Second Journey :: The Role

[one_one_se7en]

"Contacts. Stand by."

The Master Chief knew there were probably more than a hundred of them -- Motion sensors were off the scale. He wanted to see them for himself, though; his years made that lesson clear: 'Machines break. Eyes don't'.

The Spartans that composed his team for the moment covered his sides, each of them with varying patience inside their MJOLNIR suits of armor. Someone had once commented that they looked like Greek war gods in the armor... But his Spartans were far more effective and ruthless than Homer's gods had ever been.

He snaked the fiber-optic probe up and over the three-meter-high stone ridge. When it was in place, the Master Chief linked it to his helmet's HUD. On the other side he saw a valley with eroded rock walls and a river meandering through it... And camped along the banks were hundreds of Grunts, Jackals, Brutes, and Elites, with a handful of pairs of Hunters around the camp.

The Master Chief detached the optics cable, and took a step back from the rock wall. He passed the tactical information along his companions over a secure COM channel. Like him, encased in battle armor easily weighting half a ton. All armed with energy shields protecting them from the plasma, enough speed not to be even noticed in the seconds they all ran exposed on the field, and enough strength to toss even the biggest Hunter among them.

"Are the mines set?"

This is what being a Spartan is like. When two of them against a almost a thousand of them are poor odds for their enemies.

Comments

[braidstobows]

How long has it been since she would have died in the first seconds on this field? Homura doesn't let herself think of that too deeply. She simply answers the Master Chief with the same composure as if he'd asked her a question about her schoolwork.

"This will be fine." She pulled it back, as though fitting an arrow to it after all, and a shaft of light with a burning flame fitted itself to the bow instead. "It's a weapon to be used against the ones who attack humanity."

[one_one_se7en]

As an arrow of light appears in Homura's hold, the Master Chief turns his sight back to the field. Same as the MJOLNIR. Same as Spartans.

That, and given the energy levels the artifact let out, it was bound to hurt people.

He brings out the detonator. He calmly gives out three words as a warning.

"Aim for the Elites."

Before everything in front of them glows and burns through many explosions around the camp.

[braidstobows]

The explosions don't seem to perturb Homura in the least. Instead, she peers through them as though quite used to them. As soon as she finds her opening, she starts to shoot.

It's hardly the first time she's faced enemy after enemy, one after the next, coming and coming without relief. She can handle it again- as many times as it takes, as many times as she has to.

Following the Master Chief's advice, she aims for the ones she somehow knows are the Elites. If her enemies are numerous, her hand is quick, and bolt after bolt is fired into the fray.

[one_one_se7en]

SPARTAN-117 takes care of the lesser enemies. While Homura had a power weapon, the Spartan had rate of fire. He took care of Grunts, Jackals, and the occasional Brute and Minor Elite that could present themselves as threats to outnumber them. Grenades and copper rounds tear through the masses enemies.

But the energy arrows?

The body of a General in golden armor that tries challenging Homura is simply undone the moment one of the arrows hit him. His personal shields don't even get to make an effort.

He moves up front, gathering the attention of the rest of the warriors, diverting it from Homura's. The girl that was tearing apart Chieftains and Zealots that had supposedly killed over a thousand adversaries each. And for a time, it works -- with the only problem being the vehicles that remain on the ground between them and the Gravity Lift. Ghosts, Wraiths, Spectres...

"Can your arrows pierce them?"

[braidstobows]

"I don't know yet." This is delivered with an undertone of willingness to try. If these creatures advance much further, it will be a more difficult battle. Homura shifts her aim.

These are new adversaries to her, but she will not let that make her back down. She never has before. Though she knows not to let down her guard - witch's barriers are places that defy both logic and physics, and her battles are never certain - she fights on.

The burning light fires straight and true towards the closest vehicle.

[one_one_se7en]

A Covenant Wraith only observes from behind its' heads-up display as it finally spots the girl. It gives the order to fire, but not before spotting a glow coming from her archaic weapon--


Even as the Wraith is torn with a gaping hole in its' center before exploding, it still got to shoot a massive sphere of plasma several dozens of meters in the air... Slowly descending near the witch.

"Throw this to the ground!"

The Spartan tosses her a cilinder.

[braidstobows]

If it hadn't come from the Spartan, who is her ally in this battle, she would have mistaken the cylinder for a grenade. She has a great familiarity with grenades.

But it does come from him, and she does as he said, throwing the object with force, just a short distance away from herself. The spherical shield springs to life as she takes a defensive stance within it.

Harder to dodge than a witch. She's protected from the plasma, and as soon as the danger passes, she starts shooting again, fast enough that it almost seems as though she shoots multiple times at once.

"Thank you," comes over the comm link, in a voice that still seems entirely unruffled by the chaos of the battlefield.

[one_one_se7en]

Alien enemies attempt to shoot blindly through the smoke risen by the impact, before being mowed down by energy arrows and copper rounds. Many of their enemies had tries to focus on the sole visible enemy for an instant -- him.

The Spartan advances further, crossing bodies of several Covenant bodies left laying on the dirt, ignoring them as he runs along with Homura, having to take cover more often until the witch comes out.

The Grav Lift is close enough.

"Do you have it?"

Either a HAVOK Tactical Nuke, or enough weaponry to make up for one.

[braidstobows]

"I have it." She is as a taciturn as he is, and chooses as few words. A nearly silent partner.

Homura's entire focus is on reaching her goal, completing this mission. It doesn't seem to occur to her that this is not the world she swore to protect for Madoka's sake. Perhaps a world with beleaguered humanity is the same, right now.

"Are you ready?"

[one_one_se7en]

It may not be the world of Homura, as humanity's cradle had always been Earth, and that the rest of the worlds were all 'balls of dirt'. All the same... He remembers even servicemen muttering that mankind left 'that rock' for a reason.

He looks up. The Covenant Vessel is opening its' belly to send in reinforcements. He spots several wraiths and banshees readying for a fight against them.

It's our dirt, damn it, he remembers another marine mutter.

"Do it."

[braidstobows]

The effect is staggering. The weapon is tremendous. Homura has been accused of overkill before, with her affinity for explosives and bombs, but when she considers the number of the enemy ahead of them-

It doesn't seem excessive at all. These creatures are caught in her trap. This time, she notes with irony, the weapons are given into her hands instead of waiting for her to steal them. She has need of them either way; how she acquires them is not the important part.

[one_one_se7en]

The Master Chief gives out the order to take cover as soon as their asset gets in position -- and obtains several weapons from the field with enough firepower to take the place of a MAC Gun.

It all begins to flare. He polarizes his faceplate to the maximum. Everything turns white, before the sound of an explosion is felt even beneath his armor.

After a few seconds, the Spartan slowly ventures out of cover to spot the four silver moons of the planet in the night sky... from the hole of a Covenant cruiser, slowly drifting down towards the planet. John estimated the ship would fall several kilometers away as it struggled to stay afloat.

He ignores the bodies left by the battle. He slowly walks towards Homura.

"You alright?"

[braidstobows]

It had been something of a secret in her world - and news the other magical girls had never been ready to accept. When she'd once told them the truth about their bodies, about their abilities, they'd disbelieved her and accused her of trying to cause strife and trouble among them.

But here, this man in armor has seen it for himself: Her body has withstood punishment no human body ever could, just like his has.

"I'm not very hurt," she says calmly enough. "Just like your armor protects you, I won't be injured that easily." Most people might not call what they've just gone through 'easy'.

[one_one_se7en]

Injured 'that easily'. John immediately interprets it with a supernatural power. The crystal the girl holds on to seems to be the source of her powers, by the amount of energy it expels... while her body has little of it.

There are no injuries, but his visor stays on her body for a long time, before nodding her to come along.

"We'll patch up whatever was hurt."

[braidstobows]

For a second, she's caught off-guard, with a memory of a girl who took her to the nurse's office the first day - well, a first day - at her new school. (How many times had she lived through that month...?)

Then she nods, and lets the armored man lead her (another memory, but an older one, the very first time). "Thank you," she tells him politely. As on the battlefield, she does not seem in a rush or hurry, or to be overly concerned with whatever small wounds she might have.

"Are the medical facilities nearby?"

[one_one_se7en]

"More back on the ship."

As he calmly walks away from the battlefield, his left armored thigh ejects an antiseptic bottle and bandages. Her wounds did not seem serious -- but then again, it is a constant they learned -- sometimes one doesn't know he is wounded until the medics check him.

"You deserve it."

[braidstobows]

Homura hesitates, pausing in her stride even as she accepts the medical supplies. A battlefield is neither the best place for a conversation, or for treating non-serious injuries, however, and she steps forward momentarily.

Deserve it? In her experience, fate is harsh and people rarely receive what they may deserve.

"So do any soldiers," says the girl who knows her sacrifices will remain unknown, and her battles forgotten.