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A Marine Named Peters: The Finale, Part One
Posted By: GLADIATRRR3000<gladiatrrr2002@hotmail.com>
Date: 16 January 2004, 2:10 AM
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The doors were bending and twisting outwards. Fist and footprints could be seen in the doors, kicking and punching them further and further out with every blow. The doors would be down in a matter of minutes at this rate. The room shook from ceiling to the floor with all the pounding going on. Marines fell to the ground, shaking in fear. Peters stood up. "Men, these things will have no pity on you! They have no soul, no emotions, no pain! They will take you down in seconds, unless you stand up and FIGHT!"
Some marines began to look up, looks of fear disappearing from their faces. The room was filled with the noise of growls and clangs of flesh against metal. Peters continued his speech. "We have fought for the right cause, we have defended Earth for years. But now Earth can't help us! We can still help HER! We have valuable information on the Covenant, these... Flood, and something about a Halo! If Earth somehow got this information, we could save billions of lives! I am willing to sacrifice MY life for THEIRS. Are you?"
The marines began to stand now, looks of bravery and determination on their faces. Somewhere in the back, a smile was growing across Karls' face. "You tell them, friend." He muttered under his breath.
Peters now shouted. "We need to get this to Earth! There is only one way to get there! We have to go through Hell, because we will go there whether we stand and fight or not! STAND AND FIGHT!" Peters yelled just as the doors broke down.
The marines yelled and charged. Shotguns went off, MA5Bs sprayed automatic fire all through the air, and pistols punched through decomposing flesh. The flood combat forms jumped through the air and landed in the middle of the marines. The swung their arms, knocking down marines, grabbed their weapons, and opened fire. Peters ducked under a trio of M6D rounds, ran up to a flood, and pulled the pistol out of its hand. The hand was ripped off as well, but the flood made no signs of caring. It swung its broken arm at Peters, using the shattered bone as a blade. Peters ducked, grabbed the arm, and shoved it into its chest. The chest popped outwards, and the combat form fell to the ground, dissolving into a green paste. Peters turned around, put his newly acquired pistol into a pocket, and pulled the MA5B from his shoulders.
Peters opened fire on a group of Flood, tearing their chest cavities apart and sending green flesh into the air. He ran up to a group of marines, grabbed one of their grenades, and threw it into one of the doorways just as 10 combat forms walked in. The explosion sent shrapnel tearing through the Flood, turning their corpses into Swiss cheese. He heard Karls laughing somewhere in the room, counting his kills. "Twenty-ONE! Twenty-TWO! Twenty-THREE!"
Peters felt almost braver now, knowing that Karls was having an easy time. One last combat form stood. It jumped through the air, landed on a marine's back, and stuck a plasma grenade to his head. "HOLY SHIT!" the marine yelled, just before the grenade went off, blowing him and the Flood into bloody pieces. Peters closed his eyes as the grenade went off. He had seen too many things being blown apart already, seeing a fellow marine he had been just encouraging dying was too much. But it had to be done.
Once they were sure the hallways were clear, Peters led the marines down the halls. The circuits in the walls, which were exposed due to the wall panels being gone, now illuminated them. "What happened to the walls?" A marine asked.
Peters ignored him. He wanted to focus on the halls in front of him. He peeked around a corner, looking for signs of movement in the dark, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped in fear. "Oh, sorry." A marine said. "Listen, I just need to talk to someone. I need to forget we're in deep shit."
Peters sighed. "Fine. I'm Thomas." He said.
The marine shook his head. "I'm Colt, Colt Evans. I signed up a few years back. Listen, I heard your speech..."
"Like there was anything else to listen too." Peters said under his breath.
Colt continued. "Well, I was wondering, do you think we can get out of here? I don't want to die in space."
"Well, that's what we do in the marines. We die in the middle of nowhere, usually for a cause we don't understand, fighting for someone who doesn't care if we live or die. But to answer you question, we are going to get out of here alive. Anything else?" Peters said, starting to walk down the corridor.
Colt shook his head and started walking. Peters' eyes shifted from corner to corner, scanning for anything moving. His breathing echoed in his mind, sweat pouring down his face and stinging his eyes. He ignored this small pain, because he knew that the pain would be much worse if he was caught off guard. Dripping could be heard throughout the ship. Peters concentrated on the sounds, following them to the source. They led to a door, which had been burned by plasma. Peters took a deep breath and opened the door. There was a giant room inside, three levels high. On each level there was a balcony. It looked like a docking bay, but there were no doors to space. There was a circular bump in the middle of the room, and Wraith tanks were scattered across the walls. One had blown up, two were untouched, and one was sparking from a hole in it's armor.
Peters walked towards the center of the room, trying to figure out where they were. The marines followed behind him, only 40 of them left. They stood in the center of the room. Suddenly, growling could be heard. Squishing noises were rapidly growing closer. Peters realized that the Flood were here again. Before he could say anything, Flood jumped through holes in the ceiling, fell three floors, and landed on the backs of several marines, shattering their spines instantly. Peters opened fire on them, and the rest of the humans followed suit. All the doors on each level opened, and combat forms poured out. There were easily one hundred of them. The marines opened fire on them. The bullets tore apart the Flood on the ground, and some of them hit the Flood jumping down from the upper balconies.
But there were still too many. Marines who weren't close to the group were overpowered in seconds, covered in combat forms, and beaten to death. The Flood confiscated their weapons and began to shoot at the marines left. There were now bullets flying in all directions of the room. The marines were still too few in numbers to survive this battle. They had less than 30 marines alive now, still fighting against 80 of these undead monstrosities. Just when Peters thought they were dead...
The lights turned on, and the doors on the ground floor opened again. An Elite with Golden armor stepped out, scanned the room, and barked. Dozens of Jackals, a few Grunts, and twenty Elites ran out of the halls. The Flood stopped fighting for a moment and turned to look at the newcomers. Peters locked eyes with the Golden Elite, saw the expression on his face, and nodded. It appeared to go through to the other marines too. They ignored the Covenant, and shot only at the Flood. The combat forms began to fall now, having bullets tear through their bodies on one side, and have plasma burn their flesh on the other.
The marines rushed forward, low on ammunition, and started bashing the Flood with their weapons. Karls had somehow gotten a shotgun, shoved it through the chest of a combat form, shot another on the other side, and pulled the shotgun out of the Flood's chest. He slammed the barrel of the shotgun into the side of a combat form's leg, knocking it down. He then put the shotgun onto it's chest, pulled the trigger, and laughed at the puddle of slime.
Peters pulled out his two pistols, aimed them at different targets, and held the triggers down. The bullets tore through combat forms, and with the new explosive rounds, they exploded, which worked perfectly against the Flood. Peters threw down his dry weapons, ran up to a combat form, and punched his arm through its stomach. He pulled out a rib, jammed it into the Flood's head, and kicked it into a wall.
The Covenant were working in groups, all shooting at the same targets, then moving on to others. When each member of the group fired one shot, 10 plasma rounds hit a target and killed it instantly. These Covenant were skilled with their weapons, however, so a dozen Flood would go down in a matter of seconds from one group alone. The Gold Elite had a plasma sword, and was hacking through the Flood. Peters watched him for a second, and saw how graceful he moved with it, being able to swing it without touching the blade. The tables were turned now. The Human/Covenant side had twice the numbers as the Flood. The doors opened once again, and bulbous masses of flesh and gas waddled into the room.
The Covenant seemed to know what they were, and jumped away from them. Peters caught on when one of them exploded, sending little squids into the air. The squids then slithered on their tentacles over to a body, jumped onto them, and shoved a spine down their backs. One marine was caught off guard, and a squid shoved a spine down his throat. Karls seemed to remember these things, and he ran over and ripped it out of the marine. The marine died before he hit the floor. Karls was busy popping it when a combat form came up from behind him.
"KARLS, LOOK OUT!" Peters yelled.
Karls turned around in time to see the Flood stab him in the abdomen with a shard of metal. Karls looked down, saw blood flowing out of the wound, and looked up. The world was getting blacker... blacker...
"KARLS!" Peters yelled.
The Flood picked up the body and ran out of the room. Several other combat forms did the same, picked up bodies and ran. Peters chased after the combat form with Karls, but Rodriguez tackled him. "NO! He's gone..." She said, pinning Peters down.
Peters looked through the door into the dark. The doors slowly closed, and Peters wiped the tears out of his eyes. He stood up, now aware of the Covenant still in the room. The marines all slid back towards the wall, out of ammunition and tired. Peters stood where he was. He'd rather die by the Covenant than the Flood. The Golden Elite walked up to Peters.
There was a moment of scilence. The Elite stood up straight, putting Peters into his shadow. Peters felt sweat trickle down his back. The Elite looked at the marines, then at Peters. He finally turned towards the remaining Covenant, barked at them and turned back. Several Elites and Jackals barked back, looks of anger on their faces and hatred in their voices. The Golden Elite turned back and roared. The roar was so loud, it echoed through the room for a second, then died down. The Grunts walked forward towards the marines and pulled out plasma pistols and rifles. The marines backed farther against the wall, and Peters took a step back. The Grunts walked further forward, leveled their guns at the marines....
And threw them to the ground at Peters' feet. The Golden Elite tossed his plasma sword to the ground at Peters' feet, stepped forward, then began speaking in a rough English. "You aided us in our cleansing of the ship, so we will aid you to leave. Take these as a way of getting out, for that is all the help you will receive from us." The Elite slouched back over and turned around.
Peters stood there for a minute, mouth wide open, then began to speak. "Maybe..." He said. "Maybe this battle proves that Humans and Covenant can work together instead of fighting."
The Elite stopped, turned his head towards Peters, and laughed. "You are still infidels, and your species will die. Now leave before I change my mind and decide it to be better to rid you from the universe and send you to your doom."
The Covenant laughed, turned towards the door they same in from, and ran through it. The marines stood there for a second, then ran over and picked up one of the weapons. Peters grabbed a plasma rifle and the plasma sword. "Whatever the hell just went on, we still need to get out of this ship."
The marines nodded and began running through the door on the opposite side of where the Covenant went. Peters was the last one left in the room, looked around then whispered to himself. "Good-bye, friend."
Peters walked through the door, and the lights flickered once then faded. There was silence in the room for several minutes, then one of the doors opened. A Flood combat form crept out, followed by several more. They picked up all the Human and Covenant corpses and dragged them back to the doors. Three more grabbed all the guns on the ground and ran back into the hallway. The doors closed and the room was silent once again.
To Be Continued.
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