Short Story Contest Submission

[Skys]

Sweat is dripping from my face...Warm steamy air is grazing my face as I.....Take another bite of this super spicy taco. I take a bite and some of the spicy sauce lands on my Tracker Helmet. "Didn't know the UNSC raised pigs in the forces" says a sarcastic male. I look up and smile as I see S-295 Gareth. I wipe the sauce off the helmet and put the helmet back on. "So much for a break 295.." We hear something moving in the pipes up ahead. Gareth grabs his assault rifle and moves up and tells me to move up. I hold my DMR up close to my chest as I am scanning the area. I hear dripping from the ceiling and I look up as the drops then splash on my helmet visor. "What is this green gooey stuff.." I said confused rubbing the goo between my fingers. "Skys...Shh.." Gareth points forward at a corpse lying on the ground. "Is that?..." I say nervous as I recognize the armor. I open my bracer and write down.."S-312 MIA" I walk towards the body and grab the data chip in his helmet. There is a hole in his armor chest.."Damn flood..I thought they'd be wiped out already" Gareth then turns sharply around aiming his gun."Did you hear that?" I hold my DMR up turning left and right. Sweat rolls down my cheek and suddenly infection form flood start falling from the ceiling. "Crap crap crap!" I yell as I begin shooting and popping them with each bullet. Gareth starts laying suppressive fire as I start dragging the dead spartans body down the hall.

 

"Fire in the hole!" Gareth says as I cover for the explosion. As the grenade explodes smoke fills the room and I am soon blinded holding my DMR up and Hardlight Shield. "Promethean Vision on" says Gareth as his visor is now heat oriented. "This isn't good.." Gareth says in a paniced voice. "Move back" In his visor he sees about a dozen carrier form flood rushing towards us. I begin walking backwards with my hardlight shield up and the dead spartan in my other hand. I hear Gareth open a door and as he does I turn the shield off and walk in carrying the spartan. He shuts the door and I begin placing rubble at the door. I place the Spartan against the wall and silently mourn his death for a second. I begin looking around panicing. "This way!" I say panicing as I point towards a door letting Gareth enter tactically as I follow behind. We shut this door with relief. "I think we lost th.." As I am about to finish the sentence a container falls off a metal shelf. We aim our guns ready to fire when suddenly. "Don't shoot..Friendly here" Green acknowledgement lights go off twice on my HUD. I sighed as I saw an old friend. S-316 Bullet. "Glad to see you're in one piece Spartan" Gareth says. Bullet nods and holds up his shotgun. "We need to reach HQ I lost transmission with them at 0900 and haven't heard from them since" I walk towards some rubble and move toss it out of the way. A door is broken but I kick it down and I create us an exit. "Lets move" I say. Gareth takes the lead with Bullet behind him following me. I strafe left and right trying to check my surrounding. It is getting darker as we progress and we soon turn our visor lights on. We are now surrounded in darkness.."I got a bad feeling about this"...I say ready for an ambush. We then hear a terrifying yell. ROARR! We hear as Gareth quickly turns his vision on and begins shooting in the darkness. Bullet enables his thruster boost and flys towards a flood combat form and stabs it in the chest popping the infection. I start shooting in the distance as more floods begin running in our field of view. Our visor light is the only thing that is keeping us from seeing nothing. A flood then rushes at me knocking me too the ground. I pull out my magnum and just as the Flood attacks I shoot a clip into its head and it falls lifeless. I get up trying to get back into the fight when a tentacle breaks through the wall and smashes everything in its path. We all fly from the impact. I struggle to get to my feet..

 

My visor light is flashing on..and off...I look up and see bullet shooting some infection flood when the tentacle grabs him. "GET OFF ME!" Bullet yells as the tentacle grips him and slams him against the floor. Bullet goes unconscious and we hear a demonic yet human like voice. "You...humans....are fragile...where...is...she....?" I stand aiming my DMR confused by the question. This couldn't be a gravemind already. The flood just went viral months ago. How? Gareth is soon seen jumping on a tentacle stabbing it trying to free Bullet. His effort is useless. The tentacle flings him away and Bullet is taken away with the tentacle. We then hear an even louder yell from the flood...ROARRR!!! And flood come at us in every direction. I run to pick up Bullets Shotgun. I start shooting in each direction killing off six flood. Gareth is struggling with one on top of him. He kicks it off and he stands and looks my way. Gareth lifts his two fingers and swipes his fingers across his faceplate. I stand shocked. A Combat form flood had his hand pierced through Gareths chest. "GARETH!" I yell shooting flood running toward him. The flood grabs his body and pulls him away from my vision.

 

It gets quiet. I am standing pointing the shotgun in each direction. "No...Gareth..Bullet..." I hear movement but my visor light is broken. I open my bracer and begin writing. "S-316 MIA...S-295 MIA....S-315..MIA" I close the bracer and drop my shotgun. "Come on you ********.." I stand firm and I see a Combat Form standing in front of me. "Where..........Is........She......" It jumps towards me i can feel them all around me now. It lunges and I instantly black out....My eyes slowly open as I see my friends and family waving at me...I close my eyes and the darkness consumes..I am unconscious..And most likely...dead.

 

 

 

 

Well hope you guys like the short story. I only put two members in it and they will know who they are. If I added more it would've been to crowded and less gripping

 

 

I hope you guys enjoy my short stories. And don't forget to read the 343i Great World War series

 

I Salute all members of 343i.

Skys,