“Hey Sarge! Sarge! Wake up ya blimey fool!”
*Shaken awake by a Marine lance corporal, young, in his mid-twenties. His name read as Stuart, Davis in Sergeant Mac’s HuD. *
“Helluva blast you just went through there Sergeant, you’re lucky to be alive right now. But celebrations over, we got Covies all over this sector of the city.”
Phantom dropship flies overhead, searchlight activated. Sgt. Mac just finally notices the rain beating on his brow, and the neon lights of the city in the dark.
“Keep low, keep quiet. We have to make it to the nearest UNSC rally point.” Stuart tossed Mac a silenced M7 caseless. “This should keep ya off the radar sir. You lead the way, I got your -Yoink- covered.”
Sgt. Mac took point, sneaking through building and avoiding Mombasa’s streets at every turn possible. Threats of snipers and Covenant mortar vehicles from the last encounter were still fresh in the mind. Finally however, the apartment complex emptied out into a 4-way plaza, a bridge running across Mac’s current location to another building.
“Stuart, looks like we’re gonna have to brave the open. Pull out your thermal, eyes on any Covies?”
Stuart rescinded his helmet’s HuD chip and raised his Thermal BiNocs.
“Three jackal snipers on three separate rooftops sir. I’m also seeing movement through windows, so it looks like backup is on hand. How do we wanna do this sir?”
Sgt. Mac looked through his pack for anything of use, but nothing showed promise.
“Well, I don’t like our chances but it’s the best we’ve got. We’re sneaking by.”
Sgt. Mac and LCpl. Stuart vaulted from a balcony down into a planter on a sidewalk, then continued along the side of the wall closest to the NAV point on the HuD.
“Duck, phantom scout right above us!” Stuart whispered.
The searchlight passed right over Mac, but Stuart was caught dead in the beam. The phantom circled around and landed in the plaza to drop reinforcements. The whole block was about to be on them both if they didn’t run for the next roadway traffic door. Stuart and Mac bolted for the exit.
“Forget stealth! They’re chasing us by scent anyway, brutes can smell from miles away.” Yelled Stuart.
Mac and Stuart ran to the door, and hit the switch to initiate the opening sequence, but the door jammed halfway open.
“Stuart, work on the door, I’ll cover you!”
As Stuart began hacking the terminal, Mac leaned up against a wall to ambush the pursuing brute squad. First the grunts came around the corner and were caught in a hail of cold ammunition. When a brute captain veered around Mac emptied a full magazine into it, but it was only enough to break the power armor’s shielding. The brute charged Sgt. Mac and threw him aside. The alien, enraged, lept into the air for a finishing kill only to find Sgt. Mac’s spare knife in it’s eye.
“Huh!” The beast landed on Mac knocking all the air out of him. It was a struggle getting out from under it, but Mac made it out and bolted for the door. Stuart opened the door just in time for Sgt. Mac and himself to run through.
“Gimme a second sir! Gotta close the door behind u-” The flash blinded Sgt. Mac too with such a near miss. Stuart’s body lay on the ground, without a head, and a steaming stump where his neck had been.
“-Yoink!-! Snipers are everywhere!” Mr. Mac bolted over to the gate switch and closed the gate while flashes of light vaporized the street around him. When the gate closed, Sgt. Mac ran for an apartment building where he dropped his gear, sat down, and activated his tacpad looking at his map. Just another bloc and he’d be at the rally point.
“It’s gonna be a helluva night. I wonder what life would be like in some alternate universe, if I hadn’t enlisted with the UNSC as an earth kid…probably lots less demanding.”
And with that Mr. Mac rested an hour before setting out for Marine rally-point Alpha.