[UNKNOWN]
[Ghost POV]

It’s been a couple of minutes since I “awoke” I guess is the right term and since then I’ve learned two things.

One I’ve only got the equipment I had before I hopped into the prototype suit, which includes a MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System or assault rifle, my standard Marine Battle Dress Uniform or BDU and a few fragmentation grenades plus a M6G PDWS locked to my wast.

Two IF I did die then I doubt I can reach any UNSC assets even if I tried because why would I still be alive in my own universe? It stands to reason that I’m not in my own plain of existence anymore, plus would HIGHCOM really send someone for one marine? A marine who disobeyed a direct order and almost broke procedure by hopping into the most powerful suit of armour humanity created?

Yeah doubtful.

“At least I saved who I can” I muttered as I lay against a tree on the edge of the clearing I woke up in.

As I lay there I began to consider what to do next, I’ve easily decided to try and find somewhere to hunker down for the night since anything could be in this forest. The small question in the back of my mind about the inhabitants of this forest was answered when I heard a strange howl in the distance, it sounded like a wolf but I didn’t stay to find out.

I got up and ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction of the howl hopping that they haven’t picked up my sent.

I ran for a few minutes before slowing down a bit to catch my breath, though after a bit I chuckled to myself whilst smiling.

“Guess I really am human again if a simple howl was enough to get me going“ I thought to myself as I try to relax a bit before continuing on.

However before I could get a minute of relaxation in I heard a noise, it wasn’t a howl rather a deep-.

BANG!

Another one followed then another before a rhythm settled in, knowing what the sound was I headed towards it.

As I ran through the forest I could hear the rhythm intensify, before long I arrived at the scene. It looks like a wide clearing on the side of a cliff face with most of it occupied by a large castle. Outside of said castle were some odd looking soldiers, at first they looked liked knights from the medieval ages but then I noticed the guns and webbing they had, they’re clearly modern soldiers of a sort.

There were about thirty of them plus one who I assume is an officer or something given that his armour is coloured red like Elite majors.

They were surrounding one side of the castle behind them is a gap pushing towards my right into the forest, connecting the two sides is a wooden-roped bridge that has seen better days. I was on the opposite side of the gap where I got a good line of sight of the enemy platoon, they had their backs to me focusing entirely on the castle particularly a hole in the wall where I could see movement but at this range even my HUD has a hard time of identifying the occupants.

Taking stock of what I learned I quickly devised a plan, albeit a blunt one.

Taking position besides the bridge I got to a prone stance and aiming by the hip with the HUD ridicule I fired off a few bursts of ammunition, taking down two and killing one more.

That got their attention as I noticed the officer make a motion with his arm and ten of the soldiers from the left shifted their fire onto me.

Reacting quickly I got up from my prone position and slowly but quickly made my way across the bridge whilst spraying fire down range in short bursts to get as much accuracy as possible.

Whilst I made my way across I noticed the officer make another motion and this time the seven survivors from the right began to move into the castle, followed shortly by the officer and his ten men leaving the remaining ten to take care of me.

By the time I crossed over and found cover behind a large rock they were already inside.

The remaining hostiles lad down suppressing fire on my position, from the streaks passing by and into the forest I figured that they suspected there were others in the tree line and I was just the first across. Not a bad choice but the lack of fire that could’ve been brought onto me allowed myself to quickly peek out from cover and using my HUD I lined up a shot on the far left soldier, then with a quick burst he falls dead.

The remaining nine then put some distance between themselves and me whilst also spreading out amongst the ruins for cover. During which I noticed the gunfire coming from inside the ruin, knowing the implications I grabbed a frag from my webbing and tossed it over my cover, a few seconds later it exploded taking out at least two before I threw myself into a roll and once I’ve stopped I quickly pulled the trigger in rapid succession killing four more.

I then got to a crouch but before I could do anything a massive explosion occurred in one of the towers in the castle, the remaining four soldiers took my distraction as an opportunity to fall back and probably join their comrades.

Keeping my sights on the hole they went through I decided to move to one of the bodies and examine what I could.

Now that I’ve got a closer look I can definitely say that the armour does share resemblance to old medieval knights, with the webbing interlocking with the armour. There’s less armour on the legs but I guess that’s because of movement risks, the weapon appears to be a single-shot rifle using chemicals and gunpowder like standard UNSC firearms.

After checking the other bodies but not finding anything of interest I move into the castle and hope I’m not too late.

Author's Note

And that’s the second chapter sorry if I’m not updating as much as you guys want, writing is still new to me and this is more of a past time activity I like to do. If that changes I’ll let you know but for now don’t expect regular updates and thanks for the support so far

Bye!