Randomness and Ranting

The end of a great one

     Councilor Thyton twisted his neck, and cracked it, the bones and muscles inside becoming less stiff as he did so. He shook his head, mandibles swaying, and spoke. "The situation is quite dire up above us. The Prophet of Remorse is here,and he's looking for something. None of us know what." He sheathed his energy sword and looked around the room, surveying the number of the dead."As you can see, the flood are here. I do believe they are connected, as the flood has been at every forerunner world we have been to. It must mean they have been here."

    "Possibly," Jet said, "but they may have arrived here on their own."

     "That is true, human, but I doubt the flood would bother traveling this far out from the original halo ring, only to find nothing here, assuming they arrived here before you humans did." I nodded; his logic seeming sound enough, and then turned to Jet as well.

    "Captain Metal's emergency BIO beacon went off a good ten minutes ago. "He raised an eyebrow, slightly startled at the news. "He tasked us with getting to you while he turned on the base's main defenses." Tim nodded, reloading his assault rifle as he began to speak.

     "Bura has gone missing too. He went to the outer reaches of the base to help defend out there. I tried pinging his com a few minutes ago, but recieved no response." Jet thought about the situation for a moment, and then opened one of his desk drawers.

    "Alright then," He began. "The main part of the base is closest, so we should go get Metal first. Then we can try to find Bura, but he's probably busy right now, being the damned insane one he is." From the drawer he took a battle rifle and threw it to me. I grabbed it, put away my shotgun, and then shouldered the rifle. He then threw Tim a couple assault rifle clips, loaded his own magnum, and turned to his left. "Cecil, Jaden, you two are with us." The two marines who were manning the machine gun turrets nodded and walked to us. "They are both due for ODST enlistment," Jet said. "Having them with us is a good idea." We all nodded in agreement - the more the merrier. Cecil carried the machine gun, which was jammed earlier, with both hands. His hands barely sweat as he did. Pretty strong, I thought. Jaden did not carry his MG, but instead hefted a rocket launcher, with an M7 SMG as backup. Councilor Thyton unlatched a needler carbine, a weapon no human had seen since the fall of reach, from the back of his armor and shouldered it.

     "Let's move out then," he beckoned. "We should hurry to find your injured friend. My Elites will help us wherever they can." I yanked the charging lever on my battle rifle and then followed the group as we moved out, back into the depths of the base.

     As we continued on, we encountered little resistance. Corspes from all sides littered the halls: Humans, Elites, and each kind of covenant alike. A brute captain tried to stop us at one point, but Thyton unloaded three needler carbine rounds into its head, causing it to combust and leave nothing but an empty, blood spurting hole where it once was. But what shocked us the most is what we saw in the center of the base. As we approached the reactor room, we saw hundreds of dead drones. They either lay on the ground, blood oozing from gigantic .50 cal rounds, or remained as blackened corspes that were charred by fire, most likely from Metal's signature flamethrower. We entered the room silently; me, Tim and Jaden taking the right, Cecil, Jet and Thyton taking the left. We did not have to search long, all that was in there were auto turrets, dead drones, and the body of an ODST. It was Captain Metal. Tim, Jet and I rushed to his side, the others covering the entrances, and took a look at his injuries. It was bad - real bad. His armor had been seared through by plasma, his helmet cracked by a concussive impact, and to make things worse, his left leg had torn off - blown off, to be more precise. We found traces of needler shards scattered around the room. "Damn," Tim said sollomly. "He fell turning on the base defenses."

     "Not quite," Metal coughed, awaking with a start. "I'm not dead... at least not yet." We jumped back, shocked at his sudden awakening, but quickly returned to his side.

     "Damn good to see you still kicking, soldier," Jet said. Metal chuckeled, coughing up blood as he did so.

     "Not for much longer I think," he heaved. I could already tell that he wasn't going to make it. All the blood that surrounded him was his. He had lost at least three quarts. Metal turned to me, slowly and shakily taking a knife out of his armor's chest pocket. "I believe I owe you this," he said. I took the knife from his hand and looked at it. Inscribed on it were three initials: S.V.A. I almost guffawed as I remember what the knife was from.

     "Damn," I muttered, looking back at Metal. "You still had this thing from way back when?" He nodded.

     "I thought you might want to have at least one memory to keep of me... and Sarah, whom I shall not be seeing soon." I was about to ask him what he ment, but he kept talking. "Hell, you know what I mean. I've done a fuck load of bad shit in my life. I'm going to the very depths of hell, less Satan himself reject me!" He laughed horsely, and we managed to make a chuckle ourselves.

     "Maybe you'll get lucky," Tim said, sorrow returning to his voice

     "I doubt it," Metal stated without worry. "I couldn't care less if I go to hell or not." He managed to point shakely at all the corspes of drones in the room. "I took those bastards with me!" He coughed agaIn, laughing with blood pooling from his mouth, and turned to Tim. "Take my flamethrower, will you? I don't want it to grow old and rust along side with my corspe, I want it to be used in memory of me." Tim nodded and picked up the weapon.

     "I will make sure the Prophet of Remorse dies for each life his army takes," Thyton stated. "Even yours." Metal turned to the Councilor and nodded.

     "Thank you, they deserve it. No matter what your race did to us, you shall always be an exception in my book." Metal coughed again and lay his head against the wall behind him. "Religion always said there would be a light... but I see none now. Nothing but red..." I shook my head and closed my eyes, sheathing the knife he gave me. Metal took one final gasp of air, then his eyes turned a pale white, the breath of life leaving his body and into the abyss that is death.