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Die Standing
Posted By: Lysander<xhalcyon713x@yahoo.com>
Date: 8 September 2006, 9:30 pm
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A Spartan's End: Die Standing
The ground started to fall away all around the Spartan's feet as he raced, climbing ever upwards. His merciless enemies hounded him from below, spitting fire from their guns that fizzled and burned the air around him. A dozen needler rounds bounced obliquely off of the rocks, detonating in the air seconds later. Bright blue flares of plasma skimmed mere inches from the Spartan. And still he climbed, ever upward.
Known to his masters in the military as Spartan-19. Known to his brother and sister Spartans as Dimitri. He climbed. The fight for Odin III was taking a turn for the worse. More and more Covenant just kept coming. It seemed when you killed one, ten more sprung up in their place. After his platoon had been massacred at the river ford, Dimitri had drawn the Covenant away. Through the woods, through hills and valleys, for a day and a night now they had pursued him as he drew them away from the other forces.
All the Covenant's attention was focused on him. A wily hare that the old dogs could not seem to catch. Dimitri remembered a tale that Chief Petty Officer Mendez had taught to the Spartans as children. The story of the snake that wandered into the village, and the man that followed it. The snake traveled for three days, and the old man followed every step of the way. Until, the snake and the man were in the desert, and the snake was dying of hunger, and so it bit the old man. And as the old man died, the snake said: "Why did you follow me all the way out here? Now you're dying." And the old man said: "Following you? I was leading you away from the village."
Dimitri hadn't quite gotten it as a child. His favorite story had always been the creation of the world in the Bible. But now, with the Covenant chasing him, which bought the navy precious time to evacuate the city they had been after, he understood. He was the old man, and now it was his turn to die.
Withdrawing ever upward, he turned and fired, his MA5B spitting lead fire into his advancing enemies. They hollowed and hissed and warbled in alien tongues. They fell off the mountain side, but more just replaced them, climbing up plastisene ropes like spiders on silk. Dimitri fired down into them, and through his other hand up to clasp onto the edge of the cliff. He pulled himself up with one arm, and then sprinted forward.
Dimitri turned, running backwards. The Covenant scurried over the cliff edge in a veritable tide of rainbow colored armor. Screeching and warbling, they fired at him. The shots punched marks in the ground all around Dimitri. A shot hit him in the stomach, but it did nothing to deter him as he raced towards the next cliff. His shields flickered down to a quarter, but he kept on running. He drew out another repel line, and through it thirty meters straight up. It latched onto the next cliff edge, and running jump, Dimitri started up the next cliff.
Firing backwards and beneath him with one hand, climbing with the other. Dimitri's shields started to finally recharge. He looked below him, and there was a wall of scaly, alien flesh below him. It carpeted the cliff below completely. They fired upwards, barely missing him.
Up, up, and ever upwards Dimitri went. He scaled the thirty meter cliff like a mountain goat. And now here he was. At the summit of Mount Golgotha. He looked down, and saw the Covenant still coming. And with a morbid determination, Dimitri resigned himself to death. He was going to die, there was nothing else about it. The Covenant would keep coming for him, and he would run out of ammo eventually. And then he would be vulnerable. And they would come like a living tide of malice, and they would consume him with their religious fervor.
The first enemy over the cliff was a Grunt. Spartan-19 fired a trio of rounds into the creature's head, and it tumbled downwards, back over the cliff. The next one up was a gold-armored Elite. It scurried over the edge, and drew an energy sword. It rushed forward, as Dimitri fired into it. It swung its sword, and Dimitri tried to avoid it. But, too quickly the alien attacked, and severed Dimitri's arm at the elbow.
The pain was intense and infinite. But he would not be bested just now. Dimitri surged forward, ignoring the pain, and punched the Elite square in the chest with his good hand. The alien stumbled backwards, and Dimitri struck again, this one an overhead Hammerfist to the Elite's head. It reeled back again, over the cliff to its death.
And then, Dimitri stumbled backwards, overcome by his wounds. He stumbled backwards against a rock, nearly falling over. But he regained his footing, and stood back up. He reached around and stripped the bandolier of grenades off from across his shoulder, nearly thirty grenades in total.
Dimitri dropped the bandolier to the ground. He took his helmet off, and tossed it to the ground as well. He reached down, and took one grenade. He primed it. Four Elite's came scrambling over the mountain top. And with a smile on his pale face, and his grey hair billowing in the wind, Dimitri dropped the grenade at his feet.
"Let there be light!" said Dimitri, Spartan-19, and he threw his arms out wide, laughing and smiling.
And there was light. And then there was darkness.
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