An Elite's Tale

The canyon valley was dead quiet. Aside from the obliterated tank, there were no more contacts. The only sounds he heard was the angelic drone of the Banshees and the loud metallic churning and thumping of the Scarab's every footfall. The Phantom flew silent, true to its name. The Plague scanned the valley for movement. Enormous boulders, tall trees, clefts in the cliff face. Plenty of places to hide. Then it occurred to him to start panning up the cliff.

Just as he did this, from behind him on the opposite side of the Phantom, Xepo called out, "Spectres!"

Out of nowhere, enemies seemingly materialized and started shooting plasma at them, not just from below but above. A flat ledge high up on the cliff was teeming with Jackals. They all stood side by side with their glowing point defense gauntlets, some orange, some blue, overlapped in a solid horizontal line. The only gap in their line was to accommodate the Shade anti-infantry plasma turret. Behind the line of shields was a couple of Brutes and about a dozen surrounding Grunts. Ludo glanced a quick check behind him and saw Fliz and Xepo aimed upwards, exchanging fire with their own enemies. He kept an eagle's eye out for more of these ambush ledges.

Joha, Theg, and the Arbiter had been out in front, scouting ahead. They got hit first and all scattered in different directions like cockroaches when the lights come on. Ludo lifted his carbine and set his sights on up towards the ledge. He could see the very top of the turret, but the gunner was out of view. Ludo patched over to the HIGHCOM and reported, "Commander, take us up. I need a better angle."

"Hold on," Rtas said as the Phantom descended.

The Hunter Generals roared a simultaneous war cry, the combined bellowing just loud enough to be heard over the Phantom's triple set of under-mounted heavy plasma cannons. The pair split up, jumped out of opposite doors, and linked back up on the ground. As Rtas brought them back up to the ledges, Ludo saw both Hunters take aim at the surviving Spectre, which was speeding away minus its gunner. Their arm cannons glowed hot green with explosive radiation.

"Xepo," Ludo selected. "Target that Shade gunner."

"On it," Xepo said.

The Plague lifted the carbine scope back up to his eye and saw the cliff rushing by. He was waiting for the small, perfectly round head of his own enemy Shade gunner to enter his reticle. He concentrated and controlled his breathing, tightening his finger on the trigger.

Easy...just a little more...almost...

The Grunt gunner came into view and the butt of the carbine bucked against Ludo's shoulder. The Grunt twitched, then fell out of the Shade in a slow tumble. Soze in front of him opened fire and decimated the Jackals' shield wall with full auto plasma fire, tearing through their ranks and ripping into the Grunts that were now fleeing and shooting wildly behind them. Ludo looked to Itan and pointed a finger up, then arced it toward the ledge and repeated the motion.

In response Itan primed, reared back, and quarterback tossed two plasma grenades from the Phantom into the heart of the enemy. One landed next to the unmanned turret that a desperate Jackal was struggling to climb into, while the other stuck onto one of the Grunts, who panicked and ran straight into the two Brutes that were apparently leading the haphazard lance. The bombs erupted in two blue flashes that cracked the Shade in half and sent bodies and debris flying off the ledge.

Soze angled his turret to the left, changing targets and yelling, "Enemy Banshees!"

Ludo ran out onto the extended bay door where Soze was. There were at least six Banshees zipping around and it was hard to tell which ones were theirs. One of them was dipping low for a pass at the Hunter Generals while two others sped toward the Phantom.

"Bring him down!" Ludo shouted, pointing at a specific Banshee.

Soze tracked it through the air with an endless line of fire until he trapped it near the cliff and shredded it out of the sky. Ludo signaled for Itan to come spot Soze, then sprinted back inside and across troop bay to the Phantom's port side.