Halo: Into The Howling Dark (on hold)

Chapter Nine

28 February 2544 (Human Military Calendar).

Jiralhanae settlement, Exalted IV.

Chieftain Galmus threw the other Brute to the ground in fury, stripping off his armour harness in the process.

"Failure to the Jiralhanae! Because of you, the pack will go hungry tonight!" he roared, throwing the pitiful excuse for 'hunted food' in his fellow's dumbstruck face. A circle gathered around them, a silence to the air. Galmus brought the other Brute to his knees, resting a four-digit hand on his shaggy brown shoulder.

"Let this be an example to all who fail our mighty pack!" he told the onlooking faces around him.

With a single punch to the neck, Galmus killed the failure. The rest of the Brutes cheered and stomped their feet in approval.

As he walked away from the limp body towards his hut, intending to sleep, a beeping sound came from his cloth pouch. The transceiver played its message automatically upon his touch. It was mostly the weaker species' high-pitched squeals and the sound of an explosion. But then one word crept out in the native Kig-Yar tongue just before the message ended.

"Humans" Galmus found himself repeating, a smile dawning on his fanged mouth. He barked at the other Brutes to get into their Chopper assault vehicles and prepare themselves for combat. They clambered to and fro, eager for it. The engines kicked up, and the five Choppers veered off in the direction of the Kig-Yar settlement.

Traversing the hot desert sand dusted across their camp, Galmus entered the gunner seat of a Prowler infantry support vehicle. He stowed his Chieftain's inherited Gravity Hammer behind him, and gave the pleasuring order to roll out. The Brute salivated at the thought of dinner.

It was time for a real hunt.

***

"We're gonna need evac double-quick or we'll be staring the down the end of some Brute heavies" Finn roared down the line, sprinting as fast as he could whilst carrying one of the weapon crates alongside Kate. Gareth and Eli hauled along the second, which was considerably heavier due to the fact they cleared out the contents of the third crate and emptied them into that one. Elena ran ahead, on point. They didn't have the luxury of time.

Lane's voice rattled in Finn's earpiece.

"Get to the drop-off point, we'll be there. ETA fifteen minutes".

"Copy".

Finn relayed the information to his team-mates as they reached the edge of the dense jungle trees. They hastened across the long grass that became shorter and shorter with every couple of hundred yards. They would reach the LZ in time, and get off this rock. Maybe even get a medal, Finn prospected excitedly. That would be-

The ground beneath Eli's feet exploded and he was hurled into the air.

Finn ducked as a volley of shots soared over him, splitting the tree behind him in a shower of leaves and wood. Five vehicles came over the rise, firing wildly through heavy autocannons that tore up the bottle-green grass around them. Finn composed himself, returning a hail of bullets towards the nearest Chopper. The gunfire penetrated the Brutes' thick hide, spraying red-blue blood all over the dashboard and causing the vehicle to lose control and crash into the earth. The other Choppers began to circle the out-gunned and surrounded group.

"Fight by the crates, open them if you need to!" Finn commanded over the racket, letting out trios of rifle bursts at the vehicles that ran rings around them. A Prowler entered the fray with a deafening screech, a grey-furred Brute Chieftain hunched in the gunner seat firing superheated blue plasma that blistered the Wolves armour as they desperately tried to avoid it.

Finn focused his rifle on the driver, hoping to cause another crash and kill two birds with one stone. Kate caught on to the idea and helped, the overlapping fields of fire ripping the howling Brute to shreds. The Prowler slowed to a stop as the Chieftain clambered out, a crude looking Gravity Hammer in hand. It turned towards Finn, snarling.

"The pack will eat tonight!" it roared in a deep grumble, desperately trying to pronounce the human words through its short snout. Finn went to the team COM.

"Deadeye, Black, focus all fire on the Choppers. Gareth, make sure Eli's ok. I'm going after the leader" he spat frantically, putting a fresh clip into his assault rifle and feeling his heart collide against his ribcage with every quick beat.

He received three acknowledgements from their tags on his HUD. Eli had gone silent.

Finn turned to face the oncoming threat head on, spraying its thick grey skin full of lead. He dodged the hammer's first blow, which sent out a shockwave of air that vibrated Finn's very bones. The second blow came upwards in an arc, which missed Finn by a hair's breadth. He emptied the entire assault rifle clip into the beast's armoured legs, hoping to slow it. Until that helmet came off, he wouldn't have a decent shot in hell. So Finn drew his pistol, planting three firm rounds into the Brute's plated head.

And got hit by the tip of the hammer.

His body flew back, rolling into a patch of dirt and tasting blood and metal in his mouth. A Chopper veered over his head, barely missing the back of it, and sped off under fire from Elena's sniper rifle.

Dazed, Finn tried getting to his feet and collapsed again under intense pain. His pistol was nowhere to be seen, his rifle empty. The Brute leader hulked over laughing, raising the Gravity Hammer high into the air where it peaked the sky and reflected the dual-sun's light.

Finn took a last look through the digital HUD of his visor, taking in the alien's toothed smile of victory right next to...Eli's active tag.

Before the Chieftain could bring the hammer down on Finn, a battle cry filled the surrounding air. The Chieftain turned, stunned, to meet four consecutive blasts from Eli's shotgun. Dropping its weapon, the Brute fell back, and Finn crawled to his feet at Eli's side. The other Wolf handed him a plasma grenade and, seeing his chance, Finn hurled the thing at the stunned alien.

It stuck to its screaming head and detonated a moment later in a blue cloud of sparks and plasma-based lightning.

"Thanks, Eli" Finn choked out, severely winded and bleeding from the hammer hit. He would need bio-foam, and soon. They limped together towards the other Wolves and the absence of battle.

"They're retreating!" Elena called over the open COM, as the Choppers took off back the way they came.

"No, they're coming around for another pass", Lane provided from the air, "this bird has missile pods, we can do a bombing run on the bastards, but you'll be in the blast radius".

"Solution?" Kate replied.

"I see some sort of structure, about a half-mile north, can you get to it?"

Finn pushed aside the shredded Brute corpse and jumped into the driver's seat of the vacant Prowler, with Gareth climbing up top as the gunner. The other three boarded onto the vehicles rusted flanks, reloading their Needlers and venting out their plasma pistols. Finn started up the engine and took off in a whirlwind of dust.

"Yes sir", he managed to say, then to the team "we'll leave the crates here. We can get 'em later".

The Prowler sped across barren land at top speed. The remaining Choppers gave chase, and Gareth let into them with the mounted plasma turret. Their vehicle came up over a dirt rise and the structure came into view.

It was some sort of building - silver, jagged and strange. Not Covenant, and definitely not human. The Wolves' vehicle pulled up alongside it, and they looked on in awe at the foreign architecture.

"We're about to light it up, go go go!" Lane's voice screamed desperately into Finn's ear and the Wolves descended from the Prowler, under intense fire from the Choppers close behind.

They all forced a sprint to the alien structure and dove inside as the bombing run lit up the entire area around them. A wall of fire and heat spread over the slanted entrance, and the other Wolves collapsed to the ground in relief. But Finn stayed standing.

One Brute managed to follow them in, fur singed but escaping the blast nonetheless. It roared, alien grenade launcher in hand.

Without hesitation, Finn raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger.