Second Chances

Chapter 6

Author's Note: Thought about waiting and doing a mega-post that was 20,000+ words, but I'm not really a fan of those and I'd rather keep updates semi-regular instead of going for 3-4 months without word on the story's progress, so here you go.

October 20 2552

Eldar Vampire Raider

East Africa / New Mombasa Outskirts

Earth / Sol System

0730 Hours / Local Time

"What has happened?" Lysandur questioned Caeraban as he looked over his disciple's left shoulder in attempt to see the goings on for himself.

"It is an enemy titan! It was hiding in the smoke amongst the burning structures!" Caeraban said aghast.

The Master Chief joined Lysandur behind Caeraban's seat. "Get me a visual." The Spartan requested, an urgency filling his words. Upon the holographic projector above the Vampire Raider's control panel a four-legged platinum behemoth appeared, fifty meters tall with a head that was shaped like the bulb of a sad metal tulip and the machine's back constructed like a deck of an old maritime ship, a most odd feature.

"It's a V1 Type." Cortana answered with all seriousness now that they were faced with a threat. "That's not good, I'll have to inform the Commander and Lord Hood on the situation." The AI then went silent as she set herself to notify the higher-ranking officers of this unfortunate development.

"Exarch, how wide a birth should we give that beast?" Firlith asked of her leader from the forward portion of the cabin, but it was the Master Chief who answered.

"Minimum safe distance is four kilometers. Any closer and you'll trigger the anti-air defenses."

"Raise the holo-field and keep to those instructions, we cannot risk being shot down ourselves." Lysandur turned from the cabin's rear half and commanded before placing back, facing the Spartan. "How can it be destroyed?"

"V-One's have starship-grade armor, and I don't know how effective the guns on this would be against it. Standard UNSC procedure is to take it out with air-support or an orbital strike but they won't take that chance as long as the Scarab is in the city. It can be boarded but that's not easy, especially that type."

Lysandur offered a thoughtful hum. "We shall avoid the Covenant Titan unless commanded otherwise. Caeraban, hail the crews of the crashed human transports, we must know their condition and if they require assistance. If we move quickly we can still achieve the first task of our mission."

"The Black Guardian Squad survives, few are injured and not severely. One of the human pilots perished in the crash." Caeraban mentioned almost as an afterthought as he seemed to remember the one human aboard looming over his shoulder directly behind the his seat. "Their craft crashed through the highway and though they are under attack, the force set against them is not of great threat. The Guardian's Warlock states that he does not require any form of rescue. As for the others, I cannot raise Galathriel of Lord Ythanyll's retinue. Her transport crashed upon the shoreline not far from the third crash site where a great number of Covenant lances are driving toward with great haste."

"More bad news," Cortana's voice returned. "We have reports of two, possibly three more Scarabs sighted across the city. The eldar main assault force is breaking off its titan and heavy armor elements to deal with them but as for the one near us, looks like we're on our own."

"That is disconcerting," Caeraban commented with unease as it seemed the duty of eliminating the Scarab would indeed fall upon them.

"Pilot, can you take me to Johnson's position?" Came the Master Chief's request which came as moderate surprise to Lysandur.

"The courtyard at the third crash site is too small for our craft, we would risk drawing that titan's attention if we linger."

"Just fly low over the position, I'll jump out." The Spartan stated plainly without a hint of fear staining his inflection.

"And what of the carrier Exarch?" Firlith inquired. "Should not our focus be on the capture of the alien Prophet so that we may put an end to this war before too many of our people's lives are shed in expense of these humans?"

"No, he is correct Firlith. As long as those titans stand, our path to the carrier shall remain impassable. The Master Chief shall reorganize our ground forces to push forward while our mission will be to end that titan's threat. Once both tasks are accomplished we together shall make for the Prophet's ship. However, when that time comes, we will be in need of a way to disable it. Cortana?" The Exarch lead, hoping the boastful AI, perhaps rightfully so, would possess the capability they needed to ultimately win the day.

"Just get me in that carrier's systems and I can drop it in the ocean like the whale it is." She answered immediately.

"Firlith, make for the crash site." Lysandur ordered.

"As you wish, Lysandur." The eldar woman answered, both the Exarch and the Master Chief already departing down the stairway set between the cabin's forward and rear stations and into the troop compartment. The Dire Avengers took notice of his and Lysandur's return, all well aware of the goings on and how drastically the battleplan had changed. Wordlessly, the strange human whom their Exarch seemed to have developed an unusual rapport with moved toward the rear of the craft, a few of them, rising themselves to join the duo. Lysandur opened the hatch for the Master Chief, bringing into view the stone and plaster buildings of Old Mombasa, shaded a dirty shade of orange by the ever-growing mass of smoke that loomed in foreboding not far above the leviathan-esque Covenant vessel.

"We are nearing the position!" Firlith communicated as John checked the secureness of the silken strap of material holding the eldar shuriken weapon against his back.

John found himself impressed by the little amount of turbulence or g-forces he had felt throughout his time aboard the eldar dropship, even now as Firlith flew just meters above the rooftops and nimbly steered the dropship around buildings otherwise too tall to crest over, he felt none of it in thanks to the craft's impressive ability to control the gravity within itself. The eldar did indeed have impressive technology and as long as they and the UNSC could work together, maybe there was a shot of finally ending this war.

The Spartan turned himself around, facing the azure-clad Dire Avengers and the ornately decorated Lysandur as they watched the human lean himself out the back fearlessly.

"Good luck." He offered with a nod of his helmet.

"To you as well. Until me meet again."

"We will pass over the location in…three…two…one!"

The Bright Phoenix watched the Master Chief allow himself to fall from the craft, his arms crossed over his chest and legs together as a spear point as he fell upon the imperiled position of Sergeant Johnson, his Marines and the few Black Guardians who stood with them.

\They'll Regret That Too /

Below, a minute prior, Arrosan leaned over the low concrete railing of the structure that he, Belbas, Yradavar and the human Marines they had been assigned to, had chosen as their defensive position against the oncoming tide of Covenant foot soldiers. The three Guardians and Marines had good positions atop the second-floor balcony of this structure of what Arrosan assumed to be some kind of ugly, primitive community building, a likely place where small bazaars would be held amongst other things. It was a far cry from the markets of his home of Ulthwé that with melancholy, he was reminded he would never see once more.

Regardless of the past, today this place would be their last bastion of defense against the onslaught of beastly crusaders aiming to claim their heads.

Arrosan fired his shuriken catapult at one of the Covenant species the humans called Jackals, though to him the avian creature looked more akin to some gaunt and miserable tzeentchian creation as it cravenly hid behind its neon-orange energy shield it bore upon its left arm. The shuriken deflected off the shield, weathering them no worse than if they were raindrops.

"Aim for their ugly little feet or the notches in their shields!" the Marine Sergeant Major shouted out from his position atop the roof where his long rifle made its cacophonous barks in anger against the Covenant pouring into the courtyard from where their Pelican had met the end of its journey with a violent halt.

Arrosan accepted the Sergeant's advice, taking aim at the notch where the creature held its plasma pistol in a semi-exposed position and released a burst of razor-edged shuriken. The scaly, vulture-faced creature lost all martial sense along with its hand as it stared in horror at the bloody purple stump of its wrist with its pale glassy eyes. It was an agony it did not have to live long with thereafter upon Arrosan's following shot that then perforated the Jackal's chest in a gushing spray of royal purple blood.

The satisfaction he felt in his little victory was equally short-lived as a bestial roar made effort to drown out all other noise of the battle. Its source, a red-armored Major who emerged from cover with twin plasma rifles already singing their deadly song. With one the Elite suppressed the three Guardians and the other casting its blobs of plasma up toward the Sergeant Major's position. It babbled out in its harsh throaty tongue, no doubt ordering those under its command to push forward.

The ethereal wail of a Vampire Raider's engines then drew the attention of the Guardians skyward. In an instant the pitch came and went seemingly quicker than the craft was visible above them, the one thing that lingered was a sight the three would not soon forget. From the dropship plummeted an object at such a speed even the eldar were not able to clearly see what it was, only the impact it left upon the Elite that until a moment ago had been baring a visage of righteous fury upon them. It was with an instant and violent force that the saurian alien was destroyed, reduced to a bloody purple streak upon the courtyard with a mangled humanoid form beneath the object that now revealed itself to be a figure the three Guardians were most familiar with.

"Impossible!" Arrosan outright denied seeing what he believed to be in violation of the laws of physics as the Spartan had jumped from a moving aircraft with no means of slowing his descent, and not only landing upon the only creature capable of absorbing his weight but also the very enemy that was of greatest threat to the defending force.

"Well, that is something one doesn't see every day." Spoke a seemingly unfazed Yradavar.

The Master Chief's entrance did not go unnoticed by the Covenant either. "The Demon is here! RUN!" cried out one terrified Grunt, causing the whole group to panic. Over half a dozen Grunts, including three Jackals fell into route brought on by the Spartan's arrival, the former slinging an Avenger pattern shuriken catapult up into firing position. The Jackals ran with their shields raised over their heads, exposing the full lengths of their legs to the awaiting barrels of the Guardians' own tuelean. The avians appeared to trip before it was apparent their lower halves fell to pieces and the remainder of them ceasing to live shortly thereafter. The fleeing Grunts fell into view of the three Marines covering the left flank along the street whom with the Spartan, made short work of them. With their diminutive legs and gas tank burdened backs, they were easy targets for the humans. The eldar were lucky they wore full helmets as it was well known among the UNSC ranks that the luminous indigo blood of the Grunts' held a foul stench similar to that of rotting fruit. It did not help that the little arthropods bled like hemophiliacs, or that a one of the grunt's methane tanks was struck by the Marines' armor-piercing bullets, causing the creature to rocket ten meters in the air before violently exploding in a disgusting shower of entrails.

The threat momentarily dissipated, the Master Chief leapt upon an overturned delivery truck and then up to the balcony. Upon sighting the three Guardians, he gave them a respectful nod of his helmet before motion atop the building drew the Spartan's attention to Sergeant Major Johnson.

"You know for a brick, you flew pretty good!" the veteran Marine greeted his comrade, unfortunately for them, this revelry did not last for long.

"Coming in over the rooftops! And the street!" hollered a Hispanic accented Marine further down the balcony.

"Arrosan hold here," The Master Chief directed. "You two with me!"

Yradavar was first to set off with the Master Chief and Belbas not far behind. Upon the rooftops of the buildings adjacent to their position appeared a trio Elites and several Jackals equipped with deep purple particle beam rifles of the blade-shaped type-50 pattern.

"Arrosan, take cover from those Jackals, everyone else focus fire on them." The Spartan ordered as he opened up with his gifted shuriken catapult in short taps of the trigger, quickly slaying one of the goggled aliens.

"Why?" Belbas inquired, presuming the Elites to be the more dangerous as they had been during the skirmishes on the orbital station. To answer the eldar's question, a purple beam of light lanced through the throat of a Marine as he emerged from out behind the refuge of one of the Covenant's spiked supply cases, his death instantaneous. Justification for the Spartan's words demonstrated, Belbas immediately followed the lingering trail of light back to its source and engaged the attacker.

With the defender's fire drawn upon the Jackals, the Elites took advantage of this distraction, charging forward with twin-pronged energy swords alight and leaping off the rooves to engage the humans and their eldar allies in glorious hand-to hand combat. Johnson's rifle made its presence known once more as he impressively put one of the saboted anti-materiel arrows through the head of a Minor whilst the thing was midflight. The body of the decapitated Sangheili landed in a clumsy clatter of its slackened limbs while its comrades pressed on.

The Major leading the assaulting wave attempted to engage Yradavar, using his inertia and superior strength to cleave the blade forward in a strike meant to bisect the Guardian but had made the fatal mistake of thinking the eldar no better than any normal human. Yradavar had seen him coming and stepped aside of the strike. More so, he was able to take hold of the Elite's sword-arm and using the crusader's own momentum against it, flipping the Elite on his back in a stunned and humiliating posture where it died to Yradavar's drawn dagger as the Black Guardian pierced it through the creature's weaker shields over its exposed eye socket and into its brain. By the time he stood himself to reengage the last Elite, it already lie slain at the feet of the Master Chief.

"Engage the contacts on the street!" The Spartan commanded to the Marines.

"More of the snipers!" Arrosan called out in enough time for the Master Chief to miraculously dodge a shot meant to claim his head with a burst of speed that seemed unearthly for a human to boast. However, before the Spartan could reach out with his eldar weapon to retaliate, the Jackal suffered the same fate it meant for the human as a hole was burned through its own head by the sharp crimson beam of a laser.

"A Ranger!" Belbas announced with celebratory glee while in short sequence, the other avian marksmen fell to the cameleoline-cloaked eldar from the pirate prince's corsair band, giving the defenders the opportunity they needed to keep the lance on the street from outflanking them. A laser-lobotomized Jackal tumbled from the rooftops and onto the unexpecting Elite Minor leading the dwindling lance, breaking his shields in time for a storm of shuriken from Belbas and the Master Chief to cut him down.

"Drones!" Arrosan called out, still at his position overlooking the courtyard. "Swarming over the buildings to our right! And-" he paused, spotting something else he was not quite sure of. It appeared the massive insects were in pursuit of something, that something taking the shape of an odd ripple in the air that he then realized was cloaked Ranger fleeing from the hive minded swarm the Covenant had seemingly used to flush the marksman out.

The Ranger leapt from the three-story block of a building to one of the tall palm trees in the courtyard, almost sliding all the way down before plasma fire from the drones caught the Ranger in the back and he fell to the ground from two meters above the base of the blocky planter from which the tree grew.

Before he even spoke, the Master Chief threw himself off the balcony into the courtyard below. "Cover me!" he commanded, while he himself opened up on the Drones with an automatic spray of his eldar weapon. Together, the combined fire of the three Black Guardians cut apart enough of the insects that they were forced to abandon their target for the Guardians attacking them. The Master Chief swooped in, grabbing the uncloaked and wounded Ranger around his torso and hauled him back at a full sprint like the eldar was no more than a sack of flour.

"More buggers headin' in over the rooftops!" he heard Johnson snout. "Private Dubbo, man that MG!"

"On it sir!"

Now within the relative safety of the building, John switched his hold on the eldar Ranger to better accommodate his injuries and helped him up the stairs where the Spartan set him down. "Stay here, we'll get you out of here as soon as we can." He assured the injured man, an act he had performed countless times with both success and failure to show for his efforts.

With the cameleoline hood drawn down, the Ranger's face was revealed, his cheekbones were high, giving him a gaunt appearance that was not improved by the pain induced grimace. His hair was a pale silver, drawn up into a knot with a long tail that stretched to the base of his neck.

"Crap! More Snipers!" the same Hispanic Marine from before called out, gaining the Master Chief's attention.

"I need your rifle," he said, addressing the eldar Ranger. "If those snipers pin us down, their infantry will overrun our position."

"You're the one, aren't you?" the Ranger said, eyeing the shuriken catapult of a Dire Avenger in the Spartan's hand. "The mon-keigh who slays daemons with their own hellblades and the enemy's ships with their own bombs. And apparently befriends Exarchs." He spoke through the pain with an air of humor. "Fine, I will humor your request, I will not be in need of it here." Placing the rifle across his lap, the Ranger touched one of the dark green gemstones on its main body. With whatever action he had performed completed, he weakly slid the long rifle to the Spartan, drawing his a pistol sized version of the eldar shuriken catapult shortly thereafter in show that he was not content yet to die on this day. "And you will return it." John offered him a silent nod in thanks.

The Spartan slung his stockless weapon and took up the eldar energy rifle appreciatively before he returned to the fight, exiting the doorway on the balcony's street-side. He found the organically styled rifle extremely comfortable when compared to the catapult as he brought the weapon to bear against a Jackal peeking over the peak of a building, the crimson lance of the rifle melting through the Jackal's eyepiece while making no greater noise than a sharp note on the air.

The Master Chief went about this task, dealing death with what was easily the best rifle he had ever used, not even a fully shielded Elite could withstand a shot from the eldar long rifle.

A sharp warbling sound sang out as a Covenant Phantom flew overhead, likely to observe the defenses before circling back around. A moment later, the Chief's assumption was proved correct. "Eyes up! Phantom's back!" Johnson warned from his overlooking position just as the number of attackers was beginning to dwindle.

"Fall back." The Chief ordered to the Guardians as he began to step back toward the doorway into the building's interior. The Covenant dropship settled over the courtyard, looming like a Portuguese Man o' War with its three heavy plasma cannons dangling from its fuselage. Immediately these began laying down a continuous stream of hot pink blobs of plasma the size of medicine balls upon the structure.

Inside the small atrium, the gathered defenders tried to weather the assault but as the walls and ceiling began to melt from the sustained bombardment, it looked doubtful their position would be viable for much longer. That was until relief came on the wings of a Pelican, hearing the monotone howls of its thrusters overtake the noise of the alien antigravity repulsors. The Master Chief recognized the sharp cracks of ANVIL-II missiles impacting the Phantom's body much to his satisfaction. The Phantom's engines drastically changed in tone from a high to low pitch before cutting off completely with a final earthshaking crash a moment later.

"Johnson, hold here, we'll check it out." John spoke up.

"Go on, we'll greet any party crashers." Johnson answered as he and the two remaining Marines knelt before the ledge overlooking the ground floor and the wide opening to the courtyard presented to them.

The Master Chief was first to lead out of the street-side doorway with rifle ready and the Guardians formed up behind him similarly ready. The building had taken a true beating at the hands of the Covenant dropship. The overhang was either completely melted away in areas or partially so with wide holes almost big enough for a man to slip through. The remnants of this upon the balcony floor in mounds of semi-molten material along with the thick drippings that came off the walls themselves from the plasma bombardment. It was a miracle the Pelican had come along when it had. The result of its handiwork lay belly-up in the rear of the courtyard against the tall dilapidated apartment building, the Phantom bleeding acrid smoke from large rends on the damaged nose and impulse drive cowlings as it lay upon two of the palm trees it had crushed in the crash.

To John's right, he heard the childish chatter of Grunts and the deep-throated reply of an Elite, heard as well by the eldar.

The rattle of a Marine's battle rifle reported from the atrium, heard by the Elite who barked an order at the Grunts under his command. The Spartan and Black Guardians took full advantage of this distraction offered and advanced to the balcony's edge. The Elite Major standing adjacent to the overturned truck died the instant John sighted it, inciting panic in the Grunts the Guardians made quick work of with short bursts of shuriken.

Noticing three more blobs of red to the right on his motion tracker, John shifted his attention appropriately as did Belbas who moved quickly to open fire on the two remaining Grunts holding just outside the firing lines of the Marines inside the building but not a third as John had seen on the tracker a moment ago.

It only took him a second to approximate the distance relative from where the red dot on the tracker had been to the area around.

The large supply crate, probable Elite, use explosives. Was what ran through the Spartan's mind so fast it was almost an instinctual reaction.

"Arrosan, one o'clock, get ready." He stated, taking a plasma grenade from his belt and lobbing it right to the rear of the green metal crate. The Elite John had correctly determined was there dove out of cover a second too late as the grenade detonated, flaring the alien's shields to the point where the eldar had little problem dispatching him.

"More Jackals, by the ship!" Belbas alerted but it mattered little as their savior Pelican returned, unleashing the fury of its chin-mounted autocannon upon the defenseless Jackals and single Elite that had come around the crashed Phantom into the kill-zone.

"My girl's a little big for that courtyard, Sergeant." The Marine pilot reported from overhead. "I see a good LZ on the other side of these buildings, meet you there, over."

"Copy." John heard Johnson say over the radio. "Someone get a satchel on the gate!"

A moment later, a rattling of metal banged against the doors of a loading dock, followed by another as the metal began to bow outward.

"Get ready." John ordered as he took a knee and sighted the eldar rifle once more. Then in one quick instant, the metal doors were flung away and from the dark interior emerged twin hulking figures the size of a Space Marine Terminator. Armored in iridescent cobalt, it bore six lengthy and deadly looking spines from the back of its broad shoulders. The helmeted head atop its fleshy neck had no face to show, only four luminescent sage orbs that were its unnatural, unblinking eyes. But perhaps the most distinguishing feature was that of the creature's arms. The left bore a weighty I-shaped pavise shield, pointed at both ends along with a thick octagonal pauldron upon its shoulder. The other arm was equally as fearsome, itself being nothing but a great cannon with pustule like containers along its forearm bearing sickly green liquid that glowed with a deadly radioactive light.

"Hunters!" Cortana said.

The eldar aboard the Cairo had been informed of these monstrous colonial organisms but being face-to-face with not just one but two was another matter entirely. The creatures shook their armored spines in time with their unearthly bellows. In response, the Chief fired off a bolt searing light into one Hunter's helmet to disconcertingly little effect. It seemed the eldar long rifle's power was not as indomitable as John had first judged it to be. Indeed, it had not even done so much as slow the creature from raising its shield and bringing its assault cannon to bear with a growing whine, as did its bond-brother in kind.

"Get clear!" the Chief warned a second prior to both he and the Guardians threw themselves backward, out of reach of the thick caustic beams that boiled away long curving lines of the balcony and more importantly, the machinegun that would have been a boon to helping take out the Hunters.

Then with perhaps good or bad timing, the rear gate at the end of the courtyard blew open to reveal Lenrys and the rest of the squad of Black Guardians, come again to their aid were it not for their lack of heavy weapons needed to combat the hulking Hunters that now turn to face them. The Master Chief rose to see the Warlock lay a storm of psychic lightening upon the left Hunter, doing as little damage as the eldar rifle had upon the thick plates of nanolaminate armor. Both retaliated with their assault cannons, blasting their streams of death at the eldar. Many were able to dodge the curving streams by ducking back through the gateway or flinging themselves narrowly around the curving streams into the courtyard and upon the slanted belly of the crashed Phantom. Two of the Guardians however, did not gain refuge, finding themselves trapped against the wall of buildings with no escape save for the hope that they could slay the menacing behemoths. It was a desperate and ultimately futile effort that ended with them engulfed by the immolating molten beam.

"I'll take one, focus on the other!" The Chief said, reacting immediately. The Spartan threw himself off the balcony, the clash of his boots on concrete drawing the attention of the Hunter on his right, twisting its body of worms around to put him in the sights of its assault cannon. The weapon ethereally howled as it spat its beam, only to witness the Spartan throw himself over it, skidding onto his armored knees to the Hunter's immediate left.

At the same time behind it, the other Hunter took a broad volley of exotic blades to its back from the Spartan's three Guardian allies, wounding it, but not fatally so. It too turned away from the scattered Black Guardian squad in the face of what it perceived to be the more immediate threat as to hide its one vulnerability. But it had done nothing but fallen for a ruse when came the Warlock's singing spear to impale itself into the open flesh of the Hunter's back. Its body trembled, the vibrations of dozens of worms creating a barely recognizable animalistic wail of pain, felt through the rudimentary psychic link by its bond-brother, causing it to go into a rage it directed at the Spartan.

The Hunter charged its left shoulder forward and John leapt right once more to avoid the ten-thousand-pound beast but the Hunter shifted its foot at the last second, the reaction time a benefit of a colonial nervous system. The pavise shield smacking him in his side mid-air, tossing him a couple more meters than he intended while almost entirely depleting his shield as the panicking alarm inside his helmet alerted him of. Around him, the squad of eldar were recovering from the Hunter's counterassault on their attempted rescue, firing their shuriken catapults on the wounded Hunter and eviscerating the exposed area of its back, toppling the armored giant to the ground.

John's Hunter bellowed far more intensely now that it had lost its brother, entering the berserker-like state they were known for under these circumstances. It came at the Master Chief with its boots stamping heavily upon the ground under its immense weight, but this time he was ready. John dropped the eldar rifle and pulled a combat knife in its place while the Hunter raised its shield high like a sledge hammer. The shield struck naught but stone as the Spartan twisted aside in the zen-like Spartan-time. With grace, few of the assembled eldar had witnessed, the Spartan ran up the planted shield in two great strides before delivering his right knee into the side of its face, momentarily stunning the worms that made it up. The knife swung up under the helmet's lip, prying it back far enough for John to shove the armed grenade he held in his other hand down into the Hunter's enclosed chest cavity. The eldar watched the Spartan launch himself away in a long flip that landed him three meters from the Hunter a close second before the grenade detonated with a low thump, launching a pureed fountain of luminescent-orange blood and flesh seven feet into the air. The half-empty armor clattered to the ground a moment later.

"And that Marines, is how. it's. DONE!" Johnson declared pridefully as he came from the atrium's wide lower doorway with the two remaining Marines in tow, holding the injured Ranger up by his arms between them.

Now that all threats had been neutralized, Cortana's voice returned. "Second squad, this is Cortana. What's your status, over?"

Author's Note: Well I hope you enjoyed the opening skirmish of the Battle of New Mombasa, next time we'll spend A Day At The Beach.

To Zeus501: Oh I dot my I's!