Escaping Conflict

disclaimer: see chapter 1



So I see a lot of views and I think I should make chapter 2 now. Like, right now. Shout out to bluebastard His 'Is it worth it' story is the best elite on guy slash fic i've read yet.

















With the pull of gravity on the drop ship, I was quickly losing control of the damaged vessel. In space it remained wholly intact, due in large part to the fact weightlessness was a constant companion. But now, as I was hurtled toward the edge of Voi at a hundred feet a second, nothing more than a fireball in the darkening sky, the phantom began tearing itself apart. Within moments of entering the atmosphere, one wing wrenched itself free with a loud screech of ripping metal, leaving a gaping hole in the side that proceeded to suck everything out that wasn't welded down and burning it to ash in the inferno surrounding the ship. I realized if I stayed in much longer, the heat would reach the reactors, and the ensuing plasma explosion would turn me into a smudge in the dirt. Thankful for the odst suit I wore, custom made and enhanced by my grandfather, I said a prayer, held my breath, and jumped.



"Shiiiiiiiit!!!!" I screamed, arms windmilling as I plummeted toward the planet's surface. Seconds later, the lost phantom burst into an explosion of blue flame and lightning. I had barely avoided the same fate, but the shockwave of the initial blast still hit me. With a shout of surprise I was sent careening head over heels into the nearby woodlands. The first tree I hit would have broken my spine were it not for the shield and flimsy gel layer so thoughtfully integrated into my armor. It still hurt like hell. The next thirty seconds consisted of me falling a hundred feet to the earth, my fall broken by the occasional tree branch that I could never seem to grab on to. Finally I landed on my back, wheezing for breath. The group of civialians staring at me in shock surprised me almost as much as I did them.



"It's okay people," I said with forced cheeriness, giving them a thumbs up and a grim smile, "I only sorta just....fell out the sky....is all....Ow." Someone from the front, a small boy maybe eleven years old, stepped foward with his mouth hanging open. "What?" I said gruffly, gingerly rubbing at the knot that had formed on the back if my head.



"That. Was. AWSOME!!" he screamed, pumping his little fists in the air. "Mom, is that a spartan?" he asked, looking back at an uneasy looking women in the front of the group before turning to look at me again with shining eyes. "Are you a spartan??"



"Nah kid," I said tiredly, then stopped and turned to look at the group. "Wait, didn't Voi get taken by the covenant? Why are you civis so close to the city?"



"We hid in this awsome cool bunker that the covenant couldn't break through even with missles!" the boy happily offered. "Then the cool Chief guy killed all the ugly brute guys and we were able to get away." I sighed wearily and checked my hud. Thankfully, my shields hadn't sustained much damage, and had recharged a good bit, though not fully. With a grunt of pain I twisted my body to crack my very stiff spine then pulled my dmr off my back. When I turned back around I noticed the boy had pulled a master chief toy out his pocket and was looking at me expectantly. It was kind of creepy. "Whaddya waiting for now?" I said as I wiped the sweat from my head and twisted my helmet back on.



"I dunno," he said bluntly and shrugged his shoulders. "Something awsome I guess."



"That woman," I said pointing at the lady the boy addressed, "she's your mom, right?"



"Yup!" he yapped cheerily. Ah, the innocence of youth.



"Where's your dad?" I said apprehensively. For a moment the young boy seemed lost in thought, then his expression changed to one of steely determination.



"The prophet killed him," he said slowly, "but when I get old enough i'm going to get one of those spartan suits and kill him back!" I had seen that look before, every time I looked in the mirror, every day I saw myself until that first battle, that first time I had seen the true horrors of war. I got on one knee and motioned for the child to come closer.



"C'mere," I said. His mother wasn't as openly trusting. "Wait!" she burst out, and the child stopped in his tracks, looking between me and his mom uneasily.



"It's alright ma'am," I said. "I just fell out the sky faster than a meteor. I doubt i'm in any condition to even attempt to hurt anyone." After a tense moment the lady nodded ever so slightly, and her child stepped forward. "You know why I wear this?" I asked him, thumping the visor of my helmet.



"Cause it looks cool?" he said expectantly, as if he'd get a prize for giving the right answer. "No, no," I said wearily. "Imagine you're fighting beside your best friend. You're shooting loads of brutes and grunts, and any moment you'll win the battle. But then your friend gets shot and dies, and now you're fighting all alone. When you look down at his body, would you rather see this," I said, pointing at my helmet before twisting it off, "or would you rather see this?" Again I pointed to my face.



"I think...." he started, then paused before continuing. "I think I would rather see the helmet, because I can't know my friend is dead yet if I can't see his face. Right?" I nodded, then pointed at his mother, who looked as if she greatly disapproved of our conversation. I didn't blame her in the slightest. "That woman, she would do anything to keep you safe. Before you go fighting, make sure you do it to protect someone. To protect her. Don't do what I did. If you fight to take revenge...." I stopped, pondering my answer before placing my hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze and looking him straight in the eye. "You will lose EVERYTHING."



"Even mom??" he said, looking as if he would panic. "Yes," I said. "But," I finished quickly, "if you fight to keep your mom safe, you will make her more proud than any mom could ever be."



"So if I kill the prophet to protect mom, it'll make her happy. But if I kill the prophet 'cause he killed dad...."



"Look at it this way," I said. "The very last time I saw my dad I was around your age. I can still remember the last thing he told me before be died. He said when my mom was killed, he was so mad, he let everyone else die just so he could try to kill one of the prophets. But he failed. He died trying."



The boy averted his eyes from mine, then without warning threw his arms around me and squeezed as hard as he could. "I'm sorry your mom and dad are dead," he whispered. He let go and this time it was him that looked into my eyes. "But when my dad died mom told me we gotta let these things go. She said all I gotta do is make some new friends and everything will be okay."



I was dumbstruck. He was right, as much as I hated to admit it. I was so afraid to let anyone close that I had isolated myself from the entire human race, preventing any chance of healing I could ever hope to have.



I couldn't respond, however, because at that moment a gutteral cry sounded behind me. Whirling around, I saw a man running in our direction with a screaming child in his arms, the grotesque figure of a flood combat form not even twenty feet behind him. I quickly snapped my helmet back on, and after the man had passed me I raised my dmr in the air and rammed the stock of my rifle into the chest of the creature, shattering it's body into several large chunks as if it were made of glass. "You people need to get out of here!" I shouted over my shoulder. I pulled my magnum out of it's holster, and after a quick inspection deeming the slightly dented weapon worthy of firing, tossed it at a man near the front of the group, who caught it with a slightly confused expression on his face. "If anything comes after you, shoot it."



"But i'm just a farmer!" the man protested. "I don't even know how to use a-"



"Oh it's pretty easy," I said, cutting him off. "Just pull the trigger. Even a monkey can do it." And with that I began the hike to the city. Thankfully I wasn't too far away, and within ten minutes was close enough to hear screams and gunfire. How I would have given anything to turn around and run like a scared dog. "This is volunteer militia Gary Reynolds, returning from a tier two mission with orders to hand over any information to the highest ranking UNSC officer in the vicinity, does anybody copy, over?"



"This is Fleet Admiral Hood, that's a loud and clear roger. Where's Colenel Williams?"



"Dead sir," I said sadly. "They....they're all dead."



"I see," he said thoughtfully. "I'm going to need that data and your video feed. But for now i've ordered two marines on a hog to meet you a kilometer from your current position. Meet them at the designated point, meet up with the Chief and punch a line through the flood onslaught. You will be fighting with the arbiter and a group of elites as well, so watch your fire."



"But sir," I said, "I was under direct orders from....wait...."



"From me," the admiral replied. "And now i'm changing them. Meet up with the Chief and help him take back the city or die trying."



"Of course sir," I replied and followed the marker on my hud. Once I had reached the designated position, I waited impatiently, pacing like a caged animal and muttering under my breath. After several minutes, the sound of an engine reached my ears, and seconds later a gauss warthog swerved into view.



"I heard you needed a ride," the man in the driver's seat said. "Hop in or get left behind."



"So who're you two goons?" I asked as I crawled over the man into the passenger seat.



"I'm Jimmy, an that 'goon' back there calls himself Frank," he said. "If it goes boom, you can sure as hell expect him to be shooting it. And look at what he's toting around." When I looked at the portly marine I realized with a start he had a minigun strapped to his back.



"How long have you two been in this war?" I said incrediously.



"My friend," Jimmy said, clapping one hand on my shoulder, "you split as many skulls as we do, you'll probably be having so much fun you'll forget even asking that question." With an unecessary "Yeeeeeehaaaaaaw!!!!" he slammed his foot on the gas, speeding into the city and swerving sharply around corners like a madman. His fun wouldn't last though.



"Carrier!" Frank yelled from the gunner seat, pointing at an ugly human like form in the road with a sac on it's back almost as large as it was.



"Shit!" Jimmy yelled, "Hang on to something!" The hog was going to fast to stop like that on a dime. When he hit the brakes, the vehicle swerved, then rolled on its side several times before coming to a rest on its side. I slowly blinked the haze around my vision away, and through the ringing of my ears managed to drag myself out of the vehicle. Jimmy had alteady pulled himself to his feet. "Frank!" he yelled, "You okay?"



"Just like back on Reach, am I right??" Frank shouted, jumping to his feet some fifty feet away. He never got the chance to move, though. Over the car crashing, nobody heard the carrier explode. Frank let out a scream as the flood spores appeared from seemingly nowhere and proceeded to attack him. Jimmy and I could only stare on in horrified disbelief as Frank's body mutated before our very eyes, his skin turning a sickening brown and his right arm and head snapping back with a sicken crunch and a shower of blood. Seconds later, Frank was gone, a flood with a minigun taking his place. It didn't take me long to come to this realization, and thinking quickly tackled Jimmy behind the turned over hog just as it started to open fire, spraying the air with a deadly barrage of bullets spraying where we had been standing merely seconds before. Jimmy seemed oblivious to the world, his expression one of shock and confusion. I grabbed him and shook him, and with a start he looked at me.



"We have to kill him and get outta here before more of them things show up!" I screamed over the gunfire and bullets pelting the warthog, which was starting to smoke. He nodded quickly, then reached up and snatched a shotgun that had been tucked away between the two front seats off its stand before directing me behind some nearby rubble, thankfully out of sight of the creature. By this time, the gunfire had stopped.



"There," he said quietly, pointing to an abandoned building some twenty meters to our right. "Straight through there is where the High Charity -and the Chief- should be. He thrust the shotgun it my hands. "When I get outta sight, you make a break for it, understand?" By now the flood form of Frank was standing where me and Jimmy had been moments before, warbling questioningly at the empty space as if it would yeild answers to our whereabouts. I had no time to tell Jimmy now wasn't the time for heroics. I doubt he would have listened anyway. He jumped up before I could even form a response, waving his arms in the air like an idiot and sprinting in the opposite direction. "Hey Frank!" he roared, "I always thought you were a fat ugly bastard anyway! Come and get me!!" I doubt it was the insult that made the creature shriek and lope after him, but the plan worked, and as both figures disappeared from view I slithered to the building, eyes alert for even the slightest hint of flood spores. Jimmy was right. Judging from the disembodied combat forms, the chief had definately been here, and within minutes I had come to the rather large door leading out to a cliffside. At the end was the Chief, the Arbiter, and several elites slaughtering the flood. But as I neared them another figure appeared, a combat form with shuoulders as wide as I was tall, a creature so large it dwarfed even a brute chieftan. Three elites charged it, and with a single sweep of its arm it knocked them into the chasm below. That was it for me. I was tired of these alien freaks messing with our planet. With resolve in my heart I gathered what insanity and courage I had left and ran after the creature. At the sound of pounding footsteps the Chief whirled around with his gun at the ready. "Not the flood, not the flood, NOT THE FLOOD!!" I yelled as I ran past him. Even through his visor I could tell I confused the hell out of him. Barely ducking under the combat form's massive arm, I managed to get behind it and crawl up its back, and with some difficulty rammed the barrel of the shotgun in the crevice that was its spore covered face. "Open wide you sonuvabitch!" I said as I pulled the trigger. The recoil of the shotgun jerked the gun from my hand and sent it skidding several feet away. Much to my dismay, the shot didn't kill the parasite as I had hoped. Instead, it only served to enrage it, and I was forced to hold on for dear life as it began to thrash about, brown ooze flying from its head. "Chief," I screamed, "shoot it!" There was a pause, likely him taking aim. "CHIEF!!" I was thrown off and slung to the grround like a rag doll, the massive combat form looming over me menacingly. The Chief, ever the quick thinker, lunged foward and grabbed the loose spores from around the flood creature's face and ripped them out. The injured combat form roared and reeled back, and the Arbiter cut it in half with a single swipe of his energy sword.



"You alright?" the Chief asked, offering me his hand. "Yeah," I muttered dazedly, but still patting his arm thankfully. "Remind me to never....ever....EVER do that again."



"Noted," he chuckled, and started making his way to the wreckage just ahead that was the High Charity. When I hesitated, he turned around. "You coming?"



"Nah," I said. "I'm going to take a leak before I piss myself."



"Watch your back," he warned. He was right to tell me, because the moment I had clasped the last bit of armor back into place my arms were forced up on my back and I was pinned against the wall by a familiar set of hands, hands almost the size of my head when balled up, hands I haven't felt handle me so violently for an entire month. "Hey!" I snapped at the elite, "Friendly! Friendly!! We're on the same side damnit!!" The elite didn't respond. Instead, he growled, a growl so feral, so animalistically reptillian that for the first time I was truly afraid of their kind. Of course I wasn't dumb enough to ket it show. "I swear once I get ahold of yo-OUCH!!!!" I barked as I was shoved more forcefully against the wall. The elite then pressed his body against mine in a very uncomfortable manner and lowered his head so his eyes were level with mine. Now that I was staring him in the face I could straight away he had no intention of breaking the human/covenant peace treaty, but I could also tell what he wanted to do would make me feel VERY uncomfortable. With this realization, I could only stare at him with my mouth slightly agape, though I was mildly grateful it was hidden beneath my visor. Thankfully, the patter of feet marked my savior.



"Brother," the elite said, grabbing onto my assailant's arm, "control your urges. We are no longer a part of the Covenant, but you must not stoop so low as to gratify your desires on the battlefield."



The elite holding me paused a moment, then released his hold on me. "Of course," he replied, "but I understand the threat of the parasite invasion. I have no intention of having my way with this human. Not yet." And with that the two marched to a nearby phantom that had come to get the Arbiter and Master Chief, who had just emerged from the hole with an Oracle following closely behind.



"Yeah," I shouted after him, "that sir was a very inappropriate-waitwaitwaitwait what?? Whaddya mean 'yet'?!" I screamed after him. I got no answer, and as the phantom sped off to the Shadow of Intent overhead, a Pelican swooped up to get me. "So what do we do now?" I asked the few marines that were gathered in the back as I hopped in to join them. "Waiting for orders now," she said. Then a voice crackled over the comms. "All marines in the area of Voi, get your asses out of there NOW! The Arbiter is glassing Voi, danger close, I repeat DANGER CLOSE!!" I quickly strapped myself in and held onto my knees so tightly I could almost see my knuckles turn white through the gauntlets. For a brief few seconds there was only the sound of the ship, and then a loud explosion rivaling a MAC round explosion tore through the air, seeming to rend the very fabric of the atmosphere itself. For a moment the ship rocked violently, then a large dent appeared just in front of me as a hunk of debris was rammed into the side of the Pelican. "Shit! We're hit! We're hit! We're going down!" the pilot screamed into his headset, and for a moment the craft spun wildly, then the ship was torn in half by another chunk of the city, and for a few breaths I saw red skies, and fire everywhere, then there was darkness and silence.