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BOAH4 Part four
Spartan in a Tangle

      Apart from the pain that throbbed at Latoya Hegins' waist, his aching head also felt like a different war was being fought within it. They had changed course on hearing weapons fire rise from a corner they had already gone past. Natoli and Akindele were on point as they headed backwards. Sergeant Brad was right in front of Hegins, while Chris tailed behind. Losing radio contact with Cortana had made the task of locating his position quite difficult, but now they knew it had to be the Spartan Master Chief engaging Covenant forces. And they knew he needed their help. They were his reinforcement, and so far, since Foe Hammer deployed them upon the Covenant bay, they had not exactly carried out that purpose.

Hegins kept resenting the fact that they didn't let him die back there. His current orientation was even worse and he knew it. It had been anger and hate; but presently it was sorrow and despair. I'll still die anyhow, he thought. Me, Akindele…everyone. Why didn't they just let me die taking those two crater-faced Covenant with me? I even doubt if we'll make it outta here alive. Doesn't make any difference to me now, when or how a man died. Every man, soldier or not, is gonna die someday. And if we all die in this Alien ship today, it wouldn't make any difference. Neither would it have any effect on the course of the world. Things would just carry on without us.

      "Hey, better keep it sane this time Hegins," Chris's voice sounded from behind him as they continued. "If you're gonna throw your life away just because the covie got your friend, then…what about trying to stay alive so we can do damage to the enemy before they get us?" They reached the corner and Akindele edged himself at the bend, the remaining marines leaning against bulkhead in a straight file next to him. He stole a peek. The passage was empty but a door stood at the end. "Damn it if you think that Roy was not equally my dude," Chris whispered on, watching only the back of Hegins head who did not seem to be responding to his talk.

      "Roy was my friend also. And think about it Hegins, what if he was able to contact you with a word from where ever the hell he is right now. What do you think he would tell you man. He'd beg you to stay alive. And that you'd be doing him the greatest favor doing so. He'd f***ing beg you to fight the damn covies for him. Stay alive Hegins, and let's beat these aliens. Let's do it for Roy." Hegins finally turned his face to glare at Chris with a determined gaze. The scowl on the marine's sweaty face told Chris that his words had hit home. Such that he could see the flames of vengeance flare in his glistening brown eyes.

      Hegins gaze remained on Chris a while more before he nodded, wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Chris put on a mean look, said: "That's more like it soldier. Let's give the bastard aliens hell for bringing down Roy, and every other marine we've lost so far, both on Reach and on the Pillar of Autumn." Looking forward, Hegins noticed the rest were not yet making the corner. He returned his attention to Chris and cocked his rifle. "That's it Hegins," Chris carried on. "Lets show em we aint called leathernecks for nothing. And you can be sure I got your back while we're at this."

      Just as Akindele thought of making it into the corridor, the door on the end of it slid open and three Covenant Elite stumbled into view. Akindele abruptly withdrew his face. He looked back at Sergeant Brad. "What's the situation?" the Sergeant quickly asked.
"We have three contacts sir."
He peeked again to see how near the aliens must have approached, but saw them crouched near to the door instead, and the dazzling energy that ringed around their amour told that their shields were recharging from fresh weapons fire. Returning his face, Akindele said: "And they look to be taking cover sir."

      Private Akindele was more than pleased to see the Sergeant motion a hand for them to engage the enemy. Sergeant Brad had barely issued the order "Go!" before the marine stormed into the corridor, heard the others scramble behind him. The Elites turned on picking up their boot-steps. The UNSC squad opened fire against them, weapons crackling and thundering as they advanced systematically. Quickly rising to their feet, their armor dazzled of bright alien energy as heated bullets hammered against it, and the nine foot aliens saw the barrage was too much for them to attempt firing back at the enemy. They desperately whirled and hustled back into the door they had emerged from. The door slid shut after receiving them, causing the soldiers to swiftly increase pace so as to catch up. Akindele had managed to grab view of the room which the Covenant made into and thought he saw nothing but two dead jackals on a wider passage. He wondered what it was that the aliens had taken cover from if it had not been the Spartan Master Chief.

      As though their brains functioned together, the marines and Sergeant Brad were brisk to file up a formation in front of the now reached door. Akindele and Chris edged closer to opposite bulkheads of the corridor, Hegins and Natoli knelt in the middle and before the door while Sergeant Brad stood behind both of them, all weapons pointed. Akindele was just through changing magazines when the Sergeant thrust another commanding hand. "Go--go--go!"

      Akindele counted tentative steps forward for the door to hiss apart. To their surprise…empty passage. Apart from the two dead jackals on the floor, the aliens were no where in sight, and though there was another door on the end of this next room there was no way the Elites would have made it there so quickly.
"Hold!" Sergeant Brad lifted a fist ordering Akindele. Still standing behind both kneeling marines, Brad lowered weapon, narrowed curious eyes. He stepped around the men in front of him, got closer to the open door, and stopped. He stood in momentary thoughtfulness before he glanced back at his men, said: "The flanks." He moved closer to the right wing, motioned a hand to the left: "Natoli."

      Natoli, instantly comprehending why the Sergeant issued him that order, rose to his feet, holstered his M6D and swung an arm behind to reach for his shotgun. He hurried, edged himself on that side of the corridor near to the open door. He and Brad moved in the same motion to completely near both edges of the entrance. Both men squatted, firming grip of their weapons. Natoli studied his commanding officer's lips waiting for the order, knowing that it would be a silent one. Sergeant Brad nodded at the marine and he was quick to swing the least of himself and most of his weapon around the left corner. Brad did the same to the right wing. One Elite was spotted taking cover on Natoli's side, and he let loose a quick and thunderous burst of the shotgun before the alien ever saw him, and the blast sent it flying into a large un-girded space to the left side of the room which revealed just how large the full area was. The elites howl faded into the hollow of the drop. Though the Elite saw Brad first, before the Sergeant's face fully emerged for him to notice the alien on his side, the Elite had beforehand seen Natoli tear at his comrade on the other side and opened double handed plasma fire.

      Natoli threw himself back inside for the plasma bolts to scorch the rim of the door. Sergeant Brad in that split second, squeezed trigger to release bullets against the Elites belly section. Before the alien could aim at and release bolts at Brad, he also sharply withdrew into cover. The Elite was confused at this point and was still deciding his next actions when Akindele, Chris and Hegins filed into the room to eat up all that was left of his shields with combined force of rattling human artillery. He lost hold of both plasma rifles as he bellowed and gurgled in pain, blue blood making a mar on surrounding bulkhead. As the heaviness of his bulk met hard with the ground, the marines began swerving their weapons around in search of the third Elite. They were all in the large room now and the door closed behind Natoli who was last to enter.

      Looking across the space in the middle of the room revealed another platform similar to where they stood but the gap was too wide for the Elite to have made it across. Sergeant Brad observed that there was no other possible form of cover apart from a com-device that stood many inches in front. Even though Brad knew an Elite could not completely take cover behind it without being seen, he ordered with his fingers for two marines to approach it from both sides. Natoli and Hegins did. They briskly trotted towards it from both angles with poised weapons. They reached and swiftly and simultaneously aimed behind the com-device. And there was no Covenant. Natoli straightened and relaxed after that. "Clear," he said, looking at the door on the other end. A now composed Hegins also allowed his weapon to lower. Shouldering his shotgun and looking back at the rest Natoli repeated: "The room's all clear sir!"

      "I know, Corporal Natoli," muttered Brad, who stood looking down at the two dead Jackals. "But someone took out these two," he continued, knowing he was hardly heard by the marines closer to him, not to talk of Hegins and Natoli who were nearly halfway across the room. The Sergeant spoke more audibly glancing at Akindele. "And we sure as hell were not the ones that took them out. And those three bigger aliens were definitely avoiding something when we met them back there… of which we've only taken out two."

      "Covenant! More Covenant!" It was Natoli's voice and the men turned in the direction to notice, wide-eyed, the door on the other end of the room shifting open and a good number of Covenant troops pouring into the square shaped area. The only available cover was still the com-device of which Natoli and Hegins were already quick to make use of and fired at the enemy from its protection. Natoli after firing two shots from his shotgun, let it drop and un-holstered his sidearm once again. Three Jackals led the enemy's advance with two groups of Grunts, five in a group. The aliens triggered plasma weapons that rained at the men in a blinding flash of hurrying beams. Sergeant Brad and Akindele had wittingly grabbed the energy shields from the fallen Jackals and it protected them from the barrage that ensued. Chris was the only one who would have remained without cover but smartly tailed closely behind Akindele as they slowly advanced toward Hegins and Natoli.

      They closed up and from there returned fire at the enemy. Three Grunts were taken out at this point while the Jackals were yet well protected by those dazzling and sizzling shields. As the exchange of fire went on, Natoli sighted one Grunt reaching for a plasma grenade. He gasped, took a more careful aim… he quieted everything else around him as his M6D targeted for the Covenants head…CLICK…of all times for him to have depleted a clip without keeping count. He quickly depressed and clapped both palms together for the empty clip to slide out, but he would be too late. "Someone take out the hunched alien!" he screamed, numerous weapons fire overshadowing his voice. "Two oh clock, hunched alien to the right!"

      The men heard him and in the quickness of occurrences, tried to figure out why a particular alien had to be taken out and at the same time tried to spot it. Sergeant Brad was next to spot, not the alien but a glowing orb to the right angle of the alien formation. The grunt had already gathered enough momentum for the throw before Brad quickly and most precisely shot the grenade clean of the alien's hand. It was a good thing for the marines, that Sergeant Brad was the one to spot the grenade because apart from Natoli and himself, no one else of them had the ability to pull off such a precise shot. That grenade, if the Grunt had succeeded in tossing it, would have meant their deaths because trying to retreat would have left them in the open, to be easily leveled by the Covenant, while staying put would have had their guts splattered all over the place.

      The plasma grenade met the ground, most of the Covenant mostly the Jackals, being oblivious of it. The aware Grunts were already scrambling clumsily for the door they had emerged from, in avoidance of the soon to explode ball of plasma. They were definitely too late. Sounding more like the frying of a dish in a pot of super hot oil, the grenade splayed and sprayed in a deadly plasma explosion. The three Jackals and a few Grunts were whisked off their feet into the air, such that they flew across the marines toward the other end of the room. And they tumbled, rolled, and skidded against the ground, some skidding far enough for the door to open and receive their crash.

      Hegins and Natoli, weapons still pointed, slowly rose to their feet as the faintly shrouding mist caused by the explosion cleared.
Chris pointed his rifle behind to make sure the felled Covenant on that side were definitely dead. Moving toward the blackened impact area, Natoli pointed his pistol at the sprawling aliens, said: "Clear sir! All contacts are down." Hegins rifle suddenly went off in alternated triple bursts as he buried bullets into what he considered still-moving targets on the ground. Sergeant Brad raised his face toward the marine. "Corporal!"
Hegins looked, only to meet every marine in the room staring at him. The Sergeant bent his head to one side in a displeased expression. "Except you got some hoard of ammo buried somewhere on this half planet, marine, I don't see why you had to do that." Seeming a little surprised by the attention he drew, Latoya Hegins explained, gesturing an arm at the dead Grunts: "They moved sir."
"First you attempt a suicidal act trying to face two armored aliens on your own and endangering the life of me and my Marines in the process… and now this." Sergeant Brad outstretched his weapon free hand. "Except for the one attached to your rifle, lemme have the mags."

      "Yes sir!" Hegins obeyed, trying to hide the utter displeasure he felt. Me and my Marines, Latoya Hegins reasoned, not at all liking the sound of it. He ran a hand around his jacket and belt and retrieved three rifle magazines. "Corporal Chris!" Sergeant Brad called, glancing back at the marine who stood behind the rest.
"Sir!"
"Handle those."
"Yes sir." And he moved up to collect them from Hegins. They being of almost the same height, Chris on nearing Hegins, leveled his gaze to stare disappointingly into the marines face. "You gotta take hold o yourself man," he whispered, before he collected the magazines from him. "But the damn alien moved," Hegins whispered back.

      "We've lost enough good men today already, Hegins," Sergeant Brad said. "Any more cocky moves and the next thing I'll be taking away is your rifle. And believe it or not, I'd rather loose one more Marine than loose my entire squad."
"Look!" They all turned. It was Akindele, and he stood at the edge peeking down the huge space to the left side of the room. "It is the Spartan Master Chief Sir!" Akindele glanced back at the approaching men. Apart from Chris who was cautious of the door both behind and in front, the others were quick to reach the edge of the un-girded space and glare down. Truly it was Spartan 117. He hung upside down just one floor from their position. Natoli quickly adjusted his enhanced eye-glasses to have better view of the Chief. It was not just one figure hanging from there. There had been a grenade explosion on that floor which ripped most of the ground to reveal tangling wires, and it was one of these wires that held the Master Chief by one robotic ankle.

      To worsen his situation of the wire which was surely not going to last longer than a few more minutes, an Elite desperately hung by the Chief's neck with a firm clasp of large Sangheili palms. Looking further down revealed the Covenant docking bay where Echo four one nine had dropped them off. And it was far down. If the Master Chief and that Elite were to drop from that height…Natoli waved away the thought. "We have to help him," he said. Sergeant Brad straightened. "I'm sure they'd be another way around to that floor but we wouldn't want to risk getting lost. We'll have to go back the way we came and rescue the Master Chief before that damn Covenant strangles him to death. And we have to get there before the enemy."

John felt fire burn through his neck. That Elite's grip was going to kill him even before his falling to the ground. Pain surged through his ankle down to the entire length of his physical left leg. The rope had tightened into the joints of his amour and was agonizing him. He couldn't even raise his head the tiniest bit due to the Elites hold, and he hasn't been able to for the past twenty minutes or so. He could feel the blood flow into his head. The Spartan-two program had included similar trainings but not with a rope pulling at your ankle and the entire bulk of a Covenant Elite tugging at your neck. He knew Cortana had been talking to him for the past twenty minutes but all he could make out was echoed noises within his Spartan helmet. He couldn't hear a thing she was trying to say even if it was useful to his current situation. He had never felt perspiration within a Spartan suit but now he felt a wave of it saturating his entire physical body. The agony…the pain…was…EXCRUCIATING. He finally realized why that word was so long spelt and complex sounding. It was the most appropriate single word to explain the amount of pain that he presently felt.

      Suddenly, he felt the rope lower some more with the similar ripping sound as it had earlier. He knew he only had a few more seconds. There was no way that rope was going to hold the heaviness of him and that Covenant. He tried to open his eyes that had been kept shut. The rope broke again "rip" and lowered some more, having the Covenant dangle from side to side as it lost balance still holding on to his head. The Covenant lifted a second hand to make firmer his grip in their sway, and this told the Master Chief just how doomed they both were. The rope…he could imagine the thinness of it in his mind. It broke again and this time, "snap," it did not lower and yank…and this made it clear that the fall had begun.

To be continued

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