The Truth of the Rings - A Halo story

Part 5 - The Silent Cartographer part 2

The Marine kept his wits about him, continuously spinning on the gun to check the environment. He may have had faith in their ability to survive and win, but that didn't mean he trusted anything.

And that could be said Double for Floyd. Spartan IIs had senses dialed way up, not only that but their "Spartan Time" Reaction speed that only a full machine could beat. The world just... Moved slower from his point of View, and because of it, every single sound, movement, and anything abnormal was setting off his internal alarms. If a Spartan II was to close his eyes, they would still "see" perfectly. It was a blessing on the battlefield, but a curse elsewhere.

As an explosion rang out, he looked up and saw a pelican, slowly crashing to the ground. Not even a second later, his comms flared from Cortana "181, come in."

"Roger Cortana, this is Sierra 181."

"181, that Pelican was carrying heavier weapons and support for you, head over and see if anything can be salvaged."

"Roger. Security will be down soon. Over and out." He made a short stop by the downed Pelican, walking amongst the dead. Before anything, he knelt and took a moment to respect them, being that there were no survivors. However, once done with that he lifted a sniper off one of the soldiers and his ammo, walking back to Sam. "Do you know how to use this?"

Sam eyed the rifle "uhhhh.... Kinda? I can try, Im assuming it isn't too hard."

The response didn't exactly fill Floyd with confidence, but it was all he had. He put the rifle and ammo in the passenger seat, driving to a nearby opening. Sam quickly dispatched the Covenant guards, being only an elite and a few grunts. Once done, Floyd hopped out and handed the rifle to Sam, the two walking over to the ridge. Floyd lifted a rock and threw the rock over the ridge, hearing its echo. Quickly measuring the time the echo took, what it sounded like, and how many times it echoed, he deduced there was a larger opening on the other side of the ridge. Turning to Sam, he pointed up the rocks. "There is an opening on the other side of this ridge. Take a spot with your eyes on it, but do not open fire until I arrive. Use this comm channel to talk to me if needed." He then gave Sam his personal channel.

"Yes sir!" He looked up the rock, then immediately puzzled.  "Uh... Sir? How do I get up the roc-"

Floyd lifted the marine, slowly readying himself. "Hold onto that rifle." And threw the marine up the rock face, the marine landing on the top. He began to slip a little but grabbed a rock to catch himself and pulled himself up just fine.

Sam looked at the ridge. It led to the opening perfectly, just like he was told it would. Then turned back to Floyd "alright, Im moving." He began approaching his position, taking a little bit because of the rock edge being a bit slippery. He could hear the gunfire and elite cries of pain in the distance, and as he made it, he saw that so did the hunters. He quickly opened his comm channel "uh, Spartan?"

"181."

"181, there's a pair of hunters in the opening, with a group of mostly jackals and grunts behind them."

"Copy. Moving in now."

Sam couldn't tell if the Spartan was stupidly overestimating himself, or if he was stupidly overestimating the Hunters. And honestly, he wasn't one to question his orders much. So he moved to his spot and readied his shot, as told.

Floyd entered the area already running, Magnum in hand. He knew this was the best position to be in, due to the hunters' notorious weakness for both Magnum and Sniper. He slid under one hunter, shooting its partner In the back and killing it immediately. The other swung it's shield, which he managed to catch. That proved to be a mistake however because while he was strong enough to somewhat catch it, the hunter began pushing him towards the nearby wall of a support for the larger structure. It pinned him to the wall. Floyd however, had planned this, as it's back was now WIDELY exposed for everyone, including Sam. With one sniper round the hunter collapsed, leaving Floyd to push it off. He continued forward, pushing through his enemies until he reached a door. Turning and looking up the ridge, he made a circle with his finger.

"Sam. Cover the area while Im gone. I have to head inside to disable security. If anything comes, alert me and defend yourself if needed."

"Copy 181. Ill be here."

And with that, Floyd headed inside. After about 5 or so minutes of killing security for the security, he managed to find an oddly heavily guarded terminal. Randomly taking an assumption, he pressed a few button looking circles, as his comms flared.

"Cortana to 181, thanks for the assist Spartan. Evac point is at the coordinates attached, we will arrive shortly with the data from the cartographer."

"Roger Cortana, Ill see you shortly." Once the comms ended, Floyd gathered Sam and the other troops, quickly counting to realize nobody that stood beside him personally had fallen that day. One more successful raid, one step closer to victory. Until the words he feared were spoken.

"The captain isn't answering Comms."