Halo Spotlight: Feet First

On a far off world, Team Scimitar clears out a Promethean-infested complex before receiving some unexpected assistance.

Viggo crouched in the jungle foliage, eyeing the Forerunner complex through his scope. ''Fewer Prometheans than we expected. Better be cautious.'' Quickly holstering the weapon, he held up three fingers to his teammates, then started counting down. Three… two… one… Swiftly waving his hand in a forward motion, the five Spartans swept through the underbrush, weapons moving into readied position. Sweeping in with stealth trained by years of commando operations, the Prometheans never saw them coming.

On the far right, a Promethean Soldier turned towards Viggo’s positions, sensors obviously picking up a disturbance. Within a half-second Billy leapt from cover, snapping its head unit free and stabbing the core of its chassis before slipping back into the underbrush. Two sentries on the left immediately stood alert, but were likewise silenced by a quartet of well placed, suppressed rifle shots from Elijah and Sean. With a small COM blip, Viggo signalled Dominic to begin his run then dropped to the ground, retrieving his sniper rifle from his back.

Pulling a trio of explosives from his pouch, Dominic continued running, setting the timers expertly before leaping from cover and tossing the detpacks at three nearby Focus Turrets. Diving out of the way as the emplacements began burning through the trees, Dominic kept moving towards the complex, a trio of explosions swiftly freeing him of imminent threat.

On the other side of the clearing, Elijah and Sean burst from the jungle, drawing off the first wave of Promethean guards while Dominic covered Billy’s charge on the right. Elijah and Sean danced through their foes, moving with impossible efficiency as their extreme adrenaline levels pulled their senses into ‘Spartan time’. A Promethean Knight swung its blade downward, prompting Sean to roll sideways as Elijah leapt up, stabbing it in the skull and tossing the disintegrating robot into its comrade. Pulling out his pistol as he pushed up from the ground, Sean rapidly burst through the second Knight’s shields, only for Elijah to finish off with a burst from his rifle.

Raising his assault rifle, Dominic cut through an oncoming wave of Crawlers as Billy ran up behind him. Within seconds, Billy’s rocket launcher was brought to bear, blasting a large hole through the outer perimeter, along with a large number of the Crawlers. Dropping the ammunition-less weapon, Billy swapped back to his assault rifle in an effort to stop several oncoming Soldiers, only to find himself saved by the crack of a sniper rifle.

Charging forward to join up with his team did not stop Viggo’s aim from racking up a number of kills against the swarms of Prometheans. Waving his team inside the complex, they continued together, covering each other’s weak points with practised precision. When one Spartan had to reload, another covered his line of fire, and when the enemy pressed in from one direction, two Spartans were there to respond in kind.

But as they pressed into the complex, they were met with a threat they were not anticipating: a Promethean Goliath. Enormous, four-armed and equipped with numerous deadly weapons, few had been seen on the field of combat, and this gave the Spartans a momentary pause. But in that moment of hesitation, the Goliath struck: striking its fists out, gravity pulses wrecked the area, with the Goliath having no care for friend or foe.

Pulse rifles and incinerator shots rang out from the towering golem of science before the Spartans could even stand properly. “Scatter!” yelled Viggo, the team trying to get out of reach and fire off a few shots.

Viggo’s mind raced, trying to contemplate what to do. Strategies, movements, all swarming through his brain, all attempting to rise as the best option. Except he didn’t get a chance to find out what would work.

As the Goliath charged at Dominic and Billy, the two Spartans twirling about and trying to damage the robot’s heavy armor, until twin laser blasts lanced through the air from above. Severing the Goliath’s upper right arm completely, they were soon followed by a shower of other blasts, leaving the Goliath a wounded corpse slowly disintegrating away.

In the skies above the complex, the air rushed cooly past Riker-012 as he unslung his sniper rifle and began rapidly firing on the crowd of Promethean Knights and Soldiers. Wiping out the key commander units and emplacements around the complex, there was hardly a moment’s pause between each clip as he skillfully reloaded, using his entire supply of ammunition within seconds.

Holstering the rifle and throwing out two bandoliers of explosives in various directions, Riker opened up his thrusters and landed with the heavy thud of a boot into a Knight’s head. Firing his battle rifle alongside Team Scimitar, within the minute the entire courtyard was clear. Nodding to the team, but not a word more, Riker waved them into the complex, leading them on into the darkness.