Halo: Fireteam Phoenix

Chapter 17: End of the Line

The bridge was a picture of despair. Everyone had grim faces. Everywhere, dark eyes. Foul words, bitter tones. A rumble of combat, of gunfire. Distant, but ever-present. The bridge itself was mostly intact. The wounded piled in a corner. The dead in another. A stench of decay hung in the air, heavy. The light fell softly, thick like honey. Time seemed to stop. "But we have three spartans! Why would we run from our foes now?" Marie's face was oozing. Whether she ignored it or couldn't feel it was unclear. Even so, it did not lessen her wrath. "You cannot do this, we are in the heat of battle! We must act now!" "Act? For what? Our allies have abandoned us. Our lives are fleeting. How long do you think we can last? Why should we last? The covenant have won. We are defeated." Ball held her head in her hands. Eyes around the room settled on her. She sat on the holo-table. Her command chair was empty. The few crewmen still alive diligently ordered soldiers over the intercom. Camera feeds fizzled out as combat grew heavier. Fewer and fewer soldiers replied to hails. In a quieter voice, Ball continued. "We must flee. Already, a pair of spartans gone. Three more is an unnecessary loss. Heroes, symbols like yourself...they cannot die fighting losing battles."Marie had to stop herself laughing. Ball must be delusional. All spartans did was fight losing battles. Every battle was a loss when you were losing the war. They were bred to buy humanity time. Lives for time. Ships for time. Systems for time. Time, time, time.Time. "This is not about heroes, it's about action," Marie interrupted. "We cannot run. It isn't right. Too many people gave their lives to save this planet. It cannot be in vain." "So, what? We sacrifice ourselves for a planet already lost? How noble. How wasteful!""Admiral, you know why we spartans exist. We exist to die. Lives for time.""I am not a spartan. These people are not spartans. They deserve to live. They didn't choose this.""And we did?" Aaron cut in.Marie brought the conversation back to its original point "We need to act, and running is not an option."Felix's reply was instantaneous, "How about we go out there and kill some stuff?" His tone was disingenuous. "There is a little more to it than that," Marie said."Enough!" Sarah rose to her feet. "Marie is right. Running is out of the question. So is a suicide mission for no reason." She paused, looking around at the bloody, weary faces. "We're all on a one-way trip. We all knew that when we put on our helmets. That doesn't mean we should welcome death. No. No, we should fight with our backs against the wall. They want our ship? They'll have to take it from our cold, dead hands. We're the end of the line." She looked at Ball. Ball didn't speak, for a moment. Then she said, "You're right. We can't die here, defeated. We must fight for our ship. I will not go down with my ship." The bridge bustled with life. Everything could be cover. Chairs, desks, command stations. Rifles levelled at the door. Mags changed. Murmurs of encouragement. The lights went dark for a moment and the ship rocked. "Anything could come through that door. Whatever it is, we must hold our ground. We have nowhere to run."The steel bulkheads buckled in the centre, a violent crashing sound on the other side. The ship shook heavily as each blow landed on the thick door. Lights shattered and panels fell to the floor. A final, massive hit shuddered against the door. It held. The group let out a collective sigh of relief and lowered their weapons slightly. The doors would hold.Not moments after they let their guard down did the doors fly inward at speed like a fighter jet. They screamed with a metallic fear as they buckled. One grazed Marie's shoulder. The other hit marine so hard he covered the wall like a red paste. Two hunters followed the doors in, raising their shields to cover their advance. The first assault stunned the soldiers. Their fire was wild and innaccurate, pinging uselessly off of the hunter shields.Aaron was not fazed. Unwavering, he leapt in front of the hunters. The first hunter swung its shield in a vicious arc, blindingly fast. Aaron slid under the strike, coming to rest at the hunter's back. His shotgun barrel exploded in hot fire and the exposed back of the hunter vomited orange blood. It screamed in pain, an alien sound, flailing around to catch him. It never landed a blow. Aaron fired again and the hunter fell down dead.Meanwhile, the other soldiers were blindly firing into the hallway. Screams of pain erupted in between the echoing sound of bullets. Seconds passed, feeling like hours. The second hunter sent Aaron flying through a glass screen. Grief-ridden with the loss of its brother, it fell on Aaron with fury. Pained cries of loss filled the air and it trampled soldiers in single-minded determination. It would kill the spartan clad in black. Aaron felt no remorse. He couldn't find his shotgun, wherever it had fell. No matter. He could kill this monster. Taking a stance, one foot before the other, he prepared to fistfight the hunter. All the soldiers, human and covenant alike, stopped to watch this unthinkable event.Strong as he was, Aaron knew the odds. He'd be overpowered in an instant if he couldn't keep up the attack. Unlike anyone before, he threw a punch at a hunter. The blow Aaron threw would have killed a charging bull.It simply made the Hunter flinch. Looking back, it made sense that no-one had done this before. Or, if they had, they hadn't lived to tell the tale.Change of plan. Fast as a flash, Aaron leapt aside, rolling to his feet. He charged into the hunter from behind, tackling the enormous beast to the ground. He winded himself on impact, but he successfully knocked the hunter off balance. His body screamed in triumph. His mind was blank. His muscles almost ruptured as he pinned the alien. He had only on thought. "Kill it!" He gasped between laboured breaths. Felix complied. Deftly weaving through the mess of the control room, he readied himself to slay the thrashing hunter.He drew his sword and thrust through the solid helm of the beast. The armour cracked like glass. It let out an ungodly howl of agony and a thrashing spasm. Then, it was still. Felix was on his feet first, panting. The control room was, once again, a warzone. A barely-conscious Aaron sprawled on the floor. Felix offered a hand up, which Aaron accepted.Aaron felt lost, back on his feet. Positions had changed, bodies piled high. His head swivelled, looking for his shotgun. Deuce put his foot on the weapon, sliding it to Aaron. He snatched it up, pumped it, reloading behind a low wall. He peeked over, firing into the horde that awaited.Marie was doing the same, firing as fast as she could. They just had to hold. She had an elite in her sights. She lined it up. Half a second before she pulled the trigger, it disappeared. As did everything else. The world had gone black. "What happened?" She couldn't see, but the fighting was still as extreme. Clashes of punches and groans of pain. "Power must have gone," someone cried. "If they shut off the reactor, that means..." the marine stopped speaking. They all felt the ship begin to tilt. Flashing red lights erupted, blaring alarms, amplifying the already extreme noise. Marie's eyes had adapted to the blackness already, not helped by the continuing yellow flashes of gunfire, the splashes of purple plasma. "If we've got no lights, that means no power!" "We know!" Deuce replied, firing his rifle "Hold on to something!""Can we not do something?""We sure as shit can't jump start it," Felix said."Somebody needs to get back to the reactor, turn it back on!""They'd never make it!" Felix replied. He was right. The covenant had them pinned, and every second added further casualties.The frigate sank rapidly from the sky, moments away from crashing into the ground. This was it. This was the end. Felix didn't miss the chance to be snide. "Any last words?" As Sarah opened her mouth to bite back, the ship rocked one last time, and the world ceased to exist