Halo: Luck

Chapter 4: What We Lost

Noble Six ran through the tunnel as Covenant swarmed the city. Sliding over the hood of a deserted car, he proceeded towards the end of the tunnel. The battle was going to hell quick. He looked back to see Jun do the same. He put a fist up and pumped it once, stopping Jun in his tracks. Out of one intersecting tunnel, a group of grunts waddled out. Positioning himself behind a car, he took aim at one of the grunts heads, nodding at Jun to fire first. A three seconds later, two grunts were already down, the others not lasting much longer. Six took this moment to check the civilian Com-Network. Screams for support and reports on the evacuations swarmed like bees in his helmet's speakers. He shut them off. He put two fingers forward, giving the signal to move. The duo continued to move down the tunnel at a quicker pace than before. When they finally appeared at the end of the tunnel, Six and Jun crouched along the wall and came out of the tunnel. Six would never be the same again.

Jun followed Six up the tunnel, covering his six. Wow, he thought, covering Six's six. The joke's amusement left immediately when he bumped into Six. Turning around to see why he stopped, he froze. Blinking a few times, he cursed under his breath. Thousands of bodies littered the streets, both civilian and covenant. It was unbelievably traumatizing, even for a spartan. In all of his years serving, he had never seen such an event. He knew Humanity was losing, but this brought it to a whole new level. He stood next to Six, and just stared. Is this what's just going to keep happening? Billions of deaths, over and over again... He just couldn't shake it off. Luckily, the Covenant had left considering they were done with the place. It didn't make him feel any better. He'd rather had fought the amount of deaths in Covenant soldiers. He heard Six take a large breath next to him.

"Those bastards...," he whispered.

Jun nudged his shoulder, finally snapping out of it.

"Come on," he replied hoarsely,"we have to look for survivors."

Six looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "Survivors?" he finally managed. Jun started to walk down towards the carnage slowly, motioning for Six to follow. He picked his way through the bodies, looking for signs of life. The outcome was really unlikely. He stopped and looked down at the blackened road. The blood pooled around his boots. He wondered if it would ever truly come off. He tried to not think about the stench, afraid that if he did it would stick in his mind forever. He kept walking only to hear a raspy breath from his right. Running over, he found a bloody ODST lying against a smoldering warthog. Jun recognized the face immediately, to his horror. It was Sergeant Hyland... the poor bastard. He knelt next to him, pulling out a can of biofoam. Hyland looked up at him and pushed the can away slowly.

"Don't waste it on me," he rasped. "I remember you. Never did get to thank you. You're a good soldier..., better than me," he paused, coughing. "Just never forget... what your fighting for..." He gestured to the bodies around him. Hyland removed his dog-tags and grabbed Jun's hand. "Don't ever... stop fighting till every last alien bastard felt the same pain we did today." He took one last breath before dying. Jun slipped the dog-tags out of Hyland's hand and gripped them in both hands. Closing the ODST's eyes, he felt Six's hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry..." he muttered mournfully. Jun stood up and looked at Hyland's dog-tags one last time before placing them in his pouch.

"I am too," he replied, before throwing a flare and calling for burial detail. He'd complete his mission.

Six felt as if he'd shatter like glass if he saw this again. He knew he couldn't allow himself to. Humanity needed him to fight. So fighting was what he'd do. Letting Jun continue on his objective, Six jumped in the warthog left for him. He drove down the highway, swerving around debris and missing chunks in the road. Before long, he heard the all too familiar whine of a banshee. It took pursuit after him, spewing plasma everywhere. He continued trying to dodge it, before he came up on a surviving marine checkpoint. The marines took fire at his pursuer, before a missile flew out. He looked behind in time to see it explode, showering chunks of debris. He stopped momentarily, giving his thanks to the marines. Deciding that preceding on foot was safer, he eventually made his way to an on-going firefight. Accessing the situation, in which the two sides were both dug in pretty well, he decided to flank the covies. Activating his active-camo, he creeped around pieces of cover until he was in a good position. Aiming his MA5 at the highest ranking elite, he held his fire, instead pulling out a plasma grenade. He threw it at the Ultra, watching as it stuck to his helmet, causing him to freeze in surprise. Knowing the inevitable, Six fired on the others, eliminating two of the three minors. Swapping mags, he continued to fire, relishing the kick of the MA5 against his shoulder. He activated his active-camo again, sneaking behind the elites and switching to his shotgun. He ran in, blowing the remaining minor to shreds, and swiping the last elite off his feet before plunging his knife into his skull. He switched back to his MA5 and glared at the grunts. They trembled in fear before scrambling away from him, making it easy to put them down. He looked around, satisfied with himself. It would have been an enjoyment had the events earlier not occurred. He sighed and joined the marines.

Jun sat in the rear of the pelican, the only spartan in the pelican. The marines looked at him curiously, relishing the chance to inspect one. He didn't mind it, for once. He put his arms in his lap and leaned downwards, looking at the dog-tags again. The marines, chatting before, quieted when they saw this, before paying their respects. As the pelican descended towards his stop, he stood up and looked out at the ravaged city. He remembered what it had looked like before, beautiful and inspiring. Now look at it. A total mess, a grave for millions. For one rare moment, he expressed his grief. He looked out at the horizon behind the city, and saluted to all those who had perished in the attack. He jumped off the ramp and grouped up with Noble Team, excluding Six. He gave his report, getting a mixed kind of reactions. Carter and Kat, as usual, held their emotions in. Jorge looked up at the darkening sky and gave a few words of regret. Emile, sitting against a rock sharpening his knife, dug it into the dirt before continuing with his activity. Jun remembered the dog-tags in his pouch. If he made through this, he'd make sure Hyland was remembered. He'd remember what was lost today.