Halo - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Slayer ❯ The Higher Ground ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“Let’s do this.” I ordered D02 inside. He carefully made his way into the bunker.

D02: “No one here sir. All clear.”


I hesitated in going inside. “Something doesn’t feel right.” I said.


E15: “What do you mean sir?”


I turned to E15. “It’s way too quiet. I think we are headed for a trap.”


E15: “We can take ‘em sir!”


D02: “Are we moving on or not?”


Q61: “Laser!”

I looked to my right to see a red beam trained on my chest. I leaped into the bunker head first with E15 and Q61 doing the same. A flaming high intensity red laser beam struck where I had been standing less than a second before.


E15: “That was a close one sir.”


“That beam would’ve destroyed me.” I thought to myself. I looked over at Q61, “Thanks.” I told her, “You saved me this time.”


Q61: “You’re welcome sir, but I think you still would’ve noticed it yourself somehow.”


D02: “We don’t have time to sit and talk, the Blues are probably thinking up a battle plan.”


I acknowledged D02’s response, “You’re right, move up guys.” We all moved into the next room.


Q61: “All clear.”

It was a large room with a small door to our right and stairs to our left. Fusion coils lined the room and would’ve made for excellent target practice. “Okay guys, we’ll split up here.” I began, “D02, go with E15 out of that door to our right. We don’t know what’s out there so stay alert. I’ll go with Q61 up the stairs.” I looked over all of my team. We had made it inside while only losing one soldier in the first assault. I wasn’t feeling really confident about this mission, but someone had to do it. If not my team then someone else’s.


“Move out!” I ordered. D02 and E15 ran towards the door while Q61 and I ran to the stairs. I turned around on the stairs to see the top. Three Blues sat at the top waiting for us. “Q61 throw a frag, top of the stairs now!”


Q61: “Frag out, top of stairs.”


The explosion shook the stairs. I reached the top and trained my battle rifle towards the three unshielded targets in front of me.

Blue: “Open fire!”


I aimed at the one on the left and fired. The bullets pierced through his unshielded helmet and killed on impact. Q61 came up behind me, shot, and killed the one in the middle holding a sniper rifle. The last one turned around and hastily retreated. “You’re not getting away from me.” I fired two bursts into his back. He let out a howl, then doubled over and dropped to the ground dead.


Q61: “We’re not done yet, look.”


I looked behind me to see what she was pointing at. Two more Blues were coming up the steps. One had a shotgun and the other had a hammer. While I had never seen a gravity hammer up close, I had heard of what it did. I shifted gravity into one position and decimated whatever was unfortunate enough to be caught. “Q61, we can’t let them get too close. We have to kill them quickly.”


Q61: “On it sir.”


Q61 threw a plasma grenade at the one with the hammer. It stuck to the poor soldier and detonated. The blast not only took out the Blue with the hammer, but the Blue with the shotgun as well. “That’s all of them here. D02, E15, what’s your status.” There was no response. “D02, E15, respond.” There was a moment of silence, then a voice.


D02: “We’ve killed one, now there are five more after us. We found a warthog and we’re using it to our advantage. Any help, however, would be much appreciated.”


“Roger that,” I replied, “we’re on our way.” I looked over to Q61, “Let’s go.” We moved toward the open door directly in front of us. There was the warthog in the center taking fire from the Blues. There were two Blues to my right immediately after I exited the building.


Q61: “Hold on sir, I’m getting the sniper rifle.”


I threw my frag at the two Blues that now stood in my way. They both looked down, and attempted to move out of the blast radius. It was too late however, and they were both engulfed by the blast. One still stood, and I easily took him out with one shot from my battle rifle.


Q61: “Taking up a sniping position on the tower. Hostiles in sight.”


Three sniper rounds sounded in the air, and three dead Blues fell from their locations.


D02: “We’re done in here.”


I moved to the large gate blocking the entrance to the base, and look over the railing. Red and Blue soldiers clashed outside. I counted ten Blues and eight Reds. The Blues unleashed a hail of plasma grenades down onto the helpless Reds out of cover. Four Reds were killed in the following explosions.


E15: “Hey, sir, open the gate so we can help them.”


“I’m on it.” I moved over to the gate switch and pressed the button.


E15: “Hell yeah! Let’s do some damage!”


I ran back over to the railings and continued to watch the fight. The four remaining Reds fired a flurry of suppressing battle rifle rounds. Three Blues caught in the fire fell dead. D02, now on the turret of E15’s “discovered” warthog, revved up the turret and fired even more suppressing rounds. The Blues couldn’t move from cover without being slaughtered. The Reds darted from cover and ran towards the cowering Blues. They all threw frags, and two Blues were blown out of cover. One Blue stood from cover, rockets in hand, and fired one at E15’s warthog.


E15: “Crap! Abandon ship!”


D02 leaped off of the turret, and E15 dropped out of the driver’s seat. The warthog burst into flames and slammed into three of the remaining four Reds. One was splattered on impact, but the other two got up, shields down, and ran towards the Blues. Two sniper rounds rang out, and two Blues fell in pain.


Q61: “Those were my last two rounds sir.”


The Reds easily cleaned up the remaining Blues with their battle rifles. They then turned and walked toward the gate. Q61 and I jumped down to the ground from our respective positions.


A Red came over to us and introduced himself.


M16: “I am Colonel M16 and me and my men here came to check on your progress.”


A48: “Hey, Grade 1 Sergeant A48 ready for action.”

S52: “Sup, Grade 2 Captain S52 here.”


“We were doing fine.” I told him, “Did command put you up to this?”


M16: “Yes, they said that we could call the extraction Pelican when you are ready.”


M16 looked around at the dead Blues.


M16: “It seems you cleaned up well. I’ll radio the Pelican.”


M16 pulled a radio off of his waist and pulled it up to his helmet.

M16: “Task group Lima ready for extraction, over.”


There was a pause, then a voice through the radio replied “Copy that, over.” A few seconds later a Pelican flew over our heads, hovered, then touched down. Two Reds came running out of the Pelican armed with assault rifles.


Red: “You guys ready? Come onto the Pelican.”


Fifteen Red soldiers poured out of the Pelican.


“Where are they going?” I asked.


Red: “They’re going to secure this base. No more time for questions, let’s go!”


“Right.” I replied, “Regroup!” Q61 and E15 converged on my position. “Where’s D02?” I asked. We all looked around.


E15: “I don’t know sir, after that fight he just vanished.”


Red: “Let’s go!”

“Crap.” I thought to myself. “Let’s go team.” We all loaded onto the Pelican and the hatch closed behind us. “Good job team, I’m proud of you. We lost two men, one KIA and the other MIA, but we are still alive.” I went up to the cockpit and looked out of the glass in the front. There it was, our main base of operations; “The Pit”.