The Lost World

Lieutnant Harrison held his hand in front of him, the once white bandage over his pinkie and ring finger stained red. He only neeed the three fingers he had left to hold a gun so he didnt wory to much about, as long as he didn't bleed to death there was no problem. He looked over at the other survivors, most were as beat up as him, one was worse. Harrison went over to the marine his chest was bandaged up and the one medic they had was with him.

"How is he doc?"

He simply looked up at the lieutenant and shook his head, it didn't suprise him much it wouldn't take a genius to figue he wouldn't make it. The marine took a cluster of needler rounds to the chest, once they burst his chest cavity was popped like a balloon. His rib cage looked like it was turned inside out and his insides like ground meat, the fact that he was still breathing was miraculous though he hadn't been concious since. Now he was filled upwith enough biofoam to be considere a stuffed wall mount. Despite the fact that his survival was impossible the medic refused to leave him behind.

"You know we can't carry him all the way to the rendevouz." Harrison whispered.

"I'm not leaving him."

"We don't have a choice, we don't have the supplies to care for him, nor do we have the time to be carry the extra weight."

"I said no dammit! I signed up to save lives on the battlefield, not abandon men on it because their to badly wounded. I-"

"- You have what you need to put him out of his misery, but we can't take him with us. Its either us or him, we can get to the rendevous and survive, he wouldn't make i if he had the best medical facility. Look at him, I've seen ragdolls in better shape then him."

The medic sighed and looked away, Harrison understood the want to save lives but as long as he'd been fighting the covanent he learned you can't save everybody. Right now he could save this group but this one marine was to far gone and would put all of them in jeopardy, he didn't like it but it was a simple truth. After a minute the medic reached into his kit and pulled out a plastic wrapped syrynge, after unwrapping it he moved back to the soldier and inserted it into the crook of his arm. The marines mouth opened as an almost silent whisper of air escaped his lips.

"You did good." Harrison whispered patting the medic on the shoulder. "Alright we're moving out, break times over."

That last part he said out loud so the others could hear him, five marines then got to their feet. They all wore the same green uniform as opposed to his black. He was the only ODST to make it groundside and live, the others were either killed by covenant anti-aircraft batteries or picked off once they hit the ground. One other marine had a black uniform but it had the emblem meaning he was from the office of naval intelligence. While theyshared te sae rak it was witout question that the officer held higher standing and was incommand, Harisson had mre fild experianceand made it clear that he had tactical command of the situation so for the time being he was in charge.

Onc Harrison landed he fought his way to the command post that had been set up and found he was the only one to make it, he fought with the UNSC forces for a total of two days beforetey were pushed back by the covanent, they focused most of their forces on the southern part of the city but held i wit an iron grip. About three ours ago the cmmand post was overrn and they were forced to retreat, as far as they knew they were the last UNSC forces on Sarah 6. Less than an our ago they were hiding in what used to be a cafe before getting a signal on the E-band from a captain of a UNSC frigate saying they used a peice of debris falling into the atmosphere to mask the decent of an albatross and fr any survivors to make for the wreckage. Harrison saw the ship fragment fall from orbit and it seemed unlikely that an evac coul be waiting there bt it was all they had, what other choice was there?

Now they were hunkered down in an alley, hiding from covenant forces while gaining a quick rest. There hadn't been a single sound of gunfire for almost an hour, tha was when the marine got hit bu the needlers. Other than that the onky sound were the occasional rumble of a phantom, the hum of a banshee, or the rapid clicks of drones wings. In the southern part of the city there was a covenant cruiser hovering several hundred feet above the ground, whatever the covenant were here for thats where it was. Already just above the clouds the silouettes of more covenant ships could be seen, time was running short.

One of te marines pulled out a handset which showed a map of the city, from what it showed the rendevouz was about a half hour away. The group ran now, though a couple of them limped from injuries and they would all have to stop to let them keep up.

"How much farther eltee?" One of the marines asked, pantin a he finally got to them.

"Not much farther sarge, you see that rise there?" Harrison answered him pointing to a sharp rise in the ground, the road cracked as it made it to the edge and a column of smoke rose from just beyond it. "Thats where our ride should be waiting."

Almost on instinct and in the flash of an eye the soldiers raised there weapons in that direction as they heard weapons firing. "Shit, move it now!" Harrison barked as he realized where i was coming from.

The group made it over the rise in no time flat and were glad to see as promised, a UNSC albatross dropship. However what they weren't expecting to see was the huge band of covenant swarming its position. The dropships sides were opened and there were several other marines mounting a defense inside, they had already erected several barriers and set up a few machine gun placements and making a stand as they waited for any survivors. There was a group of marines that entered the ship from the opposite side =, without orders Harrison and his group immediatly opened fire ont he unsuspecing covenant as they ran down the crater to find cover.

Finding themselves riddled with bullets several grunts fell to the ground, the lives extinquished. Several jackals followed them, however the rest had already turned and were returning fire. Harrison threw a grenade just as a jackal sniper turned and fired its beam rifle. The bluish-purple beam hit the medic directly in the chest as he fell to his knees from the wound. The medic's rifle never left the covenant group and soon brought it down on the jackal that shot him, Harrison heard him gasp through his teeth as the pain caught up with his actions, the medic never stopped shooting until he had to reload.

After a few minutes the covenant were killed but everything turned for the worst because at that moment a trio of phantoms appeared. Harrisons men had already ran for the albatross, but Harrisn remained where he was. Of all the times his nerves could of failed him it had to be now, he couldn't bring himself to move, te phantswould mw h down if he did.

"Lieutenant, lsts go!" He heard the ONI officers voice in his earpeice.

Again he tried to make a dash for it, again he couldn't find the will. He then tapped his earpeice and spoke."I can't make it, just go without me."

"Lietenant, we're not leaving you!"

Harrison looked at the phantoms as they started to fire their cannons at the albatross, plasma splashing across its hull. "There's no time to argue! Go now!"

"But-"

"Go now! Thats an order!"

Harrison heard the officer sigh, "Yes sir."

At that the albatross' sides folded up to hide the hold full of marines from the plasma fire and began to lift off the ground. The roar of its engines drowned out any other sound as they lifted the massive dropships weight off the ground. The phantoms were eventually to low for their cannons to damage it as the ship made for orbit, Harrison remained on the ground and watched as it actually broke orbit and was lost from sight.

After a few minutes the covenant cruiser over the southern end of the city began to rise as well and make for orbit. The ones above the clouds began to decend, their forward section glowing blue and purple. Harrison sat down as he knew what was about to happen, he even chuckled to himself as he saw his end. "Helljumpers, first feet into hell." he then sighed, "if only that were true."

He then closed his eyes as if to sleep but even that wasn't enough to block out the magnificant ligt of the covenant plasma bombardment, countless pillars of white plasma began to incinerate everything on the ground. one of those beams was the last thing Harrison ever saw.