up, watching as the Elite activated his sword, mouth growling, probably obscenities, or something along the lines of “vile human.”

Jamal ducked as the Elite swung, quickly switching to his shotgun, pumping it as he readied for a shot. The Elite, after lunging, tried to regain its footing, when suddenly he was blown away, shields collapsed and helmet filled with his blood. Running to the back, Jamal picked up one of the “sticky” grenades, and threw it onto the core’s shielding, and after the explosion, he threw another sticky grenade on the core itself, before jumping off.

Jamal, after standing up, looked at Gabriel and Helen, and the three immediately knew what to do. They all broke out in a full sprint, running at nearly fifty kilometers per hour, their feet making prints in the mud.

Jamal dove for the ground as the Scarab exploded in a blinding flash of white, and rolled over to watch the vehicle collapse.

Satisfied with himself, Jamal winked his LED green, and Gabriel and Helen did the same, the three regrouping in the clearing.

“Alright, the labyrinth is about twenty clicks that way,” said Jamal, pointing north, towards the mountains.

“When we get there, watch out. We don’t know who, or what, could be in there.”

The group walked off in a rather fast trot after scavenging whatever weapons hadn’t been destroyed, including more SPNKr and Sniper Rifle ammunition, as well as pistols and shotguns.

Whatever it was, it had to be big. They had been detached from the front lines to find this thing, as well as to engage any and all Covenant forces behind their own lines. It was what they specialized in, of course.