"...just keep running" Private Spire thought to himself. "I'm not going to die in this frozen wasteland." As soon as he finished that sentence he heard 3 shots from a magnum then a scream in agony. "There's no way im gonna let those split chinned bastards kill me."
Right beside him was Private Nathan Erickson, running for his life just as Spire was. His entire 15 man patrol was down to just the two of them, as far as they both knew.
Their patrol got caught in a blizzard while scouting out the terrain for any Covenant. When they came in contact they couldn't radio back to base because of the interference. After they took out the few Covenant they had come in contact with, they began heading back the way they came. But the storm erased their tracks and turned the Patrol around.
"I'm not gonna make it, I dont even know where i'm going." Spire thought to himself. He stopped running to catch his breath, only to find Erickson was no longer next to him. "Nathan? NATHAN!" Spire yelled, but received no answer in return.
Spire slumped to the ground, tears swelling in his eyes. After several minutes of sobbing, he heard a Crack to his right. "Nathan?" Spire yelled towards where he heard the noise. Then to his left he heard a thud. Spire raised his MA5B assault rifle and yelled to the sky, "I'm not afraid of you!" Moments after he said that, he heard a sharp sizzling noise. He looked down to his chest to see the tips of an Energy sword sticking out of him. The Camouflaged elite revealed itself and raised Spire to it's face, snarled at him, and threw him on the ground.
Chapter 1
"Charlie and Gamma teams have reported in, but no word from Alpha team sir."
"*** it.", Colonel Jarrison said to himself. During the blizzard, command lost contact with all teams. And because of the poor conditions, they lost a patrol.
"Once the storm has passed I want a Recon group out there to find Alpha team.", Jarrison said. "Tell them to expect Covenant resistance. We can't afford any more losses."
3 hours, 45 minutes later
"Team one report.", Corporal Will said over the Radio. "We haven't encountered Alpha team or any Covenant resistance." "Roger that, keep searching." Teams one through three have been searching ever since the storm passed, which was 2 hours ago and haven't come across anything. "We would bring in air support to aide in the search, but the storm is supposed to come back.", Will thought to himself. Shortly after his thought, the Radio crackled to life. "This is team two. We've found something here." "What is it?", Will asked. "...It's...it's Erickson from Alpha team." "What's his status?", Will demanded. "He's KIA sir." "Roger, do you see anything else?"
"Negative. We'll keep searching." "Roger. Team three, report." 'static' "Team three, report!" 'more static' "Team's one and two, go check on Team three's position."Roger that, team one out." "Roger, team two out."
After the Assault on Alpha patrol, more patrols have been turning up missing. But because of the bad weather conditions, Command hasn't been able to conduct proper search missions.
Ten minutes later the radio crackled back to life. "This is team one, we've arrived at team three's position. We see their two hogs, but team three isn't here." What?", Will asked. "What do you mean team three isn't there?" "I mean their hogs are here, but there's no bodies or anything. There aren't even any signs of a fight."
"How have the Covenant been able to pull all of this off while staying completely under the radar?", Will thought to himself. Just then he heard team two over the radio. "This is team two, we've encountered Covenant resistance. Were dropping like flies out here! We can't land any shots!
None of us even see anything! We need backup out here, send reinfor...." Static fills the radio. "Team two! Team two come in!", Will yelled over the radio but to no avail. "We've lost contact with team two sir."
"Send in the Scorpions." Colonel Jarrison said over the radio. "We're going to find out exactly what the hell is going on down there."
Chapter 2
"To think I've been in the UNSC's ranks for 6 years already.", Corporal Will said to himself as he drove Armored two down to meet up with the armored column consisting of 8 scorpian tanks.
"Join up with Armored battlegroup 18 and go with 'em on a search and destroy mission." 5 minutes after he met up with the column , he heard Colonel Jarrison's voice over the radio.
"I want a clean sweep of the area, if you find any Covenant shoot on sight. Be sure to stick together, we don't want the same thing happening to us as what happened to Alpha team."
After the transmission was over, the crews started up the scorpion tanks and started going down the snowed in dirt road.
"This shouldn't be too hard." Will thought to himself. "After all, the only reason the patrols went missing was because they were completely unprotected. Things are different now with 8 armored Covenant killing machines rolling down the road."
Colonel Jarrison's voice came over the radio again. "Armored group 18, we're picking up movement in the woods to the right of the road you are currently on." The eight scorpion tanks stopped in their tracks and swung their turrets around to their right. There was nothing there.
"Command, we aren't picking anything up. All we see is trees and snow.", Armored lead stated.
"Well look harder! Sensors are picking up more movement to the Left side of the road." Armored 3 opened up the hatch on his scorpion to take a better look, but once he stuck his head out he was greeted with a purple beam that went right through the center of his forehead. As soon as the other tank commanders saw this, they swung their turrets towards the woods and began firing rounds, hoping to hit a target.
"This is Armored lead! Armored three has just been hit! It appears that his status is KIA!" After he finished his sentence a fuel rod bolt came out of the tree line and detonated on Armored 8, leaving behind a charred husk.
"This is Armored lead, we're pulling out of the sector, we drove right into an ambush." Armored lead began driving off as fast as he could accompanied by Armored two. But Armored four through seven couldn't get away because Armored three was blocking the path. While Armored lead was driving back to base he listened to the panicked comm chatter of the rest of the battlegroup, and there was nothing he could do.
While on their way back to the base, Will couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Several moments later, another fuel rod flew out of the woods and impacted on the side of the road narrowly missing his tank Armored two. This time Will saw the grunt that launched it, right before it hid back behind a tree. He swung his Scorpions turret around and fired a shell, splintering the tree and mangling the grunt in the process.
"YEA! Finally got one of the bastards!", Will yelled cheerfully. But his small victory was cut short when a blue orb fell from the sky and impacted on Armored lead turning the Scorpion into a ball of flame. Will quickly revved the engine back up and roared past what was left of Armored lead. Thankfully, after another 15 minutes of driving he came across a UNSC outpost on the road.
He was safe for another day.