Concurrence Chapter 3-2

2524 words.

She had dropped them all in a matter of moments, but that wasn’t the entire hunting party. She heard a Jiralhanae bellow a challenge at her from somewhere above, one she met with her own roar, bracing her carbine on the lip of the window.

Her earlier suspicions were confirmed as another Jiralhanae entered the complex, the waning daylight at his back as he crouched by the threshold, his red armour square in her sights. He must have thought himself out of her view as he raised a finger to his helmet, his head moving as though he was speaking with someone.

He was calling in reinforcements, she was sure of it. She could have taken him down then and there, but she waited, letting him send his call for help. Let them come, she thought. The more she killed, the more glorious her stand would be.

He disappeared behind one of the walls of shrugs up there, the plasma charge popping out of Seela’s carbine as she checked the energy level. The telltale warbling sound of a Phantom’s engines filled the complex not a few moments later, Seela watching its shadow pass over the water as it banked across the open ceiling.

She heard it lower to the street somewhere nearby, depositing a number of troops that didn’t remain a mystery for long. More Kig-Yar and Unggoy sauntered down the stairwell, the pair of species fanning out as more Jiralhane Minor’s brought up their rear.

The runts were more prepared this time, sending small arms fire down at the vehicle she was crouching inside of, Seela fighting against her instincts to duck away. Trusting in her shields, she returned a few bursts of her own, dropping two, then three Unggoy as they descended the incline, easy targets in such an open area.

Kig-Yar wielding shield gauntlets ignited their protective barriers now, three of them forming a line as they stood shoulder to shoulder. She could see their beaks tucked flat against their chests through the plasma wall, keeping their bodies protected as they advanced down towards her position.

Her carbine bolts bounced harmlessly off the shields, the thin contrails painting green lines that joined to the vaulted ceiling. She growled as she was forced to duck away by a hail of suppressive fire, the Jiralhane covering the avians as they advanced with the shield wall.

She drew her pistol from her belt, feeling the metal on her back warming as the plasma fire splashed against her cover. Taking a knee, she turned out, looking down the sights of her plasma pistol as she pulled and held down the trigger, a growing ball of energy coalescing around its muzzle. Pistols could be overcharged to fire a much denser bolt that could deplete even the strongest shields with a single shot, though repeated use would render the weapon unusable.

The weapon began to shake in her hand, even as Seela willed her muscles to steady her aim, waiting until the overcharge had reached its maximum power before she let the trigger go. The bolt was as big as her fist, travelling maybe half the speed of a standard bolt, curving through the air as though an invisible force was influencing its trajectory.

The bolt crashed into the leftmost shield, the Kig-Yar behind it voicing a squawk as his gauntlet lost power. Seela cut him down with a single shot, emptying the rest of her ammo into the next one over, splitting the avian in half by the waist as a radioactive round found its mark in his centre mass.

The third Kig-Yar retreated upon seeing his shield-brothers die, turning to run head-first into the leg of the Jiralhanae that had been advancing behind him. Knocking the avian aside, the Minor charged forward, Seela emptying the rest of her cartridge, watching as he tumbled, his momentum carrying him the rest of the way down the stairwell.

She fished for another cartridge on her belt, seeing she only had two left. Good, she needed something to get her heart pounding.

The other Jiralhanae along with three Unggoy were inching their way down to her position, and she made them fight for every step, picking the little ones off one at a time, growling when her cartridge was empty again. She popped a fresh one in, looking over her cover to see the Jiralhanae was close enough she could see his mammalian eyes blinking at her.

They were within grenade distance, so that’s exactly what Seela did, producing the plasma grenade the Unggoy had given her and tossing it in the Jiralhanae’s direction. It narrowly passed the tree he’d been hiding behind, not sticking but landing too close for the big, lumbering alien to escape the blast radius, the explosion tossing his armoured body away where he collided with the wall, leaving a crater in the stone.

Her shields sparked as plasma struck her from the side, Seela snarling as she turned to see an Unggoy had snuck into the vehicle while she was distracted. He visibly defflated as she stared him down, his single shot the only one he sent her way as she willed him to drop his pistol using her gaze alone.

She flexed her mandibles as far as they would go, the little alien yelping a noise Seela wouldn’t be caught dead making herself, the Unggoy running off back the way he’d come.

Her gaze rose to the entrance, her heart hammering in her chest as she spotted another full squad up there, the sound of a departing Phantom just noticeable above the rain of plasma fire coming down on her. Six more Jiralhanae, along with the Major she’d seen before, formed a cordon behind their runts, the shorter aliens dashing across the open, supressing her as the Jiralhanae advanced.

One of the Jiralhanae produced a weapon that made her curse under breath. It was a thin, stout weapon with a tube for a muzzle and a blade for a stock, Seela throwing herself to the ground when he fired it from the hip, the thump-thump-thump as he pulled the hammer vibrating through her bones even from this distance.

Explosive charges arched towards her, the first two landing a few paces in front of her position, shrapnel peppering the other side of her cover. The third detonated on the roof directly above her, Seela flinching reflexively as the metal caved inward, her helmet muffling the explosion.

Her vehicles rocked on its rails as the Jiralhane emptied the rest of his grenades at her cover, Seela firing her carbine through the window at the advancing Unggoy, cutting three of them down before they could hide behind the trees.

Her cover was starting to become black with how much fire was coming down on her, the metal slagging into liquid in places as the heat began to accumalate. She dashed for the next window over, her shields flickering as they absorbed a few plasma bolts that found their mark.

Seela raised her carbine over the lip, cutting down another Jiralhanae Minor. The one with the grenade launcher fired one last time, Seela stumbling as the resulting blast detonated not two paces in front of her. A cloud of obscuring smoke rose up from the blast, Seela firing blindly through it at the advancing aliens.

She could hear them reaching the end of the incline, ducking into the trees and fanning out, plasma fire hitting her cover from seemingly all sides. She fired over the window when she could, the energy of her shields rapidly depleting each time she popped out of cover. She tossed her remaining grenade at one who was closing to within spitting distance, leaves from the closest tress raining down on the platform, Seela waiting for explosion before leaning out to deplete one of their shields, felling another, but she was running out of breathing room, in a moment they’d be right outside her cover.

Her shields flared as the plasma overwhelmed her personal barrier, the energy shattering like broken glass as she hunkered down, slotting her empty carbine on her back as she drew her pistol.

She put her back to the vehicle’s side, the metal burning her through her suit as the metal started slagging, the Jiralhanae keeping her suppressed. She was running out of options, but the tightening feeling in her stomach was not one born from dread. She felt alive for the first time in years, how ironic that this feeling was here, so close to the end.

The one with the grenade launcher sent another charge her way, this one detonating inside the vehicle to her right. The tiny Human seats exploded in clouds of cotton and plastic, what few remaining windows shattering as the vehicle rocked on its wheels from the impact.

Steeling herself, Seela dashed along the vehicle’s length, escaping the blast of a follow up grenade that exploded where she’d been hiding. She stopped to pick up the pistol the frightful Unggoy had dropped before, huffing as she realised she was picking up a lot of weapons from the small creatures as of late.

She snarled as she felt plasma impact her shoulder and stomach, Seela raising her pistols over the seats and firing at the Jiralhanae with the launcher. He was by the foot of the stairs, and she overcharged one pistol while firing the other one normally, combining the bolts. The heat washed over his thick armour, his shields fizzling out, the alien slumping to his side with a wet gurgle as the bolts cooked his insides.

“Signal for reinforcements!” she heard one of the Minors say. “We need more Unggoy!”

“Call the whole Covenant!” Seela shouted at them, her pistols warming her palms as she stayed hidden. “Let the Prophets themselves know that a hunting party needs help!”

“I will feast on your bones, Sangheili!” one of them snarled back. She could hear their footsteps drawing closer, tightening the net as two approached from one side, the rest from the other.

She emptied her pistols on the closest one, but only succeeded in cutting his shields down before she was arrayed with plasma fire, one of the bolts catching her on the helmet, Seela collapsing to the ground in pain. Her helmet had managed to dissipate the heat, but so much kinetic energy had been behind the bolt, it had felt like someone had thrown a brick at her face.

She heard one of them stomp his way onto the vehicle, the vibrations traveling up through her spine. So this was it, three whole squads had been needed to take her down. Not bad for a lone warrior, she hoped her ancestors would say the same.

She struggled to her knees, but the killing blow never came. She looked up at the Jiralhanae on the vehicle with her, but he had turned his back on her, wielding his gun around on something else. She winced away as his shields flared to an unstable white, a pair of follow-up shots killing the alien where he stood, the Jiralhanae keeling over on one of the seats flanking the aisle. Had some of her kin managed to find her?

She peered over the window frame, but her saviour was no Sangheilian.

An Imp rolled out of the way of a barrage of plasma, bringing a large, two-handed weapon to bear on the closest Jiralhanae, a sound like that of escaping gas echoing through the complex as he fired, collapsing the alien’s shields and following through with a single shot from some sort of handgun, the Jiralhanae dropping his carbine as he died.

Imps were some of the deadliest creatures the Humans employed, second only to the Demons, but the ferocity they showed in combat was no less impressive. Yet something was different about this one. Imps wore black armour with minimal features, but this one had highlights throughout his plating, could this be their equivalent of an Ultra?

The Jiralhanae had all but forgotten about Seela, turning their weapons and attention on the new threat. The Imp stuck close to the trees, his smaller frame allowing him to use the fauna to its full potential, staying crouched as it moved to a better position, firing its strange, long weapon at the Jiralhanae Major.

“Damned creature!” the Major snarled, his shields breaking apart. It would take many Human bullets to deplete a shield from full, yet it had broken in just two shots. The Imp followed up with another blast from its Human weapon, one of the Jiralhanae’s arms severing at the shoulder, black ichor spraying. He tried to fight on anyway, charging the Imp down with a fist raised but he only made it three steps before the blood loss caught up with him, and he collapsed.

The remaining Jiralhane tossed his weapons aside, dropping to all fours as it charged down the Imp, loosing a bestial roar. The bloodthirsty aliens lost all sense when they were the last ones remaining among a dead pack, and he made an easy target for the Imp, its weapon seeming to become more deadlier the closer its target was, the enraged Jiralhanae losing his shields after just one shot.

The Imp brought it down, the alien collapsing mid-lunge, his chin sliding along the floor and halting by its boot, the Imp giving it a kick to make sure it was dead. As the silence began to sink in, Seela found her mandibles had opened in awe, the Imp had taken all her foes down without a single hit, yet it didn’t seem completely unharmed.

Taking advantage of the lull to examine it a bit closer, she saw it was bleeding from its back, and parts of its chestplate were scratched, its opaque visor sporting jagged lines running across it, as though a great beast had raked its claws across its face. It even had a plasma pistol strapped to its leg, further confirming it had been battling Covenant at some point before now.

It lifted its blue visor in her direction, Seela stepping out of its view as her heart began to beat faster. “Think that’s all of em’,” it called out. “You can come out now. That you, Holiday?”

It was speaking Human, a language Seela understood. She checked the charge on her pistols. Imps never travelled alone, where was its brethren?

“Joker? Come on, this isn’t funny.”

Holiday, Joker? What gibberish was it saying? Perhaps these were names of its kin, and it had assumed Seela was one of these Imps. It had so fearlessly charged the Jiralhanae down in order to help her, unaware of what she was, it was almost impressive. Should she send an overcharge its way? It would be an easy shot, it wasn’t in cover, yet the fact it had come to her aid made the decision much harder than it should have been.

She holstered her pistols, staying out of view as she waited for it to speak again, but it didn’t. The Imp’s boots clocked against the floor, Seela thinking up a plan as it started coming her way.