Halo: Dark Aftermath Ch. 2: Ambush
Posted By: Nick Kang<digitai430@yahoo.com>
Date: 11 February 2004, 1:43 AM
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Halo: Dark Aftermath
Ch. 2
Ambush
The last Hunter dropped from the rocket and all was silent.
"Recon group to base, Covenant resistance found and neutralized. They've beat us to Halo. Require reinforcements." the Chief said into the COM.
"Roger that Recon group, reinforcements incoming. ETA in two minutes." Sergeant Johnson's voice echoed in his ear.
Sure enough, within two minutes there was the sound of engines and six Warthogs rounded the corner of the tunnel, their headlights slicing through the darkness. Each one had a only a driver, save for one which had a passenger. They stopped near the Spartans and the super-soldiers piled in. The Chief got on the gunner platform of one and another Spartan wielding a rocket launcher rode shotgun. After they were all settled, the Warthogs went off. They drove for another five minutes before reaching the large upward slope dotted with rocks that the Chief and his tank had gone up a year ago. They quickly drove up the hill and reached the large clearing with the stone comumn, now half its original size thanks to the explosion, reaching into the heavens. They drove to the pond that had been frozen on his last visit. But because of the large magnitude of the explosion, the ice had melted. After testing the depth to find that it was only a foot or so deep, they drove right through it. They got to the point where there was the curving downhill slope where the Chief and fireteam Zulu had had to abandon their tank.
The 'hogs inched down the slop, careful not to fall off. They got down to where the ice had also melted and was now a small stream. They drove against the weak current to a point where the two metal bars had once barred the path off from vehicles. Due to the explosion, they were now just short, charred stubs that were easily passable. The recon group swiftly moved through the short tunnel and drove up the once-ledgs that had been eroded by the river, forming a smooth slope to drive up. They had gotten to the strange Forerunner structure that was on either side of a U-shaped indentation on the ground with a tunnel and a door branching off on each side. They would not be able to continue through the passages in Warthogs, so they decided to park them in the branchin tunnels of the structure. They drove to the bottom of the tiny valley and were about to drive into the narrow tunnels when it happened. The Ambush started. The doors at the end of each hall opened and Covenant flooded out. The Chief didn't have enough time to count them before the firing began, but from what he could tell there were ten sixteen Hunters, at least fifty Elites, maybe thirty Jackals, and a whole mess of Grunts. The Jackals wasted almost no time in forming their wall of shields to protect the others as the Hunters lobbed fire over the protective living barrier. The Warthogs were at once firing. The Chief fired, but the wall of Jackals blocked all of the bullets. He managed to make a few of them recoil, revealing their vulnerable flesh, and he killed them, but other than that there was no luck. He saw a Warthog take a fuel rod blast in the hood and explode. One of the Spartans was able to bail out but the metal skeleton of the gutted LRV landed on her.
The passenger of the Chef's Warthog fired a rocket into the Jackals and blew three of them away, giving the Chief a small firing point which he used to take out a few Elites and a bunch of Grunts. One of the rockets going for the Jackals was a hair high and blew a Hunter's head off as it was raising to fire over the shield. A plasma grenade landed in front of the Chief's Warthog. The driver and the passengers were bailing out as it went off, flipping it. The driver hit the ground from about fifty feet up with a crunch that could be heard over the firing. The passenger stayed in the Warthog, as the seatbelt refused to unlock. He fired a last rocket before a fuel rod blast hit him in the chest and killed him. The Chief landed on the ground and pain shot trough his left leg and spread into his waist. His leg was probably broken. He reached for his pistol. He fired several unaimed shots into the advancing Covenant mob. A few Grunts went down for his troubles. He ran out of ammo for his pistol and felt for the extra clips. There were none on his belt. He looked at the place where they should be. The strap carrying them had been broken. The five clips wrapped in foil laid about ten feet away. His belt had must have been broken when the Warthog flipped. There was nothing he could do. He watched as one by one, the Warthogs were flipped and most of the soldiers inside were killed. Soon there were only two left. Now that he had more time, the Chief counted ten Hunters, thirty-six Elites, seventeen Jackals, and fourty-two Grunts.
Plasma flew from the crowd and hit the two Warthogs. A plasma grenade landed on the hood of one of the Warthogs and the gunner was able to get out before it blew. The Spartan's battle rifle, wich had been propped up against the LAAG, flew away. The soldiers unholstered dual Sub-Machine Guns. He fired short bursts before taking a substantial amount of plasma to the chest and falling over. The twin SMGs toppled over to the Chief. He grabbed them and checked the ammo. One clip was almost totally full, the other was about half. He fired bursts at the Jackals. Three of them fell. A blue plasma bolt hit a grenade that was lying on the ground and ignited it, sending the last Warthog toppling back, landing right in front of the Chief. The passenger was killed but the driver and gunner were still alive. Luckily, the Warthog landed right side up so it didn't kill the rest of the soldiers in it. The gunner spotted the Chief and fired a short burst at the Covenant before hopping down and carrying the Chief into the passenger seat and arming him with a battle-rifle. He then jumped back to the gunner seat and the driver took off. Just as they went up the slop with the Covenant on their tails, the Chief saw the most horrifying sight he had ever seen in his life...
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